Texas Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks 'Sanctuary Cities' Law

Texas Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks 'Sanctuary Cities' Law

A federal district judge on Wednesday ruled against the state of Texas and halted a controversial state-based immigration enforcement law just days before it was scheduled to go into effect, writes The Texas Tribune. .

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia granted a preliminary injunction of Senate Bill 4, one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s key legislative priorities that seeks to outlaw “sanctuary” entities, the common term for governments that don’t enforce federal immigration laws.  

Tennis Pro Maria Sharapova Is Lensed By Jan Welters For The Edit Aug. 31, 2017

Tennis Pro Maria Sharapova Is Lensed By Jan Welters For The Edit Aug. 31, 2017

Top Russian-born tennis player Maria Sharapova advanced yesterday to the third round at the US Open, playing now in Queens New York. Maria appears here in 'Driven', styled by Tracy Taylor and interviewed by Jennifer Dickinson in Jan Welters images for The Edit August 31, 2017./ Hair by Adir Abergel; makeup by Kara Yoshimoto Bua

Eye: Is Taylor Swift Expressing A Fierce Born-Again Feminism in 'Reputation'? We'll See

Eye: Is Taylor Swift Expressing A Fierce Born-Again Feminism in 'Reputation'? We'll See

As promised, Taylor Swift dropped her 'Look What You Made Me Do' music video, with perfect timing at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.  Then she moved it to YouTube, where it has nearly 75 million views. Billboard believes it will be No. 1 on next week's 'Hot 100'.

Swift's most ardent fans all believe that 'Reputation' is deeper than originally thought. Buzzfeed lists all the 'hidden meanings' fans are finding in the songs. We don't care about that, but #20 gets our attention.

20. But other people have a different theory -- that each song will be about a different, 'fake' Taylor' created by the media. 

Note that fans feel no complicity in creating this 'fake Taylor'. Fan complicity in creating stars that meet their own needs is never part of their adoration stories. Kim Kardashian understands this reality way better than old-school Taylor Swift. But Swift is perhaps now whip smart on the whole conversation. 

22. The scene where Taylor's standing above a tower of her past selves, all scrabbling to climb up, is full of meaning, too.

Some fans associate these scenes with Taylor Swift's proverbial climb to the top, only to take a fall. Others see it as an emergence of Swift's true self. 

23. And, finally, people have also noticed that this shot resembles a crucifixion. 

This visual brought the new Taylor Swift into strong focus for me. She is defiant, rising again as a Smart Sensuality woman in charge of her own agenda. Fans will never see this as any statement about them and not only the media, Kim and Kanye, and the adoring 'girl' who shared the stage before the entire world, as Kanye West grabbed her trophy, saying it belonged to Beyonce.

Bearing Witness

Will Megyn Kelly Connect With 'Today Show' Women, 25-30% Latino & African American

Will Megyn Kelly Connect With 'Today Show' Women, 25-30% Latino & African American

The argument that Megyn Kelly's starpower is so great that viewers would tune in on NBC is already disavowed, Andrew Tyndall told The Daily Beast.  “The stardom of the celebrity anchor was a phenomenon of the 1980s back when [flamboyant ABC News president] Roone Arledge was around. In this day and age, the shows make the anchors, not the other way around.”

Still, Kelly has the protection of The Today Show cocoon as her lead-in. Another daytime veteran told Grove, "he’s going to have to adapt to the live audience, she will have to be more entertaining, and that will be a learning curve for her. The ultimate question is whether she connects with women in daytime.”

The gender-challenge is a potentially major one, as Kelly's success at Fox was to a primarily audience. That reality was never more obvious than when viewers turned against Megyn in her serious debate conflicts and Twitter-storm with then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

“A lot of people were watching the magazine show to try to get a sense of her appeal to the daytime demographic and a sense of how she would be outside of the Fox environment,” said a veteran daytime television impresario, who noted that the nationwide audience in that time period is not only heavily female but from 25 to 30 percent African American and Latino. “Fox News skews very male… I always tend to think of her as more of a guy’s girl than a girl’s girl… It’s extremely challenging, and I’m not sure Megyn’s personality really connects with women.”

Kelly's arrival signaled an exit for the popular Tamron Hall in February. Hall is partnering with Weinstein Television for a new daytime talk show. Hall will co-create and executive produce, with former NBC Domestic Television Distribution president Barry Wallach on board to consult. No network is yet attached.

Kim Kardashian West Channels Jackie'O In Steven Klein Images For Interview Magazine September 2017 -- Twitter Is In Crisis!

Kim Kardashian West Channels Jackie'O In Steven Klein Images For Interview Magazine September 2017 -- Twitter Is In Crisis!

Kim Kardashian West channels Jackie Kennedy Onassis in Interview Magazine's September issue -- and the Internet has gone berzerk over her audacity. How dare she!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good goddess, we Americans take everything so seriously these days. Could we please distinguish between Kardashian's beautiful editorial with her daughter North, shot by Steven Klein, with styling by Patti Wilson -- and Donald Trump embracing white nationalism; pardoning Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio; and telling America's municipal governments that they can once more buy used military tanks and machine guns to use in local police forces in our post Ferguson America. That was today's news -- not that Kim Kardashian channeled Jackie Kennedy Onassis for Interview Magazine. 

Good goddess, some people are so high and mighty. Pretty soon Americans will demand a citizen review board to tell creators what we can and cannot do! And we wonder why America is now less entrepreneurial than Sweden in international surveys. Everybody should just go to their safe spaces on university campuses, and those of us who can deal with this explosive editorial bombshell will suffer through it. 

Kim Kardashion and her lovely daughter North have caused Interview Magazine's online platform to crash multiple times today or send the picture gallery into a proverbial timeout, so somebody must like the Kardashian/Klein cover story.  I experienced the outtages first hand. Get a grip, my fellow Americans. Think of those brave people wading through water up to their necks in Houston. If they can suffer through bitter reality, so can you.

So I guess it's clear how I feel about all the criticism of Kardashian's beautiful editorial. I'll read the interview once the website is stable. ~ Anne

Trump's Business Worked With Felix Slater On Trump Tower During Campaign Writes WaPo

Trump's Business Worked With Felix Slater On Trump Tower During Campaign Writes WaPo

Building one of the tallest buildings in the world was on Donald Trump's mind when he decided to run for president in 2015. The vision of his Trump Tower Moscow loomed large as Trump's company pursued the massive Trump Tower project. With perfect timing and seeming deception, Donald Trump told the American public that he owned nothing in Russia, that he had no interests in Russia, that the Hillary supporters were obsessed with Russia. The confirmation to the Washington Post about Trump's plans for the Moscow Tower was voiced by several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.

Slater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?’ ” said one person familiar the email exchange. Sater emigrated from what was then the Soviet Union when he was 6 and grew up in Brooklyn.

Brigitte Macron's Elle France September 2017 Cover Has Best Sales In A Decade

Brigitte Macron's Elle France September 2017 Cover Has Best Sales In A Decade

Brigitte Macron covers the September issue of Elle France, giving her first interview since her husband Emmanuel Macron became president. Once again, Brigitte Macron is forced to talk about the 25-year age difference between her and her husband -- a topic the media is obsessed with. The subject is starting to feel like Hillary Clinton's missing emails. 

We've told the Brigitte Macron story before on AOC. What's noteworthy this morning is the success of putting Mrs. Macron on Elle France's September 2017 cover, lensed by Mark Seliger.

Reports are that Macron's September cover issue is the best selling French Elle issue in the last 10 years. In the first week, the magazine already sold 3 million copies, including subscriptions. The monthly average for Elle France in 2017 was 313 525 copies.

Macron wears a cream-colored Dior blazer on her cover shot and faded Saint Laurent jeans. As always, her signature point-toe stilettos are part of her typically casual, never overdone look. 

When asked if she prefers not to be asked about her style, Mrs. Macron quips, "Why not, if it does some good for the French fashion industry? I'm really into fashion, and there's this fascination the world over around this idea of the French woman."

Michigan Introduces Bill To Mandate Teaching Slavery As It Existed In American History

Michigan Introduces Bill To Mandate Teaching Slavery As It Existed In American History

In the aftermath of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va, Democrats in Michigan's House of Representatives are pushing for legislation requiring that African-American history is a mandatory part of the curriculum in all public schools. 

This new legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, explains The Root, the lead sponsor, is critical due to growing attempts by Republican-led school boards to rewrite the history of slavery in America. 

The Texas Board of Education, in particular, has led the way in rewriting the history of slavery in America, changing the verbiage around the presence of Africans on plantations to 'workers' rather than slaves. More than one school board has tried to position the history of slavery as one akin to the temporary migrant workers who harvest food crops in America. 

EYE: Balmain & L'Oreal Paris UNITED WE ARE INVINCIBLE Campaign Brings Fashion Tribes Together

EYE: Balmain & L'Oreal Paris UNITED WE ARE INVINCIBLE Campaign Brings Fashion Tribes Together

In the age of Trump, the L'Oreal Paris and Balmain collaboration is exactly what we need. Olivier Rousteing's Balmain army stands strong with 12 diverse top models fronting the campaign behind the core message: UNITED, WE ARE INVINCIBLE.

The capsule collection includes 12 couture matte shades by Color Riche in shades ranging from deep plums to sweet pinks. Models Doutzen Kroes, Lara Stone, Cindy Bruna, Ming Xi, Luma Grothe, Neelam Gill, Alexia Graham, Valentina Sampaio, Soo Joo Park, Grace Bol and Maria Borges appear in the advertisements, lensed by Nico Bustos.

The diverse range of models, hailing from all over the world, was an intentional choice to not just show the play of color across various skin tones, but to champion diversity — an especially topical theme in the aftermath of Charlottesville and Barcelona.  

Headlines in today's news include How Germany Deals With Neo-Nazis and a truly-sad one Calais Brawls leave 20 migrants injured. The fighting of 200 migrants threatening each other with sticks and iron bars involved five mass brawls that mainly pitted Afghans against Eritreans.

The real world is knocking on fashion's door.  While we drift above it, the knocking is louder every day, making this Balmain/L'Oreal Paris campaign unusually relevant. For all politically-correct types who might critique it as superficial, I say it's great. 

"No matter your origin, no matter your tribe. Come together, be seen, be heard. United, we are invincible. Because we are all worth it," Balmain's 31-year-old Olivier Rousteing says about the collaboration.

Artist Mike Mitchell's Nazi-inspired Trump Logo Sums Up Public Sentiment Post Charlottesville

Artist Mike Mitchell's Nazi-inspired Trump Logo Sums Up Public Sentiment Post Charlottesville

The art world has joined public condemnation of Donald Trump's comments following the anti-Semitic and racist violence in Charlottesville, Va. The general consensus among Democrats and Republicans, with a strong dose of agreement among moderate Republicans, is that Trump saw the brutality and racism on public display among members of the KKK, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and other tribes on the alt-right as somehow equalized by the actions of counter-protesters. 

The logo created by Austin, Texas-based artist Mike Mitchell has gone viral in the aftermath of Charlottesville. The graphic logo visually condemns the president for his hesitation to speak out against bigotry and domestic terrorism in the US, with a strong innuendo that he promotes white nationalism and neo-Nazism. 

VICE News Elle Reeve Delivers Balanced Power Punch Interviews With White Nationalist Leaders in Charlottesville

VICE News Elle Reeve Delivers Balanced Power Punch Interviews With White Nationalist Leaders in Charlottesville

'VICE News Tonight' correspondent Elle Reeve and her crew have the best coverage of the 'Unite the Right' weekend violence in which a domestic terror car attack left Charlottesville social-justice, para legal Heather Heyer dead. 

Reeve has built on a trusting relationship with white nationalist leaders, including Christopher Cantwell, Robert Ray, David Duke, and Matthew Heimbach. This is not her first interview and after reading white nationalist blogs of a quality nature -- yes, they exist -- Reeve has their trust as a fair reporter. Counter protesters are also interviewed and it's rare for a journalist to get people to open up honestly, knowing that Reeve isn't setting them up.