Chaz Stevens started four years ago with a stack of beer cans to protest the Capitol"s Christmas nativity scene, which triggered a tense exchange with the group behind the nativity.
Since state managers allowed the nativity display on grounds of free speech, they decided they had to allow other displays, so Stevens put up his Festivus pole.
"This is the most ridiculous thing I could come up with and the only thing I"m afraid of offending is the Festivus people," Stevens said.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation put up a banner celebrating non-believers. Atheists put up a poster, and the Satan worshippers had a depiction of an angel falling into fire.
The group behind the nativity scene has since bowed out, along with the Satan worshippers, but Stevens has once again hoisted his Festivus pole.
Each year the pole has a different theme. Stevens says this years display focuses on President-elect Donald Trump and his recent call to strip flag burners of their citizenship. The pole is wrapped in an upside-down American flag and topped with a "Make America Great Again" hat.
"Festivus" is a quirky, fictitious holiday from the Seinfeld series, which included the "airing of grievances," the "feats of strength," and a metal "Festivus pole."
RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer on FNC"s "America"s Newsroom"
President-elect Donald Trump has named close adviser Kellyanne Conway as his White House counselor, elevating the woman who led his campaign to victory to a senior West Wing position.
Trump who also announced his senior White House communications staff, including naming former Republican National Committee spokesman sean spicer as press secretary has a strong rapport with Conway and she was seen as a positive influence on his often chaotic campaign. Conway, who took over as campaign manager in the summer, has been one of Trump"s most visible advisers, making frequent television appearances on his behalf.
"She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message," Trump said in a statement Thursday announcing the position.
Trump is creating another power center in the West Wing by tapping Conway for the senior White House role.
He"s already named outgoing Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and conservative media executive Steve Bannon as a senior adviser. Trump"s son-in-law Jared Kushner will also be an influential adviser, though his exact role is still to be determined.
Internal rivalries have long been a hallmark of Trump"s businesses and campaign as well as his transition team. Conway and Priebus have been at odds over some major decisions, including who should serve as Trump"s secretary of state. He ultimately chose Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
Conway irritated some Trump aides with her outspoken opposition to the prospect of the president-elect picking Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, to head the State Department. She panned the idea in public, though she said she had also made her feelings known to Trump privately.
Conway, a longtime Republican pollster, considered not joining the White House staff and turned down offers to serve in a communications role. She also expressed a desire to help Trump set up an outside political organization to promote his agenda.
Conway said Thursday that she was "humbled and honored to play a role in helping transform the movement he has led into a real agenda of action and results."
Meanwhile, Spicer"s elevation was championed by Priebus, his longtime ally at the RNC. Additionally, the transition team announced that Jason Miller will be the director of communications. Hope Hicks, the longtime campaign spokeswoman, was appointed Director of Strategic Communications while Dan Scavino will be Director of Social Media.
Hicks and Scavino were original members of Trump"s skeletal staff, joining the Republican businessman"s campaign in its early days. Miller joined after Trump became the presumptive nominee.
Alex Trebek Pays Heartbreaking Tribute to Late "Jeopardy" Champion Cindy Stowell
In a heartbreaking loss for the Jeopardy! community, a contestant died earlier this week just a few days before episode was set to air. cindy stowell, who filmed her episode in August of this year, died of cancer on Monday,Dec. 5.
Stowell, a 41-year-old science content developer from Austin, Texas, was diagnosed with colon cancer, according to Austin news station KXAN. In the shows online tribute to Stowell, the Jeopardy!team said she planned to donate her prize money to to cancer-related organizations.
When Cindy Stowell taped her appearance on Jeopardy!, she had Stage 4 cancer, host Alex Trebek said in a statement. Competing on Jeopardy! was a lifelong dream for Cindy, and were glad she was able to do so. Sadly, Cindy died on Dec. 5. Our condolences and best wishes to her family and friends.
Stowell passed her online contestant test earlier this year, according to the Jeopardy! site, and reached out to Jeopardy! contestant producer Maggie Speak before the second stage of the process, an in-person interview.
Do you have any idea how long it typically takes between an in-person interview, and the taping date? I ask because I just found out that I dont have too much longer to live. The doctors best guess is about 6 months. If there is the chance that Id be able to still tape episodes of Jeopardy! if I were selected, Id like to do that and donate any winnings to charities involved in cancer research. If it is unlikely that the turnaround time would be that quick, then Id like to give up my try out spot to someone else.
After qualifying for the show during her in-person audition in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Stowell filmed her episode three short weeks later. The website noted that only a few Jeopardy! producers, along with Trebek, knew that she was sick.
Stowells longtime boyfriend, Jason Hess, posted photos of his badass girlfriend on Twitter earlier this week and encouraged people to watch her episode when it airs Dec. 13.
Be nice, Hess wrote. She was fighting a high-grade fever (which turned out to be a blood infection) and was on painkillers while taping. Jesus.
We are asking folks that are touched by her story to consider the Cancer Research Institute, Hess said in a Twitter exchange with someone whod met Stowell during her time on Jeopardy!
DeMarcus Cousins 55 Pts - Highlights | Blazers vs Kings | Dec 20, 2016 | 2016-17 NBA Season
Enough is enough. It"s time to save DeMarcus Cousins from himself, and to save the league from wasting one of its brightest lights by seeing him spend one more moment in an organization that clearly can"t turn that talent into a fully functioning star basketball player.
Move Cousins. Give up the ghost, Sacramento. Accept that not all talent can be kept, not all beauty belongs to you, and not all opportunities can come to fruition. You, and he, failed togther. Let the man go.
For seven seasons, Cousins has given off a siren song on which various Kings head coaches, general managers and owners have crashed into the rocks.
Who can blame them for being tempted?
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I can remember several conversations with the Maloofs, when they still owned the Kings and would face the inevitable Cousins drama, in which they would argue that he was too spectacularly talented, too young, and simply too promising to move. And they, like others who know him, insisted deep down he"s a great guy. They had caught sight of something nearly mystical in Cousins to the point that they could not accept things the way they actually were.
I get it. All those years ago, I can remember rolling into Sacramento for some throwaway December game and leaving spellbound by what Cousins could be. To see it in person was downright intoxicating. That fact -- that his intoxicating surge of greatness is so rare, and so rarely appreciated -- today serves as even more proof his time as a King is, and always will be, a failure.
DeMarcus Cousins" constant outbursts are getting old in Sacramento. USATSI
Things haven"t changed. His skill set remains stunning, even beyond averaging 29 points and 11 rebounds per game entering Wednesday night. His physique, his hands, the fact that he"s shooting a respectable 37.5 percent on threes, what he can do with a basketball when he won"t get in his own way, the way he, like few others, seems to change the molecules in the air when he plays at his best -- all of it is there, waiting to coalesce into greatness.
And, yes, he"s still tantalizingly young at 26 years old, still so good that it"s hard not to think, again, of what could be.
Beyond doubt Cousins remains one of the game"s most talented players. Period. Even now, in a golden era of raw talent brimming throughout the league, he has few equals. There is LeBron James, and then there are a handful of other names on the list. Cousins is one of those, and he is the only one who has not grown into the player that such talent demands.
But boundaries, culture and who you become because of who you"re around and what habits you pick up matter as much as talent. Cousins has been coddled in Sacramento, stretching back through seven NBA seasons -- a young man with a foul temper and a passion he cannot control who has been taught only this: There will be no consequences. Keep doing you. Stay comfortable. Don"t change.
And so he hasn"t.
We"ve seen how that"s worked out. Cousins gets numbers, sure, but he just as surely gets a locker room of discord and an organization that too often matches its own grand ambitions with destructive chaos. He"s so great in theory but so mediocre in execution that his teams are perennial afterthoughts. That"s a cardinal sin for any team with a player as talented as Cousins.
We saw on display this week not outbursts, but reminders of who Cousins is, at least now, at least as a King: Going off aggressively on a reporter, and then a few days later turning a 55-point night and a big victory into an opportunity to bemoan the world and show anger and frustration.
If you can"t be happy after a win -- one where you scored 55 points -- then the time has come for a breakup. This relationship doesn"t work for the Kings. This relationship doesn"t work for Cousins.
It"s time for an intervention.
There are teams with the assets or the young pieces to make an aggressive move for Cousins, one that could benefit everyone. Boston would be a great fit, and with the Nets" unprotected 2017 first-round pick and either Avery Bradley or Marcus Smart, they have the means to make it happen. Danny Ainge has the stones to go for it, Al Horford is a team-first guy who might help Cousins learn how a real locker room should operate, and Brad Stevens can (probably) get the best out of Cousins.
Other teams are intriguing landing spots, from Milwaukee to Phoenix to Utah to the Lakers.
Yes, the winner in the Cousins trade sweepstakes would get his baggage. They"ll get a guy who (often rightly) sees refs teaming up against him, and who also (often stupendously poorly) can"t handle that life isn"t always fair, that sometimes you"re going to be treated differently, that actions and petulance have consequences.
DeMarcus Cousins will never achieve in Sacramento. Sacramento will never achieve with DeMarcus Cousins. The road forward is obvious: Move on, get what you can, and start over.
Jimmy Fallon, Paul McCartney and "Sing" Cast Perform "Wonderful Christmastime" (A Cappella)
The new animated movie sing is set to be released on Wednesday (December 21), and we have the full list characters and the actors who voice the roles!
The film follows a koala named Buster Moon who has one final chance to restore his theater to its former glory by producing the worlds greatest singing competition.
If you missed it, be sure to check out the full soundtrack for Sing, which was released last month. Lots of famous faces are featured on the soundtrack.
Be sure to catch the new movie, in theaters now!
Click through the slideshow below to find out who voices characters in the hot new film.
