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Happiest place but...: Video of JD Vance running at 'woke' Disneyland viral amid heckling, protests

Happiest place but...: Video of JD Vance running at 'woke' Disneyland viral amid heckling, protests

Time of India4 days ago
Disneyland is known to be the happiest place on earth but Vice President JD Vance's family visit to Disneyland, California, turned into nightmare over heckling, protests and snide remark for California Governor Gavin Newsom.
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Social media users, meanwhile, laughed out loud as they found a video of Vance awkwardly running after his children.
Why JD Vance faced protest, booing outside Disneyland
The ICE raids in the Democrat-ruled California were the main issue of the protesters. In 2022, Vance called Disney 'woke' and accused them of 'declaring war on America's children'.
Jane Fleming Kleeb, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, posted the video of her confronting the vice president.
"I thought you hate California?" she told the vice president.
"VP Vance is at Disneyland. I'm also here with my family. When I had a brief moment, I made it clear--we support immigrants, we support America. I asked the obvious question, 'I thought you hate California?' Since we've all seen and heard the hatred coming from Vance and Trump for California and Disney..." Kleeb said as JD Vance and his children were spotted.
Vance did not react to the protests.
But he took to the X to clap back at Governor Newsom who posted a video of Vance in Disneyland with a caption: "How you enjoy your family time, @JDVance. The families you're tearing apart certainly won't."
"Had a great time, thanks," JD Vance wrote in reply.
Viral video of JD Vance running
Social media users mocked the 'dad run' of JD Vance at Disneyland. The vice president was running after his youngest kid who wandered off.
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But JD Vance's running style did not make him look fit and it was nicknamed as "Vance Prance".
"They booed JD Vance at Disneyland. Imagine how hated you must be to get booed at the happiest place on earth," one wrote. "jd vance is either on vacation or on Twitter picking fights....he serves no real purpose," another wrote.
"I think this video just ended JD Vance's career," a third user commented on the video.
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MAGA move: Trump admin axes LGBTQ youth suicide hotline; critics warn ‘kids will die'
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MAGA move: Trump admin axes LGBTQ youth suicide hotline; critics warn ‘kids will die'

(Photo: AP) The Trump administration has stopped a special phone service that helped LGBTQ kids and young adults with mental health problems. This move has upset many people, including Democrats, doctors, and LGBTQ rights groups. This service was part of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It let callers under 25 talk to trained counsellors who understand LGBTQ issues. NBC News reported that the government shut it down. The service started in October 2022. It was known as the 'Press 3' option. People could press 3 or text the word 'PRIDE' to speak to someone who could really understand them. Since it began, nearly 1.5 million people have used it. The government agency SAMHSA said last month it would no longer keep this special line just for LGBTQ kids. They said they want to help all callers in the same way. Jaymes Black, the head of The Trevor Project, which helped run the service, said stopping it was 'unfathomable.' He told NBC: 'This administration has made a dangerous decision to play politics with real young people's lives. Sadly, more children are going to die in America because of this cut.' People from both political parties were upset. Democrat Rep. Seth Moulton said on MSNBC: 'Kids are going to die. This is actually the kind of thing Republicans should care about if they really care about American kids.' He also said: 'As a veteran, I know how much it means to my fellow veterans to be able to push a button when they call 988 and get connected directly to a veterans crisis counsellor. Well, LGBTQ kids need that, too.' Republican Mike Lawler agreed. At a press event, he said, 'Cutting a programme that is working, that is meeting a real and growing need, just does not make sense.' SAMHSA explained that the LGBTQ youth service had no more funding from Congress. They said if they kept it, they would have to remove help from other parts of the 988 hotline. The veterans' option to press 1 is still available. California governor Gavin Newsom reacted quickly. He said California will now work with The Trevor Project to train 988 crisis workers to understand LGBTQ youth better. He said, 'While the Trump administration continues its attacks on LGBTQ kids, California has a message to the community: we see you and we're here for you.' If LGBTQ youth need help, they can still contact The Trevor Project.

How Sam Altman outfoxed Elon Musk to become Trump's AI buddy
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How Sam Altman outfoxed Elon Musk to become Trump's AI buddy

Just two weeks after Elon Musk's spectacular breakup with President Trump, the tech billionaire's nemesis strode into the dining room of the president's New Jersey golf club wearing a suit and a wide smile. Sam Altman, the 40-year-old chief executive of OpenAI, had just finished a long one-on-one meeting with Trump, and the two men were about to dine with the president's top donors. Trump introduced Altman to the club's applauding members as 'a very brilliant man," adding: 'I hope he's right about AI." That warm reception in June was a far cry from the cold shoulder Altman got in the first few weeks after Trump's election. Altman was estranged from Musk, his OpenAI co-founder, and Musk's new position as 'first buddy" had kept Altman out of meetings at Mar-a-Lago and in the overflow room at the inauguration rather than on the dais with his fellow tech CEOs. So Altman bided his time, quietly maneuvering around Musk. 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That could have implications on how the U.S. government approaches the role of AI in everything from defense contracts to energy policy. President Trump at a May 30 White House news conference with departing DOGE adviser Elon Musk. In a sign of Altman's rising influence, he will be the keynote speaker at a Federal Reserve conference later this month, addressing central bankers about AI's impact on the economy. 'President Trump is thinking big about American AI and building the infrastructure we need to stay ahead," said an OpenAI spokesperson. 'We look forward to continuing our work with him to grow the economy and make sure AI benefits everyone." This account of the behind-the-scenes relationship between Trump and Altman is based on interviews with White House officials, technology executives, lobbyists and political donors. Altman and Trump make for unlikely allies. For decades, Altman donated almost exclusively to Democrats, reflecting the progressive—if somewhat libertarian-tinged—values of his high-tech milieu. Altman endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 because, he wrote on his blog, 'Donald Trump represents an unprecedented threat to America." Trump was 'erratic, abusive and prone to fits of rage," Altman said, and his presidency would be 'a disaster for the American economy." Nearly everyone else in Silicon Valley other than his mentor Peter Thiel, Altman said, found him 'repugnant." Earlier that summer, Altman had written a blog post arguing that 'Trump is right about some big things," including 'that the economy is not growing nearly fast enough" and 'that we're drowning in political correctness." But he disagreed strongly with how Trump proposed to address these issues. 'To anyone familiar with the history of Germany in the 1930s," he wrote in that post, 'it's chilling to watch Trump in action." Altman in 2016 at a conference in Dresden, Germany. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president that year. At the same time, Altman was getting more concerned about the economic policy of Democrats. As the Biden administration readied its Covid-era economic stimulus, Altman warned his contacts in the government that the infusion would cause inflation and run up the national debt. He remained a loyal Democrat, though, donating $200,000 to Joe Biden's re-election campaign in 2023. Altman also was growing disillusioned with the Biden administration's AI policy. He considered the signature CHIPS and Science Act, which aimed to bring chip fabrication back onto American soil, to be laughably small in the roughly $50 billion it set aside for developing and producing the semiconductors, and wrongheaded in its desire to spread out money. 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As soon as Trump took office, his administration began rolling out the kind of infrastructure-friendly policies that OpenAI had been lobbying for, including an executive order on Trump's first day—Unleashing American Energy—that would speed up permitting of energy projects. When OpenAI held an AI summit in Washington on Jan. 30, Trump's interior secretary, Doug Burgum, attended, and Kellyanne Conway, who served as senior counselor to Trump in his first term and remains close to the White House, sat in the front row. In March, Altman attended a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for donors who had each paid $1 million to his super PAC. Other diners that evening included David Sacks, Trump's AI czar. By May, OpenAI and the Trump administration were ready to announce the next step in the Stargate partnership with Oracle and SoftBank—a data center in Abu Dhabi. The deal was only possible because the administration had decided to roll back Biden-era restrictions on the export of chips, a change it planned to formalize during a tour of the Middle East that month. The plan was to build a gargantuan, five-gigawatt data center campus in Abu Dhabi to train and run AI models, in partnership with local tech company G42. OpenAI would get the first gigawatt, with subsequent tranches expected to go to other tech companies, including, most likely, Musk's xAI, though those weren't ready to be announced. Musk had been forging his own relationships with Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, who controlled G42 and whose MGX fund invested in both xAI and OpenAI. On May 14, journalists traveling with the president were briefed on the announcement, which was expected to happen with Trump and OpenAI the next day. But when Musk got wind that Altman was on the Middle East trip and planned to stand with the president and G42 for the announcement, he began to pepper Trump aides and his contacts at G42 with complaints. The situation escalated to the level that Trump was pulled out of a meeting to address it. OpenAI and the Trump administration had planned to announce the next step in the Stargate partnership during the president's trip to the Middle East. Trump, above, toured a mosque in Abu Dhabi on May for the Stargate announcement changed after Musk got wind that Altman was on the trip. Trump speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One., after leaving Abu Dhabi. G42, concerned about Musk's outbursts, decided to pull the announcement. The journalists were told to hold their stories until further notice. To appease Musk, the White House agreed that no one from the U.S. government would be present during the announcement, and the news would be pushed back a week to when Trump's tour of the Middle East was finished. The deal was announced a week later, with less fanfare than initially planned. The episode bothered some senior White House staffers. Shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported on May 28 about Musk's attempts to block the deal, the Tesla CEO announced that he was leaving the White House and began to openly criticize Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill." After Trump declined to choose Musk's pick for head of NASA, Musk's criticism of the tax-and-spending bill escalated into a flame war for the ages, during which he called for Trump's impeachment. Within a week of the Abu Dhabi deal, Musk's relationship with Trump was in tatters. Altman, for his part, continued to forge closer ties. On June 16, OpenAI announced a $200 million contract with the Pentagon. The Trump administration is expected to unveil its AI action plan later this month. OpenAI has been lobbying for it to include measures that would make it easier to build AI infrastructure. The Journal has reported that the White House is considering giving federal land to tech companies for the data centers needed to train their models. Altman speaking to reporters earlier this month at the Allen & Co. media and technology conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. 'I believe in techno-capitalism," Altman recently posted on X, explaining his decision to leave the Democratic Party. 'We should encourage people to make tons of money and then also find ways to distribute wealth and share the compounding magic of capitalism." He outlined a worldview in which every year people grow richer through science and technology, that markets do a better job than government and education helps America keep its edge. 'I believed this when I was 20, when I was 30, and now I am 40 and still believe it," he said. 'The Democratic party seemed reasonably aligned with it when I was 20, losing the plot when I was 30, and completely to have moved somewhere else at this point. So now I am politically homeless." Altman doesn't consider himself a Republican, but has told people he could see himself voting Republican in the next election. Write to Keach Hagey at Dana Mattioli at and Josh Dawsey at

Disney is in our DNA
Disney is in our DNA

The Hindu

time3 hours ago

  • The Hindu

Disney is in our DNA

If they cannot have good drainage, let them have Disneyland? The news that there might be a Disneyland spread over 500 acres of Manesar in Gurugram has set social media afire. It's an excuse for AI-generated images of Disney castles and Mickey Mouse wandering through the office parks of Gurugram. Many Gurugram residents reeling from recent floods and past dengue outbreaks have rolled their eyes at the idea. Sanjiv Kapoor, former CEO of Jet Airways, put up pictures of wandering cows in Gurugram and scoffed: 'And you want to build a Disneyland in Haryana? Ludicrous!' Columnist Rajyasree Sen pointed at 'Manesar Hill Site' or 4,000 MT of untreated waste lying at the Sector 6 dumping site and wondered if instead of Disney's famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride we would get the Big Trash Mountain ride. And given Gurugram's recent floods, it seems more suited for Water World rather than Disney World anyway. An AI reel went viral with the caption 'Disneyland in India? Chaos, paan stains, and Mickey throwing hands! Watch this wild ride!' In it, a security guard chases a man running away with Minnie Mouse tucked under his arm. Entire families with stainless steel dabbas sit down for banana leaf picnic lunches on a ride. A man in a lungi spits out a volley of red paan juice on a 'No Spitting' sign. Some would say these are unfair, just spoilsports who don't understand the spirit of Hakuna Matata because Gurugram just can't wait to be king. But in truth, it's a great idea. With the recent immigration crackdown, U.S. visas are getting harder to come by. How wonderful it would be if we could get our Disneyland selfies in India itself. This would be our version of 'If Muhammad cannot go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammad'. Lending an Indian touch Each Disneyland, whether in Paris or Shanghai, comes with some unique rides tailored to local sensitivities though the brand is unmistakably always Disney. Shanghai's version of Sleeping Beauty's castle shows Chinese influences. The Paris Disneyland avoids American flags. Maybe the Indian Disneyland can have Mickey Mouse doing yoga. But it's a great lesson in the projection of soft power, something India is deeply interested in these days. Disney can offer a masterclass on how to export the idea of Americana but make it so feel-good, it does not feel like cultural imperialism. This is Americana you are happy to take a selfie with. Disney has not commented on whether this is really in the works and it's not clear whether this is Disneyland or just a Disney-like theme park. That's just a minor detail for those of us who grew up in India wearing 'Lavis' jeans because Levi's were not available. I live in Kolkata where a park has economy-version replicas of the wonders of the world from the Colosseum to Christ the Redeemer. The city is dotted with replicas of Big Ben. When the original Big Ben in London was closed for repairs, Kolkata's Little Bens tolled away merrily. Meanwhile in America No one can deny Disneyland's timeless appeal. I thought myself too cool for it in the years I lived in California. When my parents visited from India they had two requests — McDonald's burgers (that had not arrived in India yet) and Disneyland. I succumbed and took them to Disneyland and stopped for McDonald's on the way. They look so happy in the photographs, like children again, going on little boat rides for It's A Small World, and watching fireworks explode over the fairytale castle. Disney is in our DNA and there's no getting away from it. Its appeal spans generations. It is in many ways the American Dream supersized, super-sweet, candy-coloured and utterly unreal. Its motto 'Happiest place on earth' is sheer PR triumph. But in these troubled times, even Disneyland in Anaheim, California, has not been spared. U.S. vice president J.D. Vance visited recently with his family. California governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X: 'Hope you enjoy your family time, @JDVance. The families you're tearing apart certainly won't.' Newsom was referring to aggressive immigration raids conducted by federal agents, especially in Southern California. '35% of Anaheim's residents are immigrants. Disneyland doesn't run without them,' Newsom's account reminded Vance. Back to happy times Gurugram, with its housing complexes with names like Palm Springs and Malibu Heights, was always aspiring to project Americana in Haryana. Disneyland would feel right at home in it. It seems entirely fitting that in its Vishwaguru avatar, India too should claim Disneyland's tagline of being the happiest place on earth. America, torn apart by Donald Trump's culture wars and immigration raids, certainly doesn't feel like it anymore. Sandip Roy, the author of Don't Let Him Know, likes to let everyone know about his opinions, whether asked or not.

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