MARC STEINER: Welcome to The Real News Network. Im Marc Steiner. Good to have you all with us today.

Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has been grilled by the House Financial Services Committee pretty intensely.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Under your policy, using census data as well, could I pay to target predominantly black zip codes and advertise them the incorrect election date?

MARK ZUCKERBERG: When we roll out the census suppression policy, we will take that content down.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: So you will There is some threshold where you will fact-check political advertisements. Is that what youre telling me?

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Well, Congresswoman, yes, for specific things like that where theres imminent risk of harm, but also-

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Could I run ads targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Sorry, can you repeat that?

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal? I mean, if youre not fact-checking political advertisements, Im just trying to understand the bounds here. Whats fair game?

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, I dont know the answer to that off the top of my head. I think probably.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: So you dont know if Ill be able to do that.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: I think probably.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: One more question. In your ongoing dinner parties with far right figures, some of who advanced the conspiracy theory that white supremacy is a hoax, did you discuss so-called social media bias against conservatives? And do you believe there is a bias?

MARK ZUCKERBERG: Congresswoman, sorry, I dont remember everything that was in the question

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Thats all right. Ill move on.

MARC STEINER: That, of course, was Congresswoman AOC, out there pushing him with some really interesting questions. Shes very tenacious, its clear. Were not talking about that today though. The questions from the committee though, ranged from allowing and limiting what Facebook defined as hate speech, to data privacy and their sale of personal information, to the lack of diversity at Facebook itself, discrimination, some people argue, against people of color, another issue that needs to be explored, and why they allow lies to be told by political figures, yet monitor others. And now theyre working with the Murdoch world, in the news world, to create a new newsfeed. What will that mean?

Well, were about to talk with Timothy Karr, who is Senior Director of the Free Press, and whos been covering this, and their papers been covering it pretty intensely. And Timothy, welcome. Good to have you with us here on The Real News.

TIMOTHY KARR: Happy to be with you.

MARC STEINER: So let me begin this way. Let me begin with a quote from the Senior Policy Counsel at the Free Press, Gaurav Laroia. So he wrote: Facebooks newsworthy exemption and ad policies are broken if the company is allowing its platform to be the vector for misinformation in the lead-up to the 2020 election. The company has learned nothing from 2016, when it allowed malicious foreign actors to use the platform to influence the U.S. election. By profiting off politicians selling false statements to the public, Facebook is complicit in the erosion of our civic health, discourse, and democracy. The company should show some courage and stand up for the truth at least in its advertising policies.So lets unpack that.

TIMOTHY KARR: Sure.

MARC STEINER: Because you, in the stuff you all have been doing, you really hit this hard in your reporting. So lets talk a bit about what all that means.

TIMOTHY KARR: Sure. Well, I think central to that concern is this idea, and weve seen it all week, that Facebook is a champion of free speech, by allowing politicians to lie without recourse, is in some way a champion of free expression. Mark Zuckerberg gave a very lengthy speech at Georgetown. Hes been making the rounds at Washington D.C. repeating a lot of these themes. And one of the things that he does say is that whats most important for Facebook is that it gives everyone a voice.

But consider that this voice is not equal. Its sort of like the George Orwell quote where some people are more equal than others. In this case, politicians are given free rein to lie, to say things that are dangerous, in some cases, and dishonest, while Facebooks own community standards doesnt allow its regular users to make the same lies. So clearly, this isnt about the principles of free expression as much as it is about the politics of Washington.

And theres an interesting backdrop to all of this, is that, while Mark Zuckerberg is on this free expression tour, a lot of politicians on both the left and the right are talking about antitrust. Theyre talking about taking measures to break up Facebook. So my interpretation of this giving away or giving free rein to Donald Trump in this instance, to lie in political ads its really about currying favor with certain politicians to see that they dont pursue the other option, which is, out of anger, to push for more antitrust.

And antitrust, and Zuckerberg, himself, said a number of weeks ago that it posed an existential threat to the organization. So while theyre making a public face about championing free expression, I think, in the back rooms and the corridors of these meetings, hes really most concerned about antitrust action.

MARC STEINER: So let me talk a bit about this. I want to lead up to antitrust, because I think its a fascinating topic that has not really been gone into in depth, in terms of what it really means for the 21st century and what it would mean for this new industry that dominates our economy and our country; and the world, actually.

But one of the things you alluded to here is, when places like Facebook become the commons, become the place where people have dialogue, or become the place where people express their opinions, and its controlled by one place that can easily say no to this person that they define as hate speech, or yes to this because it gives them money, because they want to build during this political campaign, they did in 2016, apparently are doing it again in 2020. And that to me seems to be the clearest danger, especially through those of us who work in the press all the time to try to build a way to have a free expression in this country. I think therein lies a huge danger.

TIMOTHY KARR: Yeah. The problem is that Facebook and a lot of the other online platforms dont like to think of themselves as publishers. They dont want to have any liability for the third party content that goes across their network. And so, theyre in this situation where, on the one hand, theyre working with news organizations and theyre trying to make sure that content on their site isnt false or misleading, but at the other hand, they dont want to have anything to do with it. Because they know, when you have more than 2.5 billion users who, according to Zuckerberg, before Congress, are posting, he said 100 billion pieces of content a day, it is virtually impossible for a network of that scale to effectively monitor and to police the type of content that goes across its network.

So they either have this laissez-faire approach, which is like, We should let everything go, or they attempt to do something else, in this case, hire 30,000 content moderators, improve your artificial intelligence so it can flag this stuff. In either case, its very problematic. On the one hand, you certainly dont want a social network that has that much power to allow any sort of speech. There are concerns about child sexual abuse being spread via social media. Its used to sell drugs. Theres racism. Theres a whole range of bad things that have been happening via social media. So you need some controls against that.

But at the same time, do we really want Facebook and these other social networks deciding what is appropriate content and what is not appropriate content? As weve seen in the case of political ads from Donald Trump that tell lies, theyre deciding that that is appropriate. And there are a lot of questions about that. Representative Ocasio-Cortez brought that up very effectively in saying that, How do you decide whats appropriate and whats not? I mean, when does it go too far? Wheres your line? And I dont think Mark Zuckerberg gave a very good answer to that. In fact, I dont think he answered it at all.

MARC STEINER: Because maybe he cant answer it, the way they do things. I mean, when you talk about, when they had this switch in their rules and you talk about having an independent third party doing fact-checking, I mean, what does that mean? And then admitting they couldnt do it with and theyre not doing it in the way they should when it comes to putting up political ads. And I mean, that raises a lot of issues. And the 30,000 monitors monitoring everything else, who are these people? I mean, how much are they paid? Whats their profession?

TIMOTHY KARR: Right.

MARC STEINER: This is not like you have a newspaper or a public radio station and you have fact-checkers to make sure [inaudible 00:09:04] your people say things that are correct. This is something much deeper and more complex than that because of the nature of that institution.

TIMOTHY KARR: Yeah. And I think there could be an antitrust argument made there, because when you have 2.5 billion members, you have 100 billion, according to Mark Zuckerberg, 100 billion pieces of content being posted, uploaded on your various social networks in a day, you really are too big. Youre really too big to govern.

But the other issue here is the economics of Facebook. The economics of a lot of these online platforms are built on this idea that they harvest our data and then they target content to us that will most likely elicit a response. Originally, that concept, what some people called surveillance capitalism, was built around this idea of getting information on their users, so you can appropriately target ads to sell things to their users.

But its also being abused, as we learned from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, to target misinformation, to target misinformation to discourage people from voting, to spread lies about political opponents. And its raised to a level where this economic model has become unethical. It is being abused in ways that pose fundamental threats to our functioning democracy. And Facebook is not willing to change that model. You would have to basically rip up the whole organization from the roots.And so, one of the things that weve been advocating for at Free Press is: beyond Facebook, what does social media look like in a world where this kind of surveillance capitalism where people arent being treated as data points that can be sold to the highest bidder? Can we build a social media, a social network, that doesnt rely on that kind of predatory business model?

MARC STEINER: So that raises kind of the question here, before we run out of time, the whole question of monopolies and antitrust, and what that means in this 21st century, in this kind of industry. As we talked about before we started the conversation, this is not the steel mills and banks in the earlier 20th century, were talking about a much different kind of economic model that has a huge pervasive effect on society. And so, when we wrestle with the question of what that means, I mean, I think that thats something, weve only begun to touch the very surface. Its beyond what either Senator Warren or others would say, Simply break them up. What does that mean even, in this context?

TIMOTHY KARR: Well, I mean, youre looking at an industry that earns hundreds of billions of dollars every year. And most of it is through this targeted online advertising. And we think that the antidote to misinformation, the antidote to all of the negative impacts of networks like Facebook, is good, hard-hitting, independent journalism. And one of the proposals that we put forth at Free Press involves taxing online advertising to create whats called a public interest media endowment. In the United States, for example, a 2% tax on the online advertising industry, which is dominated by Facebook and Google, would generate an annual fund of $2 billion that could then support the kind of local independent journalism that, again, acts as the antidote to the type of misinformation thats being spread across these networks.

MARC STEINER: Thats a really interesting proposal. And I think that maybe the next time we have a chance to talk together, we should really probe that one in depth and talk about what these new models are for the 21st century that we have to kind of wrestle with. Because we do have to create something, a), if were going to have a democracy, b), if were going to thrive as a society. We have to come up with new ideas that fit the time were in and not just hearken to the back, that we can learn from.But it is fascinating stuff. And Timothy Karr, I really appreciate your work, and appreciate what the Free Press does, and appreciate you taking your time with us today. Look forward to more.

TIMOTHY KARR: Thank you.

MARC STEINER: And Im Marc Steiner here at The Real News Network. Please go online, let us know what you think about the controversy around Facebook, what you think about all the issues around antitrust. Wed love to hear it as we develop this series of conversations. And Im Marc Steiner here for The Real News Network. Take care.

DHARNA NOOR: Hey, yall, my name is Dharna Noor and Im a climate crisis reporter here at The Real News Network. This is a crucial moment for humanity and for the planet. So if you like what we do, please, please support us by subscribing at the link below. Thank you.

Originally posted here:
Facebook's Threat to Democracy Could Motivate Redefinition of Anti-Trust Laws - The Real News Network

The specter of NCAA discipline is doing little to dampen Bill Self's enthusiasm ahead of the 2019-20 season.

The Kansas head coach said he's instead using the situation as a catalyst to spur himself and his players on to the new year.

"Certainly, I haven't liked it," Self said, per ESPN's Myron Medcalf and Paula Lavigne. "But it's also, in a strange way, motivating me, probably, in a way that maybe I have never been, to combat this by taking care of our business on the basketball court, working with our players in a way that maybe exceeds any way I've ever done it."

Yahoo Sports reported in September the NCAA had sent a notice of allegations to Kansas.

The Jayhawks are facing a lack of institutional control charge and three Level I violations, which are the NCAA'smost significant designation.Self is facing a head coach responsibility charge as well.

The Associated Press'Dave Skrettanoted the NCAA will hold a formal hearing, at which point Kansas can present its case against the allegations. A final decision may come "within several months" of that hearing, though Kansas could appeal the ruling and drag the process on further.

The Jayhawks finished 26-10 in 2018-19 and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament.They head into this year ranked third in thepreseason AP Top 25 poll.

Kansas lost Dedric Lawson and Lagerald Vick, its top two leading scorers, but gets Udoka Azubuike and Devon Dotson back. Self also added 4-star small forwardsJalen WilsonandTristan Enaruna, with 4-star point guardDajuan Harrisredshirtingthis season.

The NCAA investigation will cast a shadow over Kansas' season, and outcome could carry significant consequences for Self. However, it wouldn't appear the situation will alter his preparation or mindset as he looks to guide the program back to the Final Four for the second time in three years.

View original post here:
Bill Self Says He's More Motivated This Season After Kansas' NCAA Investigation - Bleacher Report

Getty

Mark Twain once said, Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Cathy Heller, creator and host of the Dont Keep Your Day Job podcast, couldnt agree more. In her early twenties Heller moved to Los Angeles with a love of songwriting and a dream of landing a record deal. But just six months after she signed with Interscope Records, the label dropped her, leaving her to forge her own path in music. She did just that. After a decade spent writing music for television ad spots and shows like One Tree Hill, she started coaching fellow artists and inspiring nearly 9 million people through her motivational podcast about creative entrepreneurs.

Now, shes put pen to paper. In her new book, Dont Keep Your Day Job: How to Turn Your Passion into Your Career, out on November 12, Heller draws from her experience to show readers how they can identify their purpose and build a career around it. In this interview (which has been edited and condensed), she shares what inspired her to write the book, how to turn a passion into a career and what message she hopes readers will take away.

Stephanie Day

Samantha Todd: What inspired you to write this book?

Cathy Heller: I was shocked when the podcast started and we had such a big audience. People are so desperate for someone to pull over to the side of the road and say, I see you and the thing that you want to put out in the world does have a place. I felt like this had to be a book. This is a movement.

Everyone has a great idea. The thing that were missing is momentum. The reason we have no momentum is because we dont put it out in the world. We have to give ourselves permission to put it out in the world, to be messy about it. And then it will start to get better and better.

Todd: What inspired the title?

Heller: When someone wants to be a dancer or someone wants to play guitar, people usually say, Dont quit your day job. And so I sort of turned it around: No, dont keep your day job. The number one thing that human beings seek all the time is the feeling of I matter, I have a purpose. The day job is sort of synonymous with Im doing something I dont really like just to pay the bills, whereas the dream job feels like This is who I am, this is really me making my mark on this world and I feel seen and expressed. Thats the difference. I dont want people to feel like they have a job. I want people to feel like theyre doing their lifes work.

Todd: You start your book by writing, The opposite of depression is not happiness. The opposite of depression is purpose. Why did you decide to start your book in this way?

Heller: When I was growing up, my parents were really unhappy. My mom struggled with depression and was suicidal when I was a kid, and my dad left. My mom always dreamed of being an actress and she decided to have kids instead, so when my dad left, I think she spiraled because she had given up so much of herself.

My moms gifts were dying inside of her, and she didnt feel like anyone saw her. I think a lot of people feel invisible, and I dont think any amount of money is going to take that away. People want to feel that they contribute something to the world and that someone sees them.

That is my quest, to help people feel seen. I know what its like for people not to feel that anyone sees them, and I dont want anyone to struggle with that. I just want people to feel purpose in their day.

Cathy Heller

Todd: How can people turn their passion into their career?

Heller: Two thirds of the world dont really know what they want to do. Theres a reason we dont know: We dont give ourselves time to be messy. When you walk into a preschool classroom, every kid wants to paint. Everyone in the class has paint in their hair, paint up their nose, and they dont even notice. Theyre just happy to be creative. At some point growing up, we get rejected and decide, Im not going to try or do anything unless I know ahead of time that someone will think that its perfect. Im going to protect myself from failure. We stop experimenting, and we stop being curious.

We have to allow ourselves to get our hands messy and try things. Most people build an idea in their head. They sit and think about what they should do. They get it perfect, put it out into the world and try to convince people that they want it, but it doesnt work that way. In order to be successful in business, the first step is to get curious, to get messy. Let's open ourselves up to what were interested in. Lets find something that we love and figure out who we could make it for. If you have a talent, you should care how that talent can serve someone else.

Todd: What message do you want people to take away from your book?

Heller: I want them to take away the message that they have something they need to share with the world and that it is absolutely possible that this thing theyve always wanted to do can be a reality. One thing that I do in the book is outline four different types of creative work, because I think that as human beings we will reach for the highest branch we see. One of the reasons people dont start their own business or build their own dream job is because they dont see it as a potential path. Well, you could be a maker. You could make the bread, you could be a teacher, you could teach people how to bake bread. You could be a curator, you could create a shop for all different types of bread. Or you could be an investigator, you could have a podcast all about bread, or a book or a blog. There are so many ways to actually make those things happen and come alive. One of the other central messages in the book is: Be messy. When you do something messy with the purpose of putting this beautiful stuff in the world for someone elses pleasure and fulfillment, you will be led to the ways that you can make an amazing living serving the world in the way only you can.

Todd: Theres a belief that to be happy, you have to go to college and get a well-paying job with good benefits. What do you think about this mindset?

Heller: I actually think that system is broken. If you listen to Sir Ken Robinson, who has the number one most watched Ted Talk, about how education kills creativity, he talks about how most people at the age of 40 or 45, theyre walking from their car to the office and they just feel like theyre going to have a midlife crisis. Its because theyve been sold this lie that get good grades, get into a good school, get a good job, and youll check off all the boxes and be happy. Theyre not happy because theyre building other peoples dreams. They dont know what their dreams are. Theyre not feeling that theyre being seen. People want more fulfillment. Every person comes into the world to offer something unique.

Original post:
Dont Keep Your Day Job: Motivational Podcast Host And Author On Creating Purposeful Work - Forbes

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania Can you remember the last time politics intruded on your personal life? One of those ruptures, when whats happening Out There is so big that you feel like you have to put your own life on hold?

I can remember mine. It was October 27, 2018 my wedding day.

Hours before I was supposed to head to a farm in rural Virginia and stand under the chuppah, the traditional Jewish wedding canopy, my rabbi took me aside and quietly told me that something had happened in Pittsburgh. A shooter had entered the Tree of Life synagogue and killed 11 Jews as they prayed what we now know to be the worst mass killing of Jews in American history. I stood in my rabbis hotel room, putting on my wedding suit, transfixed by the TV while news of the massacre rolled in.

As my wife and I near our first anniversary, the American Jewish community is getting ready to mark one of the darkest days in our history. In Pittsburgh, where Ive been meeting with Jewish community members and activists to discuss the shooting and its fallout, people are still in mourning.

In Squirrel Hill, the heavily Jewish neighborhood where the attack took place, its effects are palpable. The Tree of Life synagogue is closed, the entrance blocked off by fencing and a temporary memorial. Storefronts on Murray Avenue, a major thoroughfare, are dotted with signs commemorating the attack. Its changed the whole community, Baila Cohen, a co-owner of the Squirrel Hill business Pinskers Books and Judaica, tells me.

Reflecting on the national Jewish experience, she sees psychic damage. Its a lot more vulnerable feeling now than it ever was, Cohen says, worriedly.

We have good reason to feel this way. After the Pittsburgh massacre, there were shootings at two more American synagogues: one in Poway, California, and another in Miami. Theres been an epidemic of physical assaults on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. The number of anti-Semitic incidents nationwide, ranging from violence to swastika graffiti on synagogues and on campuses, has been at historic highs for two straight years. The president of the United States broadcasts anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his Twitter feed and accuses Jews that dont support him of great disloyalty to Israel.

My conversations with Jewish leaders, scholars, and citizens reveal that many of us have been shaken to our core by these events. Traumatized by a long history of persecution, Jews are acutely aware of how vulnerable we are, given our tiny numbers. We are not close to abandoning America, but we are closer to feeling like America could abandon us.

But this fear is coupled with a renewed sense of Jewish purpose and identity, a sense of threat serving not to quiet Jews but galvanize them. In my experience, the Jews most unsettled by the year of anti-Semitic carnage have grown closer to their community as a result, becoming even more committed to their Jewish identity than they were before.

The American Jewish community is hardly monolithic and, as such, this revival has taken many forms. Im inspired by the surge in activists uniting Jewish causes with those of other marginalized American groups, a callback to the civil rights era that connects Jews not only with each other but other communities threatened by the rise of the violent far right. Ive also been frustrated with the vocal efforts by some Jews to use the post-Pittsburgh moment to push hardline defenses of Israel, or to paint a false equivalence between anti-Semitism on the American left and right.

But these divergent reactions, along with many others, speak to something deeper and unequivocally good a growing consensus on the importance of asserting oneself as a Jew in personal and public life. We are in the midst of an acute reemergence of the American Jewish self-understanding as a minority, with all the sense of insecurity and collective purpose that status entails.

At this moment, there is a core sentiment uniting anti-Zionist leftists in Brooklyn with ultra-Orthodox Trump supporters in, uh, Brooklyn: We may be scared by the rise in anti-Semitism, worried for our communities and families in a way weve never been before, but well be damned if we let it scare us out of being Jews.

Since the Pittsburgh shooting, Ive started to do some things in synagogue that Ive never done before.

In the chapel where my shul holds its Friday night services, the doors are generally kept open. Its a welcoming sign, an invitation for anyone who wishes to join us to enter. But now my eyes keep flicking toward those open doors. I feel a need to keep watch.

My mind tends to wander during prayer, and I find myself thinking less about the liturgy, my family, or the other things youre supposed to reflect on. Instead, I wonder how Id react if I spotted a shooter the best way to protect my wife, my parents, and the other people who attend services with me. Should I try to rush the shooter? Should I hide with my loved ones under the seats? Should I try to distract the killer so that more of the congregation can escape?

This isnt entirely paranoia. The week before I went on my trip to Pittsburgh, our synagogue informed the congregation by email that it had been vandalized, that hateful graffiti had been scrawled on our holy building. The police have a suspect in custody; as of right now, theres no reason to believe that were facing a specific threat of violence. Regardless, the general sense of threat lingers.

American Jews arent used to having to worry like this. The most comparable spate of attacks to the present violence came in late 1957 and 1958, when white supremacists bombed or attempted to bomb eight American synagogues. The attacks, largely targeting Southern congregations, were both retaliation for disproportionate Jewish participation in the civil rights movement and pure acts of anti-Semitic hatred.

No one died in these bombings. The most damaging explosion, which hit The Temple in Atlanta, went off around 3:30 am devastating the synagogue building but causing no casualties. But the attack on The Temple, together with the other bombings, set off a wave of panic among American Jews, a group that included many Holocaust survivors less than 15 years removed from the camps.

The Holocausts scars on our collective consciousness remain today. Those Jews who have survivors in their families (myself included) have a vivid understanding of the Shoah; our religious schools devote extensive time to ensuring that its memory is not lost. Many of us can recite the story of Weimar-era Judaism as a cautionary tale an assimilated community, well-established in German civic culture, that could not see what was coming for them until it was too late. When Americans Jews hear about attacks on our community, the gas chambers are never far from our thoughts.

We raised a generation on the Holocaust, says Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. Naturally, thats what theyre going to think about.

Now, with murderous anti-Semites attacking synagogues; the alt-right and 4chan trolling and threatening prominent Jews; and a president who declared there were very fine people among the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the sense of unease has grown into existential dread. An American Jewish Committee poll released in October found that 84 percent of American Jews believed anti-Semitism has increased a lot or somewhat in the past five years. In a separate survey from the Jewish Electoral Institute, 60 percent said President Trump bears at least some responsibility for the Pittsburgh attack.

Few think were in Weimar America, with state-sponsored murder just a few years down the road. But the fear that It Can Happen Here, that America might turn against the Jews as Europe did, cant be so easily dismissed anymore. The popular Jewish faith in America, an idealized vision of a new nation immune to European-style anti-Semitism, has been at least temporarily shaken.

When I went into the rabbinate 30 years ago, I really thought [anti-Semitism] was my fathers concern that its not going to be my concern. Boy, was I mistaken, says Rabbi David Wolpe, the senior clergyman at Los Angeless Sinai Temple.

Synagogues have been forced to beef up security; armed police patrolling holy ground is a physical manifestation of newfound Jewish precarity one that particularly unsettles those Jews of color whose relationship with the police is uneasy at best. Understanding the nature of anti-Semitism has shot to the top of the communal agenda; it has become a source of everyday fear rather than historical mourning. Deborah Lipstadt, a historian of the Holocaust at Emory University, tells me that shes used to scant attendance at her lectures. But since Pittsburgh, she says, shes never seen such crowds.

Modern Jewish life in America is premised on an unusual duality. On the one hand, we are a historically persecuted minority, imbued with a deep post-Holocaust sense of insecurity. On the other hand, the average Jew enjoys tremendous privilege in America we are typically wealthier than the average Americans, and overrepresented in nearly every prestigious career and industry. This is a testament to how safe the United States has been for us.

The Tree of Life shooting has reoriented the way many Jews see our communitys place here. We have been reminded that we are targets of persistent hatred who may never win unconditional acceptance in white Christian America.

Anti-black racism and anti-Semitism are different in all sorts of important ways. But theyre similar in one key way: Both are structural forces, written into our societys source code in ways that allow them to persist and take different forms through different historical periods.

As Jews come to grips with this reality after Pittsburgh, the current generation is looking at our synagogue doors in a way weve been fortunate to largely avoid until now: through the wary eyes of the newly persecuted.

My synagogue belongs to the Reform Jewish movement, the most popular of the three major denominations in the United States and the most theologically liberal. Reform Judaisms inclusive vision, one that emphasizes the social justice ideal of tikkun olam (repairing the world), has been evident for years in our communitys observance and politics. One of my favorite annual events is our Martin Luther King Jr. Shabbat, a joint service with local mosques and black churches that centers our three communities shared battles against oppression.

Since Trumps election, much of this activism has focused on immigration. My synagogue sponsored a refugee family to enter the United States, and it sent a contingent to a Close the Camps protest against the administrations detention policy. This sort of activity is what motivated the Pittsburgh shooter: He was a white supremacist who wrote, in a social media post explaining his motivation for the attack, that Jews were bringing in invaders that kill our people.

As such, our synagogues traditional work has taken on a particularly defiant tone in the past year. We will not be cowed by a killer; we will double down on the kind of activism that we believe our tradition requires.

We are not alone. In the past year, Jews have become even more visible in the public square, advocating at once for the rights of others and our own place in America. The renewed level of Jewish attention to our vulnerable status, to the ineradicable truth of what it means to be a historically persecuted minority is leading many Jews to rally behind one another, asserting our right to be in America in inspiring ways.

This is particularly visible among Jewish left-wing activists. The Jewish left has been growing in strength since the beginning of the Trump administration but, in the year since Pittsburgh, it seems to have quickened the pace and the specifically Jewish character of this activist work has deepened and intensified.

In leftist politics more broadly, Jews and non-Jews alike have been realizing that Jews are also being clearly targeted here, says Sophie Ellman-Golan, a New York-based organizer whos currently working on a project highlighting anti-Semitism in the GOP. Jews who have maybe been organizing, but who havent been organizing around anti-Semitism or specifically Jewish issues, all of a sudden have an increasing awareness that we need to be doing that.

Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish activist group, organized a march against President Donald Trumps visit to Pittsburgh shortly after the attack. According to Bend the Arcs internal numbers, its base of supporters (defined by email list subscribers, donors, and people who participated in its actions) grew by 60,000 in that week alone a roughly 66 percent increase.

The energy has not entirely abated, at least in Pittsburgh. On Wednesday, Bend the Arc protesters again blockaded a road and disrupted a speech President Trump was giving to a conference on fracking downtown (that this event had nothing to do with the attacks anniversary was its own kind of insult). The confrontational action reflected their anger with Trumps handling of last years shooting and rising white nationalism more broadly.

We wanted to be, specifically, defiant, Tammy Hepps, an activist arrested for participating in the road closure, explained to me over coffee at a Squirrel Hill shop after she was released. Thats how were feeling a year later.

The Jewish community is not entirely united on how to act in this moment (nor about much of anything else, for that matter). More traditional and conservative Jewish voices, including New York Times columnist and Pittsburgh native Bari Weiss, have taken an entirely different perspective. What they see as anti-Semitism on the left, exemplified by a handful of insensitive comments about Israel and its relationship with the US from Rep. Ilhan Omar, is in their view as serious a problem as anti-Semitism on the right.

For Jews like Weiss, the primary lesson after Pittsburgh is not that Jews share the same interests as other minority groups or the political left, but rather that anti-Semitism is a disease that afflicts all groups in distinctive ways. For this reason, Jews should be particularly sensitive to it among their political allies. Liberal Jews must fight the anti-Semitism on [their] own side, as Weiss puts it in her recent book, How To Fight Anti-Semitism.

I agree with part of this: Hatred of Jews should indeed be called out even when its not politically convenient, and it certainly not the exclusive province of any one faction or ideology. The situation in Britain, where 85 percent of Jews perceive high levels of anti-Semitism in the center-left Labour Party, is a testament to that disturbing reality. But the Democratic Party is not the Labour Party, and America is not Britain. In this country, left-wing anti-Semitism is a relatively marginal phenomenon compared to its right-wing twin.

Its people on the far right who are killing American Jews while they pray. An Anti-Defamation League report released last week found that 12 white supremacists have been arrested since the Pittsburgh attack for their alleged roles in terrorist plots, attacks or threats against the Jewish community specifically. There were only three arrests detailed in the report that did not involve white supremacists; none of those suspects was motivated by left-wing ideology.

Omars comments were met with harsh criticism from fellow Democrats (she eventually apologized for some of them); President Donald Trumps fevered speculations about Jewish billionaire George Soros importing non-white immigrants are echoed by much of his party. The new Jewish understanding of our minority status reflects a correct assessment, particularly among younger Jews, that there is a fundamental asymmetry in the nature of American anti-Semitism.

In some ways, the very fact of this debate that Jews are arguing so loudly about who the real threats are, and how our community should best organize in response to them is indicative of a deeper, even more encouraging Jewish truth: that Jews seem to be more deeply engaging in American life as Jews. The Pittsburgh shooters attempt to unsettle us has backfired.

Whether we will one day look back and say Pittsburgh helped to spark a revitalization movement is too early to know. But it would not be unprecedented, Sarna, the Brandeis historian, tells me. Historically, rising anti-Semitism has the paradoxical effect of strengthening Jewish identity.

Jews do not let anti-Semites set the terms for our lives. We grow closer to our tradition to show that its ours, not theirs; every Shabbat candle lit, every Jewish protest organized, is an act of defiance.

Samuel Schachner, the president of Tree of Life, was mere blocks from the synagogue, walking to services with his children, when the shooter opened fire last year. But he has spent the past year, which he calls one of the most difficult of my life, sustaining the congregation and rebuilding it.

They have held services in various houses of worship around the city, ensuring the killer couldnt put a stop to their prayer. With donor support, he plans to construct a new building to house Tree of Life and turn the old one into a center for Jewish life, including a permanent memorial to the 11 people killed last year.

The outpouring of support for his community has lifted him through the difficulty, he says. Ive never felt better as a Jewish American, he tells me.

One year ago, I was transfixed by the news of what had happened to Schachners congregation. But I could not and did not grant the Pittsburgh shooter the victory of ruining a Jewish celebration.

My most enduring Jewish memories from my wedding day will not be watching TV coverage of Pittsburgh. It will be standing under the chuppah with my wife: signing our ketubah, hearing our friends recite the seven blessings, and being lifted in chairs on the dance floor. That day, we chose to be defined by Jewish life rather than Jewish death and, too, does American Jewry as a whole.

Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers political ideology and global politics. He also hosts Worldly, Voxs podcast on foreign policy and international relations. He grew up in Washington, DC, where he currently lives with his wife and two (rescue) dogs.

Excerpt from:
The Tree of Life shooting unsettled American Jews. Then it motivated us. - Vox.com

JAMIE Mackie never comes across as someone who struggles to find motivation, but Oxford Uniteds bright start to the season has given the veteran a powerful drive to succeed.

The forward is expected to replace the suspended Matty Taylor when Rochdale visit tomorrow.

Expectations are high for the Us to extend their unbeaten run into double figures, which has helped move Karl Robinsons team into the Sky Bet League One play-off positions.

Now in his 17th campaign as a professional, Mackie has been around long enough to know nothing has been achieved yet.

Also read -Karl Robinson: Oxford United have money to spend in January

But his experience also tells him that positions like Uniteds need to be cherished, because they do not come around too often.

And having turned 34 last month, he is well aware this could represent a final shot at success.

That is my motivation, being totally honest, he said.

I definitely feel I can play next season as well and if thats on the back of a promotion and theres an opportunity to play in the Championship again it would be unbelievable.

I want to achieve something with however long Ive got left.

You never know in football, Ive had a long career and Ive loved it, but to try to earn success at the back end of my career would be a dream and its something Im striving every day to do.

Thats why Ive got so much hunger to succeed.

Also read: Anthony Forde set for return to Oxford United squad

Im delighted Ive got a platform here and a team thats got the potential to do something special this year.

Robinsons sideis centred around dynamic, young players who are developing rapidly and have bright futures in the game.

But the outfield crop are supplemented by a trio of over 30s, whose experience is helping to guide those at the other end of their careers.

Robinson treats Mackie, skipper John Mousinho and top scorer James Henry differently to the rest, but the approach appears to be working.

The gaffers brilliant with us senior players, Mackie said.

He knows that sometimes during the week we cant give the same output, but were important on a weekend.

You wouldnt want a squad full of senior players and at the same time you cant just have kids.

Also read:Oxford United's FA Cup tie selected for live television coverage

The blend seems good at the moment and we like taking on the responsibility, along with Mous who is a great club captain to have.

We take so much energy from the younger players in the squad, who are thriving at the minute, so its great to be around.

Mackie has a reputation for being a joker, but that stops when the side cross the white line.

He said: Its not like I come in and Im a really serious character, but when it comes to football Im extremely serious and train hard.

Its nothing radical that the senior players do.

You might have a bit more experience than others, so they may lean on you a bit.

We can be more of a bridge between the players and the manager.

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Jamie Mackie motivated to maximise chance of success with Oxford United - Oxford Mail

Rachel Serrell

Staff Writer

University of Wyomings KappaKappa Gamma (KKG) opens their house to the public for their annual fundraiserWingin It With Kappa in order to help support KKGs national philanthropyReading Is Fundamental (RIF).

KKG has been a sorority on campussince 1920, but this is their first Wingin It With Kappa event. Students canbring their favorite childhood book to donate and help share the gift ofreading with children in the Laramie community.

RIFs mission is to encourageand motivate young children to read, according to the UW KKGs website. Thisevent is hosted by the UW chapter in order to support that mission. RIF hopesto increase literacy and provide more books to children. The UW chaptercontinues their national philanthropy on a local level.

Our chapter has decided to makean even greater impact with Reading is Fundamentals mission to participate inBook Buddies at the UW Lab School once a month in the K-2 grade classrooms,said Katie Kelley, KKGs Public Relations Chairman and Gamma OmicronPhilanthropy Chairman.

Studentscan grab a bite to eat, play bingo and win prizes at the event. Prizes, likeChick-fil-A gift cards, will be offered every hour. The event offers two plateoptions. There is a small sorority plate, which includes five wings and oneside and the big fraternity plate, which has 15 wings and two sides. Thoseattending are encouraged to bring up to three childrens books for $1 off theirmeal per book. The proceeds and childrens books will benefit KKGs nationalphilanthropy Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).

Kelley said the chapter islooking forward to the two literacy events that KKG is hosting Nov. The eventwill be at the UW Lab School and be partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, anorganization that connects adult volunteers with children to create a mentoringnetwork.

KKG will host the event Oct. 25from 4 to 10 p.m. It will be held at the KKG House at 1604 E. Sorority Row.Food is first come and first serve with tickets.

Originally posted here:
KKG sells wings to motivate reading - The Branding Iron

Its not every day that a prominent Cabinet official is held in contempt of court. However, thats what happened on Friday, when federal judge Sallie Kim found Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in civil contempt of court, slapping her department with a $100,000 fine. Frankly, this decision is puzzling to the point of suggesting possible impropriety.

First, this same judge, Kim, callously and haphazardly touted the prospect of jailing Secretary DeVos at an earlier court date, despite the fact that its almost inconceivable that something like that would ever happen.

Heres how USA Today summed up that case:

The furor stems from a case involving the now-defunct Corinthian College, a for-profit college that closed in 2015. The U.S. Department of Education had been ordered to stop collecting on the federal loans of students who attended the school. But the department disclosed it had continued to garnish wages and seize tax returns of hundreds of borrowers. Others had erroneously paid money toward the loans when they didn't have to.

Heres the bottom line: The Department of Education made a mistake and failed to comply with the judges order. However, by Oct. 21, at least 99% of affected borrowers who had overpaid had been compensated, and this week theyve attempted to address every last situation. An Education Department official explained their efforts to remedy the problem in a video posted to Twitter.

Yet Judge Kim still chose to hold DeVos in contempt of court on Thursday, despite the department and secretary having already made clear, good-faith efforts to right the situation. This is baffling.

A cursory look at the judges past raises an eyebrow, for sure. Judge Kim was appointed by former President Barack Obama, and from 2013 to 2014, worked as a Title IX coordinator at Stanford University. Notably, Secretary DeVos has proposed numerous reforms to Title IX that run deeply against the grain of what most left-leaning university administrators support.

Lets be clear: Theres no smoking gun indicating that the judge has it in for Betsy DeVos. But its hard to imagine any other reason she would take such a drastic step against a prominent Trump official.

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Was the judge that held Betsy DeVos in contempt of court politically-motivated? - Washington Examiner

Theres nothing like sage advice from a football veteran to motivate a youthful team before a big game. The Bangor Rams used such words of wisdom Friday night to build their longest winning streak in five years.

Coach Dave Morris club received a pregame speech from former Bangor coach Gabby Price before its matchup against Sanford at Cameron Stadium. And that guidance served the Rams well as they posted a 24-12 Class A victory over the Spartans.

[Price] said everything right. He hit us right where were at being a good teammate, playing with passion, being accountable, said Morris, who played three years at Bangor under Price from 1982 through 1984.

Price was Bangors head coach from 1976 to 1984 and led the program again from 1992 to 2000. More recently he was the head coach at Husson University in Bangor before retiring after the 2018 season.

The biggest thing he told our guys which motivated us was to go get them right away because youve got a team coming up 175 miles, and our guys did that, Morris said of Prices pregame advice.

After road victories at Skowhegan and Edward Little of Auburn, the win over Sanford gives 4-3 Bangor its longest winning streak since the program won its first four games of the 2014 season.

That team went on to post a 6-4 record, falling to Cheverus of Portland in the Class A North semifinals.

Times have been tough since then. In 2015, the Rams finished 3-7 and that was followed by 0-8 records in 2016 and 2017. Last fall, Bangor wound up 1-8 after a 33-14 quarterfinal loss at Cheverus.

We played our best game last year at Cheverus, and we came back this year wanting to play our best game every week, Bangor senior captain Bryce Henaire said.

Creating a positive environment among a youthful roster has been a key dynamic, he said.

We cant get rattled when things get tough because when adversity hits youve just got to hit back harder. Thats what we did [against Sanford], he added.

Bangor followed Prices advice and built a 14-0 second-quarter lead against Sanford. The Spartans pulled within 14-6, only to have Bangor extend its advantage back to two possessions early in the fourth quarter.

Sanford drew within 17-12 three minutes later, but the Spartans two-point conversion attempt failed and Bangor drove 58 yards for an insurance touchdown with 1:36 remaining.

I just felt like we took some really positive steps forward, both mentally and in terms of the game of football, Morris said. We really chewed the clock up and kept the ball, and at the same time we scored when we needed to score.

The Rams also exhibited statistical balance, with Joey Morrison rushing for 119 yards, Max Clark completing 11 of 20 passes for 151 yards and Bangors defense limiting Sanford to 166 yards of offense.

I thought our quarterback had a heck of a game, Morris said. He was very patient and made some big plays when it looked like there could have been some sacks.

Bangors winning streak faces a huge challenge Friday at perennial Class A powerhouse Bonny Eagle of Standish (6-1), which is ranked No. 2 in the division.

The Rams regular-season finale follows Nov. 1 at home against Oxford Hills (3-3), which is fifth in the eight-school statewide Class A ranks, 1 1/2 Crabtree Points ahead of sixth-place Bangor.

Then come the playoffs.

Henaire, for one, is getting used to winning football after experiencing just one victory during his first three years at Bangor.

We knew [Sanford] was better than the teams we had already beaten, but that didnt matter, he said. We focused on this week, we got our game plan together and executed it in practice and on the field.

It was a dogfight the whole game but we love dogfights.

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Voice from the past helps motivate Bangor football team to longest win streak in 5 years - Bangor Daily News

Tim Cook says he was motivated to come out as gay after receiving letters from children struggling with their sexual orientation.

The usually private Apple CEO publicly came out in 2014, revealing his sexual orientation in an open letter published in Bloomberg Businessweek. This made him the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

In an interview with People en Espaol published Thursday, the 58-year-old spoke about a range of topics related to sexual orientation and young people.

Discussing his 2014 coming out, he said: "What was driving me was [that] I was getting notes from kids who were struggling with their sexual orientation. They were depressed. Some said [they] had suicidal thoughts. Some had been banished by their own parents and family.

"It weighed on me in terms of what I could do," he continued. "Obviously I couldn't talk to each one individually that reached out, but you always know if you have people reaching out to you that there's many more that don't, that are just out there wondering whether they have a future or not, wondering whether life gets better From there I really decided."

Though Cook said he "didn't worry" about how Apple staff would react to his coming out, he did acknowledge worrying about the reaction "outside of Apple," and noted that "the world is still not friendly to gay or trans people in many countries but also within our country."

In a direct message to kids struggling with their sexual orientation, he said that "life gets better, that you can have a great life filled with joy." He continued: "Gay is not a limitation. It's a characteristic that I hope they view, like I do, that it's God's greatest gift."

Cook added that being gay gave him a lens into how other people think and feel. "I'm not saying that I understand the trials and tribulations of every minority group, because I don't," he said. "But I do understand for one of the groups. And to the degree that it helps give you a lens on how other people may feel, I think that's a gift in and of itself."

Cook's comments come at a challenging time for Apple and Cook, with the Apple CEO accused of pandering to Chinese state demands.

Earlier this month, Apple removed an app from its App Store that let Hong Kong residents track police movements, with the app having received heavy criticism in Chinese state media the previous day.

Cook and Apple drew heavy criticism from US lawmakers including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In a memo sent to Apple employees first obtained by Bloomberg, Cook defended his decision on the grounds that the app was being used to "maliciously target individual officers for violence."

More recently, Cook accepted a chairman role at a prestigious Chinese university whose board members also include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook said he decided to come out as gay after reading letters from kids struggling with their identity - Business Insider

Smriti Irani's recent Instagram story has the best advice Photo: Instagram/ Smriti Irani

Bharatiya Janata Party minister, Smriti Irani is the social media queen and there is no denying that. The minister knows how to use her social media accounts to the T.

The 43-year-old minister is known for her Instagram game. Smriti Irani keeps sharing adorable pictures of her family with heartwarming captions, she is also one of the best memers on the app and at times she also gives out some great advice.

Her recent Instagram story is exactly that, a great advice. She shared an image of a minion with the text, "Confidence doesn't come when you have all the answers. But it comes when you are ready to face all the questions."

Smriti Irani's recent Instagram story has the best advice Photo: Instagram/ Smriti Irani

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. The minister shared the story with loved up emoticons.

Smriti Irani is the youngest minister in the Modi government. The Textile Minister of India is also the Minister for Women and Child Development.

Smriti Irani became a household name after she starred in the hit TV show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi that ran for a span of 8 years. The minister played the lead character, Tulsi in the show.

ALSO READ | Smriti Irani posts emotional message for son Zohr's 18th birthday. His comment takes the cake

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Smriti Irani's Instagram story is the best Friday motivation and it is all about building confidence - India Today