Thursday Open Thread | 2017 Oscar Nominees: Ruth Negga, Bradford Young

Posted on February 9, 2017 by rikyrah

2017 Oscars were more diverse than previous years.

ruth-negga

Two more nominees were Best Actress Nominee Ruth Negga, for the movie Loving, and Bradford Young’s nomination for Best Cinematography for the movie Arrival.

 

Who is Ruth Negga? All about the Oscar-Nominated Star of Loving

By Nicole Sands•@nicolesands901

Posted on January 24, 2017 at 11:00am EST
From the moment audiences first saw her powerful performance in Loving at the Cannes Film Festival, Ruth Negga had major Oscar buzz — and now the Irish-Ethiopian rising star will be heading to the Academy Awards for the first time with a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

In the movie, Negga and Joel Edgerton play real-life couple Mildred and Richard Loving, who were arrested in 1958 in their own bedroom in Virginia. Their crime? Being in an interracial marriage. The Lovings’ love truly stood the test of time when they challenged the law and brought their case before the Supreme Court in 1967, leading to the end of laws against interracial marriage.

Here are five things you need to know about the 35-year-old actress, one of PEOPLE’s 2016 Ones to Watch:

1. She loves dressing up in costumes – not scrubs.

“You know when you’re a kid and you get to pick a movie every Friday? I watched everything,” Negga, who was born in Ethiopia and moved to Ireland as a child, told The Hollywood Reporter about not wanting to follow in the footsteps of her parents, both of whom are in the medical field. “There’s no particular genre that was appealing. I just loved the idea that you could dress up and play.”

2. Stardom was never her dream.
“I have not been aggressive in my pursuit of being a star,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve never had a plan. Maybe I need to be more aggressive, because it’s quite tough!”

“The god of acting laughs in the face of plans,” she told PEOPLE. “I just want to continue working with like-minded people.”

3. She finds the Hollywood limelight intrusive.

“If people want to invade your privacy they want to invade your privacy,” she told The Guardian after the paparazzi caught her and Preacher costar-boyfriend Dominic Cooper kissing during a romantic getaway in Italy. “I find it chilling and I find it awful and it makes me really nervous. It hasn’t happened to me much but when you have a taste of it, it’s bitter.” In the supernatural AMC series, Negga plays Tulip O’Hare, the gun-toting ex of Cooper’s character Jesse Custer, a small-town preacher

loving-poster



bradford-young-1

Kate Abbey-Lambertz National Reporter, The Huffington Post

Bradford Young earned an Academy Awards nomination on Tuesday for his work on “Arrival,” making him the first black American to be nominated for the Best Cinematography award.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 89th annual Oscar awards on Tuesday morning. “Arrival,” a science-fiction drama starring Amy Adams, was nominated for seven other awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Young, 39, is the second black man to ever be nominated in the cinematography category. He follows in the footsteps of Britain’s Remi Adefarasin, who was nominated for “Elizabeth” in 1998.

Congrats to Bradford Young of #arrival – Second Black person ever to be nominated for Best Cinematography. pic.twitter.com/1SasBcfEKr
— Wilson Morales (@blackfilm) January 24, 2017

Young’s history-making nomination comes amidst a more diverse field of nominees than usual, with films like “Fences,” “Hidden Figures” and Moonlight” vying for top awards. Viola Davis earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for “Fences,” making her the first black woman to be nominated for an Oscar three times.

The Academy has faced serious criticism over the last couple of years for lacking diversity in its nominees and its voting members. Following the viral #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign, the Academy made a push to invite hundreds of new members.

re: bradford young’s historic oscar nomination, i want to remind you of this convo he had with ava duvernay last yr: https://t.co/yKN3PKar43 pic.twitter.com/R0KuZjTisT
— Bim Adewunmi (@bimadew) January 24, 2017

Young’s nomination follows years of making critically acclaimed work. He has won the cinematography award for U.S. dramatic feature at the Sundance Film Festival for three films: “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” and “Mother of George” in 2013 and “Pariah” in 2011. He was the director of photography for Ava DuVernay’s celebrated film “Selma” and is working on the forthcoming “Star Wars” spinoff about Han Solo.

Young previously collaborated with DuVernay on “Middle of Nowhere.” In a 2012 New York Times interview about Young’s work on the movie, she described his visual style as “lush” and “full.”

“When I watch people of color in most films, the image is so often flat or partial,” DuVernay told the Times. “Nothing about what Bradford does is partial. Every frame is full-bodied and potent and robust. It’s so exciting because it’s so rare.”

Young is up against the cinematographers for “La La Land,” “Lion,” “Moonlight” and “Science” for the Oscar.

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81 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | 2017 Oscar Nominees: Ruth Negga, Bradford Young

  3. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 10:13 pm

    Luvvie for the win..

    Dear President Barack Obama, So This Love is Just Over?
    Awesomely Luvvie — February 9, 2017

    Because we’re having a rough time with the end of this relationship. I just wanna write him a letter, because he is not. Ain’t nothing worse being the only miserable party, cuz the way my petty is setup, I want us to wallow together. BUT NO. Barack outchea flourishing.

    Dear President Obama,

    Honestly, this is our fault. When you said you had to go, we should have just said “we refuse” and blocked your way. Instead, we watched you pick up your bag and walk out the door. We didn’t even fight for you.

    You’re just gon quit us like this. You’re just gonna act like what we had wasn’t real. You’re just gon treat us all disposable, as if our love was a BIC razor, from an 8-pack. You ain’t have to just up and leave like this. Well, fine you did. Because the laws of the land said that after January 20, 2017 at 12pm EST, you had to stop being our president since you’ve served two full terms.

    BUT FUCK THEM LAWS. They don’t matter. Hell, we see they don’t because the dustbucket who took your place is surely not paying attention to any of them. That niglet can barely READ and his illiterate ass is what happens when you hand over the keys to an 18-wheeler to a toddler. Cheeto Satan is the worst!!!

    Barack, you left us with Voldemort, and him and his Death Eaters are about to run us all into the ground. You didn’t even finish your Dumbledore’s Army Defense Against the Dark Arts trainings before you hopped on a helicopter and went on vacation. I hadn’t perfected my Patronus charm yet!

    Reply
  10. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    White Nationalist President Bannon + #45= FAILURE!

    Reply
  12. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    #45 is a complete and utter FAILURE.

    No working knowledge of the constitution, even though his white bretheran wrote it.

    Reply
  13. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    February 9, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    “9th Circuit Court Refuses to Reinstate President Trump’s Travel Ban”

    http://ktla.com/2017/02/09/9th-circuit-court-ruling-on-trump-travel-ban-expected-by-thursday-evening/

    Reply
  14. SouthernGirl2 says:
    February 9, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    💯💯💯

    Constitution for the win‼️

    Breaking News: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules AGAINST Trump.

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    From Balloon Juice

    “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.” Via Tom Scocca’s twitter feed, a Dorothy Thompson Harper’s article from 1941:

    It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis…

    Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities by virtue of health, good looks, and being a good mixer. He married for money and he has done lots of other things for money. His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.

    The saturnine man over there talking with a lovely French emigree is already a Nazi. Mr. C is a brilliant and embittered intellectual. He was a poor white-trash Southern boy, a scholarship student at two universities where he took all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a fraternity. His brilliant gifts won for him successively government positions, partnership in a prominent law firm, and eventually a highly paid job as a Wall Street adviser. He has always moved among important people and always been socially on the periphery. His colleagues have admired his brains and exploited them, but they have seldom invited him—or his wife—to dinner.

    He is a snob, loathing his own snobbery. He despises the men about him—he despises, for instance, Mr. B—because he knows that what he has had to achieve by relentless work men like B have won by knowing the right people. But his contempt is inextricably mingled with envy. Even more than he hates the class into which he has insecurely risen, does he hate the people from whom he came. He hates his mother and his father for being his parents. He loathes everything that reminds him of his origins and his humiliations. He is bitterly anti-Semitic because the social insecurity of the Jews reminds him of his own psychological insecurity.

    Pity he has utterly erased from his nature, and joy he has never known. He has an ambition, bitter and burning. It is to rise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate him. Not to rule but to be the secret ruler, pulling the strings of puppets created by his brains. Already some of them are talking his language—though they have never met him…

    I think young D over there is the only born Nazi in the room. Young D is the spoiled only son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines. He has been ruthless toward two wives and his mother pays the alimony. His life is spent in sensation-seeking and theatricality. He is utterly inconsiderate of everybody. He is very good-looking, in a vacuous, cavalier way, and inordinately vain. He would certainly fancy himself in a uniform that gave him a chance to swagger and lord it over others…

    Mr. G is a very intellectual young man who was an infant prodigy. He has been concerned with general ideas since the age of ten and has one of those minds that can scintillatingly rationalize everything. I have known him for ten years and in that time have heard him enthusiastically explain Marx, social credit, technocracy, Keynesian economics, Chestertonian distributism, and everything else one can imagine. Mr. G will never be a Nazi, because he will never be anything. His brain operates quite apart from the rest of his apparatus. He will certainly be able, however, fully to explain and apologize for Nazism if it ever comes along. But Mr. G is always a “deviationist.” When he played with communism he was a Trotskyist; when he talked of Keynes it was to suggest improvement; Chesterton’s economic ideas were all right but he was too bound to Catholic philosophy. So we may be sure that Mr. G would be a Nazi with purse-lipped qualifications. He would certainly be purged…

    Reply
  17. SouthernGirl2 says:
    February 9, 2017 at 4:16 pm

    Breaking News: Appeals Court to rule tonight on travel ban

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    A source close to the couple confirms #GeorgeClooney and Amal are expecting twins. Congrats to the beautiful couple! More tonight on AH ✨ pic.twitter.com/waY577lBpS

    — Access Hollywood (@accesshollywood) February 9, 2017

    Reply
  20. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 3:27 pm

    Clowning the # 45 CLOWN

    Reply
  21. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 2:50 pm

    Tweet this SG2, please. Thanks!

    To orange 45

    My daughters and son-laws, and grandson are great people, always doing the right things, like working, owning their land, paying mortgages, getting college education, affordable health care, sending my grandson to great school, teaching him how to be a loving responsible being.

    #45’s AmeriKKKa, is doing everything in their power to disrupt, unarm, bully, scare and demolish destroy, and kill our families. DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA. IMPEACH HIM!

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    Trump’s Deportation Plan, Up Close and Personal
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    February 9, 2017 1:00 PM

    During the presidential campaign, when Trump shifted from “deport ’em all” to saying he would focus on deporting undocumented immigrants who were criminals, it was considered a major shift.

    “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” [Trump] said in the interview, to air on “60 Minutes” on CBS.

    But as the LA Times recently reported, the devil is in the details. The president’s executive order overhauling immigration enforcement took that number from 2-3 million to a possible 8 million (of the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country).

    We now have an example of what that means in the case of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos. She was brought to this country when she was 14, has lived in Arizona for 22 years and is the mother of two children who were born here. But Garcia is a “criminal” because 8 years ago she was caught in a workplace raid by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and charged with a felony. She was eventually allowed to stay in the country under certain conditions. Since then, she has checked in at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office regularly for a review of her case and to answer some questions. That all changed yesterday.

    This year, as García de Rayos feared, was different. When she went to check in as usual at the central Phoenix offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she was taken into custody as protests erupted outside. García de Rayos could perhaps be among the first undocumented immigrants to be arrested during a scheduled meeting with immigration officials since President Trump’s inauguration, civil rights lawyers told the New York Times.

    It is likely that by this time, she has been processed and sent to Mexico – a country she hasn’t seen in over two decades – leaving behind her children and family. According to her lawyer, there is only one reason for that.

    “It has 100 percent to do with the executive order,” said Ray Ybarra-Maldonado, a Phoenix immigration lawyer who is representing Garcia de Rayos. “Her case is no different than the last time she checked in. The facts are 100 percent the same. The only difference is the priorities for removal have now changed.”

    To the extent that this is how the Trump administration plans to handle these cases, it sends a clear message to undocumented immigrants that it is dangerous to cooperate with law enforcement. That is a price that will be paid by all of us. For Garcia de Rayos and her children, the price is the break-up of their family.

    As a sign that this is the beginning of a larger plan, Ryan Devereaux reports that Trump’s executive order overhauling immigration enforcement contains plans for building new detention centers.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 9, 2017 at 2:08 pm

      #45 & his GRIFTING family & cohorts are airing all their dirty laundry for the whole country and the rest of the world to witness.

      A NATIONAL DISGRACE. Leaving permanent shit stains on the office of the POTUS.

      #45 admin: Dangerously inept, greedy, xenophobic, homophobic, hypocritical, war-mongering, crooks & liars!

      Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 9, 2017 at 2:18 pm

      Dangerous #45 and his cartel want to roll up in those urban towns and snuff out BLACK FOLKS! By stirring up chaos and inciting violence, they will then use it as an excuse to bring in the military artillery, just like they’ve done in protests around the country after Ferguson, et.al.

      Reply
  37. Liza says:
    February 9, 2017 at 12:28 pm

    Wisconsin Rep. Claims White Terrorist Attacks are “Different”
    HEADLINESFEB 09, 2017

    Trump is facing increasing criticism for not including cases of massacres carried out by white supremacists in the White House’s recently issued list of 78 terrorist attacks. Among the attacks not included was the recent massacre in Quebec City, Canada, where a Trump-supporting white nationalist killed six worshipers at a mosque on January 29. Also not included was the Charleston, South Carolina, massacre, where nine black worshipers were killed by white supremacist Dylann Roof in 2015. On Tuesday, Wisconsin Republican Congressmember Sean Duffy tried to defend the exclusion of these massacres from the list during an interview with ?CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.

    Alisyn Camerota: “Congressman, why isn’t the president talking about the white terrorist who mowed down six Muslims who were praying at their mosque?”

    Rep. Sean Duffy: “Yeah, I don’t know. But I would just tell you, there is a difference. Again, death and murder on both sides is wrong. But if you want to take the dozens of scenarios where ISIS-inspired attacks have taken innocents, and you give me one example of what’s happened—I think that was in Canada—of America—”

    Alisyn Camerota: “How about the Charleston—how about the Charleston church shooting, Congressman?”

    Rep. Sean Duffy: “But so—but—but here—but here’s what you’re doing. So, yeah—”

    Alisyn Camerota: “He was an extremist. He was a white extremist.”

    Rep. Sean Duffy: “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was, OK.”

    Alisyn Camerota: “How about that? That doesn’t matter?”

    Rep. Sean Duffy: “No, it does matter. It does matter. Look at the good things that came from it. Nikki Haley took down the Confederate flag. That was great!”

    Congressmember Duffy did not acknowledge during this interview that in his home state of Wisconsin a white supremacist killed six people in 2012 during a massacre at a Sikh temple. Meanwhile, the White House is also considering officially designating more groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood—one of the Middle East’s oldest and most influential Islamic groups.

    https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/9/headlines/wisconsin_rep_claims_white_terrorist_attacks_are_different

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      February 9, 2017 at 12:30 pm

      This clown Sean Duffy, dumber than a door knob, is a member of Congress.

      It is astonishing.

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        February 9, 2017 at 12:37 pm

        Dylann Roof shot 11 bullets into an 87 year old woman and he was just getting started. But Nikki Haley took down the Confederate flag so it’s all good from his perspective.

        I find this man so offensive I am unable to attach words that rise to the level of his callous disregard for the lives of Roof’s victims and their families.

        Democrats need to target his seat.

        Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    Congress’ oversight of the White House is put on indefinite hold
    02/09/17 12:52 PM
    By Steve Benen

    The Atlantic’s David Frum, lamenting the “ominous indicators of a breakdown of the American political system,” recently noted that raw partisanship has led to a collapse in congressional oversight of the executive branch. “Congress has increasingly become a check only on presidents of the opposite party,” Frum wrote.

    Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) seems a little too eager to prove the thesis correct. TPM reported yesterday:

    House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said Wednesday that he doesn’t think President Donald Trump’s tweet attacking department store Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line is “a big deal.”

    “Is it appropriate, do you believe, is it ethical – and you oversee the executive branch of the government – for the President to be commenting about his daughter’s business like this?” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Chaffetz.

    “I think most people can relate to the fact that a father, a doting father with very successful children is going to look after those children and, you know, if he sees something going wrong, he’s going to call it out,” Chaffetz said. He said that he doesn’t “pay much attention to it.”

    …………………………

    Indeed, when Kellyanne Conway used her official position to endorse Ivanka Trump’s product line on national television this morning – in apparent violation of the law – she did so with the comfort that Jason Chaffetz seems prepared to look the other way no matter what White House officials do.

    He hasn’t even been subtle about it. When Team Trump considered getting rid of inspectors general through the administration, Chaffetz dismissed it as little more than a “mistake” from a low-level staffer. When the head of the Office of Government Ethics did his job in advising the White House, Chaffetz took an immediate interest – in targeting the ethics chief instead of the West Wing.

    When Democrats asked the Oversight Committee to take a closer look at Trump’s conflicts of interest, the GOP chairman responded soon after that he remains interested in Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Chaffetz’ committee has unveiled a list of 43 areas of interest to explore over the next two years, but the list “includes no planned inquiries into the Trump organization’s global entanglements and the potential for conflicts of interest.”

    The New York Times’ David Leonhardt made the case for alarm yesterday:

    This combination – an anti-democratic president and a quiescent Congress – is very dangerous. Even though many members of Congress think [Trump’s] approach is wrong, they have refused to confront him because he is a member of their party. He has the power to sign bills that Republican legislators have long favored, and their political fortunes are tied to his popularity.

    So they look the other way. They duck questions about him, or they offer excuses. They enable him.

    Reply
  40. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 11:36 am

    ‘Hidden Figures’ Has Now Earned More Money In The U.S. Than ‘La La Land’
    No other film nominated for Best Picture has earned more domestically.
    02/09/2017 10:46 am ET

    “La La Land” might have tied the record for most Oscar nominations ever last month, but it’s “Hidden Figures” that Americans just can’t get enough of.

    The Theodore Melfi–directed film about a group of black female mathematicians at NASA has now pulled in more money in the U.S. than any other movie nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, even the monster hit “La La Land.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hidden-figures-la-la-land_us_589c7a1ce4b09bd304c03d09?pqjs8lfphz7fn1m7vi%3Futm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%2BVoices&section=black-voices&

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 11:24 am

    Blumenthal is Right, Trump is Wrong
    by Martin Longman
    February 9, 2017 12:02 PM

    This morning, our president woke up and decided to trash Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut because Blumenthal revealed that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee told him privately that he found the president’s attacks on the judiciary “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”

    Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

    Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave “service” in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

    It’s fair to say that Sen. Blumenthal successfully avoided serving in Vietnam. Instead, much like Dick Cheney, he received five military deferments between 1965 and 1970. And much like Dan Quayle, he was able to meet his military obligation by landing a job in our reserves: “He served in United States Marine Corps Reserve units in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut from 1970 to 1976. He attained the rank of sergeant and received an honorable discharge at the end of his enlistment.” It’s also fair to say that Blumenthal has, on at least two occasions, given speeches in which he left the impression that he actually did serve in Vietnam.

    The most well known of these examples came in 2008 when he said, “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.” That seemed like an open and shut case of lying until people read the entire speech and realized that prior to making the above comment he had said that he “served in the military during the Vietnam era in the Marine Corps.” The latter comment was accurate, although admittedly open to misinterpretation. Blumenthal said he misspoke, and the best evidence to support him is that he’s made many speeches about his military service and in only one other known case did he make any questionable claims. That other case happened in 2003 when he suggested that he was among those who “returned home” from Vietnam.

    Reply
  42. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 11:13 am

    Impeach #45. He’s a NATIONAL EMBARASSMENT. Word salad, ignorant of basic Civics, a child-man, insecure bully, who should have ZERO, NADA, ZIP, access to NUCLEAR CODES!

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 9, 2017 at 11:10 am

      Kellyanne, President Bannon, & #45, along with republican party are CROOK, LIARS, THEIVES. They are a danger to our country and our democracy.

      Reply
  44. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 10:18 am

    The Role of the Church in Bannon’s White Nationalist Movement
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    February 9, 2017 10:46 AM

    As it became clear that Steve Bannon is the man behind the throne in much of what Trump has undertaken in the first weeks of his presidency, a lot of attention was paid to his remarks to a conservative group inside the Vatican with connections to Cardinal Burke – one of the most vocal critics of Pope Francis.

    In his presentation, Mr. Bannon, then the head of the hard-right website Breitbart News and now Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, called on the “church militant” to fight a global war against a “new barbarity” of “Islamic fascism” and international financial elites, with 2,500 years of Western civilization at risk.

    As Jason Horowitz notes, Bannon has a lot in common with that faction of the Catholic Church. Here is how he described a meeting between the president’s chief strategist and Cardinal Burke.

    In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites.

    As Horowitz chronicles, Bannon continues to develop ties with this faction in the Vatican on behalf of the Trump administration, taking charge of who will eventually be named as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

    It is interesting to note the similarity between the worldview expressed by people like Bannon and Cardinal Burke with what Russian President Vladimir Putin has been saying.

    …………………..

    As Casey Michel demonstrates in a must-read article today titled, “How Russia Became the Leader of the Global Christian Right,” that is no accident. In order to understand the significance, it is important to know about an organization called the World Congress of Families (WCF).

    ………………………….

    As Michel says, all of this fit quite well with Putin’s move toward the hard right in an attempt to “return to Tsar Nicholas I’s triumvirate of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.” And it has been welcomed by many on the American religious right.

    …it’s not as if it’s difficult to unearth the fundamentalists fawning over Putin’s putative turn toward God. For instance, according to Bryan Fischer, who until 2015 was a spokesman for the American Family Association, Putin is the “lion of Christianity.” Evangelical Franklin Graham has likewise lauded Putin as someone “protecting traditional Christianity,” while Buchanan only continues praising Putin.

    ………………..

    This combination of fear-mongering, anti-liberalism and white nationalism is nothing new to Christianity – whether Protestant or Catholic. We’ve seen these strands emerge in the Church throughout history from the Crusades to the KKK in this country. It has almost always been coupled with vicious violence. So it is important to note the confluence as it is currently taking shape – not only in this country – but in other places around the globe. That is the movement Steve Bannon is tapping into and attempting to build.

    But it’s also important to note that there are countervailing forces. The Black Church has always been a strong force in this country against these movements and Pope Francis is beloved around the world, with a special connection to Catholic Latinos both here and abroad. Beyond that, a group of White Evangelicals are making their voices heard when it comes to the actions of the current administration.

    Reply
  45. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:54 am

    The raid on Yemen, TOTAL FAILURE by the #45 administration. MAJOR FAILURE!, YUGGGGE!

    Reply
  46. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:51 am

    Stephen Curry says Donald Trump is an asset, as long as you ‘remove the ‘et’’

    Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article131601499.html#storylink=cpy

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGnvvaIxxZs

    Reply
  47. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:37 am

    ‘The Color Purple’ Tony Winner Cynthia Erivo Set To Play Harriet Tubman

    Broadway star Cynthia Erivo has been tapped to portray the legendary revolutionary and abolitionist, Harriet Tubman.

    https://blavity.com/cynthia-erivo-to-star-as-harriet-tubman?ct=t(Blavity_Daily_Newsletter_2_9_172_8_2017)&goal=0_b53d5e9f25-e31e7fb781-206100893&mc_cid=e31e7fb781&mc_eid=6ca89fc2f4

    Reply
  48. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:27 am

    So repeat the same simple messages. Then call your reps and say the same things. “We’re worried for our lives. We’re worried about our children. #45 is unstable. He’s dangerous.” Ask them: ‘Why aren’t you standing up to him? Why aren’t you protecting us?”

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 9, 2017 at 9:28 am

      #45, he’s dead wrong on immigration. Everyone knows it. Doctors, academics, American citizens, treated like criminals? Terrible. An embarrassment. He’s unfit. He‘s gotta go.

      Reply
  49. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:22 am

    Now, repeat after me, Ladies and Gentlemen…

    What would have happened if, Malia and/or Sasha Obama, had a clothing line, and Josh Earnest came out and told folks to buy it?

    Kellyanne Conway endorses Ivanka Trump’s merchandise
    02/09/17 10:08 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump, already beset by a series of conflict-of-interest controversies, broke new ground yesterday: the Republican president used his office to chastise an American company for no longer selling his daughter’s merchandise. In case this isn’t obvious, we’re not accustomed to seeing the chief executive of a superpower exploit his platform to interfere in his daughter’s retailing opportunities.

    Making matters worse, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Nordstrom’s decision to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s products represented an “attack.”

    And just when it seemed this story couldn’t get more ridiculous, a prominent member of Team Trump turned things up a notch.

    During a Thursday morning Fox & Friends interview, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told viewers to buy products from Ivanka Trump’s clothing line.

    This comes the day after Donald Trump tweeted angrily at Nordstrom for dropping his daughter’s line, writing that she had been “treated so unfairly.” Conway referred to Ivanka as a “champion for women empowerment, women in the workplace,” before adding, “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would tell you. I hate shopping, and I’m gonna go get some on myself today.”

    Hmm. A White House official – which is to say, a public official whose salary is paid by American taxpayers – appeared on national television this morning in what looked like the press briefing room in the West Wing. She then used that platform to, in effect, do a little commercial/testimonial in support of her boss’ daughter’s merchandise, encouraging people to buy Trump products.

    Reply
  50. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 9:21 am

    From here on out, I’m using Trumpspeak.

    . He’s dead wrong on immigration. Everyone knows it. Doctors, academics, American citizens, treated like criminals? Terrible. An embarrassment. He’s unfit. He‘s gotta go.

    . Bowling Green Massacre? Total lie. An embarrassment. Kellyanne Conway is an unstable person. Let the mentally ill buy guns? Are you crazy? Terrible! Let Putin bomb Ukraine? Bad idea, very bad. Incredibly dangerous.

    Then return to the big ones:

    . Look at Yemen. Disaster. Totally preventable. More nuclear arms? Is he joking? He’s dangerous. Unsafe. Has to go. It’s horrifying, an embarrassment. Everyone knows it.

    Reply
  54. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:26 am

    The GOP Just Corbetted Themselves
    by Martin Longman
    February 7, 2017 3:40 PM

    As a Pennsylvania resident, I was perplexed by Gov. Tom Corbett’s persistent unpopularity which led ultimately to his political defeat when he sought reelection. To be more specific, I saw many reasons for the citizens of the Commonwealth to oppose him, but most of those reasons applied with equal or greater force to Republican governors in Maine, Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin who all managed to maintain better approval numbers and who were all ultimately given a second term in office.

    Eventually, through talking to knowledgable people who are more engaged in state-level politics than I am, I came to understand that Corbett had crippled himself in his first year in office by how he handled education. In doing a post-mortem on Corbett’s defeat, G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young made this exact point.

    Every governor to seek re-election but one since 1968 had a bad first year, and all won re-election. Milton Shapp, Bob Casey, Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell all had tough first years and low job approval ratings. But each recovered by the end of his second year. Corbett never did. Corbett’s major first-year challenge was the education budget that dominated the press coverage and the polls, ultimately becoming fodder for campaign commercials, and framed subsequent political discussions. Corbett lost control of the narrative that he needlessly cut education spending, resulting in property tax hikes, faculty layoffs and program curtailments.

    Democrats are frustrated that they couldn’t stop the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be the Secretary of Education, but (setting aside the damage she will surely do) this could be a very Pyrrhic victory for the Republicans. There were already big problems with the Democratic Party before the stunning election loss in November. Primary among them was that the party was built to win presidential elections but increasingly incapable of winning control of the House of Representatives or control of most state legislatures. But, just as their blue Electoral College wall unexpectedly crumbled in Pennsylvania and parts of the Midwest, the Republicans’ advantage in supposedly red districts could fall apart over how they handle our public schools.

    Reply
  55. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:21 am

    New Era of Education Passion, Protest and Politics Will Follow DeVos Confirmation
    by Liz Willen
    February 8, 2017 3:04 PM

    If nothing else, the historic confirmation of billionaire Betsy DeVos as President Donald Trump’s education secretary ushers in a new champion for public education: the public.

    Education, as it often does, took a back seat during the heated and closely contested election campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

    Not anymore.

    The 50-50 Senate confirmation vote – broken only by Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaker – means the pro-school-choice DeVos, who attended private schools and sent her children to them – will take the helm. But in the process, public education has gained much- needed attention after Democratic senators held a marathon all-night session ahead of the vote, angry crowds protested outside their politicians’ offices back home, and late-night comedians even took notice of the uproar.

    The enormous scrutiny and publicity surrounding the vote have reminded us that education is an issue nearly everyone cares about, although it’s too often overlooked in the coverage of horse-race politics and click-bait stories or obscured by inaccessible acronyms and jargon. Even ardent opponents to DeVos found some reasons to feel heartened.

    …………………………..

    During her contentious hearing, DeVos made clear her preference for an education system that favors choice – including virtual charter schools with dismal track records. The Obama administration also invested federal dollars in charter schools, but the $20 billion level Trump has proposed for promoting school choice is unprecedented.

    Much of that money would go toward the private sector, and DeVos has also been challenged repeatedly for supporting vouchers that allow parents to use government dollars to pay for private, for-profit and religious schools, a cornerstone of Trump’s stated plan. Results for voucher programs have been questionable, according to several studies.

    Reply
  56. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:15 am

    Trump’s White House takes on retailer over his daughter’s deal
    02/08/17 04:07 PM—UPDATED 02/08/17 04:17 PM
    By Steve Benen

    Nordstrom, a prominent high-end retail chain, had a business arrangement with Ivanka Trump, one of Donald Trump’s adult children, which recently ran its course. Nordstrom said last week that her products simply weren’t selling: “Based on the brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season,” a Nordstrom spokeswoman said Thursday. Other retailers featuring Ivanka Trump’s products made a similar decision.

    Apparently, the president is not handling the developments well. Donald Trump interrupted his busy work schedule this morning to declare via Twitter, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person – always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!”

    It was a bizarre message, and not just because his poor writing skills made it seem as if he thinks it’s terrible that his daughter is always pushing him to do the right thing. In practical terms, the message was unprecedented: a sitting president used his position to criticize a private entity, targeting an American company for hurting his daughter’s bottom line.

    Given Trump’s existing conflicts-of-interest troubles, this showed ridiculous judgment. The president should at least try to separate himself from his family’s business interests, instead of using his office to interfere in his daughter’s retailing opportunities.

    It’s one thing to badger companies on issues such as foreign manufacturing; it’s something else to use the presidency to harass a company over his family’s profits. (Note, Trump’s tweet about Nordstrom was soon featured on the official presidential Twitter account, as well as Trump’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.)

    But as outlandish as this was, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made matters considerably worse with his defense of his boss’ tweet:

    Reply
  57. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:13 am

    On civil rights, Republicans pick the wrong fight at the wrong time
    02/09/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 02/09/17 08:18 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Given the racially charged themes tying together several recent Republican moves, the GOP would probably be better off avoiding an argument over civil rights, but a variety of prominent officials in the party were nevertheless eager to dive in yesterday.

    White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, for example, was asked at a briefing yesterday about Republicans shutting down Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) when she tried to read a letter from Coretta Scott King about Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). The press secretary touted Sessions’ record on civil rights “throughout his career,” and added that he “would hope” that King would support the Alabama Republican if she were alive today.

    Given Sessions’ actual record, Spicer’s rhetoric was difficult to take seriously. Coretta Scott King wrote 30 years ago that Sessions would “irreparably damage” her slain husband’s work, and there’s literally nothing to suggest she’d feel any differently today.

    Around the same time, however, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was taking the broader argument in an even more ridiculous direction. The Washington Post reported:
    The day after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was rebuked while making a speech critical of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Sen. Ted Cruz blasted Democrats, saying their party is the one rooted in racism.

    “The Democrats are the party of the Ku Klux Klan,” Cruz (R-Tex.) said in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday. “You look at the most racist – you look at the Dixiecrats, they were Democrats who imposed segregation, imposed Jim Crow laws, who founded the Klan. The Klan was founded by a great many Democrats.”

    There are a couple of dramatic problems with this. The first is recent history: just last year, during the presidential campaign, a KKK newspaper published its support for Donald Trump’s candidacy. It was part of a broader push among white nationalists to help elect the Republican Party’s presidential ticket.

    This followed an incident from last February in which Trump was asked to denounce support he’d received from white supremacists – and the Republican hesitated.

    Perhaps Ted Cruz missed this.

    Reply
  58. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:11 am

    Spicer tries to squelch criticisms of Trump’s failed raid in Yemen
    02/09/17 08:45 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Two weeks ago in Yemen, the first military raid ordered by Donald Trump went horribly wrong. The plan was to acquire intelligence and equipment at an al Qaeda camp, but the mission quickly went sideways: Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owen, a member of SEAL Team 6, was killed; several other Americans were injured; and by the end of the operation, multiple civilians, including children, were dead.

    It’s been described as a mission in which “almost everything went wrong,” a dynamic made more complicated by U.S. military officials suggesting to Reuters that Trump approved the mission “without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.”

    Worse, some of the Trump White House’s claims about what transpired have struggled to stand up to scrutiny, and when the president’s Defense Department tried to present evidence of the raid’s value, that went wrong, too.

    The consequences of the events continue to reverberate: the New York Times reported yesterday that Yemen “has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country,” which is an important setback for the Trump administration.

    Despite all of this, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said last week that the operation was “successful” and “well-executed.” Yesterday, Spicer went even further.

    The White House said Wednesday that anyone who questions the success of last week’s deadly U.S.-led raid in Yemen “owes an apology” to the Navy SEAL who was killed there. […]

    Spicer said that “anyone who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and [does] a disservice” to the life of Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed in a firefight…. Spicer repeated his declaration that the Jan. 28 strike – which also left an 8-year-old girl and an unknown number of other civilians dead – was a “huge success.”
    Wait, it gets worse.

    Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC News this week after a briefing on the raid, “When you lose a $75 million airplane and, more importantly, an American life is lost … I don’t believe you can call it a success.”

    Yesterday, Spicer suggested McCain was among those who should apologize for having done “disservice to the life of Chief Owens.” The senator was not amused.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 9, 2017 at 9:17 am

      THIS: It was a disaster, a huge disaster, and totally preventable. #45 messed up. Completely incompetent.

      THIS: Those SEALs went in there, and got torn apart. Nightmare, never should’ve happened. #45 messed up, big league. Completely unstable.

      Reply
  59. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:08 am

    After today, we’ve definitively established our ruling party is racist, now we’re just arguing about just exactly how racist.

    — Schooley (@Rschooley) February 9, 2017

    Reply
  60. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:07 am

    Fun fact: We didn’t always have a Justice Department. President Grant created it in 1870 to protect black civil rights and smash the Klan.

    — Matt Ford (@fordm) February 9, 2017

    Reply
  61. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 8:05 am

    GOP is angry someone read a letter saying Sessions stopped black people from voting but not angry Sessions stopped black people from voting.— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) February 8, 2017

    Reply
  62. Ametia says:
    February 9, 2017 at 7:38 am

    So now the media is carrying water for Neil Gorsuch, and Democratic Senator Blumenthal is son Murdering Joe helping him by parroting what he said behind closed door, while also saying Gorsuch should go public.

    How idiotic! You’re already going public as his mouthpiece.

    Don’t fall for the Gorsuch statement folks, it’ BULLSHIT.

    Reply
  63. rikyrah says:
    February 9, 2017 at 3:27 am

    Good Morning, Everyone😐😐😐

    Reply

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