Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

The British left or what passes for it today briefly pretended to care about free speech this week. Which was kind of cute. It was all sparked by Tory leadership no-hoper Rishi Sunaks bonkers suggestion that people who vilify Britain should be put on the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme, alongside all the Islamists and fascists. Who are the real snowflakes?, thundered one left-wing commentator. Fascism creeps ever closer, warned Richard Murphy, a one-time adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, as he wondered out loud if he might soon end up in some camp of Sunaks choosing for re-education.

Such principled expressions of horror, over an insanely authoritarian policy that almost certainly will never be implemented, might have had a bit more weight had the exact same people not studiously ignored a very real incident of state censorship and attempted re-education that went viral last week. Im referring, of course, to Hampshire Polices arrest of 51-year-old army veteran Darren Brady, all because he posted an offensive meme, which arranged four Progress Pride flags to resemble a swastika a clumsy commentary on the authoritarianism of the contemporary LGBT movement.

The details chillingly echo Richard Murphys tweeted fever dream. Reportedly, the police had visited Brady 10 days before they tried to arrest him, informing him that he had committed an offence by posting the flag meme. They offered him a deal: pay for a 60 community-resolution course and theyd downgrade his offence to a non-crime hate incident, which would still appear on an advanced background check. Brady refused and contacted Harry Miller, leading campaigner against thoughtpolicing, who was present at the arrest and spent a night in the cells himself for trying to obstruct the cops. Going by the footage, now seen around the world, the (several) officers who attended Bradys home had no idea what offence he was supposed to have committed, saying only that he had caused anxiety.

So, state censorship? Yep. Threats of re-education? Yep. The police showing up at someones door for no other crime than expressing an opinion? Big yep. Just because it was done in a Keystone Cops sort of fashion doesnt make the treatment of Brady any less sinister. And yet there hasnt been a peep of protest from the left-leaning intelligentsia. The armed wing of the state is going about harassing and arresting people purely for upsetting someone on the internet. And yet the people who pass themselves off as liberal, progressive, radical even, are clearly not the tiniest bit bothered about it.

Brady isnt an isolated case, either. Britain is fast becoming a warning to the Western world about caring censorship, about trying to quite literally police hurtful speech. According to one investigation, nine people a day are arrested in the UK over offensive things they post on the internet. On top of that, more than 120,000 people have had so-called non-crime hate incidents recorded against their name. These alleged incidents neednt be investigated or even be credible to be recorded. So much so that an Oxford professor once managed to get a hate incident recorded against then home secretary Amber Rudd, for a speech she gave about immigration that he later admitted he hadnt even listened to, let alone witnessed in person.

There has been significant pushback against all this in recent years, the absurdity of it all brought into sharp relief by the polices failure to get a grip on violent crime. But the problem remains deeply entrenched. Tory ministers have repeatedly slammed the thoughtpolice, but have done nothing to stop them. The governments Online Safety Bill, alongside other censorious provisions, plans to change the notorious Section 127 of the Communications Act, which criminalises grossly offensive online speech, only to replace that prohibition with a harmful communications offence, criminalising those who send a message that is intended and likely to cause serious distress. This is more of an exercise in rebranding than reform.

Whats more, non-crime hate incidents continue to be recorded despite a series of successful legal challenges against them. Harry Miller, who in 2019 was visited by the police over his own gender-critical tweets, successfully took the cops to court. A High Court judge ruled that Humberside Police unlawfully intervened in Millers freedom of expression when they logged his tweets as a hate incident, called him up to check his thinking and showed up at his place of work. The Court of Appeal later ruled further in Millers favour, slamming the existing College of Policing guidance on hate incidents as unlawful. But the judges didnt rule out the practice per se and so they stagger on.

Last week, the College of Policing issued new guidelines in response to these rulings, insisting that non-crime hate incidents should not be recorded where they are trivial, irrational or if there is no basis to conclude that an incident was motivated by hostility. The guidelines also seek to exempt those who are commenting in a legitimate debate and ensure that, when they are recorded, incidents are recorded in the least intrusive way possible. But this of course still gives the police a wide latitude to interpret what speech is and isnt trivial, irrational, baseless or legitimate. As ever with freedom of speech, the question is who decides?, and the answer is the same police who thought investigating Millers gender-critical Twitter limericks was a legitimate use of their time and resources.

The rise of Britains thoughtpolice is not just about the letter of the law. Indeed, non-crime hate incidents were introduced by the College of Policing in 2014 in response, it says, to the recommendations of the Macpherson report. And so tens of thousands of people have been quasi-criminalised without an act of parliament being passed. The job of policing speech, especially that which is presumed to offend minorities, is a role the police have embraced with gusto. Desperate to overcome a history of discriminatory behaviour they have ended up not only cracking down on genuine bigots which would be illiberal in itself but also those merely airing views that dissent from the elite orthodoxy on issues like gender or immigration.

We saw that in Bradys viral arrest. The officers werent at all clear on what law they were supposed to be enforcing. The point was that someone had been caused anxiety by an anti-woke meme and so something had to be done about it. Last year, officers from Merseyside Police set up an electronic billboard outside an Asda, declaring that being offensive is an offence. After a backlash, superintendent Martin Earl had to put out a statement clarifying that this isnt actually the case. This authoritarian freelancing on the part of the cops shows how entrenched censorious woke orthodoxy is within the British state, even the more traditionally politically incorrect section of it.

Which brings us back to the deafening silence of the left. Leftists insist there is no free-speech crisis. They dismiss cancel culture as a myth, while tacitly supporting it. They call it a right-wing confection, even though gender-critical feminists are one of the primary targets of it. They argue No Platforming on university campuses isnt censorship because only the state can censor. Meanwhile, they completely ignore the vast apparatus of state censorship that has emerged in recent years a system which has, quite possibly, given the endlessness of the internet and the broad scope of our speech laws, led to more Brits being criminalised for speech than ever before.

The reasons for this blind spot are as obvious as they are pathetic. These supposed radicals are quite comfortable with police officers harassing people so long as those people hold the wrong views. This is why they only ever complain about censorship on the rare occasions one of their own is targeted by it. This is utterly misguided, of course. As Thomas Paine put it: He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. The lefts complacency speaks to how tame and in line with the establishment many supposed leftists are today. They dont fear censorship or re-education. They already love Big Brother, which is perhaps the most damning indictment of all.

Tom Slater is editor of spiked. Follow him on Twitter: @Tom_Slater_

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How the woke left learned to love Big Brother - Spiked

Paul Czanne said that the most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself. Barnaby Tobias's Fox-Light should be an all-consuming, intoxicating picture of the magnetism and irresistibility of two young artists in love with each other and art itself. Unfortunately, that's not it and it isn't the most genial of playwriting debuts. But this is what Camden Fringe festival is for. It allows artists the space to develop and grow.

There is no research on the meaning - or necessity - of art in this debut play; there is no deeper exploration into the human experience; mostly, there is very little appeal in these insufferable, self-important art school snobs and their story. There is no reason why we should follow them from Jay's house party to their unnecessary deaths - except for morbid curiosity.

In 90 never-ending and eye-rolling minutes of stark, unfeeling, pretentious gamourisation of toxic behaviours, Tobias introduces gorgeous, horrible, well-spoken people with a god complex each who talk about nothing. They're essentially the same concept of a person actualised in two genders. No nuance, no introspection.

Jay (portrayed by Tobias himself) is a cocky and vain man whose ambition rules every aspect of his life. He takes pride in his sexual conquests and relishes in being politically incorrect. He also desperately wants to be counterculture, but doesn't have the depth for it. Tess (Martina Rossi) is a posh, snooty, waif-like foreigner who looks down on everything and everyone. They are walking red flags ready to wave in the wind.

Directed by Simon Usher with simplicity and restraint, they address the audience in long streams of consciousness that interrupt one another. Their prose is bleak and cruel, lacking in artistic beauty for most of the show but for rare glimpses of famous poetry and a few brilliant turns of phrase by Tobias.

The main issue we find in Fox-Light is that the playwright tells a lot but shows nothing. He uses language for its shock value devoid of any real content, offering a cynical and frankly pointless story. They feed off of each other's purpose and darkness with a sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll approach to life until Jay's needs take over and Tess becomes a lifeless sex object.

Orgasms become currency in their relationship and their self-destruction reaches its climax. It's unfortunate how numb and aimless this piece is. Described as a "tar-black dramedy", it sadly lacks humour and the quality of the narrative is the only tragedy in it. It's a first play and definitely not a death sentence, so onwards and upwards.

Fox-Light runs at The Hope Theatre until 7 August as part of Camden Fringe.

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Review: FOX-LIGHT, The Hope Theatre - Broadway World

OToole: And neither one of us had read it. Thats one of the things we look for; something neither one of us has read, like a classic we missed or a genre weve never read. It was such a wonderful experiment. Michael has a very mellifluous voice. I get up really early in the morning, so, Im really tired by the end of the night, and his voice completely puts me to sleep, not because Im bored, but because its so soothing. When were trying to remember who read last and he says its in the middle of the chapter, that means I must have read last, meaning I fell asleep.

Once youve started a book, have you ever abandoned it?

OToole: We got halfway through Gone with the Wind. I had read it when I was 14 but he had never read it, and I didnt remember a lot of it. It became unbearable. Did we abandon End of the Affair by Graham Greene? Its one of those very intimate stories you need to read on your own.

If I may ask, how do you handle sex scenes in a book?

McKean: There was this one Jack Reacher book by Lee Child that was a flashback to his Army days. He and his girlfriend liked to do it when the train came a-rumbling by. There were a couple of really purple chapters in there. It was fun.

Do you have a favorite among the books youve read to each other?

OToole: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It was so powerful and so beautifully written. I read the chapter about the Christmas tree. I was weeping so hard, I could barely get the words out.

McKean: Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer. So much fun to read. He never saw a paragraph he couldnt turn into a sentence. The guy never punctuatesYes, keep rolling on this. And so politically incorrect. One of the toughest [to read] was There There by Tommy Orange. Its about an Oakland pow wow that goes horribly wrong. The characters became so important to us. You get to know these people and wed come to the end of the chapter, and we would fret about them.

Do you discuss the books either while reading them or afterward?

OToole: The first birthday gift I ever gave Michael was a book. We were working together (on Final Justice). It was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. We still have it downstairs.

McKean: She said, Tell me when you finished the book. By this time, we were emailing pretty regularly. I finished it. I thought it was really wonderful. And then she expressed her outrage at the books ending.

OToole: Well, we become so invested in our hero and heroine trying to get to one another and then once they do, he dies in her arms. I wanted them to be together they earned it! And sure, he lives on in the daughter, but couldnt Frazier have given them a YEAR or something? I always prefer a happy ending.

What tips can you offer couples who want to give this a try?

McKean: Know when to fold em. Get to an agreement pointIf were 25 pages in and were, like, meh, then bail. It cant be adversarial.

OToole: Start with something with short chapters in a genre you both know you like. You know what we cant do? True crime. I read them on my own, but I can only take so much.

Do you always read at bedtime or do you read at different times of day?

OToole: Reading is always correct. Like pearls.

McKean: Or M&Ms.

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Michael McKean and Annette OToole Have Spent the Past 23 Years Reading to Each Other - Vanity Fair

The new academic year hasnt even begun and public school enrollment is already not looking good in some parts of the country.

Seattle Public School fall enrollment is projected to be down to its lowest rate in a decade, declining even further from last years significant drop. Similarly, the New York City public schools shared data last week suggesting a continued dip in public school enrollment, with more than 28,000 fewer students expected to attend a district school this fall.

We have a hemorrhaging of families that are leaving the city, leaving the school system, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The Seattle Times editors seemed slightly perplexed by the drop in their citys public school enrollment. According to their recent editorial: But even more concerning is that Seattle and some other districts enrollment continue trending downward even as statewide enrollment slowly recovers.

They shouldnt be surprised. The American Enterprise Institute analyzed extensive data in the spring showing that school districts that remained remote or that imposed ongoing school mask mandates continued to lose students in the 2021/2022 academic year, while those districts that reopened more quickly and avoided restrictive virus policies saw public school enrollment rebound from the 2020/2021 academic year slide.

Major cities such as Seattle and New York City stayed shuttered longer and reopened with Covid policies that many families found unappealing. So families fled, either moving to freer states or choosing private schools, Catholic schools, charter schools, homeschooling, microschools, and other schooling alternatives.

With cities such as San Diego reinstating a school mask mandate this summer, and Los Angeles considering bringing back its indoor mask mandate, it is likely that public school enrollment in those cities will continue to decline.

Indeed, San Diego Unified Board President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said this week that if students dont want to wear a mask at school, they should just not return.

Los Angeles lost 4.8 percent of its public school students in 2020/2021 and another 6 percent in the 2021/2022 academic year, despite schools reopening. San Diego public schools experienced a similar enrollment drop over the past two years. These enrollment declines outpaced earlier projections of declining enrollment due to demographic changes.

The good news is that coinciding with the drop in district school enrollment is the proliferation of a diverse assortment of accessible learning models, including low-cost microschools, learning pods, virtual platforms, and homeschooling collaboratives. Parents and teachers have more education options today than ever.

For Mercedes Grant, opening a new microschool is all about meeting growing demand for more transparent, personalized learning opportunities for children. A certified special education teacher, Grant taught in public middle schools in several states before deciding to launch her microschool, Path of Life Learning, in Yorktown, Virginia this fall.

The public education system is failing our students academic and social/emotional needs due to overfilled classrooms, watered-down content, and less individualized student focus because the curriculum is the priority over student mastery, she told me in an interview this week.

Microschools are typically small, multi-age learning communities that gather in private homes or local commercial spaces, often with hired teachers who facilitate a mastery-based curriculum. Microschools were gaining traction prior to 2020, but their popularity has surged over the past two years amidst the widespread education disruption caused by the pandemic response.

Microschools are offering us a way that our students can get a more authentic learning experience in a much smaller setting where the adults involved have a true passion for teaching in ways that are best for students rather than being bogged down by pacing guides, student behaviors, and curriculum constraints, said Grant.

Parents are also welcome members of most microschooling communities, something that can set these emerging learning models apart from school systems, which tend to be centralized and bureaucratic. Parents know they are valued instead of treated as the enemy, Grant added.

Her microschool, like most others that are sprouting nationwide, is a low-cost education option, with tuition rates that are far lower than other local private schools. Many microschools also try to offer sliding scale tuition and scholarships to reduce costs even further, or encourage families to take advantage of various school choice policies, such as education savings accounts, that make microschools and related learning models more accessible to more families.

As many families consider, perhaps for the first time, other education options beyond their local public school, they may be surprised to discover the variety of new learning models available to them. They may even discover, as more and more families have, that they prefer these education options far more than their government-assigned one.

This article first appeared in The Epoch Times.

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Public Schools Are 'Hemorrhaging' Students in Major Cities. Here's Where They're Going | Kerry McDonald - Foundation for Economic Education

The Den Theatre will welcome back comedian Greg Fitzsimmons for an evening of stand-up on Saturday, October 15 at 9:30 pm on The Heath Mainstage, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets ($18 - $38) are currently available at thedentheatre.com or by calling (773) 697-3830.

Mixing an incisive wit with scathing sarcasm, Greg Fitzsimmons has achieved success as a stand-up, Emmy Award-winning writer and host on both radio and TV. Greg is host of The Greg Fitzsimmons Show, on SiriusXM's "Howard 101" and twice a week puts out the hugely popular FitzDog Radio podcast. A regular on @Midnight, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and The Tonight Show, Greg has made more than 50 visits to The Howard Stern Show.

Greg has a new one-hour standup special on Comedy Central, stars in season 2 of How to be a Grown Up (TRU TV) and appeared on Louie (FX) this past season. He is a frequent guest on The Adam Carolla Show and The Joe Rogan Experience and will appear later this year in both Comedy Bang Bang (IFC) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Adult Swim).

A frequent panelist for five years on Chelsea Lately, Greg also spent five years on VH1's Best Week Ever, hosted Pumped (The Speed Channel) and he starred in two half-hour stand-up specials on Comedy Central. Greg's 2011 book, "Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons," climbed the best-seller charts and garnered outstanding reviews from NPR and Vanity Fair.

Writing credits include HBO's Lucky Louie, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Man Show and many others. On his mantle beside the four Daytime Emmys he won as a writer and producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, sit "The Jury Award for Best Comedian" from The HBO Comedy Arts Festival and a Cable Ace Award for the MTV game show he hosted called Idiot Savants.

Tickets: $25 regular seating ($18 obstructed view); $38 front row VIP table seating; $32 VIP table seating; $28 mezzanine table seating. All ticket prices include cocktail service with a two-drink minimum.

COVID guidelines: In the interest of keeping patrons and staff safe, and in accordance with the League of Chicago Theatres, The Den will continue to require proof of vaccination to attend any event for the indefinite future. While masking is no longer required, The Den strongly encourages patrons to continue wearing a mask when not eating or drinking. For the most current information on The Den's COVID guidelines, visit thedentheatre.com/covid19-policy.

Artistic Director Ryan Martin opened The Den in 2010 in the Wicker Park neighborhood with a single theatre space. Now celebrating its twelfth year, The Den is a multi-level live entertainment venue that boasts five intimate and unique theaters ranging from 50 - 300 seats. The first floor houses The Den Bar & Lounge - a full-service bar where audiences gather before and after performances to share a drink and community with like-minded culture-hounds. Currently, The Den is home to four resident theatre companies including Broken Nose Theatre, First Floor Theater, Haven and The New Coordinates (formerly The New Colony). Hundreds of other companies and artists from Chicago and beyond have called The Den home - from national names to local stars, The Den consistently plays host to a lineup of exciting and diverse talent. As a building created for interdisciplinary arts, The Den has accommodated a wide variety of programming, including plays, musicals, film screenings, dance, improv and stand-up comedy, seminars and speaking engagements. For additional information, visit http://www.thedentheatre.com.

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Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons to Perform at The Den Theatre in October - Broadway World

If Fox breaks its ties to Trump, the network would be likely to seek out another candidate as the conservative standard-bearer with DeSantis a front-runner, although the competition for the Fox imprimatur would be intense.

Trump is the subject of a wide array of lawsuits and of a host of criminal and civil investigations. The Washington Post reported on July 30:

Trump is facing historic legal and legislative scrutiny for a former president, under investigation by U.S. lawmakers, local district attorneys, a state attorney general and the Justice Department. Authorities are looking into Trump and his family business for a medley of possible wrongdoing, including his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and how he valued his various assets for loan and tax purposes.

The filing of formal criminal charges against Trump, much less a conviction, would have a major impact on his prospects as a candidate.

At the same time, it would be a fundamental mistake to underestimate Trumps prospects. In a Wall Street Journal column last week, Karl Rove described the amount of money awaiting Trump should he decide to run for a second term:

The former president controls four political-action committees Save America; Make America Great Again, Again! Inc.; Trump Make America Great Again PAC; and Make America Great Again Action. The PACs cash on hand as of June 30 came, respectively, to $103.1 million, $10.3 million, $7.3 million and $700,000, giving Mr. Trump more than $121 million at his disposal.

Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of Democracy 21, a campaign-finance reform advocacy group, wrote in an email responding to my inquiry that Trump cannot directly transfer this money into a Trump for President 2024 committee:

But he can arrange the money in a way that the money will be spent only on his campaign. Trump can consolidate all his PAC funds into one super PAC, which is informally known as a single-candidate super PAC. The super PAC must make expenditures independent of the candidate it supports and it makes all of its campaign expenditures to support one candidate, in this case Trump. But everyone gets around the independence requirement by having close political associates control the single-candidate super PAC. Its a wink and a nod situation.

In addition to the political action committees cited above, the network of fund-raising organizations and tax-exempt advocacy groups at Trumps disposal include the America First Policy Institute, The Conservative Partnership Institute, America First Legal, American Moment, the Center for Renewing America and the Claremont Institute, Save America JFC joint fund-raising committee, Save America leadership PAC, Trump Victory, and Make America Great Again Policies Inc.

Tracking the flow of money to and from these organizations is exceptionally difficult because the organizations continuously transfer money among themselves. For example, in the 2019-20 election cycle, America First Action, a super PAC, reported contributions of just over $20 million from America First Policies, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization categorized as a 501(c)(4) under I.R.S. rules, according to the Federal Election Commission. During the same period, America First Action gave America First Policies $2.04 million to cover the cost of in-kind payroll/offices expenses.

Trump has a vast array of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit tax-exempt advocacy groups that serve several purposes. They perform what Peter Singer, a senior fellow at New America, describes as a shadow government function, filled with people who either have been or want to be in government or both, a way station for prospective political appointees. These advocacy groups, Singer continued, can set a political partys agenda, giving a 2025 Trump administration a jump-start.

I asked several political scholars about Trumps 2025 agenda. Some were less alarmed than others at the threat posed by the former president.

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Opinion | Trump Has Big Plans for 2025, and He Doesnt Care Whether You Think Hell Win - The New York Times

On Wednesday, the NYU researchers launched a searchable database of Facebook digital political ads theyve managed to pull together despite the ban, putting them right back in the companys crosshairs.

Im scared of getting sued. But what Im more scared of is another Jan. 6, said Laura Edelson, one of the academics behind the project and co-lead at NYUs Cybersecurity for Democracy project.

Meta, Facebooks parent company, stripped Edelson and two NYU colleagues of their access to its own database of political ads just weeks before Joe Bidens presidential victory two years ago. The company accused them of breaking its terms of service on privacy by creating a browser extension that enabled users to provide the researchers with granular information on the types of ads appearing in their news feed. Meta also threatened to sue the researchers, who argued their work didnt violate the companys policies.

We are still getting that fundamental data [from Meta] through other channels, Edelson said when asked how NYU was still collecting the companys political ad database almost two years after getting banned from directly accessing that data. She declined to say what those other channels were.

Meta, which opened up more of its Facebook political ad data to vetted outside researchers in May and subsequently provided greater transparency to the wider public over how they were targeted with paid-for messages on the platform, said the NYU researchers work still broke the companys terms of service.

The company declined to comment specifically on whether the academics new ad database was similarly in violation of its policies.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Georgetown University in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.|Nick Wass/AP Photo

The conflict highlights how little has been resolved over how online political ads should be tracked and how outside groups can be allowed to keep tabs on digital advertising spend that is estimated to hit $1.3 billion during the midterm election cycle. Thats playing out in the build-up to Novembers election an early warning sign ahead of the flood of digital campaigning already starting ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

With Congress failing to move forward on any rules for how social media companies monitor politically divisive content or falsehoods, the companies have been left to fend for themselves. Theyve rolled out online platforms to promote get-out-the-vote campaigns, worked with outside fact-checkers to dampen the spread of incorrect information and reduced how political groups can target would-be voters via digital ads.

Yet outside researchers like those at NYU believe social media companies still are not doing enough to police how political messages and misinformation spread widely on these platforms.

And as digital political tactics quickly evolve ahead of the tech companies existing efforts including the use of paid social media influencers to promote partisan messages lawmakers and former employees also question how successful, and even willing, these firms are at policing their online platforms between now and the November election.

Its very frustrating, said Katie Harbath, Facebooks former public policy director for global elections and a former Republican Congressional staffer. Its been very hard to get a sense of what is happening. There are a lot of new vectors that are popping up that are going to remain really tricky for the platforms to deal with.

Outsiders who track political ads also argue that Facebook is failing to solve one of the easier problems providing user-friendly access to detailed data on political ad spending. Other issues like determining when politically divisive content falls afoul of its terms of service have proven tougher to combat as the amount of polarizing content on the worlds largest social network has skyrocketed.

My frustration about [Metas] ad library is that theres a sense of oh, look what you can do. But actually, unless you actually try to use it, you dont realize what a poor tool it is, said Claire Wardle, a professor at Brown Universitys Information Futures Lab and co-founder of FirstDraft, a nonprofit organization that tracked election-relation misinformation.

Edelson has become the public face of the pressure campaign for Facebook to improve its tools. The former Palantir computer scientist testified to lawmakers in the wake of the 2020 presidential election about the need for better data access to understand what is happening on social media. She won friends within Congress like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who wrote to Metas chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, questioning his companys ban imposed on the NYU academics.

Facebook has not fixed the fundamental security vulnerabilities in both their ad networks and their platform more broadly, Edelson said in an interview. I dont think Facebook is doing a good enough job of providing functional transparency.

Rules for broadcast television require disclosures on political spending from politicians and outside groups. But there is no similar requirement for major websites and almost all spending on them remains a black box especially on connected TV services like those of DirecTV and Comcast.

Edelsons team collects reams of publicly available political ad information directly from Meta, including demographic and regional breakdowns for such paid messaging. They then analyze it for patterns about who is spending the most on these ads and which groups are not abiding by the companys rules that require political players to publicly outline they are spending to reach voters nationwide.

Ahead of Novembers election, Facebook spending on political ads has so far focused on wedge issues like the recent Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, as well as what limits, if any, should be placed on Second Amendment rights, according to POLITICOs analysis of the NYU database.

Since late May, for instance, almost $13.5 million has been earmarked for abortion-related ads, with a signficant spike in purchasing in the wake of the decision in late June to overturn Roe rulingg. Planned Parenthood, the abortion-rights group, represented more than one-third of that spending with ads that targeted states like Texas, where a local court ruling outlawed abortion.

Edelson argued the database provides a much-needed resource to track spending both by campaigns and lobbying groups that were funneling money into swing state elections.

Maybe this cycle is when Facebook really nails it, that they provide transparency tools that will put us out of business, she said. But if they dont, then I think were going to need to do this all over again in 2024.

Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Katie Harbaths name.

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Fight over online political ads heats up ahead of midterms - POLITICO

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The mind just keeps on boggling | Contributed Columns | wyomingnews.com - Wyoming Tribune

The Wolf (Bad Bunny) and Ladybug (Brad Pitt) square off in Bullet Train.Photo: Sony Pictures

A constant social media refrain asks if certain older movies could still be made today based on elements like cost, logistics, politically incorrect content, or a filmmakers formula-defying creative process. Bullet Train begs the question of whether movies inspired by those filmmakers should even be attempted today, unless theyre being done by the original directors themselves.

Bullet Train filmmaker David Leitch may fancy himself a spiritual descendant of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, who established their distinctive styles decades before Ktar Isakas acclaimednovel of the same name was published in 2010. But Leitchs talky, violent hit man movie, with Brad Pitt at the center of an over-cranked ensemble cast, reminds us why Hollywood has all but abandoned attempts to copy the successes of Tarantino and Ritchie. This film is not just bloated, tedious, dim-witted, and glib, its also redundant.

Sandra Bullock

Maria Beetle

Trained killer Ladybug wants to give up the life but is pulled back in by his handler Maria Beetle in order to collect a briefcase on a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka. On board are fellow assasins Kimura, the Prince, Tangerine, and Lemon. Once on board the five assasins discover that their objectives are all connected.

Pitt plays Ladybug, a former hitman hired by his longtime handler Maria (Sandra Bullock, returning a favor after Pitts appearance in The Lost City) to steal a briefcase full of cash from active hitmen Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry). Despite Marias assurances about the simplicity of the job, Ladybug quickly encounters opposition not only from Tangerine and the Thomas The Tank Engine-obsessed Lemon, but also The Prince (Joey King), a conniving Brit posing as a schoolgirl; Yuichi Kimura (Andrew Koji), an anguished Japanese father seeking vengeance after his son was pushed off of a roof; Hornet (Zazie Beetz), an assassin with her own designs on the briefcase, and other targets to execute; and The Wolf (Benito A Martinez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny), a Mexican cartel member who came to Japan after the death of his wife, for which he blames the luckless Ladybug.

Ladybug must not only defeat these foes, but figure out what events put all of them in his path. This leads to a variety of flashbacks, subplots, surprises, and secret motives, which Leitch and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz (Fear Street: Part Two1978) shuffle with little regard for pacing or the basic logistics of the films setting: how long exactly does it take for a high-speed train to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto (it was Morioka in Isakas novel)? A quick Google search indicates that the trip lasts about two hours and 15 minutes, but for some reason, this train runs all nightmaking Ladybugs escalating gauntlet feel more like a meandering travelogue through the characters one-dimensional personalities.

The muscular, charming energy that Leitch brought to set pieces and fight sequences in Hobbs & Shaw extends past the tipping point of improbability here, with a train thats full of passengers at times and empty others, without any real explanation. There are stabbings, poisonings, gunshots, snake attacks, hand-broken windshields, explosions, derailings, and more, and the only person who seems to notice is a little old lady who wishes Ladybug and Lemon would be quieter while they beat each other senseless.

As a conflict-averse assassin, Ladybugs efforts to resolve each new confrontation runs out of gas, especially since Pitt has played some version of a capable dope with more words than brains since at least The Mexican. Watching the actor have fun on screen should actually be fun, but here it feels like hes dragging the train along, instead of effortlessly riding it. Meanwhile as Lemon, Henrys obsession with Thomas & Friends is like a remnant of the era in which Tarantino spiced up Crimson Tide with monologues about the Silver Surfer. And the result here is just as obnoxious as it was watching Tarantino rant about Top Gun when he appeared in Sleep With Me. And even though Taylor-Johnson tapped into a surprisingly appealing persona when he adopted a working-class Cockney accent for a supporting role in Christopher Nolans Tenet, he repeats himself here and reduces his charm to sub-Guy Ritchie levels.

The less said about the rest of the cast the better, although Koji and the always stellar Hiroyuki Sanada desperately fight to inject dignity into the story of their familys multi-generational betrayals and misjudgments. But Leitch and Olkewicz feebly draw out those themes across the myriad conflicts and saddle these performers with those topics in an act of misjudged authenticity. Controversies over a mostly English-language adaptation of a Japanese novel notwithstandingwhich Isaka himself has largely dismissedwhat proves to be more offensive is the films unskilled attempt to inject seriousness into what should have been a cheeky summer distraction. Its fine for a movie about a bunch of competing killers to itself place no value on human life, and even to joyfully indulge in that kind of nihilism, but the way the filmmakers inject a sense of pathos feels about as earnest and meaningful as an airport gift shop souvenir before the flight home from some far-flung foreign country.

That said, whether or not Isaka started with an adequate level of originality on the page, this kind of story occupies a place thats simply too well-defined on screen. Especially when its anchored by an equally familiar performance by Pitt, whose movie stardom has been amplified by the talents of filmmakers like Tarantino and Ritchie, but doesnt always generate enough wattage to juice up a lackluster project on its own.

Ultimately, Bullet Train aims to be slick when it needs to be smart, and predictable when it should be provocativeeffectively making all of the wrong stops at exactly the wrong time. The problem isnt that Leitch doesnt have the talent to pull off a film like this, but that he doesnt have the personality. Rather, he possesses the proficiency to be a contemporary studio journeymanas long as he chooses the right journey.

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Bullet Train takes Brad Pitt for a ride before it goes off the rails - The A.V. Club

In a bad new epidemic of hypocrisy and wokedom that Simon Lincoln Reader calls an outbreak of California Blue, involving examples of cosplay disguised as activism such as Prince Harrys mouthing off about climate change having just landed at Van Nuys in a Gulf Stream, Reader says hed rather have the old-fashioned corruption of Faith Muthambi any day of the week. He imagines Faith and her friends cackling in the back of a Hummer limousine, bursting with polony and Fanta Pine, speeding wildly in front of plumes from extremely leaded petrol en route to a party at an abattoir, compared with UKs fey Rishi Sunak gazing soulfully out at the ocean with a look of *deep concern* over sea levels. And he argues theres rising intolerance of California Blue and its symptoms everywhere, from Holland to Sri Lanka to the US. Readbelow for some straight-talking, politically incorrect opinions. Sandra Laurence

By Simon Lincoln Reader*

Tom Bower is possibly Britains most popular biographer but his new book on the fracturing of the Royal Family (Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War between the Windsors) could easily have been called The Descent of Man. More than gossip, a dramatic portrait emerges of a young man contaminated by a condition known as California Blue. This disease is more dangerous than Monkeypox or whatever next the WHO has in mind for us: it took a young (by all accounts, excellent) soldier with a fondness for smoking and naked billiards into the despair of cosplay disguised as activism, where everything is racist. Through Harry a great tragedy is confirmed: Western Man the species defined by the brilliance of life in his late grandfather is dead, and the imposter who replaced him mouths off about climate change having just landed at Van Nuys in a Gulf Stream.

Im afraid that one of the contenders for leadership of Britains Conservative party and subsequently, the role of Prime Minister, is himself infected with California Blue. Prior to coof little was known of Rishi Sunak besides his marriage to the daughter of one of Indias richest men (founder of Infosys), who he met in Silicon Valley. That changed in a cabinet re-shuffle in 2020; just as things were hotting up courtesy of Wuhan, Boris Johnson appointed Rishi Goldman Sachs alum as Chancellor. As these kinds of detached people terrified of tough decisions so often do, Rishi bounced from one stinker to the next, kicking the can further down the road until the opportunity to stab Boris Johnson appeared.

Rishi is a Californian politician, but in Britain. Even before he was announced a finalist, he was replying to questions with non-answers perhaps the most alarming was an attempt to answer the question: What is a woman? Instead of adult human female, he mumbled his way through a erm-um-uh-I support-the-Prime-Ministers-declaration-ah-um response, which is how the problems in Los Angeles County started decades ago. As one of the two finalists for Number 10 Downing Street, he declared, I flew back from the US in 2021 to stop the government plunging the UK into another lockdown! That statement has since been described as categorically false by government sources and reporters. In contrast, his opponent Liz Truss (Foreign Secretary) answered No when asked whether she would consider a lockdown in the event of another leak from Wuhan.

Dont be fooled by his Brexit credentials; the Harry, or Californian Blue, is strong in him in other ways. He wants a central bank digital currency to obliterate Bitcoin. Hes a massive fan of Britains ailing, sclerotic (but the diversity) NHS. Worse and very Californian is his defiance of historys documented lessons, specifically the history of finance, which shows that if you increase the circulation of cash without a corresponding increase in real supply, the end result is ten times out ten something called inflation.

So if it came down to Faith Muthambi vs Rishi, my cross would be next to the old girl. At least with her youll get exactly what you expect: old-fashioned corruption with increasing reluctance toward discretion. Whilst Rishi is splashed across newspapers standing next to Dr Jill Biden staring out at the ocean with a look of *deep concern* (sea levels), Faith and her friends will be cackling in the back of a Hummer limousine, bursting with polony and Fanta Pine, speeding wildly in front of plumes from extremely leaded petrol en route to a party at an abattoir. Every June, the civil service will ensnare Rishi with a Pride flag forcing him to send a tweet photo to Brett Herron, GOODs failed mayoral candidate, expressing sympathy (solidarity) that Cape Towns City Council refuses to use pronouns. Try to do that with Faith see what happens to you. You wont find her at any event hosted by unelected creepy organisations determined to instruct elected officials or you will, but only to procure those small bottles of Scotch from the hotel bar fridge, to pair with other small bottles she took from the airline getting there. In addition, Rishi has a fondness for skinny ties and no man should ever wear a slim Jim.

Because 95% of the worlds prestige media journalists are infected with it, this might not be readily apparent but theres rising intolerance of California Blue and its symptoms everywhere, from Holland to Sri Lanka to the USA. And if you dont believe me that elected infected officials who invested in the narrative are untrustworthy and beyond mad, just look at what California Blues patient zero, Nancy Pelosi, got up to this past week.

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SLR: Give me old-fashioned South African corruption any time! - BizNews