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28allthelove28 · 7 years

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Into The Trees, You and Me (Larry Stylinson Fan Fiction)

Hello, this is my first ever fan fiction so sorry if It’s rubbish! Harry and Louis walk their dog Clifford and ‘rest’ by a waterfall. It’s affectionate and there is smut (explicit) but the whole story is pretty cute! (4100 words)

INTO THE TREES, YOU AND ME

“Come on, love” Louis whispers as he holds out his hand.

Harry takes it, muttering “Oops, clumsy pup” as he turns around to check on Clifford, whilst simultaneously tripping over a loose stone.

“Harold, are you talking about our dog or yourself?”

“Oh, fuck off!” Harry giggles happily and entwines their fingers as they stroll along the woodland path.

Louis mock gasps, holding his hand to his chest “Harold, do not speak like that in front of Clifford!”

Harry smiles fondly at his ridiculous husband and their equally ridiculous dog. “What, our baby?”

“Yes, of course.” Louis replies, seriously. “My only baby.”

Though a sudden laugh escapes Harry lips, he quickly pouts and frowns. “I thought I was your only baby” he grumbles, blinking his green eyes as innocently as possible.

Louis mock scowls “Now I’m gonna be the one telling you to fuck off.”

“Stop that right now, Louis. We need to be setting a good example for our Clifford” Harry laughs, in mock disgrace, as he watches their big clumsy dog scampering off up the rocks ahead.

“Ohh I don’t see you setting much of an example with this very tasteful outfit you’ve chosen today!” Louis teases, as he steps back to scan up and down Harry’s legs with a raised eyebrow. He’s wearing shorts that are probably far too short, probably a little too tight, and probably completely inappropriate, but because it’s Harry, they somehow work and they somehow look amazing.

Of course.

Harry has a tendency to think he’s a lot smaller than he actually is. Much like their dog, Clifford, actually. Also, Harry is a total exhibitionist and a borderline naturist. Everyone knows that.

“Excuse me Louis but it’s a hot day and I don’t see you complaining” Harry smirks as he seductively tugs at the neck of his loose vest, to run a hand slowly down his chest and peeks at Louis sinfully from over his shoulder.

“Oh my god, do not fucking start!” Louis grins as he throws a stick for Clifford to chase. “Or I’ll throw you into that water along with this stick!”

Harry’s eyes light up mischievously. “Oh! So you want me wet do you, Lou?” He jokes playfully as he walks nearer the river and moves his curls out of his eyes.

Louis follows him, smiling and gently rubbing his arm. “You’re an absolute disgrace.”

Harry throws a stick back to Clifford who is now splashing about in the water, having the time of his life. Harry laughs at the silly dog and turns around to face Louis with a dimpled smile. “You love it, though.”

Louis breaks from admiring the trees reaching around them. “Yes.” He smiles up to his boy. “Yes. I do.”

Harry places a gentle hand on Louis’ hip and steps nearer to him, so the toes of their shoes are touching. He leans down slightly and kisses Louis lovingly on the lips. Louis mirrors him, lightly wrapping his hand around Harry’s waist to kiss him back. They rest their foreheads together and smile at each other, giggling slightly before kissing a few more times.

“Come on, Cliff!” Louis calls happily as he beckons the dog out of the river and back onto the path. Clifford obediently runs up to his dads, panting enthusiastically with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, as he shakes off his wet fur.

One of the reasons Louis loves Clifford so much, besides having someone to care for when he’s away from his sisters, and someone to cuddle when Harry’s not around, is the fact that Clifford is actually just the dog version of Harry. Beautiful, brunette, curly, clumsy, cute, cuddly, cheeky, loveable, much bigger than he thinks, and of course, makes Louis smile.

He hasn’t told Harry this of course. It would flatter him far too much, and Louis would never hear the end of it.

It’s not because he worries that this would strengthen Clifford’s bond with Harry over his, and that Harry might become the favourite parent.

Not at all.

Nope.

Harry pats Clifford affectionately on the head then squirms at the muddy water that still clings to his fur. “Erghh” he laughs and wipes his hand on his shorts. “You big mess, Cliff!”

Louis fonds at his curly haired boys, shaking his head. “We’ll have to give him a bath when we get home.”

“WE!?” Harry questions over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow and smiling adoringly, as the three of them carry on walking up the leafy path.

“Yes, we!” Louis replies, attempting to frown. “Just throw him in the pool, Haz, he’ll be fine.” He jokes, as he ruffles Clifford’s thick, soggy fur.

Harry barks out a loud laugh. “Absolutely not.”

“What!?” Louis squeaks.

Harry rolls his eyes and reaches for his husband’s hand so they are back to walking closely side by side. “We have to swim in there, Lou. No way is Cliff getting in when he’s this mucky.”

The pair chuckle and shake their heads, breathing out contented sighs as they scramble up the path.

The walk continues like this.

Sun filtering through the gaps in the leaves, making the forest floor golden. The light dances against Harry and Louis, illuminating their tanned skin and falling in shadows across their features.

They both look gorgeous.

As always.

The path continues to wind and dip beside the river. Clifford jumps after rainbows made when the sun catches in sparkles in the little waterfalls that mark the route.

Harry and Louis peacefully drift in and out of chat, commenting on the plants and insects around them, asking nonsensical questions about nature, that neither of them know the answers to but still pretend that they do.

The boys share funny stories about stupid things that them and their friends have done over the years. Stories the other hasn’t heard before, and in-jokes that keep being told but are still funny. Memories from before they belonged to each other, before they’d ever met, and memories which are theirs and will always be theirs.

They make a mental note to invite Liam and Niall round for another BBQ soon, they talk about their families and say a cheery hello to the other walkers who very occasionally come past. They stop every now and again for kisses and stupid selfies. To help untangle Clifford from whatever mess he’s gotten into, and for Louis to tease Harry as he climbs up onto log piles to get that perfect artistic photo.

“You’ll thank me when my book is published and half the photos are of you!” Harry shouts as he skips after Louis and delicately removes his boy’s cap, to place a green fern leaf into his fluffy hair, and comb stray strands out of his eyes. “Stunning” Harry admires, proudly. “Beautiful.” He cups Louis’ chin and gently lifts it with his thumb to bow down and kiss him sweetly on the tip of his nose. “Don’t pretend you don’t love being my muse, boo” he flirts.

Crinkles crease around the edges of Louis’ eyes as he beams and dashes off with Clifford to pick out some pink flowers to softly weave into Harry’s hair. Louis brushes the edges of Harry’s face and, playfully squeezing his cheeks together, gives him a sloppy little kiss, before coiling a shiny curl round his finger and watching it spring back behind Harry’s ear. “So so pretty, baby” he coos, only half joking. “My princess.”

Before Harry has time to bask in his favourite compliment, Louis is twirling away from him again. “Race you to the big waterfall, Haz!”

Twelve limbs stumbling all on top of each other to the sound of breathless laughter and pants, flower crowns falling onto soft moss, claws scraping into the soil, rucksacks and tee shirts pulled over heads and flung to the ground. Harry, Louis and Clifford settle down on a rug in a little curve of rock-face just opposite the waterfall.

Closed off from the forest and away from the public steps, Harry nestles into Louis’ open arms, comfortably leaning his bare back against his husband’s bare chest and resting his arms over Louis’ knees, which cradle Harry on either side. One hand draws soft circles and hearts into the hair on Louis’ calf and the other caresses Louis’ arm, which is wrapped comfortingly around his waist.

Louis tangles kisses into Harry’s hair before resting his chin on the top of Harry’s head, the feeling of his boy’s curls is soft against his stubble, as the pair peacefully watch birds flutter around the noisy stream of water that crashes down onto the mossy rocks.

“Admiring the view, babe?” Louis teases into Harry’s ear. One of their many in-jokes.

“Always.” Harry replies, as he twists his arm beneath Louis’ to jokingly slap the edge of Louis’ bum. Harry leans forward to offer Clifford a dog chew and watch him excitedly carry it away a little further down the rocks and get stuck in.

He feels a gentle kick to his bum before Louis is launching himself at Harry, hands round his waist and pulling him back into his arms. A playful bite to Harry’s shoulder and quick kisses to his neck and jaw. “Mine” he whispers into Harry’s ear and he lays his boy onto the ground.

“Yours” Harry sighs, as he watches Louis clamber over his legs to straddle him and sit over his lap with a mischievous smirk, the sound of their happy laughter echoing against the rushing sound of the waterfall.

Harry pushes himself up onto the palms of his hands, lining his face nearer Louis’ to confidently look him in the eyes. “Behave Louis” he laughs. “Clifford is only young.”

Louis snorts out a loud laugh and buries his head into the crook of Harry’s shoulder, which is shaking slightly from his own laughter. Louis turns round to watch Clifford laying on his front, contentedly focused on battling with the chew toy held between his big paws. “He’s busy.” Louis says, as he holds his palm against Harry’s slightly flushed chest and softly pushes him back down to lay against the blanket and place his hands on either side of Harry’s head, so he’s leaning directly over him.

“Oh” Harry replies slowly, raising his eyebrows and smiling. He grips his man’s wrists and slowly brushes his hands up Louis arms till they sweep over his shoulders, dip into his collar bones then slide around the back of Louis neck, to hold him. Harry’s fingers stroke Louis’ hair and play with the longer strands that flick out slightly at the back, tugging lightly on one, as he uses his other hand to pull Louis’ face down towards his.

The boy’s faces are inches apart, looking at each other fondly with silent, knowing grins, green eyes meeting blue. Without breaking eye contact Louis dips his head slightly to the side and runs his nose along the side of Harry’s, who lifts his head up slightly to keen into the touch, and rub his nose back against Louis’. Harry parts his lips slightly, pushing them as near to Louis’ as he can without touching them. Teasing.

Louis isn’t one to let anyone win though, unless it comes to Harry of course. He leans back, momentarily breaking their closeness, before lightly running the tip of his nose along the soft pink seam between Harry’s lips. He looks Harry in the eyes one more time, a twinkle in his own as he watches the darkness spreading from Harry’s pupils, before he closes his eyes and takes Harry’s bottom lip between his own lips and kisses him properly.

Lifting his head up to kiss into Louis’ mouth, Harry holds Louis’ shoulders to bring his body down against his, as Louis cradles Harry’s head with one hand, and lays his other atop of Harry’s chest.

They kiss each other deeply. Open lips, wet, soft. Their heads lolling and chins resting against each other as Harry’s hands swim up and down Louis’ back and around his sides, tracing the back of his finger into the curve of Louis’ waist. Louis entwines his fingers through Harry’s growing curls and massages his scalp, letting his thumb run over the curve of Harry’s ear, as the waterfall gushes loudly beside them, irrelevant. A soft breeze tickles the boy’s skin, unnoticed.

Harry cups Louis’ chin to pull him nearer into a faster, more urgent kiss. A kiss that says there’s more. A kiss that leads somewhere.

And Louis knows.

He cups Harry’s neck, applying gentle pressure to the throat with his thumb, as his other hand leaves Harry’s hair to swipe quickly down his body and grab his hip, pulling it up so Harry’s legs bend and his knees grip at Louis’ sides, pushing him down harder onto his lap, as Louis begins to grind onto him.

Their kisses become sloppier and wetter, quicker, harder and more desperate, as they’re interrupted with breaths which escape their lips fast, as Harry thrusts up into Louis. Breathing heavier, Louis’ hands trace over Harry’s body and run down.

Down from his chest, down over his stomach and down onto his crotch, pressing his palm down hard onto the bulge beneath Harry’s little shorts, causing the fabric to stretch out around his already obvious erection.

It looks really hot.

God. Louis has always been so gone for this boy.

This adorable, cuddly, sweet, boy, with the face of an angel and a heart of pure gold, but who is also a complete exhibitionist and is shamelessly dirty.

Harry demands for Louis’ touch but is powerless to it, flirts outrageously with him but would do anything if Louis asked. He’s devilishly handsome, all long smooth legs and thick thighs, all the right muscle in all the right places, dark puffy lips and wide glossy eyes. He’s as hungry for Louis as Louis is for him, and it’s always been this way, since they were 16 and 18.

Harry is total filth and Louis fucking loves it.

Harry whines underneath him, his chest falling deep as he sighs out expletives into the hot air when Louis moves his fingers to grip around Harry’s hard penis through his shorts and tug it up and down slowly.

“Ah, fuck” Harry lets his head fall back while Louis palms him a few more times, letting out his own erotic ‘ah’ sounds as breathy encouragement, and because this is turning him on too.

Like it always does.

Harry has this beautiful boy grinding on him, touching him so good and he’s barely even started yet. Louis’ watching him with those blue eyes that have become all Harry can see, flicking his fringe back with an open mouth as his fingers lightly trail down his own chest, painfully slow, till he’s grabbing at his own crotch with a deep sigh.

It’s so hot and Harry can’t take it.

Louis is always too much and that’s just how he likes it. They’re in public in a fucking forest, their fucking dog is asleep right there and here is Louis straddling him, their hard dicks in his hands, with the filthiest, hottest look on his face.

God, he loves him.

“Ugh! Fuck, Louis” he pleads, leaning up to tug Louis’ shorts down and grab his husband’s hard cock. Louis gasps at the sudden contact and immediately pushes into Harry’s hand, which is twisting just beneath the head of his cock then tugging back down to the base, as he licks wet kisses into the hair on Louis’ chest.

“Ahh” Louis whispers his boy’s name with eyes tight shut as he pulls at Harry’s hair, then looks beneath him to push down Harry’s shorts and take him in his hand. “Mmmh, Lou. Yess” he feels Harry breathe against his skin as his hand squeezes around him.

The boys tangle in each other’s laps, thrusting into each other’s pumping fists, speaking in heavy sighs and loud moans and rushed, messy kisses.

“You first, babe” Louis sighs, as he takes Harry’s shoulders and gestures for him to lay on his back.

“Push me.”

Louis nearly chokes but he knows exactly what Harry’s like, and he can see it in his eyes. Trust and mischief and want.

Hands fanned out on Harry’s chest and looking him in the eye whilst he licks his lips, Louis pushes Harry to the ground.

Harry’s watching Louis in awe, cheeks flushed and pupils blown. He spreads his legs wide and grasps his own dick in his hands, his chest rising fast with each breath pouring out of his pretty lips. Mouth hung open and eyebrows knitted low.

Louis locks eyes with him, his own mouth open in an o shape and his brow furrowed, just from watching Harry. He wastes no time in settling between Harry’s legs, dragging his palms up soft thighs and sucking wet kisses into hot skin.

One of Louis’ hands reaches up to circle Harry’s soft, puffy nipple and tug it hard between his fingertips as his other hand moves to apply pressure to Harry’s abdomen, just below his tummy button. It sends tingles through Harry’s body, who’s still touching his dick and breathing out fast and low.

Louis leans down to lick up Harry’s dick, pressing his tongue down flat and wide, feeling Harry shiver beneath him. With his hands now holding Harry’s hips down firmly, Louis pushes Harry’s hand away from his cock using just his tongue. He weaves the pointed tip between Harry’s fingers until his flushed, hard dick lies heavy up his belly, and Louis licks a firm stripe up it, so it presses down harder on Harry’s stomach.

Harry hands are tangling up in his own hair as his back arches up from the ground.

Still only using his hands to circle into Harry’s hips, Louis presses the insides of his wet lips against the sensitive flesh of Harry’s foreskin, before sliding his lips to lock fully around Harry’s head and grip tightly enough to lift up Harry’s cock with just his mouth, and slide lower down.

Hollowing his cheeks to suck down further, Louis swirls his tongue up and down the shaft of Harry’s cock. “Oh my god. Oh god, Louis!” Harry breathes out as Louis begins to bob his head so his lips slide wetly up and down the head of Harry’s cock. “Oh god!” Harry breathes out as he watches Louis and tugs on tufts of his hair.

Louis swallows his mouth down till he almost chokes then slides his lips up to swirl around the sensitive tip. Licking and sucking Harry harder, Louis lets out a low “hmm” which vibrates beautifully against Harry’s dick, before he unwraps it from his mouth to start pumping the base fast with his hand. “Ah” Harry sighs loudly, as Louis purrs “Cum for me, babe.”

He positions his mouth open over Harry’s head so that with every thrust of his hand the sensitive tip of Harry’s cock hits against Louis’ wet tongue, fucking into it.

“Ah! Ah fuck, fuck” Harry breathes out “Lou that’s really hot.”

Louis holds his tongue down against Harry’s head as he writhes beneath Louis’ touch, breathing out little ah, ah, ah’s.

Louis keeps working Harry’s cock with his hand then swims his tongue across the sensitive tip of Harry’s cock and dips the pointed end of his tongue into Harry’s slit.

“AHH FUCK” Harry throws his head back, eyes tight shut and bearing his teeth, wincing with the sensitive pleasure, as his cock twitches.

Louis’ tongue is swirling fast over Harry’s head, mixing with leaking pre-cum and his own dripping saliva, as Harry pants fast and loud.

Louis’s hand works Harry’s base fast and squeezes as his lips vice around the top and drag up tightly towards the head.

“Fuck fuck FUCK” Harry winces as Louis squeezes his cock with his hand and his lips and presses his tongue into Harry’s slit again.

“YES!” Harry body juts up, thrusting his cock further into Louis’ hot mouth as his stomach flutters and convulses and his breath catches in his tightening chest, his legs shake as he sighs low and cums in Louis’ mouth.

Hot bursts of thick cum trickle down Louis’ throat as he sucks hard and swallows him down.

Louis licks Harry’s cock clean as he watches him laying back with lips hung wide open in rapture and his eyes glazed over, breathing heavily.

Harry rests his head to the ground, fluttering his eyelids shut and running lazy fingertips down his chest, sighing contentedly and dazed “ahh, Louis.”

“So so hot, babe” Louis comments, leaning over to meet their lips in a slow, dirty kiss.

Harry sighs into it, “Hmm.” He’s hazy from his orgasm but he needs to please Louis.

Wants to.

Harry cups Louis’ face with his hand and guides him to lay on his back. He leans over him to whisper in his ear, breath hot and curls tickling Louis’ skin. “You’re next, angel.”

Harry glides his big hands down Louis torso and presses into his waist to steady himself and sit with his legs either side of Louis’ hips.

Harry licks over his own hand, exaggerating each movement. He opens his mouth wide against his palm and tilts his head back, watching his boy with a filthy look, before grabbing Louis’ cock and touching.

“Ah fuck, princess!” Louis sighs as Harry straddles and wanks him like he was born to do it. Strong thighs spread wide, chest arching forward and tousling his hair back wildly, as if it were his own cock his hands were gripping.

“You’re so hard, baby” he breathes, his voice deep and his hands tugging Louis’ cock faster. “So hot, you look so good.”

Louis’ eyes are squeezed shut, his mouth falling open, and his hands smoothing over his chest, playing with his own nipples.

“Fuck, Harry. So good.” He stretches up to lock eyes with his boy, panting. “Ah, suck me off. Please!”

“Hmm” Harry moans. “Always babe, fuck.”

Harry ducks his head down and takes Louis’ dick in his mouth. Sucking down straight away to meet his own hand at the base, then straight up to the head and back. Bobbing up and down quick and lapping with his tongue.

“AH! HARRY! Ahh fuckkk” Louis’ chest is heaving, rippling the shape of his breaths down to his stomach and back up, breathing hard. “Feels so good already, fuck!” His knees bend up from the ground and he thrusts fast into the wet heat of Harry’s mouth.

Harry’s fist is pulsing at the base of Louis’ cock, twisting up fast as he sucks hard. His tongue is so incredibly wet and his lips press down firmly. “Ah god, I’m already so close” Louis sighs.

Harry slides two fingers up the shaft of Louis’ cock and into his mouth, licking them between his tongue and the soft edges of his mouth, before they’re gone again.

Louis’ squirming at the extra pressure against his leaking cock before he feels two sticky wet fingers pressing against his hole. “AH shit! Ah!” He’s so fucking close, tingles spreading in his abdomen.

He looks breathlessly at Harry sucking his dick, their eyes meet as Harry’s finger tips circle harder into the edge of his rim then suddenly push inside.

“AHHHH” Louis throws his head back and cums hard into Harry’s mouth.

Cock still thrusting in with the final waves of Louis’ pleasure, Harry splutters and slides his lips slowly off of Louis’ dick. He kisses it dry then lays by his boy’s side.

They hold their hands together loosely and slow their breathing down, between little salty kisses on used lips.

“Hmm, a very nice walk” Harry teases into Louis’ hair.

Louis laughs sleepily, “Oh shush!”

The boys slowly compose themselves, blinking in the early evening sun.

They dress each other softly, smoothing hands over each other’s skin, little kisses and little touches. Caring and peaceful.

They pack away their things, gently wake up a snoozing Clifford, ruffling his soft fur, and with slightly shaky limbs Harry and Louis make their way down the rocks and back onto the path.

Ambling along hand in hand with smug smiles on their lips and a content dog by their side, Harry and Louis notice a young group of friends approaching them from over the bridge.

A mutter of polite good evenings and an aww at Clifford, the group passes, leaving Harry and Louis spitting out bursts of laughter and adolescent giggles.

“That was so fucking close!” Harry gasps with a grin, wide eyed.

“HA! I know, fuck!” Louis laughs “Typical us.”

Harry sighs, nudging his husband in the arm. “Typical us.”

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swelldomains · 6 years

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Why Your Next Campaign should include User Generated Content

First things first, exactly what is Individual Generated Web Content? UGC is any content created and also published by a consumer, and with 76% of customers locating material uploaded by various other customers to be extra honest compared to well-known material *, it's definitely worth considering factoring UGC into your advertising strategy.

What's the distinction between UGC and also influencer advertising and marketing? UGC has no official connection with the brand - they typically aren't being paid and also there is no interaction with the brand regarding just what material the individual releases. In some cases the UGC might can be found in all its typo would certainly, text-speak glory ... however hey, they've taken time out of their day to chat regarding your service, so it's all good!

Time to get out of your advertising and marketing shoes for a minute as well as ask on your own which of the adhering to options you locate extra genuine:

" We assume our product/service is excellent - why don't you buy it?"

" I acquired this and I believe it's truly wonderful. Possibly you might like it also?"

We're mosting likely to go in advance and also think, like 92% of customers, you 'd trust a referral from an additional consumer over well-known web content. That's a quite indisputable need to motivate UGC to take centre stage.

Why UGC is on the rise

Jose de Cabo, co-founder of Olapic, puts it completely: "Brand marketing is dealing with an inflection factor. Customer trust is at a lowest level. Adblocking is quick rising throughout a time when we are being conditioned to not trust what we see - fake news is proliferating as well as people are hesitant of marketing messages. Gone are the days of brands enforcing a perfect on the consumer. Millennials desire to purchase from brand names that are in-line with their very own values and mean something or have a strong purpose. They intend to see themselves reflected in the brand and also do not desire to really feel like they are being mass marketed to. Brands should discover means to interact with relevant, relatable and individualized content. The fostering of customer images in marketing initiatives is an optimal means for brands to mirror the customer and also connect a more real message that reverberates with them. Business that embrace the voice of the client are the ones that will thrive in this new digital landscape."

How UGC boosts brand name awareness

Charlotte Sheridan, of The Tiny Biz Professional, concurs that UGC can cause increased brand direct exposure: "The benefits of using your target market to produce material countless. Take reach, as an example: whenever someone mentions your brand on social media sites, you are reaching their whole target market as well. With 4.2 billion likes on Instagram on a daily basis and also the typical Facebook customer having around 338 close friends - that's a substantial potential audience that you are taking advantage of that might or else not come right into contact with your brand.

Even on a little scale, this will certainly suggest raised direct exposure. If you have 10 people who use three social media networks with around 100 pals, followers or links on each as well as they upload on each of these platforms - you've now possibly been seen by an added 3000 people! Reasonably, it doesn't always quite function like that. Nonetheless, even if simply 10% of that audience sees the messages - that's an added 300 potential clients from simply ten people embracing your project."

Why it's not about Instagram

Curating reviews and also permitting potential customers to see them in a plainly noticeable put on your brand name's internet site is also a type of UGC, as well as one that's been around for a while.

Zack Neary-Hayes, Search Engine Optimization Professional, says: "UGC is a an extremely flexible and effective advertising and marketing method when made use of appropriately. It helps to add social validation to a website, which is fantastic for conversions.

This area has more than 202 pages of testimonials, a lot of them favorable, but some negative. This is really a good thing, as just having positive reviews could make people suspicious of phony testimonials, which is a concern that Amazon.com has actually dealt with lately. To battle this, Eve have made use of a 'verified customer' badge to indicate that the purchase came straight from their website. Again, this is another huge count on signal for possible buyers.

UGC, as well as assesses in certain, makes services and products feel much more genuine and human, which raises buyer self-confidence. If a target market really feels a lot more safe and also certain in the product, conversions will increase. This is actually crucial for a product like Eve's, which traditionally, would be checked and also gotten face to face."

How to efficiently utilize UGC in your following campaign

Making a Difference Locally (please note: among our beautiful customers) is a charitable organisation. In addition to producing owned material for MADL's social media networks, a big component of our advertising and marketing method is sharing inspirational UGC with MADL's fans. This allows us to show exactly how charities, and also contributions, make a massive distinction to local neighborhoods through our followers voices - not simply our own. The action from followers demonstrates how much brand loyalty has actually been strengthened via making use of UGC, with MADL interaction raising by 148% on Twitter and also 22% on Facebook given that 2016.

Other top brands have actually also had extraordinary success from UGC. Hands up if you've come across Burberry's the Art of the Trench project? It's a basic principle: customers could share pictures of themselves putting on a Burberry trench coat on a web site, and also possible clients could browse the gallery. Both inspirational and also aspirational, the project appealed to both existing consumers as well as potential brand-new ones. E-commerce sales grew 50% year-on-year, as well as the site got to 7.5 million views in just one year - fantastic outcomes for an amazing project. Various other industry-leading UGC advertising and marketing projects include Starbucks' White Cup Contest, Tourism Queenland's "The Ideal Task in The Globe" project and also Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign.

For smaller brand names, UGC could additionally be unbelievably powerful. Shaherazad Umbreen, of www.shaherazad.com, claims: "Our team believe that UGC is the most empowering and also impactful kind of content. This is why every one of my 'versions' are not versions in all however 'genuine ladies'. Make money from our footwear go to money the education and learning of ladies and also girls living in hardship as well as those ladies themselves provide UGC to complete the genuine marketing circle and motivate more future clients."

Jeremy Stern, Taking Care Of Director at PromoVeritas, states: "Most of our clients' campaigns include creative kinds of UGC such as selfies, pictures, layouts, tie-breakers as well as creations. UGC promos have the tendency to develop a larger buzz as well as are more probable to go viral - specifically when there is voting entailed.'

In regards to results, UGC can accomplish 6.9 times higher involvement compared to brand content on Facebook, according to Mavrck. There's no rejecting that, in today's fast-moving social media world, UGC could be the means forward for your brand.

The (potential) risks of UGC

Okay, Walkers, we're taking a look at you. The #WalkersWave project encouraged individuals to tweet a photo along with the hashtag, resulting in an automated video on the Walkers Twitter feed revealing Gary Lineker holding up their image with a large smile. It did not go well, thanks to some really negative preference entries, which triggered the project to be pulled.

To alleviate risks such as these, invisage the problems that can happen. Have a brainstorm with the team as well as, if somebody pipes up with "hi there, wouldn't someone simply upload a picture of [insert name]" it would certainly be a good idea to hear them. Never assume consumers "just will not go there". They have, as well as they will.

Jeremy Stern continues: 'This brings us to the pitfalls - voting competitors have to be meticulously intended and also confirmed by independent experts or else they can motivate with cheating and adjustment. If the general public smell of a deceit or detraction, like when the champion of a competition to create Doncaster Rovers' new team set simply occurred to be Louis from One Direction, it could impact their confidence in the brand as well as their loyalty. An additional big risk from UGC is small amounts - numerous brands have actually seen their online reputations damaged over night by improper access uploaded on social networks websites that haven't been monitored effectively creating huge embarrassment - Boaty McBoatface is an extremely tame example! You can likewise be at danger from an ASA judgment if you don't have an independent court entailed in your evaluating panel - something many brand names tend to ignore at their peril.

To ensure that your UGC promotion is a champion, you have to plan ahead and have a strong collection of Terms that cover-off any type of upcoming calamities. Structure checks as well as time for moderation and also adjudication into your campaign strategy is additionally important.'

Top tips for producing successful UGC campaigns

Ask customers to share pictures/ tales with you - provide a clear CTA to urge followers to post

Create a brand hashtag and also use this on social media, particularly Instagram, to check involvement from your "brand ambassadors"

Monitor indirect points out of your products, brand name or service

Develop a "wall surface" of UGC so users could see the community they're component of

Consider where you can repurpose UGC to build trust both online and offline

Be conscious of exactly what can fail when you motivate users to engage with your brand name, and also be prepared to produce fires quickly

Executed well, a UGC project could work marvels for your brand name's engagement and, ultimately, loyalty long life. Take straightforward actions such as sharing as well as engaging with posts customers have labelled your brand name into check the waters, before developing to develop brand hashtags and broader UGC campaigns.

Planning your next UGC campaign

With a riches of competence in making the most of UGC, we're certain we could aid you grow your brand name awareness as well as trust fund, also. Get in touch to tell us more about your next campaign.

#brand marketing #business #effective advertising #marketing #social media #social media management #social media networks #social media sites

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digital-arts-etc · 6 years

Photo

The first photograph of a human being taken in Paris,in 1838

(CNN) At first glance, it doesn't seem that remarkable: An old black-and-white scene of a strangely deserted city, smudged in places by some primitive photographic process.

But this image, taken in Paris, France, in 1838, is believed to be the earliest known photograph featuring a person.Look in the photo's lower left corner and you'll see a man getting his boots cleaned on the sidewalk. The boot-cleaner is there too, although he is harder to spot.

The image has been posted online before, but it gained a higher profile after news site Mashable published a full-page version on Wednesday in partnership with Retronaut, a website that archives photos from the past.

It was taken by Louis Daguerre, the French photographer famous for pioneering the daguerreotype, an early type of photo produced on a silver plate or a silver-covered copper plate.

According to Retronaut's Amanda Uren, the exposure time for the image was around seven minutes.

The street appears deserted because while the two human figures were relatively still, other pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages were moving too fast to register on the plate.

The photo shows the Boulevard du Temple, a then-fashionable area of shops, cafés and theaters.

The two people on the sidewalk are the most recognizable human figures in the photo, although Uren points out that a detailed examination reveals other possible people on a bench and in a window of the building in the foreground.

The image is not close to being the earliest known surviving photograph, though.

That distinction belongs to a photo by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, one of Daguerre's partners, who used a crude camera to capture the view from a window at his French estate in 1826 or 1827.

Today, when almost everyone has a phone camera in their pocket and more than 350 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day, Daguerre's milestone seems quaint.

In 2014, he might have just snapped a selfie.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/06/living/oldest-photograph-human-daguerre/index.html

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crookedmediatranscripts · 7 years

Text

Pod Save America - Episode 80

9.18.2017 “Sean Spicer is good now.”

“The GOP makes one last run at repealing ObamaCare, Democrats look for a message that works, and Trump delivers his first United Nations speech. Then HuffPost editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen joins Jon, Jon, and Tommy to talk about the state of American democracy and the media, and DeRay McKesson discusses the protest against police violence in St. Louis.” (01:10:11)

[MUSIC]

Jon Favreau: The presenting sponsor of Pod Save America is Blue Apron.

Jon Lovett: Blue Apron.

Tommy Vietor: Blue Apron.

JF: They now offer 30 minute meals, which are meals every week that take 30 minutes or less to cook.

TV: Oh, I was confused by that.

JF: Designed with your busy schedule in mind and made with the same flavor and farm fresh ingredients you know and love.

JL: I thought it was 30 tiny meals.

[Laughter]

TV: Oh no, you thought it was ‘minute’ meals?

JL: I thought it was 30 ‘minute’ meals.

[Laughter]

JF: Get 30 dollars off your first meal free with free shipping by going to blueapron.com/crooked. I think I threw an extra ‘free’ in there. Blue Apron, a better way to…

JL: Sean Spicer is good now.

JF: Cook.

0:00:35

[MUSIC]

0:00:43

TV: [Quietly] We are still in Hillary Clinton’s basement.

[Laughter]

TV: If someone could send some food and water.

JF: Welcome to Pod Save America. I’m Jon Favreau.

JL: I’m Jon Lovett.

TV: I’m Tommy Vietor.

JF: On the pod today, in studio, we’ll talk to the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, Lydia Polgreen. And later we’ll call the host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the People, DeRay McKesson. Lovett, how was Lovett or Leave It on Friday? Good?

JL: It was a great episode.

JF: Should people download it, or no?

JL: People should download it.

JF: Great.

JL: We had Guy Branum. We had Erin Ryan, who was hilarious. We had Julissa Arce. We had Cyrus Habib-

JF: All the Crooked Media friends.

JL: Lieutenant Governor of Washington.

TV: He’s really funny.

JL: He is really funny, I like Cyrus a lot. He’s a friend of mine and I was excited for people to hear what he’s like.

JF: Cool. Tommy, who’s on Pod Save the World this week?

TV: I do an episode on some pretty horrible things going on in Myanmar. There is in fact what’s been called an ethnic cleansing, or potentially genocide, of a group of people called the Rohingya who are a Muslim minority group. It is one of those issues that is, the more you read about it, the more brutally hard it is to comprehend that this is actually happen. But I do think it’s important not to look away from this stuff and see if you can bring attention to it and maybe get the international community to do something. So, tune in.

JF: Great. Glad you’re bringing some attention to that. Okay, so before we get into real stuff. A lot of people on Twitter have been asking for a quick Lovett rant on Sean Spicer at the Emmys last night.

JL: Well I almost- I almost didn’t make it in today cause I’m still laughing so hard.

[Laughter]

JL: Cause it’s so funny. Sean Spicer. Remember when he lied? He’s hilarious.

TV: Colbert is so well equipped to have Sean Spicer on and rake him over the coals for being a guy who had no morals and for being a huge liar. Just to like, have him come out and joke about lying at the podium from day one. I didn’t think- I don’t think it’s funny. I don’t think he should get, like, that glossed over on his resume going forward.

JF: Yeah, what’s weird about it to me is that Colbert was on Kimmel last week and Kimmel brought up Spicer, cause Kimmel had Spicer on, and Colbert was very tough on him.

TV: Yeah.

JF: And said he doesn’t seem to want redemption. He doesn’t want it, he didn’t seem to want to apologize.

TV: That’s exactly right.

JF: So, I figured that, you know, that Colbert would- would not do that. But, it’s just weird. Like we’re gonna- like there’s gonna be no penalty now.

TV: We have some agency in this whole penalty question so let’s keep at it.

JF: Yeah.

JL: Oh, by the way, I booked Sean.

[Laughter]

JL: But, no, but it’s like, honestly you know, an anti-Trump Emmys where Spicer comes on stage. I don’t- doesn’t really care. I don’t think it’s funny. What bothered me more was the deluge of selfies, kind of, coming over the Twitter all night, of like, “Here’s Sean Spicer at the Governor’s Ball! And here he is here and here he is there! What a good time he’s having! Getting-” All these sel- you know-

TV: I didn’t look at a single one of those.

JL: I didn’t care for it.

TV: Enough about this.

JF: No, it’s- you know, it’s, one more thing about that. Because everyone’s like “Spicer lied about crowd size and that’s why he’s bad.” Spicer lied about crowd size and that was the joke. That wasn’t, let’s remember, that’s not the biggest lie. Like, the worse- the more damaging lie is, he defended Trump’s lie about 3 million people voting illegally in this country. He defended Trump saying that Barack Obama committed a felony by-

JF and TV: wiretapping him.

JF: Like we just, we forget these things and now we’re just like, you know.

TV: Well, yeah, and he also-

JF: These aren’t small lies.

TV: He thought Donald Trump was a disgusting person until he was in charge, then he went and worked for him. He’s the worst of D.C.

JF: He told all the reporters in D.C. before he worked for Trump how awful Trump was. Every reporter knows it, every reporter’s told the stories about it. And then he went to work for him anyway.

JL: Sean Spicer doesn’t get to be in on the fucking joke.

TV: He’s gross.

JL: That’s it.

TV: He is the joke.

JF: Alright. Okay, so now, Graham-Cassidy. The Republicans in the Senate are making one last ditch effort on making health insurance unaffordable for tens of millions of Americans. They have until September 30th to pass a bill through the reconciliation process, which means they only need 50 votes. After that date, they need 60. The bill is Graham-Cassidy. I am wearing my ‘repeal and go fuck yourself’ t-shirt today to show how…

JL: Your resolve.

JF: My resolve.

[Laughter]

JF: And how dangerous this is.

TV: That’s leadership.

JF: We talked a little bit about what the bill would do on Thursday. But just to review: eliminates the individual mandate -- which would immediately drive up premiums, send the individual insurance market into a death spiral. It would allow states to eliminate essential benefits like chemo coverage, maternity coverage, prescription drugs. Eliminate protections for preexisting conditions. And then basically, it eliminates the Affordable Care Act subsidies and the Medicaid expansion, gives that money to states minus 400 billion dollars over the next 10 years. And then eliminates all funding by 2026. That’s the deal.

JL: So, it’s radical.

JF: Radical.

JL: It’s radical.

JF: It is full- it is a full repeal effort.

JL: It is a full repeal. It’s certainly not a compromise. We’re protected a little bit by the fact that this is kind of their fall back, third, final attempt at something because we were dealing with ultimately a repeal effort that was rooted in the structure of Obamacare this entire time, right. All the different versions we saw, but for skinny repeal which was that crazy last-ditch effort just to get to the House bill three months ago -- or two months ago, the last time we were dealing with this -- but this is a fundamentally different thing and, had they actually done this through a regular process, could’ve been something that they could’ve really rallied people behind in this significant way because it basically takes Obamacare and it turns it into less generous block grants. And basically puts it on the states to figure out what they do with healthcare. The many problems with this are, one, the way they deal with the Medicaid expansion is fucking nuts. So basically, 30 states expanded Medicaid and 20 states didn’t. Those were a lot of rural states and conservative states that refused to do it even though the money was basically free, which punished a lot of their voters. Well, what happens in this bill? Well, it takes all the money that went to Medicaid expansion that went to states that expanded and states that doesn’t- didn’t and just divides it up evenly as if no expansion had ever taken place. Which is just a giant wealth transfer from states like California and New York and even Kentucky, states that did the right thing, and transfers it to all the states where their governors and legislatures didn’t care enough about their poor and minority population to do anything about it to get their healthcare. It would be devastating.

TV: That is awful. Right now, we’re short of 50 votes, right? But I think the thing that makes a lot of people nervous is that this is a bill sponsored by Lindsay Graham in part. McCain’s waffling about it. Dean Heller’s already on board. What I don’t get is, McCain’s whole argument against the last round is that it didn’t go through regular order. There were no amendments, there were no committee process. There was nothing done the way it’s supposed to be done in the Senate. I don’t get how he could make that big, bold stand and then jump on board this thing.

JF: So if you listen to him on Sunday -- he was on Face the Nation -- and John Dickerson asked him about this, and he said on Face the Nation, “We should have a bill go through regular order- “

TV: I heard that.

JF: “There should be a bipartisan process. And I think the bipartisan effort being undertaken by Lamar Alexander and Patti Murray should come to the floor for a vote.” That’s what- he just said that yesterday, on Sunday. Now in other statements he said he likes Graham-Cassidy and he said ultimately, he’ll do what his governor tells him to do, Governor Ducey of Arizona. You should note that, after what Lovett was just saying, under this plan Arizona loses about a billion dollars. Arizona’s another state that would get hurt. You wouldn’t imagine that Ducey would do it unless of course they pay him off. But –

[Laughter]

JF: There’s a lot of focus on McCain here. [TV: Yeah] But here’s the deal, Cassidy’s running around saying they have 49 votes. That’s one short of 50 so that’s very scary. Rand Paul seems like a hard no. You never wanna count on Rand Paul because he’s upset from the right. But he’s now, over the last couple days, tweeted nine times about this proposal. Including one where he says it’s bad because it keeps Obamacare and redistributes money from Democratic states to Republican states. Which is an argument that people from the left are making, too and it’s a correct argument.

JL: Yeah! Correct.

JF: But it’s like, if Rand Paul was gonna flip, you wouldn’t imagine that he’d just keep tweeting every day about horrible this is. But of course, we all remember Rand Paul was a hard no last time around and then McConnell promised him a vote on clean repeal, so that’s why he voted for skinny repeal.

JL: Yeah, I mean we have seen Republican Senators say things that should make it impossible for them to flip, and then they flip.

JF: And they do.

JL: I mean, that’s what Dean Hiller- Dean Heller did. Rand Paul’s done that in the past. Ted Cruz. All these guys make these grand statements to try to help them in the negosiatio- negotiation and then- I almost said ‘negosiation.”

TV: I know. I think you also left out Dean’s honorific.

JL: Oh, Dirty Dean Heller?

JF: Yeah, what’s going on?

JL: He’s a dirty politician.

TV: He’s Dirty Dean Heller.

JL: He’s a dirty politician, Dean Heller.

JF: But basically, we need- if Collins and- Collins and Murkowski have been very quiet. It’s hard to imagine that they’d say yes. But if we have Collins and Murkowski and Paul, it doesn’t matter what McCain does. We need three ‘no’s. So- and Alaska’s also one of the states that loses a bunch of money over the next 10 years. And nothing has really changed for the two of them since when they stood against the last proposal, which was on substance not on process, like McCain. So, you would hope that Collins and Murkowski are in there. We need one more, Paul’s a possibility. But that’s- basically is this is all to say, it’s scary again and everyone’s got to get to the phones. I know that’s annoying to hear, but it’s true.

JL: It is. But it’s, you know-

JF: We have to do it.

TV: We hate ourselves for saying it.

JF: It’s a constant struggle, people. So, what’s gonna happen here. McConnell will not call this for a vote unless he’s got 50. They’ve- he has pressed the CBO to give a score for this thing, even though the CBO was busy was working on extending Children’s Health Insurance Program.

JL: [Laughing] The CBO, man. There’s some guy deep within the CBO who is exhausted, he’s got an ashtray with tons of cigarettes, like every- every month he gets a call from McConnell who says, “You need to do six months of analysis in two fucking days.”

JF: Well, here’s what- here’s what’s truly scary about it. They think that- the CBO only is required to come up with a score about how much it costs. And they may not have time to figure out what the coverage loss is for this bill. So, they might give a CBO score that’s just about how much it costs without any coverage numbers. Which is truly fucked up and if you are voting-

TV: It’s unconscionable to vote for this.

JF: If you are voting for a bill- especially for McCain, talking about regular order. You’re gonna vote for a bill where you don’t know the impact?

JL: He can’t! He just can’t. Once again- it’s the same fucking- like, the bill is bad. It’s a bad bill. It’s yet another bad replacement bill. Once again, it’s like, they can’t- they don’t care about their conservative principles to even put something together that achieves some kind of an end while being- you wanna turn it into a block grant, you want the states to be in charge? You come up with this crazy, jury rigged, dumb fucking way to do it that’ll- that could never become law. Fine. The bill is bad. But once again, reforming a sixth of the economy, tens of millions of people’s lives, and they’re like, “We think we can get it done the last week of September. We got two days! We got two days!”

JF: Well it shows that they’re trying to-

JL: Ride or die!

JF: They’re trying to sneak it through because they know that if they had a public debate about it, they would lose. Which, again, this is a reminder, you know, Trump’s bad. We all- everything’s about Trump. This is not about Trump. This is a bunch of, you know, Republicans who’ve even called out Trump, like Lindsay Graham. And they are doing this very bad thing. So, when you go vote, it’s not all about Trump. It’s about these fucking Republicans in Congress.

JL: One story as a proof point for how serious this effort was, I think it was the Politico story, it said that Trump was asking about the bill at Bedminster. Which I just think is like, the lowest- he’s like, what’s happening? I think there might be some kind of a health care thing.

TV: He’s seized with this. He’s seized with this challenge to the point where he’s just first inquiring about it while on- while playing golf.

JF: Yeah, so, anyway. Indivisibleguide.com. You can go there and find ways you can help. Most of it’s gonna be phone calls, but there are gonna be some events as well. Also follow Ben Wikler from moveon.org on Twitter. He’s got a couple long threads on everything you can do and steps you can take. So, everybody make a few phone calls and then- here’s the thing, once we get to September 30th, if this doesn’t pass, then we can finally celebrate in a way we couldn’t even celebrate in the summer.

TV: Until McConnell changes the rules.

JL: Yeah, until they change the rules and do it anyway. [crosstalk] Look killing this thing, it’s harder than killing the clown from fucking It and it’s gonna keep crawling out of that well until-

TV: I will not be watching the remake of that movie. It ruined my life as a child.

JF: Nor will I. Nor will I watch mother! Which sounds really fucking awful. Lovett’s excited.

JL: I’m gonna go see it.

JF: Emily wants to see it, too.

JL: Emily and I are gonna go see it- oh we talk- Emily and I have already been texting. Don’t even worry about it.

JF: Great. Alright, let’s talk about what the fuck’s going on with Donald Trump. Over the weekend our bipartisan, independent, deal making president had quite a Sunday morning tweetstorm. Which culminated in him retweeting a gif [dear god he pronounced it with a soft G how DARE HE BETRAY ME LIKE THIS] of Trump’s golf ball hitting Hillary Clinton [this literally feels like it happened a million years ago and it was only?? Two weeks?? WTH.] which was originally tweeted by someone who’s tweeted racist and anti-Semitic garbage in the past. Of course.

TV: What a surprise! Course it is.

JF: I just- I wanted to bring this up because…it’s like, no one’s talking about it today. We’re all sort of moved past it. I mean, that is a crazy thing to do. It is- it is like fantasizing about political violence by the President of the United States against his former female political opponent. What?

TV: He’s a moron.

JL: It’s just like, the kind of thing that makes the dumbest person laugh. Like, “Hahaha a golf ball hit her. Hah.”

JF: But it’s the kind of thing that makes the dumbest person laugh if it’s like, shared on Facebook by your crazy uncle.

JL: Yeah, it’s a crazy uncle thing.

JF: You know, it’s just - there’s just no thought that this is the President of the United States and that there’s all kinds of other implications. Right.

JL: Yeah, I mean what else is there to say-

JF: I know there’s nothing else to say.

JL: Like it’s not even – it’s not a new low. Like, he’s joked about her being fucking killed during the election. He does this all the time. He- you know, this is who he is. Like it’s now- yeah, he tweeted about her getting hit in the back with a golf ball and falling down cause he thinks it’s hilarious cause he’s a dumb, mean spirited, fucking dotty old racist. What do you want? That’s what he is. He thinks it’s funny! He doesn’t- we’ve never even seen him fucking laugh! He’s never laughed! He’s never laughed! The one thing, maybe he chuckled to himself.

JF: He laughs. Yeah, he laughs when he like mocks people and he laughs about it.

TV: When Sessions cries.

JF: This brings up a Politico piece from last week that we didn’t have time to cover, but it’s relevant. It’s called “Teflon Don confounds Democrats.” It basically digs into a series of private focus groups and internal polls conducted by Democratic strategists in campaigns. Polls of swing voters, independents. So, there’s good news and bad news in this poll, start with the bad news. Bad news is, Trump is still viewed as an outsider shaking up the system. They think he’s bringing about change. He’s getting some credit on the economy. People are unimpressed about the fact that he lies. They’re not so much into the Russia investigation. They don’t think Charlottesville is as big of a problem as we think. And there’s some bad news in the Democratic policies that people have been proposing: free college didn’t poll so well, 15-dollar minimum wage didn’t poll great. Medicare for all tests better, but there’s some skepticism. What do we think about this?

JL: You know, I-

JF: It’s a good level set because we all-

JL: Yeah, I think a dose of skepticism is needed. Like I think that’s important. You know, the piece makes this point that like, if Democrats think they’re on a walk because of Trump to, like, taking back the House and making these big gains, then they should think otherwise. The truth is, I don’t think a lot of Democrats think that. I don’t think we’re all feeling super great in how easy it’s gonna be to win the House. I think everybody recognizes that it’s really hard. And at the same time, it is one of those Politico pieces that you can just feel a conclusion searching for evidence as it goes along, to kind of tell a story about how Donald Trump is, is- you know, “Teflon Don” is usually- isn’t really what you would call somebody who has a 35% approval rating, right? It’s sort of- that’s somebody to whom everything has stuck. That’s a cast iron pot with a lot of stuff grilled to it. You made a grilled cheese and didn’t flip it early enough.

TV: That was my take too, like I think that, I think that was Bill Burton’s quote in- the final quote of the piece was Bill Burton being like, “The guy’s at 38%. It’s not going well.”

JF: He said everything’s working.

TV: Yeah, taking back the House is not gonna be won or lost just based on Donald Trump’s approval rating. Like, that is the mood music that will allow us to fundraise, to recruit great candidates, and to put together a message to counter Trump and tie all these other Republicans to it. So, it’s a piece of a puzzle. I feel pretty good about Donald Trump being at like, 38, 40%. Like, that’s not good. And he has not done anything to get him out of this hole, including with this short-term debt ceiling debate. But it is a reminder that politics are- it’s all about choices and we need to put forward an alternative to Donald Trump that people like more than him, or like more than the Republican that’s running on his party. So, we have a lot of work to do.

JF: Yeah, I do think that we have to also decide, what is the message that we go out with? Not just on our side, but what we wanna say about Donald Trump. And, we always say this here, but there’s like- he gives us 50 targets a day and you call him a liar, you call him this. So, some of the good news was, the voters did seem exhausted about the chaos surrounding Trump and there was a lot of interest in electing a Congress that can act as a check on him. And then the other message that seemed to really work with a lot of these people in the focus groups and polls were, Trump is out to make his rich friends richer at your expense. This is about stripping regulations, corporate tax breaks, the healthcare- like him trying to repeal Obamacare was effective too. And on ‘fights for people like me,’ Democrats have now pulled ahead of Trump. They were even with him in February.

JL: By a lot, too.

JF: By a lot.

JL: Yeah, I think because Trump scrambles so many of the rules and he does give us so many different directions to go, we kind of forget some of the basics. And even though he’s gonna do so many different and disparate crazy things over the next year, we do need to start getting behind a sentence, like, I don’t know if rich friends richer- fine, whatever it is, but it’s like, you know, “Donald Trump is out for himself and making his rich friends richer. That’s why he’s trying to distract you with a golf ball hitting Hillary Clinton” or all this other stuff. Whatever it is, we need to get to some place where the first part of the sentence is the same. And that’s been really hard and that didn’t happen in 2016.

TV: Yeah, there needs to be a core criticism that is repeated every day.

JF: It’s funny I heard someone- Bernie Sanders was interviewed the other day and someone interviewed about, what do you think about Donald Trump so far and everything he’s done? And he’s like, “Not only is he someone that wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.” Like, first thing out of his mouth. And then he went talk about Charlottesville and racism and everything else. But that’s- there is a message discipline going forward and I think this piece is good for that.

TV: Especially as the Mueller stuff continues to leak out every day.

JF: Exactly.

JL: And winning the House is gonna be really hard. Donald Trump being unique doesn’t make the race to win the House unique. It’s not- it may look like a Bush thing, you know, we may be able to pick up a bunch of seats. But it’s not gonna be easy and we’re gonna have to fight for every seat, that’s all.

JF: I wanna talk about what’s going on this week. On Tuesday Donald Trump will deliver his first speech to the annual United Nations general assembly in New York. Which brings together the leaders of the 193 members nations for a week of meetings and speeches. Major topics will be Iran, Syria, terrorism, and maybe the most pressing, North Korea. Tommy, you went to all of these when Obama was president. They’re called UNGA. It’s called UNGA for short, that’s the acronym.

TV: UNGA. UN General Assembly.

JF: Yeah, what can we expect there? What usually happens there?

TV: So- I mean it’s a place for the member nations to convene for a week. There’s a lot of speeches, there’s meeting to discuss global security challenges. The focus changes every year, but it’s been, you know, the Middle East, Syria, Iran -- like some of the hot button issues. I think the focus this year is gonna be figuring out Donald Trump. They wanna figure out what ‘America First’ really means. We’re coming off previous visits that were defined by Trump refusing to reaffirm the most important part of NATO, shoving the Prime Minister of Montenegro for no reason-

JF: I forgot about that.

JL: Leader of the free world!

TV: Driving around by himself in a golf cart while all the other leaders hang out. He’s also described the UN as quote, a club for people to get together, talk, and have a good time that’s sort of useless. So I do think, like, North Korea is gonna be front a center and trying to figure out the next steps as they continue to flaunt [I think he means ‘flout?’] the international community. This’ll be made harder by the fact that Chinese leader Xi Jinping won’t be there, so there’s- it’s hard to see where real progress will come from. Trump has been making a lot of noise about pulling out of the Iran deal. A whole bunch of people are gonna lobby him not to do that, including François Hollande, leader of France. They also are really gonna be focused on Venezuela, Myanmar, like why did you pull out of the Paris climate accords. I think U.S. journalists are also gonna be really focused on Rex Tillerson, because he has been about as irrelevant a Secretary of State as we’ve ever had. And people are also gonna focus on Nikki Haley because she’s sort of stepped into the breach and some of the leadership void that he’s created. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. You know, Trump’s there for like three or four days. It is like the worst kind of diplomatic speed dating you could ever imagine. You have major speeches, you have to like, know what say in the bi-lat with Qatar and the lunch with the Japanese PM and the South Korean PM about North Korea’s nuclear program. So-

JL: Okay, quick question.

TV: Not up for it.

JL: Yeah, he’s not gonna do that. So, then what happens?

TV: I mean I don’t know that there’s like- the expectations game has gotten run down so low. But I do think-

JF: I’ve noticed that with the- they’re like, what is he gonna get up there and scream at everyone in his speech and say that he hates the world? It’s like, no, he’s probably gonna give a normal fucking speech.

TV: Right.

JF: I mean, let’s not-

TV: I mean, it’s just hard because summits like this where all the leaders are together, usually you do a whole ton of work leading up to it to try to get to some deliverable. Some big accomplishment. Something to announce. And when you have a State Department that is essentially not staffed it’s very hard to have the team in place to do that and to, like, get to the place where we have accomplishments so we can say, “You know what? Venezuela is a disaster and we’re gonna ratchet up political pressure on them until they stop doing x, y, or z.” Or like, “There is an ethnic cleansing in Burma. We are focused on it. This is the money that’s going towards helping refugees who are fleeing to Bangladesh.” It’s just like, I have no confidence that any of that is prepped. [Phone dings]

JF: It really feels like they’re, [TV: Sorry] they’re so reactive. Like they don’t- like you never- like, what is Rex Tillerson’s agenda? Like they’ve pulled out of Paris, they’re dealing with North Korea, they’re trying to seem as though they’re competent. It seems like everything about what Nikki Haley does, what Rex Tillerson does, is about doing this first level thing of just demonstrating that we have a competent and working, functioning diplomatic effort in place. Which is the threshold entry for actually doing- doing something in those jobs.

TV: Rex Tillerson has spent nine months reviewing the staffing levels of the State Department for some reorg that he wants to put forward. Meanwhile, like he has no assistant secretaries of state. Like, there’s no management reorg where you’re gonna say, “You know what? We don’t need someone in charge of Europe [Laughter] or the Middle East.” Like there’s some things he’s done that, yeah, actually kind of make sense. Like he’s gotten rid of these special envoys that deal with challenges that kind of aren’t really a big deal anymore. So, that’s fine. The State Department could be shrunk down a bit and made more efficient. But, it’s just- I don’t think there’s a single Cabinet member that is more of a disappointment than Rex Tillerson. Like, even Rick Perry found religion and was like, “Oh god, the energy department. Like, we should have that around.”

JF: “Oh, I will take guarding our nation’s nukes seriously.”

TV: [Laughs] Yeah, right!

JL: “I’m gonna show up to work.”

JF: So, I’m a little scared about North Korea.

JL: Oh, you’re the one.

JF: I was reading Axios last night, they had some reporting on this, that the Trump administration is down to basically two paths. One, continue to put more pressure on China, economic pressure, particularly. And like, two, preparing for a preemptive ground war. I mean, what. What’s gonna happen here?

JL: Seems great.

TV: Hell if I know. I mean it does- I mean hopefully what they’re doing is posturing [JF: Okay] and trying to fix Steve Bannon coming out [JF: Yeah] and telling some progressive journalist that-

JF: We’re in checkmate.

TV: That we’re in checkmate, that we’re screwed, that there is no military solution. They want to get the Chinese to ratchet down on imports of fuel, they’re- David Sanger of the New York Times did a big piece today about there’s very specific deadly rocket fuel that China’s allowing the North Koreans to purchase that’s fueling their missile programs. So there’s all these- there’s a lot of things you can do on the pressure track in terms of sanctions, but it requires support from places like Russia and China, members of the UN Security Council. Actually- it also requires them to actually enforce things that are going on in their own country. Like, Chinese companies selling fuel.

JL: Yeah, I saw McMaster talking about this over the weekend. And it is true that as part of this negotiation, it seems like they need to convey that they have a reasonable military option. [TV: Yes] That that part of their messaging and part of what they’re doing with their press office at Axios is to try to convey that they actually believe they have a military option to give them a stronger negotiating hand. Cause McMaster was like, “There are people that are saying we don’t have a military option and that’s not true.” Maybe pushing back at Bannon kind of giving away the game in that interview he gave that we forgot about cause it’s two weeks ago.

TV: I mean it is a different situation but it is analogous to what we did to Iran, which was say, we will blow the shit out of your military facilities [JF: Yeah] and your nuclear program unless you take these steps we demanding you do, and in the interim we increased sanctions. Speaking of Iran, it is very frightening that Trump has previewed that he might pull out of the Iran deal as early as October. That has in place a diplomatic process to oversee, to monitor their nuclear program. It’s not perfect. There’s- we need access to military sites that we’re not getting, like, enforcement could be improved. But, it’s just when you look at North Korea and you see this program just spiraling out of control versus Iran where it feels managed by the international community to a great extent. I cannot fathom why they would do that.

JF: Also, this is a choice between, like you just said, enforcement could be improved or, if you pull out of the deal, no enforcement. Right?

TV: And the Europeans will just roll on without us. We’ll be more isolated.

JF: That’s so- tt’s like, if we pull out of this deal Iran’s gonna go- of course they’re gonna go pursue nuclear weapons again and they’re gonna have an easier time doing it than they right now.

TV: It’s just like, think of the things we’re not even talking about. Like, right now. The only story I read about Middle East peace, he’s gonna meet with Netanyahu.

JF: He just tweeted about it.

TV: Yeah, I mean it’s just, there’s no real process in place to push them forward. Not that there’s an easy solution on the table, or even a hard solution on the table. There’s just no work getting done there. There’s ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. There’s all these issues and areas- there’s all these global development and, like, food security goals that are really important to places where people are struggling, that don’t even seem to be on the agenda.

JF: Yeah, I mean, I was asking about North Korea because over the weekend he tweeted, he called the- Kim Jong Un “rocket man.”

JL: What was that?

JF: And then all the stories were about, “He’s got a nickname for Kim Jong Un, it’s rocket man, blah, blah, blah." And I’m just sitting there like, oh, this is a funny little topic, you know. And then last night I read the Axios report about the actual military options that they’re considering. I was like, this seems like the bigger deal right here. Not so much the rocket man nickname. It’s- this is the stuff you wanna pay attention to.

TV: Calling- why are we calling Kim Jong Un rocket man? Is that an insult, first of all? That was a fine movie from the 90 or, early 2000s. And we’re calling terrorists losers. He’s really stuck with that one. It’s just childish.

JL: He thinks that one’s good messaging point. He thinks that one’s a good messaging point. I’m not totally, totally against that one. It’s- the rocket man one is silly.

JF: He’s also, like, ruined two Elton john songs. Rocket man.

TV: That’s probably it.

JF: Tiny Dancers always at the- he plays that at his rallies.

JL: When we went to NASA at the White House and Buzz Aldrin almost punched me in the face, before that he handed me his business card and it says, “Buzz Aldrin: Rocket Hero.”

TV: That’s awesome.

JL: Which is cool.

JF: That’s great.

[Quiet laughter]

JL: But, even like just, you know, Trump tweets that he’s rocket man… what? What’s so funny?

JF: Quick story about me and Buzz Aldrin-

TV: Yeah, yeah, and then if Lovett or Leave It gets televised, you’ll probably have the same card.

JF: Very good- very good friend.

JL: Close personal friend, Buzz Aldrin, and I were at the Palm- the-

TV: And then Charlie Rose came up.

JF: Then I took a selfie with Spicer.

JL: Spicer, Buzz Aldrin, and I getting a quick lobster cob at the Ivy.

[Laughter]

JL: But no, but that- even just people reacting to it is exhausting. Like, he calls him rocket man. Like it’s not funny, it’s not appropriate, it’s strange. It’s not even worth your outrage, like, “Uh Trump thinks he’s gonna solve this with a nickname.” No- like who knows why Trump does what he does? It’s just.

JF: It’s frustrating.

TV: He’s just…it’s a very hard problem. It’s not his fault. It does seem like Tillerson, to a lesser extent H.R. McMaster, Mattis, Nikki Haley, are seized with the challenge. They get it. They’re focused on it. The rest of the world is wondering what the hell Donald Trump’s gonna do and if he’s gonna make things worse instead of better. And that’s not a great place to be.

JL: Well, look-

JF: Yeah. I always wanna check in with you from time to time on this cause I try to think to myself, is this something that’s a uniquely Trump administration strategy, or what would be- what would we be doing if it was the Obama administration right now? Knowing that it is a really hard challenge, no matter who’s president. That’s always the tough thing reading this stuff about North Korea.

TV: Yeah. We would be pushing for more sanctions, for more enforcement. We’d probably be doing a lot more to reassure the South Koreans. We’d probably be thinking long and hard about increasing our missile defense systems in the region, which I think they’re also doing.

JL: But it doesn’t look that different.

TV: It doesn’t look that different except for the fact that the North Korean strategy is to try to divide the alliance.

JL: Right.

TV: To try to divide the Japanese and the- and South Koreans from us.

JL: And Trump is into that.

TV: And he’s- he’s leaning into it without really realizing he’s doing that.

JF: He’s also trying to divide the alliance.

TV: Yeah.

JL: Finally, though, it’ll be okay because Stephen Miller is at that computer figuring out the perfect words for Donald Trump to say at UNGA.

JF: C+ Santa Monica fascist.

TV: Yeah, I mean- can you imagine?

JF: Stephen Miller.

TV: I guess the funny thing is, he does give this big speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. It will be very weird and jarring, I think even now, for us to watch that and see him in that role-

JF: I won’t be watching.

TV: But he will be reading from a teleprompter. It will probably go fine. The thing that I really worry about is like, what’s he gonna say in the meeting with the King of Jordan or the PA -- Palestinian authority -- or the leaders of Egypt? Or his working lunch with the African leaders? It’s like, you know- these are- he doesn’t know-

JF: At his Bedminster hotel?

TV: A thing about what’s gonna be discussed.

JL: I would say a full 75% about what Donald Trump will know on foreign policy on Friday, he does not currently know. He will learn it in these meetings and he’s gonna be fascinated. He’s gonna say something like, “You know many people didn’t know that there were more than five countries in Africa. More and more people are finding this out.”

JF: So, this is basically an international relations course for Donald Trump.

JL: Oh, yeah, it’s-

JF: Crash course.

TV: And they’re doing a long version. I mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? Like by the end of the Obama administration, we were out of there in 36 hours.

JL: The great courses: UNGA.

[Laughter]

JF: He gets to chill out in New York for a couple days, that’s what- he doesn’t want- he hates Washington. He’s doing most of it from Bedminster.

TV: I gotta say, I’m with him on that one.

JF: Oh, that’s fun. Okay, when we come back we will be talking to the editor-in-chief of HuffPo, Lydia Polgreen.

0:31:00

[MUSIC]

0:31:06

JF: Pod Save America is brought to you by Sonos.

TV and JL: Sonos.

JF: Speak freely about your love of Sonos.

JL: Okay.

TV: I went down to Orange County yesterday to visit a friend of all of ours, Nikki, who lives there. We saw her amazing puppy Stanley, who Lovett yelled at during Game of Thrones several times.

JF: Yeah, Lovett’s very anti-Stanley.

TV: And we’re getting her a house warming gift-

JL: I’m not anti-Stanley.

TV: And we’re gonna get her a Sonos.

JF: Does she know that or is this, like- did we just…?

JL: I’m not anti-Stanley.

TV: She’s learning about it right now.

JF: Oh ho!

TV: The reason we’re doing it is because it’s a great way to listen to music.

JF: You know how long it’s gonna take Nikki to set up that Sonos?

TV: 11 seconds.

JF: That’s right. I was gonna-

TV: I counted.

JF: Yeah that’s right. Exactly 11 seconds.

JL: I like it.

[Laughter]

JL: I have one set up in my dining room. We play music during game night.

TV: By the way, it’s nice down there.

JL: Sonos!

JF: Kick out some Republican representatives down there.

TV: Yeah! You’re out!

JF: Sonos! For the first time-

JL: Yeah, maybe Darrell Issa can listen to some music, beautifully crisp, on the veranda when he’s not a Congress person anymore. Or the roof.

JF: Yeah, when he’s- becomes a lobbyist. For the first time ever, Sonos is offering the listeners of Pod Save America 10% off one order of 1,000 dollars or less on any product on sonos.com. This offer is available for a limited time only and cannot be combined with other discounts or promotions. Use the promo code PSA10. That’s capital “P-S-A” one zero at sonos.com to receive this exclusive offer.

TV: Exclusive.

JL: Do you know who else might enjoy some crisp, lifelike sound on their Sonos? Ted Cruz. End of thought.

[Laughter]

JF: Like.

[Laughter]

0:32:26

JF: Pod Save America is also brought to you by Texture. We’ve been telling you about Texture for months.

TV: Months.

JF: It’s a great app giving you unlimited access to over 200 premium magazines. They have content that is fresh and new each month, unlike the same script they’ve asked us to read over and over and over again.

TV: Ohhh!

JL: Fresh content.

JF: This is meta.

JL: What?

JF: That was in the script.

TV: That was in the script?

JF: The funny script line was in the usually boring script.

JL: What’s happening?

TV: The call is coming from inside the house.

JF: Texture’s amazing.

TV: They’re listening.

JF: We love you Texture. So they took away the script and asked us to tell you about a story we read on the Texture app.

TV: Ooh.

JF: So, one of the magazines that’s on texture is the Atlantic.

TV: Yes.

JF: We haven’t talked about this on the pod yet, because hopefully we’ll talk to him about it at some point, but Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “First White President.” Incredible piece.

JL: Yeah. We talked about it on Lovett or Leave It the other day.

TV: That whole- that whole issue of that magazine is amazing.

JL: Yeah.

TV: Elliot Cohen has an entire article about Trump’s foreign policy so far and all the things he’s fallen short on. And he’s a right-wing Republican writing this, criticizing Trump.

JF: The Atlantic does great work.

TV: Yeah. And you know what-

JL: Yeah.

JF: Little highlight of the Atlantic here.

TV: I don’t know the last time I saw a hard copy of almost any magazine. That’s why you need Texture.

JF: You can access all your favorite magazines and their back issues in a single app so you can enjoy them any time, anywhere. Tommy, we’re just crushing the segues there. That was great.

TV: Crushing.

JF: Texture is normally 15 dollars a month. But our listeners can get Texture for just 6.99 a month.

JL: The Atlantic is very old.

[Laughter]

JL: It’s been around for a long time. I think that it’s been around since, like, Lincoln. Or maybe before.

JF: Listen- yeah.

TV: 6.99 a month! That’s amazing! That’s over 50% off their standard price!

JF: You also get a free-

JL: It probably used to have an old timey type.

JF: You also get a free trial so you can try Texture first. Get over 200 top magazines such as People, Vanity Fair, Time, Cosmo, and the Atlantic for just- we just did an ad for the Atlantic today.

JL: Yeah, what the hell.

JF: Jeff Goldberg, come see us.

TV: Yeah. The invoice is in the mail, Jeff.

[Laughter]

JF: Go to texture.com/crooked. That’s texture.com/crooked. Texture, a better way to read magazines. That’s-

TV: Also in the copy.

JF: That’s them, yeah, sorry.

JL: Okay, cool.

JF: You guys can have it out with each other.

0:34:16

[MUSIC]

0:34:20

JF: We’re very fortunate to have, in studio, the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, Lydia Polgreen.

Lydia Polgreen: We’re HuffPost now.

JF: HuffPost- I said it earlier in the program correctly.

LP: It’s okay.

[Laughter]

TV: We can do it again.

JF: Yeah, let’s do it again.

LP: No, no, no!

JL: No, I think-

LP: I want-

JL: I think it should stay in, guys.

JF: Okay.

LP: Yeah.

TV: It’s a learning- it’s a learning moment.

LP: I think so, too. I think so, too.

JF: Now we’re gonna remember.

JL: It’ll stick with people.

LP: I’m a big believer in transparency and showing your work, so, there we go.

JF: We’re- that’s perfect then.

[Laughter]

TV: Before you were the editor-in-chief of HuffPost, you were also a foreign correspondent for the New York Times focused on Africa. The UN General Assembly’s this week. How do you sense the world is viewing Donald Trump nine months into this adventure we’re all on? Have people started to figure him out? Or is he still this big question mark that is creating anxiety?

LP: Well, I think both, right? I mean, they’ve figured- they’ve started to figure him out and that is provoking even more anxiety.

JF: Okay.

TV: Great.

LP: You know, it’s been a really interesting- I mean I spent most of my career covering, you know, developing nations that…were sort of transitioning to democracy, but often in a deeply complicated way. They were not necessarily, you know, ideally representative or, you know, perfect in their expression of democracy. And, you know, when I was in places like Zimbabwe or Congo or Nigeria or India, you know, the U.S. for many democracy advocates was seen as a kind of beacon. And you know, when I talk to my friends in those places now, they- they see things very differently. I had a conversation, this is like such a Tom Friedman thing to say, but, you know, I was- we’ve been going around the country on our Listen to America Tour that HuffPost is doing, visiting 25 cities. And I was in St. Louis for the kick off and I had this conversation with a Lyft driver going back to my hotel, who’s originally from Uganda. And he’s lived in the St. Louis area for 13 years, he’s a nurse and, you know, drives Lyft on the weekends. And he said- we had a, you know, pretty in-depth conversation about the situation in Uganda. They’ve had a strong man president, you know, for the past 30 years. And he said, “You know, I used to call Uganda to check up on people there and now people are calling to check up on me.”

TV: Great.

LP: And that, to me, really encapsulates how a lot people, you know, from the- the world that I used to spend most of my time covering, feel about what’s unfolding in the United States right now. It’s a mix of horror, you know, but also, you know, it feels very familiar. You know, having a leader who’s using fear, antipathy- I mean in Uganda for example, it wasn’t Muslims, but it was actually gays who were used as a kind of- a way to whip up antipathy to the opponents of the president. So, you know, I think it’s really useful to look and see how the rest of the world is digesting and seeing you know, the Trump presidency. And you’re seeing, you know, don’t forget that Trump is part of a wave, you know. I covered India and, you know, Trump is of a piece with figures like Narendra Modi. So you know, I think the global lens is really important in thinking about what’s unfolding in America right now.

JF: So you were covering countries transitioning into democracy and now you’re covering one transitioning out.

[Laughter]

JF: So, you- you became editor-in-chief of one of the largest left-leaning media organizations right as Trump was elected president. We’re now eight months in. What’s been the biggest challenge of journalism in the Trump era? What’s surprised you?

LP: Yeah, I mean, it’s really interesting. I mean, I think, you know, HuffPost has traditionally been described as a left-leaning news organization and I suppose there are some ways in which it’s true. I’d like to think of us as progressive. But I think, like, this is a moment where the traditional poles of left and right feel so scrambled. And, you know, you’ve got these two giant forces, you know, globalization on the one hand and technological on the other, converging to really, to really re-architect how power works in the world. And so, I think of us- the best way to describe our identity is, you know, we’re for people who earn a paycheck and live on that paycheck. And that’s actually not an ideological point of view.

JF: What does that mean in practice?

LP: Well it means that, you know, we’re pretty critical of everyone. You know, who’s powerful.

JF: Would you say it’s more populism than ideology now?

LP: Yeah, and I think populism has become a dirty word in our, in our current political climate because it’s been used in so many negative ways. And the history of populism in the United States is not a happy one. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that there, you know, huge parts of the country, and frankly the world, that feel alienated from the most powerful institutions that govern our lives. Whether it’s, you know, politics, whether it’s media, you know, technology. There’re just so many things that fell, I think, fundamentally alien. And I think you know, one of the things we’re trying to accomplish with this listening tour is sort of get beyond the divisive tactics that have divided people, and help people, particularly working people, see the things that they share and that they have in common. And, you know, once you get past, you know, the kind of Fox News framing around political correctness and, you know, transgender bathrooms and things like that, and get people having a real conversation, I think they often find that- that they share much more than divides them.

JL: I just wanna follow up. You say- so taking on both sides, right? Or sort of viewing- not being easy on the liberal side, right, and that would be a difference than what, say a more liberal publication would do. Where do you think more liberal leaning places are falling down on the job in holding Democrats and progressives accountable?

LP: It’s a great question. I mean, I think, you know, we’re- you know, Democrats love nothing more than a circular firing squad. So, you know, there’s- there’s a lot of kind of interlacing battles going on right now. It feels like we’re gonna replay the 2016 primary, you know, probably well into our grandchildren’s, you know, lives. But you know I think that, you know, the relationship of the Democratic party in particular to big institutions, financial institutions, to the technology industry, I actually think that, you know, you’re seeing an emerging set of voices that are asking really, really hard questions around these issues. So we’re definitely not alone in that. You know, I’ve been super encouraged to see a huge emphasis on the questions around technological monopolies. I think that, you know, the battle over identity politics is pretty uninteresting to me. But, it’s good that it’s a conversation that we’re having. So, I’m not gonna criticize any sort of left leaning publication for doing this or not doing that, but I do think that anybody who cares about these issues needs to be putting real pressure on the political leadership. And also the sort of big institutions like unions, you know, as much as they remain a force, to really be kind of like foot soldiers in this battle. And putting that pressure on and continuing to advocate for these issues is extremely important.

JL: I guess, yeah, I just- it seems like, to me, that those are critiques and access points from the left as well, right?

LP: Sure.

JL: That like, a desire for a stronger, you know, union force, a desire to take on big technology companies that are monopolistic. I guess I just- to me I ,like, see MSNBC at a moment where there’s incredible liberal activism, kind of going out and trying to find conservatives to kind of level the playing field and I- I guess I wonder why this would be a moment to come at these issues.

LP: Oh, I totally agree and I think like, you know, to me the thing that’s dismaying is that the conservatives that you see, you know, rising up in places like MSNBC and, like the, you know, opinion pages of the New York Times, actually represent, like, exactly the same world view as the liberals. You know, they may have differences on policy issues and things like that, but they represent, you know, upper middle class elites consensus-

JF: Establishment.

LP: Establishment, you know. I mean, you know, Brett Stevens is an incredibly stylish writer and I think, you know, an interesting thinker. But, you know, there’s not that much difference in terms of the broader, kind of, poles that we’re seeing in our world right now, between him and Tom Friedman. Or him and Nick Kristof, you know. They essentially come out of the same milieu and they go to the same cocktail parties. They have had the same lived experience and, so to me it’s less of a critique about ideology and to me it feels like, weirdly more like a sorta cover your ass than a genuine attempt to grapple with ideological diversity.

TV: Yeah, I mean, and Hugh Hewitt is an intellectually dishonest individual who came to support Trump when it became economically and socially acceptable, or viable for him to do so. And low and behold, he’s rewarded with a show on MSNBC.

LP: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s right. I think we’re seeing people- it’s very comfortable for establishment institutions to embrace never-Trump conservatives. It’s- that’s like a gimme. It’s so easy.

TV: Shout out to Miller.

[Laughter]

LP: On, I mean, exactly. It’s like, it’s, you know, so nobody gets any points for ideological diversity from my- in my book from embracing a GOP never-Trumper. It’s like, yawn.

JF: I was thinking about this last night and you were tweeting about it as well, with Spicer on the Emmys. Which is, like, so supposedly liberal Hollywood, Harvard now, is like embracing these former Trump figures like Spicer and Corey Lewandowski, you know my mind-

LP: But not Chelsea Manning, God forbid.

JF: Well it’s like, in my mind I’m like, this is ironically one of the points that Trump’s campaign was making, which is there’s this clubby elitism and it really doesn’t matter which, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, because all these people end up together.

LP: No, of course-

JF: Cause it’s the money and fame that sort of drives it.

LP: No, that’s exactly right. And I think like, you know, it’s been kind of a rough time for Harvard. I didn’t go to Harvard, I don’t know if any of you guys did.

JF: No.

JL: Boo hoo.

[Laughter]

JL: When’s the vigil.

[Laughter]

LP: I mean, I’ll- look it’s not like I went to a state school. I actually went to a small liberal arts college in Maryland that had a lot of conservatives at it. You know, I think that this ability of establishment institutions to re-assimilate noxious figures is a very old story, you know? I mean,

JF: You pointed out Kissinger last night.

LP: Exactly. I mean Henry Kissinger, you know, is- remains hailed by statesmen. Including like, people like Hillary Clinton. So, you know. I think this has been a factor in our public life and really says something, like, deeply troubling about Washington. That there’s essentially nothing-

JF: Absolutely.

LP: There’s nothing you can do that makes you a persona non-grata.

JL: Yeah, well I found myself thinking of it. That it’s even worse. Which is, it’s about the enemies you’re allowed to have. You know, because had Sean Spicer stood up there and defended things like a Muslim ban, but had Trump done something anti-gay in a way that led Spicer to forgive it at the podium, he’d be much less forgiven by people at the Emmys.

LP: I think that’s absolutely right. I mean, and that goes to, like, the kinda hierarchy of otherness, you know. And, look, you know, you look at things like the transgender ban -- and look I don’t remember if Sean Spicer specifically stood up and defended the transgender ban -- but like, you know we’ve seen this, like, change sweeping through Hollywood but it remains somewhat on the fringe. And you know, I think that the question of, like, who it’s okay to bash and who it’s not remains like a really important one.

TV: Yeah. So you’re leading a media company at a time of massive change in media.

JL: We are, too.

TV: We are, as well. So I was actually just gonna get some advice.

[Laughter]

LP: Oh, wait. I’m here to ask the questions.

TV: So, Ben Smith- Advice -- put your office in a soundproof studio on La Cienaga. You’ll never hear a motorcycle go by. Ben Smith at Buzzfeed wrote a piece about Facebook and how it’s time for big technology companies to sort of have their time in the barrel. And they’re starting to get attacked. You’re hearing about anti-trust. Media companies have long viewed Facebook as a frenemy. They give you extraordinary reach, but they cut into revenues. Like, what do you think the future is for these massive technology companies, like Facebook, like Twitter, that are so important to the way the news is disseminated and consumed now.

LP: I think they’re in trouble. I mean, I think that you’re seeing on the left and in certain parts of the right, a consensus around the overwhelming power that these platforms have. You know, the New York Times story about what happened at their New America foundation with the Open Markets Institute I think was a real wake up call. And you know it remains unclear if that’s actually what Google wanted or if it was, you know, the overzealous reaction of the people that run New America. But, you know, it’s clear to me that news organizations, you know, really let themselves be dealt a bad hand. And I think about the way in which you know, for example, Taylor Swift has neg- managed her relationship with Spotify, you know. I take it away, I give it back and, you know. I remember right before her- right before her album came out, there was a massive advertisement that Spotify paid for as kind of a takeover on the New York Times home page and it was clear that she had extracted, like, extraordinary concessions from Spotify and said, you as a platform, you need to have this album. Now, can news do that, I think is a really interesting question. And the fact is, like, we trained our readers to expect our content to be free and- but that, in a way, is like not nearly as bad as the second sin, which was training platforms to expect that we would just give them our content and let them build their businesses on the back of it. I mean this is particularly poignant for HuffPost, right. Because, you know, one of the most powerful critiques of HuffPost was that we destroyed the journalism industry by having unpaid bloggers and by aggregating people’s stories and things like that. I mean, we are all unpaid workers, you know, toiling in the mines of the- in the data mines of Facebook, right?

TV: Yeah.

LP: We really are!

JF: Yeah.

TV: Yeah.

JL: We’re all Twitter interns.

TV: A lot of nice houses in San Francisco have been built on the- on your labor.

LP: Yeah, exactly. And so I think like, you know, now running, like, a small scrappy, I mean, not that small but, you know, scrappy newsroom that’s really devoted to creating- it’s sort of ironic that, you know, there was a time when people to us and thought of us as, you know, the enemy of journalism. I mean, my God.

JF: Yeah. I mean it seems like the other thing that Facebook touches on is this dissemination of propaganda during the 2016 race, which I don’t- I don’t think we’ve had a good enough or serious enough discussion in this country about how to counter propaganda.

TV: Yeah, or even a full accounting of what happened.

JF: Or a full accounting of what happened. But I was- I kept looking at this- these studies after the 2016 election that shows the media coverage, you know, mainstream media was overwhelmingly negative on- for both candidates.

LP: Yep.

JF: And there was remarkably little about policy for both candidates among the mainstream media coverage. But Trump benefits from these right-wing media outlets – Breitbart, Fox, everything – that were actually talking a lot about his policy positions-

LP: Yep.

JF: And so his policy broke through in a favorable way on the right. Hillary never had anything like that on the left.

LP: And not just broke through in a favorable way on the right, but they- they broke through without any interference, right?

JF: Right. No filters.

LP: I mean without any scrutiny. And so I think, like, you know, I think that a lot of the anger that you’re seeing from President Clinton, from Hillary Clinton on the- against the media is really kind of like, speaking to this in that, you know, you had these big institutions that saw it as their job to do their job as they’ve always done their job. And meanwhile, kind of off to the side, there was this other media that was much more savvy and plugged in to how people are actually getting information, that was telling a really different story. And, look, you know, I mean, one of the basic things- I mean, there’s absolutely like, you know, progressive, you know, I wouldn’t quite call it fake news, but there’s progressive, you know, kind of manipulative media. I know because my mother bombards me with it every single day on Facebook. But, you know, there also doesn’t seem to be the receptiveness to that-

JF: Right.

LP: Among- you know, on the left. I think that there is a more questioning, less likely to sort of accept this kind of simplistic framing that we were seeing on the right. And so, you know, so I think that you’re seeing efforts on the left to try and replicate the Breitbarts and others. I don’t think they’ll succeed.

TV: No,

JF: I don’t think we want to.

LP: No!

JF: I mean, it’s always bothered me because people- when people bring up fox and breitbart, they’ll say, oh and then on the left you have MSNBC and HuffPost.

LP: There’s just- no.

TV: Not equivalent.

JF: It’s not like that, there’s no comparison.

JL: We would be- we would be in much better shape if there was a Rachel Maddow of the right. If that’s who people were tuning into on Fox News it’d be like, you know, it’d be great.

LP: Yeah.

JF: My question- I don’t think we want to replicate that. But so what do we do on the left? I mean, like, you know, you guys must struggle with that, right?

LP: We do all the time. And I think like, you know, I mean it’s not to say that, I mean if you read Breitbart on any given day, which I do read every single day. They are absolutely writing about divisions within the right, you know, so it’s not like a, you know, a kind of aim and corner for the GOP. And so I think, like, our kind of fratricidal coverage of the left is- is not dissimilar from what you see.

TV: Yes, certainly now with Bannon back.

LP: Certainly now with Bannon back, you’re seeing that. But I think that there has been this like really skillful kind of transmission of memes on the right, that just would never work on the left.

TV: I agree. And you know I’ve been thinking about this a lot as we learn more and more about Russian propaganda at first because, it’s not like they were more technologically effective, or better funded than say Hillary Clinton’s team or the DNC’s team. There had to have been something about the content that people were more willing to believe. And I think it’s because they’re willing to lie. They’re willing to say, “Hillary Clinton murdered people and here’s the list.” And like when that shit gets in your head, it’s hard to get it out. And I don’t think that’s something we ever wanna replicate on the left. At least I hope not. But on the right, it’s like, we saw this about Obama from day one. The birther garbage was exactly that.

LP: Right. I mean I think it really has to do with, like, your relationship to truth and fact, right? I mean if you have any sense of decency and care about, you know, the actual world in which we live. I mean, that’s why I think, you know, people who are shocked that, you know, Trump and Schumer- that you know, Chuck and Nancy and Donald Trump are, you know, making deals. I mean, you know, at the end of the day I think that for the Democrats, saving DACA is like, not a joke, you know. They’re not gonna sell out, you know, 800 thousand people who came to America as children for the sake of not giving Donald Trump a win. I mean agree or disagree with the Democrats, like, you know, that was not the case with the Republicans under Obama, right. I mean they were- they were willing to do almost anything to prevent him from getting almost anything and- and what we’re seeing right now is the Democratic party that’s, you know, behaving like adults. And I think that’s…that’s just the reality that we need to live with. That at the end of the day, people like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are- are gonna make deals with Trump because, you know, it’s just too important.

JF: Yeah. So, last question and then we’ll let you go. Because you’ve covered so many countries transitioning into democracy, how do you think that our institutions are holding up so far under the Trump presidency? Or how concerned are you that he’s doing lasting damage?

LP: I mean, I think that our institutions are holding up, actually, pretty well. I think, you know, for all the criticism of the media, like, you know, there’s so much great journalism out there right now and you know, people are not intimidated. And I think that that’s really powerful. I worry a lot about the courts. I think that, you know, something that people are probably not paying enough attention to is just how much power the President has to shape the courts and given ort current you know, our current set up in the Senate, this is gonna have profound and lasting impact. If the Republicans achieved only one thing, denying a Supreme Court justice to President Obama and handing a seat to Neil Gorsuch-

TV: Yeah.

LP: Is a generational win that will not soon be undone. You know, and so- so you know, I think that’s one area where we have to be like, really, really be watching closely. You know, I’m an optimist by nature and I think that, you know, particularly traveling around the country on tis bus tour, I’m going to Birmingham from here. You know, I just have to believe that you know, the sort of the real stuff of the country, which is people in their communities, like making changes in their lives and in their political institutions and their civic institutions. That that’s the thing that’s going to keep us from going off the rails.

TV: Yeah.

LP: I mean, look, there are countries that have perfect elections under the, the auspices of the United Nations like, for example I covered one of the first elections in Congo after the civil war. And that was a beautiful election. Everyone, you know, cast their ballots peacefully, the ballots were counted correctly. That country has no institutions, you know, and so it’s just been a mess ever since. In Nigeria, they can’t hold an election to save their lives. You know, there’s like open ballot stuffing, you know, all kinds of shenanigans that go on, but it’s judiciary almost always gets it right. And it’s institutions, you know, sort of hold the country in place and that’s why, despite everyone thinking Nigeria’s a mess, it’s actually held together all these years. And so when I think about the United States I think about us as being, you know, there are parts of our- of the mechanics and the furniture of our democracy that are vulnerable. But they’re are sort of deep, institutional reasons why I think we have reasons to be optimistic.

TV: We also need Trump’s lawyer to keep going to steak lunches and just talking loudly about their strategies.

[Laughter]

JF: Next to Ken Vogel.

JL: Getting a pop over and talking about a safe with secret documents. Keep it up, Matt.

[Laughter]

LP: Read about it in the New York Times.

JF: Yeah. Lydia Polgreen, thank you so much for joining us. And please come back again soon.

TV: Yeah.

LP: It’s a pleasure. Thanks, guys.

TV: Good luck on the bus tour.

JF: Yeah.

LP: Thank you.

JF: It’ll be fun.

0:57:06

[MUSIC]

0:57:11

JF: Pod Save America is brought to you by Movement.

TV: Movement.

JL: Guys, I want to put some content in the ad. This comes from the Emmys, about Sean Spicer. Friend of mine says, “The reaction in our section was very negative, people all around us were angry he was there and afterwards when we were leaving, he was up ahead of us so my husband went up and shook his hand and told him to go fuck himself.”

[Laughter]

TV: Where’s that- which ad is that going in?

JL: This is going in Movement!

TV: Okay!

[Laughter]

JL: Join the movement! Tell Sean Spicer to go fuck himself with a lovely watch on your wrist.

[Laughter]

JF: If you don’t want to see who you are, you can wear sunglasses!

TV: If Sean asks you what time it is, say it’s time to go-

TV and JL: fuck yourself!

TV: Then look at your Movement watch.

JF: Put on your movement shades and walk right away.

JL: I may be too- you think I’m too stylish to say this to you at the Emmys? Incorrect.

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JL: I do, Jon.

JF: The company was started by two broke college kids who wanted to wear stylish watches, but couldn’t afford them. So they started their own watch company.

TV: Cool.

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JL: Just like we started.

[Laughter]

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0:58:41

JF: Pod Save America is also brought to you by the Cash app.

TV and JL: The Cash app!

JF: Anyone have anything interesting to say about the Cash app.

JL: You know, I did.

[Laughter]

JF: I paid someone just this weekend with the Cash app.

JL: Oh! I was just thinking that, I can’t remember what it was about, but it had to do with an escape room and paying Spencer for something. And I was thinking, I’m gonna do this with the Cash app. Oh! You know what it was, I went to see It last night and-

TV: Oh, too scary.

JL: No, it was great. But, like, we bought movie tickets, then we went for conveyor belt sushi, then we saw the movie, we got candy, then we got a pizza after. It was a great night.

JF: Oh, I know, I-

JL: It was a great night, but it was hard to settle up!

JF: Saturday morning, Tommy and Emily and Hannah and I all went to Cantor’s Deli and-

TV: Oh, yeah.

JF: And Tommy- instead of splitting the check, Tommy paid for it and I paid him with the Cash app and then I said, this is so that we have content for the ad on Monday. And here’s the content.

TV: I was full until the next day cause Cantor’s is delicious.

JF: Cantor’s deli.

JL: I ate alone.

[Laughter]

TV: Any details about the Cash app that we should share?

JL: So, now uh…

JF: Yeah, if you download it and you put in the code PODSAVE-

JL: Now I’m mad about something new.

[Laughter]

JF: That’s five dollars for you. That’s five dollars for hurricane relief efforts. And it’s the fastest way to send and receive money.

JL: Guess you guys are cool with going back to Cantor’s even though they had like a D on the health inspection like half an hour ago.

TV: I was- I was hanging out with a new friend on Saturday who is also a friend of the pod and she said, “Was Lovett really mad about that bottle of wine?” And I said, “Yes, he’s a fucking lunatic. He was very, very angry.”

JL That’s what we’re saying now? You wanna bring that back up? You wanna say that I’m crazy?

TV: Total lunatic.

JL: You know what I really like? When-

JF: The grievances are back on the Cash app ad! More grievances!

JL: Everyone likes when the straight white guy tells them that they’re crazy.

TV: Calm down!

JL: You’re so crazy!

TV: Calm down.

JF: Oh, okay, yeah. Feminist over here. Feminist Jon Lovett.

TV: [Laughing] Yeah.

JF: Come at me with that.

TV: Why don’t you read me another anecdote from your friend at the Emmys, you fucking populist hero!

JF: [Laughing]

JL: I’m not gonna be talked to in this way. It’s my show!

[Laughter]

TV: Revealing.

JF: Revealing!

[Laughter]

JL: Cash app! It’s the simplest and easy way to pay people back who you thought were your friends.

[Laughter]

JF: The Cash app.

1:00:34

JF: Pod Save America is also brought to you by Postmates.

JL: Postmates.

JF: Postmates is a way to get food delivered to your house.

JL: Things to your house.

TV: Yeah, look, if your friends went out to breakfast without you and you’re by yourself and looking for something to eat-

JL: Is it that hard to fucking text me?

TV: Cause you need to dine. You can Postmates a delicious breakfast directly to you.

JL: I did something on Saturday. I was social.

JF: Hundred-dollar free delivery credit if you download Postmates.

JL: A barbeque.

JF: You download it, that’s a hundred dollars in free delivery credit you use that-

JL: I went to a barbeque.

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JL: You weren’t there.

TV: Code CROOKED.

JF: You get all kinds of food delivered.

TV: Postmates is basically the only way we can eat here at Crooked Media, cause they closed down everything.

JF: Yeah.

JL: You guys wanna hear what my most recent Postmates orders were? I will read them without exception.

JF: [Laughs] Yes.

TV: Yes.

JL: It’s pretty healthy. I got a cob salad, before that I got a poke bowl-

JF: Cool.

JL: On kelp noodles, which I’ve become an evangelist for.

TV: Not a fan.

JL: You didn’t like them?

TV: Gross.

JL: Oh! And then you find I got buffalo wings and a cheeseburger and fries.

TV: What day was that?

JL: That was in August because it was before I started my new contest with Spencer.

TV: Are you winning?

JL: It’s not winning. It’s like the Pairs climate accords. You can’t really lose, it’s not really binding, it’s just about transparency

TV: Got it.

JF: Postmates!

1:01:35

[MUSIC]

1:01:39

JF: On the pod today, we have the host of Pod Save the People, DeRay McKesson. DeRay, how are you?

DeRay McKesson: I’m good, I’m good. How are you guys doing?

JF: Pretty good.

JL: Great!

JF: Who’s on the show this week?

DM: We have Tennessee state legislator Lee Harris talking about drug free school zones. There’s so much you don’t know that I didn’t know about drug free school zones. And then we have Tom Dart, the sheriff of the Cook County jail, the largest jail in America.

JF: What did you talk to him about?

DM: You know, actually- ye- you know today? On Monday, Monday of this week, which is, today.

[Laughter]

DM: Today is Monday?

JF: I know, man, it’s hard.

TV: I know the feeling.

DM: Today is Monday, right? Yeah. My podcast’s on Tuesday. Ah, today! Today there is an order that goes into effect by the chief judge in Chicago that should fundamentally change money bail there. So we talk about that and we talk about, like what does it look- what does it mean to lead a jail, the biggest jail in this country. You know, people don’t realize that the three largest mental health facilities in America are jails. So we talk about that and what is wrong with it and what’s on the horizon. So, that was interesting. And then the conversation about what’s happening in Tennessee to the drug-free school zones are something that, like, I thought was sort of an issue until we talked and I, like, understood it so much better afterwards.

TV: DeRay, in the course of your activism, I think you’ve probably become, unfortunately, you know, an expert on the St. Louis police force and all its…challenges. What did you think about the verdict that came down recently and the protests that have reemerged over the last several days.

DM: You know, we talk about this a little bit on Pod Save the People. But you know, he- the officer, Jason Stockley yelled “I’m gonna kill this mother-f***er” and shot Anthony Lamar Smith five times. And his lawyer dismissed his statement as sort of like a small matter. And you see that he got acquitted and people in the street. And, you know, it’s a reminder that like we have no seen justice in so many places in this country, definitely not in St. Louis where the police kill citizens at a rate unlike any other place in America. People are still in the streets and they should be in the streets. What is sort of wild is last night, the police chanted “Who’s streets? Our streets” as they arrested like 80 people. And it’s that sort of like, gang mentality from the police that leads people to protest. Like, when have you seen the police yell “Whose streets? Our streets.” They don’t own the streets. They’re supposed to be public servants. But we’ve seen that not be true time and time again.

TV: Literally taunting activists from Black Lives Matter, right? Who would- they’re reprising a chant that they had heard previously.

DM: Yeah, a chant that we made popular- all of us made popular in the street in Ferguson in 2014. And there’s a movie that just came out about the protests in Ferguson. So I’m sure they have seen that, or heard of it, and they definitely know the chant and they were trying to use it to show that they own the streets. That its’s theirs. And it’s like, that’s not what democracy is, that’s not what is should be.

TV: No, it’s not.

JF: DeRay, as an organizer, how do you shape the way these protests are covered? So, it’s- it seems like it’s a constant struggle between getting out information like what we were just talking about when you were saying, you know, the police chanting that and the police antagonizing protestors, and people who’ll cover, you know, a couple protestors, you know, throwing something at a house or something. So, like, how do you- is that something that’s on your mind when you’re organizing these protests? Is it just, you know- it’s beyond your control, so what are you gonna do? Or, what are your thoughts on that?

DM: Yeah, so, that’s also what’s interesting about what’s happening in St. Louis is that they’re using social media as a way to sort of put out propaganda in a way that we’ve not seen and that the city did- and then those police officers definitely didn’t do that three years ago.

JF: Yeah.

DM: And as an organizer, you know I had 800 followers in 2014, I have 900 thousand now. And try to be really thoughtful by using the platform to help people like, feel and see and smell what was happening. And you know, in the digital space that’s really important because most of the people that care are not physically with you so the more that you can help people like understand how many people, what’s the mood like, what does it feel like, in a consistent way, that goes a long way.

JF: What else do you think has changed with regards to police violence and resulting protests since, you know, you first went to Ferguson three years ago?

DM: Yeah, you know, people thought there was a crisis in Ferguson, they didn’t think there was a crisis in America in 2014. And now that has completely changed. Like people understand that there’s a crisis all across the country. I think now, like with most issues, people are like what can we do, right? They’re looking for what the solutions are. And there’s some places that have been more resistant than others. I think where we’ve not seen change is the FOP. That the police unions, have almost wholly been against any change at the national level, for sure. And with this administration we don’t see the DOJ any longer pushing for reform or any substantive change in the system.

TV: DeRay one of the most outspoken protests against police violence and the treatment of African Americans in the country was Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to stand during the national anthem. It has been interesting to me to watch the way his leadership has been covered over the course of the last several years and I think anyone who read Rembert Browne’s piece in Bleacher Report recently, you know, have seen the way he’s brought people along with him. I’m wondering what- what you think about Kaepernick’s stand against police violence and where- where that effort is.

DM: Yeah, I just- I was just with Colin the other day. We were together for a couple hours and, and then Jack joined, Jack here at Twitter who’s great and a friend. And then they were together for the rest of the morning. You know, Colin is very kind. He’s kinder than I think people sort of get the impression of on, with, you know when they see him on TV. He’s really dedicated to these issues both here and globally. And the reality is that nothing that Colin is saying about race and justice is controversial, right? He’s saying the police shouldn’t be killing people. And like that is true.

TV: Yes.

DM: And he’s saying that this country was founded on racism. That is true. Like, these aren’t controversial things. You know, he still trains five days a week. He’s ready at any moment if he gets signed by a team. It’s also wild to see the owners almost seemingly joined together to block him. And that, you know, isn’t fair, isn’t right. So hopefully we’ll see an owner step up and not bow down to the peer pressure of the rest of the owners and do what’s right.

TV: 32 owners who are old, wealthy, white men, I believe.

JL: Many Trump donors.

TV: Yeah, many Trump donors.

JF: Yeah.

DM: Yeah, do you guys have any idea of who is a strong owner who won’t- isn’t susceptible to peer pressure?

TV: Lovett? Lovett?

JL: Yeah, you know DeRay, as you know I sort of- I’m a encyclopedia of knowledge around- about the National Football League.

[Laughter]

JL: I have no idea.

TV: Yeah, to be honest I don’t either but he’s obviously good enough to play on a lot of teams. It- I mean the question early on was, whether he was holding out for a starting job and didn’t wanna be a backup. Well clearly that was not the case and that it was other issues that kept teams from picking him up, so hopefully a team will show some courage and bring on a very good player.

JF: DeRay, thanks for joining us. I know you gotta run. But everyone, download Pod Save the People. It’ll be out tomorrow. And, thanks for calling in.

DM: Awesome. Talk to you guys later.

JF: Alright, man. Take care.

TV: Bye, DeRay.

JL: Bye.

DM: Okay, goodbye.

1:09:00

[MUSIC]

JF: Okay, that’s all the time we have for today. Thanks to Lydia Polgreen and DeRay for stopping by. I think we’ve hit- we’ve hit it all.

JL: We’ve talked about Spicer, healthcare, UNGA…

JF: A little index

TV: I would like to come back at some time to the fact that the entire Trump legal defense team despises one another and are openly fighting-

JL: We didn’t talk about that at all!

TV: And screaming in public places.

JF: Ty Cobb…

TV: [Laughing] Ty Cobb

JF: Versus Donn McGahn.

TV: Absurd.

JF: Over-

JL: Well, Don McGahn wasn’t at the BLT lunch.

JF: No, you’re right, right, right.

TV: Right.

JL: He just heard about it later. He just got a call about it.

JF: He wasn’t able to enjoy their delicious popover.

JL: If- I just would love to have had a camera on McGahn, the White House counsel, when he gets a call from the New York Times that said “Hi, I just got lunch at BLT and the two other lawyers were talking about the whole strategy-”

JF: “I heard you have documents locked up in a safe.”

TV: Imagine if Kathy Ruemmler had gotten that call. She would’ve slit his throat.

[Laughter]

JF: Yes. Yes, that’s true. Okay, everyone.

TV: Great episode, bye!

JF: Great episode, see you later.

JL: End of podcast.

[MUSIC]

1:10:11

#podsa #September 2017 #podsa transcripts

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/mo-amer-arab-american-stand-up-on-doing-comedy-in-donald-trumps-america/

Mo Amer: Arab-American stand-up on doing comedy in Donald Trump's America

For a Muslim American stand-up, than can be few better comedic breaks than being upgraded on an international flight and finding yourself sitting next to Donald Trump’s second son. Especially, if it happens while the president-elect is rumoured to be planning to introduce a so-called Muslim travel ban.

Mohammed “Mo” Amer immediately recognised both the unlikeliness, and comic potential of the moment. After asking Eric Trump to pose with him for a selfie, Amer quickly posted the image on social media, with the words: “Good news guys Muslims will not have to check in and get IDs. That’s what I was told. I will be asking him a lot of questions on this trip to Glasgow, Scotland. Sometimes God just sends you the material.” The post very quickly went viral.

Two years on, and with a travel ban against several Muslim-majority nations in place after a bitter legal fight over Executive Order 13780, Amer still scratches his head over his encounter with Trump on that flight from Newark to Glasgow, and the upgrade he jokes must have been arranged by a “Hillary Clinton supporter”.

It was “a surreal experience”, he tells The Independent, saying that Trump’s son told him not too believe “everything you read”, but who did not flinch as he was quizzed about the threats his father had made on the White House campaign trail to ban Muslims from entering the US.

In many respects, the description of the encounter en route to Scotland to begin a UK tour – painfully awkward, honest and brutally funny – sums up a large part of much of Amer’s approach to comedy, as he reveals the travails and challenges of migrants to America, especially Muslims.

As a stand-up who has spent several years opening for Dave Chappelle, he says he tries not to derive too much of his material from Donald Trump – “he does not deserve that much attention” – who is a constant and rich source for many comedians. Yet, he cannot ignore the greater insecurity felt by by friends and relatives, and the poor international perception of the US, since the president’s election win. “We’re supposed to be the global example.”

The 37-year-old recently recorded a live show at Austin’s Paramount Theatre for a Netflix special, The Vagabond. In it, hopping around the stage and constantly dabbing at his brow, Amer recalls the years spent travelling the world as a comedian with only a “travel document” rather than a passport, entertaining US and coalition troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and trying to explain to Japanese immigration officials his profession. (The only US comedian they had heard of was the disgraced Bill Cosby.)

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After his family of Palestinian origin fled Kuwait after the first Gulf War, and moved to Houston, it took him almost 20 years to get citizenship. That struggle, provides a rich vein of material that is both funny and sad.

One of Amer’s talents is a gift for mimicry and accents – a British customs official, a US soldier from Alabama, the Chinese-American woman who is thrilled when he finally wins citizenship, the Latino Houston gang member who cannot decide whether he is one of them or not. All are voices and personas he deploys, apparently without offending anyone, and which people of different ethnic backgrounds are able to laugh out loud at.

Speaking Arabic and Spanish, as well as English, helps. So does his conversational, almost confessional style. Somehow, an entire theatre can laugh, as he mimics himself threatening to blow up a plane as he recalls heaving with frustration being forced to go through the same ritual of his travel document not being recognised every time he flew.

“It was just something I did. It was not something I ever practiced,” Amer says of ability to switch from (mock) British, to (mock) German to real Houstonian. “I just did it. And I started doing different ones, and they worked.”

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1/50 19 November 2018

A view of the Fuego volcano eruption at sunrise, seen from El Rodeo, Escuintla, Guatemala. More than 2,000 people were evacuated from several villages due to the strong eruption, located 50 kilometers west of the Guatemalan capital

EPA

2/50 18 November 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron is applauded after speaking before the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) as the German parliament commemorates victims of wars and dictatorships in Berlin. The leaders of France and Germany jointly remember the victims of European wars, presenting also a united front in countering global turmoil stoked by US President Donald Trump

AFP/Getty

3/50 17 November 2018

People wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers’ nationwide protest against higher fuel prices, block the Paris-Brussels motorway in Haulchin, France

Reuters

4/50 16 November 2018

People hold banners of Jamal Khashoggi during a symbolic funeral prayer for the Saudi journalist, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul. Turkey has more evidence contradicting the Saudi version of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi including a second audio recording, revealing that the murder had been premeditated, a Turkish newspaper reported on November 16, a contradiction to the statement of the Saudi prosecutor who said that five Saudi officials faced the death penalty on charges of killing Khashoggi but exonerated the country’s powerful Crown Prince of involvement in the murder

AFP/Getty

5/50 15 November 2018

Alexei Navalny leaves the European Court of Human Rights today. The court has ruled that Russia’s repeated arrests of Navalny were politically motivated

6/50 14 November 2018

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AFP/Getty

7/50 13 November 2018

Palestinians gather in front of damaged buildings in Gaza City following Israeli air strikes targeting the area overnight. Israel’s aircraft struck Gaza on November 12, killing three Palestinians and wounding nine after a barrage of rocket fire into its territory from the enclave. The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip, at the weekend, that left Hamas vowing revenge

AFP/Getty

8/50 12 November 2018

Floral tributes outside Melbourne’s Pellegrini’s Cafe for Sisto Malaspina, after he was stabbed to death last Friday in an attack police have called an act of terrorism, in Australia

Reuters

9/50 11 November 2018

Heads of states and world leaders attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18

10/50 10 November 2018

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11/50 9 November 2018

A Fly Jamaica plane en route to Toronto crash lands at an airport in Guyana following a technical problem. At least six passengers were injured

Cheddi Jagan International Airport

12/50 8 November 2018

An FBI agent talks to a potential witness as they stand near the scene Thursday in Thousand Oaks, California. where a gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with hundreds of people on “college night,” wounding 11 people including a deputy who rushed to the scene. Ventura County sheriff’s spokesman says gunman is dead inside the bar.

13/50 7 November 2018

Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar is celebrates with her husband’s mother after she won a congress place during the US midterm elections. In doing do she became the first-joint Muslim woman to be elected into congress alongside Rashida Tlaib

Reuters

14/50 6 November 2018

Voters cast their ballots at the Tuttle Park Recreation Center polling location in Columbus, Ohio. Across the US, voters headed to the polls in one of the most high-profile midterm elections in years

15/50 5 November 2018

Members of the group Your Vote Matters encourage people to vote before an event hosted by US Senator Claire McCaskill as she campaigns for the US Senate in Saint Louis, Missour. McCaskill, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley in the November general election

EPA

16/50 4 November 2018

Police officers and rescuers work at the site of where a truck ploughed into cars at a toll booth in Lanzhou in China’s northwestern Gansu province. The out-of-control truck crashed into a 31-car lineup and killed 15 people, with 44 injured

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17/50 3 November 2018

Simone Biles on the podium with her gold medal from the floor exercise at the gymnastics world championships. She became the most decorated female gymnast in world’s history, as well as, becoming the first American to win a medal in every event at the competition

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18/50 2 November 2018

A Salvadorean migrant with a girl walks next to Guatemalan policemen as they approach the Guatemala-Mexico international border bridge in Ciudad Tecun Uman. Accoring to the Salvadorean General Migration Directorate, over 1,700 Salvadoreans left the country in two caravans and entered Guatemala Wednesday, in an attempt to reach the US

AFP/Getty

19/50 1 November 2018

Google employees hold signs outside 14th street park after walking out as part of a global protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant

Reuters

20/50 31 October 2018

The “Statue of Unity” portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the founding fathers of India, during its inauguration in Kevadia, in the western state of Gujarat, India

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21/50 30 October 2018

A scavenger collects recyclable materials along the breakwater amid strong waves as weather patterns from Typhoon Yutu affect Manila Bay. Fierce winds sheared off roofs and snapped trees in half, after thousands were evacuated ahead of the powerful storm’s arrival

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22/50 29 October 2018

Rescue team members collecting the remains of the crashed plane at Tanjung Priok Harbour, Indonesia. A Lion Air flight JT-610 lost contact with air traffic controllers soon after takeoff then crashed into the sea. The flight was en route to Pangkal Pinang, and reportedly had 189 people onboard

EPA

23/50 28 October 2018

A supporter of Workers’ Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad embraces a fellow weeping supporter, after learning that rival Jair Bolsonaro was declared the winner in the Brazil presidential runoff election. Addressing supporters in Sao Paulo, Haddad did not concede or even mention Bolsonaro by name. Instead, his speech was a promise to resist

24/50 27 October 2018

First responders surround the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a shooter opened fire, wounding three police officers and killing eleven

25/50 26 October 2018

Broward County Sheriff’s office have released a photo of Cesar Sayoc, the suspect who was arrested in connection with the pipe bombs that have been sent to several high profile Democrats and critics of President Trump over the course of this week

26/50 25 October 2018

East Island in Hawaii has been swallowed by the sea following Hurricane Walaka

US Fish and Wildlife Service

27/50 24 October 2018

Police officers stand outside the home of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a “functional explosive device” was attemptedly delivered to the couple

28/50 23 October 2018

Turkey’s President Erdogan today accused Saudi Arabia of plotting the ‘savage’ murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

29/50 22 October 2018

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) delivers a national apology to child sex abuse victims in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra on October 22, 2018. – Morrison on October 22 issued an emotive apology to children who suffered sexual abuse, saying the state had failed to protect them from “evil dark” crimes committed over decades

AFP/Getty

30/50 21 October 2018

A derailed train in Yian, eastern Taiwan. At least 17 people died after the derailment

CNA/AFP/Getty

31/50 20 October 2018

US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One after a “Make America Great” rally in Mesa, Arizona on October 19, 2018. – US President Donald Trump said Friday, October 19, 2018, that he found credible Saudi Arabia’s assertion that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died as a result of a fight

AFP/Getty

32/50 19 October 2018

A Palestinian youth runs past a rolling burning tire during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration after the weekly Friday prayers, in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron

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33/50 18 October 2018

Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the United States, leave Guatemala City. US President Donald Trump threatened to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the “onslaught” of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed Democrats ahead of the midterm elections

AFP/Getty

34/50 17 October 2018

Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike around the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Israel launched raids against targets in the Gaza strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory that caused damage in a southern city, the Israeli army said

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35/50 16 October 2018

Ecuador has issued a list of rules to Julian Assange, the famous resident of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The list included cleaning the bathroom, not commenting on foreign political affairs online and taking better care of his cat (pictured). The document states that failure to comply with these rules “could lead to the termination of the diplomatic asylum granted by the Ecuadorian state”

Reuters

36/50 15 October 2018

Israeli soldiers hurl tear gas grenades during clashes following Israeli order to shut down the al-Lubban/al-Sawiyeh school near the west bank city of Nablus, 15 October 2018. According to local sources, 20 Palestinians were wounded during clashes as dozens try to defiance the Israeli order to shut down the school

EPA

37/50 14 October 2018

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after winning his men’s final singles match against Croatia’s Borna Coric at the Shanghai Masters. Djokovic, who has now won four titles this season, will move up one ranking spot to No. 2, pushing Roger Federer back to No. 3

AFP/Getty

38/50 13 October 2018

Demonstrators raising red painted hands and a placard reading “we must change the system not the climate” referring to the need to stop climate change during a march in Bordeaux, southwestern France

AFP/Getty

39/50 12 October 2018

Spanish Unionist demonstrators carry Spanish flags during a demonstration on Spain’s National Day in Barcelona

Reuters

40/50 11 October 2018

Russia has halted all crewed space flights following the failed launch of the Soyuz MS-10 rocket (pictured). Investigations in to the rocket’s malfunction are ongoing

Reuters

41/50

People look on at a damaged store after Hurricane Michael passed through Panama City, Florida. A Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, was the most powerful storm ever to hit the Florida Panhandle

Getty

42/50 9 October 2018

The Darul Muttaqien Mosque was the heart of the community for many in Palu. A lot of the victims were inside their homes or at the mosque when the quake struck. Magareb prayer for many, was their last. Paddy Dowling travelled with UK based charity Muslim Aid to the disaster areas of North Sulawesi to witness the scale of Indonesia’s earthquake & tsunami. They are the only British NGO delivering aid out in Palu through local partners

Paddy Dowling

43/50 8 October 2018

People take part in a candle-light vigil in memory of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova in Ruse

Reuters

44/50 7 October 2018

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45/50 6 October 2018

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AFP/Getty

46/50 5 October 2018

Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad announced as the winners of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. The pair were awarded the honour “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

AFP/Getty/Reuters

47/50 4 October 2018

Dutch security services expel Russian spies over plot targeting chemical weapons watchdog. This picture shows the four GRU officers who entered the Netherlands at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on April 10, travelling on official Russian passports. On April 13 they parked a car carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague. At that point the Dutch counter-terrorism officers intervened to disrupt the operation and the four GRU officers were ordered to leave the country

48/50 3 October 2018

Quake survivors make their way past a washed out passenger ferry in Wani, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi, after an earthquake and tsunami hit the area on September 28. Nearly 1,400 people are now known to have died as UN officials warned the “needs remain vast” for both desperate survivors and rescue teams still searching for victims

AFP/Getty

49/50 2 October 2018

US first lady Melania Trump holds a baby during a visit to a hospital in Accra, Ghana. The first lady is visiting Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour

Reuters

50/50 1 October 2018

Indian school children dressed like Mahatma Gandhi perform yoga during a event at a school in Chennai ahead of his birth anniversary. Indians all over the country celebrate Gandhi’s birthday on October 2

AFP/Getty

1/50 19 November 2018

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2/50 18 November 2018

AFP/Getty

3/50 17 November 2018

People wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers’ nationwide protest against higher fuel prices, block the Paris-Brussels motorway in Haulchin, France

Reuters

4/50 16 November 2018

AFP/Getty

5/50 15 November 2018

Alexei Navalny leaves the European Court of Human Rights today. The court has ruled that Russia’s repeated arrests of Navalny were politically motivated

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AFP/Getty

7/50 13 November 2018

AFP/Getty

8/50 12 November 2018

Floral tributes outside Melbourne’s Pellegrini’s Cafe for Sisto Malaspina, after he was stabbed to death last Friday in an attack police have called an act of terrorism, in Australia

Reuters

9/50 11 November 2018

10/50 10 November 2018

AFP/Getty

11/50 9 November 2018

A Fly Jamaica plane en route to Toronto crash lands at an airport in Guyana following a technical problem. At least six passengers were injured

Cheddi Jagan International Airport

12/50 8 November 2018

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Reuters

14/50 6 November 2018

Voters cast their ballots at the Tuttle Park Recreation Center polling location in Columbus, Ohio. Across the US, voters headed to the polls in one of the most high-profile midterm elections in years

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EPA

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AFP/Getty

19/50 1 November 2018

Google employees hold signs outside 14th street park after walking out as part of a global protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant

Reuters

20/50 31 October 2018

The “Statue of Unity” portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the founding fathers of India, during its inauguration in Kevadia, in the western state of Gujarat, India

Reuters

21/50 30 October 2018

AFP/Getty

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EPA

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24/50 27 October 2018

First responders surround the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a shooter opened fire, wounding three police officers and killing eleven

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26/50 25 October 2018

East Island in Hawaii has been swallowed by the sea following Hurricane Walaka

US Fish and Wildlife Service

27/50 24 October 2018

Police officers stand outside the home of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a “functional explosive device” was attemptedly delivered to the couple

28/50 23 October 2018

Turkey’s President Erdogan today accused Saudi Arabia of plotting the ‘savage’ murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

29/50 22 October 2018

AFP/Getty

30/50 21 October 2018

A derailed train in Yian, eastern Taiwan. At least 17 people died after the derailment

CNA/AFP/Getty

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Spanish Unionist demonstrators carry Spanish flags during a demonstration on Spain’s National Day in Barcelona

Reuters

40/50 11 October 2018

Russia has halted all crewed space flights following the failed launch of the Soyuz MS-10 rocket (pictured). Investigations in to the rocket’s malfunction are ongoing

Reuters

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Getty

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Paddy Dowling

43/50 8 October 2018

People take part in a candle-light vigil in memory of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova in Ruse

Reuters

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Amer says the shows require rigorous preparation, something he learned from his friend, Chappelle. This was especially true for the hour-long, curse-filled live show, filmed in Houston, with his mother seated in the front row and for which The Roots provided original music.

“It’s hard work. But as long as you have them engaged….I know I’m funny,” he says. The worst fear for a comedian, the one thing every one dreads, he says, is a silent audience.

For all the cultural differences between the many audiences he has performed for around the world, Amer says he believes comedians can be – or even should be – global even in their appeal.

“I’ve never had any issues with this,” he says. “My mentor in Houston said to me to be universal. At that point, it was in the US. And you had to be a funny in west Texas as you are in New York City.

“That rang true globally for me. The only thing is that in some [places] Jo-Burg was one, they don’t get the set-up.”

Amer, who is set to begin work with comedian Ramy Youssef on a series that explores the life of a first-generation American Muslim in New Jersey, believes stand-up comedy is enjoying “a golden age”.

He likens improv comedy to jazz, or even hip hop, an art form that has only been around 25 years so. And like self-starting musicians, he says comedians are also seizing the opportunities presented to them by the surging interest in platform such as YouTube.

“YouTube has helped people become very funny,” he says. “And there are no commercials.”

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/mo-mohammed-amer-netflix-the-vagabond-netfix-muslim-comedian-stand-up-trump-eric-trump-upgrade-a8642031.html

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