Daily Archives: September 18, 2020

Donald Trump, the great enemy of the traditional American political class and the big media (Photo: @WhiteHouse).

Spanish It is rather typical that the big American media and the traditional politicians, especially on the Democratic side, shoot left and right against Donald Trump.

The current U.S. president has been accused of everything: being racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and even fascist. Before he was president, for example, they that it was crazy to put Trump behind the famous red button in the White House. The reason? They were always based on the attitude and rhetoric of the current president. That he is not liked, in many cases, but that doesnt mean he is insane.

After the massive smear campaign against him, Trump achieved the unthinkable: he became president. From there, he has managed the economy positively, beating all possible records in terms of continuous growth and jobs.

The Republican also showed an innate ability, along with his administration, to resolve historical conflicts in the most difficult places in the world: the middle east, Korea, and the Balkans.

Despite these achievements, the mainstream media, which is sympathetic to the Democratic Party, attacks Trump, and his political opponents vociferously criticize him, which is logical because of the competition, but hasnt he been one of the most criticized administrations of the time, even though he is one of the most successful? He is, which leads us to the simple question: Why?

Trump is not part of the traditional political class; he is not a Clinton, he is not a Bush; he is a successful businessman who is famously rebranded by many media as anti-political. We must not forget his presidential campaign, where he did not hold back anything his anti-establishment rhetoric. Did he resort to insults? Yes. Did he peddle bluffs? Also, yes. But he told many truths.

Hillary Clinton, for example, was unashamedly branded as corrupt. In a presidential debate, he told her that although her experience in politics was undeniable, that was precisely her fault: bad experience. Trump did not have it. He could say with authority what many Americans believed and still believe: there are many corrupt people in Washington within the traditional political class.

What has played in Trumps favor, unlike the politicians? Authenticity. He moved away from the politically correct discourse, often pushing the boundaries, a necessary risk, and began working for his country. During his presidential term, the Republican has had to walk away from the business world, the result being that, in 2019 alone, he has lost over 600 million USD.

In short, since his campaign and during his administration, Trump has been very accurate in referring to traditional politicians. He has criticized their mistakes as well as their contradictions, including their media, which is why the communications war has not ceased since then. The mass media against Donald, but many fast-growing alternative media in favor of him.

Thats why you read articles in The Washington Post titled the worst president in history, referring to Trump. Beyond the eccentricities, and how controversial the Republican can be, are there arguments to make such a claim? A theoretically serious medium, such as the WaPo, should take a step back before issuing publications like this one.

CNN and the Times are not far behind. Their editorial lines can no longer even be defined as pro-Democratic, but directly anti-Trump. And this is something that has become recurrent in recent years. Did Trump contribute to this? Sure. The U.S. president, besides harshly criticizing traditional politics during his campaign, also hit the media; thats why his campaign-style was based on direct communication with Americans through Twitter, a practice that he did not abandon once in office.

The businessman not only changed the way of doing politics but was also successful in defeating the establishment. Playing his cards and doing it his way. That is not something that the traditional political class can forgive.

Many considered Barack Obama to be one of the best presidents of the modern American era. Among his achievements, analysts highlight that he left a robust economy with a low unemployment rate, with the exception that many jobs were of low quality. But when you take stock, the cons outweigh the pros of the Obama administration, both in domestic and foreign policy.

The Democratic Partys Obama received an ailing economy after the crisis of 2009 and left it quite stable with the recovery of the stock market and the real estate market, in addition to the creation of 16 million jobs. But, on the other hand, the fiscal numbers he left behind were dire. So Barack himself was unable to improve the quality of life of workers in terms of taxes and income, something that Trump has achieved and in just one term.

Obama carried out very expensive social plans such as the famous Obamacare, a project that the current U.S. president has wanted to suspend and eliminate. The reality is that the Patient Protection and Accessible Health Care Act was and is a populist measure that surely helped many people with health care but, at the same time, contributed to unbalancing public spending accounts.

The U.S. fiscal deficit rose with the Democrat in White House, tax reform was never implemented, and not only subsidies but also bureaucracy increased. Trump did away with both during his term in office and also did much more prominent economic management than his predecessor.

But the Obama administrations mistakes were not only national but also international. The tragic nuclear deal and the strengthening of Iran in the Middle East thanks to Baracks foreign policies, the counterproductive war in Afghanistan that never ended, the strengthening of socialist tyrannies in Latin America, and the growing influence of terrorism in the region were Obamas legacies.

Perhaps the Democrats foreign policy is the point that taints his government the most. On the other hand, it is the arm that strengthens Trump the most. The current president managed to dissolve the nuclear agreements, brilliantly weakened Iran, and strengthened its allies in the Middle East. Additionally, he is saying he will get American troops out of Iraq. He ended the war in Afghanistan, and he also achieved historic peace agreements with the Taliban. Moreover, he achieved unprecedented peace agreements between Israel and the Arab Emirates, the two Koreas, and in the Balkans between Serbia and Kosovo.

Before Trump arrived at the White House, he was the man not to put behind the red button. Once there, through his power of deterrence and negotiation, he proved to be the man of peace that the free world needed.

If there is one thing that the traditional political class in any country does not forgive, it is messing with their public offices. Few have walked this path as the one who professes the motto Make America great again. The Trump administration has, irrefutably, been the one that has most attacked and reduced bureaucracy in the United States.

You have to go back to Reagan to find a U.S. government that has lowered regulations so much. But even so, Trumps administration is far superior. Its main strengths are public policy on taxation, state reduction, and deregulation, although the White House still has spending problems, a debt that Trump must comply with.

An article for FEE by Daniel J. Mitchell citesa Washington Post story by a representative of the Trump administration:

Over the past two years, federal agencies have reduced regulatory costs by 23 billion USD and eliminated hundreds of burdensome regulations, creating opportunities for economic growth and development. This represented a giant change in the direction of the administrative state. He mentions that this state has remained unchecked for decades and that the Obama administration imposed more than 245 billion USD in regulatory costs on American businesses and families during its first two years.

Deregulation measures by the Trump administration, besides limiting the power of the state and stabbing bureaucracy, gave giant breathing space to the private sector, which had been affected by the great economic obstacles that had been implemented during the predecessor government. Of course, since the private sector was the main beneficiary, this translated into constant economic and employment growth. Businesses benefited, as did the middle and lower classes.

Mitchell, who is an economist specializing in tax issues, points out that Trumps main strengths come in his tax and positive regulation policies. But the Republicans ratings need to improve on spending, trade, and monetary policy.

Some people mention that Trump is a liberal guy in the Latin American sense of the word, not a North American one, but the reality is that he is a conservative. But beyond that, the fact that Trump has earned respect among Latin American liberals is, in large part, due to his tax policies.

If there is one thing that Latinos have been asking their various governments for years, it is tax reforms that benefit small and medium-sized businesses along with the middle class. In short, give the private sector tools to serve as an economic engine. Ultimately, all this is linked to the limitations of the state and its rulers.

Trump implemented this in his country, pushing through one of the most ambitious tax reforms in history and reducing taxes on both the rich and the working class.

At the time, Trumps usual critics downplayed the reform because it supposedly benefited the rich better than anyone else. They were wrong. Not only did Trumps reform directly affect the growth of the economy, but it also led to the massive generation of quality jobs and, before the pandemic, had the unemployment rate at its lowest. Unprecedented achievements of the Trump administration.

But, as usual, the large media that are sympathetic to the traditional political class found excuses to criticize the Republican. Less money will be collected, it will not be possible to subsidize the social plans, the inequality gap will increase, all of which was false. In the same year that the great Trump reform was implemented, the U.S. reached the largest surplus since April 2001, 214 billion USD.

There is an economic logic that many people have not yet understood, and that is that the lower the number of taxes, the higher the collection. The New York Times, for example, did not understand this in 2017 when an article was published called Champion of the Little Guy? Trumps Actions Tell Another Story. In the piece, two journalists criticized Trump, among other things, for the tax reform.

The more income and profits taxpayers have, the more they can pay to the treasury. Fewer regulations and fewer types of tax burdens make tax collection more effective and cleaner. In the end, everyone wins, pure cooperation. Not for nothing have the working class and the less privileged been the main beneficiaries under the Republican government.

This business success is one of the things that most annoy the establishment, that a president has arrived from outside the political elite (beyond being a tycoon) and that he succeeds, denies, and unmasks his rhetoric. Many Americans have identified with Trump, and with good reason, have grown tired of the false discourse and policies that the current president calls anti-American. Thus, it is important to analyze the Republicans rhetoric.

This publication has often denounced how the Democrats have turned dangerously to the more radical left. They have transformed themselves into a party that is moving away from American values and traditions to join the current progressives.

The Democrats hypocritically portray themselves as defenders of the minorities and the saviors and revolutionaries who will end the systemic problems of American capitalism. In that sense, they approached the progressive and also left movements in the U.S.

For example, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats openly support abortion- something Trump does not agree with. They adhere to the fight against racism (a curious fact since the Democratic party has historically been the party that has most infringed the Black race). Biden is presented as a different candidate who will manage to put an end to the problems of social and racial inequalities, although he is one of the great faces of traditional politics par excellence.

Trump, regardless of whether they may agree or not, is a conservative who does not adhere to any new labels. He is not in favor of progress and does not pretend to be a populist by presenting himself as an ally of progress. In fact, he fights them because he believes that many of these movements go against the traditional American values that he defends.

Thats why Trumps speech ends up being politically incorrect. Some criticize him and call him a populist and even a fascist (without any ideological knowledge, of course), but many also recognize him and even agree with him about the Democrats, who have completely blurred into an anti-American party.

And its also true that Trump has thousands of questionable and reprehensible actions. He has made unwelcome comments against foreigners, and his administration has made announcements amid a pandemic, such as taking away student visas from college students for not showing up for classes. And surely many more errors, but that, in the overall balance, does not cover up his administration or his great achievements that have been systematically overshadowed by his traditional enemies.

Trump, for example, deported far fewer people than Obama. The unemployment level for Latinos and African Americans (for all Americans, really) was at its lowest level under his administration, and he is called misogynist, though he has more women among his top advisors than any president in history.

Have you ever asked yourselves: Why do the big media and the traditional political class attack and discredit Trump so much? In addition to what has been explained in this essay about foreign and domestic management, plus his ways of doing politics, much has to do with the fact that Trump is a strong defender of Western values, capitalism, freedom, and also conservatism. And the enemies of these last four, besides being powerful, have the capacity to rewrite history by manipulating it. They have always done so and will continue to do so.

Continued here:
Why Are the Traditional Political Class and Mainstream Media Attacking Trump? - PanAm Post

In the world of media and show business, mans best friend can play a role as a faithful companion or the star of the show, which is where Lassie, Rin Tin Tin or Krypto (Supermans pet dog) come to mind. Or there are dogs who become the protagonist of a novel, like White Fang or the canine in Farley Mowats classic The Dog Who Wouldnt Be. Or those dogs who act more human and go beyond the doghouse like Snoopy from the Peanuts comic strip.Bill Boggs, an Emmy Award-winning TV talk host, producer, author and comedian, takes all the above doggy attributes and brings them to a whole new and politically incorrect level in his comic novel The Adventures of Spike the Wonder Dog.

The story focuses on Spike, an English Bull Terrier, whose faithful owner Bud is the host of a local TV talk show, which is like a combination of the Today Show and Live with Kelly and Ryan, in High Point, North Carolina. Somehow, Spike becomes an immediate, yet accidental, local media star when Bud asks him what he thought about his interview with Cher, which because of a bout of drowsiness, replies with a big, toothy yawn on camera.

This starts Spikes career as a celebrity, where he travels to New York and Las Vegas to do some personal appearances at several star-studded events that get weird and bizarre with every subsequent event and ends up more like a publicity stunt than a star turn. Whether it was being dropped onto the ring of a boxing main title event from a drone in Las Vegas promoted by eccentric big shot Ike I Got Money Piles (where the drone is sponsored by Max-Ex Laxative, and Bud and Spike get a number of executive privileges such as the Triple-Dollar-Sign Money Piles All-Access 3-D Hologram Boxing Glove Total Access Pass), or running around the streets of New York City with a cowboy outfit-wearing monkey on his back, Spike plays along like the ultimate trooper.

And it pays off for both dog and master, as Bud and Spike move to New York City when they are offered their own TV talk show in the Big Apple. Things should be getting better for the duo, but it takes an almost tragic turn when Spike and his canine sweetheart Daisy are violently assaulted in broad daylight, and Spike is kidnapped and brought into the sinister world of dog fighting, where he is forced to literally fight for his life by its promoter who is, you guessed it, Ike I Got Money Piles.

One may think that this book would be ideal reading for kids or the YA crowd, but its not. This is a book for those who like their humour in a rather edgy, politically incorrect nature. What makes it such good escapist reading is that the entire narrative is told from the point-of-view of Spike himself, whose delivery is comparable to a raunchy, ascerbic comedian a la Lewis Black or Rodney Dangerfield. It gives the reader an interesting perspective of how much stupidity and humiliation a dog has to go through to give all those humans around him the satisfaction of good publicity, where in turn, Spike would like to reward them with a chomp on the leg. And by the way, the dog fighting scenes between Spike and his doggy opponents such as Big Nipper and Monstro are written with such ferocity, it would make Jack London proud.

The Adventures of Spike the Wonder Dog is quite an absurdly entertaining satirical novel of the pitfalls of being a celebrity animal. Hopefully, we will get to read about more doggy adventures from Spike, but after what he went through in this book, its going to take quite a massive effort to drag him away from the contentment of his orange dog house in North Carolina.By: Stuart Nulman info@mtltimes.ca

Other articles by mtltimes.ca and totimes.ca

Like Loading...

Excerpt from:
The Adventures of Spike the Wonder Dog by Bill Boggs - mtltimes.ca

A Clackamas County Sheriffs Office deputy was placed on administrative leave Saturday after a video was posted online of the deputy repeating false claims that anti-fascist activists had been starting fires in the area.

The deputy, who has not been publicly identified, is recorded saying: Antifa motherfuckers are out causing hell, and theres a lot of lives at stake. And theres a lot of peoples property at stake because these guys got some vendetta.

The incident seemed to run counter to official information coming from Sheriff Craig Roberts and other top law enforcement officials, indicating that antifa was not to blame for the fires.

But new details show misinformation within the sheriffs office was not limited to a single deputy spreading rumors. At least one other officer was giving similar misinformation to county leaders as they made decisions about how to respond to fears and safety needs stemming from the wildfires.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts speaks at a press conference on September 9, 2020 in Oregon City, Oregon.

Jonathan Levinson / OPB

Briefing county commissioners Thursday on behalf of the sheriff, Capt. Jeff Smith incorrectly told the commissioners that the department had credible reports of political extremists acting within Clackamas County to start fires and commit acts of sabotage.

The comments came as a deluge of questionable social media posts were whipping up fears in the county, leading some people to form armed vigilante groups to stop looters and alleged, politically-motivated arsonists.

Smith said in his briefing, which was in part to discuss the need to put a curfew in place, that the sheriffs office had received reports of extremist groups staging gas cans for later destruction.

Equally concerning, is there are reports of people from other extremist groups its not confirmed antifa, but its suspected antifa, Smith said. Reports and sightings of people armed with chainsaws. And the goal was to fall telephone poles in hopes of starting further fires.

The briefing alarmed some and helped galvanize support for the curfew, which the commissioners put in place.

After hearing that from Capt. Smith here ... we gotta make an appeal to the Governor to call in the National Guard, Commissioner Paul Savas said. That is critical information. That is very unsettling. Im fine with the curfew countywide now, more so than I was 15 minutes ago. But for crying out loud, we cant allow a deliberate attack on property and peoples lives.

When Clackamas County Chair Jim Bernard appeared skeptical that the gas can story was accurate and pushed for clarification, Smith was quick to explain that the gas can anecdote had not yet been confirmed. Smith then said, erroneously, the reports of antifa members armed with chainsaws and felling telephone polls were reliable.

Those reports were also wrong. Similar rumors have been repeatedly and publicly denied by both Sheriff Roberts and the FBI.

In the county meeting, Commissioner Sonya Fischer also pushed back and urged caution.

Information evolves quickly, Fischer said told OPB on Monday. I was questioning the information because there were inconsistencies. Since then, the sheriff has clarified that the reports of suspicious persons or arson were not tied to any political group.

Smith also told commissioners the sheriffs office had received numerous confirmed reports of looting in Estacada, Colton, Molalla and Sandy.

Lots of looting has been taking place, burglaries and whatnot, he told the commissioners.

Smith was briefing the commissioners in place of Sheriff Roberts and Capt. Shane Strangfield, who were both attending a press briefing being held at the same time. At that briefing, Roberts directly contradicted what Smith was saying to the county board.

Asked if there were any confirmed reports of looting in evacuated areas, Roberts said, No, not to my knowledge.

Were aware of that possibility and were actively working to address that, Capt. Strangfield jumped in.

Last week, the sheriffs office reported stopping a trailer theft in Eagle Creek and a tool heist near Mulino, but neither incident was politically motivated. Deputies were responding to a flood of calls more than 300 between Tuesday and Thursday.

Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies stop a man who someone had mistakenly reported for robbing a house near Mulino, Oregon, on Sept. 10, 2020.

Jonathan Levinson / OPB

The conflicting information, and ensuing reaction from residents, speaks to a broader crisis of reliable information, said Commissioner Fischer.

Theres so much misinformation, Fischer said. This situation is one of those things where people are getting their information from their own source through social media. And so dispelling the rumors and trying to get accurate information to people is of the utmost urgency.

Journalists working in evacuated areas to bring information to the public experienced the consequences of that misinformation.

Three hours after the commissioner meeting and the press briefing, a group of armed men stopped an OPB reporter in Molalla and told them to leave immediately. That same day, according to the Guardian, armed men also stopped independent photojournalist Nathan Howard outside of Estacada. The men accused Howard of being a looter, pointed rifles at him and forced him to leave the area.

Speaking at a fire briefing Monday, Roberts said Smith only had about five minutes to prepare for that briefing.

He had some information that at that time he believed to be credible, Roberts said. It had not been vetted through a couple of our sources.

Roberts said the information theyve been receiving is checked with their own detectives and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In this case, that information was soon determined to be incorrect.

What were seeing in many of these cases is a friend of a friend of a friend said this, Roberts said. And when we get to the bottom of it, it is completely blown out of proportion.

Roberts said one of his concerns is that vigilante groups could mistake so many firefighters coming to the area from out of state and driving rental cars with out of state plates for looters or criminals.

Roberts said the last thing in the world he would want is for a firefighter to be mistaken as being up to no good and somebody confronting them.

The sheriff asked county residents to let law enforcement respond to any potential criminal activity and to cease confronting people in evacuation zones.

See the article here:
Unvetted information from Clackamas County officer furthered antifa wildfire misinformation - OPB News

There's a fairly standard list of reasons people typically call Chris Rock.

In no particular order, he rattles them off: Theres the "Weve got a charity event, itd be great if you host it" call. The "My kids got a thing at his school, can I count on you?" call. The "Im having trouble with a Black celebrity, can you help me out" call. And finally, the "I havent really cast a Black guy in 10 years, who should I go after?" call.

Rock, at this point, is OK with all of them.

"I get it, Im a lot of peoples Black shrink, or their Black whisperer," he says as we snake our way through midtown Manhattan traffic in search of lunch on an early March afternoon, a week or so before the city goes into lockdown. "Im sure Quincy Jones did it for years, Im sure Oprah is still the Black council for a lot of powerful people. But yeah, there are some huge stars who owe getting cast in a big part to me and Ill never tell, but youd be like, Get the fuck out of here.' "

The call that doesnt come quite as often as Rock would like is the one he got from Noah Hawley.

It was summer 2018, and the Fargo creator was preparing to dive back into his Emmy-winning anthology series and wanted to do so with Rock at its center. The series fourth installment was to be set in 1950s Kansas City,and Hawley envisioned Rock as his wily mob boss, Loy Cannon.

"I just thought, 'Hes that guy,' " says Hawley. "Chris had started with nothing, a skinny kid with no permission to get up on that stage, and now hes a sort of elder statesman hed hate me for saying that someone who has built an empire for himself, and thats who Loy is, too."

Rock went to meet Hawley on the set of his 2019 film, Lucy in the Sky, and he could hardly say yes fast enough. Great parts "are like great loves," he tells me, "you get two, three if youre lucky" and he found himself at a life stage where a role this heavy and dramatic was within reach. At 55, hes finally on the other side of a messy divorce from his wife of nearly two decades, and in "a ton of therapy" for the first time in his life. He had already worked through plenty on the road, too, exposing his infidelity, porn addiction and custody struggles to sold-out arenas, and later in one of two $20 million Netflix specials.

"Im talking from hell," hed say at every stop, often crafting jokes about having to take shitty TV work to cover his alimony payments. And for a period, there was a flurry of announcements movies, a book, even a Super Bowl ad that suggested money was, in fact, a motive.

Fargo was different. "This is the best part Ive ever had," he says as his driver pulls up to Nobu.And he was ready for it in a way he hadnt been for others. There have been at least a handful of decent roles, too, dating back a few decades but he rarely knew what to do with them before.

"Sometimes you get a great love and youre just not ready for it," he says, citing one of his early rolesopposite Morgan Freeman in the 2000 dark comedy Nurse Betty. "Great part, and I wasnt fucking ready. Now, Don Cheadle wouldve been. You ever seen Don Cheadle in Devil in a Blue Dress? That motherfucker was ready." When Rock turned up on the Chicago set of Fargo late last year, he was ready, too.

***

When the call came fromHawley, Rock was already in deep reflective mode. Those who had caught his latest special, as Hawley had, could plainly see a man careening toward some sort of breaking point. Hed prowled the stage, confessing his sins and the excruciating repercussions to his personal life, the worstof which involved his two teenage daughters, with whom hes managed to remain fiercely close. Now, he explains, in order to make the transition from young comic to a more seasoned one, he had to find a dramatic base to his comedy. "You can still be funny, you can be hysterical, but youve got to be hysterical like Midnight in Paris is hysterical," he says, "like Vicky Cristina Barcelona is hysterical, like every Alexander Payne movie is hysterical."

So, his set writing evolved. "Its a dramatic piece of work with comedy as the seasoning," he says of his more recent material, "but at its core, its a fucking sad story."

That story is shaped by a childhood spent in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the oldest of seven kids. His mother, a special-needs teacher, and his father, a newspaper delivery man, set high expectations. Chris was bussed to a school in another neighborhood where he was the only Black student in his grade, regularly greeted with signs reading "Nr, Go Home." But when classmates would pummel his scrawny body or lob balloons full of piss at his head, he knew better than to run home crying. His parents were "from the suck-it-up school," he says. "No matter what I was going through, it paled in comparison to what my mom or my dad went through; so, there wasnt a lot of dealing with it."

Rock dropped out of high school and, in time, found an outlet in comedy. "It was the first thing I was ever good at," he says. By 19 or so, he was making the rounds in the New York clubs, where hed catch the eye of his hero turned mentor, Eddie Murphy. Rock parlayed a bit part in Murphys Beverly Hills Cop II into other work, eventually following in Murphys footsteps to Saturday Night Live, where he was the only Black guy in the cast.

It was supposed to be the break of a lifetime, but it fell woefully short. "Everyone knew Chris was Eddies guy," says former SNL producer Marci Klein, "which is a huge responsibility to come in with." Harder still, his time on the show coincided with a Black comedy renaissance, fueled by rival sketch show In Living Color, which Rock wasnt a part of. After three lackluster years at SNL, hemade the leap to In Living Color, but it was too late. The show was canceled shortly after, and Rock was back to grinding it out on the club circuit.

It was during that period that his longtime friend, writer-producer Nelson George, came to appreciate Rocks grit, as he tirelessly worked every crappy stage that would have him. At one point, he lined the basement of his carriage house in Brooklyn with mirrors so he could watch himself closely and hone his physical delivery. "He really wanted to be the greatest stand-up in the world," says George, who recalls Rock saying as much, often. "There was just such a seriousness with which he took it all."

Rock reflects on those early years through a different lens now. "I had this great combination of big ego and low self-esteem," he says. "And the ego gets you out onstage, but the low self-esteem is the thing that makes you practice so much because you dont believe in yourself at all. You think youre a total fucking fraud and you dont think anybody could love you for being you, so you have to be good at this thing."

Fear, it turns out, was a great motivator. It drove Rock for decades: fear of failing; fear of letting people down; fear of not being rich and famous anymore. But it took a toll on his act, his relationships, his entire sense of self. Right up until he couldnt take it anymore. "It just depletes you," he says. "I had to let it go. I was just dying, dude."

So now, at age 55, hes in therapy.

On this late-winter afternoon, as platters of sushi are delivered to our table, easily the best in the restaurant, Rock wont say what, exactly, got him there, just that hes dealing with his past in a non-comedic way for the first time, and that reliving parts of his childhood has been traumatic. "Im not belittling todays youth, but I wish somebody had sent mea bad text when I was a kid," he says. "These motherfuckers were trying to kill me."

***

The thing about Rock is hedid become one of the greatest stand-ups of all time.George remembers the precise moment that that became clear to those outside his circle. It was June 1, 1996, the day HBO released Rocks first hour special, Bring the Pain, a searing commentary on Blackness in America that masqueraded as comedy. George had been in the audience at D.C.s Takoma Theatre for the taping, and he knew what hed witnessed there was historic. "It was like, 'Who the fuck is this guy?' " he says. "It all just came together this very working-class Blackcrowd got all the jokes, and the room was electric." It debuted on HBO on a Saturday night, and by that Monday Rocks whole life had changed.

"He went from 'that kid who acts like a watered-down Eddie Murphy' to the straight-up voice of a generation," NPR critic Eric Deggans wrote many years later.

Doors flew open. Rocks heroesbecame his friends and often his collaborators. "Does he remind me of me?" said Richard Pryor. "Im afraid so." The special had earned Rock two Emmys and carte blanche to do virtually anything he wanted an eponymous HBO show, well ahead of its time, a best-selling book, a few Grammy-winning albums, some commercial spots, a documentary and a slew of films. He also hosted the Oscars (twice), appeared as a correspondent on Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher and, for a time, was seriously considered to replace Jon Stewart at The Daily Show. Not everything he did was of the highest caliber, but every few years Rock would release another hour of stand-up so breathtakingly good that anymissteps were forgotten.

There was a noticeable shift about a decade ago, when Rock made his Broadway debut in The Motherfucker With the Hat, under the tutelage of uber-producer Scott Rudin. "Once he was in Rudins world, I think he realized, 'Im an artist,' which he was probably loath to call himself prior to that,' " says his comedian pal NealBrennan, who is a co-producer on Rocks last special. The 2014 indie rom-com Top Five, which Rock wrote, directed and starred in, working again with Rudin, solidified that status. "It was the first thing where he wasnt trying to make a Black [Adam] Sandler movie," adds Brennan. "It was as smart as his act, and we were all like, 'Oh, OK.' "

When Rock was writing Top Five, he included a scene in which his character, a giant comedy star desperate to be taken seriously, is humiliated by long lines for a made-up Tyler Perry movie called Boo! while his wrenching slavery drama bombs. Somebody from Lionsgate, which distributes Perrys movies, suggested Perry actually make a movie called Boo!, which, incredibly, he did.It was a runaway success that begat a sequel, both of which used art from the Top Five version. A truly weird case of life imitatingart imitating life and wait, it gets weirder.

Not long after, Rock ran into the head of Lionsgates film group at a friends wedding and remarked to him, half-jokingly, that hed never seen a cent from Boo!"I dont even think I got a special thanks," he says now. "And Im not complaining, Im just saying, Ive seen a bone thrown for a lot less." The conversation got friendlier from there, as Rock complimented the studios Saw horror franchise and, having given it no prior thought, suggested they make the next one in the comedic style of Murphys 48 Hours. A few weeks later, he got a call from Saw producer Mark Burg, and a deal was struck for Rock to not only help develop such an idea but also to star. Spiral, which theyd later title his film, wrapped production in Toronto last spring. Rock would have directed it, too, if not for his Fargo commitment. The movie wasslated for a big release in May, a few weeks after the new season of Fargo would have debuted on FX, an enviable one-two punch for Rock.

The novel coronavirus disrupted all of that, of course. Though Spiral was in the can and its theatrical release could simply be postponed, Fargo still had two episodes left to shoot. "I had to go to Chris and say, 'This is it, the last scene were going to do,' " says Hawley. "And I remember he was like, 'Wow, this is really it,' and I could see him processing that this enormous life moment that hed been anticipating was not going to happen any time soon. And hes not an optimist, so I could tell in that moment there was a real possibility in his mind that it was never going to happen."

***

When we connect again,half a year after our sushi lunch in a fully functioning Manhattan, Rocks just finished shooting the final two episodes of Fargo which will begin rolling out Sept. 27 amid a dizzying set of protocols. He confesses that while preparing for scenes with other actors, hed often be thinking, "Oh, I hope this motherfucker dont have COVID."

Rock went from Chicago to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he is now, for his buddy Dave Chappelles comedy summit.Hed done a set for 50 people ina cornfield the night before, and plans to do another that night. He sounds considerably calmer than he had more self-reflective, even a little ... happy? The past six months, as scary and awfulas theyve been at points, forced a reset he never imagined hed get, allowing him the space todo some much-needed work on himself. The pandemic, for him, was like what an off-season is for an athlete. "What people dont realize is that athletes get that time," he says, "and you cant obtain greatness without the time to rest and work on yourself and your faults."

He also accomplished something he had been talking about for years he learned to swim, part of a new fitness regimen thats contributed to what are now countable ab muscles. "Do you know how fucking hard it is for a grown-up to learn howto swim? Youve got to not be scared to die," he tells me, before acknowledging the absurdity of having a pool that he couldnt previously use at his Alpine, New Jersey, home. "The other day, this guy says to me, 'OK, youre going to dive into the deep end and swim to the other side,' and Im like, 'Are you fucking crazy?' But then I dove into the deep end and I swam to the other side, and its a metaphor for what Ive been trying to do during this time."

The far bigger commitment has been therapy, however; seven hours a week, he says with unmistakable pride. His decision to seek meaningful help for the first time in his life was precipitatedby a friends suggestion that he may have Aspergers. It prompted a nine-hour battery of cognitive tests earlier this year, from which doctors diagnosed Rock with a condition called nonverbal learning disorder, or NVLD. As hes come to understand it, he has tremendous difficulty with non-verbal signals which doesnt sound too drastic until, as he explains, you consider that some 80 percent of communication is nonverbal. "And all I understand are the words," he says.

Rock often takes things too literally as a result and, like others with the condition, suffers from a kind of all-or-nothing thinking. "By the way, all of those things are really great for writing jokes theyre just not great for one-on-one relationships," he says. Until now, its made much of Rocks life uncomfortable. "And Id always just chalked it up to being famous. Any time someone would respond to me in a negative way, Id think, 'Whatever, theyre responding to something that has to do with who they think I am.' Now, Im realizing it was me. A lot of it was me."

So, with the aid of two therapists, hes been trying to make sense of his limitations and the toll that childhood trauma has taken on him. Sure, hes been joking about the latter for decades at one point, it fueled an entire sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris, which ran for four celebrated seasons in the mid-2000s. And because he was able to laugh about it, he thought he was over it. "I thought I was actually dealingwith it, and the reality is I never dealt with it," he says. "The reality was the pain and the fear that that brought me, I was experiencing it every day."

Brennan cant help but appreciate the irony, given how much Rock ribbed him over the years for his own embrace of therapy. "Hed call it 'white people problems' or 'rich people problems,' and Id be like, ' Dude, your body doesntknow what fucking class youre in,' " says the comic. Now, instead of arguing about feelings, the two actually talk about them. "Chris will still write as a caustic person because hes got a fucking bleak point of view, but now he can do it with a bit of empathy for himself."

***

There's still plenty morethat Rock plans to do, and even more hed love to do. For one, hesitching to get back to Broadway something he wouldve done already had it not been for those "ridiculous" alimony obligations; and hes banked at least two film scripts. The first will pair him with his buddies Sandler and Chappelle; the second he describes as "Bad Lieutenant, starring an insane actress." Hes light with details, but borderline giddy about both.

For now, though, Rocks focused on the new material that will feed into his next Netflix special, where politics will almost certainly be front and center. In the midst of the pandemic and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, Rock has a lot to say. And while hes been addressing systemic racism and the targeting of Black people by police for 30 years, he has regrets about not doing more.

"Even though I talked about it and I joked about it, theres a part of me thats ashamed at how much of it I just accepted," he says. He would very likely unload on the coming election, too, if only he had a stage readily available to him. At this time four years ago, he stood at mic after mic predicting Donald Trumps victory. "Of-the-moment candidates" like Trump or Obama always beat the "its your turn" options, hed say, often to boos.

Rock has been around long enough to remember running into Trump on the New York nightlife circuit. "I remember Eddie, Arsenio [Hall], Prince and me at a club one night," he says, "and Donald Trump walks in and all these girls just start running to that side of the room because a fucking 6-foot-whatever blond billionaire with his name on all the buildings walks in like if that room was a seesaw, wed be in the air." Years later, Rock would find himself in Brian Grazers office in L.A., as Murphy pitched a heist flick a kind of BlackOceans Eleven, starring him, Rock, Chappelle, Chris Tucker and a few others about a gang that robs Trump Tower. Murphy envisioned Trump as the movies villain. "Like Alan Rickman in Die Hard," says Rock. What happened from there is another classic Hollywood story: The movie became Tower Heist, directed by Brett Ratner, starring Ben Stiller with Murphy and "a bunch of white people."

He is considerably less animated by the outrage hurricanes that blow through Hollywood. This spring, Rocks name was dragged into one, when a clip surfaced of Jimmy Fallon doing a Blackface impersonation of Rock in a 2000 episode of SNL. Rock says he doesnt remember seeing it at the time and writes it off as just "bad comedy." Fallon "doesnt have a racist bone in his body," he says, adding that he called his old friend after he issued a public apology to tell him that he loveshim. In a matter of weeks, hell appear on Fallons Tonight Show to promote the new series.

Fargo plus all the therapy and the swimming and the time to just be has left Rock feeling at the peak of his creative powers. He recently watched a cut of Questloves Black Woodstock documentary about a legendary concert in Harlem in 1969 and hes found himself inspired by the greatness of Stevie Wonder. "By '69, hed already done 'My Cherie Amour,' 'Uptight' and 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life,' he was a superstar, and it hadnt even started yet," says Rock, his voice rising a few octaves with enthusiasm. "He hadnt done Talking Book yet. He hadnt done fucking Songs in the Key of Life. The last special I did was my sixth. Know what Princes sixth album was? Purple Rain, and he did a lot of great shit after that."

Then Rock has to run, he says. Hes got to "go cry in therapy."

This story first appeared in the Sept. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Read more from the original source:
"This Is the Best Part I've Ever Had": Chris Rock Talks 'Fargo,' Aging and Why He's Spending 7 Hours a Week in Therapy - Hollywood Reporter

While mainstream cinema is slowly changing its portrayal of gender norms, it's nowhere close to what's available online.

The explosion of content on Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms has meant that there's a wide variety of options when it comes to entertainment. Whatever be the genre or language, viewers are spoilt for choice on online streaming platforms. It's no different when it comes to feminist content.

Mainstream cinema in India has largely been disappointing when it comes to the representation of women, mostly conforming to gender norms and patriarchal attitudes. While this is slowly changing, it's still nowhere as close to the kind of content that's available online.

Here's a list of web series that will make a feminist viewer happy, and not want to tear their hair out.

Churails (Zee5): This show is from Pakistan and is about a motley group of women in Karachi who come together to start a detective agency. Their aim is to investigate cheating husbands but the plot goes beyond that when they uncover a bigger secret. Directed by British Pakistani writer-director Asim Abbasi, the series stars Sarwat Gilani, Mehar Bano, Nimra Bucha and Yasra Rizvi in the lead roles.

Masaba Masaba (Netflix): Written and directed by Sonam Nair, this is a lighthearted series on mother-daughter pair Neena Gupta and Masaba Gupta. It may look like an ordinary story centered on two women -- one a veteran actor who is not getting any new work and the other a designer with a high-profile client list but personal troubles -- going about their lives, but that's what makes it unique. It's so rare to see women's stories with minimal drama represented on screen.

Made in Heaven (Amazon Prime Video): Two wedding planners -- a middle class woman with a wealthy husband and a gay man -- take us through the behind-the-scenes drama of Indian weddings. As they try to beat the competition and survive in a tough market, many more secrets tumble out of the closet. And how delicious to have a heroine who's ambitious, manipulative and knows exactly what she wants! While Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti created the show, they wrote it with Alankrita Shrivastava. Zoya, Alankrita, Nitya Mehra, and Prashant Nair were the directors. The series stars Arjun Mathur and Shobita Dhulipala in the lead.

Unbelievable (Netflix): This American show based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning story is a searing yet empowering look at sexual violence and law enforcement. A teenager is raped and she reports it to the police. However, the male officers find it difficult to believe her account due to inconsistencies and decide that she's lying. It's only when two women officers enter the picture that the nature of the investigation changes. Created by Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, the series has Toni Colette, Merrit Wever and Kaitlyn Dever in the lead.

Fleabag (Amazon Prime Video): Written by the hilarious Phoebe Waller-Bridge who also plays the lead role in the series, this British drama directed by Harry Bradbeer and Tim Kirkby draws us into Phoebe's many misadventures involving her dysfunctional family, weirdo friends and yes, a 'hot priest'. But beyond the politically incorrect humour and the refreshingly unapologetic characterisation of Phoebe, the series also manages to touch upon serious issues like suicide, without ever losing its charm.

Mrs America (Disney+Hotstar): Are you even a feminist if you haven't watched this show YET? Starting from the 1970s in America, when the demand for the Equal Rights Amendment Bill (ERA) was growing louder, the series is a riveting drama that captures the upheavals in the feminist movement. The men in this series, even as villains, are purely in the margins as feminists lock horns with conservative women who believe feminism will destroy their homes. Writers and thinkers you may have read, like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, appear in this reel life version and the actors capture their personalities accurately. Created and co-written by Davhi Waller and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Amma Asante, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and Janicza Bravo, the cast has a host of talented actors including Cate Blanchett and Rose Byrne.

Watch: A trailer of 'Mrs America'

Russian Doll (Netflix): What if you found yourself reliving a short period in your life over and over again? Nadia finds that she simply cannot escape her own 36th birthday party --- each time, she ends up dying and waking up once again at the same party. The dark humour will have you in splits but the series also takes on a number of difficult-to-discuss subjects, including mental health. Natasha Lyonne plays the lead in this series which she co-created with Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler.

Killing Eve (Amazon Prime Video): A spy thriller with black comedy, this British series focuses on Eve Polastri, an MI6 operative, and Villanelle, a psychopath assassin. While the two of them are pitted against each other, they also become obsessed with each other. A rare occasion when the hero and the villain are both female, this gripping series is a must-watch for anyone who enjoys the thriller genre.

Schitt's Creek (Netflix): This Canadian sitcom is on the wealthy Rose family which finds itself without money after being cheated by their business manager. All that they're left with is a small town named Schitt's Creek and they're forced to move there and rebuild their lives. What makes it a delightful watch is that Schitt's Creek just creates a society and a town that's better, that's aspirational -- where queer characters don't fight to exist, but just live their lives like any ordinary person. Apart from being wholesome and comic, the show also ends up being intersectional, where being feminist is the norm, not the exception among its protagonists. The show is created by Eugene and Dan Levy and stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara in the lead.

Originally posted here:
'Churails' to 'Mrs America': Nine series on OTT for the feminist in you - The News Minute

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inboxhere.

A curated guide to major national security news and developments over the past 24 hours. Heres todays news.

POLICING RACIAL INJUSTICE PROTESTS

Top military police officers considered using devices that cause targets to feel an unbearable heating sensation while clearing protesters from Lafayette Square outside the White House in June, D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco said to lawmakers in written testimony last month. DeMarco said that he had received requests by top Department of Defense (DOD) officials asking if the Guard had sound cannons or a nonlethal heat ray, called Active Denial System, or A.D.S. According to the top Guard official, DOD officials said: The A.D.S. can immediately compel an individual to cease threatening behavior or depart through application of a directed energy beam that provides a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin. The effect is overwhelming. Marissa J. Lang reports for the Washington Post.

Attorney General William Barr instructed prosecutors to be aggressive when charging alleged violent protesters and to also consider sedition charges, those familiar with the instruction have confirmed, stating that in a call between Barr and top U.S. attorneys, Barr stressed the need to use federal charges against protesters even when state charges could apply. He also asked prosecutors in the Department of Justice (DOJ)s civil rights division to consider if criminal charges could be brought against Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle for allowing residents to set up police-free protests zones in the area. Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman report for the Wall Street Journal.

US DEVELOPMENTS

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe yesterday said he would reinstate in-person election security briefings for the Senate and House intelligence committees while maintaining that the intelligence community (IC) will predominantly provide lawmakers with written intelligence updates, following alettersent to Congress, Aug. 28, by Ratcliffe, which said all said all future briefings would be in writing. House Intelligence Committee ChairAdam Schiff(D-CA) noted yesterday that although an agreement has been met for in-person updates to continue, these briefings for the intelligence committees must not obviate the need to keep all Members and the American people appropriately and accurately informed about the active threats to the November election. Olivia Beavers reports for The Hill.

Top aides to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to testify about the May decision to fire State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick while he was investigating arms sales to Saudi Arabia and allegations that Pompeo misused department funds. Brian Bulatao, a top adviser to Pompeo, maintained that Linicks ousting was not related to his investigation as Pompeo was never briefed on the details of that probe, and that failure to properly perform his job as IG was the reason for Linicks dismissal. Caitlin Oprysko and Nahal Toosi report for POLITICO.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday voted and authorized its chair to issue multiple subpoenas and depositions against around 40 peoples as part of the panels investigation into the FBIs Russia probe and the Obama administration. The 8-6 vote gives chair Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) the power to compel testimony from former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Andrew Desiderio reports for POLITICO.

Attorney General William Barr yesterday berated Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors for headhunting high-profile targets and involving themselves in politics, speaking at an event hosted by Hillsdale College while responding to allegations that Barr himself was interfering in politically sensitive cases. Barr said that too much deference is given to career prosecutors, and stressed that he has the ultimate decision on how cases should be dealt with. Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky report for the Washington Post.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper yesterday announced huge plans to expand the US Navy to include a fleet of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarine and aircrafts to address growing power and challenge by Chinas presence in the seas. Esper said that he had a game-changer plan that would see over 80 new ships built. The Guardian reporting.

The Trump administration is appealing to the Supreme Court to challenge a knockback to Trumps July memo that sought to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census count used to determine each states share of House seats in Congress. Following a New York courts ruling that the memo overstepped the presidents authority, the DOJ yesterday filed a notice of its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court. Hansi Lo Wang reports for NPR.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has opened an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)detention centerin Georgia which allegedly subjected immigrants to jarring medical neglect and carried out high numbers of hysterectomies,after a whistleblower complaint was filed Sept. 14 by Dawn Wooten, a nurse that works at the Irwin County Detention Center, the department confirmed in a statement yesterday. Caitlin Dickerson reports for the New York Times.

US Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General Louis DeJoys recently implemented and highly-contentious policies changes delayed seven percent of the USs first-class mail, or 350 million pieces of mail, a report released yesterday by the office of Sen. Gary Peters (D-MN), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, revealed. The report states that over 90 percent of first-class mail was delivered on time before DeJoys operational changes. Jacob Bogage reports for the Washington Post.

John James, the former executive director of the Pentagons Missile Defense Agency (MDA), sexually harassed two women in his office for seven years before finally retiring when an official complaint was filed August last year, the Department of Defense (DOD)s inspector general said in a report date July 13. The report states James engaged in a pattern of misconduct in which he sexually harassed the two women from 2012 until last year. Ellen Mitchell reports for The Hill.

CYBERSECURITY AND HACKING

Chinese and Malaysian hackers broke into over 100 companies in the US and worldwide, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday announcing that five Chinese and two Malaysia individuals were indicted on charges of targeting a breadth companies, foreign governments, think tanks and social media platforms. Also, the D.C. Attorneys Office has issued warrants to take control of hundreds of accounts, servers and domain names used by those indicted. Katie Benner and Nicole Periroth report for the New York Times.

Two Iranian nationals have been indicted for allegedly carrying out cyberattacks on a host of bodies, including US and foreign universities, a Washington-based think tank, a defense contractor and an aerospace organization, the DOJ said in statement yesterday. Hooman Heidarian and Mehdi Farhadin have been accused of stealing massive amounts of sensitive data on issues including national security, foreign policy intelligence, nuclear information and of sharing this information with Tehran. The two men have not yet been apprehended, but have each been indicted on ten counts to commit fraud, access to unauthorized computers and of identity theft. Matthew Choi reports for POLITICO.

The Department of the Interiors Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted highly successful test hacks of the agencys networks as part of a security audit to address cybersecurity failings. The audit consisted of OIG employees conducting penetration testing on the agencys networks including intercepting and decrypting network traffic, accessing internal networks at two Interior Department bureaus, and stealing the credentials of an agency IT employee which the office reports were successful and allowed sensitive information to be accessed; worryingly, both the IT team and security were unable to detected the testing. We used the same tools, techniques, and practices that malicious actors use to eavesdrop on communications and gain unauthorized access, the OIG wrote in areportsetting out the security audit results. Many of the attacks we conducted were previously used by Russian intelligence agents around the world. Maggie Miller reports for The Hill.

CORONAVIRUS

The novel coronavirus has infected over 6.63 million and killed close to 197,000 people in the United States,according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there is more than 29.89 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 941,000 deaths. Sergio Hernandez, Sean OKey, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley and Henrik Pettersson report forCNN.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said a Covid-19 vaccine may not be generally available to the public until at least summer next year. Redfield said he expects a vaccine to be available and rolled out between May and September 2021. This prompted a rebuke by President Trump, who said the CDC chief was incorrect. Amy Goldstein and Sean Sullivan report for the Washington Post.

A map and analysis of all confirmed cases of the virus in the US is available at the New York Times.

US and worldwide maps tracking the spread of the pandemic are available at theWashington Post.

A state-by-state guide to lockdown measures and reopenings is provided by the New York Times.

Latest updates on the pandemicatThe Guardian.

US-IRAN SANCTIONS

The Trump administration yesterday threatened to impose sanctions on anyone who sells arms to Iran in a move that indicates the United States intends to try and enforce U.N. sanctions on Iran that are due to expire next month. U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran Elliott Abrams told reports that the sanctions will have a very significant impacton weapons manufacturers and traders who do business with Iran, with the details set to be announced Monday. Michael R. Gordon reports for the Wall Street Journal.

The US intends to snapback all UN sanction on Iran from this Saturday, Abrams confirmed, although the such a move has been denounced by other U.N. Security Council members. AP reporting.

Lawyers for the Iranian government yesterday argued before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that US sanctions were ruining millions of lives in the country, the latest in a potential legal battle before the United Nations top court. This week the ICJ is dealing with jurisdictional matters only, deciding whether it can in fact hear the case. Al Jazeera reporting.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

The US will soon sell over $7 billion in arms to Taiwan, including drones and cruise missiles, a move that will certainly add to tensions with China. Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef report for the Wall Street Journal.

Turkish and Russian officials are close to reaching an agreement on a ceasefire and political negotiation in Libya, after the latest peace negotiation meeting took place in Ankara, Turkey, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters yesterday. Reuters reporting.

Link:
Early Edition: September 17, 2020 - Just Security

Political appointees have repeatedly pressured Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to manipulate reports, in order to make them more closely align with President Donald Trumps public statements about the pandemic, according to a new report from Politicos Dan Diamond.

Diamond writes that CDC officials have fought back against the most sweeping changes, but the report finds that Trump appointees have nevertheless succeeded in politicizing public health and the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 193,000 people in the US. These officials have reportedly worked to suppress reports on the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine (a drug Trump has routinely touted as being effective against Covid-19), as well as to have the agency change published reports on the risks of the coronavirus and on who might be blamed for infections.

According to Diamond, these political appointees who are part of former Trump campaign official and current Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputos team review the agencys Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, and have also modified the reports language to make them more sympathetic toward the president.

Modifying what are meant to be scientific, nonpartisan reports to more closely align them to the presidents views is concerning in part because Trump has repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, engaged in magical thinking about how it might end, and has outright lied. New revelations this week from journalist Bob Woodward show that the president has done all of this while deliberately misleading the country about the severity of the virus.

Neither HHS nor the CDC have responded to a Vox request for comment.

Caputo, who was installed by the White House in April this year, has no health care background or expertise to speak of. Some prominent members of his team do, however a fact Caputo has used in his defense, citing the input of one of his advisers, Paul Alexander, on the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWRs) as evidence that his teams interference with CDC work is not politically motivated.

He digs into these MMWRs and makes his position known, and his position isnt popular with the career scientists sometimes, Caputo told the New York Times Saturday. Nobody has been ever ordered to do anything. Some changes have been accepted, most have been rejected. Its my understanding that thats how science is played.

Alexander was formerly an assistant professor of health research at Canadas McMaster University, and has been accused before of using his position at HHS to promote findings that run counter to the CDCs. For instance, Fridays report follows another Politico scoop earlier this week, which chronicles efforts by Alexander to curtail public comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert and a frequent target of the Trump administration.

According to Politicos Sarah Owermohle, Alexander also attempted to block Fauci from warning about the importance of mask-wearing for children and from explaining the value of Covid-19 testing for young children and college students. In an email, Alexander reportedly argued, incorrectly, that There is no data, none, zero, across the entire world, that shows children especially young children, spread this virus to other children, or to adults or to their teachers.

More than half a million children in the United States have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the number of child cases climbed sharply last month as children began to return to school in some parts of the country. More than 100 children have died from the virus.

Even before this week, there was abundant evidence that the Trump administration has been working to politicize the USs previously nonpartisan, internationally renowned public health infrastructure. Just last month, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for convalescent plasma as a Covid-19 treatment; the decision has been widely criticized, including by the National Institutes of Health, and FDA chief Stephen Hahn was ultimately forced to walk back incorrect comments about the treatments effectiveness shortly after the EUA was announced.

There was also the hydroxychloroquine debacle earlier this summer, where the FDA first granted and then rolled back an EUA for the unproven antimalarial drug over concerns its use was causing dangerous side effects. Trump has nevertheless repeatedly and baselessly boosted the drug as a silver bullet for Covid-19, even claiming that he was taking it as a prophylactic.

An HHS decision this month to award a public relations contract worth more than $250 million to a small market research firm in Virginia has also raised worries about politics infringing on public health. With fewer than 60 days until the general election, the contract tasks the firm with finding a way to defeat despair and inspire hope about the coronavirus. House Democrats this week launched an investigation into the contract, describing it as a taxpayer-funded political propaganda campaign in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

And Trump and his appointees havent just gone after the agencies designed to guide Americas public health response; they have politicized even the most basic tenets of public health in a pandemic. For instance, the president has long refused to wear a mask even asking others to remove them in his presence and continues to hold largely unmasked and non-distanced political rallies, both at the White House and across the country.

That kind of politicization has consequences: As Voxs Brian Resnick has documented, the presidents politicization of the federal governments response and his dedication to promoting ineffective treatments has resulted in widespread vaccine skepticism. The president has touted rapid progress in vaccine development, even promising one as soon as October. But given vaccines normally take years to develop, many wonder whether a rushed Covid-19 vaccine, particularly one endorsed by Trump, would be safe.

Thats because the Trump administrations efforts to manipulate public health for political purposes and gaslight the country into believing the US response to the virus has been anything but a colossal failure have chipped away at public confidence. Trumps opposition to basic safety measures has almost certainly already cost lives former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, for example, died of Covid-19 this summer after attending a Trump rally featuring little masking and social distancing and widespread vaccine skepticism could cost many more.

Politicos Friday revelation is just the latest manifestation of Trumps deep politicization of public health and as the US continues to report tens of thousands of new cases of Covid-19 per day for the sixth straight month, theres little reason to believe that will change anytime soon.

Help keep Vox free for all

Millions turn to Vox each month to understand whats happening in the news, from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. If you have already contributed, thank you. If you havent, please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world: Contribute today from as little as $3.

Read the original:
Trump officials are reportedly manipulating the CDCs Covid-19 reports - Vox.com

Mistakes early in the crisis at the state and national level along with apathy by some in the public complicated the response to the virus and may have helped shut the window of opportunity to get ahead of the infection.

Health leaders in Malheur County faced a number of challenges to stopping the spread of Covid. (The Enterprise)

ONTARIO Before 22 people were dead, before more than 1,000 residents in Malheur County were sick from the Covid virus, before Sarah Poe received emails attacking pandemic statistics, she believed advice from doctors and scientists was enough for the public to reduce the impact of the pandemic.

In March, as the threat of the virus loomed, Poe, the director of the Malheur County Health Department, felt the public proclamations on how to mitigate the virus were easy to understand and execute.

I did have faith in those things, said Poe.

Now the county is awash in the virus, many people dont believe what they see and hear about Covid and the crucial message about how to avoid the virus often seems to disappear inside the white noise of politics, conspiracy theories, good intentions and a dismissive attitude by some.

The problem is we didnt even follow the White Houses own guidance. The CDC and the White House had very doable measures, said Poe.

The scenario isnt how Poe expected this historical event to play out.

Thats because, she said, crucial mistakes were made early at the state and national level that conspired to confuse the public and create doubt.

What we should have done from the beginning was to make sure we have virology experts, or public health experts, take the lead. But when we have such a divisive political voice undermining the public health message it becomes very confusing, said Poe.

Poe agrees there was no way in March to predict the severity of the virus.

But the problem is there was a lot of misinformation and there still is, said Poe.

The incorrect information made the response by health officials to the virus more complicated.

It means people are not always making safe decisions with the correct information but rather responding politically. Because it was downplayed so much by many leaders on all levels, people were putting themselves and their families at risk, said Poe.

Poe, along with members of the countys Covid task force, recognized early the main health message to social distance, wear a face mask and avoid large gatherings was not getting through to everyone.

People were approaching this from the way it impacted them personally. I think it was the people who were not, and are not, impacted personally who are often not taking it seriously enough, said Poe.

The response to that challenge was both simple and direct, said Poe. The health department, she said, decided to use credible sources to deliver information on Covid, provide as much of that information as possible and be transparent.

The aim, she said, was to build trust and authority.

Over the summer and into a surge of cases that occurred in July, the message from the health department remained stable: stay home if sick, wear a face mask, avoid large gatherings and social distance. Poe said the health department also reached out to churches and school districts to try and make sure information is getting out to people in a variety of ways.

I have tried to put more and more information on our website and we are working closely with health care providers and congregate care providers in the county, said Poe.

Education, Poe said, remains a big piece of the Covid response.

We follow up on all complaints. Often times we get complaints from a concerned citizen who observes precautions are not being followed in a business or a social gathering. We educate to make sure people understand what the state orders are, said Poe.

Poe said the goal is not to punish but to help residents and businesses, to make sure they have the tools they need. Our goal is to support the business.

One example of a precise response to a Covid violation occurred earlier in the summer when people gathered in large groups in city parks.

We were able to follow up with the city of Ontario and the city worked with us and they taped off the shelters in the park, said Poe.

How effective were the measures? Poe said she isnt sure.

I cant prove a negative. I cant prove how much worse it could have been if we did nothing. I do think we have a lot of people who pay attention to our message and our health care providers are very helpful in educating people. I think a majority of our county is trying hard to do the right thing, said Poe.

Poe said the virus proved to be not only a health care problem but also unveiled so many disparities and chronic hardships.

It became not just an issue of how to manage if you are exposed but one of child care and jobs and losing family members or loved ones that are sick for a long time, said Poe.

The countys straightforward message to avoid or stop Covid had limits, she said.

There are a lot of different media outlets putting out not clear or consistent messaging that undermine what public health is doing. In this day and age, people have access to a lot of news and dont always listen to reputable sources, said Poe.

Another limitation, said Poe, is the different approaches Idaho and Oregon established to stifle Covid.

Idaho adopted a regional strategy instead of statewide policies and delegated authority to fight the virus down to the counties. Oregon, meanwhile, employed statewide mandates to fight the virus. Those different standards create confusion, said Poe.

Thats been difficult, said Poe. A lot of our media comes from Idaho, which is going to have a different message about state guidelines.

Now at the six-month mark, Poe said the Covid crisis produced insights on how to manage a future where the pandemic endures.

We need people to listen. This virus is extremely infectious and has a long incubation period, said Poe.

Also, Poe said, adhering to the social distancing measures works.

They lower the risk, said Poe.

Another insight, she said, is the entire community must be involved in the effort to stop Covid.

This only goes on longer the more cases we have. Our cases match what our public is doing.So, we have to do all we can to bring these cases down, said Poe.

Poe said she is worried the window to get ahead of the Covid outbreak may close soon.

I am very concerned weve squandered the time we had in March where we could have reduced our risk, said Poe.

News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [emailprotected] or 541-473-3377.

KEEP THE ENTERPRISE GOING AS OTHERS CLOSE.....

Reader support allows the Enterprise to provide in-depth, accurate reporting that otherwise would not get done. Keeping the community well informed is essential.SUBSCRIBE- $5 a month, automatically.DONATE- to provide additional support.

Continue reading here:
Confusion, misinformation on Covid hamper efforts by health officials to stop the pandemic - malheurenterprise.com