title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich is a supporter of a non-interventionist foreign policy and has called war a profitable racket.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich voted against the authorization of military force against Iraq in 2002. He also voted consistently against funding the war.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In a visit to the rest of the Middle East in September 2007, Kucinich said he did not visit Iraq because "I feel the United States is engaging in an illegal occupation."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich objected to the 2011 military intervention in Libya missile strikes and suggested they were impeachable offenses. He also asked why Democratic leaders didn't object when Obama told them of his plan for US participation in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone. He said Obama's action in Libya was "a grave decision that cannot be made by the president alone", and that failing to first seek Congress's approval was unconstitutional.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: On August 31, Al Jazeera reported that a document had been found in the Libyan intelligence agency's headquarters that according to the author appeared to be a summary of a conversation between Kucinich and an intermediary for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in which Kucinich asks for information about the anti-Gaddafi National Transitional Council (NTC), possible links between it and al-Qaeda, and evidence of corruption, to lobby US lawmakers to put an end to NATO airstrikes and suspend their support for the NTC. It also listed information necessary to defend al-Islam against International Criminal Court war crimes charges. Kucinich defended himself in a message to "The Atlantic Wire", saying that the document was simply a summary of Kucinich's public positions on the Libyan campaign by a Libyan bureaucrat who never consulted Kucinich. "Al Jazeera found a document written by a Libyan bureaucrat to other Libyan bureaucrats. All it proves is that the Libyans were reading "The Washington Post"... Any implication I was doing anything other than trying to bring an end to an unauthorized war is fiction."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In March 2011, Kucinich criticized the Obama administration's decision to participate in the UN intervention in Libya without Congressional authorization. He also called it an "indisputable fact" that Obama's decision was an impeachable offense since he believes the U.S. Constitution "does not provide for the president to wage war any times he pleases", but he did not introduce a resolution to impeach Obama. In response, Libyan officials invited Kucinich to visit that country on a "peace mission", but he declined, saying that he "could not negotiate on behalf of the administration."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich was criticized for his visit to Syria in 2007 and praise of President Bashar al-Assad on Syrian national TV. He praised Syria for taking in Iraqi refugees. "What most people are not aware of is that Syria has taken in more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees," Kucinich said. "The Syrian government has actually shown a lot of compassion in keeping its doors open, and being a host for so many refugees."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich has met with Assad on several occasions. He has supported Assad, citing him as a lesser evil in the Syrian Civil War. Asked by Tucker Carlson how he could defend a war criminal, Kucinich said the choice was to let ISIS take over Syria or "try to stabilize the region and let the people of Syria make their own decisions about who their leaders are going to be". He helped Fox News get an interview with Assad.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In October 2016, Kucinich warned against a prospective United States military intervention against Russia in Syria. He argued that "a concerted effort is being made through fearmongering, propaganda, and lies to prepare our country for a dangerous confrontation, with Russia in Syria" and said that Russia was being demonized as part of a "calculated plan to resurrect a raison d'être for stone-cold warriors trying to escape from the dustbin of history by evoking the specter of Russian world domination."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich is graded "F" by the National Rifle Association, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. He also received a 100% lifetime rating from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich believes that health care is a "right in a democratic society". He is a critic of the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and is concerned about the large number of uninsured and underinsured in the United States. He contends that if the for-profit insurance system's overhead, such as "stock options, executive salaries, [and] advertising", were used for medically necessary care, there would be enough money in the system to cover everyone at no extra cost.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In July 2009, the House Education and Labor Committee approved an amendment by Kucinich to its version of the unsuccessful America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 by a vote of 27-19, with 14 Democrats and 13 Republicans voting for it. The amendment empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive the federal law that preempts state law on employee-related health care, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, in response to state requests. It has been speculated that the amendment's bipartisan support was for its appeal to states' rights in supporting progressive legislation. In the past, states attempting to enact single-payer reforms had been sued and stopped under ERISA. It has also been speculated that the law would open up vital new avenues for promoting and implementing a single-payer system, as newly unbound states would show single-payer's success, just as Saskatchewan did for Canada. But the Kucinich Amendment was stripped from the merged House bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that it would have violated Obama's promise that Americans who liked their health insurance could keep it.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In March 2010, Kucinich announced that he supported the Affordable Care Act, after previously indicating opposition.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich supports same-sex marriage. He voted for the expansion of hate crime laws in the United States and against banning LGBT adoption in Washington, D.C.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich has consistently opposed free trade, claiming that it costs American jobs and enables abusive working conditions in other countries.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In a Democratic debate during the 2008 Presidential Election, Kucinich and Mike Gravel were the only two candidates to favor lowering the legal drinking age to 18. Kucinich also supported lowering the voting age to 16.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In 2003, Kucinich received the Gandhi Peace Award, an annual award bestowed by the Religious Society of Friends-affiliated organization Promoting Enduring Peace. In 2010, he was awarded the US Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial Foundation “in recognition of his national leadership to prevent and end wars.”


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: After Kucinich lost to Marcy Kaptur in the 2012 Democratic primary, Representative Keith Ellison said of Kucinich, "At the end of the day, we're really going to miss Dennis. Dennis is a transformative leader. He stood up and spoke eloquently, passionately about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran. He was a consistent voice for peace... He almost didn't vote for the health care bill because it wasn't good enough."


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich was baptized a Roman Catholic. He married Sandra Lee McCarthy in 1977; they had a daughter, Jackie, in 1981 and divorced in 1986. He married his third wife, British citizen Elizabeth Harper, on August 21, 2005. They met while Harper was working as an assistant for the Chicago-based American Monetary Institute, which brought her to Kucinich's House of Representatives office for a meeting. Kucinich, a vegan since 1995, is an advocate of veganism, like Elizabeth.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: Kucinich was raised with four brothers and two sisters. Perry Kucinich, the youngest brother, died in December 2007. His youngest sister, Beth Ann Kucinich, died in November 2008.


title: Dennis Kucinich

text: In 2011, Kucinich sued a Capitol Hill cafeteria for damages after a 2008 incident in which he claimed to have suffered a severe injury when he bit into a sandwich and broke a tooth on an olive pit. The broken tooth became infected, and complications led to three surgeries for dental work. The lawsuit, for $150,000 in punitive damages, was settled with the defendant agreeing to pay Kucinich's costs.


title: Alan Napier

text: Alan William Napier-Clavering (7 January 1903 – 8 August 1988), better known as Alan Napier, was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatre, he had a long film career in Britain and later, in Hollywood. Napier is best remembered for portraying Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler in the 1960s live-action "Batman" television series.


title: Alan Napier

text: Napier was a first cousin-once removed of Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister from 1937 to 1940. He was educated at Packwood Haugh School and, after leaving Clifton College, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1925.


title: Alan Napier

text: He was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with the likes of John Gielgud and Robert Morley. As Napier recalled, his “ridiculously tall” 6′ 6″ height played a crucial part in his securing the position and also almost losing it. J. B. Fagan had dismissed Tyrone Guthrie because he was too tall for most parts. Napier was interviewed (and accepted) as Guthrie's replacement while sitting down. Fagan realized that Napier was even taller than Guthrie when he stood up, but honoured his commitment. Napier performed for ten years (1929–1939) on the West End stage. Napier described himself as having a particular affinity for the work of George Bernard Shaw, and in 1937 appeared in a London revival of "Heartbreak House" supervised by Shaw himself.


title: Alan Napier

text: He made his American stage debut as the romantic lead opposite Gladys George in "Lady in Waiting". Though his film career had begun in Britain in the 1930s, he had very little success before the cameras until he joined the British expatriate community in Hollywood in 1941. There he spent time with such people as James Whale, a fellow ex-Oxford Player. He appeared in such films as "Random Harvest" (1942), "Cat People" (1942), and "The Uninvited" (1944). In "The Song of Bernadette" (1943), he played the ethically questionable psychiatrist who is hired to declare Bernadette mentally ill. He also played the vicious Earl of Warwick in "Joan of Arc" (1948). He performed in two Shakespearean films: the Orson Welles "Macbeth" (1948), in which he played a priest that Welles added to the story, who spoke lines originally uttered by other characters, and MGM's "Julius Caesar" (1953), as Cicero. He appeared as Mr. Rutland in the Hitchcock movie "Marnie" (1964).


title: Alan Napier

text: In 1949, he made an appearance on the short-lived television anthology series "Your Show Time" as Sherlock Holmes, in an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band". In the 1950s, he appeared on TV in four episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and guest starred on Dale Robertson's NBC western series "Tales of Wells Fargo". He had a recurring role as General Steele on the 1962–1963 situation comedy "Don't Call Me Charlie!"


title: Alan Napier

text: In 1965, he was the first to be cast in the "Batman" TV series, as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler Alfred, a role he played until the series' cancellation in 1968. I had never read comics before [I was hired for "Batman"]. My agent rang up and said, 'I think you are going to play on "Batman,"' I said 'What is "Batman"?' He said, 'Don't you read the comics?' I said, 'No, never.' He said, 'I think you are going to be Batman's butler.' I said, 'How do I know I want to be Batman's butler?' It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. He said, 'It may be worth over $100,000.' So I said I was Batman's butler.


title: Alan Napier

text: Napier's career extended into the 1980s with roles on television, including the miniseries "QB VII", "The Bastard" and "Centennial", and the drama "The Paper Chase". He retired in 1981, aged 78.


title: Alan Napier

text: In early 1988, Napier appeared on the late-night talk show "The Late Show" as part of a reunion of the surviving cast of "Batman", despite being in a wheelchair. His co-star Yvonne Craig described the reunion show as overbooked, and when host Ross Shafer finally turned his attention to Napier, it was only to ask him a silly question, then cut him off abruptly as he was telling a story, much to Napier's annoyance. Napier did not participate in the subsequent cast reunion held before his death.


title: Alan Napier

text: Napier was twice married. His second wife, Aileen Dickens Hawksley, was a great-granddaughter of novelist Charles Dickens. Hawsley's daughter from a previous marriage, actress Jennifer Raine, was the mother of former child actor Brian Forster, best known as "Chris Partridge" on the 1970s television show "The Partridge Family".


title: Alan Napier

text: Napier suffered a stroke in 1987, was hospitalized from June 1988, and had been gravely ill for several days, before his death of natural causes on 8 August 1988, in the Berkeley East Convalescent Hospital in Santa Monica, California. He was 85 years old.


title: Alan Napier

text: In the early 1970s, Napier wrote a three-volume autobiography which was not published at the time because, as he joked, "I haven't committed a major crime and I'm not known to have slept with any famous actresses." In 2015, McFarland Press published the book under the title "Not Just Batman's Butler", with Napier's original text annotated and updated by James Bigwood.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: In argumentation theory, an (Latin for "appeal to the people") is a fallacious argument which is based on claiming a truth or affirming something is good because the majority thinks so.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: "" is a type of informal fallacy, specifically a fallacy of relevance, and is similar to an argument from authority ("argumentum ad verecundiam"). It uses an appeal to the beliefs, tastes, or values of a group of people, stating that because a certain opinion or attitude is held by a majority, it is therefore correct.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: Appeals to popularity are common in commercial advertising that portrays products as desirable because they are used by many people or associated with popular sentiments instead of communicating the merits of the products themselves.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: The inverse argument, that something that is unpopular must be flawed, is also a form of this fallacy.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: The fallacy is similar in structure to certain other fallacies that involve a confusion between the 'justification' of a belief and its 'widespread acceptance' by a given group of people. When an argument uses the appeal to the beliefs of a group of experts, it takes on the form of an appeal to authority; if the appeal relates to the beliefs of a group of respected elders or the members of one's community over a long time, then it takes on the form of an appeal to tradition.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: One who commits this fallacy may assume that individuals commonly analyze and edit their beliefs and behaviors based on majority opinion. This is often not the case. (See conformity.)


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: The philosopher Irving Copi defined "" differently from an appeal to popular opinion itself, as an attempt to rouse the "emotions and enthusiasms of the multitude".


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: Douglas N. Walton argues that appeals to popular opinion can be logically valid in some cases, such as in political dialogue within a democracy.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: In some circumstances, a person may argue that the fact that Y people believe X to be true implies that X is "false". This line of thought is closely related to the appeal to spite fallacy given that it invokes a person's contempt for the general populace or something about the general populace to persuade them that most are wrong about X. This ad populum reversal commits the same logical flaw as the original fallacy given that the idea "X is true" is inherently separate from the idea that "Y people believe X": "Y people believe in X as true, purely because Y people believe in it, and not because of any further considerations. Therefore X must be false." While Y people can believe X to be true for fallacious reasons, X might still be true. Their motivations for believing X do not affect whether X is true or false.


title: Argumentum ad populum

text: In general, the reversal usually goes: "Most people believe A and B are both true. B is false. Thus, A is false." The similar fallacy of chronological snobbery is not to be confused with the ad populum reversal. Chronological snobbery is the claim that if belief in both X and Y was popularly held in the past and if Y was recently proved to be untrue then X must also be untrue. That line of argument is based on a belief in historical progress and not—like the ad populum reversal is—on whether or not X and/or Y is currently popular.


title: Parkland (film)

text: Parkland is a 2013 American historical drama film that recounts the chaotic events that occurred following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film was written and directed by Peter Landesman, and produced by Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, Bill Paxton, and Exclusive Media's Nigel and Matt Sinclair. The film is based on Vincent Bugliosi's 2008 book "Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy".


title: Parkland (film)

text: "Parkland" weaves together the perspectives of a handful of ordinary individuals suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances: the young doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital; Dallas's chief of the Secret Service; a bystander who captured what became the most famous home movie in history; the FBI agents who were visited by Lee Harvey Oswald before the shooting; the brother of Oswald, left to deal with his shattered family; and JFK's security team, witnesses to both the president's death and Vice President Lyndon Johnson's succession to office.


title: Parkland (film)

text: Production began in January 2013 in Austin, Texas. Writer/director Peter Landesman has stated that the film does not explore the various conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination.


title: Parkland (film)

text: The major hospital scenes were filmed in a building housed on the campus of Austin State Hospital in Austin, due to the period look and feel of the building.


title: Parkland (film)

text: "Parkland" premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, and was also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Coinciding with the assassination's 50th anniversary year, the film was released theatrically in the United States on October 4, 2013.


title: Parkland (film)

text: "Parkland" received mixed reviews, holding a 50% rating, based on 123 reviews, on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states: "Although its decision to look at John F. Kennedy's assassination through uncommon perspectives is refreshing, "Parkland" never achieves the narrative cohesion its subject deserves." On Metacritic, the film has a 51/100 rating, signifying "mixed or average reviews".


title: Parkland (film)

text: Historian Peter Ling awarded "Parkland" four out of five stars for enjoyment and three stars for historical accuracy. Reviewing the film, he praised its attempt to "capture the desperate efforts made to save Kennedy in the operating room." He told "historyextra", "It shows that the head nurse, Doris Nelson (played by Marcia Gay Harden), had to take a piece of JFK's skull and some brain tissue from Mrs Kennedy [Jackie picked up a piece of her husband's skull at the scene], and that junior doctor, Jim Carrico (played by Zac Efron), had to be told to stop the frenetic but fruitless cardiac massage at one o'clock, when the team declared JFK dead."


title: Parkland (film)

text: However, he claimed there may have been "suspect influences" on Abraham Zapruder's decision to hand over his film to "Life" magazine. He said, "Once copies have been given to the Secret Service and the FBI, Zapruder has to choose from many media outlets who want to buy the film. He chooses "Life" because he says he respects the publication, but the movie seems to hint that any suppression of the film's contents is in line with Zapruder's wishes, and not because of suspect influences at "Life" itself, whose managing director [C D Jackson] had CIA connections."


title: Bob Wills

text: James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade Cooley self-promoted the moniker "King of Western Swing" from 1942 to 1969).


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin who played steel guitar and bass. Oklahoma guitar player Eldon Shamblin joined the band in 1937 bringing jazzy influence and arrangements. The band played regularly on Tulsa, Oklahoma, radio station KVOO and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM. In 1950, Wills had two top 10 hits, "Ida Red likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love", which were his last hits for a decade. Throughout the 1950s, he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances. He continued to perform frequently despite a decline in the popularity of his earlier hit songs, and the growing popularity of rock and roll. Wills had a heart attack in 1962, and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Texas Playboys. Wills continued to perform solo.


title: Bob Wills

text: The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 1972, Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in Nashville. He recorded an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973. Wills suffered two strokes that left him partially paralyzed, and unable to communicate. He was comatose the last two months of his life, and died in a Fort Worth nursing home in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.


title: Bob Wills

text: He was born on a cotton farm in Kosse, Texas, to Emma Lee Foley and John Tompkins Wills. His parents were both of primarily English ancestry but had distant Irish ancestry as well. The entire Wills family was musically inclined. His father was a statewide champion fiddle player, and several of his siblings played musical instruments. The family frequently held country dances in their home, and while living in Hall County, Texas, they also played at "ranch dances", which were popular throughout west Texas. In this environment, Wills learned to play the fiddle and the mandolin early.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills not only learned traditional music from his family, but he also learned some blues songs directly from African American families who worked in the cotton fields near Lakeview, Texas. As a child, he mainly interacted with African American children, learning their musical styles and dances such as jigs. Aside from his own family, he knew few other white children until he was seven or eight years old.


title: Bob Wills

text: The family moved to Hall County in the Texas Panhandle in 1913, and in 1919 they bought a farm between the towns of Lakeview, Texas, and Turkey, Texas. At the age of 16, Wills left the family and hopped a freight train, travelling under the name Jim Rob. He drifted from town to town trying to earn a living for several years, once nearly falling from a moving train.


title: Bob Wills

text: In his 20s, he attended barber school, married his first wife Edna, and moved first to Roy, New Mexico, then returned to Turkey in Hall County (now considered his home town) to work as a barber at Hamm's Barber Shop. He alternated barbering and fiddling even when he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, after leaving Hall County in 1929. There he played in minstrel and medicine shows, and, as with other Texas musicians such as Ocie Stockard, continued to earn money as a barber. He wore blackface makeup to appear in comedy routines, something that was common at the time. Wills played the violin and sang, and had two guitarists and a banjo player with him. "Bob was in blackface and was the comic; he cracked jokes, sang, and did an amazing jig dance."


title: Bob Wills

text: Since there was already a Jim on the show, the manager began calling him Bob. However, it was as Jim Rob Wills, paired with Herman Arnspiger, that he made his first commercial (though unissued) recordings in November 1929 for Brunswick/Vocalion. Wills quickly became known for being talkative on the bandstand, a tendency he picked up from family, local cowboys, and the style of Black musicians he had heard growing up.


title: Bob Wills

text: While in Fort Worth, Wills added the "rowdy city blues" of Bessie Smith and Emmett Miller, whom he idolized, to a repertoire of mainly waltzes and breakdowns he had learned from his father, and patterned his vocal style after that of Miller and other performers such as Al Bernard. His 1935 version of "St. Louis Blues" replicates Al Bernard's patter from the 1928 version of the song. He described his love of Bessie Smith's music with an anecdote: "I rode horseback from the place between the rivers to Childress to see Bessie Smith... She was about the greatest thing I had ever heard. In fact, there was no doubt about it. She was the greatest thing I ever heard."


title: Bob Wills

text: In Fort Worth, Wills met Herman Arnspiger and formed The Wills Fiddle Band. In 1930 Milton Brown joined the group as lead vocalist and brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the band, which became known as the Aladdin Laddies and then soon renamed itself the Light Crust Doughboys because of radio sponsorship by the makers of Light Crust Flour. Brown left the band in 1932 to form the Musical Brownies, the first true Western swing band. Brown added twin fiddles, tenor banjo and slap bass, pointing the music in the direction of swing, which they played on local radio and at dancehalls.


title: Bob Wills

text: After forming a new band, The Playboys, and relocating to Waco, Texas, Wills found enough popularity there to decide on a bigger market. They left Waco in January 1934 for Oklahoma City. Wills soon settled the renamed Texas Playboys in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting noon shows over the 50,000-watt KVOO radio station, from the stage of Cain's Ballroom. They also played dances in the evenings. Wills largely sang blues and sentimental ballads. "One Star Rag", "Rat Cheese Under the Hill", "Take Me Back to Tulsa", "Basin Street Blues", "Steel Guitar Rag", and "Trouble in Mind" were some of the songs in the extensive repertory played by Wills and the Playboys.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills added a trumpet to the band inadvertently when he hired Everet Stover as an announcer, not knowing that he had played with the New Orleans symphony and had directed the governor's band in Austin. Stover, thinking he had been hired as a trumpeter, began playing with the band, and Wills never stopped him. Although Wills initially disapproved of it, young saxophonist Zeb McNally was eventually hired. Wills hired the young, "modern-style musician" Smoky Dacus as a drummer to balance out the horns.


title: Bob Wills

text: He continued to expand the lineup through the mid to late 1930s. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist, but also a second engaging vocalist. Wills and the Texas Playboys did their first recordings on September 23–25, 1935, in Dallas. Session rosters from 1938 show both lead guitar and electric guitar in addition to guitar and steel guitar in the Texas Playboys recordings. About this time, Wills purchased and performed with an antique Guadagnini violin. The instrument, worth an estimated $7,600 at the time, was purchased for only $1,600. In 1940, "New San Antonio Rose" sold a million records and became the signature song of The Texas Playboys. The "front line" of Wills' orchestra consisted of either fiddles or guitars after 1944.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 1940, Wills, along with the Texas Playboys, co-starred with Tex Ritter in "Take Me Back to Oklahoma". Altogether, Wills appeared in nineteen films, including "The Lone Prairie" (1942), "Riders of the Northwest Mounted" (1943), "Saddles and Sagebrush" (1943), "The Vigilantes Ride" (1943), "The Last Horseman" (1944), "Rhythm Round-Up" (1945), "Blazing the Western Trail" (1945), and "Lawless Empire" (1945).


title: Bob Wills

text: In December 1942, after several band members had left the group, and as World War II raged, Wills joined the Army at the age of 37, but received a medical discharge in 1943. After leaving the Army in 1943, Wills moved to Hollywood and began to reorganize the Texas Playboys. He became an enormous draw in Los Angeles, where many of his fans had relocated during the Great Depression and World War II in search of jobs. Monday through Friday, the band played the noon hour timeslot over KMTR-AM (now KLAC) in Los Angeles. They also played regularly at the Mission Beach Ballroom in San Diego.


title: Bob Wills

text: He commanded enormous fees playing dances there, and began to make more creative use of electric guitars to replace the big horn sections the Tulsa band had boasted. For a very brief period in 1944, the Wills band included 23 members, and around mid-year he toured Northern California and the Pacific Northwest with 21 pieces in the orchestra. "Billboard" reported that Wills out-grossed Harry James, Benny Goodman, "both Dorsey brothers bands, et al." at Civic Auditorium in Oakland, California, in January 1944.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills and His Texas Playboys began their first cross-country tour in November 1944, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry on December 30, 1944. According to Opry policy, drums and horns were considered pop instruments, inappropriate to country music. The Opry had two western swing bands on its roster, led by Pee Wee King and Paul Howard. Neither were allowed to use their drummers at the Opry. Wills' band at the time consisted of two fiddlers, two bass fiddles, two electric guitars, electric steel guitar, and a trumpet. Wills's then-drummer was Monte Mountjoy, who played in the Dixieland style. Wills battled Opry officials and refused to perform without his drummer. An attempt to compromise by keeping Mountjoy behind a curtain collapsed when Wills had his drums placed front and center onstage at the last minute.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 1945, Wills' dances were drawing larger crowds than dances put on by Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. That year, he lived in both Santa Monica and Fresno, California. In 1947, he opened the Wills Point nightclub in Sacramento, California, and continued touring the Southwest and Pacific Northwest from Texas to Washington State. In Sacramento, he broadcast shows over KFBK, a station whose reach encompassed much of the American West. Wills was in such high demand that venues would book him even on weeknights, because they knew the show would still be a draw.


title: Bob Wills

text: During the postwar period, KGO radio in San Francisco syndicated a Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys show recorded at the Fairmont Hotel. Many of these recordings survive today as the Tiffany Transcriptions and are available on CD. They show off the band's strengths significantly, in part because the group was not confined to the three-minute limits of 78 RPM discs. On April 3, 1948, Wills and the Texas Playboys appeared for the inaugural broadcast of the "Louisiana Hayride" on KWKH, broadcasting from the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills and the Texas Playboys played dances throughout the West to more than 10,000 people every week. They held dance attendance records at Jantzen Beach in Portland, Oregon; Santa Monica, California; Klamath Falls, Oregon; and at California's Oakland Auditorium, where they drew 19,000 people over two nights. Wills recalled the early days of what became known as Western swing music in a 1949 interview: "Here's the way I figure it. We sure not tryin' to take credit for swingin' it."


title: Bob Wills

text: Still a binge drinker, Wills became increasingly unreliable in the late 1940s, causing a rift with Tommy Duncan (who bore the brunt of audience anger when Wills's binges prevented him from appearing). It ended when he fired Duncan in the fall of 1948.


title: Bob Wills

text: Having lived a lavish lifestyle in California, Wills moved back to Oklahoma City in 1949, then went back on the road to maintain his payroll and Wills Point. He opened a second club, the Bob Wills Ranch House in Dallas, Texas. Turning the club over to managers, later revealed to be dishonest, left Wills in desperate financial straits with heavy debts to the IRS for back taxes. This caused him to sell many assets, including the rights to "New San Antonio Rose". It wrecked him financially.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 1950, Wills had two top 10 hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love". After 1950, radio stations began to increasingly specialize in one form or another of commercially popular music. Although usually labelled "country and western", Wills did not fit into the style played on popular country and western stations, which typically played music in the Nashville sound. Neither did he fit into the conventional sound of pop stations, although he played a good deal of pop music.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills continued to appear at the Bostonia Ballroom in San Diego throughout the 1950s. He continued to tour and record through the 1950s into the early 1960s despite the fact that Western Swing's popularity, even in the Southwest, had greatly diminished. Charles R. Townsend described his drop in popularity: Bob could draw "a thousand people on Monday night between 1950 and 1952, but he could not do that by 1956. Entertainment habits had changed."


title: Bob Wills

text: On Wills' return to Tulsa late in 1957, Jim Downing of the "Tulsa Tribune" wrote an article headlined "Wills Brothers Together Again: Bob Back with Heavy Beat". The article quotes Wills as saying "Rock and roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928! ... We didn't call it rock and roll back when we introduced it as our style back in 1928, and we don't call it rock and roll the way we play it now. But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important." The use of amplified guitars accentuates Wills's claim; some Bob Wills recordings from the 1930s and 1940s sound similar to rock and roll records of the 1950s.


title: Bob Wills

text: Even a 1958 return to KVOO, where his younger brother Johnnie Lee Wills had maintained the family's presence, did not produce the success he hoped. He appeared twice on ABC-TV's "Jubilee USA" and kept the band on the road into the 1960s. After two heart attacks, in 1965 he dissolved the Texas Playboys (who briefly continued as an independent unit) to perform solo with house bands. While he did well in Las Vegas and other areas, and made records for the Kapp Records label, he was largely a forgotten figure—even though inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. A 1969 stroke left his right side paralyzed, ending his active career. He did, however, recover sufficiently to appear in a wheelchair at various Wills tributes held in the early 1970s. A revival of interest in his music, spurred by Merle Haggard's 1970 album "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World", led to a 1973 reunion album, teaming Wills, who spoke with difficulty, with key members of the early band, as well as Haggard.


title: Bob Wills

text: Bob Wills was married six times and divorced five times. He was twice married to, and divorced from Mary Helen Brown, the widow of Wills' ex-band member Milton Brown.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills' style influenced performers Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and The Strangers and helped to spawn a style of music now known as the Bakersfield Sound. (Bakersfield, California, was one of Wills' regular stops in his heyday). A 1970 tribute album by Haggard, "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills)" directed a wider audience to Wills's music, as did the appearance of younger "revival" bands like Asleep at the Wheel and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen plus the growing popularity of longtime Wills disciple and fan Willie Nelson. By 1971, Wills recovered sufficiently to travel occasionally and appear at tribute concerts. In 1973, he participated in a final reunion session with members of some the Texas Playboys from the 1930s to the 1960s. Merle Haggard was invited to play at this reunion. The session, scheduled for two days, took place in December 1973, with the album to be titled "For the Last Time". Wills, speaking or attempting to holler, appeared on a couple tracks from the first day's session but suffered a stroke overnight. He had a more severe one a few days later. The musicians completed the album without him. Wills by then was comatose. He lingered until his death on May 13, 1975.


title: Bob Wills

text: Reviewing "For the Last Time" in "" (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "This double-LP doesn't represent the band at its peak. But though earlier recordings of most of these classic tunes are at least marginally sharper, it certainly captures the relaxed, playful, eclectic Western swing groove that Wills invited in the '30s."


title: Bob Wills

text: In addition to being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, Wills was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category along with the Texas Playboys in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.


title: Bob Wills

text: From 1974 until his 2002 death, Waylon Jennings performed a song he had written called "Bob Wills Is Still the King". Released as the B-side of a single that was a double-sided hit, it went to number one on the country charts. The song has become a staple of classic country radio station formats. In addition, The Rolling Stones performed this song live in Austin, Texas, at Zilker Park on their A Bigger Bang Tour, a shout-out to Wills. This performance was included on their subsequent DVD "The Biggest Bang". In a 1968 issue of "Guitar Player", rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix said of Wills and the Playboys: "I dig them. The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, some heavy guitar players." In fact, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys only performed on the Opry twice: in 1944 and 1948. Hendrix almost surely referred to Nashville guitarists.


title: Bob Wills

text: Wills' upbeat 1938 song Ida Red was Chuck Berry's primary inspiration for creating his first rock-and-roll hit "Maybellene".


title: Bob Wills

text: During the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, Carrie Underwood performed his song "San Antonio Rose". Today, George Strait performs Wills' music on concert tours and records songs influenced by Wills and his Texas-style swing.


title: Bob Wills

text: The Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel have honored Wills' music since the band's inception, mostly notably with their continuing performances of the musical drama "A Ride with Bob", which debuted in Austin in March 2005 to coincide with celebrations of Wills' 100th birthday.


title: Bob Wills

text: The Bob Wills Birthday Celebration is held every year in March at the Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a Western swing concert and dance.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 2004, a documentary film about his life and music, titled "Fiddlin' Man: The Life and Music of Bob Wills", was released by VIEW Inc.


title: Bob Wills

text: In 2011, Proper Records released an album by Hot Club of Cowtown titled "What Makes Bob Holler: A Tribute to Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and" the Texas Legislature adopted a resolution designating western swing as the official State Music of Texas.


title: Bob Wills

text: The Greenville Chamber of Commerce hosts an annual Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and Contest in downtown Greenville, Texas, in November.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Referendums on the status of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, parts of Ukraine that together make up the Donbas region, were claimed to have taken place on 11 May 2014 in many towns under the control of the Russian-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. These referendums intended to legitimise the establishment of the so-called "republics", in the context of the Russian invasion of Crimea and rising pro-Russian unrest in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. In addition, a counter-referendum on accession to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was held in some Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The results of the separatist referendums were not officially recognised by any government, including those of Ukraine, the United States, and the countries of the European Union The Ukrainian government said that the referendum was illegal, and a number of nations—such as Germany, the United States, France, and Britain—said that the referendum was unconstitutional and lacked legitimacy. The Russian government expressed "respect" for the results and urged a "civilised" implementation, and later announced recognition of the republics on 21 February 2022, becoming the first UN member state to do so.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The referendums were modelled on a similar disputed referendum held in Crimea during the Crimean crisis. Russia used that vote to justify annexing Crimea.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The Ukrainian transitional president Oleksandr Turchynov said that the proclamation of the republics, along with protests in other eastern cities, was evidence of a "second stage" of Russian operations "playing out the Crimean scenario". After its proclamation, the self-proclaimed authorities of the Donetsk People's Republic announced that they would carry out a referendum on 11 May to determine the future status of the region, and legitimise the establishment of the Republic. Many government buildings in towns and cities across Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts became occupied by separatist insurgents as the Republic expanded its territorial control. As a result, the Ukrainian government launched a counter-offensive against insurgents in some parts of Donetsk Oblast.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: An agreement made in Geneva between the United States, European Union, Russia, and Ukraine was intended to demilitarise and de-escalate the conflict, but the leaders of the republics rejected it. They stated that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not represent them, and that an agreement made by uninvolved parties was not binding on their behaviour. Instead, they said that they would only end their occupation of government buildings after the referendums. The referendums took place as mounting anger rose against the so-called "anti-terrorist" operations by Ukrainian forces against separatists, which resulted in civilian casualties.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Russian president Vladimir Putin publicly asked pro-Russian separatists to postpone the proposed referendums to create the necessary conditions for dialogue on 7 May. Despite Putin's comments, the self-proclaimed authorities of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic said they would still carry out the referendum. That day a principal of a secondary school in Luhansk was kidnapped by four masked gunmen, local police told the Interfax news agency.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: A poll released by the Kiev Institute of Sociology, with data gathered from 8–16 April, 41.1% of people in Donetsk were for decentralisation of Ukraine with powers transferred to regions, while letting it remain a unified state, 38.4% for changing Ukraine into federation, 27.5% were in favour of secession from Ukraine to join the Russian Federation, and only 10.6% supported current unitary structure without changes.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Another poll, taken by the Donetsk Institute for Social Research and Political Analysis, found that 18.6% of those polled in the region opposed changes to the government structure, 47% favoured federalisation, or at least more economic independence from Kyiv, 27% wanted to join Russia in some form, and 5% wanted to become an independent state.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre from 5–23 April, 18% of eastern Ukrainians were in favour of secession, while 70% wished to remain part of a united Ukraine.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: While early polls in April reported that supporters of independence were a small minority, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that the later violence in Odessa and Mariupol turned many against the Ukrainian transitional government.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: An opinion poll that was taken on the day of the referendum and the day before by a correspondent of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "The Washington Post", and five other media outlets found that of those people who intended to vote, 94.8% would vote for independence. The poll did not claim to have scientific precision, but was carried out to get a basis from which to judge the outcome of the referendum, given that independent observers were not present to monitor it. Even with those who said they would not vote counted in, a 65.6% majority supported separation from Ukraine.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: According to article 73 of the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine, and article 3 of the 2012 law on referendums, territorial changes can only be approved via a referendum if all citizens of Ukraine are allowed to vote, including those that do not reside in the area.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: During the referendum in Crimea, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine also stated that there was no possibility for regional authorities to initiate such a referendum, according to Ukrainian legislation.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released an audio recording on 5 May that they said was a phone call between a Donetsk separatist leader named Dima Boitsov, and the leader of the far-right paramilitary Russian National Unity group Alexander Barkashov. In the recording, Boitsov said he wanted to postpone the referendum due to the DPR's inability to control all of Donetsk Oblast. Barkashov said that he had communicated with Putin, and insisted Boitsov hold the referendum regardless of the separatist leader's concerns. He suggested that Boitsov tabulate the results as 89% in favour of autonomy. Separatists stated that the recording was fake. However, the 89% mentioned in the phone call exactly match the result of the referendum, which took place on 11 May 2014, i.e. several days after the recording had been published.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Swiss newspaper "Tages-Anzeiger" reported that voters were able to vote as many times as they wanted. Internal Affairs ministry officials branded the vote a farce, and said that just over 32 percent of registered voters in Donetsk Oblast participated in the vote.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: According to Andrei Buzin, co-chair of GOLOS Association, there were significant irregularities in the organisation and holding of the referendum.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: A central election committee was set up to organise the referendum. Fifty-five local election committees, and 2,279 polling stations were to be established to carry it out. A number of towns refused to hold the referendum.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: To cover all the region's registered voters, 3.2 million voting ballots needed to be produced. They began to be printed on 29 April, and printing continued for eight days after that. The ballots used had no protective features to prevent mass-duplication, and were printed with standard commercial printers.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Officials from the Donetsk regional administration said that the separatists would require at least 85 million US dollars to fund the referendum, and that it would cost at least 8 million for Donetsk city alone. According to authorities from the republic, however, the budget of the referendum was minimal, mostly being composed of donations from private citizens and businesses. Ballots, for example, cost only 9,000 US dollars to produce.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: By 10 May, fifty-three local election committees and 1,527 polling stations had been established. The Donetsk regional education superintendent informed reporters that they were forced under threat of death to organise polling stations in the schools.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The chairman of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that the ballots were printed in both Russian and Ukrainian, and asked one question: "Do you support the declaration of state independence of the Donetsk People's Republic?" The Russian word used, "самостоятельность", ("samostoyatel'nost") (literally "standing by oneself"), can be translated as either full independence or broad autonomy, which left voters confused about what their ballot actually meant. One polling station manager interviewed by "VICE News" insisted the vote had nothing to do with secession.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The day before the referendum, it was reported in Ukrainian media that a group of pro-Russian separatists in possession of a 100,000 ballots already marked with a "yes" vote for the referendum were captured during the ongoing government "anti-terrorist" operation, and that the ballots were seized by government forces. Local news reported that polling in some occupied schools had already begun a day in advance.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: A campaign of intimidation, beatings, and hostage taking has forced many pro-Ukrainian activists and known opponents of secession to Russia to flee the region, leaving the referendum to take place without any dissent or opposing voices. At least 24 people were being held by insurgents in Donetsk region at the time of the referendum, according to Human Rights Watch. CNN reported seeing some voters vote more than once at ballot boxes. When interviewing voters at a polling station in Donetsk, "VICE News" crew were detained for three hours by masked men with assault rifles who demanded their memory cards.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The referendum began early on 10 May in Mariupol, which according to the separatist group's election official Sergey Beshulya was due to the possibility of Ukrainian security forces returning. Other locations also reported early voting in some areas. For the remainder of the province, polling began at 8:00 a.m. on 11 May. Donetsk and Luhansk residents living in Russia were able to cast their votes in Moscow. Non-binding votes were also cast abroad, including in Barcelona as a show of support. Local news sources claimed that many residents did not intend to vote while others did not know where polling stations were located.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Many of the voters were not on the registration lists but were allowed to vote after showing identification documents. A CNN crew saw several people vote twice at one polling station, and the BBC filmed a woman putting two ballot papers into the same box. Reporters with German newspaper "Bild" followed a man that they said voted eight times. He was asked twice if he lived in Donetsk. He answered no, which the polling officials said was not a problem. Referendum organisers reduced the number of voting stations, leading to long queues, which were then broadcast on Russian television as "proof" that voter turnout was high. According to "The Guardian", in Mariupol where clashes two days before the referendum between the Ukrainian National Guard and local anti-Kyiv protesters caused the deaths of at least 9, "there were huge queues of people, almost all of whom said they were voting yes to separatism". In Mariupol, a city of 500,000, only four voting stations were open.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: On the same day, there were reports that in Krasnoarmiisk, a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, after being accosted by a crowd, shot an unarmed protester who confronted them despite repeated warnings.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The referendum organizers stated that 2,252,867 voted in favour of self-rule, with 256,040 against, on a turnout of nearly 75%. These results could not be independently verified.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Chairman Denis Pushilin announced immediately after the referendum that the Ukrainian military must leave Donetsk. "All [Ukrainian] military troops on our territory after the official announcement of referendum results will be considered illegal and declared occupiers," Pushilin said. "It is necessary [for the Donetsk People's Republic] to form state bodies and military authorities as soon as possible."


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Voters could select yes or no in response to the question: "Do you support the declaration of state independence of the Luhansk People's Republic?"


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The authorities of the Luhansk People's Republic stated that the turnout was 81%, however officials of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs estimated only 24 percent of the population eligible to vote actually participated. Estimates said 94–98% of those who voted did so for separation. The final results were that 96.2% voted for separation.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: In the aftermath of the voting, Russian news agency Interfax reported that the leaders of Luhansk People's Republic demanded federalisation of Ukraine as the only way to stop disintegration of the country.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: Seven village councils, as well as the districts of Dobropillia Raion and Krasnoarmiisk Raion in Donetsk Oblast requested accession to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Dnipropetrovsk governor Ihor Kolomoisky announced that local referendums would take place to allow for his oblast to administer and provide service to cities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that wished to accede, and that he was willing to accept absorbing the areas if that was what the local populace wanted.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: The poll, entitled "Referendum for Peace, Order, and Unity of Ukraine", was held on 11 May to coincide with the separatist referendums. A report by Ukrinform said that cities taking part in the referendum included Debaltseve, Yenakiieve, Yasynuvata, Avdiivka, Volnovakha, Novoazovsk and Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, and Alchevsk, Stakhanov, Brianka, Sievierodonetsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna, Starobilsk and Svatove in Luhansk Oblast. According to the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC), ballot boxes were mobile and polling stations were available in all areas under control of the Ukrainian military or law enforcement.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: "Are you for maintaining your territorial community within Ukraine and reunification with the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast?"


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: According to CEC spokesman Mykhailo Lysenko, a total of around 2,883,000 people voted in the counter-referendum. 69.1% (1,968,619) of those polled were reported to have voted in favour of accession to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 27.2% (774,912) voted against accession to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast or separation from Ukraine as part of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, and 3.7% (105,411) voted for separation from Ukraine as part of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.


title: 2014 Donbas status referendums

text: After a few months, due to the Ukrainian military's control of Dobropillia Raion and Krasnoarmiisk Raion, they remained as a part of the Donetsk Oblast with no accession taking place.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The trial of Saddam Hussein was the trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity during his time in office.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The Coalition Provisional Authority voted to create the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST), consisting of five Iraqi judges, on 9 December 2003, to try Saddam Hussein and his aides for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide dating back to the early 1980s.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Hussein was captured by U.S. forces on 13 December 2003. He remained in custody by United States forces at Camp Cropper in Baghdad, along with eleven senior Ba'athist officials. Particular attention was paid during the trial to activities in violent campaigns against the Kurds in the north during the Iran–Iraq War, against the Shiites in the south in 1991 and 1999 to put down revolts, and in Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam on 8 July 1982, during the Iran–Iraq War. Saddam asserted in his defense that he had been unlawfully overthrown, and was still the president of Iraq.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The first trial began before the Iraqi Special Tribunal on 19 October 2005. At this trial Saddam and seven other defendants were tried for crimes against humanity with regard to events that took place after a failed assassination attempt in Dujail in 1982 by members of the Islamic Dawa Party (also see human rights abuses in Iraq under Saddam Hussein). A second and separate trial began on 21 August 2006, trying Saddam and six co-defendants for genocide during the Anfal military campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 5 November 2006, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging. On 26 December, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. No further appeals were taken and Saddam was ordered executed within 30 days of that date. The date and place of the execution were secret until the sentence was carried out. Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006. With his death, all other charges were dropped.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Critics viewed the trial as a show trial that did not meet international standards on the right to a fair trial. Amnesty International stated that the trial was "unfair," and Human Rights Watch judged that Saddam's execution "follows a flawed trial and marks a significant step away from the rule of law in Iraq." Several months before the trial took place, Salem Chalabi, the former head of the Iraq Special Tribunal (which was established to try Hussein), accused interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of pushing for a hasty show trial and execution, stating: "Show trials followed by speedy executions may help the interim government politically in the short term but will be counterproductive for the development of democracy and the rule of law in Iraq in the long term."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The 67-year-old President, Saddam Hussein, appeared confident and defiant throughout the 46-minute hearing. Alternating between listening to and gesturing at the judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, he questioned the legitimacy of the tribunal set up to try him. He called the court a "play" aimed at Bush's chances of winning the US presidential elections. He emphatically rejected charges against him. "This is all theater. The real criminal is Bush", he stated. When asked by the judge to identify himself in his first appearance before an Iraqi judge (three of the five judges and the prosecutor were never identified nor photographed for security reasons), he answered, "You are an Iraqi, you know who I am."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Also during the arraignment, Saddam defended Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and referred to Kuwaitis as "dogs" who were trying to turn the women of Iraq into "two-penny whores", which led to an admonition from the judge for using coarse language in court. Later on 1 July, Kuwait's information minister Abul-Hassan said crude language was "expected" of Saddam. "This is how he was raised", said the minister.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Although no attorneys for Saddam were present at the 1 July hearing, his first wife, Sajida Talfah, hired a multinational legal team of attorneys, headed by Jordanian Mohammad Rashdan and including Ayesha Gaddafi (Libya), Curtis Doebbler (United States), Emmanuel Ludot (France) and Marc Henzelin (Switzerland). Towards the end of the first hearing, the deposed president refused to sign the legal document confirming his understanding of the charges.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: In a leaked transcript of a February 2003 meeting between Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar, Bush expressed a willingness to have Saddam tried at the International Tribunal of Justice in The Hague.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: In December 2004, Clive Stafford Smith prepared a 50-page brief for the defense team arguing that Saddam Hussein should be tried in the US under US criminal law.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The London-based Arab-language daily newspaper "Al-Quds Al-Arabi" reported in early May 2005 that during a meeting with Donald Rumsfeld, "known only to a few Iraqi officials in Jordan", Saddam refused an offer of release if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces. The British "Daily Telegraph" newspaper, quoting an unnamed senior UK government source, had reported two weeks before that Iraqi insurgents were being offered a "deal" whereby the President of Iraq would receive a more lenient sentence if they gave up their attacks.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 17 June 2005, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former minister of Foreign Affairs of France Roland Dumas and former President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella announced the formation, under their joint chairmanship, of an international Emergency Committee for Iraq, with a main objective of ensuring fair trials for Saddam and the other former Ba'ath Party officials being tried with him.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 18 July 2005, Saddam was charged by the Special Tribunal with the first of an expected series of charges, relating to the mass killings of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against him.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 8 August 2005, Saddam's family announced that they had dissolved the Jordan-based legal team and that they had appointed Khalil al-Duleimi, the only Iraq-based member, as the sole legal counsel. In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on 6 September 2005, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said that he had directly extracted confessions from Saddam that he had ordered mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that "he deserved to die." Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he confessed.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Saddam's defense repeatedly argued for a delay in the proceedings, insisting that it had not been given evidence secured by the prosecution, had not been given sufficient time to review any prosecution documents, but these submissions received no response from the court. International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its legal process did not meet international standards for a fair trial. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan declined to support the proceeding, expressing similar concerns over fairness as well as over the possibility of a death sentence in the case.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Iraqi authorities put Saddam and seven other former Iraqi officials on trial on 19 October 2005, four days after the 15 October 2005 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution. The tribunal specifically charged the defendants with the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail, in retaliation for the failed assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. Supporters of Saddam protested against the trial in Tikrit. After the charges were read to them, all eight defendants pleaded not guilty. While initially open to the public, the trial was closed to them on 15 March 2006, after Saddam began making political statements on the stand and an argument began between him and the presiding judge.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: As in his pre-trial appearance, at the opening of the 19 October Trial Saddam appeared defiant. He rejected the tribunal's legitimacy and independence from the control of the foreign occupation. "I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq", Saddam declared. He added, "Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false." When the judge asked for his name, Saddam refused, stating "I am the president of the Iraq". He returned the question, asking Kurdish judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, "Who are you? I want to know who you are." When Amin addressed Saddam as "the former president", Saddam objected emphatically, saying he was still the President of the Republic of Iraq and had not been deposed.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The first session of Saddam's trial lasted three hours. The court adjourned the case until 28 November 2005, as some of the witnesses were too frightened to attend, and to allow the defense more time to study evidence. During an interview with the Arab news agency al-Arabiya following the opening of the trial, Saddam's eldest daughter Raghad branded the court a "farce" and claimed that her father behaved like a "lion" during the proceedings. "He would be a lion even when caged. Every honest person who knows Saddam knows that he is firm and powerful."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The trial was adjourned on 28 November 2005 by Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin to allow time to find replacement lawyers for several of the defendants; Attorney Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, charged with the defense of Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was abducted from his office by gunmen on 20 October 2005, and found shot dead near his office a few hours later. On 8 November 2005, attorney Adel al-Zubeidi, who had been representing Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, was killed by three gunmen in Baghdad. Barazan Ibrahim's lawyer Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was also wounded in the attack.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: There were several incidents during the trial where Saddam showed defiance against the court's authority. At one point, Saddam's legal defense team stormed out of the court after questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, and asking about return of defence papers seized by US Army troops and security issues regarding the protection of the defense. Saddam, along with his co-defendants, railed against Chief Judge Amin and the tribunal. The next day, after listening to hours of testimony against him, he lashed out at the judge. He said that he was exhausted, he did not intend on returning to the trial, and to "go to hell". Later, on 7 December 2005, Saddam refused to enter court, complaining of the conditions in which he was being held and the conduct of the trial. Saddam's complaints included, among other things, that he had not been able to change his clothes for four days. On 12 December 2005, instead of cross-examining witnesses, Saddam accused his American captors of torturing him, saying, "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 29 January 2006, the trial was thrown in disarray after a courtroom session in which Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was dragged away by guards, the defense team walked out, and Saddam was ejected following a slanging match with chief judge Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman, who had replaced former chief judge Rizgar Amin, who resigned after complaining of government interference.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Chief Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi called for the death penalty for Saddam and four other defendants including Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, Taha Yassin Ramadan, former Iraqi Vice President and Awad Hamed al-Bander, former chief judge of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. The suspects faced execution by hanging if convicted and sentenced to death.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Following the assassination of his chief defense lawyer, Khamis al-Obeidi, Saddam began a hunger strike, protesting against the lack of international protection for lawyers. On 23 June 2006, it was reported that Saddam ended his hunger strike, having missed one meal.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 5 November 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail, in retaliation for the assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. When the judge announced the verdict, Saddam shouted, "Long live the people. Long live the Arab nation. Down with the spies. God is great." Chief defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi later quoted a statement from Saddam Hussein given just before the Court issued its verdict. He said that Saddam urged his countrymen to "unify in the face of sectarian strife". Al-Dulaimi added that Saddam's message to the people was to "pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations, its civilians". An appeal, mandated by the Iraqi judicial system, followed. There was speculation that the appeals could last years, postponing his actual execution. However, on 26 December, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence was given. No further appeals were possible and Saddam had to be executed within 30 days of that date. The decision still had to be ratified by the Iraqi President but could not be commuted. Judge Arif Shaheen, one of the nine appeal judges, said, "It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow the sentence could be carried out at any time. The appeals court has issued its verdict. What we have decided today is compulsory."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: On 30 December 2006 at approximately 6:05 am Baghdad time, Saddam Hussein's sentence was carried out and he was executed by hanging.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Among Saddam's co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, his half-brother and Iraq's intelligence chief at the time of the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, who issued death sentences to Dujail residents as head of a Revolutionary Court, were also sentenced to death by hanging. They were executed on 15 January 2007. The former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison. However, on 12 February 2007, the sentence was changed to death by hanging, and Ramadan was executed on 20 March 2007.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Former Ba'ath party officials in the Dujail region Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-Musheikhi, his son Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi, and Ali Daeem Ali were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mohammed Azawi Ali, also a Ba'ath party official in Dujail region, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Saddam was executed by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity following his trial and conviction for the illegal killings of 148 Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982. He was hanged on the first day of an important Islamic holiday, Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, at approximately 06:05 AM local time (03:05 UTC). The execution was carried out at "Camp Justice," an Iraqi army base in Kazimain, a neighborhood of north-east Baghdad.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Critics, including Saddam's legal counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi, alleged that American officials had a heavy influence on the court. In a statement, Khalil said, "this court is a creature of the US military occupation, and the Iraqi court is just a tool and rubber stamp of the invaders."


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Khalil al-Dulaimi and various international commentators alleged that the date on which the verdict was read live to the world, 5 November 2006, was deliberately selected by the Bush Administration in order to influence the US midterm elections which occurred two days later. This has been called a November Surprise. The verdict was expected to be on 16 October 2006, but was postponed to consider recalling some of the witnesses. Even as the verdict was released verbally on 5 November, the written, final verdict was not released until days later.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: "The Washington Post" reported that "Americans have drafted most of the statutes under which Hussein and his associates are being tried". It also reported that "A US official in Baghdad confirmed last weekend that only the United States and Britain had contributed experts to advise the court on how to prosecute governments for war crimes and other such matters".


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: The human rights organization Amnesty International criticized the death sentence and said the trial was "deeply flawed and unfair." The process was marred by "serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal," Malcolm Stuart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said. "In particular, political interference undermined the independence and impartiality of the court." The specific concerns raised by Amnesty International included the status of the trial as a "Special Trial" (unconstitutional according to the Iraqi Constitution), political interference in trial proceedings by the removal of a judge mid-trial, exclusion of members of the defense team at points in the trial, assassination of multiple members of the defence team, and the closure of the trial before the defence team had completed presenting its legal case.


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: In the opening statement of the Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq, keynote speaker Arundhati Roy retorted, "Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who supported him—and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and absolve themselves completely?"


title: Trial of Saddam Hussein

text: Journalist Mohamad Bazzi wrote in 2014 that Hussein's trial and execution deepened sectarianism in Iraq:


The 2020 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alabama, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.


title: 2020 United States Senate election in Alabama

text: Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones, first elected in a 2017 special election, ran for a full term, facing Republican candidate Tommy Tuberville in the general election. Jones was one of two Democratic U.S. Senators running for re-election in 2020 in a state President Donald Trump carried in 2016, the other being Gary Peters in Michigan. Jones was widely considered the most vulnerable senator among those seeking re-election in 2020, due to the heavy Republican partisan balance in the state, with analysts predicting a Republican pickup; Jones's 2017 win was in part due to allegations against Republican nominee Roy Moore that he pursued sexual relations with teenagers as an adult during the special election.


text: As was predicted, Tuberville easily defeated Jones to flip the seat back to the GOP. Jones also suffered the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent U.S. Senator since Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln in 2010. Tommy Tuberville also received the highest percentage of the vote for any challenger since Joseph D. Tydings in 1964. Jones became the first Democratic senator to lose reelection in Alabama. Jones outperformed Biden in the state by about 5 points. This was the only seat that Republicans flipped during this cycle.


text: The runoff for the Republican Senate nomination was planned for March 31, 2020, but it was delayed until July 14 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


text: The result was a landslide victory for Tuberville. Tuberville's 20-point margin of victory is largely attributed to the presence of Donald Trump on the ballot, and Jones' votes against Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, as well as his vote to convict Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial. Jones was widely considered the most vulnerable senator in 2020, and his victory in 2017 was largely attributed to allegations of child molestation against his opponent. While Jones was able to receive more raw votes than he did in 2017, Tuberville received nearly double the amount of votes Roy Moore did in 2017, largely due to the high Republican turnout. Jones did perform well in Jefferson County and Montgomery County, but still vastly underperformed his margins in 2017, while Tuberville easily won the rural areas, and successfully flipped many counties that went to Jones by significant margins.


text: The following counties voted for Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the 2017 special election, but flipped to supporting Republican Tommy Tuberville in the 2020 election. In the 2017 election, Jones won several traditionally Republican counties while also driving up margins and turnout in traditionally Democratic counties: he added onto massive margins in Birmingham and Montgomery with narrow wins in the state's other, previously more conservative metropolitan areas, such as Huntsville, Mobile, and Tuscaloosa, alongside several other small counties encircling the Black Belt. Jones' win, though attributable to a spike in Democratic turnout and a decline in Republican turnout, was primarily reliant on allegations of child sexual abuse and pedophilia against Moore, resulting in several prominent Republicans rescinding their endorsements. With Tuberville lacking such controversies, the state swung hard into the Republican column in 2020, and he flipped 12 counties Jones won in 2017, listed below. Jones only won the 13 counties won by Joe Biden in the concurrent 2020 presidential election, and his victories in Jefferson County (Birmingham) and Montgomery County (Montgomery) were insufficient to overcome Tuberville's performance in the rest of the state.


title: Counting Stars

text: "Counting Stars" is a song by American pop rock band OneRepublic from their third studio album, "Native" (2013). The song was written by lead singer Ryan Tedder, and produced by Tedder and Noel Zancanella. It was released as the album's second single on June 14, 2013.


title: Counting Stars

text: The song has been one of the band's most successful singles, reaching number one in many countries including Canada and the United Kingdom, number two in the United States, and top ten in 20 countries. It has sold over 1 million copies in the United Kingdom.


title: Counting Stars

text: The song's accompanying music video, directed by James Lees, features the band performing in the ground floor of a building beneath an ongoing church congregation on the upper floor. As of July 2022, the video has received over 3.6 billion views on YouTube and is one of the most watched videos of all time on the site.


title: Counting Stars

text: Ryan Tedder stated that "'Counting Stars' came about [in August 2012] as an idea. It was probably the most versions of any song[...]to get it right". He also called it "one of [his] two favorite songs on the ["Native"] album". Tedder started writing "Counting Stars" while waiting for Beyoncé to turn up to a studio session, about a month after starting to write "Love Runs Out". In an interview with the Official Charts Company, Tedder said, "I had the idea for Counting Stars originally in the summer of 2012 when I was in the Hamptons. I was working in the largest house I've ever stepped foot in, which was being rented by Jay-Z and Beyoncé. I was in the middle of working on my most recent album with OneRepublic, "Native", and during that time I was determined not to work with any other artists. I broke the promise because I also did sessions that year with Beyoncé. When Jay-Z and Beyoncé invite you to stay with them in the Hamptons, you don't say no!" He continued: "I was out there for about five days and on the second day I woke up early and I started combing through the internet, searching for stuff that would inspire me for Beyoncé. I ended up coming across this weird song that had this indigenous folk sound to it that just struck me like lightning. I didn't like the verses or lyrics, but I loved the feel and movement of it. That ended up inspiring Counting Stars. I debated playing it for Beyoncé and putting it forward for her album, but it didn't feel like a song Beyoncé would record. I immediately came up with the chorus idea, went home and for the next three months finished the "Native" album."


title: Counting Stars

text: "Counting Stars" is a folk pop and pop rock song with a disco beat. Ricardo Baca of "The Denver Post" said that the song is "an extremely effective (and infectious) song — with Tedder's polished pop hijacking a folk song, and a little R&B attitude in there as well." The band explained that the song is about "laying in bed awake at night when you're stressed out of your mind, thinking 'How are we gonna make ends meet? How are we gonna pay the bills?' You know, all those things you wanna do with your life – how are we gonna make them work? How's this actually gonna happen or come to pass? So, instead of counting sheep, we're counting stars."


title: Counting Stars

text: According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, the song has a tempo of 107.6 beats per minute before increasing to 122 beats per minute. The song is written in the key of C minor, and follows a chord progression of Cm-E-B-A.


title: Counting Stars

text: The music video was filmed on May 10, 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and premiered on May 31, 2013. The video features the band performing the song in a gloomy ground floor of a building surrounded by hanging light bulbs, interspersed with scenes of several people in a religious revival service on the upper floor, dancing along with the song. At the end of the video, the ceiling is demolished, causing one of the people in the service to fall through the floor, coming through the ceiling of the room the band is performing in. The video also shows clips of an alligator crawling through the ground floor.


title: Counting Stars

text: The video became the first music video by a band in history to reach 1 billion views, doing so on November 2, 2015. It has received over 3.5 billion views and 15 million likes on YouTube, and, , is the 16th most viewed video on the site, as well as the most viewed music video among group artists.


title: Counting Stars

text: "Counting Stars" debuted at number 32 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on July 6, 2013. The song peaked at number two on January 18, 2014, and stayed there for two weeks behind "Timber" by Pitbull, featuring Kesha. The song spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top ten, and finished fifth for the most total weeks on the Hot 100 after spending 68 weeks on the chart. It is tied with "Apologize" as OneRepublic's highest-peaking single in the United States, and is their third US top-ten hit. The song has sold over 5.3 million copies in the US as of December 2014.


title: Counting Stars

text: In Canada, the song set the record for the longest climb to number one on the Canadian Hot 100, reaching number one on its 34th week on the chart on February 8, 2014. The song has topped the charts in Canada, Finland, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom, and charted within the top ten in 20 countries, including attaining top five placements in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, "Counting Stars" spent 34 consecutive weeks inside the top 40. On October 11, 2014, the Official Charts Company confirmed that "Counting Stars" had sold 1 million copies in the UK. On February 28, 2022, Live Nation Entertainment confirmed that song had sold 41 million copies worldwide.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: Dylan Nicole Gelula (born May 7, 1994) is an American actress who is best known for her role of Xanthippe on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", as well as her work in independent film.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: In 2016, Gelula made her film debut as the lead actress with romantic drama film "First Girl I Loved," directed by Kerem Sanga. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won the audience award for Best Of NEXT. Gelula's performance in the film as Anne received rave reviews from various critics.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: She has since appeared in the films "Flower", "Support the Girls", "Under the Eiffel Tower", "Her Smell", and had the lead role of "Maggie" in Cooper Raiff's 2020 debut feature "Shithouse", which won the Best Narrative Film prize at SXSW Film Festival.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: Gelula was born on May 7, 1994, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Reform Judaism. She attended Lower Merion High School and recalls having a difficult time in high school, having been "very lonely, but very comfortable being alone," and showed up to school so infrequently that she was forced to either repeat her senior year or drop out. She ended up dropping out and moving to Los Angeles by herself at the age of seventeen.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: Gelula began her acting career at the age of ten as an extra in the M. Night Shyamalan film "Lady in the Water", which she later revealed neither she nor her parents ever viewed. Two years after, in the sixth grade, she found a manager. Before moving to Los Angeles, her agent in New York got her an audition for the role of Jean Fordham in an Arden Theatre Company production of "", directed by Terry Nolen, which she ended up starring in. She recalls remembering originally trying to turn down the part, but later realizing that she was very interested in it.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 17, she worked as a waitress at a high-end restaurant in Santa Monica, from which she was quickly fired. She also worked as a buyer at Wasteland, a resale store. She has had guest roles on "", "Are We There Yet?", and "". Gelula has also played Gretchen Doyle on "Jennifer Falls", Ford on "Chasing Life", and Xanthippe on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt".


title: Dylan Gelula

text: When Gelula initially auditioned for the role of Xanthippe on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", she was in Los Angeles, but casting was only happening in New York City. She gave the crew of the show an audition tape, and received a call one month later that they were interested in her for the part. The crew asked her to do a table read with the cast before she was given the part, and she eventually received the role. She claims she does not know why the character of Xanthippe was given the name she was given.


title: Dylan Gelula

text: In 2020, Dylan created a podcast with Broti Gupta called "Lecture Hall", with guests including Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, best known for his work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for composing that group's biggest hit, "Take Five". He was one of the most popular musicians to come out of the cool jazz scene.


title: Paul Desmond

text: In addition to his work with Brubeck, he led several groups and collaborated with Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Jim Hall, and Ed Bickert. After years of chain smoking and poor health, Desmond succumbed to lung cancer in 1977 after a tour with Brubeck.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond was born Paul Emil Breitenfeld in San Francisco, California, in 1924, the son of Shirley (née King) and Emil Aron Breitenfeld. His grandfather Sigmund Breitenfeld was, according to an obituary, born in Austria in 1857. Sigmund Breitenfeld, a medical doctor, emigrated to New York City with his wife Hermine (born Hermine Lewy) at the end of the 19th century, and the Breitenfelds raised their four children (including Desmond's father Emil) with no religion. Interviewed by Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey, Desmond's first cousin Rick Breitenfeld said that no one in the Breitenfeld family could find evidence of Jewish ancestry or Jewish religious observance, but Paul Desmond and members of his father's family "frequently speculated as to whether or not Sigmund or Hermine Breitenfeld had Jewish backgrounds". Biographer Ramsey notes that "the name Breitenfeld could be Jewish or non-Jewish. There are plenty of Breitenfelds in Germany and Austria to support both sides of the argument. Lewy, the maiden surname of Paul's paternal grandmother Hermine, is more likely to be of Jewish origin, but no evidence of her genealogy has surfaced." However, Fred Barton, songwriter/arranger and Desmond's cousin, found extensive genealogical proof that both the Breitenfeld and Löwy families were Bohemian Jews. The Breitenfeld family in Bohemia and Vienna featured musicians in every generation throughout the 1800s, 1900s, and to the present day.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond's father, Emil Breitenfeld, was a pianist, organist, arranger, and composer. Breitenfeld accompanied silent films in movie theaters and produced musical arrangements for printed publication and for live theatrical productions. During World War I, while Breitenfeld was training with the 17th New York Regiment in Plattsburgh, New York, he composed "The Last Long Mile", one of the best-known soldiers' songs of that war.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond's mother Shirley was emotionally unstable throughout his upbringing, and appears to have suffered from obsessive–compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses. Starting in 1933, Desmond spent nearly five years living with relatives in New Rochelle, New York due to his mother's mental health problems.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond began to study clarinet at the age of twelve, which he continued while at San Francisco Polytechnic High School. During high school, he wished to study violin, but his father dissuaded him, saying that violin players were "a dime a dozen...with the violin, you'll starve." Desmond developed a talent for writing during high school as well, becoming co-editor of his high school newspaper. In that capacity, he interviewed comedian Bob Hope for his school newspaper during one of Hope's visits to San Francisco. After high school, Desmond enrolled at San Francisco State College where he majored in English. It was also at that time that Desmond began playing the alto saxophone, after being influenced by the likes of Lester Young and Charlie Parker. In his first year of college, Desmond was drafted into the United States Army and joined the Army band while stationed in San Francisco. He spent three years in the military, but his unit was not called to combat.


title: Paul Desmond

text: In 1946, following his military discharge, Desmond legally changed his last name from Breitenfeld to Desmond. He told many stories over the years regarding how he chose the name Desmond, but his biographer Doug Ramsey offers an account from Desmond's friend Hal Strack that the two were listening to the Glenn Miller band singer Johnny Desmond in 1942, and Desmond told Strack "that's such a great name. It's so smooth and yet it's uncommon...If I ever decide I need another name, it's going to be Desmond."


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond was married from 1947 to 1949 to Duane Reeves Lamon. Following his divorce, he remained single for the rest of his life.


title: Paul Desmond

text: After World War II, Desmond started working in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking pick-up work as a backing musician as he could find it. He worked occasionally for Dave Brubeck at the Geary Cellar in San Francisco. For a period of several weeks, he led a small jazz combo at the Band Box in Redwood City that included Dave Brubeck. Desmond had a falling out with Brubeck when he resigned from the Band Box and prevented Brubeck from taking over the residency. In 1950 Desmond joined the band of Jack Fina and toured with Fina for several months, but he returned to California after hearing Brubeck's trio on the radio and deciding that he should repair his relationship with Brubeck and attempt to join Brubeck's increasingly successful band.


title: Paul Desmond

text: At the time, Brubeck and Brubeck's wife Iola had three small children, and Brubeck had instructed Iola not to let Desmond set foot in the family home. Desmond appeared at Brubeck's San Francisco apartment one day while Dave was in the back yard hanging diapers on a laundry line, and Iola, defying Brubeck's wishes, let Desmond in and took him to Dave. Desmond offered to perform arranging and administrative work for Brubeck's band, and to babysit Brubeck's children, and Brubeck finally relented and agreed to try working with Desmond again.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond had met Dave Brubeck in 1944 while still in the military. Brubeck was trying out for the 253rd Army band, which Desmond belonged to. After making the cut he—unlike Desmond—was sent overseas in 1944, to Europe. Desmond once told Marian McPartland of National Public Radio's "Piano Jazz" that he was taken aback by the chord changes Brubeck introduced during that 1944 audition. After Desmond convinced Brubeck to hire him following his stint with Jack Fina, the two had a contract drafted (of which Brubeck was the sole signatory); the language forbade Brubeck from firing him, ensured Brubeck's status as group leader, and gave Desmond twenty percent of all profits generated from the quartet. That is how the Dave Brubeck Quartet had its start, a group that began in 1951 and ended in December 1967.


title: Paul Desmond

text: The quartet became especially popular with college-age audiences, often performing in college settings like on their ground-breaking 1953 album "Jazz at Oberlin" at Oberlin College, or on their recordings on the campuses of Ohio University and the University of Michigan, among others. The success of the quartet led to a "Time" magazine piece on them in 1954, with the famous cover featuring Brubeck's face.


title: Paul Desmond

text: After drummer Joe Dodge decided to leave the group, Joe Morello joined in late 1956 with Desmond's recommendation. Yet with different musical aspiration and taste, their relationship has been full of tension. Desmond hoped for a "tinky-boom" background-type drummer while Morello wanted to be recognized and featured. During Morello's first performance with the group, he was featured by Brubeck and received an ovation from the audience for his solo. This was not readily accepted by Desmond and he threatened to leave the group. Brubeck managed to keep both Desmond and Morello in the group but with frictions between them for years. Desmond's grudge against Morello could also been heard during their performance. In their 'Take The ‘A’ Train' performance in Hanover, Germany in 1958, for example, Desmond's playing sounded lack-luster and uninterested. After Morello's complex rhythm, Desmond would play even quieter and even dropped for a few bars. In their later years they reconciled and became close friends.


title: Paul Desmond

text: The group played until 1967, when Brubeck switched his musical focus from performance to composition and broke the unit up. During the 1970s Desmond joined Brubeck for several reunion tours, including "Two Generations of Brubeck". Accompanying them were Brubeck's sons Chris Brubeck, Dan Brubeck and Darius Brubeck. In 1976 Desmond played 25 shows in 25 nights with Brubeck, touring the United States in several cities by bus.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond worked several times during his career with baritone saxophonist and band leader Gerry Mulligan. The two made two studio albums together ("Gerry Mulligan - Paul Desmond Quartet" (1957), and "Two of a Mind" (1962)). In June 1969 Desmond appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival with Gerry Mulligan, procuring favorable reactions from critics and audience members. During Brubeck's "Two Generations" tours, Desmond and Mulligan shared the stage together in 1974. Unlike Brubeck, Mulligan personally shared much in common with Desmond. The two shared similar interests and humor, and both men had no shortage of addictions in their lives.


title: Paul Desmond

text: Desmond had a celebrated studio partnership with guitarist Jim Hall. Hall played on several albums recorded by Desmond between 1959 and 1963 for Warner Bros. and RCA Victor. After some time spent inactive, Desmond was asked to play the Half Note in New York City in 1971 by Hall. With his special brand of humor, Desmond said that he took the job only because he was nearby and could tumble out of bed to work. The two continued to play at the club to jam-packed audiences. Desmond also joined the Modern Jazz Quartet for a Christmas concert in 1971 at the New York Town Hall.