A Canadian steel industry billionaire illegally helped steer $1.75 million in donations to a pro-Trump super PAC and has agreed to pay one of the largest fines ever levied by the Federal Election Commission to settle the case, the commission said on Friday.
The $975,000 fine will be paid by entities controlled by Barry Zekelman, a steel industry executive from Ontario who had lobbied the Trump administration to use its power to tighten import restrictions on Mr. Zekelman’s competitors from around the world.
Mr. Zekelman’s donations in 2018 to the America First Action super PAC helped him secure an invitation to a private dinner with President Donald J. Trump at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where Mr. Zekelman personally pushed Mr. Trump about the steel tariffs and other matters.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida would face a “Cold War” with Georgia if Democrat Stacey Abrams were to become Georgia’s next governor.
“If Stacey Abrams is elected governor of Georgia, I just want to be honest, that will be a Cold War between Florida and Georgia at that point,” DeSantis, a Republican, told an enthusiastic crowd Friday. “I mean, I can’t have Castro to my south and Abrams to my north. That’d be a disaster.”
A spokeswoman for DeSantis’ office told Newsweek that DeSantis was trying to demonstrate the difference between DeSantis’ governing style in Florida, and how Abrams may govern Georgia.
All day yesterday I worked on computer / router issues and spent hours investigating new router security protocols and how they interact with older software. After 13 hours of that I did not feel like getting to comments. So I am just reading the many grand comments of the last few days. Keith left a comment that jogged my memory and I felt it was so good I wanted to share it with everyone. Below I will put Keith’s comment, my response, and the wonderful presentation Sheldon Whitehouse did.
Nan, I agree. I have long said over half the Republican party is voting against their economic interests and have no idea they are. Being a former Republican, the GOP stands for one thing – giving more money to rich people and helping them keep it. Everything else is window dressing to garner votes and mask this mission. The fight for conservative judges, for example, has less to do with Roe v Wade and more to do with judges who will rule in favor of corporations, owners and developers when screwed over litigants sue them. People need to re-read this last sentence as it is sadly true and of great importance. Keith
Hey Keith. Very astute of you! You see something I have only seen covered in progressive left media like TYT. You know what some call the extreme left. The ties to the Federalist Society and the groups that pushed these judges to business interests is deep. Sheldon Whitehouse gave an amazing presentation on this subject if you are interested. Surprisingly most news sites left or right want to ignore this aspect. Not in the video but I was stunned when Gorsuch wrote that a man should have died in his truck when the company he worked for told him to stay with it in the freezing cold and die rather than seek safe shelter.
I just got home. About 1:40 PM. Let me start this with saying the misadventure of my new eyeglasses is still continuing. The abridged version is that after 6 weeks when they went to adjust the new lenses in the new frames the frames broke. So two new frames and new lenses are ordered, and the second pair will be a midrange blue tinted just for my time at the computer. They asked if I wanted a pair for that when I first ordered my new glasses and I declined as I have so many old frames taking up space around the house. But Randy talked to me and explained how important the blue tint is for people who spend long hours on a computer like I do. So this time I agreed. I only had to pay for the blue tint in the second pair otherwise the doctor’s office is picking up the extra costs for the new frames and lenses other than what I paid for the first pair that went wrong.
But that is not the misadventure I am talking about. First I am just starting to feel well again after over a week of allergy attacks / and or a cold that had my face a swollen red hived cracked skin mess with swollen sinuses and watering eyes. Needless to say I really did not feel well. But I felt pretty good yesterday and today. The universe seems to really wanted to make sure I was up for what was going to happen.
Ron must go to Greensboro, North Carolina again. His brother is in a nursing home up there and has dementia. Ron has taken a trip up there every year, one year twice in that year, to first get his brother into and settled in the nursing home and to do all the legal / medical stuff involved. Plus to see his brother. One of Ron’s sisters has also been very involved. She lives in both Texas and New Hampshire. Normally she either flies into our area and stays with us then drives up to Greensboro with Ron or she flies in to the Charlotte airport. In that case Ron drives up to Charlotte NC and gets a hotel room, next day picks up his sister and they go to Greensboro. Then they come back to Charlotte and stay the night, sister flies out and Ron drives home.
That is the plan this time. Ron is leaving here on the morning of Monday Apr 11th. Not that it matters but I have shots that morning. So Ron called the Ford dealership to get our Ford Escape titanium that has a little over 40,000 on it serviced and the auto Butler detailing and paint coat service we bought extra with the car done. They said bring it in this morning. So we dropped it off around 9 AM and returned home. At 11 AM I got a call on my phone, and when I answered it a very excited woman said “Mr. Miller, Mr. Miller, Where are you?” I laughed and said “North Fort Myers and where are you?” The woman replied “I am at the dealership and you need to be here right way. You need to come back right now.” She was so hyper I got worried. I asked what was going on and she told me I did not want to know. Wrong answer I told her, she called me and now I want to know what Is going on.
On the phone she wouldn’t tell me what happened except that they had damaged our car. Bad enough that it would need to go to the body shop via a flatbed and they had no idea when it would be fixed. She kept saying she did not know when I asked questions. But no worries she said they had a loaner ready for us but needed me ( turns out she thought she was talking to Ron as he checked the car in and did not realize we were a same sex male couple.) to come in right away and sign some papers and take the loaner. I informed her that my spouse was leaving for NC on Monday and if their loaners were not able to do that, we had a serious issue. She got all flustered and said she would talk to her manager who would deal with it for us when we got there.
When we arrived Ron said he wanted me to go in with him. I normally handle these the car things other than dropping the car off as I let him drive the better car to the dealership and I follow him there and I take him back in the van. The van doesn’t have all the nice electronic gadgets and gismos as the car does, which doesn’t bother me. When we found the woman service person Ron had dropped the car off with, she basically tried to ignore me. She told me to wait in the lobby and she would take Ron to see the car. When I informed her it was my car also she seemed confused. But I got a cart with only two seats she said. Ron did not want a scene so I said fine, go take pictures and get all the information and I will wait in the lobby. When Ron came back he was upset. I knew it couldn’t be good. She came back she still seemed to only want to talk with Ron. I informed her that we jointly owned the car and if she checked the paperwork she would see we were a couple and in fact the phone she had called was mine and most likely I would be the one she and the dealership would be dealing with on the matter. That gave her pause. Then she said that their loaners couldn’t go out of state, I said that was her problem and not mine, but they needed to fix the situation. She still kept saying she did not know what happened and wouldn’t tell us what all the damage was other than to say that it was totally covered by them and it needed to go to the body shop via flatbed truck. She kept repeating it happened on the lot and not off the lot which was important because the services the car was there for were on the lot available. There would have been no reason for anyone to take the car off the company grounds. She went to again talk to the manager and when she returned, they had approved of us getting a rental car from a nearby Enterprise rental agency and the dealership was paying for it. When I told her I really wanted to know what happened she said well she thought she heard something about a car carrier flatbed or other large truck but she really couldn’t tell me anything. Remember she had been to talk to the manager several times and over an hour and half had passed between her call to me and now. She knew what happened and the dealership did not want us to know. Below are the three pictures Ron took. I wished he had opened the hood and got pictures from the front but he did not think of it. Before we left the woman asked if we had thought about buying a new vehicle or trading the escort. The story continues after the pictures.
So we left the dealership and went down the street to the car rental place. It is a very busy 6 lane road with 2 or more turning lanes. We seen some signs saying entrance and so I went there, parked, and we went inside. Turned out we were at their car sales department and after hearing why we were they tried to sell us a car. I guess in these times I can forgive them, but they did not know my Ron and he was getting more and more upset and I needed to get this wrapped up and everything back to normal. We got to the right building and told the nice young guy behind the desk the story and that we understood the dealership was paying for the car rental. He agreed they were and started to set things up. He asked Ron if he wanted me to be able to drive the car and it would be $25 dollars more a day. Plus did he want their insurance for another $25 dollars a day. As he talked and addressed Ron, I realized we had the same situation happening. I told the guy we were a married couple and our insurance was joint and we preferred it. I have to say I love how he readjusted. It was no big deal but he got to cut out half of the spiel he had to say knowing it now applied to both of us. I understood his position, he had assumed we were just friends and it was part of what he had to go over to gain as much profit for the company and cover them in case of issues. Once he understood we were a married couple things went so much smoother. This is the part of same sex marriage a lot of people cannot understand. Marriage is about a lot of legal rights that are just assumed for male / female couples but must be insisted on and pushed for with same sex couples.
So long story shorter than it was for us. We got home, Ron has to learn about the rental car and its features. He has to get ready for his trip. We had to return to the dealership to get his large maps and papers with notes from his prior trips there even though I offered to print him new ones, he wanted the ones he had his notes on. I did not argue. It has been 32 years of changes and adventures and understanding how we both have developed and aged is part of why we are a happy couple. He is frustrated and upset so I asked him to just sit and chill while watching TV. Everything can be handled in the next few days. James has time off this weekend to teach Ron how to use the map system in the car. It is going to be OK. If car prices and the current issue with hyper inflated costs were not an issue I would simply trade the car. We had planned to do so two years ago. The little car gets crap fuel milage. That is why we bought it and it never got what we thought it would. It is smaller than we really wanted because we thought it would be better on fuel and still have a very strong turbo driven acceleration. I only bought the car because Ron was going on a trip to New Hampshire and he loved the car when we test drove it.
So that is the daily misadventure that continues for us. I thought you would want to know. Now I have to deal with some left over laundry and house chores. Best wishes.
The beloved sandwich cookie has debuted a new short film, directed by Alice Wu, to tell a sweet, touching story about the family journey of a young LGBTQ+ man.
The latest piece of work from award-winning filmmaker Alice Wu (The Half Of It, Saving Face) is a short film about coming out. We meet a young man who appears to be stumbling through his coming-out process to his parents. But there’s a twist that extends this story from the traditional coming-out story to illustrate a larger point about the process, the struggle, and the challenges that don’t end after that first conversation. It’s also an Oreo ad.
The Note is the latest result in a multiyear collaboration between the cookie brand and PFLAG National, and is the launching point for its new #LifelongAlly campaign, which includes a $500,000 donation to the advocacy organization. Oreo senior brand manager Olympia Portale says the brand didn’t want to show another coming-out story, but worked with PFLAG, ad agency 360i, and Wu to find an insight for taking the discussion around coming out in a positive, new direction. That insight revolves around the idea that coming out isn’t just a one-and-done experience. “For many people, the only time their parents or family even acknowledge that they’re in this community is in that first moment,” says Portale. “That [subsequent] silence can last years and can be really harmful. So we wanted to show that being an ally, being supportive to family members, isn’t just about saying ‘I love you, and I support you’ in that one moment, but how you show up in an active way, so that individual feels you have their back all the time.”
Oreo’s first high-profile Pride campaign came back in 2012, the brand’s centennial year, with a Facebook post featuring a cookie stacked high with rainbow-colored icing alongside the comment, “Proudly support love!” The post was widely celebrated but also sparked a backlash, as it came amid the gay-marriage debate at the time. A decade later, LGBTQ+ rights are again at the center of the culture wars, as Texas has passed a controversial anti-trans law, and Florida has passed its “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The landscape for brands in this environment has only become more charged, as Disney has found out amid the Biden-era attacks on “woke corporations,” which take public stands on issues. After initially drawing backlash from LGBTQ+ fans and allies for remaining silent on Florida’s new law, Disney is now a constant target for Fox News and right-wing politicians for its opposition to the bill. Despite this fraught climate for brands, Oreo has continued to step into this issue with impressive creative work and zero hesitation.
This is the third consecutive year that Oreo has worked with PFLAG on its Pride campaign, which began with the 2020 short, Proud Parent. In that spot, a young woman’s father paints the yard fence as a rainbow to show his support. For Portale, the message of The Note is an extension of that first film. “What would’ve happened after the father painted the fence?” asks Portale. “That’s not exactly how we approached this project, but it’s about galvanizing a new generation of allies, to really understand that allyship is action, and it takes more than just showing up at Pride once a year.”
Oreo isn’t the only brand to create Pride work around a coming-out story. A 2016 McDonald’s Taiwan ad went viral, showing a gay son coming out to his dad over coffee at the golden arches. Last year, Doritos Mexico created a spot that shows a dad who goes on Reddit to find help to talk to his son, as part of that brand’s ongoing #PrideAllYear campaign work.
Key to Oreo’s strategy in creating content for and engaging with LGBTQ+ people has been its commitment to working with partners within the community. Portale says that this hasn’t been an overnight development, but one that has evolved over years; it has continued to get stronger particularly since partnering with PFLAG in 2020. “We couldn’t have done this without the help and support of PFLAG,” says Portale. “Partnering with them to do this kind of work, to make sure you’re not doing any harm, has been incredibly valuable. Having Alice Wu on this project was incredible and took the brand into a different space. The nuances she brought to the original idea were incredibly powerful, and took it into a different level.”
For other brands looking to replicate Oreo’s success, Portale says that first is to know what your brand stands for, and why it exists in the world. For Oreo, that is to be playful but also to bring people together. “Oreo is a family brand,” says Portale. “When you ask people their first memory about Oreos, they’ll usually talk about their family. So our goal is to provide moments for people to come together. When we think about how we can extend that into more meaningful topics or territories, we want to focus on the places when these connections between family members might be at risk. If we’re going to fight for a world where all families belong, this was a natural place for us to go.”
Stepping into more meaningful topics can be tricky territory for a brand, and one key to navigating that path is to know the brand’s voice isn’t the most important. “The Note is not Oreo’s story,” says Portale. “Oreo is there to lend our megaphone to the community we want to support, to illustrate the message we, as a brand, want to stand behind is a great place to start. How do you shine a spotlight on people whose story this belongs to?”
COOKIE! I love COOKIES. C is for COOKIE. COOKIE IS FOR ME. I do NOT like GAY COOKIES. "Sexuality" has NOTHING TO DO with the Cookie experience. Cookies are for ALL! Basically Cookies are "asexual"—why is the WOKE LEFT messing around with OREOS?!?! STOP THE INSANITY pic.twitter.com/TS3k5M4LQv
Since @oreo is "coming out" I'm going to remind everyone that OREOS SUCK. Taste like Driveway Gravel. Not MOIST. Even Nabisco knows the truth–the cookies are too DRY. Milk Reliant, not a stand alone cookie. Go with the FIG NEWTON. We don't care about Mr Fig's orientation! pic.twitter.com/1FtiQscnbU
Is this the time in the past the right wing dreams of taking the country? Is this their idea of the way things should be? The stereotypes drove me crazy, but it was actually funny to think that some people think families really were this way and they want to return to the ridged strict role models they think made people happy, not understanding those times were miserable for most people who had no say in their place in life. Enjoy.
If they are not of straight White Anglo Saxon Protestant stock, or something similar, Republicans are terrified of them. I thought the only news story recently was that the far right was annoyed beyond belief that Disney was “normalizing LGTBQ” and recognizing that there are more families than the typical white family with a father, mother, and two children. Nobody, including Disney is afraid of or disdainful of traditional families. Accepting non-traditional families and treating them with respect TAKES NOTHING away from traditional families!!!! The fear is only coming from the ones who want want to go back to the days when all they saw was people who looked like, sounded like and worshiped just like them — with everyone else hidden in the shadows.
