Men in Boudoir – Felix And Sara Boudoir

http://www.felixandsara.com/men-in-boudoir/

Not many pudgy superheroes. Seth Rogen played a less than Adonis like Green Hornet, but even then he was required to lose 30 lbs for the role. He still wan’t perfect enough for spandex.

I belong to an online group of boudoir photographers and when the subject of shooting men came up there were several women who expressed the idea that if a man wasn’t in great shape he should leave his shirt on because nobody wants to see that. This saddens me. Double standards are never okay. We are all in this together.

Public Bank Movement Gains Ground in Cities and States across the US – Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/01/02/public-bank-movement-gains-ground-cities-states-across-us/

When New Jersey collects taxes or fees, it currently deposits those funds in private banks—spreading the state’s money across American and international institutions. Those banks, in turn, charge fees … and they use the capital from New Jersey’s deposits to provide loans or finance projects.

“They’re not being obligated to come back and do anything in New Jersey, and they don’t.”

Moynihan was right: The GOP tax giveaway will lead to safety net cuts – Progressive Policy Institute – Progressive Policy Institute

http://www.progressivepolicy.org/blog/moynihan-right-gop-tax-giveaway-will-lead-safety-net-cuts/

Congress passed a massive tax giveaway to the richest that will add at least $1 trillion to America’s debt late last year, GOP lawmakers were remarkably candid about the next step: cutting the safety net for hundreds of millions of Americans by going after Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

As Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) noted recently when asked about the huge debt the tax bill creates, he said Republicans plan on “instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future” to pay for their tax cuts. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) agreed: “We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,”

Will the Oregon Senate stick with the GOP playbook on pass-through income? – Oregon Center for Public Policy

https://www.ocpp.org/2018/01/05/pass-through-income-tax-break-oregon/

In 2015, 72 percent of the tax cut went to those making more than $500,000 per year (about $390,000 per year puts you in the top 1 percent). Another 22 percent went to those making between $200,000 and $500,000 in 2015, leaving just 6 percent for Oregonian’s who made less than $200,000.

The Oregon tax break on pass-through income is already estimated to cost upwards of $300 million in future budget periods. 

Thoughts and Prayers and Literally Anything | November 8, 2017 Act 1 | Full Frontal on TBS – YouTube

Watch “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – Oct 15, 2017” on YouTube

Ta-Nehisi Coates Discusses Eight Years Power, Oct 9 2017 | C-SPAN.org

https://www.c-span.org/video/?434795-1/tanehisi-coates-discusses-eight-years-power

4 ways consumers will feel the end of Obamacare subsidies – CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ending-aca-cost-sharing-subsidies-consumer-impact/

Trump administration’s announcement late Thursday that it will immediately end key cost-sharing subsidies under the Affordable Care Act could translate into higher, in some cases unaffordable, health insurance costs for consumers who rely on the individual insurance market. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the health care exchanges are “imploding.”

The president added on Friday that he considered the subsidies “almost a payoff” to the insurers, and he’s ending the payments because he doesn’t “want to make the insurance companies rich.”

It didn’t take long before New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced plans to sue the administration over the move, along with a number of other state attorneys general.

In a sudden flurry, Trump looks to deliver for his voters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-analysis/in-a-sudden-flurry-trump-looks-to-deliver-for-his-voters-idUSKBN1CI32X?feedType=RSS&feedName=newsOne

Trump took steps to dramatically undercut the Obamacare health system, sent notice he was willing to scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran, moved to roll back coal-plant limits, and again demanded a wall along the Mexican border.

And on social media the Republican president appeared to relish his feuds with the news media, senior Republicans in Congress, and National Football League players who have protested during the national anthem.

In a sense, it was the vintage, freewheeling Trump: throwing red meat to his voter base, following his gut, and haranguing his critics.

NYTimes: Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades

Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades https://nyti.ms/2xVPfVW

Two decades ago, the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein invited Ashley Judd to the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for what the young actress expected to be a business breakfast meeting. Instead, he had her sent up to his room, where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower, she recalled in an interview.

“How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?” Ms. Judd said she remembers thinking.

In 2014, Mr. Weinstein invited Emily Nestor, who had worked just one day as a temporary employee, to the same hotel and made another offer: If she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career, according to accounts she provided to colleagues who sent them to Weinstein Company executives. The following year, once again at the Peninsula, a female assistant said Mr. Weinstein badgered her into giving him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and very distraught,” wrote a colleague, Lauren O’Connor, in a searing memo asserting sexual harassment and other misconduct by their boss.

Officials Couldn’t Believe How Botched Jared Kushner’s Clearance Forms Were | HuffPost

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jared-kushner-security-clearance-mistakes_us_59e07426e4b04d1d5180bfae

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, made so many omissions on the security clearance forms he submitted that the governmental body responsible for reviewing them is incredulous.

“I have never seen that level of mistakes,” Charles Phalen, the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, told a House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

Kushner made over 100 errors and omissions on his disclosure forms, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said.

The initial SF-86 form Kushner submitted left out about 100 contacts with foreigner nationals, including his June 2016 meeting he and Donald Trump Jr. had with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. He had to update it twice.

He also omitted ownership of a real estate tech business, which enabled him to “enrich himself” in the meantime while the company raised millions of dollars

Before Harvey Weinstein: Mechelle Vinson and the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on sexual harassment in the workplace – The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/13/she-said-her-boss-raped-her-in-a-bank-vault-her-sexual-harassment-case-would-make-legal-history/?utm_term=.3612ce7b305e

On June 19, 1986, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that sexual harassment violated federal laws against discrimination and that companies could be held liable for sexual harassment committed by supervisors — even if the company was unaware of the harassment.

“Without question,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote, “when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate because of the subordinate’s sex, the supervisor discriminates on the basis of sex.”

The impact on the American workplace was enormous, making sexual harassment an illegal form of discrimination

Leaked memos show Jeff Sessions’s DOJ aims to undermine due process for immigrants – Vox

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/13/16464360/immigration-court-judges-children-uac

Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice have the immigration court system surrounded. And now, like an anaconda, they’re beginning to squeeze.

As part of a broader attack on what it calls the “abuse” of asylum by children and families arriving from Central America, the administration is considering — according to a September memoobtained by CNN’s Tal Kopan — allowing judges to strip people who come to the US as “unaccompanied children” of the legal protections that status provides if they turn 18 while they’re still in immigration proceedings, or if they’re reunited with a parent in the US.

Meanwhile, a report from the Washington Post’s Maria Sacchetti indicates that the Department of Justice wants to start rating immigration judges based on how many cases they resolve — which would put pressure on them to resolve cases more quickly and show less leniency toward immigrants.

These moves aren’t about making more people eligible for deportation.

Watch “Making Toronto a Resilient City” on YouTube

Watch “Peru: Humala Implicated in Atrocities” on YouTube

Do They Know It’s Labor Sunday? | Christian History

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2009/august/do-they-know-its-labor-sunday.html

I’m skeptical about pronouncements like the “Social Creed of the Churches.” Ancient creeds owed their authority to liturgical repetition across time and geography. They could be changed, through much deliberation, in response to major theological questions (most often, heresies), but they were never topical or occasional, never directly political. On the other hand, I’m drawn to the idea of Labor Sunday

Trashing Obama Order on Pay Transparency a Setback for Wage Equity – Non Profit News For Nonprofit Organizations | Nonprofit Quarterly

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/09/05/trashing-obama-order-pay-transparency-setback-wage-equity/

National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) called it “a clear message to employers: If you want to ignore pay inequities and sweep them under the rug, this administration has your back.”

“This is not a technical tweak as they would have you believe,” the NWLC’s Fatima Goss Graves said in a statement. “Make no mistake—it’s an all-out attack on equal pay.”

The explanation coming from the White House has been that this policy would be burdensome for business and would have no effect on salary discrimination.

Trump Ends DACA, Despite Pleas from Evangelical Advisers | News & Reporting | Christianity Today

http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/september/trump-ends-daca-dreamers-despite-evangelical-advisers.html

Jeff Sessions called DACA—which allowed 800,000 young immigrant “Dreamers” to obtain temporary legal status and enter the workforce over the past five years—“unconstitutional” and an “overreach of the executive branch.” He said the program led to a surge of young immigrants at the border with Mexico, and ultimately allowed undocumented workers to take jobs from Americans.

The phase-out of DACA leaves those students and workers (including young Christian leaders) at risk of deportation—and puts pressure on Congress to pass immigration reform legislation in the meantime.

Two-thirds of American evangelicals favor giving work permits to Dreamers (66%) while far fewer oppose the permits (22%), according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Tuesday evening. Almost 6 in 10 US evangelicals (57%) believe DACA recipients should be allowed to become citizens, while almost 2 in 10 (19%) believe they should be deported.

Industry Survey Examines Small Telecom Companies & Fiber Deployment | Institute for Local Self-Reliance

https://ilsr.org/industry-survey-examines-small-telecom-companies-fiber-deployment/

When it comes to rural areas, it’s no secret that national providers have little interest in serving the sparsely populated communities. Cooperatives and small local providers typically pick up the slack 

My Brother’s Keeper Merges with Obama Foundation – Non Profit News For Nonprofit Organizations | Nonprofit Quarterly

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/09/07/brothers-keeper-merges-obama-foundation/

players at the Obama Foundation and MBK overlap and are centered on Obama’s network, including Ariel Investments Chairman John Rogers, former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and acting MBK Executive Director Michael Smith. And, in an environment where even generous corporate and philanthropic funding are subject to change, it’s likely appealing to MBK to anchor itself with Obama’s brand name and fundraising capability.

The Obama Foundation, launched in 2014, is modest in size at a little over $13 million in assets