Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 183
January 26, 2018
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Life, death and politics in Hawaii: 125 years of colonial rule
This undated photo, provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, shows the crumbling remains of the 180-year-old summer palace of former King Kamehameha III where vandals etched crosses in the forest of a Honolulu, Hawaii, neighborhood. The Department said Thursday, June 23, 2016, that unless the vandals are caught desecrating the sacred cultural site, there's little law enforcement officers can do.(Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP) (Credit: Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)
The effects of a political overthrow that happened 125 years ago in Hawaii could not have been felt more vividly this month. The fear and distress that cast a shadow over the Hawaiian islands on Saturday morning during a false missile alert is part of the legacy of American occupation.
No one should have received that abrupt notice that their lives would end in roughly 12 minutes, the time it takes a missile to travel from North Korea to the islands. Least of all the people whose land, food, culture, and traditions have been under siege for a century and a quarter.
Since moving to Honolulu five years ago to begin a position as a professor at the University of Hawaii law school, I have felt ambivalent at best about my place here. Outsiders meet this ambivalence with disbelief. They think I live in paradise. What they are missing is how it feels, and what it means, to know that my life here arises from and relies upon the oppression of the people whose land I live, work and play on.
In 1893, American businessmen overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy to avoid taxes on their sugar imports to the United States. In the name of profit, they worked tirelessly to eradicate Hawaiian culture and language ��� everything that could make Hawaiian resistance stronger.
Their efforts did not succeed. Resistance is as strong as ever. On the anniversary of Queen Liliukalani���s forced abdication, thousands march in peace to protest the illegal overthrow, honor the Hawaiian monarchs and celebrate Hawaiian culture and traditions.
Ongoing U.S. occupation and militarization of the islands puts Hawaiians in perpetual peril. Pearl Harbor brought this danger tragically to life. Saturday���s missile alert represented the culmination of a chain of irresponsible exchanges between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, leader of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK).
During the same time period, Trump has repeatedly made his disdain for Black and brown people clear. He is more than willing to sacrifice lives he does not value to prove he has a bigger button or to distract from disastrous domestic policies. He can tolerate the casualties of some whites and soldiers when the majority of the hurt will fall upon people historically subject to American policies of hatred and exclusion.
A loud alarm
On Saturday, I was talking and playing with my eight-year-old twins in bed when my phone gave off a loud alarm, the one that usually signals a flash flood. It was a clear, sunny day. I picked up the phone and read the message: ���Ballistic missile threat incoming to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter.��� Then the five words that made it real: ���This is not a drill.���
In that split second, fears of nuclear devastation that I had harboured since I was a young child in Toronto flared up. I quickly pushed down the guilt I felt at moving my children to a military target. At not moving them away when the danger first arose, and as it built.
Only the day before, in the midst of talks of possible reconciliation, Trump threatened to give North Korea a ���bloody nose.��� Military analysts wrote that a nuclear strike would be a logical response to this threat, providing the only opportunity to take out the U.S. Pacific Command, located at Pearl Harbor. I had no reason not to take the warning seriously. And there was no time to think. I had to move.
I threw on clothes and told the kids to do the same. I told them why. I did not have the energy or forethought to lie. I did not have an emergency kit. I grabbed onto their hands and ran across the street to Safeway.
I thought it would have an enclosed, safe room. It didn���t. We went into the bathroom. One of my children was so brave. She stood close to me, silently. The other couldn���t stop crying because we were about to die. I held them both and told them to be positive, to think that everything would be alright. We waited.
Eventually, news of a false alert appeared on my phone, but I didn���t know what to believe. Someone knocked on the bathroom door. He confirmed the rumours of a false alert, but still there was no all-clear. It didn���t come until 10 minutes later. Then I could allow myself to feel again. But the feelings are too painful to hold for very long.
My mind understands that a state employee made an error, in the context of a flawed system, that created unnecessary panic. My heart stands ready for the next alert, when I may not be lucky enough to hold my kids in our last moments. It hurts now to let them out of my sight.
Some of my friends reacted completely differently. They had no desire to survive a nuclear blast. When the alert came, they went outside and looked to the west, where they would see the blast and die quickly and peacefully.
Some of my neighbours who, like me, came to this island to take jobs that should never have been theirs, for a university that has reneged time and again on its promise to be a Hawaiian place of learning, contemplated arming themselves. They want guns to protect themselves in case chaos erupts next time we get the alert.
The ���peaceful��� overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom has been anything but, even 125 years later.
Andrea Freeman, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii
Superchunk’s latest: The ’90s punk heroes return with a defiantly anti-Trump album
Superchunk (Credit: Lissa Gotwals/Merge Records)
When Salon tells Superchunk vocalist and guitarist Mac McCaughan that the band’s forthcoming record, “What A Time To Be Alive,” was a “comfort” to listen to, he immediately bursts out laughing.
“I don’t think of it as a super-comforting record, but I’m glad that it in some way does that,” he says.
McCaughan’s surprised reaction is somewhat understandable. After all, “What A Time To Be Alive” is a raucous record nodding to ’80s punk (“Reagan Youth,” the breakneck hardcore thrash “Clouds Of Hate”) and distorted rock ‘n’ roll (the bashing “Lost My Brain”).
However, the album also articulates the palpable anger, anxiety and frustration saturating American society in the months��since��the 2016 presidential election.
The album kicks off with the lyrics, “You��� ���brushed��� ���your��� ���teeth��� ���and��� ���found��� ���your��� ���calling/At��� ���the��� ���bottom��� ���of��� ���a��� ���swamp,” while two lines from the song “I Got Cut” are rendered in all-caps on a record label lyric sheet: “ALL��� ���THESE��� ���OLD��� ���MEN WON���T��� ���DIE��� ���TOO��� ���SOON.”
On a more nuanced note, the fuzzy power-pop tune “Erasure” is a strident declaration of solidarity with the marginalized: “Hate��� ���so��� ���graceless��� ���and��� ���so��� ���cavalier/We��� ���don���t��� ���just��� ���disappear/Shifting��� ���shapes��� ���you���re��� ���just��� ���an��� ���auctioneer/But��� ���we���re��� ���still��� ���here.” At any rate, these cathartic invective bursts provide solace and underline the idea that anyone infuriated by what’s going on isn’t alone.
Salon talked to McCaughan and bassist/vocalist Laura Ballance about “What A Time To Be Alive“ (which is due Feb. 16 via Merge Records, the label the the pair co-founded in 1989) in late November, right as the Congressional tax bill debates were heating up. Ballance especially had politics on the mind during the call. “It’s funny how there’s normal life, and then there’s your political anxiety life,” she says with a laugh. “It keeps you feeling busy.”
As a musician, what was it like creating the music on “What A Time To Be Alive”?
Mac McCaughan: In some ways, it was easy, because the tone of the music and the vibe of the whole thing dictated itself, based on where the songs were coming from. There were fewer choices that needed to be made. [For example] there’s no keyboards on this record. “Foolish” was the first record that had keyboards on it, and this is the first time since then that there hasn’t been keyboards on a Superchunk record.
Part of that was just that the songs call for being super straightforward and guitar-heavy, and in some ways relating to the hardcore and punk rock that we all grew up listening to. But also the tone of the songs, and what they’re about, means less flourishes are required. I could take any record and sit there and add keyboards to it all day, ’cause it’s fun and it sounds neat. In general, those things make stuff prettier. This is more about being pretty straightforward and . . . “aggressive” is the wrong word, but aggro, I guess.
Laura Ballance: When we record, we all make up our parts; we play together. We [had] heard demos with Mac singing. He writes all the lyrics. [But] when we record, we’re playing the music. We know the spirit of what the songs are about, but while we’re actually doing it, it’s not really . . . I don’t know. I’m not thinking about what the lyrics are going to say so much. [Laughs.] It’s hard to play bass politically, but I do as much as I can. [Laughs.]
The record is very on the surface. It’s strident and concise. You’re getting to the point of what you want to say.
McCaughan: It’s hopefully to the point. And you definitely run the risk of something being obvious or trite, or “Yeah, duh, we all already think that.” You want to avoid that kind of feeling as a listener. At the same time, people say, “Well, what do you get out of music or art at a time like this?” For me as a listener, and me as a musician, one of the things is feeling connected to other people who feel the same way. As a musician, being able to express something, in a way, is also helpful. Hopefully, that’s what the record is about. Like, what do you do with yourself when everything feels like it’s so fucked up, you know?
Did these songs come together in any particular discrete time period?
McCaughan: I probably started writing a couple in 2015, before the election, and then the rest in the period after the election. We didn’t have a plan, like, “Oh, next year we’re going to make a Superchunk record,” but I think sometime late in the year, I emailed everyone and said, “I have all these songs, and can write a couple more, and then we’ll have enough for an album. If we can find time to record them, let’s do it.”
Everyone was amenable to that, and it worked with [drummer] Jon [Wurster]’s busy touring schedule; he’s often out with Mountain Goats and Bob Mould. We did a few songs back in February or March [2017] and did the rest in July, in a couple short sessions. It worked out really well that way. The record’s pretty concise, so we weren’t looking to stretch out and make a double album, sprawling statement. It’s more just like, “Here’s some immediate takes on what we’re feeling like.” [Laughs.]
The record does feel like a cathartic burst ��� like, here’s what I’m feeling, here’s what’s going on.
McCaughan: I tried not to overthink things too much and go back over lyrics too much. I tried to keep things pretty immediate. Because of how we work these days, the recordings tend to have that feeling, because it’s maybe the fourth or fifth time that we’re ever playing the song together. I like that energy, and I think it works especially well for this record.
Ballance: That’s mostly the way that we’ve always recorded. We get it done quickly. We may do three takes of a song. We might do five. We might do six. We don’t labor too much over it, and I think that makes it feel more cathartic. The newness of us playing it, having not played it very many times, and being on the edge of falling apart, stays in there. We don’t continue working on it until it’s perfect. And we do it all together. We don’t record the drums separately, and then the bass, and then the guitars.
That energy especially is palpable on “What A Time To Be Alive,” although it’s intangible. There’s a driving engine and a motor in the background pushing things forward. I feel like that’s missing from a lot of records many times.
McCaughan: Part of that comes from playing with the same people for 25 years ��� 26 years since Jon [Wurster] joined, I guess. Everyone knows how to play with each other. When I’m writing the songs, I can tell what’s going to work once we’re all playing it together. I feel like that really helps with what you’re talking about. I made a solo record a couple years ago [2015’s “Non-Believers”], but when I started writing these songs, my immediate thought was, “These are Superchunk songs.”
You’ll talk to some musicians, and they’ll write songs and say, “Well, I’ll figure out where they go later.” I’ve found that fascinating ��� not all songs can be retrofitted to a specific project.
McCaughan: I think that’s true. Some can be more vague, but especially with this kind of energy and knowing the kind of drummer Jon is, it seemed like the perfect fit.
Mac, I like what you told The A.V. Club in an interview, that you hesitate to call it a political record, “because it implies that you are offering some solutions.” There really aren’t any on the record. But it definitely feels like a warning shot.
McCaughan: I feel like it’s more emotional and more about the two parallel things, of, like . . . Part of your life is spent resisting, and calling your senators and trying to fight back against what feels like creeping authoritarianism. And then [there’s] the other part of your life, that you still have to be living. You still have to get up in the morning, make breakfast and make sure the kids get to school. My wife and I both work, and everyone has to keep doing what they’re doing. So how do you get to the place where you can even go to sleep in order to get up and do what you have to do? [Laughs.] You know?
And you need to have that balance. You can’t let yourself get so bogged down and upset that you can’t function. And you have kids, too. You have them to take care of as well.
McCaughan: When you go around wishing harm upon people who you feel like are destroying the country, that’s a bad place to be in your head. [Laughs.] And you also don’t want to convey that to your kids or the people around you, you know? [Laughs.] That’s not a great thing to teach kids. And so it’s a lot of trying to harness all this shit into something positive.
Laura, when you did read Mac’s lyrics and see what he was saying, what was your reaction?
Ballance: I had heard the lyrics in the demos he sent around before we recorded. All the lyrics weren’t totally done, but I knew the gist of what the record was. It’s an angry record and a sad record. It’s a punk rock record. That’s my favorite kind of record to play, and to be a part of. It’s exciting to me. It feels really important compared to our records that have been about our personal relationships [or about] more mild things compared to what is going on right now. It feels like a record that’s about the world, and not about us.
As a music listener, have you found yourself going back to any artists or songs this entire year?
McCaughan: I’m always listening to stuff from all eras of my life. I’ll always put on a New Order record. But I like listening to things that’ll take me out of the moment that we’re all living in. Records from Africa that I didn’t know about or dance music that’s unfamiliar to me. Electronic music things that are a little bit outside of my wheelhouse will get me thinking more about the music and less about other things that my brain normally goes to.
In terms of protest music, I think reggae is a great source of the kind of art that people made under dire circumstances. Or, obviously, someone like Fela [Kuti]. I do love listening to that stuff, but I don’t feel like I’ve listened to something in particular in reaction to what’s happening politically.
Ballance: I have found myself turning to a lot of old hip-hop. I can’t stop listening to Missy Elliott. [Laughs.] Digging through old records from ��� I guess a lot of them are from the ’90s ��� that are comforting to me. That is something I’ve been doing. But also I want to listen to music that’s fun. I want to listen to music that makes me want to dance. When I get frustrated, I feel this sense of physical pent-up-ness. I need something to make me release that frustration.
“Britannia”: A frothy stand-in for better TV epics
Mackenzie Crook and Kelly Reilly in "Britannia" (Credit: Amazon Studios)
Frequently while watching ���Britannia,��� a kinda-sorta-historical drama made available to Amazon Prime subscribers on Friday, I found myself sighing forlornly and missing ���Xena: Warrior Princess.���
There���s no reason to miss ���Xena��� these days. A reboot may be kicking around somewhere in development hell (although it���s officially dead at NBC, the network that recently floated the idea) but really, no fans of the original want to see anyone else but Lucy Lawless in that role and she has no reason to take up the chakram again anyway; her career has moved on swimmingly.
In lieu of Lawless, however, Amazon would like to offer Kelly Reilly as Kerra, formidable warrior princess of the Celts and possessor of a shiny mane of red hair. In AD 43, as Roman troops march across ancient Britain, Kerra wields a mean sword and defies the will of her father, King Pellanor (Ian McDiarmid), and that makes her sound a lot like Merida from ���Brave��� but that���s a story from a different time and a different company and, anyway, they���re both really great at archery.
What was I talking about? Oh yes ��� ���Xena.��� That syndicated action series had a lot to love about it, but among its greatest assets is that it didn���t take itself seriously in the least.
The problem with ���Britannia��� is that it looks like it wants people to take it seriously but presents itself in a way that makes that virtually impossible to do.
���Britannia,��� a co-production of��Sky and Amazon, exists because of other series, namely ���Game of Thrones��� and ���Vikings��� ��� actually, it might as well be ���Vikings��� tossed into a blender with ���Game of Thrones,��� along with a few drops of ���Monty Python���s Flying Circus��� that got in there by accident, though the host hopes we don���t notice.
The first five of the nine episodes provided for review also have echoes of ���Spartacus,��� and ���Rome��� slopped with a sauce of graphic novel-style drama. That���s not the worst a person can say about a series; millions enjoy such a presentation on ���The Walking Dead,��� and I would be mentioning that show even if David Morrissey, most familiar to American audiences as one of zombieland’s top psychopaths, weren���t co-starring in ���Britannia.���
Here he plays the Roman general Aulus Plautius, your standard-issue tightly wound imperial officer strutting around in great furs and motivating his troops with severed heads. Don���t hate, though; Plautius needs all the help he can get in this strange land of magic and mud-slicked druids who seem to have some knowledge of augury, the ways of the underworld, and a large supply of dank weed and hallucinogens.
In this ancient land imagined by Jez Butterworth, Tom Butterworth and James Richardson, Plautius brings 20,000 Roman soldiers to the land to finish the job Caesar was too chicken to complete some nine decades earlier, scared off by the witchy freakishness of the druids and Celtic tribes whose leaders, many of them women, love to pepper conversation with F-bombs. Zo�� Wanamaker, in her role as Queen Antedia, is a particularly delightful vulgarian who embroiders her parleys with enough��profanity as to assert herself while retaining an air of elegance. (Plus, her eye shadow game is on point; I mean, she really has the smoky application down pat.)
Think of the Celts as Vikings with better hair products, makeup skills and access to vivid dyes and better jewelry craftspeople. Sadly, they���re still insufficiently educated in the ways of oral hygiene and bereft of soap, but that���s OK. Their purity of soul and connection to Earth is their greatest selling point. Plus, there���s a wanderer (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) skilled in the ways of hypnosis and some other nifty magical hooey, which is handy when he encounters a young girl (Eleanor Worthington Cox) forced to flee into the woods when Roman forces interrupt a very serious gathering resembling a bonfire rave at Burning Man.
With the exception of the lighthearted adventures of Not-the-Hound and Arya Lite, the ���Britannia��� cast plays it terribly straight for the most part, and fortunately that doesn���t get in the way of its bizarre swagger (bookended, one should add, by the usage of Donovan���s ���Hurdy Gurdy Man��� in each episode���s opening and closing titles).
But ���Britannia��� is an action period piece structured around classic tropes: the wandering wizard, the underestimated warrior princess, the ambitious scheming wife of a lesser leader, the immovable forces of a ruthless empire. ��It���s a good time but nothing you haven���t already seen in any number of dramas, particularly ���Vikings.���
Maybe its qualification as a fun midwinter distraction is all a person needs. That said, ���Britannia��� does miss some golden opportunities in its derivation. The story opens by pitting Romans against Celts, the former intent on��bringing Celtic��lands and the��riches therein, mainly tin deposits, under the empire���s control. By the end of the second episode, however, the mission of the Roman guard���s top man is��whittled down to an intimate aim that serves the empire���s agenda as well as his own, which is to destroy the Celts by obliterating their religion.
���Vikings��� is currently the only series on television that thoughtfully explores the ways that religions now considered pagan shaped ancient cultures and conflicted with Christianity. The way it manifests in ���Britannia��� is through black-eyed druids, led by a manipulative skeletal leader played by Mackenzie Crook. And they���re mostly there to toss a wrench into the plans of Romans and Celts alike.
���Britannia��� gets a few points for acknowledging in a sideways fashion that people of color existed in ancient times by featuring Roman soldiers of African and Asian descent in its ranks, even diving into a smidgen of backstory for a couple of them. Before you get your hopes up too much, remember that Caesar turned back for good reason and, well, consider that previous observation about the series��� lazy affection for aping tropes.
���Xena��� is long gone, with ���Spartacus��� and ���Rome��� walking beside it in television���s version of the afterlife.�� ���Game of Thrones��� won���t be back until 2019, and this week ���Vikings��� entered its midseason hiatus. ���Britannia,��� then, may be adequate to soothe whatever itch is left by the departure of these other series, temporary or permanent. A full conquest, however, may be beyond its reach.
No Oprah in 2020 ��� who’s next? Semi-modest proposals for our next celebrity president
Kanye West; Meryl Streep (Credit: AP/Star Max/Getty/Justin Tallis)
Oprah Winfrey set the internet on fire when she appeared to be��toying with the idea of running for president. After her rousing��Cecil��B. DeMille Award acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards earlier this month, rumors about a possible Oprah 2020 run spread uncontrollably.��Her closest friends were even telling major publications that��an Oprah campaign��was a��possibility at some point.
Yesterday we found out that the 63-year mogul isn���t running, according to an interview she did for the March edition of InStyle Magazine.
���I���ve always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not. And so, it���s not something that interests me. I don���t have the DNA for it,��� Winfrey told the magazine. ���I met with someone the other day who said that they would help me with a campaign. That���s not for me.���
This was devastating to those of us who believe��Oprah��is one of the few celebrities��who could beat��Trump in popularity, money and support. But there���s no need to cry over spilled milk. If we want to��draft a celebrity to beat Trump in 2020,��why not keep dreaming big, Hollywood-style?
Here are some A-listers who could give Trump a run for his money:
Meryl Streep
Award-winning, brilliant, gifted and arguably one of the greatest actresses to ever grace a screen.��Streep can play anyone, and I mean anyone. If Streep was cast to play Michael Jordan in��his biopic, I���d go see it. With��that level of acting skill and versatility, she���d��make an amazing president,��able to engage other world leaders like Obama did while also capturing the hearts of working-class Americans, Kennedy-style. Plus, she already has beef with Trump ��� he called her ���over-rated.��� Beating him in the general election��would be an epic��opportunity to make him eat his words.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop is America���s official weed ambassador. He smokes, he shares, he chills ��� and he���d do��the same for our country. I covered a Trump rally back in 2016 and smelled a hint of weed coming from a group of people entering the venue. That���s when I realized that marijuana is the only thing that can unite the right wing, the Clinton liberals and the progressives. Snoop Dogg can make this happen.
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen��is Oprah’s heir ��� the current queen of the daytime TV talk throne.��She’s funny, smart and has a heart of gold, and she��consistently gives to the less fortunate. Ellen would���ve��made a great running mate��for Oprah,��but if Oprah isn���t running, now is the time for Ellen to step up and claim what���s hers.��I’d vote for her in a second. She’ll proudly represent the LGBTQIA community. And I’d��love to��see her bust those pre-show dance moves as Trump and Melania are escorted out of the White House.
Rihanna
I know Rihanna, who was born and raised in Barbados, can’t be president.��But let’s dream for a second.��Rihanna represents everything that America needs now. Trump was supposed to mix things up by being anti-government ��� the big disruptor ��� but he���s just a 71-year-old rich white dude who only cares about other rich white people and tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans. What���s so new about that? Rihanna is cool,��brilliant,��a successful businesswoman��and artist, and the opposite of what the D.C. power structure looks like. She could spice things up and redefine us in a powerful way. Yes, I���d work on that campaign ��� for free.
Kanye West
If I wanted Kanye for President, I wouldn’t want��the new Kanye, but the old Kanye from “The College Dropout.” If��you see that Kanye, let me know. But for now, never mind.
The SalonTV Rewind: Catch up on the week’s best videos
While every survivor of sexual assault processes their experiences differently, actor AnnaLynne McCord told Salon���s Alyona Minkovski that for her, ���it was about my healing.�����The “Let’s Get Physical” (POP TV) actress opens up about her rape and revealed she would hug and forgive the man who raped her 10 years ago.
���It���s not about taking down powerful men, it���s not about focusing on perpetrators.��� Tarana Burke joined Salon���s Alyona Minkovski on ���Salon Talks��� and opened up about her years of work on sexual violence, the importance of shifting the narrative around what #MeToo means and the movement���s future.
He’s sold more than 100 million books but Lee Child’s success was born out of profound professional disappointment. The Jack Reacher author��joined ���Salon Talks��� to reflect on the success of his novels and the��Tom Cruise action movie franchise��based on the novels.
Salon 5
D. Watkins breaks down sexual consent: what���s acceptable and what���s not. Hear his five tips and��click here��to learn what a personal experience with catcalling taught Watkins about consent.
Salon Stage
Double-Grammy nominee Rapsody explains why rap needs a change and performs an exclusive performance off her sophomore album, “Laila’s Wisdom.”��Click here to watch more Grammy-nominee performances before Sunday’s awards.
Next Week on��SalonTV:
Monday, January 29th: 4p.m. ET/ 1p.m. PT Power 105.1’s��Angela Yee and Everyday Struggle’s Nadeska Alexis return to “Salon Talks” to recap Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Wednesday, January 31st:
– 12p.m. ET/ 9a.m. PT��Salon’s Alyona Minkovski, Andrew O’Heir and Amanda Marcotte recap the State of the Union.
– 4p.m. ET/ 1p.m. PT: Editor and publisher of��The Nation‘s Katrina vanden Heuvel,��visits “Salon Talks” to discuss the magazine’s newest issue “The Resistance Turns One.”
Tune into SalonTV’s live shows, “Salon Talks” and “Salon Stage” daily at��noon ET��/��9a.m. and 4p.m. ET��/��1p.m. PT, streaming live on��Salon,��Facebook��and��Periscope.
To see what’s coming up next week visit our SalonTV calendar��and add��the must-see segments��to your personal calendar to receive notifications.
Subscribe to the SalonTV newsletter for updates on upcoming “Salon Talks” interviews and “Salon Stage” performances.
Jemele Hill explains her sudden “SportsCenter” departure on Twitter
Jemele Hill (Credit: Getty/D Dipasupil)
Earlier today, reports were��surface��that Jemele Hill, co-host of ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” was stepping down from her position as co-anchor for the daily show.
Some speculated that the move may be connected to Hill’s statements on social media��last fall��in which she called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” and��offered other controversial tweets about��the anthem protests in the NFL. Eventually, she would be��suspended by the network.
Hill, though, has offered an official statement via her��Twitter��about today’s news. In it, she is adamant that the decision to leave��“SportsCenter” was hers.
“I asked to leave the show ��� some of y’all probably need to read that sentence again ��� because of a strong desire to return to reporting, writing, and commentary,” Hill said.
I have a few things to say … pic.twitter.com/tqEBXLajtp
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 26, 2018
It’s unclear if an official announcement was planned, but Hill’s statement confirms her departure. “Life comes at your fast, doesn’t it?” she wrote. “And while I am amused by the rumors that I was demoted, kicked off 6pm SportsCenter or whatever else can be conjured, the truth is pretty simple and not nearly as dramatic.”
Hill continued, “Not many people get to say they were a SportsCenter anchor . . . So I consider myself lucky to have worn that title, and sat in the same chair as many of the icons in our business.”
She added, “I am not leaving ESPN (some of y’all need to re-read that sentence too). I am going to work for our vertical, The Undefeated.” Indeed, Hill is only one year into a four-year deal with ESPN.
“I chose to work with The Undefeated because I respect their passion, creativity and storytelling,” Hill continued. “I have a lot of friends and people I’ve admired there for a long time. I’m honored to now be on their team.” The Undefeated is an ESPN vertical that reports, tells stories and provides commentary through the intersections of race, sports and culture.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Hill’s co-host Michael Smith will host “SportsCenter” on his own once Hill leaves the show on February 2. The publication also reported that Hill will also contribute to the networks news magazine show “E:60″ and provide commentary for a variety of ESPN programs, including “SportsCenter.”
In Hill’s statement, she acknowledged that she would contribute to “a myriad of ESPN shows. There also things I’ll be involved in that I can’t quite announce today. But let’s just say it will make this next phase of my career that much more exhilarating.”
“Anyway, I’m sorry if this isn’t sexy for some of you,” Hill concluded. “But this next chapter is going to be something else.”
Breitbart celebrates death threats against CNN
(Credit: breitbart)
Breitbart editor-at-large John Nolte wrote an��article��for the right-wing��website suggesting that the death threats CNN recently received were well-deserved.
In the article, ���CNN���s Climate of Hate Comes Home to Roost,�����Nolte��writes:
Thus far, CNN���s ever-increasing climate of hate has only brought misery, fear, and violence to others ��� to CNN���s intended victims on the political right. Last week, however, CNN got its own taste of that misery and fear.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that a Michigan man, Brandon Griesemer, made 22 calls to CNN on January 9 and 10 which contained threats. Griesemer appeared in US District Court and was charged with transmitting interstate communications with the intent to extort and threat to injure, but released on a $10,000 bond.
According to an affidavit obtained by CNN, Griesemer said, ���Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down,” and “I am on my way right now to gun the f****** CNN cast down …. I am coming to kill you.���
“I’m smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours,” Griesemer said, according the affidavit.
CNN��posted a statement on Twitter explaining that they take all threats seriously. CNN Tonight host Don Lemon spoke about the threats on the show, saying there���s nothing ���random��� about the arrest of Griesemer. Lemon argued that this is what happens when ���the president of the United States, Donald Trump, repeatedly attacks members of the press simply for reporting facts that he does not like.���
Indeed, Trump has repeatedly��tried to whip up public fervor against journalists, specifically those from outlets who routinely criticize him. The Committee to Protect Journalists criticized Trump’s rhetoric for stifling free speech.��“Targeting individual journalists or media outlets, on or offline, creates a chilling effect and fosters an environment where further harassment or even physical attack is deemed acceptable,” the Committee wrote in a recent release.
Last summer, Trump tweeted an edited GIF that depicted him body-slamming a wrestler whose head was the CNN logo. “Trump’s most recent use of Twitter to threaten his enemies at CNN with violence is part of a larger pattern,” Salon writer Chauncey DeVega wrote at the time. DeVega��continued:
Last week, Trump also��used Twitter to disparage MSNBC’s�� Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Since the presidential election last November, Trump has continued to use social media to harass, insult, denigrate and browbeat his rivals. Trump also uses Twitter as one of his primary weapons��in his fascist-style war on reality and truth. Predictably, his critics have responded with claims that Trump’s use of Twitter and other social media are embarrassing and beneath the office of the presidency.
Breitbart���s appalling article seemingly condoning such behavior is a masterclass in double-speak. Nolte��claims in his piece that he is not condoning violence, ���no matter how deliberately provocative or intentionally dishonest CNN chooses to be.” But then he blames the victim, implying��the threats against CNN are��CNN’s fault.��“It is probably not a coincidence that the threats began after an��especially provocative week of fake news��at CNN,” he wrote.
���Maybe now that CNN has provoked threats of violence against itself, Zucker and his on-air surrogates will ease up a bit on the belligerent trolling and provocations in order to adapt a New Tone that includes tolerance of outside ideas and a focus on integrity, facts, and honesty ��� as opposed to the fire hose of fake news,��� Nolte continued.
���The idea that CNN is willing to play with fire when no one wants to see anyone over there get hurt is, to say the least, a disturbing spectacle,��� Nolte concluded.
Understandably, Breitbart is one of the few “news” outlets that the president trusts.
Steve Bannon will be a tough and smart new voice at @BreitbartNews…maybe even better than ever before. Fake News needs the competition!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
Nolte has a reputation for being a noxious political personality.��On Twitter, he presents himself as a conservative who continually misses the point��on current affairs. Nolte recently��tweeted that the #MeToo movement has revealed that some women have ���lousy parents��� who didn���t teach them how to say no.
RNC silent on millions of dollars donated by Steve Wynn
Steve Wynn and Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Joe Cavaretta)
A recently-published expos����in the Wall Street Journal added��another person to the running list of men accused of sexual misconduct: billionaire Steve Wynn, casino mogul and finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The allegations are stomach-turning, and paint Wynn as an abuser who frequently took advantage of his employees and allegedly pressured��some to perform sex acts on him. In one��account, Wynn allegedly demanded a manicurist to have sex with him on his massage table, despite her telling him that she didn���t want to and she was married.
He later allegedly paid the manicurist $7.5 million in a settlement after she filed a detailed report to human resources. According to the Wall Street Journal, the��case was referenced in a separate lawsuit with his ex-wife, Elaine Wynn.
���Beyond this incident, dozens of people The Wall Street Journal interviewed who have worked at Mr. Wynn���s casinos told of behavior that cumulatively would amount to a decades long pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Wynn. Some described him pressuring employees to perform sex acts,�����the Wall Street Journal��reports.
Wynn wrote in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were ���preposterous.���
���We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation,��� he wrote. ���The instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.���
Considering Wynn���s leadership position as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, and his relationship with Trump, the fallout is more politically tinged. When news broke��in October about Harvey Weinstein’s serial sexual abuse, the GOP ridiculed Democrats who received donations from Weinstein,��requesting that they return them. “Still no word from DNC on returning all of Harvey Weinstein’s donations,” the GOP wrote on Twitter.
Still no word from DNC on returning all of Harvey Weinstein's donations…
— GOP (@GOP) October 10, 2017
Former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer posted a graphic showing Democrats who had kept donations from Weinstein.
Graphic of all @TheDemocrats who took & are keeping #HarveyWeinstein money – even more stunning is their silence h/t @gop pic.twitter.com/UUEQdEH3Gs
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 6, 2017
“If the DNC truly stands up for women like they say they do, then returning Weinstein’s dirty money should be a no-brainer,”��Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee, wrote.
If the DNC truly stands up for women like they say they do, then returning Weinstein's dirty money should be a no-brainer.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) October 6, 2017
Likewise, Wynn helped Trump raise donations for his campaign and then some. Collectively, Steve Wynn has donated��over one��million dollars to GOP candidates and causes.
Likewise,��Wynn has touted the GOP’s financial success.
“This month’s numbers show once again that Americans of all backgrounds approve of the direction our country is headed under Republican leadership,” Wynn said in October 2017. “We are grateful to our generous donors who allow us to continue to expand our Republican majorities.”
Following news about Weinstein, some Democratic lawmakers ��� like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Okla. and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. D-N.Y. ��� pledged to donate their donations from Weinstein to women���s charities. Perhaps they heard the RNC’s call.
If��Republicans do not do the same, their hypocrisy will be glaring.
Why climate change is worsening public health problems
Around the world, the health care debate often revolves around access.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, recently announced: ���All roads lead to universal health coverage.��� Discussions for how to translate this vision into a road map for action is central to the agenda of the WHO���s executive board meeting this week in Geneva.
Yet focusing on access is not enough. The imperative for access must be paired with a frank acknowledgment that climate change is making communities around the world more vulnerable to ill health. A 2017 commission of The Lancet, a leading health research journal, tracked the effects of climate change on health and found evidence of harms ���far worse that previously understood.���
Even as we move to close the access gap, a string of natural disasters in late 2017, including successive hurricanes and widespread forest fires, threaten to widen the vulnerability gap.
As a global health professional (Sosin) and a cultural anthropologist (Kivland), we have witnessed how the global exchange of health technology, expertise and aid has contributed to dramatic gains in the delivery of health care in Haiti and other settings, especially around infectious diseases. Yet climate change threatens to undermine the health gains in vulnerable communities across the globe.
As firsthand witnesses to sharp health disparities globally, we argue that world leaders need to insist that any health care strategy must address the social and environmental vulnerabilities driving poor health in the first place.
The health burden of climate change
Climate scientists argue that global warming is exacerbating extreme weather events. And natural disasters are often the source of health crises, particularly in fragile settings. Consider the case of Puerto Rico. The official death toll of the storm was estimated at 64; however, later reports have estimated that the disruption of health care services contributed to upwards of 1,052 deaths on the island.
Lagging recovery efforts have exposed how natural disasters deepen the relationship between socio-economic inequality and health disparity. In Puerto Rico, where poverty rates are double those of the poorest continental state, people already struggling with illnesses such as diabetes and kidney disease have seen their conditions worsen as the long-crumbling health care system is overwhelmed with patients and neglected by the mainland government.
The health impacts of the storms may persist even beyond the restoration of health services.
Hurricane Harvey exposed the toxic afterlife of disastrous storms. Storm damage to 40 industrial sites released chemical toxins linked to cellular damage, cancer and other long-term health problems. As The Lancet���s Commission on Pollution and Health found, air, water and soil pollution is now the leading environmental cause of death and disability, accounting for more than 9 million deaths annually. These numbers will only grow in the face of climate-induced disasters.
Restoring health care systems is vital for these communities, but it will merely treat the symptoms and not the causes of post-disaster illness. We believe that policymakers must address the link between environmental and health crises.
Haiti as case study
We have learned this lesson from our work in Haiti. Once a death sentence in rural Haiti, today HIV is largely controlled thanks to widespread access to antiretroviral therapy. The prevalence of the disease in pregnant women fell from 6 percent to just over 2 percent in the 10-year period from 1993 to 2003. Likewise, vaccines against cholera, introduced in 2015,��have proven to be up to 90 percent effective against the disease.
However, even as vaccine coverage continues to grow, the population remains at risk for cholera and other emergent threats. Only 58 percent of the population has access to safe water and only 28 percent has access to basic sanitation. These conditions worsen in the wake of natural disasters. Hurricane Mathew in 2016 triggered spikes in cholera and other waterborne diseases, especially diarrhea, the second leading cause of death among children.
Hitting the one region of Haiti that had not yet been denuded of trees and vegetation, Hurricane Matthew seemed to complete the destruction of the country���s food systems.
Since the late 1980s, the erosion of waterways, loss of habitats and destruction of agricultural land have fueled the importation of cheap, processed foods. Rice and pasta have replaced a diet once rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The high-sugar, low-nutrition foods contribute to the dual health burdens of obesity and under-nutrition.
These trends are ongoing, but they are exacerbated by the disastrous shocks of extreme weather events, which are made more likely by climate change. As Hurricane Matthew came ashore, it decimated fishing villages and tore through farming communities, killing livestock, uprooting crops and denuding backyard fruit trees. The United Nations estimated that 800,000 people suffered food shortages.
Closing the vulnerability gap
Haiti is often cast as behind the global curve. But as a reflection of the dangerous intersection of climate change, poverty and ill health, it is in fact predictive of what is to come in the rest of the world. Haiti teaches us that our own health is not bound up simply in the present decisions we make about health care systems but rather more broadly situated in the changing natural environment.
Closing the access gap has been a long battle and the gains cannot be underestimated. Yet the challenge ahead is even more daunting. Whereas increasing access has centered on extending health care technologies to underserved populations, closing the vulnerability gap will require approaches that extend beyond the health sector and national borders.
In the past year, the health care debate in the U.S. has centered on attempts to limit or expand access to care. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has left the Paris climate accord and unraveled environmental protections for national and transnational corporations ���with little resistance from health advocates. We believe that leaders must recognize that environmental policy is health policy. Rollbacks of environmental regulations will cause far greater consequences on health, in the U.S. and globally, than any health care bill.
Fixing health care systems while we undermine the environmental conditions for health are a textbook example of what Haitians describe as ���lave men, swiy�� at��” ��� washing your hands but drying them in the dirt.
Chelsey Kivland, Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth College and Anne Sosin, Global Health Initiative Program Manager, Dartmouth College
