Scientists have found evidence to prove the human love of beer and blue cheese in the Austrian Alps. © Jamie McDonald, AFP/ File photo
BOND IS BI
Daniel Craig said he goes to gay bars to avoid aggressive men in straight clubs
Daniel Craig may play a macho man as James Bond in the “007” series, but he said he tries his best to avoid aggressive men off-screen.
The actor told Bruce Bozzi with SiriusXM he’s been going to gay bars for years to avoid “the aggressive dick-swinging in hetero bars,” according to the New York Daily News.
“I’ve been going to gay bars for as long as I can remember,” Craig said on the “Lunch with Bruce” SiriusXM podcast. “One of the reasons, because I don’t get into fights in gay bars that often.”
The British actor said he first started going to gay bars in his youth because he didn’t want to get punched on a night out, which would happen “quite a lot” at straight bars.
Craig explained people weren’t bothered by his presence at gay bars, despite being a straight man himself. He said no one really asked him about his sexuality when he was out at straight bars, making them a “very safe place to be.”
Because many straight women go to bars that cater to gay men, Craig said he was even able to pick up women on nights out.
“I could meet girls there, ’cause there are a lot of girls there for exactly the same reason I was there,” Craig said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren says billionaires have ‘enough money to shoot themselves into space’ because they don’t pay taxes
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday criticized wealthy Americans who have ventured into outer space but haven’t paid their taxes on Earth.
In an interview with “The View” on ABC, the Massachusetts senator discussed President Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar legislative plan, saying that Democrats want to make the ultra-rich pay higher taxes to help cover its costs.
“The money is going to come from the billionaires who don’t pay their taxes and therefore have enough money to shoot themselves into space,” Warren said.
“It’s going to come from giant corporations like Amazon,” she continued.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the second richest person in the world, in July flew to the edge of space on a rocket built by his space company, Blue Origin. The move prompted criticism. Before his journey, more than 185,000 people signed petitions not to allow Bezos to return to Earth.
“Billionaires should not exist … on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there,” one petition’s description read.
Bezos did not pay federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, according to a bombshell report of IRS documents published by ProPublica in June. Amazon also paid no federal taxes in 2017 and 2018. Over the years, the billionaire has since his wealth increase, with a current net worth over $US190 ($AU258) billion.
The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, likewise saw his wealth grow but paid a small amount in taxes, according to the ProPublica report. From 2014 to 2018, Musk’s wealth increased by $US13.9 ($AU19) billion, but he reported only $US1.52 ($AU2) billion worth of taxable income to the IRS. Comparing the $US455 ($AU619) million he paid in taxes to his wealth gains, ProPublica said Musk paid a “true tax rate” of 3.27%.
Musk also has his own space company, SpaceX. He has not traveled to space yet, but has paid for a ticket for a future flight on Virgin Galactic, a company founded by fellow billionaire Richard Branson.
Democrats have blasted big companies and the ultra-wealthy for avoiding taxes and for not paying what they describe as their “fair share” in taxes.
“I’m sick and tired of the super-wealthy and giant corporations not paying their fair share in taxes,” Biden tweeted last month. “It’s time for it to change.”
Biden’s spending package would increase investments in education, healthcare, childcare, and climate, aiming to boost the working class of the country. But negotiations are ongoing as the Democratic party’s progressives and moderates remain divided over elements of the plan.
“Nobody is going to get everything they want – and that includes all the senators,” Warren said, alluding to Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have opposed the size and the scope of the package.
“I want the folks on the other side to put on the table what they don’t want,” she added.
The ongoing battle between Hollywood workers and the major studios is at a boiling point, and it may be about to spill over on the entire entertainment industry next week.
More than 60,000 film and television workers in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), a crew members’ union in Hollywood, are on the brink of an industrywide strike. IATSE President Matthew Loeb tweeted on Wednesday that he intends to formally initiate a strike on Monday unless an agreement is reached between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
“We will continue bargaining with the producers this week in the hopes of reaching an agreement that addresses core issues, such as reasonable rest periods, meal breaks, and a living wage for those on the bottom of the wage scale,” Loeb said in the tweet.
“However, the current pace of bargaining doesn’t reflect any sense of urgency. Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. IATSE film and TV workers deserve to have their basic needs addressed NOW,” Loeb continued.
Union members have pushed for improved working conditions, like longer rest breaks and wage increases for lower-paid crafts. Many personal accounts from union members’ difficult working experiences have been pouring out on social media, reining in support from other major entertainment unions including SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America, as well as notable figures in the industry.
Earlier this month, IATSE members voted to authorize a strike, with over 98% of members voting in favor for a strike. The union and producers resumed bargaining negotiations on Wednesday, according to Deadline, marking eight days since the strike authorization. The unions have been locked in multiple negotiations since July, but parties have repeatedly failed to reach a consensus on a deal.
“Despite our best efforts at the table, the pace of negotiations does not reflect the urgency of the situation,” Cathy Repola, national executive director of the Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, said in a message to her members on Tuesday. “In the wake of the overwhelming strike authorization vote, the employers repeatedly refuse to do what it will take to achieve a fair deal. Either they don’t recognize what has changed in our industry and among our members or they don’t care. Or both.”
The strike is expected to have major implications on the entertainment industry, creating a labor shortage that could affect everything from live television shows to streaming hits to feature films. Studios are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to disrupt production schedules and theatrical releases.
If the action goes forward on Monday, it will be only the second crew member strike in Hollywood history.
IATSE Sets Strike Date, Which Could Shut Down Film And TV Production Nationwide
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have been speaking for the majority of Democrats in Washington when she said on Tuesday that she was “very disappointed” that President Biden’s domestic agenda will have to be pared down because of opposition from Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
“If there are fewer dollars to spend, there are choices to be made,” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol. She promised that the final package would be “transformative” all the same, whatever that package ultimately looks like. The two Senate centrists have said that the president’s proposal to spend $3.5 trillion over 10 years on expanding childcare, health coverage and environmental protections is much too expensive to win their necessary support.
Manchin has indicated he’d like to see Build Back Better, as the president’s “human infrastructure” proposals are collectively known, end up costing around $2 trillion. Without any Republican support for those proposals, and with the Senate evenly divided between the two parties, the demands of Manchin and Sinema carry inordinate weight.
Now that the red pens have come out, every member of Congress with any say in the matter wants to make sure that their priorities make the final cut and aren’t trimmed too severely in the process.
“Housing. Is. Everything,” said a recent tweet from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the influential House Financial Services Committee chairwoman. She wants to see affordable housing remain a priority in the pared-down Build Back Better agenda.
Other progressives are making similar demands. “The Congresswoman has repeatedly said ‘no climate, no deal,’” a spokeswoman for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote to Yahoo News in an email.
Some Democrats just want to see something — anything — make it into law. They fear that failure to pass either the Build Back Better bill or a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that has some Republican support could indicate to the American people that Democrats are incapable of governing when in control of both the White House and both chambers of Congress. It is not lost on Democrats that they used precisely that argument to wrest the House from Republican control in the 2018 congressional midterms.
“The stakes are too high,” veteran Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told Yahoo News, “and the voters will not forgive Congress for doing nothing.”
Frustration has been mounting at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as Biden, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer try to keep a fragile coalition from collapsing.
“Everybody is frustrated,” Biden said earlier this month. Little since then has transpired to lighten the mood.
As far as the White House is concerned, things could be a lot worse. Just weeks ago, a clash between House progressives and Senate moderates nearly led to the collapse of Biden’s entire domestic agenda, with Pelosi deciding that she didn’t have the votes to bring the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to the floor.
Pelosi’s calculated delay has bought the White House and congressional leaders time, but it also gives competing factions on Capitol Hill an opportunity to make an intense pitch for why their priorities need to stay in the final bill.
Pelosi has said that she would like to keep most of the programs in the Build Back Better agenda, only for shorter durations. Those include an expanded child tax credit, provisions for lower drug prices, subsidized childcare and a raft of investments in lowering greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. “Mostly we would be cutting back on years,” she said on Tuesday.
That was different from what she told her Democratic colleagues on Monday, indicating in a letter that it was preferable to cut programs instead of reducing the period through which those programs would be funded. “Overwhelmingly,” that letter said, “the guidance I am receiving from Members is to do fewer things well so that we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis.”
If all that seems confusing, that’s because it is. Biden made listening to members of Congress a signature of his negotiating style. He has dispatched his top aides routinely to Capitol Hill to explain the particulars of his domestic agenda. Listening to lawmakers has the understandable effect of emboldening them, which may not be what the White House needs at the moment.
“Every day there’s a reason it can all fall apart,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told Yahoo News the day after Biden went to Capitol Hill in an effort to rally House Democrats. “There’s definitely bruised feelings,” the first-term congressman acknowledged before observing that “Americans don’t care about our feelings in Washington, D.C.”
Americans do seem to like the various parts of Biden’s domestic agenda; it has routinely polled at about 70 percent, as he and his allies never tire of pointing out. All the more frustrating for the White House, then, that parts of that agenda have to fall out.
Officials in the West Wing tried to put a brave face on the ongoing negotiations, even as they confront the reality of curtailed ambitions.
“I promise you, we don’t get too glum around here,” press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Tuesday briefing, “even if things look challenging.” She pointed out that even ambitions that have been curtailed are better than ones that haven’t been realized at all.
