The Trail Blazers will amend Carmelo Anthony’s contract so that it becomes fully guaranteed for the remainder of the season, league sources tell ESPN.
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1202741384878460933
Washington Wizards (7-13) defeat Philadelphia 76ers (15-7) by 119 - 113 with 27 points from rookie Rui Hachimura
Lowry with an Oscar-worthy performance
https://streamable.com/97ddo
After going 0/6 beyond the three point line in tonight's game versus the Raptors, Russell Westbrook is now officially ranked dead last in 3PT% among shooters with at least 5 3PA/game in the league history
Devin Booker tonight in a win vs the Pelicans: 44 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists on 74 TS%
Raptors playing box-and-one on Harden daring Westbrook to shoot the three
https://streamable.com/ti4yp
Jaxson Hayes with a MONSTER poster dunk over Cheick Diallo
https://streamable.com/8z53z
LeBron James Responds to Jazz Announcers Criticizing Him | Imagine doing your job at the highest level to where you’re not needed anymore, giving your shoes to a lil girl and boy who you inspire and hoped you made proud that night, then cheering on your teammates cause you love seeing them succeed more than yourself only to be criticized while doing it. People it’s the world we live in and you can’t let it ever stop you from your purpose in life. Negativity, bad energy, hate, envy, etc etc will try to bring you down throughout your journey and it’s up to you on how you handle it. I handle it by simply saying “Thank You” with a ๐ on my face and continue to push forward while doing it! LIVE.LAUGH.LOVE ๐๐พ❤️๐
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5srqgwgz0A/
With 15 assists and 3 TOs tonight in the win vs the Pelicans, Ricky Rubio now has 46 assists and only 4 TOs in his last 4 games.
The Houston Rockets (14-7) beat the Toronto Raptors (15-6) 119-109 behind a Westbrook triple double.
The Raptors defense can't keep up with an elite sequence of ball movement from the Rockets that leads to an Austin Rivers triple
https://streamable.com/zsejl
James Harden finishes a game with less than 10 free throws for the first time this season
Kelly Oubre Jr. with the fastbreak jam on Brandon Ingram
https://streamable.com/4qwn0
The Phoenix Suns (10-11) defeat the New Orleans Pelicans (6-16) by a score of 139-132 in an overtime thriller.
Morris and Jokiฤ get into it
https://streamable.com/it1tm
Rui Hachimira and Davis Bertans combined for 50 points on 20/34 shooting (59%) in win against 76ers
The Raptors are now 3-6 vs teams over .500, the only top 10 team with a losing record in that category.
The Denver Nuggets (14-5) blow out the New York Knicks (4-18) by a score of 129-92.
Ben McLemore finishes the game against the raptors with 28 points on 9/18 from the field and 8/17 from three.
Westbrook with the grown man bucket and flex in the clutch!
https://streamable.com/14eye
Ricky Rubio exploits the Pelicans defense and whips a crafty pass to a wide open Frank Kaminsky at the rim
https://streamable.com/qyjgl
Russell Westbrook is the 3rd player in the shot-clock era (1954-55) to attempt 25 shots in back-to-back games without scoring 20 pts in either game.
Lonzo Ball fakes Rubio and hits the corner stepback triple
https://streamable.com/co50e
Melo in the last 5 games: 19.2 PPG / 6.8 RPG / 1.8 APG on 60.7% TS. Blazers are 4-1.
The Knicks aren’t even tweeting the final score anymore. ๐ They’ve lost the last two games by 37 & 44
One year ago today, the Knicks and Nets were both 8-17
Davis Bertans goes 6/6 from 3 point range for 22 points in the first half
https://streamable.com/330b4
The New York Knicks are the 4th team in NBA history to lose back to back games by 37+ points
Rui Hachimura vs Sixers 27 pts 7 rebs 2 stls 11/18 fgs
Kelly Oubre gets the steal, passes it to Booker who lobs it back up to Oubre for the slam!
https://streamable.com/opsxa
Rajon Rondo is shooting 50% from 3 this year.
Devin Booker pours in 21 3rd quarter points to lead the Suns
https://streamable.com/qw4el
Marcus Morris in the preseason: “Old school Knicks...protect The Garden". The Knicks are now 3-9 at the Garden.
In the Rockets win tonight, Harden was tied in 4th in attempts on the Rockets, behind Westbrook, McLemore, and Tucker. 23 points on 7-11 from the floor.
Lonzo with a clutch triple to make it a 2 point game
https://streamable.com/r384m
Lou Williams leads his team in minutes per game. Is him playing starter minutes unfair to the rest of the players competing for the award?
Dirk Nowitzki's career high in steals (9), is the same as Chris Paul, John Stockton & Scottie Pippen's. It's higher than Jason Kidd, Gary Payton and Julius Erving's career highs.
2019-20 is the 74th season in Knicks franchise history. They’ve played more than 6,000 games. They had never lost two consecutive games by 30+ points. Until this week. (twitter.com)
This season, Marcus Morris is shooting 52% from three and 36% from two.
David Fizdale on if he's worried the Knicks' struggles will be blamed on him: "I don't care about all of that, I don't even think about that really"
Domantas Sabonis fakes out Joel Embiid with a nice move for the easy layup
https://streamable.com/d6yi2
Westbrook with the grown man bucket and flex in the clutch
https://streamable.com/14eye
Melo in the last 5 games: 19.2 PPG / 6.8 RPG / 1.8 APG on 60.7% TS. Blazers are 4-1
Westbrook gets rejected by the rim
https://streamable.com/ek2th
Fred VanVleet takes down James Harden and gets the bucket
https://streamable.com/3wmk1
Westbrook tonight shot 7/27 from the field and is currently shooting 40% from the field and 21% from three while his TS% is 47%...
Brandon Ingram heads to the locker room after his head hits the floor after contact with Saric
Sophomore Devonte Graham has made 82 threes this season, second only to James Harden
Fred VanVleet grabs the rebound and goes coast-to-coast with a beautiful crossover on Harden to cut into the paint and get the layup
https://streamable.com/zhb3b
Ginobli passes the ball into the hoop from three. Refs don't allow the basket. Then stop the game and agree to review it later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEWWZvoLajg
Brandon Ingram is back in the game after receiving 6 stitches above the eye
https://streamable.com/5o5fz
Today makes the 5th game this season where the Knicks have been down 30 points in a game.
Jrue Holiday with the great defensive play on Devin Booker
https://streamable.com/7ueol
Jalen Brunson scores 14 in the 4th quarter delivering a comeback against the Timberwolves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7q1CsLa8kc
Zach LaVine stats in the last 6 games: 30.7 ppg, 3.5 apg, 50.4% FG, 55.5% 3PTStats
Friday, December 6, 2019
The Problematic Pete Wars | The Very Online Left Is Very Annoyed With Mayor Pete
https://thebulwark.com/the-problematic-pete-wars/
The Problematic Pete Wars
The Very Online Left Is Very Annoyed With Mayor Pete.
by Tim Miller
December 6, 2019 5:04 am
Last week a problematic photo of Pete Buttigieg "surfaced" on Twitter dot com.
Problematic photos and videos about Mayor Pete seem to be "surfacing" to political reporters all the time these days, framed as if they were Milkshake Cicadas randomly emerging from the ground to serve their earthly purpose as objects of cancelation. After all, something "surfacing" sounds more scandalous and newsworthy than writing what's rather obvious: that a political adversary is texting reporters clips they've found following a period of oppo diving on Twitter's advanced search.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/13/16767626/what-is-a-milkshake-duck
So what did this shocking surfaced photo reveal? Was Pete present at a cross burning? Was he grabbing a woman by the pussy? Had he "darkened his face" on several occasions? Was he wearing these absolutely hideous pants again?
https://twitter.com/BlueSpaceHunter/status/1189981388172345344
No. Please brace yourself for the shocking truth.
An earmuff clad, Pete Buttigieg stood in the cold outside a South Bend restaurant asking people to donate money to those in need. And he did so with—dun dunh DUNNNHHHH . . .
THE SALVATION ARMY.
You might think that this absurd attack on Buttigieg would be met by widespread guffaws. But that wasn't the case. At least one of Mayor Pete's foes thought it was a big enough problem to share it with Out. Then NBC picked up the story unironically. And then liberal commentators shared it in concurrence as did a whole spate of left-wing Twitter power users, with one blue checkmark instructing Buttigieg that it's "time to drop out, sis."
https://twitter.com/NBCOUT/status/1202374780575526914
https://twitter.com/ira/status/1201995408425156608
https://twitter.com/ProudResister/status/1202041024744316928
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1202014500896960513
https://twitter.com/kincairm/status/1202050649740984321
Obviously, context is everything. But can you imagine what would have happened if, say, Cocaine Mitch had said those exact words?
But what's really odd is that Salvation Army-gate is just the latest in a series of absolutely batshit insane attacks on Mayor Pete. In just the last few weeks, Buttigieg—a mild-mannered Midwesterner who has been tucking in his shirt since grade school—has sparked blinding, irrational hatred from the online left. It's a strange new disrespect from the identity politics set, given that Buttigieg is mounting a historic candidacy as the first credible gay presidential candidate in American history.
Of course, if you aren't a frequenter of progressive Twitter—or if you are an Iowa caucusgoer who has vaulted Pete to the top of the polls—you might not even realize this is all happening. So I'd like to take you on a penny tour through some of the more maniacal Buttigieg "problems" that have "surfaced" as we enter this holiday season of fellowship.
On Wednesday, David Klion, a contributor to the Nation, retweeted a thread which accused Pete of keeping a "token black woman" by his side recently and featured several pictures of her. "This is the 9th sighting since I noticed…Mayor Pete is an exploitative twerp."
https://twitter.com/davidklion/status/1202282637047586821?s=21
Pete no longer does press without his token black woman by his side. This is like the ninth sighting since I noticed. This was not the case a month ago. Mayo Pete's an exploitative twerp.
https://twitter.com/net_enforcer/status/1201956514438758401
The woman in question, Nina Smith, is a veteran of multiple Democratic campaigns and Pete's traveling press secretary. She joined the campaign in May. It's unclear exactly why Klion and the Twitter user "@net-enforcer" feel entitled to demean Smith as a token. You might say they are erasing her agency in an attempt to enforce their own views of identity. Who could say?
Meanwhile, Teen Vogue, which has unironically become a Democratic Socialist magazine that appeals to Red Rose Twitter, published an article about "Petey Bourgeoius" premised on the fact that he "almost too perfectly represents a danger Karl Marx raises" because his aw shucks appeal is masking his fealty to the ruling class.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/pete-buttigieg-petey-bourgeois
(Another story currently on Marxist Teen Vogue: "25 days of splurging." Really makes you think.)
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/25-days-of-splurging-loewe-belt
Mediaite, meanwhile, published a dispatch from the Pete campaign bus that is so psychotic you need to read it yourself, but it can best be described as a stream of consciousness ranting from an unwell street corner preacher who is screaming ludicrous questions while the candidate responds to them calmly. Mediaite framed the article as "Pete Buttigieg Does Not Want You To Read This Interview."People did read it, and they laughed.
https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/1194306849178300417
https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/1194362143153573888
The Root published an article that was widely praised on the left titled "Pete Buttigieg is a Lying MF" which was premised on an 8-year-old "surfaced" clip in which Pete makes a common argument about how sometimes people in lower income, minority neighborhoods don't have role models they know personally who testify to the value of education. Offering a different perspective as someone who grew up in one of those communities to shed some light on blind spots that Mayor Pete had would be one thing and something Pete clearly welcomes as evidenced by his return call to the author. Using it as the launching point for calling him a "lying motherfucker" in a disdain soaked essay is just a wee bit out there.
https://www.theroot.com/pete-buttigieg-is-a-lying-mf-1840038708
https://twitter.com/RzstProgramming/status/1198623649990946817
https://www.theroot.com/pete-buttigieg-called-me-heres-what-happened-1840055464
There has been an absolutely bizarre series of articles about how Buttigieg isn't "gay enough," most notably this one from the New Republic that referred to him repeatedly as "Mary Pete" and projected onto him a desire to hook up with an older man in a bus station. It was so bad that TNR retracted it and deleted it from their site. Politico published a confounding article premised on a few lesbian Democratic activists who weren't supporting Pete. It is unclear why there should be an expectation that Pete would earn the vote of every living lesbian—or gay man, for that matter. The very fact that Buttigieg isn't running an identity-based campaign for gays is part of his appeal.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/pete-buttigieg-gay-diversity-white-male-candidate.html
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1149776644049002496
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/new-republic-removes-homophobic-op-ed-attacking-buttigieg-n1029546
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/27/lesbians-pete-buttigieg-2020-president-1475900
Prominent online Democrats have said that Pete's success, coming in spite of low polling with black voters, is a sign of white supremacy. This is a real thing.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1201597283617460224
He's also been blindly accused of open racism. Also a real thing.
White supremacy is a political culture that elevates a white guy who leads a racist police force and didn’t know segregation was still a problem while ignoring a Latino candidate who led desegregation efforts and led the field in proposing solutions to racist policing.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1201597283617460224
He’s also been blindly accused of open racism. Also a real thing.
The media ignores Booker & Castro. It’s trying to ruin Kamala Harris.
Pete gets praise & zero coverage of his OPEN racism.
Beto gets a Vanity Fair cover when he’s on top and not a single word when he implodes.
The media isn’t complicit. The media is a white supremacy LEADER.
https://twitter.com/sairasameerarao/status/1201127962256363521
A Vice headline accused him of supporting a literal India style caste system. Adam Jentleson, a noted Twitter antagonist to Mayor Pete and former advisor to Harry Reid—who was, just so we're clear, not exactly the wokest horse in the barn—shared an accusation that Buttigieg has "high hopes of reinforcing systemic racism."
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/d3aazy/buttigiegs-version-of-america-is-basically-a-caste-system
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40ajentleson%20pete&src=typed_query
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2014/08/22/harry-reid-makes-a-couple-asian-jokes/81241294/
https://twitter.com/cravves/status/1197995117904302080
Back in my days of doing rapid response for Republicans, that would have been a pretty serious charge. And that's especially the case when a Democratic strategist is accusing fellow Democrats of supporting "systemic racism"—a claim like that is liable to end up in a Trump campaign Facebook ad aimed at depressing the black vote should Buttigieg wind up on the eventual Democratic ticket.
Some teens on TikTok—the hot new social site owned and controlled by the Chinese government which absolutely does not have any incentive to meddle in U.S. elections—have taken to calling him "Mayo Pete" and the progressive press has lapped it up, spilling substantial digital ink on this brilliant pun and brutally mocking the earnest Pete volunteers who sparked the meme by daring to show some off keyboard enthusiasm for politics through a cheesy dance number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
https://www.google.com/search?q=mayo+pete+tik+tok&oq=Mayo+pete+tik+tok&aqs=chrome.0.0.2360j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1195947838942982146
https://www.btrtoday.com/read/featured/pete-buttigiegs-cynical-campaign-dance/
It isn't just the online left. Pete seems to be driving most of his opponents batty.
The New York Times reported last month about how Buttigieg is the candidate who most "annoys" his rivals. Not a single campaign or candidate took the opportunity to offer even the most basic lip service to Pete for breaking a barrier as the first serious gay presidential candidate. Nor did any rival give him a polite shout-out on Veteran's Day despite being only one of two veterans in the Democratic race. Instead they complained about his privilege as a man.
https://www.google.com/search?q=New+York+Times+Pete+makes+opponents+upset&oq=New+York+Times+Pete+makes+opponents+upset&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l2.7759j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/is-pete-buttigiegs-2020-bid-buoyed-by-male-privilege.html
Before dropping out of the race, Kamala Harris accused Pete of equating his gayness with blackness. (Not true.) Buttigieg's success seems to have turned Julian Castro into a Gladys Lehman pageant mom who doesn't understand why her child isn't winning. Castro shared a fabricated supposed quote from Buttigieg. (He later retracted it.) And Castro has been ranting to anyone who will listen about the size of San Antonio and the advantages Buttigieg has been given by the media. Castro, of course, had no complaints about the media when, as a mayor of a mid-size city in 2012, he was bathed in adoration while delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/03/what-mayor-pete-really-said-about-being-gay-prejudice-blacks/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE83-jqsrLA
https://twitter.com/juliancastro/status/1193881502381170688
https://www.expressnews.com/news/news_columnists/gilbert_garcia/article/Castro-can-t-hide-his-disdain-for-Buttigieg-14836112.php
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/11/07/mayor-to-mayor-castro-scoffs-at-buttigieg-san-antonio-could-almost-fit-south-bend-in-our-alamodome/
What is it about Buttigieg that has melted the brains of his rivals and their Twitter stans?
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/profile-in-courage-essay-contest/past-winning-essays/2000-winning-essay-by-peter-buttigieg
His policy agenda would be to the left of any platform ever put forth by a major party nominee, yet he's treated by progressive as if he's a sinister clone of Willard Mitt Romney. Nothing has "surfaced" about his past that reveals any hidden agenda besides that of the typical earnest, left-wing striver. In fact, the most jarring "surfacing" I've seen this year is the revelation that young Pete was the original Bernie bro, having submitted an essay in 2000 in praise of one Senator Bernard Sanders.
And none of this is to say that Buttigieg is beyond criticism and question. He's certainly not. The scandal in the South Bend police force deserves scrutiny on the campaign trail. So does the question of whether or not a 37 year-old small-town mayor really has the experience to manage the federal government. And both the right and left can come up with plenty of policy areas to draw contrasts with Buttigieg.
But calling him a bus-stop hooking, white-supremacy defending, homophobic, Manchurian Republican tool of the corporate elite is . . . well . . . as the Pete trolls might say, "that ain't it, chiefs."
From my admittedly outside vantage point, it seems like the lunacy of the attacks stems from a few places.
The first is simple human jealousy. In 2008, all of the candidates and most of their respective staffs and supporters had a seething hatred for Mitt Romney. Mitt seemed inauthentic, like he was buying his success and hadn't earned his scars in the way that some of the more long-standing pols, men like McCain and Giuliani and Thompson, had. The jealousy reflected itself on the stage where he was often the recipient of the most pointed barbs. Buttigieg's unlikely rise is having a similar effect.
The second reason was pinpointed by Jim Downs, author of Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation. Downs noted that Buttigieg fits a gay archetype that Andrew Tobias enshrined in his memoir, The Best Little Boy In the World.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/pete-buttigieg-gay-archetype-best-little-boy.html
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Little-Boy-World-Anniversary/dp/0345381769
In TBLBITW, Tobias writes about the trend of young closeted gay men—who are yes, mostly wealthy and white—overcompensating for their internalized homophobia and lack of comfort in the boys club by focusing on presenting external successes in areas where they can compete effectively: grades, behavior, resumรฉs.
Attempting to deal with these internal demons by presenting perfection externally, these gay men often achieved success in work but failed in their personal lives unless they found a community where there were others in a similar boat. Which is an opportunity Mayor Pete missed since his coming out story happened when he was already in the public limelight. It should come as no surprise, then, that TBLBITW archetype is often kind of grating. There's a reason that most of the time the high school valedictorian isn't also the prom king. And for normies who haven't checked all the success boxes of The Best Pete in The World, you can understand the motivation to take him down a peg, no matter what it takes.
Lastly, it seems that the bad elements of the identitarian left are once again eating their young.
As I've written, I am not the type of conservative who has a knee-jerk hostility towards the idea of identity politics. I fully endorse and embrace the life-affirming parts of identity politics which ensure that people are seen and recognized, promote diversity and inclusivity, and make sure that those who have been silenced in the past have a platform.
https://thebulwark.com/the-kiss/
The problem is that too often identity politics moves from providing a platform to the marginalized to denying platforms to others or attacking them for not conforming to some predetermined mold.
And this last bit is what we see with Mayor Pete. Rather than celebrating the unique and historic—and frankly shocking—elements of his success and the myriad policy ways in which they are aligned, identity politics is warping some progressives' views to the point that they can only see the ways his candidacy isn't representing the groups they would like, exactly as they would like them.
Tim Miller is a contributor to The Bulwark and a communications consultant. He previously served as senior advisor to the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, communications director for Jeb Bush, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
The Problematic Pete Wars
The Very Online Left Is Very Annoyed With Mayor Pete.
by Tim Miller
December 6, 2019 5:04 am
Last week a problematic photo of Pete Buttigieg "surfaced" on Twitter dot com.
Problematic photos and videos about Mayor Pete seem to be "surfacing" to political reporters all the time these days, framed as if they were Milkshake Cicadas randomly emerging from the ground to serve their earthly purpose as objects of cancelation. After all, something "surfacing" sounds more scandalous and newsworthy than writing what's rather obvious: that a political adversary is texting reporters clips they've found following a period of oppo diving on Twitter's advanced search.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/13/16767626/what-is-a-milkshake-duck
So what did this shocking surfaced photo reveal? Was Pete present at a cross burning? Was he grabbing a woman by the pussy? Had he "darkened his face" on several occasions? Was he wearing these absolutely hideous pants again?
https://twitter.com/BlueSpaceHunter/status/1189981388172345344
No. Please brace yourself for the shocking truth.
An earmuff clad, Pete Buttigieg stood in the cold outside a South Bend restaurant asking people to donate money to those in need. And he did so with—dun dunh DUNNNHHHH . . .
THE SALVATION ARMY.
You might think that this absurd attack on Buttigieg would be met by widespread guffaws. But that wasn't the case. At least one of Mayor Pete's foes thought it was a big enough problem to share it with Out. Then NBC picked up the story unironically. And then liberal commentators shared it in concurrence as did a whole spate of left-wing Twitter power users, with one blue checkmark instructing Buttigieg that it's "time to drop out, sis."
https://twitter.com/NBCOUT/status/1202374780575526914
https://twitter.com/ira/status/1201995408425156608
https://twitter.com/ProudResister/status/1202041024744316928
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1202014500896960513
https://twitter.com/kincairm/status/1202050649740984321
Obviously, context is everything. But can you imagine what would have happened if, say, Cocaine Mitch had said those exact words?
But what's really odd is that Salvation Army-gate is just the latest in a series of absolutely batshit insane attacks on Mayor Pete. In just the last few weeks, Buttigieg—a mild-mannered Midwesterner who has been tucking in his shirt since grade school—has sparked blinding, irrational hatred from the online left. It's a strange new disrespect from the identity politics set, given that Buttigieg is mounting a historic candidacy as the first credible gay presidential candidate in American history.
Of course, if you aren't a frequenter of progressive Twitter—or if you are an Iowa caucusgoer who has vaulted Pete to the top of the polls—you might not even realize this is all happening. So I'd like to take you on a penny tour through some of the more maniacal Buttigieg "problems" that have "surfaced" as we enter this holiday season of fellowship.
On Wednesday, David Klion, a contributor to the Nation, retweeted a thread which accused Pete of keeping a "token black woman" by his side recently and featured several pictures of her. "This is the 9th sighting since I noticed…Mayor Pete is an exploitative twerp."
https://twitter.com/davidklion/status/1202282637047586821?s=21
Pete no longer does press without his token black woman by his side. This is like the ninth sighting since I noticed. This was not the case a month ago. Mayo Pete's an exploitative twerp.
https://twitter.com/net_enforcer/status/1201956514438758401
The woman in question, Nina Smith, is a veteran of multiple Democratic campaigns and Pete's traveling press secretary. She joined the campaign in May. It's unclear exactly why Klion and the Twitter user "@net-enforcer" feel entitled to demean Smith as a token. You might say they are erasing her agency in an attempt to enforce their own views of identity. Who could say?
Meanwhile, Teen Vogue, which has unironically become a Democratic Socialist magazine that appeals to Red Rose Twitter, published an article about "Petey Bourgeoius" premised on the fact that he "almost too perfectly represents a danger Karl Marx raises" because his aw shucks appeal is masking his fealty to the ruling class.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/pete-buttigieg-petey-bourgeois
(Another story currently on Marxist Teen Vogue: "25 days of splurging." Really makes you think.)
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/25-days-of-splurging-loewe-belt
Mediaite, meanwhile, published a dispatch from the Pete campaign bus that is so psychotic you need to read it yourself, but it can best be described as a stream of consciousness ranting from an unwell street corner preacher who is screaming ludicrous questions while the candidate responds to them calmly. Mediaite framed the article as "Pete Buttigieg Does Not Want You To Read This Interview."People did read it, and they laughed.
https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/1194306849178300417
https://twitter.com/HashtagGriswold/status/1194362143153573888
The Root published an article that was widely praised on the left titled "Pete Buttigieg is a Lying MF" which was premised on an 8-year-old "surfaced" clip in which Pete makes a common argument about how sometimes people in lower income, minority neighborhoods don't have role models they know personally who testify to the value of education. Offering a different perspective as someone who grew up in one of those communities to shed some light on blind spots that Mayor Pete had would be one thing and something Pete clearly welcomes as evidenced by his return call to the author. Using it as the launching point for calling him a "lying motherfucker" in a disdain soaked essay is just a wee bit out there.
https://www.theroot.com/pete-buttigieg-is-a-lying-mf-1840038708
https://twitter.com/RzstProgramming/status/1198623649990946817
https://www.theroot.com/pete-buttigieg-called-me-heres-what-happened-1840055464
There has been an absolutely bizarre series of articles about how Buttigieg isn't "gay enough," most notably this one from the New Republic that referred to him repeatedly as "Mary Pete" and projected onto him a desire to hook up with an older man in a bus station. It was so bad that TNR retracted it and deleted it from their site. Politico published a confounding article premised on a few lesbian Democratic activists who weren't supporting Pete. It is unclear why there should be an expectation that Pete would earn the vote of every living lesbian—or gay man, for that matter. The very fact that Buttigieg isn't running an identity-based campaign for gays is part of his appeal.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/pete-buttigieg-gay-diversity-white-male-candidate.html
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1149776644049002496
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/new-republic-removes-homophobic-op-ed-attacking-buttigieg-n1029546
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/27/lesbians-pete-buttigieg-2020-president-1475900
Prominent online Democrats have said that Pete's success, coming in spite of low polling with black voters, is a sign of white supremacy. This is a real thing.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1201597283617460224
He's also been blindly accused of open racism. Also a real thing.
White supremacy is a political culture that elevates a white guy who leads a racist police force and didn’t know segregation was still a problem while ignoring a Latino candidate who led desegregation efforts and led the field in proposing solutions to racist policing.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1201597283617460224
He’s also been blindly accused of open racism. Also a real thing.
The media ignores Booker & Castro. It’s trying to ruin Kamala Harris.
Pete gets praise & zero coverage of his OPEN racism.
Beto gets a Vanity Fair cover when he’s on top and not a single word when he implodes.
The media isn’t complicit. The media is a white supremacy LEADER.
https://twitter.com/sairasameerarao/status/1201127962256363521
A Vice headline accused him of supporting a literal India style caste system. Adam Jentleson, a noted Twitter antagonist to Mayor Pete and former advisor to Harry Reid—who was, just so we're clear, not exactly the wokest horse in the barn—shared an accusation that Buttigieg has "high hopes of reinforcing systemic racism."
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/d3aazy/buttigiegs-version-of-america-is-basically-a-caste-system
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40ajentleson%20pete&src=typed_query
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2014/08/22/harry-reid-makes-a-couple-asian-jokes/81241294/
https://twitter.com/cravves/status/1197995117904302080
Back in my days of doing rapid response for Republicans, that would have been a pretty serious charge. And that's especially the case when a Democratic strategist is accusing fellow Democrats of supporting "systemic racism"—a claim like that is liable to end up in a Trump campaign Facebook ad aimed at depressing the black vote should Buttigieg wind up on the eventual Democratic ticket.
Some teens on TikTok—the hot new social site owned and controlled by the Chinese government which absolutely does not have any incentive to meddle in U.S. elections—have taken to calling him "Mayo Pete" and the progressive press has lapped it up, spilling substantial digital ink on this brilliant pun and brutally mocking the earnest Pete volunteers who sparked the meme by daring to show some off keyboard enthusiasm for politics through a cheesy dance number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
https://www.google.com/search?q=mayo+pete+tik+tok&oq=Mayo+pete+tik+tok&aqs=chrome.0.0.2360j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1195947838942982146
https://www.btrtoday.com/read/featured/pete-buttigiegs-cynical-campaign-dance/
It isn't just the online left. Pete seems to be driving most of his opponents batty.
The New York Times reported last month about how Buttigieg is the candidate who most "annoys" his rivals. Not a single campaign or candidate took the opportunity to offer even the most basic lip service to Pete for breaking a barrier as the first serious gay presidential candidate. Nor did any rival give him a polite shout-out on Veteran's Day despite being only one of two veterans in the Democratic race. Instead they complained about his privilege as a man.
https://www.google.com/search?q=New+York+Times+Pete+makes+opponents+upset&oq=New+York+Times+Pete+makes+opponents+upset&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64l2.7759j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/is-pete-buttigiegs-2020-bid-buoyed-by-male-privilege.html
Before dropping out of the race, Kamala Harris accused Pete of equating his gayness with blackness. (Not true.) Buttigieg's success seems to have turned Julian Castro into a Gladys Lehman pageant mom who doesn't understand why her child isn't winning. Castro shared a fabricated supposed quote from Buttigieg. (He later retracted it.) And Castro has been ranting to anyone who will listen about the size of San Antonio and the advantages Buttigieg has been given by the media. Castro, of course, had no complaints about the media when, as a mayor of a mid-size city in 2012, he was bathed in adoration while delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/03/what-mayor-pete-really-said-about-being-gay-prejudice-blacks/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE83-jqsrLA
https://twitter.com/juliancastro/status/1193881502381170688
https://www.expressnews.com/news/news_columnists/gilbert_garcia/article/Castro-can-t-hide-his-disdain-for-Buttigieg-14836112.php
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/11/07/mayor-to-mayor-castro-scoffs-at-buttigieg-san-antonio-could-almost-fit-south-bend-in-our-alamodome/
What is it about Buttigieg that has melted the brains of his rivals and their Twitter stans?
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/profile-in-courage-essay-contest/past-winning-essays/2000-winning-essay-by-peter-buttigieg
His policy agenda would be to the left of any platform ever put forth by a major party nominee, yet he's treated by progressive as if he's a sinister clone of Willard Mitt Romney. Nothing has "surfaced" about his past that reveals any hidden agenda besides that of the typical earnest, left-wing striver. In fact, the most jarring "surfacing" I've seen this year is the revelation that young Pete was the original Bernie bro, having submitted an essay in 2000 in praise of one Senator Bernard Sanders.
And none of this is to say that Buttigieg is beyond criticism and question. He's certainly not. The scandal in the South Bend police force deserves scrutiny on the campaign trail. So does the question of whether or not a 37 year-old small-town mayor really has the experience to manage the federal government. And both the right and left can come up with plenty of policy areas to draw contrasts with Buttigieg.
But calling him a bus-stop hooking, white-supremacy defending, homophobic, Manchurian Republican tool of the corporate elite is . . . well . . . as the Pete trolls might say, "that ain't it, chiefs."
From my admittedly outside vantage point, it seems like the lunacy of the attacks stems from a few places.
The first is simple human jealousy. In 2008, all of the candidates and most of their respective staffs and supporters had a seething hatred for Mitt Romney. Mitt seemed inauthentic, like he was buying his success and hadn't earned his scars in the way that some of the more long-standing pols, men like McCain and Giuliani and Thompson, had. The jealousy reflected itself on the stage where he was often the recipient of the most pointed barbs. Buttigieg's unlikely rise is having a similar effect.
The second reason was pinpointed by Jim Downs, author of Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation. Downs noted that Buttigieg fits a gay archetype that Andrew Tobias enshrined in his memoir, The Best Little Boy In the World.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/pete-buttigieg-gay-archetype-best-little-boy.html
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Little-Boy-World-Anniversary/dp/0345381769
In TBLBITW, Tobias writes about the trend of young closeted gay men—who are yes, mostly wealthy and white—overcompensating for their internalized homophobia and lack of comfort in the boys club by focusing on presenting external successes in areas where they can compete effectively: grades, behavior, resumรฉs.
Attempting to deal with these internal demons by presenting perfection externally, these gay men often achieved success in work but failed in their personal lives unless they found a community where there were others in a similar boat. Which is an opportunity Mayor Pete missed since his coming out story happened when he was already in the public limelight. It should come as no surprise, then, that TBLBITW archetype is often kind of grating. There's a reason that most of the time the high school valedictorian isn't also the prom king. And for normies who haven't checked all the success boxes of The Best Pete in The World, you can understand the motivation to take him down a peg, no matter what it takes.
Lastly, it seems that the bad elements of the identitarian left are once again eating their young.
As I've written, I am not the type of conservative who has a knee-jerk hostility towards the idea of identity politics. I fully endorse and embrace the life-affirming parts of identity politics which ensure that people are seen and recognized, promote diversity and inclusivity, and make sure that those who have been silenced in the past have a platform.
https://thebulwark.com/the-kiss/
The problem is that too often identity politics moves from providing a platform to the marginalized to denying platforms to others or attacking them for not conforming to some predetermined mold.
And this last bit is what we see with Mayor Pete. Rather than celebrating the unique and historic—and frankly shocking—elements of his success and the myriad policy ways in which they are aligned, identity politics is warping some progressives' views to the point that they can only see the ways his candidacy isn't representing the groups they would like, exactly as they would like them.
Tim Miller is a contributor to The Bulwark and a communications consultant. He previously served as senior advisor to the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, communications director for Jeb Bush, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Obligatory reminder that Kenneth Starr's investigation was such a drawn-out fishing expedition that Monica Lewinsky had never even met Bill Clinton when the investigation began.
Obligatory reminder that Kenneth Starr was removed from his job as
President of Baylor University for his part is covering up the school’s
failure to investigate or prosecute numerous instances of sexual assault
during his tenure.
Connections2 Kavanaugh was the one pushing Starr for all the lurid details to be released to the public by pushing Starr to ask Clinton explicit questions about the affair.
He was also a part of Epstein's OG lawyer team way back in 2007 that got him that ridiculous plea deal
He's also the guy who branded the GOP as being the party of family values.
Connections2 Kavanaugh was the one pushing Starr for all the lurid details to be released to the public by pushing Starr to ask Clinton explicit questions about the affair.
He was also a part of Epstein's OG lawyer team way back in 2007 that got him that ridiculous plea deal
He's also the guy who branded the GOP as being the party of family values.
Light News
House Ethics Committee sends Duncan Hunter a letter saying that he is not permitted to vote any longer under House rules now that he has entered a guilty plea. B) In letter to GOP CA Rep Hunter, Ethics Committee notes that House Rule XXIII, Clause 10(a) bars members convicted of a crime which could result in two years in jail, bars members from voting on the House floor.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELDszS_W4AEP2Kh.png
Democrats resign on mere allegations. Republicans stick around even AFTER they've been found guilty.
"Republicans really need really need to take a deep look at themselves and decide what side of history they will be on.".....: They've checked and they're fine with it.
I suspect the very same Rs who are complaining that the House is RUSHING impeachment would be accusing the House of intentionally PROLONGING it into an election year if they waited for the courts to litigate the WH’s refusal to cooperate with the probe.
https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1202641943563571202
A source directly involved in Rudy Giuliani's trip to Europe confirms to NBC News that Giuliani is currently in Kyiv conducting interviews as part of his investigation into the Bidens and his bid to undercut the credibility of the impeachment probe.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/live-blog/trump-impeachment-inquiry-live-updates-latest-news-n1065706/ncrd1096641
Birds are getting smaller. Scientists see the echo of climate change. | A separate study published in September in the journal Science found that human activities and ecological changes are already having a devastating impact on bird populations. Birds have been shrinking as global temperatures rise and the climate warms, a new study published Wednesday in the journal Ecology Letters has found. Research led by scientists at the University of Michigan examined more than 70,000 bird specimens from 52 North American migratory bird species collected between 1978 and 2016. The researchers found that body sizes for all 52 species shrank consistently over that 38-year time period while the length of wingspans grew, which suggests that birds may be forced to adapt — sometimes in dramatic ways — to climate change. “Other studies have found a relationship between temperature and body size similar to what we found, but this is the most consistent result,” said Benjamin Winger, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the study’s senior author. “What we don’t know is the extent to which the shrinking bird is an adaptive response to climate change. Are they able to keep up with warming temperatures or are they lagging behind?” With global warming’s pace showing no signs of slowing, scientists are keen to study how human-caused climate change is impacting animals and their natural habitats, and whether species will become threatened — as has been seen with polar bears and monarch butterflies — or if animals will be able to sufficiently adapt in order to survive. Some research has already shown birds as a group are at risk. A separate study published in September in the journal Science found that human activities and ecological changes are already having a devastating impact on bird populations. The research found that the total bird population in the United States and Canada has fallen by almost 3 billion as a result of habitat loss and changing food supplies. The bird specimens analyzed in the new study in the journal Ecology Letters were all collected in Chicago after they died from colliding with buildings during their spring and fall migrations.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/birds-are-getting-smaller-scientists-see-echo-climate-change-n1096726
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/polar-bears-threatened-with-extinction-due-to-climate-change-478426179988
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/monarch-butterflies-face-danger-quasi-extinction-hope-wing-n556316
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/u-s-canada-have-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say-ncna1055961
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13434
A Detroit property contaminated with uranium and other dangerous chemicals partially collapsed into the Detroit River on Nov. 26, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has confirmed. Located next to Historic Fort Wayne and leased by Detroit Bulk Storage, the site known as the Detroit Dock allegedly collapsed under the weight of large aggregate piles that were stored at the site during Thanksgiving weekend.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/12/05/detroit-bulk-storage-revere-copper-detroit-river-uranium/2618868001/
Trump's in a lot of trouble - and the people around him have no idea how much, because they derive their information from media that earn their living by deceiving their users
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1202765602919796736
Turley wrote a piece for WaPo in 2014, declaring that it was a myth that an impeachable offense must involve a violation of criminal law:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-impeachment/2014/08/01/1f00f4ea-1808-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html
Trump has routinely communicated with Rudy Giuliani and other individuals speaking on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russian and other foreign intelligence services, current and former U.S. officials said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/phone-logs-in-impeachment-report-renew-concern-about-security-of-trump-communications/2019/12/05/2066fbf4-16fe-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html
Trump attorneys ask Supreme Court to void financial records subpoena. Here comes the true test as to "how fucked" we are as a country...
https://apnews.com/06dec345b86b1098b2eceb6de30471a3
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/trump-asks-supreme-court-void-financial-records-subpoena-n1096586
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that the House of Representatives would begin drafting impeachment articles against Trump.
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/12519-0
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/politics/pelosi-impeachment.html
A viral video shows people climbing over the US-Mexico border fence with a ladder and sliding down the other side
https://www.businessinsider.com/video-people-easily-climb-us-mexico-border-fence-2019-12
Republicans' Alternative “Report” Does Nothing to Refute Impeachment Report
https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-alternative-report-does-nothing-to-refute-impeachment-report/
Joe Biden already has a brutal new ad featuring NATO leaders laughing at Trump
https://theweek.com/speedreads/882426/joe-biden-already-brutal-new-ad-featuring-nato-leaders-laughing-trump
700,00+ people will soon lose food-stamp benefits under a new Trump administration rule — and that's terrible news for Walmart, Target, Kroger, and dollar stores
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-impact-from-trump-food-stamp-changes-2019-12
'Flat-Out Corruption': DeVos Accused of Scheming to Stop Next President From Canceling Student Loan Debt; "Normally the rich are moderately more subtle about rigging the system in their favor. They're scared.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/05/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-scheming-stop-next-president-canceling-student
FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/fcc-tries-to-bury-finding-that-verizon-and-t-mobile-exaggerated-4g-coverage/
Republican Rep. Tom Graves (Georgia) has announced that he won't seek re-election in 2020. Graves is the 20th House Republican to announce his retirement in 2020. His seat in Georgia's 14th district is considered an extremely safe GOP seat
https://www.axios.com/tom-graves-house-republican-retirement-2020-2b5c0298-ce06-4ff0-b49e-9d41a8e5c5f8.html
These people are not leaving the Party. They are leaving Trump.
Another 1.4 million vehicles have been recalled due to faulty Takata airbags. It was already the largest auto recall in history.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/05/business/takata-airbag-recall-scli/index.html
Two Russian hackers charged in sweeping malware attack on U.S. | Federal prosecutors have filed charges against two Russian nationals accused of carrying out one of the largest cybercrime sprees in history, orchestrating a string of attacks on computer systems in the U.S. and targeting victims in at least 11 states.
The accused were responsible for tens of millions of dollars in damages, and the attacks netted them over $3 million, according to court documents. Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev are accused of planting malware on victim computers, attacking several institutions in Pennsylvania — a bank, companies, a school district — in addition to targets in other states.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-charge-two-russian-hackers-malware-attack-u-s-bank-n1096426
Watergate Teaches Us That Democrats Should Broaden the Impeachment Charges — The Democrats are now in the midst of an impeachment. And there is no going back. So why be moderate or cautious in the leveling of entirely legitimate charges against this terrible and entirely illegitimate president?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/04/watergate-teaches-us-democrats-should-broaden-impeachment-charges
China’s Genetic Research on Ethnic Minorities Sets Off Science Backlash: After scientists raised questions about the ethics of studies backed by Chinese surveillance agencies, prestigious scientific journals said that they would re-evaluate papers they previously published on Tibetans, Uighurs and other minority groups
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/business/china-dna-science-surveillance.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
Judge Says Thousands of Detainees May Sue a Prison Company For Using Them As a “Captive Labor Force”
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/12/immigration-detainee-geo-forced-labor-lawsuit/
Trump-Appointed Judge Deals Trump Admin Blow in FOIA Lawsuit Over Secret Whitaker Docs
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-appointed-judge-deals-trump-admin-blow-in-foia-lawsuit-over-secret-whitaker-docs/
Judge orders release of ex-acting AG Whitaker’s financial documents; The judge rejected DOJ’s bid for a categorical rule allowing secrecy for draft financial disclosures.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/05/judge-orders-release-of-ex-acting-ags-whitakers-financial-docs-076129
350 health professionals are to warn Congress that Trump's mental health is deteriorating dangerously amid impeachment proceedings
https://www.businessinsider.com/psychiatrists-submit-warning-trumps-mental-health-deteriorating-2019-12
'A massive backwards step culturally': Australia will no longer have a federal department dedicated to the arts - PM Scott Morrison has announced the arts department will be rolled into a department that will also oversehttps://www.sbs.com.au/news/a-massive-backwards-step-culturally-australia-will-no-longer-have-a-federal-department-dedicated-to-the-artse roads and rail.
Israeli Senior rabbi beaten up by yobs shouting ‘dirty Jew’ and ‘kill the Jews’ in North London
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/12/02/world/europe/ap-eu-britain-rabbi-beaten.html
Democrats: * begin depositions *
Republicans: WE NEED OPEN HEARINGS!
Democrats: Okay.
Republicans: * unanimously vote against open hearings*
Democrats: * issue subpoenas for documents and witnesses *
White House: * refuses everything *
Republicans: There's no evidence!
Democrats: * begin open hearings *
Republicans: It's all hearsay!
Witnesses: I heard it straight from the President's mouth.
Republicans: Ukraine hacked our election!
Witnesses: That's a pro-Russia narrative that holds no weight in truth.
Republicans: CHALUPA!
Republicans: Trump isn't being given a chance to defend himself.
Nadler: Now is your time. Come present your case.
Trump: Ha ha nope.
Republicans: Trump still isn't being given a chance to defend himself.
Trump Administration Sued Over Social Media Screening for Visa Applicants
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/politics/visa-applications-social-media.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
Major UK banks are "threatening" humanity by collectively propping up the global coal industry with almost £25bn in “life support”, new data has revealed.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-banks-coal-funding-greenpeace-extinction-rebellion-a9232971.html
Hold McKinsey accountable for profiting on human misery and facilitating Trump’s hateful treatment of asylum seekers that has produced so much suffering and death. McKinsey should never receive another government contract here or anywhere else.
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1202246702377439232
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies
Remember folks, using the president’s son’s name as a homophone to make a point about the Constitution is a billion times worse than this: Video obtained by ProPublica shows the Border Patrol held a sick teen in a concrete cell without proper medical attention and did not discover his body until his cellmate alerted guards. The video doesn’t match the Border Patrol's account of his death.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-the-cell-where-a-sick-16-year-old-boy-died-in-border-patrol-care
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELDszS_W4AEP2Kh.png
Democrats resign on mere allegations. Republicans stick around even AFTER they've been found guilty.
"Republicans really need really need to take a deep look at themselves and decide what side of history they will be on.".....: They've checked and they're fine with it.
I suspect the very same Rs who are complaining that the House is RUSHING impeachment would be accusing the House of intentionally PROLONGING it into an election year if they waited for the courts to litigate the WH’s refusal to cooperate with the probe.
https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1202641943563571202
A source directly involved in Rudy Giuliani's trip to Europe confirms to NBC News that Giuliani is currently in Kyiv conducting interviews as part of his investigation into the Bidens and his bid to undercut the credibility of the impeachment probe.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/live-blog/trump-impeachment-inquiry-live-updates-latest-news-n1065706/ncrd1096641
Birds are getting smaller. Scientists see the echo of climate change. | A separate study published in September in the journal Science found that human activities and ecological changes are already having a devastating impact on bird populations. Birds have been shrinking as global temperatures rise and the climate warms, a new study published Wednesday in the journal Ecology Letters has found. Research led by scientists at the University of Michigan examined more than 70,000 bird specimens from 52 North American migratory bird species collected between 1978 and 2016. The researchers found that body sizes for all 52 species shrank consistently over that 38-year time period while the length of wingspans grew, which suggests that birds may be forced to adapt — sometimes in dramatic ways — to climate change. “Other studies have found a relationship between temperature and body size similar to what we found, but this is the most consistent result,” said Benjamin Winger, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the study’s senior author. “What we don’t know is the extent to which the shrinking bird is an adaptive response to climate change. Are they able to keep up with warming temperatures or are they lagging behind?” With global warming’s pace showing no signs of slowing, scientists are keen to study how human-caused climate change is impacting animals and their natural habitats, and whether species will become threatened — as has been seen with polar bears and monarch butterflies — or if animals will be able to sufficiently adapt in order to survive. Some research has already shown birds as a group are at risk. A separate study published in September in the journal Science found that human activities and ecological changes are already having a devastating impact on bird populations. The research found that the total bird population in the United States and Canada has fallen by almost 3 billion as a result of habitat loss and changing food supplies. The bird specimens analyzed in the new study in the journal Ecology Letters were all collected in Chicago after they died from colliding with buildings during their spring and fall migrations.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/birds-are-getting-smaller-scientists-see-echo-climate-change-n1096726
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/polar-bears-threatened-with-extinction-due-to-climate-change-478426179988
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/monarch-butterflies-face-danger-quasi-extinction-hope-wing-n556316
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/u-s-canada-have-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say-ncna1055961
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13434
A Detroit property contaminated with uranium and other dangerous chemicals partially collapsed into the Detroit River on Nov. 26, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has confirmed. Located next to Historic Fort Wayne and leased by Detroit Bulk Storage, the site known as the Detroit Dock allegedly collapsed under the weight of large aggregate piles that were stored at the site during Thanksgiving weekend.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/12/05/detroit-bulk-storage-revere-copper-detroit-river-uranium/2618868001/
Trump's in a lot of trouble - and the people around him have no idea how much, because they derive their information from media that earn their living by deceiving their users
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1202765602919796736
Turley wrote a piece for WaPo in 2014, declaring that it was a myth that an impeachable offense must involve a violation of criminal law:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-impeachment/2014/08/01/1f00f4ea-1808-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html
Trump has routinely communicated with Rudy Giuliani and other individuals speaking on cellphones vulnerable to monitoring by Russian and other foreign intelligence services, current and former U.S. officials said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/phone-logs-in-impeachment-report-renew-concern-about-security-of-trump-communications/2019/12/05/2066fbf4-16fe-11ea-8406-df3c54b3253e_story.html
Trump attorneys ask Supreme Court to void financial records subpoena. Here comes the true test as to "how fucked" we are as a country...
https://apnews.com/06dec345b86b1098b2eceb6de30471a3
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/trump-asks-supreme-court-void-financial-records-subpoena-n1096586
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that the House of Representatives would begin drafting impeachment articles against Trump.
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/12519-0
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/politics/pelosi-impeachment.html
A viral video shows people climbing over the US-Mexico border fence with a ladder and sliding down the other side
https://www.businessinsider.com/video-people-easily-climb-us-mexico-border-fence-2019-12
Republicans' Alternative “Report” Does Nothing to Refute Impeachment Report
https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-alternative-report-does-nothing-to-refute-impeachment-report/
Joe Biden already has a brutal new ad featuring NATO leaders laughing at Trump
https://theweek.com/speedreads/882426/joe-biden-already-brutal-new-ad-featuring-nato-leaders-laughing-trump
700,00+ people will soon lose food-stamp benefits under a new Trump administration rule — and that's terrible news for Walmart, Target, Kroger, and dollar stores
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-target-impact-from-trump-food-stamp-changes-2019-12
'Flat-Out Corruption': DeVos Accused of Scheming to Stop Next President From Canceling Student Loan Debt; "Normally the rich are moderately more subtle about rigging the system in their favor. They're scared.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/05/flat-out-corruption-devos-accused-scheming-stop-next-president-canceling-student
FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/fcc-tries-to-bury-finding-that-verizon-and-t-mobile-exaggerated-4g-coverage/
Republican Rep. Tom Graves (Georgia) has announced that he won't seek re-election in 2020. Graves is the 20th House Republican to announce his retirement in 2020. His seat in Georgia's 14th district is considered an extremely safe GOP seat
https://www.axios.com/tom-graves-house-republican-retirement-2020-2b5c0298-ce06-4ff0-b49e-9d41a8e5c5f8.html
These people are not leaving the Party. They are leaving Trump.
Another 1.4 million vehicles have been recalled due to faulty Takata airbags. It was already the largest auto recall in history.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/05/business/takata-airbag-recall-scli/index.html
Two Russian hackers charged in sweeping malware attack on U.S. | Federal prosecutors have filed charges against two Russian nationals accused of carrying out one of the largest cybercrime sprees in history, orchestrating a string of attacks on computer systems in the U.S. and targeting victims in at least 11 states.
The accused were responsible for tens of millions of dollars in damages, and the attacks netted them over $3 million, according to court documents. Maksim Yakubets and Igor Turashev are accused of planting malware on victim computers, attacking several institutions in Pennsylvania — a bank, companies, a school district — in addition to targets in other states.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-charge-two-russian-hackers-malware-attack-u-s-bank-n1096426
Watergate Teaches Us That Democrats Should Broaden the Impeachment Charges — The Democrats are now in the midst of an impeachment. And there is no going back. So why be moderate or cautious in the leveling of entirely legitimate charges against this terrible and entirely illegitimate president?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/04/watergate-teaches-us-democrats-should-broaden-impeachment-charges
China’s Genetic Research on Ethnic Minorities Sets Off Science Backlash: After scientists raised questions about the ethics of studies backed by Chinese surveillance agencies, prestigious scientific journals said that they would re-evaluate papers they previously published on Tibetans, Uighurs and other minority groups
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/business/china-dna-science-surveillance.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
Judge Says Thousands of Detainees May Sue a Prison Company For Using Them As a “Captive Labor Force”
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/12/immigration-detainee-geo-forced-labor-lawsuit/
Trump-Appointed Judge Deals Trump Admin Blow in FOIA Lawsuit Over Secret Whitaker Docs
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-appointed-judge-deals-trump-admin-blow-in-foia-lawsuit-over-secret-whitaker-docs/
Judge orders release of ex-acting AG Whitaker’s financial documents; The judge rejected DOJ’s bid for a categorical rule allowing secrecy for draft financial disclosures.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/05/judge-orders-release-of-ex-acting-ags-whitakers-financial-docs-076129
350 health professionals are to warn Congress that Trump's mental health is deteriorating dangerously amid impeachment proceedings
https://www.businessinsider.com/psychiatrists-submit-warning-trumps-mental-health-deteriorating-2019-12
'A massive backwards step culturally': Australia will no longer have a federal department dedicated to the arts - PM Scott Morrison has announced the arts department will be rolled into a department that will also oversehttps://www.sbs.com.au/news/a-massive-backwards-step-culturally-australia-will-no-longer-have-a-federal-department-dedicated-to-the-artse roads and rail.
Israeli Senior rabbi beaten up by yobs shouting ‘dirty Jew’ and ‘kill the Jews’ in North London
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/12/02/world/europe/ap-eu-britain-rabbi-beaten.html
Democrats: * begin depositions *
Republicans: WE NEED OPEN HEARINGS!
Democrats: Okay.
Republicans: * unanimously vote against open hearings*
Democrats: * issue subpoenas for documents and witnesses *
White House: * refuses everything *
Republicans: There's no evidence!
Democrats: * begin open hearings *
Republicans: It's all hearsay!
Witnesses: I heard it straight from the President's mouth.
Republicans: Ukraine hacked our election!
Witnesses: That's a pro-Russia narrative that holds no weight in truth.
Republicans: CHALUPA!
Republicans: Trump isn't being given a chance to defend himself.
Nadler: Now is your time. Come present your case.
Trump: Ha ha nope.
Republicans: Trump still isn't being given a chance to defend himself.
Trump Administration Sued Over Social Media Screening for Visa Applicants
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/us/politics/visa-applications-social-media.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
Major UK banks are "threatening" humanity by collectively propping up the global coal industry with almost £25bn in “life support”, new data has revealed.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-banks-coal-funding-greenpeace-extinction-rebellion-a9232971.html
Hold McKinsey accountable for profiting on human misery and facilitating Trump’s hateful treatment of asylum seekers that has produced so much suffering and death. McKinsey should never receive another government contract here or anywhere else.
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1202246702377439232
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies
Remember folks, using the president’s son’s name as a homophone to make a point about the Constitution is a billion times worse than this: Video obtained by ProPublica shows the Border Patrol held a sick teen in a concrete cell without proper medical attention and did not discover his body until his cellmate alerted guards. The video doesn’t match the Border Patrol's account of his death.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-the-cell-where-a-sick-16-year-old-boy-died-in-border-patrol-care
Here's The Full Story Of How A University In Hong Kong | After months of protests in Hong Kong, universities became the site of dramatic battles between students and police. [buzzfeed]
See article for maps
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-university-campus-battle
Here's The Full Story Of How A University In Hong Kong
After months of protests in Hong Kong, universities became the site of dramatic battles between students and police.
College campuses turned into fortresses. Students armed with Molotov cocktails dodged rubber bullets, and many were forced to crawl through sewers to escape.
How did we get here?
Under Siege
Rosalind Adams Reporting From Hong Kong
Posted on December 4, 2019, at 7:19 p.m. ET
1
The Dilemma.
HONG KONG — May peered down into the dark hole. The glow of her friends' headlamps revealed a hint of filthy gray water, but not all the shit or cockroaches swimming within. Beneath May's feet was Hong Kong's labyrinth system of drainage and sewer pipes — and her best chance to escape the university campus where she had been trapped by police.
May is 21 and in college, although her slight frame and wide eyes could make you think she's still a teen. The battle at the university was the toughest and longest one that May had ever fought, even after spending months on the front lines. At night she could still hear the pop of rubber bullets and the screams of protesters who had been caught by police when she tried to sleep.
Hong Kong has been engulfed in protests for nearly six months — they were at first over a controversial extradition bill that's since been rescinded, but soon evolved into calls for greater police accountability and full democracy. Over time, the demonstrations have shifted from mass marches to running street battles. But after a strike on November 11 plunged the city into chaos, universities across Hong Kong unexpectedly became the central battleground, ultimately culminating in a 12-day-long police siege on the grounds of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protests-extradition-bill
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protester-shot-live-police-round
BuzzFeed News spent two weeks on campuses and in the streets talking to dozens of students, people on the front line, and medics to tell the story of how the battle at the university became one of the darkest chapters in the protracted fight for democracy in Hong Kong. As students used the swimming pool to practice tossing Molotov cocktails or learned to shoot bows and arrows, police surrounded them and threatened to use lethal force — signaling a fight that has only grown more entrenched between pro-democracy protesters and a government that remains loyal to Beijing.
Before the two-week siege was officially over, Hong Kong would vote in a slew of pro-democracy district councilors, widely seen as a referendum in support of the ongoing protests. And US President Donald Trump would sign the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which allows the US to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials for human rights violations. Beijing was furious and would respond with its own sanctions; but in the meantime, residents drank champagne in the streets to celebrate these rare victories.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-by-the-president-30/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protesters-us-flags-american-support
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/world/asia/china-us-hong-kong-bill-protests.html
But while those events unfolded, some students remained trapped at Polytechnic University, growing increasingly desperate as police officers refused to release their grip on the campus.
Eventually, May and her friends decided they couldn't wait any longer. Facing a possible 10-year prison sentence for rioting if she were to surrender to the police, she slowly lowered herself into the sewer system. Using a compass and headlamp to guide her, May crawled through the opening on her stomach, wearing a gas mask to filter the smell.
There are more than 150,000 maintenance hole covers across Hong Kong; as she crawled, May realized there were multiple different tunnels she could take.
Even with the aid of maps, she wasn't sure where she might pop up — or if she would get out of the sewers at all.
2
How it all began.
It started with the death of a student.
In the early hours of November 4, Alex Chow fell from a parking garage as police were firing tear gas to clear protesters from the area. A few days later, the 22-year-old died from a brain injury sustained in the fall. Across the city, people held vigils to mourn the loss. Protest chants called for revenge.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protesters-mourn-alex-chow-death
Over Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, protesters organized a strike that week to shut down the city, voting in polls to decide the day and the time. They asked residents to stay home from school and work, calling it the "dawn action."
In a residential neighborhood of the city called Sha Tin, 20-year-old Lee woke up around 3 a.m. on the Monday of the strike — one week after Chow's fall. Dressed in all black, the standard uniform of protesters, she pulled her hair into a low ponytail that revealed a few delicate ear piercings and headed out of her dorm at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). In the dark, she and other students began gathering materials and headed toward the sprawling eight-lane highway that hugs one side of the campus. The rest of the university is carved into the side of a mountain, and the hilly terrain and leafy trails make it a natural fortress.
Together, Lee and her group dragged items like bricks, cardboard boxes, and bikes to block Tolo Highway — a critical thoroughfare that commuters use to travel to Hong Kong Island, where the city's main business district is located. Others set fire to the tracks at a nearby subway station to stop people commuting to work. It was one of a number of strategic locations where protesters had planned operations to paralyze the city.
"The original aim was to block the road and block the trains, not to fight with police," said Lee. BuzzFeed News is only identifying protesters by their first names or English nicknames because of widespread fear of arrest.
Across the city, the strike had already led to early morning clashes. Hong Kong was waking up to videos of police officers shooting protesters with live bullets, including one man who was struck in the abdomen around 7 a.m., as well as a police motorcyclist weaving among protesters, trying to hit them.
https://twitter.com/kalam51859611/status/1194638997521190912
https://twitter.com/CPoint1997/status/1193744972505178112
Police arrived outside CUHK, that morning too, where students were still working on blocking the road. Before 8 a.m., officers started firing pellets filled with pepper spray, or pepper balls, at students on a bridge that crosses the highway. Known simply as "bridge two," it is one of four main entrances to the university.
Lee was nearby when police officers first fired and threw back some bricks, but she wasn't prepared for a confrontation with police. There wasn't a standoff or a large crowd to disperse that typically draws police fire. And universities hadn't seen any clashes before. Lee had none of her protective gear, such as goggles or a gas mask, with her that morning.
"No one really expected that they would attack the university," said Jane, a 23-year-old student at CUHK.
About six miles south of CUHK, Polytechnic University students were also trying to block the tunnel that connects the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to Hong Kong Island. Police officers entered the campus and fired tear gas after protesters threw Molotov cocktails. And police officers used tear gas at the University of Hong Kong that morning too, where students were also blocking roads.
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/11/P2019111100617.htm
While months of protests had brought clashes to the airport, malls, and subway stations, November 11 was the first time tear gas had been fired at universities — three campuses were hit in one day, and 11 colleges had canceled classes.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-airport-protests-riot-police
https://qz.com/1665776/hong-kong-police-clash-with-protesters-in-shopping-mall/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-mtr-protests
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3037262/tear-gas-fired-campuses-first-time-student-protesters
Without anything to protect themselves, Lee and her group at CUHK left to gear up. The police, however, didn't move. They had departed the University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University that morning, but police vans remained parked at the base of bridge two at CUHK. A row of riot police officers formed a perimeter at the top of the bridge and were positioned firmly at the entrance of the school. The cordon was meant to block students from throwing things onto the highway, they said.
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/11/P2019111100617.htm
Word spread around campus about the police presence, and students started gathering nearby behind makeshift barriers of umbrellas and track-and-field hurdles.
"It got more and more tense because the police were still there and students kept gathering," said Lee.
3
Battle at CUHK.
Bricks, Molotovs, and tear gas flew from all angles as students battled with police at the intersection of the CUHK bridge and the main campus road on Tuesday afternoon. Police had continued to occupy the bridge overnight. A university official had tried to persuade students to retreat, but this had only inflamed tensions further.
"Why do we need to retreat? This is still our place, our home," Lee recalled thinking. Instead, students pushed their barriers forward toward the line of riot police.
After about a half hour, police charged forward through the protesters' front line and wrestled students to the ground, making several arrests. One student was led away, his hair slick with blood that trickled down his face. Others ran into the athletics stadium, locking the gates to protect themselves. They dragged high jump mats to the gates and set them ablaze. Dozens of police officers, pushing deeper into the campus, continued to pursue the students, arcing their tear gas canisters onto the track and sending students running up the bleachers.
Police eventually retreated back to the bridge while protesters took refuge up the road. But they took little pause and methodically prepared to defend their campus. Some smashed bricks into smaller pieces using shot puts from the athletic field, poured paint thinner into bottles to build a supply of Molotov cocktails, or brought down chairs from classrooms to build bigger barricades.
Jane, the 23-year-old university student, said she tried to help by building other roadblocks nearby with a group of protesters.
"In terms of weapons, we're never going to win. So the only thing we could think of was to divert or distract them," she said.
In the afternoon, the head of CUHK, Rocky Tuan, tried to negotiate directly with police officers who remained stationed at the bridge. But when he returned to speak to students, the compromise he offered did little to soothe things. Tuan said the police would retreat to the bottom of the bridge if students stopped throwing things onto the highway.
Many felt betrayed and angry — ultimately police had only agreed to move back about 20 yards.
"Where were you for the last two days?" someone shouted at Tuan as students huddled around him. "Could you promise that no more tear gas or rubber bullets will be fired inside campus?" another asked pointedly. One student hugged his knees to his chest and started heaving with sobs when it was clear that police weren't leaving campus.
"The police shouldn't be in the university. They broke into our place and arrested our people," said one resolute student at the front lines. "If the police don't leave the bridge, then we are not leaving."
Fighting broke out once more that night as students spent hours trying to force the police to retreat from the bridge, lighting their way with endless volleys of Molotov cocktails. They blocked the road to the school with dumpsters and plastic barriers, setting them ablaze to keep police from rushing campus as they had earlier. Flames licked tree branches and police shields as students launched more and more Molotovs from behind umbrellas. Even in battle, someone managed to keep a black protest flag flying.
This night was different than the street battles that had become routine in the last five months. While the strategy had long been "be like water" — disappearing and reemerging in different parts of the city to keep police on their toes and avoid arrest — this was now a fixed battle centered on a narrow corridor of the bridge to campus — just the width of a couple of vehicles.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protest-general-strike
As the crush of bodies pressed forward on the bridge, protesters were also turned into easy targets for the police officers who fired round after round of rubber bullets and bean bags in rapid succession.
"It was so dangerous because it was so packed," said Samuel, a first aid volunteer and a high school student studying pharmacy who had come to help out. "They'd get hit and then we had to go in and drag them out."
Police fired more than 2,300 rounds of tear gas that day, according to a government report. This amounted to around a quarter of all the tear gas rounds fired since the protests began in June, and the most tear gas that had been fired in a single day — much of it was on CUHK's bridge. The clouds of smoke became so thick that protesters used leaf blowers to try to clear the air. First aid volunteers said they had to carry people affected by the smoke as far as a mile away before they could find relief.
https://gia.info.gov.hk/general/201911/27/P2019112700593_331105_1_1574849208959.pdf
"It was obvious there was a very violent and major confrontation going because we were seeing lots of injuries," said Darren Mann, a surgeon in Hong Kong who showed up to help after a call for doctors went out on Telegram. The school gym turned into a makeshift triage center. Mann quickly listed off the bashes, burns, bruising, and bleeding that he treated throughout the night.
"These are the wounds of war. They're the same everywhere," he said.
Dramatic images of smoke and raging fires on the bridge haunted Justin, a high school student and frequent frontliner who was watching the livestream from his phone. When he couldn't sleep, he showed up at the university around 3 a.m. and headed straight to the bridge to help out. Justin was one of hundreds who started arriving at the campus throughout the day as word of the clashes spread. While it was centered on a campus, it was bigger than just the students.
https://freehk.live/
"It wasn't about defending the school, it was about defending the fight. If we don't protect the people who are protesting on campus, it means we don't care about them," said Justin.
Police had already retreated by then, but hundreds of protesters didn't move from the bridge that night. Some nodded off with their cheeks against their knees or against another's shoulders, while others, like Justin, kept watch for police and remained alert.
No one knew when the police might return.
4
Preparing for War.
On Wednesday morning, some students were still curled under silver thermal blankets, sleeping in the gym. Two girls poured hot water at the front desk into cups of instant noodles for people who were hungry. Some showered in the basement locker rooms. There were piles of fresh clothes, organized by size, for people who had grown cold or gotten wet from the water cannon.
Supplies continued to pour into the school. Buses pulled in filled with bags of hot meals, clothes, and more equipment, such as fresh gas mask filters. People across Hong Kong were pitching in to help. More showed up in support — to sweep away debris, pick up garbage from the night before, or just act as an extra body in case police returned.
"The point is we like this area, this place. This is our home. We want to protect our home," said John, a 22-year-old student who was helping pick up garbage.
The campus was calmer, but everyone was on guard to see if the police would come back. The president of the CUHK student union, Jacky So, filed an injunction with the high court, hoping to keep riot police off the campus permanently. It requested that police not enter the university and refrain from using crowd-control equipment.
https://legalref.judiciary.hk/lrs/common/ju/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=125400&currpage=T
Classes were already canceled; but by the end of the day, the rest of the semester would be canceled too, only underscoring how the protests had dismantled some of the routines of normal life. Still, at some moments, Jane and other CUHK students were like any other college kids; they confessed they were happy about having no class as they hung out in the grass outside their dorm on Wednesday. "I was supposed to have a presentation today," said Jane.
"I had three essays due this week!" her friend broke in. "It's impossible to concentrate when all of this is going on anyway," she added.
Hong Kong police condemned protesters' actions in a press conference, saying the university had become "a breeding ground for rioters and criminals." Police officers had "strong suspicions that the school was turned into a weapons factory as several hundred petrol bombs were fired in one single day."
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/videos/2390583927850521/
Many protesters are insistent that their actions have become more aggressive only in response to the police, and the government's inaction on their demands. For months, several of the protesters' demands have revolved around increased police accountability, calling for dropping riot charges, releasing arrested protesters, as well as an independent inquiry into police violence.
"I do throw cocktails, but the purpose is not to hurt the cops. It's to stop their attacks. It's a defensive weapon." said Justin, the high school student who showed up to CUHK. In the protests, frontliners often divvy up roles. The Molotovs are referred to as "magic," and people like Justin who throw them are known as "magicians."
The high court agreed with police that officers had reason to enter the campus by force, considering the violent clashes at the bridge, and rejected the injunction.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/11/13/breaking-hong-kong-court-rejects-cuhk-injunction-police-entry-crowd-control-weapon-use-without-approval/
Lots of students stuck around campus, preparing for another police advance, but officers didn't return to CUHK.
By now, though, the entire city was shocked by how authorities had advanced on the university in one of the most brutal nights of the protests so far. There were at least 100 injuries. Other schools, like the University of Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, and Baptist University, began making their own preparations — building barriers and stocking supplies — in case police tried to advance on their campuses as well.
Justin spent a few days at CUHK, mostly keeping watch for police, and then headed to Polytechnic on Friday as the number of protesters there continued to grow. His father had already cut off his monthly allowance and canceled his phone plan because of his participation in the unrest. The 19-year-old is supposed to begin his first year at university next year, but is unsure he'll do well on his exams after missing so much school due to the protests. Higher education seems less important than continuing his fight at the front lines, anyway.
"Hong Kong is a big deal right now with everything happening," he said. "I don't think I should quit yet."
Inside Polytechnic University, tucked into the dense Kowloon neighborhood, students gathered up bows and arrows they had found among the campus's archery equipment. Justin learned how to shoot in one of the classrooms that had been converted into a practice range. Protesters began dismantling the spokes inside umbrellas and stockpiling them to use as extra arrows. The school's drained swimming pool had also become a place to practice tossing Molotov cocktails; the repeated explosions of glass and fire have left black marks on the bottom of the pool. Inside the canteen, a cook prepared meals, and there were piles of dry food and snacks.
"There was gas masks — everything you need. Even Calvin Klein underwear," said Justin.
5
Battle at Polytechnic.
Polytechnic University was more vulnerable than CUHK. Students had the cover of the campus's mountainous terrain at CUHK, which could provide potential escape routes. But Polytechnic was in the middle of a dense urban neighborhood on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The campus was flat, and its buildings were arranged in rows. There were only a few exits.
When police started firing tear gas early on Sunday, November 17, Justin, who had already been at Polytechnic for a couple of days, was on the ground floor of a school building, tossing Molotov cocktails at authorities just a few yards away.
Protesters at Polytechnic had prepared for this. The street outside the school was filled with nails to puncture the tires of vehicles that got too close. And on the second floor of one of the front buildings, protesters had fashioned makeshift catapults from plastic helmets and thick resistance bands sourced from the university gym to launch bricks and Molotov cocktails over the school's gates.
Justin had missed the battle on the bridge at CUHK, but after months of working as a frontliner, the unrelenting hourslong clash with police at Polytechnic became the most intense battle he had ever seen.
May, the 21-year-old student, arrived around noon that day and worked as a firefighter on the front lines, grabbing the canisters of tear gas fired by police and throwing them back or dousing them with water.
More continued to join the front lines as clashes continued throughout the day. Isaac, a student at Polytechnic, arrived in the afternoon. Tall and lanky with hair that flopped over the front of his glasses, he had shown up with a friend.
"I had wanted to go to CUHK, but we couldn't get there," he said. "So my partner and I, we just went to the front lines and helped defend the school from the police."
As the night wore on, and there was little sign that either side would stop. Police announced in a message on its Facebook page that anyone leaving the school could face rioting charges, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Police officers said they would use lethal force in response to violence if necessary.
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/videos/1568638939944471/
The police warnings ricocheted across social media, though they did little to discourage the protesters. Mann, the doctor who was also at CUHK, and some of his colleagues decided to leave the Polytechnic campus and head to the hospitals where they could still assist with the mounting injuries.
"It was a difficult decision because medics never like to leave," he said. "But we agreed among ourselves it was pointless in us all getting arrested because that would only impact care."
Mann passed the police cordon with one group of colleagues around 10 p.m. when he thought it was still safe to leave. But a second group of medical professionals, not far behind him, was detained by police. His phone started ringing. When he walked back to see what happened, he saw his colleagues kneeling on the ground wearing their high-visibility vests marked "doctor" or "nurse," their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
Officers later said they were justified in making the arrests because they suspected protesters were posing as medical professionals or journalists.
"It is unheard of for them to be arrested while delivering medical care," said Mann, dismissing the police's explanation. He wrote for the Lancet in November about how the Hong Kong Police Force had violated international norms.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32909-5/fulltext
Inside Polytechnic, as the battles continued, May watched one of her friends get hit in the head with a tear gas canister and fall to the ground. Without thinking, she put her right hand on the canister, burning herself. A first aid responder wrapped it, and she quickly returned to the battle.
"I could only rest for a few minutes," she said. "I kept seeing people shot by police. They just fell down. I didn't know whether they were dead or not."
After more than 20 hours of battle, police burst onto the campus around 6 a.m. on Monday — now an entire week after police first occupied the bridge at CUHK. They started to grab students from the bottom of the stairs at the main entrance to the school. In an effort to prevent arrests, protesters started tossing yet more Molotov cocktails at the top of the entrance; a massive blaze erupted, crackling and feeding off the chemicals, chairs, metal railings, and pieces of cardboard. Another huge fire raged at the bridge near the front of campus.
As the school was still enveloped by the night's darkness, there were screams, and the quick slaps of people's feet running in panic. Some were crying in fear as the blazes created a disorienting, thick black smoke and intense heat without a safe exit on campus. A few protesters screamed at people trying to put out the blazes. It was still a strong defense against police, but now they were all trapped.
Isaac got crushed in a corridor outside one of the front buildings as he and others tried to escape both the fire and police. Even through his mask, his eyes blurred with tears.
"We didn't know what was happening. The air was so cloudy. We couldn't see anything," he said. "I couldn't even move a little. Everyone was so close to each other."
He and others finally broke through the glass doors of the building to escape, and ran up to hide on higher floors. May also retreated from the main entrance once the fire broke out, finally falling asleep outside after 18 hours of dousing tear gas canisters. Justin stuck around and continued to shoot arrows and throw Molotovs, charged by adrenaline.
As others were panicking and trying to run off campus or jump from the bridge, Justin said, he tried to remain calm and counsel others to stay since so many police officers were still surrounding the school.
"This is one of the tactics of police. They just want you to lose your mind," he said.
6
Save POLY.
Just hours after the police stormed Polytechnic on Monday morning, a young woman knelt to the ground blocks away from campus, her hands clasped in prayer.
"I'm so scared and mad," the 24-year-old said when she stood up, as tears fell down her cheeks onto a face mask. "I am praying to G-d for our students."
Crowds had gathered around the school in response to the police siege as images and videos of the surreal scenes on campus spread quickly. Many people were visibly shaken. The police cordon blocked even press and medics from entering initially.
By midday, protesters began digging up bricks and dismantling bamboo scaffolding to build elaborate barricades in the streets. "Save Poly" was scrawled in black spray paint on a street sign near the school. More riot police officers were dispatched to respond to protesters around the school.
"We're trying to protect the students," said Robin, a 24-year-old college student, as others worked around him. "If police come to us, then it will take attention away from the students and they can get free."
Like others, he had remained glued to his phone the night before.
"I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I just came out, because I couldn't just sit around anymore," he said.
Police responded to disperse the crowds and clashes broke out throughout the day on Chatham Road and Nathan Road, two major streets that lead to the school.
Even with a steady supply of Molotovs, the imbalance was obvious as riot police drove an armored car up and down Chatham Road with an officer firing rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas from the top of the vehicle. A water cannon rolled alongside the car, firing heavy blasts of chemical-laced water at the crowd.
By the evening, just a few streets over from the clashes, a couple hundred people tried a different technique, staging a sit-in at the police cordon, hoping for some sign that the students inside were okay. They held signs up that said "save our students" in both English and Cantonese.
A mother and son sat close to the cordon as they waited to hear from Moses, a 16-year-old high school student who had left for Polytechnic University on Saturday. "He had school on Monday, so I told him to bring his homework," his mother told BuzzFeed News. "He's not a radical. He's a kid."
A pastor also attempted to speak with the riot police officers behind the orange tape and negotiate access to at least check on the humanitarian situation of the students. Later, dozens of social workers held up their registration cards in an attempt to gain access. But police stood stone-faced and didn't move.
Thousands more continued to fill the streets around Polytechnic University on Monday night. As they marched toward police cordons, they chanted "Save Poly." Protesters formed long chains to bring supplies to the front lines in an attempt to break the police's perimeter of the university.
But at every entrance, police beat back the crowds. They fired tear gas, water cannons, and flash grenades, which exploded in large, disorienting bursts of sound and light. On Nathan Road, more live rounds were fired late into the night to warn people away.
Despite the swell of people who filled the streets trying to help, no one made it into the school.
7
Escape POLY.
Isaac was still inside Polytechnic on Friday after six days on campus. He made several attempts but was unable to escape. His family had been trying to help too, texting him possible exit routes. "I usually had already tried them though," he said.
Giving himself up to the police wasn't an option. "Surrender is the offer that our enemy — the government — provides us. And as a protester, we are fighting against the government, we have no reason to accept their offer," he said.
Still, by that point, many protesters had already gone. Some had managed to shimmy down a rope that dangled off a footbridge on campus and escape with the help of others on motorbikes.
By Tuesday, Moses managed to escape through the sewers, his brother later texted BuzzFeed News.
The Hospital Authority announced that 300 gravely injured people had been sent to 12 different hospitals across the city on Tuesday. Some had hypothermia after being hit by the heavy blast of a water cannon. Others had burns, bruises, or wounds from projectiles. The number of injuries was so high the Hospital Authority called for residents to avoid emergency care unless absolutely necessary, as facilities were clogged with protesters from Polytechnic University.
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1493246-20191119.htm
May eventually surfaced from the sewers — but after some time crawling, she realized she was still inside the campus.
Her knees were bleeding and bacteria from the sewer water had soaked through the bandages on her hand, which still burned after handling the tear gas canister. She was shivering from the cold water when she finally emerged. First aid workers who remained at the school cleaned her hand but warned her from trying the sewers to escape again. It was too risky with her injury.
Police later allowed ambulances into the campus to transport injured people before investigating them for possible charges. May lasted a couple more days after her sewer escape attempt, but she decided to leave in an ambulance when the group she was with wanted to go. It was still a hard decision, as many inside had built a community — dividing chores like cooking and cleaning, and keeping each other entertained. "We were a family," she said.
May was not arrested, but police recorded her personal information. "I felt like it was surrendering," she said. "I don't know if police will show up and still come for me."
As the days wore on and the number of protesters dwindled, many people went into hiding. The campus became eerily quiet, and many were fearful of undercover cops and revealing possible escape routes to authorities. It was different from the early days of CUHK, when students had first beat back police and the campus teemed with people preparing for the next battle. Their ranks were now worn down and thinned out.
After the first round of arrests, Justin holed up with a group of people hiding in one classroom. Things became more tribal as the days went on — it was easier to trust fewer people and gather supplies for a small group rather than rely on anyone who was still left on campus.
After a week, there was still food around, but leftovers began to rot and the canteen smelled like sour garbage. Trash piled up. Many of the first aid workers had left by the end of the week, but the medic area was still full of supplies, including inhalers, alcohol wipes, and bandages. The gym, where many people had set up yoga mats and sleeping bags, was mostly abandoned.
Justin also left in an ambulance. He didn't make it through the sewers either. Like May, he had to give his details to the police, but he wasn't arrested. At first, he said, he thought of fleeing the country, afraid of facing rioting charges. But now, he too has accepted that police could arrest him at any time.
For now they would take a rest, he said, but soon return to the streets. He added, "It's not going to be a short fight; it's going to be a long fight."
May also seemed more resolute after finally getting home.
"Why do teenagers in Hong Kong have to crawl through the sewer just to escape from the police?" she asked. "What kind of government can allow this?"
But some of the protesters did manage to evade the police altogether.
After nearly a week on the campus, Isaac had lain on the ground of one of the parking complexes with a group of friends. A few feet away, a maintenance hole cover had been removed, revealing a route inside the sewer system. They waited to hear from friends on the outside to confirm that someone could pick them up and it was safe to make the attempt.
After a couple of hours, he and the others in his group pulled on gas masks and goggles. One of the girls tied her hair back, and another pulled on dark waterproof pants over her striped cotton pants. A couple of them dropped their phones in ziplock bags to protect them. The rest of their things were contained in dry bags, slung over their shoulders.
When word came that it was safe to leave, one at a time, they eased themselves down the sewer opening. The water was low, splashing around their ankles as they dropped down. And then each of them crouched, disappearing under the archway inside the sewer, headlamps guiding the way.
A few hours later, Isaac texted BuzzFeed News a string of crying emojis and just a few words to confirm he had made it: "Yes finally left."
Bing Guan contributed reporting to this story.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-university-campus-battle
Here's The Full Story Of How A University In Hong Kong
After months of protests in Hong Kong, universities became the site of dramatic battles between students and police.
College campuses turned into fortresses. Students armed with Molotov cocktails dodged rubber bullets, and many were forced to crawl through sewers to escape.
How did we get here?
Under Siege
Rosalind Adams Reporting From Hong Kong
Posted on December 4, 2019, at 7:19 p.m. ET
1
The Dilemma.
HONG KONG — May peered down into the dark hole. The glow of her friends' headlamps revealed a hint of filthy gray water, but not all the shit or cockroaches swimming within. Beneath May's feet was Hong Kong's labyrinth system of drainage and sewer pipes — and her best chance to escape the university campus where she had been trapped by police.
May is 21 and in college, although her slight frame and wide eyes could make you think she's still a teen. The battle at the university was the toughest and longest one that May had ever fought, even after spending months on the front lines. At night she could still hear the pop of rubber bullets and the screams of protesters who had been caught by police when she tried to sleep.
Hong Kong has been engulfed in protests for nearly six months — they were at first over a controversial extradition bill that's since been rescinded, but soon evolved into calls for greater police accountability and full democracy. Over time, the demonstrations have shifted from mass marches to running street battles. But after a strike on November 11 plunged the city into chaos, universities across Hong Kong unexpectedly became the central battleground, ultimately culminating in a 12-day-long police siege on the grounds of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protests-extradition-bill
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protester-shot-live-police-round
BuzzFeed News spent two weeks on campuses and in the streets talking to dozens of students, people on the front line, and medics to tell the story of how the battle at the university became one of the darkest chapters in the protracted fight for democracy in Hong Kong. As students used the swimming pool to practice tossing Molotov cocktails or learned to shoot bows and arrows, police surrounded them and threatened to use lethal force — signaling a fight that has only grown more entrenched between pro-democracy protesters and a government that remains loyal to Beijing.
Before the two-week siege was officially over, Hong Kong would vote in a slew of pro-democracy district councilors, widely seen as a referendum in support of the ongoing protests. And US President Donald Trump would sign the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which allows the US to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials for human rights violations. Beijing was furious and would respond with its own sanctions; but in the meantime, residents drank champagne in the streets to celebrate these rare victories.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-by-the-president-30/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protesters-us-flags-american-support
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/world/asia/china-us-hong-kong-bill-protests.html
But while those events unfolded, some students remained trapped at Polytechnic University, growing increasingly desperate as police officers refused to release their grip on the campus.
Eventually, May and her friends decided they couldn't wait any longer. Facing a possible 10-year prison sentence for rioting if she were to surrender to the police, she slowly lowered herself into the sewer system. Using a compass and headlamp to guide her, May crawled through the opening on her stomach, wearing a gas mask to filter the smell.
There are more than 150,000 maintenance hole covers across Hong Kong; as she crawled, May realized there were multiple different tunnels she could take.
Even with the aid of maps, she wasn't sure where she might pop up — or if she would get out of the sewers at all.
2
How it all began.
It started with the death of a student.
In the early hours of November 4, Alex Chow fell from a parking garage as police were firing tear gas to clear protesters from the area. A few days later, the 22-year-old died from a brain injury sustained in the fall. Across the city, people held vigils to mourn the loss. Protest chants called for revenge.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protesters-mourn-alex-chow-death
Over Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, protesters organized a strike that week to shut down the city, voting in polls to decide the day and the time. They asked residents to stay home from school and work, calling it the "dawn action."
In a residential neighborhood of the city called Sha Tin, 20-year-old Lee woke up around 3 a.m. on the Monday of the strike — one week after Chow's fall. Dressed in all black, the standard uniform of protesters, she pulled her hair into a low ponytail that revealed a few delicate ear piercings and headed out of her dorm at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). In the dark, she and other students began gathering materials and headed toward the sprawling eight-lane highway that hugs one side of the campus. The rest of the university is carved into the side of a mountain, and the hilly terrain and leafy trails make it a natural fortress.
Together, Lee and her group dragged items like bricks, cardboard boxes, and bikes to block Tolo Highway — a critical thoroughfare that commuters use to travel to Hong Kong Island, where the city's main business district is located. Others set fire to the tracks at a nearby subway station to stop people commuting to work. It was one of a number of strategic locations where protesters had planned operations to paralyze the city.
"The original aim was to block the road and block the trains, not to fight with police," said Lee. BuzzFeed News is only identifying protesters by their first names or English nicknames because of widespread fear of arrest.
Across the city, the strike had already led to early morning clashes. Hong Kong was waking up to videos of police officers shooting protesters with live bullets, including one man who was struck in the abdomen around 7 a.m., as well as a police motorcyclist weaving among protesters, trying to hit them.
https://twitter.com/kalam51859611/status/1194638997521190912
https://twitter.com/CPoint1997/status/1193744972505178112
Police arrived outside CUHK, that morning too, where students were still working on blocking the road. Before 8 a.m., officers started firing pellets filled with pepper spray, or pepper balls, at students on a bridge that crosses the highway. Known simply as "bridge two," it is one of four main entrances to the university.
Lee was nearby when police officers first fired and threw back some bricks, but she wasn't prepared for a confrontation with police. There wasn't a standoff or a large crowd to disperse that typically draws police fire. And universities hadn't seen any clashes before. Lee had none of her protective gear, such as goggles or a gas mask, with her that morning.
"No one really expected that they would attack the university," said Jane, a 23-year-old student at CUHK.
About six miles south of CUHK, Polytechnic University students were also trying to block the tunnel that connects the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to Hong Kong Island. Police officers entered the campus and fired tear gas after protesters threw Molotov cocktails. And police officers used tear gas at the University of Hong Kong that morning too, where students were also blocking roads.
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/11/P2019111100617.htm
While months of protests had brought clashes to the airport, malls, and subway stations, November 11 was the first time tear gas had been fired at universities — three campuses were hit in one day, and 11 colleges had canceled classes.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-airport-protests-riot-police
https://qz.com/1665776/hong-kong-police-clash-with-protesters-in-shopping-mall/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-mtr-protests
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3037262/tear-gas-fired-campuses-first-time-student-protesters
Without anything to protect themselves, Lee and her group at CUHK left to gear up. The police, however, didn't move. They had departed the University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University that morning, but police vans remained parked at the base of bridge two at CUHK. A row of riot police officers formed a perimeter at the top of the bridge and were positioned firmly at the entrance of the school. The cordon was meant to block students from throwing things onto the highway, they said.
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/11/P2019111100617.htm
Word spread around campus about the police presence, and students started gathering nearby behind makeshift barriers of umbrellas and track-and-field hurdles.
"It got more and more tense because the police were still there and students kept gathering," said Lee.
3
Battle at CUHK.
Bricks, Molotovs, and tear gas flew from all angles as students battled with police at the intersection of the CUHK bridge and the main campus road on Tuesday afternoon. Police had continued to occupy the bridge overnight. A university official had tried to persuade students to retreat, but this had only inflamed tensions further.
"Why do we need to retreat? This is still our place, our home," Lee recalled thinking. Instead, students pushed their barriers forward toward the line of riot police.
After about a half hour, police charged forward through the protesters' front line and wrestled students to the ground, making several arrests. One student was led away, his hair slick with blood that trickled down his face. Others ran into the athletics stadium, locking the gates to protect themselves. They dragged high jump mats to the gates and set them ablaze. Dozens of police officers, pushing deeper into the campus, continued to pursue the students, arcing their tear gas canisters onto the track and sending students running up the bleachers.
Police eventually retreated back to the bridge while protesters took refuge up the road. But they took little pause and methodically prepared to defend their campus. Some smashed bricks into smaller pieces using shot puts from the athletic field, poured paint thinner into bottles to build a supply of Molotov cocktails, or brought down chairs from classrooms to build bigger barricades.
Jane, the 23-year-old university student, said she tried to help by building other roadblocks nearby with a group of protesters.
"In terms of weapons, we're never going to win. So the only thing we could think of was to divert or distract them," she said.
In the afternoon, the head of CUHK, Rocky Tuan, tried to negotiate directly with police officers who remained stationed at the bridge. But when he returned to speak to students, the compromise he offered did little to soothe things. Tuan said the police would retreat to the bottom of the bridge if students stopped throwing things onto the highway.
Many felt betrayed and angry — ultimately police had only agreed to move back about 20 yards.
"Where were you for the last two days?" someone shouted at Tuan as students huddled around him. "Could you promise that no more tear gas or rubber bullets will be fired inside campus?" another asked pointedly. One student hugged his knees to his chest and started heaving with sobs when it was clear that police weren't leaving campus.
"The police shouldn't be in the university. They broke into our place and arrested our people," said one resolute student at the front lines. "If the police don't leave the bridge, then we are not leaving."
Fighting broke out once more that night as students spent hours trying to force the police to retreat from the bridge, lighting their way with endless volleys of Molotov cocktails. They blocked the road to the school with dumpsters and plastic barriers, setting them ablaze to keep police from rushing campus as they had earlier. Flames licked tree branches and police shields as students launched more and more Molotovs from behind umbrellas. Even in battle, someone managed to keep a black protest flag flying.
This night was different than the street battles that had become routine in the last five months. While the strategy had long been "be like water" — disappearing and reemerging in different parts of the city to keep police on their toes and avoid arrest — this was now a fixed battle centered on a narrow corridor of the bridge to campus — just the width of a couple of vehicles.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/hong-kong-protest-general-strike
As the crush of bodies pressed forward on the bridge, protesters were also turned into easy targets for the police officers who fired round after round of rubber bullets and bean bags in rapid succession.
"It was so dangerous because it was so packed," said Samuel, a first aid volunteer and a high school student studying pharmacy who had come to help out. "They'd get hit and then we had to go in and drag them out."
Police fired more than 2,300 rounds of tear gas that day, according to a government report. This amounted to around a quarter of all the tear gas rounds fired since the protests began in June, and the most tear gas that had been fired in a single day — much of it was on CUHK's bridge. The clouds of smoke became so thick that protesters used leaf blowers to try to clear the air. First aid volunteers said they had to carry people affected by the smoke as far as a mile away before they could find relief.
https://gia.info.gov.hk/general/201911/27/P2019112700593_331105_1_1574849208959.pdf
"It was obvious there was a very violent and major confrontation going because we were seeing lots of injuries," said Darren Mann, a surgeon in Hong Kong who showed up to help after a call for doctors went out on Telegram. The school gym turned into a makeshift triage center. Mann quickly listed off the bashes, burns, bruising, and bleeding that he treated throughout the night.
"These are the wounds of war. They're the same everywhere," he said.
Dramatic images of smoke and raging fires on the bridge haunted Justin, a high school student and frequent frontliner who was watching the livestream from his phone. When he couldn't sleep, he showed up at the university around 3 a.m. and headed straight to the bridge to help out. Justin was one of hundreds who started arriving at the campus throughout the day as word of the clashes spread. While it was centered on a campus, it was bigger than just the students.
https://freehk.live/
"It wasn't about defending the school, it was about defending the fight. If we don't protect the people who are protesting on campus, it means we don't care about them," said Justin.
Police had already retreated by then, but hundreds of protesters didn't move from the bridge that night. Some nodded off with their cheeks against their knees or against another's shoulders, while others, like Justin, kept watch for police and remained alert.
No one knew when the police might return.
4
Preparing for War.
On Wednesday morning, some students were still curled under silver thermal blankets, sleeping in the gym. Two girls poured hot water at the front desk into cups of instant noodles for people who were hungry. Some showered in the basement locker rooms. There were piles of fresh clothes, organized by size, for people who had grown cold or gotten wet from the water cannon.
Supplies continued to pour into the school. Buses pulled in filled with bags of hot meals, clothes, and more equipment, such as fresh gas mask filters. People across Hong Kong were pitching in to help. More showed up in support — to sweep away debris, pick up garbage from the night before, or just act as an extra body in case police returned.
"The point is we like this area, this place. This is our home. We want to protect our home," said John, a 22-year-old student who was helping pick up garbage.
The campus was calmer, but everyone was on guard to see if the police would come back. The president of the CUHK student union, Jacky So, filed an injunction with the high court, hoping to keep riot police off the campus permanently. It requested that police not enter the university and refrain from using crowd-control equipment.
https://legalref.judiciary.hk/lrs/common/ju/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=125400&currpage=T
Classes were already canceled; but by the end of the day, the rest of the semester would be canceled too, only underscoring how the protests had dismantled some of the routines of normal life. Still, at some moments, Jane and other CUHK students were like any other college kids; they confessed they were happy about having no class as they hung out in the grass outside their dorm on Wednesday. "I was supposed to have a presentation today," said Jane.
"I had three essays due this week!" her friend broke in. "It's impossible to concentrate when all of this is going on anyway," she added.
Hong Kong police condemned protesters' actions in a press conference, saying the university had become "a breeding ground for rioters and criminals." Police officers had "strong suspicions that the school was turned into a weapons factory as several hundred petrol bombs were fired in one single day."
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/videos/2390583927850521/
Many protesters are insistent that their actions have become more aggressive only in response to the police, and the government's inaction on their demands. For months, several of the protesters' demands have revolved around increased police accountability, calling for dropping riot charges, releasing arrested protesters, as well as an independent inquiry into police violence.
"I do throw cocktails, but the purpose is not to hurt the cops. It's to stop their attacks. It's a defensive weapon." said Justin, the high school student who showed up to CUHK. In the protests, frontliners often divvy up roles. The Molotovs are referred to as "magic," and people like Justin who throw them are known as "magicians."
The high court agreed with police that officers had reason to enter the campus by force, considering the violent clashes at the bridge, and rejected the injunction.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/11/13/breaking-hong-kong-court-rejects-cuhk-injunction-police-entry-crowd-control-weapon-use-without-approval/
Lots of students stuck around campus, preparing for another police advance, but officers didn't return to CUHK.
By now, though, the entire city was shocked by how authorities had advanced on the university in one of the most brutal nights of the protests so far. There were at least 100 injuries. Other schools, like the University of Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, and Baptist University, began making their own preparations — building barriers and stocking supplies — in case police tried to advance on their campuses as well.
Justin spent a few days at CUHK, mostly keeping watch for police, and then headed to Polytechnic on Friday as the number of protesters there continued to grow. His father had already cut off his monthly allowance and canceled his phone plan because of his participation in the unrest. The 19-year-old is supposed to begin his first year at university next year, but is unsure he'll do well on his exams after missing so much school due to the protests. Higher education seems less important than continuing his fight at the front lines, anyway.
"Hong Kong is a big deal right now with everything happening," he said. "I don't think I should quit yet."
Inside Polytechnic University, tucked into the dense Kowloon neighborhood, students gathered up bows and arrows they had found among the campus's archery equipment. Justin learned how to shoot in one of the classrooms that had been converted into a practice range. Protesters began dismantling the spokes inside umbrellas and stockpiling them to use as extra arrows. The school's drained swimming pool had also become a place to practice tossing Molotov cocktails; the repeated explosions of glass and fire have left black marks on the bottom of the pool. Inside the canteen, a cook prepared meals, and there were piles of dry food and snacks.
"There was gas masks — everything you need. Even Calvin Klein underwear," said Justin.
5
Battle at Polytechnic.
Polytechnic University was more vulnerable than CUHK. Students had the cover of the campus's mountainous terrain at CUHK, which could provide potential escape routes. But Polytechnic was in the middle of a dense urban neighborhood on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The campus was flat, and its buildings were arranged in rows. There were only a few exits.
When police started firing tear gas early on Sunday, November 17, Justin, who had already been at Polytechnic for a couple of days, was on the ground floor of a school building, tossing Molotov cocktails at authorities just a few yards away.
Protesters at Polytechnic had prepared for this. The street outside the school was filled with nails to puncture the tires of vehicles that got too close. And on the second floor of one of the front buildings, protesters had fashioned makeshift catapults from plastic helmets and thick resistance bands sourced from the university gym to launch bricks and Molotov cocktails over the school's gates.
Justin had missed the battle on the bridge at CUHK, but after months of working as a frontliner, the unrelenting hourslong clash with police at Polytechnic became the most intense battle he had ever seen.
May, the 21-year-old student, arrived around noon that day and worked as a firefighter on the front lines, grabbing the canisters of tear gas fired by police and throwing them back or dousing them with water.
More continued to join the front lines as clashes continued throughout the day. Isaac, a student at Polytechnic, arrived in the afternoon. Tall and lanky with hair that flopped over the front of his glasses, he had shown up with a friend.
"I had wanted to go to CUHK, but we couldn't get there," he said. "So my partner and I, we just went to the front lines and helped defend the school from the police."
As the night wore on, and there was little sign that either side would stop. Police announced in a message on its Facebook page that anyone leaving the school could face rioting charges, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Police officers said they would use lethal force in response to violence if necessary.
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/videos/1568638939944471/
The police warnings ricocheted across social media, though they did little to discourage the protesters. Mann, the doctor who was also at CUHK, and some of his colleagues decided to leave the Polytechnic campus and head to the hospitals where they could still assist with the mounting injuries.
"It was a difficult decision because medics never like to leave," he said. "But we agreed among ourselves it was pointless in us all getting arrested because that would only impact care."
Mann passed the police cordon with one group of colleagues around 10 p.m. when he thought it was still safe to leave. But a second group of medical professionals, not far behind him, was detained by police. His phone started ringing. When he walked back to see what happened, he saw his colleagues kneeling on the ground wearing their high-visibility vests marked "doctor" or "nurse," their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
Officers later said they were justified in making the arrests because they suspected protesters were posing as medical professionals or journalists.
"It is unheard of for them to be arrested while delivering medical care," said Mann, dismissing the police's explanation. He wrote for the Lancet in November about how the Hong Kong Police Force had violated international norms.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32909-5/fulltext
Inside Polytechnic, as the battles continued, May watched one of her friends get hit in the head with a tear gas canister and fall to the ground. Without thinking, she put her right hand on the canister, burning herself. A first aid responder wrapped it, and she quickly returned to the battle.
"I could only rest for a few minutes," she said. "I kept seeing people shot by police. They just fell down. I didn't know whether they were dead or not."
After more than 20 hours of battle, police burst onto the campus around 6 a.m. on Monday — now an entire week after police first occupied the bridge at CUHK. They started to grab students from the bottom of the stairs at the main entrance to the school. In an effort to prevent arrests, protesters started tossing yet more Molotov cocktails at the top of the entrance; a massive blaze erupted, crackling and feeding off the chemicals, chairs, metal railings, and pieces of cardboard. Another huge fire raged at the bridge near the front of campus.
As the school was still enveloped by the night's darkness, there were screams, and the quick slaps of people's feet running in panic. Some were crying in fear as the blazes created a disorienting, thick black smoke and intense heat without a safe exit on campus. A few protesters screamed at people trying to put out the blazes. It was still a strong defense against police, but now they were all trapped.
Isaac got crushed in a corridor outside one of the front buildings as he and others tried to escape both the fire and police. Even through his mask, his eyes blurred with tears.
"We didn't know what was happening. The air was so cloudy. We couldn't see anything," he said. "I couldn't even move a little. Everyone was so close to each other."
He and others finally broke through the glass doors of the building to escape, and ran up to hide on higher floors. May also retreated from the main entrance once the fire broke out, finally falling asleep outside after 18 hours of dousing tear gas canisters. Justin stuck around and continued to shoot arrows and throw Molotovs, charged by adrenaline.
As others were panicking and trying to run off campus or jump from the bridge, Justin said, he tried to remain calm and counsel others to stay since so many police officers were still surrounding the school.
"This is one of the tactics of police. They just want you to lose your mind," he said.
6
Save POLY.
Just hours after the police stormed Polytechnic on Monday morning, a young woman knelt to the ground blocks away from campus, her hands clasped in prayer.
"I'm so scared and mad," the 24-year-old said when she stood up, as tears fell down her cheeks onto a face mask. "I am praying to G-d for our students."
Crowds had gathered around the school in response to the police siege as images and videos of the surreal scenes on campus spread quickly. Many people were visibly shaken. The police cordon blocked even press and medics from entering initially.
By midday, protesters began digging up bricks and dismantling bamboo scaffolding to build elaborate barricades in the streets. "Save Poly" was scrawled in black spray paint on a street sign near the school. More riot police officers were dispatched to respond to protesters around the school.
"We're trying to protect the students," said Robin, a 24-year-old college student, as others worked around him. "If police come to us, then it will take attention away from the students and they can get free."
Like others, he had remained glued to his phone the night before.
"I couldn't sleep at all last night, so I just came out, because I couldn't just sit around anymore," he said.
Police responded to disperse the crowds and clashes broke out throughout the day on Chatham Road and Nathan Road, two major streets that lead to the school.
Even with a steady supply of Molotovs, the imbalance was obvious as riot police drove an armored car up and down Chatham Road with an officer firing rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas from the top of the vehicle. A water cannon rolled alongside the car, firing heavy blasts of chemical-laced water at the crowd.
By the evening, just a few streets over from the clashes, a couple hundred people tried a different technique, staging a sit-in at the police cordon, hoping for some sign that the students inside were okay. They held signs up that said "save our students" in both English and Cantonese.
A mother and son sat close to the cordon as they waited to hear from Moses, a 16-year-old high school student who had left for Polytechnic University on Saturday. "He had school on Monday, so I told him to bring his homework," his mother told BuzzFeed News. "He's not a radical. He's a kid."
A pastor also attempted to speak with the riot police officers behind the orange tape and negotiate access to at least check on the humanitarian situation of the students. Later, dozens of social workers held up their registration cards in an attempt to gain access. But police stood stone-faced and didn't move.
Thousands more continued to fill the streets around Polytechnic University on Monday night. As they marched toward police cordons, they chanted "Save Poly." Protesters formed long chains to bring supplies to the front lines in an attempt to break the police's perimeter of the university.
But at every entrance, police beat back the crowds. They fired tear gas, water cannons, and flash grenades, which exploded in large, disorienting bursts of sound and light. On Nathan Road, more live rounds were fired late into the night to warn people away.
Despite the swell of people who filled the streets trying to help, no one made it into the school.
7
Escape POLY.
Isaac was still inside Polytechnic on Friday after six days on campus. He made several attempts but was unable to escape. His family had been trying to help too, texting him possible exit routes. "I usually had already tried them though," he said.
Giving himself up to the police wasn't an option. "Surrender is the offer that our enemy — the government — provides us. And as a protester, we are fighting against the government, we have no reason to accept their offer," he said.
Still, by that point, many protesters had already gone. Some had managed to shimmy down a rope that dangled off a footbridge on campus and escape with the help of others on motorbikes.
By Tuesday, Moses managed to escape through the sewers, his brother later texted BuzzFeed News.
The Hospital Authority announced that 300 gravely injured people had been sent to 12 different hospitals across the city on Tuesday. Some had hypothermia after being hit by the heavy blast of a water cannon. Others had burns, bruises, or wounds from projectiles. The number of injuries was so high the Hospital Authority called for residents to avoid emergency care unless absolutely necessary, as facilities were clogged with protesters from Polytechnic University.
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1493246-20191119.htm
May eventually surfaced from the sewers — but after some time crawling, she realized she was still inside the campus.
Her knees were bleeding and bacteria from the sewer water had soaked through the bandages on her hand, which still burned after handling the tear gas canister. She was shivering from the cold water when she finally emerged. First aid workers who remained at the school cleaned her hand but warned her from trying the sewers to escape again. It was too risky with her injury.
Police later allowed ambulances into the campus to transport injured people before investigating them for possible charges. May lasted a couple more days after her sewer escape attempt, but she decided to leave in an ambulance when the group she was with wanted to go. It was still a hard decision, as many inside had built a community — dividing chores like cooking and cleaning, and keeping each other entertained. "We were a family," she said.
May was not arrested, but police recorded her personal information. "I felt like it was surrendering," she said. "I don't know if police will show up and still come for me."
As the days wore on and the number of protesters dwindled, many people went into hiding. The campus became eerily quiet, and many were fearful of undercover cops and revealing possible escape routes to authorities. It was different from the early days of CUHK, when students had first beat back police and the campus teemed with people preparing for the next battle. Their ranks were now worn down and thinned out.
After the first round of arrests, Justin holed up with a group of people hiding in one classroom. Things became more tribal as the days went on — it was easier to trust fewer people and gather supplies for a small group rather than rely on anyone who was still left on campus.
After a week, there was still food around, but leftovers began to rot and the canteen smelled like sour garbage. Trash piled up. Many of the first aid workers had left by the end of the week, but the medic area was still full of supplies, including inhalers, alcohol wipes, and bandages. The gym, where many people had set up yoga mats and sleeping bags, was mostly abandoned.
Justin also left in an ambulance. He didn't make it through the sewers either. Like May, he had to give his details to the police, but he wasn't arrested. At first, he said, he thought of fleeing the country, afraid of facing rioting charges. But now, he too has accepted that police could arrest him at any time.
For now they would take a rest, he said, but soon return to the streets. He added, "It's not going to be a short fight; it's going to be a long fight."
May also seemed more resolute after finally getting home.
"Why do teenagers in Hong Kong have to crawl through the sewer just to escape from the police?" she asked. "What kind of government can allow this?"
But some of the protesters did manage to evade the police altogether.
After nearly a week on the campus, Isaac had lain on the ground of one of the parking complexes with a group of friends. A few feet away, a maintenance hole cover had been removed, revealing a route inside the sewer system. They waited to hear from friends on the outside to confirm that someone could pick them up and it was safe to make the attempt.
After a couple of hours, he and the others in his group pulled on gas masks and goggles. One of the girls tied her hair back, and another pulled on dark waterproof pants over her striped cotton pants. A couple of them dropped their phones in ziplock bags to protect them. The rest of their things were contained in dry bags, slung over their shoulders.
When word came that it was safe to leave, one at a time, they eased themselves down the sewer opening. The water was low, splashing around their ankles as they dropped down. And then each of them crouched, disappearing under the archway inside the sewer, headlamps guiding the way.
A few hours later, Isaac texted BuzzFeed News a string of crying emojis and just a few words to confirm he had made it: "Yes finally left."
Bing Guan contributed reporting to this story.
NBA Highlights
Dwight Howard makes his 7th three pointer of his career
https://streamable.com/zydt5
Frank Kaminsky lets out one of the voice cracks of the decade
https://streamable.com/bnvw8
Refs miss an obvious LeBron travel
https://streamable.com/t7sdj
LeBron runs onto the court in his socks after a Kyle Kuzma block
https://streamable.com/os0il
The Lakers (19-3) blow out the Jazz (12-10) 121-96
Jalen Brunson dedicates his 14 point 4th quarter to a high school friend who passed away last week.
https://streamable.com/z669c
Aaron Gordon does a 360 dunk in trafficHighlights
https://streamable.com/7slkp
Anthony Davis spins between two defenders and throws it down over Ed DavisHighlights
https://streamable.com/sdd7b
Cam Reddish finishes tonights game versus the Nets with 25/6/0 on 58/57/50 efficiency
Dorian Finney-Smith with the INSANE putback!Highlights
https://streamable.com/05bwb
Here is what LeBron had to say about his travel: "Yeah it was the worst thing ever. Probably one of the worst things I've ever done in my career. My brain just had a malfunction. I felt bad for the refs on because they probably get a write-up on that one."
Lebron James spanks Frank VogelHighlights
https://streamable.com/62unl
Andre Drummond dunks on Giannis
https://streamable.com/4ewe0
Lakers (on a B2B) just blew out Jazz, who were 8-1 at home (beat Bucks, Sixers, Clippers there)
Markelle Fultz never had more than 2 consecutive games with double digit points in philly, he's currently on a 9 game streak scoring double digits.
Jaylen Brown hits Jimmy Butler with the double crossover and drains the long two
https://streamable.com/czdgj
The Boston Celtics (15-5) defeat The Miami Heat (15-6) behind 31 points from Jaylen Brown and 28 from Kemba Walker Final Score 112-93
Lakers bench outscored Utah's bench 47-19
Kuzma loses track of the shot clock and drains the buzzer beater a little early
https://streamable.com/j1ubm
The Dallas Mavericks (15-6) escape the Minnesota Timberwolves (10-10), 121-114
Blake Griffin accidentally backhand smacks a referee
https://streamable.com/86rfd
After the Pistons commit a foul against Giannis, Blake Griffin disrespectfully steps over him, causing squabbles between the two teams.
https://streamable.com/0rtec
Dwight hits the mid-range jumper
https://streamable.com/g8e94
Giannis hits the deep 3
https://streamable.com/xylgf
Melo grabs his own offensive rebound twice before floating it in
https://streamable.com/8kf13
Luka Doncic is currently tied for 2nd most all time consecutive games of at least 20/5/5 at 17 straight. 1st place? Michael Jordan at 18 straight.
Jazz fan trying to distract AD at the line
https://streamable.com/5mzlj
The Charlotte Hornets (9-14) defeat the shook Golden State Warriors (4-19) 106-91 behind 33 points (10 3PM), 8 assists, and 7 rebounds from Devonte' Graham.
The Portland Trail Blazers (9-13) defeat the Sacramento Kings (8-12) 127-116, behind 22/16/7/3 from Hassan Whiteside and 33 points from CJ McCollum
Rondo gets the steal and LeBron throws it down on the other end
https://streamable.com/f8fao
Lakers bench outscored Utah's bench 47-19.
Jaylen Brown banks in the three to cap off his season-high 31 point night
https://streamable.com/o5im9
Porzingis drills a deep 3 to put the mavs up 10
https://streamable.com/hzwwk
Kristaps cleans up after Doncic's airball
https://streamable.com/l1d0s
Dwight Powell: 24/5/4 on 9/9 shooting in a victory over the Timberwolves
Anthony Davis on a back to back finished with 26 points, 3 blocks and 6 rebounds.
[Cry Baby] Rockets likely to file protest over missed call on James Harden's dunk. Houston had been optimistic NBA office would take action without protest but hesitant to risk letting 48-hour deadline pass.
https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/1202423025779560449?s=19
Giannis Antetokounmpo checks out of tonight's blowout win against Detroit with 0 assists. The last time he failed to record an assist was February 5th, 2016.
A falling LeBron James finds Danny Green for the corner three
https://streamable.com/qg0ms
Kyle Kuzma hits another buzzer beater to end the first quarter
https://streamable.com/4m5np
Kyle Kuzma finishes a blowout Lakers' win over the Jazz with 13 points, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and 2 end of quarter 3 point heaves
Devonte Graham dropped 33 points tonight with 10 threes in a win against the Warriors
https://streamable.com/yp8ot
Blake Griffin elbows Giannis in the faceHighlights
https://streamable.com/6ag8d
Known Point Center Hassan Whiteside with his career high 5th assist of the night
https://streamable.com/e37of
Giannis' last 3 games have been peak load management. 19 minutes/22 minutes/28 minutes played, and Bucks won all 3 by a combined 109 points.
4 of the Heat’s 6 losses have now come to a .500+ team, on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back. The Heat are 15-2 otherwise this season
In wake of LeBron reaching the 40k mark, he has more career points than 25/30 TEAM's starting lineups
Nets are now 7-3 without Kyrie and have a breaking-even win record of 11-10
https://streamable.com/zydt5
Frank Kaminsky lets out one of the voice cracks of the decade
https://streamable.com/bnvw8
Refs miss an obvious LeBron travel
https://streamable.com/t7sdj
LeBron runs onto the court in his socks after a Kyle Kuzma block
https://streamable.com/os0il
The Lakers (19-3) blow out the Jazz (12-10) 121-96
Jalen Brunson dedicates his 14 point 4th quarter to a high school friend who passed away last week.
https://streamable.com/z669c
Aaron Gordon does a 360 dunk in trafficHighlights
https://streamable.com/7slkp
Anthony Davis spins between two defenders and throws it down over Ed DavisHighlights
https://streamable.com/sdd7b
Cam Reddish finishes tonights game versus the Nets with 25/6/0 on 58/57/50 efficiency
Dorian Finney-Smith with the INSANE putback!Highlights
https://streamable.com/05bwb
Here is what LeBron had to say about his travel: "Yeah it was the worst thing ever. Probably one of the worst things I've ever done in my career. My brain just had a malfunction. I felt bad for the refs on because they probably get a write-up on that one."
Lebron James spanks Frank VogelHighlights
https://streamable.com/62unl
Andre Drummond dunks on Giannis
https://streamable.com/4ewe0
Lakers (on a B2B) just blew out Jazz, who were 8-1 at home (beat Bucks, Sixers, Clippers there)
Markelle Fultz never had more than 2 consecutive games with double digit points in philly, he's currently on a 9 game streak scoring double digits.
Jaylen Brown hits Jimmy Butler with the double crossover and drains the long two
https://streamable.com/czdgj
The Boston Celtics (15-5) defeat The Miami Heat (15-6) behind 31 points from Jaylen Brown and 28 from Kemba Walker Final Score 112-93
Lakers bench outscored Utah's bench 47-19
Kuzma loses track of the shot clock and drains the buzzer beater a little early
https://streamable.com/j1ubm
The Dallas Mavericks (15-6) escape the Minnesota Timberwolves (10-10), 121-114
Blake Griffin accidentally backhand smacks a referee
https://streamable.com/86rfd
After the Pistons commit a foul against Giannis, Blake Griffin disrespectfully steps over him, causing squabbles between the two teams.
https://streamable.com/0rtec
Dwight hits the mid-range jumper
https://streamable.com/g8e94
Giannis hits the deep 3
https://streamable.com/xylgf
Melo grabs his own offensive rebound twice before floating it in
https://streamable.com/8kf13
Luka Doncic is currently tied for 2nd most all time consecutive games of at least 20/5/5 at 17 straight. 1st place? Michael Jordan at 18 straight.
Jazz fan trying to distract AD at the line
https://streamable.com/5mzlj
The Charlotte Hornets (9-14) defeat the shook Golden State Warriors (4-19) 106-91 behind 33 points (10 3PM), 8 assists, and 7 rebounds from Devonte' Graham.
The Portland Trail Blazers (9-13) defeat the Sacramento Kings (8-12) 127-116, behind 22/16/7/3 from Hassan Whiteside and 33 points from CJ McCollum
Rondo gets the steal and LeBron throws it down on the other end
https://streamable.com/f8fao
Lakers bench outscored Utah's bench 47-19.
Jaylen Brown banks in the three to cap off his season-high 31 point night
https://streamable.com/o5im9
Porzingis drills a deep 3 to put the mavs up 10
https://streamable.com/hzwwk
Kristaps cleans up after Doncic's airball
https://streamable.com/l1d0s
Dwight Powell: 24/5/4 on 9/9 shooting in a victory over the Timberwolves
Anthony Davis on a back to back finished with 26 points, 3 blocks and 6 rebounds.
[Cry Baby] Rockets likely to file protest over missed call on James Harden's dunk. Houston had been optimistic NBA office would take action without protest but hesitant to risk letting 48-hour deadline pass.
https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/1202423025779560449?s=19
Giannis Antetokounmpo checks out of tonight's blowout win against Detroit with 0 assists. The last time he failed to record an assist was February 5th, 2016.
A falling LeBron James finds Danny Green for the corner three
https://streamable.com/qg0ms
Kyle Kuzma hits another buzzer beater to end the first quarter
https://streamable.com/4m5np
Kyle Kuzma finishes a blowout Lakers' win over the Jazz with 13 points, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and 2 end of quarter 3 point heaves
Devonte Graham dropped 33 points tonight with 10 threes in a win against the Warriors
https://streamable.com/yp8ot
Blake Griffin elbows Giannis in the faceHighlights
https://streamable.com/6ag8d
Known Point Center Hassan Whiteside with his career high 5th assist of the night
https://streamable.com/e37of
Giannis' last 3 games have been peak load management. 19 minutes/22 minutes/28 minutes played, and Bucks won all 3 by a combined 109 points.
4 of the Heat’s 6 losses have now come to a .500+ team, on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back. The Heat are 15-2 otherwise this season
In wake of LeBron reaching the 40k mark, he has more career points than 25/30 TEAM's starting lineups
Nets are now 7-3 without Kyrie and have a breaking-even win record of 11-10
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
News Dump
YEP: In fiery memo, Dem lawmaker urges Congress to include Trump’s 'racism' in articles of impeachment
https://news.yahoo.com/al-green-trump-racism-impeachment-memo-174745983.html
629 Pakistani girls sold as brides to China
https://apnews.com/c586d0f73fe249718ec06f6867b0244e
Israel's election commission begins preparations for 3rd national vote....
U.S. House, in 417-3 vote, passed bill that seeks to curb illegal robocalls. It's an agreement between House and Senate negotiators. House and Senate overwhelmingly passed their own versions earlier this year.
https://twitter.com/greggiroux/status/1202307768134373377
Breast Cancer Linked to Permanent Hair Dye and Chemical Hair Straighteners in Study of Almost 50,000 Women
https://www.newsweek.com/breast-cancer-linked-permanent-hair-dye-chemical-hair-straighteners-study-almost-50000-women-1475328
Germany suspects killing of Vladimir Putin opponent in Berlin was 'Skripal-style Russian assassination'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/03/germany-suspects-killing-vladimir-putin-opponent-berlin-skripal/
Republicans illegally formalized illegal work requirements for recipients of food stamps, a move that will cause nearly 700,000 people to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nearly-700-000-will-lose-food-stamps-usda-work-requirement-n1095726?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Reminder: "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different."
https://theweek.com/speedreads/575962/donald-trump-tells-biographer-hes-same-now-first-grade
Asked by @HowardStern if she's "upset" with @BernieSanders for taking his time endorsing her in 2016, @HillaryClinton replies, "No, disappointed. And I hope he doesn't do it again to whoever gets the nomination. Once is enough."
https://www.twitter.com/judykurtz/status/1202253352379330560?s=21
Despite losing by 4 million, Bernie didn't endorse Clinton until the convention, in which his delegates booed speakers like John Lewis and Stacy Abrams. Clinton endorsed Obama the day after the CA primary, that she won.
https://twitter.com/johnsmithchgo/status/1202290801004490752?s=21
Officials in the Florida Keys announced what many coastal governments nationwide have long feared, but few have been willing to admit: As seas rise and flooding gets worse, not everyone can be saved. And in some places, it doesn’t even make sense to try. On Wednesday morning, Rhonda Haag, the county’s sustainability director, released the first results of the county’s yearslong effort to calculate how high its 300 miles of roads must be elevated to stay dry, and at what cost. Those costs were far higher than her team expected — and those numbers, she said, show that some places can’t be protected, at least at a price that taxpayers can be expected to pay. “I never would have dreamed we would say ‘no,’” Ms. Haag said in an interview. “But now, with the real estimates coming in, it’s a different story. And it’s not all doable.” The results released Wednesday focus on a single three-mile stretch of road at the southern tip of Sugarloaf Key, a small island 15 miles up Highway 1 from Key West. To keep those three miles of road dry year-round in 2025 would require raising it by 1.3 feet, at a cost of $75 million, or $25 million per mile. Keeping the road dry in 2045 would mean elevating it 2.2 feet, at a cost of $128 million. To protect against expected flooding levels in 2060, the cost would jump to $181 million. And all that to protect about two dozen homes. “I can’t see staff recommending to raise this road,” Ms. Haag said. “Those are taxpayer dollars, and as much as we love the Keys, there’s going to be a time when it’s going to be less population.” The people who live on that three-mile stretch of road were less understanding. If the county feels that other parts of the Keys ought to be saved, said Leon Mense, a 63-year-old office manager at a medical clinic, then at least don’t make him pay for it. | At a climate change conference in Key West on Wednesday, Roman Gastesi, the Monroe County manager, said elected leaders will have to figure out how to make those difficult calls. “How do you tell somebody, ‘We’re not going to build the road to get to your home’? And what do we do?” Mr. Gastesi asked. “Do we buy them out? And how do we buy them out — is it voluntary? Is it eminent domain? How do we do that?” Administrators and elected officials are going to have to start to rely on a “word nobody likes to use,” Mr. Gastesi said, “and that’s ‘retreat.’” The county’s elected officials must now decide whether to accept that recommendation. The mayor of Monroe County, Heather Carruthers, said she hopes the cost of raising the roads turns out to be lower than what her staff have found, as the need for adaptation leads to better technology. Still, Mayor Carruthers said, “We can’t protect every single house.” Asked how she expected residents would respond, Mayor Carruthers said she expects pushback. “I’m sure that some of them will be very irate, and we’ll probably face some lawsuits,” she said. “But we can’t completely keep the water away.” The odds of the county winning future possible lawsuits over the policy are unclear. The novelty of what the Keys’ officials are proposing is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that nobody can say for certain whether it’s legally defensible. The law generally requires local governments to maintain roads and other infrastructure, because failure to do so will reduce the property value of surrounding homes, according to Erin Deady, a lawyer who specializes in climate and land-use law and is a consultant to the county on adapting to rising seas. But local officials retain the right to decide whether or not to upgrade or enhance that infrastructure. What’s unclear, Ms. Deady said, is whether raising a road to prevent it from going underwater is more akin to maintaining or upgrading. That’s because no court has yet ruled on the issue. “The law hasn’t caught up with that,” Ms. Deady said. | Mr. Mense, who lives in the last house on the road, suggested that officials focus instead on slowing global warming, without which no amount of adaptation will be enough for these islands.
“Maybe we should think about stopping, or trying to stop, the cause of the water rising,” Mr. Mense said. “At what point will the road be high enough?”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/climate/florida-keys-climate-change.html
Candid video appears to show Trudeau, Macron and Johnson joking about Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/04/trump-macron-trudeau-johnson-video-candid-joking-nato/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nato-world-leaders_n_5de78afae4b0913e6f881556
Devin Nunes Busted by House Intelligence Committee Phone Records
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/devin-nunes-busted-house-intelligence-phone-records-ukraine-impeachment.html
A former senior intelligence official said Trump would often refuse to believe what he was told during intel briefings
https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-official-reveals-trump-would-refuse-to-believe-intel-briefings-2019-12
Right-wing group must stop building private border wall in South Texas, judge says in temporary order
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/04/brian-kolfage-we-build-wall-temporary-order-butterfly-center-texas/
Trump caught on microphone congratulating himself about his Trudeau attack: 'That was funny when I said the guy's two-faced'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-trudeau-hot-mic-cancel-press-conference-leave-nato-macron-laugh-a9232761.html
'What Cruelty Looks Like': Trump Finalizes Plan to Strip Food Aid From 750,000 Low-Income People by 2020
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/04/what-cruelty-looks-trump-finalizes-plan-strip-food-aid-750000-low-income-people-2020
Trump Campaign Liaison George Nader Charged With Funneling Illegal Campaign Contributions
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-nader-indictment-illegal-campaign-contributions_n_5de73e11e4b00149f737f2a0
A career diplomat with nearly three decades of service under his belt said a Trump appointee canned him for a simple sin: He talked about Obama. Lewis Lukens, the former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London, recounted his October 2018 firing a GQ magazine article published Tuesday. It was an unceremonious end to nearly 30 years in the foreign service, including stints as the U.S. ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau and the acting ambassador to the United Kingdom. Lukens said that a quick anecdote in a speech — he told U.K. students about former President Barack Obama deftly handling a tough media question about LGBT rights in Senegal — was all it took to derail his career. President Donald Trump had recently attacked prominent British leaders — chiefly the then-Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan — and in his story, Lukens emphasized that civil disagreement between leaders was possible. Just a week later, he says, he was fired by U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson, the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the owner of the New York Jets NFL team. Johnson was a major Trump donor and was appointed by the president.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xwzzk/the-owner-of-the-new-york-jets-fired-a-career-diplomat-for-daring-to-mention-obama
https://www.gq.com/story/trump-is-waging-war-on-american-diplomats
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1201900732213006337
Florida GOP Candidate Sends Out Email Saying Rep. Ilhan Omar Should Be Hanged
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/florida-gop-candidate-sends-out-email-saying-rep-ilhan-omar-should-be-hanged
Florida Republican condemned for suggesting Ilhan Omar be executed for treason -- George Buck, who is running for Congress, is the second Republican to reference the hanging of the congresswoman
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/04/ilhan-omar-republican-treason-attack-condemnation
He wanted to ban feeding homeless people. Now he’s about to lead a federal homeless agency | A consultant known for urging cities to stop “enabling” homeless people, in part by blocking charities from handing out food, has been tapped to lead the agency that coordinates the federal government’s response to homelessness. Robert Marbut, who has worked with several cities, including Fresno and several other California cities and counties, would succeed Matthew Doherty as executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-04/homeless-robert-marbut-interagency-council-executive-director-trump
https://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/to-control-homelessness-consultant-suggests-clearwater-change-rules/1230918/
Australia has repealed law which allowed sick refugees held offshore to be treated in the country. Since 2013, the nation has sent asylum seekers arriving by boat to detention centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. At least 12 people have died. Reports of children as young as 11 attempting suicide.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50653195
The European Court of Justice upholds tightened firearms ban — The EU measures against use of semi-automatic rifles for private use are intended to curb gun violence and prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons on black market. The EU's firearms policy reform toughens gun control across the bloc.
https://www.dw.com/en/gun-control-eu-court-upholds-tightened-firearms-ban/a-51508658
Astronomers just found a giant planet orbiting a tiny white dwarf for the very first time, providing a glimpse into the ultimate fate of the solar system.
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/12/first-giant-planet-discovered-around-a-tiny-white-dwarf-star
Swastikas sprayed on more than 100 graves in Jewish cemetery in France
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/04/europe/france-jewish-cemetery-swastikas-intl/index.html
Angry Mob Storms Newspaper's Office for Terming London Bridge Attacker 'Man of Pakistani Origin'
https://www.news18.com/news/world/angry-mob-storms-dawn-newspapers-offices-for-terming-london-bridge-attacker-man-of-pakistani-origin-2409889.html
CIP: Complete 5 minutes of time for @repmattgaetz at #ImpeachmentHearing. Full video here: https://cs.pn/2ru4pCO
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1202339454050017280
https://www.c-span.org/video/?466833-1/judiciary-hearing-constitutional-framework-impeachment
The Trump administration is considering a significant expansion of the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East, including dozens more ships, hardware and as many as 14,000 additional troops to counter Iran.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-considers-14-000-more-troops-for-mideast-11575494228
Senate GOPers voted to confirm Sarah Pitlyk to a lifetime federal court seat, despite her extreme views on fertility treatments and unanimous 'not qualified' ABA rating. Every Republican present but Collins voted for Pitlyk. Every Dem present opposed her.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-pitlyk-trump-judge-fertility-treatment_n_5de7fd1ee4b0913e6f89d850
Nunes can’t “recall” talking to indicted Giuliani pal Lev Parnas despite multiple call logs: Fox News' legal analyst attempted to defend Nunes by claiming "somebody else" used his phone to make multiple calls
https://www.salon.com/2019/12/04/nunes-cant-recall-talking-to-indicted-giuliani-pal-lev-parnas-despite-multiple-call-logs/
But they caught me calling Mr. Mayor
- It wasn't me
Making deals about Ukraine
- It wasn't me
Calling me Democracy slayer
- It wasn't me
They probably have me on camera
- It wasn't me
Nunes phone, who dis?
"Persons unknown borrowed my phone and used it to concoct an international criminal conspiracy with people who know me. They couldn't recognize it wasn't me. And I didn't notice my phone was missing."
Melo on Player of the Week criticism: ‘I’ve come too far to start listening to that bull----'
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/melo-on-player-of-the-week-criticism-ive-come-too-far-to-start-listening-to-that-bull-202526603.html
GOP keeps asking for more evidence but won't allow people who have it to testify
WH special assistant to POTUS Kash Patel tells CBS News that he was “Never a back channel to President Trump on Ukraine matters” but refuses to testify under oath
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kash-patel-white-house-staffer-denies-he-was-back-channel-to-trump-on-ukraine/
"I don't know Prince Andrew," President Trump says of the British prince who he has met multiple times. In 2000, he told People Magazine that the prince is "not pretentious" and "a lot of fun to be with."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-claims-he-doesn-t-know-prince-andrew-once-called-n1096081?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np
Duncan Hunter refuses to resign despite felony guilty plea
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/04/duncan-hunter-house-guilty-felony-075476
Starr's role was independent counsel, Schiff is a House rep who heads the House Intelligence Committee. Repubs keep pushing this bizarre demand that Schiff testifies "just like Starr did" even though they're two different roles with different obligations, processes, and purposes.
The cancelled nyt subscriptions do not appear to have stuck:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1202377854652043264
Tonight a white man stole the microphone from a black woman who was speaking in support of @PeteButtigieg’s record in South Bend. He said that he wanted to hear from a “real black woman.”
https://twitter.com/jacobonpurpose/status/1202395356916572160
(2/3) This same white man sat in my office earlier this year waxing about his excitement to start a small business to get involved in South Bend’s comeback story. Not a joke.
https://twitter.com/jacobonpurpose/status/1202395359949053952
(3/3) So he is free to enjoy and profit off South Bend’s growth, the moment a black woman begins to tell her story, he grabs the mic and calls her “fake.” This is privilege and hypocrisy.
https://twitter.com/jacobonpurpose/status/1202395361127649281
A black woman who happens to be a councilmember who was elected with over 75% of the vote in her district.
https://twitter.com/JosephRMolnar/status/1202396099056734209
_________________
If the GOP wants fact witnesses, why not allow the President to take the stand? Seems obvious to me.
Not to mention withholding the money without notifying Congress is a crime in itself. This keeps getting overlooked.
https://budget.house.gov/publications/report/impoundment-control-act-1974-what-it-why-does-it-matter
GOP - "We need actual fact witnesses!!!"
Dems - "OK how about people directly involved and implicated like Trump, Pompeo, Mulvaney, Nunes, Giuliani, Pence, etc..?"
GOP - "Nah I was thinking more like Chalupa, Hillary Clinton, Hunter Bidebn, and the Wet Bandits."
I like that the Republicans seem to harp on Democrats for wanting to impeach from Day 1 as some sort of proof it's all partisan, but Trump was literally committing crimes for decades all the way up to election day.
"This is all happening behind closed doors" - person who called in after watching the hearings on live tv
And complaining about transparency when Trump blocks it at every turn
The whole "Trump was worried about corruption" stuff is completely null because in order to receive that aid, Ukraine had to meet anti-corruption standards that Trump's own state department came up with. Ukraine met them, THEN Trump asked for his "favor", on TOP of that. He also didn't care about an actual investigation. He just wanted them to announce publicly that they were investigating Biden. That tells you everything you need to know about his motives. Didn't give AF about investigating corruption, only smearing his opponent.
Jonathan Turley 1998 testimony in SUPPORT of impeaching Bill Clinton: "Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker; it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." Here's Turley arguing for a broad definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors" (Today, Turley is arguing the opposite of this): "First, “other high crimes and misdemeanors” obviously refers to conduct other than treason and bribery. Second, it is generally accepted that “misdemeanors” encompasses non-criminal conduct in the sense of “misdeeds.”" "The accusatory function of the House is essential to maintain a certain deterrence on presidential misconduct. Assuming the impeachment process is a check and balance, any limiting threshold test must not be endorsed without considerable care and caution. Narrowing the scope of impeachable offenses can correspondingly expand the scope of permissible presidential conduct." "When Congress decides that certain criminal conduct does not rise to the level of impeachable offenses, it is defining a permissible parameter for future presidential conduct. Executive power will fill the space created by any decision of this body."
https://jonathanturley.org/2007/08/20/clinton-impeachment-testimony-house-judiciary-committee/
Fox News' Judge Napolitano crushes Turley: "The House has sole power of impeachment. It does not need to go to a court... When the president receives a subpoena, Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo receive a subpoena and they throw it in a drawer... that is the act of obstruction."
https://twitter.com/JesseCharlesLee/status/1202302861637496833
"An impeachment of a president is the undoing of an election": Republicans didn’t say that when Clinton was impeached
Republicans cry about not being given reading material. When given the material, they don't read 'em.
Republicans cry about not being included. Turns out a whole bunch of the ones crying were included.
Republicans cry about closed-door hearings (of which they are part of), then cry when they're made public.
Republicans cry about the rules they, themselves, put in place.
The leader of the Republican party cries about not being offered due process. When offered an opportunity to defend himself, Trump lies, says he'll strongly consider it (voiceover: "He didn't consider it.") and then pussies out.
I love that Collins keeps casually calling Americans idiots....Doug Collins: "American People are stupid and just don't understand all of this complicated stuff."
Democrats bring in fact witnesses
GOP: "This isn't impeachable!"
Democrats bring in legal experts explaining why it's impeachable
GOP: "Where are the fact witnesses!"
Doug Collins went to a private for-profit law school that is currently on probation for issues related to its standards for admissions
http://johnmarshal-atl.lawschoolnumbers.com/
Conservatives: We (claim to) LOVE the Constitution.
Good. Here are Constitutional scholars.
They don't count!
In February 2019, Jonathan Turley wrote an op-ed for The Hill asking: "Is Mueller Uncovering Ukrainian Rather Than Russian Collusion?" (He was not.)
https://jonathanturley.org/2019/02/24/is-mueller-uncovering-ukrainian-rather-the-russian-collusion/
It's bribery even under the more stringent statutory definition. 18 U.S.C. § 201(b)(2)(A) states, in the relevant part, that:
(b) Whoever—
(2) [1] being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, [2] corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept [3] anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for:
(A) [4] being influenced in the performance of any official act...
shall be fined under this title or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/201
I FORCE myself to pay attention to both sides of questioning, but G/d do I hate Republicans. They’ve all sold their soul.
"I've been friends with Bill Barr for a long time." Ok, I think we've heard enough.
"Ladies and gentleme-"
"CHAIRMAN I OBJECT!"
Republican Impeachment Hearing Bingo:
*Where is the Whistleblower?
*Schiff should testify
*Russian collusion hoax
*Presidential Harassment!
*Left-wing Coup
*DNC Operative, Alexandra Chalupa
*Crowdstrike/Ukraine Server
*Ukrainian Election Interference
*Hurting the country
*Investigate corruption
Thanks for playing!
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