Sports on TIME.com
New Zealand Defeats Australia to Win Rugby World Cup
The All-Blacks become the first team to successfully defend the championship
Published on October 31, 2015 at 09:37PM
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Saturday, October 31, 2015
We Need To Talk About Simone Biles
Mark my words, the unstoppable American gymnast is going to win all the gold medals at the 2016 Olympics.
Can everyone pause all activity for a minute? We need to discuss an individual of national, nay, global importance. Her name is Simone Biles.
Ian Macnicol / Getty Images
Actually, let me rephrase: this is three-time All-Around World Champion ✨ Simone Biles ✨.
Is it possible to legally add the sparkle emoji to your name? If so, Simone should consider it.
Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
Alex Livesey / Getty Images
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Hacking The Pipeline: How HBCUs Are Taking Tech's Diversity Issue Into Their Own Hands
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed News
Leslie Tita's tone grows oddly anxious as he curls into the back of a Lyft, and speeds away from Howard University. Tita is a successful entrepreneur who owns a co-working space for entrepreneurs from Africa. He's strikingly tall and sturdily built, with long fine dreadlocks and an infectious grin, and doesn't seem the type to be worried about anything. But ask him about the "pipeline problem" in tech — the notion that tech companies don't hire enough people of color because there is not enough available talent — and you'll see his brow furrow.
“Lately there's been a lot of talk about race in general and that’s translated to tech, but what worries me is that it feels very trendy,” he says. "I have mixed feelings on how the big companies are trying to address it without working together, and I feel this fear that in a couple of months it's going to die down."
Tita has reason for this trepidation: Despite tech’s insistence that the talent pool for engineering students of color is insufficient, that it is a so-called pipeline problem, data suggests that’s not exactly true. A study in USA Today last year suggested that universities are graduating black and Hispanic computer science and computer engineering graduates at twice the rate that technology companies are hiring them.
Perhaps its because they're looking in the wrong places. The feeder universities for the big tech companies, like MIT and Stanford, have their own diversity issues. (At Stanford, African-Americans represent a paltry 7.8% of undergraduates. At MIT it's 10%.) In short, tech firms are building pipelines from places without any black people to begin with.
Which explains why Tita is volunteering his weekend as a mentor for an event called HBCU Hacks — a series of two-day hackathons held at historically black colleges and universities, organized by the nonprofit organization Black Founders. At these events, computer science and engineering students of color spend their weekends to conceive of, code, and hopefully finish some variety of app, game, or technical product. In short, they're trying to re-route the pipes.
That is, if they can get the internet working. A few minutes before we bailed in the Lyft, Tita was moving across the floor inside the wood-paneled reading room in Downing Hall, a linoleum-floored engineering building on the edge of the Howard University campus. Fifteen or so students were also milling about quietly, idly tapping their phones or staring at the ground, backpacks on their shoulders. Tables strewn with ethernet cables sat empty, and a table with breakfast food and cold cardboard jugs of Starbucks coffee had been picked apart by bored and hungry students. One student wearing a hooded sweatshirt with Google's logo across the back tended to a sagging sign that read "HBCU Hacks." It should be an exhausting, nonstop event, but the students and mentors were idle, due to a particularly vexing hurdle: a campus-wide internet outage.
"There's really only two things you need for a hackathon, and that's a computer and internet and, of course, we're missing one of them," said Tita, before letting out a strained laugh.
Black Founders
The Howard hackathon comes at a time when tech companies are under increasing scrutiny for their lack of diversity. Yet as the likes of Apple, Google, and Facebook increasingly roll out diversity reports and announce new efforts to fix the pipeline problem, the obvious fact remains that it's especially hard for people of color to gain employment at the elite companies of Silicon Valley. Diversity is frequently discussed among big tech companies now but it remains underserved in terms of actual hiring.
“We are working to increase diversity in the talent pipeline and make Yahoo a great place to work for a diverse employee base,” Yahoo’s 2015 report read after disclosing that African-Americans made up just 2% of its workers. Facebook, whose 2014 report revealed the 5,500 person company had only 81 black employees, stressed that it was "trying desperately to have a more diverse workforce and deal with the constraints on the pipeline.” And yet to some extent, the problem may be that tech companies view the problem as, well, a pipeline.
Despite hopeful and sometimes even grand gestures from companies like Apple, which last year gave a massive grant to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, much of the difficult work of building companies that genuinely reflect the ethnic makeup of their users will ultimately fall to the students of color and their institutions. The majority of that work — as many black entrepreneurs see it right now — won't take place onstage or at a press conference, but under the fluorescent lights of co-working spaces and engineering halls, where engineers, coders, and designers of color strive to build the workforce that can bridge Silicon Valley's diversity gap.
It’s this sense of self-reliance that has led people like Monique Woodard, the executive director of the diversity-in-tech nonprofit Black Founders, to partner with historically black colleges and universities across the country for this series of hackathons. Black Founders hopes to create the foundation necessary to build a culture of innovation in the tech space that, pipeline or not, Silicon Valley won’t be able to ignore.
“You see a lot of companies paying lip service about diversity, but when you talk about HBCUs there’s some pushback. That’s not where they’re recruiting,” Woodard told BuzzFeed News. “They are still looking for a Stanford student, a Harvard student, an MIT student — they just want that person to be black now. That’s not always realistic. Why not work with the engineering and business schools at HBCUs as well?”
Black Founders
Of course, no matter where they come from, they need internet to get there. And currently, the Howard hackathon is all out of that. But resourcefulness is the rule of the day. So Tita hatched a new plan and offered to host the students at his office, I/O Spaces, a few miles up the road in Silver Spring, Maryland. "Everybody call an Uber or Lyft," one of the hackathon organizers told the group. "Grab a buddy and let's just get out of here."
On the ride over, Tita was upbeat and focused on getting the students up and hacking. "I think it's so important to give young engineers at these HBCUs the chance to see what it's like to build something and maybe even get the chance to get funding," he explained. "But really, it's a chance to say to them, 'Hey, this is real — this tech stuff is not just like a specific niche of people. You can build a startup.'"
As the Lyft driver pulls up to the co-working space Tita says that part of his urgency comes from the realization that although the world appears to be paying closer attention to racial inequality across the country, he’s worries it’s a momentary cycle, and is aware that window might close.
But his wariness passes quickly. “The good thing is that even though it's a trend, people can make good money off of trends,” he says, flashing a smile before entering the co-working space. “The question is, how can we, as black entrepreneurs, make the best of this moment in time?”
Hackathons aren’t much as far as spectator sports go. Save for trips to the bathroom and scuttling back and forth to a modest table stacked with pre-made sandwich wraps and soda, the students rarely move from their respective seats. Allee Clark, a senior computer science student at Howard, is working at a table with three other students on an app called Nemesis, which will employ a Tinder-like swipe interface to allow friends to find worthy partners to debate on any number of issues. “Arguing with people is pretty much the oldest and best part of the internet,” he laughs, before explaining that the group will try to develop “a behavioral API of sorts to show what kind of person you are.” The project is light-hearted and Clark and his team are using the weekend as valuable practice. They are less focused on the outcome than the experience. “If I weren’t here, I’d probably be be back in my room trying to build something else, but here there’s at least some free food,” Clark says.
That lackadaisical mood is a bit disheartening to Aaron Saunders, a local entrepreneur and adjunct faculty member teaching computer science at Howard. Saunders worries that Howard and other HBCUs have fallen behind in providing a curriculum advanced enough to graduate top-tier engineering talent.
“When I finally got in to teach, I told myself I was going to focus on getting students to build, and it was a struggle because I was asking them to make something and they’re only being taught theory, not real-world application,” he explained. “They're prepping kids to go off to Lockheed Martin and IBM and those kinds of jobs and that’s all fine and good but they’re not doing what Stanford and the best universities are doing — preparing kids to create things — to create their own company.”
Black Founders
Worse, Saunders worries that curriculums at many HBCUs can be too slow to evolve to match what’s happening in the private sector, putting graduates at an even further disadvantage when they try to score jobs at big, fast-moving tech firms. “My personal opinion is that I don't think a lot of these kids are, on the whole, ready to work at Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter. And that's the harsh reality,” he said. “If you’re not turning out a product these tech companies want, then you’re setting people up for failure.”
While Saunders admitted tech curriculums lag at many public institutions across the country, he argues the effects are amplified at HBCUs like Howard. “If you go to some other state schools and say, 'Hey, raise your hand if you know somebody in software development,' there's a likelihood that in that network they know somebody. That doesn’t exist at HBCUs. The difference is other communities have a strong network. Most here don’t.”
The students suggest a more nuanced perspective: Access to bigger tech companies is available, but only on the companies’ terms. “Google is always around; they have Googlers that come to stay and teach at Howard’s campus, so Google is literally, like, downstairs,” one junior engineering student said, speaking of Howard’s Googler in Residence program. (Google declined to make its Googlers in Residence available for comment, but Yolanda Mangolini, Google's director of diversity and inclusion, told BuzzFeed News via a prepared statement that "Historically Black Colleges and Universities are and have always been an important pillar in the black community, and embedding our Googler engineers as instructors has helped bring practitioners to the classroom.")
Indeed, the Googler in Residence program has its engineers embed and teach not just at Howard, but also at Hampton University, Fisk University, and Spelman and Morehouse colleges. The mere fact of that presence can make a difference, say students. “Google makes it a lot easier to get an internship, not because they’re biased toward us but because they are here. Microsoft and Facebook are around maybe twice a year at most, but when I apply to Microsoft using their site I get nothing; no response, no confirmation email. Never. It's like it's going into a black hole,” another junior mechanical engineering student said.
For Alanna Walton, a Howard sophomore in computer engineering, Big Tech’s real presence at the university has helped shape the trajectory of her still-young academic career. After taking a class with the Googler in Residence, Walton secured an internship at the search giant over the summer. By the time she made it back to campus this fall, she’d already begun laying the groundwork for her startup idea with three other Howard students, a customizable haircare business called GottaBeYour. Walton is soft-spoken and wears a high school shirt that reads “Powderpuff Seniors” but speaks about her business with the concern of a seasoned entrepreneur, already trained in speaking about scalability and unreliable vendors.
At the hackathon, Walton sits cross-legged on the ground, balancing her laptop on her knees, deep in focus. Amid haggling with shampoo vendors for GottaBeYour and bootstrapping the project with the money she made at Google, she’s using the weekend to build something different. “Bringing something that you already started into a hackathon, that feels weird or kind of like cheating,” she said. “Plus, I can try something different and maybe learn another thing or two — I’m really into wireless beacons right now.”
And so she and her partner Lucretia Williams are working on Food EZ, an app that allows people to set up drive-thru orders ahead of time but that aren’t sent to the kitchen until you reach the beacon’s connectivity radius. “Maybe it won’t work, but the technology is really interesting and there’s a lot to figure out.”
To talk to the hackathon mentors this ability to embrace and be comfortable with failure is just one of many cultural barriers complicating diversity programs — and learning to embrace it is critical. “We talk about culture fit all the time and accepting failure is just completely outside of our culture. We don't have the luxury to fail,” Howard graduate and mentor Beverly Turner, who runs her own private technology exposure programs, said.
That willingness to try something new — and maybe fail at it — is prized worldview in Silicon Valley. Failure, breaking things, the perennially available exciting and potentially lucrative opportunities on the horizon for every failed startup founder: This is the standard template for success in the tech industry. But as even the most successful entrepreneurs of color have found, the luxury of failure is a foreign concept.
Black Founders
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23 People Tell Us Why We Should All Be Rooting For The Mets
Ya gotta believe!
Do it for this girl who's just being honest:
"They're amazing!! Plus they're in the World Series!!"
Do it for this man who will melt your heart:
"Because the team is a FAMILY!!"
Do it for this guy's brother:
"Because my older brother liked them."
Do it for this father and his son who #believe:
"Because New York rocks and so do the Mets!"
"Because the Mets are the best"
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Billy Joel Singing “Piano Man” With Mets Fans At The World Series Is Everything
The singer performed the national anthem before the New York Mets went on to beat the Kansas City Royals in Game 3 of the series. But he broke into song again when the crowd started singing everyone’s favorite bar tune.
New York Mets fans established a new tradition this year of belting out the song “Piano Man” during the middle of the 8th inning at home games.
Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images
So when Billy Joel, the original crooner of the classic, appeared at Game 3 of the World Series between the Mets and the Kansas City Royals Friday night, it was only right that the crowd give him an extra special serenade.
MLB / Via youtube.com
To their sheer enjoyment, Joel joined them midway through. Here he is, with comedian Kevin James, rising to acknowledge the crowd and accompany them in song.
MLB / Via youtube.com
Friday night’s victory 9-3 victory of the Royals was the team’s first in the World Series. Joel, a Long Island native who opened the game with the national anthem, last sang for the Mets during the 1986 World Series.
Brad Penner / AP Photos
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31 Tweets About McDonald's That'll Actually Make You Laugh
“Before McDonald’s I bet ‘don’t buy cheeseburgers from a clown’ was a pretty hard and fast rule.”
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34 Amazing Ways To Use Your Halloween Candy
Way more fun than just eating it straight out of the package.
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butterfinger Cupcakes
Chocolate, Chocolate and More / Via chocolatechocolateandmore.com
Candy Oreo Monster Skillet Cookie
Life Made Sweeter / Via lifemadesweeter.com
Salted Dark Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispie Treats
Savory Nothings / Via savorynothings.com
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American Kids Tried Candy From Around The World And Questioned Life
“Feed these to some dogs.”
Halloween is almost here ladies and gents, which means every child will find a way to get candy in their mouths one way or another. Cut Video decided to give some kids candy from all over the world and their reactions were priceless.
First up was Salsagheti (sour and spicy) from Mexico. Kids had to pour tamarind salsa all over their candy, and well, some of them regretted everything.
Cut
But this guy LOVED. EVERY. MINUTE. OF. IT.
Cut
Keeping the kids rolling through Flavortown, they were then given tamarind candy from Thailand. There was still no luck for this guy...
Cut
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Sports: Ohio State Starting Quarterback Suspended After DUI Arrest
Sports on TIME.com
Ohio State Starting Quarterback Suspended After DUI Arrest
Sophomore J.T. Barrett faces a misdemeanor charge after failing a breathalyzer test
Published on October 31, 2015 at 05:39PM
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7 Easy Ways To Be A Better Cook This Week
Tap into your inner Julia Child.
Stop overcooking your scrambled eggs. SOFT scramble them instead.
Here’s how to make the eggs:
Beat 2 large eggs with a salt and pepper in a small bowl. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the butter starts to foam, turn the heat down to low.
Add the eggs and stir constantly with a rubber spatula for 30 seconds to 1 ½ minutes. When the pan is mostly little clumps of eggs and just a little eggy liquid left, remove the pan from the heat and stir until the eggs are just cooked, about 30 seconds longer.
Scoop the eggs onto a plate and dollop with ¼ cup of ricotta. Serve with buttered toast and then, if you want, sprinkle with some chopped chives. Serves 1.
Lindsay Hunt / Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed
Spend just a little bit of time prepping ingredients on Sunday and make easy dinners all week.
I don't know about you, but stressing about after-work dinner means I'm often just eating whatever cheese is left in my fridge and calling it a meal. Instead, use a shopping list and a free weekend afternoon to get ahead for the week. Here's a game-plan, complete with your list and ways to turn the food into 5 dinners. Get this easy meal plan with a shopping list here.
Lauren Zaser / Alice Mongkongllite / Via buzzfeed.com
Roast vegetables the right way: Get a rimmed baking sheet, use enough oil, and add garlic. (Okay, that's three tips.)
1. Invest in a couple rimmed baking sheets—the kind that have sides, and therefore keep your food in the pan.
2. Use enough oil. Toss whatever you want to roast on the sheet tray with a good glug of olive oil (don't be shy) and a hearty dusting of salt and pepper. Add in some spices if you want, (paprika goes well with these peppers), and then dig your hands in there. Make sure everything's coated and then roast, tossing occasionally, until everything is fork-tender. This means that you can easily insert the tines of your fork into the vegetable.
3. It never hurts to throw a few cloves of unpeeled garlic onto the sheet tray. Roasting turns garlic from a date-killer to delicious gold. Mix it into whatever you're making, or spread on buttered toast. You're welcome.
Learn how to chop an onion correctly.
A cooked onion is a beautiful thing, but you can't get there if you chopped your finger off in the process. Get a photo step-by-step and a video tutorial here.
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23 Reasons To Never Eat Breakfast
Wake up early? LOL.
Jenny Chang / Via BuzzFeed Life
Who wants blueberry pie first thing in the morning anyway?
Recipe for blueberry oatmeal bars here.
Look how invasive that syrup is- it's getting EVERYWHERE.
Dutch cream waffle recipe here.
This looks suspiciously like pizza, which would be the worst way to start your day.
Recipe for red pepper and egg galettes here.
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Sports: How the New York Mets Saved Their World Series
Sports on TIME.com
How the New York Mets Saved Their World Series
A struggling star rocks the Big Apple
Published on October 31, 2015 at 01:31PM
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Carson Says Details Of Stabbing Story Changed Because It Happened So Long Ago
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
WEST MEMPHIS, Arkansas — Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson chalked inconsistencies in a story he often tells about nearly stabbing a friend while in his teens up to the passage of time on Friday.
"The explanation is that that occurred over 50 years ago," Carson said in response to a question from BuzzFeed News in a media availability after a rally here. "Have you ever played that party game where you whisper into the person’s ear and then they tell it, and by the time it gets all the way back around it’s a different story? That's what we're talking here." Carson was referring to the game of "telephone."
Over the years, Carson has told a story about nearly stabbing a classmate of his when he was a teenager, as an example of a moment when he lost control of his temper and a turning point in his life.
The Daily Beast compiled instances of times when the details in Carson's story have shifted; sometimes, the knife is a different kind of knife, and in other instances, the almost-victim was described not as his friend "Bob" but just as "a boy" or "a classmate." In some versions, the story has been detailed, and in others vague. The basic outline of the story of the attempted stabbing, which Carson says was averted by a belt buckle, has largely stayed constant.
Carson discussed other matters with reporters for about 12 minutes after a rally at West Memphis High School, across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee.
The Washington Post's David Weigel asked Carson about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not being permitted to conduct research on gun violence, something that has been attributed to pressure from the National Rifle Association, which opposes such research.
Carson said that he is in favor of research on gun violence, putting him at odds with the NRA's position.
"I say more information is better," Carson said. "You know, whatever it is. Put the information on the table and let’s make decisions based on real evidence."
Carson also discussed a visit he made on Friday to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and which has been made into the National Civil Rights Museum.
"It was very touching emotionally to see some of the things that I saw there," Carson said. "They’ve done an excellent job, particularly with the interactive displays."
"My thinking is that I wish more people would have more of an appreciation of what people went through in order to gain their rights for education for some Americans," Carson said. "I think maybe they might be more prone to take advantage of those things."
Carson said during the visit, "I was thinking back 47 years ago about when it occurred. It was very emotional."
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29 Photos That Prove Scrumpy Is The Drink Of New Zealand
It’s scrump-diddlyumptious.
The Instagram account Scrumpy Adventures is proof that Scrumpy is the most New Zealand drink ever.
Scrumpy has long been close to the heart of many a Kiwi.
For many, it's like a child they've raised throughout the party.
Nestled into every Kiwi's bosom, as we stare on with adoring eyes.
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There Were Way More Ads Supporting Airbnb Than Opposing It On TV This Summer
According to the Internet Archive, for every minute of TV ads that supported a San Francisco ballot measure that would restrict Airbnb, there were 100 minutes of opposing Proposition F.
Via blog.archive.org
Ads opposing a local ballot measure that would restrict Airbnb in San Francisco vastly outstripped those in favor of the measure, according to a review by the Internet Archive.
Proposition F would limit the number of days a year hosts can rent out their homes to 75, require home-sharing platforms to report regularly to city government, ban rentals of in-law apartments and more. Airbnb has spent $8 million so far in hopes of defeating the ballot measure, which they say is overly aggressive.
The Internet Archive records and stores hours and hours of TV footage, but claims to have found only one ad supporting the ballot measure. That ad, their survey says, played 32 times for a total of 16 minutes; in comparison, ads in support of Airbnb aired for more than 26 hours.
Of course, these days, TV ads are only one part of how the campaigns have tried to reach voters; both sides have played in the digital space as well. In fact, the campaign that support Prop F, known as Share Better SF, released a new ad on YouTube today, which in a press release was said to be part of a "significant digital media buy."
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Rep. John Lewis: Black Lives Matter Protesters Should Respect Everyone's Right To Be Heard
Jessica Mcgowan / Getty Images
ATLANTA — Moments after renowned civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis delivered a rousing introduction of Hillary Clinton at an event in Atlanta Friday, protesters interrupted her speech, chanting in unison, "black lives matter."
After acknowledging the protesters ("Yes they do," Clinton replied), the Democratic presidential candidate attempted to move on with her speech, increasing her volume as the chants continued.
The Georgia congressman, who led non-violent protests during the fight to end segregation in the 1960s, went into the audience to intervene, trying to get the protesters to allow Clinton to speak.
"I just said to them that at some other time we could all sit down and talk," Lewis said in an interview with BuzzFeed News after the event. "Just that we shouldn't disturb the speech when she was trying to get a message [across]."
When that failed, he and Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta, joined Clinton on stage in a show of solidarity. "We thought that would help move things [along]," Lewis said.
The students who participated in the demonstration were eventually shouted down by a throng of students who came to hear Clinton, shouting "Hil-lar-y!" and "Let her talk!"
Lewis said that, regardless of what side they were on, he was proud of the students' spirit of engagement.
"I think it's happening all across America," he said. "[Especially] on college campuses. I've been going around speaking to many colleges and HBCUs and it's a good thing. It's a good spirit."
Lewis' signature speech that he gives to groups in Washington and to future activists, operatives, and others, recalls his years as a protester, his several dozen arrests, and putting his body on the line for the cause of freedom and civil rights. "Good trouble," he calls it.
When asked about whether this new generation of activists — particularly the ones who confronted Clinton — had lived up the admonition, Lewis said they had.
"Most of the things that we did back in the 1960s was good trouble, it was necessary trouble. And so what I try to say to young people is when you see something that is not right, not fair or not just, you have to speak up. You have to speak and and make some noise. So in some sense, [protesters] were speaking up. They were speaking out.
"But we have to respect the right of everybody to be heard," he said. "And you do that in a non-violent, orderly fashion."
Lewis told the protesters in a brief meeting outdoors that he wanted them to come meet with him in his district office. As for Clinton, Lewis said he was flattered by Clinton's praise of his life's work and legacy as a freedom fighter.
"I think she gave a powerful speech," Lewis said. "It was all-inclusive as what she proposes to do as president. I think she'll make a great president and I meant everything I said in my introduction of her. I've been knowing for her for a long, long time. She has a good heart."
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Another Startup Is Moving Away From Contract Labor
Shift is the latest in a string of on-demand companies that have decided to stop using independent contractors.
Via Flickr: hugo90
Shift, an on-demand startup that helps people buy and sell cars, is looking to make employees out of its contract-based labor force. Almost 100 California-based "car enthusiasts" — what Shift calls the people who do price checks, coordinate inspections, facilitate test drives, and otherwise help with the transaction — are being given the opportunity to join the company as employees, starting December 1.
Use of contract labor by tech companies is a hot topic. Companies including Postmates, Washio, Handy, Lyft and Uber are currently being sued by workers who say they should be receiving the benefits and compensation befitting employees.
Not all on-demand companies use independent contractors — Munchery, WashUp, Alfred and Managed by Q, to name a few, use employees. Still others, such as Shyp, Instacart and Sprig, have announced intentions to transition their workforce from contract-based to employee status.
While lawsuits are a definite threat, those on-demand companies that forego the savings associated with hiring independent contractors often say its because hiring employees is better for business long term. A car is a big purchase, a Shift representative said in an email, and W-2 employees help the company deliver "premium, white glove service" to customers. As employees, the "enthusiasts" are now eligible for equity in the company as well; a spokesperson for Shift said the news was greeted with cheers.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Huckabee: My North Korea Dog-Eating Joke Was Factual, "Obama Admitted" He Ate A Dog
“But, I’m not gonna stop a sense of humor and I’m not gonna even stop talking factual things that are the basis of humor, because it offends somebody who really isn’t offended.”
with dog.
Mike Huckabee
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said a joke he tweeted about North Koreans eating dogs was very funny.
During the Democratic presidential debate, Huckabee tweeted "I trust @BernieSanders with my tax dollars like I trust a North Korean chef with my labrador!" The joke caused outrage online as many decried the joke as racist.
"You have to understand, the left doesn't care what the facts are," Huckabee said on the Louder with Crowder program on Thursday. "They manufacture their offenses. So even if there's nothing to be offended about, they can pretend that they're offended so that they can demand an apology, demand a retraction."
Huckabee, who defended his joke by saying he was talking about the brutal dictatorship in North Korea, said conservatives are too accommodating when people are upset with them.
"You know what, for far too long conservatives have tried to be so accommodating," said the former Arkansas governor. "'Oh, well I shouldn't have said it that way. It was inartful.' No, I just say, 'that was actually what I meant to say. I said it because I thought it was funny. And, if you don't think it's funny then, you know what, don't listen to me.'"
Huckabee says he won't stop, and people are just feigning outrage.
"But, I'm not gonna stop a sense of humor and I'm not gonna even stop talking factual things that are the basis of humor, because it offends somebody who really isn't offended," said Huckabee. "This is the point. They're not really offended but they pretend they are because if they ever had to debate the substance of the issue they know they would lose. They cannot stand to deal with the logical conclusion of their own irrational points of view."
Huckabee then chuckled after a joke about President Obama eating a dog, noting that as a child, Obama ate dog meat in Indonesia, so Obama ate a dog.
"He admitted it," Huckabee said of Obama eating a dog. "The whole point of the North Korea joke, is in North Korea they're eating lawn clippings and the barks off trees because unless you're in the military, you're starving to death under this dictator, communist regime, and that was really the point to be made."
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Sanders To Clinton: Without Marijuana, It's Not Criminal Justice Reform
Joshua Roberts / Reuters
NASHUA, N.H. — Criminal justice — an issue thrust into the Democratic primary fight by bipartisan legislative efforts in Washington and Black Lives Matter activists on the campaign trail — has emerged as one of the clearest divides between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in their quest for the presidency.
In short, Sanders says the racial disparities in the justice system cannot be remedied without ending the federal war on marijuana and banning the death penalty. Clinton is not ready to change federal law on marijuana and says the death penalty is an important tool in the belt of federal prosecutors.
As Sanders criss-crossed New Hampshire Friday, his campaign bracketed her criminal justice policy rollout in Atlanta with a statement saying Clinton wasn't going far enough.
"When we talk about criminal justice reform, we also need to understand that millions of people have been arrested for using marijuana," Sanders said in the statement, adding, "Any serious criminal justice reform must include removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act."
Sanders debuted his new, sharper-elbowed rhetoric against Clinton at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Iowa earlier this week.
Sanders also said the death penalty needs to go, a position his aides are quick to point out he's held publicly since 1991. In the statement Sanders said the U.S. needs to join "every other major democracy in eliminating the death penalty" if there is to be "real criminal justice reform."
Both the marijuana policy and the call for a death penalty ban are connected to Sanders' plan to attack what both Clinton and Sanders have said are racial inequities in the justice system. When he rolled out his support for decriminalizing marijuana last week, he did it by focusing on an arrest rate that shows black people are far more likely than whites to get busted for pot, despite equal usage rates.
When Sanders took to the Senate floor to talk about the death penalty recently, he said continuing its use perpetuated the violence it tries to prevent.
"We are all shocked and disgusted by some of the horrific murders that we see in this country, seemingly every week," he said. "And that is precisely why we should abolish the death penalty. At a time of rampant violence and murder, the State should not be part of that process."
The death penalty policy, while not expressly tied to race in the statement, has racial justice overtones as well, said Symone Sanders, national press secretary for the Sanders campaign.
"The Senator is vey much aware of the racial disparity for the death penalty," she told BuzzFeed News. Criminal justice advocates on the left like the ACLU have long pointed to a number of factors in the use of the death penalty they say show it's more likely to affect minority defendants than white ones.
Including marijuana decriminalization is crucial for any efforts to reduce the racial disparities in the criminal justice system, the Sanders aide said.
"We cannot talk about ending the disgrace that is the mass incarceration of African Americans in the country if we don’t also include real change to our marijuana policy," Symone Sanders said.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1Oe7vP5
Black Lives Matter Protesters Disrupt Clinton Campaign Event In Atlanta
Hillary Clinton is expected to unveil the first parts of her criminal justice agenda at Clark Atlanta University.
After being introduced by Rep. John Lewis, Clinton began her speech on Friday in Atlanta — before protesters began chanting.
Clinton initially received applause after shouting out local schools Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, and Spelman.
Clinton is, in the coming days, unveiling major pieces of her criminal justice agenda — something that activists in the broader Black Lives Matter movement will be closely watching.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/20gBedW
Cruz: No More Debates Hosted By People Who Would Never Vote In A Republican Primary
“It’s not helpful and it is an example of the media’s leftwing agenda.”
Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says it is "crazy" for Republican primary debates to be moderated by journalists who would never vote in a Republican primary.
Speaking about the criticism CNBC has received from Republicans for its handling of Wednesday night's debate, Cruz on Thursday said on the Heidi Harris Show, "You know we've seen this throughout the debates where they have tended to really be looking for just a food fight and looking for insults and one candidate attacking another."
Cruz, who got his biggest applause Wednesday night at the CNBC debate when he criticized the moderators' questions, said that mainstream media hosts simply want to help Democrats.
"That is not helpful to Republican primary voters who are making a decision who to support," added Cruz. "But unfortunately, the moderators interest is not in actually trying to determine who would be the strongest conservative to, number one, fight for the principles we believe in and number two, to beat Hillary Clinton in the general election.
"The moderators' interest is just, causing, insulting every candidate there," he continued. "Causing everyone of them to fight and no one should be surprised that none of those moderators in all likelihood are planning to vote in the Republican primary. There interest is whoever the Republican nominee is, they want to beat that person up as much as possible and cause people either to stay home or vote for Hillary."
Cruz noted it wasn't a good idea to let those in the mainstream media host debates.
"And I think it's crazy that we have Republican primary debates moderated by people who would never in a million years vote in a Republican primary. It's not helpful and it is an example of the media's leftwing agenda."
Cruz said "every question is designed to be an insult," singling out questions for Ben Carson, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Donald Trump he thought was unfair.
"They attack Ben Carson, a world renowned neurosurgeon, and say, 'you can't do math,'" said Cruz. " Cruz said a better question for candidates would be, "tell me about your tax plan," or past immigration positions and then ask candidates to show how it differed from other candidates.
Carson was asked by CNBC moderator Becky Quick specifically asking about his tax plan and how his flat tax would work if it was bringing in trillions of dollars less in government revenue than the current structure. Quick, said. "I've had a really tough time trying to make the math work on this.
"None of those moderators have any interest whatsoever in asking those questions and I was glad that last night, particularly after I called out the moderators to see a number of other candidates stepping forward and doing the same. You know, it was really striking that as the debate went the audience began booing the moderators. More and more ridiculous questions."
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/1M6lx2Q
Everything You Need To Know About Toronto's Harry Potter-Themed Bar
Yes, they have “Butterbeer.”
Welcome to The Lockhart, a cozy bar that will conjure up all your nostalgic feelings for the wizarding world.
Sarah Aspler / BuzzFeed Canada
Ever dream of meeting your fellows Gryffindors for a cocktail? Dream no longer. This place will put a spell on you and make any hardcore Harry Potter fan drunk in love.
Sarah Aspler / BuzzFeed Canada
The small, exposed-brick bar serves up hand-crafted cocktails made with house-infused liquors. One of their most popular drinks is "The Shacklebolt," a spiced rum and ginger-beer-based cocktail.
Sarah Aspler / BuzzFeed Canada
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