Many of us have, at one point or another, been stuck in a bar argument that went on a bit too long, that got a bit too hostile, with someone we didn’t know too well — and it’s rarely a memory to be treasured. Would it help if the guy at the other end of […]
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: Children of color are more likely than white kids to participate in remote schooling — and lack live access to teachers
5 states where children have fared worst during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report
Over 800 leading French cinema figures call for reopening of theatres
More than 2,000 cinemas in France have been dark since the end of last October as part of anti-Covid-19 measures.
Monaco Yacht Show to Resume in 2021, But With A New Covid-Aware Format
The organizers have created three new attendee designations to make docks less congested, while allowing better access for yacht buyers.
Column: Al Sharpton’s Hoary Heart-to-Heart With Kamala
Liberals have spent the last five years fulminating about how President Trump reserved the bulk of his national TV interviews for Fox News. They would fiercely protest the protective bubble Trump would receive from Sean Hannity or Jeannine Pirro.
So what did they say when Vice President Kamala Harris granted her first national interview as the Veep to Rev. Al Sharpton for his weekend program on MSNBC? Hannity and Pirro aren’t known for racial hoaxes or virulent anti-Semitism.
No one would really consider Sharpton a journalist. He’s still running around lobbying with his group, the National Action Network. Last year, he was touting how he would “get in the door and advocate” to Harris and Biden and if the Democrats won.
So if Sharpton went all soft on Kamala, made her look good, that might help him later with his lobbying. He wasn’t bringing Harris a single hard question. He didn’t ask about Andrew Cuomo. He didn’t ask about the new administration putting child immigrants in detention centers – “kids in cages.” It was 15 minutes inside a protective bubble. Let’s review his question list.
1. “Let me ask you, what does Black History Month mean to you?” Harris replied: “It means everything to me.” This softball question was used in advertisements to promote the interview.
2. Self-involved Sharpton noted that he took Harris to his favorite soul-food restaurant, Sylvia’s, when she was running for president. “You asked me a lot of questions about Shirley Chisholm, who I worked with when I was a kid. You asked me a lot about Reverend Jesse Jackson that helped mentor me in activism. So I know you had a keen sense of history, in even my own journey. Who are the people that influence Kamala Harris to be the Vice President of the United States?…Who was important to Kamala Harris as a black historic figure?”
3. Then the Reverend preached “You’re not only the first woman Vice President, first black woman, first South Asian, South Pacific woman. You are also the first HBCU graduate, from Howard University. And you’re the first AKA [sorority] member….How much of Howard University, an HBCU, how much of that shaped you?”
4. On coronavirus, Sharpton lectured “in the black community, we’ve had the problem of hesitancy and questioning, and given a bad history, there is no reason why we wouldn’t. But you’ve been that champion of trying to convince us, including people like me that were reluctant and you’re doing something specific. Tell us about Thursday.” She touted an event at a D.C. pharmacy that she held two days before the interview aired.
Sharpton credited Harris with convincing him to get a vaccine, which he did. But there was no question on how Harris and Biden have claimed they had to “start from scratch” on vaccine distribution, which is flat-out false. Or Harris saying last year she didn’t trust a vaccine under Trump.
5. He closed out by asking Harris how she’d like to be considered in half a century. “What do you hope they will say? You’ll probably still be around in some smart pantsuit and some Converse sneakers [at age 106?], but I’ll be gone. What do you hope they will say about Kamala Harris, the first black woman Vice President of the United States, 50 years from now?”
So these weren’t so much questions as opportunities for Kamala to dwell on her biography and her influences and inspirations to celebrate Black History Month. That’s all very uplifting if you’re a Liberal Person of Color. But liberals shouldn’t try to lecture the conservatives about journalistic skepticism and independence.
Laying Down the Law! Iowa Legislature Joins Fight Against Big Tech
Iowa Republicans have decided to lay down the law against Big Tech censorship and have joined the growing list of state legislatures fighting against abuses by Big Tech.
Iowa State Representatives Jon Jacobsen (R), Anne Osmundson (R), and Skyler Wheeler (R) have introduced a bill to discourage and potentially penalize social media platforms that engage in online censorship.
“A dominant social media company shall not affect the ability of a user to create, view, comment, or otherwise interact with content that constitutes constitutionally protected speech on the dominant social media company’s social networking website by limiting, blocking, or otherwise restricting any content on the social networking website or the user’s access to the social networking website,” said the bill, titled “A bill for an act relating to certain companies that censor online content and providing civil penalties.”
Under the bill’s provisions, if an Iowa user is censored online, the social media platform in question must provide a written explanation of the reason or reasons the user was censored “[w]ithin thirty days.” The bill would also impose up to a $100,000 fine for violating the provisions.
Iowa State Sen. Zach Whiting (R) appeared to enthusiastically support the bill. “Whiting said he was ‘fortunate’ to be the first person to sign on to cosponsor the bill. Facebook, Twitter and the like are not government actors, but Whiting said social media is the new public square,” The Iowa Standard reported.
Whiting further explained his passion for free speech rights online. “What we have is a de facto end-around the First Amendment by Big Tech groups that are silencing speech they disagree with and that is wrong and it is dangerous to our republic,” Whiting said. “This bill puts these people on notice — stop doing what you’re doing.”
Amazon, for example, removed the book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment after Amazon deemed it “offensive content.”. YouTube removed LifeSiteNews entirely, and the pro-life organization later claimed that “Google has[d] completely banned our website from Google Ads and Google Ad servers.” YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, TikTok and even Shopify all banned former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
A growing number of states have begun to take action against Big Tech, and their actions could inspire other states to do the same. North Dakota and Arizona have considered legislation to take action against the dominance of Apple and Google’s app stores. Nebraska introduced legislation to hold Big Tech accountable for censorship, and Florida has been developing similar legislation. The Virginia House of Delegates and New York legislature have each introduced legislation to give consumers more agency over their personal data. Maryland, meanwhile, already passed a tax on digital ad revenue.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Biden Wastes Little Time Launching his own Middle Eastern Bombing Campaign
There’s a really easy way to not have to bomb the Middle East under pretext of protecting U.S. interests: Just don’t have any U.S. interests there.
My foldable phone expectations were way too high – CNET
Commentary: Phones have gotten boring, and foldables offered a glimmer of potential excitement. It didn’t last.
Female Business Owners Share Successes, Challenges, and Advice for Entrepreneurs
Hear directly from women entrepreneurs who have found success – they share advice, challenges, insights and what they wish they knew when they started out.
Welcoming ‘Refreshing’ Biden White House, Still Cursing ‘Horrible’ Republicans
Journalists still have the warm and fuzzies when it comes to Joe Biden. They spent February welcoming the “refreshing” Biden White House by tossing softballs to him in interviews and penning adoring essays about the new president “playing MarioKart with his family.”
In stark contrast, the likes of CNN anchor Don Lemon crushed conservatives as being “horrible” since Ronald Reagan. On MSNBC, proud gun owners were compared to Osama bin Laden.
Sadly, leftist journalists couldn’t let up on their hatred of Rush Limbaugh, even in his passing, as seen here.
The Hollywood Left was nutty this month too. Former SNL cast member Maya Rudolph compared Vice President Kamala Harris to a “superhero,” while talk show host Jimmy Kimmel derided CPAC as “Comic-Con” for “Neo-Nazis.”
The following are some of the worst outbursts from liberal journos and celebrities over the last month:
Republicans Were Always “Horrible,” Even When Reagan Was Around
“Reagan was not perfect. Reagan was horrible….They hold him up as a gold standard. When you look at what he actually accomplished….He was horrible when it came to racial issues, he was horrible when it came to the AIDS crisis. He was horrible when it came to uniting the country. He didn’t unite the country; he was a divider! And so they hold him up as a gold standard….I think the Republican Party has been moving in this direction forever. Again, they are the party of everything that they’re trying to pretend that they’re not. Now saying ‘The people in the Capitol, that’s not us.’ Yes, it is you! ‘The people who were in Charlottesville, that’s not us.’ Yes, it is you!”
— Host Don Lemon on CNN Tonight, February 11.
On MSNBC: Posing with a Gun = You Are Osama Bin Laden
“Last Thursday, [Rep. Lauren Boebert] Zoomed into a virtual congressional hearing with just a mess of guns piled on the bookshelf behind her. AR-15-style rifles, a handgun just laying across a bunch of books….Lots of people immediately noted that the use of guns in that way as props and the implicit threat that comes with them has a….long, not necessarily great history among various movements around the globe. Osama bin Laden, for one liked to pose in front of a bookshelf with a gun prominently displayed. The Irish Republican Army would display guns in its propaganda posters and its murals. Cuban revolutionaries, they posed with guns all the time, too.”
— Host Chris Hayes on MSNBC’s All In, February 23.
Trump’s Hold Over GOP Is Like the “Fuhrer”
“He [Donald Trump] has the Republican party as a personalized power like we haven’t seen. It’s a caudillo, it’s a Caesar, it’s a Fuhrer, we don’t see that in this country. We do now.”
— ABC senior national correspondent Terry Moran on ABC News live coverage of Trump impeachment, February 10.
Trump White House Had “Deadly Ends” for the Press
“And it [the Biden White House] is refreshing. I do kind of put it towards like having a really bad ex-boyfriend. We were getting essentially abused by Kayleigh McEnany for so long. Or, at least, she was calling us fake news and inciting her followers and followers of the President to not only harass us online, but, obviously, go to deadly ends for some people. With death threats.”
— Yahoo! News White House correspondent Brittany Shepherd on CNN’s Reliable Sources, February 7.
Biden = “Centrist” “Republican?!”
“If Republicans can’t do business with Joe Biden — I mean, he’s a centrist, maybe center-left Republican who has made his mark in Washington for decades on reaching across the aisle.”
— CNN Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN Newsroom with Fredricka Whitfield, February 14.
Not Exactly Hurling Hardballs
“Over the years, over your career, you’ve already spent a great deal of time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, except now you’re living there and you’re president. It’s been four weeks. What’s it like? How is it different?”
— CNN’s AC360 host Anderson Cooper to President Biden on CNN Presidential Town Hall With Joe Biden, February 16.
Is It “Unfair” to Be Tough on Biden?
“Are we holding President Biden to an unfair standard? Saying, ‘I thought you were going to go unity,’ when we are not saying that to any Republican who was asking for unity after Democrats called for an impeachment hearing and certainly didn’t ask the President [Trump] to even represent any form of unity in governing the whole country?”
— Host Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC Live, February 3.
Hard-Hitting Coverage of Biden’s First Few Weeks In Office
“How did Joe Biden relax during his first Presidents Day weekend as president? By playing MarioKart with his family. During his weekend retreat at Camp David, Biden and his granddaughter Naomi played the racing video game, and he won. Naomi shared a video to Instagram that showed Biden competing against her on the Arcade GP DX machines, complete with chairs and steering wheels. Biden sat on the right as Luigi, and Naomi is Princess Peach on the left, GameRant noted. Despite not being at the same gaming level as his granddaughter, the commander-in-chief came out victorious. ‘Secret service made an exception and let him drive himself!!!!’ Naomi joked on her Instagram Story, since the president is rarely allowed to drive for security reasons, as per CNBC. ‘A little rusty but he still won (barely),’ she added.”
— February 15 online story by Newsweek staff writer Marina Watts “Joe Biden, Playing as Luigi, Wins in Mario Kart Race Against Granddaughter at Camp David.”
Guys Trust Us, We’re Not In the Tank for Democrats
“Republican presidents have an entire right wing media apparatus that supports them. When a Democrat is in charge, that apparatus is on the attack. And then the mainstream media, places like CNN, places like The Washington Post and The New York Times, they interrogate whoever is in power. So they’re also going to be holding a Democratic president to a higher level of accountability and transparency. And so, I think for a lot of folks on the left, that feels like it is unfair.”
— CNN.com columnist and former Cosmopolitan senior political writer Jill Filipovic on CNN’s Reliable Sources, February 28.
“There’s also this notion that we’re somehow ideologically attached to a party — the Democratic party. And that’s not true. We are completely independent. We held the Obama administration to account. We fully expect to hold the Biden administration to account.”
— Outgoing Washington Post editor Marty Baron on CNN’s Reliable Sources, February 28.
Biden Better Beware of The Hot Seat That is The View!
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Today’s Presidents Day, and it’s been a long time coming for all of us here on The View, because we finally have a president in office who we’re honored to celebrate. Plus, our other relationship with President Biden goes way back before he became number 46. Take a look.”
(Montage of Joe Biden appearances)
Co-host Joy Behar: “He’s so, he’s so genuine, and sweet and lovely and funny.”
Co-host Sara Haines: “Good sense of humor!”
Behar: “Everything you want in a man and in a President! You know? He’s great, and he’s right for these times, he’s perfect for these times.”
Haines: “That was cathartic to watch!”
Behar: “I’m glad we have him.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “Just decent. Nice.”
Goldberg: “I think that’s why he didn’t win before. Because it wasn’t his time. Because he was going to be needed later on, and so you know. I have to say he’s a great riding buddy if you’re on the train. You know?…I catch up with him back and forth on the train. He’s just a great guy, a real guy.
— ABC’s The View, February 15.
Kamala Harris = Superhero
“There’ve been times when you’re asked to play up someone’s flaws or characteristics that are annoying or frustrating or embarrassing. This one feels like a superhero cape I get to don.”
— Former NBC’s Saturday Night Live cast member Maya Rudolph on being asked back to impersonate Vice President Kamala Harris on the show, as revealed in a February 11 Entertainment Weekly article.
Arquette Has One Agenda and That’s Advancing Stupidity
“The GOP has one agenda, And that’s white Supremacy.”
— February 10 tweet by actress Rosanna Arquette.
Don’t Do Drugs and Tweet
“Evangelical leaders should themselves be impeached by the Vatican if they themselves don’t follow Nikki Haley’s lead & clearly state they should not have followed Satin [sic] into the bowels of hell. But, perhaps they are too busy at sex parties.”
— February 12 tweet by actor Sean Penn.
Time to “Turn the Page on the Cruel Past of This Nation”
“At 54 years it’s my humble belief that what will give us all the sadness and loss that we’ve all lived through meaning is our common humanity, what connects us is greater than what keeps us apart. And the more we include each other, and see each other and hear each other, the faster we will heal our broken hearts and minds. We have a dying mother just like the mother in our story. She is Mother Earth. And we must come to balance with her and honor her. And she’ll heal too. So let’s be courageous together, guys, and….let’s turn the page on the cruel past of this nation. The good news is inclusion and justice and care for Mother Earth is breaking out everywhere. The godly light of decency is breaking through the hideous dark storm we’ve been living through. We are all in this together. We are the ones we have been waiting for so let’s do this now. I love you.”
— Actor Mark Ruffalo in his acceptance speech at the 78th Golden Globe Awards aired on NBC, February 28.
Kimmel Serving Leftover Nazi Jokes From Last Four Years
“CPAC, if you don’t know, is an annual event. It’s like Comic-Con for neo-cons and neo-Nazis too.”
— Host Jimmy Kimmel during his monologue on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, February 23.
