The Daily Moth 12-4-19
Justin Trudeau caught on video mocking Trump | Elon Musk testifies in “pedo guy” defamation trial | North Korea gives “Christmas gift” warning | Mavrick murder trial pushed to March 11 | Interview with people from the “Dear Hearing World” video
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, December 4. Ready for news?
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Justin Trudeau caught on video mocking Trump
News organization Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) released a video of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau making fun of Donald Trump as he drank beer and talked with France’s president, UK’s prime minister, Netherlands’s prime minister, and England’s Princess Anne. They did not name Trump, but it was obvious they were taking about him.
I will show you a captioned clip that has already gone viral. Trudeau seemed to be complaining about how Trump took up 40 minutes for a press conference. See this clip.
[Clip]
Trump responded this morning by saying that Trudeau was “two-faced” but also a nice guy. Trump said Trudeau was not happy with him because of his pressure that Canada increase their military spending to meet NATO targets.
Trudeau admitted today that he was talking about Trump in the video but said he was not concerned about Trump’s comments on the two countries’ relationship.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/world/europe/trump-video-nato.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/04/politics/world-leaders-joke-about-donald-trump-nato/index.html
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Elon Musk testifies in “pedo guy” defamation trial
Elon Musk testified in a defamation lawsuit trial against him yesterday and will continue to do so today in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He was sued by a British cave diver, Vernon Unsworth, who was one of the key people who helped in the Thailand cave rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach who was trapped in a flooded cave.
What happened? When the cave rescue made worldwide news last year, Musk had his engineers build a small submarine and suggested it be used to transport the boys through the flooded caves.
Unsworth, who is an experienced diver and lives in Thailand, criticized Musk for trying to seek attention and said the submarine wouldn’t have made it through the first fifty meters into the cave and that he could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
Musk responded by tweeting that the sub would make it through the caves just fine and said, “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”
He then tweeted that he would bet a signed dollar that it’s true. Musk also hired a private investigator and paid him $50,000 to investigate Unsworth.
Now Unsworth has sued Musk and he is seeking compensatory and punitive damages because of harm to his reputation.
Yesterday in court, Musk said his words were only insults and taunts and that he didn’t literally mean he was a pedophile.
The judge said the case will be determined on whether a reasonable person would view Musk’s tweet to mean that he was calling Unsworth a pedophile.
Unsworth’s lawyer said that Musk wrongly branded him a predator in what should have been one of the proudest moments of his life.
Musk’s lawyer said that Unsworth did not show signs that he suffered damages and that he doesn’t deserve money.
Musk is worth an estimated $23 billion and owns SpaceX and Tesla.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-musk-lawsuit/elon-musk-due-back-on-witness-stand-in-defamation-trial-stemming-from-tweets-idUSKBN1Y81B9
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50653531
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/elon-musk-defamation-trial.html
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North Korea gives “Christmas gift” warning
North Korea said they would send a Christmas gift to the U.S. and warned that what was in the gift would depend on talks between the two countries.
A North Korean official said the Trump administration’s dialogue with them is "nothing but a foolish trick” that they’ve used to “benefit the political situation and election in the U.S.”
CNN pointed out that North Korea has used the word “gift” before when they first tested an ICBM missile on July 4, 2017.
President Trump responded by saying that his relationship with Kim Jong Un is “really good” and that he “hope he lives up to the agreement (that they signed), but we’re going to find out.” He also said he “definitely likes sending rockets up, doesn’t he? That’s why I call him ‘Rocket Man.’”
North Korea also released official photographs of Kim Jong Un riding on a white house on Mount Paektu, which is an important site to the country.
https://cnn.it/38asTSD
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Mavrick murder trial pushed to March 11
Mavrick Fisher had a court appearance yesterday (Tuesday) at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport, California for a pretrial/settlement conference.
His trial for the murder of Grant Whitaker was previously scheduled to begin on January 2, but a local source told me yesterday a “general time waiver” was entered, which allowed the court to continue — push the date — of the trial to March 11, 2020.
Mavrick’s attorney Thomas Feimer confirmed with me that there was no settlement and that the trial was rescheduled to March 11, 2020.
Mavrick’s next court date will be February 11 for another pretrial/settlement conference.
On November 5, Mavrick pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon with a special allegation of great bodily harm, and grand theft auto.
Lake County District Attorney Susan Krones is the prosecutor and has accused Mavrick of premeditated murder, saying he killed Grant by striking a rock on his head multiple times at a campground in Humboldt County on August 20 and then dumped his body at a ranch in Lake County.
Mavrick and his public defender said the killing was an act of self-defense and alleged that Grant was holding a knife and attempted to stab Mavrick.
Mavrick and Grant used to be business partners who had a dream of starting a deaf farming community, but the two had some kind of disagreement shortly before the killing.
Mavrick has been in custody since he was detained in Mexico on Monday, August 26 and turned over to California authorities. He is currently at the Lake County Jail.
https://business.facebook.com/TheDailyMoth/videos/3029840920373971/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgvLTS2zJdo
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Interview with people from the “Dear Hearing World” video
Have you seen a short film titled “Dear Hearing World” yet? This film took place in London, United Kingdom. It was posted last August and has been trending around Facebook for several months now.
(clip of DHW)
This short film is based on a deaf British poet, Raymond Antrobus’ poem, called “Dear Hearing World.” The deaf woman in the film is Vilma Jackson and she is signing the poem in British Sign Language (BSL) as Antrobus himself is voicing the words. There is music in the background.
(clip of DHW)
You can see the full video with the link provided in the transcript. The Daily Moth did a story on Antrobus (the deaf poet) last March about him winning the Ted Hughes Award for his collection of poetry called “The Perseverance.”
We reached out to Jackson, who is a performing artist in theatre, music, etc. We were curious of her experience of being part of this film. I want to let you know that in our interview, Jackson is using BSL. I am signing ASL with a little bit of International Sign Language and BSL. There are subtitles included.
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Renca Dunn: How did you get involved with this film?
Vilma Jackson: A deaf person named, Raymond, he is a deaf poet, he saw me on Facebook and contacted me. He asked to meet with me. So, I sat down with him to have a conversation about his poem, his life, his upbringing, etc. That helped me get a better picture of what he wanted to do. The next thing we did was to meet up with a director named Adam at his studio. He is a hearing person. So, we met up and discussed some things. Adam and Raymond know each other from before. This was my first time meeting these two.
We went ahead, started with the filming and then after they edited and watched the film. Something was not right. Something was not working out. I asked if we could do it again. Raymond and Adam agreed. These two went revisited the story and looked at the drawing board to help them visualize better. After that, the decision was to film outside in the dark during night-time and it was cold! We did this in two days. All night. It was really a challenge.
Renca Dunn: Ah yes! In the video I noticed you were wearing a thick coat and could see it was at night-time!
Vilma Jackson: Yes! Cold!
Renca Dunn: What was the purpose of this film? Why did you want to distribute this film?
Vilma Jackson: Raymond, the poet, had frustrating experiences in his life, lots of barriers, faced challenges, discrimination, and etc. He feels frustrated seeing deaf schools close down. He feels like..why? He feels like we’re going back to the old times with no access or sign language- sitting in classroom not understanding anything, watching everyone else have access except for deaf people. Just so frustrated. So, that’s the reason for this video and hope that people out there will watch it and understand.
Renca Dunn: After the video was released, what was everyone’s reactions? Did they like it or not like it? What did they say?
Vilma Jackson: Well, I was not expecting the video to go viral. We got a lot of support from people. It was a powerful message. Many expressed that they had similar experiences- We discussed their experiences and my experiences, we all shared that. It was lovely. We got positive feedback. Also, we submitted this video in festivals. The hearing people saw the video. We’ve got three awards and hope to win more! I’m happy to see this.
Renca Dunn: So, when you read Raymond’s poem, did you feel connected to it? You felt you shared the same feelings as Raymond?
Vilma Jackson: Yes, definitely! Because we have similar struggles in life, school and barriers.
Same difficulties so we understand each other. When I read the poem, I felt angry at hearing people because they took our culture away, they took our sign language, they took our children’s future and their education, etc. It’s not fair for us. So, I want this video to go viral for hearing people to see and understand our deaf people’s daily struggles and the problems we face. Hopefully this video helps them realize that we need better communication access for everyone. So, yeah, I understand.
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Thank you Jackson for your time.
Jackson also has her own personal Facebook page where you can find her signing various music videos. The link to her FB is in this transcript.
We have reached out to the film director, Adam Docker, who is a hearing himself, for his comments about his views on this video. Docker is a co-director of Red Earth Studios and has worked with Antrobus before on several other short films.
Docker explains that originally the poem was filmed in his studio, but something was not right. So, Docker and Ces Terranova, his work partner, came up with different ideas about filming in the streets of London instead.
We asked him how this poem affected him as a hearing person. This is his response:
You can get so drawn into a project and get so wrapped up in the whole production, and so it wasn’t until I watched the finished film that the message of Ray’s poem really sunk in.
The anger and visible frustration that Vilma conveyed really opened my eyes to the difficulties faced by the deaf community. It’s obviously made me more aware and sensitive to the background and real life issues of people with disabilities.
We also asked what he hoped for people to understand from the video.
First and foremost, I hope that the deaf community have a film they can identify with, that represents them, that they can champion and connect with. Secondly I hope that hearing people will take from it what I got from it and hopefully gain a better understanding of some of the challenges the deaf community face.
Docker said that when the video got posted, he got people's responses rom Ecuador, Japan, India, North America, all over Europe, and more. He did not expect that, but obviously it was a powerful video and it meant something to people. Thank you Docker for your comments.
The team hopes for the "Dear Hearing World" video to continue being shared for more impact around the world.
Dear Hearing World Full Video: https://www.facebook.com/RedEarthStudio/videos/2136226003343119/
Vilma Jackson’s FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/VCRJ90/
Raymond Antrobus website: http://www.raymondantrobus.com/essays
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
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Convo [https://convo.click/2mVhM8h]
Gallaudet University: [gallaudet.edu]