Manchester United making progress in pursuit of Alvaro Morata – sources – ESPN FC

Posted on by

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed there have been no offers from Man United for Alvaro Morata. Shaka Hislop breaks down the latest surrounding Alvaro Morata's potential move to Man United.

Manchester United are making progress in their pursuit of Alvaro Morata but have yet to agree a fee with Real Madrid, sources have told ESPN FC.

Manager Jose Mourinho has identified Morata as the striker he wants to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

There is still hope a deal could be secured before United head to the United States for their preseason tour on July 9.

Sources have told ESPN FC that agreeing personal terms should be straightforward because of Morata's willingness to move to Old Trafford.

There had been a fear that uncertainty surrounding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo could force Madrid to stall on any deal for the Spain international.

But reports in Spain suggest Ronaldo will now stay at the Bernabeu while Marca, which has close ties to president Florentino Perez, reported that the Spanish champions are set to push on with a bid for Monaco striker Kylian Mbappe.

French newspaper L'Equipe reported on Friday that Zinedine Zidane, once Mbappe's idol, called the striker to convince him to join Madrid said they were ready to sell one of their "BBC" stars to make room for him.

Mbappe's arrival would further limit opportunities for Morata, who made only 14 La Liga starts last season.

The striker, who returned to Real Madrid last summer after two seasons at Juventus, scored 20 goals in 43 appearances last term.

There has been no offer for him from Chelsea, who are also in the market for a striker with Diego Costa set to depart and have been linked with Everton's Romelu Lukaku.

United also have an interest in Andrea Belotti, although Torino have said a 100 million buyout clause in his contract -- only available to clubs outside Italy -- must be met before the 23-year-old is allowed to leave.

Rob is ESPN FC's Manchester United correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @RobDawsonESPN.

Originally posted here:

Manchester United making progress in pursuit of Alvaro Morata - sources - ESPN FC

VA fails cyber audit for 18th straight year, but progress is evident – FederalNewsRadio.com

Posted on by

In the two years since the Veterans Affairs Department announced its goal of closing all cybersecurity material weaknesses, the effortsdetailed in the latest audit report from the agencys inspector general seem to be making a difference.

While VA fell short of its ultimate objective of cybersecurity not being a material weakness in 2017the 18th year in a row auditors rated it that way the Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) said in its response to the IGs Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) report to Congress that it has made significant progress across all 33 recommendations, and is asking the IG to close 18 of them.

For example, the IG says VA continued to struggle with ensuring systems had an up-to-date authority to operate (ATO).

Specifically, process deficiencies allowed certain system authorizations to operate to expire and allowed other systems to be reauthorized by an official without the proper authority, the IG stated.

Sponsored Content - Download our Executive Briefing to learn how agency and industry experts are hoping to reduce insider threats.

But VAs chief information officers office says its Enterprise Cybersecurity Strategy Team (ECST) has updated its processes and is nowusing the ongoing authorizations approach as required by the Office of Management and Budget in the Circular A-130 update issued last fall.

By the end of calendar year 2016, systems requiring an ATO were updated to reflect the new AO, OI&Ts response stated. Updated assessment and authorization (A&A) policy and process to redefine roles and responsibilities of VAs authorizing officials (AO), and AO procedures, which will allow for oversight of systems throughout their full lifecycle. Office of Cyber Security Policy and Compliance (OCSPC) conducts routine, regularly scheduled briefings with the AO prior to issuance of ATOs on systems within their purview.

The system authorization process has been a problem at VA for some time. Back in 2013, former VA chief information security officer Jerry Davis claimed VA was rubber stamping ATOs in order to get them completed before they expired.

After several congressional hearings and the turnover of the CIO, VAs new leadership promised to fix the long-standing cyber problems. Former VA CIO Laverne Council said when she took over the role in 2015 that her intention was to get rid of the more than two dozen cyber weaknesses over the next two years.

She created a cyber strategy, the ECST and eight domains to address the biggest problem areas.

The cyber team is playing a major role in nearly every initiative to close the IGs recommendations.

Know what to do with your Thrift Savings Plan the next time the stock market crashes? Senior Correspondent Mike Causey tells you how to avoid buying high and selling low.

Deputy Inspector General Linda Halliday said in an email to Federal News Radio that her office will continue to review VAs progress in improving its cyber posture.

When the OIG receives evidence of appropriate corrective action, we will generally close that recommendation, Halliday said. As VA provides documentation to support the corrective actions taken on any recommendation, we will review it and make the determination on whether we can close that recommendation. Further, we continue to assess VAs progress in implementing corrective actions and their ability to sustain improvements impacting VA information security posture during our annual FISMA review in the following year.

One area where VA says it has made progress has been a long-time challenge around password management.

Over the past two years, the ECST has implemented technology to enforce password policies, mandated the use of smart identity cards and initiated single sign-on capabilities.

VA has enhanced password monitoring policies via credentialed, predictive scans and remediation processes on OI&T systems. Routine system scans are completed by the Network and Security Operations Center (NSOC). Enterprise Discovery Scans (EDS) are conducted on a quarterly basis to detect password vulnerabilities across the enterprise, OI&T told auditors. In order to improve organizationwide availability of security data, VA has enhanced the reporting of scan results and has published results with historical data on the Nessus Enterprise Web Tool (NEWT). VA is using NEWT dashboards to monitor password vulnerabilities and show trends based on the results of EDS scans. Scan results are shared with users in the enterprise who have been granted access to NEWT.

Another major problem the IG pointed out was the lack of visibility into their networks and therefore failure to identify numerous high-risk security incidents, including malware infections that were not remediated in a timely manner. Specifically, we noted these issues at three major data centers and two VA medical centers.

The CIOs office said it expects to complete the national deployment of an enterprisewide security incident and event management toolby June 30.

VAs OI&T said it is currently receiving logs from across the enterprise to include centralized logging from devices owned and managed by field operations to include Windows and Linux servers, and network infrastructure devices (routers/switches). Other log sources such as domain controllers, Domain Name Services (DNS), and ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) systems are now also included in the centralized logging repository, which helps to enrich the data lake and enhance data available for event monitoring, correlation processes and incident response. Currently, only failed logon events are being collected for infrastructure devices.

VA OI&T also expects to complete a related effort by June 30 to track and make sure patches and vulnerabilities are closed in a timely manner.

VA has an enterprise-wide scanning program performed by the NSOC on a scheduled and ad-hoc basis (when needed or requested). Results of the scans are rolled into NEWT for analysis and reporting. The analysis tool provides an enterprise view to the terminal device level (specific Internet Protocol), the offices response stated. NEWT coverage has been expanded to include Cisco and Red Hat Enterprise Linux scan results as well as trending and historical remediation efforts. VA implemented DbProtect, a database scanning tool, to gain enterprise level access and insight to the many databases that exist in the organization.

VA told the IG it expects to close eight of the remaining recommendations no later than Sept. 30 and then five more by Dec. 31.

Read the original here:

VA fails cyber audit for 18th straight year, but progress is evident - FederalNewsRadio.com

Eurozone economy celebrates growth, though progress not uniform – Christian Science Monitor

Posted on by

June 23, 2017 LondonEvidence built on Friday that the sturdy improvement in eurozone economic growth touted by the European Central Bank is in place albeit with some wobbles.

Cruising speed, not acceleration, Morgan Stanley economists said.

Surveys of purchasing managers' plans in the eurozone, Germany and France all indicated steady growth, if not perhaps as much as some economists had expected.

The broadest of the managers' surveys IHS Markit's June flash purchasing managers composite index for the eurozone dipped to 55.7 from 56.8 in May.

This was lower than anyone in a Reuters economists poll had predicted, but still way above 50, the level Markit says divides expansion from contraction.

"Businesses experienced the strongest quarter in six years," Bert Colijn, ING senior economist for the eurozone, said in a note. "With just a week to go in this quarter, all signs are pointing towards a strong (growth) reading."

At the country level, the most significant development may have been France's manufacturing PMI, which rose far more than expected to 55, rising back after a dip in May possibly because the political risks around the presidential and legislative have gone.

Companies also took on workers at the fastest pace in nearly 10 years, a sub-index showed, giving France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, an early economic present.

Overall, however, the PMIs showed something of a tailing off of activity primarily in services even if that was within the context of expansion.

Germany's composite index, for example, was down 1.3 points from a six-year high to a still solid 56.1.

Happy campers

The business data came on the heels of Thursday's buoyant eurozone consumer sentiment report.

Here again, the news was relative. The actual number was minus 1.3 points, meaning that sentiment is negative.

But that is usually the case with the eurozone. So the fact that there was a jump from -3.3 points in May to the highest level in 16 years was seen as a bullish sign.

"It all points to labor market wage growth and private consumption," Berenberg economist Florian Hense said.

Other data on Friday, however, showed that the eurozone economy is not without its risks.

Italy, the currency bloc's third largest economy, reported a sharp fall in industrial sales and orders in April.

The data, which matched industrial output figures released earlier in the month showing a surprise decline, suggests a poor start to the second quarter after 0.4 percent growth in the first.

Considered by many economists to be the weak link in the eurozone revival, Italy is facing an election next year at the latest, where the anti-euro, anti-establishment 5-Star Movement is currently seen making gains.

The International Monetary Fund projects Italy's economy to grow 1.3 percent this year because of the general eurozone growth picture, but to slow next year.

"Weak productivity and low aggregate investment remain key challenges for faster growth, held back by structural weaknesses, high public debt, and impaired bank balance sheets," the IMF said this month in its latest report.

Go here to see the original:

Eurozone economy celebrates growth, though progress not uniform - Christian Science Monitor

Complaints come with some progress on Ferguson consent decree – STLtoday.com

Posted on by

ST. LOUIS Lawyers involved in the 2016 consent decree between Ferguson and the Justice Department said at a quarterly status hearing in federal court Thursday that they were making progress toward a series of reforms of municipal court and police practices, but almost a dozen citizens who also spoke said they were frustrated and impatient with the extent of that progress.

Amy Senier, a Justice Department lawyer, told U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry, who is overseeing the consent decree, the team had been hard at work. Senier said lawyers were developing a framework for recruiting and retaining a diversified and well-trained police force, for ensuring police accountability and setting guidelines for police use of force. But she said the team still faces challenges, namely the transparency of the process, including a city website that needs improvement.

We believe we are all working together in good faith, she said.

Apollo Carey, Fergusons city attorney, told Perry that since August 2014, the city has waived $1.8 million in fines, dismissed or dropped about 39,000 municipal court cases and signed up 1,381 people to perform community service instead of paying fines.

Carey said the city was still trying to figure out how to reconcile the consent decrees requirements for body cameras and in-car cameras with a voter initiative on the same subject that differs in technical ways.

He said the civilian review board will be going on police ride-alongs and receive training on use of force simulators to aid it in reviewing complaints.

Half of the citizens who spoke at the hearing expressed their frustration with the Neighborhood Policing Steering Committee, established by the consent decree to provide input to police and the city on law enforcement issues.

Speakers said membership had dropped precipitously because of disputes over how the group is to be run. Others questioned the money being spent by the court-appointed monitor of the consent decree, complained of the lack of openness of the process, and bemoaned a series of deadlines that have been missed.

It doesnt sound like a very functional group, Perry said later to a Justice Department lawyer, who said that lawyers would work to make the process more efficient.

One Ferguson resident did praise the efforts.

The consent decree was prompted by protests following the 2014 death of Michael Brown, and a Justice Department investigation that harshly criticized Fergusons police and municipal court.

Visit link:

Complaints come with some progress on Ferguson consent decree - STLtoday.com

Welcome to the ‘Second Tier’: US Failing Big League on Social Progress – Common Dreams

Posted on by

Common Dreams
Welcome to the 'Second Tier': US Failing Big League on Social Progress
Common Dreams
Released by the Social Progressive Imperative (SPI), the 2017 Global Social Progress Index reveals that the U.S. ranks 17th in the world when it comes to promoting the general welfare, coming in behind its Canadian neighbor to the north and far behind ...
The US is 'flatlining' in social progress compared to countries like Canada and GermanyBusiness Insider
2017 Social Progress Index Reveals Actionable Insights for Decision Makers, Social Entrepreneurs, and Engaged ...Skoll Foundation
Worldwide decline in personal rights hampers social progress, study showsHumanosphere
The NonProfit Times -IcelandReview -New Zealand Herald
all 24 news articles »

View original post here:

Welcome to the 'Second Tier': US Failing Big League on Social Progress - Common Dreams

Mailbag: The limits of ethical egoism – Albany Democrat Herald

Posted on by

Richard Hirschi's June 14 letter quoted Ayn Rand as if her words were holy writ. Rand disciples should see on Google "Problems with Ayn Rand's philosophy." They'll find several logical fallacies in her position of ethical egoism.

Also, they should consider the current occupant of the White House, a perfect example of egoism run amok. Everything is about him, either for him or against him. He is centered on praise and attention at all times. These are also the characteristics of spoiled kids. Everything is about what they want, and what they hate. If they don't grow up and accept society's norms, they'll be Mr. Trump or Ayn Rand (who was a lot like Trump in her private life).

We who have grown up are not thieves, as Rand claimed, nor are we collectivists, as Hirschi wrote. We own property, stock, businesses, etc. We just want to avoid what happened to Kansas under Gov. Brownback. The state cut taxes for the rich and businesses, forcing steep cuts in funding for public schools, highways, and other needed services (check it online). It didn't improve the economy as promised. It just left the state broke, with a lousy credit rating.

Read the original post:

Mailbag: The limits of ethical egoism - Albany Democrat Herald

Ritual Skulls and Other Magical Objects, in Photos – Atlas Obscura

Posted on by

There are over 3000 mystical artefacts on display at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall, England. These range, says photographer Sara Hannant, from cures to curses, from spirit houses to spells for sailors, from the tools of wayside witches to the ceremonial robes worn by Western ritual magicians. Its the largest collection of magical objects in the world, and one that Hannant got to know well during an artists residency at the museum.

Much of my recent work concerns magical beliefs, rituals and folklore, says Hannant. I have always been interested in folk magic and I have also been exploring, through a long-term project, the personal connections we have to objects and the significance and memories we attach to them. During her residency, she photographed ritual items that have been imbued with supernatural meaning, including wax dolls, wands, statues, daggers, pendants, robes and amulets. These images are now part of her most recent book, Of Shadows: One Hundred Objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.

With such a large collection to choose from, Hannant selected the items she found the most resonantbut also those that show the range of the museums holdings, so objects related to cunning folk, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, Satanism, alchemy, and Wicca are included, plus objects from the witch trials in the early modern period. Each object was photographed in the same way, a deliberate choice by Hannant, who says she found it best to photograph at night, enabling the objects to emerge from the darkness, where it is said magic begins.

Hannant has a particular interest in ceremonies and items of supernatural significance. Her previous book documented British folk customs rooted in cycles of nature: dramatizing the wheel of the year with costumed processions, fire rituals, mumming plays and traditional dances that mark seasonal change.

Atlas Obscura has a selection of Hannants images of magical objects.

Excerpt from:

Ritual Skulls and Other Magical Objects, in Photos - Atlas Obscura

Against Nihilism – MTV.com

Posted on by

Getty Images

He is the loudest rallying cry in the world that its time for us to do better and get to work

The 2016 election was a slow-motion nightmare, the kind that gives you sleep paralysis, like you're awake and have to scream to survive but your mouth is stitched shut as the vague outlines of men set your house on fire. It was a year of destruction. All those nice little lies it's so easy to tell ourselves about politics, about how politeness is a virtue and facts beat muscle, were incinerated.

It's a nightmare that's hard to wake up from, so total was its trauma and ability to crush resolve. This is partially because President Trump refuses to shut up about his win, a win he never planned for. It's also because the actions of his White House are so utterly corrupt and incompetent and depraved that they don't even feel real.

Navigating our political landscape feels like we went for a walk in the woods and fell down a hole and landed in an America where the sun is going out. It is so surreal that it's tempting to regard it as fantasy, as something that has to end fantastically, something that can be undone with a magical reset button that sends Donald Trump back to a version of 2014 in which Bill O'Reilly voluntarily retires from Fox News and hands Trump his show and we can go back to our normal lives oh god, for a road back home to our normal lives.

I was on the road for most of 2016 covering the election, and only now is any perspective arising. When I attended the fringe right-wing Constitution Party's convention in Utah, I got the feeling that the Christian conservative community I knew growing up was dying, which was advantageous to progressives. What I understated then was that these kinds of conservatives, governed by rules and traditions and "the old way is the best way," were being replaced by a more nihilist strain, a type of conservative who is not hopeful or politically engaged and wants to demolish government as we know it for entertainment, for spectacle. It's a movement whose motto is "fuck everything, who cares."

When I first started taking Trump seriously as a contender for the White House, I wrote about his birth via conservative talk radio by Michael Savage and Alex Jones, and Rush Limbaugh before them. These performers used the language of politics, the idea of politics, for entertainment. Rush Limbaugh was a comedian who needed to keep his listeners amused so they'd stick around after the commercial breaks. He didn't care about truth, because truth is dull and has the odor of schoolwork.

Then Limbaugh got too popular. People who weren't comedians took his talking points and used them to sculpt new characters, with more conviction. It was a racket and it made a lot of people rich, but it also created voters who didn't engage with their fluff entertainment critically and came to believe its stories through overexposure. It created voters who were used to having their prejudice and moral laziness validated and encouraged. It made it easy for Donald Trump, who founded his career on rackets, to mobilize these voters who had been poisoned for decades. Much easier than it would have been for the melting wax statues who made up the rest of the Republican Party to do so.

Trumps barreling plea to chaos gave me cause to worry at the 2016 conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia. I fully expected riots, because Trump was soaking Republican anger in ethanol and so many Democrats were distraught about the primary defeat of Bernie Sanders. But no riots came. There was conservative vitriol and liberal despair, but I mostly saw an ocean of people from all walks of life who were unmoved by and unhappy with their party's candidate for president.

The week before the election, I drove cross-country with my brother to ask every single regular person we could find about the election, and how they felt about the country. What we found was not an uprising of white working-class malcontents who were foaming at the mouth for white nationalism, but a resounding and thorough sigh of "this sucks." There was no evidence whatsoever that Trump was actually popular. His ascendance was mostly a matter of mobilizing regular Republicans while Democrats were divided over their anointed wonky centrist.

In the months since that drive into purgatory, we've seen how Trump governs: like somebody who has no idea how government works and only cares about being the most famous guy on the news. And he's exactly as smart as a YouTube fast-food reviewer hopped up on trucker speed (if YouTube fast-food reviewers hated poor people), which means he can't finish a sentence without choking on his own tongue. He will be easy to defeat in 2020 if the left can stop trying to be polite and run a campaign of blood and guts against him.

The lesson I learned from covering this election, and from the early days of the presidency from hell, is not that America is any worse than it used to be. Its flaws are just more obvious and underlined. Ours has always been a nation founded on imperialism and massacre, and its people have always been prone to tribalism and hate. Trump is not cause to give up on this country. Trump is not cause to retreat into fantasy. Trump is the loudest rallying cry in the world that it's time for us to do better and get to work.

Building that future starts with an inspired American left that gives a real alternative to Trump yelling at us, a left that knows the material well-being of our citizens is imperiled and nobody feels secure, a left that makes our people an offer for something else, a left that promises a future and shows us how that future would be made manifest. That starts with talking to Americans, engaging them on their level, and selling them on real leftist principles instead of telling them how bad the alternative is. That starts with making young people believe in your candidate. That starts with admitting the train has been derailed but hasn't exploded.

Public political nihilism is everywhere because of this president, and it's pure bullshit. It's all about creating a morose, vaguely teenage, and powerless conception of your place in the world to escape moral culpability. It's a way out. It gives you narrative and closure. It makes your life a movie that you're watching from the nosebleeds.

But there's a way to change that. Whenever you want to say the world is ending, whenever you want to say the ship is sinking so let's crack open some Scotch and sing a funeral song, slap yourself in the face and tell the truth. If you engage with the news at all, the easiest thing to say in 2017 is that the world is ending. What's harder is admitting the scary truth: It's not, and there's work to do in it.

2017 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

Originally posted here:

Against Nihilism - MTV.com

In the Almost-Great Baby Driver, Hollywood Goes Asperger’s – National Review

Posted on by

Lots of movies are manipulative, but Edgar Wrights action-comedy Baby Driver defines the era by pampering its teenage audience.

Yet its most impressive moment invokes an obscure but cinematic icon: The hero nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort), an orphaned hipster who loves speed-racing and pop music and works for a crime boss as a getaway driver, loses the right lens of his sunglasses during a botched escape.

This odd, striking occurrence recalls Jean-Paul Belmondos sunglasses lens popping out at the crisis point of Breathless (1961), as did Warren Beattys in Bonnie & Clyde (1967) and Jack Nicholsons in Chinatown (1974). No mere coincidence, the visual image connects Baby Driver to its cool-crime-movie lineage (film scholars can trace it back further to Sergei Eisensteins eyeglasses montage in Battleship Potemkin). Such insider references make Baby Driver a curious, coddling delight. Like his Monsters, Inc.quoting protagonist, the only thing Wright loves more than movies is pop music, and the films overflow of these pop references prove he is a more talented and artistic manipulator than Quentin Tarantino.

For those who have desperately waited for morality to return to movies after Tarantinos paradigm shift into nihilism, Baby Driver is almost it. But thats exactly how it pampers. Wrights evocation of cinematic history demonstrates the blinkered moral lookout that once defined the Baby Boomer generation and now Millennials. The fears and scant hopes we feel today are personified in Baby, a hero on the Aspergers scale, who shades himself from the world and plugs earbuds into his head, feeding the energy of pop songs into his alienated existence.

Wright is also a satirist, as seen in his previous films Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which similarly used pop references to define his characters moral choices. The opening car chase here is a spectacular display of sharp editing and speedway hijinks that flip Walter Hills existential action-noir The Driver (1978) into a dangerous daytime parade. After this hyper-kinetic showing-off, Wright mocks Tarantinos love of sadism by providing Baby with a sentimental motive: He falls for the orphaned waitress Debora (Lily James). Their love story is scored to Carla Thomass B-A-B-Y, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas Nowhere to Run, and Brenda Holloways Every Little Bit Hurts, each trenchantly expressing moments of romance, excitement, and fear.

While Baby Drivers crime plot is routine (riffing on The Usual Suspects), Wrights movie and song references should return audiences to the principles that post-Tarantino culture has lost. Or have we been Occupied, Antifad and Fergusoned so harshly that the young generation Wright addresses enjoys only the shock of violence and no longer cares about the cultural heritage based on those non-Tarantino virtues: connection, respect, obligation, civility, and love?

Wright makes several narrative explorations into honor-among-thieves, trust-between-lovers, and family-fidelity themes, but one stands out: Babys scariest criminal colleague is Bats (Jamie Foxx), a black ghetto fiend from the films Atlanta, Ga., setting. Its Foxxs best characterization since Any Given Sunday, and the Black Lives Matter mob should be analyzing it from now on.

Bats updates Foxxs title role in Django Unchained, QTs inauthentic Blaxploitation-movie fantasy. Perhaps because Wright is English and somewhat distanced from those self-gratifying cultural delusions that made QT think he was revealing essential American race tensions, Foxxs badass stereotype here is an undisguised, frighteningly modern miscreant. Bats doesnt seek justice, he just wants money and, secretly, he wants revenge for the social ills that, according to hip-hop ethos, have urged him toward heartlessness and crime. This is Hollywoods first postMichael Brown characterization, and, through this character, Wright pinpoints black ghetto resentments behind the slogan Black Lives Matter. Bats effectively sizes up his criminal rival (Jon Hamm, playing a former Wall Streeter) as you acquired the kind of debt that makes a white man blush.

Babys white-boy innocence is the opposite of the seething menace represented by Foxx, Hamm, and Jon Bernthals Griff, revealing the conspicuous, audience-pampering, and ethnic cop-outs of most Hollywood entertainment. Babys collection of personally recorded mix-tapes and scenes with his black foster father Joseph (CJ Jones) nod to Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool, geek blockbusters that also pampered fans who take pleasure in feigning their innocence. But when Wright lets loose with his British-tinged social satire, Baby Driver compares to Jared Hesss more genial crime comedy, Masterminds, and becomes the funniest and most incisive crime movie since Next Day Air. Wright goes beyond the comic-book and action-movie spoofs of QTs ilk.

Baby Driver might have equaled Breathless, Bonnie & Clyde, and Chinatown had Wright not peppered Babys crime spree with so many cute asides (or repeated several testimonies to the kids decency). His music cues and music-based sound design finally become glib and self-congratulatory (unlike the moving way a single pop song connected generations in the Mexican film Geros). Consider that the smart-ass title Baby Driver is the title of a 1970 Simon and Garfunkel ditty about family heritage that recites, My daddy was a prominent frogman / My mammas in the Naval reserve / When I was young I carried a gun / But I never got a chance to serve. And then comes its most telling line: I did not serve.

The reference to that songs Vietnam Draftera abstention (the choice of criminal rebellion over military service) establishes that baby-faced Elgort is a contemporary response to the anomie of Taxi Drivers Travis Bickle. Yet, thats it. None of Baby Drivers compacted pop-culture totems sparks consciousness like the Renaissance art that obsesses the teen hero in Eugne Greens Son of Joseph. Though not as meretricious as the culture remixing by that innocent amoral idiot Tarantino, Wright is essentially shallow, which is akin to what made Paul Simon a gifted yet minor artist.

I wanted Baby Driver to be great, but Wright doesnt risk tragedy as Breathless, Bonnie & Clyde, and Chinatown did. Instead, Baby Driver caters to the blinkered, solipsistic state of our present-day culture; its an Aspergers masterpiece.

*****

Sofia Coppola seems to have lost her pop-music smarts in her remake of The Beguiled. Without ironic pop-music commentary (as in her 2006 Marie Antoinette), this adaptation of Don Siegels 1971 drama (which starred Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page in a Civil Warera, Tennessee Williamsstyle gothic revenge drama) becomes another of Sofia Coppolas listless spoiled-girl forays. She evokes the same sorority-house haziness of her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, once again pondering female sexual deviousness and navet: Nicole Kidman runs a boarding school of southern maidens (intense Kirsten Dunst, nubile Elle Fanning, and others) who take in a wounded Yankee (Colin Farrell).

Every character is subject to his or her own arousal and self-interest except Coppola, who here proves she isnt really a director but a blas hipster who extracts the drama out of everything. Pseudo-feminist Coppola even erases the black slave cook, forcefully portrayed in the original by Mae Mercer, whose presence made the microcosmic melodrama turn macro historically accurate and politically relevant. Instead, Coppola once again relies on her own social and gender status, pretending to observe the war between the sexes, with cannons booming in the distance. She ought to have known that her over-obvious point was already made better by the New York Dolls song Who Are the Mystery Girls?

*****

Michael Bay finally makes his Armageddon II, even though its titled Transformers: The Last Knight. Bay stretches the franchise backwardto medieval times, then forward to our imminent dystopian future when Optimus Prime gets brainwashed on the planet Cybertron and then returns to destroy Earth. In the opening Arthurian-travesty scenes, Bay creates actual thunderballs (maybe he should do a Bond next), then he entertains quasi-political allegory in the present-day scenes of Transformers hiding out in Alien No-Go zones of postIndustrial Revolution ghost towns.

Once again, the Transformer series verges on absurdity but thats less important than the unique big-screen spectacle of Bays pop-art and futurist filmmaking. In the 2013 Pain & Gain, Bay had seemed to be moving toward artistry of his own his love of mechanics, digital effects, and an ad-mans view of the world (including leggy, full-lipped, model-type heroines).

But The Last Knight seems plot-driven, not purely and ingeniously cinematic like the previous installments. He even employs a new little robot, in the mode of The Phantom Menaces BB-8, which rolls around the explosive, pyrotechnic chaos while humans and bigger bots enact endless repetitions of Road Runnerstyle slapstick violence, acrobatics, and painlessness in strangely empty cities. By trying to outdo James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Christopher Nolan, Bay must have forgotten that he used to be the superior artist.

READ MORE: The Book of Henry: Bad Rhetoric from Violence-Justifying Liberals The Mummy: American Guilt and Masochism Wonder Woman: What Does a Wonder Womanchild Want?

Armond White is the author of New Position: The Prince Chronicles.

Link:

In the Almost-Great Baby Driver, Hollywood Goes Asperger's - National Review

New Wiscasset Bay Gallery Exhibition Opens July 8 – The Lincoln County News (subscription)

Posted on by

Andrew Winters Morning After the Storm

Art in the Twentieth Century opens at the Wiscasset Bay Gallery in Wiscasset on Saturday, July 8 and will continue through Friday, Aug. 4. The exhibition explores the pluralistic nature of the art world in the 20th century, with developing styles that include cubism, expressionism, realism, and abstraction.

Of particular note is a work by late German-American artist George Grosz executed in New York in 1936. Grosz was born in Berlin in 1893. He became an important member of the Dada movement and openly rejected the rising German nationalism during the second decade of the 1900s. The Dadaists sought to escape the rationalism and logic that they believed led to World War I. Bringing an experimental, playful, and even irrational approach to art, Grosz and the Dadaists sought a return to humans child-like nature.

After Grosz emigrated with his family to New York in 1933 because of his strong anti-Nazi sentiments, he became a teacher at The Art Students League of New York. A few years later, Grosz painted New York Skyline in his loose, ethereal style with calligraphic marks accenting the tugboat and Manhattan skyline.

Contrasting Groszs abstracted, spirited work is Andrew Winters Morning After the Storm. Rooted in a clear, realistic style and drawing on a dramatic event, the artist depicts four sailors on a cliff viewing the remains of their ship off the coast of Monhegan Island. Other significant 20th century paintings and sculpture include a large modernist oil, Woolwich Ferry Slip, by John Folinsbee, and a major bronze by William Zorach, of his daughter Dahlov Ipcar, titled Innocence.

The show also features drawings, watercolors, and oils by important international artists such as Paul Guiragossian, Andre Derain, Marc Sterling, Victor Vasarely, and Ossip Zadkine.

Wiscasset Bay Gallery is located at 67 Main St. in Wiscasset. For further information, call 882-7682 or go to wiscassetbaygallery.com. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Read more from the original source:

New Wiscasset Bay Gallery Exhibition Opens July 8 - The Lincoln County News (subscription)

BRITANNIA: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE #3 Review: Massacre in the Arena – ComicsVerse

Posted on by

BRITANNIA: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE #3 by Peter Milligan and Juan Jose Ryp Plot Art Characterization

Summary

BRITANNIA: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE #3 splits its time equally between savage gladiator battles and an engaging mystery. The Ancient Roman detective, Antonius, gets to stretch his deductive legs. As the mysteries begin to unwind, BRITANNIA #3 picks up momentum and ends on a fantastic cliffhanger. However, the issue suffers from a lack of focus on the female character, Achillia. So far, this series has relegated her to the sidelines. BRITANNIA #3, written by Peter Milligan with art by Juan Jose Ryp, is no exception.

This issue begins with the evil Emperor Nero forcing Antonius and Achillia into the gladiator arena. Despite being outnumbered, the two warriors triumph. Achillia utilizes her blind ferocity while Antonius, in contrast, uses his deductive abilities to do away with his opponents. The scene reminded me of the bar brawl in Robert Downey Juniors SHERLOCK HOLMES. Antonius meticulously finds the details necessary to win. We get a real feel for how good a detective Antonius is, seeing him in a realm we have not seen him in before. The scene is not integral to the story, but it does flesh out Antoniuss character toward a new direction.

READ: Take a look at BLACK PANTHERTeaser: Why You Should Believe The Hype!

After the riveting fight scene, the issue continues with the ongoing mystery. The sons of Romes high society members are being killed by gods come to life. Antonius traces the clues back to Achillia. Their interaction, however, is brief as she sends him on an adventure. This is Achillias last appearance in BRITANNIA #3. It feels like the writer is pulling the rug out from under us. Hopefully, Achillia will have more time to shine in later issues.

Antonius and his partner/servant, Bran, travel deep into the catacombs to decipher what is really going on in the temples. The dynamic between the two characters is great. Bran is far more than just a bland, Watson-type figure to bounce ideas off of. He offers a different perspective that Antonius requires. The two complement each other well and the dialogue absolutely reflects this.

Antonius has always been a strict realist and pragmatic thinker. He believes that the supernatural always has an explanation, and superstitions are harmful. In previous issues, this rationalism gave Antonius an edge over his opponents. However, as the mystery becomes increasingly complex, Antonius begins to reject everything he knows to be true. Further, he learns his sons life is on the line and time is running out. Writer Peter Milligan does a great job of pushing this character to his limits.

READ: Here is KILL THE MINOTAUR #1 Review: Greek Mythology Revisited!

BRITANNIAs art has always excelled at portraying violence, but BRITANNIA #3 is a new high. The opening scene is a vicious gladiator battle with piles and piles of bodies cascading onto our hero. The renderings are so complex and detailed that the picture almost seems to be in motion. These arrangements give the impression of a detailed Renaissance painting, where multiple figures spiral into the center. Every page is a complex mosaic of blood and gore.

The most memorable aspect of this issue is Antonius trek into the haunted temples. The depictions of statues of gods coming to life are trippy and violent.The gods rip, tear, and scatter body parts like kids playing with silly putty. The more grounded ultra-violence found earlier in the book is expertly juxtaposed with these exaggerated dismemberments. Not only is this violence disgustingly beautiful, but it raises the stakes for our heroes. I would not want to see Antonius go out like that.

READ: Take a look at RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS The Deconstruction Of The Dark Knight!

Overall, BRITANNIA #3 is a well-crafted issue that perfectly balances the detective, action, and horror aspects readers love about BRITANNIA. However, the sparse interactions with Achillia are slightly disappointing. Hopefully, the creators are just trying to make us wait for her more involved role in the story.

View post:

BRITANNIA: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE #3 Review: Massacre in the Arena - ComicsVerse

‘The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord’ now at Lantern Theater – Montgomery Newspapers

Posted on by

So youve worked closely with Americas most famous atheist for two decades and decide to write a play. What would you choose to dramatize?

Well, how about imagining three other equally famous men a deist, a Christian anarchist and a skeptic who leaned strongly towards Unitarianism who are locked in a room thats not Hell but is definitely on the Other Side and have them try to figure out why theyre there? Oh, and make the title really long so people will remember it!

After a life-threatening illness, Scott Carter (longtime producer and writer for the acerbic Bill Maher) started working on a play about spirituality and chose these men: Declaration of Independence author and former President Thomas Jefferson, Victorian literary superstar Charles Dickens and the passionate, irascible author of War and Peace Leo Tolstoy. In The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord (hereafter referred to as The Gospel) we are treated to a delightful character study of three extraordinary men thinly disguised as a philosophical debate about faith.

The play begins as the three men are thrust into a white walled room with a door that locks behind them, a table, three chairs and a mirror (the audience) as the fourth wall, a room that could easily be in the same neighborhood as the purgatorial bus stop C.S. Lewis created in his novel The Great Divorce. In Lewis book the recently deceased jostle and snarl at each other waiting for a celestial bus to take them to Heaven.

But in this room, where Leo (Dont call me Count) Tolstoy says the free thinkers are trapped like three Jonahs in a whales belly the disputes are mostly intellectual. Naturally, they dont like being locked up and want to find a way out and on. As the three captives exchange their stories it becomes clear they all were drawn to the original teachings of Jesus, to the point where each man developed his own version of the Gospel.

In the table drawer they find blank journals and pens Someone obviously wants them to use. So they get to work creating a new Gospel and quickly discover that they cant agree on much of anything.

Jefferson was the rational deist who famously wrote, it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error. He believed in a Supreme Being but not in the Trinity. Dickens was a publicly devout skeptic who often criticized what he saw as religious extremism in Britain. Tolstoy in his later years became an unorthodox Christian who based his beliefs in Christs message of nonviolence.

Can the three geniuses work together to get out of their impasse? Remember that they are all writers. Carter ensures its great fun to watch them try by having each man reveal contradictions in his spirituality. Jefferson was the defender of rationalism and moral sense who couldnt give up the six hundred slaves that ran his beloved home Monticello, even after death. Dickens and Tolstoys ambivalence about the class system in their countries was reflected in their own shaky marriages.

Gregory Isaacs cool veneer of self-confidence and unquestioned leadership as Jefferson keeps the more emotional outbursts of Dickens (Brian McCann) and Tolstoy (Andrew Criss) in check (at least for a while). McCann, who was the conniving Roman tribune Menenius in Lanterns splendid production of Coriolanus this season pushes hard on Carters view of Dickens as a clever, conceited self-promoter. Hes the spark of the production and fun to watch but Dickens was surely a more complex character than this preening egomaniac who spends much of his time trying to get a reaction from the tightly wound and self-righteous Tolstoy.

Director James Ljames, ubiquitous on the local theater scene as playwright, director and actor has the latters appreciation for giving each character a chance for big and small moments that resonate. Despite the seemingly cramped conditions of this small room packed with so much self-regard, Ljames has choreographed the actors well and they parade around and onto the table and chairs in a small but boisterous ballet of braggadocio and big ideas.

Go here to see the original:

'The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord' now at Lantern Theater - Montgomery Newspapers

Germany wants to fine Facebook over hate speech, raising fears of … – The Verge

Posted on by

Facebook, Twitter, and other web companies are facing increased pressure to remove hate speech, fake news, and other content in Europe, where lawmakers are considering new measures that critics say could infringe on freedom of speech.

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron said last week they are considering imposing fines on social media companies that fail to take action against terrorist propaganda and other violent content. The European Union, meanwhile, recently moved closer to passing regulations that would require social media companies to block any videos containing hate speech or incitements to terrorism.

But nowhere is the pressure more acute than in Germany, where lawmakers are racing to pass new legislation that would impose fines of up to 50 million ($55.8 million) on tech companies that fail to remove hate speech, incitements to violence, and other obviously illegal content from their platforms. Companies would have to remove clearly illegal content within 24 hours; they would have up to one week to decide on cases that are less clear.

The Social Networks Enforcement Law, first announced in March by Justice Minister Heiko Maas, aims to hold social media companies more accountable for the content published on their sites, and to ensure they are in accordance with Germanys strict laws on hate speech and defamation. But the bill has drawn vehement criticism from rights groups, lawyers, and a diverse mix of politicians, who say such steep financial penalties could incentivize tech companies to censor legal speech out of caution. Critics also claim that the proposed legislation known as the Facebook Law would give social media companies undue power to determine what people can say online, effectively outsourcing decisions that should be taken by the justice system.

a wholesale privatization of freedom of expression

Joe McNamee, executive director of the Brussels-based digital rights group EDRi, says the German law would compel social media companies to shoot first and dont ask questions later in relation to anything thats reported to them. He also believes it would move Europe closer to a wholesale privatization of freedom of expression, with large internet companies deciding what they want the public the discourse to be, and how much restriction to impose to have legal certainty.

Maas defended the bill during parliamentary debate last month, describing it as a necessary measure to curb the spread of illegal speech. "The point of the proposed legislation is that statements that violate the law must be deleted," Maas said, according to Deutsche Welle. "These are not examples of freedom of speech. They're attacks on freedom of speech. The worst danger to freedom of speech is a situation where threats go unpunished.

Maas has been a particularly outspoken critic of Facebook, claiming that the social network should be treated as a media company, which would make it legally liable for hate speech, defamation, and other content published to its platform. The justice minister also criticized Facebook for failing to remove flagged hate speech in 2015, amid rising anti-migrant protests violence across Germany; prosecutors in Hamburg opened an investigation into Facebooks European head later that year for ignoring racist posts.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google agreed to remove hate speech from their platforms within 24 hours, under an agreement with the German government announced in December 2015. But a 2017 report commissioned by the Justice Ministry found that the companies were still failing to meet their obligations. Twitter removed just 1 percent of hate speech flagged by its users, the report said, while Facebook took down 39 percent. The companies struck a similar agreement with the EU in May 2016, and although Facebook has made progress in reviewing and removing illegal material, the European Commission said in a report last month that Twitter and YouTube are still failing to adhere to the voluntary accord.

Facebook and Google have also taken steps to combat fake news in Europe, amid concerns that misleading content could influence elections. Facebook began labeling fake news in Germany and France earlier this year, and it partnered with Correctiv, a Berlin-based nonprofit, to help fact-check dubious news stories.

Facebook pushed back against Germanys proposed law last month, saying in a statement that it provides an incentive to delete content that is not clearly illegal when social networks face such a disproportionate threat of fines.

It would have the effect of transferring responsibility for complex legal decisions from public authorities to private companies, the statement continues. And several legal experts have assessed the draft law as being against the German constitution and non-compliant with EU law.

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson referred to a previous statement from Karen White, head of public policy in Europe, following the release of the European Commissions report. Over the past six months, we've introduced a host of new tools and features to improve Twitter for everyone, the statement reads, in part. Weve also improved the in-app reporting process for our users and we continue to review and iterate on our policies and their enforcement. Our work will never be done.

You cant just delete what these people are thinking.

Chan-jo Jun, an activist German lawyer who has filed several high-profile lawsuits against Facebook, says hes ambivalent about the draft law because it lacks what he sees as a crucial component. In a phone interview, Jun said the law should allow for users to appeal Facebooks decision to remove flagged content, and to force the company to hear the voice of the person whose post has been deleted. Free speech may be jeopardized without such a mechanism, he said, though he believes there is still a need for government oversight of social media.

If we think criminals should be prosecuted on the internet, then we have to make sure that German law applies on the internet, as well, Jun said, and that it is not only being ruled by community standards from Facebook.

Maas is looking to pass the bill before the Bundestags legislative period closes at the end of June the last chance to do so before national elections in September though it faces opposition from a broad range of politicians. Lawmakers from the far-left and far-right have strongly criticized the bill, as have organizations such as Reporters Without Borders. McNamee says that even if the law does pass, it likely will not hold up to legal challenges in Germany or Europe. In a non-binding ruling handed down last week, a German parliamentary body determined that the bill is illegal because it infringes on free speech and does not clearly define illegal content.

Maas has expressed support for Europe-wide laws on hate speech and fake news, though EU regulators have traditionally favored a more self-regulatory approach to policing online content. Yet new EU data protection rules slated to go into effect next May point to a more aggressive stance. Under the regulations, technology companies found to violate consumer privacy could face fines of up to 4 percent of their global turnover. (Facebook earned nearly $28 billion in global revenue in 2016.)

Up until now, one could argue that large tech companies have been able to, by and large, get away with saying, oh, its all technology and its all very difficult, says Joss Wright, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. Lately, however, European regulators have shown an increased willingness to take on tech companies directly, Wright adds.

In Germany, however, some activists worry that lawmakers who support the bill may be looking to score political points ahead of this years elections, while ignoring deeper societal issues that have allowed hate speech to propagate.

We fear that after this law comes to action, the whole debate is over for the politicians, and we are just right at the beginning, says Johannes Baldauf of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a Berlin-based NGO that tracks and combats hate speech and extremism. Baldauf, who leads a project tracking hate speech online, says there has to be some sort of legislation to curb illegal speech, though he believes it should be coupled with public awareness campaigns and public debates about what drives racism and xenophobia.

You cant just change the mind of the people by proposing a law, Baldauf says. And you cant just delete what these people are thinking.

Read the original post:

Germany wants to fine Facebook over hate speech, raising fears of ... - The Verge

Fighting censorship online: ‘It’s an ongoing race’ – Deutsche Welle

Posted on by

DW: Mr. Baumhauer, According to the Freedom on the Net Report 2016, Internet freedom has declined globally for six consecutive years. Users in China, Syria and Iran are among the most affected. The report also states that governments are increasingly censoring social networks and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. How does this affect strategies to hold online censorship in check?

The basic concept hasn't changed. Millions of people are affected by online censorship, it happens across the globe, it affects social media as well - and it's nothing new to DW. We know exactly that there are governments out there who don't want us to get into the country to make sure that our content reaches the people who live there. Depending on how the internet is set up technically in a certain country, it can be very easy to block websites. However, in some societies, for instance in Iran, the young generation is very capable when it comes to bypassing censorship - that also goes for messaging apps. We at DW won't accept censorship and wherever it happens, we'll try to find a way around that. Bypass Censorship is just another approach.

The website provides download links and guides for a number of tools that help you go online without being tracked or get access to blocked content. How exactly does that work?

Some users at some point might have tried to watch a movie that was released in another country, for instance in the US, but not yet in their own country. They might have used some kind of VPN (virtual private network) software. These tools make it look like they're an American user, that way they get access to US servers. The tools we recommend on the website use a similar technology. After downloading them, they help users connect to various servers, and thus offer unrestricted internet access to them. For example, we use PSIPHON for our Farsi and Amharic services. Both Iran and Ethiopia are pretty good at censoring.

Some of the tools on the website, for instance TOR, are quite well known, at least to people who know a thing or two about encryption. Does this mean the website is aimed at users who aren't familiar with these topics?

DW's Guido Baumhauer hopes that DW's knowledge of combating censorship can help internet users worldwide

Most of the tools have been out there for a while, none of them are brand new. In countries where censorship is a daily routine, let's say Iran or China, we find a lot of internet-savvy users who know what they are doing. But other users elsewhere might want to get access and feel a little helpless to begin with. We want to show them what possibilities they have.

Additionally, the website always provides download links for the newest versions of the tools. The moment the censors realize how the technology works, they start blocking the servers. The tool basically adapts to the censorship and tries to keep the road to free internet access open. It's an ongoing race and it will not stop until one side backs down - and that will definitely not be us. We will do everything we can to help people get access to information because we believe freedom of speech is the highest value for people. Even if we only reach a few people through the website, it will be worth it.

But aren't you worried that the whole website might be blocked once word gets out?

That's definitely something that's going to happen and we have to find ways for users to access the information on the website through other means. When content on the DW website gets blocked, for instance in Iran or China, we find ways around that and we'll do the same with Bypass Censorship. For example, we offer users to email the tools to them. That might sound stupid and very simple, but it works.

Experts say that tens of thousands of Internet police are employed to implement China's "Great Firewall"

Bypass Censorship sounds like a project that could have been founded by activists or a hacker group. Why are leading international broadcasters getting involved?

If we're talking about providing free access to censored content that people should be able to see in order to know what is happening in their country and around them - which does not include promoting things that are lawless -I think we have the same mindset.

We have great people who know ways around censorship and we want to share this knowledge. In that respect, I think there is no difference between people who call themselves activists and broadcasters like DW.

Bypass Censorship is co-sponsored by Deutsche Welle, the BBC, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), France Mdias Monde (FMM) and the Open Technology Fund. Guido Baumhauer is DW's Managing Director of Distribution, Marketing and Technology.

Thisinterview was conducted by Helena Kaschel.

See the article here:

Fighting censorship online: 'It's an ongoing race' - Deutsche Welle

Chinese Authorities Crack Down on Streaming to Create a ‘Cleaner Cyberspace’ – TIME

Posted on by

The Weibo microblogging app displayed on an iPhone, April 22, 2014. Brent LewinBloomberg/Getty Images

China's media oversight body has ordered three major online companies to halt some of their multi-media streaming services, the government's latest move to tighten controls on an already restricted Internet.

Agence France-Presse reports that Sina Weibo the country's Twitter-like microblogging site with more than 340 million users as well as news sites iFeng.com and ACFUN, were informed they lacked permits required by the body to run audio-visual streams.

An announcement by China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said the sites hosted "many politically-related programs that do not conform with state rules," and authorities are trying to "create a cleaner cyberspace," according to AFP.

Earlier this month another regulator, the Beijing Cyberspace Administration, ordered internet companies to terminate social media accounts that cater to "the public's vulgar taste" and disseminate celebrity gossip, AFP reports.

Willy Lam, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong's centre for China studies, tells TIME that Beijing has steadily tightened the screws on expression ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress, due to be held around October.

Lam says that Chinese President Xi Jinping " wants stability above all else in this sensitive period," but that ultimately censorship could backfire. " The more control of the media there is, the more ordinary Chinese tend to believe in speculation and innuendo," he says.

[ AFP ]

Read the original:

Chinese Authorities Crack Down on Streaming to Create a 'Cleaner Cyberspace' - TIME

Kaepernick case isn’t about race but NFL censorship – Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog)

Posted on by

Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog)
Kaepernick case isn't about race but NFL censorship
Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog)
In short, Kaep' is full of it. If a team had offered him a job with a seven or six-figure salary he would have played ball, even on the bench. He would have been dumb not to, and this is not a dumb man. Kaep's famous taking of a knee is the ultimate ...

Here is the original post:

Kaepernick case isn't about race but NFL censorship - Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog)

Anti-Free-Speech Radicals Never Give Up – National Review

Posted on by

In the never-ending battle to preserve free speech, there is always good news and bad news. There are triumphs and setbacks. The struggle for liberty always encounters the will to power, and often the will to power is cloaked in terms of compassion, justice, and equality.

And so it is with the quest to censor so-called hate speech. First, lets address the good news. Earlier this week the Supreme Court ruled 80 against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which had refused to register a trademark for a band called The Slants. The PTO claimed that the bands name violated provisions of the Lanham Act, which prohibits registering trademarks that disparage...or bring into contempt or disrepute any persons, living or dead.

As I wrote immediately after the decision, it would have been shocking if the Court hadnt ruled against the PTO. After all, there are literally decades of First Amendment precedents prohibiting the government from engaging in punitive viewpoint discrimination, even when the viewpoint expressed is deemed hatred or offensive. Justice Alito made short work of the notion that the government has an interest in preventing speech that expresses offensive ideas:

As we have explained, that idea strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express the thought that we hate.

But not even a ruling joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor can persuade determined, far-left censors, and just as sure as night follows day, Laura Beth Nielsen, a research professor for the American Bar Foundation, took to the pages of the Los Angeles Times to make the case for viewpoint discrimination. Ive seen enough pieces like this to recognize the type. They always begin with misleading statements of the law, declarations that free-speech protections arent absolute, and then move to the core pitch in this case, that the state should regulate hate speech because its emotionally and physically harmful:

In fact, empirical data suggest that frequent verbal harassment can lead to various negative consequences. Racist hate speech has been linked to cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and requires complex coping strategies. Exposure to racial slurs also diminishes academic performance. Women subjected to sexualized speech may develop a phenomenon of self-objectification, which is associated with eating disorders.

This is the very close cousin of the speech as violence argument sweeping campuses from coast to coast. Its the heart of the argument for the campus speech code that subjective listener response should dictate a speakers rights. The more fragile the listener, the greater the grounds for censorship.

And there is no limiting principle. If How does this speech make you feel? is the core question, it incentivizes victim politics and overreaction. Robust debate triggers robust emotions, and robust debate on the most sensitive issues issues like race, gender, and sexuality trigger the most robust of responses.

Lest anyone wonder about the actual definition of hate speech, look to campus and liberal activist groups. At Evergreen State College in Washington, a progressive professors statement against racial separation and division was deemed so hateful that he couldnt safely conduct classes on campus. Influential pressure groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center label the Ku Klux Klan and other genuine racistshate groups but also apply the same label to mainstream Christian conservative organizations such as the Family Research Council. The SPLC has branded respected American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray a white nationalist. Moreover, its far more forgiving of leftist extremism than of moderate speech that is conservative or libertarian.

In a stinging piece in the Wall Street Journal, Jeryl Bier notes the double standard:

Kori Ali Muhammad allegedly murdered three white people in California in April. The SPLC reports that on Facebook Mr. Muhammad wrote of grafted white devil skunks and repeatedly referred to the mythical Lost Found Asiaiatic [sic] Black Nation in America. Yet in contrast with its unequivocal (and false) tagging of Mr. Murray, the group describes Mr. Muhammad as a possible black separatist.

Got that? One of the Rights most important scholars stands condemned, while a man who shot and killed three people is just a possible separatist. Thats the through-the-looking-glass world of the anti-hate speech Left. The definitions are malleable, but one thing you can count on the Right will always lose.

Interestingly, the day before Nielsens call for censorship appeared in the Los Angeles Times, German police raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful social-media postings. Thats where prohibitions against hate speech lead. Indeed, wannabe American censors often extol Europe as a model for their proposed American laws. Do you trust the government to decide when your viewpoint is unacceptable?

Left-wing censors discount voices like mine, claiming that its easy for me to pontificate on free speech while basking in my white privilege. Yet my family has been exposed to more vile and vicious rhetoric than most people will experience in ten lifetimes. Yes, its painful. Yes, it has consequences. But it is far more empowering to meet bad speech with better speech than it is to appeal to the government for protection even from the worst ideas.

To paraphrase Alan Charles Kors, co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, no class of Americans is too weak to live with freedom. Rather than indulging weakness and fear, activists left and right would do well to cultivate emotional strength and moral courage. The marketplace of ideas demands no less.

READ MORE: Free Speech Isnt Always a Tool for Virtue Speech Is Not Violence and Violence Is Not Self-Expression When Speech Inspires Violence, Protect Liberty While Restoring Virtue

David French is a senior writer for National Review, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and an attorney.

Read more:

Anti-Free-Speech Radicals Never Give Up - National Review

Johnny Depp on Donald Trump: Crime or free speech? – BBC News

Posted on by

BBC News
Johnny Depp on Donald Trump: Crime or free speech?
BBC News
Actor Johnny Depp has caused controversy after he appeared to threaten US President Donald Trump at the Glastonbury Festival. "When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?" he asked the crowd. It is a crime in the US to make threats ...
Johnny Depp jokes about killing Donald Trump in Glastonbury appearanceThe Guardian
Johnny Depp: 'When was the last time an actor assassinated a President?'CNN
Johnny Depp slams Donald Trump at Glastonbury and asks: 'When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?'Telegraph.co.uk

all 315 news articles »

Read more from the original source:

Johnny Depp on Donald Trump: Crime or free speech? - BBC News

With Paladino’s Job at Stake, Right to Free Speech Is His Defense – New York Times

Posted on by

The tensions between them exploded in December after Mr. Paladino made offensive remarks about the Obamas in a local weekly newspaper. The newspaper, Artvoice, sent a survey to members of the Buffalo community asking about their hopes for 2017. Mr. Paladino said he hoped Mr. Obama would die of mad cow disease and that Mrs. Obama would return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

Mr. Paladino apologized. He also said he meant to send the remarks to friends, not the newspaper, but he hit reply instead of forward. About a week after his comments were published, the Buffalo school board demanded his resignation, which he declined to provide.

Not long after, the board filed a petition with the Education Department to have Mr. Paladino removed from his position, saying he had twice disclosed confidential information. In one instance, they said that he shared information with reporters about a legal dispute the board was having with a contractor, which had been discussed with the boards lawyer in executive session, meaning it was closed to the public. Then in January, Mr. Paladino published an article in Artvoice about contract negotiations with the teachers union, which occurred in the fall.

Mr. Paladinos lawyers disputed that his disclosures were improper, arguing that the closed-door meetings had not been convened correctly. But the thrust of their argument was that the board wanted him removed after his comments about the Obamas, and when it learned he could not be removed for what he had said, it looked for another reason. Such an effort violates his right to free speech, the lawyers said. Last week, Mr. Paladino sued members of the board who are trying to remove him, seeking damages.

Frank W. Miller, a lawyer representing school board members, has conceded that Mr. Paladinos statements were protected speech but said that the board was not trying to remove him for those statements. He said Mr. Paladinos disclosures were an unmistakable rejection of his oath of office that made it difficult for the board to have open, fair, and candid discussion. In her testimony Thursday, Dr. Nevergold agreed.

It was quite disturbing to have a board member to go out and reveal executive session information knowing we were in the process of negotiating a contract, she said. It really disrupts the ability of the board to function appropriately.

This was the first day of testimony in a hearing that is expected to stretch into early next week. MaryEllen Elia, the states commissioner of education, is presiding over the hearing and will decide whether Mr. Paladino may remain on the board.

Luis Ferr-Sadurn reported from Albany, and Elizabeth A. Harris from New York

A version of this article appears in print on June 23, 2017, on Page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Free Speech Is Defense For Paladino At Hearing.

The rest is here:

With Paladino's Job at Stake, Right to Free Speech Is His Defense - New York Times

Diane Feinstein Defends Public Universities Shutting Down Free Speech – Breitbart News

Posted on by

The fact of the matter is that there are certain occasions on which individuals assemble not to act peaceably, but to act as destructively as they possibly can, Feinstein stated. When you have a set group of people that come to create a disturbance, some of them even wearing masks or wearing certain clothing, what do you do? Feinstein added. I do believe that the university has a right to protect its students from demonstrations once they become acts of violence.

UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh pushed back hard against Senator Feinstein, arguing that the First Amendment protects speech against the possibility of a hecklers veto, which is the suppression of speech by a government out of concern ofa violent reaction by protesters.

There are of course times, as Senator Feinstein pointed out, that the University isnt trying to suppress speech because it finds it offensive but because enough people who are willing to stoop to violence find it offensive that there is then the threat of a violent reaction to such speech, Volokh said, but I tend to agree with Senator Cruzs view that that kind of a hecklers veto should not be allowed.

The question was asked When you have a set group of people who come to create a disturbance, what do you do? I think the answer is to make sure they dont create a disturbance and to threaten them with punishment, meaningful punishment, if they do create a disturbance. And not to essentially let them have their way by suppressing the speech that they are trying to suppress, Volokh continued.

Volokh argued that rewarding protesters with a cancellation of an event that they find objectionable will only serve to reinforce their behavior.

One of the basics of psychology that I think weve learned, and all of us who are parents I think have learned it very first hand, is behavior that is rewarded is repeated. When thugs learn that all they need to do in order to suppress speech is to threaten violence then therell be more such threats from all over the political spectrum. And I think the solution to that is to say that the speech will go on and if that means bringing in more law enforcement and making sure that those people who do act violently or otherwise physically disruptively that they be punished.

Feinstein countered by suggesting that public universities might not have the resources to handle a protest on the scale of the Berkeley riots that erupted before an event featuring former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos in early 2017.

How should a university handle this, Feinstein asked. No matter who comes, no matter what disturbance the University has to be prepared to handle itTo me the extraordinary circumstance is when people come in black uniforms and hit other people over the head.

Right, and that cannot be enough to justify suppression of those who they came to try to suppress, Volokhcountered.

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com

P.S. DO YOU WANT MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR INBOX?SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY BREITBART NEWSLETTER.

Read the original post:

Diane Feinstein Defends Public Universities Shutting Down Free Speech - Breitbart News