Western Elections Offer Trump Opportunity To Add To Lead

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican front-runner Donald Trump looked to Arizona and Utah on Tuesday to add to his big lead in the party's presidential nominating race in what would be another blow to an anti-Trump movement organized by establishment Republicans.

The contests in Arizona and Utah were overshadowed by attacks in Brussels that left at least 30 people dead, and added to security concerns that American voters have expressed to pollsters.

"I have proven to be far more correct about terrorism than anybody - and it’s not even close. Hopefully AZ and UT will be voting for me today!" Trump, who was monitoring the results from Florida, said in a tweet.

Trump, the New York billionaire and former reality TV star, has ridden an anti-Washington message to become the favorite for the nomination. This has left a flagging anti-Trump effort with faint hopes of stopping him at the Republican national convention in July.

In Arizona, which is one of the U.S. states that borders Mexico, Trump's hardline immigration message is popular and he leads in polls, while in Utah Trump lags in polls behind top rival Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas.

Arizona will award its entire slate of 58 delegates to the winner of Tuesday's primary. In Utah, the state's 40 delegates will be awarded proportionate to the popular vote, unless a single candidate captures at least 50 percent of the vote, in which case that person will be awarded all the delegates.

On Monday, Trump warned against efforts to deny him the nomination if he falls short of securing the 1,237 delegates needed ahead of the July convention. Trump now has 678 delegates.

"I think it is going to be very hard for them to do," Trump said on CNN of any effort to deny him the nomination if he falls short. "I have millions of votes more than anybody."

Democrats were also voting on Tuesday, in Arizona, Utah and Idaho, with front-runner Hillary Clinton aiming to pile up more delegates in her race against challenger Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is looking for wins in many of the six Democratic contests this week. Alaska, Hawaii and Washington will vote on Saturday. But because Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally in all states, Clinton will keep adding to her delegate total even if she is not the winner in a given state.

Tuesday's Republican contests are the first since U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida dropped out a week ago after Trump drubbed him in his home state. Ohio Governor John Kasich is the only other candidate still in the race, splitting the anti-Trump vote with Cruz.

"We welcome Marco's supporters with open arms," Cruz said on CNN, saying a Trump candidacy in November would be "a disaster" that would ensure a Clinton win.

In Arizona, Trump had the backing of former Republican Governor Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, two of the most prominent supporters of a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

In Utah, Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has said he will vote for Cruz.

Romney recorded phone messages on behalf of Cruz, saying, "He is the only Republican candidate who can defeat Donald Trump" and that a vote for Kasich was equivalent to a vote for Trump.

(Additional reporting by John Whitesides; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

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Louis XIV to Donald Trump: "You are fired."

Okay my friends, here's my two cents on the non-stop coverage of Donald Trump and his "take no prisoners" way to you-know-where... Donald is, indeed, a unique, one-of-a-kind person. He is bigger than life and definitely louder than anyone else. And boy, the way he sucks the oxygen out of a room...



A headline in The NY Times last Sunday reads: "How Will Trump Redecorate the White House?" And it includes a photograph of the living room in his New York penthouse, obviously inspired by the royal splendor of Louis XIV's Versailles. But here's the problem: While Louis had excellent art advisors, Donald, in his attempt to recreate the royal splendor, ended up with an embarrassingly garish space evoking the décor of Las Vegas casinos. Just imagine Donald as an apprentice in a TV show run by His Majesty. You ready? Here it goes...Louis XIV to Trump: "Donald, you're fired!" Hmmm...wouldn't that be a dream come true?



The current exhibition at LA Louver Gallery features amazing assemblage sculptures by Ed and Nancy Kienholz, with their focus on --if not obsession with--television. All of these works, with one exception, were produced between the late 1960s and Ed's passing in 1994. Here is a quote from a letter penned by Ed in 1984: "You may have guessed that I have long had a love/hate relationship with American TV. I sit dummy style in front of that marvelous communication tool and find my years slipping by and my mind turning to slush from the 95% trash being beamed my way."



It takes artistic genius to utilize trash from everyday life and transform it into a powerful and emotional artistic statement that resonates so strongly even decades later. I wonder, if Ed and Nancy were watching the bizarre election coverage today, what kind of assemblages would they produce? Would they use a full-size sculpture of Donald... or zero in on the golden crown of his hair?



And while we are talking about bigger than life personalities, and artworks matching in size, let's visit Blum & Poe Gallery to see the mini retrospective of Julian Schnabel paintings, covering forty years of his career. In a small side gallery is his earliest broken plates painting from 1978, which launched his career. And I have to admit it still holds my attention --though I'm not sure I like it quite as much as when I saw his broken plates paintings for the first time decades ago.



Small and medium sized works are not Schnabel's game. He goes for large, very large. Sometimes his ambition gets the best of him, but other times he's right on the money. I was particularly intrigued and impressed by his large unstretched canvas, which I found to be particularly focused and well edited. The painting, with its purposefully grimy whitish background, is dominated by a bloody red diagonal form, accompanied by four letters that read "Phil." It's Schnabel's homage to his late friend, the great movie actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I've been a big admirer of Julian Schnabel as a film director. Though I haven't had the chance to see his latest film, Miral, his high-profile movies from the late 90's and early 2000's such as Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000), and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) demonstrated his ability to match his over-sized ambition with top-notch artistic projects. At the opening of his show, I spoke to Julian and asked him how much the art of his painting affects his filmmaking, and how much the art of his filmmaking affects his painting. He said that it is impossible to differentiate; it is a singular, unbroken art process.


To learn about Edward's Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website. You can also read The New York Times article about his classes here, or an Artillery Magazine article about Edward and his classes here.

___________

Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM. To listen to the complete show and hear Edward's charming Russian accent, click here.

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10 Tender Moments That Told These Women They'd Found 'The One'

According to romance novels and just about every romantic comedy, the moment you realize your significant other is "The One" will be all rose petals and fireworks. But in reality, it's often the small moments that mean the most.

Below, HuffPost readers share the relatable, everyday moments that made them think to themselves, "Yep, this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with."

1. "When he found out how much of a secret geek I was, and actually found it attractive. When he knew I was quoting 'Star Wars' to him, I knew that was it." -- Caitlin W.

2. "It was a rough day in the office for him, and he came home very tired and standoffish. I was in the den doing my class work and he walked in with a cup of tea, placed it down and on the napkin wrote 'I love you' with a smiley face." -- Ashley L.  

3. "It was our second date, though we'd known each other for a few months before this. We were in his apartment, drinking casually while listening to music with him singing and dancing along. He came over and sat by me and just kind of laughed and smiled at me, to which I asked, 'what?' and he said, 'I don't want to freak you out, but I can see you being the mother of my children.' It didn't freak me out at all, though, and that's when I knew." -- Samantha L. 

4. "I knew my S.O. was 'The One' when he met my daughter for the first time! They had an instant connection and still, to this day, he loves her as if she were his own! Going on four years we have three happy, beautiful babies." -- Ashley N.

5. "When he offered to help tutor my 10-year-old son, who was struggling terribly in school. He picked him up from school almost every day, fed him and sat at the table with him for hours going over homework and doing school projects -- all while I worked and went to college." -- Kerryanne C.

6. "I knew I liked him when he let me crash on his couch the first week we were dating. I was horribly sick and couldn't get off the couch. He must've spent $100 at the pharmacy to make sure I had exactly everything I needed. I knew I loved him when he went to work and left me love notes inside my box of cereal." -- Jennifer P.

7. "Roughly six months into our relationship we were window shopping together at Pottery Barn. We both fell in love with the same lamp, of all things, and then started talking about our dream houses. When our dream homes were essentially the same, something clicked in my head and I was like, 'yes, this one.'" -- Katy B.  

 8. "On our third date, I showed up to his house and he had Oreos and Butterfingers (my two favorite things) waiting for me. I knew I was going to marry him right there. He showed me from the start that he was thinking of me and my happiness." -- Kate E.

9. "About a year into our relationship, he was packing to leave for work for a few weeks and I was freaking out about the amount of spiders in our house. He told me not to worry about them. I asked why, and he said, 'I packed them all in my suitcase.' At that time, because of how much of an emotional wreck I was with him leaving, he knew the perfect, sweet way to make me laugh. That's when I knew for sure." -- Marta I. 

 10. "She stayed up all night with me, huddled under blankets in the study lounge of a college dorm. We talked about our families, our lives, our past, our fears -- everything. There was an easiness and trust between us almost instantly. As the sun came up, we laughed about the fact that we should get some sleep before helping a friend move. We had only known each other for less than three months. That was sixteen years ago." -- Dayna S. 

*Note: Some responses have been condenced and edited for clarity. 

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AIPAC Head Gives Emotional Apology For Donald Trump Attack On Obama

WASHINGTON -- Without identifying him by name, leadership from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday condemned Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for his attack on President Barack Obama -- and the audience members who rewarded the candidate with raucous applause.

In what was otherwise a relatively benign speech for the controversial candidate, Trump delivered an impromptu jab at the president Monday night during AIPAC's annual policy conference.

“With President Obama in his final year — yeah!” he began, pausing to allow audience members to clap, cheer, whistle and laugh for nearly 30 seconds. “He may be the worst thing to ever happen to Israel, believe me, believe me. And you know it and you know it better than anybody,” Trump continued, to more applause.

The following morning, AIPAC president Lillian Pinkus denounced the episode, saying it ran counter to their conference theme of “Come together.”

“Last evening, something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart. To divide us. We say, unequivocally, that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks, and we take great offense to those that are levied against the president of the United States of America from our stage,” Pinkus said, reading from a statement. “While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the president of the United States, and our president, Barack Obama.”

As she continued to read, Pinkus began to choke up, visibly angered by Trump’s words, and by the applause they evoked. “There are people in our AIPAC family who were deeply hurt last night, and for that we are deeply sorry. We are disappointed that so many people applauded a sentiment that we neither agree with or condone,” she said.

AIPAC knew that its decision to host Trump was a risky move, and repeatedly warned audience members throughout the three-day conference against booing or loudly protesting any speaker. Evidently, conference hosts did not have the foresight to caution conference-goers against cheering for divisive statements.

While it is notable that AIPAC took a stand against Trump’s accusations about Obama’s commitment to Israel, it is hard to believe they expected Trump’s speech to be in line with a message of “Come together,” given that one of his highest-profile policy proposals is to ban Muslims from entering the country -- an idea that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned.  

Watch Pinkus’ entire apology here, starting at 44:30.

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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How A Single Van Is Helping Hawaii's Homeless Find (And Keep) Jobs

HONOLULU -- A new mobile employment center on the Hawaiian island of Oahu is bringing work opportunities -- and hope -- directly to homeless and at-risk residents.

With 7,260 homeless people, Hawaii has the highest rate of homelessness per capita of any state in the nation. And according to Kimo Carvalho, a spokesman for the Institute for Human Services, a Honolulu nonprofit, one of the biggest challenges for service providers is to meet homeless residents where they are, rather than relying on them to find their own way to IHS' downtown center.

Now, Carvalho said, IHS has figured out how to come to them instead.

Since first hitting the streets in October, the mobile unit, part of IHS's Hele2Work employment program, has been out 32 times, popping up at food banks, churches, shelters and homeless encampments, according to Carvalho.

In that time, it has helped 137 people, whether providing them with a bus pass or placing them in a job for the first time in years.

"There's a stigma out there that [homeless] people just don't want to work and they're lazy," Carvalho said. "And that's just not true at all."

The pop-up center is funded through private donations, as well as a grant-in-aid from the city of Honolulu, which paid for a new 15-passenger van, according to IHS. 

Among the services offered are transportation, help obtaining necessary documents including identification and birth certificates, resume-building, mock-interview training, job-retention courses and access to computers, cell phones, haircuts and clean clothes. IHS also assists employers with background checks and drug testing.

"Anyone who's 100 percent motivated and able to work," Carvalho said, "we can usually get them hired in an average of a month."

Since 2013, IHS says it has helped 422 homeless clients obtain jobs.

"It's just amazing to see what the demand is," Carvalho said.

November Morris, who runs IHS’ work employment and community services program, told Hawaii Public Radio earlier this month that searching for work while homeless involves significant struggles.

"Living outside, it’s rough, you get robbed, you get your things stolen. If you have addiction or mental health issues, you have to get that managed before you start looking for work," Morris said. "We really focus on people who are ready to work. If they’re not ready, we help them focus on the things that they need to get ready. Once they are, we give them everything they need to get that job."

Carvalho told HuffPost that the mobile employment center is the latest tool in IHS' comprehensive strategy to end and prevent homelessness on Oahu. 

Between 2014 and 2015, Hawaii's unsheltered homeless population grew by 23 percent, according to the Associated Press. In October, Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) declared a state of emergency to deal with the state’s homelessness crisis. 

"A lot of people who get jobs, it allows them to qualify for housing," Carvalho said of the new mobile program's goal. "In the end it's just this butterfly effect of moving someone off the streets into housing quicker, and ensuring that they have developed self-sufficiency."

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Bells And Singers Fill Brussels With The Sound Of John Lennon's Imagine

Look on AIPAC's Works, American Jews

For more than a decade I have been invited regularly to speak on Capitol Hill, on campuses, in synagogues, on policy panels, to foreign diplomats and to the media. On these occasions I speak, as an advocate for Israel and Israeli-Palestinian peace, about the issues on the ground in Israel-Palestine and their connection to U.S. foreign policy. And on these occasions I talk openly and critically about AIPAC, just as for years my organization has publicly challenged AIPAC's legislative agenda at every turn.

I talk about AIPAC not because I hold any personal animus against the organization and its supporters, or because I believe in some right-wing conspiracy. I know there are good people working at and supporting AIPAC. And I know from experience - most recently with the successful Iran nuclear deal - that AIPAC is by no means omnipotent.

I also know, however, that for decades AIPAC has been actively promoting a Middle East agenda that is anathema to the values of most American Jews, to the real interests of Israel, and to peace. And I know well, from personal experience working in Washington and around the country, the enormous power AIPAC brings to bear on American Jews, members of Congress, and the U.S. political system to see its agenda enacted. That is why I cannot talk about U.S. policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without talking about AIPAC.

When I first mention AIPAC, regardless of venue, a ripple of disquiet and excitement inevitably goes through my audience. People are visibly discomfited and thrilled that I am talking openly about the-organization-that-shall-not-be-named, addressing the elephant in the room.

But why not talk openly? Until a few years ago, AIPAC bragged on its website and literature that it was the most powerful foreign policy lobby in Washington. And AIPAC's advocacy record is not secret: Since the 1990s, AIPAC has worked tirelessly to challenge peace efforts, undermine U.S.-led peace initiatives, and shore up support for right-wing Israeli leaders and their policies - culminating in its lobbying over the past year to legitimize settlements.

This is the background to the brouhaha over presidential candidate Donald Trump's speech this week at AIPAC's policy conference - brouhaha that misses the bigger point. The issue isn't Trump. And it's not about AIPAC giving him a platform. The issue is AIPAC.

AIPAC doesn't simply prioritize above all else devotion to right-wing views on Israel. AIPAC takes all other priorities off the table. It embodies a worldview hostile toward the Palestinians, antagonistic to peacemaking, and sympathetic to policies and positions that are antithetical to a two-state solution. This worldview, by necessity, ignores or even denigrates the Jewish values held dear by most American Jews - values that animate our views not only on Israel-Palestine, but on immigration, healthcare, and the full gamut of social issues at play in every election.

Based on this worldview, it should surprise no one that the AIPAC crowd warmly embraced Trump. The crowd was doing what AIPAC has trained its supporters to do: view the candidate strictly through the lens of what AIPAC defines as acceptably "pro-Israel." And through this lens, Trump looked great. He dutifully pandered to the crowd with the tired - but required - clichés of unconditional support for Israel and unquestioning approval of the anti-peace policies of the most right-wing government in Israel's history. He framed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the compulsory, binary terms - a good side and a bad side - and made he is on the good side, which is not the side of the U.S. or Israel, but of AIPAC and the Israeli right.

Like most people I know, I felt sick watching Trump at AIPAC. Not for what he said - his speech was entirely predictable - and not for the fact that AIPAC gave him a platform. I felt sick because I was watching the natural culmination of decades in which AIPAC has successfully defined the terms of the "acceptable" narrative about Israel in U.S. politics and campaigns.

I was seeing what happens when year after year, AIPAC is permitted to manipulate the still-potent existential fears of American Jews and lie to them about what it means to be pro-Israel. Trump's triumphant reception at AIPAC is what happens when American Jews have drunk the AIPAC Kool-Aid for decades and convinced themselves that their progressive Jewish values can and must be disconnected from their support for Israel, and that when their values conflict with Israeli policies - as has been more and more the case since a series of right-wing governments have held power in Israel - blind support for Israel, as defined by AIPAC, trumps all.

Yesterday was a shonda - a disgrace - for American Jewry. But the problem isn't Trump. The problem is, and has long been, AIPAC and the raft of American Jewish groups that follow its lead. If any good can come of the disgraceful display of American Jews boisterously applauding Donald Trump as candidate for president, it is that our community may finally recognize, talk openly about, and reject what AIPAC has wrought.

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