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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
February 18, 2021
(Detroit Free Press) Paul Walter Hauser's acting is like a secret weapon. When he is part of the mix of a good movie, he makes it even better. And if the content is just OK, his work is still fun to watch.
Hauser wowed critics with his title role in 2019's "Richard Jewell," the Clint Eastwood-directed drama about the security guard wrongly targeted as a suspect in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta.
Among the fans of that performance? Brad Pitt, who praised Hauser on last year's Golden Globes red carpet.
Hauser also has earned kudos for his supporting roles in 2017's "I, Tonya" and two Spike Lee movies: 2018's "BlacKkKlansman" and "Da 5 Bloods." In May, he'll be co-starring with Emma Stone in "Cruella," the Disney live-action spin-off of "101 Dalmatians." .............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/julie-hinds/2021/02/18/paul-walter-hauser-michigan-silk-road-movie/6766232002/
Actor Paul Walter Hauser, a Michigan native, is all about Faygo Moon Mist, Jet's Pizza
(Detroit Free Press) Paul Walter Hauser's acting is like a secret weapon. When he is part of the mix of a good movie, he makes it even better. And if the content is just OK, his work is still fun to watch.
Hauser wowed critics with his title role in 2019's "Richard Jewell," the Clint Eastwood-directed drama about the security guard wrongly targeted as a suspect in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta.
Among the fans of that performance? Brad Pitt, who praised Hauser on last year's Golden Globes red carpet.
Hauser also has earned kudos for his supporting roles in 2017's "I, Tonya" and two Spike Lee movies: 2018's "BlacKkKlansman" and "Da 5 Bloods." In May, he'll be co-starring with Emma Stone in "Cruella," the Disney live-action spin-off of "101 Dalmatians." .............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/julie-hinds/2021/02/18/paul-walter-hauser-michigan-silk-road-movie/6766232002/
February 18, 2021
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is flying home amid widespread outrage over his decision to fly to Cancun while millions of his residents are freezing amid mass power outages.
Now ABC News reporter Ben Siegel brings word that Cruz's staff reached out to the Houston Police Department to see if they could supply personnel to help the senator make his way out of Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. .................(more)
So apparently Ted Cruz is asking the Police to guard him on arrival at the Houston Airport?
https://www.rawstory.com/ted-cruz-cancun-2650611169/?Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is flying home amid widespread outrage over his decision to fly to Cancun while millions of his residents are freezing amid mass power outages.
Now ABC News reporter Ben Siegel brings word that Cruz's staff reached out to the Houston Police Department to see if they could supply personnel to help the senator make his way out of Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. .................(more)
February 18, 2021
Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive of Dallas County, revealed to MSNBC that none of the state's Republican officials have contacted him about the crisis, but that the White House has been offering any help he needs.
Speaking to MSNBC host Hallie Jackson Thursday, Judge Jenkins said that the CEO of ERCOT said that everyone should have powered restored by Friday. While outage maps show that under 500,000 people are without power, Judge Jenkins said that in his area there are about 70,000 people in north Texas without power because transformers have frozen and are offline. He said that technicians are out attempting to fix the transformers.
As for water, he said that facilities without power are the ones that have been unable to properly treat the water and that is the area that is under a boil order. In Dallas, things are a lot better than in most places. .............(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/dallas-abandoned-by-texas-governor/?
Dallas official says Texas governor hasn't even called him amid the crisis -- but the White House has
Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive of Dallas County, revealed to MSNBC that none of the state's Republican officials have contacted him about the crisis, but that the White House has been offering any help he needs.
Speaking to MSNBC host Hallie Jackson Thursday, Judge Jenkins said that the CEO of ERCOT said that everyone should have powered restored by Friday. While outage maps show that under 500,000 people are without power, Judge Jenkins said that in his area there are about 70,000 people in north Texas without power because transformers have frozen and are offline. He said that technicians are out attempting to fix the transformers.
As for water, he said that facilities without power are the ones that have been unable to properly treat the water and that is the area that is under a boil order. In Dallas, things are a lot better than in most places. .............(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/dallas-abandoned-by-texas-governor/?
February 18, 2021
Here’s What’s Hiding Behind the Massive Seasonal Adjustments in January Retail Sales
by Wolf Richter • Feb 17, 2021 •
In whiplash charts. For example, department store sales soared 23% “seasonally adjusted” but collapsed 42% “not seasonally adjusted.” What gives?
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
We had another mind-twister this morning when the media proclaimed that in January retail sales “burst higher,” after the opposite had happened in December, when the media bemoaned the third month in a row of dropping retail sales.
But these are “seasonally adjusted” retail sales, and the seasonal adjustments in December and January are always huge. “Not seasonally adjusted,” retail sales collapse by about 18% to 22% every January during the merchandise-return binge (returns are negative sales) after December’s holiday shopping binge. So I noted a month ago that the massive “seasonal adjustments” in December had gone awry and that Americans had not actually cut back but had splurged in a record manner, documenting this with charts that showed both “seasonally adjusted” and “not seasonally adjusted” retail sales.
And in January, seasonal adjustments went awry again, but in the opposite direction, sort of balancing out December’s “seasonally adjusted” debacle. And then there was maybe a small-ish added oomph of the stimulus checks.
“Seasonally adjusted,” which is what you read in the media this morning, retail sales in January jumped by 5.3% from December, to $568 billion.
But “not seasonally adjusted,” retail sales plunged by 17.3% in January from December, to $510 billion. That plunge was not quite as deep as the normal December-January plunge of 18% or more. And compared to January last year, retail sales were up 5.8%, after December’s year-over-year increase of 4.3%. ...............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/02/17/whats-hiding-behind-the-massive-seasonal-adjustments-in-january-retail-sales/
Here's What's Hiding Behind the Massive Seasonal Adjustments in January Retail Sales
Here’s What’s Hiding Behind the Massive Seasonal Adjustments in January Retail Sales
by Wolf Richter • Feb 17, 2021 •
In whiplash charts. For example, department store sales soared 23% “seasonally adjusted” but collapsed 42% “not seasonally adjusted.” What gives?
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
We had another mind-twister this morning when the media proclaimed that in January retail sales “burst higher,” after the opposite had happened in December, when the media bemoaned the third month in a row of dropping retail sales.
But these are “seasonally adjusted” retail sales, and the seasonal adjustments in December and January are always huge. “Not seasonally adjusted,” retail sales collapse by about 18% to 22% every January during the merchandise-return binge (returns are negative sales) after December’s holiday shopping binge. So I noted a month ago that the massive “seasonal adjustments” in December had gone awry and that Americans had not actually cut back but had splurged in a record manner, documenting this with charts that showed both “seasonally adjusted” and “not seasonally adjusted” retail sales.
And in January, seasonal adjustments went awry again, but in the opposite direction, sort of balancing out December’s “seasonally adjusted” debacle. And then there was maybe a small-ish added oomph of the stimulus checks.
“Seasonally adjusted,” which is what you read in the media this morning, retail sales in January jumped by 5.3% from December, to $568 billion.
But “not seasonally adjusted,” retail sales plunged by 17.3% in January from December, to $510 billion. That plunge was not quite as deep as the normal December-January plunge of 18% or more. And compared to January last year, retail sales were up 5.8%, after December’s year-over-year increase of 4.3%. ...............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2021/02/17/whats-hiding-behind-the-massive-seasonal-adjustments-in-january-retail-sales/
February 18, 2021
(Guardian UK) A magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville.
Last summer, the owners of the Cervercería Giralda – which has been pouring cañas and copas near Seville’s cathedral since 1923 – decided to take advantage of local roadworks and the coronavirus pandemic to set about a long-delayed renovation.
Although local legend and the odd historical document had suggested the site may once have been an ancient hammam, most people had assumed the Giralda’s retro look was down to the neomudéjar, or Islamic revival style, in which the architect Vicente Traver built the bar and hotel above it in the early 1920s.
“There was talk that there were baths here, but not all the historians were convinced and some thought it was all much later,” said Antonio Castro, one of the Giralda’s four co-owners. “We were doing some works and got an archaeologist in, and that’s how the baths were discovered.” ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/islamic-12th-century-bathhouse-uncovered-in-seville-tapas-bar
Islamic 12th-century bathhouse uncovered in Seville tapas bar
(Guardian UK) A magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville.
Last summer, the owners of the Cervercería Giralda – which has been pouring cañas and copas near Seville’s cathedral since 1923 – decided to take advantage of local roadworks and the coronavirus pandemic to set about a long-delayed renovation.
Although local legend and the odd historical document had suggested the site may once have been an ancient hammam, most people had assumed the Giralda’s retro look was down to the neomudéjar, or Islamic revival style, in which the architect Vicente Traver built the bar and hotel above it in the early 1920s.
“There was talk that there were baths here, but not all the historians were convinced and some thought it was all much later,” said Antonio Castro, one of the Giralda’s four co-owners. “We were doing some works and got an archaeologist in, and that’s how the baths were discovered.” ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/islamic-12th-century-bathhouse-uncovered-in-seville-tapas-bar
February 18, 2021
Lame Limbaugh obits: Mainstream media fawns over a toxic bigot who poisoned our politics
Major media finally turned against Trump — but keeps on normalizing the culture of hatred that made him possible
By DAN FROOMKIN
FEBRUARY 18, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) Leaders of our elite newsrooms had a full year to figure out how they were going to frame Rush Limbaugh's life.
He announced he was dying of lung cancer last February, right before Donald Trump gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. It was a striking moment, symbolic of how thoroughly Limbaugh's moral rot had infected the body politic, all the way to the presidency and its most hallowed traditions.
In the ensuing months, even the most stubbornly aloof mainstream news organizations began to publicly acknowledge Trump as a liar, a failure, a loser and an inciter of division and violence.
....(snip)....
And that is why, even with a year to pre-write and edit them, major media outlets on Wednesday published obituaries celebrating Limbaugh's extraordinary success as a "conservative provocateur." They whitewashed his once-unimaginably vile and divisive demagoguery as "comic bombast." They hailed him as "the voice of American conservatism," when what really matters about Rush Limbaugh is that he spread hatred more effectively and lucratively than any American before him. He didn't hide his bigotry and, eventually, neither did the Republican Party.
....(snip)....
The Associated Press obituary, by Matt Sedensky, which is certain to appear in countless newspapers, was headlined "Rush Limbaugh, 'voice of American conservatism,' has died." That was the AP's own characterization, despite the quotation marks. The story quoted Ronald Reagan calling him "the number one voice for conservatism," which is a bit different.
The lead paragraph was effusive:
....(snip)....
There's no denying Limbaugh was a giant, and that his life makes a helluva story. But his legacy is not a media empire, it's his extraordinary influence on the rise of far-right, white-supremacist, reality-denying nationalism. He, as much as anyone, brought us Trump: the constant lying, the virulent racism and misogyny, the hostility toward governing, the corruption, and ultimately COVID denialism and insurrection. .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/18/lame-limbaugh-obits-media-fawns-over-the-toxic-bigot-who-poisoned-our-politics/
Lame Limbaugh obits: Mainstream media fawns over a toxic bigot who poisoned our politics
Lame Limbaugh obits: Mainstream media fawns over a toxic bigot who poisoned our politics
Major media finally turned against Trump — but keeps on normalizing the culture of hatred that made him possible
By DAN FROOMKIN
FEBRUARY 18, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) Leaders of our elite newsrooms had a full year to figure out how they were going to frame Rush Limbaugh's life.
He announced he was dying of lung cancer last February, right before Donald Trump gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. It was a striking moment, symbolic of how thoroughly Limbaugh's moral rot had infected the body politic, all the way to the presidency and its most hallowed traditions.
In the ensuing months, even the most stubbornly aloof mainstream news organizations began to publicly acknowledge Trump as a liar, a failure, a loser and an inciter of division and violence.
....(snip)....
And that is why, even with a year to pre-write and edit them, major media outlets on Wednesday published obituaries celebrating Limbaugh's extraordinary success as a "conservative provocateur." They whitewashed his once-unimaginably vile and divisive demagoguery as "comic bombast." They hailed him as "the voice of American conservatism," when what really matters about Rush Limbaugh is that he spread hatred more effectively and lucratively than any American before him. He didn't hide his bigotry and, eventually, neither did the Republican Party.
....(snip)....
The Associated Press obituary, by Matt Sedensky, which is certain to appear in countless newspapers, was headlined "Rush Limbaugh, 'voice of American conservatism,' has died." That was the AP's own characterization, despite the quotation marks. The story quoted Ronald Reagan calling him "the number one voice for conservatism," which is a bit different.
The lead paragraph was effusive:
Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals and laid waste to political correctness with a gleeful malice that made him one of the most powerful voices in politics, influencing the rightward push of American conservatism and the rise of Donald Trump, died Wednesday. He was 70.
....(snip)....
There's no denying Limbaugh was a giant, and that his life makes a helluva story. But his legacy is not a media empire, it's his extraordinary influence on the rise of far-right, white-supremacist, reality-denying nationalism. He, as much as anyone, brought us Trump: the constant lying, the virulent racism and misogyny, the hostility toward governing, the corruption, and ultimately COVID denialism and insurrection. .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/18/lame-limbaugh-obits-media-fawns-over-the-toxic-bigot-who-poisoned-our-politics/
February 17, 2021
WASHINGTON - Former Texas governor Rick Perry suggests that going days without power is a sacrifice Texans should be willing to make if it means keeping federal regulators out of the state’s power grid.
In a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's website, Perry is quoted responding to the claim that “those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals.” .............(more)
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Perry-says-Texans-wiling-to-suffer-blackouts-to-15956705.php
MENSA member Rick Perry weighs in on Texas situation
WASHINGTON - Former Texas governor Rick Perry suggests that going days without power is a sacrifice Texans should be willing to make if it means keeping federal regulators out of the state’s power grid.
In a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's website, Perry is quoted responding to the claim that “those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals.” .............(more)
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Perry-says-Texans-wiling-to-suffer-blackouts-to-15956705.php
February 17, 2021
(Detroit Metro Times) Two months before Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, an angry mob descended on the basement of the TCF Center in downtown Detroit.
Shouting "Stop the count!" and "Let us in!" they pounded on the windows of a large conference room, where workers were counting absentee ballots for the general election. A prayer circle broke out, and some held signs that read "No Reason for Treason" and "Christians for Trump."
Police scrambled to stop them from getting inside as election workers looked on in fear.
At the center of the chaos were state State Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, and his wife, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock — an antagonistic, Trump-loving power couple whose influence is growing as the state GOP shifts further to the right. ............(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-a-michigan-couple-radicalized-the-states-gop-and-emboldened-insurrectionists/Content?oid=26461313#.YC027te-0RM.link
How a Michigan couple radicalized the state's GOP and emboldened insurrectionists
Part one of an ongoing series on right-wing extremism and the radicalization of the Michigan Republican Party.(Detroit Metro Times) Two months before Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, an angry mob descended on the basement of the TCF Center in downtown Detroit.
Shouting "Stop the count!" and "Let us in!" they pounded on the windows of a large conference room, where workers were counting absentee ballots for the general election. A prayer circle broke out, and some held signs that read "No Reason for Treason" and "Christians for Trump."
Police scrambled to stop them from getting inside as election workers looked on in fear.
At the center of the chaos were state State Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, and his wife, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock — an antagonistic, Trump-loving power couple whose influence is growing as the state GOP shifts further to the right. ............(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-a-michigan-couple-radicalized-the-states-gop-and-emboldened-insurrectionists/Content?oid=26461313#.YC027te-0RM.link
February 17, 2021
Sean Hannity's private plane and the Wake Forest tennis team: A morality fable
Fox News star has attacked John Kerry for using a private plane. But Hannity's own jet has an intriguing history
By ROGER SOLLENBERGER
FEBRUARY 17, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) During a broadcast about two weeks ago, Fox News personality Sean Hannity seized on a favorite trope, saying that former Secretary of State John Kerry, recently appointed to a post as climate envoy by President Biden, "frequently enjoys the comfort, the convenience of his very own private jet" while advocating for policies to combat climate change. Publicly available records, however, raise abundant questions about Hannity's own use of his private jet in support of his son's tennis career at Wake Forest University, and his relationship with the team's star coach, Tony Bresky.
According to NCAA and sports law experts, the timeline of those events exhibits an unusual and at times suspicious level of engagement between Hannity and Bresky, including but not limited to the school's frequent use of Hannity's plane. Facts of that relationship also appear to have triggered a previously unreported federal grand jury investigation — which has been closed without indictments, to be clear — into events surrounding the recruitment of Hannity's son, specifically the striking fact that Bresky purchased a luxury home next door to one bought by Hannity, according to documents obtained by Salon and a person familiar with the case.
....(snip)....
More broadly, the story exposes uncomfortable truths about the quiet leverage of wealth, power and race in collegiate athletics, particularly in low-revenue sports such as tennis that don't have as many eyes on them, or marquee athletes. As the "Varsity Blues" college admissions bribery scandal demonstrated, those programs have been particularly ripe for exploitation, some of which, in those cases, veered into criminality. The Hannity example does not appear to rise to that level — no specific crimes have been alleged, and the grand jury investigation has been closed — it shines a light into one of the NCAA's many legal gray zones, where law and ethics may not always go hand in glove.
The facts of the case
Patrick Hannity, Sean Hannity's son, is currently a redshirt senior on the tennis team at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He signed with the school in November 2016, and officially enrolled and joined the team in January 2017.
In January 2016, about nine months before Patrick officially applied to Wake Forest, his father, through a shell company, became the registered owner of a 2004 Gulfstream G200 jet, with the tail number N329PK. By Feb. 10, according to photograph metadata, Hannity had detailed the plane in black and gold — the colors of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. In more recent photos, the jet sports the Wake Forest logo on its tail. .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/sean-hannitys-private-plane-and-the-wake-forest-tennis-team-a-morality-fable/
Sean Hannity's private plane and the Wake Forest tennis team: A morality fable
Sean Hannity's private plane and the Wake Forest tennis team: A morality fable
Fox News star has attacked John Kerry for using a private plane. But Hannity's own jet has an intriguing history
By ROGER SOLLENBERGER
FEBRUARY 17, 2021 11:00AM
(Salon) During a broadcast about two weeks ago, Fox News personality Sean Hannity seized on a favorite trope, saying that former Secretary of State John Kerry, recently appointed to a post as climate envoy by President Biden, "frequently enjoys the comfort, the convenience of his very own private jet" while advocating for policies to combat climate change. Publicly available records, however, raise abundant questions about Hannity's own use of his private jet in support of his son's tennis career at Wake Forest University, and his relationship with the team's star coach, Tony Bresky.
According to NCAA and sports law experts, the timeline of those events exhibits an unusual and at times suspicious level of engagement between Hannity and Bresky, including but not limited to the school's frequent use of Hannity's plane. Facts of that relationship also appear to have triggered a previously unreported federal grand jury investigation — which has been closed without indictments, to be clear — into events surrounding the recruitment of Hannity's son, specifically the striking fact that Bresky purchased a luxury home next door to one bought by Hannity, according to documents obtained by Salon and a person familiar with the case.
....(snip)....
More broadly, the story exposes uncomfortable truths about the quiet leverage of wealth, power and race in collegiate athletics, particularly in low-revenue sports such as tennis that don't have as many eyes on them, or marquee athletes. As the "Varsity Blues" college admissions bribery scandal demonstrated, those programs have been particularly ripe for exploitation, some of which, in those cases, veered into criminality. The Hannity example does not appear to rise to that level — no specific crimes have been alleged, and the grand jury investigation has been closed — it shines a light into one of the NCAA's many legal gray zones, where law and ethics may not always go hand in glove.
The facts of the case
Patrick Hannity, Sean Hannity's son, is currently a redshirt senior on the tennis team at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He signed with the school in November 2016, and officially enrolled and joined the team in January 2017.
In January 2016, about nine months before Patrick officially applied to Wake Forest, his father, through a shell company, became the registered owner of a 2004 Gulfstream G200 jet, with the tail number N329PK. By Feb. 10, according to photograph metadata, Hannity had detailed the plane in black and gold — the colors of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. In more recent photos, the jet sports the Wake Forest logo on its tail. .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/17/sean-hannitys-private-plane-and-the-wake-forest-tennis-team-a-morality-fable/
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