Key North Korea official meets Pompeo in New York

Talks on preparing a summit with the US are under way in New York, Singapore and on the Korean border.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LMYDBR
via IFTTT

Arkady Babchenko: Ukraine condemned for faking journalist's murder

Ukraine says it acted to foil a Russian plot to assassinate journalist Arkady Babchenko.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2sju3Yw
via IFTTT

Melania Trump tweets 20 days after last public appearance

"Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family," a tweet posted on her account says.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2JkrG1h
via IFTTT

Australian minister Greg Hunt accused of misogyny

Greg Hunt has not responded to that assertion, but apologises for swearing at a town mayor.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2IZSa4U
via IFTTT

US military renames Pacific Command

It will now be called the US Indo-Pacific Command to mark the growing importance of the Indian Ocean.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LbPW39
via IFTTT

Kim Kardashian asks Trump to pardon Alice Marie Johnson

The star meets the president on behalf of a 63-year-old woman jailed for a first-time drug offence.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LJ4yI0
via IFTTT

Trump tariffs: Europe braced for US tariffs on steel and aluminium

The White House reportedly plans to let a temporary exemption granted to European steel and aluminium expire.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2H31QJT
via IFTTT

Algeria seizes 700kg of cocaine on container ship

More than 20 people are arrested over the haul, which was hidden in boxes marked "halal meat".

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2skUdtL
via IFTTT

White House comes out fighting on Roseanne racism row

President Trump weighed in after ABC cancelled Roseanne's show over the tweet about an ex-Obama aide.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2J3jteH
via IFTTT

Roxana Hernandez: Anger over transgender migrant's death in US

Roxana Hernandez, 33, was being held by immigration authorities in New Mexico when she fell ill.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2kDheEg
via IFTTT

Apple and Russia face off over Telegram on App Store

Russian regulators have given the company one month to remove the messaging app from its App Store.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2IXAcnB
via IFTTT

Liege shootings: Gunman 'had killed day before attack'

A man shot dead by police after a murder spree is also suspected of killing a man he met in jail.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2srvkvX
via IFTTT

Arkady Babchenko: Russian journalist 'back from the dead'

Ukraine staged Arkady Babchenko's murder in Kiev on Tuesday to "foil a Russian assassination plot".

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LLM4a0
via IFTTT

The mystery of Russia's missing IS brides

More than 2,000 Russian women who lived under the Islamic State group have disappeared.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2IYarUh
via IFTTT

Do these photos change your view of pigeons?

This photographer has been on a 10-year mission to teach people that pigeons are beautiful.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LF0gBH
via IFTTT

Liège shooting: Belgium gunman caught on camera

Footage of the man who shot dead two police officers and a civilian in Liège shows him with two guns.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2J01Pbz
via IFTTT

North Koreans dare to criticise 'vampire leader'

Market trader 'Sun Hui' gives her view on Kim Jong-un from inside the country.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2H1DOza
via IFTTT

Meet the Russians turning the turntables on male DJs

How two female DJs from St Petersburg are challenging stereotypes, ahead of the World Cup in Russia.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2ISl7Ua
via IFTTT

Russia and the Central African Republic: A curious relationship

Russia is providing military support to the Central African Republic (CAR) – but what is Moscow getting in return?

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2H29p3F
via IFTTT

Neighbours to show Australian TV's first gay wedding

The long-running soap will air Aaron Brennan and David Tanaka's nuptials in September.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2xpDr1y
via IFTTT

Pompeii victim crushed by boulder while fleeing eruption

Archaeologists find a man who, fleeing the initial Vesuvius eruption, was hit by a giant boulder.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2stRP3s
via IFTTT

Iceland's pagan Zuist religion hopes to build temple

Faith movement based on ancient Sumerian gods attracts thousands of registered followers.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2srGq3N
via IFTTT

Ballet and football collide on the Russian stage

Choreographer puts on football ballet to celebrate Russia's World Cup

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2xqYvVr
via IFTTT

Hungry bears raid Baltic beehives

Concern as wild animals come ever closer to populated areas to find food in Finland and Estonia.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2LHpdwj
via IFTTT

Why Ghanaians are so slow to bury their dead

Bodies are not buried for months, sometimes years, in Ghana as families bicker over funeral arrangements.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2ssWORA
via IFTTT

Chile transgender: 'Growing up here is torture'

Why members of Chile's transgender community are lobbying for a change in the law.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2slCemY
via IFTTT

Profile: Billionaire philanthropist George Soros

The hedge fund investor turned liberal philanthropist is politically divisive around the world.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2JeT5BF
via IFTTT

How Sweden is preparing for its election to be hacked

Will a "Facebook hotline" and propaganda lessons keep polls free and fair?

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2H6xOoK
via IFTTT

The story of Pakistan's 'disappeared' Shias

Activists say they are detained without due process over suspected links to a secretive militia in Syria.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2sqPgQv
via IFTTT

Eight times celebrities messed up on social media

Following the cancellation of Roseanne's show, which other celebrities have messed up on social media?

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2L8yjRA
via IFTTT

He’s Tried to Leave ‘Star Wars’ Before. Will This Be It?

By DAVE ITZKOFF from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/2H5Md4q

‘One Sings, the Other Doesn’t’: Agnès Varda’s Polarizing Paean to Sisterhood

By J. HOBERMAN from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/2ss5EPC

Review: In ‘American Animals,’ These Guys Didn’t Visit the Library to Study

By A. O. SCOTT from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/2kEFe9L

The Volcker Rule was designed to prevent another financial crisis. Now the Fed wants to weaken it

AP

Deep within the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, one of many post-recession reforms designed to prevent future financial crises, you'll find the much-vaunted "Volcker Rule," widely credited as a core reform that helps stop banks from making the kinds of risky investments that put consumers at risk. Named for Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, nonprofit policy think tank Demos describes the rule as a means to stop banks "from taking 'proprietary' bets for their own profit, with taxpayer-backed deposit funds," as well as "ban[ning] firms from packaging risky securities for customers and then betting that they will fail," as Goldman Sachs did in the late-2000s.

Now, Federal bank regulators are trying to sap the Volcker rule of its remaining regulatory power. The move seems suspiciously like an instance of Trump-appointed regulators enacting the will of Wall Street.

On Wednesday, Federal bank regulators released a proposal to soften these measures, which would give Wall Street banks more freedom to make riskier bets. The proposal eases several parts of the the Volcker Rule.

A public comment period on the proposal is expected to ensue for the next 60 days.

“Turning now to concepts and principles, the objective behind this proposal is straightforward: simplifying and tailoring the Volcker rule in light of our experience with the rule in practice,” Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal K. Quarles wrote in the announcement. “This is a goal that is shared among all five agencies and among policymakers at those agencies with many different backgrounds.”

Quarles is an odd choice to be a bank regulator, particularly given that he has a long history as a banker. During his confirmation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a fierce critic of Wall Street's excesses, was deeply skeptical of his abilities and credentials. As CNBC reported on his hearing:

Quarles is founder and head of The Cynosure Group, a private investment firm, and previously was a partner at private equity firm The Carlyle Group. He also has served as undersecretary of the Treasury during George W. Bush's administration.

Citing his business experience, Warren said, "That's not a record that should give Americans as a whole a lot of confidence in you."

"We just went through a devastating financial crisis less than a decade ago because powerful people in government let powerful institutions call the shots," she later added. "We can't go down that road again."

 

Destroying the Volcker Rule has been a long-coming dream of bankers. For years, financiers have sought to weaken it as much as possible, as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has written. "Keeping risky assets away from insured deposits had been a key principle of U.S. regulation for decades before the repeal of Glass-Steagall," Reich wrote in 2011. "The so-called “Volcker rule” was supposed to remedy that. But under pressure of Wall Street’s lobbyists, the rule – as officially proposed last week – has morphed into almost 300 pages of regulatory mumbo-jumbo, riddled with exemptions and loopholes."

Perhaps the Volcker rule's death blow has arrived.

from Salon https://ift.tt/2H70bmy

New strategies to get kids to create media, not just consume it

lev dolgachov via Shutterstock chalk

This post originally appeared on Common Sense Media

During a typical day, kids and teens check out YouTube, watch TV, play video games, scroll through social media feeds, and listen to music. Overall, they're passive consumers of the content they love — which is fine. But with a little nudging — and the right tools — they can be using that time to build creative skills while sharing their stories, opinions, and ideas.

Kids actually love to express themselves, but sometimes they feel like they don't have much of a voice. Encouraging your kid to be more of a maker might just be a matter of pointing to someone or something they admire and giving them the technology to make their vision come alive. No matter your kids' ages and interests, there's a method and medium to encourage creativity.

If they have a story to share

As soon as kids start talking, it's great to get them to tell stories. For younger kids, encourage them to narrate their activities as they build, climb, and pretend by asking questions such as, "What are you building? Who will use it? Tell me about your adventure!" There are also apps that let kids record their stories as they play. With older kids, some will naturally put pencil to paper, but others take a bit more prodding. For those kids, digital book creation can make their writing process feel more grown-up and tangible. Having a real audience also shows kids that their writing can matter, so tweens and teens can use sites and apps where they can share creations, and they can even riff off their obsessions in the form of fan fiction. Finally, if your tween or teen has strong opinions about issues or interesting people in their lives, they can use tools to document and share those stories, too.

Storytelling tools

• For younger kids: Toca Life: School, Diary Zapp, Me by Tinybop; Storybird
• For older kids: Write About This, Book Creator, Scholastic Kids Press Corps, StoryCorps, We Are Here DIYdoc

If they have a directorial vision

For kids who love to watch television and movies (spoiler: Most do!), it can be exciting for them to get in on the action. When they're younger, kids love to combine their toys with storytelling, which is not unlike directing a movie. To share those stories, they can play around with animated storytelling apps that let them record a mini-movie with movable characters, props, and settings. As they get older, stop-motion animation might be more their jam, and there are apps for that, too. And if you'd prefer tweens and teens to not have their own YouTube channels but you want to encourage the fun of making videos, there are tools that let kids record, edit, and share in a more limited way.

Video-creation tools

• For younger kids: Toontastic 3D, Lipa Theater: Story Maker
• For older kids: Goldieblox and the Movie Machine, SKIT! Kids - Video Maker, VidMaker - 3D Moviemaker for Kids, Magisto

If they have an inner artist

When your kid is naturally artistic, it probably won't take much prompting to get them to draw or paint. But sooner or later, they'll want to expand their horizons. If your little kid loves to color, give them more inspiration with apps that introduce famous artists. Older kids who don't claim to be artists but love superheroes, comics, or manga can create their own cartoons with panels, dialogue balloons, and unique characters. Even emerging fashion designers can find a tool to help them express their inner Versace. Of course, for tweens and teens, there are more advanced digital drawing and painting products to create sophisticated designs.

Artistic tools

• For younger kids: ExplorArt Klee - The Art of Paul Klee for Kids, PlayART by Tapook
• For older kids: Comics Head Lite - Create Your Own Comic, Strip Designer, Art Set, Procreate

If they have an ear for music

Most kids love music right out of the womb, so transferring that love into creation isn't hard when they're little. Banging on pots and pans is a good place to start — but they can take that experience with them using apps that let them play around with sound. Little kids can start to learn about instruments and how sounds fit together into music. Whether they're budding musicians or just appreciators, older kids can use tools to compose, stay motivated, and practice regularly. And when tweens and teens want to start laying down some tracks, they can record, edit, and share their stuff.

Music tools

• For younger kids: Duckie Deck Homemade Orchestra, Bandimal, Mussila
• For older kids: Moana: Rhythm Run, The Orchestra, Bandblast, Coach Guitar Chords Tuner Tabs, Piano Practice with Wolfie, GarageBand

If they have the next big game idea

Learning to code may seem intimidating, but there are a ton of fun apps that teach programming basics in a way that doesn't feel like work. Young kids who learn to code get introduced to ideas such as cause and effect, thinking ahead, and how little steps add up to a final product. When they're older, they can make and share simple games using some basic block-coding tools. Tweensand teens can learn actual coding languages so they can create more complex games.

Coding tools

• For younger kids: Code Karts, codeSpark Academy, TinyTap
• Older kids: Scratch, ScreenPlay - program your story, Hopscotch, Swift Playgrounds, SoloLearn: Learn to Code

If they don't consider themselves to be creative

Some kids are sure they don't have a creative bone in their bodies — but they'll play "Minecraft" for hours. Others will turn their noses up at art — but will jump at the chance to design a robot. If this sounds like your kid, rest assured that — no matter their age — their bones are actually brimming with creativity. Even if kids aren't painting masterpieces, playing the trombone, or writing the next hit for Netflix, there are lots of ways for them to make things, especially using digital tools. Any app that requires kids to create a world or creature — especially those that allow them to test their designs — teaches the creative process. Even silly apps that only focus on the process and not the product can free up kids who might feel stuck.

Covert creative tools

• For younger kids: Plum's Creaturizer, Dr. Panda Plus: Home Designer, The Robot Factory by Tinybop, Blox 3D World Creator
• For older kids: Diary Zapp, Minecraft, The Tune Zoo, DIY App - Creative Community for Kids, Scribblenauts Remix, SoundForest, Orb

Top Trending

Check out the major news stories of the day

from Salon https://ift.tt/2J15tWV

Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation was fatal for Trump

AP/Getty/Shutterstock/Salon

In retrospect, the fatal turning point for Trump happened with astonishing speed.

On November 18, 2016, Trump announced that Senator Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions would be his pick for Attorney General, the man who would run his Department of Justice.

On January 10, 2017, less than two months later, Sessions appeared to tell a lie at his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee when he denied having any contacts with Russians during the campaign.

On February 9, he was sworn in as Attorney General.

Four days later, on February 13, Michael Flynn resigned from his post as Trump’s National Security Adviser, after it was revealed that he had spoken repeatedly with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The next day, February 14, the New York Times reported on its front page that telephone intercepts and records showed that senior Trump officials and campaign aides had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence officers during the campaign.

Two weeks later, on March 1, news broke that Sessions was among those who met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak during the campaign. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that Sessions had “lied under oath” during his confirmation hearings. Democrats called for his resignation.

The next day, March 2, fighting for his job, Sessions responded to calls for his resignation by stating, "I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign.” It was quickly pointed out that Sessions was never asked if he had met with Russians “to discuss any political campaign,” but rather if he had met with Russians, period, so his explanation rang hollow.

Sessions huddled with top aides at the Department of Justice, and later the same day, he announced, “I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States."

March 2 will be the day that Trump’s fate was decided, if the report on the front page of The New York Times is to be believed. The Times published yet another in a long series of reports on Trump’s dissatisfaction with his Attorney General for having recused himself from the Russia investigation. This time, the report reveals that Trump pressured Sessions to reverse his recusal decision in an early March, 2017 meeting at Mar-a-Lago. According to the Times, the Mar-a-Lago meeting is being investigated by Mueller’s team as a potential obstruction of justice. Mueller is said to have questioned Sessions himself about the conversation at Mar-a-Lago, making him a key witness in the investigation.

Mueller’s team has also questioned other White House officials about the repeated pressure Trump put on Sessions to retain his control of the Russia investigation. White House counsel Donald McGahn was questioned about a March 1, 2017 meeting with Trump, during which Trump ordered McGahn to lobby Sessions not to recuse himself.

Sessions responded to this by telling McGahn, and thus Trump, that he had to follow Justice Department regulations and recuse himself from investigations into any matters in which he had a personal connection. Since Sessions was an official on the Trump campaign, he was forbidden under Justice Department rules from having anything to do with investigations into that campaign.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Sessions for his recusal from the Russia investigation. In July of 2017, Trump told the New York Times, “Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” he added. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”

But Trump is ignoring the fact that there was no Russia investigation that anyone knew of, either in November of 2016 when Sessions was appointed, or in February when he was sworn in as Attorney General. He could hardly have told Trump that he would recuse himself from an investigation that neither he or Trump knew was underway. Sessions didn’t betray Trump. Trump is betraying Sessions by lying about what happened.

Trump appears to have suffered multiple delusions about the powers he would have as president, the way the government works in Washington under the law, and the norms that have been established between the White House and the Department of Justice over the years.

The first delusion Trump had was that as president, he would be able to call in his Attorney General and order him to do anything he wanted. Prosecuting his opponent Hillary Clinton for her “emails” comes immediately to mind. Trump seems to have believed that if he appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General he could depend on the bantam former Senator from Alabama to watch his back when it came to investigations into his campaign or former business dealings.

It must have come as quite a shock to Trump to realize that laws and regulations stood between Trump and his control of the levers of justice through his Attorney General.

The other thing Trump probably never knew, or dismissed out of hand, was that Washington D.C. is indeed a “small town” when it comes to the inner workings of the government, and especially when it comes to the United States Senate. The Senate has always seen itself as an exclusive club of 100 members, and they’ve always been very protective of the way they operate, and of their own members, especially within the two political parties.

With only 51 members, the Republican caucus in the Senate is especially tight-knit. The Times may have buried the lede when they reported well down in their story today that “Mr. Trump complains to friends about how much he would like to get rid of Mr. Sessions but has demurred under pressure from Senate Republicans who have indicated they would not confirm a new attorney general.”

Huh? Who knew Senate Republicans had passed the word to Trump that if he fired Sessions, they wouldn’t confirm a new attorney general? You know who that would leave as Acting Attorney General, don’t you? Rod Rosenstein, Trump’s other bete noire, the man who appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel and who has given Mueller authority to investigate pretty much anything he wants when it comes to Trump and Russia.

In the clubby world of the United States Senate, Jeff Sessions is still one of them. Retired Senators are afforded lifetime access to the Senate dining room and health club, not to mention being welcomed on the floor of the Senate should they want to visit. Sessions was a Senator for 21 years. If Trump thought his Republican buddies were going to walk away from him, he was not just sadly, but perhaps fatally mistaken.

There aren’t many Republican Senators who have been openly critical of Trump since he was elected. Jeff Flake has made a few passing bleats, and Bob Corker has implied that most of his colleagues see Trump as an incompetent baby, but that’s about it. And neither of them are running for re-election.

But if you go looking for Republican Senators who have given full-throated defenses of Trump since the Russia investigation began, they are few and far between. Much more typical is Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has run what appears to be an eminently fair and bipartisan investigation of the Trump campaign and its connections to Russia alongside his Democratic counterpart, John Warner of Virginia.

The Senate committee was briefed in private about the Russia investigation under top secret security in a secure meeting room known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF by James Comey before he was fired as FBI Director. They also had a top secret briefing by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, after which Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that the Russia investigation had morphed from a counterintelligence investigation into a criminal one. The chair and co-chair of the committee were also briefed by Robert Mueller about his investigation. The Senate Intelligence Committee knows a lot about the Russia investigation, and unlike the House Intelligence Committee under Trump lackey Devin Nunes, they haven’t issued a hastily slapped together exoneration of Trump.

All of which may go a long way to explaining why Republican Senators appear to be standing by their pal Sessions and are showing an unusually strong willingness to protect him. They know stuff about Trump that we don’t know, and clearly, it’s not good.

There is only one reason Trump went so far in his efforts to get Sessions to take back control of the Russia investigation. He thought he could depend on the loyalty of Sessions to protect him. Sessions was the first and only Senator to back Trump early in his campaign. He has been Trump’s soul mate when it comes to immigration policy, racial politics, and a “law and order” stand on issues of drugs, prisons, and sentencing.

But what Trump has never understood is that men like Sessions — and the rest of the Senate for that matter — spend their entire lives dreaming of being elected to the Senate and joining Washington’s clubbiest club. They want the power that comes with being a Senator, of course, but they also want the lifestyle. They relish the nights out on the town, when Senators are afforded the best tables in the hottest restaurants. They look forward to the cocktail parties, and the invitations to galas at the Kennedy Center.

Every single one of them spent a lifetime looking forward to all the pomp and circumstance of Washington, and what do they get with Trump? So far, one State Dinner (to which he failed to invite a single Democrat), and no White House reception during the Kennedy Center Honors. Where are the invitations to the White House for evenings of entertainment by the kind of famous, talented musicians who performed at the White House under Obama —  James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger? Hell, Trump hasn’t even had them over to listen to Ted Nugent.

With the likes of Trey Gowdy and Mitch McConnell refusing to join Trump’s Fox News amen chorus screaming “spygate” after the briefings by the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence last week, Trump is left with the likes of Dim Bulb Nunes and the House Freedom Caucus to defend him. That’s not good.

It’s impossible to tell at this point, but it’s beginning to look like Trump would have a hard time putting the votes together to fight impeachment in the Senate. He doesn’t have a single Democrat, and Republicans aren’t exactly lining up to follow him over the cliff.

It’s looking more and more like we are approaching that famous moment during Watergate when three senior Republican Senators got in a black car at the Capitol and drove up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and told Richard Nixon that he wouldn’t survive an impeachment vote in the Senate. They told him if he wanted to avoid certain indictment and possible conviction for federal crimes once he left office, he had better resign and make a deal for a pardon with his Vice President, Gerald Ford, who would succeed him as president. Which is what he did.

Trump isn’t that far from facing the same decision. He has been acting like a guilty man since the day he panicked over Sessions’ recusal. A Watergate-style Saturday night massacre of his top law enforcement officers isn’t going to save him any more than it saved Richard Nixon. If Trump were to be impeached by the House and found guilty by the Senate, he would leave office with no protections at all against indictment and conviction for god-only-knows what crimes he’s committed with Russians and other thugs. His business empire would be in jeopardy. He may as well start looking forward to spending his retirement at Mar-a-Leavenworth.

The only news on the horizon for Trump is bad news. If I were him, I’d start worrying about looking out of the White House windows and seeing the headlights of that black car driving up Pennsylvania Avenue in the dark.

Top Trending

Check out the top news stories here!

from Salon https://ift.tt/2xr3V31

A recipe for Cuba’s national dish, ropa vieja, or rags, from the new book “Cuban Flavor”

Skyhorse Publishing

Excerpted with permission from Cuban Flavor: Exploring the Island’s Unique Places, People, and Cuisine by Liza Gershman. Copyright 2018 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

The story of Cuban cuisine is as diverse as its traditions and cultures. Colonized by the Spanish, and later the French, and built up by slaves from Africa and Haiti, as well as a population of Chinese immigrants, Cuba has a food culture with flavors that most closely resemble those found in Puerto Rico and the neighboring Dominican Republic. However, Cuba has a history and figurative spice all of its own.

While rice and beans are staples of the Cuban diet, their cuisine is such a complex story—a tapestry of love and loss, woven so deeply into their culture going far beyond history or sustenance. To those of us more fortunate, Cuban cuisine can appear as a stroke of luck served up on a beautiful platter.

During the most difficult times in Cuba, known as the Special Period, opulent meals were served only to the elite connected to the government, while others sat by and starved. It was a time of great economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1989 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, (and their financial support of Cuba), and continued through the mid-to-late nineties. During this time, Cubans suffered greatly and endured shortages in fuel, food, and other resources. For many, a piece of bread with sugar was sustenance for the day.

When I first visited Cuba in 2003, to my great disappointment, every meal was the same. We ate plain chicken, rice, and beans. Cuba was in a difficult financial period, and tourism had yet to really take hold. Since then, the cuisine has greatly transformed. A burgeoning connection to ingredients and spices inevitably brings European, Asian, and Latin flavors to the island, and chefs now have an opportunity to experiment with flavors through an increasingly hungry tourist population, with an insatiable appetite for more.

Today, the food situation in Cuba is incredibly complex. Despite the increased access to food in this changing cultural and political landscape, most locals still rely on monthly food rations. Food excesses that we are so accustomed to in the developed world (including fine dining) continue to be a privilege of the new generation of elites—now the entrepreneurs of tourism—and to their clientele.

Paladares, or privately run restaurants, became legal in the 1990’s. Often set up as home-based restaurants when they began out of private residences (once a simple affair with one, two, or three tables set in the owner’s living room or anywhere else that they could fit), paladares enabled Cubans to earn money through private enterprise, which can be significantly greater than a salary from a government or state-run job. Now with the large demand from tourism and laws that passed in 2010, which allowed the paladares to run more like a modern restaurant rather than it resembling a meal cooked in a friend’s grandmother’s home, paladares have sprouted up around the country and are not just found in proprietor’s homes, but also function as regular restaurants as well.

For the thriving paladares, food supply is also hard to come by, and items like lobster and spices must be purchased through a black market system. Some make purchases through the Cuban version of Craigslist, Revolico.com, while others barter with friends and suppliers they have come to know. But getting caught with something that is too “special,” like dried cranberries on a salad (an item that has clearly been provided from someone coming from abroad) will raise eyebrows and put the chef in jeopardy. Every Cuban can tell you a daily tale of how they came to access the food in their kitchen. Imagine: a daily chore of searching for food, even if you had the financial wherewithal to purchase it.

Stocking a Cuban home kitchen remains one of the biggest challenges of daily life as the average Cuban lives with a startling food scarcity that one can only describe as cruel. Havana, after all, is a city of two million people before tourists even touch the ground. While tourists dine at any of the estimated 1,700 paladares on the island, food prices for locals soar. Not only is there a dearth of product (both produce and meat alike), but also the prices from competition are impossible for local families to match. Much of the existing food supply is quickly taken by the restaurants, and what little remains for locals is of poor quality at a high price. Given that an average Cuban makes the equivalent of $25 a month, and $45 for a professional job (like an engineer or a doctor), the price of dining at a paladar, where meals can cost just as much, is simply impossible. Cuba has always existed in an us-versus-them paradigm, and food is the surest proof that this continues to exist.

In a typical Cuban home kitchen, you’ll find tools from the 1950s like pressure cookers and rice cookers, broken utensils, dull knives, and mismatched china. It’s a wonder that anyone can actually cook. But the resilience of the Cuban people perfumes each savory dish, as always. Meat, when available, is most often served stewed or slow-cooked with garlic, onion, and simple spices. The island’s signature dish, the delicious Ropa Vieja, or “rags,” is shredded meat that has been simmered in a tomato-based criollo sauce. Traditional Cuban sauces nearly always contain oil, onions, red paprika, or aji cachucha (the little sweet-spicy pepper found in local produce markets). However, even these simple items can be difficult to find because of chronic problems in food supply, and occasional acute food shortages. As a result, Cubans are deeply resourceful people, not only in the search for what is available on any given day, but also in their neighborly sharing economy, which plays itself out as a deep cultural understanding and celebration of what it is to live in the moment.

Adding complication to an already difficult situation is a government, which imposes capricious, shifting regulations for every aspect of economic life. Cuba’s rules and regulations are constantly in flux, followed with extreme corruption and a prosperous black market that locals must depend on to live their daily lives. Each Cuban is given a monthly ration book by the government for food, to provide for basics like rice and sugar, beans and eggs; however, these rations do not provide for meat or produce. The ration amount is sufficient for only twenty days or less, which is most often not enough to feed a family for the entire month. Even top restaurants depend on supplies from the black market in order to provide enough food for nightly guests.

Additionally, a main contributing factor to the current food shortage is the illogical and seemingly draconian regulation prohibiting farmers from the countryside from importing their goods into the capital’s local markets. Only allowed to sell to private restaurants, farmers waste much of their produce, while the local people go without food. As with anything else in Cuba, enforcement is key to maintaining strict regulations, and there are considerable amounts of police patrolling the highways to ensure that this farm distribution cannot occur.

Markets are often empty of products, and residents may have to spend an entire day searching for something as basic and essential to their diet as chicken or pork. Government-run bakeries, grocery stores, and markets simply cannot sustain the demand with the current food production on the island that now includes an increasing tourist population to boot.

Why not fish from the bountiful sea, you ask? The gulf stream is home to marlin and the large fish called pargo (a prized local snapper). However, Cubans are forbidden from stepping foot onto any boat without express consent from the government, and those who are fortunate enough to have this luxurious privilege are very few and far between. While the Havana harbor was once an ideal spot for boats, it is now too shallow for modern shipping vessels. Additionally, the majority of fishermen that remain are elderly; there is a consistent fuel shortage; and most of the working boats on the island left for Florida a long time ago.

While food in Cuba isn’t nearly as diverse as that of more international Latin American or Caribbean cultures, the cuisine in restaurants is changing rapidly as owners and chefs are influenced by international visitors’ ideas, and the newly-found global influences on Cuban cuisine are beginning to yield interesting results.

We can only hope that this resurgence of cuisine in Havana can bless the tables of the average home, and that the people’s access to, and relationship with food, continues to grow. As additional restaurants flourish and sustain themselves through increased tourism, the demand for farming and produce will increase as well. One hopes that the overall population will in turn benefit in the bounty.

I was in Cuba during President Obama’s easing of regulations and the landing of the first commercial flights from the US in more than fifty years. I arrived only hours after Fidel Castro’s death and partook in his mesmerizing funeral, surrounded by a million grieving Cubans. I also stood arm-in-arm with my Cuban friends as the news of President Trump’s travel restrictions were announced. Cuba’s tourism is ever-changing and rapidly evolving, but also slowing. It is an enigma, an energetic whirlwind, and the future is only a guess. Growth and transition foster the seed of invention and innovation, and food is often where these shifts begin.

 

 

Ropa Vieja  or “rags”

The national dish of Cuba, “rags” or ropa vieja, is savory and delectable. When spices are few and far between, this dish’s peppers bring forward a wonderfully light flavor. Traditional ropa vieja is made with flank steak because that cut of beef is best for shredding, but a more flavorful top sirloin works just as well.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 lb flank steak

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 yellow onion, diced

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

½ cup water

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 jalapeño, seeded and thinly sliced

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp cumin powder

1 bayleaf

½ cup green olives, halved

2 tsp capers (optional)

1 bsp cilantro, chopped (optional)

Serve with: Rice

Preparation:

Generously season the flank steak with salt and pepper.

Combine onion, garlic, tomatoes and their juices, water, bell peppers, jalapeño, oregano, cumin, and bay leaf in a slow cooker. Add the flank steak, cover, and cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove the meat and let it rest approximately 10 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and stir in the olives, capers (optional), and cilantro (optional).

Shred the meat into fine strips and add it back into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot over a bed of rice.

Top Trending

Check out the top news stories here!

from Salon https://ift.tt/2H6GwTX

GOP congresswoman says porn is “the root cause” of school shootings. It’s not

AP/Getty/Salon

There have been 23 school shootings so far this year, which averages to about one every week; yet when it comes to assigning blame, those of varying political ideologies blame this very American spate of violence on very different actors. While Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have pointed to untreated mental health issues as the problem, Democrats and many young people say that stricter gun control laws are needed to restrict easy access to firearms and reduce America's mass shooting epidemic.

But, according to one Republican, pornography is the cause of the bloodshed.

During a meeting last week with local pastors, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., who is running for governor of Tennessee, discussed the issue of gun violence and argued that the rising toll of school shootings is due to "pornography."

"It's available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there's pornography there,” Black said. "All of this is available without parental guidance. I think that is a big part of the root cause."

Black did not expand on what it is about porn that she believes motivates gun violence, nor if she blames any specific porn category. Her congressional spokesman did not respond to a request for clarification.

In addition to X-rated media, Black said school shootings are increasing because of the "deterioration of the family," mental illness and violent movies.

On Thursday, when asked by a child in the White House briefing room what the Trump administration will do to prevent school shootings, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders became emotional, but still offered a lackluster response.

"I think that as a kid, and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that can be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I'm sorry that you feel that way," Sanders said. "This administration takes it seriously, and the School Safety Commission that the president convened is meeting this week again, an official meeting, to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools and to make them feel safe and to make their parents feel good about dropping them off."

President Trump has previously suggested arming teachers as a solution to increase school safety.

In contrast to Trump and Black's remarks, experts say poor social, cultural, and economic conditions are central causes of gun violence. Developing policies to improve those conditions for people, along with reducing access to guns, are effective measures to curb mass shootings, they say. These actions are "far more effective than all the police, doctors and hospitals combined, and intervening only after tragedies have struck," wrote professors Bandy Lee of Yale University and James Gilligan of New York University, both experts on violence.

Liara Roux, a sex worker and organizer for human rights for sex workers, criticized Black's remarks as another lackluster response to gun violence.

"Comments like the one from Representative Black show how scarily out of touch Congress is," Roux told Salon. "Aside from the widely debunked claim pornography has any link to violence, the idea that people even get their porn from a grocery store is absurdly out of date."

"It would be funny if Congress hadn't recently passed anti-sex legislation like FOSTA/SESTA that is having a tragic impact on sex workers who need the Internet for safety, as well as taking down valuable forums for non-commercial sexual expression like Craiglist's personals," Roux added. "We can't let this war on sex go unchallenged, just as we can't let gun violence go unchecked — and using gun deaths to attack freedom of expression is particularly heinous."

Another sex worker, Ginger Banks, echoed Roux's statements.

"This is what happens when a person tries to think about why school shootings happen, but refuses to consider our access to guns as one of the reasons," Banks explained. "They start coming up with things that make NO sense when you actually think about it."

Although significant social change related to sexuality has occurred over the past 30 years alongside the increased consumption of pornography, negative stigma surrounding pornography and its "cultural harm" remain, highlighting an enormous divide between perspectives on porn in our society.

Some studies suggest exposure to pornography is healthy and natural — that it can be an educational experience that can help people learn their own likes and dislikes, explore their sexual feelings, and develop healthy sexual identities. Other studies argue it can bring a couple closer together and facilitate intercourse in an exciting way, and can even help to reduce stress.

That's not to say that porn is completely harmless. Some people consume it so compulsively that it interferes with their lives. Others say porn leads to negative body image and perpetuates unrealistic expectations about sex. Increased divorce rates, sexual deviances, sex addiction and, most recently, gun violence are some issues that have been blamed on such films.
The point is, there's no study that will give the final word on porn. What is clear, however, is that America won't be able to halt it's epidemic of deadly gun violence as long as politicians continue to play the blame game and refuse to offer more than "thoughts and prayers."

from Salon https://ift.tt/2LM2uiE

Did NFL owners just admit to colluding with Trump to punish kneeling players?

Getty/Chip Somodevilla/Thearon W. Henderson

"Tell everybody, you can't win this one," President Donald Trump said to Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner testified. "This one lifts me," Jones alleges Trump said of the NFL's new policy to punish protesting players.

Several NFL owners said in depositions that President Trump influenced the league's response to protests during the national anthem, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last week, the NFL approved a new policy that requires players on the field to stand during the anthem, and if not, the league or team can fine the player. There is an option for players to remain in the locker room for the duration of the anthem.

Owners were deposed by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who started the anthem protests in 2016 to shed light on police brutality and racial injustice, and claims that he was blackballed from the NFL because of his politics. He alleges that 32 teams colluded to keep him unsigned in a grievance filed against the NFL last October.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a sworn deposition that Trump told him in a phone call, "This is a very winning, strong issue for me," he said, of demanding players stand for the anthem. "Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me."

Trump infamously ripped into NFL players who protested during the anthem at a rally in Alabama last September. He referred to a player who knelt as a "son of a bitch" and advocated for repercussions against them. Later, on Twitter, Trump specified that players should be fired for such an offense.

"Depositions given by Mr. Jones and other owners indicate that Mr. Trump’s criticism pushed the league to shift its stance," the Journal reported. "League executives publicly repeated the NFL’s aim to stay out politics. But privately, they made political calculations in response to Mr. Trump’s repeated hammering of the issue."

"I was totally supportive of [the players] until Trump made his statement," Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins’ owner, said in his deposition. He added that the owners' conversations with Trump were discussed in league meetings. In another deposition, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he also brought up his conversation with Trump about the protests to fellow league owners, according to the Journal.

"I thought he changed the dialogue," Ross said of Trump.

And Trump's public stance is central to Kaepernick's grievance. He argues that Trump was an "organizing force in the collusion," citing various NFL owners' close relationship with the president and their political support of him. (Many donated to his presidential campaign.)

When asked by Fox's Brian Kilmeade about the new NFL policy penalizing players for protesting during the anthem, Trump supported it, saying "I brought it out," while adding that it didn't go far enough. He again questioned whether players who didn't "stand proudly," and opted to stay in the locker room under the new guidelines, should even be allowed to play; whether they should be allowed in America.

But at first, the NFL rejected Trump's vile comments against players who protested. Prior to his charge, only a few players were still kneeling and afterward, entire teams kneeled, or linked arms in solidarity, including team owners.

"Publicly, the NFL fought back and touted the moment as a display of unity," the Wall Street Journal said. "Commissioner Roger Goodell called Mr. Trump’s comments 'divisive.' The league’s chief spokesman, Joe Lockhart, called the president 'out of touch.'"

Yet, behind the scenes, owners reportedly worried about sliding viewership, which was on the decline prior to the protests, but according to the depositions, owners believed exacerbated the problem. They debated about how to respond to the protests for two years.

Eric Reid, a former teammate of Kaepernick's, who joined his protest and is currently unsigned, also filed a collusion grievance against the NFL. The NFL Players Association filed a grievance on behalf, saying at least one owner asked Reid if he would continue to kneel during the anthem, violating league policy.

Top Trending

Check out the major news stories of the day

from Salon https://ift.tt/2skH1W1

Superslow brain waves may play a critical role in consciousness

Shutterstock/DedMityay

This article was originally published by Scientific American

Every few seconds a wave of electrical activity travels through the brain, like a large swell moving through the ocean. Scientists first detected these ultraslow undulations decades ago in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of people and other animals at rest — but the phenomenon was thought to be either electrical “noise” or the sum of much faster brain signals and was largely ignored.

Now a study that measured these “infraslow” (less than 0.1 hertz) brain waves in mice suggests they are a distinct type of brain activity that depends on an animal’s conscious state. But big questions remain about these waves’ origin and function.

An fMRI scan detects changes in blood flow that are assumed to be linked to neural activity. “When you put someone in a scanner, if you just look at the signal when you don’t ask the subject to do anything, it looks pretty noisy,” says Marcus Raichle, a professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and senior author of the new study, published in April in Neuron. “All this resting-state activity brought to the forefront: What is this fMRI signal all about?”

To find out what was going on in the brain, Raichle’s team employed a combination of calcium/hemoglobin imaging, which uses fluorescent molecules to detect the activity of neurons at the cellular level, and electrophysiology, which can record signals from cells in different brain layers. They performed both measurements in awake and anesthetized mice; the awake mice were resting in tiny hammocks in a dark room.

The team found that infraslow waves traveled through the cortical layers of the awake rodents’ brains — and changed direction when the animals were anesthetized. The researchers say these waves are distinct from so-called delta waves (between 1 and 4 Hz) and other higher-frequency brain activity.

These superslow waves may be critical to how the brain functions, Raichle says. “Think of, say, waves on the water of Puget Sound. You can have very rough days where you have these big groundswells and then have whitecaps sitting on top of them,” he says. These “swells” make it easier for brain areas to become active — for “whitecaps” to form, in other words.

Other researchers praised the study’s general approach but were skeptical that it shows the infraslow waves are totally distinct from other brain activity. “I would caution against jumping to a conclusion that resting-state fMRI is measuring some other property of the brain that’s got nothing to do with the higher-frequency fluctuations between areas of the cortex,” says Elizabeth Hillman, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute, who was not involved in the work. Hillman published a study in 2016 finding that resting-state fMRI signals represent neural activity across a range of frequencies, not just low ones.

More studies are needed to tease apart how these different types of brain signals are related. “These kinds of patterns are very new,” Hillman notes. “We haven’t got much of a clue what they are, and figuring out what they are is really, really difficult.”

Top Trending

Check out the major news stories of the day

from Salon https://ift.tt/2kFkgrj

Kim Kardashian wields the power of celebrity to get Trump’s ear on prison reform

Getty/Photo montage by Salon

Kim Kardashian West is heading to the White House Wednesday afternoon to meet with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump, and White House counsel to discuss prison reform, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed at the daily press briefing. The reality star has been advocating for a pardon on behalf of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence without parole for a first-time nonviolent drug offense. Kardashian reportedly plans to ask Trump to pardon Johnson, 62, this afternoon.

In Oct. 2017, Mic published a video story featuring Johnson, who is more than 21 years into her life sentence at a federal prison in Aliceville, Ala. Kardashian West later told the publication that she came across the video on her Twitter feed and has been involved ever since, enlisting her attorney and corresponding with the White House in the hopes that senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, could persuade him to pardon Johnson.  in hopes of gaining a presidential pardon for Johnson.

"I’ve been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the president’s desk and figure out how we can get her out," Kardashian West told Mic. Johnson is serving a life sentence for her involvement in a drug conspiracy and clemency from the president is the only way for her to be released.

Kardashian West found an ally in the White House through Kushner, whose own father was incarcerated for 14 months for corruption charges. Kushner has been key in the First Step Act bipartisan prison bill, which overwhelmingly passed in the House last week. It includes guidelines to improve prison conditions and to reduce recidivism, though some Democrats and progressives have criticized the bill for not tackling sentencing reform. But it does contain some important measures, like the much overdue prevention of shackling pregnant woman and incarcerating individuals within 500 miles of their families. The bill also encourages participation in job-placement and drug-treatment programs and would offer some nonviolent offenders the opportunity to finish out their sentences in halfway houses or home confinement. It seems stalled in the Senate, however.

Trump has said that if the bill reaches his desk, he will sign it, during a prison reform White House summit earlier this month, which even featured the liberal activist Van Jones. Kushner says the First Step Act can open the door for sentencing reform, but former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder counters that the effort will curtail the momentum for sentencing reform because of it failure to address mandatory minimums and other harsh sentences, which are still on the books from the "tough on crime" era that ballooned the prison population.

When it comes to Johnson's case and sentence, which Kardashian West is advocating to change, it seems without sentencing reform, the First Step Act would have little effect on bringing Johnson home. And Johnson's sentence is not an outlier. The ACLU reports that more than 3,200 people are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for nonviolent drug and property crimes. Sixty-five percent of this population is black.

Will Kardashian West engage in a meaningful discussion with Trump and Kushner about this disparity? Likely not. She appears to be dialed in on Johnson's individual case. And while it is certainly noble and important to bring an individual home, single pardons don't transform a system that has a tendency to punish people for life, whether with life sentences or perpetual surveillance.

There is currently another campaign to pardon an individual inmate that is targeting the president's favorite channel, Fox News, to get his ear.

Bipartisan calls for @realDonaldTrump to commute sentence of Matthew Charles. @DanaPerino talks to fmr TN Judge @KevinHSharp about that today @ 2p, as well as the case of Alice Johnson and @KimKardashian's mtg w/ POTUS. https://t.co/nnQxoaBto9

— Jennifer Williams (@jeniontheblock) May 30, 2018

Judge Kevin Sharp on the calls for President Trump to commute the sentence of Matthew Charles: "Matthew Charles has done what we asked of him and he ought to be an example to others." #DailyBriefing @DanaPerino @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/97kg4lyJt9

— The Daily Briefing (@dailybriefing) May 30, 2018

Just last week, Trump announced his surprise posthumous pardon of African-American boxing legend Jack Johnson at the behest of Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone.

There is validity to thinking about and fighting for short-term and long-term goals when it comes to prison reform — including entertaining the power of celebrity to influence Trump. One can recognize that the system is broken and needs to be uprooted and revamped, while also acknowledging that more immediate resolutions are imperative to improving the lives and conditions of any of the 2.2 million people in prison. But both of these mindsets require an understanding of the system as a whole. Let's hope when Kardashian West meets Trump in the West Wing today, that's what she emphasizes.

from Salon https://ift.tt/2IXuZw9

Sarah Huckabee Sanders demands ABC apologize to President Trump for 4 jokes

Getty/Salon

President Donald Trump surprised virtually no one on Wednesday when he made the Roseanne Barr controversy about himself, tweeting his complaint that Disney CEO Bob Iger apologized to Valerie Jarrett for Barr's racist tweets — but failed to express a similar sense of remorse about jokes made about the president on Disney-owned networks. Now the White House has produced a laundry list of things that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders argued on Wednesday warrant an apology from Iger.

“Where was Bob Iger’s apology to the White House staff for Jemele Hill calling the president, and anyone associated with him, a white supremacist?” Sanders asked. “To Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness?”

She continued: “Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the president on ‘The View’ after a photo showed her holding president Trump’s decapitated head? And where was the apology from Bob Iger for ESPN hiring Keith Olbermann after his numerous expletive-laced tweets attacking the president as a Nazi?”

Sanders' response came during Wednesday's press briefing after she was asked why Trump's tweet hit Iger but didn't address Roseanne's tweet, which led to the cancellation of her hit ABC sitcom “Roseanne.”

In a tweet early Wednesday, the president acknowledged that Iger apologized to Jarrett, a top advisor to former President Barack Obama, after Barr called her a combination of the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.” However, Trump did not address the substance of what Barr tweeted or ABC’s decision to pull the plug on “Roseanne.” Instead, he noted that Iger never called him “to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC.”

"The president's simply calling out the media bias," Sanders explained. "No one's defending what she said."

On Tuesday, however, Sanders sidestepped questions from reporters during an Air Force One gaggle when asked about the president's opinion on the Roseanne controversy. She said the president has been "extremely focused" on the upcoming summit with North Korea and other matters, not Roseanne’s controversy.

"As you know the president has been extremely focused,” Sanders said. "Things going on with the upcoming summit, the president is focused on North Korea, he's focused on trade deals, he's focused on rebuilding our military our economy, that’s what he’s focused on, and not other things."

In the past, Trump has blasted programs on the network, including the hit sitcom "Black-ish" and has argued with the hosts of "The View" and late night host Jimmy Kimmel. "How is ABC Television allowed to have a show entitled 'Blackish'? Can you imagine the furor of a show, "Whiteish"! Racism at highest level?" he tweeted in 2014.

How is ABC Television allowed to have a show entitled "Blackish"? Can you imagine the furor of a show, "Whiteish"! Racism at highest level?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2014

from Salon https://ift.tt/2LM4Bmr

Asking for it: “Drag Race” winner Bianca Del Rio has questionable advice for you

Harper Collins

Surely common sense would dictate that the last person you'd want to ask for advice is an insult comic. Yet enough people sought Bianca Del Rio's questionable counsel for her to create a book full of terrible counsel, titled "Blame It on Bianca Del Rio: The Expert on Nothing with an Opinion on Everything."

Bianca, the alter-ego of Roy Haylock, channels the spirit of festive abuse perfected by the likes of the late Joan Rivers and the very much alive Lisa Lampanelli into a stage persona that resembles a clown version of Lucille Ball. After claiming the season six crown on "RuPaul's Drag Race," the performer has been touring non-stop in addition to creating two films, "Hurricane Bianca" and "Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia with Hate." Life post-"Drag Race" has kept the performer so busy that she's famously had to miss a few reunion events. "Drag Race" producers hired a clown to stand in for her in an episode featuring previous winners.

Writing a book is all but an inevitability under these circumstances. But an advice book? Why not.

"We live in a world where everybody's an expert," Del Rio says. "Everybody's doing a YouTube video. Everyone's doing a tutorial of what needs to happen. As I say in the book, Dr. Phil [McGraw] is this fucking swollen ass walrus who sits back and gives advice and he's not even a real doctor. I'm not a real woman. Who gives a shit?"

True. And thanks to the runaway success of "Drag Race," there's also a market for this kind of self-help literature, especially in the realm of parody. More people are viewing drag queens as boundless sources of inspiration thanks to the show's host, RuPaul Charles. Long before he brought his uplifting competition series to television, RuPaul embraced inspirational literature in his 1995 autobiography "Lettin' It All Hang Out," and he's since followed it up with "Workin' It," published a year following the inaugural season of "Drag Race" in 2009.

Del Rio, however, is very clear at the beginning of the book that the advice contained within should not be taken seriously. Plus, the letter writers are presumably in on the joke; she solicited letters while touring and through her fan site. Also, chapter titles such as "I Found a Lump (Health & Grooming)" and "People Who Hold Your Hair When You Vomit (Friendship)" pretty much establish the tongue-in-cheek nature of the content.

Just in case, though, the names of the respondents featured within were changed, and much of the content of the letters has been combined from multiple responses that were similar. Salon chatted with Del Rio on the phone about the book and whether she'll appear on the finale of season 10 of "Drag Race," currently airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. on VH1. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ince “Drag Race” first debuted, you’ve probably been busier than any other contestant. You've put out two underground movies, and it sounds like you’ve been perpetually touring. Now you have a book out. Did "Drag Race" propel you to this level of work, of output? Or is this something that has always been a part of you? Are you looking at other contestants and saying, “Come on, keep up”?

Work was always a part of my life. . . By the time “Drag Race” came around, it was very beneficial for me because I was 37 or 38. I thought, “Well let me take a chance.” It was my first audition, my first chance of venturing into it. If I wouldn't have gotten on the show, I wouldn't have auditioned again. And I wanted to quit drag at 40; I thought “It's been a good 20 years. This has been a lovely ride; I don't need to pursue it any further.”

Then it all changed. Once it happened, thanks to the power of television, I realized, this is it. This is my chance to run with it and do what I've always wanted to do. It wasn't like “Okay, now I'm going to calculate and make a movie.” We had something already on the burner and I was like, “Let's do it.” The fact that we could do a second one? “Let's go.”

I'm a yes person. I've been approached to do a book a couple times . . . Harper Collins was wonderful and they said “Do anything you want.” I'm like, “Okay, great.” They have faith in me, which is why I did the book. How often do you get these opportunities? As you were saying, there's 130 queens from “Drag Race” that have been on the show. It's really what you make of it. Now is not the time for me to sit back and say, “Oh, I'm tired.” You have to go out and hustle, which I love. I love the hustle of it.

You just brought up something interesting that goes with the concept of the book — and we’ll get to that in a moment. But a lot of the self-help and advice industry, which your book is lampooning, revolves around people who are thinking, “Oh, it's too late for me. How do I start over?” Our culture views middle age as an impasse. But I think that the actual story of your career is quite inspirational.

In theory, I have never been a person to sit back and think about the past or think about the struggle, or even bring it up 'cause sympathy is not part of my drag aesthetic. Things in life just happen and then you make the best of the situation and you keep moving.

...I didn't go, "I'm going on this show and I'm determined to win." I don't dream. I'm not a person who makes a list of things that need to happen in my life. It just evolves, and you roll with the punches. That's been my motto, just evolving with whatever's in front of me. All of it's a test. As long as I'm laughing, as long as I'm enjoying it, I'll keep on doing it. But, I don't plan to do this my entire life. I mean I don't want to be a 90 year old drag queen. I can't do that.

All right, on to the book. I've read the preface and everything that you said in terms of asking fans to send in letters. It does seem to me a little bit odd for an insult comic to be asked for advice.

I don't mean to be crass, but I hope you'll appreciate this: It’s almost like asking someone to kick you in the cootch or something.

When I was asked to write the book, I did not want to write a book about myself. I did not want to write anything that's too egotistical. It's far too ridiculous to say, "I'm a 42-year-old drag queen. Let me tell my story." No one gives a shit. If you're asking a 42-year-old drag queen about advice, then you deserve the ridiculous response I give you.

I think it stems from social media, 'cause I get a lot of questions I don't get to answer. A lot of people comment on a photo and ask, "What color is that lipstick?" Or, "What brand of eyelash is that?" Or, "Why were you born?" All these questions I thought should be addressed in a certain way. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to be fun and also exploit the ridiculousness of self-help. This is a perfect set up for me, without going into serious relationship issues or anything about my life. No one cares. No one wants to read that.

Do you think that the way people approach drag queens has changed since “Drag Race” started airing? Specifically, I’m referring to the stories of overcoming hardship that are revealed in the work room. Have you found that people look at drag queens as these fonts of wisdom nowadays more than they did before the show became a hit?

With “Drag Race,” there's good and bad. Obviously, it's changed my life and gave me the opportunity to do the things that I'm doing now. For that, I'm eternally grateful. But on the other end, there's the other side of it that's really annoying.

As I said, it's specifically not part of my drag aesthetic, and it's one of the reasons why I never thought I was gonna win because I didn't have this ridiculous story of abuse and neglect. That's lovely, but that's never come up in a conversation in a dressing room with me and other drag queens.

You get to a point with a reality show where it gets a little blurred. It's very hard for me to watch occasionally, because I either know the queen already and I'm like, "Oh, why's she going down that tunnel?" It's the type of thing that it puts me off in general, because I know that's not life. That shouldn't have anything to do with what you're doing on stage. We're men in wigs, for Christ's sake. It's not that serious.

It's great that it's bringing drag to people's televisions and into people's living rooms. The downside of it is that I don't want sympathy, and I don't want people feeling bad for me. It's like, don't feel bad. Celebrate your life and have a great time. But, I do understand the television aspect of it.

The one thing that is great about it is that it humanizes drag queens. I think a lot of people were afraid of drag queens in the past, or thought we were all just hateful, catty bitches 24/7. So it does humanize us to an extent. I just don't feel it should go that far all the time.

Are you watching this current round?

No! I've caught a couple of episodes. But I'm not home enough to catch up with it. Now that [it's] on VH1, it's challenging, 'cause if you're traveling and you're in a hotel room and you're trying to catch the episode, they don't always have the channel.

And, especially in my off time, the last thing I wanna do is watch “Drag Race.” Drag queens in HD. I can't! I can't do it. Not in my off time! I don't wanna look at makeup or lashes or wigs. I want a glass of wine and an Ambien.

So no, I haven't kept up with it. But nowadays, you don't even have to watch it. You just watch social media, and they tell you basically everything that's going on.

Are you going to appear in the finale?

No. I'm not in town. I'm in Norway the week that they're filming that. I'm not gonna be there. This season I was able to make a cameo on an episode. But it wasn't because they haven't asked. It's usually just a scheduling issue, and being in L.A. long enough to film it 'cause they film everything close together, and the finale is filmed separately. They're filming it in a couple of weeks, 'cause they're narrowing it down on the show. But I won't be here in America.

Okay, so are they going to walk a clown down the runway in your place again?

Maybe. Maybe. The funny thing was with that, it was fascinating because a lot of people on social media were being negative and saying how disrespectful I was. But I was called two weeks before. At the time I was filming the first movie, in shoots in Texas. I can't let 100 people who are working on the crew down to fly back to L.A. for one day to do one bit and come back. It didn't make sense. That's what happened with that.

They've been trying to get me back for a while, and we were able to work it out this past season, on season 10. Sometimes, it's just planning.

But I loved the clown! That was better than me being there.

I'm gonna walk back to my initial estimation of you. I think you actually are a good person to get advice from.

It's true, because I think there is a lot of truth in what I do. I think truth is in comedy. Something that's really funny is always truthful. I have no filter.

"Salon Talks": RuPaul

The beloved actor, drag performer and producer of "RuPaul's Drag Race" talks about the importance of finding your tribe

from Salon https://ift.tt/2L7DfWL

Mercedes Schlapp lashed out at “b*tch” staffer Kelly Sadler during White House showdown: report

Getty Images/Salon

This article originally appeared on Raw Story

Many scandals ago, White House aide Kelly Sadler made a controversial and insensitive joke about Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that made its way to the press — but it still haunts staffers as the Trump administration’s war on leakers rages on.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that in a recent meeting with President Donald Trump, Sadler claimed Mercedes Schlapp, the White House director of strategic communications, was the source of the administration’s leak problems. According to two of the Beast’s sources, Schlapp was offended and “heated” by the accusation, and called Sadler a “b*itch.”

In a statement to the website, the communications aide said she has “never used that word to describe anyone on the White House staff.”

“This smear by anonymous sources is not fit for print by any reputable news outlet,” Schlapp told the Beast. “The leakers should be more concerned about promoting the president’s agenda than trying to take down fellow members of the team.”

“Whether or not an epithet was used, for some inside the administration, is of secondary concern,” the report noted. “Far more important was the chaos that the episode illuminated about the state of the president’s communications staff.”

Top Trending

Check out the major news stories of the day

from Salon https://ift.tt/2JjYiIv

Bob Corker showed up to Donald Trump’s Nashville rally and got booed by a hometown crowd

Getty Images/Photo montage by Salon

When President Donald Trump mentioned Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., at a rally on Tuesday, the crowd began to boo their own incumbent legislator.

Tennessee crowd boos Corker when Trump shouts out his name; cheers adoringly when he introduces Marsha Blackburn. Corker is in the arena sitting stage left. (Video also includes booing of "fake news") pic.twitter.com/ewvy9fccXC

— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) May 30, 2018

"That's a lot of people back there! That's a lot of people! Fake news!" Trump orated at a rally in Nashville on Tuesday. The crowd was loudly booing as Trump described the reporters who were there to cover the event, although that subsided when he mentioned the name of one of their incumbent senators, Lamar Alexander.

Then he mentioned the other incumbent senator, Bob Corker, who was greeted with a cacophony of boos. Trump did not stand up for the Senator, instead proceeding to complete his remarks introducing Blackburn.

"And finally the person we are all here tonight to support, the next United States Senator from the great state of Tennessee, a very, very early supporter of ours and a really wonderful woman. She loves your state. She loves your country. She's going to win. Marsha Blackburn," Trump told the cheering crowd.

The booing was most likely due to Corker's ongoing feud with the president. Most conspicuously, Corker and Trump butted heads in October after Trump posted a series of tweets criticizing the Tennessee senator for his opposition to aspects of the president's policy agenda.

"Senator Bob Corker 'begged' me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said 'NO' and he dropped out (said he could not win without ... my endorsement). He also wanted to be Secretary of State, I said 'NO THANKS.' He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal! Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run!" Trump wrote in a series of three tweets.

Corker responded with only a single tweet, albeit one that proved devastatingly memorable.

"It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning," Corker wrote.

Earlier that year, Corker had also harshly criticized Trump for saying that there was blame on "both sides" at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where one anti-racist protester had been murdered.

"The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence, that he needs to demonstrate in order for him to be successful — and our nation and our world needs for him to be successful, whether you are Republican or Democrat," Corker told a Rotary Club meeting in Chattanooga in August, according to The Tennesseean.

Corker had added, "He also recently has not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation. He has not demonstrated that he understands what has made this nation great and what it is today. And he’s got to demonstrate the characteristics of a president who understands that. Without the things I just mentioned happening, our nation is going to go through great peril."

Although Corker has insisted that his opposition to Trump did not play a role in his decision to not to run for reelection this year (and he had previously stated that he only wanted to serve in the Senate for two terms), in April the Tennesseean was unwilling to definitively state whether he still would have voted for Trump in 2016 had he known then what he knows now about the president, according to The Washington Post.

"I just don’t have any desire to make news. So I’ll leave it at that," Corker finally answered after expressing uncertainty over the matter for four days.

During the Nashville rally, Trump focused on attacking Phil Bredesen, the former Tennessee governor who will be running against Blackburn in November.

"He’s an absolute, total tool of Chuck Schumer and of course the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi," Trump told the excited audience about Bredesen, who he also pointed out gave money to and endorsed Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign.

"If Bredesen were ever to get elected, he would do whatever Chuck and Nancy — remember the term, 'Chuck and Nancy?' They don't want the wall, they want open borders, they're more interested in taking care of criminals than they are of taking care of you — Bredesen donated a lot of money to the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton," Trump told the alternately cheering and booing crowd, according to CNN.

Ironically, the issue of public booing has also impacted one of Trump's closest allies this week.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was subjected to boos when his birthday was mentioned at Yankees Stadium over the weekend, a reflection of Giuliani's controversial defenses of Trump in his new capacity as one of the president's lawyers. Even some of Trump's fellow Republicans have been distancing themselves from the president, expressing a willingness to support his policy agenda while disapproving of his personal behavior.

" I don't consider the president a role model for my kids. I don’t want my kids to speak the way he speaks or make some of the choices, and it has been the challenge for quite a bit of time to say, how do you balance this out between policy and personal behavior in the way he has his own unique style," Sen. James Lankford, R-Ok., told MSNBC in an interview published on Sunday.

He added, "I don’t speak that way. I don’t tweet that way. I don’t interact with people that way. I don’t treat my staff the way that he treats his staff. But that is who the American people selected, and that’s who we are going to be able to work with."

It must be remembered that, although Republicans like Corker and Lankford have spoken out against the president, they have not gone so far as to oppose him on most matters of ideological substance. Indeed, even though Corker was initially critical of the president's signature tax reform bill, he ultimately switched his vote at the last second and voted for it (a move that his critics alleged was motivated by the inclusion in the bill of a provision that would personally enrich Corker, although he denies there was any connection between that and his change of vote).

Charlie Sykes: The GOP is "in the thrall of the NRA"

A discussion about the one group that the GOP dares not oppose (for some reason), the NRA.

from Salon https://ift.tt/2J2VQmv