Published on Mar 11, 2019
Rotten Tomatoes: Super-Woke ‘Captain Marvel’ Trashed by Audience, Praised by Critics
By Justin Caruso
Film review site Rotten Tomatoes shows that only 36 percent of the audience liked Captain Marvel, compared to 81 percent of the professional critic class who liked it.
Rotten Tomatoes displays two scores for Captain Marvel–one aggregated from reviews of movies critics in different publications, and another from general user ratings.
The list of approved critics handed the new film a high 81 percent mark, but average viewers were less impressed, clocking in at only 36 percent liking the movie.
The film has already faced some controversy on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie-reviewing site shut down audience reviews until the film actually came out, citing their concern that trolls would rig the numbers.
Captain Marvel features the first female-led Marvel superhero, and the film is full of social justice themes.
Star Brie Larson claims her acting in the movie is her “activism” and declared the movie to be about “intersectional feminism.” Larson also kicked off promotion by complaining about movie critics being “overwhelmingly white male .”
Already, Hollywood and the media is circling the wagons around the movie. The Daily Beast accused critics of the movie of being “men’s rights activists and incels,” while a critic for the Wrap openly lauded the film for “evoking a riot grrrl-adjacent feeling.”
Not all professional critics were impressed, however. The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mediocre review, and an Indiewire review summed up the film, saying, “Neither a blast from the past, nor an inspiring glimpse into the future, at the end of the day it’s just another Marvel movie.”
“And not a particularly good one, at that.”
Rapper Briefly Identifies as Female, Smashes Female Deadlifting Record, Goes Back to Identifying as Male
British rapper Zuby now owns the female deadlift record.
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A British rapper briefly identified as female in order to break a weightlifting record and prove a point about transgender athletes.
“I keep hearing about how biological men don’t have any physical strength advantage over women in 2019… So watch me DESTROY the British Women’s deadlift record without trying. P.S. I identified as a woman whilst lifting the weight. Don’t be a bigot,” Zuby Tweeted, attaching a video of himself breaking the record.
Much ado has been made recently about transgender females competing in women’s athletic events.
Two high school sophomores, both transgender females, placed first and second respectively in the 100-meter race at the Connecticut State Finals, causing outrage among biologically female competitors and their families. Both transgender athletes said that the biological females should “work harder” instead of complaining.
Tennis star Martina Navratilova recently apologized for comparing transgender female athletes competing in female events to “cheating.”
“A man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organization is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires,” she originally said. “It’s insane and it’s cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair.”
Zuby said that he only identifies as female while weightlifting. Given the new leftist rules on gender identity, one would suspect that Zuby has returned to identifying as male now that he has broken the records.
Man Kicked Out Of New York Bar For Wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ Hat
A man was kicked out of a New York City bar for wearing a Trump hat.
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A supporter of President Donald J. Trump posted a video to Facebook showing the bartender and bouncer of Jake’s Dilemma in New York City telling him he is being kicked out of the bar for refusing to remove his red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.
After he was asked to remove the hat or be refused service, video shows the bartender repeatedly grab at Dion Cini’s cell phone and hat repeatedly before declaring that he would have to leave the bar for refusing to remove the pro-Trump fashion item.
Eventually, a security guard joined the scene and reaffirmed that Cini was being kicked out of the bar for wearing the hat.
Once he began recording, the security guard and bartender both became reticent to admit he was being kicked out for wearing the hat, but eventually admitted that he did nothing wrong.
They elaborated that he was asked to remove the hat or be refused service, and when he declined to remove his hat, they chose to kick him out of the bar.
“He said he will no longer serve you until you take your [Trump] hat off,” said the security guard, “You refused, so we said you have to leave.”
COHEN MET WITH SCHIFF STAFF FOR OVER 10 HOURS BEFORE HEARING – REPORT
Schiff team traveled to NY at least 4 times for Cohen meetings
By Gregg Re, Catherine Herridge
President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen told House investigators this week that staff for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., traveled to New York at least four times to meet with him for over 10 hours immediately before last month’s high-profile public testimony, according to two sources familiar with the matter — as Republicans question whether the meetings amounted to coaching a witness.
The sources said the sessions covered a slew of topics addressed during the public hearing before the oversight committee — including the National Enquirer’s “Catch and Kill” policy, American Media CEO David Pecker and the alleged undervaluing of President Trump’s assets.
COHEN DOCS UNDERCUT CLAIMS TRUMP LAWYERS MADE EDITS TO ALTER CRUCIAL TIMELINE
But, Republicans have raised concerns with the sessions, with Ohio Rep. Mike Turner sending a letter to Cohen’s team on Wednesday demanding answers.
Nunes reacts to reports of Cohen’s private meetings with Schiff before his House testimony
‘No matter how much witness tampering you do, you’re not going to find collusion,’ the Republican tells ‘Fox & Friends’ after sources say President Trump’s former personal attorney met with the Intelligence Committee chairman for hours before testifying.
Turner specifically asked for confirmation of Cohen’s contacts, if any, “with Democratic Members or Democratic staff of SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence], COR [House Committee on Oversight and Reform], or HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] prior to his appearances before House and Senate committees last week” — as well as the lengths of such contacts, their locations and who exactly was involved.
“These questions are important for the public to understand whether or not they were watching witness testimony, a public hearing, or well-rehearsed theater,” he wrote.
During last month’s seven-hour public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen hesitantly acknowledged, under questioning from Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, that he had spoken with Schiff “about topics that were going to be raised at the upcoming hearing.”
But, he did not elaborate on the discussions, which Fox News is told extended significantly longer than the seven hours that the public hearing itself lasted.
One by one, during the dramatic hearing, Cohen fielded questions on precisely the same topics that the sources told Fox News he discussed with Schiff’s staff during the sit-downs in New York.
For example, in response to questioning from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Cohen discussed the purported practice of paying for the rights to news stories harmful to Trump, only to bury them.
“I was involved in several of these catch-and-kill episodes,” Cohen told Maloney, “but these catch-and-kill scenarios existed between David Pecker and Mr. Trump long before I started working in 2007.”
Cohen docs undercut claims Trump lawyers altered timeline of Moscow tower talks
Records provided by President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on his false 2017 congressional testimony undercut allegations that Trump attorneys made critical edits to alter the timeline of the Trump Tower negotiations in Moscow; Catherine Herridge reports.
Cohen went on to testify that Pecker, whose company publishes the National Enquirer, had paid $30,000 to a former Trump World Tower doorman who alleged he had information about a supposed love child fathered by Trump. The former Trump fixer asserted that Trump was concerned also about the “treasure trove of documents” Pecker had that could implicate him.
Further, Cohen was asked by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., “To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?”
Cohen replied: “Yes.”
COHEN SUES TRUMP ORGANIZATION FOR MILLIONS IN LEGAL FEES
“Who else knows that the president did this?” Ocasio-Cortez pressed.
“Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari,” Cohen said, referring to the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer and other key Trump associates. “You deflate the value of the asset and then you put in a request to the tax department for a deduction.”
Cohen also brought documents that he claimed proved Trump “inflated” his assets in order to obtain loans from Deutsche Bank.
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, testified last month before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Asked about the revelations by email, a House Intelligence Committee spokesman defended the Schiff staff’s pre-hearing discussions with Cohen.
“We are running a professional investigation in search of the facts, and we welcome the opportunity to meet with potential witnesses in advance of any testimony to determine relevant topics to cover in order to make productive use of their time before the Committee,” spokesman Patrick Boland told Fox News.
“Despite this professed outrage by Republicans, it’s completely appropriate to conduct proffer sessions and allow witnesses to review their prior testimony before the Committee interviews them — such sessions are a routine part of every serious investigation around the country, including congressional investigations.”
Schiff was asked about the frequency of his contacts with Cohen on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” this weekend, and gave the number “seven” — but Schiff did not distinguish between the number of his own contacts with Cohen and the committee staff’s interactions with him.
Schiff asserted, “The extent of my contact was just inviting him to testify and also trying to allay his concerns about the president’s threats against him and his family … but our staff certainly sat down to interview him, and that’s what you do in any credible investigation.”
A source close to Schiff claimed some details about the staff meetings were “not accurate” but did not point to specifics.
On Cohen, a source familiar with his closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee would not comment directly on the number and substance of the meetings between Cohen and the Schiff staff, but said more broadly that Schiff “pledged to release the full transcript of Mr. Cohen’s eight hour testimony, at which point Mr. Cohen will be vindicated and others will be implicated.”
Project Veritas Slams Twitter Execs’ Spying Claims
Jack Dorsey, Vijaya Gadde claim direct messages aren’t monitored
Thursday, March 07, 2019
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde told podcast host Joe Rogan that direct messages on the social media site are not monitored — a claim challenged by investigative journalist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas.
When asked by Rogan if company employees “read direct messages,” Dorsey replied, “We don’t read direct messages.”
Gadde followed up, explaining that the only direct messages read by employees are those which have been reported to Twitter support.
Rogan pressed further, asking if it was possible for Twitter employees to intentionally peruse a user’s direct messages.
“I don’t think so,” Gadde replied.
However, according to multiple Twitter engineers who discussed the subject of direct messages with undercover Project Veritas journalists, Dorsey and Gadde may have been misleading with their answers, at best.
“There’s teams dedicated to it [reading direct messages],” said Clay Haynes, a senior network security engineer at Twitter. “I mean, we’re talking… at least three or four hundred people… they’re paid to look at dick pics.”
“It is creepy Big Brother.”
Pranay Singh, a direct messaging engineer, revealed that all content shared on the platform — including private messages — are stored on Twitter servers for analytical and advertising purposes.
“So all your sex messages and your dick pics are on my server now,” Singh said. “Everything. Anything you post online.”
“A machine is going to look at it. An algorithm will look at it, and they’ll make a virtual profile about you.”
Watch the full exchange here.
Android Apps Still Sending Data to FACEBOOK — Even if You Don’t Have an Account…
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Even when you’re not logged in or don’t have a Facebook account
By Nick Statt
Major Android mobile apps from companies including Yelp and Duolingo send data that could be used to personally identify you for ad tracking straight to Facebook immediately upon logging in, according to a new report from the London-based UK charity and watchdog group Privacy International (PI). This data transfer happens even if a user isn’t logged into Facebook on that device and even in the event the user doesn’t have an active Facebook account at all.
In addition to Yelp and Duolingo, PI found that two Muslim prayer apps, as well as a bible app and a job search app called Indeed, also sent similar data to Facebook that could be used to help identify users for ad targeting purposes when they browse the social network. It’s not clear exactly what type of data is being sent in this case, other than that a user opened the app at a given time, but PI’s report says this transmission may also reveal custom identifiers that help Facebook track that user across its network of services and when that person opens Facebook on a mobile device.
The report builds on a similar investigation from PI last December that first revealed that big-name Android apps were sending data to Facebook without a user’s consent and without proper disclosure. It also highlights that this problem is universal across both iOS and Android; last month, The Wall Street Journal revealed that these same set of developer tools that scrape data when you use a mobile app and send it to Facebook are employed on iPhone apps, despite Apple’s much more stringent privacy rules and protections.
“This is hugely problematic, not just for privacy, but also for competition. The data that apps send to Facebook typically includes information such as the fact that a specific app, such as a Muslim prayer app, was opened or closed,” reads PI’s report, published earlier today. “This sounds fairly basic, but it really isn’t. Since the data is sent with a unique identifier, a user’s Google advertising ID, it would be easy to link this data into a profile and paint a fine-grained picture of someone’s interests, identities and daily routines.”
As Facebook’s privacy practices come under even greater scrutiny in the aftermath of last year’s Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, a spotlight is being shone on the lesser-known arrangements between large advertising companies and the smaller app makers that use those platforms to reach new users and target existing ones with ads. As revealed by the WSJ last month, a number of prominent iOS app makers use a Facebook analytics tool known as “custom app events” that, in this case, was sharing sensitive health, fitness, and financial data with the social network for ad targeting purposes.
On Android, Facebook has long collected sensitive user data such as contact logs, call histories, SMS data, and real-time location data, for the purpose of informing its ad targeting and improving features like friend suggestions. Yet the practices have caused vocal outcry from privacy advocates and users concerned Facebook is amassing far too much data about their personal lives and online and offline behaviors. Following reports about Facebook using its location-tracking capabilities to catch company interns skipping work, it said it would allow Android users the ability to explicitly disable the feature.
In this case, PI is underscoring one of Facebook’s longstanding indirect data collection policies, one that relies on third-party apps to autonomously collect and send information about app usage to the social network without telling users about the arrangement.
“Facebook routinely tracks users, non-users, and logged-out users outside its platform through Facebook Business Tools. App developers share data with Facebook through the Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK), a set of software development tools that help developers build apps for a specific operating system,” PI explained in the initial December 2018 report. The report found that nearly two thirds of the 34 Android apps PI tested — including big names like Spotify and Kayak and all of which had between 10 and 500 million installs — sent information to Facebook without informing users or gaining express consent.
PI says that a number of apps stopped the practice following its December report. Similarly, most of the operators of the iOS apps highlighted in the WSJ report also ceased using Facebook’s analytics and developer tools to collect sensitive user data. However, it appears some apps, like Yelp’s and Duolingo’s, continue to do so. PI says it’s in contact with Duolingo, and the company has agreed to suspend the practice, but it’s not clear how many other apps in the Android or iOS ecosystem may be skirting Apple and Google’s data-collection and user privacy policies to improve Facebook’s ad targeting tools.
In these situations, Facebook puts the onus on app makers not to break platform rules or misuse its developer tools by collecting sensitive information. The company has also claimed not to use a majority of this sensitive data and, in some extreme cases like credit card numbers and Social Security numbers, automatically deletes it. But it’s not clear why the data is being collected in the first place and what ways it’s been put to use in the past, either by the apps collecting it or by Facebook.
“Apps relay on the Facebook SDK to integrate their product with Facebook services, like Facebook’s login and ad tracking tools. However, Facebook places all responsibility on apps to ensure that the data they send to Facebook has been collected lawfully,” reads PI’s report. Facebook not immediately available for comment.
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