Don’t Be A Sucker anti-racism short film from 1943
As you watch really LISTEN to what is being said. More things change some things stay the same.
Should there be an age limit for Halloween trick-or-treating?
We’ve probably all been within earshot of this question on Halloween night: Someone handing out candy to a porch full of costumed kids hesitates when a particularly tall one steps forward: “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?”
Is there an age that is considered too old to trick-or-treat? Or should any school-age kid who gets dressed up and walks the neighborhoods be able to participate?
It’s a dilemma that’s being bandied about on social media as the holiday approaches.
Some are saying trick-or-treating should be cut off at middle school. (Ouch. That’s harsh! Some of those kids are only 11.)
A larger contingent seems to be pushing for a wider acceptance of any school-age kid in search of candy. They’re saying kids should be able to be kids on Halloween night – and people should not be asking if they are old enough to have a driver’s license.
What do you think? Should there be a cut-off point for tweens and teens?
Take the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.
We’d love to know how you’re leaning … as the witching hour approaches and kids who aren’t trick-or-treating still have time to stock up on eggs and toilet paper.
Article via MLive
Kim Kardashian Says Kanye West Is ‘Harassing’ Her to Have More Kids: ‘He Wants Like 7’
Kanye West had babies on the brain on Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
While touring her new condo-turned-office with pal Larsa Pippen, Kim Kardashian admits that her rapper husband wants to keep expanding their family.
“How did you get so lucky with all your kids?” asks Pippen, 44. “They’re all so good.”
“Kanye wants to have more, though. He’s been harassing me,” says Kardashian, 38. “He wants like seven. He’s like stuck on seven.”
She and West, 41, share daughters Chicago, 8 months, and North, 5, and son Saint, 2.
“Okay, he needs to name his next album Seven and like lighten up on the kids situation,” Pippen cracks. “Seven kids is crazy!”
“That’s crazy. I could never, especially in like the world we live in,” says Kardashian, admitting that the onslaught of recent school shootings made her wary of bringing more lives into the world.
The slayings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018 stuck a particular chord with the mother of three.
“I’ve been kind of hesitant about having more kids just because it literally keeps me up at night, thinking about how my kids will survive in a crazy world like this,” she says.
“I hear you. And people have been trying to kidnap, rob, take you, so that plays into all that,” Pippen says, referencing her friend’s harrowing experience being robbed at gunpoint in Paris in October 2016.
Later in the episode, Kardashian and West take North to the March to Save Lives in Washington, D.C., where the reality star feels inspired by the young activists who tell her the only way to really change America is to vote for politicians who support gun violence prevention in the midterm elections.
“I one billion percent believe that we need stricter gun laws,” Kardashian says. “We need background checks, you shouldn’t be able to walk into a store and buy a gun. And to hear that the kids have met with people numerous times and nothing’s been done is just so sad.”
Article via People
Doomed Indonesian plane with 189 on board had asked to return to base
- An Indonesian aircraft with 189 people on board crashed into the sea on Monday as it tried to circle back to the capital, Jakarta, from where it had taken off minutes earlier, and there were likely no survivors, officials said.
- Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route to Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region.
- Rescue officials said they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15 km (9 miles) off the coast.
An Indonesian aircraft with 189 people on board crashed into the sea on Monday as it tried to circle back to the capital, Jakarta, from where it had taken off minutes earlier, and there were likely no survivors, officials said.
Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route to Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region. Rescue officials said they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15 km (9 miles) off the coast.
Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, but its safety record is patchy. If all aboard have died, the crash will be the country’s second-worst air disaster since 1997, industry experts said.
The pilot had asked to return to base (RTB) after the plane took off from Jakarta. It lost contact with ground staff after 13 minutes.
“An RTB was requested and had been approved but we’re still trying to figure out the reason,” Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee, told reporters, referring to the pilot’s request.
“We hope the black box is not far from the main wreckage so it can be found soon,” he said, referring to the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
Search and rescue agency head Muhmmad Syaugi told a news conference that no distress signal had been received from the aircraft’s emergency transmitter.
Yusuf Latief, spokesman of national search and rescue agency, said there were likely no survivors.
At least 23 government officials, four employees of state tin miner PT Timah and three employees of a Timah subsidiary, were on the plane. A Lion Air official said one Italian passenger and one Indian pilot were on board.
Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group, told reporters the aircraft had had a technical problem on a flight from the resort island of Bali to Jakarta but it had been “resolved according to procedure”.
Sirait declined to specify the nature of the issue but said none of its other aircraft of that model had the same problem. Lion had operated 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and it had no plan to ground the rest of them, he said.
The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s workhorse single-aisle jet.
Privately owned Lion Air said the aircraft had been in operation since August, was airworthy, with its pilot and co-pilot together having accumulated 11,000 hours of flying time.
‘Be patient’
The plane went down in waters about 30 meters to 35 meters (98 to 115 ft) deep.
Bambang Suryo, operational director of the search and rescue agency, said about 150 rescuers and 40 divers were on the site, using an underwater drone to search for the fuselage, where many of the victims were believed to be trapped.
“We need to find the main wreckage,” he told reporters.
Another agency official, Deden Ridwansyah, said authorities were focusing on an area about 1 nautical mile in radius based on debris found on the water and floodlights would be used to search through the night.
The flight took off in clear weather at around 6.20 a.m. and was due to have landed in Pangkal Pinang at 7.20 a.m.
Distraught relatives of those on board arrived at the airport in Jakarta and Pangkal Pinang.
“Be patient, pray the best for papa,” one woman arriving at Jakarta airport told a sobbing girl.
The woman declined to speak to reporters.
President Joko Widodo told a news conference authorities were focusing on the search and rescue, and he called for the country’s prayers and support.
Boeing was deeply saddened by the loss, it said in a statement, and was ready to provide technical assistance for the investigation.
Under international rules, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will automatically assist with the inquiry, backed up by technical advisers from Boeing and U.S.-French engine maker CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran.
Data from FlightRadar24 shows the first sign of something amiss was around two minutes into the flight, when the plane had reached 2,000 feet (610 m).
It descended more than 500 feet (152 m) and veered to the left before climbing again to 5,000 feet (1,524 m), where it stayed during most of the rest of the flight.
It began gaining speed in the final moments and reached 345 knots (397 mph) before data was lost when it was at 3,650 feet (1,113 m).
Indonesia’s worst air disaster was in 1997, when a Garuda Indonesia A300 crashed in the city of Medan, killing 214 people.
Founded in 1999, Lion Air’s only fatal accident was in 2004, when an MD-82 crashed upon landing at Solo City, killing 25 of the 163 on board, the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network says.
In April, the airline announced a firm order to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrowbody jets with a list price of $6.24 billion. It is one of the U.S. planemaker’s largest customers globally.
Article via CNBC
Kanye West’s Pro-Republican ‘Blexit’ T-Shirts Call for Black Exodus From Democratic Party
Article via
If you’re a black person who likes hanging out with racists, you have some new fashion choices that don’t include pairing running shoes with Dockers, All Lives Matter haircuts or tucking a polo shirt into your jeans. Kanye West lent his creative skills to Candace Owen when he designed a T-shirt line for the conservative negro darling’s new website dedicated to luring black people away from the Democratic Party and into the arms of the party of white supremacists.
This weekend, Turning Points USA, the conservative organization that employs 29-year-old Candace Owens as its director of communications, held a conference for young, black conservatives who don’t mind Trump, the Republican Party or white people asking to touch their hair. The far-right youth organization is known for its conservatism, and by “conservatism,” I mean anti-blackness. Aside from it’s advocacy in the area of bootstrap-pulling, the site is known for hiring white supremacists like Crystal Clanton, who once texted a fellow TPUSA employee: “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”
At the Young Black Leaders Summit, instead of lip balm (Why do black conservatives’ lips always look like they just finished eating powdered doughnuts? Is Chapstick owned by leftists?), Candace Owens handed out T-shirts that were reportedly designed by MAGA Kanye, Page Six reports.
The shirt features the words “Blexit” emblazoned across the front or alternately, “we free.” Blexit just happens to be Candace Owen’s new website that seeks to draw black people away from the antiquated thinking of the Democratic Party by opening their minds with testimonials from MAGA Negroes and reminding everyone that Republicans aren’t racist because Lincoln freed the slaves and Kanye hugged Donald Trump.
“Blexit is a renaissance and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colors, were created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West,” said Candace “Omarosa Jr.” Owens, who would likely stab Kanye in the jugular vein with a shard from a burned KKK cross if she thought it would garner her more adoration from the whites, adding that Yeezy “has taken one of the boldest steps in America to open a conversation we have needed to have.”
West did not comment on the shirt as cellular reception is very spotty in the Sunken Place.
Alabama McDonald’s gunman killed by armed dad, who is injured in shootout
A brave dad armed with a pistol stopped what could have been a mass shooting Saturday inside an Alabama McDonald’s when he took down a masked gunman who had stormed in and opened fire.
The unidentified father was leaving the establishment with his sons when a masked man walked into the Birmingham fast-food restaurant and started shooting, WBRC-TV reported. The father returned fire and, during the ensuing shootout, the gunman, the father and one of the man’s teenage sons were struck, according to the station.
The gunman, who was not identified, later died of his injuries. The other two injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Markus Washington, one of the McDonald’s employees, told WBRC-TV he was making two quarter-pounders when bullets started to fly. Washington said he ran into the freezer, where he heard about 15 shots fired.
“I’m feeling grateful,” he told the station. “Wrapping my head around it all, I was just wishing someone would come wake me up from this nightmare.”
Washington, oblivious to the shootout taking place outside the freezer door, feared the worst.
“All we hear is like different gunfire, so in my mind, I’m imagining everybody is dead. He’s looking for us,” he said. Washington added he was thankful the armed customer was there.
“Wrapping my head around it all, I was just wishing someone would come wake me up from this nightmare.”
“He’s my hero. Because I can only imagine how it would’ve went if he wasn’t armed. We might not be here having this interview,” Washington said.
The father is not expected to face charges, police said.
Authorities are now working to determine if the gunman intended to rob the restaurant, was targeting an employee or planned something more nefarious.
“Things like this are difficult for both families. The gentleman who unfortunately lost his life, the teenage boy who is in the hospital recovering from his injuries and the father who is also recovering from his injuries,” Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton said, according to WVTM-13. “It’s not easy being a father and watching your child get injured, get hurt like that. It’s a really heartwrenching experience.”
Article via Fox News
Gab, the social network used by accused Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, goes offline
A neighbor of Robert Bowers, charged in Saturday’s deadly synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, says he had a habit of watching TV late at night, but seemed like an “average 50-year-old dude.” (Oct 28) AP
Gab, the social network scrutinized following the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead, went offline as service providers suspended accounts and threatened to shut the website down.
A message on Gab.com said the website would not be accessible for a period of time as the site shifts to a new hosting provider.
In a statement, hosting provider GoDaddy confirmed it has given Gab 24 hours to switch providers after claiming the website violated its terms of service.
“GoDaddy investigated and discovered numerous instances of content on the site that both promotes and encourages violence against people,” read a statement from GoDaddy.
Medium, an online publishing tool, suspended Gab’s account, which was used to release statements including one right after the synagogue attack on Saturday.
In a statement posted on Gab, CEO Andrew Torba said it will fight to stay online in the wake of the Pittsburgh attack.
“We have plenty of options, resources, and support,” said Torba. “We will exercise every possible avenue to keep Gab online and defend free speech and individual liberty for all people.”
The accused Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, appeared to have an account on Gab where he posted multiple anti-Semitic messages.
“I can’t sit by an watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I’m going in,” read a post on the account right before the shooting.
Gab launched in 2016, and was favored by users involved in the “alt-right” movement following crackdowns by Twitter that took place as the social network said it was getting tougher on hate speech.
Although Gab has rules against calling for acts of violence or making threats, the service has more relaxed rules on what to post, allowing for such content as anti-Semitic rants or conspiracy theories. Earlier this year, Microsoft threatened to pull its hosting service following two anti-Semitic posts on Gab, reported The Verge. Those posts were removed.
PayPal confirmed it suspended its accounts, while payment processor Stripe and hosting provider Joyent shut down Gab accounts. In a statement, Stripe said it can’t comment on individual accounts. Joyent could not be immediately reached for comment.
In a series of tweets, Gab is calling the efforts to shut down its service “corporate censorship.”
“If they can remove Gab.com from the internet, don’t think they can’t do it to you,” said Gab.
During an interview with NPR, Torba defended the service, saying despite the takedowns, Gab is here to stay.
“The answer to bad speech or hate speech – however you want to define that – is always more speech, and it always will be,” said Torba.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.
Article via USAToday
Ja Rule responds to 50 Cent trolling with transphobic jokes
The out-of-touch rapper shares a series of unremarkable photoshops
‘Tis the season for tricks and treats. On Saturday, we reported how 50 Cent trolled Ja Rule by purchasing 200 tickets to one of his gigs on Groupon, all in the front row so that the seats would be empty come showtime. It’s probably the best thing 50 has done in years.
Naturally, Ja Rule isn’t too happy about the gag, and as Complex reports, he’s now fired back. Sadly, he’s not as creative as 50; in fact, to prove how out of touch he is with current times, he’s resorted to lame photoshop memes that are incredibly transphobic.
In the series of reworked photos he’s shared on his Instagram, Ja Rule portrays 50 Cent as either a trans woman or suggests that he has sex with trans women, all in a negative light that screams of toxic masculinity and transphobia. It’s truly a pathetic response.
Of course, like any ol’ bully, he tries to put up a front:
Article via ConsequenceOfSound
Ja Rule & Bella Hadid speak out after The Fyre music Festival Disaster
Ja Rule GOES OFF ON 50cent +Mo’nique Wants Everyone To Boycott Netflix After They Lowballed Her!
A Common Blood Pressure Drug Has Been Linked To Lung Cancer – Here’s What You Should Know
In a new study, researchers from the UK and Canada provide more evidence linking a commonly prescribed class of blood pressure medication to an elevated risk in lung cancer. But is the data strong enough to make us reconsider their use?
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) are given to millions of people worldwide to treat a variety of vascular conditions, including hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary artery disease, heart failure, diabetes, chronic kidney diseases, and migraines. Highly effective and often free of any noticeable side effects, ACEIs have become a lifeline in the era of rampant heart disease and diabetes.
Several recent studies have confirmed that short-term regimens of ACEIs are safe, but data on the long-term impacts are less clear. Some investigations following ACEI users have found higher than normal rates of multiple types of cancer, whereas others have found no additional risk. These conflicting results have caused debate within the medical community. One group argues that the cancer risk statistics could merely be the result of other health and lifestyle factors, as is known to happen in retrospective studies. The other claims they are valid and point to a handful of biological studies that have revealed ACEIs can cause an accumulation of cancer-associated inflammatory molecules in the lungs.
Hoping to re-evaluate the cancer risk, the researchers examined health record information from the UK Clinical Practice Research Database (CPRD). They selected 992,061 patients who began a new blood pressure medication regimen between 1995 and 2015, following them until the study endpoint in December 2016, or until a diagnosis of cancer or death.
After adjusting their calculations for a number of factors, the team found that, overall, people who took ACEIs had a 14 percent greater risk of lung cancer compared to those who took angiotensin receptor blockers – drugs that have a similar effect on the body but work by a different mechanism.
However, their analysis also showed that people who took ACEIs for less than five years did not have an increased risk. Those with five to 10 years of use had a 22 percent greater risk, and those with ten or more years of consistent use carried a 31 percent elevated risk. The results have been published in the British Medical Journal.
“Although the magnitudes of the observed associations are modest, ACEIs are one of the most widely prescribed drug classes; in the UK, 70.1 million antihypertensives are dispensed each year, of which approximately 32% are ACEIs,” the authors wrote. “Thus, small relative effects could translate into large absolute numbers of patients at risk for lung cancer. Given the potential impact of our findings, they need to be replicated in other settings, particularly among patients exposed for longer durations.”
But making matters more complicated, other medical researchers are claiming that the study may be plagued by the very same correlation-not-causation issues that the authors were trying to minimize. Speaking to the Science Media Centre, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:
“[This study] has a number of weaknesses, which make it quite likely that the observed association is not a causal one. This is mainly because of inadequacies in the underlying data, and a possible weakness in the analysis.”
Evans notes that one major limitation stems from the fact that CPRD contains poorly recording smoking data that does not distinguish heavy from light smoking. Heavy smoking is tied to a 20-fold increase in lung cancer risk. Additionally, “ACEIs almost certainly prevent deaths from heart disease and that means that especially after long follow-up, the cohort of ACEI users may contain those at higher risk of lung cancer.”
“Drawing strong conclusions and talking about public health impact in this situation seems premature.”
Article via IFLScience!
Transgender fight could prove major test for Supreme Court
The fight over civil rights protections for transgender people could prove to be a major test for the Supreme Court, particularly its conservative wing, as justices weigh whether to take up the issue this term.
The court has a request before it to hear a case challenging whether civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in employment extend to transgender workers.
It’s a dispute that may have a significant impact on the Trump administration’s reported plans to exclude federal protections for transgender people by narrowly defining gender.
The New York Time reported last week that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is leading an effort to write a rule that defines gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, a move that would affect civil rights laws banning gender discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
While the pending case before the justices deals with civil rights in the workplace, experts say a Supreme Court ruling could very well affect the administration’s planned gender rule.
“If the Supreme Court took it and held what the majority of courts are holding — that sex discrimination includes transgender people — the administration would be hard pressed to go ahead with that rule,” said Diana Flynn, litigation director at Lambda Legal, a group that advocates for LGBT rights.
Several federal statutes prohibit sex discrimination in employment, education and health care, and legal analysts say each one has the same underlying language and concept.
“Courts tend very strongly to read them together,” said Harper Jean Tobin, director of policy at the National Center for Transgender Equality. “A ruling under one law would be very likely to impact other laws.”
The case pending before the Supreme Court centers on Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who alleges she was fired from her job as a funeral director and embalmer after she told her employer she would begin living and working openly as a woman.
Ruling in her favor, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said discrimination against employees, either because of their failure to conform to sex stereotypes or their transgender and transitioning status, is illegal under Title VII — the law that bans discrimination based on sex in employment.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Stephens, says there’s no need for the Supreme Court to take the case because the majority of courts have issued rulings in line with the 6th Circuit.
“The Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits agree with the Sixth Circuit’s alternative holding for respondents that when a decision maker discriminates against someone for being transgender, that discrimination is inherently based on sex,” the ACLU argued in its brief.
If the justices decide to weigh in, it could challenge the ideals of conservatives on the bench like Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who prides himself on basing his decisions on the text of the law.
Transgender advocates say you can’t discriminate against someone who is transgender without thinking about their sex.
“I think it would hypocritical in the extreme for justices, who claim to be texturalists, to rule against Aimee Stephens,” said Tobin.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the funeral home in its appeal, disagrees.
“The claim rests on a faulty premise,” said Jim Campbell, a senior counsel at ADF. “Title VII does not define sex and should be given its understanding of when it was defined in 1964.”
Back then, he said, sex referred to male or female based on biology and physiology.
ADF’s argument relies heavily on a 2007 ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said discrimination on the basis of transgender status is not a violation of Title VII.
The Department of Justice Department (DOJ) also argued in a brief last week that Title VII does not apply to discrimination against an individual based on his or her gender identity. DOJ said justices should first take up two other pending cases challenging whether anti-discrimination protections in Title VII extend to sexual orientation.
Transgender advocates say Stephens should prevail even if the justices take the case because the 6th Circuit ruled that the funeral home discriminated against Stephens based on a sex stereotype.
“Circuit courts have uniformly agreed that all people, including those who are transgender, may bring sex discrimination claims under Title VII if their employers discriminate against them because of sex stereotypes related to behavior and appearance,” ACLU argued.
There’s no guarantee the justices will agree to hear the dispute. Court watchers have said the justices may try to avoid weighing politically charged issues after the highly partisan confirmation fight over Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Chief Justice John Roberts stressed the importance of an independent judiciary in a speech earlier this month at the University of Minnesota Law School.
“Now the court has from time to time erred and erred greatly, but when it has it has been because the court yielded to political pressure,” he said.
ADF’s Campbell said Dec. 3 is the earliest the justices could announce a decision on whether to take up the Stephens case.
As for an administration rule narrowly defining sex, that could take several months at a minimum.
Under the federal rulemaking process, HHS would have to propose a rule, accept and review public comments and then issue a final regulation.
While advocacy groups like the Transgender Law Center have vowed to fight any rule that attempts to remove legal protections for transgender people, they will have to wait for a finalized rule before taking legal action.
Article via TheHill