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cxhnow · 4 years

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Chloe x Halle Talk Police Brutality and Postponing Their Album

“The way our music has evolved is exactly how we're evolving as young women.”

Four days before the release of their sophomore album, Ungodly Hour, Chloe x Halle addressed their fans to let them know they’re postponing it. In a video posted across their social channels, sisters Chloe, 21, and Halle Bailey, 20, sat shoulder to shoulder at their home in Los Angeles, surrounded by hovering green trees, and tried to sum up their range of emotions after witnessing a global uprising against police brutality.“In honor of all of the lives lost in police brutality, we felt like it was right to postpone, and fully shine our attention and our work on them,” Chloe said, with both a shake and clarity in her voice, in the video to the duo's 2.7 million followers. Halle added, “Music has been used for a long time to bring us joy and healing in difficult times like this.” Just weeks before, George Perry Floyd, a Black man living in Minneapolis, died in police custody while a white officer’s knee was pressed on his neck. As video of his killing spread, and after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, protests sparked around the world demanding accountability and allyship with the Black Lives Matter movement. On the day Chloe, Halle, and I spoke by phone, Tony McDade, a Black trans man in Tallahassee, Florida, was fatally shot by an officer. In Los Angeles, where the sisters live, protesters strung their bodies together to temporarily shut down the 101 freeway. In Atlanta, where they were born, six police officers were charged after being accused of using excessive force on two Black college students who were tased and pulled out of their cars days earlier.During a time when fans are more critical of how celebrities engage in civil rights activism, Grammy-nominated musicians and actors Chloe and Halle Bailey don’t tiptoe. They urge fans to sign petitions, donate, vote, and recognize Black life, early and often. They celebrate Black joy year-round. This is what their followers have grown to expect from them. Chloe and Halle have always had something to say, and it just so happens to be an important time to speak up.

It’s hard to wrap your head around the unbreakable confidence it takes to be a female pop artist if you aren’t one. Thankfully, Chloe and Halle have each other. For decades, the bond among members of Black singing girl groups has given audiences soulful and fun music. In the '90s, groups like SWV, En Vogue, and Zhané made upbeat R&B music that made you want to dance with your homegirls. Now, contemporary duos like KING, Van Jess, and Ibeyi stand out for their rapturous vocals enveloped in dramatic production. Chloe x Halle add to this legacy by singing, writing, and producing ethereal music that resonates with the girl next door.Yet there are distinct differences in the duo’s vocal style; they don’t try to match each other’s voices to create some sort of uniformity. Rather, they play off of rhythm and song pacing to meld their voices. When they do sing choruses and bridges together, their voices, albeit distinct, create layered, otherworldly melodies.The duo’s sound is often described as angelic, giving leeway for some to describe them as two women without sin. Chloe and Halle want to shatter this idea because it’s not realistic. “For Ungodly Hour we were so excited to just flip the narrative of being the perfect angel and show the other side[s] of us.…," says Halle. "The dark side, the naughty side, the things that happen that you don't see behind the scenes.”

The majority of the 13 songs on the album are about navigating messy situations — sometimes ones that you have caused. In the midst of trying to be a better friend or romantic partner, you know that you’ll always be imperfect, and decide to love yourself anyway.“I've always been a jazz head," Halle says. “I don't know why, but there's something about the pain and the love and the heartbreak that you can truly feel through the essence of those songs that are sung by Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald.” As of late, Chloe’s “really, really been inspired by '90s music and early 2000s production,” a vibe you can hear and see in “Do It,” the second single off of Ungodly Hour.“We wanted to show our sensual side because we are growing as young women, but we still kept it classy and cute,” Chloe says. “It was just really fun for us to do that. We also wanted to start dancing this era, and just something really simple. And it makes us so happy to see everyone doing that dance on TikTok.”Chloe expands on how the name of the album and title track came about after working with the U.K. duo Disclosure: “We wrote this song [the title track “Ungodly Hour”] with Disclosure, and we had the best time,” she recalls. “I forgot what I was watching, but I heard the phrase ‘ungodly hour’ and wrote it in my notes. [It] kind of stuck out to all of us, and we were like, ‘What can you say with this?’ We all came up with this sentence: ‘Love me at the ungodly hour,’ which means love me when I'm at my worst; love me when I'm not all dolled up and made up. Love me when all my insecurities are out on the table.”’

“We started writing about when you're in a situationship with a guy and the chemistry is there, and you know the love is there and your connection is so deep, but he's not going all in," she continues. "For some reason he doesn't want to commit. He's entertaining other options, and it's just saying, ‘You know what? I love myself enough to walk away and put the brakes on this and to pause this. So when you decide you like yourself, when you decide you need someone, when you don't have to think about it — love me at the ungodly hour.’”Other emotionally complex tracks on the album include “Forgive Me,” a haunting song inspired by Chloe’s own life, after she discovered a guy she was involved with was going back and forth between her and another young woman. “I Wonder What She Thinks of Me” is a song that tells the story of the new love, the one a man gets with after he’s broken up with his ex.The vocalists are eager to make music that grows with them and becomes more layered as they do. “The way our music has evolved is exactly how we're evolving as young women,” Chloe says. The chromelike wings they turn around and show on their album cover, worn with black, latex dresses, are symbolic of their strength and power.When I ask what they hope for in the future, the Bailey sisters seem at ease. Chloe would love to work with BTS: “They're performing — it's top-notch. I'll sit at my computer and watch all of their music videos and all of their performances.”“Awards would be nice," she adds. "Being at the top of these Hot 100 lists would be beautiful and amazing, but as long as I'm growing and I'm a better version of myself tomorrow than I was today, I am content.”

The duo is used to releasing music during times of political duress. Two years ago, when Chloe x Halle were part of our music issue for the release of their debut album The Kids Are Alright, the world was grappling with an immigration travel ban enacted by President Donald Trump, the #MeToo movement, and pressing climate change legislation. That album was an intonation from the sisters to young activists approaching human rights issues head-on: “Do it while you young. Don't let them turn you numb. Don't let them get you strung. Ooh, let me put you on,” they sing on their first album's title song.“I was 15 through 17, and Chloe was 17 through 19 during the making of the album,” Halle says of their debut project. “We were still very young. We were still trying to figure out what we wanted, and I think that showed in the music.”As artists, the singers say their first album was about proving they could play an active, hands-on role in the production of their own music in an industry dominated by men. As two teenage women, it was about showing the world that, although they didn't have all the answers and weren’t sure what was lurking around every corner, they had the guts to find out. At that point in their careers they had been signed to Beyoncé’s Parkwood for five years and had released one other project, the Sugar Symphony EP, in 2016. But aside from opening tour performances and high-profile appearances, they hadn't become household names.

Now, amid a health pandemic and a country in unrest because of its history of white supremacy, Chloe and Halle are navigating being famous and also having a distinct voice. While finding ways to take care of themselves, the sisters are also promoting an album from their home, in the rooms where they first honed their craft as writers, instrumentalists, and producers. “We've kind of gotten back to our roots and started doing what originally got us started," Halle says, "which is doing YouTube covers, interacting on social media, and connecting with our beautiful fans through there.” A lot has changed in their personal lives as well. They're private about the details, but say they’re learning more about guys and finding themselves in relationships and situationships. They’re experiencing more love, heartbreak, and the misguided antics of boys. "We have to take our power back as women and not allow ourselves to be played,” Chloe riffs.In January, the third season of their Freeform show, grown-ish, dropped. In the college-centered comedy, led by Yara Shahidi, Chloe plays Jazz and Halle plays Sky, ambitious twin sisters who attend the fictional state school Cal U. Jazz is balancing being in love with her boyfriend Doug (played by Diggy Simmons) and schoolwork; Sky is focused on being a track star while navigating her interracial relationship. Like the sisters in real life, their characters are witty, impeccably stylish, and proud of their Blackness. But unlike Chloe and Halle, they’re far more overt about their love lives — often kissing in hallways and openly discussing their sex lives — and unfiltered opinions.Before stay-at-home orders went into place, Chloe and Halle had been expanding farther into Hollywood, and pursuing separate film projects.In July 2019, it was announced that Halle is set to play Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid. Many saw Halle’s breakout feature-film role as a huge win for inclusion, but, like clockwork, people on social media found an issue with the revamped iteration of Ariel being played by a Black woman. Halle spoke out on the discourse, telling Variety at the time, “I feel like I’m dreaming, and I’m just grateful. I don’t pay attention to the negativity. I just feel like this role is something bigger than me. It’s going to be beautiful.”

Halle remains grateful, but says of the negative criticism, “We've always learned to just keep our heads up no matter the situation. No matter what anybody has to say about you...just keep pushing.”

Like Halle, Chloe is also expanding her acting chops in feature projects. In December, Chloe wrapped filming for her role in the horror film The Georgetown Project, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Simpkins. “I'm really protective of my energy, I'm very spiritual, and I love God,” she says about the thriller. “So I was constantly praying when I was on set. But surprisingly, the energy on set was so positive. And I learned so much by being around all of these Oscar-winning actors.”

Humility is a running trait between the sisters. They don’t hide their confidence, but are also God-fearing and incredibly gracious. They’re media-trained and polite, but also find a way to be frank. They say this album is a “whole different world” for them as they reveal more of their personalities, while exploring what it means to be grown women.

“We are learning to embrace who we truly are,” Chloe says about their music evolution. “Our insecurities, our sexuality, owning our power. I'm grateful that we are given a space where we can do that comfortably. And I'm grateful for our parents, because they instilled in us that we need to be strong and independent young women.”

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tdatdroleplay · 3 years

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Finding Friends

Including @HisTeenDream @WorkOutTheKinks @SassInScrubs

Lux: Thanks. I appreciate your time. [She shook the man’s hand and then watched him leave. He’d given her a decent estimate on the window, and was planning to come and fix it in the next day or so. After watching him leave, she got back into her car and left for the hospital to go and visit with her dad. The drive wasn’t long, and she was there in a few minutes. Once she’d parked, she hurried into the hospital, got her visitor’s badge, and went upstairs to her father’s room. She was hopeful that he’d be discharged today.]

Berlyn: [She had been going through her schedule for her impatient physical therapy sessions when she came across Mr. Wilder’s name. She smiled as she checked her watch and had decided to head up a little early. He was a funny man. And she always enjoyed getting to have sessions with him though she wished more than anything that his visits for treatments would decrease because of remission. But they hadn’t been that lucky. Yet. She also had enjoyed the days when Lux was there. She would give her dad a hard time, but encourage him all the same. It was such a blessing to see him light up when she would visit. She lifted her hand, knocking on the door before she entered.] Hey Mr. Wilder. How are you feeling today? [She grinned as she saw Lux too.] Hey girl...how’s our guy doing?

Londyn: [She was pulling a double in oncology, and she felt pretty tired. But the work was worth it. She was heading down the hall when she saw her sister head into Mr. Wilder’s room. She knew that he was going to be going home either today or tomorrow, and it was rare that she had the chance to speak to her sister while they were on the clock so she headed in after her with a smile.] Getting your therapy today, Mr. Wilder? [She smiled as he told both her and Berlyn to call him Eric. She smiled at Lux.] Good to see you here again. Did you just get in? [She looked at Berlyn.] Don’t go easy on him. He’s stronger than he looks.

Lux: [She was telling her dad about the estimate on the window when his physical therapist and his favorite oncology nurse came in. Twins. Identical twin sisters. She smiled at them as they came in.] Well, he seems to be doing pretty good today. Ate a little more this morning he said. And I’m going to go and get him some lunch too. How are you two doing? [She sat in the chair nearest her dad as the Winters sisters glanced at her dad’s chart.]

Berlyn: [She laughed at both her sister and Eric. She shook her head.] You really need to eat for your daughter, Eric. She’s only giving you the best advice. [She smiled and then looked over at Lux.] I’m doing well, thanks for asking. Just ready to get this guy home so we can work on some breathing exercises. [She grinned at him.] How are you, love?

Londyn: [She did a little check on Eric, just to make sure he was breathing alright, that his vitals were good and stable before Berlyn got to work on him. She stood near Lux’s chair.] Lunch sounds good, especially if it isn’t coming from here, right? And you know...the more you eat, the stronger you get, and the sooner you can head home. [She laughed softly and then nodded.] Berlyn and I are good. Just working pretty hard. Pulling doubles every now and again.

Lux: Well, I know you guys work hard. I always see you guys buzzing around the halls. [She smiled and then nodded.] Mhmm. It’s dad’s choice. Whatever he wants for lunch, I’m going to go get. [She wet her lips, ready to answer Berlyn’s question when her dad chimed in saying how she had a new boyfriend.] Dad…[She shook her head and smiled.] Hank isn’t really new in my life at all.

Berlyn: [She grinned and shook her head.] Listen to this...you’re seriously spoiled! [She nodded her head as she started to work with his ankle joint. But when he blurted out about Lux having a boyfriend now, she looked over at her and grinned.] What?! Girl, you’ve got the gossip. /And/ your daddy is the one sharing it? Honey, have we told you nothing about how much we enjoy hearing the goods? [She laughed softly and moved onto his other foot.] We’re just gonna get some reflexology in this time, Eric. We’ll do more serious work at home, alright?

Londyn: [She laughed as Eric outed his daughter.] Uh oh! [She laughed and shook her head.] Hank, huh? Who’s Hank? Berlyn and I wanna know all about him. And look at that smile on dad’s face over there. I take it you approve? [She lifted a brow as she took a few more minutes in the room with her sister, Lux, and Mr. Wilder.]

Lux: [She laughed softly, shaking her head.] Hank’s a guy I’ve known for years. We went to high school together. We were always friends. But we reconnected when I moved back here. [She smiled and lifted a shoulder.] Yeah, dad approves. He likes Hank. They’ve been hanging out while I was in college. And you know I’ll give you details. Just…[She pointed at her dad and shook her head as though to say not in front of him. Looking at Berlyn and Londyn, she couldn’t help but draw comparisons. They were close. They were twins. And Nic and Nash were close. Like brothers. Londyn and Berlyn were gorgeous girls. They definitely qualified as lovely ladies. And they were smart and ambitious with careers of their own.] Do you girls...I mean can you take a lunch break at the same time? Maybe we could all get some food outside the hospital. And I could bring dad back something.

Berlyn: [She grinned and then bounced her brows.] Hank’s a good name. [She nodded her head when Londyn pointed out that Eric seemed fine with Hank. She wet her lips and smiled.] Of course we can. We’re from different departments. But even if we weren’t...I’d like to see them try to get us to not do something together...they can’t even tell us apart. [She laughed softly and then gave Eric’s leg a squeeze.] When I come back, you gonna work on arms with me?

Londyn: Lunch break...who am I kidding? /Any/ break sounds like a piece of heaven to me. Are you ready now? Cause...we can go now. [She laughed as Berlyn finished up with Mr. Wilder for now, his lower extremities done.] I think upper body’d be great. And remember, she’s gonna make sure you know all those breathing exercises too. [She smiled, looking at Lux.] I just need to clock out for break. Give me five minutes, OK? We’ll meet out in the hall by the door?

Lux: [She smiled when she saw the look on her dad’s face. He seemed pleased that she was going to be having lunch with friends. She hadn’t done much of that since she’d moved back. Hadn’t taken a lot of time for herself. But she didn’t mind.] Alright. Meet out in the hall in five then. [She watched Londyn and Berlyn leave the room, and she looked at her dad.] So tell me, dad, what do you want for lunch?

Berlyn: [She grinned and nodded when Eric said he was more than happy to do that. She tugged her sister’s scrub sleeve and the two of them headed out into the hall. She shook her head.] Wanna come down with me to get my bag? I’ll treat us today. You got last time. [She smiled.] And just for the record, I’m glad she’s seeing someone. Every day she’s here. Every day she’s sinking deeper into her emotions without finding any kind of happy. /But/ Eric is stable. And that’s a huge positive. Especially considering his treatment response….has anything changed there?

Londyn: [She walked out of the room with Berlyn after agreeing to meet Lux outside the door. She was a nice girl who had a lot going on in her life at the moment. Looking at her sister, she smiled and nodded.] Yeah, I’ll go with. Give me just a second. [She hurried behind the nurse’s station to make sure everyone knew she was on break before walking downstairs with her sister to get her bag.] Yeah, I hope the guy’s a good guy. She deserves some happy after all the stuff with her dad. Well…[She looked at her sister.] he isn’t in remission yet, but the latest tests showed a shrinking of the mass in his lungs by a few millimeters. It’s good news, but not the news they want to hear, you know?

Lux: [She kissed her dad on the head and then headed out into the hall to wait for Berlyn and Londyn. It took them a few minutes to make it back up to her dad’s floor, but once she saw them, she started walking toward them, her purse on her arm.] Well, my dad’s requested either The Jerk Shack or Big Bib BBQ. Either of those OK with you two?

Berlyn: But it is good news, Lon. Not responding and getting worse would be news they don’t want to hear. [After grabbing her bag, the two of them made it back to meet up with Lux and she heard their options.] Oh...girl...hmmm. And if those are our choices, he has to be getting his appetite back, those are some seriously flavor explosions. [She laughed softly.] I vote for Big Bib.

Londyn: I know...it’s just hard because I don’t want them to get their hopes up just yet. You know how this goes. Maybe I’m just jaded. [She gave her twin a small smile and then hurried to grab her things. Once they were back up on the floor, she saw Lux coming toward them. She looked at her sister, she knew what she’d choose. She nodded.] That’s fine with me. Can’t go wrong with Texas BBQ. And on the way there, we can discuss this Hank of yours. [She laughed as they got onto the elevator, heading down to the first floor.]

Lux: [She nodded with a smile.] Sounds good to me. I love BBQ. [She got into the elevator with the twins and then headed out to the garage to get to her car.] Well, what would you like to know? Hank’s an officer with the SAPD. And he’s in the middle of taking tests to join SWAT. He’s a sweetheart. Always has been. [She smiled as they reached her car, all of them piling in to head out to the BBQ joint.] We actually reconnected in a really crappy way. Dad’s house was broken into and Hank was the responding officer.

Berlyn: Wow...no way! Broken into? Was everything alright? I’m sorry, that just sucks. And I can’t stand people doing things like that. It’s like, work for your own belongings. [She shook her head.] Oh...so he’s a cop, but he’s got ambition? That’s a good thing. [She grinned.] A little danger, a little blue collar. [She laughed softly.] A man in uniform isn’t a bad thing. What’s he look like?

Londyn: [She shook her head, her brow furrowing as Lux mentioned her father’s house getting broken into.] I swear, what’s wrong with people? Like...your dad is having a hard enough time without having to worry about his property being damaged or stolen and worrying about his daughter’s safety. But at least I guess something good came from it, huh? [She smiled and then laughed.] I was getting ready to ask the same thing!

Lux: [She drove out of the garage and toward the restaurant.] Yeah...it was really upsetting. Coming home to see that. All my dad’s meds were missing. His gun. They even took some of our kitchen appliances. [She shook her head with a sigh.] And my cello. [She smiled when Berlyn and Londyn started talking about Hank.] Yeah, he’s a great guy. And he’s going after something he really wants. He’s going to get it too. [She looked at the twins.] Gorgeous. That’s how he looks. Brown hair, brownish green eyes, the most adorable smile. And y’all...the arms? The chest? Shoulders? All there. And he has a few tattoos too. What about you two? Are you guys seeing anybody?

Berlyn: [She shook her head.] That’s horrible. Taking a man’s cancer meds? They don’t even have street value. That’s just terrible. [She sighed.] I hate the way it seems like things just kick you when you’re down. [She listened to Lux talk about Hank and she grinned.] Well, sounds like you like him a lot, huh? Get’s that engine going. [She laughed softly and shook her head.] Me? No...I haven’t dated in a few years. These jerks out here...just be glad you found yourself a good one.

Londyn: [She hated that someone had broken into their home and taken their things. Taken medication and a gun and Lux’s cello. She had heard Mr. Wilder talk about how beautifully she played. But then she started describing her new man, and she laughed.] Well, he sounds pretty hot. [She scoffed.] Me? No. All I do is work really. I haven’t had time to meet anyone, get to know them, or anything like that. And like Bery said...guys out there are shit. [She laughed as they pulled up outside of Big Bib BBQ.] I’m starved.

Lux: [She parked the car and then nodded.] Oh yeah, he definitely gets me going. He’s…[She blew out a breath and then laughed, her cheeks a little pink. After getting out of the car, they headed inside the restaurant, got themselves a table and started to look over the menu. She bit her lip as she looked up at the twins.] Well...you know...I know you’re both busy and everything, but if you guys were interested...Hank has a couple SWAT friends that I could introduce you both to. No pressure though. [She lifted her hands in submission, not wanting them to feel put on the spot, to feel like they had to accept. She ordered herself a Coca Cola, the brisket stuffed baked potato, baby back ribs, a side of potato salad, and the peach cobbler.]

Berlyn: [She laughed at how red Lux’s cheeks were.] Awe...look at that. That’s actually really sweet. [She looked from Lux to her sister.] Uh...seriously? [She shook her head.] Friends, huh? And they’re also men in uniform? [She grinned and shook her head before she ordered.] I’m gonna have the brisket, jalapeno sausage, pulled pork and potato salad. That’s it for me. [She looked at Londyn.] What? I’m hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast. [She laughed.]

Londyn: [She laughed.] It is sweet. I want a guy who makes me blush and shit. [She huffed out a breath and then lifted her brows as she heard Lux ask if she and Berlyn would like to meet some of Hank’s friends.] So these guys are part of SWAT? Are they cute? Not to sound shallow but…[She laughed a little.] Tell us about them. [She looked at Berlyn as she ordered.] Nothing. You get it, girl. I’ll take a Sprite, the lean brisket, sweet potato casserole, and the green beans please. Oh...and an order of banana pudding. Thanks.

Lux: [Before the server left, she put in a to go order of brisket, jalapeno sausage, sweet potato casserole, and greens for her dad. Once everyone had ordered, she went back to talking about Hank’s friends.] Yeah, seriously. If you guys are interested in meeting them that is. I mean...I’ve briefly met them. They’ve been in SWAT for awhile. They’re partners. And yeah, I’m sure they have uniforms. [She laughed a little.] But they’re Nic and Nash. And they’re both pretty cute. Definitely on the tasty side. One’s got tattoos and he’s a little quieter and more mysterious. The other’s loud and proud. He’s a goof, but not in a stupid way. Both have dark hair. Nic has...blue eyes I think. Nash has like a...hazel color. Greenish. They seem like nice guys. We talked about all of us celebrating once Hank’s spot in SWAT is secured. If you guys wanted to...show up...I’m sure they wouldn’t be hating it. [She smiled with a shrug.]

Berlyn: [Her brows lifted as she started to talk about these other guys since Londyn asked about them. And she was interested in knowing that too. She lifted her brows a bit and laughed.] Oh...that’s interesting. [She grinned.] See...I’m the quieter of the two. We both know that. [She laughed softly.] But…[She shook her head.] a blue-eyed loud and proud man who’s also into protecting and serving? Yeah...that’s much more up my alley I think. [She laughed.] So...his name is Nic? Short for anything?

Londyn: [She arched a brow, the server bringing their drinks. She sipped on her Sprite for a few seconds before speaking.] That’s fine. I can totally handle a tattooed mystery man. I mean...what they do? That alone has to be seriously interesting. [She glanced at her sister before speaking.] You let us know when you guys are ready for the celebration. I think Berlyn and I might just be interested in showing up and meeting these guys.

Lux: [She laughed at the way Berlyn and Londyn were already picking and choosing who would be getting Nic and who would be getting Nash. Sight unseen mind you. She took a sip of her coke and then nodded.] Yeah, it’s short for...Nicolae. Hank said he’s Romanian. Hank said they’re best friends, more like brothers. And...well, they did ask if I had any friends. So...clearly they’re both single.

Berlyn: [Her brow lifted when she said he was Romanian.] Well, that’s even more interesting, isn’t it? He’s a member of law enforcement, has a sexy little name that rolls off the tongue. [She laughed and sipped her lemon water.] Well, either that or they’re just assholes who are just looking for some side chicks. Wouldn’t be the first time, you know? [She sighed.] I just hope these are good guys, but like Lon said. I’d be willing to meet up with them. At least make some friends, right?

Londyn: [She looked from Berlyn to Lux.] You don’t think Hank would be OK with that, do you? You know...hooking two guys up with women when they aren’t single? [She pursed her lips. She did /not/ want to be any part of that fucking drama.] Cause Bery and I got enough drama as it is working at the hospital. We don’t need anymore. [She smiled and then nodded.] But if you say they’re decent guys, I’m more than willing to give it a shot.

Lux: [She smiled and shook her head at Londyn and Berlyn.] No way. Hank’s not like that. And he wouldn’t be OK with that. Plus, I met those two. No rings. I checked. And...they really did seem honest in the fact that they just hang out with each other. Talked about heading back to one of their places and drinking beer and watching sports. [She laughed.] I’m pretty sure they’re on the up and up. [She rubbed her hands together as their meals were set down.] God, I’m so hungry.

Berlyn: [She laughed and started to shake her head.] Girl, have you seen my plate? Look at this? They gave me a nice full plate that I just know I can get down with. [She grinned and shook her head.] Right. What Lon said. We’ll trust your guy since you trust your guy. [She grinned.] I really am happy for you, honey. You deserve something good. And honestly, I wanna meet him too. Think we could...I don’t maybe meet up and do some drinks or...I don’t know. [She laughed.] I’m not the best at making plans like that.

Londyn: [She immediately grabbed for the Honey BBQ sauce that was sitting on the table, squirting it over her brisket with a smile.] Have you guys ever had the sweet potato casserole here? It’s /de/licious. [She grinned and then nodded.] Yeah, we should do something where we can talk. Not like...a restaurant where there are all sorts of people around and we’re...a bar might be good, or might be noisy. Just depends where we go I guess. Got any ideas, Lux? I mean...there has to be a place where we can have a good time but be able to talk too.

Lux: [She snagged the Hot n Spicy sauce for her ribs and then tapped a finger against her lips.] Hmm...I get what you’re saying. Maybe a lowkey bar. Not like a sports bar or anything. Just someplace like...a lounge or something? Some place where we could get drinks, get to know each other. I think that’d be great. [She picked up her fork, getting ready to dig into her brisket stuffed baked potato.]

Berlyn: [She nodded her head.] Well, we could do Liberty bar? Or maybe Zombies? [She laughed about Zombies. That one being sarcastic. It was a heavy metal rock bar.] We could do Havana’s too. That place is seriously lowkey and the entire back is filled with low light, couches, loveseats. Things like that. Or maybe Bar 1919. [She was stabbing the pickles and pork before sliding the fork into her mouth with a nod of her head. It was really good.]

Londyn: [She nodded.] I say Havana’s. It’d be a comfortable place to chill and talk. And we could still be in a place where we could get drinks. [She grinned, spooning a bite of the sweet potatoes into her mouth.] I’m excited. When are we doing this? Because it needs to be soon. I’ve been working too much. So has Bery. And we need some social interaction. Hot guys are a plus. [She laughed.] And I wanna meet this Hank guy too.

Lux: [She was going at that food, her fingers sticky with BBQ sauce as she ate the ribs. Pausing to speak, she lifted a shoulder.] Well...we said we could all go out when Hank makes SWAT, but it doesn’t have to be that. I mean, we could just go out whenever we feel like it. Whenever you guys have a day off and they do. [She shook her head.] Lord knows my schedule’s clear.

Berlyn: [Her brows lifted as she scooped up some potato salad.] Oh, like a celebration? That would be nice too. Give us a chance to meet your guy when he’s riding high. [She grinned and shook her head.] Look at Lon being all impatient. [She bounced her brows.] She’s a total dude. [She laughed and shook her head.] Just teasing.

Londyn: Hush it, Bery. I can’t help it that I’m just looking forward to doing something other than working. [She laughed, shaking her head as she cut into the brisket and then stabbed it with a fork.] But I’m good with the whole celebration thing. That’s perfectly fine with me. [She wet her lips, drinking down more of her Sprite.] So what are your plans for the rest of day? [She looked over at her sister.] You too? How long’s your shift?

Lux: I’ll tell Hank about you guys being interested and we’ll go from there. [She smiled at the sisters. Shaking her head, she shrugged.] I don’t really have plans. Just gonna take dad his lunch back and sit with him for a bit. See if he’s gonna get discharged today or tomorrow. And then I guess I’ll be heading home. The guy’s coming to fix the busted window tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll see Hank once he’s off work. Do you guys have any plans?

Berlyn: [She shook her head.] I’m off at five today. I have a few more patients after Eric and then my charts need updating and then I’m as free as a bird. [She laughed softly.] I doubt I’ll be doing anything though. Zero life at the moment. [She smiled over at Lux.] Well, I’m glad your window’s getting fixed. That’s a good thing.

Londyn: Yeah, no life here either. I’ll be getting off a double. So...I see sleep in my future. I’ve just got one more round when I get back. And then I can crash. [She smiled, her banana pudding being brought over.] Thanks! [She looked back at Lux and Berlyn.] Of course that’s after I drive home. [She grabbed her spoon to dunk it into the pudding.]

Lux: [She laughed.] We’re a trio, huh? No plans at all. Just hanging out at the hospital and then heading home. [She shook her head.] You guys know that if you ever want to hang out, you can always give me a call. I appreciate what you do for my dad, and I know this makes me sound like a total loser here, but I don’t really have a ton of friends, you know? I just moved back a few months ago. So if you guys ever want to just get together, go for dinner, go shopping, just give me a call.

Berlyn: [She laughed and nodded.] Well, at least you have yourself a good man. So a life is in the works for you. [She laughed softly.] Dates and all those good things. [She nodded her head.] Oh yeah, most definitely. We’ll get together. Sometimes our schedules don’t line up..[She indicated between her and Londyn.] But we do our best. So don’t feel bad if the two of you can hang out and I can’t.

Londyn: [She laughed.] Hey, Bery, you never know. Maybe a life’s in the works for us too. I mean...we’re meeting guys. Maybe we’ll have dates and all that good stuff. [She smiled, finishing her pudding and then wiped her mouth with her napkin.] That was good. And yeah, same goes for me. If I’m working and you two wanna hang, don’t feel bad at all. I promise I won’t get mad.

Lux: [After finishing her meal and getting her father’s to go order, she went ahead and paid.] I do have a good man. And I’m overjoyed to say that. [She smiled and stood up, getting the bag.] Thanks for coming out to lunch with me. It was fun. And I’ll definitely be giving you guys a call as soon as Hank makes SWAT and then we’ll make some plans. [She and the twins started back out to her car to make their way back to the hospital.]

#TDATD RolePlay Writing Lux Berlyn Londyn

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Saturday, January 9, 2021

Canada's Ontario says 'more extreme measures' on the table as COVID-19 cases rise (Reuters) Ontario is considering “more extreme measures” on top of the widespread lockdowns in place, the premier said on Friday, after the Canadian province reported a second straight day of record-breaking COVID-19 cases. “I’ve never stressed this so much, all the way going back to March, as I am now: We are in a crisis,” Premier Doug Ford told reporters, begging people to wear masks, wash their hands and stop gathering in groups. The warning from Canada’s most populous province comes as Quebec, the worst affected province from the pandemic, is set to start a nightly curfew on Saturday. Ford said if people did not better follow public health guidelines “we will have to look at more extreme measures. … Everything is on the table right now.”

Capitol Attack Leads Democrats to Demand That Trump Leave Office (NYT) President Trump’s administration plunged deeper into crisis on Thursday as more officials resigned in protest, prominent Republicans broke with him and Democratic congressional leaders threatened to impeach him for encouraging a mob that stormed the Capitol a day earlier. What was already shaping up as a volatile final stretch to the Trump presidency took on an air of national emergency as the White House emptied out and some Republicans joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a cascade of Democrats calling for Mr. Trump to be removed from office without waiting the 13 days until the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. The prospect of actually short-circuiting Mr. Trump’s tenure in its last days appeared remote. But the highly charged debate about Mr. Trump’s capacity to govern even for less than two weeks underscored the depth of anger and anxiety after the invasion of the Capitol that forced lawmakers to evacuate, halted the counting of the Electoral College votes for several hours and left people dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer who died Thursday night.

With Democrats in Control, Biden Moves to Advance Agenda (NYT) With his victory recognized by Congress and his party set to control both the House and Senate, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. moved on Thursday to fill out his cabinet, while his aides and allies drafted plans for an ambitious legislative agenda headlined by $2,000 stimulus checks to individual Americans. The president-elect’s ability to push through key parts of his agenda and win confirmation of his cabinet selections received a significant lift this week, as Democrats picked up two Senate seats in Georgia, resulting in a 50-50 split. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has the power to cast the tiebreaking vote, which would give Democrats control of the chamber. As part of what he has pledged will be a next round of economic assistance, Mr. Biden is expected to move quickly to gain passage of $2,000 stimulus checks—which were a big focus in the Georgia elections—along with expanded unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments and additional relief for small businesses.

Police Failures Spur Resignations and Complaints (NYT) Six days before a raucous rally of President Trump’s supporters in Washington, Representative Maxine Waters anxiously grilled the chief of the Capitol Police about his preparations for various scenarios. Ms. Waters, a California Democrat, said each of her concerns was met with a similar response from Chief Steven Sund during their hourlong call: “He assured me that they have everything under control, that they were on top of everything.” They weren’t. Instead an angry mob of pro-Trump extremists swarmed the barricades around the Capitol on Wednesday, spraying chemical irritants and wielding lead pipes, injuring more than 50 officers. They battered doors, broke windows and scaled the walls, rampaging through the building as congressional leaders made desperate calls for help. The Capitol Police seemed to offer little resistance and arrested only 14 people. Chief Sund handed in his resignation on Thursday after pressure from congressional leaders. Policing experts noted the absence of crowd-control tools such as mounted officers, police dogs or a heavily manned perimeter. Pentagon officials said Thursday that the Capitol Police had turned down an offer for additional National Guard troops before Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol, and two law enforcement officials said they had initially rebuffed help from the F.B.I. as the mob descended. But others in law enforcement insisted that the president’s encouragement of the mob could not have been anticipated. “No one expected the president to say, ‘Hey guys, let’s all go down to the Capitol and show them who’s boss,’” said Jose Cervino, who worked for the department for 14 years and helped plan security for large events and protests. Mr. Cervino defended the hesitancy to use weapons, saying the department’s primary mandate was to protect the lawmakers, not the building. “We have the members and we have the leadership secured. Is it correct to start shooting people?” Mr. Cervino asked. “I can’t imagine that I would be happier today if we found out we kept the crowd out, but wound up shooting 40 people.”

Capitol siege raises security concerns for Biden inaugural (AP) The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is intensifying scrutiny over security at an inauguration ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden already reshaped by a pandemic and the prospect that his predecessor may not attend. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office from the Capitol’s West Front, one of the very locations where a violent mob overpowered police and stormed the building. They also scaled and occupied the scaffolding and bleachers in place for the ceremonies. The congressional leaders responsible for coordinating the inauguration insisted Thursday night that events will move forward. Security forces have already begun taking extra precautions in the wake of Wednesday’s mayhem. Roughly 6,200 members of the National Guard from six states—Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland—will help support the Capitol Police and other law enforcement in Washington for the next 30 days. Crews also erected on the Capitol grounds tall, black metal fences designed to be impossible to climb. Those who have worked on previous inaugurations said that while this year’s events will look different, the tradition of passing power from one administration to another will continue. President Trump, however, has confirmed that he will not attend the inauguration.

Some U.S. Capitol rioters fired after internet detectives identify them (Reuters) Some of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol were fired from their jobs on Thursday after internet sleuths publicized their identities. The District of Columbia police department released photos of people in Wednesday's melee and potential charges against them. Some 68 people were arrested after angry protesters stormed the building, breaking windows, damaging fixtures and stealing furnishings. The FBI also asked the public to help it identify rioters, a call that drew ribbing on social media in light of the prolific coverage of the event. This included selfies posted by participants and videos of President Donald Trump's supporters at area hotels before the attack. Some individuals who had previously been photographed at Trump rallies and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy-theory movement were quickly identified. Online detectives focused their efforts on others. "Let's name and shame them!," read one Twitter thread here devoted to outing participants.

Vaccine rollout hits snag as health workers balk at shots (AP) The desperately awaited vaccination drive against the coronavirus in the U.S. is running into resistance from an unlikely quarter: Surprising numbers of health care workers who have seen firsthand the death and misery inflicted by COVID-19 are refusing shots. It is happening in nursing homes and, to a lesser degree, in hospitals, with employees expressing fears of side effects from vaccines that were developed at record speed. More than three weeks into the campaign, some places are seeing as much as 80% of the staff holding back. “I don’t think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,” said Dr. Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon in Portland, Oregon, who is postponing getting vaccinated. “At the end of the day, as a man of science, I just want to see what the data show. And give me the full data.” Stormy Tatom, 30, a hospital ICU nurse in Beaumont, Texas, said she decided against getting vaccinated for now “because of the unknown long-term side effects.” “I would say at least half of my coworkers feel the same way,” Tatom said.

Freezing Madrid braces for heaviest snowfall in decades (Reuters) Spain’s capital Madrid and much of the neighbouring region of Castilla-La Mancha were on high alert on Friday for what meteorologists expect to be the heaviest snowfall in decades, brought by the Storm Filomena. Such events are rare in the region and tend to be disruptive to daily life and mobility, coming at a time when people are returning home after Christmas and New Year holidays. This year, however, there is less traffic than usual due to restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic. With up to 20 cm (nearly 8 inches) of snow forecast in 24 hours and temperatures expected to hover around zero centigrade for much of the day, the south of the Madrid region, including the capital, is on its highest level of alert for the first time since the system was created in 2007.

The Pandemic Helped Reverse Italy’s Brain Drain. (NYT) When Elena Parisi, an engineer, left Italy at age 22 to pursue a career in London five years ago, she joined the vast ranks of talented Italians escaping a sluggish job market and lack of opportunities at home to find work abroad. But in the past year, as the coronavirus pandemic forced employees around the world to work from home, Ms. Parisi, like many of her compatriots, seized on the opportunity to really go home, to Italy. In between Zoom meetings and her other work for a recycling company in London, she took long strolls on the beach near her family’s home in Palermo, Sicily, and talked recipes at dawn with vendors in the local market. “The quality of life is a thousand, thousand times better here,” said Ms. Parisi, who is now in Rome. As with so many things, the virus has upended a familiar phenomenon—this time Italy’s longstanding brain drain. Italy, along with Romania and Poland, is among the European countries that send the most workers abroad, according to figures from the European Commission. Taking into account the money the country spends on their education, Italy’s brain drain costs the country an estimated 14 billion euro (about $17 billion) every year. The Italian government has welcomed the return of some of the country’s best and brightest as a silver lining to what has been a brutal pandemic for Italy, calling the shift a “great opportunity.”

Kyrgyzstan votes (Foreign Policy) Voters in Kyrgyzstan go to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new president and decide a referendum on constitutional reforms. Acting Prime Minister Sadyr Japarov has been touted as the likely winner, if he can pass the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff. Victory would cap an unlikely rise for Japarov after he was sprung from jail in October during unrest over disputed legislative elections. Japarov had been serving an 11-year sentence for kidnapping.

Gold in India (Rest of World) India is one of the largest global consumers of gold, buying 700 tons annually, with an estimated 25,000 tons of gold stockpiled by Indian citizens, a value three times the reserves of gold held by the U.S. government. Gold is frequently given to female babies as a gift and included later as part of their dowries, but it’s also an incredibly useful asset in terms of gaining access to credit by using it as collateral. Manappuram Finance, a large lender, offers gold-backed loans, and customers such as independent business owners and farmers on average borrow $612 several times per year, with under 1 percent defaulting. The two largest gold lenders in India hold 248 tons of it, which is more than Australia has in reserve.

China city offers cash for tip on test evaders (AP) A city in northern China is offering rewards of 500 yuan ($77) for anyone who reports on a resident who has not taken a recent coronavirus test. The offer from the government of Nangong comes as millions in the city and its surrounding province of Hebei are being tested as part of efforts to control China’s most serious recent outbreak of COVID-19. The offering of cash or other rewards for information on political or social nonconformists has a long history in China, but the pandemic is putting a new face on the practice. Those found noncompliant will be forced to undergo testing and a two-week quarantine at their own expense.

Can’t go to ski resort? South Koreans rush to buy sledges, enjoy sledding near home (Reuters) With South Korea’s ski resorts closed in recent weeks to help combat COVID-19, heavy snowfalls have led to a surge in sales of sledges as winter sports lovers look for family friendly snow slopes close to home. Major retailers have run out of stocks of plastic sledges, with E-Mart, the country’s biggest supermarket chain, selling nearly 2,200 sledges in six days, more than three times its total 2020 sales. After heavy snowfalls earlier in the week, children played outdoors even as the temperature in Seoul plummeted to -18.6 Celsius (-1.5 Fahrenheit) on Friday, the coldest in 35 years.

Almost 2.3 million people need aid in Ethiopia’s Tigray: U.N. report (Reuters) Fighting is still going on in several parts of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and almost 2.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, need aid, a U.N. report said. The report, the most comprehensive public assessment of the humanitarian situation in Tigray since conflict erupted there on Nov. 4, was posted online late on Thursday. It said food supplies were very limited, looting was widespread and insecurity remained high.

Uganda’s election shapes up as a contest of young vs. old (Washington Post) Uganda is an overwhelmingly young country, led by a 76-year-old seeking a sixth term as president. Two-thirds of registered voters are under the age of 30, which means Yoweri Museveni has led Uganda for their whole lives. His main challenger in next week’s election is a 38-year-old musician who was a toddler when Museveni took power as leader of an armed rebellion. And so the contest between the grandfatherly incumbent and the spindly singer-turned-politician, Bobi Wine, has come to embody the most essential of democratic divides: change vs. stability, idealism vs. wisdom, the frustrated young vs. the fearful old. Who wins may come down to how many young people buy into Museveni’s warnings that a vote against him is a vote for destabilization. But the outcome also hinges on whether Wine and his supporters can withstand the repressive tactics Museveni’s security forces have unleashed in recent months that may escalate as election day nears. Since announcing his candidacy, Wine has been arrested three times, as have at least 600 attendees of his rallies. Police say they violated pandemic protocols against large gatherings. His bodyguard was killed, his lawyer arrested, reporters who cover his campaign have had their accreditation revoked, and after Wine’s second arrest, protests were met with bullets and at least 54 were killed.

Books (Publishers Weekly) Sales of print books were up 8.2 percent in 2020 year-over-year, according to NPD BookScan, with 750.9 million books sold. That’s up from 693.7 million in 2019, and is a solid performance, especially given the tumultuous spring market. Books for children and young adults saw sales explode: in nonfiction—a staple of attempting to learn from a place that is not a school—juvenile sales were up 23.1 percent and young adult nonfiction was up 38.3 percent, and on the fiction side, the juvenile segment was up 11 percent and YA was up 21.4 percent. Adults bought more books too—nonfiction was up 4.8 percent and fiction was up 6 percent.

#headlines #news

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etraytin · 4 years

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Quarantine, Day 102

June 21

It definitely feels like the longest day of the year, I'll give it that much! The sun didn't go down for basically ever, even here on the east coast, and the kiddo and I were able to go on a walk outdoors that didn't end till 8pm. (And even then it was only because my very out of shape legs were about to fall off.) It was Father's Day too, so it was a day full of feelings, some good feelings and some sad feelings, and also full of food, all of it good. It looks like it might be a long evening too, as the kiddo learns the folly of pointing a desk fan directly at one's face while going to bed, congestionwise.

I am very lucky to be surrounded by good fathers and father figures in my life. I totally understand and feel for anybody who has complicated feelings about fathers and Father's Day, but for me it has always been a day of celebration and remembrance. My paternal grandfather died when I was very young, only four or five years old. My memories of him are scattered and at least partially informed by the videos I've seen of us together and the stories I have been told, but I know that he loved me and was charmed by the way I picked up nursery rhymes and short poems by memory. My memories of him are vague feelings of warm affection and security. My maternal grandfather lived until I was in college, so I had a whole childhood with him. He and my grandmother were rockhounds who would drive out west and up into Canada to collect agates and amethysts and geodes, then cut and polish them in the basement workshop. He taught me how to use all his fascinating polishing machines to turn dull ovals of rock into beautiful pendants and belt buckles, and how to use agate sticks and slices to make rock butterflies. He was a quiet man who spent decades as an electrician, built his own home after the war, and could fix just about anything that went wrong with anything. I was devastated when he died, and looking back I wish that I had spent so much more time in his workshop and learning things from him.

My father was an attorney for my whole childhood, and I always wanted to be like him. He was in practice with my grandfather, who'd started a small firm, and took it over when he died. When I was a kid I would go to his office after school or on weekends, when he was working and my mom was typing for him and there was nowhere else to park me and my little sister. I would earn money by doing small office chores like making copies, or amuse myself by going through the receptionist's desk drawers in a way I realize now was probably extremely annoying. He worked a lot but he also took at least a week every year for us to go on a beach vacation where he only called the office once a day, and he spent a lot of evenings and weekends at activities or concerts or debate tournaments or basketball games. He was always around, and he always took care of us. He is still that way, even from hundreds of miles away. We tease him about it, but we still let him watch us on Life360 so he can call us if our cell phone batteries get too low. Over the years our ideologies have become wildly divergent politically, and we have had some big arguments about it, but he is still one of the very best men I know (which is why I find some of his voting behavior so baffling!). I learned a lot about what it means to be a good person and a good citizen from my dad.

I talk about my husband a lot on here already, so anybody who's been following the journal probably knows a lot about what he's like. We weren't exactly prepared to be parents when the kiddo came along; he was in graduate school, I was job hunting, and a doctor had told me I was almost certainly infertile. We were very scared, him even more than me, but he rose to the occasion without even a bobble. He's been right in the mix on childrearing since day one, the sort of dad who never views his share of parenting as "babysitting." He took over bedtimes when the kiddo was very small, because it gave them time together during days when he had to be gone all day and some evenings. They go off on weekend adventures to parks and museums, both to have guy time and to give me a break as well. My son is physically his spitting image, and I hope he grows up to be very like his dad. And of course my husband was raised by a very good man too, and it hurts that he is not here on this first Father's Day, but he did a really good job as a dad and he had a long, good life. I have been very lucky with all these dads in my life.

We celebrated today by giving my husband breakfast in bed, as is traditional. The kiddo made him a card and we got dinner takeout from his choice of restaurant. Typically we do not buy each other gifts on Mothers and Fathers Day but rather allow one another to buy something we want, a luxury since money is usually pretty scarce. I called my dad so the kiddo and I could sing Happy Father's Day (like Happy Birthday, but different), and check in on him. I wrote him a poem that turned into free verse and veered close to prose in a few places, but he liked it.

This entry is getting long and I did not actually talk much about my day, but ah well. I didn't do that much, besides Father's Day stuff and going on the walk. I'm going to try and walk every day, not too long at first, but just enough that my body stops feeling like it's rusting into a stationary position. It's pretty nice to walk around here, there's a lot of grassy space in our complex, and a large pond with fish and birds and turtles. Today the kiddo and I saw a mama duck and five ducklings, very exciting! If I'm feeling ambitious, I can go into the next door townhouse complex and walk around the buildings and along the edge of the wooded area all the way back home. I enjoy doing it, but at the same time I feel weird knowing that if I were not a white woman, this might well not be a thing that I could safely do. I don't know what to do about that except donate money and vote and remind myself to be aware of the privilege I have so that I use it for good and not bad. It doesn't seem like enough.

(Edit and note to self: shift-enter does not eliminate the double carriage return in a post, it simply posts before you have finished editing. Whoops.)

#quarantine #father's day

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berlinaura · 5 years

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Last spring in Finland I attended a course “German for those who are going to have an exchange year”. They told us about the stages which one usually goes through during an exchange. As far as I remember, the stages were roughly somewhat like this: firstly one views everything and everyone better than in their home country and everything is super interesting and fun. This basically means that the everyday life hasn’t kicked in yet. The next one is getting annoyed at everything and everybody. Comparing the country to your home country and maybe even feeling like it would have been a better idea to just stay home. After this comes the stage of adaptation where one gets used to customs and stops comparing everything to one’s home country. Last phase is coming back to home country and seeing it in a new way. And of course telling stories of the exchange year to friends and family until they are bored to death.

I remember thinking two things when we were taught about this. Firstly, who the hell would go through a phase of hating the country they go to? It seemed so irrational. The second thing was “Now that I’ve heard about this stuff, I can rise above it and use my brain and self-knowledge to avoid it. Yeah... As you might guess, it did not happen. I admit, during last few weeks I have spend a huge amount of my time wallowing in “WHY DO YOU DO THIS LIKE THIS” “Why can’t you do it in the right way” “What the hell is wrong with Germans!”. Mostly my frustrations have been related to my university. The mornings I am usually in a good mood. I drink my coffee, get ready (I have started to care more about what I wear and how I look like now that I am in Berlin hahaha) and go to school. All in all it takes me around 45 minutes to get from my home to university which includes walking, tram and S-Bahn. The way there and back are usually my favorite bits of the day. I enjoy watching people, traveling through Berlin in S-Bahn and listening to music. On the way back from university the people in public transport are usually going to pubs or parties so it’s nice to see happy and lively faces. I try not to overwhelm myself with school even though I feel like I need to be constantly studying to keep up. The thing is, even though the courses seem a bit challenging, partly because I am not used to academic English and partly because I am studying in a new study field, I find all of them interesting and genuinely think they are useful. I think I will shortly find a balance because now I feel super drained after every day and still feel like I have the “responsibility” to do fun things and go to places whenever I am not studying. It’s like a freshman year all over again.

So, what has happened after the last post? Quite a lot. I was on a Wanderlust trip to Dresden in October. We also visited a famous bridge (Bastei) in Saxony. The views and the scenery were incredible! Dresden was also very cozy and historical city. It was a lot smaller than I expected. We only had a few hours to browse through the city but we could easily reach the most important sights by just walking. On the bus we opened bottles of wines we got from Lidl and played some car games with the people who sat around me. I suggested searching “questions to get to know each other” so on the few hour way back we just simply shared our biggest secrets and fears as if we had been knowing for a long time. The french boy sitting in front of me got interested as I mentioned we are throwing a sitting here, so he wanted to help. We formed a committee of 5 people for a sittning, planned it in a cafe and contacted international office. Their response was rather dry and due to International office organizing a similar event in December, we decided to postpone the sittning and start planning it again in January.

Wanderlust trip was good because everything was already planned and sorted out for us. We just had to be on time to catch the bus. I already booked another wanderlust trip to Magdeburg in December. They have a Christmas market there. I also want to see the city that was my other option to have an exchange year in. By the way, I am super glad I ended up choosing Berlin over Magdeburg.

The next day me, the Austrian girl who sat next to me on the bus and her friend went to see a light show in the city centre. There is this light festival held in Berlin where they project things onto famous buildings and monuments. The one projected on Brandenburg gate left me speechless. They projected things like collapsing of the wall, JFK’s speech and techno culture of today’s Berlin.

One Friday evening my friend, my roommate and her friends decided to go to a burlesque show. The bar was super fancy as was the show. I just couldn’t get my eyes of the woman who performed. She danced to a remix of Britney Spears’ Toxic so naturally I had to ask her after the show if she liked Britney Spears. She said they only picked it because they needed something that people would recognize but at the same time something that isn’t the actual song. :( She was amazing tho.

In October I also went to see Prinz Pi live at Columbiahalle. I’ve never been to this venue before and it was so cozy! Man the concert just got better and better and I just had goosebumps for like half of the show. At the encore Prinz Pi said something in the lines of “You know.. The next place I go to.. You don’t want me to tell the audience that the audience of Berlin was dull? Go crazy then!” and I have never seen an audience getting so hyped during a song (”Gib dem Affen Zucker”). I got inspired of this so I already booked a ticket for Sido’s Christmas show in Columbiahalle. Actually I tried to go to his normal tour’s concert which is actually today, but I thought too long and it got sold out. People were asking 200€ per ticket (the original was around 45€) so I gave up. Then I decided to go to his christmas show but AGAIN thought too long because they are held in 20.-22.12. and I needed to sort out my flights to Finland first. But one day I decided to go to eventim’s page to see if someone was selling their ticket (they were, but overprized again) and I saw that there was one original ticket on sale even though it was sold out before. Someone had cancelled their ticket and some forces of the universe told me to refresh that page at a right moment. So now I have my ticket and just can not wait for it!

In the beginning of November I went to Prague to see my friend. The train ride was only 19 euros and I could easily do my homework and watch Kotikatu there. Priorities were sorted out! I navigated to Revnice where we went to a local brewery and shared things about our lives. The beer was the best beer I have ever had in my life which is sad because I literally can’t get it anywhere else than from there. Damn brewery! The next day we played board games, ate well and went swimming. My friend introduced me to a new thing: putting honey in a coffee. At first I doomed the though: ew, who the hell does that? Honey belongs to tea, not coffee. Then I tasted it and... it was delicious. It is yet to discover if it because of the honey or their super fancy coffee maker. Then we went to the brewery again and played a Czech card game called “bang”. I think I got the gist of it and even won the game once. On our last day we were just sightseeing and went to a concert together. The songs were translated to me and for a moment I felt super ambitious to learn Czech. I don’t want to miss out on funny songs just because I don’t know the language!

Last weekend there was a celebration in Berlin due to it being 30 years from the fall of Berlin wall. It was a bit similar to the light festival. We were out with friends two nights in a row and found a super cute place in Prenzlauer berg: Houdini. They have Indian food and cheap cocktails. We continued the evening to this living room looking place that was connected to a Späti. The Späti-drinking culture is something that is missing from Finland. Here Spätis are these small shops that mostly sell drinks (beer, soda, water, cider and so on) and candy.They are open late which is actually where the name Späti (Spätkauf = late shopping) comes from. There are often benches and tables where people can enjoy their drinks which are cheaper than in normal pubs of course. The Späti man asks if the beer is to be enjoyed in the living room and adds a small fee if it is. And there’s a bottle opener on the counter. Everything is sorted out so in my opinion Späti-drinking is a good way to go out and get drunk with small budget.

Yesterday we had an excursion with my German class. We went to Berlinische Galerie which is a museum of contemporary art. They had an exhibition of Bauhaus, the art/design/architecture Academy in pre-WWII Germany that affected modern design and architecture. We were walking around and filling up a worksheet the teacher gave us. I enjoyed it so much and everything seemed so pleasing to the eye.

Afterwards we went to a open stage event which was basically a talent show. There were 10 acts of which everyone had 10 minutes to convince the audience who voted for a winner. We also had beer and wine counter there naturally. My favorite was this one dude in tight ballet outfit who preformed a circus act which was funny and impressive at he same time. His background music was swan lake but the dude sang along in a terrible way which made it less serious. Then he juggled with 6 balls and every time he messed up, he cried out in a dramatic way. Then at the end of the show he turned his back to the audience and we could see he was digging something from his crotch and then he turned around and swiped of sweat from his face with a pile of tissues he had as a crotch-filler the whole time. The tipsy audience laughed so much that the winner was pretty much clear at that point. The dude who went after him performed a horrible keyboard improvisation and his face screamed “ I am sorry to be here, I just want to flee!” hahahahah. The act that came second was funny as well, they performed “Let it go” but with a German translation, the google translate type of translation. Conclusion is: the audience wants to laugh at talent shows, not see real talent.

On top of all the events I have also been attending the hiphop dance class I think I told about. The teacher is super funny (and hot :D) and the dancing is so intensive and so much fun! I look terrible, though but it’s not the main point here. I might continue this hobby when I get back to Finland.

Now I have to start packing my things because I am going to Szczechin (Poland). I heard it is a city where Berliners go to shop because it is cheaper there. I feel like this trip can be either a massive success or a terrible flop. Time shows...

#erasmus #exchange year #berlin

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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When Did Democrats And Republicans Switch

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/when-did-democrats-and-republicans-switch/

When Did Democrats And Republicans Switch

How Republicans Made Common Cause With Southern Democrats On Economic Matters

Why Did the Democratic and Republican Parties Switch Platforms?

Roosevelts reforms also brought tensions in the Democratic coalition to the surface, as the solidly Democratic South wasnt too thrilled with the expansion of unions or federal power generally. As the years went on, Southern Democrats increasingly made common cause with the Republican Party to try to block any further significant expansions of government or worker power.

“In 1947, confirming a new alliance that would recast American politics for the next two generations, Taft men began to work with wealthy southern Democrats who hated the New Deals civil rights legislation and taxes,” Cox Richardson writes. This new alliance was cemented with the Taft-Hartley bill, which permitted states to pass right-to-work laws preventing mandatory union membership among employees and many did.

Taft-Hartley “stopped labor dead in its tracks at a point where unions were large, growing, and confident in their economic and political power,” Rich Yeselson has written. You can see the eventual effects above pro-Democratic unions were effectively blocked from gaining a foothold in the South and interior West, and the absence of their power made those regions more promising for Republicans’ electoral prospects.

And They Are Holding Tightly To Their Party Identities

Americans political behavior and beliefs have grown ever more partisan over the past 40 years. Democrats and Republicans alike have become more likely to support their own partys candidates, to adopt their own partys issue positions, and even to distort their perceptions of objective facts to fit their own partys preferred version of reality. While political scientists have spent two decades documenting these trends, Donald Trumps presidency has broadened and accelerated this process.

Republicans and Democrats attitudes toward politicians and political organizations are getting farther apart

To understand these changes, I compared the results of surveys conducted by the Internet survey firm YouGov in November 2017 and January 2020. The data were matched and weighted to be demographically representative of the adult U.S. population. The 2017 survey included 736 Republicans and 930 Democrats; the 2020 survey included 1,098 Republicans and 1,386 Democrats.

In 2017, Republicans and Democrats differed in their average ratings of President Trump by 5.8 points on a 10-point scale. By this January, the difference had grown significantly, to 6.7 points. The endpoints of the scale were labeled extremely unfavorable feelings and extremely favorable feelings. The share of Democrats who gave Trump a zero increased from 71 percent to 81 percent, while the share of Republicans who gave him a 10 increased from 28 percent to 48 percent.

Red States And Blue States List

Due to the TV coverage during some of the presidential elections in the past, the color Red has become associated with the Republicans and Blue is associated with the Democrats.

The Democratic Party, once dominant in the Southeastern United States, is now strongest in the Northeast , Great Lakes Region, as well as along the Pacific Coast , including Hawaii. The Democrats are also strongest in major cities. Recently, Democratic candidates have been faring better in some southern states, such as Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida, and in the Rocky Mountain states, especially Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Since 1980, geographically the Republican base is strongest in the South and West, and weakest in the Northeast and the Pacific Coast. The Republican Partys strongest focus of political influence lies in the Great Plains states, particularly Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, and in the western states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

Also Check: Did Trump Call Republicans Stupid In 1998

Read Also: What Pin Was Kaine Wearing

The Republican Party Becomes The Party Of Rich Northerners

All this while, economic issues were growing more important to Republican politicians. Even before the Civil War, the North was more industrialized than the South, as you can see from this map of railway lines. After it, this industrialization only intensified.

And during the war, the federal government grew a lot bigger and spent a lot more money and that meant people got rich, and owed their wealth to Republican politicians. The partys economic policies, Cox Richardson writes, “were creating a class of extremely wealthy men.”

Gradually, those wealthy financiers and industrialists took more and more of a leading role in the Republican Party. They disagreed on many issues, but their interests rather than the interests of black Southerners increasingly started to become the partys raison detre.

The Republican Party Was Founded To Oppose The Slave Power

Dinesh D’Souza Debunks the Myth of the “Switch” between Republicans and Democrat Party

For the first half-century after the United States founding, slavery was only one of many issues in the countrys politics, and usually a relatively minor issue at that. The American South based its economy on the enslavement of millions, and the two major parties which by the 1850s were the Democrats and the Whigs were willing to let the Southern states be.

But when the US started admitting more and more Western states to the Union, the country had to decide whether those new states should allow slavery or not. And this was an enormously consequential question, because the more slave states there were, the easier it would be for the slaveholding states to get their way in the Senate and the Electoral College.

Now, the issue here wasnt that Northern politicians were desperate to abolish slavery in the South immediately, apart from a few radical crusaders. The real concern was that Northerners feared the “Slave Power” the South would become a cabal that would utterly dominate US politics, instituting slavery wherever they could and cutting off opportunity for free white laborers, as historian Heather Cox Richardson writes in her book To Make Men Free.

Don’t Miss: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Summarizing The Party Systems As A Two

Current events and complexities aside, there has almost always been a two-party system in the United States. The mentality of each party can be expressed as northern;interests and southern interests, although I strongly prefer city interests and rural interests . Sometimes we see both;interests;in the same party, as;with Humphrey and LBJ, and sometimes it is less clear cut, but we can always spot it in any era.

Thus, we can use a simple two party answer as to which factions;held which interests over time, which I hope will be seen as helpful, and not divisive.;Remember the U.S. is a diverse Union;of 50 sovereign states and commonwealths where the need to get a majority divides us into red states and blue states as a matter of custom, not as enemies, but as a United Republic with a democratic spirit.

Northern City Interests: Federalists, Whigs, Third Party Republicans, Fourth Party Progressive era Republicans , Fifth Party Democrats , Modern Democrats.

Southern Rural Interests: Anti-Federalists, Democratic-Republicans, Third Party Democrats, Fourth Party Progressive Era Democrats , Fifth Party Republicans , Modern Republicans.

TIP: One way to;summarize all of this is by saying the changes happened under, or as a result of, key figures including Jefferson and Hamilton, Adams and Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Bryan, the Roosevelts, Wilson, Hoover, LBJ, and Clinton. See a;comparison of the political ideology of each President from Washington to Obama.

How The Republicans Became Socially Conservative

The Fourth;Party Republicans;began;to change when;the Progressive Republican Theodore Teddy Roosevelt broke;from the party in 1912 . Following the break, the Republicans;increasingly embraced social conservatism;and opposed social;progressivism .;From Harding to Hoover, to Nixon, to Bush they increasingly favored classical liberalism regarding individual and states rights over;central;authority. This attracted some socially conservative Democrats like states rights Dixiecrat Strom Thurmon. It resulted in a Southernization of the;Republican party and drove some progressive Republicans from the party over time.

TIP: See History of the United States Republican Party.

Don’t Miss: Why Are Republicans Wearing Blue Ties

President Truman Integrates The Troops: 1948

Fast forward about sixty shitty years. Black people are still living in segregation under Jim Crow. Nonetheless, African Americans agree to serve in World War II.

At wars end, President Harry Truman, a Democrat, used an Executive Order to integrate the troops.

These racist Southern Democrats got so mad that their chief goblin, Senator Strom Thurmond, decided to run for President against Truman. They called themselves the Dixiecrats.

Of course, he lost. Thurmond remained a Democrat until 1964. He continued to oppose civil rights as a Democrat. He gave the longest filibuster in Senate historyspeaking for 24 hoursagainst the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

Republicans Lose Black Voters

For more than half a century after the Civil War, black voters held strong loyalties to the Republican Party. But those loyalties began to wane with the depression and the New Deal, and by the time race returned to the forefront of national politics in the 1950s, the number of black voters who;identified as Democrats was twice the number who identified as Republicans.

Still, considering that the South had been Democratic for so long, it did briefly seem that it was possible the Republican Party would discover its roots as the party of civil rights for black Americans. It was Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower who sent in federal troops to Arkansas to enforce the Supreme Courts decision to desegregate schools, after all.

But instead, it was a Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. Republicans gave the bill a good share of support in Congress, but the partys presidential nominee that year, Barry Goldwater, argued that it expanded government power too much.

As a result, Republicans went from losing black voters to losing them spectacularly. Ever since, it’s been common for 80 percent or even more of black voters to support Democrats.

Don’t Miss: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

The Kkk Was Founded By Democrats But Not The Party

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones and James Crowe in Pulaski, Tennessee. The group was originally a social club but quickly became a violent white supremacist group.

Its first grand wizard was Nathan Bedford Forrest, an ex-Confederate general and prominent slave trader.

Fact check:

Experts agree the KKK attracted many ex-Confederate soldiers and Southerners who opposed Reconstruction, most of whom were Democrats. Forrest even spoke at the 1868 Democratic National Convention.

The KKK is almost a paramilitary organization thats trying to benefit one party. It syncs up with the Democratic Party, which really was a;racist party openly at the time, Grinspan said. But the KKK isnt the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party isnt the KKK.

Although the KKK did serve the Democratic Partys interests, Grinspan stressed that not all Democrats supported the KKK.

The Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism senior fellow Mark Pitcavage told the Associated Press that many KKK members were Democrats because the Whig Party had died off and Southerners disliked Republicans after the Civil War. Despite KKK members’ primary political affiliation, Pitcavage said it is wrong to say the Democratic Party started the KKK.

Fact check:Yes, historians do teach that first Black members of Congress were Republicans

The Party Of Kennedy V The Party Of Nixon In The Civil Rights Era

Two things started happening at the same time:

Racist Democrats were getting antsy

Neither party could afford to ignore civil rights anymore

In 1960 Kennedy defeated Nixon. At the time of his election, the both parties unevenly supported civil rights. But President Kennedy decided to move forward.

After Kennedys assassination in 1963, Johnson continued Kennedys civil rights focus.

As you can imagine, that did not sit particularly well with most Southern Democrats. This is when Strom Thurmond flew the coop for good.

In fact, a greater percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats. Support for the Act followed geographic, not party, lines.

Soon after, the Republicans came up with their Southern Strategy a plan to woo white Southern voters to the party for the 1968 election.

The Kennedy and Johnson administrations had advanced civil rights, largely through national legislation and direct executive actions. So, the Southern Strategy was the opposite states rights and no integration.

As in the Civil War, the concepts of states rights and tradition, were codes for maintaining white supremacy.

Starting with Thurmond in 1964, and continuing throughout the Johnson and Nixon administrations, Dixiecrats left the Democrats for the Republicans.

Don’t Miss: Latest Republican Polls By State

What Is The Democratic Party

Democratic Party is a big party in the USA. The Democratic-Republican Party processes this party. It is one of the two major political parties. It was most noteworthy in 1828 by Andrew Jackson, who was the first president of this party. Washington DC headquarters of this party. Its symbol is the donkey, and the color is blue. For instance:-

Read more: Management vs. Administration.

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california-doom-merchants · 7 years

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The Apprentice: S1E2

I wrote the first one of these mid-January in between the election and the inauguration and:

I enjoyed writing it to hell

It's my favourite thing I've written in ages

I'm ill so I've got a big ball of spite that needs directing at SOMETHING

Fuck everything this man stands for

So that in mind let's begin. The US Apprentice, Season 1 Episode 2, aka “Sex, Lies and Altitude”, aka “Fucking Kill Me Dead”

First episode didn't have this theme song which opens with the refrain “Money money money, got to have it”

It's nice to be back, as in “the last time I watched this the star of this show didn't have a big red apocalypse button those sure were the days”

It opens on the two guys who didn't get fired walking back into the group

“David is...departed” motherfucker he lost in a reality show he didn't DIE

Alright so for all the opulence around them these guys are sharing rooms which are smaller than dorm rooms, like why the fuck are those even in Trump Tower

Maybe it's to make the co-eds feel more at homeroigoeinrgre

“The reality is that every board meeting will mean someone goes home” that's the basic premise of the show yeah

The women's group are gonna vote on who they want to be project leader

There's a whole bunch of drama between two of the women and like it's a competition aimed at businesspeople, of course they all want to lead this is Not Exactly Surprising

Trump is meeting the tiny apprentice idiots at an advertising agency

“This is Round 2 in a 13 round fight” too many rounds. too many.

Men's group are like “alright it's an advertising task, you worked in advertising, boom you're the leader”

seeing as yesterday you went to THE MOTHERFUCKING NY STOCK EXCHANGE *AIRHORNS* to get told “fuck you, sell lemonade” maybe not the best plan

but what do I know I don't have a BA in Money

One of the women is wearing a multicoloured bandanna at this business meeting and damn if that ain't Early 2000s Aesthetic right there

They meet up with the president of the advertising agency who's like early 50s and ripped and also in a tshirt and jeans for some reason??

He and Trump are very touchy-feely

He shows off his shitty open-plan office like it's the Taj Mahal and a security guard scoots right by them on a fucking scooter

“Advertising is an amazing thing, it's a powerful powerful tool, weapon”

Just drops “weapon” in there as if that's not actually quite disturbing

“this time you're gonna be working on CORPORATE. JETS” and they grin like 9 year olds

they gotta design an advertising campaign which sounds super tedious but again my name ain't Jonny Business what do I know

“the winning team is gonna be flown from New York to Boston by PRIVATE JET. For dinner”

oh boy I hope the jet is covered in gold

also I really hope they have to make their own travel arrangements home. fuck you peasants, third task is hitchhiking you motherfuckers

the advertising guy is like “cool you gotta make a 30 second advert and also a magazine ad”

he also gives them some friendly advice like “swing for the fences. and failure is not an option”.

Another way of putting that is “Take risks, and also make sure nothing goes wrong” which is ??????? you can't have risks without the chance of failure you chiseled fuck

oh wow so I didn't mention last time that each episode has like a business monologue?? from the big white supremacist himself

this one's titled “Don't Negotiate With Underlings”

alright so the “monologue” is like three sentences and two of them are “Deal with the boss”

like leaving aside a) DUH, b) could have titled that like “Talk To The One In Charge” or “Go Straight To The Top”

“Don't Negotiate With Underlings” makes you sound simultaneously like a total shithead but also a total shithead who's dealing with a hostage crisis

An advert popped up for Geena Davis on Will and Grace and props to whoever recorded this for not just switching channels

I don't even watch W&G but give me anyone who was in Thelma & Louise over this garbo

So the women immediately call up the company they're advertising for

“Hi we're working on your ad campaign” yeah in the same way that Maggie Simpson is driving Marge's car

“okay so we have an appointment today with the CEO and senior vice president of marketing” wow lucky they both happened to be free!!!

They are playing up the “this woman is ambitious and mean” angle to the fucking hilt

the leader literally picks one other woman to go to this meeting and fucks off without giving any other instructions

the next shot is them running out of the building and into a road like zoo escapees

the guy leader is like “we don't need to meet with the people who we're designing an ad campaign for, what do they have to offer??”

the women literally have to run to get to the meeting with the CEO

“one of the reasons you've been put on the Marquis Jet case is to wow us” well it was because you'd get to star on primetime CBS

meanwhile all the other women are looking at the jet they're (tangentially) gonna advertise

“my design idea is something that's very...risky” alright lay it on me

“I want to show a phallic symbol” HOLY SHITTTTTTTTT

but no seriously please don't, this show already has all the dicks I can handle

“I want to show a phallic symbol because it's a plane”

“I want to show a phallic symbol because it's a plane and if you buy the card you're gonna go UP. You're gonna go WAY UP”

Then there's a long lingering shot of the front of the plane

Smooth jazz starts playing

Ron Jeremy is there

“it's gonna be so bad they're gonna LOVE IT”

like credit's where it due, it takes a certain sort of courage to get a task like this and go “what if I make it DELIBERATELY shit?”

they're showing the woman they've established as Angry and Uncooperative talking about what a bad idea this is but I'm 100% on her side

and not just out of fuck-the-editors spite, this is so clearly dumb

Speaking of the editors, they've edited this one scene with the guys so badly it looks like one guy phoned another just to tell him who Warren Buffett is

“our project leader isn't motivating us, he needs to be our cheerleader” ummm

“Mr. Trump's been our cheerleader, Donnie's been our cheerleader” this is rapidly approaching Stockholm Syndrome, the only interaction he's had with you is to tell you that you're bad but not quite as bad as someone else

maybe he just knew some really nasty cheerleaders

There's a montage of these guys directing a TV ad being filmed and it could not be more obvious that they're clueless

It just cut to one guy who said “Victory. Victory for the men” and then it cut to someone else

Or maybe I hallucinated it

Nope it's still there

Fuck

Okay holy shit the women's ad just got referred to very casually as “Tammy's Testicle Ad”

There's two photos where they've shot the plane to look like a dick and like balls

That's like something eight year olds would do if given a budget

One of the guys working back at the office has literally laid down on the conference room floor to sleep

Honestly I don't even have the heart to make fun, I'm here for the obnoxious business people and the fascist in charge, not the guy who's clearly not in the right place emotionally to be on a TV show

The women are getting into full flight attendant outfits to make their pitch because “it's the full experience that sells it”, in which case where are your dongs

they're also doing a direct mail side of the campaign and the guy they're selling to is like “but people just toss direct mail”

She assured him it's “damn good”

I'm just enjoying the moment before he realizes their definition of “damn good” is largely genitalia-themed

These posters are the worst thing I've ever seen

also who the fuck direct mails a fucking private jet renting service? know your audience like what the ass

“alright guys you've set the women's movement back about 70 years”

damn dude imagine being told “hey design an advert for a plane!” and then two days later being told “you are traitors to your gender”

The guys are getting ready to present

“I am the Zen Master of presentation” yes but how capable are you of talking about DONGS

oh my god the men have made a Powerpoint and it actually has the “pie charts woosh onto screen” effects

they don't mention it but the pie chart absolutely mentions direct mail so both teams must have been told to do this very stupid thing

then they hand the committee first class cigars at the end

the committee is torn between the men's “a bit generic but overall good” approach and the women's “DICKS AND BALLS DICKS AND BALLS” approach

Everyone gets called back in so the ad company guy can call “The Big Guy”

The women won

I hate this

The women all get into a limo to go to their private jet and they shout “Donald's Divas!” and I can't anymore

Meanwhile the men are bickering

“Here's my guarantee to you – someone's getting fired tomorrow”

like is this stuff handed to them on a cue card or do people on reality shows just spend all their time re-iterating the concept and premise to other people on the show

“The jet was a taste of the Trump lifestyle” honestly props on making a TV series that is essentially an advert for yourself and getting it to last 10 plus seasons

Then there's this contrast montage of the women eating in this fancy restaurant and the guys eating at their shitty apartment complex

but you know what? the men look like they're happy and the women are all alone in a restaurant and look pretty miserable

why do the rewards always make me envy the losers more

is it because the winners have extra Trump proximity

(yes)

I don't want to get into the “drama” because it's like 95% manufactured but yeah the women are arguing

Race comes into it and frankly I can't imagine a worse forum to discuss misogynoir

but apparently this whole “flight to Boston, dinner, flight back” means they're on the move at 4am and that seems more like a penalty to the next round than anything else

like did nobody think of this?? or is this more of this “successful people don't need sleep” shit

one of the guys (the dude who slept) is very obviously freaking out and one of the guy says “sit down, relax, close your eyes”, puts a cowboy hat on him and gives this monologue like “imagine yourself fishing, the mountains at your back”

the other man thanks him and stays there for a bit

honestly I feel like I'm meant to laugh at this but it's oddly touching

smash cut to someone else - “yeah we need to fire that guy”

the losing team has to pack up all their stuff every time they go to the boardroom and I imagine that being just a hassle rather than genuinely unsettling

Trump walks into the boardroom out of the shadows just like he does in my nightmares

it's surreal watching these guys defend a “losing” idea which was actually professional

“you should have met with the guy who hired you” well YES

the team leader has to pick two other people who were responsible for losing

but the whole reason they lost was due to a decision he made so he picks the “fell asleep” guy and then someone else seemingly at random

this is Not A Very Well Thought Out Aspect Of Your Show

“I had to pick someone!” and then Trump's like “bit disloyal”

No it's literally one of the rules of your shitty TV franchise

The team leader is lying about stuff which is on tape which is a bold move

but dick-themed direct mail was also a bold move so what do I know

“Sam, you're a disaster, don't take offence, everyone hates you”

This is said to the same guy who was like “Donnie's our cheerleader!”

The team leader got fired

Honestly I think it's more because they think the other guy is good TV and they don't want to get rid of him too soon

and for someone who just didn't get fired he looks really quite upset

guy who got fired is like “I'll call you direct in five years when I have my first building”

I googled it, he does not own a building

So in summary – this wasn't fun. This wasn't interesting. This wasn't good television, or even good reality television. At best it got me to laugh at an absolutely terrible ad campaign and at worst it just made me feel bad for the guy who got fired, the guy who didn't get fired, the cast, the crew, the security guard on the ridiculous looking scooter and pretty much everyone involved in this trainwreck besides the walking talking constitutional crisis at the centre of it.

See you for Part 3!

#the apprentice

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wayneooverton · 5 years

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6 totally badass women I’m obsessed with right now

Despite 2018 seeming like it was perhaps a giant dumpster fire for women around the globe, woman did a tremendous job of getting. shit. done.

From the bravery shown by the women of the #MeToo movement, to historic wins for women in the midterm elections in the US (particularly of women of color), to Spain appointing a majority-woman cabinet, to Iranian women watching the World Cup in a stadium next to men for the first time in decades, to women in Saudi Arabia finally being legally allowed to drive, the list is long. It was a good year for us.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’m sharing a little list of badass women I’m currently obsessed with right now. I cut this list down from 17 to 6 because, holy hell, there are a lot of women that deserve some bragging right now and each one deserves her own blog post. I bow down!

Please leave a comment to let me know who I left out, and who else I should be obsessed with at the moment (because there’s always room for more in my closet shrine!)

1. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

If you were alive during 2018 (which I’m assuming you were since you’re reading this article) you probably didn’t escape the year without first hearing about Free Solo.

Perhaps you weren’t interested or didn’t really understand, but surely you’ve heard about the epically superhuman efforts of Alex Honnold, a free solo expert who achieved his dream of scaling 3,000ft of a vertical wall in Yosemite National Park without a rope.

It has rightly been dubbed as one of the greatest athletic feats in the history of mankind (NBD) and watching the event is equal parts exhilarating and holy-shit-I’m-sweating-in-places-I-didn’t-even-know-could-produce-sweat terrifying.

When you hear about Free Solo, people normally talk about two things:

1) how amazing Alex Honnold is (and he is amazing)

2) what a great film Jimmy Chin produced (one of the greatest adventure photographers of all time)

Ok great, enough about them, let’s move on to the real star of the show.

View this post on Instagram

It was a day … @stellamccartney @carolyntangel @thefashionguitar @mhmakesithappen @jimmychin @alexhonnold @sannimccandless @freesolofilm here we go….@c_albert #oscars2019 @oscardelarenta @idaorg thank you to too many who made this possible thank you #avillage

A post shared by Chai Vasarhelyi (@chaivasarhelyi) on Feb 24, 2019 at 12:38am PST

What no one ever seems to talk about is the co-director and all around inspirational badass Chai Vasarhelyi and her role in all this.

So who is she? I’m glad you asked. Chai is an uber-ambitious 39-year-old woman who grew up in Manhattan and when to college at Princeton. She finished her first documentary, A Normal Life, at age 24 that told the story of 7 college-aged friends in the middle of the Bosnian Conflict.

I can’t even tell you one interesting thing I did the year I was 24. Her film won the Tribeca Film Festival. Casual.

Moving on! She spent the next decade making films about Senegal, honing in on her knack for storytelling and showcasing raw human emotion. Let’s fast forward a bit because I could literally talk for hours about her and we’ve got a lot of women to cover.

Chai found herself in the presence of Jimmy Chin (who she initially blew off because why not, you do you, girl). He asked her for some tips on his film, Meru, which had been kicking around for years, not managing to make it into any film festivals. She let him wait in limbo for three months before she got back to him and agreed to take a look.

Chai turned the now famous Meru from doomed, super bro climbing porn film, to a genuine story that went on gain high praise from elite film festivals everywhere.

How’d she do it? She insisted on re-shooting basically everything except for the actual climbing. All of the storytelling, all of the interviews with the climbers, all of the interviews with the family members. She revisited all of that and pulled out real human emotion that she felt viewers could connect with. And she was right.

View this post on Instagram

More Ampas / Baftas and more @brockcollection what a break from being a mud drenched Doc filmmaker feels like being Cinderella…..thank you @freesolofilm @thefashionguitar @carolyntangel 🙏❤️

A post shared by Chai Vasarhelyi (@chaivasarhelyi) on Feb 8, 2019 at 11:51am PST

And as a surprise to literally no one, she did the same thing for Free Solo.

She took what easily could have been a niche climbing film and turned it into an oddly relatable and universal story: perfection vs death, love vs. focus, ethics vs. filming an incredible feat. For her efforts and diligence, this documentary made people feel things other than fear and exhilaration.

She gave the audience and understanding of the complexity of the whole project. Oh, and she’s married to Jimmy Chin in case anyone actually cared. And they just took home an Oscar!

2. Jacinda Ardern

You didn’t think I was going to write this list without mentioning one of the most badass world leaders of all times, did you? Especially from the country that was the first to give women the right to vote!

As a leader of the first Labour government in New Zealand in a decade, Jacinda Ardern shares values common of a leftist party: investment in health, education, climate action, public housing, and social justice. Excellent start, but hundreds of politicians share those values and push those agendas.

So what makes Jacinda so special?

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Happy Diwali! If you’re in Auckland (or even near it) pop along to the festival at Aotea Square

A post shared by Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) on Oct 19, 2018 at 8:22pm PDT

For starters, Jacinda has absolutely no time for what others expect of her outside of her job responsibilities.

All those bogus questions about family woman usually get when they run for public office? Nope! Jacinda wasn’t having any of it. She was elected and promptly announced her pregnancy like it was NBD, had the baby in a public hospital and became the first world leader ever to go on maternity leave, where she graced the world with a charming Facebook Live video of her and her daughter Neve.

When she was ready to go back, she went and her partner (not husband, mind you!) stayed home with the baby. I love a good gender role swap!

She continued her year getting shit done as the Prime Minister and also being an amazing parent.

She brought her new baby to the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit where she spoke moments after handing off the babe to her partner (She also got her baby a special UN pass for the event). Through her actions, she is normalizing being in a position of power as a new mom, breastfeeding at work, and having her partner be the primary caregiver.

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Welcome to our village wee one. Feeling very lucky to have a healthy baby girl that arrived at 4.45pm weighing 3.31kg (7.3lb) Thank you so much for your best wishes and your kindness. We're all doing really well thanks to the wonderful team at Auckland City Hospital.

A post shared by Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) on Jun 20, 2018 at 11:14pm PDT

Enough about her baby. Let’s talk about her career accomplishments. In her short time as president, she has already:

Introduced the Families Package that delivers more money to families with children and reduces child poverty

Passed a bill to allow leave for victims of domestic abuse

Made the first year of tertiary education or training fees free

Increase student allowances and living cost loans by $50 a week

Passed the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill, setting minimum standards for all rentals

Passed law banning overseas speculators from buying existing houses

Set up a ministerial inquiry into mental health crisis

Introduced legislation to make medicinal cannabis available for people with terminal illnesses or in chronic pain

Increased the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour (and announced this year another bump up to $17.70 by April of this year)

Set the zero carbon emissions goal and began setting up an independent Climate Commission, ended all new bids on offshore oil and gas exploration

And announced a phasing out of single-use plastic bags nationwide

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It’s been a while since I gave an update on the work to eradicate M. bovis, so here it is…. We’ve had 74 properties infected so far. 36 farms have now gone through the process of having their farms given the all clear and restocked – I visited one of those farms today to talk about their experience. We still have things we need to improve (and we made a few extra announcements on that today) but we’re also still very committed to eradicating Mycoplasma Bovis.

A post shared by Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) on Oct 8, 2018 at 5:28pm PDT

Oh, and she greeted the Queen of England wearing a traditional Maori cloak. What’s that? A country treating its indigenous population with even an ounce or respect and dignity!?

3. Melise Edwards

Melise has become one of my favorite women to follow on Instagram. Not only is she a sponsored rock climber, but she’s also an actual brain scientist AND social justice warrior.

She refuses to sit behind her climbing success without also tackling issues for women and communities of color in the outdoors. She refuses to accept the erasure of dark-skinned women in outdoor advertising and when she gets hate mail for it, she straight up calls those bullies out.

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The truth is: I've had so many negative interactions in the climbing community in recent years that have arisen due to conversations surrounding diversity, feminism, privilege and inclusion that I find myself sometimes uninterested, angry and afraid to be a part of the local community. . . There have been the friends from my city & back home who block, unfriend and unfollow me, though first letting me know that "demonizing white people" by asking for folks to recognize our many collective forms of privilege and the impacts of recent historical oppression on minorities is divisive and racist against white people. . . There have been the strangers and local climbers who are all too comfortable harassing and trolling me online with the added bonus of getting to see them here in the gyms when I climb. There have been the in-person conversations at where people seek me out to tell me I'm playing the victim and that racism and sexism are not really issues. . There have been the prominent climbers and first ascentionists who vehemently oppose these conversations and message me condescending remarks. There has been a man twice my age writing a blog post on his institute's page about my fragility. And on top of this, we see chronic affronts and attacks on POC & other underrepresented groups within the outdoor community and society at large daily. It comes from friends. It comes from strangers. It comes from leaders and people in positions of power in the industry. It comes from people who would rather not get involved. . . These things make it difficult to "just go climbing" and push myself within a hobby that used to give me so much joy. My life is amazing and I'm so thankful for where I am and all that I do. There are also many incredible people and groups in this industry who are doing invaluable work. But if I am being honest, I am struggling with my waning passion for a community and hobby I used to love. (Photo by @andreasassenrath)

A post shared by Mélise | Seattle, WA (@meliseymo) on Feb 26, 2019 at 12:02pm PST

Her passion and dedication is infectious and makes me want to do better:

“I yearn for the day when multiple women of color can be featured for an advertisement or photoshoot within and beyond the outdoor industry; for the day we don’t need to have several white women or men in the shot for the photo to be inherently successful. . I yearn for the day POC can get paid and aren’t questioned or criticized for wanting to get paid for their work and time. This means valuing their time, chronic advice, labor and the information they provide enough to actually compensate them. (E.g. how do I make my company more diverse?) . . I yearn for the day when more people of color make up the staffing at large companies and folks don’t call on *that one POC you know on Instagram* to ask for chronic free education and labor. . Companies: Diversify your staff. Diversify your marketing. Take actual efforts to support POC in the outdoor community beyond superficial displays that do not get at the root of the problem (e.g. inviting a panel of POC to talk for free at your events.) . Finally, please stop asking POC to only come to your events to talk about diversity instead of their amazing careers in the outdoors, recent adventures or athleticism. We can all do better when we learn how rampant these issues are in our community and seek to change them. I believe in you all.”

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Marketing in the outdoor industry and society at large is strikingly homogenous. Even attempts to diversify marketing efforts will usually feature one light skinned, white passing or racially ambiguous woman still out numbered 10:1 by white models and a usually all white staff. . . Similarly frustrating is the chronic expectation for POC to continually offer free labor to *thank* companies for daring to care about diversity. Superficial means of supporting diversity will be offered without ever addressing the issue at the community, staff, company and marketing level. . . Companies need to do better to represent the diversity of our communities. . I yearn for the day when multiple women of color can be featured for an advertisement or photoshoot within and beyond the outdoor industry; for the day we don't need to have several white women or men in the shot for the photo to be inherently successful. . . I yearn for the day POC can get paid and aren't questioned or criticized for wanting to get paid for their work and time. This means valuing their time, chronic advice, labor and the information they provide enough to actually compensate them. (E.g. how do I make my company more diverse?) . . I yearn for the day when more people of color make up the staffing at large companies and folks don't call on *that one POC you know on Instagram* to ask for chronic free education and labor. . . Companies: Diversify your staff. Diversify your marketing. Take actual efforts to support POC in the outdoor community beyond superficial displays that do not get at the root of the problem (e.g. inviting a panel of POC to talk for free at your events.) . Finally, please stop asking POC to only come to your events to talk about diversity instead of their amazing careers in the outdoors, recent adventures or athleticism. We can all do better when we learn how rampant these issues are in our community and seek to change them. I believe in you all. (PC @andreasassenrath)

A post shared by Mélise | Seattle, WA (@meliseymo) on Feb 2, 2019 at 9:56am PST

4. Cristina Mittermeier

In case you haven’t heard, global warming is real. It’s happening right now and us humans who have expedited global warming are generally not being helpful at all.

Good thing there are people like Cristina Mittermeier to show us the way forward. (And if I haven’t lost you at this point, congrats, you understand science!)

The Mexico-city born marine biologist has some notable accolades but her strength goes beyond her studies and awards. Cristina is an expert storyteller and sheds light on what’s going on in the world, whether at the bottom of the ocean floor or in some of the most remote indigenous villages in the world. She photographs them, tells their story and gives hope for the possibility of a mindful, sustainable future.

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What might seem like a featureless snow-covered landscape to us is an invisible map filled with smells that lead to prey and mates for polar bears. While the future of this incredible species remains uncertain and concerning, the unwavering hope that so many of you have for vulnerable wildlife tells me that our ability to protect them has never been more diverse and more promising.

A post shared by Cristina Mittermeier (@cristinamittermeier) on Oct 7, 2018 at 9:23am PDT

At her core, she wants her audience to really truly think about what it means to be a human and our undeniable link to other species and the responsibility to look after fellow life forms.

In 2005, she created a league of Conservation Photographers (hello new dream job!) to help give a platform for photographers working on environmental issues. She’s also co-founded a nonprofit called Sea Legacy, with legendary photographer Paul Nicklen, that works towards protecting the world’s oceans through storytelling.

If that’s not enough to convince you to be obsessed with her as well, I’ll leave you with this quote.

“To roam the farthest corners of the Earth, where wild creatures live, is a privilege reserved for an adventurous handful. But even though most of us may never feel the chill of Arctic air through the frozen flap of an icy tent, images can help us understand the urgency many photographers feel to protect wild places. My work is about building a greater awareness of the responsibility of what it means to be a human. It is about understanding that the history of every living thing that has ever existed on this planet also lives within us. It is about the ethical imperative—the urgent reminder that we are inextricably linked to all other species on this planet and that we have a duty to act as the keepers of our fellow life forms.”

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Blue whales are the largest animals to have ever existed, reaching mind-boggling dimensions of 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons on a diet composed almost exclusively of krill, tiny-shrimp like crustaceans. It was a joy to be in the water with this gentle giant off the coast of the Azores. I had never had an encounter with a blue whale before. While the hunting of blue whales was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1966, endangered fin whales are still being hunted in Iceland in defiance of a world wide ban of commercial whaling in 1986. Follow the link in my bio to learn more. This work was performed under the authorization n.0 XX-ORAC-2018 issued by the Government, on February 22, 2018.

A post shared by Cristina Mittermeier (@cristinamittermeier) on Jun 23, 2018 at 8:42am PDT

5. Mirna Valerio

There’s a myth in the medical world that fat people cannot be considered fit.

There’s phony talk about the importance of BMI (spoiler: it’s absolutely worthless for determining health) and the unarguable need to shed pounds to achieve health.

This simply is not true and Mirna Valerio is here to prove it.

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Guess what y’all? I’m a swimsuit model too! I loved this shoot with the talented @insecto, Carlos Palacios, in Costa Rica for @skirtsports! I never thought in a million years I’d be doing #swimwear photoshoots on a beach on top of a SUP board in #halfmoonpose baring, well not quite all, but more than I am used to… ## WELCOME TO MY NEW WORLD! Also this bathing suit is available the link in my bio—use code MIRNAVATOR for a 20% discount! #swimsuit #beachphotography #womenwhomove #optoutside #bathingsuit #bareitall #bodypositive #bopo #photography #bodylove #effyourbeautystandards

A post shared by Mirna Valerio (@themirnavator) on Feb 25, 2019 at 11:30am PST

Mirna has essentially been an outdoors obsessed athlete all of her life. From field hockey and lacrosse in high school to now being a full-on ultramarathon runner in her adult life. She started blogging (Fat Girl Running) in 2012 as she was training for her first marathon and as her support systems grew, so did the haters, flooding her inbox with negative comments. But Mirna never let the haters get her down. She loves her body and is consequently chasing our stereotyped perception of what fitness and health look like.

“They don’t like to see me on a cover of a magazine because I do not represent what fitness means to them,” she says. “I want to continue sticking my big ass into places where people think I don’t belong. That has been the nature of my life—I’m going to do it and I’m going to do it proudly.”

“We are much more than our bodies. Whether it’s body image, our choices to be moms or not, our career choices—we are more than our bodies,” Valerio says. “We’re so powerful beyond our wildest dreams.”

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An excellent morning on the #wildwoodtrail at #forestpark in Portland with new friends @erin.nicksmartin and @rossmaxloudness from my awesome Facebook Group FATGIRLRUNNING. We had a great time exploring the #trail, enjoying the peeks of sun, and most of all, each other’s company. So happy to have our community! #fatgirlrunning #trailrunning #optoutside #runtrails #trailandultra #trailrunning #outdoors #urbantrails #portlandtrails #runner #zapposrunning #empoweredbyrunning #hylandspowered

A post shared by Mirna Valerio (@themirnavator) on Dec 27, 2018 at 12:51pm PST

As a runner, author, and educator, Valeria has secured her voice encouraging everyone, especially the youth, to get outside where they can test their own mental and physical strength. She advocates for green spaces in cities and supports more price-public funding for school trips.

“It’s not just a necessity for urban kids, but it’s a necessity for kids all over no matter what their level of privilege is and no matter what their level of exposure and access is,” she says. “Whenever I think of the outdoors, it’s not only a place to be myself and live in my introverted ways, but I also look at the outdoors as a place of bonding with other people and having these really deep, profound experiences with nature that you can’t have looking out a window.”

6. Pattie Gonia

Pattie Gonia is the world’s first backpacking queen and honestly, this is exactly what we need right now in these trying times.

Some days the news is so dark and our world leaders are so questionable that you might want to crawl into a tiny cave and not come out until everything is fixed but then, like a ray of sunshine and hope, emerges Pattie Gonia, the viral drag queen who dances on top of mountaintops in platform heels and everything in the world seems a little more manageable.

Yes!

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SURPRISE BISH !!!! park ranger pattie is here to write you a ticket for being TOO DAMN FABULOUS. 👑 & o no sis we’re not done yet. 💥 your fine is to tell someone u know needs to hear it how fabuluz they are too. 🧚🏻‍♂️ & u know y??? because this is our year to shine TOGETHER. so u better watch out u better not hide i’ll be patrolling these here parts & should u choose to be too fabulous again just watch me i’ll pop out from behind a tree (BOO!!) w these au natural hairy leggz & say u too wonderful AGAIN here’s another 1 !!!! . whooole lewk by queen @katienashbeauty photo by queen @erinoutdoors photographed on jumanos native lands . #servingyounationalparkSERVEice #nationalparkservice #nationalparks #outdoors #neature #nature #alewk #amajorlewk

A post shared by Pattie Gonia (@pattiegonia) on Mar 4, 2019 at 12:30pm PST

Pattie graced us with her presence less than six months ago but has already made waves across the world.

Pattie is portrayed by fellow Nebraskan photographer and Eagle Scout Wyn Wiley. If you aren’t familiar with various state identities in the USA, let’s just say that Nebraska is not the easiest state to be apart of the LGBTQ group.

Nevertheless, Wiley unapologetically embraces his inner queen and we’re all a lot better because of it.

But Pattie Gonia is more than a feel-good IG feed to make you smile. Wiley’s ultimate goal is for Pattie Gonia to inspire more people to get outside and enjoy mother nature, especially those who have historically been excluded from the outdoor community, including the LGBTQ community, people of color, and bigger folks.

He hopes to achieve this by having Pattie Gonia lead groups of newbie hikers and using sponsors to help provide gear for those who can’t afford it, because let’s be honest, outdoor gear can be as expensive as hell and historically, spending leisure time outside is a huge fucking privilege.

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THE BEND & SNAP TRAIL EDITION ♻️💃🏼🌲 ugh isn’t trash on the trails the most sad moment??? let’s keep our trails clean & do it while looking fab && snatched & cute as a bb prancing deer. not only for us but for all the animal babes friends we share mother natch with!!! remember, we have one earth to have our party, let’s not leave the house trashed. pick up your trash. it’s simply good etiquette, queens. . keeping our trails is clean is as easy as you brining a simple plastic bag to not only pack out your trash but what was left behind by other people. even if you pick up a piece or two of trash on a 30 min hike that can do wonders to keep mother natch looking snatched. . outfit by clothes my mom got me for christmas video by @charlieronan edit by @adamkingman #recycle #packout #packinpackout #protectourparks #nationalparks #hikevibes #litter #trash #stateparks #parksandrec #11thessential #leavenotrace #staywild #colorado #redrocks #denver #nature #fierce #drag #dragqueen #dance . video taken on cheyenne and ute native land

A post shared by Pattie Gonia (@pattiegonia) on Feb 7, 2019 at 12:22pm PST

On a more personal level, Pattie is a way for Wiley to explore his more feminine sides.

“In my normal life, I’d say I’m pretty straight-passing,” he says. “But when I put those boots on, it feels like a girl when she puts on mascara for the first time – it unlocks a different side of you that you haven’t seen before. I think femme is important. I think masculinity is important. I think it’s all inside of us.” If everyone accepted this gender fusion, the world would be a much better place.

Trust me. Better yet, trust Pattie.

Spill! Who are some badass women you’re obsessed with right now? Comment below and share some inspo!

The post 6 totally badass women I’m obsessed with right now appeared first on Young Adventuress.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years

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YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere. Avoid distractions. You have to know what the tricks are for growing fast. But although I can't explain in the general case. Teenagers. But everyone knows this is a labor of love and he wants it to be perfect.1 And the core problem in a different way, but to design beautiful rockets, or to write well, or to understand how to program computers.2

But they work as if they were doing for office space, and seemed surprised when I said we expected them to work out of whatever apartments they found to live in.3 In a sense there's just one mistake that kills startups: not making something users want, you'll be fine, responsible choices and yet, like Windows in the 90s, will destroy you if you fire anyone. Joshua Schachter gradually built Delicious on the side while working on their day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects.4 Even for someone in the nineteenth century was not a fixed quantity that had to be memorized in order to protect the work they'd invested in a position on the corporate ladder is probably gone for good. I worry it's not merely unnecessary to learn in college had the same flaw: a very hard problem, but their approach was so bogus that there was little to learn from him. Because to the extent we're correct, those are the only things you need at first. If you're raising an angel round, the size of the round can even change on the fly. The most dangerous form of stupid comment is not the same as the cause of the problem.5 Merely looking for the word click will catch 79. If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a certain age they're afraid of the ball. The only thing technology can't cheapen is brand. In almost any other kind of work is overpaid and another underpaid, what are we really saying?

Because of the circumstances in which they encounter it, children tend to misunderstand wealth. In the more common case, where founders and investors are equally represented and the deciding vote is cast by neutral outside directors, all the top five words here would be neutral and would not contribute to the spam probability. Even if you could get without looking physically different. Statistically, if you restrict the sales pitches spammers can make, you will inevitably tend to put them out of business; they feel obliged by various state laws to include boilerplate about why their spam is not unsolicited commercial email. A position on the corporate ladder had a value analogous to the goodwill that is a knowledge of what various individual philosophers have said about different topics over the years. Hardy's boast that number theory had no use whatsoever wouldn't disqualify it. But few technology startups are in that position today. It's like the court of Louis XIV. But that doesn't mean what they end up learning is useless.6 Which means your brain could conceivably be split into two halves and each transplanted into different bodies. Bear in mind, this is the place to attack them.

Why not let people spend 100% of their time on their own projects? Based on my corpus, sex indicates a. Thought you should check out the following: http://www. When we were given a test on the book, I noticed that the questions sounded odd. But the short version is that if you trust your instincts about people. Much to the surprise of the builders of the first digital computers, Rod Brooks wrote, programs written for them usually did not work.7 That was what lured me in as a high school student. It's inconvenient to do something you should. One question that arises in practice is what probability to assign to a word you've never seen, i. In 1900, if you look at the way software gets written in most organizations, it's almost as if they were in college, whether you want to get into a good college was more or less united was divided into haves and have-nots. I feel reasonably confident about it.

In the old world of channels, it meant something to talk about abstractions. For me, as for a lot of good mathematicians are bad teachers.8 Indeed, most antispam techniques so far have been like pesticides that do nothing more than create a new, third group who lived in towns and supported themselves by manufacturing and trade. It's hard to distinguish something that's hard to understand because the writer was unclear in his own mind from something like a mathematical proof that's hard to understand because the ideas it represents are hard to understand, people who suspect they're nonsense generally keep quiet. A lot of people who couldn't become good mathematicians no matter how cozy the terms. With the rise of the middle class. The best way to get wealth is by stealing it. Among other things, about our obligations to one another. This essay is derived from a talk at Oscon 2005. Not necessarily. They dress to look good. It discovered, of course, is that you don't notice.9

They couldn't fix the system. But to who?10 There will of course come to mind. The problem with most schools is, they have a board majority, they're literally your bosses. Another thing blogs and open source software have in common is the Web. Feature-recognizing filters like SpamAssassin assign a spam score to email. The second reason we tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies. You turn the fan back on, and a combined probability of. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to lean back. You need rich people in your society, take relative poverty.

Notes

Doing Business in 2006, http://paulgraham. If asked to choose between great people to work not just the location of the magazine they'd accepted it for you? We couldn't talk meaningfully about revenues without including the order of 10,000 sestertii e. You also have to put it would certainly be less than a tenth as many per capita as in e.

The threshold may be underestimating VCs. Convertible debt can be a great reputation and they're clearly working fast to get a personal introduction—and in a way to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. He did eventually graduate at about 26. Top VC firms were the seven liberal arts colleges are doomed.

On the face of it.

Mitch Kapor, is that any given time I know it didn't to undergraduates on the critical path to med school.

Yes, strictly speaking, you're going to have funded Reddit, stories start at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. In fact, this idea is the other meanings. To the extent to which the top and get data via the Internet. This law does not appear to be the right thing, while simultaneously implying that you're not even be conscious of this essay wrote: One YC founder told me: One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to try to establish a silicon valley.

This just seems to pass so slowly for them by the time I thought there wasn't, because outsourcing it will become as big a cause for optimism: American graduates have more skeletons than squeaky clean dullards, but investors can get very emotional. So it is because other companies made all the mistakes you made. But this is: we currently filter at the data in files too. On the other is laziness.

Reprinted in Bacon, Alan ed. But a couple predecessors.

This phenomenon is not just for her but for blacklists nearness is physical, and each night to make that leap. But it's unlikely anyone will ever hear her speak candidly about the millions of people who chose the wrong ISP. After lunch we went to prep schools supplied the same lesson, partly because companies then were more the type who would make good angel investors in startups. This just seems to have done well if they'd like it that the elegance of proofs is quantifiable, in that sense, but simply because he was before, and most pharmaceutical startups the second type to go sell the bad groups and they were still so small that no one trusts that.

If you want to invest in it.

Actually no one else involved knows French. Stone, op. As far as I explain later.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Sarah Harlin, and Ron Conway for smelling so good.

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melindarowens · 7 years

Text

How to beat Roy Moore

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro’s Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races — and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day’s most important campaign news — sign up for Campaign Pro today. (http://www.politicopro.com/proinfo)

DAILY ROLL TIDE — “How to beat Roy Moore, according to the guy who nearly did,” by Campaign Pro’s Daniel Strauss: “Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Alabama in almost a decade. But in 2012, one Democrat almost pulled it off: Bob Vance, a mild-mannered circuit court judge from Birmingham who came within 4 points of beating none other than Roy Moore. Now Democrats are looking back at that state Supreme Court contest for clues on how their Senate nominee, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, might improve slightly upon Vance’s performance and stage a special election upset in a state long seen as out of reach to the party. … ‘He’s very divisive even within the Republican Party,’ Vance said of Moore. ‘That’s why I agreed to run against him.’ He added: ‘I knew there were a lot of establishment Republicans who couldn’t stomach Roy Moore.'” Full story.

Story Continued Below

— “Alabama secretary of state gets pro-Jones digital ad pulled,” by Strauss: “An ad produced by the pro-Doug Jones super PAC Highway 31 has been removed from YouTube after Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill’s office decided the spot included ‘incorrect or inaccurate information intent on confusing voters.’ … In a statement, the secretary of state’s office said: ‘Reports from several sources indicate a targeted effort to misinform and confuse voters regarding whether an individual’s voting record would be available to the public. No individual voting record is made available to anyone at anytime, including the voter who cast the ballot.'” The ad can be viewed here. Full story.

On Thursday afternoon, Highway 31 Executive Director Adam Muhlendorf released a statement: “We are in contact with Google to ensure the ad runs through Election Day. The fact of the matter remains that John Merrill is inferring an intent that is simply not true.”

— A new ad from Jones’ campaign pushes back on attacks from Moore’s campaign that the former U.S. attorney is against “strong borders and a secure military.” The new 30-second ad also says Moore is lying about Jones’ position on abortion.

RETIREMENT WATCH — “Rep. Trent Franks to resign after discussing surrogacy with female staffers,” by POLITICO’s Rachael Bade, Kyle Cheney, and Elena Schneider: “Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) announced Thursday that he would resign from office as of Jan. 31, 2018, after discussing surrogacy issues with female staffers. ‘I have recently learned that the Ethics Committee is reviewing an inquiry regarding my discussion of surrogacy with two previous female subordinates, making each feel uncomfortable,’ he said in a statement. ‘I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process in the workplace caused distress.’ … Franks is the third lawmaker to announce plans to resign this week as the furor over sexual misconduct and harassment sweeps Capitol Hill. He will be the first Republican to vacate his post amid the growing scandal.” Full story.

— IN MINNESOTA — “Franken resigns,” by POLITICO’s Elana Schor and Seung Min Kim: “Sen. Al Franken said on Thursday that he would resign after seven women came forward in recent weeks and said he groped or tried to forcibly kiss them, capping a stunning fall from grace for one of the Democratic Party’s most popular and high-profile politicians. … ‘I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,’ Franken said.” Full story.

— “Sen. Al Franken to leave U.S. Senate, says he can no longer be effective,” by The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Jennifer Brooks and Maya Rao: Gov. Mark Dayton “is expected to appoint a replacement soon. A Democratic source told the Star Tribune that Dayton is likely to appoint Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, and that she is not expected to run in the special election. But other ambitious [members of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party] are likely to be interested or at least be considered. In a statement issued after Franken’s speech, Dayton said, ‘I expect to make and announce my decision in the next couple days.'” Full story.

— IN NEVADA — “Democrat Kihuen hanging on despite harassment claim,” by POLITICO’s Heather Caygle: “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi won’t call for a primary challenger to take on Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen, despite saying the freshman Democrat should resign due to sexual harassment allegations. ‘This is not about politics. That’s the last thing this is about,’ Pelosi said Thursday in response to questions about Kihuen, who has refused demands from party leaders to step down. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not respond to requests for comment on whether it would fund a primary challenger against Kihuen. The campaign arm has, however, removed Kihuen from its ‘Frontline’ program, which prioritizes funding for vulnerable members.” Full story.

— Former Rep. Cresent Hardy reconsidering another run for NV-04, by the Nevada Independent’s Luz Gray: Hardy, a Republican, “says he’s considering running for the Nevada congressional seat he lost last year to embattled Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen, who’s facing an allegation of sexual harassment and calls to resign. Hardy told The Nevada Independent on Wednesday that people are continuing to ‘push me very hard to reconsider’ his decision, announced in July, that he wouldn’t run in the 2018 election cycle.” Full story.

Days until the 2018 election: 333

Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

IT’S OFFICIAL — “Bredesen makes Senate bid official,” by Campaign Pro’s Kevin Robillard: “Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is running for U.S. Senate, he announced [Thursday]. Bredesen’s entrance into the race makes Tennessee a potential top-tier Senate contest in 2018. He’ll face Army veteran James Mackler for the Democratic nomination. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Rep. Stephen Fincher are competing for the GOP nomination.” Full story.

— Following Bredesen’s decision to jump into the Democratic primary, the opposition research group American Bridge is starting to aggressively focus on the state. The group is planning to put a tracker on Blackburn and already has almost 100 hours of footage and over 1,600 pages of research on her, per Bridge spokesman Josh Karp.

DEMS ON FRANKEN — “Why Democrats had to dump Franken,” by POLITICO’s Edward-Isaac Dovere: “A year into Donald Trump’s presidency, many voters still don’t know what Democrats stand for — so at the very least, party leaders reluctantly decided, they better take a stand against sexual harassment. Especially when they’re going to need a huge turnout among women to do what now still seems like a reach, but six months ago seemed impossible: flip the House and maybe even the Senate, and rally in races for governor and state legislature across the country next year. … Beyond the White House’s dismissal of the women who’d gone public with accusations against Trump, Democratic leaders know that within a week, they’re likely to have a Senate without Franken but including Roy Moore, despite allegations of preying on children and being banned from a mall over his alleged pursuit of teenage girls.” Full story.

COWBOY STATE DEMOCRAT — Businessman Gary Trauner, a Democrat, is running for Senate in Wyoming. In his announcement video Trauner stresses the importance of “getting big money out of politics.” Watch the video here. Trauner is hoping to beat Sen. John Barrasso.

REMEMBER GILMORE? — “Anybody but Corey Stewart? Virginia GOP looks for others to run against Sen. Kaine,” by The Washington Post’s Jenna Portnoy and Laura Vozzella: “As Virginia Republicans gather Friday for their annual retreat, party leaders are alarmed at the possibility of fielding Corey Stewart as next year’s U.S. Senate nominee, and with help from the national GOP, they are maneuvering to recruit someone else to be the face of the party. … Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, recently summoned former Gov. James S. Gilmore III to Washington to ask him to run, while Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah) met with Del. Nick Freitas (Culpeper) to advise him on a likely campaign.” Full story.

RSLC MEMO — A new memo from the Republican State Leadership Committee pushes back on the argument that Democrats have the wind at their backs in state-level elections: “Lost in the Democrat catharsis of Nov. 7 statewide wins in New Jersey and Virginia and its aftermath have been several notable Republican state-level wins. … Just this week, Republican Sen.-Elect Dean Tran, flipped a seat in Massachusetts that had been Democrat-held since 1974. In fact, Democrats’ narrowest margin of victory during that time was 18 percent. Both President [Barack] Obama and Hillary Clinton carried the district in recent presidential elections. Tran will become the only Vietnamese-American in the Massachusetts Legislature and marks the 11th newly elected Republican state legislator this year identified through either the RSLC’s Future Majority Project, which supports candidates from diverse communities like Tran, or our Right Women, Right Now initiative that supports new female Republican candidates for office.” Full memo here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The establishment that’s supporting Pritzker wants us to not worry about Pritzker’s electability” in a general election. — Illinois state Sen. Daniel Biss on Democratic gubernatorial rival J.B. Pritzker

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everettwilkinson · 7 years

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How to beat Roy Moore

Story Continued Below

Days until the 2018 election: 333

Thanks for joining us! You can email tips to the Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @danielstrauss4 and @maggieseverns.

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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California changin ‘: three heads assure biography be replicated in state’s primary

Exclusive: on the day of the Golden States vote, we hear from Jerry Brown, Gray Davis and Pete Wilson, three living governors who could have been president

Jerry Brown sat beside a glittering swimming pool at the governors mansion, having exactly browsed a batch of California newspapers in the spring sunshine.

The articles were now folded and stacked on a table. The superintendent searched a little bored. History isnt a big topic in the majority newspapers, he said.

Brown is a big thinker, never willingly constrained by the borders of his regime.

During an interview at his Sacramento residence that lasted close to an hour, he testified more interest in issues that reside chairwomen than ministers: climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, the buildup of Nato units along the Russian margin, the global economy.

Look at Brazil, Chile, France, Ukraine, Poland theres a lot of miserable folk out there, he supposed. Weve had a period of wealth. A mint of beings are well-situated. But a lot of other people arent. Therein is the debate. Can the center accommodate? Can leader rise to the opportunity?

Brown is one of three living California governors, including his predecessors Gray Davis and Pete Wilson, who once had a shot at occupying the White House.( Arnold Schwarzenegger, a naturalized citizen, is not eligible to operate; George Deukmejian evidenced minimal those who are interested in national bureau .)

In extended sit-downs with the Guardian, Brown, Davis and Wilson offered sharply vying perceptions of the challenges facing California and the presidential candidates who have been crisscrossing the Golden State in the lead-up to the states presidential primary on Tuesday.

Yet both Brown and his two predecessors exposed, in different ways, an feeling about the tempo of change in the position they determined, collectively, for four decades.

The objections that face Californias heads eclipse those of heads of state of many countries. Major a matter that baffle world policymakers are decanted to their quintessence here: income inequality, climate change, globalization, technological disturbance.

The state has a population bigger than Canadas and an economy among the top 10 in “the worlds” up there with Japan, the UK, Germany and India thrust forward by a relentless thirst for innovation.

The state is always off balance, elongating itself precariously, improvising, seeking to run the speedies of periodic tidal waves of movement, historian Carey McWilliams wrote in California: The Great Exception.

McWilliams work was published in 1949, but it is just like it could have come out just last week.

Jerry Brown: two seconds shot at participating in the state

Jerry Brown began his first two consecutive expressions as a 36 -year-old in 1975. His second two words in bureau will finish in 2019, when he is 80. Photograph: Max Whittaker for the Guardian

No one alive in California today can claim to have a better understanding of the states recent wander, its ebbs and its overflows, than Brown, its longest-serving governor.

He began his first two consecutive periods as a 36 -year-old in 1975. His second two periods in bureau will finish in 2019, when he is 80.

I have this experience of sitting in the same room, with the same openings, looking out at the place there in the Capital Park, and the retention of what was relevant then, he said.

All of which can lead to a certain deja vu.

Asked about the idea of having rendering all citizens an unconditional, universal income a thought currently in vogue in Silicon Valley, where it is taken for granted that robots will render most activities defunct Brown looked a little weary.

Thats called a demi-grant, he responded. Thats what George McGovern proposed in the 1972 expedition. It didnt go over very well.

When it comes to financial affairs, Browns prudence is well established. No historic hertz appears to irked him more than Californias habit of lurching from economic good times to bad, from boom to bust.

After evidencing how economic catastrophes delivered down predecessors such as Davis and Schwarzenegger, Brown has made the prudent stewardship of state commerces his hallmark.

Jerry Brown is affirmed in as California governor on 6 January 1975. Photograph: AP

Through a combination of spending sections, good fortune and levy grows, Brown has obliterated the $27 bn lack. He has done so while determining drastic goals to reduce Californias carbon emissions and is enjoying notoriety ratings that are the envy of many rival ministers.

I think our success is a refutation of the individuals who announce climate change investments retard their own economies, he answered.

Now the books are balanced, and legislators in his own Democratic party are calling for more spending on social programs.

But the minister, who recently signed a constitution that will increase Californias minimum wage to $15 an hour in six years old, is counselling limited. He argues that a recent immerse in tax revenues underscores the need to prepare for what could be another economic downturn.

When youre at the end of a business repetition, theres a great deal of money, and youve had a record of a lot of money so youre exceedingly acclimated to having coin, so it is very hard to say in the middle of that Oh, halt, gives slow down, makes save, he remarked, justifying the reluctance of his adversaries. It doesnt feel right.

Brown claimed to be unaware of the chorus of headache among venture capitalists and analysts in Silicon Valley. They worry that 16 years after the first dotcom bubble burst, the tech economy, the modern machine of proliferation in California, is once again contracting.

I havent heard often about it but it wouldnt surprised to see me, he said.

Brown urges fortitude when it comes to the two major infrastructure projects he hopes will define his gift tunnels to convey irrigate to agricultural parts of the state parched by drought, and an ambitious high-speed rail line.

He seemed unfazed by PayPal billionaire Elon Musks proposed Hyperloop a pneumatic tube to ferry fares between San Francisco and Los Angeles for a tenth of the cost of a high-speed rail system

Thats vaporware, Brown did, utilizing tech shorthand for a commodity that isnt “re ready for” public consumption. And by the way, theyre different things: arent you in a little thing “goin ” a vacuum tube? Thats not the same as gazing out the window, socializing with your neighbour, is it?

Brown strove the Democratic nomination for chairman three times in his career in 1976, 1980 and 1992 and was mooted as a formidable candidate this year, too.

His most successful move was against Bill Clinton, although it famously descended into bitterness.

His populist, grassroots expedition railed against commerce copes such as Nafta, called for a living wage and promised reform of a debase expedition investment system.

Sounds familiar, doesnt it? Brown supposed, alluding to Bernie Sanders leftwing range, which has ignited a radical basi of voters. I reckon I even said the 1 %.

Brown had not endorsed potential candidates in the Democratic primary when he was interviewed by the Guardian last-place month.

But last week, he opted to endorse Hillary Clinton.

It was a subdued blurb, following a private meeting with his former adversary, Bill Clinton. He prepared the bulletin in an open letter to Democrats that praised Sanders as much as Clinton, and portrayed his decision as training exercises in political pragmatism rather than any attraction for the Democratic frontrunner.

Governor Brown endorsed Clinton for the 2016 election in an open letter to Democrat. Image: Max Whittaker for the Guardian

This is no time for Democrat to save pushing one another, Brown wrote, after please explain how insurmountable Clintons precede was and warning of the consequences of a Donald Trump presidency. The general election has already begun.

Brown argues that Trumps political candidacy repeats the narrative of his TV prove The Apprentice.

Only this time the real estate baron says youre burnt not to a rival, Brown alleges, but to the the fail status quo, in Washington, in the economy, in the world.

The experience of an unconventional nominee with fame plead erupting the populist barrage is not a brand-new one for Brown. Both of his stints as California governor identified him oust actors-turned-politicians Reagan in 1975 and Schwarzenegger in 2011.

People emphatically like performers, Brown pronounced. After Pat Brown, people choose Ronald Reagan After Davis was remembered, they opt for Arnold People like a good show.

Gray Davis: The troubles are far more severe now

Gray Davis is a strong benefactor of Hillary Clintons presidential attempt. Image: Dan Tuffs for the Guardian

Until this years expected contest between Clinton and Trump, it has been hard to find two candidates as different from each other as Gray Davis and Arnold Hasta la vista, newborn Schwarzenegger.

Davis is punishment and moderate, cautious and exceedingly low-key. After stints as commonwealth controller and lieutenant minister, he was viewed, in the words of San Jose Mercury News political writer Phil Trounstine, as perhaps the best trained governor-in-waiting that California has ever produced.

As one California columnist placed it in a piece about possible presidential candidates to post up against the then chairperson George W Bush: Dont be surprised if, sometime in early 2003, Democratic seeings turn to Sacramento. Gray Davis is as conceivable successful candidates as anyone.

But the special poll break short Davis second expression, stillness all talk of a 2004 presidential bid and throw a Hollywood action star in its term of office. Davis became the second largest superintendent in American history to be recalled.

The main similarity between 2003 and 2016, Davis said, is anger.

Voters who support Sanders and Trump are ferocious at an oblivious political class and an economy that has helped the few while leaving the many behind. Thirteen years ago, Californians seethed over a $38 bn country budget deficit and an electricity crisis that dimmed illuminates while helping Enron.

We had some plan topics, Davis said with characteristic understatement during a 90 -minute interview in his Century City office. We had the energy crisis. I envision people were disappointed. But that kind of sallows in comparison with what I guess Americas going through now.

The state unemployment rate when Davis was governor peaked at 7 %. As the Great Recession ended, it crested 12% before drooping to a preliminary reading of 5. 3% this past April. Although millions of people are back to work in California and throughout the country, the gap between rich and poor has enlarged, and good, middle-class undertakings are hard to find.

I think the problems are far more severe now because of technology dislocating enterprises, in part because of busines agreements, Davis said. There are more and more Americans, be they college developed or not, they cant find fulfilling handiwork. And that is a big problem.

Gray Davis impounds two handgun during a 1999 press conference where he reaffirmed support for legislation that would rehabilitated the country disallow on military-style assault artilleries. Photograph: Nick Ut/ AP

Finding meaningful engaging for those craving work is among the biggest challenges facing California, tells the soft-spoken 73 -year-old. Another one? Moving sure those jobseekers are equipped to survive in a rapidly changing world.

Were the dwelling of Silicon Valley, and a lot of this technological change flows from our district, Davis said. So I think we have an obligation as national societies Silicon Valley is under the obligation, as well as state and federal government to figure out, OK, if we employ beings out of work, what is it they can do? And how can we be part of helping them?

Effective vocational training is the first phase, Davis said, but it cant be some rinky-dinky program, unless it leads to a undertaking thats meaningful.

Virginia is one possible representation. Ninth-graders in the Old Dominion are told early in the school year what occupations are available in their region and what courses they should take to be hired, he remarked. High school juniors and seniors are linked up with prospective employers.

So even if you dont going to see college, “youre seeing”, Im graduating and maybe theres a home I can go, Davis said. Even the most sophisticated business have computers and machines which are required to be serviced. Those are about $90,000, $100,000[ a year] jobs.

Among those he has lobbied, often, is Hillary Clinton, whom he describes as being in total agreement.

Davis is a strong backer of Clintons presidential offer. She might not be the worlds best activist, he acknowledges, an honor that goes to her husband. But she is as qualified a person as has ever run for the presidency.

There they are in a framed photo on the wall of his very nifty role: Davis to the left, his “hairs-breadth” a little more blond than grey-haired, Clinton in the middle and Univision chairman Haim Saban to the right. The photo dates from 2008 when the former head and the billionaire mega donor backed her first run for the Oval Office. Both are in her reces again.

Pete Wilson: We have been losing tasks at a ghastly frequency for a very long time

Pete Wilson tells demographics are largely to blame for the shrinking California GOP. Picture: Dan Tuffs for the Guardian

Many point to Pete Wilson and Proposition 187 to explain the collapse of the California Republican party.

When he was elected head in 1990, the GOP claimed 39% of the states registered voters. That illustration has removed more than 11 percentage points since.

But the 82 -year-old Republican calls such a characterization the myth that has been promoted aggressively by the people who are for illegal migration, and Im not talking about the immigrants. Im talking about the smart pols and the people they employed to promote that.

Proposition 187, which sought to barroom undocumented immigrants from services such as education and non-emergency medical aid, guided with 59% of the voting in 1994, Wilson greenbacks, a feat that could not have occurred without the support of registered Democrats. It was later tossed out by a federal adjudicator.

The measure, a cornerstone of his re-election campaign, facilitated Wilson win a come-from-behind race. At the time, he pledged to serve his full second period. When he announced in 1995 that he had a duty to run for chairman, he angered many of his loyal donors. After merely six months, he lowered out of the hasten, his safarus$ 1m in debt.

When Pete Wilson was elected in 1990 the GOP claimed 39% of the states registered voters. That has descent more than 11 percentage points. Photograph: Gary Stewart/ AP

The vote for 187 greatly surpassed the Republican registration, Wilson alleged. And, in fact, when[ then chairperson Bill] Clinton and[ then vice-president Al] Gore came here and were being very righteous, I spoke, Well, if “youve been” think thats true, I have to remind you of something. The be voting in favour of 187 enormously outperformed the vote for Clinton-Gore. And I dont think it was a cluster of Republicans voting for Clinton-Gore.

The way Wilson sees it, demographics are primarily to blame for the wince California GOP , not Prop 187.

In 1990, the population stands at merely under 30 million, with 57% of inhabitants white-hot and 25% Latino. By 1 July 2014, Latinos had officially hummed out lily-whites as the most significant ethnic group in California; out of 38.8 million people at the time, 14.99 million were Latino and 14.92 million were white.

In addition, Wilson told, a lot of beings have moved out of California who were Republicans. They have moved to Montana, Texas. Theyve moved into Nevada Part of “its by” people left when their jobs left. And “weve been” losing errands at a afraid frequency for a very long time.

The former marine said that when he flip his support behind 187, “hes taking” the greatest agony not to be misconstrue about its own position. The evaluate is not about race, he said then and reiterates now, but preferably about the principles of the rule of statute. Those who come to this generous nation legally should enjoy its benefits; those who crack the laws and regulations should not.

Wilson backings Trumps plan to build a wall along the Mexican borderline but says that it should be part physical structure, component sensory technology, persona beefed up law enforcement personnel. Until such a wall is completed, he enunciated, there should be no mass evictions of undocumented people.

Pete Wilson does push-ups while actor Arnold Schwarzenegger claps him on during a 1991 trip to promote physical fitness to school children. Image: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

The problem of illegal immigration highlights what Wilson views as one of Californias most serious problems: the influence of labor unions.

Youve get those who live in the darkness, he said in a wide-ranging interview that lasted more than two hours. And it has been encouraged, frankly, by the Democratic party and, God knows, by the public employee solidarities, who see that as a source of new membership, brand-new dues and be retained in superpower politically, indefinitely, with a permanent majority of illegal immigrants.

Unions, he mentioned, are behind yet another challenge facing California resurrecting the public institutions organization which we have been dumbing down for years.

Despite Trumps tough talk on immigration, the billionaire was not Wilsons choice for Republican presidential nominee. He was third, behind Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who submitted out precisely three days after Wilson endorsed him.

Cruzs departure rendered Trump the presumptive GOP nominee, a fact that left many establishment Republicans like Wilson bewildered.

I have to laugh to keep from crying, he said.

That is a damning reaction to the presumptive Republican nominee and his takeover of the GOP. Still, Wilson “ve never” sat out a presidential election, and he doesnt plan to start now.

Asked if he would endorse Trump, Wilson responded: I think so The stakes are simply too high.

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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For Trump, no closing this deal

Washington (CNN)More than 30 minutes into a meeting White House and House leadership officials wanted — needed — to be a breakthrough, it was time for everyone to put their cards on the table.

For White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the members of the House Freedom Caucus sitting beside and around them at the long table at the center of the conference room adjoining Ryan’s Capitol Hill office had spent enough time talking. A deal was on the table — one the White House and House leaders never planned to give in on — and this was the time to see how many of the conservative, and proudly intransigent, members it would bring aboard.

Mulvaney pointed to a member and asked where he stood, according to multiple sources inside the room. His request was met with demurral. Confused, Ryan tried again. Then Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho spoke up: The Freedom Caucus is unified and Rep. Mark Meadows, the caucus chair, speaks for the group. Mulvaney and Ryan turned to Meadows. The group was indeed unified, Meadows told them. And they were still a no.

Trump’s art of no deal: Find someone to blame

It was a gut punch moment for White House and leadership officials who’d knowingly risked the bill’s fate by offering a compromise to the group, but were convinced it would be enough to start quickly picking off members, one-by-one.

Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, was furious and confronted the group. There would be no more negotiating, he said.

But Thursday night, as the men who could make or break the Obamacare repeal effort stared back at one another across the table, the realization was hitting many involved: There would be no deal.

The GOP’s long-awaited Obamacare repeal bill, the first big push of the new Republican era, was doomed.

This story relies on accounts from more than two dozen administration officials, congressional staffers and Republicans close to the health care process. It recounts the chaotic period of brinkmanship, improvisation and disappointment that unfolded as the Republican Party — yet again, but for the first time with its newly minted Republican President — turned against itself.

The debacle raises a very real question as Republicans pledge to move onto other equally ambitious Trump agenda items — like tax reform, an even heavier lift than Obamacare. Can Republicans actually govern?

Gergen: May be worst 100 days of any presidency

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What’s next for Paul Ryan?

At the White House, top Trump aides seemed stunned at the position they’d wound up in.

“Seven years and this is what we get,” one senior administration official said. “Really incredible.”

Privately, Trump’s team seethed. In their view, the President had ventured far out on a limb. He’d pushed to change the provision to force all health insurers to cover crucial services like maternity care, mental health and prescription drugs. He’d guaranteed other promises in writing.

In the West Wing, there was still determination to force a vote the following day. But optimism? That was in short supply.

Less than 24 hours later, the issue Trump pledged to take care of “on Day 1” imploded upon itself.

It was an epic failure for a young administration still feeling its way around through the byzantine bureaucratic maze that is Washington and a stunning defeat for a speaker who made his name as the wonk-prince of the GOP.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, the President was careful to lay the blame on Democrats, whom he had neither engaged with nor expected to support the GOP’s attempt to unspool their legacy legislation. But Trump also seemed clear-eyed about the surprises the process served up, which likely weren’t news to anyone but him.

“We learned a lot about loyalty,” Trump said. “We learned a lot about some very arcane rules in obviously both the Senate and in the House. So, it’s been certainly, for me, it’s been a very interesting experience.”

Where does the House Freedom Caucus go?

White House on health care bill: ‘This is it’

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Know when to walk away

Friday dawned with Republicans digesting Trump’s ultimatum, unveiled by Mulvaney on Capitol Hill Thursday night. The President — who campaigned daily on repealing Obamacare — was threatening to leave them saddled with the law if they did not vote for his replacement plan.

As the sun was just rising over the White House on the crisp morning, a weary Mulvaney walked slowly up the north driveway toward the West Wing. He had just finished a tough round of television interviews, where he put on a brave face about the fate of the bill.

But away from the cameras, he paused for a moment and said bluntly what he telegraphed privately the night before: “If it fails today, we’re moving on.”

It was the decision of a boardroom titan who believes you have to know when to walk away to seal a deal. It turns out those bluffs don’t always pay off outside the board room.

The Freedom Caucus was standing firm — insisting the Trump-Ryan plan was effectively Obamacare lite — a new entitlement, simply swapping the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies for tax credits. The White House and House leadership had inched their way in offering to repeal a key insurance mandate, but they wanted more — a repeal of Obamacare’s entire insurance regulation infrastructure.

Arrayed against them were the moderates of the Tuesday Group, who feared that the American Health Care Act represented a wrecking ball to their hopes of retaining their seats in less conservative territory during the midterm elections in 2018.

Despite a raucous and, according to several people in the room, deeply emotional closed-door conference meeting the night before, by mid-morning on Friday, Ryan knew there was no way forward, several sources involved in the process recounted.

The speaker approached Meadows on the floor at 10:30 a.m., nodding to the proclamation the night before the Meadows was the sole spokesman for the Freedom Caucus. He asked him point blank — were he and his group still a “no?”

Meadows’ answer would doom the bill.

Borger: What an embarrassment

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Journey to the White House

Ryan decided it was time to head to the White House to deliver the bad news to Trump.

His dash down Pennsylvania Avenue was immediately interpreted by lawmakers and reporters as a sign that the game was up.

But Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, was putting on a brave face, chastening reporters for being so downbeat about the bill’s prospects.

“You guys are so negative!” Spicer said. He appeared to be trying to boost his own spirits as much as anyone’s during a particularly melancholy defense of the GOP health care bill’s prospects in the White House Briefing Room.

At that very moment, a few hundred feet away, Ryan was telling Trump the painful truth.

Over lunch of grilled chicken, Brussels sprouts and twice-baked potatoes — Ryan got to the point: The ultimatum hadn’t worked.

Moderates — burned by the concessions to conservatives — continued to fall away, and they were actually getting further from the 215 votes they would’ve needed for passage.

The President did not have the votes and Ryan wanted Trump to agree to pull the bill from the floor.

Hill GOP moderates buck their leaders

Until that point, Trump had bought into the theory from his aides that it was time to smoke out disloyal members with a vote. The President wanted to know who would truly be on his side in the future.

But Ryan countered, forcefully, that it was bad strategy. The Freedom Caucus had been the cause of much heartburn for the House speaker, but forging ahead with a vote would expose the moderates — the very members the GOP needs to keep its majority.

Freedom Caucus members wouldn’t be punished politically for the vote. Most come from very safe districts. In fact, most — if not all — had run ahead of Trump in November in those districts.

The members from swing districts would take the biggest hit.

Tempers had been ratcheted to a breaking point by a week of draining internal GOP combat. Sentiment was boiling against the conservatives whom were making Ryan’s life as much of a misery as they had for his predecessor, John Boehner.

“I’ve never seen it as bad as this. People are very angry, and now you have a White House and President who are also very angry,” one leadership aide said.

Ryan — who, along with his trip to the White House, spoke with Trump by phone three times on the bill’s final day — knew there was no chance.

At 3 p.m. on Friday, Ryan made the case once more: The votes weren’t there. Taking the vote to the floor would prove to be a damaging loss.

Even with some of Trump’s most trusted aides still itching for a vote, Ryan broke through to the President. Trump gave Ryan the green light to pull the bill.

Reaction on House floor as bill is pulled

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The aftermath

Republicans got the news after they were called from the floor for a conference meeting. They filed out quietly afterward, with glum faces. Most just walked by reporters, headed for Friday night flights back to their districts, where they would have to explain their failure to deliver on the most fundamental, oft-repeated promise in successive elections.

There was not much that Ryan could say.

“I will not sugarcoat this, this is a disappointing day for us. Doing big things is hard. All of us. All of us, myself included, we will need time to reflect on how we got to this moment, what we could have done to do it better,” he told reporters.

Then Ryan reached for an explanation that might just leave open the possibility that the Obamacare drama may be a learning experience for his troops.

“We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do. You just had to be against it,” Ryan told reporters.

“And now in three months’ time we tried to go to a governing party where we actually had to get 216 people to agree with each other on how we do things, and we weren’t just quite there today,” he said.

He left the most relevant question to his caucus unanswered.

“Are we willing to say ‘yes’ to the good, the very good, even if it’s not the perfect?” he said.

Trump: Obamacare is exploding

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Trump remains

One key player in the drama is staying in town.

As Trump settled in for a rare weekend in Washington, his aides were going over just what happened and asking themselves how they could have prevailed.

They fumed at the Freedom Caucus Republicans who made it impossible for a GOP speaker to govern effectively. One senior official said the West Wing may have underestimated “how deep the animosity is in the Republican conference.”

But publicly Trump offered only kind words for Ryan — “He worked very, very hard” — and held his fire on the Freedom Caucus. The President, in a rare show of discipline speaking briefly with reporters from the White House afterward, ventured only so far as to say, “I’m disappointed because we could have had it. So I’m disappointed. I’m a little surprised, to be honest with you.”

The political impact of Friday’s House GOP meltdown is clear.

Trump will almost certainly wrap up his First 100 Days in office next month without a significant legislative achievement.

If Trump’s ego was bruised, his aides aren’t letting on.

“He’s doing great,” Spicer, Trump’s spokesman, insisted late Friday afternoon. He insisted the President firmly believed he’d done all he could to ensure the health care bill passed.

By all accounts, the President endured long meetings with both sides of the Republican divide, using his signature style to try to woo even the most reluctant participants. But even as the White House and Republican leaders repeatedly played up Trump’s engagement, there was often a suspicion — voiced quietly but repeatedly by senior congressional aides involved in the process and at times by many of the rank-and-file lawmakers themselves — that he was not all in.

The President’s lobbying efforts sounded impressive: Face-to-face meetings with more than 120 members of Congress. For good measure, private phone calls with many of them.

But in many of those meetings, details were an afterthought, according to multiple people present.

“Staff was for details, Trump was for closing,” said one senior congressional aide. When it came to details, Trump “didn’t know, didn’t care, or both.”

He didn’t answer their specific questions about the bill, according to three members of Congress who attended the meetings. He didn’t offer any arguments for why they should support the legislation other than to give him his first legislative victory.

Trump repeatedly focused instead on the politics of the broader situation, the people said. In the Oval Office, he quizzed the Republicans about the margin of victory in their districts last fall. His victory, not theirs.

“He did very little to say why we should vote ‘yes,’ ” one Republican member of Congress said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the White House. “He kept talking about his damn election.”

In the end, the man dubbed “the ultimate closer” could not close the deal.

Trump swept into office with soaring crowds and big rallies. But for the biggest legislative fight of his young presidency, he barely mentioned health care as he made only two trips outside Washington to sell the bill. Repealing Obamacare often came off more as a slogan rather than a driving policy proposition. And the legislation Trump was touting, which would’ve insured 24 million fewer Americans over the next decade, bore little resemblance to his campaign trail promises.

His advisers once telegraphed a robust travel schedule, taking his case directly to the heart of Freedom Caucus districts. That never happened.

As a result, there was no one to reassure people concerned about losing coverage — like Jessi Bohon, the Tennessee high school teacher who confronted Rep. Diane Black in a February encounter that went viral on social media, as Bohon defended the individual mandate that requires people to buy insurance under Obamacare.

“As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is to pull up the unfortunate, so the individual mandate — that’s what it does, the healthy people pull up the sick,” Bohon had said. “We are effectively punishing our sickest people.”

The lawmakers who would be called upon to cast tough votes on a bill no one really liked were coming face-to-face with the fury of public opinion in a way Trump and his advisers never really experienced.

Instead, he visited only urban areas of Nashville and Louisville, where his true believers packed the arena. Yet he railed against health care as though he was still on the campaign trail a year ago, rather than the man now driving the agenda.

“This is our long-awaited chance to finally get rid of Obamacare,” Trump said Monday at Freedom Hall in Louisville, where supporters cheered his arrival. “We’re gonna do it. What’s the alternative? The alternative is what you have. The worst. It’s a big lie.”

Four days later, one of the biggest Republican promises of a decade was dead. The party’s new President, unable to deliver.

The morning after, with his epic failure spread across the pages of newspapers and television screens, the President set off for his golf course in the Virginia countryside.

But unlike failed deals from his old world of business, he can’t walk away from these Republican partners. How they regroup will answer the question of whether his presidency can rebound.