Over the weekend Pope Leo released his first major treatise - an Encyclical about AI and the future of humanity. The title says a lot : “ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.” It’s a fascinating choice of topic which speaks to how urgent and transformative this technology is already and will continue to be. Unfortunately the Pope missed entirely something critical and urgent - the disproportionate negative impact of AI on women and girls.

In the Pope’s remarkable work, he covers a lot of ground - from doctrines about humanity and truth, to the importance of democratic safeguards and the dangers of AI in war. He also speaks about the importance of equal rights for men and women. He writes:

It’s a meaningful and lovely sentiment from the head of a Church that has not always seen women as equal. And yet, the Pope never calls out the link between the dignity of women he believes to be essential and the ways the AI revolution is directly undermining that dignity. It’s a glaring and puzzling omission.

In fact there are no mentions at all of the growing and very specific problem of AI violating, silencing and sidelining women - both in the public and private domain. He makes no mention of how this new category of destructive and dangerous digital violence against women and girls is exploding around the world. It’s a huge miss given the urgency of an issue affecting the majority of world’s population. It’s also unfortunate given how wildly popular he is and the modernity his papacy promises to Catholics around the world.

It’s well known that AI algorithms can amplify biases that exist in data and society - that bias shows up all the time in large and small ways. The AI note takers for instance have been found to diminish the contributions of women as it summarizes meetings. I recently found that Claude ignored my qualifications compared to a male colleague when I asked it to summarize a deck we created together.

But more than these biases which in themselves are concerning and can undermine the Pope’s goals for equality, proliferation of AI tools and content that target women in the public square and/ or create deepfake pornographic images of women, and even minor girls may be one of the most dangerous issues of our time, threatening the role of women in society at every level.

In a major report last fall, UN Women reports a stunning and dangerous explosion of virtual violence against women. 70% of women activists, journalists and human rights defenders report having been targeted and a quarter say the attacks were AI assisted.

But what may be worse are the AI tools widely available that enable disrobing, creating pornographic images that use the faces of real people to create graphic images without consent. MIT reported apps that swap the faces of real women into porn videos with the just click of a button. These images have been weaponized to blackmail women, traumatize young girls and silence women in the public square. The UN report explains:

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According to research 90-95% of all AI-generated non-consensual images are of women and girls and efforts to curb or address this problem have been few and far between. In the US the Take It Down Act for instance, requires that platforms remove non-consensual images if asked, but does not ban the technology from operating in the first place.

I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of years thinking about how women are using AI and how AI may be using them. On the one hand AI is a vital tool with great potential to solve some of our most important challenges - from democratizing access to complex information to detecting cancer. It’s vital to the future that women leverage and shape these powerful tools to expand their impact and influence.

And yet, it’s also clear that AI may be one of the greatest threats to women’s progress we have seen in a generation. It may already be undermining women’s political power and influence, our role in society and our basic rights and dignity.

In 2024 as dozens of major elections were held around the world, the negative impact of AI was already significant. Reports showed that AI was used to create fake news (the real kind), fake journalism and manufactured images and stories about dozens of candidates around the world, especially women.

In the US original research by All In Together found that VP Kamala Haris was relentlessly targeted with highly gendered, sexualized and racist AI content throughout the duration of her campaign. AI was weaponized against her and other female public figures - Italian PM Meloni, Mexican President Sheinbaum and EU President Ursula von der Leyen were all targeted with sexualized deepfakes in just the last year - undermining their reputation and political power.

In the private domain we are seeing young girls targeted with AI deepfake porn in devastating ways. Boys at a Pennsylvania prep school were recently sentenced for creating deepfake pornagraphic images of 60 minor female classmates. The victims, some as young as 12, told the court they were deeply traumatized with lasting effects on their lives. It’s not an isolated incident. The stories are everywhere - and yet few laws are being passed or proposed to address the crisis.

All of this speaks to a why it’s such a miss that the Pope did not call out the profound disparity already obvious in the worst AI harms. Had he done so, it’s might have called desperately needed attention to the urgency of common sense regulation to protect women, and especially girls from this new and proliferating digital violence.

At we are committed to highlighting and amplifying both the positive and negative impact of AI on women and girls. We are hosting forums with women experts on AI in partnership with companies like Microsoft, HP, and others and working to support candidates and elected officials with the resources they need to address this threat. We hope you’ll join us in calling attention to these challenges. And as we do, perhaps influential world leaders like Pope Leo, with the sincere desire to support a positive technological future, will step up to the challenge.

As the majority of world’s population we deserve at least that.

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Two big stories this week have my attention. First the Supreme Court abortion pill ruling - or non-ruling to be more precise. SCOTUS kicked the case back to the lower courts, letting abortion pill access stand while lawsuits move forward. And while this is a relief short term, there is certainly no chance opponents of abortion access will leave it alone.

One detail in the ruling should not be overlooked - that’s the references by everyone’s favorite Justices Alito and Thomas to the Comstock Act of …wait for it…1873. Comstock is what some call a “zombie” law - a long dormant statute now being weaponized by the right to block abortion access. Comstock prohibits mailing of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" materials, as well as any "article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing" intended for producing an abortion. Not great - also 150 years old and completely ignored and irrelevant over the last 50 years under Roe.

Democrats in the house and senate have introduced bills to repeal it since 2024 but that won’t happen unless they win the majority in the fall.

Anyhoo, conservatives are using Comstock now to argue that mailing abortion pills is illegal.

In his dissent, Justice Thomas, ever the friend to women had this to say:

“Applicants are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes,” Thomas wrote.

Here’s the problem. In Dobbs the court did not make abortion a crime! Instead they explicitly leave abortion decisions to the states. Remember Alitos’ poetic waxing about the voice of the people? But now they are also saying that if States like NY decide to keep abortion legal and allow NY doctors to prescribe mifepristone to someone out of sate, that’s criminal? Hypocrisy? Go figure.

The fact is that women across the country rely on abortion pill access and even draconian bans in dozens of states won’t stop that.

Per usual Hillary Clinton nailed it:

So, this is far from over and if you hear folks in the political pundit classes say abortion issues don’t matter in the midterms you can tell them that I dissent!

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In other news Epstein victims appeared in Palm Beach before a group of democratic lawmakers to talk about the endless list of ways the government has failed them. For more on that please subscribe.

Finally over on IG I rant about the 100% absence of women at the negotiating table in China. This is not just about representation - it’s a huge risk to global peace and security.

Vast bodies of research have shown that women are vital to negotiation and diplomacy.

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I don’t know about you but when I think about two superpowers meeting during an explosive time for world peace, I certainly would prefer to have diverse perspectives and level heads a the table. That’s why women are vital. Decades of research from the UN, CFR and academic institutions like Georgetown University have shown that women are critical to diplomacy and especially to peace and security.

The all male tables were a perfect visual illustrating how much autocracy depends on silencing women. The all powerful 24 person Chinese Politburo has lacked women since 2022. There have been vows by Xi to change this but four years later here we are. And Trump could clearly care less. He will certainly point to the 2 women invited as part of the broader delegation - Meta’s Dina Powell and Citi’s Jane Frazier (2 women of 17) but we of course know better. Trump now has among the lowest numbers of women in leadership in his government of anyone in the last 20+ years. It’s both symbolic and totally representative of what he values.

As Gita Gopinath, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, described it, “a painting of the end of meritocracy.”

Indeed.

Now back to another continuing atrocity of the patriarchy. It makes my blood truly boil that Epstein victims are still killing themselves to get people to take seriously the vast criminal enterprise, protected by the United States government. One stunner from the testimony - girls were being abused by Epstein WHILE he was under house arrest after his conviction in Florida. It just continues to illustrate the outrage that his sweetheart bs deal happened at all. All of this will undoubtedly go down as one of the great shames of American history. I encourage you to watch the testimony given by the women this week and the statement by Maria Farmer who brought the FBI extensive evidence of Epstein’s crimes back in 1996 - which they ignored. That she and others are still fighting for any accountability is just crushing.

I know POTUS would very much like us all to move on but no chance. I’ll be shouting about this as long as it takes. I hope you will too.

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So now to the topic at hand - maternal health. These days not the happiest of topics but POTUS yesterday gathered folks in the Oval to ostensibly discuss it and per usual it went off the rails. It’s a shame because there are real problems to solve. The US has the highest rate of maternal mortality - women dying in childbirth - in the western world. Check out the stats:

But instead of addressing the causes which we know are the closure of hospitals, abortion bans and the millions of women who can’t get access to leave or care even with high risk pregnancy, Dr Oz stole the show by shaming women that we are “under babied.” Yup he really said that. As I point out on my IG feed this is a dog whistle to the right wing eco system that wants women at home having children and not much else - and the right is upset because fertility has dropped. They feel it’s our patriotic duty ! to have more kids. Never mind that we have no paid leave, no affordable childcare and millions of women have been kicked off of healthcare and food support. It turns out the reason that the US fertility rate dropped is because of a precipitous drop in teen pregnancy. As the mother of a 16 year old, I can assure you that no teen should be parenting. It’s a GOOD thing. But never mind - Dr Oz thinks this is the crisis of our time.

It would be funny if it’s weren’t so very serious. Pregnant women are dying - preventable deaths - and we’re having to address nonsense from the Oval Office. Maybe it’s time for some new folks to be in charge here. Just a thought.

In the weeks and months ahead I’ll be taking on the very many issues that are getting overlooked - bringing the data and the receipts. I’ll hope you’ll subscribe and spread the word. More soon.

Contrary to what some political pundits and progressives have declared, Zohran Mamdani’s surprise victory in the NYC democratic primary is not a model to be copied nationally by Democrats. That would be not just a bad political move, but a catastrophic one. Why? Because Democrats cannot hope to regain the House, Senate or Presidency without American Jews.

As has been well publicized but constantly downplayed by supporters, Mamdani has not only parroted the most egregious claims against Israel and anyone who supports the Jewish state, he has proactively threatened to use his office to persecute Jews. He has committed to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York and while in the State Assembly he sponsored a bill that would strip Jewish organizations of their non-profit status should they fund such offensive Zionist programs as the Jewish ambulance corps. Rightly accused of anti-Semitism after he doubled down on calls for intifada – he cried crocodile tears when held to account by the press. Despite the real chance he could be Mayor of a city with the largest Jewish population on earth, he has yet to temper his positions or offer a hand in friendship. Is this really what Democrats should emulate across America?

Supporters have endlessly hyped Mamdani’s warm demeanor and fresh campaign while downplaying his positions on Israel as legitimate political disagreement. And of course, many young progressive Jews agree with his positions – the generational divide on this issue is significant. But the majority of Jews know better. Are there any other Americans facing constant threats to life and liberty that progressives would find acceptable to discount? The Democratic Socialists of America – a primary backer of Mamdani - strongly supports the trans community, minority communities and immigrants. Only the concerns of worried Jews are of no matter. At a time when Jews have been murdered on the streets of ou nation’s Capital and firebombed in their homes, it’s profoundly incongruous that any Democrats, especially perhaps civil rights leaders who have stood up for every other marginalized group, have been willing to support him.

Of course, promises of cheaper housing, groceries and free busses are appealing but they are certainly not novel ideas. Those issues, along with reproductive freedom, affordable childcare and family leave have been proposed by or endorsed by literally every Democratic candidate in my lifetime because they are popular ideas. What isn’t? Socialism (which has lost ground in public opinion) and antisemitism (despite divides most Americans support Israel).

The larger point is that one victory does not make for a political sea change, especially when a high energy fresh face is running against a scandal ridden lackluster opponent. In fact, there is no reason to believe this win has national parallels. For the last decade Democratic socialists and hard-liner anti-Israel activists have won followers on TikTok and college campuses but little else – just ask Bernie Sanders. His brand of socialism is basically the same as Mamdani’s and the longer he tried to sell it nationally in two runs at the Presidency, the worse he performed. Other elected officials who have alienated Jews also have not fared well. Incumbent Representatives Jamal Bowman and Cori Bush both lost their seats largely because of outrageous statements after the Hamas attacks on Israel last Oct 7th. Their campaigns sure looked a lot like Mamdani’s.

While a tiny minority of the overall electorate, American Jews are a core part of the committed Democratic coalition with outsized electoral power. They are not a monolith but have very loyal democrats. And no, it’s not just the money they contribute, -- fundraising without them at a national level is simply impossible -- it’s also their turnout. In many critical swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan, they are a large enough share of the electorate to help bring those states for Democrats.

Of all people Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer knows this. It’s hard to see how his warm tweets celebrating Mamdani’s victory do him or the party any favors heading into a critical midterm election. Historically party leaders including Sen. Schumer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries have mostly shunned the anti-Israel faction on the Far Left, – especially lightening rod Congresswomen Rashida Talib and Illan Omar. Now many Jews worry that has now changed. As one prominent Jewish Democratic donor texted me, “If Democrats are cool with Mamdani, I guess I am politically homeless now. Is this how the Never Trumpers feel?”

The whole debate could not come at a worse time for Democrats. The most strategically important recent wins with national relevance were by middle of the road, pro-Israel Democrats, including Tom Suozzi, Pat Ryan and Laura Gillen in New York and Senate Democrats in Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin last November. Those same dynamics are at play in critical gubernatorial elections and the 2026 midterms. The road to a Democratic majority requires retaining and winning back moderate and purple districts like Mike Lawler’s battleground (heavily Jewish) NY-17 and those that flipped Red to Blue in 2024. Smartly. Reps. Gillen and Suozzi put out strong statements condemning Mamdani. Perhaps more leaders should consider the same.

Every political campaign provides lessons to be learned but to conclude from this anomaly that Americans are yearning for more anti-Israel Democratic Socialists is to be willfully blind to the plain hard facts. And in 2026 and beyond, it will take more than magical thinking to flip the House and Senate. It will take realism, activism and a big tent where everyone, including Jews, are welcome.

I’ve long thought that one of the biggest missed opportunities in the 2024 election was addressing the cost of college. The biggest dividing line in politics today is the college educated and non-college educated. Recent polls by my friend Steve Kornaki at Msnbc show just how vast the gulf is - today really the only people who consistently support Democrats are college educated women.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna196791

Here’s the bigger problem though - College in the US has become completely insanely out of control. Ridiculous. Watching my friends kids get rejected based on completely arbitrary measures with no explanation, the rollback of affirmative action and what it means for diverse students. It’s a complete and total myth of meritocracy that has been bought and continues to be sold and pedaled as the American dream. It’s in total bullshit because we all know that the kids who have the tutors and the wealth and the access will get in and can afford to go. At a time when the top schools have like a 5% acceptance rate, why don’t they just make it a lottery because it’s that arbitrary. Oh and by the way, the elite schools are now $75-$100,000 a year WTF! Even State schools are unaffordable.

So we’ve been telling Americans for years that the path to the American dream requires college and then we have literally put up every possible wall to access to that dream. So no wonder that so many Americans, especially those at the lower income levels regard American colleges and the kids who attend them with contempt.

Then on top of everything else you add the raging antisemitism masquerading as intellectual purity and it’s no wonder that so many on the right absolutely loath supposedly elite institutions. No one has exploited this division more effectively than Trump who famously said he “loves the poorly educated.” 🙄

Anyway, I’m not expecting a whole lot of pity from a broad swath of Americans when Harvard is facing budget cuts from the federal government while sitting on top of a mountain sized endowment.

And then there’s my alma mater Columbia /Barnard. What, and I mean this, the actual fuck.

Apparently, the president de jour (number 3 in a year!) Claire Shipman (yes the author of the Confidence Gap) was busy texting the past president about how ridiculous it was that Congress was holding them to account when the worst of campus protest were terrorizing Jewish students and preventing kids who were paying also $70,000 a year from attending class. Will Shipman or a head of lettuce last longer? My money is on the lettuce.

Right about now you might be questioning my Democratic bona fides. Most on the left are freaking out about the attacks on universities by the administration and I can understand why.

But the fact is, when it comes to what’s happening on college campuses, there are some strange bed fellows. There’s not a lot that I agree with Elise Stefanak about but on this one she’s been dead right. The raging antisemitism and the tacit it acceptance of kids embracing terrorist Ideology has just pushed me over the edge.

Obviously, some of what is happening is straight out of an autocratic playbook - silence, intellectuals, silence universities, and you silence, a big part of the opposition. Ironically, in the past, it’s been Jewish intellectuals in Europe and around the world that were targeted. So I’m certainly conscious of the dangers to our freedoms posed by Trumps attacks on institutions of higher learning.

But my point is for those of us on the left looking for sympathy as the Trump administration targets the university community good luck.

Higher Ed has been burning goodwill for years and now when they need it, I’m not sure they’re gonna find it.

Anyway, to land the plane here - Democratic candidates for 2026 take note. If we don’t deal with the cost of and accessibility of college, we’re going to continue shutting out a huge swath of America who see college as out of reach and out of touch - and Democrats in that same category. There are long-term implications for this which I could write many more Substacks about (to wit a whole lotta single ladies who can’t find educated not Trumpy partners) but I think you get the point.

Happy Tuesday.

Look, it’s been a week - Signalgate ! I’ve never minded less that I was bumped from Morning Joe - I sat in the wings RIVETED (with Tina Brown next to me - ah TV) as Lemire read real time the texts. Even the crew was transfixed - and they have literally heard it all. It was just gobsmackingly stunning.

Lots of people way smarter than me have things to say about how wild and crazy this whole thing is, the danger to our troops etc but for those of us around the media, the idea that anyone could successfully take down Jeffrey Goldberg was well, preposterous. I know him - as does just about everyone in politics world. And the thing about JG is that a) he does not give two shits about what people think of him - least of all Republicans b) he is as dogged a shark reporter as anyone ever and c) see reason a & b for while MAGA was bound to fail trying to take him down. The more they tried the dumber they seemed.

Apropos of which - leave it to HRC to NAIL IT. Her afternoon op-ed in the NY Times was one damn fine read.

HRC Nails IT

I mean she had me at hello:

“It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it’s the stupidity. We’re all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb.”

She went on to absolutely eviscerate the epic idiocy of American foreign and domestic policy, explain what’s at stake and capture everything enraging and DUMB about the early months of Trump 2.0. It’s hard to overstate how satisfying it is read. Hillary was is and will always be RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.

But what always just amazes me - having had the privilege to be in rooms with her dozens of times, is that for all the shit she’s lived, for the insane crap she has endured, she just always moves forward and continues to serve. I mean the woman has a spine of absolute steel. And by dropping this rhetorical masterclass at just the right moments she lit a lamp of hope - for me at least.

Anyway, if you need a good enraging and utterly spectacular 1000 words - enjoy. I know I did.

Thanks to you my early subscribers. I’m into this - lmk what you want to hear/ learn see and I’ll be happy to oblige.

Hugs,

LL

Maybe unsurprisingly that’s why I trust in government has been plummeting ever since. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/

So now here we find ourselves with a president and an administration who care so little about government that they’re willing to cut any and everything they can get their hands on and don’t think even the basic rules of how government operates - literally to protect people’s lives - matters at all.

So I’ve been wondering… Could Signalgate and the cuts to Social Security and education and everything else finally help Americans understand (the hard way) why government and people who protect and preserve it matter?

I’ll be watching.

My whole adult life has been working for the ladies and the ladies of color - just trying to make stuff better wherever I could. I ran for and served in local office - do a bunch of TV, write op-eds and run a non-profit called All In Together. I have spent years teaching people how not to be overwhelmed by the problems of the world - then I got slightly swallowed by them myself.

So here I am in substack world with so many of my friends rediscovering the words. So I think what I’ll do is try to be real about what it’s like to be a pathological optimist in a hugely complicated time. I’ll talk about my life and my amazing friends in the movement. And I guess I’ll figure it out.

I turn 50 this year - and i’ve decided it’s my year of YES. So YES substack. Happy to be with you.