Tag: Career

Prayuth Chan-ocha became prime minister in a very Thai way: He led a military coup. Now after five years of running Thailand with absolute power, he's seeking to hold on to the top job through the ballot box. He wants to return as a prime minister under normal politics." He promised elections and then delayed them every year he was in power. He's worn increasingly well-tailored suits — for which his wife takes credit — and, as pressure for an election mounted, largely transformed himself into the Thai equivalent of your typical baby-kissing politician. They could not accept the rise of billionaire politician Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies after being elected prime minister in 2001 threatened to unravel the country's long-established power structure: Bangkok-oriented, devoted to the monarchy and safeguarded by the military. In October that year, he became the army commander-in-chief. After abandoning a sham effort to mediate between the Thaksin-backed government and its opponents who had been staging violent protests against it, Prayuth and the leaders of the other armed forces announced they were seizing power on May 22, 2014. Prayuth and his junta spelled out their major tasks, including brokering national reconciliation and enacting reforms across Thai society to save the nation from what it said was the inherent corruption of politicians. Early last year he made it clear, telling reporters: "I am no longer a soldier.

Living Elizabeth Pipko, a 23-year-old model who has appeared in Maxim, has kept a secret from her industry colleagues out of fear it could derail her career: She was a Donald Trump supporter and worked full-time on his 2016 presidential campaign. Once, after working a 10-hour-day on the Trump campaign, I went to meet with my manager (who was not affiliated with a modeling agency). My manager kept saying how evil the people who work for him must be and that he would never work with anyone who supported him. So I lied and told people I was coaching ice skating — I was a competitive figure skater for seven years — whenever I was really hard at work in Trump Tower. Once, when I was at Trump Tower, I ran into a big-time male model I knew from Wilhelmina, the agency that first signed me when I was 17. He was volunteering for the campaign, but he asked me not to tell anyone that I had seen him there — and I said the same. Not only am I proud of my work for Trump, but I also met amazing people — including my now husband, Darren Centinello, who is still part of the President’s campaign team. I think Trump is great for women. I care about what President Trump has done and will do for my country. And this time, I’m not going to hide it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz wants to place term limits on members of Congress, an idea that has long appealed to people across the political divide who have grown skeptical of the current crop of professional politicians. But even if Cruz's amendment to the U.S. Constitution were somehow enacted by the current Congress and the states – a long-shot at best – it would not bar him from running for a third or even fourth term in the Senate. Cruz and Florida U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, a Republican, introduced an amendment last week to limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms. It's awfully difficult to get them to vote for it if they'd be immediately giving up their jobs." Cruz, who ran for president in 2016, said he would vote for a retroactive term limit proposal. Still, delaying the impact on current office holders would avoid some political awkwardness in Texas, where 25 of the state's 36 House members – many of them veterans of more than a decade in Congress – are currently in their third terms or beyond. Opponents also argue that term limits would restrict voters' choices, applying to good lawmakers as well as bad ones. The 27th Amendment – the most recent – was ratified in 1992. Trump's election vindicated an anti-establishment message, and polls show support for the idea of term limits across party lines. "They don't favor or disfavor Republicans or Democrats ...

If women needed any more reason to be put off politics, episode three of Bodyguard was probably it. (At the time of writing, this theory is one of several. Only show creator Jed Mercurio knows the rest.) Bodyguard may be fiction, but its portrayed world of toxic masculinity, fragile egos and women wearing high heels from dawn until dusk is probably not that far off the mark. We don’t know if Montague, the fictional home secretary, is dead – apparently she might just be laying low until the finale – but in the real world, female heads do roll. Amber Rudd, for example, resigned from the Home Office after failing to prevent or deal with the Windrush scandal, while male politicians who have arguably committed equally egregious acts have simply escaped through the revolving doors of a cabinet reshuffle. Forgive me, but work-life balance does come into it. When I was lucky enough to have dinner in the canteen at Westminster a few years ago, I vividly remember having a chat with a female MP. It perhaps goes some way to explaining why so many powerful women don’t have children, whether it be Angela Merkel, Julia Gillard, Natalie Bennett or even the fictional Julia Montague. Once you are elected, you will be lucky if you have one full day off a week.

He said as much Thursday at an event in the Capitol and has made similar comments before. At a Q&A with Jeff Mayers of Wisconsin political news site WisPolitics, Ryan said: Twenty-first-century technology has proven that tribalism and identity politics is effective. Internet, money has proven identity politics and tribalism works. It’s morally wrong, but it’s politically effective. What bothers me is it’s being practiced on both sides: the right and the left. It’s not that surprising that Ryan criticized identity politics. For years — particularly those tea party years when Ryan began to climb the leadership ranks, Republicans criticized the concept of identity politics as a weapon that liberals use to stoke division. I think identity politics is neutral. According to Dictionary.com, identity politics is “political activity or movements based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group identity.” Obviously, we can see how something like identity politics can be abused, and perhaps that is what Ryan is referring to, but just because something can be abused and manipulated does not make it inherently wrong. The reality is that throughout American history, groups have had interests and even priorities based on their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, class or another identifier that, at best, was not a significant concern for people outside of their group.

Phoenix (CNN)In replacing John McCain, Arizona Gov. "Of course he's considered what he would do," one Republican strategist close to Ducey said. Ducey has a working relationship with Trump, those close to him say -- and Trump's endorsement of Ducey after Tuesday's primary could be read as a sign that the White House is paying attention to his moves -- but he's closer to Vice President Mike Pence, who was elected governor of Indiana two years before Ducey became governor of Arizona. While Ducey's camp is quiet, speculation among Arizona Republicans has ranged from several women Ducey has appointed to state government posts to Cindy McCain. Former Sen. Jon Kyl, who retired more than five years ago and is seen as a potential placeholder until the special election in 2020, wouldn't comment on whether he is interested in the job. Ducey is likely to look for someone who would have the support of McCain's family, several Arizona Republicans said. "I don't think they get to decide, but I think that'll certainly factor in," said Constantin Querard, an Arizona Republican strategist. Arizona held its primary for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake on Tuesday. Adams, Ducey's chief of staff, is one possible contender. Jan Brewer and former member of the state Board of Regents, was appointed by Ducey to her job just months ago and is often among the first people mentioned by Arizona Republicans for the job.

“We are to cower before the people who elected us, and I get their verdict tonight,” Mr. Sanford said, reading from scribbled notes on a legal pad, as it became clear he would lose his House race against Katie Arrington in South Carolina’s Republican primary. “There’s a different feel to this race, based on something that I’ve never experienced before, which is at times being hit not on ideas that I’ve espoused or held, but based on allegiance,” Mr. Sanford said earlier in the day as he campaigned. He endorsed Ms. Arrington, but also included a pointed dig at Mr. Sanford’s personal life. “He is better off in Argentina,” the president wrote. It is not clear how many voters saw the president’s 11th-hour endorsement and how many of them it swayed. People called him Mark. “Meanwhile, you find yourself in a Republican primary where you’re not ‘Trump enough.’ It’s like you can’t win these days, in terms of trying to talk about ideas.” Mr. Sanford stuck with an old-school strategy, content with what he noted proudly had worked before and the time before that and the time before that, but Ms. Arrington summoned a political strength that by turns mesmerized and infuriated his voters and supporters. “Mark Sanford and the career politicians cheated on us,” she said in one commercial. “It’s another profile in Trump courage.” By the time Mr. Trump had set Mr. Sanford’s supporters seething anew, the congressman had sensed that he was in political jeopardy. On Tuesday night, it became clear that was not enough.

It is a common belief among black people that the more successful we become, the more we should keep away from black culture — especially when white people are looking. Image Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Lawson, echoed this sentiment before her daughter’s performance: “I told Beyoncé that I was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and black college culture because it was something that they might not get,” she wrote on Instagram. “I have worked very hard to get to the point where I have a true voice,” Ms. Lawson recalls her daughter saying. “And at this point in my life and my career, I have a responsibility to do what’s best for the world and not what is most popular.” It would have made sense if Beyoncé decided to perform songs that were more culturally ambiguous, as to not alienate the people she was hired to entertain. She also amplified Malcolm X’s famous words about black women: “The most disrespected woman in America is the black woman. To Beyoncé, attending a historically black college is more than a niche experience coveted only by students and alumni. Beyoncé performed her sensuality proudly in those songs making political statement that a person can be both intellectually rigorous and sexually expressive. But it wasn’t clear whether, after Clive Davis called her “the first lady of music,” she would adhere to respectability politics, especially on a stage like Coachella, where she may have alienated a large portion of her audience. Black people often negotiate how much of ourselves we should show to make others comfortable. Beyoncé’s Coachella performance suggests that, as black people’s power grows, we should intentionally amplify the culture that nurtured us.

By Ed Davies and Agustinus Beo Da Costa in Jakarta The youngest son of former Indonesian president Suharto, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, is making a new push to launch a career in politics at the helm of a party that believes it can cash in on his late father’s legacy. Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years, was brought down by protests in 1998, amid accusations of vast corruption and nepotism benefiting his family and cronies. Nonetheless, family members have made repeated attempts to get into politics, often seeking to tap into nostalgia about the unity and security under Suharto’s government, which was backed by a military that crushed any sign of revolt. READ MORE: Open letter to PM Ardern – raise Papua human rights issue with Jokowi “The vision and mission of this party is to prepare an alternative option for the 2019 elections,” Badaruddin Andi Picunang, acting sectary-general of the Berkarya Party, said in an interview at its Jakarta headquarters. Yearning for stability Many people still yearned for the stability and the robust economic growth and development, at least in the earlier decades, of the Suharto era, said Picunang. “But now we see killings everywhere, pickpockets and religious leaders attacked,” he said. Hutomo echoed this theme in a news conference after being elected chairman of Berkarya, which means “working” in Indonesian, at a party meeting earlier this month in the city of Solo. “It is impossible for us to return to the New Order, it has become part of the history,” said Hutomo, who is widely known as Tommy, referring to his father’s government. “But what we want to develop and continue are the good things that were carried out by the New Order,” he said, highlighting Suharto’s rolling five-year development plans. Many of the members of Berkarya are former members of Golkar, his father’s old political machine and still the second-biggest party in Parliament.

Kevin Sorbo is putting on a Herculean effort to be a political commentator. Sorbo, best known for his portrayal of the Greek and Roman hero and god Hercules for six years on television, wants you to know he’s a full-throated Donald Trump man and has even gone so far as to echo the language of hate groups. “Only in America are legal citizens labeled ‘racists’ and ‘Nazis,’ but illegal aliens are called ‘Dreamers,’” Sorbo tweeted on Sunday. Along with posting a video by Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson following Trump’s State of the Union in February, Sorbo wrote: “So good. He was also excited about meeting Dennis Prager, a neoconservative radio host and conspiracy theorist. Prager once said of President Barack Obama: “Once one understands that 'racial tensions' is a euphemism for a black animosity toward whites and a left-wing construct, one begins to understand why the election of a black president has had no impact on most blacks or on the left.” And, Sorbo has been known to hang with Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-American anti-Islam activist. In a 2007 speech at the Christians United for Israel convention, Gabriel described Arabs this way: “They have no soul, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call ‘Allah’ which is very different from the God we believe ... because our God is the God of love.” Gabriel didn’t note whether Hercules old boss, Zeus, would approve. And, backing Trump is nothing new for the Minnesota native. Does Jesus, does God, support lying?