Category Archives: Transhuman News

Prominent climate science deniers moved rapidly to spread false and misleading conspiracy theories online during and after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters thisweek.

Some climate deniers, including some with ties to the Heartland Institute and other organizations that have historically helped to create the false impression that there is sizeable scientific disagreement on climate change, also directly expressed support for the attackers and called for more violence.

Striking fear in politicians is not a bad thing, the @ClimateDepot Twitter account tweeted on the afternoon of January 6 in a message describing the Capitol as then-undersiege.

Thomas Jefferson: The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, @ClimateDepot tweeted secondslater.

What's needed next is mass protests to storm state Capitols and the CDC to end Covid lockdowns once and for all, the thread continued, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

The @ClimateDepot Twitter account, created in April 2009, is held by Marc Morano, the communications director for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank with a history of receiving funding from ExxonMobil and the conservative dark money organizationDonors Trust. Morano serves as the executive director of CFACTs climatedepot.com website, which as DeSmogs databaseprofile puts it, regularly publishes articles questioning man-made globalwarming.

Screenshot of Twitter thread posted by @ClimateDepot on the afternoon of January6,2021.

Morano has for many years played a prominent role in the climate denial movement. The Heartland Institute currently maintains a biography of Morano under its Who We Are section, noting his prior role as a climate researcher for U.S. Senator James Inhofe, who has regularly made speeches rejecting mainstream climate science.Rolling Stone once called Morano the Matt Drudge of climate denial. He more recently authored a book titled, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change.CFACTs most recent tax filings show Morano was its highest-compensated employee, bringing in over $209,000 in pay and benefits in2018.

On January 6, after the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) whose board of directors includes senior officials with ExxonMobil and numerous other fossil fuel companies posted a statement condemning the violence at the Capitol Building, @ClimateDepot retweeted a reply to that statement reading: NAM has always been a bootlicking organization groveling at the booted feet of their governmentalmasters.

Many fossil fuel industry groups immediately condemned the insurgency in statements or social media posts, and some long-time climate deniers did as well. But Morano was not the only prominent science denier to express support online for the mob attack in D.C.

William M. Briggs, described by the Heartland Institute as one of itspolicy advisors, published a post on January 7 headlined, we fought the good fight and we lost this battle. In the piece, Briggs claims that Congress had an unarmed Air Force veteran shot and killed and misleadingly claimsthat the crowd, by doing very little, by remaining inside the tourist ropes inside the building, even, forced the startled regime intohiding.

Briggs' post goes on to describeRepublican politicians' later condemnation of Wednesdays attack as the most disgusting display of cowardice and abject surrender were likely to see in ourlifetimes.

Some of us will be in deep kimchi because of this, but there are no regrets, Briggs's post continued. One thing is certain. They will be coming forus.

DeSmog reviewed numerous accounts during and in the wake of the Capitol attack. Social media posts show that several other climate science deniers, like the UK-based columnistJames Delingpole and Steve Milloy, publisher of the JunkScience.com website, joined many on the far-right in circulating false information suggesting that it was not the visible pro-Trump participants who had been planning online for weeks to occupy the Capitol, but instead members of their opposition the loose,left-wing movement known as antifathat actually invaded the building. On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that there was no substantive evidence that any antifa supporters had participated in the pro-Trump insurrection, adding that many claims of antifa involvement had cited a soure that had, in fact, reported neo-Naziparticipation.

Screenshot of retweet by @JunkScience on the afternoon of January6,2021.

Others in DeSmog's Climate Disinformation Database, like the conservative media organization Prager U, used their social media presence to share messaging that sought to shift focus to lastsummer's Black Lives Matteruprisings.

Detailed information about precisely what happened inside the Capitol Building on Wednesday and what led to those events is still continuing to emerge. But what is clear is that neo-Nazis and long-time far-right Trump supporters were documented, and in many cases documented themselves, participating in the mob violence inside the CapitolBuilding.

The goal isnt necessarily to convince anyone of anything, Melissa Ryan, author of the Ctrl Alt-Right Delete weekly newslettercovering the alt-right and CEO of CARD Strategies, told DeSmog. The goal is to sow so much confusion that its actually hard for people to tell the truth fromfiction.

That misinformation benefits the far-right, shesaid.

They did the same after Charlottesville, said Ryan, who has previously written about interactions between climate deniers and QAnon conspiracy theorists. They do the same after any of their protests that cause violence. The goal is to cause confusion amongst viewers, those amongst their audience that might have a little trepidation about being associated with violent extremist groups, so both sides is sort of how they neutralizethat.

Several accounts associated with climate science deniers focused in particular on pictures of Jake Angeli, who wore face paint and a horned helmet on January 6, with these accounts suggesting that Angeli was a member of antifa. Angeli, however, is better known as the QAnonshaman.

Hes absolutely a QAnon right-wing follower, saidRyan.

Attempts to shift blame away from those visibly participating in the invasion and to antifa were later also spread in Congress by Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida who was met with audible boos on the House floor when he suggested that the Capitol attack was by people masquerading as Trump supporters a word choice made all the more ironic by the fact that many participating in the apparent coup attempt were not wearing masks despite the ragingCOVID-19 pandemic.

And of course, President Trump himself may perhaps be the worlds best-known climate science denier. Earlier in the day on January 6, he had addressed members of the soon-to-be mob in person, calling on them to walk down to the Capitol and adding that you will never take back our country with weakness. Later that day, in a recorded video, he told them, We love you. Youre very special. Gohome.

On Thursday night, in a tweeted video message lasting less than three minutes, President Trump said that the demonstrators the same individuals whom he had personally addressed before the attack had defiled the Capitol and called for their prosecution. Today, he resumed using his Twitter account to praise and encourage hisbase.

Today, Trump faces renewed calls for his impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. But the disinformation-fueled movement backing him is extremely unlikely to simply fade away and may in fact be further emboldened by the images of Trump and Confederate flags that were waved inside the CapitolBuilding.

I feel like its a very clear end of the Trump administration, said Ryan, but whats terrifying is what it is the birthof.

Far-right organizers have already reportedly posted calls to gather again on January 20, inauguration day. On Thursday, USA Today quoted from a white-supremacist Telegram channel that called for Pro-Trump and other nationalist crowds to gather in D.C. thatday.

Main image: The pro-Trump mob outside of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on January6, 2021.Credit: Tyler Merbler,CC BY2.0

See the original post:
Climate Deniers Moved Rapidly to Spread Misinformation During and After Attack on US Capitol - DeSmog

My earliest memory of Flash was that it got me into trouble. I had heard about a website that hosted brutal games, including one particularly difficult shooter starring an audacious yellow alien. I soon discovered that this site, Newgrounds.com, brimmed with warped takes on American culturewithin minutes, I had battered Osama bin Laden and chain-sawed my way through a string of office colleagues. The next day, I visited the site at a friends house, and we massacred a school. In the evening, his mum rang mine to ask why her son had been undressing Britney Spears.

On December 31, Flash died. Adobe stopped updates and now recommends you uninstall it. This end has been a long time comingsince June 2017, officially; unofficially, since April 2010, when Apples Steve Jobs announced that Flash would not run on the iPhone. Its legacy lives on in Adult Swim cartoons and zany mobile games. Toiling conservationists continue to convert and archive old Flash content before it is lost forever.

Flashs death is, in many ways, incidentalthere may even be an impulse to welcome it. For those of a certain age, the command Please install Flash Player still provokes a tinge of irritation, as they remember how it came between them and that bopping badger video. But the softwares end is also a synecdoche of an aesthetic project years in the making. Its a reminder of how the web has been cleaned up; how it has been transformed from a messy and amateur space into a glossy and corporate one.

Flash animations could be crude and childish; they could be profane and pornographic. They were politically incorrect, an ideology that sometimes bled into real lifethe creator of Stick Assault is now a racist YouTuber. One member of Newgrounds posted two cartoonsClown and Target Practicebefore shooting up his school.

But these are isolated examples among a generally harmless chaos. If there was a small share of depravity, its because Flash was so easy to use. What would have taken a studio of animators months to draw could be produced in just a few days, as Flash algorithmically generated the images between two keyframes. This led to its iconic lilting movementmotion without cycles, in the technical jargonaccompanied by the thick black outlines required to endure the poor resolutions of computer monitors.

The most memorable of these creations came from David Firth. Where Newgrounds was unquestionably American, Fat-Pie, Firths website, was intrinsically British. Salad Fingers, the creepy green humanoid with spinning digits, is his most famous character, but I watched every one of his night-terror creations, from eloquent locusts to mass-murdering milkmen to Burnt Face Man, the inept superhero who claimed that crime is a shit that needs cleaning up. His cartoons, often paired with music from Aphex Twin, obliquely reflected British societyChris Morris satire without the politics. In the early 2000s, they looked how I felt.

The best animation, argues the film critic Richard Brody, captures the spontaneity, the free-flowing imagination, and the uninhibited sense of fun at the heart of the medium. Flash spread these instincts across the web. The worst Flash websites were a thing to beholdremember restaurant sites with pumping muzak and flying food? There seemed no one framework back then.

In this sense, Flash was a bridge between generations. Its creator, Jonathan Gay, explained that the web could have settled on a filmic experience, based on movies and television, rather than the textual Twittersphere we accept now. Flash facilitated the personalization associated with Web 1.0 relics like Geocities, with users encouraged to manually code, design, and manage their website, in the words of architecture critic Kate Wagner, a state of affairs replaced by the corporate, professionally designed web that we cannot customize but must experience. This new professional web is glossy, uniform, and minimalist, typified by app stores, smartphones, and Facebook. Participatory portal culture, which websites like Newgrounds kicked off, is supercharged, but personalization is destroyed.

Link:
A Farewell to Adobe Flashand the Messy, Glorious Web - WIRED

Marsha Wiseman,

Muskogee

Regarding the 12/26/20 editorial in this newspaper by Steve Fair, the chairman of the 4th district of the Oklahoma Republican Party in which he proclaims that Donald Trumps politically incorrect no clutch full speed ahead style is fruitful and that is why candidates are copying his tactics.

Help me out here Mr. Fair: so those candidates are standing proudly by a president who throws out bait words to white extremists (stand down Proud Boys?); publicly mocked a reporter with a disability (watch the video yourself and please, offer a defense); used 'blood coming out of her wherever' about a female reporter; praised a congressman who body-slammed a reporter; and referred to immigrants from sh**hole countries.

These vulgarities are fruitful?No, this is conduct unbecoming of any human being, but even more so the POTUS. His self-obsessed, have-to-be-the-greatest words and actions have disgraced the office he holds, and it is equally disgusting for any politician to stand by him, mutely or otherwise. Lets debate the good and bad of Republican versus Democratic platforms or values, but the personal conduct of this president is far more grievous and disgusting than politically incorrect.We deserve so much better from our president and from all elected officials.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

Follow this link:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Trump's personal conduct grievous, disgusting - Muskogee Daily Phoenix

From Daleks to Captain Jack, the Doctor Who New Year's special featured many familiar faces. The Harry Potter reference, however, was a mistake.

Among the many fun and nostalgic Easter eggs in the Doctor Who festivespecial "Revolution of the Daleks,"one reference to Harry Pottermay not really work for many fans. Whenviewers last left the13th Doctor at the end ofseason 12, she'd been mysteriouslytransportedfrom the TARDIS to Judoon jail. She's there to serve time for an undisclosed crime committed by Ruth,a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor played by Jo Martin. After a gleeful romp past fan-favorite bad guys from throughout the show's history,like the Weeping Angels, the Sycorax, and the Daleks, the Doctor lulls herself to sleep, reciting the opening lines of the first chapter of Harry Potter and thePhilosopher's Stone.

Harry Potterreferences are nothing new in the Whoniverse. Russell T. Davies, who revived the series in 2005, considered a Harry Potter/Doctor Who crossover episode, and there are several references to theWizarding World in Doctor Whoseason 3, episode 2, "The Shakespeare Code." Those references had a nice meta-effect, since David Tennant, who played the Doctor at the time, also starred asBarty Crouch, Jr in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It also matched the zeitgeist, with both Harry Potter and Doctor Who among the biggest franchises on the planet. The Harry Potter callback in Revolution of the Daleks, however, feels at best irrelevant, and at worst, tin-eared on the part of Doctor Who showrunnerChris Chibnall, who also wrote the script.

Related:Doctor Who Holiday Special May Tease Torchwood's Return

Itmay not seem problematic at first for the magical boy who lived under the stairs to come to the aid of a magical girl seeking comfortin a prison cell under the stars. However, in 2018, J.K. Rowling favorited some Tweets expressing anti-trans sentiment, and since then, has become an outspoken opponent to transgender rights. She's even been criticized by Harry Pottercast members for her comments. Not only is the 13Doctor the first to be played by a woman, but her iteration has become iconic and celebrated among theLGBTQ+ community.At the time the script was written in 2019, Chibnall knew full-well Rowling's troublesomeanti-trans views. The decision to still reference it, then, is contradictory and inconsistent, especially since the Chibnall-era clearly prioritizes themes of social justice in its storytelling.

The reference is also alarming in an episode that also features the venomous and slimy Jack Robertson, a Chibnall creation played by Chris Noth.Robertson is a thinly-veiled Donald Trump corollary, who himself is anotoriously reckless Tweeter with politically-incorrect views. With the Harry Potter reference coming in the same installment, then it furtherhighlights attention to just how harmful Rowling's views have been. It's sad that in 2021 a once-beloved storyteller like Rowling carries similar connotations to Trump, but 2020saw the possible end of the pure love and whimsy once carried for Harry Potter stories by children.

From that perspective, the Harry Potter reference did at least match the surprisingly elegiac tone of the Doctor Whoholiday special.It also far from ruined what was otherwise a strong, well-paced episodethat could be counted both among Chibnall's best scripts, as well as one of Whittaker's best performances in the role so far. Writing Doctor Who is always a balancing act between the past and the future, but by including a J.K. Rowling reference, Chibnall clearly forgot to considerthe present.

More: How The Doctor Who Holiday Special Sets Up Season 13

Cobra Kai Reveals Why The Police Never Get Involved

Will Kennedy is a professional pop culture nerd, freelance writer, and senior music writer with Eugene Weekly. He lives in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife, daughter, and two cats. All of whom politely accommodate his obsessions with Doctor Who and The Smiths.

Go here to see the original:
Doctor Who's Harry Potter Reference Really Didn't Work - Screen Rant

Two years ago Georgia Governor Brian Kemp ran a campaign commercial bragging of rounding up illegal immigrants, showing off his gun collection and declaring himself a "politically incorrect conservative".But according to President Donald Trump, Mr Kemp is a "disaster" and an "obstructionist" who should resign as governor.

Mr Trump and Mr Kemp are members of the same party.

Little more than a fortnight before Mr Trump leaves the White House, a deep fissure has developed in the Republican Party.

The fissure isn't over policy or style or partisan ideology. It's about the election result.

Since November, the simple act of admitting Joe Biden won the presidential election is apostasy to not only Mr Trump, but to his legions of supporters, who now account for the vast majority of Republican voters.

"I'll be here in about a year-and-a-half campaigning against your governor, I guarantee you," Mr Trump told voters at a rally in Georgia today.

Mr Kemp may have a reputation as one of the brashest, most conservative, even Trumpiest governors in America.

"I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, Brian Kemp, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don't have a clue, or worse," Mr Trump tweeted earlier.

"Nobody can be this stupid."

And tomorrow every Republican in Congress has to make an unpleasant choice deny reality or incur Mr Trump's wrath.

What happens on January 6?

Congress's election certification process is typically a ceremonial procedure. The representatives and senators meet to verify the results of the presidential election with what is usually a straight up-or-down vote.

But if a representative and a senator object to a state's results, then both chambers of Congress meet separately for a two-hour debate. If both the House of Representatives and the Senate decide not to certify a state, its votes are not counted.

Vice President Mike Pence is tasked with presiding over the procedure, but has no power to change the outcome.

But speaking at a rally in Georgia today, Mr Trump appeared to think otherwise.

"I hope Mike Pence comes through for us," he said.

"If he doesn't come through, I won't like him quite as much," he said, tongue-in-cheek.

Trump supporters don't have the votes to overturn the election via Congress. But they do have the votes to delay certification for up to 100 hours, and in the process, make their colleagues look bad.

And that's exactly what Josh Hawley is planning on doing.

Over the weekend Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced he would challenge the results of the presidential election.

The move drew the ire of his colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who challenged him in a conference call soon afterwards.

The objection appears to be an effort to raise his profile in the party ahead of a long-rumoured presidential run in 2024.

But the editorial board of his state's largest newspaper, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, was not impressed.

"Hawley plans a manoeuvre on the Senate floor Wednesday to stomp on democracy and throw millions of American votes into the waste bin just to satisfy his selfish political ambitions," a scathing editorial published today read.

"He's the walking definition of a phony."

Who is opposing Biden's election win?

Since Mr Hawley announced his objection, 11 other senators have jumped on board, all conservative Republicans.

One of those Republicans is Senator Kelly Loeffler, who is in a neck-and-neck contest in a run-off election to be held in Georgia tomorrow.

Her predicament is an unenviable one. Her decision would seek to overturn the choice of voters in her own state while she simultaneously tries to get them to support her.

But if she didn't push to overturn the results, she would anger her voter base, which consists almost entirely of Trump supporters.

When Republican senators Pat Toomey, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski all said they wouldn't object to Mr Biden's victory, Mr Trump called for them to be replaced.

He also took a swing more broadly at others unwilling to overturn the election results.

"The 'Surrender Caucus' within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective 'guardians' of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!" Mr Trump tweeted.

Unless a substantial number of Democrats in the House of Representatives decide to vote to overturn the election results, Mr Biden will be sworn in as president on January 20.

View post:
Trump forces a fissure in the Republican Party over election defeat - 9News

.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso in Cobra Kai. (Courtesy of Netflix)

Some of our favorite movie characters from the 1980s and early 1990s have resurfaced in the 21st century, from the return of Matthew Brodericks Ferris Bueller in an ad for Honda to Bruce Willis reprising John McClane from Die Hard for Advance Auto Parts to Bill Murray repeating his Phil Connors from Groundhog Day in a commercial for Jeep to Annie Potts Janine Melnitz from Ghostbusters appearing in ads for QuickBooks to Chevy Chase and Beverly DAngelo returning as the Griswolds from National Lampoons Christmas Vacation in a spot for the Ford Mustang Mach-E.

QuickBooks also featured Martin Koves notoriously hiss-worthy villain John Kreese from The Karate Kid as a kinder, gentler version of himself who is now operating the Koala Kai dojo, but we know thats not what REALLY happened to Kreese. Whereas all those previous examples were one- or two-minute updates on beloved characters from three decades ago, weve been gifted with three full seasons featuring the modern-day adventures of the surviving main players from the Karate Kid saga in the wildly entertaining, outrageously corny and ridiculously addictive Cobra Kai streaming series, which played on YouTube Red for two seasons before Netflix acquired the show, with Season 3 debuting Jan. 1 and a fourth season already in the works.

Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso and William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence in a scene from Cobra Kai. (Tina Rowden/Netflix)

Who knew we were so thirsty to catch up with Ralph Macchios Daniel LaRusso, William Zabkas Johnny Lawrence and yes, Koves John Kreese 35 years after Kreese told Lawrence to sweep the leg? (Sadly, the wonderful Pat Morita, who earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Mr. Miyagi in the original film, has been gone since 2005, although Mr. Miyagi looms large as the guiding influence of Daniels life in the streaming series.) Ive binged the entire Season 3, and while the initial big kick of seeing the return of these characters has lessened and the soap-opera plot developments are becoming increasingly ludicrous, its still great escapist fun.

Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso in Cobra Kai. (Courtesy of Netflix)

In the Cobra Kai universe, Daniel and Johnny and Kreese hadnt crossed paths in 35 years until they started crossing paths practically every other day. Daniel is living the country club life he once envied from the outside looking in, with a lucrative car dealership chain in the San Fernando Valley, a loving family and a beautiful home. Meanwhile, Johnny Lawrence is a divorced deadbeat dad who is estranged from his teenage son, pounds beers 24/7, lives in a shoebox apartment and still has anger management issues. As for Kreese, he literally emerged from the shadows at the end of Season 1, eventually took control over the Cobra Kai dojo and is even more of a violent sociopath than he was during the Reagan administration. (Ah, but as we learn in Season 3, the bully wasnt always a bully. He was a teenage victim of bullying himself. And then came his Vietnam experience.)

William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence and Xolo Mariduea as Miguel Diaz in a scene from Cobra Kai. (Courtesy of Netflix)

One of the great things about Cobra Kai is how it shows us events past and present from the points of view of Johnny and Kreese, as we learn more about the backstories of these initially one-dimensional characters. As Daniel and Johnny renew their petty rivalry, with Daniels daughter, Sam (Mary Mouser), and Johnnys son, Robby (Tanner Buchanan), getting caught up in the crossfire, its often Daniel who comes across as the self-righteous bully, while we begin to understand and empathize with Johnny and even Kreese (to a certain extent).

Martin Kove as John Kreese in Cobra Kai. (Courtesy of Netflix)

The callbacks to the original films are frequent and fantastic, with a number of cast members reprising their roles. (Ill say no more other than to note Season 3 includes Daniel returning to Mr. Miyagis homeland of Okinawa.) As was the case with the first two seasons, there are LOTS of karate fights once again, often staged as if the combatants have spent more time in dance classes than dojos.

................................................................

The young actors do a fine job in their vanilla West Side Story universe, but its the adults who pack the biggest punches in Cobra Kai. Courtney Henggeler is terrific as Daniels wife, Amanda, who is often the only real grown-up in the room. Martin Kove clearly relishes reprising the Kreese character, who has been through hell and is about 100 years old now, but still looks like he could kick your ass. Macchio retains his youthful vigor and plays Daniel as a good guy who sometimes is a little too pleased with his good guy self. And then theres William Zabka, who has transformed Johnny from a one-kick pony into a funny, politically incorrect, self-destructive, deeply flawed but redeemable man.

Finally, we have a Johnny Lawrence worth rooting for.

See the original post:
35 years later in Cobra Kai: Johnnys complex now, and aint that a kick in the head - Albuquerque Journal

About a year ago, press conferences and news reports were grabbing everyones attention.

Politicians and health experts were lining up to explain a crisis. A new virus was detected. It was quickly defined as contagious and deadly. It was also defined as preventable by washing your hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing and stay home when sick. The advice was simple. Remember what you were taught in kindergarten and you will be fine.

As time moved on, so did the restrictions. It became politically incorrect to call it a Chinese virus, even though it was first identified in China. And yes, there were reports of people using the virus as an excuse to display racial bias against people of Asian descent.

Along the way, many questions were left unanswered from the national level down. Worse yet, this has become the golden idol in a sense. There is an implied script that must be followed. Ask questions, but when the appointed person answers, that persons response is absolute truth (as redundant as the statement is. Truth is truth and truth cannot deny truth.). Anyone who questions the response is viewed with the shock of watching the one human with enough brass to smack God himself.

A point to consider: doesnt it seem odd that businesses are limited, or worse, and then when the workers, the people hustling to pay their rent and mortgage, the government debates how much to give them? Doesnt it seem like the response is out of balance? Take care of the sick people, but dont make people sick. Dont assume people are sick, unless that is an individuals best response in regard to his or her personal health.

This virus is more deadly to some than to others; the same as with pneumonia, the flu, strep, a bad cold The list goes on. It doesnt take a medical professional to understand that. Some people have internal challenges even they dont know about until a new player enters the environment. Do my health challenges mean someone else has to close or limit their business? Or for that matter, anyone else?

Many people accuse this COVID crusade of being a power play, a step at unveiling a socialist conversion of the U.S. I often laugh at the comments highlighting the person complaining about capitalism while checking social media on the latest smart phone costing more than his/her parents first car and drinking a $6 coffee drink. Is it socialism, or is it more of an oligarchy, a system where the real power and decisions belong to a few? Believe it or not, the American form of government was designed to keep the oligarchs at bay. But it only works if people stay involved in the system. It isnt easy, and sometimes it is abrasive, especially when confronting people who have developed a way to benefit by the system.

So now that were in 2021, stay home and take care of yourself when youre sick. Follow an alternate work schedule if you can. And above all, be one that doesnt let the nations political system catch an incurable virus.

We are still in an environment where fear can win, if we let it. Make the choice to live each day deliberately as Henry David Thoreau would say, regardless if you have a day or a century of life to enjoy.

Read more:
What's Next - The Sidney Sun-Telegraph - Sidney Sun Telegraph

In this brand-new year, lets pump up the positivity and raise a glass to a beautiful 2021. Beautiful, in every way. In a real way.While a pale pink pearly dawn breaks over the distant horizon, I find myself singing an old Hindi film song: Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho gayi BhagwanKitna badal gaya insaan Its an evergreen song from the 1954 film Nastik (The Atheist), a crime drama written and directed by the irrepressible I S Johar. We all asked god exactly this question in the year just gone we urged Him to take a good, hard look at the state of the earth, while we lamented on how mankind had changed. It has changed irrevocably, and one fervently hopes, for the better. Since most of us had no choice but to stay cold sober this New Years Eve, unless of course you were Bollywood love birdscelebrating in Ranthambore, our thoughts turned to ourselves.

By default, this has been a year designed for introspection. Given the universal state of despair and panic, as the pandemic raged on and on and on, people started on a journey that was entirely unplanned a long, tumultuous one within their own selves. They arrived at places they did not know existed. Speaking personally, it was one hell of a ride! What started off as a distraction to keep dark, morbid Covid thoughts at bay, turned into an adventure, an exploration scary and thrilling at the same time. Not sure how many of you experienced insignificance and smallness, but I did.

Compared to the scale of global mass devastation and so many deaths my life shrank and shrank in a good way. In the larger scheme of things, we all figured how very inconsequential our pedestrian concerns were. A heightened state of awareness generated mixed feelings anxiety on one hand, and liberation on the other. We were freed from the pettiness of our daily insecurities. We asked ourselves tough questions, and all those trivial preoccupations of the past slunk away guiltily, leaving us feeling that much lighter.

My biggest learning involved waste. Waste in a larger context. Time became the most precious commodity who knew how much time was left for each one of us? I became possessive and frugal about my waking hours. Figuring out how best to maximise the one resource (time) that cannot be either bought, borrowed or stretched, made me consciously cut, cut, cut. We all became great editors of our own narratives. We ruthlessly chopped non-essentials this included people. So many important but tricky decisions that had been kept on hold for decades became crystal clear as we pruned all the annoyances and irritations, the blocks and barriers. Time became an extravagance, a luxury beyond any other. Yes, there was loss so many of us dealt with the deaths of people we loved. Memories started playing games, as did a surfeit of information. How much more could we possibly absorb?

No matter who propounded which theory, the virus was one step ahead of us all. The French have a lovely expression, cest la vie. It is mandatory to shrug while uttering these words. It is true, life is what it is, what it has always been, what it will continue to be. We poor creatures will have to adapt and change. Why not? A hard lesson has been learnt by the world. The vaccine will be here shortly. It will provide just one of the answers for our survival, not all. We will certainly beat the virus, and any mutant that shows up. What is equally imperative is for us to change our wretched ways and think anew.

Enough has been said about the environment and how we have abused the very matter that sustains us and nurtures life. If we dont understand the meaning of the word respect now, we will have learnt absolutely nothing during the pandemic. But we are not that stupid, right? We are like cockroaches we survive! And like cockroaches, we crawl out of dark spaces when required to find food, find partners, mate, reproduce. We are hard to crush, even when a heavy boot lands on us. During these past months, when everything appeared pretty hopeless, I channelled my inner cockroach and scurried about in my restricted space, confident that I would make it to the other side. The tragedy being, so many didnt.

To all those who lost loved ones, and to all our courageous frontline workers, 2020 belongs to you. We are alive, thanks to you. Its a debt that can never be fully repaid. We shall go forth from this point onwards, stronger, wiser, healthier the journey has just begun. Heres to a gorgeous new year! I am singing Michael Jacksons immortal anthem as I write this: Heal the worldmake it a better placefor you and for me and the entire human race there are people dyingif you care enough for the living make it a better place for you and for me.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

Read more here:
Loss, despair marked 2020. Let healing be the hallmark of 2021 - The Times of India Blog

After a shockingly good premiere episode that saw Disco Ball unmasked as Ice-T, its time to see the next 5 celebrities that will be hitting the dance floor on The Masked Dancer (Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV).

Given what happened in Washington on Wednesday, many of the judges chose to abstain from live-tweeting the episode.

The sloth kicked off the night by dancing to What I Like About You by The Romantics. In his intro video, we learned that the Sloth is anything but lazy and has worked hard to get where he is today. There were also references to a doctor, the number 13, a bad accident, and a Mickey Mouse operation. Sloth also used toothpaste marked GLEE. Immediately, we think it is likely someone who has ties to both Glee and Netflixs 13 Reasons Why?.

After a marginal performance, the performer offered his Word Up! clue (where the dancer is forced to say one word in their real voice) and chose broadway.

Paula picked up on the idea that the dancer made an L on his forehead using his fingers (used a lot on Glee) and this confirmed to her that the dancer was Matthew Morrison. Brian Austin Green focused on the doctors coat and the Mickey Mouse Club reference and thought it might be a pro dancer like Britney Spears ex, Kevin Federline. Ashley Tisdale seemed intrigued by the Broadway clue and thought it could be Jason Derulo who suffered an accident while filming Cats.

Next up was the lanky Ice Cube. We learn from his intro video that he lived a privileged life as a child and that while his mother worked at or with the White House. There were also a couple of unclear (at least to us) references to both corn and ballerina shoes which arent the first things we would consider pairing. The biggest clues were the numerous references to climate change and the periodic table, indicating that the star was likely some sort of activist.

Ice Cube decided to shake his groove thing by dancing to Postmodern Jukeboxs Bad Romance. Gotta say, he looked a little stiff and we immediately had flashbacks to Ice-Ts moves last week.

For his Word Up! choice, the dancer said that he was a 90s icon. Hmm. Ken immediately believed the dancer was Bill Nye, The Science Guy. Brian Austin Green mused that it could be a Guns N Roses band member like Axl Rose or Slash before finally settling on the host of Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher. Paula Abdul went with CNNs Anderson Cooper.

Zebra was up next and his intro video started with a slate that mentioned Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho. We also learned that Zebra has fallen out of the limelight and grew up in a rough neighborhood. The number 11 was featured along with a car that had the letters OS embossed on it. The Zebra also wore a medal around his neck in the video. Hmm. Your guess is as good as ours. The video also said that there was only one direction for him to go, that he was ready to become larger than life, and that the president knew his name (although, we arent entirely sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing).

Our initial thoughts were that he might be a member of a boy band like New Kids on the Block or the Backstreet Boys (Larger Than Life anyone?). That was before we heard the song choice of Magalenha by Sergio Mendes.

After a wild performance, Zebra said comeback as his Word Up! clue prompting Brian to believe that it might be Enrique Iglesias (remember him?!), Marc Anthony, or Ricky Martin. Ken was torn between Pitbull and Kevin Richardson from the Backstreet Boys.

[video_embed id='2113387']RELATED: JoJo Siwa Addresses Game Controversy [/video_embed]

Cotton Candy was up next and her demure presence was a sharp contrast to her rivals. Her intro video put an emphasis on breakfast and the idea that she was a perfectionist who moved in with a new family. Other clues included her feeling homesick along with cupcakes that had big lips on them. In a first, we also got to see some rehearsal footage where Cotton Candy fell from a hula hoop that was hung from the ceiling (an almost too obvious homage to P!nk). She seemed to pull her best Taylor Swift impression by shaking it off and moving forward.

When the music hit, our initial thought seemed to be bang on as Cotton Candy chose Glitter in the Air by P!nk as her track. We also appreciated her tenacity as she got back up on the hula hoop and twirled down to the stage before completing a majestic slow dance that confirmed the idea that she was a trained dancer of some kind. After offering up primetime as her Word Up! clue in a relatively high-pitched voice, the dancer waited for what the judges would say. Paula Abdul thought that it was Jenna Dewan. Brian stated the obvious and went with P!nk. Ken and Ashley both thought that it wasDancing With The Stars alum Julianne Hough.

The final performer of the evening was another tall dancer. Moth easily had the best costume of the night and her video was also the most interesting. The dancer behind the mask admitted that moths often dont seek out the spotlight and that it just happens to draw them in. She said that this was a metaphor for her life. There was a box of clothes featured as one of the main clues (Tidying Up With Marie Kondo anyone?) We then learn that the moth lived a regular life until she made headlines with the president and suffered through a traumatic experience. Come on, this one is too easy. It has to be Monica Lewinsky right? We also think that it could be Fox News host Megyn Kelly as well.

The dance itself had a very country flair which is to be expected when the song is Boot Scootin Boogie by Brooks and Dunn. The performance was good but its hardly fair to the Moth as she had to follow Cotton Candys breathtaking aerial display. And yes, that is a sentence we never thought we would ever write.

Moth chose inspired as her Word Up! clue and the judges agreed with our initial assessment. Ashley thought it was Megyn Kelly. Paula and Brian both went with Monica Lewinsky (a guess that the Moth didnt seem too happy about, indicating that the obvious choice might not be the right one). The Moths clear denial caused Paula to reassess her choice, choosing Donald Trumps ex, Marla Maples, instead.

While not as obvious as last weeks, Ice Cube was voted the audiences least favourite. The judges then made their final guesses but not before a few last minute clues.

Ice Cube confirmed that millions of people had seen him on TV, that he had a big social media following and that he had more than a speck of white hair.

Time for the final guesses with Ashley going for former Vice-President Al Gore. Ken suggested that the dollar bills could be a reference to the dancers first name and doubled down on his earlier guess of Bill Nye.

Paula decided to change her guess, switching from Anderson Cooper to Tim Dunn from Project Runway. Brian did not divert from his initial path and went all in on Bill Maher.

It turns out Ice Cube was Bill Nye, The Science Guy and that Ken was right all along! (And if youve seen any Masked Singer, you know thats a true rarity.)

WatchThe Masked DancerWednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.

[video_embed id='2112242']BEFORE YOU GO: Mom mocks brother's modelling poses with hilarious pictures of her son [/video_embed]

See more here:
Ice Cube melts away on 'The Masked Dancer' - etalk

Donald Trump has fallen far from the President who enjoyed a lavish State Visit to the UK last year.

Fourteen days before he is booted from office, he reached a new low by telling Capitol rioters we love you.

The Presidents baseless claims the election was stolen from him earned a rebuke from the UK.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said Trumps comments directly led to the violence by his supporters in Washington.

She told the BBC: So far hes failed to condemn that violence, and that is completely wrong.

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

Play now

Ms Patels condemnation was notable partly because it is so rare.

In the past her fellow Tory ministers and backbenchers have cosied up to the President to win his favour - despite warnings at the time about his character.

Even on Wednesday night, when he condemned the violence via Twitter, Boris Johnson made no mention of Donald Trump.

Ms Patel insisted Britain should look forward, not backwards, as Joe Biden enters the White House.

The fact of the matter is they are now transitioning to a new President, she said.

This isnt about going back and reflecting on personal relationships.

But for the sake of argument, what would we find if we did? Here are seven times Tory MPs were more friendly than they needed to be to the US President.

The Prime Minister used to be blunt about Donald Trump.

In 2015 he accused him of stupefying ignorance for saying parts of London are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives.

Perhaps for diplomatic reasons, Mr Johnson cooled off on the criticism when both men were in government. But critics say he went too far in trying to appease the President - who lavished praised on him and called him 'Britain Trump'.

As Foreign Secretary 2018 he even suggested Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said: If he can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I dont see why hes any less of a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack Obama, who got it before he even did anything.

The PM of course had history with Barack Obama - who he branded part-Kenyan and accused of an ancestral dislike of the British empire in 2016.

As he hoped for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the PM repeatedly stopped short of criticising Trump directly, even in his worst controversies - and even when it was clear he had lost the 2020 election.

Needless to say, the much-hoped-for Brexit trade deal with the US hasnt materialised yet.

Michael Gove, rather than a full-time journalist, won the first UK interview with Trump after his election.

It later emerged Rupert Murdoch had sat in the room, amid claims the newspaper mogul had a hand in setting up the meeting.

The write-up in The Times praised the incoming Presidents intelligence, saying: Mr Trumps number-rich analysis of defence spending reflects a businessmans ability to cut through jargon to get to the essentials of a case.

Mr Gove also called Trump the master of the profit and loss accounts and a determined negotiator, and they talked about their shared Scottish heritage.

The interview asked Trump about his Muslim ban, which hed stood by weeks earlier, but the answer didnt make it into the final edit of Mr Goves write-up.

To cap it all, the Tory MP then posed with the President-elect with his thumbs up.

Unfortunately for him the friendly tactics didnt work - as when he ran for Tory leader two and half years later, Trump said: I dont know him.

Now Commons Leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg repeatedly sprang to Trumps defence as a backbencher.

Asked in 2016 if he would vote for Trump, he replied: I would almost certainly vote Republican if I were in America. That was nine months after the President demanded a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

Two years later Mr Rees-Mogg urged MPs to lay out the reddest of red carpets for the President and treat him with the greatest respect and courtesy.

He also took up Trumps claim that he was Americas Mr Brexit.

In a 2018 article headlined President Trump will be our greatest ally after Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg wrote: His election depended upon similar factors to those that led to Brexit.

He appealed to voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and he exudes confidence about his own nation and a determination not to be a manager of decline, which also inspires the Brexiteers.

The Tory MP for Romford gave fuel to Trumps baseless voter fraud claims with an image he tweeted the day after the US election.

The MPs account shared a crude meme showing Trump as the American Eagle, wrestling back the flag from Biden who was depicted in the form of communism rising from the dead.

It happened after Trump went on TV to demand legal votes stop being counted.

The Tory MP for Morley and Outwood didnt hold back in her enthusiasm for the US President.

When he was mooted for the Nobel Peace Prize she tweeted: "Surely even critics of @realDonaldTrump can recognise his good work in this area.

She shouted "you're welcome Mr President!" down from her office window at anti-Trump protesters while playing with a nodding-head toy of the President during his June 2019 visit to the UK.

"We should roll out the red carpet and welcome President Trump," she said at the time.

And she urged him to "win the election" after he was struck down with coronavirus.

Of course wishing his good health is what any sensible person would do. But urging him to win the election, two days after he refused to condemn white supremacists in a TV debate, is a little different.

Shipley MP Philip Davies is another backbencher who was enthusiastic about the US President in the past.

In 2016, after the President called for a ban on Muslims entering the US, MPs debated banning Trump from entering the UK in retaliation.

But Mr Davies insisted: "He is not a serious threat of harm to our society in any way. The uproar is largely because he is rich, white and politically incorrect, and that, to me, is really the crux of the issue."

He added: Lots of my constituents agree with what Donald Trump said, whether I like it or not. [Should they] be expelled from the country as a result of their views?

In the same year he added: I think that we should celebrate politicians who stand up and say things that are unpopular and controversial.

Theresa May was partly a prisoner of her office - she had to cosy up to Trump for the sake of diplomacy.

But no-one forced her to invite him for a State Visit just a week after his 2017 inauguration - a move that prompted furious protests and a petition that hit a million supporters within days.

World leaders are not automatically offered state visits. Barack Obama was afforded one in 2011 and George Bush had one in 2003, but no other US Presidents had one during the Queens reign.

Mrs May stood by her decision in the face of angry protests and the full State Visit eventually happened in 2019. But she may well have regretted it.

Donald Trump used another visit in 2018 to put a wrecking ball to her Brexit deal, calling her foolish and saying: I actually told Theresa May how to do it but she didnt agree, she didnt listen to me.

Follow this link:
7 times Tories cosied up to Donald Trump despite the warning signs - Mirror Online