>she's Amy Schneider
what a creepy mask
https://twitter.com/LindsayImber/status/1466938276053323778
https://www.outsports.com/comingout/2021/10/11/22699450/linday-imber-anaheim-ducks-trans-bi-coming-out
Anaheim Ducks organist comes out as trans and bi on National Coming Out Day
‘I am literally more comfortable in my skin, Lindsay Imber, an organist, basketball referee and baseball rules analyst, writes about her transition.
"In that case, what do you have to lose?”
The operator’s reply reverberated through that cold, dry night earlier this year as I sat in my car overlooking the sparkling glimmer of Los Angeles, tears blending the lights below into one blurry glow. Moments earlier, I had managed to blurt it out: “I have two options: Transition or die.”
Two months later, I recorded and released a single of “1-800-273-8255,” an organ cover of Logic’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline tribute, a number nestled into my phone’s contacts between friends whom I remained reticent to burden.
https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/streaker-updates/amy-schneider-climbs-jeopardy-record-books-10th-straight-victory
https://twitter.com/TimRyan/status/1466451367921393675
In Ohio, we’re great at making a lot of things—steel, rubber, glass… and jeopardy champions!
Keep climbing @Jeopardamy. We’re rooting for you all the way.
https://twitter.com/Jeopardamy/status/1466495062217351168
Thanks! To any followers in Ohio, next year remember that, no matter who the Republican candidate is, one of their goals in office will be to make life harder for me personally. Don’t give them the chance!
>https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/streaker-updates/amy-schneider-climbs-jeopardy-record-books-10th-straight-victory
Amy Schneider Climbs Jeopardy! Record Books With 10th Straight Victory
Winning 10 games in a row is no easy feat, but Amy Schneider has proven she’s a Jeopardy! power player with her 10th straight win!
The engineering manager from Oakland, California, is making her way up the record books, currently ranking 8th for highest winnings during regular-season play with a 10-day total of $380,200.
“It’s just so surprising,” Amy said of her record-breaking streak. “You know, I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t think I could do good. But this has just been so much better than what I thought I would do.”
Amy has earned an average of $38,000 per game so far, which, as noted by Ken Jennings in today’s show, is about $4,000 more than what he averaged per game during his historic 74-game streak in 2004.
What’s just as impressive? The majority of Amy’s victories have been runaway games, in which the highest earning player has more than double the score of the second-highest earning player going into Final Jeopardy!
“It’s relaxing, I guess. You can kind of let the tension go from the time in there,” Amy said of runaway leads. “I want to keep doing runaways.”
Will Amy’s record-breaking streak continue tomorrow? Tune in to find out.
https://twitter.com/Jeopardamy/status/1466493824306270211
Never in my life did I really think I'd be interviewed in the Washington Post!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/02/jeopardy-amy-schneider-winning-streak/
Amy Schneider has made ‘Jeopardy!’ history — and helped the show find calm after chaos
Two weeks ago, “Jeopardy!” guest host Ken Jennings kicked off the show by telling the audience that contestant Andrew He had just guaranteed a spot in the next Tournament of Champions by winning five games in a row. “We already know he’ll be facing our other qualifiers this season,” Jennings said, and looked toward He’s two competitors. “Might Max or Amy be adding their names to that list?”
That mundane intro line turned into reality. After a close game, Amy Schneider was the only contestant to answer Final Jeopardy correctly, triumphing over He — and she has been on a wildly impressive streak ever since, winning 11 games so far and racking up $421,200, the seventh-highest winnings ever for a contestant during the regular season.
“I believed that I was pretty good, and I thought I could win three or four games if things went well,” Schneider, 42, said in a phone interview. “I was like, ‘I could win a few, or run into bad luck on the first game and not win and it would be what it is.’ To win 10 and counting — that’s definitely higher than the high end of my internal expectations.”
Schneider, an engineering manager who lives in Oakland, Calif., is also the first transgender contestant in “Jeopardy!” history to make the Tournament of Champions, where the top players from each season compete. During an episode last week, she wore a transgender flag pin and explained on Twitter that she specifically wore it around Thanksgiving because she wanted to show support for the “disproportionately high number of trans people” who are estranged or cut off from their families.
“The fact is, I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor,” she wrote. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret.”
Schneider was initially a bit hesitant to publish the thread. She has seen prominent trans people speak out on Twitter, and the reaction is not always pleasant. But as she realized she was going to be on national television for a decent stretch of time, she started thinking about how she wanted to talk about that part of her identity. As a once-closeted trans person, she knew others in similar situations would be watching her closely.
“I just want them to know that I see them and I support them and they’re great, and they can do great things,” she said, adding that she wanted to show people in the closeted phase that it’s possible to “be living your true self and having success and doing everything you ever wanted to do.” The online reaction from “Jeopardy!” viewers, with a few rare exceptions, has been overwhelmingly positive, she said, and she’s enjoyed chatting with fans on Twitter and sharing behind-the-scenes details.
Her history-making “Jeopardy!” accomplishment has not been discussed on the show, though it has made plenty of headlines; she’s not the show’s first trans contestant, but many have noted she is the first to make it this far. (She’s also the fourth consecutive player to make it to the Tournament of Champions since Matt Amodio’s 38-game run ended in October.) Schneider chalks up her winning streak to partly luck and timing — “If it wasn’t going to be me it would be somebody else, and it will be somebody else” — though said she’s still very proud.
“Until somebody does it, it can feel unattainable,” she said. “It’s one minor area of human achievement, but it still means something, and it means something to see trans people succeed everywhere.”
Schneider’s run has brought another element to “Jeopardy!”: A sense of calm after the show’s most chaotic year ever, with the hiring and near-immediate firing of former executive producer Mike Richards as host, along with a rotating cast of guest hosts. But 2004 “Jeopardy!” record-breaker Jennings, who is filling in after Mayim Bialik’s stint, has found his footing and has an easy rapport with all the competitors. Schneider said that relaxed feeling — or as relaxed as one can be when you know you’re going to be seen by millions of viewers — was evident on set, as well.
“He’s very relaxed and sets contestants at ease. He knows what we’re going through,” Schneider said. “He wants to get everybody there to be relaxed and have fun: ‘It’s a game, it’s cool, let’s just have a good time out here.’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov_Jw02uHGY
Bialik was referring to the many headlines that have appeared since her 2012 parenting book revealed her two sons were not on the “typical” vaccine schedule — and when she has offered quotes such as one to People magazine in 2009, saying “we are a non-vaccinating family.” While Bialik has long fought back against the anti-vaccine label, this video was the most in-depth defense yet. “I have never once said that vaccines are not valuable, not useful or not necessary — because they are,” she said, adding her children did receive some vaccinations, which she delayed for reasons she doesn’t want to share publicly.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/08/31/mike-richards-out-jeopardy-producer/
‘Jeopardy!’ severs ties with executive producer Mike Richards after podcast controversy
August 31, 2021 at 12:37 p.m. EDT
“Jeopardy!” has permanently severed ties with its executive producer Mike Richards, less than two weeks after he stepped down as the new host of the show, following the revelation of several offensive comments he made on his former podcast. He will also no longer be executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/mayim-bialik-feminist-harvey-weinstein.html
Mayim Bialik: Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s World
I entered the Hollywood machine in 1986 as a prominent-nosed, awkward, geeky, Jewish 11-year-old, basically a scrawnier version of the person I am today. Back then we didn’t have the internet or social media or reality TV, but I didn’t need any of that to understand that I didn’t look or act like other girls in my industry, and that I was immersing myself in a business that rewarded physical beauty and sex appeal above all else.
Nothing has been a harsher reminder that I work in an industry that profits on the exploitation of women, and not just on screen, than the accusations of Harvey Weinstein as a serial sexual assaulter, particularly of aspiring young actresses. Though I am shocked and disgusted by the scope of his alleged predation, the fact that he may have abused his position of power does not surprise me in the least.
I have always had an uncomfortable relationship with being employed in an industry that profits on the objectification of women. Though pressure to “be like the pretty girls” started long before I entered Hollywood, I quickly learned even as a preteen actress that young girls with doe eyes and pouty lips who spoke in a high register were favored for roles by the powerful men who m
I grew up constantly being teased about my appearance, even from members of my family; my nose and chin were the main objects of discussion. As a teenager I started obsessing over the possibility of a nose job so that I would look more like Danica McKellar, with a chin job to balance things out. Soon I wondered if I should get breast implants to look more like Christina Applegate, who got so much attention for her curves. I consistently felt like a troll compared to many of my contemporaries. A “TV Guide” critic described me, in a review of the pilot episode of “Blossom,” as having a “shield-shaped” face of “mismatched features.” I never recovered from seeing myself that way.
I always made conservative choices as a young actress, largely informed by my first-generation American parents who were highly skeptical of this industry in general, “This business will use you up and throw you away like a snotty tissue!, and of its men in particular: “They only want one thing.” My mom didn’t let me wear makeup or get manicures. She encouraged me to be myself in audition rooms, and I followed my mother’s strong example to not put up with anyone calling me “baby” or demanding hugs on set. I was always aware that I was out of step with the expected norm for girls and women in Hollywood.
I eventually left the business when I was 19 to pursue a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. I craved being around people who valued me more for what was inside my brain than what was inside my bra. After 12 years away from Hollywood, I returned to acting, largely because I had no health insurance and missed performing and making people laugh.
>Mayim Bialik: Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s World
As a “nontraditional”-looking woman, I came back to an industry that had me auditioning for the “frumpy friend” or the “zaftig secretary,” though I eventually landed a role that has earned me four Emmy nominations. Is it a surprise that I play an androgynous, awkward, late bloomer?
I am grateful to bring Amy Farrah Fowler to life on the No. 1 sitcom in America. I am honored to depict a feminist who speaks her mind, who loves science and her friends and who sometimes wishes she were the hot girl.
I can relate. I’ve wished that, too.
And yet I have also experienced the upside of not being a “perfect ten.” As a proud feminist with little desire to diet, get plastic surgery or hire a personal trainer, I have almost no personal experience with men asking me to meetings in their hotel rooms. Those of us in Hollywood who don’t represent an impossible standard of beauty have the “luxury” of being overlooked and, in many cases, ignored by men in power unless we can make them money.
I still make choices every day as a 41-year-old actress that I think of as self-protecting and wise. I have decided that my sexual self is best reserved for private situations with those I am most intimate with. I dress modestly. I don’t act flirtatiously with men as a policy.
I am entirely aware that these types of choices might feel oppressive to many young feminists. Women should be able to wear whatever they want. They should be able to flirt however they want with whomever they want. Why are we the ones who have to police our behavior?
In a perfect world, women should be free to act however they want. But our world isn’t perfect. Nothing, absolutely nothing, excuses men for assaulting or abusing women. But we can’t be naïve about the culture we live in.
I believe that we can change our culture, but it won’t be something that happens overnight. We live in a society that has treated women as disposable playmates for far longer than Mr. Weinstein has been meeting ingénues in luxury hotel rooms.
One major bright spot: We are seeing more women taking on prominent roles behind the camera. Women like Jenji Kohan and Jill Soloway are showing the kinds of female characters on their shows that we all know in real life but never got to see on TV. And more women and men are waking up to the fact that it is on us all to sound the alarm on unacceptable behavior.
In the meantime, I plan to continue to work hard to encourage young women to cultivate the parts of themselves that may not garner them money and fame. If you are beautiful and sexy, terrific. But having others celebrate your physical beauty is not the way to lead a meaningful life.
And if, like me, you’re not a perfect 10, know that there are people out there who will find you stunning, irresistible and worthy of attention, respect and love. The best part is you don’t have to go to a hotel room or a casting couch to find them.
>“Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards, also executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune.”
Wexner Analysis: Israeli Communication Priorities 2003
In the Shapiro murder file, personally ordered destroyed by Columbus Chief of Police James Jackson, Wexner is listed as an alleged organized crime associate.
>Wexner Analysis: Israeli Communication Priorities 2003
"It was Israel who risked their pilots and planes in taking out Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactors and thus thwarted his quest for nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
It was Israel who provided much of the intelligence that helped America defeat Iraq back in 1991.
It was Israel alone among Middle Eastern nations that supported America's successful effort to remove Saddam Hussein and liberate the people of Iraq.
We stood without you against the Saddam regime from beginning to end. Israel has been a key regional asset and military ally of the United States for more than 50 years. That relationship must continue, even and especially in the post-Saddam era. It is a partnership of democracies devoted to the war against terrorism and the fight for freedom."
As we have seen, the news cycle during and immediately following a war is is not a matter of idle curiosity, it is compulsory viewing. Even more than in Israel, where conflict has tragically been almost commonplace, war means a new and real threat to personal and familial security in America. And Saddam Hussein, dead or alive, still embodies that threat.
Americans have been thinking and talking about the war on terror for almost a year and a half now, and they have come to conclude that Saddam Hussein is a sponsor of world terror and is a particular threat to the democracies of the world. New and shocking revelations about the brutality of his regime are discovered daily, which only reinforces American support of military action. But the fact that Hussein was a direct threat to Israel is especially important. Israel opposed his cruel ambitions for decades - a decade longer than the U.S. Remind audiences that Israel and America have common values, but then stress that we also share common enemies.
But deterrence is only half the message. You really do need to emphasize your historic willingness to compromise and sacrifice on behalf of America. This may not play well among some Israeli politicians but it will certainly play extremely well in the States.
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/04/65295.html
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/copy-bds-tactics-pro-israel-activists-told-un-conference
“Rebranding Israel is important,” he said. “But we also need to focus on rebranding BDS as a hate movement. When people think BDS, their stomachs need to turn. We need to name and shame any person who supports this movement. No faculty member or student leader would be associated, for example, with the KKK. They should feel the same way about BDS.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Internet_Defense_Force
http://www.thejidf.org/
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https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/cia-employees-sex-crimes-children-secret-files-foia
CIA Files Say Staffers Committed Sex Crimes Involving Children. They Weren’t Prosecuted.
Declassified CIA inspector general reports show a pattern of abuse and a repeated decision by federal prosecutors not to hold agency personnel accountable.
Over the past 14 years, the Central Intelligence Agency has secretly amassed credible evidence that at least 10 of its employees and contractors committed sexual crimes involving children.
Though most of these cases were referred to US attorneys for prosecution, only one of the individuals was ever charged with a crime. Prosecutors sent the rest of the cases back to the CIA to handle internally, meaning few faced any consequences beyond the possible loss of their jobs and security clearances. That marks a striking deviation from how sex crimes involving children have been handled at other federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration. CIA insiders say the agency resists prosecution of its staff for fear the cases will reveal state secrets.
In a powerful, emotional moment in the Jussie Smollett trial Thursday, a mirror was brought into the courtroom so Smollett could face his attackers for the first time since he was beaten up on the streets of Chicago.
Smollett demanded to face his attackers to help him overcome the pain and trauma of the assault, and the judge obliged. He signaled for a bailiff, who brought in a tall mirror and held it up to Smollett. The actor wept as he looked his attackers right in the eye, facing them man to man.
"Everyone deserves to face their attackers so they can get closure and a sense of justice," said the presiding judge in the case. "Jussie is no different. The facts of this case are complicated, but that doesn't change the fact that Mr. Smollett wants to see justice done and get a sense of peace that he hasn't felt since he brutally attacked himself that fateful night."
Smollett looked at his attackers for a full minute before motioning to the judge, who had the mirror taken away. "Sometimes, the real attackers were inside you all along," said an emotional Smollett.
He says confronting his attackers has brought him peace, and he hopes they are convicted in this case.
>Mr. Smollett wants to see justice done and get a sense of peace that he hasn't felt since he brutally attacked himself that fateful night.
https://apnews.com/article/oxford-high-school-shooting-arrests-michigan-detroit-shootings-812df746393430fc4dd3fe1d9d7f0baf
Parents captured after son charged in Oxford school shooting
The parents of a teen accused of killing four students in a shooting at a Michigan high school were caught early Saturday, several hours after a prosecutor filed involuntary manslaughter charges against them, officials said.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were captured in a commercial building in Detroit that housed artwork, Detroit Police Chief James E. White told a news conference. White said the couple “were aided in getting into the building,” and that a person who helped them may also face charges.
A Detroit business owner spotted a car tied to the Crumbleys in his parking lot late Friday, Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said in a statement. A woman seen near the vehicle ran away when the business owner called 911, McCabe said. The couple was later located and arrested by Detroit police.
A prosecutor filed involuntary manslaughter charges against the Crumbleys on Friday, accusing them of failing to intervene on the day of the tragedy despite being confronted with a drawing and chilling message — “blood everywhere” — that was found at the boy’s desk.
The Crumbleys committed “egregious” acts, from buying a gun on Black Friday and making it available to Ethan Crumbley to resisting his removal from school when they were summoned a few hours before the shooting, Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
Authorities had been looking for the couple since Friday afternoon. Late Friday, U.S. Marshals announced a reward of up to $10,000 each for information leading to their arrests.
The Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, said the pair had left town earlier in the week “for their own safety.” Smith told The Associated Press they would be returning to Oxford to be arraigned.
However, White said the Crumbleys “appeared to be hiding” in the building where they were found. He added that the parents appeared to be “distressed” when they were captured.
“Head down… just very upset,” he said of one of the parents.
The couple was expected to be booked into the Oakland County Jail, McCabe said.
Earlier, the prosecutor offered the most precise account so far of the events that led to the shooting at Oxford High School, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit.
Ethan Crumbley, 15, emerged from a bathroom with a gun, shooting students in the hallway, investigators said. He’s charged as an adult with murder, terrorism and other crimes.
Under Michigan law, the involuntary manslaughter charge filed against the parents can be pursued if authorities believe someone contributed to a situation where there was a high chance of harm or death.
Parents in the U.S. are rarely charged in school shootings involving their children, even as most minors get guns from a parent or relative’s house, according to experts.
School officials became concerned about the younger Crumbley on Monday, a day before the shooting, when a teacher saw him searching for ammunition on his phone, McDonald said.
Jennifer Crumbley was contacted and subsequently told her son in a text message: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” according to the prosecutor.
On Tuesday, a teacher found a note on Ethan’s desk and took a photo. It was a drawing of a gun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” McDonald said.
There also was a drawing of a bullet, she said, with words above it: “Blood everywhere.”
Between the gun and the bullet was a person who appeared to have been shot twice and is bleeding. He also wrote, “My life is useless” and “The world is dead,” according to the prosecutor.
The school quickly had a meeting with Ethan and his parents, who were told to get him into counseling within 48 hours, McDonald said.
The Crumbleys failed to ask their son about the gun or check his backpack and “resisted the idea of their son leaving the school at that time,” McDonald said.
Instead, the teen returned to class and the shooting subsequently occurred.
“The notion that a parent could read those words and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon that they gave him is unconscionable — it’s criminal,” the prosecutor said.
Jennifer Crumbley texted her son after the shooting, saying, “Ethan, don’t do it,” McDonald said.
James Crumbley called 911 to say that a gun was missing from their home and that Ethan might be the shooter. The gun had been kept in an unlocked drawer in the parents’ bedroom, McDonald said.
Ethan accompanied his father for the gun purchase on Nov. 26 and posted photos of the firearm on social media, saying, “Just got my new beauty today,” McDonald said.
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, Jennifer Crumbley wrote on social media that it is a “mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present,” the prosecutor said.
Asked at a news conference if the father could be charged for purchasing the gun for the son, McDonald said that would be the decision of federal authorities.
In a video message to the community Thursday, the head of Oxford Community Schools said the high school looks like a “war zone” and won’t be ready for weeks. Superintendent Tim Throne repeatedly complimented students and staff for how they responded to the violence.
He also acknowledged the meeting of Crumbley, the parents and school officials. Throne offered no details but summed it up by saying, “No discipline was warranted.”
McDonald was asked about the decision to keep Crumbley in school.
“Of course, he shouldn’t have gone back to that classroom. … I believe that is a universal position. I’m not going to chastise or attack, but yeah,” she said.
Asked if school officials may potentially be charged, McDonald said: “The investigation’s ongoing.”
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-china-democracy-2862d63ce76da354490f03ed473f49d9
China’s communists bash US democracy before Biden summit
China’s Communist Party took American democracy to task on Saturday, sharply criticizing a global democracy summit being hosted by President Joe Biden next week and extolling the virtues of its governing system.
Party officials questioned how a polarized country that botched its response to COVID-19 could lecture others, and said that efforts to force others to copy the Western democratic model are “doomed to fail.”
The harsh rhetoric reflects a growing clash of values that has been thrust into the spotlight as China rises as a global power. The question is whether the United States and other leading democracies can peacefully co-exist with a powerful authoritarian state whose actions are at odds with the Western model that emerged victorious at the end of the Cold War.
The pandemic exposed defects in the American system, said Tian Peiyan, the deputy director of the Communist Party’s Policy Research Office. He blamed the high COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. on political disputes and a divided government from the highest to the lowest levels.
“Such democracy brings not happiness but disaster to voters,” he said at a news conference to release a government report on what the Communist Party calls its form of democracy, which is firmly under party control.
Neither China nor Russia are among about 110 governments that have been invited to Biden’s two-day virtual “Summit for Democracy,” which starts Thursday and will address strengthening democracy, defending against authoritarianism, corruption and human rights.
The participation of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China says should be under its rule, has further angered Beijing.
U.S.-China relations remain strained despite a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month. The American president has repeatedly framed differences with China in his broader call for the U.S. and its allies to demonstrate that democracies can offer humanity a better path toward progress than autocracies.
The Communist Party has ruled China single-handedly since 1949. It says that various views are reflected through consultative bodies and elected village and residents committees, but silences most public criticism with censorship and sometimes arrest.
The party argues that strong central leadership is needed to maintain stability in a sprawling country that has been riven by division and war over the centuries.
“In such a large country with 56 ethnic groups and more than 1.4 billion people, if there is no party leadership, … and we uphold the so-called democracy of the West, it will be easy to mess things up and democracy will work the opposite way,” Tian said.
China has been accused of mass incarceration, torture and other human rights violations as it enforces control over ethnic communities in its remote western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. The party rejects the accusations and says it is rooting out extremism and separatist movements.
The recent difficulties faced by some Western democracies have given Communist Party leaders more confidence in their system as they try to build China into a global power. State media often cite the chaos of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol after the last presidential election. The report issued Saturday said “today’s world is facing challenges of excessive democracy.”
Chinese officials frequently accuse the U.S. and others of using democracy as a cover to try to suppress China’s rise, a charge echoed at the news conference by Xu Lin, the vice minister of the party’s publicity department.
“The U.S. calls itself a ‘leader of democracy’ and organizes and manipulates the so-called Summit for Democracy,” he said. “In fact, it cracks down and hampers countries with different social systems and development models in the name of democracy.”
Xu called it undemocratic for others to demand their form of democracy, saying they have a mixed track record themselves.
“Their domestic governance is messed up, but they point fingers at and criticize other democracies,” he said. “Is this the democracy they advertised?”
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