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Yoga Pants: The Fashion Police Go Both Ways

Yoga Pants: The Fashion Police Go Both Ways

He thought the readers could use a break from the election craziness and so sent a lighthearted letter to his suburban paper tendering an opinion on yoga pants.

“Yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature’s blessing of youth,” Alan Sorrentino wrote to the Barrington Times in Rhode Island. “However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public.”

All hell broke loose. A protest parade was staged in front of Sorrentino’s house. The organizers wrote on Facebook: “This is a wonderful group of people celebrating our bodies and our right to cover them however we see fit. And while yoga pants seem to be a silly thing to fight for, they are representative of something much bigger — Misogyny and the history of men policing womens bodies.”

The story went international.

Sorrentino was deluged with nasty email. “They say ‘die’ and called me all kinds of vulgarities,” he told me. “The letter was just a point of view of a grumpy old man — although I think (yoga pants) look bad.”

The parade was advertised as “peaceful” and with “ZERO NEGATIVITY.” “Please do not come for a fight,” the official Facebook page said. “You will be shut down.” And the women who marched did so mostly in that spirit.

But the discussion does not end here. Some of the women said Sorrentino has no right to “judge” what women should wear. Actually, he does — just as the women have a right to judge his opinion. Still, marching in front of someone’s personal living space, however nonconfrontationally, takes on an air of intimidation.

I happen to know Alan and know him to be a gentleman. He throws civilized dinner parties to which he invites older widows, the sort of women accustomed to being excluded from couples-oriented guest lists. He contacted his neighbors to express concern that they might be disturbed by demonstrations in front of his house.

Sorrentino had couched his opinion with references to his own aging body. And to cover both genders, he asked how people would respond to men wearing Speedos at the supermarket, concluding with “Yuck.” Joan Rivers’ kinder red-carpet commentary was tougher than anything expressed in this letter.

I also happen to agree with Alan on the subject of yoga pants (and Speedos). He clearly meant tight yoga pants. Just Google “yoga pants” and check the crude images.

During a recent stroll on Madison Avenue, New York’s fancy shopping street, I spotted a woman in tight athletic pants. Even though she was quite fit, the stretched fabric revealed the cellulite on her rear end.

Anyhow, no one is telling women what they may or may not wear. They’re offering an opinion on what they think looks bad. I thought the recent Superman-Batman movie was insultingly dumb. That’s not the same as forbidding people to see it.

What we had here in the yoga pants fuss was a social media pileup designed to exact a price for tendering opinion some have declared off-limits. It’s one thing to mobilize against public figures used to the rough stuff. It’s another to go after an ordinary citizen speaking his or her mind.

Sisters, this ganging up on men who stray from certain feminist guidelines contributed to the rise of Donald Trump. Lighten up, will ya?

The term “fashion police” can go two ways. One tells people what fashions they shouldn’t wear. The other tells people what they shouldn’t say about fashion. Neither is good for the civic culture.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo: daveynin via Flickr

Your Guide To Super Tuesday IV: Northeastern Edition!

Your Guide To Super Tuesday IV: Northeastern Edition!

Voters in 5 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island —are hitting the polls today in yet another “Super Tuesday” primary. If you’re following along, either to keep abreast of current events or for pure schadenfreude, we’ve compiled each state’s delegate math and most recent polling to help keep track.

Connecticut 

Each of Connecticut’s five districts awards three delegates winner-takes-all, and the remaining 13 delegates are distributed proportionally based on popular vote, unless one candidate manages to win 50 percent or more of the popular vote, in which case that candidate wins all 13 delegates. If Trump lives up to some of the more ambitious expectations of him (some polls have him at 52 percent of the popular vote), he could manage to take home all 28 delegates.

Even without a majority, Trump will likely dominate the Connecticut primary. Real Clear Politics, which averages multiple polls to make its projections, has the Republican frontrunner up 26 points, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich likely stealing second: he holds 28 percent of the vote, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails at a dismal 19 percent (one recent poll suggests Cruz won’t even break 10 percent in Connecticut).

The Democratic Party regulates primary and caucus rules in all 50 states and is significantly more straightforward, logistically: a majority of the delegates are awarded proportionately, assuming runners up win at least 15 percent of the vote, and the remaining delegates are unbound “superdelegates” and can vote for whomever they choose.

Of the 71 delegates up for grabs in Connecticut, 55 will be awarded proportionately based on today’s vote — both Sanders and Clinton are projected to hit the 15 percent threshold. Still, the race will be a close one. RCP has Clinton leading Sanders by only 5.6 points, and one Public Policy Polling survey published yesterday suggests an even tighter race, with Clinton at 48 percent and Sanders at 46 percent of likely Democratic voters.

Delaware

Sixteen delegates are at stake in the Republican primary, awarded on a winner-take all basis. One of the few polls available in Delaware has Trump leading Kasich by 37 points, with Cruz falling to third place.

With little polling data available, the fate of Delaware’s 21 Democratic delegates is anyone’s guess. Clinton leads Sanders in the only available poll, 45 to 38 percent, but as Huffington Post points out, 17 percent of those polled were still undecided.

Maryland

Maryland will award 38 total delegates in today’s Republican primary: three in each of the state’s eight districts, 11 to the candidate who wins a plurality of the popular vote, and three remaining pledged to support the winner. This winner-take-most set-up will likely favor Trump, who has a substantial lead in the state. RCP has Trump up 14 points, and other polls suggest Trump could lead by as much as 20 points. While there’s not a lot of polling data from Maryland, election watchers suggest Kasich will likely come in second, with Cruz falling, yet again, to third place.

There are 95 pledged delegates up for grabs in the Democratic primary, and early data don’t fare well for Sanders, who trails Clinton by 24 points in the latest RCP poll. The analysts over at FiveThirtyEight put Sanders’s chance of winning Maryland at only 2 percent.

Pennsylvania 

Despite sending 71 delegates to the Republican National Convention in July, the winner of the GOP primary will only gain 17 delegates as the result of today’s vote. Yes, that’s two fewer delegates than Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country. Still, Trump will likely win big in the Keystone State, at least in terms of the popular vote. RCP has the frontrunner up 26 points in the polls and a new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll echoes that sentiment, with 45 percent of likely Republican voters supporting Trump. Cruz trails behind at 27 percent of likely voters, and Kasich is just behind him at 24 percent.

Clinton will likely win a majority of Pennsylvania’s 189 pledged delegates. Polls show her leading Sanders by 14 points (54 percent for Clinton, 40 percent for Sanders), thanks largely to the state’s African American voters. Despite receiving an endorsement from the country’s oldest African American newspaper, The Philadelphia Tribune, Sanders is still down among likely black voters; in Pennsylvania, only 29 percent of African Americans support the Vermont Senator, compared with 67 percent who support the former Secretary of State.

Rhode Island

Trump will also dominate Rhode Island, where he holds a 25-point lead. One poll has the business mogul at 61 percent, Trumping Kasich’s 23 percent. Cruz is at a measly 13 percent. Still, Rhode Island is another state with incredibly complicated Republican primary rules: six delegates are awarded proportionately by district, provided a candidate wins at least 10 percent of the vote any given district (there are only two congressional districts in Rhode Island). If a candidate wins over 67 percent of the vote, they receive at least two more delegates. Ten of the remaining 13 are awarded proportionately based on popular vote, and the final three are bound to support the winner of the primary.

On the Democratic side, Rhode Island is shaping up to be an intense fight between Clinton and Sanders. There are 24 delegates at stake, and the polls are at a statistical coin-toss. RCP has Clinton up 2.5 points in the polls, however Public Policy Polling puts Sanders at a four-point lead over Clinton’s 45 percent.

The Takeaway

Trump will walk away from Super Tuesday IV with significant backup for his claim of delegate inevitability. If he sweeps all five states, we’ll surely hear louder calls for Cruz and Kasich to drop out of the race. But don’t expect that to happen anytime soon: both candidates have made it clear they’re in it to undermine the will of the an arbitrarily small plurality of Republican primary voters win it in an eventual open convention.

Despite signs that Sanders may pull off one or two upset victories today, he’s unlikely to put a dent in Clinton’s delegate count. One of Sanders’s biggest weaknesses is his inability to sway black voters in places Pennsylvania and Maryland. While he is also unlikely to leave the race anytime soon, Sanders’s progressive faithful may have to resign themselves to an inevitable Clinton candidacy in the near future.

Photo: Migraine. Pexels/ Gerd Altmann

Some States Battle Obama On Climate Change; Others Try To Address It

Some States Battle Obama On Climate Change; Others Try To Address It

By Chris Adams, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

NEWPORT, R.I. — In statehouses around the country, the battle is heating up to stop the climate change agenda of President Barack Obama.

But here in the Ocean State, Rhode Island state leaders are not pushing back against the president. They’re going even further than he has.

Whether addressing rising waters that can damage historically significant homes in Newport or reducing the amount of carbon pollution power plants pump into the air, officials in Rhode Island have decided they must act, whatever the feds might do.

Indeed, the debate in Washington may have devolved into a typical Beltway scrum about giving the president what he wants or asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop him. But in places such as the state capitol in Providence, R.I., and Olympia, Wash., and Sacramento, Calif., state officials already are deploying strategies that could slow some of the impact of climate change.

“These threats are real to us — 21 municipalities out of 39 are coastal,” said Elizabeth Stone, who coordinates climate change policy for Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management. “Look at our coastline if we have one or three or five feet of sea-level rise by the end of this century — it’s quite drastic.”

The latest flash point is over the president’s push to reduce carbon pollution. On Oct. 23, the White House formally published its Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions. To reach mandated targets, states can work alone or with neighbors, modifying their mix of coal, natural gas and renewable energy. The goal: Cut power-sector carbon pollution by 32 percent from 2005 levels.

That same day, officials from 24 state governments pounced.

In a lawsuit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the state officials contend Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has “vastly overstepped its authority” by “requiring the states to take part in this unlawful regime” that will “require massive and immediate efforts by state energy and environmental regulators.”

Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia’s attorney general and a leader of the state coalition, said he’s focused on the legality of the EPA’s action — not the broader issue of climate change.

“If this is an issue that is going to advance in the future, it should be undertaken by Congress — and we obviously haven’t seen that,” he said in an interview.

“In West Virginia, we are mindful that the consequences of this illegal action are severe,” he added. “There will be lost jobs, the potential for a real spike in electricity prices — and it may potentially put the reliability of the power grid at risk. But all of that is secondary to the core issue: Does the administration have legal authority to advance one of the most sweeping and radical regulations of our lifetime?”

In North Carolina, the Department of Environmental Quality has joined the lawsuit. Secretary Donald van der Vaart, appointed by a Republican governor, said in an interview the rule is illegal and that it will increase costs and cede control of the state’s power-generating system.

“The real question is, ‘Why would I support it?'” he said.

But for evidence that the split among the states is real, you only need to walk down the street from van der Vaart’s office.

There, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is not part of the 24-state coalition that van der Vaart’s office is. In a letter to state lawmakers this summer, Cooper said he was concerned that legal action against Obama’s plan “will risk North Carolina’s well-deserved reputation for protecting the quality of our air, recruiting businesses that produce cutting-edged technologies and offering leadership around the world on energy issues. … I encourage you to avoid the path of litigation.”

In Florida, Attorney General Pam Bondi says in a statement that her state “will not stand by and allow these unlawful and heavy-handed utility regulations to trample our states’ rights and drastically increase electricity prices in Florida.”

Some local officials, however, don’t agree. Local governments in Broward County and South Miami last week joined with 18 state attorneys general and individual cities to support the EPA. In a filing opposing the 24-state coalition, those officials said the power plan “will help prevent and mitigate harms that climate change poses to human health and the environment.”

Added Broward County Mayor Tim Ryan: “It’s unfortunate that the state government is taking a position averse to the opinions and the best interests of Florida citizens.” The lifelong Democrat said the government needs to take action because “if we don’t act now, then our children’s and grandchildren’s futures in low-lying areas are jeopardized.”

Legal skirmishing aside, many states already are working on what are known as mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce carbon emissions and to deal with heat waves, flooding, storm surges and other expected climate change impacts.

“Look, this is already happening,” said Rachel Cleetus, who oversees climate policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy organization. “Despite the legal challenges, the states themselves are moving ahead, putting together compliance plans for the Clean Power Plan. The just-say-no strategy is losing steam.”

That was a reference to a pitch by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that states should think twice before submitting to comply with Obama’s power plan.

According to an assessment by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 16 states already are on a path to exceed the Obama administration’s carbon-cutting targets for 2030; a majority of states already have made significant progress toward the 2022 benchmarks also contained in the plan.

Rhode Island, for one, is well on the way to meeting the Clean Power Plan goals, as are other Northeastern states that form the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Along with other states, Rhode Island also has joined the effort to support the Obama administration in court.

Rhode Island has an executive-level climate change council to coordinate the activities of its state agencies. “Impacts from climate change are already being felt in Rhode Island, like elsewhere in New England. It requires action now, not just in the future,” according to a report from the council.

As with other Northeastern states, Rhode Island’s own goals to cut emissions are broader than the federal plan, targeting transportation, the heating sector and other emissions sources — not just power plants.

“We’ll be looking at significant cuts and pretty aggressive policy suggestions,” said Stone, from the state’s environmental department. She said Rhode Island is positioned to meet the Clean Power Plan goals.

And a reason why is something Pieter Roos sees more and more.

For Roos, executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation in this historic and picturesque coastal town, political debates over climate change are something of an abstraction.

Instead, he’s preparing to adapt — and his mission is a small slice of what Rhode Island in general is doing, which is a small slice of what many states around the country are doing.

“I’m not prepared to comment on the validity of the scientific evidence,” he said on a recent fall day as he pointed out the homes he oversees — some dating to the early 1700s — that now regularly flood. “I can only comment on the observed evidence, and that is that I see more water in basements.”

His challenge is one faced by preservationists around the country; they’ll gather next year in Newport for a new conference, Keeping History Above Water.

“I am not a scientist. I’m a museum director and a preservationist,” he said. “I can only deal with the issues that are coming up in front of me. … I don’t have time to pay attention to folks who think that climate change isn’t real.”

Photo: A lighthouse off Newport, R.I., as seen on Oct. 9, 2015. Residents and preservationists in Newport are concerned about the impact of climate change on sea levels in the surrounding waters. Even before the federal government came out with its climate-change plan, Rhode Island officials had a detailed plan to address it. (Chris Adams/McClatchy DC/TNS)

5 Things You Should Know About Lincoln Chafee, Former Republican, Now Democratic Candidate

5 Things You Should Know About Lincoln Chafee, Former Republican, Now Democratic Candidate

The political career of former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee tells a story of the Republican Party: How it swerved so far right that to remain sane he finally had to switch sides, in a transition completed Wednesday evening at George Mason University, where he announced his run for the Democratic nomination for president with the rallying themes of “waging peace” and “future ideas.”

Once a “liberal Republican” (two words that simply do not appear together anymore), Chafee has taken stances not only to the left of many in his former party, but even occasionally to the left of the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. He even says he wants to bring Edward Snowden home.

Here are five things you should know about this idiosyncratic candidate.

1. He voted against the Iraq War.

Chafee was the only Republican in the Senate to vote against authorization for the Iraq War in 2002. He has not hesitated to bring attention to the fact that Clinton failed to do the same when she was a senator from New York. “I don’t think anybody should be president of the United States that made that mistake,” Chafee told the Washington Post.

“They knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, but they wanted their war badly enough that they were willing to deceive us,” Chafee said in his announcement speech Wednesday night. “There was no intelligence. Believe me. I saw everything they had.”

2. He has supported marriage equality for a while.

Rhode Island became the eighth state to legalize same-sex marriage after Chafee signed a marriage equality bill into law in 2013.

He published an op-ed in the New York Times at the time, defending his decision as both a deeply moral and eminently practical one, enjoining other state governors to recognize that marriage equality would be a boost for their state’s economy. In the same op-ed, he expressed his desire for the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, which it did one month later. 

3. He’s cautiously supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Splitting ranks with heavy-hitting progressives, such as Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chafee said he was supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, asserting Wednesday night that the trade deal “has the potential to set fair guidelines for the robust commerce taking place in the Pacific Rim,” according to his prepared remarks.

4. He isn’t what conservatives would call “tough on crime.”

In his speech he spoke of the need to “wage peace” in our own hemisphere, by rethinking the country’s destructive, ineffective War on Drugs. “Obviously, eradication, substitution and interdiction aren’t working. Let’s have an active, open-minded approach to drug trafficking,” he said.

On domestic policing, he was unequivocal, saying in response to a student’s question: “Zero tolerance doesn’t work,” citing “police brutality” and the lack of available education.

5. He wants America to use the metric system.

Near the end of his announcement speech, at the bottom of a long list of “many and formidable” challenges, Chafee said he wanted to move the U.S. toward the metric system, also called the International System, since basically everyone except us uses it.

Far from a frivolous move, Chafee said it was part of a “bold embrace of internationalism.” After all, the U.S. is one of only three countries that doesn’t use metric; the other two are Liberia and Burma.

“It’s not that hard” to use Celsius, he said.

Photo: Governor Lincoln Chafee (RI), September 19, 2011, via Facebook