The former quarterback caused a problem for the league—which turned to the celebrated rapper for assistance.



Yesterday the hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell held a joint media session at the Roc Nation offices in New York to seal a once-implausible partnership that isn’t being received as positively as both parties probably hoped.

I assume neither Goodell nor Jay-Z expected to be on the defensive once the NFL announced that it would give Roc Nation, the music mogul’s entertainment company, significant power in choosing the performers for the league’s signature events—including the coveted Super Bowl halftime show. Jay-Z and Roc Nation will also help augment the NFL’s social-justice initiatives by developing content and spaces where players can speak about the issues that concern them.

This wasn’t just another routine example of Jay-Z living out a lyric he’d rapped nearly 15 years ago—“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man!” Instead, the rapper faced questions yesterday about why he chose to collaborate with the same league that he’d publicly criticized for its treatment of Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who hasn’t had an NFL job since taking a knee during the national anthem three years ago to protest police brutality and racial injustice. This is the same Jay-Z who showed support for Kaepernick by wearing his jersey on Saturday Night Live. On his megahit song “Apeshit,” Jay-Z rapped this lyric: “Once I said no to the Super Bowl. You need me, I don’t need you. Every night we in the end zone. Tell the NFL we in stadiums too.”

Now he’s in business with the league.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/jay-z-helps-nfl-banish-colin-kaepernick/596146/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_term=2019-08-15T09%3A45%3A53

Was planning on going back to the spot where I saw a Pink Robin yesterday but instead I made a new friend at one of the huts. This time I had my long lens! He only paused for a few seconds, but sooooo close.

#pinkrobin #wildoz #LumixG9

On assignment in Tassie for @NatGeoTravel





https://twitter.com/ewster/status/1161471570918854656

LANSING – The director of Michigan's civil rights department should resign, and if he refuses to do so, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission should fire him, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday.

Until that happens, Whitmer said she will instruct her administration not to directly engage with Agustin Arbulu in light of sexist remarks he made, except as required by law.

"I will no longer permit him to participate in meetings of my cabinet," Whitmer said in a letter to Michigan Civil Rights Commission Chair Alma Wheeler Smith and other commission members.

It's the first time Whitmer has called for Arbulu to resign or be fired since he became embroiled in a controversy over inappropriate remarks he made about a woman outside a meeting in May. Whitmer said he has compromised the mission of the department he leads with his "unacceptable and admitted conduct."

Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights since 2015, made comments along the lines of "check out her ass," about a woman he saw outside a commission "listening session" held at a Grosse Pointe middle school, according to a complaint from department staffer Todd Heywood. When Heywood told Arbulu he found that remark and similar ones Arbulu made objectionable, Arbulu told him it was because Heywood "did not like women," according to investigative records released by the department last week.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/14/whitmer-michigan-civil-rights-agustin-arbulu/2010957001/

I Don’t Hate Women Candidates — I Just Hated Hillary and Coincidentally I’m Starting to Hate Elizabeth Warren

...

So I’m a perfectly reasonable, women-friendly fellow who is completely open to the idea of a woman president. And I never thought I’d hate anyone as much as I hate Hillary Clinton. But to my surprise, I’m actually starting to hate Elizabeth Warren.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve heard that Elizabeth Warren is a champion of consumers and the middle class who battled the big banks and advocates for economic reform. Nonetheless, she rubs me the wrong way.

I hate the way she dealt with Donald Trump’s incessant attacks against her, for example. Why did Elizabeth Warren have to take that DNA test? Why couldn’t she have handled his abuse the exact right way? If I were being libeled by the President at his toxic mob rallies of hate, by golly, I would know just how to turn that into a moment of pure perfection.

And you know the DNA test is a huge deal, because Breitbart published five different stories about it over the course of 24 hours. Though I have never once in my life given a thought about the welfare of Native Americans, I am totally offended on their behalf. The fact they have criticized Elizabeth Warren just bolsters my claim that she’s the worst person ever, besides Hillary Clinton, and thus endeth my Native American advocacy until the day I die.

...

I always tell my daughters they can be anything they want, so long as they don’t make other people feel uncomfortable. They can be as ambitious as they want, so long as they do it in an acceptable manner. They can reach for the stars, which you can see right up there on the ceiling painted to resemble a sky.

So bring it on, ladies! I’d love to see a female President. Just not Hillary Clinton. Or Elizabeth Warren. I am totally open to all other women leaders, but I have to admit that Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar are beginning to make me angry and I’m not sure why yet, but I know the reason will become clear soon, and I’m also wondering what they might look like if someone photoshopped their heads onto the bodies of prisoners and put them behind bars.

Reach for the stars, girls!

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-dont-hate-women-candidates-i-just-hated-hillary-and-coincidentally-im-starting-to-hate-elizabeth-warren

When Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008 and served a 13-month sentence under the cushiest of conditions, it was his bodyguard and driver, former UFC fighter Igor Zinoviev, who frequently picked him up at the Palm Beach jail and shuttled him between the office and various appointments. Zinoviev also trained Epstein in a regimen that included weight-lifting and some light fighting drills. And whenever Epstein jetted around to his various estates, Zinoviev accompanied him, riding along on the pretend billionaire’s Lolita Express.

The mysterious Russian MMA fighter drew some attention from the media after Epstein’s arrest and indictment by federal authorities last month — but he has not made it easy for reporters to find him. There have been — so far as we can determine — no published or broadcast interviews with Zinoviev about his relationship with Epstein.

I spoke on the record with Zinoviev for an unpublished interview in 2015, when I was on staff at the Daily Beast. After numerous attempts in recent weeks, I was able to reach him by phone on Monday, August 12. As before, we spoke on the record. He talked about his response to Epstein’s apparent suicide and his memories of working for the man. A good chunk of the half-hour conversation involved revisiting things he had told me four years ago. To be honest, I didn’t expect that he’d try to back away from the assertions he made in our original interview — but he did. He also seemed, it is safe to say, quite nervous about saying anything at all. Below is a transcript of our conversation this week, with minor cuts and edits for length and clarity. Please note that Zinoviev is not a native English speaker — in places we have left his words verbatim, even when his meaning is not entirely clear, as we have been unable to reach him again by phone to clarify any of his assertions.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/jeffrey-epsteins-bodyguard-igor-zinoviev-on-his-old-boss.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=nym&__twitter_impression=true

George Conway Demands Trump Get Tested for Mental Decline: ‘Ridiculous to Suggest that Nothing is Happening’

Kellyanne Conway’s husband is back on Twitter and he’s going rogue again with his insinuations about President Donald Trump’s well-being.

George Conway, a vociferous critic of his wife’s boss, has not been shy in the past with his view that Trump is mentally unstable. On Thursday, Conway re-affirmed his position that the president needs “a full battery of tests for deteriorating mental capacity” in light of Trump’s most recent blunders and misstatements:

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/george-conway-demands-trump-get-tested-for-mental-decline-ridiculous-to-suggest-that-nothing-is-happening/

My name is Thomas Dambo. I build giant wooden trolls around the world and hide them in wilderness and forests. By doing this, I hope to lure people away from concrete cities and computer screens, into the wild and reconnect them with the natural world. I build all my enormous sculptures of recycled materials to show the potential in this precious material, which is often discarded and becomes a threat to the natural world.





The project is called “The 7 Trolls and The Magical Tower.” It’s a fairytale, told through sculptures and words, hidden in a forest, all made of recycled materials. I know it sounds a bit confusing, but watch the video and it will all make sense.



https://www.boredpanda.com/7-trolls-forest-hidden-sculpture-thomas-dambo/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPTwitter