Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Celerity

Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
February 6, 2023

Americano Media wants to be the Spanish-language Fox News. Here's what you need to know about it.

Americano Media has its sights set on bringing centrist Latinos to the right ahead of 2024. These are the hosts the network has on the job.

https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/americano-media-wants-be-spanish-language-fox-news-heres-what-you-need-know



Since Americano Media’s inception, the network has provided right-wing radio programming for Spanish-speaking audiences with notable hosts who reliably spread misinformation and extremism. This includes right-wing narratives disparaging immigrants, undermining the results of Democratic elections, attacking the LGBTQ community, and spreading conspiracy theories – including the deeply racist Great Replacement theory, which posits that white people and “legacy Americans” are being deliberately replaced through mass migration from non-white countries.

According to a January 23 report from Politico, the conservative network has a plan to reach centrist Latinos, which includes a $20 million marketing campaign, expansion to 25 radio stations, streaming content, and the creation of a digital news website and app. Politico’s Natalie Allison also reports that Americano has “spent several million dollars building studios to launch new television programs, with plans underway to be on cable in every major battleground state ahead of the 2024 election, and in Puerto Rico in the coming weeks.”

In addition to Americano Media’s investments in marketing and developing content, the network also utilizes social media platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Notably, Americano Media’s Twitter gained a large bump in followers after interviewing former President Donald Trump, from 12,000 followers in late October 2022, when the interview aired, to over 68,000 in January.

Three of Americano Media’s most notable right-wing pundits are hosts Dania Alexandrino, Freddy Silva, and Jesús Márquez, whose shows consist of grandstanding monologues decrying Democrats and the Biden administration while also sticking close to narratives spun by English language right-wing media. These hosts have consistently peddled anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, anti-choice, and election denial rhetoric to Americano’s growing audience, and are poised to gain influence as the network’s multimillion-dollar expansion project takes effect.

snip
February 6, 2023

Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene Raise Hell Over Sam Smith's Grammys Performance

Right-wingers are using Pfizer's sponsorship to fuel conspiracies that Satan is controlling the federal government and coming for your kids

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/sam-smith-unholy-grammys-satanism-panic-gop-1234674687/



THE GRAMMYS WAS its usual lavish spectacle featuring scores of styled-out celebrities on Sunday night. The buttoned-up, right-wing political commentariat was not pleased, particularly about Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ performance of “Unholy” — which featured fire, red lighting, and Smith sporting a pair of horns. “Don’t fight the culture wars, they say,” griped right-wing commentator Liz Wheeler. “Meanwhile demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan. I could throw up.” “This…is…evil,” Ted Cruz, a United States senator, responded.

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1622498643436503040
“The Grammy’s featured Sam Smith’s demonic performance and was sponsored by Pfizer,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “And the Satanic Church now has an abortion clinic in NM that requires its patients to perform a satanic ritual before services. American Christians need to get to work.”

https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1622588594207481856
Greene wasn’t the only conspiracy theorist to point out that the Grammys were sponsored by Pfizer, the ostensible idea being that the Covid-19 vaccine and the Grammys are part of a larger confluence of evil forces working together to brainwash your children and destroy America. “The Devil. Brought to you by Pfizer…,” wrote Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. “The satanic worshipping Grammys – brought to you by – Pfizer. Perfect,” added right-wing Twitter troll @catturd2. “That entire demonic presentation at the Grammy’s? Brought to you by Pfizer,” tweeted Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing commentator who, like @catturd2, regularly interacts with Twitter owner Elon Musk.

https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1622450573005197312
https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/1622556538261962752
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1622485909420769283
There was a time when conservatives would point to harmless allusions to the devil in popular culture, throw up their hands, lament the youth, and that would be the end of it. The culture war is now so insidious and so stupid — and so infused with the spirit of QAnon, which holds that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles — that such allusions are very sincerely being called out as part of a vast, governmental conspiracy to turn the United States into a wasteland of fire, brimstone, and drag queens. It would be laughable if so many people didn’t believe in it, and those who do, do so so rabidly that they’ll use absolutely anything they can, even President Biden talking in front of red light, to push it.

snip



the RW all are

February 6, 2023

South Africa in naval drills with Russia and China; Argentina waiting to join the bloc



South Africa confirmed plans to conduct joint naval drills with BRICS associates navies, Russia and China off its coast this month, from 17/27 February, next to the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

https://en.mercopress.com/2023/02/01/south-africa-in-naval-drills-with-brics-associates-russia-and-china-argentina-waiting-to-join-the-block

The exercises are expected to bring more focus on the strengthening relationships between the Asian countries with South Africa, the leading voice on the African continent and one of several African countries that abstained in a United Nations vote last year deploring Russia’s invasion.

The multinational naval exercise, called “Operation Mosi,” which means smoke in Tswana — one of 11 official languages in South Africa – will be held during the last two weeks of February, off South Africa’s east coast near the cities of Durban and Richards Bay.

The South African government had refused to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine last year, saying it has a neutral stance over Ukraine and calling for dialogue and diplomacy. However, the upcoming naval drills have led the main opposition party to blame government for siding with Russia.

“This gives the impression of not being neutral but being biased to one side. It can alienate us from other important trade partners, the West,” said Kobus Marais, the shadow defense minister for the Democratic Alliance. “This is in the best interests of Russia,” Marais said, calling it “another bad judgment, an embarrassment.” Notably, the announcement of naval drills came ahead of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to South Africa to hold talks with his counterpart Naledi Pandor, who vigorously defended the country's decision to join Russia and China in exercises.


snip


related

Lavrov visit to South Africa: Pandor defends joint Russia-China military exercise

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64373448



South Africa has defended its decision to hold a joint military exercise with Russia and China next month.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor condemned the "double-standard" which says some countries can perform such exercises but others are not. "All countries conduct military exercises with friends worldwide," Dr Pandor added.

The comments came at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pretoria. The event attracted a small group of protesters outside the venue, waiving Ukrainian flags.

Dr Pandor went on to slam the suggestion that South Africa cannot conduct the military exercises it wants to as an "abuse of international practice". "This is just a natural set of exercises that occur between countries," she said.

snip
February 5, 2023

Black Sheep - Strobelite Honey [David Morales Def Version] 1992



Label: Mercury – PRO 995-1
Format: Vinyl, 12", Single, 33 ⅓ RPM, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1992
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, Garage House









February 4, 2023

These Top Chefs Are Putting a Spotlight on Haitian Cuisine

But not without the help of their mothers.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/haitian-restaurant-new-hampshire-chefs-profile



While much of the world toasted the start of a new year when midnight hit on January 1, Haitians had another occasion to celebrate. The Haitian revolution, widely considered the most successful large-scale insurrection led by enslaved people in this hemisphere, ended victoriously on January 1, 1804. The small but very mighty island was able to overthrow the French colonial government in a feat that inspired and emboldened enslaved people throughout the Americas.



Despite this legacy, and Haiti’s proximity to the United States, many Americans know little about the island. There are countless ways to connect to a culture, but the chefs of two newly opened U.S. restaurants aim to do so via their heritage cuisine. In 2022, former Top Chef contestants Gregory Gourdet and Chris Viaud debuted Kann and Ansemn, respectively.



Gourdet’s Kann, which was just nominated for a 2023 James Beard Award, opened in Portland, Oregon last August. “It felt like America needed a great Haitian restaurant,” he says. On the other side of the country, Viaud transformed his former pop up, Ansanm, into a brick-and-mortar operation in Milford, New Hampshire. In varied spaces and very different ways, the chefs bring a taste of the island to far-flung corners of the United States.



Gourdet grew up in Queens and Viaud in the Boston suburbs. Both were born to parents who emigrated from Haiti, and recall being immersed in Haitian-American communities and cuisines throughout their childhoods. “Outside of Chinese takeout or lasagna night, we 100% primarily ate Haitian food growing up,” Gourdet says. Viaud recalls his mother recreating classic Haitian dishes in their Massachusetts home from memory. “With a lot of non-Western cultures, it's not really recipes that you follow,” he says. “It's more so that you have a touch, feel, and taste for the ingredients that you're cooking with, and you use memories to perfect those flavor profiles.” Until recently, however, neither chef considered himself an expert in Haitian cooking. “It was about maybe seven years ago that I did my first Haitian pop-up, and everything was, like, super wrong,” says Gourdet, laughing.



snip







































February 4, 2023

Meet the Mexican Corn Whiskey Distillers Honoring an Ancient Ingredient

Maíz Nation and Abasolo are utilizing ancestral corn for a flavorful new take on the whiskey category.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/mexican-corn-whiskey-distillers-history



There’s a popular Mayan creation myth about the inextricable link between the ancient Mesoamerican culture and a sacred plant. “When the gods were creating humans, they first built them out of mud, but they fell apart. Then, they built them out of wood, but they had no heart, no soul,” explains Cesar Sandoval, brand ambassador for Abasolo Corn Whisky. “And then, when they built them out of masa, they were just perfect—that’s why we call ourselves children of the corn.” It tracks, then, that thoughtfully crafted corn whiskey is coming out of Mexico right now. Abasolo and Maíz Nation are highlighting Mexico’s most celebrated crop in hopes corn whiskey (or whisky, as Abasolo prefers to spell it) will ascend alongside globally appreciated spirits like mezcal and tequila.

For Maíz Nation master distiller Jonathan Barbieri, who came to corn whiskey from the world of mezcal, it was important to produce an economic niche for the farmers who’ve been cultivating the colorful corn that was first created by their ancestors over 300 generations ago. Corn is a daily staple across Mexico. It appears in myriad drinks and dishes—atole, tortillas, pozole, tamales, sopes, just to name a fraction. But the commercial production of specific corn varieties, like yellow dent, is often grown for the purpose of producing ethanol or cooking oils, threatening heirloom strains and making it harder for Mexican farmers to make a living.



Seeking to boost domestic production, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a 2020 ban on genetically modified corn production that’s set to go into effect in 2024. Though the state of Oaxaca is home to Guila Naquitz, the white caves where the earliest traces of corn cultivation were discovered, many of these modern agriculturists still struggle to maintain food sovereignty in the face of genetically modified seed proliferation. For the last 12 years, Guila Naquitz has been the site of an ongoing, regional seed exchange—part of an effort to further the lineage of ancestral corn varieties. “The seeds are intimately linked to the communities that have been nurturing them and shepherding them through time,” says Barbieri. “We’re talking about community, preserving cultures, and preserving ways of life.”



Today, Maíz Nation sources its native corn and other grains like wheat and rye directly from small-holding Indigenous farmers in the Chinantla, Sierra Mixteca, Sierra Juárez, and Costa regions of Oaxaca, placing an emphasis on traditional cultivation methods, soil conservation, seed autonomy, and community seed banks. All this attention to detail translates to a flavorful and unique product that, especially for those who grew up with corn and tortillas as household mainstays, tastes familiar. As Barbieri insists, “When it comes out on the second distillation, it tastes like corn. I’ve had people say, ‘Wow, it tastes like my grandmother’s.’”

snip











February 3, 2023

Howard Jones - What Is Love? (Extended 12'') 1983 Synth Pop + (Extended 80s Multitrack Version)





Label: WEA – HOW 2T, WEA – 249570-0
Format:
Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 26 Nov 1983
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop









February 3, 2023

Suede - The Drowners (4K Remastered) 1992 and the birth of Britpop



Label: Nude Records – NUD 1S
Format:
Vinyl, 7", Single
Country: UK
Released: 11 May 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Britpop







February 3, 2023

The Darling Buds - Crystal Clear (1990)



Label: Epic – BLOND T6
Format:
Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: Aug 1990
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Synth-pop, Progressive House, Alternative Rock






Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: London
Home country: US/UK/Sweden
Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
Number of posts: 43,343

About Celerity

she / her / hers
Latest Discussions»Celerity's Journal