Category: Uncategorized

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Parkland High School Shooting Activists Cover TIME Magazine “ENOUGH.”

Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Jaclyn Corin, Alex Wind, Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and David Hogg cover the latest issue of TIME Magazine standing behind the headline, “ENOUGH.”

The article, titled “The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough,” chronicles how the students’ lives have changed since the February 14 shooting that killed 17 classmates and faculty members.

An excerpt from TIME:

How a movement catches fire is always a mystery, but the Parkland kids seem matched for this moment. They’re young enough to be victimized by a school shooting, but old enough to shape the aftermath. Like many teenagers, they’re at a peculiar stage in their lives where they feel at once vulnerable and invincible, highly social yet impervious to the etiquette expected from adults. Their bombastic style mirrors President Trump’s: they call their enemies names and hurl sick burns at politicians and lobbyists as if they’re shouting across the locker room.

[snip]

They envision a youth political movement that will address many of the other issues affecting the youngest Americans. Hogg says he would like to have a youth demonstration every year on March 24, harnessing the power of teenage anger to demand action on everything from campaign-finance reform to net neutrality to climate change. But even if none of this works—even if they never pass comprehensive gun reform, and net neutrality fails, and Citizens United endures, and climate-change legislation stalls—today’s teenage rebels will become tomorrow’s establishment leaders, informed by the experience that may already be shaping the gun debate.

And that, says Hogg, is the bottom line for politicians who side with the NRA. “You’re gonna be smeared in the textbooks. Your legacy is gone,” he says. “If you don’t stand up with us now, you’ll be standing against us.”

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Facebook Ends Ad Targeting By Sexual Orientation

For years, companies that offered services of specific interest to the LGBTQ community have been able to target their advertising to that particular audience utilizing the social media giant’s “interested in” option.

But last month, Facebook quietly eliminated the ability to direct ads to folks based on sexual orientation. An exception, however, was made for dating apps to continue using that targeting option.

The change has impacted not only businesses that target the gay community, but important non-profit groups, like The Trevor Project, who offer life-saving services.

More from Buzzfeed:

Facebook stopped allowing “interested in” targeting as part of a major overhaul of its ad platform, which the company initiated after facing scrutiny from users and Congress last year. Bad actors have mercilessly exploited the platform in recent years, including Kremlin-linked trolls who used its targeting options to reach millions of Americans in an effort to divide the country during the 2016 election. And dozens of companies have used Facebook’s ad targeting options “to exclude older workers from job ads,” a recent Propublica investigation found.

Some organizations supporting the LGBT community aren’t opposed to Facebook’s move. A spokesperson for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) told BuzzFeed news that Facebook’s call to remove identity-based targeting while keeping interest-based targeting is “a fair compromise” that could prevent malicious uses of the ad platform. GLAAD, an advocacy organization, does not use the identity-based targeting, or have a need for it the way the Trevor Project does.

But Facebook’s reluctance to allow the Trevor Project to use the criteria, even as it’s made special accommodations for dating apps, has frustrated the nonprofit. It was using the targeting to promote a national mental health survey. “We have a very limited budget, and so now I have to throw money at the wind, hoping it’s going to reach the group I want to reach,” Stowell said.

Facebook says dating apps are allowed to continue using sexual orientation thanks to a “legacy requirement.” The social media company added, however, that will end at the end of April.

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Trump’s Lead Lawyer For Special Counsel Inquiry Resigns

Donald Trump

John Dowd, the lead lawyer for Donald Trump’s team of attorneys regarding the special counsel investigation, has resigned after Trump continually ignored Dowd’s legal advice, according to The New York Times.

Mr. Dowd, who took over the president’s legal team last summer, had considered leaving several times in recent months and ultimately concluded that Mr. Trump was increasingly ignoring his advice, one of the people said.

Under Mr. Dowd’s leadership, Mr. Trump’s lawyers had advised him to cooperate with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russia’s election interference and possible ties to Trump associates as well as whether the president obstructed the inquiry.

The president has instead in recent days begun publicly assailing Mr. Mueller, a shift in tone that appears to be born of the president’s concern that the investigation is bearing down on him more directly. He has also privately insisted he should sit for an interview with the special counsel’s office, even though Mr. Dowd believed it was a bad idea.

Mr. Dowd’s departure marks the most prominent shake-up for the president’s legal team since he took over from the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz.

Less than two weeks ago Trump tweeted there would be no changes to his legal team:

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Trump: “Crazy Joe Biden” Would Go Down “Fast And Hard” If We Faced Off

Donald Trump (L) and Joe Biden (R)

Earlier this week, former Vice President Joe Biden told an audience that he might have “beat the hell out of” Donald Turmp if they were in high school regarding Trump’s lewd comments about women in the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” video.

“They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him,” Biden shared with the crowd at the University of Miami.

I’m guessing Trump ate his Wheaties (although that sounds awfully healthy for him) this morning, because he was feeling a rough and tough about Biden tweeting “Crazy Joe Biden” would actually “go down fast and hard” if they actually faced off.

Biden is rumored to be considering a White House run in 2020 which is probably what really set Trump off.

I won’t even get into the “less-than-presidential” thing with Trump.

But no one trolls Trump like former White House photographer Pete Souza:

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Music Video: Francois Klark “Run”

Francois Klark live

Ahead of the release of his upcoming debut album LOVE this Spring, out Canadian singer/songwriter and producer Francois Klark recently dropped the music video for his second single, “Run,” which debuted on Spotify Canada’s “New Music Friday.”

His first song, “Spaceman,” released in August 2017 garnered a praise from music critics and over 300K streams with features on official playlists on Deezer and Spotify.

Born in South Africa, Klark brings along some of those musical influences in “Run” which results in winning tribal rhythms and harmonies along with top-shelf vocals and production.

The music video tackles a timely subject on diversity and acceptance of others. “There is validity in the pain and heartache of every human being,” Klark shared.

In the music video, directed by Yeah Films, Klark literally runs away from the pain of a personal discovery, darting through city streets.

Klark explains, “It was important for me to not only explore the more painful side of love and relationships, but also to challenge the viewer to evaluate how they perceive the validity of another person’s feelings and emotions. I therefore chose to portray a couple in a relationship that isn’t widely viewed as normal by the majority of society.

“I want to impress on the viewer that we are all part of the same human experience. The love and heartbreak that you experience is no different, no less real than someone who is different from you.”

Currently on tour across Canada with Universal Music Artist Sebell, Klark has worked on projects with Universal Music Group UK and has shared the stage with various artists including Grammy winner Jon Bellion, Ginuwine, Shawn Desman, and Karl Wolf.

“Run” is now available on all digital platforms including iTunes and Amazon.

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News Round-Up: March 21, 2018

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Handsome dog, right? The pup’s a cutie, too 😉

• The most anti-LGBTQ Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives barely eked out a win over his primary opponent in Illinois. He now faces (no exaggeration) a Republican whose a devout Neo-Nazi.

• Cell phone video shows a gay teen in Oklahoma getting his head bashed into a school locker by a bully.

• For the first time in decades the National Rifle Associations has a net negative approval rating.

• Included in the undercover recordings of Cambridge Analytica executives was one of the top ranking bosses suggesting spreading gay rumors about candidates was an effective method of bringing them down.

• Political analyst Stu Rothenberg spoke to several insiders who predict the Democrats will win between 30-45 seats in the House during the fall mid-term elections, more than the 24 seats needed to take control.

• In a somber Instagram post, insanely handsome Superman star Henry Cavill shares the news that his facial hair is, sadly, no more. #ShavedButNotForgotten

A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill) on Mar 21, 2018 at 2:10am PDT

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Trump Slaps At Critics For Congratulatory Call To Putin

Donald Trump was feeling a bit defensive this afternoon as he took to Twitter to slap at critics (and his own national security team one supposes) about his congratulatory call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his “reelection.”

Reelection, oh my sides… LOL

Trump wrote, “I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also). The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing. They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race. Bush tried to get along, but didn’t have the “smarts.” Obama and Clinton tried, but didn’t have the energy or chemistry (remember RESET). PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”

There’s no way Trump even knows what “excoriate” means…

The Twitterverse reacted:

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Breaks Silence “We Made Mistakes”

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a lengthy post on (where else?) Facebook, apologized for mistakes made by his company and outlined steps the social media giant plans to take for protect user data in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica debacle which revealed millions of users data was “harvested” for political use by folks working on behalf of the Trump campaign.

We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you. I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.

[snip]

I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community. While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn’t change what happened in the past. We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.

I want to thank all of you who continue to believe in our mission and work to build this community together. I know it takes longer to fix all these issues than we’d like, but I promise you we’ll work through this and build a better service over the long term.

After a detailed timeline of how Zuckerberg sees the Cambridge Analytica debacle, the CEO listed steps to be taken including:

• Conducting full audits of apps with suspicious activity and/or access to large amounts of data.

• Restricting developers’ data access and removing access completely for apps that you haven’t used in 3 months.

• Making it easier to know which apps you’ve actually given access to.

According to reports, Facebook’s stock has taken a $50 billion hit since news of the Cambridge Analytica saga was made public.

Folks have also noticed that Zuckerberg has sold lots of his own stock in recent weeks.