#Now you may be thinking 'is the caption referring to the lesbian posting this who is a Benny enjoyer or to Benny as a lesbian?'. Yes
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Lesbian Benny enjoyer reporting for duty
#Now you may be thinking 'is the caption referring to the lesbian posting this who is a Benny enjoyer or to Benny as a lesbian?'. Yes#If we all join our hearts and minds you can see the butch lesbian Benny vision too#fnv#fallout new vegas#benny gecko
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season three episode one
Okay everyone, Siesta Key just ended and I must say – I’m overall VERY pleased with the premiere of Season 3. Even though I know everything that’s happening in this season because I created a reddit account specifically for access to a thread dedicated to all things SK, and because they posted everything that happens on the Siesta Key Instagram, I was still shocked by one thing: how much I enjoyed the episode. Let’s cut to the feeling.
Fade in. There he is – the mystery man I’ve been dying to meet – SCOTT. That’s right, Fabienne’s husband. You may know him as Juliette’s Father. Chic French queen Fabienne and confused husband Scott congratulate Juliette on her graduation from FSU and suggest she become an attorney. Juliette has plans of her own – retail. They look elated. After making a weird sex joke to her Dad, and having visible difficulty adjusting to her new veneers, Juliette has graduated, the scene is over, and I am feeling great about the season.
If you’ve ever watched SK, you know three things for sure. 1. Juliette is a hideous crier. 2. Canvas’ Mother has a complete lack of understanding when it comes to parenting. 3. Kelsey and Juliette do NOT get along. UNTIL NOW! It’s very exciting to see their first scene as not only friends – but also roomies! Even though Kelsey’s bizarrely shaped eyebrows, over plumped fake lips and orange spray tan make me feel like she must have NO real friends, because certainly, they wouldn’t let her butcher her appearance so thoroughly, she and Juliette seem to get along swimmingly by talking mad shit about Chloe. We love to see women supporting women by talking shit about other women.
Chloe, you minx! Chloe pulls up to Alex’s mansion in a Bentley toting about ten designer bags and a serious attitude. After she explains to his mother that she’s taken it upon herself to pickuppe some “luxury” clothing items for Alex in Sarasota, Florida, even though he’s quite literally in EUROPE, she also *subtly!* drops that he’s left behind his personal credit card for her own use. Weird brag, but more importantly: cha-ching! After talking shit about Juliette to a grown woman, they switch the conversation to Madisson’s new man. Queue Malibu by Miley Cyrus. Ma-jor props to whoever created the playlist for this epi.
After a stunning underwater montage from Florida to Cali, we see aspiring model/actress Maddison walking into a dinner date. Even though Chloe’s just gabbed to Alex’s mother that Braddison is no more, I still half expect BG to pop up and hold the door open for Madi. Just kidding, I don’t, because the producers of this show spilled quite literally every twist before it aired. Wait, speaking of producers – who is Madisson on a date with? Oh, it’s “ISH”, the FORTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD, BALD, AND OVERWEIGHT FORMER PRODUCER OF SIESTA KEY. Unlike Juliette’s father, Scott, I’ve met Madisson’s Dad before, so it’s not immediately apparent to me as to why she has serious Daddy issues. I’m hoping the root of this unfolds during the season. Ish, or “baby” as Madisson calls him, (again, he’s 46, so I’m not sure “baby” is the most fitting nickname, but to each her own) decides it will be totally normal to jet back to the key and surprise the children he used to exploit the cast with the announcement of his new relationship. I can’t wait.
Okay, we’re back at a dinner date – but a much more age-appropriate one between Juliette and her new man, former bachelorette contestant, Robby. I’m not a bachelor franchise fan and unfortunately for Robby, I’m NOT a Robby fan either. He’s not hot and he’s not cool. That’s literally it. Discussing this further would be a waste. Oh, it’s worth noting that new roomies Chloe and Madisson also meetuppe during this time to discuss Madisson and Ish. (Mish, if you will. Some prefer Dadisson.) Thank you, Chloe, for reacting to the news in a very relatable way by chugging alcohol and hiding in your clothing.
Um, who is this hottie emerging from a PJ? It’s the fabulous Cara, with a new nose! Normally I love to hate her - she has that je ne sais quoi – but right now, I just love her. Removing your nose job bandages on film is the kind of 2020 realness I need in my life. Enter G BABY! We’ve missed you and your utter lack of awareness, Garrett! But the love birds aren’t exactly happily reuniting – there’s def some tension in the air. Uh oh! Cara immediately becomes annoyed that Garrett both broke her heart AND kept his lips shut about her new nose. Poll – would you rather your boyfriend intentionally squeeze your fat as fuck thighs, or neglect to comment on your surgically enhanced face? The choice is yours.
While Juliette’s graduation party is great, if Alex doesn’t throw a start-of-the-summer rager, I’m suing MTV. More specifically, I’m suing YOU, Gary. Anyways, as Juliette and de ghurls are getting ready for the party, Juliette’s asked who she likes boning more – Boring Robby or shrek Alex. She hesitates for a moment but then says Robby. I take that pregnant pause as a confirmation of what I’ve known all along – Alex is great in bed and that’s the only reason Juliette was obsessed with him. (Edit – this has been confirmed on her Instagram story.)
Cut to: Cara, G baby, and Cara’s new androgynous and likely lesbian friend, Victoria, getting drinks. I don’t know what’s more confusing – the fact that Cara claims Victoria is her best friend or the fact that Garrett continues to piss Cara off by defending Kelsey while she incessantly brings her up.
Party time! But it wouldn’t be a party without Chloe intervening in something that has nothing to do with her in an attempt to destroy Juliette’s happiness. While wearing a Kentucky derby inspired hat/headband, nonetheless! Chloe and Amanda sit down with Boring Robby the second he arrives to grill him with some genual questions about his “intentions” with Juliette. And I can’t help but immediately think of that scene in Twilight when Police Chief Charlie Swan pulls out his shotgunné to intimidate his daughter’s 108-year-old vampire soul mate. Thank you, Catherine Hardwicke/ Stephanie Meyers, for this image.
At this point, I have to question Chloe’s sexuality because I can’t think of a single other reason as to why she would be so invested in Juliette’s relaysh with Robby. Is he a “phony”, simply using Juliette for fame? Maybe! But aren’t they all kind of doing that anyway? It’s like, they’re on a reality show for God’s sake. After Boring Robby says absolutely nothing of interest, (read: BORING Robby,) something actually exciting happens. Kelsey slithers over to publicly flirt with G baby in an attempt to piss off Cara, and it totally WORKS! Nice!
The second Cara sees Kelsey and G baby talking, her eyes fill with fire and she almost burns her new nose off. It’s funny that she portrays herself as such a sophisticated, cosmopolitan gal, yet she’s so blatantly insecure about trashy Kelsey and Garrett, the braindead body of meat, talking about absolutely nothing. Stop slumming it and start dating Zaddies like Madisson!
After Garrett tells Kelsey that Cara has banned him from talking to her, Kelsey marches up to Cara, grabs her by the hand, and you just KNOW the rumors are true – World War III is HAPPENING! Kelsey and Cara immediately establish that they’re not each other’s “kind of person”, and then Kelsey tells Cara that she can’t wait for Cara’s “life to explode.” Cara fires back with the ULTIMATE diss, claiming that Kelsey doesn’t even have her GED! We find out this is, in fact, not true via Instagram, thanks to Kelsey’s iconic photo of none other than GARRETT holding her on her graduation day. Okay, high school level educated kween! Go off!
Pls note caption
Here’s the thing: I dislike Cara and Kelsey, both for entirely different reasons, but IMO, Kelsey won this round. Cara came off as insecure, psychotic, and just plain mean! Cara, a word of advice? Stop gallivanting around tacky Florida and return home to America’s Kingdom – New Jersey.
Pay close attention everyone - we’re almost done and you’re about to witness reality show television HISTORY. And it is a BAG. OF. WEIRD. After Boring Robby buys Juliette a trip to Greece, Madisson and her new Dad man walk in, and EVERYONE IS SHOOK. Seriously. The cast is genuinely shocked. Please note their faces when Madisson and Ish waltz into Juliette’s grad party hand in hand. Arguably the most thrown off person of all, of course, is BG. He hastily confronts his former producer, and refers to Ish’s relationship with his ex as a “bag of weird.” Honestly, Brandon, I have to agree with you. And so does literally everyone else in the world.
After Brandon huffs, puffs, and exits, everyone gets over the initial shock of Madisson’s upsettingly old “boy”friend and the episode winds down. But there’s one twist. We learn via Chloe’s texts that Alex is on his way back from Europe. Probably wearing all the luxe clothes Chloe shipped him from Siesta Key. Because who trusts European clothes, am I right? Anyways, something tells me that Boring Robby doesn’t stand a chance once Alex touches down on the Key. But we’ll have to wait until next week to find out.
Fin
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Something to consider
In honor of Karlie’s birthday today here’s something for those who don't believe Taylor could be with Karlie because they chose to only believe Taylor’s own words: a list of the lyrics on Reputation (Taylor’s own words) that reference Karlie vs those that reference Joe. I tried my best to be impartial and include everything on both sides but just a warning it’s SUPER long! So if you don’t feel like reading it or don’t have the time then keep scrolling. But for anyone who’s interested here’s what I came up with (including explanations of the references and links if I have them; feel free to disagree or add any I missed, I tried to think of everything so I realize some may be a bit of a stretch)
Lyrics that point to Karlie:
Ready for it:
1. Younger than my exes (she’s 26 today, younger than most people Taylor has supposedly dated, male or female)
2. No one has to know (they’re closeted)
End Game:
3. We got big reputations (they’re both famous; Joe was relatively unknown until recently)
4. You and me would be a big conversation (they’re both famous and both women who are supposedly dating men so if they were found out - at least right now - it would cause a scandal)
Don't blame me:
5. I would cross the line, I would waste my time, I'd lose my mind
6. For you I would fall from grace, just to touch your face (This applies to the line above as well; her reputation would be ruined if people found out she was lying about her dating life causing her to “fall from grace” but she loves her enough to risk it by continuing to date her secretly)
7. I once was poison ivy but now I’m your Daisy (at first listen this line might sound like nothing more than a Mavel and/or Great Gatsby reference but according to this person they both like Marvel comics and check out how the daisy she drew in the handwritten lyrics in one of the Reputation magazines looks just like the one Karlie posted from their Big Sur trip in 2014. 👀
Delicate:
8. Dark jeans and your Nikes (she models for Adidas now but was doing Nike ads when they met)
9. Never seen that color blue (maybe a stretch but Karlie's eyes are a shade of green that can sometimes look blue so that may be a shade of blue she's never seen before. And I won’t add this to the list because it’s not Karlie-specific but the girls back home line is also not necessarily straight as lesbians and bisexuals, just like guys, date women and ‘back home’ can reference anyone who’s not from exactly where you’re from. They’re from different parts of the country for instance)
So it goes:
10. All eyes on us (they're both famous, have been on stage together three times and used to often be seen together by paps in public - which I do believe was on purpose; this line reminds me of the chorus of This is what you came for too)
11. Lipstick on your face (there's candids of Karlie with lipstick smudged on her face in pictures with Taylor from July 14th 2014 - as well as pictures of Taylor from her 25th birthday - and I believe another day too -, where she’s with Karlie and has on one shade of lipstick but a while has Karlie’s shade of lipstick smudged over hers and vice versa. Note how their lipstick looks in the top two photos from her birthday party compared vs the bottom two)
Gorgous:
12. I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk (the weird way Karlie says important)
13. Your magnetic field being a little too strong (they’re very physically affectionate with each other and often bump shoulders when sitting next to each other as if they literally have magnets in them)
14. I got a boyfriend, he's older than us (she often dates guys older than her and Karlie is younger than them and her. Imo it refers to her bearding with Calvin specifically)
15. You’re so Gorgeous I can’t say anything to your face (At VSFS 2013 where they first met Taylor looks in awe of her like she doesn’t know what to say. She definitely looks like she thinks she’s gorgeous and while the term could refer to anyone, it's usually a female descriptor and she's literally a model for a living who is known for her beauty and has, seemingly on purpose, used the word on IG right around when the song came out. And on an unrelated note I also want to point out that the ‘If you got a girlfriend’ line is not strictly male-oriented so although it’s not specifically Karlie-related it could still apply to a bisexual or lesbian woman)
King of my heart:
16. like trying on clothes (another somewhat female reference and she's a model so she does that for a living so therefore even more often than most people)
17. Move to me like a Motown beat (As mentioned in the caption of their IG post about it she & Karlie listened to Motown while getting ready for the Met Gala in 2014 so it's safe to say they’re both fans of the genre and enjoy listening to it together)
18. American queen (I know they're both American but Karlie has referred to her as an American dream before which you'll notice was the original lyrics when Taylor was writing & recording the song)
19. Your love is a secret I'm hoping, praying, dying to keep (this is pretty obvious but if she’s closeted then her love life is obviously a secret she’d want to keep)
20. Drinking beer out of plastic cups (I know this line is pretty general and she seems to be referring to a different time when she was up on a roof but it should be noted that the only time she’s been seen drinking beer in a plastic cup prior to the album coming out she was with Karlie)
Dress:
21. Our secret moments in a crowded room, they got no idea about me and you (you can see them having private moments at events in candid photos and videos such at award shows, the VSFS and at the 1975 concert. All times when tons of people were around but didn’t seem to notice or care if they were affectionate with each other because everyone knows they’re close and just thinks they’re friends)
22. Golden tattoo (they wore them together at Drake's birthday party last October. And maybe this is reaching but some of them were stars and “gold star” lesbians are those who have never “been with” a man, Idk about Taylor, but Karlie is rumored to be one.)
23. I don't want you like a best friend (they’re known as best friends so that one’s obvious)
24. I’m spilling wine in the bathtub (in the photo of her and Karlie getting ready for the Met Gala in 2014 you can see that Taylor has drunk wine in the bathroom with Karlie before)
25. Everyone thinks that they know us but they know nothing (A common problem when you’re famous because a lot of people know OF you but don’t really KNOW you or your relationships like they might think they do. She also references this in the album prologue but when it comes to Joe, not many people knew of him before he dated her so he doesn’t have a big reputation or people who think they know him) Dancing with our hands tied:
26. I loved you in secret (again sounds like it references being closeted)
27. 25 years old (Karlie’s age up until today and *almost* Taylor’s age when Kissgate happened)
28. People started talking putting us through our paces (again sounds like it refers to Kissate; people didn't talk about her and Joe, only the media did months later when the album was already finished and she says never to believe them anyway. Plus you have to wonder how they already knew of her secret relationship with him even before pictures had come out of them together)
29. I had a bad feeling...but we were dancing, dancing with our hands tied (they were dancing closely/kind of kissing at a 1975 concert in 2014 and someone got a video and pictures that made it into many articles starting Kissgate. You can see in pictures how upset Karlie and their friends looked walking back from the concert that night carrying a very drunk Taylor. Maybe she knew there'd be a shit storm about it the next day but didn't care and did it anyway because she was so drunk. Their hands would then have been tied metaphorically speaking and they would’ve had to do what they had to do which was to keep dating guys publicly and to stop being seen alone together)
30. I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would decide us (as the world sometimes tries to do with gay relationships, not so much straight ones)
31. So baby can we dance, oh through an avalanche (same points as above ^)
Call it what you want:
32. My baby's fit like a daydream (I know "fit" is English slang but still, Karlie is quite physically fit - she literally ran a marathon like the day after the song came out and in the Vouge Best friends video Taylor mentions her shiny abs)
33. Walking with his head down (I realize she's not a man but being as tall as she is she does do that a lot)
34. So call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to (some people say they're friends, others say they're in a romantic relationship, a lot of people think they broke up or are no longer friends and don’t even talk anymore etc.)
New Year's Day:
35. This is maybe a slight stretch but the references to a girl's party and polaroids that she often takes with her friends make me think of women and not really men, and as someone whose been to her house I can vouch that she has a lot of polaroids of her female friends; many of Karlie specifically displayed in her sitting room as well as a photo of them at Big Sur that she keeps in one of her bathrooms but not as many photos of guys who it’s hard to imagine would fit in all that well at a party like that but maybe that’s just me)
lyrics that refer to Joe:
In general:
1. The words he, him & his (and anything else masculine-sounding like the word handsome and king in reference to a current relationship. I guess this is a bunch of references but I didn’t actually count how many times she said he on the album because that would be a lot. lol):
Ready for it:
2. Younger than my exes (some of them anyway; her two most recent ones)
Don't blame me:
3. Toying with them older guys (he's younger than Calvin and Tom as is she however note that she's admitting to using them which seems like more of a reference to a bearding contract unless we're to believe she's admitting to being horrible to her exes)
Delicate:
4. never seen that color blue (his eyes are blue)
5. girls back home (they live in different counties)
So it goes:
6. wear you like a necklace (she has one with his initial on it. I’ve been told it’s a lesbian term as well but I didn’t add it to Karlie’s list as it’s not specific to her)
Gorgeous:
7. I got a boyfriend he's older than us -Sunset & vine (where his movie premiere was last October although we now know the song was written in September and interestingly enough the area is also well-known for it's gay bars)
King of my heart:
8. king of my heart (king is a male term and they have royalty in England)
9. Say you fancy me not fancy stuff (fancy is British slang for liking someone)
10. salute to me I'm your American queen (she’s American and he’s from the UK where they still have royalty)
Dress:
11. flashback when you met me your buzz cut, my hair bleached (if it's in fact true that they met at the Met Gala in 2016 that they both attended then that's a reference to the hairstyles they both had at the time though tbh the timeline doesn't really make sense for that to be true)
Call it what you want:
12. My baby's fit like a daydream (Fit is British slang for attractive and he's also physically fit)
13. Call it what you want (in reference to weather or not the relationship is real)
14. I want to wear his initial on a chain around my neck (because she wears a necklace with a J on it)
So there you go. I'm not saying you have to believe the album is about Karlie or not about Joe but there do appear to be a LOT more references to her so I'll just leave it up to you to decide what you want to believe, I just thought I'd post this to prove that there is in fact evidence to support Kaylor, it's not just a baseless conspiracy theory.
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((This was FAR too big for an ask, put a read more cut where you see fit))
Ok, so the accusing anon mentioned it was the Progress Flag they saw and the way they worded their explanation kinda went in a few directions, which I'll try to sort through:
"Nazi and Nazbol [Nazi-Bolshevik] Groups": Yes, that is a thing that exists, but on a smaller scale online and not nearly as prominent in the living world as other supremacist ideologies. Yes, there are people who actually looked at the darkest days of both German and Soviet History and decided "This could work well together", but they are dunked-on HARD by both pro-fascists and pro-communists by their very nature. Do not ask me how neo-Nazis and Tankies got together in such an unholy union or what they stand for because none of it makes sense to my Bachelor's education degree with social science emphasis OR my regrettable experience from both groups in my soon-to-be 29 years of life
"Eth Nat [Ethnic Nationalist] desires": Yes, those unfortunately exist around the world. Racism and ethnic cleansing isn't a solely White practice, but it's definitely been done by Whites throughout US history and its affects (and believers) still exist to this very day. Only non-White supremacist American group I can recall is the very loose online Hotep community (remember the "We were kings" memes?) that's legitimately Black supremacist and also incredibly anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic---so taking a rainbow flag wouldn't be their work || [Don't forget the ethno-nationalist cleansing of Armenians that is still happening right now, and the settler-colonialism happening with the Palestinians.]
"Representing clear racial politics": Well, I guess if you loosely define Black Lives Matter and its main message of "stop profiling us as criminals and even if we are criminals, treat us humanely as you do White criminals", then it would count as "racial/identity politics". So would the "Stop Asian Hate" movement in response to COVID fearmongering, but if we're really defining any political movement (for good or for ill) as "racial" if it affects a given race, then practically everything is racial politics---by nature of people of different races experiencing things, even within the same country or social class
___ [I think they were trying to say Nazi and Nazi-adjacent groups were seeing the flag as depicting "clear racial politics". I have seen fascists use this talking point, but against non-white minorities. Never for them.] ___
"Protected by a strong border": That definitely is a policy point put forward by ethnic nationalists, pro-fascists, etc. and groups have tried to parrot or "steal" progressive groups' rhetoric to then apply to border security (remember that map of America made into a cartoon woman, gripping her skirt as a hand from the South reaches up, all with the caption "My borders, my choice"?). As for how black and brown are "stronger" colors than pink and white, that's entirely a cultural bias in associating light or warm colors with femininity or "weakness"---which is why Hitler rotated the original Hindu swastika 45 degrees to resemble an X rather than a cross and painted it black rather than the usual pink or light purple, as well as why the upside-down pink triangle was used to mark LGBT+ citizens
"The fact that four in rotation makes a swastika": I mean, if you were to completely disfigure any 4 stripes in such a way, it could resemble an X or a cross, but the swastika itself has 4 more "legs" that stick out from the base. But with how much the human mind needs to warp any given lines into a new symbol, you may as well just slap the graven image itself on the thing and be forthright with it
[And they do! Homofascists/4Chan or generally right-wing trolls in the past have, indeed, simply slapped it on the standard 6-color pride flag.
More info on fascism/it's supporters/how it gains traction under the cut.]
As for whether so-called progressive people do parrot fascist rhetoric and support fascist policy? That is also unfortunately true. Don't ask me how I know this or how this even could happen, but there were a few Trans Fascists I came across and I found two of their flags: one being just the swastika slapped onto the Trans Pride flag, the other being the Lesbian Labrys in the place of the axe in the fasces symbol (that ancient Roman symbol of a magistrate's power over life and death, the origin of the term "fascist/fascism") on the Trans Pride Flag
___ [People who try to be progressive but fall into the pit-falls of Nazi or fascist ideology are why we have NazBols. It's why we see groups trying to "take the land back" and basically create woke ethno-states for marginalized people. I am not saying this referring to indigenous peoples who are fighting to keep their land (which I do indeed support), I have also heard weird Tankie-esque stuff about Black people feeling so much safer away from whites, and other people of color who may feel the same. Thus creating a separatist divide and creating "woke" ethno-states -- "It's for the good of the minorities so they can feel safer!" Or we could talk about and tackle the systemic problems leading to people feeling this way? How about that instead? "But it'll never work!" It won't if you never try.
Don't fall for Black separatism, kids. You are not only feeding into the interests of white supremacists, but you're also becoming a reactionary in the process. Just because you are white, it does not mean you are an inherent threat to your nonwhite comrades. Diversity is strength. Remember that.] ___
My own hot take? We should remember that at the very core of Nazi ideology---no matter how many self-proclaimed LGBT+ individuals also proclaim to be Nazis, no matter how many non-Whites or women march beside them, no matter how many Nazis claim otherwise---is Nazism is straight White male supremacy and those undoubtedly deluded into being their "allies" are simply a means to gaining government office democratically
But once that purpose is served, they too will be slaughtered. Anyone PoC, LGBT, non-Christian or otherwise not fitting the mold of "the Supreme Master RaceTM" who is utterly duped into supporting their agenda (and cause them to succeed) would merely buy themselves a stay of execution at the cost of their neighbors' lives---before their blood also becomes the oil on the gears and their bodies also become the coal in the furnaces of the fascist war-machine
Populism, the Nazis' preferred tactic and a pillar of fascist ideology, is dependent upon democratic majority. It would be incredibly stupid (though these ARE Nazis and fascists we're talking about, so the bar is well beneath the floor as it is) to instantly demonize everyone who doesn't fit their tight mold the moment they set foot on the streets. They will deny being homophobic. They will deny being racist. They will pay lip-service to feminists. They will force a smile on their faces and hold back their gag reflex in the company of "lesser beings" just long enough to get some votes
Hitler did not seize power overnight. Hitler did not seize power, period. Hitler was elected by the desperate, the foolish and the ambitious in equal measures. The Nazi Party did not run door-to-door to viciously murder every Jew the second Hitler was inaugurated. Every Jew was not immediately sent to the death camps. The Jews were not Hitler's only victims. The Jews were not even Hitler's first victims, though the Jewish casualty count is the still highest that we can confirm
In order to both remove the "undesirables" from Germany and to control the German populace, Hitler and the Nazis went down a very long list. Every potential political opponent, every ethnicity, every possible demographic and label besides "Aryan Nazi supporter" was scheduled to be systematically demonized, discriminated, disappeared and destroyed when it was most convenient for the Nazi Party to do so
When it was ultimately the Jewish people's turn, the removal of their humanity was a long and gradual process of public indoctrination and supported legislation that lasted several years. Once the Jews were stripped of rights and thought of as nothing more than vermin by the German masses, the Nazis simply played their willing role as exterminators. Whether the Germans thought it would go so far or would go so bloodily is an afterthought that came far too late
Remember well the words of regretful Hitler supporter and Holocaust survivor, Martin Niemoller:
"First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me."
To all those who those who look upon their far-right reactionary movement and think "They will always stand by me and the power I give them will never be used against me": You could not be any more wrong, yet you already believe their lies
----
[Good and informative post for those not already familiar with any of these terms, which is why I put the cut where I did. I also added a bit of my own commentary here and there to try and provide examples along with an explanation of the terms I was using.]
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Eight times celebrities messed up on social media
Image copyright BBC/Getty Images/ITV
Roseanne Barr has had her sitcom axed after posting a racist tweet about a former aide to President Obama.
Within just a few short hours of the offensive remark made about Valerie Jarrett, Roseanne’s recently-revived (and hugely popular) show had been cancelled.
In a statement, ABC confirmed the cancellation, calling Barr’s tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values”.
But Roseanne isn’t the first celebrity to have damaged her career via comments made on social media.
Here’s a look at eight other stars who have suffered serious consequences:
1. Jack Maynard
Image copyright ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Image caption Jack Maynard said he was “young” and “careless” when he posted racial and homophobic tweets
Jack Maynard pulled out of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2017 after just three days in the jungle.
The YouTube star, who has 1.4 million followers, left after a series of tweets – most of which dated from 2011 to 2013 – were published in the Sun while he was in Australia.
It emerged that as well as racist and homophobic tweets, Jack had also asked a 14-year-old fan to send him nude pictures on his Facebook account.
Maynard later apologised saying he was “young” and “careless” when he sent the posts, adding: “Don’t put anything online you wouldn’t say to your mum.”
2. James Arthur
Image caption James Arthur had to cede control of his social media to his management in 2013
The pop star had to cancel his engagements in November 2013 after suffering a Twitter meltdown.
The Say You Won’t Let Go singer used abusive language to One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson and former X Factor winner Matt Cardle.
Things came to a head when he unveiled a rap song in which he used a homophobic slur against musician Micky Worthless and advised him to shoot himself.
The star apologised on Twitter saying he was “deeply deeply sorry to any gay or lesbian people out there”.
A few months later Arthur was officially dropped from Simon Cowell’s record label Syco, with Cowell commenting: “I think James, unfortunately, has had so many issues with what he has done publicly – which is a real issue with me. Somebody should have told him to shut up and just put the records out.”
3. Azealia Banks
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images
Image caption “Words hurt…”
The 212 rapper was dropped from her UK booking agency and axed from her headline slot at grime and hip-hop festival Born & Bred following racist and homophobic tweets to Zayn Malik.
Her Twitter account was also blocked after the string of aggressive tweets aimed at the Pillowtalk singer.
The row started when Banks claimed Malik had copied her work for his new video, Like I Would.
Banks also posted a string of derogatory comments about the UK rap scene, saying that British rappers “never have swag” and British rap music was a “disgrace” to the genre.
The US rapper later apologised for using homophobic language in a Facebook post saying: “Words hurt. And while I may be immune to every word and be thicker skinned than most, it doesn’t mean that I get to go around treating people with the same toughness that made my skin so thick.
“Because, that IS how people get thick skin… by being subjected to name calling/belittlement/abuse and it’s not fair.”
4. PewDiePie
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption YouTube cancelled the release of the Swedish star’s series Scare PewDiePie 2
The Swedish YouTube star used the N-word in one of his videos in January 2017 and was accused of anti-Semitism later in the same month.
As a result, Disney announced in February 2017 they would cut cut ties with PewDiePie – real name Felix Kjellberg – who at the time was the world’s highest-paid YouTuber.
He was also dropped from the Google Preferred advertising programme, and his YouTube Red series was cancelled.
The Swede later apologised for using the racial slur during a video live stream, saying he was an “idiot”, but defended himself against claims of anti-Semitism, saying the comments had been taken out of context.
5. Kathy Griffin
Image copyright CNN
Image caption Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper had co-hosted CNN’s New Year programme for years
US broadcaster CNN ditched comedian Kathy Griffin from its New Year programme after she posed with a fake decapitated head of President Donald Trump.
Griffin apologised after it provoked outrage – her New Year’s Eve co-host Anderson Cooper said he was appalled.
In addition, Griffin lost a number of other jobs as a consequence of the joke.
Trump said it was “sick” and his wife Melania called the photo “disturbing”.
“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself,” said the president. “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this.”
In a video message posted on Twitter, Griffin “begged” for forgiveness and said she had “crossed a line” – however she later retracted the apology telling ABC’s The View: “I’m not holding back on this family. This family is different.”
6. Josh Rivers
Image copyright Gay Times
Image caption Josh Rivers lasted as Gay Times Editor for just a few weeks
The Gay Times editor was sacked in 2017 just weeks after taking up the role when anti-Semitic and sexist tweets were discovered on his account.
Rivers sent a series of tweets between 2010 and 2015 making offensive comments about women, Jewish people, Chinese people, lesbians, transgender people, and people he thought were overweight or ugly.
Gay Times issued a statement saying it “does not tolerate such views”, adding that all articles written by Rivers had been removed.
Following the termination of his post, Josh Rivers apologised, telling the BBC he was “appalled” by his posts.
7. Ten Walls
The DJ and producer was dropped from major festivals including Creamfields and Sonar as well as being axed from the books of his UK agency following homophobic comments on Facebook.
The Walking with Elephants star compared gay people to paedophiles in a post that’s now been removed.
He also described the LGBT community as a “different breed”.
The Lithuanian musician, whose real name is Marijus Adomaitis, apologised for his post: “I’m really sorry about its insulting content which does not reflect my true opinion. I hope this misunderstanding will not provoke any more thoughts and opinions. Peace.”
Read more:
8. Katie Hopkins
Image copyright PA
Image caption LBC staff “cheered and applauded” when it was announced Hopkins had been sacked, according to BBC media editor Amol Rajan
The presenter was sacked from her LBC phone-in show after a tweet that called for a “final solution” to Islamic terrorism.
She posted the tweet – which has since been deleted – in the wake of the Manchester terror attack, and some suggested it was a reference to the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
Hopkins later altered the post to read “true solution”, describing the earlier version as a “mis-type”.
Several high-profile personalities had vowed not to appear on the station until she was removed.
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This is my 90th blog post and like most journalists, I identify mistakes all over and somehow — often through publicity — try to get them fixed. But not on this milestone. There’s too much good to write about.
I also want to point out the page CohenConnect Headlines Sitemap has a list of all the blog posts I’ve written and published over the past 3+ years, in chronological order. Nobody — early readers nor myself — can remember everything I’ve done and there hadn’t been a place to look. The right side of what you’re reading (or bottom on mobile) just show the past 10 and the most popular. A regular “sitemap” of category words is well below, on the bottom of the right side (or the bottom on mobile). But the “search” box also works very well, contains both categories and tags, and maybe more.
So staying positive, let’s honor some heroes with this post. These days, there are too few and far between. I remember years ago, while working at WCAU in Philadelphia, Larry Mendte saying on the air with such certainty, “Heroes never admit they are,” or something to that effect.
I’ll start by setting something straight. Two survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Florida posed for a picture with the caption Prom 2018, but they won’t be going together.
https://twitter.com/cameron_kasky/status/988454056615202817
That’s despite what Pink News in the UK reported Tuesday, to the disappointment of Cameron Kasky and David Hogg’s many fans.
The publication describes Kasky “lovingly hugging Hogg, who contrasts Kasky’s sloppy smile with a stair which pierces your soul.”
Monday, Kasky posted the picture on Twitter. Click here for that original article, which may not be true, but contained a lot of positive reaction from hopeful supporters.
Yesterday, the Miami Herald wrote,
“Rebecca Boldrick, Hogg’s mother, told TMZ.com that Hogg has another date for the prom. “Jeff Kasky, Cameron’s dad, told TMZ, ‘Cameron and David love each other very much, as do the 20 or so other kids that are part of their group, but not in a romantic type of way.’”
Then, Cameron’s mother, who has been a friend for about 40 years, posted a picture of the two of them titled “My date” Tuesday night. I’m not naming her because she has not put her name out in the public.
You watched Kasky dress down Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in a CNN town hall for refusing to refuse contributions from the National Rifle Association. In fact, what it took for Cameron to try to get a simple “yes” or “no” answer to his question from a sitting U.S. senator and former presidential candidate from his own state was amazing!
Fellow survivor Hogg also became a gun control advocate and activist against gun violence, but he has been more controversial. New to Florida — his family moved from L.A. at the start of high school — he chose to attend Stoneman Douglas because of its TV production classes.
Hogg may be most famous for what The Washington Post called his “dust-up with Fox News host Laura Ingraham,” who used this tweet to “make fun of the teen’s public lament about being rejected by colleges to which he had applied.”
https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/979021639458459648
(It really won’t matter because he plans to take next year off after high school to campaign in the midterm elections.)
The next day, Ingraham apologized to Hogg but not anybody else she’d put down over the years, including LeBron James, and by then it was too late.
https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/979404377730486272
https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/979404540754657280
So, knowing how TV and news are businesses that revolve around money (Where have you heard that multiple times before?), he urged his 700,000+ Twitter followers to boycott Ingraham’s advertisers.
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/979168957180579840
The Washington Post noted, Hogg called the apology an insincere “effort just to save your advertisers.”
Then, “In a matter of days, Ingraham lost more than a dozen advertisers, including Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Hulu, Jenny Craig, Ruby Tuesday and Miracle-Ear.”
https://twitter.com/LibertyMutual/status/979811276003205121
That weekend, Hogg told CNN,
“It’s disturbing to know that somebody can bully so many people and just get away with it, especially to the level that she did. … No matter who somebody is, no matter how big or powerful they may seem, a bully is a bully, and it’s important that you stand up to them.”
He even went as far as to compare the tweet and Ingraham’s criticism of him, saying they “were in line with bullying statements she had made about others: a conflict with gays while she was at Dartmouth in 1984 and, recently, responding to LeBron James’s political statements by saying that the NBA star should ‘shut up and dribble.’”
“I’m glad to see corporate America standing with me and the other students of Parkland and everybody else. Because when we work together, we can accomplish anything.”
Then Ingraham took a week off. Fox claimed the vacation had been planned.
Hogg, now 18, has already made political change.
When Leslie Gibson, who was running unopposed for the Maine House of Representatives, described fellow Parkland student Emma González as a “skinhead lesbian,” Hogg called for somebody to challenge the Republican. He got not one but two other candidates, and Gibson dropped out of the race in response to public reaction critical of his comments.
Today, a little more controversy. The conservative network The Blaze is reporting,
“The Zionist Organization of America is calling on Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg to change the name of his forthcoming book, as it believes that the title shows ‘shocking insensitivity to Holocaust survivors.’ “Random House publishers announced Thursday that David and his sister Lauren had penned a deal with the publishing house to release a book, #NEVERAGAIN: A New Generation Draws the Line, June 5.”
Lauren is a freshman survivor.
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/986682645814956032
According to The Blaze, Random House said it plans to make a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Blaze also reports the book is being described as
“a statement of generational purpose, and a moving portrait of the birth of a new movement.” “In times of struggle and tragedy, we can come together in love and compassion for each other,” David told Entertainment Weekly. “We can see each other not as political symbols, but as human beings. And then, of course, there will be times when we simply must fight for what is right.” Sister Lauren added, “It’s amazing to see that so much love can come from so much loss. But from our loss, our generation will create positive change.”
But I’ve had an issue with using the phrase “never again” since it has always referred to one event: the murders of 6 million Jews and millions of others in the Nazis’ organized extermination campaign during World War II. Personally, I think the book title should be changed, and don’t think the phrase should be used in any other matter, but don’t doubt Hogg’s sincerity about the gun issue.
The ZOA said in part,
“By co-opting ‘Never Again’ title for his book opposing guns, David Hogg trivializes the holocaust” and the Hoggs’ book title “offends Holocaust survivors, Jews, and all human rights-loving people.”
Those are sections the Glenn Beck-founded network chose to highlight, due to its own agenda.
Click here for the complete press release issued yesterday, which also said,
“This statement should not be construed as in any way lessening our shock, outrage and pain regarding the Parkland school shooting. ZOA completely sympathizes with the loving, bereft families and all the infinitely precious victims of the Parkland shooting, all other school shootings, and all other shootings. All affected by these tragedies are in our hearts and prayers. … “It is an expression that should never be politicized or co-opted by anyone, regardless of political affiliation. … “The Holocaust was unique and unprecedented, in that: it involved a ‘final solution’ designed to murder every single Jewish man, woman and child; Jews were the only people killed for the ‘crime’ of existing; the murder of Jews was an ‘end in itself’ rather than a means to some other goal; and the people who carried out the ‘Final Solution’ were primarily average citizens ‘just doing a job.’ None of the other terrible slaughters and genocides this world has witnessed share all these characteristics.”
We’ll see what happens.
A third of the 20 founding members of the group Never Again MSD is activist Emma González, who has also had to deal with criticism of her bisexual orientation, hairstyle and more, including this.
The Washington Post reported,
“A doctored animation of González tearing the U.S. Constitution in half circulated on social media during the rally, after it was lifted from a Teen Vogue story about teenage activists. In the real image, González is ripping apart a gun-range target.”
I guess you could say desperate liars were targeting her because they had nothing better.
The group was promoting the March 24 “March for Our Lives” rallies in which even the president’s daughter, Tiffany Trump, supported. I traced how this posting came to be.
https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/977696844187885569
Kasky, Hogg and González — along with fellow students Jacqueline Cohen and Alex Wind — even made Time magazine‘s list of the 100 most influential people in the world for becoming prominent activists, organizing protests, and speaking out publicly to demand stricter laws on gun control.
Time wrote in an article, How we chose the 2018 TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people: “Barack Obama, who has said that his greatest frustration as President was the failure of commonsense gun-safety laws, draws inspiration from the Parkland, Fla., teenagers who organized the March for Our Lives: ‘They have the power … to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions and cowardice too often dressed up as wisdom.’” Click here for the Time article about the Parkland 5.
Mashable went back further, writing the former president…
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/966704319658647553
and first lady…
https://twitter.com/MichelleObama/status/966483852834287621
“both tweeted support for the Parkland teens following the deadly shooting, and wrote them a handwritten letter in praise of their ‘resilience, resolve and solidarity.’”
Notice the dates on everything. The attack took place on Feb. 14.
Mashable included a typed version of the letter, for those of you having trouble with Mr. Obama’s handwriting, and also a look at celebrities joining in at the March for Our Lives.
https://twitter.com/mic/status/976502415376703488
Even former NFL placekicker Jay Feely needs a lesson on seriousness, after The Sporting News showed a tweet he posted. It showed a “photo of him holding a gun while standing between his daughter and her prom date” that was intended to be a joke.
https://twitter.com/jayfeely/status/987853794221350912
Feely should know better. He’s from Florida, grew up there and spent a year with the Miami Dolphins. The next day, he clarified what had happened.
https://twitter.com/jayfeely/status/988067986115149824
On a more positive note, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports the prom will be an “over-the-top” party with a touching tribute, and students promising the best prom ever, after 17 people were shot to death at their school on Valentine’s Day. Four seniors were killed. So were seven freshman (that will be some prom in three years), plus three other students and two adults.
Eventually, the prom committee wanted to recognize the tragedy that’ll mark their high school memories. There will be a memorial near the entrance to the ballroom. It’ll also include two members of their class who died in 2016 of cystic fibrosis and suicide. The memorial will be surrounded by couches and designated as a quiet place to sit and think.
Inside, the prom will be stopped by 17 seconds of silence.
It also won’t be expensive. The cost: Just $30 per ticket, and $50 for non-seniors. The hotel, DJ, florist, decorator, and other vendors are donating their services for free or at cost, and the hotel is giving families of the senior victims a free weekend of their choice.
Good for all of them!
Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivors, along with high school students from around the country, were not even born 19 years ago during the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo.
(I remember it like yesterday. I had returned from vacation, was working at WCAU, and our news anchor Renee Chenault happened to be from Littleton. She ended up going there to report from her hometown, but being local news, did not get the publicity of Katie Couric for touching the hand of a victim’s father on the Today show.)
There were an estimated 150,000 students protesting on Friday’s anniversary at more than 2,700 walkouts, according to organizers.
The Chicago Tribune, in an Associated Press article published Friday afternoon, said,
“In a new wave of school walkouts, they raised their voices against gun violence. But this time, they were looking to turn outrage into action.” The students, “turned their attention to upcoming elections as they pressed for tougher gun laws and politicians who will enact them. Scores of rallies turned into voter registration drives. Students took the stage to issue an ultimatum to their lawmakers.”
Activists behind a March 14 protest, a month after Stoneman Douglas, estimated it drew nearly 1 million students.
(I find it interesting The Chicago Tribune used an Associated Press article, while I learned Chicago’s Fox TV station asked the other Fox stations for a story they could post on their website, because they were apparently unable to write one of their own. Were there no rallies anywhere near Chicago? Probably plenty, considering the numbers above! At minimum, I would’ve shown the big one around town and then another in a zip code they wanted to target for ratings. Even chopper video would’ve done the job except for hearing the students tell their reasons for walking out, firsthand. But we know how Fox stations operate with sharing web articles. It seems at this point, they’ve become dependent on their sister-stations rather than even try to do the work. I love how so many of today’s young people are the opposite of this kind of corporate laziness!)
The Washington Post noted, “Critics have questioned whether … the high school students demanding that the nation’s gun laws be strengthened are mature enough to understand the complex policy positions they have staked out.”
Isn’t this exactly what we want from our young people? To think, investigate and reconsider if necessary? And don’t these particular students who experienced what they did have unique insight on the issue? Yet some people feel the need to criticize them. Maybe it’s because they need to be heard. Maybe because these grown-ups really have not grown up and are jealous. Or maybe because “the kids are alright” and and it simply bothers them because they have issues of their own.
How much are they bothered?
Click here for “Ted Nugent says Parkland students ‘have no soul,’ calls them ‘mushy-brained children’” (The Washington Post, March 31, 2018).
Nugent, perhaps the NRA’s most outspoken board member, told a San Antonio radio station, “These poor children, I’m afraid to say, but the evidence is irrefutable. They have no soul,” after discussing with the host their belief the teenagers have been manipulated by left-wing ideologues.
“The lies from these poor, mushy-brained children who have been fed lies and parrot lies,” Nugent said. “I really feel sorry for them. It’s not only ignorant, dangerous and stupid — it’s soulless. To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless.”
Click here for “How the Parkland teens became villains on the right-wing Internet” (The Washington Post, March 26, 2018).
If ardent NRA supporters don’t lose now, or in this year’s midterms, or even the 2020 presidential election, they should absolutely know the demographics of this country are changing. Eventually, they will lose to people who have felt real pain and others of that generation. It’s going to happen, whether they’ll consider themselves martyrs, or if they’re even alive to feel any suffering from their defeat.
Wikipedia
Also a hero: Last week, the pilot of Southwest Airlines flight 1380, Captain Tammie Jo Shults, landed her plane calmly and successfully, on just one engine, here in Philadelphia. She saved 148 lives.
The trouble on the flight from New York to Dallas started when one of its engines appeared to explode in midair. The only person killed was passenger Jennifer Riordan who was partially sucked out of a broken window. That was extraordinary despite the tragedy.
https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/986788359350751232
https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/987487170947637248
YouTube
According to The Guardian, “Those present recalled that after the plane had landed, Shults walked through the aisle to talk to them, to see how they were doing.”
Talk about responsibility AND customer service!
Turns out, The Guardian continued,
“Shults was one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy and was elite enough to fly an F/A-18 Hornet. She flew training missions as an ‘enemy pilot’ during Operation Desert Storm, as women were then still excluded from combat missions.”
Also not to be forgotten is the heroism of Waffle House diner James Shaw Jr. Early Sunday morning, outside Nashville, he was sitting with a friend at the restaurant counter when police said a gunman wearing nothing but a green jacket opened fire outside.
As CNN reported, “Glass shattered, dust swirled and Shaw said he saw a man lying on the ground.”
Four people were killed.
https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/988000352741003264
CNN continued, Shaw
“bolted from his seat and slid along the ground to the restroom, he said. But he kept an eye and an ear out for the gunman. And the moment the shooter paused, Shaw decided to ambush him … before more lives were lost.”
He charged at the man with the rifle. They fought. Finally, Shaw said he managed to wrestle the barrel of the rifle from the gunman, tossed it behind the counter and the shooter escaped.
https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/988055742363193344
“The gun was hot and he was naked but none of that mattered,” Shaw said, with a burn on his hand a wound on his elbow where a bullet grazed it.
He told reporters,
“I figured if I was going to die, he was going to have to work for it. … I was just trying to live.”
https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/988476776316841984
Travis Jeffrey Reinking, 29, was arrested Monday, after a 34-hour manhunt.
https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/988916197411508224
NBC News pointed out he went from wearing only a green jacket to a green “suicide smock — a padded gown made from heavy-duty polyester that is held together with Velcro strips.”
If you are of a certain age, you remember Schoolhouse Rock! from ABC on Saturday mornings. The jazz musician who was instrumental in that cartoon series died Monday in Mount Bethel, Pa., 92 miles and an hour-and-a-half drive from Philadelphia.
Bob Dorough was 94.
Wikipedia
Simple Wikipedia
Schoolhouse Rock! ran from 1973 to 1985. The cartoons, including “My Hero, Zero” and “Three is a Magic Number,” (the first in the series) were written and performed by Dorough.
His biography says he “entertained and instructed unsuspecting children.”
Schoolhouse Rock! came back for another five years in the 1990s and its 40th anniversary was marked with a DVD edition of the entire five subject series.
Has a Schoolhouse Rock! tune ever helped you on a test? Do you have a favorite? I especially liked how a bill became a law (“I’m Just a Bill”) and “Conjunction Junction.”
Wikipedia
Finally, there’s the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, site of last night’s Sixers playoff game where they eliminated the Miami Heat. Actually, the topic is replacement names, and Wells Fargo is not a very good corporate citizen.
I have always been against companies buying names for stadiums and liked it when NBC Sports, before losing the NFL in 1998, made it a point of not referring to the names of stadiums but just the city, unless there was confusion between different stadiums.
Philly.com says its readers suggest either Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Hinkie or Ed Snider.
Wikimedia Commons
The stadium, where the Flyers played hockey until their season ended earlier this week, is named for Wells Fargo which is a big bank in Philadelphia and many other cities. Before that, it was named Wachovia. Before that, First Union. FU Center had something special to it. And before that, CoreStates. Just shows you how banks take each other over and waste money having to change the names on every branch and piece of real estate, including the ones they sponsor or use to advertise.
Speaking of money, Wells Fargo was in trouble yet again for what the website called “scams that targeted its own customers,” specifically its mortgage and auto insurance practices. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency made the accusations and ordered the bank to make restitution, plus pay the regulators $1 billion in fines. Wells Fargo did not admit or deny any allegations.
Just two years ago, Wells Fargo’s employees recused of secretly opening more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts to meet their sales targets and receive bonuses. The bank had to pay $185 million to settle those allegations. It also fired about 5,300 employees for doing what may have been their jobs. In that case as well, Wells Fargo did not admit or deny allegations.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has been the nation’s third largest bank by assets.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
FYI, the late Wilt Chamberlain played for the San Francisco/Philadelphia Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers, and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. He still holds the single-game scoring record, having scored 100 in one game. It happened March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. against the New York Knicks. The Philadelphia Warriers moved west to San Francisco after that season.
Twitter
Sam Hinkie was General Manager and President of Basketball Operations of the Philadelphia 76ers. He graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and led the Sixers to some lousy seasons, but the team rebounded from what he left behind. In 2015, ESPN named Hinkie’s Sixers as the major professional sports franchise that had most embraced analytics.
Wikipedia
And the late Ed Snider helped build the Spectrum and owned the Flyers, the Wells Fargo Center and a lot more. Wikipedia noted, “In a 1999 Philadelphia Daily News poll, Snider was selected as the city’s greatest sports mover and shaker, beating out legends such as Connie Mack, Sonny Hill, Bert Bell, and Roger Penske.”
Click here for several other readers’ thoughts on new names, some more serious than others!
Please, if you like what you read here, subscribe to CohenConnect.com with either your email address or WordPress account, and get a notice whenever I publish.
Who says everything I write is negative, but correct? This is my 90th blog post and like most journalists, I identify mistakes all over and somehow -- often through publicity -- try to get them fixed.
#"never again"#Bert Bell#Bob Dorough#Cameron Kasky#Connie Mack (Philadelphia)#corporations#David Hogg#Ed Snider#Emma Gonzalez#Everytown for Gun Safety#Glenn Beck#James Shaw Jr.#Jay Feely#Jeff Kasky#Laura Ingraham#Lauren Hogg#Liberty Mutual#Mashable#Michelle Obama#Nazis#Never Again MSD#Operation Desert Storm#Philadelphia Warriors#Pink News#Rebecca Boldrick#Roger Penske#Sam Hinkie#San Francisco Warriors#Schoolhouse Rock!#Sonny Hill
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Fake profiles boosted Brazilian ex-president Dilma
Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/fake-profiles-boosted-brazilian-ex-president-dilma/
Fake profiles boosted Brazilian ex-president Dilma
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff speaks during a campaign rally in January
A BBC investigation has found that fake social media accounts and blogs were used to back the candidacy of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil during the 2010 election campaign. Rouseff won the election and was later re-elected before being impeached on corruption charges. She and her party deny any knowledge of the fakes.
He looked like an ordinary guy. Armando Santiago Jr was – apparently – 56 years old, married, and lived in Pocos de Caldas, a small city in south-east Brazil.
He was also a staunch supporter of presidential Dilma Rousseff and the Brazilian Workers’ Party (known by its Portuguese initials, PT). On the social network Orkut – the most popular in Brazil at the time – Armando described himself as “a Brazilian citizen outraged by the criminal actions of the opposition in the election campaign.” It was one of many broadsides against the main rivals of the PT, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).
His influential blog was called “Seja Dita Verdade” (“Let the truth be said”) and its stated mission was to transmit “transparent news”.
“False e-mails against Dilma Rousseff are being spread,” Armando wrote in one post. “I have, whenever possible, debunked them one by one in this blog.”
But “Comrade Armando”, as he was dubbed by other bloggers, was not a real person.
His blog and his profiles on Orkut and Twitter were administered by four people who were paid about 4,000 Brazilian reals ($1,400, £1,000) each a month to write and spread the Armando posts.
And Armando was not the only fake. During the 2010 election campaign, one company ran a network of false social media accounts in an attempt to boost the PT and Rousseff, according to whistleblowers inside the operation.
Image caption A screenshot of the “Armando Santiago Jr” profile in Orkut, where he described himself as “a Brazilian citizen outraged by the criminal actions of the opposition in the election campaign.”
Meet the fakers
BBC Brazil interviewed three of the four people running the Armando blog. They say they were recruited by a political marketing firm based in Sao Paulo to carry out the work.
They say their job was to feed the blog with posts denouncing alleged rumours about Rousseff, as well as posts attacking her main opponent, Jose Serra, the PSDB candidate.
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The blog also created false news stories which were spread by the team using other fake or “sock puppet” social media profiles – at least 131 of them on Twitter.
Although now, eight years later, the Twitter profiles are inactive, BBC Brasil has found that more than 80 of them still exist (in other words, they haven’t been suspended or banned).
They include users like “Juliana Miranda”, who wrote everyday tweets about her psychology course (“Freud is one of my passions”) and others in support of the PT (“we want Dilma!”), in addition to retweeting Armando’s tweets. Profile pictures were copied or stolen – in the case of “Juliana”, from a Finnish blogger.
Image caption The Twitter profile of “Juliana M Miranda”. The profile picture was taken from a blogger in Finland
The tactics were replicated in later elections. Last year, BBC Brasil revealed that fake profiles and misinformation were used in Brazil during the 2014 election, when a Rio-based company paid about 40 employees spread across Brazil to create and feed thousands of fake profiles, which were sold as a service to politicians.
It’s extremely difficult to gauge what impact, if any, the fake accounts had on the 2010 election, which was won by Rousseff. She won re-election four years later before being impeached on corruption charges in 2016.
Brazil’s current president is Michel Temer, who was once her vice-president. And in October 2018, the country will face another election.
False rumours destroyed – and created
Back in 2010, the Armando blog swatted down false rumours – for instance, that Dilma’s running mate was a Satanist and that the candidate herself had a secret lesbian lover.
But those interviewed by BBC Brasil admit they also produced false news themselves. One post, for instance, reported that Serra supported abortion and that Vatican officials were considering excommunicating him.
“Jose Serra will be expelled from the Church,” read the headline on one blog post.
The person who wrote the blog tells BBC Brasil that writers took steps to ensure that their fake stories were unfalsifiable, in this instance quoting “secret” Vatican sources.
“Who can verify that?” the writer says.
On presidential debate nights, the team would draw lots to determine who would be responsible for the “Armando” profile, because it involved so much work.
“The debate was like a World Cup final,” one writer says. “It was a very stressful job.”
Image caption A screenshot of a post from influential blog “Let the truth be said” falsely claiming that the Vatican was about to excommunicate presidential candidate Jose Serra
‘Ectos’
The writers referred to their social media fake accounts as “ectos” – short for “ectoplasms”. They included normal-looking “people” such as “Maria de Lourdes Coelho”, a grandmother in northern Brazil who called herself “the voice of women in favour of Dilma.” Another was “Mariza Villela”, an entrepreneur who credited her success to “improvements of the country” under Dilma’s predecessor and ally, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The company bosses instructed the writers to create fake profiles with varying demographic profiles, backgrounds, professions, and writing styles, in order to reach different communities.
Image caption The profile of “Marcos Kaiowa” was created in an attempt to show that people from Brazil’s indigenous community supported Rousseff
In the final stretch of the campaign, each employee maintained about 20 developed “ectos”, in addition to the “Armando” profile.
They say there was no automation or use of bots – all of the posting was done manually. Profile photos were taken from various corners of the internet: from pages and blogs outside Brazil, and from dating sites. Most “ectos” were women with attractive profile pictures, deliberately chosen to hook in men.
For instance one fake account, “Cristina Morais”, described herself as a “literature teacher, 25 years old, journalism student against traditional media outlets”.
But her face belongs to 36-year-old Rio engineer Liana Soares, who lives in Switzerland.
When contacted by the BBC, Soares said she was upset at her picture being copied and pasted from her travel blog.
“If it’s to manipulate public opinion, it’s even worse,” she says.
Image caption Fake profiles were designed to show widespread support. This internal PowerPoint presentation that BBC Brazil was given access to demonstrates how the writers aimed for a wide geographic distribution, in this case in the country’s central region.
Allegations denied
The company who hired the employees the BBC spoke to is called Ahead Marketing. In an email, its owners denied having participated in the “production of fake news”, but did not respond to a question about whether the company was engaged in creating fake profiles.
Ahead Marketing, owned by Gabriel Arantes Cecilio and, at the time, by Arnaldo Lincoln de Azevedo, said it could not comment on whether it was hired to work on Rousseff’s 2010 campaign, citing internal confidentiality rules.
The company’s website notes that it has participated “inside and outside Brazil” in “victorious campaigns for the Presidency of the Republic, State Governments and large capitals”, without specifying particular candidates or elections.
There are no records of payments by the Rousseff campaign or the Workers Party to Ahead Marketing for work carried out during the 2010 campaign, although the agency was paid 234,000 Brazilian reals ($70,000; £50,000) by the campaign of Rousseff’s ally Fernando Pimentel. Pimentel ran for Senate in 2010 and was one of the coordinators of Rousseff’s campaign.
Dilma Rousseff denies she or her campaign ever hired someone to create fake profiles online.
Her press office told BBC Brasil they “neither contracted or authorized any services related to fake profiles and fake news in any of her campaigns in 2010 and 2014” and that she is “not aware of any of the companies or persons that act in this area, any action, initiative or action in this sense as part of their campaigns.”
The Workers’ Party, responding on behalf of Pimentel, told us they had “no knowledge about hiring any company for the creation and maintenance of fake profiles on Twitter in any election campaign.”
There was a third person who co-ordinated the work, according to the former employees: advertising executive Ruy Nogueira Netto, who was also a link to the Workers’ Party. The sources interviewed by BBC Brasil say they worked in his apartment in Sao Paulo.
Contacted via email, Nogueira Netto denied that he oversaw the false account team. He said he had met officials from Rousseff’s campaign “to assess the internet” at his home, but had no knowledge of what they did.
Fakers’ regret
Creating fake profiles to gain advantage or harm other people is illegal in Brazil, and legislation passed last year prohibits “the transmission of electoral content” through fake accounts on the internet. This rule did not exist in 2010.
Some of the false news writers now regret the work they did at the time.
“At the time, I thought that what we were doing was very important, that the blog also had the job of monitoring bad journalism,” says one, “Today I think differently.”
“I can hardly explain what I did in 2010,” says another. “It wasn’t journalism, it was something else, and it’s something that can be very dangerous.”
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