Gather ’round, friends. Grab a seat. Everybody comfortable? Good, because we need to talk.
*takes a deep breath*
Y’ALL NEED TO STOP FUCKING SNITCH TAGGING.
Don’t give me that look, you know good and gotdamn well what snitch tagging is. It’s when you’re minding your own business, shit talking someone on Twitter (which is exactly what that godforsaken website was made for, by the way), AND THEN SOMEONE RUINS YOUR FUN BY TAGGING THE SUBJECT IN THE FUCKING THREAD.
It’s basically the opposite of a subtweet, and subtweets are what fuels Twitter.
Prime example of snitch tagging: that time someone tagged Elon Musk in a tweet about him by Noah Shachtman, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast.
I’m sorry that some snitch tagged on you, Noah. And I am sorry that I am republishing it here.
WHY IN YOUR LIFE WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT?! Shactman literally just said that Musk was being aggressive towards the media, so what in the name of all that is holy would possess you to call Musk on over?!
No, this is not acceptable. Snitch tagging needs to end.
If we wanted to alert someone that we were being shady about, we would tag them.
The case against snitch tagging is simple. If we wanted to alert someone that we were being shady about, we would tag them. That’s what tagging is for. Twitter has built a whole robust system of it, with @ mentions and hashtags and photo tags. If we didn’t tag them, you can bet your sabotaging ass we want to shit talk that person with our friends but we don’t want to start DRAMA by looping them in the convo.
Sure, the person that you’re stealth dragging could find the tweet by searching their own name on Twitter, but then any type of roasting that person stumbles into is on them because that’s a special type of millennial narcissism and who even does that?! (Okay, we all do it, but still.)
Hey, you looking SHOOK in the back, don’t worry: a snitch tag isn’t when you tag your friends in someone else’s tweet that you think is funny. That’s called sharing the love.
A snitch tag is specifically when you tag the person who is being shaded, so that they get a notification alerting them to what their eyes frankly do not need to see because this tweet is about them but it’s not for them.
To be clear, I don’t care about people CCing their friends or whatever. It’s tagging a politician I’ve mentioned or the creator of something I’m critiquing that’s the issue.
Here’s why snitch tagging is so bad. Twitter is basically a hyper-public message board that’s so flooded with noise that it feels like we’re each talking in our own secluded vacuums. As the saying goes: AIN’T NO ONE PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR TWEETS.
Snitch tagging is ruining Twitter because it means fewer interesting stories get told.
But, of course, that’s all one big delusion we’ve collectively agreed on. While the crowded nature of Twitter gives us courage to tweet things we wouldn’t normally say on more earnest and/or curated platforms like Facebook, Twitter was designed precisely to broadcast your thoughts to people who you don’t necessarily know.
It’s all a very delicate balance. And snitch tagging brings down the whole system.
Ultimately, snitch tagging is ruining Twitter because it means fewer interesting stories get told.
Take for instance that time journalist Nicole Cliff wanted to tweet about a memoir she, for what I can only assume from the first tweet, extremely did not like:
Now, whatever it is that Cliffe said about that forgotten memoir is lost to the world because one of y’all snitched!
Likewise:
Who here doesn’t want to read about TV couples are doing it IRL. That was a trick question. EVERYONE wants to read about on screen romances that became real, but we will never know because SNITCH TAGGING RUINS EVERYTHING.
At least 44 people were killed during fighting between rival ethnic groups in western Ethiopiaover the weekend, state-affiliated media reported.
The clashes occurred on the border between the central Oromia and western Benishangul-Gumuz regions, local officials said on Tuesday.
Residents in the Benishangul-Gumuz region said violence erupted on Friday after four local officials were killed during a visit to the neighbouring Oromia region.
Clashes between youths from rival ethnic groups armed with rocks and knives have forced more than 70,000 people to flee their homes, with security forces deployed to pacify the area, the Oromia region’s administration said.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed – the diverse country’s first Oromo leader – came to office in April and turned politics on its head by making peace with long-term foe Eritrea, freeing prisoners and promising a string of sweeping economic and political reforms.
He also promised to ease ethnic tensions and steer the state away from a hardline security policy that has been in place for decades.
Abiy has received praise from around the globe for his reformist agenda. However, a wave of communal violence, mostly over land issues, has marred the first few months of his rule.
At least 58 people were killed in September when fighting broke out in the capital, Addis Ababa, with those fleeing saying they were targeted by Oromo mobs because they are members of minority ethnic groups.
Nearly one million people have been forced from their homes in southern Ethiopia since clashes erupted there in April, according to UN agencies.
The battle over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is unlikely to end with his confirmation vote.
Democrats say they’re not letting go of the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh – or accusations he lied about them and other issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee – even if he is elevated to the high court. And if they win control of one or both houses of Congress in November, they’ll be in a position to continue the fight.
“If he is on the Supreme Court and the Senate hasn’t investigated, then the House will have to,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “We would have to investigate any credible allegations, certainly of perjury and other things that haven’t been properly looked into before.”
If Democrats win the House, the New York lawmaker would be in line to chair the committee, giving him not only subpoena power but also the ability to draw up articles of impeachment.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has made a similar promise: “As soon as Democrats get gavels, we’re going to want to get to the bottom of this.”
The battle over Kavanaugh raises the stakes in a midterm election season already inflamed by passions over President Donald Trump.
If confirmed to replace the moderate-to-conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh would solidify a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
The court’s October term began Monday with a case involving the Endangered Species Act, with issues of the death penalty, eminent domain and age discrimination also on the docket.
Some of those cases will be decided by eight judges while Kavanaugh’s nomination remains in limbo for at least another week. Trump last week ordered a follow-up FBI investigation, which he said would be “limited in scope” to the allegations of sexual assault.
High crimes and misdemeanors?
The same impeachment power that Congress can use to remove the president can also be used against federal judges – including Supreme Court justices.
The process works much the same way: The House votes to impeach by a simply majority vote, sending the question of removal to the Senate. (There’s one key difference: Unlike in a presidential impeachment trial, the chief justice does not preside over the impeachment of a judge. That job goes to the vice president, as the president of the Senate.)
Even the beginning of impeachment proceedings in the House could make things uncomfortable for Kavanaugh.
A House investigative panel would have the power to compel the testimony of witnesses and documents. That investigation could be broader than the sexual harassment allegations, and the constitutional threshold for impeachment – “high crimes and misdemeanors” – isn’t limited to criminal wrongdoing.
Some Democrats were already calling for his impeachment as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia after his initial confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. They accused him of lying under oath about his involvement in judicial nominations when he worked as an attorney for President George W. Bush.
Then Christine Blasey Ford went public with allegations that Kavanaugh held her down in the bedroom of a house in Bethesda, Md., when she was about 15 years old, groped her and attempted to remove her clothes.
Kavanaugh denied those allegations last weekin sworn testimony to the Senate. If that denial is proved to be untruthful, it could form the basis for impeachment.
Kavanaugh himself argued that President Bill Clinton should be impeached for lying about a consensual sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. He was then a staff lawyer for the independent counsel investigating Clinton, Kenneth Starr.
“If that could be established, that, it seems to me, would be the relevant high crime and misdemeanor,” said Richard Broughton, who studies impeachment at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Removal from the Supreme Court requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate – a high bar even if Democrats manage to pick up seats in November. Broughton called that “a tall order.”
“To pierce the intense partisanship and get to two-thirds, it would take far more clarity about the evidence than we have now,” Broughton said. “Presumably that’s what some hope will emerge from the FBI inquiry.”
Ford alleges that the sexual assault took place sometime in the early 1980s. That it allegedly happened so long agomakes it difficult to investigate, but wouldn’t have any legal bearing on impeachment, said Alan Baron, a Washington attorney.
“There’s certainly precedent for it, whether it’s 10 years old or 10 days old,” he said.
Baron was the was the special counsel for the last successful impeachment case in 2010.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous, a Clinton appointee from Louisiana, was convicted in the Senate of four counts, including a charge that he misled the FBI and the Senate during his confirmation process.
The vote on that count was 90-6.
“It wasn’t even close,” Baron said.
Porteous was only the 16th federal judge ever to be impeached, and the eighth to be convicted.
Only once has a Supreme Court justice been impeached. Samuel Chase, a Federalist justice appointed by President George Washington, was impeached by a Democratic-Republican House in 1804 for “arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust” decisions on the court.
But the Senate declined to remove him from office, setting a precedent that exists to this day. As former Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted in a 1992 book about the case, “it assured the independence of federal judges from congressional oversight of the decisions they made in the cases that came before them.”
‘Personal bias or prejudice’
In Kavanaugh’s impassioned defense before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week he accused Democrats of a “calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election.”
Those words could provide fodder for Democratic-aligned groups with cases before his court to ask him to sit out of politically charged issues.
“He revealed himself as a partisan,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said on This Week. “I would think that if I were a Democrat going before him, I’d ask him to recuse himself.”
Democrats have already pressed Kavanaugh to step aside on any cases involving Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign. Kavanaugh has refused to commit, saying it would undermine the independence of the judiciary.
If he is confirmed, the decision on whether to recuse himself will be his alone.
But the Supreme Court has never acknowledged that the law applies to its justices, and the law is vague about what constitutes bias.
The rule is never applied to issues,” said Robert Hume, a political scientistat Fordham Universitywho has studied Supreme Court recusals. “It has to be prejudice toward particular litigants or parties before the court.”
If a justice could be disqualified for having expressed an opinion on an issue, he said, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could never decide any cases involving women’s rights, or Justice Clarence Thomas on affirmative action.
There’s a good reason Tom Wolf and Scott Wagner are from the same county and running for governor. Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record
Alex Trebek did his homework before moderating the only debate to be held in the Pennsylvania governor’s race.
That was part of the problem.
Twitter users jeered Trebek, the host of “Jeopardy!,” for showing how much he knew about the state.
The bigger problem was that Trebek used too much of the debate on his own musings. In a debate between two candidates vying for the state’s top job, too much time was spent on the moderator.
The Pennsylvania governor’s race usually includes at least three debates. That’s been a precedent, but not a rule, since 1990.
This year, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat who is ahead by 22 points in the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll, agreed to only one debate. His challenger, Republican Scott Wagner, wanted to debate in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
Trebek pointed out that debating in 67 counties was an unrealistic goal, but Wagner disagreed.
The exchange was one that drew ire toward Trebek, who used up many of the 45 minutes on his own wit and at least one aside about the Pennsylvania priest abuse scandal.
In the only time Pennsylvania voters got to see the two candidates for governor debate the issues, critics said Trebek used too much of the time for himself, including a riff on the Catholic Church that lasted more than 1 minute.
Trebek said he grew up Catholic and that predatory behavior is everywhere – not just the Catholic church. He said it’s found in government, sports and show business, too.
That brief lecture was one the audience could’ve lived without, with many people shaking their heads “no” as he talked.
When the debate ended, Trebek was booed.
Ryan Tarkowski, the communications director for the Pennsylvania State Police, said, “Hearing A LOT of Alex Trebek tonight. Not sure I’ve ever heard a debate moderator talk so much.”
His tweet and others are below:
Hearing a LOT of Alex Trebek tonight. Not sure I’ve ever heard a debate moderator talk so much.
With a total of 45 minutes of debate time in the Pa gov’s campaign, Alex Trebek is killing a lot of time with meandering questions that don’t get us far into the issues
I appreciate that #alextrebek did a lot of homework to prepare for this debate. I don’t appreciate the fact he feels the need to show everyone what he’s learned about PA.
S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI first announced last November that they would discard the old telecom sector for a new one that melds communication and media companies. This was to catch up with the dealmaking that had created companies like Verizon that provide both.
Many investors who make sector-level decisions had already incorporated these business-model changes into their strategies. Also, many exchange-traded funds already allowed investors to buy in to some of the themes the reorganization aimed to capture.
But for anyone still making adjustments, analysts at major firms are urging caution. Here’s what they’re saying:
Morgan Stanley: Equal weight
The new sector is cheaper than the market average, as defined by its forward price-to-earnings ratio divided by the S&P 500’s, according to Mike Wilson, Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategist.
But this relatively attractive valuation still does not create a buying opportunity, he said. That’s because investors cheapened stocks in the sector to reflect the disruption that was taking place.
“We would not classify this as a value sector though and think the message being sent is one of industry change as existing Media and Telco models shift, transform, and increasingly overlap in ever more congruent end markets,” Wilson said in a client note on Monday.
“As secular champions like Netflix, Facebook, and Alphabet continue to grow into their multiples and structural changes continue, we are reluctant to rely on history to find the right multiple for this sector.”
Wilson also said the sector’s forward earnings growth relative to the broader market peaked in late 2016, and that helps explain its underperformance this year versus the S&P 500; it’s down 3.6% and is the 10th-worst performer out of 11 sectors.
Morgan Stanley
Those are not the only reasons for caution: Wilson also pointed out the high concentration within the sector. Google and Facebook make up nearly half of its market cap, raising concerns about how effectively smaller companies can compete for advertising revenue.
“We think secular growers engender secular losers, particularly in an environment where overall spend is likely to decelerate with broader economic growth,” Wilson said.
RBC Capital: Underweight
Lori Calvasina, RBC’s head of US equity strategy, is even more bearish on the communication-services sector.
Calvasina noted a weak earnings profile, in that the momentum of earnings-per-share revisions has been negative and revenue beats slipped in the second quarter.
Like Wilson, she flagged the handful of tech stocks that dominate the sector. Her concern, however, is that some of these names like Facebook and Alphabet also have the most hedge fund dollars invested in them. They’re also prominent on the list of companies with the largest overweights among large-cap-growth mutual funds.
The concern with crowding is that traders could experience painful losses if the majority view changes.
And with all the big-tech names in the sector, the threat of greater regulation also came up as a negative.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch: Underweight
Savita Subramanian urged investors to hold fewer stocks in this sector relative to the S&P 500, Bloomberg reported.
She added that if US economic growth broadened, investors could rotate out of crowded growth sectors and into less-populated areas that benefit from stronger gross domestic product.
She also cited regulation as a potential setback. On Friday, Facebook announced that a hacker gained access to nearly 50 million user accounts in one of the company’s most significant cyberattacks. The hack drew attention to Facebook’s data-collection and privacy practices because the breach exposed multiple other services that users log in to with Facebook.
Besides regulation, Subramanian said companies with high dividend yields could come under pressure as interest rates rise.
Wells Fargo: Unfavorable
“We have initiated guidance on the new communication services sector with an unfavorable rating,” Scott Wren, a senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo, said in a client note on Monday.
“As for the other two sectors involved in the GICS restructuring, we continue to rate the consumer discretionary sector as favorable and the IT sector as neutral.”
The firm believes US stocks will continue rising on strong fundamentals but advised clients to look for “attractive opportunities that lie outside the US.”
“Furthermore, because market downturns are often unexpected, we suggest holding asset classes that tend to do well when equity markets correct, such as high-quality bonds and hedge funds for qualified investors, consistent with an investor’s risk tolerance.”
EW had exclusive on-set access for Andrew Lincoln’s last day on The Walking Dead. Here’s what we saw and what he said about leaving the show.
Andrew Lincoln has to keep moving. It’s June 26 and the star of one of the biggest series in cable-TV history is on the Senoia, Georgia, set of The Walking Dead for his very last day of filming as Rick Grimes. As cameras line up for a scene in which Rick will walk through a pile of bodies — many nameless to Walking Dead fans; some, not so nameless — the man who has been No. 1 on the call sheet for nine seasons paces in the corner of the room. Then he squats. Then he sits. Then he lies down. Then he’s up again. It’s a routine to which his castmates have become well accustomed: stand, pace, squat, sit, lie down, roll over, rinse, repeat. As he works his way through the regimen, Lincoln also intermittently croons the lyrics to Annie Lennox’s “No More ‘I Love You’s’ ” playing on his iPhone earbuds. “I used to have demons in my room at night,” he bellows in a voice that probably could wake the dead. “Desire, despair, desire. Sooooooooooooo many monsters.”
Yes, so many monsters — both human and inhuman — Lincoln has battled over the course of the series, but that time is coming to an end in a few short hours, which explains the hugs from cast members like Norman Reedus (Daryl) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) that seem to punctuate every completed take. The scene finally begins filming, but Lincoln is pissed… at himself. “F—in’ c’mon!” he screams out. “F—ing bulls—, Andy! F— this! Wait a f—ing minute!” Observers on set have seen variations of this before. Ever the perfectionist, Lincoln will do whatever it takes to get in the right frame of mind for a scene, including verbally—and sometimes physically— punishing himself right before a take. (Later that day he will literally pull down the roof of a set right on top of himself while filming.) But they haven’t seen what happens next: a quiet vulnerability as the magnitude of the moment hits the actor square in the face. “I’m scared, man,” Lincoln whimpers. “I’m nervous. F—. It’s over, man. This is it. It’s over.”
It is over. Eight years after entering Atlanta on horseback — only to watch that horse get devoured by zombies — Andrew Lincoln is finally riding off into the sunset. He has been the face (well, the human face, at least) of cable TV’s record-breaking drama, turning Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s comic book into a cultural phenomenon and the network that adapted it for television, AMC, into a major player. But it was another audience that drove the 45-year-old’s decision to leave after a handful of episodes this fall. “The plain and simple answer is that it was the right time for my family,” says Lincoln of his wife and two children back in England. “The fact of the matter is, I can shut off my heart for a good distance, and I’ve had to do it for eight years, but I have to come home. It’s a very painful decision, but it’s the right decision.”
It’s a decision that was actually first put into motion five years ago. “I had a conversation during season 4 with [Walking Dead executive producer] Scott Gimple about this,” reveals Lincoln. “We spoke about it and I said, ‘Eight sounds like a good number.’ ” That’s right, last season was originally supposed to be Lincoln’s final hurrah, but then the actor had a change of heart midway through filming it while attending Comic-Con in 2017. “Season 8 came, and I realized that rather than have the funeral, I had to prepare for the funeral, and I had to make sure everybody was comfortable with the funeral arrangements,” jokes the star. “And I don’t think I was ready for the funeral! I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m ready to go yet!’ I said to my wife, ‘I feel overwhelmed. I can’t do it!’ ” Hence, Lincoln’s return for an abbreviated run in season 9, which begins Oct. 7.
RELATED VIDEO: Andrew Lincoln regrets that his Walking Dead exit was spoiled
But what will happen in that return? While we know the series will pick up after an 18-month time jump with Rick desperately trying to keep an uneasy alliance between the unified communities and former foes the Saviors, the leader’s ultimate fate remains under wraps. How will Rick go out? And how will the show forge on without him? Lincoln remains predictably mum on that one: “There was a certain sense of, how do you exit a show that is going to continue? I thought long and hard about it, and I came up with an idea that hopefully is going to work. We’ll see how it goes.”
Regardless, Lincoln’s time on the Walking Dead set is not truly over. In fact, he is returning to Georgia in the hopes of soon calling “Action!” instead of merely performing it. “I’m going back to shadow a director,” he reveals about learning the ropes on the other side of the camera, “and my intention is to direct next year.” As for what else he’d like to do professionally after his well-earned respite, Lincoln is enjoying his free-agent status — having turned down several overtures while gravitating toward “making stories that are important and need to be out there.”
It’s the last supper. A table of treats, including a cake shaped like Rick Grimes’ iconic cowboy boots and a giant skeleton arm holding a heart with a note that reads “With Love, Your AMC Family,” sits in the middle of the Walking Dead cafeteria as cast and crew dine on chicken, salmon, and avocado mousse.
At the prompting of Reedus, the masses — who were all given Rick Grimes toy Deputy Sheriff badges to honor the occasion — launch into an ovation for their departing leader, who stands up from his table to offer a few words. “I just want to say I’ve had so much fun on this episode,” Lincoln utters with a smile as he looks around the room at the faces of actors, producers, cameramen, boom-mic operators, production assistants, and catering staff. “It’s the most fun I’ve had since the very first one. There is not enough time left on the planet to thank all of you. I love you. Thank you so much for your blood, sweat, and tears.”
The crowd goes wild. They’d like him to keep going, and he could, but sometimes it’s best to leave people wanting a bit more. So, with that, the actor sits back down. Andrew Lincoln is done.
AMC’s zombie thriller, based on the classic comic book serial created by Robert Kirkman.
It’s Villain Week here at Mashable. In honor of the release of Venom, we’re celebrating all our favorite evildoers from film and TV all week long. Spooky, scary!
Game of Thrones is a franchise full of horror and death, and lots of character are to blame for all that horror and death.
But author George R. R. Martin has stated on numerous occasions that he wrote the fantasy series to deliberately subvert the genre tropes of “good vs. evil.” All his characters, including most of his protagonists, are not all good nor all bad. They are human, falling somewhere in the gradient of the grey moral area between the two.
But the world these morally grey characters were born into is harsh and unforgiving. And thus, it’s led nearly every one of them to commit acts of true villainy.
We put together an exhaustive list of Game of Thrones characters, and ranked them on a scale of most to least justified evil-doing (based on what we know so far):
54. Hodor
A true victim of this villainous world. Did what he was told ’til death: Held. The. Door.
53. Shireen Baratheon
Ostracized all her life, and one of the only pure souls on this list. Never did anything wrong, despite being born to a mother who hated her and a lobster of a father. Deserved better.
52. Gilly
Sweetie pie — #ProtectGilly. Has lived through so much, and comes out stronger each time. Sam took credit for her major discovery about Rhaegar’s divorce and it still burns us up.
HODOR WAS INNOCENT!!!!
50. Samwell Tarly
Mostly great! His cowardice put his brothers in danger a few times, but as a result his body count is lower than most.
49. Mira & Jojen
Also got a raw ass deal. Dove into danger and the unknown with nothing but a prophecy and sense of duty to protect what is right. Never rewarded or thanked. Bran can fuck right off.
48. Missandei
Nothing to see here, just the woman who should have ruled Slaver’s Bay instead of Daenerys.
47. Grey Worm
Perfect, an angel, but important enough to be on the list. Was an accidental peeping tom that one time. Probably forced to do terrible things in Unsullied training, but that’s not his fault.
Sweet baby child Shireen was not long for the villainy of “Game of Thrones”
46. Davos
Sweetest, most honorable smuggler you’ll ever find. A family man, who vowed to do right by the world after gaining the means and opportunity to do so. Stuck to his word. Also, how much evil could be in a man who they call the Onion Knight?
45. Tommen Baratheon
Not strong enough to stand up to his mother and save his wife/court. But not really his fault. He also turned out half decent despite having Cersei for a mother and Joffrey for a brother.
44. Ned Stark
Lied about Jon Snow his whole life. So obsessed with the idea of duty and honor that he couldn’t make the hard calls that would’ve prevented literally every terrible thing that followed his death. Should have listened to the deserter in Episode 1, yet somehow trusts everyone else too easily.
Tyrion is caught in a moral grey area, thanks to his family lineage
43. Jon Snow
Had to make his spying mission difficult by falling in love. Tries to do the right thing, but was blinded by the Ned Stark plague of getting people killed by being blinded by honor and goodness. Got himself killed in the process. Could’ve really done a better job on the war against the dead if he just explained it better.
Jon Snow knowing nothing is not good
42. Tyrion Lannister
Only alive by a preponderance of fate and others intervening for him. Killed his crap dad. Has perhaps sided with a dragon-riding maniac. Terrible taste in women.
41. Brienne of Tarth
Her loyalty to Renly was oversized but genuine. Killed a bunch of people in her tunnel vision approach to loyalty.
40. Sansa Stark
The only thing Sansa has ever done wrong is lie about the direwolf attack and tell Cersei about Ned’s plans, and she was coerced into doing so by the standards of womanhood and a system that kept her intentionally in the dark about the true nature of her place in the world. Also maybe could have told Jon about the Vale knights but she had a good reason not to trust him.
Everyone is way too hard on Sansa
39. Margaery Tyrell
Manipulative and opportunistic, but never without reason. Kind in her own way. Not a killer though (that we know of?)
38. Ygritte
Mostly OK. Definitely a murderer, but so is everyone else. And showing Jon Snow how to (temporarily) lighten up was an act of public service.
37. Arya Stark
Tiny little murder munchkin. Very adverse reaction to childhood trauma. Killed her first pigeon at 9 and is now Rambo. Could stand to up her communication skills. But her need for vengeance is kind of very much justified, all things considered.
Arya might be a rampaging murderer, but we can’t stop rooting for her
36. Robb Stark
Dumbass couldn’t stomach the idea of keeping a mistress so he torpedoed the Northern Cause.
35. Doran Martell
Good intentions, but useless. Sins akin to that of Chidi in TheGood Place.
34. Oberyn Martell
Revenge trumped any sense of logic, leading to his fatal, too flashy fight against the Mountain. Left his family defenseless in the wake of his death. Should have worn a helmet.
33. Jaime Lannister
Had a real rough start there. Pushed a kid out of a window in the first episode and it all kinda went downhill from there…until it started going uphill? Took an irredeemable blow to his honor by becoming a Kingslayer to protect King’s Landing — and never told anyone. Redemption arc isn’t finished yet. Wait and see.
A Kingslayer, but no one will ever know how justified his villainy was
32. Gendry
Didn’t follow directions and blew his cover as Robert’s son, which could have led to a crisis of the crown. Also, weak to the fire goddess boobies and, from some perspectives, accidental at fault in the magic spell that killed all the other Five Kings (including Robb).
31. Bran Stark
Was pretty OK for the most part, but now he’s Google? Definitely should not have touched the Night King in that vision, because now Hodor and Leaf (and all the other Children of the Forest) are dead and there’s no going back. Also WTF with that casual comment about Sansa looking beautiful on her Rape Wedding day??? Fuck you.
30. Daenerys Targaryen
Ostensibly the protagonist but really likes burning people alive. Took over Slaver’s Bay with no real plan on how to re-stabilize the region. Gotta get back to the burning though, she burned so many people. And from the perspective of all the cities she “frees” (including Westeros), she looks like little more than an invading conqueror.
29. Varys
Hard to say, since who knows what’s his deal, really? Voted for Robert to assassinate Daenerys, then helped her. Might be one of the only genuine Westerosi loyalists to the people. But IDK. Villain status undetermined, and he likes it that way.
Daenerys might justify her cruelty, but it’s all a matter of perspective
28. Melisandre
Absolute shit at interpreting prophecy with HORRIBLE results. Burned a child alive, wasted Stannis’s army. Bandwagon jumper. Birthed a shadowy nightmare assassin for fratricidal purposes. However, like Varys, justifies her action as part of the greater good and seems to genuinely believe it. Villainy status remains to be seen.
27. Jaqen H’gar
Sure, the countless murders are purposefully kept a grey moral area. But could have been a bit less vague about what he was asking of Arya. Terrorized and blinded a traumatized child. Sent a hit man (hit child?) after her too.
26. Renly Baratheon
Stupid baby who thought he deserved the crown for no reason, and with no idea of what it would take or how to keep it. Shouldn’t have listened to Loras. But points for being cute to Brienne.
25. Loras Tyrell
Yeah he’s killed people but everyone has. Convinced Renly to make an illegal bid for the throne which further fractured the realm and got us all in this mess.
24. Stannis Baratheon
Is it about duty for Stannis? Or more like power and a sexy witch?
Obsessed with his duty, which isn’t a terrible thing. But teamed up with a witch to get his dick wet and got way more than he bargained for. Gave the OK to burn his own damn beautiful and kind daughter. Stuck up grammar nazi.
23. Yara Greyjoy
Actually pretty dope, but she’s still a Greyjoy who’s done pretty shitty Greyjoy things. And pirating.
Can you blame a badass like Olenna for badassing?
22. Bronn
Money over morals in every sense of the word. Not a very good justification. Lotsa murder. Hurt Drogon (very distressing).
21. Olenna Tyrell
Orchestrated regicide (he was a shit king, but still a kid) and let Sansa take the fall for it (also a child). Biggest badass on the list by a mile. Also, this is a man’s world. And Olenna ensured her matriarchal-heavy house’s survived for as long as it did. Unlike Tywin, she did it all to protect family and not just legacy.
20. Sandor Clegane
Homicidal lapdog to King Joffrey turned abusive (though hilarious) travel partner. Had a good few months’ run there but went right back to murder o’clock at the first setback. Empathy points for traumatizing childhood he’s at least attempting to overcome, though.
We feel you, Sandor
19. Robert Baratheon
Drunk, abusive dummy who started THE war over a woman who didn’t even like him and lied about her being kidnapped and raped. Responsible for existence of Joffrey. Let his own wife succeed in murdering him before he could stabilize the realm. Put the realm in debilitating debt.
18. Theon Greyjoy
A real roller coaster up and down the alignment chart. Betrayed the Starks despite them treating him well, burned Winterfell, killed two innocent boys, got tortured and brainwashed, didn’t help Sansa until the literal last second. Trying to make amends now but like…that’s a lot of red in his ledger. But also empathy points for growing up an ostracized but pampered prisoner of war.
17. Rhaegar Targaryen
Just get a fucking divorce in public, oh my god. Look at what you did. Also supposedly started this entire, decades-long war over a prophecy promising glory? Nope.
Rhaegar literally could’ve avoided all of this death and war
16. Khal Drogo
Marital rape (on the show, at least) was a thing for a while. Was a genocidal warlord. But kind of born into it in that confused culture, and seemed willing to listen to his wife and somewhat change his ethics.
15. Jorah Mormont
Can’t take a hint. Betrayed Daenerys in the hopes of going back to an objectively shittier life in Westeros. Sold slaves.
Sir Friend Zone has some explaining to do
14. Ellaria Sand
Didn’t have to kill Myrcella. Senselessly perpetuated the cycle of violence. Annoying daughters. But we give some respect for her love for country and family, however misguided.
13. Shae
Betrayed Tyrion under pressure, which was bad enough, but then she banged his dad right after he sentenced Tyrion to death. In her defense, Tyrion never should have brought her to King’s Landing and she was always in over her head.
12. Cersei Lannister
Just trying to protect her children…but doesn’t have any more children and now just wants to blow stuff up. Wants the North to die in a zombie apocalypse. Def had her husband killed but that may have been justified. Murdered more than half the nobility in one fell swoop. Was going to poison her own son. But her villainy often comes back to traumas of being a woman in such a patriarchal society. Definitely not “Tywin Lannister with teats.”
Cersei might be a straight up villain, but there are reasons behind it
11. Lysa Arryn
Clearly unstable after years of jealousy. Spoils her kid, killed her husband, almost murdered Sansa. Needs to keep it down in the bedroom, the Eyrie really echoes. Really no reason for her to act like such a shit all the time, except perhaps mental illness.
10. Viserys Targaryen
Ill-equipped for life or power, sold his sister to a horse war lord and threatened gang rape if she didn’t comply. Beat women. Very whiny.
9. Night King
Hot (cold?) take: The Night King and White Walkers will definitely get some sort of justification in the finale season. Arguably only started building an army and going on the defensive after the dragons were born, which is a huge threat to his kind’s survival.
8. Tywin Lannister
Neglected his son, tried to control the world, was fine with murdering said neglected son. Ordered the Red Wedding and the fall of House Castamere. Did it all to protect legacy, not family.
The Night King is just misunderstood!
7. Walder Frey
Jealous, incestuous, abusive, homicidal rapist and unintentional (honestly questionable) cannibal. Hosted the Red Wedding and killed a lifelong ally and childhood friend because of a slight. Always late.
6. Roose Bolton
The North will never forget the Red Wedding, and what you personally did to Cat, you power hungry, psycho-birthing Judas.
5. Gregor Clegane
Literally a cartoon Black Knight. Rapist, baby-smasher, murderer. Is a zombie now, so the morality of his current actions are debatable.
Gregor may be brain dead, but he wasn’t too justified before either
4. Petyr Baelish
Top to bottom one of the worst humans ever. Engineered Jon Arryn’s death, manipulated *checks notes* every single one of these characters. Sold Sansa to the Boltons. Says he was doing it all for love, but actually just because of childhood grudges. Giant pile of yikes.
3. Joffrey Baratheon
Genuinely disturbed, selfish, homicidal maniac. Tortured and killed women. A coward. Rude. Cut a rare book in half!!! No reason for any of this behavior other than being spoiled by Cersei.
2. Euron Greyjoy
Way worse in the books, but one of the most revolting human beings regardless. Also bad plan but acts cocksure about it in this way that makes us feel like he deserves a punch.
The evil of bad writing is embodied by Ramsay Bolton
1. Ramsay Bolton
Where do we even start? A psychopath who loves every bad thing in the world. Killed hundreds, a serial rapist, a people hunter, a torturer, murdered his infant brother and stepmother, starved his dogs. Worst part? Terribly written character with no compelling reason for existing at all.
New Delhi, India – Activists are calling for police reforms following a shooting in which a police officer killed an Apple executive in the state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
Vivek Tiwari, a sales manager at Apple, was travelling in a car with a colleague on Saturday in the northern city of Lucknow when two police constables on a routine patrol tried to stop the vehicle and then shot Tiwari dead.
The police officer has claimed innocence although a complaint filed by Tiwari’s wife has a detailed account of the “encounter”.
This was the latest in a series of extrajudicial killings by police in the state.
“I didn’t shoot at him. The bullet was shot by mistake,” Prashant Chaudhary, the policeman who shot Tiwari told reporters on Sunday.
However, the state’s top police officer, O.P. Singh, said on Saturday that the officer claimed to have fired in self-defence.
Both constables involved in the incident have now been arrested.
The damaged vehicle of Vivek Tiwari after he was shot dead by a police officer [Reuters]
Days after the killing that sparked massive outrage about the state of law and order, the state government has promised cash compensation of 4 million rupees ($54,600) for his family and a job at the municipal corporation for his widow.
“I wanted strict action against the guilty, a job, accommodation, expenses for education of my daughters and my mother-in-law. My demands have been met,” Vivek’s wife Kalpana Tiwari told reporters on Monday at her residence after she met the state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
“The backbone of the family has been broken. He leaves behind two young daughters and a devastated wife. Vivek is gone and nothing can replace him but we hope those who shot him will be brought to justice,” Vishnu Kant Shukla, brother-in-law of Vivek told Al Jazeera.
‘Attempted cover-up’
The First Information Report (FIR) filed with the police by Kalpana on Sunday also claimed that police officials at the crime scene did not allow his colleague, Sana Khan, who was a witness to the murder, to receive or make calls.
“We are aware of reports that some officials were trying to cover up the matter. But our government will not spare any guilty official. If there’s a criminal in uniform we will weed them out. We are committed to providing justice to the family,” Brijesh Pathak, Uttar Pradesh’s minister for Law and Justice and a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, told Al Jazeera.
Human rights campaigners say frequent military-style police operations and extrajudicial police killings of alleged criminals and gang members are becoming common again since the installation of a new right-wing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
“For those who believe in the way of the gun, they will be answered by the gun,” Adityanath had said at a public event in Gorakhpur earlier this year responding to criticism about these police killings.
‘Trigger-happy police force’
According to official data released by UP state police, there have been 1,144 “encounters” (the term used to describe extrajudicial action) in the state, resulting in 34 deaths, between March 2017 and January 2018. The People’s Union of Civil Liberties says the number is much higher.
The state figures among the worst in terms of law and order and the government claims it is cracking down on crime.
“The government has given a free license to kill people in the name of ‘encounters’. Most of these are fake encounters. When the police is given a free hand for extrajudicial killings, then the result is a trigger-happy police force,” retired police officer SR Darapuri in Lucknow tells Al Jazeera.
“When the state shield officers, it becomes very difficult to prosecute them,” he adds.
India has long grappled with conflicting positions on extrajudicial killings by security forces across states.
Human rights groups have raised questions over police accounts of such killings calling them “pre-meditated murder”.
India’s Supreme Court is currently hearing a public interest litigation on encounters by the police in the state.
Earlier this year, the country’s top human rights body, the National Human Rights Commission, had also directed the state government to set up a probe panel to investigate these “encounter” killings even as activists decry serious human rights violations.
“Over 30 percent of encounters in India happen in this state, but crimes have not gone down. The police are not allowed to hand down death penalties like this, where is the due process of law? Most human rights violations are being perpetrated by security officials but still police reforms are not being implemented” activist Suhas Chakma at “Rights and Risk Analysis Group” in New Delhi told Al Jazeera.
“Whether it’s Duterte in Philippines or Hasina in Bangladesh, they first target the drug lords and the criminals to lull the people into a false sense of security. That’s why we don’t see mass protests against these killings,” he added.
Many family members of the alleged criminals gunned down by police in recent months have complained about these shoot-outs being a “set-up”. They allege the “armed exchanges” did not take place at all.
“There is a pattern to this – it’s as if the same police officials were present at all the encounters. You have the same narrative leading to the encounter, the police procedure during and after the killings. The uncanny similarity of these killings establish beyond reasonable doubt that these are staged,” said activist Chakma.
Independent media reports have also raised doubts over these killings, claimed as active shoot-outs by the police.
“Investigations in such cases are mostly done by a neighbouring police station, how can you expect an unbiased independent probe?” Darapuri says.
In some recent cases, including one earlier last month, the police invited journalists to “watch and film a real encounter” where they gunned down two Muslim men Naushad and Mustakhim in Machua village near Aligarh.
A high-caste Brahmin, Vivek Tiwari’s murder on Saturday and the promptness with which the administration acted was a departure from the apathy in similar cases where the victims were lower castes, poor or Muslims, activists point out.
“Most of the people killed in this manner by the police are Dalits, Muslims and the vulnerable poor people. The police terrorises them to such an extent that they are unable to push their complaints through the justice system. This is why guilty policemen go scot-free,” former police officer Darapuri points out.
Gisele Bündchen said her husband, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, can retire from football whenever he sees fit — even if it’s five years from now — because she’s accepted that “what will be will be.”
“I never seen someone love something as much as he loves football, and it makes me happy,” Bündchen said Tuesday on Good Morning America to promote her new book, “Lessons.”
The model added: “If I said anything in the past it’s because you have a concern. … no one is going to hurt someone I love. You know? You just feel very protective of them. So obviously if someone hurts my children, my husband, anyone I love, I get like a lioness.”
Bündchen previously had been very public about wanting her 41-year-old husband to retire sooner rather than later. In public comments over the years, she voiced concern about the number of concussions players like her Super Bowl-winning husband experience.
In Bündchen’s new book, out Tuesday, she opens up about her marriage with Brady, including the ups and downs. She also is candid in the book about her struggle with panic attacks that she said nearly cost her life, as one attack led her to contemplate suicide.
“That was definitely rock bottom for me,” Bündchen said on GMA.
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Unruly flyer’s in-flight pull-ups force flight to divert to Kansas City
An unruly flyer allegedly became belligerent after doing pull-ups from the overhead storage bins, forcing an American Airlines flight to divert.
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A cross-country American Airlines flight diverted to Kansas City on Monday evening because of an unruly flyer who reportedly became belligerent after doing pull-ups from the overhead storage bins.
American Flight 2763 departed from Phoenix around 6:30 p.m. ET and was headed to Boston when it diverted to Kansas City because of the man’s alleged shenanigans, according to CBS Boston (WBZ TV).
Fellow passengers said the man appeared to be intoxicated when he started doing pull-ups from an overhead bin before becoming belligerent.
“The flight attendant probably asked him three or four times to sit down and he refused to sit down and then he really got verbally abusive with her, starting calling her names,” David Markoski said to WBZ.
American confirmed to USA TODAY that an incident had taken place on the aircraft, saying the flight diverted to Kansas City about 90 minutes after takeoff, according to spokesman Ross Feinstein. He said the passenger was removed by law enforcement officers and that the flight continued on to Boston, arriving about 90 minutes behind schedule.
The FBI has taken the lead on the investigation into man’s behavior, though the agency has not filed charges, according to WBZ-TV.
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by looping them in the convo.Canon (@ramsincanon) May 22, 2018
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