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Wednesday, 31 October 2018

Video games suck at blackjack.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a convenient target, being the latest and most high-profile offender. But video game blackjack hasn't ever been done right in my recollection. And it's because every game gets a central component wrong: The key to blackjack, the thing that makes it interesting, is the betting. Not the rules.

So let's talk first about those rules, the absolute basics of blackjack. How each card works, what the goal is, how a typical hand flows.

Blackjack basics

The objective in blackjack is to get a set of cards whose sum is 21. Less than that is OK. More than that is a bust — a lost hand. Numbered cards, 2 through 10, count as the number printed on the card. Face cards also count as a 10. Ace can be either a 1 or an 11, whichever you choose. So if you have a 9 card and two Aces, you have a 21: 9 + 11 Ace + 1 Ace. That's great. Read more...

More about Entertainment, Gaming, Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Blackjack

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/red-dead-redemption-2-blackjack-betting/
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Google changed its mobile homepage for the first time in years

If you've opened Google.com on your phone lately, you might have noticed it looks a lot different.

That's because Google's personalized news feed is now rolling out to mobile browsers. The feature, which we first saw last year, delivers a mix of news stories, YouTube videos, sports scores, and other content Google has determined you're most likely to be interested in at that moment.

Google has launched similar features in the past: most notably, Google Now, the company's original personalized news feed, was available through the Google app and Android phones. Read more...

More about Tech, Google, Google Search, Tech, and Big Tech Companies

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/google-new-personalized-feed-mobile/
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Everyone please remember to wish Cat Stevens a 'Happy National Cat Day'

Oh baby, baby it's a wild world.

It's hard to get by just upon a smile, so we're here to offer you something a bit more substantial: A photo of Cat Stevens and a cat celebrating National Cat Day.

Happy #NationalCatDay to all the cats and kittens pic.twitter.com/eUrc6aGRjw

— Yusuf / Cat Stevens (@YusufCatStevens) October 29, 2018

I believe this is what one might call the definition of purrrfection. (Sorry. Had to.)

"Happy #NationalCatDay to all the cats and kittens," the legendary musician and coolest cat around tweeted on Oct. 29, aka National Cat Day. Read more...

More about Music, Cats, Culture, Cat Stevens, and Culture

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/cat-stevens-national-cat-day/
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Waze is adding a new in-app audio player

Last year, Waze successfully integrated Spotify directly into its navigation app. Now, the company is building a more full-featured audio player.

The Waze Audio Player is launching for beta-testers Monday and rolls out more widely to all Waze users on Nov. 14. The feature allows drivers to listen to and browse music, audiobooks, radio, and podcasts without ever leaving the popular traffic app.

Upon its initial release, the Waze Audio Player will support eight different audio services: Pandora, Deezer, iHeartRadio, NPR, Scribd, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Spotify. Read more...

More about Music, Spotify, Pandora, Streaming Services, and Podcasts

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/waze-spotify-pandora-music-audio-player/
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Guy tries to shoo cat off his car, breaks windshield instead

Viral Hog shared a video on Monday of a man attempting to shoo a cat off his car by kicking his windshield. Of course! Always the right way to go about something like this.

Naturally, things did not go as planned.

One kick wasn't quite enough to get the cat to move, so he gave the windshield another forceful kick, resulting in a sizable crack.

"I was resting in the car when a cat approached the front windshield," the man — whose identity is concealed — told Viral Hog. "I wanted to scare him with my foot but apparently, I hit the glass way too hard and the glass broke."

Probably best to just get out of the vehicle and shoo the cat in the future. Or better yet, just let the little fuzzball hang out if you're not in a rush to go anywhere. Read more...

More about Animals, Viral Videos, Culture, Animals, and Web Culture

from Mashable https://mashable.com/video/man-cracks-windshield-cat-video/
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Earth’s carbon dioxide levels are likely the highest they've been in 15 million years

We’ve entered some profoundly unfamiliar planetary territory.

Amid a backdrop of U.S. politicians still questioning whether the changing climate is attributable to humans (it is), it's quite likely that we’ve actually boosted Earth's carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas — to the highest levels they’ve been in some 15 million years.

The number 15 million is dramatically higher than a statistic frequently cited by geologists and climate scientists: That today's carbon levels are the highest they've been on Earth in at least 800,000 years — as there's irrefutable proof trapped in the planet's ancient ice. Read more...

More about Science, Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate Change

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/climate-change-carbon-pollution-15-million-years/
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Improve your vocabulary for less than $20

Does the mere thought of having your vocabulary skills tested make you kakorrhaphiophobic? Follow-up question: Do you even know what "kakorrhaphiophobic" means? Didn't think so.

Well, fear not: You can easily improve your command of the English language — not to mention your self-esteem and your job prospects — with the Award-Winning Vocabulary Builder Bundle, a set of two programs designed to improve your communication skills.

You'll begin your training with Vocab1, a software program that aims to double your vocabulary through contextual learning in the form of fun games. It includes access to a database of over 520 million words, which you can pick and choose from to build customized word lists. Those lists can then be printed out in the form of worksheets and flashcards for convenient, on-the-go vocabulary drills. Read more...

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from Mashable https://mashable.com/shopping/oct-29-vocabulary-builder-bundle-sale/
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I regret to admit that switching to an actual alarm clock is a good move

You Won't Regret It is a new weekly column featuring recommendations, tips, and unsolicited advice from the Mashable culture team.

A lot of people have already extolled the value of using an actual alarm clock instead of the alarm clock on your phone. I, however, was skeptical. Why would I buy a thing (one that might take up an outlet, no less) when I already have a version of that thing on my phone?

Then I found my old digital alarm clock in a plastic bin under my couch. I was going to put it back in the bin, but I needed to use the bin for sweaters, so I decided to put the clock on my bedside table instead of back in the bin. It was a whole thing! Read more...

More about Smart Phone, Alarm Clock, You Won T Regret It, Culture, and Work Life

from Mashable https://mashable.com/article/alarm-clock-instead-of-phone/
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ASMR unboxing the Razer Phone 2 and wireless charger

Tech unboxing + ASMR = a strange but informative experience. This week, senior tech correspondent Ray Wong unboxes the Razer Phone 2 and the Razer wireless charger. Find out which specs we think are worth whispering about. Read more...

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Asmr, Unboxing, and Razer Phone 2

from Mashable https://mashable.com/video/asmr-unboxing-razer-2/
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Snag an origami-style smartphone stand on sale for 40% off

Originating in ancient Japan as a ceremonial practice based on paper's status as a luxury good, the art of origami, or paper folding, has recently given way to a host of technological breakthroughs. In 2015, MIT researchers debuted a teeny, self-assembling origami robot that could be ingested in the form of a meltable pill and controlled magnetically from outside a person's body. The invention could transform the medical field once it's perfected, with experts hoping doctors can one day use the robots to "deliver medicine, patch wounds, and remove foreign objects from the body," according to Forbes Read more...

More about Origami, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Stackcommerce, Tech, and Work Life

from Mashable https://mashable.com/shopping/oct-29-origami-device-stand-sale/
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Super Smash Bros. is peak Nintendo — Games to Play Before You Die

Jordan Minor, Kellen Beck, and Bob Al-Greene break down the characters, music, and moves that make this game a piece of Nintendo history. Read more...

More about Mashable Video, Nintendo, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, and Classic Games

from Mashable https://mashable.com/video/super-smash-bros-64-peak-nintendo/
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Why Super Smash Bros. is one of the best fighting games — Games to Play Before You Die

Jordan Minor, Kellen Beck, and Bob Al-Greene dissect the gameplay that makes Smash 64 one of the best fighting games. Read more...

More about Mashable Video, Nintendo, Video Games, Classic Games, and Super Smash Bros

from Mashable https://mashable.com/video/super-smash-bros-64-best-fighting-game/
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OnePlus 6T review: Making affordable unbeatable

Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work.

Android darling OnePlus moves at a speed that often feels too fast. Didn’t the OnePlus 6 just come out six months ago and set the bar for a value-packed premium Android phone?

It sure did! But unlike other phones that cram more into a glass-and-metal sandwich to justify ballooning prices, OnePlus keeps pushing innovation forward without charging an arm and a leg.

As fantastic as the OnePlus 6 hardware and pricing is, mimicking the best parts of the most popular phones and selling them in your own device can only get you so far. At a certain point, a flagship phone needs to lead by other means to really step out of its competitors’ shadows. Read more...

More about Mobile, Android, Reviews, Mashable Choice, and Oneplus

from Mashable https://mashable.com/feature/oneplus-6t-review/
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The trailer for Netflix's docuseries 'Dogs' will make you tear up, duh

"I can't imagine my life without dogs." Girl, same.

Dogs, a documentary series about—you guessed it—dogs, just dropped its first trailer and it is everything a dog lover could want and more.

Executive produced by Amy Berg and Glen Zipper (who also developed the series), the six-part documentary will follow the lives of six furry subjects facing uniquely heartwarming and impactful challenges. From a woman with a passion for competitive pet grooming to a Husky thousands of miles away from his beloved owner, the stories set to unfold will highlight not only how we can take care of man's best friend, but also how man's best friend can take care of us. Read more...

More about Netflix, Dogs, Puppy, Docuseries, and Amy Berg

from Mashable https://mashable.com/video/dogs-trailer/
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Upgrade to a 4K TV this week: Save on Sony, LG, Sharp, Samsung, VIZIO, and more on sale

Looking for a new TV? We've gathered the best deals on 4K smart TVs from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and the Samsung Store. If you ever wanted to upgrade to a new 4K TV, now is your chance to save on the top name brands like Sony, LG Electronics, Samsung, and more.

Let's begin with 4K TVs that are 40+ inches in size, such as JVC's 49-inch 4K Ultra HD HDR Smart LED TV, which is on sale for $249.99, or 50% off its list price, from Walmart. This model also includes a built-in Chromecast, so you can watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu Plus, and HBO Now without buying a separate streaming device. Read more...

More about Samsung, Sony, 4k Tv, Vizio, and Mashable Shopping

from Mashable https://mashable.com/shopping/deal-oct-29-4k-tv-sony-lg-sharp-samsung-vizio/
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New top story on Hacker News: I Don't Like Notebooks – Joel Grus

I Don't Like Notebooks – Joel Grus
4 by taeric | 0 comments on Hacker News.

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The incredibly shoddy plot to smear Robert Mueller, explained

Mueller’s office has asked the FBI to investigate what happened.

An apparent attempt to drum up phony sexual misconduct allegations against special counsel Robert Mueller collapsed spectacularly Tuesday, and may have landed some conservative activists in hot water with the FBI.

“When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” Mueller’s spokesperson said in a statement.

Exactly what was going on remains unclear — including the object of the apparent scheme. But it spilled into public view after pro-Trump Twitter personality Jacob Wohl ominously suggested Monday night that a story about such allegations was coming, and journalists who had heard about this shady operation reacted with alarm on Twitter, saying it seemed to be a smear attempt.

The key people involved to some extent appear to be:

Jacob Wohl: a 20-year-old conservative who’s most famous for sending speedy sycophantic replies to Trump’s tweets and making implausible, factually dubious claims. He also ran some shady hedge funds.
Jack Burkman: a Republican lobbyist and conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly made false claims to have bombshell political information (such as a mystery witness proving DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered by the government, or someone who would come forward accusing a member of Congress of sexual harassment).

What happened

The gist is that Wohl, Burkman, or both may have been involved in a plot to drum up these allegations. Or they may have just been trolling the media. Or Wohl might even have been tricking Burkman on some level.

What we know so far is that:

On October 17, a bunch of prominent reporters and Twitter personalities got a weird email, supposedly from a woman named “Lorraine,” who claimed that someone working for Jack Burkman had offered to pay her to make accusations of sexual misconduct against Mueller. However, no one has yet been able to verify her identity or that she even exists (and indeed, Burkman now claims that she “doesn’t exist”). The email may well be total bullshit.
In any case, some recipients of this email got “Lorraine” to provide the info of the man who supposedly contacted her. They got in touch with him and were each told they were “in over your head” and to “drop” the matter. One says he then got a phone call from a man who identified himself as working for “Surefire Intelligence.”
Around this time, Jack Burkman said on social media that he was trying to get women with allegations about Mueller to come forward. Jacob Wohl, meanwhile, claimed on Twitter to have heard a rumor that something like this would soon happen.
On October 22, law professor Jennifer Taub got an email from someone with a Surefire Intelligence account, asking her about her “past encounters with Robert Mueller” and offering to “compensate” her for a phone call. Taub told the Atlantic that she’s never met Mueller, that she didn’t respond to the email, and that she forwarded the email to Mueller’s office.
Finally, last night, Wohl tweeted: “Several media sources tell me that a scandalous story about Mueller is breaking tomorrow. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!” Various journalists who received the “Lorraine” email then started tweeting about it, and opining that it was shady and unconvincing.

This was an embarrassingly thin scam

This caused the whole matter to spill out into public, and internet sleuths began to dig into Surefire Intelligence, the supposed private intelligence company investigating these allegations.

Wohl was publicly cagey about his involvement in Surefire or the plot generally. But Burkman freely told Hill Reporter that “Surefire is a real company” run by “Jacob Wohl.” And after journalists and online researchers got to work, it started to look like Surefire was ... Jacob Wohl, and only Jacob Wohl.

Surefire’s official phone number goes to Jacob Wohl’s mother’s voicemail.
Wohl’s email is listed in the domain records for Surefire’s website.
The office Surefire listed as its address is in fact occupied by a law firm that says it has nothing to do with them.
An LLC with the company’s name was incorporated just a few weeks ago.
LinkedIn profiles for several supposed Surefire employees use photos that are actually of other people (including model Bar Refaeli and actor Christoph Waltz).
The photo for Surefire’s supposed “managing partner” appears to be of Wohl himself.

So, it looks like Surefire is essentially Better Call Saul’s Jimmy McGill doing a series of different voices over the phone to convince prosecutors that a whole church congregation supports his client. It is not clear if Burkman, who insisted Surefire was “real,” is also being tricked, or if he is a willing participant in this scam.

Nonetheless, on Tuesday afternoon, the far-right conspiracist website Gateway Pundit, for which Wohl writes, posted a heavily redacted document making a rape allegation against Mueller. The name of the document’s author was blacked out, but it used a slogan that was also on the Surefire website. Then, after much Twitter mockery, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft took the document down and said he was “looking into” the “serious allegations against Jacob Wohl.”

Now, it’s in the FBI’s hands. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” Mueller’s spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.

If this is just trolling, then it sort of worked

Wohl may end up being the ultimate loser in this scenario, depending on what the FBI finds. But if the purpose of the scam was as much to troll journalists as to smear Mueller and the investigation, then in a way, he’s already won.

Yes, Mueller’s office commented on the allegations and “made news” by saying they’d referred the allegations to the FBI. Still, NBC News, the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, BuzzFeed News, the New York Times, and several other media outlets (including, now, Vox) wrote articles about this nonsense — if only to debunk Wohl’s claims. By doing so, they devoted scarce journalistic resources to this topic rather than others, just days before the midterm elections.

Burkman still claims that this Thursday he will reveal “the first” of Mueller’s victims at a press conference. If this is anything like his previous hyped press conferences, it will be a dud. But if on some level trolls just want to steal the spotlight and change the subject, then the plan succeeded.

from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/2018/10/30/18044110/robert-mueller-jacob-wohl-jack-burkman-surefire
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Vox Sentences: Trump wants to executive-order his way out of the Constitution

Kanye West says he wants nothing to do with Blexit apparel

Kanye West has distanced himself from a line of “Blexit” apparel affiliated with Turning Point USA.

The rapper denied designing T-shirts urging blacks to exit the Democratic Party.

Kanye West is at it again — or is he? After meetings with President Donald Trump, a controversial rant on SNL, and insinuating that slavery was a choice for African Americans, his latest controversy involves his supposed link to the new “Blexit” shirts being hawked by conservatives. The term “Blexit” is a portmanteau (“black exit”) that plays on Brexit (“British exit”) and refers to African-American voters leaving the Democratic Party.

The shirts made the rounds Saturday at the conservative group Turning Point USA’s Young Black Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, and are being sold at Blexit.com. The site also sells merchandise with the logo “We Free,” likely a riff on the offensive conservative talking point that blacks are “slaves on the Democratic plantation,” and a baseball cap with a figure shaped like an X in what may be an odd allusion to the Malcolm X gear that became trendy in the 1990s.

While West didn’t attend the summit, TPUSA spokesperson and conservative pundit Candace Owens told the New York Post he was behind the designs.

“Blexit is a renaissance, and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colors, were created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West,” she told the publication. “[He] has taken one of the boldest steps in America to open a conversation we have needed to have.”

But after West started to get negative press because of the shirts, Owens backtracked on exactly what his role was in the design process, saying West merely helped connect her with a designer.

#BLEXIT is about the beautiful stories of so many black people who have awakened themselves to the possibilities of our future, as Americans.

The press is trying to use Kanye’s name to create drama and further divisiveness which is WRONG.

Here is statement of clarity from me: pic.twitter.com/PJSdM2PRFi
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 29, 2018

On Tuesday, West tweeted that he had “nothing to do with” the merchandise and “never wanted any association with Blexit.”

I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn’t want their name on it so she used mine. I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it.
— ye (@kanyewest) October 30, 2018

Vox reached out to Blexit for comment about West’s remarks and will update when we hear back. While his exact connection to the Blexit merchandise is still unclear — he says he merely introduced Owens to the person who designed the logo — the bigger question is why Owens is calling Blexit a “renaissance” to begin with.

The Blexit merchandise is certainly eye-catching: Shirts come in push-pop orange and bright teal with neon accents. There’s even a distressed denim cap with the Blexit motto. And everything costs less than $28.

TPUSA is framing Blexit as a movement, complete with online testimonials from African-American voters who’ve left the Democratic Party. In his Blexit YouTube video, Rob Smith, who bills himself as “America’s favorite black gay Republican,” says he believes black people deserve more choices.

“To tell us we only have one choice for a political party is quite frankly BS, and I don’t buy it anymore,” he says, adding, “It is time that we start demanding that people work for our vote.”

I want to see a @MarkDice video where he is wearing a BLEXIT shirt while walking among the leftist zombies. #JobsNotMobs #RedWave2018 #GOP2018 #VoteRedInNovember #MobRuleDemocrats #MobRule #Trump #RedTsunami #BLEXIT pic.twitter.com/vCQ2POY55P
— Comrade Thead (@ComradeThead) October 28, 2018

But behind the expertly designed merchandise and testimonies peppered with refried GOP talking points about African Americans — crime in Chicago, victim mentality, aborted black babies — the Blexit website provides few reasons why a black person should vote Republican, or at all. Especially as Republican President Donald Trump has found himself in repeated controversies related to white nationalists and Republicans across the country are making it more difficult for people to vote through measures like voter ID laws.

The site also links to articles in a way that misrepresents race relations, political parties, and legislation historically. The materials appear to be designed to sway readers into thinking that the Democratic Party today is the same as the Dixiecrats of years past. For the record, some states — including California, where I live — allow people to register to vote without stating a political preference, so they can cast their ballot for whichever party they feel best serves their interests in any given election.

West seems to be fluid in his political views. Although he’s endorsed Trump, he also recently donated $73,540 to the Chicago mayoral campaign of Amara Enyia, a Democrat. In September, he raised eyebrows for pairing a MAGA cap with a sweater emblazoned with the name of Colin Kaepernick, the activist-athlete the president described as a “son of a bitch.” When he’s not throwing his support behind people with wildly different political outlooks, West is managing to spur backlash by pondering whether, for instance, the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, should be revoked.

When he distanced himself from the Blexit movement Tuesday, he suggested he’d been taken advantage of by political advocates, though he didn’t name names.

“My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in,” West tweeted. “I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative!!!” Time will tell what this means for his previously expressed interest in running for president.

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from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/30/18045104/kanye-west-blexit-t-shirts-design-candace-owens
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Apps for preschoolers are flooded with manipulative ads, according to a new study

Mike Pence sparks outrage after appearing with “Christian rabbi” in Michigan

Rabbi Loren Jacobs prayed for comfort for the Pittsburgh shooting victims — and for Republican candidates to win.

In the wake of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue over the weekend that left 11 people dead, Vice President Mike Pence appeared with a rabbi at a campaign rally in Michigan — but the rabbi was a “Messianic rabbi” who’s part of the Jews for Jesus movement.

Pence sparked outrage when he shared the stage with Loren Jacobs at a rally outside of Detroit. Messianic Judaism accepts Jesus as the messiah and embraces the New Testament. As the Washington Post notes, the major Jewish denominations and Israel view followers of Messianic Judaism as Christian.

Many onlookers slammed Jacobs’s appearance alongside Pence as insensitive and tone-deaf in the wake of the shooting on Saturday in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people and wounded multiple others, including four police officers.

Jacobs opened his prayer by invoking “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God and father of my lord and savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and my God and father, too.” (As NBC News notes, many Messianic Jews refer to Jesus as “Yeshua.”)

He went on to lament divisions in the US, saying, “Our nation is so divided right now,” and invoked the “hate-inspired shooting” in Pittsburgh. “I pray that you would comfort all of those who are mourning because of those who were wounded and killed,” he said. “Lord, please work so that instead of division in our nation, there is unity and peace.”

Jacobs did not name the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh shooting in his prayer, but he did in his prayer for Republican politicians, including Pence, the presidential cabinet, and four Republican candidates for office. “I pray for them and for the Republican Party and its candidates so that they would honor you and your ways, that you might grant them victory in this election,” Jacobs said.

Many people on Twitter expressed outrage at the event.

Two days after the worst anti-Semitic massacre ever on American soil, the Vice President appears at an event with group whose main purpose is to proselytize to Jews & convert them to Christianity. https://t.co/x4QU9uyGDy
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 29, 2018

as a jew, let me tell you how bad it is.
jews for jesus is an evangelical group funded by the southern baptist conference, with a goal to convert jews. that's their only mission.
and to do it when american jews are being killed just for being jews, is heinous.@vp https://t.co/zrZmhbqPbR
— pop!goestheweasel ️‍ (@mikeytheweasel) October 30, 2018

Fake Jews!
— Molly Jong☠️Fast (@MollyJongFast) October 30, 2018

One Twitter pointed out that normally a rabbi would open with a prayer for the dead and list the names of the deceased — not blessings for political candidates and the vice president.

Normally, a Rabbi would open with Kaddish, a prayer for the dead - and list names of those taken. And blessings to the community at risk, Jews, immigrants, etc. Here, it is instead a prayer for Republican candidates to win on November 6 and a blessing for Mike Pence.
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) October 30, 2018

Pence’s team distanced the vice president, who is a devout evangelical Christian, from the decision-making process around Jacobs. Jarrod Agen, his deputy chief of staff, told NBC News that Pence had heard Jacobs give a prayer at the start of the event and invited him to the stage for everyone to hear him. He said they often have “ecumenical prayers” at the start of events that “aren’t an endorsement of any particular faith.”

Pence’s office in an email to Vox said the NBC News report was not accurate and that the vice president wasn’t present for the earlier prayer and didn’t hear it.

An aide to Pence told the Post that Lena Epstein, a Republican who is running to represent Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, had invited Jacobs, and that Pence didn’t know who he was when he invited him to “deliver a message of unity.”

Team Pence says: "He was invited by Lena Epstein to offer a prayer at the event, which he did early in the program. The VP invited him back on stage to deliver a message of unity. He was not invited by the VP’s office to speak on behalf of the Jewish community.”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 30, 2018

Epstein in a statement posted on Twitter defended the decision, saying she is “proud” of her Jewish faith. “This was an effort of unity, yet some are trying to create needless division to suit their political goals,” she wrote.

Statement on Jewish Faith and Religious Tolerance: pic.twitter.com/QUxYG3ZIh5
— Lena Epstein (@LenaEpstein) October 30, 2018

The administration has experienced a few missteps in its Pittsburgh response

The Trump administration’s response to the Pittsburgh shooting has been, at times, imperfect.

Trump on Saturday called the shooting “anti-Semitic” and a “wicked act of mass murder” and said the incident has been “more devastating than anybody thought.”

While speaking with reporters, Trump also suggested the congregation should have had better security and noted that he believes violent events are especially tough for him.

He went ahead with a rally in Illinois on Saturday evening, despite speculation he might cancel it, because he said “evil people” can’t derail life. He falsely claimed that the New York Stock Exchange opened the day after 9/11 and joked that his hair had gotten wet during “a very unfortunate news conference.” He quipped that maybe he should cancel “because I have a bad hair day.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway in an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday complained about “anti-religiosity” in the United States “that is somehow in vogue,” casting the shooting as a broader issue of religion in America instead of a glaring example of anti-Semitism.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

Update: Updated with statement from Pence’s office disputing the NBC News report.

from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/30/18042224/mike-pence-christian-rabbi-loren-jacobs-messianic-jews
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Ben & Jerry’s is donating a total of $100,000 to 4 progressive causes

Money will be donated to the Women’s March and Neta whether or not you buy Pecan Resist. The flavor’s just a bonus.

Vermont-based ice cream maker and self-proclaimed “aspiring social justice company” Ben & Jerry’s just launched a new ice cream flavor to support progressive politics. But as is often true when brands take stands, it’s hard to know exactly how much is effective action, how much is savvy marketing, and how much the difference matters. The risk is this: When brands try to draw attention to a cause, they often wind up diverting attention to themselves.

“Pecan Resist,” the press release explains, is “a movement to lick injustice and champion those fighting to create a more just and equitable nation for us all.” It is also an ice cream flavor. (According to the Ben & Jerry’s website, the resistance tastes like “chocolate ice cream with white & dark fudge chunks, pecans, walnuts & fudge-covered almonds.”)

“Alongside all those nutty chunks, this pint packs a powerful message under its lid: together, we can build a more just and equitable tomorrow,” the website copy explains. “We can peacefully resist the Trump administration’s regressive and discriminatory policies and build a future that values inclusivity, equality, and justice for people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, refugees, and immigrants.”

Specifically, Pecan Resist — the movement, not the flavor — will be supporting four different organizations that Ben & Jerry’s identifies as “working on the front lines of the peaceful resistance.” Color of Change focuses on racial justice; Honor the Earth works to raise “awareness and support for Native environmental issues”; Women’s March aims to “harness the power of diverse women” to affect social change; and Neta is a media platform amplifying the voices of people of color living along Texas-Mexico border. Ben & Jerry’s will be donating $25,000 to each organization. The company is also urging fans to “speak out” against the Trump administration’s socially regressive policies, and presents the option to “take action now” by signing up for emails from the partner organizations.

This isn’t the brand’s first foray into progressive politics. There was a 1988 attempt to help indigenous nut farmers in Brazil with the Brazil-nut-flavored “Rainforest Crunch,” according to Pacific Standard’s political timeline of the company. There was also the 2007 “Yes Pecan!,” which raised money not for the Obama campaign, but for the Common Cause Education Fund. (Pecan is a popular flavor for puns.)

In more recent years, we’ve seen “Bernie’s Yearning,” an extremely limited-edition pint celebrating fellow Vermonter Bernie Sanders that was actually spearheaded by founder Ben Cohen, not the company. Earlier this fall, Cohen and partner Jerry Greenfield also introduced a septet of flavors in support of seven congressional candidates.

The idea, in general, has been to raise awareness of (and sometimes money for) various progressive causes. And while the ice cream makers have been vocal and early, they are not alone. “When it comes to viral marketing, the resistance is hot right now,” wrote Amanda Hess in the New York Times, citing a long list of brands across categories: Glossier (millennial-oriented no-makeup makeup), Reebok (athletic wear), Morton’s Salt (salt).

Is this bad? Maybe not. But in 2018, the business of awareness is complicated. The main problem is: We are already very aware.

“The typical refrain from brands that take on a cause is that they are ‘using their platform’ to ‘raise awareness’ about an issue,” Hess wrote. “But the internet has complicated the transaction. Modern news audiences are bombarded with too much information, and right now, it all seems to be news for or against President Trump. Brands that enter the fray aren’t so much ‘raising awareness’ as they are jostling for their own messaging to be seen amid the rush of signals.”

Of course, just because a brand is capitalizing on the resistance doesn’t mean the politics are insincere. It is extremely possible to strongly disagree with the policies of the Trump administration and also want to sell ice cream. It is possible to realize that one might help you do the other. And even if they don’t sell any resistance ice cream at all, the brand is still giving $25,000 to each of the partner organizations — a flat donation that “exceeds any profit we expect to see from this flavor,” a Ben & Jerry’s spokesperson said. That’s something!

At the same time, the campaign is part of a larger trend, with brands offering consumers the opportunity to consume their way into “the resistance” — an inherently flawed proposition.

Part of the allure of the “resistance brand,” Hess points out, is that it presents a more appealing alternative to the annoying time-suck of actually resisting. The problem isn’t progressive ice cream; the problem is that buying ice cream — or mascara, or salt — is not civic engagement, even if you sign up for the emails.

from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/30/18043054/ben-jerrys-political-pecan-resist
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This group is helping voters make sense of which candidates take climate change seriously

Could Hillary Clinton really be thinking about another presidential run?

Hillary Clinton during a speech at Oxford University’s Mansfield College.

Sure, she could be. Whether she’d actually go through with it is a different question.

Two recent comments have fanned speculation that Hillary Clinton might be thinking about running for president again in 2020 — though some of her allies are now trying to throw cold water on the idea.

During an interview with Kara Swisher for the Recode Decode podcast published Saturday, Clinton said she didn’t want to run for president again, but added, “I’d like to be president.” She then proceeded to recite her résumé, explaining how she feels “very well prepared” for the “work” that awaits a new Democratic president in 2020, before saying that she’s “not even going to think about” all this until after the midterm elections.

This came just a week after a Politico magazine piece in which longtime Clinton loyalist Philippe Reines made the case for why — hypothetically — Clinton would be a strong 2020 presidential candidate, and notably estimated the chances she would run as “somewhere between highly unlikely and zero” but “not zero.”

However, the Hill’s Amie Parnes, a reporter who’s well-sourced in Clintonworld, wrote Monday that she is “not running for president again,” per her “longtime advisers and confidants.” One anonymous confidant told Parnes, “It’s not a real thing,” and Reines clarified to her that Clinton is “more likely to win Powerball” than to run.

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA), a longtime Clinton friend, also said on MSNBC: “I feel confident in saying I think Hillary is never going to be on the ballot again.” (However, we should note that McAuliffe may have a conflict here, since he has been sometimes mentioned as a 2020 candidate himself.)

So what to make of all this? It could, in some sense, be a trial balloon from the Clinton camp, truly meant to gauge what the reactions for another run would be. Or it could indeed all be a whole lot of hoopla over nothing — overscrutinizing two comments that were meant to be a little cute.

The past history of general election losers running again

To get a sense of what a heavy lift another Clinton campaign would be, the modern history of losing general election nominees coming back for another try is not a rosy one.

Yes, there is Richard Nixon, who lost as the GOP nominee in 1960 but was renominated and won eight years later. But beyond that, you have two-time nominees and two-time losers (Adlai Stevenson and Thomas Dewey), a three-time nominee and three-time loser (William Jennings Bryan), and others who ran again after losing the general election but couldn’t even win the nomination (Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern).

Since McGovern’s return bid in 1984, no major-party nominee who lost the general has run for president again. No major party has renominated a past losing nominee since Nixon in 1968, and no major party has renominated a past losing nominee in a second consecutive election since Stevenson in 1956.

But what we have seen repeatedly is that some of those losing nominees have considered running again — like Al Gore did in late 2002, John Kerry did in early 2007, and Mitt Romney did in January 2015 — before eventually deciding not to.

Romney 2016 redux?

The Romney example is particularly instructive:

In January 2014, when Romney was asked if he was running again, he said, “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.”
But by the end of the year, in December 2014, Politico reported that, in “private conversations” with “more than a dozen people,” Romney has started to sound “open to the idea” of running again because he was “unimpressed” by the emerging GOP field.
On January 9, 2015, Romney himself decided to fuel the fire. He told GOP donors at a closed-door event that he was thinking about running again, adding, “Tell your friends.”
On January 12, 2015, the Washington Post ran a story headlined, “Romney moves to reassemble campaign team for ‘almost certain’ 2016 bid.”
But, finally, on January 30, 2015, Romney told his donors and supporters that he would not in fact run. “I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity,” he said.

What happened in those few weeks was, essentially, that Romney got a ton of unenthusiastic feedback from party insiders — staffers, admirers, donors, and politicians. The general sentiment was that the GOP should give someone new a shot. It became clear that Romney would not start as the clear insider favorite, and so he soon decided not to run.

As I wrote at the time, it was a seeming vindication for the “Party Decides” theory about how presidential primaries work. Though Romney was leading in polls of the GOP field, what he cared more about was that feedback from insiders, and it was tepid enough to persuade him that another run would be a bad idea. Clinton could well get the same sort of feedback and come to the same conclusion.

It’s up to Clinton in the end

Still, the Trump example should remind us that the decision of whether Clinton will run or not is truly up to her in the end, not party insiders. Clinton is of course a very different type of candidate than Trump, but Trump shows it is possible to defy the judgments of party elites and win anyway.

So what is Clinton thinking now? Well, judging by her interview with Swisher, Clinton continues to believe she would have won if not for Russian interference and then-FBI Director James Comey. (Her book What Happened also assigns a fair share of the blame to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).)

Meanwhile, she and former president Bill Clinton are going on a speaking tour that is currently scheduled to wrap up in May 2019. That timing is interesting, since she announced her last run in June 2015. It will give her a platform to comment on the early months of next year’s presidential race as it is unfolding, as well as making the couple some money.

If Clinton were to run, of course, it would hugely reshape the (currently rather inchoate) Democratic field. She has surely noticed that no one Democratic candidate appears to have yet broken out. Joe Biden and Sanders are the poll leaders lately, but she’s beaten both of them before (Biden during her second-place 2008 finish, and Sanders in 2016). And though Clinton’s favorability numbers among the general public are at a record low, 77 percent of Democrats still view her favorably, per Gallup.

It does seem clear that party elites have little appetite for another Clinton run, and that she’d start off in a worse position than she was last time around. Clinton could well conclude that she can’t win without those insiders. Then again, she could think that she has name recognition, perfectly adequate fundraising ability, and the loyalty of millions of Democratic voters who thought she was robbed.

As Trump’s run and primary victory despite little GOP elite support should remind us, the choice of whether to run is an individual one in the end. Whatever Clinton’s current thinking, though, it’s clear that she has no plans to retreat to a comfortable retirement, and wants to continue to be a major voice shaping the Democratic Party for years to come.

from Vox - All https://www.vox.com/2018/10/30/18000140/hillary-clinton-running-2020-president
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