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If you think high tea and womens lavish hats are out of fashion, you may want to reconsider. Princess Kate Middletons fashion statement fascinators more commonly known as headpieces as well as the high teas featured in high end restaurants and hotels throughout England are as popular as ever.

The good news is that you dont need to travel across the pond to participate in this grand gesture of civilization. Mark your calendars for the return of Matildas Tea from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 11, at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris Township.

At this annual tea, bring your favorite young person and explore the art of millinery, or hat making. Youll be amazed as you learn about the fashion of proper young ladies at the turn of the previous century. Discover how the former resident, Matilda Frelinghuysen, dressed to play in the gardens of the grand Whippany Farm, now The Frelinghuysen Arboretum.

Attendees will also learn that the bigger-is-better hat craze of the early 20th century launched the environmental movement of today. Begin the day by creating your very own hat from feathers, beads, tulle, and sparkles to wear and take home.

Delight in a light tea and an illustrated talk about the history of womens head dressings. This program is designed for both the young and young-at-heart. Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. The cost is $25 per person. This program is appropriate for adults and children ages 6 and older. For more information and to register, visit arboretumfriends.org or call (973) 326-7603.

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Matilda's Tea Party returns to arboretum on March 11 - New Jersey Hills

Donald Trump represents a grave threat to liberal democratic values. On Capitol Hill, Republicans are falling in line and some moderate Democrats have signaled a willingness to cut deals. But ordinary Americans have the power to resist. We know this is true because we have seen local, grassroots organizing take hold before.

Eight years ago, two of us worked as congressional staffers and the other in immigrant rights organizing. President Obama had takenoffice with large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and seemed poised to enact many of our shared priorities. Another force was taking shape, however, that would eventually bring federal policymaking to a halt.

The tea party protests began early in 2009, as small groups of conservative activists organized against government intervention in the housing and financial markets. By summer, they had grown into a formidable opposition movement, flooding congressional offices with angry letters, emails and calls. Enabled by a media that thrives on conflict, these minority voices soon dominated the national discourse.

When members of Congress retreated to their districts for what should have been an uneventful summer of little league games and pancake breakfasts, tea party activists awaited them. Two of us worked for Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who was mobbed in an Austin parking lot by protesters carrying Revolutionary War battle flags and signs denouncing socialized healthcare. Their simple chant, which would soon become familiar, was, just say no.

The tea party organized for the 2010 midterms, targeting both Republicans and moderate Democrats. By the time the dust had settled, Democrats had lost their large majorities in Congress and, with their lost seats, any hope of realizing a bold progressive agenda.

Although their policy ideas were destructive, the tea party demonstrated that a small group of activists can take on a newly elected president with a majority in Congress and win.

Now its our turn.

We learned two key lessons from the tea partys success.

First, they organized locally, focusing on members of Congress in their home states and districts, pushing them to use every available tool legislation, letters, public statements, media interviews to oppose Obamas every move.

Under Trump, similar efforts will be just as important in the blue districts of California as anywhere else. By keeping relentless, local pressure on progressive members of Congress, we can embolden them to stand firm. We can remind them that making nice with an administration built on racism, authoritarianism and corruption is not bipartisanship its collusion.

The second lesson we learned from the tea party is that we need to play defense. The movements members understood that if they tried to choose among competing conservative priorities, their coalition would fracture. Rather than putting forward plans to stimulate the economy or to improve the healthcare system, they chose to just say no. The tea party kept its movement strong, broad and unified by concentrating relentlessly on opposition.

Loud, localized resistance is already proving effective against the new GOP regime.

On the first day of the new Congress, Republicans moved to hamstring the Office of Congressional Ethics. Within 24 hours, activists had taken the fight to the home district office of Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.), who had led the effort, demanding a meeting and posting video of their visit on social media.

They took the just say no approach, and it worked.

Republicans swift retreat affirmed that every constituents voice across every state, in every district, red or blue will be vital to expose and block what we expect will be an aggressive attempt to remake government in Trumps image.

To stand united in opposition is not about abandoning a positive vision for the future. Progressives should continue working to develop policy ideas. But for the next two years, at least, we cant set the agenda, we can only respond to it.

If the tea partys approach could stop President Obama, it can stop President Trump.Unlike his predecessor, Trump lost the popular vote, and has no mandate. He also has slimmer majorities in Congress than Democrats had eight years ago.

Americans against Trump are in the majority. If we want to resist his agenda, we have to do it together, and we have to start now. You can find like-minded people through a website we started,Indivisible, or start your own group. Meet in person. Tell your member of Congress to represent you, not Donald Trump. Together we can win.

Gonzalo Martnez de Vedia, Jeremy Haileand Sarah Dohl are contributors to "Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda."

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter@latimesopinionandFacebook

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Excerpt from:
How to stop Trump: Lessons from the tea party - Los Angeles Times

Anglophenias gal about townMaude Garrett checked in with all the biggest stars from movies and TV as we gear up for awards season. Where did she find all these fab folks? At the 2017 BAFTA Tea Party, of course.

The kickoff party was presented byBBC America and GREAT, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.

Anglophenia ditched the usual awards season questions andwent straight to the gut, asking celebs like Ron Howard, Jane Seymour, and John Lithgow, What does real happiness mean to you?

The answers areso heartfelt and honest, it definitely gives insight into how thesemega stars think and what they appreciate. And, of course, there are some responses that are fun and funny, like that ofThe Night Of star Riz Ahmed who is over-the-moon happy when he finds REM, and This is Us star Justin Hartleywho is happiest after jumping into agood fitting pair of jeans (totes agreed).

The video is jam-packed with some of your favorite stars:

And why wouldnt they be in such good spirits? The BAFTA Tea Party is such a #happyplace. Even so, Maude took a moment for peeps on the red carpet to whinge a bit, asking them about the workthat goes into awards season.

The Crown star Claire Foy had a cute answer, with this being her first time taking part.Dirk Gentlys Max Landis, Lily Collins (Rules Dont Apply) and Keegan-Michael Key(Keanu) didnt hold back either:

Dirk Gently star Hannah Marksis happiest with her dogs. Shes on the same page as us: happiest when surrounded by animalswhich will be the casewhenPlanet Earth IIpremieres on BBC America on February 18.

We can have more than one #happyplace, right? Wed like to add one to the list

Our new #happyplaceis hearing Riz Ahmed pronounce L.A. as Los Ang-ee-leese in the above clip.

What does real happiness mean to you?

The rest is here:
EXCLUSIVE: Stars at the 2017 BAFTA Tea Party Define #RealHappiness - Anglophenia

After Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, the tea party was born. It was a mixed blessing for the Republican Party, providing much-needed enthusiasm while also instilling fear in Republicans to toe the ideological line.

The result was a GOP that won elections but became rigid, polarized and more bottom-up than top-down. The tea party eventually came to connote Republicans' move toward the political extreme, but it has clearlymade an impact.

The question is, now that a Republican is returning to the White House, will a similar movement spring up on the Democratic side? It has been asked plenty in recent weeks, including by Vice, the GuardianandSalon.

Some might say it already has, given Bernie Sanders's success in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. But new data from the Brookings Institution suggests a rising tide of progressivism has yet to registerwhere it arguably matters most: in congressional primaries. And in fact, it might have even taken a step back last year.

A quick history lesson: House and Senate primaries are where the tea party made its real impact, putting the fear of God into Republican incumbents and candidates worried about their own political futures and getting primaried. By knocking off just a few incumbents and establishment Republicans in 2010 and a few more in 2012, the tea party forced every Republican member to look over their shoulders. The vast majority of them had no worries about losing the general election in their safe districts, so foreclosing a primary challenge was really theironly political survival concern.

To this point, though, liberals just haven't rallied the troops for a similar effort. As the Brookings reports show, progressives are defeating fewer establishment candidates, and the voters who turn out for contested primaries just aren't as conducive to a tea party-esque effort to redirect the Democratic Party toward the political left.

A few charts tell the tale.

First is the simple fact that fewer progressives seem to be running. Brookings took on the Herculean task of categorizing every single 2016 primary candidate by whether they were more establishment-oriented or more conservative/tea party or progressive.

On the Democratic side, less than 30 percent of candidates fit the progressive label, while about half were establishment. It was reversed on the GOP side, with only about one-quarter being establishment and nearly 6 in 10 being either conservative or liberal.

This is a subjective study, of course, but even accounting for that subjectivity, there doesn't seem to be a cadre of progressive candidates stepping forward to pick up the torch Sanders has lit. At least not yet.

Next is the success rate. The only two House Democrats who lost congressional primaries in 2016 were both scandal-plagued ones, owing their losses to their own personal problems and not their ideologies. The progressive tea party, in other words, is still awaiting its first scalp the one that will send a message to other Democratic incumbents to worry about their own primaries.

And if you look at progressive candidates writ large both incumbents and challengers their win percentage actually dropped between 2014 (67.9 percent) and 2016 (52 percent). Again, subjective, but a big shift.

There's also the fact that Democratic primary challenges just seem to be less effective. Brookings calculated the average margin of victory in contested primaries for GOP incumbents versus Democratic ones. And Republicans won, on average, by a narrower margin (about 52 points) than Democrats (about 64 points).

Republicans were also more likely to be challenged in the first place, with just 49 percent facing uncontested primaries, versus 61 percent of Democrats. So fewer Democratic challenges and less successful ones.

Given all that, it's worth asking whether progressives even have a shot at making this happen at making their presence felt throughout the party in congressional primaries. And there's reason for skepticism on that count.

A separate new Brookings report features unprecedented data from Edison Research, the national exit pollster, which conducted exit polls on congressional primaries explicitly for Brookings. What it found is that Democratic electorates are less ideologically tilted toward the extreme and less interested in political purity.

In 2016, 78 percent of voters in competitive Republican primaries said they were more conservative than most general election voters in their districts. On the Democratic side, the number saying they were more liberal was just 67 percent. And 27 percent of Democratic primary voters actually said they were more conservative than their districts.

Similarly, while 42 percent of GOP primary voters said shares my values was the candidate quality that mattered the most, just 28 percent of Democratic primary voters said the same. Democrats were more interested in having the right experience and empathy.

These are all key markers when it comes to the success of ideologically spurred primary challenges.

All of this, of course, is in the past. And Sanders really got off the ground perhaps too late for a real progressive wave to hit Democratic primaries in the 2016 election. Maybe it'll pick up now that Donald Trump is in the White House.

But the above data comes even as the tea party is in decline, and it doesn't suggest a Democratic primary electorate that is clamoring for similar primary challenges. We'll just have to see.

Follow this link:
Can Bernie Sanders backers launch a Democratic tea party? Here's the big hurdle. - Washington Post

Posted: 7:37 p.m. Wednesday, January 18, 2017

The prime movers behind Indivisible once worked for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

When the history of grass-roots resistance to President Donald Trump is written, it might be recorded that the movement was born in Austin prefigured at the Randalls supermarket on Brodie Lane in the summer of 2009, conceived at a North Loop neighborhood bar over Thanksgiving weekend 2016, and crafted in great part by battle-tested veterans of the office of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

It was at Randalls in the first summer of the Obama administration that Doggett, the longtime Austin Democrat, was besieged by tea party protesters chanting Just Say No to the health care reform that would come to be known as Obamacare. It was a jarring scene that set the tone for what would be a dreadful August recess for Democratic members of Congress at bitterly contentious town hall meetings across the country and presaged an Obama presidency to which the tea party and Republican Party just said no.

Seven years later, in the aftermath of Trumps election, Ezra Levin, who grew up in Austin and Buda and worked for Doggett in Washington from 2008 to 2011, was back in Austin for the Thanksgiving holiday with his wife, Leah Greenberg, another Capitol Hill veteran. They got together at Drink.Well. on East 53rd Street with an old friend who was leading a new progressive group in Austin, to talk about how to channel their mutual despair and knowledge of congressional politics into effectively doing to the Trump presidency what the tea party did to the Obama presidency.

We knew how Congress works and we knew how a pretty darn small group relative to the total population came together and implemented a very thoughtful strategy with very specific concrete tactics to resist an administration and a Congress that they didnt agree with, and that was the tea party, Levin said. They left Drink.Well. with a plan to draft a manual to replicate the tea party strategy stripped, of course, of what they considered its noxious ideology and mean streak.

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Three weeks later, on the evening of Dec. 15, Levin, 31, tweeted out a link to a Google Doc: Indivisible: A practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda. Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen.

The tea party implemented a two-pronged strategy, and that was very locally focused, focused on their members of the Senate and their one member of Congress, and then they consciously chose to be defensive and almost exclusively defensive, said Levin, who now lives in Washington.

And they also understood that they werent setting the agenda, that at that time Democrats controlled the House and the Senate and the presidency, so what they could do is simply respond to it, he said. And they did that in a few concrete, not rocket science kinds of way. They showed up in person at public events, at town halls, at district offices and then called in response to whatever new thing President Obama or the Congress was trying to do.

We started out writing a practical guide for progressives who find themselves in kind of the same situation now, with a president we believe is illegitimate and is looking to destroy some key tenets of American democracy, and who controls the Senate and the House, he said.

Overwhelming response

The response from across the country was swift and overwhelming: high-profile coverage in mainstream and progressive magazines, two segments on MSNBCs Rachel Maddow Show, an op-ed in The New York Times, and a tsunami of grass-roots interest.

When we started out we didnt think that we would have 126,000 people reach out to us with their ZIP codes and their emails, we didnt think there would be 3,300 groups registering with us within a couple of weeks, and so this has all been a surprise to us, Levin said.

In its first 10 days, Indivisible Austin has attracted more than 3,000 members, according to Lisa Benjamin Goodgame, chairwoman of its Austin steering committee.

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Greenberg came up with the name.

She said Hey, what do you think of Indivisible? and immediately it felt right. We have to treat an attack on one as an attack on all, Levin said. And it also hits notes of some kind of sense of American patriotism, coming from the Pledge of Allegiance `indivisible, with liberty and justice for all that felt really appropriate on a couple of fronts.

While some local organizations use the name Indivisible, others dont.

One of my favorites is in Alaska, its called 49 Moons, because thats the length of time Trump would be in office, Levin said.

Sarah Dohl, Doggetts former communications director, signed on to oversee Indivisibles communication, social media, design and brand.

Dohl had just started working for Doggett when video of the protest scene at Randalls went viral.

I dont think any Democrats anticipated how tough that summer would be, Dohl said. Those health care protests were really game changers, and thats when everything shifted.

Historic threat

Jeremy Haile, who grew up in Dallas and worked with Levin and Dohl in Doggetts office, where he served as legislative counsel, said the tea party response was based on misapprehensions about Barack Obama. But, he said, fear of Trump is well-founded.

I think that what we see with Donald Trump is that he did not win with a majority, his popularity and approval ratings are at an all-time low for an incoming president, and, I guess most importantly, we feel that he ran a campaign based on racism and intolerance that we see as unacceptable, said Haile, who helped with Indivisible. Thats why I feel the lessons of the tea party, that progressives should apply them, because Trump must be stopped.

Donald Trump is a unique, historic threat, and this unique, historic threat calls for unique historic action, on the part of constituents who have power with their own members of Congress, Levin said. Every constituent must communicate with his or her member of Congress, he said, to erode support for Trump among Republicans and press Democrats to be as aggressive in their opposition as possible.

The tea party gave the sense and it was a true sense that no matter where you are, no matter which district you are in, that, `we are here and we are asking you to, in this case, stand against President Obama, that this was a national movement, Levin said. And you are seeing the identical thing right now; the only difference is that it is happening a lot faster and that its a lot better organized at the ground level.

Doggett, who first met Levin when he was a high school student from Buda organizing an Austin fundraiser for John Kerrys 2004 presidential campaign, said he is proud of his former staffers.

What they are doing is really important, and it does help to keep hope alive and to remind people that we have individual responsibility to make a difference, and its not just every two or four years, said Doggett, who is joining the ranks of Democratic members of Congress who will be boycotting Trumps inauguration.

But he said, in addition to replicating the tea partys success in pressuring members of Congress, he thinks the resistance to Trump depends on doing something else that he believes the tea party did all too well changing public perceptions.

Read more here:
Austin-born movement touts tea party tactics to trip up Trump - MyStatesman.com