You know what they say: the more, the merrier.
And that’s certainly true when it comes to wedding bands. Take your left finger up a notch ― or four! ― with one of these pretty combos.
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Climate change has not only sent global temperatures spiraling out of control, it has breathed fire into Earth’s wild lands.
Fire seasons are an average 78 days longer than they were in 1970, and the number of acres scorched each year has doubled since 1980, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
If the start of the 2016 fire season is any indication, this alarming trend won’t be extinguished anytime soon. NASA is providing a unique view of the destruction by using satellites to help track and monitor fires ― valuable information for fire managers on the ground ― as well as look at how these blazes are affecting air quality and releasing greenhouse gases.
Lesley Ott, a scientist at NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center, said the technology provides scientists with “the best view that we’ve ever had of the global picture.”
“Satellites give us a really unique perspective on fires,” Ott said in an interview posted to the space agency’s website. “We can see the hot spot while the fire’s going on, we can see the smoke that’s pouring off. And then after the fire’s completed, we can actually look at the burn scar and see the impact on vegetation, and even the vegetation regrowth in the year’s to come.”
In May, a wildfire driven by unusually hot, dry weather burned through the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, scorching nearly 1.5 million acres and displacing tens of thousands of people.
In California, two major wildfires ― the Soberanes fire along the Central Coast and the Sand fire around the Santa Clarita Valley near Los Angeles ― continue to rage. As of Friday, they had burned a collective 70,000 acres.
While these large fires have garnered widespread media attention, they only begin to tell the story of what’s happening in the U.S. and around the world.
“Already in the U.S. this year, more than 29,000 fires have burned 2.6 million acres,” NASA scientist Doug Morton said in an online interview. “The Amazon is the driest it’s been in 14 years, and smoke from wildfires in the Amazon can drift to southern Brazil, changing air quality and potentially impacting the [Rio de Janeiro] Olympics.”
Below, a look at some of NASA’s incredible and gut-wrenching satellite imagery of this year’s fires, from California and China, to Canada to Russia.
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Too often, people use the instant access of streaming services and on-demand to simply watch whatever widely advertised, not-that-good movie was playing in the cinema just a few weeks ago. “That looks alright,” you say to yourselves, settling for something that might be OK. At best. Wht not be a little adventurous and search out movies and TV shows that aren’t maybe decent but actually might be good or even great? Start right here.
SING STREET ($34.99 BluRay; Anchor Bay)
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! ($39.99 BluRay; Paramount)
DEMOLITION ($39.99 BluRay; 20th Century Fox)
MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART ($34.95 BluRay; Kino Lorber)
BELLADONNA OF SADNESS ($39.99 BluRay; Cinelicious Pics)
MY GOLDEN DAYS ($26.97 DVD; Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Let’s kick things off with a gem: a new film from the director of Once that actually recaptures the charm of Once, mostly by not trying to duplicate Once. (I’m looking at you, Begin Again.) In this case, Sing Street is more Commitments anyway, the story of some lads who try to put together a band amidst the punkish new wave of early 1980s Ireland. A coming of age tale, a the-joy-of-making-music revelation, a romance, a comedy. A delight.
Meanwhile, director Richard Linklater has really hit a new creative stride. First came his many years in the making home movie Boyhood. Now comes a “spiritual sequel” to his best film Dazed & Confused. That captured the last day of school in the summer of 1976. This one captures the first day of college in 1980, or more exactly, the lazy, weekend before the first day of college when people are moving into their dorms, making new friends and eagerly waiting for all the sex and drugs and excitement that college is supposed to offer. Linklater has a great ensemble here composed of guys who room together in a big sprawling house and all play on the baseball team. It’s hilariously funny, casually believable, marvelously acted and unfolds with such disarming ease you really feel like it’s the weekend before classes begin and you’ve got all the freedom in the world. Not much happens and it’s just great. I loved it when I saw it and like it even more on a second viewing. I can’t wait to see it again and really there’s so much to say (the marvelous actors, the dialogue, the recreation of an era before smart phones and the internet) but I’ll start with this: see it.
Demolition is exactly the sort of movie you might just toss on because you saw it advertised and hey, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal and he’s good. In fact, it never actually transcends the heavy symbolism of a suddenly widowed young man who literally apart his home and life so he can be reawakened. It helps when you’re befriended by an adorable kid. Nonetheless, Gyllenhaal is such a good actor he actually deserves your support in checking him out in whatever he tackles. He’s got bold taste (Broadway! art films!) and I’m always eager to see what he’s done now, even if I suspect it might be a misfire.
The entire career of Chinese director Jia Zhangke is one long, “how the heck did he get THAT made” puzzle. With Mountains May Depart he tackles decades of recent Chinese history, pointedly suggesting much has been lost in the struggle to leap to the front of capitalism. It’s gorgeous, smart, quiet, beautifully acted, pure art house cinema and one has to wonder: how the heck did he get THIS made? Usually with world cinema you are just catching up with an artist already acclaimed in his homeland. But with Zhangke, we’ve probably seen more of his work than 99.99% of the Chinese population, more’s the pity.
The lost Japanese animated film Belladonna of Sadness is simply not my cup of tea and it took me a few weeks to actually watch the entire film. Definitely for adults (and not in the juvenile “adult” manner of Ralph Bakshi), it features a brutal rape coupled with a revenge fantasy worthy of the blaxploitation films popular at the time. I want to recognize its boldness since so much of animated film is resolutely stuck in family film and fantasy mode. It’s beautifully crafted and the entire crazy history of the film is well captured in the extras. And I’m definitely going to track down its crazy good soundtrack. One for the adventurous. PS I’m not quite being fair to Bakshi, but you know what I mean.
And here’s another gem about boys on the cusp of being men. My Golden Days is a winner from French director Arnaud Desplechin. It’s a poignant string of flashbacks involving childhood, a student trip to the USSR, life at college and most of all Esther, the one that got away. It’s talky and discursive as only the French can be and filled with winning performances, led by Quentin Dolmaire as the young hero. If you’re not prone to French cinema, I don’t think this will win you over. But if you are, it’s a must see.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN ($35.99 BluRay; Warner Home Entertainment)
THE BOSS ($34.98 BluRay; Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT ($29.98 BluRay; Warner Home Video)
The one aspect I really enjoyed about Batman V Superman was the one aspect everyone mocked: the super serious tone. Hey, with the darker than dark Batman films and the fact that Marvel has the market on snark cornered, I thought it was smart of DC to realize their wheelhouse is a sober serious nature. This isn’t fun and games; it’s the fate of the world! But everyone mocked it as pompous and now the trailer for Justice League has jokes and jabs a plenty. Oh well. I’m not surprised the movie itself was a bust since I’ve never really cared for the films of Zack Snyder (the campy homoeroticism of 300 aside). And I’m a little torn: the visuals are best enjoyed on the big screen (at home the editing becomes even more absurd) but its the bounteous extras that offer your best entertainment value. And don’t worry about the DC universe. Between Suicide Squad and the pitch perfect trailer for Wonder Woman, they’ll be just fine. Here’s hoping they take their mission seriously.
Oh Melissa McCarthy, how I loved you in Gilmore Girls. I’m thrilled you graciously agreed to do a cameo though bummed your character (such a key ingredient to the show’s success) won’t be more fully present. It’s a shame you don’t seem to have a lot of love for that experience since it’s still FAR AND AWAY the best role of your career. You seem to be the new John Belushi, but where he went from dumb slob roles to increasingly nuanced characters you’ve gone in the opposite direction from Sookie to slobs. Your movies swivel back and forth from dumb and successful to dumb and not so successful. (Though I don’t think a single movie has actually lost anyone money yet.) The Boss falls in the latter camp but I’m still waiting for you to remember how much fun it was to actually act as a character, rather than go for the sort of extended sketches that wouldn’t even cut it on SNL. The Boss is exactly what you shouldn’t be doing. Catch your breath, dive into a pile of scripts and find yourself a great supporting role in a really good film by a really good director. You’ve cashed in now start making some art.
As for the latest Barbershop, it’s definitely too little too late, but harmless fun nonetheless. What took them so long? And since they waited so long, why does it feel tossed off? A rare misstep for Ice Cube.
A TOUCH OF ZEN ($39.95 BluRay; Criterion Collection)
THE NEW WORLD ($39.95 BluRay; Criterion Collection)
When I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time, it was as pure joy for me, a thunderbolt out of the blue like Raiders Of The Lost Ark and precious few other movies. Of course, it was in debt to earlier great films (like Raiders) and it’s been a pleasure to be schooled in the wuxia genre of martial arts movies. Surely at the top of list of influential forebears is A Touch Of Zen, a terrific film that also features great performances, great action of almost unparalled excitement and high drama. This Criterion edition features a newly restored print, some great background and the 180 minute version. It’s essential cinema, which makes it sound like homework. It’s also tremendous fun and Criterion does it proud.
Director Terrence Malick has gone from enigmatically unproductive to darn near prolific. With To The Wonder and Knight Of Cups, this ever-increasing rate of production has begun to seem…unhelpful. But as recently as Tree Of Life, he’s been at the top of his game. Case in point: The New World. While acclaimed, it fell between the triumphant The Thin Red Line and the marvelous Tree. But like the best playwrights and increasingly the best directors, Malick has taken advantage of BluRay releases and special editions to refine his vision. Unlike Coppola and most others, his new director’s cuts have proven to actually be improvements. I found this telling of the clash between immigrants and the native peoples to be gob-smackingly good when it first came out. But that theatrical release was already different and shorter from the cut that appeared at film festivals. And then came a genuinely new draft with the Special Edition that fell somewhere in between. Happily, Criterion offers all three versions on this disc. Start with the final one that Malick approves of because it’s a stunner, replete with his usual Kubrickian skill at combining visuals and music to overwhelming effect.
SUPERGIRL: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON ($54.97 BluRay; Warner Home Video)
TWO GUYS AND A GIRL: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($79.97 DVD; Shout! Factory)
THE MAGICIANS SEASON 1 ($44.98 BluRay; Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
THE 100 COMPLETE THIRD SEASON ($39.98 BluRay; Warner Archive Collection)
PERSON OF INTEREST: FIFTH AND FINAL SEASON ($44.98 BluRay; Warner Home Video)
Supergirl hasn’t even begun yet. Sure, you’ve got season one in your hot little hands. But it’s switching from CBS to the CW and that will probably be to the show’s benefit. They never quite found the right tone and being nestled amongst the younger shows of that weblet can only encourage Supergirl to stamp itself on a character that has been around for decades but never really had a defining pop cultural version a la Christopher Reeves in Superman. At the very least, they can do a cross-over episode with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and let Jeremy Jordan sing!
Two Girls and A Girl (And a Pizza Place, but apparently we’re supposed to forget about that) went four seasons and 81 episodes without ever coming even close to finding an identity, so Supergirl shouldn’t feel bad if it takes them two years. Best remembered for launching Ryan Reynolds, it also gave a key early break to Nathan Fillion, not to mention Traylor Howard, who went on to be Monk’s second yet lesser sidekick. Other than that…well, it really is pretty anonymous comedy, generic and forgettable yet passable entertainment if you’re a huge fan of any of the actors or are flipping the channels and want to be diverted for a few minutes.
The Magicians has just begun its run. Based on the novels of Lev Grossman, I have hopes for it. Not high hopes exactly. But the books initially were so excited by their twist: what if you really were a teenager who suddenly found out the fantasy world of your favorite books were real? Wouldn’t you curse and want to have sex with magical creatures and basically behave like unruly teens often do, but with wands? The first book didn’t really transcend the naughty appeal of watching a Harry Potter-like character take the piss out of that conceit. But by the third book, Grossman dug deeper — if you were given access to a fantasy world a la Narnia as a child and then denied entry once you hit adulthood, well that might really and truly mess you up. Here’s hoping the series can accomplish a similar trajectory.
The 100 is in the middle of its run and the show about young folk stranded to die on a dystopian earth has catapulted into genuine cult hit thanks to a similar tactic. They came up with a high concept show but then took seriously the ramifications of kill or be killed and how that should impact real people. Despite a poorly thought out culling of some key characters, the show could bid for real greatness in its fourth season. Catch up.
As for the just concluded Person Of Interest, it gets a little tricky. The show worked best as a procedural, letting each week’s paranoid conspiracy/adventure play out with a beginning and middle and end, anchored by Michael Emerson’s compelling billionaire. But everyone in TV land is convinced that only shows with arcs and complicated storylines are “real” art so they got more and more and more entangled in their own crazy super-plot. But THEN the show was told they were cancelled and needed to wind it up. And that gave them focus. Instead of spinning an increasingly absurd plot a la Orphan Black, they came up with an end game and barreled towards it. Sometimes, you do the wrong thing and it pays off anyway. Hmm, much like developing an all-powerful artificial intelligence that starts to develop a mind of its own….
GREEN ROOM ($24.99 BluRay; Lionsgate)
AFERIM! ($34.95 BluRay; Big World Pictures)
The death of Anton Yelchin is tragic and here’s one more reminder. He stars in Green Room, this down and dirty little B movie about a punk band who are hunted down by neo-Nazi skinheads after witnessing a murder. (And they thought critics were tough.) Yelchin is with the band, Patrick Stewart is with the thugs and the movie is a genuine pleasure: visceral, exciting, frightening and yet anchored by performances by the two leads and the rest of the cast to make the horrific situation even more unnerving.
Aferim! is surely far afield from Green Room. Aferim! is a Romanian film nominated for the Bet Foreign Film Oscar by its country. Perhaps because it doesn’t match the template of most recent Romanian critical darlings it was overlooked. (It’s a period film and lacks many other hallmarks of what we think of when we speak about Romanian cinema.) And yet, this story is about a “cop” in the 1800s hired to hunt down a gypsy slave who ran away after having an affair with the wife of his “owner.” (I could also put “gypsy” in quotes since this dismissive term should really be Romany. Slaves aren’t known for being given polite names by their brutal captors, however.) It’s harsh, plays like an old school Western (sort of) and features so much suspicion and hatred of the “other” (the Romany are just the start) that ultimately it does have a little more in common with Green Room after all. Both films are vastly entertaining and make much out of fear and anger that fuels daily life in a world that seems unfair, especially to the once-powerful who resent when the world tries to be a little fair to the people they once kept underfoot. Neither film made much of an impression at the box office and both are worth your time, though perhaps only Quentin Tarantino and hardcore cineastes will watch both. If either is in a genre that appeals, jump.
VERA SETS 1-5 ($149.99 DVD; Acorn Media)
VERA SET 6 ($59.99; Acorn Media)
JACK IRISH SEASON 1 ($39.99 BluRay; Acorn Media)
Does the UK feature ANY Detective Chief Inspectors who aren’t a mess in their personal life but brilliant and their jobs? Brenda Blethyn stars as Vera Stanhope, who fits that mold to a t. Happily, the show is based on an ongoing series of novels by the excellent writer Ann Cleeves. That gives Vera (and Vera) more depth and specificity than usual from TV. Each season contains four feature length mysteries and to date each of the six novels has been adapted. (Cleeves will surely write more.) I still miss her first sidekick (has a later sidekick ever improved on the original?) but Kenny Doughty is doing fine work in the stead of David Leon. Cush Jumbo should be used more, but this is Blethyn’s show and she does wonderful work here. This isn’t a classic, but it’s solid meat and potatoes crime drama of the character-based sort the British do so well.
Very similarly, Australia has on tap the show Jack Irish, about a lawyer turned private investigator and debt collector. With that trajectory, obviously Jack Irish is seeing his life go in the wrong direction. Guy Pearce embodied the character created by Peter Temple with unshaven, unhappy poise. Burdened by the unsolved murder of his wife, Irish is a mess, living in Melbourne and getting by with jaunts to the race track, the pub and a woodworking shop (shades of Det. Freamon on The Wire). In three movies and now one season of six episodes, Irish invariably takes on a seemingly minor case that snowballs into something more serious. But Pearce makes the formula work and it’s certainly one of the best crime shows out of Australia.
PIONEERS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CINEMA ($99.95 BluRay; Kino Lorber)
THE DAUGHTER OF DAWN ($34.95 BluRay; Milestone Films)
I’m worried about making these two releases sound important and educational. Both preserve nearly lost glimpses of cinematic history featuring oft-ignored or belittled minorities. The Daughter Of Dawn is a surprisingly solid silent film shot in Oklahoma and featuring an all Kiowa and Comanche cast of actors. The print is solid given its 1920 origins, the 80 minute story fine and the glimpse into a vanished way of life is palpable. The copious extras give context and pleasure to everything you see, including interviews with descendants of people who appeared in the film and see it for the first time. Even more impressive is the sprawling five disc boxed set Pioneers Of African American Cinema. No wonder Martin Scorsese is proudly touting this set with a quote on the front of it: this is an historic release. Yes, it’s important and scholarly and worthy of praise. But with a dozen feature length films and more than 20 shorts and fragments, just a small sampling makes clear that it’s damn entertaining. Paul Robeson is just one of the many notable names appearing in or contributing to the wide range of movies, including melodramas, westerns, comedies, musicals and more. Unlike some B movie offerings with all black casts made purely for profit by disinterested studios (the awful Harlem Rides The Range springs to mind), these are passionate artistic efforts made by artists who sacrificed a great deal to tell these stories, often zeroing in on race issues naturally ignored by Hollywood. It’ll take weeks to really get a handle on everything here, but for all its landmark status it’s a pleasure to report that your first real response will simply be pleasure.
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. Looking for the next great book to read? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to BookFilter! Wondering what new titles just hit the store in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery and more? Head to BookFilter! It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. It’s like a fall book preview or holiday gift guide — but every week in every category. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs and Blu-rays with the understanding that he would be considering them for review. Generally, he does not guarantee to review and he receives far more titles than he can cover; the exception are elaborate boxed sets, which are usually sent with the understanding that they will be reviewed. All titles are available in various formats at varied price points. Typically, the price listed is merely the suggested retail price and you’ll find it discounted, not to mention available on demand, via streaming, physical rentals and more.
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Donald Trump ventured into new political territory on Friday when he told supporters in Colorado Springs that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, should be thrown in jail.
“I’ve been saying, ‘Let’s just beat her on November 8th.’ But you know what? I’m starting to agree with you!” Trump said to a crowd that was yelling, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
He also promised “no more Mr. Nice Guy,” for anybody who had been under a mistaken impression on that score.
“I’m taking the gloves off. Just remember this, Trump is going to be no more Mr. Nice Guy. Tell Hillary I’m not going to be nice anymore, are you ready?” he said.
The “Lock her up!” chant first rang out among Trump supporters at last week’s Republican National Convention, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, ran down a list of Clinton’s alleged misdeeds as secretary of state.
At first, Trump himself responded to those cries by trying to tamp down the pitchfork mob enthusiasm. “Let’s defeat her in November,” he told the audience during his major convention speech. By this Friday, however, Trump had changed his mind.
For a major party’s presidential nominee to suggest that his chief opponent should be incarcerated appears to have no precedent over the last century of U.S. political campaigns. But that’s nothing unusual for Trump.
He broke new ground earlier this week when he publicly encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails and publish their contents. The remarks prompted a swift public backlash from experts in national security and cyberwarfare. Trump later claimed that he was only joking.
Friday’s comments came at a rally during which Trump also delivered a number of seemingly off-the-cuff tirades against his perceived enemies. On this day, they included the fire marshal in charge of safety at the event, whom Trump accused of needlessly keeping people out of the 1,600-person University of Colorado auditorium.
“I’m not a fan,” Trump said of the unnamed public safety officer. “He’s probably a Democrat, a guy that doesn’t get it.”
As for other foes revealed to him during the Democratic National Convention, Trump said, “I’m gonna hit them! Obviously I’m talking about with my verbal. Maybe a tweet. But I’m gonna hit em hard!”
For much of the speech, the GOP nominee fixated on a campaign ad from Hillary Clinton’s team, which features a clip of Trump mocking a disabled journalist and another of him ridiculing Fox News host Megyn Kelly.
“I spend so much money on working with disabled, making my buildings accessible. Millions and millions!” Trump said. “I spend millions of dollars a year on ramps and ‘Get rid of the stairs’ and different kinds of elevators.”
As an owner and manager of commercial properties, Trump is required to provide accommodations for people under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. It was unclear exactly what, if anything, he has done above and beyond the law to support those with disabilities.
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign did not respond to questions from HuffPost about Trump’s compliance with the ADA.
The only rough patch of the afternoon came when Trump seemed to prematurely blame Colorado voters, should he lose the general election in November. If “we don’t make it,” Trump said, it would be “because you people get lazy and don’t vote.”
Still, his crowd was with him, boasts and threats and all. “I have the best temperament of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president,” Trump said.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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The pay-TV oligopoly has been running ads the unspoken premise of which is “you have a choice” — meaning, you can choose between cable and the dish. The buried implication is that you have no other choice, that it’s a binary decision.
Which comes as news to cord-cutters and bundlers, OTA antenna buyers and people who find other ways to watch TV and video. The choice isn’t as binary as it’s made to seem.
I bring all this up in the context of the current presidential campaign, in which it’s equally in the interests of the two major parties to convince us that the choice in November is starkly, irremediably binary. Otherwise, it’s suggested, our vote is wasted or, worse yet, electing the “wrong,” “other” candidate. The name of Ralph Nader is hissed threateningly.
Another comparison comes to mind: TINA, the acronym for what the EU has told the “periphery” countries about their forced regimen of austerity. “There Is No Alternative.” The Brits, however, just figured one out.
That’s a bit stark, but the aim of the binary choicers and the TINAists is the same: to foreclose further thought. So, in defiance of that planned foreclosure, I offer, without advocacy, a thought experiment.
Newly-elected presidents like to bask in the afterglow of their “mandate.” A larger majority gives them a rhetorical club with which to, at least during the first 18 months, batter opponents into cowed silence. Republicans always tormented Bill Clinton for having won “only” by a plurality in both 1992 and 1996, thanks to the meddling third-party candidacy of Ross Perot. Did it have an effect on Clinton’s governing? We’ll wait for his memoir to find out.
But squeakers are nothing to brag about. Yeah, you won, but if it hadn’t rained in the Carolinas…
So, given a binary choice between two of the most disliked (per the polls) major-party candidates this side of Zimbabwe, what is one to do? Voting against one just gives a bigger mandate to the other. Not voting just depresses the overall turnout. Voting for a third, or fourth party candidate, especially in a battleground state, could help depress the ultimate winner’s majority to a plurality. Especially if voters displeased with the parties’ offerings, also voted angrily enough, not returning incumbents, e.g., to produce a tightly divided Congress.
When the lesser of two evils can still, by the logic of the sentence itself, be regarded as kinda evil (both have proudly named, as one of their foreign-policy advisers, a certain Dr. Kissinger), a squeaker might be the best outcome available. It would encourage all the anti-Executive power gears built into our system to work at full strength, dampening the ability of the eventual winner to do his or her worst.
We’ve heard political journalists and politicians and interest-group leaders bemoan for years the tendency toward paralysis in the federal government. This could be the year that looks like the best alternative–to borrow a Bill Clintonism, a third way in a supposedly binary universe.
There could even be a slogan: “I’m With Gridlock.”
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New video footage of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano may have you wondering whether Pixar’s “Lava” is coming to life.
An incredible 360-degree video, captured Thursday by Paradise Helicopters, shows the lava pond inside Kilauea’s Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent erupting into what looks like a face, with huge, glowing eyes and a fiery smile.
Kilauea, located on the Big Island of Hawaii, has plenty of reason to smile. One of the world’s most active volcanoes, it has been continuously erupting for more than 33 years.
If its longevity weren’t enough, Big Island residents and visitors are being treated to an extra dose of magnificent. On Tuesday, after weeks on the move, a lava flow from Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent made contact with the Pacific ― the first so-called ocean entry since 2013.
See the amazing video below. It’s sure to put a smile on your face.
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There is only one way for the Republicans to save their party. By voting for Hillary Clinton.
If Trump wins, its all over for the now-tarnished Republican brand. Trump will decimate its cherished policies for four years or more. Diehards will never be able to put it back on track. But if Trump loses…
IF TRUMP WINS, THE REPUBLICANS ARE NO LONGER THE PARTY OF,,,
Limited Government
Low Taxes
Free Trade
Pro Ukraine, Anti-Russia Foreign Policy
Conservative Social Values
A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WILL BE THE PARTY OF…
Protectionism (anti-trade)
Nativism
Isolationism
After 4 or (shudder) 8 years of Trumpublicanism, how easy do you think it will be to revert to those bedrock principles?
The answer: It’ll be impossible. By then, those quaint Reaganesque ideas will be in the dustbin of history, replaced by Donald Trump’s wall, his authoritarian nature and his history of liberal social policies. Cozy up to Uncle Vladimir, why don’t your?
HOW ABOUT A VOTE FOR GARY JOHNSON?
A vote for Gary Johnson helps Trump win, because it takes a vote away from Hillary. Third parties are currently pulling more voters from Clinton than Trump, so a vote for Gary Johnson makes it more difficult for Hillary to win.
HOW ABOUT A VOTE FOR JILL STEIN?
Same result.
HOW ABOUT NOT VOTING?
Same result.
HOW ABOUT A WRITE IN FOR TED CRUZ?
You’re not listening.
ONLY A VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON WILL PERMIT REPUBLICANS TO PICK UP THEIR BRAND AND POLISH IT AGAIN.
A vote for Hillary Clinton will keep the Republican brand alive. She is the candidate whose policies are most similar to Ronald Reagan who has a credible chance of winning. And if she wins, the Republican party will still be in control of statehouses and governorships who can keep the brand alive. But a President Trump will use the power of the purse and the threat of primarying Republican governors to keep them in line.
Many staunch Republicans have come out in support of Hillary. Barbara Bush. Laura Bush. Michael Bloomberg. They know, as we all do, that “lock her up” and Benghazi were all about political posturing. Hillary Clinton is a seasoned professional who can do the job and provide stability to the United States and the world.
But there’s one more major reason to keep Trump out of the White House in 2020. Reapportionment under Donald Trump will kill the Republican brand.
GAME, SET, MATCH: THE TRUMP REAPPORTIONMENT IN 2020.
If Trump and his Tea Partiers are in control in 2020, they’ll be in charge of reapportionment, and Katie bar the door. How do you think districts will be redrawn by Trumpistas? Answer: they’ll be gerrymandered to keep out both Republicans and Democrats. For ten more years.
The Republican party will have a better chance under a democrat administration than a Trump one. Democrats will do what they can, but they won’t be favoring the Tea Partiers, so the outcome is likely to be better under a Democrat administration than a Trump one.
So, Republicans. There you have it. Vote for anyone but Hillary and you help Trump win, and drive a stake through your party as you knew it. Vote for Hillary and you keep the party alive, first as the loyal opposition with a likely base of support in the states, and later as a credible alternative.
Voting for Hillary is the only way to discredit Donald Trump and reclaim the party.
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Donald Trump has so wounded the Republican Party, the only way for Republicans to save it is by voting for Hillary Clinton.
If Trump wins, its all over for the now-tarnished Republican brand. Trump will decimate its cherished policies for four years or more. Diehards will never be able to put it back on track. But if Trump loses…
IF TRUMP WINS, THE REPUBLICANS ARE NO LONGER THE PARTY OF THESE BEDROCK PRINCIPLES
Limited Government
Low Taxes
Free Trade
Pro Ukraine, Anti-Russia Foreign Policy
Conservative Social Values
A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WILL BE THE PARTY OF…
Protectionism (anti-trade)
Nativism
Isolationism
Putin Love
After 4 or (shudder) 8 years of Trumpublicanism, how easy do you think it will be to revert to those bedrock principles?
The answer: It’ll be impossible. By then, those quaint Reaganesque ideas will be in the dustbin of history, replaced by Donald Trump’s wall, his authoritarian nature and his history of liberal social policies. Cozy up to Uncle Vladimir, why don’t your?
HOW ABOUT A VOTE FOR GARY JOHNSON?
A vote for Gary Johnson helps Trump win, because it takes a vote away from Hillary. Third parties are currently pulling more voters from Clinton than Trump, so a vote for Gary Johnson makes it more difficult for Hillary to win.
HOW ABOUT A VOTE FOR JILL STEIN?
Same result.
HOW ABOUT NOT VOTING?
Same result.
HOW ABOUT A WRITE IN FOR TED CRUZ?
You’re not listening.
ONLY A VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON WILL PERMIT REPUBLICANS TO PICK UP THEIR BRAND AND POLISH IT AGAIN.
A vote for Hillary Clinton will keep the Republican brand alive. She is the candidate whose policies are most similar to Ronald Reagan who has a credible chance of winning. And if she wins, the Republican party will still be in control of statehouses and governorships who can keep the brand alive. But a President Trump will use the power of the purse and the threat of primarying Republican governors to keep them in line.
Many staunch Republicans have come out in support of Hillary. Barbara Bush. Laura Bush. Michael Bloomberg. They know, as we all do, that “lock her up” and Benghazi were all about political posturing. Hillary Clinton is a seasoned professional who can do the job and provide stability to the United States and the world.
But there’s one more major reason to keep Trump out of the White House in 2020. Reapportionment under Donald Trump will kill the Republican brand.
GAME, SET, MATCH: THE TRUMP REAPPORTIONMENT IN 2020.
If Trump and his Tea Partiers are in control in 2020, they’ll be in charge of reapportionment, and Katie bar the door. How do you think districts will be redrawn by Trumpistas? Answer: they’ll be gerrymandered to keep out both Republicans and Democrats. For ten more years.
The Republican party will have a better chance under a democrat administration than a Trump one. Democrats will do what they can, but they won’t be favoring the Tea Partiers, so the outcome is likely to be better under a Democrat administration than a Trump one.
So, Republicans. There you have it. Vote for anyone but Hillary and you help Trump win, and drive a stake through your party as you knew it. Vote for Hillary and you keep the party alive, first as the loyal opposition with a likely base of support in the states, and later as a credible alternative.
Voting for Hillary is the only way to discredit Donald Trump and reclaim the party.
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It’s beginning to appear that the Russians will be the big winners at the Olympic Games opening next week in Rio. You may wonder how this could be given the fact that large numbers of Russian athletes, including all the track and field team, have been banned from participation in the Games of 2016. That of course is precisely the point.
The big winners will avoid being part of, and perhaps even victims of, this fiasco in Rio. Let’s start with Zika. A large number of athletes have chosen to withdraw from the games because of the health threat posed by the virus that has spread rapidly through the host country. Avoiding exposure to the virus could save the athletes from the consequences of Zika, the least of which would involve becoming an unwitting carrier of the virus and assisting in its spread across the globe.
Given the dire consequences of the virus involving its impact on the unborn, it is remarkable that anyone would expose themselves to it. Athletes and the young in general believe that they are nearly invincible and that nothing of this nature could happen to them so they will go to Rio to pursue the medals.
Even more remarkable is the fact that world health authorities and those charged with preventing the spread of disease haven’t done everything possible to stop this gathering of would be virus hosts. Many Russian athletes have been saved from this particular set of dangers by the anti-doping patrol. They should be forever grateful to WADA and to the Russian doping conspirators.
Zika of course is only one of the many hazards from which many Russian athletes have been rescued. The waters of Brazil and particularly Guanabara Bay in Rio are filthy beyond the worst imaginable levels. Floating in the Bay over the past year have been dead bodies, endless amounts of garbage, a cascade of human feces, and other forms of sewage. The Bay has become the center of a bacteria convention hosting those bacteria that can cause diarrhea and vomiting as well as super-bacteria that can kill. It has become a carnival of disease with potentially deadly consequences.
Denying that anything is serious enough to postpone, cancel, or move the games, Rio officials have nonetheless warned anyone participating in sports in the Bay or on lakes and streams to avoid opening their mouth. Apparently breathing will still be encouraged.
There have been attempts to remove the major items of trash from the water and these efforts have produced a remarkable yield of television sets, dead dogs, a sofa, dead dolphins, and the occasional human corpse. This activity has removed the worst eye sores, but the water quality itself remains a source of sore eyes.
Always a concern at any Olympics is the Olympic Village that serves as home for the vast majority of athletes participating in the games. In Rio, as in many previous cites, the Village was not ready when it was time for the athletes to move into their quarters. Poor wiring, leaking pipes, and other infrastructure problems were reported from a significant number of athletes from across the world.
It was the Australian delegation that first filed complaints over their accommodations. Problems with electricity, plumbing, and gas, as well as dirty rooms were among the complaints. One hopes that it was not a measure of the concern of Brazilian authorities when the Mayor of Rio responded by promising the Aussies a kangaroo. It is unclear what other delegations were promised but one would hope that carcasses from the Bay were not among the gifts.
All of this is occurring against a backdrop of political turmoil and the impending impeachment trial of the President of Brazil. Add to the political crisis the dire economic situation and you have an atmosphere that is rife with potential political violence and a place uniquely unqualified to host the Olympics.
This ugly reality seems to matter little to the authorities in the country, the leaders of the Olympic movement, and power brokers of world sport, or anyone else that may be able to profit from Rio ’16. Protests have been frequent and strong on the streets of Brazil and the Olympic torch came under attack several times during the torch run. Ordinary Brazilians have watched massive sums of money being spent on bread and circuses while the people of Brazil remain victims of a government unable to meet the basic needs of its population.
If you are an athlete looking for an excuse to avoid Rio, try putting some foreign substances like steroids in your drug tests. This will give you an out and I don’t think that would be considered cheating unless it was done by the Russians.
As they say in the Olympic Movement, the Games must go on. So get your TV ready, your snack supply well stocked, and sit back and watch one of the most disgraceful exhibitions of sport since Nero held court at the Coliseum in Rome.
On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.
Copyright 2016 by Richard C. Crepeau
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WASHINGTON ― Khizr Khan on Friday delivered the second half of the speech he began a day earlier at the Democratic National Convention.
Khan, the father of Muslim-American war hero Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq, implored Republican leaders of the Senate and House to disown their presidential nominee, Donald Trump, once and for all.
Appearing in his living room with his wife on MSNBC, Khan stared unwaveringly into the camera with watery eyes and asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): “Isn’t this time to repudiate Trump?”
“If your candidate wins and he governs the way he has campaigned, my country, this country, will have constitutional crises [like] never before in the history of this country, and my conscience compels me under these very difficult circumstances,” Khan said. “But there is so much at stake, and I appeal to both of these leaders, this is the time. There comes a time in the history of a nation where an ethical, moral stand has to be taken regardless of the political costs. The only reason they’re not repudiating his behavior, his threat to our democracy, our decency, our foundation, is just because of political consequences.”
Khan told Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” he will continue asking that question in the hopes that it gets a reply from the two leaders, who he called “patriot(s)” and “decent human being(s).”
Neither McConnell’s nor Ryan’s spokesmen responded immediately to requests for comment.
Khan warned that if the congressional leaders do not disavow Trump ― who has proposed a ban on all Muslims, and construction of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border ― they will “sink the ship of the patriot Republicans.”
“Republicans are as patriotic as Democrats are,” Khan said. “They are half of the goodness of this beautiful country.”
He said it doesn’t make sense that the congressional leaders would continue to support a candidate they have condemned for his proposed Muslim ban and his attack on the Mexican heritage of a federal judge presiding over Trump University lawsuits.
Khan captivated the nation Thursday night with a searing indictment of Trump during a speech at the DNC in Philadelphia. He pulled out a pocket copy of the Constitution and, speaking to Trump, asked: “Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy,” he said.“Look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law.’”
As the crowd roared its approval, Khan continued: “You have sacrificed nothing.”
Khan’s son was killed in Iraq in 2004 by a vehicle loaded with explosives. The 27-year-old soldier had ordered his unit to stop while he alone moved toward the vehicle, saving the lives of fellow soldiers.
Watch the full MSNBC interview below:
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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