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The Rev. Al Sharpton visited Maryland Tuesday to drum up support for a march on Washington planned for the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s I Have A Dream speech.

Sharpton addressed about 60 faith leaders at the Radio One building in Woodlawn, and made a personal appeal that they attend the One Thousand Ministers March for Justice on Aug. 28.

Yall are right here in Baltimore, yall are an hour away from the King memorial, and youre a city under consent decree, said the civil rights leader. Yall have more reason than most to stand up as faith leaders.

No one left the event without signing up, said Ebonie Riley, DC Bureau Chief of the National Action Network, which is convening the march. The Baltimore-area clergy will join a couple thousand other faith leaders of all denominations as they go from the Martin Luther King memorial to the Department of Justice.

The world needs to see that 1,000 ministers went to Washington on the anniversary of Kings dream to raise the dream to this administration, Sharpton said. Were not coming to call folks names were faith leaders. Were coming to exult the dream.

The march will focus on voting rights, healthcare access, criminal justice reform and economic justice. Organizers say they want to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions accountable for recent spikes in hate crimes and discrimination.

Weve made a lot of progress over the last 50 years, Sharpton said. We can not allow that to be turned around.

Issues faced by Baltimore are at the center of what the march is about, Sharpton said. He said the city was targeted by the administration early when Sessions questioned the consent decree between the city and justice department, which mandated broad police reforms.

Baltimore must help lead this, because your city is one of the critical points of reference of how were seeing a retreat of civil rights in this country, he said.

In April, Sessions said in a statement that while he supports reform, he has "grave concerns that some provisions of this decree will reduce the lawful powers of the police department and result in a less safe city." He said the agreement was rushed by the previous administration.

Sharpton also addressed the historic level of gun violence in Baltimore, which has seen more than 200 homicides so far this year. He commended organizers of last weekends ceasefire efforts, which encouraged everyone in the city to go 72-hours without killing anybody.

The Rev. Arnetha Bowens, a chaplain with the Baltimore police department, said shes attending the march because youre either part of the problem or youre part of the solution.

Our land is in need of healing theres too much strife and too much division, she said. We really need everyone to come together to make a difference.

For Bishop William Hawthorne of West Baltimore, the march is an important way to show he is against the rollback of rights afforded to people of color.

The people need to be given that reinforcement of the moral compass we have lost due to our political echelon, he said.

Sharpton agreed that it was important for children to see their faith leaders marching.

Jesus was not in the church, he said. He was in the streets.

trichman@baltsun.com

twitter.com/TaliRichman

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Rev. Al Sharpton stirs support in Baltimore for the thousand ministers march - Baltimore Sun

The filmmakers behind the Pattinson-starring thriller discuss Pattinson's weird gifting habits, the laws they broke on set, and the state of bank robbery in 2017.

The first thing you notice about the Safdie brothers is that they are gung-ho. Formally credited on their various projects as Joshua and Ben Safdieand gregariously introducing themselves to everyone in the room as Josh and Bennyour GQ shoot has barely begun when Josh hops onto his brothers shoulders for a series of goofy photos. "He has amazing lower-body strength," laughs Josh as they grin for the camera.

And you cant help but think: These cheery, friendly young dudes are the filmmakers behind two of the decades most harrowing cinematic portraits of New York City? The Safdie brothers are best known for their 2014 drama Heaven Knows What, which was famously derived from the real-life experiences of star Arielle Holmes, a homeless heroin addict whom the Safdie brothers met while working on a still-unreleased passion project about Manhattans Diamond District. (They swear its their next project.)

Good Time, the Safdie brothers latest, shares Heaven Knows Whats interest in the impoverished side of New York City rarely explored in modern-day cinema. But it trades the gauzy, impressionistic structure of Heaven Knows What for the trappings of a white-knuckle thriller, and casts Robert Pattinsonan honest-to-god movie starin the lead role. (You can read our GQ cover story with Robert Pattinson here.)

In Good Time, Pattinson plays Connie Nikas, a blue-collar criminal grinding it out in New York City. When a bank robbery goes wrong, and his intellectually disabled brother (played by Benny Safdie) ends up in prison, Connie desperately scrambles to scrape together enough money to bust him out. Its a sympathetic story built around a consistently unsympathetic protagonist, and its hard to overstate how good Pattinson is in the role. Imagine a Drive that has no interest in making its violent, amoral protagonist look cool, or a heist movie about how much it sucks to be a criminal.

After several projects together (including the essential sports documentary Lenny Cooke), the Safdie brothers have worked out a brisk, economical division of labor. Josh wrote Good Time with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Benny costars. And both Josh and Benny are credited as directors. Conflicts are minimal and easily resolved. "Thats the beauty of working with someone youve known literally your whole life. Someone youve had bloody fights with," says Josh. "I can be very blunt."

And with their highest-profile to date arriving in theaters on Friday, the Safdie brothers have no interested in slowing down. "I dont think theres such a thing as 'work as hard as you can.' I think you can work harder," says Josh. "Always. With this movie, in particular, we worked very hard."

Joshua: Rob Pattinson just reached out to us and said, "Heywhatever youre doing next, I want to be a part of it." His initial impetus to reach out to us came from just a photo still, on the internet, from Heaven Knows What. He felt this kind of inner, innate connection to his purpose.

Ben: He said he would do catering for us. He didnt say, "I need to be the star of a movie."

Joshua: We met with him. I wasnt interested in using him as a cameo or a supporting player. He has the face of a star. He doesnt want to be a star; he just is one. And thats the best type.

Ben: The goal, for Rob, was to disappear. He said, "I want to disappear. Thats why I want to work with you guys. I dont want people to watch saying, 'Oh, thats Rob Pattinson.'" And when people watch the movie, they go, 'Oh, my God. Is that Rob Pattinson?'"

Joshua: [During the opening scene], this movie star comes in and throws the door openalmost like he did to our lives. "Hey. Lets get moving." And then, literally, the movie doesnt stop.

Joshua: Theres no good reason to rob a bank. Its the most romantic idea, to go and rob a bank. And the fact that people do rob banks, in 2017, is an example of life imitating art. In most bank robberies, you see people run away with two or three thousand dollars, because there are policies now: "Ill give you the money thats in the till, but thats it."

Ben: You can be in a bank and not even know its being robbed.

Joshua: Banks realize that if they get an insurance policy, they can write off two or three thousand-dollar losses, and its much cheaper than getting a full-time armed guard. Thats why you dont see armed guards in banks anymore.

Ben: Nate Silver did a whole thing: "Is it a viable living to rob banks?" He broke it down, hour-by-hour: Rob a bank, or work at McDonalds? And in the end, it was basically the same. The math just doesnt add up.

Joshua: We originally cast Eric Roberts [to play a bail bondsman]. We shot it, and edited it, and realized, "HeyI dont think this unbelievably expositional scene can survive the artifice of a movie star." So we cast an actual bail bondsman. And he improvised one line while on the phone. In his mind, hes getting details from the court, and he goes, "Lovely." Theres no one on the other line! Only an actual bail bondsman could do that part. And that masks the exposition thats happening.

Ben: When the bondsman dials a number, it needs to look like muscle memory.

Joshua: In Heaven Knows What, Arielle Holmes had a whole life she could pull from at any moment. Her preparation was her life. Thats why people work with nonprofessional actors. With a professional actor, we take that conceptbut now we have to build an entire life for you to have within you. Almost trick you into becoming another person. So for Rob specifically, we wrote an insane character biography, starting minute one of birth, and literally minutes before his entrance into the movie.

Josh: Rob was on Howard Stern. He was probably a little flustered. And he put out an impression of us that sounded like insanity. Like hed been thrown to the Tasmanian Devil. He thinks we induce mania and chaos into our set. We dont induce anything! I mean, we do but we dont want chaos.

Ben: There was one day when we didnt have a permit to shoot a shot when Rob was running away. We had permits for the street, but not permits to drive in the street, with a car driving alongside him. But we were like, "Ugh, we need this shot."

Josh: And were working with union guys who are like, "We cant do this." But we can.

Ben: So we grab the monitor, and stand in the middle of street, and were blocking all the traffic.

Josh: It was like three blocks of traffic just honking their horns.

"The way he performed that running the look on his face pure fear."

Ben: And Rob takes off and runs, and we got the shot. We got three shots! We did it, we got it, we moved on, and that was the end of it. Great day! And then we read Rob saying, "God, these guys. They just block traffic. Risk their lives!"

Josh: We werent risking our lives. Nobody was going to hit us. Having 20 cars laying on their horns does actually induce a certain level of chaos. But we were like, we had to get this. No fucking up. All he had to do was run.

Ben: For us, it was a practical thingbut for Rob, it added this energy.

Josh: The way he performed that running the look on his face pure fear.

Josh: That was a complete coincidence. We wrote "SpongeBob SquarePants," and Nickelodeon was like, "Get out of here."

Ben: At the time [we filmed Good Time], Pepe was like, a funny meme.

Josh: We had cartoonist friends that knew [Pepe creator] Matt Furie, and he was like, "Yeah, sure, sounds great." And its not until were editing the movie that the campaign takes holdand Trump is tweeting out Pepe the Frog. And the ADL is saying that Pepe the Frog is a hate symbol. I wrote to Matt Furie and said, "This is crazy," and he said, "Yeah, its destroying me."

Josh: Its still in the box. I live in a rental. I told my landlord, "Hey, I got this toilet," and had to explain what this toilet was. He was very confused about why I wanted a new toilet, because they recently installed a very nice toilet. So the new toilet is still in the boxconceptually, next to my unopened bottle of Prosecco and my unlit Cuban cigar. Which Ill celebrate with. When I die.

Ben: Hes going to be buried on the toilet, drinking the Prosecco, smoking the Cuban cigar.

Josh: Im definitely going out like Elvis. Ive read entire books on the can. Novellas. The only side effects are hemorrhoids.

Ben: And those are just a pain in the ass.

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The Safdie Brothers Swear Good Time Didn't Almost Turn Robert Pattinson Into Roadkill - GQ Magazine

Like many moderate conservatives throughout the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Id shrug off claims from the left of hate, racism, xenophobia, etc., that were supposedly being perpetrated by conservatives and the rising Trump campaign. Sure, I thought, media figures like Sean Hannity stirred the culturally sensitive melting pot of American culture with their provocative headlines, but they were just the classic incendiary talk show hosts who you see on both sides of the aisle.

While those claims were shrugged off by the GOP base as the usual political rhetoric, few noticed a shadowy group of far-right outsiders that were muddying the conservative waters by blurring establishment conservatism with their own radical views. And when the source of the hate became evident, conservatives and liberals alike scratched their heads in bewilderment as far-right nationalism surfaced from the depths of the internet.

For years, members of the alt-right were culminating into a coalition of radical far-right nationalists who were flirting with ideas of pro-white nationalism, anti-semitism and a general opposition to any form of political correctness. In 2016, these individuals broke out onto the main political scene. While their ability to hold the attention of major news sites may be dwindling if not gone, the alt-rights influence on mainstream conservatism is a subtle yet concerning one.

A lot of alt-right activity is internet-based, so it would be quite difficult to easily point out a member of the alt-right unless they were supporters of people like Richard Spencer: head of the National Policy Institute and the self-proclaimed leader of the alt-right. Participants of this movement populate internet forums such as 4chan and Reddit with messages that promote white nationalism, anti-semitism and basically anything anti-politically correct.

Members of the alt-right spend their time on these message boards reinforcing their white nationalist identity among themselves as a reaction to increasing multiculturalism in American society and fear of a white minority in the coming years. They are a wildly scattered group consisting of pro-Western nationalists, pro-white nationalists, neo-Nazis and many other far-right offshoots. They are united in their many controversial beliefs including racial superiority, misogyny, anti-semitism, anti-immigration and anti-multiculturalism.

Their activities have been gaining momentum since 2008, but recent populist uprisings across the globe including those at home have propelled the alt-right into the mainstream. They generated millions of memes that supported nationalist icons like Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and most importantly, Donald Trump. The most notable was Pepe the Frog, a disheveled-looking frog who would often be displayed to resemble Trump. They referred to their efforts as meme magic, believing that plastering the frog anywhere possible would carry Trump and other nationalist leaders to victory.

When it started to spill into the social media feeds of everyday Americans, the media naturally condemned the alt-rights provocative online activity while simultaneously bringing attention to the groups endeavors: ultimately, and unknowingly, fulfilling the alt-rights initial goal of generating media interest. Their newfound infamy unfortunately started to blur the lines between conservatives and their far-right counterparts.

But when Trump won the election, the commotion died down and all of the political radicals, including the alt-right, were once again overshadowed by the usual Washington noise that comes with a new president. Yet circumstances were different for the alt-right. Similar to their unnoticed leap into mainstream conservatism, they quietly stuck around and continued to spread their influence online: this time on platforms that hosted thousands more viewers than the murkier internet forums of 4chan and Reddit.

Scrolling through my Instagram Explore page, months after the rise and fall of the alt-rights popularity, I noticed a few strange posts from different conservative accounts that generally posted jokes I thought of as sensible. One account had posted 80s retro aesthetic pictures containing phrases like not all men are equal, power and a generation of revenge, with pictures depicting the moon landing, a gladiator and a skeleton in Nazi fatigues, respectively. There was a final picture titled Right Wing Death Squad, a reference to death squads being a result of an increasingly leftist state, according to an alt-right 4chan forum. It turns out I was looking at posters promoting fashwave, a nostalgic form of dubstep in a retro style reminiscent of the neo-Nazi music wave of the 80s.

That same day I noticed the familiar account had posted questionable statistics listing the IQs of different races, claiming that certain negative personality traits of the listed racial groups stemmed from those numbers. Unsurprisingly, they were from the National Policy Institute, which is essentially the main think tank of the alt-right. To my confusion, I noticed similar comments on both posts congratulating the account for finally becoming red-pilled, which is alt-right slang for opening ones eyes to see their pro-white nationalist version of reality.

To see mainstream conservatives sharing pictures advocating neo-Nazism or white nationalism was quite unsettling; things were dramatically different from the times the alt-right were spreading a cartoon frog around the internet. Conservative hotspots that used to host topics like health care or tax policy were now debating news articles and related content that read: Illegal Aliens and Violent Crime: Some Amazing Facts, African Who Attacked Church Deported from Italy: Im a Muslim, Its My Duty to Destroy Christian Symbols and Hillary, Soros and the political genocide of Christianity.

Sources from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and any media outlet with journalistic standards have been branded as fake news and replaced with sites like Breitbart and The Daily Stormer, who push these inflammatory headlines for the sake of angering and energizing their alt-right followers. It is clear that the alt-right hasnt left mainstream conservatism; they have used the conservative base to latch on like parasites benefitting from an audience of millions.

The continued online presence of the alt-right should alarm conservatives. This far-right fringe group is slowly influencing a generation of budding conservatives by introducing subtle humor that has the potential to turn them on to the idea of a pro-white nationalist America. If their influence continues to spread even further across the mainstream they will eventually replace known conservative principles like limited government and individual liberty with principles that promote white nationalism. Conservatives should make a preemptive effort to clearly separate themselves from the alt-right so they may never fully spread their radical views into the mainstream and promote a false image of modern conservatism.

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The alt-right parasite: How fringe groups latched on to mainstream ... - Virginia Tech Collegiate Times

The current issue of Newsweek (yes, its still in business!) has a picture of President Trump sitting in a recliner, with snacks and an iPad in his lap, pointing his TV remote at the viewer, blazoned with the headline, Lazy Boy.

Last week, the president joined Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) to announce legislation that would make seminal changes to our immigration laws for the first time in more than half a century, profoundly affecting the entire country.

The media have chosen not to cover the RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment). This bill is their worst nightmare.

Instead of admitting immigrants on the basis of often specious family ties, the bill would finally allow us to choose the immigrants we want, based on merit, with points granted for skills, English proficiency, advanced degrees, actual job offers and so on.

Most Americans have no idea that we have zero say about the vast majority of immigrants pouring into our country. Two-thirds of all legal immigrants get in not because we want them or even because Mark Zuckerberg wants them but under idiotic family reunification laws.

The most important provision of the RAISE Act would define family the way most Americans think of it: your spouse and minor children.

Unfortunately, thats not how the Third World thinks of family. In tribal societies, family means the whole extended clan adult siblings, elderly parents and brothers-in-law, plus all their adult siblings and elderly parents, and so on, ad infinitum.

Entire tribes of immigrants are able to bully their way in and, as legal immigrants, are immediately eligible for a whole panoply of government benefits. Suddenly, theres no money left in the Social Security Trust Fund, and Speaker Paul Ryan is telling Americans theyre going to have to cut back.

At some point, American businesses are going to have to be told they cant keep bringing in cheap foreign labor, changing the country and offloading the costs onto the taxpayer. But thats not this discussion. Business owners want cheap workers not the disabled parents of cheap workers.

In a sane world, merely introducing such an important bill with the imprimatur of a president elected on his immigration stance would force the media to finally discuss the subject they have been deliberately hiding from the public.

Has Trump personally endorsed any other legislation like this? He harangued congressional Republicans on Twitter to pass some Obamacare replacement, but he never endorsed a specific bill.

But, you see, theres a reason the media dont want to talk about immigration.

With a full public airing, Americans would finally understand why recent immigrants seem so different from earlier waves, why income inequality is approaching czarist Russia levels, why the suicide rate has skyrocketed among the working class, and why all our government benefits programs are headed toward bankruptcy.

As Stephen Miller, the presidents inestimable speechwriter, said, some legislative proposals can only succeed in the dark of night and some can only succeed in the light of day. This is a light-of-day bill.

So, naturally, the media refuse to mention it, except to accuse Miller of being a white nationalist for knowing hate-facts about the Emma Lazarus poem not being part of the original Statue of Liberty. (Its the Statue of Liberty, not Statute of Liberty, media.)

They ignore this bill so they can get on to the important business of Trumps tweets, whos up and whos down in the White House, and Russia, Russia, Russia.

According to my review of Nexis archives, there was only a single question about the RAISE Act on any of the Sunday morning shows: Chris Wallaces last question to his very important Republican guest. Unfortunately, his very important Republican guest was amnesty-supporting nitwit Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who sniped about Trump employing foreign guest workers at Mar-a-Lago.

However that may be, guest workers have absolutely nothing to do with the RAISE Act, which, as Miller heroically tried to explain to clueless reporters, concerns only green-card holders, i.e., lawful permanent residents not guest workers, not illegal aliens and not a poem Scotch-taped onto Lady Liberty in 1903.

At least the media arent deluded about the popularity of their position. Discussing immigration is a total loser for them. They know what they want is not supported by anyone.

Low-wage workers dont want hundreds of thousands of low-skilled immigrants being dumped on the country every year. Employers dont want the deadbeat cousins of their cheap workers. Americans on public assistance dont want foreigners competing with them for benefits. Boneheaded Scandinavian communities that welcomed refugees dont want to turn their entire town budgets over to various foreign tribes.

In a recent Numbers USA poll of voters in 10 swing states with vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, only 22 percent of respondents thought immigrants should be allowed by right to bring in family other than spouses and minor children.

Make the senators vote, Mr. President!

Donald Trump was elected president, beating the smartest, most qualified woman in the world, by proposing to put Americans first on immigration. This bill makes good on that promise.

Theres a reason the media wont discuss it. If Trump were smart, hed talk about nothing else.

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Ann Coulter: Trump got your tongue, media? - Elko Daily Free Press

EU leaders have repeatedly criticised human rights violations in Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) member states.

But Surin Pitsuwan, former Secretary General of ASEAN, hit back by launching a stunning attack on the union last night.

He claimed EU countries fail to "respect" Brussels' diktats and suggested member states do not act "honestly".

Ten countries make up the south-east Asian alliance which was formed in 1967 including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Mr Pitsuwan said: "The Europeans can not expect the world to revolve around their own ideas, just as it did a century or two hundred years ago.

"The colonial period is over. We work differently from Europe. We do not have strict rules, such as the level of debt which are then not respected."

GETTY

REUTERS

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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker greets EU Commission Chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas

South-east Asia has long regarded European integration as model to follow.

However, the Eurozone debt crisis and the migrant crisis have both led to a growing skepticism about a supranational model.

Several ASEAN states have renounced plans for a common currency, fearing could plunge them into financial turmoil.

GETTY

Every problem of a member state can infect the others

Surin Pitsuwan

Speaking during an interview to mark ASEAN's 50th anniversary, Mr Pitsuwan added: "We in Asia have learned that we have to deal with each other honestly and cautiously.

"We communicate at all levels. We know that every problem of a member state can infect the others.

"In the West, individualism dominates. Here in Asia, however, we still need a controlling hand that is recognisable.

"However, it seems to me that Europe is now taking a step back and emphasising the role of the state again."

GETTY

The founding ofASEAN in 1967coincided with the Vietnam War and was originally aimed at curbing the rise of communism.

With an annual economic growth of about five per cent, its members form one of the most dynamic economic areas in the world.

For the European Union, the ASEAN region is its third largest trading partner after the United States and China.

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg

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'EU is taking a STEP BACK' Asia distances itself from Brussels as Eurozone crisis grows - Express.co.uk