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North Carolina is once again a presidential battleground, but there are also other races on the ballot, including the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

With early voting kicking off Oct. 15 in North Carolinaincluding an on-campus early voting place at the Karsh Alumni and Visitors CenterThe Chronicle has pulled together information on other national and statewide races that youll find on your ballot if voting in Durham.

The ballot will also include judicial races in North Carolina, county offices and candidates for the states General Assembly. Information on General Assembly candidates can be found in One Vote N.C.s voter guide.

All eyes are on the Senate race, where Republican incumbent Thom Tillis, a first-term senator, is running against Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, a former state senator. With millions raised by both sides, the race has become one of the most expensive and closely watched contests in the countryand for good reason.

The outcome could determine whether Democrats gain control of the Senate. If the Democratic presidential ticket loses, denying Democrats the vice presidency, they need at least four seats to flip the chamber.

A self-described common-sense fiscal conservative, Tillis has emphasized his record of cutting taxes, supporting small businesses and increasing jobs. Cunningham, an Army Reserve veteran, has promised to tackle corruption in the capital and to extend healthcare coverage.

On Oct. 2, the race was thrown into turmoil when Tillis announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus and Cunningham admitted to sending sexually explicit text messages to a woman who is not his wife. Still, in an era of sharp political polarization, its uncertain whether the sexting scandal will sway votersthe latest polls largely still show Cunningham with a single-digit lead. After being cleared from isolation by a doctor, Tillis returned to Washington on Tuesday to attend the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

Also running are Constitution Party candidate Kevin Hayes and Libertarian Party candidate Shannon Bray:

Durham County is split between North Carolinas 1st and 4th Congressional Districts. Both districts are rated Solid Democratic by the Cook Political Report and are seen as unlikely to swing right.

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The 1st is currently represented by Democrat G.K. Butterfield, who has served in the House since a special election in 2004. Hes being challenged by Sandy Smith, whose website describes her as a Pro-Trump and Pro-America conservative.

The 4th is represented by Democrat David Price, who has served in the House since 1987 with the exception of one term in the 1990s, when he won back the seat two years after losing it to a former Raleigh police chief. Republican challenger Robert Thomas lists three main issues on his website: the Second Amendment, the Constitution and the wall.

1st district

4th district

Democrat Roy Cooper, the incumbent governor, is being challenged by Republican Dan Forest, the current lieutenant governor, as well as Libertarian Steven DiFiore and Constitution Party candidate Steven J. Fiore. In recent polls, Cooper has led Forest by 5 to 8%. The gubernatorial debate is Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.

While in office, Cooper has issued a Clean Energy Plan and executive orders implementing paid parental leave and banning workplace discrimination. He also worked with bipartisan congressional leaders to repeal House Bill 2, the controversial bathroom law that played a major role in Coopers election, also according to his campaign site.

Forests platform includes defending the Second Amendment, putting armed security guards in schools, combating illegal immigration and raising teacher pay.

Coopers coronavirus response plan features prominently in the dialogue regarding the election, with Forest hosting numerous in-person campaign events and promising to loosen restrictions if elected. Forest has called for the reopening of all public schools without a mask requirement.

There is no incumbent in the race for lieutenant governor, with Forest stepping down to run for governor against Cooper.

Republican Mark Robinson, a former small-business owner and manufacturing worker, rose to prominence as a gun-rights activist in 2018 and is only the second Black Republican candidate for statewide office in North Carolina in the past 120 years, according to records reviewed by The News & Observer.

Robinson has been criticized in recent days for Facebook posts in which he makes derogatory comments about transgender people, Muslims and others. He has said he will not apologize for comments posted to Facebook in the past several years and has denied that the posts are offensive.

Democrat Yvonne Holley, if elected, would be only the second woman to serve as N.C. lieutenant governor. She has served in the state House of Representatives since 2013 after working in state government.

Either would become the first Black lieutenant governor in state history, and an East Carolina University poll from early October found the two in a dead heat, tied at 45% each.

The main roles of the North Carolina secretary of state are to foster economic growth, ensure adequate levels of corporate transparency and provide infrastructure for business transactions.

The NC Office of the State Auditor is responsible for conducting account inspections for all state government bodies.

The responsibilities of the N.C. Department of the State Treasurer include the administration of health-care and retirement programs for state employees, as well as the provision of fiscal advising to local governments.

The attorney general represents the state government in legal affairs, serves as the primary legal counsel to the General Assembly and the governor and manages criminal appeals from state trial courts.

The superintendent of public instruction oversees the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and works with policymakers to promote the interests of the states public school systems.

The state labor commissioner is responsible for regulating workplace conditions, conducting health and safety inspections and otherwise promoting the wellbeing of North Carolinas workforce.

For more election coverage from across North Carolina, visit One Vote North Carolina, a collaborative between The Chronicle and six other student newspapers that aims to help college students across the state navigate the November election.

Originally posted here:
The Chronicle's guide to national, statewide races on the ballot in Durham - Duke Chronicle

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Back in high school, my friends would lean over someones smartphone and laugh as they swiped through a gallery of photographs, each one a variation of some strange, anthropomorphic frog. The cartoon character, whose name I eventually learned was Pepe, came to consume a sizeable amount of my social media feed, where people used his image to express sadness, grief and stress.

At a very basic level, this phenomenon illustrates precisely how a meme works to permeate social dialogue, influencing how we express ourselves and communicate with one another. The image contains the power to redefine and perpetuate specific contexts, too.

Arthur Jones documentary Feels Good Man works to unpack the relationship between creating personal art and the troubles of watching the general public commodify it. Like Frankenstein and his monster, Pepes creator, Matt Furie, reached a point where he no longer held any authority, both artistic and legal, over his own creation. While Pepe the Frog operates as the documentarys central focus, Jones appears interested in the broad implications of coopting an image as well.

Though Pepe first rose to internet stardom by way of Furies Boys Club comic series, the frogs cultural identity gradually shifted into something less than desirable after the character fell victim to media platforms like 4chan.

When looking at the bulbous eyes and fat-lipped smirk, its hard to imagine the character would eventually spread to the reaches of numerous hate group websites. In 2017, white nationalist Richard Spencer even donned a Pepe the Frog pin before getting punched to the ground.

I remember when Furie published a comic to announce the characters death. When he released the series back in 2005, the cartoonist likely did not expect his dorky, amphibious character, Pepe the Frog, to mutate into a hate symbol. This funeral was an attempt on Furies end to curtail a prejudiced internet movement led by Pepe-inspired imagery.

Furie grew up enamored of frogs, building them out of LEGO pieces and designing various mockups in his sketchbook. In blurry photographs, the artist is seen with a toothy smile and thick glasses; this tenderness does not escape the Furie depicted throughout the documentary, where his soft-spoken persona and thin frame undercuts any possibility of seeing the middle-aged artist appear angry or upset.

One of the first scenes follows Furie as he ambles around the edge of a swamp; bleating frogs accompany his journey around the landscape.

Its just been a slow drip of frogs throughout my entire life Just one little frog after another; Furie says this as one inches along his forearm. From the outset of the documentary, its difficult to visualize this same person originating a character that would ultimately make its way to the Anti-Defamation League.

Jones uses his directorial authority to differentiate between the originated character, Pepe, and the onslaught of appropriated, often offensive versions that communicate an alt-right agenda. At times, the narrative feels unbelievably farcical and senseless, but, on the whole, this approach aptly mirrors the lawless playing field seen on the internet.

Feels Good Man guides the audience through the frogs rise, fall and subsequent vindication; intersections with the 2016 election or the more recent Hong Kong protests are not digressions, but rather the backbone of a winding tale.

Before Pepe could explode into cultural relevancy, users on 4chan had to labor and work to place him on the radar. For those unfamiliar with the platform, 4chan is an imageboard website where users can post on a variety of topics, be it film, politics or cartoons. This veil of anonymity primed the perfect stage for generating loudly offensive content.

Though the context is quite convoluted, Ill put it in simple terms: 4chan users were drawn to Pepe for his inherent sorrow, leading numerous users to adopt the iconography as a means of exhibiting their own insecurities and discontent in the real world. Those unafflicted by experiences similar to their own were branded as normies, a phrase charged with spite.

Jones managed to nab an interview with one of these 4chan users, referenced in Feels Good Man as Mills, who breathes further life into the concept. He describes 4chan like group therapy on the internet, so, when general basic media users started to gravitate toward Pepe, 4chan users seethed and, according to Mills, The Pepe defense was building.

Writer and artist Dale Beran notes how Whenever [4chan users] thought outsiders were stealing their memes, they would try and make them as offensive as possible. The visual subject, with all his benign roots, then confuses the intention of any given post. For example, an anti-Semitic drawing of Pepe is, without a doubt, malicious and oppressive, yet manifesting these values in a cartoon frog undermines the subtext.

This grisly modification of Pepe manifested most prominently during the 2016 election, where 4chan users rallied in favor of Trumps oppressive and intimidating platform. His own bullying antics actualized their inclinations to differentiate between the winners and losers of the social hierarchy.

Joel Finkelstein, director of the Contagion Network Research Institute, went on to explain how Pepe appealed to so many political sensationalists through the characters visual imagery, specifically in how it combines this impossible mixture of innocence and evil.

Back in 2019, Furie even took Infowars to court over a print that featured his original character standing alongside Roger Stone, Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway and other notable personalities of the Republican Party. By no means would this settle the greater discourse around Pepes damning legacy but, within the political arena, Furie still tried to negate such connotations through legally challenging them.

Feels Good Man clarifies that the internet might be forever, but a cultural identity is capable of growth. Furie himself attests to this potential when he notes, The positive notion of Pepe is the possibility that you can change again.

See more here:
'Feels Good Man' Explores the Strange History of an Iconic Meme - Study Breaks

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: Memes are some of the most easily recognizable images of our generation. They're funny, relatable, and, most importantly, they're versatile. But sometimes this versatility creates something darker.

This is Pepe the Frog, one of the most popular internet memes of all time. It's now considered a symbol of hate, according to the Anti-Defamation League. But it wasn't always like this. The cartoon frog that currently sits beside the swastika and the Iron Cross was born here, a nonpolitical comic about four roommates who enjoy being lazy and playing video games.

So, how did we get here...from here?

The green frog first debuted in 2005 in the comic "Boy's Club" by Matt Furie. It featured Pepe along with his three roommates all living together and hanging out. The humor was generally gross or crude but was completely nonpolitical in nature.

Then, in 2008, Pepe made his first steps to internet stardom. This panel was posted as a reaction image on the internet forum 4chan. And it became a trend almost instantly. More and more users began sharing Pepe on 4chan. And some were even putting their own spin on it. Pepe became a versatile meme. It was happy, sad, smug, and angry. It represented a relatable range of emotions.

And this relatability spread its influence to other social-media networks over the next several years. In 2015, Tumblr reported that it was the No. 1 most reblogged meme of the year. But at this point, Pepe was being shared a little too much, and the inside joke was beginning to lose its comedic value.

To keep the joke alive, people began creating "rare Pepes," novel versions of the meme that hadn't been made before. This phenomenon generated a mock economy, where the less frequently the meme was posted, the more valuable it was. With new images constantly being produced, Pepe grew stronger and reached mainstream status. And once Pepe became mainstream, everyone was in on the joke.

Now, it was rumored that there was an alt-right campaign to reclaim the meme from the "normies" by associating Pepe with white nationalism. But this was later revealed to have been an elaborate prank to mislead journalists. In reality, Pepe was just so versatile that it was inevitably drawn as everything. This sometimes included racists and even Donald Trump.

On October 13, 2015, Donald Trump retweeted this post. It linked the video "You Can't Stump the Trump " and tagged the notable right-leaning publications Breitbart and the Drudge Report. And under the video was this image of Pepe.

Before this, only fringe users on social media posted versions of the frog as Klan members or SS personnel. But this post was the catalyst that fueled the far right's claim of Pepe. More racist frogs appeared, particularly on Twitter, which spurred the movement #FrogTwitter. Much like how the echo is used by anti-Semitics to signify Jewish names, members of the alt-right began adding the frog emoji to their Twitter handles in solidarity with white nationalism.

And the more curious people got about the racist Pepes, the stronger the connection grew. When journalists asked about the "green face" they often saw "Trumpsters" and alt-right people use, they were met with white-nationalist Pepes as a response. So they began picking up on this trend, and when they saw someone use Pepe, whether in or out of racist context, they would respond by saying something like this.

Then, in 2016, Pepe's alt-right career came to a boiling point. Hillary Clinton delivered a campaign speech in which she referred to half of Trump's supporters as: Hillary Clinton: A basket of deplorables. Narrator: This led to the creation of a parody of the "Expendables" movie poster where the characters were replaced with conservative figures, known as "The Deplorables." And in that lineup, with Trump and notable conservative leaders, was none other than Pepe the Frog. Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr., who both appeared on the poster, reposted the image, stating that they were proud to be one of the deplorables.

Shortly after this parody circulated, Clinton's campaign website denounced Pepe and called it "a symbol associated with white supremacy." And in September 2016, the Anti-Defamation League officially added Pepe the Frog to its database of hate symbols.

Since this designation, we've seen Pepe worn by self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer and sold as merchandise by Alex Jones, host of right-wing conspiracy outlet InfoWars. But Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe, has publicly stated his dislike for Pepe's evolution and has made efforts to take back his creation from the alt-right. In 2017, he released a one-page comic where he officially killed off the lazy green frog. Furie has also been involved in legal disputes with both The Daily Stormer and InfoWars, which effectively prevented them from using Pepe to promote their ideology any further.

But Furie's fight against the alt-right hasn't stopped other groups from using the meme. This time, however, Pepe has become a symbol of hope halfway across the world.

In 2019, protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong to rally against police brutality and Hong Kong's extradition bill. They held signs, graffitied walls, and messaged stickers with a peculiar, yet familiar face: Pepe the Frog. So, how did this lazy green amphibian become the face of yet another political movement? Simply put, Hong Kongers thought it was just a funny face, and most didn't know about its alt-right ties in the United States. In the eyes of Hong Kongers, Pepe existed as a Hello Kitty character. It looked strange and was eye-catching enough to grab attention. But, most importantly, it was versatile enough to become anything they wanted it to be. For these protesters, Pepe symbolized the youthful nature of rebellion and had nothing to do with the far-right movement in the West. In a New York Times interview by Daniel Victor, a young Hong Konger noted that symbols can mean different things in countries with different cultures. In the end, she encouraged other Hong Kongers to explain to Americans what Pepe really means to them.

We live in a world where information spreads almost instantly and the meaning of images changes just as fast. It's about culture and context. Pepe is the best modern example of this. But it wasn't the first victim. The swastika, for example, is actually considered sacred in certain Eurasian religions. It's a significant image meant to symbolize good fortune and well-being. But Nazis rebranded this symbol during World War II and made it an icon of hate instead. At least for Pepe, there is hope that it won't be a hate symbol forever, because Furie reminds us that "in the end, Pepe is whatever you say he is, and I, the creator, say that Pepe is love."

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in October 2019.

Read the original post:
How this frog meme became a symbol of hope and hate - Business Insider - Business Insider

Gun-rights groups understandably are upsetthat a Louisiana public school punished a fourth-grade student after a teacher saw a BB gun in the boy's bedroom during a video classroom session. That was an absurd case of political correctness, given that the gun merely was in the background. It reflects infuriating anti-gun bias.

Now contrast many gun activists' reactionor apparent lack thereofto a more significant gun-related issue that grabbed headlines the same week. A grand jury in Louisville gave a wrist slap to officers who killed Breonna Taylor during a raid at her home. The African-American medical worker hadn't done anything wrong. The drug-related warrant, which spurred the raid, apparently involved her former boyfriend.

I scoured the internet and found little outrage from gun-rights groups and supporters. Yet the Taylor caseas well as the issue of police raids and police militarization, in generalposes a real risk to Americans' Second Amendment rights. They also pose risks to our other constitutional rights, such as protection against government searches and seizures, and the requirement for due process.

Heavily armed, black-clad SWAT officers conduct thousands of these raids each year, with many of them botched and some even taking place at the wrong address. As The New York Times recently explained, Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were in bed and heard banging. Police say that they announced themselves before busting down the door with a battering ram, but Walker said he didn't hear that announcementand feared the intruder was Taylor's ex-boyfriend.

Walker fired his gun, hitting a sergeant in the thigh. One officer reportedly fired 10 rounds blindly into the apartment, while others fired five rounds at Taylor, killing her. Dispatch logssuggestthe officers waited 20 minutes before providing medical assistance to Taylor. Police found no drugs in the apartment, according to the family lawyer. The grand jury indicted one officer for "wanton endangerment," but filed no charges against the others. One officer was fired.

Authorities dropped attempted-murder charges against Walker, but they typically file such charges against citizens who use firearms when the intruders turn out to be officers.

"In theory, no-knock raids are supposed to be used in only the most dangerous situations," per a 2015 Voxreport. "In reality, though, no-knock raids are a common tactic, even in less-than-dangerous circumstances." It noted that 80 percent of them involve the execution of a simple search warrant. (A judge had issued a no-knock warrant in the Taylor raid, even though it later was amended to a knock-and-announce warrant.)

Gun-rights supporters argue correctly that Americans should be free to own firearms to protect themselves. When the government employs these police-state tactics, how can you reasonably know that the people plowing through your door aren't criminals who want to kill your family? In my view, such raidswhether "no knock" or "knock and announce"also pose a grave risk to Americans' Second Amendmentprotections (as well as to police who conduct them).

The late San Jose police chief, Joe McNamara, worried that police agencies increasingly send SWAT teams to homes to deal with relatively minor incidents if they suspect that the person owns a firearm. With California'sreporting system, any gun owner could be subject to a SWAT raid solely because they have availed themselves of this legal right. After all, it's easy for the authorities to know if you own a weapon.

During a 2018 hearing about proposed gun restrictions at the Maryland House of Delegates, one gun-rights advocatetoldUSA Today, "The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It is not about competitiveshooting. The Second Amendment is about self-defense. It's about being able to stop people who would do you harm, whether that's a criminal or the government."

Gun-rights supporters are on point with this argument, which one can easily confirm by perusing the Founding Fathers' statements about gun ownership. Yet in most of these police-shooting cases, the loudest Second Amendment supporters go silent. Few of them issued any substantive comment after a Minnesota police officer in 2016 shot to deathPhilandro Castile, who had told the officer he had a licensed firearm in his possession.

The fundamental problem is rooted in the nation's endless drug war, which in turn has led police agencies to behave more militaristically. "Simply put, the police culture has changed,"wroteMcNamara in a 2006 Wall Street Journal column. "An emphasis on 'officer safety' and paramilitary training pervades today's policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn't shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed."

Racial disparities certainly matter, but I believe that cultural change is the impetus for ongoing police-brutality protests. Those Americans who support the right to private firearms ownershipand the groups that claim to speak for usneed to speak out about this threatto our liberties. Quite frankly, it's a far bigger problem than schools that foolishly suspend kids for having a BB gun within view of the video camera.

This column was first published in The Orange County Register.

The rest is here:
The Police Tactics That Caused Breonna Taylor's Death Should Infuriate Second Amendment Advocates - Reason

Layers and details involved in the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer are still unfolding 24 hours after the federal case was announced.

We are learning more about the men arrested in Antrim County.

Some of the men involved in that investigation were part of the April Second Amendment rally in Lansing.

The picture below was posted by a downstate senator back on April 30.

The first, third and fourth men in this picture were arrested for their roles in the plot against the governor.

The man on the far right is William Null, one of the four men charged in Antrim.

The April rally ended with many storming the Capitol building to protest the governors response to the coronavirus crisis.

The investigation spans 18 communities with 13 people arrested.

Court documents show this investigation took months of work by investigators and informants inside the two militia groups.

The federal complaint shows the group had several plans to kidnap Governor Whitmer.

Those plans included:

The FBI says they were communicating through an encrypted group chat and using code words to avoid detection.

The group had this all planned to happen before the November election.

They wanted to try her in Wisconsin for treason because they were upset with her actions during the coronavirus pandemic.

See more here:
Man Charged in Antrim Co. for Plot to Kidnap Governor Attended 2nd Amendment Rally in Lansing - 9&10 News