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dylan-stableford-blog · 6 years

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Parkland students: 'We will not be silenced' on guns

yahoo

Survivors of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., emerged from meetings with state lawmakers in Tallahassee on Wednesday vowing to continue their movement until U.S. lawmakers enact stricter gun laws.

Alfonso Calderon, a junior at Stoneman Douglas, warned critics who have dismissed the “Never Again” campaign as a knee-jerk reaction by traumatized kids.

“A lot of people think that that disqualifies us from even having an opinion on this sort of matter,” Calderon said. “It’s that because we’ve been through a traumatic experience that we don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re speaking irrationally. I want everybody to remember, that is not the case. We, more than anybody else, understand the violence, when it comes to certain guns. We, more than anybody else, understand what it feels like to lose somebody. We, more than anybody else, know what it’s like to have a beautiful community like Parkland and have it taken away from us.”

“Trust me, I understand,” Calderon continued. “I was in a closet locked for four hours with people who I would consider almost family, crying and weeping on me, begging for their lives. I understand what it’s like to text my parents, ’Goodbye. I might never, ever ever get to see you again. And I love you.’”

The 16-year-old was one of more than 100 students who met with lawmakers at the state’s Capitol building, after a day after the Florida House refused to consider a motion to take up legislation to impose a ban assault weapons.

“Although we’re just kids, we know,” Calderon added. “We’re old enough to understand financial responsibilities. We are old enough to understand why a senator cares about reeelection or not. We are old enough to understand why someone might want to discredit us for their own political purposes. But we will not be silenced.”

Students are evacuated by police out of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018. (Mike Stocker, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

The students have drawn criticism from some conservatives who have accused them of being too young to understand the nuances of the gun control debate or suggesting that they may have been coached — even going as far as to label the well-spoken survivors of the massacre “crisis actors.”

“Should the media be promoting opinions by teenagers who are in an emotional state and facing extreme peer pressure in some cases?” former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly tweeted.

“Their sorrow can very easily be hijacked by left-wing groups who have an agenda,” Jack Kingston said on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday. “Do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?”

“What, pray tell, did these students do to earn their claim to expertise?” Ben Shapiro wrote in the National Review. “They were present during a mass shooting, and they have the right point of view, according to the Left.”

Lorenzo Prado, also a junior at Stoneman Douglas, said he was inside the soundbooth in the school’s auditorium when the bullets began to fly.

Prado said he was initially mistaken as a suspect because he was nervously pacing back and forth, and his clothes matched the description of the alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. He said he was detained at gunpoint by members of the SWAT team.

“I thought they were here to rescue me,” Prado recalled. “They thought it was me that killed the 17 people.”

Prado said he is angry not only at the killer, but at U.S. laws that allowed “a deranged gunman” to legally purchase the weapons he used to kill.

“The law has failed us,” Prado said. “What we must do now is enact change, because that is what we do to things that fail, we change them. To not change the law in our time of need would be a huge disservice the 17 dead in Parkland, the 13 dead in Columbine, the 26 dead in Sandy Hook, the 50 dead in Orlando, the 59 dead in Las Vegas.”

Students attend a vigil in Tampa to honor victims of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Monday. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Sarah Chadwick, another junior at Stoneman Douglas, said she thinks of the school as her home.

“On Feb. 14, 2018, an intruder broke into my home and robbed 17 innocent souls of a chance to impact the world,” Chadwick said.

The surviving students, she said, are trying to enact change in their honor.

“Never again should a child be afraid to go to school,” Chadwick said. “Never again should students have to protest for their lives.

Delaney Tarr, a Stoneman Douglas senior and co-organizer of next month’s March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., admitted that it’s “scary” to think that students have emerged as the country’s leading voices on the issue of gun control.

“To see us listed as these heroes, as these bastions of change, it’s scary, because we are teenagers,” Tarr said. “We are children.”

But Tarr said their naivete is also an asset for the student-led movement.

“Speaking from the heart is what we do best,” Tarr said. “It is based in passion. And t is based in pain. Our biggest flaws, our tendency to be a bit too aggressive, our tendency to lash out — things that you expect from a normal teenager — these are our strengths.”

Read more from Yahoo News:

After Parkland, a new generation uses its voice against guns

Parkland students call out Trump, Rubio, and the NRA

NRA rep to face survivors of Parkland, Fla., school shooting

Teens hold ‘lie-in’ outside White House in support of Parkland victims

The ‘crisis actors’ lie spreads in wake of Florida shooting

#cnn #_author:Dylan Stableford #florida #survivors #_revsp:Yahoo! News #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #shooting #students #_uuid:6f93ea2f-1e69-38e4-98f6-fc8b04a400d3 #parkland #media #nra

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society-watch-blog · 6 years

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【Yahoo論壇／陳少甫】用民主掩蓋的民進黨「法西斯」內涵

圖片來源：中央社

民進黨向來喜歡標榜和宣揚台灣的「民主」與「自由」，尤其民進黨人，特別狂熱於將民主與自由掛在嘴邊，彷彿從嘴巴說出來，台灣的民主與自由才不至於轉眼間消失無蹤。然而，民進黨人真的那麼熱愛民主，如此嚮往自由嗎？

對民進黨而言，民主自由或許曾是少數老黨員的理想，但理想敵不過現實，正如低頭耕耘的鋤頭，敵不過利益收割的鐮刀。民主與自由作為普世價值，早在二十年前，早已被民進黨視為選舉的策略與工具，而不再是一種價值信仰。懷抱理想的黨員陸續退黨或失聯，剩下的幾乎全是汲汲營營於利益分贓的幫夥。

而民進黨將民主自由視為策略與工具的目的，不在於思量如何對這些普世價值加以落實、堅持或捍衛，而在於針對台灣歷史記憶的篡改，使民主自由作為台灣民主化的成果，盡數轉化為僅限於民進黨獨攬的功勳，進而突顯國民黨的獨裁與專制。對於曾經在台灣施行威權統治的國民黨，既無能也無力反擊辯駁。

這是另類事實的運用，以真假摻半的方式，讓政治宣傳更具說服力。然而，若不是國民黨的顢頇懦弱，民進黨也不至於洗腦得如此成功。思想掌控從來便是民進黨極為重視的權力基礎，要想實現思想控制，當然必須從教科書著手。

歷史的詮釋權在李登輝執政時期，已藉由教育改革的名義，實踐了使台灣去中國化的脈絡，賦予台獨理論正當化的基礎。自此而後，國民黨從未成功奪回話語權，馬英九執政時期試圖對教科書內容做出些微調整，果然遭到民進黨的頑強抗拒。這是台獨教育實踐的果實，當時的孩子，已成為民進黨潛在的棋子。

民進黨對教育和思想控制的迷戀，除體現在民進黨長年於校園發展政治組織，更顯而易見的是對中研院和台大的執著。中研院和台大作為台灣最具指標性的學術機構，早已失去獨立自主和兼容並蓄的精神，資源分配端視立場異同，而政治正確大行其道。因此中研院院長一職，爭奪的再醜陋，仍必須掌控在自己人手裡；因此台大校長一職，即便遴選合法選出管中閔，管中閔仍無法就職。

因而，諸如校園自主、大學自主、學術自由等，作為全球普世價值的基本內涵，對民進黨而言，仍只是政治的另一種策略與工具。當國民黨在威權時期得以介入及掌控校園時，這些普世價值便被端了出來，用以驅逐國民黨的影響力。當民進黨進而掌控校園後，便主張學校不是化外之地，政府有權控制。

對民進黨而言，早年呼籲國民黨的「黨政軍退出校園及媒體」，雖用普世價值加以包裝，但當國民黨順從退出後，民進黨的政治力量立即長驅直入校園和媒體。普世價值既是工具，許多校園和媒體如今直接或間接地，受到民進黨的控制和影響，當然不足為奇。民主與自由，從來就不是預備落實的普世價值。

校園如此，媒體自然無法例外。在普世價值中，言論自由和新聞自由作為民主最重要的基石，民進黨既視價值為工具，言論及新聞自由當然理應受到限制和控制。從陳水扁到蔡英文，對言論自由的箝制益發大膽而具體，從早期動員群眾包圍電視台，到全面執政後藉由立法院多數，落實可控制言論的立法，也只是時間問題。具體嘗試為針對不利於民進黨的「假新聞」，對人民行拘留關押。

對民進黨而言，自陳水扁意外實現首次政黨輪替後，實現永久執政始終是目標。簡言之，換掉國民黨的威權，使民進黨取而代之，本是民進黨的策略。然而，陳水扁的貪腐和外交上的莽撞躁進，在台灣內部造成民進黨的形象大傷，對外更激怒美國的小布希政府，美國轉而支持親美的馬英九則是關鍵的變數。

然而，馬英九帶領國民黨重返執政，違背民進黨原先期望在台灣實現永久執政的目標，奪權自是當務之急。蔡英文領導的民進黨為實現奪權，不只需要新的政治能量來推翻國民黨，更急於修補與美國的關係。民進黨在野時對美國的許諾為何，外界無從知曉；但以現在來看，蔡英文是無條件的順從美國的意志。

普世價值既是工具，民主與自由作為掩飾民進黨法西斯內涵的外衣，難免顯得單薄，因而，尋找新的普世價值轉換為政治能量，以新的工具維持自身的道德高度，方能符合民進黨奪權的需求。自蔡英文任民進黨主席後，在野的民進黨於是標榜「進步」的價值，重新包裝如廢死、同性婚姻、環保等左派思想。

自此，進步的價值，再次轉化為民進黨全新的工具和策略，而國民黨的帽子則越戴越高，威權、獨裁、專制的舊符號尚未去除，隨之又戴上保守、反動、反改革的新標籤。民進黨從此更加豐富其普世價值的工具箱，重新獲得龐大的政治能量，吸引大批具有高度理想性的年輕人，共同投入推翻國民黨的行列。

進步的普世價值，和民主和自由一般，既然僅是民進黨奪權的工具，因此當綠營的支持者批評民進黨背棄理想，反而突顯其天真和愚昧。理想自始就不曾真正存在，背叛當然便無從談起。民進黨為實踐台獨，踐踏及凌駕民主、自由、人權、法治的手段，不過是使工具為其政治理念而服務，至於綠營支持者因仇恨而生的縱容，存在諷刺的雙重標準，只突顯普世價值作為工具，本身並不存在真正價值。民進黨支持者的心態，不過是投射所屬政黨掩藏的法西斯內涵。

曾經標榜的普世價值，面對權力與金錢，早已喪失殆盡。台灣人再也看不到民進黨曾經存在的理想，只能藉由持續仇恨國民黨，宣洩民進黨價值上的空洞。因而，憎恨國民黨始終是民進黨在台灣賴以生存的原動力，必須存在威權的國民黨，使之和專制獨裁連結，綠營支持者才不必面對民進黨理想盡失的現實。

長年來，國民黨向來是民進黨汲取政治能量的來源。這種政治能量汲取的形態，本質上迴異於正常的兩黨政治，也和世界各國的在野黨，必然從執政黨的失敗政策中獲利不同。對民進黨而言，國民黨的存在有其階段性的必要，國民黨唯有存在於台灣政壇，民進黨方能在選舉架構裡有效動員綠營支持者，藉由仇恨情緒的煽動獲取選票。反之，民進黨若下定決心朝戒嚴和獨裁的方向走，試圖建立新的威權政府，徹底消滅國民黨，則會轉而變成優先的施政目標。

至於轉型正義，不過是另一種便於使用的價值工具。轉型是否正義，從來就不是重點，實現民進黨單方面的轉型與正義，本身就是推動轉型正義的目的。

從民進黨的角度看，民主是手段，自由是手段，進步是手段，大學自主是手段，教育是手段，黨政軍退出校園和媒體是手段，言論自由是手段，轉型正義是手段，改革是手段。進一步說，奪權是目的，永久執政是目的，掠奪人民私有財產是目的，建立取代國民黨的新威權政府，更是其實踐台獨的終極目的。

我們如今還能在媒體上發表批評政府的言論，完全建立在民進黨的猶豫不決，始終還不敢邁出獨裁的最後一步，尤其蔡英文仍在觀望美國的態度。民進黨想拿台灣利益和美國交換的，絕非僅是短期或有條件的支持，而是希望換取美國支持民進黨建立新威權政府，或徒具形式民主的不自由政府，共同對抗大陸。

如今，蔡英文和民進黨已將台灣完全徹底的籌碼化，對美國投懷送抱，自願成為美國馬前卒的政治表態，明目張膽至路人皆知。目前的情勢，台灣不應再擔憂自身是否可能變成籌碼或棋子，因為美國已經一邊掌握住民進黨當局主動獻身，親手奉送的台灣前途，一邊琢磨如何利用台灣牌來與北京政府展開博弈。

沒有棋子會擔憂，自己是否可能成為別人的棋子。無論如何，台海戰事若起，台灣人不用奢望民進黨會躲進衡山指揮所與台灣共存亡。民進黨高層絕對會按歷次演習所模擬的那般，以最快的速度逃離台灣，並在美國成立流亡政府。

從台灣的利益考量，國民黨固然死不足惜，但台灣的老百姓必須審慎思考，為了台灣的民主自由，為了台灣的安全福祉，倘若民進黨成為新的獨裁政府和威權政體，是否仍願意無條件的支持民進黨走完這最後的一哩路？台灣的年輕人必須仔細思考，是否已做好因應台海戰爭而從軍的準備，是否具備為實現台獨理念而戰死的意志，是否願意嚴肅地走上戰場，來捍衛民進黨和美國的利益？

這才是蔡英文口中，台灣最後的一哩路。這才是台灣真正必須完成的答卷。

★更多Yahoo論壇文章華郵引述觀察家：台灣有「受虐婦女症候群」「無」部長滿月失憶的蔡總統蔡、馬總統過招「九彎十八拐」當政府立法搶奪民財一切都是原生家庭的錯？解脫自己的藉口

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【Yahoo論壇】係Yahoo奇摩提供給網友、專家的意見交流平台，本文章內容僅反映作者個人意見，不代表Yahoo奇摩立場。有話想說？不吐不快！>>> 快投稿Yahoo論壇

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kbaldwin0609 · 6 years

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'The Bachelor' season premiere recap: Arie begins his race to the altar

Arie Luyendyk Jr. is racin’ to find a wife. (Photo: ABC)

Warning: This recap of the season premiere of The Bachelor contains spoilers.

Do elderly former reality stars deserve love, too? It’s a question that I fear will never be answered to our true satisfaction, rose lovers, but darn it if this season of The Bachelor isn’t going to try. Having resurrected former The Bachelorette runner up Arie Luyendyk Jr. from his death of real estate and mid-level racing obscurity, producers hope to break new ground with the first-ever grey-haired Bachelor… just not the one you were expecting.

Now that he’s had five years to heal his wounded heart, Arie is ready for “the most important race of his life”: finding a wife in nine short, heavily-produced weeks.

Man, is this previously-on recap still going on?

Photo: ABC

We get it, guys — Emily crushed Arie’s heart. But we’ve got 29 new “ladies” who want to get in his drivers’ seat, so how about we get this show on the road?

Photo: ABC

Sigh. Fine, let Sean and Catherine Lowe, the First Couple of Bachelor Nation, impart some “wisdom” to their single friend — and give their little boy Samuel something to talk about when he meets up with friends Ty (season 13), Ricki (Bachelorette, season 8), and Camila (season 18) in their weekly Bachelor Spawn-Anon meetings.

Photo: ABC

Hang in there, little buddy.

With the build-up over, Chris Harrison greets us at Casa Bachelor to introduce “some truly extraordinary women” who are ready to get wifed up. Robot roll call:

Chelsea, 29: Props to this single mom from Maine for not trotting out her little one, Sammy, for her intro package. The “real estate exec. assistant” also finds it “comforting” that her Bachelor is Arie, because he proved during Emily’s season that he’s not afraid to fake settle down with a woman and her child.

Caroline, 26: Another real estate professional! Though she’s “really good” at her job, Caroline says being a wife and mother is “at the top of my priority list.” Well, as that Rasta dude says at the end of Pretty Woman, “Some dreams come true, some don’t — but keep on dreamin’.”

Maquel, 23: This professional photographer from Utah is admittedly “jealous” of the happy couples she photographs… but not in a scary, Lifetime movie way, okay?

Nysha, 30: “The more blood, the better for me!” No, that’s not Nysha’s plan for eliminating her competition in the house — she’s a nurse, silly! One who likes patching up seriously-injured patients — and one who already took a Bachelor-approved Leap Of Faith™ by sky-diving for her 30th birthday.

Tia, 26: Living in the tiny town of Weiner, Arkansas means Tia and her friends have to “make our own fun” — like exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.

Tia’s got her gun.

Oh, look who it is!

Photo: ABC

If you thought Tia seemed a little familiar, what with her long-layered dark locks and her Southern twang, that might be because she’s modeled after/a “good friend” of Bachelor Nation favorite (and fellow small-town Arkansas girl) Raven Gates. (And if you’re playing Bachelor bingo, be sure to stamp “Bachelor in Paradise shoe-in” on your scorecard.)

Kendall, 26: What does “weird” look like on The Bachelor? It’s tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and surrounded by stuffed animals.

Photo: ABC

Yep, Kendall collects taxidermy, and her longest relationships tend to be with preserved animal carcasses, not human beings. Team Bachelor pushed things a little too far with the ukulele bit, though — now Kendall’s not only quirky, she’s annoying.

Bekah M.: Much has been made of Bekah, both for her short haircut — how did she even get in the door??? — and for the fact that she’s so young. Though producers are playing coy with her age, you don’t need a birth certificate to see that this girl is just that — a girl. Honestly, she looks like she could be a stand-in for one of the kids on Stranger Things.

Photo: ABC

Marikh, 27: This stunningly beautiful woman co-owns an Indian restaurant with her mother and, even more impressively, she did not punch the producer who asked her to say this on camera:

Photo: ABC

Krystal, 29: Oh man, why do bad shows happen to good people? Krystal is a fitness coach who volunteers distributing food to the homeless men and women of San Diego, because her younger brother is currently living on the streets. “I try to treat people how I would want someone to treat him,” she says through tears.

Enough humanity! Send in the chattle — bathed, perfumed and bronzed for Arie’s enjoyment!

Photo: ABC

And the first “lady” out is… Caroline the realtor! She makes a cutesy joke about taking Arie “off the market,” and then beats a hasty retreat inside. Up next is Chelsea the single mom, followed by Kendall the token weirdo. Our first new face is Seinne, who works in real estate (Arie clearly has a type) and who’s also the first woman to bring Arie a gift: Elephant cufflinks. “An elephant never forgets, so don’t forget to find me inside,” Seinne says with a smile. Survey says? Just the right amount of cute.

Tia (who shall heretofore be known as Raven 2) hands Arie a small, plastic hot dog. “Please tell me you don’t already have a little wiener,” she drawls, as all the 7th grade boys who apparently produce this show crack up in the control room. Poor Arie, though, doesn’t quite seem to get the joke. “I do not have this,” he replies, holding up the trinket. “You did good.”

Next up is Bibiana, a fertility-minded executive assistant from Florida (“Oh my god, our babies would have blue eyes!”), followed by Bri, a sports reporter who greets Arie by tossing him a literal softball. Jenny the 25-year-old blonde gets the intro brush-off in favor of Brittane J., who decides to mark her territory by slapping a bumper sticker on Arie’s behind.

Photo: ABC

Jacqueline the research coordinator assures Arie all he has to do is “stand there and look pretty,” but Krystal disagrees: She commands Arie to close his eyes, take some deep breaths, and “reflect on feeling so grateful for everything leading to this moment.” (I suspect that somewhere, Peter Kraus is taking some much-needed deep breaths too.)

Nysha bucks convention by opting for a cocktail length dress rather than a gown, while Valerie the brunette waitress opts for a canary-yellow number that contrasts sharply with the purple undertones of her hair. Team Bachelor intercuts all the less showy arrivals with shots of the “ladies” in the house shifting nervously in their seats every time a new woman enters the mansion. Except for Chelsea, that is: “I’m not worried,” she sniffs. “There’s [sic] no threats.”

Bekah makes the first thematically-mandated auto entrance of the evening, driving up in a cherry red Mustang convertible. “I may be young,” she tells Arie, “but I can still appreciate something classic.” Translation:

Photo: ABC

And he LOVES it. “She is so beautiful,” he whispers as Bekah bounces inside.

Jenna, the 28-year-old social media manager, can’t stop waving her arms around during her introduction to Arie; Jessica the TV host emerges from the limo clutching something called a “gratitude rock,” which sounds like a hotel gift shop trinket — but points for effort, I guess? Marikh the restaurant owner goes back to the spice well, joking about Arie’s “salt and pepper” hair, and then we get a brief glimpse of Olivia, a 23-year-old marketing associate from Chicago.

Becca K. (not to be confused with Bekah with a k) instructs Arie to get down on one knee and ask her if she’s “ready to do the damn thing.”

Photo: ABC

Is it me, or does long-suffering Arie seem a little annoyed? “That was a first for me,” he mutters drily to the camera, fishing Becca’s ring from his coat pocket like he can’t get it away from him fast enough. And still the limos keep coming.

Photo: ABC

A second social media manager? Perhaps that’s the new “VIP Cocktail Waitress.” Next up is Lauren J. from Louisiana, who one-ups Raven 2 and her plastic wiener by giving Arie some giant balls (in the form of Mardi Gras beads). But the Laurens aren’t done with us yet, folks.

Photo: ABC

And remarkably, they’re not all blonde.

Photo: ABC

The “Lauren Limo” tops out at four, and so it’s on to Ashley and her checkered flag; Brittany T., who attempts to say “You’re handsome” in Dutch (a language Arie speaks fluently); and Amber, who makes a memorable first impression by telling the Bachelor about one drawback of owning a spray-tan company:

Photo: ABC

But honestly, rose lovers, Amber’s ice-breaker is Emily Post-level conduct compared to Ali the personal stylist dreams up:

Photo: ABC

It’s a “pit stop”! Get it? Because he’s a racecar driver? Yeah, let’s just move on.

Photo: ABC

Okay, Annaliese, your joke about Arie’s “kissing bandit” nickname is cute, but talk to me when you’ve kept that mask on for days, like Jeff from Ashley’s season of The Bachelorette.

The deafening roar of an engine precedes our next arrival. “No she didn’t!” gasps one of the women watching from inside the mansion, as Maquel climbs out of an IndyCar. Honestly, did they really think Bekah was going to be the only contestant who showed up on wheels? The other bachelorettes are so annoyed by Maquel’s flashy entrance, they park themselves right in the shot as she introduces herself to Arie.

Photo: ABC

Simmer down, “ladies” — your probably-not future husband is making his way inside right this very minute. Chelsea tries to offer him a drink, but Arie’s too focused on making his welcome speech sound as earnest as possible.

Awkward.

An off-camera producer mouths something like “take the damn drink, you moron” at Arie, and he pauses to accept the glass from Chelsea. “See, I’m already messing up!” moans our Bachelor with a chuckle.

Seeing that Chelsea already had the pimp spot, is it any wonder that she’s the first one to “steal” Arie for a chat? “I’m not a rude person,” she says. “But I want to get to know him quickly so I can proceed with the rest of my life, possibly with him.” As we saw from her introduction, Chelsea’s whole shtick is being “mysterious” — which mainly means talking about herself in the past perfect tense, like “there have been some sacrifices that were made.” And he LOVES it. “Chelsea’s very good at leaving me wanting a little bit more,” he says. “It’s working.”

Unfortunately for Chelsea, she barely has time to drape Arie in her shimmering veil of mystery before Maquel shows up and politely asks to cut in. Though Maquel could not have been nicer about it, Chelsea immediately begins swanning around the house complaining about “the girl that makes all the noise,” who interrupted her time with Arie. This, coupled with all the other snotty things we’ve seen Chelsea say so far tonight, makes it pretty clear that she’s getting the Villain Edit. And by “Villain Edit,” I mean that cameras have captured Chelsea being bitchy several times, and producers have opted to use that footage.

Perhaps producers were focusing so much on Chelsea’s rude behavior because so many of the other women are actually being… nice to each other? Here they are sharing their feelings on interracial relationships:

Photo: ABC

And here they are bonding over the fact that, OMG, they’re on the freakin’ Bachelor!

Photo: ABC

Meanwhile, the get-to-know-you chats are proceeding apace. Brittany T. challenges Arie to a battery-operated car race…

Photo: ABC

…and even though her victory is totally fraudulent, she still claims her prize: The night’s first kiss. Cue the “nervous ladies start steppin’ up their game” montage! Kendall serenades Arie with an original ukulele composition about roses and fish; Caroline brings Arie some pizza (which looks like it was sitting out on the craft services table for a while, but again, points for effort); and Lauren G. shoves some fruit in Arie’s mouth and informs him that “pineapple” is her safe word.

Photo: ABC

Jenna the social media manager gives Arie a socks-off foot massage while blathering on about her “super-in-tune” senses and all the free food and “spa stuff” she gets on a regular basis. For some reason, Arie finds this whole flibbertigibbet act “intriguing” — it might have something to do with Jenna being a tall skinny blonde, but that’s just a guess.

Oh snap, look who’s here.

Photo: ABC

The first impression rose means that the clock (biological and otherwise) is ticking. Form an orderly line, “ladies” — and then watch as Chelsea cuts to the front. “I understand that I’m in a sea of beautiful women and they could possibly get mad at me,” she explains, “but I don’t care.” Arie doesn’t seem to mind, either.

Photo: ABC

“You snuck up on me there, but I liked it,” he murmurs after their face-mash time. Will Chelsea’s surprise smooch top Jenny’s graphite portrait of Arie in a sports car? Or Jessica’s reveal that her late father met Arie and rooted for him on the race track? Or Bekah’s flirtatious, short-haired joie de vivre?

Yes. Yes, it will.

Photo: ABC

Clink clink clink! Here comes Chris Harrison and his Butter Knife of Bad News. “Ladies,” please proceed to the rose ceremony… as soon as you’re done with your coffee.

Photo: ABC

Indeed, the sun is beginning its arc across the sky over Casa Bachelor when Arie finally begins handing out roses. Becca K., Marikh, Kendall, Lauren G., Krystal, Bekah M., Lauren S., Seinne, Caroline, Brittany T., Bibiana, Annaliese, Jenna, Valerie, Jacqueline, Jenny, Lauren B., Ashley, Tia, Maquel, and Chelsea are still in the running to become America’s Next Top Fiancée. Which means this is goodbye for Ali, Amber, Bri, Brittnae J., Jessica, Lauren J., Nysha and Olivia.

Emotionally drained and exhausted from the all-nighter, poor Jessica takes the rejection the hardest — but her tears are more for her father than the Bachelor. “Now my dad will never meet my husband,” she says sadly. (Remember kids: It’s never a bad time to call your parents to say “I love you.”) Amber the spray-tan proprietor is pretty crushed, too. “I’m so disappointed in myself,” she says in a wobbly voice. “I had, like, my family rooting so hard for me. I feel like they’re going to be disappointed, you know?” Focus on the positive, honey: They didn’t disown you for going on The Bachelor, so they’ll probably forgive you, someday, for getting kicked off.

Wow, have we made it to the “this season on The Bachelor” preview already? Man, those two hours just flew by. As usual, the super-tease has a stellar crying montage.

Suitable for framing. (Photos: ABC)

Oh, and how about that disembodied voice barking “I don’t want to be on the show! I want my girl!” at a producer toward the end of the preview? Any guesses on which “lady” that riled-up beau belongs to? (I’m going with Raven 2 or Krystal.)

Congrats on getting through week 1, rose lovers! Now tell me, did Arie meet your (lowered) expectations? Post your thoughts now! And be sure to check out Chris Harrison’s behind-the-scenes blog here.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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michaelwalshblog-blog · 6 years

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'I've seen the Promised Land': How a brush with death shaped Martin Luther King's message

Martin Luther King Jr. recovers from surgery in bed at New York’s Harlem Hospital following an operation to remove steel letter opener from his chest after being stabbed by a mentally disturbed woman, Sept. 21, 1958. (Photo: John Lent/AP)

Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolent resistance to oppression and war, was shot to death in Memphis. He was 39 years old. He left behind a wife and three children and a nation still riven by the divisions he had devoted his life to healing. Yahoo News takes a look back at his life and his legacy in this special report. Jonathan Darman assesses King as a man not without flaws, but with a passion for justice and a conviction that grace can still be found here among us sinners on earth. Senior Editor Jerry Adler looks back on the fateful last year of King’s life, beginning with his electrifying, and controversial, Riverside Church address against the war in Vietnam. National Correspondent Holly Bailey goes back to Selma, Ala., whose poverty moved King to increasingly turn his focus to economic justice, and finds not much has changed in the years since. Reporter Michael Walsh looks at how King almost died in an attack a decade earlier, and how the knowledge of his mortality shaped his ministry and message.

A half-century ago, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination by James Earl Ray, a virulent racist with a criminal past, robbed the civil rights movement of its brightest luminary. But another attempt on King’s life, had it been successful, would have stolen even more.

In September 1958, Izola Ware Curry, a deranged African-American woman from Georgia, stabbed King with a letter opener while he was signing copies of his book “Stride Toward Freedom” at Blumstein’s department store in Harlem. King later said that the tip struck his aorta, and that his entire chest had to be opened to extract it. If he had sneezed, doctors told him, his aorta could have ruptured, drowning him in his own blood. Fortunately, King did not sneeze.

If he had died then, America would have missed his presence for the eventful decade that followed, including the Freedom Rides, the “I Have a Dream” speech, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Selma marches.

Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson, who was selected by Coretta Scott King to edit and publish her late husband’s papers, said King was well aware that his career would open him to threats against his life.

“He was always aware of his mortality, and that just brought it home,” Carson told Yahoo News.

“His home had been bombed before that. He’d been threatened on numerous occasions. He had that experience in Montgomery where he actually considered leaving the movement because of all the threats, not just against himself, but his family.”

Martin Luther King Jr. urges calm from the porch of his home, which was damaged by a bomb during a boycott of the Montgomery, Ala.., bus system to protect segregation in 1956. With him, left to right, are: Fire Chief R.L. Lampley; Mayor W.A. Gayle (in uniform) and City Police Commissioner Clyde Sellers. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

King had said, before that occasion, that God gave him the courage to continue at a time when he considered stepping down as leader of the movement. In January 1957, he told his congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., that a voice spoke to him on a sleepless morning one year earlier — compelling him to preach the Gospel and stand for truth and righteousness.

“Since that morning I can stand up without fear. So, I’m not afraid of anybody this morning,” King said. “Tell Montgomery they can keep shooting and I’m going to stand up to them. Tell Montgomery they can keep bombing and I’m going to stand up to them.”

So why did a black woman from the American South, a person for whom King put his life on the line, want him dead?

Curry, who grew up outside Adrian, Ga., harbored paranoid delusions about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She reportedly wrote unhinged letters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming it was a Communist front that was actively trailing her. She blamed the NAACP — rather than her deteriorating mental state and unsettling behavior — for sabotaging her attempts to find steady employment. Her paranoia shifted to King as he rose to prominence during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956.

“First of all, she was crazy. She spent the rest of her life in a mental institution,” Carson explained. “But to the extent that there was any rationale, she heard black nationalist harangues against King, that he was a Communist. All the combinations of things that might appeal to someone who was mentally unbalanced to begin with.”

A grand jury indicted Curry for attempted murder, but a psychiatrist determined that she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had an extremely low I.Q. She was committed to a mental hospital for the criminally insane and spent the rest of her life in psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes.

Nowadays, the Curry incident is mostly remembered for its retelling in King’s final speech: “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” delivered in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968 — a day before his murder. He explained how a “demented black woman,” not referring to Curry by name, attacked him, and he described the outpouring of supportive letters he received in the hospital. He didn’t remember what President Eisenhower or New York Gov. Averill Harriman had written, he said, but he would never forgot the letter from a ninth-grade student at White Plains High School in Westchester County, N.Y.

Izola Ware Curry is arrested for stabbing Martin Luther King Jr. with a letter opener at a department store in Harlem while he was there for a book signing, on Sept. 20, 1958. (Photo: Pat Candido/NY Daily News via Getty Images)

“While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering,” she wrote. “And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

“And I want to say tonight,” King went on, “I want to say tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn’t sneeze.” This little girl’s letter provided the “if I had sneezed” refrain that King used to revisit the many accomplishments of the movement, before predicting that he may soon die but that “the Promised Land” was in sight.

“I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”

In the decade between Curry’s assassination attempt and that speech, King persevered through cross burnings, bomb scares and a shotgun blast into his home. One day after that speech, King was shot dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Fifty years later, his message is still relevant, but his mission isn’t complete.

According to Carson, King mentioned his mortality on numerous occasions, but this reference is remembered because it was included in a great speech, which starts off with King revisiting the meaning of his life, a more common theme in his late speeches. Carson said the importance of King not reaching the Promised Land has less to do with the possibility of an early death than that he might never see his dreams fulfilled — whether or not he reached old age.

“Even if he lived he wouldn’t get there, because his goals were much broader than just civil rights reform. I think it’s very significant that in a 1952 letter to Coretta he pledges that his ministry will be about a warless world, a better distribution of wealth and a brotherhood that transcends race or color,” Carson said. “When you think about those three goals, those haven’t been achieved. He certainly hadn’t ended war or poverty or brought about the kind of broad community that he had talked about all his life.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with his mother, Alberta Williams King, and his wife, Coretta Scott King, visiting King in Harlem Hospital as he recovers from a stabbing. (Photo: Al Pucci/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

On March 3, 1968, a month before his death, King delivered the lesser-known “Unfulfilled Dreams” speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. He mused about why he had fallen short of reaching some of his aspirations and compared himself to the Biblical King David, who never got to see the Temple he started to construct. King described life as a “continual story of shattered dreams” but praised God for giving humans meaningful objectives into which they can pour their hearts.

“And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome. You are left discouraged. You are left bewildered,” King said. “Well, that is the story of life. And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying, ‘It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It’s well that you are trying.’ You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it’s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. It’s well that it’s in thine heart.”

And as King focused on being a virtuous man, powerful people were plotting to destroy him. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover harbored a deep hatred for King and thought he was influenced by Communists. In late 1964, the FBI anonymously sent a package to King that included a tape that allegedly contained audio from one of his trysts and a letter threatening to defame King by publicizing his infidelities if he didn’t do “the only thing left for you to do.” King understood this as encouraging him to commit suicide.

Jonathan Rieder, a professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University, is the author of “Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation” and “The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr.” He said King had to come to terms with the possibility of his own death early on and helped others in the movement do the same thing. King conceived of this “sacrificial burden” as part of the price of making the U.S. a truly democratic nation.

“This was a sacrificial endeavor that he was engaged in, and he would often therefore identify with Jesus,” Rieder told Yahoo News. “His decision to go to jail in Birmingham in 1963 was, in a sense, an awareness that like his savior some would have to die and go to jail so that others could live. It’s a central theme of the Christian part of the civil rights movement.”

Living so closely with death, Rieder continued, King developed a wide repertoire of talks on the subject — ranging from hilarious and jokey to morbid and despondent. When King decided to lead demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., where Bull Connor harshly enforced segregation, King met with a small group of his colleagues to warn them that they may be killed, according to Rieder.

“And then he would joke about it. He would say, ‘Now y’all think the Klan is going to get me? You will jump in front of the camera and they will get you,” Rieder said. “But I will preach the best funeral you ever had.’ Then he would go around and pick on some little foible or problem with each of his colleagues and do a hilarious funeral about them.”

Andrew Young, a close friend of King’s and the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, once told Rieder that this mixture of solemnity and lightheartedness was King’s way of teaching them to accept the possibility of their death.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day King was assassinated on his motel balcony. (Photo: Charles Kelly/AP)

America would have been the worse for it, but King would have had a much easier life had he not dedicated his life to the civil rights movement. After assuming the mantle of the fight for racial integration, King was vilified by white racists, ridiculed by black nationalists, monitored by the FBI, arrested, threatened, attacked and ultimately murdered — all without, from his perspective, having his dreams come to fruition.

But in “Unfulfilled Dreams,” King concluded that God judges individuals on the “total bent of our lives” rather than “separate mistakes” because he knows his children are weak. Therefore, he said, it’s imperative to get your heart right and keep building your metaphorical temple — regardless of whether it will be finished.

“Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a destination.”

yahoo

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garancefranke-ruta · 6 years

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Resistance activists look past Trump’s State of the Union speech to November

Andra Day, and Common perform their Grammy and Oscar-nominated song “Stand Up for Something” from the movie Marshall. At “The People’s State Of The Union” at The Town Hall theater in New York City, NY, on Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto)

“Social justice cocktails! Ice-cold water! You can’t have revolution without cold water!”

Mike, a refreshments vendor at the Town Hall theater in midtown Manhattan who declined to give a last name, tailored his pitch to the crowd Monday evening as he hawked water at $5 a bottle.

It was 24 hours before President Trump’s first State of the Union speech in Washington, and a mixture of well-heeled New Yorkers, boldface names, service and domestic workers, college students and activists had come out on a cold night for an event billed as the People’s State of the Union. Trump’s impending speech was the nominal occasion, but the event — which drew 500,000 views on a Facebook live stream that evening — was also a way for resistance movement activists to recharge for the coming struggle.

A broad array of social justice groups, backed by celebrity star power, had come together for three hours of speeches and music, hoping to buck up their spirits after a rough and tiring year — and looking ahead to the challenge of organizing to capture a majority in the House of Representatives and hundreds or even 1,000 additional state legislative seats this year.

Actor John Leguizamo speaks during the “People’s State of the Union” event at The Town Hall, in New York City, Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Darren Ornitz/Reuters)

“In 2018, with so many races fast approaching, it is vital that we work to elect progressive, diverse candidates for Congress and state legislatures across this country. But it is not just about voting — not anymore. Given the current state of the Union, fighting for our democracy is going to require all of us, everyday people, to step up and take action,” said actress Cynthia Nixon, who spoke from the New York stage in a lineup that also featured John Leguizamo, Mark Ruffalo, Lee Daniels, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Kathy Najimy and Michael Moore, with musical appearances by Rufus Wainwright, Andra Day and Common.

“In 2018 each one of us has to do everything we can to reclaim our democracy from foreign and domestic threats that aim to imperil it. It is on us. There is no cavalry coming. We are the cavalry,” she continued, to applause.

More than anything new Trump said, or was likely to say, the State of the Union was for the resistance activist groups an opportunity to rally the troops, boost morale and point to the future. In Washington, Planned Parenthood and an array of women’s groups counterprogrammed against the president’s speech Tuesday night with a program of music and speeches at the National Press Club under the rubric “The State of Our Union.” It was the first time the organization hosted an event during a State of the Union, talking to supporters over the background distractions of the speech as it unfurled on social media. And there too the byword was 2018.

Mark Ruffalo speaks at “The People’s State Of The Union” at The Town Hall theater in New York City, NY, on Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto)

“We are laser-focused on winning a pro-women’s health majority in Congress. Laser-focused. I dream about it at night. I wake up thinking about it in the morning. I think about nothing else,” Deirdre Schifeling, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Yahoo News. “And at state level. It’s long overdue, and 2018 is our chance to do it.”

From the very beginnings of the resistance movement, it has sought to unite many different streams into a common cause of fighting back against Trump and Republican control of Congress. But the events this week around the State of the Union, a cacophony of online resistance movement speeches and live streams, showcased the progress that has been made in forging a unified front.

Across a year of marches and protests and grassroots get-out-the-vote efforts, the leaders of different groups have gotten to know each other. There have been Slack channels and conference calls and after-action working groups, endless call-your-congressman drives and letter-writing campaigns and difficult conversations about whose voices should lead. Celebrities who once made star turns at activist events and did a little fundraising have become activists inside their own industries, backed by the support of the new women’s movement and using their stardom to spotlight it. Minority rights groups that existed before Trump was elected — groups fighting police violence against African-Americans, the deportation of undocumented Latin American immigrants brought to America as children, and for LGBTQ rights — have been become a key part of the larger movement that has sprung up since the election, merging with the growing river of women’s activist groups and newly formed efforts to defend refugees and religious minorities.

“I think the most powerful thing that’s come from all the attacks that many of our communities are under is the strong unity that I feel … in my bones today,” said Christina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, the immigrant youth network, from the stage in New York. “I know that the state of our union — this union — all of these social justice movements coming together — is stronger than ever. And that’s what scares them.”

“Are you ready to hit the polls?” she cried, to cheers.

Christina Jimenez (C), co-founder of United We Dream, raises her fist alongside other so-called Dreamers at the “People’s State of the Union” event one day ahead of President Trump’s State of The Union Speech to Congress, in New York City, Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Darren Ornitz/Reuters)

“There is no more important day this year” than Nov. 6, said filmmaker Moore in New York. “Not your birthday. Not your wedding anniversary. Not flag day. … My friends, as much as I tried to warn the country that Trump was going to win by winning those four states, I am here tonight to tell you that I believe that we can accomplish this by a tsunami of voters overwhelming the polling places on November 6 so that no poll will be able to close at its stated time.”

He offered four things to do in 2018 so that there is “a widespread massive removal of Republicans from the House and the Senate the likes of which this country has never seen.” The starting point: “Over the next 10 months, I want you to identify 20 people who did not vote in the 2016 election and get them all to vote on Election Day, November 6.” Also on the list: running for office, demanding that Democratic candidates weigh in on the impeachment of Trump and not worrying about Mike Pence.

“The purpose of the 2018 election is we are electing the jury for the trial of Donald J. Trump,” said Moore.

Getting an additional 2 million nonvoters to vote would also help, he said. Registering an additional 1 million voters from traditionally disenfranchised groups in critical states is the big 2018 goal for the Women’s March. “Our undocumented brothers and sisters cannot vote, so we must vote for them,” said Paula Mendoza, a leader of the March organization.

Michael Moore speaks during the “People’s State of the Union” event one day ahead of President Trump’s State of The Union Speech to Congress, in New York City, Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Darren Ornitz/Reuters)

In New York, there was little mincing of words and none of the soft, polished phrases favored by D.C. advocacy groups. No one was worried about being mocked by conservatives for a too-bald focus on diversity or shamed on Twitter as unserious for raising, as Leguizamo did, the specter of Nazi Germany.

Leaders of indigenous rights, labor, immigrant rights, social justice and environmental groups were all there “to start to lay out the path for a greater victory in 2018. Because we’re winning back Congress,” Ruffalo proclaimed.

The evening was raw, angry and historically aware of its place in the decades’ — or centuries’ — long struggle for civil rights that sometimes involves elected politicians and sometimes doesn’t, but always, always involves figures from American culture. Singer Andra Day, who performed alone and with rapper Common at the People’s State of the Union, just as she had the night before at the Grammy Awards, urged the audience to have the resilience “to continue the fight, to finish the fight. Because it’s worth it even if you don’t see the results in this lifetime.”

The women’s event in Washington was a bit more upbeat and cheerful, perhaps because Planned Parenthood has succeeded over the past year in fending off congressional efforts to defund the organization or repeal the Affordable Care Act wholesale, while at the same time seeing an enormous outpouring of grassroots support and donations.

The anger and despair of the immediate postelection period has given way to a new excitement as the resistance movement has proved not just durable but bigger and stronger than many observers expected. “We are in an amazing movement moment, more than I have ever seen,” Ben Halle, press secretary for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told Yahoo News about the new “united front” on the left. The “Our State of the Union” event came together in a week and a half.

FILE – In this Tuesday, July 26, 2016 file photo, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards waves after speaking during the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood who recently announced plans to retire, spoke as Trump’s remarks wound down. “It’s not that women haven’t been speaking. For centuries women have been speaking out, right? But now we have found a new frequency, and folks are finally listening,” she said, echoing the words of Tarana Burke, who a decade ago founded the anti-sexual violence group Me Too whose name has since become a hashtag.

“While so many women have been empowered to speak up in this last year, this is not just about us finding our voices. We have been raising our voices. I’m talking about issues that plague us in our communities for decades. The real difference is our renewed commitment to working collectively across industries and across issues, like we are seeing tonight,” said Burke at the event. “We have no choice but to lean into our collective power” and move out of issue silos, she said.

Amid the fatigue of ceaseless activism, the uniting of once separate movements into something larger is something for the activists to hang on to. “It’s inspiring to see so many organizations and activists from a broad cross-section of movements coming together to review the state of the resistance,” the Women’s March said in a statement after Trump’s speech. “It’s time that we channel the energy and activism into tangible strategies and concrete wins in 2018.”

“The one silver lining in Trump is that we have created the mother of all movements,” Ruffalo had said, opening the People’s State of the Union in Manhattan. “We have come together. It’s a transformational, international movement of decency. Our eyes wide open. We are wide awake. And we are looking around at each other for the first time in probably decades.”

A guest in the audience wears an “Impeach” jacket, at “The People’s State Of The Union” at The Town Hall theater in New York City, NY, on Jan. 29, 2018. (Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto)

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#_author:Garance Franke-Ruta #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #sotu #_revsp:yahoo_news_photo_staff_536 #resistance #_uuid:3de20f7e-b111-394a-95bb-86c6ad8784c0

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liz-goodwin · 6 years

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Democrat Doug Jones beats Roy Moore to claim deep-red Alabama Senate seat

yahoo

In a stunning upset, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate special election Tuesday.

With 89 percent of the votes counted, the Associated Press declared Jones the winner.

Jones, a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members for an infamous 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, will be the first Democrat to represent Alabama in the Senate in 20 years. He fills the seat left vacant by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and is not up for re-election until 2020.

The upset will doubtless send a loud message of warning to the White House, where President Trump threw his full support behind Moore, who was a controversial figure even before multiple allegations emerged that he had pursued sexual relationships with teenagers as an adult. It’s also a shot in the arm for Democrats, who are hoping that anger at Trump and congressional Republicans will fuel a “wave” election in 2018, flipping the U.S. House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, blue.

Moore, a former judge who was removed from office twice before running for the Senate, was hit by multiple allegations from women who said he sexually pursued them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers. One woman said Moore touched her sexually when she was 14; another said he sexually assaulted her when she was just 16 years old and he was an assistant district attorney.

Moore vehemently denied the allegations, but several high-profile Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said they believed the women, who made the accusations on the record. Trump, however, never abandoned Moore, even cutting a robocall for him in Alabama that called Jones a “puppet of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.” Trump won the state last year by 28 points, and his failure to push Moore over the finish line could spell trouble for the unpopular president’s political strategy going forward.

Doug Jones, right, greets supporters and voters outside the Bethel Baptist Church, Dec. 12, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala. (Photo: John Bazemore/AP)

Moore’s troubled candidacy unexpectedly turned deep-red Alabama into a battleground, with Moore leading his Democratic opponent by just 2 percentage points in an average of polls. In the end,

Jones’s victory also endangers Republicans’ tax reform legislation in Congress, which passed by a narrow majority in the Senate earlier this month. Both the Senate and the House will have to pass another combined version of the tax bill to send it to the president’s desk. With one fewer Republican in the chamber, McConnell can lose only one vote and still push through the bill, which has not attracted any Democratic support. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has already voted against the legislation once, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has made several demands regarding health care that must be met before she’ll support it again. McConnell could rush the vote before Jones is seated in January, however.

Though Moore’s defeat reduces McConnell’s razor-thin majority in the Senate, it also means Senate Republicans will not be associated with someone accused of abusing children. They’ll also avoid what would have been a contentious ethics investigation and potential expulsion vote for Moore.

Jones ran a vigorous campaign up to the end, targeting the state’s black population last weekend. He brought in Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., to stump for him. Jones also ran ads featuring prominent Republicans, including Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., disavowing Moore, in a bid to peel off conservatives.

Meanwhile, Moore lay low, holding no campaign events until a rally Monday with former White House strategist Steve Bannon.

“If you don’t believe in my character, don’t vote for me,” Moore said then.

Read more from Yahoo News:

A state in bondage to its past confronts a difficult choice for Senate

Allegations against Roy Moore overshadow his final campaign rally

The women who have accused Roy Moore

#MeAt14: Women tweet photos of when they were age Roy Moore’s accuser was

Alabama Senate race gets even stranger as Democrat quotes Ivanka in ad

#_author:Liz Goodwin #_revsp:Yahoo! News #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #_uuid:7115cd1c-11ec-3e12-9a45-36ed77b8441b

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kevinpolowy · 7 years

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Director Taika Waititi added a gratuitous shirtless Chris Hemsworth scene to 'Thor: Ragnarok' to put 'bums on seats'

yahoo

Thor: Ragnarok is the third standalone adventure featuring Marvel’s Asgardian God of Thunder — and also the third Thor movie (after 2011’s Thor and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World) to feature a gratuitous shot of star Chris Hemsworth sans shirt for an extended scene.

But that’s not how Hemsworth planned it. “This time around, there wasn’t one in the script, and I was like, ‘Thank God,’” the actor told Yahoo Entertainment (watch above) at the film’s Los Angeles press day. “And then [director] Taika Waititi came up to me and was said, ‘Ah, I feel like we got to put it in there. Come on, let’s be gratuitous and see some skin. ’”

Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) corroborated Hemworth’s account: “I was like, ‘Chris you gotta take your shirt off,’” the filmmaker explained. “I’m like, ‘Do you want bums on seats?’”

(Hemsworth and Waititi are both from the same corner of the globe — Australia and New Zealand, respectively — and, for the record, “bums on seats” means “butts on seats.” Just so there’s no confusion.)

You can now call it a trend. As Hemsworth stated at the top of the interview, he was asked by Thor director Kenneth Branagh to do a “shirt off” scene in the first film, and Hemsworth told MTV in 2013 that Marvel consigliere Joss Whedon suggested they add a similar sequence to Dark World.

For Ragnarok, it doesn’t look like they need any help putting bums on seats: The threequel is already tracking for a monster $100 million-plus opening.

And Waititi promises even more topless Thor on the Blu-ray: “On the DVD you can expect of an extra DVD of just that,” he said. “An entire disc. Four hours of him [shirtless]. Slow motion, black and white, black and chrome, full color, Imax version, iPhone version.”

He might not be kidding.

Thor: Ragnarok opens Nov. 3. Watch the trailer:

yahoo

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#_author:Dylan Stableford #nancy pelosi #_revsp:Yahoo! News #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #sotu #donald trump #president trump #state of the union #_uuid:eac86415-6bfb-32b7-9433-650b955a5a12

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olivierknox · 6 years

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Bolton expected to shake up Trump’s National Security Council

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland in 2017. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

WASHIGNTON — A fearsome array of challenges await John Bolton when he takes over next month as President Trump’s national security adviser — and the hawkish, blunt-speaking former diplomat is expected to shake up the White House team confronting them, insiders told Yahoo News on Friday.

Bolton championed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and earlier this month dismissed the diagnosis that Saddam Hussein’s removal was a mistake as “simplistic.” In February, the Yale-trained international law expert publicly called for military action against North Korea. A month earlier, he condemned diplomatic efforts to toughen the Iran nuclear deal, criticized Trump’s advisers for “inexplicably” advising him to stay in the agreement, and called for fostering regime change in Tehran, notably by supporting opposition to the regime. In 2015, he was even blunter, saying that “only military action” would work on Iran.

Bolton’s comrades and critics in the loosely-knit U.S. national security community underline his inclination to use military force, as well as his belief that America is in the grips of a decades-old clash between “Americanists” like himself who value U.S. sovereignty above all and “Globalists” who would see it tempered by international law and agreements.

“Americanists find themselves surrounded by small armies of Globalists, each tightly clutching a favorite new treaty or multilateralist proposal,” he wrote in a 2000 essay, “Should We Take Global Governance Seriously?”

Bolton’s hawkish instincts and hostility to so-called globalists — an echo of Trump’s “America First” principles — will likely lead him to purge the National Security Council, though some NSC officials uncomfortable with his April 9 arrival may opt to leave beforehand.

“I think he’s likely to see career civil servants, civilian and military, as adversaries rather than professionals and want to bring in a team whose views he knows and has confidence in,” Kori Schake, who has held positions at the Pentagon, the State Department, and served as director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on George W. Bush’s National Security Council, told Yahoo news.

Asked whether Bolton would shake up the NSC staff, a source close to him replied: “I suspect absolutely. He has hangers-on who want jobs.”

Even in an administration not quite so defined by constant personnel chaos, it would hardly be unusual for a new national security adviser to make changes. Gen. H.R. McMaster, whom Bolton will replace, purged many of disgraced predecessor Mike Flynn’s hand-picked NSC aides, dubbed “Flynnstones” by some West Wing officials. A national security expert frequently consulted by the White House told Yahoo News that some of those might be eyeing a return to an administration less constrained by McMaster and fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“People on the outside who think POTUS has given in too much to [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis and Tillerson and that, you know, it’s time to ‘let Trump be Trump,’ are probably already lobbying the walrus,” one administration official told Yahoo News, using a nickname derived from Bolton’s mustache.

The job of national security adviser — formally known as assistant to the president for national security affairs – grew out of a wholesale restructuring of American military and intelligence in 1947. The role changes from administration to administration, depending on the character and priorities of the individual holding the title and the president they serve. But the duties are generally understood to center on providing the president with foreign policy advice that reflects the balance of U.S. interests in the executive branch. That means soliciting input from the Pentagon, the intelligence community, the State Department, the Treasury Department and other parts of what is known as “the interagency process.” McMaster had faced criticism from administration officials that he too often presented Trump with his own views rather than the results of that kind of attempted consensus-building, putting him at odds with Mattis and Tillerson and worried foreign diplomats whose lines into the administration ran through Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon.

When it comes to NSC staff changes, Bolton did not tip his hand.

“The United States faces a wide array of issues,” he said in a statement late Thursday. “I look forward to working with President Trump and his leadership team in addressing these complex challenges in an effort to make our country safer at home and stronger abroad.”

Bolton’s approach will be tested immediately. The month of May promises to be heavy on national security: Mid-month, Trump faces a decision about whether or not to effectively remove the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. And the White House has said May is also when they hope for a possible summit between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In an interview on Fox News Channel shortly after Trump announced the shake-up, Bolton declined to lay out his views on major foreign policy questions, including whether or not the Trump-Kim summit should go forward.

“I have my views,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll have a chance to articulate them to the president.”

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#_author:Olivier Knox #_revsp:Yahoo! News #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #_uuid:35e6eec9-22b7-3872-89a4-bd8e85712414

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