#but let’s not act like its this major groundbreaking statement

[vaquerismo]

i think my issue w miss swift is that her music is treated like its the epitome of poignant truth and lyricism when in fact it has the emotional depth of a marvel movie ._. but if you like that more power to you

[lawbyrhys]

Lawyer's Take on Biden's SCOTUS Reform Ideas

This is a supplementary piece to the SCOTUS Immunity Ruling; if you don't understand that, you can read my post on it and come back here.

Yesterday afternoon, July 29, President Joe Biden gave a speech in which he shared his opinions on the SCOTUS immunity ruling, as well as his opinions on Supreme Court reform and associated topics. Let's break it down.

"I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers laid out in our Constitution, but what’s happening now is not consistent with that doctrine of separation of powers."

Biden's stance is a rarity; it makes him the first sitting president in generations to call for such reform to the highest court in the land. Among his groundbreaking proposals are a Constitutional amendment to strip the criminal immunity granted to Presidents by the SCOTUS decision, impose term limits on Supreme Court justices, and instate a stricter code of conduct for the high court. While it'll be difficult for him to get any of these charges through with the split Congress as it is, presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris—a former prosecutor and attorney general—wholeheartedly endorses the changes, too.

The amendment proposed—“No One Is Above the Law Amendment"—would, as stated, strip all Presidents of prosecutorial immunity to their "official acts" as the recent SCOTUS ruling granted. The amendment would cement that the "Constitution “does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President.” Biden went on to say, "I share our Founders’ belief that the president must answer to the law." That's an A+ stance.

Trump, though, always the major projector that he is, went on to respond to Biden's statements in his own to entertainment network Fox News:

“He desperately wants immunity. There’s no way he would write off immunity for a president.” He must've been talking to a mirror.

As for the Justices' term limits, Biden added that setting limitations on their service would make the systematic appointment of Justices “more predictable and less arbitrary.”

Of course, these changes would need Congressional approval; it's highly unlikely Biden would be able to secure that in his term. Should Democrats secure a majority in November, though, the likelihood of these changes being adopted into legislation would greatly increase.

So what do I think about all of this? These are all excellent proposals—we must do everything in our power to ensure that our judicial system remains the fair, just and impartial crown jewel of our country and it's democracy. I have been appalled by both the recent actions and inactions of those at the highest level, and I think some accountability is overdue. believe adopting an amendment would clear up the litigious ambiguity of the SCOTUS ruling. The term limits would help keep the court moral and accountable in their role of maintaining the utmost in just and nonpartisan decisions. I think it is a reasonable expectation that as this country grows and shifts, just like the laws within it, the way those laws are upheld in the highest Court of the land is accountable to some changes and reinforcement of its own. Of course, these changes must remain adherent to the Constitution, but that's why it would require an amendment. Keep it lawful and just.

Is all of this unprecedented? Absolutely, but so was the immunity ruling. American history is full of unprecedented action; we make history here. So long as the Constitution is upheld at every step, I see no reason to stop breaking ground.

[dankusner]

Renovations begin on South Dallas’ historic Forest Theater

After sitting vacant for 15 years, Dallas’ historic Forest Theater is undergoing a major renovation.

The venue that once featured notable acts like Tina Turner, B.B. King and Dallas’ own Erykah Badu will be transformed into a community and education hub, complete with mixed-income housing nearby.

“The Forest Theater once served as a cultural landmark for our entire city,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said at the ceremony. “And this renovation is going to usher in a new era for this theater and for this community.”

This is the first time in its history the theater, which opened in 1949 and for years served an exclusively white audience, is owned by a Black-led organization.

“South Dallas is in a transition of change,” Forest Forward president Elizabeth Wattley said. “The MLK Boulevard is changing.”

She said the rehabilitation and expansion of the theater will “certainly draw additional business and development to the neighborhood.”

As part of the theater’s partnership with Dallas ISD, students of MLK Arts Academy will have access to the 13,000-square-foot arts education hub that will be in front of the theater, where retail spaces were formerly located.

“We really want to bring those technologies to our students’ hands,” Wattley said, “to share their talents in a number of varieties of ways.”

The expansion involved several zoning requirements.

The highway the theater sits on will be transformed into a boulevard with traffic lights and a 35-mph speed limit to increase walkability.

“Our students who would walk to school would have to go all the way up here and then cross over on the boulevard,” Wattley said. “Now they’ll just be up across the street.”

The housing portion is centered around community development, said Forest Forward board member Matthew Ruffner.

The mixed-income housing will help densify the neighborhood, so it increases school and community event attendance without pushing out longtime residents, he said.

Wattley says the theater’s expansion will preserve the character and history of the South Dallas community, whose input on the project was taken into consideration.

The theater is not a new concept: Spaces like the South Dallas Cultural Center offer free access to a wide variety of visual and performing arts programming.

Forest Forward made a commitment to provide complementary access that is not competitive.

“It indicates and implies that there’s an oversaturation of arts in south Dallas, and there’s really no such thing as that,” Wattley said.

Speaking at Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett  said she’s happy to see someone still committed to the city of Dallas, specifically South Dallas.

“A lot of people for a long time have given up on South Dallas,” she said. “But let me tell you, Elizabeth would not accept no from anybody.”

The renovation is expected to take about 18 months, with the theater set to reopen December 2025.

"Will this time be different for South Dallas and the Forest Theater?"

Those words, printed in large type above the fold of the Dallas Morning News on November 10, 2021, “haunted” Elizabeth Wattley for “a long time.”

Wattley is the president of Forest Forward, the nonprofit tasked with bringing the Forest Theater back to life.

Which, in a way, means it is also tasked with the future of South Dallas.

Considering the scope and ambition of that statement, you can understand why those words haunted Wattley.

The 75-year-old theater, adorned with a green tower that once glowed like a beacon on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., has for the last 15 years sat empty among a derelict block of liquor stores and shuttered shops.

On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of people sat in a parking lot behind the building under a clear sky, the nickname Sunny South Dallas becoming a little too literal.

Southern Dallas’ elected leadership celebrated Forest Forward’s milestone of fundraising, bringing in $75.215 million—branded for the ZIP code in which it sits—and the beginning of renovations here.

“Along this stretch of MLK, it used to be dormant,” said state Sen. Royce West. “Everything was closed.”

The evidence is in the photo above these words.

What’s different this time around is Wattley’s strategy.

Forest Forward started buying land around the venue.

It has plans to turn some of it into mixed-income housing. It has partnered with Dallas ISD to transform the Martin Luther King Jr. Learning Center to the MLK Arts Academy, which will graduate its first 8th grade class next month.

Four students from that class were accepted into Booker T. High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and another was on the waitlist.

That’s a big deal. Booker T. presently has 1,100 students across its four grades, and only 10 live in 75215.

Local heavyweight architecture firm HKS is designing the overhaul, which will include a 1,000-seat concert hall and a 200-seat theater.

There will be a rooftop patio, a café, and a coffee shop that won’t be a certain national chain.

All of this is happening in tandem with the removal of U.S. 175, the highway that, like so many other urban freeways, created a gash through South Dallas that has taken decades to overcome.

The land where that road was will soon be a boulevard, connecting the theater with the rest of the community.

The story of South Dallas extends from the Forest north to Fair Park.

The theater is trying to meet the needs of all the people who live in the blocks between them, focusing on access to education, arts, economic development, and housing.

[mrtroy]

America Needs Both

I've been reading a lot of opinions of my friends, pundits and others over the last few weeks.  Corona virus.  Racial injustice. Police brutality.  The coming presidential election. 

I feel like with each passing issue, the divide gets deeper.  The differing sides seemingly getting further apart.  Some of these opinions I agree with. Some I don't.  But the more I think about it, the more I realize as a nation, we need both sides of most of our issues.  No, we don't need racism.  We don't need looting.  Or police brutality.    But we do need the ability for people with different opinions and viewpoints to be able to have those viewpoints without vilifying them.  We need a nation where we understand that black lives matter. But we also need a nation where our public servants (police, teachers, government officials) matter too.  You may be angered by one side of that paradigm right now, but in order for our nation to truly live up to its ideal, we need both.  We need a nation where people in cities feel represented.  And we also need to provide opportunities to those who live in rural America.  We need corporations.  And small businesses.  We need non-profits.  And agencies that watch out for at risk portions of the community.  Right now, there's a good chance that the idea of voting for the candidate opposite your preferred political party seems like an outrageous thought, but lest not forget that whoever our next president is will again be governing our entire nation.  Forget who wins, how beneficial will it be to our nation to have roughly half of our citizens enraged?  Say what you want about Donald Trump, but he realized in 2016 that a large subsection of our population felt like the policies that Barack Obama's administration had enacted didn't appeal to them.  Pause.  Whatever you think about that statement above, it is true.  Now, fast forward to 2020, whoever wins this election will signal to our nation that we either want to go the same direction, or back the other way.  Joe Biden is currently running campaign messaging that is asking potential voters to condemn the acts of Donald Trump and pledge their allegiance to Biden's campaign.  Let's just say this works. I have no idea who will win this election, but just for the sake of this piece, let's say it's Biden.  Come January of 2021, we'll have the opposite half of our nation that can't wait to vote a president out of office.  Not only that, but if Biden were to follow suit with Obama and Trump, and if balances of power stay split in the House and Senate, we're going to spend the next four years seeing different pieces of legislation that previous administrations enacted be reversed.  Or, we'll see the opposing party block things in the Senate to the point where very little will change in Washington.  At this point as you read, you might be thinking, okay, you're a moderate, or, you're arguing for party reform, or maybe the abolition of the electoral college.  And while some of those things may be the answer (I'm not educated enough on those topics to know for sure) what I'm actually arguing for is something that isn't political at all.  It comes back to the examples I gave at the beginning of this piece.  America needs both of its major points of view.  As people, are we better off accepting our neighbor with a different point of view, or turning them into a sworn enemy until they see things exactly how we do?  Before you fire off a retort to a school of thought where you just can't possibly accept Point X of someone's viewpoint, realize that person may be reading this same piece and thinking the same thing about not accepting your point of view.   If we continue in these cycles of behavior, where do we end up?  Do we just keep browbeating each other until one school of thought dies out? Or, do we end up having the public conversations where we say one thing to avoid drawing a reaction, but actually believe something else in private?  To be clear, I don't know how to fix every issue. I don't know how to find a common middle ground for some of society's most inflammatory issues.  But what I do think would be a good start would be to stop trying to make every issue one-sided. 'If you don't believe this, you must be a raving lunatic.' Or, 'If you believe this, you can't possibly call yourself a good person.'  And yes, I have been guilty of reacting in the above manners in discussions I've had. But, bringing these kinds of attitudes to any conversation / debate / issue rarely leads to change and it rarely helps anything.  So, rather than jumping all over your neighbor - or silently writing them off in your brain - the next time you disagree with them, I think we all need to do a better job finding a middle ground.  And again, this isn't to say that we should tolerate terrible things in our country because we're doing the neighborly thing and accepting people's vile viewpoints.  But it is to say that we should be able to find a way to find a middle ground on things that are worth finding a middle ground on.  Because I think many of us can agree that the status quo we've got going on isn't working. For the rest of this year, we can find some solace in saying, 'Vote in November.' But come December, all of us have to live with the officials we elect - and it doesn't do us much good if roughly half of the population is ready to lose their mind if their candidate happens to be the one who loses.  -- I have always thought American ingenuity was our greatest virtue as a country. Throughout our history, we've had groundbreaking inventors and innovators that have figured out new and better ways to do things in more effective ways.  We need to muster up some more ingenuity as a nation. To modify how we think and how we react to opposing thought. We have to empower the things that make us different to also make us great.  We cannot simply agree to disagree.  Or, stop trying to address topics in our world because the opposing sides on certain issues are simply too far apart.  We also cannot simply take politics, or matters of social / racial justice off the table when things get too touchy to deal with.  We must not run to the safety of only those who think like we do and attempt to isolate ourselves from anyone who thinks differently.  We must ask ourselves, in 2020, do we want to attempt to solve the issues plaguing our nation, or do we want to continue to point out how stupid, or wrong, or morally bankrupt our neighbors are?  Let's say you were brought into a situation as a third-party mediator in a fight between two neighbors in the town next to yours.  Let's say you agreed with one of the neighbors, but after talking to the second neighbor, you could see that he or she was 100% convicted on where they stood  -  and weren't trying to be a jerk about anything in any apparent way...  If it was your goal to help these neighbors, would you start your engagement with a ruthless insult of the second neighbor?  Would you tell your neighbor that if he didn't come around to seeing things the way the first neighbor did, he may as well be an idiot?  Would you tell your neighbor that his family - and anyone that thinks like him - is a worthless pile of garbage for thinking the way he does?  Unfortunately, it seems as though these kinds of tactics are often resorted to in response to things happening that we don't agree with.  What about trying to find solutions?  What about trying to listen?  What about trying to work towards mutually beneficial outcomes?  These are the things we need to be doing.  Not arguing.  -- In closing, as discussions, debates and conversations happen over these next few months, try to be empathetic to your fellow humans.  Yes, there are some terrible people in the world who have thoughts that are not worth considering a second side of. However, there are also millions of our neighbors that think differently than we do that are fantastic human beings who deserve to be heard and respected. 

America is better when the right and left find common ground.  America is better when opposing viewpoints are met with intrigue not detest.  America is better when we try to find solutions, rather than simply attacking our neighbors.  In a fantasy world, it might be nice to envision a way where one opinion or one side of an issue worked for everyone, but because that’s never been true at any point in history, America needs to embrace the fact that there are two sides to every issue, and we’re better off if we can consider both. 

[schristensen20ahsgov-blog]

Political Interest Groups, and PAC Assessment

Identify one national interest group that represents your issue. Include:

1. Interest group name

Everytown for Gun Safety 

2. A brief statement assessing the position/perspective of the interest group.

"Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and the means to reduce it - by conducting groundbreaking original research, developing evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge in the courts and the court of public opinion."

3. Visit the interest group’s website.  Spend a few minutes exploring and reading about what this group believes, what it wants to happen in Washington, and how it seeks to influence politicians. List five important pieces of information which gives a picture of what this interest group believes.

- For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives.

-Background checks save lives. They are the foundation of any effective effort to reduce gun violence and are associated with lower rates of gun homicides, suicides and gun trafficking in states that require them for all handgun sales.

-current federal law only requires licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks on gun sales. That means criminals, domestic abusers, and people involuntarily committed due to mental health can avoid the very background checks designed to block them from getting guns by simply buying them from unlicensed sellers.

-Unlike any other major industry, the gun industry is shielded from accountability for business practices that directly threaten public safety and put American lives at risk. As a result, there has been no cost to the industry for failing to make guns safer or for marketing weapons and hardware that have no place in the hands of civilians. It’s time for that to change. Lawmakers must reverse the special treatment for the industry that too often bars the courtroom door to gun violence survivors.

- Lawmakers should protect all survivors of domestic violence, including non-married partners, by preventing abusers from possessing firearms after a criminal conviction or while under a restraining order. And the law must ensure that abusers actually turn in their guns after becoming prohibited from possessing guns in a court of law.

- Far too often, law enforcement or family members see warning signs that a person with access to guns may be a threat to themselves or others but are helpless to do anything about it. Red Flag laws can prevent mass shootings and reduce gun suicides by allowing family members and police to ask a judge to temporarily block a person from possessing firearms if they pose a threat to themselves or others. We must also limit easy access to firearms and accessories capable of inflicting mass casualties and require safe and responsible storage of all guns.

4. From your research, describe one (preferably current) piece of legislation, specific policy action, or candidate this group desires or endorses.

This group wants to see a number of laws put in place to prevent gun violence, one being a special Red Flag law. This type of legislation would allow people, such as family members or close friends, to report someone they fear might pose a threat to themselves or others. Law enforcement would then ask a judge to temporarily prevent that person from accessing or purchasing firearms. They want this law to be enacted upon because often times those close to a mass shooter report seeing early warning signs, but could do nothing to stop them.  

5. Where is this interest group located? Are there any local meetings you could attend? When?

The group began as a grassroots organization consisting of local moms against gun violence in Indiana. Now they host meetings all over the country- in fact, I will be attending a Moms Demand Action meeting in Lafayette on November 7th for my civic action.

6. Are there volunteer opportunities? If so, what are they? 

The website lists a few ways to get involved. One is to sign up to be a part of a national network of activists that make calls to fight back against the gun lobby and to help spread the movement. Another volunteer opportunity is to start a student group that helps promote gun safety on school campuses. They also have local events and meetings that citizens are welcome to attend. 

7. Identify additional developments you find interesting from the website/group.

This group repeatedly states they also respect the rights granted by the Second Amendment in their quest to end gun violence.  They push for control over guns ending up in the wrong hands, not the eradication of all guns in America.

Identify one state interest group that represents your issue. Include:

1. Interest group name

California Chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

2. A brief statement assessing the position/perspective of the interest group.

"The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and its legislative and grassroots affiliate, the Brady Campaign and its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence. We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities." 

3. Visit the interest group’s website.  Spend a few minutes exploring and reading about what this group believes, what it wants to happen in Washington, and how it seeks to influence politicians. List five important pieces of information which gives a picture of what this interest group believes.

-Since the Brady law was enacted, over 300 million background checks have taken place, and over 3 million firearm sales to prohibited purchasers have been stopped. We take great pride in this law, enacted with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, and signed into law by President Clinton.

-For too long, Congress has only debated gun violence prevention in the wake of a national tragedy. However, with proactive legislation, we can work to stop gun violence before it happens. Congress must enact proactive measures that save lives.

- Congress must extend background checks, with very narrow exceptions, to every gun sale and transfer. While U.S. law requires all federally licensed gun dealers to conduct a background check on potential buyers, individuals who are not federally licensed may transfer guns to acquaintances, at gun shows, or through websites like Armslist.com without conducting a background check

- it is critical to concentrate on expanding the categories of individuals who are considered too dangerous to possess guns. 

-Congress must act to prevent common civilian access to military style assault weapons by enacting tighter restrictions on purchasing and possessing them.

4. From your research, describe one (preferably current) piece of legislation, specific policy action, or candidate this group desires or endorses.

Brady supports a new legislation that would redefine the definition of “intimate partners”.  Under current law, dating partners who do not share a child in common do not qualify as “intimate partners” who could be prohibited from buying and owning firearms in the domestic violence context. Closing this loophole will help protect more people, especially women, experiencing dating violence. 

5. Where is this interest group located? Are there any local meetings you could attend? When?

The group’s national headquarters are in Washington DC, but they have local meetings in each state. Currently the only event scheduled in California is in Oxnard, which is a bit too far for me to attend. It will be on November 13, 2019, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

6. Are there volunteer opportunities? If so, what are they? 

You can volunteer to contact your local representatives to let them know you support universal background checks, or join a local chapter to join the fight. 

7. Identify additional developments you find interesting from the website/group.

I found their statistics to be particularly interesting, such as that today 1 in 5 guns are purchased without a background check despite the fact that 90% of Americans- both sides of the political spectrum-  believe every gun transaction should have a background check. 

Finally, compare the two interest groups.  Which one seems more organized? More successful?  Who is their target audience? Supporters?  Additional thoughts, concerns, observations welcome. Be sure to follow them on twitter.

Both had similar mission statements, but overall Everytown seemed more organized and successful. Brady had only one event for activists to attend in California, while Everytown had different chapters for moms, students and even mayors with plenty of opportunities for involvement. They were also a bit more moderate and acknowledged the arguments of pro- Second Amendment citizens, meaning their target audience was wider and could gain more supporters across the political spectrum. Both groups had a clear plan of action though, and the one plus of the Brady Campaign was that they already fought and won having the Brady Background Check in place.

Choose one PAC or Super PAC that pertains to your civic action issue.  Include:

1. PAC name

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund

2. A brief statement assessing the position/perspective of the PAC.

It is a lobbying group that advocates for gun control measures while opposing laws expanding firearms carry privileges.

3. How much money have they raised/total receipt? How much have they spent? How much cash do they have on hand?

Raised: $18,879

Spent: $105,520

Cash on hand: $176,074

4. How much of their budget is spent on: Republicans? Democrats?

90% to Democrats and 10% to Republicans

5. Click Donor. Who are some of their donors? How does this reflect the interests of the PAC?

WITTES, ROBERT E from WASHINGTON, DC

ROWE, KEVIN from SANTA FE, works for K ROWE INVESTMENTS, LLC

ROBERTSON, WYNDHAM from CHAPEL HILL

MCGRATH, KATHLEEN from ENCINO, CA, works for BAD ROBOT

 These people range from physicians to investors to the president of a film production company.  Gun violence truly affects everyone across America, which is why their donors would be so diverse. 

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/trumps-plan-to-replace-ginsburg-an-abuse-of-power-says-biden/

Trump's plan to replace Ginsburg an abuse of power, says Biden

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionHundreds of people visited the US Supreme Court to pay their respects to the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Donald Trump’s move to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the presidential election is an “abuse of power”, his Democratic rival Joe Biden says.

Mr Trump has said he will next week nominate a woman to replace the longstanding liberal justice.

Mr Biden has urged Senate Republicans to delay a confirmation vote.

Ginsburg, a liberal icon and feminist standard-bearer, died on Friday aged 87.

Democrats fear Republicans will vote to lock in a decades-long conservative majority on the country’s highest court.

The ideological balance of the nine-member court is crucial to its rulings on the most important issues in US law.

What has Biden said about Trump’s decision?

During a speech at the Constitutional Center in Philadelphia on Sunday, Mr Biden said the president had “made clear this is about power, pure and simple”.

“The United States constitution allows Americans the chance to be heard – and their voice should be heard… they should make it clear, they will not stand for this abuse of power,” he said.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Joe Biden: “Our country faces a choice – about whether we come back from the brink”

“I appeal to those Senate Republicans – please follow your conscience, let the people speak, cool the flames that have been engulfing our country,” he said.

“Don’t vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell created. Don’t go there.”

Two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, have both backed a delay in the vote until after November’s presidential election.

If they are joined by two more Republican senators, they could block or at least delay a confirmation vote, as the Republicans have a majority of only six in the Senate.

In the event that the vote is a tie, the US constitution allows Vice-President Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote.

To avoid that outcome, Mr McConnell is seeking to secure the support of Republican senators. He has already won the backing of Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, who was viewed as a potential swing vote.

On Sunday, Mr Alexander said the US Constitution “gives senators the power” to vote on a Supreme Court nomination, even during a presidential election year.

Mr Biden said that if he won the presidential election, Mr Trump’s nominee should be withdrawn. He said he would then consult senators from both parties before putting forward his choice.

He added that it would be wrong to release his list of potential Supreme Court nominees now, as this could expose some judges to political attacks.

But he said his first choice for the supreme court “will make history as the first African American woman on the court”.

What has Trump said about Ginsburg’s successor?

Mr Trump has vowed to swear in Ginsburg’s successor “without delay”.

“I think it should be a woman because I actually like women much more than men,” he said at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Saturday.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption President Trump said Ginsburg’s successor will be a “very talented, very brilliant woman”

Earlier, Mr Trump praised two female judges who serve on federal courts of appeals as possible choices. Both judges – Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa – are conservatives who would tip the balance of the Supreme Court in favour of Republicans.

Democrats have vigorously opposed any nomination before November’s election, arguing that Senate Republicans blocked Democratic President Barack Obama’s choice for the US top court in 2016.

At the time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell justified the move on grounds that it was an election year. But on Friday Senator McConnell said he intended to act on any nomination Mr Trump made and bring it to a vote in the Senate before election day.

Ginsburg tributes: ‘A warrior for gender equality’

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s most memorable statements

The appointment of judges in the US is a political question which means the president gets to choose who is put forward. The Senate then votes to confirm – or reject – the choice.

Ginsburg, only the second-ever woman to sit on the Supreme Court, died of metastatic pancreatic cancer at her home in Washington DC, surrounded by her family.

Ginsburg, who served for 27 years, was one of only four liberals on the nine-seat bench. Her death means that, should the Republicans get the vote through, the balance of power would shift decisively towards the conservatives.

In a statement to her granddaughter, days before her death, Ginsburg expressed her “fervent wish” not to be replaced until a new president had taken office.

How have Americans been paying tribute to Ginsburg?

Displays of grief, appreciation and anxiety have been seen across the US, as the country reflects on Ginsburg’s groundbreaking legal career and the future direction of the Supreme Court.

Memorials attended by thousands of people nationwide this weekend have showed the esteem in which Ginsburg is held.

Supporters of the woman some affectionately called “The Notorious RBG” have been gathering outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC since Friday night. Visitors to the court have left flowers and signs in tribute, contributing to a makeshift vigil.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Mourners have been gathering outside the Supreme Court since Friday night

The Supreme Court said flags on its front plaza will be flown at half-mast for 30 days in honour of Ginsburg. In a statement on Sunday, the court said Ginsburg’s bench chair and the bench directly in front of it have also been draped in black wool crepe.

This, the court said, was done in accordance with a 147-year-old tradition for the death of a sitting justice.

What does the Supreme Court do?

The highest court in the US is often the final word on highly contentious laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.

In recent years, the court has expanded gay marriage to all 50 states, allowed for President Trump’s travel ban to be put in place, and delayed a US plan to cut carbon emissions while appeals went forward.

Why is the US top court so important?

It is also deals with issues like reproductive rights – one of the main reasons some pro-life conservatives want to tip the balance away from liberals.

Who are seen as top contenders?

Barbara Lagoa: A Cuban American of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, she was the first Hispanic judge on the Florida Supreme Court. She is a former federal prosecutor

Amy Coney Barrett: Member of the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, she is a favourite of religious conservatives and known for her anti-abortion views. She was a legal scholar at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana

Kate Comerford Todd: Deputy White House Counsel, has a lot of support inside the White House. Served as former senior VP and Chief Counsel, US Chamber Litigation Center

[isobelhigginbotham]

10/05/20 Posting the Transcript

PART 1: The Ship’s history and the artefact’s comparison to the original ship.

This artefact is a uniquely Korean sculpture; universally know as the turtle ship, identified by the Koreans as a “Geobukseon”. This museum artefact is modelled upon the famous warship predominantly associated with the Imjin Wars between the years of 1592 and 1598. Follow us as I discover the rich history of the turtle ships dating back to the 16th century of the Joseon dynasty and association with Admiral Yi Sun-sin. I also explore the reason why the turtle ship was gifted, through an insight into national pride and Korean legacies. 

The turtle ship is mostly connected to Admiral Yi Sun-sin who is one of the most celebrated figures in Korean history, for leading the victory against Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Japanese invasion. Korea’s strength lay with its navy and the turtle ship was far superior to its ancestor the P’anokseon. Let us look as some of the more groundbreaking elements of the turtle ship’s design. 

The turtle ship is unusual and best known for its removal of the castle from the deck, which was replaced with roofing, certainly resembling a turtle shell as the ship was completely enclosed. The South Sea between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese Isles is known to be rocky with sudden changes of the current. The turtle ship was designed with a wide keel, enabling it to have an incredible 360’ manoeuvre and suppleness against these changing currents as well as being fast and agile.

The most distinguishable feature was the dragon-shaped head at the bow of the shop. Through much of my reading, I came to the conclusion that the dragon’s head could also be used to confuse the enemy with the aim of striking fear into the hearts of Japanese sailors. Filled with sulphur, the smoke could effectively hide the ship’s movement and act as a form of psychological warfare. It could also fit a small canon called a hwangja-chongtong. More visibly, the ships became capable of shooting cannonballs directly ahead and behind themselves. The Gobukseon represented a multitude of advancements in shipbuilding.

The ship featured iron spikes on its back to deter the enemy from boarding the ship. Sources vary as to whether or not the spikes were attached to protective metal or wooden planks. The case can be made either way as no one knows for sure. But the name ‘ironclad warship’, I find can often be misleading, since evidence strongly suggests the theory that the turtle ships designed in 1592 had only wooden roofs with iron spikes. In his book Haeng Rok, Yi Bun – nephew to Admiral Yi Sun-sin described the vessels in detail, explaining “the turtles back is a rood made with planks”.

I wanted to consider how similar the museum artefact is compared to the original ships. The turtle ships featuring in the 16th century disintegrated in the Inch’on Harbour, therefore it is difficult to see how it really compares. However, through dedicated research I found some evidence to suggest an earlier turtle ship existed before Yi’s remodelling, but these were never used in war. It is then, Yi’s model that is the most prominent in all recent attempts to replicate the boat. The diary entries from Yi’s memorials publishing in 1795 described numerous important details about the ships, and also features illustrations of the ship itself. The artefact from the Durham museum looks far more like the second illustration in Yi’s diary, which features the improvements Yi Sun-sin made, in comparison to the earlier style ship associated with King T’aejong’s reign. Yi’s ship has less oars and the dragon’s head is much more prominent, just like the one in the museum. This model is made of bronze, featuring 14 bronze oars, canon ramparts, a large anchor and a dragon’s head. This replica of the full size ship is a sign of technological innovation, highlighted by the fact it also features on the presence of the 5 Won coins. The turtle ship was a product of unprecedented industrial design. What was truly ground breaking was that the design was based on a turtle, evidence of Korea’s ingenuity and creativity. The ship bears witness to the cherished place, which this reptile came to hold in Korean life as a symbol of longevity and good fortune and as a guardian against evil. Due to its involvement in the Imjin Wars under the allegiance of Yi Sun-sin and the ingenuity of the ship’s design, it has most definitely earned itself a very important sport in maritime history and worthy gift to the donor. 

(Roughly 3.8 minutes)

Part 2: Bishop Richard Rutt, his involvement in Korea and the history at the time of gifting

I wanted to delve deeper into why Bishop Richard Rutt was given this artefact. English Roman Catholic Priest and former Anglican Bishop, Rutt spent almost 20 years of his life serving as a missionary in South Korea, spending much of his time studying the language, culture and history. Rutt moved over in 1956, but the most important date is 1968, where Rutt succeeded as Bishop of Taejon. Rutt is well remembered as a Korean scholar and to give some examples, Rutt wrote a book of his life in Korea called the ‘Korean Works and Days’ in 1964. During his time in Korea, Rutt was also involved in the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea branch, which was based in Seoul and established in 1900. Founded to provide a platform for scholarly research on the history, culture and natural landscapes of the Korean Peninsula, Rutt was a leading figure there and published articles in their journal such as Chinese Learning in 1960 and the Flower Boys of Silla 1961 just to name a few. The society is heavily connected with diplomats and other officials in Korea, undertaking trips and excursions. Taking Rutt’s life into account and the fact it was presented to him by Admiral Kim Yong Kwan, who was the chief of Naval operations at the time, it is reasonable to conclude that the gift was either given to him on account of his missionary, academic or ecclesiastical work. 

On the back of this, one area of investigation that I really wanted to pursue, was the question of why was Rutt gifted a turtle ship? So, I considered the context of the time in 1969. In Korean society and culture more generally, after the Korean War (1950-52), there was a consistent movement towards establishing an illustrious Korean history. As part of this reclaiming of Korean history, things like turtle ship and heroic figures like Admiral Yi Sun-sin respectively became symbols of Korean ingenuity. At one time, during the 1970s, statues of the Admiral were erected in key places around South Korea to inspire patriotism. An example of this is the statue of Yi in Seoul erected in 1968 alongside his infamous turtle ship. It is considered one of the major landmarks and symbols of rebuilding Korea. President at the time, Park Chung-hee looked to use Korean history to bolster certain elements of his policies and to provide commentary on the state of the nation. The port town of Yeosu have long celebrated their status as the home of the turtle ship, and there stands another statue of Yi. So, it is likely the turtle ship was chosen as a gift to Rutt as a representative symbol of Korea’s proud history and statement of Korea’s military might. 

Throughout the 20th and 21st century, the naval community, especially the Royal Navy of Korea founded in 1945, has made significant efforts to reclaim Yi’s legacy. The Royal Navy of Korea, through Yi, was attempting to remind the public of the necessity of naval power highlighting the fact that it was the Korean naval forces that saved the country in the 16th century during the Japanese invasions. This goes a long way in explaining the replica of the turtle ship that is on display at the Korea Naval Academy opened in 1975, and also a long way into providing the reason why it was a model of a turtle ship that Admiral Kim Yon Kwan gifted to Bishop Richard Rutt in 1969, since it was during a time of rebuilding Yi’s legacy. 

The great victory of the Imjin War is transfigured in the statues and models of the turtle ship, acting as a sign of perseverance. As quoted by Admiral Heihachiro Tog – “If ever there was an admiral worthy of being called the God of War, that one is Yi Sun-sin”. According to Kenneth Swope, gift shops throughout Korea are filled with figurines of Yi and his famous turtle boat. This is significant evidence for the argument that Rutt was gifted the turtle ship as a symbol of national pride and patriotism. 

The statues of Yi and his ship act a source of identity and strong military might. Rutt spent much of his time in Seoul and so by presenting him with the turtle ship in 1969, does not seem unusual, since it serves as a ubiquitous symbol found in shops and statues across South Korea. This then solves the reason why he was given a turtle ship, seen as a reinstatement of Korea’s proud history. It also resembles a beautiful object of desire and one would be ‘hard pressed to find another four-hundred-year-old conflict anywhere else in the world with as much contemporary visibility’. The turtle ship then, is an ingenious gift to Richard Rutt, as a reinstatement of impressive Korean history and defeat of the Japanese. ‘For a technology level equivalent to the early Renaissance, the Korean turtle ship stands out as a master of its domain and a worthy object of desire’.

Script reads as 8 minutes and 4 seconds

Direct sources from the Transcript:

Joseph Cummins, The War Chronicles: From Chariots to Flintlocks (Beverly: Fair Winds Press, 2008)

Kenneth M. Swope, “A Dragon’s Head and a Serpent’s Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598″ (USA: University of Oklahoma, 2009)

Online resources:

Gwangju & South Jeolla’s International Magazine: <https://gwangjunewsgic.com/arts-culture/korean-myths/behind-the-myth-the-turtle-ship/>

The Mariners Museum:  <http://www.marinersmuseum.org/blogs/civilwar/?p=1873>

[mittensmorgul]

What do you think of Cas talking about how he never really understood emotions or regrets til he was human in 9x11? I think he feels emotions as an angel, so I always kind of interpreted it as he never realized how hard it actually was til he was in a human's shoes and without powers. Tho I just saw someone talking about how ooc that scene was. What do you think?

Hi hi. This sorta makes me nervous to reply to, because I have no idea what post you’re referring to, or how that person was talking about Cas in 9.11 as being ooc, specifically, so I feel like I’m walking into a potential minefield right from the jump. Thanks for that!

So with the disclaimer that I have zero idea what post you’re referring to, compounded by your statement that you think Cas feels emotions as an angel so anything I respond with is automatically confrontational just on that level, but I do believe Cas there in that scene in 9.11.

And I’ve written about it numerous times in the past, so this is just my off-the-cuff attempt to rehash multiple thousands of words of meta into a short(ish) reply, and not in fact any sort of groundbreaking new line of thinking here. For that, I have a tag for that episode, several different “cas vs humanity” tags with many more posts on this topic, which I have spent a considerable amount of time and effort into writing… at least more time and effort than it takes to reflexively dismiss Things I Don’t Wike as “OOC” without actually committing any additional mental energy into explaining WHY.

I think Castiel’s entire character arc beginning in 4.01 is this journey of understanding about himself, and about humanity. I’m actually in the process of writing a HUUUUUGE long treatise on this exact thing, which at this rate is probably gonna take a month to compile… it’s just too much… :P

Beginning in 4.07 we learn that Cas has doubts, and that this is NOT NORMAL for an angel to experience. Cas told us himself in 4.02 that angels are soldiers, warriors of God, and not (in Dean’s words) Michael Landon. Angels serve God and Heaven’s orders. Period. They don’t question those orders. And yet, after just a few episodes Cas is already veering from that “programming.”

Because yes, we learn later (and pieces of this information don’t fully come to our attention until S8 when we meet Naomi and can understand what being sent back to Heaven for “Bible Boot Camp” actually means for an angel… torture, literally poking around inside their basic wiring and “fixing” them so they don’t question their orders anymore…), angels are reprogrammable, rebootable. If they “break,” just switch them off and back on again. If that doesn’t fix them, you can tinker with their software until they’re in perfect working order again.

How can a being that’s so completely malleable like that (and its implied that Cas has been “fixed” this way before) truly understand human free will and emotions?

By 4.22, Cas had just had a fresh round of reprogramming in Heaven and had walked away from Dean at the end of 4.20 with the reminder that he serves Heaven, not man, and certainly not Dean. He questions what is even so worth saving about humanity, since all he could see was pain, guilt, anger… He couldn’t understand why humans would choose to endure suffering when they could be at peace. Dean lays it all out for him: BECAUSE IT’S REAL, and not some charade. Cas begins to understand. He makes his first major gesture of rebellion against his orders, and is cast out of Heaven because of it.

He struggles with the consequences of his choices all through s5, coming very close to becoming human himself by the end, but he is restored to his old angelic self in 5.22 and tries to teach what he’d learned about humanity to the rest of the angels, teaching them that they don’t have to follow Heaven’s orders, that they can observe and experience the glory of humanity for themselves if they want. But in s6 he takes that to an extreme that’s entirely untenable…

Just because you can do what you want doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. Or so Dean told him in 6.20. But Cas still doesn’t get it. He’s just replaced the notion of “God’s will” with his own will, and willfully trampled over everyone else’s free will in the process… That’s just not how any of this works, and it took dying in 7.01 for him to understand his hubris, and to repent for his actions.

Throughout s8, he dealt with all of this in a horrifyingly disillusioning fashion, this tenuous balance between what he believed were entirely his own choices that were influenced (without his conscious awareness) by Naomi’s orders to him all season long. He believed he was acting fully of his own volition, but had been manipulated by Naomi from the start. He was actively prevented from making amends for his s6 actions, and that had to cause a lot of internal conflict for him.

He knew he wanted to redeem himself to Dean, to make amends with Heaven, to do whatever he could to atone for his actions… and for reasons he couldn’t understand, he was prevented from doing so, yanked around by the narrative against his will again.

It took him falling and becoming fully human to be free of that angelic programming that has the capacity to override these sorts of “human things” like a complete understanding of human emotions. All through early s9 he begins to understand humanity in a way he never could as an “observer.” BEING human is not at all the same as STUDYING humans, you know?

And that scene in 9.11 is just two episodes after he steals another angel’s grace in a situation where he felt that was his ONLY option. He had no other choice, he did what he had to do. He referred to what he’d done as “barbaric.” I mean, he is not happy with what he was forced to do there. And two episodes later he’s lamenting the loss of his ability to connect with human things now that he’d been “graced up” again.

How is that out of character?

HE LIKED BEING HUMAN. HE REGRETTED WHAT HE’D DONE IN 9.09. HE FELT LIKE HE’D BEEN FORCED TO SACRIFICE THAT EXPERIENCE OF HUMANITY BECAUSE OF HIS DUTY.

I don’t doubt that angels have feelings. It’s clear that they have ~some~ kind of feelings. But what they feel is in no way akin to human feelings. And that’s how I understood his lament in 9.11, that he regretted the loss of his ability to feel these things as a human does, instead of how an angel does.

Even in s10, when we meet other angels who refuse to return to Heaven and want to be left alone to experience the wonders of life on Earth, we have some compare/contrast examples between how Cas experienced humanity in his very own body AS A HUMAN, as opposed to how other angels who are inhabiting vessels that are still occupied by human souls. Hannah was our MAIN pov on just how unusual Cas really is in this respect. And I think this is significant, from 10.07:

HANNAH: I’m sorry, Castiel. I’m not going with you. I’m done. It’s hard letting go… of a story, a mission. But what of the humans whose lives we sacrifice in the name of that mission?CASTIEL: What of them?HANNAH: We always said the humans were our original mission. Maybe it’s time, Castiel – time to put them first.CASTIEL: Where is all this coming from?HANNAH: Being on earth, working with you, I’ve felt things. Human things – passions, hungers. To shower, feel water on my skin… to get closer to you. But all of that was nothing compared to what I felt when I saw him.Her husband – his anger and his grief. And Caroline was inside of me, screaming out for him, for her life back. These f-feelings, they aren’t for me, for us. They belong to her. I know it’s time to step aside.[Hannah smiles, leans forward and kisses Castiel on the cheek. Castiel nods.]Goodbye, Castiel.

This is how an angel occupying a vessel understands these “human feelings.” As alien, foreign, not fer her. But Cas? He’s different. He’s not in a vessel, but in his own body. All those feelings are his. Regardless of how he’s able to experience them, we know from this scene that Cas is different now. His experiences have changed him.

Gah, I’m just rambling now. I should probably take all this mental energy and put it into that long meta I’m trying to write instead. :P

[michaelwalshblog-blog]

Green groups denounce Trump’s ‘all-out assault’ on climate regulations

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, March 28, 2017, in Washington. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday afternoon following through on his campaign promise to roll back Obama-era environmental protections intended to combat climate change.

The Trump administration’s “Energy Independence” order essentially begins the process of dismantling the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which limits greenhouse gas emissions from coal-burning power plants. It was former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation for restricting the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

In courting miners on the campaign trail, Trump condemned his predecessor’s environmental policies as an assault on American workers in the coal industry. His rhetoric made no allowances for jobs that might be created in renewable energy. In 2015, Fortune Magazine calculated there were twice as many Americans working in the solar-power industry as coal miners.

While introducing Trump at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters, Vice President Mike Pence said, “The war on coal is over. Everyone here knows the truth that affordable, abundant and reliable energy powers the American economy.”

Trump celebrated the signing of the executive order as the start of “a new era” in U.S. energy production and job creation.

“The action I’m taking today will eliminate federal overreach, restore economic freedom and allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level-playing field for the first time in a long time, fellas. It’s been a long time. I’m not just talking about eight years. I’m talking about a lot longer than eight years,” Trump said.

Earlier Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the executive order directs all agencies to review all regulations, rules, policies and guidance documents that hinder domestic energy production and identify those that are not mandated by law or contributing the public welfare.

“For too long the federal government has acted as barrier to energy independence and innovation. By reducing unnecessary regulatory obstacles, we’ll free up American energy companies to responsibly use our vast energy resources,” Spicer said.

In anticipation of the executive order, Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said Tuesday morning that she will not surrender “our children’s future” to profits for the coal and natural gas industry without a fight.

“This is an all-out assault on the protections we need to avert climate catastrophe. It’s a senseless betrayal of our national interests. And it’s a short-sighted attempt to undermine American clean energy leadership,” Suh said in a statement.

Graphiq

“Trump is sacrificing our future for fossil fuel profits – and leaving our kids to pay the price. This would do lasting damage to our environment and public lands, threaten our homes and health, hurt our pocketbooks and slow the clean energy progress that has already generated millions of good-paying jobs.”

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) president Gene Karpinski also weighed in:

“Rolling back these public health protections shows Trump cares more about big polluters than the well-being of our communities. There is no excuse for unsafe drinking water, dirty air, more asthma attacks in kids, and increased extreme weather events that destroy homes and livelihoods,” Karpinski said. “Donald Trump may care more about corporate interests, but the people of this country care about a safe, clean and healthy environment and they will not let him get away with destroying it.”

The CPP is the centerpiece of Obama’s efforts to fight climate change. It’s also the key to U.S. compliance with the landmark Paris Agreement, in which 194 countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions to limit the increase in average global temperature to below 2°C. That dismantling the CPP disrupts the Paris Agreement likely wouldn’t bother Trump much — since he’s vowed to pull the U.S. from the accord anyway.

A senior administration official told reporters Tuesday, “The previous administration devalued workers by the policies. We’re saying we can do both. We can protect the environment and provide people with work and keep the economy growing. And that’s the policy agenda we’re going to try to focus on.”

But scientists say that climate change will have serious economic consequences in the form of rising sea levels and more disastrous hurricanes. The White House official could not respond when asked what the administration makes of those economic arguments.

“Again, you’ll have to talk to those scientists. Maybe I can talk to you afterward. I’m not familiar with what you’re talking about,” the official said.

Trump once characterized himself as being an environmentalist “to a large extent” but his actions and rhetoric paint a drastically different picture. In fact, that same day he signed executive orders advancing the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

In December, more than 2,300 scientists, including 22 Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter beseeching Trump to respect scientific research and rely upon it when shaping policy.

The former real estate magnate went on to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has close ties to the fossil fuel industry and sued the EPA more than a dozen times, to lead that very agency. Pruitt recently said he does not think carbon dioxide is the primary driver of climate change. Trump’s secretary of state is former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, whose company has been accused of leading a campaign to deny climate change as far back as the 1970s — although ironically its public stance now (acknowledging that “the risk of climate change is real and the risk warrants action”) would seem to put it to the left of the administration on this issue.

Graphiq

Trump has variously called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China to make the U.S. uncompetitive in manufacturing and claimed “nobody really knows” if it’s real. Neither is accurate. The overwhelming majority of scientific organizations say the scientific evidence of the climate system’s warming is incontrovertible.

For instance, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.K. Royal Society, the Science Council of Japan and other international science organizations signed a joint statement affirming the reality of climate change back in 2005.

“Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring,” the statement reads. “The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities.”

Independent analyses from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that the Earth’s average surface temperatures in 2016 were the warmest since record keeping began in 1880. It was the third consecutive year that the global temperatures set a new record for warmth.

Amid such dire data, 21 young Americans, who range in age from 9 to 20, have taken it upon themselves to force the federal government to protect the environment. The group filed a lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in 2015. They argue that the U.S. government’s actions contributing to climate change violate the younger generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property and amount to a failure to protect public trust resources. The case is expected to go to trial sometime this year.

Joanne Spalding, the chief climate counsel at the Sierra Club, said the lawsuit is especially important given the Trump administration’s apparent denial of climate science.

“The Juliana case essentially says no matter what the statutes require of the EPA or other agencies, there is this fundamental right to a life-sustaining climate and that the federal government has a duty to protect that,” Spalding told Yahoo News. “It’s really groundbreaking.”

Read more from Yahoo News:

Democrat Adam Schiff, probing Trump ties, has gone up against Russia (and Stephen Colbert) before

Justice Department warns of a crackdown on ‘sanctuary’ policies

Russia probe in turmoil as top Dems call for Nunes’ recusal

On NYC killing, White House condemns hate crimes — and a ‘rush to judgment’ by the left

Photos: On the brink of famine: Worst humanitarian crisis hits as Trump slashes foreign aid

[bethingletonbcu]

SMP workshop notes

Remember what ur physically designing for

Start to consider where audience is formats and platforms should be relevant for your audience. Know your audience and know what they’re looking at.

Be more ingenious with the media space you design for

Work out what the smp is

Single Minded Proposition

Sums up the most important thing you can say about the brand or product. Ignites creative briefs and serves as rally cry for marketing communication

Also known as a USP or a belief

3 steps to working out what your SMP is

Start by getting to know the product

“The 100 Club is a music venue located at 100 Oxford Street, London, England, which has been hosting live music since 24 October 1942” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Club

”Despite its historic reputation the venue still continues to showcase some of the most exciting new music in London with” https://www.the100club.co.uk/history/

”Because of the club’s rich history, it has become an institution for intimate secret shows by major acts”

Progression of genres throughout the history of the club:

Jazz

Blues

The Seventies

Punk

Reggae

South African Jazz

Indie

“Feldman's Swing Club gave the all-clear to jiving, hot jazz, and an open-minded atmosphere where there were no class, racial or social distinctions. “ https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/100-oxford-street-1601342.html

”Feldman's Swing Club eventually became the 100 Club, where all kinds of jazz and rock have been blown nightly for more than 30 years. The Rolling Stones and heavy metal gods Metallica, among countless others, have invaded what was once the sole preserve of swingers, ancient and modern.”

described by Aerosmith's Joe Perry as "the finest rock'n'roll club in the world"

https://web.archive.org/web/20100925215247/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23880916-closure-threat-to-100-club.do#

From the brief: “100 Club is a historic live music venue on London’s Oxford St. For nearly 60 years it has been at the cutting edge of subculture and has championed all manner of groundbreaking scenes and supported diverse, alternative British musical culture. Because of this, it is still recognised worldwide as an institution of discovery and a venue at the forefront of exciting new directions in music.”

https://historicengland.org.uk/get-involved/100-places/music-literature/#Section4Text

Stands apart from pop culture

Intimate

Different

Champions up and coming music scenes

Underground

Hosted first uk punk festival

Brand links with converse and Fred Perry

Aligns with relevant and iconic brands

Secret

Lets the music speak for itself

Inclusive

Important part of history

Pop culture and celebrity

Escapism during war

Jazz

Oldest indie venue worldwide

Established 1942

Soul

Oxford street

Raw

Blues

Ethos shifted with youth and pop culture

Irreverent

Live music venue

Had the same stage since 64

Reggae

Cutting edge

Diverse

Alternative

64 musical change

Rock n roll

Punk

In the know

Hone it down

Intimate

Up and coming music scenes

Underground

Music speaks for itself

Inclusive

History

Escapism

Raw

Cutting edge

Diverse

Alternative

Cutting edge

escapism

Intimate

History

Pockets of WORDZ

Iconic

Escapism

Nostalgic

Collective/unity

Intimate

Experiential

Raw

Defiant

Rebellious

Bold

Brave

Unconventional

Underground

Cutting edge

Alternative

Independant

Diverse

Put the benefits into SMP

Short punchy statements

Refine them

Experience the defiant, underground icon.

For the raw, the defiant and the rebellious.

At the forefront of music.

Unconventionally independent.

Escape into the bold.

The iconic home of independent music

The sanctuary for independent music

We are bold, defiant and alternative

Be there

Except into the bold

Escape into your crowd

Find your people

Championing the brave

Be different

Brave underground music for a defiant crowd

One stage fits all

Londons most defiant icon

Unlock the door to rebelliousness

An escape for the alternative

Entertaining the bold, the brace and the unconventional

Experience the bold, the brave and the unconventional

If your ideas don’t communicate the SMP ditch them!

Don’t say it literally. Make it emotional

Distress found images to make them your own and take it away from what it was originally.

Only use photos like that to promote specific gigs. Create your own visual response elsewhere and create your own assets etc

find the feel

[cathrynstreich]

Is the Tipping Point Coming to LGBTs and Real Estate?

I enjoy business books and obviously remember “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. The book described those magic moments when an idea, trend or social behavior catches a wave.

Despite quite a bit of anti-LGBT policy coming from the current administration, it seems like everyday society is moving towards a tipping point of positive support and acceptance of the LGBT community, and that includes continued momentum in the real estate industry.

There are a few recent examples. The Equality Act drew unprecedented corporate support, including real estate titans and NAGLREP partners Realogy, Keller Williams, RE/MAX and HSF Affiliates, who joined us and the National Association of REALTORS in calling for housing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation to be made illegal.

About a month after our annual NAGLREP Housing Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., which included U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, we celebrated in May when the Equality Act passed in a historic House of Representatives vote. The bill, which was first drafted in the early 1970s, had never come to the floor of the House for a vote, let alone a win, leading to what will likely be a long process to get Senate approval.

Another example, albeit a quieter one, was also incredibly exciting for us. For the first time, NAR—long an advocate of LGBT rights, including prohibiting discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in the REALTOR® Code of Ethics—issued its first LGB Report.

Following on the heels of a groundbreaking Freddie Mac consumer survey and NAGLREP’s LGBT Real Estate Report, NAR pulled data reported by gay, lesbian and bisexuals from a four-year span since first including a question about sexual orientation in its 2015 Profile of Buyers and Sellers survey.

I also see the incredible support our 37 NAGLREP chapters are receiving locally, averaging about 50 percent more attendees than those from a year ago.

You can see why I think a tipping point is coming. A lot is happening.

NAGLREP’s 6th annual Conference in Palm Springs on October 1-3 is coming at the perfect time. There is obviously so much to talk about when we bring together some of the most important people in the real estate industry and LGBT community.

From CEOs, top speakers, down-to-earth and approachable superstar agents who made the NAGLREP’s Top LGBT+ Agent List and icons like Judy and Dennis Shepard, the conference on October 1-3 has it all.

The Shepards saw their life change when their son Matthew, just days into his freshman year at the University of Wyoming, was murdered in a hate crime that captivated the nation. They went on to become leading voices in the LGBT rights movement with their iconic Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Their friend Jonathan Lovitz, the senior vice president of the NGLCC, will also attend and provide attendees with insight into the economic power of the LBGT community. Other attending LGBT leaders include PFLAG’s Drew Griffin, HRC’s JoDee Winterhof and Micro Rainbow International’s Sebastian Rocca who works tirelessly to help LGBT refugees from more than 70 countries where being LGBT is a crime.

There is also no other conference in real estate where attendees mingle so easily with, and learn from, the leaders of our industry. We will hear from John Peyton, the CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group, who took the leadership role in the Equality Act push. We also have Engel & Vӧlkers CEO Anthony Hitt, the only openly gay CEO of a major real estate brand, Tami Bonnell, the CEO of EXIT Realty, who is matching our Denver chapter’s fundraising drive for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and Better Homes and Garden’s Real Estate CEO Sherry Chris, who brought the word “inclusion” to the real estate forefront with her brand’s mission statement.

These are the people who will guide us to the coming tipping point. I sincerely hope you can join us in Palm Springs. 

Jeff Berger is the founder of the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals (NAGLREP). For more information, please visit www.naglrep.com.

The post Is the Tipping Point Coming to LGBTs and Real Estate? appeared first on RISMedia.

Is the Tipping Point Coming to LGBTs and Real Estate? published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

[addictionfreedom]

Addiction Treatment In Uk

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[usnewsaggregator-blog]

Madrid eyes crackdown after Catalonia declares independence

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/madrid-eyes-crackdown-after-catalonia-declares-independence/

Madrid eyes crackdown after Catalonia declares independence

In one of the most momentous days in recent Spanish history, lawmakers in the Catalan regional parliament voted to unilaterally declare independence on Friday, prompting the government to immediately adopt special constitutional powers to stop the region’s attempt to secede.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government called an emergency Cabinet meeting and was expected to use its new powers to immediately dismiss the Catalan regional government and curtail the powers of its parliament in Barcelona. The Spanish government could also seize control of the Catalan police force and the region’s publicly-owned media outlets.

“Today, the Catalonia parliament has approved something that in the opinion of a large majority of people not only goes against the law but is a criminal act,” Rajoy declared.

The Spanish Senate’s decision to authorize the government to take control of Catalonia trumped the local parliament’s independence vote, which was a symbolic act that is doomed because Spain’s Constitutional Court is almost certain to disallow it.

Rajoy has indicated he wants to call an early election in the prosperous northeastern region as soon as central authorities can ensure an orderly return to legality.

The battle around Catalonia’s future is far from over, however.

Madrid taking away Catalonia’s regional powers is likely to be seen as a humiliation and a provocation by Catalans. A backlash is anticipated, with street protests planned for Sunday, while regional government workers could follow a policy of disobedience or non-cooperation.

On top of that, an expected early election within six months could still deliver a steadfastly pro-independence Catalan parliament, even if recent polls have suggested the region of 7.5 million people is roughly evenly split on secession and some Catalans strongly oppose independence.

A spokesman with Spain’s prosecutor office, meanwhile, said the prosecutor would seek to lay rebellion charges against those responsible for the Catalan independence vote.

The day of drama, featuring emotional speeches and scenes of joy and despair, went to the heart of Spain’s political and cultural history.

The 1978 Constitution, drawn up after the end of Gen. Francisco Franco’s decades-long dictatorship, created a decentralized Spanish state that devolved power to 17 autonomous regions, including Catalonia. The regions have broad administrative and legal powers. The Spanish Constitution, however, also describes Spain as “indivisible.”

Catalonia has its own cultural traditions and its own language. Having long seen themselves as different from Spain, the Catalan drive for independence began in 2010 when the Constitutional Court struck down key parts of a groundbreaking charter that would have granted Catalonia greater autonomy and recognized it as a nation within Spain.

Catalonia represents a fifth of Spain’s gross domestic product and many want the tax revenues generated by the industrious region to remain at home.

After the vote on independence in the Catalan parliament, an unprecedented challenge to Spain’s status quo, officials and lawmakers let loose cries of “Freedom!”

Outside parliament, thousands who had gathered cheered the news, some dancing and raising a toast. In Barcelona, people crowded around TV sets to watch the historical events unfold. The famous St. Jaume square outside the regional government office was packed with thousands of people celebrating. Many of them were draped with the “Estelada” flag that adds a blue triangle to the red and yellow Catalan flag and has become a symbol of the separatist struggle.

“I feel so emotional after the huge fight we went through, we finally got it … the independence of Catalonia!” said 74-year-old Rosalina Cordera Torelles.

Nearby, 24-year-old Rita Carboneras could hardly contain her excitement.

“I’m super, super, super happy. Super excited,” she said. “So relieved. Now we are Catalan at last. We can be ourselves. We are just happy, look everyone around. Everything is so exciting.”

The exhilaration was short-lived. Some 500 kilometers (300 miles) to the south, the Senate in Madrid voted by an overwhelming margin of 214 to 47 in favor of granting the government exceptional powers.

“I call on all Spaniards to remain calm. The rule of law will restore legality to Catalonia,” Rajoy said on Twitter, adding that what is happening in Catalonia is “a clear violation of the laws, of democracy, of the rights of all, and that has consequences.”

The main opposition Socialist party supports Rajoy’s stance on Catalonia, and many Spaniards outside the region are scornful of Catalonia’s secession ambitions.

Rajoy has also received support from outside Spain, with other European leaders rejecting Catalonia’s claims. The U.S. administration also backed Rajoy, after President Donald Trump last month branded the Catalan independence ballot as “foolish.”

“Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government’s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Also supporting Rajoy’s warnings of trouble in Catalonia if it forges ahead with its secession bid, more than 1,500 businesses have moved their official headquarters out of Catalonia this month to ensure they can continue operating under European Union laws if Catalonia secedes. The EU says Catalonia will be tossed out of the bloc if it leaves Spain and would have to apply to become a member, a lengthy process.

———

Giles reported from Madrid. Elena Becatoros and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.

Original Article:

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[titheguerrero]

Who Benefits from our Current Health Care Dysfunction? - Mallinckrodt's Leadership Maintains Impunity After Well Publicized Opioid Settlement

The Latest Mallinckrodt Settlement Jeff Sessions, the current US Attorney General, is ginning up a lot of press coverage of his recent crackdown on makers of narcotics.  For example, per the Washington Post on July 11, 2017...

The Justice Department and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals reached a $35 million settlement Tuesday to resolve allegations that the company failed to report signs that large quantities of its highly addictive oxycodone pills were diverted to the black market in Florida, where they helped stoke the opioid epidemic. The agreement is the first with a major manufacturer of the opioids that have sparked a crisis of overdoses and addictions across the country. The Justice Department said the deal establishes 'groundbreaking' new standards that require the company to track its drugs as they flow through the supply chain to consumers in an effort to control the epidemic. The company had argued that once it passed the drugs to wholesale distributors, it was not responsible for illegal diversion of the painkillers as they were sent to retailers and then pain patients. 'The Department of Justice has the responsibility to ensure that our drug laws are being enforced and to protect the American people,' Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. 'Part of that mission is holding drug manufacturers accountable for their actions. Mallinckrodt’s actions and omissions formed a link in the chain of supply that resulted in millions of oxycodone pills being sold on the street.'

A Slap on the Wrist with a Wet Noodle Hold them accountable? With a $35 million dollar settlement? That should really strike fear into the hearts of evil-doers.  After all, this settlement is tiny compared to the magnitude of the behavior.

At one point, the government calculated that it could have assessed the company $2.3 billion in fines for nearly 44,000 violations of the federal Controlled Substances Act, according to confidential government documents obtained by The Post.

And,

Between 2008 and 2012, about 500 million of Mallinckrodt’s pills ended up in Florida, 66 percent of all oxycodone sold in the state, The Post reported. Nearly 180,000 people died of overdoses of prescription painkillers between 2000 and 2015, and the abuse of pharmaceutical opioids is widely blamed for a crisis that now involves many thousands of overdoses on heroin and fentanyl.

Then, the settlement is tiny compared with the company's revenues.  For example, according to a recent company press release, Mallinckrodt had

Fiscal 2016 net sales of $3.381 billion, up 15.7%, principally driven by volume in Specialty Brands;...

Furthermore, the settlement let the company deny wrongdoing, stating

'While Mallinckrodt disagreed with the U.S. government’s allegations, we chose to resolve the legacy matter in order to eliminate the uncertainty, distraction and expense of litigation and to allow the company to focus on meeting the important needs of its patients and customers,' Michael-Bryant Hicks, the company’s general counsel, said in the release.

In addition, as we have seen in many other legal settlements arranged by US authorities, no individual at the company who oversaw, authorized, directed, or implemented the questionable actions paid any penalty. In fact, top executives at Mallinckrodt continue to make out like proverbial bandits.  Earlier this year the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported:

Mallinckrodt Chief Executive Mark Trudeau's pay jumped 29 percent to $12.6 million as the company rewarded him for a year when profits more than doubled. Mallinckrodt, a drug company that is legally Irish but has its headquarters in Hazelwood, disclosed details of its executive pay in a proxy statement last week. Trudeau's pay included a salary of $1.04 million and a bonus of $1.6 million, which was 127 percent of the target amount. He also received $5.9 million in stock and $3.9 million in options, with some of the stock depending on Mallinckrodt's revenue growth and total shareholder return between 2016 and 2018. An earlier stock award, from 2014, paid out at 200 percent of its targeted amount. That brought Trudeau shares worth $2.5 million at current prices. Trudeau also received $101,003 in contributions to a supplemental savings plan and $16,535 in tax reimbursement. The tax reimbursement was for executives whose spouses or partners attended a national sales conference.

So Mr Sessions  thought he was holding them accountable? At least the Washington Post coverage added some dissent,

Joseph T. Rannazzisi, who supervised DEA efforts to control diversion of opioids for a decade before he retired in 2015, said Tuesday that multimillion-dollar fines have not deterred large pharmaceutical corporations accused of failing to report suspicious orders of pain pills to the DEA. 'These fines mean nothing to Fortune 500 companies,' he said. 'Large corporations see these fines as the cost of doing business. Unless there are meaningful sanctions brought against these companies, they will continue to violate the law.'

So the extremetly lenient treatment of Mallinckrodt and its top executives in this case will likely not deter health care corporate leaders from pursuing future bad behavior that is in the their self-interest.  Plus this case provides another example of the impunity of big health care organizations and their top executives.  Just the Latest Mallinckrodt Settlement And wait, there is more.  The latest settlement did not seem to be informed by any knowledge of the company's previous transgressions.  Like many other big health care organizations, Mallinckrodt and its predecessors have a long history of bad behavior which at worst has resulted in previous lenient settlements, wrist slaps, and executive impunity.  Consider some examples from this decade alone.  The 2013 Settlement of Kickbacks to Doctors As we noted in this post, for a few million dollars, Mallinckrodt settled allegations that it gave kickbacks to physicians to prescribe its antidepressants and sleeping tablets. The 2015 Questcor Shareholder Suit Alleging Deception As reported by the St Louis Business Journal,

Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MKN) has announced a preliminary $38 million settlement in a shareholder lawsuit related to Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. The settlement is pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Mallinckrodt, a Dublin, Ireland, company with its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, acquired Questcor in 2014 for $5.6 billion. The settlement would resolve a class action lawsuit brought against Questcor alleging misstatements from former company officers and directors related to H.P Acthar Gel. Acthar, a drug used to treat autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, generated net sales for Questcor of $761.3 million in 2013.

Again, no individual who presided over, authorized, directed or implemented the misstatements suffered any negative consequences. Note that H. P. Acthar gel, when marketed by Questcor, was one of the earliest examples of a company gaming the system to increase the prices of an old drug to outrageous levels (see our posts here). The Questcor Anti-Competitive Practices Settlement Then in early 2017 Mallinckrodt settled a case involving unfair competition, as reported by Reuters,

Mallinckrodt Plc (MNK.N) has agreed to pay $100 million to settle allegations that a subsidiary broke U.S. antitrust law by sharply increasing the price of a multiple sclerosis drug while ensuring that no rival medicine appeared on the market, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday. Mallinckrodt's share price dropped sharply to just under $43 from above $49 on a report Wednesday, which proved incorrect, that the FTC would sue Mallinckrodt. It spiked above $50 after news of a settlement and closed at $46.53, down 5.8 percent. In 2001, Questcor bought the rights to Acthar, a type of hormone-based drug used to treat infantile spasms as well as multiple sclerosis. Over time, the company raised the price from $40 per vial to more than $34,000, the FTC said. Questcor was acquired by Mallinckrodt in 2014. Acthar, which is off patent, represented 34 percent of Mallinckrodt's $3.4 billion in net sales for fiscal 2016, the company said in a government filing. Per patient, Medicare spent more on Acthar than for any other drug in 2015, putting out $504 million for just 3,104 patients, according to the Medicare Drug Spending Dashboard. Several U.S. drug makers have been criticized for sharp increases in drugs, notably Turing Pharmaceuticals' Daraprim and Mylan's (MYL.O) EpiPen. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported 11 drugs saw price increases of more than 100 percent in 2015. 'This is an egregious case of a monopolist doing a deal to eliminate potential competition and keep its power over pricing. It is abhorrent that lifesaving drugs cost New Yorkers tens of thousands of dollars,' said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement.

Again, Mallinckrodt denied all wrongdoing,

'We continue to strongly disagree with allegations outlined in the FTC's complaint, believing that key claims are unsupported and even contradicted by scientific data and market facts,' a company representative said in a statement.

And of course, to repeat, no one at the company who presided over, authorized, directed or implemented the anti-competitive practices suffered any negative consequences. After that settlement, Sy Mukherjee wrote in Fortune that the

$100 million fine [was] for purposefully maintaining a monopoly on a drug that brought in one third of Mallinckrodt's $3.4 billion net 2016 sales. Although Mallinckrodt will have to sell off its U.S. license for the competing Novartis therapy, it has no obligation to lower Acthar's list price or hit pause on the price hikes since drug makers have carte blanche over their pricing in the U.S. This highlights a critical moral hazard in the biopharma industry and the system of using fines to punish bad actors. Back when I was the editor of the trade publication BioPharma Dive, I had a fascinating conversation with Patrick Burns, Acting Executive Director and President of Taxpayers Against Fraud, a group that brings forward whistleblower cases under the anti-fraud False Claims Act. Burns argued that fines are ultimately ineffective because in the U.S., we 'privatize the profits and we communitize or communize, if you will, the costs.' What Burns means is that, ultimately, news of a big fine can cause a short-term (and relatively insignificant) dent in a company's revenue stream and some PR backlash that can drive its stock price down (Mallinckrodt's shed about 7% of its market cap since the settlement). But ultimately, most of the people who suffer from that stock dip are the public and investors, not the executives who chose to engage in the bad behavior in the first place. That helps explain why some drug companies have been repeat offenders on practices like bribery and kickbacks. Burns presented a much more provocative alternative to the fines system: ban the executives responsible for the fraud or other bad behavior from working in the industry for a number of years, or actually send them to jail.

Of course, that would be hard to do as long as our top political leaders are the best buddies of the multi-millionaires and billionaires who run the big pharmaceutical companies and other huge health care organizations that generate our health care dysfunction. Summary and Discussion Mallinkcrodt made settlements of four legal cases since 2010, involving kickbacks to physicians, various deceptions, and anti-competitive behavior.  The settlements never involved severe enough penalties to the company to really affect its bottom line, never required admission of responsibility, or any accountability by top executives whose huge remuneration were doubtlessly based on the revenues brought in by bad behavior.  Yet US Attorney General continued the Kabuki performance by proclaiming he would "hold them accountable."  Sessions just slapped the company on the wrist again, with a wet noodle. That will show them. This shows that despite all the hoopla lately about health care reform, our political debate completely misses most of the causes of our health care dysfunction. There is suddenly a brief lull in the ongoing battle about whether to "repeal and replace Obamacare."  This was cast as a health care reform debate, but really at best "Obamacare" (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) was a somewhat jury-rigged attempt to increase health insurance coverage without any substantial decrease in the US dependence on large often locally dominant for-profit insurance companies to provide health care insurance.  There was no serious discussion of alternatives, including "single-payer" government health insurance, much less a return to smaller non-profit insurance which might have some local accountability (see this post about Wendell Potter's Deadly Spin for an account of how non-profit insurance executives sold their organizations out to for-profits, greatly personally profiting from the process). Even more to the point, there was no serious discussion of why US health care is the most expensive in the world, yet provides thoroughly mediocre service and outcomes, and still leaves many patients uninsured (see this LA Times article summarizing the latest Commonwealth Fund  report). But while so many people are making fortunes from the current system, and are able to use their money to influence the ongoing debate, do not expect much change.  The case above is just one example showing how executives of big health care corporations can make millions while avoiding accountability for their actions. As I have said until blue in the face,... We will not make any progress reducing current health care dysfunction if we cannot have an honest conversation about what causes it and who profits from it.  True health care reform requires ending the anechoic effect, exposing the web of conflicts of interest that entangle health care, publicizing who benefits most from the current dysfunction, and how and why.  But it is painfully obvious that the people who have gotten so rich from the current status quo will use every tool at their disposal, paying for them with the money they have extracted from patients and taxpayers, to defend their position.  It will take grit, persistence, and courage to persevere in the cause of better health for patients and the public.  Article source:Health Care Renewal

[caveartfair]

Glenn O’Brien, New York Cultural Icon, Dead at 70—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

Catch up on the latest art news with our rundown of the 10 stories you need to know this week.

01  Glenn O’Brien, the pioneering writer who captured the creativity of downtown New York, has died at 70.

(via Artforum)

Glenn O’Brien passed away on April 7th, after battling a long-term illness. A fixture in the 1980s downtown New York scene, O’Brien corralled its artistic energy into magazines like Andy Warhol’s Interview, serving as its first editor, and articles for Artforum, Rolling Stone, GQ, The New Yorker, and more. From 1978 to 1982, O’Brien also co-created and hosted an influential public-access television show, TV Party, in which he conducted humorous, deadpan interviews with downtown luminaries like Klaus Nomi, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. O’Brien collaborated with Basquiat on numerous projects before the painter’s untimely death in 1988; notably, he produced and wrote the screenplay for Downtown 81, a 1981 film that followed 19-year-old Basquiat around the city as he painted its surfaces. Along with extensive writings on art, O’Brien is remembered for his keen sense of style and pioneering men’s fashion journalism. In the 1990s, as contributing editor to Details magazine, he established the celebrated column “Style Guy,” which in 1999 he took to GQ; it ran until 2015.

02  The artist list for Documenta 14 was released on Thursday as previews of the quinquennial exhibition commenced.

(via ARTnews)

Opening to the public on Saturday, April 8, Documenta 14 is split equally across two cities—Athens, Greece and its traditional home of Kassel, Germany—for the first time in the exhibition’s 62-year history. Titled “Learning from Athens,” Polish curator Adam Szymczyk’s iteration of one of contemporary art’s most significant and defining exhibitions features some 150 living artists and collectives, including Nevin Aladağ, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Geta Brătescu, Maria Eichhorn, Douglas Gordon, Hans Haacke, Hiwa K, Daniel Knorr, Ibrahim Mahama, Jonas Mekas, Otobong Nkanga, Pope.L, Georgia Sagri, as well as over 50 artists who have passed away—another break with tradition. The Athens portion takes place across 47 venues in the city and runs through July 16th, while Kassel will take place from June 10th through September 17th at currently undisclosed locations. As is customary for the exhibition, details about either city were scarce until Thursday morning’s press conference in Athens, where the artists for that city’s portion of the show were unveiled in spectacular fashion: All of the participating artists and curators appeared on stage to sing a work by Greek composer Jani Christou.

03  A federal court has ruled that Germany can be sued in the United States over Nazi-looted art, paving the way for the nation to face a U.S. court for the first time in a Nazi restitution case.

(via Reuters)

In what lawyers for the heirs are calling a landmark decision, last Friday a Washington D.C. District Court ruled that Germany can be sued in U.S. court in the Guelph Treasure case. A collection of 11th to 15th century precious Prussian artifacts valued at over $250 million, the treasure was sold under duress by Jewish art dealers in 1935 to members of the Third Reich. The case had already been heard by a German commission, which found that, though the sales prices were low, the sum wasn’t a result of coercion but of an art market decline. Germany’s attorney, Jonathan Freiman, told Reuters in an email that “this is a dispute that was already resolved on the merits in Germany, and it doesn't belong in a U.S. court.” But the District Court disagreed, instead siding with the argument put forward by the heirs of the dealers: that such a taking constituted a violation of international law and as such, falls under U.S. jurisdiction as an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Nicholas M. O’Donnell, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement, “We are pleased that the Court agreed that a forced sale for an inadequate sum to agents of Hermann Goering enjoys no immunity from justice.”

04  Renowned Pop artist James Rosenquist has died at age 83.

(via the New York Times)

James Rosenquist passed away in his New York City home on Friday, March 31st, after battling an ongoing illness, according to his wife, Mimi Thompson. Rosenquist is known for working at the vanguard of 1960s Pop Art alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Both celebrated and criticized for his pointedly political approach, Rosenquist, a former billboard painter, frequently adapted commercial imagery to critique American consumerism and militarism. F-111 (1964–1965), one of his most iconic works, depicts a military jet stretched across an 86-foot expanse of more than 50 panels and punctured by the imagery of mid-century advertising. His idiosyncratic, large-scale paintings are in the collections of MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney, among other institutions, and an exhibition of his work will go on view at Germany’s Museum Ludwig later this year.

05  An Andy Warhol “Mao” broke an auction record in China but still came in under its estimate, sparking a debate about the country’s market.

(via South China Morning Post)

Backed by an irrevocable bid, Warhol’s red silkscreen Mao (1973) sold for HK$ 86 million ($11.1 million) with fees—below the low estimate of HK$ 90 million ($11.6 million)—at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 2nd. Last sold at auction in 2014 for $12.2 million, the Warhol went to an unnamed Asian collector bidding over the phone. Though the sale was trumpeted for breaking the record for Western contemporary art sold in China, the relatively tepid interest in the Warhol work and a piece by Keith Haring—especially compared to the strong interest in Asian and Japanese art at the auction—signaled to some that the region’s appetite for Western contemporary artists has softened. But there are other reasons the Warhol may have underperformed. Dealers at Art Basel in Hong Kong earlier this month reported that stereotypically “Chinese” material no longer plays well in the region due to collectors’ rapidly expanding education and sophistication—one even singled out red Maos as a fad of the past. Asian buyers, dealers also said, have been compelled to spend more when bidding against Western collectors at sales in New York and London.

06  Groundbreaking artist Lorna Simpson is now represented by Hauser & Wirth.

(via Hauser & Wirth)

The international gallery announced Tuesday that it will take on worldwide representation of Simpson. This news precedes Frieze New York in May, where the artist’s work will show at Hauser & Wirth’s booth. “We are honored and delighted to welcome Lorna Simpson into the gallery’s family,” said gallery vice president Marc Payot in a statement. “Her rigor, her passion, and her incredible sensitivity produce not only extraordinary art but also an invitation to engage in a dialogue about identity that we are eager to share.” Since rising to prominence in the late 1980s, Simpson’s mixed-media photographs have scrutinized visual and linguistic representations of race and gender. In 1990, she became the first African-American woman to show her work at the Venice Biennale. Other artists represented by Hauser & Wirth include Zoe Leonard, Roni Horn, and Rashid Johnson.

07  Several museums are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’s seminal readymade Fountain by offering free admission on Sunday.

(via Hyperallergic)

Organized by Duchamp scholar Thomas Girst, several major museums across the globe—including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto—are participating in the initiative, which also has the approval of Association Marcel Duchamp. Visitors who utter the name “R. Mutt” or “Richard Mutt,” the pseudonym Duchamp used to sign Fountain (1917), will be let in free of charge from 3-4 p.m. on April 9th. The timing stems from Duchamp’s notable affinity for trios (he once remarked “three is everything” to a BBC reporter). Inspired by the urinal used for Fountain, some museums will also host Duchampian events in their bathrooms. In what the Philadelphia Museum of Art is calling a “special location,” the institution will host a local theater company’s reenactment of the scandal first caused by the artwork in 1917. “Instead of doing your usual symposium, where people put their heads together and say things that have been said so many times before—most of it self referential and sometimes boring—it’s great to honor the anniversary with somewhat of a Dada gesture,” Girst told Artsy. Visitors can tag their experiences or follow along with the festivities via the hashtag “#Fountain100”.

08  Russia has criminalized images that challenge Vladimir Putin’s masculinity.

(via New York Times)

The Russian Justice Ministry declared last month that images showing Russian President Vladimir Putin in an unmasculine light constitute “extremist materials.” The ruling stems from an edited image depicting Putin in heavy drag makeup posted last year to the social network VKontakte. Those who share or display such images can now face a fine of 3,000 rubles ($52) or a 15-day detention. Putin is known for his cultivation of a personal mythos of hypermasculinity, with widely publicized photos showing him riding horses shirtless or sporting weaponry. Putin is also notorious for enacting deeply homophobic legislation—including a ban on adoptions by LGBT couples, the legalized detention of suspected gay citizens and tourists, and the classification of potential “homosexual propaganda” as pornography. This has led to allegations about Putin’s sexuality to become a common protest tactic, a trend this legislation is designed to stifle.

09  The FBI has recovered a stolen Norman Rockwell painting, 40 years after its disappearance.

(via the New York Times)

The Rockwell work, which depicts a slumbering child and his dog, was stolen during a home burglary in 1976. Originally purchased for no more than $100, over the intervening years the piece’s value has reached an estimated $1 million. Decades after the theft—and a few years after the original owner, Robert Grant, passed away in 2004—Grant’s son, John, was inspired to rekindle the search. On the 40th anniversary of the work’s theft, the FBI issued a news release and several Philadelphia outlets ran the story. The renewed attention did the trick as the painting had ended up in the possession of an art dealer who was unaware of its provenance. The dealer turned it over to authorities and the FBI subsequently returned the painting to John Grant last week.

10  A court cleared the Polish government’s controversial takeover of the country’s Museum of the Second World War.

(via New York Times)

The institution will fall under control of the Polish government following Wednesday’s decision by the Polish Supreme Administrative Court. Opened in March in the city of Gdańsk, the museum was conceived to be Europe’s most exhaustive public exhibition on World War II. However, indication that Poland’s right-wing government will seek to alter the museum’s historical direction has ignited a protracted debate. Museum director Pawel Machcewicz curated a permanent exhibition that adopts an international perspective on the histories of Polish citizens, Eastern Europeans, and Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews. The current Polish administration has long criticized Machcewicz—an appointee of the previous centrist government—placing his future with the museum into question. Poland’s culture ministry has expressed its vision for a more nationalist perspective, one more narrowly focused on Polish losses during the Battle of Westerplatte. Culture Minister Piotr Glinski had previously argued that such a change in conceptual direction would greatly benefit the museum. And on Wednesday, Machcewicz criticized the court’s ruling, expressing his uncertainty over the permanent exhibition’s future integrity.

Cover image: Courtesy of Twitter (@lordrochester).

from Artsy News

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#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.com/askhermore-to-zac-posen-gowns-galore-instyles-a-z-of-awards-season/

#AskHerMore, To Zac Posen Gowns Galore - InStyle’s A-Z Of Awards Season

A is for…#AskHerMore

A is all about the feminist #AskHerMore red carpet movement. Pioneered by Reese Witherspoon and Amy Poehler in 2015, it’s all about changing the way media (that's us too) talks to women and encouraging them to ask better questions than just ‘'Who are you wearing?'. Because quelle surprise women have views on politics and current events as well. B is for…Bliiiiiing

And a whole lot of it. From the now infamous $2.5 million 115-carat Lorraine Schwartz emerald drop earrings that Angelina sashayed down the Oscars 2009 red carpet wearing, to Cate Blanchett’s Chopard earrings, bracelet and ring combo that cost a whopping $18 million, when it comes to standing out at an awards ceremony, it’s all about the bling. The winner of our Ultimate Bling Award? Elizabeth Taylor, obvs. The queen of more is more, Taylor’s then husband Richard Burton bought her a 69.42 carat diamond ring for $1 million but, as Elizabeth puts it, ‘Even for me it was too big. So we had Cartier design a necklace.’ Well, as we always say, when your diamond’s too big to wear as a ring, whack it on a pendant and wear it to the 1970 Academy Awards around your neck instead. Understated, who?

C is for…Charlize Theron

Who knew that Charlize Theron was such a babe? Well, we did. An epic actress (she won an Oscar for her terrifying role in Monster), a style chameleon and repping on the red carpet for taller ladies everywhere, Charlize is the ultimate awards badass and we’re obsessed.

D is for…Diversity

With Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech addressing immigration straight on, and the 2017 Oscar nominations finally making progress against #oscarssowhite with a black actor being nominated in all four acting categories for the first time EVER, the awards diversity drought is officially over. Hooray!

E is for…EE Rising Star Award

Arguably the most exciting award of the year (because it involves majorly hyped new talent like Ruth Negga and Tom Holland aka Spiderman) the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award is so snazzy we throw a party for it every year. Check the deets HERE.

F is for…Fancy Dress

Bjork’s swan moment, Cher’s 1986 ‘Mohawk year’ and Rihanna’s Britney-meets-Egyptian bejewelled bodystocking – yup, when it comes to red carpet dressing there’s always one that takes it to that bit too far to the realms of fancy dress. And we look forward to that one every year, natch.

G is for…Gaga

When she’s not being carried along the red carpet in an egg, wearing yesterday’s beef tartare as a dress or performing an epic ode to David Bowie with glam rock costume changes to match, Lady Gaga’s generally stealing the limelight at any and every awards show. Case in point: accepting her 2011 MTV awards in character as her male alter ego Jo Calderone. Lady Gaga going method? Groundbreaking.

H is for…Hosts (The Weird, The Wonderful And The Awkward)

The fun part about awards shows? They inevitably have to be hosted by two celebrities that would never normally talk to each other but now have to share a stage and present funny quips and bits for hours on end. A recipe for success, non? Well, if you’re hilarious comedians and besties Amy Poehler and Tina Fey presenting the 2015 Golden Globes, then yes. But if you’re Anne Hathaway attempting to present the 2011 Oscars with a possibly stoned but either way totally out of it James Franco, then alas, no.

I is for…Insta Madness

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) 3 March 2014

If you didn’t see THAT group selfie at the 2014 Oscars, then what hole were you living in? Ellen’s celebrity studded Hollywood selfie broke the internet and started a new A-list obsession with Instagram. Just try and get through awards season without liking Chrissy Teigen’s adorable backstage pics with John Legend or Lily Collins asking your opinion on what Zuhair Murad gown she should choose. It’s all about the BTS (that’s behind-the-scenes) pics babe.

via GIPHY

J is for…Jennifer Lawrence Falling Over

via GIPHY

Doing a damn good impression of a weeble, Jennifer Lawrence can’t help falling head over heels for awards shows, literally. Tripping over her massive Dior gown on the way to receive her Best Actress Oscar back in 2013, J-Law’s tumble was surely the most Tweeted about awards moment that year. That, and her tripping over a cone. And every other time she’s totally stacked it. Jennifer, we salute your ability to power through embarrassment.

K is for…Kisses

Remember that time Angelina Jolie said she was ’so in love’ with her brother before kissing him smack on the lips at the 2000 Oscars? Well, we do. And tbh, it’s still weird. Between that and John Travolta’s surprise attack on Scarlett Johansson, awards season always seems to bring out the awkward affectionate sides of celebs (and their siblings).

L is for…Loser Face

via GIPHY

Some people can nail the perfect Joey from Friends gracious loser face, and others…well they don’t keep it together so well. Take Samuel L Jackson who, when losing the 1995 Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Martin Landau, could be see mouthing ‘Oh shit’ on screen. Or when Kanye, in true Kanye fashion, took things one step further by crashing Taylor Swfit’s VMA award win to defend losing nominee Beyonce’s honour thus beginning an A-list feud of epic proportions. A polite clap would have been fine.

M is for…Meryl Streep

via GIPHY

Officially the most nominated person EVER. That is all.

N is for…Novel Adaptations We’ve Never Read

Let’s face it, every year there’s a bazillion films nominated that are actually super intellectual novel adaptations that we’ll pretend to our ridiculously informed and cultural friends we’ve totally read but in reality we’ve just watched the movie and googled some original quotes. Soz, not soz.

O is for…Opening Numbers

Hugh Jackman’s adorable, if slightly awkward, dance number with Anne Hathaway at the 2009 Oscars, Andrew Rannell’s all singing, all dancing rendition of ‘I Believe’ from The Book Of Mormon at the 2011 Tony Awards and Neil Patrick Harris’ arguably best ever Tony Awards performance in 2013 are just a few of the awards show opening numbers to go down in history for the right reasons. We won’t mention the wrong ones.

P is for…Poor Leo

2017 aka the year Leonardo Di Caprio finally won an oscar. It’s fair to say a few people may have given up on it ever happening, including Leo himself. #poorleo.

A photo posted by Angel (@bri6427) on

Jun 30, 2016 at 8:40pm PDT

Q is for…Queen Bey

via GIPHY

If anyone else can announce their pregnancy on stage at the Grammys and bring a tear to our eye quite like Queen Bey we’ll eat our jauntily tipped purple fedora Destiny’s Child style. Lest we forget THAT game-changing Country Music Awards performance of Daddy Lessons with Dixie Chicks that we’ve listened to like 300 times. Ok fine, 500.

R is for…Red Carpet Hype

Fact – you can’t have an awards show without a red carpet, but where did it even come from? Why not a blue carpet? First thunk up by LA showman Sid Graumman in 1922, the red carpet made its debut at the first ever Hollywood premiere, Robin Hood, but didn’t make an appearance at the Oscars until 1961 when film enthusiasts watching on tv couldn’t even tell it was red because of the black and white picture. The epitome of you had to be there.

Fun fact – the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre where the Oscars are held is 500 ft long. Incidentally, just enough room for Jennifer Lawrence to fall over in.

S is for…Speech Cock Ups And General Weirdness

Part two of the awkward hosting section of our A-Z, it’s not an awards season if someone doesn’t mess up an acceptance speech, mispronounce a celeb’s name or send a worthy cause to accept the award on their behalf. Check out Miley Cyrus sending a young homeless dude called Jesse Helt to pick up her 2014 MTV Award (which he’s appaz now auctioning off, that’s gratitude for you), John Travolta classically messing up Idina Menzel’s name and Tom Hiddleston, god bless him, attempting to tell an inspirational anecdote and totally missing the mark. Oscar fails are our fave.

T is for…The Leg

Need we say more? Winning our award for best dressed at the 2012 Oscars, Angelina Jolie’s right leg made such a statement it even had its own Twitter account.

U is for…Ugly Crying

via GIPHY

Yes, it’s an emotional time for everyone, but there’s some that handle the sitch better than others. Gwyneth Paltrow was not one of them. We won’t even mention Halle Berry. Let’s just say we’d give them the Oscar for ugly crying.

V is for…Valentino

That iconic black and white dress Julia Roberts wore to win her Oscar back in 2001 that you always remember every time the Oscars rolls round again? It was Valentino. Cate Blanchett’s timeless one-shouldered yellow dress she wore for her 2005 Best Supporting Actress Oscar win? Yup, Valentino.Scarlett Johansson’s seriously major red dress that put her on the map? You guessed it, Valentino. When it comes to dressing like a winner (or dressing a winner, should we say), Valentino have got it down.

W is for…Wardrobe Malfunctions

via GIPHY

From Chrissy Teigen’s NSFW leg split to Geri Halliwell’s 1997 Brit Awards boob slip, a well-placed (pardon the pun) wardrobe malfunction gets you more column inches than actually winning an award. Our fave? J-Law’s gravity-defying dress tear that magically reattaches itself almost instantly. We geuinely don't know what happened there.

X is for…Exes

There’s nothing better than proving how totally fine you are about an overly publicised breakup by revenge winning an award literally in front of your ex. On the other hand, bumping into an ex on the red carpet isn’t exactly ideal. Oh Hollywood, you’re so small and incestuous and adorable. Brad and Angelina, we wish you good luck.

Y is for…Yellow

Black is so blah. If you want to make a statement on the red carpet it’s all about wearing yellow. Take notes from Reese Witherspoon’s post-Ryan Philippe break up LYD (little yellow dress) and Rachel from Friends fringe that was TOO good or Michelle Williams winning at life in a yellow custom Vera Wang dress that we’ve basically never got over. Nabbing the canary yellow torch and carrying it into 2017, Emma Stone’s red hair, pink lips, yellow dress combo is so chic it’s insane.

Z is for…Zac Posen

Bringing an air of mid-century couture to the often pedestrian fashion proceedings, you can bet your money on Zac Posen dressing the most dramatic, and high fashion celebrity on the red carpet. Noteworthy moment – Christina Hendricks wearing the widest emerald green skirt you ever did see before whipping it off to reveal a fitted mermaid tail gown underneath. And our girl crush hit new heights.