A collection of opinionated commentaries on culture, politics and religion compiled predominantly from an American viewpoint but tempered by a global vision. My Armwood Opinion Youtube Channel @ YouTube I have a Jazz Blog @ Jazz
and a Technology Blog @ Technology. I have a Human Rights Blog @ Law
RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming. (RFK, a heroin junkie wants Florida out of water. He is not qualified for any government job . His father is rolling over in his grave.)
Fluoride is added to water to strengthen teeth and reduce cavities, but communities are abandoning the practice because of health concerns.
LEBANON, Ore. —Longtime denizens of this town of 20,000 recalled widespread tooth decay amongchildren before the city council voted to add fluoride to the drinking water two decades ago. But a group of residents remained unconvinced.
They urgedneighbors to do their own research, insisting it would reveal that the mineral embraced for generations to improve oral health was actually a dangerous substance that could harm their organs. They shared photos of corroded pipes and scarred arms they claimed were damaged by the acidic, concentrated form of fluoride.Was it worth $25,000 a year in tax dollars for the city to put fluoride in drinking water?
The skepticism prevailed on Election Day as Lebanon voters narrowly voted to removefluoridefrom the water supply, mirroring how more Americans are starting to question a practice experts have lauded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
The skepticism prevailed on Election Day as Lebanon voters narrowly voted to removefluoridefrom the water supply, mirroring how more Americans are starting to question a practice experts have lauded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century."
“The decision is the latest in a series of moves by the U.S. and Russia that have escalated tensions between the two.
A Ukrainian soldier outside Toretsk, in October. The Biden administration has approved supplying Ukraine with anti-personnel mines to bolster defenses against Russia’s increasing reliance on foot soldiers to lead their assaults.Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
The Biden administration has approved supplying Ukraine with American anti-personnel mines to bolster defenses against Russian attacks as Ukrainian front lines in the country’s east have buckled, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
The decision is the latest in a series of moves by Russia and the United States related to the war in Ukraine that have escalated tensions between the two.
The White House recently granted permission to Ukraine to fire longer-range American missiles at targets in Russia, which the Ukrainians did for the first time on Tuesday. Moscow in response formalized a new doctrine lowering the threshold for when it would use nuclear weapons.
Mr. Austin said the U.S. decision was prompted by Russia’s increasing reliance on foot soldiers to lead their assaults, instead of armored vehicles. Mr. Austin, speaking to reporters while traveling in Laos, said the shift in policy follows changing tactics by the Russians. Because of that, Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians,” Mr. Austin said.
“They’ve asked for these, and so I think it’s a good idea,” Mr. Austin said.
Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent.More about Helene Cooper”
FILE - Mehmet Oz visits the AW Driving School & License Testing Center in Allentown, Pa., Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke,Read More “Mehmet Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon turned talk show host and lifestyle guru, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the massive federal health care bureaucracy that covers more than a third of Americans.
Here’s a look at a television doctor who became a politician and is now designated to lead an agency that touches nearly all Americans in some way.
Who is Dr. Oz?
Trained as a heart surgeon, Oz rose to prominence on Oprah Winfrey’s leading daytime television show before spinning off his own series, “The Dr. Oz Show,” in 2009.
The program aired for 13 seasons and made Oz a household name.
Oz stopped doing surgeries in 2018 but his physician license remains active in Pennsylvania through the end of this year, according to the state’s online database.
Oz is an author of New York Times bestsellers, an Emmy-winning TV show host, radio talk show host, presidential appointee, founder of a national nonprofit to educate teens about healthy habits, and self-styled ambassador for wellness.
He also guest hosted the “Jeopardy!” game show and helped save a dying man at Newark Liberty International Airport.
RELATED COVERAGE
Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a heart surgeon who emigrated from Turkey.
He attended a private high school in Delaware and Harvard University as a college undergraduate, also playing football there, and served in the Turkish army to maintain his dual citizenship.
He made his reputation as a surgeon, but he made a fortune as a salesman
Oz dispensed nutritional and lifestyle advice on his show, portraying himself as a trusted doctor capable of explaining health matters in an engaging and approachable way. But his show also blurred the line between medical advice and advertising, failing to make clear to his audience just how closely he worked with the companies he pitched.
He repeatedly promoted products of questionable medical value and was named in lawsuits that alleged he made misleading claims on the show. Several of the companies he has promoted are structured as multilevel marketing businesses whose practices have repeatedly drawn the attention of federal regulators.
Oz had a net worth between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure he filed in 2022, which gives dollar values in ranges but does not provide specific figures.
He ran for U.S. Senate
Oz ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2022, one of the highest-profile races of that year’s midterms. Though he was a longtime resident of New Jersey and worked in New York City, Oz ran in Pennsylvania, citing ties to the state through his wife’s parents.
His campaign leaned heavily into his celebrity. Its logo looked just like his TV show logo. His themes — “a dose of reality” or “the doctor is in” — spun off his TV doctor reputation.
He ran in a crowded Republican primary and won Trump’s eagerly sought endorsement.
“Women, in particular, are drawn to Dr. Oz for his advice and counsel. I have seen this many times over the years. They know him, believe in him, and trust him,” Trump said when he endorsed Oz.
Following a court battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Oz narrowly won the primary over McCormick by 951 votes but lost to Democrat John Fetterman in the general election.
Oz and Trump have a long personal history
Oz told The Associated Press in a 2022 interview that he first met Trump in 2004 or 2005 when he asked Trump to use his golf course for an event for Oz’s children’s charity. Trump agreed. After that, they saw each other intermittently at social events before Oz interviewed Trump about his health during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In a 2016 appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show,” Trump said his wife, Melania Trump, was “a big fan” of the show.
Trump appointed Oz to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition during his first term.
He would oversee a massive agency
If confirmed by the Senate to lead CMS, Oz would oversee Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance and the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare.” The programs cover more than 160 million people, from newborns to nursing home residents.
CMS also plays a central role in the nation’s $4.5 trillion health care economy, setting Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors, labs and other service providers. Government payment levels become the foundation for private insurers. The agency also sets standards that govern how health care providers operate.
The agency has more than 6,000 employees and a $1.1 trillion budget.“
Trump Transition Live Updates: Hacker Is Said to Have Obtained Damaging Testimony About Gaetz
“President-elect Donald J. Trump’s attorney general candidate, Matt Gaetz, was investigated, but not charged, over allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old girl. The computer file included testimony from the girl; it does not appear to have been made public.
President-elect Donald J. Trump in Washington on Wednesday.Eric Lee/The New York Times
Pinned
An unidentified hacker gained access to a file shared in a secure link among lawyers with clients who have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, a person with knowledge of the activity said.
The file is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, in addition to testimony by a second woman who said that she had witnessed the encounter. The material does not appear to have been made public by the hacker.
President-elect Donald J. Trump is seeking a Treasury secretary who will carry out his protectionist economic plans while still having the credibility to keep markets buoyant.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The conflicting goals of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s economic agenda have been playing out as he debates who to choose as his Treasury secretary, a job that will entail steering tax cuts through Congress, leading trade talks with China and overseeing the $30 trillion U.S. bond market.
Budget experts have warned that his plans could add as much as $15 trillion to the national debt while increasing inflation and slowing growth. But Mr. Trump is not in the market for a naysayer. After a first term in which some of his top economic aides tried to tame his protectionist impulses, Mr. Trump is seeking a Treasury secretary who will carry out his unconventional plans while still having the credibility to keep markets buoyant.
Nov. 19, 2024, 10:57 a.m. ET
Marc Rowan, who is being considered by President-elect Donald J. Trump to serve as Treasury secretary, was in Hong Kong on Tuesday speaking at a financial summit where China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, was also in attendance. The appearance of Rowan, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management, was notable because whomever Trump picks for the position will be at the center of his push for hefty tariffs on Chinese goods and engaging in diplomatic relations with Chinese officials.
Nov. 19, 2024, 11:23 a.m. ET
In his own remarks, the vice premier told the audience of global financiers that in the face of “external environment changes,” China would respond with “self assertiveness.”
Former Representative Matt Gaetz was picked by President-elect Donald J. Trump to be his nominee for attorney general.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
An unidentified hacker has gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, a person with knowledge of the activity said.
The file of 24 exhibits is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.
Former Representative Matt Gaetz at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
A lawyer representing two women who testified that former Representative Matt Gaetz paid them for sex told multiple news outlets on Monday that one of the women described witnessing Mr. Gaetz having sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017.
The lawyer, Joel Leppard, told CBS News, ABC News and CNN about his clients’ testimony to the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations about Mr. Gaetz and young women, as well as accusations of drug use.
Sean Duffy, then a Wisconsin representative, at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2016.Al Drago/The New York Times
A former Wisconsin congressman and Fox Business host, Sean Duffy, was selected by President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday to lead the Transportation Department.
During his first term, Donald J. Trump largely followed the risk-averse approach to cabinet picks that presidents historically used.Al Drago for The New York Times
In his private conversations over the past few days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has admitted that his besieged choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has less than even odds of being confirmed by the Senate.
But Mr. Trump has shown no sign of withdrawing the nomination, which speaks volumes about his mind-set as he staffs his second administration. He is making calls on Mr. Gaetz’s behalf, and he remains confident that even if Mr. Gaetz does not make it, the standard for an acceptable candidate will have shifted so much that the Senate may simply approve his other nominees who have appalled much of Washington.
Tulsi Gabbard’s remarks have made her a darling of the Kremlin’s vast state media apparatus — and, more recently, of President-elect Donald J. Trump.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
In 2017, when she was still a Democratic member of Congress, Tulsi Gabbard traveled to Syria and met the country’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad. She also accused the United States of supporting terrorists there.
The day after Vladimir V. Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ms. Gabbard blamed the United States and NATO for provoking the war by ignoring Russia’s security concerns.
Former President Donald J. Trump speaking at the Believers Summit, hosted by Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla., in July.Doug Mills/The New York Times
President-elect Donald J. Trump has mused more than once that he might like to extend his next stay at the White House. But can he run for re-election again in 2028 and seek a third term? The simple answer: No, the Constitution does not allow it.
Shouting Racial Slurs, Neo-Nazi Marchers Shock Ohio’s Capital
"The demonstration in Columbus on Saturday, part of a recent pattern of white supremacist incidents in the country, was condemned by officials around the state.
Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The white supremacist marchers on Saturday appeared to number only about a dozen people.Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
Officials in Columbus, Ohio, and across the nation condemned a small group of people who marched through a part of the city on Saturday carrying Nazi flags and shouting racial slurs and expressions of white power.
The marchers appeared to number only about a dozen people, but the invective they yelled and the large swastika symbols they bore seemed to achieve their goal of rattling not just people in Columbus, but a wider audience online.
Videos of the neo-Nazi marchers in the Short North neighborhood, known for its arts district of restaurants and galleries, spread quickly on social media, and drew swift denunciations from city and state officials and the White House.
“Neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews,” Gov. Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio, said in a statement posted on social media. “There is no place in this state for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it.”
The Anti-Defamation League said that the Columbus event fit a recent pattern of white supremacist incidents, hundreds of which have taken place across the country over the past 18 months.
The marches tend to be small, unannounced so as to avoid attracting counterprotesters, and tailor-made for social media, said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.
“At the end of day, they want to create fear and anxiety in communities and get a photo op,” Mr. Segal said in an interview on Sunday.
Mr. Segal, whose staff monitors white supremacy activity nationwide, said that a newly formed white supremacist group called Hate Club, based in St. Louis, had claimed responsibility for the march on Saturday in Columbus, and that the protest might have been inspired in part by a rivalry with another hate group based in Ohio.
Mr. Segal said that “flash” events like the one in Columbus tended to involve blatant symbols of hate like the flags with swastikas that the men carried. The symbols are intended for maximum shock value among the general public, he said, but are also used to gain credibility among other white supremacist groups.
“This sickening display comes during a tragic rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence that is a crises the American people should all come together against,” a White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, said in a statement about the Columbus marchers.
No arrests were made in connection with the demonstration on Saturday.
The Columbus Police said in a statement that they were initially told the marchers were “armed with firearms” and “may have been in a physical altercation with civilians in the area.”
When the police arrived on the scene, the group of marchers left the area in a van, Sgt. Joe Albert said in the statement. The police stopped the van a short distance away and detained many of the people inside. But it was determined that an assault had not taken place, and the marchers were released.
Referring to the marchers, Shannon Hardin, president of the Columbus City Council, wrote on social media, “This community rejects their pathetic efforts to promote fear and hate.” He tied the incident to Donald J. Trump’s election. “I am sorry that the president-elect has emboldened these creeps,” Mr. Hardin, a Democrat, said in a post.
Mr. Trump has used language for years that critics say fuels white supremacist groups. He has consistently offered only a mild rebuke to the racial violence that occurred at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, and he has praised the Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom were members of far-right groups.
This year,John Kelly, his former chief of staff, said Mr. Trump had told him that “Hitler did some good things.” In May, Mr. Trumpbriefly posteda video on Truth Social featuring an image that referred to “the creation of a unified Reich” before taking it down.
Mr. Trump has continually disavowed any association with such groups. “President Trump is backed by Latinos, Black voters, union workers, angel moms, law enforcement officers, border patrol agents and Americans of all faiths,” Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman and the incoming White House press secretary, has said. “President Trump will be a president for all Americans.”
The Columbus incident followed a Nazi demonstration in Michigan earlier this month.
Nazi demonstrators stood on Nov. 9 outside an American Legion Post in Howell, Mich., where a community theater group was performing a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
Howell, a city between Lansing and Detroit, has had a history of white supremacy and racism. In the 1970s, a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan hosted rallies for fellow Klansmen at his farm just outside the city limits.
A group of white supremacists marched through town in July, shouting “We love Hitler” and “We love Trump.”
The next month, Mr. Trump held a campaign event in Howell alongside the county sheriff. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign criticized Mr. Trump for choosing the location, given the area’s history. Mr. Trump noted that President Biden had visited Howell in 2021.
During the first act of the Anne Frank production, the theater staff became aware of the Nazi demonstrators, according to an account of the incident on the Fowlerville Community Theater’sFacebook page.
Although some cast members were shaken, the account said, they finished the performance.
“This production centers on real people who lost their lives in the Holocaust,” the group said, adding: “On Saturday evening, things became even more real than we expected. The presence of protesters outside gave us a small glimpse of the fear and uncertainty felt by those in hiding.”
Michael Corkery covers national issues such as drug addiction, mental illness and violence and the people and places most affected by it.More about Michael Corkery
A version of this article appears in print on, SectionA, Page16of the New York editionwith the headline:Ohio Shocked by Neo-Nazi Marchers Shouting Racial Slurs"
Trump Defies the #MeToo Movement With Cabinet Picks Facing Accusations
"Donald J. Trump, who was found liable for sexual abuse last year, appears determined to force a fight over the role of such allegations in society.
President-elect Donald J. Trump ran a campaign aimed at tapping into male grievance, punctuated by expressions of machismo and disdain for “woke” sensitivity.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
When he takes the oath of office in January, Donald J. Trump will make history as the first court-adjudicated sexual abuser to assume the presidency. But if he gets the team of his choice, he will not be the only one in the room whose conduct has been called into question.
Mr. Trump, who was found liable in a civil trial last yearof accosting a woman, has selected a defense secretary, an attorney general, a secretary of health and human services and an efficiency czar, all of whom have been accused of variations of sexual misconduct and, like the president-elect, deny them.
The rise of the accused to positions of power raises new questions about the future of the #MeToo movement that swept through the country and upended societal expectations in recent years. The kind of accusations thattook down titansof Hollywood, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Washington, the news media, sports and state capitals have proved no obstacle in Mr. Trump’s selection process.
Rather than be deterred by such allegations, Mr. Trump seems determined to force a fight over them. He knew thatMatt Gaetz, the renegade Republican congressman, had been accused of all manner of sordid conduct, including sex with an underage girl, but tapped him to run the Justice Department anyway. He may not have known thatPete Hegseth, the Fox News weekend host he named to preside over the Pentagon, had paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault, but has indicated thathe will stand by him.
Likewise, Mr. Trump has expressed no concern about accusations thatRobert F. Kennedy Jr., his choice for the health department, groped a family babysitter, or thatElon Musk, tasked with reinventing government, created a sexually charged workplace that treated women as objects. All of his nominees have denied intentional wrongdoing, and Mr. Trump, who has made a career of denying wrongdoing himself, appears to take them at their word.
He still denies sexually assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s even though she has wontwo civil court judgments against him for $83.3 million. And he has said that more than two dozen other women who have accused him of sexual misconduct were all lying.
“It really feels like that’s part of what makes this cabinet appealing” to him, said Leigh Gilmore, the author of “The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women” and a professor emeritus at the Ohio State University. “Credible accusations of sexual assault aren’t a red line, because those are a feature of Trump’s own biography.”
Matt Gaetz, the Republican former congressman from Florida, had been accused of all manner of sordid conduct, but Mr. Trump tapped him to run the Justice Department anyway.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Indeed, she said, Mr. Trump may be seeking out those who have been accused so he does not stand out. “The more people he can surround himself with that are not in any way slowed down by their rise to power by these kinds of allegations, it normalizes his own behavior,” Ms. Gilmore said. “He’s creating a worldview. He’s shifting norms as he moves.”
Karoline Leavitt, the president-elect’s pick for White House press secretary, defended Mr. Trump’s selections. “The nominees accused of sexual misconduct have vehemently denied the allegations,” she said. Mr. Trump, she added, was elected to change the status quo and chose “brilliant” outsiders to help him. “He will continue to stand behind them as they fight against all those who seek to derail the MAGA agenda.”
Mr. Trump’s election and appointments come at a delicate moment for the movement against sexual harassment. He ran a campaign aimed at tapping into male grievance, punctuated by expressions of machismo and disdain for “woke” sensitivity. Hulk Hogan roared and ripped off his shirt at the Republican National Convention while other surrogates mocked Democrats for not being able to define what a woman is in an era of transgender rights.
In this month’s election, Mr. Trump won 55 percent of men, including 60 percent of white men, according to network exit polls. Ms. Harris won 53 percent of women overall, although 53 percent of white women voted for Mr. Trump.
Some far-right voices have been emboldened by Mr. Trump’s victory and sexist attacks on women have proliferated online in the last couple weeks,according to one study. On election night, Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who once haddinner with Mr. Trumpat his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, posted a message,“Your body, my choice. Forever,”that trended in the so-called manosphere, a takeoff of the abortion rights slogan “My body, my choice.”
The change in tone underscores the evolution of the #MeToo movement since it took off in 2017. At the start, it was not particularly political or partisan. Those who fell from grace included liberals likeHarvey Weinstein, the movie mogul, and conservatives likeRoy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama.One count of accused state politicianswas close to evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Mr. Trump’s nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court in 2018 turned the question of sexual misconduct into a partisan debate.Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times
Mr. Trump, though, always publicly sympathized with the accused, not the accusers. His 2018nomination of Brett M. Kavanaughfor the Supreme Court, who was accused of sexually assaulting a girl during high school, turned the question of sexual misconduct into a partisan debate in the Senate and subsequent midterm elections.
The concern over sexual harassment has nonetheless continued to reshape American society, with 23 states passing laws to protect women while workplaces across the country changed rules to focus more attention on the issue.
But Mr. Trump’s election and the nominations “show that the work of the movement is woefully incomplete,” saidDeborah Tuerkheimer, the author of “Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers” and a former prosecutor who is now at Northwestern University’s law school.
“The electorate shrugged aside a finding of civil liability for sexual assault, so it comes as no surprise that the president-elect feels entitled to nominate men who have also been accused of sexual misconduct,” she added. “For victims of abuse and those who care about them, this is yet another sign of a collective willingness to elevate the interests of accused men over their accusers.”
Mr. Trump’s allies have pointed to high-profile women who support or advise him as evidence of his support for strong women. He has designatedSusie Wiles, who ran his campaign, to be his White House chief of staff, the first woman ever to hold that post. Butcabinet nominations and other top appointmentshe has announced so far include just five women compared with 23 men.
So far, that is an even lower rate than during his first term. In his first 300 days in office,according to the Brookings Institution, just 23 percent of Senate-confirmed officials appointed by Mr. Trump were women, compared with 50 percent of those later appointed by President Biden in the same time frame. With weeks to go, 64 percent of the judges nominated by Mr. Biden have been women, according to the White House, compared with 24 percent under Mr. Trump.
Of all Mr. Trump’s selections so far, Mr. Gaetz has drawn the most fire. The Justice Department investigated him for underage sex trafficking but did not charge him. The House Ethics Committee took testimony from two women who said he paid them for sex, including one who said she witnessed him havingsex with an underage girl at a party, according to her lawyer. Mr. Gaetz has denied the allegations.
Mr. Hegseth was accused ofraping a womanhe met at a Republican conference in Monterey, Calif., in 2017. A complaint was filed with the police four days later, but no charges were brought. Mr. Hegseth insisted the encounter was consensual. Two years later, he reached an undisclosed financial settlement with her “knowing that it was the height of the #MeToo movement and any public accusation would result in his immediate termination from Fox,” according to his lawyer.
While Washington has focused on Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Hegseth,Mr. Kennedy, the president-elect’s choice for secretary of health and human services, was also accused last summer of groping a family babysitter in the late 1990s.
After shewent public in Vanity Fair magazinein July, Mr. Kennedy, then an independent candidate for president, sent hera text messagesaying he did not remember the incident and “never intended you any harm” but apologized, saying, “if I hurt you, it was inadvertent.”
Mr. Musk, who has been empowered by Mr. Trump to help head a Department of Government Efficiency with an expansive mandate to transform the federal government,was sued in Junealong with his company SpaceX by eight former employees who criticized the company’s “Animal House” environment. The lawsuit accused Mr. Musk of “treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size” and “bombarding the workplace with lewd sexual banter.”
Ms. Gilmore said the appointments were part of a broader “testing period” for the #MeToo movement seven years after it got underway.
“There’s going to be plenty of people who will say this is terrible for the #MeToo movement, this is the death of the #MeToo movement,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s true. Many more people after 2017 believe that women are telling the truth about sexual assault. We have set down a marker, and that has changed.”
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework."
