Latest news with #ContinentalCongress
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chrissy Teigen Slams Donald Trump For 'Acting Like A King' Amid L.A. ICE Protests
Chrissy Teigen is lending her voice against Donald Trump's alleged tyranny! The model has joined the loud calls for the President to drop his alleged authoritarian ways and make America governable for Americans. Chrissy Teigen has carved out a niche for herself as one of the most vocal figures on social media and in Hollywood on matters of governance, bullying, and other issues. The model took to her Instagram to emphasize that "Trump is NOT our king - and on June 14th, it's up to us to prove it." She criticized his plan to throw himself a $45 million birthday party, likening it to "a big military parade like some of his authoritarian idols have done." Teigen also called BS on the White House's information that the parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army coincidentally falls on the same day as Trump's birthday. "Rubbish. Trump wants a big military parade on his birthday and is using the anniversary as a pretext. How ironic that the Continental Congress originally established an Army, headed by George Washington, to fight against the very tyranny that Trump espouses," Teigen asks further. She continued that the President is acting like a king by "defying the courts, issuing arbitrary decrees, disregarding checks and balances." Teigen continued in the caption that on June 14th, all Americans "will gather peacefully to protest Donald Trump's authoritarian spectacle." She encouraged her followers and fans to find out more information at " adding that they should find the nearest gathering, "get involved," and stand up for democracy. She noted that Trump seeks to organize a military parade to assert his sense of power in the country. Teigen stressed that it is important to remember that in America, kings are not recognized as leaders. The model urged everyone to come together on June 14th and send a clear message to Trump and the world that the true power in America lies with the people. Earlier today, TMZ shared that California Governor Gavin Newsom recently criticized President Donald Trump during an interview amid ongoing protests in Los Angeles. He accused Trump of being a "bald-faced liar" and claimed that the president is seeking to incite a civil war with his immigration policies. Newsom made these remarks while addressing the violent demonstrations sparked by ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants. During the interview with Fox 11 L.A., Newsom expressed his frustration, labeling Trump a "STONE COLD LIAR" and declaring that Trump's actions are putting lives at risk by federalizing the National Guard without justification. He also denied Trump's claim that he warned Newsom about calling in California's National Guard if the protests escalated, calling those comments "totally and completely untrue." While acknowledging the chaos, including acts of vandalism and arson during the protests, Newsom condemned the violence unleashed during the protests. He called for the arrest of those responsible and emphasized the need for calm and safety in the streets. The governor also insisted that Trump should rescind his order to help de-escalate the situation. In a separate MSNBC interview, Newsom also challenged Trump's Border Czar, Tom Homan, to arrest him. Last year, at the Cannes Lions, before the election, The Blast shared that Teigen and her husband, John Legend, participated in a live recording of the podcast "On with Kara Swisher." Teigen reflected on her past criticisms of Trump and expressed concern about the potential for backlash if he were to regain the presidency. She noted that her previous tweets, particularly her notable comments slamming Trump from 2019, could resurface and attract unwanted attention from the "unhinged" politician. Legend echoed his partner's apprehensions, emphasizing the importance of considering personal safety and the impact of Trump's potential return to power. Despite their concerns, both Teigen and Legend remain committed to their political engagement. They plan to continue voicing their opinions, regardless of the backlash they may face. Legend expressed his determination to support President Biden at the time, acknowledging that his political stance might alienate some fans of his show, "The Voice." Nevertheless, he affirmed his authenticity, stating that he stands by his beliefs. Teigen echoed this sentiment, reiterating that ultimately, being true to oneself is more important than worrying about public opinion or brand associations. The model and her musician husband reportedly considered moving from their $17.5 million Beverly Hills mansion in the wake of the Los Angeles fires. As reported by The Blast, although their home was spared from the scorching flames, the couple was traumatized by the incident and immediately planned to have their lives elsewhere. The couple shared that they have New York at the top of their list of places to live. Legend noted that they once lived in the city where they owned two penthouses. They eventually sold their two units for $18 million. Legend and Teigen initially moved to Los Angeles for work, but the recent wildfires have prompted them to rethink their decision. Despite these thoughts, the couple shared that they are not prioritizing a move at the moment. They reportedly sounded hesitant to disrupt their youngest children's lives and preferred to let them grow a bit more before making any final decisions. The activist in Chrissy Teigen cannot sit idly by and watch things go bad!
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Today in History: June 20, Muhammad Ali convicted of draft evasion
Today is Friday, June 20, the 171st day of 2025. There are 194 days left in the year. Summer begins today. Today in history: On June 20, 1967, boxer Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted and was sentenced to five years in prison. (Ali's conviction would ultimately be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court). Also on this date: In 1782, the Continental Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, featuring the emblem of the bald eagle. In 1837, Queen Victoria acceded to the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV. In 1893, a jury in New Bedford, Massachusetts, found Lizzie Borden not guilty of the ax murders of her father and stepmother. In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in Detroit; federal troops were sent in by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to quell the violence that resulted in more than 30 deaths. In 1947, gangster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills, California, home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, likely at the order of mob associates. In 1972, three days after the arrest of the Watergate burglars, President Richard Nixon met at the White House with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman; the secretly made tape recording of this meeting ended up with a notorious 18 1/2-minute gap. In 2002, in the case Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that executing people with intellectual disabilities qualified as cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore in violation of the Eight Amendment. Today's Birthdays: Filmmaker Stephen Frears is 84. Musician-songwriter Brian Wilson is 83. Singer Anne Murray is 80. TV personality Bob Vila is 79. Musician Lionel Richie is 76. Actor John Goodman is 73. Rock bassist Michael Anthony (Van Halen) is 71. Rock bassist John Taylor (Duran Duran) is 65. Actor Nicole Kidman is 58. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez is 57. Actor Josh Lucas is 54. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is 50. Actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse is 36.
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
John Hancock: America's unsung founding father and revolutionary mark
It is unlikely Hancock will be restored to the top tier of the founders, but remembering him better could reap dividends NYT JOHN HANCOCK: First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence by Willard Sterne Randall Published by Dutton 272 pages $34 When John Hancock scrawled his enormous signature at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, it was a brave act; capture by the British might have meant execution. The musical 1776 has Hancock claiming that he wrote it out supersized 'so Fat George in London can read it without his glasses!' But despite his courage, Hancock remains a little hard to see. Unlike Adams and Jefferson, he did not leave extensive writings. Unlike Washington, he did not play a leading military role (though he longed to). Unlike all three of them, he did not make it to the presidency, but served as a precursor of sorts in the Continental Congress. These deficits have left their mark. Historians generally neglect Hancock when they write collective biographies of the founders, and there are no major monuments to him. There will be 250 statues in Donald Trump's National Garden of American Heroes that is supposed to be completed by July 4 next year. The actress Ingrid Bergman and the Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek have made the cut, but not the American who did more than most to define Independence Day. The Declaration of Independence may have been composed by a different founder, but, as the historian Willard Sterne Randall writes in John Hancock, it was Hancock who led the Second Continental Congress to appoint the committee that drafted it. He also raised funds for the Continental Army, oversaw shipbuilding efforts for the Navy and kept Congress together even as it fled Philadelphia when the British came too close for comfort. For all these reasons, it is welcome news to have a biography that presents a compelling case for a reappraisal. Randall tells the story of an 18th-century American who seemed preordained to follow the path of his father and grandfather into the ministry, but then swerved in another direction when his father died and a wealthy uncle offered to adopt him. At times, the narrative structure resembles the twists and turns of Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, Tom Jones, about a foundling with a hearty appetite for life. Tutored by his uncle, Hancock proved to have an exceptional nose for business. In the 1760s, as relations deteriorated between England and its American colonies, Hancock was on the front lines as a well-informed importer who understood the ways in which local tempers were flaring over tariffs on goods like paper and tea. As the English tightened the screws, he extended lines of credit to Boston's lesser merchants, a financial tie that meant the Massachusetts business community moved in lockstep with him when he wanted to pressure the Crown with a boycott. Randall also effectively conveys the real affection that bonded Hancock and his fellow Bostonians, whom he helped with purchases of firewood during particularly cold winters and fireworks displays when there was happier news to celebrate. His philanthropy earned him many friends, but his expensive tastes grated on more abstemious leaders like Samuel Adams. Hancock was elected to office, first locally, and then, when he assumed the presidency of the Continental Congress in May 1775, as a leader of the not-quite-United States. In 1777, exhausted, he requested a leave, and returned to Boston for a spell. After that, he never completely regained his national stature, although he served capably in local offices and helped Massachusetts survive its own internal fissures, including Shays' Rebellion in the 1780s. If the early Revolutionary period represented Hancock's apogee, he stayed true to the patriot cause for many years after. Unlike another financial genius who was rising at that moment — Alexander Hamilton — he was suspicious of a strong central government and yet he worked to secure the approval of the US Constitution in Massachusetts. Weakened by gout, he began to fade just as the country was coming together. For all of these reasons, Hamilton gets the $10 bill and the musical. Randall handles the arc of Hancock's life efficiently, but there remain unasked questions relating to slavery. There is some evidence that Hancock, as the governor of Massachusetts, impeded the extradition of people who had escaped bondage in the South and that he endorsed compensation for forced labour. The author does not investigate these subjects, nor does he linger over the way the peculiar institution might have helped bolster Hancock's inherited fortune. It is unlikely Hancock will be restored to the top tier of the founders, but remembering him better could reap dividends. With his financial acumen, propensity for dramatic gestures and flamboyant signature, he might appeal to the right, and a certain Sharpie-wielding president. With his respect for due process and democracy, and his direct support of those in need, he also represents values that might be associated with the left. To bring a divided people closer together, as he did in 1776, would be a good way to honour a founder who has been waiting a long time for his close-up.
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Graceland opens to the public
Today is Saturday, June 7, the 158th day of 2025. There are 207 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 7, 1982, Graceland, Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion, was opened to the public as a tourist destination, five years after Presley's death. Also on this date: In 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution to the Continental Congress stating 'that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States.' In 1892, Homer Plessy, a Creole of color, was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only car of the East Louisiana Railroad. (Ruling on his case, Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 'separate but equal' racial segregation, a concept it renounced in 1954.) In 1929, the sovereign state of Vatican City formally came into existence as the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty in Rome. In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in a decisive victory for American naval forces over Imperial Japan, marking a turning point in the Pacific War. In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples. In 1976, New York magazine published an article by journalist Nik Cohn entitled 'The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,' which inspired the film 'Saturday Night Fever,' which in turn sparked a nationwide disco craze. (Cohn admitted in 1997 that the article was actually a work of fiction.) In 1979, Texas became the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday. (Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.) In 1998, in a crime that shocked the nation and led to stronger state and federal hate crime laws, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old Black man, was hooked by a chain to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. (Two white men were later sentenced to death and executed for the crime; a third was sentenced to life in prison.) In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike on his safe house. In 2021, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, from a prominent South Carolina legal family, were found shot and killed on their family's property. (Alex Murdaugh, Maggie's husband and Paul's father, would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.) Today's Birthdays: Filmmaker James Ivory is 97. Singer Tom Jones is 85. Actor Liam Neeson is 73. Author Orhan Pamuk is 73. Author Louise Erdrich is 71. Music producer L.A. Reid is 69. Musician Juan Luis Guerra is 68. Former Vice President Mike Pence is 66. Rock musician-TV host Dave Navarro is 58. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is 53. Actor Karl Urban is 53. TV personality Bear Grylls is 51. Basketball Hall of Famer Allen Iverson is 50. Actor-comedian Bill Hader is 47. Actor Michael Cera is 37. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 35. Actor-model Emily Ratajkowski is 34. NFL running back Christian McCaffrey is 29.
Epoch Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Reflecting on America's Legislative Tradition
Commentary On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened for its opening session in the building that would later become known as Independence Hall. Its organization followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord that April. With all other means of contending with the British Empire then exhausted, its purpose was to place the colonies on a war footing. Two hundred fifty years later, why should we care about the anniversary of a legislative body that no longer exists? After all, it was replaced by a new Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1781, and was replaced again by the Congress under the Constitution several years later. First and foremost, this body would declare America's independence just 14 months after its convening. In the process, the Continental Congress set forth the most extraordinary political statement about human dignity, freedom, and equality ever written. They changed the world forever. But none of that would have happened if leaders from 12 of the 13 colonies (the 13th joined later on) hadn't decided to form a congress. This was the Congress that created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, and the next day named a Virginia farmer and veteran of the French and Indian War named George Washington as commander-in-chief. None of the underdog, revolutionary American war effort would have been possible without the critical governance and support of the deliberative body that met together in Philadelphia, and then later in Baltimore, York, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We are indebted for our nation's existence to the revolutionaries who took part in that Congress. Some have familiar names like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and John Hancock, but others are less familiar, like Abraham Clark of New Jersey and William Williams of Connecticut. Related Stories 5/22/2025 5/21/2025 We would be remiss not to see the continuing legacies of the Second Continental Congress 250 years later. The American pattern of organizing legislative bodies is a remarkable feature of our political tradition . Not only did the Constitution make the legislative branch a permanent institution of the federal government, but it also mandated republican government throughout the states. State constitutions set in motion 50 different experiments in legislating. Just as importantly, local governments everywhere rely on legislative bodies—county commissions, city councils, school boards, fire commissions, and water boards—for their governance. The great legislation we remember, from the passage of amendments to ban slavery and give women the vote to the Civil Rights Act, stands alongside countless smaller acts of state and local legislative service to build roads, open schools, and ameliorate poverty. But the American legislative tradition is more than just another element of our political life. The American way of working together in teams is an extraordinary feature of our cultural life, and an indispensable ingredient in our national success. Think of the great sports teams, astronaut crews, and startup companies that made their mark for all the right reasons. Remember Lewis and Clark, the Wright Brothers, and the Doolittle Raiders. In the many thousands of civil society organizations across the country—from food banks and Rotary Clubs to universities and hospitals—teamwork is alive and well. Millions of citizens are members of nonprofit governing boards. Millions more exercise team leadership in public and social sector roles as school principals, church pastors, or government agency executives. The great business writer Jim Collins has observed that great social sector leaders don't just draw on executive skills to move their organizations forward—they use legislative skills too. They listen, persuade, win buy-in, and turn individual talents into collective impact. It turns out these skills are incredibly valuable in business as well. If we are all too aware of counterexamples, where leaders, legislative bodies, and other American institutions have fallen short of their potential, the blame lies in part with those who chose not to get involved. Self-government depends on each one of us doing our part. In that spirit, there could be no more fitting way to celebrate America's 250th birthday than to join the board of a nonprofit or perhaps start one, lobby elected leaders for a needed change, or even run for office. And let us never forget the members of the Second Continental Congress who made the practice of legislating a great American tradition. From RealClearWire Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
