Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 279

#NoMoreNazi is now controversial: New video game sparks online backlash

(Credit: Forest Run via Shutterstock/Salon)

We have now reached a point in American politics in which it is controversial to make Nazi-killing the point of a video game.

The video game in question? Wolfenstein 2. The offense? A trailer for the soon to be released video game with the tweet “Make America Nazi-Free Again. #NoMoreNazis #Wolf2.” The trailer itself shows Nazis marching down the streets with the words “Not my America” over the images.

While as Pete Hines, VP for PR and marketing at BethesdaSoftwarks, explained to GamesIndustry.biz on Friday, “Wolfenstein has been a decidedly anti-Nazi series since the first release more than 20 years ago,” online outrage quickly grew after the Make America Nazi-Free Again trailer was released:

imagine seeing the words "no more nazis" and reacting like this pic.twitter.com/5L9b8CPm3s

— Vylash #TeamKICK (@MiraVylash) October 6, 2017

Keep your cuck mits away from my wolfenstein.

— Joseph Upton (@glitchyjoe64) October 6, 2017

Cuck News: New Wolfenstein II trailer titled "NO MORE NAZIS" features a black power woman and interracial sex… https://t.co/BSCxc9rwXm

— Corgi Supremacist (@HakunaJumanji) September 19, 2017

I‘m the commie cuck I am today because my Dad‘s, and therefore my, favorite FPS was Wolfenstein: https://t.co/bSzR8ReBGi

— james payne (@Banalization) October 6, 2017

Now all the beta leftists can live out their fantasies! Join the cuck army! Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Trailer https://t.co/3c7Y9HDQT1

— Unser Seliger Adolf (@TruthWillOut33) June 12, 2017

https://twitter.com/a_pintabona/statu...

Don't go all SJW on us, look what happened to mass effect. You *will* lose customers if you keep this up.

— David Stevenson (@qwertycash) October 6, 2017

wolfenstein? oh u mean some SJW bullshit? no thanks. ill stick to books

— brandon (@sexualjumanji) October 6, 2017

At first I thought this was some Liberal SJW post…

— ArmoMoose (@ArmoMoose) October 6, 2017

https://twitter.com/Rotmm/status/9162...

Three points warrant mentioning:

1. “Wolfenstein” has always been about killing Nazis. No need to belabor that point, since it makes the stupidity of the complainers pretty self-evident.

2. Yes, you could argue that working President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan into that mix makes this political. Under normal circumstances, equating an American politician with Nazis would even be a violation of Godwin’s Law, which states that people who compare their opponents to Nazis automatically lose a debate.

The problem with that argument here, though, is that Trump intentionally associated himself with Nazis when he defended the far right protesters at Charlottesville as “very fine people.” For that matter, he placed himself squarely on the side of bigots everywhere when he began his aborted 2012 presidential campaign by appealing to birtherism and his 2016 presidential campaign by perpetuating racist stereotypes against undocumented Mexican immigrants.

“We’re certainly aware of current events in America and how they relate to some of the themes in Wolfenstein II,” Hines told GamesIndustry.biz.  We aren’t going to shy away from what the game is about. We don’t feel it’s a reach for us to say Nazis are bad and un-American, and we’re not worried about being on the right side of history here.”

He added: “When it comes to Nazi’s, you can put us down in the ‘Against’ column.”

In short, associating Trump with Nazism isn’t even a political statement anywhere. It’s a reflection of the objective reality that Trump created for himself.

3. Have any of these people realized that constantly calling your opponents “cucks” says nothing about them and everything about you?

Weinstein lawyer paid Manhattan D.A. $10,000 days after he waived assault charges against producer

Harvey Weinstein (Credit: Getty/Yann Coatsaliou)

On Thursday, the New York Times published an exposé detailing Harvey Weinstein’s sexual advances on women over the past three decades.

In 2015, one of those woman, aspiring actress Ambra Battilana, alleged that Weinstein grabbed her breasts and put his hands up her skirt during a meeting a the producer’s TriBeCa offices. According to the police report, assaulted her while asking if her breasts were real.

The Times says the case was forwarded to the Special Victims Squad who worked with Battilana to clandestinely record a confession from Weinstein. Nonetheless, the office Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. declined to prosecute the case. “After analyzing the available evidence,” as statement from the D.A.’s office read, “including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported.”

Battilana would later reach a settlement with Weinstein for an undisclosed sum in order to keep her story — some of which had already landed in the press — private.

Now, The International Business Times is reporting that one of Weinstein’s lawyers at the time, David Boies, gave the Vance election campaign some $10,000 mere days after the D.A. declined to prosecute the case. As the IBT notes “That contribution from attorney David Boies — who previously headlined a fundraiser for Vance — was a fraction of the more than $182,000 that Boies, his son and his law partners have delivered to the Democrat during his political career.”

Vance’s communications director denied a connection, telling the IBT “David Boies did not represent Harvey Weinstein in 2015 during the criminal investigation.” A spokesman for Boies added “David Boies has been a supporter of the District Attorney since long before 2015,  including before he was first elected, and has never spoken to him about Harvey Weinstein.”

As the IBT notes, Vance is already under scrutiny for his 2014 decision not to prosecute Jared and Ivanka Trump for felony fraud connected to real-estate sales at the Trump SoHo property after their attornery gave Vance’s campaign $25,000.

Elsewhere,  Weinstein has spent the last 24 hours denouncing the piece, claiming it was “reckless reporting,” and plans to sue the Times, according to Vanity Fair. In an interview with Page Six just after the Times piece was published, Weinstein said the paper had a “vendetta” against him.

This comes even as Weinstein’s initial comment to the Times showed a markedly different tone. In the statement, he wrote, “I realized some time ago that I needed to be a better person and my interactions with the people I work with have changed. I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” The statement was published within the report.

Still, Weinstein told Page Six that the Times “made assumptions.” The piece went in depth about a memo written by Lauren O’Connor, which described Weinstein’s company as “a toxic environment for women.” O’Connor withdrew her memo after a settlement was reached, so Weinstein claims the memo is no longer valid.

The report also stated that Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women — Battilana included — over past 30 years, and that many women were afraid to speak out about his advances for fear of their careers being destroyed.

“I’ve brought on therapists and I plan to take a leave of absence from my company and to deal with this issue head on,” reads Weinstein’s statement in part. “I so respect all women and regret what happened.”

But he still claimed in the Page Six interview that the Times “focus[es] on trying to bring me down.” A Times spokesperson said the paper stands by its piece.

Weinstein also spoke to Page Six about Ashley Judd, the most famous actor to accuse the producer of harassment. In the Times article, Judd claimed that he took her to his hotel room, asked her to watch him shower, to massage him and so on. “I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask,” she said. “It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining.”

She added, ““Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.”

In response, Weinstein said “I know Ashley Judd is going through a tough time right now, I read her book [her memoir ‘All That Is Bitter and Sweet’], in which she talks about being the victim of sexual abuse and depression as a child.” He added, “Her life story was brutal, and I have to respect her. In a year from now, I am going to reach out to her.”

High-ranking Democratic House member: Nancy Pelosi needs to step aside

California Rep. Linda Sanchez, the fifth-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, says it’s time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to step down from her position.

“Our leadership does a tremendous job, but we do have this real breadth and depth of talent within our caucus and I do think it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” Sanchez said in an interview broadcast on Thursday by C-SPAN.

Pelosi has served as the top Democrat in the House since she became Minority Leader in 2003. Representing San Francisco, Pelosi has served in the body since 1987 and served as Speaker of the House for two terms from 2007 to 2011.

Sanchez, who is vice chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus, said that she believed that Pelosi, 77, needs to step aside and let younger leaders emerge.

“I want to see that happen. I think we have too many great members here that don’t always get the opportunities that they should. I would like to see that change,” Sanchez, 48, said.

She also called for Pelosi’s leadership colleagues to stand down as well, saying that they were “all of the same generation,” adding, however, that “this is not an age thing.”

Steny Hoyer, the Minority Whip is 78 years old, while Jim Clyburn, the Assistant Democratic Leader, is 77.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi wrote that she “enjoys wide support in the Caucus and has always said she is not in Congress on a shift but on a mission.”

Pelosi has had several challenges to her leadership in recent years. Last November, she was able to beat back one from Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Congressman whom she defeated 134-63. It was her closest election thus far for Minority Leader.

Assuming Pelosi finishes the remainder of her term through 2018, she will have led the Democrats in the House for 15 years, much longer than the legendary Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill who only served in that position for 10.

During her tenure, Pelosi has angered people on the party’s left for being too closely tied to business interests. In February, she batted down a townhall questioner who asked her what Democratic leaders were going to do about increasing skepticism toward capitalism among younger party members.

“We’re capitalists and that’s just the way it is,” Pelosi said during the event, which was hosted by CNN.

This year’s Nobel Peace-Prize selection is a rebuke of Trump

(Credit: Getty/Drew Angerer/KREMLL)

After the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize, the head of the organization had a blistering response to President Donald Trump, who she said has a history of “not listening to expertise.”

“The election of President Donald Trump has made a lot of people feel very uncomfortable with the fact that he alone can authorize the use of nuclear weapons,” Beatrice Fihn, the group’s executive director told reporters in Geneva, according to the Guardian.

She added, “There are no right hands for nuclear weapons.”

Trump has engaged in a war of words, largely over Twitter, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and recently undermined Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s attempts to lower the tensions and engage in potential negotiations — also over Twitter.

On Thursday night standing in a room with military officials and their spouses, he told reporters that it was “maybe the calm before the storm.”

The cryptic message left many wondering what actions he planned to take, if any. His overall incendiary rhetoric has helped push the Doomsday Clock to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight, the closest its been since the early 1980’s, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

But Fihn isn’t only directing her words at the president, she’s calling for the abandonment of nuclear weapons entirely. “We can’t threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security,” she said, according to the Guardian.

ICAN received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons,” Norwegian Nobel committee chairman, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said.

Trump has also stoked tensions with Iran after lambasting them during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, and with his plan to decertify the nuclear deal that was a landmark achievement of the Obama administration.

“The Good Doctor,” “Young Sheldon” speak to our need for feel-good TV

"The Good Doctor"; "Young Sheldon" (Credit: ABC/CBS)

The breakout success of “This Is Us” was the first clue as to a shift in the audience’s collective feelings. The NBC drama debuted in the white heat of a presidential election cycle that proved to be a bottomless pit of new lows, spotlighting the ferocity of our political and social divisions. And yet this drama about three siblings — one of them adopted, and African-American — quietly broke through our cemented anger to become a topic of conversation. More than that, “This Is Us” became a nexus of feeling.

In the current saturated and thoroughly fractured television marketplace, this resurgent emphasis on sentiment has a demonstrable value that continues to grow, even now — especially right now.

As it stands 2017-2016 season’s most successful series debuts so are CBS’ “Young Sheldon” and ABC’s “The Good Doctor.” The former received a full-season pick-up after its first episode aired. “The Good Doctor” earned its full order following the second episode’s airing, which retained nearly all of the live audience that tuned in for its premiere.

Fundamentally “Young Sheldon” and “The Good Doctor” are different series; one is a half-hour comedy that feels more like a miniaturized drama, while the other is an hour-long that airs at 10 p.m. Monday nights. And while many industry expects “Young Sheldon” to click with viewers even CBS may not have anticipated how monstrously popular it would prove to be in its debut: it was the most successful comedy premiere in four years.

It and “The Good Doctor” follow socially awkward geniuses who are misunderstood and even shunned. Sheldon, as portrayed by Iain Armitage, moves through life like an observer of an alien species and adopts the emotional distance of a scientist with intent.

Dr. Shaun Murphy of “The Good Doctor” (played by Freddie Highmore) cannot help it if his peers are unable to connect with him, despite his best efforts, because lives with autism and savant syndrome. Separately these are underdog stories about two people striving dauntlessly in a world determined to bury them and pass them over, who nevertheless are guided by heart.

Sheldon Cooper and Shaun Murphy are lonely figures, too, and to adopt a phrase from a recent episode of “This Is Us,” they are imperfectly perfect signifiers of a culture dealing with a reality that seems to further alienate us from each other with each passing day. But in the same way the Pearsons’ individual struggles with self-worth and meaning continues to tap into a universal sense of humanity that transcends social tribalism, “Young Sheldon” and “The Good Doctor” may be speaking to a mass yearning for tenderness in the midst of an apparently ceaseless test of endurance.

Watching television should not be a brittle, challenging experience unless the viewer chooses work that means it to be so. The barrage of tragic, mournful updates out of Las Vegas and Puerto Rico over the past few days has tested us on a number of fronts, the least being our ability to enjoy facile diversion.

And on our schedules there remain a number of series that continue to hew to a definition of what constitutes greatness that may be falling out of fashion. This feels especially true of the dramas.

Shows such as “The Brave” and “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” are new versions of formulas that generated hits in seasons past and landed with a thud this year. “Designated Survivor,” one of the 2016-2017 relative success stories, returned for a second season with muted fanfare in comparison to its first.

“This Is Us,” along with “The Good Doctor” and, from what we can tell, “Young Sheldon,” may be broadcast’s way of offering a comforting embrace to millions of viewers who are exhausted of being horrified and tired of disillusionment. This week especially, it feels impossible to find simplistic succor in half-hour series buoyed by laugh tracks or dark dramas that revolve around grim tales and conflicted anti-heroes.

I am no Pollyanna, mind you; “NCIS” remains the top-rated hour on television, though “Sheldon” and its progenitor “The Big Bang Theory” bested in the premiere week ratings among total viewers, with “Big Bang” taking the #1 slot followed by its spinoff. Procedurals will always be a reliable means of temporarily forgetting the world’s troubles. They operate on a predictable structure and their mysteries wrap up neatly within an episode or two.

This is just as apt way of explaining why “The Good Doctor,” an American version of a South Korean drama, ranked just behind “This Is Us” among total viewers (though in the 18-49 demographic “This Is Us” actually beat “Young Sheldon”). It is a procedural by way of a character drama that, speaking as a critic, produced a series premiere that like a wan derivative of “Grey’s Anatomy” aside from Highmore’s portrayal of Dr. Murphy.

A pilot is only a show’s calling card, though, and “The Good Doctor” now has time and plenty of opportunity to deepen its narrative and improve as a series.

Comparatively speaking “The Good Doctor” also has a much lower bar to clear in its Monday night timeslot; last year’s 10 p.m. entry, “Conviction,” earned the honor of being one of the worst reviewed series of the season and landed the ratings to prove it. “The Good Doctor,” however, attracted 11.35 million viewers for its season premiere according to Nielsen’s latest live plus same day weekly estimates. And it held on to most of its audience in its second week ratings.

It is early days, of course, and we won’t know if the demonstrated affection of “Young Sheldon” will prove solid until it returns in its regular timeslot on Thursday, November 2.  Inevitably the world will feel colder, in a concrete sense and, given the way events are trending, spiritually. These shows hold no definitive answers to any of our most pressing problems, but they seem speaking a language common to many of us. For now that may be sufficient.

“Poppies of Iraq” chronicles a young girl’s life growing up in Mosul

For an adult, it’s confusing and appalling to see your people lose freedoms as society spirals into chaos and totalitarianism. Imagine what it’s like for a child.

Actually, no need to imagine. Just read “Poppies of Iraq” — by Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim. This graphic novel is a plainly stated, emotionally devastating memoir of Findakly’s life as a Christian girl in Iraq and her relationship to that country after moving to France. The details of Findakly’s life (illustrated by her cartoonist husband Trondheim) will be fascinating to anyone interested in Iraq before and after the rise of Saddam Hussein. But “Poppies of Iraq” hits even harder because it’s a relatable story about growing up anywhere in this baffling world.

All kids kick balls and climb whatever they can: Findakly just happened to spend her carefree childhood moments messing around on the ruins of Mosul, which were demolished in 2015 by Daesh, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Findakly didn’t fully realize the historic important of the site at the time, and she certainly didn’t realize its days were numbered: “It was the perfect spot for climbing on ancient stones. And for picking poppies.” The destruction of these ruins — culturally important to Iraqis and personally important to Findakly — was the impetus for this book, which was originally published in French.

This graphic novel is, to use a trite phrase, a “coming-of-age story,” but it’s a lot more than that.

Findakly’s words and Trondheim’s images show what it was like for a young Christian girl to grow up in Iraq from her 1959 birth until 1973, when her family moved to France. “Poppies of Iraq” is about Findakly’s evolving relationship with Iraq, a place she’ll always love but became progressively estranged from, thanks to a succession of repressive regimes and her own awakening as a feminist.

When Findakly did return after moving to France, each trip became more and more painful, especially as Findakly saw how her extended family suffered under governmental insanity (pictures of Saddam Hussein were mandatory in every home, while children were taught pro-Saddam songs) and terrible shortages (there’s a depressing anecdote involving the scarcity of apples). These details are as important to the life of Iraq as the life of Findakly. In addition to being an engrossing memoir, this is an impressive work of journalism.

Like any great comic, even one about the real world, “Poppies of Iraq” creates its own reality for readers to get lost in — a world told via plain, blunt language and non-realistic, cartoony figures that interweave the personal and political. One of the most subtly brutal sequences in the book involves a marriage. In a tense two pages, Trondheim presents three short conversations consisting of the words “So?” and “Completely.” The three conversations are relaying some unclear information from a man to another man, that man to a woman, and then that woman to another woman. The meaning of these simple words is eventually made clear: in Iraq, a husband has the right to demand his bride remove all pubic hair before the wedding, and these two pages show that information being carried from groom to bride. The simple fact of male power over women is awful, but Trondheim’s subtle cartooning makes this sequence particular and devastating. This kind of graphic power is on display through “Poppies for Iraq.”

Some scenes are reminiscent of a Seinfeld episode, showing that even among frequent coups and mounting oppression, the Larry Davidian aspects of life never go away. Findakly and Trondheim show the culture clash between her French mother and native Iraqis in many ways, but most memorably in a difference in manners. Findakly’s mom often made delicious French pastries, but it’s an Iraqi custom to turn down seconds unless asked again, which was not the French way. As Findakly dryly puts it, “It was the guests who finally changed their ways when they came to visit.” Makes sense. Customs are important, but French pastries come first. This humorous episode takes on additional absurdity when the subject shifts to a military coup on the next page. Few comics make better use of juxtaposition.

Trondheim tells the story with a six-panel format, creating a strong visual rhythm: the big blocks of the six panels feel like large bricks coming down one by one, as Findakly’s life eventually flourishes in France while Iraq’s society deteriorates. Trondheim’s art is made of clear lines and tiny, cartoony figures that emphasize the smallness of a child — and the relative smallness of everyone when the world is spinning out of control. The art is interrupted occasionally by photos of Findakly’s family, emphasizing the nonfiction nature of this book. Actual pictures of Findakly as a little girl, her father in his dentists’ office, and the ruins of Mosul are a strong counterpoint to Trondheim’s art.

As the book wraps up, Findakly narrates the continued deterioration of Iraq and her loss of ties to home, as her family members all end up emigrating elsewhere (some becoming stubbornly Islamophobic, much to Findakly’s sadness). As Findakly discusses the present-tense of her life and Iraq in the usual six-panel pages, Trondheim switches up the visual format on other pages: these feature full-page panels accompanied by Findakly’s good memories of Iraq. This is an effective and moving way to end the book and show the power of childhood. The present is imprisoned in tiny, constricted panels, but the past is an expansive place that can’t be erased.

Throughout this bittersweet book, Findakly and Trondheim interweave the political and personal in a way that mirrors and heightens real life. “Poppies of Iraq” is about big events as seen through small eyes: there’s a universalness underneath the specificity. Anyone, even with a boring childhood, should find something to relate to here. No child asked for their particular family or circumstances: no child (or maybe adult) truly understands what’s going on around them or why the world is the way it is. This is an unforgettable, devastating, sweet book.

How to flip the script on unsolicited nude pics

Whitney Bell

An outspoken feminist, artist and activist, Whitney Bell got sick of receiving sexually explicit and unwanted texts — that is, sexts she didn’t ask for from men featuring their genitalia. So she collected 200 of the photos she and her friends have received, framed them and displayed them in a gallery staged to look just like her home.

The show, entitled “I Didn’t Ask For This: A Lifetime of Dick Pics” started in Los Angeles and then moved up to San Francisco this summer. It will be back in LA this fall.

It turns out these unwanted missives show up on women’s phones every single day, so I was mystified as to why anyone would want to go see 200 of them on display. I talked with some of the people who attended her San Francisco event to find out what their personal experiences with salacious sexts have been.

They told me if you’re on a dating site like OK Cupid or Tinder, you’re bound to get a sext.

“Hi how are you. Here’s my dick.”

And if you say “no thanks?” Well then. Guys who send these unsolicited graphic pics get pretty pissy about being rejected. They’ll send you vitriolic messages full of insults or threats. 

Whitney points out that getting a dick pic is pretty much part of being a millennial woman.

“Every time I tell a new woman or especially anyone in my age bracket about [my show], they’re like, ‘oh yeah, I’ve gotten so many.’ Every woman has their story, or if they don’t, they’re like ‘what’s wrong with me that I didn’t get one’ because they’re so aware of the phenomenon.”  

It’s the digital equivalent of getting flashed. And the sad part is, most women just . . . go with it. They’d rather take the course of least resistance than fight back — only to be further abused by a stranger with a twisted sense of his own entitlement to your attention and your body.

Listen to my conversation with Whitney for more on why she created this gallery show (and why it’s so popular), how she’s handled even worse behavior than unsolicited nudes — and what she has to say about pushing back against the constant onslaught of sexual harassment that women experience:

Subscribe to the podcast to hear Part 2.

Defying Trump, California becomes a “sanctuary state”

Jerry Brown (Credit: AP/Eric Risberg)

In a move widely viewed as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, California’s Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed a major piece of state legislation on Thursday that designates California a “sanctuary state.”

Senate Bill 54, as the just-signed piece of legislation is formally known, will go into effect in January, and arrived after months of negotiations. The bill narrows “who state and local law enforcement agencies can hold, question and transfer at the request of federal immigration authorities,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

“These are uncertain times for undocumented Californians and their families, and this bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear every day,” Brown was quoted as saying in Politico.

Brown made clear that the legislation “does not prevent or prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security from doing their own work in any way.”

In most cases, the new state law would not allow state and local law enforcement agencies to use “either personnel or funds to hold, question or share information about people with federal immigration agents unless those individuals have been convicted of one or more offenses from a list of 800 crimes outlined in a 2013 state law.” For that reason, it is being called a “sanctuary state” bill, as it essentially provides a legal framework for ensuring refuge for undocumented residents of California and protecting them from federal immigration enforcement agents.

The Times elaborated:

Federal immigration authorities will still be able to work with state corrections officials — a key concession Brown had demanded — and will be able to enter county jails to question immigrants. But the state attorney general’s office will be required to publish guidelines and training recommendations to limit immigration agents’ access to personal information. And all law enforcement agencies will have to produce annual reports on their participation in task forces that involve federal agencies, as well as on the people they transfer to immigration authorities.

California is home to roughly 2.3 million undocumented immigrants and 35 so-called sanctuary cities. While there is no formal definition of sanctuary city, generally, cities with that designation have formal laws in place to prevent outing undocumented citizens, and restrict local law enforcement from their ability to work with federal immigration officials engaged in deporting residents.

The state already issues driver’s license to undocumented residents, as well as extends healthcare options to them, as the Times noted.

Since the beginning of his presidential campaign, Trump has made immigration a hallmark of his agenda and frequently equates illegal immigration with criminal activity — despite numerous studies over the span of multiple years that prove it to be a false equivalency.

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the sanctuary state bill “unconscionable.” “Other federal officials also have sounded off against SB 54, suggesting illegal immigration is tied to increases in violent crime,” the Times reported.

“Stranger Things 2″: See two new clips from the upcoming season right here, right now

"Stranger Things" (Credit: Netflix/Jackson Davis)

The countdown is on — the second season of the critically-acclaimed Netflix-series “Stranger Things” is just weeks away! “Stranger Things 2” — as it is called — will be released four days before Halloween on the 27th, giving you a cruel choice between attending parties and bingeing all weekend.

In honor of the release, the producers have released two new clips, one of which can be found on the “Stranger Things” video game, available on iOS and Android.

In the first clip, a conspiracy theorist tries to tie together the strange events that have taken place since the mysterious disappearance of Will Byer in 1983. Now jumping to 1984, where “ST2″ will go down, the theorist looks to some suspicious occurrences across the world: a new Coca-Cola, the Russian boycott at the Olympic games and plans for armed space satellites, to name a few.

Conspiracy theories will supposedly be one of the main themes of the second season, with comedian Brett Gelman joining the cast as a “a disgraced journalist turned conspiracy theorist who is investigating a cold case in Hawkins.”

In the second, our favorite crew goes hunting for candy as the Ghostbusters — don’t forget the series takes place in the ‘80s, when the movie was still fresh and new. The boys debate the politics of Three Musketeers candy before getting the almighty crap scared out of them. It’s adorable.

“Stranger Things 2″ begins streaming on October 27th. Watch the first full trailer below and call your friends to let them know that, no, you probably won’t make it to that drinks thing they’re planning on the following Saturday night.

Rick Perry flew on a private jet the day before Tom Price resigned for doing the same thing

Rick Perry (Credit: AP/Cliff Owen)

As embarrassing headlines on former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s private plane usage dominated the news cycle, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry felt it was just fine and dandy to charter his own private jet for a trip from Pennsylvania to Ohio on September 28. That would be just one day before Price would resign.

Secretary Perry took the plane on a trip to a decommissioned uranium facility in Piketon, Ohio. A spokesmen from the aviation company declined to comment on the cost of the trip and, at the time of publication, Perry’s team has not yet responded.

On September 29th, Price resigned after Politico reported he had traveled by private plane at least 24 times, costing taxpayers an excess of $300,000. Politico later discovered that, including other trips involving the use of military jets and commercial flights for his wife and staff to travel to Asia and Europe, Price had rung up a bill of over $1 million in total.

Price said he will reimburse taxpayers $51,887.31, however this fraction of the cost will only cover his own seats on the planes. Though the overseas trips did involve HHS missions, prior to his resignation, Price admitted he regretted “the concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars.”

Nine months in and it seems excessive private travel will be among one of the more recognizable legacies of the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have also found themselves under the glaring spotlight of public scrutiny for chartering their own private jets or using government planes on trips that have fishy connections to their official duties.

Zinke cost taxpayers $12,375 for a trip from Las Vegas to his private home in Kalispell, Montana. This came on top of more flights to the U.S. Virgin Islands, with figures not yet privy to the public. According to The Washington Post, traveling from Las Vegas to Montana costs $300 on commercial flights.

Pruitt has come under fire for his use of more than $58,000 worth of chartered and military flights to Cincinnati, New York and Italy, of which the White House claims there were “no viable commercial flights.”

Mnuchin, for his part, has openly admitted to his use of private jets. On August 21st, Mnuchin and his wife took a government jet to Fort Knox to take in a good viewing of the Solar Eclipse. Mnuchin also flew on a government jet from New York City to Washington D.C. — “one of the most well-connected travel routes” — and requested the use of another government plane for his European honeymoon. Though Mnuchin received a great deal of backlash after his wife posted a photo on Instagram of the dynamic duo stepping off the plane (Linton also tagged the luxury designers she was wearing and told off a critic), he refuses to commit to using commercial travel.

“I can promise the American taxpayer that the only time that I will be using [military air] is when there are issues either for national security or we have to get to various different things where there’s no other means,” he said on CBS “This Morning” on September 28, the same day Perry took his private flight.

Oh, and it was revealed on Thursday — yes, today — that Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway was allegedly a member on at least one of these flights.

At this present moment in time, The Office of Inspector General is in the middle of an investigation into the exorbitant cost of Zinke’s private travel that has become a trend among what seems to be the whole administration.

On top of the continuing controversies involving his cabinet members, President Trump himself has been scrutinized for what many claim is excessive vacationing. Nine months into his first term, the 45th President has spent a total of 68 days at his golf clubs. According to the Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch, using Air Force One costs around $200,000 to operate per hour, which results in an estimated $3 million per travel weekend. Just one month into his term, Trump’s travel itinerary cost around $10 million.

When questioned by a journalist at Thursday’s White House press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempted to justify Trump’s traveling.

“The President is in a very different position, he’s not allowed to travel in a different way other than in a secure airplane,” Sanders said. “The president certainly hasn’t been there every weekend, and every weekend that he’s traveling, no matter where he is, the president is working.”