AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Last-Minute Entrant ‘Head Of Cabbage’ Surges To Lead In Pennsylvania Senate Race.
Author Archive: Ed Driscoll
October 13, 2022
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Upset Trevor Noah is Leaving The Daily Show? Blame Sarah Palin.
Palin’s Couric interview became fodder for memorable sketches on Saturday Night Live but the fallout also led to the political divide that defines media consumption today. Palin wrote off the press as condescending, mean-spirited, untrustworthy and out to get people like her (non-elites who would rather hunt than read.) People who saw themselves in her began to write the press off and the rise of social media finally made it easier for them to do so. (2008 was the first presidential campaign in which Twitter existed.)
When Palin first started avoiding traditional media, the thinking was that no high-profile politician could flourish without media gatekeepers. There was precedent. While George W. Bush was famously wounded by an embarrassing sit-down interview illuminating his lack of foreign policy chops during the 2000 campaign, he couldn’t simply steer clear of media he didn’t like, or trust, afterward. That simply wasn’t an option in the pre-social media days. But while she did sign a contract with Fox News, Palin became the first prominent political personality to use social media to strategically avoid media she didn’t want to engage with while still maintaining a significant public profile (and without the perch of the presidency that guaranteed visibility for Bush). A 2009 Politico article highlighted Palin’s outsized influence on the United States’ health care debate using social media (she popularized the term “death panels” in a Facebook post) despite “making almost no public appearances and successfully avoiding the media outlets that are clamoring to talk to her.” So while the Obama campaign’s win proved that social media can help mobilize voters, Palin’s loss and subsequent legacy proved something equally significant: that those who didn’t trust media gatekeepers no longer had to rely on them to reach fans or respond to enemies.
Sound familiar?
As the saying goes, Sarah Palin walked so Donald Trump could run. In the current cycle, Pennsylvania Democratic senate candidate John Fetterman has befuddled traditionalists with a campaign largely driven by social media*. This transition from defined media gatekeepers to a media free-for-all has been hard on all legacy media institutions but perhaps hardest on late night television. After all, a paper can report on the Trump White House without Trump’s participation. Cable news can broadcast a lively debate regarding Biden’s policies with a panel of pundits. But you can’t really have a successful late night celebrity interview show without celebrities.
* * * * * * * *
Noah, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert are among those who decided to lean into their more progressive political views. Their shows became required stops for liberals promoting books, conservatives who didn’t mind verbal combat and activist actors. Their ratings, however, seemed to indicate that they were also alienating a large swath of America. Perhaps that’s why Greg Gutfeld’s late night talk show on Fox News, which leans to the right, has been a surprise hit, recently dethroning Colbert as the late night king. Still, Gutfeld’s viewership is just above 2 million. Johnny Carson’s final episode was watched by 55 million Americans.
Gutfeld’s success may not be that big a surprise, as Rob Long writes in the new issue of Commentary: Conservative Night Live.
Jimmy Fallon had taken over Tonight from Jay Leno and returned the show to its New York roots. Stephen Colbert took over The Late Show from its founder, David Letterman. Los Angeles–based Jimmy Kimmel was in the mix with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
At this point, television viewers interested in talk shows could only choose among Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah. The audience got sliced into very thin wedges. Suddenly, being intensely political became a big advantage. After all, if “winning” means garnering a larger slice of a diminishing pie, it makes sense to appeal to a dedicated and passionate audience. And Republican-haters, as nightly talk-show hosts found out, are a very loyal audience.
The winner in the Who Can Hate Republicans the Most Contest could rely on about 1.5 million Democrats to remain loyal daily viewers, and that’s all they needed to remain competitive—and even on top—in the ratings battle.
The only problem is you drive away everyone else. Four or five hosts were competing for the liberal Democrat audience, and the rest of us—half of the country, at least—have nothing to watch. What we could not choose was a show hosted by a center-right personality. If you were watching a nightly talk show, you were watching a liberal.
The networks chose to relentlessly politicize late night shows, turning them into “group therapy for liberals.” They shouldn’t be too shocked if the one host offering a different political view emerged the winner.
* Fetterman may have other reasons for his “campaign largely driven by social media” as well.
PAYPAL’S DYSTOPIAN FINANCIAL CENSORSHIP SCHEME BACKFIRES:
However, concerned customers shouldn’t assume that everything is fine now.
As it turns out, PayPal has in place another dystopian financial censorship policy that enacts similar fines for those it deems bigots or hatemongers. Law professor Eugene Volokh exposed the PayPal policy, which again authorizes $2,500 fines (taken directly out of your bank account) for “activities that … relate to … the promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory” in the “sole discretion” of, yup, PayPal.
This is, of course, entirely subjective. Anyone with mildly right-of-center viewpoints on topics ranging from affirmative action to climate change to religious liberty to abortion has, at one point or another, faced shrieks of “bigot!” from some progressive opponents. A company setting itself up to rob users of thousands of dollars for subjectively perceived speech crimes is not just dystopian, but also in grotesque violation of its users’ financial privacy and the trust that has been placed in the company by millions of hard-working people.
That said, we don’t need to run to the government for a solution here.
We already saw how widespread consumer backlash led PayPal to reverse its first policy. So we simply need to keep the pressure on and demand the company end its other Orwellian infringements. And if it won’t, then we should all cancel our PayPal accounts and migrate to other platforms.
This kind of newfangled corporate financial censorship represents a grave threat to a free and open society. We must stop it here before this kind of overreach spreads further throughout our digital lives.
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Demented Liar Joe Biden: Beau Biden Died In Iraq. (Jake Tapper Isn’t Running a Snarky Chyron Here, But If He Did, It Would Say: “No He Didn’t.”)
It’s so Different When Democrats Do It (TM)!
But here’s the interesting part. Qiu is the paper’s designated “fact-checker.” So, if Biden is habitually spinning yarns that unravel, she must be busy with Biden checks, right? No. She hasn’t “fact-checked” Biden since Aug.20, 2021, on the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco under an extremely mild headline: “Clarifying Biden’s Take of Evacuation.”
A peek at her archive of articles since then includes at least 14 “fact-checks” of Republicans and/or conservatives. This 14-to-1 imbalance in target selection would remind you of PolitiFact — which makes sense because that’s where Qiu worked before joining the Times.
Qiu avoids noting that Biden has repeatedly lied about being “shot at” in hostile territory.
Jake Tapper’s snarky chyron says: “No, he wasn’t.”
President Biden on Thursday told State Department employees he was “shot at” overseas — reviving a claim that previously stirred controversy.“You have great personal courage. I’ve been with some of you when we’ve been shot at,” Biden told a group of diplomatic aides in Washington.
Biden did not offer a detailed description of being shot at. But he was forced to walk back a similar claim in 2007 as veterans warned him not to exaggerate.
Biden said during a CNN-hosted Democratic presidential debate in 2007 that he was “shot at” inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
He later revised the claim, saying that in fact, “I was near where a shot landed.”
To be fair, Obama-era staffers routinely exaggerate their wartime peril:
TO BE FAIR, THIS IS PRETTY ON-POINT FOR THE VIEW: The View Defends Dem Fetterman’s Inability to Comprehend Words.
Two days after NBC News reporter Dasha Burns made headlines with her first-hand account detailing just how extensive Democratic Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman’s deterioration post-stroke was, the cackling coven of ABC’s The View had their knives out for her. They suggested Burns broke journalistic ethics, it was no big deal that Fetterman couldn’t comprehend speech and mocked Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker (R) for supposedly having an impairment too.
After playing a portion of Burns’ report on MSNBC, co-host Whoopi Goldberg appeared to scoff at the public’s need to know a candidate’s medical history and suggested they needed to wait to see Fetterman’s records until after the election and the swearing-in:
To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, you have to elect the candidate to find out what — if anything — is inside him.
OH SURE, BUT TRY MISSILE COMMAND OR DONKEY KONG, WHY DON’T YOU? Watch: A Dish of Brain Cells Figured Out How to Play Pong in 5 Minutes.
ROGER KIMBALL: Alejandro Mayorkas has no shame.
Mayorkas is the perfect bureaucrat for this new agency. He is totally on board with whatever narrative his masters are emitting this week, and he lies with aplomb. Just now he is attracting a lot of ink because it has been revealed that he lied when presented with some melodramatic pictures of border agents on horseback trying to corral some illegal migrants. The media screamed that the men on horseback were “whipping” the poor defenseless undocumented future welfare recipients. “Oh, my God, they are being mean to these unarmed potential Democratic voters!” The El Paso Times got the bulletin and reproduced it precisely: “The agent swung his whip menacingly, charging his horse toward the men in the river who were trying to return to an encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio after buying food and water in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.” Ginning up his parrot imitation, Mayorkas repeated after Jen Psaki (remember her?) and said he found the pictures “horrifying.”
“Horrifying!”
The trouble was, however, there were no whips. What might have looked like whips to people innocent of the art of horseback riding were actually reins, items to control horses, not wayward aliens attempting to cross our southern border illegally. (See “Horse lesson for novices.”)
And here’s the cherry on top: Mayorkas knew that the media narrative was, if I may so put it, horseshit. This just out from Fox News’s Bill Melugin: “Mayorkas was alerted by DHS’s top public affairs official that the ‘whipping’ narrative behind horseback BP photos wasn’t true, but at a WH press conference 2.5 hours later, he didn’t refute that narrative, instead calling the images ‘horrifying.’”
As Jim Treacher adds, “Oh well. They got the narrative they wanted and they won that news cycle. So what if it was 100% caca del toro? If those Border Patrol agents wanted any public sympathy, they should’ve moved to Martha’s Vineyard.”
Yet another example of Obama-style “stray voltage” in action to get past that’s week’s brutal news cycle.
KINSLEY GAFFE: Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN): “I will never stop standing up for big pharma and standing against my constituents.”
Related: The ‘Lifelong Republican’ Featured In Latest Angie Craig Ad Actually Votes As a Democrat. Man also can’t vote for Angie Craig—because he doesn’t live in her district.
TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Watch: Joe Biden Incorrectly Claims His Son Beau ‘Lost His Life in Iraq.’
President Joe Biden appeared to incorrectly claim on Wednesday that his late son, Beau, “lost his life in Iraq.”
Giving a speech in Colorado to designate Camp Hale as a national monument, the president discussed the many sacrifices that soldiers make before citing his son Beau as an example.
“I say this as a father of a man and won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq,” Biden said.
Although Biden’s son did serve in Iraq, he died of brain cancer in 2015.
And there is the foundation. Holding Joe accountable for what he says is not on the table. But what are journalists to do, after years of telling us a President lying is horrible? The answer: Reclassify Jose Biden’s lying as something else. To the rescue, in rides Sheer and Qiu with their handy guide. In this lengthy explainer of Biden’s fables, they deliver a wide array of new terms for lying in a helpful manner for journos. Buckle in – this is a long ride through a forest of ambiguity and double meaning.
The habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity…exaggerated biography…has embraced storytelling as a way of connecting with his audience…Biden’s folksiness can veer into folklore…the factual edges shaved off to make them more powerful…Mr. Biden’s fictions…weave together his political identity…he could stretch the truth up to a point…a serial exaggerator…continued to shave the truth…curious stories…
Update Newspeak Dictionaries accordingly, comrades.
FORMER SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” FALLS ON HARD TIMES: AOC Gets Shouted Down at Her Own Townhall, Proving Her Time as the Left’s Sweetheart Is Over.
There was a time when New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could do no wrong. In fact, so heavy was her influence that her fellow Democrat politicians were too afraid to oppose her openly. Some were even doing their best to mimic her with embarrassing results.
That time has passed, however:
My friend @Noggatone and I confronted Congresswoman @AOC on her support for Nuclear War and Ukrainian Nazis. I call her out for being a coward in the face of the party that will push us all into Nuclear war right now. Will she stand up like @TulsiGabbard and fight for peace? pic.twitter.com/aQiQvQSWIN
— Jose Vega — Vote Vega & Sare! (@JosBtrigga) October 13, 2022
COVERING THE IMPORTANT STORIES: The Story of The Legendary Song That Became The Rick Roll (Video).
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Muslim Parents Defy Intersectionality, Join Christian Parents Against Sexualizing Kids. “Over the past year or so, we’ve become familiar with scenes of parents protesting school boards over sexually explicit content in schools. But Monday’s event featured a new cast: Hundreds of predominantly Arab and Muslim Americans joined their Christian neighbors to oppose the sexually explicit, pro-LGBTQ materials popping up in their kids’ public school education. Dearborn is next to Detroit, home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per capita, as well as the largest mosque in the country. Over 300,000 Muslims live in Southeast Michigan—which makes the protest all the more interesting: These aren’t Republicans. Dearborn is in Wayne County, which hasn’t voted for a Republican president in 94 years—since Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928.”
DELUSIONAL: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Predicts GOP Will Crash Economy If They Win Congress.
MSNBC’s All In host Chris Hayes likes to pretend that he’s smart by wearing glasses but every time he opens his mouth on his low-rated prime-time show, he proves how dumb he really is. On Wednesday night, Hayes made the absurd claim that if Republicans take control of one or both houses of Congress, they will crash the economy as a way of getting revenge against President Biden. Putting aside the fact that Biden and the Democrat-controlled Congress already beat the GOP to crashing the economy, it’s crazy to accuse Republicans of being so unpatriotic that they would purposefully hurt their fellow Americans for political gain.
Great moments in projection, considering: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.
No doubt though, the media will be far less likely to play word games about whether or not the country is actually in a recession, if the GOP takes one or both houses of Congress.
GOT WOKE, WENT BROKE: Warner Bros Terminates 125 Positions in Their TV Division as Brutal Restructuring Continues.
This is just the latest big move from the company and likely not the last. Warner Bros seems to be on the warpath to right a ship that has largely gone off course. After its merger with Discovery, Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav began making moves to streamline the company and, more importantly, drag it back to an apolitical position.
These moves range from its silver screen outings all the way down to CNN. The firing of Brian Stelter and the demotion of Don Lemon from a prime-time position to co-hosting a morning show are high-profile moves, but possibly the larger action was completely trashing the finished “Batgirl” movie that the company had spent $90 million on and making it so that it would never see the light of day.
This seems to be a direct attack on divisive entities operating under the Warner Bros umbrella. Reports say that Batgirl was a burning pile of woke garbage that did so poorly with test audiences that the company wasn’t going to risk damaging its brand any further by releasing it. Stelter and Lemon were two names that continued to push away viewers from a network that was already mired in leftist radicalism. It was a huge signal that the company was trying to turn a new leaf.
The largest sign was a direct admission from laid-off executives from HBO Max, Warner’s streaming service, that the company was now trying to actively court middle America:
One former exec describes Discovery+ as a “more general audience platform that doesn’t have the specificity that HBO Max was tailored to. I think Discovery is just a very ‘all’ audience, [they] don’t wanna make things that are political, topical, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna,” they said, referring to the home renovation show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines.
It’s an idea so crazy, it just might work.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: “NBC reporter’s comment about Fetterman draws criticism,” notes…AP (the Associated Press, not the artist formerly known as Allahpundit):
[NBC’s Dasha] Burns’ Friday interview with Fetterman, which aired Tuesday, was his first on-camera interview since his stroke. He used a closed-captioning device that printed text of Burns’ questions on a computer screen in front of him.
Fetterman appeared to have little trouble answering the questions after he read them, although NBC showed him fumbling for the word “empathetic.” Burns said that when the captioning device was off, “it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”“This is just nonsense,” business reporter and podcaster Kara Swisher, who had a stroke herself in 2011, said on Twitter. “Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk.”
Swisher recently conducted an interview with Fetterman for her podcast and said, “I was really quite impressed with how well he’s doing. Everyone can judge for themselves.” Swisher has called attacks on Fetterman because of his health “appalling.”
A New York magazine reporter, Rebecca Traister, who interviewed the candidate for a cover story titled “The Vulnerability of John Fetterman,” tweeted that his “comprehension is not at all impaired. He understands everything. It’s just that he reads it and responds in real time … It’s a hearing/auditory challenge.”
Burns said she understands that different reporters had different experiences with Fetterman.
“Our reporting did not and should not comment on fitness for office,” Burns tweeted on Wednesday. “This is for voters to decide. What we push for as reporters is transparency. It’s our job.”
Funny, I don’t remember the DNC-MSM having that standard from 2016 to 2020.
It’s exceedingly rare for leftist journalists to comment negatively on their fellow Democratic Party operatives with bylines. (Recall that Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings gave Dan Rather a pass in October of 2004, and MSNBC avoided Jeff Zucker’s scandals at the start of the year.) This is AP’s way of telling Burns, “Nice job you have. Wouldn’t want to see anything happen to it by negatively reporting on Democrats.”
UPDATE: “Hey Siri, show me how the media treated a Republican candidate after a stroke:”
October 12, 2022
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Why NOBODY should be using the ‘thumbs up’ emoji in 2022 — and the 10 symbols only ‘old people’ use that have Gen Z rolling their eyes.
Sending a thumbs-up can be seen as passive aggressive and even confrontational, according to Gen Z who claim they feel attacked whenever it is used.
Whether the chat is informal, between friends or at work the icon appears to have a very different, ‘rude’ meaning for the younger generation.
A 24-year-old on Reddit summed up the Gen Z argument, saying it is best ‘never used in any situation’ as it is ‘hurtful’.
‘No one my age in the office does it, but the Gen X people always do it. Took me a bit to adjust and get [it] out of my head that it means they’re mad at me,’ he added.
Others agreed it is bad form, especially at work where it can make the team appear unfriendly and unaccommodating.
‘My last workplace had a WhatsApp chat for our team to send info to each other on and most of the people on there just replied with a thumbs up.
‘I don’t know why but it seemed a little bit hostile to me,’ one woman said.
And according to Business Consultant Sue Ellson it could be time to take the younger generation’s lead.
Or not — this feels way too close to the 4Chan trollers convincing the DNC-MSM that the “Okay” hand gesture is racist (except when Biden flashes it of course). But if you’re a fan of Happy Days, it might be wise to buy its seasons on physical media before all of Fonzie’s thumbs up gestures are edited out.
Trigger warning: Here are two minutes of non-stop hate-thumbing on display:
https://youtu.be/hrlMb4-Nf6s
I don’t know why it took Martinez three days to get to this point. The last straw might have been the raucous council meeting yesterday where dozens of people came forward to demand she and the other council members resign immediately.
The other thing which might have been the last straw was the fact that reporters were still finding other offensive comments Martinez made in the same recording, including one aimed at Jews:
In the same leaked audio clips posted to Reddit in which former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made racist remarks about Black people and Oaxacans, she also made crude remarks about Jewish people and Armenians…
In the recording reviewed by The Times, Martinez can be heard saying the “judíos” — which means Jews in Spanish — “cut their deal with South L.A.”…
Later in the conversation, Martinez was attempting to identify Areen Ibranossian, a former chief of staff for Krekorian who is now a senior advisor to Rick Caruso’s campaign for mayor. Someone in the room asks, “What’s his name? What’s he look like?” She said he’s “the guy with the one eyebrow.”…
When Martinez couldn’t recall his last name and asked what it was, Cedillo responded, “It ends in i-a-n, I bet you.”
So it was clear no one was getting over her comments about Mike Bonin’s son but even if they were, there were other comments guaranteed to anger other constituencies. The situation was getting worse for her, not better.
Why is the left such a cesspit of racism?
ALAN RICKMAN AND THE MISERY OF BEING FAMOUS:
Rickman comes across as the ultimate champagne socialist, proud of his left-wing views but also liable to be distracted by the perks and privileges of a millionaire actor’s life. (“Car to Piccadilly Circus for the anti-cuts march… at Park Lane the sight of the Dorchester proved too much…[we] went in and had tea, sandwiches and cakes like good socialists everywhere might do at 4 p.m.”) The best-known role he was associated with in the last decades of his life was Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films, something he appears deeply lukewarm about (“the deal is finally done [for the last two films] and people are all carefully left in possession of genitalia.”) Smaller projects, whether in theater or film, are discussed with greater affection, undercut with Eeyore-like moaning about a lack of public appreciation for them.
The abiding impression of Madly, Deeply is that it is miserable to be an actor in demand. There is endless complaining about long plane journeys, interminable times spent in make-up or waiting to go on set, meetings with ignorant financiers and rapacious agents, and co-stars who do not meet Rickman’s exacting professional standards. (Bizarrely, his best friend was the garrulous American comedian Ruby Wax, whom he appeared to adore.) Rickman goes to the movies a lot, and often despises the films he sees, dissecting them afterwards over an expensive meal at one of London’s most exclusive restaurants.
He seems a deeply unhappy, stressed man, forever busy and exhausted by a punitive work rate. One is left wondering to what extent his premature death was caused by dedication to a craft that seemed to bring him enormous professional respect but little personal joy. In any case, we’ll always have Hans Gruber, the Sheriff of Nottingham and — if we must — Professor Snape to appreciate, whatever the grouchy man behind the mask might have said.
In the charming 2008 comedy about the birth of the Napa Valley wine industry, Bottle Shock (currently free to watch for Amazon Prime Video subscribers), Bill Pullman’s character asks Rickman’s character, “Why don’t I like you?” To which Rickman replies, “Because you think I’m an arsehole. And I’m not, really. I’m just British and, well… you’re not.”
SEVEN TIMES ‘DISINFORMATION’ TURNED OUT TO BE JUST THE OPPOSITE:
At the heart of the second trial to come out of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion probe is a story of disinformation.
Marc Elias, general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, testified both during a House Intelligence Committee investigation in 2017 and recently during Durham’s ongoing probe that he was the one who hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump.
Fusion GPS went on to commission former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to create the infamous “Steele dossier,” which purported to show collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin. It contained several salacious and since-debunked claims about Trump and his alleged ties to Russia.
The federal government infamously used the now-discredited dossier to obtain a warrant to surveil former Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page. The Justice Department later admitted the warrant application was full of misinformation and the surveillance warrant should’ve never been approved.
The primary source of the Steele dossier was Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst who’s now on trial as part of Durham’s investigation for allegedly lying to the FBI about his own sources for the information that he provided to Steele.
Federal prosecutors allege that Danchenko, who has pleaded not guilty, fabricated and concealed his sources in conversations with the feds. The trial began in Alexandria, Va. on Tuesday.
The case highlights how potent a weapon disinformation can be in today’s political climate, where falsehoods can slip through the cracks and transform into received truth without the public noticing.
However, it works the other way as well.
Indeed, in the past few years the opposite has more often been the case: Something deemed disinformation ultimately turns out to be true. Here are seven recent examples of elites in government, Big Tech, and other positions of influence targeting various ideas as mis- or disinformation only to be proven wrong in the end as the facts come in[.]
Paypal could not be reached for comment: PayPal Value Down $6 Billion, ‘Delete PayPal’ Searches Soar 1,300% After Daily Wire Report Exposes ‘Misinformation’ Policy.
GENTLEMEN, YOU CAN’T DO REPORTING HERE — THIS IS A NEWS SHOW! Journalists, Leftists Trash NBC’s Dasha Burns for Highlighting John Fetterman’s Mental Handicaps.
Reminder: It’s Not Ableist To Wonder If Fetterman Can Do His Job.
DISPATCHES FROM THE NATIONAL FELONS LEAGUE: Raiders’ Davante Adams charged with assault after shoving photographer in Kansas City.
Davante Adams has been charged with misdemeanor assault after shoving a photographer to the ground on Monday night, according to multiple reports citing Kansas City police.
The Raiders wideout pushed the photog to the ground on the way to the locker room after his team lost a heartbreaker, 30-29, to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
According to KCTV5, the Kansas City Municipal Court issued a citation on Wednesday alleging that Adams “did, by an intentional, overt act, inflict bodily injury or cause an unlawful offensive contact upon [the victim] by pushing [him] to the ground using two hands causing whiplash and head ache. possible minor concussion.”
Just another day for the Raiders:
HOW IT STARTED: UN Deletes Article Touting ‘Benefits’ of World Hunger: ‘Hungry People Are the Most Productive People.’
An article appearing on the United Nations Chronicle website as recently as Wednesday that touted the “benefits of world hunger” has seemingly been taken down.
Screenshots of the post, which web archives appear to show was first published in 2009, began to circulate on Twitter Wednesday.
A link to the article, which now takes visitors to an error page.
It was archived before it was apparently scrubbed from the website by the agency on Thursday.
In it, former University of Hawaii professor George Kent wrote,
We sometimes talk about hunger in the world as if it were a scourge that all of us want to see abolished, viewing it as comparable with the plague or aids. But that naïve view prevents us from coming to grips with what causes and sustains hunger. Hunger has great positive value to many people.
Indeed, it is fundamental to the working of the world’s economy. Hungry people are the most productive people, especially where there is a need for manual labour.
Kent went on to ask, “How many of us would sell our services so cheaply if it were not for the threat of hunger?” he further noted, “For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth.”
—Mediaite, July 22nd.
How it’s going: Head of the United Nations weather agency says the war in Ukraine may be “a blessing” for climate change efforts.
Petteri Taalas said that the war in Ukraine “may be seen as a blessing” because it has accelerated the investment and development of “green” energy sources over the long term.
Petteri Taalas is the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics.
The World Meteorological Organization website says it is “a specialized agency of the United Nations, WMO is dedicated to international cooperation and coordination on the state and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the land and oceans, the weather and climate it produces, and the resulting distribution of water resources.”
Currently, Europe is running out of energy sources and is facing an energy crisis in part due to the war in Ukraine and self-inflicted policy decisions prior to the war.
—Westphalian Times, yesterday.
Apparently, as far as the UN is concerned, the Ukraine War going nuclear would bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together quite nicely.
UPDATE: Politico Green 28 class of 2023: Vladimir Putin — the invader making the EU green.
It took a war criminal to speed up Europe’s green revolution.
By invading Ukraine and manipulating energy supplies to undermine European support for Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved something generations of green campaigners could not — clean energy is now a fundamental matter of European security.
The political response from the EU was swift: Within weeks of the February 24 invasion, a plan was sketched out aimed at unhooking the Continent’s energy ties from Moscow. It leaned on three pillars: cutting oil, gas and coal supplies from Russia; getting gas and other fossil fuels from elsewhere; and massively speeding up the roll out of renewable power and energy saving measures.
“Renewables give us the freedom to choose an energy source that is clean, cheap, reliable, and ours,” EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said less than two weeks after Putin’s tanks rolled in.
Seven months on, a POLITICO survey of data on clean energy, energy savings and policies shows that the first signs of that green surge are appearing. Analysts are in little doubt that the change is structural, permanent and historic.
“We will look back at this situation in 10 years time and see, OK, that was the moment where we really got serious about the green transition and we really had the big green acceleration,” said Simone Tagliapietra, a research fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel.
Hey, you know who else was big on environmentalism?
(Updated and bumped.)
STRIKE A POSE, THERE’S NOTHING TO IT: DHS Secretary Mayorkas Was Informed ‘Whipping’ Incident Was Bogus Hours Before He Condemned Border Patrol Agents.