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mrs-stans · 3 months ago

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Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong Say Their Trump Movie Is a Tragedy, Not a Mockery

The “Apprentice” stars and the director Ali Abbasi say their film is a “humanistic” treatment of the former president and his mentor, Roy Cohn.

By Kyle Buchanan

It’s natural to feel nervous before presenting your movie at a major film festival. But in late August, when the director Ali Abbasi boarded a flight to the Telluride Film Festival, he wasn’t even sure if his new movie “The Apprentice” — a fictionalized look at the Machiavellian bond between the young Donald J. Trump (Sebastian Stan) and the lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) — would be permitted to play there at all.

“It was really crazy what happened, and I spared Jeremy and Sebastian some of it, but it is a demoralizing feeling,” Abbasi admitted during a recent video call with his two stars. The former president had been threatening legal action against “The Apprentice” since its May debut at the Cannes Film Festival, which chilled distributor interest in the movie for months and made it a controversial prospect for any subsequent festival willing to show it.

“If a movie comes out and people think it’s bad or it’s flawed, you can deal with that,” Abbasi said. “But when it goes into a safe box indefinitely, that was heavy.”

In the end, Trump failed to follow through on his threats, Telluride played the movie without incident and “The Apprentice” ultimately found a distributor in Briarcliff Entertainment, which will release the film on Friday. Still, Strong was perturbed by how many major studios were unwilling to take on the film and potentially incur the presidential candidate’s wrath.

“You think that things could be banned in North Korea or Russia or certain places, but you don’t think that will ever happen here,” Strong said. “It’s a real dark harbinger that it even nearly happened.”

Written by Gabriel Sherman, “The Apprentice” begins with Trump in his 20s as he toils under his real-estate magnate father and aspires to become a momentous figure in his own right. Still, Trump’s ambition exceeds his ability until he meets the savvy Cohn, who takes the young man under his wing and imparts ruthless rules for success that will eventually launch Trump onto the highest stage imaginable.

“The Apprentice” could be an awards-season player for Stan, best known as the Marvel super-soldier Bucky Barnes, and for Strong, the Emmy-winning “Succession” actor who recently took home a Tony for “An Enemy of the People.” But will the politically charged fervor around the movie help or hurt their bids?

“Here’s the crazy thing: I don’t think this movie is controversial,” Abbasi said. “It’s retelling information that is freely and readily available everywhere, and it’s fact-checked and triple-checked. So my big question is, what is the problem?”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

At the beginning of the film, Sebastian, you play Trump as much more soft-spoken and abashed than we’re used to seeing him.

SEBASTIAN STAN Go rewatch Netflix’s [docuseries] “An American Dream,” look at all the early footage of him standing in front of a committee with a giant yellow ’70s tie and trying to find the right words to express himself. Watch him in the courtroom when he’s with Roy waiting to get the tax abatement: You’re seeing a starry-eyed kid who’s doing his best to keep his chin up and feign confidence. We need to stop talking about him like he’s a being from outer space. He’s been made on this planet like the rest of us.

ALI ABBASI There is a version of this you can read as the becoming of a monster. There’s also another version, which is this human tragedy: Were there other possibilities for these people if their whole world was not reduced to winning and taking?

JEREMY STRONG I 100 percent see it as a human tragedy, the way that I saw “Succession” as a tragedy of late-stage capitalism. With that show, we were at a party at Adam McKay’s house [he was a producer on “Succession”] the night of the election in 2016, and we had our first table read [the next] morning. Then Trump was elected, and that changed the whole container of the show and the way it spoke to the country. There’s an idea I think about a lot that applies to both of those things, something that Jung said: “Where love is absent, power fills the vacuum.”

What’s exciting about this movie is that it touches the third rail of all of these things, which not a lot of work frankly does these days. The world is on fire, and it feels like a lot of our business veers more and more toward laundry-folding content and things that are relatively safe.

Some people, sight unseen, have accused the film of “humanizing” Trump. What’s your response to that?

STRONG It’s a humanistic interrogation and investigation of these people. Ali is not making “The Great Dictator” — it’s not a farce, it’s not a cartoon. We’re trying to hold a mirror up to this world and these individuals and try to understand how we got here.

“I don’t think this movie is controversial,” the director Ali Abbasi said. “It’s retelling information that is freely and readily available everywhere.”

ABBASI I think it’s a dangerous thing to start thinking, “Oh, you humanize someone too much.” Why would that ever be a problem?

With independent films, there’s always a risk that the work will never be widely seen. This is an unusual case where a high-profile indie was in danger of never being seen at all.

ABBASI During the summer when people were saying there’s a chance this is not going to be shown, I was angry. I thought, “Oh, they’re going to rip me off, they’re going to sell it and not give me money.” I could not believe it, honestly, and I kept asking different people, “How is this possible?” I come from Iran and I’m used to dictators and authoritarian governments, but I always thought whatever fault there is with American society, freedom of speech is not one of the problems.

STRONG We live in such a binary time. There’s such black-and-white thinking and a real failure to contain complexities or dualities, and I think that’s part of what has gotten us into trouble societally.

Though the movie is coming out just weeks before the presidential election, it’s been in development for years.

ABBASI We tried to make the movie many times and it fell through. I remember the time after Jan. 6, it was like looking at a stock market crash the day after: Everyone was like, “No thank you, no thank you.” Finally, when Jeremy came on board, you could actually start to see the movie in its whole.

STRONG At no point was the intention to release this in the middle of an election. This wasn’t purpose-built for that. There was never a plan to make this a political act or a hand grenade to be dropped in the middle of the election. It is, I think, incredibly fortuitous timing that it can come out at a moment where it has the potential to illuminate something about the inner workings of this man, but it stands alone as a film.

Sebastian, what did your friends and family say when you told them you were playing Trump?

STAN Pretty sure my mom said, “At least you get to shave.” But I asked a lot of people about it, actually. A C.E.O. of a studio told me not to do it because I was going to alienate half the country, and a casting director who I respect very much said, “We don’t need another Trump movie, you’re never going to get any applause for it.” And then there were other people saying, “Are you going to be worried about your safety?” But for some reason every time somebody said, “Don’t do it,” it made me want to do it more.

“We need to stop talking about him like he’s a being from outer space” Stan said of Trump. “He’s been made on this planet like the rest of us.”

Cohn takes on Trump as his protégé, but the movie hints that there’s a sexual undercurrent to the older man’s interest, too.

ABBASI If you look at who was Roy’s type, it was young, tall, blond guys. I mean, Donald Trump was basically his type. Now, does it mean that was the reason they met and developed a relationship? Not solely, not necessarily. Jeremy’s going to shoot me down now, but it felt like he was someone who was turned on by the idea of impossible love a little bit, and Donald, in a way, was an impossible love.

“We’re trying to hold a mirror up to this world and these individuals and try to understand how we got here,” said Strong, left.

STRONG I don’t disagree with Ali on that, although I was interested in exploring what I felt was a rather chaste, platonic form of love that exists between men, which is friendship. But what did he see in him? Roy cultivated influence. It allowed him to feel elevated above the crowd, and he saw something in Donald that mirrored himself. There’s also that idea that when a student is ready, a teacher appears. They just happen to meet in this moment in time where he [Cohn] could sort of be Iago and blow poison into his ear.

Ali, when the film debuted at Cannes and Trump threatened to file a lawsuit, you said, “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people. They don’t talk about his success rate, though.” You appeared unbothered, but how did you really feel?

ABBASI I learned a lesson when I did “Holy Spider,” my last movie. I knew that it was going to be controversial and sit badly with the Iranian government, then a teaser came out and the speaker of the Parliament said he thinks it is blasphemy. You realize that you are dealing with forces that are so much bigger than you as a human being or as an artist, but what can I do? Am I going to take the next flight, go and talk to the speaker of the Parliament and say, “No, I’m not blasphemous”?

In that way, we are sort of riding on the back of the dragon whether we like it or not. The other part is, I think a lot of what is happening right now is a knee-jerk reaction of people who have not watched the movie yet. For me, this conversation becomes real when the movie comes out, when people actually have seen it, when Mr. Trump has seen it. I would be super interested to know what he thinks either way. He might learn something. I’m not saying it in a condescending way, but he might.

Though the timing of this release is fraught, what are the good things about it coming out so close to the election?

ABBASI For me, this would be as relevant in December or next January as it is now. In that way, I don’t think we need the election to make us relevant, but am I not excited about us being in an interaction with the back of the dragon? I would lie to you if I wasn’t.

STRONG It’s mandatory viewing for any sentient beings right now who care about what’s happening in this country, and I think it offers vital insight, which could move the needle in a real way. In this moment where we’re surrounded by rhetoric of hate and divisiveness, I think art has a place and film has a place.

STAN I worry that people are desperate for answers and for guidance. They want to be told how to feel, they want to be told what’s right and what’s wrong. This whole discomfort with the film only reflects why it’s important: It isn’t just what you’re learning about Trump, it’s also what you’re learning about yourself from Trump.

I worry that we’re not going deeper anymore with how we approach things. We’re just reading Wikipedia pages. If that’s what you’re going to do, then you’ll just float among the rest of the ghosts of Christmas past. But the rest of us, at least, are going to try and get to the bottom of some things.

#Sebastian Stan #Jeremy Strong #Ali Abbasi #The Apprentice #Interview #New York Times #mrs-stans

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mydaddywiki · 9 months ago

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Brian Mulroney

Physique: Average Build Height: 5'11" (1.80 m)

Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024, aged 84) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Mulroney's tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, the goods and services tax (GST) that was created to replace the manufacturers' sales tax, and the privatization of 23 of 61 Crown corporations including Air Canada and Petro-Canada. Although he places average or above average in rankings of Canadian prime ministers, his legacy remains controversial.

Mulroney, the Quebec-born, half-Irish “boy from Baie-Comeau” (a small-town in the French-speaking province), was a handsome, skilled politician with a gift for public speaking, was an ardent advocate of stronger U.S.-Canadian relations. And I would have love some "relations" with him.

The former Canadian prime minister who struck a free trade deal with the U.S. but whose legacy was marred his role in the resurgence of Quebec nationalism and accused of corruption in the Airbus affair, a scandal that came to light only several years after he left office. But unless that somehow resulted in him doing nude photo-shoots and porno’s on Older4Me (which it didn’t), I don’t really care about it. He’s a politician, so of course he’s got his hand in something shady. Mulroney died on February 29, 2024. His was survived by his wife and four children.

#mydaddywiki politicians #Brian Mulroney

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whencyclopedia · 1 year ago

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Parson's Cause

The Parson's Cause was a legal and political controversy that arose in the British colony of Virginia in the early 1760s. In response to the royal veto of the Two Penny Act, a policy passed by Virginia's House of Burgesses, a young lawyer named Patrick Henry successfully argued that the king had no right to interfere with colonial tax policies.

#History #Parson'sCause #AmericanRevolution #ColonyOfVirginia

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beardedmrbean · 3 months ago

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Kenyan MPs are due to vote on whether to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in a political row that has gripped the nation following his recent fallout with President William Ruto.

The lawmakers accuse Gachagua of corruption, practising ethnically divisive politics and undermining the government, among a host of other charges.

The 59-year-old politician, popularly known as “Riggy G”, has described the allegations against him as "outrageous" and "sheer propaganda", maintaining they are part of a plot to hound him out of office.

He is expected to appear before parliament to defend himself before the vote, after which impeachment proceedings will move to the Senate.

Political tensions have been running high in the East African country since June when deadly demonstrations erupted over unpopular tax hikes, exposing a deep rift between Ruto and Gachagua.

Ruto sacked most of his cabinet and brought in members of the main opposition following the anti-tax protests, in which more than 50 people were killed.

Several MPs allied to Gachagua were summoned by police last month, accused of funding the protests - though no charges were brought.

Ahead of the vote, security has been heightened in the capital, Nairobi, with police patrols and major roads leading to parliament blocked to the public.

About 20 lawyers have been hired to defend Gachagua against the impeachment motion, local media reports.

A total of 291 MPs, more than the 117 required by the constitution, signed the motion to initiate the impeachment process last week.

Gachagua has failed in numerous court bids to stop the proceedings going ahead.

In a televised speech on Monday, Gachagua accused Mwengi Mutuse, the MP who drafted the motion, of lying, calling it “shameful and sensational”.

The motion lists 11 grounds for impeachment, including accusations that Gachagua amassed assets worth 5.2bn Kenyan shillings ($40m, £31m) in two years in unexplained wealth.

"I am innocent of all these charges," Gachagua said.

"I have no intention whatsoever to resign from this job. I will fight to the end."

The deputy president said some of the properties listed in the motion belonged to his late brother.

He also defended the controversial renovation for his official residence in the capital.

When big decisions are to be taken by MPs, the constitution stipulates that the public must be consulted first.

According to a parliamentary report, more than 200,000 responses were received as part of that process - of which 65% supported Gachagua's impeachment, while nearly 34% opposed it.

On Sunday, Gachagua appealed to Ruto and the MPs to forgive him for any wrongdoing during his tenure. He later clarified that his apology was not an admission of guilt.

Ruto is yet to comment about the impeachment motion publicly, but he is on record in the early days of his presidency as saying that he would never publicly humiliate his deputy.

For the motion to pass, it requires the support of at least two-thirds of members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

It is expected to sail through given that the main opposition has now joined forces with the president's party.

Gachagua, a wealthy businessman from the vote-rich Mount Kenya region, battled previous corruption scandals to become Ruto's running mate in a closely fought election in August 2022.

He is from the Kikuyu community, the country’s largest ethnic group, while President Ruto is a Kalenjin, an ethnic group which mainly lives in the Rift Valley.

These two communities were at loggerheads after elections in 2007 - ethnic violence in which 1,200 people died nationwide.

If the Senate backs the motion too, Gachagua would become the first deputy president to be impeached under the constitution adopted in 2010.

In 1989, then Vice-President Josephat Karanja resigned from office when he faced a similar motion.

#nunyas news

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justinspoliticalcorner · 6 months ago

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Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey at ProPublica:

A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump. These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.

[...]

Ziklag’s 2024 agenda reads like the work of a political organization. It plans to pour money into mobilizing voters in Arizona who are “sympathetic to Republicans” in order to secure “10,640 additional unique votes” — almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020. The group also intends to use controversial AI software to enable mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states. In a recording of a 2023 internal strategy discussion, a Ziklag official stressed that the objective was the same in other swing states. “The goal is to win,” the official said. “If 75,000 people wins the White House, then how do we get 150,000 people so we make sure we win?”

According to the Ziklag files, the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations targeting voters in battleground states: Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups; Steeplechase, concentrated on using churches and pastors to get out the vote; and Watchtower, aimed at galvanizing voters around the issues of “parental rights” and opposition to transgender rights and policies supporting health care for trans people. In a member briefing video, one of Ziklag’s spiritual advisers outlined a plan to “deliver swing states” by using an anti-transgender message to motivate conservative voters who are exhausted with Trump.

But Ziklag is not a political organization: It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, the same legal designation as the United Way or Boys and Girls Club. Such organizations do not have to publicly disclose their funders, and donations are tax deductible. In exchange, they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS. ProPublica and Documented presented the findings of their investigation to six nonpartisan lawyers and legal experts. All expressed concern that Ziklag was testing or violating the law. The reporting by ProPublica and Documented “casts serious doubt on this organization’s status as a 501(c)(3) organization,” said Roger Colinvaux, a professor at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.

[...]

“Dominion Over the Seven Mountains”

Ziklag has largely escaped scrutiny until now. The group describes itself as a “private, confidential, invitation-only community of high-net-worth Christian families.” According to internal documents, it boasts more than 125 members that include business executives, pastors, media leaders and other prominent conservative Christians. Potential new members, one document says, should have a “concern for culture” demonstrated by past donations to faith-based or political causes, as well as a net worth of $25 million or more. None of the donors responded to requests for comment.

Tax records show rapid growth in the group’s finances in recent years. Its annual revenue climbed from $1.3 million in 2018 to $6 million in 2019 and nearly $12 million in 2022, which is the latest filing available. The group’s spending is not on the scale of major conservative funders such as Miriam Adelson or Barre Seid, the electronics magnate who gave $1.6 billion to a group led by conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. But its funding and strategy represent one of the clearest links yet between the Christian right and the “election integrity” movement fueled by Trump’s baseless claims about voting fraud. Even several million dollars funding mass challenges to voters in swing counties can make an impact, legal and election experts say.

Ziklag was the brainchild of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Ken Eldred. It emerged from a previous organization founded by Eldred called United In Purpose, which aimed to get more Christians active in the civic arena, according to Bill Dallas, the group’s former director. United In Purpose generated attention in June 2016 when it organized a major meeting between then-candidate Trump and hundreds of evangelical leaders.

After Trump was elected in 2016, Eldred had an idea, according to Dallas. “He says, ‘I want all the wealthy Christian people to come together,’” Dallas recalled in an interview. Eldred told Dallas that he wanted to create a donor network like the one created by Charles and David Koch but for Christians. He proposed naming it David’s Mighty Men, Dallas said. Female members balked. Dallas found the passage in Chronicles that references David’s soldiers and read that they met in the city of Ziklag, and so they chose the name Ziklag.

The group’s stature grew after Trump took office. Vice President Mike Pence appeared at a Ziklag event, as did former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, then-Rep. Mark Meadows and other members of Congress. In its private newsletter, Ziklag claims that a coalition of groups it assembled played “a hugely significant role in the selection, hearings and confirmation process” of Amy Coney Barrett for a Supreme Court seat in late 2020.

Confidential donor networks regularly invest hundreds of millions of dollars into political and charitable groups, from the liberal Democracy Alliance to the Koch-affiliated Stand Together organization on the right. But unlike Ziklag, neither of those organizations is legally set up as a true charity. Ziklag appears to be the first coordinated effort to get wealthy donors to fund an overtly Christian nationalist agenda, according to historians, legal experts and other people familiar with the group. “It shows that this idea isn’t being dismissed as fringe in the way that it might have been in the past,” said Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and University of California, Davis law professor. The Christian nationalism movement has a variety of aims and tenets, according to the Public Religion Research Institute: that the U.S. government “should declare America a Christian nation”; that American laws “should be based on Christian values”; that the U.S. will cease to exist as a nation if it “moves away from our Christian foundations”; that being Christian is essential to being American; and that God has “called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.”

One theology promoted by Christian nationalist leaders is the Seven Mountain Mandate. Each mountain represents a major industry or a sphere of public life: arts and media, business, church, education, family, government, and science and technology. Ziklag’s goal, the documents say, is to “take dominion over the Seven Mountains,” funding Christian projects or installing devout Christians in leadership positions to reshape each mountain in a godly way. To address their concerns about education, Ziklag’s leaders and allies have focused on the public-school system. In a 2021 Ziklag meeting, Ziklag’s education mountain chair, Peter Bohlinger, said that Ziklag’s goal “is to take down the education system as we know it today.” The producers of the film “Sound of Freedom,” featuring Jim Caviezel as an anti-sex-trafficking activist, screened an early cut of the film at a Ziklag conference and asked for funds, according to Dallas.

[...] A driving force behind Ziklag’s efforts is Lance Wallnau, a prominent Christian evangelist and influencer based in Texas who is described by Ziklag as a “Seven Mountains visionary & advisor.” The fiery preacher is one of the most influential figures on the Christian right, experts say, a bridge between Christian nationalism and Trump. He was one of the earliest evangelical leaders to endorse Trump in 2015 and later published a book titled “God’s Chaos Candidate: Donald J. Trump and the American Unraveling.” More than 1 million people follow him on Facebook. He doesn’t try to hide his views: “Yes, I am a Christian nationalist,” he said during one of his livestreams in 2021. (Wallnau did not respond to requests for comment.)

[...]

“Operation Checkmate”

In the fall of 2023, Wallnau sat in a gray armchair in his TV studio. A large TV screen behind him flashed a single word: “ZIKLAG.” “You almost hate to put it out this clearly,” he said as he detailed Ziklag’s electoral strategy, “because if somebody else gets ahold of this, they’ll freak out.” He was joined on set by Hiss, who had just become the group’s new day-to-day leader. The two men were there to record a special message to Ziklag members that laid out the group’s ambitious plans for the upcoming election year. The forces arrayed against Christians were many, according to the confidential video. They were locked in a “spiritual battle,” Hiss said, against Democrats who were a “radical left Marxist force.” Biden, Wallnau said, was a senile old man and “an empty suit with an agenda that’s written and managed by somebody else.”

[...] A prominent conservative getting money from Ziklag is Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and Trump ally who joined the January 2021 phone call when then-President Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to flip Georgia in Trump’s favor. Mitchell now leads a network of “election integrity” coalitions in swing states that have spent the last three years advocating for changes to voting rules and how elections are run. According to one internal newsletter, Ziklag was an early funder of Mitchell’s post-2020 “election integrity” activism, which voting-rights experts have criticized for stoking unfounded fears about voter fraud and seeking to unfairly remove people from voting rolls. In 2022, Ziklag donated $600,000 to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which in turn funds Mitchell’s election-integrity work. Internal Ziklag documents show that it provided funding to enable Mitchell to set up election integrity infrastructure in Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

[...] For Operation Watchtower, Wallnau explained in a members-only video that transgender policy was a “wedge issue” that could be decisive in turning out voters tired of hearing about Trump. The left had won the battle over the “homosexual issue,” Wallnau said. “But on transgenderism, there’s a problem and they know it.” He continued: “They’re gonna wanna talk about Trump, Trump, Trump. … Meanwhile, if we talk about ‘It’s not about Trump. It’s about parents and their children, and the state is a threat,’” that could be the “target on the forehead of Goliath.” The Ziklag files describe tactics the group plans to use around parental rights — policies that make it easier for parents to control what’s taught in public schools — to turn out conservative voters. In a fundraising video, the group says it plans to underwrite a “messaging and data lab” focused on parental rights that will supply “winning messaging to all our partner groups to create unified focus among all on the right.” The goal, the video says, is to make parental rights “the difference-maker in the 2024 election.”

According to Wallnau, Ziklag also plans to fund ballot initiatives in seven key states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Montana, Nevada and Ohio — that take aim at the transgender community by seeking to ban “genital mutilation.” The seven states targeted are either presidential battlegrounds or have competitive U.S. Senate races. None of the initiatives is on a state ballot yet. “People that are lethargic about the election or, worse yet, they’re gonna be all Trump-traumatized with the news cycle — this issue will get people to come out and vote,” Wallnau said. “That ballot initiative can deliver swing states.” The last prong of Ziklag’s 2024 strategy is Operation Steeplechase, which urges conservative pastors to mobilize their congregants to vote in this year’s election. This project will work in coordination with several prominent conservative groups that support former president Trump’s reelection, such as Turning Point USA’s faith-based group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition run by conservative operative Ralph Reed and the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups closely allied with Trump.

ProPublica takes a look at a secretive Christian Nationalist organization called Ziklag, a network of ultrawealthy Christian donors seeking to mobilize Republican-leaning voters to turn out for the general election with three different operations: Checkmate, Steeplechase, and Watchtower.

Read the full story at ProPublica.

#Ziklag #Christian Nationalism #Seven Mountains Dominionism #Peter Bohlinger #Leonard Leo #Ken Eldred #United In Purpose #Miriam Adelson #Barre Seid #Lance Wallnau #Drew Hiss #Cleta Mitchell #Operation Checkmate #Operation Steeplechase #Operation Watchtower #Turning Point USA

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msclaritea · 1 year ago

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Hit Horror Movie Director Says He Won't Work With Warner Bros. After Coyote Vs Acme Debacle

A hit horror movie director has revealed he will not work with Warner Bros. following the controversy surrounding Coyote vs. Acme, indicating it will cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars. The Looney Tunes film starring Wile E. Coyote was originally scheduled for release in 2023 before Warner Bros. announced it would be shelved in order to get a $30 million tax write-off. After public outcry, the studio allowed the film to be shopped to other distributors. However, this hasn't quelled distrust in the studio among Hollywood creatives.

Now, Brian Duffield, director of 2023's hit horror thriller No One Will Save You says he will not work with Warner Bros. after Coyote vs. Acme's release was cancelled.

The director indicated his decision not to work with Warner Bros. will result in the studio missing out on $300 million in profits. His statement underscores just how badly damaged the studio's reputation is because of their most recent tax write-down.

If the film manages to find success at a new home, then it will depict Wile E. Coyote hiring a lawyer to sue Acme Corporation for the defective weapons they sell him to catch the Road Runner with. Coyote vs. Acme's cast sees Will Forte as Wile and John Cena as Acme's CEO, highlighting how a talented cast brought the film to life. While the movie's future seems positive thanks to interest from other streamers, Duffield's comments indicate Warner Bros.' decision has lost it some goodwill with creatives.

The film's initial write-down from the studio isn't the first, with Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt being other prominent films that were shelved despite almost being complete. These decisions are tax-based, as Warner Bros. wants to ensure the studio's profitability, even if it means axing near-finished products. However, its most recent decision indicates any movie could be on the chopping block at any stage of development, making creatives wary of working with a studio that could cancel their finished film.

While Warner Bros. has averted collapse before, reports from employees in October 2023 indicated the studio could be bought out by a rival in the coming years. With distrust in the studio now being expressed by directors like Duffield, Coyote vs. Acme could be the first domino toward a radical shift for the company. It remains to be seen if other high-profile creatives share similar distrust of the studio, and what it could mean for its future.

#Warner Bros Discovery #Coyote vs Acme

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foreverlogical · 1 year ago

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United States Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) is embroiled in a tough 2024 reelection fight due to her defection from the Democratic Party last December and her controversial closeness with corporate lobbyists. This week, The Intercept's Daniel Boguslaw reported that Sinema also has ties to billionaire Leon Black, who stands accused of raping a sixteen-year-old girl inside now-deceased sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2002.

"In 2018, Black and his wife together made a $5,400 donation to Sinema's campaign, the maximum legal contribution at the time. Three years later, Black was out from the top post at Apollo Global Management, the firm he helped found, after it was revealed that he paid the disgraced financier Epstein more than $150 million for estate planning and tax services," Boguslaw wrote. "The Senate Finance Committee is currently investigating that payment and whether it involved tax evasion."

Support from "private equity leaders like Black quickly evolved into a full-scale industry feeding frenzy," Boguslaw explained, noting that "Sinema has raked in well over $3 million from investment and private equity firms in the past six years."

READ MORE: 'Red flags': Kyrsten Sinema ramps up security spending with company owned by Tulsi Gabbard’s sister

Boguslaw learned from data furnished by Open Secrets that "employees at Apollo Global Management represented the single largest corporate donor base to Sinema’s campaign committee between 2017 and 2022, contributing a combined $172,025," adding that Sinema's "coziness with the industry has guided her hand against key Democratic priorities, including those designed to raise taxes on the wealthy in an effort to balance the federal budget. Sinema's obstinance has soured her standing in her own state."

Meanwhile, Boguslaw continued, "The Senate committee interrogating Black's finances has accused the former executive of consulting with Epstein to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes with payments that 'were inexplicably large; well in excess of what Black paid any other financial advisors and far higher than the median compensation of Fortune 500 CEOs at the time.'"

Boguslaw noted that the Senate probe commenced within days of Black's third rape allegation, which "alleges that Epstein confidant and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell had trafficked the then-16-year-old girl to that location. Black's lawyer denied the allegations and said that the plaintiff holds a 'vendetta' against him."

READ MORE: 'She's a sellout': Ex-Kyrsten Sinema supporters see her 'lavish lifestyle' as a total betrayal

Boguslaw's analysis is available at this link.

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bruceebernstien · 3 months ago

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k4lashnik0v · 2 years ago

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italian politics because why not?

hi fellas! in the "honor" of Silvio Berlusconi's death i will make a not so short explanation of who he was, crimes included ofc (so if you're italian you probably won't need to read this post)

Silvio Berlusconi was a italian politician and an enterpreteur and he has been Prime Minister for four times. he founded important companies such as mediaset and fininvest and he's also the leader of the centre-right party "Forza Italia" his assets amount to more than 3.6 billion euros.

but who is Silvio Berlusconi really?

a horrible person it's the only correct answer, so let's have a quick look about what he did, starting from his controversial affirmations.

"Putin didn't want war, he was prompted to invade Ukraine" is what he said during a meeting of Forza Italia

in september 2021, after the drug trafficking scandal which involved Luca Morisi, the former head of communication of Matteo Salvini, another Italian politician, Berlusconi announced "after all, what did Morisi do? he had the only defect of being gay". in the same year, Berlusconi was involved in the prostitution scandal and he tried to cut the story short by saying "sometimes i happen to look at pretty girls, it's better to be a fan of pretty girls than to be gay"

in 2003 Berlusconi argued that "Mussolini never killed anyone, he sent people to vacations in the confinement"

in 2009, while Rosy Bindi, the deputy speaker of the house for the democratic party was being interviewed, Berlusconi described her as "always more beautiful than intelligent"

i could go on for hours, but let's have a look about his judicial processes. from 1980 to 2023 there have been about 32 processes for a big variety of stuff such as

tax fraud, false accounting, misappropriation, money laundering

illicit party financing

corruption, alleged corruption of the lawyer david mills to convince him to bear false witness in a process, judicial corruption, instigation to corruption

child prostitution

aggravated concussion

drug traffick

abuse in the use of state flights, abuse of office

deffamation of public figures

agreements with the mafia

of course, al of this processes have been absolved for prescription (extinction of the crime) amnesty (waiver by the state to prosecute a crime) or decriminalization (transformation of a criminal tort into an administrative or civil tort) and this is a literal violation of the italian constitution, indeed, the first article says that all citizens are equal before the law, but apparently when it comes to powerful and rich people like Berlusconi, the rule doesn't apply, pretty funny huh? welcome to italy.

this is all, goodbye fellas★

#berlusconi #italy #politics #government #italian politics

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welidot · 1 year ago

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Hillary Clinton

This Biography is about one of the best Professional Politician of the world Hillary Clinton including her Height, weight, Age & Other Detail… Express info Real Name Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton Nickname Hillary, Hill, HRod, Mrs. Clinton Profession Politician Age (as in 2023) 75 Years old Physical Stats & More Info Party Democratic Party Political Journey • In January 1979, Hillary Clinton became First Lady of Arkansas and retained the title for twelve years (1979-1981, 1983-1992). • She became the First Lady of the United States in January 1993. • In the year 2000, she was chosen by the Democratic Party to run in the Senate Election. • She won the Senate Election with 55% of vote on November 7, 2000. • On January 3, 2001, Hillary Clinton was sworn in as US Senator. • She gave her service on five senate committees - Committee on Budget (2001–2002), Committee on Armed Services (2003–2009), Committee on Environment and Public Works (2001–2009), Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (2001–2009) and Special Committee on Aging. • In November 2004, she announced to run for a second senate term. • She won the senate election for the second time with 67% of the vote on November 7, 2006. • On January 20, 2007, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the United States Presidential Election of 2008. • She lost South Carolina primary to Obama by two-to-one. • She supported Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention by giving a passionate speech. • On December 1, 2008, Obama announced Hillary Clinton as his nominee for Secretary of State. • She took the oath of office of Secretary of State of USA on January 21, 2009. • She has announced her candidacy for the United States Presidential Election of 2016 and at present she is campaigning for the same. • On 8 November 2016, she was defeated by the Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 United States Presidential Election. Biggest Rival Donald Trump Physical Stats & More Of Hillary Clinton Height in centimeters- 167 cm in meters- 1.67 m in Feet Inches- 5’ 6” Weight in Kilograms- 60 kg in Pounds- 132 lbs Eye Colour Blue Hair Colour Blonde Personal Life Of Hillary Clinton Date of Birth October 26, 1947 Birth Place Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois Zodiac sign/Sun sign Scorpio Nationality American Hometown Chicago, Illinois, USA School Park Ridge, Maine East High School (1964), Maine South High School (1964–1965) College Wellesley College (1965–1969), Yale Law School (1969–1973) Educational Qualifications Bachelor of arts with Departrmental honors in Political Science Debut 1996 Family Father- Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (American businessman) Mother- Dorothy Howell Rodham (American Homemaker) Brothers- Tony Rodham (Consultant), Hugh Rodham (Lawyer) Sisters- N/A Religion Methodist Address 55 West 125th Street New York, USA Hobbies Swimming, Home decor, gardening, playing scrabble, doing crossword puzzles Controversies • Her email controversy is at the top on the list of Hillary Clinton's controversy where she has been criticized for using her personal account to send classified documents during her tenure as United States Secretary of States. • In 1978, Hillary and Bill Clinton were criticized for buying acres of riverfront land to form Whitewater Development Corp. through wrong means. • Clinton Foundation has been criticized for the errors in its tax returns. • She has been criticized in Benghazi case for failing to protect US interests abroad. • She has been criticized for delivering a speech on inequality by wearing a Giorgio Armani jacket worth 12000 USD. Favourite Things Of Hillary Clinton Favorite Politician Martin Luther King Jr. Favorite Quote "Human rights are women's rights. Women's rights are human rights". Favorite Food Hot sauces, DeFrazio’s Pizzeria in Troy, apple, burgers, ice creams, wine Favorite Film Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Out of Africa Favorite Book Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov', The Return of the Prodigal Son Boys, Affairs and More Of Hillary Clinton Marital Status Married Affairs/Boyfriends Not Known Husband Bill Clinton (married 1975) Children Daughter- Chelsea Clinton (born February 27, 1980) Earning Money Of Hillary Clinton Net Worth 22 million USD This Biography written by www.welidot.com Read the full article

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