Monthly Archives: April 2020

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#IStandWithLesbianBabadook has been trending on Twitter today, and no, it regrettably has nothing to do with an LGBTQ+ spinoff of the 2014 horror film The Babadook.The hashtag actually references an online spat between actor Aimee Carreroand Twitter user @Lesbianbabadook, during which Carrero failed to understand meme culture.

The voice actor for She-Ra, of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, reposted a meme that referenced her, and claimed it was a death threat, seemingly not understanding it was meant to be a joke about the class divide:

The meme used the same format as a previous meme featuring legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, which made a similar joke, just in the context of a race war. Hawk reacted differently, which in contrast to Carreros case, earned him praise in the meme community:

Most reactions focused on Carreros failure to understand meme culture, and for taking the joke about class warfare too personally:

Many also took issue with the fact that Carrero failed to blackout the username of the much smaller Twitter account @Lesbianbabadook, which is apparently run by a minor, forcing them to go private due to the increased attention:

#IStandWithLesbianBabadook is now currently trending at number four on Twitter and has been mentioned by more than 6,000 users. When history comes calling, where will you say you stood?

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

The rest is here:

Who Is LesbianBabadook and Why Is Everyone on Twitter Standing With Her? - Mediaite

Bill Maher is an easy guy to hate. Hes smug, hes cocky, and hes a rich white guy in 2020. But dont let surface details distract from the truth.

Unlikeable as he may be, Bill Maher makes some valid points in his latest segment called Virus Shaming, and woke Twitter is up in arms.

Mahers latest New Rule segment is straightforward. Scientists often name viruses after where they originate. He notes that the first half of MERS stands for Middle Eastern. Ebola comes from the Ebola River. Zika comes from the Zika River.

Then Maher asks,

So why should China get a pass?

He goes on to roast people like Ted Lieu for this tweet, claiming it would be just as stupid to call it the Mulan Virus.

Maher retorts,

No, that would be way stupider because it didnt come from Mulan.

He points out that Chinas wet markets, where exotic animals are sold and consumed, are shockingly, already starting to open back up.

Before backing up his claim about the correlation between bats and COV-like viruses from the American Society of Microbiology, he says:

Its not racist to point out that eating bats is bat sh*t crazy.

He quotes Dr. Fauci as saying the current crisis is a direct result of Chinas wet markets.

Maher explained how he doesnt want Chinese Americans to face racism. He just thinks that possibility is not worth sacrificing the truth.

We cant stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea.

So what does Twitter do? They immediately make it about race, of course.

One Twitter user didnt understand that Maher was making a joke when he implied the Spanish Flu originated in Spain. Its relatively common knowledge at this point that origins of the Spanish Flu arent entirely known, although some suspect Kansas. Maher was being sarcastic, for, you know, the comedy show. Unfortunately, some people need a live audience to clue them in on the punchlines.

Ironically, some sources like National Geographic, say the Spanish Flu originated in drumroll China.

And if you think its only straight white men who are backing Bill Maher, youre wrong.

One Tweeter, of many, makes it about gender.

Even though Bill Maher tries to protect against it, there are, unfortunately, going to be ignorant, racist people out there. They will associate the virus with people who are, or look, Chinese, and treat them poorly.

That is ridiculous and unfair. We need to protect innocent people, especially Asian Americans, who would be just as terrified of bats as anyone else.

Mahers point is that we cant hide the truth. We should be putting pressure on China to close down, or regulate, their wet markets. Its a global health risk and, after this pandemic, borderline unacceptable. But woke Twitter would have you believe its far more unacceptable to point it out.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

Excerpt from:

Twitter Is Enraged That Bill Maher Has a Point About Chinese Virus - CCN.com

President TrumpDonald John TrumpCalifornia governor praises Trump's efforts to help state amid coronavirus crisis Trump threatens to withhold visas for countries that don't quickly repatriate citizens Trump admin looks to cut farmworker pay to help industry during pandemic: report MOREs reelection campaign is aggressively pressuring Twitter and broadcast outlets to sanction or pull misleading political attacks from Democrats, accusing the social media giant and the news media of using a double standard when it comes to policing political speech.

The Trump campaign has long been the subject of intense scrutiny from fact-checkers and reporters, who have called out its false or misleading claims and sought to have the content removed from the airwaves or social media platforms.

Trump's team is now looking to turn the tables, making the case that the social media giants and TV networks are turning a blind eye to similar misleading claims from Democrats.

In recent weeks, the Trump campaign has threatened legal action against TV stations for airing an ad cut by a Democratic super PAC that makes it seem as if Trump called the coronavirus a hoax.

Ithas also been sending scores of emails to Twitter to flag videos being produced and shared by Democrats to make the case that the content runs afoul of the companys policy on manipulated media.

And this week, the Trump campaign took the unusual step of producing a deliberately misleading clip of former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenOvernight Energy: Trump says US will cut oil production to secure global deal | Green groups press Biden on climate plans after Sanders exit | EPA looks to suspend hazardous waste cleanups during outbreak Trump campaign, RNC reach 17 million voters with digital efforts Kyle Kulinski: What went wrong for the Sanders campaign MORE calling the coronavirus a hoax with the sole purpose of testing Twitter to see if it would enforce its rules equally on the Trump and Biden campaigns.

Everything indicates that the Democrat donors who run Silicon Valley are intent on stacking the deck against President Trumps reelection, said Matt Wolking, a Trump campaign spokesman.

Their lack of transparency is further evidence that this is politically motivated interference in the 2020 election. Political speech and debate should not be policed and silenced by faceless, unknown actors and social justice warriors manipulating algorithms behind closed doors, he added.

Since Trump was elected president, there has been an explosion of media fact-checking, leading to enormous pressure on platforms to sanction or pull content that is determined to be misleading.

The president and his campaign have been accused of spreading misinformation through campaign ads countless times.

Broadcast and cable news outlets have refused to run some Trump campaign ads. Twitter has used its new manipulated media policy to warn viewers that a Trump campaign video about Biden was taken out of context. There is pressure on the cable news outlets to stop running Trumps daily White House press briefings about the coronavirus because of concerns about instances of misinformation.

These competing efforts underscore the degree to which the campaigns will be battling over misinformation and what's factualahead of the 2020 general election.

Democrats in particular are on high alert following the 2016 election, when Russian agents flooded social media with fake and divisive content aimed at damaging Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonKyle Kulinski: What went wrong for the Sanders campaign Sanders's fate sealed by the over 40 crowd The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Small businesses, unemployed await Congress's next moves MOREs campaign.

However, media observers warn that theres a difference between snuffing out a foreign adversarys disinformation campaign and cracking down on domestic political speech.

Its one thing to define a standard you want to keep, but once you get into the business of applying it, things can get pretty squishy, said Tobe Berkovitz, a former political ad buyer and media consultant who now teaches at Boston University.

The inciting incident for the Trump campaign was a mocking video it released of Biden that showed the former vice president saying, We can only reelect Donald Trump.

In the speech, Biden quickly doubled back to make it clear that he was warning that Democrats would get Trump reelected if they were divided and attacking one another.

The Trump campaign maintains that no one thinks that Biden was endorsing Trump. They say the video was merely ribbing a political rival.

Twitter, however, determined that the remarks were deliberately taken out of context.

The company cracked down, making it the first and so far only content it has sanctioned under its new manipulated media policy.

Since then, the Trump campaign has been flooding Twitter with emails flagging Democratic content it says has been similarly taken out of context.

Most notably, several Democratic groups have released ads featuring audio of Trump calling the coronavirus a hoax. Together, the ads have been shared and viewed on Twitter millions of times.

However, fact-checkers at The Washington Post, PolitiFact, Snopes and FactCheck.org have determined that its wrong to claim that Trump called the coronavirus a hoax.

Rather, Trump was describing Democratic efforts to politicize his response to the coronavirus as a hoax.

The Trump campaign has threatened legal action against TV stations broadcasting an ad from Priorities USA, the largest Democratic super PAC, in which Trump can be heard calling the coronavirus a hoax.

But Twitter has declined to sanction the ad, and TV stations are continuing to run it.

Josh Schwerin, strategist for Priorities USA, said the ad is making the point that Trump was using the hoax language to downplay the virus and shift blame away from himself.

Our ad uses a series of Trump's own words to show that he downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as the infection spread, Schwerin said.

That's entirely our point, he added. We stand by the facts in the ad, and every TV station has agreed that the Trump campaign's complaints fall flat. Holding our elected officials accountable is critical when they are falling down on the job, and we will continueto do that."

The Trump campaign argues that presidents words were taken out of order in an effort to warp the context of his remarks.

To draw attention to this, the Trump campaign this week released deliberately manipulated audio to make it sound like Biden called the coronavirus a hoax.

Biden never called the coronavirus a hoax, and in fact the audio is taken from two separate days.

The Trump campaign says its aim was to force Twitter to take a stand on the issue and to see if the company would apply its standards evenly.

Twitter declined to sanction the Trump campaigns deliberately misleading ad.

The Tweet you referenced will not be labeled under oursynthetic and manipulated media policy, a Twitter spokesman told The Hill.

The Biden campaign blasted Twitter for refusing to take action.

Twitter was dared to act on a piece of disinformation that clearly violates their rules, and they blinked, said campaign spokesman Bill Russo.Twitter has taken admirable steps in recent days to take action on tweets from the President of Brazil, Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and Rudy GiulianiRudy GiulianiThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Trump: Tough times but progress being made Giuliani touts experimental coronavirus treatment in private conversations with Trump Trump team picks fight with Twitter, TV networks over political speech MORE that have spread disinformation that endangers public health in the midst of this crisis which makes it all the more inexplicable and inexcusable that they are failing to act on this.

The Trump campaign is proudly boasting that their video is deceptive and fraudulent, which is shameful, Russo added. But the real damage here will come from their supporters, who will no doubt share the media as if it was true. We have seen this play before. Twitter has a responsibility to explain they will prevent the spread of this intentionally seeded disinformation on their platform.

Media experts are bracing for a 2020 campaign that is dominated by these types of struggles over information and context.

Its really complicated, said Berkovitz. Should there be a particular standard? Is it applied to everyone in the same way? Sometimes there are such egregious uses of content that pretty much everyone agrees on it, but its pretty clear that in this partisan era, most of the time views are going to be split.

Read more:

Trump team picks fight with Twitter, TV networks over political speech | TheHill - The Hill

ETHEL BOOBA. The comedian known for her social commentary on Twitter disowns her account on the platform, saying it is fake. Screenshots from Twitter.com/IamEthylGabison and Instagram.com/ethelbooba

MANILA, Philippines April 9 was a confusing day for the internet as Ethel Boobas Twitter account a pillar of woke Twitter was taken down after being disowned by the comedian herself, leaving her 1.6 million followers baffled.

Considering that Ethel, whose real name is Ethyl Gabison, has been known for this Twitter account for years, this latest development is a real head-scratcher.

Twitter has a lot of theories on why Ethel suddenly turned around and washed her hands of the account, which has never been afraid to get political and call out public officials when needed. Until the comedian herself gives us an explanation, perhaps we'll never know for sure.

But to help make some sense of it, here's a timeline of how Ethel Booba or whoever it was tweeting from her account rose to Twitter stardom.

2012

According to the bio of her now-deleted account, Ethel joined Twitter in January 2012. At the time, she was already a well-known comedian, and appeared on TV quite often. But social media brought her comedy to a wider audience.

Over the next few years, Ethel would tweet about everything under the sun, always adding her signature statement to the end of each tweet: Charot! (Joke!) Through a combination of relatable quips on the pitfalls of love, to unapologetic burns of public officials, to brazen commentary on touchy political issues such as the Duterte administration's war on drugs and political dynasties, Ethel quickly became Twitter royalty.

2016

By 2016, Ethel was already a Twitter mainstay and in August of that year, she announced without charot that she would be releasing a book called #Charotism: The Wit and Wisdom of Ethel Booba.

In October of the same year, her account already had close to 300,000 followers. In an interview with Boy Abunda, she talked about being a Twitter star and confirmed that she was of course the person behind the viral tweets.

2018

By July 2018, her Twitter had ammassed 1.3 million followers, according to a segment on ABS-CBNs Pareng Partners. In an interview with the shows host Anthony Taberna, she shared that she wanted to make people think with her tweets and that she would even ask some of her friends to translate her tweets to English if she needed to.

Bawat opinyon ko, pinag-iisipan atsaka bine-brainstorm (Each of my opinions are well thought-out and brainstormed), she laughed. At the time, she teased that a second book based on her tweets would be coming out.

2019

Ethel revealed in November 2019 that she had a social media consultant who edits most of her tweets before she posts.

Sa panahon ngayon 'di na basta-basta puwede magbitaw ng salita sa social media dahil matatalino ang mga tao dito, ako lang ang 'di pa sure. Charot! (These days one cannot simply say whatever they want on social media because people are smart here. Im the only one who isnt sure. Joke!) she said.

In another interview on Its Showtime, she also said she had admin who helped man the account, and that they held meetings to discuss her tweets.

2020

What in the world is happening? On April 9, Ethel disowned her Twitter, posting a screenshot of it on her Instagram account (which is linked on her vlog), saying Beware of this FAKE! twitter!

The internet is still scratching their heads, especially since she has spoken up about owning the Twitter account many times in various interviews, and even posted a photo of her first child on it in February, right after giving birth.

Recently, the account dished out commentary on the issue of Mocha Uson calling Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto pabebe, saying it was better to be pabebe (cute) than pabobo (dumb).

Social media distancing talaga kailangan nila (They really need social media distancing), the account tweeted.

Considering her latest post on Instagram, perhaps thats what Ethel herself has decided to do. Rappler.com

Read the original post:

TIMELINE: The Ethel Booba Twitter account that is apparently not Ethel Booba's - Rappler

The COVID-19 pandemic has been most frequently portrayed through numbers: the number of new cases a day, the number of people hospitalized, the number of deaths. It can be difficult to force yourself to face that behind each of those numbers is a person, with their own lives, legacies, and families.

Alex Goldstein, a strategic communications specialist, doesnt want those people to just become data points and statistics, so he created a Twitter account called @FacesOfCOVID to share the stories of those who have died from COVID-19.

Goldstein spent about a decade working with former governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick in an array of communications roles, including as press secretary for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. My responsibility was to click send on the press releases that showed thousands and thousands and thousand of people losing their jobs, but they were numbers, and I felt a responsibility to humanize some of the statistics we were talking about, he says. Fast-forward to the moment were in right now, I think its easy to become numb to the trauma of these statistics if we dont find a way to humanize the toll that its taking on our neighbors and our friends and our loved ones.

The @FacesOfCOVID account has been up since March 31, tweeting about more than 200 people, and before that it started as a thread on Goldsteins personal account. Whenever he read about a death, he would type out something brief to add to that thread, but he realized he wasnt doing justice to the local reporters covering these stories, and that this might be something he should let people opt in to, in case there were people following his personal account who didnt want to see those updates.

Goldstein is currently CEO of 90 West, a strategic communications firm he founded in 2016, and found himself devoting a lot of time to this Twitter account each day, so he asked a friend also in communications, Scott Zoback, to help him out. Early on it was easy to do a simple search of COVID-19 terms to find these obituaries and stories, but as the numbers rise, its become more difficult. Now, he searches those terms with each states name, and spends some time each day reading the websites of about 40 top regional newspapers across the country. He reads every story, too, so he can pull out details, like the fact that Otis Lee of Detroit was famous for serving massive corned-beef sandwiches at his former deli, Mr. Fofos. One commonality, he adds, is how nearly every story includes a quote from a family member lamenting that their loved one had to die alone.

Its important that @FacesOfCOVID highlights the work of local journalism, Goldstein says. Its also helped foster even more local reporting. Mandy McLaren, a reporter at The Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, has been friends with Goldstein for years, and when she saw the thread on his personal account, she says, It definitely motivated me to think about how we were focusing on that aspect of our coverage in Kentucky. Though Kentucky isnt one of the countrys hot spots, that doesnt mean people there havent been losing friends and family members to the novel coronavirus.

The Twitter account ended up inspiring some conversations across her newsroom, and her editor assigned multiple reporters to spend a week looking at who Kentuckys COVID-19 victims are. We believed that possibly by trying to tell about these real people that were losing, it could help reenergize people to stay home, she says. One story that McLaren wrote was about ARon Jordan, who is believed to be Kentuckys youngest coronavirus victim, a 49-year-old man with no underlying health conditions, and a father of sevenand grandfather to seven more. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, crediting McLarens story, took about five minutes to talk about Jordans life. Every one of these losses is very, very real, Beshear said.

McLaren hopes that these stories can help counter the stigma a lot of Kentuckians feel about becoming infected, since it can happen to anyone, and that they motivate Kentuckians to follow social distancing guidelines. Its also about honoring those whove passed. [One] of the challenges with this pandemic is that it is going to be months and months and months of new faces unfortunately being added to the list, she says. In order for us to truly honor those deaths and bear witness to them, that is going to take a real commitment from our country to keep paying attention.

Paying attention in this way may also result in better policies. Goldstein points to something he often heard his former boss Deval Patrick say: Policy only matters at the point where it touches people. Sharing the real people behind the numbers could prompt action, and also hold policy makers accountable. There were steps that we could have been taking many, many weeks ago that could have saved some of these lives, and to me that makes it all that much more important to document the toll, he says. We failed to act, and we were underprepared. . . . We assumed we were invincible, and we paid the price. When we quantify that price, it cant be a number. It has to be a name and a story.

View original post here:

FacesOfCOVID Twitter account shares the stories of COVID victims - Fast Company

Instagram accounts are being used to encourage users to interrupt video conferences on Zoom.

Anonymous Instagram accounts, some with thousands of followers, are encouraging users to share information that would allow people to hijack a call on the video conferencing app Zoom.

"If you hate your teachers just tell us. We start zoom raids," the bio of one Instagram account states.

"Zoomraiding" or "Zoombombing" is a type of online harassment in which someone disrupts a video call on Zoom and shares inappropriate or unexpected content including hate speech, profanity and pornography. As video chatting becomes more popular because more people are staying at home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, harassment through video calls is a growing problem. The issue has also become a headache for social media platforms like Facebook-owned Instagram and Twitter, which are being used to organize these harassment campaigns on Zoom.

Now playing: Watch this: Zoom privacy: How to keep spying eyes out of your meetings

5:45

On Friday, Instagram said it was still in the process of pulling down accounts and hashtags used for Zoombombing after The New York Times discovered 153 Instagram accounts created for this purpose. These accounts ask users to share Zoom meeting codes so they can raid video conferences that are protected by a password. CNET searched for "Zoomraid" on Instagram after the Times published its story and more than 50 results still popped up. Instagram declined to share how many Zoomraid accounts have already been pulled down.

Instagram accounts are sharing posts that encourage users to hijack Zoom conference calls.

In one top post using a hashtag for Zoomraids, a video shows teachers being interrupted during online classes with the n-word and nudity. Worship services and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings hosted on Zoom have been hijacked too, according to media reports.

The Times reported that a network of Instagram accounts with the name "Zoomraid" and "Zoomattack" popped up over the weekend and had nearly 30,000 followers as of Thursday. Teenagers who ran these accounts told the news outlet they were stressed about the amount of school work they had to complete and Zoomraiding was an escape.

While some of these pranks might appear harmless, the practice has prompted the FBI to warn the public about Zoombombing. One school in Massachusetts reported that their video chat was interrupted by an unidentified person who displayed swastika tattoos, according to the agency. The FBI is advising Zoom users to not make meetings or classes public, manage screen sharing settings and not share a link to the video conference on a public social media account.

Other sites like Twitter, Reddit and 4Chan are also being used to organize Zoomraiding. The Times found dozens of Zoomraid Twitter accounts. CNET did a search on Twitter and tweets asking users for Zoom meeting codes were still on the social network. Users were also using hashtags like on Instagram to spread the word.

"Send us your zoom code through dm and we will raid it. You remain anonymous if you choose so," a bio on one Twitter account that had more than 200 followers stated.

A Twitter spokeswoman said Monday the company suspended several Zoomraid accounts for violating its rules against spam but didn't specify how many. CNET searched for Zoomraids on Twitter after the statement was provided. As of Monday morning, tweets with Zoom meeting codes, including one that encouraged the disruption of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with women, still appeared on the site.

Excerpt from:

Instagram, Twitter used to organize harassment campaigns on Zoom - CNET

The roadrunner profile photo doesnt seem to tip people off.

Folks in the Twitterverse start hammering out missives to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf -- many of them angry -- and they input the handle @GovernorWolf.

But theyre not speaking to the soft-spoken s 47th governor of the Keystone State or his social media team. (Hes @GovernorTomWolf, by the way.)

Theyre talking to the principal of Bethlehems Governor Wolf Elementary School, Theo Quinones.

The Butztown Road school is named for the states seventh governor, George Wolf, known as the father of the Pennsylvanias first public school system. And the schools Twitter handle dates back to 2012. Tom Wolf was elected governor in 2014.

Quinones sometimes knows Wolf made a controversial decision before he gets a chance to catch the news himself.

The mentions start coming in fast and furious, especially if someone shares a hot take that gets lots of retweets or replies.

Fighting a spreading coronavirus pandemic, Wolf has taken plenty of actions -- shutting down schools and issuing a stay-at-home-order to name a few -- that folks have strong opinions about.

One that really blew up was when he closed the state (liquor) stores, Quinones chuckled. There were a lot of people that have an opinion about that, one way or another.

With the Twitter discourse ramping up in recent weeks, Quinones felt that it was time to again share a gentle reminder that Twitter users are not in fact actually talking to the governor.

This is an elementary school, Quinones said. Theres a picture of a road runner. Hes not reading this. A bunch of moms and PTA people are reading this and they cant do anything about this."

Bethlehem's Governor Wolf Elementary School's Twitter account often gets confused with the actual governor's Twitter handle.Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com

Sometimes people just want to thank Tom Wolf for doing a good job. Sometimes they ask for serious help like a criminal pardon. (Quinones gently lets those folks know theyre talking to an elementary school, not the guv, and wishes them luck.)

When you see his picture pop up, youve got the right one, he said.

Quinones keeps waiting for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, with whom he attended Albright College, to jump into the Twitter fray. Fettermans a prolific Tweeter with an edge not typically seen on a politicians account.

When Wolf was inaugurated, the school congratulated him and invited him to visit on a signboard outside the school. Wolf took them up on the offer.

As principal of Governor Wolf Elementary, Quinones has learned not many people know much about his schools namesake. Some even wonder if its named for the states current leader.

George Wolfs support for public education was unpopular in his own party. It was believed by some that education was best left to churches and private schools. Pennsylvania German leaders didnt want to lose their language and culture.

He was a big advocate for public education, Quinones said. Not many people know that.

George Wolf attended the Allen Township Classical Academy, where he later became principal, according to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. George Wolf was admitted to the Northampton County Bar in 1798, after studying law with John Ross, of Easton.

He worked his way up to become the clerk of the Northampton County Orphans Court and served one term in the General Assembly. After losing a bid for a state senate seat, he went on to spend nine years practicing law in Easton. He spent three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before serving two terms as governor.

Almost 200 years later after his election, the principal of his namesake school says hes gotten used to modern day mix up.

When asked if the school had ever considered changing the Twitter handle, Quinones quipped:

I like Gov. Tom Wolf, but hell be gone before we are, he said of the second-term Democrat. Weve been around since 1956.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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How a Bethlehem elementary school finds itself managing Gov. Tom Wolfs Twitter mentions - lehighvalleylive.com

The Houston Texans traded their 57th overall pick in the second round for Los Angeles Rams receiver Brandin Cooks on Thursday.

The move for Cooks is one that brings speed to the Texans receiving corps, but it is also another move on offense that leaves the public to wonder what coach Bill OBrien, now with full-time general manager duties, was thinking. Why not keep three-time All-Pro wideout DeAndre Hopkins and sign a running back in free agency, such as Cooks former Rams teammate, Todd Gurley? Why trade Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson?

Twitter had mixed reactions to the trade.

Brandin Cooks, Will Fuller, Randall Cobb, Kenny Stills, Keke Coutee, David Johnson, wrote SiriusXM host Brad Evans. The Houston Texans arguably feature the most injury-prone offense in the entire NFL. One pillow fight away from multiple missed games.

Pro Football Focus Gordon McGuinness found a scintilla of OBriens shrew dealing in the trade.

To be fair to the Texans, they are the first in the four-team career of Brandin Cooks to not use a 1st round pick to acquire him, McGuinness wrote.

Adam Rank from NFL Media panned the trade.

The Texans have essentially traded DeAndre Hopkins for Brandin Cooks, Rank tweeted. Bill OBrien is that dude in your fantasy league who makes the most trades and transactions, but never finishes above fifth place.

ESPNs Bill Barnwell also did not like the transaction.

Cancel out the picks and the Texans traded DeAndre Hopkins and a fourth-round pick for Brandin Cooks and David Johnson, Barnwell wrote. I dont like it!

Football Perspective provided an interesting way to look at the Cooks trade.

A charmed life: Brandin Cooks has gone from Drew Brees to Tom Brady to Jared Goff to Deshaun Watson at QB, the account tweeted. Larry Fitzgerald once went from Derek Anderson to Max Hall to John Skelton to Kevin Kolb to Skelton to Kolb to Skelton to Kolb to Ryan Lindley without changing teams.

Ultimately, what happens on the field will validate or refute any of the opinions on Thursday night, supportive or critical.

See the original post here:

Twitter reaction to the Texans trading for Rams WR Brandin Cooks - Texans Wire

Pundits will debate about whether or not Joe Flacco was an elite quarterback in the NFL. Theres no question that hes an elite brother.

In an effort to slow down the spread of COVID-19, college pro days across the country have been canceled, taking away opportunities for many small-school athletes to impress NFL scouts and coaches.

Flaccos younger brother, Tom, was not invited to the combine and his school, the Towson Tigers, wont have a pro day. To help his younger brother get some exposure leading up to the draft, Joe shared Toms film on his Twitter page this week.

From my brother Tom: With no pro day, I wanted to share a cut up of film that could serve as an alternative. Highlighting my arm strength, accuracy, and athleticism, all of which would have been on display at my pro day. Check it out! Flacco wrote.

Here are the highlights:

Tom (6-1, 205 pounds) threw for 6,082 yards and 50 touchdowns during his final two years with the Tigers. He also rushed for 1,406 yards and eight touchdowns during his time at Towson.

The younger Flacco will likely be considered a late-round or undrafted free agent prospect. The draft will be held from April 23-25.

Go here to see the original:

Joe Flacco posts little brother's college film on Twitter - Broncos Wire

What happened

After saying last week that we will face a "very, very painful" two weeks of mounting COVID-19 infections and deaths,President Trump now says that we are approaching the "light at the end of the tunnel."

Both statements may be correct. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, total global cases of coronavirus infection jumped from 1.2 million to 1.3 million Sunday to Monday. At the same time, the rate at which new cases accrued dropped significantly, with about 17,000 fewer new cases recorded by end of day Monday than we saw on Sunday, including 9,000 new cases in the U.S.

And it's that latter data point that investors focused on today.

Image source: Getty Images.

By close of trading Monday, shares of tech stock giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) were up 8.1%, while Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) notched an 8% gain, and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) closed up 7.4%.

Viewed from one perspective, these price movements might look a bit strange. The fact that tens of millions of Americans have spent the better part of the past month sitting at home, socially distanced and effectively alone with their devices in quarantine, certainly helped to boost the amount of time people spent posting on social media and running internet searches on Google. On the other hand, all that posting and scrolling doesn't help the internet companies much if they cannot sell advertising to the folks doing the viewing and scrolling -- and as TheFly.com has reported, "across the online advertising space ... advertiser willingness to deploy ad dollars" has declined in the face of coronavirus.

With almost no one spending money on discretionary goods (we've all been too busy stocking up on pasta and toilet paper), there's been little reason to advertise to attract those dollars not being spent. And that cannot have been good for the businesses of Alphabet, Twitter, and Facebook.

Now, however we're starting to see "glimmers of progress" in the fight against coronavirus, says Vice President Pence. The light at the end of the tunnel is at least visible, even if we're not really quite certain how long the tunnel might still be.

In short, even in the middle of what might be the worst week for coronavirus numbers yet, there's hope that things will eventually get better, and get back to normal. People might start shopping again, advertisers might resume advertising -- and Alphabet, Twitter, and Facebook might have more ads to sell.

Even if there are fewer people seeing those ads post-coronavirus, that would be a good thing.

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Why Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter Stocks Soared Monday - The Motley Fool