Ed Palm, Columnist Published 1:58 p.m. PT Aug. 7, 2020

Call me a Never Trumper. Ill proudly claim that title. It is my considered opinion that we dont just need to defeat Donald Trump for reelection. We need to repudiate him and what he stands for.

We need to repudiate Trumps juvenile name calling and ad hominem attacks on those who criticize or disagree with him. Contrary to what some of his followers seem to believe, Trump is not delivering deserved counterpunches. Nor is he striking a blow for freedom of thoughtless expression, much less freeing us from the constraints of political correctness. Trumps rhetoric demeans the office he holds and reinforces the strength of ignorance in this nation. We used to expect that civility, decency, and maturity would prevail in our public discourse. A vote against Trump would be a vote for restoring that expectation.

We need to repudiate Trumps paranoid positing of conspiracy theories and his demonization of opponents. There is no deep state conspiracy against him. Judicial rulings arent grounded in personal animosity, antipathy, or approval. Democrats are not evil. They merely disagree with his policies and deplore his personal and official conduct in office.

We need to repudiate Trumps reliance on instinct and his disdain for science. He has been pandering to those who believe their uninformed and unreasoned opinions are just as deserving of respect as those of specialists with years of study and experience in their fields. Witness Trumps repeated attempts to discredit Dr. Fauci and his obvious envy at the attention and respect Fauci has earned.

Even more troubling, Trumps ego has led him into magical thinking. None of his predictions about when and how covid 19 would disappear came to pass. Nor is the U.S. doing as well in managing it as he would have us believe. When we most needed serious and selfless leadership, Trump has been whimsical and self-serving. We need a president who will restore our faith in and respect for science.

We need to repudiate Trumps pettiness and his deference to the racists and white supremacists among his followers. Past presidents and congressional leaders have all acknowledged the great contributions of John Lewis in the Civil Rights Movement and his long-standing service as the conscience of the Congress. Trump merely sent out a short tweet the day after Lewiss death, and he couldnt be bothered to attend Lewiss funeral or to send the vice president. Why? Lewis was one of his critics. Trump further fears offending his base by appearing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter movement. Voting Trump out of office would be an important first step toward ending the racial unrest that has spread throughout our country.

We need to repudiate Trumps autocratic aspirations and his fondness for dictators. I recently saw a Fox News clip from June 30 in which Trump praised Turkeys president Erdogan and Russias Putin for being sharp. He went on to say that when Erdogan speaks, his people sit up at attention. Did Trump really say thats what he wants his people to do? No matter. Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Putin and for North Koreas Kim Jung-un. We need to reaffirm our commitment to democracy and our rejection of autocracy.

We need to repudiate Trumps jingoistic and chauvinistic approach to patriotism. To quote my friend the noted poet, author, and commentator W.D. Ehrhart, When the symbols of freedom replace the substance of freedom, were all in a whole lot of trouble. Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem to call attention to how America is falling short of its promise to provide liberty and justice for all. Trump continues to demonize Kaepernick and those who may follow his lead. His mind is closed to the legitimate complaints of those who continue to suffer injustice. We need a president who will listen to all Americans and not just to those who would use the American flag as a gag.

Along the same lines, we need to repudiate Trumps transactional and shortsighted America First approach to foreign policy. As the richest nation on earth, we should be guided by a spirit of noblesse oblige. To those whom much is given, much is expected. NATO and other alliances have been the bulwarks of freedom and democracy. Trump has made us look stingy and arrogant in quibbling over how much other nations are paying. He further seeks to punish nations that fail to give him the deference to which he feels entitled. What else is behind his decision to pull troops out of Germany?

Most of all, we need to repudiate Trumps demagoguery. Attack ads are par for the course in an election year. But Trumps TV ads have reached new depths of fear mongering. Who seriously believes a Biden presidency would effectively leave us all vulnerable to violent crime?

All we have to fear is fear itself! a much better president once remarked during another dark time in our history. Contrast that with Trumps self-serving suggestion we postpone the election until were safe from the voter-fraud danger posed by mail-in ballots. It recalls comic skits in which banana republic dictators cling to power by claiming conditions are not yet safe for democracy. America is the great republic, not a banana republic.

As it now stands, Trump is down in the polls, but we need to remember how the polls were wrong in forecasting Clintons victory in 2016. Opinion polls dont take into account the vagaries of the Electoral College system. It is important that we all get out and vote -- if not for Biden, against Trump. Trumps repudiation and Americas redemption depend upon it.

Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.

Ed Palm, community columnist(Photo: Kitsap Sun file)

Read or Share this story: https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2020/08/07/ed-palm-vote-restore-civility-and-decency/3323062001/

Here is the original post:

A vote to restore civility and decency - Kitsap Sun

Guilt is a word and issue we need to know and deal with. We are facing it right now as the race issue divides rather than unites us a nation with a major election in November 2020.

Websters defines it several different ways, from official guilt in the commission of a crime or offense to "feelings of deserving blame especially for imagined offenses," which is the one I want us to focus on today.

The issues are the accusations that "systemic racism" has governed this nations history from even before its founding to now an interpretation called the 1619 Project -- to the need for reparations by whites to pay blacks for the sin of supporting and sustaining slavery from 1619 to 1866 in the nation, and for all of the injustices which followed: segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, etc.

We dealt in a previous Port Rail with the issue of whether the national history of the U.S. is driven by "systemic racism," while such frivolous and distracting items as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, free speech, the rule of law, the rise of capitalism, the Civil War, etc. are all merely eye wash to disguise the reality of white dominance and black subservience. This point of view is described in the 1619 Project promoted by the New York Times and one of their journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones. It was dismissed as bad journalism and even worse history by a group of historians at Princeton who I agree with.

The reparations issue is based, at its core, on white guilt for the bad behavior of our ancestors. What does Scripture say about guilt and reparations?

The Old Testament says we can bear the sins of our fathers up to three or four generations although it is clear these "generational" sins are usually against God and Gods laws. Deuteronomy 5:9 says "You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." On the other hand, Deuteronomy 24:16 says "Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin," and so clearly states sins are not transmitted or generational. Ezekiel 18:18-20 adds: "the son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son."

What does the New Testament say about generational sin? In the simplest way, it does not exist because Jesus wiped our slate clean. Scripture clearly states that we each bear personal responsibility for life and life everlasting, and nothinglike sin or guilt-- is inherited legally from the past. We cannot be held responsible for the sins of our ancestors, our children, or our great grandmothers.

Was slavery bad? Sure enough, and the study of the slave experience from Biblical times to today is part of our history and should never be buried, erased, destroyed or otherwise removed from the study of our past. To do so is to mangle the words and images which preserve the past.

History is often a war of words. The act of pulling down a statue of Christopher Columbus or defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant is a physical reflection of two elements: one is a gross historical ignorance; and, two, it is merely a symbolic gesture reflecting a set of values driving the Left towards a destruction of culture as it now exists to replace it with the "truth" of socialism or communism.

One must first win the war of words. The radical Left says "we are right, and you are wrong. We set the stage. You have to play by our rules and words." You can call it names like cancel culture, political correctness, identity politics, wokes, etc. but you are aiming for power, and words, not firebombs, laser beams, and bricks are far more powerful. The actions of a true revolution will follow the words.

Returning to guilt and reparations. If, in spite of Scripture, you still insist on white guilt, remember your history: slaves bought by Portuguese mariners on the coast of West Africa in the mid-fifteenth century were enslaved by other Africans themselves--the kings and chiefs of Africa. Slavery was perpetuated by Africans, so if you insist on reparations, collect your reparations from the heirs of those slave trading kings and chiefs.

Or, even better, dump reparation as another gambit to separate and divide our nation. Take up the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who preached we are one people, perhaps still evolving, but what a beautiful, Christian message he spoke, and lived. I liked these two particularly.

"We may have all come on different ships, but we are on the same boat now." And "we must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." That MLK Jrs wisdom came wrapped in a Christian package makes his life, and his example, even more powerful, and, indeed, eternal, far beyond the confines of cancel cultures, political correctness, identity politics, or the wokes.

Larry Clayton is a retired University of Alabama history professor. Readers can email him at larryclayton7@gmail.com.

More here:

THE PORT RAIL: Guilt and words - Gadsden Times

Doctors determine obesity by dividing a patient's weight by their height. This produces a measure called body mass index. If yours hits 30 or higher, you're considered obese.

But is this simple measure the best way to frame obesity?

In new guidelines published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a group of doctors argue that, while knowing a patient's body mass index is useful, healthcare professionals should take a more holistic approach to treating obesity one that doesn't overfocus on weight-loss through exercise and diet.

The authors say this new model could improve treatments and reduce weight stigma. After all, the old model typically frames obesity as "self-inflicted condition" caused by a lack of personal responsibility, which may affect "the type of interventions and approaches that are implemented by governments or covered by health benefit plans."

"For the longest time, we blamed our patients, we blamed people living with obesity for the lack of willpower in terms of overeating, in terms of not being physically active," co-author Dr. David C.W. Lau of the University of Calgary's Julia MacFarlane Diabetes Research Centre, said in a podcast. "We now know this is a totally misperceived perception."

The new guidelines define obesity as "a prevalent, complex, progressive, and relapsing chronic disease, characterized by abnormal or excessive body fat (adiposity) that impairs health." Under this definition, someone would only be considered obese if they have a high body-mass index and a corresponding physical or mental health condition.

The guidelines aren't arguing that weight isn't relevant to health. After all, there's no shortage of research showing that having a high body mass and excess body fat boosts your risks of developing many conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, depression, respiratory problems and even certain cancer.

But one key complication is that obesity is caused by many factors. For example, the guidelines note that the condition is influenced by genetics, epigenetics, neurohormonal mechanisms, associated chronic diseases and obesogenic medications, sociocultural practices and beliefs, social determinants of health, built environment, individual life experiences like adverse childhood experiences, and a host of psychological factors.

As such, a straightforward "eat-less, move more" strategy might not work equally for everyone. The guidelines note that "obesity management should be about improved health and well-being, and not just weight loss."

To help primary care practitioners better treat obesity, the doctors outlined five steps:

Insider noted that some health professionals and body-positive advocates don't think the guidelines go far enough in reframing obesity treatment. The update still points "to individual bodies as the problem, not culture," registered dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield, told Insider.

But it's also possible to see how some health professionals may worry this new model could discourage patients from taking the initiative to tackle weight-loss on their own, through exercise and dieting.

In a 2020 opinion piece published in Frontiers in Nutrition, Dr. Elliot M. Berry argued that misplaced "medical and political correctness" may lead to the abrogation of the physician's responsibility to properly care for patients.

"For example, some doctors are now even reluctant to raise the issue of obesity lest they be accused of fat shaming by not accepting their patients' proportions (despite the quote at the head of this opinion piece), and thereby receive poor approval ratings in an atmosphere where popularity is equated with good healthcare."

Berry offers a list of nine steps that he thinks could help the healthcare industry better treat obesity, without shaming patients or falling prey to political correctness.

Berry concludes his piece:

"Parental and individual responsibility, choice and self-management clearly have a place near the center of the stage in the obesity tragedy. Otherwise, it is like going to see the play Hamlet and the Prince fails to make an appearance."

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

Read more from the original source:

Obesity should be redefined to curb fat shaming, new guidelines say - Big Think

Terrorism abroad and domestic violence havebeenthe Iranian regimes pillars of existence since its foundation.The mullahs regime started human rights violations and export of terrorism fromtheearly days oftherevolutionandithas never stopped them ever since.Iran is the record holder of execution per capita in the world.The regimes recent crackdown on peaceful protesters in November 2019 and killing at least 1500of them,therecent execution of Mostafa Salehi, who was arrested during the 2018 nationwide Iran protests, and the1988massacre of Iranian political prisoners arepart of the regimes record of human rights violations.

The regimes ongoing supportforterrorist groups, racing to obtain a nuclear bomb,anditsincessant development of ballistic missileand other malign activities in the region andaround the globe by misusing the Iranian peoples national wealth, haveturned Iran into theworldsnumber one statesponsor of terrorism.

On the other hand, the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), have defied the regimesinhumane policies. The Iranian peoples uprisings, the Resistances vital role in exposing the regimes nuclear activities which alarmed the international community intheearly 2000s,prove thatthepeople of Iran do not want this regime andare willing to overthrow it at any cost.

To further prevent the Iranian regimes terrorism abroad and its domestichuman rights abuses, the international community must stand withtheIranian people and their organized resistance movement. The Iranian regimes threat to world peace and security and the solution, which isrecognizing the Iranian peoples right to resistance and overthrow of the mullahs regime, werehighlighted by distinguished political dignitaries fromdifferent countries and political tendencies who attendedthe NCRIs Free Iran Global Summiton July 17, 2020.This event was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemicand was able to connect over 30,000 locations in more than 100 countries to Ashraf 3, the MEK camp in Albania.

One of the panelists of this conference wasProf. Alan Dershowitz, arenowned human rights lawyer.

The following is the full text of Professor Dershowitzsspeech attheFree Iran Global Summit,

The greatest human rights crisis in the world today is in Iran. The Iranian government is the greatest, most serious human rights violator on this planet, and yet its difficult to make this case against Iran and in favor of dissidents and ordinary Iranians in todays media or on todays college campuses. It is not today part of political correctness to be focusing the worlds attention on Iran, yet it should be the primary focus of every good person who cares about human rights and peace.

Iran is the most dangerous country in the world. Imagine what a nuclear armed Iran could do, not only in the Middle East, but around the world. We know that the Iranian attempt to suppress dissent and human rights goes well beyond its own borders, and we know that Iran will stop at absolutely nothing to preserve its illegitimate, undemocratic regime.

This is a very important organization that does more to bring the problem of human rights in Iran to the attention of the world than any other organization. It operates effectively as a counterforce against the violation of human rights by Iran.

So, if you care about human dignity, if you care about human rights, if you care about life and civility and freedom, join the campaign against the current Iranian regime. Yes, we need regime change. The world needs regime change. The people of Iran need regime change. We hope it will come about peacefully through democratic processes, but that seems less and less likely as dissenters are imprisoned and murdered. So, please join this very important campaign. If youre a supporter of human rights, you must be an opponent of the current Iranian regime.

The world will remember this organization and will respect it, and history will show you are on the right side. The Iranian government is on the wrong side of history.

Read the original here:

Iran Is the Most Dangerous Country in the World Remarks by Alan Dershowitz - NCRI - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

A trio of former Columbus police leaders said Wednesday that Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Columbus City Council have jumped on the political-correctness bandwagon in criticizing what they said is one of the best police departments in the country.

Former Division of Police Chiefs Kim Jacobs and Walter Distelzweig, and retired Deputy Chief John Rockwell, met with reporters Wednesday to discuss low morale among officers, a lack of support from city officials, and the policing climate in the wake of nationwide protests over racial injustice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in late May.

Jacobs, who retired as chief in February 2019, said she has talked to a number of officers in recent weeks who say they feel that they cannot do their job as well as in the past because of second-guessing coming from City Hall and the public.

"This noticeable shift from praise in the past to accusatory generalizations is dismaying to them," Jacobs said. "Our citys residents need to know how these great officers feel about them. What is being painted about them by a few is not a true representation."

Rockwell said he spoke with former Chief James Jackson, who was unable to attend Wednesdays meeting but wanted to pass along a message to the community.

"He particularly wanted me to express that there is not systemic racism (in the Columbus Division of Police). He wanted me to absolutely emphasize this," Rockwell said. "This is from a (Black) man who was subject to that for years."

Distelzweig, who retired as chief in 2012, said policing has evolved from when he started at the academy in the early 1970s. It now includes a significant emphasis on less-lethal options, he noted.

"One piece of equipment we were issued was a wooden nightstick," he said. "On our tool belt was our firearm, a nightstick, and that was it."

The former police leaders also said they are concerned about gun violence in the city, and they said the citys leaders need to be more proactive in stopping it rather than focusing only on reforms of the police division.

"Its appalling to me that the response has been fairly quiet," Jacobs said. Officers "see those people dying on the streets, they witness the inhumanity if you ask me of what people can do to other people. They see those children and parents crying, and they suffer from that drama and trauma on a regular basis, and someone sits back and calls a press conference and says (police) shouldnt do that anymore."

Distelzweig said there are "council members talking about the number of helicopters we have, and we should be talking about, How many shootings did we have last night, and what are we doing about it? We need to be adding equipment and officers."

All three former police leaders also took issue with statements made by Ginther in the weeks following the protests alleging systemic racism in the division. They also called out the mayor for saying there was a lack of holding officers accountable.

"It feels like a bunch of people jumped on a bandwagon of hate the police right now," Jacobs said. "Theres lots of healing that needs to be done."

About 15 minutes after Wednesdays meeting ended, Ginther sent an email to all division personnel that was obtained by The Dispatch. In that email, Ginther said that he supports both the police and reform, and that those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

"We launched independent investigations into police misconduct because, again, we must be able to hold police accountable if they violate their oath and the rights of others. Support does not negate accountability," Ginther wrote.

Jacobs said that during her tenure, she recommended that 23 officers be fired, and 17 others resigned while under investigation for an offense for which they could have been fired. She said civilian oversight exists in the city because the director of public safety, a mayoral appointee, has the final say on firing or hiring an officer.

Other oversight methods, such as a civilian review board, are likely to do little to strengthen the discipline process, Jacobs said.

"We cant treat cops (all one way) based on the fact they wear a uniform," she said. "You have to have a board that doesnt bring a bias into that."

Rockwell said the civilian police review board proposed by city officials would need to have law enforcement experience or training in law enforcement policies to make informed decisions about how officers behaved in situations.

"When people start dictating policy and they have no law enforcement background and training, its dangerous to our citizens and our officers," he said. "We wouldnt send an officer to a fire scene and tell the fire personnel how to put out the fire. Thats kind of what were looking at here."

Rockwell said officers will be hesitant to make what would have been instinctual decisions in some situations if someone is strictly looking to punish officers without context.

"Were going to have an officer killed or a citizen killed because an officer hesitates and is so concerned about being judged that they dont do the right, immediate thing," he said.

Rockwell added that Ginther has a chance to set the standard nationally for how police reform and evolution will look, but the mayor has to be willing to be a partner, not a unilateral leader.

"Were here to say you have a great department, and seek out their experience," he said. "Dont just ram change down their throat."

Distelzweig said the city administration, Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, the community and the police division need to come together for the healing process to begin and for any changes to have lasting impact.

"I dont know why that line has been drawn in the sand between the administration and the FOP and the police department," he said. "The line has to be taken out. We have to sit down and talk about this issue. Weve got to come together. Its the community that is going to lose."

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

Read the rest here:

Former Columbus police chiefs say city leaders have jumped on cop-hating bandwagon - The Columbus Dispatch

A few days ago, a member of the Illinois legislature attracted national attention by calling to abolish the teaching of history in public schools statewide, until a suitable alternative is developed that lives up to current standards of political correctness. This radical suggestion is of a piece with the recent moves to tear down statues and rename buildings, institutions, and even cities named for historic figures deemed by activists worthy of contempt rather than honor, and it is also related to the New York Timess 1619 Project, a misguided and error-laden attempt to rewrite American history so that the countrys sins take precedence over all else. Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy argue that Judaism and Jewish history can provide an important antidote to this nihilistic impulse:

Read more at Jewish Journal

More about: Education, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hebrew Bible, Natan Sharansky, New York Times, U.S. Politics, Voltaire

Originally posted here:

How the Jewish Experience Can Help America Defend Itself against the War on History - Mosaic

Aug. 15, of this year, marks the 75th anniversary of the end of WW- 2.

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. These opening words were spoken by President Roosevelt in an address to Congress. it was a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan, for their attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the eyes of a six year old, I didnt understand the meaning of war. However, I soon realized the dangers of war and its impact on America.

WW-2 brought Americans together for one common cause, defeating the Axis, Japan, Germany and Italy. We did everything on the home front to support our fighting men and women. No sacrifice was too great. Everyone contributed to the war effort. My dad worked at Westinghouse and mom worked graveyard at the Orange Roller Bearing factory near the Edison laboratory. We lived in New Jersey. John Basilone, a Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor at Guadalcanal, spoke in my home town to raise money for War Bonds. He too, was from New Jersey . Sadly, he was killed in action in 1945 at Iwo Jima. Today, Basilone Road, on I-5 at Camp Pendleton is named in his honor.

I did what little I could to help in the war effort. I collected scrap metal, rubber boots, tin foil and tires to sell to the junk man. There was Meatless Tuesday, Ration Stamps and little Blue and Red Tokens. Almost everything was rationed and very scarce. Among these were, nylon stockings, sugar, tires, gasoline, shoes, double bubble gum and Butter. Evertday at school, we read from the book of Psalms, saluted the flag and sang God Bless America. The most feared man in America was the Western Union Man. When he rode his bicycle down your street, you prayed he wouldnt knock on your door. His job was to deliver telegrams from the War Department. That was how people were notified of their loved one being either wounded, missing or killed in action. I saw too many gold star pennants hanging in peoples windows. More than 400,000 of our military were killed during the war. President Truman gave the OK to drop the Atomic biomb on Japan. In those days there was no such thing as political correctness. It was something that had to be done and we did it. Many people, even today, say it was the wrong decision. My brother fought in Belgium amd Germany. When the war ended in Europe in May 1945, he and thousands of others were to be sent to the Pacific for the invasion on Kyushu, Japan. That invasion was scheduled for November. The Atomic bomb saved his life and the lives of thousands of American Soldiers and Marines and yes, Japanese civilians. For America, the war lasted about 3 1/2 years. Admiral Nimitz, General Eisenhower and General McArthur were just what this country needed for military leaders, to lead us to victory. God Bless them and all those heroes that made it the greatest victory for America and the world. Almost all of them are no longer with us. But their duty to country, courage and sacrifice will not be forgotten. When I see statues of great Americans, torn down by fools, then I must say, this is not the same America I once knew.

Russell Roof

Yucaipa

Read the original here:

Aug. 15 anniversary of the end of WW-2 | Letters To Editor - Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror

By this question, I am suggesting that, broadly speaking, there are two kinds of people Real People and those who are, for my stated reasons, not included in that category; I am calling them the Exlcuded, just for our purposes here.

I would define a Real Person as a member of a group who is reality-oriented and works with and successfully deals with the items of reality; one subgroup works with their hands on real objects: a not necessarily exhaustive list of people like this includes mechanics, builders, farmers, physicists and other hard scientists, repairmen of all kinds, machinists, factory workers, etc., i.e. creators, managers, and manipulators of actual physical things.

A second subgroup includes people who originate and/or work with ideas, but who do so respecting the naturally occurring rules and organization that follow from the use of logic, language, and argumentation. This would include business people and entrepreneurs, programmers, some writers, some social scientists and many more those who create, employ, and utilize the product of rational thinking in the furtherance of their goals.

The Excluded include all whose work does not create either physical things or services of value or ideas of value, where the term value here means things that are sought out by others by choice. Some examples would include many types of government workers and bureaucrats, most politicians, union bosses, many academics, most writers and intellectuals (including the media) all of whom promote ideas that are not the product of disciplined, logical thinking, and do not use valid syllogistic reasoning and argumentation.

The polls were wrong before. Big time.

Also included would be those in large corporate settings whose function is to administer programs like regulatory compliance or political correctness. Lastly, included in this group are the increasing number of those who have decided not to work and live largely on the efforts of others.

The basic difference between the Excluded and Real People is their respect for reality they have come to know that you cant cheat reality. If you dont fix or build or compose or describe something accurately and correctly, what you are doing will not work. Furthermore, your ideas about society and human relationships have to match reality or there will be big trouble.

Can such a Real Person any longer see their way clear to vote Democratic? Probably not. But maybe, if you were born into a family of that persuasion, or you cant get beyond the possible consequences of defying your peer group, or worry that an opposing vote may spawn a negative Twitter storm causing you to be fired. Maybe, if you find it intellectually easy to accept the obvious problems inherent in the programs Democrats are offering. Maybe, if you went to a school where no one ever mentioned how with almost every instance of socialism, it evolved into governments murdering their own citizens wholesale by the millions, those whose only crime was their disagreement (by the way, Real People know that Scandinavia is not socialist, rather just capitalistic but with a bloated welfare state).

You see, for Real People, their more intimate connection with reality will not permit them to sanction political systems that rely primarily on coercion, and that take from the productive to support the unproductive, because they perceive how unnatural is this violation of basic human rights to life, liberty and property. So, in my opinion, for the Real Person to vote for Democrats going forward is almost unconscionable in todays political climate.

Some people think that Democrats will win in 2020. Consider, however, that even the most lopsided so-called blue states (California?) will, at most, go for Democrats by a 60/40 margin. Who do you think are in the other 40% chopped liver? No, by God, Real People. And, you know, most of them do not consider themselves deplorables, and have values that are antithetic to such ideas as defunding the police, doing away with fossil fuels, eliminating free market capitalism, and condemning all white people who will not take a knee and beg forgiveness for their white privilege. They are the kind of people who voted for Trump in 2016.

Do you think that the programs and the resulting social reality espoused by Democrats has become more acceptable to this group since 2016? Given our present state of affairs and the Democratic proposals, one can only anticipate a burgeoning growth in the number of those who want to be counted as Real People, the polls notwithstanding.

The polls were wrong before. Big time.

Robert Chrisman lives in Nevada City.

Continue reading here:

Robert Chrisman: Are you one of the 'Real People?' - The Union of Grass Valley

Photo courtesy of the publisher

When we meet Caley Cross in her first adventure, Caley Cross and the Hadeon Drop (due out September 8), shes living a fairy-tale life. Only its the first part of that life, where youre an orphan being raised in an abusive orphanage. This doesnt make her particularly popular at her middle school, nor does her tendency to reanimate dead animals when shes upset.

After one such incident, a mysterious crow with a metal wing spies her and seems to say Found you. She is soon whisked off to a magical world called Erinath, where she is the highest of high princesses in the land and is enrolled in a school where kids learn to manage the magic of this world and others.

Being whisked away to somewhere new where youre someone special is a popular storyline in middle-grade fantasy books, and Caley Cross hews close to the norms of the genre: the friends you make right away who are true to you even when youre awful, the mean girl who wants to embarrass you, the secrets in your past, the preternatural skill at something youve never experienced before, the fluttery romantic feelings youre beginning to feel, and others.

But author Jeff Rosens world is wholly its own. In Erinath, you bond with a living being (your beast) as a child, and that shapes your magic and your life in unique ways. Caley Cross bonds with a dark, malevolent beast early on, and harnesses its raw power when wielding an energy sword while riding her oroc, a sort of giant, furry dragonfly. Her home for the book is a massive sentient tree that rearranges its internal structure constantly. Humans as well as human-esque creatures are all part of the milling population. While Caley finds Erinath amazing, she quickly learns that an evil Watcher is after her in particular, and people within the school are under his influence, while others are fighting against him. Eluding and defeating him promises to be a recurring theme in the rest of the books.

TL;DR: If your kid liked the Harry Potter stories but not the way their girl characters were sidelined by boring male characters, theyll find a lot to love in this book. My daughter moved the review copy we received to the top of her stack as soon as she saw it, and tore through it in about a day. She laughed out loud at some parts but found the book, by and large, gripping and intense, with lots of action.

A few aspects may turn off some readers. Nary a mention of the mean girls minions goes by without some comment about their weight; equating being overweight with being bad and stupid reinforces bullying behavior that ostracizes children and adults alike. Also, one character seems to repeatedly represent the going-too-far view of political correctness in a way that mocks the very necessary efforts to remove phrases built on harmful stereotypes from the language.

I received a review copy for this article.

Liked it? Take a second to support the GeekFamily Network on Patreon!

Related

Read the original here:

Review: Caley Cross and the Hadeon Drop - GeekDad

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

During the 2016 presidential campaign, it looked as if Hillary Clinton would become our Madam President. Election analysts prophesied her victory (she would go on to secure the popular vote). Her campaign staff bought confetti translucent confetti to symbolize the glass ceiling that many predicted she would break.

Most conservatives silently watched Hillarys victory preparations, but, as the sun began to set, conservatives dutifully headed to the polls after work. It didnt take long for their voices to break that silence and usher in a new era of American politics.

President Trumps unlikely win sent shockwaves through our political system, and now vitriolic rhetoric surges as we talk about our government, threatening to break it apart. The left would delight in its destruction. The outcries of the leftist media would lead you to believe that the majority of Americans are Democrats, that your conservative views are obsolete and vile and that the conservative population is ever-shrinking.

These outcries are lies.

As we witnessed four years ago this November, the silent majority the one our president assured us was thriving defied, defeated and deafened the media and leftists across the country.

Now that the left has heard the voice of the silent, they are scrambling to suppress it. They actively try to silence dissenters, and looking at the absurd treatment of Attorney General Barr in last Tuesdays House Judiciary Committee hearing, it is clear that the left is bereft of all tact.

House Democrats asked leading questions and demanded impossible answers. They interrupted, accused and spoke over Mr. Barr. If this is how the left treats the chief law enforcement officer in the nation, a man of great responsibility and worthy of great respect, how can any average, conservative citizen have confidence to share their ideas?

Conservatives are silenced or ridiculed not only in person (like Mr. Barr), but online. Last week, Big Tech companies faced a grilling on Capitol Hill, with conservative lawmakers again pointing out blatant online censorship of conservatives. Also last week, Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter acted as sole arbiters of medical truth by deleting a video from newsfeeds trying to silence a message about a potentially life-saving COVID-19 treatment.

Never before has the political climate, media and work environments been so hostile to non-leftist opinions. Political correctness reigns. It is the lefts chief weapon in their mission to silence conservatives. In American society, it is too quickly becoming true that you are allowed an opinion only as long as it is the correct, left-approved opinion.

Hence the silenced majority.

But many seem to know its there.

In Pennsylvania, 57% of voters believe there are secret voters in their community, voters who claim to be uninterested in voting or to be voting for Mr. Biden, but will actually vote for Mr. Trump in November. Why the deception?

In a nutshell, its too time-consuming, frustrating or just plain dangerous to endure the public shaming or excoriating in the case of Mr. Barr to declare support for Mr. Trump or conservatism in general. Outside of prominent and famous conservative leaders and commentators, many grassroots conservatives are your average, salt-of-the-earth folks who avoid drawing attention or causing contention, especially over politics. These people are often reserved and polite in public and online but passionately principled.

They get up every day, take care of their families, dutifully go to work, manage their responsibilities and vote. Maybe the left misunderstands or underestimates the silenced majority because, to them, stalwart belief in the cause means congregating in violent mobs to cause chaos and demand their way. They cant fathom diehards peaceably and quietly going about their lives and just showing up at the ballot box without causing a ruckus in the weeks beforehand.

But now more than ever, our country needs conservatives to speak up and resist the lefts silencing. Yes, people have gotten fired for expressing non-leftist views. Yes, public figures have been shamed and degraded like Attorney General Barr. Yes, weddings and Thanksgiving meals and family reunions have been ruined by leftist intolerance. But what happens if we dont speak up? The next generation of conservatives needs role models. We must be them. The lefts tyranny on public opinion and media must be stopped, and conservatives are not alone in trying to stop it.

Elon Musk said it best with a recent tweet: The left is losing the middle. If he can see this from his liberal surroundings in California, then it must hold some element of truth. Who are the silent majority? Surely not the extreme right or left. If the left is losing the middle, and the middle is silent, then what does that do to poll numbers? This November, we will see.

Tyler Beaver is creator of the Open Range mobile app, which brings agricultural producers together with global markets, and founded the Arkansas-based Beaf Cattle Company to facilitate global protein, grain and crop sourcing. Find him on Twitter @realtylerbeaver

Go here to see the original:

Conservative majority silenced by the left - Washington Times

Hi Neighbor,

Last week, we visited with Staten Island Patriot Artist Scott LoBaido. I took issue with Schotts Blue Lives line down Hylan Boulevards center median in front of the 122nd Precinct stationhouse.

Readers sounded off. Dozens. Loudly. One things certain: Mr. LoBaido has support.

DEAR MR LALINE, one began. YOUR BASHING SCOTT LOBAIDO IS TYPICAL OF WHAT THE LEFT IS DOING ON A DAILY BASIS TO DESTROY AMERICA .... WHY IS IT IF A PERSON SHOWS ANYTHING PATRIOTIC THEY ARE DEMONIZED .... TOTALLY DISGUSTING... " (caps courtesy of the author).

But then, Your column about Scott was not only well said but it was written while maintaining a deep respect for this extremely talented artist. I completely agree with your sentiment. I have also followed Scott for the last 30 years. I ask What could he be thinking? when I see some of his work. He is passionate but at times his message seems misdirected.

And then, when I thought I heard it all from both sides, the President of the United States weighed in. You do one blue line and they make it like its a mortal sin, President Trump told a group of law enforcement leaders in the White House. Take that, Bill de Blasio!

Now its time to hear from Scott himself. He asked time for a rebuttal and Im happy to provide. So, as Ive boomed over the microphone at many fundraisers, with Scott behind the curtain, itching to start painting . . . Heeeeres Scott!!

Respectfully, Brian, I hear every single note.

Ahhhh, the sweet/bitter taste of Amendment 1. It is indeed DELICIOUS.

I want to thank you for the very kind words in your column last week and for giving me an opportunity to rebut some of the other points you brought up.

Yes, Brian, we go back a long time, and like all friends, there have been tiffs, disagreements, misquotes, and worst of all, forgetting the capital B in my last name (lol). But as an editor you have been fair and have ALWAYS pushed through to get my art, activism, antics, rants, and compassion onto the pages of our hometown newspaper -- the Staten Island Advance. For that I am truly grateful.

DEMYANS CAVES

I remember the first article the Advance wrote about my giant, surreal mural on the face of The Caves (former Hofbrau house owned by the late, great artist, Jack Demyan) back in the 80s. The next story was when I painted my first flag mural on the side of the Victory Diner (God, I do miss that place). Not everyone appreciates my art. But I AM an artist whether you agree with my style or not!

Staten Island has many great artists -- Murphy, Yuster, Padovano, and many more. They are genius at their execution in their non-aggressive subjects. My early work was oddly fun and surreal with a dash of Americana because since childhood I can always remember a crisp, snappy flag waving from a pole outside my Nana's house where I spent most of my time.

Rosalyn (Nana) always made it clear that grandpa was in the "big one" (WW ll) and we should have fun but always be GRATEFUL for whatever we had because we were American. In Nana's basement kitchen, the town hall -- open every day -- three portraits hung on the wall: Pope John ll, President Ronald Reagan and Frank Sinatra. Those portraits, the flag and the lessons I learned in that kitchen will stay with me forever.

It wasnt until the 90s that I found my niche in this complicated world of art. I was in a Manhattan art gallery that had an American flag as a welcome mat, beckoning people to wipe their feet on it.

I was appalled, but no one else was.

A new trend of political correctness had taken hold of the art world along with the sentiment that, everything is bad in life because of America.

In their opinion, the American flag was taboo because it stood for oppression. This HATE America thing was really getting some teeth. I wondered why artists were so eager to speak out against America, our military, and our flag. I didn't get it because artists have more freedom in America than in any other country on earth. We should be the most patriotic rather than biting the hand that feeds our wonderful right to test the boundaries and express ourselves.

My young brain struggled to understand how I could remain in the art world while continuing to demonstrate my love for America -- then BAM - I heard my calling.

That was my purpose! I would say goodbye to the intolerant art club, go it on my own and use my God given gift to shine a spotlight on what is GOOD about America, what is awesome about our flag.

I was going to paint it big and bold and 3-D so it knocks you down when you see it.

ACROSS THE USA

And so it began -- the tours across America, sleeping in my truck, no heat or AC, only eating due to the kindness of strangers and donors who shared my vision. Countless hours sitting with veterans, painting their posts and raising money for their causes. Getting arrested for speaking up for America against the PC culture that was hell bent on destroying her. The photos of me being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs splashed across the front page of the Advance. My peers snicker, There goes that crazy Scott LoBaido, again and again and again. Twenty five years later the PC beast has devoured our way of life despite my efforts and continuous warnings that this day would come.

Racist -- a horrible yet important word which is now being used 24/7 to label anyone WHO HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION than the PC mob. Those of us who support America and respect our flag, our anthem and our President are being labeled as racists without consideration for who we are.

The word "racist" is being used against leaders of corporations. It's being used to get people fired from their job. It's being used to strike fear into people so they grovel on their knees and apologize for the way they were born and the color of their skin.

The word racist is being used as a club to ground out our FIRST AMENDMENT right to hold and express a different opinion -- and the artworld is leading the pack.

But isn't this exactly opposite of what the artworld and the PC mob is supposed to stand for? Weren't we preaching for compassion, tolerance and acceptance for gay rights, women's rights and the rights for everyone no matter their religion or ethnic background? Aren't the artists supposed to stand up and defend the act of self expression, starve for their cause and die fighting?

It is unfortunate that you and others consider my "Thin Blue Line" down the median of Hylan Boulevard as divisive. It may be seen by some as provocative, but it is not divisive. If I painted it over or next to the BLM street art, that would be divisive. But I didn't. My purpose was not to silence that message. It was to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to hear another message. A message of LOVE for a group of human beings who are being humiliated and demoralized because they wear a blue uniform.

You can LOVE the police and believe that Black lives matter. The two are not mutually exclusive and they should not be made out to be. Just like you can be an artist and still love America because it is the one country that supports your right to express yourself freely even when that means speaking against her.

I am not a divider, my good friend. Balancer would suit me better. I cannot and should not be pressured into collaborating with people who are confused about their message to the extent that we have all but forgotten that it was the murder of George Floyd that started this discussion. And yes, my good friend, I am a voice for the regular guy who is just trying to make a living, feed his or her family, pay the mortgage and whose quality of life is being annihilated by ultra-radical mayors and governors who have more sympathy for criminals than the law abiding citizens they are sworn to protect.

LIKE ROME . . .

We are a free nation, but a nation of laws. Yes, I have stepped over that line as a protester, and I LOOOOOVVEE those that do as well, but to destroy, burn, maim, and take over a community and kill it, Like Rome, we lose it all.

And that is where we are at.

The discussion on race relations cannot happen in good faith until the monster PC mob stands down. The message is confusing. Whether we are artists or police, immigrants or native, wealthy or poor, we all want America to grow and evolve, to be the best that she can be.

That can only happen through honest, raw dialogue, mutual respect and tolerance of differing opinions -- exactly what artists throughout history have been fighting for.

However, that conversation cannot happen within the laws being laid out by the PC mob who seek to wipe out our history and direct our souls until we all act, look and express ourselves the same.

America is a beautiful mosaic, filled with individuals who yearn for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not everyone gets everything he or she wants, but everyone has the opportunity to try.

For 30 years I have been using my talent to help others. I've raised millions of dollars for worthy causes, and will continue to do so happily. Now I am selling my art so I can be free to help others without having to beg for the funds to do so. No shame in being a capitalist. After all, the Advance sells papers and gets tons of click$$ when my work is featured. Ahhhh the sweet taste of opportunity.

As always, I look forward to running into you at our local restaurants, give each other that usual head shake and smirk and have a martini together,

Your friend, The one and only, Citizen Scott LoBaido

Oh by the way: I did not protest the artist or his work at the Brooklyn museum. I protested against the museum directors decision to regularly bash one religion (Christianity) in a publicly funded institution.

See the original post here:

And now a word from Citizen Scott: Why I love the USA | From the editor - SILive.com

The narrative of development is often lost in nationalistic fervor. The Indian poor are invisibilized in the progress of the rich. The author narrates how India has let down its poor citizen in the context of the migrant labor crisis during coronavirus pandemic.

I have often wondered how little of our public discourse is about the poor and the lives they lead. Considering the vast number of people who eke out an existence in our country that bears comparison with the lives of people from the most deprived regions of the world, there is very little discussion and debate in the media about t our poorest citizens and their concerns.

A classic expression of this invisibility of the poor for our media and the people who wield power at different levels and positions is the reference to migrant workers that briefly dominated our discourse in recent times.

It was remarkable that urban, educated citizens who used the term made no mention of their own relationship to these migrant workers. After all, it was their services that had enriched and enlivened their existence for so long. They cleaned our homes, they cooked our food, they ironed our clothes, they kept ourmalls and theatres gleaming. Ironically, we still did not feel any personal connection with these people as individuals.

It was ok for all of us to just label them as migrant workers and take shelter in the political correctness of this term since it might so easily have been, these poor people.

My experience as a writer has brought me against a wall of indifference for the plight of the poor in more ways than one over the years. The present has only highlighted what I knew for a long time.

On the 10thof May, 2020, I met a young man walking from where I live in Maharashtra to his home in Chhattisgarh. He was wheeling a suitcase and walking in the scorching sunlight, with a bird on his shoulder.

I had stepped out during the lockdown for a grocery and vegetables run. Having just picked up some fruits, I was about to start the car for my next stop when I saw, in my rear-view mirror, a group of men, women and children walking with their luggage. I got out of the car and spoke to the young man walking at the head of the group. When I learned of their destination, I was disoriented for a few moments. Was there even a road to Chhattisgarh in the direction these people were travelling? There was a female blossom headed parakeet on his shoulder, hanging on grimly, just as the young man and his companions were, to a reality that seemed macabre beyond belief.

There were no trains or buses that could take these passengers home. My eyes started filling up as I saw a small girl trying to skip along, slim women walking in sarees,sindoorspilling from the parting of their hair, and the loose change of existence they carried like clothes, bottles of water or a plastic toy peeking out of their bags.

I was glad I had my mask on. Not because it was safe to have one, but because I would not be recognised by familiar local vendors and neighbours as an adult hopelessly crying on the highway.

As the members of his group began catching up,I realised that seconds were very precious. I couldnt stop them as it would delay them. There was fruit lying in the car and as I took it out to share it with them, the bird recognising grapes that I held, climbed down from the young mans shoulder and clung to his chest.

See, mytota(parrot) has come down for a bite,he said bowing gratefully and bidding farewell as he and his group continued walking.

His farewell seemed quite insouciant. I found it difficult to recover from this encounter over the next few days. My daily prayers on a variety of topics changed to a single prayer: All of them should reach home safe. That his bird should be alive at the end of the journey. That he and the little girl should be safe.

I had not even asked his name or even clicked a photo but wondered if our paths would ever cross again. It was just that he reminded me of many others that I had met and written about down the years.

It is strange how events pan out to teach us small truths.One such event was in 1999 whenI received a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts to study the lives of itinerant toymakers who make and sell their toys on city streets, and write a book on the subject. It was natures way of teaching me about people I knew nothing about.

I met toymakers on streets and fairgrounds in towns like Indore and Agra, Chennai and Varanasi, Jaipur, and Bangalore, besides many other places. During those years, people from my own social milieu who learned that I was working on such a project always assumed that I was studying some well-established crafts tradition.

They imagined that I would be spending long months in Chennapatna, near Mysore, studying wooden toy making. I did go to this place, but my subjects were not dedicated craftsmen wedded to or sustained by a well-established tradition. They were individuals among the urban poor by the sight of their shiny, breakable, handmade paper-string-and-glue toys. When I explained to my friends and acquaintances, that I was not studying traditional crafts, but the creativity and ingenuity of the urban poor, I met with nods, but rarely, understanding.

I travelled to 27 towns looking for toymakers. In each town, my collaborators were rickshaw drivers, tea stall keepers, vendors selling snacks, balloon sellers, and others in the shifting kaleidoscope of cities.

I met people eking out their existence through a variety of occupations for survival, which made the toymakers all the more remarkable. I considered them special for exercising an individual choice to live by their own creativity, in circumstances that pushed them ever closer to a menial occupation as labourers.

In studying their seasonal sales, the way they had evolved their ownguru-shishya practices with mentors, the way they were sustained by friends and fellow strugglers, I learned to look at the urban poor as individuals.

Each one had his or her own story, had crafted his or her life by a combination of circumstances and individual choice, had his or her own likes and dislikes.

Just like the young man in 2020, who may have been a construction worker, painter, electrician, roadside dhaba employee, or any other vocation.

My work on the toymakers was in a sufficiently advanced stage when the first Outlook-Picador India Non-Fiction Competition was announced. I thought this augured well for my book and wrote an essay for the competition. It clinched the second position, just behind Tenzin Tsundues entry about the Tibetan community.

Although I was unable to achieve my burning desire to have the toymakers, I was studying to get featured inOutlookmagazine, my essayThe Bits and Pieces Artistsdoes continue to have its online presence on theOutlookwebsite.

Buoyed by the possibility of finding a publisher for my book because of this trailer that had already made its way into the public domain, I underwent an excruciating reality check over the next few years. My book manuscript collected an impressive collection of rejection slips. While I tried not to take this personally, thinking that I had already received validation for my writing, a few of the rejections had a soul-scarring character, like a four-word rejection saying, Not fit for publication.

The kindest and most positive thoughts about publishing I could have during this entire period were that publishers were, after all, risking their money and investing in a book that needed to be seen as a good return on investment. If a book titled,The Toymakers: Lightfrom Indias Urban Poor,was being consistently rejected, it meant that there was no market for tales of the urban poor among the readers and buyers of English books.

In the constant churn of my thoughts and feelings during the period, I wondered if my very idea of distinguishing gifted, creative and self-directed individuals among the large category of people we lump together as slum-dwellers, urban poor, or migrant workers, it was doomed at the outset.

I also wondered if I was guilty of writing in English with a vernacular sensibility and if this mismatch was what was being detected by discerning editors.

I considered whether the poor toymakers would have had a better chance of being noticed if it had instead been written a book of literary fiction about them, instead of this difficult to sell genre of narrative non-fiction. It was a time of much self-doubt and speculation.

The Toymakers: Light from Indias Urban Poorfinally did make its way into the world in 2008.By then, I had several volumes of childrens books published, in addition to my earlier works, which served as a salve for a writers angst-ridden sense of self. However, the problem of how poor urban people were being portrayed and perceived in books continued to trouble me.

This was a period when more investment bankers were being published than ever before, along with technology and management graduates from Indias best institutions.

Aspirational India was yawning and stretching, preparatory to rearing up and taking over the whole business of talking and being heard in print, in the electronic media, and at literary festivals.

Clearly, it wasnt the time to be dwelling on loser aspects of our population like the vast sections of our urban poor who represent displacement, lack of opportunities, and social neglect. At that time, Shobhaa DesSuperstar India: From Incredible toUnstoppablewas written out of her being tired and upset with clichs such as India is poor, India is backward.

Although it hadnt yet been identified as the occupation of prophets of doom as was done recently by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in a hearing about the plight of migrant workers on May 28, 2020, focusing on the poor had its own hazards even in previous years.

A few weeks after meeting the lad from Chhattisgarh and his group, I kept seeing visuals of people walking home from Mumbai, Delhi, Surat, and elsewhere to their homes thousands of kilometers away. What made someone even attempt this task? How did people think they could cover on foot, a journey that would take days and nights by train? Such questions often reminded me of another book I had written in 2012, rubbing shoulders with migrants from many cities, in their avatars as pilgrims thekaanwariyaswho carry water for hundreds of kilometers to offer at Shiva temples across the country in the month of Shravan.

At Haridwar in 2012, I met dozens of men and women from Rajasthan, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. Later that year, I met many groups of pilgrims at Baidyanath Dham in Deoghar from Bihar, Bengal, and Jharkhand. Most of them worked as migrant labourers in big cities. As I dined at roadside dhabas withsafai karamcharisand carpenters, masons and painters, I discovered that caste distinctions temporarily evaporated while on thekaanwar yatra. I found that people were willing to undergo the suffering of many hundred kilometers of walking as their offering for Lord Shiva.

It the last few decades, it has become very apparent to me that the offering to the deities of their suffering has been appropriated by humans who harvest it in the name of nationalism that is frightening.

(Scharada Dubey is the author of Bol Bam: Approaches to ShivaandPortraits fromAyodhya: Living Indias Contradictions and numerous other books. Views are personal.)

Originally posted here:

How long will the Indian poor be invisible? - The Leaflet

Post Views: 262

Lets examine a recent, all-too-familiar scene. You are sitting on your couch, unable or unwilling to go outside for fear of the coronavirus germs that have forced everyone into isolation. Bored to the point of devastation, you rack your brain for something to do. Youve seen all of the buzzworthy TV shows like Game of Thrones and Riverdale. But TV seems like the only feasible option right now, so you reach for the remote anyway. After a few minutes of scrolling aimlessly, you remember Total Drama, an old cartoon comedy favorite from your childhood. Smiling, you type the title into the search bar and spend a few blissful hours immersed in its wacky world.

As media in America becomes increasingly scrutinized through the lens of political correctness, its difficult for comedy to withstand the test of time. Rewatching shows from a mere five years ago will often reveal jokes rife with homophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny.

However, some shows and movies endure, with a comedic value that is simple yet funny for viewers of all ages. One such show is Total Drama. The comedy of the show doesnt rely on cultural context or shock value for entertainment. Instead, it places young cartoon characters with varied personalities on a reality showand lets the jokes write themselves.

Total Drama is a Canadian show that first aired in 2007 and ran until 2014. It is a parody of the hit reality series Survivor, where people compete for a large sum of money by completing challenges and voting one player off the show at the end of each week.

The only difference between the two shows is that competitors on Total Drama are animated, and therefore not real people. Yet the thrill of watching skill or endurance-based challenges remains, as well as the cutthroat style of play in which people form alliances and vote off their friends and even lovers.

The first season of Total Drama takes place on an island, hence the original name Total Drama Island. The first episode introduces the cast of characters, which then remains generally the same for the duration of the shows five seasons.

A big part of what makes the show so funny is the characters, many of whom have opposite personalities. For instance, there is Duncan, a delinquent sporting a green mohawk who clashes with Courtney, a type-A bossy-pants who loves order and being in charge. Each character has a definitive personality type with a fully developed backstory.

Furthermore, the characters on the show are quite diverse, as every skin color in existence is represented. There are also bodies of all shapes and sizes, and despite all of this, none of the characters seem to be aware that they look like a walking diversity pamphlet. Although the one Black woman on the show does fall into the loud and sassy stereotype, all other character designs steer clear of cliches. Each character is different and lovable in their own way.

As with Survivor, watching the show guarantees that you will grow to appreciate some characters more than others, and youll eventually pick a favorite to root for. My personal favorite characters are Gwen, a punk-rock loner, and Lindsay, the sweet and well-intentioned airhead.

It is endlessly entertaining to watch them grow, form relationships, fall out of relationships and strive to achieve their goal of winning the prize money. Unlike many other cartoon series, all of the events that transpire in the show are entirely realistic, aside from the characters durability. The players get thrown off of cliffs, attacked by bears and poisoned, but everyone comes out alive.

Another aspect of the show that sets it apart from other comedy or cartoon series is the frequent breaking of the fourth wall. Each character speaks directly to the camera, reflecting upon the events that transpire and revealing secrets.

There are also many funny scenes in which the camera crew extends an arm in front of the camera to grab a pizza box or wave hello. The characters regularly reference the cameras presence, and the host of the competition, Chris, frequently mentions pre-production interns. These details create the sense that the show is thorough, and it also allows viewers to forget that its anything other than 100% real.

It is no coincidence that the show feels real because the producers and writers extensively studied what teenagers did and did not like about reality TV when creating the series. The result is a lack of boring characters and an abundance of satisfying scenes.

If you find yourself hoping that two characters will end up together, or that one character will get revenge on another, chances are that is exactly what will happen. Yet the show is far from predictable; each seasons winners seem to come completely out of nowhere in the best way. There is never a clear underdog or champion because each character has many major flaws and strengths.

While many older TV shows contain problematic content or are simply not funny anymore, Total Dramaretains all of its former comedic flair. With characters that are as likable as they are different, anyone watching will be able to identify with at least one competitor on the animated survival series.

Exaggerated cutscenes and consistent fourth wall breaks make the show exciting. And the promise of prize money at the end keeps the players as well as the audience enchanted. When searching for a lazy afternoon activity, as many are during this seemingly-endless pandemic, Total Drama is the perfect cocktail of funny and thrilling to keep you clicking play next episode.

Follow this link:

The Wacky Humor of 'Total Drama' Has Stood the Test of Time - Study Breaks

National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball games broadcast on ESPN have seen some pretty low numbers in terms of viewership so far. People are tired of being hammered with political correctness and feel let down that the athletes they support are contributing to the mess. As a result, they are tuning out.

Outkick.com says viewer ratings for some NBA and MLB games opened low. The site says baseball on national television Friday night drew very little interest from fans:

MLB (Friday, July 31 ESPN) Mets-Braves (4p) 922K Brewers-Cubs(7p) 1.0M Angels-As (10p) 797K

Outkick says the NBA's opening night didn't fare much better:

NBA (Friday, July 31 ESPN) Celtics-Bucks (6:30p) 1.3M Mavs-Rockets (9p)- 1.7M

Those who make the decisions for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association did not heed the warnings from viewers when the controversy in the National Football League over players kneeling for the national anthem and the presentation of the flag was simmering. The fan base didn't like it at all. Attendance at some stadiums suffered as a result.

Even sports fans who might agree that there are social inequities within our society do not want to be pounded over the head by high-priced athletes during their downtime. Sports, for many, provides an opportunity to escape the day-to-day rigors for a few hours. It's a chance to punch out of reality for a while.

When athletes and sports leagues encroach on that time, it robs us of an opportunity for a bit of escapism, forcing us to look elsewhere to find peace and enjoyment. Not only that, many Americans, regardless of what the athletes tell us, believe that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful and that it is about the flag and our veterans.

For some reason, the people of pro sports don't want to understand that they are offending their fan base. I just don't get it.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Read the rest here:

Fans Are Rejecting 'Woke' Athletes [OPINION] - wbsm.com

The popular image of Vincent van Gogh as the tortured, untutored genius who transformed modern painting is a central part of the mythology surrounding him. Vincent Alessis study convincingly argues that van Gogh never set out to be a tortured genius but rather an illustrator for popular magazines. He was an enthusiastic collector of prints and engravings from English magazines such as the Illustrated London News and much of his time during his three-year stay in London in the 1870s was dedicated to the disciplined study of these prints, from which he learned draughtsmanship. He also read George Eliot and Dickens in English, all big influences on his early social realist style. Of course, its the later French works that made him, but this is a very engaging and informative academic portrait of the evolution of van Gogh: the wild priest of high art whose grounding was in the popular art of the day.

How I Clawed My Way to the MiddleJohn WoodViking, $34.99

How I Clawed My Way To The Middle by John Wood.

Reading John Woods memoir, about his long career in TV and theatre, its impossible not to hear that familiar voice. Its a great title and captures the down-to-earth tone of the tale, which starts in the suburbs of Melbourne just after the war, taking in a chequered school record, work in the Victorian Railways, as a bricklayer, the abattoirs his father worked in and on to theatre. In some ways its the story of a working-class boy made good, helped along the way by figures such as John and Lois Ellis who encouraged him to apply for NIDA. From there doors on stage and TV gradually opened and he eventually became a household face and name, at one point noting that TV fame is odd in that people really do think they know you when they meet you in public. Hes an amusing writer he wrote On Yer Marx! and for TV and this is a very engaging read, while also being a snapshot of Australian drama through pivotal years.

Dissenting Opinions by Michael Sexton.

Dissenting OpinionsMichael SextonConnor Court, $39.95

This is an aptly titled collection of newspaper articles and book reviews published over the past 10 years, incorporating a wide range of views on a variety of topics Michael Sexton often, as in his views on ''political correctness'', at odds with more progressive views. At the same time he is the author of War for the Asking, about Australia and the Vietnam war, one of his articles highlighting Menzies Machiavellian role in ensnaring us in the conflict, rightly calling it a ''stain on his record''. Similarly, he lays into Malcolm Fraser and his role in the 1975 dismissal, saying Fraser "was responsible for the most cynical and unscrupulous exercise in Australian political history". On the other hand his views on the Brexit vote and the perceived faint-heartedness of literary festivals when it comes to dissenting opinions, may ruffle feathers. Forthright opinion pieces from a commentator who clearly goes his own way.

View post:

Non-fiction reviews: Play By The Rules and other titles - Sydney Morning Herald

James Corden slammed Bill Maher for saying fat-shaming needed to "make a comeback." USA TODAY

An open letter decrying the "intolerance of opposing views"published last month in Harper's Magazine got another moment in the spotlight Friday on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher".

Two of the letter's proponents,former New York Times opinion columnistBari Weissand "Self-Portrait in Black and White" authorThomas Chatterton Williams, talked to Maher about the pitfalls of cancel culture.

Weiss told Maher thatilliberalism, defined as intolerance, is different than criticism.

"We're used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do, criticism'sgreat," she said. "What cancel culture is about is not criticism, it is about punishment, it is about making a person radioactive, it is about taking away their job."

July'sopen letter in Harpers Magazine was spearheaded by Williams and signed by Weiss as well as other notablewriters, artists and academics such asJ.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood. The authors decriedthe weakening of public debate and warnedthat the free exchange ofinformation and ideas is in jeopardyamid a rise in what they call illiberalism.

Theletter comes amid a debate over so-called cancel cultureandprominent people coming under attackattack for sharing controversial opinionson social media.

Weiss told Maher that the Harper's letter was a "warning cry from inside the institutions." Weiss recently resigned from the Times due to"constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views," among other factors.

She recently stirred up controversy when she tweeted about the "civil war" going on inside the Times in the wake of uproar over Sen. Tom Cotton's (R-Ar.) viral "Send in the Troops" opinion piece.

More: Maher celebrates anniversary of women getting vote, calls it GOP D-Day

Weiss said cancel culture isn't "just about punishing the sinner," but also a "secondary boycott of people who would deign to speak to that person or appear ona platform with that person." She added that if conversation around disagreement becomes impossible then the only way to resolve conflict would beviolence.

The former Times staffer said that "politics has come to supplantreligion" and you see it with people on the right who look to Donald Trump as a "deity" and you see it on the left "where to be anything less than defunding the police or abolishthe police to choose the issue of the day, makes you something like a heretic." She added that this type of thinking points to the "collapse of moderates."

Maher noted that it's not just the celebrity elite who believe they will be chastised for saying something politically incorrect and that people "don't like walking around on eggshells."

"When the science has to come second to the political correctness, we're in trouble," Maher said before reading off part of Harper's letter that noted "professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes."

Williams said that cancel culture is not about bringing"elites back to Earth" but it has an "onlooker effect" that has "a chilling and stifling and narrowing influence on all of our behaviors."

He added that the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who died at 80 from cancer on July 17,also had a "point of view that was divergent from the consensus at the time that he was alive." Williams said that Lewis' stance seems "so clear to us now," but at the time Lewis was going against "consensus."

"We need to have all the points of view that we can have because we dont know what the truth is actually going to shake out to be 10, 20,50 years down the road," Williams said. "We need to challenge our consensus views, and when we think about John Lewis, we should think about that was a guy who saw something wrong and stood up and spoke up for it, and he didnt just adhere to the prevailing consensus at the time."

More: Twitter's cancel culture: A force for good or a digital witchhunt? The answer is complicated.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/08/01/bill-maher-bari-weiss-talk-cancel-culture-harpers-letter-justice/5562519002/

Read more here:

Bill Maher talks cancel culture and John Lewis with authors of Harper's open 'letter on justice' - USA TODAY

Patrick Mouratoglou, the current coach of Serena Williams, has been busy during the COVID-19 pandemic as he launched his innovative UTS (Ultimate Tennis Showdown) tournament in his academy in Nice, France. The tournament which has attracted top players like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and Dominic Thiem. The purpose of this tournament was to address some of the problems he sees in modern-day tennis.

The Double Bagel podcast interviewed Mouratoglou for his thoughts on UTS and other issues. Listen to the full podcast here.

Patrick Mouratoglous UTS features a tiebreak-like scoring format and is different compared to traditional tennis scoring, and is played in four 10-minute quarters.

I think now, especially the last 10 years, the way people consume sports have dramatically changed with social media, Netflix, and video games. It has completely changed peoples habits. I think the format of sports, the way we know them, are in trouble. Those formats, almost all of them, are long, they are quite slow. And people are not used to that anymore, says the Frenchman.

The purpose of this tournament, Mouratoglou says, was to bring younger tennis fans to the sport, as currently the average age of tennis fans is around 61 years old.

If you look a bit further, 10 or 20 years in the future, I am not sure this is going to be still working because the younger generation dont consume videos like that. So the idea of UTS was to propose a different tennis. With the goal to able to bring fans into tennispeople who are not watching tennis, and younger people.

Mouratoglou says due to the political correctness of tennis, it has not allowed players to fully express themselves in the media, which consequently has made the sport looking unattractive to watch for potential new tennis fans.

I think we have great personalities in tennis. I more think they dont dare expressing themselves as tennis is the most politically correct sport along with golf. And that is not great is because I think people want to get to know the players.

I think its important for players to understand that they have to showcase their personalities I think when you show who you are, people will like you. And some of us will dislike you. And thats fine. You cant please everybody, and if you try to please everybody- you please nobody. To think all the players, are nice, perfect, are loving each other. Thats not the truth.

With the US Open only a few weeks away, Mouratoglou will be preparing Serena Williams for another attempt of to capture her historic 24th Grand Slam title.

The preparation for this US Open is the weirdest in history. But I think all the players are in the same boat. Its been challenging for everyone in the same way.

When asked about how close Serena is to capturing #24, and whether it is a physical or mental hurdle that is holding her back.

When you start to lose a few times in the same situation, the mental aspect comes in. But the positive thing about it is that she has already reached four Grand Slam finals, which means she is not far. But the last step is always the most importantespecially when you make one step for history. So this is the challenge now.

The illustrious coaching career of Patrick Mouratoglou started in 1999 when he started coaching former World No.8 Marcos Baghdatis where he won the 2003 Australian Open Junior Boys title and reached the Australian Open final in 2006.

Since then, Mouratoglou has coached other world class tennis players such as Grigor Dimitrov, Laura Robson, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Serena Williams, and many others. It would be fair to say, if any coach knew what separates good players and great players, it would be Patrick.

If you ask me what are the three things that define a champion. I would say, ambition, competitivenessthe ability to be a great competitorand probably athleticism.

What separates good players from great players is their personality. If you look at the top 100, all the players are great players. But just a few are champions. What makes a difference is an extra thing they have. Its how much they believe in themselves, how much they want it, how bad they want it.

Listen to the full podcast on The Double Bagel.

Main Photo:Embed from Getty Images

Go here to see the original:

Patrick Mouratoglou: 'Tennis Is The Most Politically Correct Sport' - Last Word on Tennis

Video - MagicTalk; Image - Getty. Watch: Jordan Peterson shares his take on gender issues in New Zealand.

A controversial Canadian professor who gained fame rallying against political correctness has reportedly been infected with COVID-19 while staying in a Serbian hospital for over-reliance on drugs.

Dr Jordan Peterson, who shot to fame in 2016 after featuring in several highly-viewed videos where he discussed political correctness, flew to Russia earlier this year after developing a dependency on prescription drugs, The Sun reports.

Speaking to the British outlet, Mikhaila Peterson said her dad had contracted COVID-19 while seeking further treatment in a Serbian hospital where he was recovering from an over-reliance on Benzodiazepine.

She said he was put on a lot of antiviral drugs, which she didn't believe was necessary as he only had mild symptoms. The daughter also revealed he was suffering from pneumonia, which he had fought earlier this year.

"And so now we've had a step back in his recovery. Life is just not good, things are not good right now," she said.

"He'll get better, but he's definitely taken a step back and it's just really unfortunate... it's been a disaster."

Last year, Mikhaila posted a nine-minute video about her father's issues with anti-anxiety medication Clonazepam, which Healthline says is used to treat panic disorder.

He was prescribed the drug after becoming stressed when his wife was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo several operations.

To try and wean himself off the drug, Jordan checked himself into a New York rehabilitation centre.

He shared the video in September saying: "At least life isn't dull".

Dr Peterson is also known for his self-help book 12 Rules for Life. While in New Zealand in 2019, he criticised gender quotas and moves to allow sex markers on birth certificates to be changed.

Among his controversial opinions are the views that women wear makeup in the workplace to be sexually provocative, white privilege is a "Marxist lie" and people shouldn't have to comply with what gender pronouns others wish to be called by.

Jordan Peterson infected with COVID-19 while in Serbian hospital - report

Click to expand

UP NEXT

Read the rest here:

Jordan Peterson infected with COVID-19 while in Serbian hospital - report - msnNOW

President Trump continues to bypass major pollsters. He has been conducting his own surveys for a while. A news and entertainment guy himself, President Trump has been polling his followers about campaign issues, popular sentiment and media performance since his campaign days in 2015. This week is no exception. Mr. Trumps campaign issued a new 25-question Mainstream Media Accountability Survey on Thursday and it is specific, indeed. A few sample questions reveal the campaign is still very much in touch with the concerns of Trump voters:

Do you believe the mainstream media actually cares about working Americans?

Do you trust the mainstream media to tell the truth about the Republican Partys positions and actions?

Do you believe the media is engaging in a witch hunt to take down President Trump?

Do you believe political correctness has created biased news coverage of both illegal immigration and radical Islamic terrorism?

Do you believe people of faith have been unfairly characterized by the media?

Do you believe the media wrongly attributes gun violence to Second Amendment rights?

Do you agree with President Trumps media strategy to cut through the medias noise and deliver our message straight to the people?

OVERWHELMED BY THE NEWS

Thanks to the internet, 24/7 broadcasting and social media, the restless, ever-changing news is a nonstop presence in our lives, often amped up with opinion and shrill delivery. Does it make you jittery? A gigantic new poll of 20,045 U.S. adults agree with you.

Americans feel that the news media is not working for them due to the sheer volume of news, news mixed with opinion and their increased perceptions of bias in news, says the wide-ranging survey from Gallup and the Knight Foundation, which notes that news consumers often feel overwhelmed and unable to sort out the facts.

Some respond by digging deeper into the issues, sometimes they disengage from the news entirely, others cultivate skills that help them parse the news.

Some numbers: 62% say its harder to be well-informed because they must sort through information to determine whats true and important. The most frequent cause of this, cited by three fourths of the respondents, is the jumbled mix of news and non-news followed by the relentless speed of the news cycle and the increase of news organizations now able to deliver news anytime, any place and in multiple formats. Both were cited by 63%.

In response to feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of news sources in the current media environment, a plurality of Americans (41%) say they only pay attention to one or two trusted sources, while 1 in 3 (31%) try to consult a variety of sources to see where they agree. About 1 in 6 Americans (17%) opt for the most extreme response, saying they stop paying attention to news altogether, while 8% rely on others to help them sort out what they need to know, the poll analysis said.

GOP CONVENTION: SAFETY FIRST

Not so long ago, 50,000 attendees, 15,000 journalists and 8,000 volunteers were expected to attend the three-day Republican National Convention, which begins Aug. 24. The coronavirus pandemic put a huge damper on that plan. The important part of the big show, however, is still intact for the pared down event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Six delegates from each state and territory are planning to attend, for a total of 336 delegates, organizers said in a new advisory.

All must have a COVID-19 test beforehand, there will be symptom tracking, temperature checks, required social distancing and masks, plus on-site health personnel and telemedicine consultations if needed.

The plan, says medical adviser Dr. Jeffry Runge, is based on evolving scientific evidence and guidance issued by the Presidential Coronavirus Task Force, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases. President Trump likely will give a virtual convention acceptance speech from the White House.

ON THE RADAR

A new interest group has arrived: Conservative Clergy of Color is an alternative voice in a pivotal time.

We started Conservative Clergy of Color because, frankly, we were fed up with Black Lives Matter and the liberal media always controlling the narrative on race, said chairman Bishop Aubrey Shines in a statement.

Black Lives Matter is run by self-proclaimed Marxists and wants to openly dismantle our country and its values. We stand for the Judeo-Christian principles and traditions that helped build our country, and we want to highlight those values along with positive black success stories that dont involve violence, the pastor said.

America was built by the likes of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, the Tuskegee Airmen and other African Americans of character and faith. None of them burned anything down to make positive changes in our country, unlike the mobs who have upended Americas cities. Conservative Clergy of Colors campaign uses the example of these great leaders as the model on which we move our country forward.

WEEKEND REAL ESTATE

For sale: Skyspace, a steel, concrete and glass desert sanctuary built in 2009 on two hillside acres near Las Vegas, Nevada. Five bedrooms, eight baths, floor-to-ceiling windows, detached floating dining room; custom kitchen, wine cellar, media room, elevator, subterranean indoor basketball court; 12,991 square feet with Zen garden, resort-style pool, Jacuzzi with ice plunge, outdoor kitchen, mountain views, much more. Priced at $10.5 million through Isluxury.com/property/1437.

POLL DU JOUR

50% of U.S. voters say President Trump is conservative; 64% of Republicans, 45% of independents and 55% of Democrats agree.

25% are not sure what ideology Mr. Trump favors; 7% of Republicans, 27% of independents and 24% of Democrats agree.

15% say he is moderate; 20% of Republicans, 21% of independents and 8% of Democrats agree.

10% say he is liberal; 9% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 14% of Democrats agree.

Source: A Yahoo/YouGov poll of 1,507 U.S. adults conducted July 28-30.

Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

See more here:

Inside the Beltway: Trump's media accountability survey - Washington Times

A trio of former Columbus police leaders said Wednesday that Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Columbus City Council have jumped on the political-correctness bandwagon in criticizing what they said is one of the best police departments in the country.

Former Division of Police Chiefs Kim Jacobs and Walter Distelzweig, and retired Deputy Chief John Rockwell, met with reporters Wednesday to discuss low morale among officers, a lack of support from city officials, and the policing climate in the wake of nationwide protests over racial injustice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in late May.

Jacobs, who retired as chief in February 2019, said she has talked to a number of officers in recent weeks who say they feel that they cannot do their job as well as in the past because of second-guessing coming from City Hall and the public.

"This noticeable shift from praise in the past to accusatory generalizations is dismaying to them," Jacobs said. "Our citys residents need to know how these great officers feel about them. What is being painted about them by a few is not a true representation."

Rockwell said he spoke with former Chief James Jackson, who was unable to attend Wednesdays meeting but wanted to pass along a message to the community.

"He particularly wanted me to express that there is not systemic racism (in the Columbus Division of Police). He wanted me to absolutely emphasize this," Rockwell said. "This is from a (Black) man who was subject to that for years."

Distelzweig, who retired as chief in 2012, said policing has evolved from when he started at the academy in the early 1970s. It now includes a significant emphasis on less-lethal options, he noted.

"One piece of equipment we were issued was a wooden nightstick," he said. "On our tool belt was our firearm, a nightstick, and that was it."

The former police leaders also said they are concerned about gun violence in the city, and they said the citys leaders need to be more proactive in stopping it rather than focusing only on reforms of the police division.

"Its appalling to me that the response has been fairly quiet," Jacobs said. Officers "see those people dying on the streets, they witness the inhumanity if you ask me of what people can do to other people. They see those children and parents crying, and they suffer from that drama and trauma on a regular basis, and someone sits back and calls a press conference and says (police) shouldnt do that anymore."

Distelzweig said there are "council members talking about the number of helicopters we have, and we should be talking about, How many shootings did we have last night, and what are we doing about it? We need to be adding equipment and officers."

All three former police leaders also took issue with statements made by Ginther in the weeks following the protests alleging systemic racism in the division. They also called out the mayor for saying there was a lack of holding officers accountable.

"It feels like a bunch of people jumped on a bandwagon of hate the police right now," Jacobs said. "Theres lots of healing that needs to be done."

About 15 minutes after Wednesdays meeting ended, Ginther sent an email to all division personnel that was obtained by The Dispatch. In that email, Ginther said that he supports both the police and reform, and that those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

"We launched independent investigations into police misconduct because, again, we must be able to hold police accountable if they violate their oath and the rights of others. Support does not negate accountability," Ginther wrote.

Jacobs said that during her tenure, she recommended that 23 officers be fired, and 17 others resigned while under investigation for an offense for which they could have been fired. She said civilian oversight exists in the city because the director of public safety, a mayoral appointee, has the final say on firing or hiring an officer.

Other oversight methods, such as a civilian review board, are likely to do little to strengthen the discipline process, Jacobs said.

"We cant treat cops (all one way) based on the fact they wear a uniform," she said. "You have to have a board that doesnt bring a bias into that."

Rockwell said the civilian police review board proposed by city officials would need to have law enforcement experience or training in law enforcement policies to make informed decisions about how officers behaved in situations.

"When people start dictating policy and they have no law enforcement background and training, its dangerous to our citizens and our officers," he said. "We wouldnt send an officer to a fire scene and tell the fire personnel how to put out the fire. Thats kind of what were looking at here."

Rockwell said officers will be hesitant to make what would have been instinctual decisions in some situations if someone is strictly looking to punish officers without context.

"Were going to have an officer killed or a citizen killed because an officer hesitates and is so concerned about being judged that they dont do the right, immediate thing," he said.

Rockwell added that Ginther has a chance to set the standard nationally for how police reform and evolution will look, but the mayor has to be willing to be a partner, not a unilateral leader.

"Were here to say you have a great department, and seek out their experience," he said. "Dont just ram change down their throat."

Distelzweig said the city administration, Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, the community and the police division need to come together for the healing process to begin and for any changes to have lasting impact.

"I dont know why that line has been drawn in the sand between the administration and the FOP and the police department," he said. "The line has to be taken out. We have to sit down and talk about this issue. Weve got to come together. Its the community that is going to lose."

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

See more here:

featFormer Columbus police chiefs say city leaders have jumped on cop-hating bandwagon - The Columbus Dispatch