Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Liberal_in_LA

Liberal_in_LA's Journal
Liberal_in_LA's Journal
March 2, 2016

Marco Rubio’s terrible, horrible, not-at-all-super Tuesday



Marco Rubio’s terrible, horrible, not-at-all-super Tuesday

---
this isn’t how it was supposed to be! Jeb Bush is gone and Chris Christie is gone, and all the other establishment and moderate and moderate establishment guys are gone and their voters were supposed to come to Marco Rubio, right? This was the argument? Rubio was on fire over the weekend, blasting Donald Trump and having fun. He crushed Trump at the debate. And here he is, in third in most states, in second in at least one and maybe — maybe! — winning the largest share of Minnesota’s 28 delegates. Perhaps



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/01/marco-rubios-horrible-terrible-not-at-all-super-tuesday/?tid=pm_politics_pop_b
March 2, 2016

Gun-Shaped Accessories Do Not Travel Well

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/YOoEJpH5zZAOy9lE_SankA--/aD01MDA7cT05NTt3PTMzMTtzbT0xO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/.cf.webp
Back YahooTRAVEL Share
FASHION
9
Gun-Shaped Accessories Do Not Travel Well

Jihan Forbes
March 1, 2016

The shoes that caused one woman to stay at BWI airport longer than she expected. Lara Croft, next time maybe pack some L.K. Bennetts and be done with it. (Photo: @TSAmedia_LisaF)

If there’s anything Americans love, it’s firearms, but try taking your piece – or something that looks like it – to the airport. Yeah … good luck getting through a TSA checkpoint with that. A woman going through the Baltimore-Washington International airport learned this the hard way when she had to sacrifice fashion in order to get to her final destination on time.

The woman in question was traveling with a pair of very heavy, metallic-finish platform pumps in her carry-on that boasted a replica of a gun barrel as the heel, with bullet-shaped flourishes decorating the platform.

TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein called such accessories “less than ideal to wear or bring to a TSA checkpoint,” noting that the traveler was delayed because she wanted to bring this pair of platforms along. “Realistic replica firearms and ammunition are not permitted past TSA checkpoints,” she added. Time magazine says it’s unclear how long the woman was actually delayed, but if we know anything about traveling, waiting even five extra minutes at an airport seems like an eternity. Instead of transferring the shoes to her checked bag, she just left them in order to get to her flight on time. Priorities, man.
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/gun-shaped-accessories-do-not-travel-well-183819737.html
March 1, 2016

Syrian astronaut (8 days on Mir space station) is now a refugee

From astronaut to refugee: how the Syrian spaceman fell to Earth
In 1987, Muhammed Faris became a national hero after going into space with the Soviets. Now living in exile in Turkey, he has a new mission – fighting for his fellow refugees

The Neil Armstrong of the Arab world has an office in a ramshackle building in Istanbul’s Fatih or “Little Syria”. Muhammed Faris is a refugee, just like the people milling outside, facing up to the hardest challenge in his life; one that has already seen the roles of fighter pilot, spaceman, military advisor to the Assad regime; protester, rebel and defector.

In Syria, Faris is a national hero, with a school, airport and roads named after him. Medals on the wall of his office honour his achievements as an astronaut (or, strictly speaking, a cosmonaut). Here, hundreds of miles from his birthplace, Aleppo, he campaigns for democratic change in Syria, “through words, not weapons”.

In 1985, he was one of four young Syrian men vying to join the Interkosmos training programme, for allies of the Soviet Union, at Star City just outside Moscow. There had been one Arab in space before, Sultan Bin Salman Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, but never a professional Arab spaceman. Despite the thawing of the cold war, US relations with Iran and its ally Syria were deteriorating. Syrian ties to the Soviet Union were strong: Russia supported Bashar’s father, Hafez Assad, in his rise to power in a coup in 1970. In return, the Soviets were allowed to open a naval base in Tartus, which remains in Russian hands today.

-------
When the violence began, Faris watched as his former students were “brainwashed” into attacking their own people. “They were told if they did not attack they would be killed by the rebels.” Today, some of Faris’s best former students are military leaders, controlling airports and crucial government sites but most have left. “It is mainly just the Alawites who have stayed by Assad’s side,” Faris says.

Soon after, Faris began planning his escape. “Four times, we were ready but I could see it wasn’t going to work. We considered many routes.” With three children and a wife to think about, he left nothing to chance. Eventually, they packed what they could in a car without arousing suspicion and drove over the Turkish border in August 2012. He became, and remains, the highest-ranking defector from the Assad regime.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/01/from-astronaut-to-refugee-how-the-syrian-spaceman-fell-to-earth

March 1, 2016

Mount St. Mary’s University president "drown the bunnies" resigns

Simon Newman, the Mount St. Mary’s University president who astonished many with a brutal remark, inspired some to a new vision for the university, and set off an intense national debate about academic freedom, will step down effective immediately.

Karl Einolf, the dean of the Richard J.Bolte, Sr., School of Business at the university will serve as acting president, the board of trustees announced Monday night.

The change came after weeks of turmoil at the country’s second-oldest Catholic university, which faced questions from its faculty, alumni and national groups — including the organization that provides the crucial accreditation for the university — over its future direction and leadership. Some saw it as a clash between those open to change and those mired in tradition. Others felt it had become a debate over the very soul of the university: Catholic or corporate?

“I am proud of what I have been able to achieve in a relatively short time particularly in helping the University chart a clear course toward a bright future,” Newman said in a statement Monday evening. “I care deeply about the school and the recent publicity relating to my leadership has become too great of a distraction to our mission of educating students. It was a difficult decision but I believe it is the right course of action for the Mount at this time.”

___!


But the real turmoil began this year after the student newspaper, the Mountain Echo, reported that Newman had planned to cull struggling freshmen early in the semester, before a federal reporting deadline, to improve the university’s retention rate.

No students left the school as a result of the survey, but Newman’s remarks after some faculty members expressed concerns about the plan shocked many; he said a professor was thinking of the students as cuddly bunnies but that they had to drown the bunnies, “put a Glock to their heads.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/29/mount-st-marys-future-direction-on-the-table-as-leaders-meet-today/

March 1, 2016

George Kennedy dies at 91; Oscar-winning 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Airport' actor

Source: La times

geoge Kennedy, the veteran actor who built his early career playing heavies and won an Academy Award in 1968 for his supporting role as the tough Southern prison-camp convict who grew to hero-worship Paul Newman’s defiant title character in “Cool Hand Luke,” died Sunday in Boise, Idaho, of natural causes, said his grandson Cory Schenkel. He was 91.

In a more than 50-year screen career, the deep-voiced Kennedy appeared in dozens of movies, including “The Flight of the Phoenix,” “The Sons of Katie Elder,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Earthquake,” “Cahill United States Marshal,” “The Eiger Sanction,” “Death on the Nile,” and the “Airport” series of films.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-george-kennedy-20160229-story.html

February 29, 2016

Video: Rubio caught taking 'mystery substance' at debate

http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/video-rubio-caught-taking-mystery-substance-at-debate/
Just what was that mysterious substance Marco Rubio popped into his mouth during the latest Republican debate on CNN?

While attention was focused on another debater, a video shows Rubio subtly slipping something out of his right pocket and popping it in his mouth.




Pundits have made all sorts of suggestions:

“It was a Hillary Clinton anti-choking throat lozenge.”
“The pills keep his body from rejecting the control chip in his brain.”
“Don’t be ridiculous guys, robots can’t take pills.”
“Who would want a president that needs pills to keep him in control of his own head?”
Armchair analysts have suggested every possible pharmaceutical option imaginable (legal or illegal, addictive or otherwise), but, of course, no one will ever know except Rubio himself.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/video-rubio-caught-taking-mystery-substance-at-debate/#DUeEBPCCTWLWt2zf.99
February 29, 2016

Neighbor fired air rifle, unaware it hit Salma Hayek's dog





SEATTLE (AP) — Salma Hayek's neighbor fired an air rifle toward a dog that had come into his garage and fought with his dogs, apparently unaware that he had struck and killed the actress' dog, authorities in Washington state said Monday.

The Thurston County Sheriff's Office has been investigating after Hayek's dog was found shot on her ranch on Feb. 19, about 70 miles south of Seattle.
Kim Lund, the actress' neighbor, told The Associated Press her husband had not intended to kill the dog.

"We didn't even know we hit the dog," she said Monday, adding that her husband held up the pellet gun and shot it to scare the dogs away. She said one of the dogs was on top of her dog at the time.

Lt. Cliff Ziesemer said Monday that a neighbor told a deputy he was inside his house when he heard what sounded like a dog fight in his garage. The neighbor says he fired one shot from an air rifle and the other two dogs ran off.
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Neighbor-fired-air-rifle-unaware-it-hit-Salma-6861218.php
February 29, 2016

90-year-old grandma forgoes cancer treatment, starts cross-country road trip

Norma’s on the trip of a lifetime.

The Michigan grandma, who was diagnosed with uterine cancer two days after her husband died, was given three choices: surgery, radiation or chemotherapy.

Instead, 90-year-old Norma took the fourth option and hit the road.

____

Since August, the family has visited Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon and Disney World.

Her favorite, she said, was a hot air balloon ride in Florida for Christmas.

“She continues to surprise us on this trip. She’s getting healthier, I think, from eating well and being outside a lot,” Ramie said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/grandma-takes-cross-country-road-trip-not-cancer-treatment-article-1.2547611


https://m.facebook.com/DrivingMissNorma/photos/a.987701797988090.1073741830.898793136878957/987702614654675/?type=3&source=48&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FUS%2F90-year-woman-chooses-trip-lifetime-cancer-treatment%2Fstory&locale2=en_US&__tn__=E

February 29, 2016

Donald Trump Hits 49 Percent Support in New National Poll

Source: Abc

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is stretching his lead to its widest margin, garnering support from nearly half of GOP voters nationwide in a new poll today.

Forty-nine percent of Republican voters say they back Trump for the Republican nomination in the new CNN-ORC poll released this morning. Sen. Marco Rubio earns 16 percent support, Sen. Ted Cruz earns 15 percent, Dr. Ben Carson has 10 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 6 percent.

____
Trump's support also remains widespread across every demographic group, including gender, ideology, age and even education level, where Trump had lagged behind among voters with a college degree.

Other recent national polling has shown Trump with a double-digit lead and support from about one-third of GOP voters.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-hits-49-percent-support-national-poll/story?id=37279402

February 29, 2016

Rubio attacks Trump's small hands

Rubio attacks Trump’s short fingers


Marco Rubio is attacking rival Donald Trump over one of his biggest weaknesses: his short fingers.

Rubio pointed out Trump’s “small hands” in comparison to the billionaire’s height at a campaign rally on Sunday night.
“You know what they say about men with small hands … you can’t trust 'em!” Rubio said.

Comments on Trump’s fingers have been known to set him off.

In a November 2015 column for Vanity Fair, editor Graydon Carter detailed how the Republican front-runner responds to criticism about his fingers.

“Just to drive him a little bit crazy, I took to referring to him as a ‘short-fingered vulgarian’ in the pages of Spy magazine,” Carter wrote. “That was more than a quarter of a century ago.”

In 1988, Spy magazine referred to Trump as the "short-fingered vulgarian" in nearly every story.

Trump defended himself in the New York Post, saying “my fingers are long and beautiful, as, has been well-documented, are various other parts of my body.”

Carter wrote that he still receives occasional photos from Trump in response to the criticism decades ago.

“On all of [the photos] he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers,” Carter said. “I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/271113-rubio-attacks-trumps-short-fingers

Profile Information

Member since: Sat Dec 30, 2006, 02:56 PM
Number of posts: 44,397
Latest Discussions»Liberal_in_LA's Journal