Amanda Nguyen is an activist. And a bestselling author. She’s also a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, founder of a nonprofit, and she happens to love makeup. (Oh, and one more thing: She is the first Vietnamese woman to go to space.) A quick scroll on her Instagram feed reveals snippets of her incredible career, which has spanned her groundbreaking aerospace achievements, critically-acclaimed memoir Saving Five, appearances as TIME’s Woman of the Year, and her work with Rise, a non-governmental organization she created to protect sexual assault survivors. (In 2016, the United States Congress passed the Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights after she publicly testified, which guaranteed, for the first time, statutory rights in federal code for survivors of sexual assault and rape.) Point is, she’s already a veritable force for change — but wasn’t too busy to add one more line to her already-impressive CV: Star of e.l.f. Cosmetics’ Show Your(s)e.l.f. campaign.
The editor-beloved makeup brand is known for its accessible, high-quality products, but it is a shared mission of inclusivity and joy of beauty that made this partnership a natural fit for Nguyen. “e.l.f. is all about democratizing beauty,” she tells Refinery29. “And for me what that means is seeing myself reflected in the ways people consume beauty, either through content, film, or advertisements — and I actually do use e.l.f. every day.”
In addition to the campaign film, Nguyen is preparing to literally take flight as she embarks on an upcoming space expedition with Blue Origin, making her the first Vietnamese woman to go to space.
In our latest Power Diaries, the trailblazer candidly speaks about how she stays inspired and empowered, and shares more about her new role as an e.l.f. ambassador.
I feel most powerful when…
I show up as my authentic self.
Power to me means…
The freedom to make my own choices.
What do you do when you feel powerless?
I remember that no one is powerless when we come together and no one is invisible when we demand to be seen.
What’s your power anthem?
Our voice. It’s the most powerful tool we have, so use it.
Who is your power icon?
My power icon is Sally Ride. She trailblazed so that I could fly.
What do you wear when you want to feel powerful?
I wear red lipstick.
Keep reading for the rest of our Q&A with Nguyen.
(snip-More on the page; not all about makeup. Click the article title above)
I receive Economic Policy Institute’s newsletter for general info about which I contact my congresscritters. EPI have opened a page dedicated to what the White House, the Legislature, and the courts are doing that affect working people. I figure, first of all, forewarned is forearmed, as to little things that may not be loudly reported but which affect us regular people just out here trying to live our lives. So, here’s a link and a snippet. When a person goes on the page, you can get your choice of newsletters in your email box, if you care to; or you can just look around. Thanks for checking it out-I think it will help people.
Today’s speeches were delivered from behind bulletproof glass. Meanwhile, Trump just gave violent anti-abortion zealots free rein to blockade clinics and probably much worse.
The proposed school is being defended by the governor and state attorney general.
In 2022, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared, “Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus. Father, we can do nothing apart from you. We don’t battle against flesh and blood but against principalities and darkness.”
During his 2018 inauguration, Stitt pledged that his primary mission would be to “bring people to Jesus.”
Stitt last appeared here in November 2024 when he warned that “Satan is trying to take over my state” because a pagan woman gave the invocation at Tulsa’s city council meeting.
In June 2024, Still signed a bill allowing public school students to leave campus three times a week for “religious instruction.”
Has Oklahoma already become a theocracy? Is the will of the people not important, or only the doctrines of the fundamentalist Christ the majority of these people belong to so their god will be happy is important. The voters don’t matter, the wants and needs of those who elect the lawmakers don’t matter, only pleasing their one version of a god out of 1100 other versions of god. To hell with the rights of the people, to hell with the instruction of the woke hippy Jesus, just push the hates and desires of white males cis straight males to dominate and run everything. As Roger says if they win how long will they start warring with each other for the top positions of speaking for their god? Hugs
Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, announced on Tuesday a bold slate of eight legislative measures aimed at restoring moral sanity in Oklahoma. Together, these bills set a course for pushing back against the moral decay foisted upon Oklahoma by the far-left’s march through our institutions to destroy the moral foundations upon which the United States and Christian Civilization had long rested.
“Sadly, the left’s century-long assault on morality and decency has been so successful that some have come to accept as normal a society that is drowning in hardcore pornography, prenatal homicide, and sexual performances for children. None of this is normal. Each one of these evils is a result of a policy choice to not stand for what we know is right. Opposing these evils does not mean we are extremists. It means we are sane,” Deevers said.
“Contrary to what the left would have us believe, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can and should imagine and move toward a society that celebrates virtue in the public square rather than vice. We can restore normalcy, decency, and morality; we can protect the most vulnerable, restore a high view of marriage, and shield children from explicit material that can warp their innocent minds. We simply must have the courage to stand against the most radical and degenerate elements of the far-left.”
SB456 seeks to protect the lives of all preborn children in Oklahoma by closing the self-managed abortion loophole. While clinics may be prohibited from performing abortions, pro-life laws currently being enforced allow mothers to order abortion pills online and administer them herself. Recent research from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion shows that an estimated 3,274 self-managed abortions are taking place annually in Oklahoma.
SB593 – Prohibiting Pornography in Oklahoma
The bill prohibits pornography in general, providing for criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison for production, distribution, or possession. It also provides heightened 10-to-30-year criminal penalties for organized pornography trafficking. “Pornography is both degenerate material and a highly addictive drug,” Deevers said. “It ruins marriages, ruins lives, destroys innocence, warps young people’s perception of the opposite sex, turns women into objects, turns men into objects, degrades human dignity, and corrodes the moral fabric of society. Any decent society will stand against this plague with the full weight of the law.”
SB550 – Prohibiting Drag Performances for Children
SB550 would ensure that Oklahoma kids are not subjected to adult cabaret performances including Drag Queen Story Hour. Under the provisions of the bill, the performer would be subject to a prison sentence of one-to-five years, while the organizer of the event would face up to one year behind bars.
SB228 – The Covenant Marriage Act
The Covenant Marriage Act would allow for couples in Oklahoma to opt into a covenant marriage, based on the traditional understanding of marriage as a binding legal contract with meaningful vows to one another. Covenant marriages would only be able to be dissolved in cases of abuse, adultery, or abandonment. Couples who opt into a covenant marriage would be eligible for a $2,500 tax credit.
SB829 – Prohibiting No-Fault Divorce
This bill would end no-fault divorce in Oklahoma by removing “incompatibility” as a justification for divorce, leaving abandonment, gross neglect, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, insanity for a period of five years, adultery, unknown pregnancy, and fraudulent contract as the available justifications. It also establishes that the at-fault parent must pay restitution to the victims of divorce–that is, the children–in the form of a trust fund that they get access to when they turn 18.
Deever’s appeared here in January 2024 when he first tried to make viewing porn and sexting a consenting person a felony.
In March 2024, he declared during a Oklahoma House floor speech that all federal regulations are “against God’s law.”
In September 2024, he declared that people who vote for Kamala Harris are “possessed by demons.”
As you’ve probably already guessed, Deever’s is a pastor.
A new discovery adds to the mystery of the source of fast radio bursts.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely energetic pulses of radio-frequency light which travels across the universe that last just a few seconds or even milliseconds.
Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Credit: CHIME, Andre Renard, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto.
More than 1,000 FRBs have been reported since the first was discovered in 2007. (snip-More; click the title see it all.)
The City Council of Tulsa, Oklahoma — faced with the choice of upsetting Christian Republican legislators or making non-Christian community members feel like they didn’t belong — voted 8-0 (with one abstaining) this week to eliminate the practice of starting each meeting with a prayer invocation.
Now, instead of invocations, there will be a moment of silence, so that everyone will have to sit there and feel uncomfortable instead of just those whose religion is not represented by the opening prayer.
As Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist reports, this all started last year after the invocation was delivered by Amy Hardy-McAdams, co-owner and creator of the Strawberry Moon Herbal Apothecary & Ritual Center in Broken Arrow. Hardy-McAdams, who described herself as “a Third-Degree High Priestess of the Artemisian Faerie Faith Tradition of Witchcraft” (which I’m sure is a real thing), was invited by retiring City Councilmember Crista Patrick, who also happened to be a Pagan and wished to see her faith represented at the meeting just as Christianity had been. (snip-More; the statements from the Gov and Schools Supt. are worth the click by themselves, but the entire thing is gold!)
With Trump’s second presidential administration looming before us, Americans who care deeply about equality and social justice are asking ourselves: What now? How do we move forward in this dramatically changed political and legislative climate? What actions will have a fighting chance of getting traction? What is the most effective sphere of influence for individuals?
The truth is some diversity, equity and inclusion programs, like training, haven’t worked. Research shows that while DEI trainings increase attendees’ awareness and knowledge about bias, there’s little evidence of changes in attendees’ behavior, nor increased diversity in the types of people hired, promoted, retained or more inclusive climate in the organizations where such training is implemented. Sometimes DEI training backfires, creating resentment and resistance when people feel coerced.
Ashley Dorelus (R) and Tanya James (L) demonstrate outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on Dec. 23, 2021, during jury deliberations in the trial of former police officer Kim Potter, charged with first degree manslaughter over the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, 20. (Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images)
DEI training tries to change individuals’ beliefs, hoping it will change their future behavior. But individuals’ beliefs often don’t shift behavior because human behavior is buffeted by multiple situational forces. These include the social roles individuals occupy and their accompanying behavioral etiquette, what others around them are saying or doing, and norms and rules that constrain their actions, all of which guide people’s behavior no matter what their personal beliefs.
Another situational force is the physical design of places where people live and work, which influences whether casual interactions with others of diverse backgrounds are easy or not. Such interactions, when pleasant and repeated, morph into familiarity and friendliness that are an essential building block for trust.
Like wallpaper, these situational forces are in the background, barely noticed. Yet they subtly nudge people’s thoughts and actions in small ways, accumulating over time in one of two directions. They either pull us apart based on initial differences, increasing unfamiliarity, mistrust and polarization, or they push us together, increasing familiarity, trust and inclusion.
We need to notice the wallpaper that silently pulls and pushes our own behavior. To do that, we must step out of our bubble and mix with people different from ourselves.
Even if individuals’ behavior were to be changed by DEI training, they would be quickly overwhelmed by the wallpaper when they returned to their workplace, stepped into their old roles, surrounded by unchanged norms, rules and colleagues, and in buildings with limited physical arrangements for cross-group mixing and relationship building.
Here is an alternative roadmap to social justice backed by scientific research simplified in the form of five steps.
First, we need to notice the wallpaper that silently pulls and pushes our own behavior. To do that, we must step out of our bubble and mix with people different from ourselves. Have real conversations, be curious and learn about the material conditions of others’ lives that may not be visible from the outside. Repeated interactions start a virtuous cycle of growing familiarity, understanding, trust, cross-group relationships and a sense of belonging in a shared community. These interactions reveal stories about people’s material conditions, highlighting inequality or vulnerability in a personal way, and grow solidarity and momentum for change.
Know that inequalities often hide in the “3 Rs” where we live and work: rules, resources and recognition. Do the rules in the place where you live or organization where you work exclude some people’s voices from decision-making, especially people with less power? Are there transparent and reasonable processes to change these rules? Are resources distributed to individuals based on need, merit, effort, seniority, or a combination? Are the criteria and processes for resource distribution open and transparent? Are people recognized for their contribution fairly?
If you see inequalities in the 3 Rs where you live or work, don’t be silent. Talk to others, see what they think, and explore ways to act collectively for change.
Second, actions make more of a difference if they attempt to change the material conditions of people’s lives—access to high quality education, healthcare, housing and employment—than if they are mostly symbolic—mission statements, lawn signs or imagery of diverse people on websites and marketing materials.
Third, acting collectively with other people will get more traction rather than acting alone because individuals quickly get swept away by situational forces. In acting together, the goal is not to limit ourselves to gather with people who are all the same. Rather, when we are not afraid to mix with people different from ourselves, we are able to discover and develop new allies across the spectrum instead of being caught in old identity traps that haven’t served us well.
Because the wallpaper is old and sticky, collective action is needed over and over again in different ways. It’s not one and done. That’s the fourth step.
Finally, actions get more traction if they are local. That’s the Goldilocks space. That’s our call for action in the next four years and the hope for change.
Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs for our series, ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.
I keep saying these people won’t stop ever until they get their way. They believe they are on a mission from their god to turn the entire country Christian. But not just Christian, the kind of Christian they themselves are. They want to force everyone to live according to their church doctrines. Why? I don’t understand it, but they think taking away the public’s freewill will make their god so happy he will return to give them their reward of a paradise on earth. But I thought god’s kingdom was in heaven, not on earth? But this idea that they and they alone know what god wants, that they and they alone have the right to tell others how to live, how to think, how to have sex, who to have sex with, what they can watch or listen to, even what god they can believe in, and how they are to pray to that god. As they demand. I do not get or understand what makes these people think they can rule other people, rule others lives, do all to others I have written above. Why can they not give others the same rights they demand for themselves, the right to live their lives and worship as they please? But please notice the wealthy person bankrolling so much of the effort to turn Texas in to a theocracy. Think about his actions when others try to stop him to protect democracy? He smears them to try to destroy them. This is the type of Christian warrior he is and they are. Do as I say not as I do, or the big one, it is OK to do bad things in the name of Jesus. Hugs.
AFPI has provided money, an institutional home, and political platforms to many of the people Trump has nominated to run the country; quite a few high-level Trump nominees have AFPI connections, including:
Pam Bondi, Attorney General (Chair, AFPI Center for Litigation; co-chair Center for Law and Justice)
Kash Patel, FBI (Senior Fellow, AFPI Center for American Security)
Linda McMahon, Education (Board chair; chair, Center for the American Worker)
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency (Chair, China Policy Initiative & Pathway to 2025)
John Ratcliffe, Central Intelligence Agency (C-chair Center for National Security)
Doug Collins, Veterans Affairs (head of Georgia AFPI Chapter)
Brooke Rollins, Agriculture (Co-founder, President and CEO)
Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council (Chair, Board of Academic Advisors)
Matthew Whitaker, NATO (Co-chair, Center for Law & Justice)
Casey Mulligan, Small Business Administration, chief counsel (Board of Academic Advisors)
Trump’s first public speech after winning the 2024 election was at an AFPI gala at Mar-a-Lago, where he was joined by other MAGA luminaries, including HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and “Department of Government Efficiency” leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
AFPI founder Rollins has bragged about the group’s “revolutionary” plans to seize control of the “administrative state.” The group’s agenda for the incoming administration—its “transition project”—is in some ways even more radical than the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. AFPI believes Trump should be allowed to fire and replace any federal employee at will – potentially converting the entire federal workforce into a massive and corrupt political patronage system. AFPI has reportedly prepared 300 executive orders for Trump.
As an officer at the America First Policy Institute, Bondi tried to undermine special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump by arguing that his appointment was unconstitutional. She oversaw what the Brennan Center has called “a number of troubling voting rights and election lawsuits,” leading the pro-democracy organization to conclude, “Her record on voting and elections raises questions about her ability to be the attorney general the American public deserves.”
In a case in which AFPI sought to empower local election officials to delay or block certification of elections, AFPI’s arguments were “meritless and radical,” according to the Brennan Center. In another case filed shortly before, even notorious pro-Trump Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rejected AFPI’s “emergency” request to block a Biden executive order on voter registration that had been in place for several years. Kacsmaryk wrote that AFPI’s request provided “no direct evidence” to support its claims. The Brennan Center noted that the lawsuit “served to amplify baseless conspiracy theories about noncitizen voting.”
AFPI is funded in part by Tim Dunn, who the Texas Monthly has called “the billionaire bully who wants to turn Texas into a Christian theocracy.” Dunn is notorious for funding smear campaigns against Texas Republicans who don’t fall in line with his demands. Dunn poured millions of dollars into the effort to elect Trump to a second term, and supports other right-wing causes, like the Convention of States’ efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. In a 2019 speech to Convention of States, Dunn argued that the Bible is “mainly about politics” and said that COS is triggering a Great Awakening.
Not so surprisingly, AFPI promotes Christian nationalist rhetoric; AFPI leaders have described their efforts as part of a “spiritual war.” AFPI’s political arm, which is chaired by Dunn, partnered with dominionist Lance Wallnau—who believes right-wing Christians are meant to control the government and every other sphere of influence in society–to help Trump return to power. Dunn himself reportedly told former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should be in leadership positions in the legislature.
Also in leadership at AFPI is Trump spiritual and political adviser Paula White, who has repeatedly called Trump’s opponents demonic and kicked off his pre-insurrection rally with a prayer for “holy boldness.” White chairs AFPI’s Center for American Values.
AFPI’s faith director RichardRogers, who took part in Wallnau’s “Courage Tour,” appeared on The Jim Bakker show this week, where he said there will be a “faith director” in every government agency in the new administration. He predicted that the “prayer warriors” who “rose up” on Trump’s behalf in 2024 will “have more power than Elon Musk.” He described AFPI as a “data-driven machine” that worked “hand-in-hand” with the RNC to boost turnout among low-propensity voters.
AFPI claims “biblical foundations” for each of the ten “pillars” of its right-wing policy agenda, which it calls “10 Pillars for Restoring a Nation Under God.” It asserts, “The Ten Commandments and Christian teachings have been the foundation that created the American legal system.” AFPI’s website declares, “This fight is not just about the culture of America; it’s about the kingdom of God and the Church’s divine mission to be the salt and light of our day in an era of increasing darkness.”
Richard Rogers of the AFPI says that under Trump, there will be a "faith director in every single agency" tasked with ensuring that anti-Christian policies are not enacted. https://t.co/RPLmEAlAJEpic.twitter.com/GaZv2yE9iP
This post asks a great question. Why when Canada is a poorer nation relative to the US can their people have so many government services like universal healthcare and why is their happiness level so much higher than experience by people in the US? The answer is Canada values its people, the public. The US values its greedy million and billionaires. Sucks to be us in the US. We need a total revolution to overthrow the oligarchy. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 