Cardi B releases clip of sit-down with Bernie Sanders to talk raising minimum wages

Cardi B has released a short clip from that sit-down she had back in July with2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders questioning the Democratic contender about his agenda to help folks make a livable wage.

—Cardi B teams up with Bernie Sanders to film 2020 campaign video—

“What are we gonna do about wages in America?” the Money rapper asked during a convo at Ten Nail Bar in Detroit.

She then discussed her former challenges paying her monthly bills, The Daily Mail reports.

“For example, as a New Yorker — not now but when I was not famous — I felt like no matter how many jobs I get I wasn’t able to make ends meet,” the 26-year-old said.

Cardi opened up about why she became a stripper saying her $200 a week supermarket job didn’t cut the mustard.

Sanders complimented Cardi on her “’excellent and important” question and explained his plan for raising the minimum wage to $15.

“Right now we have tens of millions of people making what I call starvation wages,” Sanders said. “How do you pay your rent? How do you pay for food? How do you pay for transportation? You can’t.”

Last month, Cardi teased that she teamed up with Sanders to shoot a commercial to discuss how to include young people in the political process and they discussed a number of issues affecting underrepresented communities.

—Cardi B schools her fans on the difference between race and ethnicity: “Schools don’t teach this to people”—

Sanders wrote on Facebook last month: “Cardi B and I had a great conversation about the future of America. Together, we’ll get millions of young people involved in the political process and transform this country. Stay tuned for our video coming soon!”

Tuesday Cardi wrote: “So I know this is long over due but here it is ! A couple of weeks ago I asked my followers if you all had the chance to ask a Democratic candidate a question, what would that question be? The topic that was mentioned the most by all of you was about raising MINIMUM WAGE.

“I got the chance to ask @berniesanders about this, and these are his answers. Keep sending your questions, we will be addressing more of these soon.”

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Stacey Abrams beefs up plans for Fair Fight 2020 ‘We have to make certain every eligible American can cast a ballot in 2020’

Stacey Abrams has upgraded plans for her voter’s rights organization Fair Fight 2020 that includes training activists to protect voters against election abuse, intimidation at the polls and interference in next year’s election.

—Stacey Abrams says she is “as capable” to be president in 2020 as others—

Abrams and her aide Lauren Groh-Wargo sat down with the AJC to discuss their extended plans to fight against voter suppression in 20 states ahead of the presidential election.

When asked if the Georgia Democrat plans to run against Brian Kemp again for the governor’s seat in 2022, she pivoted and spoke about her passion for helping voters get a fair shot during elections.

I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.

Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019

“My political future will be determined in the future. But my present and the work that needs to be done before my party chooses the nominee will be focusing on electoral opportunities and fighting voter suppression,” Abrams said.

“We have to make certain that every eligible American can cast a ballot in 2020 – and that work has to start now.”

Abrams said she intends for Fair Fight 2020 to have a hand in ensuring that voter processes are adhered to counter potential attacks by the opposing party.

“We’re going to be operating in 20 states. The goal is to ensure there is infrastructure in every single one of those states. Where voter protection processes aren’t something that wait until September of 2020 but they stay in place for the duration of 2020,” she revealed.

“The goal is going to be for us to have meaningful effects on ensuring that voters know their rights, they have access to ballots, that they will be able to effectively counter what Republicans will be doing. The reality is that we don’t know what the contours of their attacks will be, on top of what’s already in place …

—White man arrested after spitting in Black girlfriend’s face over slave game—

Abrams said her organization’s work will extend beyond the presidential races.

“This is focused on not simply the presidential election but also the Senate races that are so critical and the down-ballot races that for many states determine who draws the maps for redistricting,” she said.

“My responsibility is to ensure that every American who is eligible to vote has the right to vote in the upcoming elections. Elections are not about politicians. They’re about people having their say. And my responsibility, if I truly believe in this mission, is to focus on that outcome and not any ancillary effect it has on me. If I do my work, I’ve done my job as an American.”

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Shift to renewable electricity a win-win at statewide level

Amid rollbacks of the Clean Power Plan and other environmental regulations at the federal level, several U.S. states, cities, and towns have resolved to take matters into their own hands and implement policies to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One popular approach, now in effect in 29 states and the District of Columbia, is to set Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), which require electricity suppliers to source a designated percentage of electricity from available renewable-power generating technologies.

Boosting levels of renewable electric power not only helps mitigate global climate change, but also reduces local air pollution. Quantifying the extent to which this approach improves air quality could help legislators better assess the pros and cons of implementing policies such as RPS. Toward that end, a research team at MIT has developed a new modeling framework that combines economic and air-pollution models to assess the projected subnational impacts of RPS and carbon pricing on air quality and human health, as well as on the economy and on climate change. In a study focused on the U.S. Rust Belt, their assessment showed that the financial benefits associated with air quality improvements from these policies would more than pay for the cost of implementing them. The results appear in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

“This research helps us better understand how clean-energy policies now under consideration at the subnational level might impact local air quality and economic growth,” says the study’s lead author Emil Dimanchev, a senior research associate at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, former research assistant at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and a 2018 graduate of the MIT Technology and Policy Program.

Burning fossil fuels for energy generation results in air pollution in the form of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Exposure to PM2.5 can lead to adverse health effects that include lung cancer, stroke, and heart attacks. But avoiding those health effects — and the medical bills, lost income, and reduced productivity that comes with them — through the adoption of cleaner energy sources translates into significant cost savings, known as health co-benefits.

Applying their modeling framework, the MIT researchers estimated that existing RPS in the nation’s Rust Belt region generate a health co-benefit of $94 per ton of carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduced in 2030, or 8 cents for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of renewable energy deployed in 2015 dollars. Their central estimate is 34 percent larger than total policy costs. The team also determined that carbon pricing delivers a health co-benefit of $211 per ton of CO₂ reduced in 2030, 63 percent greater than the health co-benefit of reducing the same amount of CO₂ through an RPS approach.

In an extension to their published work focused on the state of Ohio, the researchers evaluated the health effects and economy-wide costs of Ohio’s RPS using economic and atmospheric chemistry modeling. According to their best estimates, an average of 50 premature deaths per year will be avoided as a result of Ohio’s RPS in 2030. This translates to an economic benefit of $470 million per year, or 3 cents per kWh of renewable generation supported by the RPS. With costs of the RPS estimated at $300, that translates to an annual net health benefit of $170 million in 2030.

When the Ohio state legislature took up Ohio House Bill No. 6, which proposed to repeal the state’s RPS, Dimanchev shared these results on the Senate floor.

“According to our calculations, the magnitude of the air quality benefits resulting from Ohio’s RPS is substantial and exceeds its economic costs,” he argued. “While the state legislature ultimately weakened the RPS, our research concludes that this will worsen the health of Ohio residents.”

The MIT research team’s results for the Rust Belt are consistent with previous studies, which found that the health co-benefits of climate policy (including RPS and other instruments) tend to exceed policy costs.

“This work shows that there are real, immediate benefits to people’s health in states that take the lead on clean energy,” says MIT Associate Professor Noelle Selin, who led the study and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Institute for Data, Systems and Society. “Policymakers should take these impacts into account as they consider modifying these standards.”

The study was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air, Climate and Energy Centers Program.

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WATCH | Corinne Foxx and Sistine Stallone, two of Hollywood’s brightest new stars, debut in ’47 Meters Down: Uncaged’

White man arrested after spitting in Black girlfriend’s face over slave game

They say what’s done in the dark will come to light and that appears to be the case for a white man and his Black girlfriend’s bizarre bedroom slave game that resulted in a call to the cops.

—Black home buyer who found KKK memorabilia in cop’s home receives death threats—

Tampa police answered a call of a nasty verbal fight between Kenneth Atkins and Ashley Edwards that took a turn for the worst when Atkins spit in her face because he didn’t want to play a role in her game “slave and slaver,” according to an Aug. 6 affidavit, The NY Daily News reports.

“Ashley stated she wanted to play slave and slaver because she is African American and he is Caucasian,” according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s office report. “Kenneth did not wish to partake and became verbally aggressive.”

Things got heated and Atkins pushed back and spat in his girlfriend’s face, police reported.

Sounds like he played anyway…

Atkins was also arrested for simple battery although he denied hitting Edwards.

—Oprah Winfrey reveals why she was moved to tears when Tarell Alvin McCraney pitched her ‘David Makes Man’—

Atkins can reportedly still have ‘consensual contact’ with Edwards but is scheduled for arraignment on September 8.

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DeepMind's Losses and the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Alphabet’s DeepMind unit, conqueror of Go and other games, is losing lots of money. Continued deficits could imperil investments in AI.

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Dell XPS 13 (2019) Review: A Great Compact Laptop

With that dreaded nose cam fixed, the Dell latest XPS 13 is an ultraportable delight to use. Read our full laptop review.

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BREAKING NEWS: A$AP Rocky CONVICTED of assault by Swedish court

A$AP Rocky has been found guilty of assault and handed a conditional sentence after a street brawl in Stockholm that was caught on video.

The rapper and two members of his entourage were convicted by a Swedish court on Wednesday, following a viral fight in the Swedish capital on June 30.

The Stockholm District Court said in its ruling that the performer’s claim of self-defense was rejected.

“The defendants have claimed that they acted in self-defence. Based on statements from two witnesses, the court finds that the defendants were not subject to a current or imminent criminal attack. Therefore, they were not in a situation where they were entitled to use violence in self-defence. Nor could they have perceived themselves to be in such a situation.”

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Megan Thee Stallion “hot girl” video shoot shut down in LA

3 Animals Hurt By the New Endangered Species Act

These three creatures illustrate the harm that could come from the loss of protections, which the Trump administration announced Monday.

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Cicely Tyson joins cast of Ava DuVernay series on OWN

Cicely Tyson will join the cast as a series regular in Ava DuVernay’s new romance anthology series on OWN, “Cherish the Day.”

The network said Tuesday that the 94-year-old legend will play Miss Luma Lee Langston, a star of stage and screen in decades past. She joins previously announced leads Xosha Roquemore and Alano Miller.

The series, which premieres in 2020, will chronicle the lives of one couple per season, with each episode spanning a single day. It’s DuVernay’s second series on OWN since the creation of “Queen Sugar.”

Roquemore plays Gently James, Luma’s live-in assistant who is encouraged by Miss Luma Lee to strike up a romance with Evan Fisher, played by Miller. DuVernay is the creator and executive producer.

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Movie Review: Shark sequel to ’47 Meters Down’ is a toothsome success

At the beginning of “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” a quartet of young women are given some pretty good advice before going out to sea: “Don’t get eaten by a shark.” It’s advice, as you might expect, not all take.

Which of the four makes it out alive fuels this absolutely satisfying sequel to “47 Meters Down,” this time with a new cast and set in some ancient underwater labyrinthine tunnels in Mexico. Forty-four years after “Jaws,” there’s still a shark thriller that makes your heart pound.

Director and co-writer Johannes Roberts returns to dangerous waters after the surprising success of his “47 Meters Down” in 2017, which was made for just $5 million and earned $62 million. That one starred Claire Holt and Mandy Moore as sisters whose shark cage diving experience in Mexico, shall we say, did not go as planned. Sorry, again, Mexican tourism industry. (Not to rub salt in the wounds, much of it was filmed in the Dominican Republic anyway.)

Four young actresses — half with famous parents — have jumped into the aqua this time: Sophie Nélisse, Corinne Foxx (daughter of Jamie), Brianne Tju and Sistine Stallone (daughter of Sylvester). There’s a “Mean Girls”-like vibe to the setup and none of the actresses are given enough to become three-dimensional, but at least their chatter isn’t about boys. The film manages to pass the Bechdel Test, unless the sharks are male.

In terms of plot, like its predecessor, “47 Meters Down: Uncaged ,” is pretty tidy: Our quartet of high school students — including feuding step-sisters — foolishly go exploring in a submerged Mayan city that they are unaware contains — you guessed it — sharks. Massive blind sharks. Massive blind sharks that are hungry.

Roberts — who with Ernest Riera co-wrote both films — follows a similar slow wind-up, including echoing opening scenes, and is a little too fond of showing our heroines cavorting in bikinis. But once submerged, he has intense skill combining light, water, bubbles and shadow. We sometimes see sharks before our heroines do, but they still sneak up on us, even though we know they’re coming.

The dialogue may be banal — “This place is insane, right?” and “We can’t give up!” — yet there is an unpredictability to Roberts’ action sequences, both nodding to the conventions of shark thrillers and subverting them. (No sharks were harmed making the film — they’re all computer-generated.)

There are little in-jokes throughout. In a film set in Mayan tunnels, we hear a song by Aztec Camera. The girls all attend the Modine International School for Girls, a play on Matthew Modine, who played the boat owner in the first film. The tossing of buckets of chum in the second film is a callback to the use of it in the first.

Roberts has clearly been given a bigger budget and it shows in the nicely realized submerged city the poor young women must navigate. He’s saddled with a terrible film title — 47 meters was the depth of the ocean floor in the first film — but none of that matters once the air tanks and masks go on. He’s like one of his sharks: Shaky on land but a master in the water.

“47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” an Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for “creature related violence and terror, some bloody images and brief rude gestures.” Running time: 89 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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WIRED Takes a Good Hard Look at Dick Pics

The dick pic—so commonplace, so controversial—has undeniable cultural importance, but media coverage of it tends to strike a single chord: “Ew, bad.”

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No More Screen Time! The Navy Reverts to Physical Throttles

The Navy will eliminate touchscreen controls in destroyers after reports found that many sailors did not know how to work them, contributing to accidents.

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A Tax Credit Fueled the Solar Energy Boom. Now It's in Limbo

A federal subsidy that helped launch the US solar industry is about to expire. The industry is likely to stumble without some replacement.

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Kenya officials exhume man's body to retrieve uniform

Kenyan officials are accused of violating local laws and cultural practices by exhuming the body.

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The Troubles: Does South Africa hold lessons for Northern Ireland?

The BBC's Johannesburg correspondent asks if NI can learn lessons from South Africa's handling of the past.

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Oprah Winfrey reveals why she was moved to tears when Tarell Alvin McCraney pitched her ‘David Makes Man’

David Makes Man has been on our radar ever since theGrio had the pleasure of visiting the show’s set several months ago. In January, we watched as the show’s executive producer, Michael B. Jordan discussed the series alongside its stars, (Phylicia Rashad, Alana Arenas, and Akili McDowell and showrunner Dee Harris- Lawrence and shared snippets of the beautifully authentic series.

Just last week, theGrio sat down with Oprah Winfrey and the show’s creator, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and a handful of journalists to find out how this groundbreaking show came to be.

“From the very first time I heard the pitch, I sat in the room, I closed my eyes and I was doing everything I could not to cry during the pitch because it’s kind of unprofessional,” Oprah admitted.

“I knew if he was able to do a portion of what the pitch represented, that we would have something that would be, in its own way, a phenomenon.”

That may be the perfect word to describe what David Makes Man stands to be when it premieres on OWN this week. Visually, it’s as stunning as McCraney’s Oscar-winning film, Moonlight, and conceptually, it has never been done before.

Tarell Alvin McCraney, Phylicia Rashad, and Akili McDowell dish on ‘David Makes Man’

“First of all, most of the stories I read growing up were always about Black girl stories…So, sitting in the room with Tarell was the first time I thought, ‘Wow. I really don’t know much about Black boys, nor have I ever actually thought very much about Black boys.’ I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about Black boys so I thought the series and the way he pitched it would offer the rest of the world an opportunity to see inside a world that we rarely get to see,” Oprah explained. 

“I believe that what he and the team have done, what he and Dee [Harris-Lawrence] have done, what everyone has collaborated to create is this series that validates the Black boy.”

From the very beginning of the first episode, McCraney invites viewers inside the heart and mind of one Black boy, David, or D.J., or Dae, depending on who’s around. The title character is flawlessly portrayed by Akili McDowell. 

“It’s really about finally being able to see myself and get that validation of self and seeing characters, reading characters–I read Tar Baby and I know Tar Baby is the one that no one likes to talk about, but when I read Tar Baby it was one of the moments where I was like, ‘I know this southern boy. Oooh, I know him so bad. I know wanting after a person so wonderfully.’ And then to sort of turn around and see Florida life in a way that I hadn’t seen since Zora Neale Hurston, I thought to myself, ‘Well, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll reach into my pocket, my corner of the world, and show it as best I can,'” McCraney said.

“And so I’m grateful for that legacy. I’m terrified of it,” he continued. “You want to be noble you want to stand up in front of it. But you also know, in order to truly do it, you have to bare yourself, flaws and all. There’s no way to really be a part of that legacy or add to it unless you show your full self. That means the warts and all. And that’s the terrifying part of it.”

Tarell Alvin McCraney, Michael B. Jordan, Phylicia Rashad preview ‘David Makes Man’ at Sundance

It’s hard to believe there could be anything terrifying about unveiling this masterful project to the world. It’s beautifully shot, expertly cast, and magnificently written, inviting viewers into a world so many will identify with. The show is rooted in highlighting the intentional and unintentional ways Black folks “adjust” or code-switch to navigate their every day lives. It also examines trauma, and its effects, in a way we have never seen; forcing us to confront so many of our own demons through the fascinating and complex characters McCraney has created.

“I didn’t use the word ‘trauma’ in the pitch. I view it as turning points, moments of awareness. What are the moments where you are made most aware?”

“One of the things that as really necessary for me in telling the story was talking about how David, as a child, how we, metabolize these moments,” he said.

Oprah knows how to spot something special, and this show may be her most valuable find yet.

David Makes Man premieres August 14 on OWN.

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How a 'NULL' License Plate Landed One Hacker in Ticket Hell

Security researcher Joseph Tartaro thought NULL would make a fun license plate. He's never been more wrong.

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Why Trump’s MAGA muppets Diamond and Silk are calling Democrats the party of white supremacy

Donald Trump has long relied on the shucking and jiving of two of his most prized puppets Diamond and Silk to get his hateful messages across and now the distastrous duo are slamming Democrats.

—John Legend and Rihanna call out Donald Trump over El Paso and Dayton mass shootings—

Trump reposted a video by the two messy vloggers who defended his hateful rhetoric by calling the Democrats the “party of white supremacy,” The Daily Mail reports.

“You know we hear these people calling our president ‘white supremacy.’ But guess what? They represent the party that created white supremacy right here in the United States,’” Lynnette Hardaway, who goes by Diamond, told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs on Friday night.

The two were responding to the onslaught of criticism Trump has received after two mass shootings occurred within hour of each other in El Paso and Dayton. Many have blamed Trump for inciting the racist acts with his refusal to condemn white supremacists and for inciting supporters at his rallies.

Diamond said Democrats “demean and demonize the President of the United States.”

Silk said she was tired of white men calling another white man, Trump, a racist and said she was sick of them playing the “race card more than Black people.”

“You know, as a black woman I know what racism do look like. But it’s really funny to me to see another white man call another white man a racist when they never experienced racism. That’s disgusting to me.”

—African American museum in Baton Rouge vandalized after beloved founder’s murder—

.@DiamondandSilk on @LouDobbs talking about who’s really playing the “Race Card” pic.twitter.com/y6Wv2ZyK1E

— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) August 12, 2019

And Diamond even took a shot at 2020 candidate Joe Biden who was recently called out for defending a segregationist saying:

“And who they need to look at is Joe Biden because he’s the one who said he reached across the aisle to work with segregationist – he didn’t have to reach far. It’s not going to be long before he tells us how he used to sit down with KKK members as well.”

The MAGA muppet show continues.

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