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Comedian Al Franken, a longtime writer and performer on Saturday Night Live who served nearly two terms in the U.S. Senate before stepping down in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, is coming to Maine.

Frankens The Only Former U.S. Senator Currently on Tour tour will visit the State Theatre in Portland at 8 p.m. Sunday.

The 70-year-old has deep ties to Maine. His wife, Franni Bryson, is from Portland (the couple met while at Harvard University in the early 1970s), and they visit at least once a year.

Franken, a Democrat, had an interest in politics and public policy long before his successful run for the U.S. Senate in 2008. Now that hes transitioned back to comedy, politics anchor his performances even more.

Franken spoke this week about his two careers, his family in Maine and the situation in Ukraine. He wouldnt answer questions about the circumstances of his departure from the Senate. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: Whats it been like touring at this particular moment in time?

A: Well, theres different things happening. You know, were on COVID time, were now on World War III time (chuckling). I was supposed to start this leg of the tour in January. We had to postpone a couple shows in northern California because omicron was peaking then But Portland, Im really happy about, because I have a lot of family there. My wifes family is all there, and I love Maine.

Q: Do you find that people are eager to laugh again in a public setting?

A: We havent been able to do that until recently and I think its always kind of, whenever youre in a theater and theres people, its a bit of a celebration anyway, but especially now. People are very happy to get out.

Q: When you were in the Senate, I expect you had to work hard to shed the label of that SNL comic and be taken seriously. What was the transition like back to being a comedian? Was this always something you expected to do?

A: I really hadnt thought that Id be coming back to private life, so to speak, so soon, but thats where I started, was comedy, and I value it very highly, especially satirical comedy.

But I had never done standup as a single. I used to do it with my partner, Tom Davis (a fellow Minnesotan who like Franken was an original writer on SNL), but its a different beast when youre up there alone.

Q: Is your comedy more political now than in the past, because of your experiences in the Senate?

A: I talk a lot about my time in the Senate and give you some background and peeks into what the Senates like. Thats not a small part of it.

Q: Anything on Maines senators (Susan Collins and Angus King, with whom he served)?

A: I dont talk too much about that (in shows), but I may a little. I told Angus (King) Im coming, and he said Well, how do I go? And I said, Well, Ill send you two comps. And then he writes back and says, You know Im a U.S. Senator, and I cant take them. I said, Good, then buy the expensive seats.

Q: Did you leave any tickets for Sen. Collins?

A: (long pause) Ah, no. No.

Q: Is it harder right now to do comedy given everything thats going on in the world?

A: That stuff has always been fodder. Im sort of a satirist, so on SNL, I wrote, with other writers of course, a lot of the satire. So that was part of our toolbox, what was happening. Even now, Im thinking, well, what I am going to say about Ukraine? How am I going to approach that?

But it is hard in these days where satire is supposed to be about pushing boundaries. Good satire always has. You talk about George Carlin, Richard Pryor, people like that, and now its comedians are finding it harder in some ways. A lot of comedians I know wont do colleges.

Q: What are your thoughts on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky who, like you, was a comedian?

A: Hes doing great now. I loved when we offered to get him out and he said, You know, we need arms, not a ride. I just think the bravest people in the world are Jewish comedians who go into politics. Theres only two. (Franken is Jewish.)

Q: With your family connections in Maine, do you visit a fair amount?

A: We visit pretty much every year. My wife her four siblings, three sisters and brother, are in the Portland area and mom, my mother-in-law, is 99, and shes the family hero. I talk about her a little bit. Shell be embarrassed, but I dont care. Shes amazing. A remarkable story. Her husband died in a car accident after doing two shifts at the paper mill. He fell asleep and hit a tree, leaving my mother-in-law widowed with five kids, age 7 to 3 months, and thats why shes our hero.

Q: Are there specific places you go when in Maine?

A: We usually almost always go to Two Lights (State Park in Cape Elizabeth). When we come up, we eat a lot of lobster rolls. We just do. In summers, we go to Higgins Beach (in Scarborough).

Q: You hinted recently you might be interested in returning to politics. How different is the landscape now?

A: Its actually gotten uglier, which is hard to believe. When I was in the Senate, (Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell, he told his caucus, our job is to make sure Barack Obama gets nothing done, he filibustered executive appointees, and that started the destruction of the Senate as far as Im concerned. Now, you know, Trump is sort of the end result, I think of the Palins, the Hannitys, the Tucker Carlsons, Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, they finally got everything they wanted. They are authoritarian. Thats what theyve turned into as a party. Its always been there, but now its the top of the Republican Party.

Q: You mentioned Tucker Carlson, a part-time Maine resident, any more thoughts on him?

A: Hes been giving aid and comfort to one of the worst people in the world, to Putin. Its deeply disturbing. And its deeply disturbing that hes the most popular host on their primetime schedule. The others arent so great either, but Tuckers smart enough to know what hes doing.

Q: With all the podcasts out there, why did you decide to start one?

A: I think Ive carved out my podcast I do kind of public policy thats funny and fun to listen to. I care about this stuff about whats really going to make peoples lives better.

You think about my mother-in-law (Franken started to get tearful). Sorry. What made her life possible was Social Security survivor benefits, Pell grants for her kids, Title I. She got a GI loan to go to college, she teaches at a Title 1 school, she gets her loans forgiven. These things are important. It means stuff to people. And it kills me that it doesnt seem to mean stuff to the Republican Party at all.

Q: Do you think people have an understanding of what to expect at your show?

A: It depends on whether you do your job. I dont think they know exactly what to expect, but I dont think theyre surprised by anything. Theyll be surprised by some things, but theyll be comedic surprises. The show is funny. Thats the intent. And people really like it.

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Ahead of Portland show, Al Franken talks about his Maine connections, comedy and current events - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

Issued on: 03/03/2022 - 16:19

Sending push notifications through a face-swapping app, adding pictures of the devastation from the bombings in Ukraine to Google Maps, hacking electric chargers These are some of the tricks that are being used by Ukrainians to bypass Russian President Vladimir Putins strict censorship, and to make sure that accurateinformation about thewarin Ukraine reaches everyday Russians.

President Putin has blocked or limited access to foreign news coverage in Russia about the war in Ukraine, including Facebook and Twitter. Russias state communications and media watchdog Roskomnadzor has also passed a censorship law forbidding Russian journalists from using the words war, invasion or offensive when talking about the special operation in Ukraine.

In response, ordinary Ukrainians have been finding creative ways of fighting the Kremlins disinformation campaign and informing people in Russia about what is really going on.

The face-swapping app Reface, which is based in Kyiv, has launched a global information campaign to spread the news, share photos of destruction in Ukrainian cities and encourage its users to stand with Ukraine. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to the companys CEO, Dima Shvets.

When Russia first invaded Ukraine, we sent out a push notification to our users with a message: Russia has invaded Ukraine. Users who opened the app were then presented with more details about the situation on the ground, including images and videos.

Nine million notifications have currently been sent worldwide and two million have been delivered to users in Russia. We have also moved up to the seventh place in the US App store.

Our app was previously used to take the faces of users and put them onto the bodies of celebrities. Since Russias invasion, we have been encouraging everyone to swap themselves into President Zelensky.

All new videos created by the app feature a watermark that includes the Ukrainian flag and the hashtag #StandWithUkraine.

On Monday, February 28, the hacking group Anonymous incited people to leave fake reviews of Russian businesses and restaurants in Google Maps to inform citizens about the conflict in Ukraine. The group tweeted: Go to Google Maps. Go to Russia. Find a restaurant or business and write a review. When you write the review, explain what is happening in Ukraine.

The tweet quickly gained traction. Reviews have been filling up across Russia with news about the conflict in Ukraine. For example, one of the reviews for a Moscow restaurant called Romantic reads 5,800 Russian soldiers died today, 4,500 yesterday. Stop your aggression, dont let your kids suffer, if you go to war you will not come back. Another review for the same place reads Food is great, but your leader is killing innocent people in Ukraine!!! Stop this war.

Google Maps allows users to upload photos of places usually as part of a review of the spot but users have also been using this feature to get images from Ukraine into Russia.

One of the images frequently posted for these locations is a screenshot of a phone that allegedly belonged to a Russian soldier, showing an apparent text conversation with his mother (see below).

Google Maps has since disabled reviews in Russia and Ukraine after they were used as a space to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement: "Due to a recent increase in contributed content on Google Maps related to the war in Ukraine, we've put additional protections in place to monitor and prevent content that violates our policies for Maps, including temporarily blocking new reviews, photos, and videos in the region."

In a more organised effort, Russian electric charging points for cars were hacked to show messages of support for Ukraine, which included Glory to Ukraine and Putin is a d***head.

Caption: A car charging station on Russia's M11 highway

In a Facebook post, the Russian energy company, Rosseti, claimed that the Ukrainian company which provided some of the parts had hacked the charging points to which it still had access.

This effort is part of a wave of cyber campaigns targeted at Russia. The international hacking collective Anonymous has claimed responsibility for various cyberattacks, including on Russias state broadcaster RT and over 300 Russian websites.

The moves came after Anonymous declared itself to be in a cyber warfare campaign against Putin and his allies.

Can campaigns like this have a meaningful impact? The FRANCE 24 Observers team asked Valentina Shapovalova, a specialist in Russian media and propaganda at the University of Copenhagen.

I think that its still too early to see how effective these measures will be. But its still incredibly interesting to see how many regular citizens are participating in bottom-up counter-propaganda measures and to see how creative they are getting.

But we shouldnt underestimate the strength of Putins information warfare, he has been suffocating the information space for decades and there is now very little room for anything else to get into the minds of citizens. The same narratives have been replayed in the Russian media for years, Putin has been priming Russians with his propaganda efforts. And when you tell the same story again and again people start to believe it as true. Its so deeply rooted that reviews on Google Maps may not have the impact that they should.

Another very important strategy that the Kremlin has been using is to create confusion and fog, to spit out so many stories and so many contradictory images and news that people get confused and dont know what the truth is anymore.

Some of the grand narratives that the government has been feeding to Russians include the narrative that the Ukrainian government is a Nazi government installed by the West, that the Russian-speaking people in Ukraine have been oppressed since 2014 and that the Ukrainian government is exercising genocide.

More than one million people have already fled Ukraine and hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed as a result of the war.

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How Ukrainians are bypassing Russian censorship to share news of the war - The France 24 Observers

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Big Tech is aligning with U.S. intel agencies and other nations' bureaucracies during the Russian invasion of Ukraine to censor anyone who does not hold what they consider the prevailing or correct view, Tucker Carlson said Tuesday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

While there is no substantive support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, allowing Big Tech and the intelligence community to jointly "curate everything you learn about the war being fought in your name in Ukraine and censor anyone who disagrees with them, and the censorship is increasing," Carlson told journalist Glenn Greenwald.

HUNTER BIDEN'S $2 MILLION LIBYA BOMBSHELL MORE PROOF MEDIA LIED: GREENWALD

Greenwald called such behavior "quite odious" and echoed Carlson's warnings about the U.S. security state aligning with Big Tech, under the pretext of the Russia invasion in this latest iteration.

"They have huge contracts, the Pentagon, the CIA for cloud services, for all kinds of other services, and so often their censorship is purely aligned with U.S. foreign policy," he said.

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"And I'm so grateful for the First Amendment because without it, I'm certain that we would have all kinds of laws being enacted empowering the state not just to ban ideas, but to criminalize them as well."

Greenwald added that while the Constitution bans government from direct censorship, entities have apparently found a loophole in that lawmakers summon tech executives to Congress and threaten "regulatory reprisals" if they don't censor more.

"It also bans the government from pressuring or coercing private actors to censor on their behalf in the way the Constitution prohibits," he said. "And that's exactly what's been happening and still is happening ever more so with this war."

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Greenwald warns of censor-happy Big Tech's relationship with national security bureaucracy - Fox News

Responding to the news that the Kremlin has censored domestic media as it disperses anti-war protests and persecutes those who publicly oppose Russias invasion of Ukraine, Marie Struthers, Amnesty Internationals Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:

As thousands of protesters take to the streets across Russia to denounce the war, the Kremlin remains hellbent on stifling state critics as it coerces domestic media into supporting its policies. By using force to disperse anti-war rallies and censoring the press, the Russian authorities are plunging deeper and deeper into repression as public sentiment against the war grows.

As thousands of protesters take to the streets across Russia to denounce the war, the Kremlin remains hellbent on stifling state critics as it coerces domestic media into supporting its policies

Amid its desperation to silence dissent, Russia is also using state-controlled companies to muzzle those who speak out against the conflict. The removal of television presenter Ivan Urgant and the sidelining of respected journalist Elena Chernenko, who was excluded from a government press pool for composing an anti-war letter, speaks to the states sheer disregard for press freedom.

As Russia engages in indiscriminate attacks in violation of international humanitarian law as part of its invasion of Ukraine, the authorities are trampling on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Russia while promoting its narrative of the conflict. The authorities brutal crackdown on those who express their dissent regarding the war must stop now.

Background

On 24 February 2021, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor ordered all media to only use information provided by official state sources while covering Russias invasion of Ukraine. Anyone caught disobeying this order could see their websites blocked and be fined up to $62,600.

On 28 February, the watchdog blocked the site of Nastoyashchee Vremya (Current Times), a RFE/RL subsidiary, for spreading unreliable publicly important information about the conflict. On 27 February, the Prosecutor Generals office issued statement threatening prosecution under high treason charges for any type of assistance to a foreign state, international or foreign organization or their representatives in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.

Over the first four days of invasion, Russian police routinely used force to disperse nationwide anti-war protests. According to human rights NGO OVD-Info, over 5,900 peaceful protesters have been arrested in at least 67 cities and towns across Russia. On 24 February, political philosopher Grigory Yudin was beaten unconscious by the police and briefly hospitalized.

Right now, people in Ukraine are facing a catastrophic human rights crisis. People are dying, including children, and many thousands of lives are at risk. Take action to demand that the Russian authorities stop this act of aggression and protect civilians now.

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Russia: Kremlin censors media and disperses protesters opposed to Ukraine invasion - Amnesty International

By Albert Chang-Yoo

House Bill 1807, is circulating in the Washington State Legislature and echoes a rising GOP talking point about the need for transparency in schools. Representative Joe Walsh (R-19) first filed the bill on January 6th, stating that the legislature believes parents have become discouraged by the radical rhetoric of some state consultants who speak of their goals to destabilize and tear down the states basic education system and curricula.

HB 1807 proposes banning K-12 teachings which suggest that the United States is structurally racist or sexist, disincentivizing student activism, requiring a U.S. civics course with specified readings, and a provision which states that classes may not be compelled to discuss a particular current event or currently controversial topic in public policy or social affairs, including writings derived from or related to such resources as The 1619 Project.

The Republican sponsored bill will most likely fail as the Washington state legislature is controlled by Democrats in both houses. However, the bill is indicative of the nationwide push by conservatives to reform the education system. States such as Ohio, Georgia, and Michigan are introducing bills which would mandate teachers post their curriculum online for parental review. Some Texas school districts have banned childrens books about race and gender identity. In Florida, a bill to discourage discussion about sexual orientation deemed Dont Say Gay is advancing through the legislature.

Since President Joe Bidens inauguration, 37 states have proposed bills challenging so-called woke teachings. Of that total, 14 states have successfully passed laws censoring classrooms, and 16 states still have bills going through the legislature.

For the GOP, education transparency is a winning political message. In the 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe cost himself when he stated, I dont think parents should be telling schools what they should teach in a debate over schools. The issue of parent choice was seized by Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, who shot up in suburban polling and ultimately won the Governors seat in the blue state.

Professor Terry Beck has spent 19 years working in public schools and 23 years at the University of Puget Sound. According to him these bills are designed to avoid tough conversations, specifically for white children: They dont say white children, they say anybody uncomfortable due to race, but they mean white children. He believes that although the concerns should not be entirely dismissed, this couching it as transparency is Its disingenuous. Because Ive been a teacher And I never felt like I was getting away with anything.

Clearly, parents have an interest in their childs education, nobody would deny that. Nobody cares about that child like the parent does, Professor Beck said. He says that the interest of education also lies with other citizens and state: I have an interest in whether a child is raised to hate people or not; whether their child is raised with principles of equality and of the value of a human.

Professor Beck says the most important thing that these bills are omitting are the interests of the children themselves. They have an interest in their own education that goes beyond their parents, beyond the stateAnd in schools, we have some obligation to help all children see beyond the parochial and to see what, what life is and what life might be.

According to Professor Beck, bills appealing to supposed parental concern play into a consumerist notion that the school works for the parent. In reality, Professor Beck believes that teaching is built on foundations of a working relationship.

The idea of total parental control in education is nothing new, he says, we argue about this constantly. And it comes up in different iterations, different formats, around school reform around schools all the time. Professor Beck points to the debate over the teaching of secular humanism. At the time, parents in several states accused public schools of being anti-Christian and objected to books like The Diary of Anne Frank.

Education is an inherently political endeavor, Professor Beck says. Its always contentiousthese sort of perennial issues about who controls education? What is the role of the parent, the teacher, the school board is? Those are not going away.

Nonetheless, Professor Beck wants schools to be a place for reconciling social and political issues: schools were originally conceived as a place where we learn to live together. We learn to talk across differencesI hope we will choose that were going to be an intelligent, informed citizenry in the future, and empathetic and caring about people.

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GOP pushes new education bill: 'transparency' or censorship? - The Trail - The Puget Sound Trail