Side point: political writers wonder when the Republican party will produce its next really shrewd strategist, the one who knows how to pick his battles rather than getting mired in obstructive pandering to the base. Such a figure already exists. His name is John Roberts.
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has refused to release his long-form birth certificate and passport records, despite demanding the same from Barack Obama during the 2012 election.
The Guardian contacted the Trump campaign to request the birth certificate and passport records of the Apprentice host, but a spokeswoman refused to share the documents.
In October 2012, Trump, a prominent figure in the “birther movement” – a loose affiliation of people who claimed Obama was born outside the US – accused Obama of being “the least transparent president in the history of this country” for refusing to release the very details Trump is now refusing to publish.
In the hours immediately following the decision, it became clear that the network did not yet have its talking points about gay marriage in order. You could watch, in real time, as it tried to land on some. The network kept jumping back to its previously scheduled programming, as if it could convince itself and its audience what had happened was not such a big deal: A little gay marriage, a reminder that some of Hillary Clinton’s emails are still missing, discussion of the terrorist attacks in France, a little gay marriage, and a return to the ongoing Charleston funerals. The host of the talk show Outnumbered began a brief segment on the decision by saying, “Let’s move on so we don’t get mired in social issues. How will GOP candidates react?” as if getting mired in social issues was not Fox’s raison d’être.
Shortly after turning in dissenting opinions in landmark federal rulings today that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and conferred full federal benefits to married same-sex couples, Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John G. Roberts, and Samuel Alito reportedly realized today that they would someday be portrayed as villains in an Oscar-winning film about the fight for marriage equality. “Oh, God, the major social ramifications, the political intrigue, all the important people involved in the case—I’m going to be played by some sinister character actor in a drama with tons of award buzz, aren’t I?” said Scalia, joining his fellow dissenting justices in realizing they would be antagonists in a film potentially titled Defense Of Marriage and probably written by Tony Kushner.
Thanks, Onion.
The schedule of events saw four white writers each give separate talks (topics ranged from poetry, to a critical theory of Kanye “rants” and even the Gamification of Kanye West) and a panel of four black people. (Are you actually surprised?) While the room was full for the first talk, a drop-off was expected for the second. Meanwhile the panelists and I stood in the back drinking (for four hours!), listening to the presentations and rolling our eyes at their conclusions: either they were truisms, already covered by writers of colour, or simply uncomfortable for us.
Taking the stage, we agreed to keep a good humour but not lie. By the time we were done, half the crowd was gone. I watched them walk out. I saw them gasp for air once they reached the outer courtyard, gesturing to friends to “get the hell out of here”. I was so unsurprised that I had to stop myself from making a joke about it from the stage.
I am still trying to figure out how to get my hands on original ‘Ant-Man’ comics, where you get them. I’ve been given a couple recent ‘Ant-Man’ comics. No offense Marvel, but they are total crap. I really want to read the original ones, because I got through two and I was like, dude, you can’t force-feed me another one of these magazines. It was terrible.
Ant-Man star Evangeline Lilly can almost certainly expect a call from her Marvel handlers after this recent interview.
The talent network was designed to give all editors at the Post a universal system to identify writers for blogs, breaking news, or long features, across a variety of desks. While editors can post assignments to potential writers, freelancers can also use the system to pitch story ideas of their own to the paper.
This is obviously fascinating to me, for reasons. (From here.)