#huffpo

[ahb-writes]

You know what that is? That’s an act of defiance. My life, every damn day, is an act of defiance. Fuck your "model minority." I will obliterate every stereotype that you have about me walking in the room as an Asian woman — whatever you think that is.

Sophia Chang (in "Meet The Korean-Canadian Woman Who Helped Bring You The Wu Tang Clan" by Ja'han Jones)

[whatisthedeal]

When I say I cackled

[siryouarebeingmocked]

>Huffpo

Not even shocked.

>The parental rights crowd won out, and the Central Bucks school board became a 6-3 conservative majority. 

>With that came a tangled web of proposals designed to silence anyone who isn’t white, straight, cisgender and conservative, including rules to dictate what teachers can wear and how students can express their gender identity and sexuality.

Last time I checked, anyone could wear non-gender confirming clothes, regardless of sexuality, gender identity, or political tribe.

Also, I like the implication that teachers didn't really have a dress code before.

It's also hilarious that this article implies rightie parents are hysterical about inappropriate books for kids, while the article itself plays on the left's own hysteria about "banning" books.

Such as saying "removing books from public school curriculums and school libraries is banning them". It doesn't even have to be at the public's request, apparently.

Look at the nontroversy over "Maus".

And it's extra hilarious when the mainstream left and progressives have little problem with censoring things, if it's for the "correct" reasons. What's the difference between claiming something is bad for kids and claiming that it's "misinformation", exactly?

Residents would come to public meetings and read excerpts from books they wanted to ban, cherry-picking explicit passages so they could accuse the libraries of having pornographic material.

“They take ‘Genderqueer’ and they open it up to the page where there is a dildo blow job, but they don’t talk about the rest of the book or what the book is even about,” Smith said, referring to Maia Kobabe’s bestselling book that describes their journey to figuring out they’re nonbinary.

How dare they throw accusations of child grooming over pornographic content in the book.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

[evermorre]

say what u will about that article, but I think this is true and something white women (like me) can apply in our actual, daily lives: "Women of color, particularly Black women, have been pointing this out for years: White women actively uphold white supremacy by staying silent when they could be vocal."

[asteracaea]

why on earth was this published today 😂

[baddywronglegs]

THANKS HUFFPO I'LL STOP SWALLOWING WHOLE POTATOES THAT'LL FIX ME

[sayruq]

[transwolvie]

queer discourse is bad still lmao literally the only ppl saying that you can't say it ENTIRELY is Huffington Post. that should tell you everything you need to know

[sexhaver]

"actually if you don't vote for the guy who lied about beheaded babies and is currently funding the genocide that enabled to the tune of $14 billion, YOU are the one who wants a genocide, because it could get even worse for [insert random minority group here later - Editor] in America! if you carry this train of thought through to its only logical conclusion and get mad at me for explicitly saying that hypothetical future American deaths are worse than real current Palestinian deaths, i will start monologuing at you like a YA novel protagonist before linking a barrage of HuffPo and Buzzfeed articles about the five things Biden managed to accomplish in between not saving Roe v Wade and not stopping student loan payments and mishandling covid. i am the mature one here"

[skelingtonsderek]

some posts on here are like how dare you talk directly and only to ME on MY POST here on MY blog that I made on this social media site to TALK to people that's SO CREEPY how could you

[drdemonprince]

i was on NPR talking about Autism shit two weeks ago, and i have the book sales figures from that week and that national media appearance had.... absolutely zero relationship to sales. on the typical week these days, 1,400 to 1,500 copies of Unmasking Autism will sell. The week that I was on NPR there was a slight dip; only about 1,300 books were sold.

i have done a lot of press for my books. For Laziness Does Not Exist I did easily a 100 damn podcasts and radio shows and newspapers and excerpts in magazines. none of it corresponded to a noticeable bump in sales. the biggest "get" my publicist found for my latest book was the Glennon Doyle show, a booking she and her team celebrated and then spent months clamboring excitedly for... it, too, had no obvious relationship to sales.

Unmasking Autism became a bestseller because some other guy made a tiktok about it, and then a bunch of tiktokkers made videos about it too. all on their own. without any prodding from me, or any relationship to me. it was completely organic, passionate, and sincere, and rooted in the book's true merits and usefulness to other people, and that's why it inspired lots of sales. and continues to more than a year and a half later. all the press I did for Unmasking Autism prior to the release of that tiktok did relatively far less. NPR, Goop, the LA Times, Lit Hub, Jacobin, Huffpo, the New York Times, the Financial Times, MSNBC, Business Insider. Didn't matter. at least not much. so why do i bother?

publishers really ride your ass trying to make you give lots of interviews and show up for lots of events but it's all based on the worship of traditional media and magical thinking that it will somehow convert listeners into buyers. and that's just not how it works. the truth is 95% of books never sell more than 5,000 copies, and most people don't buy books or read them. i love reading but i dont think this is itself some terrible loss, as most books are padded-out commodities made for sale more than a work of true artistic passion or scholarly merit, and sometimes listening to a 90 minute interview with an author tells you the bulk of what you need to know.

it's freeing to know that the effort i put into getting my books out into the world have almost zero relationship to the books' success. marketing just does not work. it's a relief. unmasking autism did fabulously because it's actually both good and useful. laziness has had a long life span because it speaks to real problems in people's lives and gives them a message they are desperate to hear. but no amount of thirsty ass online shilling will make somebody realize that and it's maddening to try. you just gotta focus on doing good work, work that you enjoy making or need to make and that you feel good about, let things flop if theyre gonna flop, and keep on living your life.

which is all good news because i really do hate a lot of these fucking interviews. how can i stomach being on npr or in the atlantic or whatever these days given how complicit nearly all major media outlets are in justifying this genocide. like who fuckin cares about them, who wants their approval. who needs it. it's of no value

[booasaur]

Regarding a possible ground invasion of Lebanon (this is a HuffPo journalist who has great contacts in DC):

Reminder that this is what he posted in June, and has thus been borne out:

Dem voters have mostly adopted the tactic of closing their eyes to the carnage in the Middle East, except to support it or criticize those who want to stop it, with the hope that if they just got to the election and won, things would... change? Not matter? The Biden-Harris administration would no longer have to worry about the threat from Zionist donors and voters and actually use US leverage to push for a ceasefire?

Things are escalating fast now, before the election, as everyone actually knowledgeable about the area predicted. Netanyahu will see this as an opportunity to help Trump and even if it doesn't end up affecting the result, get in as much violence as he can before Harris takes over with what he fears will be a more standard Dem position of favoring Israel but not to the point of risking America's reputation and safety, as Biden has allowed. Or possibly he views Biden-Harris as exactly what they've been so far, a Democrat administration with no red lines that has normalized the killing of Arabs and Muslims in a way that a Republican presidency would not have.

So what's the plan? Even in Dems' best case scenario going forward, thousands would still die in Palestine, much of the West Bank would still continue to be annexed, but what's some more after a year or 75?

But now, with Lebanon being attacked, and Iran knowing Israel will strike them next with full impunity and US support, what are Dems going to do? How many more deaths and how much more suffering will they allow?

More importantly to them, a regional war comes with the risk of making the administration look weak and ineffective, a framing Dems always have to fight uphill against, especially compared to Trump, and especially a WOC. If this risks tilting a few key tens of thousands of votes, then what?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Harris campaign kicks into high gear

July 26, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Kamala Harris has the Trump campaign on its back foot. Whatever Trump’s advisers expected from V.P. Harris, they were wrong. Although Trump and his surrogates have tried several lines of attack, each attempt backfires as Trump offends important constituencies he needs to win. In attacking Kamala Harris, Trump is offending Black Americans, successful women, mothers raising blended families, couples trying to conceive, young people, and more. The Harris campaign has responded forcefully, using a pointed sense of humor that is refreshing and attractive to younger voters who see the internet as a battlefield of ideas.

On Thursday, the Harris campaign released a powerful television ad that was a “no-holds-barred” look at the threat to democracy posed by Trump. See The Guardian, ‘We choose freedom’: Kamala Harris campaign launches first ad. The ad is embedded in The Guardian article; I urge you to watch it. If you don’t, here is The Guardian’s description of the ad:

Released on Thursday morning, the ad opens with shots of Harris’s smiling face behind a podium, the word Kamala, the word Harris, and the American flag. The soundtrack is the beginning of Beyoncé’s song Freedom, to which Harris entered and exited her first speech to campaign staffers after gaining lightning speed momentum on the road to becoming the presumptive nominee. The ad is narrated by Harris, whose first words are, “In this election we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in?” She continues: “There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate,” she says, over shots of Trump and JD Vance. “But us, we choose something different.”

On social media, the Harris campaign has been even more aggressive. The Harris campaign took a clip of Trump imitating Kamala Harris, saying, “I’m the prosecutor and he is the convicted felon.” After Trump admits that he is a convicted felon and Harris is a prosecutor, the ad immediately cuts to a picture of Kamala Harris with her voice saying, “I am Kamala Harris and I approve this message.” The Harris campaign is showing early signs of social media savvy—just as Barack Obama’s campaign did in 2008.

The Harris campaign also went after JD Vance, who described Kamala Harris in 2021 as a “childless cat lady” who should not have an equal voice in the future of America because she does not have biological children. (Harris is a stepmother to two children with Doug Emhoff.) Thursday was “In Vitro Fertilization Day.” The Harris campaign released a statement saying, “Happy World IVF Day To Everyone Except JD Vance.” See HuffPo, Harris Campaign Wishes Happy World IVF Day To Everyone Except 1 Person.

The confidence and swagger of that ad was reflected in the Harris campaign’s immediate acceptance of debate with Donald Trump, set for September 10. But as Kamala Harris demonstrated an eagerness to debate, Trump began hedging his bets, saying he “did not like the idea” of a debate on ABC. See CNBC, ‘Let’s go’: Harris agrees to debate Trump, accuses him of ‘backpedaling’ on Sept. 10 date.

The Harris campaign also used social media to troll Trump's morning appearance on Fox News, during which Trump called Kamala Harris “garbage.” The Harris campaign issued a press release entitled Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance. The press release said,

After watching Fox News this morning we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok? Trump is old and quite weird [and] this guy shouldn’t be president ever again.

For their part, Trump and his surrogates were reduced to claiming that Kamala Harris is a “DEI hire,” a “failed border czar,” and a socialist who will destroy the economy of America.

Luckily for Kamala Harris, economic growth and border security both improved in the second quarter. On Thursday, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the gross domestic product grew at a 2.8% rate in the second quarter, well above the consensus prediction of 1.9% by economists. See USA Today, US GDP report: Latest data shows economy grew 2.8% in Q2 (usatoday.com)

At the border, crossings by immigrants dropped to their lowest level since 2020 (under Donald Trump). See CBS News, Migrant crossings continue to plunge, nearing the level that would lift Biden's border crackdown. Per CBS News,

July is on track to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop in migrant apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border and the lowest level in illegal immigration there since the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, the internal Department of Homeland Security figures show.

My point in noting the responses by the Harris campaign is not to revel in the “zingers” and “smackdowns” that are long overdue. Rather, it is to highlight the nimbleness, swagger, and professionalism of the Harris campaign. The lightning-quick responses would be exemplary for any presidential campaign; they are stunning for a presidential campaign that is four days old.

Although it is still early, it seems clear that the Harris campaign will focus on Trump's criminality, incoherence, age, and hateful agenda. And it is doing so with a satirical edge that transfers easily into internet memes—which is an effective way to create viral messaging that reaches young people. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has been caught flat-footed, trying to ignore the awkward creepiness of JD Vance and Trump's part-time approach to campaigning.

All of this should give Democrats confidence that Kamala Harris will run a strong campaign against an opponent who will wage a vile and hate-filled counter-offensive. If the first few days of the campaign are any indication, Kamala Harris is up to the task.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[ms-demeanor]

"hey this blogger who is famous for uncovering hard-to-find documents and sharing them has a criticism of a website I like. I wonder if the links in the links it provided might have more information about this subject or if actually this person who is famously good at in-depth research misread and is misrepresenting a ten year old huffpo article. Probably that second one. And while I'm at it I should take academia's version of the RIAA at face value when they're discussing piracy, I'm sure they've got no incentive to distort facts to present themselves in a positive light after the death of someone who was being prosecuted for for violating their terms of service."

[zvaigzdelasas]

President Joe Biden’s approach to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine is fueling mounting tensions at the U.S. government agency most involved in foreign policy: the State Department. Officials told HuffPost that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his most senior advisers are overlooking widespread internal frustration. Some department staff said they feel as if Blinken and his team are uninterested in their own experts’ advice as they focus on supporting Israel’s expanding operation in Gaza[...]

“There’s basically a mutiny brewing within State at all levels,” one State Department official said.[...]

The cable would come in the wake of Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official, announcing his resignation on Wednesday. [...]

“In the last 24 hours, I’ve been getting an immense amount of outreach from colleagues... with really encouraging words of support and a lot of people saying they feel the same way and it’s very difficult for them,” said Paul, whose departure was first reported by HuffPost.

19 Oct 23