Mediaboss Marketing

In 1535, Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high treason.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicagos Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a secret annex in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1964, the movie A Hard Days Night, starring The Beatles, had its world premiere in London. British colony Nyasaland became the independent country of Malawi.

In 1967, war erupted as Nigeria sent troops into the secessionist state of Biafra. (The Biafran War lasted 2 1/2 years and resulted in a Nigerian victory.)

In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at age 69.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform. Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.

In 1997, the rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting the soil and rocks of the red planet.

Ten years ago: A man on a balcony over the New York-New York casino floor in Las Vegas opened fire on the gamblers below, wounding four people before he was tackled by off-duty military reservists. (The gunman, Steven Zegrean, was later convicted of charges including attempted murder and was sentenced to 26 to 90 years in prison; he died in April 2010 less than a year into his term.) Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, pioneer of the modern historical romance novel, died in Princeton, Minnesota, at age 68.

Five years ago: At a 100-nation conference in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed an accelerating wave of defections in President Bashar Assads inner circle as the United States and its international allies pleaded once again for global sanctions against the Syrian regime. Former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was released from jail in Florida for a second time while he awaited his second-degree murder trial for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman was acquitted.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama scrapped plans to cut American forces in Afghanistan by half before leaving office. Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in a South African prison for murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Philando Castile, a black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter (Yanez was acquitted at trial). Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson sued network chief executive Roger Ailes, claiming she was cut loose after she had refused his sexual advances and complained about harassment in the workplace, allegations denied by Ailes. (Carlson later settled her lawsuit for a reported $20 million.) The augmented-reality game Pokemon Go made its debut in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Todays Birthdays: Singer-actress Della Reese is 86. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 82. Actor Ned Beatty is 80. Singer Gene Chandler is 77. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 77. Actor Burt Ward is 72. Former President George W. Bush is 71. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 71. Actor Fred Dryer is 71. Actress Shelley Hack is 70. Actress Nathalie Baye is 69. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 66. Actress Allyce Beasley is 66. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) is 65. Actor Grant Goodeve is 65. Country singer Nanci Griffith is 64. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 63. Jazz musician Rick Braun is 62. Actor Casey Sander is 62. Country musician John Jorgenson is 61. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 60. Hockey player and coach Ron Duguay (doo-GAY) is 60. Actress-writer Jennifer Saunders is 59. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 58. Actor Pip Torrens is 57. Actor Brian Posehn is 51. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson (TV: Face the Nation) is 49. Actor Brian Van Holt is 48. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 47. TV host Josh Elliott is 46. Rapper 50 Cent is 42. Actress Tia Mowry is 39. Actress Tamera Mowry is 39. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 38. Actress Eva (EH-vuh) Green is 37. Actor Gregory Smith is 34. Rock musician Chris Woody Wood (Bastille) is 32. Rock singer Kate Nash is 30. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 27.

Here is the original post:
This Day in History - San Mateo Daily Journal

To celebrate the Fourth of July, Alexander Bonds coolly walked up to NYPD Officer Miosotis Familias police vehicle and shot her dead.

An African-American, Bonds made his distaste for the police clear in many of his social media postings. The NYPD did not hesitate to call Familias death an assassination.

Like the man who shot Rep. Steve Scalise a few weeks ago, Bonds, a Hillary Clinton supporter, occupies a spot on the extreme end of the suggestibility curve.

What the media repeatedly suggested during the Obama years, occasionally at the presidents prompting, was that blacks were uniquely vulnerable to gratuitous abuse at the hands of white authorities. No media outlet reinforced this notion as insistently as CNN.

Although there are countless examples of the way CNN twisted the news to drive this theme home, one stands out for its sheer fakery. It unfolded a month or so after George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.

For the record, the Black Lives Matter movement began as a hashtag after Zimmermans acquittal. Those who followed CNN and the other major media had every reason to be shocked at the verdict. The media deceived them over and over again in the months following the February 2012 shooting.

Prodding CNN into action was the profane, upstart Current TV show, The Young Turks. On the night of March 19, 2012, host Cenk Uygur played the unedited Zimmerman call to the police dispatcher.

No network had played the unedited tape, in part because Zimmerman used the word fing at one point and aholes at another. On an unenhanced tape, the word fing is difficult to hear. The word that follows it is impossible to hear.

Yet like those zealots who see images of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich, some in the Young Turks viewing audience found racism in empty static and convinced themselves that Zimmerman said, fing coons.

The next evening Uygur thanked his audience for their perceptiveness. No one picked up what you guys picked up, he congratulated them. He then played the unedited tape again, the key words of which were utterly incomprehensible and declared, Thats unbelievable.

Uygur continued, Its possible he said goons. Its possible he said something else. That much conceded, Uygur concluded, but it certainly sounds like coons.' He then explained how relevant was Zimmermans use of that word given that it elevated the shooting to a hate crime.

The next day, March 21, on Anderson Coopers AC360, CNN reporter Gary Tuchman worked with audio design specialist Rick Sierra to isolate and enhance the audio from Zimmermans call to the dispatcher.

Even cleaned up, the audio was unintelligible, save, of course, to the true believers. Tuchman was one of them. It certainly sounds like that word to me, said Tuchman, that word, of course, being coons.

Media critic Tommy Christopher agreed. Said he, voicing the media consensus, The result is, at the very least, more convincing than the raw audio.

At the time, no one at CNN was asking the most fundamental questions about Zimmermans use of this word. Why, for instance, in 2012, would a young Hispanic civil rights activist and Obama supporter think to use an archaic throwback word like coons?

More basically, why would Zimmerman begin a sentence with the pronoun it if he were to complete his thought with a plural noun, as in, Its fing coons.

Not everyone was on board for this nonsense. Liberal media pundit Jon Stewart said on his show what many ordinary citizens were thinking, That doesnt sound like a word at all!

In the blogosphere, almost everyone agreed with Stewart. One suspects that there were those within CNNs legal department who did as well.

Tuchman was sent back to the studio. This time, allegedly using an even higher-tech method with the help of audio specialist Brian Stone, Tuchman admitted to CNNs Wolf Blitzer on April 4, It does sound less like that racial slur.

In fact, the word in question sounded a whole lot like cold. Again, though, Tuchman failed to mention the role that its should have played in interpreting what was said. Its fing cold makes sense, especially on a cool, damp Florida evening.

Its fing coons never made any sense either as a linguistic construct or as a reflection of Zimmermans character. Still, the damage had been done.

Despite what should have been a complete exoneration of Zimmerman, Blitzer concluded his broadcast saying, But its readily apparent there will still be controversy over what he said.

The stable members of the CNN audience moved on. The suggestible members of that audience never let go.

Jack Cashills book explains how the truth was exposed about the Trayvon case: If I Had a Son: Race, Guns, and the Railroading of George Zimmerman

Media wishing to interview Jack Cashill, please contact media@wnd.com.

Go here to read the rest:
Another cop slain, another notch on CNN's belt - WND.com

EXPAND

Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr

Data shows Florida's Stand Your Ground law is awful. The rule lets you kill anyone you want in self-defense, even if you're the person who started a fight. In the years since the law went into effect, the state's murder rate has shot up dramatically. The law has been used to exonerate multiple cops who have shot unarmed people and, most notably, to let George Zimmerman walk free after following, harassing, and then fatally shooting unarmed Miami teen Trayvon Martin a killing that later helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement.

Weeks ago, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that actually makes it easierfor people who've killed others to claim they were standing their ground.

But today, a Miami-Dade County Circuit Court judge ruled that new law unconstitutional and dropped a reference to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixin the ruling while he was at it. Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch linked to a legal paper arguing that the Ministry of Magic, the governing body in J.K. Rowling's wizarding universe, suffers from some severe cases of judicial and executive overreach and perhaps did not give Harry Potter a fair trial in the series' fifth book.

The ruling in and of itself is narrow, does not apply to the rest of the state, and will likely be overturned in the Third District Court of Appeal, which tends to be more favorable to the state in cases like this one. But it's still an important decision for justice advocates, who opposed the bill when state Sen. Rob Bradley proposed it last December.

The new rule shifts the "burden of proof" for prosecutors. Previously, if someone tried to claim a stand-your-ground defense, they would have to prove their case to a jury. Now the opposite is true. Once you claim "stand your ground," it's presumed to be true unless a prosecutor can prove otherwise. Local attorneys warned this would make it extremely difficult to prosecute many murder cases, but the bill passed through the NRA-fueled Florida Legislature anyway.

Today Judge Hirsch ruled the law unconstitutional, writing in an order that under state law, only the Florida Supreme Court, not the Legislature, can make a change of that nature.

"As a matter of constitutional separation of powers, that procedure cannot be legislatively modified," Hirsch wrote.

But Hirsch has long been known for dropping scores of literary references in his orders. Miami Heraldcourt reporter David Ovalle has long chronicled Hirsch's love for all things Shakespeare, especially Hamlet.

Hirsch wasn't able to find a way to name-drop the Bard this time around. But instead, he took a slightly more modern route, by linking to a legal paper on the separation of powers in J.K. Rowling's wizarding universe.

Late into the 14-page ruling, Hirsch offered a short lesson on the Founding Fathers' constitutional intentions when setting up the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government. He quotes Federalist Paper number 48, in which James Madison warned that the legislative branch is "everywhere extending the sphere of its activity" and eroding the nation's systems of checks and balances.

Then, in a footnote, Hirsch gave readers a more contemporary (and more than slightly frivolous) reference: a paper published in the Hertfordshire Law Journal titled "Harry Potter and the Separation of Powers: A Law and Literature Review of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The paper's opening summary argues that the main governing body in the Potteruniverse, the Ministry of Magic, is constitutionally flawed and suffers from some serious cases of judicial and executive overreach:

A nearly just society is influenced, if not governed, by the principle of the separation of powers. In J.K. Rowlings series of books on Harry Potter the Ministry of Magic, the wizards governing body, is ignorant to the principle and because of this natural justice and the rule of law are threatened, however Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, repeatedly ensures that the outcome of the judicial process is just, albeit it through encouraging kidnap and escape, and illustrates that natural justice can only survive when the judicial function is subject to the separation doctrine. How J.K. Rowling deals with these issues is explored in this paper.

The bulk of the paper argues that Rowling's fictional wizard universe doesn't have a particularly fair or just court system. Through much of the Order of the Phoenix, Potter sits on trial at the Ministry of Magic in London. The paper's author argues thatCornelius Fudge, chair of the Wizengamot, the highest wizarding court in Britain, is "biased against Harry Potter:"

"The trial of Harry Potter shows that through the lack of a separation of powers in the wizards constitutional system, there is a distinct disregard for the rules of natural justice, traditionally applied to judicial decisions," the paper reads. "These rules are inherent to satisfy the well-known principle that justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done."

Throughout the paper, the author reminds readers that Fudge, the judge, spends his time discrediting witnesses, slandering Potter in the local wizarding newspaper, messing with Potter's hearing dates to ensure his witnesses cannot be called to testify, and even threatening to change the laws to ensure that Potter gets put in Azkaban, the wizarding jail guarded by hooded Dementors, whose mouths suck the souls out of victims.

"All of these issues show complete ignorance to the doctrine of the separation of powers," the paper's author argues. "Fudge is involved in the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive of the Ministry of Magic."

Sure, that's technically true. And the paper does a good job of explaining the basic concept of checks and balances to the sort of people who've never heard of such a thing before, like schoolchildren.

But the reference also comes across as a bit flippant, given the severity of the subject matter: Florida's Stand Your Ground law let Zimmerman murder a black child in 2012. It might be best for judges to focus on actual Florida law before we get too wrapped up in wizarding politics.

More here:
Miami Judge References Harry Potter to Strike Down New "Stand Your Ground" Law - Miami New Times

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to supporters through a bullhorn during a campaign stop at the Canfield County Fair in Canfield, Ohio, U.S., September 5, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

President Donald Trump shared an animated meme created by an apparent neo-Nazi depicting him body-slamming CNN and thats not even the first time hes circulated white nationalist themes.

The animation, which was taken from Trumps appearance at a WWE professional wrestling event, was apparently created by an obviously racist Reddit user called HanAssholeSolo.

The reporter who revealed the memes creator said he has been deluged with anti-Semitic death threats from Nazi sympathizers who support Trump.

As a presidential candidate, in February 2016, Trump retweeted and then deleted a message from the Twitter user WhiteGenocideTM complimenting the size of his rally crowds.

That users profile shows an image of George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, and links to anti-Semitic, Holocaust denial and racist content.

Trump actually retweeted another post by WhiteGenocideTM a few weeks earlier, when he shared an image showing Jeb Bushs head superimposed on a panhandlers body, holding a sign that reads, Vote Trump.

He tweeted an image in July 2016 calling Hillary Clinton crooked, next to a six-pointed star that closely resembled the Star of David which emerged from a neo-Nazi forum on the 8chan website.

House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced the tweet as anti-Semitic, but Trumps social media director Dan Scavino claimed he randomly chose the star from a stock art collection on Microsoft Word, while Trump insisted the graphic was a sheriffs badge.

Fortune used social media analytics software developed by Little Bird and found that prominent members of the Trump campaign, including former campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, followed the most influential members of the white nationalist #WhiteGenocide network.

Trump himself doesnt follow any of those Twitter accounts, but nearly 68 percent of the top #WhiteGenocide influencers follow him, while 24 percent follow Scavino.

He retweeted the user @NeilTurner_ whose Twitter bio claims white genocide is real five times during the campaign, despite following only 42 accounts at the time.

Fortunes analysis found Trump and his campaign have used social media to court support within the white supremacist community, whether intentionally or unintentionally. And it appears to have worked.

Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trumps campaign manager during the final stretch before the election and now serves as a senior White House adviser, tweeted love you back in February to an account called Lib Hypocrisy whose bio includes the hashtags #WhiteIdentity, #Nationalist, and #SteveBannon.

The presidents son, Donald Trump Jr., has also shared white nationalist themes and ideas on his Twitter account.

Trump Jr. retweeted a post in August 2016 by Kevin MacDonald, a retired psychology professor that the Southern Poverty Law Center has called the neo-Nazi movements favorite academic.

Hes also shared posts using the Pepe the Frog character identified with the neo-Nazi alt-right movement, and he cracked a gas chamber joke in September 2016.

Later that month, Trump Jr. drew widespread condemnation for comparing Syrian refugees to poisoned candy an analogy based on two separate white supremacist memes with roots in Nazi propaganda.

The analogy, which has been used on message boards and shared as social media memes, originally used M&Ms as the candy in question but that changed after George Zimmerman gunned down Trayvon Martin while the unarmed black teen was walking home from buying a drink and some Skittles.

But the poisoned candy analogy goes back even further, to an anti-Semitic childrens book published by Julius Streicher, the publisher of the Nazi newspaper Der Strmer who was executed in 1946 as a war criminal.

The book tells the tale of the poisonous mushroom, and was used to indoctrinate children in hate.

More here:
Trump shared Twitter content created by neo-Nazis long before his CNN tweet - Raw Story

Jacksonville Daily Record

Judicial Spotlight: Get to know five 4th Judicial Circuit Court judges Jacksonville Daily Record He is often asked to discuss his work on the Michael Dunn and George Zimmerman trials two recent homicide cases that garnered national attention. Other service activities include judging mock trial competitions and speaking to Boy Scouts about the ...

See original here:
Judicial Spotlight: Get to know five 4th Judicial Circuit Court judges - Jacksonville Daily Record