This is my first ever JOTY with 2 winners. (Actually first ever JOTY, but hey.)
And I had to pick 2. Both cover interests near and dear to my heart.
Kristen, who is a great journalist, covers abuse on twitter, covered Milo fairly (which is basically unheard of and yes he is a provocateur and troll, no he’s not a Nazi) and the strange and wondrous world of science, ethical concerns and all.
I would like to explain my background a bit.
Although living in Fresno, I have had the great luck to be able to spend a LOT of time in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. As a tech journalist, much of what Kristen covers originates in and around the Bay Area.
The schools I attended (well funded magnet schools) took frequent field trips to the central coast and San Francisco/Bay Area.
We also frequented the Bay Area in Cub Scout and Boy Scouts trips.
My Dad is a retired Claims Manager. As a kid he would take marketing trips disguised as family vacations to the Bay Area where a great many insurance companies are headquartered. (If you want to talk about gentrification since 1970’s, that preference is a great place to start.)
My sister, loved Esprit and shopping, and I loved comic books. The comic book shops seemed to be in places in San Francisco where not many tourists went. Besides the usual touristy places you’d expect, I have seen and experienced much of San Francisco.
Other than places I’ve actually lived and grandparents homes I’ve spent more time in the Bay Area than anywhere else. The Central Coast (Cambria/Pismo is a close second to SF.)
When Ms. Brown writes this,
https://twitter.com/kristenvbrown/status/786987628444868608
I know this to be true from my own experiences.
https://twitter.com/kristenvbrown/status/816302013088546817
When Ms. Brown talks about seismic vulnerabilities I know exactly what she’s talking about due to my own profession, and having been dragged out (I kinda didn’t have that much fun) on claims with my Dad since I was very young.
I worked fires (dummy end of the measuring stick), car accidents (dodging cars while diagramming accident scenes is always fun) and worked the Coalinga earthquake. Yep, I at 10 or 11 (?) worked earthquake claims.
My dad enjoyed working claims better than being in management. He didn’t keep a full case load, but he worked overflow and a few accounts he enjoyed.
He kept the juicy account, working the Curry account when The Curry Company had the concessions contract in Yosemite.
As a kid in Fresno, I attended diverse schools. I doubt they were perfectly diverse, but they were diverse. I have no idea what “perfectly diverse” is beyond a standard activists state frequently on twitter.
The High School I attended was bussed INTO to desegregate. That is, WHITE KIDS were bussed in from Hoover. Their 9th grade class was bussed into Roosevelt High School in south east Fresno . The 9th graders within my district went to Sequoia.
I did not KNOW that the day in 8th grade at Holland Project TALENT (Audra McDonald is one year behind me, we shared the same drama teacher, if little else by way of talent) when the district people came in and said we could go to any school in the district we wanted to.
Faced with such wondrous choices I thought I’d better go where my parents expected and choose Roosevelt. It was a surprise in 9th grade when I thought I’d see my friends from the home district and they were nowhere to be found.
As a sophomore, Roosevelt opened the School of the Performing Arts, and the kids from Hoover were no longer bussed down. I assume that desegregation from Hoover no longer necessary because a lot of kids district wide were bussed in to Roosevelt, and many were white.
Lots of my friends are pictured here. I went to Easterby with Shaun Lopez and Matt Denny, and Shaun played little league with me and tennis. He was number 1 varsity and I, 2.
(Yes we made a fake chess club that met in the Science building where we played logic games and screwed around mostly. We had awesome bathing beauties. The scam worked)
I also would like to encourage Kristen to do more video. Video is The Future™ and Kristen claims to be “From The Future” or some such on Gizmodo.
Tim Pool, @timcast did an astonishing piece on the water shortage of East Porterville and the CA drought in general.
My Great Grandfather immigrated to Tulare County in the Dust Bowl. I have tons of family in Tulare County and the Central Valley.
(My great grandfather left my teenaged grandmother in Missouri with relatives, she got married and went to Idaho.)
(Yes I have a diverse family)
My ex wifes family is in Porterville.
My ex father in law is a former enlisted Marine who was stationed in Taiwan.
Returning to the US he owned a 7 -11 in San Jose, but sold that operation and moved back to Porterville (home) to be a Psyche Tech at Porterville Developmental Center. He rose to Program Manager then acting Director of Porterville Developmental Center. My ex mother in law is deceased, however she worked as a Psyche Tech as well.
My ex wife is a Psyche Tech, her new husband is a Psyche Tech and my daughter works at Porterville Developmental Center as a student assistant as she studies to become a teacher.
The High School Madison, my daughter, attended is in East Porterville. Granite High School. She’s a leader and activist in her own way.
Tim Poole also covered the devastation in the Midwest.
When I see Jack Dorsey accept CEO of the Year from the Thurgood Marshall Fund I can only laugh, or cry.
Jack Dorsey is the King of fake news and abuse.
He has also damaged race relations in politics immeasurably through polarization pushed on twitter’s platform with his tacit endorsement (and quite frankly open endorsement with open promotion of #blacklivesmatter.)
https://twitter.com/kristenvbrown/status/828999459841335296
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/828279664770695168
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/827010351812190208
Jack Dorsey has also led the assault on Free Speech, giving wildly abusive “activists” like Randi Lee Harper and Brianna Wu backchannel access to Twitter Safety.
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/829099146783096832
Bob Chipman, AKA @The_moviebob is simply the same overt hatred my Great Grandpa felt when he settled in Tulare County and walked miles each day to Tagus Ranch to work.
https://twitter.com/the_moviebob/status/796190344744407040
Bob Chipman hangs out with Anita Sarkeesian, who is on Twitter’s alleged Twitter Trust & Safety Council.
I have no idea what this council does, or how it functions when you can solicit hitmen on twitter.
https://twitter.com/MarkGKirshner/status/738181121196711937
I reported the tweet and received the following response.
My mom’s dad, my Grandpa also was a Dust Bowl immigrant, however was nearly worked to death by a farmer in Salinas.
He went to Idaho. He worked New Deal construction for Morrison Knudsen. The same company that built the Golden Gate Bridge, I believe.
My dads parents were also in Idaho, and my parents met at Idaho State University. When my dad graduated he volunteered for the US Navy, went to OCS and was sent to the Vietnam War where he served on the USS Reeves in the Sea of Japan as a LT(jg).
My parents were lucky enough to live off base in Japan for years and tour a bit of Asia.
In all my life I have never felt such overt hatred as that leveled at me on Twitter daily by so called tolerant people.
Despite identifying the racism and xenophobia in the far right in July 2015, and writing about it I am judged, and attacked for the color of my skin daily. Jack Dorsey simply does not care. I am abused any number of ways, but as far as I can tell because of the color of my skin I am open for the abuse.
I am simply a “hard headed” “Trumpster”. (this is light, though activists ignore facts like Obama profiting off the Presidency to abuse).
Twitter is fact free.
https://twitter.com/WanderinPoet/status/829382446537854976
Anyone that says something contrary to the approved opinion of Randi Lee Harper, Brianna Wu or the activists Jack Dorsey is set upon by a mob that they lead.
(1 of I don’t know how many. The whole thread isn’t presented here.)
https://twitter.com/WanderinPoet/status/829343902263975936
https://twitter.com/WanderinPoet/status/829344417643261953
I however am not helpless, nor intimidated by empowered abusers with the ear of Twitter .
I know Jack Dorsey did as much to elect Donald Trump as any person alive. I will leave that to historians to figure out how. I have said enough on the matter that anyone can figure it out.
I consider Jack Dorsey’s award by the Thurgood Marshall Fund a farce.
Jack Dorsey endangers members of my family & has contributed to making race relations as bad as at any time in my lifetime. I can only relate it to 1968 & the Days of Rage where the most supported people in CA are rioting at a great college because they now feel violence is acceptable.
https://twitter.com/janeygak/status/826998516144697344
We will continue our mission of digital disruption and truth telling here on this channel.
I however have Awards to hand out.
To the wonderfully educated and capable Kristen V Brown I award a Central Valley Coffee Cup. Valley Pride!
Tim, I name honorary Dirt Farmer. Rub some dirt on it, Tim.
I’d nominate Tim for Hall of Fame in Porterville, but unlike my ex wife, he’s not from Porterville. Sorry, Tim.
Women’s 1988-’89 Tennis Team — This team had only four players — Story Hurst, Chrissy Kulbeth, Michelle McGuire and Michelle Caskey — yet it won the Central Valley Conference championship in 1988 and then again 1989 with the addition of only two players, Vicki Esquivel and Christy Heint.
Ken Hurst — Hurst was the men and women’s varsity head coach at PC from 1982 through 1999. After 10 years of coaching at PC, his teams had won two thirds of all their matches. Even in Hurst’s last years of coaching at PC, the tennis programs thrived in every match with intense competitors to slay the big dragons.
Thank you for being you, and all that you do. I appreciate your journalism and professionalism.
https://twitter.com/WanderinPoet/status/829377833671602177
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