battleblogs

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PHOTO of the day | October 2, 2018 | lna_landscapers_association  | Weekend Vibes 🙌🏼 📸 @designboom lna_landscapers_association #lna#lnamember#landscape#landscapecontractor#design #structurallandscaper#landscaper#outdoorliving#landscapeprofessional#landscaping#landscapeconstruction#lush#greenery#summer#photooftheday#plants#outdoors#entertaining#designer#landscapephotographry#tradie#construction#instadaily#LNA#landscapers#weekend

#2018 #2018oct #photo of the day #linkfavorite #swimming pool

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PHOTO of the day | October 1, 2018 |  accidentallywesanderson | National Tobacco Company | Napier, New Zealand | 1931 | The Rothman Building, also known as the National Tobacco Company, is regarded as one of Napier’s most elegant commercial buildings. Designed by J.A. Louis Hay after the 1931 earthquake that destroyed Napier for German tobacco tycoon, Gerhard Husheer who had founded his company in 1922. Despite the quick and economical rebuilding that took over Napier, Husheer spared no expense for his new building, demanding original plans sent by Hay to be more elaborate and fancy. The resulting design mixes Art Deco geometry with Art Nouveau ornamentation as the building is comprised of rectangular forms that recede from the arched entrance. Bringing some native New Zealand influence to the predominantly European design, Raupo bullrush roses have been carved into the entrance and the sides of the building. This process of using simple geometric forms then enlivened with applied decoration gives reference to Joseph Maria Olbrich’s Secession Hall Building in Vienna. Additionally the implementation of native Raupo and roses for the decorative forms indicates Hay was aware of the work by Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Henri Sullivan whereby applied decoration was integrated with regional characteristics. Between 1956 and 2001 the building was purchased and owned by Rothmans of Pall Mall and subsequently known as the Rothmans Building. During this period the building fell into some disrepair but the current owners ‘Big Save Furniture’ have restored it to original condition and allow public access to the front rooms during business hours.

#2018 #2018oct #photo of the day #linkfavorite #accidentallywesanderson #new zealand

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PHOTO of the day | September 30, 2018 | New Yorker | Brokeback Mountain

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #new yorker #illustration #brokeback mountain

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PHOTO of the day | September 29, 2018 |  rina.loves.it.all | Stumbled on set of a TV show that takes place in Manhattan in the late 1950’s…and saw a row of great period cars in candy-colored hues. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” was filming on West 8th Street just off 5th Avenue because the main character is performing at the many comedy clubs that have been in the area for decades.  | @maiseltv#tvlocation #mrsmaisel #thefabulousmrsmaisel #oldcars #vintagecars#plymouthfury #retrocars #turquoisecar #1950s#filmedonlocation #greenwichvillage#8thstreet #theydontmakethemliketheyusedto #onset #onlocation#coololdcars

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #manhattan #vintage

[battleblogs]

I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old “Aesop’s Fables” adage: “A man is known by the company he keeps.” And that’s why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no. Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally. Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, “Blinded By The Right.” I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton’s 1998 State of the Union address — just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett — at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals — mouth the word “bitch.” But there’s a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary’s image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause. Call it Kavanaugh’s cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoe Barbara Comstock is now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge. At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke. In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer — one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage. When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr’s operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.) Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne’s husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers — we called them “the elves” — who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr’s office — and also that Conway’s go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh. That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair. But the cabal’s godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment (and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the “Arkansas Project” — a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time. Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr’s office. A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh’s own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency. Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he’s changed his stripes. Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh’s hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a “neutral and impartial arbiter” of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires — objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his “independence” from partisan political influences. But I don’t need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is — because I’ve known him for years. And I’ll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh’s views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights. But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago — and, if he’s confirmed, he’ll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us.

David Brock (via politicalprof)

#2018 #2018sep #linkfavorite #david brock #scotus #brett kavanagh

[battleblogs]

PHOTO of the day | September 28, 2018 |  lideylikes | Labor Day BLT bar. This is my new favorite tradition, as of yesterday, and I HIGHLY recommend it. 🧡❤️🧡

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #blt #sandwich

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PHOTO of the day | September 27, 2018 |  mvva.inc | Inspired by the location’s native fauna and maritime setting, the Chelsea Waterside Park’s playground features a gigantic pipefish and pier-pile structure as its centerpiece. Created by Danish play visionaries Monstrum, this is the first structure of its kind to be installed on the East Coast. Photo courtesy of Hudson River Park Friends & Hudson River Park Trust. #mvva #FriendsofHudsonRiverPark#hudsonriverpark#monstrum#monstrumplaygrounds #landscape#landscapearchitecture#archdaily#landarch #chelseawatersidepark#playground #nowopen#manhattan#chelsea #nyc #HRPK #hrpk20

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #manhattan

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PHOTO of the day | September 26, 2018 | Greg Posey | The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento | Sicily

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #photography #greg posey #agrigento #sicily #italy

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PHOTO of the day | September 25, 2018 | David Lebovitz |  I was inspired to go resolutely French with these plums and made a flaugnarde. A dessert with roots in Périgord, and a cousin to clafoutis, one often associates flaugnardes with pears (or at least I do), but found a recipe for one with prunes and raisins in The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney.

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #david lebovitz

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PHOTO of the day | September 24, 2018 | Back Room At Max’s Kansas City | 1973 |  Richard Bernstein exhibition |  For 16 years, between 1972 and 1988, when we saw Interview, Richard Bernstein was the first thing we saw. Whoever appeared on its cover, beneath the lipstick-scrawl banner, there they were as Mr. Bernstein made them: pop gods with airbrushed aura.

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #interview magazine #richard bernstein #manhattan #illustration

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PHOTO of the day | September 23, 2018 |  WILSHIRE BLVD. at dusk in 1928. The Original BROWN DERBY is on the right. Photo taken from the Gaylord Apts.

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #los angeles #vintage #gaylord apartments

[battleblogs]

PHOTO of the day | September 22, 2018 |  The Giant waterlily, Victoria amazonica in the Princess of Wales Conservatory. Did you know that this glasshouse is the most complex at Kew - there are ten computer-controlled climatic zones under one roof!

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #kew gardens #united kingdom #london

[battleblogs]

PHOTO of the day | September 21, 2018 | A large portrait of the dowager empress Cixi, painted by the American artist Katharine A. Carl and given as a gift to President Theodore Roosevelt. Cixi commissioned the portrait to burnish her reputation abroad after supporting the anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion. | Smithsonian Institution | Empresses of China’s Forbidden City | Through Feb. 10 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #china #fashion

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PHOTO of the day | September 20, 2018 |  An Old Texaco Station in Koreatown Is Now a Drive-Thru Coffee Shop With Vintage Vibes

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #los angeles #vintage

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PHOTO of the day | September 19, 2018 |  laobserved | Wilshire Boulevard condo row #rooftop #laobserved | Wilshire Corridor, Westwood

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #los angeles

[battleblogs]

PHOTO of the day | September 18, 2018 | banh_oui | Toasted French Roll, Pork Belly, and Pâté. 🥖🥓🤤 We are open until 9pm today, delivery through @Postmates and @Grubhub 🚗🛵🚲🛴banh_oui #dtla #hollywood #foodie #friedchicken #pate #porkbelly #banhoui #nomnom#madeinla#delicious #brunch #lunch #losangeles #sandwich #sandwiches#yum #market #wings #laeats #infatuationla #eeeeeats #lafoodie #eaterla#infatuation #frenchroll

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #banh mi

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PHOTO of the day | September 17, 2018 |  thesartorialist | I think we still have enough Summer left for a beautiful palette of white and cream, Milan

#2018 #2018sep #photo of the day #linkfavorite #fashion #milan #italy