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Radio personality Rush Limbaugh pumps thumb after being awarded the Medal of Freedom by First Lady ... [+] Melania Trump after being acknowledged by US President Donald Trump as he delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Influential yet controversial talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh passed away at age 70 on Wednesday. In a career spanning nearly 40 decades, Limbaugh transformed talk radio and politics alike.

He had been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in January 2020, and just days later was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then President Donald Trump during last year's State of the Union address.

"Rush Limbaugh: Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country," President Trump said during the address.

Since the launch of "The Rush Limbaugh Show" in 1988, Limbaugh became arguably one of the most beloved yet polarizing figures in American media. Beginning with just 56 radio stations, his show grew to be the most listened-to program in the United States. Limbaugh's passing comes just a week after another equally divisive media figure, Larry Flynt, passed away and the reactions on social media highlighted the divide in our country.

Across social media on Wednesday, Limbaugh's supporters hailed his efforts to support conservative causes, whilst his critics only saw the worst in the radio talk show host.

Fellow conservative commentator Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) was among the first to react to the news of Limbaugh's passing, "So sad. The Super Nova of American conservatism is dead. R.I.P. Rush Limbaugh"

Likewise, commentator Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) hailed Limbaugh's lengthy career, "Broadcast Legend Rush Limbaugh has died. His legions of fans will miss him, and his powerful and bright contribution to our national dialogue is a treasure that will endure for decades to come. Rush Limbaugh, a great American, dead at 70.God bless you Rush."

Many on the right side of the aisle in government expressed their feelings on Wednesday afternoon. Among those was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) (@RandPaul), who tweeted, "RIP to a legend and a patriot, Rush Limbaugh. Not many people can say they revolutionized and stayed at the top of an industry the way he did. My condolences to his family."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) (@MarshaBlackburn) posted simply, "Rush Limbaugh was an inspiring and important voice for the conservative movement. He will be missed dearly. My sincere condolences to the Limbaugh family."

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) shared his thoughts on what Limbaugh brought to U.S. politics, "Rush Limbaugh made conservatism popular with the entire nation and revolutionized conservative media. He will be missed by all of his 'ditto heads,' this one included. Our country has lost one of its most important voices. Sending prayers to the Limbaugh family."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) issued a statement on Twitter:

Little Respect

Not unexpectedly, many critics of Limbaugh expressed glee at the talk radio icon's passing with hate filled comments. If Limbaugh was divisive in life, the reactions by many liberals of his death on social media certainly were clear.

There were also attempts at humor at the passing of Limbaugh, and clearly he wasn't afforded any respect by some. That included comedian/writer Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) who posted, "It's easy to make fun of Rush Limbaugh right now, but it's important to remember that he also brought a lot of people a lot of joy by dying"

A similar joke was offered by writer/historian Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely), "However you feel about Rush Limbaugh, you've gotta admit that he's dead"

Video gaming streamer Mike Migdall (@ItsMigdallTime) took the joke perhaps a bit too far, "Phew! thought Rush limbaugh was trending because he was alive"

Writer Mitch Benn (@MitchBenn) was more direct, "If you can't think of anything good to say about Rush Limbaugh, that's because there isn't anything good to say about Rush Limbaugh."

David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod), senior political commentator from CNN, offered, "Whether you loved him or hated him-and there are very few people in between-Rush Limbaugh was indisputably a force of historic proportions. Over the past three decades, he did as much to polarize our politics as anyone and laid the groundwork for Trump and Trumpism."

But perhaps J. Charles Stanley (@JCharlesStanle1) summed the news of Limbaugh's passing best, "Say what you will about Rush's politics, but he definitely was highly successful in building his brand."

Original post:
Reaction To Passing Of Rush Limbaugh Trends On Social Media - Forbes

The most deleterious force for America and for conservatism has been Fox News leading people astray, conservative author Ann Coulter told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview last Thursday following her lecture at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin.

When asked if there is a future for populist conservative media on television, Coulter said, Wed all be better off if TV went under altogether.

Everyone on TV, as we found out briefly this week, theyre just the pretty faces for whatever the plutocrat behind the screen wants, Coulter said.

She was referring to an incident on November 9, when Fox News host Neil Cavuto cut away from live footage of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaking during a Trump campaign press conference. McEnany was discussing alleged voter fraud during the presidential election.

I saw, live, Cavuto cut away from Kayleigh McEnany. That was so shocking, Coulter said.

And, except that I didnt want to admit to anyone that even on a commercial break from both MSNBC and CNN, I was watching Fox News, I wouldve tweeted about it myself. I go up to my Twitter feed, thats all anyone is tweeting about, she recalled.

So, I guess the primetime hosts, they and the corporate management [at Fox News], probably figured out, We cant do this or its over even for the declining days of cable news, Coulter said of the networks post-election coverage of Trump.

I dont think Ive met anyone under the age of 60 who watches cables news. So, Im not sure theres that much of a future, anyway, she added.

As other people have pointed out, you could kill your cable subscription altogether and just be on Twitter because, if you ever do watch these shows, its [content] that was [broken] three days ago on Twitter. I have friends who watch Fox News and theyll call me with, like, breaking news, and Im constantly telling them, I tweeted that yesterday,' Coulter said.

I really hope the whole thing collapses, because I think, the most deleterious force for America and for conservatism has been Fox News leading people astray, she opined.

As you will recall throughout 2016, well, I wasnt allowed on Fox News then because I supported Trump, and they were anti-Trump. And then, when he [Trump] switched we got the big bait-and-switch, from all of his [campaign] promises to whatever Jared [Kushner] wantedthen I wasnt allowed on Fox News. I guess because I wasnt willing to fellate him [Trump] every night as he broke his promises. But for whatever the reason is, whomever you think you like on Fox News, check my Twitter feed that day. See if you havent seen it there first, Coulter advised.

Even as Americans have become increasingly reliant on social media sites for their news, Big Techs left-wing censors have actively throttled conservatives voices during the Trump presidency, including President Trump himself.

Breitbart News asked Coulter if a populist movement can survive Big Tech censorship with Silicon Valleys preferred candidate Joe Biden in the White House. Alarge number of Big Tech executives are expected to join Bidens transition team, according to a recent report. Is there a viable social media future for conservative voices?

This is another thing that makes me laugh about Trumps loss, said Coulter who, just a few hours earlier,told a socially distanced audience of 97 people at UT Austin that America needs Trumpism without Trump four years from now.

His supporters were thrown off [social media], deplatformed, suppressed immediately throughout his administration. Breitbart was crushed. From 20 million readers a day [to] YouTube starts taking down their videos. Facebook is taking down their stories, letting other people rip off Breitbart stories, she noted.

You know, whatever you think of them I dont care, I believe in free speech Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, [all were] totally deplatformed. And did Trump ever lift a finger to help them? Oh, now I remember. No, he did not. So, I cant wait for Twitter to ban Trump on January 20, Coulter said.

Twitter has confirmed that President Trump will lose special privileges protecting his Twitter account from being suspended or banned for alleged policy infractions if he leaves office. Twitter placed warnings on dozens of the presidents tweets in the hours and days immediately following the contested November 3 election, effectively muting his communication with the American public.

As for what happens going forward, its sort of unfortunate in a way, its not our fault, but its conservatives who are bearing the brunt of this tech monopoly right now, Coulter said.

Because, if you read the New York Times, theyre not wild about this sort of, you know, czars wealth either. Articles by Kara Swisher a few years ago in the New York Times addressed the insane amount of power the tech companies have, and they realize its utterly unfair, she noted.

So, if leftists become honest again and dont keep defining themselves as the antonym to Trump, as [New York Times op-ed columnist] Frank Bruni described it [in 2019], I think this is something all freedom-loving people can agree on that we shouldnt be a world of Rollerball, Coulter said, referring to the 1975 science fiction film by Norman Jewison. The movie depicts three corporations running the world. Its totally whats happening right now, she explained.

Coulters lecture at the University of Texas at Austin was on the issue of immigration, the subject of her bestselling 2015 book, Adios, America.

Even before Trump came along, Republicans and Democrats have conspired to try to sneak an amnesty through Congress about a dozen times, Coulter said.

She agreed with conservatives who are concerned that Republicans might work with their corporate donors and the Chamber of Commerce to push for another Gang of Eight-style amnesty deal, as they did in 2013.

Yes, I am worried about that. Yes, they absolutely will, she said, noting several previous attempts by bipartisan groups of senators to usher an amnesty plan through Congress that would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for tens of millions of illegal aliens.

And it wasnt Fox News, it wasnt major talk radio hosts who alerted America, but somehow it would get out. It would be Howie Carr, or Joyce Kaufman, or Matt Drudge. Somehow America would find out and shut down the congressional switchboards, the political commentator recalled.

Hopefully the MAGA [supporters], the Trumpsters are organized enough that they will not be able to push it through. Hopefully some of these Republicans have realized [that trying to pass amnesty is] not popular [with the bases populist wing], Coulter said.

The author added that she hopes Republicans understand that in order to speak to the populist base they must strive to protect American workers [and] protect American culture.

Read more here:
Ann Coulter: Fox News Has Been 'Deleterious' for America and ...

Let me tell you about the one where Tim Cook took a shower...

Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Satya Nadella walk into a bar.

No, that's not going to work. Let's try this:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Mark Zuckerberg.

Oh, go away.

Please forgive me, but I've suddenly learned something about humor I never expected. Well, never expected from Stanford University.

I think of it as a place where people are grotesquely self-confident and self-absorbed -- even on a golf course. I think of it as a place that may have been slow to embrace the teaching of ethics in certain quarters.

I don't think of it as a place where some of the softer sides of management leap to the fore.

Yet here are Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas ready to disabuse me. They believe a crucial element of modern leadership is, oh really, humor.

Aaker is the Stanford Graduate School of Business General Atlantic Professor and Coulter Family Fellow for 2020-21. I don't think it's Ann Coulter's people, but you never know. Bagdonas is a lecturer in management at Stanford Business School.

Together, they not only teach humor to the evidently dry leaders of the future but have written a new book,Tell Us A Joke, Tim Cook, You Sanctimonious Twerp.

I'm sorry, that's not quite right. It's called Humor, Seriously. Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life. Seriously.

Humor. Surely that's the first trait you associate with Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Nadella, Cook, Sundar Pichai, and just about every other tech leader today.

They make you feel at ease with a quip, rather than want to furiously scratch some part of your face. Whenever they speak, there's a tumult of titters and a groundswell of guffaws. Their one-liners are the stuff of legend.

Actually, one can only imagine -- and one has heard from those who know -- that their leadership styles drift toward the intense, rather than the innately cheery.

Oh, but look at the research Aaker and Bagdonas presented in an excerpt from their book published in Fast Company.

Are you aware that those who use humor at work are seen as more competent and confident -- and enjoying higher status too?

Can you possibly believe that employees who say their leader is humorous -- even the slightest hint -- rate them 27% more motivating? Employees say they're 15% happier in their jobs if they have an even vaguely funny leader. (I'm not thinking Larry Ellison. How about you?)

It could be, of course, that our tech titans are, in the cocoon of their own Zoom meetings and Polynesian hideaways, cracking even wiser than they're pontificating.

It could be that I'm dreaming here.

Aaker and Bagdonas insist humor isn't just confined to leaders personally. Why, it makes teams more productive. Including Microsoft ones, I shouldn't wonder.

The authors say: "Teams that laugh together before trying to solve a creativity challenge are more than twice as likely to succeed versus those who don't laugh together first."

Were they all laughing while they created the iPhone? Yes, they were. Even Steve Ballmer thought it was funny. The iPad? Ach, that came out of a drinking game at the office when someone broke the screen off a MacBook.

As for AirPods, someone put a couple of broken bits of plastic in their ears as a joke and an engineer cried: "Genius! That's it! Crappy earrings that double as headphones!"

Aaker and Bagdonas' book came out last week. I wonder if Cook was the first to reach for it.

That was a joke.

Go here to see the original:
Apple and Facebook have one startling thing missing. Stanford is trying to teach it - ZDNet

One of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Cullors, is joining the Boulder-based Motus Theater Thursday evening to read the story of an undocumented immigrant.

Cullors is the latest prominent American to participate in "Shoebox Stories: UndocuAmerica."

The Democratic freshmen are teaming up to tell the real stories of undocumented immigrants as part of a free online series for the Motus Theater, a Boulder-based nonprofit that creates dialogue around issues through creative expression.

She will read the personal story of Armando Peniche and his experience with racial profiling and the dangers that inflammatory rhetoric toward Mexican immigrants poses to him and his American-born son.

Cullors will be joined at 6 p.m. on Zoom by Afro-Latino musical theater star Carlos Heredia and slam poet Dominique Christina, whoholds five national poetry slam titles, including winning the National Poetry Championship and two Women of the World Slam Championships.

The series' programs are free.Registerby clicking here.

Joey Bunch: "Im not prone to say much about TV, but heres something worth talking about thats significant to Colorado and significant to the country: compassion in patriotism."

The series' first six episodes have featured, respectively, Colorado U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, actor John Lithgow, musicians Neil Young and Yo_Yo Ma, activist Gloria Steinem, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and celebrity chef Jos Andrs, who conservative commentator Ann Coulter called a "nut foreigner" in December over the New York chef's request that the Biden administration create a U.S. hunger relief czar.

On March 11, the series will hear from Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.

After Thursday night's reading, Cullors and Peniche will talk about the stories of police brutality survivors, followed by a discussion with Nana Gyamfi, executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Sydelle OBrien, an undocumented Black activist.

Miller Hudson: "Listening to their stories, which were filled with hope and aspiration far more than any anger or recrimination, the complexity and injustice of their undocumented status became apparent."

See the article here:
Boulder's Motus Theater to hear about immigration from Black Lives Matter founder - coloradopolitics.com

Former first lady Michelle Obamas winter CSA came courtesy of current first lady Jill Biden and the White House garden,which Obama originally planted. Obama posted a picture of the basket on Instagram, writing, So thankful for this beautiful care package from our amazing @FLOTUS! These fresh veggies from the White House Kitchen Garden were such a wonderfuland delicioussurprise. Love you, Jill! To which, Jill, who shares her husbands gentle corniness, responded, Food is love.

One can read this as a clear statement on Bidens part, just as Obamas choice to build the garden was a clearstatement. The former first lady broke ground on the garden in 2009, and at the time the symbolism wasnt subtle: She believed buying local and organically grown food, with less of a reliance on industrialfarming, would make for healthier Americans. To that end, the first lady chose to grow vegetables, which hadnt been done at scale at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt tended her victory garden.

It was a deeply intentional project, and Obama published a book in 2012,American Grown,in which she explained every choice made. She said she wanted it to be a learning garden, where children could plant seeds and come back and see the literal fruits of their labor, as well as a statement on childhood nutrition.

As both a mother and a first lady, I was alarmed about reports of skyrocketing childhood obesity rates and the dire consequences for our childrens health, she wrote. And I hoped this garden would begin a conversation about this issuea conversation about the food we eat, the lives we lead, and how all of that affects our children.

It certainly started a conversation, though not the one she intended. The gardenand what it represented (namely, the2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act)became a conservative talking point, able to fill minutes of airtime with gleeful bad faith arguments that, looking back, seem as quaint as a tan suit. The argument at the time? Vegetables are elitist (really, it was that Obamas efforts to improve school lunches threatened industrial agricultures bottom line).

So when Trump won the election, all eyes, or at least some eyes, were on the garden. Ann Coulter even tweeted in 2016: I respectfully suggest a new name for Michelles White House vegetable garden: Putting green.

Melania Trump instead chose to quietly-ish maintain the garden that Michelle built. That equivocating mirrors the equivocating on the part of the first lady at the time, which we grew used to over the past four years. She could have easily taken steamroll to it and put upI dont knowa cold, modern sculpture garden. Would have been cool! But a lot less nutritious.

Instead Melania chose to publicly harvest the vegetables that the Obamas planted, and also add cement reinforcements to help make the garden permanent.It was one of the first things she did once at the White House in 2017. Im a big believer in healthy eatingit encourages a healthy mind and body, the first lady told the children gathered around her at the event, all from a local Boys and Girls Club.Was the event in and of itself a sign that she would try to continue Obamas school lunch efforts or otherwise promote some food policy at all? No, there was never any legislation support or lobbying or even another day in which she hosted children at the garden after that. Where there was explicit intentionality before, here therewere just some simple platitudes and a lot of guesswork. Most people focused on the$1,380 Balmain top she chose to garden in, anyway. No conservative pundits managed to rail against elitism on that one.

So now the garden is back front and center, via a care package from one first lady to another, posted for all to see on Instagram. Its a signal that Obamas efforts are at least approved of in Jills East Wing, and bodes well for the support of small farms or school lunch effortsthough what, exactly, support of the garden materially means will have to be seen.

Its something of a lovely image of continuity beyond that too: The vegetables were planted during the Trump administration. Even though Melania chose not to advertiseit, beyond that 2017 photo-call, someone kept planting.At least we have the peaceful transfer of vegetables.

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From Michelle to Melania to Jill: At Least the White House Garden Experienced a Peaceful Transfer of Power - Vanity Fair