2018 – Page 4 – Bridge Agents

How Mainstream Media Helps Weaponize Far-Right Conspiracy Theories

December 1, 2018 Bridge Agents

United States (Conversation) – Once an anti-Semitic rumor moved from fringe to the mainstream, it took less than two weeks for violence to erupt. The false allegation that liberal philanthropist George Soros was funding or supporting a caravan of Honduran refugees heading to the U.S. spread wildly from a single tweet posted on Oct. 14. Along with far-right memes, that allegation helped motivate both an alleged mail-bomber and a mass shooter at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The way these messages traveled across the internet in this short time span is just…

Former US President George H.W. Bush Dead at Age 94

December 1, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Sputnik) – Former US President George H.W. Bush has died at the age of 94, a statement issued by a family spokesman read. “George Herbert Walker Bush, World War II naval aviator, Texas oil pioneer, and 41st President of the United States of America, died on November 30, 2018. He was 94… Funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as is practical,” the statement, published on Twitter by family spokesman Jim McGrath, read. He is survived by sons George W. Bush (the 43rd president of the United States) and Jeb Bush (ex-governor of Florida). His son George W. Bush, said in a statement, also…

In the House, Everything New is Old Again

December 1, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Garrison) – In late November, Democratic members of the US House of Representatives met to begin choosing their leadership for the 116th Congress, which convenes on January 3. The party’s endorsed candidate — although not a shoo-in — for Speaker of the House is former House Speaker (until her party lost the chamber in 2010) and current Minority Leader (since then), 78-year-old Nancy Pelosi of California, in Congress since 1987. The incoming Majority Leader is former Majority Leader (until his party lost the chamber in 2010) and current Minority Whip…

Four Officers Arrested for Assaulting Undercover Cop at Protest

November 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Sputnik) – The indictment follows an investigation conducted by the FBI. The slain 24-year-old, Anthony Lamar Smith, was shot five times by Stockley. Police recovered a gun from Smith’s car, but found only Stockley’s DNA on it, leading many to believe that the firearm was planted. One hundred and forty people were mass arrested on October 3, 2017, after Stockley was found not guilty on charges of first-degree murder. The group included protesters, reporters and an undercover police officer. Protests were held in the city for days surrounding the verdict. The officer, named in the indictment as “L.H.,” had been in the department for 22…

It’s Never ‘Just the Immigrants’

November 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

(FPIF) – The Republican pre-election strategy of exploiting “the caravan” was irredeemably ugly. It’s hard to say what was worse: the shameless and farcical framing of a helpless stream of people as a national security threat, or the president’s off-hand suggestion that these people might actually be funded by the prime villain of most anti-Semitic conspiracy theories: George Soros. Few commentators have failed to point out the obvious effects of this gutter-politics playbook: the debasement of public discourse on immigration policy; the wink-and-nudge of encouragement offered to the most sinister…

Why Racism is So Hard to Define and Even Harder to Understand

November 30, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Conversation) – Today, what can be defined as racism and what cannot has become a matter for debate. Every racist caught in the act, whether it be wrongly accusing a black child of sexual assault or running over and killing a mosque-goer, claims not to be racist. Eric Kaufmann, a prominent professor at a London university, has claimed that “racial self-interest is not racism”. He is joined by others who see talking about race as “unhelpful”, be that from a left-wing perspective that privileges class, or from a conservative one…

On the Edge, In Between, Off Kilter

November 28, 2018 Bridge Agents

(FemAct) – I’m feeling the surface tension between truths. Yesterday, I picked my children up from school and bought them hot chocolate mix from United Dairy Farmers on the way home. We got the last box of plain hot chocolate, and there were no marshmallows to buy. I asked the cashier if she had any marshmallows in the ice cream bar that she could put in a cup and sell to us. She ended up giving us an entire container of marshmallows from the coffee bar for free. Women and children…

Women Feel Better When they Work with Other Women

November 28, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Conversation) – The #metoo movement has brought the widespread sexual harassment experienced by women in the workplace to the fore. Women in traditionally male jobs and workplaces are even more likely to experience gender discrimination and sexual harassment. This has been described as “the ‘manly’ jobs problem.” A recent study I worked on with my colleague Wen Fan from Boston College looks closely at this question of how gender equality is unfolding in the labour force. Most adults spend almost half their waking hours at work, so it is a hugely…

Advocates say the timing is right for independent oversight of Texas prisons

November 27, 2018 Bridge Agents

Texas (TT) – After a recent slew of damning headlines regarding conditions within Texas prisons, reform advocates and lawmakers are hopeful that the timing is right to get legislation passed creating independent oversight of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, and state Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, filed identical bills in their respective chambers last week calling for a governor-appointed, independent ombudsman’s office to oversee and investigate complaints against the prison agency. The criminal justice department currently has an ombudsman within the agency, but Johnson and Miles…

50 Years After Star Trek’s ‘Kiss’, How Have Attitudes Towards Interethnic Marriage changed?

November 27, 2018 Bridge Agents

(Conversation) – In the long-running sci-fi serial Star Trek, the mission of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise is to “boldly go where no one has gone before”. This was most often apparent in the crew’s discovery of new worlds and new beings in the course of the drama. But the series pushed another new boundary 50 years ago when, having been subjected to “sadistic” mind control by aliens, Captain James Kirk (played by William Shatner) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols) were compelled to passionately kiss…