text:
California primary elections 2018: Democrats eye key House pickups
And veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein faces a challenge from the left.
Contributors: Vox Staff
Share All sharing options for: California primary elections 2018: Democrats eye key House pickups
Voters head to the polls in California on Tuesday in what could be one of the most closely watched primary days of the midterm season.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein faces a primary challenge from state Sen. Kevin de León. Feinstein is one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate, and at 84, she's also the oldest member of the chamber. De León is banking on the hope that California might be ready to elect a younger, more progressive candidate, but political science experts say he's facing long odds.
California is also a crucial state in the battle for the House of Representatives. If Democrats have any chance of retaking the House this November, they'll have to make huge gains in California — where Republicans hold 14 of the state's 53 seats. Republican incumbents are desperately trying to cling to their seats in a deep-blue state, but Trump's agenda — hardline immigration policies, Obamacare repeal attempts, and a tax bill that hit Californians hard — has put them on the defensive.
In the 48th District, Democrats are battling to unseat Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, one of the most vulnerable Republicans of 2018. Rohrabacher is one of the strongest pro-Russia voices in Congress and has become rather unpopular in his Orange County district. Democrats also see prime pickup opportunities in Republican-held districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, and they're even taking aim at California's most conservative member of Congress.
But the state's bizarre "top two" primary system could shut Democrats out of some of these key races altogether. California pits all candidates of all parties against one another in a "jungle primary" and lets the first- and second-place finishers move on to the general election. That means the top two candidates advancing to the general elections could be from the same party — locking in the seat as red or blue months in advance.
Jun 4, 2018, 7:30am EDT
Live results for California's key primary senate and House races
By Tara Golshan and Ella Nilsen
There's a jungle primary in California that could make or break the Democratic wave.
California's "top two" primary chaos, explained
The top-two primary could lock out Democrats from key House races.
In California, Democrats might have blown their shot against "Putin's favorite congressman"
By Tara Golshan
The bonkers House race in California's 48th District, explained.
House Republicans need to hold California seats. Trump's agenda is making that really hard.
From immigration to tax reform and health care, the Trump agenda hits the state hard.
These 9 California House races could make or break the Democratic wave
A guide to the most important House primary races in California.
Every June 5 primary election you should know about, briefly explained
By Ella Nilsen, Tara Golshan, Dylan Scott, Andrew Prokop, and Li Zhou
California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, and New Mexico voters are all headed to the polls.
Why Sen. Dianne Feinstein is being challenged from the left
By Ella Nilsen
Feinstein is one of the few Senate Democrats facing a progressive primary challenger in 2018.


text:
The Greatest TV Pilots Of All Time
TV March 12, 2018
Some great television shows pick up steam over the course of the first season, but with these shows, it was love at first sight. These television pilots subverted our expectations, made us laugh until we cried, and kept us on the edges of our seats.
When the now classic David Lynch and Mark Frost created series Twin Peaks debuted in the spring of 1990, there was nothing else like it on television. The set-up may seem like a rote, police procedural: an FBI agent travels to a small town to investigate the murder of a beautiful teenage girl.
After pitching the concept for the show to ABC, they asked David Lynch and Mark Frost to create a screenplay. While Frost focused more on creating the verbal characters, Lynch was hard at work developing Agent Dale Cooper, who Lynch notes, "says a lot of the things I say." They were given a $1.8 million budget to film the pilot, which ended up being two hours long.
On September 22, 2004, the J.J. Abrams television series Lost started off with jolting pilot episode that dominated water cooler talk for weeks. Viewers were given just a few seconds to breathe as the pilot opened with Dr. Jack Shepard lying on a beach before the show introduced the disorienting plane crash that sucked us into the sci-fi series.
The pilot alone was enough to get all the actors on board for the show, despite the fact that they were still unsure if it would succeed as a series. Matthew Fox, who played Jack, told Empire, "I got cast ten days before we started shooting, usually I read things before I go into meetings. But there was no script. When I did finally get to look at something, JJ put me in a room and proceeded to open the door every 20 minutes, saying, 'What do you think? What do you think?' I said, 'You gotta let me finish!' But I was blown away, from the first page. The image of a guy waking up in a bamboo forest, wearing a suit, was incredibly intriguing."
The premise of the Vince Gilligan show Breaking Bad is that high school chemistry teacher Walter White turns into a meth dealer when he finds out he has cancer. Of course, the brilliant part about the pilot is that it starts right in the middle of the action, then rewinds to explain those first moments.
The man who leads the series was none other than actor Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White. Gilligan knew he wanted Cranston in the role, but AMC executives were unsure of the choice due to Cranston's past in the comedic dad role on Malcolm in the Middle. But Gilligan, who previously worked on The X-Files had previously cast Cranston in an episode and knew that he was the one for Breaking Bad saying, "We had this villain, and we needed the audience to feel bad for him when he died. Byran alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick. And it is a trick. I have no idea how he does it."
Mad Men, the American period drama created by Matthew Weiner, is yet another AMC show with an incredible pilot episode. By the end of the 48-minute episode, we're introduced to one of the most enigmatic characters on television—an advertising executive who is floundering just below the surface, Don Draper.
Getting Mad Men on the air was a long time coming. Matthew Weiner had been developing the pilot for a long time but was told it wasn't going to work out until eventually, an unknown network at the time decided to pick up the show. He told Hollywood Reporter, "I finished the script and sent it to my agents. They didn't read it for three or four months… I was advised not to send it anywhere because that was at a time when there were big overall deals for comedy writers. People would pay for the anticipation of what your proect would be, and actually having one was going to hurt you. I kept trying to get into HBO, but I never got a meeting. And I met with FX… [They] talked to me about making it into a half-hour. Then people started talking to me about a feature. It was my manager's assistant who gave AMC the script. That's who they were pawned off on."
In the pilot episode of Cheers, there's little explanation as the characters are introduced one by one. Bar owner Sam, intellectual Diane, bartender Coach, and witty waitress Carla are introduced as the interact with regulars Norma and Cliff. Their chemistry is immediate, and the show's rapid-fire banter made instant fans out of viewers of this classic sitcom pilot.
The series producers were concerned about how the show would carry itself and decided that they should make stars within the show, rather than hiring stars to make the show what it is. Cheers creators Glen and Les Charles told The Telegraph-Herald in 1982, "We first thought a hotel would be the right setting and then a hotel bar. Then we zeroed in on a Boston neighborhood bar. Why Boston? Because Boston is cosmopolitan, a great sports town and it hasn't been exploited on television… We read some stars for the lead role. We rejected the idea because a show becomes identified in the public mind as 'so -and-so's show.' We decided to make stars instead."
AMC knows how to find shows with a great pilot episode. The Killing pilot certainly owes a lot to its Danish predecessor, Forbrydelsen (The Crime). In the first episode, police detective Sarah Linden is planning to retire, but she's sucked into an investigation involving the disappearance of a young girl named Rosie Larsen. As viewers, we're just as sucked in as Linden.
When filiming the pilot The Killing's director, Patty Jenkins, had to make a decision on whether or not the first episode could be graphic. She told AMCTV.com, "I think there were some fears that people would want more graphic detail out of it, but that moment never happened. That [might have been] a dealbreaker for me. I felt like we needed to do the bare minimum to get the point across, not to revel in details. If it had crossed that line I would have been very uncomfortable, and I think everybody would have been very uncomfortable. It's always about what's nevessary to tell the story you're telling. This is not a story of sensationalism. This is an emotionally-based story, so that was all we needed and wanted."
The American period crime drama Boardwalk Empire, created by Terence Winter, premiered on HBO in 2010 with a pilot episode that had everyone talking. The episode was directed by Martin Scorsese, and cost a total of $18 million. The pilot introduces the world of Nucky Thompson, a corrupt political figure who controls Atlantic City during the Prohibition period.
Like a lot of writers with an ambitious pilot script, Terence Winter doubted himself. He told Variety, "I kept thinking 'This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire? …We can't call it 'Boardwalk Empire' and not see a boardwalk." Production issues aside, any show backed by Martin Scorsese had big name actors lining up. Winter went on to recall, "Scorsese is an actor magnet. Everybody wants to work with him. I had all these pictures on my wall and I thought, 'I'd really better write some good stuff for these people.'"
The Walking Dead wasted no time in terrifying viewers. The AMC post-apocalyptic zombie thriller quickly introduces us to Sheriff Rick Grimes who is navigating the creepy, grainy world in search of his family after being in a coma while the zombie virus spread across the world.
The Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont was asked to create a series or a movie inspired by George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead but struggled with finding ways to make a zombie series fresh. His breakthrough came when he got a hold of the comic book series by Robert Kirkman. In a Comic-COn interview, Darabont said of Kirkman's material, "'Well that's how it's different. You do it as an extended saga. You do it for television, where it's never been done before, and you do it with conviction and with as much art to it as you can.' And that was very exciting, when that became a possibility… And that was followed by five years of frustration – or four years, at least, of nobody at the various networks getting it, until AMC. AMC got it."
When the Miami Vice pilot aired in 1984, it captured the spirit of the era. The two-hour pilot used vivid imagery, like the grill of a Ferarri as it races down the strip, to tell a distinctly '80s story. The crime drama follows Crockett and Tubbs, two undercover cops who live for their jobs, as they team up to take down a Columbian drug dealer.
Don Johnson, who played James "Sonny" Crockett, told Rolling Stone about how he got the role: "I had auditioned for the pilot, which got pushed, and I said, To hell with it, I'm going to shoot this independent movie that just so happened to be shooting in Miami… I was sailfishing… off the coast of Stewart, Florida one day, and I got a call 'ship to shore,' which was pretty rare back then. The captain said, 'Hey Don, it's your agent,' and I said, 'Well tell him to [expletive] off, I've got a sailfish on the line.' [Laughs] So I boated the sailfish, and when I called up my agent and he said, 'Hey, [NBC President] Brandon Tartikoff wants you to come in."
Mitchell Hurwitz's sitcom Arrested Development introduced us to the dysfunctional and wealthy Bluth family with the help of the show's narrator and executive producer, Ron Howard. In the pilot, squeaky clean son Michael Bluth has to decide if he's going to help is family through a rough patch or cut ties. The impressive part is just how many running jokes are established in the pilot episode.
In an interview with A.V. Club, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz explained Ron Howard's idea to create a single-camera comedy, while most comedic TV shows at the time were filmed with multiple cameras in front of a live audience. The use of a single-camera required a show that was quick-witted and fast paced, but they struggled with creating a comedy that could sustain that. Hurwitz said, "So we, as a group, decided to make a show about a family, and from there I started developing these characters… I knew I wanted a show about rich people who lost their money, and had never really developed as human beings, because they had money. They were enduring this hangover in their lives, and were being forced to downsize and get to know each other. Then I started building up from there."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer first came into the world as a failed cult movie, but Joss Whedon's television pilot was something else entirely. The campy, witty first episode quickly establishes the bubbly high school student's secret: she has a calling to fight vampires. Though the production value was lacking, and the actors were young, an immediate chemistry and great writing made this one of the best TV pilots.
When talking about the creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, creator Joss Whedon told SF Said that he was trying to use metaphor as a way to relate to viewers. When asked if he wanted to do a show, Whedon thought of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "I thought, 'High school as a horror movie.' And it really was. And so the metaphor that I had begun to strike at in Alien: Resurrection became the central concept behind Buffy, and that's how I sold it, and that's what they bought, and they got it, and they let me do it – and after that, everything was about it."
The pilot episode of House of Cards was a make or break moment for Netflix. Though they'd dabbled in original content before, expectations were high for this Beau Willimon show. The David Fincher-directed pilot was a massive success, thanks in large part to Kevin Spacey's brilliant performance as corrupt politician Frank Underwood.
The pilot of the Netflix series isn't necessarily a pilot since it drops straight into the story without really introducing characters in a conventional way. Spacey told Think Progress that this is why he was on board with doing a show with Netflix: "What was great that they were they only network that said 'You don't have to do a pilot,' Because David Fincher and I really didn't want to do a pilot, because when you do a pilot, you're kind of obligated to spend 45 minutes establishing all of the characters. And we didn't want to do that. We just wanted to get on with telling a story, and tell a story over a long period of time."
This classic sitcom has one of the most finely crafted pilots in television history. The first episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Love is All Around," depicts Mary Richards finding an apartment and securing her job at the WJM-TV newsroom after being dumped by a fiancé she supported through medical school.
In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Mary Tyler Moore talked about the development of the show. CBS was so captivated by Moore's performance on The Dick Van Dyke Show, they decided to focus on her more: "CBS noted how successful it was and how comfortable I seemed being in the spotlight and they asked me if I wanted to do my own show – a situation comedy." Moore went on to explain that the idea of a woman finding joy in her own career was "progressive," but CBS wasn't keen on the idea that she would be a divorcée. "As soon as CBS heard that they hit the ceiling. They said, 'You can't have Mary divorced from somebody – even if she has a different last name! They're going to think she divorced Dick Van Dyke!"
The wildly popular HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones started with an attention-grabbing pilot episode introducing the royal families who are competing for power in the fictional realm of Westeros. The pilot is the first and last time the sprawling cast are mostly in one place before they splinter off, which allowed the show to establish its massive world without too much confusion.
While the pilot that aired was a success, the un-aired pilot is a little-known fact about the creation of this legendary series. Showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff recounted why they had to redo the pilot to Vanity Fair: "Watching [screenwriter Craig Mazin and friends] watch the original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life. As soon as it finished, Craig said, 'You guys have a massive problem… none of (our friends) realized that Jaime and Cersei were brother and sister, which is a major, major plot point that we had somehow failed to establish." Benioff added, "I was taking notes and I had this yellow legal pad, and I just remembered writing in all caps 'MASSIVE PROBLEM,' and it's all I could think about the rest of the night. Craig didn't really have any great ideas except that he said 'change everything.'"
When The Sopranos aired on HBO in 1999, the criminal anti-hero so popular in today's television wasn't so common. However, there's little crime in the pilot. Instead, the focus is on the inner life Tony Soprano, a mob kingpin, who is crippled with panic attacks and attends therapy.
The David Chase series continued to subvert expectations of a gangster drama by exploring Tony's family and home life as well as his criminal activities. Chase recalled to Rolling Stone how he sold the show to HBO as "a real life Simpsons," saying, "I guess I was just thinking the attitude and the comedic dysfunction and the vulgarity of The Simpsons. I also started thinking about it as Twin Peaks in the Jersey meadowlands."
Desperate Housewives may have gone downhill in later seasons, but the pilot episode started the show off strong. The residents of the suburban neighborhood Wisteria Lane are introduced by Mary Alice Young, a friend who committed a shocking suicide. The ensemble cast of Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Eva Longoria were praised.
Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry said he got the idea for the show when watching the Andrea Yates trials on television with his mother, according to USA Today. "Can you imagine being so desperate that you would do that to your children?" Cherry asked his mother, to which she replied, "I've been there." Cherry went on to say, "I always envisioned her as the perfect wife and mother. The idea that she had a period in her life when she was miserable was astounding to me. I suddenly realized that if my mother could be desperate in the life she had chosen for herself, any woman can."
Those who thought they would never enjoy a western space drama were pleasantly surprised by the exciting pilot episode of Joss Whedon's cult classic Firefly. The first episode of the series features space ship stunts, stand-offs, and an epic backstory of Captain Mal Reynolds.
The show aired on Fox and was canceled after eleven of the fourteen episodes were aired, but has inspired large fan support campaigns. The post-airing success led to a movie, Serenity, to wrap up a few plots. The show also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects. A lot of the blame is attirubed to Fox, the network that decided to pick up Firefly, who not only had numerous disagreements with Whedon over many aspects of the show, but they also decided to air the episodes out of order, finally premiering the pilot last.
The pilot episode of the musical high school comedy- drama Glee promised a scripted version of American Idol. The pilot contains a dozen musical numbers, including Broadway tunes, classic rock hits, and Top 40 pop songs among all the high school drama of the pilot.
Casting for Glee was vital as the show's creators wanted each character to be distinct and unique since they were in high school. Lea Michele, who plays Rachel Berry, told Out Magazine, "I first heard about Glee from my best friend Jonathan Groff. We were in Spring Awakening at the time, and he had just done a pilot with Ryan Murphy and Ryan had seen us in [Spring Awakening]. Jonathan said [Murphy] was writing this show with me in mind for the role of Rachel… I remember reading the pilot script for the first time and thinking it was brilliant. I remember reading the scene where we sang 'Don't Stop Believin" and I got the chills."
The comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks, created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, might just be one of the most honest high school dramas of all time, and that's quickly established in the pilot episode which establishes the social structure of William McKinley High. According to Mental Floss, "Judd Apatow hired 24-year-old Jake Kasdan to direct the pilot without every seeing his work. Kasdan had written and directed just one movie, the detective flick Zero Effect. Apatow was aware of his work because the two men shared an agent. He hired Kasdan on the agent's advice and watched the movie the next day. Fortunately, things worked out."
While the show was canceled after only 12 of the eighteen episodes were aired, a campaign led by fans persuaded NBC to broadcast three more episodes. The three remaining episodes were aired on Fox Family Channel. The series is frequently on best TV shows of all time and canceled too soon lists.
It's rare that the main character of a show is absent in the pilot episode, but Aaron Sorkin's political drama The West Wing took that risk with President Bartlett, portrayed by Martin Sheen. Though he's physically absent until the last six minutes of the pilot, his weight is felt throughout the episode. He has the power to make or end the careers of everyone in the series.
Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue and intellectual banter were praised by critics. The show won three Golden Globe Awards and 26 Emmy Awards, and aired for seven seasons. Garth Ancier, who was President of NBC Entertainment at the time, told Hollywood Reporter, "It is rare in your career to see [a pilot] that absolutely must make it to air. The West Wing was one of those rare instances. The only challenge was NBC internal politics. Senior management was dead set against it: 'Too liberal.' 'Isn't this Aaron Sorkin guy difficult to deal with?' The attitude was, essentially, you can put it on the air, but it's on your head."
See All Slides
arrested development breaking bad buffy the vampire slayer cheers desperate housewiv firefly freaks and geeks game of thrones glee house of cards lost mad men miami vice the mary tyler moore show the sopranos the west wing twin peaks vince gilligan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Willem Eduard Bok (Den Burg, 28 juni 1846 - Johannesburg, 1 november 1904) was een Nederlands-Zuid-Afrikaans staatsman die als eerste staatssecretaris van de Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek diende van 1880 tot 1889. De stad Boksburg is naar hem vernoemd.

Biografie
Bok was  een telg uit het geslacht Bok en vestigde zich op aanzoek van president Thomas François Burgers in 1876 in Pretoria, waar hij bevriend raakte met de latere president Paul Kruger. Hij trad op als secretaris van verschillende Volksraadcommissies en de onderhandelingen met Theophilus Shepstone in 1877 die leidden tot de annexatie van Transvaal. Hierna diende hij als secretaris van Krugers beide deputaties naar Engeland en tijdens de Eerste Boerenoorlog werd hij de eerste staatssecretaris van de herrezen republiek. In 1889 werd hij vervangen door de Nederlandse staatsprocureur Willem Johannes Leyds en werd Bok notulenhouder van de Uitvoerende Raad. Van 1892 tot aan het uitbreken van de Tweede Boerenoorlog diende hij als regeringscommissaris in het gezondheidscomité van Johannesburg, waar hij in 1904 overleed.

Bronnen
 Swart, M.J., e.a. (red.): Afrikaanse Kultuuralmanak. Aucklandpark: Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge, 1980, p.190. ISBN 0-620-04543-4

Zuid-Afrikaans politicus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Maybe you can remember that we once had a time-challenging feature titled "Time Glass". The goal was to create haiku or tanka inspired on a theme within 24 hours, so a real time challenge. I love to "restart" that feature. Why? Well as you all know a while ago I changed the responding time of our Kai into seven days, a whole week, but (as you all know) haiku is an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That short time can help you to create your haiku (or tanka) based on that single moment.
That theme can be a haiku, a tanka, a waka, an image or just a word And for the "rebrith" of this feature I have chosen for a haiku and an image to inspire you.
Well ... a nice time challenge I think. Try to create your haiku or tanka inspired on this "rebirth" of the Time Glass feature and share it with us within 36 hours. That means this episode is open for your submissions around 3:00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until February 6th 03:00 AM (CET). Have fun!


text:
Redux; "The Kids Are Not Alright"
From 2013. the more things change the more they stay the same (or get worse)
Once again the denizens of Hollywood are using their unique propaganda tool, the Academy Awards, in the aid of their warped social philosophy.
It is a fair assumption, one only has to peruse the cover of a gossip magazine, that a higher proportion of neurotics, drug users, out and out societal misfits, and the just plain mad who compose a proportion of the entertainment industry in numbers well above the national average will be gathered together on awards night.
On top of their collective neuroses, and surely actors by their very profession are subject to various manifestations of eccentricity, they have, through the massive reach of their medium, enormous power, wealth and great influence on the average person.
Thus what just a few years ago would have been considered a gross perversion, if not illegal and generally not even possible, same sex couples adopting, or creating via the loving mechanics of a turkey baster, babies.
High profile entertainment industry types, can, through their wealth and media power, undertake actions which if a normal person attempted it they would be castigated or even arrested for breaking societies taboos. Over the years we have seen these structures of society attacked and then broken and then made commonplace by actors.
"Shock horror" newspaper headlines follow, then the glossies started to make it "interesting' and shortly after it became "normal" irrespective of what example it set for society and the effect it would have on children of such relationships. Of course such unstable relationships composed of unstable people break up one after another with untold harm on the innocents who are caught up in such horrors.
That aspect of normal society undermined, the next attack, Gay and lesbian same sex relationships adopting children hove into view. Again, the unthinkable becomes, via the wealth,"prestige", and power of entertainment types, perfectly acceptable to society. Elton John and partner adopts, how is it possible for men of their age in the first place to adopt an infant? Cynthia Nixon's "fiancee' gives birth amongst recent examples.
There are no long term studies on how children who grow up in these unnatural parenting relationships adjust in society.What sort of difficulties to they encounter at school amongst their peers? Do the have trouble establishing an heterosexual relationship?
What effect will this have on population trends amongst Western nations and if they decline what will be the economic effects and the social effects as more third world labor is needed to take up the slack?
Hollywood doesn't care-all the denizens care about is satisfying their ego's, carnal nature and their hedonism "Cocaine is God's way of telling you you have too much money" Robin Williams is quoted as saying, Lohan, Sheen-well the list of examples is endless. Now having children has become their latest status symbol. It started with the adopting out of Africa craze and now has spread to same sex couples.
There are no barriers to satisfying their needs for those in the entertainment industry. Same sex parenting a no no? The propaganda machine starts. The first foray was The Birdcage with lovable characters, then "The kids are all right" whose premise is " look we lesbian parent couples are not weird, we have all the "normal" family problems and squabbles just like everyone else so our parenting is "normal"-just like everyone else
Posted by M. Joseph Sheppard at 11:42:00 PM No comments:
If Dem's Lose Virginia Governor's Race It's Time To Close Up Shop
"Close Virginia governor polls set Democratic nerves on edge" advised Kevin Robillard at Politico and indeed the democratic party hierarchy has every reason to be deeply concerned. The implications for the future of the party if their candidate Ralph Northam loses to the GOP contender Ed Gilllespie are profound.
Every traditional omen is in play for the Dem's leading in to the election. Virginia has gone Democratic in three straight presidential elections, both its senators, Warner and Kaine (the recent VP candidate) and its current, term limited governor, Terry McAuliffe are Democrats.
For all intents and purposes Virginia is not even a "purple" state but solidly in the "blue" column on the national and statewide levels (although the state house and senate are GOP controlled).
According to the polls President Trump's national aggregate approval rating is 39% and he is similarly under water in the Old Dominion.
In the overwhelming majority of cases mid/off term elections go against the party that won the previous presidential election, often massively so.
However, with Donald Trump the jury is out on whether the traditional playbook has been completely torn up. While the Dem's have won a scattering of state house elections the four congressional election and one senate election were all held by the GOP.
The GOP's winning margin in each congressional election was well down on the presidential year election but still,a win under circumstances where traditionally a number of those seats may have been lost. Further the left spent upwards of $30 million in Georgia trying to get their candidate Ossoff elected and still failed.
Given all factors,Trump's purported bad approval, a Democratic safe state, former President Obama and Tim Kaine campaigning for Northam, the media advising that "Trump's base is deserting him in droves" and the history of elections.
If Northam loses the Dem's will be in a world of hurt, the only excuse, one which would most certainly be trotted out is the old chestnut "all elections are local" where a preemptive strike is on the boards already "Are Democrats trying to lose Virginia's governor's race?"
Unfortunately for the GOP if it is victorious, the muddied waters of a nation wide DNC in chaos, the concept of a totally inept Virginia Democratic campaign has merits for the Dem apologists;
"Northam refused to take a tough stance on MS-13 in order to not upset the extreme activists in his party, but in doing so, he started to lose suburban families who have seen MS-13 murder people in their neighborhoods. Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William counties have seen numerous brutal gang murders in recent years, including one in my own neighborhood in Ashburn. The Washington Post's fact-check on the issue admitted there are more MS-13 gang members in Fairfax County than there are police officers"
And while the Northam campaign literally blacked out his black running mate for Lt.Governor's image from campaign literature they then managed to insult the Hispanic community;
"And while Northam is dealing with charges of "subtle racism," the Democratic Party of Virginia authorized a hit piece on Latina Republican House of Delegates candidate Lolita Mancheno-Smoak, putting a picture of her face by a picture of a ravenous dog and a Jason Halloween mask."
Polling is muddled as we have come to expect ranging from Quinnipiac with Northam +14 and Hampton with Gilliespie +8 (with 26% "undecided in the latter case) and the latest poll from Republican associate "The Polling Co." has Gillespie +2. Thus it may boil down to the usual battle of turnout between the DC Democratic counties and the Republican rural areas.
As with the case of Ossoff in Georgia and the Dem's $30 million dollar losing effort the fact of President Trump's supposed poor approval rating may have no bearing on the determination of conservatives to ensure the Republican movement as Trump rightly defined it is stronger than a fractured factioned, message-less Democratic Party.
The only danger for the conservative movement from a Gillespie win is that it may finally waken the media and the DNC to the truth that endless attacks on Trump and "Trumpism" is a dead end and the time has come to attend to the need for objective reporting in the case of the former and putting their house in order in the case of the latter
Posted by M. Joseph Sheppard at 6:52:00 PM No comments:
Trump's Obvious Election Win Was Hiding In Plain Sight; Will It Be So In 2020?
The key factor, hiding in plain sight, that pointed to a victory in the election for Donald Trump was obvious but a misled, often deluded and hate filled media's blinkers made it invisible.
The media and pundits like the Princeton Consortium's Sam Wang, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver and worst of all the HuffPost Pollster Natalie Jackson who predicted a Clinton win varying from 80% to 98% were misled by flawed polling in key battleground states.
With hindsight it is clear the polling models did not account for voters, especially in the Midwest, who had not voted for either McCain or Romney coming out strongly for Trump in rural areas.
That, allied to a drop in support for Clinton by non-whites/Hispanics, was more than enough to give Trump a substantial electoral College margin.
The polls were well within in the margin of error as regards the popular vote, which is of course irrelevant, but the fact of her "victory" was tempered by her running up huge margins in the Democrats coastal redoubts plus Illinois. This more or less correct polling would have led the prognosticators further off the correct path of poll analysis.
Apart from a few, mostly partisan Republican bloggers who saw a Trump victory (including, publicly, yours truly I have to say) the most prominent person who was correct was an academic who based his analysis on a set of historic parameters.
Alan Lichtman, History professor at American University developed;
"A system for predicting the popular-vote result of American presidential elections, based upon the theory of pragmatic voting. America's electorate, according to this theory, chooses a president, not according to events of the campaign, but according to how well the party in control of the White House has governed the country.
If the voters are content with the party in power, it gains four more years in the White House; if not, the challenging party prevails. Thus, the choice of a president does not turn on debates, advertising, speeches, endorsements, rallies, platforms, promises, or campaign tactics. Rather, presidential elections are primarily referenda on the performance of the party holding the White House."
Lichtman uses a series of 13 "keys," which are true/false statements that he says can help predict whether the incumbent party will remain in the White House.
For each of these statements, a "true" statement favors the incumbent party, but enough "false" statements portend their defeat in a presidential election. This model, he told the Washington Post in September, predicted that Trump would win"
The "keys, which include;Party Mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than after the previous midterm elections. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president" are set out in detail.
However, Prof.Lichtman, the media the psephologists and their pundit acolytes could all have
spared the time and effort and misleading, for the most part, coverage by consulting one election predictor that has been correct since 1984 (now nine elections in a row.)
The Standard & Poors (S&P) financial index, when down prior to the election, saw the incumbent party lose and when up the incumbent party won-simple as that. The S&P was down 3.8% from the start of August 2016 and the incumbent party, i.e. Hillary's duly lost.
Certainly Prof.Lichtman's "keys" included two major economic parameters but neither were as specific as the S&P guideline:
"Short-term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign. Long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms."
What we can make from this, as long as this predictive model holds until it too fails of course as politics is always in a state of flux in the long term, is that Bill Clinton's dictum "it's the economy stupid" is still correct and campaigns, get out the vote scrambles, scandals etc are all subservient to that principle.
Currently the economy current is seeing substantial GDP growth, currently running at an annual rate of 3% with second quarter growth the highest in two years, unemployment down, average wages rising at the strongest pace since 2009, and the share market, as of this writing, at record highs,
If this continues and history is still a guide all the "Trump Russia" and other "scandals" alarms and diversions MSM punditry and especially poor polling, will meet the same fate in the 2018 mid-terms and Trump's reelection in 2020 as they did in the 2016 election.
Posted by M. Joseph Sheppard at 11:38:00 AM No comments:
From The Media; Commentary For Conservatives 9/13/17 Part#1
It's Official: Democrats Are The Extremists Today LINK
America Divided: It Starts With the Democratic Party
Trumpist populism, though not without its blind spots, has a more incisive diagnosis of the defining political conflict of our age and of the central threats confronting the country than any of the other competing worldviews.
Trump and Iran nuclear deal: Smart chess play could motivate the mullahs LINK
It costs the president nothing, does not wreck the agreement, does not reimpose sanctions, and can be reversed if Tehran proves it is complying.
Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood's secular, liberal indulgences
Trump Made the Right Move on UNESCO
The agency is a den of anti-Semites.
The general schools doltish press corps
Trump strikes a blow for health-care freedom
Free at last! That's the message for millions who don't get health coverage at work and, until now, faced two dismal options: going without insurance or paying ObamaCare's soaring premiums. On Thursday, President Trump announced changes that will allow consumers to choose coverage options costing half of what ObamaCare's cheapest bronze plans cost.
Is Trump the Heir to Reagan?
Hollywood Should Never Lecture America Again
How the NFL Lost to Trump
Palin's America Stands Aghast At Dem/Hollywood America
The righteous indignation at the monstrous Harvey Weinstein, his enablers, those who knew but kept silent and the Democratic Party hypocrites who took his money and posed with him has rippled across the conservative media and middle America.
The outstanding commentator, with first hand experience of Hollywood Roger L.Simon has to my mind best and succinctly summed up the situation:
Hollywood's politics have always been a self-serving charade, a liberal masquerade for a rapacious and lubricious lifestyle. But now, thanks to the Weinstein scandal, we see it more clearly than ever. And it couldn't be more repellent. (I had always thought Bill Clinton would have made the greatest studio executive of all time. Now I'm convinced of it.)...
They have abandoned the culture -- and our children -- to the creepiest people imaginable. What is going on in Hollywood is far from being just about Harvey. It's approaching a pandemic"
The moral rot in American society started with President Clinton, the exposure of what the liberal establishment really thought of the non-coastal elite was, inadvertently exposed, and made plain with then candidate Obama's "bitter clingers" and Michelle Obama's "I have never been proud of my country" remarks.
Certainly President Nixon was ethically bankrupt over Watergate and President G.W. Bush was wrong on Iraq but neither man was an elitist nor personally morally corrupt.
In the 2016 election the voters, outside the Democrat's coastal redoubts, clearly signaled they had had enough and wanted wholesale change, especially from the Beltway crowd that Hillary and her cohorts represented.
What has come to light in respect of just how morally bankrupt, corrupt, cynical and disgusting that cohort is has, forever, removed whatever amount of scales there were to drop from the public's eyes.
Sarah Palin saw all this in 2008 and for her honesty, unbending Christian values and worst of all being pro-life was vilified, satirized and hated on with a vehemence never seen before in American political life.
Those at the very forefront of this endless attack were the same Hollywood denizens and their media supporters who have now been exposed as morally bankrupt or utter cowards in reaping the benefits from their obsequiousness and speaking up when it was safe years later.
The Democratic Party, despite their (some not all) returning Weinstein's tainted money is completely tied their Hollywood supporters in the public's mind.
It is unimaginable that the very people who turned against that party in 2016 would be attracted back to it after it has been exposed as simply a vehicle for immoral leftism.
In the end Palin and Palin's America won, not through Palin herself being elected of course but via "Palinism in the presidency i.e. her chosen candidate, with the wherewithal to finance the campaign, won on her values.
The roots of Donald Trump's historic presidential victory go back eight years to the 2008 presidential contest and the V.P. candidacy of Sarah Palin. Palin, or more properly Palinism, had many of the same characteristics as the Trump ascendancy: a robust patriotic populism driven by intense love of country and rejection of big-government internationalism embodied by Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Certainly President Trump is not "Palin" in respect of his life story but he has become the vehicle for traditional values and is, as much as the GOP will let him, keeping his policy promises and, most certainly keeping his promises as regards the Supreme Court and lower level judiciary appointments.
For all their wealth and power and attached Hollywood glamor the Democratic party is at its lowest ebb office wise in 100 years. The bringing into the full light of day its disdain for the common man and the corrupt bargain with the decedents of Hollywood must be a disgusting sight to all Americans who hold the traditional view of American society dear.
Weinstein Affair Shows "Bernie Bros." Were Right And Were Robbed, As Were The Voters, Of Genuine Choice.
No I'm not a Sanders supporter although I clearly recognize there were points of confluence between the Sanders agenda and what Trump supporters responded to.
Numerous commentators viewed various aspects of both campaigns in which they saw a commonality, to take just one of many, here are some (minus the snark) from The Atlantic's Molly Ball's list;
Both oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
Both support maintaining or expanding current levels of Social Security benefits.
Both support some upper-income tax hikes.
Both lament the pernicious role of money in politics .
Both opposed the Iraq war (Stan herself notes that Trump "would have left Saddam Hussein in power") and believe the money spent on it could have been put to better use domestically.
Both have been known to worry that increased immigration could depress working-class wages.
One could find fault with the list and add more from other sources but in my opinion there is enough, even from Ball's list, to show policy and values which Sanders and Trump supporters would appreciate-I certainly do.
But beyond policy the undeniable meeting of minds for both groups was the deeply held understanding that the status quo, as represented by the Obama administration, the Clinton's and the Beltway elite (including especially the RNC) needed to be swept away. The polls of voters on election night showed that "change" was among the highest factors in how they cast their ballots.
Again. I am not a Sanders supporter but I recognize and honor their honest and deeply held commitment to a values system that puts the economic advancement of lower income groups as a high priority. In other words Sanders supporters are driven by a moral, social justice imperative.
That in my view their economic prescriptions would end up as having the opposite effect from their desired end, and their often vituperative, strident and ad hominem attacks on opponents is not the point. Rather the point is that, as opposed to Hillary, they stood for something and held to their beliefs with a passion.
We know now that the DNC under Wasserman-Schultz did everything possible to protect the establishment's anointed.
Sanders supporters could I am sure provide a massive list of all the ways Sanders campaign was thwarted, but the DNC scheduling as few debates as possible and, deliberately, at the worst possible times for mass viewing, is just one of the blatant examples of interference with the democratic process.
In the end the most reprehensible actions by the establishment was to ensure Hillary was the nominee at all costs. That she turned out to be a flawed candidate, with grossly heavy baggage, a terrible campaigner who threw away the 'blue wall' by not even showing up in Wisconsin and too late in Michigan and Pennsylvania, would have dismayed Sanders supporters.
But it is now, in the light of Hillary's post election blame game (including a snit about Bernie) and
her connection to the monstrous Harvey Weinstein that the full extent of what the RNC did to the Sanders supporters is fully exposed.
It is clear to all objective viewers that the RNC/GOP establishment tried to foist a candidate with masses of policy but no policy "heart" nothing beyond wonkiness, to touch the desires of ordinary folks, and whose lack of moral values made her take five days to condemn her friend and financial backer Weinstein (without advising she would return his donations).
In retrospect a genuine choice, genuine for America's needs not the Clinton's or the RNC's, would have been a battle of ideas for change between Trump and Sanders. That this was denied by reprehensible means is a tragedy and an insult to Sanders supporters and their genuinely held values.
What a Bill and Hillary Clinton administration, with all their Hollywood hangers on, dubious finances and media enablers would have done to America is beyond imagining.
What happens next for the Democratic Party is vital as if the establishment once again puts their status quo choice as the nominee the prospect of Sanders, or his successor, staying with the Dem's is moot. One thing is certain is that the Democratic Party would not deserve to have such members and surely the limits of their patience would be sorely tested.
Democrat's May Be Forced To Run A "Culture Wars" Midterms Against Their Will
It is a historical political truism that nearly always the sitting president's party gets defeated in the Congressional midterms.
Sometimes they get hammered as per the Dem's under President Obama which saw the second biggest losses in modern times, a massive 69 total senate and house seats, on relatively rare occasions the losses are down to a net one as under JFK in 1962. Only in extraordinary circumstances has there been an actual gain in both the senate and house, with FDR at the height of the depression and G.W. Bush post 9/11.
That being said the 2018 midterms are more challenging than usual for an opposition party ;
"To start, Democrats must confront what looks like a punishing Senate map in 2018. The party that controls the White House tends to lose congressional seats in midterm elections, but it seems unlikely that Democrats will regain control of the Senate two years from now, much less the House of Representatives.
Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats in the House, and only need to protect eight Senate seats in 2018 while Democrats must defend twenty-five seats.
Adding to the challenge, Democrats have senators up for reelection in states Donald Trump won by double digit margins such as North Dakota, West Virginia, Montana, Indiana and Missouri.
Those aren't the only perilous races: Democratic incumbents also need to defend Senate seats in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida, states that voted for Obama in two presidential elections before switching to vote for Trump. "There's no question the map will be extremely difficult for Democrats"
But, as the 1938 loss of 77 and the 69 loss in 2010 shows when the political tide goes out after an earthquake the governing party is left squelching in mudflats until the tide eventually turns as it always does.
It is fair to say that a fair number of midterm defeats have not be anywhere near cataclysmic, and if President Trump is unpopular in November 2018 and, perhaps more importantly the McConnell/Ryan team have put no runs on the board the Dem's have a decent chance of having a "throw the bums out" substantial gains result in at least one chamber if not both.
This is regardless of whether or not Trump is popular as, as is always the case with the midterms, it is a matter of getting the base out. Conservatives, the GOP's midterm mainstays, may decide to stay at home in the knowledge that Trump personally would not be at risk.
There is one overriding circumstance which could so motivate the base that they turn out in substantial numbers whether or not the GOP has done their job as the base would wish and/or Trump is perceived as having failed the base, and that is if the Dem's are forced to run a "culture wars" campaign.
The last time they did this overtly, or more to the point were perceived to have done so, was in G.W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
The Bush/Rove team so characterized John Kerry as an effete, elite, unpatriotic east coast liberal and potential bringer of same-sex marriage (the call in opposition was "I'm for Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve") that the base was motivated, especially crucially in Ohio to turn out. It is astounding to see Kerry actually being touted as the Dem's 2020 presidential candidate given that history.
Given the post 2016 election realization by the Democratic Party that their neglect of a message to the Midwest/rust blue collar voters, and the perceived elitism and disdain by the liberal establishment of "flyover country's" mores, it would seem obvious that the last thing the Dem's would wish to do would be to have to campaign in 2018 on cultural matters instead of an anti-Trump + positive policies messaging.
However circumstances may force their hand no mater how unwillingly.
The spectacle of, mostly Black, sportsmen "taking the knee" and refusing to go to the White House for ceremonial purposes hits the Trump base in its most sore spot, and in one of its major and hallowed congregating places the football stadium where a perceived disdain for the flag and national anthem is especially bad optics.
While the media and of course the leftist Twitterverse has been outraged at President Trump's attacks on the players and team owners involved the Democratic voices have been strangely muted.
Apart from a few Black congressmen the Democrat's leadership has been basically silent. For them to attack Trump means they would at the same time be defending those perceived as being anti-flag and anthem and pro-BLM.
To take to the hustings with such a defense, especially in the senate seats where they are most vulnerable would be to court disaster. Any GOP candidate worth their salt would surely campaign for the flag and anthem and the visuals in campaign adverts would write themselves. But, can the Democrat's avoid supporting the Black athletes protests?
If they stay muted the message to Black voters would be clear. The party Black voters stayed at home from voting for in large numbers in 2016 would be seen as further deserting their needs when the social crunch came.
That this could be disastrous in the midterms would be bad enough, but the implications for the Dem's in Michigan,Florida and Ohio in 2020, especially if the Trump administration has delivered on jobs, could be catastrophic in its long term implication for the Electoral College.
The 'demographics are destiny" concept, which failed so badly in 2016, and from which their appears to be no easy escape for a divided Democratic Party, may yet be a further salt to be rubbed in the open wounds of a misguided political strategy.
Trump's Challenging Week; Puerto Rico/Los Vegas/MSM;The Voters Verdict is A+
The challenges, sometimes desperate one e.g. North Korea, hurricanes, and terrible tragedies like Las Vegas keep coming at President Trump whose "on the job training" is such that few presidents bar Lincoln and Truman, have had to face.
Not only has he been hit with these major events but at the same time he has been attacked by a rabid media, a new study shows that 95% of reporting on him and his administration has been negative.
Seemingly the entire entertainment complex from 100% of the late night "comedians' and TV shows such as the relaunch of 'Will and Grace' have targeted Trump endlessly and mercilessly.
But through it all, including a Congressional body that will not stand together to pass his agenda the base has remained steadfast.
The opinion polls, now utterly discredited, continue to show Trump's approval rating in the mid to upper 30 percent range.
Those polling firms which show the respondent figure show a grossly distorted Dem to GOP ratio so their conclusions are worthless and distorted. The daily tracking polls, which on average fared nearly perfectly in the 2016 election have been more balanced.
The week commencing October 2nd,the day of the Las Vegas tragedy and President Trump's visit to Puerto Rico (which was, again, the subject of ridiculous media distortion and histrionics by the Mayor of San Juan) showed the public's view of Trump in light of these events and the view was a psotive one.
Firstly Gallup (which won't release its respondent rate and has had the lowest Trump approval over time compared others) showed Trump approaching 40%, one of his highest levels of the year from a low of 36% on 9/27 and ascending for the week
At Rasmussen the rise is more striking up 4 points from Monday to Friday. Thus despite the MSM's worst efforts the public saw, considered, and approved
If Dem's Lose Virginia Governor's Race It's Time T...
Trump's Obvious Election Win Was Hiding In Plain S...
From The Media; Commentary For Conservatives 9/13/...
Palin's America Stands Aghast At Dem/Hollywood Am...
Weinstein Affair Shows "Bernie Bros." Were Right ...
Democrat's May Be Forced To Run A "Culture Wars" M...
Trump's Challenging Week; Puerto Rico/Los Vegas/MS...


All pastors of the Greenwood District are reminded of the meeting this month on January 31, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Panola United Methodist Church, 404 Panola Ave., Greenwood.
Notices have been sent to all pastors requesting an RSVP for the lunch to be served immediately following the meeting.
Reminder: If anyone cannot be present at the meeting, he/she must send an email to Rev. Dr. Love (gwdist@umcsc.org) explaining the absence and requesting to be excused from the meeting. This request must be received prior to the meeting.


Keep a refined edge to your smart-casual attire with our carefully selected range of plain shirts from Hackett. Expertly crafted from the finest cotton and linen, Hackett shirts are designed with luxury in mind. From short sleeve options perfect for the summer, through to Hackett London shirts that will add versatility to your wardrobe, Hackett men's shirts has all style eventualities covered.


text:
Western Massachusetts residents noticing more wild animals in rural areas
Hampden County
by: Don Shipman
Posted: Aug 15, 2019 / 12:08 AM EDT / Updated: Aug 15, 2019 / 10:33 AM EDT
AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – People living in rural sections of western Massachusetts are seeing a small uptick in wild animal sightings.
Many of you have sent 22News pictures of bears, coyotes, and even bobcats.
A viewer from Agawam captured footage of what they think is a bobcat moving about in their backyard. In an email to 22News, they said they've seen a lot of bobcats in the area – but this one seems to be double the size.
Michael Mercadante also lives in Agawam. He and his wife said they're used to seeing wildlife roaming the neighborhood. He told 22News, "The neighbors have also spotted bobcats before. And we had a bear on this side street. Just a little while ago we had a bear in our backyard."
In fact, Michael said wildlife activity seems to be happening closer to homes more often, so now they take precautions.
He said, "We were a little concerned when we had the bear in the backyard. We'd make a lot of noise when we come out to let the dog out."
The Mercadante's have the right idea. The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife offer tips on its website. They say to check your yard for bears and other wildlife before letting your dog out. If you encounter a bear or bobcat while with your dog, back away slowly and leave the area.
Over the years, 22News has received dozens of pictures and video clips from viewers of bobcats getting too close for comfort.
Experts have said it's estimated there are tens of thousands of bobcats statewide. One key way to limit their movement near your home is to limit food – including garage, compost, and bird feeders.
Mass Wildlife has a wealth of information on its website about a number of wild animals that share space with all of us in western Massachusetts.
Lastest Stories:
Pioneer Valley Women's March focuses on equality, climate change
Bag the Community food drive in South Hadley collects thousands of donations
More Hampden County Stories
by Mike Masciadrelli / Jan 18, 2020
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - For the first time ever, the Boston Red Sox made Springfield their home for Winter Weekend.
Thousands of Red Sox fans filled the MassMutual Center for this giant fan fest. On Saturday, fans waited in three different rooms to meet their favorite Red Sox stars, including Dennis Eckersly and J.D. Martinez.
Local basketball teams play in 19th Annual Spalding Hoophall Classic
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - The 19th Annual Spalding Hoophall Classic continues this weekend at Blake Arena in Springfield, the birthplace of basketball.
According to a news release sent to 22News, the event features 30 games in five days showcasing local boys and girls. MLK weekend will be headlined by 15 nationally ranked programs including number 1, Montverde Academy in Florida, number 3, Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, and number 6 Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas.


text:
UK support helps new Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition to launch
Following the success of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC) in the UK, a similar industry initiative will be launched in Hong Kong, demonstrating how the collaborative model can be replicated around the world.
The Hong Kong Sustainable Seafood Coalition (HKSSC) has brought together suppliers, buyers, restaurants, hotels and retail outlets collaborating to promote seafood sustainability and address concerns over Illegal, unregulated and unreported fish products in the supply chain.
Like the original SSC, the Hong Kong-based coalition will work as a pre-competitive model and organisers have spent the past year engaging with businesses to create new voluntary codes of conduct on seafood sourcing and environmental claims for packaging and menus.
And while the Hong Kong coalition is unaffiliated with the original, ClientEarth, as secretariat to the UK SSC consulted to the new venture, offering expertise to adapt the organisational structure and come up with their own codes.
Benjamin So, the Chair of the HKSSC said, "The establishment of the Coalition serves a three-fold purpose. Firstly, as users of a critical natural resource, we have a duty to ensure its responsible use. In addition, by adopting the HKSSC code of conduct, members can address the increasing concern among Hong Kong consumers regarding the sustainability of marine populations. Last but not least, collective industry action will bring greater commercial certainty to the seafood business.
"We found the Sustainable Seafood Coalition model to be readily adaptable to our market and welcomed the consultation from ClientEarth in how we adapt our own version of the voluntary codes of conduct."
Oliver Tanqueray from the SSC in the UK said: "Seeing the Sustainable Seafood Coalition model adapted for a market on the other side of the world is a vote of confidence in the model's effectiveness and its ability to be replicated internationally. The world's seafood supply chains are only as strong as their weakest link so this is about promoting raising the bar everywhere.
"We hope other seafood industries sit up and take notice. If you want to see a pre-competitive collaboration in your region, it's time to get in touch."
This entry was posted in News on December 12, 2018 by Oliver Tanqueray.


Society's values are constantly changing, and a visible shift has been noted regarding single parenting, as an increasing number of parents are opting to raise children without the aid of a second parent. Also increasing is the number of unplanned pregnancies, and often, men and women do not take the same position when it comes to coping with said situations. While it has been generally decided that it is ultimately the mother's decision as to whether the child should be kept or aborted, it is questionable as to whether a man should have a say at all in whether one night in bed with someone results in a child. If an unplanned pregnancy results from a relationship, no matter the length of it, and the woman utilizes her legal rights and decides to keep the child, should the father be held responsible for the child, even if he voiced his disagreement with the mother's decision to keep the child?
Child support payments are an increasing phenomenon in light of these recent social changes, typically with men who have fathered children but have neglected to raise them being asked to pay monthly payments to the mother of the child to help cover expenses for the child. Child support may be ordered of any legal parent who has not officially relinquished his or her parental rights, and may be ordered even if the parent in question did not want the child and/or has no physical contact with the child. Unless the parent has legally given up any and all parental rights (an action that the court and the other parent would both have to approve), he or she can still be ordered by the court to pay child support. If a parent fails to pay the child support ordered of him or her by the court, various punishments could be enacted, such as loss of driver's license, having wages or tax returns garnished, or even facing jail time.
In 2009, among 13.7 million custodial parents in the United States, approximately 50.6% had some type of child support agreements in place, with 90.0% of these child support agreements being formal agreements that were established in a court or through a government agency. Approximately 35.1 billion dollars in child support was owed during 2009, but among the 6.9 million custodial single parents who were awarded child support, only 41.2% received all that was due. With more and more parents being asked to pay a portion of their income to support their child, is it fair to ask fathers who did not even want the child to pay such a large fee?
In a practical world, it would be hard to enforce the idea that a man who did not really want a child would be free from even fiscal responsibility (child support) of the child, as many deadbeat dads would surely step forward and claim that they should be free from child support payments as they didn't support the birth of the child initially (in retrospect). In addition, many advocates of child support claim, "if you play, you must pay". But if a man clearly states his disagreement with the woman's decision to keep the child rather than proceed with an abortion, at the initial discovery of the pregnancy, is it fair to hold him responsible for monthly payments for the next eighteen years of his life? Some claim that fatherhood is not about a moment but about being there for a lifetime of a child, so is being forced to pay child support fair for someone who rejected the claim of responsibility of fatherhood from the start?
If we want to make a father's role more relevant, and make steps toward responsible fatherhood, then they too need rights. Even though these issues are difficult, so is family life. It is better to deal with the metaphorical dirty diapers than to pursue an inconsistent policy toward fatherhood and an abortion debate that fails to acknowledge the reality of all that is involved with being a father. While it is difficult to come up with a sound solution for this problem, therefore figuring out how to differentiate between those who actually disagree with a woman's decision to keep a child from the start from those who are irresponsible in a variety of manners and leave the mothers in difficult situations, there need to be more abortion rights targeted towards fathers. If a women is granted the legal right to determine whether she proceeds with an abortion or not, a man should be able to have a say in whether this decision is one he supports or not. Men should not be held fiscally responsible for a child they never were given the right to say they did not want. In order to move toward a healthier future regarding family lives, rights need to be legalized for not one, but both parents.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged abortion rights, biological duty, child support payments, fatherhood, Law, legal responsibility, moral responsibility, parenthood, single parenting, unplanned pregnancy, women's rights by monicaakumar. Bookmark the permalink.
I appreciated reading this post because I believe it raises important issues arising in the legal system today as technology improves and social norms evolve. I want to eventually practice family law and so I find the questions you have raised here particularly intriguing and timely.
I think in order to come to a sound conclusion on this issue one must have an opinion on certain foundational issues about legal responsibility, reproductive rights, roles within the family, etc.
Rejecting the claim of responsibility and still being legally responsible are two very different things. I can make an analogy between this example and telling somebody a secret. Take for example I tell somebody a dangerous secret, knowing full and well that by telling that person a secret I am taking a chance that that person will share it or do something bad with it. If that secret ends up being shared and causes harm I cannot reject responsibility for that secret being made public because I was the first person to share it.
The main difference between these two examples is that secrets are not living beings that are protected under the law and must be cared for by parents or guardians. Being a legal parent of a child, no matter how that child came into existence, means that you necessarily carry the responsibility of looking out for that child. Looking after children is a foundational aspect of our reality as humans, and although not every person decides to have children, when you do it is a burden and blessing you must carry.


text:
Power In The Pines
Gates Open: 9:00 a.m.
Aerial Performances: 11:00 a.m.
Free Admission and Parking!
Joint Base to host 2016 Open House and Air Show
The nation's only tri-service joint base, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is set to open its doors to the community May 14-15, 2016, for the 2016 'Power in the Pines' Open House and Air Show. The event is set to feature air show headliners, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds will perform expert aerial maneuvers in the F-16 Fighting Falcon and are the first of several expected aerial demonstrations to take place throughout the event. In addition, attendees can get up close and personal with military air and ground equipment; and experience a variety of entertainment throughout the two-day event.
Updates will come over the next several months as more acts are added to the show.
The Defense Department hosts open houses to enhance public awareness of the military's mission, equipment, facilities and personnel and to promote positive community relations.
"We are looking forward to welcoming our community partners to our open house and air show," said Lt. Col. Pat Rayner, 2016 Open House and Air Show director. "This is a great opportunity to thank our community for their support and to showcase what goes on behind our gates and in our skies each day."
Community members will have an opportunity to take a closer look at the joint base's global mobility, training and innovation capabilities and see a true joint and total force platform.
The last Open House and Air Show hosted by JB MDL was in May 2014.
Contact the Joint Base Public Affairs Office at (609) 754-2104 or visit www.jointbasemdl.af.mil for more information. Information on the 2016 Open House and Air Show can be found online at http://www.jointbasemdl.af.mil/library/openhouseandairshow.asp
Note: Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the nation's only tri-service joint base. It borders two of the largest counties in New Jersey, Ocean and Burlington. The base is the second largest employer in the State of New Jersey and contributes more than $6.9 billion in payroll to the economy. Active-duty, Reserve and Guard service members from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard ensure joint and total force integration by training, supporting and sustaining installation and global contingency operations. Together, we are uniquely capable of projecting air, land and sea power in support of our nation's defense.


Image Title: Amazon Com 4 Tier Black Metal Marble Finish Shelf Kitchen Bakers With Rack Wine Storage Decorations. Post Title: Bakers Rack With Wine Storage. Filename: amazon-com-4-tier-black-metal-marble-finish-shelf-kitchen-bakers-with-rack-wine-storage-decorations.jpg. Image Dimension: 373 x 500 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Curtis Blanda. Uploaded Date: Wednesday - February 06th. 2019 11:01:06 AM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: interior.com. Southern Enterprises Dome Bakers Rack With Wine Storage BE4650 Pertaining To Prepare 17. Metal Bakers Rack With Wine Storage Ideas On Foter Inside Prepare 5. DART BAKERS RACK By Cramco Bakers Rack Pinterest Regarding With Wine Storage Inspirations 16. Bakers Rack Wine With Storage Artistic Intended For Plan 18. Bakers Rack With Wine Storage Iron Throughout Plan 10. Metal Bakers Rack With Wine Storage Antique Brass Finish Walmart Com In Plan 0. Shop Harper Blvd Archie Metal Bakers Rack W Wine Storage And Throughout With Ideas 14. Amazon Com 5 Tier Black Metal Cappuccino Finish Shelf Kitchen With Bakers Rack Wine Storage Inspirations 3. Amazon Com Furniture HotSpot Reclaimed Wood Bakers Rack With Regarding Wine Storage Design 15. Holly Martin Petaluma Baker S Rack With Wine Storage KA9803 Inside Bakers Remodel 6.


text:
Arnie is a masculine given name, frequently a shortened version of Arnold. It may refer to:

People
 Arnie Arenz (1911–1985), American National Football League quarterback in 1934
 Arnie Beyeler (born 1964), American minor league baseball player and manager and Major League Baseball coach and instructor
 Arnie Brown (born 1942), Canadian National Hockey League player
 Arnie Ferrin, Jr. (1925–2022), American National Basketball Association player
 Arnie Fisher (born 1938), American professional bridge player, bridge author
 Arnold Galiffa (1927–1978), American National Football League and Canadian Football League quarterback
 Arnie David Giralt (born 1984), Cuban triple jumper
 Arnie Hamilton, Canadian politician
 Arnie Herber (1910–1969), American Hall-of-Fame National Football League quarterback
 Arnold Horween (1898–1985), American college and National Football League player and coach
 Arnie Johnson (1920–2000), American National Basketball Association player
 Arnie Kogen, American comedy writer
 Arnie Kullman (1927–1999), Canadian hockey player
 Arnie Lawrence (1938–2005), American jazz saxophonist
 Arnie Lerma (born 1950), American writer and activist, former Scientologist and critic of Scientology
 Arnie McWatters, Canadian Football League quarterback in the 1930s and '40s
 Arnie Morrison (born 1909), Canadian Football League player in the 1930s
 Arnie Morton (1922–2005), American restaurateur who founded Morton's Restaurant Group/Morton's Steakhouse
 Arnie Oliver (1907–1993), American Soccer League player, member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame
 Arnold Palmer (1929–2016), American Hall-of-Fame golfer
 Arnie Patterson (1928–2011), Canadian journalist, public relations professional and broadcaster
 Arnie Portocarrero (1931–1986), American Major League Baseball pitcher
 Arnie Risen (1924–2012), American Hall-of-Fame college basketball and National Basketball Association player
 Arnie Robinson, Jr. (1948–2020), American long jumper, 1976 Olympic champion
 Arnie Roblan (born 1948), American politician
 Arnie Roth, American Grammy Award-winning conductor, composer and record producer
 Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947), Austrian-American actor, former professional bodybuilder and politician
 Arnie Shockley (1903–1988), American National Football League player
 Arnie Sidebottom (born 1954), English footballer and cricketer
 Arnie Simkus (born 1943), American National Football League player
 Arnie Sowell (born 1935), American middle distance runner
 Arnie States, a radio host on The Rob, Arnie, and Dawn Show
 Arnie Stone (1892–1948), American Major League Baseball pitcher
 Arnie Stuthman (born 1941), American politician
 Arnie Tuadles (1956–1996), Philippine Basketball Association player
 Arnie Weinmeister (1923–2000), Canadian Hall-of-Fame National Football League player
 Arnie Zane (1948–1988), American photographer, choreographer and dancer
 Arnold Zimmerman (born 1954), American ceramic artist

Fictional characters
 Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham, protagonist of the novel Christine by Stephen King
 Arnie Nuvo, title character of the TV sitcom Arnie (1970–1972)
 The player character in Arnie and Arnie II, video games for the Commodore 64

See also
 Arne (disambiguation)
 Arney (disambiguation)
 Arnee and the Terminaters, a one-hit wonder band that parodied Schwarzenegger and the "Terminator" character
 Arnaud (disambiguation)
 Arnold (disambiguation)
 Arny (disambiguation)

English-language masculine given names
Hypocorisms
Masculine given names
English masculine given names


text:
"My life turned upside down literally in the blink of an eye"
04/02/19 | MY STORY
Diagnosed with retinoblastoma (Rb) at 14 months old, Alex tells us about the "roller coaster ride" that is his life, but ultimately how losing your sight is not the end of life's wonderful experiences. Having been diagnosed with Rb as a baby, it's impossible to say if...
"My parents didn't wrap me in cotton wool – I've enjoyed life to the full"
75 years on, Alan shares his journey of retinoblastoma treatment in a pre-NHS system, growing up with a prosthetic eye and living life to the full. I was born in Glasgow during Christmas 1942 and was diagnosed with retinoblastoma (Rb) at the age of two, resulting in...
'Having one eye makes me who I am'
Kate Foster was diagnosed with retinoblastoma as a baby and had her eye removed before her first birthday. Now, 28 years later, she looks back on her journey to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse, so she can support families just like hers… I was 11 months old when...
'All I wanted was to be a mum'
All her life, Angie Campbell had dreamed of being a mum and having a large family. But after being diagnosed with a genetic form of retinoblastoma as a baby she knew that her path to parenthood wouldn't be straightforward. She takes us on her remarkable journey over...
'I can't imagine my life without goalball'
Kelsey Trevett, 16, was introduced to goalball during the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Since then, the sport has had a huge impact on his life, as he explains…As a blind teenager, it can be difficult to find a sport-related activity that is fully accessible: the...
'Pirate game revealed my toddler's eye cancer'
Alice Taylor had been going blind in one eye for months without anyone realising. She was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in May 2017, when she was two years old. It was during a game of pirates, when the toddler put an eye patch on over her right eye, that her mum...
« Previous1234567Next »
"I make my loved ones proud no matter how difficult things may get."
Starting a new school
The Best Start in Life for Visually Impaired Children
Categories Select Category AWARENESS EVENTS FUNDRAISING MY STORY NEWS RESEARCH SUPPORT


Play on Pedals instructor training will equip nursery staff to plan and deliver the Play on Pedals programme to nursery-aged children.
A former fishmarket in Glasgow has created a dedicated cycle space that's accessible for all.
Cycling Scotland is developing an ambitious project to measure cycling across Scotland.


Fermax has a video monitor or audio handset for every installation.
The range extends from simple 5 wire one button audio, to full touch screen and touch sensitive button IP based colour monitors. Simply pick the one that will suit the installation best.
With a focus on design as well as technology these monitors and audio handsets are easy to install and will blend into any modern interior.


"I'm a big nerd—I can't help myself!" laughs Sarah Klemsz. She's a whiz with computer code, and she likes to base decisions on hard data. But it was the relationship aspect of supply chain management—observed during a summer internship at Boeing—that lured her into the field. "I liked that the buyer group was the interface between the shop and engineering," she says. "It's all about coordinating with people to optimize."
After graduating from the University of Portland, Klemsz joined Boeing as a supply chain analyst, responsible for relationships with 15 suppliers and about 1,100 parts, all used to make controls that pilots use to fly commercial aircraft. Before long, she had also created an extra role for herself: modernizing how Boeing's Portland supply chain group generates reports.
Before Klemsz came along, reporting was largely a manual process. Team members hunted down data they needed in Boeing's ERP system and other sources; then they rekeyed the information into a spreadsheet or database program. That didn't make sense to Klemsz. "It's the 21st century. We've 3D-printed a car, we've landed a probe on a comet, and we're paying people to type?" So she started writing code to automate those reports.
Her efforts made a dramatic impact. For example, an automated tool now runs a components shortage report every morning. It updates managers with real-time information, while saving the supply chain analyst team one hour every day, which they devote to more mission-critical work. "The tool saved $526,000 in labor costs and was recognized by the Portland site as the largest cost saving project in 2013," says nominator Derek Westfall.
To keep the ball rolling, Klemsz pulled several tech-savvy colleagues into a new Supply Chain Information and Technology (SCIT) team. "We started getting together to bounce around ideas, and share the code we had already developed, so information would flow seamlessly among our homegrown systems," she says.
"I love the Aha! moments in my work, when everything falls into place," Klemsz says. She's especially fascinated by risk management—how a business turns uncertainty into a course of action. Come port strike, blizzard, or tsunami, the supply chain stands ready. "We know what will happen, and we've got the plan," she says.
By the time you read this profile, Klemsz will be at the University of Michigan, working on a master's degree in supply chain management at the University of Michigan. After that, she hopes to return to Boeing, she says, and maybe also pursue another advanced degree—in data analytics.
A hiker and kayaker, Klemsz also volunteers as a Girl Scout leader. She's especially proud of the two high school students she has been supporting in their work toward the Gold Award, the Girl Scout's highest rank. "I started with the students when they were in middle school," she says. "It's rewarding to be along for their journey."
Does your job have a significant impact on your company?
Yes. Each time we streamline a process, it makes the work easier, and saves the company money.
Would you recommend a supply chain career to someone under 30?
Absolutely! Businesses are putting more emphasis on their supply chains. It is an exciting time to join the field.
Institute for Supply Management® (ISM) is the first supply management institute in the world. Founded in 1915, ISM's mission is to enhance the value and performance of procurement and supply chain management practitioners and their organizations worldwide. By executing and extending its mission through education, research, standards of excellence and information dissemination—including the renowned monthly ISM Report On Business®—ISM maintains a strong global influence among individuals and organizations.
ThomasNet provides solutions that make it easier for buyers and engineers to partner with the right industrial suppliers. For nearly a century the Company's "big green books"—the Thomas Register—were considered indispensable to B2B buyers and manufacturers alike. Today, ThomasNet offers tools to facilitate every step of the buying process. These include industry's leading supplier discovery platform, free online at ThomasNet.com.
For the most complete, up-to-date supply chain content - including case histories, research, and decision support—subscribe to Inbound Logistics. It's free! Available in print, digital, and tablet editions.


text:
EXCLUSIVE: People with questionable integrity shouldn't lead, says Mogoeng
The list of candidates the ANC has sent to the National Assembly has divided the party and South Africans as it includes ANC leaders with questionable integrity.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng at the handing over of the list of members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures on 15 May 2019. Picture: Abigail Javier/EWN
Mogoeng Mogoeng
ANC MP candidate list
Clement Manyathela | 63 days ago
JOHANNESBURG - Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has told Eyewitness News that no one whose integrity is questionable must be allowed to occupy any position of responsibility.
"Nobody who does not have the capacity to do the job should ever be given the responsibility to do that job. Nobody whose integrity is questionable must ever be allowed to occupy a position of responsibility," said Mogoeng.
He made the comments in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview on Wednesday ahead of receiving the list of designated candidates who will be serving in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.
Mogoeng is preparing to swear in members of South Africa's sixth Parliament next week.
The list of candidates the African National Congress has sent to the National Assembly has divided the party and South Africans as it includes ANC leaders with questionable integrity.
WATCH: Chief Justice Mogoeng on ethics, leadership and more
Mogoeng said allowing those of ill repute to govern would set a dangerous course for the country.
"If we really want to get rid of corruption it must be a total sweep of all the corruption practitioners, regardless of whether they work for the state or the private sector," said Mogoeng.
Mogoeng also told EWN he didn't think ethical leadership was being taken as seriously as it should.
(Edited by Zamangwane Shange)
ANC to discuss spies claims Zuma made at state capture inquiry - Magashule
ANC unflinching on corruption - Lamola
Jacob Zuma: From ANC to Zondo
Another spy in ANC? Zuma says Siphiwe Nyanda linked to apartheid intelligence
More in Local