Quantcast
Channel: VICE CA
Viewing all 38002 articles
Browse latest View live

Desus and Mero Question If Blake Shelton Really Is the 'Sexiest Man Alive'

0
0

On Wednesday, People magazine named Blake Shelton the "Sexiest Man Alive." Yes, according to the celebrity publication, all other men who are living and breathing on this planet don't hold a candle to the country singer/The Voice host.

While some people might approve, others, including VICELAND's Desus and Mero, wholeheartedly disagree with People's choice. On Wednesday night's episode of Desus & Mero, the two hosts talked about Shelton, his newfound title, and some of his most memorable tweets.

You can watch Wednesday night’s Desus & Mero for free online now, and be sure to catch new episodes weeknights at 11 PM on VICELAND.


In BC’s Economy, Real Estate Is Now Bigger Than Oil in Alberta

0
0

It’s no wonder British Columbia’s government took so long to intervene in Vancouver’s overheated real estate market last year. Thanks to new data released by Statistics Canada last week, we now know that real estate makes up a greater chunk of BC’s economy than oil does in Alberta.

University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Trombe was one of the first to point the change out on Twitter. In 2016, real estate industry grew to 18.4 percent of BC’s economy, while oil and gas fell to 17 percent of Alberta’s.

This means BC is more dependent on real estate than any other province in the country. For comparison, the property markets in Quebec, Alberta and Ontario sit at 11, 12 and 13 percent of provincial GDP, respectively.

“On one hand it says less about BC than it does about Alberta,” Trombe told VICE. “We've seen the real estate share in BC's economy rise gradually over the past few years, not making any kind of large jump from one years to next.

“Whereas in Alberta we've seen a very substantial decline in the amount of economic activity accounted for by oil and gas.”

Back in 2014, when oil prices were over $100 a barrel, oil and gas actually made up 27 percent of Alberta’s gross domestic product. When oil prices dropped by a half, and stayed that way for the following years, associated economic activity fell “off a cliff”—by about 10 percent of Alberta’s GDP in two years.

Trombe told VICE there are some lessons BC can take away from Alberta’s bumpy economic ride. He said the decline of Alberta’s central industry particularly hurt young, high school educated labourers.

“We’re not producing less oil, we're actually producing more than we used to, so production jobs were not the big source of layoffs,” Trombe told VICE. “Where most of the employment drop occurred was in supporting activities. These are the jobs associated with exploration, drilling, new development, and a lot of construction jobs—building new facilities, things like that.”

While corporate oil workers have had an easier time “adapting” to the new market conditions, the young guys working construction have been hit exceptionally hard, Trombe said.

If BC were to see a big drop in housing values, we’d see a similar drop-off in new construction, and our young labourers would probably feel the brunt of it.

Granted, Trombe doesn’t think BC’s real estate sector is “orders of magnitude” out of line with the rest of the country, and he thinks the industry is better regulated here than in the US. Despite a real risk of a bubble bursting, Trombe says it’s not necessarily a bad thing when provinces focus on economic areas they’re good at.

But he does think Alberta chose “unwisely” to rely on the oil boom to fund public services, which has affected the province’s ability to provide a social safety net in downtimes.

Apparently BC has a similar thing going on. “BC raises a lot of revenue from land transfer taxes,” he told VICE. “If real estate markets cool down dramatically, that's going to cut into government revenue.”

One thing that Albertans had, that most British Columbians don’t have, is savings for a rainy day. Trombe said BC’s savings rate is sitting at negative one percent, compared to nine percent on the other side of the Rockies.

How this could play out in a housing crash situation is anybody’s guess. When asked what a 40 percent price drop might do to BC with so much invested in real estate, Trombe said the smartest answer is “I don’t know.”

“The financial crisis in the US has made it quite clear that it’s difficult to predict how a price drop would cascade through economy.”

Follow Sarah on Twitter.

'The Simpsons' Fans Should Watch 'The Problem with Apu'

0
0

“Representation” is a loaded word in the entertainment world, especially in the last few years. Campaigns like #OscarsSoWhite have created a dialogue around the lack of diversity in Hollywood. But what if you grew up seeing only one character who looked like you on television? And what if he was a cartoon character who displayed every negative stereotype you and your family have heard for as long as you can remember?

Hari Kondabolu has faced this problem ever since the first time someone on the schoolyard called him "Apu." Yes, we're talking about Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the big-bellied, high-pantsed owner of the Kwik-E-Mart on FOX's eons-running The Simpsons. If you're not familiar, Apu lives to charge people insane prices for salty snacks or sugary Squishees, is unfailingly polite to even his worst customers (especially Homer), and closes even the most contentious conversations by saying "Thank you, come again!"

Kondabolu’s new documentary, The Problem With Apu, debuts on truTV on November 19. In it, the comedian examines how the character of Apu was created and how it managed to endure over the past 30 years despite being a terrible stereotype of South Asian people.

"The early [years of the] show were mainly Bart episodes. So the Apu stuff, it was just like, 'Whoa, there's a brown character. This is amazing, and we exist.' We went from not existing to this cartoon, which was more than nothing," he told me. “And then I went to junior high school or maybe high school—I don't remember the exact point—but at a certain point I realized that, 'Whoa they're mentioning Apu to me.' The kids are using that as a weapon."

It's a topic that Kondabolu has been interested in, at least publicly, since his days writing for W. Kamau Bell's first talk show, Totally Biased. The movie dives even deeper. Kondabolu speaks to a number of South Asian-American actors and comedians, including Aziz Ansari, Kal Penn, Aasif Mandvi, Aparna Nancherla, Russell Peters, and Utkarsh Ambudkar. He not-so-jokingly claims in the movie that now there are 14 famous South Asians, and he knows all of them—and all of them agreed that the Apu haunted their childhoods. Penn was so viscerally angry at the characterization that he tells Kondabolu that it ruined the entire 28 years of The Simpsons for him.

"Everybody has their line and also he's a little older than me," he says about Penn's enmity. It doesn't help Penn's viewpoint that his first movie role was as a heavily-accented student named "Taj Mahal Badalandabad" in the 2002 mediocrity Van Wilder.

As Kondabolu dug into the origins of the character, he started to become curious about its genesis. Did co-creators Matt Groening and James L. Brooks sign off on such a ridiculous character back when the show was created in 1989, despite their reservations? Or did Hank Azaria, the man who created Apu's voice, create it on his own and the writers just ran with it? The fact that Azaria, whose family is Greek and Jewish, is even doing the voice instead of an Indian or other South Asian actor seems to add insult to injury, according to Kondabolu.

"When you actually see [the person behind the voice], you realize the jokes are directed at you," he said. "They're not inclusive jokes. They're really from the lines of a white person looking at another culture, plus the voice is a white dude. Like the whole thing all of a sudden feels a little less... It doesn't feel like it's in good faith at all."

Azaria, of course, was someone that Kondabolu badly wanted to talk to on camera. He thought that, because the actor had expressed regret over the character in a Huffington Post interview, landing Azaria would be relatively easy. But as the pursuit of Azaria became more frustrating, it became the through-line the movie needed to propel it along.

"This isn't supposed to be an attack on Hank Azaria," said Kondabolu. "The Hank plot is a through-line. It's a device. If he ended up speaking and we had an open conversation, that's great. To me, that's more interesting." Off-camera, Azaria talked to Kondabolu on the phone about discussing the issue on a podcast where he wasn't subject to Kondabolu's edit, but he ultimately said no to that, too. "Part of me wonders if he really wanted it."

In fact, the only person associated with The Simpsons, past or present, who agreed to speak on camera was Dana Gould, who wrote for the show from 2001 to 2008. Gould was pretty blunt in his assessment about Apu: stereotypical voices are funny, and that's what they wrote toward. For his part, Kondabolu appreciated Gould's candor. "That's not negative. That's blunt and that's honest. What? Was he supposed to bullshit? He said like, 'This accent is seen as funny by most white Americans.' I was like, 'Yeah, that's true.'"

If he seems conflicted about tearing into a show he's a big fan of, well, he is. But he is not a subscriber to what other comedians label "politically correct" speech. When asked about how legends like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock have discussed how PC speech has been anathema to comedy, Kondabolu doesn't mince words.

"With all due respect, I will say what's the difference between saying that and [saying] 'the kids these days'? I'm only 35 and I don't always get it. But I do know that's the direction of people's thinking and the country whether I like it or not. So I either catch up or I don't. And so to me, political correctness doesn't mean anything. Maybe you're talking about ideas being spread faster and maybe faster than people are prepared to resolve them." When Babu Bhatt, a Pakistani character from Seinfeld's early seasons is mentioned, Kondabolu doesn't mince words, either, calling it a "one-dimensional shit character."

As far as he's concerned, comedy can be good without the use of stereotypes. And while Apu will never leave The Simpsons, he hopes there will be other South Asian characters that show more positive images. "Regardless of whether it's funny, regardless of whether it's entertaining, how does it shape the culture around you? I don't think this particular character shaped it positively."

Follow Joel Keller on Twitter.

What It's Like to Go Through a Gang Initiation

0
0

For JT, a young prospect making his way into a local Brooklyn branch of the Crips, joining the gang is about family: getting close to a group of men that care about him and are willing to back him up if he ever finds himself in trouble. But getting initiated isn't easy.

On this episode of Rites of Passage, VICE met up with JT, his best friend Otis, and a high-ranking Crip named Cee-Lo to figure out what it takes to get made. We followed JT through the process to hear what drew him to the gang in the first place, and why he's so eager to suffer through a brutal beating known as getting "squared in."

The VICE Morning Bulletin

0
0

Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.

US News

Several More Women Accuse Roy Moore of Harassment and Assault
Four more women accused the Alabama Republican of sexual misconduct Wednesday, adding pressure on the Senate candidate to drop out of the race. One woman alleged Moore groped her, while another said Moore tried to give her a “forceful” kiss. Two others said he pursued and pestered them when they worked in Gadsden, Alabama, as young women.—The New York Times / AL.com

Twitter Removes Verification from Some Alt-Right Accounts
The company has taken away “verified” tick badges from the accounts of alt-right figureheads like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, the activist behind the notorious “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. Twitter expressed regret that verification had been “perceived as an endorsement,” and pledged to “prioritize” the removal of ticks from accounts breaching the site's guidelines.—CNET

California Gunman Allegedly Killed and Buried His Wife
Officers in Tehama County have found the dead body of Kevin Janson Neal’s (unidentified) wife under the floorboards of their home. Neal was fatally shot by police Tuesday after he went on a shooting spree in a small town that left at least four others dead and another ten injured.- NBC News

Senators to Unveil Bipartisan Gun Background Check Bill
Leading senators from both sides of the aisle are expected to introduce a bill to improve the federal database used to check gun buyers’ backgrounds. The legislation, helmed by Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Chris Murphy, is intended to compel states and federal agencies to provide more information on a buyers’ criminal history.—Politico

International News

Mugabe Said to Refuse to Step Down
Following a military takeover of his country, the Zimbabwean president is not willing to resign, according to a senior official. Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori is reportedly acting as a mediator between the military and Mugabe, who remains detained at home. A spokesperson for opposition figurehead Morgan Tsvangirai said he had returned to Zimbabwe Wednesday, having been overseas for cancer treatment.—VICE News

Cambodian Supreme Court Outlaws Opposition Party
The court banned the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the primary opposition to the country’s ruling party. Leading CNRP figure Mu Sochua said it was “the end of true democracy in Cambodia.” The party had been accused of a plan to overthrow the government.—BBC News

France Tries to Ease Lebanese Political Crisis
French President Emmanuel Macron invited Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family to France, but insisted he was not offering “exile.” Hariri has been in Saudi Arabia since announcing his resignation earlier this month. Lebanon’s Iran-tied Hezbollah movement has accused the Saudis of holding Hariri hostage.—The New York Times

Suicide Bomb Attack Leaves a Dozen Dead in Nigeria
Four suicide bombers detonated explosive devices in the city of Maiduguri Wednesday night, killing 12 others. State authorities said another 22 people were hospitalized with injuries. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Boko Haram militants have carried out similar, coordinated attacks in recent years.—AFP

Everything Else

Lil Peep Dies at 21
The rising Long Island emo-rap star’s manager Chase Ortega seemed to confirm reports Peep had died, without sharing the cause of death. He tweeted: "I’ve been expecting this call for a year. Mother fuck.”—Noisey

Drake Tells Fan to Quit Groping Girls
The star halted his performance of “Know Yourself” during an after-party in Sydney to shame a male audience member. “Stop putting your hands on girls,” said Drake, before security intervened on his behalf.—i-D

Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Goes for $450 Million
The sum paid by an unnamed buyer for da Vinci’s “Savior of the World” is the most ever paid for a work of art at auction. The previous record amount was the $179.4 million fetched by Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O).”—AP

Tyler, The Creator Reveals Tour Dates
The star announced he is playing a series of shows in the US and Canada alongside Vince Staples early next year. DJ Taco is supporting the pair’s 23 dates, starting January 26 in Vancouver.—XXL

Showrunner for ‘The Royals’ Suspended After Harassment Claims
Lionsgate Television and the E! network said Mark Schwahn will not be working on the show while allegations of sexual misconduct are investigated. The harassment claims date back to the period Schwahn was showrunner for One Tree Hill.—The Hollywood Reporter

Scientists Discover Another Exoplanet
Astronomers at Yale Exoplanet Laboratory have located a potentially habitable, Earth-like planet 11 light years away. One year on Ross 128 b, the exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star, lasts the equivalent of 9.9 days on Earth.—VICE News

It's the End of an Era for California's Outlaw Weed Farmers

0
0

Like the Gold Rush that drew miners in covered wagons to the West Coast, the Green Rush has long seduced growers and trimmers to Northern California's "Emerald Triangle," the largest cannabis-producing area in the United States since the 1970s.

It was disillusioned hippies from the Bay who first flocked to the Redwoods to cultivate the illicit herb. They established little fiefdoms in the hills and mountains of NorCal, where tales of police raids, buried fortunes, and bizarre disappearances were all too common. It was their version of the Wild West.

But the culture and color of the Emerald Triangle could change thanks to the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016, which will make recreational marijuana legal in California on January 1. Small-scale growers worry about how they'll compete with the big businesses eyeing the marijuana plant for profit. And cultivators who've been here for decades now feel as though they are stuck in legislative limbo as the local government decides how to interpret the state law, which contradicts the federal prohibition of pot.

Andrew from Willits, California has been growing cannabis since he was ten years old. "This is my life. The world of weed has been good to me," he said. "Things are changing faster than people can keep up with. I see a depression on the horizon for the Emerald Triangle. I will miss the way things used to be."

“If we’re not helping to write the laws, we’re going to get written out of them,” said Jonathan Collier, Executive Board Member of the Nevada County Cannabis Alliance.

The organization Collier belongs to believes that the survival of small growers’ hinges on providing a high quality, organic product. They also hope Nevada County approves a cannabis business licensing program in March. Within this proposed framework, a farm like Heart and Sol could grow the flower that could be converted into cannabis oil for Temple Extracts, which could then be sold at Elevation 2477', a dispensary waiting on a city permit. This model represents an avenue for isolated heritage farmers to reach consumers.

Legalization also poses new challenges for "trimmigrants," which is what locals call the young people who cut and shape buds for the marketplace.

Sunshine** is a trimmer who is originally from South Korea. She heard about the Emerald Triangle while traveling through Europe. “I’ve met a bunch of people [that] come for the American dream. This job is a lot of cash,” she said. “Heaps of money. You can get as much as you work.”

Unfortunately, the party might be coming to end. After legalization, California residents will have the option of working in the cannabis industry as taxed employees, but the law leaves no room for unregulated foreign workers. “After all of them are gone, I’ll still be here,” Lizzy, a native Californian, told me.

Getting work as a trimmer from the growers who come down from the mountains in their pickup trucks is a lot “like fishing," according to Jean Félix, who's originally from Montreal, Canada. "You’ve gotta be really zen." Unfortunately for the trimmers, machines are beginning to outpace manual labor because they can cut production costs for growers looking to maximize profits.

Nate explained why he grows medical marijuana: “My mom has rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme's disease, and fibromyalgia, and they had her on Oxycontin, Roxicodone, and Xanax. For years and years I had to watch my mom deteriorate, so I started getting her to smoke weed. Everyone sees the difference. When she’s smoking cannabis and she’s taking her oil, she’s cool. I feel like everyone should have access to marijuana because it is a healing plant.”

Many questions loom over the trimmers and growers of the Emerald Triangle, as the Wild West they've known becomes more regulated and tamed.

Cannabis is everything to these people—it's their livelihood, and it's given them a semblance of freedom and adventure. But because the Green Rush, after all, is about money, it was always bound to grow and evolve. How much is still yet to be seen.

Scroll down for more photos by Avery L. White.

Wade Laughter champions a strain of cannabis high in CBD content called “Harlequin” for its healing properties.
Denise from Romania trims weed in her home garage near Nevada City.
The world of weed exists in a weird realm populated by characters living out different shades of the American dream.
They typically hang-dry California cannabis for up to a week before trimmers begin manicuring the buds.
Many work up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week through the autumn peak season to save up enough money to travel elsewhere during winter months.
California’s Emerald Triangle is home to some of the most celebrated weed in the world.
After dropping out of college and working as a stripper, 23-year-old Sarah White left Colorado to work as a farmhand in Nevada City. “My goal was to eventually have my own property out here but with the way legalization is going I’m not sure if that’s realistic anymore. Prices are dropping and everything is becoming so commercialized. I like the hands on feel of working on a small farm where it’s like a family and a community.”
A cannabis crop ready for harvest overlooks devastation from wildfires in Calaveras County.
Downtown Garberville is filled with newly arrived “trimmigants” from all over the world looking for work.

**The last names of certain people involved in this story have been left out to protect their identities under the shifting landscape of legalization.

See more of Brooke Sauvage's work on her Instagram.

See more of Avery L. White's work on her Instagram.

A Sheriff Went After These Texans for Their 'FUCK TRUMP' Sticker

0
0

After Donald Trump won the presidency, Karen Fonseca and her husband decided to dress up their pickup truck with a custom decal—a giant, bold sticker emblazoned with the words: "FUCK TRUMP AND FUCK YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM."

Their custom accessory has been upsetting some residents of Fort Bend County, Texas, so much that the sheriff's phone has been blowing up with complaints, the Houston Chronicle reports. Sheriff Troy Nehls hopped on Facebook Wednesday to address the driver behind the "offensive display": Get in touch, he wrote in a since-deleted post, or run the risk of getting charged with disorderly conduct.

screenshot via Facebook

The sheriff's post blew up on Facebook, sparking a fiery debate between free speech advocates and folks offended by the decal. "My children saw this," one commenter wrote, "and I was infuriated they were subjected to this offensive display." Another defended the Fonsecas' First Amendment rights: "You have a problem with political speech?" he wrote. "Great. Resign, and spend your days trying to amend the Constitution. In the meantime, the first amendment is clear, and you are in the wrong."

Just hours after the sheriff's post went up, the ACLU of Texas weighed in on the debate, pointing to a Supreme Court precedent that protects using vulgar language in public.

By late Wednesday, Sheriff Nehls—a Republican reportedly mulling a run for Congress—called a press conference to address the controversy, the Associated Press reports. He backpedaled on his thinly veiled threat to charge the Fonsecas with disorderly conduct, instead saying he supported freedom of speech. Still, he said, the decal could spark some kind of road rage-fueled incident, which wouldn't be good for anyone involved.

"We have not threatened anybody with arrest. We have not written any citations," he said at the press conference. "But I think now it would be a good time to have meaningful dialogue with that person and express the concerns out there regarding the language on the truck."

Karen Fonseca, who apparently used to work for Nehls at the county jail at one point, told the Chronicle she has no plans to take the decal off her husband's truck.

"It's not to cause hate or animosity," Fonseca told the Chronicle. "It's just our freedom of speech and we're exercising it."

Judging from the last person to go viral for telling Trump to fuck off, Fonseca should be fine. Who knows—she might even end up getting a highly bankable GoFundMe made in her honor.

Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

Related: How to Protest

Inside the Shady World of an Illegal Weed Dispensary Chain

0
0

Selena Holder-Zirbser wasn’t even supposed to be working on the day she got arrested.

Holder-Zirbser, 21, had picked up a shift at the Green Tree dispensary on Ottawa’s Rideau Street, where she’d recently become a keyholder. It was a foggy Friday morning last November, and she immediately had a lineup of customers to purchase dried bud, brownies, and extracts such as shatter.

Then, without warning at around 10 AM, five men in ski masks entered the store, she said.

“I thought I was gonna get robbed,” Holder-Zirbser told VICE. “I was like, ‘Oh my god this is not gonna happen to me.’” Instead, the men announced they were cops and that they had a search warrant. Another five cops came in and began taking customers’ IDs and writing down their names, she said. Two uniformed officers slapped cuffs on Holder-Zirbser; she was later charged with ten counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possession of the proceeds of crime.

Some of Green Tree's offerings. Photo submitted

Ottawa police raided six dispensaries that day, including three Green Trees, two WeeMedicals, and one CannaGreen—all believed to be run by the same owners. Holder-Zirbser and at least eight other low-level employees were hauled off to holding cells, where they were detained for up to 12 hours. Although they knew they were in trouble, the ones who spoke to VICE said at first they weren’t particularly scared.

Their boss, a domineering man named Robert Clarke, 34, and other managers assured them the company would set them up with lawyers and pay them a “bonus” for their troubles, they told VICE. Messages in the WhatsApp group chat Green Tree workers and managers used to communicate, viewed by VICE, said things like, “everything is going to be okay” and “this is nothing new too (sic) us we have been raided over 15 times an (sic) are still the biggest chain out there.” Most of the raided shops were back up and running within a couple weeks.

But after being released, Holder-Zirbser and other employees who were arrested while working for the dispensary chain told VICE they were kicked out of the WhatsApp group, and shunned by management without being paid the outstanding wages owed to them. They were never provided with lawyers. Meanwhile, they said each dispensary pulled in anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000 a day.

A WhatsApp message former Ottawa Green Tree workers say a manager sent after last November's raids. Screenshot submitted

“After three weeks I just gave up because it was clear they weren’t going to help us at all,” said Holder-Zirbser, who is petite with a curtain of dark brown hair, and multiple tattoos and piercings. A little over a month ago, she pleaded guilty to one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking (the other charges were dropped), and is now awaiting her sentence.

At first, getting paid $12 an hour to weigh and sell weed seemed like an easy way for Holder-Zirbser and her colleagues to make some cash. But the dream quickly soured, leaving them broke and facing serious legal repercussions that could prevent them from finishing school and finding gainful employment.

Selena Holder-Zirbser pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. Photo submitted

Five months ago, VICE began investigating Green Tree/WeeMedical workers’ allegations that they were exploited by their former employers. Their allegations were serious—they claimed they were overworked, underpaid, bullied by Clarke, pressured to sell moldy weed, forbidden from calling the cops when they were robbed, forced to work without heat in winter, and abandoned when they were arrested. But it soon became clear there were many other factors at play—secretive owners, alleged safehouses, armed robberies, connections to organized crime, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

As Canada awaits legalization in 2018, these stories demonstrate how the unregulated nature of pot dispensaries leaves young workers ripe for exploitation while their bosses rake in small fortunes.

• • •

Under current federal law, the only way to legally buy cannabis is by obtaining a medical prescription from Health Canada and placing a mail order through a federally-licensed producer. There are no legal storefronts. Nonetheless, hundreds of pot dispensaries have cropped up across the country in the last three years, allowing Canadians to simply walk into a shop and exchange cash for weed.

The standards at these dispensaries vary wildly in how they treat both their customers and employees. Some purport to be fully medical and only take on patients who have a valid Health Canada license. Others accept anyone who shows ID proving they’re legal drinking age. Vancouver and Victoria have licensed their dispensaries, making them meet specific criteria or else be shut down, while aggressive police raids have persisted in Toronto and Ottawa. Many chains, including Cannabis Culture, Canna Clinic, and Green Tree/WeeMedical started west and migrated into Ontario in the last year or so, emboldened by the federal government’s promise to legalize weed for recreational use.

Despite the fact that dispensaries have become ubiquitous in major Canadian cities, their inner workings largely remain a mystery.

Over the course of this investigation, VICE discovered the ownership structure at Green Tree/WeeMedical seemed to be deliberately opaque. On paper, Green Tree Dispensary Society and WeeMedical Dispensary Society are two separate enterprises, both registered in BC as nonprofits with different directors. However, employees say they are one and the same and VICE has found evidence to support their claims. VICE showed up to addresses affiliated with the Green Tree/WeeMedical chain, placed phone calls, sent texts and emails, and repeatedly mailed letters in an attempt to get answers from the people in charge.

When we finally managed to track down alleged Green Tree/WeeMedical boss Clarke, who is currently facing trafficking charges in BC, he flew into a tirade over the phone, referring to this reporter as a “bitch” and a “fucking cunt.” He denied being an owner or manager of any of the stores, and said “nobody cares about these workers that have all these allegations and all this false stuff.”

Clarke, as well as a WeeMedical director reached in person at the chain’s head office, which smelled strongly of weed, refused to comment on the link between WeeMedical and GreenTree. Several of the phone numbers VICE called, including the main line for Green Tree’s head office, were disconnected after we made inquiries.

“Not all the dispensaries are in it for the most noble of reasons. Some certainly are and others are committed to the cannabis industry and have been for many years,” Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd told VICE. “But there are dozens that just seem intent on making money as quickly as possible.”

While the allegations against Green Tree/WeeMedical don’t represent the underground weed industry as a whole, they paint a picture of how dispensaries have flourished in a wild west atmosphere—a result of high demand and mixed messages from different levels of government. Financially, some have become so successful that raids haven’t stopped them from re-opening and, unfortunately, low-level workers are often taking the fall.

• • •

Both Green Tree Dispensary Society and WeeMedical Dispensary Society are registered as nonprofits with the BC government. According to former employees, the BC- and Ontario-based chain consists of around 30 pot shops that go by the names Green Tree, WeeMedical, CannaGreen, Trees, Herbal Leaf, and WeeCare Med. Employees say the shops operate like a game of whack-a-mole—one gets shut down, only to resurface under a different name, with the hopes of evading police.

They brand themselves as medical marijuana retailers—in BC, some WeeMedical locations have tacked “wellness centre” onto their names. In a letter to Delta BC’s city council, WeeMedical Dispensary Society claimed its mandate is twofold: to promote the use of “alternative water” by reducing the consumption of disposable water bottles through “atmospheric water generation” and to promote the “merits of medical marijuana use for treatment of various illnesses.” (In 2016, BC Supreme Court ordered the Delta store to shut down, after which it re-opened as WeeCare Med Society.)

A portion of WeeMedical's business license application to the City of Delta.

However, ten former Ottawa employees told VICE the dispensaries’ work practices included telling staff to sell moldy weed and edibles under threat of their wages being withheld, and expecting them to work 12-hour shifts for days or weeks on end with no breaks.

“We really could never leave because in [Clarke’s] mind every customer that walks by is money. It’s all about money to him,” said one former budtender. The woman, who wants to remain anonymous because of fear of reprisal from her former employers, said she was robbed at least five times at two different stores, but Clarke refused to hire security guards because it would be too expensive. Clarke’s policy, according to several workers, was to place the “hottest girls” at the highest traffic stores, which they say were the same stores most likely to be burglarized. Many worked alone in the shop but they say they were instructed not to call police if they were robbed.

The workers who spoke to VICE said they found out about jobs through Craigslist, word of mouth, or just by walking past the dispensaries. They believed working at a dispensary was a safe move—that they were in a legal grey zone and unlikely to be busted by cops. It’s a theory management floated as well, they said.

“They definitely said, 'The city is going to let this happen, you don’t need to worry about it,'” Shawn MacAleese, 28, who worked at Ottawa Green Tree and WeeMedical locations simultaneously, told VICE. “Green Tree is labelled as a medicinal dispensary. I figured there was some sort of leeway from any sort of policing.” MacAleese was charged with trafficking and possession in last November’s raids.

Shawn MacAleese is also facing trafficking charges. Photo by David Kawai

Holder-Zirbser told a similar story, noting that when the subject of arrests came up during her hiring process: “They said it wouldn’t happen, and if it did they would pay for the lawyers and everything.”

Former Green Tree/WeeMedical workers said their bosses assured them they wouldn't run into legal issues. Screenshot submitted

Workers described Clarke as a “shadowy” man who didn’t often show his face at the shops, floating between Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. He was vocal on WhatsApp, they said, and had a temper exacerbated by his paranoia that employees would steal from him. (This fear was not totally unwarranted—one former budtender told VICE he became so frustrated with how Clarke treated him, he had a friend rob the dispensary when he was working the register.) They said he’s clean-cut, just under six-feet-tall with blonde hair and has the appearance of someone with money to burn. Two employees, including a former manager, told VICE that Clarke would show off his Rolex watch and talk about vacations in Jamaica and Barbados. When in Ottawa, he would ride around in luxury rental cars, such as Audis and Range Rovers, they said.

“He’d be dressed to the nines. Really nice tailored suits,” said one former budtender, while another noted Clarke’s “big diamond necklaces.”

One higher level employee with a deep knowledge of the chain’s inner workings told VICE the Ottawa dispensaries made the most money of any of the Canadian shops. The worker, who does not want to be named for fear of legal consequences and retribution from Clarke, said the Ottawa stores would go through about 15 pounds of weed and three shipments of edibles a week, initially coming from BC and later local producers. There were two apartments in Ottawa, the worker said, one that housed cash and another that housed product. When the stores—of which there were at least seven open during the worker’s tenure—closed for the day at 10 PM, the employee said, someone would pick up money from all the drop safes and take it to one of the apartments, often carting around $30,000 in cash. Even a conservative estimate of $25,000 in sales a day would mean the Ottawa shops alone were bringing in about $750,000 in a month.

“We were living the high life. Myself, I was making $1,500 a week. I was carrying five grand on me at all times,” said the employee.

A chart tracking sales from one of the Green Tree/WeeMedical shops in Ottawa. The total for the day shift on this day is listed as $3,365. Photo submitted

Given that, the employee said it was “ridiculous” that Green Tree/WeeMedical management refused to cover the legal fees of arrested workers. “The amount of money they were making in one night just from store could pay for everybody’s legal bills.”

• • •

Nestled in the hills of West Vancouver’s British Properties, one of the country’s most affluent communities, a mansion complete with a swimming pool and tennis court offers stunning ocean and mountain views. The home—assessed at $6.2 million—is listed on a BC registry as the address of one of WeeMedical Dispensary Society’s three directors, May Joan Liu.

This mansion is listed on a BC registry as the address of WeeMedical director May Joan Liu

On paper, Green Tree Dispensary Society and WeeMedical Dispensary Society have a total of six directors. (Clarke is not one of them.)

VICE confronted Liu, who is in her 50s, at the downtown Vancouver address listed as WeeMedical’s head office on a Friday afternoon in September. It is located in a residential highrise in the city’s West End.

Sitting in the building’s large atrium, Liu told VICE “there are no owners” of Green Tree or WeeMedical, only directors and members. Asked if she’s involved in both chains, she replied, “Do you not have that information in writing? Because if you do, you shouldn’t be asking me.” Later, she said she has “nothing to do with Green Tree” but conceded that her son, Justin Liu, may have some involvement with Green Tree. “We don’t do business together at all,” she said, checking her pink, bejewelled smartphone throughout the interview.

May Joan Liu (right) is a director of WeeMedical Dispensary Society. This photo was taken in 2007 for a Vancouver Sun story about her horse racing endeavors. Photo via Vancouver Sun

Former budtenders in the Ottawa shops weren’t familiar with May Joan Liu, but said the chain was run by Clarke and Justin Liu, though most of them never met Justin Liu in person. Like Clarke, he was in their WhatsApp group chat.

May Joan Liu, who formerly used the surname Yee and sometimes goes by Mary instead of May, has a colourful past that involves a penny stock scandal in 2000. She's also familiar to regulators—three companies she was affiliated with were halted and suspended by the Vancouver Stock Exchange for violating trading rules. A few years ago, she also got in trouble for racking up eight parking tickets in her Hummer. In August 2016, she was charged with one count of possession of cannabis not exceeding three kilograms for the purpose of trafficking in Surrey.

Liu told VICE she always informs WeeMedical employees of the legal risks associated with working in dispensaries, but implied other managers might provide different information to new hires. “I don’t know who else they’ve spoken to or who’s hired them.”

She also said employees who behave “inappropriately” won’t receive legal help.

“If that employee has stolen from the company or has misconducted themselves while they’re employed, that’s a different story. They’re not going to be represented,” she said, even offering to take a polygraph test to prove she wasn’t lying.

“You will always have employees who are not happy,” she added. “We’ve had employees that have called the police to cause problems and we’ve dealt with that.”

She said WeeMedical recently represented employees in Quesnel and Prince George, BC who were arrested in raids. A manager of both those locations confirmed to VICE that employees there, himself included, were given prompt legal assistance when they were arrested.

After sending out a detailed list of questions and allegations to both Lius, VICE received a phone call from an unknown number. The man calling identified himself as a “district manager” for WeeMedical; he refused to give his name and became agitated when pressed for details about his identity. (Clarke would later imply to VICE that he made the call.) The man said many of the allegations are “false” and that VICE should dig into the people making claims.

“Now that they got fired for stealing or they quit after the raids happened, they’re disgruntled,” he said. (Incidentally, WeeMedical also blamed a disgruntled employee when a stack of patient information was found sitting outside its Queen Street location last November.) He claimed there is a security guard at every location, something both current and former employees told VICE is not the case. VICE visited a North Vancouver and location and found no security guards there. He said no employees were ever promised legal help in the event of a raid.

A month after that conversation, VICE finally reached Clarke by leaving a message for him with the landlord of Green Tree’s Preston Street location in Ottawa. Clarke suggested he had made the anonymous call noting, “I’ve already talked to you before about this. Don’t call me, don’t call my landlord, don’t call anybody.”

Although he denied being a Green Tree owner, by admitting VICE had spoken to his landlord, he essentially admitted he rents out the space that houses the Preston Street dispensary. During the conversation, he quickly became infuriated.

Robert Clarke was described by multiple GreenTree/WeeMedical employees as one of the chain's owners. Photo submitted

“Why do you keep calling me and Justin? Didn’t he already send you some lawyer papers or something? What’s wrong with you?” he asked. “I don’t care about anything that you say, or anything that you have to publish, or give two fucks about it, OK?”

He then launched into a profanity-laced spiel.

“Why don’t you report on fentanyl or something that matters, OK? You’re a loser, man, you’ve got nothing here. You and your fucking hurting stories, fuck off bitch. Don’t call the fucking landlord, don’t call anyone, you fucking clown. You’re a fucking idiot. Fuck off, go report on something that matters. There’s people dying of overdoses and rapes and actual shit that matters. You’re fucking hanging onto nothing. Nobody gives a fuck about what you say, your fucking article means nothing, you fucking victim, so fuck off. Don’t fucking call around about me anymore, you fucking clown. Stupid fucking cunt. Fuck you.”

VICE reached May Joan Liu’s son Justin Liu by phone in September, but he hung up once he was informed he was speaking to a reporter. VICE later texted him a full list of allegations but he didn’t reply. When VICE tried to call him again about a month later, his number no longer worked. VICE called the number listed online as the Green Tree head office to ask about the company’s connection to WeeMedical; that number was also out of service a few weeks later. VICE also called two BC-based WeeMedical dispensaries and spoke to managers who confirmed that Green Tree and WeeMedical are the same and are run by Liu and her son Justin Liu. “It's a family business,” said one current budtender, who doesn't want to be named for fear of reprisal from her bosses.

One Green Tree director, Shane Schuhart, was described by police as a Hells Angels associate, according to a 2015 Vancouver Sun story about a dispensary called Limelife that was shut down following an undercover investigation. Clarke owned the Limelife chain, according to media reports. At the time, he told the Canadian Press, “I have nothing to do with organized crime. I've never even had a criminal charge in my life. I come from a normal family.” Two Ottawa-based Green Tree/WeeMedical employees told VICE Clarke often hung out with a man named Shane whom they described as Clarke’s “right hand man,” though they did not know his last name. RCMP raided a Limelife shop in Nanaimo on November 2, alleging that patrons were selling opioids on site.

When Clarke spoke to VICE, he claimed he was never the owner of any Limelife dispensaries. In January 2016, he was charged with one count of possession of cannabis not exceeding three kilograms for the purpose of trafficking, and one count of possession of cannabis resin for the purpose of trafficking in Nanoose Bay, BC.

VICE tried unsuccessfully to speak to the other people registered as directors for Green Tree Dispensary Society and WeeMedical Dispensary Society. The address of one WeeMedical director, John Macaskill, is also listed as Green Tree’s head office, according to BC registries, and is one block away from WeeMedical’s head office.

May Joan Liu confirmed Macaskill is a WeeMedical member but would not elaborate on his connection to Green Tree. “I’m not saying I’m transparent,” she said.

• • •

In addition to legal troubles, former Green Tree employees told VICE about issues that made their working lives difficult.

For one thing, they allege the weed was at times so poor in quality that they didn’t feel comfortable selling it to the public. (The now-defunct WeeMedical on Queen Street in Toronto failed The Globe and Mail’s quality test last year.)

“We had bricks of hash [Rob] wanted you to sell for $5 and when you would break it open, it would have mold in it, like white stuff,” said Tessa Giberson, 22, a former budtender at the Green Tree on Preston Street who was also charged with trafficking last November and will soon agree to a conditional discharge.

“There was maggots in the kush,” Giberson added.

These claims appear to be corroborated by photos shown to VICE, one of which also shows a batch of shake with a long construction nail in it. Another depicts what looks like a maggot.

Green Tree/WeeMedical employees said they had to sell hash with white mold (left), kush with maggots (top right), and shake that contained a nail (bottom right). Photos submitted

Giberson and others said when they advised their bosses of the contaminated weed, they were told to sell it anyway—or risk not getting paid.

Screenshots of the employees’ WhatsApp group chat show someone called “Fucking Watching You” advising employees to “just sell” the moldy weed.

Former Ottawa Green Tree employees told VICE their bosses instructed them to sell contaminated product. Screenshots submitted

Workers said the number belonged to Clarke, though he denied this when speaking to VICE. It was also listed as Clarke’s phone number in court documents about his trafficking charge. One of the WhatsApp screenshots obtained by VICE show a message from that number that says, “This is rob the owner.”

Giberson told VICE the nickname “Fucking Watching You” was in reference to video cameras Clarke had installed which he would use to monitor employees on his phone.

“[He] would message us on WhatsApp to comment on what we were doing. So if we went to go to the back to use the bathroom he'd message us to ask what we were doing or why we're going to the back,” Giberson said, noting that people would get “fired every day” for breaking rules, which included leaving the store to get lunch if there was no one around to cover. Another rule, according to Giberson (who uses the pronouns they/them/their): no central heating. Despite the fact that it was snowing in Ottawa last October, Giberson wasn’t allowed to turn the heat on at work because Clarke said it was “too expensive.”

“They also wouldn’t let us wear a coat because it looked unprofessional, so we bundled up in sweaters, scarves, and boots,” said Giberson, who is a slender five-foot-seven and has purple shoulder-length hair. A photo of Giberson from that time period shows them standing behind the counter with a space heater between their legs.

Former Green Tree budtender Tessa Giberson stands over a heater to stay warm inside the store. Workers said two shops didn't have heating throughout winter. Photo submitted

One former employee told VICE Clarke threatened to fire him for selling only $1,000 on a Sunday close to Christmas. As a form of retaliation, he said he had a friend steal from Green Tree while he was working, so that the two of them could split the profits.

“I just had a friend come in and and just acted all aggressively and i just handed over… probably $3,000 worth of weed,” said the employee, who did not want to be named for fear of legal repercussions.

“Then I called Rob right away and he said, ‘Don’t call the cops, we’re an illegal company, we cannot report a robbery.’ He said ‘swallow the loss.’ He came not even three hours later and refilled the store. It didn’t faze him.”

More recently, a CannaGreen location in Ottawa’s Parkdale neighbourhood was robbed twice in one week, with thieves using an axe and a sledgehammer to break in. This came shortly after a location on McEwen Avenue in Ottawa was robbed three times in a two-month stretch. Last October, someone drove a truck into a different CannaGreen location. Afterwards, the Ottawa Citizen reported the dispensary created a “takeout window” through plywood. Around the same time, a WeeMedical budtender in Toronto was pepper sprayed during a robbery.

• • •

With less than a year to go until legalization, Canadian provinces are unrolling their plans for distributing legal weed. So far, Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Quebec, and Alberta have revealed the details of their retail models.

Ontario, which has the largest market to serve, is going with a government-monopolized storefront model, controlled by the province’s liquor board. The news comes as a big hit to the dispensary industry. Owners who’ve taken massive gambles to open illegal shops—many in the name of servicing patients—feel they deserve a piece of the pie.

But while dispensaries will be cut out of Ontario’s legal market—the province announced fees of up to $500,000 a day to crack down on them—it’s unlikely they'll be totally eradicated. As VICE reported, the province’s Ministry of Community Community Safety and Correctional Services has internally stated “illegal dispensaries will continue to operate.”

Boyd of Simon Fraser University told VICE Ontario’s approach will “perpetuate the black market” and has thus far made it easier for bad players to benefit from it. In Vancouver, where dispensaries have had to apply to pay for a $30,000 annual business license, he said it’s easier to distinguish between who is and isn’t “legitimate.”

“If you’ve made no effort to abide by the city of Vancouver’s regulations, why there should be a place in the new economy for you?” There do not appear to be any Green Tree/WeeMedical locations in Vancouver proper.

Jenna Valleriani, a PhD student at the University of Toronto who researched legal and illegal cannabis businesses in Canada, told VICE many frontline dispensary workers she’s interviewed didn’t think their jobs could get them arrested.

“Because we often talk about them being in a grey zone, a lot of these young people thought court cases like Allard or Smith meant that they were legal,” she said.

The Smith ruling, which came down in 2015, ruled medical weed should be allowed in all forms (e.g edibles), not just dried bud. Licensed producers do not sell edibles. The 2016 Allard ruling saw the Federal Court rule the government’s medical marijuana program was unconstitutional in limiting patients to getting medication from licensed producers. These decisions are in part why many dispensaries felt justified in opening shop—they claim to be providing products and access that aren’t available through licensed producers.

At the start of Toronto’s dispensary boom, Valleriani said working as a budtender was seen as desirable for many young people—it’s a fun, relaxed environment and welcoming of folks who want to medicate at work. But after the raids, people started sharing “these horror stories, where anyone who was working these front lines were being left with lawyer fees.”

In addition, workers are scared to speak about poor treatment because they’re working for illegal businesses, a fact that former Green Tree budtenders say was exploited by their bosses. Earlier this year, employees at a Toronto branch of Canna Clinic took the usual step of unionizing to protect themselves, but the shop has been raided by police multiple times since then.

Valleriani said many of the long-running compassion clubs and dispensaries have developed strong standards and practices and do pay employees’ legal fees in the event of a raid. But with some of the newer pop-up shops that have migrated over from BC, “I’m not sure if those employment practices were as well developed.”

Toronto lawyer Jack Lloyd is currently representing several dispensary employees who have launched constitutional challenges after being arrested.

Lloyd said Ottawa’s approach has been particularly tough on budtenders because prosecutors are seeking drug trafficking convictions as a “deterrent.”

He believes dispensary chains like Green Tree/WeeMedical should lawyer up and raise constitutional challenges when their staff get arrested to push the courts to resolve these issues in a non-adjudicated manner. Lloyd said his constitutional challenges hinge on the idea that forcing people—especially those who are sick, marginalized, homeless, or living in public housing—to order their cannabis through the mail or grow it at home is not providing them reasonable access.

While we wait to see how these court rulings shake out, the damage for those caught up in the dispensary wars has been done.

“I have to stay on welfare so I qualify for legal aid,” said Giberson, who was three years into completing a joint honours degree in history and political science at the University of Ottawa when they were arrested. They now can’t pay for tuition or qualify for a loan and are on medication to treat PTSD. The latter has been exacerbated by negative press from the case, Giberson said.

“I ended up taking myself to the ER being like, ‘I’m really suicidal.’”

Tessa Giberson told VICE they've been traumatized after being charged with drug trafficking. Photo by David Kawai

Holder-Zirbser told VICE her plans of being a vet technician are probably dead. She is hoping for a conditional discharge, but will find out her fate this month. If she winds up with a criminal record, she’ll have to wait years before she can apply for a pardon.

“I can’t be a vet tech with a criminal record,” she said, noting she can’t afford to go back to school this fall and has already been turned down for a few jobs, she suspects because of the arrests. She’s fearful that without the opportunity to make something of herself, she’ll be trapped in a cycle of poverty.

“My whole life is fucked.”

—With files from Sarah Berman

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.


Al Franken, Resign

0
0

On Thursday, KABC anchor Leeann Tweeden came forward with an accusation that Minnesota senator Al Franken kissed her and groped her without her consent in 2006, while they were on a USO tour. She included a photograph of Franken—who was then just a liberal comedian but has become a Democratic senator and theoretical 2020 presidential candidate—fondling her while she was asleep.

Condemnation on social media was swift and aggressive, as it should have been. Hearing a story like Tweeden's is one thing, but the photo showing Franken's shit-eating grin while he "jokingly" touches her breasts is damning:

Tweeden, who has worked as a sports broadcaster and model, explained in a blog post that Franken had written a skit to entertain the troops, which in his script required the two of them to kiss:

He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth... I felt disgusted and violated.

These allegations are hard for liberal supporters of Franken to hear. In his professional life, he has been an outspoken advocate of women's rights. After the Harvey Weinstein allegations came to light in October, Franken announced he was working to pass the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would reform laws that "prevent people who experience workplace harassment from going to court." He's consistently supported women's reproductive health rights, and in April, he reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in an effort to help close the gender wage gap.

Franken became famous as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, and transitioned into being a politician after writing several books that attacked the right, including Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. In 2008, when he was running his first Senate campaign in Minnesota, he had to deal with a controversy over his more risque material and past, including rape jokes he made in the SNL writers' room. He barely squeaked by in that election, winning by just 300 votes, but has since become popular on the left for the way he can dissect right-wing arguments. This was on display earlier this year when he grilled Neil Gorsuch on the judge's siding with a company that fired a trucker for not staying with his vehicle in subzero weather. (Gorsuch, of course, was confirmed to the Supreme Court anyway.)

Franken's press office emailed me the statement he has also sent to other reporters: “I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it.”

The question for Democrats is, is that good enough? I don't think it is. Franken should resign.



In the past week, writers on the left have grappled with Bill Clinton's legacy—not his political legacy, but the accusations that he preyed on women and raped Juanita Broaddrick. In the 90s, when Republicans were trying to bring him down, Democrats, including many feminists, made him out to be the victim of a witch hunt. But with Hillary Clinton's electoral career apparently over, liberals are admitting, however belatedly, that the allegations against him should have taken seriously. At minimum he was a powerful man who abused that power, and he was quite possibly much worse than that. At Vox, Matt Yglesias declared that Clinton should have resigned as president. "The party was on the wrong side of history," wrote Caitlin Flanagan in the Atlantic.

It's not just writers at liberal publications thinking about this: A new HuffPost poll showed that 53 percent of Hillary Clinton voters believe the sexual assault and harassment allegations against her husband, while another 36 percent are unsure.

Before today, I admired Franken. I agree with him on policy. But it doesn't matter. Politicians should be held to a high moral standard. The same judgments we are making retroactively to Clinton should also apply to Franken.

If Franken practices his politics in his personal life, and genuinely believes in punishing men for their sexual misconduct, he needs to resign. It might have socially permissible to grope women in a way that was "clearly intended to be funny" back in 2006, but now it's 2017, and we've finally realized as a culture that it is unacceptable to sexually assault or harass women.

It should be an easy decision for him. After all, it won't even affect his party's standing in the Senate—the Minnesota governor, a Democrat can appoint another Democrat to take his place. (Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, maybe?) But it would send a strong message to the women across the country if he resigned—that the men of the Democratic Party are finally taking the harassment women have silently endured for centuries seriously, and that things might be different in the future.

Update: Shortly after this article was published Franken released a longer statement. Of the photo, he said, "I look at it now and I feel disgusted with myself." He also requested that an ethics investigation begin, with which he would "gladly cooperate."

Follow Eve Peyser on Twitter.

Karen Page is the Real Star of ‘The Punisher’

0
0

The following contains light spoilers from the first season of The Punisher.

The latest Punisher incarnation hits Netflix this Friday, and I’ve been skeptical about it in the months leading up. I’m happy to report that The Punisher delivers, for the most part, and it mostly does so by sticking to what made Frank Castle the most compelling part of last season’s Daredevil. In short, the show hits its highest points when it’s less about Frank and more about the people around him. The standout supporting role here is another Daredevil carry-over: Karen Page.

Karen (played by True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll) has been a major player in Daredevil, first introduced as a client of the blind lawyer, later becoming a secretary, and then leaving the law firm of Franklin and Murdock to work as a reporter. She became Frank’s main link to the real world when he went off the deep end, killing criminals to cope after his wife and kids were taken from him. The two quickly formed a bond while she helped build his defense.

That bond is already formed when she first appears in the second episode of The Punisher, but the series works to give the relationship much greater depth. Karen jokes in a later episode that she has “a tendency to get over-involved.” That’s true, in that Karen is an incredibly compassionate person who works tirelessly to right the wrongs of the world. But it’s clear there’s more to her investment in Frank. She seems to see herself in him, and that scares her.

Her propensity to fight injustice indirectly led to Karen and Frank’s paths crossing. She has been the victim of framings, murder attempts, and all kinds of attacks both to silence her and to use her relationships with Daredevil and Frank against them. Her past is murky, and a few hints have been dropped along the way to suggest that there’s pain and trauma there too. She has as much right as Frank to be angry at the world and to lash out, but she doesn’t, at least not the way Frank does. She works to affect change in more lasting, meaningful, and overall admirable ways (maybe I’m biased, but pushing for accountability through her journalism strikes me as more powerful than burying a few bad guys).

Still, she sees herself in Frank. She begs him to find a reason to “keep going.” Tells him he needs it. It’s pretty clear she’s projecting her own insecurities onto him, as right as she might be about him. Karen has had everything taken from her, but she clings to every reason she has to keep going. Realistically, she doesn’t seem the type to give up, but she’s clearly afraid to. And Frank is the kind of loose cannon that makes her doubt herself. If she can save Frank, she’ll know she has it in her to keep going.

Karen is also vitally important to Frank. She’s the first sign that Frank’s superhuman feats of vigilantism require a lot of support. The show is like a magician’s trick being revealed before us. Frank is like a spectre to those he takes out. He shows up when least expected, armed to the teeth, ready for any and all contingencies. But to us, watching the show at home, he’s only as good as the people he relies on.

Punishing chords. Photo via Netflix.

Karen is vital to his eventual partnership with David Lieberman, AKA Micro (played with the right amount of eccentricity to balance out Frank’s gruff machismo by Girls alum Ebon Moss-Bachrach). A former NSA analyst presumed dead and living in hiding, Micro is looking to take out the same guys Frank seeks to punish, and he has the hacking chops to make Frank all but omniscient.

While Frank and Micro share the pain of missing their families, it’s Micro’s wife Sarah (Jaime Ray Newman) who, like Karen, can relate the most to Frank. While he develops an uncle-like friendship with the Liebermans as nice guy Pete, Frank grows close to Sarah who, as far as she knows, also lost her husband in an unexpected act of violence. She’s another example of someone who, like Frank, has had so much taken from her. Her determination to be a good mom is another alternative to giving into the pain and darkness like Frank. She calls into question the need the Punisher fills in Frank and makes him compellingly tragic.

The Punisher is still far from perfect. It avoids getting stale by constantly shaking things up. As a result, it doesn’t seem to know what it is. At times it’s a war drama, then it’s a police procedural, a political thriller, a heist film, sometimes a family melodrama, always with an undercurrent of dark “street-level” superheroics. It pulls off each one quite well, and deserves credit for the attempt, but it leaves the series feeling a little scattered.

With a beard and a hoodie, no one can recognize him!

Then there are moments when Punisher’s creative team fails spectacularly to read the room. It first gets a little tripped up in its attempt to tackle gun control, ploughing forward with an explicit discussion of gun legislation and lax background checks.

But The Punisher is probably a great place to unpack America’s gun problem. On the one hand, the film and TV industry has been unacceptably silent on the subject of gun rights and domestic terrorism, and The Punisher is overtly about white male anger and violent lashing out (yes, with tons of guns that should never be in circulation to begin with). On the other hand, the show’s attempt to address the issue head on is brief, crude, and ends in an absurd stalemate that implies the issue is too complex (and the opposing sides too equally valid) to definitively move forward with anything.

It’s a morally reprehensible move—a show that capitalizes on gun violence should either call out America’s deranged obsession with guns or have the decency to stay out of the conversation.

And there’s the treatment of Frank’s own psyche. I’m convinced the character works best when he’s at least a little inscrutable, but if you’re going to delve into Frank’s mindset, the writers’ choice to tackle PTSD and male aggression is a wise one. That being said, we never do see Frank’s demons unpacked. Instead we get artfully composed dream sequences and nightmares, including a scene that crosscuts images of brutal violence enacted on Frank with a sexual fantasy involving his late wife.

If you’re wondering how they pulled that off and what the symbolism means, they didn’t, and it doesn’t mean anything. It’s a deeply weird moment that connects sex and violence without comment. Is Frank escaping violence through a sexual fantasy? Can he not distinguish between the two? Should I close my laptop and go take a shower, pretending this never happened?

These missteps don’t spoil the show, but they certainly knock it down a few pegs. If The Punisher earns a second season (and it probably will), more screen time for Karen and the other members of Team Frank will be a welcome move towards what worked so well this time around.

I’d rather see Karen Page step into the foreground in her own show though. An investigative journalist who can call in favours from superheroes would make a nice addition to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Follow Frederick on Twitter.

Editor of Canada’s Most Racist ‘Newspaper’ Charged With Hate Crimes

0
0

Over the years, James Sears has taken on many shitty forms.

At first, in the early 90s, he was a medical doctor but when he pleaded guilty to two accounts of "sexual impropriety with three patients" he had his licence pulled. A decade or so later Sears reappeared under the guise of Dimitri the Lover, a pick up artist who would would train men in the “art of seduction” in a $3,000 two-day course.

And now in recent years it seems another transformation has occurred with Sears stepping into the public role of a hate-monger.

On November 15, Toronto Police charged Sears with two accounts wilful promotion of hatred against identifiable groups (women and Jewish people) for the content found in Your Ward News, a community paper in which he is the editor-in-chief. The publisher of Your Ward News, Leroy St. Germaine, 76, is facing the same charges. The two were arrested Wednesday morning.

The paper, in recent years, has become one of Canada’s most notorious publications. Inside its pages you can find rape advocacy, an abundant amount of anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, and just too much to list here. One article, published last year, states that “age of consent should be the age at which a woman can safely have sex, and not a random number chosen by our ZioMarxist oppressors.”

A paragraph from Your Ward News.

It was this kind of writing that led to the duo of Sears and Germain, receiving the first charge focused on promotion of hatred against women. Lisa Kinsella and her husband Warren—two political operatives, writers, and activists—worked to stop Your Ward News and said that this is the first time charges connected to the willful promotion of hate against women have been laid.

"As a feminist, as a person who lives in Toronto, as a daughter, I'm so impressed that the government took this historic step to make sure that the violent misogyny contained within Your Ward News was kept within this charge,” Lisa Kinsella told VICE.

B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, also worked against Your Ward News—which published articles denying the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic material.

“We are pleased that criminal charges have finally been laid against the publishers of this hate-filled rag,” said B’nai Brith Canada spokesperson Daniel Koren in a statement. “For years, Your Ward News has attempted to promote hatred and poison the minds of impressionable readers against visible minorities.”

Sears in a statement provided to media stated that these charges are “politically motivated.”

Your Ward News was a community newspaper that had been around for years before Sears got his hands on it. Warren Kinsella, a long time resident of the Beaches neighbourhood in Toronto where the paper is distributed, said that while it did go after left leaning politicians in its pages beforehand, it didn’t become truly “hateful” until Sears got his hands on it.

"Sears took over a little over two and a half years ago,” Warren Kinsella said. “As soon as he took over it became a avowedly and aggressively anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying, racist, homophobic, misogynistic."

"The state using power against speech, obviously needs to be done sparingly and infrequently, right? It should only be done in the most extreme cases, and this is an extreme case."

Canadaland recently reported that paper reaches about 350,000 in Ontario, but outside of Canada it also has found a little bit of an online following among the unwashed masses hungry for content like this. On top of publishing this type of content, Sears is also the leader of New Constitution Party of Canada, a de-facto neo-Nazi political party.

Sears has claimed “satire” as a shield in regards to what he published. In a his interview with Free Bird Media, Sears said that he has been “trolling” people, especially women, for over 20 years. He said that when he started working at the paper someone told him “you’re working for Nazis”—meaning former Heritage Front members

“Of course, I reacted in the way any good Greek boy would react, I said ‘this is so cool, I’m the leader of a bunch of Nazis. This is like troll gold,'" said Sears. “So what I did is slowly transform the paper into an anti-Marxist paper.”

This isn’t the first time that Your Ward News, and their crew of “Nazis” have been in the public eye.

Until last year, the Canada Post would deliver the paper door to door in the neighbourhood, but, after intervention by a community group (which included the Kinsellas) led to the federal government issuing a ban to stop its distribution—Sears is fighting the decision which is now before a board for review. In the summer, the Kinsellas were able to convince the court to lay charges of uttering threats against Sears for writing that one of his readers might “lose it” and “bludgeon the Kinsellas to death.” Lisa Kinsella has also launched a defamation suit against the publication.

"Individuals like these, the neo-Nazis and white supremacists… They have been encouraged, powerfully, by the passage of Brexit and the election of Trump,” said Warren Kinsella. “It has created an environment, where they feel they have a license to disrupt civil society and to attack individuals and groups.”

“We live in a dark time, and something like Your Ward News is a manifestation of that."

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter

You Can Finally Win an Award for Your Tommy Wiseau Impression

0
0

If you're a die-hard fan of The Room, it looks like all those years spent greeting dogs and announcing your drunkenness at parties in a flawless Tommy Wiseau impression may finally pay off.

In honor of the upcoming release of The Disaster ArtistJames Franco's movie about the making of the best bad movie ever—A24 is holding a contest for the best fan recreation of a scene from the original film. All you have to do is upload a video of your reenactment online with the hashtag #ImADisasterArtist for a chance to win. There's a catch, though: You have to perform the scene in a public space, just like Tommy and Greg.

The best video will receive a Tommy Award, which is basically an Oscar except it looks like Tommy Wiseau, clenched fists and all, as well as a private screening of The Disaster Artist in the winner's hometown.

From the looks of the entries so far, people are leaning pretty hard on classic Wiseau scenes like "I did not hit her," "you're tearing me apart," and (spoiler alert) the suicide. Even the kid from The Florida Project gave it a shot, though the contest isn't exactly about buying the perfect Tommy wig. Entries can recreate any scene from the movie, so if you'd rather act out the breast cancer moment or channel your inner Denny, go for it.

A24 and Disaster Artist producers—including James Franco and Seth Rogan—will judge the entires and pick the winner "on the basis of audacity and originality," according to the official rules. While only one lucky fan will take home the Tommy statue, ten runners-up will win "prize packs," which include a tuxedo shirt, a football, pins, and a headshot signed by James Franco.

You can upload a video on Twitter or Instagram from now until Friday, November 24, and winners to be announced on the 27th. Time to get filming—don't be a chicken, cheep cheep cheep.

Check out some of the entries that have already been posted below:

Charles Manson Has Been Removed from Prison and Hospitalized

0
0

Former cult leader Charles Manson is in the hospital for an unknown medical issue, Los Angeles Times reports.

Authorities confirmed on Thursday that the 83-year-old is still alive and being treated at a Bakersfield, California, hospital, but refused to comment on his condition due to inmate privacy laws.

Manson was previously hospitalized in January for similarly unknown reasons. At the time, it was rumoured that he needed surgery for intestinal bleeding but was too weak to undergo the operation, though, again, authorities declined to give details.

Manson is currently serving nine consecutive life sentences for masterminding the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969. He has been denied parole 12 times and won't go before a parole board again until 2027, if he survives until then.

Four other members of his "family"—Charles "Tex" Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, and Susan Atkins—were also sentenced to life in prison for the slayings. Atkins passed away in 2009, and Van Houten was approved for parole earlier this year, though it's still unclear whether California governor Jerry Brown will reverse the decision as he has done in the past.

An anonymous source told TMZ this week that Manson's health continues to decline and that "it's not going to get any better for him."

"It's just a matter of time," the source said.

Someone Now Owns a $450 Million Painting of Jesus

0
0

The art world is in a tizzy after Christie's auctioned a painting credited to Leonardo da Vinci for $450.3 million Wednesday night, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold.

Part of the reason the painting fetched such a high price is because fewer than 20 paintings by da Vinci are known to exist, and every single one—except Salvator Mundi—is in a museum. Painted around 1500, the painting depicts Jesus as the "Savior of the World," dressed in a flowing blue robe and holding a crystal orb.

Before Wednesday, the highest price ever paid for an artwork at an auction was $179.4 million for Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O). And the most ever paid in a private sale is believed to be $300 million for Willem de Kooning's Interchange.

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi. Image courtesy of Christie’s

Salvator Mundi has a pretty storied background, and supposedly hung in the bedroom of King Charles I's wife in the 1600s. It then disappeared for a few centuries before resurfacing in 1900, but someone had painted over Christ's face and hair in the intervening years, and people attributed it to one of da Vinci's followers, Bernardino Luini.

It then somehow wound up with the 2017 seller, a Russian billionaire named Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought the painting for $127 million, and given Christie's share of the final price, made a profit of $273 million. The person who plunked down more than $400 million Wednesday is still unknown.

What makes the sale of Salvator Mundi a little scandalous, other than its exorbitant price tag, is the fact that not everyone is convinced it's a real da Vinci. Art critic Jerry Saltz made waves on Tuesday by arguing that the painting is a fake, citing X-rays showing extensive restoration and overpainting, as well as the painting's poor condition. Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, has also published extensive research questioning the painting's authenticity.

According to the Guardian, experts are most at odds over the orb in Christ's left hand, which disobeys the laws of physics—a real glass sphere would show an inverse reflection of what's behind it. Experts argue that da Vinci was well-versed in how light reflects and refracts, and the omission is a rookie mistake, indicating it may have been painted by an apprentice. (Christie's and at least one expert quoted in the piece have since refuted this assessment.)

Real or not, someone now owns a very, very valuable picture. And while it'll probably end up stashed in a huge warehouse in a strategic low-tax location somewhere, there are those who hope the anonymous buyer represents a museum and that Salvator Mundi will be the next Mona Lisa.

Follow Kara Weisenstein on Twitter.

How #MeToo Could Put Powerful Sexual Predators in Prison

0
0

For those who work with survivors, it’s hard to get too excited about the ongoing national outcry over sexual harassment and assault. After all, nothing much has changed, even as institutional sexual predation and violence that have long been broached via whisper networks and shielded by nondisclosure agreements are finally spilling out into the open. At a moment when famous and powerful men are losing their jobs and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is telling the press he believes survivors, some are wondering whether public shame (and career damage) is the only accountability survivors can hope for.

But could the court of public opinion sway the actual courts on sexual violence?

The answer—from prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims’ advocates, and legal experts—is a resounding, if cautiously optimistic, yes. Even pessimists say this moment has the potential to change not only the type and the number of sexual assault cases prosecutors bring, but the number of women who report to police, and how cops investigate their claims. But its most important impact may be on juries, whose imagined favor can determine whether a rape claim gets investigated at all.

“The prosecution of sexual assault across our entire country is abysmal,” said Christine Evans, a victims’ rights attorney and legal director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. “Too many prosecutors evaluate through the lens of rape culture—they take into account the effect of rape myths on potential jurors and whether or not they’re going to win,” a phenomenon called downstream orientation.

The perverse irony is, by assuming jurors credit rape myths, police and prosecutors can end up perpetuating them.



“The research suggests that a lot of sexual violence cases are weeded out of the system,” added Jennifer Gentile Long, CEO of AEquitas, a resource for prosecutors making sex-crime cases. “There are cases that don’t go forward that should go forward. It ends up being a speculation that there are particular cases on which [jurors and judges] won’t convict.”

Studies suggest that historically, the same beliefs often led law enforcement not to bring cases they thought prosecutors would decline, which in turn likely discouraged survivors from reporting at all. But experts said juries are changing faster than prosecutors or police give them credit for.

“We’re seeing juries who are less suspicious, less jaded, and more open-minded to these cases,” said Roger Canaff, a former sex-crimes prosecutor in the Bronx and a partner at Justice 3D, a company that trains law enforcement to better handle sexual assault. “We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s getting better.”

Former Manhattan prosecutor and practicing defense attorney Nathan Semmel was even more blunt.

“I would have to tell my client that society is changing and you’re in the middle of a possible revolution here,” Semmel said. “It’s no different than if you have a case involving some kind of a police encounter,” where the outcome can be as much about the facts of the case as the juror pool.

Former prosecutor Marc Fliedner, who ran as a write-in candidate against Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance earlier this month—and criticized him for not prosecuting a 2015 sexual abuse case against Harvey Weinstein—said the change could be a sweeping one.

“It’s just like the way I saw juries change about looking at police conduct, or looking at child abuse several decades ago when it seemed like something nobody wanted to believe happened,” he said. “If we hold people’s feet to the fire, more prosecutors are going to be compelled to carefully evaluate the credibility of a sexual assault survivor.”

Prosecutors are required to take only those cases they feel have enough credible evidence to support a guilty verdict, Canaff, the ex-Bronx prosecutor, explained. But while the law in all but a handful of states holds that juries can convict based on the testimony of a single, credible witness, very few prosecutors are willing to take a case without more. Until public shame translates into real political pressure, he said, that’s unlikely to change.

“There’s a snowball effect, and that’s what we’re seeing right now,” said Chitra Raghavan, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an expert in sexual violence. But she cautioned that even massive public upheaval results in only incremental change. “Women’s rights, there’s a bump and it’s flat, a bump and it’s flat. Each time there’s a bump our awareness goes up a little.”

Long, the legal expert, was even more measured in her cautiously optimistic assessment, citing other recent "watershed movements" from campus rape protests to the Cosby trial to the scandal over untested rape kits.

“Certainly this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about rape and sexual violence, and time and time again we find ourselves back to where we started,” she said of this seemingly seminal moment. “I don’t mean to be cynical. I just want to be very guarded.”

Follow Sonja Sharp on Twitter.


Andrew Scheer Is Extremely Your Average Suburban Dad

0
0

Andrew Scheer doesn’t have an easy job. Leading Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is a tough grind under any circumstances—and it’s worse when you’re an aggressively average-looking guy and your competitors are international style icons and/or minor global celebrities. Up to now it’s been easy to lose him among the flash without ever really getting to know him first.

Thankfully, the Conservatives have put out a new video introducing Canadians to their future prime minister. Ladies and gentlemen: Andrew Scheer is finally here.

Scheer bursts through our screens the same way he burst into the highest-stakes game in Canadian politics: awkwardly and appearing vaguely uncomfortable. He shuffles along a suburban sidewalk with the gait of an alien body snatcher. It’s like watching someone coax a large toddler to take its first furtive steps into the colourful madness of the world.

“Hi, I’m Andrew Scheer,” he barks. “I’m the new leader of Canada’s Conservatives.”

Suddenly, a black woman appears onscreen. She says hello while Scheer breathlessly waves “hi guys” back. His audibly harrowing encounter with a visible minority out of the way early, he glides into the rest of the shoot.

“I know what it’s like growing up in a family that had to make sacrifices,” he chirps amid a close-up. ( Take THAT, Trudeau!) “But through hard work and good choices, my parents still gave us a good life.”

There is an unconscious fistclench. It is a tender moment of almost endearing earnestness. Yes. I nailed it. Andrew Scheer’s body can never deceive us; it is his greatest weakness, and his greatest strength.

A second, thinner, whiter, blonder woman appears, watching him intently as he walks toward her. “Hi Andrew,” she coos to him from a bench. Scheer politely and curtly says “hi” back and waves her away. Andrew Scheer is sending an important message to Canadians and no Aryan temptress will ever call him from his sacred duty. Can those other party boys in Parliament say the same?

“Conservatives want to see every Canadian succeed and prosper,” Scheer says straight-facedly into the camera as he strolls along an impeccably manicured sidewalk in an overwhelmingly white suburban park. “So while the other guys can take their cues from the cocktail circuit and celebrities, I’ll take mine from the grocery stores and the soccer fields.”

“That’s who I am,” he declares as the screen fades to white, “and that’s who I’m fighting for.”

There is nothing subtle about this video. Call it Harperite hyperrealism. Andrew Scheer is dressed like a low-rent extra from Dennis the Menace wearing a Bobby Hill haircut, because absolute squares are his core constituency. Unlike the feckless and effete leaders of the Liberals and the NDP, Andrew Scheer has never spent more than 50 seconds thinking about what he would wear for any given purpose. He’s too busy thinking about paying the bills and how best to divide his weekend downtime between all the concurrent renovation projects he’s undertaking on his thrice-mortgaged house. This guy has got shit to do and meat to grill and recreational children’s soccer coaches to bother about his kid’s playing time.

Andrew Scheer is a real man’s man: just a regular heterosexual white guy between the ages of 35 and 65 who is trying to get by in the burbs with his non-denominational Protestant family of 1.5 children. You know: a Real Canadian. Someone who will never be as popular as Justin Trudeau or as hip as Jagmeet Singh but probably will spend the better part of their working lives trying to hold it together at a soul-numbing job they hate while they wear a frumpy shirt that looks like a dishrag.

This video is awkward as hell. But then again, charisma is best left for the celebrity cocktail circuit—not where you’ll find the 30 percent of Canadians who always vote Conservative. The regular guy you see at the yearly cul-de-sac barbecue: now that’s the kind of guy who is going to keep his eye on the prize—your tax dollars—no matter how many women scream for him from the park benches.

Follow Drew Brown on Twitter.

America's New Gun Control Bill Won't Prevent Mass Death

0
0

Less than two weeks after a convicted wife-beater walked into a church and killed 26 people with a gun he never should have been able to buy in the first place, Republican members of Congress did something rare. Rather than merely offering thoughts and prayers, some of them vowed to dream up a way to pass a law that might help prevent another disaster.

On Thursday, Senator John Cornyn—a deeply conservative Texas Republican—unveiled what he and his Democratic colleague from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, among others, came up with. As CBS News reported, their bill that would incentivize states to add more data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and penalize federal agencies that fail to do so. The obscene frequency of mass death perpetrated via gunfire in this country followed by inaction in Washington makes the tangible prospect of a bipartisan gun regulation notable in and of itself. It's even more so when a Republican co-sponsor, Cornyn, has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.

Still—is this something that a person invested in reducing the number of mass shootings in America should get excited about? I called up Adam Winkler, an expert on guns and constitutional law at UCLA, to see if we'd hit a watershed moment in the world of gun control, and if nudging states and federal agencies for better reporting on people who shouldn't have guns might be a way to keep them out of the hands of would-be mass shooters. Here's what we talked about.



VICE: It's hard not to be cynical about something like this because it seems like the loophole these guys are trying to close is so small—plenty of dangerous Americans don't have felony convictions, for instance. What does it seem likely to produce in terms of preventing either reporting disasters or mass shootings more generally?
Adam Winkler: Well, it's fair criticism that this bill does not go very far. It is a small bill seeking to shore up what is a weak background check system, and it is not designed to close the major loopholes that allow people to buy guns lawfully without going through a background check. It doesn't close the so-called "gun show loophole" [where you can buy a gun at special events without a waiting period].

Shoring up the existing system is good thing. We want more data in that system. But there's no reason for the database not to have information about felons from around the country.

What happens currently? I'm assuming theres a financial penalty for failure to report?
The federal government doesn't have authority under the constitution to require states to provide this information. When the first background check law was adopted, it required local sheriffs to run these background checks. Some local sheriffs sued, and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of them, saying that Congress doesn't have the power to order state officials to do something. That's why we have sanctuary cities. The government can't mandate that Los Angeles arrest people, though the federal government has the freedom to come in and arrest people themselves.

Right, so they have to provide incentives. Is that the first time that's been on the table?
They're hoping to offer a carrot to states to provide better information. It's not the first time this has happened. After the Virginia Tech Massacre, they passed a law creating some new incentives to try and encourage states to provide mental health data. But the database is still lacking. Apparently it's still [not enough.]

Based on what we know so far, what is the best possible scenario for what a final law here eventually contains?
What they should do and what they won't is to make background checks universal and require every sale to go through a background check. The fact that I can go to a gun show and buy a gun or go to CraigsList and buy a gun without a background check—the fix can only do so much.

Also, the bill would incentivize states, but the Texas shooter got a gun after a reporting error by the Air Force, not from the state of Texas. Would this legislation even prevent this exact same scenario from playing out again?
They don't need to incentivize the Air Force, because it's a federal agency. They can just order them. I think what they'll do is order the Air Force to provide better and more clear data. One thing it might involve is possibly some proposals to re-write some military rules that categorize what kinds of offenses are the subject of a discharge. Right now my understanding is that there's not really a domestic violence offense [rule], just an assault offense [rule]. So having a more clear system for identifying domestic violence incidents so that the data can be more easily compiled and reported to the background check system.

At the very least, how big of a deal is it that this is bipartisan and being co-sponsored by someone with an A+ rating from the NRA? Have there been other bipartisan efforts at gun control in the past?
Let's face it, you can't get any law passed through this Congress, on any issue. And when it comes to guns, you can't expect any major, effective reforms to be passed by them. If they can get a small fix for a flawed system, that's better than nothing. It moves the ball. And in this Congress that's probably a lot more than you could reasonably ask for.

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.

Why I Became a Snitch

0
0

For the past five years, 27-year-old “Nate”—a computer security professional in the Philadelphia area —has been a confidential informant, helping local police take down heroin dealers in and around the city. Working with his handler “Bill,” a narcotics detective, he participates in undercover controlled drug buys and feeds cops information about dealers, some of whom, he figures, wouldn’t hesitate to put bullets in him if they knew he was dropping a dime on them. Here’s Nate’s story in his own words.

I was driving with my friend and got pulled over for speeding. I was 22. The cop immediately wanted to know if there was weed in the car—my friend set me up. The cop who pulled me over was a jerk, but Bill showed up and talked to me like I was a human being. He was cool. I didn’t have enough weed for a dealing charge, but did get a possession charge. Bill was like, “Hey, we can work together on this…,” you know, become an informant to get out of charges. I was like, “No, I’m not into that. I don’t want to do that.”

I took the charge and ended up getting probation. Later on, Bill called and asked me to come down to the station. Once I got down there, he wanted information. He said he didn’t care about weed; he was after the heroin and opioids. Some of the guys I knew, they were dealing that stuff. He saw I was friends on Facebook with a lot of the guys he was looking at. He knew what was up. He pretty much just needed somebody on the inside to really get these guys. I told him from the beginning I wasn’t going to set up anybody who just deals weed, but I was onboard with heroin.

I have so much anger toward heroin. I’ve lost a lot of friends to it. I’ve had people who were friends all my life that got hooked on it, and their downfalls were so quick. I was hooked on opiates for a while, which were prescribed to me a while back for back pain. I quit cold turkey. It was hard. Weed definitely helped me with the withdrawal. I could have easily ended up going to heroin like my friends, but I never went down that route, thank God. That’s the biggest problem our community has, the heroin and the opioids, so I wanted to do something about it.

I told Bill I wouldn’t set up any friends, and I wouldn’t wear a wire. He was cool with both. I had good information. Everybody pretty much knows and trusts me around here. Nobody would suspect me of anything. I’ve had a lot of friends who are heroin addicts who would pretty much tell me everything. It would come up in conversation, and a lot of times out of my own curiosity I’d find out who’s selling what and who’s really into the game.

I was a little nervous doing the first buy, but I knew that dealer was trash, so I didn’t let it get to me. You have to conduct yourself in a certain way. Dealers will pick up on even the littlest things. But I know how it’s done because I’ve bought drugs plenty of times. That first one was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was on his porch, I smoked (weed) with him, did the (heroin) buy, and took off. That’s pretty much how it works. I trust Bill to watch my back. I do the buy and then walk away and keep walking until somebody comes and picks me up. Then my job’s done, and it’s up to the cops to make their case.

Sometimes it’s been really intense. One guy, I had it all set up, the cops were there, I was waiting outside his house like 40 minutes, and he was in his room getting high. He wouldn’t come out. I didn't know what to do. I wasn’t planning to go inside. But his mom came out and said, “Why you waiting out here? Come in.” I probably shouldn’t have, but I did. The uncle comes down the stairs, and he had a gun and was freaking out, screaming, “Who’s this guy? Who’s this guy!?’” He was messed up, and I really thought he was gonna shoot me, but I talked him down, and then the (dealer) came out of his room and was stumbling around. He didn’t even have a bag for my heroin; he just dumped it in my hand.

Times like that, your heart is racing. You feel it in your chest. But you can’t show it. I try to laugh, crack jokes, lighten the mood. But it can go wrong in a hurry. I’ve had a friend go into somebody’s house (to buy drugs), and they put a gun to his head and made him smoke a lot of crack to prove he wasn’t a cop. That could happen to me, but I’m a good talker. I will say anything and everything to get out of it. I try not to think (of excuses) ahead of time because that takes you out of the moment, and it’ll be suspicious. I try to go with the flow.

It’s an adrenaline rush, and I love an adrenaline rush. It brings up a lot of different emotions you’re not used to feeling—nervousness, excitement, that sense that something can go wrong at any point. It’s like bungee-jumping. I’ve been bungee-jumping a few times in Africa. Over there it’s a little crazy—there aren’t the safety regulations like here, so it’s like, ‘I dunno if this rope’s gonna snap or not…’ It’s a calculated risk.

I don’t take it to heart being thought of as a “rat.” I’m doing good for my community. I’m not doing this to get out of charges. I’m not putting my problems on somebody else. I’m not getting paid for it. People are volunteer firefighters, right? It’s basically the same thing. I can’t be a cop. I have a (criminal) record, and I don’t like guns. And I don’t like cops. Bill’s the exception. I just don’t want heroin in my community. Even when (dealers) knew I was trying to get off opioids they would text me whenever they got new product. They’d push it on me because if I were to ever use, I'd be a hell of a customer for them. It’s like, OK, you’re going to ruin my life because you wanna make some money off me? They’re the bad guys, not me.

My friends don’t know I do this. I guess if (dealers) put two and two together, I could be in trouble. If I keep doing this, eventually I’ll get to a point where I’ll start getting nervous and paranoid, and then maybe I’ll have to stop. But I’ve never slipped. I feel confident I haven’t done anything to give anyone a reason to suspect me at all. If it happens, and someone wants to take me out, it sucks but that’s life, and I gotta take it like a man. I’ve done my part. I know there’s risks involved, and any outcome is on me. I accept that 100 percent. I’m not afraid to die.

Follow Michael Goldberg on Twitter.

You Can Pay the Plaza Hotel $900 to Feel Forgotten by Your Parents This Christmas

0
0

This year, anyone as rich as the McCallisters has a chance to go beyond flopping down on the couch to watch Kevin wage war on the Wet Bandits—they can actually live like him.

For the 25th anniversary of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the famed Plaza Hotel is offering a suite inspired by the movie, which takes place largely within its bougie walls. For $895 a night, you'll get a plush-ass room, a Home Alone backpack, and a paint bucket filled with all four movies from the franchise, even though the first two are the only good ones. And just like Kevin McCallister, guests are offered a preposterously large ice cream sundae, hand-scooped by some dude from room service, as long as whoever's eating it isn't driving.

If you're looking for the all-out, abuse-your-absentee-father's-credit-card Kevin McCallister experience, the concierge will hook you up with a four-hour limo tour to all of young Kev's favorite spots. You'll also get express passes to the top of the Empire State Building and access to the Woolman Rink in Central Park, where—if you're lucky—you might actually spot Joe Pesci beating the shit out of a few pigeons.

There's still hope for the rest of us plebes who can't afford an actual room at the Plaza. The hotel is installing a Home Alone 2 "exhibit," where visitors get to take a few photos against backdrops from the movie. The Plaza's Todd English Food Hall is also "throwing it back to the 90s" with a menu inspired by all the era's weirdest foods: fancy Spaghetti Os, charcuterie Lunchables, "Funyun Rings," and a cocktail made with Sunny D and Zima, which frankly sounds undrinkable.

Other than that, though, the whole thing seems like a pretty good time. The Plaza just has to watch out for any kids who may take being a real-life Kevin McCallister a little too far.

Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

All the Rooms You Will Be In at a House Party

0
0

As I grow older, the quality house party (let alone the “rager”) has become a less frequent event, replaced by going to dark bars or intermittent bouts of sobriety and self-reflection. That’s why when I do party, I try to maximize my fun. Like a seagull gliding from hot patch of concrete to hot patch of concrete, I try to stay in the spots of the party where I know the company will be vibrant and the conversation will move with the briskness and wit of Oscar Wilde writing Can’t Hardly Wait. I don’t want waste my time in low-frequency, no fun rooms. I want to be at the center of the party, that is, the party I want to be in. To do that one must have a key understanding of the internal architecture of a party. What is the purpose of each space? Is the room I am going to remain fun or is it busted? Below is a personal guide to the rooms you will encounter at a house party—hopefully it will help you on your journey to peak bacchanalia.

The Shoe Room

The shoe room—which if you’re rich is the foyer or if you’re the rest of us is either the space directly inside or outside the the front door—is the first inkling of what kind of party this is going to be. Is there a more existential question for a party than Should we take our shoes off? It’s asking what are we doing here with this party. Are we building an egalitarian community, committed to the struggle of a safe environment where we all we trust one another and work together to make sure our socks don’t get wet? Or will we remain an army of transient individuals, marching around the party in our boots and sneakers, allegiances to nobody and nothing but our own freedoms and pleasures?

Of course, like any socialist projects, there will be inefficiencies. I have never seen a shoe room that wasn’t chaos, the only organizational principle best described as sedimentary, where finding your shoe means rummaging through a pile of shoes stacked chronologically like you’re combing through the fossil record of arrivals to the party. Be wary as well. I have heard, though perhaps this is a millennial urban legend, that if you leave a party wearing another person’s Blundstones you will wake up with their student loans.

All the people you will meet in the shoe room: someone hopping around on one foot trying to tug a stubborn boot off; a couple frantically trying to find their shoes so they can leave and have a huge fight; a pizza delivery guy who has been completely forgotten about.

The Bathroom/washroom/toilet

If it’s a good party, you will get to use the bathroom only once before it becomes consistently occupied—a faint rectangle of light spilling over the edges of the closed door the only evidence of the amenities within. So get what you need out of there. Splash some water on your face and whisper, “Keep it together,” like you’re in The Departed. Use a little bit of their floss. Check the cabinet for good drugs.

For the remaining time at the party, you’ll need to make alternative plans. Avoid at all costs a conversation with a stranger outside the bathroom. The unspoken reason for both of you standing will hang over any feints at interaction. “Hi my name is Jordan and yes I am also waiting to expel waste. Pleasure to meet you.”

But be careful with your alternative plans. I went to a party a little while ago and was taking a piss outside when I heard the click of a door opening. The guy in the basement was letting his dog, Nixon, out, and Nixon promptly ran up the steps that it turned out I was pissing directly in front of. The man, furious, demanded that I wash his dog’s feet.

His exact words were, “Oh great! Well now you gotta wash my dog’s feet.”

To which, I responded, “Sure I’ll wash your dog’s feet. Should I pick him up?”

The man, who obviously was a fan of conflicts of both the audible and physical kinds, was discombobulated by my meek agreeableness and haltingly responded, “Yeah, yeah pick him up. Uh, ok follow me.”

I followed him down into his apartment and handed him the dog while I began running not-too-hot water over Nixon’s adorable paws. After the two of us finished the project with the tenderness of live-in nurse, the man apologetically sighed before asking, “Do you want to smoke a bowl?” Yes! Another friendship created through the cohesive power of public urination.

All the people you will meet in/near the bathroom: a person who has to pee sooooo bad; your incredibly inebriated looking reflection; someone holding onto the toilet like a recently reunited lover.

The Outside Space

Ah the outside, a strategically essential component of a party. It is the alternative bathroom and the smoking room. The allure of the outside room also acts kind of like a powerful ocean current for the party, giving people an excuse to leave the room they are in, mixing and matching groups and conversation and keeping the party in a necessary state of flux.

Also there is the rejuvenating power of partying outdoors. Your party is no longer constrained by walls and appliances; no it is now connected to nature’s deeper rhythms of madness and fertility. The crisp air, the elements, the cascading moonlight are like Dionysus himself rubbing our shoulders and brains, whispering in the ear, “Come on, you call this partying? Step it up. Climb onto the roof, get naked and start dancing. Rip that satellite dish off its base and chug Four Loco from it.”

All the people you meet in the Outside Space: people who only smoke when they drink and hence don't have any smokes but also have no qualms about bumming about 20 over the evening; potheads too stoned to socialize and can only grin while sitting in a stoic, greasy silence; one of the hosts who is panicked and asking if anybody has seen the cat.

The Dance Room

Pause and take a moment in honour of all those brave patriots and explorers and their first tentative steps onto a not-yet-formed dance floor. They are the ones who push the living room’s couches up against the wall or realize that if they picked up and moved this table, the dining room is just one slippery floor perfect for all sorts of extravagant slides and spin. Those first couple of moments though... a more cold and hostile social environment I cannot think of. One could die of exposure to the cool indifference of the non-dancers and their practiced avoidance of our vulnerable, tentative movements.

There’s the agony of abandonment as one of your fellow dancers—whose bashful smiles that acknowledged the silliness of this whole thing was the glue keeping the damn project together—succumbs to the pull and safety of ignominy and leaves the dance floor, sending the whole endeavor teetering on the edge of destruction.

Why do we need do it? Why do we flirt with oblivion and shame? Because a dance party is the best party. Because sometimes you’re able to drop the insecurity and painful self-awareness and stop caring that you dance with the grace of a fork falling on the floor or the coordination of more than four people meeting up for brunch and the rhythm of a pair of shoes in the dryer.

And if you are in charge of the music, you gotta build up to playing “Pony”. Don’t just play it right away like a maniac.

All the people you will meet in the dance room: a guy who dances like Bruno Mars but if Bruno Mars was a bad dancer; a guy pretending to rap along to popular rap songs but is actually mumbling nonsense because he doesn’t know any of the words; a woman demanding some Beyonce with, frankly, a terrifying intensity.

The Drug Room

This is the non-bathroom room where people go to do cocaine, and finish evolving into their most annoying form. It’ll probably be a bedroom or occasionally a less-used living room. Whichever option, the room will be as messy as the first social interaction between a fucked up person with a non-fucked up person. In my experience this is usually a very exclusive room—the VIP room of the party, by that I mean, I never get asked to do cocaine. I mean I get it, cocaine is very expensive and can’t be shared with everyone, especially someone like me who is about as cool and dangerous looking as a guy who just got fired from a bookstore for his controversial book-of-the-month pick. It’s just an unfair deal though, like oh you aren’t going to share your cocaine but you are about to share every opinion you’ve ever had. Just doesn’t seem like a fair deal is all.

Though it’s probably better I don’t get invited into these rooms. The few times I have done cocaine it was a humiliating experience for all involved. Instead a of simple, confident snort,I have to snort around the table trying to collect it all like some kind of terminally uncool anteater. It’s so bad I’m pretty sure the cocaine is embarrassed for me.

All the people you will meet in the drug room: cokeheads who are tellingly a little too excited about what’s about to go down; a man with some strong opinions about the artistic direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a roommate that you never saw before and will end up staying in the drug room for the entirety of the party.

The Good Room aka, the Kitchen

The best room at a party will alway be the kitchen. This is one of the few definitive truths in this phantasm of a life. It’s where the booze is so there will always be a constant train of partygoers that you can meet. And the meeting is easier because standing and leaning are much more conducive to socializing than sitting. When I’m leaning on a counter or a stovetop I feel cool and relaxed, ready to make a new friend but when I’m sitting down I feel like, “Oh no am I actually on the toilet? Oh good just on a couch. That was a close one.” Never mind when you are sitting and someone is talking to you while their standing which makes me feel like I am about to be disciplined by a drunk overlord.

That’s why the kitchen rules. We’re all standing or leaning, we’re on the same level, we’re looking at each other’s eyes. Plus there is room to fan out, to twirl and spin and shake it and, if you’re my former roommate Josh, play real-life Fruit Ninja where we would go through all the rapidly decaying fruit in our fridge and toss and chop it with a crazy-sharp knife. Only in the kitchen, surrounded by the soothing shapes of bowls, would this kind of madness be not only accepted but cherished.

Want to make your party truly pop? Make all the rooms in your house a kitchen. Put a blender in the bathroom, take all the chairs out of the living room and replace them with spatulas. You’re guests will thank me.

All the people that you will meet in the kitchen: Ladies; fellas; people who don’t give a fuck; lovers; haters; people who call themselves players; hot mommas; pimp daddies; people rolling up in Caddies; rockers; hip hoppers; and everybody all around the world.

The Bad Room

The Bad Room can be any room in the house. A dining room that did not get turned into a dance floor, a living room where people started playing Nintendo Switch for too long, a basement that is a little too cold and creepy. All it takes is a feeling that is not the spot to be in. To be clear, just because you are in the Bad Room doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. It can happen to anyone. You can just be sitting in a room, getting deep into the weeds on a solid conversation and miss the subtle temperature change in the room. Maybe it was because somebody busted out a hula hoop a little too early in the night or everybody got uncomfortable after that game of Twister got seriously competitive, but the world-destroying question starts to pop into everyone’s head, I wonder what’s going on in the rest of the party? Once that happens a trickle of people leaving the room turns into a torrent, leaving behind only the withered husk of what used to be a fun setting.

The important thing to do is to remain calm and know when to cut your losses. The last time this happened to me, what was once a fun, vibing room immediately flipped into a desolate, frigid loser-dome, filled with me, two other weirdoes whose company I was enjoying, along with an incessant hula hooper. Filled with hubris, I was sure that if we stayed put, the inevitable flow of the party would return to us and we would be on the ground floor—kings and queens of a fertile New World.

That never happened. What happened instead was a powerful signifier that we were in the Bad Room. Somebody came into the room, looked around the room and then immediately turned around and left. It was a one-second, wordless and damning indictment that we were in the Wastelands of the party, where those who are extraneous to the party—the sullied, the unseen—are left to languish while the party rages elsewhere.

I had to apologize to those who had stayed with me and my madness. I was a false prophet who had led us to ruin. The only thing left to do was carve CROATOAN into the wall and chug my beer so I had a reason to leave the godforsaken place.

All the people you will meet in the bad room: Me.

There it is a quick handy guide to the house parties. Remember to stay humble, have fun, follow your instincts and I’ll meet you under the warm stove light of the kitchen.

Viewing all 38002 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images