REST IN POWER
Calgary theatre community is mourning the loss of award-winning winning Calgary playwright Sharon Pollock dead at 85
Duration: 01:50
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
NBA Players Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Win at Oscars for Short Film About Police Brutality
Jason Duaine Hahn
4/26/2021
Brooklyn Nets player Kevin Durant and Mike Conley of the Utah Jazz were part of a team of executive producers of Two Distant Strangers, a short film about policy brutality that won big at the 93rd Academy Awards.
The film, directed by Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, took home the honors for Best Live-Action Short on Sunday night. It follows Black cartoonist Carter James, who is killed by police while walking home after sleeping over with a date.
After James is killed, he ends up back where he started that morning, only to relive the day's events again and again in a time loop.
"From the minute we saw the script for this project, we knew it had the potential to be very powerful and we wanted to be involved," Durant told Slam Magazine earlier this year. "Getting to see it come to life on the screen was an intense experience."
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"I also had the opportunity to screen it for my teammates and coaches at the Nets, and I think everyone came away with the same feeling that I did that the film is telling a really important story about the Black experience, but in a way that is real and raw and not at all preachy," Durant added.
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty; Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Two Distant Strangers is a short film about policy brutality that won at Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night
RELATED: LeBron James Says He's 'Honored' After Being Named TIME's Athlete of the Year
The film stars rapper Joey Bada$$, Andrew Howard and Zaria Simone.
After Two Distant Strangers won the Oscar, Durant reacted on Twitter, writing "Big time!" in a post.
Conley told Slam in February of the film, "I think that's huge to kind of show that visually for the general public and people to [help them] understand what my uncles and my grandparents taught me, like sometimes when you get pulled over you just pray, man."
"There's nothing you can do sometimes [but] just pray that everything comes out right like you can show your identity you can do everything you want to do in the right manner and still get shot or have something come out of that," Conley continued. "So it's just, it was a great way of portraying it and allowing I think all of us to kind of exhale a little bit that we have this film to be able to show all those examples."
Durant and Conley may be able to celebrate the win on the basketball court later this year — the Nets and Jazz are currently the top seeds in the Eastern and Western conferences and look to be favorites to meet in the NBA Finals in July.
RELATED: LeBron James Says He's 'Honored' After Being Named TIME's Athlete of the Year
The film stars rapper Joey Bada$$, Andrew Howard and Zaria Simone.
After Two Distant Strangers won the Oscar, Durant reacted on Twitter, writing "Big time!" in a post.
Conley told Slam in February of the film, "I think that's huge to kind of show that visually for the general public and people to [help them] understand what my uncles and my grandparents taught me, like sometimes when you get pulled over you just pray, man."
"There's nothing you can do sometimes [but] just pray that everything comes out right like you can show your identity you can do everything you want to do in the right manner and still get shot or have something come out of that," Conley continued. "So it's just, it was a great way of portraying it and allowing I think all of us to kind of exhale a little bit that we have this film to be able to show all those examples."
Durant and Conley may be able to celebrate the win on the basketball court later this year — the Nets and Jazz are currently the top seeds in the Eastern and Western conferences and look to be favorites to meet in the NBA Finals in July.
Ronnie James Dio’s Black Sabbath Years to Serve as Focus of New Book
Kory Grow
ROLLING STONE
4/26/2021
© Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
A new book, Sabbath: The Dio Years, will offer a deeper look at singer Ronnie James Dio’s tenure with Black Sabbath.
The coffee table tome will cover the vocalist’s full experience with the musicians, from joining the band before the Heaven and Hell album in 1979 to his period in the rebranded Heaven and Hell band, up until his death. It runs more than 400 pages, according to Classic Rock. The book, which features new interviews with guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler, is scheduled to start shipping in early September.
A new book, Sabbath: The Dio Years, will offer a deeper look at singer Ronnie James Dio’s tenure with Black Sabbath.
The coffee table tome will cover the vocalist’s full experience with the musicians, from joining the band before the Heaven and Hell album in 1979 to his period in the rebranded Heaven and Hell band, up until his death. It runs more than 400 pages, according to Classic Rock. The book, which features new interviews with guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler, is scheduled to start shipping in early September.
More from Rolling Stone
Bassist Rudy Sarzo on His Years With Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, and Dio
“I first met Ronnie at our rehearsal house in Beverley Hills,” Butler said in a statement. “He arrived in this massive brown Cadillac that looked too big for him to drive. He seemed pleasant enough, but when he started singing I was blown away — so much power in such a diminutive stature. He quickly got to work on some of the ideas we had and turned them into songs for what would become the Heaven and Hell album.”
The publisher, Rufus, made the book with the full cooperation of the band. It features many images that have never been printed before and pictures of rare memorabilia. Among its many photos, there is a selection from the archives of Dio’s widow, Wendy Dio.
Iommi and Butler recently looked back on their time with Dio in an interview with Rolling Stone. In it, the bassist explained how he and Dio became close over the years. “We used to argue like husband and wife,” he said. “We would really go at it. And it’s hard to find people like that that you can really, really s***, and then the next day go and have a drink with them. It’s like being back in my family again, like the Irish family. Ronnie was totally outspoken. You always knew where you were with him, that’s for sure. And that we used to argue and stuff, and then make up and be best friends. And we were best friends when he passed away. I still go to his grave every year.”
HE CREATED SIXTIES TV CULTURE
Bernie Kahn Dies: Prolific Writer-Producer For ‘Get Smart’, ‘Bewitched’ & More Was 90
© Personal Courtesy
Bernie Kahn, a comedy writer-producer who penned more than 100 episodes of television including Bewitched, The Addams Family, Get Smart and Three’s Company, died April 21 at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California. He was 90.
A spokesperson for his family confirmed the death.
Born on April 26, 1930, in Brooklyn, he began his showbiz career after a stint in the U.S. Army. His first job as a producer and writer was at NBC’s Monitor Radio. He later would join the Bob and Ray comedy radio show as a staff writer and was its last surviving original scribe. He also worked on a number of popular TV game shows in the early 1960s, including NBC’s Your First Impression, but the bulk of his work would be in sitcoms.
Over the years, he wrote for such series as Get Smart, Maude, The Addams Family, The Love Boat, Tabitha, Three’s Company, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Partridge Family, The Lucy Show, Love American Style, James at 15 and more than a dozen episodes of Bewitched.
He also created the sitcom Joe & Valerie, which aired on NBC in 1978-79.
On the feature side, Kahn wrote The Barefoot Executive and Basic Training, while producing movies for television, including She Led Two Lives, Father & Son: Dangerous Relations and Fire in the Dark.
He earned two Writers Guild Award nominations for Get Smart! and My World and Welcome to It.
Kahn was also an accomplished swimmer, winning city and state championships in New York and later representing the United States overseas at the Maccabiah Games, where he won the 100 meter backstroke race and set a record that lasted for a decade. He went on to represent the U.S. again at the Pan American Games in Argentina, winning a bronze medal, and was inducted into the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Kahn is survived by his wife, Elinor Berger; three daughters; two step-children; and five grandchildren. A memorial is being planned—a date has not yet been set—in Los Angeles. Donations in his memory can be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund by clicking here.
Bernie Kahn, a comedy writer-producer who penned more than 100 episodes of television including Bewitched, The Addams Family, Get Smart and Three’s Company, died April 21 at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California. He was 90.
A spokesperson for his family confirmed the death.
Born on April 26, 1930, in Brooklyn, he began his showbiz career after a stint in the U.S. Army. His first job as a producer and writer was at NBC’s Monitor Radio. He later would join the Bob and Ray comedy radio show as a staff writer and was its last surviving original scribe. He also worked on a number of popular TV game shows in the early 1960s, including NBC’s Your First Impression, but the bulk of his work would be in sitcoms.
Over the years, he wrote for such series as Get Smart, Maude, The Addams Family, The Love Boat, Tabitha, Three’s Company, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Partridge Family, The Lucy Show, Love American Style, James at 15 and more than a dozen episodes of Bewitched.
He also created the sitcom Joe & Valerie, which aired on NBC in 1978-79.
On the feature side, Kahn wrote The Barefoot Executive and Basic Training, while producing movies for television, including She Led Two Lives, Father & Son: Dangerous Relations and Fire in the Dark.
He earned two Writers Guild Award nominations for Get Smart! and My World and Welcome to It.
Kahn was also an accomplished swimmer, winning city and state championships in New York and later representing the United States overseas at the Maccabiah Games, where he won the 100 meter backstroke race and set a record that lasted for a decade. He went on to represent the U.S. again at the Pan American Games in Argentina, winning a bronze medal, and was inducted into the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Kahn is survived by his wife, Elinor Berger; three daughters; two step-children; and five grandchildren. A memorial is being planned—a date has not yet been set—in Los Angeles. Donations in his memory can be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund by clicking here.
BOOK REVIEW
The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health - and How We Must Adapt
• By Sinan Aral
• HarperCollins • 390pp • ISBN: 978-0-00-827711-6 •
Ten years ago, Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, issued a warning: the vast piles of data being collected and the techniques being developed by the advertising industry would open the way for a highly discriminatory society and political manipulation. Then came 2016, Cambridge Analytica, the EU referendum vote, and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, all of which led to the close scrutiny of platform manipulation.
In The Hype Machine, MIT professor Sinan Aral examines the growth of the "social media industrial complex" -- the 'hype machine' of the title -- and considers what we should do about the many problems it has brought: widespread false news, threats to election integrity, harmful speech, and concentrated power exercised in inscrutable ways.
Aral brings multiple perspectives to his subject, beginning with a PhD dissertation he began in 2001, choosing as his subject the newly forming digital social networks, and continuing through entrepreneurship, consultancy, venture capital, and more academia. At MIT, he leads the Initiative on the Digital Economy, where he recently organised a social media summit that featured the same broad topics he considers in this book.
The Hype Machine, like many of the latest generation of technology books, does not huddle in the US. Aral's story starts, for example, with the 2014 Russian takeover of Crimea. His lab, which was studying how fake news spreads online, found its interest piqued by spikes showing Russia's use of social media to control perception within Ukraine. From this and other research Aral derives the Hype Loop -- a description of the machine-human interaction that sits between the network substrate and the medium we use (mostly smartphones). In that rendering, the feedback loop of the hype machine acts as amplifier and manipulator.
Ten years ago, Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy, issued a warning: the vast piles of data being collected and the techniques being developed by the advertising industry would open the way for a highly discriminatory society and political manipulation. Then came 2016, Cambridge Analytica, the EU referendum vote, and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, all of which led to the close scrutiny of platform manipulation.
In The Hype Machine, MIT professor Sinan Aral examines the growth of the "social media industrial complex" -- the 'hype machine' of the title -- and considers what we should do about the many problems it has brought: widespread false news, threats to election integrity, harmful speech, and concentrated power exercised in inscrutable ways.
Aral brings multiple perspectives to his subject, beginning with a PhD dissertation he began in 2001, choosing as his subject the newly forming digital social networks, and continuing through entrepreneurship, consultancy, venture capital, and more academia. At MIT, he leads the Initiative on the Digital Economy, where he recently organised a social media summit that featured the same broad topics he considers in this book.
The Hype Machine, like many of the latest generation of technology books, does not huddle in the US. Aral's story starts, for example, with the 2014 Russian takeover of Crimea. His lab, which was studying how fake news spreads online, found its interest piqued by spikes showing Russia's use of social media to control perception within Ukraine. From this and other research Aral derives the Hype Loop -- a description of the machine-human interaction that sits between the network substrate and the medium we use (mostly smartphones). In that rendering, the feedback loop of the hype machine acts as amplifier and manipulator.
Aral identifies four levers for controlling such systems: money, code, norms, and laws (in 1996, Lawrence Lessig had these as market, system architecture, norms, and laws in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace). He then goes on to discuss how and why these social networks work, based on his formal study.
Forcing change
Aral's final section, which discusses how to force change, rejects many currently popular approaches. He calls breaking up Facebook "like putting a bandaid on a tumor", and appears unhappy with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which he says is blocking medical research because European countries are legally barred from sharing data such as DNA samples with US organisations. While we might say there's an easy fix if the US cares to take it, he contends that GDPR can be weaponised to interfere with the public's right to know, citing a Romanian government action against journalists who exposed massive election fraud.
Aral's preferred approach is to mandate interoperability and data portability, find a middle path for the US between China's surveillance state and the EU's data protection, and, most of all, set up a national commission on technology and democracy to include scientists, industry representatives, and policy makers. Such a group will need broader representation than that, but it's a start.
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© Provided by ZDNet
Companies are aiming for 'zero emissions' — but few are clear on what that means
Leticia Miranda
NBC NEWS
4/26/2021
After President Joe Biden took office, corporate America rushed to put out statements boasting of a newly robust commitment to climate change, from going "net zero" to becoming "carbon neutral" — but with no government oversight of these terms, experts say many of these pledges could risk falling short of legitimate change.
© Provided by NBC News
In the weeks immediately following the inauguration, Wall Street titans including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley announced "net zero" greenhouse gas emissions goals by 2030 and 2050. Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell doubled down on its previous goal; and BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, said its portfolio companies would need to show how they plan to reach net zero by 2050.
While these commitments represent a welcome shift toward corporate action in the face of the growing climate crisis, goals such as “net zero” and “carbon neutral” mean very little when they don’t reduce emissions released by companies in the first place, according to Joeri Rogelj, director of climate change research at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.
After President Joe Biden took office, corporate America rushed to put out statements boasting of a newly robust commitment to climate change, from going "net zero" to becoming "carbon neutral" — but with no government oversight of these terms, experts say many of these pledges could risk falling short of legitimate change.
© Provided by NBC NewsIn the weeks immediately following the inauguration, Wall Street titans including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley announced "net zero" greenhouse gas emissions goals by 2030 and 2050. Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell doubled down on its previous goal; and BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, said its portfolio companies would need to show how they plan to reach net zero by 2050.
While these commitments represent a welcome shift toward corporate action in the face of the growing climate crisis, goals such as “net zero” and “carbon neutral” mean very little when they don’t reduce emissions released by companies in the first place, according to Joeri Rogelj, director of climate change research at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.
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White House Climate Advisor: 'Clean energy is working in every region and it's less expensive' 6 MINUTES
“The challenge here is really that there is no one definition for these terms, particularly ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘climate neutral,'” he told NBC News. “There is no clear scientific definition of what that means. In some contexts, it can mean different things, and that’s why it's important for a company to not just throw out that label but tell people what they're going to do.”
For instance, Royal Dutch Shell’s new goal to become net zero by 2050 also includes plans to increase its fossil fuel output in the near term by boosting gas production. To reach its net zero goal, the company plans to offset 120 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through “nature-based” projects.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told clients last year that it would divest from companies that generate more than 25 percent of their revenues from thermal coal production by the middle of 2020. But it still has about $85 billion indirectly invested in coal companies and funds a dozen fossil fuel expansion projects as it transitions its investments to support a low-carbon economy.
"Our conviction is that climate risk is investment risk," Matt Kobussen, a spokesperson for BlackRock, told NBC News in part in an emailed statement. "Among the many initiatives to help our clients navigate this risk, we have both achieved 100 percent ESG integration in our active strategies and, where we have discretion in these strategies, we have fully exited positions in our equity and bond holdings in companies generating more than 25 percent of revenues from thermal coal production."
"Shell aims to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products we sell over the next decades to reach 100 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2050 compared to its 2016 baseline," Anna Arata, a spokesperson for Shell, told NBC News in an emailed statement. The company did not respond to an NBC News request for comment on its increase in gas production.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires greenhouse gas emissions reporting across 8,000 gas suppliers and CO2 injection sites in the United States. But it does not have a program that requires companies to report greenhouse emissions stemming from electricity consumption, Enesta Jones, a spokesperson for the agency, told NBC News in an emailed statement. Earlier this month, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Biden plans to issue an executive order requiring financial institutions and companies to disclose climate change risks.
Some multinational companies still have a long way to go to deliver on their climate change promises, according to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative that advocates for climate-related resolutions and holds companies accountable for failing to address climate risk. The group recently analyzed 159 company climate goals and found only six companies explicitly tied future capital expenditures to their long-term emissions reduction targets. Only 10 percent of companies use climate-scenario planning to help limit global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
The lack of universal requirement for reporting emissions leaves room for variation when it comes to how companies track, calculate and report on their goals, said Robert Schuwerk, executive director of the North American office of Carbon Tracker, a nonprofit financial think tank focused on climate risk and the energy industry.
“A lot of people think, 'Let's add up emissions like you add up dollars in your bank account,'” Schuwerk said. However, “If I'm a company and I'm accounting for oil that auto users combust, that's their emissions that are my emissions. I think it's more valuable to cast a wide net and make it more responsible across the supply chain.”
Industry giants such as Microsoft and Ikea are frequently cited as examples of rigorous goal setting in the corporate world, according to Rogelj. Microsoft announced last year it will be carbon negative by reducing its direct and indirect emissions through investments in clean energy technologies. Similarly, Ikea uses the term “climate positive” to describe its goal to reduce more emissions than it produced by 2030. The furniture giant reported last year that it reduced emissions by 4.3 percent in fiscal year 2019 to 24.9 million tons of carbon.
“From a financial perspective, how do you get buy-in?” said Jennifer Keesson, sustainability manager for Ikea U.S. “It’s really a part of our ethos and we know that this is necessary to be able to contribute and sustain ourselves.”
Not all industry watchers are critical about recent corporate climate announcements. Phil Duffy, executive director of Woodwell Climate Research and a former climate science adviser under President Barack Obama, said it is “fantastic” that companies are now doubling down on efforts to combat climate change.
“Big picture: I feel encouraged by the clear awakening by the private sector about the risk of climate change, and there is a real sense of motion across the private sector about being a part of the solution,” he said.
“You can be cynical about it and say there is greenwashing — but I can tell you a lot is genuine.”
White House Climate Advisor: 'Clean energy is working in every region and it's less expensive' 6 MINUTES
“The challenge here is really that there is no one definition for these terms, particularly ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘climate neutral,'” he told NBC News. “There is no clear scientific definition of what that means. In some contexts, it can mean different things, and that’s why it's important for a company to not just throw out that label but tell people what they're going to do.”
For instance, Royal Dutch Shell’s new goal to become net zero by 2050 also includes plans to increase its fossil fuel output in the near term by boosting gas production. To reach its net zero goal, the company plans to offset 120 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through “nature-based” projects.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told clients last year that it would divest from companies that generate more than 25 percent of their revenues from thermal coal production by the middle of 2020. But it still has about $85 billion indirectly invested in coal companies and funds a dozen fossil fuel expansion projects as it transitions its investments to support a low-carbon economy.
"Our conviction is that climate risk is investment risk," Matt Kobussen, a spokesperson for BlackRock, told NBC News in part in an emailed statement. "Among the many initiatives to help our clients navigate this risk, we have both achieved 100 percent ESG integration in our active strategies and, where we have discretion in these strategies, we have fully exited positions in our equity and bond holdings in companies generating more than 25 percent of revenues from thermal coal production."
"Shell aims to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy products we sell over the next decades to reach 100 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2050 compared to its 2016 baseline," Anna Arata, a spokesperson for Shell, told NBC News in an emailed statement. The company did not respond to an NBC News request for comment on its increase in gas production.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires greenhouse gas emissions reporting across 8,000 gas suppliers and CO2 injection sites in the United States. But it does not have a program that requires companies to report greenhouse emissions stemming from electricity consumption, Enesta Jones, a spokesperson for the agency, told NBC News in an emailed statement. Earlier this month, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Biden plans to issue an executive order requiring financial institutions and companies to disclose climate change risks.
Some multinational companies still have a long way to go to deliver on their climate change promises, according to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative that advocates for climate-related resolutions and holds companies accountable for failing to address climate risk. The group recently analyzed 159 company climate goals and found only six companies explicitly tied future capital expenditures to their long-term emissions reduction targets. Only 10 percent of companies use climate-scenario planning to help limit global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
The lack of universal requirement for reporting emissions leaves room for variation when it comes to how companies track, calculate and report on their goals, said Robert Schuwerk, executive director of the North American office of Carbon Tracker, a nonprofit financial think tank focused on climate risk and the energy industry.
“A lot of people think, 'Let's add up emissions like you add up dollars in your bank account,'” Schuwerk said. However, “If I'm a company and I'm accounting for oil that auto users combust, that's their emissions that are my emissions. I think it's more valuable to cast a wide net and make it more responsible across the supply chain.”
Industry giants such as Microsoft and Ikea are frequently cited as examples of rigorous goal setting in the corporate world, according to Rogelj. Microsoft announced last year it will be carbon negative by reducing its direct and indirect emissions through investments in clean energy technologies. Similarly, Ikea uses the term “climate positive” to describe its goal to reduce more emissions than it produced by 2030. The furniture giant reported last year that it reduced emissions by 4.3 percent in fiscal year 2019 to 24.9 million tons of carbon.
“From a financial perspective, how do you get buy-in?” said Jennifer Keesson, sustainability manager for Ikea U.S. “It’s really a part of our ethos and we know that this is necessary to be able to contribute and sustain ourselves.”
Not all industry watchers are critical about recent corporate climate announcements. Phil Duffy, executive director of Woodwell Climate Research and a former climate science adviser under President Barack Obama, said it is “fantastic” that companies are now doubling down on efforts to combat climate change.
“Big picture: I feel encouraged by the clear awakening by the private sector about the risk of climate change, and there is a real sense of motion across the private sector about being a part of the solution,” he said.
“You can be cynical about it and say there is greenwashing — but I can tell you a lot is genuine.”
Julian Casablancas Interviews Noam Chomsky on Latest ‘S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess’
Jon Blistein
Jon Blistein
ROLLING STONE
4/26/2021
More from Rolling Stone
Casablancas also asks Chomsky about his work in linguistics, and whether he believes words are important or secondary to ideas. “That depends whether you see yourself as a propagandist who wants to control people or as somebody who wants to induce people to think for themselves and solve their own problems,” Chomsky replies. “That’s a decision.”
The interview ends with Casablancas asking Chomsky what he would do with a magic wand, to which he replies, “If I had a magic wand, I would get people to understand… let’s take the environment, which is the most crucial issue we face. You can’t overestimate, we have maybe a decade or two, that’s it, in which we can decide to get the heating of the environment under control. If we don’t do it, we’re finished. It’s not that everybody’s going to die the next year, but we’ll be on a course that is irreversible.”
Past episodes of S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess have found Casablancas in conversation with journalist and professor Chris Hedges, Andrew Yang, and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.
© Rolling Stone
Julian Casablancas has released a new interview with famed philosopher, linguist, and social critic Noam Chomsky on the latest episode of his Rolling Stone interview series, S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess.
The interview finds the 92-year-old Chomsky chatting virtually with the Strokes and the Voidz frontman, appearing in the form of a giant Wizard of Oz-style head that fits the show’s sci-fi aesthetic. The interview finds Chomsky specifically touching on the ways democracy has changed and been constrained in the United States over time, and how representative the U.S. government actually is of the people compared to corporate interests.
Julian Casablancas has released a new interview with famed philosopher, linguist, and social critic Noam Chomsky on the latest episode of his Rolling Stone interview series, S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess.
The interview finds the 92-year-old Chomsky chatting virtually with the Strokes and the Voidz frontman, appearing in the form of a giant Wizard of Oz-style head that fits the show’s sci-fi aesthetic. The interview finds Chomsky specifically touching on the ways democracy has changed and been constrained in the United States over time, and how representative the U.S. government actually is of the people compared to corporate interests.
More from Rolling Stone
Casablancas also asks Chomsky about his work in linguistics, and whether he believes words are important or secondary to ideas. “That depends whether you see yourself as a propagandist who wants to control people or as somebody who wants to induce people to think for themselves and solve their own problems,” Chomsky replies. “That’s a decision.”
The interview ends with Casablancas asking Chomsky what he would do with a magic wand, to which he replies, “If I had a magic wand, I would get people to understand… let’s take the environment, which is the most crucial issue we face. You can’t overestimate, we have maybe a decade or two, that’s it, in which we can decide to get the heating of the environment under control. If we don’t do it, we’re finished. It’s not that everybody’s going to die the next year, but we’ll be on a course that is irreversible.”
Past episodes of S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess have found Casablancas in conversation with journalist and professor Chris Hedges, Andrew Yang, and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.
In unusual move, leftist Democrat to respond to Biden's Congress address
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After U.S. President Joe Biden gives his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday, one of the more progressive members of his own Democratic party, Representative Jamaal Bowman, plans to deliver a response.
Reuters/ANDREW KELLY Jamaal Bowman commemorates the sixth anniversary of Eric Garner's death, in New York
It is routine for a member of the opposition party to give a rebuttal to a president's address, and Republicans have chosen Senator Tim Scott to do so this time. But it is very unusual for someone from the president's own party to deliver a reply.
Bowman, 45, a Black former middle school principal who ousted a 16-term incumbent in New York City last November, is expected to urge Biden to push forward with a progressive agenda while the party has control of the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.
"His main message is that this is a narrow historic moment of opportunity ... and we need to take advantage of that and meet the moment with even bolder action on climate change, bold action to combat racial and economic inequality," Bowman's spokesman, Karthik Ganapathy, said. "He really feels the sense of urgency that this moment calls for."
Biden is a moderate Democrat who pledged during the election campaign to work with Republicans on some issues, raising concerns among liberals he could slow down or water down the Democrats' agenda instead of pushing through bold changes.
The Democrats have narrow majorities in the House and Senate. History suggests they could lose those majorities as early as next year at midterm elections, which often favor the party not in the White House.
The left-wing Working Families Party, a small party with activists in over a dozen states that asked Bowman to give the livestreamed reply to Biden on Wednesday night, is keenly aware of the historical precedents.
Its national director, Maurice Mitchell, recalled that another Democrat, former President Barack Obama, was elected in 2008 with a broad mandate, but by August 2009 the conservative Tea Party movement had changed the political debate. Fueled by the Tea Party surge, Republicans made huge gains and won the House in the 2010 midterms.
"So what should we learn from that? I think what we should learn is that if we want Democrats and progressives to be in a position for success, then our movement cannot demobilize," Mitchell said. "And our movement needs to stay in the fight. We need to push the realm of what's possible."
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Karishma Singh)
The left-wing Working Families Party, a small party with activists in over a dozen states that asked Bowman to give the livestreamed reply to Biden on Wednesday night, is keenly aware of the historical precedents.
Its national director, Maurice Mitchell, recalled that another Democrat, former President Barack Obama, was elected in 2008 with a broad mandate, but by August 2009 the conservative Tea Party movement had changed the political debate. Fueled by the Tea Party surge, Republicans made huge gains and won the House in the 2010 midterms.
"So what should we learn from that? I think what we should learn is that if we want Democrats and progressives to be in a position for success, then our movement cannot demobilize," Mitchell said. "And our movement needs to stay in the fight. We need to push the realm of what's possible."
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Karishma Singh)
Traditional Six Nations chiefs call for moratorium on development that includes Fergus and Elora
WELLINGTON COUNTY – Traditional Six Nations chiefs are calling for a ban on development along the Grand River.
They say any development on that tract of land, including in Wellington County, needs their consent.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) recently announced a moratorium on development in the Haldimand Tract. The HCCC are the traditional government separate from the federally-recognized elected governing body of the Six Nations.
The Haldimand Tract refers to land granted to the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Six Nations of the Grand River, in 1784 for their alliance with the British during the American Revolution
This land was approximately 950,000 acres that ran along 10 km each side of the Grand River from Lake Erie up to Dundalk and includes what is now Elora and Fergus.
Today, the Six Nations reserve boundaries is less than five per cent of the original land base.
The legitimacy of surrender documents obtained by the crown in the 1840s are disputed and the traditional chiefs and 1492 Land Back Lane group say the land is unceded.
Skyler Williams, spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane, confirmed Fergus and Elora fall into this declaration.
The two towns are expected to have significant population growth over the next decades and alongside that comes a lot of housing development.
Williams said there is opportunity for development but there needs to be meaningful dialogue needs to be done with the community.
“I think that the idea of consent is certainly one we’re talking about in Ottawa right now around the UN declaration on rights of Indigenous peoples, certainly when it comes to lands,” Williams said.
“Haudenosaunee people have been making government aware...that these are our lands and this unwanted development up and down the Grand River is something that needs to be done — certainly with consultation at the very least — with our community.”
Centre Wellington mayor Kelly Linton had no comment to make about the moratorium but said by email Indigenous consultation is "often a requirement of our developments in Centre Wellington."
Williams noted the problem ultimately isn’t really with developers.
“This obligation lies solely with the federal and provincial governments who are incentivizing the development of our lands, the Places to Grow Act which sets out the greenbelt and the like are pushing those developers to develop right along the Grand River,” Williams said.
“If we’re talking about areas that need to be protected here, the Grand River watershed absolutely needs to be taken into account for that.”
Williams clarified this doesn’t mean they’re going to go up and down the Grand River telling “settlers to get out of their homes.”
“Some of these settlers have been there for a couple hundred years in their families,” Williams said.
“There needs to be a meaningful process, a trigger mechanism that sets the feds and the province to come down here and make some meaningful effort to show that this is a process they’re going to respect. We’re going to be calling for that moratorium on development until that process can be respected.”
Keegan Kozolanka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, GuelphToday.com
WELLINGTON COUNTY – Traditional Six Nations chiefs are calling for a ban on development along the Grand River.
They say any development on that tract of land, including in Wellington County, needs their consent.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) recently announced a moratorium on development in the Haldimand Tract. The HCCC are the traditional government separate from the federally-recognized elected governing body of the Six Nations.
The Haldimand Tract refers to land granted to the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Six Nations of the Grand River, in 1784 for their alliance with the British during the American Revolution
This land was approximately 950,000 acres that ran along 10 km each side of the Grand River from Lake Erie up to Dundalk and includes what is now Elora and Fergus.
Today, the Six Nations reserve boundaries is less than five per cent of the original land base.
The legitimacy of surrender documents obtained by the crown in the 1840s are disputed and the traditional chiefs and 1492 Land Back Lane group say the land is unceded.
Skyler Williams, spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane, confirmed Fergus and Elora fall into this declaration.
The two towns are expected to have significant population growth over the next decades and alongside that comes a lot of housing development.
Williams said there is opportunity for development but there needs to be meaningful dialogue needs to be done with the community.
“I think that the idea of consent is certainly one we’re talking about in Ottawa right now around the UN declaration on rights of Indigenous peoples, certainly when it comes to lands,” Williams said.
“Haudenosaunee people have been making government aware...that these are our lands and this unwanted development up and down the Grand River is something that needs to be done — certainly with consultation at the very least — with our community.”
Centre Wellington mayor Kelly Linton had no comment to make about the moratorium but said by email Indigenous consultation is "often a requirement of our developments in Centre Wellington."
Williams noted the problem ultimately isn’t really with developers.
“This obligation lies solely with the federal and provincial governments who are incentivizing the development of our lands, the Places to Grow Act which sets out the greenbelt and the like are pushing those developers to develop right along the Grand River,” Williams said.
“If we’re talking about areas that need to be protected here, the Grand River watershed absolutely needs to be taken into account for that.”
Williams clarified this doesn’t mean they’re going to go up and down the Grand River telling “settlers to get out of their homes.”
“Some of these settlers have been there for a couple hundred years in their families,” Williams said.
“There needs to be a meaningful process, a trigger mechanism that sets the feds and the province to come down here and make some meaningful effort to show that this is a process they’re going to respect. We’re going to be calling for that moratorium on development until that process can be respected.”
Keegan Kozolanka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, GuelphToday.com
Monday, April 26, 2021
Census 2020 results: Bureau announces 331 million people in US, Texas will add two congressional seats
By Dan Merica and Liz Stark, CNN
By Dan Merica and Liz Stark, CNN
The US Census Bureau announced Monday that the total population of the United States has topped 331 million people, marking the country's second slowest population growth rate in US history. Amid that, Texas will gain two seats in the redistricting process, the results found.
© Smith Collection/Gado/Sipa USA/AP
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress.
California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The results -- which show that political power in the country is shifting from states in the Midwest and Northeast to those in the South and West -- will have wide-ranging impacts on numerous aspects of American life, ranging from each state's representation in Congress to the amount of money each state will get from the federal government. The numbers could shift the political makeup of Congress and set up what will likely be contentious redistricting battles in the coming months.
And the numbers reflect which states are growing in both population and power. With Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Texas all gaining seats -- and thus, electoral votes -- their political clout will grow over the next decade, largely at the expense of states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
The new numbers represented a decrease in the population growth rate when compared to growth between 2000 and 2010. It was only slightly more than the growth rate seen during the 1930s.
Census officials said they were "very confident in the quality of the data" that they collected.
"While no Census is perfect, we are confident that today's 2020 Census results meet our high data quality standards. We would not be releasing them to you otherwise," acting Director Ron Jarmin said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also expressed her confidence in the results.
"2020 brought unprecedented challenges -- a global pandemic, destructive wildfires, the most active hurricane season on record and civil unrest across the country. With all of that happening, the Census Bureau had to quickly adapt its operations to confront these challenges head on," she said Monday.
Some expectations from census experts were off. Some believed that Texas would gain three total seats, not two, while others believed states like Arizona, which did not gain a seat, would add a House district. Experts also expected Minnesota and Rhode Island to lose a seat -- neither did, according to the Census Bureau.
Some of the figures were remarkably close, however. Census Bureau officials said that if they had counted 89 more people in New York during the census and all other state populations had stayed the same, the state of New York would not have lost a district.
More detailed data will also be released in the coming months that states will use to help draw the boundaries of their congressional districts. The agency has said those redistricting counts are expected to be released by the end of September.
Although the Census will publish resident counts for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, their totals are not included in the overall apportionment population because they don't have voting seats in the House, the agency said.
The release of the data has been a long time coming, delayed by both the coronavirus pandemic and controversial legal fights on how President Donald Trump's administration has handled the process.
The Census Bureau announced in February that the numbers, which would normally come out by April 1, would be delayed. The bureau cited the coronavirus pandemic, and the difficulty the virus created for those collecting census data, as the reason for the delay.
The process was also complicated by the Trump administration's efforts to exclude noncitizens when seats in Congress were apportioned, a decision that landed the bureau and the Republican administration in lengthy legal fights.
Former attorney general Eric Holder responded to the announcement, saying that with the release of the numbers, "each state now needs to prepare for a fair and transparent redistricting process that includes input from the public."
Holder, the head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a Democratic group aimed at combating gerrymandering, added: "Make no mistake -- the same Republican state legislators who are pushing forward on hundreds of anti-voter bills at the state level have been very clear that they intend to manipulate the redistricting process to lock in their power."
In the majority of states, maps are redrawn and accepted by state legislatures, with many giving authority to the state's governor to either approve or deny the new districts. Only a handful of states rely on relatively independent commissions to determine new maps. Because Republicans have been more successful at winning state legislatures in recent years, the party has almost total control over the process in a number of key states, like Texas and Florida.
If Republicans embark on cutting up increasingly diverse populations in the suburbs around some of the nation's largest cities -- combining them with more reliably Republican voters in exurbs and rural areas -- the party will open themselves up to racial gerrymandering claims. Democrats are prepared to fight any attempts.
"The presumption that Republicans should get all of those new seats simply because they control the process is a presumption of gerrymandering," said Kelly Ward Burton, the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "And that is illegal."
Another issue facing both parties is how each should analyze the last four years of political shifts under Trump, a time that saw Democrats make up considerable ground in the suburbs and Republicans make inroads with Latino communities in places like South Florida and South Texas and consolidate support among rural voters.
The question for those party officials in charge of the redistricting process will be whether to treat these shifts as either aberrations or signs of more lasting changes.
"For people who did this stuff a decade ago, if they had known that Donald Trump was going to come along in 2016 and shift the American electorate, there's at least a couple dozen seats around the country that would have been drawn differently than they were," said Adam Kincaid, the head of the National Republican Redistricting Trust. "And that is the challenge for the next few years is trying to forecast out how much this realignment is permanent versus temporary."
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress.
California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The results -- which show that political power in the country is shifting from states in the Midwest and Northeast to those in the South and West -- will have wide-ranging impacts on numerous aspects of American life, ranging from each state's representation in Congress to the amount of money each state will get from the federal government. The numbers could shift the political makeup of Congress and set up what will likely be contentious redistricting battles in the coming months.
And the numbers reflect which states are growing in both population and power. With Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Texas all gaining seats -- and thus, electoral votes -- their political clout will grow over the next decade, largely at the expense of states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
The new numbers represented a decrease in the population growth rate when compared to growth between 2000 and 2010. It was only slightly more than the growth rate seen during the 1930s.
Census officials said they were "very confident in the quality of the data" that they collected.
"While no Census is perfect, we are confident that today's 2020 Census results meet our high data quality standards. We would not be releasing them to you otherwise," acting Director Ron Jarmin said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also expressed her confidence in the results.
"2020 brought unprecedented challenges -- a global pandemic, destructive wildfires, the most active hurricane season on record and civil unrest across the country. With all of that happening, the Census Bureau had to quickly adapt its operations to confront these challenges head on," she said Monday.
Some expectations from census experts were off. Some believed that Texas would gain three total seats, not two, while others believed states like Arizona, which did not gain a seat, would add a House district. Experts also expected Minnesota and Rhode Island to lose a seat -- neither did, according to the Census Bureau.
Some of the figures were remarkably close, however. Census Bureau officials said that if they had counted 89 more people in New York during the census and all other state populations had stayed the same, the state of New York would not have lost a district.
More detailed data will also be released in the coming months that states will use to help draw the boundaries of their congressional districts. The agency has said those redistricting counts are expected to be released by the end of September.
Although the Census will publish resident counts for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, their totals are not included in the overall apportionment population because they don't have voting seats in the House, the agency said.
The release of the data has been a long time coming, delayed by both the coronavirus pandemic and controversial legal fights on how President Donald Trump's administration has handled the process.
The Census Bureau announced in February that the numbers, which would normally come out by April 1, would be delayed. The bureau cited the coronavirus pandemic, and the difficulty the virus created for those collecting census data, as the reason for the delay.
The process was also complicated by the Trump administration's efforts to exclude noncitizens when seats in Congress were apportioned, a decision that landed the bureau and the Republican administration in lengthy legal fights.
Former attorney general Eric Holder responded to the announcement, saying that with the release of the numbers, "each state now needs to prepare for a fair and transparent redistricting process that includes input from the public."
Holder, the head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a Democratic group aimed at combating gerrymandering, added: "Make no mistake -- the same Republican state legislators who are pushing forward on hundreds of anti-voter bills at the state level have been very clear that they intend to manipulate the redistricting process to lock in their power."
In the majority of states, maps are redrawn and accepted by state legislatures, with many giving authority to the state's governor to either approve or deny the new districts. Only a handful of states rely on relatively independent commissions to determine new maps. Because Republicans have been more successful at winning state legislatures in recent years, the party has almost total control over the process in a number of key states, like Texas and Florida.
If Republicans embark on cutting up increasingly diverse populations in the suburbs around some of the nation's largest cities -- combining them with more reliably Republican voters in exurbs and rural areas -- the party will open themselves up to racial gerrymandering claims. Democrats are prepared to fight any attempts.
"The presumption that Republicans should get all of those new seats simply because they control the process is a presumption of gerrymandering," said Kelly Ward Burton, the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. "And that is illegal."
Another issue facing both parties is how each should analyze the last four years of political shifts under Trump, a time that saw Democrats make up considerable ground in the suburbs and Republicans make inroads with Latino communities in places like South Florida and South Texas and consolidate support among rural voters.
The question for those party officials in charge of the redistricting process will be whether to treat these shifts as either aberrations or signs of more lasting changes.
"For people who did this stuff a decade ago, if they had known that Donald Trump was going to come along in 2016 and shift the American electorate, there's at least a couple dozen seats around the country that would have been drawn differently than they were," said Adam Kincaid, the head of the National Republican Redistricting Trust. "And that is the challenge for the next few years is trying to forecast out how much this realignment is permanent versus temporary."
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