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newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Monday, December 18, 2023

‘The American dream is to leave America.’ US TikTokers abroad (CNN) A month’s paid vacation time. Wine at lunchtime on a Tuesday. In Kacie Rose Burns’ most popular video, the influencer runs through some of the biggest culture shocks she’s experienced since upping sticks from the US to Italy. Burns’ TikTok—viewed 19.8 million times—is flooded with comments ranging from disbelief, envy and approval. There’s one comment—liked 34,800 times—that maybe sums it all up: “I think the American dream is to leave America.” Burns isn’t alone. In recent years the American influencer abroad has become an omnipresent figure. If you’re active on these platforms it’s likely you’ve seen a video or two along these lines. Maybe an influencer wandering around a UK grocery store, commenting on how bizarre it is that British stores don’t store eggs in the refrigerator, or someone chronicling their attempts to learn French while in Paris, or showing the incredible views from their red-roofed Lisbon apartment.

East Coast braces for possible 'bomb cyclone' as furious storm roars in (USA Today) A powerful storm driving gale-force winds, heavy rains and flooding was roaring toward a long stretch of the East Coast on Sunday, a possible "bomb cyclone" poised to wreak havoc ahead of the holiday season. More than 32 million Americans were under a wind advisory, the National Weather Service said. AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno said winds will reach from 40 and 70 mph along the coast, with gusts of up to 85 mph possible. Gusts of 74 mph or greater are considered hurricane-force winds—a bomb cyclone is essentially a winter hurricane. "There is the likelihood of damage along the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts from this storm as it intensifies rapidly," Rayno said. "A zone of strong winds (will push) water from the Atlantic toward the shoreline, while at the same time, heavy rain pours down."

The Darien Gap (AP) Once nearly impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America, the jungle between Colombia and Panama this year became a speedy but still treacherous highway for hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. Driven by economic crises, government repression and violence, migrants from China to Haiti decided to risk three days of deep mud, rushing rivers and bandits. Enterprising locals offered guides and porters, set up campsites and sold supplies to migrants, using color-coded wristbands to track who had paid for what. Enabled by social media and Colombian organized crime, more than 506,000 migrants—nearly two-thirds Venezuelans—had crossed the Darien jungle by mid-December, double the 248,000 who set a record the previous year. Before last year, the record was barely 30,000 in 2016. It wasn’t only in Latin America. The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean or the Atlantic on small boats to reach Europe this year has surged. More than 250,000 irregular arrivals were registered in 2023, according to the European Commission.

Chilean voters reject draft of conservative constitution (AP) Chilean voters rejected on Sunday a proposed conservative constitution to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter. With 96% of votes counted late Sunday, about 55.8% had voted “no” to the new charter, with about 44.2% in favor. The vote came more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention. The new document, largely written by conservative councilors, was more conservative than the one it had sought to replace, because it would have deepened free-market principles, reduced state intervention and might have limited some women’s rights. The process to write a new constitution began after 2019 street protests, when thousands of people complained about inequality in one of Latin America’s most politically stable and economically strongest countries.

Russia and Ukraine exchange drone attacks (AP) Russia and Ukraine each reported dozens of attempted drone attacks in the past day. Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Ukrainian air defense had shot down 30 out of 31 drones launched overnight against 11 regions of the country. Russia also said Friday evening that it had thwarted a series of Ukrainian drone attacks. Russian anti-aircraft units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.

Ukraine puts head of Russian church on “wanted” list (Reuters) Ukraine’s Interior Ministry on Friday placed the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, a backer of the Kremlin’s 21-month-old war against Kyiv, on a wanted list after security services accused him of abetting the conflict. The measure is purely symbolic as Patriarch Kirill is in Russia and under no threat of arrest. It was the latest step in Ukraine’s campaign to uproot the influence of priests it alleges maintain close links to Russia and subvert Ukrainian society.

Thousands urged to higher ground as Australia battles floods (Reuters) Australian authorities on Sunday urged thousands of people in north Queensland state to move to higher ground because of the danger of flooding from torrential rains. Queensland authorities said major flooding was underway in some suburbs of Cairns, a tourist hub of around 170,000 people located around 1,700 km (1,060 miles) north of state capital Brisbane. The flooding came with heavy rain from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper, which hit the region this week, leaving tens of thousands without power and forcing evacuations.

In Gaza war, Israel’s radical settlers see an opportunity to expand (Washington Post) This community was founded on blood and retribution. When Gilad Zarc was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in 2001, his father, a member of the Jewish Underground, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, swore that he would establish six new illegal settlements—one for each letter of his name. Havat Gilad, or Gilad’s Farm, a settlement of some 80 families clinging to a steep hillside near the Palestinian city of Nablus, is one of them. And now, as Israel reels from the Hamas attack Oct. 7, the country’s extremist settler fringe sees new opportunities to expel Palestinians and expand the Jewish footprint in the occupied territories. Yehuda Shimon, a 48-year-old lawyer, looks out from a hilltop at the surrounding Palestinian villages. The closest lies less than half a mile away. “We must make a war with the Arabs,” he said. “Here and Gaza, it’s the same Arabs. If they don’t leave, we must fight with them, and the strongest win.” As Israel rains bombs down on Gaza, nearly a dozen Zionist organizations have agitated to return to the Gaza settlements from which they were expelled in 2005 as Israel moved to “disengage” from the enclave. The idea has been dismissed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “unrealistic,” but such views are beginning to enter the Israeli mainstream.

Israel Says 3 Hostages Bore White Flag Before Being Killed by Troops (NYT) The Israeli military on Saturday said three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli troops had been shirtless, unarmed and bearing a makeshift white flag. The troubling details of how they died have created widespread anguish and prompted renewed calls for a pause in the fighting to allow more hostages to be released. The military, which acknowledged that the killings violated its rules of engagement, announced the deaths on Friday, hours after saying it had recovered the bodies of three other Israeli hostages in Gaza. As the death toll of Palestinians killed in 70 days of war soared to nearly 20,000, according to Gazan health officials, the shootings of the Israeli hostages underlined the continuing risks for the more than 120 people who Israel says are still captive and raised questions about Israel’s prosecution of the war.

Tensions in Red Sea over Gaza war escalate. (AP) The tensions spilling over from the war in Gaza to merchant shipping in the Red Sea escalated on Saturday when Britain and the United States said their militaries had shot down more than a dozen attack drones. The Houthis, an armed group that controls much of northern Yemen, have been staging drone and missile assaults on Israeli and American targets since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. They have said they intend to prevent Israeli ships from sailing the Red Sea until Israel stops its war on Hamas, which rules Gaza. The shipping industry was also bracing for potential economic fallout as the Red Sea, a vital sea lane, is increasingly drawn into the regional unrest. The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that an American guided missile destroyer, the U.S.S. Carney, “successfully engaged” 14 drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. It said the confrontation resulted in no injuries or damage to ships in the area. The Egyptian state news media reported that its forces had shot down a drone off the coast of Dahab, a beach town on the Gulf of Aqaba roughly 90 miles south of Eilat. The Houthis have launched attacks on Eilat several times during the Gaza war, and the arrival of commercial ships in the city, a major port, has come to an almost complete halt.

Killing of USAID contractor in Gaza fuels protest against US support of Israel (Washington Post) Before he was killed alongside his wife and two children in Gaza last month, Hani Jnena, 33, sent a final message to his colleagues in the West Bank. “My daughters are terrified, and I am trying to keep them calm, but this bombing is terrifying,” he wrote, referring to Israel’s campaign of airstrikes and artillery bombardment of the Palestinian enclave. Jnena, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, died along with his family when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City’s Al Sabra neighborhood on Nov. 5. He is among hundreds of humanitarian and development workers killed during the two-month conflict, a statistic that has infuriated USAID officials who want the Biden administration to intensify pressure on Israel to limit the civilian bloodshed. Already, 135 United Nations relief workers have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7. That’s more deaths than in any single conflict in the organization’s 78-year history, officials say. Outside of the U.N., prominent aid groups such as Save the Children also have suffered losses. On Tuesday, the group announced that a staff member, his four children, his wife, and many other members of his extended family of 28 were killed in an Israeli airstrike Dec. 10.

The Overlooked Crisis in Congo: ‘We Live in War’ (NYT) Artillery boomed, shaking the ground, as a couple scurried through the streets of Saké, their possessions balanced on their heads, in the embattled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. At a crossroads, they passed a giant poster of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, who is standing for re-election on Dec. 20. “Unity, Security, Prosperity,” read the slogan. They hurried along. “Our children were born in war. We live in war,” Jean Bahati, his face beaded with sweat, said as he paused for breath. It was the fifth time that he and his wife had been forced to flee, he said. “We’re so sick of it.” They joined 6.5 million people displaced by war in eastern Congo, where a conflict that has dragged on for nearly three decades, stoking a vast humanitarian crisis that by some estimates has claiming over six million lives, is now lurching into a volatile new phase. Aid groups struggle to draw attention to the suffering in a country of about 100 million people, even when the numbers affected dwarf those of other crises. “There’s a sense of fatalism about Congo,” said Cynthia Jones, the World Food Program head in eastern Congo. “People seem to think ‘that’s just the way it is’.”

#headlines #news

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theculturedmarxist · 4 years ago

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leviathan.naked_lesbian_makeout_blonde_sluts.mp3.mov.jpg.exe

On the one hand, yeah, definitely fuck Zuckernerd and Facebook, and the other tech empires.

On the other hand, it’s not like these are even the grossest examples of monopolies, with even larger and more insidious corporations given the green light to bloat even larger. The motive definitely isn’t to protect the consumer or to encourage competition.

I doubt it’s to make an example of Zuckerberg for accumulating such a hoard of wealth, either. Billionaires have become more stinking rich out of the pandemic, but Zuckerberg isn’t even the one that won the most.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has enjoyed the biggest bump in personal fortune, according to the analysis from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies, two left-leaning groups. Bezos' wealth has jumped by $90.1 billion, to $203.1 billion, from March 18 through October 13[...]

Other billionaires whose fortunes have risen during the pandemic include Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, whose wealth has jumped 20% to $118 billion since March, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, with an 85% gain to $101.2 billion, the analysis found.

Facebook isn’t the only tech conglomerate to have an anti-trust suit brought against them. Amazon, Apple, and Google have all been hit with suits, ostensibly about unfair trade practices or similar accusations. More curious is how deeply in bed with the US government these corporations are, like Amazon’s partnership with the US Military, or Google’s collaborations with the government. Maybe a clue is hidden in the essay by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen:

In an era when the power of the individual and the group grows daily, those governments that ride the technological wave will clearly be best positioned to assert their influence and bring others into their orbits. And those that do not will find themselves at odds with their citizens.

The election of Biden is definitely the effort of The Establishment to put the Trump genie back in the bottle. His election was an undesired outcome, an anomaly in a system that they want to run regularly, and to produce regular, predictable results. The wealthy are wedded to the political system, have regular mechanisms and controls to manipulate and interact with it, and Trump leap-frogged the whole dog and pony show. But he didn’t do it alone.

So was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? I think the answer is yes, but not for the reasons anyone thinks. He didn’t get elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge Analytica. He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser. Period.

To be clear, I’m no fan of Trump. I donated the max to Hillary. After his election I wrote a post about Trump supporters that I’m told caused colleagues who had supported him to feel unsafe around me (I regret that post and deleted shortly after).

But Parscale and Trump just did unbelievable work. They weren’t running misinformation or hoaxes. They weren’t microtargeting or saying different things to different people. They just used the tools we had to show the right creative to each person. The use of custom audiences, video, ecommerce, and fresh creative remains the high water mark of digital ad campaigns in my opinion.

That brings me to the present moment, where we have maintained the same ad policies. It occurs to me that it very well may lead to the same result. As a committed liberal I find myself desperately wanting to pull any lever at my disposal to avoid the same result.

Google makes most of its money through advertising, and according to the NYT, “Google’s share of the search market in the United States is about 80 percent. “ Facebook is itself a monstrous social media entity, and owns two more of the largest SM platforms on the internet, Instagram and Snapchat, which:

Instagram: Active 1 Billion users

If your target demographic is under 35, Instagram is a gold mine: 63% of users are between the ages of 18 to 34, with virtually even split between male and female users.

Snapchat: Active monthly users 360 million

The most active users are Snapchat are 13-year-olds, and they’re spending upwards of 30 minutes a day on the app.

Twitch is a subsidiary of Amazon, which apparently has 140 million users, who I would imagine also skew younger, and who watch on average an hour and a half of content on the website a day.

We do know, through Twitch Tracker, that the average number of concurrent viewers stood at 1.4 million over February 2020, with peak Twitch viewing figures just a shade shy of 4 million – a threshold exceeded during the coronavirus lockdown that followed.

This puts Twitch well ahead of many traditional media outlets. Indeed, by early 2018, Twitch was outstripping MNSBC and CNN in terms of peak concurrent viewership (885,000 and 783,000 respectively). Fox News and ESPN were logging 1.5 million at this point.

The bourgeoisie have many glaring blindspots, but they aren’t themselves blind, or altogether stupid. The Arab Spring showed them what connected populations could do, and social media platforms have been instrumental in coordinating and organizing resistance efforts in the US, as well as spreading uncomfortable and uncontrolled information that the government et al would rather not be known. I would be willing to bet that there were many government and corporate analysts looking at the numbers, reach, and growth of every video of a black man getting shot this past summer that lead to civil unrest.

None of this proves that the US government is angling to take over social media, but I think it’s notable that Twitter is already playing ball with censoring uncomfortable stories, and doesn’t appear to be getting hit with the same sort of lawsuits as its competitors, despite its own relative monopoly.

The bourgeoisie are increasingly running out of options. Unwilling or unable to actually win the votes of the electorate by making concessions and other broadly demanded and popular reforms, it must increasingly rely on propaganda campaigns and other manipulation in order to keep the charade of government and control functioning. I would posit that the very narrow defeat of Trump last month, in spite of four years of constant fear mongering and concerted efforts to demonize him on the part of the bourgeois media, the alliance between Republicans and Democrats, and the collusion of the governments various branches of intelligence services and secret police, was the last straw—if the internet is such a disruptive and unpredictable force, then it must either be controlled or destroyed.

#antitrust #trump #biden #amazon #google #apple company #internet #internet culture #social media #conspiracy #speculation #facebook #snapchat #instagram

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lastsonlost · 6 years ago

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Because God forbid the guy tries to talk to people instead of demonizing everyone that doesn't agree with him.

It's not like he's betraying the left or anyting.

Captain America has a new mission for the Trump era: “to create informed, responsible and empathetic citizens.”

Chris Evans, who stars in the upcoming “Avengers: Endgame,” is launching A Starting Point, a new website aiming to get regular citizens involved in politics.

“You don’t want to alienate half your audience,” Evans told The Hollywood Reporter. “But I’d be disappointed in myself if I didn’t speak up. Especially for fear of some monetary repercussion or career damage — that just feels really gross to me.”

Evans, an outspoken Trump critic, was spotted in Washington D.C. in recent weeks with several lawmakers, including U.S. senators from both parties.

The site, which doesn’t have a launch date, is co-founded by Evans with actor Mark Kassen and entrepreneur Joe Kiani.

Evans has become known for his presidential clapbacks since President Donald Trump took office.

In October 2018, following President Trump’s tweet about the “Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People,” Evans responded by telling his 10 million followers, “‘Help! I’ve never done anything wrong in my entire life, but somehow hostility is at an all time high. Just because I kick beehives all day, it’s not MY fault when people get stung! No one has EVER been treated so unfairly. Sad. Also, where’s Obama’s birth certificate?'”

Evans, a Boston native, also didn’t mince words when it came to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s past support of the Trump.

“I really hope he’s not a Trump supporter,” Evans told THR. “I’m just hoping he’s one of those guys that maybe supported him and now regrets it.”

“Maybe he thought it was going to be different — and even that bothers me — but maybe there’s a chance now he just thinks Trump’s an absolute dumb shit, which he is,” Evans said. “If he doesn’t, if he’s still on that Trump train, I might have to cut ties. It’s really tough.”

But this is how the Daily Beast spins it.

Chris Evans, heretofore known as America’s Hottest Chris, is getting into politics. Or at least, that’s how the reveal of his new “secret, non-partisan civic engagement” venture has been framed.

Here is what we know about “A Starting Point,” Evans’ “secret” (?) “civic engagement” (?) project:

It will be a website

It will feature interviews with politicians from both parties

The project became public when a video Evans sent out to Congress members got leaked (or “leaked”) to CNN. Apparently Evans was inspired to create this platform when he wanted to “get both sides of an issue in a succinct way that he can trust.”

And for some reason, instead of asking policy researchers, or academics, or librarians, or journalists, or anyone else who might actually be a “non-partisan” expert on various issues, he chose to ask: partisan politicians.

This whole thing appears to have been teased back when Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX)—who infamously was an administrator on a Facebook group that circulated conspiracy theories and white nationalist memes—showed off his Captain America glass eye to Evans. Just so we’re clear on the state of our nation: an American 2-year-old with a genetic condition can’t get a wheelchair covered by his insurance company, but a congressman can have a Captain America glass eye for fun. Sure, Chris Evans, the problem with America is definitely that politicians don’t get enough of a chance to talk about whatever they want.

Here’s the thing: If you can hear the phrase “both sides” in contemporary American discourse and not immediately see red flags, you are in deep trouble, pal.

First of all, there are more than two positions on any given political issue. Democrats do not all agree, nor do Republicans. There are liberals and moderates and conservatives—a whole spectrum of ideology. And the idea that framing every issue as something in which you choose between two parties’ positions will somehow reduce partisanship seems very flawed.

Medicare for All/Universal Healthcare/Single Payer

Open borders

Free college

Universal basic income

Here are some issues that do not fall under that category:

White nationalism

Tracking the menstrual cycles of imprisoned immigrant girls to prevent them from obtaining abortions

Putting immigrant children in cages

Separating immigrant children from their parents and then losing track of their origins so that they can’t be reunited

In fact, most issues would benefit more from fact-checking than from a view of “both sides.” Are claims about the costs incurred by undocumented immigrants accurate? How many children have been lost by the federal government? Would universal healthcare really be prohibitively expensive?

Evans’ video doesn’t give any indication of the “policy issues” or “common questions” to which he is going to get politicians to provide clear information. The only question we do see politicians answer is “what inspired you to get into politics in the first place,” and shockingly, no one says “my massive, ravenous ego” or “an insatiable thirst for power.” Weird.

In the video, Evans tells the politicians, “This is a chance for you to talk about issues that matter to you,” because apparently the many campaign stops, televised appearances, and Sunday morning talk shows are not enough. He tells them he’d like to keep their answers to a minute long and they all laugh about how hard that will be, though anyone who’s watched a political debate knows that politicians can very easily spend a full minute not answering a clear and direct question.

And then, while promoting his website that is supposed to be “no spin,” he tells the politicians he’s offering them “a chance not only to galvanize your base, but you might change some minds.”

How is this “no spin?”

Evans’ fundamental question—“Why isn’t there a place that I can go to hear both sides of an issue in a succinct way that I can trust?”—is truly baffling to me. Why on earth would you trust politicians more than journalists?

There’s a couple telling moments in the video. Evans says, “Right now, a lot of people don’t buy the things they read and hear,” and a politician responds, “there’s a lot of mistrust.” The clip conveniently cuts off before specifying where there’s mistrust, but anyone who has been paying attention over the last couple of years knows where that sentence was going.

“In the media.”

Journalists work very hard every day to hold politicians accountable to the people who pay their salaries. They work really hard to get politicians to answer questions—something that should be considered a politician’s responsibility, part of their job. And very few journalists have celebrity power they can use to persuade politicians to talk to them.

And now here we have Chris Evans telling politicians he’s got a bunch of questions for them, but “if you don’t like any of ‘em, we’ll skip ‘em” and “if you don’t like any of your answers, we can do ‘em over.”

This isn’t accountability. This is simply giving politicians a new platform to push their agendas. And the idea that a website like this is where you’ll get news without “spin” feeds into the misconception that has weakened journalism to a truly frightening degree.

Journalists do not “spin.” They report.

Of course not.......

Political spokespersons “spin.” Politicians “spin.” Pundits “spin.” It feels like this was something we used to understand, and I’m not sure why we don’t anymore.

When I was a news reporter, I didn’t care about changing people’s minds. Changing them from what? To what? Why? I had no stake in that. I cared about informing people, helping people feel less unsure and more savvy, shining a light on the way their government, or their city, worked. I cared about holding power to account. And politicians have power.

So do celebrities. And I’d love to see one of them use their power to do something about the national mistrust that has been sown, pitting Americans against each other. Journalists are no different than anyone else. They have bills to pay. They worry about their rights, about gas prices, about their safety. Wouldn’t dismantling this myth of the nefarious journalist, hell-bent on manipulating the people despite having nothing to gain from doing so, go a lot further in “promoting respectful discourse?”

We have a president who repeatedly calls journalists the enemy of the people. You know who benefits from mistrust in journalism? Politicians. When you doubt the accountability journalists provide, it gives powerful people cover to get away with abusing their power.

Do these people know that Chris Evans is a very adamant and very vocal critic of trump and his supporters?

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unhinged-diaries-blog · 6 years ago

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No compassion for you!

I was woken up this morning of the news that Ruth Bader fell and broke three ribs. Reading some of the threads to get more information on her fall, how she’s doing, and black for future holds I really didn’t find anything. What I did fine, is there is no compassion, empathy, or even prayers being sent up for this woman. She may be old as the hills but if that was your grandmother I wouldn’t want someone talking shit about her and saying she needs to leave her seat so it could be filled with the Republican seat.

It’s not just one side anymore it’s both sides all sides and people are so fucking nasty. I don’t strictly read one source I read many from CNN, Fox news, MSNBC, the hill, and even AP news to get my sources and to try to find some semblance of truth. I don’t think my time in the last five years I have found truth in any articles. There are bits and pieces of the truth but the whole truth it doesn’t exist. People have virus, people have nasty words, and I’m just kind of sick of it. Yes, I got my minor in journalism trying to find the truth and trying to do what is right by standing by the SPJ and sometimes that’s not enough.

I haven’t really use this platform to speak on how I see things as a woman, conservative, and American. What I’m saying now is people on the right side or fucking horrible. But it wasn’t no more than 10 years ago that it seem like the script was flipped and it’s gotten to the point where yes I may be conservative but I kind of don’t want to be a part of any party. I still feel like if it doesn’t concern me leave me the fuck out of it. It’s really sad what this world has come to.

It’s really sad that people have no sympathy or empathy are you income and concern in decency for another person‘s well-being no matter who they side with no matter their believes color race gender what have you but at the end of the day people are still going to be assholes are nasty and I’m at this point in my life where I want nothing to do with it. I don’t want to hear what the left did I don’t want to hear what the right that I don’t want to hear what John Doe did I want to hear stories of compassion and people coming together instead of hate dividing us

Maybe the best thing for me is to find myself through traveling. I may be 33 and I may have a limited time on this earth but I don’t want to be living in a city where there’s clearly a line drawn between parties. I don’t want to live in a state where my ideas are going to be squashed because I side with different ideals.

People hurt my heart 😥

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

micah (Micah Cohen, politics editor): It’s time to gaze at our navels!!! We’re chatting about the media. Everyone ready?

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): I’m not not ready.

julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): Technically, I’m in a different field full time, academia, where we never do any navel-gazing, sooo …

micah: On this week’s FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, we talked about President Trump’s attacks on the press. Trump’s criticisms are mostly wrong, but the press as a whole (yes, it’s not great to lump all the media into one) does have a trust issue.

With that in mind, our mission for today: What resolutions do we think journalists (us and everyone else) should make to improve Americans’ faith in the press? Who wants to go first?

julia_azari: I nominate Perry as the seasoned press type among the three of us.

micah: Perry, Julia has thrown you under the bus!

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): OK …

micah: I will say, to Julia’s point, I like the mix of experiences we’re bringing to this question: Julia is from academia but is obviously deeply immersed in the media world. Perry is an experienced reporter. Nathaniel is newer to journalism and comes more from an online/quanty background.

perry: The media should stop aiming for a middle or for a balance between “both sides.”

Some issues have four sides. Some have one. But there aren’t many issues with two sides, with the Democratic and Republican views equally valid.

The “both sides” model manages to annoy the left and the right, as well as undermine trust in media.

In other words, I think, for example, CNN should avoid panels of two Republicans and two Democrats giving their talking points, no matter the issue.

nrakich: The problem is: How do you assess “validity”?

micah: That’s a journalist’s entire job!

julia_azari: That’s a question — how do you assess validity — whose answer is in your process for gathering information, not in the answer itself.

micah: Julia, waddya mean by that?

julia_azari: In academia, we sometimes say “the content is the method.” Information is only as good as the method by which it was gathered. So if we’re trying to, say, assess the validity of different perspectives about immigration, you don’t just say “well here’s talking point No. 1 and here’s talking points No. 2.” Instead, you can say: “Here is a study and how it was conducted. But I also talked to 12 people who think immigration is affecting them in X way. That doesn’t mean it’s objectively true, but it’s their experience.”

I am not explaining this well.

nrakich: No, I think that’s helpful.

julia_azari: To be clear about perceptions vs. hard facts: Both are important but do different work.

And journalists could also be clearer about whether information was derived from interviews (how many), observation or a large-scale study or whatever.

nrakich: Exactly. A big part of journalism is seeking out how people perceive an issue or event — whether through interviews or polling.

perry: Let me make an aggressive statement here: We have already lost something like 30 percent of the audience, in terms of confidence in media. As a rough proxy, let’s say it’s the portion of people who said in a July Quinnipiac University poll that they trust Trump more than the media to tell the truth about important issues:

A significant bloc of conservatives are not going to tell pollsters that they trust the media — no matter what.

So I think we are really talking about, as people who might trust the media, Democrats and Jeb Bush-style Republicans. I worry that the “both sides” obsession fails in building support and trust for the media from either side: Democrats feel the media strains unfairly for balance; a lot of Republicans, I would argue, hate the media as part of their partisan identity — it’s on the other “side.” So, I don’t think that group would be placated by media moves to show it is in touch with conservatives.

nrakich: Here’s a question I’ve batted around at dinner parties (yes, I know I have no life): Do we think it would be better to return to the days when there was a liberal media and a conservative media and they were just open about it?

julia_azari: Nathaniel, does anyone answer that question, or do they just quickly move to the dessert course?

nrakich: Usually the dinner parties end when I ask that question.

julia_azari: Resolved: Nathaniel needs better friends.

nrakich: My gut instinct is that an explicitly partisan media is a bad idea. But it might very well solve some of these problems we’re talking about. The people who hate the media don’t hate ALL media — their readership could probably be retained by partisan media that agrees with them. Case in point, here are “net bias” scores from The Knight Foundation, via The Nieman Lab (positive scores mean more people think the outlet is unbiased; negative scores mean more people think the outlet is biased). Democrats are on the left, Republicans on the right:

julia_azari: Can I come back with a reframing of the question? At the risk of alienating Micah and everyone else forever.

What if the question was less, “how do we win back people who hate the media because of their partisanship,” and instead was, “how do we help people who want to like the media become more engaged consumers of it.” Or, “how do we make the product resonate more with the questions people already ask themselves and guide them to ask deeper ones.”

perry: “What resolutions do we think journalists (us and everyone else) should make to improve Americans’ faith in the press? Who wants to go first?” was Micah’s question.

As you are all saying, that question depends on which Americans we’re talking about. There are different reasons people hate the media: the Democrats (too much both sides-ism) vs. Republicans (too liberal/it is part of their party tribe to be against media). It won’t be easy for media outlets to build trust with Republicans — they’ve been told for decades that the media is against them.

nrakich: A partisan media would resonate more with people’s internal questions because they would be asking the same questions. And a responsible media outlet would guide them to those deeper questions.

julia_azari: Right. Explicit first principles like “we believe less government is better” and “we believe in reducing economic inequality” and then real reporting.

nrakich: Right — exploring WHY those principles are “good” (from their perspective) to have. Then at least people will be intellectually informed about why they believe something instead of it just being tribal.

micah: I think an explicitly partisan media structure sidesteps the problem.

Don’t we all need some agreed-upon facts?

nrakich: In this admittedly idealistic scenario, all media would still stick to the facts.

But there are some facts that support liberal positions and some that support conservative ones.

micah: Yeah, I don’t think that works.

julia_azari: Micah, do you think we have agreed-upon facts that would be assumed, or does everything have to be interrogated? (I was taught in my one journalism class to fact-check my mother’s love for me.)

micah: lol

What did you find?

julia_azari: We just took a long car trip together, so the facts are evolving.

micah: I think everything gets interrogated.

But let’s return to Perry’s resolution real quick and then go to the next one.

Perry, don’t you think this is less of an issue than it used to be?

Both-siderism, that is.

This is actually one area where I think people have improved.

perry: This is from a New York Times story about the Georgia governor’s race:

ATLANTA — The Republican won the nomination Tuesday after branding himself a politically incorrect conservative who would “round up criminal illegals” and haul them to the border in his very own pickup. The Democrat all but opened her campaign by demanding that the iconic carvings of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson be sandblasted off Stone Mountain.

micah: Eek.

perry: The story implies both candidates are really partisan. That is a useful frame for news outlets trying to show they are not partisan. But it’s hard, and maybe this is my bias as a black person, to take that framing seriously as an example of both sides being really partisan. (How reasonable is it to expect a black candidate to not be opposed to Confederate monuments?)

Coverage around Trump himself seems less both sides-ish. But once you leave Trump, coverage of Democrats vs. Republicans has many of these problems.

micah: That’s a good point. I was thinking of coverage of Trump.

nrakich: I don’t know that it’s gotten better. I think back when politics was “normal” and Democrats and Republicans had their relatively moderate platforms, it was easier for the media to say “that comment was racist” when, say, Steve King said that Mexicans cross the border with “calves the size of cantaloupes.” But now the goalposts have moved, and the media isn’t sure what to call out as racist or sexist anymore since it’s become clear that these views are mainstream enough to get you elected president.

micah: OK, Nathaniel, you’re next. What’s your resolution?

nrakich: I kinda have two, because we haven’t already gone off on enough tangents.

More diversity in newsrooms. This one’s pretty obvious — we need people with a wider range of perspectives, including women, non-whites and conservatives.

I think the media needs to seriously beef up coverage of local politics and issues. Most governing that affects people’s lives happens at the state or local level, but local media outlets are being decimated. And state capitol bureaus are shrinking to almost nothing. That’s a real problem.

julia_azari: On No. 1, some of those groups may be at odds. Adding women and non-whites is not likely to pull a newsroom to the right.

I mean, add everyone! But that’s gonna make things interesting.

micah: For some context, this is from a report from our former colleague Farai Chideya and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard:

julia_azari: This seems like a good time to point out that FiveThirtyEight contributor Dan Hopkins (also a political scientist) has written about how the nationalization of media has contributed to the nationalization of politics.

perry: I’m pretty opposed to calls for ideological diversity. A few reasons:

It could result in favoring whites and disfavoring minorities (blacks in particular) in hiring. Do we have a national history of discrimination against conservatives for jobs?

Also, do we want job interviews in which people are asking applicants about their ideologies? What if the person lies? And, again, that will create a racial bias. (It will be harder for a black person to credibly claim he or she voted for Trump.)

Hiring a reporter who is supposed to be for conservatives will basically force that reporter to find articles favorable to his or her team. Do you then find an explicitly pro-Democrats reporter too?

I think this kind of hiring approach would undermine the idea of nonpartisan reporting as a field with defined skills or norms, like lawyers or doctors. I believe people can be experts in their fields and put aside their personal views. I worry that when Trump attacks the lawyers on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team for having donated to Democratic candidates, he is undermining the idea that somehow these lawyers can’t separate the law from their personal opinions. You can have experts in their fields who ignore their personal views and act objectively.

julia_azari: The ideological diversity thing is a big question right now in academia, too.

micah: That’s a tough one.

julia_azari: Here’s the thing: I’m happy to have a colleague who teaches students to read the big works of libertarian economic thought. You go in a classroom and make comments about race science, and I am coming down on your ass.

micah: I think you’re right, Perry. But it’s also hard to argue with a conservative who just feels like the mainstream media is coming from a different place than he or she is.

nrakich: Very good points, Perry. I have no idea HOW you’d do it. I certainly don’t want to create litmus tests. But if The New York Times magically hired the entire staff of the National Review, I feel like conservative trust in the media would increase.

perry: It would not.

micah: Perry, why don’t you think it would?

perry: Jonathan Martin, the one of the top political reporters for the Times, used to work at National Review. So did Robert Costa, one of the lead reporters at The Washington Post.

julia_azari: There are some very smart folks at National Review. But it’s an elite publication.

nrakich: That’s a good point, Julia.

julia_azari: When we talk about distrust of elite media, that’s a populist attitude, and the point of populism is that the institutions themselves are suspect.

perry: The Weekly Standard is pretty skeptical of Trump.

nrakich: Yeah.

perry: In January 2016, National Review ran a series of essays written by prominent conservatives who were blasting Trump.

nrakich: And newspapers aren’t going to hire non-elites, nor should they be expected to. The Times should hire the best and the brightest! Even if they were all conservatives, a lot of Trump’s base would hate them.

perry: If The New York Times changed its journalism practices and, say, got rid of pieces saying that Trump is lying, that would help with conservatives. But then it wouldn’t be The New York Times, a fact-based newspaper.

julia_azari: It’s a problem when people who distrust elite media aren’t starting zines or indie blogs, but rather watching Infowars. Or consuming other non-factual or racially inflammatory material.

nrakich: It kinda goes to the point that maybe the true divide in this country isn’t Democrat vs. Republican, it’s elite vs. non-elite. Bernie Sanders’s and Trump’s rhetoric (if not positions) kind of wrapped around to the point of almost touching in a lot of ways.

julia_azari: Also, how many people on this chat have a degree from Harvard or Yale?

nrakich: 75 percent.

micah: Not me. I barely graduated from college.

perry: I think I object to this framing too. I, a black person from a working-class area in Louisville, got on the path to get this job in large part because I went to Yale. That credential really helps in an elite field like this. I was not vacationing on Cape Cod as a kid.

julia_azari: I technically have three degrees from Yale (but a B.A. from a state school), so I’ll see myself to the guillotine.

micah: But Perry’s right that the standards are different.

perry: Here’s an idea: What if publications, instead of having a program of specifically hiring conservatives, had beats like rural policy, religion, regulation and family development. (I know there are some religion reporters, but maybe we need more of them and at every outlet.) That would diversify their coverage. Which is what I care about.

nrakich: I really like that idea.

julia_azari: That is an excellent idea.

perry: Part of this is how news organizations hire. “The race reporter” is maybe not going to be a conservative, but the religion reporter will understand how deep and sincere opposition to abortion is among religious conservatives.

micah: It would diversify coverage and expose a mostly cosmopolitan reporting force to new worlds — which probably would have some effect in making them more conservative, honestly.

julia_azari: This again is true about academia. People who write on religion and, say, the military are probably still often left of center, but they are a lot more sympathetic to certain perspectives than a randomly selected social scientist.

nrakich: This also goes to my resolution about local media.

micah: Yeah.

perry: Right, the rural reporter would be more likely to work in Iowa than Seattle.

micah: OK, we gotta move on to Julia’s.

julia_azari: My resolution is that we should be more attentive to power dynamics when we write.

micah: I like this one.

julia_azari: This is a set of growing pains that academia had to deal with and still does — primarily that when you write about someone, you attain a certain power to tell their story. How do you do rigorous work while simultaneously allowing people to tell their own stories? This set of questions is really for writing about people who are marginalized, not for reporting on powerful officials.

How would we want to be written about if we were the subject of the story? Is it respectful?

But also I need to slag on WaPo.

micah: Haha … go on.

julia_azari: This piece — about white workers who feel like they’re in the minority working at a chicken plant — got a lot of pushback (some of which the Post published).

This is the kind of story where you need to tread a delicate line between letting people tell their stories as they see them and questioning concepts like the sense of entitlement to be in the majority or surrounded by people who share your language.

So you want to ask multidimensional questions about what kinds of power different people have.

perry: My objection to that piece is that I think its genesis was an attempt at balance — i.e, “if we do stories about how ICE mistreats some undocumented immigrants,” we need to do this one too. The subtext is: “Conservatives/whites/rural people have problems too.”

julia_azari: I read it more sinisterly than that, to be honest. I read it as centering white perspectives in a way that was worse than both-sidesism.

micah: Julia, are there concrete things that journalists can do to better account for power dynamics? I just worry “think about power dynamics” is hard to put into action?

julia_azari: I’m an academic, as we said at the top. I don’t do “action.”

micah: Haha.

OK, we gotta wrap.

I had a couple, but maybe we don’t have time.

perry: I would love to hear them

Maybe we quickly weigh in on them?

micah: OK, real quick …

micah: 1. Do a better job. I don’t mean this flippantly. A huge share of journalism is sloppy or ill-conceived or surface-level. Much of that is unintentional or seemingly unavoidable — deadlines, resources, etc. But not all those factors are set in stone. I’m pretty sure that newsrooms could put in place some incentives to just improve the quality of their work by, say, 30 percent.

nrakich: Employ fact-checkers! We have a phenomenal copy desk (hi, guys!). Other places I’ve written for haven’t had nearly as stringent a fact-checking layer in the editing process.

micah: 2. Be more transparent. This is really the big one for me. Treat the reader/viewer as an equal, explain how you’re doing the work you’re doing. Explain what assumptions you’re making and what you don’t know.

perry: Endorse both of Micah’s

julia_azari: Same!

perry: No. 1 is hard to define, but I see bad work all the time (and produce some of it myself). And I just wish editors were stepping in more at times.

nrakich: As for No. 2, I agree, obviously. I feel like the mindset for a lot of places is to be the “expert” and insist to their readers that they know what they’re doing, even if they’re a lot less sure themselves. I agree that it’s OK to say, “Hey, we’re not sure about X, but maybe it’s a thing?”

julia_azari: Agreed.

nrakich: As we like to say here at FiveThirtyEight, get comfortable with uncertainty.

Not every article has to come to a firm conclusion.

micah: Being able to say “we’re not sure about this” is a huge advantage, and — going back to No. 1 — removes an incentive that pushes people toward crappy work.

Also, more transparency shows readers/viewers that we’re just people trying to do a job.

julia_azari: Can I add something to kinda maybe answer the “what do we do about power dynamics” question?

micah: Take us home, Julia.

julia_azari: Warm, fuzzy feature pieces need more analytical framework, IMO. Why has employment changed in certain circumstances? How does the rate of immigrants in community X compare to surrounding ones?

Put people’s stories into a more structural context, highlighting how something like state budgets or other policies might affect what people are facing. Framing a piece like a biography puts too much emphasis on both individual experience and individual responsibility for circumstances. These are part of bigger — and often more technical — stories. I’m not saying that some journalists aren’t already doing this, but in my opinion, some of the stock frames for pieces need an update.

If that makes any sense.

You have a lot of efforts to humanize policy. Maybe policy-ize humanity.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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your-dietician · 3 years ago

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North America's four biggest pro sports leagues have had only 2 openly gay active players

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/sports/north-americas-four-biggest-pro-sports-leagues-have-had-only-2-openly-gay-active-players/

North America's four biggest pro sports leagues have had only 2 openly gay active players

The laid-back nature of his announcement belies how exceedingly rare it was for Nassib to come out at all.

Those leagues have, combined, had nearly four centuries between them and tens of thousands of players. And of all the men who’ve ever swung a bat, smacked a puck, dodged a tackler or sunk a basket, only a handful have ever come out, typically after they’ve retired.

Nassib is a 6-foot-7 defender with quick feet who competes in one of the world’s most aggressive sports. He’s also an amateur financial literacy instructor who loves Taylor Swift. There’s no precedent for what he’s done — coming out while he’s still in the NFL — and he’s laying the path for players behind him to follow.

The swell of support so far for Nassib might just cause the professional sports world to examine its culture more closely, said Wade Davis, a retired player who trained with some NFL teams during preseasons before coming out in retirement.

“I think that we have to get to a space where athletes, where men in general and where parents, mentors, teachers … start to stretch and force and crack the idea of masculinity open,” Davis told CNN. “Sports leagues have an opportunity and a responsibility to continue to widen our definitions of manhood, knowing that the more that they create spaces for people to be more themselves, the better player they’ll actually be.”

Homophobic language is still part of youth sports culture

The reason why there aren’t more Carl Nassibs isn’t entirely the fault of professional sports — the problems begin on youth teams, said Erik Denison, a behavioral scientist and lead researcher on the Sport Inclusion Project at Monash University in Australia.

Homophobic language is still a regular feature of playing on a boys’ sports team in the US and abroad, Denison’s research shows — one of his studies found that more than half of the ice hockey and rugby players he interviewed said they’d used slurs. Regular exposure to slurs or stereotypes eventually reinforces among players that their success as an athlete is tied to an idea of masculinity that excludes gay men, he said.

Denison described what he calls a “cycle of exclusion” that begins when a boy hears coaches or older players use homophobic language and observes a “positive response” to that behavior — maybe they laugh at each other, or the coach doesn’t challenge them, he said.

That sends the message that homophobic language is harmless and OK to use — and cements the assumption that all members of the team are heterosexual.

Gay players on those teams may also use the language as a shield to hide their sexuality and conform with their team, Denison said. In many cases, though, gay players will just drop out of the sport. And when the language goes unchecked, the cycle continues — all the way up to professional leagues.

“To solve this problem, it needs to start with the coaches, in particular, challenging language and, most importantly, not using that language or behavior themselves,” Denison said. “We often find that male coaches continue to use homophobic language and teach conformity to this tough masculine athlete identity that doesn’t really exist,” he said.

Davis, who spent some preseasons with NFL teams like the Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks until an injury forced him to retire, came out nine years after he left the game — largely because he didn’t want to alienate his teammates.

“It wasn’t the NFL, it wasn’t college, it wasn’t high school that caused me to hide my sexual orientation,” he told CNN. “It was what I learned as a young kid.”

As a child, before Davis understood what it meant to be LGBTQ, he was already absorbing the norms being set around him during practice — that “being gay in those walls was unsafe, that [he] would be in danger.”

In high school, he tried to “comport his boyishness” in such a way so that his teammates wouldn’t consider him effeminate. And by the time he was in an NFL locker room, he said he didn’t hear homophobic slurs being used, but sexist ones.

“What sports are, in a lot of ways, is an opportunity to display dominance,” he said. “So you have one individual who is trying to display dominance over another individual, which, at its core, is sexism and patriarchy over women. Insert someone who’s gay … and you definitely want to have dominion over this gay person, and you actually don’t want them in your space.”

Qualities in players necessary for success in football — dominance, aggression and, occasionally, violence — are often associated with homophobia and sexism, too. So whether or not a male athlete actually holds sexist or homophobic views, features of both are often baked into his sport.

But that’s been the dominant sports culture for decades. Things haven’t changed because the focus on masculinity isn’t seen as harmful if it earns teams some wins, Denison said.

“These problems are viewed as quite marginal problems, ones that don’t need to be addressed,” Denison said.

He’s hopeful that Nassib’s coming out will change that.

Athletes who’ve come out didn’t keep playing for long

The few professional male athletes who came out before Nassib can’t set much of an example for the NFL player to follow — their careers ended shortly after their announcements.

Collins came out at the tail end of his NBA career. He became the first openly gay player in an NBA game when he was signed to a 10-game contract with the Brooklyn Nets in February 2014. He played the rest of the season — about two months — and retired soon after.

Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, came out in 2014 ahead of the NFL draft and kissed his boyfriend on national TV when the St. Louis Rams selected him in the seventh round. But he ultimately never played a game with them.

Almost 50 years earlier, there was Glenn Burke, a budding Los Angeles Dodgers star whose career was cut short by homophobia in the 1970s, argues Andrew Maraniss, an author and special projects coordinator with Vanderbilt University Athletics, in his book on Burke.

In “Singled Out,” Maraniss details the brief MLB career of Burke, a charismatic teammate who never hid his sexuality from his friends. When his coaches found out he was gay and offered him a sizable sum to marry a woman, he refused. The next season, Burke was traded to the Oakland A’s, where a coach called him a homophobic slur and said he would “contaminate” the team, Maraniss wrote.

“It was considered a very ‘straitlaced,’ quote unquote ‘all-American’ approach to the team,” Maraniss told CNN. “And Glenn just didn’t fit that.”

Burke was eventually sent down to the minors and retired in relative obscurity, coming out only years after his MLB career ended. But it wasn’t his lack of talent that sunk him, Maraniss said.

“He was a phenomenal athlete at the time when majority of straight sports fans in the country assumed that there’s no way there could even be a gay player in the game, let alone the most popular player on his team,” Maraniss said. “I think that Glenn, while he was in the closet and after he came out, was refuting stereotypes.”

After Burke came out privately to his teammates, — who, by Maraniss’ account, largely supported him — he was traded, sent down and forgotten. When Nassib came out, jerseys with his name on it became bestsellers, and his team and coach, Jon Gruden, backed him.

“The idea that it would be seen as ‘bad for business’ [to come out] is completely not the case,” Maraniss said. “That’s one of the lies that has been perpetuated — that this would be a PR hurdle for a team to overcome rather than an opportunity to engage with fans in a positive way, and to use the team’s platform to advance equality.”

Still, stories like Burke’s can be seen as cautionary tales by current professional athletes, said Billy Bean, the MLB’s vice president & special assistant to the commissioner, in an interview for Maraniss’ book. Bean, who came out after he retired in 1999, told the author that for some players, waiting to come out until after they left the game was akin to a shrewd business decision.

“The desire to be a part of something bigger than yourself, the uncertainty of how you would be accepted, and the short time with an incredibly high ceiling of opportunity to realize your dreams and take care of yourself weigh into the decision now more than ever,” he told Maraniss in his book.

In other words, for some players, it’s worth holding off on publicly coming out for a few more years if it means they’ll have a better shot at going pro. In a way, Bean said, sexuality is a “distraction” that pro athletes have learned to ignore.

Closeted athletes will closely watch what happens next

Whether more players feel comfortable coming out depends on what happens next with Nassib, Maraniss said. Will players on opposing teams ridicule him? Will his Raiders teammates defend him? Will coaches have the backbone to speak out against homophobia when they see it?

“Other athletes will be watching closely to see if they deem it worth it for themselves to come out, too,” Maraniss said. “There’s obviously strength in numbers, and we might see other players decide to do it now, like he has.”

Denison said that progress must start at the youth level by curbing the use of gay slurs by coaches and players and deemphasizing a narrow definition of masculinity.

Some professional leagues are doing their part already: Davis was a consultant on LGBTQ issues for the NFL for years, and said he had fruitful conversations with players interested in learning more (or unlearning what they’d known).

Davis said that the more comfortable players feel to be themselves — in the locker room, during a game and when interacting with fans — the stronger they’ll be in the sport they love, no matter their sexuality.

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yesjustcallmewes · 6 years ago

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Vote for Us

Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand each spent their holiday attacking President Trump in speeches and, increasingly, in tweets.

These three far, farther, and farthest lefties each seem to think they're going to be the next president of these un-United States and apparently think that tweeting like the president so skillfully does is going to make their delusion come true. At least I hope it's a delusion, because we're all in trouble - and I do mean all of us, even the Dems in this country - if any one of the three of them does become president. That would truly be the beginning of the end.

Sen. Harris warned her followers that Trump will absolutely nominate someone to overturn Roe v. Wade because she knows the President just wants to "punish women for desiring to control their bodies, their lives, and their futures." The fact that this is all nonsense matters little to her - just say it loudly and often enough and more and more people will believe it.

For her part, Pocahontas Warren tweeted to her followers and to fellow Native Americans everywhere that Trump's short list of Supreme Court nominees was hand-picked by right-wing extremists who want to criminalize abortions. There she goes again, selling crap to her rabid followers and any uninformed idiot(s) who will fall in line.

And Sen. Gillibrand just echoes the others and mad socialist Bernie Sanders, hitting the president for strictly enforcing immigration laws, calling him a racist and a bigot over and over again. She has nothing else to offer but scurrilous anti-Trump diatribes.

No word on what CNN pundit-in-training Stormy Daniels or her delusional lawyer, who says he also might run for President because he's so much smarter than anyone else tweeted, probably because she's still touring the senior strip-club circuit and he's watching breathlessly from back-stage.

The Democrats are in deep trouble with these three stalwarts and they know it. As Trump is only getting stronger, wilier and more popular, Democrats will only get more desperate and stupid and lean ever-further to the left, each vying to be left-most.

When Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement last week, the thought of President Trump naming his successor sent Democrats into a complete meltdown, and Defcon One was signaled immediately.

The mental state of the typical diehard Democrat or any MSNBC or CNN host is now somewhere between simply terrified and that of crazy congresswoman Mad Maxine Waters, who by the way could land on the Presidential Ticket with one of these losers.

The bosses of the Democratic Party have concluded that the only way they're going to capture the House this fall and take the White House away from President Trump in 2020 is to out-Bernie Bernie and out-tweet Trump.

Here's the entirety of the vacuous Democrat platform so far, according to Michael Reagan - let me know what you think. Would YOU vote for this bunch of malarky? Do you think any rational American would?

"IF YOU WANT TO SEE TRUMP IMPEACHED, VOTE FOR US ON NOVEMBER 6.

"IF YOU WANT NANCY PELOSI IN CHARGE OF THE HOUSE AGAIN, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT SOCIALISM FOR AMERICA LIKE THEY JUST VOTED FOR IN NEW YORK, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT TO ELIMINATE BORDERS, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT TO SEE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ALLOWED TO VOTE, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT A WEAK MILITARY, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU DON'T LIKE YOUR FEDERAL INCOME TAX CUT, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT MORE ABORTIONS, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU WANT TO TURN THE USA INTO KALIFORNIA, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU DON'T LIKE AMERICA'S OIL AND GAS BOOM, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK THE IRAN DEAL WAS GOLDEN, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK CRYIN' CHUCK SCHUMER WOULD MAKE A WONDERFUL VICE PRESIDENT, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK KIM JONG ILL WITH NUKES WILL KEEP US SAFE, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK BORDERS ARE FOR SISSIES, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK CUBA IS OUR FRIEND, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK ISRAEL IS AT FAULT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, VOTE FOR US.

"IF YOU THINK RUSSIA IS ON OUR SIDE IN SYRIA, VOTE FOR US.

“IF YOU THINK RUSSIA IS ON OUR SIDE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, VOTE FOR US”

"IF YOU THINK SOCIALISM IS THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE, VOTE FOR US."

And the list goes on. The truth is, they've dropped their masks and are showing us their true socialist faces.

Maybe they can get help from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the avowed socialist from the Bronx who knocked off 10-term incumbent House member Joe Crowley in a Democrat primary last week. He's a liberal who thought just being a liberal guaranteed him an easy win in NY. He was as wrong about that as he was about everything else in his undistinguished 20 years in Congress.

She's only 28, but I hear some people think she's the future of the Democratic Party. So says Tom Perez, head of the DNC, with an ironic (or is that demonic?) smile.

If that's really true, and I hope it is, then that's good news for Republicans. The only thing we'll have to worry about now is who we should pick to succeed President Trump in 2024.

Just sayn'

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Prabal Gurung: Anti-Asian sentiment runs deeper than you think Written by Prabal GurungNew York Prabal Gurung is a Nepali American fashion designer based in New York. All opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. The feature is part of CNN Style’s new series Hyphenated, which explores the complex issue of identity among minorities in the United States. My 75-year-old Nepali mother, who lives in New York, goes for a walk every morning and every evening. I send her out in disguise: I bought her a blonde wig, and I tell her to wear it under a hat, glasses and mask. “Maybe then, they’ll leave her alone,” I think. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s my survival instinct kicking in. “I understand your concern and worry,” my mami, as I like to call her, told me the other day. “But I would rather get a walking stick or a cane, just in case something happens. I can fight back,” she assured me, adjusting her wig and hat. That’s just how she is: resilient, unafraid and a picture of grace under pressure. I admire her strength but continue to worry for her safety. I check in constantly so I know where she is at any given time. This is what it’s come to. A fear so constant that it’s crippling. “By using terms like “China Virus” and “Kung Flu,” Trump gave the coronavirus a face, an Asian face, and for that, we have all suffered.” Prabal Gurung Here’s where we’re at: A torrent of anti-Asian hate crimes have been committed, including the brutal assault of elderly Asian men and women in broad daylight. Among them is 65-year-old Vilma Kari, who just last week in New York, was told “F**k you, you don’t belong here, you Asian,” according to the criminal complaint, before being pushed to the ground and kicked repeatedly by her attacker. The shootings at three Atlanta-area spas have left six Asian women dead. Nearly 3,800 hate incidents have so far been reported to Stop AAPI Hate over the course of a year. It feels as if there’s an open season for violence against Asians. By using terms like “China Virus” and “Kung Flu,” former US President Donald Trump gave the coronavirus a face, an Asian face, and for that, we have all suffered. While his damaging rhetoric has no doubt fueled these hate crimes, their roots are buried deep in underlying racist currents that have long impacted our communities in the United States. They can be found in every industry. For instance, when it comes to my world — fashion — the consequences of systemic racism play out daily. And not just in the form of microaggressions. As someone who has a platform, who has clout, I have always believed it’s my responsibility to speak out. ‘Who gets to be American?’ Fashion at its purest, simplest form, is a reflection of the world we live in. It doesn’t operate in a vacuum but instead influences — and is influenced by — music, culture, social movements and politics. Whatever your views are, everyone engages with fashion at some level. For most of us, it’s one of the first decisions we make each morning. I believe in its greater purpose — as a tool of empowerment. But as much as fashion projects its power outwards, behind the scenes, it can be a very different story. I was born in Singapore, grew up in Nepal and lived in India, and in these countries, you’re faced with issues such as colorism, caste discrimination and hierarchal social structures. When I started my brand 12 years ago, I wanted it to show marginalized people that they are seen, and that they matter. But until recently, it’s been an uphill battle. “I was advised to limit the diversity of my runways because clients wouldn’t be as receptive to non White models: “‘two Black women, two Asian women — OK that’s enough.'” Prabal Gurung The question of who dictates style, or what we consider tasteful or chic, is still viewed through a colonial lens, shaped by centuries-old Eurocentric ideals. Unrealistic beauty standards are often elitist, discriminatory and ultimately, constructed to maintain a proximity to Whiteness that allows those in power to feel important and secure. Decision-makers are, predominantly, White. This plays out in a number of ways. Fashion inspired by minority cultures, or rooted in the heritage of a minority designer’s heritage, may be tokenized as “exotic” or “ethnic,” or disparaged in hushed tones as “tacky and garish.” Tone-deaf campaigns and racist garments are often created because there are no people of color in the room that feel empowered enough to stop them from going ahead. Early in my own career, I was advised to limit the diversity of my runways because clients wouldn’t be as receptive to non White models: “two Black women, two Asian women — OK that’s enough.” I also recall wanting to open a collection with Korean model Ji Hye Park, and it sparked such a big discussion with the brand’s other stakeholders. “Should we? Shouldn’t we? Is it cool? Does it make sense? Is this idea… luxury?” These kinds of conversations were initially shocking. But I became used to witnessing microaggressions or blatant discrimination against the few Asian people who, like myself and other people of color, were able to break into this industry. Yes, fashion continues to make strides in the right direction, but we still have miles to go. Today, I still see Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American and LGBTQ peers being tokenized by the industry, called upon to perform inclusivity. Models walk the Prabal Gurung runway during New York Fashion Week on September 8, 2019. Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images I’ve often been challenged about my “American-ness.” During a planning meeting for my label’s 10th anniversary collection in 2018, an investor asked me to express what I felt my brand stood for. I began explaining that American style had always been seen through a White lens. But as a first-generation Asian immigrant, as a minority, as a queer person of color, I wanted to redefine the country’s style because our experiences have been underrepresented. The way I look at this country is an amalgamation of different cultures, races, ethnicities, religions and sizes, and that should be celebrated. He, in turn, asked, “Well you don’t look American, how can you define American style?” It was clear to me what he meant by his statement: I wasn’t White, therefore I had no authority to shape the American ideal. And this despite being an American citizen who owns a business in this country — one who employs Americans and immigrants, embraces a “Made in America” production ethos and pays taxes. For some people it’s just never enough. I ended up turning that collection into a celebration of American identity and belonging, sending a diverse cast of models down the runway in denim, white short-sleeved shirts, rose prints and, during the finale, sashes bearing the question: “Who gets to be American?” While the show had a lot of positive feedback, and started a healthy dialogue about identity, there were some who felt it was too on the nose. This is how privilege works. It was a luxury to be in the position to say that it was “too much” or “too direct.” However, when it comes to fighting for basic human rights, it is never too much. It is never too loud. We need to tell our stories It’s clear that the road to a more equitable fashion industry is long. Until brands genuinely diversify their decision-makers and boards — not just with token hires, but with people actually willing to strike up difficult, uncomfortable conversations that challenge biases — it won’t change. And, let’s be honest, brands’ efforts to embrace Asian culture have been motivated by the spending power of countries like China, India and South Korea, not some moral awakening. But, cynicism aside, just like conversations brought about by the Black Lives Matter protests, the Stop Asian Hate movement is inviting renewed scrutiny of fashion’s role in perpetuating racism and discrimination — from runways and collections to workplace culture. “We need to be in every corner and exist in every space.” Prabal Gurung Asian Americans in the industry should recognize that we have an important role to play. As a whole, more than 60% of the global population lives in Asia, according to the United Nations. Asians are the world’s biggest consumers of clothing, and we manufacture most of it too. Yet, told that our voices don’t matter, we’ve mostly played supporting roles, quietly and submissively catering to the needs of businesses. It’s not enough. It’s time to speak out and step up. Take this time to donate, build your skills by participating in harassment intervention training, and support existing social justice organizations and initiatives such as Stop AAPI Hate and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC). Familiarize yourself with non-profit organizations like Gold House and Define American who are shaping culture, forming solidarity through intersectionality and creating impactful, sustainable long-term solutions for challenges facing our communities. The solidarity protests over the past few weeks have been extremely heartwarming. I have demonstrated alongside my peers, activists, community leaders and regular New Yorkers, telling our truths and, between other minorities and marginalized groups, finding support and common ground. The “End Violence Against Asians” march in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City on February 20, 2021. Credit: Robert Hamada We need to be in every corner and exist in every space. The more that our stories are told, the more that our faces, our experiences and our humanity will not only be normalized but embraced. We must claim our rightful seats at the table, and then use those positions to empower other marginalized groups. Visibility is key, and we must craft our own narratives and tell our own stories. Top image caption: Prabal Gurung captured at the “Black and Asian Solidarity” march at Union Square in New York City on March 21, 2021 by photographer Robert Hamada. Source link Orbem News #antiAsian #deeper #fashion #Gurung #Prabal #PrabalGurung:Anti-Asiansentimentrunsdeeperthanyouthink-CNN #runs #sentiment

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jim-n-jago · 4 years ago

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EMPIRE THIS GOES BACK TO THERE SO MANY PEOPLE THAT ARE IN PRISON HERE IN AMERICA AND IN COMPARISON TO THE I Like Wine And My Dachshund And Maybe 3 People Vintage Retro T-Shirt from AmazinkShirt.com COMMUNIST PARTY IN CHINA THEY RULE OVER FOUR TIMES THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE BUT WE HAVE MORE SUBJECTS THAN THEY DO IN PRISON SO IT’S REALLY TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHY. When I was the other way around but again the left’s agenda is being pushed through all their slaves and all the millionaires that they hired and paid off to do their bidding there pushing their fake agenda and nobody’s buying America is not buying bullshit anymore we went over this already speaking of bullshit on this for bullshit and hypocrisy is this John Kane you know Mr that the producer of the Ama are very tape with the with the fake narrative weight with him being a jogger Mr shocking the same as the shocking who is believed to have been involved in the staging of the Georgia video and the release of it the CNN shocking on the Frank and tell you this is shocking and Missy in 2018 November 14 2018 writings as I’ll be frank and tell you to Democrats and I’m 99 sure I will be supporting primarily because value to Democrats and I’m 99 sure will be supported primarily because of their dis their dismal history on criminal justice reform over the course of their entire careers Joe Biden and Kemal Harris. WHEN I DECALCIFIED THE PINEAL GLAND SO WHAT WERE FINDING IS THIS HYDRO WAS A CHLOROQUINE EXIT DOES A LOT OF THINGS THAT FIGHTS CANCER DECALCIFIED IS THE PINEAL GLAND IT OBVIOUSLY SOLVES ANY OF THE SOLUTIONS THAT WERE TO HEAR ABOUT THERE’S SOME OTHER ARTICLES HERE IN REGARDS TO HIM

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As he was 15 years old from West Orange New Jersey shaving off. That happen he basically was things happen again the truth the matter is that what you have in the Verizon aggressive Russia which is an increase it a I Like Wine And My Dachshund And Maybe 3 People Vintage Retro T-Shirt from AmazinkShirt.com nfluence in Iran it’s now that now because of this deal is on a pathway in the future to obtain a nuclear leading state sponsor of terror in the world in Iran now has a closer working relationship with Russia because of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s foreign policy hundred and 50 billion in sanctions all being lifted and for Syria minutes it really is extraordinary this Syria is imploding you just asked a very thoughtful question about the disaster in Aleppo Isis is headquartered in Rocca it is Isis from rock to his overrun vast areas that great sacrifice the American soldier one operation Iraqi freedom and yet Sen. 3 entertained on you just put lanes pretty easily on this bike without much concernand on the seating position isn’t overly harsh over like a lot of I know more performance focused bikes are great like this yellow strain on your ear rests the you don’t really have a strain arrested it upright enough was a problem on the neonatal when protection I you really forward into the wind just a little bitand so that does mean that you don’t feel like you’re currently holding onto the bars of 70 or 80 miles an hour to stay onand that was there are various windshields available for the bikes so you a lot highway writing speed there’s a way to set upand I personally thought this might be one of the first things I would do is probably exhausted intake I think that’s a very common thing for people to say that on this bike I think that the character the engine in stock form is a little too sedate for the capabilities of the chassis when he met is that I think this chassis would really benefit from a ladder more rambunctious more rent happy motorand there’s many ways to do that with a sportster Odyssey I easily like the college had almost built so that the SR 1200 had in this chassis that motor be a really good fit personality wise for the chassis is not everything else is an upgraded performance lies like the suspensionand the brakes I think that the bike could really use a little bit extra grunt from the from the motor little more sound obviously but also just a little more of a rent happy nature so I just think bike feel that more lightly on the exhaustand intake in a team goes a long way towards axis AI upgrade by a distaste to it some star focus cans so all in all I deathly recommend this for anybody looking for from the performance focused on I classic style bike I it’s is a really good option for that market I knew only hesitation I would have been recommending is if you do a lot of highly writing it does only have 5 feet is not to bug out on the highway provided you stand below 80 miles an hour your final bassinet regularly get about the sap sustained speedand then I say it does have a great healthy so if you’re just starting out it might not be the best bike to start with because it is ISO 5 poundsand is quiet all seat so it’s your first bike MS here called IR falling out I would recommend potentially starting somewhere else like that that’s just one word of caution it is your first bike to bear in mind is a day on the tall side item to see at least with a Harley in the rest of the motorcycle market is not a particularly tall bikes up on I don’t want to scare you away from that but definitely don’t you should check one out I sit on itand make sure that you feel like it’s a comfortable life for you because it is one thing that most of the feeling of sportster’ What’s up guys now laid I hear coming to from Laidlaw’s Harley Davidson LA area’s oldest largestand finest rally condition such a matter of using the on the brainy 20 18th boy Savoie has been an iconic motorcycle in the Huntington lineup for a long time now in my opinion the most iconic motorcycle Newton makes so that the news this yearand sure mostly heard by now Davidson completely revamped the soft tail chassis despite the sample is built on a brand new chassis I have a video that have a that really outlines exactly what was done these new platforms so I’ll put a link to a video in in a car at the end here so infallibly fashion you got these aluminum disk mag wheels here that’s our kind iconic traits about the sap boyand you got an LED day maker headlamp in this all the new Sawtelle said LED really bright headlampsand a sample assassin you’ve got this freight trains down the cell houses this LED light God’s the Harley Davidson fat boy insignia on the side of take care the software is a military tribute bike this because she has a know the star the wings in the USA down there Savoie comes its name comes from a combination toand bombs are dropped in World War II sap manand little boyand accommodationist to give you fat boy this bike you can be even purchase it in a 107 or 114 configuration this is the new Milwaukee eight engine this is the first in Milwaukee has been offered on a bike other than the touring bikes you have an external preload adjustment knob on this bike this is one of the few bikes the small unit comes with this theater to being the breakoutsand that Bob is your oiland the oil is no longer in the pan underneath the sea anymore it’s underneath the transmissions with the oil sump is you have a two piece seat on the spike is one of the cool things are related did this year with this new Sawtelle platform is all there seats are two piece seats so if you want a more comfortable passenger seat instead of having to buy a brand new seating is by the passenger portionand slap it on their new connection that seatsand so both the writerand the pastor can kinda get what they want one of the big things they did this year is a put a huge 240 mm rear tire on the back of this bike can of Walmart to make a lens to the name of the fat boy from you on this thing is the day is from will whit why is it ever put on a motorcycle as well hundred 60 mm front tire to state really is that so use a lot of what they call the satin chrome finishes on the spike on the primary casing there this is a new floorboard design the floorboards are higher social meaning will have to increase on this new software platform is not a shot of the military tribute insignia that has always down the fat boy family first came out in 1990and has pretty much been a staple Harleyand I have ever since then here is your four piston caliper for piston break CalPERSand that the single the single rotor single side single disc brake I should say the fuel tank is a 5 gallon fuel tank one of the things of the fat boys always been a distinguishing trait about the sample he had bullet holes in the the disk mag wheels for those boreholes with their cost now this is a USB port all of the softgels guys have a USB port on the left hand side of bike so you can charge your your phone or whatever electronic device you might have off of that USB ports not just you need to just the fat boy that all the soft tells how that so here’s a close to the display here so you guys sure you’re a speedo in analogand then you have a digital VIP passes switch here is your digital readout of your today it should be of your feel their digitally remaining miles if we run out of fuel you clock in there as welland the nest displays your RPMand the gear urine as well throw down or their cell in analog on your speedometerand then everything else is all digital is far as your your fuel your Ranger clock you tripand should beand anything with the 114 set is comes at ABS this is a decorative cath you guys this is spins offand you can put different decorative caps on the tank used to be the fuel gaugeand impasse mauled the snow I feel gauge all the gas goes in the right hand side here dimension of the 5 gallon fuel tank the Santos coming to sizes either 5 gallon or threeand half gallons of this does have the bigger the twoand there’s your bullet holes there in the center of the tank on the center console so they remove the boreholes from the disk wheelsand put in the center console there immersing the lens to the military tribute at this despite his homage to so all these new Sawtelle’s guys all security to all keyless this key here all it does is lock the forksand aluminum keys now need to mention the key limits is really cookieand the actuation in the 4 o’clock is a lot cleaner a lot smoother now that used to be in years past they used one of the things they do the Santos chassis you guys as they reduce the weights here between 30 to 35 pounds I need to these Sawtelle models they do that by really analyzing every party put on hisand tried to cut away wherever they could use a little number they could set a steel to reduce the weightand that you can doesn’t tell that the weight reduction is there so really sat wheels on the same this bike almost reminds you the bikes it is making Tron is really fat lookand style by through aggressive means styling your combined with that headlamp this is a really cool aggressive meaty muscle type of the styling summit go aheadand fire sing of CSand his sanity engineand can see what it looks like visually as it’s runningand everything so things of notes this know what dates they puts a dual counterbalance are in their the original arcade I was offered a touring bike he is single counterbalance in front of the engine download the oil cooler is no voltage regulator so there’s another flywheel in this version of the Milwaukee that specifically designed for the softgelsand that is between via the crank in the transmission cell gave that you counterbalance is on the spikeand so it’s the primary shaking forces are 100 reduced on this there’s very little vibration in Sawtelle fashionand that day was allotted to also really increase the rigidity of this whole bike from top to bottom the frameand the way the engine is mounted to the frameand all that so this bike is a lot stiffer 90 stiffer than the Diane chassis was in the figure thought is a 65 stiffer than previous model softgelsand it’s definitely noticeable guysand everything from rider input into handlebars to that the way that it’s liensand Excelerator to turn everything is just quickerand the reaction time is a lot better society is not it’s fun to go through this cachet as some of the highlights the suspension on these Sawtelle friends to I should I should add is far superior to the old Sawtelle frames it’s it was kind of the weird thing even call them soft tell anymore my frame because it’s it’s really nothing like the old Sawtelle that all funding Sawtelle about analogy still had hidden suspensions suspensions up underneath the seat his available colors guys the first was bike this is 10 black tempest by campus like a bluish blackish really deep like Pearl Flake color this is called industrial gray is a really cool this car lot in the next here is called Bonneville salt Pearl M Callan either started her day sickle colorand this economy is in the video this is the only could readand twisted Sherry to town here’s an anniversary this is legend blueand visit black the fat boy is the only model to come into different or both of the year anniversary colors to this is the non denim finishand this is the denim finish the call legend blue denimand it’s got a tattoo style graphics on its present we got one of these we sold pretty quickly out of the cool color is a musician stats on this thing here so the 107Q begins bike starts at 18 999 that’s for black wine goes up at 400 from their fear from card into it to town ABS is standard on the spike as well as the security system security system standard on all the soft tells this bike has a course in the walkie eight engine walkie eight gets its name from the four valves per cylinder with a total of eight valves has single camand I spent a lot of time on stats here got to what they call the most machined lake stir wheels to Brandon Willis share of a futuristic type of allele like the that I guess said before the solid disk wheel that they use for me years that they have have a futuristic twist on it unless really goodand after the 114 is 20 209 box so looking at about 1300 charge if you want the 114 which in my opinion it’s pretty well worth it so nobody likes to see the horsepowerand torque figures so let me show you what Harley Davidson publishes in their screaming Eagle section of the catalog here so this is for the 114 to begin stop soft tell by Fisher US stock is there for black dot in line down there soand this is at the rear wheel this is not the crank where everybody next to you write about their power to buy another car the crank that it’s about 85 hp at 4500 RPM on these dikesand this is with the 114and then your torque is about 109 foot pounds of torque at the rear wheeland that’s peeks at 3000 RPM so if you live in the websites I believe they claim hundredand 19 foot pounds of torqueand that’s can be measured at the crankand is number 14and on the 107 version they claim hundredand 9 foot pounds of torque at the crank so they go’s office invasive overall general information on this new Sawtelle frame Iand extremely impressed for you my videos ride probably five or six of the softgels of this pointand this never been able to ride a Harley Davidson harderand more aggressively than the softgels the sauces really are the performance frame in the Harley Davidson world which is kind of funny because before this software frame was probably the worst performing form frame councils from the worst to the best overnight there were frame being on staff really worry about because this new Sawtelle to see how performs no frame hands down are frame the question was is busy ethics are frame yes disliked dominates the ethics are freeand close know that the right is our right SARS for a time the FSR was some guides you to meet people live in the blessingand a curse as he was love their motorcycles for a long time Hill in nature God is the most collectible lifestyle is so many things are ingrained in people with you so that you have romanticized on the way things used to be held at the blessingand curse performanceand handling his overall he is power away everything about these new Sawtelle’s sis is better than the old real soft tell chassis that you kneeled to talk to you about family specifically the way I would best describe as a boy is is a muscle cruiser what I mean is this thing looks great very simplistic linesand futuristic flare headlamp in the wheels was still the classic lines in the rear swing armand everythingand the really set is onand everything this thing is not the best handling Sawtelle there’s other hands also like a low rider warrior Bob are you listening from the wheels in the scene because of an one can notice on this bike is as I was entering turns slowly if you’re on the break all turn this one is for this is like to lean overand take her to a slow way down your turn despite the good switch type of roads in the slow say what is really funny despite Dell is latest day start off dead stop’s role in on his like you get this trash in the rear the huge back thereand all I obey is on sky this thing is really fine stop stop by my is for sure it’s youand the suspension the monitor shock rear suspension training this year will turn right there is a perfect example of this need not be the likely the bike down shape the bikeand return to effect the better way why the shot the monitor shock on this bikeand there’s two rulings on the soft tell chassis is 3 inch travel in this rear shot all the mice had a shot with the exception of the Heritageand Bob for travel guides the suspension of this bike is just far superior to the old softgels in the message describe it as you have more than plan for dealing with the wheelsand tires stay in contact asphalt going over little Thompson was in the road like thatand that’s achieved by is the smallest designand also the seal cartridge design in the front for us since the show will the valve system in the front which was developed in a fight through my 27 three model year so he saw me feeling part beneficial theme of this 8 form being put in these the softgels uses is the cooling system is efficient to display the Oakland system that’s treated toilet on the heads really reduces the heat on these engines significantly seeking a lot less of that heat radiating up on youand is embedded in the different engine components of this bike is really apparent to me that he is reduced significantly on his run at a cooler temperature is based you have the cable auditory mice is the walkie engineand then have hydraulic clutch down south bank of the spikes the deal is okay you want so well here shifted the problem so good Smith still that the distinct feeling shifting here would expect from claimsand the sound to it in place a heavy piece of machinery that also really good analyzer nice is a quarter bar all internally wired really clean bar design nine can save on despite the ways everything is real simplistic styling is from Harley Davidsonand Alex forget the size these these sufferings are pretty small guys cells there is no more room on these were on the old Sawtelle’s immediate classroom 6’6 talland so despite was deathly a Francine position for me I know is probably seen despite Dell which back to 3 inches Jason try that out for me if I wasn’t as tall as I am holy the softgels might purchase big fan that because I do a lot of freeway writing tall like fairy radios in the communication of his remains family go through the small year that’s this boy this is this is for the guy that was down the weekends doing patriot Russell in the the more comfortable see if there be back there for more than 20 minutes or so there are two different sizes on this bike I will say you’re were limited on this bike also putting the breakdown of this bike bolted 240 mm rear tire sale of them were limited on your options for the sissy bar you have the more the below profile that you cannot play toward the back of this bike is a new cooldown came out from the softgels as they made it easier for you toward these bikes however this bikeand the breakoutsand the fact Bob will not accept toward cell this Like into the category of some muscle he a cruiser bike real clean lines you have on this by guys real simplistic risers on this life so you years are somewhat down despite the severe grade bike shoes so really good Blake blank canvas to customize this bike so I can say Wayneand his life for his life for someone that wants a bike to really freak on Felix’s work despite really toward the really fun by roleand also the senior pants customize for you like it wrote the classic lines simplistic engineering styling save things to customize it is the Sawtelle frame chassis of view customization options for seating position Chris floorboards lovers so if you’re guided down the freeway you a lot of long distance to arrive probably not the best bike for you persona really likes to call razor sharp handling not to Best Buy for a slowdowns initiated turn on this they really wide sweeping turns real applicable handling on this thing so looking for a roomand Jane Carver Best Buy I was the breaking on his on the softgels even noticing this break the breaking is really good guy support this helper Stasi price really really well so breaking is great on these things us with the way as well he shows to find people that you know life to this break the low rider anymore I really miss on this bikeand all weather race but the break just fine that way is really cool iconic model that leaves only improved on his lot faster the 114 even when I said sure THE SAME PLANT ONE FOR THE LAWN OR DOES THE FREEWAY I WOULD WANT TO SEEM LIKE ACROSS COUNTRIES LIKE THE WINDOWS DEALING YOU CAN GET A WINDSHIELD DESPITE REGULAR FREEWAY HAS THE RIGHT WINDSHIELD THAT HE WAS GUYS THAT 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covid19worldnews · 4 years ago

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What If Facebook Is the Real ‘Silent Majority’?

The Shift

Right-wing influencers are dominating the political discussion on Facebook, raising questions about whether it will translate into electoral success in November.

President Trump continues to have a lot of support among users on the social network.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Published Aug. 27, 2020Updated Nov. 4, 2020, 6:42 a.m. ET

Listen, liberals. If you don’t think Donald Trump can get re-elected in November, you need to spend more time on Facebook.

Since the 2016 election, I’ve been obsessively tracking how partisan political content is performing on Facebook, the world’s largest and arguably most influential media platform. Every morning, one of the first browser tabs I open is CrowdTangle — a handy Facebook-owned data tool that offers a bird’s-eye view of what’s popular on the platform. I check which politicians and pundits are going viral. I geek out on trending topics. I browse the previous day’s stories to see which got the most reactions, shares and comments.

Most days, the leader board looks roughly the same: conservative post after conservative post, with the occasional liberal interloper. (If you want to see these lists for yourselves, you can check out @FacebooksTop10, a Twitter account I created that shows the top 10 most-interacted-with link posts by U.S. Facebook pages every day.)

It’s no secret that, despite Mr. Trump’s claims of Silicon Valley censorship, Facebook has been a boon to him and his allies, and hyperpartisan Facebook pages are nothing new. (In fact, my colleague John Herrman wrote about them four years ago this month.)

But what sticks out, when you dig in to the data, is just how dominant the Facebook right truly is. Pro-Trump political influencers have spent years building a well-oiled media machine that swarms around every major news story, creating a torrent of viral commentary that reliably drowns out both the mainstream media and the liberal opposition.

The result is a kind of parallel media universe that left-of-center Facebook users may never encounter, but that has been stunningly effective in shaping its own version of reality. Inside the right-wing Facebook bubble, President Trump’s response to Covid-19 has been strong and effective, Joe Biden is barely capable of forming sentences, and Black Lives Matter is a dangerous group of violent looters.

Mr. Trump and his supporters are betting that, despite being behind Mr. Biden in the polls, a “silent majority” will carry him to re-election. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest and most online son, made that argument himself at the Republican National Convention this week. And while I’m not a political analyst, I know enough about the modern media landscape to know that looking at people’s revealed preferences — what they actually read, watch, and click on when nobody’s looking — is often a better indicator of how they’ll act than interviewing them at diners, or listening to what they’re willing to say out loud to a pollster.

Maybe Mr. Trump’s “silent majority,” in other words, only seems silent because we’re not looking at their Facebook feeds.

“We live in two different countries right now,” said Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist and digital director of Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign. Facebook’s media ecosystem, he said, is “a huge blind spot for people who are up to speed on what’s on the front page of The New York Times and what’s leading the hour on CNN.”

Image

Mr. Trump with Terrence K. Williams, a conservative comedian, at the White House last year.Credit…Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images

To be sure, Facebook is not the only medium where right-wing content thrives. Millions of Americans still get their news from cable news and talk radio, where conservative voices have dominated for years. Many pro-Trump Facebook influencers also have sizable presences on Twitter, YouTube and other social networks.

But the right’s dominance on Facebook, specifically, is something to behold. Here are just a few data points I pulled from CrowdTangle this week:

The conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has gotten 56 million total interactions on his Facebook page in the last 30 days. That’s more than the main pages of ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR combined. (Data from a different firm, NewsWhip, showed that Mr. Shapiro’s news outlet, The Daily Wire, was the No. 1 publisher on Facebook in July.)

Facebook posts by Breitbart, the far-right news outlet, have been shared four million times in the past 30 days, roughly three times as many as posts from the official pages of every Democratic member of the U.S. Senate combined.

The most-shared Facebook post containing the term “Black Lives Matter” over the past six months is a June video by the right-wing commentators The Hodgetwins, which calls the racial justice movement a “damn lie.” The second most-shared Black Lives Matter post? A different viral video from The Hodgetwins, this one calling the movement a “leftist lie.” (The Hodgetwins also have the 4th, 6th, and 12th most shared posts.)

Terrence K. Williams, a conservative comedian and Trump supporter, has averaged 86,500 interactions per Facebook post in August, more than twice as many as Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, who has averaged 39,000 interactions per post. (Mr. Trump outdoes them both, naturally, with an average of 92,000 interactions per post.)

A few caveats, before my Democratic readers jump off the nearest pier.

These figures include only posts on public pages, in public groups, and by verified accounts, and they don’t include Facebook ads, where the Biden campaign has been outspending the Trump campaign in recent weeks. Counting Facebook interactions doesn’t tell you how someone felt about a post, so it’s possible some conservative posts are being hate-shared by liberals. And Facebook has argued that engagement isn’t the same thing as popularity.

“These points look mostly at how people engage with content, which should not be confused with how many people actually see it on Facebook,” Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman, said in a statement. Mr. Osborne added that “when you look at the content that gets the most reach across Facebook, it’s not at all as partisan as this reporting suggests.” (Facebook does not disclose this type of data publicly, except once in a while in response to my tweets.)

Democrats aren’t totally absent from Facebook’s upper echelon. Ridin’ With Biden, a pro-Biden page started in April by the founders of the liberal Facebook page Occupy Democrats, has quadrupled its following over the past three months, and routinely gets more engagement than Breitbart and other right-wing heavy-hitters. Individual posts by Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats have broken through in recent weeks.

And political campaigners have pointed out, correctly, that being popular on the internet isn’t a guarantee of electoral success. (“Retweets don’t vote,” as an experienced Democratic operative once told me.) In addition, Facebook’s older, more conservative user base may not reflect what’s happening on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which draw a younger crowd.

Still, the platform’s sheer scale makes it vital to understand. As of 2019, 70 percent of American adults used Facebook, and 43 percent of Americans got news on the platform, according to the Pew Research Center. (Those numbers may have increased because of the pandemic.) We know that the company’s product decisions can make or break political movements, move fringe ideas into the mainstream, or amplify partisan polarization. Registering four million voters before the November election, as Facebook has said it would do, could be a decisive force all on its own. (Typically, higher turnout benefits Democrats, but given what we know about the media diets of hyperactive Facebook users, who knows?)

The reason right-wing content performs so well on Facebook is no mystery. The platform is designed to amplify emotionally resonant posts, and conservative commentators are skilled at turning passionate grievances into powerful algorithm fodder. The company also appears willing to bend its rules for popular conservative influencers. Recent reports by BuzzFeed News and NBC News, based on leaked documents, found that Facebook executives had removed “strikes” from the accounts of several high-profile conservative pages that had shared viral misinformation in violation of the company’s rules.

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The Biden campaign has been outspending the Trump campaign on Facebook in recent weeks.Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Over the past few years, I’ve come to view my daily Facebook data-dive as a kind of early-warning system — a rough gauge of what’s grabbing America’s attention on any given day, and which stories and perspectives will likely break through in the days to come.

And looking at Facebook’s lopsided political media ecosystem might be a useful reality check for Democrats who think Mr. Biden will coast to victory in November.

After all, Mr. Trump’s surging popularity showed up online before it showed up in any polls in 2016. And even though much about Facebook, and American politics, has changed in the past four years, the basic laws of social media physics still apply. Controversy wins. Negative beats positive. All attention looks good to an algorithm.

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Brad Parscale led Mr. Trump’s digital efforts in 2016. Credit…Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Brad Parscale — the digital director of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign — told “60 Minutes” that of everything Mr. Trump did that year, the thing that actually moved the needle was Facebook.

“Facebook was the method,” Mr. Parscale said. “It was the highway which his car drove on.”

That highway is still open. And right now, the fastest cars on it have MAGA bumper stickers.

https://www.covid19snews.com/2020/11/04/what-if-facebook-is-the-real-silent-majority/

#covid19

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day0one · 4 years ago

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5 years of hate 1 hr ago

At the first presidential debate of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump shocked many viewers when he was given an opportunity to condemn white supremacists but declined. The president then told the Proud Boys, an alt-right hate organization, to “stand back” and “stand by.”

While Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists was the talk of the debate, his decision to skirt the subject is precisely in line with how he’s historically addressed violence on the part of hate groups and his supporters: He emboldens it.

As far back as 2015, Trump has been connected to documented acts of violence, with perpetrators claiming that he was even their inspiration. In fact, almost five dozen people, according to reports from the Guardian and ABC News, have enacted violence in Trump’s name.

In 2016, a white man told officers, “Donald Trump will fix them” while being arrested for threatening his Black neighbors with a knife. That same year, a Florida man threatened to burn down a house next to his because a Muslim family purchased it, citing Trump’s Muslim ban made it a reason for “concern.” Then there are the more widely known examples, like Cesar Sayoc, who mailed 16 inoperative pipe bombs to Democratic leaders and referred to Trump as a “surrogate father,” and the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in 2019 that left 23 dead, where the shooter’s manifesto parroted Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.

In some cases, Trump initially denounces the violence, but he often walks back such statements, returning to a message of hate and harm. Recently, he defended a teenage supporter who gunned down three people at a Black Lives Matter protest. And on Thursday, he refused to condemn the domestic terrorists who allegedly planned to violently kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Instead, he criticized Whitmer and fished for compliments.

Trump has continually failed to recognize what’s at the core of this violence: hate that’s been nurtured under a tense national climate that he has helped cultivate.

Trump’s campaign rallies have always been incubation grounds for violence, the sites where Trump spewed hate speech that encouraged physical harm against dissenters. And as president, he has used his platform to encourage violence against American citizens, whether via the police and national guard or militia groups. Just this year alone, Trump infamously made it clear that protesters — those out demonstrating against police brutality and systemic racism — should be met with force.

As much as the president and his supporters have to paint the picture that the cities and suburbs will burn in violence under a Joe Biden presidency, Trump is the one who has repeatedly proven that he has no interest in promoting peace.

Here is a timeline of Trump’s hateful rhetoric since 2015 and some of the moments when his supporters took heed.

2015: Trump officially announces his campaign for president and immediately employs rhetoric that suggests violence is the answer to opposition Trump officially announced his candidacy for president of the United States in June 2015 and wasted little time inciting fear and hate in his first speech. That year, critics argued that his language led to attacks on innocent bystanders, and in some cases, acts of violence were directly connected to Trump’s words.

June 16, 2015: When Trump announced his bid for president at Trump Tower in New York City, he made disparaging comments about Mexicans, comments that have been said to incite violence and hate toward immigrants for years to come:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Even though his statement was almost entirely false, in the months following, Trump would defend the criminal threat of immigrants. “What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.,” he said on July 6, 2015.

August 11, 2015: Trump indirectly took aim at Black Lives Matter protesters, calling Sen. Bernie Sanders “weak” after Sanders allowed protesters to seize the microphone at a campaign rally. “I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness — the way he was taken away by two young women. … They just took the whole place over.”

Trump added, “That will never happen with me. I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will. But that was a disgrace. … I felt badly for him, but it showed that he’s weak.”

August 19, 2015: Two Boston brothers invoked Trump when they were arrested for urinating on a homeless man and beating him with a metal pipe. While in custody, one of the brothers told the police, “Trump was right. All of these illegals need to be deported.” The 58-year-old Mexican man they assaulted was a permanent resident.

In response to the news that the Boston assault was inspired by his rhetoric, Trump did not denounce the violence, instead calling his supporters “passionate.” “I think that would be a shame. I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that,” he told reporters the next day.

On August 21, 2015, Trump backtracked a bit, taking a both-sides approach. “Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would never condone violence,” he tweeted.

October 23, 2015: After repeatedly being interrupted by protesters at a campaign rally in Miami, Trump warned he’ll “be a little more violent” next time when addressing protesters. “See the first group, I was nice. ‘Oh, take your time.’ The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I’ll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I’ll say get the hell out of here!” he said. On video, the pro-immigration protesters could be seen being forcibly dragged out of the campaign event.

November 21, 2015: At a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, Trump demanded the removal of Black activist Mercutio Southall Jr. after he yelled, “Black lives matter!” Onstage, Trump exclaimed, “Get him the hell out of here! Get him out of here! Throw him out!” In a video captured by CNN, Southall fell to the ground as Trump made his statements and white men appeared to kick and punch him.

As security guards removed Southall from the rally, the crowd chanted, “All lives matter,” according to the Washington Post. Trump told Fox News the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing. I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble.”

December 2015: The Trump campaign devised a strategy to address protesters who demonstrated at rallies. Instead of harming the protester, the campaign suggested they chant, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” until a security guard removes the protester. The campaign began playing an announcement of the plan at rallies in mid-December, which started with the line, “If a protester starts demonstrating in the area around you, please do not touch or harm the protester. This is a peaceful rally.” According to the Washington Post, attendees laughed when the announcement was played at a rally.

2016: At campaign rallies, Trump models the violence that he encourages by making a spectacle out of ejecting protesters At his large campaign rallies, Trump became notorious for yelling “Get ’em out!” at protesters who demonstrated, whether they stood there silently, held up a sign, or chanted. Though Trump often alleged that the protesters were violent, reporters found no evidence to suggest that protesters ever attacked Trump supporters inside any rally.

In 2016, Trump sharpened his rhetoric against Muslims, suggesting that the country must scrutinize mosques and newly arrived Muslim migrants. The year 2016 also gave rise to the chant that advocated for violence against then-Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton: “Lock her up!”

January 8, 2016: Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old Muslim woman wearing a hijab, was escorted out of a Trump rally after standing up in silent protest over Trump’s speech in which he said Syrian refugees fleeing war were affiliated with ISIS. Hamid attended the rally to show Trump supporters what Muslims are like (Trump had already called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in December 2015), and told CNN’s Don Lemon that the people sitting around her were “very nice” and “sharing their popcorn.”

But once the crowd “got this hateful crowd mentality,” as she was being escorted out, “it was a vivid example of what happens when you start using this hateful rhetoric and how it can incite a crowd where moments ago were very kind to me.” Hamid said one man yelled to her, “Get out! Do you have a bomb? Do you have a bomb?”

January 23, 2016: At a campaign rally in Iowa, Trump, in describing the loyalty of his supporters, notoriously said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) February 1, 2016: At a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump told the crowd that his security team informed him that there may be somebody throwing tomatoes. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. There won’t be so much of them because the courts agree with us,” he said.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) February 23, 2016: At a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Trump said of a protester, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” As security guards escorted the protester out of the rally, Trump mocked him, saying, “He’s smiling. Having a good time.” He then reminisced about being able to get away with violence: “There’s a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches. We’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.” Trump also called the protester “nasty as hell.” CNN reported that the man did not appear to fight with the security guards taking him outside.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) At the same rally, Trump would double down on his support for waterboarding, a banned interrogation method. “They said to me, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ I said I think it’s great, but we don’t go far enough. It’s true. We don’t go far enough. We don’t go far enough.” At a February 6, 2016, Republican debate in New Hampshire, Trump said he would “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding” if he were elected president.

February 27, 2016: Trump advocated for police state violence, lamenting how officers are afraid to do their jobs because America is “becoming a frightened country.” “You see, in the good old days, law enforcement acted a lot quicker than this. A lot quicker. In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast — but today, everybody’s politically correct,” Trump said. “Our country’s going to hell with being politically correct. Going to hell.”

March 1, 2016: At a campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump repeatedly yelled, “Get out of here! Get em’ out of here! Get him the hell out!” to a group of protesters, galvanizing the crowd to chant, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and physically shove the group of Black protesters. Trump continued: “Don’t hurt him! If I say, ‘Go get him,’ I get in trouble with the press, the most dishonest human beings in the world. If I say, ‘Don’t hurt him,’ the press will say, ‘Well, Trump isn’t as tough as he used to be!’ . ... So you can’t win.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) March 9, 2016: A 78-year-old white male Trump supporter punched a Black male protester being escorted out of a Trump campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Trump supporter was recorded on video saying he enjoyed “knocking the hell out of that big mouth” and “Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.” He was arrested and charged with assault a day later, though he attacked the protester directly in front of law enforcement officials.

Instead, at the time, law enforcement officials tackled the protester to the ground after he had been punched in the face.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCwibANHp6B/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

Two days after the assault, Trump said such attacks on protesters were “very, very appropriate” and the kind of action “we need a little bit more of.” Trump called the protesters “very violent,” though multiple news outlets at the time reported that there were no documented cases of protesters inciting violence against Trump supporters.

March 10, 2016: At a Miami Republican Debate, Trump denied that his tone incited violence at his rallies and insinuated that the anger toward protesters was justified. “I will say this,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We have 25 [thousand], 30,000 people. You’ve seen it yourself. People come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protest — in some cases — you know, you’re mentioning one case, which I haven’t seen, I heard about it, which I don’t like. But when they see what’s going on in this country, they have anger that’s unbelievable. They have anger.”

He added: “We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous … And if they’ve got to be taken out, to be honest, I mean, we have to run something.”

March 11, 2016: Trump abandoned a planned Chicago campaign rally after fights broke out between his supporters and protesters. Five people were arrested and two police officers were injured, according to the Chicago police. In a tweet, Trump blamed “thugs” for the chaos.

March 31, 2016: Three people who say they were assaulted at a March 1, 2016, Trump campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, sued the then-candidate, alleging that he riled up his followers and encouraged violence when he repeatedly yelled, “Get ‘em out of here!” The group sued Trump for incitement to riot, and in April 2017, federal Judge David Hale ruled that their claim was valid since there was sufficient evidence proving their injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s comments. “It is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force,” Hale wrote. “It was an order, an instruction, a command.”

Trump appealed the case, and in September 2018, a federal appeals court dismissed the protesters’ claims, saying that Trump’s words were protected under the First Amendment and did not “specifically advocate imminent lawless violence.” An attorney for the plaintiffs called the ruling “unprecedented” and “dangerous,” and a “free pass” for a candidate for public office.

July 2016: By July, the infamous “Lock her up!” chant in response to any mention of Hillary Clinton became a facet of Trump’s rallies and even the GOP convention. On July 19, at the Republican National Convention, the crowd chanted “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” as Chris Christie delivered a speech. At a rally in Colorado Springs on July 29, Trump, after resisting joining in on the chant at rallies, told the audience, “I’ve been saying let’s just beat her on November 8th. But you know what, I’m starting to agree with you.”

Trump’s comments came after Clinton spoke ill of him in her Democratic National Convention address. “You know it’s interesting. Every time I mention her, everyone screams, ‘lock her up, lock her up.’ They keep screaming. And you know what I do? I’ve been nice,” Trump said. “But after watching that performance last night — such lies — I don’t have to be so nice anymore. I’m taking the gloves off.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) But crowds and commentators didn’t stop at “Lock her up!” As the Atlantic reported, some called for Clinton to be “hung on the Mall in Washington D.C.” or “put in a firing line and shot for treason.”

December 2016: After Trump bullied then-Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly for months, Kelly came forward to allege that Trump’s social media manager was responsible for the many death threats she was receiving. “The vast majority of Donald Trump supporters are not at all this way,” Kelly said, according to the Guardian. “It’s that far corner of the internet that really enjoys nastiness and threats and unfortunately there is a man who works for Donald Trump whose job it is to stir these people up and that man needs to stop doing that. His name is Dan Scavino.”

2017: With Trump in office, white supremacists organize and are emboldened to march and protest in public; Trump also amplifies his attacks on the press In 2017, Trump sharply criticized the press, calling it the “enemy of the American people,” fueling hostility toward journalists that many say had led to violence. He also failed to condemn white supremacist and white nationalist groups that organized in Charlottesville, Virginia. The “Unite the Right” rally became a turning point for the nation, prompting many people to finally stop and question the impact of Trump’s rhetoric.

January 25, 2017: On the day the Trump administration instituted a ban against travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a Muslim Delta employee wearing a hijab was physically and verbally attacked at JFK International Airport in New York. The perpetrator told the victim “[Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS. Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you,” according to ABC. On the campaign trail, Trump said he was open to the idea of closing mosques and creating a database of all Muslims in the US, consistently saying that Muslims were a “problem” and a “sickness.”

February 17, 2017: In what the New York Times called a “striking escalation in his attacks,” Trump tweeted that the news media is “the enemy of the American people.”

Trump had long blamed news organizations for misrepresenting his agenda and performance, but in February officially positioned the media as a key opponent. At a press conference on February 16, 2017, Trump strategically called the media “dishonest” and labeled reporting from outlets like CNN “fake news.”

Onlookers argued that Trump’s rhetoric toward the press led to violent attacks on reporters. As Jeff Guo reported in 2017, “Anti-media rhetoric has abounded since the election,” pointing to examples of physical hostility toward journalists at the time:

In West Virginia last month, Dan Heyman of Public News Service was handcuffed and arrested at the state capitol building for posing questions to Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services. And in Washington last week, a reporter from CQ Roll Call was pushed against a wall by security guards for asking an FCC commissioner questions in the lobby of a public building.

July 28, 2017: During a speech to law enforcement officials in Long Island, New York, Trump encouraged police to be more violent when handling suspects and potential offenders:

“Now, we’re getting them [criminals] out anyway, but we’d like to get them out a lot faster, and when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, please don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”

In the 35-minute speech, Trump discussed his plan to fight MS-13 gang violence, calling the gang’s members “animals” who had “transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields.”

August 12, 2017: One of the clearest moments Trump refused to denounce violence, and thereby encourage it, to the country’s dismay, was when he equated the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, as part of a “Unite the Right” rally with the leftist protesters who demonstrated against them. During the rally, a Nazi sympathizer drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The evening before, on August 11, the neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups marched at the University of Virginia, carrying lit tiki torches and chanting anti-Semitic slogans, in response to the impending removal of a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue.

As Tara Golshan reported for Vox, Trump’s very first response to the events in Charlottesville was to condemn violence on the part of many players, while initially refusing to even mention the presence of white supremacist groups. In a short statement issued Saturday evening, Trump said from his golf club in New Jersey, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.”

That same night, he tweeted condolences to Heyer’s family, but made no mention of who was responsible for the violence. Trump called for there to be “a study” to understand what happened in Charlottesville.

On the Tuesday following the weekend rally, Trump infamously said, “You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides.”

The president also attempted to identify the “good people” in the sea of white nationalists that weekend: “You had people and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists. They should be condemned totally. [...] You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) September 22, 2017: At a rally in Alabama, Trump took aim at football players like Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and systemic racism. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’” he said.

In the following days, Trump underscored his disdain for the anthem protests:

Ultimately, Trump turned the NFL player’s silent protest about police violence into a debate about nationalism — becoming emblematic of how Trump would spin issues of racial injustice as an affront to American life, using it as a way to rile up his base (many supporters set fire to NFL team merchandise).

2018: Donald Trump still fails to condemn white supremacists at a time when hate crimes are on the rise Multiple studies released between 2017 and 2019 pointed to how hate crimes reached a high during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. A report from the FBI found that hate crimes, especially against Muslims, increased by 5 percent in 2016 and were up 17 percent in 2017; in 2018, hate crimes reached a 16-year high, with a significant rise in violence against Latinos.

According to a 2019 report, counties that hosted a rally with Donald Trump as a headliner experienced a 226 percent increase in hate crimes. The report’s authors noted: “Trump’s rhetoric may encourage hate crimes.” At the middle point of his term, when confronted with opportunities to condemn white supremacy and ultimately attempt to unify the country, Trump declined to do so.

June 24, 2018: Amid his administration’s family separation crisis, Trump fanned the flames of anti-immigration sentiment. On Twitter, Trump tweeted rhetoric that justified his administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which featured ICE raids and migrant detention facilities. Between October 1, 2017, and May 31, 2018, at least 2,700 children were split from their families at the border. “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents ...” he wrote.

August 11, 2018: A year after the inaugural “Unite the Right” rally, organizers planned a second “Unite the Right” event, yet Trump still failed to condemn the hate groups by name. Ahead of the rally, he tweeted a rather numb statement against hate and did not acknowledge and condemn the people perpetrating the violence.

October 18, 2018: At a rally in Montana, Trump celebrated Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte (MT), who body-slammed a reporter in May 2017, telling the crowd, “Any guy who can do a body-slam ... he’s my guy.”

Gianforte assaulted journalist Ben Jacobs after Jacobs asked him a question about the GOP health care bill. The Congress member ultimately apologized (after his spokesperson first denied the assault) and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. He was sentenced to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management, and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee.

As Jeff Guo reported for Vox in 2017, the assault revealed how the Republican Party, at Trump’s behest, has grown comfortable with verbal and physical violence against the press.

October 22-November 1, 2018: Cesar Sayoc, a Florida Trump supporter, mailed 16 inoperative pipe bombs to Democratic leaders, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton, who had been critical of Donald Trump’s presidency. Sayoc had been living in a van that was covered in photos of Trump and “decals attacking the media,” according to NBC News. Sayoc’s lawyers argued that Trump’s rhetoric fueled his actions and that Sayoc viewed Trump as a “surrogate father.” On August 4, 2019, Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Trump first condemned Sayoc’s action but then walked back his condemnation. “In these times we have to unify,” Trump said. “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

As Vox’s Alex Ward reported, Trump had multiple opportunities to unite the country after Sayoc was detained, but instead blamed the media and Democrats for the anger that his supporters were acting out on.

October 27, 2018: An anti-Semitic terrorist murdered 11 worshippers and injured seven others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though the shooter criticized Trump for being a “globalist” who was controlled by Jews, many critics linked Trump’s rhetoric to the mass shooting. Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh wrote an open letter to Trump demanding that he “fully denounce white nationalism” before visiting a city in mourning. “For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” the letter said. “You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”

Trump first lamented the shooting but then suggested that the victims should have protected themselves by having an armed guard inside the synagogue and distanced himself from the National Rifle Association when asked about his ties to the organization.

2019: Mass shootings and hate crimes connected to Donald Trump continue, while Trump lashes out at a group of newly elected congresswomen Instead of denouncing the white supremacy and hate that fueled mass shootings, Donald Trump highlighted mental illness as a key factor behind domestic terrorism. As Trump returned the campaign trail in an attempt to gain a second term, he targeted a new group at his campaign events — a group of young congresswomen of color, known as “the Squad.”

May 8, 2019: At a Florida rally, Trump turned the idea of shooting migrants and asylum seekers into a punchline. After a woman at the rally yelled “shoot them” in regard to immigrants, Trump said, “That’s only in the Panhandle, you can get away with that statement.”

Vox’s Aaron Rupar reported that Trump’s statement came a day after it was discovered that a border patrol agent said of migrants, “Why are we just apprehending them and not lining them up and shooting them. ... We have to go back to Hitler days and put them all in a gas chamber.”

July 14, 2019: Donald Trump attacked the group of congresswomen known as “the Squad,” saying on Twitter that they should “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came.” Trump didn’t initially name the lawmakers whom he was attacking but it was clear he was directing his ire at a group of progressive then-first-term members that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The women, who advocate for progressive policies, became the target of backlash and scrutiny.

Three days later at a Trump 2020 campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, the crowd repeatedly chanted “Send her back! Send her back!” directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom Trump began to single out from the Squad, which he described that night as a group of “hate-filled extremists.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) Trump’s rhetoric toward Omar and the rest of the squad led to death threats and increased security for the women. In April, just hours after a man was charged for threatening to assault and murder Omar, Trump doubled down on his harmful lies about her at an event. The man told officials that “he loves the president” and “hates radical Muslims in our government.” In June, Tlaib read out a death threat she received that said, “The only good Muslim is a dead one.”

August 3, 2019: In one of the larger calamities of Trump’s presidency, a 21-year-old white man opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others. As Alexia Fernández Campbell reported for Vox, the shooter drove more than 10 hours to the store to target Mexicans. Officials believe that the gunman was the author of a racist, xenophobic online manifesto that warned of a “Hispanic invasion” of Texas and echoed the president’s language, according to the New York Times. Trump responded to the shooting in a brief speech but “said nothing about widespread criticism of his own anti-immigrant rhetoric, which some say inspired the El Paso attacks,” Fernández Campbell reported.

August 5, 2019: A 39-year-old Montana man was charged with felony assault for choking, slamming, and fracturing the skull of a 13-year-old boy who didn’t take his hat off for the national anthem. The man’s attorney told the local newspaper that Trump’s “rhetoric” led to the violent act. “His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished,” the lawyer said, referencing Trump’s harsh words against athletes like Colin Kaepernick who protested for social justice.

October 1, 2019: A New York Times report stated that Trump, as part of his border security plan in early 2019, reportedly wanted to shoot migrants in the legs and keep them away from the southern border with a trench filled with water, alligators, and snakes. Trump also reportedly asked for a cost estimate for an electrified wall with spikes that could “pierce human flesh.”

November 1, 2019: A 61-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested and charged with a felony hate crime after allegedly throwing acid at a Peruvian American who was walking to a Mexican restaurant. The perpetrator accused the victim of being inside the country illegally asking him, “Why you invade my country?” and “Why don’t you respect my laws?” before attacking him. When police searched the perpetrator’s home, they found three letters addressed to Donald Trump. The victim suffered second-degree burns.

2020: Trump is explicit about the kind of violence he is willing to use against Black Lives Matter protesters. Meanwhile, Americans, particularly Black and Native Americans, are being ravaged by the coronavirus. As Black Lives Matter protests swept the country this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a key thread running through Trump’s response was to call for and send in law enforcement officials — the National Guard, Secret Service police, local police, US Park Police and state troopers — who dressed in riot gear and used a variety of weapons from tear gas to rubber bullets. While he said violence was out of hand in cities, the protests were most peaceful, outside of escalation by police.

In fact, after the deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents in Portland in the summer, violent demonstrations increased from under 17 percent to over 42 percent, according to a report. Amid the unrest, Trump also repeatedly failed to identify and call out white supremacist agitators and counterprotesters who traveled to cities and towns and incited violence.

And throughout the country, Asian Americans faced violence due to fears about the coronavirus. Trump has repeatedly used a racist name for the virus, calling it the Chinese flu or the Chinese virus.

March 14, 2020: 19-year-old Jose L. Gomez stabbed three members of an Asian-American family, including a 2-year-old and 6-year-old at a Sam’s Club in Texas. According to the FBI’s report obtained by ABC News, Gomez said he attacked them because “he thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus.” Gomez was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

In a report released in late March, the FBI warned that hate crimes against Asian Americans would surge (and were already surging) due to rhetoric that associated the disease with China and Asian American populations. Trump began calling coronavirus the “Chinese virus” early in the pandemic and defended his use of the phrase, despite many calls against it, saying, “It did come from China. It is a very accurate term.”

Catherine Kim reported for Vox that the phrase fits into Trump’s “pattern of xenophobia” and “pattern of deflecting blame.” After a week of anti-Asian rhetoric, Trump tweeted, “‘it was very important we protect our Asian American community’ (before othering Asian Americans — “they” and “us” — one tweet later) ... but the damage has already been done.”

On October 8, 2020, a few days after being released from Walter Reed hospital where he was treated for the virus, Trump released a video in which again he blamed China. “China’s going to pay a big price what they’ve done to this country,” Trump said.

May 29, 2020: Following the first weekend of social justice protests, Trump immediately threatened to shoot looters in Minneapolis, in a tweet thread that kicked off the tone that would dominate his reaction to the unrest in the following months. He called protesters “thugs” and said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter flagged Trump’s tweet for “glorifying violence.”

As Katelyn Burns reported for Vox, a day later, “Trump tried to walk back the phrase on Twitter by claiming he meant that when looting starts, people end up getting shot.”

June 1, 2020: Police officers in Washington, DC, attacked hundreds of peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square with tear gas to make way for Donald Trump who traveled from the White House to St. John’s Church for a photo op. Before visiting the church, Trump delivered remarks in which he said, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” The remarks fit into Trump’s repeated call for “law and order.”

August 29, 2020: At an emergency operations briefing in Texas, Trump expressed interest in sending the National Guard to Portland to meet protesters with force.

“We sent in 1,000 National Guard, and that’s not even a big force. We could clean out — as an example, Portland: We could fix Portland in, I would say, 45 minutes.”

August 31, 2020: After 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake was killed by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests broke out across the country. The next day, a group of armed men including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse from Illinois, showed up in Kenosha, saying they were there to protect property. Rittenhouse, a law enforcement enthusiast and a Trump supporter, shot and killed two people and injured another; he was later charged with murder.

Trump later appeared to justify Rittenhouse’s actions by saying he was acting in self-defense. At a press briefing, Trump told reporters, “I guess it looks like and he fell and then they very violently attacked him and it was something we’re looking at right now and it’s under investigation. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. But it’s under investigation.”

September 1, 2020: Before traveling to Kenosha, Trump said he was going to the city to show support for law enforcement. He did not visit Blake’s family or mention Blake by name. Instead, he said the officer who shot him must have “choked.”

Trump also said that law enforcement was ready to stop protests “very powerfully.” “As soon as they came in, boom, the flame was gone. Now maybe it will start up again, in which case they will put it out very powerfully,” he said.

Blake’s family and Wisconsin leaders feared that Trump’s visit would lead to more violence and destruction.

September 29, 2020: At the first presidential debate for the general election, when given the opportunity to denounce white supremacy, Trump spoke directly to a hate group, the Proud Boys, instructing them to “stand back” and “stand by.” In response, the Proud Boys instantly expressed gratitude and joy at being recognized by the president.

Days later, after receiving bipartisan criticism, Trump told Fox News that he condemns far-right hate groups. “Let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists,” he said. “I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that.”

However, as Rolling Stone argued, there are multiple reasons to believe that Trump knows who the Proud Boys are, from his connection to Roger Stone — who has close ties to the Proud Boys — to the fact that Proud Boys regularly attend Trump rallies, with a Proud Boy co-chairman sitting directly behind Trump at a Miami rally in 2019.

October 8, 2020: Six men face conspiracy charges in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop reported, “the conspirators were in contact with a militia group based in Michigan — training in tactics and weapons with the group, and attempting to build an explosive device with a militia group member.” The men were reportedly angry about Whitmer’s coronavirus shutdown policies.

In response to the FBI’s investigation, Trump demanded that Whitmer thank him. Trump also chastised Whitmer for the very thing that the conspirators targeted her for — taking action against the spread of a deadly virus.

In a livestream address, Whitmer said that Trump gives “comfort” to those who “spread fear and hatred and division.” She pointed to Trump’s comments at the presidential debate and called him “complicit”:

Just last week, the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. [...] Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.

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strad-214 · 4 years ago

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I am reading right now that psychologists are saying that it would be an incredible relief to us all if we forget the recent and "normal" lives we once knew and just accepted our current situation as the new normal because there is not yet an end in sight and I read this on CNN.

The article goes on to say that we will not be happy or content unless we let go of the belief that this will all be over soon or else we will drive ourselves crazy. It says that we must let go of the way of life we knew and accept our current predicament as our new way of life because there is no end in sight, so don'tgo searching for that end because that is also going to drive us crazy...

No, this pandemic isn't going to end tomorrow, or next week, or next month, maybe not even next year. Yes, we have to accept our current situation such as it is whether we like it or not because whether we believe it or not, it all is ultimately out of our control... but the pandemic will also not go on forever, and not all of our new conditions of living are entirely justified. Every day, new information comes out that contradicts the policies that where placed the day before: in New Jersey, USA, the Governor disallowed any and all indoor activity but forced schools to open with a government approved plan for sterility in the classrooms. The teachers, understandably, revolted saying that it was too dangerous and they did not wish to risk theirs and their students' lives so needlessly when they had already found ways to teach from home. They also made the argument that everything else was still needed to be done outdoors, so why open the schools? You know what the Governor did? Immediately announced that indoor activities where safe again to a certain degree and restaurants and theaters and the like opened back up. So too, did the schools, for they now had no argument.

This pandemic has been used as a platform for politics to exercise their control over the population. This is not an extreme left wing agenda, it is not an extreme right one either. Neither side is working in tandum to exercise this control, in fact, I'm not sure which is worse anymore. The pendulum of a a clock need not be wound so tight that the hammer slams into the walls of its casing and breaks the clock. Yet here we are, swinging so far one way and the other that the whole thing is crashing down and we just keep winding it up. Proof lies in this article alone, telling you the reader to give up hope for a better future, one where we are free of this plague-- political or viral-- and accept the lives we now must face.

Well, I for one will never give up hope of a better life. Things are terrible right now, but those of us that survive can do something to make it better. Don't riot, don't needlessly posture out of pride, don't give anybody a reason to call you a radical. Ask for the support of those in authority who are being muffled by the extreme wings of politics, they WANT to help us. Get the police to protest WITH YOU, talk to them, give them a reason to WANT TO SUPPORT YOU, and they will, they have done that before! They did it in Newark NJ when all these other protests and riots went violent, they knew Newark was going to have one, so they just decided "We'll march with you, protect you from those who would harm you and protect you from yourselves." -- there are a lot of rioters who are picking random targets and justifying it later, even amongst themselves.

What I'm trying to say is this: yes, it was the American way to take up arms and overthrow our government... keyword is WAS... we are not there yet. Can we please start finding better ways than just shooting the first cop we see? Or by literally trying to spread this plague as if it isn't real? Otherwise, we will get there. Do we really want that? Do we really want to destroy this nation? If we do, the entire world will come donw on us to claim its share, and we will have no say about it: we will be carved like fat ham, those of us who would survive the peocess will lose their homes, will lose their families, their husbands and wives, their children, their identities, their treasures... possibly our lives in the process. The carvers would call it a mercy for us, say they are giving us a new home and life, but we would be outsiders in lands we don't want to go live in. Or,, even if we think we want to go live there, we couldn'tive there the way we live here. Thas got to be a better way people, don't let go of those bettwr paths or we will lose everything!

I'm a straight, white man. I have lived on this Earth for 26 years. I was never presented the opportunities of success because I lived in a town of people who couldn't give a shit about anything but themselves and their interests. I am poor, I drive a 2007 Forester that is falling apart. I have enough college debt to insist that I'm pursuing a masters degree, but I still am an undergrad. I live in the living room of my future inlaws and sleep in a bed that is too small for my fiancee and I. Every night I try to sleep with direct eyesight to the front door of the house. I'm supposed to be student teaching right now, but that's difficult to do right now because of the pandemic and my college is having difficulty finding me a school willing to take me, not to mention the school they did find for me actually isn't cooperating with me and at this point, there isn't enough time in the semester to complete my requirements due to the slowly turning wheels of a system that again, doesn't seem to give a shit about me. I'm due to get married in two weeks time come this Friday (10/02/2020) the plans of which got turned upside down again due to the pandemic. All I want to do is teach music, love my wife, have a modest home on the edge of a forest that I can walk in with what I hope to be a daughter who sings and a son who fights Isshin-ryū like his mother, and ultimately teach the next generation to stick up for themselves and be their own men and women someday-- whether they were born men and women or not. That's it, that's all I want. Everything I have done in life was to allow myself and people like me to do just those things.... Why is that so hard? WE ARE MAKING IT HARD.... and I swear to God, if I have to take up arms and defend what little of my goals I have achieved against savages who hide behind walls of self-righteousness-- no matter their skin color or class-- my wrath will be equal to that of the God I believe in. For they will have taken everything from me at that point just because they can because they think it's right even though I have done nothing wrong to them....

BUT. I. WILL. NOT. GIVE. UP. NOT UNTO MY DYING BREATH WILL I EVER GIVE UP ON THE HOPE OF A BETTER FUTURE FOR EVERYONE ON THIS EARTH NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!!! AND IN STRIVING FOR MY GOALS OF A PEACFUL FUTURE WHERE I LIVE IN HARMONY WITH ALL THOSE AROUND ME, I AM ALLOWING THAT GOAL TO EMINATE TO ALL THOSE I WOULD LIVE IN HARMONY WITH!!! AND I SPIT ON ANY SICK FUCK WHO WOULD TELL ME OR ANYBODY THAT IT IS BETTER TO JUST GIVE UP HOPE AND ACCEPT A FATE THAT I DID NOT CHOOSE!!! FUCK YOU!!! TURN IN YOUR LICENCE TO PRACTICE MEDICINE BECAUSE YOU ARE RUINING LIVES WITH THAT BULLSHIT!!! THE SPIRIT OF A TRUE AMERICAN LIVES ON IN THE HOPE OF A BETTER FUTURE! THAT IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A TRUE AMERICAN!!! NOT A REBEL, NOT A CONQUOR, NOT A RACIST, BUT A BEACON OF HOPE FOR ALL PEOPLES OF THIS EARTH!!!!!

........ you know, I never write these things because when I share my views here, I get labeled as a biggot, a racist-- I've even been called a neo-nazi once... for believing that all people can live together in harmony without causing harm to one another, can you believe that? .... well, you people don't know me and your opinions don't scare me anymore. I have ourgrown mindless spite. I say what I do in the spirit of humility and devotion to secret vows which I have taken to try and unite peoples of all walks of life through music and help foster a kindred spirit between myself and my neighbors. It is the same vow that a man named Fred Rogers made once upon a time, I would know, he is a member of my order. If anyone has watched his shows, you'll see what I mean.

I am exhausted now... more than I ever have been. I feel far older than I am and I feel worse all the time. Please, I beg of you all... don't give in to this rhetoric, don't let this political mire get the best of you. Don't love Biden because he isn't Trump, love him because he has an idea or goal you like. Love Trump for the same reasons... and then tweet back that he needs to stop getting in his own way if he is to be a real leader. Think of the impacts of this pandemic and be thankful for all that you have, even if it's only a little, because someone else has it worse than you, and then try to help those people if you can. But above all else, be your own people, don't give in to hatred, be a positive influence, make a pact of peace and trust and set aside pride and spitefulness... be an American the way an American was meant to be.

#america #politics #covidー19 #a cry out for peace #help #psychology #2020 cnn #fall 2020 #fred rogers #sinfonia

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87 King hosted “Larry King Live” on CNN for over 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes, movie stars and everyday people. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the show. A statement was posted on his verified Facebook account announcing his passing. His son, Chance, confirmed King’s death Saturday morning. “With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,” the statement said. “For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.” The statement did not give a cause of death. He battled a number of health problems King had been hospitalized with Covid-19 in late December at Cedars-Sinai, a source close to the family said at the time. He battled a number of health problems over the years, suffering several heart attacks. In 1987, he underwent quintuple bypass surgery, inspiring him to establish the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to provide assistance to those without insurance. More recently, King revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure in 2019 to address angina. King also suffered personal loss last year when two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons, Larry, Jr., Chance and Cannon, who released a statement following their father’s death. “The world knew Larry King as a great broadcaster and interviewer, but to us he was ‘Dad.’ He was the man who lovingly obsessed over our daily schedules and our well-being, and who took such immense pride in our accomplishments — large, small, or imagined,” their statement said. “Through it all, we knew without a doubt in the world that he loved us more than life itself. He was an amazing father, and he was fiercely loyal to those lucky enough to call him a friend. We will miss him every single day of our lives.” The sons asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Heart Association or the Beverly Hills Fire Department EMS. He interviewed every president from Ford to Obama In an era filled with star newsmen, King was a giant — among the most prominent questioners on television and a host to presidents, movie stars and world class athletes. With an affable, easygoing demeanor that distinguished him from more intense TV interviewers, King perfected a casual approach to the Q&A format, always leaning forward and listening intently to his guests, rarely interrupting. “I’ve never learned anything,” King was fond of saying, “while I was talking.” CNN founder Ted Turner, in a statement, said news of King’s death “felt like a punch to the gut.” “Larry was one of my closest and dearest friends and, in my opinion, the world’s greatest broadcast journalist of all time,” he said. “If anyone asked me what are my greatest career achievements in life, one is the creation of CNN, and the other is hiring Larry King. Like so many who worked with and knew Larry, he was a consummate professional, an amazing mentor to many and a good friend to all. The world has lost a true legend.” Jeff Zucker, CNN President, on Saturday acknowledged King’s role in raising the network’s profile around the world. “We mourn the passing of our colleague Larry King,” he said in a statement. “The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage. From our CNN family to Larry’s, we send our thoughts and prayers, and a promise to carry on his curiosity for the world in our work.” For that quarter century, King hosted “Larry King Live” on CNN, a span that was highlighted by more than 30,000 interviews, including every sitting president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, and thousands of phone calls from viewers. Wendy Walker, his longtime executive producer on the show, said King treated all of his interview subjects the same — from heads of state to ordinary Americans. “The one thing he loved was being in front of that camera,” she said. “He was a very interesting man but that one hour a day, when those lights came on, he was just perfect. He treated every guest the same. It didn’t matter if it was a president or somebody just off the street.” King was known for not spending time preparing for interviews, preferring instead to let his natural curiosity guide the conversations, Walker said. “Probably that was the hardest part of our job — trying to prepare him because he never wanted to be prepared,” she recalled. “He read all day long and watched news, so he was really informed but he really just wanted to hear his guests talk and then come up with his questions.” The show made King one of the faces of the network, and one of the most famous television journalists in the country. His column in USA Today, which ran for nearly 20 years until 2001, showcased King’s distinct style in print, inviting readers down a trail of non-sequiturs that served as a window into his mind. “The most underutilized player in the NFL this year was Washington’s Desmond Howard…Despite what you think of Lawrence Walsh, we will always have the need for a special prosecutor because a government cannot investigate itself,” King wrote in a 1992 column. Those musings, combined with his unmistakable appearance — oversized glasses, ever-present suspenders — made King ripe for caricature. In the 1990s, he was portrayed on “Saturday Night Live” by Norm MacDonald, who channeled the USA Today column with a spot-on impersonation. Jokes aside, King’s influence is evident today in the generation of podcasters who have mimicked — whether deliberate or not — his conversational approach to interviews. “A good interview — you know more than you do before you start. You should come away with maybe some of your opinions changed,” King told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. “You should certainly come away entertained — an interviewer is also an entertainer.” He started his media career as a disc jockey Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, King was raised by two Jewish immigrants. His mother, Jennie (Gitlitz) Zeiger, was from Lithuania, while his father, Edward Zeiger, hailed from Ukraine. Edward died of a heart attack when King was 10, a memory King said he mostly “blocked out.” Left to raise King and his younger brother Marty alone, Jennie Zeiger was forced to go on welfare to support her children. The death had a profound effect on King, and his mother. “Prior to his death, I’d been a good student but afterwards, I just stopped being interested,” King told The Guardian in a 2015 interview. “It was a real blow to me. But eventually I channeled that anger because I wanted to make him and my mother proud.” King said his father had enormous influence on him, instilling in his son a sense of humor and a love of sports. And no sport drew more of King’s affection than baseball. He grew up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and continued to support the team after its move to Los Angeles. He was a fixture at the team’s home games in Dodger Stadium, often spotted in the high-priced seats behind home plate. In 2004, King wrote a book aptly titled, “Why I Love Baseball.” “He was a voracious Dodgers fan, baseball fan,” said longtime friend and Dodgers sportscaster Charley Steiner. “And we would fuss and fight about what the Dodgers were doing. He was terribly frustrated year after year when the Dodgers would win the division, fall short in the World Series. But this year he got to see the Dodgers win the World Series. It made him enormously happy.” King’s career in media began in earnest in 1957, when he took a job as a disc jockey at WAHR-AM in Miami. It was then when he made the decision to drop his surname. “You can’t use Larry Zeiger,” he recalled his boss at the station saying. “It’s too ethnic. People won’t be able to spell it or remember it. You need a better name.” “There was no time to think about whether this was good or bad or what my mother would say. I was going on the air in five minutes,” King wrote in his 2009 autobiography. “The Miami Herald was spread out on his desk. Face-up was a full-page ad for King’s Wholesale Liquors. The general manager looked down and said, ‘King! How about Larry King?'” His CNN show premiered in 1985 It was around this time that King entered what would become a string of failed marriages. His union with Frada Miller was annulled, and the dates of his second marriage with Annette Kaye are publicly unavailable. From 1961-63, King was married to Alene Akins, whom he married again from 1967-71; before they re-married, King tied the knot with Mickey Sutphin in 1964 before they divorced in 1966. He had two more divorces — with Sharon Lepore, with whom he was married from 1976-82, and Julie Alexander, with whom he was married from 1989-92 — before marrying his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick in 1997 at UCLA Medical Center, as he was about to undergo cardiac surgery. King filed for divorce from Southwick in 2019, citing irreconcilable differences. King remained in Miami for years, eventually getting hired as a columnist for the Miami Herald in 1965. In 1971, he was arrested in Miami on charges of grand larceny, which led to his suspension from the station and newspaper where he was employed. Although the charges were dismissed the following year, King was not re-hired, prompting him to decamp Florida and head to Louisiana, where he worked as a freelance journalist. By 1978, King returned to Miami and to WIOD, the station where he was employed at the time of his arrest. The same year, “The Larry King Show” launched as a syndicated late-night radio show. It originally aired in 28 cities; within five years, it had spread to 118 cities, serving as the springboard to fame. The show won a Peabody Award in 1982. In 1985, “Larry King Live” premiered on CNN, beginning a long and storied run that included a number of high-profile interviews. Throughout its more than two decades on air, the show was routinely CNN’s most-watched program, and King was arguably the network’s biggest star. King left CNN in 2011, a move he expected would amount to retirement. But he kept working until his death, hosting “Larry King Now,” a program that aired on Ora TV, Hulu and RT America. King, it seemed, just never wanted the interview to end. “I just love what I do,” he said, “I love asking questions, I love doing the interviews.” CNN’s Sonia Tucker and David J. Lopez contributed to this report. Source link #Dies #dies-CNN #host #King #Larry #LarryKing #Legendary #legendarytalkshowhost #Show #talk #us

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