What Else Is News?
Stop Making Nonsense
Here’s a look at some interesting (and in some cases, mind-boggling) news over the last several days. We’re starting with something that should automatically disgust and concern anyone who cares about children (and we’re assuming that’s everyone).
Bad Balenciaga. Fashion house Balenciaga’s “holiday” campaign featured very young children posing with bondage teddy bears. The children, who appear to be around four years old, strike poses ranging from sullen to perplexed, and rightly so, since the teddy bears look nothing like the cute and cuddly stuffed animals they should be playing with.
Balenciaga apologized after receiving mountains of negative feedback: “We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, another Balenciaga ad included a partially visible page from United States v. Williams, a Supreme Court case related to forbidding the promotion of child pornography. While Balenciaga took responsibility for the bondage bear ads, it did not do so for the ad featuring the court-related document. In fact, Balenciaga is suing the production company it hired for that campaign. "All the items included in this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents," a statement from Balenciaga reads. "They turned out to be real legal papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama." The $25 million lawsuit alleges that "members of the public, including the news media, have falsely and horrifically associated Balenciaga with the repulsive and deeply disturbing subject of the court decision." As if shots of fake documents about a child pornography case would have been okay.
It took some time for anger to build, but many people are now calling for protests against Balenciaga.
Guess Who Came to Dinner? Former President Donald Trump says he was planning on having dinner with Ye, aka Kanye West, at Mar-a-Lago, but not with the unexpected guest West brought to the table.
Nick Fuentes, labeled a white supremacist by the Justice Department, dined with Trump, Ye and Milo Yiannopoulos at Mar-a-Lago recently. The unusual dinner quartet immediately made headlines, none of them flattering for Trump.
“Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America, including at Mar-A-Lago," fumed White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates.
Fuentes, 24, founded the America First Foundation “as a true sanctuary for free thinkers who oppose mass immigration, foreign wars, and social decay.” Fuentes has denied that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.
He has also said that Jim Crow laws were not a big deal and, in fact, were better for everyone involved.
Trump downplayed the dinner with Fuentes, even saying that all he was trying to do was help the beleaguered Ye (whose antisemitic rants suggest the help was not heeded). And what was the thanks he was given? Ye invites a white supremacist to dinner. No word yet on whether any of the dinner guests will be inviting back to Mar-a-Lago anytime soon.
Don’t Call it Monkeypox. The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to phase out the name monkeypox and gradually refer to the virus as mpox.
“When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO,” the organization’s website states. “In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name.”
Not surprisingly, the human virus was named monkeypox several years after it was discovered in captive monkeys in the 1950s. This was “before the publication of WHO best practices in naming diseases, published in 2015. According to these best practices, new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.” WHO put out a rare request for public input to rename the virus. While mpox sounds more like a pop music group than a virus, it’s comforting to know that WHO chose it over other names such as Poxy McPoxface and TRUMP-22.
Biden Administration Official Accused of Stealing. Sam Brinton, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy and a nonbinary drag queen, was charged with stealing a Vera Bradley suitcase full of women’s clothing from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport. Brinton, who has been placed on a leave of absence by the Department of Energy, faces up to five years in prison.
According to reports, back in September Brinton swiped the suitcase from baggage claim and hid the bag tag. Curiously, Brinton did not check a bag in Washington, D.C., where the flight originated. Brinton was seen with the Vera Bradley bag in October when returning from Europe.
Brinton changed stories more than once in an effort to hide or lessen guilt. According to The Advocate, Briton’s first response when confronted by police was, “If I had taken the wrong bag, I am happy to return it, but I don’t have any clothes for another individual. That was my clothes when I opened the bag.” Two hours later, Brinton “went on to say that it wasn’t until they were in the hotel room that they realized it wasn’t their bag; they feared someone would accuse them of theft. Uncertain of what exactly to do, they emptied the luggage into the hotel room dressers.”
Wind Turbines Going Batty. In an attempt to advance renewable energy and minimize fossil fuel use, we may be unwittingly causing other issues. Reports indicate that millions of bats are being killed every year after coming in contact with turbine blades.
The article describes the looming problem: “The researchers note that the annual German losses of bats will ‘cause a decline of populations of high collision-risk species.’ They warn that this population decline ‘could manifest rapidly,’ since mostly females and juvenile bats get killed by turbines. Bats have low reproductive rates and may not be able to compensate quickly for the casualties, they note.” For a look at why bats are important to humans and the planet, check out this article.
Feel-good-yet-feel-bad story of the week: Woman is reunited with family after being kidnapped 51 years ago. This story pulls at the heartstrings, but also makes you angry. Thank goodness the parents are still alive to share some time with their daughter. Read it for yourself here.