Facts?! That just makes them devolve to No true Scotsman rhetoric. ;-)
Vance and the rest -- including Trump himself -- are suggesting that the attacks are because Democrats are demonizing Trump and Democrats need to tone down the vitriol, ignoring that Trump has said Democrats are destroying America and that we won't have a country left if they get in office and all the rest. At least Vance is -- after saying on TV with Dana Bash that they have confirmed reports from Springfield (in an interview about the pet eating thing) -- that he, too, ought to tone down his rhetoric, but let's see if he can stick with that for more than a day.
Here's a story from July about the left/right spread in toxic language: https://theconversation.com/trump-shooting-is-a-warning-about-how-toxic-language-leads-to-violence-234637
Note the disparity on their graphic:
That is so pretty!
Ehn. The latest guy called Putin a terrorist on camera, which is something a Trumper would never say.
Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there's a "big difference" between Republicans and Democrats: "No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris."Vance's comment came during a speech he gave at a Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta, according to CNN. At the d...
> Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there's a "big difference" between Republicans and Democrats: "No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris."
Note that earlier in the day, Elon Musk wrote and deleted a similar post. From NY Times: > In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Mr. Musk, who has endorsed the former president and comments frequently on the U.S. presidential campaign, wrote: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post, which was captured by X users, included a thinking-face emoji. > >Mr. Musk took down the post after it immediately drew outrage.
------
For Vance comments, see also NY Times, Vance says the left is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life., and/or CNN, Vance blames liberal rhetoric for apparent assassination attempt against Trump :
> “I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta. > > “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out,” he continued. > > Vance vowed to “do my part” to tone down the rhetoric and said he was speaking particularly to those who say that Trump needs to be “eliminated.” > > “Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country. Somebody is gonna get hurt. And you think about what an incredible wound it would open up in the United States of America, all of us, and I promise I will do my part to tone down the rhetoric,” Vance said. “But in particular, the people telling you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re gonna get somebody hurt.”
-----
Thankfully, both Democrats and Republicans came together to disavow the New Hampshire Libertarian Party for this from Deadline:
> Republican and Democratic Party leaders have condemned New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party for sharing a post saying that anyone who assassinated Vice President Kamala Harris would be “an American hero.” > >The party later deleted the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but appeared unrepentant about the message, saying it was removed because of the platform’s rules and complaining about restrictions on free speech.
@aihorde@lemmy.dbzer0.com draw for me misprogrammed bots making surrealistic space for violence in America -- now with kitties!
Be impressed that the bot put an actual sentence on the image!
I pray whatever gods may be spare us from such a fate.
When Trump loses the coming election, a peaceful transfer of power should go from Biden to Harris, but Trump has worked to dismantle norms such that we must now expect that he will contest the results, tell his supporters he won, and worry about those angry supporters being goaded into attacks on poll workers, judges, Congress, and federal buildings.
Vance is already feigning ignorance of how he and Trump create violence.
Excerpt of Vance/Bash kerfuffle (page is not the full conversation):
... You accused me of causing a bomb threat. Doesn't that mean I should shut up about the residents of Springfield? Don’t you realize you're engaged in basic propaganda to silence the concerns of American citizens?
DANA BASH, CNN: I was quoting the actual mayor of Springfield, Ohio, who, after the bomb threats, was begging federal officials to stop putting negative attention on his city. I'm not talking about the policies....
They are making a peaceful transfer more difficult by telling lies, spurring on their most violent supporters, and then denying all culpability. Sadly, doing so may spread from their fanatics to a larger population as evinced by yet-another-gunman-incident.
The agent fired four to six rounds, a Secret Service official said. The suspect then fled. A witness who took a picture of the suspect’s vehicle and license plate number provided it to law enforcement officers.
Per CNN, Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder says they arrested the guy in that vehicle:
Snyder said his agency “flooded” Interstate 95 and closed a large swatch of the highway before eventually safely stopping the suspect vehicle.
“I have a clear understanding from investigators that we actually do have the suspect that they’re looking for in Palm Beach County,” Snyder said.
I'm fine with removing the Audubon name from any group -- not because of John Audubon himself, but because the current Audubon Society seems to be an unscrupulous, anti-union, money-grubbing, greenwashing mess.
Yes. The story here is straight from Associated Press, but I looked around and found a few more details in a Telegraph article:
But he woman’s doctor told police that the defendant had tested positive with a rapid test before telling him that she “certainly won’t let herself be locked up” after the result.
Instead she left her apartment and talked to people without a mask, ignoring her mandatory quarantine and positive test.
Note they say MANDATORY quarantine. At the end of the article they explain that Austria's far right party, Freedom Party, is hyper-anti-vax, expected to win upcoming elections:
Its manifesto has promised a pardon for anyone convicted of breaching coronavirus rules and to repay any fines imposed during the pandemic.
The manifesto says coronavirus regulations were encroachments on fundamental rights “accompanied by unprecedented indoctrination and brainwashing.”
Not all Americans eat beef equally, data shows. Last year, Rose and his colleagues published a study looking at U.S. government data of the diets of more than 10,000 Americans. They found that on a given day, 12% of Americans account for half of all beef consumption. That 12% was disproportionately men.
I'm confused by this because I want it to mean the same 12% all the time, but I suspect they mean that it is a different 12% from one day to the next.
“Many men do reduce their meat consumption or are willing to,” says Joel Ginn, food and psychology researcher at Boston College, “but there are hurdles that they've had to overcome.”
Manly men advertising meat -- and Joe Rogan??? I guess all kinds of guys what to be oh so manly, but when I think of macho men, he's just not on that list.
Seeing someone in your close personal circle, or celebrities like athletes, make a behavior change can be an important piece of the puzzle, says Daniel Rosenfeld, psychology and food researcher at UCLA. “The way to get some people to eat less meat is to get other people to eat less meat,” he says.
Personally, both myself and my better half enjoy the newer fake meat burgers. They really are a satisfying way to get a 'manly' burger.
On a personal note, I regret missing the first night, which had several greats, starting with The Battle of Algiers, which moved me. I would have liked to hear the guest discussion on it.
At just over 1/2 hour, Night and Fog is a must-watch (but also triggering).
Of the other upcoming movies I've happened to see in the past, I highly recommend: The Fog of War, The Tin Drum, The Murder of Fred Hampton, and if you don't mind subtitles, High and Low, and The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The LGBTQ-inclusive lineup will feature celebrity presenters such as Melissa Etheridge, Steven Spielberg, and Sally Field.
This series started last week, but it continues tonight Friday the 13th through November 1st.
> The films are drawn from a list compiled by The New Republic last year of the 100 most impactful political movies. > >The films encompass both documentaries and dramatized works; most are American, while a few are from other countries. Their release dates range from 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) to 2016 (I Am Not Your Negro). Many will have celebrity presenters introducing them, along with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
From Hollywood Reporter: > The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
More from the Advocate: >LGBTQ+ issues won’t be neglected. I Am Not Your Negro, for instance, is a documentary based onan unfinished manuscript by Black gay writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, reflecting on the lives of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Baldwin himself. The Times of Harvey Milk(1984) will be featured, presented by Sally Field, the proud mother of a gay son. Also scheduled are 1964’s The Best Man, scripted by gay writer Gore Vidal, in which a same-sex liaison threatens to derail a politician’s career, and Born in Flames, director Lizzie Borden’s 1983 vision of a dystopian future in which women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color are oppressed. > >Borden will be among the celebrity presenters, introducing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feminist feature about a widow engaged in sex work. Melissa Etheridge will be a presenter as well, discussing the 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Times listed are for Eastern Time. I've skipped last week and bolded titles ranked in the top 20.
Friday, September 13 - Night Two
- 8:00 PM Reds (1981) (Bill Maher - #41)
- 11:30 PM The Parallax View (1974) (Kyle Smith - #47)
- 1:30 AM Germany, Year Zero (1948) (Alexander Payne - #97)
- 3:00 AM Gabriel Over the White House (1933) (#30)
- 4:30 AM The Battleship Potemkin (1925) (#7)
- 6:00 AM The Fog of War (2003) (#56)
Friday, September 20 - Night Three
- 8:00 PM Dr. Strangelove (1964) (Spike Lee - #3)
- 9:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (Stacey Abrams - #11)
- 12:15 AM Hearts and Minds (1974) (Phil Mattingly - #39)
- 2:15 AM The Lives of Others (2006) (#19)
- 4:45 AM Born in Flames (1983) (#43)
- 6:15 AM Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#52)
Friday, September 27 - Night Four
- 8:00 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975) (Maureen Dowd - #72)
- 10:15 PM I Am Not Your Negro (2016) (Sara Sidner - #58)
- 12:00 AM The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Melissa Etheridge - #88)
- 1:30 AM The Last Hurrah (1958) (#57)
- 3:45 AM Night of the Living Dead (1968) (#35)
- 5:15 AM The Tin Drum (1979) (#92)
Friday, October 4 - Night Five
- 8:00 PM The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Sally Field - #81)
- 10:00 PM The Best Man (1964) (Josh Mankiewicz - #69)
- 12:00 AM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (Sec. Lonnie Bunch III - #95)
- 1:45 AM City Hall (1996) (#80)
- 3:45 AM Strike (1924) (#25)
- 5:15 AM High and Low (1963) (#84)
Friday, October 11 - Night Six
- 8:00 PM A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Barry Levinson - #10)
- 10:15 PM Wag the Dog (1997) (Diane Lane - #54)
- 12:00 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) (Abby Phillip - #37)
- 1:45 AM JFK (1991) (#34)
- 5:00 AM Z (1969) (#15)
- 7:15 AM Night and Fog (1956) (#21)
Friday, October 18 - Night Seven
- 8:00 PM The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Jamelle Bouie - #5)
- 11:30 PM Lincoln (2012) (Hon. Robert M. Gates - #24)
- 2:15 AM Malcolm X (1992) (#22)
- 6:00 AM Primary (1960) (#38)
Friday, October 25 - Night Eight
- 8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976) (Steven Spielberg - #4)
- 10:30 PM Citizen Kane (1941) (Frank Luntz - #33)
- 12:45 AM Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Lizzie Borden - #36)
- 4:15 AM Olympia Part One: Festival of Nations (1938) (#86)
- 6:15 AM Olympia Part Two: Beauty of the Festival (1938) (#86)
Friday, November 1 - Night Nine
- 8:00 PM Being There (1979) (Andy Garcia - #71)
- 10:30 PM The Candidate (1972) (Kaitlan Collins - #20)
- 12:30 AM Harlan County USA (1976) (Lee Grant - #12)
- 2:15 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (#2)
- 4:00 AM Weekend (1967) (#94)
Refresher on McCabe from The Guardian:
McCabe was part of FBI leadership, briefly as acting director, during investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Trump and Moscow. Trump fired McCabe in March 2018, two days before he was due to retire. McCabe was then the subject of a criminal investigation, for allegedly lying about a media leak. The investigation was dropped in 2020. In October 2021, McCabe settled a lawsuit against the justice department.
I mention this because y'all know that Trumpers will immediately brush off McCabe's comments as a known-bad-guy who was fired for being so awful and is now trying to get revenge.
Any idea what bird that is?
It looks like it was polished by thousands of footsteps and rainstorms.
You're right. I hear you. Intellectually, I understand that the conservative/fundamentalist mindset gives higher importance to following leaders and is more triggered by moral disgust. I understand that a conservative may feel a liberal is less moral because liberals 'lack' a moral imperative to follow leaders simply because they are leaders. I even accept that agreeing to a premise has utility by getting everyone to work towards a common goal. Unfortunately, I get stuck on the bit where the premise seems illogical to me, or the leader seems to be obviously lying. That's the part where any intellectual understanding of why someone might choose to ignore obvious red flags flies to the wayside and I can't figure out what to do about it.
I'm pretty sure that journalists should continuously report which things are unfounded lies, but I don't think that will sway those who believe those lies. It might, however, convince the continuously emerging crop of newly interested people to be skeptical.
I spent a good while writing up a reply, but it was long and the main point was: while any group of 100+ people is likely to have a bad actor, you look for credible proof (like Edward Snowden showing evidence rather than Sidney Powell saying she had 'visions'). Side bit: tales of killing/eating/sexually-exploiting babies and pets by a GROUP should always be taken as a manipulative lie because it always is. When some whacko actually tries that crap, the Boys in Blue get up in arms -- even if it means ignoring pressure from their bosses, "He's Illuminati. Let it go." No. That sort of thing gets exposed.
I kinda understand how some people fall for conspiracies, but I don’t understand how so many people would VOTE for someone who reliable falls for and promotes so very many obvious conspiracies.
@aihorde@lemmy.dbzer0.com draw for me a Simpsons cartoon of people picnicking while Trump shouts, “In Springfield they’re eating the dogs!”, causing everyone to look on in shock and incredulity.
Donald Trump-Kamala Harris debate on ABC with David Muir and Linsey Davis was like \
> "In the end, we all knew what we knew before, that ABC's goal tonight was to help Kamala Harris, and ABC did help Kamala Harris," Laura Ingraham said on Fox News. That's one way of putting it. Van Jones on CNN found another. > >"She whupped him," Jone said. "She just whupped him. ... Kamala Harris did something great for every parent in America. She put the bully in his place." > >A certain super gigantic galactic pop star seemed to agree. Moments after the debate, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, signing her Instagram post "Childless Cat Lady," a reference to a comment made by Trump's running mate, JD Vance.
For more details on the 4chan nature, head over to the Daily Beast for pieces like these:
- "...they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
- meandering rant on abortion rights also included multiple false claims
- recap of daily beast debate tweet/commentary
Debate Transcript: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542
PBS (no longer live) updates: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-updates-trump-and-harris-debate-in-philadelphia
> The incident occurred approximately one block from the stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., as traffic started to build ahead of a 1 p.m. start to the game.
> "How things escalated into the situation that they were in handcuffs and being held on the ground with police is mind boggling to me," Rosenhaus told ESPN.
See also:
- https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/sports/nfl/dolphins-tyreek-hill-arrested-detained-police-will-play-week-1/3411748/
- https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/tyreek-hills-agent-reacts-to-dolphins-star-being-detained-near-hard-rock-stadium-ahead-of-week-1-game/3411787/
Liz Cheney endorsed Allred at The Texas Tribune Festival Friday.
> “Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said of her father, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. “If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”
-----------
> “One of the most important things we need to do as a country as we begin to rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people,” Liz Cheney said. “Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for U.S. Senate.” > >The audience erupted in applause cutting Liz Cheney off. > >“It’s not Ted Cruz," she said. > >She blamed Cruz for leading the effort in the Senate for trying to overturn the election. > >"That is not somebody to put in a position to be able to do that again," Cheney said.
TL;DR: Democrats are united against Trump and will continue to be that way, but if Trump loses so overwhelmingly that he stops running, then a Harris administration will be stuck with a largely Republican government that will keep it from getting much done, thus making it easier for a new brand of Republicans to emerge in two years for for the mid-terms and beyond.
> Harris is effectively an emergency nominee, has few policy proposals, scant governing history in Washington and a history of churning through staff. Oh, and she would be the first Democrat to enter the presidency since 1884 without majorities in both chambers, should Republicans flip the Senate. > > That adds up to a recipe for gridlock — and perhaps some deal-making to fund the government and avoid across-the-board tax hikes — but not a Scandinavian social welfare state. ----- > The day after Trump leaves the scene, Democrats will lose their best force for unity, fundraising and enthusiasm. But they’ll have the same challenges they do today with the Electoral College, the Senate and the House and the distribution of voters therein.
Georgia State Police is responding to an active scene at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Follow here for the latest.
> The shooter who opened fire inside Apalachee High school is believed to be a 14-year-old boy, a law enforcement source tells CNN. > > The source said it is not yet known whether the teen attended that school.
> We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” the president said in a statement.
> At least four people are believed to have been killed and approximately 30 more were injured in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, although it’s unclear how many of the injuries are from gunshot wounds, according to law enforcement sources.
> Apalachee High School is located in the city of Winder, Georgia, which is a community about an hour outside of Atlanta.
Exclusive: secretive artist trying to cheer up people with pelicans, goat, elephants, monkeys and cat
> Banksy’s hope, it is understood, is that the uplifting works cheer people with a moment of unexpected amusement, as well as to gently underline the human capacity for creative play, rather than for destruction and negativity. > > Some recent theorising about the deeper significance of each new image has been way too involved, Banksy’s support organisation, Pest Control Office, has indicated. ------- > A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, told PA they were planning to pull the billboard down on Monday and had removed it early in case someone “rips it down and leaves it unsafe”. > > He said: “We’ll store that bit [the artwork] in our yard to see if anyone collects it but if not it’ll go in a skip. I’ve been told to keep it careful in case he wants it.”
See source article for more details and great pics of the current art campaign.
> The acknowledgment came after POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation. ----
> On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. ----
> The person said they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.” > > Asked how they obtained the documents, the person responded: “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”
There was a helicopter. It did make an emergency landing. But a former California lawmaker says Donald Trump has mixed up one Black lawmaker for another.
Instead, it was Nate Holden. archive
> “It was Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted. “But now Willie doesn’t remember?” > > Mr. Brown, 90, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, gave several interviews on Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred. > > Turns out, however, that there was a Black politician from California who once made an emergency landing in a helicopter with Mr. Trump. It just wasn’t Mr. Brown. ----------- >Mr. Holden said that he called Mr. Brown to compare notes. Mr. Brown told him he had never been in a helicopter crash with Mr. Trump. > >“I said, ‘Willie, you know what? That’s me!’” Mr. Holden said. “And I told him, “You’re a short Black guy and I’m a tall Black guy — but we all look alike, right?” > >Mr. Holden gave his own height as 6-foot-1. “Willie has to be about 5-foot-6. Maybe 5-foot-5. He comes up to about my shoulders. And he’s bald. And I’m not bald.” > >Mr. Brown, he said, “just laughed and laughed.” > >Mr. Holden, summing up his assessment of Mr. Trump’s recollection, said: “I just think he makes things up. That’s what I think. He never thought anybody’s going to check.”
Hollywood director David Lynch reveals lung disease but ‘will never retire’
The news he has Emphysema and is house-bound came out about two days earlier. It was accompanied by rumors that he's retired. He's since said that last part is incorrect ... though perhaps his retirement denial is more for his own sense of self than about the probability of any future work as a director.
>Emphysema is a form of COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
> “I have to say I enjoyed smoking very much” he wrote “but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment”. > >Emphysema is a condition which causes shortness of breath and a persistent cough. > >But despite living with it he says he is “filled with happiness” and has thanked fans for their concern.
An Elon Musk-linked super PAC is collecting voter info in battleground states in a deceptive way. Is this legal?
Common Dreams article details the response to a CNBC piece about a PAC partially funded by Musk is collecting specific user data. CNBC states (archive):
> [...] users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different. > >Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age. ---- >So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation. ---- >“What makes America PAC more unique: it is a billionaire-backed super PAC focused on door-to-door canvassing, which it can conduct in coordination with a presidential campaign,” Fischer said. “Thanks to a recent FEC advisory opinion, America PAC may legally coordinate its canvassing activities with the Trump campaign — meaning, among other things, that the Trump campaign may provide America PAC with the literature and scripts to make sure their efforts are consistent.”
> The America PAC raised more than $8 million between April 1 and June 30, according to FEC records. It has received donations from veteran investor Doug Leone, cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and a company run by longtime venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, according to FEC records.
They also quote the NYT in saying Lonsdale is one of Musk's political confidants -- which is interesting because he's at Palantir which was you'd think of as his old buddy Peter Theil's gig. Palantir sells info. More precisely, they know how to intake truthful data and turn it into actionable details. I've no idea how they check for validity, though. Some days it feels like everything on Twitter is a lie and hearing that this 'help you vote' program is also a lie just makes me wonder if anyone is honest over there.
Common Dreams quotes several angry reactions to the CNBC article, such as: > Former Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-Ill.) took aim at Musk, saying, "If you did not believe he was maniacal or evil, before this, well now you know."
They also note that: > Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) publicly thanked Musk for doing "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our economic life and the information we consume, but our politics as well."
Archive is background info via this BBC post from 2023, but that's just one piece. Yeah, a lot of us have seen the photo, and maybe some of us know it was during the Viet Nam War, during Civil Rights protests in the U.S. and not that long after the assassination of MLK. Maybe you even know that Muhammad Ali lost his belt and was banned from boxing in the U.S. for refusing the draft to Viet Nam: > "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"
I did not know the Black Power Salute got all 3 athletes BANNED from the Olympics and pretty much ruined their lives. From NPR post for 50th anniversary: > Both men received hate mail and death threats. There was discussion of stripping them of their medals. Many Americans shunned them for their silent gesture: For years, they struggled to find good jobs. Their marriages suffered under that strain. Their children were bullied at school. Employers shied away from them. > >And Smith and Carlos were banned from future participation in any Olympics for life. (They were in their early 20s in Mexico City, and this effectively prevented them from competing in other races in Munich and Montreal.) There were no offers of the complimentary stadium tickets usually offered to medaled athletes. > >(Peter Norman suffered many of the same indignities when he returned to Australia. He was ostracized, never allowed on an Australian Olympic team again, despite qualifying in several national trials.[...]
Which gets us to The White Man In That Photo (from 2015 -- long and worthy of a full read):
> Norman was a white man from Australia, a country that had strict apartheid laws, almost as strict as South Africa. There was tension and protests in the streets of Australia following heavy restrictions on non-white immigration and discriminatory laws against aboriginal people, some of which consisted of forced adoptions of native children to white families. > >The two Americans had asked Norman if he believed in human rights. Norman said he did. They asked him if he believed in God, and he, who had been in the Salvation Army, said he believed strongly in God. “We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat, and he said “I’ll stand with you” – remembers John Carlos – “I expected to see fear in Norman’s eyes, but instead we saw love.” > >Smith and Carlos had decided to get up on the stadium wearing the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, a movement of athletes in support of the battle for equality. > >They would receive their medals barefoot, representing the poverty facing people of color. They would wear the famous black gloves, a symbol of the Black Panthers’ cause. But before going up on the podium they realized they only had one pair of black gloves. “Take one each”, Norman suggested. Smith and Carlos took his advice. > >But then Norman did something else. “I believe in what you believe. Do you have another one of those for me”? he asked, pointing to the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on the others’ chests. “That way I can show my support for your cause.” Smith admitted to being astonished, ruminating: “Who is this white Australian guy? He won his silver medal, can’t he just take it and that be enough!”.
So they all go to the podium in solidarity and the U.S. winners give the salute and suffer the aftermath. More from 'white guy':
> As John Carlos said, “If we were getting beat up, Peter was facing an entire country and suffering alone.” For years Norman had only one chance to save himself: he was invited to condemn his co-athletes, John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s gesture in exchange for a pardon from the system that ostracized him. > >A pardon that would have allowed him to find a stable job through the Australian Olympic Committee and be part of the organization of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Norman never gave in and never condemned the choice of the two Americans. > >He was the greatest Australian sprinter in history and the holder of the 200 meter record, yet he wasn’t even invited to the Olympics in Sydney. It was the American Olympic Committee, that once they learned of this news asked him to join their group and invited him to Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s birthday party, for whom Peter Norman was a role model and a hero. > >Norman died suddenly from a heart attack in 2006, without his country ever having apologized for their treatment of him. At his funeral Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Norman’s friends since that moment in 1968, were his pallbearers, sending him off as a hero.
Note that the 'white guy' article talks about a commemorative statue built in 2005 of just Smith and Carlos -- no Norman. Norman approved that artistic choice. Transcript from Democracy Now where Carlos himself explains how he called Norman to hear him say so (part 1 and part 2):
> JOHN CARLOS: Yeah, “Blimey, John. You’re calling me with these blimey questions here?” And I said to him, I said, “Pete, I have a concern, man. What’s this about you don’t want to have your statue there? What, are you backing away from me? Are you ashamed of us?” And he laughed, and he said, “No, John.” He said—you know, the deep thing is, he said, “Man, I didn’t do what you guys did.” He said, “But I was there in heart and soul to support what you did. I feel it’s only fair that you guys go on and have your statues built there, and I would like to have a blank spot there and have a commemorative plaque stating that I was in that spot. But anyone that comes thereafter from around the world and going to San Jose State that support the movement, what you guys had in ’68, they could stand in my spot and take the picture.”
The U.S. (but not just the U.S.) has a woeful history of treating those who protest Injustice horribly. There's always an excuse for it, too. From the above articles, we can see that the Olympic head allowed the Nazi salute for the Munich Berlin games but expelled Smith and Carlos in 1968 with the rational that the first was a national salute and therefore acceptable whereas 'Black Power' was not.
More recently, Kaepernick kneeling got him in trouble with the NFL but they were fine with Butker's speech that, "denounced abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns..." and suggested women should be homemakers instead of using their newly earned college diplomas. Supposedly the 'difference' is that Kaepernick's silent protest was on the NFL's time but Butker spoke on his own time so it was fine ... but they can always find a difference and it is never as valid as simply siding against injustice.
EDIT: I inadvertently typed 'Munich' instead of the correct 'Berlin' games for when the Nazi salute was allowed. Fixed now.
Marvel’s new sequel seems uninterested in anything beyond perpetuating its own brand. Is this the future of cinema? Louis Chilton is terrified it might be
archive | I'm NOT interested in the review, but in the complaint about a generalized movie trend. The author, Louis Chilton, goes on a rant using about what he sees as having gone to far in and overly exemplified by the latest Marvel release:
> If we are watching, as some critics have suggested, the death of cinema happen before our eyes, then it’s taken the form of a public execution.
> It is a film that is about absolutely nothing – a film with no discernable purpose or artistic ambitions, beyond the perpetuation of its own corporate myth.
He explains a little:
> Audiences didn’t love Blade because Snipes just showed up, stood there and barked catchphrases – he was part of a story, with a proper character, and stakes, and intentionality. That Marvel cannot see the difference – or, even worse, if it can see the difference but chooses to ignore it – is surely damning.
> We call Deadpool & Wolverine a movie because it is released in cinemas, and is two hours long, but other than these technicalities, it shares almost nothing with a traditional blockbuster, when it comes to intent.
And finally concedes with admonishment: > And of course, people are allowed to enjoy what they like. But freebasing cocaine is surely enjoyable to many people; that doesn’t mean we should all get on board with its production and distribution.
Viewers watched pre-recorded version of singer’s cabaret set at Paris Games after bad weather had made conditions ‘too dangerous’
>Yannick Le Gall, a journalist from France 3, the regional television state channel, who was positioned opposite the steps, said: “We were in front of Lady Gaga’s set, and by the time the music started, the staircase was empty.” > >When the singer instead appeared on a giant screen in front of the stands, “spectators booed and regretted having paid €180 to see nothing,” Mr Gall added.
I'm hoping Lina Khan keeps up her good work (and that Harris keeps Khan as the FTC head). | archive
> Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Edward Markey (D-MA) sent a letter [PDF] to the US regulator's boss Lina Khan on Friday after the pair conducted an investigation into General Motors, Honda, and Hyundai.
> Honda buried the disclosures about its business relationship with Verisk, which did not appear on the first page, and were not likely to be seen by many consumers.
> GM and Hyundai allegedly neglected to mention selling data to Verisk at all. > > If GM car owners wanted notifications about things like attempted break-ins and vehicle component health, they needed to sign up for the manufacturer's Smart Driver program, and doing so would quietly opt them into allowing their info to be sold on. > > "The lengthy disclosures presented by GM before the opt-in did not disclose to consumers that as part of enrolling in Smart Driver, their driving data would be shared with data brokers and resold to insurance companies," the senators alleged, adding GM "disclosed customer location data to two other companies, which it refused to name." > > Hyundai apparently enrolled its drivers into a similar Drive Score program without even asking, if they enabled the internet connection on the vehicle.
Videos of the phenomenon posted on social media quickly racked up views, with commenters saying the swarms looked like a movie scene or the apocalypse.
>In North America, dragonfly migrations occur annually in late summer and early fall. Although it’s not clear what species of dragonfly caused a stir among sunbathers this weekend, Virginia “Ginger” Brown, the leading dragonfly expert in the Ocean State, told NBC 10 WJAR in 2021 that witnessing such an abundance of dragonflies along the coast is a miracle. > >While about 130 species of dragonflies are known in Rhode Island, Brown told WJAR that the Common Green Darner comprise the bulk of those that migrate on a yearly basis, with others accompanying their flights. > >The Common Green Darner is the “best-known migrant dragonfly,” according to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. The large specimens are found in Rhode Island and are known for being fast travelers and “water-loving” insects striking in appearance, with translucent wings and green coloration, according to InsectionIdentification.org.
Election officials say the president has an unassailable lead but the opposition vows to contest the result.
>The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE's announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.
>Over the past 10 years, 7.8 million people have fled Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis into which the country was plunged under the Maduro Administration. > >Polls conducted in the run-up to the election suggest that exodus could now increase, with one poll suggesting a third of the population would emigrate.
- > US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those expressing his scepticism after the result was announced by the National Electoral Council, a body which is dominated by government loyalists.
- > The UK Foreign Office also expressed concern over the results
- > The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, also said he found the result "hard to believe".
- > Uruguay's president said of the Maduro government: "They were going to 'win' regardless of the actual results."
> In a congratulatory message, President Vladimir Putin told Mr Maduro: "Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil."
Given the extraordinary price of food currently, food benefits such as SNAP and WIC need to be broadened to cover more people living on the edge of food insecurity.
I'm not saying this doctor's suggestion is the only or best solution, but it is nice to see the issue get noticed. Excerpts from the Op/Ed:
> This 30-year-old patient told me that she had struggled with her weight for years. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had finally lost weight by eating more proteins and vegetables. Her food budget was supplemented by federal food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as well as the stimulus money she received during the pandemic. > >In recent years, however, as her career grew, so did her income, making her ineligible to qualify for federal assistance programs, such as SNAP. At the same time, the pandemic stimulus money disappeared. As a result of both factors, her supplementary incomes and support for food withered.
> While screening for food insecurity is now a routine part of what we do in primary care, fixing the problem is impossible without also addressing the upstream causes. This patient’s food insecurity stemmed from not only the “cliff effect” of losing her supplemental benefits when her earnings pushed her out of a certain income bracket but also from the rising cost of food prices, including high-protein foods such as eggs and beef, given the rise of bird flu. The incidence of viruses able to spread from one species to another (called “viral spillover”) in the face of climate change is predicted to become more and more common in the coming years — all of which place a higher price tag on food.
> I know that writing a prescription for weight-loss drugs is far easier for me and my colleagues than trying to address the real cost of rising food prices and food insecurity.
> State and federal policy makers must begin by urgently addressing and mitigating the “cliff effect” for those who are making a livable wage.