Hasta La Gadget!

Ever since Hiddleswift took over the internet and Kim Kardashian welcomed fans to the #KimExposedTaylorParty, Swift has been trying to keep a low profile.

But her cover was blown the second the singer showed up to jury duty Monday morning in Nashville and potential jurors freaked the f**k out. And thanks to hero Tracy Bates, a “Licensed Instructor of Criminal Justice” according to her Twitter bio, we have pictures of the whole damn thing. 

We’re hoping Olivia Benson, who’s close friends with Swift, comes through to help Tay out with this whole “Law & Order” thing if she ends up having to serve. 

Tracy is also SO HERE to protect her girl Tay and her newfound besties at jury duty: 

But she’s also just content to take pictures of Swift in her natural state: 

Below, Tracy captured a lovely video of a mother explaining that her kids were singing along to one of Swift’s songs this morning. What are the chances?!

Tracy, who was busy tweeting and RT’ing articles on Twitter while photographing Taylor’s every move, also made sure to get herself an autograph: 

The potential juror also delivered a straight BURN to the courtroom for their lack of “logic.” YES, Tracy, drag them! 

For those wondering, a guide about serving on Nashville jury duty states that potential jurors are allowed to use their phones while in a jury assembly room, but must turn them off before entering a courtroom. Obviously, Tracy knows all this already.

Here are some other lucky fans with Tay: 

See you in court, Tay (but probably not). 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

After World War II, Americans rose from the ashes of the Great Depression together. We grew a thriving middle class and a strong labor movement. We expanded our infrastructure, connected communities, and gave our vets a chance to go to college and our young people access to public education. We expanded civil rights and opened doors to opportunity. For decades, we embraced our shared responsibility to lift each other up.

Since the late 1970s, the “trickle-down” model has taken over, a dog-eat-dog proposition where individuals are encouraged to battle each other for increasingly scarce spoils. It’s a brutal system exemplified by a simple statistic: In 2015, the top 25 hedge fund managers made more money–$24 billion between them–than every kindergarten teacher in America combined.
The lucky and fortunate have elbowed their way to the top. But if you don’t make it, they say you only have yourself to blame.

Now, working Americans are angry. Most haven’t seen a real raise in years, while the wealthiest take home an ever-greater share of the pie. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Demagogues stoke racial and ethnic fears to divide us in the service of their broken ideology.

It’s easy to see that today’s system just isn’t working for most people. But fixing it takes more than talk–it takes action. And when obstructionists block government action, it means finding innovative ways to leverage our resources to serve the greater good.

AFT members–and union members across the country–hold billions in assets in our pension funds. In the trickle down model, we’d shovel that money to big Wall Street banks and hedge funds–firms that charge millions in fees, leaving pennies for workers’ retirements.

Engaging with the Clinton Global Initiative, we’re forging a new path. Instead of sitting around bemoaning the obstacles, CGI has, time and again, found innovative ways to connect partners with projects that lift up not just the parties involved, but entire communities.

That is the theory behind CGI’s “commitment” process that mandates each initiative be new, specific and measurable. In 2011, the American labor movement made one of the earliest commitments to raise $10 billion over five years for infrastructure. Now, $16 billion has been allocated and we’ve already created at least 100,000 jobs.

To take just one example, at LaGuardia Airport, a $3.6 billion CGI commitment driven by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is overhauling the dilapidated central terminal building. Together, we’re turning a rundown eyesore into something more befitting a modern metropolis.

And last year, the AFT, alongside Amalgamated Bank and others, announced the creation of a separate $100 million early childhood CGI commitment. The fund will renovate 350 classrooms in seven cities and build an additional 250 new classroom facilities in three more. About 36,000 children in early childhood education programs will benefit.

​The infrastructure investments we’ve leveraged through CGI are a powerful example of what solution-driven thinking can achieve. We’re determined to use workers’ capital–our capital–in a fiducially responsible manner to reshape the economy, while exerting moral and political pressure on the Wall Street billionaires who refuse to come along with us.

Our members–educators, nurses and public sector workers, who benefit the most from these bold initiatives–wake up every day determined to build a better life for the middle class. But their frontline efforts are being undermined by billionaires working behind the scenes to rig the system and “starve the beast”–to put government out of business by slashing taxes and then claiming we can’t afford to pay. We’re shoving a stick in the spokes of that wheel and spinning it in the other direction, ending the vicious cycle and creating, once again, a virtuous circle.

The eulogy for trickle-down economics was written years ago. But we can only bury it by taking the concrete steps necessary to rebuild wealth for working people, to fix the system so it again serves the common good. That started with our important work with CGI, but the core idea of shared prosperity will endure for as long as the American dream remains out of reach for so many.

America is at a crossroads, and we have a choice to make. Will we recommit ourselves to the idea that we have a responsibility to lift each other up, or will we continue down the “everyone for themselves” path of so-called individual accountability?

That’s the question, not just in this election or in the halls of government, but for all of us. And it’s one the Clinton Global Initiative has answered clearly.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

War is one of the oldest forms of conflict in mankind, which seriously affects humanity and civilization. Though the birth of a person makes death inevitable and makes everybody accept natural death, everybody laments a premature or unnatural death of their dearest ones. Those who live with physical or mental trauma caused by war bear inexpressible sufferings – both physical and psychological. People who lay down their lives in war become a martyr for once, but the survivors turn into martyrs every day until their end.

Imposed by the Pakistani occupied force, the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 resulted in the death of three million people and the rape of approximately five-hundred thousand women. Thousands of babies grew up in and outside of Bangladesh, who were identified as “war babies” – a derogatory term used to describe babies born after wartime. Many of them were adopted and emigrated in various countries of the world. Again, many stayed in Bangladesh, grew up with societal rejection and forced to live an identity-less life full of abuse and indignity, resulting a never-ending struggle.

On this issue, I was discussing with Barrister Dr, Tureen Afroz – a meritorious prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh. She was sharing her experience in prosecuting the local war criminals, a very tough job. The elements that made her job tough are something worth to be described for a better understanding of the issue.

There was a very short time lapse in between other war crimes occurrence that has been brought to justice right after those were committed. Most of the war crimes have been prosecuted within comparatively shorter time than that of Bangladesh, where the judicial process started forty years later. Due to the timely trials, none of the other war crime courts saw witness of any so-called “war babies,” which instead we should call “victory children,” according to Tureen.

Prosecutor Tureen had a chance to collect the testimony of a victory child. Luckily, she was appointed as a prosecutor of a case relating infamous war criminal Syed Md. Kaiser at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), Bangladesh. According to Tureen, two indictments of rape were brought against Mr. Kaiser out of fourteen charges. Among them, one war heroine, Mazeda was allegedly raped by Mr. Kaiser and later gave birth to a victory child named Shamsun Nahar – who gave testimony against Mr. Kaiser in that particular case. It took a year-long effort for Tureen to find this witness. Finally, Tureen managed to convince Shamsun Nahar to give testimony before the court and with that, for the first time, the world heard the voice of a victory child!

Tureen incidentally found Shamsun Nahar on her way searching for a victory child, who grew up in the post-war Bangladesh. To unearth the harsh experiences and to symbolically represent the voice of a victory child, Tureen faced serious social and procedural difficulties which helped to open the doors of her inner thoughts. And for the first time, a passively affected survivor of the war opened herself, demanding justice for the crimes committed to herself and her mother.

While Shamsun Nahar went before the court, she then became a 42-year-old woman. Pale, grimy and tired, this woman grew up in the society with all of its worst negligence, rejection and abandonment. Imparity from the society, family and the nearest ones killed her inner-self long ago and she stood as the symbolic progeny of an invisible fetter.

During the liberation war in 1971, women who were raped by the Pakistani army and their local Para-militia forces, gave birth to children who were labeled as “war babies,” resulting them to be called with other dishonoring terms like “unexpected babies,” “bastard babies,” and “illegitimate babies” out of inferiority. As Prosecutor Tureen describes,

The determination of claiming justice that Shamsun Nahar had in her eyes during the trial, can only be seen in the eyes of a victory child. And later this observation was echoed in the verdict of the court also.

After birth, Shamsun Nahar’s mother was forced to abandon her to maternal grandfather’s home and went to her husband. Her mother couldn’t contact her till she was five. After being an adult, Shamsun Nahar got married to a person who later left her, when he came to know her background. Since then, Shamsun Nahar lived alone. After her testimony against the aforementioned war criminal, she could not live in her own home because of death threat which forced her continued fleeing for life. Now, she doesn’t possess a shelter or even a decent social identity.

While presenting her argument in that case, Prosecutor Tureen Afroz said, “Shamsun Nahar was born in 1972. But unlike the other babies, she was deprived of a normal social life, as we treated her as an unwanted part of the society. Even she constrained to celebrate the pride that her mother achieved through her valiant sacrifice for the independence of the country. Seems like her birth became her biggest sin.”

Men and women became brothers-in-arms in the war of 1971. Not only to achieve their sovereignty, had they also fought for saving their lives. But while men fought only for the core cause, the women also had to pick up another fight in order to save their ‘honor’. And sometimes the fight to protect ones honor is much intense than other duties of war like protecting life and property. Victory of war is based through the loss of life, property and sometimes dignity of women. But still the state failed to properly recognize those, who were born out of an inhuman practice during war, let alone giving them a dignified social identity. Moreover, the society inhumanly segregates them, because they are “war-babies”. Even we hesitate to assimilate with these children in our societies, because they were born out of the barbarous vengeance of the enemy! Rather we didn’t hesitate to ungratefully label them with more dishonoring terms. In exchange of their saddened birth, we got our own identity, but we failed to give them some in return.

It is time to question ourselves, if we are ready to re-evaluate the price that we paid to achieve our independence or not. Shouldn’t we consider their birth as a sacrifice and struggle right beside three million martyrs and the honor of five-hundred thousand women? Shamsun Nahar is a victory-baby, whose birth also contributed towards our freedom, our right to breathe the free air that we take in our liberated land.

The satiety of our victory and independence can be achieved only if we can echo and establish what Prosecutor Tureen Afroz expressed that, “They are not War-babies; they are Victory-child”.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Those with whom we assemble, we soon resemble!

This simple old saying hides a deep Truth that can enlighten and empower every aspect of our lives:

Who we are — our very essence — is continually being transformed by the company we keep.

Stated differently, when we keep the company of what is light and bright, our lives get lighter and brighter. And when we keep the company of what is dark and discouraging, our lives can’t help but be dragged downward.

This idea might sound a little simplistic at first, but its power soon becomes evident when we put it to use in the quest to realize our highest aspirations. The key lies in understanding that this principle is active on multiple levels at once. For instance, when referring to “the company we keep,” we of course mean the people we spend time with every day — family, friends, co-workers, etc. However, on a deeper and more important level, “company” can also refer to the thoughts and feelings moving within us in any given moment.

Have you ever been home alone in a fine mood, enjoying a meal perhaps, only to find yourself bored or depressed an hour later? That’s a perfect example of the effect of hanging out with the wrong interior friends. When we are unconscious to the operation of our minds, any indigent thought or feeling that passes through us has the power to strike up a conversation and drag us into its dark circle of influence.

But just as it’s possible for us to keep bad interior company that pulls us down, so is it possible to keep positive inner company that works to raise us up in any moment we choose to remember it. This not only means that we can choose not to get dragged down when we are alone, but it also means that we can choose not to get dragged down when we find ourselves in the presence of negative people as well.

How encouraging! When life places us in a situation where a run-in with someone is inevitable — perhaps at work, with a family member, in a store, etc. — we can choose to keep the company of good and true interior friends who can help keep us from falling into negative states. And therein lies the key: when we remember that keeping the company of negative interior friends is a choice, instead of an obligation, we are free to keep the company of compassion instead of anger, generosity instead of greed, and patience instead of anxiety.

Building on this idea, let’s look at four common types of people that can be identified by the four prevailing dark states that inhabit them. By learning to recognize and understand the interior workings of these four types of “toxic people,” we gain important insight into what is dark and limiting inside of us. In this way, we begin the process of liberation from everything inside of us that stands in the way of knowing the peace, happiness, success, and love that we long for.

1. Muckrakers: These negative sprits live to drag up old painful events and then revel in the anger, resentment, or bitterness that such unhappy memories hold. Stay away from any spirit, in others or in yourself, that wants you to dive into some suffering over what happened in any past moment.

2. Mud Slingers: These malicious spirits pull themselves up by pulling others down. They love to gossip, criticize, judge, and denigrate anyone who ever had the misfortune of spending time with them. The only loyalty these denizens of the unconscious worlds have is to their own pain, which they feed by involving everyone they can in their mud slinging.

3. Swamp Dwellers: There is a group of mired spirits that thrive on low vibrations, and that require a human instrument to play out their endless dark dissonance. Easily recognizable, these misfortunate forces serve up dreadful mental pictures of past and future events for the sake of the unnatural reactions they produce. Ignore these corrupted spirits and they must take their evil speculations elsewhere.

4. Life Haters: These dark spirits perpetuate their hold on the human soul by resisting the beautiful gifts of life. They trick us into commiserating with their complaining, cruelty, and irritation because without our unconscious consent, these chronically conflicted spirits can’t spread their poison.

Just as harmful viruses require a human host to exist and thrive, so do negative states require the unconscious consent of human beings to carry out their dark mission. For what power does a negative thought have other than the power to convince a person to do its bidding? The answer is none!

When we begin to consciously withdraw our consent to associate with toxic people, and the toxic thoughts and feelings inside of us, we leave them with no place to thrive. Our real inner work is to sweep clean the places in ourselves where such creatures reside which in turn brightens our life and the lives of everyone around us.

Begin today, this very moment, to withdraw any permission you have unknowingly granted these dark spirits to be in your life. Do not judge yourself, or those around you in whom these misdirected forces are active, but instead come awake and refuse to spend one more moment of your life lending your precious life force to their dark purposes.

This powerful, positive action will change your life. As you begin to refuse to consort with what is dark, you’ll find that you begin to attract with what is light, bright, and cheerful. Your relationships will deepen, your professional life will take on new vigor and freshness, and the whole of your days will begin to resemble the radiant Life that you have deliberately chosen as your conscious companion.

Guy Finley is the best-selling author of The Essential Laws of Fearless Living, The Secret of Letting Go, and 40 other books and audio albums on self-transformation and higher success. He is also the founder and director of the non-profit Life of Learning Foundation in Merlin, Oregon. For more information visit www.guyfinley.org.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Does it feel like the box art for every video game these days is the protagonist… just kind of standing there with, I dunno, a gun or a sword, probably scowling? You are not alone. Jacob Christensen noticed too. Yup: video game box art these days absolutely sucks. And the reasons why are complicated.

Read more…