Monday, October 30, 2017

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 
HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

VEGAS SHOOTER STEPHEN PADDOCK BROTHER ARRESTED FOR CHILD PORN

10:56 AM PT -- We've obtained Paddock's booking photo.The brother of Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock has been arrested for child porn ... TMZ has learned.
Bruce Paddock was taken into custody moments ago in North Hollywood, CA at an assisted living home.
Law enforcement sources tell us ... cops were tipped that there was child porn on his computer and they got a search warrant. Our sources say the investigation began before his brother, Stephen, shot up the Vegas music festival earlier this month.

Our sources say before the shooting cops were trying to locate Bruce without success, but after his brother committed his heinous act a tip came in Bruce was living at an assisted living facility.
Cops say they found child porn images on his computer.
The arrest was made by a joint task force that included the FBI and LAPD.

The brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested on Wednesday after police learned that he was in possession of child porn, according to TMZ.

The outlet reports that Bruce Paddock was arrested in North Hollywood, California, at an assisted living home by a joint task force including the FBI and the LAPD.

Law enforcement sources allegedly told TMZ that police were tipped off about illegal images on Paddock's computer. After obtaining a warrant and conducting a search, authorities arrested him.

The investigation into Bruce Paddock reportedly began before his brother, Stephen Paddock, committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct. 1. 

Police officers were having trouble locating Bruce Paddock, but after the Las Vegas massacre, they received a tip on his whereabouts, TMZ reported.Can evil run in a family?

Bruce Paddock, the brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen, has just been arrested on charges of child pornography.
The investigation was apparently going on before Stephen’s horrific killing spree which left nearly 60 people dead and hundreds injured during a country music festival in Sin City.

Authorities had been tipped off that Bruce was in possession of illegal content showing minors in sexual situations a while back, but were unable to locate him for some time. Only after Stephen’s mass murder-suicide was Bruce found living in an assisted living facility in LA. Details are hazy at the moment, but the FBI apparently checked out his computer and found enough proof to arrest him.
We don’t know much anything else at the moment, but it sounds like the Paddock family name is, to put it mildly, ruined.

 Earlier this month, it was revealed that Paddock's father, Patrick Benjamin Paddock, was a bank robber who used to be on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

He was known as "Chrome Dome" for his shaved head and was captured in 1978 while running a bingo parlor in Oregon.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Friday, October 20, 2017

'Playboy' features model Ines Rau as first transgender Playmate

By Mary Bowerman, USA TODAY Network
Meet your November 2017 Playmate, @supa_ines. "Nudity shouldn’t be taboo. Nudity means a lot to me, since I went through a transition to get where I want to be. Nudity is a celebration of the human being without all the excess. It’s not about sexuality but the beauty of the human body, whether male or female." 📷 by @derekkettela
Cooper Hefner, Playboy's chief creative officer, told the New York Times that choosing Rau as the Playmate "speaks to the brand's philosophy." 

“It’s the right thing to do," Hefner told the Times. "We’re at a moment where gender roles are evolving.”

While Hefner stands behind his decision, the reaction from fans on social media was mixed. Many praised Rau's beauty, but others accused the magazine of using the model as a marketing ploy and "pushing" their agenda down readers throats. 
The Paris-born beauty has appeared in a Balmain campaign and Vogue Italia. She's also appeared in the front row of Desigual, Zuhair Murad and AREA fashion shows.

Rau says it took her a while to find her confidence. "I lived a long time without saying I was transgender," she told Playboy. "I dated a lot and almost forgot. I was scared of never finding a boyfriend and being seen as weird. Then I was like, 'You know, you should just be who you are.' It's a salvation to speak the truth about yourself, whether it's your gender, sexuality, whatever. The people who reject you aren't worth it. It's not about being loved by others; it's about loving yourself."

Beyond the fashion world, the 26-year-old told the men's mag, "I just signed a book deal, and I just shot a film. I really want to be an action star!" She hopes to "call Los Angeles home soon."

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

O.J. SIMPSON PARTIES LIKE IT'S 1995 W/ F. LEE BAILEY

 10/17/2017 
Sompson's inner circle now includes a blast from the past ... F. Lee Bailey.
O.J. and his former famed criminal defense attorney in the murder trial had dinner Monday night at the Palms Hotel in Vegas. A lot's changed since Bailey and Simpson's famous "Dream Team" helped O.J.'s acquittal in 1995.
Simpson, of course, just got released from prison. As for Bailey ... he was disbarred in 2001 and is reportedly broke.
So ... no way the Juice will ask for legal advice or money, right?

Witchy sez : Old habits die hard .  HeHe

Monday, October 16, 2017

Celebrities Who Struggle With Depression

MARIE OSMOND
Depression doesn’t age discriminate, and some people don’t experience it until later in life. Such is the case with Marie Osmond, America’s beloved little sister, who at 40 was faced with a crippling case of post-partum depression that followed the birth of her seventh child. In the midst of launching a talk show with her brother and used to calling the shots, Osmond suddenly found herself collapsed in a puddle of tears on her kitchen floor, unable to cope. “This couldn’t be me, collapsing in hysteria, not even recognizing my own wails,” Osmond wrote in her 2008 book, “Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression.” “This was not me, shaken to the core, sliding into a despair of the deepest kind.” When antidepressants didn’t work, Osmond found her way out of the darkness with a combination of acupuncture, diet and hormone treatments. “This is a physical thing that is fixable,” Osmond says. “I know: I’m a survivor. Believe me, there was no way I thought I could survive. There are answers out there that need to be found.”
DREW CAREY
Comedian turned “The Price Is Right” host has been open about his depression battles for years, revealing in 2007 that it had gotten so bad in the past that he had attempted suicide twice before his late 20s. Because of his day job, he found it difficult to ask for help. “Living in Hollywood…you can feel like you’re the only one,” he says. “You hold it in and you don’t let it go and you don’t try to find help because you think, ‘Oh man, if I tell anybody, I’m going to seem like I’m weak. I won’t get a movie deal!’” He credits self-belief and setting goals with helping him to overcome it, and he read every self-help book he got his hands on. “I read that stuff all the time,” says Carey. “I am always coming out bigger, better, stronger and happier.”
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES
Few people, famous or otherwise, have been more open about their struggles with bipolar disorder than the Oscar-winning “Chicago” actress. While she has been privately coping with her bipolar II disorder for most of her life, symptoms of the disorder flared up following her husband Michael Douglas’ cancer diagnosis in 2010, and she decided to go public. “It wasn’t something I wanted to shout from the rooftops,” the actress, who regularly seeks treatment to stay on top of her disorder, told the Telegraph in 2013. “But when it did come to light, I know I’m not the only person who suffers with it or has to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. So if I’ve helped anybody by discussing bipolar or depression, that’s great.”
LADY GAGA
Moved by her fans’ struggles with identity, depression and suicide, the pop star came forward with her own struggles with depression. “I’ve suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life,” Gaga told Billboard in early 2015. “I still suffer with it every single day.” As a way to help her fans and keep herself on point, the singer started the Born This Way Foundation to focus on the type of youth mental health and emotional intelligence issues that she once struggled with and some of her fans still do. “As I began to care for them and to see myself in them, I felt I had to do something that would remind kids they’re not alone,” says Gaga. “When they feel isolated, that’s when it leads to suicide.”
JK ROWLING
Long before creating the most beloved fictional world of modern times, Rowling was a poor, single mother living in Scotland and struggling with depression. “Clinical depression is a terrible place to be,” the Harry Potter creator told Oprah in 2010. “[While] I had tendencies toward depression from quite young, it became really acute when I was 23 to 28. It is that absence of feeling.” Inspired by her newborn daughter and an idea for a series of books, she pulled herself out of a spiral that nearly engulfed her. “I was still alive. I still had a daughter whom I adored. And I had an old typewriter and a big idea, and so rock-bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt by life,” Rowling told graduates at Harvard’s commencement in 2008. “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”

Sunday, October 15, 2017

North Korea Threatens to attack Guam in Response to US Military Deployment

 


North Korea again threatened on Friday October 13th 2017 to fire missiles near the American island of Guam at Washington’s military deployment in the region, the same day that the US and Seoul announced new naval maneuvers in waters off the Korean peninsula.
“We have already warned on several occasions to take self defense measures, including a salvo of missiles in waters close to the US territory of Guam,” says a commentary from the North Korean agency KCNA, which accuses Washington of “doing constant military maneuvers and actions in sensitive areas “near the Korean peninsula.
These actions “reinforce our determination about the need to tame the United States with fire, and keep our hand closer to the trigger and be ready to take any countermeasures required,” the commentary said.
Donald Trump’s government “is trying to provoke the DPRK with actions such as deploying B-1B (bombers), aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines in the waters around the peninsula “, added this person..
The North Korean state agency issued this comment on the same day that South Korean and US naval forces announced they will conduct high-profile joint maneuvers in waters off the Korean peninsula next week to counter the growing threat of Pyongyang.
The exercises will take place between next Monday and the 26th in the Sea of ​​Japan and the Yellow Sea (known respectively as “East Sea” and “West Sea” in the two Koreas), the seventh fleet of the US Navy will be taking lead roll.
The maneuvers are intended to reinforce the “communications, interoperability and cooperation” between the two armies in the face of North Korea’s weapons development.
“These are regular joint exercises to counteract any North Korean threat and improve the cooperation of our armed forces,” South Korean Vice Admiral Jung Jin-seop, the country’s naval operations commander, said in a statement released by the local Yonhap agency.
US military assets include the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and two Arleigh Burke class destroyers, while South Korea will provide an Aegis destroyer, naval helicopters and F-15 k, FA-18 and A-10.
The maneuvers will take place in a time of high tension in the peninsula following the interaction of warmongering, some say, between the regime led by Kim Jong-un and Trump, who plans to visit the region between the 2nd and 14th of November.
Also on Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan will begin a three-day visit to Tokyo and Seoul that will focus on coordination among these allied countries on how to tackle Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
Experts speculate that Pyongyang could launch in the next few days a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) coinciding with the Chinese Communist Party Congress, which starts on October 18th, or in the face of Trump’s visit to the region. Keep in mind that these are ONLY speculations and NOT Fact.
Consider for a moment that MAYBE the exercises and maneuvers are very provocative to the North Koreans and are whipping that little Korean psycho dictator into a battle frenzy, where he just might launch that missile at Guam or at Seoul South Korea. Why not try removing all the battleships and jet fighters, just as an experiment, to see how he responds and sitting down and talking it out ? All that little man wants is the attention of the world and to be respected as a serious power. Well, he has our attention, anyway.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Steve Bannon reportedly thinks Trump only has a 30% chance of finishing his term

 Business Insider      MARK ABADI      October  11th 2017 
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon reportedly has told people he thinks President Donald Trump has just a 30% chance of completing his four-year term.

The detail came in an explosive report from Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman on Wednesday that cited several sources close to the president.

According to two of the sources, Bannon warned Trump several months ago about the possibility of getting removed from office via the 25th Amendment, prompting Trump to ask, "What's that

Political observers have questioned for months whether Trump will serve the entirety of his four-year term. Speculation has only increased since Sunday, when Republican Sen. Bob Corker issued a scathing critique of Trump to The New York Times in which he called the White House "an adult day care center" and said the president could set the country "on the path to World War III."

Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO and close ally to the president, left the White House in August amid reports that Trump believed Bannon was leaking information to reporters and being given credit for Trump's successes.

Bannon has resumed his perch atop the far-right site Breitbart, where he and allies have been staunchly critical of Republican leaders, including Corker this week. A Bannon-aligned group is preparing to back primary challengers to several incumbent Republican senators in the 2018 election cycle.

Let's hear  what Witchy has to say :
"What's that?"  He asks regarding The 25th Amendment?  Good Lord you  trolls  Elected a Psychotic....  Save yourselves and give the Loony  the boot before it's too late!!
It's not a matter of if, only a matter of when. Even Bannon is open minded enough to accept that Trump is not truly fit for this office.
It will be  a cold day in hell when conservatives start making sense - having been driven to that point by the obvious insanity of DJT. (Donald J. tRUMP)
This  is the problem - his tweets  insults and threats. I know most tRUMP  supporters say they are all for "telling it like it is" as opposed to being "politically correct", but being PC is the language of diplomacy - something that  tRUMP  knows nothing about!
For the sake of the world, I hope Bannon is correct.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

How to put Puerto Rico back on its feet

BY JESSE JACKSON               October 10, 2017
 What obligations do we owe one to another as Americans? What does patriotism and citizenship mean in practice?

Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico has posed these questions. Americans should be dissatisfied with the way our federal government has responded.

The island has been utterly savaged by the worst hurricane in memory. Weeks after the tragedy, parts of Puerto Rico still have no water. The electricity grid is utterly destroyed. Fuel is short. The death toll, currently at 38, is likely to rise further. The danger of epidemics sweeping through families weakened by hunger and exposure is stark.

Even before the hurricane hit, Puerto Rico was literally bankrupt. Its efforts to declare bankruptcy and to renegotiate its unpayable debts were fiercely contested. Wall Street bankers were enforcing a harsh austerity on the island. One of the reasons the island was so vulnerable was that it was unable to modernize dated energy and water systems.

Puerto Rico is an American territory; its people are American citizens. Like those living in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina or Houston in the wake of Harvey, they can abandon their homes, move to another part of the country and start over. In Houston, in Florida and in New Jersey, the federal government moved in to help with emergency assistance and to spur rebuilding of homes and infrastructure. In New Orleans after Katrina, the botched federal response became a national scandal for the Bush administration.

Puerto Rico suffered worse devastation, and it impacted more people. As the hurricane approached, it was impossible to evacuate more than a handful of the 3.4 million people from the island. Getting aid to the Americans there, caring for the wounded, providing food and water, and beginning the process of rebuilding pose far greater challenges than similar responses to other disasters.

The Trump administration’s response to this challenge has been, in a word, disgraceful. President Trump himself was absent without leave for a week; he was more focused on tweeting about the NFL from his golf club. He publicly scorned the mayor of San Juan for doing her job: pleading for more assistance for her people in peril. He slurred Puerto Ricans for supposedly wanting “everything to be done for them.”

When he finally visited the disaster last week, he seemed intent on ignoring reality while boasting about the federal response. He claimed Puerto Rico hadn’t experienced a “real catastrophe” like Hurricane Katrina, and bizarrely praised the official death toll (at the time, 16) as something Puerto Ricans “can be very proud of.”

Trump also told disaster survivors that “you don’t need” the flashlights he was handing to them, apparently ignorant of the fact that 93 percent of the island remained without power. Even as he touted a “tax reform” plan that would gift $5 trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich and corporations over the next decade, he complained to the American citizens in Puerto Rico that they had “thrown our budget a little bit out of whack.”

At the same time, Trump praised his administration’s response as “unbelievable” and “incredible.” His advisers called it a “good news story.”

This isn’t a game. The lives of American citizens have and will be lost because of the belated and inadequate response.

How should American citizens be treated in a crisis of this magnitude? Surely, mobilization to provide disaster relief should be immediate and sufficient in scale to deal with the emergency. Then the U.S. should invest in rebuilding the core public infrastructure of Puerto Rico — the electric and water systems, the roads and bridges. This would not only make the island more resilient for the next crisis; it would also provide immediate jobs and help with the economic recovery.

Puerto Rico bears a staggering and unpayable $74 billion in debt. During his trip to the island, Trump remarked cryptically that “we’re going to have to wipe that out.” Wall Street went nuts, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin quickly denied the president had meant what he said.

Trump, who has bragged that he is the “king of debt,” could use his experience with bankruptcy to negotiate wholesale debt relief for Puerto Rico. The Wall Street bankers who made improvident loans should refinance them for pennies on the dollar. That would give the island’s residents breathing room to begin to recover. If he chose to lead, Trump could push through a major program of aid — a Trump Plan for Puerto Rico modeled on the Marshall Plan for Europe after World War II — that would rebuild the island and insure jobs and growth for its residents.

The cost would be far less than the hundreds of billions in tax breaks Trump has proposed for U.S. corporations that have booked profits abroad to avoid paying federal taxes. Why not benefit citizens who are victims of disaster through no fault of their own rather than corporate tax evaders?

Puerto Ricans are Americans. We should not fail them in a desperate time of need.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Happy Birthday 'Man'


This year, you have nine candles on your birthday cake, so you have nine birthday wishes! Hope all of them come true before you blow out the last candle.
We do not know if you will be an astronaut or an doctor, but we know that you're already someone very special. Have fun!
Today your 10th trip starts - with the earth going  around the sun. We  wish a lot of fun in the next 365 days!
Getting to 9 took some effort, but, you did it!
May your life be a wonderful journey full of happiness , joy and love.

May you always find joy in the little things life has to offer, the way you do now.
Hey, this is your last single-digit birthday. You are getting so grown up — not only in age, but also in the way you act.  We are  so proud of you
Our  precious 9 year old. We are  incredibly proud of the way you smile, laugh, giggle, sing, hum, hug, share and love. 
9 is 6 turned upside down! Whenever you feel old, do a headstand and turn everything upside down, even your age!
Happy Birthday to the smartest 9 year old kid in all over the world!

Daddy , Mama , Jonny , Sha , Jenny , Poppa , MeMa  and all the  rest of the Caranos and Landrieus  and friends .

Friday, October 6, 2017

He was shot helping people during the Las Vegas shooting. His heroics helped his photo go viral.

Washington Post - Washington Post The Washington Post
Heather Long       Photo by Heather Long 
Jonathan Smith was shot at least twice while trying to run back and save others in the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — Jonathan Smith is likely to spend the rest of his life with a bullet lodged in the left side of his neck, a never-ending reminder of America’s deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Smith, a 30-year-old copy machine repairman, was shot Sunday night while trying to help save people after a gunman opened fire on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas. He knows he’s one of the lucky ones to be able to walk out of the hospital, even with his severe injuries.

As the bullets rained down, family was Smith’s top concern. He had driven to Las Vegas from Orange County, Calif., on Thursday to celebrate the 43rd birthday of his brother, Louis Rust, a big country music fan who had attended the festival in the past. They spent the weekend enjoying the music and had scored seats close to the stage for Jason Aldean’s prime-time performance Sunday night.

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When the gunshots started, Smith initially thought they were fireworks. The music kept playing, Smith and Rust recalled. But the bullets kept coming. Aldean looked at his security guards and ran off the stage. Then the lights went out.

Rust realized what was really going on and told the entire extended family — all nine of them, including kids — to hold hands and run. By then, it was a stampede.

Smith was focused on saving his young nieces, but they separated in the crowd. He says he turned back toward the stage to look for them, he saw people hunched behind a sheriff patrol car at the northwest edge of the concert lawn. Others were so frightened they didn’t know what to do. He kept shouting, “Active shooter, active shooter, let’s go! We have to run.”

He grabbed people and told them to follow him toward a handicapped parking area in the direction of the airport, away from Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a large field with several rows of vehicles. Smith and the others crouched down behind one of the last rows of cars.

“I got a few people out of there,” Smith said. “You could hear the shots. It sounded like it was coming from all over Las Vegas Boulevard.”

A few young girls weren’t fully hidden. He stood up and moved toward them to urge them to get on the ground. That’s when a bullet struck him in the neck.

“I couldn’t feel anything in my neck. There was a warm sensation in my arm,” said Smith from the Sunrise Hospital lobby Monday afternoon as he was waiting for his final discharge. He has a fractured collarbone, a cracked rib and a bruised lung. The doctors are leaving the bullet in his neck for now. They worry moving it might cause more damage.

“I might have to live with this bullet for the rest of my life,” Smith said, grimacing from the pain. A large white bandage covers the bullet hole.

Smith believes an off-duty San Diego police officer likely saved his life. The officer came over and tried to stop the bleeding and then flagged down passing cars to try to get Smith a ride. Many just drove by, but a pickup truck stopped and Smith was put in the back of it along with several other wounded victims. By then, he was struggling to breathe.

“I really didn’t want to die,” Smith recalled. The off-duty officer kept telling him he would be okay, just as he had said a few minutes earlier to other concertgoers.

Smith later reconnected with his brother and found out that his nieces — along with the rest of his family — made it out safely.

On Twitter and Reddit, many were quick to hold up Smith as a hero. A photo of Smith has been shared more than 74,000 times, with 177,000 “likes.”

Jonathan Smith, 30, saved ~30 people last night before he was shot in the neck. He might live w/the bullet for rest of his life. #vegasstrip
“I don’t see myself that way,” he said. “I would want someone to do the same for me. No one deserves to lose a life coming to a country festival.”

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

We Americans must face our addiction to guns

BY JESSE JACKSON                  October 3, 2017
 Fifty-eight dead and counting; 500 sent to hospitals. The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history took place Sunday in Las Vegas, as a lone gunman firing from a window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel savaged a crowd gathered to watch a country music show. It was, as one observer noted, like shooting fish in a barrel. The automatic rifle fire lasted for minutes. The shooter didn’t really have to aim; he only had to pull the trigger.

We watch scenes of the massacre on our TVs. The crowd panics and begins to run. The police run toward the shooter, even though their guns cannot reach him and their vests cannot protect them from his military ammunition. Their valor no doubt saves lives.

This is an act of domestic terrorism. The killer apparently acted alone. He had been in the hotel for four days; authorities report he had about 10 guns with him. We will learn more about him, his idiosyncrasies and motivations, as authorities probe for what led him to commit this heinous act. The shooter was a white male. His relatives express shock that he could do this.

If he had been an African-American, there would be a rush to connect this to the demonstrations for equality. If he had been an immigrant, it would have stoked our fears of the stranger. If it were a foreign terrorist, it would be an act of war. (The Islamic State didn’t hesitate to claim “credit” for the act, although authorities say there is no evidence at this point to support that claim.) Instead, the search will focus on what created the madness inherent in this act of mass murder and suicide.

In the Bible, Jesus asks, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). Even as the authorities investigate the mental health of the killer, we need to question our own collective insanity. Why are military assault weapons not banned in the United States as they once were? Why do we accept such easy access to guns? Nevada has no gun control laws; it is an open-carry state. Rifles are part of the West’s rural culture. Las Vegas, the sin city of casinos and alcohol, might want to put limits on guns, perhaps requiring them to be checked as they once were in the towns of the old West. The state legislature, however, has prohibited any municipality from passing its own gun control laws.

No foreign power is as much a threat to us as we are to one another. There is no sanctuary. No place is safe. A Bible study class in Charleston, S.C. A movie theater in Aurora, Colo. A nightclub in Orlando, Fla. College campuses across the country.

Twenty children were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Members of Congress have been shot. President Reagan and his aides were shot. His press secretary, James Brady, formed a group to push sensible gun control laws. But our addiction to guns continues.

After Las Vegas, we should have a national day of prayer. We need a greater wisdom to break our addiction to guns. We make more guns, sell more guns and buy more guns than any other developed country. We also lose the most lives to gun violence.

We have learned to adjust to this addiction. We accept it. When terrorists attacked the twin towers on 9/11, we did not adjust. We resented the attack and we resisted.

Yet as the toll of domestic terror keeps rising, we simply pray for the victims, shrug our shoulders and move on. The Republican candidate for the Senate in Alabama flashes a gun before a campaign rally and gets a big laugh and loud applause.

If we chose to resist the addiction, we could change. We could teach nonviolence and conflict resolution in schools. We could ban military-style assault weapons. We could allow cities to pass far more restrictive gun control measures than rural areas. We could stop peddling a glorified culture of guns and violence in our movies and television. We could make certain that mental health services were accessible and affordable. We could change the cultural morays to help define and enforce acceptable behavior.

Will this country remain addicted to guns? Will it remain impossible to end the easy access to guns? Nothing will change unless we collectively decide we are not going to adjust to this reality. It is time to resist.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

‘Saturday Night Live’ season 43 premiere takes on Trump’s response to Puerto Rico

Alex Baldwin as tRUMP... enjoy  Hahaha!
variety           TARYN NOBIL          October  1st 2017 
Variety“Saturday Night Live” returned for its 43rd season after a record 22 Emmy nominations (and nine wins) on Saturday and it wasted no time getting right back down to politics with Alec Baldwin returning as President Donald Trump in the cold open.

The sketch, which was set in the Oval Office, saw Baldwin’s Trump decked out in his golfing finest as he takes a call from Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico (portrayed by Melissa Villaseñor). When she asked for help in the wake of Hurricane Maria, he responded, “We want to help you, but we have to take care of America.”

Alec Baldwin returned as President Donald Trump for the cold open of Saturday Night Live’s Season 42 premiere. The sketch kicked off with Aidy Bryant as Sarah Huckabee Sanders alongside Baldwin’s Trump in the Oval Office.
When Baldwin’s Trump answered a call from “Mayor Cruz of San Juan” asking for help in the wake of Hurricane Maria, he responded, he pointed out that she was in an island in the middle of the water. “It’s a big ocean, water, with fishies and bubbles and turtles that bite,” he said. “We want to help you, but we have to take care of America first.”

“You do know we’re a U.S. territory, don’t you?,” Villaseñor’s Cruz said. Consumed with shock, Baldwin’s Trump retorted, “I mean, I do, but not many people know that, no.”
The sketch also featured Aidy Bryant as Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kate McKinnon as Jeff Sessions, wrapping with Baldwin’s Trump ditching Sessions to grab a slice of pizza with Chuck Schumer (Alex Moffat).

Watch a clip from the “Saturday Night Live” Trump-filled cold open  above .