Trump"s Early AM Twitter Tirade Highlights Dislike for Sleep
Donald Trump"s early-morning Twitter rant Friday about a former Miss Universe winner was essentially pointless and has nothing to do with the presidential election, pollster John Zogby told Newsmax TV.
During an interview on "Newsmax Prime," Zogby told host J.D. Hayworth Trump"s decision to go off on Alicia Machado wasn"t the smartest one.
"It"s certainly not going to help him and this is all diversionary. What does this have to do with being president of the United States?" Zogby said. "I don"t know that anybody emerges really a winner in any of this, let alone the American people, who deserve maybe at least somewhat of a higher plane in terms of discussion. Now we"re getting into Venezuelan s*x tapes? Oh my G*d."
See J.D. Hayworth on Newsmax TV: Tune in beginning at 8 PM EDT to "Newsmax Prime" on FiOS 115, YouTube Livestream, Newsmax TV App from any smartphone, NewsmaxTV.com, Roku, Amazon Fire More Systems Here
Trump called Machado "disgusting" and alleged she made a s*x tape in her native Venezuela. He also insinuated that Hillary Clinton"s campaign had something to do with helping her become a U.S. citizen earlier this year.
Zogby also gave some insight to the presidential polling, with the election about five and a half weeks away.
"I go back to forever and let"s go back to 2000 anyway," Zogby said. "I saw leads change back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. In fact, they did in every election since 2000 and up to about this point in time in September of 2008 as well, and then Barack Obama kind of sealed it.
"So let"s not make too much of a bump here and a bump there in either direction."
According to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, Clinton leads Trump by 3.1 points.
" When these opportunities come up, you like to play in these big games," he said, noting that they usually take years of negotiating and shuffling other schedules to get set up. "We are not the anchor team in those games, which works for us [because BYU is not close to an NFL stadium]. Anchor teams have been Mizzou, Oklahoma, West Virginia. Tthey have more responsibility a greater opportunity to make money and a greater opportunity to lose money. It is really good financially for us, because we help benefit the game and they have been good for our fans. Plus, those games are really good games."
LSU will be the anchor team in next year"s opener an NRG Stadium in Houston (home of the Houston Texans). BYU will play UMass at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., in 2018, but that will be considered a UMass home game because the Minutemen play most of their home games in that stadium.
Coincidentally, UMass hosts Mississippi State at Gillette today in a matchup of teams that will visit LaVell Edwards Stadium later this season.
I asked Holmoe if any other NFL stadiums are on his wish list.
"No, not really," he said.
He acknowledged that the game scheduled against Arizona in Las Vegas in 2021 could possibly be played at the new stadium proposed by Vegas officials.
"It is a possibility, but they"ve been talking about a new stadium for a long, long time. So really, we just know that Vegas has been a great venue for us. That stadium [Sam Boyd Stadium] has been great for our fans. It is a great location for California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah [fans]. It was an opportunity to play Arizona another time, and good for both of our team. It makes sense."
Holmoe acknowledged that scheduling announcements have slowed down the past few months, mostly because he"s filled most of the spots in 2017 and 2018.
"You know, early on, we had to fill a lot of spots," he said. "That"s why we announced so many games. We were starting with a clean slate. Now, we have filled a lot of games. We have games scheduled through 2023, even through 2026, a few. We are not full by any means, but with what is going on with our scheduling now, it is probably good to take a little pause. We have games scheduled through the next couple of years, solidly, so I am not concerned about the next couple of years, but as an independent, you have to go out pretty far."
Holmoe said the series with Virginia is still on, despite former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall"s statements when he departed BYU that he doesn"t want to ever have to play the Cougars as Virginia"s coach.
"I can understand him saying that. It was right at the time of his departure. But those games, that series, is out there a little bit. It will be good when the time comes," Holmoe said.
Washington football"s Jake Browning on beating Stanford: "Our overall performance is jaw-dropping"
PALO ALTO The obvious takeaway from Friday nights season opener at Stanford Stadium is that Heisman Trophy contender Christian McCaffrey is more than capable of living up to the hype.
The 6-foot, 200-pound running back began his junior campaign with 126 yards on 22 carries and a pair of touchdowns, including the knockout punch with 2:12 left a 41-yard scamper out of a jumbo formation to cap the scoring in a 26-13 victory over visiting Kansas State.
That last play, especially, I was just sitting there in awe, of course, Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns said. Hes a heck of a player, heck of a guy, heck of a leader. Came up to me during the game and just gave me some words, a great guy to be around.
McCaffrey also led the No. 8 Cardinal with seven catches and amassed 210 all-purpose yards. But it was nearly much more, considering a 97-yard punt return to the house that wouldve broken a school record set in 1986 was negated because of a block in the back.
The ridiculous play in which he spun out a wave of would-be tacklers and slithered his way to the end zone drew both praise and second guessing.
You know, Chris is not above criticism, Shaw said. There is a reason why there are no 97-yard punt returns, because you should not catch the ball on the 3-yard line. He knows that. But its hard. Sometimes the ball gets high and you think, Oh, my gosh, I have a chance to do it now. But what he did after he caught it, Wow! Thats the best punt return that doesnt count Ive ever seen. But hes a special young man, and sometimes theyre so special that they override their own mistakes.
So well try not to catch those anymore. But if you do catch those, make seven guys miss and score a touchdown.
Pinned at its own 2-yard line after the penalty, the Cardinal embarked on a 10-play, 98-yard drive that culminated with a 40-yard touchdown off play action into the waiting arms of wide receiver Michael Rector, a fifth-year senior who finished with four catches for 73 yards.
That was the highlight of a first half in which Burns went 9 of 9 for 124 yards in his debut as the successor to Kevin Hogan, the winningest quarterback in program history.
I think he did awesome, McCaffrey said. I think he handled himself great. He made some awesome reads and made some awesome checks, but we expect that out of him.
So, was the redshirt junior nervous before taking the first snap?
It was kind of weird, said Burns, who extended separate drives four times with third-down completions in the first quarter. It still hadnt hit me when I was on the field. The first few plays though, I got a little grass in my pants and started walking. But it was almost like an out-of-body experience. But I got used to it pretty quick. It was cool, though.
True to his word, Shaw inserted backup Keller Chryst in the second quarter for limited duty. The Palo Alto High graduate completed his first and only attempt, an 11-yard hookup with McCaffrey.
But the more memorable play came after a handoff on the same drive, as McCaffrey cut through the gut of the defense, stopped on a dime and sprinted out wide for a 35-yard touchdown to make it 17-0 with 7:47 left in the half.
Paving the way was Chryst, who pushed a defensive back to the ground to allow McCaffrey a clear path into the end zone.
Keller has put out more pancake blocks for me than I think anyone no offense to (fullback Daniel) Marx, McCaffrey said with a laugh. No, thats not true. But anytime youve got a quarterback running down the field trying to pancake people, you know youve got a special team and a special bond. So hes an unbelievable guy that comes to work every day with his hard hat on ready to get after it.
McCaffrey and Burns were trending on Twitter during the first half, but after going into the locker room up 17-3, the offense sputtered.
Before the game-clinching TD by McCaffrey, the offense had amassed just 30 yards in the second half, including an atrocious third quarter in which Stanford managed only six snaps for 11 yards and botched a handoff on a read-option play. The fumble was almost returned to pay dirt by the Wildcats.
Not clean, not pretty in the second half, Shaw said. But we played hard and we showed heart at the end.
Burns added: Personally, I think we slowed down a little too much, got too comfortable.
The struggles to move the ball forced Shaw to call an audible and deviate from the game plan, as he kept Chryst on the bench during the third and fourth quarters.
h**l continue to get worked in, but the second half turned in a way we didnt anticipate, Shaw said. Wanted him to get in that series in the third quarter, but we sputtered so much, I didnt want to throw a new quarterback into the mix there. But h**l continue to play. h**l play again against USC and h**l continue to play as long as we see prudent.
On the bright side, Kansas State was unable to capitalize on the Cardinals inability to run out the clock. It helped that Stanford won the turnover battle after safety Dallas Lloyd and cornerback Quenton Meeks both came down with interceptions, the former playing center field on a woefully underthrown pass and Meeks spying into the backfield for his pick.
The guy ran a double move from the slot, which you really dont see very often, Meeks said. But I was in great position, so as soon as he made his second move I just looked to the quarterback immediately. When a guy runs a double move, you just expect the ball to come out and it did. And when the ball is in the air, I have the mentality of a receiver, Its mine.
A big factor for the secondarys ballhawking tendencies was the effort of the front seven.
Late in the fourth quarter, the game turned into a party in the backfield, with defensive tackle Jordan Watkins recording his second sack for a safety and outside linebacker Peter Kalambayi ending the last gasp with another QB takedown with 36 seconds left, leaving him with team-high 2 sacks for the game.
Depth in the trenches and linebacker core played a key role for Stanford, which racked up eight sacks.
It allows you to get some hits on the quarterback late in the game because your guys are fresher, Shaw said. We saw Solomon Thomas running in the fourth quarter after the quarterback full speed. He can only do that if we rest him and work the other guys in. Same thing with the outside linebackers. Peter Kalambayi has enough speed left to finish and get a sack.
As far as special teams, kicker Conrad Ukropina booted a 50-yard field goal to make it 3-0 after the opening drive.
Punter Jake Bailey had quite the night, with three punts in the second half that pinned Kansas State inside its own 10-yard line including back-to-back kicks that were downed at the 1- and 2-yard line by wide receiver Trenton Irwin, the latter resulting in the safety that made it 19-7 with 4:11 left.
But the Wildcats kept things interesting by recovering the ensuing onside kick, then executing a 15-yard fade on fourth down to get within 19-13.
Clearly, Shaw was frustrated by the mental error on the first onside attempt.
Theyre down by two scores and its after the safety, they cant afford to kick it deep, Shaw said. We knew it was going to come short. We didnt put the hands team out there because we didnt think we needed to put the hands team out there. But we were not aggressive to the football.
No such mistake the second time around, as a Kansas State player touched the ball before it went 10 yards, then McCaffrey put the game out of reach.
Next up is a bye week, before Pac-12 action begins Sept. 17 by hosting No. 20 USC.
The only thing we can do now is look in the windshield and focus on the mistakes and learn from our mistakes and getting better from there, McCaffrey said.
Email Vytas Mazeika at vmazeika@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at Twitter.com/dailynewsvytas.
Watch the full 360-degree video here or in VR with the Jaunt app for iOS, Android and Samsung Gear.
Life in one of Uganda"s worst slums is one of daily struggle. Without basic utilities, food and safe housing, many people fend for themselves on the street.
After losing her father, Phiona Mutesi and her family found themselves homeless in the Katwe slum fighting to survive.
Many residents in Katwe remain in the slum for their whole lives. But for Phiona, a fateful encounter with the game of chess changed her entire path. Join her as she walks through Katwe, recounting her life on the streets and how she"s using her advanced chess skill to give hope to the next generation of Uganda"s slum kids.
Phiona"s story is the basis for the Walt Disney film "Queen of Katwe."
Donald Trump Senior Advisor "Embarrassed" By Alicia Machado | MSNBC
Donald Trump"s decision to launch a Twitter tirade in the middle of the night against a former Miss Universe contestant caps off a pretty terrible week for the presidential hopeful.
He lost overwhelmingly to Hillary Clinton in the first debate after a performance that was widely mocked by the media and even labelled a "disaster" by sources in his own campaign team.
The bad news did not stop there, however.
Post-debate polls have shown a bounce for Mrs Clinton in important battleground states.
A number of traditionally conservative newspapers have also rejected Mr Trump and backed his Democratic rival, while USA Today took sides for the first time in its history to urge its readers not to vote for the businessman on November 8.
Mr Trump"s reaction has been to lash out.
He has:
But it is his highly personal attacks on Alicia Machado that will worry his campaign - and delight Mrs Clinton"s - the most.
Ms Machado burst into the national spotlight during Monday"s debate when Mrs Clinton recalled how Mr Trump called the Venezuelan-born beauty queen "Miss Piggy" and publicly humiliated her about her weight when he owned the beauty contest.
Mr Trump - angered by the public show of sympathy towards Ms Machado - sent a string of tweets at around 5:15am on Friday morning, accusing the mother-of-one of having a "disgusting" past and encouraging his supporters to watch a s*x tape she was allegedly involved in.
It would not be a surprise if Team Trump were sitting with their heads in their hands tonight, pondering how they can get their campaign back on track.
They know their candidate"s latest outburst may further damage his chances of winning over college-educated white women - a group he desperately needs if he is to have any chance of securing the presidency.
They also know other undecided voters will wonder: if his reaction to criticism from a former Miss Universe is to stay up all night and start a Twitter war, what on earth is his reaction going to be if he is criticised as commander-in-chief?
His behaviour has deepened Republican"s worries that the campaign is fast losing focus and direction.
Ari Fleischer, George W Bush"s former press secretary, wrote that Mr Trump was in danger of "blowing it".
A Wisconsin Republican told Politico that Mrs Clinton "should send him a thank you note" for his antics over the past four days.
Mrs Clinton will certainly be having her happiest weekend for a while.
As the Trump campaign spend it attempting to regroup, she will happily sit back, continue the conversation about her opponent"s attitude to women and plot how she can maintain her momentum.
Could the next 38 days get even uglier? Don"t bet against it.
Recap: Arizona football loses to BYU on last-minute field goal
Pau"u was leading the team in tackles, with 50, and also has six tackles for loss, a sack and an interception.
Defensive tackle Travis Tuiloma played for the second-straight week, but was on a play count as he continues his recovery from a Lisfranc foot injury.
What a start
BYU entered the game without a passing play of more than 40 yards, but got one on the first play. Taysom Hill threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Jonah Trinnaman to give the Cougars a 7-0 lead just 11 seconds into the game. However, Toledo promptly drove 75 yards in seven plays to tie it up.
Let byes be gone
For the second-straight week, the Cougars faced a team coming off a bye. It will happen one more time, when UMass visits Provo on Nov. 19. The Cougars will get a bye before they face Cincinnati on Nov. 5.
"For us, it is a disadvantage only because it is one less game to prepare for, from their film," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. He also wasn"t concerned that BYU had to play a weeknight game, to boot.
"I don"t care as long as there are 100-yard fields, we can play football," Sitake said. "You know, what makes this special is we are home."
Briefly
Former players Itula Mili, Derik Stevenson and Donny Atuaia carried out the alumni flags before the game. Current players Alema Pilimai and Garrett Juergens carried out the team flags. 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a 1971 BYU graduate, performed the traditional lighting of the Y before the game.
Most movies that fall under the umbrella of feel good have a few things in common. Theyre often, to varying degrees, sentimental or agreeably superficial. They follow fairly straightforward emotional arcs that end in upliftwith a triumph or epiphany or a moral lesson learned. They can be guilty pleasures (Love Actually), nostalgic classics (The Princess Bride), romantic weepies (The Notebook), or tales of transformation (The Shawshank Redemption). Or, in the case of the latest Disney film Queen of Katwe, they can be biographical sports dramas.
Sports movies are especially prone to telling feel-good stories because they follow a simple formula: a protagonists journey to becoming a winner. And what feels better than watching someone struggle only to come out on top? The young woman at the heart of Queen of Katwe did precisely that. Directed by Mira Nair, the film follows Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl living in the Kampala slum of Katwe who learns to play chess and quickly emerges as a prodigious talent despite not knowing how to read. Within a few years, she becomes good enough to play nationallyand then on a global stage. Today, shes one of the first two women from Uganda to become titled chess players.
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Like most feel-good films, Queen of Katwe doesnt shy away from platitude-filled dialogue and aww-inspiring moments and meaningful swells of music. But neither does it feel like just another charming underdog story. Thanks in part to a wonderful lead performance by the newcomer Madina Nalwanga, Queen of Katwe offers a surprisingly nuanced portrait of a young woman learningin the most difficult of circumstancesthat winning can be a complicated joy. Victory sometimes equals redemption or happiness or money or fame, but it doesnt always guarantee those things. Sometimes, winning can be confusing or isolating. Sometimes, it can even feel empty. These are unconventional, but worthy lessons for a family-friendly Disney movie like Queen of Katwe to unpack, and in some ways, the films streaks of realismnot fantasyare what make it such a genuine pleasure to watch.
Queen of Katwe isnt interested in offering an easily digestible account of Mutesis life, a fact that might help explain the films hefty 124-minute running time. The movie begins in 2007: Phiona and her younger siblings live with their widowed mother, Nakku Harriet (played beautifully by Lupita Nyongo), in a hut they can barely afford with the money they make from hawking maize. Their community of Katwe is a desperately poor one, but Nairs skillful directing finds the beauty in both the place and the lives of its inhabitants. The film neither pities nor romanticizes their poverty and industriousness. How is your life, Phiona? one neighbor cheerfully calls out to her by way of greeting early in the movie. It is fine, she replies with a smile that suggests by fine she means not okay but wonderful.
Wonderful is an optimistic overstatement, to be sure. Phiona only comes across a childrens chess club run by a local Christian ministry because shes hungry, and they have free porridge. The other children arent kind to her at first (She smells! one screams), but their teacher, Robert Katende (played by David Oyelowo), welcomes her, saying, This is a place for fighters. Phionas curiosity is piqued when her peers begin to explain why they like the game so much. In chess, one boy says, the small one can become the big one. The David-and-Goliath metaphor is just one of many Queen of Katwe uses to sum up the existential appeal of chess: The game doesnt care how strong or rich you are, but it can teach you to strategize your way to a better life. In other words, its about power and escape.
Disney
Its no surprise that Phiona commits to practicing her game wholeheartedly,soon becoming the clubs best player under Katendes dogged mentorship. The movie is loosely structured around her risethrough local tournaments, country-wide championships, the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Russiaand the many bureaucratic challenges she and her fellow teammates face. But in between these dramatic inflection points, Queen of Katwe carries out an intimate psychological and emotional study of its subject.
Nalwanga fully captures the ambivalence Phiona feels as she improves her game and eventually gains international attention for Uganda. At times, Phiona sees her talent as a weapon, as a way to knock her smug, wealthy opponents down a couple pegs. Other times, it brings little more than anxiety and self-doubt. The film wisely stops short of selling Phionas chess genius as some kind of golden ticket out of Katwe, and takes care to spend time with Nyongos character, who tries to protect her daughter from danger and disappointment, while keeping their family afloat.
Queen of Katwes focus on its supporting characters is key: Woven into the tale of Phionas ascent is the belief that community is indispensable. As much as it celebrates its heroines intelligence and persistence, the movie isnt in the business of monomyth-making. In addition to her mother and to Katende, Phiona is surrounded by sparkling charactersher chess-playing peers from Katwe, her siblings, her neighborswho come to life thanks to the unknown actors who play them. Her triumph is the triumph of her hometown, a place very much unaccustomed to this kind of glory. Her pride is their pride.
While inspirational biographical films are some of Hollywoods favorite projects to make, Queen of Katwe stands out for being a rare major studio movie with an all-black cast (including a female lead) thats directed by a woman of color. Statistically, such movies barely exist. So when they do exist and they happen to be gorgeously shot, well-acted, and with an original story to tell, it feels like a clear victory for the industry, filmmakers, and audiences alike. There may be viewers and critics who, unfortunately, find it hard to look past some of the more familiar feel-good tropes to fully appreciate all the ways in which this film is a novelty. But especially coming after an atrocious summer-movie season and amid criticism of Hollywoods problems with representation, Queen of Katwe deserves praiseboth for the story it tells and how it chose to tell it.
