- After blaming West for waging a proxy war on Russia, Shoigu went to Arctic nuclear test site The Independent Barents Observer
- Russia Eyes Arctic Nuclear Site; Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Surveys Military Installations Hindustan Times
- Russian Defense Minister Inspects Arctic Military Installations The Moscow Times
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Tag Archives: blaming
Automaker Stellantis lays off hundreds of American workers, blaming high cost of making electric cars
Economic expert David Bahnsen joins ‘Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street’ to discuss the November jobs report and offers his outlook for 2023.
Multinational automaker Stellantis is indefinitely closing an assembly plant in Illinois in February and laying off hundreds of workers, in large part due to the high cost of making electric vehicles.
Stellantis noted in a statement emailed to FOX Business on Friday that the industry had been adversely affected by factors including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the global microchip shortage and the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market, which it said was the most impactful.
The automaker said that a number of actions had been taken to stabilize production and improve efficiency at its North American facilities to “preserve affordability and customer satisfaction in terms of quality.”
However, while considering other avenues to optimize operations, Stellantis said the decision had been made to idle the Belvedere plant starting on Feb. 28, 2023.
BLUE APRON LAYING OFF 10% OF CORPORATE WORKFORCE
Engines are lifted at the Stellantis Dundee Engine Complex on Aug. 18, 2022, in Dundee, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images / Getty Images)
A Stellantis sign outside company headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, June 10, 2021. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook / Reuters Photos)
“This difficult but necessary action will result in indefinite layoffs, which are expected to exceed six months and may constitute a job loss under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. As a result, WARN notices have been issued to both hourly and salaried employees,” it said. “The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off employees in open full-time positions as they become available.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STLA | STELLANTIS NV | 14.45 | -0.40 | -2.69% |
Stellantis also noted that it is working to identify other opportunities to repurpose the facility.
There are about 1,350 workers at the Belvedere plant, which produces the Jeep Cherokee.
Jeep Cherokees line a parking lot outside the FCA Belvidere Assembly Plant in Belvidere, Illinois, where the vehicle is produced, in 2018. Stellantis will shutter the plant indefinitely at the end of February. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Stellantis reportedly told The Associated Press that that automaker would not comment on the future of the “Cherokee nameplate.”
“This is an important vehicle in the lineup, and we remain committed long term to this mid-size SUV segment,” Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson told the agency.
FILE PHOTO: The Chrysler Belvidere Assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. (REUTERS/Frank Polich/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
Stellantis has said it will invest more than $31 billion through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup, with electric vehicles to make up half of its U.S. sales by 2030.
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A spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, Jordan Abudeyyeh, said a response team from the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity had been assembled to help displaced workers find new employment.
She said the administration will work with local elected officials, community colleges and others to ensure that appropriate retraining programs are available, and with Stellantis to find new uses for the Belvidere plant.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Pink Floyd Founder Cancels Poland Gigs After Blaming Ukrainian ‘Nationalists’ for War
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has pulled out of shows in Poland after facing backlash for his attacks on Ukraine in an open letter to the country’s first lady. “Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw … without giving any reason,” an official with the Tauron Arena Krakow said about Waters’ two concerts, which were scheduled for April. Earlier this month, Waters penned a letter to Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, insisting that “extreme nationalists” in her country have set it on a “path to this disastrous war” and slamming “Washington DC” for getting involved. Krakow officials were set to cast votes next week on whether the artist should be “persona non grata” in light of his comments on Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Read it at AP
Protester expelled from Trump’s Ohio rally after waving banner blaming him for factory closure
A man was walked out of Donald Trump’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday after unfurling a banner which blamed the former president for the closure of a major manufacturing center.
Chucky Dennison was escorted out of the event just seconds after unfurling the banner, a makeshift picket sign written on a pillowcase for portability.
Mr Dennison was seen on video being walked out by a security guard as Mr Trump continued to address the crowd – it wasn’t clear if the president or others beyond those in Mr Dennison’s vicinity had seen the banner.
“Trump lost 3,000 Lordstown jobs – and the 2020 election,” read Mr Dennison’s banner.
He told The Independent in an interview before the event that a personal connection drove him to the rally on Saturday.
Now retired due to a medical condition, Mr Dennison worked at the Lordstown plant that was previously home to General Motors’ (GM) until its shuttering in 2019. A massive industrial complex that employed thousands of locals with well-paying union jobs, the unallocation of Lordstown in 2019 devastated the northeastern Ohio region where it was an integral part of the state economy for decades.
Chucky Dennison holds up his banner before attending Donald Trump’s rally in Youngstown, Ohio
(John Bowden)
Others at the rally were similarly incensed by the plant’s closure, which led to the end of a massive yet constant infusion of capital in the local economy.
“Those people had home loans. They had IRAs,” Mr Dennison said.
Mr Trump’s rally attracted several thousand to the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, but he’s far from the first nationally-recognized figure to make the pilgrimage.
Throughout the 2008 presidential election season the plant itself was visited by three of the most prominent contenders for the White House – John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and the eventual winner Barack Obama.
Rep. Elaine Luria prepares to lead Jan. 6 hearing blaming Trump for violence
The Virginia Democrat has her defining moment on the committee as she faces her toughest election yet
Now, Luria is preparing for her most defining moment on the committee yet: At the committee’s finale of this summer’s series of hearings, she and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) will detail what former president Donald Trump did and didn’t do over 187 minutes as the U.S. Capitol was under attack, and as Luria and hundreds of colleagues took cover.
Their presentation is expected to squarely place the blame for the violence on Trump after his months of false claims of voter fraud and will examine his reluctance to condemn the attack — culminating in what the panel plans to describe as a dereliction of duty and violation of his oath. It’s an assignment that people involved with the committee’s work say Luria specifically sought — even as she gears up for her toughest reelection campaign yet in a district that got redder after redistricting.
But with an air of defiance, the former Navy commander has said she is unconcerned about any potential political consequences that her role in unspooling the former president’s inaction on Jan. 6 could have in her own political future — a message that, rather than whispered to confidants, she has put front and center in her campaign.
“Getting this right, getting the facts out there and making some change in the future so that this doesn’t happen again, it’s so much bigger than whether you’re reelected or not,” Luria said in an interview. “I don’t want to make my bid for reelection seem petty, but that’s inconsequential. Does that make sense? And if I win, it will be a very strong statement about the work of the committee.”
In a sense, Luria has positioned her campaign as a referendum on the committee’s work, almost daring Republicans to attack her over it — even though it’s unclear it’s a motivating issue for many voters in her district. This year’s midterm elections are more often viewed as a referendum on Democrats and President Biden, a political environment that bodes well for Luria’s Republican challenger, state Sen. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) — who has sought to paint Luria as “out of touch” with voters for focusing on the Jan. 6 investigation.
Those dynamics make Luria somewhat of the Democratic version of fellow committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — at least without the abuse from her own party or the national star power.
With the exception of her looming prime-time role, Luria by contrast has largely done the grinding work of the committee from behind the scenes. Luria, who spent 20 years in the Navy, is more known in Congress for her tough questioning of Defense Department leaders on the House Armed Services Committee and her vast — at times head-spinning — knowledge of naval shipbuilding and capabilities, often joining Republicans to call for more top-line military spending. She was one of the first women in the Navy’s nuclear power program, a military career that Luria leveraged to win a race against former Republican congressman and Navy SEAL Scott Taylor to flip the seat blue in 2018.
Since then, Luria has largely stayed out of high-profile political spats, known as a lawmaker who eschews the kind of firebrand partisanship that has turned other lawmakers into viral sensations. In fact, her former two-time political rival, Taylor, described her persona as “bland” — and said that’s in part what made her a tougher competitor. “You’re like, what do you attack her for?” he said, recalling his first race against her in 2018; he lost a rematch in 2020.
“Elaine — how do I say it? — she’s not going to get on TV and say crazy stuff. She’s not like that. She’s quiet. She doesn’t get in trouble,” he said, noting the exception when she called a proposed stock-trading ban pushed by bipartisan lawmakers “bull—-” earlier this year. But usually, “she’s fine. So I think that can be a strength for her.”
It was that same restrained demeanor that Luria’s colleagues, friends and others said they thought made Luria an ideal member of the committee investigating Jan. 6.
“She is the soul of reasonableness and moderation in all things, and I think she’s someone that the committee looks to as a voice for how what we’re doing will be experienced outside of the big metropolitan areas,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a fellow member of the committee. “She of course has this distinguished military background, and just a very quiet but fierce sense of patriotism and duty about what she does.”
Luria’s interest in serving on the committee is rooted in her service in the Navy, and she frequently connects her role to the oath she took in the military and as a member of Congress. It’s something she and her co-pilot in the hearing, Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, share in common.
After the attack, as she considered seeking a spot on the committee, Luria said, “I thought to myself, you know, I was in the Navy for 20 years and you think about the oath, and it’s against all enemies foreign and domestic. And you think to yourself, you never really think that the domestic part — you never really think that you would have something like that in our own borders within our country.”
On the committee, Luria has become known for staking out one of the most aggressive postures toward Trump. And she has repeatedly noted the committee has a responsibility to refer criminal activity to the Justice Department if the evidence supports charges. Raskin said he was reticent at first to broach the possibility of criminal activity, noting the committee is not a prosecuting agency, which Luria has echoed. But he started to “feel persuaded by Elaine’s view that we should not be shy about stating the obvious when crimes are being revealed in our investigation — by whomever.”
“She was one of the first ones, really, to be so outspoken about it — as the weight of the evidence has become overwhelming, I think more and more of us have been speaking out,” he said.
Rosalin Mandelberg, Luria’s rabbi at Ohef Sholom Temple, said Luria’s decision to pursue a spot on the Jan. 6 committee reminded her of the stand Luria took in support of Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 despite possible political consequences — something Luria said was in part driven by her Jewish faith.
Luria had joined a group national-security-minded Democratic women to pen an op-ed calling for Trump’s impeachment. At the time, few Democrats — let alone Democrats in competitive districts — were going that far. Soon after, Luria appeared at a town hall in Virginia Beach and faced scrutiny over her decision, especially from Republicans in her district.
“People may say, ‘Why would you do that? You might not get reelected,’ ” Luria told the audience. “I don’t care. Because I did the right thing.”
Luria’s similar approach to joining the Jan. 6 committee “didn’t surprise me at all,” Mandelberg said. “She’s a true leader, but she’s also very, very much informed by her Jewish values. Her motto was something like, work hard, do the right thing — her whole being is that way.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), who attended the Naval Academy with Luria and joined the 2019 op-ed, said her colleague “feels strongly that they’re doing good work that’s going to keep this nation strong and make our democracy more resilient, and it’s really her duty, really, under the Constitution to do exactly what she’s doing.”
But Republicans in her district aren’t all likely to see it that way — if they are even watching the hearings.
Despite her prime-time role, Luria has yet to attract Trump’s wrath, something that political strategists say wouldn’t necessarily help the GOP in the military-heavy district that’s full of independents and swing voters.
The Virginia Beach-anchored district now tilts two points in the GOP’s favor after its boundaries were redrawn at the end of last year, according to analysis from the Cook Political Report. Biden just barely eked out a win in 2020, while Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) won it by double-digits last year.
Like Youngkin, Kiggans, Luria’s opponent, has appeared to tow a line between appeasing Trump’s base — she was among just a handful of Republicans in the state Senate to support an unsuccessful $70 million audit of the 2020 election, for example — but not beating the “stolen election” drum like more boisterous Trump allies, including the GOP primary opponent she trounced. Still, Kiggans avoids acknowledging Biden as a legitimate president, something Luria has seized on to attack Kiggans as an “election denier.”
When The Post first asked Kiggans in July 2021 if she thought Biden was legitimately elected, a spokesman called the question “insulting” and said Kiggans had acknowledged he was legitimately elected. More recently Kiggans has taken to saying that Biden “lives in the White House and I wish that he didn’t” — a statement she reiterated when asked in an interview to clarify if she believed Biden was legitimately elected. When asked in an interview late last month for a yes or no answer, she would not give one.
She portrayed Luria’s work on the committee as a distraction, noting that inflation and gas prices have dominated her conversations with voters, not the Jan. 6 investigation. Indeed, at the polls on primary day last month, numerous Republican voters told The Post they did not realize Luria was on the committee or weren’t watching the hearings.
“I have said and will always say that those who broke the law on Jan. 6 should be held accountable, but I feel like this committee is really one-sided and is not focused on the economic crisis, which is what we have at hand,” Kiggans said. “The Democrats are trying to use shiny objects that are distractions from what every American — Democrats, Republicans, independents — are feeling in their pocketbooks.”
Dave Wasserman, an elections analyst at the Cook Political Report, doubted voters would be predicating their decisions to vote for or against Luria based on her service on the committee. If anything, he said, the impact on the race would likely be indirect.
“The reality is her service on the January 6 committee is unlikely to determine the outcome of the race,” Wasserman said. “Fundamentally, there is one base of voters watching the proceedings, and that is base Democrats. But her service raises her profile a little bit nationally in a way that could allow her to raise more money, and in turn that money can be used to beat Jen Kiggans on the airwaves.”
Luria has highlighted her service on the committee in fundraising emails — something national Republicans have attacked her for — and has raised nearly $6 million. In her first major ad of the general election, her service on the Jan. 6 committee was front and center.
The ad starts with clips of Luria taking the oath, for the first time as a 17-year-old entering the Navy, and closes with a scene from that 2019 town hall over Trump’s impeachment — recasting her defiant statement that she did not care about political consequences for her new role on the committee.
“Do you put our democracy before politics?” a closing message on the screen asked viewers.
The day before the hearing, Luria settled into her office and prepared for a rehearsal. She tried to remove herself, reading her prepared remarks as if for the first time, as somebody who might question why she was revisiting in such detail an event now a year and seven months in the past.
“The bottom line is the threat is still there, and I think of the committee as forward looking,” she said, adding that its goal “is to prevent this from happening in the future.”
When she makes that case on Thursday night, she said, her 12-year-old daughter will be watching.
Jim Morrison contributed to this report.
Lakers’ front office internally blaming Klutch Sports, LeBron James for Russell Westbrook trade, per report
The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2021-22 NBA season as Western Conference favorites and left it before the postseason even began, and as such, everyone is looking for a scapegoat to blame for their failure. Head coach Frank Vogel, two years removed from winning a championship, was the first major team figure to go. Reports of his firing came mere seconds after the season ended. Now, with Vogel gone, those who remain are squabbling over where to assign blame for the Russell Westbrook trade.
As Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus reports, multiple sources claim that the Lakers’ front office is internally blaming pressure from Klutch Sports, the agency that represents both LeBron James and Anthony Davis, for the acquisition of Westbrook. With this being the case, two important things must be noted:
- While star players can exert pressure on their front offices, they cannot actually make trades. The decision to trade for Westbrook ultimately had to be made by the Lakers’ front office. They were the ones who needed to be on the trade call. They were the ones that needed to work out terms with the Washington Wizards. They had the power to say no. They did not exercise it.
- Stars need leverage to exert that much pressure on a front office. Neither James nor Davis had much of it. James was under a guaranteed contract for two more seasons. Davis was for three. It is unlikely that either used the threat of leaving as a weapon in their battle for Westbrook. If they did, the Lakers badly misread the situation. The stars did not have the leverage to force the front office into anything. If the front office felt differently, it’s because they misunderstood the situation.
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What’s worse here is the notion that the front office feels the need to blame anyone at all. Ultimately, it and their best players should theoretically have the same goal: Win championships for the Lakers. That means getting on the same page and figuring out an effective way to work together, not playing the blame game in an apparent effort to protect their own jobs. If anything, the fact that they’re acting against the team’s best interests in the name of job security is as much a reason to reconsider their job security as their mismanagement of the roster. If Frank Vogel got fired for coaching this team, why aren’t GM Rob Pelinka and senior basketball adviser Kurt Rambis being held responsible for building it?
There’s no good answer for that, but at this stage, it seems apparent that James, Davis, Pelinka and Rambis are all going to be back next season. If that is going to be the case, all parties involved here need to find a way to rebuild a productive working relationship that doesn’t involve all of this gossip and backstabbing.
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Alec Baldwin is ‘blaming others’ for Halyna Hutchins’ death, and in ‘complete denial’, family attorney says
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Alec Baldwin is in “complete denial” and refuses to accept “any responsibility” for the death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, her family’s attorney says.
Hutchins was killed on Oct. 21 on the New Mexico movie set after a gun Baldwin was holding discharged. The actor continues to maintain his innocence and has alleged in a televised interview that he did not pull the trigger.
On the heels of Hutchins’ family filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and others on Tuesday, the family’s attorney, Brian Panish, appeared on “Dan Abrams Live,” where he claimed the “30 Rock” star “is continuing to do what he’s done throughout this – blaming others.”
“He’s not accepting any responsibility,” Panish said, adding that Baldwin, 63, “refused any gun safety training, number one.”
ALEC BALDWIN ‘RUST’ SET SHOOTING RECREATED IN VIDEO SIMULATION
Halyna Hutchins’ family attorney says Alec Baldwin is in “complete denial.”
(Fox News Digital)
“Number two, he pointed a gun at someone on a set. You don’t do that without plexiglass and other precautions. Number three, why were there bullets in the gun to begin with whether they were fake or real? It was only a lineup. There was no intention for him to shoot the weapon. He wasn’t supposed to shoot the weapon. Nobody expected him to do that, yet he recklessly fired the weapon while pointing it at three people, killed one and injured another,” Panish added.
In addition Hutchins’ death, director Joel Souza was also injured.
The Hutchins family is suing for punitive damages, funeral and burial expenses, among other things to be determined at a trial. The criminal investigation is still ongoing, with the most recent development being the retrieval of Baldwin’s cellphone by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s office had no comment on the wrongful death lawsuit when reached by Fox News Digital.
ALEC BALDWIN ‘INSEPARABLE’ FROM ‘RUST’ SHOOTING AS HE FACES WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT, LEGAL EXPERTS WEIGH IN
Director of Photography Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured on set while filming the movie “Rust” at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 21, 2021. The film’s star and producer Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm that hit Hutchins and Souza.
(Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images | Photo by Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie)
“The investigation remains open and ongoing,” Juan Rios, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said in a statement.
Panish said it’s up to the prosecuting attorney to determine whether Baldwin will be charged with a crime. Regardless, the attorney said Baldwin is “in complete denial, accepting no responsibility, and we look forward to letting the folks, the community, in Santa Fe County determine his responsibility.”
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Baldwin’s lawyers denied the actor was “reckless” on the set of “Rust” in a statement shared with Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
An aerial view of the film set on Bonanza Creek Ranch where Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
(Reuters)
“Everyone’s hearts and thoughts remain with Halyna’s family as they continue to process this unspeakable tragedy,” attorney Aaron Dyer said on behalf of Baldwin. “We continue to cooperate with the authorities to determine how live ammunition arrived on the ‘Rust’ set in the first place. Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false.”
“He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a ‘cold gun’ — meaning there is no possibility of a discharge, blank or otherwise,” the statement continued.
“This protocol has worked on thousands of films, with millions of discharges, as there has never before been an incident on a set where an actual bullet harmed anyone. Actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use,” it concluded.
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Baldwin’s lawyers denied the actor was “reckless” on the set of “Rust” in a statement shared with Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
(Fox News Digital)
Baldwin continues to make headlines as he returns to work and publicly speaks out about his life amid the ongoing investigation.
“This is a complicated situation, but we’re seeing prosecutors and investigators perform a very thorough investigation despite all of the media attention,” Levin told Fox News Digital. “At this point, it’s just a waiting game to see what’s done.”
Fox News’ Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report.
‘Saturday Night Live’ returns from winter break with its Joe Biden blaming the surge of Omicron on Spider-Man
Johnson’s Biden then explained this virus has disrupted our lives, the holidays, gender reveal parties and “wildfires that started as gender reveal parties.”
But, he said, there is one simple thing that could make all of this go away.
“Stop seeing Spider-Man,” Johnson’s Biden told the American people. “Think about it, when did Spider-Man come out? December 17. When did every single person get Omicron? The week after December 17.”
He then took questions from the press.
Ego Nwodim’s reporter asked if he was really blaming the Omicron variant of coronavirus on “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which broke box office records last month.
“Yes, I did,” he responded. “Next question.”
Bowen Yang’s reporter asked if Biden believed Covid would end if people stopped going to the movies.
“I didn’t say stop going to the movies,” Johnson’s Biden said. “I said stop seeing Spider-Man. You can see anything else.”
He explained that he, for example, saw the first half hour of “House of Gucci” and that was “enough movie for anyone.”
Another reporter, played by Heidi Gardner, asked if this theory was based on any kind of data.
“Yes, everyone in America has seen Spider-Man like eight times,” Johnson’s Biden said. “Everyone in America also has Covid. Stop seeing Spider-Man.”
Johnson’s Biden then said he hasn’t seen the movie because he couldn’t get tickets.
Yang’s reporter asked about problems with testing and the rise of cases.
“You want to know if you have Covid,” Johnson’s Biden said. “Look at your hand. Is it holding a ticket to Spider-Man? If so, you have Covid.”
Biden also blamed inflation and the inability to pass the voting rights bill on the Spider-Man movie.
He then took a final question, which was if there’s a version of Biden in the multiverse who *wants* people to see “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
“Finally, a good question,” Johnson’s Biden said. “Actually, I thought about this a lot. I’ve consulted with Dr. Fauci and Doctor Strange. As far as I can tell, there’s at least three Joe Bidens.”
Pete Davidson then showed up from a different universe as the real Joe Biden saying that this universe was about to collapse.
“Hurry before the portal closes,” Davidson’s Biden said before saying the show’s signature catch phrase, “Live… From New York, it’s Saturday Night.”
Why Are People Blaming John Madden For Concussions? Video Games
Legendary NFL coach John Madden died on the morning of Tuesday, December 28. While many took the occasion of his passing to celebrate the man’s coaching, broadcasting, and video game legacy, others used it as an opportunity to call Madden out for his part in turning “brain injuries into a video game.” The takes were incendiary enough to take over sports social media and websites for days.
The concussion discussion following John Madden’s death seems to originate from a pair of sources. The first is a tweet from independent Journalist Marcy Wheeler, posted on the evening of Madden’s passing. The tweet reads, “Everyone eulogizing Madden: How many concussions could we have prevented had he not turned brain injuries into a video game?” Wheeler, who specializes in civil liberties and national security matters, lists her football and head trauma experience as playing as the star monsterback on a powderpuff team and six years of rugby, during which she played through at least one concussion. She also says a fellow rugby player died on the field.
Then on Wednesday, December 29, a history professor at Dallas College named Dr. Andrew McGregor offered his opinions on John Madden via his Twitter account, currently set to private. His initial tweet read, “I have lots of opinions on John Madden. The creation of the Madden video game was not a great development for the U.S. It further glamorized violence and dehumanized Black athletes, helping to establish plantation cosplay that has grown worse in the era of fantasy football.”
The thread, archived over at Barstool Sports, eventually resolves to the same sentiment expressed by Wheeler, albeit with a puzzling racism angle applied. “The key here,” McGregory writes in the thread, “is consumption of the sport as distorted reality. Video games dehumanize players, they create fantasies of super teams and notions of control and management (replicated in fantasy sport) where we control and manipulate rosters and players. It’s deeply problematic.”
Dr. McGregor’s tweets have been widely panned and criticized by fans of both the sport and the video game series. Many objected to his calling the Madden franchise “a digital plantation” that uses players names and likenesses for profit while encouraging fans to disregard the humanity behind them, and by extension their health. In response to such extreme tweets, many also point to a tweet by the doctor from 2017, in which he talks about playing Madden with his brother, as evidence of hypocrisy.
The responses to Marcy Wheeler’s tweet are, as one would imagine, pretty harsh. There are plenty of embarrassingly misogynist replies, some name-calling, and several people suggesting that EA’s Madden NFL series actually prevented brain injury by giving those interested in the sport a safer, non-contact way to play. In response to the question, “do you think the video games give people concussions,” Wheeler replies, “No. I think the video games led fans to think the real sport was a video game.”
To be fair, the National Football League hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to the dangers of traumatic head injuries. Amidst a flurry of concussion concern in 1994, the NFL formed the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury committee, appointing a doctor with little experience in brain science as committee head. In December of that year, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliablue called concussions a “pack journalism issue,” suggesting the media were making too much noise about a relatively minor issue. During the same year, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman took a knee to the head in 1993 season NFC Championship game, a game he to this day cannot remember playing, and Chicago Bears fullback Merrill Hoge retired after a concussion left him briefly unable to recognize his wife and son.
There’s an excellent timeline of the NFL’s ongoing concussion crisis over at PBS.org. It deftly breaks down a long history of the league trying to minimize the dangers of head trauma while the medical community slowly learns more about said dangers. Repeated head trauma, the medical experts say, can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which can cause memory loss, aggressive behavior, motor neuron disease, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Doctors examing Andre Waters and Terry Long, two former NFL players who committed suicide, found signs of CTE in both.
The question of whether repeated head trauma is dangerous to your health has been answered. Yes. A lot. And the NFL has gotten slightly better about it, actively warning of the dangers of concussions and enacting rules to try and curb their frequency instead of casually waving them off.
Back to Marcy Wheeler and Dr. McGregor’s post-mortem swipes at John Madden. Though the NFL’s history with dealing with head trauma has been bad, Madden has long spoken out about the league’s lax position on players receiving concussions. ESPN’s Taylor Twellman, in response to comments about Madden being an instigator, tweeted a video of the man commenting on the danger of concussions back in 1993.
“I think of a guy had a concussion or has a concussion then he shouldn’t play anymore,” Madden says in the clip. “They always talk about boxing being archaic, but if a boxer gets knocked out he can’t fight for another month. And sometimes in football we say, ‘Oh that guy has a slight concussion, he’ll be right back in.’ I don’t know if I ever agreed with that.”
As for how EA’s Madden franchise handles head trauma and injuries as a whole, that has slowly changed over the years. In early entries, players getting injured during a game would result in an ambulance taking the field, comically knocking other players out of the way to get to the wounded one. The ambulance was removed after Madden 2001, as the NFL felt it glorified injuries. The hit stick, which allowed players to perform stylish hard-hitting tackles, was removed shortly after it was introduced in Madden 2005 because the NFL felt it promoted violence. There are no career-ending injuries in the game anymore. And concussions have historically been referred to as “head injuries.”
These in-game head injuries meant a player might be out for a couple of quarters in older Madden games. That changed in Madden 12, in which players with a head injury would be out for the remainder of the game, with commentators Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth talking about the seriousness of head trauma when such injuries occur. Head injuries are still in the game to this day, but they are not referred to as concussions. That’s a mandate from the NFL, however, and not Madden.
The NFL seems keen to keep the series from getting too violent. But by keeping the word concussion out of the in-game discussion, I can see how someone might think it’s sending the wrong message to football fans.
Yes, football is violent. People get hurt. Players suffer life-changing trauma. The hits are hard. The potential for injury is what kept me, a six-and-a-half-foot-tall high school sophomore, from joining the Dunwoody Wildcats. I still play Madden every year, and never once has it made me feel like getting my head bashed in was okay.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle rips Dollar Tree for blaming price hikes on inflation: They don’t ‘NEED’ to do this
Media top headlines November 24
In media news today, a CBS News reporter asks Biden when he will answer reporters’ questions, ‘Experts’ get slammed for cautioning against using the term ‘looting’ to describe California thefts, and false media reporting on Rittenhouse leads to corrections and mockery.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle is taking Dollar Tree to task over its shocking announcement that the company was increasing its famously cheap prices.
Dollar Tree confirmed this week it is charging $1.25 for the majority of its products at all of its locations nationwide by the end of April.
MSNBC ANCHOR STEPHANIE RUHLE ARGUES AMERICANS CAN AFFORD EXPENSIVE GROCERIES, IS DUBBED ‘STEPHANIE ANTOINETTE’
“For 35 years, Dollar Tree has managed through inflationary periods to maintain the everything-for-one-dollar philosophy that distinguished Dollar Tree and made it one of the most successful retail concepts for three decades,” the company said in a press release on Tuesday. “However, as detailed in its September announcement, the Company believes this is the appropriate time to shift away from the constraints of the $1.00 price point in order to continue offering extreme value to customers. This decision is permanent and is not a reaction to short-term or transitory market conditions.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 24: Stephanie Ruhle, Anchor, MSNBC, speaks onstage during the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit – Day 2 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 24, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
In a statement, Dollar Tree executive Michael Witynski said the change would give the company “greater flexibility to manage the overall business, especially in a volatile, inflationary environment.”
Ruhle, however, isn’t buying the suggestion that the current inflation conditions play a role in the price hikes.
“Let’s be clear, Dollar Tree does not NEED to raise prices,” Ruhle tweeted Wednesday. “Their biz is KILLIN it- $1,230,000,000 in profits CEO pay $10MM.”
“DollarTree is raising prices because they CAN- not bc they need to. It is a choice of how to share the benefits of their scale To customers? To employees? To shareholders? To mgmt?” she added.
MSNBC HOSTS SUGGESTS DEMOCRATS HAVE A ‘GREAT ECONOMIC STORY’
Ruhle also wrote, “Just bc input costs go up…that does NOT mean a business must raise prices to customers. It is not automatic.”
Responding to a Twitter user who suggested he doesn’t blame companies like Dollar Tree for passing on the costs since they “aren’t a charity,” Ruhle replied, “Stock price it at an all-time-high. Demand is super strong Biz is GROWING It is not a charity – nowhere near a charity. It’s a biz & businesses decide what their priorities are.”
The MSNBC anchor has long downplayed the impact of inflation. Earlier this month, she claimed the “dirty little secret” was that “while nobody likes to pay more, on average, we have the money to do so,” adding, “Household savings hit a record high over the pandemic, we didn’t really have anywhere to go out and spend.”
In May, Ruhle scolded businesses to raise wages following a disappointing jobs report that reflected poorly on the Biden administration.
MSNBC’S RUHLE RIPPED FOR SCOLDING BUSINESSES TO RAISE WAGES AFTER POOR JOBS REPORT: ‘NEVER RUN A BUSINESS’
Ruhle recently claimed Democrats have a ‘great economic story to tell’ despite growing inflation.
“Five million jobs created, 200 million people vaccinated. Those vaccine numbers tie directly to the economy. You couldn’t open the economy without getting America healthy again. We are seeing economic recovery. What the Biden administration isn’t doing is selling that, and they can,” Ruhle told NBC colleague Chuck Todd.
NBC News senior business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle has been promoting a Chase through web videos and digital ads, raising questions about whether she can fairly cover the financial sector. (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Dollar Tree says the move to $1.25 will allow it to “materially expand its offerings, introduce new products and sizes, and provide families with more of their daily essentials.” Additionally, the company emphasizes that it will be able to reintroduce items that were previously discontinued due to the constraints of the $1 price point.
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The discount retailer plans to roll out the new price points at more than 2,000 additional legacy stores in December as part of an initiative to mitigate rising freight, distribution and operating costs.
FOX Business’ Lucas Manfredi contributed to this report.