Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Ted Cruz Learns Not to Mess With Sally Yates

Yesterday, former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. The hearing was supposed to focus on ties between Trump associates and Russia. But Senator Ted Cruz wanted to hear more about Yates’ decision to stand against President Trump’s travel ban, which led to her dismissal. Cruz is also a lawyer and he tried to challenge Yates by citing the law that allows the president to block immigrants from coming to the U.S. if that is in the best interest of the country.

Ted Cruz tried to pick on Sally Yates. Big mistake. pic.twitter.com/ZmDP8wbQuI

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 9, 2017

But Yates pointed out that it’s illegal to deny someone entry based on their race, nationality, or place of birth. She pointed out that her main concern was whether the president’s order was constitutional, and said she was not convinced that the ban was lawful. The heated exchange had many people on social media applauding Yates for her cool demeanor and smart response.

This is so delicious it’s better than the chocolate cake at Mar-A-Lago. Sally Yates is having Ted Cruz for lunch.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 8, 2017

In my darkest hours I will think of Sally Yates destroying Ted Cruz on national television, and it will sustain me.

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) May 8, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: May 9, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Pepe the Frog started out as a funny, green Internet frog that often featured the caption, “feels good, man,” but on Tuesday he made it onto the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols. He first appeared in the online cartoon “Boys Club” by Matt Furie back in 2005, and then spread across the internet. Over the years he became popular generally, but during the past few months he has appeared in many memes associated with racism, anti-Semitism, and far-right ideology.

This is what the original Pepe looked like.

Pepe the frog will always be feels good man to me pic.twitter.com/BC6oNNdSp2

— Anarcho-Biden (@Anarcho_Biden) September 28, 2016

Almost ten years after his creation, by the end of 2014, Pepe was widespread in the mainstream online community, where he appeared in various different contexts and outfits. Then, the use of Pepe among white supremacists increased and he often appeared as Donald Trump. As the 2016 elections neared, he was shown as Trump on the American side of a fence at the Mexican border, posing as Trump at a lectern, or adorned with swastikas.

Even Trump himself reposted one image.

“@codyave: @drudgereport @BreitbartNews @Writeintrump “You Can’t Stump the Trump” https://t.co/0xITB7XeJV pic.twitter.com/iF6S05se2w“

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

And according to one man that the Daily Beast interviewed over email, going by his Twitter name @JaredTSwift, this shift was intentional. The purpose was to reclaim Pepe from the mainstream and the “normies.” “Normies” are ordinary, mainstream people who, when they start frequently using a meme, kill the joke. The move to start radicalizing Pepe so that no “normies” would dare to use him again was a very conscious Internet movement, according to @JaredTSwift.

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, said in a statement on Tuesday:

Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harassing users. These anti-Semites have no shame. They are abusing the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to harass and spread hatred on social media.

When everyone says you a hate symbol but you just a sad af frog. #pepethefrog pic.twitter.com/AGJ4saPNGG

— HorseHeadventure (@HorseHeadvnture) September 28, 2016

But Pepe’s creator, artist Matt Furie, thinks the far-right wing use of Pepe is just a “passing phase.” He said in an interview with the Atlantic:

It’s people reapproppriating things for their own agenda. That’s just a product of the Internet. And I think people in whatever dark corners of the Internet are just trying to one up each other on how shocking they can make Pepe appear.

He described Pepe as a good guy: “The comic itself is just mellow, he’s just a chill frog and is pretty good natured.”

And as ADL points out, just using a Pepe meme doesn’t mean that somebody is racist or hateful. Since the green frog can be used to express a wide range of opinions or feelings, the context and specifics of any meme would have to be taken into consideration before drawing any conclusions.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Pepe the Frog is Now on ADL’s List of Hate Symbols appeared first on Law Street.

Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Oh My Gosh, They Made A Three Parent Baby!

Five months ago, a scientific miracle was born in Mexico (because the U.S. ain’t about that life), a child born with the DNA of three parents. I know, I know, you must be asking: how does one have a three person baby? Well this family, fearing that their baby would inherit an awful condition from the mother’s side, allowed doctors to create an embryo using the dad’s sperm, the mom’s egg, and donor DNA, by removing the mitochondrial material that carried the disease and replacing it with the donor’s mitochondrial DNA. They essentially deleted the chance of that particular disease from the family’s offspring using this awesome new technique! Crazy, right?

The baby now carries less than one percent of that gene and doctors say it shouldn’t become a problem.

via GIPHY

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The post RantCrush Top 5: September 28, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.