A California sheriff blasted Vice President Kamala Harris for using his image in a presidential campaign ad where she portrays herself as tough on crime and the border. Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, who appears in the background of a recent Harris ad, ripped into Harris on Monday for using his image without his permission. He told Fox News that he does not support Harris’ candidacy for president, saying she never cared about securing the border when she was California’s attorney general.  “In light of a recent political ad put out by Kamala Harris featuring Sheriff Boudreaux, as well as other local law enforcement, the Sheriff wants to make it abundantly clear that his image is being used without his permission, and he does NOT endorse Harris for President or any other political office,” a statement issued by the sheriff reads.  Boudreaux’s image appears in the ad in a video from when Harris made a stop in the Central Valley more than ten years ago. The ad says that Harris “took on drug cartels” and “jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border.”  “As a matter of fact, I would like to point out the misleading information projected in that same political ad,” Boudreaux said. “The truth is, Harris never cared about the cartels and did nothing to stop people from illegally crossing the border.”   Sheriff Boudreaux, a 37-year-veteran of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and the former president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, said that Harris attempted to take credit for the work of local law enforcement.  “We were in the green room. She never came in and said hello to any of us. She walked up front, gave her presser, literally walked out, never said hi to any of us,” Boudreaux said. “I’m disgusted because, you know, she didn’t shake hands. She didn’t say hello. And she’s taken credit for all this work that the locals did.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI He said the ad was “all smoke and mirrors” and that its description of Harris as a tough “border state prosecutor” contradicted the facts.  Golden State Justice, a political action committee supporting Boudreaux, said in a statement to Fox that Harris “undercut” law enforcement trying to stop gun and drug trafficking over the border. “She repeatedly defunded and shuttered task forces designed to protect our residents, leaving the Valley and our state vulnerable,” the PAC said. “Kamala’s sad attempt to paint herself as tough on the border by implying my support – and the support of neighboring law enforcement leaders – is pathetic.”   

CNN anchor John Berman asked a Harris campaign spokeswoman about the Democratic nominee’s schedule on Tuesday as Harris is seemingly avoiding the media. Senior Spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod joined Berman on Tuesday morning and was pushed to answer why Harris has yet to hold a press conference or sit down for a major interview since becoming the Democrats’ presidential nominee. “What’s on the vice president’s schedule today?” Berman asked Elrod. “Uh, well, she’s traveling and talking to voters and getting her message out there to the American people, something she’s been doing from the very start of this campaign,” Elrod said. “But I was asking about today,” Berman shot back. “And I don’t think she’s got any campaign events on the schedule today, does she?” “Well, she and Governor [Tim] Walz have been traveling across the country. They hit nearly every battleground state last week,” Elrod replied. She added that Harris has a campaign event planned for Friday in North Carolina. “The reason I was asking about today is because it seems like she has time if she wanted to do an interview with a member of the media or do a news conference, correct? There does appear to be that time if she wanted.” The Harris campaign spokeswoman said the vice president promised last week that she would do an interview “at some point.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI “What is important here, John, is that she is taking her message directly to the American people … and drawing large crowds,” Elrod continued. “So she’s actually having those direct conversations.” “But not today. She could do an interview today I would think,” Berman pressed. “Just because she doesn’t have an interview scheduled on her public schedule doesn’t mean that she’s not taking her message directly to voters,” Elrod argued. CNN: “What’s on the vice president’s schedule today?” Kamala Spox: She’s giving a speech on Friday. CNN: “It seems like she has time if she wanted to do an interview with a member of the media or do a press conference.” Kamala Spox: She will at some point! pic.twitter.com/p9OE0hTAob — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024 Harris spoke briefly with reporters last week before she departed Detroit and said she would schedule an interview “before the end of the month.” The vice president spent less than two minutes taking questions from the reporters waiting outside of Air Force 2. Trump has blasted Harris for avoiding the media as he held a major press conference last week and sat down for a two-hour virtual fireside chat with X owner Elon Musk on Monday night. “It’s pretty sad when you think that somebody that does this for a living can’t answer a question or is afraid to do an interview,” Trump told Musk during their discussion. Harris and Trump are set to debate on September 10 on ABC. The Democratic nominee did not agree to a September 4 interview on Fox News after Trump said he had agreed to that debate along with a September 25 debate on NBC. Harris has not said if she will debate Trump again after September 10.

Ivy League professors interested in popularizing a new term to protect Vice President Kamala Harris and portray her as a victim stated that she might be the target of “misogynoir.” “Cornell University recently placed a press release on its web page in which three professors provided insight into Harris’ candidacy,” Campus Reform reported. “There is no question that Harris’s candidacy will open up a torrent of misogynoir, a term coined by Moya Bailey and Trudy for the intersection of misogyny and racism (particularly anti-Black racism, although Harris is also of course South Asian),” associate professor of philosophy Kate Manne complained. “It’s our job to fight it in our circles and even ourselves. Opposing the misogynoir Harris is about to face loudly and vocally is the only way forward. The fate of our country hangs precariously in the balance.” WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI “This has been a tough year for black women in leadership (e.g., Claudine Gay),” Samantha Sheppard, associate professor of performing and media arts, referring to the former Harvard University president, echoed. “It’s critical for black women with platforms to work together to rise above the misogynoir that Harris will face.” Gay resigned after numerous allegations of plagiarism had been made against her and her testimony before Congress about anti-Semitism on Harvard’s campus. Following Gay’s resignation, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) stated, “It was long overdue. She should have resigned immediately following the hearing.” “[S]he failed to stand up for Jewish students on campus who have been facing antisemitic attacks, who have been facing physical assault,” Stefanik continued. “We’ve seen that footage. We’ve heard that directly from students on campus. We’ve also heard faculty concerns about her tenure, and her position, and her lack of academic integrity. But it really goes back to protecting Jewish students. And, frankly, when it comes to Harvard, the only time that Harvard has pled for academic freedom or freedom of speech was when it comes to the genocide of the Jewish people. That is inherently unfit for a person to be president of a university.”

In the face of a claim from Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign that her vice presidential pick Tim Walz had no “personal relationship” with a Muslim imam who promoted a pro-Hitler film, new footage has been unearthed showing Walz praising the imam to his face at a public event as a “master teacher … over the time we’ve spent together.” Walz was videotaped at an event hosted by Minnesota’s Muslim American Society on Feb. 16, 2018, as The Washington Examiner reported. “I would like to first of all say thank you to imam,” Walz said to imam Asad Zaman, the Executive Director at Muslim American Society of Minnesota. “I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it. Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and get the understanding.” “That brings me to the second lesson that imam taught me,” he continued. “I represent southern Minnesota in the United States Congress, and I’m not telling you anything new here, but Congress is a very broken place right now. It is a place that feeds on fear more than hope, it’s a place that feeds on division more than unity; it’s a place that feeds on trying someone to be the other than to be my brother. And I understood that; and I spent a lifetime making sure that all were welcome.” “It was a lesson when imam told me to go speak to people,” he said. ‘I have pushed back through my whole career on the demonization of Islam, on the demonization of immigrants. … In this space, Imam Zaman is right on this, there is Islamophobia, there is a hatred that is being stirred.” Walz has hosted Zaman at least five times, the Examiner noted. Those included May 2023 at Walz’s gubernatorial office; a May 2020 event; in April 2019, when the imam gave the invocation before Walz’s state address, and a May 2019 event that Walz hosted for Ramadan. On October 7, as Hamas brutally massacred over 1200 Israelis, Zaman said he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.” “Zaman, meanwhile, has used his Facebook page over the years to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts on anti-Semitic websites slamming Jews, and, in one 2015 instance, a link to a piece on a website for a pro-Hitler film called The Greatest Story Never Told,” the Examiner pointed out.

Most of us can only dream of what it would be like to compete in the Olympics. Even those of us who are considered talented in sports aren’t quite up to par with athletes like Katie Ledecky. A social media trend has folks proving this is the case with some of the most hilarious athletic attempts… that end in failure. But humans aren’t the only ones showcasing their sports mishaps. Take, for example, this adorable swimming chihuahua named Potato. It seems that this adorable pup is aptly named. With a lack of athletic prowess, this little guy was meant to chill on the sidelines while others show off their skills. Still, Potato’s owner tries to make sure he’s active enough to stay healthy. But as you’ll see in the video below, maybe swimming isn’t his thing… at least for now! @canineantics Potato swims better without the life jacket #chihuahua #olympics ♬ Star Spangled (Bass Boosted) – SNC Meet Potato, the Swimming Chihuahua Who is Simply Trying His Best “Potato is still a working on his form,” his human mom shares in the caption. “We took our little chihuahua, Potato to the river yesterday. And unfortunately, he is no Potato Phelps. This attempt at swimming was an absolutely fail, but he did his best.” Who of us can say that we haven’t been Potato in at least one situation in our lives? Maybe that’s part of the reason this video has gone viral — each of us can relate to this hilariously sweet pup on some level. “Potato givin it the ol razzle dazzle,” someone in the comment sections shares, with another adding, “It’s the confidence for me…. Goes in to the water already paddling, immediately flops.” “Nah potato just tried out for the wrong sport,” a third person points out. “He’s perfect for synchronized swimming.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Chihuahua Shows Off Hilariously Questionable Swimming Skills, “Still Working On His Form” appeared first on InspireMore.

What is life without some spontaneity? This is clearly the mindset that Sophia and Jeff Bullis have, and they showcase it all the time. How? By sharing wholesome moments online! This sweet couple has a baby together, so they make sure to include him when they can, like in the video below. In this particularly joyful video, Mom decides to challenge Dad to an impromptu dance battle. Part of what makes this moment so amazing, however, is the fact that he’s carrying their son! So, with the baby strapped onto his chest, Jeff watches as Sophia starts the battle with some impressive moves. The way he simply cannot get over her challenging him in that moment is so precious! Then, when it’s finally Dad’s turn to dance, he is able to prove that baby or not, he’s got unbeatable moves. Watch this wholesome dance battle in the video below! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sophia & Jeff Bullis (@jeffandsophi) You might would think that the baby would negatively affect Jeff’s dancing, but it seems the opposite is true. Each move he manages to pull off only gets better because of the amused little one he has hanging on his chest. When Mom Challenges Dad and Baby to a Dance Battle, the Winner is Clear… So, while Sophia and Jeff both did a fantastic job, the general consensus is that baby and Dad win this one! Though, in the end, aren’t all three of them winners in this adorable dance-off? “The baby kicking his feet while daddy is dancing. So cute!” someone in the comment section points out, with another adding, “Waiting for the baby to join these battles soon.” “I love the way he’s holding [baby’s] head still!!” a third person shares. “Such a good daddy. You guys have so much fun!!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Mom Challenges Baby-Wearing Fiancé To “Dance Battle” — Who’s The Winner? appeared first on InspireMore.

The video is from January 2021, not 2024

Dealing with the permanent damage is really hard. I can't go back completely to how I was

Welsh news media described it as a “blockbuster” arrival at a local movie theater—no not Deadpool 2—a beautiful baby girl whose mom gave birth in the lobby. Sarah Vincent was 39 weeks-pregnant when she went to the Cinema World in her hometown, near the capital city of Cardiff, with her 3-year-old son Liam and her […] The post Woman Gives Birth in Lobby of Welsh Cinema and the Daughter Now Has Free Movies for Life appeared first on Good News Network.

Books Unwanted Spectral Advances: “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” by Robert Hichens Toxic masculinity, extreme repression, and a supernatural presence demanding affection and intimacy drive this classic tale of psychological horror. By Sam Reader | Published on August 13, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome back to Dissecting The Dark Descent, where we lovingly delve into the guts of David Hartwell’s seminal 1987 anthology story by story, and in the process, explore the underpinnings of a genre we all love. For an in-depth introduction, here’s the intro post. Robert Hichens was a queer journalist, satirist, playwright, and novelist who chronicled the 1890s and the early part of the twentieth century. While his career was prolific and saw him rubbing elbows with George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, Hichens was also a gifted writer of psychological and supernatural horror. “How Love Came to Professor Guildea,” from Hichens’ collection Tongues of Conscience, is his most enduring work, an unnerving mix of hysterical fiction and supernatural horror suffused with terrors so intimate they could be a precursor to authors like Clive Barker. This tale of intimate invasion and a lack of masculine intimacy seems ever more prescient with the passing of time, adding an unnerving subtext about consent and bodily autonomy to an already wrenching psychological horror story exploring the effects of the patriarchy from a masculine perspective.   Father Murchison, an Anglican priest working in London, makes the acquaintance of Professor Guildea, a prickly and stuffy rationalist whose life is completely devoid of faith. The two strike up an odd yet incredibly cordial friendship over the years, having nightly chats by the fire at the Professor’s house. When Guildea is followed home by a strange spirit that falls obsessively and unconditionally in love with him, Murchison is the first person he asks to help him with his new and unnerving situation. As the all-loving priest and the prickly, repressed professor delve more into the mystery of Guildea’s new lodger, it’s unclear exactly what the spirit is. All that is clear is that it loves Professor Guildea. Whether he wants it to or not. It’s obvious Guildea is being punished for his toxic masculinity. He’s a misanthrope who eschews all intimacy, has no use for women, and the reason he’s punished specifically by a guileless manifestation of pure affection (one that comes off, while animalistic, as somewhat feminine, given its indistinguishable voice and light caresses) is because he shuts off his full range of emotion. He’s a creature of self-loathing and rationality bolstered by the idea that he has no need for “softer” emotions. The ironic punishment, then, is to be pursued by a creature who is the spiritual embodiment of all the things he lacks—an irrational, unseen avatar of desire and affection, the polar opposite of his cold rationality. He has relationships—his parrot Napoleon, his butler Pitting, and of course Father Murchison are all examples of lasting relationships in his life—but he is obstinate in insisting that he’s alone and incapable of feeling anything for the people around him. In the end, his absolute revulsion toward intimacy and self-loathing is what allows the strange presence he encounters to bring about his death, as he finds the entire thing so unbearable that his heart gives out. Guildea even rids himself of Napoleon and Pitting (his constant companions) when they cannot protect him against the spirit and his final monologue is about how he must “be a man again” and face down his spectral intruder with utter hatred.  Father Murchison, by contrast, is every bit the rational skeptic Professor Guildea is, but in a much less toxic fashion. His lack of intimate relationships is driven by his vows of celibacy more than any self-deprivation or a desire to rob himself of softer things. He’s skeptical at first and chalks the Professor’s distress up to simple overwork and being wound too tight until his dear friend (Murchison is perhaps the one healthy relationship Guildea has in the story) proves to him without a doubt that the only rational explanation is in fact a haunting. Despite his rationality, he’s conscientious, gives people space, and offers advice to those who need it. Murchison is genuinely worried about others and tries to find love in his life wherever he can. He’s no less a man than Guildea, but leads a much healthier existence. Once he’s convinced of the supernatural intruder, he even remembers his own unnerving encounters with a spectral woman in white who tried to invade his personal space in the same way Professor Guildea’s intruder invades his. The difference is that Murchison has learned several harsh lessons along the way, and isn’t nearly as violently closed-off as Guildea gets. Murchison’s final play is even to plead with Guildea to learn to love his intruder, to allow himself to express love and kindness somehow. Hichens reproduces the general structure of hysterical fiction as seen in the previous few entries of this column (such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily”), but from a new and masculine perspective. Both Guildea and Murchison are seen as rational people, but Guildea is driven to hysteria by the supernatural presence that senses his aversion to intimacy and shoves itself into the absent space. He is attacked and punished specifically for lacking “softer” emotions, with the invisible creature determined to give him a surplus of the very thing he lacks. While his brain and body might be ravaged by the supernatural, they’re also confronted by the very real psychological idea that his inability to let go of his own toxic attitudes eventually kills him. The isolation is self-imposed, the spirit’s presence is a punishment for Guildea’s desire only for negative emotions and a “facts and logic”-based approach to his social affairs, and in the end, as with most hysterical fiction, the result is his brain self-destructing while the creature finishes off his body. From a modern context, it’s possibilities to see more similarities with hysterical fiction than the author, perhaps, intended. While Murchison certainly means well and understands more than the average gothic fiction protagonist, his approach puts Guildea at the mercy of something he very much doesn’t consent to. Guildea is molested, his boundaries invaded, and the spirit makes intimate contact with him. Murchison might be correct about the thing being an ironic punishment for Guildea’s intense rejection of intimacy, but the solution for rigidly blocking everyone out is not to let a ghostly lover feel you up. In fact, that’s exactly how someone dies in It Follows. The advice he offers at the end—to love the creature who’s tormenting Guildea—even sounds like something every trauma survivor dreads their friends and family saying: “give them what they want, and they will go away.” For all his healthier attitudes, Murchison still believes that being intimately harassed by a ghost is something that Guildea somehow deserves for blocking out all intimate connection and emotion. “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” uses the framework of hysterical fiction as a darker satire to devastating effect. In Guildea, Hichens illustrates the horrors of toxic masculinity and the tendency to cut oneself off from anything deemed “soft,” most of the time to one’s detriment, and even to the point of self-annihilation. In Father Murchison, Hichens depicts a non-toxic masculine figure, but one still bound by the patriarchal ties of hysterical fiction to the point of encouraging his friend to abandon his bodily and sexual autonomy. In both cases, the story offers an unnerving portrait of exactly how inadequate modern masculinity (in both toxic and non-toxic versions) is at addressing feelings of intimacy.   And now to turn it over to you. Does Murchison’s encouragement to let the spirit love Guildea read like he’s ignoring Guildea’s bodily autonomy? Did Hichens’ queer perspective and command of intimate horror act as a precursor to later, more visceral works? Please join us in two weeks for horror legend Richard Matheson and his first professionally published story, the disturbing “Born of Man and Woman.”[end-mark] The post Unwanted Spectral Advances: “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” by Robert Hichens appeared first on Reactor.