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Believe it or not, some on the left think the crazy new toy doesn't go far enough.

The holiday season is almost upon us and many people are thinking about gifts to buy for their loved ones. With this in mind, its important that we spare a thought for the eco-conscious feminist activists among us. They often struggle at this time of year. Fortunately, there is an abundance of advice on offer to help us all negotiate the pitfalls of the season.

Of course, the very best thing we can do for the planet this Christmas is to spend time alone wishing we had never been born. If we have to be with other people, its far better if we dont indulge in buying presentsor, indeed, anything. Surely everyone has some old stuff lying around that they can re-gift. But does this go far enough?

Thankfully, Friends of the Earth has compiled a list of 21 eco-friendly Christmas tips, so we have no excuse for slipping up. They include, unsurprisingly, making a donation to Friends of the Earth, along with preparing vegan meals, wrapping presents in old scarves rather than paper, and sending e-Christmas cards rather than the real thing.

But what about the children? Surely they can expect a new toy? Well, one solution might be to buy the little darlings in your life a gender-neutral Barbie doll. Mattel, the maker of the ever-popular figurines, announced back in September its intention to retool its products in order to align with fast-advancements in representation, inclusion and diversity.

Rather than the overtly female Barbie or super-masculine GI Joe, children lucky enough to receive a gender-neutral doll will be given the gift of a blank slate. Mattels latest creations show no signs of gender identificationthey are six inches of androgyny that can be styled as male, female, both, or neither. Each comes with a choice of short or long hairstyle options and a selection of different outfits.

The new dolls have been welcomed by GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group. So many children and parents never saw themselves represented in toys and dolls, but this new line raises the bar for inclusion thanks to input from parents, physicians and children themselves, the group tweeted. Buy your child a gender-neutral Barbie and they will be immunized against the evils of stereotypes for life.

But it seems that even this is not enough for the ultra-woke. News of Mattels latest product has hit Slate where its being slammed as alarming. The problem, it seems, is that the dolls are just not realistic enough: they fall far short of actually embodying or even representing a nonbinary identity.

Lets get down to the nitty gritty. Whats being complained about here is that between each dolls legs there isnothing. A smooth, blank lump of plastic. Of course, anyone whos ever played with Barbie or Ken as a child will remember that this was how every doll looked. But apparently the nothingness of this new line of dolls is more troubling.

It seems the only politically correct doll is one that is gender non-conforming yet also anatomically correct. The trans-man doll would need to include scars to show where breasts have been removed and more scars on the arms and legs where skin grafts have been taken to aid in the surgical construction of a penis. And of course, this carefully built penis would need to appear, in all its glory, between the dolls legs.

Its time for a reality check. Neither Barbie nor GI Joe have ever been anatomically correct. No real woman or man could ever achieve such a physique. This is the entire point of the toy. The dolls are fantasy figures that allow children to dream up all manner of imagined scenarios. Dolls belong in the world of make-believe; they exist for projection, aspiration, and storytelling.

Much though transgender activists may wish it were otherwise, few children aspire to scar tissues and surgically botched genitalia. For that matter, few children imagine themselves to be gender neutral when they grow up. In their made-up worlds, they are moms and dads, teachers, doctors, astronauts, and movie stars. What they are not is simply bodies.

It seems to some as if the biggest crime we can commit nowadaysbigger even than wrapping shop-bought gifts in paperis to tell a girl she will grow up to be a woman or a boy he will grow up to be a man. Heres an idea. How about this holiday season we take a week off from haranguing other people on how to live or how to raise their children. Instead, lets relax and enjoy ourselves. Pass the wine, please.

Joanna Williams is the author ofWomen vs. Feminism: Why We All Need Liberating from the Gender Wars.

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Gender-Neutral Barbie and the Progressives Who Attack Her - The American Conservative

Is Mayor Pete the candidate to beat in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination? Its too early to tell, because the race is still in flux. But South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete ButtigiegPeter (Pete) Paul ButtigiegSanders, Buttigieg surge in New Hampshire as Biden, Warren slip: poll Buttigieg calls The Root writer whose column on his past comments on minorities and education went viral Buttigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll MORE has risen to the top of thepolls in the first two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, that elect delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.

Buttigieg is one of three Democratic candidates who entered the presidential race with little national name recognition but made a strong first impression. The other two are Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisSaagar Enjeti laments use of identity politics in 2020 Democratic race Buttigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll Bloomberg ties with Harris, Klobuchar in new national poll MORE (D-Calif.) and former Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Texas). ORourke dropped out after a sizzling start. Harris made a big splash in the first Democratic debate with a blistering attack on the then-Democratic frontrunner, Joe BidenJoe BidenSanders, Buttigieg surge in New Hampshire as Biden, Warren slip: poll State Dept. official describes frantic effort to save recalled Ukraineambassador Trump denies sending Giuliani to Ukraine on his behalf MORE, but her campaign has sputtered since then.

How did Buttigieg become a big player in the Democratic race while ORourke failed and Harris continues to struggle?

First, Mayor Pete got great early reviews from the great mentioners in the invisible primary that unfolds in the Acela corridor well before the candidates meet real live Democratic primary voters.

The Washington Post once called him the most interesting mayor you never heard of. Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaSaagar Enjeti laments use of identity politics in 2020 Democratic race It's the aggressive progressives vs. the pragmatic moderates Corporation that holds migrant children backs out of plans to hold holiday party at Trump golf club MORE once included Buttigieg among four Democrats who represented the future of the Democratic Party.

Typical of the buzz was a tweet from Joe ScarboroughCharles (Joe) Joseph ScarboroughIt's the aggressive progressives vs. the pragmatic moderates Scarborough: Trump is either 'an agent of Russia' or 'a useful idiot' Saagar Enjeti: Republicans lost Kentucky by failing to appeal to working class MORE reacting to Buttigiegs appearance on Morning Joe. Mika and I have been overwhelmed by the reaction @PeteButtigieg got after being on the show. The only other time in 12 years that we heard from as many people about a guest was after @BarackObama appeared on Morning Joe.

Buttigieg also has a great story to tell.

Hes the un-Trump. Hes young and smart, and he served with distinction in a war zone.

Buttigieg received degrees from Harvard and from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He served in Naval Intelligence for seven months in Afghanistan, and he received a Joint Services Commendation Medal for his counter-terrorismduty in a combat zone. He was elected to the first of his two terms as mayor of South Bend when he was only 29. He still holds his rank as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.

And by the way, hesgay and married. He is the first openly gay candidate to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and he would become the first openly gay president of the United States.

Plus, hes the kind of outsider who thrives in an environment where Americans still distrust and even hate Washington D.C.

The three candidates leading the national polls former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersSanders, Buttigieg surge in New Hampshire as Biden, Warren slip: poll Saagar Enjeti laments use of identity politics in 2020 Democratic race Why America needed Donald Trump MORE (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenSanders, Buttigieg surge in New Hampshire as Biden, Warren slip: poll Overnight Defense: Senators challenge Trump on military pardons | State Department to investigate if US weapons ended up in wrong hands in Yemen | Dems release final impeachment transcripts Saagar Enjeti laments use of identity politics in 2020 Democratic race MORE (D-Mass.) have all served as United States senators and are all in their 70s.

Mayor Pete is only 37; Biden had already served in Congress for nine years by the time the mayor was born in 1982. Together Biden and Sanders have done 64 years of hard time in Washington. Buttigieg served in Afghanistan but is unbloodied by gladiatorial combat in The Swamp.

For some Democrats, the decades of congressional know-how that Biden and Sanders have is a welcome antidote to Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump at rally vows to supporters no name change for 'Thanksgiving' Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terror organizations State Dept. official describes frantic effort to save recalled Ukraineambassador MOREs lack of political experience. But to many Americans, long service in Washington is still the kiss of death.

In the most recent Democratic debate. Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy Jean KlobucharButtigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll Senate roundtable showcases importance and needs of women entrepreneurs Bloomberg ties with Harris, Klobuchar in new national poll MORE (D-Minn.) attacked Buttigieg for lacking the national experience to be an effective president. His comeback was Washington experience is not the only experience that matters. Theres more than 100 years of experience on this stage, and where are we now as a country?

Well played, Mayor Pete.

The Real Clear Poll averages have Buttigieg in first place in Iowa and New Hampshire, but still stuck in single digits nationally. Can Mayor Pete repeat his success and project that support onto a national playing field?

To become a big player nationally, Buttigieg must demonstrate that he can secure the support of Latino and African American Democrats. Mayor Pete is doing well in New Hampshire and Iowa, where there are relatively few black and brown voters. But he has very little support in the next two contests in Nevada and South Carolina, where there are large numbers of Latino and African American voters. The next wave of states, on Super Tuesday, boast large populations of non-white Democrats.

Buttigieg's opponents have tried to portray him as #MayoPete, the white bread candidate. If the label sticks, Buttigieg will have problems as he spreads his wings nationally. Anywhere from 35 percent to 40 percent of Democratic primary voters or caucus participants nationally will be black or brown.

Nationally, Buttigiegs future is also dependent on the state of Bidens campaign and the impact former New York City Mayor Michael BloombergMichael Rubens BloombergDeval Patrick beefs up campaign staff Buttigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll Bloomberg ties with Harris, Klobuchar in new national poll MORE and his money have on the campaign.

When all is said and done, the race will boil down to two candidates.

One of the finalists, either Warren or Sanders, will emerge as the champion of the aggressive progressives.

The other finalist will represent the pragmatic moderates in the party. Biden and Buttigieg are battling to be the pragmatists standard bearer. In the recent Democratic debate, Buttigieg went out of his way to court independents and even Republicans.

Bidens support has diminished since he formally entered the race. If Bidens candidacy stabilizes, Mayor Pete will hit a roadblock. If the former vice presidents fortunes continue to decline, Buttigieg will inherit some of his support.

Bloomberg is a late entry. The billionaire businessman has just started a two-week $37-billion national media buy that will make or break him in his quest to be the great moderate hope in the sweepstakes to stop Trump.

There have been five nationally televised Democratic debates, and theres less than three months before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But surprisingly few Democrats have made a hard and fast decision about a nominee.

Will Buttigieg break out and gain support beyond Iowa and New Hampshire? Will Bloombergs big bucks shuffle the deck? Theres still time for lots of twists and turns in the campaign until the people's choice finally emerges.

BradBannonis a Democratic pollster and CEO ofBannonCommunications Research. He is also the host of the radio podcast Deadline D.C. With BradBannon, which airs on the Progressive Voices Network. Follow him on Twitter@BradBannon.

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It's the aggressive progressives vs. the pragmatic moderates | TheHill - The Hill

A week out from a council vote on Chicagos next budget, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says shes done haggling over the $11.6 billion spending plan despite criticism from progressives that shes breaking promises made during the campaign.

The budget is the budget is the budget, Lightfoot said Wednesday at a press briefing.

After making it past committee-level hurdles this week, its likely that Lightfoot will get aldermanic approval at City Councils Nov. 26 meeting.

But progressive organizations are actively working for aldermen to vote against it.

The spending plan does not reopen the city clinics. It does not introduce progressive revenue that asks the rich to pay their fair share and it does very little for fair housing and homelessness, said Emma Tai, director of United Working Families.

Lightfoot says those critiques are invalid because such demands are untethered form the reality of the fiscal challenges we have in our city.

The mayor also hinted that politics may be part of the equation, given that United Working Families counts labor groups like the Chicago Teachers Union as a funding source. In the mayoral race this year, CTU backed Lightfoots rival, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and although the mayors office and Chicago Public Schools reached a contract deal theres still obvious tension following last months 11-day teachers strike.

This is an organization thats closely aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union. I would expect that they will have a drumbeat of complaints throughout my term and it woudlnt surprise me later in the day if they support a challenger to me, Lightfoot said, referring to the 2023 race.

Tai called that suggestion petty.

This is not personal. This is about what Chicago what the poor, working black and brown folks of Chicago need and deserve and this is about what the 2019 mandate was for, Tai said.

Follow Amanda Vinicky on Twitter:@AmandaVinicky

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Mayor: Progressive Pushback to City Budget 'Untethered' from Reality - WTTW News

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Friday announced the three co-chairs for her presidential campaign: progressive Congresswomen Deb Haaland (D-NM), Katie Porter (D-CA) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

Haaland, a Native American, has received flack for supporting Warren. The reason? People feel Haaland betrayed her people. After all, the senator claimed she was Native American. It was later revealed through DNA testing that she is only 1/1024th Native American.

Freshman Congresswoman Katie Porter was going back and forth between endorsing Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) but eventually went with Warren. When she announced her decision to back the Massachusetts senator, she shared a picture of her with Warren when she graduated from Harvard Law.

When Rep. Ayanna Pressley announced she was endorsing Warren, she was the first member of "the Squad" to do so. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The only member of "the Squad" who has yet to make an endorsement is Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Rumors have swirled, saying "the Squad" is fighting over who deserves to be president. Tlaib, however, said that's the furthest thing from the truth.

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Meet the Progressives Leading Warren's Campaign - Townhall

WASHINGTON A group of progressive lawmakers that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed the Trump administrations support for the right-wing leaders who have taken power in Bolivia following the ouster of socialist President Evo Morales, saying Friday that the White Houses dangerously misguided backing risks creating a full-blown humanitarian emergency in the South American nation.

We are troubled by statements from Administration officials, including President Trump, that welcome these developments in Bolivia that bear the hallmarks of a military coup dtat,the group of lawmakers said in a letter drafted by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), a progressive who has been outspoken on human rights issues in Latin America throughout his career in Congress.

The letter was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday.

Morales, who was first elected in 2005, resigned on Nov. 10amid pressure from Bolivias armed forces as protests erupted across Bolivia after a disputed October election, in which his opponents accused him of fraud. The Organization of American States, a regional body of governments from across the Americas, said in a preliminary audit that it had found serious irregularities in the election. Morales (who says he is the victim of a coup and has fled to Mexico), his supporters, and some independent groups have questioned the evidence behind the OAS findings.

Morales decision to seek a fourth term even after he initially lost a 2016 referendum asking Bolivians to alter constitutional term limits to allow him to do so and the fraud allegations sparked the protests that led to his resignation. But his departure came two months before his current term would have ended in January. And his ouster paved the way for the rise of right-wing figures including Jeanine ez, a conservative senator who declared herself interim president to power.

JOSHUA LOTT via Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump talks to the media on the South Lawn of the White House on November 20, 2019.

President Donald Trump welcomed Morales ouster as a a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere, and his administration immediately recognized ezs legitimacy as interim leader.

But since taking power, ez and her allies have threatened lawmakers from Morales Movement for Socialism party and journalists with prosecution while also unleashing the military, which they exempted from prosecution, to crack down on pro-Morales demonstrations.

Protesters have accused the military of killing at least eight people during a demonstration last week.

We urge you to consider an immediate change in course and to take action to support democracy and human rights in Bolivia, the lawmakers wrote.While there is legitimate debate surrounding Morales decision to run for a fourth term, it is simply not acceptable for the U.S. administration to welcome the forced removal of a democratically-elected leader before the end of their mandate.

Our government should call for the prompt restoration of constitutional order, and for an immediate end to all persecution and attacks targeting leaders and supporters of Evo Morales and his political party, they said. Additionally, we call for the adoption of protective measures for those facing threats.

Warning that Bolivias escalating crisis threatens to spiral into violent internal conflict, the progressives argued that the administrations backing of the current Bolivian leadership could well contribute to a further breakdown in the rule of law in Bolivia and a full-blown humanitarian emergency, with large migrant outflows.

We strongly urge you to revise this approach and support the prompt restoration of constitutional order, dialogue between opposing political factions, fair and inclusive elections and respect for the human and cultural rights of all Bolivians, they wrote.

Although it was addressed to the Trump administration, the letter also marked the latest effort from progressive lawmakers to set themselves apart from Democratic leadership on foreign policy and human rights issues, particularly in the Americas.

In March, progressives came out against the Trump administrations decision to back Venezuelan opposition to socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has become increasingly autocratic and authoritarian as an economic crisis has crippled his country. Millions of people have fled Venezuela, and Trump has aggressively supported efforts to remove Maduro from office by imposing economic sanctions and making thinly veiled threats of military force.

Progressive lawmakers argued in March that Trumps sanctions and threats of American military-led regime change would only hurt ordinary people and exacerbate Venezuelas crises.

Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said at the time that the coordinated effort to challenge the White House even as top Democrats backed Trumps strategywas a deliberate move to reshape foreign policy conversations within the party.

Khanna was not among the 14 lawmakers who signed the Friday letter about Bolivia. The signatories were Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Susan Wild (D-Pa.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Debra Haaland (D-N.M.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Jesus Chuy Garca (D-Ill.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Alan Lowenthal (D-N.Y.).

Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), Washington D.C.s representative to Congress, also signed the letter.

Ocasio-Cortez and Omar have both previously called Morales ouster a coup. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard are theonly Democratic presidential candidates to have done so.

picture alliance via Getty ImagesSupporters of the resigned Bolivian head of state Morales march in La Paz, the capital, carrying a coffin with the remains of a victim killed in the recent violent clashes and demanding the end of the current interim government.

Pompeo, in a new statement Thursday, reiterated the United States support for ezs transitional government and renewed condemnations of Morales and other party officials who Pompeo said were responsible for egregious irregularities and manipulation of the vote in Octobers elections.

But he also said the United States opposed crackdowns on the press and protesters.

We support robust press freedoms and peaceful assembly and protest. Violence, repression, and political intimidation have no place in a democracy, Pompeo said. We call on all parties to refrain from such violence, to observe the rule of law, and to respect the rights of all citizens to participate in building Bolivias future, whatever their views. Security services must respect the rights of peaceful protestors, and the Bolivian authorities must ensure accountability for any violations of the right of citizens.

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House Progressives Blast Trump For Embrace Of Right-Wing Bolivian Leaders - HuffPost