November 17, 2023

Friday,November 17, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

Thanks to our President, this soon will happen.👇

The New York Times reports - Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said in a speech on Wednesday night that his nation’s best diplomats, giant pandas, might soon return to zoos in the United States that have recently sent bears back to their homeland.

“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” he told a gathering of mostly business executives at a dinner in San Francisco.

Mr. Xi pointed out that the pandas are “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

The President promised us he would always speak the truth.

Biden calls Xi a dictator after carefully planned summit.

WOODSIDE, California, Nov 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had not changed his view that Chinese President Xi Jinping was effectively a dictator, a comment likely to land with a thud in Beijing after the two leaders held straightforward summit talks.

Biden held a solo news conference after four hours of talks with Xi on the outskirts of San Francisco. At the end of the news conference, he was asked whether he still held the view that Xi was a dictator, something he said in June.

"Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said.

In response, China's foreign ministry said it "strongly opposes" the remarks, without mentioning Biden by name.

"This statement is extremely wrong and irresponsible political manipulation," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Thursday at a routine briefing.

"It should be pointed out that there will always be some people with ulterior motives who attempt to incite and damage U.S.-China relations, they are doomed to fail."

Mao refused to specify the identity of "some people" in answer to a follow-up question.

Last March Xi clinched a third term as president when nearly 3,000 members of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, voted unanimously for him in an election in which there was no other candidate. (Reuters).

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Social Media continues to provide a challenge to Democracy and Decency.

Calling all patriots. META aka Facebook is up to its old money-grubbing tricks which endanger Democracy.

Antisemites seem to have found a home on TikTok.

Jewish Celebrities and Influencers Confront TikTok Executives in Private Call.

TikTok faces escalating accusations that it promotes pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel content. “Shame on you,” Sacha Baron Cohen said on the call.

More than a dozen Jewish TikTok creators and celebrities confronted TikTok executives and other employees in a private meeting on Wednesday night, urging them to do more to address a surge of antisemitism and harassment on the popular video service.

The meeting, held on a video call for about 90 minutes and joined by more than 30 people in all, included the actors Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing and Amy Schumer. It was led by Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of operations, and Seth Melnick, its global head of user operations. The executives said they wanted to know more about what the creators were experiencing to improve the app, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.

The celebrities and creators described, sometimes with fiery rhetoric, how TikTok’s tools did not prevent a flood of comments like “Hitler was right” or “I hope you end up like Anne Frank” under videos posted by them and other Jewish users.

“What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis,” Mr. Cohen, who does not appear to have an official TikTok account, said early in the call. He criticized violent imagery and disinformation on the platform, telling Mr. Presser, “Shame on you,” and claiming that TikTok could “flip a switch” to fix antisemitism on its platform.

Mr. Presser and Mr. Melnick of TikTok, who are also Jewish and based in the United States, were largely conciliatory in the meeting. “Obviously a lot of what Sacha says, there’s truth to that,” Mr. Presser said, referring to Mr. Cohen’s remarks that social media companies needed to take more action. Mr. Presser later said there was no “magic button” to address all the concerns raised.

TikTok is urgently trying to push back against escalating claims that it is promoting pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel content through its powerful feeds. Several Washington lawmakers have renewed their calls to ban the app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, arguing that Beijing may be influencing the content promoted through the platform’s algorithms.

Antisemitic and Islamophobic hate speech has surgedon many online services since the Israel-Hamas war began. Antisemitic content soared more than 919 percent on X and 28 percent on Facebook in the month since Oct. 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group. TikTok has gained particular attention because of its ties to China, and its powerful algorithm drives content to 150 million users in the United States.

“If you think back to Oct. 7, the reason why Hamas were able to behead young people and rape women was they were fed images from when they were small kids that led them to hate,” Mr. Cohen said in the meeting. He accused TikTok of feeding similarly incendiary content to young people.

“We recognize this is an incredibly difficult and fearful time for millions of people around the world and in our TikTok community,” TikTok said in a statement. “Our leadership has been meeting with creators, civil society, human rights experts and stakeholders to listen to their experiences and feedback on how TikTok can remain a place for community, discovery and sharing authentically.”

TikTok arranged the Wednesday meeting with the creators in response to an open letter they sent last week criticizing the company.

One TikTok user, who couldn’t be identified through the recording, was incredulous about a “Letter to America” written by Osama bin Laden two decades ago that started going viral on TikTok this week, finding some support among young Americans. In the letter, Bin Laden justified the killing of Americans, and expressed hatred of Jewish people and anger about Palestine.

The letter, the person said, had become the “talk of the app,” and added: “In regards to trending topics right now as we speak, this trend needs to end. This app needs to ban this letter.”

TikTok said it was “proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform.”

Miriam Ezagui, a TikTok creator and nurse with 1.9 million followers, said some popular editing features on the site were being used by some users to twist her words in a video and send waves of hatred her way.

Mr. Presser said the use of the tools to perpetuate hate was another “important flag” for the company to follow up on.

“We can do better,” he said.

Ms. Messing, who has more than 37,000 followers on TikTok, pressed executives on TikTok’s moderation of the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea,” which many Americans regard as a call to eradicate Israel. It has been deemed antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League and has appeared in messages and comments to many Jewish TikTok users, regardless of what they’re posting.

Mr. Presser said the phrase was up for interpretation by TikTok’s 40,000 moderators.

“Where it is clear exactly what they mean — ‘kill the Jews, eradicate the state of Israel’ — that content is violative and we take it down,” he told the group. “Our approach up until Oct. 7, continuing to today, has been that for instances where people use the phrase where it’s not clear, where someone is just using it casually, then that has been considered acceptable speech.”

The notion of the term being used “casually” upset several participants.

Ms. Messing asked the company to reconsider its stance, saying: “It is much more responsible to bar it at this juncture than to say, ‘Oh, well, some people, they use it in a different way than it actually was created to mean.’ I understand that you are in a very, very difficult and complicated place, but you also are the main platform for the dissemination of Jew hate.”

TikTok said in a statement, “We don’t allow content with this phrase when it’s used in a way that threatens violence and spreads hate.”

Several creators asked why they could not directly reach individuals at TikTok for help with the harassment. One creator said that when she reported harassment, it took three to five days for TikTok to respond.

The executives said that while TikTok used to have managers for each creator, that became harder as the company grew. It’s now trying to reorganize its creator management teams to get more individual or community support for bigger accounts, Mr. Presser said.

“To hear that this place, this platform, this community that has brought you so much joy and helps each of you as individuals is becoming a place that feels like somewhere that you’re not sure you want to spend time on, I mean, that’s devastating,” he said.

“This is where we get the feedback, this is where we hear what isn’t working,” Mr. Presser said as the call concluded. “A lot of it, honestly I am embarrassed to say, is new. I haven’t heard a lot of it.” (New York Times).

TikTok isn’t the only social media platform amplifying antisemitism. X’s owner outdoes the others.

Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, expresses support for antisemitic post on X, calling it "the actual truth.”

Elon Musk, the world's richest person and owner of X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, called an antisemitic post on the platform "the actual truth."

The comment stemmed from an X user's post that claimed Jews "have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." 

Musk responded, "You have said the actual truth" while also criticizing the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that works to combat hate against Jewish people. "The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat," Musk tweeted.

The comment comes amid heightened tensions due to the Israel-Hamas war, which has led to conflicts on U.S. college campuses over alleged antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents. Meanwhile, since Hamas militants launched a surprise assault on Israel in October and Israeli attacks in Gaza, there has been a significant rise in antisemitic incidents across the U.S., according to data released by the ADL.

The original post's sentiment echoes some antisemitic conspiracy theories claiming that Jewish people want to bring in minorities to weaken White majorities. That belief was espoused by convicted murderer Robert Bowers, who raged against Jewish people online before shooting 11 people dead at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

In a response to Musk's comment, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X, "At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one's influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories."

Musk has targeted the ADL previously, threateningin September to sue the group for purportedly accusing both him and X of antisemitism, claiming that the ADL's actions had led advertisers to abandon the social network. In the year since Musk bought the social media company, he's transformed the service by firing its CEO and many of its employees, including those working on content moderation. Critics say that has led to a surge in hate speech on X.

Musk, whose personal fortune Forbes puts at $243 billion, has used X as his personal megaphone, amplifying his own views to his 163 million followers on everything from his companies' products to gender and race issues. His comments have been criticized as hurtful to some groups, such as transgender people, while critics say he has allowed hate speech to flourish on X. (CBS News).

One more thing.

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Report by the U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON ETHICS on Republican Representative George Santos (NY-03). They found him guilty of criminal behavior.

“The House Ethics Committee on Thursday released its much-anticipated report on its monthslong investigation into Rep. George Santos, concluding there is “substantial evidence” the New York Republican “violated federal criminal laws.”

Santos indicated he will not run for Re-election.

This 👇 is the 56 page report.

https://ethics.house.gov/sites/ethics.house.gov/files/documents/ISC%20Report_0.pdf

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Paul Pelosi’s attacker found guilty.

When David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, he was under the spell of Trumpian online conspiracies. Pelosi is lucky to have survived the brutal attack.

Man who attacked Pelosi’s husband convicted of federal assault and attempted kidnapping charges.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted the man who broke into former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home last year of federal charges for seeking to hold her hostage and attacking her husband with a hammer.

Jurors deliberated for about eight hours before finding David DePape guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. DePape, who faces up to 50 years in prison, did not react as the verdict was read.

The attack on then-82-year-old Paul Pelosi that was captured on police body camera video just days before the midterm elections sent shockwaves through the political world.

DePape, 43, admitted during trial testimony that he broke into the Pelosis’ home on Oct. 28, 2022, intending to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she lied to him. He also admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer after San Francisco police officers showed up at the home, saying his plan to end what he viewed as government corruption was unraveling.

Defense attorneys argued that DePape was motivated by his political beliefs, not because he wanted to interfere with Nancy Pelosi’s official duties as a member of Congress, making the charges against him invalid. One of his attorneys, Angela Chuang, told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that DePape was caught up in conspiracies.

At a news conference outside the federal courthouse where the verdict was read, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey told reporters: “People can believe what they want and engage in passionate debate. But this guilty verdict on all counts sends a clear message that regardless of what your beliefs are, what you cannot do is physically attack a member of Congress or their immediate family for the performance of their job.”

Defense attorneys did not comment on the verdict.

A sentencing date has not yet been set. A status hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.

DePape, a Canadian citizen who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, also is charged in state court with assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary and other felonies. A state trial date will be set during a Nov. 29 hearing, said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. She said her office will confer with federal prosecutors and the Pelosis to determine next steps.

During his testimony, DePape echoed right-wing conspiracy theories and told jurors he had planned to wear an inflatable unicorn costume and record his interrogation of Nancy Pelosi to upload it online. Prosecutors say he had rope and zip ties with him. Detectives also found body cameras, a computer and a tablet.

DePape testified that his plan was to get Nancy Pelosi to admit that she had been lying to the American people. “If she lied, I would break her kneecaps,” he said. “The choice is on her.”

He said he would then move to other targets, including a women’s and queer studies professor who testified at the trial, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, actor Tom Hanks and President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

Paul Pelosi also testified, recalling how he was awakened by a large man bursting into the bedroom door and asking, “Where’s Nancy?” He said that when he responded that his wife was in Washington, DePape said he would tie him up while they waited for her.

“It was a tremendous sense of shock to recognize that somebody had broken into the house and looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi told jurors.

Pelosi recounted how he managed to call 911 with DePape looking on, urging Pelosi to tell police that he was a friend. Pelosi said he tried to tell police what was happening without aggravating DePape.

Pelosi recalled being thankful when the police arrived, only for DePape to then hit him with the hammer. He said he woke up in a pool of his own blood.

More than a year after the attack, he still hasn’t fully recovered, Pelosi said. A neurosurgeon who operated on him testified that Pelosi had two wounds on his head, including a fracture to his skull that had to be mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. Pelosi also needed stitches on injuries to his right arm and hand, the surgeon said.

A spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi issued a statement after the verdict was announced saying Paul Pelosi “continues to make progress in his recovery” and that the family was grateful for the outpouring of support for him from people across the U.S..

DePape testified he thought Paul Pelosi was dead until he saw he was charged by San Francisco prosecutors with attempted murder.

“He was never my target and I’m sorry that he got hurt,” DePape said.

He told jurors he believed news outlets repeatedly lied about former President Donald Trump. In rants posted on a blog and online forum that were taken down after his arrest, DePape echoed the baseless, right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory that claims the U.S. government is run by a cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles. He repeated QAnon-like conspiracies during his testimony, referring to a cabal and the ruling elite and saying they are eroding Americans’ liberty and allowing the abuse of children. (Associated Press).

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Maybe someone will take Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shopping?

That is the least we can do. He won’t be President. Florida will have drag queens for the holidays. And he needs new boots.

The Supreme Court won't allow Florida to enforce its new law targeting drag shows during appeal.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Thursday it will not allow Florida to enforce its new law targeting drag shows, while a court case proceeds.

The justices refused to narrow a lower-court order that has prohibited the law from being enforced statewide.

Florida had asked the court to allow its anti-drag show law to be enforced everywhere except at the Hamburger Mary's restaurant in Orlando, which challenged the law's constitutionality.

Three justices, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have granted the state's request.

Last month, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s order stopping the law from being enforced. The district court found that the law likely restricted free speech and couldn't be enforced anywhere in the state.

Hamburger Mary’s regularly hosts drag shows, including family-friendly performances on Sundays that children are invited to attend. The restaurant’s owner said the law was overly broad, was written vaguely and violated First Amendment rights by chilling speech.

The new law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, punished venues for allowing children into what it called “adult live performances.” Though it did not mention drag shows specifically, the sponsor of the legislation said it was aimed at those performances.

Venues that violated the law faced fines and the possibility that their liquor licenses to be suspended or revoked. Individuals could be charged with a misdemeanor crime. (ABC News).

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Run, Toni, Run.

California's first lesbian Senate leader could make history again if she runs for governor.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The first time Toni Atkins acted as the governor of California, she used her powers to honor the passing of San Diego Padres baseball player Tony Gwynn while playfully rebuffing Jimmy Kimmel’s advice that she “ invade Oregon. ”

It was 2014, and Atkins — the first lesbian to be the speaker of the state Assembly — was filling in for former Gov. Jerry Brown, a quirk of the California Constitution that requires governors to put someone else in charge whenever they leave the state.

Atkins, now the president pro tempore of the state Senate, has filled in as governor a few more times since then, most recently in July when she signed three bills into law and quipped that she was thrilled to once again step into the governor’s shoes, “ although I have better shoes. ”

Now, the 61-year-old lawmaker is turning her attention once again to the governor’s office — only this time, she’s exploring a much longer stay.

“I’m very interested in looking at that possibility” of running for governor, Atkins told The Associated Press in an interview, saying publicly for the first time what many have assumed since she announced she would step down as the Senate’s top leader next year. “I am looking at it seriously.”

The race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom will likely be a Democratic free-for-all sure to attract the party’s top talent for the chance to lead the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fifth largest economy. California voters have never elected a woman to the governor’s office, nor a person who is openly LGBTQ. And a host of other Democratic candidates are also vying to make history.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was the first to formally announce her candidacy just a few months into Newsom’s second term. Tony Thurmond, the Black state superintendent of public instruction, is also in, along with former Controller Betty Yee. Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is Filipino, has said he is seriously considering a run.

But Atkins is banking on her experience to give her an edge. That includes a brief stint as mayor of San Diego, one of the nation’s largest cities. And it includes becoming just the third person and first woman ever to hold both of the Legislature’s top jobs: speaker of the Assembly and president pro tempore of the Senate, where she negotiated eight state operating budgets and had her hands in countless major policy decisions.

“I sort of feel like I’m addicted to responsibility,” she said. “I think experience counts and matters, and I believe I have experience to continue to contribute in some way.”

California’s top legislative leaders are some of the most powerful people in the state, but it often doesn’t feel like it. While they negotiate major polices, it’s the governor who gets the attention when the deals are done.

That’s especially true for Atkins, who has been a more quiet leader than most. During her tenure as Senate leader, Democrats have grown their caucus to 32 out of 40 seats — their largest majority since 1883. That majority means there is little incentive to work with Republicans. But Atkins made sure Republicans had their bills heard in public hearings and even pushed for former Republican Leader Shannon Grove to be included in briefings with the Newsom administration.

“She always included us and there was never any surprises. I didn’t agree with what was going on, but we had input and participation,” said Grove, who noted she and Atkins bonded over their impoverished upbringing and a shared love of country music icon Dolly Parton. “She understands that we represent a portion of Californians as well and we were duly elected and therefore our voices should be heard.”

Atkins grew up in rural southwest Virginia, where her dad was a miner and her mother was a seamstress. Her childhood home did not have running water, and some of her earliest memories are of walking down a hill with her twin sister to fetch water from a spring to use for cooking and doing laundry.

As a young lesbian in Appalachia, Atkins dreamed of moving to California. She got her chance when her twin sister joined the Navy and was stationed in San Diego. Atkins moved there to help care for her sister’s young son, and never left.

In San Diego, Atkins was director of a women’s health clinic that performed abortions. She was also politically active, working to help elect Christine Kehoe to the San Diego City Council. Kehoe hired Atkins to work for her, and then urged her to run for her seat when Kehoe was elected to the state Assembly.

“Toni is not the kind of person that wants to be the smartest person in the room. She wants to be the most helpful and effective person in the room. And oftentimes she is,” Kehoe said.

Atkins followed her mentor to the state Legislature in 2010, where she soon found herself in a contentious race for speaker against Anthony Rendon of Los Angeles. Atkins won, but left after two years to run for the Senate.

It wasn’t long before Atkins was selected by her colleagues to lead the state Senate, forcing her to work with Rendon, who had replaced her as speaker in the Assembly. Their relationship was rough at times, but fruitful for Democrats. Their partnership expanded Medicaid to include all eligible adults regardless of immigration status and free meals for public school students.

“We had problems, but I think it was, you know, related more to ambition than anything and, you know, probably to an extent immaturity on my part, too,” said Rendon, who plans to run for state treasurer in 2026. “Toni Atkins is a very forgiving person. I have not always been the easiest person to deal with. But she, you know, kept coming back and trying to forge a relationship.”

Atkins said she is most proud of the policies that were inspired by her impoverished upbringing, including helping implement the federal Affordable Care Act and creating a tax credit for poor families worth several hundred dollars. (Associated Press).

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