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Vegas Vic hewed close to the strong, silent cowboy types with little regard for a mess of extra words.

Hed wave, all friendly-like, to city folk wandering down Fremont Street, and the wink of his right eye suggested he held a secret or two. For about 15 years after settling in his spot in 1951, all he ever said via a loudspeaker was, Howdy, pardner!

Pleasant. Genial. Long-winded he wasnt.

By the late 1960s, the towering neon casino sign had mostly gone quiet with many attributing Vegas Vics silence to an angry Lee Marvin. The tale thats been spun around these parts was that Marvin had been trying to get some shut-eye in the neighboring Mint Casino during a film shoot of The Professionals. The actor complained about Vics greeting and got him to clam up.

He stayed silent for decades before the folks who operated Vegas Vic mustered up the will and he began to utter Howdy, Ppardner! again. Sometimes, the sting of rejection takes a while to heal.

But eventually he grew quiet again. Pensive, perhaps.

Then Vegas Vic like many inanimate objects these days found Twitter. And, seemingly, his voice. It appears he had politics on his mind, but now Vegas Vic is in danger of being silenced again.

A two-year run on Twitter by someone using Vegas Vics picture and persona may be coming to an end. Lawyers for the company that owns the rights to the character are in the process of issuing a cease and desist letter to the person that transformed Vegas Vic from friendly cowboy greeter to angry partisan tweeter under the Twitter handle @VegasVictory.

Kevin Hanratty, lawyer for the company that owns the image and likeness of Vegas Vic, said they hadnt been aware of the accounts existence until this week. He said that after reviewing Vics posts on Twitter, he concluded that the user of @VegasVictory was in violation of using the trademarked image without permission. Another Twitter account, @VegasVic, appears to be dormant.

But the angst may also have to do with what Vegas Vic was saying and how he was saying it.

Vegas Vic on Twitter is a hyper-partisan, right-wing cowboy who bills himself as someone who loves Liberty, America and Las Vegas.

I am transitioning from Neon Sign to Real Cowboy.

Using a flurry of hashtags, Vegas Vic spent much of 2016 eviscerating Hillary Clinton. He ripped Democrats regularly and linked to a website that featured articles, pictures and videos with an anti-Democrat bent.

With more than 46,000 followers, Vegas Vic on Twitter was sometimes crudely mocking Clinton throughout the election cycle. He also ripped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), calling him an angry old man, and has spent considerable time backing conspiracy theories -- including the one about President Obama wiretapping President Trump.

Hillary campaign could've fed 6 million hungry children for a year with the $$$ they wasted, he chided.

On Nov. 16: I never anticipated that one of the great jobs of @DJTrump45 election would be the #LiberalMeltdown. This is sinfully delicious fun!

Vegas Vic appears to have been a Trump supporter since the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Perhaps less controversially, Vegas Vic also tweets about sports, including updates on the Raiders' move to Las Vegas from Oakland.

Hanratty said the owners of Pioneer Hotel Inc. a subsidiary of Archon Corp. weren't interested in having Vegas Vic take on a partisan tone. The majority shareholders in the company are Paul and Sue Lowden she ran as a Republican for Harry Reids Senate seat in 2010, but lost to Sharron Angle in the primary.

But Hanratty said Vegas Vic wasnt an extension of the Lowdens views, and the company isnt happy about the way the image was being used on Twitter.

Vegas Vic has held iconic status for decades, representing the Westernized version of Las Vegas before the Strip took off and began exploding with a spate of themed casinos, including the Flamingo, Sahara and the Dunes.

Michael Green, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said Vegas Vic was originally brought in by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in the late 1940s after he was designed and constructed by Young Electric Sign Co.

He is one of those figures where, if you see a photo of this neon cowboy, people know its Las Vegas, Green said. He marketed downtown Las Vegas for years, and hes the grand old man now.

The cowboy stood tall for years, waving and beckoning visitors from his perch atop the Pioneer Club, jaunty in his yellow-and-white plaid shirt. But after the Pioneer Club closed in the mid-1990s, age caught up to Vegas Vic. He fell into disrepair, but was restored when the Fremont Street Experience debuted in 1995. That renovation included adding a canopy over Fremont Street onto which light shows are projected while restricting the road to only foot traffic.

He got a new shirt red and yellow. His red-brown boots and lit spurs stand atop a massive souvenir shop now. He still hasnt kicked his smoking habit.

Vegas Vic isnt alone, with sign relatives spread throughout the state: Wendover Will on the Nevada-Utah border and River Rick in Laughlin. None appear to be tweeting.

The partisan tweeting (I wouldve thought he mightve been tweeting about public land issues, Green quipped) is generally avoided among brands and iconic images because tourists come from all political stripes.

Green said the last thing Las Vegas would want is to have one of its ambassadors alienate a sizable chunk of the population.

In our very partisan times, people are capable of reading this the wrong way, he said. It then eventually leads to problems.

George Payne, a 69-year-old from New Orleans who was visiting Fremont Street, was taking video and pictures of Vegas Vic on a warm weekday during the March Madness basketball tournament, and said he didnt want to think of the cowboy as a partisan.

Payne said he remembered seeing pictures of the waving cowboy in a few movies, and it never occurred to him to attach partisanship to Vic.

Payne looked up at the tall cowboy.

I think of Texas more than anything, he said. Not politics.

Vegas Vic was silent. He just winked.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

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Here is the original post:
What happens when an iconic Vegas neon sign becomes a Hillary Clinton-bashing, far-right Twitter persona? - Los Angeles Times

Hillary Clinton isnt amused with men making decisions about womens health care.

Last month, Vice President Mike Pence shared a much criticized photo of the House Freedom Caucus discussing the GOP proposal to repeal and replace President Obamas Affordable Care Act. On the table were many issues affecting womens healthcare choices and access, yet no women appeared in the shot. At the Women in the World Conference on Thursday, Clinton took aim at that type of imagery.

Looking at that picture, you just think its gotta be from a skit on Saturday Night Live, she said. It cant possibly be true.

But Clinton found the memes generated from the photograph amusing. My favorite GIF on the Internet was showing the dogs sitting around the table and the caption was, Now, we will discuss feline health.'

The former Secretary of State also had a sardonic message for the male politicians seeking to defund Planned Parenthood and cut health care benefits for women.

The things that come out of some of these mens mouths like, why do we have to cover maternity care?' she said. I dont know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception.

[H/T Vanity Fair]

Read more from the original source:
See One of Hillary Clinton's Favorite GIFs of the Trump Administration - TIME

Hours before the U.S. launched airstrikes against Syria, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke out Thursday about how she would respond to Tuesday's chemical attack in Syria, promoting U.S. action to prevent further attacks with civilian casualties.

Speaking at the Women in the World summit in New York City, Clinton said that the U.S. "should have been more willing to confront [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]," before Russia got involved in the country's civil war and with Iran's participation limited to ground-based assistance.

"Assad had an air force and that air force is the cause of most of the civilian deaths as weve seen over the years and as we saw again in the last few days," said Clinton. "I really believe we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them."

ABC News' Liz Kreutz contributed to this report.

Here is the original post:
Ahead of attack, Hillary Clinton called for strikes against Syrian airfields - ABC News

Not in politics. Not in America. But on the entire earth.

A website that purports to be a content creator for millennials is claiming that failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is the sixth most beautiful woman on planet earth.

Yes. You read that sentence correctly. The woman who resembles a velociraptor in a wig is being touted by a garbage millennial websitecalled Buzznet (huh, wonder where they got the idea for that name?) as a regular Helen of Troy.

In a list entitled Top 30 Worlds Most Beautiful Women of 2017, Buzznet names Margot Robbie (duh), Gigi Hadid (of course), and Gal Gadot (flames emoji).

Aaaaand we get to number six on the list.

Woof.

According to my research, Buzznet isnt the only platformto offer such a high opinion of Hillary Clintons facial structure. Theres a Facebook pagewith 47 likes calledHILLARY CLINTON: THE WORLDS MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. Ironically, or perhaps accurately, theres nothing on the page. Its totally blank aside from a profile photo. Chris Matthews also thinks shes a hot little number, and a reporter for The New York Timeshas the hots for her too.

Say what you will about Hillary Clinton, but being one of the most beautiful women on the planet is just not an accurate descriptor of her. And thats fine! Not every woman needs to be beautiful in order to be effective or valuable. Hillary Clinton doesnt need to be put on the same pedestal as Beyonc or the Hadid sisters, and for a garbage website thats pretending to like, totally get millennials its just insulting.

See the rest here:
Garbage Millennial Website: Hillary Clinton Is The Sixth Most Beautiful Woman On Earth - The Federalist

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants the U.S. to intervene to keep Syrian leader Bashar Assad from being able to deploy his Air Force for attacks on his own citizens.

"Assad has an air force, and that air force is the cause of most of these civilian deaths as we have seen over the years and as we saw again in the last few days," Clinton said during a speech at the Women in the World summit in New York City on Thursday evening.

"And I really believe that we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them."

The comment comes two days after a chemical attack that killed more than 70 people.

Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election as the Democratic nominee, once again called for a no-fly zone to be instituted over Syria.

"I still believe we should have done a no-fly zone," Clinton told attendees, knocking Obama's passive policy toward Assad. "We should have been more willing to confront Assad."

Instead, Clinton blamed Russia for backing Assad. Putin "has basically weighed in, particularly with air power, to support this fight to the death policy the Assad has."

Clinton also compared Vladimir Putin's background to Assad's, saying both have similar ways of leading.

"He [Assad] is absolutely a prisoner of his family's expectations, his dead father's looming presence and his delusion, that I believe he now probably could pass a lie detector about, that everyone who oppose him is a terrorist," Clinton said. "That is how Putin thinks."

Also from the Washington Examiner

Derek Kan is general manager for Lyft's Southern California region.

04/06/17 9:41 PM

Original post:
Hillary Clinton: 'Take out' Assad's air fields - Washington Examiner