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Hillary Clinton has given her stamp of approval on the proposed bill that would fine men $100 for masturbating. Introduced in Texas, the Man's Right to Know Act, as it's commonly known, would make it so men could only masturbate under supervision and inside approved medical facilities.

"The bill may be satirical, but the message sure resonated," Clinton told guests at a luncheon for Annie's List, though the polarizing bill may not be "satirical" for long, having made it past the first phase to becoming legislation after its reading last week in the House of Representatives.

Related |Texas Bill Fining Men for Masturbating Moves Forward

The former First Lady continued, "When you seriously try to kick millions of women and families off their health insurancewhen you believe it would be the right thing to do for your political base to defund Planned Parenthood even though the majority of America disagrees with you, that is not empowering women, that is just meanness, that is cruelty," she said to the downtown Houston audience.

Representative Jessica Farrar first introduced the Mans Right to Know Act as a response to contemporary debates surrounding women's reproductive health. The bill offered satirical commentary about how male politicians under Trump's administration feel it's their right to make decisions about women's bodies, abortion rights and use of contraceptives.

"Unregulated masturbatory emissions outside of a womans vagina, or created outside of a health or medical facility, will be charged a $100 civil penalty for each emission, and will be considered an act against an unborn child, and failing to preserve the sanctity of life," the bill reads, also forcing men to have a rectal exam before they can be prescribed Viagra or recieve a vasectomy.

"A lot of people find the bill funny," Farrar told theHouston Chronicle. "Whats not funny are the obstacles that Texas women face every day, that were placed there by legislatures making it very difficult for them to access healthcare."

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Hillary Clinton Approves of Satirical Texas Masturbation Bill - Out Magazine

Since the presidential election, private citizen Hillary Clinton has permitted herself two main types of recreation: hiking in the woods outside her Westchester County home and attending Broadway shows.

Long a devoted fan of musicals, Clinton has taken in quite a few since emerging from the painful defeat that resulted in the stranger-than-fiction reality of Donald Trump as commander in chief.

The first theatrical sighting this year was at the last performance of the Tony-winning revival of The Color Purple. The musical featured one of the most resplendent Broadway turns in ages Cynthia Erivos emotionally raw, musically transcendent portrayal of abused Celie.

But before Celie had sung a note about her brutalized life, the audience at that particular performance had already undergone a catharsis. As she made her way down the aisle with husband Bill, the former secretary of State and first female presidential nominee of a major party was greeted by fellow theatergoers with the kind of cheering normally reserved for a baseball hero circling the bases after hitting a World Series-clinching home run.

The rousing ovation, recorded on phone cameras, went viral. The moment was bolstering not just to Clinton but to her profoundly disappointed supporters, who were relieved that their candidate wasnt simply taking selfies in the woods with friendly strangers but was now finding solace and reconnection at the theater. The musical was a form of medicine.

Clinton has subsequently been spotted at In Transit, the a cappella musical set in the New York subway system; the new hot-ticket revival of Sunset Boulevard, in which Glenn Close is reprising her Tony-winning performance; and the new musical War Paint, about cosmetics rivals Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, played by two of Broadways grandest divas, Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone.

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Not shying away from more hard-hitting fare, Clinton caught the last matinee of The Humans, Stephen Karams Tony-winning drama about a white an Irish American Catholic family losing its grip on the middle class. Erik and Deirdre (played by Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell, both of whom won Tonys for their performances) have traveled from Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with their daughter at her not-yet-unpacked New York apartment. Facing an economically bleak retirement, this couple represents precisely the kind of voters Clinton had difficulty persuading to vote for her.

The thunderous pre-show receptions chants of Hill-are-ee! blown in on squalls of applause havent died down. Broadway theatergoers are happy for the opportunity to show their love and gratitude to the woman who came closest to breaking the ultimate glass ceiling. But theyre also clearly moved by the way the theater has become part of her restoration and recovery.

Lets hope the powers that be at the Tony Awards recognize an opportunity when they see one and invite Clinton to present at the ceremony that will be held at Radio City Music Hall on June 11 and broadcast as usual on CBS. Clinton has been the biggest unbilled star on Broadway this spring season, and there is no better endorsement than her heartfelt fandom.

Clinton was criticized during the campaign by New York Times columnist David Brooks for not having hobbies. Can you tell me what Hillary Clinton does for fun? he glibly asked. We know what Obama does for fun golf, basketball, etc.

Brooks likely wouldnt have written this embarrassingly sexist column had he sat across from Clinton and her family as I once did at Lincoln Centers Vivian Beaumont Theatre for a performance of Bartlett Shers magnificent revival of The King and I. I could tell Clinton was as moved as I was by Kelli OHaras haunting reprise at the end of I Whistle a Happy Tune, because when I looked over at her through tears I could see her own eyes glistening with poignant ecstasy.

Like all great lovers of theater, Clinton is delighted by virtuosity, the alchemy of preternatural talent and unrelenting hard work. You can see it in the way she gives herself over to performers her expression beaming with astonishment and awe.

As a theatergoer with a burdensome professional life, Clinton no doubt wants to be transported from her own daily cares and woes and leave the theater humming a happy tune. But she seeks her escape not in mindless entertainment but in an art form that puts the human story front and center.

The theater brings us together not to conceal struggle but to allow us to acknowledge it as a collective body. It can be both spiritual in the way it invites us to reflect on the meaning of existence and political in the way it asks us to clarify the governing values of our society.

More to the point, playwrights and composers have long recognized that what unites us is the hard fact of loss. We gather to confront what is most challenging about our human situation and to discover how we can best meet with dignity, compassion and grace our common fate. The theater has been teaching variations of this lesson since Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus had a messenger convey the final epiphany of the plays long-suffering protagonist: One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.

Few public figures have experienced as spectacular a defeat as the one Clinton experienced. It was a punishing personal loss for Clinton, whose character was mercilessly maligned. But the increasingly brutal race was also, no matter how you voted, a loss for our political process.

Clinton personalizes these disappointments and failures for us, which is why seeing her at the theater constitutes its own kind of drama. Her presence tells us that though the plot of our story might seem forbiddingly dark, life doesnt typically follow the neat pattern of tragedy. The day after catastrophe inaugurates a new act.

Clintons Broadway cameos this season have also reminded us of the theaters great gift of public solitude the way it allows us to be contemplatively alone together, the way it renews our faith by discreetly connecting us to the stranger sitting beside us. No one is alone, truly. Stephen Sondheim, a famously unsentimental writer, wrote these lyrics to be heard in the one place he knew they would ring most true.

Inviting Clinton to present at the Tonys might be seen as too partisan a gesture. But the values of the Broadway community diversity, equality, acceptance were fundamental to the campaign she conducted, and having her there would be a reaffirmation of these ideals.

Whats more, at a time when Trump is threatening to scrap the National Endowment for the Arts, a strong statement by Clinton on the importance of governmental support for artists and cultural institutions would be galvanizing. Broadway may be a commercial marketplace, but much of the work showcased there (Hamilton, Fun Home, The Humans, among countless other recent Tony winners) springs from publicly supported nonprofit theaters, where these plays and musicals will return after taking their Broadway bows.

South African Athol Fugard, whose plays revealed the toll of apartheid on his countrys soul, understood, as Aristotle did millennia earlier, the central importance of the theatre to the psychic well-being and sanity of a society. The Tony Awards would provide a perfect platform for Clinton to communicate this idea to millions of Americans.

Broadway producers know as well as anyone the importance of casting. Theres no better messenger right now to deliver this arts advocacy message than our nations most resilient theatergoer.

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

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Why Hillary Clinton's next big stage should be at the Tony Awards ... - Los Angeles Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Tina Brown, author, journalist, business owner and one of the leading voices behind the Women of the World Summit that just wrapped in New York City, said Hillary Clinton was right she was a victim of misogyny during the recent presidential election.

And she said that the misogyny was so intense, Clinton was practically turned into a Typhoid Mary on the campaign trail. Well, were already in Stupid Land, might as well look around a while.

Clinton did make some campaign errors, Brown said (ya think?). But her loss wasnt all due to those errors, she went on.

[Clinton] also was being asked to itemize some of the things that she felt from the outside had really affected things, Brown said, apparently forgetting such itemization is generally, on campaign trails, referred to as Candidate Platform.

Anyhow, moving on Brown referred to Clintons own delivery of remarks at the Women in World Summit, the ones where she said certainly, misogyny played a role in her election loss. And Browns reaction to that?

I think that she was right about the misogyny piece, Brown said, as Breitbart noted. I mean, she did talk about how, when she left the State Department, she had a 64 percent approval rating, but as soon as she began to run for office she was turning into she was turned into Typhoid Mary.

Oh come on now, Tina. Lets not insult Typhoid Mary.

The reason Clinton lost was cause and how to say this diplomatically? shes a liar. And shes not even very good at it. Shes always getting caught.

Therein lies a clue to good politicking: Dont get caught lying.

[Poor Clinton was] in a crouch position all the time during campaign interviews, Brown moaned, because she was constantly under attack for the emails, which was really, really, in the end, when you look back on it, insane.

Yes, it was insane of Clinton to think that the American people would believe her statements over those of FBIs James Comey or the revelations of document dumps by WikiLeaks. No time to go into the list right now, but this headline from National Review is an apt summary of why Clinton lost the election, and why she was insane to think the American voter would overlook her lies at the ballot box: Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie, Lie: The Quick List of Clintons Eight E-mail Lies.

Thats by Celina Durgin, from July 2016, and its a handy desk-drawer addition.

In the meantime, though: Characterizing Clintons election loss as based on some national harboring of a hatred of women is about as sensible as well, as calling out the media and U.S. voter for treating the ex-State chief like Typhoid Mary. Its just not. Whats needed here is a grip on reality; Clinton lost because the American voter weighed her on the scales of truth and found her lacking.

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Tina Brown laments Hillary Clinton treated like 'Typhoid Mary' - Washington Times

The presiding judge in Alphabets lawsuit against Uber for allegedly stealing autonomous-car trade secrets has said that Uber must disclose certain basic details of a due diligence report conducted as part of Ubers August 2016 acquisition of self-driving tech startup Otto.

The report could play an important role in Alphabets allegations that the ride-hail company is using Alphabets proprietary self-driving technology.

The Google parent company claims that Ubers self-driving head, Anthony Levandowski, stole 14,000 files from Alphabet that included designs for its lidar Light Detection and Ranging technology. Lidar is key to most self-driving systems.

Uber counters that its technology is unique and distinct from that used in Alphabets self-driving efforts, which exist under the umbrella of an Alphabet subsidiary, Waymo.

A due diligence report is conducted by a third party as part of an acquisition. It looks at finances, legal issues and other details of a company that is being acquired.

Alphabet has claimed that the due diligence report will prove that Levandowski who worked on self-driving technology for Alphabet before leaving and co-founding self-driving trucking company Otto stole the files. Theres a question of whether the report included a review of any of the allegedly stolen documents. And if Alphabet knew who compiled the report, the company could subpoena them.

Last week, Levandowski filed a motion requesting that details of the due diligence report including the identity of the party that conducted the report not be disclosed in Alphabets suit.

Levandowski is not named as a party in the lawsuit, and is retaining his own attorneys, who filed the motion on his behalf. Uber did not sign on to the motion.

Judge William Alsup ordered that the report be included in the privilege log a list of documents that a party in a lawsuit argues should not be opened up to the court because they contain privileged information that Uber must compile. The judge is not at this time requiring that the report be opened up to the court, but is ordering it to be included in that list without basic details redacted.

There will be time enough to argue soon over whether the due diligence report itself must be produced, Alsups order said. But for now that report must be put on a privilege log in the conventional way without any of the redactions requested by counsel for Levandowski.

Levandowskis attorneys argued that revealing details of the report would violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because the document details might furnish a link in a chain of possible incrimination.

At risk of repetition, the very purpose of a privilege log is to allow a fair way to test a claim of privilege, Alsups order said. That traditional privilege log requirements should be verboten merely because they might connect the dots back to a non-party in a possible criminal investigation is a sweeping proposition under which all manner of mischief could be concealed.

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The judge in the Alphabet/Uber lawsuit rejects a Fifth Amendment ... - Recode

Putin And Erdogan: Addicted To Power Forbes This dichotomy defines two highly consequential leaders of our time: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, two men who not only have pasts and motivations with a great deal in common, but whose geopolitical ... and more »

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Putin And Erdogan: Addicted To Power - Forbes