Some context: Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. (September 6, 1888 - November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician known for his high-profile positions in United States politics. Kennedy was married to Rose Kennedy, and three of their nine children attained distinguished political positions: President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), and longtime Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009). He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community.
Kennedy wanted his eldest son, Joe Jr., to become president, but after Joe Jr.'s death in August 1944, he became determined to make his second son, John, president. Kennedy was consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during World War II ("Democracy is finished"), and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy. As a result, his presence in John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign had to be downplayed. However, Kennedy still drove the campaign behind the scenes. He played a central role in planning strategy, fundraising, and coalition and alliance building. Kennedy almost oversaw the entire operation, supervising spending, helping to select advertising agencies, phoning local and state party leaders, newsmen, and business leaders. Kennedy connections and influence were turned directly into political capital for the senatorial and presidential campaigns of sons John, Robert and Ted. Historian Richard J. Whalen describes Kennedy's influence on John Kennedy's policy decisions in his biography of Joe. Joe was influential in creating the Kennedy Cabinet (Robert Kennedy as Attorney General although he had never argued or tried a case, for example). However, in 1961, Joe Kennedy suffered a stroke that placed even more limitations on his influence in his sons' political careers. Kennedy expanded the Kennedy Compound, which continues as a major center of family get-togethers. When John Kennedy was asked about the level of involvement and influence that his father had held in his razor-thin presidential victory over Richard Nixon, he would joke that on the eve before the election his father had asked him the exact number of votes he would need to win: there was no way he was paying "for a landslide". Kennedy was one of four fathers (the other three being George Tryon Harding, Nathaniel Fillmore, and George Herbert Walker Bush) to live through the entire presidency of a son.
Why was he determined to make his son president?
A:
Some context: Brown was born in Mineola, a small segregated town in east Texas marked by racial tensions, to Minnie Collins Boyd and Lewis Brown. Brown was the fourth of five children. During Brown's childhood, mob violence periodically erupted in Mineola, keeping African- Americans from voting. His first job was a shoeshine boy in a whites-only barber shop.
One of Brown's central campaign promises was his "100-Day Plan for Muni," in which he boasted he would fix the city's municipal bus system in that many days. Brown supported the "Peer Pressure" Bus Patrol program, which paid former gang members and troubled youth to patrol Muni buses. Brown claimed the program helped reduce crime. He fired Muni chief Phil Adams and replaced him with his chief of staff Emilio Cruz. In 1998, Brown was Mayor during the summer of the Muni meltdown as Muni implemented the new ATC system and Brown promised riders there would be better times ahead. A voter approved initiative in the following year would help improve Muni services. Brown increased Muni's budget by tens of millions of dollars over his tenure. Brown later said he made a mistake in over promising with his 100-Day Plan. Brown helped mediate a settlement to the 1997 BART strike. During his first term as mayor, Brown quietly favored the demolition and abolition of the Transbay Terminal to accommodate the redevelopment of the site for market-rate housing. Centrally located at First and Mission Streets near the Financial District and South Beach, the terminal originally served as the San Francisco terminus for the electric commuter trains of the East Bay Electric Lines, the Key System of streetcars and the Sacramento Northern railroads which ran on the lower deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Following the termination of streetcar service in 1958, the terminal has seen continuous service as a major bus facility for East Bay commuters; AC Transit buses transport riders from the terminal directly into neighborhoods throughout the inner East Bay. The terminal also serves passengers traveling to San Mateo County and the North Bay aboard SamTrans and Golden Gate Transit buses respectively, and to tourists arriving by bus motorcoach. Today, the terminal is being planned for redevelopment as a region wide mass transit hub maintaining the current bus services, but with a new tunnel that would extend the Caltrain commuter rail line from its current terminus at Fourth and Townsend Streets to the site. Once completed, Caltrain riders would no longer need to transfer to Muni in order to reach the downtown financial district. Additionally, the heavy rail portion of the terminal would be designed to accommodate the planned High Speed Rail lines to Los Angeles. In 1998, The Berkeley, California-based Bicycle Civil Liberties Union, produced a two-hour documentary film in the muckraker journalism tradition, July 25: The Secret is Out, which gives evidence of Brown's designs for the Transbay Terminal site.
Were all of his mass transit plans successful?
A: Brown later said he made a mistake in over promising with his 100-Day Plan.
Some context: Paul Verhoeven was born on 18 July 1938, the son of a school teacher, Wim Verhoeven, and a hat maker, Nel van Schaardenburg. Although he was born in Amsterdam, the family lived in the village of Slikkerveer. In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II. The Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces.
After about 20 years of working and living in the United States, Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film. Together with his screenwriter Gerard Soeteman, Verhoeven made Black Book (2006). The director was hailed by the host of the Netherlands Film Festival with the words "The return of a hero." Black Book eventually won six Golden Calves at this festival, including Best Director. When the shooting of Black Book was delayed due to financial issues, there was speculation about a new production. The film Beast of Bataan had been announced, but once the shooting for Black Book resumed, the other film was never realized. Since his return to European cinema in 2006 with Black Book, Verhoeven has been connected to a large number of projects, but for the moment none of them has come to fruition. Some of those titles were produced with other directors at the helm, such as The Paperboy. Finally, in a rather unexpected twist, Verhoeven followed Black Book by directing a movie in French: Elle, an adaptation of a novel by Philippe Djian. The film by Verhoeven, a psycho-thriller where Isabelle Huppert plays a rape victim, was selected in the Official Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it obtained very favourable reviews. Verhoeven has been a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion since 2007. In December 2016 it was announced that Verhoeven would be the President of the Jury for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in February 2017. In April 2017 his next French film titled Blessed Virgin was announced, to start filming in August of the same year. It is a biographical film about the life of Benedetta Carlini, which will be portrayed by Elle co-star Virginie Efira, and is an adaptation of the non-fiction book Immodest Acts - The life of a lesbian nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown.
Why did he return to Europe?
A:
Verhoeven returned to the Netherlands for the shooting of a new film.