Biden Answered the 3 a.m. Call

Joe Biden hasn’t received the full credit he deserves for his statecraft during this crisis, because he has pursued a policy of self-effacement. Rather than touting his accomplishments in mobilizing a unified global response to the invasion, he has portrayed the stringent sanctions as the triumph of an alliance. By carefully limiting his own public role—and letting France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz take turns as the lead faces of NATO—he has left Vladimir Putin with little opportunity to portray the conflict as a standoff with the United States, a narrative that the Russian leader would clearly prefer. He’s shown how to wield American leadership in the face of deep European ambivalence about its exercise.

His handling of the domestic politics of the crisis has been just as savvy. Although he could justifiably have portrayed Republicans as the party of Putin apologists, he refrained from dinging his political enemies. During his State of the Union address, he actively encouraged Republicans to feel as if they were his partners in a popular front.

This is surely redolent of the bipartisan foreign policy that Biden nostalgically yearns to revive. But it’s also an important tactic. By depoliticizing the issue, he has made it likely that Congress will quickly fund aid and arms for the Ukrainian military. And as gas prices spike, it will be rhetorically harder for Republicans to effectively pin the blame on him, because they have been fully supportive of sanctions.

Even as Biden has built a bipartisan consensus, he’s resisted pressure to pursue a more hawkish course. As a Democrat who lived through the 9/11 era, he remembers well how he and other leaders of his party adopted chest-thumping policies to defuse accusations of weakness. For decades, Democratic aspirants attempted to demonstrate their own steel in order to avoid evoking the politically fatal image of Michael Dukakis in a tank.




https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/biden-answered-3-am-call/626976/?utm_source=msn

Just won an NFT. What do I do with it?

Won an NFT for seeing ‘The Batman’. Just a pic of the Batmobile. What does one do with it?

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Former Tenn. deputy accused of raping 14-year-old strikes deal to avoid prison, sex offender status

A former sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee accused of raping a 14-year-old girl struck a plea deal with prosecutors last week that keeps him out of prison and from having to register as a sex offender, his lawyer confirmed Monday.

Brian O. Beck, 47, was indicted by a grand jury in June 2018 on charges of aggravated assault, rape and sexual battery by an authority figure, according to court documents from Shelby County. He reached a deal with prosecutors on Feb. 28 in which he pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault.

Court records show the terms of his sentence include supervised probation for three years and a suspension of a four-year prison sentence, unless he violates the terms of his probation, his lawyer, Leslie Ballin, said Monday.

Ballin confirmed that Beck was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl multiple times and that his guilty plea means he does not have to register as a sex offender.

County court records show Judge Lee Coffee oversaw the case. Coffee could not be reached for comment Monday.





https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-tenn-deputy-accused-raping-14-year-old-strikes-deal-avoid-priso-rcna18983?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Movie Theater Checking Bags After Live Bat "Prank" Interrupts The Batman Showing

A Texas movie theater will be checking all bags after a moviegoer "tried to pull a prank" by releasing a live bat during a showing of The Batman. Over the weekend, a viral video shared on Twitter captured the moment an actual bat interrupted a screening of the new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight. Now a spokesperson for Cinépolis, which owns the Moviehouse & Eatery movie theater in northwest Austin, Texas, is revealing more about what happened during the batty incident:

"Local animal control was immediately contacted, and they have been overseeing the situation to ensure guest, associate and animal safety," Cinépolis spokesperson Annelise Holyoak told CBS Austin. "To ensure a prank like this does not again occur, we've added additional security and are checking all bags upon guest entry."

"I'm at the Batman movie and there are real bats in the theater," moviegoer @Jeremiah24_ wrote when sharing a video of the live bat on Twitter. That video has been viewed nearly two million times. In another video posted by Twitter user @sparty1211, staff can be seen trying to get the bat out of the theater.

"We will use the projector to turn that light off [the movie screen] and I'm gonna turn all these lights off and try and get it to go into this lighted area [an exit]," one employee tells guests still in their seats. "If you are uncomfortable being in the dark with a bat, please remove yourself now."





https://comicbook.com/movies/news/the-batman-movie-theater-showing-live-bat-prank-video-texas-theater-checking-bags/

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Zoe Kravitz Was Told She Was Too 'Urban' to Audition for 'Dark Knight Rises'

Before Zoë Kravitz sunk her claws into Catwoman for Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” the actress said she was told she didn’t have the right look for a role in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” due to her skin color.

After attempting to audition for the film back in 2012, she was told she was too “urban” to star in the movie.

“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz recently told The Guardian. “I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant.”

Kravitz, who is of Black and Jewish descent, added, “Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban’ being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment.”

The “High Fidelity” star currently plays Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) opposite Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. Kravitz’s Catwoman also identifies as bisexual, per Kravitz’s interpretation of the role. She also worked with writer-director Reeves to make Selina a three-dimensional character with her own life outside of the “Batman” storyline.




https://www.indiewire.com/2022/03/zoe-kravitz-too-urban-audition-dark-knight-rises-1234705317/

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Visa and Mastercard to suspend service in Russia