There have been so many horrifying stories about male predatory behavior since the Harvey Weinstein story broke earlier this month, but one quote has truly stood out.
In a damning memo about her boss, a Weinstein Co. employee named Lauren O’Connor neatly explained how the Hollywood producer could get away with sexually harassing so many women.
“The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10,” she reportedly wrote.
That one sentence sums up more than the situation with Weinstein, now accused of sexual harassing or assaulting more than 50 women. That same power imbalance exists in every corner of the country, in the White House, Congress, the media, police departments, academia, most big law firms, and nearly every major corporate boardroom, corner office and C-suite.
“Weinstein is the embodiment of the power differential that plays out all over the workplace in the United States,” said Teresa Boyer, the director of the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership at Villanova University.
You won’t hear about her death from officials investigating the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, but you should know her name and her story.
She was Isabel Rivera González.
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Rivera was 80. She loved to dance, and was known in this hilly enclave of Puerto Rico for her Saturday-night merengue moves. In family photos displayed at her funeral last week, she was shown laughing near a shoreline as flamingos tiptoed behind her. In a black-and-white image, she beamed as she held an infant, one of her five children. Those children described their mother as healthy and full of energy late into her years — a woman who lit up a room.
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Rivera survived Hurricane Maria on September 20 huddled next to her boyfriend, Demencio Olmeda, 76. The storm’s winds tore out their curtains and windows, swirling debris in the sky, knocking out power and water service and killing, officially, 51 people.
In post-Charlottesville America, any large gathering of racists and fascists becomes both spectacle and specter. The threat of violence is omnipresent. Locals must “brace” themselves for “chaos and bloodshed.” Everyone dreads “another Charlottesville.” Dread is what Nazis want.
In two small cities near Nashville in Middle Tennessee, the fear was palpable ahead of two “White Lives Matter” rallies here on Saturday.
“So … what brings you to town?” a wary clerk asked guests as they checked into a hotel in Murfreesboro, home to Middle Tennessee State University and 132,000 residents, where one rally will be held Saturday afternoon outside the Rutherford County Courthouse. I heard some version of this question three times before I’d even found my room.
In nearby Shelbyville, a town of 21,000 south of Murfreesboro in Tennessee horse country, another rally ― organized by the same racists and fascists ― is scheduled for Saturday morning. Many Shelbyville residents will stay indoors or clear out altogether, according to local police.
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Justin Ide/Reuters
Matthew Heimbach, seen here after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is head of the Traditionalist Worker Party.
A federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first criminal charges in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference, two sources told NBC News, marking a significant milestone in an inquiry that has roiled Donald Trump’s presidency.
Mueller’s Office of the Special Counsel will make public an indictment on Monday, a U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of the process confirmed to NBC News, without disclosing the name of the target or the nature of the charges. The timing was confirmed by a second source familiar with the matter.
CNN was the first to report on Friday that the grand jury approved charges, citing multiple sources. The network added that the charges remain sealed by order of a federal judge.
Peter Carr, a spokesperson for Mueller, declined to comment Friday night.
I have met Trump haters before, lots of them, the kind who seize upon every conspiracy theory and refuse to give him any benefit of any doubt. The four people I recently spent the morning with at Solly’s Tavern in D.C. (sans booze, don’t worry) were not Trump haters. They were, however, Trump quitters.
All of them, at some point over the course of the last nine months, had left their posts within the current administration, having decided that they could better serve their country from outside the government than from within. They weren’t happy about quitting, either. They were civil servants who wanted to remain civil servants, who, except for one, had worked under presidents of both parties. They had disagreed with superiors over the years, they had been fearful of new regulations and wary of political appointees, but they stayed on because that’s the nature of career work in government. This was different.
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Four Quitters Walk Into a Bar…
To swap war stories from an administration they couldn’t serve for one more minute.
Richard Spencer, a leader of what he calls the “alt-right” and the man known to most as the “Nazi who got punched,” agreed to talk to HuffPost the night before his speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville last week.
He and his followers had rented a house in the Florida countryside for security reasons, they said. A hotel in Gainesville wasn’t an option.
After driving down dirt roads, HuffPost found Spencer standing in the dark, smoking a cigar and drinking Angel’s Envy bourbon out of a tall glass. Behind him, about a dozen of his followers filtered in and out of the house’s front door.
It looked as though maybe they were having a small party. Just 14 hours to go until Spencer, their movement’s figurehead, took the stage at the University of Florida in an elaborate and expensive troll aimed at spreading their rebranded version of organized racism.
These prefabricated building designs by Ten Fold Engineering start off as big boxes but can end up as a small home, classroom or office at the touch of a button.
The NAACP is warning African-American travelers to be careful when they fly with American Airlines.
In an advisory late Tuesday, the organization said it has noticed “a pattern of disturbing incidents reported by African-American passengers, specific to American Airlines.”
The NAACP cited four examples of black passengers who it said were forced to give up their seats or were removed from flights.
It said the incidents “suggest a corporate culture of racial insensitivity and possible racial bias” and advised travelers to exercise caution.
“Booking and boarding flights on American Airlines could subject them [to] disrespectful, discriminatory or unsafe conditions,” the advisory said.
Fats Domino, the legendary American pianist and singer-songwriter, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Domino’s family confirmed his death to WWL-TV news anchor Eric Paulsen, who shared the news on Wednesday morning. Domino’s daughter told Paulsen that her father died peacefully surrounded by his family and friends.
The Jefferson Parish coroner’s office in Louisiana confirmed Domino’s death to HuffPost Wednesday morning.
Domino, considered a pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll, was best known for his rendition of “Blueberry Hill” and for hits like “Ain’t That a Shame” and “I’m Walkin’.” Throughout his career, he sold more than 65 million records and had 37 Top 40 singles. In 1986, Domino was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
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ullstein bild via Getty Images
Fats Domino in 1973.
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Click link belowfor article, video and slideshow of ‘Entertainers We’ve Lost In 2017’:
Actor Robert Guillaume, best known for his title role in the TV series “Benson,” died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 89.
His wife Donna Guillaume told CNN he had battled prostate cancer in recent years.
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“He kinda went the way everyone wishes they could, surrounded by love and in his sleep,” Guillaume said.
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She added that her husband really loved making music, entertaining and making people laugh. He treasured his role as Rafiki in Disney’s 1994 animated film “The Lion King,” she said.
Guillaume starred as the level-headed butler Benson DuBois on the sitcom “Benson” from 1979 – 1986. He won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy for his performance in the role in 1985. Dozens of TV roles followed, including turns on “A Different World” and “Sports Night.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Explore the dynamic relationship between faith and science, where curiosity meets belief. Join us in fostering dialogue, inspiring discovery, and celebrating the profound connections that enrich our understanding of existence.
Puerto Rico’s uncounted hurricane deaths
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Four Quitters Walk Into a Bar…
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Interesting!
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James' World 2 