L to R: Marianna Pecora, Victor Shi, Santiago Mayer, Ashwath Narayanan.
It’s happened before. The final, low-prestige panels of the Netroots Nation conference — late Saturday afternoon when people are already leaving — turn out to be the most interesting.
Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many national news sources suggested that the youth would not turn out. In reality, the election saw the second-highest youth turnout in the last 30 years. Gen Z voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates. Without the youth vote, the “red wave” may have become a reality.
The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was the animating issue in 2022, as well as in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2023. While the youth vote has been increasing, 2022 was the first when over half of Gen Z could vote, the panel agreed. They predict even higher turnout in 2024.
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, 26, told a ballroom crowd earlier that Democrats must work to make Gen Z’s future a hopeful one of abundance, not retrenchment, if they want their engagement.
Campaigns now have to shift their perspective on the youth vote, not simply focus on voter history and voting propensity for which there has been, until recently, little data for Gen Z.
Best messenger to GenZ is another member of GenZ
To reach younger voters, campaigns must have young people in the campaigns empowered to do outreach to young people. It’s their future on the line.
That outreach cannot happen just in the last three months ahead of an election. That effort should include digital channels, of course, but also constant presence on campuses. The challenge there is the constant turnover in student populations. Candidates and officials should regularly visit college campuses, and even high schools in states where 17 year-olds can register if they’ll be 18 by Election Day.
Invest in youth content creators/influencers. There is an inherent level of trust among youth with youth. Give them information to distribute, then step out of the way; let them create the content. It’s what they do best. If they have a million followers, TRUST THEM to push out your information in way that’s most effective. (Even if the campaign doesn’t “get it.”)
Creativity and fun are the keys to reaching Gen Z. Voters of Tomorrow recounted distributing condoms on a Texas campus. They carried a QR code and a message: “Fuck Fascism”.
Finally, they suggested, invest in young content creators. Trust them to deliver. There needs to be an intergenerational infrastructure to support them. Young people should lead but they shouldn’t have to do it alone.
Gen Z does not care much about parties, the panel agreed. That’s evident in the data a colleague generated for independent voters (UNAfiliateds in NC) in NC for 2022. The green curve above represents UNA registration by age (18-100). The green bar graph below shows actual UNA voter turnout for 2022. The youth vote (below 45, for example) may be increasing, but it has plenty of room to grow. They tend to vote Democrat.
Our opponents know this. That’s why they work so hard to suppress it.
A GM I once worked for was fond of saying “everybody’s got two businesses…their own, and show biz” (usually under his breath after a meeting with one of our advertisers). It would be nice, but it is true that everybody can’t be a “star”…even for those whose only business is show biz. Take actors. This may be a difficult sell to the average working stiff, but not every person who acts for a living commands a 7-figure (or more) salary per-project; they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck like the rest of us.
In fact, out of the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, only around 2% make a living from acting jobs. As you are likely aware, this past Thursday SAG-AFTRA joined the members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines (the WGA has been on strike now for several months). The last time this confluence occurred was in 1960. And this time out, the issues at hand are more …complex:
SAG-AFTRA and the major studios remain at odds on a dizzying array of issues, as film and TV actors hit the picket lines Friday for the first time since 1980.
According to sources on both sides, the biggest sticking point is the union’s demand for 2% of the revenue generated by streaming shows. The two sides also remain far apart on basic increases in minimum rates, with the studios offering 5%, 4% and 3.5% across the three years of the contract, while the union is demanding 11%, 4% and 4%.
But that only scratches the surface. The parties are at odds on dozens of issues, only a handful of which have been publicly reported.
In some cases, the two sides don’t even agree on what the disagreements are. They engaged in a rare public back-and-forth Thursday over the use of artificial intelligence to replicate background actors.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, alleged that the studios want to pay an extra for one day of work to be scanned, and then reuse that likeness forever. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hotly disputed that, saying that its proposal explicitly limits the reuse to the project for which the extra was hired.
The Variety article delves deeper into the complexities; the bottom line is that a settlement may take some time. In the meantime, major studio movie and television productions have essentially ground to a halt. This work stoppage has far-reaching consequence, especially when you consider the on-set technicians and post-production personnel involved, not to mention service industry workers like janitors and caterers who all depend on the Hollywood machine for their living.
One interesting sidebar is how the tandem strikes are affecting a place located about a 2-hour drive from where I live… “Hollywood North”:
Rare twin strikes by Hollywood actors and film and television writers are casting a pall over British Columbia’s creative industry, which has become a hub for American film and TV production.
Known as “Hollywood North,” the Canadian province and the city of Vancouver comprise one of the largest production centers in North America, with more than 50 animation studios alone, employing up to 88,000 people, according to a provincial agency. It generated an estimated C$3.6 billion in revenue ($2.7 billion) in 2022.
Hollywood actors on Friday joined writers on the picket lines for the first time in 63 years. The unionized workers are demanding higher compensation in an era when streaming of movies and TV shows has reduced royalties for working-class actors.
Film production in British Columbia is down to “a trickle,” said Gemma Martini, Chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and CEO of Martini Film Studios.
Creative BC, the government body responsible for promoting creative industries in the province, said in a statement it is “concerned for the workforce, companies, industry, and people.”
Since the 1990s, different levels of government have offered tax credits to the industry, adding to its appeal as a destination for movie production. Over the years, Vancouver, with its proximity to Los Angeles and prized locations, has emerged as an alternative hub for production and post-production activities, production executives said. […]
Reverberations that started on May 2 with the writers’ strike grew in British Columbia, where most productions have American components.
In a given week, British Columbia-based film location management company Location Fixer could have 15 active productions.
“Now,” said co-owner Synnove Godeseth, “we have zero.”
Godeseth estimates about 75% of her company’s business comes from U.S. productions. First the business was hit by the writers’ strike: “Because no scripts are being written, people aren’t coming to scout our locations.”
Now, the actors’ strike is taking a toll. Commercial shoots are helping – “that’s literally what’s keeping us afloat.”
Godeseth said she supports the striking workers “100%” and hopes for a swift resolution.
Among the productions in the UK that could be affected is Deadpool 3, starring Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who were recently pictured suited and booted for their roles. The third installment of the Marvel antihero film franchise was due out in May 2024 but the strike could now change things. […]
Overseas productions, like Paramount’s Gladiator sequel, starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington, are also expected to be affected.
The new Gladiator is shooting in Morocco and Malta – but with plenty of British crews working on the production team.
The strike also affects promotional activity. Upcoming releases due to hold promotional events like press junkets and red-carpet premieres include Disney’s Haunted Mansion (released 28 July), a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (2 August), Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Agata Christie mystery A Haunting In Venice (15 September).
While writing for these projects is likely to be completed, the strike by performers will bring a stop to a large proportion of production work and cause havoc with scheduling. […]
Actors represented by SAG-AFTRA’s sister union, Equity, in the UK must continue to work as normal – the Hollywood strike does not apply to them.
Equity says “a performer joining the strike (or refusing to cross a picket line) in the UK will have no protection against being dismissed or sued for breach of contract by the producer”.
Even actors represented by both SAG-AFTRA and Equity may be required to work on projects being made in the UK, Equity said, due to UK employment laws.
In terms of TV, Warner Bros Discovery previously boasted about the minimal disruption of the writers’ strike to HBO projects like House of the Dragon series, filming in the UK, because scripts were complete.
Nonetheless, the strike by performers who are members of SAG-AFTRA means many fully written screenplays are now likely to be left sitting unused.
Series two of the Game of Thrones TV spin-off, with Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy, could now face delays, as well as the second series of The Sandman, starring Tom Sturridge, and series four of Oscar-winner Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses.
It is believed side deals could be struck between guild performers and producers to enable certain projects to continue.
So many moving parts involved…here’s hoping this situation comes to a fair and equitable resolution. Meantime, in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA and WGA I am re-posting my 2022 Labor Day piece.
Raise your glass to the hard-working people Let’s drink to the uncounted heads Let’s think of the wavering millions who need leaders but get gamblers instead
-from “Salt of the Earth”, by Mick Jagger & Keith Richard
(Shame mode) Full disclosure. It had been so long since I had contemplated the true meaning of Labor Day, I had to refresh myself with a web search. Like many wage slaves, I simply view it as one of the 7 annual paid holidays offered by my employer (table scraps, really…relative to the other 254 weekdays I spend chained to a desk, slipping ever closer to the Abyss).
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
By the way, Labor Day isn’t the sole “creation of the labor movement”. Next time you’re in the break room, check out the posters with all that F.L.S.A. meta regarding workplace rights, minimum wage, et.al. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so flippant about my “table scraps”, eh?
I have curated a Top 10 list of films that inspire, enlighten, or just give food for thought in honor of this holiest of days for those who make an honest living (I know-we’re a dying breed). So put your feet up, cue up a movie, and raise a glass to yourself. You’ve earned it.
Blue Collar– Director Paul Schrader co-wrote this 1978 drama with his brother Leonard. Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto portray Motor City auto worker buddies tired of getting the short end of the stick from both their employer and their union. In a fit of drunken pique, they pull an ill-advised caper that gets them in trouble with both parties, ultimately putting friendship and loyalty to the test.
Akin to Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Schrader subverts the standard “union good guy, company bad guy” trope with shades of gray, reminding us the road to Hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. Great score by Jack Nitzsche and Ry Cooder, with a memorable theme song featuring Captain Beefheart (“I’m jest a hard-woikin’, fucked-over man…”).
El Norte – Gregory Nava’s portrait of Guatemalan siblings who make their way to the U.S. after their father is killed by a government death squad will stay with you after credits roll. The two leads deliver naturalistic performances as a brother and sister who maintain optimism, despite fate and circumstance thwarting them at every turn. Claustrophobes be warned: a harrowing scene featuring an encounter with a rat colony during an underground border crossing is nightmare fuel. Do not expect a Hollywood ending; this is an unblinking look at the shameful exploitation of undocumented workers.
The Grapes of Wrath – John Ford’s powerful 1940 drama (adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel) is the quintessential film about the struggle of America’s salt of the earth during the Great Depression. Perhaps we can take comfort in the possibility that no matter how bad things get, Henry Fonda’s unforgettable embodiment of Tom Joad will “…be there, all around, in the dark.” Ford followed up with the Oscar-winning How Green Was My Valley (1941) another drama about a working class family (set in a Welsh mining town).
Harlan County, USA – Barbara Kopple’s award-winning film is not only an extraordinary document about an acrimonious coal miner’s strike in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973, but is one of the best American documentaries ever made. Kopple’s film has everything that you look for in any great work of cinema: drama, conflict, suspense, and redemption. Kopple and crew are so deeply embedded that you may involuntarily duck during a harrowing scene where a company-hired thug fires a round directly toward the camera operator (it’s a wonder the filmmakers lived to tell this tale).
Made in Dagenham – Based on a true story, this 2011 film (directed by Nigel Cole and written by William Ivory) stars Sally Hawkins as Rita O’Grady, a working mum employed at the Dagenham, England Ford plant in 1968. She worked in a run-down, segregated section of the plant where 187 female machinists toiled away for a fraction of what male employees were paid; the company justified the inequity by classifying female workers as “unskilled labor”.
Encouraged by her empathetic shop steward (Bob Hoskins), the initially reticent Rita finds her “voice” and surprises family, co-workers and herself with a formidable ability to rally the troops and affect real change. An engaging ensemble piece with a standout supporting performance by Miranda Richardson as a government minister.
Matewan – This well-acted, handsomely mounted drama by John Sayles serves as a sobering reminder that much blood was spilled to lay the foundation for the labor laws we take for granted in the modern workplace. Based on a true story, it is set during the 1920s, in West Virginia. Chris Cooper plays an outsider labor organizer who becomes embroiled in a conflict between coal company thugs and fed up miners trying to unionize.
Sayles delivers a compelling narrative, rich in characterizations and steeped in verisimilitude (beautifully shot by Haskell Wexler). Fine ensemble work from a top notch cast that includes David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, James Earl Jones, Joe Grifasi, Jane Alexander, Gordon Clapp, and Will Oldham. The film is also notable for its well-curated Americana soundtrack.
Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 masterpiece about man vs. automation has aged well. This probably has everything to do with his embodiment of the Everyman. Although referred to as his “last silent film”, it’s not 100% so. A bit of (sung) gibberish aside, there’s no dialogue, but Chaplin finds ingenious ways to work in lines (via technological devices). In fact, his use of sound effects in this film is unparalleled, particularly in a classic sequence where Chaplin, a hapless assembly line worker, literally ends up “part of the machine”. Paulette Goddard (then Mrs. Chaplin) is on board for the pathos. Brilliant, hilarious and prescient.
Norma Rae – Martin Ritt’s 1979 film about a minimum-wage textile worker (Sally Field) turned union activist helped launch what I refer to as the “Whistle-blowing Working Mom” genre (Silkwood, Erin Brockovich, etc).
Field gives an outstanding performance (and deservedly picked up a Best Actress Oscar) as the eponymous heroine who gets fired up by a passionate labor organizer from NYC (Ron Leibman, in his best role). Inspiring and empowering, bolstered by a fine screenplay (by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.) and a great supporting cast that includes Beau Bridges, Pat Hingle and Barbara Baxley.
On the Waterfront – “It wuz you, Chahlee.” The betrayal! And the pain. It’s all there on Marlon Brando’s face as he delivers one of the most oft-quoted monologues in cinema history. Brando leads an exemplary cast that includes Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint in this absorbing portrait of a New York dock worker who takes a virtual one-man stand against a powerful and corrupt union official. The trifecta of Brando’s iconic performance, Elia Kazan’s direction, and Budd Schulberg’s well-constructed screenplay adds up to one of the finest American social dramas of the 1950s.
Roger and Me – While our favorite lib’rul agitprop director has made a number of films addressing the travails of wage slaves and ever-appalling indifference of the corporate masters who grow fat off their labors, Michael Moore’s low-budget 1989 debut film remains his best (and is on the list of the top 25 highest-grossing docs of all time).
Moore may have not been the only resident of Flint, Michigan scratching his head over GM’s local plant shutdown in the midst of record profits for the company, but he was the one with the chutzpah (and a camera crew) to make a beeline straight to the top to demand an explanation. His target? GM’s chairman, Roger Smith. Does he bag him? Watch it and find out. An insightful portrait of working class America that, like most of his subsequent films, can be at once harrowing and hilarious, yet hopeful and humanistic.
The evangelicals seem to love his agenda more than the Republicans running for office:
One by one, Republican presidential hopefuls took the stage at this year’s Family Leadership Conference for one of their biggest opportunities so far in this cycle: The chance — without Donald Trump in attendance stealing the show — to win over religious conservatives in Iowa, a state increasingly seen as key to having a shot at winning the nomination.
And one by one, they were met with Tucker Carlson, who repeatedly turned to his favorite topics.
Mike Pence sparred with Carlson on January 6 and Ukraine, with the conversation getting noticeably tense as the former Fox News host repeatedly pressed him over claims that the Ukrainian government “has arrested priests.”
“I just told you I asked the religious leader in Kyiv if it was happening. You asked me if I raised the issue and I did,” Pence replied after one lengthy back and forth about Ukraine. During another portion of the conversation, when Carlson suggested Pence is more concerned for Ukraine than American cities, the former vice president pushed back, noting he’d “heard the routine from you before.”
Much of his conversation also focused on January 6, where Pence declined to describe the riot as an “insurrection,” a word Carlson derided on his former Fox News show, but rather opted to call it a “riot.”
Tim Scott was pressed about Carlson’s idea that Mexico is more dangerous than Russia, and dodged when asked if he supports sending cluster munitions to Ukraine (arguing instead that it wouldn’t be an issue if he were in the Oval Office.)
Asa Hutchinson perhaps fared worst of all: He spent much of his time in front of the roughly 2,000 attendees trying to defend his decision to veto a bill that would have barred surgeries and hormone therapy for transgender minors. At one point during that interview, Hutchinson tried to pivot, telling him that he hoped they’d “be able to talk about some issues.”
“Well, this is one of the biggest issues in the country,” Carlson replied to applause.
For some candidates, the opportunity to sit down with one of the most influential commentators in conservative politics proved to be a blessing: After the event, several attendees who spoke with Semafor singled out Vivek Ramaswamy as the candidate who impressed them most throughout the day by directly answering Carlson’s questions.
“I would negotiate the deal that ends the Ukraine war — freeze the current lines of control, yes, that means giving part of the Donbas region to Russia,” Ramaswamy said at one point. “I would make a hard commitment that NATO never admits Ukraine to NATO.”
Nikki Haley, who was largely saved from Carlson’s Ukraine probing, also impressed those watching the cattle call. She pledged to “keep fighting” against voting practices she felt were unfair, like certain uses of mail-in ballots, and cited “irregularities” in the 2020 election, but made clear she did not believe Trump won.
“Do I think that changed the results of the election? No,” she said. “I think President Biden ended up winning the election, but I think at the end of the day it showed we’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of election integrity.”
Ron DeSantis, who wrapped up the evening, was pressed on his changing answers on Ukraine — he said onstage he wanted a “sustainable peace” and opposed “open-ended conflict” — and asked about whether he’d sign Florida’s six-week abortion ban on a national level.
“I’m proud to have been a pro-life governor and I will be a pro-life president, so I mean, of course I want to sign pro-life legislation,” he said.
Carlson’s style grated on some campaigns and observers, who felt he fixated on his own obsessions rather than topics more tailored to an evangelical audience. A Pence advisor told Semafor that they’d prepped the former vice president on both January 6 and Ukraine, but ultimately felt it was somewhat unfortunate that those were the two major topics in front of an audience of religious and social conservatives.
But the former Fox host also repeatedly made news by dropping the typically deferential style from other cattle calls and prodding candidates directly on some of the most sensitive questions with the party’s populist base.
“Tucker was amazing. He was on fire. His questions were incredibly provocative, but important — they were the right ones,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, said. “I would be willing to bet that if you had done a straw poll at the end of this and included Tucker’s name in it, he would be top one or two as a presidential candidate.”
Not all attendees loved Carlson’s choice of questions: One couple said they weren’t as focused on Ukraine topics as he seemed to be.
“I think it’s a waste of time to ask a non-person, who can’t do anything about it, what they would do about it,” Scott Steelman, an Iowa voter in attendance, said. “I mean, Tucker Carlson has an issue with it, and he’s making it an issue.”
Carlson is a terrible blight on this country, right up there with Trump. He’s totally motivated by money and will do and say anything to get it. (I don’t believe that’s true of all right wing “influencers” by the way. But for this guy — money is everything.)
Trump decided to stay in Florida for the Turning Points Action conference where these other candidates are being ripped for failing to appear. He’s playing a completely different game.
Back in 2004 I recall a lot of complaints when the Dean campaign had a lot of young out-of-state volunteers coming in to Iowa to canvass for their guy. They wore orange wool hats and t-shirts, making them stand out in a crowd, and the locals were not impressed. It was, I thought, a lesson learned by everyone.
With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.
Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him.“And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potentialrisk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
Unlike traditional presidential field organizing — which is run by an official campaign and driven largely by volunteers — the Never Back Down effort is staffed with an army of paid workers, many of whom have responded to advertisements that offer positions for $20 to $22 an hour. Trained in Iowa during an eight-day class, some come out of the system with polished pitches, as true believers. Others are just there for a job.
“After learning of the incident, we investigated and terminated the individual,” said Kate Roberts, the national field director of Never Back Down, in a statement. “Our field program is having thousands and thousands of incredible conversations around the country every day. This individual’s behavior is counter to the standards taught in our training and is not tolerated.”
[…]
“I can say one thing DeSantis has going for him over Trump is youcoming out here and talking to me. We’ve never had anyone come to our door like this before,” reads one of the voter quotes provided by the group.
But some Trump supporters who talked to The Post say they disapproved of the interactions. This is true even in cases, as in one door-knock in Marion, Iowa, also recorded on a Ring doorbell camera, where the canvasser presented a professional and enthusiastic case for DeSantis.
“I thought it was off-putting that he was from out of state,” said Geralyn Jones, the Marion resident who supports Trump and spoke with the canvasser. “If you are going to be endorsing or knocking, you need to be from here. I didn’t understand why DeSantis of all people could not get other people on the ground.”
Mike Hogan, a Trump supporter in Nashua, N.H., said he found a Never Back Down door knocker on his front porch in late May, shortly after DeSantis announced his campaign. The young man, dressed in the organization’s apparel, had ripped hems on his jeans and what he called “skater shoes,” and did not even knock on his door, he said.
“He was just standing there, which was weird. I said, ‘Can I help you?’” Hogan said,before adding that the canvasser said something and walked away. “He was not saying anything. He was just texting. He would not look up.”
Maybe it will pay off in the long run. But it isn’t showing up in the polls which have DeSantis sinking precipitously.
It seems as if he’s determined to spend hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing strategies that have long been abandoned or which almost never pay off. What a leader.
This piece by David French in the NYTimes makes the point that the right’s bully strategy as exemplified by Donald Trump and Elon Musk is predictably creating a backlash. I think this is a particularly apt observation:
Any form of domination and bullying will create a backlash, and that backlash will gain particular momentum when the bullies are both aggressive and absurd — and that’s exactly the world that both Trump and Musk built.
When I watch the world’s richest man take “Catturd” seriously, traffic inconspiracy theories and interact with a menagerie of right-wing trolls, these words come to mind: Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Who can forget when the legal team of the president of the United States, including Rudy Giuliani, promoted its alleged examples of voter fraud at a landscaping business in Philadelphia almost adjacent to a crematory and a porn shop? The only thing that keeps one from laughing at episodes like this one, and at Musk’s juvenile tweets, is the depressing realization that both Trump and Musk possess immense power and maintain loyal followings in the tens of millions.
It is profoundly depressing. It’s very hard to imagine how this species is going to fix massive collective problems like climate change with absurd people like Musk and Trump in the driver’s seat. The fact that we have to fight so hard to beat them is simply mind-boggling. But we have no choice.
Absolutely disgusting and insane. The @nypost obtained video from a recent RFK Jr. event where he suggested COVID is a Chinese bioweapon “ethnically targeted” to “attack Caucasians and Black people” and to spare “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people. He then falsely claimed the… pic.twitter.com/reTqaEc1aL
I would hope that this puts him in the category of Alex Jones and normal people stop dealing with him as if he’s a serious person. But I’m not getting my hopes up. This is on par with Donald Trump and the MAGA crazies so I think that’s just the way things are in our political culture:
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dished out wild COVID-19 conspiracy theories this week during a press event at an Upper East Side restaurant, claiming the bug was a genetically engineered bioweapon that may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” Kennedy hedged.
In between bites of linguini and clam sauce, Kennedy, 69, warned of more dire biological weapons in the pipeline with a “50% infection fatality rate” that would make COVID-19 “look like a walk in the park.”
“We do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons and we are developing ethnic bioweapons,” he claimed. “They’re collecting Russian DNA. They’re collecting Chinese DNA so we can target people by race.”
There has been a growing consensus among US intelligence agencies that COVID-19 was man-made and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China — but there is no evidence it was designed to spare certain religious groups or ethnicities, and Kennedy offered no studies to support his claims.
Kennedy’s remark echoes well-worn anti-Semitic literature blaming Jews for the emergence and spread of coronavirus which began circulating online shortly after the pandemic broke out, according to The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at the University of Tel Aviv’s 2021 Antisemitism Worldwide Report.
A 2020 Oxford University study found nearly 1 in 5 British people believed Jews created the coronavirus pandemic for financial gain.
“No no no no no,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi Professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco, and a longtime critic of pandemic-related school closures. “I don’t see any evidence that there was any design or bioterrorism that anyone tried to design something to knock off certain groups.”
Jewish organizations blasted Kennedy for his remarks.
“This is crazy,” said Morton Klein, President of the right-leaning Zionist Organization of America. “It makes no sense that they would do that. I read everything. I was totally against the vaccine. . . I wanted to convince myself it was correct not to take it. I have never seen anything like this.”
Klein, who said he had been advising Kennedy on Israel issues and called him a “good friend,” said the remark left him “worried.”
And then there’s this:
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised former President Trump on Friday, saying the leading GOP candidate is “probably the most successful debater in this country since Lincoln-Douglas.”
I don’t remember Lincoln or Douglas talking about their dicks but I might have missed it.
From Nate Cohn at the NY Times on the 2022 election. Yes, the Republicans turned out as they always do. But something else happened:
Ultimately, the Democratic performance depended on something that went far beyond turnout: A segment of swing voters decided to back Democratic candidates in many critical races.
For all the talk about turnout, this is what distinguished the 2022 midterms from any other in recent memory. Looking back over 15 years, the party out of power has typically won independent voters by an average margin of 14 points, as a crucial segment of voters either has soured on the president or has acted as a check against the excesses of the party in power.
This did not happen in 2022. Every major study — the exit polls, the AP/VoteCast study, the recent Pew study — showed Democrats narrowly won self-identified independent voters, despite an unfavorable national political environment and an older, whiter group of independent voters. A post-election analysis of Times/Siena surveys adjusted to match the final vote count and the validated electorate shows the same thing. It took the Democratic resilience among swing voters together with the Democratic resilience in turnout, especially in the Northern battlegrounds, to nearly allow Democrats to hold the U.S. House.
In many crucial states, Democratic candidates for Senate and governor often outright excelled among swing voters, plainly winning over a sliver of voters who probably backed Mr. Trump for president in 2020 and certainly supported Republican candidates for U.S. House in 2022. This was most pronounced in the states where Republicans nominated stop-the-steal candidates or where the abortion issue was prominent, like Michigan.
Democratic strength among swing voters in key states allowed the party to overcome an important turnout disadvantage in states like Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. That strength turned Pennsylvania and Michigan into landslides. And it ensured that the 2022 midterm election would not go down as an easy Republican victory, despite their takeover of the House, but would instead seem like a setback for conservatives.
People don’t seem to like this answer for some reason, at least from what I gather on social media. Maybe it’s because they don’t like the idea of these swing voters having too much sway in the Democratic party. But honestly, I haven’t seen a lot of “let’s compromise on our values to win them over” stuff in the last three elections. I think the Democratic agenda is mainstream (and has been for a while) and they just didn’t see it until they realized how batshit crazy the Republicans had become.
Sometimes the gibberish is less offensive than what’s behind it:
Robinson’s latest comments come as he has been the subject of national attention for his long history of racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ comments. In February 2018, he penned an attack on the film “Black Panther” because the title character was created by Stan Lee, whom he called “an agnostic Jew,” and “put to film by a satanic marxist. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?” He received bipartisan condemnation in October 2021 for a sermon in which he referred to “transgenderism” and homosexuality as “filth.”
I’d like North Carolina to go blue in 2024. Even more, I’d like to keep the governor’s mansion out of Mark Robinson’s hands.
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones related his experience with being expelled from the state House, reinstated by constituents, and returning to the state Capitol to encounter the white men who voted to expel him.
“I walked in with the energy that they are in the ‘find out’ portion of our movement,” Jones said to applause.
Later, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made a surprise appearance with Jones. Jackson announced his retirement from leadership of Rainbow PUSH (NPR):
He announced in 2017 that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. In early 2021, he had gallbladder surgery and later that year was treated for COVID-19 including a stint at a physical therapy-focused facility. He was hospitalized again in November 2021 for a fall that caused a head injury.
WATCH: “Stop the violence… save the children… keep hope alive…”
Before another tornado blew through town last night, a few notables under 35 found each other at Netroots Nation. Jones, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, NC Democrats’ state chair Anderson Clayton, David Hogg (A March For Our Lives) and other young activists shared dinner. Networking is why we come. It’s how we build out the movement.
Annie Wu, AAPI Victory Fund creative director, did a little compare-and-contrast on Twitter with a more well-heeled celebrity confab in Idaho.
— Annie Wu⸆⸉ (all socials: @annie_wu_22) (@Annie_Wu_22) July 15, 2023
shoutout Sergio and Emily our servers and the staff at @adalinachicago who helped us expand our original 4 person res and provided the best absolute best service🫶
— Annie Wu⸆⸉ (all socials: @annie_wu_22) (@Annie_Wu_22) July 15, 2023
Surfers in Santa Cruz, California, have been victims of a crime at sea: boardjacking. The culprit is a 5-year-old sea otter, who has a knack for riding the waves after committing longboard larceny. Now wildlife officials are hoping to apprehend her. 🦦https://t.co/csPjCmGs9gpic.twitter.com/wHorYz0mDT
As crews continue to search for an aggressive sea otter that’s been caught on video stealing surfboards, the Monterey Bay Aquarium speaks out on its “interesting history.”
“This otter was born in captivity up at UC Santa Cruz. It was not bred in captivity, but its mother was in the wild and had to be re-captured. And when they captured the mother, she was pregnant,” said Kevin Connor with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Subsequently, the sea otter pup — tagged 841 — and its mother were taken to the aquarium to be examined and cared for.
The pup was released in June 2020 after it was found to be healthy and old enough to survive in the wild.
“We have certain standards for release. They need to be a certain weight. They need to demonstrate they can feed themselves and that they can survive in the wild. Certainly, if an otter is displaying behavior when it’s with us, that says release may not be the best option that would get evaluated by Department of Fish and Wildlife,” said Connor.
The mother was determined to be unfit to stay in the wild and was taken to another aquarium.
“The pup (841) was born in captivity because the mom (723) had to be taken out of the wild due to being illegally fed by humans,” said an aquarium spokesperson, Emerson Brown.
Poor baby. I hope they find her and keep her safe. (And I wish humans wouldn’t feed wild animals.) In the meantime, surfers should find another spot!
