She is coming back after her pregnancy, post a life-threatening complication after developing a pulmonary embolism, a controversy about her compression ‘catsuit’ (custom-made by Nike), her decision to wear a tutu and the high stakes of the event.
To add insult to injury, she was fined $17,000.
And then, Mark Knight, Australian cartoonist, decided to rub salt in the wound!
The 2018 US Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka will be remembered for all the wrong reasons
The match was guaranteed to make history no matter what.
Williams was gunning for her 24th Grand Slam tournament win, a number that would have tied the all-time record for the most Grand Slam singles tournament wins in history.
And Osaka was hoping to be the first Haitian-Japanese player in history to win a Grand Slam.
In the end, Osaka defeated Williams 6-2, 6-4, ensuring the latter – but her achievement was overshadowed by what happened in the match.
Trevor Noah Explains Real Reason Drumf’s Arpaio Pardon
Why is this important?
Drumpf has proven time and time again that there’s no bottom to his rhetoric, demagoguery and simple evil. Using the his ‘presidential’ power to pardon one of his ardent pre-campaign, birtherism buddy and totally white supremacist and racist top cop, law enforcer in Maricopa County.
Trevor explains it better with a slight hint of humor.
I’ve found this is the only way one can make it through the day in spite of the seriousness of it all.
Drumpf’s decision to pardon Joe Arpaio has already ignited plenty of controversy – not least because many have taken it as the president encouraging law enforcement to break the law.
As Trevor Noah put it on The Daily Show Monday night, August 28, “Drumpf has been president for seven months – and like a teenage boy with a locked bedroom door, he’s been exploring his new powers.
And this weekend, Drumpf confirmed that he can get someone off all by himself.”
That could have very bad implications for Mueller’s investigation, Noah said:
what if Drumpf simply decides to pardon officials within his Cabinet who are convicted? In Arpaio’s case, Drumpf didn’t even wait for him to be sentenced before issuing a pardon. As Vanity Fair’s Emma Stefansky noted this weekend, that means that Drumpf’s colleagues could simply decide not to cooperate or testify in Mueller’s investigation – under the assurance that Drumpf will pardon them anyway.
And even Noah may find that outcome difficult to joke about.
~~Profiles in Tremendousness: Pardon Edition – Sheriff Joe Arpaio~~
The Daily Show
~~Published on Aug 28, 2017~~
President Trump pardons Joe Arpaio, a controversial former sheriff who advocated the use of excessive force and cracked down on immigration through racial profiling. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
The 2003 Mission Accomplished speech gets its name from a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a televised address by United States President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003 and the controversy that followed.
~Wikipedia~
On May 4, 2017, the US House of Representatives rammed a bill which passed with a very narrow margin.
This is the famous ‘repeal/replace’ Obamacare.
After the fact, these people partied in the Rose Garden.
This act and the photos will come back and haunt anyone who was there.
The only thing that happened really was the ramming of this bill.
There’s still a lot to be done before it becomes the ‘law of the land’.
“This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, a Carter Family tune called “When the World’s on Fire“, in critical response to Irving Berlin‘s “God Bless America.” When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio in the late 1930’s he sarcastically wrote “God Blessed America for Me” before renaming it “This Land Is Your Land.”
The original lyrics to the song included this verse
“There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.
The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’
But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.”
~Wikipedia~
Here’s The ‘Controversial’ Super Bowl Ad That Crashed 84 Lumber’s Website Watch the full commercial here
The ad featured a Spanish-speaking mother and daughter apparently traveling from Mexico to the United States.
The end, which shows the pair discovering a door in a giant wall, was reportedly banned from TV since it commented on Drumpf’s, the #SoCalledPresident, promised border wall.
After showing part of the ad, 84 Lumber directed people to check out Journey84.com to see the rest. That obviously didn’t work.
The full, uncut 84 Lumber Super Bowl promotional film.
See a mother and daughter’s symbolic migrant journey towards becoming legal American citizens. Contains content deemed too controversial for the original ad and banned from broadcast.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has willingly immersed himself into controversy by refusing to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States.
He has continued his refusal to stand for the anthem and has explained his reasons why.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game.
“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.
There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
He said that he has discussed his feelings with his family and, after months of witnessing some of the civil unrest in the U.S., decided to be more active and involved in rights for black people.
Kaepernick, who is biracial, was adopted and raised by white parents and siblings.
The matter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump‘s military service (or lack thereof) has surfaced twice so far in this election cycle, first in July 2015 when Trump maligned Sen. John McCain, a POW during the Vietnam War, for being captured, and a second time in July 2016 when he openly feuded with the family of slain U.S. soldier Humayun Khan after Khan’s father, Khizr, criticized Trump during an appearance at the Democratic National Convention.
Pepe the Frog has emerged as an unofficial mascot of the alt-right, a loosely defined group of white nationalists who congregate online to debate IQ differences between the races and joke about burning Jewish journalists in ovens.
Trump Camp’s Pepe Meme First Appeared on White Supremacist Sites
An image circulated by Donald Trump Jr. and informal adviser Roger Stone was first hosted on a white nationalist website.
Donald Trump’s sandy-haired head is superimposed onto Sylvester Stallone’s muscular neck. On his right is the Pepe the Frog version of the real estate mogul, an iteration of a popular Alt-Right meme that has become a persistent visual aid to the fever swamps of the 2016 internet.
It’s a play on the poster for the 2014 film “The Expendables 3” and an intentional ribbing of Hillary Clinton’s remarks at a Friday fundraiser, September 9, where she characterized some of Trump’s supporters as “deplorables.”
Rounding out the rest of the row of “The Deplorables” is a crazed-looking Ben Carson, InfoWars radio host and Trump acolyte Alex Jones screaming his head off and a pumpkin-colored Donald Trump Jr. smiling mischievously.
Also included are Chris Christie, Eric Trump,Rudolph Giuliani, Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Pence.
I find it very interesting how, when any event takes place, I like to go back and look for the history behind it.
Why did the event take place?
Colin Kaepernick’s statement is such a situation for me.
I’m not a football fan. I’d never heard of Kaepernick.
I sure know about him now!
I have been following the stories about excessive force in law enforcement events since Trayvon Martin’s death. It really came to my full attention with Michael Brown’s death.
Since then, I’ve been up on follow up events, situations and details.
I followed Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile … many more in between and many after.
I consider myself to be a fair, balanced individual.
There’s no doubt in my mind that these are instances of excessive police force.
Rather than de-escalation, it’s escalation.
It’s more prevalent within the African-American population.
This is the message that Keapernick is trying to bring to the forefront.
Seems to me he’s done a good job at calling attention to this matter.
The Forgotten Verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Do you know all the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner”?
Many people have difficulty memorizing the lyrics of the first verse of this song, which is commonly performed at sports events and other public gatherings. But did you know that there are three additional verses that we almost never hear?
In 1814, the poet and lyricist Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” originally known as “Defense of Fort M’Henry.” During the War of 1812, Key witnessed the attacks on Baltimore and wrote the words based on his experiences this night. These lyrics were printed in local newspapers and set to the tune of an existing song called “Anacreon in Heaven,” and then officially arranged by John Philip Sousa. Key’s famous lyrics entered the world as a broadside ballad, or a song written on a topical subject, and printed for wide distribution.
More than a century later, in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem, and in 1931, the US Congress confirmed the decision. The tune has kicked off ceremonies of national importance and athletic events ever since.
While the first verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is widely known by the American public, the last three verses are generally omitted in performances.
The Thinker(French: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work shows a nude male figure of over life-size sitting on a rock with his chin resting on one hand as though deep in thought and is often used as an image to represent philosophy.
Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did)
by James Traub
Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry
The Bush administration’s “freedom agenda” linked U.S. national security to the spread of democracy worldwide. After years of controversy and policy failure, democracy promotion is now greeted with sober skepticism. Realists are again cautioning against ideological crusades.
This spirited book argues that the United States should not abandon the democracy agenda, even as it needs to radically rethink its strategy and tactics.
As Traub sees it, the post-September 11 embrace of democracy promotion is now seen in the Middle East and elsewhere as a tool of hegemony and domination, pursued by a fearful superpower that has relaxed its own standards of openness and the rule of law at home.
It Is What It Is 