This one of him playing with Zara is from New Year’s 1987:
There is no doubt in my mind that things moved pretty fast between the two of them. Apparently he was absolutely potty for Anne from the day they met. I’m not sure if smart money is necessarily on “they was fuckin’ by the time photo #1 was taken”, but definitely by the end of the year lol
Yachting does not mean someone going on a yacht. This is a term used for the rich and famous. It involves some sexual favors in exchange for something. Take Leo DiCaprio and how he has a different model every day. They are exchanging sex for fame/recognition. There are some for example miranda Kerr who yachted and received jewelry (very expensive) then something happened and she had to return the jewels. Some people do it for recognition, fame, fortune, clothes, jewelry, roles (tv/movies), music, sponsors, etc. Its a different form of a jump off chick (known in the athletic community), or expensive version of a prostitute. There are those small moments where sex isn’t involved and someone is being a beard. Majority of the time there’s a yacht involved, along with drugs and booze.
What he says is “I wish we had more time.” before he tells her he loves her and literally runs to his death. That’s it. Nothing that could possibly make her feel guilty, nothing that could have seemed like he regretted anything. Not “I wish we hadn’t gone to the front.” Just “I wish we had more time.”
And he then, metaphorically and literally, gives her more time. Because he knows his clock has run out, but that doesn’t mean hers has to… so he runs and saves today and gives her his watch. Gives her time. (x)
Harry wouldn’t know how to deal with Keanu’s lack of bullshit and humility. Harry should take tips from him though! Keanu has had to deal with more than enough tragedy and sorrow in his life, and he’s still made it through life.
Can we appreciate Keanu’s action star skills? I still remember back in 1994 on Siskel and Ebert that Roger recommended that the Academy should take note of Keanu’s performance in Speed. Obviously Keanu is never going to be nominated for an Oscar, and he doesn’t care. But he’s still contributed a huge amount to cinema. I can never forget that jump he did from a moving car to a moving bus. No wires. No tricks. Just accuracy and not becoming road kill.
– Keanu was born in 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon to a British mother and a father of Hawaian-Chinese descent. Biographical accounts vary as to precisely how old Keanu was when his drug and alcohol addicted father abandoned the family, but he himself remembers that the last time he spent a vacation with him was at age 13. Then the man vanished for a decade (doing prison time too).
– Keanu grew up having one step father after another, as his mother married four times in total.
– Both Keanu and his sister suffer from dyslexia, which made their school years a bit of a struggle. He went to 4 different high schools within 5 years.
– When he was 22, he suffered a horrific motorbike accident in the middle of the night, which left him lying on the pavement for almost thirty minutes with his abdomen sliced open. A truck almost ran him over while he was screaming for help. When the paramedics arrived and tried to take him to the hospital, one of the guys dropped the stretcher (just fabulous). He spent a week in the hospital with broken ribs and a ruptured spleen which eventually had to be removed. The accident left a big scar on his stomach.
– Another accident shortly after that sliced his shin open down to the bone, and his teeth got capped so badly that he had to have them all veneered.
– When Keanu was 27, his sister was diagnosed with leukemia. He lovingly took care of her in all the years she was sick, and around 1999 when she went into remission, he donated a vast sum to hospitals that treat leukemia patients. He also established his own charity, a foundation for children´s hospitals and cancer research. However, he doesn´t want his name to be mentioned, he just wants to make sure the foundation can do what needs to be done.
– When Keanu had just turned 29, his best friend and acting pal River Phoenix died in front of the Viper Room nightclub from overdosing on a Speedball (cocaine and heroine mix).
– In 1999, when Keanu was 35, his then girlfriend Jennifer Syme was pregnant with their daughter. The couple was preparing to welcome baby girl Ava Archer Reeves in the new millennium. However, only 4 weeks prior to that – tragically on Christmas Eve of 1999 – Ava was stillborn. In January 2000, instead of bringing home their little girl, Jennifer and Keanu had to bury her. Only a few weeks later their relationship fell apart over their grief and inability to cope with their loss. Keanu and her remained very close friends though.
– On April 2nd of 2001, while he was in the middle of shooting The Matrix 2, Jennifer lost control over her vehicle driving along a boulevard in L.A. around 6 a.m. and was killed in a horrific crash. After Jennifer´s sobbing mother had phoned him, Keanu made a call to the coroner´s office to find out if it was really true – and asked if they needed him to come and identify her. He was spared this sad duty. When Jennifer was buried though, he was one of her pallbearers. After completing the shoot of the Matrix 2, he used his money to buy all members of the stunt team a Harley. He no longer cared about any material wealth.
– Around 2015 he learned that his sister had a relapse and was battling cancer again.
Keanu regularly takes paycuts, so that film crew members can get a bonus.
Keanu rides the subway and gets up to offer his seat to elderly and sick people, pregnant women, moms with little kids.
If he can avoid it and it isn´t part of his promotional work that he has to do, he never, ever attends any celebrity parties, red carpets, fashion and award shows. He doesn´t talk about his private life.
He doesn´t shmooze around with rotating flings and girlfriends on red carpets and out for paparazzi. He has never married, has never divorced.
He doesn´t whinge and complain about how he was picked on and “racially abused” because he is mixed race.
He doesn´t talk crap about his relatives, he doesn´t smear his deadbeat father although he would have every reason to.
He got ridiculed and called a “wooden, talentless actor” but has managed to have a stellar career.
He donates a ton of his money to charities.
Not a single person in the industry who has worked with him on a movie set has ever said a bad word about him or accused him of misconduct, sexual harassment etc.
Keanu has read ALL of Proust´s work, he reads Shakespeare and can recite his sonnets by heart. And if you buy him a beer and share a cigarette with him, he´ll talk to you for hours about anything as if he´s known you for years.
I have nothing but mad respect and love for Keanu. Keanu is the shit. Keanu is The Chosen One.
This man is truly a treasure.
He holds Canadian citizenship and american green card. “Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I have already made for the next few centuries.” He is an amazing human being. 🤩
Those two are deeply in love?! HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
She couldn’t even bring herself to say she loved Harryin the engagement interview after Harry said it! All she could muster was “So nicely said, isn’t it?”
Any physiognomy expert can tell you Meg’s smug ass is gloating about her position and that she cares nothing about royal protocol since she can’t be bothered to follow it at her engagements as the CHOGM ones showed.
You are clearly overlooking Megs mailing back her rings to husband number two, an annulled marriage to husband number 1, ditching her last boyfriend (Cory) probably over text–as Wendy Williams stated recently–after Megs secured a position with Harry as his next girlfriend. This chick will never be able to do a long-term relationship when she’s looking for the next best thing constantly.
What is your response going to be when CelebJihad releases more nudes and her sex tape? That it’s not her when everyone who views the link will be able to see that it’s clearly her? Her popularity ratings in the UK are already low, and they’re destined to get lower.
It fit the theme, which was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination. It’s not just a ballgown with a head piece, aka Blake NotSoLively. That said, I think Rihanna’s outfit must have been annoying to sit on with all those pearls and beads. I would have been uncomfortable.
I think the best of the night was Zendaya’s Joan of Arc look:
I think my favorite dress in the “ball gown” category from the Met was Emilia Clarke’s Dolce & Gabbana dress:
At Primal Palette, we think most things are okay in moderation, but the sugar industry is designed to promote excessive consumption. Understanding that can help us make better choices.
I also wrote that before I knew what the mourning protocol was exactly. If I had known what the exact protocol was months ago, I would have just timed things closer to the date of the wedding but oh well.
Rihanna attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.
Rihanna attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.
There is a reason this is the last scene in which Okoye appears before the credits roll. It speaks volumes about the power black women possess. Seeing anyone, let alone a black man, submit to a black woman on screen in this way is a rarity.
Gurira thinks the message in that scene is vital for everyone, especially women and girls.
“You expect to use your love for me and our love for each other to actually get me to betray my nation, and I would kill you first. I love that,” she said. “I think women don’t often get to portray that sort of nobility and that sort of integrity, especially [choosing that] over their love.” – Danai Gurira on The Scene™
Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) and her fiance Prince Philip arrive at the Caledonian Hotel to dine with the Duchess of Buccleuch before the Scottish Association of Girls’ Clubs ball, July 30, 1947
Rihanna attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.
EMILIA CLARKE @ the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art | May 7, 2018 in New York City
Rihanna attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.
You know how you read something that just nails it, and you realise your opinion has completely changed? This is one article that will do it for you.
For many years, I too fell victim to the “lovable rogue” type of character that was pushed by the media. Poor old Harry, getting himself into scrapes and unfortunate shit like being photographed in the nip in Vegas, just cutting loose like any other young dude. The costume party with the Nazi uniform- even that could get an eye roll, because when you live in England and understand the bleak, dark dry humour that truly does not translate to North America… even that, I gave him a disgruntled pass. (And I say that as a Jew myself, with a bone dry English sense of humour.)
But the article above laid bare is VERY interesting.
It’s becoming crystal clear that the Ginger Whinger is just not very bright.
See, I operate at the level that assumes people have a baseline of modicum intelligence. But with Harry, I’m legit concerned. He is an entire house of cards cascading down- and he’s just not very smart. In fact, I believe he’s an army meathead, but the very worst kind: which is an army meathead with something to prove, but with a protection team around him 24/7 that serves to let him believe he’s actually a hero… without the effort of truly lifting one impotent finger. (Kind of like saying you are a stunt man for your job, but all you do is ride rollercoasters and scream.) Part of the job of his protection officers is to protect him, and the other part is to let him believe he’s actually doing something for real, when he isn’t. Yikes.
Which begs the question: Who is the easiest victim? The answer is that it’s a stupid person who is hungry for some sort of approval, because when a heart is hungry, it will eat lies. How on earth has Harry managed to be snowed so badly? A man that has everything- money, riches, fame all at his fingertips, and yet he has put it all on the line for what? A C-list cable actress on the make, with a blog full of artifice and PR fakery and bullshit parroting back to him what he dearly wants to hear?
“Harry, there is no one like you. I totally understand you. The world misunderstands you. You are so smart- the smartest man I have ever met. And we will change the world together. You are your mother’s son. I see things in you that no one else sees. You are better than your brother- he is born into a role- a shoebox, but not of his own making. But you- you can be anything you want to be! Because you have that power and ability but without all the trappings! You are free! So let’s change the world together! The poor, sad prince and the poor, unloved showgirl. And we’ll start right away! Right after we go on holiday to Fiji and I buy a £56K dress, and we do a photoshoot for Vanity Fair and I play in the Spencer jewel vault! But really, I’m ALLLLLLLLLL about the humanitarianism. And the roasted chickens.”
I don’t think I feel sorry for Harry anymore. We can only feel pity for so long for a person who refuses to help themselves. After that it’s disgust- or worse, disinterest. Plenty of people go through “hard times” and they do not have the benefit of riches or unlimited protection. Many people lose mothers, or fathers; they lose their homes, limbs, they go through unspeakable tragedies. They are ravaged by cancer with three toddlers who will become orphans. They suffer life changing violence after a concert in Manchester. Their primary caretaker suffers dementia or is lost through suicide. Nobody is there to pick up their pieces with silver teapots and butlers and palaces. So some bozo infantile prince feeling hard done by because his older brother is getting all the attention is small beans. That quote in the article really said it all; essentially how Harry could be stupid, yet the fault seemed to lie with everyone around him who “let” him get into the Vegas situation. Well, sorry, but no. We all are responsible for our own choices. And only a couple of generations ago, 18 year olds were going off to fight wars overseas as men. And we’re meant to feel sorry for and excuse the actions of a pampered, privileged, spoiled manchild of 33 years of age because the media and public is not fawning over his famewhore cable actress fiancée? Give me a break.
Bottom line, respect is earned. Not given blindly. If you want respect, do not insult the intelligence of the public by trying to pretend your hustler girlfriend is something she is not. She has told you whatever you wanted to hear to make you believe in the best version of yourself. And you could be anyone. Anyone! Whatever you project out, she projects back. And as with all users, she will eventually get bored and look for the next thing. Two bottomless pits orbiting each other, each trying to maintain their own gravity, and not to succumb to an individual black hole.
If they were on Facebook, their relationship status would be, “It’s complicated.” — Lupita Nyong’o
Everybody wants to think that if they were alive during slavery, they’d be an abolitionist. Everybody wants to think that if they were active during the time of lynching, they’d be rallying against and trying to prevent lynchings. Most of us believe that if we were alive and in a position to march in the 1950s, we’d be on the side of Dr. King. But today, we are in the face of all of these problems. One in three black male babies is expected to go to jail or prison. There are these constant shootings of unarmed black people. And the question is: If we’re not prepared to respond to these issues, if we’re not prepared to act today, then I don’t think we can claim that we would have acted any differently during slavery and lynching and segregation.
“many women who don’t get maternity leave go back to full time work within a few weeks.” Sorry but I absolutely hate this narrative. The US is an anomaly. The rest of the developed world realises that women need time off. Just because some women are forced by economic situations to go back to work doesn’t mean it’s the norm or that every woman should aim for it or that it’s ok to force someone else to return to work before they’re ready. Giving women time off is giving them credit for the huge emotional and physical stress they’ve put their body under for 9 months. Kate obviously feels well enough to go and that’s great. But if she wasn’t, that would be fine too. There will be many women who will not be able to and I’m not going to feed in to a line of thought that makes them feel less than or ashamed because of it.
It takes a woman’s body 2 years to fully recover from a pregnancy and the first few weeks is bleeding and leaky boobs, sure some women do go back to work within a few weeks but 6 weeks is the typical maternity leave in US as preschools/daycares wont take a baby under 6 weeks old. That all being said those women going back aren’t Kate, they don’t have to be in the public view and can excuse themselves if they need to pump or change their pad but she can’t do that at the wedding. She can’t just get up because she is leaking and in pain because her breast are full and heaven forbid the pads to stop the leaking get full, also she has to choose an outfit that makes them unnoticeable. She is in a position NONE of us will ever understand!
The third of the Vishantis, Agamotto, created three eyes, one of Power, one of Truth and of Prescience. The Eye itself gets its name from Agamotto, a powerful mystic being who used it during his time as Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth dimension. After Dormammu was defeated for the first time, the Eye of Agamotto came into the possession of Doctor Strange. The Eye’s origins are currently unknown, but there are theories of how it came into existence. Some believe that it was discovered by Agamotto among the skies and stars, where it had drifted for ages. Others claim that it was created by Agamotto himself, which makes sense when the Eye’s powers are compared to those of “the All-Seeing.”
My source is a Facebook post that’s being circulated by representatives from the Cast Members’ Union.
On May 1, 2018 – for the first time since September 2017 – the Company entered the room to negotiate with the Union. They’ve put two options on the table.
Option 1: the exact same offer that 93% of voting Cast Members rejected back in December 2017.
Each Cast Member would receive the thousand dollar tax cut bonus that the Company already promised them, but only if they settle an unsustainably low raise (fifty cents per hour).
Option 2: the Cast Members will receive a more sustainable raise, but at the cost of renegotiating a bunch of really important Union rights.
This option is spelled out in a thirty-eight page proposal. It has a few ups, but a lot more downs.
• By 2021, the lowliest Cast Members would be paid fifteen dollars an hour. Higher-paid Cast Members would either get a seventy-five cent raise or a three percent raise, whichever is higher.
• All Cast Members would finally receive the bonus that the Company promised them.
• In the event of a massive closure – like during a hurricane – the Company would pay Cast Members for up to five days of missed shifts. (Currently, the Company isn’t contractually obligated to pay them anything.)
THAT SAID
• The Company would no longer have to pay overtime rates to Cast Members who are scheduled for fewer than five days a week. Tough luck, part-timers!
• The Company would get rid of sixth-day overtime and seventh-day doubletime altogether. So if you work for that brutal and exhausting amount of time, you would be rewarded with regular pay.
• The Company would stop the Union from having a say in how Cast Members are scheduled altogether.
• The Company would change transfer guidelines. A Cast Member would have to wait a full year before transfering to a new location. (Currently it’s six months.)
• The Company would only allow Cast Members to transfer to a new location if they have two attendance entries and no reprimands. (Currently it’s five attendance entries and one reprimand.)
• The Company would be allowed to transfer Union Shop Stewards to other locations upon whim. The Shop Steward wouldn’t have a say in the matter.
• The Company would no longer have to reimburse a Cast Member who takes a leave of absence due to civil or criminal charges, even if the Cast Member is found Not Guilty. (It shouldn’t matter either way, but still.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present when Management calls a Cast Member in for disciplinary reasons.
• Currently, Cast Members can clock in fifteen minutes before their shift starts and clock out fifteen minutes after it ends. The Company would reduce that to five minutes, before and after.
• If a Cast Member has a grievance that can’t be resolved by an Area Manager or a General Manager, the Company would no longer have to send a higher-ranking representative to resolve it. The grievance would just go unresolved.
• The Company would only provide Holiday Pay to Cast Members who have worked the day before the holiday, the day of the holiday, AND the day after the holiday.
• The Company would place a cap on the number of hours of Vacation Time and Sick Time that a Cast Member can accrue. (Currently it’s based on the number of hours that the Cast Member works, but the Company wants to base it on the number of hours paid up to 1,800 hours.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present for Scheduling Bids and Vacation Bids.
• The Safety Committee is a forum where Cast Members can voice safety concerns in their work area to Management. The Labor/Management Committee is a forum where Shop Stewards can voice their concerns to Management.
The Company would combine these two Committees, and diminish the Union’s representation in them.
• The Company would now be allowed to subject Cast Members to random drug testing at any time, for any drug, without even notifying the Union first.
• The Company would no longer allow Cast Members to speak one-on-one with Union Representatives while on the clock. Not backstage. Not during a break. Nothing.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Cast Members directly at all. They’d have to do it via mail or solicitation letters.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Non-Union Cast Members at all.
• The Company would allows Cast Members to join the Union without paying monthly dues. This would de-fund the Union, which would basically kill it altogether.
• The Company wouldn’t be required to negotiate another contract with its Cast Members until 2022 (assuming the Cast Members still have a Union to advocate on their behalf).
Jesus fuck. I love the things the people at Disney and the companies resources can create but fucking hate the company itself. Some of these terms are just pure evil.
Please spread this. Disney fans especially. People need to know how this company is treating its employees. The world needs to put pressure on Disney to treat its Cast Members right.
THE MONOPOLIZATION OF AMERICA: The Biggest Economic Problem You’re Hearing Almost Nothing About
Not long ago I visited some farmers in Missouri whose profits
are disappearing. Why? Monsanto alone owns the key genetic traits to more than
90 percent of the soybeans planted by farmers in the United States, and 80
percent of the corn. Which means Monsanto can charge farmers much higher
prices.
Farmers are getting squeezed from the other side, too,
because the food processors they sell their produce to are also consolidating
into mega companies that have so much market power they can cut the prices they
pay to farmers.
This doesn’t mean lower food prices to you. It means more
profits to the monopolists.
Monopolies All Around
America used to have antitrust laws that stopped corporations
from monopolizing markets, and often broke up the biggest culprits. No longer.
It’s a hidden upward redistribution of money and power from the majority of
Americans to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders.
You may think you have lots of choices, but take a closer look:
1. The four largest food companies control 82
percent of beef packing, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork
packing, and 53 percent of chicken processing.
2. There are many brands of toothpaste, but 70 percent of all of it comes from just two companies.
3. You may think you have your choice of sunglasses, but they’re almost all from one company: Luxottica – which also
owns nearly all the eyeglass retail outlets.
4. Practically every plastic hanger in America is now made by one
company, Mainetti.
5. What brand of cat food should you buy? Looks like lots of brands but behind them are basically just two companies.
6. What about your pharmaceuticals? Yes, you can get low-cost generic versions. But drug companies are in effect paying the makers of generic drugs to
delay cheaper versions. Such “pay for delay” agreements are illegal in other
advanced economies, but antitrust enforcement hasn’t laid a finger on them in
America. They cost you and me an estimated $3.5 billion a year.
7. You think your health insurance will cover the costs? Health
insurers are consolidating, too. Which is one reason your health insurance
premiums, copayments, and deductibles are soaring.
8. You think you have a lot of options for booking discount airline
tickets and hotels online? Think again. You have only two. Expedia merged with
Orbitz, so that’s one company. And then there’s Priceline.
9. How about your cable and Internet service? Basically just four
companies (and two of them just announced they’re going to merge).
Why the Monopolization of America is a Huge Problem
The problem with all this consolidation into a handful of giant firms is they don’t have to compete. Which means they can – and do – jack up your prices.
Such consolidation keeps down wages. Workers with less choice
of whom to work for have a harder time getting a raise. When local labor markets
are dominated by one major big box retailer, or one grocery chain, for example,
those firms essentially set wage rates for the area.
These massive corporations also have a lot of political clout.
That’s one reason they’re consolidating: Power.
Antitrust laws were supposed to
stop what’s been going on. But today, they’re almost a dead letter. This hurts
you.
We’ve Forgotten History
The first antitrust law came in 1890 when Senator John Sherman
responded to public anger about the economic and political power of the huge
railroad, steel, telegraph, and oil cartels – then called “trusts” – that were
essentially running America.
A handful of corporate chieftains known as “robber barons” presided
over all this – collecting great riches at the expense of workers who toiled
long hours often in dangerous conditions for little pay. Corporations gouged
consumers and corrupted politics.
Then in 1901, progressive reformer Teddy Roosevelt became
president. By this time, the American public was demanding action.
In his first
message to Congress in December 1901, only two months after assuming the
presidency, Roosevelt warned, “There is a widespread conviction in the minds of
the American people that the great corporations known as the trusts are in
certain of their features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare.”
Roosevelt used the Sherman Antitrust Act to go after the
Northern Securities Company, a giant railroad trust run by J. P. Morgan, the
nation’s most powerful businessman. The U.S. Supreme Court backed Roosevelt and
ordered the company dismantled.
In 1911, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust was broken up,
too. But in its decision, the Supreme Court effectively altered the Sherman
Act, saying that monopolistic restraints of trade were objectionable if they were “unreasonable” – and that determination was to be made by the courts. What
was an unreasonable restraint of trade?
In the presidential election of 1912, Roosevelt, running again
for president but this time as a third party candidate, said he would allow
some concentration of industries where there were economic efficiencies due to large
scale. He’d then he’d have experts regulate these large corporations for the
public benefit.
Woodrow Wilson, who ended up winning the election, and his
adviser Louis Brandeis, took a different view. They didn’t think regulation
would work, and thought all monopolies should be broken up.
For the next 65 years, both views dominated. We had strong
antitrust enforcement along with regulations that held big corporations in
check.
Most big mergers were prohibited. Even large size was thought to be a
problem. In 1945, in the case of United States v. Alcoa (1945), the Supreme
Court ruled that even though Alcoa hadn’t pursued a monopoly, it had become one
by becoming so large that it was guilty of violating the Sherman Act.
What Happened to Antitrust?
All this changed in the 1980s, after Robert Bork – who,
incidentally, I studied antitrust law with at Yale Law School, and then worked
for when he became Solicitor General under President Ford – wrote an
influential book called The Antitrust Paradox, which argued that the sole
purpose of the Sherman Act is consumer welfare.
Bork argued that mergers and large size almost always create
efficiencies that bring down prices, and therefore should be legal. Bork’s
ideas were consistent with the conservative Chicago School of Economics, and
found a ready audience in the Reagan White House.
Bork was wrong. But since then, even under Democratic administrations, antitrust has
all but disappeared.
The Monopolization of High Tech
We’re seeing declining competition even in cutting-edge,
high-tech industries.
In the new economy, information and ideas are the most
valuable forms of property. This is where the money is.
We haven’t seen
concentration on this scale ever before.
Google and Facebook are now the first stops for many Americans
seeking news. Meanwhile, Amazon is now the first stop for more than a half of
American consumers seeking to buy anything. Talk about power.
Contrary to the conventional view of an American economy bubbling
with innovative small companies, the reality is quite different. The rate at
which new businesses have formed in the United States has slowed markedly since
the late 1970s.
Big Tech’s sweeping patents, standard platforms, fleets of
lawyers to litigate against potential rivals, and armies of lobbyists have
created formidable barriers to new entrants. Google’s search engine is so
dominant, “Google” has become a verb.
The European Union filed formal antitrust charges against
Google, accusing it of forcing search engine users into its own shopping
platforms. And last June, it fined Google a record $2.7 billion.
But not in
America.
It’s Time to Revive Antitrust
Economic and political power cannot be separated
because dominant corporations gain political influence over how markets are
organized, maintained, and enforced – which enlarges their economic power
further.
One of the original goals of the antitrust laws was to prevent this.
Big Tech — along with the drug, insurance, agriculture, and
financial giants — is coming to dominate both our economy and our politics.
There’s only one answer: It
is time to revive antitrust.
We are now just over two weeks away from the wedding of His Royal
Highness Prince Henry of Wales and Ms. Meghan Markle. As they have
travelled around the UK in the months since their engagement last
November, Prince Harry and Ms. Markle have been incredibly grateful for
the support they have received from members of the public.
The crowds that have turned out in Nottingham, Cardiff, Brixton,
Edinburgh, Birmingham, Belfast, Bath and elsewhere have given Ms. Markle
a welcome to the United Kingdom marked by warmth, enthusiasm, and a
real sense of fun.
We said from the outset that Prince Harry and Ms. Markle were keen to
make sure that members of the public would have the opportunity to feel
part of the celebrations on their wedding day. This is their way of
expressing their gratitude for the messages of support they have
received from around the UK, the Commonwealth, Ms. Markle’s home country
of the United States, and right around the world. In today’s briefing I
want to share more details of what people can expect to see in the
day’s leading up to the wedding, and on the day itself, and explain what
the public can expect in Windsor.
The first thing I would like to share is that Prince Harry and Ms.
Markle are very much looking forward to welcoming Ms. Markle’s parents
to Windsor for the wedding. Mr. Thomas Markle and Ms. Doria Ragland will
be arriving in the UK in the week of the wedding, allowing time for
Prince Harry’s family, including The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The
Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, and The Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, to spend time with them before the big day.
Both of the bride’s parents will have important roles in the wedding.
On the morning of the wedding, Ms. Ragland will travel with Ms. Markle
by car to Windsor Castle. Mr. Markle will walk his daughter down the
aisle of St George’s Chapel. Ms. Markle is delighted to have her parents
by her side on this important and happy occasion.
In addition to having the support of The Queen, his father The Prince
of Wales, and his brother Prince William as Best Man, Prince Harry is
also keen to involve his mother’s family in his wedding. All three
siblings of Diana, Princess of Wales will be in attendance and Lady Jane
Fellowes will give the reading. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle both feel
honoured that Lady Jane will be representing her family and helping to
celebrate the memory of the late Princess on the wedding day.
As we said back in November, this wedding will be guided by
tradition, allowing everyone to celebrate what makes Royal Weddings so
special, but also one which reflects the personalities of Prince Harry
and Ms. Markle. We have been announcing details over the last couple of
months and in the final week ahead of the wedding you can expect to hear
more about the arrangements, including:
The Instrument of Consent;
Details of the Bridesmaids and Page Boys;
The work of florist Philippa Craddock and the Crown Estate gardeners
who have been growing and preparing the flowers that will fill the
church;
An update from Claire Ptak, the baker who will make the wedding
cake, and the chefs who have been working in the Palace kitchens to make
the final preparations and;
We will publish the full Order of Service on the website on Saturday
morning so members of the public can follow the service at home.
I will now take you through the high level outline of what you can
expect to see from the evening of Friday 18th May. The key moment for
the day before will be the arrival of the bride at her accommodation. We
expect this to happen early evening.
On the day itself we expect Windsor to be very busy. The council has
worked with partners including Thames Valley Police to plan what will be
a fantastic day of celebrations.
As the Royal Borough of Windsor has said, work is well underway to
ensure the occasion is a memorable and joyous one for all involved and
they are working closely with a wide range of partners.
Rail operators will be putting on extra trains and there will be park
and walk and park and float services to help people get into town.
Visitors are encouraged to plan ahead and book all travel arrangements
early so they can make the most of their trip. I would very much
appreciate the media’s assistance in spreading the message that visitors
to Windsor will have a chance to be part of a very special day, but
those who will be heading to the town really do need to plan their
journeys carefully.
The Royal Borough has confirmed that preparations include:
A 6,000 space pre-booked car parking area at the Review Ground, just off the Long Walk;
Food stalls and facilities, including big screens showing live
footage of the wedding and Procession, on the Long Walk and in Alexandra
Gardens;
Viewing areas along the whole Procession Route (Castle Hill, High
Street, Sheet Street, Kings Road, Albert Road and the Long Walk);
A team of 140 Royal Borough Ambassadors have volunteered to help steward the event and assist visitors throughout the day;
The town centre will be decorated with bunting and ceremonial banners along parts of the Procession Route and;
Live entertainment from local groups throughout the town centre.
In order to make sure everyone can get through expected traffic, the
members of the public who have been invited to be inside the grounds of
Windsor Castle for the wedding will be arriving from around 0900hrs. As a
reminder, 1,200 people have been nominated by Lord Lieutenants from
across the country for their work supporting their communities. Many of
these people are sharing their stories with their local media and
supporters – the couple are very pleased that their wedding has provided
a platform to celebrate the inspiring work of community and youth
leaders from around the UK.
The first thing these people gathered will see on the morning of the
wedding will be the arrival of guests between 0930hrs and 1100hrs.
Guests will be arriving at the Round Tower by coach and will be seen
walking to the South Door of St George’s Chapel.
Members of The Royal Family will begin to arrive from 1120hrs, and
enter St George’s Chapel via the Galilee Porch. Some will be on foot,
and others will arrive by car.
Prince Harry and his brother The Duke of Cambridge will arrive at St
George’s Chapel most likely by foot and will enter via the West Steps.
This will allow Their Royal Highnesses to acknowledge all of the people
gathered in the Castle precincts, including the 200 charity
representatives gathered in the Horseshoe Cloister at the bottom of the
steps.
Also around the time Royal Family arrivals begin, a pooled media
facility will cover Ms. Markle and Ms. Ragland’s departure from the
bride’s overnight location. We expect the journey into the Castle to
take them along part of the Long Walk, allowing members of the public
gathered there to see the car as it passes. There will also be a brief
stop at the Castle where Ms. Ragland will head onto the Chapel and Ms.
Markle will be joined by some of the Bridesmaids and Page Boys before
she continues her journey to the church, where she will enter via the
West Steps.
The Service will take around an hour, and we look forward to announcing more details of this in the weeks ahead.
After the Service has concluded, the newly married couple will
process out of the church and acknowledge the 200 representatives of
Prince Harry’s charities gathered in the Cloister. The couple are
delighted that these people who will be such an important part of their
official work in the years to come will be the first people they see
after their wedding.
As the couple step into their Carriage, close family members will
gather on the West Steps to wave them off on their Procession. As a
reminder, we expect the Carriage Procession to take just under 25
minutes. Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are very much looking forward to
this part of the day. It will be their chance to express their gratitude
for the goodwill and warm wishes they have received from all quarters
in the months since their engagement.
Members of the congregation will file out of the church onto the
grass to see the start of the Procession before walking to the reception
at St George’s Hall. All guests will be attending the reception.
The public elements of the event will be over at this stage. The
final thing you can expect to see is the Bride and Groom departing
Windsor Castle for the evening reception at Frogmore House.
In the days that follow, we will facilitate interviews with some of
those who have been involved in the wedding, as happened in 2011, for
example with the hairdresser and dressmaker.
The formal photographs, which will be taken by Alexi Lubomirski, will be released during the week.
Well it’s happening!!! I can’t wait for the nasty divorce lmao
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 My God! They need to release more details. I’m sure with William was like that too, right? NOT!
I had to read this press statement fully a second time to understand what’s going on. So,
Apparently, the press that came to the press briefing at the palace were handed this statement in full.
Notice the statement contains a bunch of “I”s: “The first thing I’d like to share…,” “I will now take you through the high level outline.” This is really a speech – a script – to be given/spoken.
Given that there was no actual press briefing given, and that the statement reads like a speech, I’m under the impression that KP press secretary is frustrated.
Handing out the entire script as a press release to me implies that someone (MM?) has been accusing the press secretary of not giving full information to the press. Hence, simply handing over the entire script verbatim.
I suddenly feel very sorry for the press secretary. It sounds as if someone is questioning his integrity, skill, and expertise.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a resignation a month after the wedding.
My “Good” post mostly consisted of looks that were appropriate to the occasion, but just oddly sized or sourced. The Bad post will be looks that were correctly executed but just weird-ass choices for royal engagements. As you can see, A LOT of these looks fall into this category.
The first look in this post is Nottingham. This was the first appearance after the white bathrobe. The expectations were really high and the end result was total flop. We almost never see pics from Nottingham and there’s a good reason for that.
Her hair was fine and the coat (wonder of wonders) actually fit! Everything, however, was too dark and dreary. This was her first “villainous henchman” look as she looked like she was accompanying General Hux on a planet-destroying mission or something. The boots were just completely awful. They looked like hooves.
The “Spectre employee” look would go on to become a recurring theme, as would the “channeling fashion icon X” phenomenon. This time it was CBK, but we would go on to have Audrey Hepburn, Kate Middleton, Diana, and Jackie O looks. This was also the first “prop handbag” sighting, a theme that Meghan will hammer into the ground in future engagements. She only let go of it when the DM finally mocked her on their front page.
Then we had Sandringham and the immortal poo emoji hat. Like the looks I listed in the “Good” post, this was another attempt to channel regalness. It failed, no only because of the ridiculousness of the hat and the purse and the whole “costume” look going on but also because she walked right next to Kate’s glorious Christmas coat giving everyone a perfect “real” vx. “fake” moment.
I still have no idea why she went with browns for Christmas.
The “poo emoji” phenomenon was real, though. Everyone pretty much thought the same thing when they saw that hat.
I’m sticking Brighton into the “Ugly” post, so I’m going to skip right into Cardiff and THE ULTIMATE Spectre henchman look. She legit looks like a Call of Duty enemy sniper.
LOL, I remember wondering why her bun was so messy here. Little did I know it would actually get worse. I think this is the first time that Meghan’s hair really undermines her look, as this Hello cover illustrates.
I still have not clue why she likes the all-black look so much. She’d used it again in Brixton so this was her second all-black look. Whyyyyyyy?
This was the outfit that was mocked by the Daily Mail front page. The mismatched earrings (remember those!) really jumped the shark with this one.
I’m sticking the inside look into the “Ugly” post, so let’s move on to the Endeavor awards. Her looks had been underwhelming at this point, but I think this was the first real disappointment for Meghan’s sugar press. They were expecting a pretty dress and they got a bland tux instead.
This was the first big downgrade in Meghan’s fashion headlines. Before this, the press would label anything she wore (no matter how hideous ) as “stunning” and “iconic.” This tux, however, was labeled “chic” and “elegant.” This is another look that went into the memory hole, but not before giving rise to countless “missing Suits?” “well-suited,” and “it suits” her puns all bringing her Hollywood background back into the spotlight.
It also didn’t help that Kate had recently worn a glorious McQueen outfit in Sweden, giving rise to unfavorable comparisons.
Another sniper look! This was Birmingham. I’m going to stick the inside look in the “Ugly” post so I don’t really have much to say abut this one, other than cross bracelet merching, ugh. Also, I guess this is where she got mud on her shoes?
What I find amazing about these outfits is that, as with the “Halo” dress, she consistently reinforces her “Hollywood” brand and misses opportunities to develop a “royal” brand.
Another odd thing is that when she’s not consciously imitating a royal (as in the “Good” post outfits), she consistently looks like a Hollywood action movie villain–dark colors, trench coats, stilettos.
House of Brat 