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TLAIB: Donald Trump is setting a precedent. I reclaim my time.
MEADOWS: Mr. Chairman, the rules are clear.
TLAIB: …with illegal activity, cover up and hold onto business assets to break campaign finance laws and constitutional clauses.
CAMEROTA: So how do you feel about all that today? Do you still, today, believe that, that Congressman Mark Meadows engaged in a racist act?
TLAIB: I believe that that moment, as a person of color, and not only myself. Two, I think three other of my colleagues had mentioned how insensitive that act was. I think all of us, I mean, even folks at home kind of gasped when that actually happened. I think if we want to talk about race in this country, that was not the way to do it.
CAMEROTA: We are…I am being told that Lynne Patton, the woman who was held up by Mark Meadows without speaking then, has just spoken on a morning show. So let’s both listen to that.
TLAIB: Well, I want her to know that it was no disrespect to her at all. I think she should be commended for her extreme leadership, for her work in, in the HUD organization, the administration. But I think for, for many of us, if we want to talk about race in this country, want to talk about some of the actions by this President, as a Muslim-American in this country, I know what he’s said about Muslims. I have seen what he’s said about Latinos and, and African Americans. But even in closed doors and what I think Mr. Cohen was trying to express to all of us, that was not the way I think my colleague should have been able to debate that issue; whether or not to even disagree with Mr. Cohen. I think there was a better way of doing that.
CAMEROTA: And so, back to that point yesterday, which is that as you point out, there were people at home that felt that that was tone deaf and insensitive of Congressman Mark Meadows. You certainly were not alone in that feeling. And so why did you feel the need to apologize to him?
TLAIB: You know, I just want folks to know this is probably the most diverse class. This is the largest incoming class since Watergate. And, yeah, we look differently. And many of us didn’t run to be first of anything, but I think we ran because we wanted Congress to not only look differently but also speak differently and feel differently. And, for me, again, as a person and a member of that committee, I did not feel that I should be silent about the fact that how that made me feel as an, as a equal member to Mr. Meadows and many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. At that moment, it was important for me to speak truth to power. It was important for me to speak out against that action that I thought was very hurtful and very painful for many of us sitting in that committee room.
CAMEROTA: And so, do you regret apologizing to Congressman Meadows?
TLAIB: Well, no. I apologized if it made him feel like I was calling him a racist. I was asked… I was, at that moment, you know, as a person, as a mother, this was a teachable moment. For me, I used that moment to say just FYI, that was not the way to do it. And it was not at all calling Mr. Meadows a racist. I really…if I wanted to, everybody knows this. I’m pretty direct, I would have done that. But I…that’s not what was my intention. It was my intention to, to educate, to share what I was feeling at that moment just like when he was feeling at that moment of what his reaction was to the comments from Mr. Cohen. I’m really, you know, wanted to focus to discuss race in this country in a way that can be really thoughtful and constructive, not in a way that’s very dramatic. And, and, and again, no disrespect to her, but just to having her stand there saying nothing and saying look, he’s not a racist. Again, I was still taken aback and still to this day, was like that was not the way to do it.
CAMEROTA: I mean, look, I think this is a teachable moment and I think that we are all having these sensitive, you know, what used to be taboo conversations about race. And that’s why I’m, I’m interested in whether or not you can separate a racist statement or a racist act from the person. And, case in point, in 2012, you know, Congressman Mark Meadows engaged in the birtherism talk, where he doubted that President Obama was born here. Let me just remind our viewers of what he said back then.
MEADOWS: Well, it’s good to be here with you today. I thank you so much for allowing me just a few minutes to talk with you to share a few things that …you know, it’s, it’s interesting when the more we find out, the more we realize how wrong the direction we’re going. And so what we’re going to do is take back our country. 2012 is the time that we’re going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is…we’re going to do it.
CAMEROTA: Does seeing that change how you feel about him?
TLAIB: Look, I’m there because I think people of color have been really missing in, in Congress. There are so many incredible, incredible leadership. John Lewis, Elijah Cummings, Barbara Lee, and so many people of color right now in Congress that are using this opportunity of being in that space and, and teaching our colleagues I think the right way of talking about race in this country. And so, just to go back, I think Congress, Congressman Meadows understood where I was coming from. He knew what my intention was at the end and that’s why he decided to take, you know, I think his objections back. And again, as somebody sitting in that room, I didn’t feel like it was something to be silent about. I think I needed to express my frustration and also the hurt that I think a lot of us felt at the moment that that action of having her stand up like that in a committee hearing.
CAMEROTA: But just to be clear, you still, today, feel that he is not racist.
TLAIB: Look, I feel like the act was, and that’s up to the American people to decide whether or not he is.
If you've heard the song "Chocolate Rain," you know who Tay Zonday is.
If you haven't, well, where the hell have you been? You probably haven't heard of Adam Bahner, the hardworking Zonday, a PhD candidate in American studies at the University of Minnesota who's behind Tay Zonday's success.
Bahner, a 25-year-old native of the Chicago burbs, gives Tay Zonday his deep singing voice in the popular videos on youtube.com. But that doesn't mean that Zonday -- or Bahner -- are locked down to a URL. They're shooting into the mainstream thanks to exposure on VH1, CNN and "Jimmy Kimmel Live."
But Zonday/Bahner knows how to keep it real. His first live gig? A block party in Chicago.
What's been the best thing to come out of "Chocolate Rain" thus far?
I guess it would be the VH1 parody of the song. It was certainly interesting.
What did you make of John Mayer's version of "Chocolate Rain"?
It's embarrassing, but I haven't watched it yet. I did see the Tre Cool one.
The song has an incredibly catchy hook and doesn't sound like anything else out right now. What music are you influenced by?
I was fairly sheltered from pop music as a kid, and I came up in a period where artists and albums became less important than the downloaded individual file. I have a fairly motley collection of music and never really paid that much attention to who I was listening to.
On YouTube you've posted over a dozen original songs and one cover. What made you decide to cover Rick Astley?
It was actually widely requested. I'm a little concerned about it because I'm not sure what the rules are about copyrighted music on YouTube. I'm just not sure if I should be doing copyrighted karaoke on YouTube.
How have your friends and family reacted to the sudden rise of Tay Zonday?
They've been the stabilizing force. I still have school work and an existing career path to follow. If I could make music and guarantee stable income with health care I probably would. But I'm not quitting my day job at this point.
Why did you decide to go to grad school for American Studies?
Good question. I think I have always associated going to conservatory and getting a performance degree to condemning myself to a life of poverty and instability. I've always been afraid of turning into the stereotypical starving artist.
So it sounds like there are two people that reside inside you.
Well I think Adam Bahner is the responsible, conservative student going to school. Tay Zonday is just a character that likes to make music.
How did you come up with Tay Zonday?
I did searches on Google until I came up with something that didn't have any hits. I like it because it's catchy and it's only me!
Has anybody contacted you about putting "Chocolate Rain" in record stores?
I've been contacted by several indie labels, but right now all the attention has been so overwhelming I haven't really explored that.
What's next for Tay Zonday?
Nothing's happened to allow me to abandon what I'm doing right now. Tay Zonday would like to do music full time, but I think Adam Bahner has a little more sense. Maybe there will be another hit, maybe there won't. I wouldn't mind doing some voice-over work.
- It has earned almost 6 million YouTube views.
- It has spawned such a tidal wave of remixes, riffs, covers, mash-ups, cartoons and spoofs that only "Numa Numa" and "Star Wars Kid" may have more imitators.
- Zonday is no one-hit wonder. All 17 of his YouTube videos have achieved success. His karaoke version of "Never Gonna Give You Up" has scored 1,070,306 hits.
In the new bio-pic, Margaret Thatcher's iron isn’t just rusty, it’s melted down into something soft and personal. The Iron Lady gives us Thatcher, the ABBA Version. It’s the last thing we need.
The Iron Lady just opened in London where, let’s hope, it generates some serious critique. The critical silence in the United States has been astounding, only made worse by the praise, not just for the film but for its subject, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played in the movie by Meryl Streep.
Streep’s already winning awards and accolades, and Oscars are probably on the way. People are saying the film’s no whitewash because it shows the former Prime Minister in her dotage, fighting dementia—three decades after she came to power. Director Phyllida Lloyd has described the treatment as operatic. Streep’s called it revealing. The two collaborated before on the musical Mamma Mia! The truth is, in Lloyd’s hands Thatcher’s iron isn’t just rusty, it’s melted down and depoliticized, made feminist enough to root for and ultimately sad enough for some to sniffle at. The Iron Lady is Thatcher—The ABBA Version. It’s the last thing we need, ever, and especially at this point.
Think of Thatcher and I think of hungry people. Irish hunger strikers, first of all, ten of whom starved to death for status as political prisoners on her watch. Thatcher insisted anti-government rebels in Afghanistan were “resistance fighters,” not terrorists, but it was a different story for the Irish. Indeed, in Thatcher’s time, there was to be no story, no effort to understand the reasons for the conflict in Northern Ireland; certainly there was to be no discussion or consideration in public of why anyone might pick up a gun, or place a bomb or starve themselves to death.
Long before the USA Patriot Act and the 9/11 demonization of asking “why,” Britons were starved of information about the so-called “troubles.” Under an ever-expanding Prevention of Terrorism Act, British journalists were forced to report to police any contact with any “known or suspected terrorist.” Irish parties to the conflict were banned from speaking on radio and TV, yet Thatcher’s government could tell the public any lie it liked. When British secret service snipers shot and killed three unarmed IRA members (two men and a woman, Mairead Farrell) on the island of Gibraltar in 1988, Thatcher’s government released an official story about crossfire and a gun fight and a bomb planted near an old people’s home. Video footage of an impressive little military robot supposedly defusing an incendiary device played on the evening news. It was all a crock. Lloyd’s film shows the IRA’s bombings and bloodshed but not the denial and the deadly government tactics, which likely delayed peace talks for a decade.
Think of Thatcher and I think of the hungry people who started showing up in villages in Yorkshire and Scotland and Wales where work was scarce because Thatcher’s experts decided nuclear power was a better energy source than unionized coalfields. Miners went on strike—for a year. Their wives and children collected soup-kitchen money from their churches and their neighbors and when they ran out, they went down to London where they tried to tell their story of helmeted horsemen charging the ranks of union strikers and police bashing men’s heads in. But Londoners didn’t believe them. They’d heard the miners were greedy and dangerous and a threat to their jobs. After all, “trade union power is the true cause of unemployment,” said Thatcher. The 1984 strike by the National Union of Mineworkers gets a couple of seconds on screen in Lloyd’s film, but there’s no explanation, no follow-up and no consideration: does anyone wish now that they’d listened to the miners then?
“There is no such thing as society. Only individuals,” Thatcher also said. With more spending by successive Thatcher governments on police (so-called “law and order”) and less on just about everything else, “no society” became true soon enough. The Iron Lady shows Prime Minister Thatcher overruling her “wet” male colleagues over waging war with Argentina. A few hundred far-off Falkland Islanders were worth fighting for, she famously decided. A take-control feminist? The film ignores the families in Toxteth (inner-city Liverpool) and Brixton (a largely black neighborhood in London) whom Thatcher found it quite acceptable to sacrifice. Cabinet papers released by the National Archives just now under a thirty-year rule reveal Thatcher’s closest advisers told her that the “concentration of hopelessness” on Merseyside was “very largely self-inflicted” and not worth government repair.
Thatcher didn’t—actually—evacuate Liverpool in the aftermath of the 1981 inner-city riots. She led something more insidious. With her professionally crafted “grocer’s daughter” image, Thatcher gave class-conscious Britons permission to dismiss real human difficulties with a blow-dried bourgeois smirk: Unemployed? Get on yer bike! Said her administration. Got a problem? You’re the problem! In Maggie’s world, deprivation is your own damn fault.
Nor did Thatcher give people permission only to look away. Under Thatcher and egged on by her, those who could leave troubled towns and troubled people did, and so did government. We’d “mind the gap” (between the train and the platform) on the London Underground, but we came not to mind the gap between the rich and the rest, the north and the south; the possibilities people had if they needed things to be public and the possibilities they had if they could pay for the private stuff—the private healthcare, the private school, the private house. Today, in a new time of budget wars, The Iron Lady’s depiction of draconian cuts as feminist guts is chilling. What Thatcher called “harsh medicine” meant one thing for the poor and another for the very powerful then, and it still does. In both instances, there is hell to pay in social fabric.
I don’t remember if Lloyd’s Lady quotes the real lady’s most famous phrase: “There is No Alternative.” Certainly TINA deserves star billing. Thatcher’s quip about globalized capitalism has defined our epoch. People can debate the successes and failures of “the Thatcher era” all they like. One thing’s for certain: we don’t need a new one, because the old one’s still here. The consequences of the politicies Thatcher pioneered and made respectable—deregulation, privatization and globalization—can be measured in public costs and private profits on both sides of the Atlantic. More damning, even, is the enduring cultural habit of denial (looking away) and the political practice of silence—shutting the problem people up.
Grow the gap between government and the governed and you get what we have: a burnt-out world driven by the super-super-rich where some are stealing others blind and billions are alienated or angry, sure that government has nothing to offer but a bash on the head.
Lloyd’s soft-pop version deals with none of this. Ironically, the “deeds matter” Thatcher herself would probably be the first to dislike this shrunken, personal-over-political fantasy of her inner life. Lucky for us, we don’t need to worry about her. We need to worry about us. We are not demented. There are alternatives. There always have been. What we need (among other things) are more movies about the women—and maybe a few of the men—bringing those to life.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ), the country’s largest telecom and technology company, has completed the installation of a solar power system at its head office in Msasa, Harare.
The 99.9KW solar system, which was installed by Distributed Power Africa (DPA), a pan-African renewable energy company with links to the Econet group, will generate enough power to meet Econet’s local head office energy requirements, making the company’s Msasa offices 100 percent dependent on clean, renewable energy.
The successful installation, in which photovoltaic (solar) panels where mounted on the company’s carports, follows the commissioning of a rooftop solar system by DPA at Econet’s Graniteside premises, the site of the company’s 220-seater call centre, situated about 10km south of Harare’s central business district.
DPA says it is on course to complete a total of 1MW (or 1.000 KW) solar projects for Econet by the end of 2018, with the telecom giant’s large Willowvale complex next in line for a major deployment following its licensing by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulation Authority (Zera).
The licensing allows Econet to build, own and operate a solar plant to generate and supply power for its own consumption, according to the licensing provisions published in the local media in April 2018.
The Willowvale complex – a major hub for Econet’s mobile telecoms and technology network operations – houses critical infrastructure that powers significant components of company’s 11-million subscriber network.
Econet has taken a lead role in the use of clean energy by ensuring that all its office and company premises across the country operate on solar power.
“We are excited about the completion of the Msasa installation project because it is something we have been looking forward to,” Econet chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni said.
“With Graniteside and Msasa done, the focus is now on Willowvale, followed soon after by Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru and Masvingo projects,” Mboweni said.
“The use of clean, renewable energy is something we believe in from a sustainability point of view, with respect to protecting our environment, and from a long-term cost management point of view,” he said.
Meanwhile, DPA says it has stepped up its ‘‘green’’ campaign as it follows through with its commitment towards the adoption of clean, renewable energy in Zimbabwe.
The renewable energy company has embarked on a nationwide initiative to increase access to clean and renewable energy through the provision of tailor-made solar power solutions using a lease-based model.
To date, DPA has signed up several commercial and industrial clients totalling 2.7MW. These include organisations in the food, beverages and dairy sectors, schools, farms and small business enterprises.
In a move that complements the government’s economic recovery efforts, earlier this year DPA announced a US$250-million investment plan, based on renewable energy solar projects.
“We will be rolling out solar projects that will see energy delivery improve in the country, in line with the government efforts.
“We are currently sitting on a 50MW pipeline, which we will be deploying across a number of schools, hospitals, industrial and commercial businesses premises,” said DPA Group chief executive officer Norman Moyo, while representing the organisation at a recent Investment Forum in the United Kingdom.
Moyo went on to announce DPA’s plans to step up efforts to make it easier for investors, both existing and new, to do business in Zimbabwe, pledging to prioritise and guarantee renewable energy supply for new investments in the industrial and mining sectors, drawn from DPA’s solar power facility.
“Our US$250 million investment in power is just the start, and if demand exceeds this amount, we will invest more” Moyo said.
Modesto’s Sankofa Theatre Company joins with the Gallo Center to stage the classic play “A Raisin in the Sun.” The co-production of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark drama follows a black family’s experiences in Chicago’s South Side as they attempt to “better” themselves with an insurance payout following the death of the father.
The Calaveras Winegrape Alliance presents its 23rd annual President’s Wine Weekend. The event is a mass Calaveras County tasting with 24 alliance wineries participating over the holiday weekend. Limited tasting flights are available all weekend with the purchase of a commemorative wine glass.
The Modesto Marathon Movie & Wine Night leads up to the annual running event with two short documentaries. “Diamond to the Rough” follows the journey of former Major League Baseball player Eric Byrnes to the 2016 Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run; “Running Across California” features a young runner who tries to break the record for the fastest time a woman has run across the state. A Q&A with cast members will follow the films. There will be appetizers, wines, a silent auction and drawing.
Using electroluminescent puppetry, music ranging from classical to jazz to pop and choreography, a classic children’s tale comes to life on stage. Lightwire Theater uses the cutting-edge technology to tell the story of an outsider duckling who ultimately becomes an elegant swan.
The DonGato Latin Band plays at the McHenry Museum, part of the Red Tie Arts Winter Nights at the Museum concert series. The group plays Latin music blended Latin jazz, Cuban and salsa, all with a dash of tropical feel.
Pat Clark covers entertainment and other stories for The Modesto Bee. She attended California State University, Stanislaus, and grew up in Modesto.
A legislative bill would allow K-9s injured in the line of duty to be transported by EMTs to an animal hospital or veterinarian.
K-9 dogs are often on the front line in the war on drugs and help law enforcement to sniff out other crime. Now a bill in the Legislature would allow K-9s injured in the line of duty to be transported by emergency medical technicians.
The bill, filed by Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, said any law enforcement dog used by a police enforcement or governing agency of a county or municipality injured or wounded in the line of work would be eligible for transport.
Hughes said he was asked by some law enforcement and ambulance drivers to file the bill.
For K-9 handlers, the dogs are just like their partners, Hughes said.
Hughes said state law doesn't allow for the transport of K-9 dogs in an ambulance. "This would only be used in rare occasions," he said.
"In addition to providing emergency medical services and transportation to human personnel, an emergency medical technician may transport a law enforcement dog injured in the line of duty to a veterinary clinic or similar facility if there are no persons requiring medical attention or transport at the time," House Bill 386 says.
Pearl Police Detective Chris Picou, a K-9 handler, said he was unfamiliar with the bill. He said that nine out of 10 times if a K-9 is hurt or injured, the handler will immediately put his dog in the vehicle and transport the dog to a veterinarian.
"He (K-9) would bleed out before a human," Picou said.
Picou said he isn't opposed to the bill but questioned the need for it.
"We all get trained in first aid," Picou said of K-9 handlers.
Hughes said a K-9 is almost like family to a handler.
Last year, K-9 Boy was laid to rest by Richland police. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, family, friends and community members gathered to say Godspeed to K9 Boy. There were few dry eyes.
Boy was a 15-year-old Belgian Malinois who had spent 13 years on Richland Police Department's force. The decorated drug dog was playing in the yard with his handler's 4-year-old daughter when he collapsed and died.
Hughes bill was double referred to the House Judiciary B Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee. Often sending a bill to two committees kills it.The first deadline for bills to reported out of committee is Jan. 30.
If the bill passes, it would take effect July 1.
A teenage hacker who stole Tony Blair’s personal details and blocked an anti-terror hotline with prank calls was jailed for just six months today.
Junaid Hussain, 18, publicly posted sensitive information about the ex-prime minister and his family online, after hacking into former special advisor Katy Kay’s email account.
Using the online alias ‘Trick’, Hussain uploaded phone numbers and addresses, as well as the ex-PM’s email address and National Insurance number, at the beginning of 2011.
But he didn’t stop there – continuing to post private information about Mr Blair’s wife Cherie and their children, his sister-in-law Lyndsey Booth and friends, as well as sitting MPs and Lords.