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Wizards of the Coast OGL Change Draws Ire From Creators and Fans Alike: ‘It’s Not Right’
The tabletop industry looks to be undergoing a seismic shift based on leaked documents showing that Wizards of the Coast intends to implement a more restricted Open Gaming License (OGL) agreement.
According to a recent Gizmodo report, Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast is poised to revoke its longstanding OGL, which allows for third-party publishers and fans to create D&D content using their game rules. For over 20 years, this license has empowered countless creators to make and distribute their own D&D content using tools like Kickstarter, and has allowed large publishers like Paizo, creators of Pathfinder, to become titans of the tabletop space in their own right.
Reportedly, the new license, called OGL 1.1, makes numerous revisions to the D&D policy, including adding a requirement that all creators register any products they’re selling with Wizards of the Coast. The new agreement also introduces a new 20-25% royalty to be paid to Wizards by license-users making an excess of $750,000 in a year while giving Wizards a “non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use content created using OGL for any purpose. The new agreement would force all creators to adopt OGL 1.1 despite the current version’s explicit language that a move like that could never be forced upon creators.
Wizards of the Coast responds: “The OGL is not going away”
After rumors regarding these changes began appearing online last month, Wizards of the Coast responded to online backlash from fans by issuing a statement on their D&D forum.
“The OGL is not going away,” Wizards of the Coast wrote. “You will still be able to create new D&D content, publish it anywhere, and game with your friends and followers in all the ways that make this game and community so great. The thousands of creators publishing across Kickstarter, DMsGuild, and more are a critical part of the D&D experience, and we will continue to support and encourage them to do that through One D&D and beyond.”
But the leaked draft of OGL 1.1 seems to tell a very different story – one aimed at obstructing competitors like Green Ronin Games, which sells numerous products that utilize OGL.
If I publish under the OGL 1.1, by the letter of the agreement, WotC could republish all my writing at their discretion. It’s not right.
“
In OGL 1.1, Wizards states “the Open Game License was always intended to allow the community to help grow D&D and expand it creatively. It wasn’t intended to subsidize major competitors, especially now that PDF is by far the most common form of distribution.” With D&D alternatives like Pathfinder enjoying enormous popularity in recent years, Wizards is increasingly interested in reigning in the OGL.
The changes to WOTC’s OGL come amid increased pressure to increase revenue from parent company Hasbro. Just last month, CEO Cynthia Williams described D&D as being “really under monetized” during a digital event with investors, and expressed an interest in unlocking “the type of recurring spending you see in digital games.” These statements came immediately following a dip in Hasbro stock after analysts criticized their handling of Magic: The Gathering.
The leaked document gained additional credibility when Kickstarter Director of Games Jon Ritter, tweeted, “Kickstarter was contacted after WoTC decided to make OGL changes, so we felt the best move was to advocate for creators, which we did. Managed to get lower % plus more being discussed. No hidden benefits / no financial kickbacks for KS. This is their license, not ours, obviously.”
The lower percentage Ritter refers to is the perplexing 5% reduction in royalty payments offered to projects funded through the crowdsourcing platform, all but confirming the rumored OGL 1.1 changes.
Reached for comment by IGN, Wizards of the Coast declined to comment further and pointed toward its statement on D&D Beyond.
Kickstarter was contacted after WoTC decided to make OGL changes, so we felt the best move was to advocate for creators, which we did. Managed to get lower % plus more being discussed. No hidden benefits / no financial kickbacks for KS. This is their license, not ours, obviously. https://t.co/jHwX1JQKXM
— Jon Ritter (@jonritter) January 5, 2023
“It’s not right”
Now, with details of the draft of OGL 1.1 out in the open, fans and creators alike are sounding the alarm. Pat Mooney, the Lead Designer at Flagbearer Games told IGN, “The most painful part of the new OGL is the clause that gives WotC the right to use any of my content, in perpetuity, royalty-free. I’m planning to Kickstart a sourcebook on the American Revolution in the spring.”
He went on to write, “More than half of my book will be “fluff,” or worldbuilding, history, and other narrative content that has nothing to do with rolling a die. Yet if I publish under the OGL 1.1, by the letter of the agreement, WotC could republish all my writing at their discretion. It’s not right.”
Nerd Immersion, a YouTuber and creator of D&D content through use of OGL, told IGN, “If this continues I could see a rise in popularity of other non-D&D and non-OGL RPGs. I also wouldn’t be surprised if several of the creators who are frustrated by these changes end up designing a new, replacement RPG system…similar to how 4e and the Game System License lead to the creation of Pathfinder using the original OGL.”
Some publishers, like publisher MCDM which makes supplements for D&D, remain optimistic, saying to fans via Twitter, “Regarding the OGL 1.1, MCDM has taken advice from counsel and we don’t think it affects the development of Flee, Mortals! If/when other products are affected, we’ll let the community know.”
Tyler A. Thompson, an attorney who represents games publishers Sad Fishe Games and Prudence Holdings (both of which rely on OGL), wrote in a letter to Wizards that “creators are not going to be bullied,” and that if Wizards would not clarify the planned changes in OGL 1.1, his clients “will be forced to begin preparation for litigation to the fullest extent allowable by law, including to contact major and minor publishers to join in a potential claim against Wizards for anticipatory breach and other claims.”
Time will tell if the leaked draft of OGL 1.1 will see the light of day, as Wizards is apparently “open to being convinced we made a wrong decision.” After all, it wouldn’t be D&D without a DM asking “Are you sure?” before making a choice that completely upends the game.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
Rose Bowl between Penn State and Utah draws lowest viewership in game history
Monday’s Rose Bowl game between Penn State and Utah drew a TV audience of 10.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the least-watched Rose Bowl on record.
The game, played on Jan. 2 this year because Jan. 1 fell on Sunday, was down nearly 40 percent from last year’s Ohio State-Utah broadcast (16.6 million). The previous Rose Bowl low was 13.6 million for Stanford-Iowa in 2016.
The Rose Bowl was still the most-watched non-semifinal bowl of the season, eclipsing the Dec. 31 Alabama–Kansas State Sugar Bowl (9.1 million) and Dec. 30 Tennessee–Clemson Orange Bowl (8.7 million), both also on ESPN. Tulane’s dramatic 46-45 comeback win over USC in the Cotton Bowl, aired immediately before the Rose, drew just 4.2 million, the lowest of any New Year’s Six bowl since the current format began in 2014, and lower than this year’s Gator, Cheez-It and Alamo bowls, per ESPN.
However, thanks to garnering the highest semifinal viewership numbers in five years — 22.4 million for the Georgia-Ohio State Peach Bowl and 21.7 million for the TCU-Michigan Fiesta Bowl — ESPN’s entire New Year’s Six package averaged nearly 13 million viewers, its most-watched lineup in three years.
The Rose Bowl, which originated in 1902, was long the most-watched bowl annually prior to the inception of the BCS and, later, College Football Playoff. It regularly drew more than 20 million viewers throughout the 2000s and early 2010s — reaching as high as 35.6 million for the 2006 Texas-USC national championship game — but has been gradually trending downward since in years it does not host a semifinal.
Last month, the Tournament of Roses reluctantly signed off on an agreement to allow the College Football Playoff to expand to 12 teams in 2024-25. Bowl officials had been seeking assurance that the game would maintain its exclusive TV window at 2 p.m. PT on New Year’s Day when the CFP negotiates its next contract.
The Pasadena game will host a semifinal next season as part of the current CFP rotation, then is expected to host quarterfinals in the first two years of the new system.
How viewership tracking has changed since 2020
It’s important to note that Rose Bowl viewership, like all programming and especially live sports, prior to 2020 didn’t include out-of-home audiences, which is people watching at bars, restaurants, hotels, and viewing parties at other homes. That can add thousands or even millions of viewers to major sporting event audience measurements, meaning older Rose Bowls had bigger eyeball totals than the officials’ totals.
While the game was a new audience low, it still was No. 2 in cable’s key viewer demographics — the numbers brands want to see when paying for in-game TV advertising — after the Bills-Bengals “Monday Night Football” telecast that was notable for the terrible injury suffered by a Bills player that eventually ended the game early. Like everything else on television, the Rose Bowl also was played amid the ongoing cord-cutting trend that has siphoned more than 30 million U.S. households from the cable ecosystem over the past five years, with new streaming service subscriptions not making up the gap. Live sports remain the most resistant to the TV industry’s continued audience troubles but are not immune — although this game’s viewership numbers are shockingly low.
ESPN currently pays a reported $470 million annually to broadcast the College Football Playoff final, plus separate fees for the TV rights to the Rose, Orange, Cotton, and Sugar bowls that bring the yearly combined rights cost to more than $600 million. — Shea
Required reading
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Galaxy S23 Ultra getting more powerful as official launch draws closer
The base Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S23+, and the top-end Galaxy S23 Ultra have shown up multiple times on the Geekbench website over the last few weeks. As expected, those benchmark scores weren’t exactly what you would expect from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, no doubt because Samsung is still working on optimizing its next flagship series.
And as we get closer to the launch of these phones, things are starting to look up, at least for the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s multi-core performance when compared to other phones that will be powered by the same chip. The latest benchmark entry for the S23 Ultra shows a multi-core score of 5179, which is its highest yet.
Of course, benchmark scores mean squat if the real-life performance of the device is lackluster, so we wouldn’t recommend getting too excited just yet. And if you’ve set your sights on the Galaxy S23, we would recommend lowering your expectations further, as all the benchmark listings for the base model currently show scores that are closer to those of the Galaxy S22 series phones.
That is likely because the smaller footprint of the base model means the components are more tightly packed together and there’s less space inside to dissipate heat as quickly and efficiently as the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the Galaxy S23+ (which sits a couple hundred points below the S23 Ultra at the moment).
Galaxy S23 will hopefully strike a good balance between performance and battery life
However, until the Galaxy S23 series goes official, we can’t trust anything without a healthy dose of skepticism. Judging by the Galaxy S22 series and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, though, Galaxy S23 performance should be excellent, partly because the entire S23 series is expected to be powered by a slightly overlocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.
We just hope Samsung doesn’t focus on the chip’s performance so much that it becomes a detriment to battery life. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 have crazy good endurance for their battery capacities thanks to the TSMC-manufactured Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and it would be a shame if Samsung isn’t able to replicate that on the Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra in the pursuit for peak performance that most customers might never need in day-to-day use.
Elon Musk’s Twitter suspension of journalists draws global backlash
Dec 16 (Reuters) – Twitter’s unprecedented suspension of at least five journalists over claims they revealed the real-time location of owner Elon Musk drew swift backlash from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations across the globe on Friday.
In a 24-hour poll later by Musk on Twitter on whether to restore the journalists’ accounts, 58.7% votes were in favor of restoring them immediately.
The accounts were still suspended approximately 15 minutes after the poll closed, a check by Reuters showed.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The suspensions on Thursday evening drew criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations in several parts of the world, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.
Officials from France, Germany, Britain and the European Union condemned the suspensions.
The episode, which one well known security researcher labeled the “Thursday Night Massacre”, is being regarded by critics as fresh evidence of the billionaire, who considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.
Shares in Tesla (TSLA.O), an electric car maker led by Musk, slumped 4.7% on Friday and posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, with investors increasingly concerned about his being distracted and about the slowing global economy.
Roland Lescure, the French minister of industry, tweeted on Friday that, following Musk’s suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own activity on Twitter.
Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations, tweeted she was “deeply disturbed” by the suspensions and that “media freedom is not a toy.”
The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that the ministry had a problem with moves that jeopardized press freedom.
ELONJET
The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information.
On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets, despite Musk’s previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech.
Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information.”
Then on Thursday evening, several journalists, including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, were suspended from Twitter with no notice.
In an email to Reuters overnight, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said the team manually reviewed “any and all accounts” that violated the new privacy policy by posting direct links to the ElonJet account.
“I understand that the focus seems to be mainly on journalist accounts, but we applied the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today,” Irwin said in the email.
The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing said in a statement on Friday that Twitter’s actions “violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square.”
Musk accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, which is “basically assassination coordinates” for his family.
The billionaire appeared briefly in a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by journalists, which quickly turned into a contentious discussion about whether the suspended reporters had actually exposed Musk’s real-time location in violation of the policy.
“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Musk said repeatedly in response to questions. “Dox” is a term for publishing private information about someone, usually with malicious intent.
The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, one of the journalists who had been suspended but was nonetheless able to join the audio chat, pushed back against the notion that he had exposed Musk or his family’s exact location by posting a link to ElonJet.
Soon after, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, who hosted the Spaces chat, tweeted that the audio session was cut off abruptly and the recording was not available.
In a tweet explaining what happened, Musk said “We’re fixing a Legacy bug. Should be working tomorrow.”
Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, Eva Mathews, Rhea Binoy and Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Jonathan Oatis and Muralikumar Anantharaman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Hawaii remembrance draws handful of Pearl Harbor survivors
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor joined about 2,500 members of the public at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago.
The audience sat quietly during a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the same time the attack began on Dec. 7, 1941.
Sailors aboard the USS Daniel Inouye stood along the rails of the guided missile destroyer while it passed both by the grassy shoreline where the ceremony was held and the USS Arizona Memorial to honor the survivors and those killed in the attack. Ken Stevens, a 100-year-old survivor from the USS Whitney, returned the salute.
“The ever-lasting legacy of Pearl Harbor will be shared at this site for all time, as we must never forget those who came before us so that we can chart a more just and peaceful path for those who follow,” said Tom Leatherman, superintendent of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the U.S. into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll. Most of the Arizona’s fallen remained entombed in the ship, which sits on the harbor floor.
Ira Schab, 102, was on the USS Dobbin as a tuba player in the ship’s band. He recalls seeing Japanese planes flying overhead and wondering what to do.
“We had no place to go and hoped they’d miss us,” he said before the ceremony began.
He fed ammunition to machine gunners on the vessel, which wasn’t hit.
He’s now attended the remembrance ceremony four times.
“I wouldn’t miss it because I got an awful lot of friends that are still here that are buried here. I come back out of respect for them,” he said.
Schab stayed in the Navy during the war. After the war, he studied aerospace engineering and worked on the Apollo program. Today he lives in Portland, Oregon.
He wants people to remember those who served that day.
“Remember what they’re here for. Remember and honor those that are left. They did a hell of a job. Those who are still here, dead or alive,” he said.
Only six survivors attended, fewer than the dozen or more who have traveled to Hawaii from across the country for the annual remembrance ceremony in recent years.
Part of the decline reflects the dwindling number of survivors as they age. The youngest active-duty military personnel on Dec. 7, 1941, would have been about 17, making them 98 today. Many of those still alive are at least 100.
Herb Elfring, 100, or Jackson, Michigan, said was great that many members of the public showed interest in the commemoration and attended the ceremony.
“So many people don’t even know where Pearl Harbor is or what happened on that day,” he said.
Elfring was in the Army, assigned to the 251st Coast Artillery, part of the California National Guard. He remembers hearing bombs explode a few miles down the coast at Pearl Harbor but thought it was part of an exercise.
But then he saw a red ball on the fuselage of a Japanese Zero fighter plane when it strafed the ground alongside him near his barracks at Camp Malakole.
“That was a rude awakening,” he said. One soldier in his unit was injured by the bullets, but no one died, he said.
Robert John Lee recalls being a 20-year-old civilian living at his parent’s home on the naval base where his father ran the water pumping station. The home was just about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) across the harbor from where the USS Arizona was moored on battleship row.
The first explosions before 8 a.m. woke him up, making him think a door was slamming in the wind. He got up to yell for someone to shut the door only to look out the window at Japanese planes dropping torpedo bombs from the sky.
He saw the hull of the USS Arizona turn a deep orange-red after an aerial bomb hit it.
“Within a few seconds, that explosion then came out with huge tongues of flame right straight up over the ship itself — but hundreds of feet up,” Lee said in an interview Monday after a boat tour of the harbor.
He still remembers the hissing sound of the fire.
Sailors jumped into the water to escape their burning ships and swam to the landing near Lee’s house. Many were covered in the thick, heavy oil that coated the harbor. Lee and his mother used Fels-Naptha soap to help wash them. Sailors who were able to boarded small boats that shuttled them back to their vessels.
“Very heroic, I thought,” Lee said of them.
Lee joined the Hawaii Territorial Guard the next day, and later the U.S. Navy. He worked for Pan American World Airways for 30 years after the war.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t have statistics for how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still living. But department data show that of the 16 million who served in World War II, only about 240,000 were alive as of August and some 230 die each day.
There were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu at the time of the attack, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.
Georgia draws Ohio State in College Football Playoff: 5 early thoughts
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia and Ohio State are two power programs that have been watching each other from a short distance the past few years, contesting each other in the recruiting rankings, seeing Justin Fields go from one program to the other, but for all this time not meeting on the same football field.
That changes in this year’s College Football Playoff semifinal, where they face off in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31. It’s the game that for a while seemed destined for the championship but instead will be for a chance to get there. Plenty of analysis awaits the marquee matchup, but here are initial thoughts from Georgia’s angle.
Did Georgia get a raw deal?
Plenty of people, including those not given to conspiracy thinking, always will assume the members of the Playoff selection committee made sure not to create a Michigan-Ohio State rematch in the semifinals. The result being that top-seeded Georgia ended up with what’s perceived as the harder game (than Michigan-TCU) against fourth-seeded Ohio State.
Still, committee chairman Boo Corrigan came armed with data points when asked about it Sunday.
“When you look at TCU, 6-1 over teams over .500, 2-1 against ranked teams,” he said. “Ohio State had the good wins over Penn State and Notre Dame, played Michigan close for three quarters of the game, but at the end of the day, we came back to TCU, and there was nothing that occurred during that game against Kansas State (in the Big 12 championship game) that we didn’t believe moved them out of the No. 3 spot.”
Convincing? Not really. But there’s not exactly a huge chasm between TCU’s and Ohio State’s resumes. It’s just the name brand and perceived talent base that makes Ohio State seem like the much better team.
Stetson Bennett and the Georgia Bulldogs are 2-0 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this year with a third game coming up in the Peach Bowl. (Dale Zanine / USA Today)
What’s more, Georgia and Michigan aren’t miles apart in their resumes. Both are unbeaten. Michigan has the most impressive win (at Ohio State) while Georgia has more wins over ranked teams (five versus two).
So it almost seems like a split-the-difference situation: Michigan gets (perhaps) the easier matchup, but Georgia gets to play on essentially a home field. Speaking of which …
Hometown factor will be real but not decisive
This will be Georgia’s third time in four months playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but it’s almost certain Georgia won’t have the dominant crowd split it had for its first two times. Oregon had much farther to come, and LSU fans saw their enthusiasm dampened by being out of the Playoff hunt.
Ohio State, however, will receive a guaranteed allotment — it was 12,500 for Michigan State last year in the Peach Bowl — and its fans are likely to hit the secondary market hard, considering the stakes of the game.
Still, Georgia should have the majority of the crowd, it’s just a matter of how much. And it will know the stadium and be comfortable there.
“You’re playing the defending national champions in their backyard. It’s going to take everything we have to win this game,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said, making clear later he wasn’t complaining. “When you get to this point of the season, this is what you’ve got to do. You’re going to be in these electric atmospheres. If you’d asked me at the beginning of the season you’d be playing Georgia in the Peach Bowl for the national semifinals, of course, you’d cut off your right arm for this opportunity.”
Well, probably not literally.
Kirby Smart, for his part, pointed out that in Georgia’s two previous semifinal trips, it traveled to Los Angeles and Miami. This just happened to be the year in the rotation that Atlanta was a semifinal. Smart also went a bit Norman Dale on the zoom call.
“The field is the exact same length as any other field we play them on,” Smart said.
Balance
By reputation, this is a sexy matchup of Ohio State’s offense versus Georgia’s defense. Peach Bowl chairman Gary Stokan pointed out Sunday that Ohio State had the nation’s second-ranked scoring offense and Georgia had the second-ranked scoring defense.
But it would be a little simplistic to look at it that way. For one thing, Georgia’s defense is coming off a game in which it gave up more than 500 passing yards to LSU. That was an anomaly — Georgia entered the game ranked first in the SEC in pass defense — but it gave Smart a talking point for the next few weeks.
“We can’t play defense the way we did last night, or we aren’t going to be any kind of champions,” Smart said.
Georgia’s offense, of course, put up 50 points in the same game, and that was only the second-most points it has scored this season. The Bulldogs rank second in the SEC in yards per play, behind only Tennessee, and against the five ranked teams they have faced, they have scored 49 points (Oregon), 48 (South Carolina), 27 (Tennessee in a game where rain hit in the second half), 45 (Mississippi State) and 50 (LSU).
Ohio State, meanwhile, certainly looked vulnerable on defense against Michigan. But the Buckeyes still rank 18th nationally in defensive yards per play and are 13th in scoring defense. They aren’t perfect — ninth in the Big Ten in pass defense — but this isn’t exactly Southern California’s defense, either.
Mindset
Smart told his team Sunday that last year’s Georgia team “had a different frame of mind than maybe our team right now.” The point was obvious: Last year’s team was propelled emotionally by the SEC championship loss, while this year’s team needed to make sure being 13-0 didn’t lead to any complacency.
Smart also pointed out Ohio State is feeling something different. Critics may say the Buckeyes backed into the Playoff, but they’re coming off a loss and were humbled. That’s similar to what Alabama had entering the 2017 Playoff, and look how that turned out.
“With Ohio State, there’s a breath of fresh air of opportunity,” Smart said. “The excitement that provides and the energy, it’s like it’s a kick of momentum that we have to understand that, and we have to be able to match that and understand that there’s a piece of that that you’ve got to know.”
This will be hard for Georgia
These two programs have met only once, and that was 29 years ago, but Smart has seen the Buckeyes within the past decade: the 2014 CFP semifinal when he was at Alabama.
“Long day. A long day,” Smart said. “That was Ezekiel Elliott, right?”
Yup, an Ohio-based reporter replied.
“He shredded what was a pretty talented Alabama defense,” Smart said.
Day didn’t join Ohio State’s program until the 2017 season. But he has kept the program’s same basic, explosive approach. He also has recruited at a high level: Ohio State has the nation’s third-most talented team, per the 247Sports Talent Composite, behind only Alabama and Georgia.
Last year there was a sense entering the Playoff that Georgia was headed for a rematch with Alabama if it didn’t trip up against Michigan. This year, the perception in some quarters may be that the tougher opponent is first, which may be a product of looking too much at preseason perceptions. Either way, it looks like Georgia will have to go through both of the Big Ten powers. If this year’s Georgia team repeats as the national champion, it will have earned it.
(Top photo of Kirby Smart: Steve Limentani / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
Trump suggestion of ‘termination’ of Constitution draws few GOP rebukes
Trump’s online posts Saturday — including a message in which he wrote that “UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!” — represented a significant escalation in his attacks on American institutions and democratic norms, one that scholars said must be heeded as a sign of how far he is willing to go to regain power.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump posted on the Truth Social platform. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
But only a handful of Republican lawmakers have joined the White House and Democrats in condemning Trump’s assertions. Representatives for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not respond on Sunday to requests for comment.
Last month, McCarthy announced that Republicans would read every word of the Constitution out loud on the floor of the House when the GOP takes control of the chamber in January.
Some GOP lawmakers who were asked on Sunday political shows about Trump’s latest missive said they disagreed with the former president. However, most still hesitated to say that they would oppose Trump if he becomes the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee.
Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), chair of the Republican Governance Group, avoided answering directly when asked ABC’s “This Week” about Trump’s comments, saying he “didn’t make a habit of speaking out on his tweet du jour” when Trump was in office. When pressed by host George Stephanopoulos, Joyce said he would “support whoever the Republican nominee is” — but didn’t think Trump would “be able to get there.”
“Well, first off, he hasn’t — he has no ability to suspend the Constitution,” Joyce said. “You know, he says a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen.”
Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School, said there has been a legitimate, intellectual debate among constitutional scholars about whether the flaws in the nation’s founding documents are so fundamental that there should be a new constitutional convention.
However, what Trump is engaging in is “not debate, but destruction,” Tribe said in an interview. “What he’s doing is openly shrieking in desperation that anything that stands in the way of his becoming all-powerful ought to be swept away.”
Trump last month announced his reelection campaign for president, after a number of Trump-backed candidates lost key races in the midterm elections, complicating questions within the Republican Party about how to navigate their relationship with the former president.
Although Tribe acknowledged that Trump has said many outrageous things that should not always command attention, he does not believe this latest statement should be brushed off, particularly after Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election led to a pro-Trump mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win.
“It’s a distinctive statement. It sort of says the quiet part out loud — that he has no reverence for the country, for anything other than himself,” Tribe said. “This is like saying, ‘You want to see an insurrection? I’ll show you an insurrection. I’ll just tear the whole thing up.’ ”
Trump’s defenders on Sunday moved to tamp down the controversy. A Republican operative close to the ex-president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, argued the post did not literally advocate or call for terminating the Constitution.
When asked to clarify how Trump was not at least advocating for the Constitution’s termination, the operative said, “He’s making a comparison of the unprecedented nature of Big Tech meddling in the 2020 election to benefit Joe Biden with the unprecedented act of terminating the Constitution,” suggesting without evidence that technology platforms had tipped the scales for Biden in 2020.
Trump’s posts on Saturday came a day after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, claimed he would expose how Twitter engaged in “free speech suppression” in the run-up to the 2020 election. But his “Twitter Files” did not show that the tech giant bent to the will of Democrats.
Some GOP members were stronger in their rebukes of Trump’s comments. On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said he “absolutely” condemned Trump’s remarks but emphasized there remained a long political process to go before Trump could be considered a 2024 front-runner.
“I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made. Trump has made, you know, a thousand statements in which I disagree,” Turner said. He added that voters “certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”
Trump’s comments prompted a stern rebuke from the White House and from several Democrats, as well as from Republicans who have fallen from grace within their party for their longtime criticisms of Trump. Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called Trump an enemy of the Constitution, and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) questioned how their fellow Republicans could continue to support him.
“With the former President calling to throw aside the constitution, not a single conservative can legitimately support him, and not a single supporter can be called a conservative,” Kinzinger tweeted Sunday, while tagging in his message the Twitter handles of McCarthy, as well as Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “This is insane. Trump hates the constitution.”
Congressman-elect Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) echoed several other Republicans in their responses to Trump, saying it was generally time to look ahead, rather than re-litigate the 2020 election.
“The Constitution is set for a reason, to protect the rights of every American. And so I certainly don’t endorse [Trump’s] language or that sentiment,” Lawler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think the former president would be well-advised to focus on the future if he is going to run for president again.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is set to become the Democratic minority leader in January, waved Trump’s comments off as yet another “extraordinary” statement from the former president and ultimately an identity crisis for the GOP.
“I thought it was a strange statement, but the Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness or continue to lean into the extremism, not just of Trump, but of Trumpism,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Several top Republicans — including former vice president Mike Pence — issued rare rebukes of Trump recently after he dined with the White nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, both of whom have a history of antisemitic remarks.
On Sunday, Israel Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said he believed Trump “probably understands” that the dinner crossed a line but hesitated to fault Trump or his rhetoric for a rise in antisemitism. He instead blamed social media for magnifying such divisions.
“There are many, many blessings of the internet age, but it comes also with a curse. And the curse is polarization,” Netanyahu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Antisemitism, he said, is “the oldest hatred, as I say, one of the oldest hatreds of humanity. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now. But it’s got an extra life probably in the United States and in other countries by the age of the internet.”
Isaac Arnsdorf, Karoun Demirjian, Toluse Olorunnipa and Missy Ryan contributed to this report.
‘SNL’ Monologue By Dave Chappelle Draws Anti-Defamation League Fire, Claims It ‘Popularizes’ Antisemitism – Deadline
The national director of Jewish civil rights organization the Anti-Defamation League has tweeted out concerns over comedian Dave Chappelle’s opening monologue last night on Saturday Night Lilve.
Chappelle, a controversial comedian who has been accused of insensitivity in the past surrounding his observations about trans people, Jews, Blacks and others, did a long take to open SNL regarding recent issues involving rapper/entrepreneur Kanye West and basketballer Kyrie Irving.
“We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism,” said a tweet from the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt today. Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?”
At the start of his routine, Chappele unfolded a small piece of paper and read from it, saying, “‘I denounce antisemitism in all its forms. And I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.’ And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.”
Then he got to the meat of the bit. Chappelle noted that he had come to learn that there are “two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence: ‘The’ and ‘Jews.’”
“I’ve been to Hollywood and — no one get mad at me — I’m just telling you what I saw,” he said, adding a signature pause. “It’s a lot of Jews. Like a lot. But that doesn’t mean anything! You know what I mean? Because there are a lot of Black people in Ferguson, Missouri, it doesn’t mean we run the place.”
He added the “delusion that Jews run show business” is “not a crazy thing to think,” but “it’s a crazy thing to say out loud.” He also said of West, “It’s a big deal, he had broken the show business rules. You know, the rules of perception. If they’re Black, then it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.”
Chappelle finished his long monologue by underlining his point.
“It shouldn’t be this scary to talk about anything,” he said.. “It’s making my job incredibly difficult. And to be honest with you, I’m sick of talking to a crowd like this. I love you to death and I thank you for your support. And I hope they don’t take anything away from me… whoever they are.”
The Forward, a Jewish-focused nonprofit media outlet, said Twitter reaction to Chappelle’s routine was mixed. It noted The Jerusalem Post accused the comedian of “engaging in antisemitic tropes.” Adam Feldman, theater critic for Time Out New York, tweeted: “That Dave Chappelle SNL monologue probably did more to normalize anti-Semitism than anything Kanye said.” Screenwriter Amalia Levari tweeted, disapprovingly, “So cool that SNL gave Chappelle the stage to deliver a TED Talk about how antisemitic dog-whistles are good, actually.”
Wrote Rabbi Josh Yuter, an influencer on Jewish Twitter: “As I understood Chappelle’s monologue, the key point is that there are double standards regarding who can say what about whom. If my Twitter feed is any indication, everyone agrees this is a problem though there’s rampant disagreement over the details.”
Deadline has reached out to NBC for comment.
‘Avatar: Way of Water’ Trailer Draws You Into Gorgeous Underwater World
A new trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water came out Wednesday, taking fans back to the world of the blue-skinned Na’vi for the first time since 2009. The full Avatar 2 trailer follows a teaser trailer that came out in May and drew 25 million views in five months.
The movie hits theaters Dec. 16.
Wednesday’s trailer gives us a fresh look at the visually spectacular world that director James Cameron crafted for his sequel, along with hints of the trials Jake Sully, Neytiri and their family face.
Cameron shot many sequences underwater, using new cameras developed for that purpose.
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, CCH Pounder and Giovanni Ribisi are among those reprising their roles from the original film, with Sigourney Weaver back in a different part. Worthington plays Jake Sully, who left his human body to wed Saldaña’s Neytiri and join her in life on Pandora.
Weaver played a human, Dr. Grace Augustine, in the first film, but returns as Jake and Neytiri’s daughter Kiri. Kate Winslet joins the cast as a free diver named Ronal. Winslet learned free diving for the film and reportedly held her breath for a whopping seven minutes.
The film has been rumored to top three hours, though the final length is still not public. Cameron told Empire in May: “I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours…. It’s OK to get up and go pee.”
Get used to seeing the lush world of Pandora again because three sequels to this film are planned, coming in 2024, 2026 and 2028.
Movies Coming in 2022 From Marvel, Netflix, DC and More
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