+ Theodore Roosevelt statue, flanked by African and Native American men, to be removed in New York
A statue of President Theodore Roosevelt at the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York will be removed. (mpi43/MediaPunch/IPx)
By Meagan Flynn
June 22, 2020 at 5:59 AM EDT
For decades, a hulking bronze statue of President Theodore Roosevelt atop a horse, flanked by Native American and African men on foot, has greeted visitors at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The roles of the two nameless men have provoked debate and protests for years, as critics said they appeared subservient to the powerful white man, creating an unmistakable portrait of racial hierarchy and colonialism.
Now, the museum said the time has come to take down the statue of the 26th president.
On Sunday, the museum announced that it had the permission of New York City — along with the blessing of Roosevelt’s great-grandson — to remove the Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt, as it’s formally known. New York City owns the statue and the property on which it was built in 1940.
“The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said in a statement. “The City supports the Museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”
(more)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/22/theodore-roosevelt-statue-museum/%3foutputType=amp
Headlines.....
DevilsFood
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526 posts
29 Nov 20 9:21 am
+ Former ‘Apprentice’ Staffer Claims Donald Trump Wore Diapers On Set: ‘He Would Often Soil Himself’
November 28, 2020
Damir Mujezinovic
Comedian and former The Apprentice staffer Noel Casler alleged on Friday that President Donald Trump wears adult diapers and often soils himself in public.
In a video released by MeidasTouch.com, which can be viewed below, Casler said the “DiaperDon” hashtag — which has been trending on Twitter — is not just a joke. In fact, he claimed, it is “based in reality.”
“He would often soil himself on The Apprentice set,” he said of Trump, speculating that the commander-in-chief is “incontinent” from all the mind-altering substances he ingests on a daily basis.
“You know, all that stuff has a laxative, it has an effect on your bowels and his are uncontrollable. He’s worn diapers since probably the ’90s.”
(more)
https://www.inquisitr.com/6399895/noel-casler-apprentice-donald-trump-diapers/amp/
November 28, 2020
Damir Mujezinovic
Comedian and former The Apprentice staffer Noel Casler alleged on Friday that President Donald Trump wears adult diapers and often soils himself in public.
In a video released by MeidasTouch.com, which can be viewed below, Casler said the “DiaperDon” hashtag — which has been trending on Twitter — is not just a joke. In fact, he claimed, it is “based in reality.”
“He would often soil himself on The Apprentice set,” he said of Trump, speculating that the commander-in-chief is “incontinent” from all the mind-altering substances he ingests on a daily basis.
“You know, all that stuff has a laxative, it has an effect on your bowels and his are uncontrollable. He’s worn diapers since probably the ’90s.”
(more)
https://www.inquisitr.com/6399895/noel-casler-apprentice-donald-trump-diapers/amp/
DevilsFood
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526 posts
05 Dec 20 5:35 am
+ Republican lawmaker likens Trump vote-fraud crusade to the search for Bigfoot
Michael Isikoff
Fri, December 4, 2020, 7:00 AM CST
It was only recently that U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., had his epiphany: The supporters of President Trump were starting to resemble the people who he used to hang out with more than 15 years ago when — mostly as a lark — he would go on expeditions to the Pacific Northwest looking for Bigfoot.
“It was almost a cult or a religious belief system,” Riggleman said about his Bigfoot hunting days in an interview for the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.”
Riggleman, then a National Security Agency contractor, never saw any sign of the mythical hairy behemoth believed by some to be hiding deep in the far-flung forests of North America. But his fellow Bigfoot explorers saw signs of the creature everywhere, especially at night.
“Everybody saw red eyes. They had rocks thrown at them. They heard hoots and hollers and screams. They saw bent branches that were the territorial markings of Bigfoot,” Riggleman recalled. “All I heard were friggin’ squirrels and birds screeching.”
Back then, Riggleman says, he quickly realized there was no way to have a rational discussion about the subject with Bigfoot believers.
“No matter what I used as logic, it was turned back on me,” Riggleman said. “There was no basis I could get to them where we had a common understanding of what facts were and what truth was.”
So now it has become, Riggleman told “Skullduggery,” with President Trump and his allies, who insist — without any credible evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“Look at Rudy Giuliani. Look at Sidney Powell. Look at Jen Ellis,” Riggleman said about the lawyers who have made repeated evidence-free claims about widespread fraud that took place in the 2020 election. They have, Riggleman said, taken small, isolated instances of voter fraud or election irregularities and “turned it into systemic fraud — and that’s turned into the NSA actually exploiting and injecting code into multiple voting machines that aren’t interconnected, that Dominion has implanted code from Venezuela, and that there’s an invasion of a United States military base” [in Germany, where computer servers used in the election are supposed to have been stolen].
“It’s creating a false narrative around a small kernel of truth and radicalizing people or pushing them into a belief system through a digital virus that is social media,” Riggleman added.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/republican-lawmaker-likens-trump-votefraud-crusade-to-the-search-for-bigfoot-130019525.html
Michael Isikoff
Fri, December 4, 2020, 7:00 AM CST
It was only recently that U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., had his epiphany: The supporters of President Trump were starting to resemble the people who he used to hang out with more than 15 years ago when — mostly as a lark — he would go on expeditions to the Pacific Northwest looking for Bigfoot.
“It was almost a cult or a religious belief system,” Riggleman said about his Bigfoot hunting days in an interview for the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery.”
Riggleman, then a National Security Agency contractor, never saw any sign of the mythical hairy behemoth believed by some to be hiding deep in the far-flung forests of North America. But his fellow Bigfoot explorers saw signs of the creature everywhere, especially at night.
“Everybody saw red eyes. They had rocks thrown at them. They heard hoots and hollers and screams. They saw bent branches that were the territorial markings of Bigfoot,” Riggleman recalled. “All I heard were friggin’ squirrels and birds screeching.”
Back then, Riggleman says, he quickly realized there was no way to have a rational discussion about the subject with Bigfoot believers.
“No matter what I used as logic, it was turned back on me,” Riggleman said. “There was no basis I could get to them where we had a common understanding of what facts were and what truth was.”
So now it has become, Riggleman told “Skullduggery,” with President Trump and his allies, who insist — without any credible evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“Look at Rudy Giuliani. Look at Sidney Powell. Look at Jen Ellis,” Riggleman said about the lawyers who have made repeated evidence-free claims about widespread fraud that took place in the 2020 election. They have, Riggleman said, taken small, isolated instances of voter fraud or election irregularities and “turned it into systemic fraud — and that’s turned into the NSA actually exploiting and injecting code into multiple voting machines that aren’t interconnected, that Dominion has implanted code from Venezuela, and that there’s an invasion of a United States military base” [in Germany, where computer servers used in the election are supposed to have been stolen].
“It’s creating a false narrative around a small kernel of truth and radicalizing people or pushing them into a belief system through a digital virus that is social media,” Riggleman added.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/republican-lawmaker-likens-trump-votefraud-crusade-to-the-search-for-bigfoot-130019525.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
05 Dec 20 5:46 am
+ Most conservatives don't understand purpose of journalism, says founder of website on media bias
Jon Ward
Thu, December 3, 2020, 5:10 PM CST
In 2005, Matthew Sheffield launched what would become one of the preeminent conservative websites devoted to calling out liberal bias in the mainstream media.
Over the last decade, however, Sheffield — who founded NewsBusters with his brother Greg and worked there until 2014 — has come to believe that he was part of a problem, not a solution, and is now working to correct that error.
The problem, as he describes it, is that most conservatives think the purpose of journalism is to wage partisan political warfare, and that has created an ecosystem on the right where facts and truth are increasingly irrelevant.
This dynamic is at play most recently in the move by many Trump supporters to stop watching Fox News because, while it is conservative, it is not slavish enough toward the president. Instead, many Trump supporters are moving toward channels that repeat the president’s lies about a stolen election without any scrutiny or standards for fact checking.
“If you go to and look at the history of conservative media enterprises that are large scale and exist presently, every single one of them was created to propagate and propagandize for a particular political viewpoint, literally without exception,” Sheffield said in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. “And that is not the case for just so many mainstream outlets.”
In a recent Twitter thread, Sheffield wrote that he “was part of a decades-long tradition of complaining about media elites being ‘unfair’ to conservative views.”
While Sheffield’s view on liberal bias hasn’t changed entirely, it has become more nuanced. “There is still much to that argument,” he wrote, “but eventually I saw that I was missing context.”
After Sheffield went to work at the Washington Examiner, where he was the newspaper’s first online editor, he says he realized that “U.S. conservatives do not understand the purpose of journalism.”
“I didn’t understand that journalism is supposed to portray reality,” he wrote.
The Examiner was the first place where Sheffield says he saw the kind of standards that differentiate “actual media and reporting institutions” — which may have inherent or even conscious bias — from right-wing websites for which partisan bias is the north star, the guiding principle.
“Truth for conservative journalists is anything that harms ‘the left.’ It doesn’t even have to be a fact,” he wrote. “I eventually realized that most people who run right-dominated media outlets see it as their DUTY to be unfair and to favor Republicans because doing so would somehow counteract perceived liberal bias.”
“Most conservative media figures have no journalism training or desire to fact-check their own side,” he added.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/most-conservatives-dont-understand-purpose-of-journalism-says-founder-of-website-on-media-bias-231043680.html
Jon Ward
Thu, December 3, 2020, 5:10 PM CST
In 2005, Matthew Sheffield launched what would become one of the preeminent conservative websites devoted to calling out liberal bias in the mainstream media.
Over the last decade, however, Sheffield — who founded NewsBusters with his brother Greg and worked there until 2014 — has come to believe that he was part of a problem, not a solution, and is now working to correct that error.
The problem, as he describes it, is that most conservatives think the purpose of journalism is to wage partisan political warfare, and that has created an ecosystem on the right where facts and truth are increasingly irrelevant.
This dynamic is at play most recently in the move by many Trump supporters to stop watching Fox News because, while it is conservative, it is not slavish enough toward the president. Instead, many Trump supporters are moving toward channels that repeat the president’s lies about a stolen election without any scrutiny or standards for fact checking.
“If you go to and look at the history of conservative media enterprises that are large scale and exist presently, every single one of them was created to propagate and propagandize for a particular political viewpoint, literally without exception,” Sheffield said in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. “And that is not the case for just so many mainstream outlets.”
In a recent Twitter thread, Sheffield wrote that he “was part of a decades-long tradition of complaining about media elites being ‘unfair’ to conservative views.”
While Sheffield’s view on liberal bias hasn’t changed entirely, it has become more nuanced. “There is still much to that argument,” he wrote, “but eventually I saw that I was missing context.”
After Sheffield went to work at the Washington Examiner, where he was the newspaper’s first online editor, he says he realized that “U.S. conservatives do not understand the purpose of journalism.”
“I didn’t understand that journalism is supposed to portray reality,” he wrote.
The Examiner was the first place where Sheffield says he saw the kind of standards that differentiate “actual media and reporting institutions” — which may have inherent or even conscious bias — from right-wing websites for which partisan bias is the north star, the guiding principle.
“Truth for conservative journalists is anything that harms ‘the left.’ It doesn’t even have to be a fact,” he wrote. “I eventually realized that most people who run right-dominated media outlets see it as their DUTY to be unfair and to favor Republicans because doing so would somehow counteract perceived liberal bias.”
“Most conservative media figures have no journalism training or desire to fact-check their own side,” he added.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/most-conservatives-dont-understand-purpose-of-journalism-says-founder-of-website-on-media-bias-231043680.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
11 Dec 20 11:40 am
+ Lawyers' group calls for disciplining Trump legal team over 'dangerous' fraud allegations
Crystal Hill
Wed, December 9, 2020, 3:56 PM CST
When lawsuits began flooding state and federal courts after Election Day, the legal team for President Trump’s reelection campaign, and his supporters, said that as a candidate he was merely exercising his right to explore every legal remedy at his disposal.
More than four weeks and 40 losses later, observers in the legal community are aghast at how the campaign is using the judicial system to push baseless allegations of systemic voter fraud, and they want the lawyers leading the effort to be held accountable.
“I would like my right to practice law to mean something,” Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University law professor and leading constitutional scholar, told Yahoo News. “And if you can just use your law license to fling bulls*** around, if you can use your law license to take up the time of the court, consume their resources, and undermine the credibility of the legal profession on which the rule of law largely depends in this country — then that’s a terrible thing.”
Tribe and more than 1,000 current and former attorneys, retired judges and justices, law professors, former bar association presidents and concerned citizens have signed an open letter calling on bar associations to disavow the Trump campaign attorneys’ conduct, and on disciplinary authorities to investigate, the advocacy group Lawyers Defending American Democracy announced this week.
“A license to practice law is not a license to lie to the public on behalf of a client, whether doing so endangers one individual or the entire body politic,” the letter says. “American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct 4.1(a) and 8.4(c) put lawyers at risk of sanctions for engaging in dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentation — in or out of court.”
The group calls out Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, his campaign’s senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis, and lawyers Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell and Joseph diGenova. DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said during a broadcast interview that Christopher Krebs, the administration’s election security director who was fired by Trump for denying that the Nov. 3 election was tainted by fraud, should be “taken out at dawn and shot.”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-group-calls-for-disciplining-trump-legal-team-over-dangerous-fraud-allegations-215654402.html
Crystal Hill
Wed, December 9, 2020, 3:56 PM CST
When lawsuits began flooding state and federal courts after Election Day, the legal team for President Trump’s reelection campaign, and his supporters, said that as a candidate he was merely exercising his right to explore every legal remedy at his disposal.
More than four weeks and 40 losses later, observers in the legal community are aghast at how the campaign is using the judicial system to push baseless allegations of systemic voter fraud, and they want the lawyers leading the effort to be held accountable.
“I would like my right to practice law to mean something,” Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University law professor and leading constitutional scholar, told Yahoo News. “And if you can just use your law license to fling bulls*** around, if you can use your law license to take up the time of the court, consume their resources, and undermine the credibility of the legal profession on which the rule of law largely depends in this country — then that’s a terrible thing.”
Tribe and more than 1,000 current and former attorneys, retired judges and justices, law professors, former bar association presidents and concerned citizens have signed an open letter calling on bar associations to disavow the Trump campaign attorneys’ conduct, and on disciplinary authorities to investigate, the advocacy group Lawyers Defending American Democracy announced this week.
“A license to practice law is not a license to lie to the public on behalf of a client, whether doing so endangers one individual or the entire body politic,” the letter says. “American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct 4.1(a) and 8.4(c) put lawyers at risk of sanctions for engaging in dishonesty, deceit and misrepresentation — in or out of court.”
The group calls out Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, his campaign’s senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis, and lawyers Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell and Joseph diGenova. DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said during a broadcast interview that Christopher Krebs, the administration’s election security director who was fired by Trump for denying that the Nov. 3 election was tainted by fraud, should be “taken out at dawn and shot.”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-group-calls-for-disciplining-trump-legal-team-over-dangerous-fraud-allegations-215654402.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
12 Dec 20 12:51 pm
+ Trump's desperate gambit to stay in office alarms Europeans, who know about coups
Melissa Rossi
Fri, December 11, 2020, 5:35 PM CST
BARCELONA — Last month, when Sweden’s TV4, the largest broadcast network in Scandinavia, sent political correspondent Ann Tiberg to cover the U.S. election, her producers were so afraid of the possible mayhem awaiting her that they insisted she pack a bulletproof vest, helmet and gas mask. Understandably: The United States had often appeared out of control in previous months, and not just due to COVID-19. The president had urged his followers to vote twice and cryptically told the militia group the Proud Boys to “stand by”; peaceful protests sometimes turned ugly, devolving into looting and the occasional fatal shooting; showdowns between armed groups were widely predicted for Election Day.
Happily, Tiberg didn’t need the combat gear. “There was no violence, and not a lot of cheating — the system worked. And people showed up in numbers never seen before. I thought that was so impressive. That’s what I brought back to my viewers: The U.S. pulled it off.”
Citizens across the Atlantic cheered the election results. “Europeans were overwhelmingly happy that Trump lost and Biden won,” says Jon Henley, political reporter for the London-based Guardian. But now, “they’re looking on in shock, horror and disbelief — saying this is not right and this is dangerous.”
After being cast aside by Trump as irrelevant and viewing the administration over the last four years from an icy distance — and preoccupied with the pandemic, Brexit, economic meltdowns, terror attacks and violence-ridden demonstrations against police brutality in France, among other crises — Europeans were bewildered at first by the chaos unleashed by Trump’s desperate efforts to stay in power.
But they are paying attention now. “People are deeply dismayed by what they’re seeing unfold,” says Dave Keating, a Connecticut-born politics reporter now working for French, German and British media from Brussels. “Particularly damaging is that the last few weeks have called into question the rule of law and political stability in the U.S.” And at least some political analysts are worried that the violence expected during election week may instead take place when the Electoral College votes are finalized in January and Trump’s fantasies of overturning the results have become moot.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-desperate-gambit-to-stay-in-office-alarms-europeans-who-know-about-coups-233538288.html
Melissa Rossi
Fri, December 11, 2020, 5:35 PM CST
BARCELONA — Last month, when Sweden’s TV4, the largest broadcast network in Scandinavia, sent political correspondent Ann Tiberg to cover the U.S. election, her producers were so afraid of the possible mayhem awaiting her that they insisted she pack a bulletproof vest, helmet and gas mask. Understandably: The United States had often appeared out of control in previous months, and not just due to COVID-19. The president had urged his followers to vote twice and cryptically told the militia group the Proud Boys to “stand by”; peaceful protests sometimes turned ugly, devolving into looting and the occasional fatal shooting; showdowns between armed groups were widely predicted for Election Day.
Happily, Tiberg didn’t need the combat gear. “There was no violence, and not a lot of cheating — the system worked. And people showed up in numbers never seen before. I thought that was so impressive. That’s what I brought back to my viewers: The U.S. pulled it off.”
Citizens across the Atlantic cheered the election results. “Europeans were overwhelmingly happy that Trump lost and Biden won,” says Jon Henley, political reporter for the London-based Guardian. But now, “they’re looking on in shock, horror and disbelief — saying this is not right and this is dangerous.”
After being cast aside by Trump as irrelevant and viewing the administration over the last four years from an icy distance — and preoccupied with the pandemic, Brexit, economic meltdowns, terror attacks and violence-ridden demonstrations against police brutality in France, among other crises — Europeans were bewildered at first by the chaos unleashed by Trump’s desperate efforts to stay in power.
But they are paying attention now. “People are deeply dismayed by what they’re seeing unfold,” says Dave Keating, a Connecticut-born politics reporter now working for French, German and British media from Brussels. “Particularly damaging is that the last few weeks have called into question the rule of law and political stability in the U.S.” And at least some political analysts are worried that the violence expected during election week may instead take place when the Electoral College votes are finalized in January and Trump’s fantasies of overturning the results have become moot.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-desperate-gambit-to-stay-in-office-alarms-europeans-who-know-about-coups-233538288.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
16 Dec 20 5:54 am
+ MacKenzie Scott donates $4.2 billion to 384 organizations
By Jazmin Goodwin, CNN Business
Updated 6:28 PM EST, Tue December 15, 2020
New York(CNN Business)MacKenzie Scott announced on Tuesday her second major charitable contribution of the year, giving away nearly $4.2 billion to 384 organizations as part of a plan to donate a majority of her fortune.
The announcement comes just four months after Scott donated $1.7 billion to 116 organizations, including four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), in July. The latest round of philanthropic gifts total more than $4.16 billion donated by Scott to organizations nationwide in the past four months.
"The pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling," Scott wrote in a Medium post. "Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires."
Scott's post included a list of the hundreds of organizations that received funds, including financial service providers for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalized and underserved individuals, civil rights advocacy groups and legal defense funds that take on institutional discrimination.
Scott, who is a philanthropist and author as well as the ex-wife of Amazon (AMZN)founder Jeff Bezos, noted that her team examined more than 6,490 organizations to determine which groups would receive the donations following her decision to accelerate the pace of her giving this year.
(more)
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/15/business/mackenzie-scott-charity-donations-trnd/index.html
By Jazmin Goodwin, CNN Business
Updated 6:28 PM EST, Tue December 15, 2020
New York(CNN Business)MacKenzie Scott announced on Tuesday her second major charitable contribution of the year, giving away nearly $4.2 billion to 384 organizations as part of a plan to donate a majority of her fortune.
The announcement comes just four months after Scott donated $1.7 billion to 116 organizations, including four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), in July. The latest round of philanthropic gifts total more than $4.16 billion donated by Scott to organizations nationwide in the past four months.
"The pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling," Scott wrote in a Medium post. "Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires."
Scott's post included a list of the hundreds of organizations that received funds, including financial service providers for under-resourced communities, education for historically marginalized and underserved individuals, civil rights advocacy groups and legal defense funds that take on institutional discrimination.
Scott, who is a philanthropist and author as well as the ex-wife of Amazon (AMZN)founder Jeff Bezos, noted that her team examined more than 6,490 organizations to determine which groups would receive the donations following her decision to accelerate the pace of her giving this year.
(more)
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/15/business/mackenzie-scott-charity-donations-trnd/index.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
22 Dec 20 11:57 am
+ Trump's legacy: He changed the presidency, but will it last?
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ZEKE MILLER and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Sun, December 20, 2020, 11:38 PM CST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most improbable of presidents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominating the national discourse like no one before.
Trump, governing by whim and tweet, deepened the nation’s racial and cultural divides and undermined faith in its institutions. His legacy: a tumultuous four years that were marked by his impeachment, failures during the worst pandemic in a century and his refusal to accept defeat.
He smashed conceptions about how presidents behave and communicate, offering unvarnished thoughts and policy declarations alike, pulling back the curtain for the American people while enthralling supporters and unnerving foes — and sometimes allies — both at home and abroad.
While the nation would be hardpressed to elect another figure as disruptive as Trump, it remains to be seen how much of his imprint on the office itself, occupied by only 44 other men, will be indelible. Already it shadows the work of his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, who framed his candidacy as a repudiation of Trump, offering himself as an antidote to the chaos and dissent of the past four years while vowing to restore dignity to the Oval Office.
“For all four years, this is someone who at every opportunity tried to stretch presidential power beyond the limits of the law,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “He altered the presidency in many ways, but many of them can be changed back almost overnight by a president who wants to make the point that there is a change.”
Trump's most enduring legacy may be his use of the trappings of the presidency to erode Americans’ views of the institutions of their own government.
From his first moments in office, Trump waged an assault on the federal bureaucracy, casting a suspicious eye on career officials he deemed the “Deep State” and shaking Americans' confidence in civil servants and the levers of government. Believing that the investigation into Russian election interference was a crusade to undermine him, Trump went after the intelligence agencies and Justice Department — calling out leaders by name — and later unleashed broadsides against the man running the probe, respected special counsel Robert Mueller.
His other targets were legion: the Supreme Court for insufficient loyalty; the post office for its handling of mail-in ballots; even the integrity of the vote itself with his baseless claims of election fraud.
“In the past, presidents who lost were always willing to turn the office over to the next person. They were willing to accept the vote of the American public,” said Richard Waterman, who studies the presidency at the University of Kentucky. “What we’re seeing right now is really an assault on the institutions of democracy.”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-legacy-changed-presidency-last-053809037.html
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ZEKE MILLER and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Sun, December 20, 2020, 11:38 PM CST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most improbable of presidents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominating the national discourse like no one before.
Trump, governing by whim and tweet, deepened the nation’s racial and cultural divides and undermined faith in its institutions. His legacy: a tumultuous four years that were marked by his impeachment, failures during the worst pandemic in a century and his refusal to accept defeat.
He smashed conceptions about how presidents behave and communicate, offering unvarnished thoughts and policy declarations alike, pulling back the curtain for the American people while enthralling supporters and unnerving foes — and sometimes allies — both at home and abroad.
While the nation would be hardpressed to elect another figure as disruptive as Trump, it remains to be seen how much of his imprint on the office itself, occupied by only 44 other men, will be indelible. Already it shadows the work of his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, who framed his candidacy as a repudiation of Trump, offering himself as an antidote to the chaos and dissent of the past four years while vowing to restore dignity to the Oval Office.
“For all four years, this is someone who at every opportunity tried to stretch presidential power beyond the limits of the law,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “He altered the presidency in many ways, but many of them can be changed back almost overnight by a president who wants to make the point that there is a change.”
Trump's most enduring legacy may be his use of the trappings of the presidency to erode Americans’ views of the institutions of their own government.
From his first moments in office, Trump waged an assault on the federal bureaucracy, casting a suspicious eye on career officials he deemed the “Deep State” and shaking Americans' confidence in civil servants and the levers of government. Believing that the investigation into Russian election interference was a crusade to undermine him, Trump went after the intelligence agencies and Justice Department — calling out leaders by name — and later unleashed broadsides against the man running the probe, respected special counsel Robert Mueller.
His other targets were legion: the Supreme Court for insufficient loyalty; the post office for its handling of mail-in ballots; even the integrity of the vote itself with his baseless claims of election fraud.
“In the past, presidents who lost were always willing to turn the office over to the next person. They were willing to accept the vote of the American public,” said Richard Waterman, who studies the presidency at the University of Kentucky. “What we’re seeing right now is really an assault on the institutions of democracy.”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-legacy-changed-presidency-last-053809037.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
23 Dec 20 5:15 am
+ A white supremacist who has advocated for legalizing child porn was arrested and charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl he met online
Rachel E. Greenspan
Mon, December 21, 2020, 2:28 PM CST
The home of Nathan Larson, who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor, in Catlett, Virginia. Fresno County Sheriff's Office
A 40-year-old man with a history of supporting pedophilia and rape was arrested and charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl, police said.
Nathan Larson, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2018, previously admitted to HuffPost that he was a pedophile.
In a manifesto for his congressional run in Virginia, Larson advocated for the legalization of child porn.
A self-proclaimed white supremacist who has advocated for the legalization of child porn and created online chat rooms for pedophiles was arrested and charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl.
Authorities said Nathan Larson abducted the girl after meeting her on social media in the fall, according to a Saturday press release from the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. Fresno police said Larson was arrested at the Denver International Airport during a layover with the girl, who was reported missing on December 14 and has since been reunited with her family. Larson, who is 40, was flying with the girl from Fresno to his home in Virginia, according to police.
Larson faces a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor as well as federal charges of kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child for the intention of sex.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/white-supremacist-advocated-legalizing-child-202844339.html
Rachel E. Greenspan
Mon, December 21, 2020, 2:28 PM CST
The home of Nathan Larson, who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor, in Catlett, Virginia. Fresno County Sheriff's Office
A 40-year-old man with a history of supporting pedophilia and rape was arrested and charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl, police said.
Nathan Larson, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2018, previously admitted to HuffPost that he was a pedophile.
In a manifesto for his congressional run in Virginia, Larson advocated for the legalization of child porn.
A self-proclaimed white supremacist who has advocated for the legalization of child porn and created online chat rooms for pedophiles was arrested and charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl.
Authorities said Nathan Larson abducted the girl after meeting her on social media in the fall, according to a Saturday press release from the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. Fresno police said Larson was arrested at the Denver International Airport during a layover with the girl, who was reported missing on December 14 and has since been reunited with her family. Larson, who is 40, was flying with the girl from Fresno to his home in Virginia, according to police.
Larson faces a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor as well as federal charges of kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child for the intention of sex.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/white-supremacist-advocated-legalizing-child-202844339.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
24 Dec 20 5:53 am
+ Trump Back At Mar-A-Lago, Raising Taxpayer Golf Tab To $151.5 Million
This marks Trump’s 31st golf trip to his Palm Beach resort, which in total account for just over two-thirds of his golf-related travel and security costs.
By S.V. Date
12/23/2020 07:08 PM ET
President Donald Trump drives golf cart number 45 at Trump National Golf Club on Dec. 13, 2020, in Sterling, Virginia. (Al Drago via Getty Images)
Donald Trump has arrived at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort for the 31st golf vacation there of his presidency, raising the taxpayer-funded travel and security total for his hobby to $151.5 million, according to a HuffPost analysis.
Trump has already played golf on his own properties 289 times since taking office in January 2017, although he claimed during his 2016 campaign that he would not have time for a vacation at all. “I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off,” he said in February 2016.
(more)
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5fe3bc61c5b6e1ce83383074
This marks Trump’s 31st golf trip to his Palm Beach resort, which in total account for just over two-thirds of his golf-related travel and security costs.
By S.V. Date
12/23/2020 07:08 PM ET
President Donald Trump drives golf cart number 45 at Trump National Golf Club on Dec. 13, 2020, in Sterling, Virginia. (Al Drago via Getty Images)
Donald Trump has arrived at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort for the 31st golf vacation there of his presidency, raising the taxpayer-funded travel and security total for his hobby to $151.5 million, according to a HuffPost analysis.
Trump has already played golf on his own properties 289 times since taking office in January 2017, although he claimed during his 2016 campaign that he would not have time for a vacation at all. “I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off,” he said in February 2016.
(more)
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5fe3bc61c5b6e1ce83383074
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
29 Dec 20 8:38 am
+ A Racial Slur, a Viral Video, and a Reckoning
Dan Levin
Sun, December 27, 2020, 10:27 AM CST
Mimi Groves holds cheerleading medals at her parents' home in Leesburg, Va., Oct. 27, 2020. (Alyssa Schukar/The New York Times)
LEESBURG, Va. — Jimmy Galligan was in history class last school year when his phone buzzed with a message. Once he clicked on it, he found a three-second video of a white classmate looking into the camera and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.
The slur, he said, was regularly hurled in classrooms and hallways throughout his years in the Loudoun County school district. He had brought the issue up to teachers and administrators, but, much to his anger and frustration, his complaints had gone nowhere.
So he held on to the video, which was sent to him by a friend, and made a decision that would ricochet across Leesburg, Virginia, a town named for an ancestor of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and whose school system had fought an order to desegregate for more than a decade after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
“I wanted to get her where she would understand the severity of that word,” Galligan, 18, whose mother is Black and father is white, said of the classmate who uttered the slur, Mimi Groves. He tucked the video away, deciding to post it publicly when the time was right.
Groves had originally sent the video, in which she looked into the camera and said, “I can drive,” followed by the slur, to a friend on Snapchat in 2016, when she was a freshman and had just gotten her learner’s permit. It later circulated among some students at Heritage High School, which she and Galligan attended, but did not cause much of a stir.
Galligan had not seen the video before receiving it last school year, when he and Groves were seniors. By then, she was a varsity cheer captain who dreamed of attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, whose cheer team was the reigning national champion. When she made the team in May, her parents celebrated with a cake and orange balloons, the university’s official color.
The next month, as protests were sweeping the nation after the police killing of George Floyd, Groves, in a public Instagram post, urged people to “protest, donate, sign a petition, rally, do something” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word,” responded someone whom Groves said she did not know.
Her alarm at the stranger’s comment turned to panic as friends began calling, directing her to the source of a brewing social media furor. Galligan, who had waited until Groves had chosen a college, had publicly posted the video that afternoon. Within hours, it had been shared to Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, where furious calls mounted for the University of Tennessee to revoke its admission offer.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/racial-slur-viral-video-reckoning-162721930.html
Dan Levin
Sun, December 27, 2020, 10:27 AM CST
Mimi Groves holds cheerleading medals at her parents' home in Leesburg, Va., Oct. 27, 2020. (Alyssa Schukar/The New York Times)
LEESBURG, Va. — Jimmy Galligan was in history class last school year when his phone buzzed with a message. Once he clicked on it, he found a three-second video of a white classmate looking into the camera and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.
The slur, he said, was regularly hurled in classrooms and hallways throughout his years in the Loudoun County school district. He had brought the issue up to teachers and administrators, but, much to his anger and frustration, his complaints had gone nowhere.
So he held on to the video, which was sent to him by a friend, and made a decision that would ricochet across Leesburg, Virginia, a town named for an ancestor of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and whose school system had fought an order to desegregate for more than a decade after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
“I wanted to get her where she would understand the severity of that word,” Galligan, 18, whose mother is Black and father is white, said of the classmate who uttered the slur, Mimi Groves. He tucked the video away, deciding to post it publicly when the time was right.
Groves had originally sent the video, in which she looked into the camera and said, “I can drive,” followed by the slur, to a friend on Snapchat in 2016, when she was a freshman and had just gotten her learner’s permit. It later circulated among some students at Heritage High School, which she and Galligan attended, but did not cause much of a stir.
Galligan had not seen the video before receiving it last school year, when he and Groves were seniors. By then, she was a varsity cheer captain who dreamed of attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, whose cheer team was the reigning national champion. When she made the team in May, her parents celebrated with a cake and orange balloons, the university’s official color.
The next month, as protests were sweeping the nation after the police killing of George Floyd, Groves, in a public Instagram post, urged people to “protest, donate, sign a petition, rally, do something” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word,” responded someone whom Groves said she did not know.
Her alarm at the stranger’s comment turned to panic as friends began calling, directing her to the source of a brewing social media furor. Galligan, who had waited until Groves had chosen a college, had publicly posted the video that afternoon. Within hours, it had been shared to Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, where furious calls mounted for the University of Tennessee to revoke its admission offer.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/racial-slur-viral-video-reckoning-162721930.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
29 Dec 20 9:15 am
+ Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy
Robert Reich
Sun, December 27, 2020, 12:00 AM CST
Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to re-elect Donald Trump – 46.8%of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America.
Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.
Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows.
The message: do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it.
The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity.
In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail.
In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.
Here, too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken.
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.
The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.
And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection.
A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/americans-acceptance-trump-behavior-vilest-060037636.html
Robert Reich
Sun, December 27, 2020, 12:00 AM CST
Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to re-elect Donald Trump – 46.8%of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America.
Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.
Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows.
The message: do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it.
The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity.
In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail.
In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.
Here, too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken.
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.
The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.
And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection.
A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/americans-acceptance-trump-behavior-vilest-060037636.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
31 Dec 20 4:48 am
+ Green Beret Colonel Threatened to Kill Wife in Front of Children Before Standoff with Police: Affidavit
Matthew Cox
Wed, December 30, 2020, 6:11 PM CST
A Special Forces officer from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington is being held on $1 million bail, accused of holding his wife and children at gunpoint in a drunken rage early Sunday morning that ended in a two-hour standoff with police.
Army Colonel Owen G. Ray, a former commander of 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), has been ordered to reappear in court Jan. 11 with his attorney to face charges ranging from kidnapping and assault to threatening police with a firearm.
Ray’s 16-year-old daughter called 911 around midnight to report that her father, who was armed with a shotgun and two pistols, was in a room with her mother and two younger siblings, and that “she believed her father would kill her if he discovered she had called 911,” according to a probable cause affidavit from the case.
“Dispatch could hear the children screaming inside,” according to the affidavit.
The incident started with an argument between Ray and his wife, Kristen, who believed that her husband was intoxicated. She was frightened enough to retreat to her 10-year-old and 7-year-old children’s bedroom to hide, according to the affidavit.
Kristen heard her husband say, “let's do this,” the document states, and describes how Ray then put on his boots and went out to the garage where the guns were stored.
When Ray returned and found his wife and children, he began “shouting and swinging the gun around,” according to the affidavit.
“Kristen threatened to call the police and then did call the police at which point, the defendant became enraged,” the document states. “He pointed the gun at Kristen and threatened to kill her.
“He proceeded to kick Kristen over and over with his boots in the face and chest. The two children had woken up and were screaming, ‘don't kill mom, don't shoot us.’”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/green-beret-colonel-threatened-kill-190543191.html
Matthew Cox
Wed, December 30, 2020, 6:11 PM CST
A Special Forces officer from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington is being held on $1 million bail, accused of holding his wife and children at gunpoint in a drunken rage early Sunday morning that ended in a two-hour standoff with police.
Army Colonel Owen G. Ray, a former commander of 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), has been ordered to reappear in court Jan. 11 with his attorney to face charges ranging from kidnapping and assault to threatening police with a firearm.
Ray’s 16-year-old daughter called 911 around midnight to report that her father, who was armed with a shotgun and two pistols, was in a room with her mother and two younger siblings, and that “she believed her father would kill her if he discovered she had called 911,” according to a probable cause affidavit from the case.
“Dispatch could hear the children screaming inside,” according to the affidavit.
The incident started with an argument between Ray and his wife, Kristen, who believed that her husband was intoxicated. She was frightened enough to retreat to her 10-year-old and 7-year-old children’s bedroom to hide, according to the affidavit.
Kristen heard her husband say, “let's do this,” the document states, and describes how Ray then put on his boots and went out to the garage where the guns were stored.
When Ray returned and found his wife and children, he began “shouting and swinging the gun around,” according to the affidavit.
“Kristen threatened to call the police and then did call the police at which point, the defendant became enraged,” the document states. “He pointed the gun at Kristen and threatened to kill her.
“He proceeded to kick Kristen over and over with his boots in the face and chest. The two children had woken up and were screaming, ‘don't kill mom, don't shoot us.’”
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/green-beret-colonel-threatened-kill-190543191.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
01 Jan 21 5:00 am
+ UK variant linked to high viral loads, Neanderthal gene offers protection
Nancy Lapid
December 21, 2020
Neanderthal gene protects against COVID-19
A specific form of a protein passed down from Neanderthals protects against severe COVID-19, and medications that boost levels of this protein could potentially help treat the disease, according to a study reported on medRxiv on Thursday ahead of peer review. The protein, called OAS1, is involved in the body's response to viruses. People with higher levels of the Neanderthal-related form of OAS1 are less susceptible to COVID-19, and if they do become infected, they are at lower risk for hospitalization, intubation and death, the researchers found. "This protective form of OAS1 is present in sub-Saharan Africans but was lost when the ancestors of modern-day Europeans migrated out of Africa. It was then re-introduced into the European population through mating with Neanderthals" who lived more than 40,000 years ago, said coauthor Brent Richards from the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/oxygen-level-while-walking-identifies-203857765.html
Nancy Lapid
December 21, 2020
Neanderthal gene protects against COVID-19
A specific form of a protein passed down from Neanderthals protects against severe COVID-19, and medications that boost levels of this protein could potentially help treat the disease, according to a study reported on medRxiv on Thursday ahead of peer review. The protein, called OAS1, is involved in the body's response to viruses. People with higher levels of the Neanderthal-related form of OAS1 are less susceptible to COVID-19, and if they do become infected, they are at lower risk for hospitalization, intubation and death, the researchers found. "This protective form of OAS1 is present in sub-Saharan Africans but was lost when the ancestors of modern-day Europeans migrated out of Africa. It was then re-introduced into the European population through mating with Neanderthals" who lived more than 40,000 years ago, said coauthor Brent Richards from the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University in Montreal.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/oxygen-level-while-walking-identifies-203857765.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
01 Jan 21 7:58 pm *
+ 26 Belgian retirees die after visit by volunteer Santa Claus who tested positive for COVID
JANUARY 1, 2021 / 12:59 PM / AFP
At least 26 residents of a Belgian retirement home have died since a visit by a volunteer dressed as Santa Claus who has since tested positive for COVID-19. A Flemish health official told AFP on Thursday it is not yet certain that it was the visitor who brought the coronavirus to the Hemelrijck home in Mol on December 5.
But 26 residents have died since the visit, and 85 more have tested positive for the coronavirus, along with 40 staff.
(more)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/26-belgian-retirees-die-after-visit-by-volunteer-santa-claus-who-tested-positive-for-covid/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a&ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i&_amp=1*15b4fug*s_vid*YW1wLW9DOHk0LXk1Z1ZiSFROMDVWazFxVHc.#app
JANUARY 1, 2021 / 12:59 PM / AFP
At least 26 residents of a Belgian retirement home have died since a visit by a volunteer dressed as Santa Claus who has since tested positive for COVID-19. A Flemish health official told AFP on Thursday it is not yet certain that it was the visitor who brought the coronavirus to the Hemelrijck home in Mol on December 5.
But 26 residents have died since the visit, and 85 more have tested positive for the coronavirus, along with 40 staff.
(more)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/26-belgian-retirees-die-after-visit-by-volunteer-santa-claus-who-tested-positive-for-covid/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a&ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i&_amp=1*15b4fug*s_vid*YW1wLW9DOHk0LXk1Z1ZiSFROMDVWazFxVHc.#app
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
10 Jan 21 11:54 pm
+ Jan 9, 2021
All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far
Axios
Sara Fischer, Ashley Gold
Platforms are rapidly removing Donald Trump’s account or accounts affiliated with pro-Trump violence and conspiracies, like QAnon and #StoptheSteal.
Here is a running list:
REDDIT:
WHAT: Reddit has banned the subreddit group "r/DonaldTrump," a spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Friday.
COMMENT: "Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed," a spokesperson tells Axios.
CONTEXT: While not an official group or page hosted by the president, it's one of the company's largest political communities dedicated to support for President Trump.
TWITCH:
WHAT: Twitch disabled Trump's channel, citing the move as a "necessary step" to protect its community and "prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence."
COMMENT: “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel. Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President's incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence," a spokesperson told Axios.
CONTEXT: Twitch was one of the first platforms in June to temporarily ban Trump's channel for hateful content around the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
SHOPIFY:
WHAT: Shopify took down two online stores affiliated with Trump — his organization and his campaign's merchandise sites — for violating its policies on supporting violence.
COMMENT: "Shopify does not tolerate actions that invite violence. Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause. As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump." - a spokesperson told The Financial Times.
CONTEXT: Shopify had until Friday gone the farthest in actually de-platforming Trump, as his stores were permanently removed, not temporarily disabled.
TWITTER:
WHAT: Twitter announced Friday the platform will permanently ban President Trump's account effective immediately.
COMMENT: "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said in a statement.
CONTEXT: It's Twitter's strongest-ever action against the president's account and comes in response to the "risk of further incitement of violence," per the social media company.
GOOGLE:
WHAT: Google has pulled Parler, a social media app for conservatives and far-right extremists.
COMMENT: "In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence," a Google spokesperson said.
CONTEXT: Google’s move immediately suspends Parler, going further than Apple's earlier decision to remove the app unless it submits a content moderation plan.
YOUTUBE:
WHAT: YouTube is accelerating its enforcement of election misinformation and voter fraud claims against Trump and other channels.
COMMENT: "Due to the extraordinary events that transpired yesterday, and given that the election results have been certified, any channel posting new videos with these false claims in violation of our policies will now receive a strike, a penalty which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming. Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube," Alex Joseph, a YouTube spokesperson, told Axios.
CONTEXT: YouTube is typically slow to take action on bad content and accounts. Its response, while swift, was somewhat benign compared to competitors removing or disabling Trump's account. YouTube did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday that addressed the Capitol violence without fully condemning it.
FACEBOOK:
WHAT: Facebook banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete.
COMMENT: "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Thursday.
CONTEXT: On Wednesday, Facebook did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.
(more)
https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html
All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far
Axios
Sara Fischer, Ashley Gold
Platforms are rapidly removing Donald Trump’s account or accounts affiliated with pro-Trump violence and conspiracies, like QAnon and #StoptheSteal.
Here is a running list:
REDDIT:
WHAT: Reddit has banned the subreddit group "r/DonaldTrump," a spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Friday.
COMMENT: "Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed," a spokesperson tells Axios.
CONTEXT: While not an official group or page hosted by the president, it's one of the company's largest political communities dedicated to support for President Trump.
TWITCH:
WHAT: Twitch disabled Trump's channel, citing the move as a "necessary step" to protect its community and "prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence."
COMMENT: “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel. Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President's incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence," a spokesperson told Axios.
CONTEXT: Twitch was one of the first platforms in June to temporarily ban Trump's channel for hateful content around the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
SHOPIFY:
WHAT: Shopify took down two online stores affiliated with Trump — his organization and his campaign's merchandise sites — for violating its policies on supporting violence.
COMMENT: "Shopify does not tolerate actions that invite violence. Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause. As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump." - a spokesperson told The Financial Times.
CONTEXT: Shopify had until Friday gone the farthest in actually de-platforming Trump, as his stores were permanently removed, not temporarily disabled.
TWITTER:
WHAT: Twitter announced Friday the platform will permanently ban President Trump's account effective immediately.
COMMENT: "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said in a statement.
CONTEXT: It's Twitter's strongest-ever action against the president's account and comes in response to the "risk of further incitement of violence," per the social media company.
GOOGLE:
WHAT: Google has pulled Parler, a social media app for conservatives and far-right extremists.
COMMENT: "In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence," a Google spokesperson said.
CONTEXT: Google’s move immediately suspends Parler, going further than Apple's earlier decision to remove the app unless it submits a content moderation plan.
YOUTUBE:
WHAT: YouTube is accelerating its enforcement of election misinformation and voter fraud claims against Trump and other channels.
COMMENT: "Due to the extraordinary events that transpired yesterday, and given that the election results have been certified, any channel posting new videos with these false claims in violation of our policies will now receive a strike, a penalty which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming. Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube," Alex Joseph, a YouTube spokesperson, told Axios.
CONTEXT: YouTube is typically slow to take action on bad content and accounts. Its response, while swift, was somewhat benign compared to competitors removing or disabling Trump's account. YouTube did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday that addressed the Capitol violence without fully condemning it.
FACEBOOK:
WHAT: Facebook banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete.
COMMENT: "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Thursday.
CONTEXT: On Wednesday, Facebook did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.
(more)
https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
10 Jan 21 11:57 pm
Rumor has it that #PresidentFatShitbagTrump has actually now landed at MySpace (for now) seeing as how NO ONE ELSE wants his fat, greasy Racist Pus Hog ass....
#ImpeachTrumpAgain.
#PassItOn.....
#ImpeachTrumpAgain.
#PassItOn.....
DevilsFood
/
526 posts
09 Feb 21 11:40 am
+ Cleveland serial killer who murdered 11 women dies in prison
Tim Stelloh
Mon, February 8, 2021, 10:29 PM
An Ohio serial killer convicted of murdering 11 women in Cleveland died in prison Monday of a terminal illness, officials said.
Anthony Sowell, 61, was admitted Jan. 21 to the end-of-life care unit at a medical treatment prison in Columbus, a corrections department spokeswoman said. He was pronounced dead at 3:27 p.m. Monday after an illness unrelated to Covid-19, said the spokeswoman, JoEllen Smith.
Sowell, who served as a Marine, was sentenced to death in 2011 after a jury convicted him of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, corpse abuse and evidence tampering.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-serial-killer-murdered-11-042939927.html
Tim Stelloh
Mon, February 8, 2021, 10:29 PM
An Ohio serial killer convicted of murdering 11 women in Cleveland died in prison Monday of a terminal illness, officials said.
Anthony Sowell, 61, was admitted Jan. 21 to the end-of-life care unit at a medical treatment prison in Columbus, a corrections department spokeswoman said. He was pronounced dead at 3:27 p.m. Monday after an illness unrelated to Covid-19, said the spokeswoman, JoEllen Smith.
Sowell, who served as a Marine, was sentenced to death in 2011 after a jury convicted him of aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, corpse abuse and evidence tampering.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-serial-killer-murdered-11-042939927.html
DevilsFood
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526 posts
07 Mar 21 6:07 am
+ The New York Times
FBI Finds Contact Between Proud Boys Member and Trump Associate Before Riot
Katie Benner, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman
Sat, March 6, 2021, 9:08 AM
WASHINGTON — A member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The FBI has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party.
The connection revealed by the communications data comes as the FBI intensifies its investigation of contacts among far-right extremists, Trump White House associates and conservative members of Congress in the days before the attack.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-finds-contact-between-proud-150858120.html
FBI Finds Contact Between Proud Boys Member and Trump Associate Before Riot
Katie Benner, Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman
Sat, March 6, 2021, 9:08 AM
WASHINGTON — A member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The FBI has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party.
The connection revealed by the communications data comes as the FBI intensifies its investigation of contacts among far-right extremists, Trump White House associates and conservative members of Congress in the days before the attack.
(more)
https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-finds-contact-between-proud-150858120.html