#DJ Trump conviction

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 3, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 04, 2024

The fallout from the New York jury’s conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts last Thursday, May 30, continues. Trump’s team continues to insist that the guilty verdict will help him, but that’s nonsensical on its face: if guilty verdicts are so helpful, why has he moved heaven and earth to keep the many other cases against him from going to trial? And why are he and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling for the Supreme Court to overturn the convictions? 

As political consultant Stuart Stevens put it: “I worked in five presidential races and helped elect Republican governors or Senators in over half the country. I have never heard anything more transparently desperate than a party trying to spin that there is some non-MAGA pool of voters who can't wait to vote for a convicted felon.”

On Friday, Morning Consult conducted a poll to gauge how voters were reacting to the guilty verdict. It showed that 54% of registered voters approved of it, while only 34% disapproved. Perhaps worse for Trump was that 49% of Independents and 15% of Republicans thought he should end his campaign. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 10% of registered Republican voters and 25% of Independents said that his conviction made it less likely that they would vote for him for president. 

Then, on Saturday, there was what Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times called a plot twist. It turns out the state of Washington has a law on the books that prevents felons from running for office. But because a candidate has to be certified to be on a ballot before they can be challenged, the issue can’t be resolved until Trump officially becomes the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the July convention. Westneat asked, “Republicans: You sure you want to go down this road?”

On Sunday, Trump appeared on Fox and Friends for his first interview since his conviction. The interview was heavily edited, suggesting his comments were problematic in some way, but what was there was still bad enough. He repeated his plans to fire generals who refuse to do his bidding and to deport immigrants by using local police to round them up. Notably, considering his own looming sentencing, he claimed he never said “lock her up” about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a claim that reporters on social media promptly shredded with video clips of him doing exactly that. 

Media figures are puncturing Trump’s image. The verdict buried a story by The Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt, who is now free of a nondisclosure agreement, explaining how he and others created an illusion that Trump was a successful businessman and alleging that Trump used the n-word on set. On Saturday, an image circulated on social media of Trump leaving Trump Tower and waving as if to a crowd, but there was no one there.

Also on Saturday, top sports talk host Colin Cowherd pushed back on the idea that the trial was rigged, telling his listeners: “If everybody in your circle is a felon, maybe it’s not rigged. Maybe the world isn’t against you.” “Donald Trump is now a felon,” Cowherd said. “His campaign chairman was a felon. So is his deputy campaign manager, his personal lawyer, his chief strategist, his National Security Adviser, his Trade Advisor, his Foreign Policy Adviser, his campaign fixer, and his company CFO. They’re all felons. Judged by the company you keep. It’s a cabal of convicts.”

Cowherd went on: “[Trump’s] trying to sell me an America that doesn’t exist.” “Stop trying to sell me on ‘everything’s rigged, the country’s falling into the sea, the economy’s terrible,’” he continued. “The America that I live in is imperfect. But compared to the rest of the world, I think we’re doing okay.”

This morning, Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica reported that Trump’s businesses and campaign committees have funneled significant financial benefits to at least nine witnesses in the criminal campaigns against Trump, often at crucial moments in the legal proceedings. The pay of one campaign aide doubled; another got a $2 million severance package that barred him from cooperating with law enforcement. The daughter of one of the campaign’s top officials was hired onto the staff and is now the fourth-highest-paid employee, with a salary of $222,000. Payments to the companies of certain witnesses dramatically increased.

Faturechi, Elliott, and Mierjeski note that it is not uncommon for bosses to find themselves defendants, complicating their relationship with employees who might have witnessed alleged crimes. In such cases, lawyers advise the defendant not to provide any unusual benefits or penalties, to avoid the appearance of witness tampering.

Trump’s attorney, David Warrington, sent ProPublica a cease-and-desist letter saying that if the outlet and its reporters “continue their reckless campaign of defamation, President Trump will evaluate all legal remedies.” He demanded that ProPublica kill the article, keeping it from publication.

And then, this afternoon, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, along with the U.S. Department of Labor and the State Department, unsealed an indictment charging Weidong Guan, also known as Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of the global news outlet The Epoch Times, with using the outlet to launder at least $67 million. The Epoch Times is affiliated with the ultraconservative Chinese anticommunist religious group Falun Gong and supports Donald Trump and other right-wing U.S. politicians with both press and cash. It was a major promoter of Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2000 Mules that claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen. A voter depicted in that film sued for defamation, and just last week the distributor settled with the plaintiff, issued an apology, and stopped distributing the film.

The allegation that The Epoch Times is a money-laundering operation comes on top of yesterday’s story by Joseph Menn in the Washington Post, reporting that the editor of another media site that pushes disinformation from both the far right and the far left, The Grayzone, has worked for Russia’s Sputnik as well as taken money from Iranian government-owned media. One of the people who retweets Grayzone stories is Senator Mike Lee (R-UT).

In the middle of all this bad news for MAGA Republicans, it felt like desperation today when the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic tried to resurrect Covid conspiracy theories against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, serving under seven presidents. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., for his work on combating the global AIDS epidemic. 

Fauci’s position as NIAID director put him at the center of U.S. attempts to grapple with Covid-19, and for his work on developing a vaccine, Trump awarded him a presidential commendation. But first QAnon and then MAGA Republicans centered him as a villain who either started or covered up the pandemic, or forced people to mask or to get vaccines they told their supporters were unnecessary or even dangerous. QAnon conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin and convicted January 6 rioter Brandon Fellows were seated behind Fauci today; Fellows made pouty faces when Fauci was describing the death threats he, his wife, and his daughters have endured. 

Video creator and political commentator Michael McWhorter noted that Raiklin has made dramatic threats of violence against those he considers members of “the Deep State” and that he should have been nowhere near Fauci. McWhorter also noted that the two men were likely invited to the hearing and that it would be useful to know who invited them.  

Committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has skipped seven of the last ten hearings and who has expressed sympathy for QAnon in the past, attacked Fauci by saying he should be prosecuted: “You know what this committee should be doing? We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she said. “You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci.” For all the nastiness, the hearing turned up nothing.

Later, Greene told Manu Raju of CNN that Speaker Johnson should shut down the government over the Trump verdict and prosecutions. “We're literally a banana republic. So what does it matter funding the government? The American people don't give a sh*t.” 

While MAGA Republicans are insisting that a Manhattan jury’s conviction of Trump means that President Joe Biden has weaponized the Department of Justice and that they must take revenge, the trial of Biden’s son Hunter on federal gun charges, brought by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney whom Biden kept on, started today. Former top Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann noted that Biden is “living the rule of law…in the most personal way. He is not telling DOJ to stand down…. He is not pardoning his son…. He is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country…. If you want to know if he believes it, you can actually see what is happening with his own son.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[justinspoliticalcorner]

LATROBE, Pa. — When fascism finally went mainstream in America, it came hawking a $60 made-in-China Bible and shadowed by a 50-foot American flag braced by construction cranes — and it opened with a story about Arnold Palmer’s private parts. I’d driven nearly five hours into and under the Allegheny ridges of Western Pennsylvania — up and down slopes that got steeper each mile with the volume of Donald Trump flags and yard signs that proclaimed “I’m Voting for the Convict 2024″ — out of a sense that the decline and fall of American civilization has reached a depth that I needed to personally bear witness. It was a fever dream — maybe I could find words that have eluded everyone else. Just six days earlier, Trump came to the Philly suburbs and turned a supposed town hall into a 39-minute dance party as his deeply confused crowd watched a once and wannabe future U.S. president sway awkwardly to Sinead O’Connor and Luciano Pavarotti or look utterly frozen in the bubble of his 78-year-old head. And yet when the alarm goes off the next morning, it’s still Groundhog Day in America, an election with a 50% chance of the music-trance guy winning. Something both incredibly momentous and weird is happening at the same time. Now, the sun was nearly setting over the runway at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. With the most consequential U.S. presidential election since 1860 just 17 days away, about 3,000 to 4,000 of the most die-hard MAGA Trump fans who weren’t exhausted by the campaign and the GOP candidate’s frequent visits to Steelers’ country had been waiting for hours on a sunbaked tarmac. They’d let out the obligatory whoop for the obligatory flyover of Trump Force One, and then finally the man tasked with bringing their country back was on the podium, filtered by bulletproof glass. Donald Trump’s red meat of mass-deportation camps and R-rated attacks on his opponents would have to wait. Monday’s DJ was now Saturday night’s comedian, with his cult as captive audience. What started out as an obligatory shout-out to Latrobe’s famous native son — Palmer, the late great golfer who brought the sport to your TV screens in the 1960s — went on for five minutes, then 10, then 12. What started as a nice but meandering tale about Palmer’s working-class roots grew into a stone silence during long detours into stuff like types of golf club shafts as the tale grew increasingly instead about Trump — about how his own power and wealth allowed him to claim friendship with this great man. You are standing in the twilight wondering if this could get any stranger when of course it did. The man who bragged in his first campaign that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him now wants America to know he can tell a penis joke with the cameras rolling and still get elected as the 47th president. [...] So I came to Latrobe to try and write the 72-point headline that the Times editors can’t — “PHALLUS-JOKE MAN AND DANCING FOOL COULD LEAD THE FREE WORLD AGAIN” — and to scream at the top of my lungs from the bluffs overlooking this tiny airport that this would-be emperor telling the shower story is actually wearing no clothes. Who will shout that Trump’s “closing argument” is the melding of his increasingly public breakdown with how that might lead to an all-too-real domestic war of midnight raids and armored personnel carriers against the fiction of an “Occupied America”? Ironically, Trump’s endless Arnold Palmer bit seemed part of an effort Saturday night to prove that the rambling candidate is not “exhausted,” something that his own aides reportedly said after several recent interviews were canceled. But the Republican nominee — kind of like Madonna’s “Sex” phase and shock photos when her 1980s were ending — also appeared to sense that he needs to get more and more outrageous to get attention, after numbing America to his Hitlerian language that immigrants “will cut your throat.”

Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer on Donald Trump's Latrobe rally (10.20.2024)

Will Bunch wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer about Donald Trump’s fascist insultfest in Latrobe, PA in which he infamously obsessed about Arnold Palmer.

[the-firebird69]

The Thing 4K HDR | Spider Head

You keep your brain alive to The bitter end and people can tell it's on purpose and really your people want your brain and stuff. This is one of the three idiots who threatening my husband when he was stuck with bja who threw a rock and it hit Emily blunt and she was trying to have my husband do it and she was pissed off for years and she made a huge deal listen to Three down Trump and son and grandson this is actually the grandson that came down and this is coming up and they're going down there because they need to see what this big deal is about a huge computer and a big machine that opens the gate and they're completely without information and Tommy f is in the way but his own father is forced to burn his son and usually they don't think a huge deal out of it than they take their stuff and use clones but in this case they're running low on people

Hera Zues

Put this up there because these three idiots keep bothering him and pretty soon it'll be two and then after a short time they'll be one and the last one is Trump and he's going to understand that he got his kids killed. Pretty much all of them

Thor Freya

Today's a huge day this massive amounts of death huge losses by morlock mostly and really really bad attitude for people who really have to have a good one and they're losing people all over the world to just general hatred and they're losing them to the cities or seeking the gold and other precious metals and more and they're losing them in the Parks a huge huge numbers of going there and getting hit and in the tunnels after ships they sent 30 more out this morning and they're trying to take over this idiot area which the kind of just roll in and kind of running anyways so yeah they're stupid. But they have a large army attacking the outside and they're losing their ships and they're sending out waves of 1 to 200 million to Venus and so far they lost 600 million ships and that's probably 1/5 of their Force and 3 billion is probably around where it is it's more like 4.5 billion since 16 and there's a lot of other things that are happening there are court cases in town and Trump and son and grandson and DJ and his brother were convicted yesterday no the hearing started and the court case started and it was today it actually physically began and it began by then going to court and the court case was introduced they said Hulu victims were and evidence and they're being held no they managed to get out of it on bail for homicide believe it or not it was about 20 million dollars each person but each offense as well for each person and they didn't care but they don't have money they can use here and also going to court for their assets it's probably another one's eighth of it and so far we're up to lake almost 3/8 and this would make it half gone already to the court and to keep harassing our son like it's nothing and people come by and beat them up and tell them not to they do it again they tell them not to beat them up take this stuff take him to court I mean it's ridiculous these people are obnoxious idiots the rude stupid people and we need more controls and we're sending them in shortly. There are other things happening that are huge the quest for the ships is pushing the clones very hard and soon they will be attempting for lunch the ships that are ready that are mega class have been on and cycling for 2 and 1/2 Weeks and it seems like an eternity once a week too long but they had to make adjustments they were real. And it will go off probably tonight or tomorrow night we're thinking and the fighting is intense. And they're going after George's but for real this is turning into a massive fight over the ships and they have to go to ground bases and section. Tomorrow late afternoon Pluto begins to go behind the Sun once it's behind the Sun and out of you of Earth they'll be a war in space

Olympus

[gaiapaia]

Kermit and Friends: Drew Lane

Drew Lane is an American radio personality that currently hosts The Drew and Mike Show. Drew has been in radio for almost 40 years, working in Virginia, Phoenix, Charlotte, Boston, and finally Detroit, Michigan, where Drew has made his home the last 30 years covering Detroit sports, politics, and pop culture.

Despite Kermit and Friends airing during the middle of a Detroit Lions game, Drew kindly made his glorious KAF debut so he could discuss the interview Elisa had with Stuttering John Meledez last week.

Not only was Elisa’s interview with Stuttering John featured on Radar Online, but Elisa received heaps of praise from multiple shows regarding it, most notably from The Drew and Mike Show, which Elisa has guest appeared on many times to mostly talk about her former engagement to Andy Dick.

After the Stuttering John interview though, Drew learned that there’s a lot more to Elisa than who she dates... she’s actually quite talented at this podcasting thing. Drew still thinks she needs an engineer and better equipment, but in time those things will come!

But Drew was all smiles as he joined Elisa, happy to talk about his career, what a thin-skinned sleezeball Stuttering John is, Elisa’s current status with Andy, the time Elisa was asked out on a date by Donald Trump, Adam Carolla and his stance on the COVID-19 shots, among other topics.

It was a superb 45 minute interview. Elisa and Drew bounce off each other very well. Hopefully the KAF and TD&MS can continue to work together and merge their audiences. It can only lead to good things.

Kermit and Friends Wrap-Up Show host ‘Arf Arf Bark Bark’ James Tsai appeared during Elisa’s interview with Drew to share some grievances he has with how the KAF Discord fanclub is ran. He does not like how people aren’t frequently banned or silenced, and he feels Leaf King and Elisa are hurting Elisa’s stardom potential by letting KAF characters run amok both in the Discord and on the show itself.

James brought up the conviction of Mark Connors to make his point that it makes KAF look really bad to feature someone like that, which seemed a bit hypocritical since James welcomed Mark on his Wrap-Up show last week. Elisa believes the more controversial a person is, the better. And I tend to agree with her. Controversy creates cash and most importantly, entertainment. Entertainment = fun, and that is KAF’s main goal at the moment - to have fun.

I am sad to report that since yesterday’s episode, James has quit the Kermit and Friends Discord and all things related to KAF. He got in a tussle in the Discord last night with a friend of Elisa’s named Tammy, which made him very upset. Maybe someday he will come back but if not, James was fun while he lasted and I wish him the best going forward.

I do have some good news though... Kermit made an awesome new friend yesterday named DJ Jeff Duran!

Jeff Duran is a former child actor (worked on shows like The Wonder Years and Step by Step, two of my favorite shows when I was a kid) turned shock jock and stand-up comedian. You can check out his newest comedy album If You Can’t Dazzle ‘em With Brilliance by clicking here. 

Jeff appeared on the show fired up after listening to Elisa and Drew talk about Stuttering John so much. Jeff is NOT a Stuttering John fan! He believes guys like John have ruined stand-up comedy by stealing spots from up-and-comers just because they have name value due to a show they once appeared on. After saying guys like Stuttering John need to die off, Elisa hilariously asked, “Is Stuttering John the COVID of comedy?” to which of course Jeff said yes.

DJ Jeff was simply terrific. He brought a lot of energy and intensity to the show. I can really see him thriving as a regular on Kermit and Friends. Hopefully Jeff agrees!

Now, on to Kleenex....

The Friday before last, Elisa surprisingly met with Kleenex in person for dinner along with Stuttering John and a couple of her co-workers. Elisa made it clear what a delight Kleenex was on last week’s KAF episode and how happy she was that she got to spend time with him in person.

In my review last week, I said, “No one has made more threats towards Elisa or cursed her out more times than Kleenex.” This is what made it a surprise she would meet him. And while I wanted to give Kleenex the benefit of the doubt - I and everyone familiar with him knew he would say or do something to screw up Elisa’s positive feelings towards him.

Well, Kleenex did exactly that.

Kleenex appeared on the What The Fuck podcast, hosted by ‘Crazy Joker’ Mark Connors and ‘BadCore’ Corey Beffert. They asked Kleenex about his experience meeting Elisa, and Kleenex mentioned being disappointed in Elisa’s looks, he said he was mad she wouldn’t meet him at a hotel she recommended he stay at, and he claimed Elisa tried to make a client out of him by attempting to sell him gold on the phone a few days after they met.

Was Kleenex being malicious? In my opinion, no. Kleenex knew Mark and Corey aren’t big fans of Elisa, and he wanted to fit in. This is how Kleenex always is, at least until he gets angry about something. If he’s not angry, Kleenex is going to tell you exactly what he thinks you want to hear.

Regardless, Kleenex was wrong. Words hurt, and Kleenex hurt Elisa’s feelings with his words. She was so nice to him and so complimentary towards Kleenex after the meet-up... how could he say anything bad about Elisa after that?

Elisa’s looks? We all know Elisa is beautiful. Maybe she does look her best while on the show but we’ve all seen Elisa on apps like Periscope where she has no lighting, filter, make-up, etc. many times and she’s still drop dead gorgeous during those occasions. When you’re in Elisa’s position in Beverly Hills, surrounded by other beautiful women, I can’t imagine how it must feel to hear, “You’re not as pretty as I thought you were” coming from someone you considered a friend.

I bet every time Elisa has been rejected for a role she auditioned for or dumped by someone she dated, her first thought always is, “I must not have been pretty enough.” That’s natural for a woman in that city to feel that way, so for someone like Kleenex to say Elisa wasn’t up to par for his standards, it set Elisa off.

Elisa jumped out of her character and started hurling insults and putting unflattering pictures of Kleenex onscreen. While this was very funny and entertaining, it’s not who Elisa is... but no one is themselves when they’ve reached a breaking point.

As angry as she was, in Elisa’s mind, Kleenex deserved to have his feelings hurt just like he hurt her feelings. And it worked. After the show, Kleenex gave a sincere apology on Twitter and hopefully he learned a valuable lesson (probably unlikely). Also to address his other allegations... Kleenex told Elisa when they met that he had $100K in the bank and was interested in buying some gold, so Elisa calling him about it a couple of days later to see if he’s qualified was all of Kleenex’s own doing. As far as Elisa not wanting to meet Kleenex at a hotel... gee, I wonder why?

While on this topic, I must give props to KAF OG Krystal who made her return to Kermit and Friends for the first time since its revival. Krystal did her best to reel Elisa back in when Elisa’s head was close to exploding while she was confronting Kleenex. It was nice to see Krystal back on the show and I hope she becomes a more regular presence on it.

On a more heartwarming note, I also need to give a special shout out to Sharmin Smith, who sweetly shared with us yesterday how she found out after his funeral that her late nephew’s favorite hip-hop group was Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony. If you remember, Flesh-N-Bone from the group was featured on Kermit and Friends twice this past year. Sharmin felt this was a serendipitous sign and was brought to tears talking about it, which almost made Elisa cry. Very beautiful moment.

As you can see, Kermit and Friends struck every emotional cord this week, which is what the show strives to do. Whenever you think the previous week can’t be topped, Elisa finds a way to top it. It really is remarkable at this point. Can’t wait to see what’s in store next :) 

[kegasyo-blog]

And will they be able to rebound with Michigan State?

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[raygarraty]

Rap: December 2018

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

MIKE – War in My Pen

My late year discovery. There is something broken in MIKE. Sometimes it seems he outEarled Earl Sweatshirt.

In the other news:

DJ Skizz – High Powered – You forget about it the second you’ve turned it off.

Ghostface Killah – Ghost Files – Pretty lame except for the line where he says he shits in his car.

21 Savage – I am ) I was – His music’s gone commercial which is not something you want to listen to. Money def spoiled him.

70th Street Carlos – 777 – Dumb shit. And I like my shit dumb. I already listened to it like 777 times.

Fmb Dz – The Gift 2 – DZ turned into someone like Detroit’s Philthy Rich. He became more mature and crafted rapper but spontaneity is gone. The gift came secondhanded.

Mac x C-Murder – Wrongfully Convicted – Looks like old material got paired together, and yet it’s the horrorcore rap album of the year.

Chris Crack – Thanks Uncle Trill – This is hilarious. Dumb and smart as fukk.

Sauce Walka – Sauce Ghetto Gospel – More quiet release than his previous one. He’s the best thing that came out of Dirty South this year.

Boosie Badazz – Boosie Blues Café – Boosie’s gone mad. Like *totally* mad.

Mozzy x Messy Marv – Chow Time – The question is why did they even pair?

Homeboy Sandman – Humble Pi – Standup comedy material. Unbelievably good.

Eto and Vinyl Villain – New Crack Era – First track is ok but the rest is generic CRC rap.

Philthy Rich – Fake Love – Solid album from Philthy who gets better and better if not for annoying ‘interludes’. He even stands up for Bill Cosby.

Shoreline Mafia – OTXmas – Solid piece of ignorance.

Yhung TO – Trust Issues – I’m losing trust in him. This is totally forgettable.

ShooterGang Kony – 612 – Not on the level with his other releases but pretty solid.

Ice Cube – Everythangs Corrupt – This’s been how long in the making? 4-5 years? Nobody expected anything groundbreaking and we already listened to like half of it. He’s anti-drugs here and is suffering from Trump-Russia delusional syndrome. But I always liked late career Cube.

[jswdmb1]

Put the Message in the Box

“Put the message in the box

Put the box into the car

Drive the car around the world

Until you get heard”

- World Party

Yes, I have enjoyed my break, thanks for asking, but it’s time to get back to work.  While I was off, I had plenty of time to read through all of the wonderful questions you sent.  Well, actually, it was only one.  But, given my difficulties sometimes grasping with reality, I couldn’t be sure if it was the only one I got, or if there were more just coming from my head.  Turns out, I was mixing up the voices in my head with the radio.  So, to avoid any confusion, I’ve included all of them here in my version of (bow to David Letterman) viewer mail.  Here we go:

“Astrology. Do you believe there is something to it? I mean like real astrology - like Ptolemy, Cassini, and Nostradamus practiced - not the one-size-fits-all horoscope you find in the newspaper.” - anonymous

Great question.  I definitely agree that these silly newspaper horoscopes are a waste of time, but the notion that the stars and planets somehow dictate what happens to us here on Earth is not something that I dismiss.  The problem I have is how could anyone possibly figure that out.  I am a very analytical person, and I just can’t believe someone like Nostradamus could have had the tools and data available to him at that point in time to make any sort of informed conclusions.  Frankly, I think he was just throwing a lot of shit up against the wall and just seeing what sticks.  That being said, the vastness and grandeur of our universe certainly suggest that there are forces out there that could have a significant impact on our lives. Unfortunately, I’m a bit too cynical and/or agnostic to believe that anyone will ever be able to prove that, in my lifetime anyway.  I guess that relegates me back to the astrology section in the newspaper, but I pass right by it to the crossword puzzle anyway, so I guess I’ll just have to keep finding things out one day at a time for now.  But, I’m open to any foresight that can be given to me, with proof of course.

“What’s going on?” - Marvin G., Detroit, Michigan

Gee, Marvin, where do I begin?  It seems if you even take a couple of days off there is “shocking” news that has already been replaced with something even more unbelievable.  I think, however, that this most recent story of a certain lawyer who worked for a certain boss who made him pay certain porn stars and committed a bunch of laws in the process is going to stick.  I think what everyone has to remember, including our president, is that impeachment is a political process and not a legal one.  Whether he can be indicted for a crime, or even if one exists that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt is irrelevant.  If the legislative branch feels from a political standpoint that the president needs to be removed due to his actions (or inaction) then they must proceed with impeachment proceedings.  If you look at impeachment processes in history, notably Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and even Richard Nixon, what got them in trouble pales in comparison to what this guy looks to have done.  I happen to think that means this is going to be going on for a long time and well into the 2020 election cycle.  No matter which side you are on, this is going to be political theater at its highest level, so enjoy it if you are into that thing.

“Can you get to that?” - Mavis S., Chicago, Illinois

Personally speaking, Mavis, I can definitely get to impeachment proceedings commencing at some point in the next six-to-twelve months.  The question is where do they go once they start and do they ever leave the committee level?  Even if they do, it seems unlikely to me that things could move fast enough to the House voting for impeachment by the 2020 primaries.  Furthermore, a Senate trial with a conviction appears even further far-fetched given eighteen Republican senators would have to flip on their sitting president (remember that a 2/3 majority is needed to convict).  I’m actually okay with that scenario playing out as it allows a lot of probing and debate that hasn’t happened in the past two years and gives the voters in the next election much better information than they had last time.  I also think that it gives other Republicans cover to challenge a sitting president in the primaries, which hasn’t happened seriously since Ted Kennedy took on Jimmy Carter in 1980.  My prediction is that impeachment never really gets off the ground, but it damages Trump so badly that he never makes it out of his party’s primaries.  Of course, this could all change tomorrow with the next bombshell that drops, but for now that’s what I see happening.

“What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” - Michael S., Athens, Georgia

Thanks for the note, Michael.  The name’s Jim, actually.  Anyway, if you happen to be driving through the Chicago area, I’ll recommend two frequencies for you to try on your FM dial.  The first, of course, is 93.1 or WXRT.  It is the last true FM rock station left in Chicago that plays everything from blues to classic rock to 80′s new wave to 90′s grunge up to new music from today and everything in between.  The DJ’s are knowledgeable and stay out of the way of the music.  My favorite is Terri Hemmert on weekday mornings from 10:00 to 1:00.  Saturday mornings are also a can’t miss with the three-hour flashback show to a particular year in rock.  The other frequency to try is 88.7.  This one is fun because in the city it will be Loyola University’s WLUW, but as you drive out west (around Harlem on the Ike) it turns into Elmhurst College’s WRSE.  WLUW is the quirkier of the two as you may find an obscure Icelandic electronica song played right after Glen Campbell’s “Southern Nights”.  Nothing wrong with either song, but it helps to be in college and on drugs to enjoy those so close together and I am not in or on either.  As such, I’m more partial to WRSE as they focus on rock variety with the occasional surprise thrown in.  They actually remind me a lot of an amateur version of XRT in many ways.  Whichever you listen to, it’s fun to hear college kids learning their way and it makes me feel just a little hip that they let me tune in.

“How bad do you want it?” - Don H., Linden, Texas

You have no idea how bad I want it Mr. H.  We’ve been waiting over thirty years in this town for a football team with a real shot at winning the Super Bowl, and I think we have one here.  This defense is that good.  Plus, as well as the D played against the Rams, I thought seeing the running game going well was a really good sign.  We’ll still need Mitch to get it back after hurting his shoulder, but I don’t think the Bears have to ride his arm to the Super Bowl.  Now, to get there, they are going to have to win two road games, probably in New Orleans and L.A., but I really think they would have an outside chance at a run if the momentum carries from last week.  If they do get to the Super Bowl, I predict they dominate any team that represents the AFC as I think they are better than them all (including the Chiefs and the Pats who they should have beat a few weeks ago).  The best thing about this team is that they have a ton of young talent that still has a lot of upside, so even if a Super Bowl isn’t in the cards this year, the Bears are a team to be reckoned with for a while in the NFC.   But, first let’s take care of business and win the NFC North title at home over the Packers.  After so many years of misery, I can’t think of a better way for this team to make a statement that it is back and the rest of the league will be messing with them at their own peril for years to come.

“Who are you?” - Pete T., London, England

I get it, Pete, I know that I have no authority to really speak on any of these subjects, but I can’t help myself.  I just love to answer questions and was very grateful for the one question that came to me from a blog reader.  I also think I have done a service by answering some of these additional questions that you all have been singing about for years.  I mean, as far as I know, there never have been any real responses to questions like yours.  I know there are a lot more out there too, so I’m happy to do it again.  I will, so long as I can get some blog reader questions to go along with them.  You know, just so people don’t think I’m completely insane. So, Take a Chance and Read Some Crap readers, hit that question button and keep this going as I’m sure Bob M. (Could You Be Loved?), George H. (What is Life?), and Whitney H. (How Will I Know?) would love answers to their questions too.  Until then, I hope at least some of these answers have satisfied your nagging questions, but the job is never complete.  I think the tide has finally turned for the question and 2019 is going to be full of them.  It may get uncomfortable at times, and maybe even downright nasty, but that is part of life and we are never going to evolve without continuing to challenge those with power and always asking why.

It’s good to be back everyone.  Until next time.

- Jim

[sarahfazli]

Eid: For the Conflicted Muslim that I am

Growing up, I remember my mother’s students referring to the shalwars she wore to work as MC Hammer Pants. Having a lighter complexion than my other Pakistani classmates, made it a little easier for me to dodge being called (an otherwise very derogatory) “Paki”. But it was upsetting, nonetheless; because it felt like the “locals” didn’t see us for who or what were. Rather, it felt like all they could see was yet another brown or yellow somebody – lumped into a demeaning generalization driven by ignorance.

Then, September 11 happened and I realized how different it was to be the subject of active hate.

As far as insults went, “Paki” was downright mean. But it would cut right through me, to be advised to careful at airports and on the streets while travelling abroad, so as to avoid being told to “go back to where I came from”. And so, standing at the end of Ramzan in anticipation of the upcoming Eid Al-Fitr, I am grappling with the faith that I born into and was raised with. This has been going on for several years now.

My parents are devout and from the very onset, I was made to understand that straying from Islam was not an option. There was no explanation per se, of what that meant, what other religions meant, or what the repercussions of not believing in a higher power could potentially mean – as a Muslim. I learnt my obligatory prayers; with time, I kept my fasts during Ramzan and I made sure to keep up with my due charity donations. But it was all too stifling.

Question: did I really want to be Muslim; would I be more enamored with another religion? I wanted a chance to find out for myself, but doing so was never a question.

Over time, I had more and more reservations about Islam. Things like having to dress up in the clichéd “modest attire” (a.k.a., not being able to wear shorts in public), to knowing women in Saudi Arabia cannot try on clothes before buying them were very hard to reconcile with my views on being an “independent woman”.

As an adolescent, I worked on developing myself independent (and / or liberal) of what I “perceived” my religion meant. Given my western appearance (coloured eyes and a light complexion) and how I carried myself through life, it was easy; how many times I recall the looks I would attract at work, when somebody would see me get up to pray. “You don’t seem like the sort who ever prays”, they would say. And I worked hard to establish the logic behind how I conducted my life; in a way, if something did not make sense, it would be disregarded immediately. To simplify: I knew enough to know that the sky is blue because of scattering light and tiny molecules, not because Allah said so.

But that all changed in the not too distant past.

Recall the atrocities Al Qaeda and the Taliban executed in the name of Islam and what ISIS claims to represent – again in the name of religion. Islam needs real allies in the face of barbaric acts that we saw in the November 2020 Vienna  shootings, the Mozambique attacks in March 2021 or the attack on the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine back in 2010.

 So, within the last five years I doubled down on Islam – my faith. I am making an attempt to learn about the role of Islam in politics, race and feminism; I know I will probably will never wear a niqab and I still have a lot to learn about Islam and myself. And that is completely ok, because by all accounts I cannot truly imagine abandoning Islam – I just have to find a way to practice.

And I know it might be tough – but not impossible. This is because I essentially never disavowed my religion in its entirety – even though, I regularly felt that the overtly religious were either or both of ignorant and narrow-minded. Truth be told, I never really stopped believing in God; and I never abandoned rituals like my regular prayers, or reciting the Bismillah before eating or absentmindedly asking the Higher Orders for guidance when lost.

Like any other religion, there is spectrum of belief for Muslims. As a child, I never had progressive Muslim role models growing up, but that thankfully changed over time. I see minority groups at work speaking up, using their experiences to relentlessly rally on behalf of inclusion. And I use those interactions as my “aha moments” – making me realize that my being independent or liberal is by no means ever mutually exclusive or disjoint of what it truly means to identify as a Muslim. So when Bella Hadid said she was proud of being Muslim, DJ Khaled owned his faith, Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a cheeky essay on fasting and Mike Tyson responded to Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the US – I knew thigs are changing. The “Muslim experience” is no longer a monolith.

When you’ve spent most of your life as a confused Muslim, days like Eid genuinely come hard – and this has now made commemorating such days a political act, of sorts. I guess this is an inevitable part of growing up and taking into account perspectives. So while Eid days are hard for me, I will understand if somebody else’s version of Eid (and, hence, Islam) is full of merriment. And this, I believe is the most inclusive way to celebrate.

Now, with every terrorist attack that is somehow wrongfully attached to Islam, we need to understand the sentiment when Jarrah Sheikh (in East Jerusalem) is forcefully evicted, or why Muslims in India live with a continuous internal turmoil – triggered by an ongoing political climate that challenges the secular principle that India’s nation concept was built on. Unfortunately, I cannot do much to stop any of that.

But what I can do, is celebrate Eid with a conviction – showing by example what it means to be Muslim: that it can be as varied as it is to be human.

[the-firebird69]

As far as the storyline goes this is fairly accurate it leaves a bunch of stuff out when he does go in and he breaks out of prison and he's not riot they did a word game on there didnot work.

There's a lot of people are confused about the storyline but here is stated fairly clearly and breaks out goes around killing people and venomen he has started this enemy thing and he's saying to me with a lot of people and off rodeo Beach is odd that's where he was for one day couldn't stand it and people are nasty and it sound like they do now here we looked at I can't figure out what it is and there's a certain chemical there and it's not found here so wondering why the people here are doing it and figured out something they're infected with Venom and they can't handle it most people can't what he can off and on that handles it and I'll send him very well he's really mad cuz he should be kind of covers up the fact that he's handling it tell moving on to the storyline Woody harrelson is going to be in this prison that you see pictured here and yes it is North of San Francisco it is in Marine county and it's not very close to rodeo drive or rodeo beach now that's an LA county reason why the movement is because San Francisco is trying to grab a stuff and sent to mention a bunch of homos down there to retrieve him and the Terminator series is going on at the same time but he goes out there first to make a note it becomes possessed he tries to get here over and over and over and then he goes north and tries to get the key he finally gets it he goes up and he hits some targets comes back down to the Bronx and he gets fired then he goes to Massachusetts by then Massachusetts is embroiled because of what's going on up there with monsters and everything else and that's the storyline and the importance of it is that because of what happens to Trump the incident occurs with the ISS the new one which is now called the antenna ISS and it happens with the queen Elizabeth and Lily as well and they come crashing down down there and it's a few of them and Tommy favino it's going to be in Apocalypse Now in between movies between Venom Carnage and zombie Land Tommy savino will be tried and convicted and they'll send in machine is actually bja and after that it's the Bronx movie and he gets fired and BGA gets fired but DJ makes it out and Trump makes it out for a while gets Brian comes back as Freddy Krueger knocks around for a long time comes down here bothers our son gets beat up a whole bunch of his guys die every day finally I couldn't take it anymore it goes back to Westport to face his demons and back to Stowe and Concord to find out who did it and why he did figure it out and Johnny Depp helped they both getting a lot of trouble for it and then Trump goes missing and they find his head as Stefan with no breathing and then they find his body with no head on it she don't know what happened to him or where he went if he went somewhere that was after Freddy Krueger after Star wars The phantom menace

Thor Freya

[sophiemian-blog1]

Let’s Get Political

Hey world, DJ $oph here - let’s get political.

2017 was a weird time to be a human. While headlines relating to political gossip pervaded the news cycle by the hour, pressing issues seemed to remain unacknowledged by the mainstream media. A headline which literally read “President Gets 2 Scoops of Ice Cream, Everyone Else 1” was actually aired on CNN. This is not a drill. 

While listening to a panel of political commentators discuss Donald Trump’s ice cream preferences is so intriguing, maybe some more airtime for actual problems might be warranted? The frustration is real, and was felt by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Donald Glover, and Joey Bada$$. In 2017, these artists released albums confronting the collective blind eye our country seems to turn towards racial politics. The artists’ experiences as black men in America profoundly inform their respective albums and themes such as social injustice and racial inequality are manifest.

“DAMN.,” by Kendrick Lamar, is a politically-charged, fourteen track album with features from U2, Zacari, and Rihanna. The album tackles the notion of racial injustice in America, most notably in the song DNA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRYQMLDW4

Lamar raps through out the entirety of the 3:06 minute track. While he wrote the rap himself, the production was handled by Mike Will Made It. Lamar intended the music to sound like “chaos,” and specifically aimed to make it seem like he was “battling the beat.” The music is centered around the rap itself, in which Lamar takes on multiple perspectives. Through out the verses, he is heard celebrating, critiquing, and exploring his black history and traditions. In the second verse, Lamar spits:

"You muthaf*ckas can't tell me nothin/I'd rather die than to listen to you/My DNA not for imitation/Your DNA an abomination"

In this pithy verse, Lamar explores topics such as oppression and cultural appropriation. The boisterous, fast-paced track is lyrically lacerating as Lamar does not shy away from his feelings. The push and pull is felt through out the song, as Lamar simultaneously discusses how the world views his blackness vs. how he views his own. In verses such as:

“I know murder, conviction/Burners, boosters, burglars, ballers, dead, redemption/Scholars, fathers dead with kids,” he rattles off. “I wish I was fed forgiveness”

Lamar showcases how his worldview has been informed by these competing perceptions.

The artist also interjected a Fox News segment towards the end of the track, in which Geraldo Rivera is heard saying, “this is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years.” Lamar is heard rapping “I’ve got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA,” over the segment. The contrast between how Lamar is viewed by another white man and how he views himself is striking here. He never allows himself to succumb to victimhood and this song particularly showcases Lamar’s unique ability to dodge bullets and pull triggers at the same time.

Kendrick Lamar is not the only artist shifting culture through his music. Donald Glover, popularly known by his stage name Childish Gambino, is a force of culture himself. As a musician, actor, stand-up comedian, and writer, Glover has used his many platforms to address racial politics in America. In his third album, “Awaken, My Love!,” he lays funk over matter. “Redbone,” the track which won Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards, resonated with listeners as a soulful beckon to stay mindful of social injustice. 

Redbone was released in late November of 2016, shortly after the presidential election, on BBC Radio I. The DJ described it as “oozing with soul,” as the track seemed to both alleviate and revitalize the disheartened youth following the election. And it’s easy to see why. Listening to Donald Glover woo you with honeyed words about social justice, over the buttery falsettos and smooth beat of Redbone, feels like a form of peaceful protest in itself.

Without paying attention to the lyrics, it is easy for one to automatically assume that Redbone is a love song. However, upon closer analysis, it is clear that the slow funk jam is in fact a political statement. While the sound of the music starkly contrasts that of DNA, themes relating to oppression and self-awareness pervade Redbone.

Through out the track, he repeats:

But stay woke (stay woke) Ni**as creepin' (they be creepin') They gon' find you (they gon' find you) Gon' catch you sleepin' (gon' catch you sleepin', put your hands up on me) Now stay woke Ni**as creepin' Now don't you close your eyes

The notion of “staying woke” refers to staying conscious of the apparatus of white supremacy. This phrase particularly refers to people of color in reference to instances such as police brutality. Essentially, staying woke entails awareness of one’s rights; this track demands that young black people don’t automatically accept official explanations for inexplicable injustices.

In Redbone, Glover touches on this sensitive topic by shouting “stay woke!,” at the hook of the song. He proceeds to acknowledge that as soon as one stops making a conscious effort to protect one’s rights, they will be caught (“gon’ catch you sleepin, now stay woke”). 
 Redbone serves as a youthful anthem for political upheaval and while the track seems minimalist in composition, the artist provides enough context for thought-provoking discussion. The groovy bass is evocative of Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins and the pithy verses seem to melt against the synth cords and ambient tones. “You better believe in something,” Glover hums, urging one to decide what exactly that something is.

While Kendrick Lamar and Donald Glover are established advocates for social change in the music industry, Joey Bada$$ is an upcoming artist who showcases his talents in his second studio album “All Amerikkkan Bada$$.” Through out the 49:42 minute album, the artist solely focuses on rapping about social issues and his subjective experience as a black man living in current American society. One of the most powerful tracks on the album is “Y U Don’t Love Me,” in which the artist goes as far as personifying America as his lover.

In his powerful hook, he sings:

Tell me why you don’t love me Why you always misjudge me? Why you always put so many things above me? Why you lead me to believe that I’m ugly? Why you never trust me? Why you treat me like I don’t matter? Why you always kicking my ladder? Why you never hearing my side to the story? Never look me in my eyes, say sorry? The track is so potent, with themes ranging from white-centric beauty standards to police brutality. The repetition of the chorus, in which Bada$$ begs for answers to his unrequited love, is almost haunting. As a listener, the neglect he is subjected to is almost palpable. The monotone quality of his voice further puts the listener into a trance and illustrates how the artist is clearly tired of unreciprocated respect. While less boisterous than DNA, the rap still takes center stage in this track. While the beat is loud, it still feels genuinely dispirited rather than outright angry.

In the outro, Bada$$ blatantly says:

Because Amerikkka don't love me
Whole country turned on me

To remind the listener that, if it wasn’t already clear, Bada$$ is not talking about an actual lover, but rather his home.

ps: Bada$$ will be coming to Syracuse this semester to discuss All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ and how racial politics inform his music!

Music! An empowering art form that transcends borders and facilitates understanding! So cool. Thank you for listening in on “Lets Get Political,” and thank you to these artists for allowing us to remember that there is nothing as compelling as music to represent the sweeping changes and creative bent of humanity

[kuciradio]

Death Grips + Ministry @ Hollywood Palladium, 11/4/17

 gif

This weekend, I had the privilege of seeing a group of artists I never thought I would see live. Death Grips, the experimental hip-hop (to put it simply) band from Sacramento, California, first made their debut with a free mixtape titled Exmilitary in 2010. Since then, they have acquired online and nationwide notoriety from the underground and beyond. Most fans such as myself nearly worship the elusive and aggressive front man, Stephan Burnett (MC Ride). Ride is an incredibly talented and passionate performer– his words, his voice, and his stage presence are like no other. I have been following Death Grips since about 2013, when I was just a wee high schooler; they do not tour too often, so seeing them perform was an incredible experience. 

The hour-long set seemed to have ended in minutes. Instead of interacting with the audience at all, the set began with the familiar scream-rapping from Ride accompanied by blissfully blinding strobe lights. It ended the same way. Moving from one song to the next without a moment of pause, Ride maintained the same level of conviction and power throughout the entire performance; recording engineer Andy Morin and drummer Zach Hill brought just as much energy to the stage. Slower, deeper cutting tracks like No Love evoked some visceral responses from the audience, but overwhelming violence wasn’t one of them. The crowd seemed more reverent and transported than angry, which is what someone may expect from hearing just a sample of Death Grips’s music. Upon further listening, though, this attitude might make more sense. The instrumentation of each song is carefully crafted with various influences, including noise, industrial, and hip-hop (and of course, Bjork samples). This unique blend of synths, heavy, dragging bass, and slurred distorted lyrics is what makes Death Grips and their performance stand out from others, hip-hop or otherwise. To top it off, the audience involvement is minimal, but it isn’t alienating. Ride is not performing for me. He may not even be performing for himself. He is performing at the world, forcing it to listen, and no amount of screaming, fist-pumping, or moshing from us will match his energy, so standing there respectfully as the off beats of Guillotine flows through your body is the only way to go.  Death Grips lyrics range from vague to almost nonsense, so their collaborative tour with the second band we saw that night, Ministry, was a bit surprising to me. Ministry is an industrial metal band from the 80s that made its way through the synth pop scene and found its home in metal land. The crowd switched out almost immediately. The leather-clad fans there for Ministry were a bit older, and definitely more politically motivated. The band started out by placing two big inflatable chickens with anti-swastika logos at each end of the stage. The microphone stand was adorned with a horn-bearing demon statue. To complete the look, projected videos played behind the lead singer, Al Jourgensen, as he sang straightforward and confrontational lyrics. Songs like “We Are Antifa” off of their new album were paired with videos of edited caricatures of government figures, including President Trump (seen below), Hillary Clinton, and Hugo Chavez. Their message was clear to the audience, as they waved their flags and sang about government overthrow and general anarchist sentiment. It was almost a 180 flip from seeing Death Grips, but the experience was interesting, all the same. 

The next stop on their tour is at the Van Buren in Phoenix, AZ.

written by Angelica Sheen, DJ Anj from gloss (thursday mornings from 6am-8am PST)

[junker-town]

Shannon Sharpe embraced the memes and became one of the most important voices in sports

Shannon Sharpe memes are more than just funny. They’ve become an impactful piece of pop culture from one of the most genuine and incisive people in sports media.

A pro football career by the numbers: 815 receptions, 10,060 yards, 62 touchdowns, eight Pro Bowl selections, three Super Bowl rings, and a bust in Canton. That’s Shannon Sharpe’s career statistical rundown, and yet what truly separated him from his peers was his personality. He made his presence felt verbally for 14 seasons, becoming one of the game’s greatest shit talkers.

That personality also made Sharpe a television star long before it was his job. He was one of the breakout stars of the inaugural season of Hard Knocks. One of his first widely disseminated clips occurred in 1996: During the Denver Broncos’ November rout of the New England Patriots, he pretended to call the president of the United States and request the National Guard to aid his floundering opponents.

Since the premiere of Fox Sports 1’s Skip and Shannon: Undisputed 20 years later, Sharpe’s incisive commentary on sports and their intersection with culture have made him the perfect foil to Skip Bayless’ smarm. More than that, he’s become a living meme, which has helped him stand out as an elite analyst. Whether it’s an exasperated reaction to Bayless’ arguments or lusting after Nicole Murphy, Sharpe has forged a second career as a viral sensation that has turned him into one of the foremost voices in sports.

The beauty of Sharpe’s evolution into a meme is it happened naturally. Memes are stolen moments used to capture the mood of a situation with pinpoint accuracy, and they work best when they’re drawn from genuine material. Sharpe, now 50 years old, is largely the same man who clowned the Patriots. The memes Sharpe has inspired — from using the way he says “SKIP” in Uno, to his pronounced look of disapproval and high-pitched “That ain’t no problem” in response to extra credit assignments and washed adults’ delight in breaking plans — are cut from moments in which he’s simply being himself.

“I just try to give a glimpse of what I’m like off the air,” Sharpe told the New York Times in 2007 about the energy he brought to his old job at CBS Sports’ The NFL Today, adding, “but I don’t want to be that animated because it would really distract.”

When he abruptly presented a Black & Mild cigar during the Oct. 2, 2017, broadcast of Undisputed, it clicked with the internet because of how casual he was. It’s not just the image of Sharpe with a Black & Mild dangling from the corner of his mouth that resonates — it’s his body language and the inflection in his voice.

"I be on these milds and HEN DAWG" LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO @ShannonSharpe is on one today! pic.twitter.com/gCWpAK2g3D

— Dynamics • £ (@theDYNAMICS) October 2, 2017

You know Sharpe isn’t faking. Smoking a Black or sipping Hennessy in celebration — or simply because it’s Monday — are activities his audience identifies with. Even if they don’t indulge, they know others who do. And Sharpe wasn’t even trying to go viral.

“I mean, I never, never thought in my wildest imagination that would take off, I mean, they put a song to it,” he told Uproxx in 2018, saying he was “shocked” by the response.

Sharpe’s ascendance over the last two years emphasizes how limited he was for a decade at the Xs and Os-focused The NFL Today. After joining the show in 2004, he was let go in 2014. Sharpe is at his best when unbound, and Undisputed set him loose. “This platform gives me an opportunity to talk about everything, from sports to social issues,” he told GQ in 2018. “It allows me to be me.”

The show began in September 2016, just weeks after Colin Kaepernick’s protest of systemic racism began, and two months before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. When Trump admonished Kaepernick and other players — almost exclusively black players, to be clear — for protesting in September 2017, Sharpe spoke in detail about the root of the issue.

“There’s something going on in America right now that’s more valuable than Google and Apple stock,” he said during a Sept. 25, 2017, episode. “It’s more valuable than gold and bitcoin. It’s called race.”

This frankness, along with the conviction that inspires the many memes, are only able to shine because Sharpe was given freedom that he hasn’t taken for granted. And along with the platform, he’s embraced the jokes.

https://t.co/Nphzq1av0U

— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) September 4, 2018

On Twitter, Instagram, and Undisputed, Sharpe leans into the memes without pandering. At a time when media figures are expected to effectively play chess on social media and still make it look like they aren’t trying, Sharpe comes across as authentic in a way that many of his contemporaries can’t.

We’re in the midst of the Content Era. Outlets and brands are locked in an arms race that is unfolding on our TVs and timelines, stepping on each other for ratings, views, and relevance.

Networks like FS1 lean on their talking heads to account for all three. Undisputed is a debate show in the image of its rival, First Take, Bayless’ former vehicle where he first established his dynamic with Sharpe, who occasionally filled in for Stephen A. Smith. Bayless has his own persona: Contrarian White Man™. He’s a titan of the hot take economy: polarizing and antagonistic, solely to provoke the most visceral reactions he can out of sports fans. He supports Tim Tebow, criticizes LeBron James, and roots for the Dallas Cowboys with unwavering passion.

And to be fair to Bayless, being “the most hated man in sports” has been lucrative. But where his internet presence is steeped in venom, Sharpe’s is steeped in joy.

“Uncle Shannon” has undoubtedly made the show more watchable. According to the Charlotte Observer, average daily viewers for Undisputed increased 45 percent from 2016 to 2017. Citing Fox Sports, Forbes reported that ratings jumped another 37 percent from 2017 to 2018. The improvement correlates directly with the rise of Sharpe, who frequently obstructs Bayless’ arguments and outshines him. Bayless’ notorious hypercriticism of James is a running gag at this point. On more than one occasion, Sharpe has donned a James jersey and a literal goat mask (with a Black & Mild hanging from the mouthpiece, of course) to troll his cohost.

Sorry To Bother You (2018) https://t.co/Bztj2sZVG2

— DJ Vince Eraser (@DJJordanJetson) December 7, 2018

Sharpe’s naturally meme-able personality does more than entertain. Writing for The Fader, Jason Parham branded memes “our most forward-facing cultural markers on the internet.” Later writing for Wired, Parham called them “one of the more evolved languages born of the social media age — coded by community, shared experience, race, and gender, among a flood of other circumstances.” Memes are a dialect of popular culture, which is undeniably rooted in and shaped by black culture.

And Sharpe’s perspective is distinctly black. It radiates from his commentary and humor. In a piece for The Atlantic, Lauren Michele Jackson wrote memes exist on borrowed time. The reason Sharpe has yet to go the way of, say, Crying Jordan, is testament to their potency and versatility, as well as Sharpe’s relevance in sports culture. Sharpe memes have become part of a shared language anyone can speak, which also notably elevates black expression. (Note: There are downsides to universal access to memes, too. Jackson has written extensively about the “digital blackface” that memes enable.) They amplify the images, voices, and creativity of people who might be otherwise overlooked.

It’s no secret that Bayless and Sharpe represent certain segments of their show’s audience. Sharpe knows the internet is watching his every move when he sits down at the Undisputed table each morning. He brings his own perspective, but also that of the numerous people who opt to speak through him via meme. It’s what people mean when they talk about “feeling seen,” and Sharpe makes sure many of us are, even if we’ll never step in front of a camera.

[ethanalter]

12 TV Shows to Look for at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival

Allison Tolman in ‘Downward Dog’ (Photo: ABC)

Thanks to titles like Manchester by the Sea, Weiner, and Southside With You, 2016 was a great year for movies at the Sundance Film Festival. But it was arguably an even better year for TV, as such acclaimed series like Starz’s The Girlfriend Experience and Hulu’s 11.22.63 played to their first audiences in Park City, Utah. Sundance was also the launching pad for one of the year’s most celebrated works in either film or television: ESPN’s mammoth seven-hour docuseries, OJ: Made in America, which made numerous year-end Top Ten lists (including Yahoo TV’s own Ken Tucker) and is poised to earn an Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature when nominations are announced on Jan. 24. “We opened our eyes to allow more television,” festival director John Cooper told Yahoo TV last year. “It’s been growing very organically. The creators lead and we try to provide the best platform we can.”

Related: Red Carpet Flashback! 2002 Sundance Film Festival

That platform will continue to expand over the course of Sundance’s 2017 edition, which runs from Jan. 19-29. This year, the festival is hosting screenings for a pair of high-profile network TV shows, as well as an assortment of docuseries, web series, and promising pilots looking for a channel and/or streaming service to call home. Here are the 12 TV projects to keep your eye on during and after Sundance.

Abstract: The Art of Design (Premieres Feb. 10 on Netflix)

In the tradition of Netflix’s hit cooking-themed series Chef’s Table, Abstract provides an in-depth look at some of the men and women who design the spaces, sights, and even sneakers that we see in the world around us. Each of the show’s eight installments focuses on the work of one celebrated designer — from Air Jordan guru Tinker Hatfield to illustrator Christoph Niemann — whose episode will premiere in Park City.

Downward Dog (Premieres midseason on ABC)

Allison Tolman took her time choosing a follow-up to her breakout turn as Molly Solverson on the first season of the FX hit, Fargo. But the wait has paid off with Downward Dog, an inventive adaptation of a popular web series. Tolman plays Nan, a newly single woman who has thrown herself into work since her break-up with Jason (Lucas Neff). The separation hasn’t just impacted her — it’s also wrecking havoc on the once-idyllic life enjoyed by her faithful dog, Martin (voiced by series co-creator, Samm Hodges). The pilot is a strong beginning, and Sundance will screen three additional episodes, followed by a Q&A with Tolman and other key members of the cast and crew. Including, we assume, the dog(s) playing Martin.

Gente-fied (Premieres TBA)

Gentrification: It’s not just for Brooklyn, anymore! America Ferrera executive produced, co-wrote, and appears in this short-form web series set in the rapidly changing L.A. neighborhood of Boyle Heights. The area’s demographic shift from a largely Latino population to one that includes young, white hipsters is depicted over the course of seven episodes from the perspective of seven different Boyle Heights residents.

The History of Comedy (Premieres Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. on CNN)

Having previously presented decade-by-decade histories of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s over the past three years, CNN now gets serious about the past, present, and future of comedy. Overseen by a team of directors that includes Will and Grace star Sean Hayes, the eight-chapter History of Comedy spans Ancient Greece to modern-day Hollywood, and speaks with such luminaries as Larry David, in its quest to answer the age-old question: “What’s so funny?” The Sundance premiere will consist of two episodes: “Spark of Madness,” devoted to comics who traffic in darker subject matter, and “Going Blue,” which explores the thin line between hilarious and offensive and profiles the comedians — like Lenny Bruce — who gleefully cross it.

Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (Premieres Spring 2017 on Netflix)

‘Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On’ (Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Two years ago, Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones traveled to Park City to introduce audiences to a documentary she co-produced chronicling young women’s experiences in the pornography industry. She’s returning in 2017 with her directorial debut “Women on Top,” one of several episodes in the Hot Girls Wanted spinoff series, Turned On, which explores love and sex in the digital age. Jones’s episode specifically looks at the female performers and directors who are striving to make porn that empowers, rather than simply exploit, women.

I Love Dick (Premieres TBA on Amazon Prime)

Transparent creator Jill Soloway and her frequent muse, Kathryn Hahn, premiered the pilot for their second Amazon series on the streaming service back in August to strong reviews. They’re bringing that episode, plus two additional half-hours, to Sundance, along with co-stars Griffin Dunne and Kevin Bacon, who respectively portray Hahn’s husband and the rugged object of her affection. Filmed on location in Marfa, Texas, the series retains Soloway’s expertise in creating incisive character portraits that are both compelling and slightly cringe-inducing.

Playdates (Premieres TBA)

Paul Scheer and Carla Gallo in “Playdates’ (Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

With apologies to DJ Jazzy Jeff, parents will understand the challenges confronting husband-and-wife team, Bennett and Julie (Paul Scheer and Carla Gallo). Freshly transplanted from Chicago to L.A., the duo confront the peculiarities of California culture while making sure their young kids remain well-adjusted in the land of sunshine and snobbery as well. Screened as part of the Independent Pilot Showcase for TV pilots seeking pick-ups, Playdates should allow Scheer the opportunity to explore the serio-comic territory his former Human Giant collaborators, Rob Huebel and Aziz Ansari, are successfully navigating on Transparent and Master of None, respectively.

Rise (Premieres Jan. 27 on Viceland)

Viceland’s latest docuseries gives full-throated voice to Native American activists seeking to protect their lands and culture. Among the three episodes screening at Sundance is “Sacred Water,” which directly addresses the ongoing Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Expect that controversy to return to the headlines after President-elect Trump takes office.

Shots Fired (Premieres Mar. 22 on Fox)

Husband-and-wife team Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood are behind the camera for Fox’s answer to ABC’s acclaimed crime anthology, American Crime. After the shooting of a white college student by a black police officer inflames racial tensions in a North Carolina town, a Department of Justice investigator (Sanaa Lathan) and Special Prosecutor (Stephan James) are tasked with handling not only that case, but also a past tragedy involving another potentially race-related murder. Stephen Moyer, Richard Dreyfus, and Helen Hunt are also among the ensemble of the 10-episode event series.

Strangers (Premieres in 2017 on Refinery29)

‘Strangers’ (Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

If only we had a Rolodex of houseguests this cool; fresh off of a breakup and stuck in a directionless late-20s existence, Isobel (Zoe Chao) rents out her spare room to visitors played by the likes of Jemima Kirke, Shiri Appleby, and Langston Kerman. And when she’s not trying to make those strangers her friends, she’s striving to open her own professional and personal horizons. After all, who says you’re too old to experience a coming of age story when you’re pushing 30?

Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Premieres in 2017 on Spike TV)

Spike TV gets into the long-form documentary game with a six-episode series that’s part Serial and part The Night Of. When he was 16 years old, Bronx native Kalief Browder was falsely accused of stealing a backpack and spent three years in the harsh conditions of Rikers Island despite not being convicted of a crime. Executive produced by Jay Z and directed by Jenner Furst, Time chronicles this miscarriage of justice, which came to a tragic end with Browder’s suicide in 2015.

When the Street Lights Go Down (Premieres TBA)

‘When the Street Lights Go Down’ (Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Stranger Things fans, here’s your next ‘80s throwback obsession, albeit one that channels David Lynch rather than John Carpenter. Set in small town Illinois in 1983, the pilot for this proposed series — which is currently looking for a home — opens with the brutal murder of the high school’s most popular cheerleader and her older lover. The tendrils of that incident spread outward from there, touching everyone from an aspiring journalist to the town bad boy. Director Brett Morgan effectively weaves touches of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet into an investigation-driven narrative that’s strongly Serial-ized. The best thing you can say about Street Lights is that when the first episode ends, you’ll immediately want to binge the next two, three, or ten chapters.

[wakingthefury]

Everyone needs a civics lesson on impeachment

Listen to Today's Program JD: You know David I’m sure it’s been a while since any of us had a government or civics class in high school. So maybe it would be really helpful to briefly take a moment and discuss exactly what the founding fathers put into place concerning impeachment including both the grounds and the process of impeachment. DJ: One of the foundational principals in our country and that makes it unique in the history of the world as a system of checks and balances that are built into our Constitution. This means that we have three equal and yet separate branches of government the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. And within that system is the prevision for the removal from office of the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States if Congress finds him guilty of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Since 1789 nineteen Federal officials have been brought up on impeachment chargers by the House of Representatives with eight people convicted after a Senate trial. Now two Presidents have actually been impeached by the House that would be Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton but neither were convicted in the Senate. Back in April of 1974 the Judiciary committee approved three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon and when it became clear he would be impeached and convicted he resigned in August. So of the eight persons impeached and convicted in Congress all were judges who faced charges including perjury, tax evasion, bribery and in one case supporting the Confederacy.

So the language for the standard for impeachment is high crimes and misdemeanors and it’s been some what of a controversial statement and continues to be a source of confusion. The general intent of the framers was high crimes and misdemeanors with involved contact that would seriously harm the public including the security of the country and seriously compromise the person’s ability to faithfully execute the duties of their office.

JD: David James with a short civics course on impeachment.

We report this information because it is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Each of us need a refresher course in civics even the members of the United States House of Representatives. As the world watches our endeavor to impeach President Trump we must consider how important this responsibility is. Removing a President from office is a major political decision and it must be done in humility and prayer not because you hate the man.

God established human government, Genesis 9:6, in order to direct human kind in the will of God. The future is in His hands, Revelation 17:17, and will happen. Mans responsibility is to follow the Lords will for the end times.

via Jimmy DeYoung's News Update https://ift.tt/2PgxivI

[checkmarch79-blog]

Official: Pipe-bomb suspect had hit list of targets

CURT ANDERSON and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press

Law enforcement officials aren’t sure whether they’ve discovered the last of the pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and other opponents of President Donald Trump. They’ve said the packages were staggered, and more could be somewhere in the U.S. mail system.

What’s more, an official tells The Associated Press that the man suspected of sending the bombs kept a list of elected officials and others who investigators believe were intended targets.

The disclosure of the list came as 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc made his initial court appearance in Miami federal court Monday, and after bomb squads were called to a post office in Atlanta about a suspicious mailing to CNN that was similar to the pipe bomb packages recovered last week.

The official said authorities had recovered soldering equipment, a printer, and stamps similar to those used on the package bombs after arresting Sayoc last week in Florida. Authorities believe he was putting explosives together in his van.

The official also said authorities have been scrutinizing Sayoc’s social media posts. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP.

The FBI said via its Twitter account that the recovered package in Atlanta was “similar in appearance” to the bubble-wrapped manila envelopes authorities say were sent by Sayoc to intended targets from Delaware to California, including former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden.

CNN President Jeff Zucker says all mail to CNN has been screened offsite since last week, when a series of package bombs began appearing around the country. Among them were two apparent mail bombs sent to CNN.

At least some listed a return address of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

She represents the South Florida district where the former male stripper, pizza driver and strip club DJ lived in an old van covered with bumper stickers praising Trump, disparaging Democrats and CNN, and showing rifle crosshairs over liberals including Clinton, commentator Van Jones and filmmaker Michael Moore.

Sayoc was arrested Friday outside a South Florida auto parts store after investigators said they identified him through fingerprint and DNA evidence. He faces more than 50 years in prison if convicted on all charges. None of the bombs exploded and no one was injured.

At Monday’s hearing, federal prosecutors said they will seek to keep Sayoc jailed until trial as a flight risk and a danger to the community. A judge set another hearing for Friday on whether to grant bail to Sayoc and to discuss when he will be sent from Miami to New York, where five federal charges were filed.

Shackled at the wrists and ankles in a tan jail jumpsuit, Sayoc became weepy at one point, but said little at the hearing.

Defense attorney Daniel Aaronson urged people not to rush to judgment.

“Right now, we know very, very, very little,” Aaronson said. “We do not know all the evidence the government has. You have to keep in mind he has not been found guilty of anything.”

The FBI said it believes the package intended for CNN headquarters in Atlanta that was discovered Monday is similar to those that Sayoc is accused of sending. Law enforcement officials have said they believe the packages were staggered and more could be discovered.

The New York Times said in a staff memo that it was notified by the FBI on Monday that one of its editors was on a list of potential targets of the mail-bomb suspect. Later that day, an envelope addressed to the editor raised concerns, but New York police determined that it was a false alarm. The editor was not identified.

___

Balsamo reported from Washington.

Source: http://www.smdp.com/official-pipe-bomb-suspect-had-hit-list-of-targets/170409