#Virginia Bruni

[ivanreycristo]

Hoy me recuerda GOOGLE FOTOS fotos de hace 8 años [31_12_14] en SEVILLA..como con una furgoneta de ENVIOS URGENTES "NACE_X" la competencia de SEUR [cuyo fundador PEDRO CORTES era delegado de la SELECCION ESPAÑOLA cuando me lo CRUZE en el HOTEL COLON donde estaban concentrados para jugar contra BOLIVIA=LA PAZ..y al q ex de SHAKIRA o Gerad PIQUE "BERNABEU" escupió x la ESPALDA en el BUS de CELEBRACION d la Eurocopa'08..y el día antes o 29_5_14 me fotografie con CAPARROS en bar SAN ELOY al q le salió LEUCEMIA y q hizo debutar al malogrado PUERTA q tenía con 22 años a su novia embarazada de 42 años con camiseta de GSUS=JESUS..x lo q pienso q es un SIGNO O SEÑAL de q dejare EMBARAZADA a la VIRGEN]..

..luego en el AYUNTA_MIENTO de SEVILLA donde velaron el 20_11_14 a la Duquesa de ALBA cuando vi a Sergio D_ALMA firmar su directo YO ESTUVE AHI [grabado en plaza toros de MADRID] sobre su cd CADORE 33 y q tiene por éxito ESA CHICA ES MIA

Después a CARLA BRUNI o mujer de SARKOZY a la q en su LUNA DE MIEL en EGYPTO la llamaron PROSTITUTA o lo q me parece la MUJER DE OCCIDENTE o del SEXO COMO UN PODER O TESORO..frente a la tienda MAESTRIA o lo q tiene un MAESTRO [=VIRGINIA] q es como llaman a un TORTURADOR Y MATADOR DE TOROS

AL DIA SIGUIENTE O ESA MADRUGADA DE AÑO NUEVO q lo pase en el LONG ROCK [q descubrí 13 días antes tras ver en pabellon SAN PABLO a BUNBURY=1er grupo APOCALIPSIS..en su gira del cd PALOSANTO q grabó en DVD en Madrid como AREA 51: EN UN SOLO ACTO DE DESTRUCCION MASIVA]..en la Iglesia del DIVINO SALVADOR

..y un vestido de NOVIA con MERRY CHRISTMAS

[askfashionisto]

The seasonal recurrence obliges, the coastal city hosts the most famous of the events of the Seventh Art. With nearly 700 distinguished guests gathered by the industry cinemadaily movie presentations, social evenings and a Red carpet star, the Cannes Film Festival 2022 It has nothing to envy to previous years. Submitted and closed by virginia efiradesignated as master of ceremonies this year, this glamorous event is an opportunity to receive several personalities, gathered in turn in this very Red carpet. Carla Bruni, Eva Longoria, Bérénice Bejo, Emily Ratajkowski, Kristen Stewart, Marion Cotillard, but also in general, tom cruise, Romain Duris on the side of the fair sex… The stars responded to the call of the sirens of the Palais des Festivals. Yet, among all the celebrities, sophie-marceau It was without a doubt the most anticipated. And as usual, the 55-year-old French actress did not stop making the photographers' flashes crackle during the traditional photo call Cannes. Sophie Marceau at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival What would be the cannes film festival without the presence ofFrance's Favorite Actress ? Obviously it is not what it is. Thus, in order not to break the protocol, the star revealed in Party -the two-part mini saga that launched her acting career at the age of 14, once again climbed the legendary steps this May 24, 2022. Radiant as always, she is with Amira Casar (The truth if I lie)from Juan DujardinMélanie Laurent, Anne Parillaud and Niels Schneider, who sophie-marceau stormed the red carpet at Cannes. If she came to attend the premiere of the film. The innocent directed by Louis Garrel, it is precisely her evening dress that is the pretext to draw attention to the radiant fifties. Sophie Marceau: in a red jumpsuit on the red carpet at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival Aside from thirtysomething models Bella Hadid and Cara Delevingne, sophie-marceau has confirmed its status as a fashion icon for the umpteenth time. And rightfully so, the director's protégé Liza Azuelos with whom she collaborated on LOL and i love america, sophie-marceau become a combination vermilion red bustier, perfect in every way for her X-morphology. A perfect fashion jumpsuit for Sophie Marceau's X shape Undoubtedly the most coveted morphological signature, the X-shaped or "hourglass morpho" sculpted by Sophie Marceau and many other women, is distinguished by an alignment of the shoulders and hips, as well as a marked waist. Thus, to enhance the body characteristics of the French actress, her team of stylists opted for a steamy passion red jumpsuitso that Sophie Maupu, her real name, electrifies the the croisette. Coordinate to a layer and Cartier jewels, this jumpsuit pants He definitely has everything to please. between a perfect fit at the waistand flared throughout the legs, as well as a strapless neckline that highlights Sophie Marceau's shoulder set, all elements come together to flatter the morphological assets of the talented brunette. Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci in red, at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival A look reminiscent of climbing the steps of sophie-marceau and Italian actress Monica Bellucci on May 16, 2009, during which the two celebrities, all of them Red dresses, gathered for the presentation of the film do not look back. Proof that the Redis and will continue to be star color of the stars. Also read: (function() var _fbq = window._fbq )(); window._fbq = window._fbq || []; window._fbq.push(["track", "PixelInitialized", ]);

[athingcalledbliss]

Stacy Koren by Laura Chia for Golden Sunset Blanc Magazine

#fashion editorial #fashion photography #editorial #blanc magazine #laura chia #stacy koren #Offbeat Barcelona #blow models barcelona #Iria Salgado #Virginia Bruni

[corallorosso]

Elezioni amministrative, le donne hanno già perso: solo 30 candidate sindache su 162 nelle venti città capoluogo. Zero sostenute dal Pd Poche, praticamente inesistenti, quasi mai nella rosa degli eleggibili (salvo una rarissima eccezione). A poco più di una settimana dalle elezioni amministrative c’è già una sconfitta certa: quella delle aspiranti sindache. E non c’entrano le preferenze degli elettori: non solo le donne sono destinate a perdere quasi ovunque, ma neppure sono mai state ammesse al tavolo della partita. A decretarlo sono i numeri: se si guardano i 6 capoluoghi di Regione che vanno al voto sono appena 18 su 73 candidati, che diventano appena 30 su 162 se consideriamo anche gli altri 14 capoluoghi di Provincia. Non è una sorpresa, se mai una conferma. Ma la notizia è che neanche in questa tornata la partecipazione del 51 per cento della popolazione è aumentata, anzi se possibile il quadro è peggiorato. Cosa è successo? Niente. Semplicemente i principali partiti politici, quegli stessi che ogni giorno riempiono comunicati stampa e televisioni con proclami per la parità, non hanno cambiato niente nella selezione della classe dirigente. Non lo ha fatto il Partito democratico di Enrico Letta: il Pd vanta zero candidate donne nelle principali città. Zero. Ma le cose non vanno meglio neanche nel centrodestra, dove invece negli ultimi anni abbiamo visto più donne ricoprire ruoli di vertice (una per tutti Giorgia Meloni): c’è una candidata per Fdi e Lega a Benevento, ma non rappresenta neppure tutta la coalizione di centrodestra e sfiderà il sindaco uscente Mastella. Ce n’è un’altra a Carbonia in Sardegna, ma non è tra le favorite (boicottata anche dai partiti pro Solinas). In questo quadro di immobilismo totale, c’è un’unica eccezione: il M5s ha candidato 7 donne ed è del M5s l’unica sindaca (Virginia Raggi a Roma) che può giocarsi la partita con i colleghi uomini. L’altra eccezione, estranea però a questa “classifica”, è la candidata di Pd e M5s per la Regione Calabria: i giallorossi sostengono Amalia Bruni. Lo squilibrio, al di là di qualsiasi fede o appartenenza politica, è palese a tutti, ma non esiste dibattito pubblico che abbia chiesto spiegazioni o sollecitato messe in discussione. (...) Ebbene non solo su 162 candidati, solo 30 sono donne, ma nella maggior parte dei casi si tratta di candidate di partiti minori. I 5 stelle, formazione relativamente giovane, va in direzione opposta: si presenta in 18 dei 20 Comuni considerati, ma ha 7 candidate sindache. E tre di queste corrono nelle competizioni più importanti di questa tornata elettorale: Valentina Sganga a Torino, Virginia Raggi a Roma e Layla Pavone a Milano. Le altre si presentano a Cosenza (Bianca Rende), Rimini (Gloria Lisi), Trieste (Alessandra Richetti) e Salerno (Elisabetta Barone). (...) Allora chi ha candidato le donne? Potere al popolo, partito di sinistra, ne sostiene quattro: Marta Collot a Bologna, l’ex assessora di De Magistris Alessandra Clemente a Napoli, Elisabetta Canitano a Roma, Bianca Tedone a Milano. Poi Italexit sostiene Veronica Verlicchi a Ravenna; Sinistra Unita candida l’ex M5s Dora Palumbo a Bologna e Tiziana Cimolino a Trieste con i Verdi; nella Capitale il Partito Comunista schiera Micaela Quintavalle e il Partito Comunista Italiano Cristina Cirillo. Corre per il Partito Comunista a Torino Greta Giusi Di Cristina. Seguono candidate di varie liste civiche, nessuna delle quali è sostenuta dai principali partiti politici nazionali (né di destra, né di sinistra) (...) Segnatevi i nomi perché, di molte di loro, a fatica sentirete parlare dopo il primo turno elettorale. (...) “I partiti continuano a perpetuare l’immagine di un mondo maschile” ... “con candidature femminili sempre in posizioni penalizzanti e decisioni che si prendono la sera tardi, magari all’ora dell’aperitivo quando molte donne devono essere a casa”. Lo dicono i ricercatori, lo rendono ancora più evidente i dati: tra donne e politica è come se ci fosse un muro e al momento sembra ancora impossibile valicarlo. di Martina Castigliani

[metalmagazine]

Daniela Salerno Ruiz & Virginia Bruni for METAL. https://ift.tt/3yzCpee https://ift.tt/3qTIVK6

#metalmagazine

[pauline-lewis]

That's when she said she'd never blink again

Hier j’ai regardé Nénette et Boni de Claire Denis, c’est un film qui parle d’un frère et d’une sœur et de leurs relations compliquées (bon ça parle de beaucoup plus que ça mais je résume). À un moment dans le film, il y a cette boulangère et son mari (joués par Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi et Vincent Gallo) qui se retrouvent à danser chez eux. La scène est illustrée par la chanson Tiny Tears de Tindersticks. Ils dansent tous les deux et la caméra est très près de leurs sourires, elle ondule avec la musique, elle s’attarde sur le visage de Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi et sur les épaules de Vincent Gallo. Cette scène est comme suspendue au milieu de ce film par ailleurs assez sombre, violents par moments. C’est une petite poche de tendresse et d’érotisme. J’adore dans les films quand l’action, d’un coup, est mise sur pause, que la musique arrive, que plus rien n’a d’importance que la beauté du moment. Comme dans Lost Highway de David Lynch quand Patricia Arquette sort de la voiture sur une reprise de This Magic Moment par Lou Reed. Il n’y a alors rien à faire que de la trouver belle et de voir toutes les manières dont le mouvement de ses bras épouse parfaitement la musique.

[Et comme je n’ai pas trouvé la scène de danse, voilà une autre très belle séquence qui fera l’affaire]

Ça faisait quelques temps que je n’ai pas écrit ici mais je continuais à écrire ces petits textes dans ma tête, après avoir vu un film ou écouté une chanson ou lu une page. Ça me suffisait. Les matins je me suis levée plus tôt dans la pénombre de novembre pour essayer de raconter une histoire qui glissait entre mes propres doigts. J’ai regardé par la fenêtre en écoutant Lee Hazlewood et en essayant de trouver en moi, aussi, ces petites poches de beauté. J’ai essayé de compter les mots, j’ai envoyé balader la productivité, j’ai fait le tri, j’ai continué. J’ai démêlé les mots du travail et les mots qui sont nés et ont grandi en moi entre 1986 et 2020. Les mots qui sont là même si je n’ai aucune raison de les écrire. And in the end, we’ll see.

Et puis en regardant Nénette et Boni je me suis dit que j’allais faire cela ici. Parler des petits moments qui ont fait clic. Pour le reste, on verra.

A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell et Emeric Pressburger)

 J’ai vu une partie des films de Powell et Pressburger et j’admets que A Canterbury Tale est peut-être le plus mineur. Pourtant il m’a beaucoup touchée, peut-être majoritairement à cause de son héroïne et de la force de son regard. Le film se déroule pendant la guerre et il raconte l’histoire de deux sergents et d’une jeune femme (anciennement employée dans un grand magasin de Londres) qui se retrouvent par hasard à la campagne et décident d’enquêter sur un mystérieux individu qui s’attaque aux femmes la nuit en leur versant de la colle sur les cheveux. Ce pitch extrêmement bizarre donne lieu à une réflexion assez douce et mélancolique sur le temps qui passe, sur ce que nous gardons de ceux et celles qui ont été là avant nous et aussi sur l’amitié et les liens que nous tissons. Avec toujours cette petite touche méta sur notre propre rapport à l’art et au cinéma.

Et donc il y a cette scène un peu magique dans le film où la jeune femme se retrouve seule, couchée dans l’herbe, avec l’un de ses suspects. Ensemble, ils parlent du passé, de vivre à la campagne, d’aligner sa vie avec ce que l’on a à l’intérieur. Le dialogue est sublime mais aussi la manière dont ils sont filmés près du sol, avec leurs deux visages tournés vers un ailleurs que l’on se met à imaginer avec eux. Depuis cette scène vit avec moi, quand je rêvasse moi aussi de tourner mon regard vers un ailleurs plus familier.

La chaleur de Bertrand Belin

 J’ai déjà parlé mille fois du fait que j’avais besoin de revenir à certains disques, peut-être par nostalgie ou peut-être juste parce que j’ai un sens aigu de la fidélité. Un jour comme ça je me suis mise à repenser à la chanson de Bertrand Belin La chaleur qui figure sur l’album Hypernuit, qui par ailleurs est très beau dans son entièreté.

Cette chanson renferme, comme son titre l’indique, beaucoup de chaleur. J’ai regardé plusieurs fois cette vidéo dans laquelle Bertrand Belin la chante avec une vue sur la mer. Le texte est composé de fragments qui se complètent et d’un coup se libèrent avec ce refrain/ritournelle

Un jour arrivera Où nous arriverons À voyager léger Courage, avançons Un jour arrivera Où nous arriverons

Peut-être qu’il n’est pas nécessaire d’expliciter pourquoi ce passage m’a touchée mais depuis quelques semaines cette chanson est devenue mon petit moment suspendu de film, disponible quand j’en ai besoin. Je la mets dans mon casque et j’essaie d’oublier tout ce qui se passe, je me déconnecte, j’imagine que j’ai cinq minutes de film et que plus rien n’a d’importance. Et ça me fait du bien de me dire, même si je rêve, qu’un jour nous y arriverons.

La vie seule de Stella Benson

Les éditions Cambourakis m’ont envoyé ce très joli roman vraiment très singulier de Stella Benson (une autrice anglaise contemporaine de Virginia Woolf), traduit par Leslie de Bont. C’est difficile de le résumer parce qu’il mêle pas mal de choses : la guerre (le livre paraît en 1919), une histoire de sorcières, l’émancipation d’une femme, une pension où s’entremêlent des solitudes… Il y a un mélange entre le sérieux et l’humour et la légèreté que je trouve vraiment très réussi et qui m’a aussi aidée dans cette période où tout me semble si lourd.

Et donc, à un moment il y a ce petit passage qui m’a vraiment bouleversée et je suis toujours fascinée par la capacité qu’ont les mots de traverser les décennies pour toucher leur cible en plein cœur (vous me direz que c’est bien là le principe de la littérature et oui, bien évidemment) :

« Bon, je ne pourrai pas vous affirmer avec certitude que la sorcière avait ajouté dans les sandwichs le contenu de ses petits sachets de magie. Sarah Brown aurait été très réceptive à ce genre de produits car son esprit était toujours à deux doigts de l’égarement. Comme elle n’était probablement qu’une demi-femme, une demi-joie suffisait à faire chavirer son cœur et un demi-chagrin pouvait facilement le briser. Elle était sans défense contre ses impressions, et quand on a trop d’impressions, cela fatigue le cœur. »

On the rocks (Sofia Coppola)

J’ai vu beaucoup de critiques négatives du nouveau film de Sofia Coppola que j’ai personnellement apprécié dans sa simplicité. L’histoire d’une femme dont le père est riche qui se met en tête que son mari la trompe. Ensemble, père et fille vont enquêter dans un New York de privilégiés pour découvrir la vérité. J’ai été vraiment touchée par cette relation dans toute son invraisemblance et par le personnage de Bill Murray avec tout ce qu’il a d’aimable, de grandiloquent et par là-même d’agaçant. Comme je voulais parler des petits moments, il y a une scène où ils sont tous les deux dans une décapotable, Sofia Coppola filme l’arrière de la voiture et il y a quelque chose dans cette course un peu vaine qui m’a émue jusqu’aux larmes. On est sensibles en ce moment, non ?

#Nénette et Boni #Tindersticks #On the rocks #Stella Benson #Bertrand Belin

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Happy Public Domain day: for real, for the first time in 20 years!

Every year, Jennifer Jenkins and Jamie Boyle from the Duke Center for the Public Domain compile a "Public Domain Day" list (previously) that highlights the works that are not entering the public domain in America, thanks to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which hit the pause button on Americans' ability to freely use their artistic treasures for two decades -- a list that also included the notable works entering the public domain in more sensible countries of the Anglophere, like Canada and the UK, where copyright "only" lasted for 50 years after the author's death.

But this year, it's different.

This is the year that America unpauses its public domain; it's also the year that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau capitulated to Donald Trump and retroactively extended copyright on works in Canada for an extra 20 years, ripping works out of Canada's public domain, making new works based on them into illegal art (more proof that good hair and good pecs don't qualify you to be a good leader -- see also: V. Putin -- not even when paired with high-flying, cheap rhetoric).

Even as Canada's public domain has radically contracted, America's has, for the first, time, opened.

So this year's American Public Domain Day List is, for the first time in 20 years, not a work melancholy alternate history, but rather a celebration of works that Americans are newly given access to without restriction or payment, for free re-use and adaptation, in the spirit of such classics as Snow White, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, All You Need is Love, and more (More than 1,000 in all, summarized in this handy spreadsheet -- thanks Gary!).

Films * Safety Last!, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, featuring Harold Lloyd * The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille * The Pilgrim, directed by Charlie Chaplin * Our Hospitality, directed by Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone * The Covered Wagon, directed by James Cruze * Scaramouche, directed by Rex Ingram

Books * Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Golden Lion * Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links * Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis * e.e. cummings, Tulips and Chimneys * Robert Frost, New Hampshire * Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet * Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay * D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo * Bertrand and Dora Russell, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization * Carl Sandberg, Rootabaga Pigeons * Edith Wharton, A Son at the Front * P.G. Wodehouse, works including The Inimitable Jeeves and Leave it to Psmith * Viginia Woolf, Jacob's Room

Music * Yes! We Have No Bananas, w.&m. Frank Silver & Irving Cohn * Charleston, w.&m. Cecil Mack & James P. Johnson * London Calling! (musical), by Noel Coward * Who’s Sorry Now, w. Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby, m. Ted Snyder * Songs by “Jelly Roll” Morton including Grandpa’s Spells, The Pearls, and Wolverine Blues (w. Benjamin F. Spikes & John C. Spikes; m. Ferd “Jelly Roll” Morton) * Works by Bela Bartok including the Violin Sonata No. 1 and the Violin Sonata No. 2 * Tin Roof Blues, m. Leon Roppolo, Paul Mares, George Brunies, Mel Stitzel, & Benny Pollack (There were also compositions from 1923 by other well-known artists including Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, WC Handy, Oscar Hammerstein, Gustav Holst, Al Jolson, Jerome Kern, and John Phillip Sousa; though their most famous works were from other years.)

And as great as that list is, it's hardly a patch on the amazing works we'd be inheriting if the Sonny Bono law hadn't been passed and the 1978 law was still on the books -- works whose authors fully expected them to be in the public domain as of tomorrow:

Books * Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time * Rachel Carson, Silent Spring * Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August * Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools * James Baldwin, Another Country * Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle * Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions * Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire * Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange * Michael Harrington, The Other America * Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom * J.G. Ballard, The Drowned World * Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes * Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest * Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich * Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook * Helen Gurley Brown, Sex and the Single Girl * Ingri d’Aulaire and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

Movies * Lawrence of Arabia * The Longest Day * The Manchurian Candidate * Dr. No * Jules and Jim * Sanjuro * Birdman of Alcatraz * Mutiny on the Bounty * Days of Wine and Roses * How the West Was Won

Music * Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), by Cindy Walker, performed by Roy Orbison * Blowin’ in the Wind, Bob Dylan * Watermelon Man, Herbie Hancock (from his first album, Takin’ Off) * Twistin’ the Night Away, Sam Cooke * You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover and You Shook Me, Willie Dixon * Surfin’ Safari, The Beach Boys * Songs from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Stephen Sondheim * Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), Cindy Walker * Big Girls Don’t Cry, Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio * Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield * Little Boxes, Malvina Reynolds * The Loco-Motion, Gerry Goffin and Carole King * Soldier Boy, Luther Dixon and Florence Greenberg

And, as Jenkins and Boyle point out, the largely hidden casualty of copyright term extension is the scholarship and research published in academic journals, who paid nothing for these works, and who have locked them up for decades to come:

https://boingboing.net/2018/12/31/thanks-justin.html

[classicfilmfan64]

Screen captures from NOT AS A STRANGER, 1955.

 Seen here is Lee Marvin, in a small role, he was not yet a star, with Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra, Carl 'ALFALFA' Switzer, as an adult, in a :15 long cameo, and Jesse White, Charles Bickford, and Olivia DeHavilland. This film is loaded with character actors, in small, often very short cameo roles.

Olivia de Havilland as Kristina Hedvigson

Robert Mitchum as Dr. Lucas Marsh

Frank Sinatra as Alfred Boone

Gloria Grahame as Harriet Lang

Broderick Crawford as Dr. Aarons

Charles Bickford as Dr. Dave W. Runkleman

Myron McCormick as Dr. Clem Snider

Lon Chaney, Jr. as Job Marsh

Jesse White as Ben Cosgrove

Harry Morgan as Oley

Lee Marvin as Brundage

Eve McVeagh as Mrs. Ferris

Mae Clarke as Nurse Odell

Whit Bissell as Dr. Dietrich

Virginia Christine as Bruni

Stafford Repp as Orientation Doctor (uncredited)

Jerry Paris as Thompson

Herb Vigran as Lou, Pharmaceutical Salesman (uncredited)

'Not as a Stranger is a 1955 American film noir drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra, and based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Morton Thompson. The romantic hospital melodrama novel was widely popular, topping that year's list of bestselling novels in the United States. The film was Kramer's directorial debut.'

[pope-francis-quotes]

4th May >> (@ZenitEnglish By Deborah Castellano Lubov) #PopeFrancis #Pope Francis During #Pandemic, #PopeFrancis Prays for #Families Closed Up in Homes, Decries #DomesticViolence (Full Text)

During Pandemic, Pope Prays for Families Closed Up in Homes, Decries Domestic Violence (FULL TEXT)

During Morning Mass, Reminds Jesus Died for Everyone

MAY 04, 2020 13:51DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOVPOPE AND HOLY SEE, POPE'S MORNING HOMILY

During this global pandemic, Pope Francis has prayed especially for families closed up in their homes, and victims of domestic violence.

Today, May 4th, Pope Francis made this intention during his private daily Mass at his residence Casa Santa Marta, reported Vatican News.

At the start of the Mass, while remembering all victims of Coronavirus, the Argentine Pontiff recognized that in this period families are having to do things they never have had to do in the past. He also lamented domestic violence that plagues households.

“Let us pray,” the Pope said, “for families, that they might persevere in peace with creativity and patience during this quarantine”.

During his homily, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of unity despite differences, inspired by two elements of today’s readings: the story of the criticism of St Peter by the early Church for eating with sinners, and the message of Jesus in the Gospel, “I am the shepherd of all.”

Recalling today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, and when the Christian community in Jerusalem reproached St Peter for eating with pagans, Francis expressed that this represents an example of the many divisions that we find in the early years of the Church.

The Pontiff lamented that this spirit of division leads us to divide people between the righteous and sinners, between “us” and “them.”

“Jesus,” Francis underscored, “died for everyone.”

This means, he highlighted, that we cannot divide and exclude others, in a way Jesus did not.

Pope Francis invited us to pray for the unity of all men and all women, that there might be one sole Shepherd, one sole Pastor.

“May the Lord free us from that psychology of division,” he concluded, praying. “May He help see this aspect, this great reality about Jesus: that in Him we are all brothers and sisters and He is the Shepherd of all.”

“The word for today is: ‘Everyone, everyone!'”

The Pope ended the celebration with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction, inviting the faithful to make a Spiritual Communion.

The Masses in Francis’ chapel normally welcome a small group of faithful, but due to recent measures’ taken by the Vatican, are now being kept private, without their participation. The Holy Week and Easter celebrations in the Vatican were also done without the presence of faithful, but were able to be watched via streaming.

It was announced at the start of the lockdowns in Italy that the Pope would have these Masses, in this period, be available to all the world’s faithful, via streaming on Vatican Media, on weekdays, at 7 am Rome time, along with his weekly Angelus and General Audiences.

Today, May 4th, the country entered its so-called ‘Phase 2’, where it will slowly relaxing some of the lockdown restrictions.

In Italy where more than 26,000 people have died from coronavirus, public Masses are still prohibited. To date, in the Vatican, there have been eleven cases of coronavirus in the Vatican, confirmed a recent statement from the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni.

The Vatican Museums are closed, along with the Vatican’s other similar museums. There have also been various guidelines implemented throughout the Vatican, to prevent the spread of the virus.

For anyone interested, the Pope’s Masses at Santa Marta can be watched live and can be watched afterward on Vatican YouTube. Below is a link to today’s Mass. Also, a ZENIT English translation of the Pope’s full homily is available below:

***

***

FULL HOMILY [Working translation by ZENIT’s Virginia Forrester]

When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the faithful criticized him (Cf. Acts 11:1-8). They criticized him because he went into the homes of men who weren’t circumcised and ate together with them, with pagans. That couldn’t be done; it was a sin. The purity of the Law didn’t allow this. However, Peter did it because it was the Spirit that brought him there. There is always in the Church — and a lot in the early Church because the thing wasn’t clear — this spirit of “we are just, the others <are> sinners.” This “we and the others,” “we and the others,” — <creates> divisions. “We, in fact, have the right position before God.” Instead, there are “the others,” it was even said already: “They are the condemned.” And this is a sickness of the Church, a sickness born of ideologies or of religious parties … Think that in Jesus’ time there were at least four religious parties: the party of the Pharisees, the party of the Sadducees, the party of the Zealots and the party of the Essenes, and each one interpreted the Law according to “the idea” it had. And this idea is a school “outside-law” when it is a worldly way of thinking, of feeling that makes itself interpreter of the Law. They also criticized Jesus for entering into the home of publicans — who, according to them, were sinners – and ate with them, with sinners, because the purity of the Law didn’t allow it; and they didn’t wash their hands before lunch . . . always that criticism that causes division: this is what is important, which I would like to underscore.

There are ideas, positions that cause division, to the point that division is more important than unity. My idea is more important than the Holy Spirit that guides us. There is a Cardinal Emeritus, who lives here in the Vatican, a good Pastor, and he said to his faithful: But, do you know that the Church is like a river? Some are more of this side and others of the other side, but what is important is that all are inside the river.” This is the unity of the Church — no one outside, all inside. Then, with the peculiarity: this doesn’t divide, it’s not ideology, it’s licit. But why does the Church have this breadth? It’s because the Lord wills it so.

In the Gospel, the Lord says to us: “I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So, there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). The Lord says: “I have sheep everywhere and I am Shepherd of all.” This “all” in Jesus is very important. We think of the parable of the marriage feast (Cf. Matthew 22:1-10), when the guests would not come: one because he had bought a field, another because he got married . . . each one gave his reason for not attending. And the king got angry and said: “Go now to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9) – all, great and little, rich and poor, good and evil — all. This “all” is . . . the vision of the Lord, who came for all and died for all. “But did He die also for that wretch who has made my life impossible?” He died also for him. “And for that brigand?” He died for him, for all. And also for the people that don’t believe in Him or are of other religions: He died for all. This doesn’t mean that one must engage in proselytism: no. But He died for all; He has justified all. There was a lady here in Rome, a good woman, a Professor, Professor [Maria Grazia] Mara, who when she was in difficulty because of many things, and there were parties, she said: “But Christ died for all: let’s go forward!” She had that constructive capacity. We have only one Redeemer, only one unity: Christ died for all. Instead there is the temptation . . . even Paul suffered it: I am for Paul, I am for Apollo, I am for this, I am for that . . . “And we think of ourselves, fifty years ago, after the Council: the divisions the Church suffered. “I am of this party, I think this, you think that..” Yes, it’s licit to think so, but in the unity of the Church, under Jesus, the Shepherd.

Two things: the Apostles criticism of Peter, because he had entered the home of pagans and Jesus who says: “I am Shepherd of all.” I am Shepherd of all. And who says: “I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So, there shall be one flock” (Cf. John 10:16). It’s the prayer for the unity of all men, because all men and women, we all have only one Shepherd: Jesus.

May the Lord free us from that psychology of division, of dividing, and help us to see this Jesus, this great thing of Jesus, that in Him we are all brothers and He is the Shepherd of all. Today, may that word: “All, all,” accompany us during the day.

The Pope invited the faithful to make a Spiritual Communion, with this prayer:

I prostrate myself at your feet, O my Jesus, and I offer you the repentance of my contrite heart, which abases itself in its nothingness in your holy Presence. I adore You in the Sacrament of your Love, the ineffable Eucharist. I desire to receive You in the poor abode that my heart offers You. While waiting for the happiness of Sacramental Communion, I want to possess You in spirit. Come to me, O my Jesus, that I may come to You. May your Love be able to inflame my whole being in life and in death. I believe in You, I hope in You, I love You.

Then the celebration ended with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. Before leaving the Chapel, dedicated to the Holy Spirit, the Marian antiphon “Regina Caeli” was intoned, sung in Eastertide.

Regina caeli laetare, alleluia.

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

(Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.

Christ, whom you bore in your womb, alleluia,

Is Risen as He promised, alleluia.

Pray for us to the Lord, alleluia).

4th MAY 2020 13:51POPE AND HOLY SEE, POPE'S MORNING HOMILY

#Youtube

[ivanreycristo]

..x cierto..VIRGINIA MAESTRO..en el hotel MAMADA digo RAMADA [como en el q me hospede en mi viaje RELAMPAGO en MEXICO DF desde GUADALAJARA xq quería ver la Gira COMPLICES de LUIS MIGUEL coincidiendo con la visita de SAKORZY y CARLA BRUNI..pero no quedaban entradas y dio como 25 conciertos en el AUDITORIO NAZIONAL de 10.000 espectadores entre enero y marzo 2009..y me pedían un dineral x la REVENTA..x lo q me volví al día siguiente para ver a BUNBURY en EL VICENTE FDEZ ARENA DE GUADALAJARA de MEXICO DF]..de JORDAN_ONTARIO [CANADA] donde me hospede de GORRA en la planta de abajo en OBRAS..se me ocurrió el LOGO de la SAGRADA FAMILIA al recordar q había visto junto a unos CUBOS DE BASURA en NIAGARA el HEARTAGRAMA de H.I.M. [His Infernal Majesty] o grupo FIN_ES q su disco Witches and Other Night Fears" q fue el primer disco que la banda grabó es una demo realizada en 1992, y por una razón desconocida, se decidió no sacarla a la luz. Ville Valo posee la única copia conocida...luego sacaron solo en FINLANDIA 666 Ways to Love: Prologue y solo se vendieron 1000 copias de este álbum. La mujer de la portada se dice que es la madre de Valo..Y después ya lanzaron mundialmente

Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 (1997)

Razorblade Romance (2000)

Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights (2001)

Love Metal (2003)

Dark Light (2005)

Venus Doom (2007)

Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (2010)

Tears on Tape (2013)

..y el logo de la SAGRADA FAMILIA O AMORGRAMA consistió en sustituir la PIRAMIDE por otro CORAZON OPUESTO [masculino y femenino..formando 88=infinito al reves o en vertical ..interseccionando en un ROMBO O DI_AMANTE =no digas amor]

#Youtube

[sickymag-archive]

ALL EYES ON ME for sickymag.com

Photography Rocio Durand Fashion Virginia Bruni Models Natali, Bianca Gertz and Itu from Sight Management Hair & Make-Up Natalia Ferreiros Hair & Make-Up Assistant Julia Bosch Special Thanks Begemot Art & Fashion Showroom, 3ChicShowroom and Port-à-Prêter Clothes Miro Misljen, Wolford, Topshop, Heridadegato, Saint Laurent, Urban Outfitters, American Vintage, Asos, Gaviria, Escada, Sergio Rossy, Vanessa Bruno, Anakon, Ivy Revel, Silvia Gutierrez and Zara

[askfashionisto]

Being on the list of the most prestigious events of the Seventh Art, the cannes film festival keep talking about him. Located in the city of the same name on the Côte d'Azur, this 75the The editing is combined with glamour, as usual. With virginia efira for master of ceremonies and distinguished guests such as Marion Cotillard, Bérénice Bejo, Tom Cruise, Romain Duris, Kristen Stewart or Iris Mittenaere as well as an entire celebrity audience, the Cannes Film Festival 2022 electrifies the Croisette by rolling out its legendary red carpet. AN Red carpet of international renown, trampled in particular by the expected Carla Bruni. Carla Bruni at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival An eye-catching look for theformer first lady, who came to the city of Cannes with her husband since 2008, former President Nicolas Sarkozy. A more than remarkable arrival for Carla Bruni who, although retaining her title of prestigious guest, did not stop simultaneously deviating from the protocol established by Thierry Frémaux, president of the Festival. And for good reason, after pulling out of her bag a electronic cigarette and started vaping at the top of the stairs, CArla Bruni was tempted by some photos on the red carpet, although it is strictly forbidden to take selfies in the latter for three years. " The foolishness and braking caused by the untimely disorder that the practice of selfies creates affect the quality of climbing the stairs. » expressed the latter. If this course of action was not unanimous, these gestures were quickly forgotten due to the elegance and absolute charm, which combine the fashionable aura of 50 year old model. Carla Bruni Saint Laurent's V-neckline at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival Mother of Giulia Sarkozy (10 years old) and Aurélien Enthoven (20 years old) born from her previous union with the French essayist and radio and television presenter Raphaël Enthoven, Carla Bruni he made two very notable appearances, stealing the show from the countless guest stars. Proof of this, accompanied by her mother Marisa Borini, and her sister, the actress Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who she went to present the almond trees, Carla Bruni molded itself into a Saint Laurent chocolate dress with V necklinesigned Anthony Vaccarello, the artistic director of the luxury house. A very gratifying creation, which the beautiful 54-year-old brunette had preferred the day before to a decidedly impressive dress. Carla Bruni: with a lilac Celine dress for the climb of the stairs of Cannes Real name Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy appeared transformed during the presentation of the film sadness triangle Directed by Ruben Östlund. Shining bright with brand name jewelry Bulgarian of which she was muse, Carla Bruni surprised the congregation by molding himself into a dress adapted to its morphology in V. AN celine mermaid dress by Hedi Slimane, chosen by the top model's styling team lavender color, to further highlight the sky blue gaze of Bella Hadid's spiritual twin sister. The promise ? AN lilac long dressperfect in several points. Carla Bruni: a perfect dress cut for the V-shaped morphology of the former first lady With a morphological signature recognizable by a marked waist, and shoulders wider than the hips, Carla Bruni She has a figure similar to that of Kate Middleton. On the other hand, unlike the Duchess of Cambridge who opted for a bardot neck dressCarla Bruni turned into a modern siren in a Purple dress adorned with sequins that look like trompe l'oeil scales. If the chosen color is among the star colors for summer 2022the draped neckline it was the missing piece in the puzzle to structure the dress and enhance her bust. A subtle fashion detail, but that makes the difference. Also read: (function() var _fbq = window._fbq )(); window._fbq = window._fbq || []; window._fbq.push(["track", "PixelInitialized", ]);

[thereturnofthedirtyblog]

Scoop: Travel Channel Programming Highlights, 2/25-3/10

Below are Travel Channel's Programming Highlights from February 25 to March 10:

NEW SERIES

PARANORMAL 911

A shocking number of 911 emergencies end in paranormal encounters. "Paranormal 911" explores these events through eyewitness accounts of the first responders who lived through them - real life stories of police, firefighters and paramedics who arrive on scene, only to find themselves in the middle of a paranormal event. As first responders, it's their job to put themselves in the line of danger - sometimes with terrifying and unexplainable results. [Hour-long episodes]

SERIES PREMIERE: "Taken Over, School Ghouls, Fear the Reaper" - Premieres Monday, March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

After arriving on the scene of an emergency, a paramedic encounters a frightening and unexplained presence ... only to realize later that it's followed her home. A police officer investigates strange occurrences at a local high school and soon learns the school was once a resting place for numerous souls. A paramedic responding to a false alarm at an abandoned hospital comes face to face with the grim reaper himself.

HAUNTED HOSPITALS (U.S. Premiere)

"Haunted Hospitals" tells chilling tales of paranormal activity inside hospitals, nursing homes, morgues and medical institutions. Past patients suspended between this world and the next, departed medical professionals who insist on overseeing their wards long after death, spirits roaming corridors to signal unfinished business with their presence - these terrifying stories are told from the medical professionals and patients who experienced them. These are not random encounters, but part of paranormal patterns experienced by hospital staff all over the world. [Hour-long episodes]

SERIES U.S. PREMIERE: "Demonic Invasion, Angel of Death, Dead Man Rotting" - Premieres Monday, February 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Two high school sweethearts begin working at a local hospital and are soon followed home by a demonic entity. A nurse visits her aunt in the hospital and discovers an evil creature hovering over her bed. A husband and wife stay the night in their grandma's retirement home, only to be awoken by a rotten odor that leads them to uncover a frightening ghost bent on terror.

New Episode - Premieres Monday, March 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

A nurse faces down an unearthly apparition at a hospital, a miraculous recovery may actually be a case of demonic possession at a long-term care facility and a woman wakes up with the ability to see ghosts after a near-death experience.

NEW EPISODES

MYSTERIES AT THE MUSEUM

Host Don Wildman digs into the world's greatest institutions to unearth extraordinary relics that reveal incredible SECRETS from the past. Through compelling interviews, rare archival footage and arresting re-creations, "Mysteries at the Museum" illuminates the hidden treasures at the heart of history's most incredible triumphs, sensational crimes and bizarre encounters. [Hour-long episodes]

"Scared to Death, Texas School Blast Mystery and the Gentleman Bandit" - Premieres Wednesday, February 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT

Don Wildman investigates the death of a man who may have crossed paths with a vengeful witch, a deadly explosion in a Texas school and a string of robberies committed by a charming bandit with impeccable manners.

"Roswell Alien, Deadly Christmas Gift and Hurricane Ghost" - Premieres Wednesday, February 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Host Don Wildman examines a map of an island that, according to legend, is under the protection of a ghost, a piece of debris from a commercial plane that was bombed out of the sky and a mockup of an alien that was allegedly found at Roswell.

New Episode - Premieres Wednesday, March 6 at 8 p.m. ET/PT

Episode description TBD

New Episode - Premieres Wednesday, March 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Episode description TBD

PARANORMAL CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Some of the most amazing, eye-opening and downright scary paranormal videos from around the world are featured as a panel of experts breaks down the footage and analyzes what exactly the eyewitnesses captured. Insights from some of the most knowledgeable specialists in the field and firsthand accounts from the people lucky enough - or perhaps unlucky enough - to witness these strange phenomena for themselves just might make a believer out of even the biggest skeptics out there. [Hour-long episodes]

"The Montauk Monster and More" - Premieres Wednesday, February 27 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

An internet-famous monster washes up again on a New York beach, parents catch ghosts haunting nurseries on baby monitors and a UFO saves a Russian town.

"Gettysburg Ghosts and More" - Premieres Wednesday, March 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

A ghost appears on the Gettysburg Battlefield, a sea monster surfaces in Ireland and fleets of UFOs are spotted over the skies of Philadelphia and The Hague.

KINDRED SPIRITS

In "Kindred Spirits," premiering its third season on Travel Channel, powerhouse paranormal investigators, Amy Bruni and Adam Berry, enter America's darkest locations demanding answers to the most chilling, haunted mysteries. In each episode, their ultimate goal is to determine who or what haunts the space and whether it's safe for the living to remain. Their multi-layered investigations dig into the past in order to identify the dead and analyze the threat. With an arsenal of paranormal tools and their hands-on investigation style, the duo brings peace to those tormented by RESTLESS spirits by giving a voice to the dead. [Hour-long episodes]

"Blood in the Water" - Premieres Thursday, February 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Amy Bruni and Adam Berry head to Tennessee to investigate Hales Bar Dam, a location cursed by a chieftain

warlord. Centuries later, the curse still wreaks havoc on the land, and the current owner fears an evil entity is

out for revenge.

New Episode - Premieres Thursday, March 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Amy Bruni and Adam Berry investigate a Virginia plantation where an evil overseer who died after the Civil War

has returned to strike fear into the living by seeking out the dead he once brutalized.

GHOST ADVENTURES

In each episode of "Ghost Adventures," Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin, along with A/V techs Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley, travel to a different haunted destination where they meet with locals, eyewitnesses and experts in an attempt to piece together the HAUNTED HISTORY of each site. They then begin a dusk-to-dawn "lockdown" investigation, using the latest scientific gadgets and technology in an effort to obtain physical evidence of the paranormal and uncover the truth behind each haunted mystery. [Hour-long episodes]

"Palomino Club" - Premieres Saturday, March 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Zak Bagans and the crew are in Las Vegas, investigating the city's oldest gentlemen's club. Several tragic deaths have saturated the club with raw human emotion creating a charged paranormal atmosphere and possibly fueling murderous behavior among employees and patrons.

"Lutes Casino" - Premieres Saturday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Zak Bagans and the crew travel to Yuma, Arizona, to investigate a series of mysterious attacks inside a former casino with a shady past. The intense LOCKDOWN reveals a childlike entity with a dark, sinister presence roaming the building.

FEAR THE WOODS (U.S. Premiere)

Hiking along pretty tree-lined trails and CAMPING in rustic, ramshackle conditions can be exactly what the doctor ordered, but sometimes the surrounding beauty serves as the perfect camouflage for who - or what - is lurking in the deep, dark woods. In "Fear the Woods," these haunting and horrific tales of murder and mayhem in the great outdoors are brought to life through emotionally wrought first-person interviews and chilling re-creations. [Hour-long episodes]

"Deadly Legends" - Premieres Monday, March 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT

Two friends investigating a HAUNTED HIGHWAY get more than they bargain for when they spot a motorcycle rider's gruesome ghost. A desert road trip becomes a terrifying ordeal when a father and son cross paths with the dreaded skinwalker.

HAUNTED CASE FILES

America's leading GHOST HUNTERS and mediums recount their most riveting supernatural experiences through gripping interviews, powerful re-creations and real audio and visual recordings of the events. [Hour-long episodes]

"The Black Monk" - Premieres Monday, March 4 at 11 p.m. ET/PT

A veteran ghost hunter is called in to remove the spirit of an abusive ex, a farmhouse haunting leaves its mark on a father and his daughter and a team is left with painful reminders of its investigation into a famous poltergeist haunting.

#HauntedParaClassics

#submission #zakbagans #zak bagans #ghostadventures #ghost adventures #dirtyblog #thedirtyblog #dirty blog #the dirty blog

[trustyourblood]

ALL EYES ON ME for sickymag.com

Photography Rocio Durand Fashion Virginia Bruni Models Natali, Bianca Gertz and Itu from Sight Management Hair & Make-Up Natalia Ferreiros Hair & Make-Up Assistant Julia Bosch Special Thanks Begemot Art & Fashion Showroom, 3ChicShowroom and Port-à-Prêter Clothes Miro Misljen, Wolford, Topshop, Heridadegato, Saint Laurent, Urban Outfitters, American Vintage, Asos, Gaviria, Escada, Sergio Rossy, Vanessa Bruno, Anakon, Ivy Revel, Silvia Gutierrez and Zara

[rjzimmerman]

This Op-Ed by Frank Bruni of the New York Times is the best opinion piece or editorial about trump that I have read. That says much, because I have read more about trump, love him or hate him, than I can to admit, because his mere existence as ostensible president of the US confounds me. Sorry if the post is long, but, to me, Bruni’s words are worth a long post. If you read the first several paragraphs, you’ll get it. If you want more, keep reading. (Some of the text is bold. I added that touch, because those parts grabbed my attention.)

A death in the family. A punch to the gut. The announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement felt to me and many people I know like both of those, but even more so like something else: a sick cosmic joke.

How much power will a president with such tenuous claim to it get to wield? How profound and durable an impact will such a shallow and fickle person make?

Donald Trump barely won the White House, under circumstances — a tainted opponent, three million fewer votes than she received, James Comey’s moral vanity and Russia’s amoral exertions — that raise serious questions about how many Americans yearned to see him there.

But he’s virtually assured of appointing as many judges to the Supreme Court as each of his three predecessors did and could reshape Americans’ lives even more significantly. It’s the craziest dissonance. The cruelest, too.

In his heart of hearts, he doesn’t give a damn about rolling back abortion rights. Any sane analysis of his background and sober read of his character leads to that conclusion. Yet this man of all men — a misogynist, a philanderer, a grabber-by-the-you-know-what — may be the end of Roe v. Wade. Time to spring into action, Ivanka! I type that in jest, knowing that my keystrokes are in vain.

So many of Trump’s positions, not just on abortion but also on a whole lot else, were embraced late in the game, as matters of political convenience. They were his clearest path to power. Then they were his crudest way to flex it.

Now they’re his crassest way to hold on to it. He will almost certainly move to replace Kennedy with a deeply, unswervingly conservative jurist not because that’s consistent with his own core (what core?) but because it’s catnip to the elements of his base that got him this far and could carry him farther.

Never mind how much it exacerbates this country’s already crippling political polarization. Never mind how much fear it sows in many women, in many people of color and in many L.G.B.T. Americans, all of whom could see rights that they fought so long and hard for snatched away. Never mind that this is a moment, if ever there was one, to set a bipartisan example and apply a healing touch.

Trump will gladly cleave the country in two before he’ll dim the applause of his most ardent acolytes. What puffs him up takes precedence over what drags us down.

Get ready: He’ll crow and taunt. He’s already crowing and, characteristically, making Kennedy’s retirement all about him. “I’m very honored that he chose to do it during my term in office because he felt confident for me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy,” Trump said.

He will bully, both ideologically and tactically. And he will get his way, because — this is part of that cosmic joke — the advantages seem always to cut his way. The obstacles teeter and collapse.

Other presidents have had to worry about getting 60 votes in the Senate for Supreme Court nominations to proceed. Not Trump. Despite all the smack that he has talked about Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader is there for him, their interests perfectly aligned on this.

McConnell used the “nuclear option” once already, for Neil Gorsuch, rendering a Democratic filibuster irrelevant. So the precedent has been set. The coast is clear.

It’s possible, yes, that two Senate Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — would vote against Trump’s next nominee, not wanting to help deliver the death blow to Roe v. Wade, and that Trump would then need a Democratic vote to get to 50. But it’s also possible that he could get several of those.

That’s what I mean about his outrageous fortune, his incessant advantages. The senators up for re-election in November include a number of Democrats in red states that heavily favored Trump in 2016. They have to worry about bucking and inflaming him by denying him his pick for the Supreme Court.

In fact three of them — Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — supported Gorsuch’s confirmation last year. It’s no accident that North Dakota, which Trump won by nearly 36 points, was the site of his rally on Wednesday night.

Kennedy’s retirement and the acrimonious debate over his replacement will undoubtedly galvanize voters in the midterm elections in November. There’s disagreement among political analysts about which tribe — Republicans or Democrats — will benefit more at the polls.

But here’s the most galling thing: In terms of the Supreme Court, it won’t matter, not if Trump and McConnell follow through on their expressed determination to fill Kennedy’s seat before the midterms. Distraught Democrats could turn out in droves, create a blue tidal wave and take back the Senate as well as the House. They’d still be living with Trump’s court — and they’d go on living with it, in all likelihood, for many years to come.

Trump is hardly the only modern president to have a dubious mandate. George W. Bush, for example, was inaugurated after a messy recount of votes in Florida and a disputed resolution imposed by the Supreme Court.

And Trump’s Supreme Court opportunities aren’t unique. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as it happens, got their two chances to nominate new justices during their first two years in office as well.

But the shakiness of Trump’s claim to majority support, the intensity of antipathy to him and his sneering, gloating, uncompromising response to that aren’t a familiar combination. It’s impossible to square the roughly 77,000 votes by which he won the Electoral College with the license that he has given himself and the rein that the members of his adopted party have given him.

As usual, the truth about Trump is the opposite of the story he tells. He points to Robert Mueller’s investigation and to negative media coverage and portrays himself as a modern-day martyr.

But he’s the luckiest man alive. Although he savaged the G.O.P. en route to its presidential nomination, he was greeted in Washington by a mum McConnell, a blushing Paul Ryan and a mostly obsequious Republican congressional majority.

And now, with a handpicked replacement for Kennedy, he’d probably have “fewer checks on his power than any president in his lifetime,” Mike Allen wrote on Axios on Thursday, adding, “The media, normally the last check on a president with total control of government, has lost the trust of most Republicans and many Democrats, after two years of Trump pummeling.”

That doesn’t account for a Democratic takeover of at least one chamber of Congress, the importance of which cannot be overstated. And it ignores one other check that works on some presidents but not on Trump.

It’s conscience. A better man might shudder somewhat at the division that he was sowing and the wreckage in his wake. Trump merely revels in his ability to pull off what nobody thought he could. Shamelessness is his greatest gift. How unfunny is that?

#trump #Frank Bruni

[marcjampole]

Now for the latest installment of the mainstream media’s favorite game: Blame the Democrats!

It wouldn’t be a Sunday New York Times opinion section without a couple of articles blaming liberals for their supposed inability to capture the hearts and minds of mainstream America. It’s always the liberals fault for putting up the wrong candidate, being self-righteous, being too smart or wonky, focusing too much on identity politics, not articulating the message in bold terms, or not understanding the soul of middle America. In going through this list of Democratic “failures,” note how many descriptions could be coded language for “not being racist enough.” Then there are the special criticisms leveled at Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi’s political liabilities, which have always struck me as patently misogynistic.

This week’s edition of “Beat the Liberal” featured a piece by Gerald Alexander, an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia whose research suggests a right-wing bent. In “Liberals, You’re Not As Smart as You Think” the not-so-good professor claims that liberals “may be more effective at causing resentment than in getting people to come their way.” Alexander never proves his point. He doesn’t even bother to offer up one study or survey to demonstrate that when liberals talk, they turn off large numbers of people. Interestingly enough, his article is a mild revision of a piece he wrote for theWashington Post eight years ago. Bashing liberals is never out of style!

And what does Alexander think liberals do that piss people off so much? They publicly call racist behavior racist. What’s more, they do so self-righteously, with an “I’m better than you are” tone. Earth to Alexander: People who call out racism are better than the racists. That is, assuming you buy into Alexander’s shoddy premise that Democrats are self-righteous about their morality. Now maybe it’s my self-righteousness coming through, but as parent, I found that shame works wonders in getting people to do the right thing.

Frank Bruni joined in the “Beat the Liberal” game, too, this week, with another of a long line of columns by mainstream media pundits advocating that the Democratic Party can win if they become more like Republicans. The headline says it all: “Renounce Pelosi, Ignore Trump—and Win?” Bruni advocates for Democratic candidates who are less strident and project a less partisan image. In particular, Bruni touts the Democratic nominee for the seat in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, white male Dan McCready, who claims to have center-right political views. Of course he never gives examples of Democratic candidates who are too strident or too partisan, leaving us to guess who they are. I sincerely hope Bruni means something other than the coded message I receive from his article—that he wants more white males and fewer women and minority candidates. It would help if one of the candidates he lauds in his article was not all white male.

Bruni’s article quotes Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, as saying “If we actually want to be a majority party, then we better embrace more Americans.”

What is he talking about? Democrats won way more votes than Republicans in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Clinton wiped out Trump in the popular voting. Survey after survey on education, healthcare, aid to dependent children, criminal justice reform, environmental policy, abortion and yes, even gun control, show that majorities of American—and sometimes overwhelming majorities—support the views of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and other liberal Democrats.

The game of blaming Democrats for their failure to take the reins of government conceals the real reasons Republicans today control the presidency, both Houses of Congress and most state governments:

The current shape of Congressional districts, gerrymandered to structurally favor Republicans after the 2010 census.

The raft of voter suppression laws that have swept the country, also since 2010.

The natural electoral bias in states and nationally in favor of rural areas, built into our system by the Electoral College and geographic representation.

The influx of money to support right-wing candidates and think tanks, especially since the Citizens United

The constant anti-Democrat slant of the mainstream and rightwing media, which includes covering Republican primaries more closely than Democratic ones, using Republican premises when formulating coverage, conflating real scandals of Republicans with Democratic non-scandals and issuing a constant stream of these silly articles about Democrats shooting themselves in the foot.

Of these five factors, only one can be remotely blamed on the Democrats: the gerrymandering of Congress. Democrats assumed they were going to lose seats in 2010, since a new president usually sees his majority eroded in midterm elections. They therefore did not aggressively spend money on 2010 mid-term elections, while the Koch brothers and their billionaire buddies saw the historic opportunity created by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that freed corporate spending on elections and ramped up their support of not just Republican, but ultra-right candidates. The news media helped out the Republicans in 2010 to be sure by ignoring Democratic primaries, focusing most political coverage on the new “Tea Party” movement, ignoring the progressive alternatives to the Tea Party, and providing inaccurate and misleading coverage of the key issue of the day, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. There was certainly a lot going against the Democrats in 2010, but by not aggressively contesting the election, they did a pretty good imitation of a pro basketball team tanking the season to get a high draft pick.

We can find no fault with the Democrats in the development of the other four factors leading to Republican control of an ostensibly democratic country in which a majority of citizens support the views of the party out of power. The voter suppression laws have come in states controlled by Republicans. The rich white men who founded the country established the rural bias in the Constitution more than 200 years ago to placate the many slave owners among them.

In one way or another, Ronald Reagan is responsible for the other two factors. Reagan started the movement to allow single companies to own many media outlets in the same town and nationally and ended the Fairness Doctrine, which made all broadcast stations air the views of the other side when they gave an editorial. These moves more than anything else enabled the fringe right-wing media like mega-giants FOX, Clear Channel and Sinclair Broadcasting to emerge as powerful voices in the marketplace of ideas. And it was Reagan who nominated two of the five justices who voted that the constitution prohibited Congress from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations in Citizens United; he also gave important career promotions to the other three voting to unleash the Koch money machine on the political system.

But pundits will continue to blame Democrats for their current status in state and federal governments. It’s easier than doing real analysis and telling the truth: our country has been taken over by a small but very well-heeled minority who have used their money to manipulate our political system to their own end and to pursue their own interests, even to the detriment of overwhelming numbers of their fellow citizens.

#democrats #republican #koch