Netflix originals presents Homecoming A Beyoncé film
Now Streaming! Join table talk with Ti Sunday April 21st. So watch Netflix original Homecoming A Beyoncé film. Then turn in to lovelyti tonight to have A great dialogue and discussion!!
Chucky official trailer 2019
Mark Hamill stars as Chucky! Chucky in theaters June 21st! He’s more than just a toy… He’s your best friend
National Poetry Month: Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith (1972), was raised in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She studied at Harvard, where she joined the Dark Room Collective, a reading series for writers of color. She went on to receive her MFA from Columbia University.
Smith’s first collection, The Body’s Question (Graywolf Press, 2003), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2002.
The Universe as a Primal Scream – Tracy K. Smith
5pm on the nose. They open their mouths
And it rolls out: high, shrill and metallic.
First the boy, then his sister. Occasionally,
They both let loose at once, and I think
Of putting on my shoes to go up and see
Whether it is merely an experiment
Their parents have been conducting
Upon the good crystal, which must surely
Lie shattered to dust on the floor.
Maybe the mother is still proud
Of the four pink lungs she nursed
To such might. Perhaps, if they hit
The magic decibel, the whole building
Will lift-off, and we’ll ride to glory
Like Elijah. If this is it—if this is what
Their cries are cocked toward—let the sky
Pass from blue, to red, to molten gold,
To black. Let the heaven we inherit approach.
Whether it is our dead in Old Testament robes,
Or a door opening onto the roiling infinity of space.
Whether it will bend down to greet us like a father,
Or swallow us like a furnace. I’m ready
To meet what refuses to let us keep anything
For long. What teases us with blessings,
Bends us with grief. Wizard, thief, the great
Wind rushing to knock our mirrors to the floor,
To sweep our short lives clean. How mean
Our racket seems beside it. My stereo on shuffle.
The neighbor chopping onions through a wall.
All of it just a hiccough against what may never
Come for us. And the kids upstairs still at it,
Screaming like the Dawn of Man, as if something
They have no name for has begun to insist
Upon being born.
National Poetry Month: Jibanananda Das
Article via Khurpi.com
He is a poet of nature. Bengal’s beauty with its lovely flora and fauna finds apt description in his poetry. He had a unique lyricism, and was a romantic as well as a classicist. One of his most famous poems is Banalata Sen dedicated to his muse, the poem abounds with the distinct imagery of nature:
Jibanananda Das –Banalata Sen
“Hajar bochor dhorey ami poth hantitechi prithibir pothey,
Shinghol- shomudro theke nisheether ondhokarey moloy- shagorey
Onek ghurechi ami; Bimbishar- Ashokar dhushor jogotey
Shekhane chilam ami; aro dur ondhokar bidorbho nogore;”
(It has been a thousand years since I started trekking the earth
A huge travel in night’s darkness from the Ceylonese waters
To the Malayan sea
I have been there too; the fading world of Vimbisara and Ashoka
Even further- the forgotten city of Vidarva)
Law and Order SVU Full Review: S20 E20 | The Good Girl (Spoilers)
Did you know that in some states it’s legal to marry a thirteen year old, with a parent’s consent?
The episode starts with a woman sitting pretzel style on her couch trying to meditate. But she’s disturbed by the fight between a father and her daughter.
The father won’t let his daughter have her phone (to text a boy?). The daughter goes ballistic, reminds him that he is her stepfather, and starts throwing knives and glasses. Hmm.
The meditating lady calls the police and the father and daughter try to play it cool, but daddy is bleeding and that teenager is looking a little crazy; they’re taken into the hospital.
When they’re at the hospital it is discovered that the 13 year old is *surprise* pregnant.
Of course the father is questioned about the paternity and he responds “Oh God! I know you have to ask but I would never”. In the interview he reveals that the mother passed a few years ago and that the biological father of the teen is a junkie in the wind.
Meanwhile, in the next room Rollins and Lieutenant Benson are questioning the teenager, Mackenzie. She reveals that she has been with an older man, an older man with a blue BMW. She clams up and won’t say anymore.
Carisi and Rollins visit St. Matthews school to investigate who the father is. They speak to two boys posed in a flirty Instagram picture with Mackenzie, the post referencing nudes.
The two boys reveal that Mackenzie is a flirt, constantly teasing by ‘grabbing their junks’.
The two detectives are led to the high-school drama teacher, Mr. Dryfus. He reveals he has a blue BMW and he is taken in for questioning.
Later on, Mackenzie’s father expresses that he has accepted the pregnancy, because it’s what his daughter wants. With all this Mackenzie still will not give details of her relationship.
Panning back to Rollins and Benson in the squad room, Rollins doesn’t like the idea of a court violating a child’s privacy by ordering a paternity test.
Rollins claims ” If one of the teen boys from that school is the father, why should the baby ruin his life too?”
Benson retorts “I didn’t know that babies ruined lives…”
“Did you let the father know before you…”
“Before I what?”
“Before you had the abortion?” Rollins said exasperated.
Benson sets the record straight and says she never said she had an abortion. “All I said was that regret can be a terrible thing to live with and you assumed…”
Anyways. Mackenzie finally confirms to her stepfather that her “boyfriend” was the drama teacher Mr. Drayfus. Once the unit catches wind of this they rush to Mr. Drayfus’s apartment.
There they find Mr. Drayfus laying on the floor, dead, with a bowling trophy next to him. On the couch, the stepfather, Garret is sitting in a daze.
Back in the interrogation room Garret confesses to the homicide, his defense being “he couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting his precious daughter”. Garret was offered 2 years, 1 year probation.
In the A.D.A.’s office, none other than Clinton Drayfus’s boyfriend walks in. He assures the A.D.A that Clinton was engaged to marry next summer. And that the bowling trophy was from an LGBTQ League. Meaning Mackenzie lied about her the relationship with Mr. Drayfus, because he was gay.
At this point Benson decides to coax the truth out of Mackenzie at the grocery store, where Mackenzie is shopping for veal chops to make dinner for her and Garret. Benson lets her know that Garret committed a crime because of Mackenzie’s lies. Mackenzie lets her know that Garret is not at fault as long as he was operating under the implications of the lie at the time he committed the homicide. (How would a thirteen year old know all that?)
Benson realizes Mackenzie is protecting Garret, and wants to bring her to trial.
The trial lasts all of two minutes when Garret’s defense attorney reveals that Mackenzie will not be able to testify of her conversations with her stepfather due to… SPOUSAL PRIVILEGE. It turns out Mackenzie and Garret are married.
A year after Mackenzie’s mother died, Garret got a marriage license for him and Mackenzie. Garret got parental consent from the biological father, in exchange for 10 grand.
In exchange for a deal for his charge on possession of drugs, the biological father agrees to testify that he was bribed by Garret to sign the marriage certificate, in the marriage annulment hearing. Unfortunately, Mackenzie tells the judge how good Garret was to her and her mother, how he loved her. With that, the judge ruled that the marriage was in good standing. This means the prosecution had a weak case against Garret, he would get off when the jury heard how much Garret cared for Mackenzie, he would be get off easy on the homicide.
Garret and Mackenzie are in the interview room. When the detectives realize they have a weak case against Garret, they decide to arrest Mackenzie, for telling a lie that got an innocent man killed. At the sight of Mackenzie in handcuffs Garret breaks down and says how it’s his fault.
Mackenzie claims “No it’s my fault. I was the one who told Mr. Dryfus about us after he asked who got me pregnant. He was my friend. He promised not to say anything.”
So Garret killed Mr. Drayfus because Drayfus knew about Garret’s intimate relationship with Mackenzie. Garret is offered manslaughter 1 and statutory rape. He’s hauled away in handcuffs, leaving Mackenzie in tears.
Benson later goes to visit Mackenzie. They go head to head for a while, Mackenzie maintains she’s practically a woman and Garret loves her.
Bensons gets her to see reason when she tells Mackenzie that Garret stole her childhood from her. She wasn’t out riding her bike or hanging out with friends, instead she was taking care of Garret.
Benson tells her “I didn’t know your mother but I bet she was a good mom. Just like you’re going to be a good mom to that baby”.
Mackenzie starts to cry, implying she had a miscarriage.
‘Drive high, get a DUI’: Police are cracking down on drivers celebrating 4/20 behind the wheel
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — Police are cracking down on drivers getting behind the wheel while high this weekend.
MoDOT is launching its campaign “Drive high, get a DUI” for April 20, or 4/20 by cannabis enthusiasts.
All weekend, law enforcement and drug recognition experts will be on lookout for what they say is a growing problem in Missouri. In 2018, 78 people were killed and 142 seriously injured in crashes involving a drug-impaired driver.
Police say while medical marijuana is legal in many states, it’s still illegal to drive under the influence of it in all states.
Student Set on Fire After Reporting Sex Harassment
“The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime ’til my last breath,” Nusrat Jahan Rafi spoke into a cellphone as she was taken to a Bangladeshi hospital with burns covering 80% of her body.
She would die four days later, and now her case has gained international attention. In late March, Nusrat told police the headmaster of her school in the small town of Feni had called her into his office and touched her inappropriately, reports the BBC.
He was arrested, but a police video of Nusrat making her complaint surfaced, and soon she became a target of harassment. When she returned to school for her final exams on April 6, authorities say a female student lured her to the roof on a false pretext.
There, a small group confronted Nusrat and demanded she clear the headmaster. When she refused, they set her on fire, per the Guardian.
“None
of the culprits will be spared from legal action,” Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina says, per the BBC, which notes 15 people have been
arrested along with the headmaster.
The Dhaka Tribune reports he had a known “history of condemnable behavior.” In the police video, Nusrat, who was 18 or 19, can be seen trying to keep her face covered as the officer orders her to remove her hands from her face and tells her the allegation is “no big deal.” The case “shows how badly the Bangladesh government has failed victims of sexual assault,” a rep for Human Rights Watch says, per Sky News.
“It leads the victim to give up on seeking justice,” a human rights lawyer adds. (Gay people aren’t safe in Bangladesh, either.)
National Poetry Month: Bei Dao
Zhao Zhenkai was born in Beijing August 2, 1949. His pseudonym Bei Dao means ‘North Island’. He is the author of several books of poetry and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize multiple times.
Ramallah – Ben Dao
in Ramallah
the ancients play chess in the starry sky
the endgame flickers
a bird locked in a clock
jumps out to tell the time
in Ramallah
the sun climbs over the wall like an old man
and goes through the market
throwing mirror light on
a rusted copper plate
in Ramallah
gods drink water from earthen jars
a bow asks a string for directions
a boy sets out to inherit the ocean
from the edge of the sky
in Ramallah
seeds sown along the high noon
death blossoms outside my window
resisting, the tree takes on a hurricane’s
Ku Klux Klan killing: Wife admits murder of Missouri leader
Article via BBC
The wife of a Ku Klux Klan leader in the US state of Missouri has admitted shooting him dead two years ago.
Malissa Ancona, 47, was sentenced to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.
She had initially said her son, Paul Jinkerson, carried out the killing but in court on Friday said this was not the case. He still faces trial.
Frank Ancona, a self-styled “imperial wizard”, was shot dead in a bedroom and his body dumped next to a river.
In a deal with prosecutors, Ancona pleaded guilty on Friday at St Francois County Circuit Court to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“I fired both shots that killed my husband,” Ancona told Judge Wendy Wexler Horn, the paper reported.
She admitted cleaning the walls of the room in Leadwood, Missouri, and removing bedding before dumping the body in nearby Belgrade in February 2017.
She then reported her husband, 51, missing and appealed for his return on Facebook. He had asked for a divorce, court records said.
She had initially said Mr Jinkerson fired the shots and agreed to testify against him.
Mr Ancona was a member of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (TAKKKK), which describes itself as a “White Patriotic Christian organisation that bases its roots back to the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th Century”.
Seagram’s liquor heiress pleads guilty to crimes related to New York sex cult, pyramid scheme case
Article via CNN
Two women who were part of an alleged pyramid scheme that involved sex trafficking and racketeering each pleaded guilty to related charges Friday in a New York federal court. Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor people who were not in the United States legally for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification. Kathy Russell pleaded guilty to one charge of visa fraud.
Bronfman and Russell were indicted in March on racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges as part of the cult-like organization known as Nxivm, founded by Keith Raniere, who also was indicted and is now in federal custody. He faces sex trafficking and forced labor charges.
Bronfman was a member of the Nxivm executive board, according to a US Justice Department news release, and faces between 21 and 27 months in prison. Russell is Nxivm’s former bookkeeper and faces between six and 12 months in prison. Bronfman, who will be sentenced July 25, tearfully read a statement in court during her plea hearing.
“Your honor, I was afforded a great gift by my grandfather and father. With the gift comes immense privilege, and more importantly, tremendous responsibility,” Bronfman said. “It does not come with an ability to break the law, it comes with a greater responsibility to uphold it. I failed to uphold the following laws set forth by this country, and for that I am truly remorseful.”
Russell, who will be sentenced July 31, said in court that she knowingly provided visa documents with false information in order to bring a woman into the US for work. “I know what I did was wrong and I am very sorry for the trouble that I’ve caused,” Russell said, tearfully.
Five Nxivm members were indicted and charged last year for crimes that included identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Bronfman, Russell and actress Allison Mack were among the five indicted and charged last year.
Nxivm touted itself as a professional organization
Prosecutors allege Raniere created the organization Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ium), which touted itself as a professional business providing coaching and educational services to “corporations and people of all walks of life.” The organization, prosecutors say, actually operated like a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme, and encouraged its members to continue taking pricey classes and recruiting other members in order to rise in the ranks of the organization. The organization also acted as an umbrella for other groups like “The Source,” described as a private arts academy, and the secret society DOS, which was founded in 2015 and is the subgroup where sex trafficking activities allegedly took place.
Under the sub-group DOS, prosecutors allege. women were designated as “slaves” until successfully recruiting others, at which time they became “masters.” All so-called slaves were at the service of their own masters as well as those above them in the pyramid.
The indictment claims many so-called slaves were branded on their pelvic areas with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere’s initials.
Documents describe “branding ceremonies,” in which women were held down by others while naked and filmed as they were branded with a cauterizing pen. Raniere was the only male in DOS and the leader, according to court filings.
Prosecutors believe Mack, known for her 10-season run on the television series “Smallville,” was near the top of the pyramid with Raniere and “directly or implicitly required” her slaves to engage in sexual activity with Raniere. She also allegedly received financial and other benefits from Raniere in exchange for the women’s cooperation with their demands.Mack was released from jail on $5 million bond after being indicted last week. She pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering relating to her alleged role in a sex trafficking case.Raniere remains in federal custody in Brooklyn. If convicted, Raniere and Mack each face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years imprisonment, and up to life imprisonment.His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, had no comment on the remaining co-defendants. “We’re going to trial,” Agnifilo said. The trial begins May 7.