Category: Politics

Celtics legend Bill Russell continues criticism of Trump on Twitter

Legendary Boston Celtics center Bill Russell continued his scathing criticism of president Trump on Twitter.

It’s probably safe to say legendary Boston Celtics big man Bill Russell won’t be accepting any invitations to the White House any time soon.

The Celtics luminary continued his scathing critiques of Donald Trump on Twitter for the president’s claims that he has “done more for the Black community than any other president.”

Already incensed by Trump’s handling of the civil unrest stemming from the killing of George Floyd, the lifelong civil rights activist launched a new volley of tweets in response to the chief executives claims on race relations.

“@realDonaldTrump says he’s done more for Blacks than any other President. Here’s a few – Central Park 5, He suggested shooting protesters & sic dogs on them, using the military to move #BlackLivesMatter protesters for a photo op,” wrote Russell. “Let’s not forget we are ‘Those sons a [expletive].'”

The reference to the Central Park Five addresses a full-page ad Trump took out in the New York Daily News calling for the death penalty for five African American teenagers who were accused of raping a white woman in central park in 1989.

Who were later acquitted when another man admitted his guilt, with corroborating DNA evidence.

The ‘sons of [expletive]’ quote refers to a divisive comment made by Trump regarding NFL players kneeling in protest of the same police brutality people across the country and world are protesting now.

Russell closed with another tweet encouraging people to vote, sharing a link to a site helping people register.

“[Trump] said #GeorgeFloyd was having a good day. [The president is] holding a rally on #JUNETEENTH a very important day for African Americans. This is a fraction of what he has done. This president is divisive & a coward get registered to #Vote & let your voice be heard.”

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The spamming of police and right-wing hashtags by K-pop stans, explained

Explaining the bizarre deployment of K-pop stans, who are overwhelming pro-police and right wing hashtags.

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world.

This week we saw massive protests across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis sustained pressure to Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has now been arrested on third-degree murder charges.

One of the more bizarre subplots of the week has been the activation of K-pop stans on the internet for progressive causes during the protests. The story is very of the internet and a bit confusing even for people who spend Way Too Much Time Online, so we’re here to explain it all for you.

Let’s dive in:

OK, so who is involved here?

K-pop stans.

What is K-pop? And actually, uh, what are stans?

K-pop is shorthand for a genre of popular music based in South Korea. Stans = devoted fans. The name which is derived in part from an Eminem song about a fan who crosses the line into obsession.

K-pop stans are devoted fans of pop bands in the genre such as BTS or BLACKPINK.

K-pop stans have gotten known in internet circles for peculiar, some might argue aggressive ways of expressing their extreme fandom. One way they show their devotion to these bands is by taking over hashtags and posting dozens, if not hundreds, of videos and GIFs of the bands, even if the hashtag is completely unrelated to the band itself, or even K-pop generally.

Got it. What does any of this have to do with the protests?

Some members of the K-pop community have basically chosen to weaponize their intense, collective fan power to overwhelm hashtags that are typically reserved for content that is either pro-police or pro-right wing.

They’ve also started inundating apps that were built by police departments to allow citizens to report crimes.

What do you mean by “overwhelm” and “inundate?”

Basically, a hashtag is only as effective as the content that is organized under it. We saw unintended consequences of that very this this week with the #BlackoutTuesday movement that saw the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, which normally serves as a way for protestors to communicate and share information, overwhelmed with all black squares. Anyone who usually used the hashtag to keep informed on the movement couldn’t use it — there were just black squares everywhere.

K-pop fans have taken that power to the other side. Hashtags or apps that authorities may try to use to track protestors is now unusable, as it’s just packed to the gills with videos of Korean pop stars or memes.

Where have they deployed their spamming?

One place they activated was against the Kirkland, Washington police department, which asked users to use the hashtag #calmkirkland to report incidents “related to public rioting or looting.”

This is just a glimpse at posts tagged with the #calmkirkland hashtag on Wednesday morning:

K-pop fans have also inundated the #bluelivesmatter hashtag, as well as an online portal the Grand Rapids police department set up to report picture or video evidence of “unrest.”

This all seems very complicated and confusing.

Welcome to 2020!

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Steve Kerr, Eric Reid join chorus calling out VP Mike Pence over protest tweet

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. How do you have the gall to say this?”

On Friday, as protests erupted around the country following the killing of George Floyd, Vice President Mike Pence sent out a tweet decrying the protests. But he followed it with a tweet that said, in part: “We will always stand for the right of Americans to peacefully protest and let their voices be heard.”

As many sports fans quickly pointed out, however, Pence had very memorably and very famously not stood for the right for Americans to peacefully protest, when he walked out of an NFL game in 2017 after players kneeled during the playing of the national anthem. In what was pretty clearly a publicity stunt, Pence had done the opposite of what he was now saying in a tweet he was committed to doing.

Sports fans called him out quickly, en masse. And now some bigger names have gotten involved.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called out Pence in a quote tweet, asking how he had “the gall” to say what he did.

NFL safety Eric Reid, currently a free agent, also called out Pence.

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Watch Killer Mike give stirring speech on protests after killing of George Floyd

LeBron James shared the speech, calling it a “mandatory listen.”

Rapper and activist Killer Mike spoke during a press conference on Friday night while protestors took to the streets of Atlanta over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer put his knee into his neck for over eight minutes.

In the speech, Killer Mike first started by trying to put the riots into historical perspective, and empathize with the people who had taken to the streets. Citing hundreds of years of American policy which defined black people as less than their white counterparts, he makes clear that it wasn’t one isolated incident that brought us to where we are today.

To finish, he then pleaded with Atlantans to return home, and get to work on enabling systemic change.

LeBron James also shared the speech, calling it a “mandatory listen.”

Watch the entire speech here:

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The morning after protests, communities come together to clean up streets

In the morning after nationwide protests, communities came together to grab trash bags and clean up their streets.

It seems a bit silly to write about sports this morning. Last night protests were held across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. That officer, Derek Chauvin, has now been arrested on charges of third-degree murder.

Protests were held in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Detroit, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, and many more. Most were peaceful; some turned violent. In some cities, property was destroyed, an expression of frustration over a system that feels helplessly broken, and rage with people in power who resist systemic change.

But after these communities expressed that anger and frustration on Friday night, many came together Saturday morning to clean up their neighborhoods.

It’s not new, today. This was from yesterday, in Minneapolis:

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Trump’s executive order on social media platforms, explained

Understanding the executive order that was sent out about social media platforms.

Welcome to FTW Explains: a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. This isn’t really a sports story but as denizens of the internet we feel this applies to us, and want to break it down for you. 

On Wednesday evening the White House announced cryptically that they would be releasing a new executive order targeting social media platforms. On Thursday, the order came out, and … it was a bit confusing.

So let’s get to the bottom of the executive order issued by President Donald Trump, which on its surface appears to be an order for agencies to look into the possibility of these companies being held legally responsible for content posted to their platforms, but is much more likely about a personal feud Trump has with Twitter.

Yeah. It’s a lot. Let’s answer your questions.

So, this is embarrassing, but: What’s an executive order?

Not embarrassing at all! Glad you asked. An executive order is a directive issued by the President of the United States. It’s a power given to him by the Constitution as the overseer of the federal government. It’s not quite a law, as it doesn’t have the approval of Congress, but it is enforceable, and can be overturned by a judge.

OK, got it. What’s this particular executive order about?

It’s about social media platforms. Trump claimed the order would be a “big action” and some wondered if he would try to shut down social media platforms for not, in his mind, giving equal treatment to conservative voices (or, more importantly, himself).

It didn’t turn out to be that.

So what is it?

In essence, the order would limit legal protections for social media platforms if they don’t adhere to standards of neutrality.

What are “standards of neutrality?”

Unclear. The order doesn’t really specify. They’re just supposed to be generally fair, to the President, one would sort of have to assume.

Why do these companies need legal protections?

So, this all stems from definitions of “platforms” vs. “publishers.” Social media companies have long maintained that they are platforms, i.e. just a space where free ideas can flow.

This would mean that they are NOT responsible for anything posted on their platform. If they were defined as a “publisher,” it would certainly be different.

Basically: Right now, if someone uses Facebook to, say, libel someone, the person posting could get sued for libel, but not Facebook. Trump’s executive order aimed to weaken those legal protections, by having agencies look at whether platforms could be sued for content posted on their site.

How is that even enforceable?

Basically, it’s not. It’s Trump commanding people to look into something. But it’s pretty clearly a shot across the bow of social media companies, by threatening a legal protection they’ve existed under for their entire existence. If Facebook or Twitter can be sued for anything posted on their platforms, they’d be sued nonstop.

So what’s this actually about?

It sure seems to be about Trump being mad at Twitter. The company made the controversial call this week to start issuing fact checks or labeling warnings on certain tweets from the president. The platform isn’t deleting the tweets, but it is putting notes above them explaining why the President is lying or, in a tweet early Thursday morning, “glorifying violence.”

This ticked off Trump mightily, and shortly thereafter the order came. The executive order mentions Twitter numerous times, despite Facebook and YouTube being larger platforms.

How will this end?

Eh, who knows? Most likely it will be forgotten and moved on from, unless someone in the U.S. government decides to make the case that social media companies can be held legally responsible for the content published to their platforms, in which case, I can’t even wrap my head around the litigation that would happen there.

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Charles Barkley reportedly says ‘I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you’ to female reporter

There is an unfortunate pattern of behavior for Barkley here, though he insists his comments were made as a joke.

On Tuesday night, Axios reporter Alexi McCammond tweeted out that former NBA star Charles Barkley told her that “I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you.”

McCammond said Barkley’s comments came after she asked about clarification for which candidate he was supporting in the 2020 Democratic primary.

She says Barkley spoke glowingly about Deval Patrick, but then a member of Pete Buttigieg’s campaign approached the group. When Barkley then said he was a fan of Buttigieg, McCammond pointed out that he had just voiced his support for Patrick. He then made the comment to her.

McCammond also said the comments had been made off the record, an agreement she would normally respect were it not for the nature of those comments.

UPDATE: Barkley has apologized for the comment.

As many online pundits pointed out, Barkley has a troubling history of comments made about violence toward women. Most were couched as jokes, but it’s still a worrying thing that he hasn’t seemed to learn a lesson about this.

McCammond concluded by saying she didn’t like being a part of the story.

“It’s not about me or my feelings,” she tweeted. “But it’s about refusing to allow this culture to perpetuate because of silence on these issues. It’s easier and less awkward to be silent, but that helps NO ONE but the perpetrator.”