A gay Hillary Clinton campaign staffer got a belated October surprise when his boyfriend of three years proposed to him at a rally for the Democratic nominee in Philadelphia.
In a video created by the Clinton campaign, proposer Greg talks about how he fell in love with Clinton staffer Kyle after they met three years ago in New York.
Greg says that growing up gay, he wasn’t sure if he would ever find someone he could spend the rest of his life with. But quickly after meeting Kyle, Greg says he knew he wanted to be with him forever.
Greg decided to propose to Kyle about three months ago and wanted to incorporate the campaign into his proposal because it’s been such a huge part of their life. With the help of some of Kyle’s colleagues, Greg was able to surprise him at a rally in Philadelphia on November 5 where he popped the question.
Kyle immediately said, ‘yes.’
Which was a relief for Greg, who looked a little nervous.
Afterwards, the couple got to meet Clinton, and Kyle shared that Greg had the campaign’s slogan of ‘Stronger Together’ engraved on Kyle’s engagement ring.
The year’s best action sequence isn’t in a Marvel movie or prestige TV drama, it’s from the first episode of Planet Earth II, which aired in the UK over the weekend. In it, a group of snakes chase a small iguana, which seems at the outset to have a tiny chance of escape.
Good god, that was thrilling. We might have a new champion.
Update: I love Tony Zhou’s cut with the soundtrack from Mad Max: Fury Road (with temp music, he says). Be sure to watch to the end.
Seemingly every day, Donald Trump violates a previously sacred political norm. By almost every measure, he’s a dangerous outlier in American civic history. And yet, though he’s on track to lose on November 8, he retains more than 40% of voters in most polls. As much as the rest of the country wishes it weren’t so, tens of millions of people still want Donald Trump to be president.
Who are these people? What drives them? And who are these people?
What’s become painfully clear this election cycle is that there’s a fundamental disconnect between national journalists — most of them based in New York City or Washington D.C. — and the white working-class Americans who are Trump’s most ardent supporters. But, except for roughly 7,200 articles on the subject, there has been scant effort made by the mainstream media to understand the kind of voters who say Trump speaks for them. So I set out on a road trip to the part of America most coastal elites don’t think about, except when they’re reading one of the fourteen daily pieces in the mainstream media where a journalist visits a town most coastal elites don’t think about.
Bleaksville, Kentucky (or maybe it’s in Ohio or West Virginia, I can’t remember) has seen better days. From the 1950s through the 1970s, it was home to two of the largest pillowcase factories in America, singlehandedly exporting 15% of high-quality American pillowcases all over the world. But beginning in the 1980s, many factory jobs began to be shipped abroad, mostly to China’s “Pillowcase Belt.” And when those silky ladders to the middle class vanished, so did the town’s social fabric. If Bleaksville was already on the ropes by the end of the ’90s, the Great Recession dealt it a knockout blow. It now ranks in the bottom ten in the country in crucial quality-of-life measures like social mobility, teen pregnancy, and Politico Pro subscriptions. Bleaksville’s Main Street was once a thriving hub of commerce; now it’s dotted with used-condom stores, with the husk of an old abandoned monorail looming in the background. There used to be fourteen bars along this stretch, where workers would congregate after a long day producing and assembling pillowcases. Now there’s only one, O’Briens, and it only sells opioids.
I spoke with Freddy O’Brien, a fifth-generation Bleaksviller who operates the bar. He told me he’d already talked about his support for Donald Trump to reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Daily Mail, The Hindustan Times, and Stormfront so far that day, but that he’d be willing to do one more interview before hosting an opioid and pizza party for the high-school football team (which I assume is the linchpin of the community). I asked him why he disliked Hillary Clinton so much, given that her tax and health care policies would directly benefit his family, whereas Trump had personally pledged to take away his father’s oxygen tank and burn it for sport. “People around here are tired of getting spit on, and Trump gets that,” O’Brien said. “I’m angry. We’re all angry.”
“What are you angry about?” I asked.
“Everything,” he replied.
I couldn’t help but notice that people in Bleaksville are angry.
My suspicions were confirmed when I spoke to Ed Sherman, a sixty-seven-year-old retired teacher who has a thirty-seven-foot-tall sign outside his house that reads “Barack Obama Is A Demogorgon From Hell.” Though he believes that Obama is a secret member of ISIS who has recruited Hillary Clinton to smooth the group’s transition into witchcraft, he insists his support for Trump has nothing to do with race or gender.
“I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re white, yellow, or colored. I’m just worried about these Muslims forcing Shariah Law on us here in Bleaksville. Trump’s gonna put a stop to that.”
When I pointed out that there wasn’t a single Muslim in the county, he cut me off.
“Trump’s a businessman,” he said. “We’re angry,” he added.
I wanted to hear more, but he explained that David Brooks had scheduled an interview with him to discuss whether he ate dinner with his family every night, and what it means for America.
While it’s tempting to pigeonhole Bleaksville residents based on small-town stereotypes, the reality is inevitably more complicated. I learned that lesson near the “supplies for visiting journalists” aisle at the local Walmart, where I ran into Alison Loudis, a twenty-nine-year-old lesbian folk singer who recently moved back to Bleaksville after earning a PhD in comparative literature from Brown. She, too, is planning to vote for Trump.
“I understand that Trump is a terrible person,” she said. “Everyone does. We’re not that stupid, and we know he’s out to con us. But people around here are angry. We’re so angry we want to be conned. And maybe while he’s destroying the planet, he’ll wipe out my student debt, too. Get it?”
The people of Bleaksville have a right to be angry. They see a corrupt establishment that has forgotten about their town. They see a Democratic Party that says it’s all about tolerance, but that…sorry, I lost my train of thought. Anyway, it’s easy to say their populist rage is all about race or prejudice, but it’s not so simple. Or is it? Maybe it is — I’m not really sure, but don’t feel comfortable going in either direction. And what does NAFTA have to do with all this? Once again, I’m not totally clear on that, but I needed to mention it at some point. Look, I’ll be honest: I left Bleaksville with no greater sense of understanding about anything than when I arrived.
The important thing to remember is that I talked to some Trump voters.
I Talked To Some Trump Voters, Too was originally published in The Awl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Beyoncé joined with the Dixie Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards last night for a performance of "Daddy Lessons," the singer's foray into country music from her latest and lauded album Lemonade.
The performance, which featured Beyoncé and Natalie Maines trading verses, has been praised as a highlight of the CMAs, which might have been overshadowed by last night's historic Chicago Cubs World Series win.
But not everyone was happy with Beyoncé's appearance at the awards show. The CMA Awards Facebook page is being flooded with angry comments, the general gist of which is that Beyoncé doesn't "belong" at the CMA Awards because "she isn't even what country represents."
On the contrary, Amy Zimmerman wrote for the Daily Beast:
Any viewer who wants to argue that Beyoncé doesn’t belong at the CMA Awards won’t have a strong musical case to do so, and might be forced to admit the real root of their discomfort.
Also present: Dolly Parton, who was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Last month, Ciara Dolan wrote an appreciation of the musician, calling her America's greatest living artist. Looks like the CMAs got the message.
literally cannot stop thinking about this topic today
Whom Care?
Call your dumb family whatever you want
Flickr
Today, online, someone had an opinion. This one was about which words people are and are not allowed to use, which is always a fruitful road to walk down.
Parenting is our connection to the future, the means by which we attempt to influence what tomorrow’s world will be. When people with pets take the title of “parent” and blur the line between pets and children, our language is distorted in a way that only adds to our confusion and anxiety. It may be a gentle delusion to think of your pet as your “child,” but it’s still a delusion. Misnaming our relationship with pets isn’t just a lighthearted goof. It’s a retreat from the world.
Replace “pets” and “children” with any other two low-stakes nouns in this scenario and see if you can muster up the audacity give a shit. “Nanas are not meemaws, so stop calling them that.” “Junior archery counselors are not archery counselors,” etc. Not only do I still not feel strongly, but I’d love to avoid talking to the person who does! Imagine being at a party and accidentally touching upon this topic, and then having to hear this person’s five minute outline of their own parameters and rules for the distinctions between pets and children. Gut me. Flay me. Call me to the kitchen, I need an out.
“Pets,” they might say to you, with a serious look in their eye and a cocktail in their hand. “Are animals like dogs and cats. And children… are not.”
Here’s the thing: Your personal taste is not a hard-wired objective guide for operating within the world. It’s just a system of tips and tricks you’ve found along the way that don’t ruffle your own feathers. Congratulations on not pissing yourself off every waking moment, but presenting your personal preferences to me with a hard binary rubric as though I am suddenly beholden to pick a side is… divorced from reality. It happens on social media all the time, but when it leaks into the opinions column media circuit and becomes an hours-long cross-platform conversation, my bowels evacuate.
“Pets and children,” my Twitter feed was tweeting this morning. “Children and pets.”
I would love, if at all possible, when a piece like this comes out, for people to just go, “Huh,” and then not click on it. “Hm seems dumb,” and then just trust that it is. I know this is not possible, because people love punishment (specifically punishing themselves with really bad art all of the time), but this is my dream and I’m daring to dream it.
So, hey, the next time you see a headline like this, and it sounds like it was written by a troll with a pseudonym to garner the clicks of people who like to look at things and say, “At least I’m not that idiot!” just remember you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Whom care.
Are Pets Children? was originally published in The Awl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Most introverts find small talk cumbersome, but I actually hate all sizes of talk. I especially hate talking on the phone, even with friends. If a friend texts me, “Hey, you’re twenty minutes late! You promised you wouldn’t flake again, are you still coming?” or “emergency i need your help please call me asap,” I just won’t do it. When you think about it, it’s sort of selfish of them to demand that I talk to them on the phone even after I’ve told them multiple times that I’m an introvert.
As an introvert, I hate donating money to charity. I’m just too shy to think about my money going to help some stranger.
which was probably weird cuz i was on the shitter when i watched it
Samantha Bee recapped the final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, pointing out that Clinton was able to do what 16 Republican primary candidates and the entire GOP establishment couldn’t: “beat this dick-waving Berlusconi knock off like a little b*tch.”
Bee also took the media to task for praising the first 40 minutes of Trump’s debate performance as ‘normal.’
Said Bee, “Our media are so punch-drunk from the 16 month Hindenburg explosion of Trump’s candidacy they no longer notice how awful he is unless he hulks out on stage or grabs the foundational principles of our republic by the p—y.”
The funny lady also went after Republicans for appearing so shocked that Trump would threaten not to accept the results of the election. “Looking at the results of a democratic election and saying, ‘f*ck that!’ has been official Republican policy for at least 8 years now,” Bee quipped, referring to the obstructionist measures taken by the GOP throughout President Obama’s tenure in the White House.
Watch Bee dish on all the most delicious moments from the third presidential debate, below.
A very special visitor is headed to Samantha Bee’s TBS show next week. The network announced today that Monday’s episode of Full Frontal will feature Bee’s interview with Barack Obama — or as the press release calls him, “America’s male president, who wore a flattering wool suit paired with sensible leather flats.” The episode airs […]
The main reason is simple, I think, a very “American” reason. But first, a little history and then some other lesser reasons why you’re average American sports fan isn’t a fan of NHL hockey.
The Americans won the Gold Medal against the Soviets in the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics and then mostly dropped off the media’s radar until the “Miracle On Ice” at Lake Placid in 1980. The next year, Massachusetts high school player Bobby Carpenter became the first American ever drafted in the first round, picked third by the Washington Capitals. He then became the first American player to score 50 goals in a season in 1984–85. Because of his and the 1980 Olympics team’s successes, pro scouts turned some of their attention to northern midwest and northeastern U.S. high schools.
United States Hockey had become an actual Thing. But American sports fans did not flock to the pro rinks nor did they gather in large numbers around their TV sets to watch their local team. And they had their reasons.
“There’s too much fighting”
In the 1970s, in the pre-Wayne Gretzky era, this was a truth that even many diehard fans couldn’t disagree with. Led by the Philadelphia “Broad Street Bullies” Flyers, ugly, bench-clearing brawls were common. This goonery led to the anti-fighting movie “Slap Shot” and infamy for the Hanson Brothers.
Dave Hanson, #16, left wing, Charlestown Chiefs. Photo by author. Figure design by Canadian artist Todd McFarlane. Christian sticks sucked, btw.
But since then, several rule changes — extra penalty minutes for fight “instigators,” game misconduct penalties for the “3rd man in” and first man to come off the bench during fights — have greatly curbed brawling. The days of “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out” are long gone, and the number of fights continues to decline markedly year after year. Your reason is no longer valid, I’m afraid.
Fighting is banned in European leagues and the Olympics. You throw a punch and you’re thrown out of the game. But it should probably not be banned from the NHL.
This is a drawback of watching hockey. It’s a fast-moving game with few stoppages. The puck is only 1” x 3”. You cannot “passively” watch a hockey game, either live or on TV. HD technology has greatly improved the TV experience, but apparently not enough to bring in new fans.
In the ’90s, there was silly-talk of changing the color of the puck — desperate times. But then Fox Sports, one of the NHL’s U.S, broadcasters in the mid-1990s, did just that with FoxTrax. Uproarious laughter echoed through North America’s rinks, big and small.
Players did not like the new puck; they complained that it bounced more. Amazingly, this stupid tech trick lasted through two seasons despite a steady ratings decline.
“There’s not enough scoring”
I guess this is a valid complaint, considering the source. (This is also one of the main reasons Americans don’t like soccer.) But back in the late 1980s, during the dynasty of Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers, hockey was much more of a freewheeling game and there was a lot more scoring than there is now. Yet American sports fans still collectively said “meh.”
These days, in media discussions about improving scoring, there is talk of making the nets bigger (idiotic idea), goalie equipment smaller (OK idea), and the ice surface 10 feet wider to match international and Olympic dimensions (great idea).
Meanwhile Gary Bettman, a labor relations lawyer from fucking Queens and the worst commissioner in NHL history (sources: me and the internet) does nothing. I truly think that he — like most Americans — hates the sport.
“Their uniforms are too bulky, I can’t see their bodies”
A few women have complained about this to me over years. (Hey, it’s not my reason, don’t call me sexist.) “I can’t see their butts, their legs, their arms, anything!”
Yes, well, getting hit with a vulcanized rubber disc at 90–100 mph (or higher) opens big wounds and breaks bones even with all that padding. But, just to give you an idea of what some of the most athletic bodies in the world look like, here.
How’s the NHL doing now, ratings-wise? Look at the Stanley Cup finals numbers from the last ten years and look at the amazingly terrible consistency of those low numbers. (You take a look too, Bettman.) Reruns of Old Yeller would have scored better this year.
The numbers during September’s World Cup were even worse (cc: Bettman). Even the big USA–Canada matchup attracted fewer than one million Americans (766,000). And I think about half of that number was silent, glowing TV sets in Best Buys.
So really: why do Americans hate hockey, what is the main reason? I believe it’s simply because they’re not the best at it like they are at baseball and basketball (and “football”). The Canadians are of course far superior but, the USA isn’t even second best. Russia is still better and arguably Sweden is better. Little fucking-less-than-10-million-people Sweden! Fuck those ice-pussies!
What else besides wider rinks would help? A new commissioner who actually likes the game more than he likes the fucking owners would be a great step forward.
LAST WORD
I urge all sports fans who have never been to a pro hockey game to get tickets between the blue lines (preferably right on a blue line, so you can watch how hard a team works to get shots on goal) in the first five rows (if you can afford them) so they can witness how fast the game is, witness the skill these players have at passing, skating, checking, avoiding checks and shooting, all with no time to actually think of doing any of these things. It’s all instinct, reaction, muscle memory from doing that exact same move, thousands and thousands of times before.
Why Don’t Americans Like Hockey? was originally published in The Awl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Trump acquits himself pretty well on Kane and its lessons — although I would not characterize Kane’s fall as “modest” — and his commentary about the film is probably the first actually interesting thing I have ever heard him say. But I watched all the way to the end and he shoots himself in the foot in the most Trumpian & misogynistic way — it’s actually perfect.
He understands instinctively that by controlling the press, he can shape opinions on a mass scale — bending the truth as he sees fit. Over time, and through his marketing savvy, he develops a powerful media empire. Because that’s not enough, he then turns his sights to politics, running for New York governor as a stepping-stone to the White House. At campaign rallies, Kane gleefully brags about his poll numbers, and vows to lock up his opponent Jim Gettys, whom he condemns as an establishment tool. “Here’s one promise I’ll make,” he finally thunders. “My first official act as governor of the state will be to appoint a special district attorney to arrange for the indictment, prosecution, and conviction of “Boss” Jim W. Gettys!”
Kane never gets to fulfill that pledge. Instead, he loses the election-his campaign derailed by a last minute sex scandal. His editors know what to do, and the following day their headlines scream: “FRAUD AT POLLS!”
The piece is entitled Donald Trump Modeled His Life on Cinematic Loser Charles Foster Kane. Consciously or not, Trump does seem to be following Kane’s playbook here, right down to the fascism.
Specifically, Citizen Kane was a vision of what fascism might resemble in America. Both men knew better than to expect Hitler or Mussolini on our shores. They knew that our demagogue would be glossier, more entertaining-more American; and the man they conjured, inspired by real-life plutocrats like William Randolph Hearst, happened to look an awful lot like Donald Trump.
Read the whole thing…this is right up there with the best explainers of why Trump is the way he is. And part 2 is coming soon, an interview with Morris about Trump’s love of Kane.
this is extremely spoopy when you realize that most of the soldiers that wore these died in them
After World War II, the helmets of German soldiers were refashioned into colanders, pots, and other kitchen utensils. This video from the British Pathé archive shows how the repurposing happened.
As for the noise complaints about National Airport, two individuals at one residence in NW D.C. made 6,852 complaints, 78% of the total number of noise complaints.
btw i confirmed with my mom that i did NOT lactate
Witch's milk or neonatal milk is milk secreted from the breasts of some newborn human infants of either sex.[1] Neonatal milk secretion is considered a normal physiological occurrence and no treatment or testing is necessary.[2] It is thought to be caused by a combination of the effects of maternal hormones before birth, prolactin and growth hormone passed through breastfeeding and the postnatal pituitary and thyroid hormone surge in the infant.
Breast milk production occurs in about 5% of newborns and can persist for two months though breast buds can persist into childhood. Witch's milk is more likely to be secreted by infants born at full term, and not by prematurely-born infants.[2]
The consistence of neonatal milk was estimated to be very similar to maternal milk.[3]
Neonatal milk production may be also sometimes caused by medications.[4]
In extremely rare cases neonatal mastitis may develop but it is unclear if it is related to neonatal milk secretion.
In some cultures the tradition of removing the milk ("milking") has been reported. This practice can prolong milk production and other problems can not be excluded.[1] While breastfeeding may also contribute to prolonged milk production and breast enlargement, temporary or permanent weaning is not recommended.
In folklore, witch's milk was believed to be a source of nourishment for witches' familiar spirits.[5] It was thought to be stolen from unwatched, sleeping infants. In other cultures expressing milk from the infant's breasts is supposed to contribute to a good breast shape in adulthood.[1]
Blood from the nipples is nearly always benign and frequently associated with duct ectasia; it should only be investigated when it is unilateral.[6]
^ Paturi, B.; Ryan, R. M.; Michienzi, K. A.; Lakshminrusimha, S. (2009). "Galactorrhea with metoclopramide use in the neonatal unit". Journal of Perinatology29 (5): 391–392. doi:10.1038/jp.2008.246. PMID19398999. edit
