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#did she see a future wherein elizabeth could rule
alinaastarkov · 4 years
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There's a dilemma that you Dany morons don't think about. If Dany is going to be seen as an heir she needs Dorne's support because they have gender equality. Without it Dany is behind Aegon, son of Rhaegar and Stannis, great-grandson of Aegon V. And after that there's even the chance of Robert's bastards being legitimized so she's behind Mya Stone, Bella, Gendry and Edric Storm. Dany has nothing without Dorne. But you idiots can't even acknowledge that she fucked up majorly with Quentyn Martell.
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Right, you asked for a history lesson so you’re gonna get it.
George R. R. Martin has based ASoIaF on a lot of things, but it’s fair to say he has been most heavily influenced by British/ English history. The laws in Westeros are very similar to medieval England, the geography is similar, the Dance of the Dragons is literally The Anarchy (the war of succession between Empress Matilda and King Stephen), the main conflict is based on the Wars of the Roses, etc. 
Succession laws in Westeros are one of the things he took from English history, besides Dorne. The main part of this was something called male primogeniture, which he has copied into the series pretty much unchanged. Male primogeniture meant a female member of the dynasty (or, more specifically a dynast’s daughter, i.e. the daughter of the ruling monarch/ head of the family) only inherited if she had no living brothers and her brothers had no living children themselves. After that, older siblings come before younger siblings, etc. Dorne practices absolute primogeniture, where the eldest child of the dynast will inherit, no matter what gender, and they will always come before younger siblings/ anyone from extended branches of the family.
Having educated you on that fact, let’s educate you on your Stannis/ Baratheon claim which is honestly the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. No one has brought this up before cause it’s really that fucking stupid. Stannis has a claim because of Robert, but you, sir, decided to base this on Targaryen lineage, the ruling dynasty for 300 years, so let’s go. 
Obviously the daughter of the dynast (Aerys) comes before the great-grandson of the king from 50 years ago. Stannis is at least 3 generations removed from any claim to a Targaryen throne. Even in male primogeniture, the daughter of the dynast will always come before cousins/ uncles/ nephews/ any extended family. It’s why Matilda fought for her claim against her cousin, it’s why Mary I became Queen over Jane Grey and other male relatives, why Elizabeth became Queen over Philip II and Mary Queen of Scots and a bunch of male relatives, it’s why Mary II and Queen Anne both ruled, it’s why William of Orange only became King with the express permission of Anne herself who was the rightful heir. I could go on. I don’t know where this idea that Stannis has a better claim comes from cause it makes no sense. Female or not the child of the ruling monarch comes before extended family. Always. That extended family may contest it because they’re misogynists, but that doesn’t actually weaken the claim itself.
The same goes for Robert’s bastards but even more so as they are illegitimate, meaning they technically have no claim to anything at all until someone legitimises them. And by someone, I mean the monarch. Tommen will never do that and I don’t see any reason why any other claimants would either, unless it’s to put someone in charge of Storm’s End. To use another example, this is why Henry Fitzroy was never considered as a future king even as Henry VIII struggled endlessly for a son and both his daughters’ legitimacy was called into question. He was a bastard. End of story. They have less of a claim than Stannis, and Stannis has basically none. Besides, to make a claim to the throne that is weaker, you need a strong army. Robert’s bastards have none, Stannis is losing more of his every day, meanwhile Dany has the strongest army in the series. She has the strongest claim and the power to back it up.
Now, onto Aegon. Going off the law I’ve just explained, Aegon would come before Dany. There are a few problems in universe, however. For a start, Aegon is likely an imposter, and so would have no claim. See Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck as good examples of this sort of thing. The second is that Aerys (likely) disinherited Rhaegar and his children, passing over him in favour of Viserys as his heir.
When Prince Rhaegar and his new wife chose to take up residence on Dragonstone instead of the Red Keep, rumors flew thick and fast across the Seven Kingdoms. Some claimed that the crown prince was planning to depose his father and seize the Iron Throne for himself, whilst others said that King Aerys meant to disinherit Rhaegar and name Viserys heir in his place. Nor did the birth of King Aerys's first grandchild, a girl named Rhaenys, born on Dragonstone in 280 AC, do aught to reconcile father and son. When Prince Rhaegar returned to the Red Keep to present his daughter to his own mother and father, Queen Rhaella embraced the babe warmly, but King Aerys refused to touch or hold the child and complained that she "smells Dornish." - TWOIAF
Had any whiff of proof come into their hands to show that Prince Rhaegar was conspiring against his father, King Aerys's loyalists would most certainly have used it to bring about the prince's downfall. Indeed, certain of the king's men had even gone so far as to suggest that Aerys should disinherit his "disloyal" son, and name his younger brother heir to the Iron Throne in his stead. Prince Viserys was but seven years of age, and his eventual ascension would certainly mean a regency, wherein they themselves would rule as regents. - TWOIAF
Birds flew and couriers raced to bear word of the victory at the Ruby Ford. When the news reached the Red Keep, it was said that Aerys cursed the Dornish, certain that Lewyn had betrayed Rhaegar. He sent his pregnant queen, Rhaella, and his younger son and new heir, Viserys, away to Dragonstone, but Princess Elia was forced to remain in King's Landing with Rhaegar's children as a hostage against Dorne. - TWOIAF
The last passage is especially damning. If it was simply that Rhaegar died, his children would be next in line to the throne over his brother, as I have explained. But Viserys is clearly stated as Aerys’ “new heir”, meaning he passed over Aegon and Rhaenys, deposing them to put Viserys as next in line. Before anyone says this can’t be done/ doesn’t count, it does. Henry VIII deposed both Mary and Elizabeth after removing their mothers and it was completely valid/ recognised. It’s why people called them both “bastards” throughout their lives. He also had to undo that decree before he died, meaning they were both able to rule after Edward. If Henry himself hadn’t undone it, they never would have ruled. So, Aegon’s status as disinherited will stand, even if he is really Rhaegar’s son. Aegon now has an army, meaning he can back up his weak claim, but so does Dany. And the army doesn’t mean his claim is better, either.
Dany doesn’t need Dorne for her claim, only for extra support when backing up her very valid claim to the throne. As I have just explained to you, Dany is currently the person with the best claim to the throne who is not currently sitting on it. Besides, she didn’t “fuck up” anything with Quentyn. She accepted him into her court graciously and did all she could to keep his support, foster a relationship with him and Doran/ Dorne by extension, shy of calling of her own engagement which would have meant the deaths of all her people. Everything Quentyn did after that was because he wrongly felt he was letting his father down and was his own mistake entirely. None of it is on her.
In summary, Dany has the best claim and the power to back it up, Aegon (might) have second best claim (though it’s highly unlikely, in fact pretty much impossible as he was disinherited) with slightly less power to back it up and Stannis has one of the worst claims without the power to back it up. Hope you enjoyed your history lesson! Read the books next time and you could avoid embarrassing moments like this 😬🤗
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ruminativerabbi · 3 years
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The Soul of the Nation
I know I keep saying that I have finally reached the bottom, that there simply is nothing left in the universe’s bag of tricks that could or will surprise me. But it consistently turns out that I was wrong and this morning, as I opened some of my usual news sites to see what was being featured as the morning’s news, I found myself so flabbergasted—and so outraged—that, yet again, I have to eat some crow: I thought nothing could surprise me any longer, but I was clearly wrong. Again.
I am referring to the news report published this morning revealing that the team of lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify the specific would-be migrant families whose children were taken from them at the border, that this team of especially appointed legal eagles have admitted that they have failed, not once but in 545 different cases, to track down the parents of the children involved. And also, just to make the lot of these poor children even more dismal, the likelihood is that about two-thirds of their parents were deported to Central America without any mechanism having been set first in place to keep track of their whereabouts so that they could be reunited with the children taken from them once they were sent home.
This is America? It hardly seemed possible to me then that children were being separated violently from their parents in the first place. But infinitely less possible for me to fathom is that we have somehow failed to create a foolproof mechanism for reuniting this families torn asunder by agents of our own government.
I am not a believer in open borders. I understand the need for would-be immigrants to follow the rules and apply for admission in a dignified, decorous way that conforms to American law. My own wife is an immigrant to this country and she carefully played by those very rules when she came here in 1999. But if the parents involved were attempting to circumvent the law and illegally sneak into our country, what crime did their babies commit? Or children so young then that they are incapable of saying clearly now where their parents were originally from, thus where they would likely have been deported back to. My guess is that some of the children who were taken as babies are probably not even able to say what their parents’ full names are, let alone their original addresses.
This will be addressed in future weeks, I suppose. The current administration is under court orders dating back to 2018 to reunite families separated at the border. Is it even remotely possible that there simply is no way to do that? Jewish readers even moderately familiar with their own history will certainly know the answer to that question. And it does not at all redound to the credit of our nation.            
In my opinion, this issue, almost more than any other, goes to the question of our nation’s soul.
The notion that the national soul is in play in the current election is hardly original with me, of course, as witnessed by Joe Biden’s remark the other day that the campaign for the White House isn’t “just about winning votes,” that is it “about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America.” For its part, the Trump campaign has lately been using the same language: the slogan “Save America’s Soul” surfaced just last week to encourage donors to contribute to the campaign. Reporter Elizabeth Dias wrote an interesting essay in the Times the other day about the use of this specific kind of language to suggest what’s really at stake on November 3, but she didn’t turn to the text I wish to present here with my interpretation as my own contribution to the discussion. (To read Dias’s article, click here.)
She did cite a lot of interesting sources, that I do have to give her. Referencing authors like Frederick Douglass (who felt that the struggle against slavery had to lead to the abhorrence of slavery being “fixed in the soul of the nation”), Lyndon B. Johnson (who spoke about the nation finding its “soul of honor” on the battlefield at Gettysburg), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (who described the mission of the organization now known as the Southern Christian Leadership Congress as one “to save the soul of America” by promoting civil rights and racial equality), she sets a good literary base upon which to stand while expatiating about the meaning of the concept under consideration and asking what it means—or could mean—for a nation to have a soul that animates and guides it along, presumably in some analogous fashion to the way the human soul animates and guides the body that houses it.
But she didn’t get to Whitman, the greatest of all American poets and—at least in my opinion—the author of the greatest of all American books, Leaves of Grass.
Whitman’s poem “By Blue Ontario’s Shore,” opens with a vignette that goes to the heart of the matter. The poet imagines himself wandering along on the U.S. side of Lake Ontario shortly after the end of the Civil War. (I’m citing the poem’s final version; the first was written before the war.) And there he is sauntering along when all of a sudden “a Phantom gigantic superb with stern visage” accosts him. “Chant me a poem,” the phantasm demands, one “that comes from the soul of America.” And then, in case the poet still didn’t quite understand the task being laid at his feet, the creatures restates the challenge:  Sing me, it says, “the song of the throes of Democracy.”
That’s quite the challenge, defining the soul of a nation. But Whitman was up to it…and what he had then to say about the soul of the American nation is as relevant and inspiring today as it was when the poem reached its final state in 1867.
“By Blue Ontario’s Shore” is a long, complicated poem. But the single idea that comes through again and again is that, while other nations exist primarily as entities that subsume their own populations, the American concept is precisely the reverse: that the individual (and, by extension, the rights of the individual) are sacrosanct and the nation is merely the aggregate of the individuals who constitute its population. In other words, what makes America unique is the idea that the nation exists for the sake of its citizens, not vice versa, and that the identical set of basic human rights are thus at the core of both citizen and citizenry.
America, Whitman writes, is “Underneath, all individuals / I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals, / The American compact is altogether with individuals, / The only government is that which makes minute of individuals, / The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual—namely, to You.” That, he is saying, is why the most basic American document is the Bill of Rights, which delineates the rights not of the nation or of the states, but of the individual. This corresponds precisely to what Whitman wrote in the Preface to Leaves of Grass: “The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors…but always in the most common people.”
And that idea, so Whitman, is the soul that animates the American ethos, the notion that the nation can hardly even be said reasonable to exist at all other than as an aggregate of its individual citizens.
In that concept of the supreme worth of the individual rests the mission that destiny has laid at the nation’s feet, making of it not a declaration to inform or a riddle to be solved, but a kind of physically-real poem intended by its author/founders to inspire others to resist the siren call of self-serving nationalism that sees the individual as a cog in a giant machine and instead to embrace the notion that nations exist solely to promote the worth of the individual citizen possessed of inalienable rights and limitless potential. To fit that thought into the question of the children I wrote about above, the fact that the government behaved with respect to those poor children in a way that not a single American would countenance in a million years with respect to his or her own children—that they be seized, warehoused, and lost track of as a way of punishing the wrongdoing of their parents—means by definition that the nation’s leaders have betrayed the people who entrusted them with the mantle of national leadership in the first place.
“These States are the amplest poem,” Whitman writes. “here is not merely a nation but a teeming Nation of nations, / Here are the doings of men correspond with the broadcast doing of the day and night, / Here is what moves in magnificent masses careless of particulars, / Here are the roughs, beards, friendliness, combativeness, the soul loves / Here the flowing trains, here the crowds, equality, diversity, the soul loves.” I love those words because they correspond to my own sense of what makes America unique. Like many, I fear we may have lost our way and need to find a path that will put us back on the track of our own national destiny, one that will lead us to embrace the Founders’ vision of a union of states that exist to create the legal and societal context in which individuals can flourish and reach the fullest flower of their potential. The nation is the individual. No act that the individual citizen would find abhorrent can reasonably be rationalized because it was undertaken by the government and specifically not by the individual. The nation is its citizens. The citizens are the nation. Their moral bearing must therefore be their nation’s as well. Policies supported by none cannot be pursued by the government without the nation sinking to the level of tyranny it was founded specifically to resist.
To me, that is what America is…and wherein lies the specific way it differs from other nations—and particularly from the nations from which its original founders and later immigrants hailed. That intense, unselfconscious celebration of the individual is how Whitman responded to the gigantic Phantom superb with stern visage who demanded of a definition of the American soul. I personally would be incapable of ripping a baby from its mother’s arms at all, let alone doing so without guaranteeing to myself in a dozen different ways that that family will end up reunited when its parents are either granted entry into our country or sent home. That obliges me to speak out when my government appears to have failed in the most elemental way possible to watch over the children in its care. I respond therefore to this week’s revelation not merely with regret, but with rage born of indignation and shame.
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newagesispage · 4 years
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                                                              FEBRUARY          2020
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Just as we said good bye to 2019, 75 of The Rolling Stones outtakes and such were released for a minute on You tube.  The thinking seems to be that the tracks which could be found under 69RSTRAX were ‘released’ before public domain sets in.
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Check out Somebody up there likes me, a doc about the life of Ronnie Wood.
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Bill Wyman has a new book out set for release on Feb, 29 called Stones: From the Inside
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The film, The Burnt Orange Heresy looks great and will open on March 6.
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Steve Martin has been talking about next year’s Hulu series he did with Martin Short, Only murders in the building. I thought it was a bit but apparently it is real and I can’t wait!!
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I loved Samantha Bee’s take on ghost sex: Spook softly and carry a big dick. Too funny!
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Bill Maher just bought a new place in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island for a mil. The area boasts hardly any cars as most people get around on foot or by golf cart.
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Stephen Colbert’s executive producer Tom Purcell came up with the idea years ago for a home makeover show that does a re-do on murder houses. Someone else came along and thought it again because now we have Murder House Flip.
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Abby Huntsman has left the View.
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The Oscar noms are out with Joker leading the pack. There is Leo and Joaquin for actor and Hanks, Hopkins, Pacino, Pesci and Pitt for supporting. That is the TOUGH category. For actress there is Cynthia Erivo and Renee Z. Kathy Bates is up for supporting. Johansson is up for 2. For films, they love Ford V Ferrari, The Irishman, Jo Jo Rabbit, Marriage Story, Joker, Little Women, 1017, Parasite and Once upon a time in Hollywood.
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Dave Chappelle, Marianne Williamson and Donald Glover are helping to raise $ for Andrew Yang.
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The last season of Criminal Minds is officially underway and I was so fucking glad that Dorian Harewood was there for the final shows. Woo Hoo!!
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Neil Young and John Oliver are now American citizens
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Interrogation is a new tv series that looks promising.
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Wes Anderson’s new film, French Dispatch that he wrote with Hugo Guinness, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola will be out on July 24. The production features Benecio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray.
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The Russell Simmons doc about his incidents with women has lost its executive producer, Oprah.
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John Stewart has written and directed a new film, Irresistible starring Steve Carell and Chris Cooper.
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I am so sick of the multiple pens it takes to sign the documents when they sign something into law etc. You are wasting our money signing a letter at a time, politicians just so U can give some crap as a keepsake. Let’s have a real signature! I don’t think the average person would be allowed to sign official papers that way.
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has decided on their new inductees: Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, T Rex, Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G., Nine inch nails and the Ahmet Ertegun award will go to manager Irving Azoff along with journalist and manager Jon Landau.
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Julian Castro is out, Marianne Williamson is out, Cory Booker is out.** Sanders got the endorsement of Nevada’s largest teacher’s union and the black caucus.** Bloomberg says he will use his $ for whoever is the democratic candidate. He is also running an anti-gun ad during the Super Bowl.
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I wish Rep. Doug Collins would stop talking.
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Ken Jennings was the big Jeopardy winner in the showdown.
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Diego the tortoise has had so much sex that he saved his species. There were only a few of them left and now there are about 2,000.
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The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be here July 24.
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Warren and Bernie got into it after the January debate. They sort of called each other liars.
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Hillary Clinton is the first female chancellor of Queens University.** The Justice department inquiry into Hillary has finally ended. They found nothing.
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The Golden Globes had some very deserving winners like Succession, Brian Cox, Laura Dern, Olivia Coleman, Patricia Arquette and Joaquin Phoenix. Tarantino was honored for his writing. I think the best dressed were numerous this year. There was hardly a wrong choice except for J Lo, Thomasin Mckenzie, Ryan Seacrest and Beyonce. I loved Joey King, Michelle Pfeifer, Kaitlin Deaver, Rose Leslie, Cate Blanchett, Ellen and Portia, Phoebe Waller- Bridge, Cynthia Erivo, Eddie Murphy and Paige Butcher, Brad and Leo, Zoe Kravitz, Helen Mirren, Annabelle Wallis, Lisa Lu, Bill Hader, Kerry Washington, Lisa Bonet, Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson, Patricia Arquette and Nicole Ansari-Cox.
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The SAG award also had some very well dressed which included Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Williams, Lupita Nyongo, Zoey Kravitz, Millie Bobbie Brown the Schitts Creek cast and Patricia Arquette. Christina Applegate was a bit too old school but she rocked it. The people on the SAG carpet were very chatty.  Parasite was named best cast. Other winners included Zellweger, Joaquin, Sam Rockwell, The Crown, Laura Dern and Dinklage. I have not seen The Morning Show but I was a bit shocked to see Jennifer Aniston win over Jody Comer, Helena Bonham Carter, Olivia Coleman or Elizabeth Moss. This was an award from her fellow actors so I suppose they wanted to send her some love. Her ex Brad Pitt won as well and went on and on about himself.
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The Grammys were pretty somber with a lot of ballads and the sadness of the death of Kobe Bryant that day. Aerosmith refused to let drummer Joey Kramer play with them and many found the performance a mess. A wonderful moment was Tanya Tucker and Brandi Carlile with their song that went on to win best country song. Tanya Tucker won best country album. Other winners included Billir Eilish, Lizzo, Elvis Costello and the imposters, Gary Clark Jr., Nipsey Hussle and John Legend, Willie Nelson, Michelle Obama and Dave Chappelle. I had no love for the fashion of Ariana Grande or Rosalia. My best dressed were Lizzo, Camila Cabello, Elle Mai, Jameela Jamill, Billy Porter, Bebe Rexha and Alessandria Ambrosia.
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Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a spy captured the most noms at France’s Cesar awards.
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What IS Iran’s cyber capability? Give us details when it comes to Trump’s act of aggression against Iran. Wasn’t he supposed to get us out of the Middle East?** Our own government has concluded that withholding aid to Ukraine was illegal even though half the Senate does not seem to care.
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Dori Miller is the first person who was not a President to have an aircraft carrier named after him. The African American hero was at first not recognized for his bravery but FDR changed that. Construction will be completed in about 8 years.
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Gustav Klempt’s missing Portrait of a Lady was found in a hole in the wall of a house. It had not been seen since 1997.
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Kathy Griffin got married on New Year’s Eve to her long time love, Randy Bick with Lily Tomlin officiating.
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Venture capitalist Imaad Zuberi pled guilty to obstruction of justice for impeding a Federal investigation into the inaugural fraud.
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Eric Swalwell has said that everybody will want the Trump trial in the future wherein the person on trial gets to make the rules. It will be a thing. Who needs witnesses?
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So there is a story that many Puerto Rican’s have had to move to the continental U.S. (mostly Fla.) because of the lack of help they have received from the current administration. Now, they can only vote in primaries in Puerto Rico but when they settle in other places they can actually VOTE for President. Lesson: Help Others!
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A Federal court just affirmed an injunction preventing the Trump administration from discharging air force members living with HIV. It is hard to keep up on all the despicable things this administration is doing.** Scary Clown 45 thinks he is responsible for low cancer rates. They have been steadily going down anyway. He wants a 4.9 bil cut in medical research, 897 mil cut in National cancer institute and a 763 mil cut for the CDC. Luckily it didn’t happen.
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Apparently before the impeachment trial began, Trump’s legal team gave thousands of dollars in contributions to Moscow Mitch, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. What a sad time for this country. KEEP INVESTIGATING ANYWAY.
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A new immigrant prison just opened in Baldwin, Michigan, run by GEO, a for profit prison company.
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The wall is costing about 20 mil a mile and the 100 miles or so completed have mostly been repairs to existing structure. When G W Bush was in office the cost was about 4 mil a mile.** About 30 feet of the wall feel into Mexico due to high winds.
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Season 7 of Grace and Frankie will be the last.
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The White House streamed a sermon from the Holy City Church of God in Christ in Memphis. The event that VP Pence attended for the MLK holiday was led by a pastor who claimed that our gay friends were possessed by demons.
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Days alert: Loved Kristen’s call back to Rosemary’s baby again when talking about little Andy or Jenny. I can’t believe that in those same flashbacks we learned what a horrible Mother’s Day they had.  How could so much go wrong in 1 day? ** Hooray, More Tony and Anna!! ** The heartbreak of John and Marlena and the evil of the brainwashed really harkens back to the heyday of Days.** I wish that the baby mix up story would bring Tate and Theresa back to town! It is time for she and Brady to get back together!
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Rudy has started a podcast.
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I am often not a fan of tradition (royal, religious or otherwise) but I admit it gave me great comfort to see the articles of impeachment walked carefully to the Senate chamber. We still have a little bit of order amidst all the chaos of the Trump era.
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The Astros are cheaters.
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The super bowl will be upon us on Feb.2 with Kansas City V San Francisco.
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6139 military vets committed suicide in 2019. R.I.P.
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R.I.P. victims of the Australian fires, Chris Tolkein, Neil Peart, David Olney , Terry Jones, Mr. Peanut , Jim Lehrer , victims of the Calabasas helicopter crash and Buck Henry.
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