Mario Testino’s ‘Master Class’ Resonates for Women’s Rights in 2024 Election
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Anja Rubik Sheds Tears of Joy Over Poland's Political Reset as the EU Exhales
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What makes a true supermodel? Anja Rubik voting in Poland’s national elections last weekend, October 15, 2023.
AOC doesn’t keep precise track of individual model’s activism but Anja Rubik, one of the world’s most successful models, has led the way for many years. In her own words:
“How political parties address sexual education issues will have a huge impact on what country we will live in.”
To that end, Anja Rubik is deeply connected as its founder to FUNDACJA SexedPL [IG] FEDERA, a NGO committed to sex education on matters of abortion rights and LGBTQ issues — but also endometriosis, for example.
AOC goes deep on the supermodel’s activism, as we celebrate the 75% turnout that resulted in a reset of Poland’s politics last weekend and a prospective stabilizing of of Poland’s relationship with the European Union.
Read MoreUS Supreme Court Halts Texas District Court Ruling on Mifepristone, Appeal Proceeds
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Today’s order halted both the Texas District decision and the procedural appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
For now, the abortion pill mifepristone will remain widely available, but it has a court date of May 17th for oral arguments.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington called the ruling a “half step in the right direction.” Washington is among the states stockpiling mifepristone — an estimated four-year-supply. “This dubious challenge to the availability of a safe medication never should have gone as far as it has, and it must be rejected entirely,” he said Friday.
Read More400 Pharma and Biotech Companies Issue 'Scorching Condemnation' of Texas Mifepristone Ruling
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Scientists and senior executives from more than 400 pharmaceutical and biotech companies and also investment firms issued what the New York Times called a “scorching condemnation” of the ruling of Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued late Friday, April 7th that invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Titled “In Support of FDA’s Authority to Regulate Medicines”, the letter excerpts shared on AOC read:
On Friday, April 7, a federal judge with no scientific training fundamentally undermined the bipartisan authority granted by Congress to the Food and Drug Administration to approve and regulate safe, effective medicines for every American.
District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a decision that overturns the 23-year old approval of mifepristone, the primary medicine used in abortion and miscarriage care, and which has been proven by decades of data to be safer than Tylenol, nearly all antibiotics and insulin.
The decision ignores decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent. Judge Kacsmaryk’s act of judicial interference has set a precedent for diminishing FDA’s authority over drug approvals, and in so doing, creates uncertainity for the entire biopharma industry . . .
As American citizens and interested parties, we are invited to add our names to the letter. Anne of Carversville has signed on to the simple Google doc. Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s assault on science and a key federal institution deeply embedded in American life — the FDA — was even more chilling to me as an American citizen than the June 24, 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned the nearly five-decades-old Roe v Wade decision.
Read MoreAmerican Women Ensnared in Dueling US District Court Mifepristone Rulings
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On Sunday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on CNN’s “State of the Union” said that not only is the Texas ruling unlawful, but it threatens the entire process of FDA drug approval.
“First and foremost, when you turn upside down the entire FDA approval process, you’re not talking about just mifepristone,” he said. “You’re talking about every kind of drug. You’re talking about our vaccines, you’re talking about insulin, you’re talking about the new Alzheimer’s drugs that may come on.”
Many exciting new drugs involve stem-cell research, and the Catholic Church already raised ethical objections to promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are manufactured using cells derived from human fetuses electively aborted decades ago.
Will the Catholic Church and MAGA crowd sue in Texas to take all drugs off the market derived from human fetus stem cells? Because the list of new drugs coming out of the COVID vaccine epidemic research is breathtaking. We’re talking cancer vaccines.
Meanwhile, the drug Mifeprex [Mifepristone] is so safe that deaths associated with taking Viagra are 10x the number associated with Mifepristone.
Read MoreIn Most Critical 2023 US Election Liberals, aka Democrats, Win Wisconsin Supreme Court by Wide Margin
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Anne of Carversville backed and helped fund the April 4, 2023 victory of Janet Protasiewicz over the uber-conservative, 2020 presidential election-overturning candidate Dan Kelly for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
With 69% of the vote in, the proud liberal has 56% of the vote vs 44% for Kelly. The race became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in US history. Protasiewicz, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, was elected for a 10-year term.
The new court will determine the fate of abortion rights, the most gerrymandered state political maps in America and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state for two years, including the 2024 presidential election.
Kelly lost his seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court in 2020 to liberal Jill Karofsky after advising Republicans on legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential race through the use of “fake electors.” Democrats from across America sent groundbreaking sums of money to support Protasiewicz, who was relentless in her attacks against Kelly for trying to overturn the 2020 results.
Read MoreWalgreens CEO Brewer Hired Gov. Newsom's Former Chief of Staff to Negotiate Abortion Pills
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Politico did what good journalists do on an important story. They dug deeply and late Monday, Christopher Cadelago sprung a humdinger of a piece of news about events surrounding California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ire and staff negotiations with Walgreens over their front of the pack capitulation to the demands of red state AGs around the distribution of abortion pills.
Now the governor may be a forgiving kind of guy, but the first thought that went through my mind reading the post was “that’s one hell of a bridge to burn”, especially as the darling not only of Governor Newsom but also as a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Meet Ann O’Leary, Former Chief of Staff to Gavin Newsom
I speak of the lawyer on the phone with Newsom’s inner circle staff, as a lead representative for Walgreens: Ann O’Leary, the governor’s first chief of staff and now a partner in the law firm Jenner & Block.
Read MoreCEO Roz Brewer's Walgreens Donated in 2022 to Red State AG's No Abortion Pills Letter Group
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Like this Twitter follower, I was also watching Ali Velshi on MSNBC Saturday, when he reported that Walgreens had donated money to the very Red State AGs group that sent Walgreens the onimous “don’t do it” letter about selling abortion pills in their stores.
Unlike Fox News, Ali Velshi is very particular about the words coming out of his mouth. While we don’t know the amount of money donated — and whether a similar amount was donated to a Blue State AGs group — I do not challenge the veracity of Velshi’s claim. He would not make it without the receipts.
This new revelation didn’t make me feel any better about Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer, a businesswoman we celebrated on her appointment to the Walgreens Boots Alliance corner office as the first Black woman CEO.
Read MoreCalifornia Cancels May 2023 Renewal of Walgreens Prison System Pharma Contract
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In the first step of an “exhaustive review” of all contracts between Walgreens and the state of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that California will not renew a $54 million contract by which Walgreens delivers pharmacy services to inmates in California’s prison system. The contract was set to renew on May 1, 2023.
“This is an attempt to call the question ‘Which side are you on? Whose side are you on?” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the announcement. “Are you going to just cower in the face of bullies? Are you going to just roll over?”
When Walgreens, now led by former Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer, stepped out solo over the weekend, saying that her pharmacies would abide by demand letters from red state attorneys generals that they agree not to sell mifepristone — even in red states where abortion is legal — AOC called the action a major mistake.
Anticipating severe backlash should have been a high priority for Brewer — especially when Walgreens was agreeing to anti-women demands going beyond what their state abortion laws now require.
Read MoreFive Women, Two Doctors Sue Texas SB8 Law, Seeking 'Medical Emergency' Definition
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Five women who were denied abortions in Texas have filed a lawsuit against the state. Two doctors are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit, believed to be the first action brought on behalf of women denied abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, say they were denied abortions under Texas state law SB8 despite medically-verified, significant risks to themselves and/or their severely impaired fetuses that made abortion a medical necessity.
‘Medical Emergency’ Must Be Defined
The lawsuit asks the court for clarity on what situations fall under the “medical emergency” exception in Texas’ abortion ban.
"With the threat of losing their medical licenses, fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and up to 99 years in prison lingering over their heads, it is no wonder that doctors and hospitals are turning patients away—even patients in medical emergencies," the suit reads.
At the time the SB8 law was written, groups such as the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists expressed grave concerns, arguing that the proposed law was too vague to provide physicians with assurances they would not face legal consequences for carrying out their maternal health, caregiver duties.
Read MoreCould Walgreens Big Bow to Red States Demands on Abortion Pills Backfire? We Hope So!
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When Detroit native Rosalind ‘Roz’ Brewer left her position as COO at Starbucks in January 2021 to become the CEO of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, her appointment was hailed.
‘Roz’ Brewer was the first and only African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. And her credentials were stellar.
Fast forward two years, and Brewer is now the first CEO to bow to the demands of red-state attorneys general that drug store chains like CVS and Walgreens not sell abortion pills under new rules released by the FDA.
Brewer is also eyeing Medicare Advantage plans as her source of new and significantly more stable Walgreens income. Is she assuming that the Biden Administration won’t find ways to penalize Walgreens for so easily and quickly cutting off access to abortion pills to American women desperate to find them?
What happens if CVS decides not to honor the red states demands and fights for women’s access to abortion care in states where it remains legal, even if it is tied up in the courts?
Brewer can’t possibly believe that her Medicare Advantage Plan grandmothers won’t penalize Walgreen’s and favor CVS, if the larger and more profitable CVS decides to at least fight for their granddaughters’ access to abortion pills.
Read MoreThe Wokes on The Theocrats #1: Lauren Boebert's Demand That God Clean House in DC
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Without using the exact phrase “separation of church and state” the First Amendment to the Constitution is generally considered to clarify America’s objection to a national religion and a political governing body known as a theocracy.
The Wokes presume that the “stinking letter” Congresswoman and theocrat Lauren Boebert refers to is America’s third president from 1802-1809 Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 missive to the Danbury Baptist Association.
In it, Jefferson wrote that the First Amendment had essentially built "a wall of separation" between church and state.
Read MoreOliver Rousteing for Jean Paul Gaultier by Pablo Saez for S Moda El Pais
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The 2022 guest designer collection by Olivier Rousteing for Jean Paul Gaultier is modeled Marie-Agnès Diene, with styling by Juan Cebrian. Photographer Pablo Saez [IG] is behind the lens for the September 2022 issue of S Moda for El Pais.
What is featured is a tribute to the Gaultier-designed ensembles that Madonna wore on her Blonde Ambition Tour in 1990. In his July comments, Rousteing spoke to his deep concern for women and female liberation worldwide — starting with American women.
Read MoreEmma Corrin Covers Vogue US August 2022 Lensed by Jamie Hawkesworth
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I know we are all very rattled over the anti-trans legislation in red states, but then Roe got shot down, too. AOC’s activism is very focused on Christian fascism and white nationalism in this moment. The end of our imperfect democracy is in sight — if we don’t fight this back by the 2024 election.
People I respect say “It’s do or die time,” and they are not exaggerating.
AOC is not worried about “he, she, it, they, them . . . “ in this moment. We are focused on the American Taliban increasingly riding roughshod over all of us. No disrespect intended to pronouns.
Read MoreBenjamin Franklin's Abortion Recipe Math Book Would Be Banned in Today's Red America
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For my international friends, Benjamin Franklin was an original drafter and signatory of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The French adored him.
AOC is not making a joke of Benjamin Franklin’s beliefs. But to be lied to day after day by the pro-birthers, that abortion was not widely-practiced and legal in America insults our intelligence.
Read MoreConservative Writer Kevin Williamson's Call For Lynching Women Who Have Abortions Ends Gig At The Atlantic
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Large numbers of liberals -- progressives with an open mind -- really do want to hear and read intelligent dissent from the opposition. But when in-the-know folks learned that conservative writer Kevin Williamson had been hired by The Atlantic, there were gasps.
I -- for one -- am not keen to read anti-abortion views calling for the mass lynching of women who have abortions, a public stance Williamson has taken more than once.
Conservative pundits went crazy, arguing that contrary opinions were being silenced in liberal media. I left a comment on The Washington Post in their article Kevin Williamson loses Atlantic job after controversy over abortion rhetoric:
Read MoreUpdated: Murphy Will Resign | Married PA Rep. Tim Murphy (R), Anti-Abortion Zealot, Advised Mistress To Seek Abortion
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