Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 950

Kenneth Cole Just Wants to 'Provoke Dialogue' With His Syria Shoe Pun

In a short video message, Kenneth Cole responded to his latest questionable tweet, in which the shoe mogul talked about shoes and the Syrian conflict in what, one would guess, he thought was a humorous manner: 

"Boots on the ground" or not, let's not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear

— Kenneth Cole (@KennethCole) September 5, 2013

The negative reaction, as you'd expect, was strong. So strong, apparently, that Cole decided to respond with an Instagram message: 

"I've always used my platform to provoke dialogue about important issues," he says in the non-apology, "including HIV AIDS, war and homelessness. I'm well aware of the risks that come with this approach, and if this encourages further awareness and discussion of critical issues, then all the better." 

Earlier today, the Atlantic Wire documented just how irresistible shoe-based wordplay seems to be for the businessman. His history includes questionable tweets about stop and frisk, the Newtown shootings, and unrest in Egypt. Cole, however, has shown that he's capable of tweeting about serious issues, especially those with which he has a long history of involvement, without resorting to what reads to many as a commodified trivialization of the issues: 

Looking forward to AIDS Walking tomorrow with the @KennethColePrd Family. To talking the talk, and Walking the walk. @Amfar

— Kenneth Cole (@KennethCole) May 18, 2013

If Cole is genuine about the mission behind his otherwise regrettable tweets, it doesn't look like he's anywhere close to succeeding: the only subject his more controversial tweets have provoked people to discuss is Kenneth Cole himself.

       

John Kerry Makes the Syria Case to the Liberal Public

Secretary of State John Kerry brought the case for Syrian intervention to the left on Thursday night during an interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. As the Obama administration continues to lobby legislators on their upcoming vote to authorize a military strike on Syria, the administration's been waging a companion campaign to win over a skeptical public on the prospect of using lethal force on Syria in the context of their years-long conflict. Kerry's case, for one thing, argues that military intervention wouldn't be the same as the U.S. going to war.

Kerry said: 

Now, most importantly, Chris, we’re not remotely talking about getting America involved directly in between any of those forces.  The president is not talking about, uh, assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war.  What the president is trying to do and what we believe is important to America’s national security interests and to humanitarian interests and to the interests of Israel and Jordan and Lebanon and all of our friends in the region is that you hold Bashar Al-Assad responsible for use of chemical weapons and that you degrade his ability to use them again and deter him from using them again.  That’s what’s really important here.  That’s all that we’re talking about in this.

Kerry went on to explain that military retaliation by the U.S. was intended to essentially get Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to the table for a negotiated, political, change of power. He added, "a lot of people in the country are sitting there and saying oh, my gosh, this is going to be Iraq, this is going to be Afghanistan.  Here we go again.. know this.  I — I’ve heard it. And the answer is no, profoundly no." Kerry also addressed Bush-era critics of the Syria intervention, like Donald Rumsfeld. He said: 

It just doesn't make a difference to me, because they're so discredited by their own judgments that it's hard to see that they have a judgment today that is relevant to this.

The full transcript is here. Or watch the full interview below: 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kerry's interview (which isn't the only one he's given to a liberal outlet recently), comes one day after the administration launched a website to make the case to the U.S. public. And earlier on Thursday, news broke that the CIA had put together a DVD to sway members of Congress on the vote, indicating that the administration's Syria campaign is far from over. 

How did Chris Hayes's viewers react? It's fair to say with some skepticism: 

Sorry Secretary Kerry, I'm not convinced. #inners

— Ruth Ann (@Fairy_Gmother) September 6, 2013

Kerry might have been able to sell this based on humanitarian grounds, but saying Syria is a direct threat to the US is an odd strategy.

— allisonkilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) September 6, 2013

Secty Kerry is a man on a crusade. Not sure what roots of his passion are?

— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) September 6, 2013

I want to believe #Kerry because of his war experience and his insistence on peace in the past...but... #inners #Syria

— Jan Lewis (@jylicious) September 6, 2013

Kerry confident he's aware of all the known unknowns. Iffy on the unknown uknowns.

— Eli Clifton (@EliClifton) September 6, 2013

Honestly, folks, I think it's nice John Kerry is trying to persuade progressives. But I think he made a terrible case.

— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) September 6, 2013

The administration faces bipartisan opposition from the American public on a Syrian intervention. Six in 10 Americans overall oppose Syrian military action, including 48 percent, of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans.

       

Are You Smarter Than an American?

The Pew Research Center released its "What the Public Knows" study Thursday, illustrating that pretty much everyone in America recognizes that one photo of Edward Snowden, and nobody knows what's going on with the Dow Jones Index. Pew asked a wide range of respondents 13
"news IQ" questions, to determine how well Americans know what's going on in the world. Majorities got 5 out of 13 right on the quiz, which asked about public policy, geography, tech innovations, and famous people. It seems like Pew tried to throw a few more toughies in there this time — most people did a lot better on Pew's January quiz (majorities got 11 out of 13 questions right).

Pew asked about respondents' education levels, and unsurprisingly, those with a college degree were "more likely than those with a high school degree or less to answer every question correctly." Pew also notes that on past quizzes, younger people were less likely to know about current events. On this quiz, however, the results were more mixed. For example, people under the age of 30 more often correctly identified those states that have legalized gay marriage.

If you want a chance to show off your current affairs knowledge, you can try our mini-quiz below, made up of questions from the study, or take Pew's full quiz over here. 

What country is this?

[image error]

Correct! You are among the 49 percent of Americans who got this right.

Wrong. You are among the 51 percent of Americans who got this incorrect.

Who is this person?

[image error]

Correct! You are among the 77 percent of Americans who got this right.

Wrong. You are among the 23 percent of Americans who got this incorrect.

Which one of these men is Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida? [image error] [image error] [image error] [image error]

Correct! You are among the 52 percent of Americans who got this right.

Wrong. You are among the 48 percent of Americans who got this incorrect.

What percent of Congress is comprised of women?

Correct! You are among the 47 percent of Americans who got this right.

Wrong. You are among the 53 percent of Americans who got this incorrect.

       

Dave Chappelle Turned His Hartford Experience Into a Stand-Up Set

Dave Chappelle is not going to forget about his clash with an audience in Hartford, Connecticut anytime soon. Performing in Chicago on Tuesday, about what he referred to as a "nasty spill," Chappelle added that "if North Korea ever drops a nuclear bomb on this country, I swear to God, I hope it lands in Hartford, Connecticut," where the audiences are composed entirely of "young, white alcoholics."

"I wanted to pull a 'reverse Kramer' and call them all 'crackers' or something like that," he said.

Chappelle later analyzed the schadenfreude of the whole snafu, admitting, "You know that crowd feels lucky that they got to see me freak out. This shit's like being at a f***ing tiger show the night Siegfried and Roy got their throats bit out by the tiger ... That's why you go to the tiger show, you don't go to see someone be safe."

A portion of the comedian's set can be heard below.

       

The Washington Post Likes Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post appear to be getting along swimmingly. The Amazon founder, who offered to buy the Post for $250 million dollars in early August, paid a visit to the paper's newsroom yesterday to talk with staffers. By all accounts, including that of The New York Times, the meeting appears to have gone well.

An editor at the Post, Jeffrey Leen, told The Times, "He was a big supporter of investigative reporting, which warmed my heart. He already has a very good grasp of our business. It was, all in all, a very impressive performance." Veteran reporter Bob Woodward had a private breakfast with Bezos yesterday and walked away with a similar impression.

Erik Wemple, a prolific blogger for The Post, livetweeted an afternoon session that Bezos held with the paper's staff.

JB: need to "lean in to the future"

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

"Death knell of any org is to glorify the past"

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

On competition: JB worried abt any product that's 100 percent ad-supported, because then you "start thinking your customer is advertisers."

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

JB references our infamous "dancing bear" vid package. Says lite stuff ok, but needs to be part of a broader package

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

On Amazon not commenting on news stories: "I've always felt that the most powerful minds in the world can hold powerful inconsistencies."

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

JB recipe for innovation: "Stubborn on vision, flexible on details."

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) September 4, 2013

       

Yahoo Introduces a New, Hipper Logo and That's Pretty Much It

Yahoo, the Internet behemoth recently roused from its slumber by new CEO Marissa Mayer, introduced a new logo at midnight on Thursday, the culmination of a 30-day campaign in which the company rolled out a new, rejected logo each day until it revealed off the above redesign. In a lengthy blog post announcing the new logo—which was conceived with the input of at least five people—Mayer walks through the design philosophy. "On a personal level, I love brands, logos, color, design, and, most of all, Adobe Illustrator," she writes.

Here's a minute-long walkthrough of every tiny detail of the logo—which, as a reminder, consists of five letters and a punctuation mark—set to Empire of the Sun's "Alive":

So, congratulations to Yahoo's newest logo, which currently does not offer any service or functionality other than looking more out of place on a child's lunchbox than the last logo did. That's maybe a step in the right direction?

The redesigned logo gimmick isn't at-all new—it's how Google manages to get even a passing mention every few days—but it's another sign of Yahoo cribbing tactics from others or, as in the case of the $1 billion Tumblr purchase, simply buying a larger, younger user base and a slightly elevated rep as a company perpetually on the verge of reinvention.

There are some, such as Om Malik, however, who might disagree. While discussion of Yahoo has increased noticeably since Mayer's hire, use of its services has not necessarily followed suit.

"Animal standoff caught on camera" "lesbian film shoot's issues" & "88 lbs gone in seconds" = Y! hp headlines. And you're worried abt logo?

— Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) September 5, 2013

Making the exclamation point *animated* is inexcusable. Come on. You had one job, one job. http://t.co/jJieHxIKii

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) September 5, 2013

The logo is animated on the company's homepage.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, but... the new Yahoo logo is irrelevant anyway because no one cares about Yahoo. Sorry MM.

— Alex Taylor (@38percentsure) September 5, 2013

New Yahoo logo bears more than a passing resemblance to Google IMO. Via @brandingsrc http://t.co/2cJ8uuPqn4

— Ben Brookbanks (@benbrookbanks) September 5, 2013

       

Samsung Reveals Its Smartwatch Contender

On Wednesday, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Gear, its first smartwatch and a new entry into the broader category of "wearable technology" such as the current conversational centerpiece, Google Glass. The Galaxy Gear uses a Bluetooth connection to pair with a variety of the manufacturer's Android smartphones (an essential requirement), and includes a variety of nifty features—maybe more than you might need in a wristwatch—although it does not include a James Bond-style laser.

Revealed amidst the announcement of the Galaxy Gear is that it will launch with a variety of software—more than 70 apps according to Samsung. It features a pedometer for tracking exercise with apps like RunKeeper, a speaker for listening to music (or other things; save-for-later service Pocket announced it would use Android's text-to-speech functionality with the watch), and a 1.9 megapixel camera. For those who with fear of being covertly photographed, Samsung said that it did not include the ability to turn off the cheesy shutter sound when taking a picture. It also has a pair of microphones for recording low-resolution video.

The smartwatch market has been pretty underwhelming so far, and one of its most talked-about iterations, the Pebble, funded by Kickstarter, has not exactly received rave reviews. Gadget advice site The Wirecutter succinctly quipped, "Never buy a pebble watch."

In its hands-on, Engadget found the Galaxy Gear to be fairly mediocre, which didn't surprise them given that the hardware is only a first iteration.

The Gear feels awfully sluggish, whether you're launching an app such as Evernote or Path, or swiping down from the home screen to activate the camera. Watch faces, which you can upload from the Gear's Android companion app, performed well, as did the Music card, which simply serves as a remote for any music app (native or third-party) currently active on a connected device.

The device's reliance on a Samsung smartphone as well as the $299 price tag also tempered the enthusiasm of The Verge's Vlad Savov, who reported:

Most of all, however, I find it hard to justify spending the $299 asking price on an accessory like the Galaxy Gear. It's too dependent on its parent device for functionality — which will cost you a fair amount too — and, like all other smartwatches, fails to truly live up to the "smart" part of its name.

The crushing diction here is in the definition of the Galaxy Gear as an accessory rather than as a worthwhile standalone product.

Over at The New York Times, Nick Bilton briefly chronicled the rise of the smartwatch. Samsung already has competition from Sony in the smartwatch market and Apple is also almost definitely entering the race soon. In addition, wearable fitness trackers such as the Nike Fuelband serve similar purposes of tracking fitness and pairing with a mobile app. Among younger audiences, watches have been almost entirely usurped by cell phones, and Bilton remains validly skeptical of the market's development.

       

Why the U.S. Didn't Anticipate Syria's Chemical Attack

U.S. intelligence officials had obtained, but not "processed" the intercepted communications between Syrian officials that allegedly betrayed signs of the devastating chemical attack ahead of August 21. The Obama administration has made no secret of the fact that the U.S. had intelligence detailing what they argue is the preparation of Syria's government for the strikes, but the Associated Press's scoop seems to, at least partially, answer one big question the administration's case for Syrian intervention raised: if the U.S. had so much intelligence connecting the Syrian regime to the strike before it even happened, why didn't it know about it or try to prevent it in the first place? 

As a refresher, here's what Kerry said in his State Department speech on Friday: 

We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations...We know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapon.

And more details from the declassified intelligence assessment, cited by those who asked why the U.S. didn't do anything with the intelligence on Syria's preparation before the devastating chemical attacks: 

We have intelligence that leads us to assess that Syrian chemical weapons personnel – including personnel assessed to be associated with the SSRC – were preparing chemical munitions prior to the attack. In the three days prior to the attack, we collected streams of human, signals and geospatial intelligence that reveal regime activities that we assess were associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack.

But according to the AP, the U.S. only knew those things after the disturbing images and videos of the attack emerged. Then, intelligence began analyzing relevant data, already collected, and putting together puzzle pieces to make up the intelligence pictures the administration is presenting to Congress, and to some extent, the public. That evidence, at least in its declassified form, is a mix of specific and circumstantial, as the AP and others have noted. The administration cites the proximity of "Syrian weapons personnel" to chemical weapons preparation sites, as well as the understood lack of capacity of the rebels to carry out an equivalent attack, for instance. 

The reason given by unnamed sources for the processing delay may ring familiar to those following Edward Snowden's NSA leaks: The U.S. collects a lot of communications and intelligence, from a lot of locations. The AP explains: "analysts were stretched too thin with the multiple streams of intelligence coming out of multiple conflict zones, from Syria to Libya to Yemen." 

Over 110,000 people have died in Syria since the beginning of a years-long conflict in the country, according to the latest figures from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The U.S. says that 1,429 people died in the August 21st chemical attacks alone, though other intelligence sources, including the SOHR, use lower figures. Obama is currently waiting for Congress to decide on a bill that would authorize the president to use military force in response to the chemical attacks in Syria. 

       

Montana Will Appeal a Controversial 30-Day Sentence For Rape

The Montana judge who sentenced a teacher who raped a 14-year-old girl to just 30 days in jail wants to fix what he now thinks might be an "illegal" sentence. But, following the pattern of Yellowstone County District Court Judge G. Todd Baugh's apparently unique interpretation of state law, prosecutors say that the judge doesn't actually have the authority to increase his sentence. That, they say, can only happen through the appeals process. 

So that's exactly what they've done. On Wednesday, state Attorney General Tim Fox filed an appeal that would overturn Baugh's judgement. Baugh, for his part, seems set on going ahead with a hearing he's set for Friday to increase former teacher Stacey Dean Rambold's sentence to the minimum of two years required by law. Rambold, now 54, was sentenced to 15 years by Baugh, but the judge suspended all of that sentence except for what he believed to be the mandatory minimum time served. After reviewing the law setting that minimum, Baugh wrote, "the mandatory minimum seems to be 2 years, and not 30 days...in this Court's opinion, imposing a sentence which suspends more than the mandatory minimum would be an illegal sentence. 

[image error]Baugh based his lenient sentence in part on his personal assessment of the victim, then-14-year-old Cherice Moralez, who later committed suicide as the court case went through the legal system. In his sentencing, Baugh said that Moralez "seemed older than her chronological age" and was "as much in control of the situation" as Rambold, her teacher, was. Moralez's mother later said that her relationship with Rambold and the ensuing court case was a "major" factor in her death. 

The state has appealed to the Montana Supreme court, and asked Baugh to cancel his hearing on Friday. The extraordinarily lenient sentence drew international attention, and prompted protests in Billings, some calling for Judge Baugh's resignation. 

Here's Baugh's notice on his original sentence: 

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Images: A protest of Baugh's ruling (AP); Judge G. Todd Baugh (AP). 

 

       

Russia Sends Request to Meet With U.S. Lawmakers over Syria

Russian lawmakers formalized their plans to lobby the U.S. Congress on Syria by sending an official request to meet with House and Senate leadership on Wednesday. That's according to a CNN report, which seems to follow up on earlier speculation that Russia would send a delegation to the Capitol. They'll arrive some time "next week." It's not clear whether the delegation would arrive before Monday, when the House and Senate are expected to debate a bill that would authorize military force against Syria.

In any case, Speaker of the House John Boehner has already RSVP'd "no" to Russia's invitation. “The Speaker has declined the Russian embassy’s request that he meet with a delegation," a Boehner spokesperson told CNN. 

Russian president Vladimir Putin suggested a plan to directly lobby Congress was in the works on Monday, after meeting with Valentina Matvienko and Sergei Naryshkin, speakers for the upper and lower houses of Russian parliament. They apparently proposed the idea to Putin, arguing that they could work U.S. lawmakers towards a more "balanced" stance on Syria. But given Russia's high-profile, adamant support for the Syrian regime, the Associated Press notes that any planned trip would be more of a publicity stunt than anything. According to CNN, their delegation would include members of both Russian houses, and would target both parties of the U.S. Congress. Putin said earlier on Wednesday that he did not believe the U.S. Congress had the authority to authorize a Syria strike: only the U.N. could approve such a response. Russia holds a veto power on the U.N. Security Council, which it's more or less used to block any substantive resolutions that would lead the U.N. to intervene in some way. 

While John Kerry may have dodged many opportunities over the past week to insult Russia in public, American lawmakers haven't been quite as, well, diplomatic. Senator Ed Markey, who voted "present" on today's Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposal for authorizing a military strike in Syria, said that "Syria is a proxy state of Russia," during Tuesday's hearing. Senator Tim Kaine called Russia a "pariah state" because of it's support for Syria's chemical weapons use. And even though there's far from a consensus among lawmakers on Syrian intervention, it's doubtful that they'd be swayed by arguments coming from Russia. 

But Russia's ability to impress and win over American lawmakers hasn't been all misses. Earlier this summer, a group of GOP lawmakers from the House visited the country on a fact-finding mission related to the Boston Bombings. In the gentle hands of their tour guide, Steven Seagal, Reps Michele Bachmann, Dana Rohrabacher, and. Steve King left with reportedly good impressions of the country, bonding with Russian officials over the "threat" of extremist Islam, and of their mutual distaste for Pussy Riot. But Steven Seagal probably isn't one of the lobbyists Russia plans to send to Congress. And unlike the GOP's earlier trip to Russia, all eyes will be focused on the Syria vote, presumed to happen early next week.