Ivanka Trump Met With Cecile Richards Of Planned Parenthood

Cecile Richards' meeting with Ivanka Trump has gone previously unreported, writes Politico. It happened when the Trump daughter was on her own listening tour with Democrats and progressives. Given Ivanka's total silence -- ONE NOT MAINTAINED BY THE BUSH WOMEN AS FIRST LADIES -- has created a bitter fissure between her and Cecile Richards.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, pretty perfectly articulated the problem with this meeting, which appears to not have done anything to influence Trump's actions for and within the administration. "You don’t get to have it both ways," Laguens told Politico in response to Trump's public persona and private actions. "You don’t get to say women should have great child care when maternity benefits are on the chopping block.”

I wrote about this very issue of Complicity on Ivanka's part yesterday. Personally, I will not give her an inch on her refusal to stand for women. Instead she spews this upper class bs far and wide, and she is every bit the Stepford daughter as Melania is the Stepford wife.

Millions of women's lives in the US and around the world -- including millions of women who will die -- will be buried in Ivanka Trump's silence over her father's expansion of the Mexico City policy, aka the global gag rule. None of us are saying that she could change her father's mind and the Republican party in their anti-woman agenda.

But as an activist on behalf of poor and lower-class women worldwide for years, I have no respect for Ivanka Trump -- especially when the Bush women have quietly -- not with front page headlines -- have continued to stand for Planned Parenthood over the years.

Ivanka Trump does not deserve my respect, and I will not give it to her until she stands for poor and lower-class women wherever they live. Presently, she is on a blonde ambition tour, planning her own run for office. Only a privileged, rich white daughter could find her in this enviable position when her father seats her next to Angela Merkel, while hiring only four female cabinet members -- the lowest since Ronald Reagan. ~ Anne

Beautiful Bride Samira Wiley Goes Gay Again As Moira In 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Actor Samira Wiley wasn’t looking to take on the role of another imperiled lesbian, honoring her breakout role as Poussey on 'Orange Is the New Black' to play Moira in Hulu's upcoming 'The Handmaid's Tale', premiering April 26. The newly-married, gay-in -life actor is interviewed by Anna Silman for New York Magazine.

'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Orange Is the New Black' are both shows about women surviving oppression. Products of streaming networks that didn’t exist ten years ago, they’re part of a new wave of inclusive woman-centric programming that seeks to spark political dialogue and engage with real-world issues — a project that’s gained a sense of urgency in the wake of Donald Trump’s election. And yet Wiley’s most important role might be the one she has taken on offscreen. As as a queer woman of color thriving in an industry sorely lacking in role models, Wiley has been thrust into that strange space between actor and activist — even if “going gay” as a public figure is still something she is getting used to.

And just how beautiful is it that Samara Wiley and Lauren Morelli's March 25th Palm Springs wedding is featured in Martha Stewart Weddings? Pretty damn wonderful! ~ Anne

Watching 'The Crown' With the QE2 Falling Apart In Dubai & John Boehner's Tears Long Gone From Trumpworld

Watching 'The Crown' With the QE2 Falling Apart In Dubai & John Boehner's Tears Long Gone From Trumpworld

Could we agree that any woman trying to lead the free world, who cried in prime time, would be run out of Dodge? I finally tuned into the Netflix series 'The Crown', and I assure you that the young queen Elizabeth will be steely and duty-driven -- keeping it together when her father dies. And that is exactly how the second episode ends, with Elizabeth burying her adoring love and grief for her dead father deep in her heart, now masked by royal obligations to her public and the entire British Empire.

Watching 'The Crown' knowing that the electoral college voted on Monday for Donald Trump as America's next president, I can't help thinking about Republican John Boehner's arrival as Speaker of the House.  He wept through his 2010 60 Minutes interview, a reality that did not amuse me in the least, given the Republican agenda for America. In fact, those tears are typically called a charade when a damsel in distress turns on the floodgates.

Indeed when I wrote about Boehner's intentions to lead the charge against abortion and contraception rights in America, it was after after watching a chilling meeting with his chief of staff Mick Krieger accepting one of those tiny plastic babies in perfect form meant to represent a six-week old embryo. In reality, those cells and molecules are a blob about the size of a pomegranate seed, and I don't mean to be disrespectful in any way. But it's another example of post-factual information suggesting that these perfectly formed cereal box creatures (I am not making this up. Republicans put them in cereal and candy boxes at state fairs) are in any way representative of the actual pregnancy process.  To me the meeting signalled the hell that poor women in America would go through as Republicans ripped away not only abortion rights but also access to contraception and general health care for women living all over America in impoverished communities. There is no satisfaction in saying that my instincts were correct.