Helaine Olen: Democrats need to stop worrying about electability (Washington Post)
No one can tell you who can best ensure Democrats will win the White House in November. Rather, let me suggest this: Vote for the person you want to see as our next president. Instead of attempting to predict the future, show faith in it instead. It might just surprise you.
Hunter Harris: A Close Read of Joaquin Phoenix and Renée Zellweger's Utterly Baffling Oscar Speeches (Vulture)
On Sunday night, we got two excellent speeches from actors, and two less excellent ones: Brad Pitt and Laura Dern mixed the intimate with the courteous, thanking their famous families and famous co-stars and reflecting on lives spent in front of the camera. Lead acting winners Joaquin Phoenix and Renée Zellweger, however, had speeches of a different flavor up their sleeves.
One of the United States' biggest toy fads in the early 1960s were Dam dolls, or Gjøltrold in the original Danish. By what name are these playthings more commonly known?
A Troll Doll (Danish: Gjøltrold) is a type of plastic doll with furry up-combed hair depicting a troll, also known as a Dam doll after their creator Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam. The toys are also known as good luck trolls, or gonk trolls in the United Kingdom.
The dolls were first created in 1959 and became one of the United States' biggest toy fads in the early 1960s. They became briefly popular again during the 1970s through the 1990s and were copied by several manufacturers under different names. During the 1990s, several video games and a video show were created based on troll dolls. In 2003, the Dam company restored the United States copyrights for this brand, stopping unlicensed production. In 2005, the Dam company modernized the brand under the name Trollz, but it failed in the marketplace.
Troll dolls were originally created in 1959 by Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam. Dam could not afford a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila and carved the doll from his imagination. Other children in the Danish town of Gjøl saw the doll and wanted one. Dam's company Dam Things began producing the dolls in plastic under the name Good Luck Trolls. It became popular in several European countries during the early 1960s, shortly before they were introduced in the United States. They became one of the United States' biggest toy fads from the autumn of 1963 to 1965. The originals were of the highest quality, also called Dam dolls and featuring sheep wool hair and glass eyes. Their sudden popularity, along with an error in the copyright notice of Thomas Dam's original product, resulted in cheaper imitations.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Trolls.
Dave said:
Troll doll. I didn't have any, and didn't want one. Generally, we weren't allowed to bring our toys to Wattles Park Elementary School, but girls used to sneak their troll dolls in and show them off (out of the teacher's sight). How wicked we were.
Alan J answered:
Troll Dolls.
Randall wrote:
Troll Dolls
Stephen F responded:
Trolls
mj replied:
You could find them hanging
In just about every girl's locker in my Jr. High. Yondu Undonta was fond
of them as well. Troll dolls.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Troll dolls. Once thought to bring good luck, I would like to see a run of such dolls known for their ability to fix the wagons of the trolls currently despoiling the offices of this formerly great nation of ours!
zorch said:
Troll Dolls. They went on to ravage the internet.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, replied:
Troll Dolls! We had em. And one grew up to be President!
Mac Mac responded:
Troll dolls
Roy, the Libtard Snowflake in Tyler, TX wrote:
A Troll Doll (Danish: Gjøltrold) is a type of plastic doll with furry up-combed hair depicting a troll, also known as a Dam doll after their creator, Danish woodcutter, Thomas Dam. The toys are also known as good luck trolls, or gonk trolls in the United Kingdom.. The dolls were first created in 1959 and became one of the United States' biggest toy fads in the early 1960s.
Oh, my! That one in the middle looks more like a Trump than a Troll!
Micki said:
Troll dolls.
Daniel in The City answered:
Trolls
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Troll doll
David of Moon Valley replied:
trolls….and none more appropriate
Deborah said:
I'm guessing trolls? I had friends obsessed with collecting them. To each their own.
Feeling 50% more human than yesterday. I hate being sick.
Rosemary in Columbus wrote:
Troll dolls
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame answered:
They were also called Troll Dolls.
Jon L took the day off.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Info: This is a song about a musician playing the music that he wants to play despite a lack of any considerable material success. Many of us can relate even if we aren't in music.
Price: $1 (USD) for song; $7 (USD) for seven-song album.
• A woman was shopping at her local supermarket, but when she went to pay for her groceries, she had lost the $200 she had been carrying with her. The woman at the checkout counter suggested that she go to the courtesy counter to see if anyone had handed in the money, but she laughed and said, "Really? It's cash - no one would hand that in!" The woman went to her truck to get some money that was intended to pay for other things. She paid for the groceries, and again the woman at the checkout counter suggested that she go to the courtesy counter to see if anyone had handed in the money; after all, she said, "You never know." The woman who had lost the money did go to the courtesy counter and ask if anyone had found and turned in two $100 bills. Someone had. Who? The woman at the courtesy counter pointed to a 10-year-old girl who was standing nearby with her mother. The woman who had lost the money hugged the mother, who said, "It wasn't me; it was my daughter." The woman who had lost the money replied, "I know, I wanted to thank you both, although she found it … it's because of you that I got this back." Later, a friend gave the woman who had lost the money five tickets to a circus. She went back to the supermarket and the courtesy counter to ask the woman there if she knew the girl who had found and turned in her money because she wanted to give that girl and her family five tickets to the circus. The woman at the courtesy counter did. In addition, the woman who had lost the money said, "She told me that the family of the little girl who found my money don't have very much, so they would really appreciate this. She also said that they have three children, so five was the perfect number of tickets!" By the way, the woman who had lost the money wrote about this story online at Dailygood.org. She signed herself "Oneluckylady." She concluded her essay by writing, "At first, I had felt a little weird bringing those tickets to the store but I am SO glad I did! Lesson: Never think twice about doing something nice for someone."
• In 2000, Kevyn Aucoin did the make-up for Hilary Swank at the Academy Awards; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry. (The previous year, he did the make-up for Gwyneth Paltrow at the Academy Awards; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.) Actually, the production company of Boys Don't Cry could not afford Mr. Aucoin's very expensive thousands-of-dollars fee, but in Boys Don't Cry, Ms. Swank played a transgendered teen. Mr. Aucoin, a gay man, was so impressed by the movie and so impressed by Ms. Swank that he did her makeup for free. Mr. Aucoin was an activist in many ways, and he admired other activists. Mary Tyler Moore requested that he do her makeup for a public-service announcement for juvenile diabetes. He did her makeup for free, impressing Ms. Moore, who said, "I suspect that Kevyn helped every human being he came in contact with feel better about life and themselves." Movie-star Sharon Stone is active in raising money to fight AIDS, and Mr. Aucoin offered to do her makeup for free when she appeared in events for AmFAR, aka the American Foundation for AIDS Research. This impressed Ms. Stone, who said, "Let me ask you, who gives anything away for free?" He also did her makeup when she married - on Valentine's Day - newspaper executive Phil Bronstein. Kevyn was born on Valentine's Day, so Sharon brought out a 36th birthday cake for him and then brought out a wedding cake. By the way, the late Mr. Aucoin was very capable of playing a joke on a famous friend. While a camera was filming his technique as he prepared to put makeup on Kate Moss backstage at a fashion show, he announced to the camera, "I'm not going to give Kate foundation. I'm just going to put on a little bit of concealer, just light makeup, only where she needs it." Then he slathered concealer all over Kate's face until she looked like a geisha. She laughed. Also, please note that Kevyn once said, "Everyone has the potential to look beautiful."
The article Autocracy: Rules for survival is from 11/10/16. The whole article is worth reading. Briefly, the rules are:
1 Believe the autocrat
2 Do not be taken in by small sign of normality
3 Institutions will not save you
4 Be outraged
5 Don't make compromises
6 Remember the future
Hannah Arendt wrote in "The Origins of Totalitarianism":
Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.
That describes Predator perfectly.
This YouTube video is the Founding Fathers singing The Day Democracy Died (to the tune of American Pie):
Why isn't the media making any comments about Vindman's brother?
Tonight, Friday:
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'MacGyver', followed by a FRESH'Hawaii Five-0', then a FRESH'Blue Bloods'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 1/21/20) are Patrick Stewart and Dick Cavett.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 1/16/20) are Bradley Whitford, Brett Gelman, and Camila Cabello.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'Lincoln Rhymes: Hunt For The Bone Collector', followed by 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Steve Buscemi, and Zoey Deutch, and Justin Bieber featuring Quavo.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 2/4/20) are Andy Samberg and Ilan Rubin.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 11/14/19) are Jenny Slate and Kathryn Hahn.
ABC opens the night with the chestnut 'Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown', followed by '20/20'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel it's TBA.
The CW offers a RERUN'Penn & Teller: Fool Us', followed by a RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', then another RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'.
Faux fills the night with FRESH'WWE Friday Night SmackDown'.
MY recycles an old 'CSI: Miami', followed by another old 'CSI: Miami'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Titanic', followed by the movie 'Titanic', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY - Shapes and Colors
[7:00AM] DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY - Girl Power
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BEST OF BLUE PLANET II
[10:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE MAKING OF PLANET EARTH
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Ice Worlds
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Great Plains
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Jungles
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Shallow Seas
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Seasonal Forests
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Ocean Deep
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH - From Pole To Pole
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Mountains
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Fresh Water
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Caves
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Deserts
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH - Ice Worlds
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH - Great Plains
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH - Jungles
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH - Shallow Seas
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BEST OF BLUE PLANET II (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'Just Friends', followed by the movie 'Coyote Ugly'.
Comedy Central has 3 hours of old 'South Park', followed by 'Jimi Gaffigan: Noble Ape'.
FX has the movie 'Ted 2', followed by the movie 'The Proposal', then a FRESH'The Weekly', and another 'The Weekly'.
History has 'Ancient Aliens', followed by a FRESH'Ancient Aliens: Declassified'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Reba Eats and Pterri Runs
[6:30A] Bangkok Dangerous
[8:45A] Face/Off
[11:45A] Homefront
[2:00P] That '70s Show
[2:30P] That '70s Show
[3:00P] That '70s Show
[3:30P] That '70s Show
[4:00P] That '70s Show
[4:30P] That '70s Show
[5:00P] That '70s Show
[5:30P] That '70s Show
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men
[1:00A] That '70s Show
[1:30A] That '70s Show
[2:00A] That '70s Show
[2:30A] That '70s Show
[3:00A] That '70s Show
[3:30A] That '70s Show
[4:00A] Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Project Moonbase (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:50am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:25am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] Basic Instinct
[1:00pm] Law & Order
[2:00pm] Law & Order
[3:00pm] Law & Order
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Law & Order
[3:00am] Basic Instinct (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider', followed by the movie 'Zombieland', then the movie 'Pride & Prejudice & Zombies'.
Drama is afoot in the capital of North Dakota. The state is the site of both the famous Standing Rock protests of 2016 and some of the country's greatest crude oil reserves. And it was going to be home to one amazing mural of 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in Bismarck, North Dakota until a whole bunch of people got pissed off.
Shane Balkowitsch took beautiful portraits of Thunberg back in October 2019 when she was visiting members of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation during her trip to the U.S. Balkowitsch uses a specific method of photography: wet plate collodion. This is a complicated process that dates back more than 170 years and is a dying artform.
The artist had hoped to share the image-whose original plate now sits in the Library of Congress where Balkowitsch expects it to last for generations-on the wall of an alleyway in Bismarck. It was to be one of his most important pieces, he told Earther. A 7-foot tall mural was set to cover the wall of the Brick Oven Bakery, but when media covered the artist's proposal, locals kinda bugged out.
Facebook commenters began attacking Thunberg and her activism against the fossil fuel industry, which has a long history in North Dakota. Some commenters noted they'd rather have someone from their state adorn the downtown wall, but others went as far as to promise to boycott or badmouth the bakery. Balkowitsch was not expecting this backlash, but some lunatics really fucking hate this teen, man. It's pretty sad to see grown-ass adults bashing a teen who is, uh, literally fighting for the right to a livable future.
The entire board of the Cesar Academy, which awards France's equivalent of the Oscars, resigned Thursday just two weeks ahead of its gala ceremony after more than 200 actors, producers, directors and movie personalities demanded "profound reform".
The academy had come under fire after Roman Polanski's new film "An Officer and a Spy" topped the list of nominations for this year's Cesar awards, which will be handed out on February 28.
Polanski has been wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl since 1978 and is persona non grata in Hollywood.
The inclusion of Polanski's film on the Cesars' shortlist was condemned by France's equality minister, women's groups and film critics, but the Cesar Academy said it could not be expected to take "moral positions" when evaluating films.
A number of French feminist groups have urged Cesar voters to snub Polanski's film, titled "J'accuse" in France, and called for a protest outside the award ceremony, which is to be held in Paris's Salle Pleyel auditorium.
The U.S. Education Department is investigating foreign gifts made to Harvard and Yale as part of a broader review of international money flowing to American universities, officials said.
The department said Wednesday it is reviewing whether the Ivy League schools potentially failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and donations from countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and China.
The department previously opened investigations at schools including Georgetown University and Texas A&M as part of a campaign to scrutinize foreign funding and to improve reporting by universities.
"Unfortunately, the more we dig, the more we find that too many are underreporting or not reporting at all. We will continue to hold colleges and universities accountable and work with them to ensure their reporting is full, accurate, and transparent, as required by the law," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said.
Federal law requires U.S. colleges to report contracts and donations from foreign sources totaling $250,000 or more. The Education Department said some of the foreign governments and corporations that donate to American universities are known to be hostile to the U.S. and may be seeking to steal proprietary research and spread propaganda benefiting other governments.
The brother of Ohio State University whistleblower Mike DiSabato told state lawmakers at a public hearing Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Cringeworthy) personally pleaded with him to intercede after DiSabato publicly accused Jordan of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of male wrestlers by team doctor Richard Strauss.
Adam DiSabato, who was a champion wrestler at OSU, told members of the state House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan was in tears when he called on July 4, 2018, a day after NBC News broke the story, according to a video of the committee hearing published on the Ohio public broadcasting website.
"Jim Jordan called me crying, crying, groveling, on the Fourth of July ... begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for half an hour," Adam DiSabato said at the hearing. "That's the kind of cover-up that's going on here."
Jordan, he said, called him repeatedly that week. "I had to have my lawyer call him to tell him to stop calling me," he said.
Jordan, a powerful Republican and a top defender of President Donald Trump (R-Corrupt), was an assistant wrestling coach at OSU from 1986 to 1994, a period when the DiSabato brothers wrestled. He declined to comment on Adam DiSabato's allegations.
In a sweeping move, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced Thursday that her office has asked the court to dismiss nearly 66,000 marijuana convictions going back decades, CBS LA reported. In a news conference, Lacey called it the largest such undertaking in state history.
"We believe it is the largest effort in California to wipe out old criminal convictions in a single court motion," she said.
Lacey said that when Proposition 64 passed in 2016 - which legalized marijuana in California - prosecutors across the state were tasked with reducing past marijuana convictions from felonies down to misdemeanors. However, she says her office decided to go even further.
Those eligible include anyone 50 years of age or older, anyone who has not been convicted of a crime in the last 10 years, anyone with a conviction who successfully completed probation and anyone with a conviction under the age of 21.
Of the total, about 62,000 were felony cannabis convictions and 3,700 were misdemeanor possession convictions, some of which had been separately prosecuted by 10 different cities in LA County, including Burbank, Pasadena, Inglewood, Santa Monica and Torrance.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Germans they must reject racism and anti-Semitism at a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Allied bombing raids on Dresden, which killed 25,000 people near the end of World War Two.
In Dresden, a far-right stronghold where resentment over what neo-Nazis call the "bombing holocaust" lingers, Steinmeier addressed a somber ceremony that included forming a human chain to remember victims.
In a mission to destroy civilian morale, British planes pounded Dresden with explosive and incendiary bombs on the night of Feb. 13, creating a firestorm that tore through streets and laid waste to the city's Baroque churches and palaces. U.S. planes joined later.
Historians say the bombing fed a myth of victimhood invented by the Nazis, taken on by East German Communists and later adopted by the far right.
Today, that manifests itself in annual demonstrations by neo-Nazis from across Europe. Dresden was the cradle of the PEGIDA anti-Islam group and the city is braced for far-right protests on Saturday.
Last month has been named the hottest January in 141 years of recorded climate history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The global land and ocean surface temperature in January was the highest on record for the month at 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit, surpassing a record set in 2016, NOAA scientists said in a press release Thursday. No land or ocean areas had record cold January temperatures.
The four warmest Januarys documented in the climate record have all occurred since 2016, while the 10 warmest have occurred since 2002.
January 2020 also marked the 44th consecutive January and the 421st consecutive month overall with temperatures above the 20th century average, according to the release.
Record-warm temperatures were experienced across parts of Scandinavia, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the central and western Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and Central and South America.
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. Week of February 12, 2020:
1. U2; $6,719,086; $130.45.
2. Elton John; $3,281,046; $141.53.
3. Andrea Bocelli; $2,114,177; $165.49.
4. Post Malone; $1,732,321; $114.60.
5. Cher; $1,727,214; $130.67.
6. Little Mix; $1,725,453; $59.50.
7. Tool; $1,505,759; $108.17.
8. Jonas Brothers; $1,495,000; $98.73.
9. André Rieu; $1,418,149; $86.91.
10. Shawn Mendes; $1,251,018; $70.28.
11. Michael Bublé; $1,214,470; $105.11.
12. Marc Anthony; $1,148,820; $106.39.
13. Bad Bunny; $1,081,567; $90.02.
14. Chris Stapleton; $1,035,842; $83.71.
15. The Black Keys; $971,193; $104.43.
16. Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $946,389; $64.67.
17. Twenty One Pilots; $815,543; $73.46.
18. Scorpions; $783,253; $94.40.
19. Jerry Seinfeld; $629,028; $120.16.
20. The World of Hans Zimmer; $578,266; $68.20.
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