MAKING IT SAY WHAT WE WANT
AH, THIS SOUNDS BETTER
Investigations by The Intercept and other publications have revealed a former Kamala Harris presidential campaign volunteer staff member recently made redactions of unflattering material on the California Democratic senator on the Wikipedia page about her and introduced more content favorable to Harris, who is being strongly considered as a vice presidential running mate for presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Bao Nguyen, a San Francisco Bay area lawyer, at first did not disclose his link to the Harris and Biden campaigns, which Wikipedia said editors are supposed to do. Ultimately, he admitted it, prompting Wikipedia to prohibit him from editing articles on individuals involved in campaigns for which he has volunteered.
Among the edits are Harris’s defense of Orange County prosecutors implicated in widespread misconduct, the details about a campaign finance violation during her run for district attorney, a quote in which she said “it is not progressive to be soft on crime,” and details about her political career benefiting from a relationship with future San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
Some of the deleted material has been added back, but critics have said editing by individuals with conflicts of interest has become a common Wikipedia problem. And one of the site’s co-founders has said the site’s editing has become so biased that the once-neutral site now is commonly left-wing.
THEN THEY CAME FOR THE CITY NAMES
Get ready for the city name cancel culture. A petition is circling around St. Louis, saying the French king and Catholic saint for whom the city is named glorified anti-Semites.
Woke activists, it seems, are suddenly concerned over the treatment of Jews and Muslims by Louis in the 13th century.
“St. Louis has a large and vibrant Jewish and Muslim community,” the petition reads, “and it’s an outright disrespect for those who are part of these faith communities to have to live in a city named after a man committed to the murder of their co religionists.”
However, Louis is thought of differently by the many Catholics who helped settle St. Louis.
He is the only king of France to have been canonized in the Catholic Church. Many in that faith know the saint for his charity, which often included inviting the poor to his table and waiting on them. He also founded numerous charitable institutions such as hospitals for the poor and lepers.
President Donald Trump in a recent conference call on another matter asked the Missouri governor whether the state would be considering such a change.
“No,” said Republican Gov. Mike Parson, “we will not be doing that.”
WROTE ME A LETTER
It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last, but it is the latest. A former Umatilla County, Oregon, commission candidate has admitted he sent himself a racist letter.
A few weeks ago, Jonathan Lopez posted on Facebook that he had received a hate-filled letter in his mailbox. He has since removed his Facebook page.
“I do apologize for what I did,” he told a local television station. “I do understand and accept that it was incorrect or wrong; by no means or way did I want to gain the election.”
Hermiston police say he could be charged with a misdemeanor for filing a false report. Yet, Lopez, who said he has “been having [a] hard time since February,” doesn’t figure his action should make anyone skeptical about racism charges.
“It cannot be used as something to discredit any other possible form or way or act of racial issues,” he said. “If they start thinking because of one bad apple, in this case one bad situation, the rest are bad, then [law enforcement officers] are not going to do their job properly or correct, and you know that’s not what they are here for.”
BATTLE OF THE ‘A’S’
When the country band Lady Antebellum recently became so woke it decided to change its name to not reflect the pre-Civil War era, it ironically chose to co-opt the name of a black gospel and blues artist, Anna White, who had been using the name Lady A for 30 years.
Now a court will decide who gets rights to the name. White told KING-TV last month she holds a business trademark for Lady A LLC and doesn’t understand how her name was overlooked by the country band.
“I can’t imagine that they could go on Google and not see me there, you can go on Spotify and see me, go on Amazon and see me,” White said. “To totally disregard the fact that there is another Lady A out there, or is the Lady A, because I am, and have been for over 30 years, I don’t understand how they would not reach out to me, and say something at least.”
The country band’s lawsuit says it owns the federally registered trademark for the brand name “Lady A” and that it started using it as a source indicator for its goods and services as early as 2006-2007.
The band says it is not seeking monetary damage in its lawsuit, just affirmation of its lawful use of the name.