<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) drew widespread attention on Twitter Monday afternoon when he made a mysterious proclamation about a Dairy Queen franchise in Iowa.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Windsor Heights Dairy Queen is good place for u kno what</p>
- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley/status/529356795924725760">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5457e1116bb3f7f01ea1a6c3-600-450/b1infhkiqaa1tgb-4.jpg?maxX=600" alt="B1inFhkIQAA1tgB" border="0" width="600"><p class="source"><span>Grassley's office</span></p><p class="caption">Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) enjoying his Dairy Queen.</p></img></div><p></p></div>Grassley's tweet instantly led to many jokes including some suggesting he was discussing doing something inappropriate at Dairy Queen.</p>
<p>However, Grassley's spokeswoman told Business Insider the senator was most likely referring to eating the company's blended "Blizzard" sundaes.</p>
<p>"I presume he means ice cream or maybe more specifically, a Blizzard," she said, attaching a photo of the Grassley enjoying some Dairy Queen ice cream.</p>
<p>Grassley, who personally tweets from his account, is well known for his <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1209/Tweet_of_the_Year_Grassleys_pants_on_fire.html">sometimes confusing</a> tweets. That reputation didn't stop some other people from making fun of the Dairy Queen comment, however:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley">@ChuckGrassley</a> is not on the ballot tomorrow, but he just tweeted a November surprise <a href="https://t.co/S1vrfb8oNx">https://t.co/S1vrfb8oNx</a></p>
- Ethan Klapper (@ethanklapper) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethanklapper/status/529359310296322048">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley">@ChuckGrassley</a> drugs?</p>
- Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/529358201557626880">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley">@ChuckGrassley</a> conducts a Rorschach test over Twitter: "Windsor Heights Dairy Queen is good place for u kno what"</p>
- Pete Kasperowicz (@PeteKTheBlaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteKTheBlaze/status/529357600375459840">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley">@ChuckGrassley</a> no i don't and i don't think i want to either now</p>
- Glenn Davis (@glennrd) <a href="https://twitter.com/glennrd/status/529356942918291457">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Ice cream! He means ice cream people! Yeeesh RT <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley">@ChuckGrassley</a>: Windsor Heights Dairy Queen is good place for u kno what</p>
- David Freedlander (@freedlander) <a href="https://twitter.com/freedlander/status/529357774501982208">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">- Elizabeth West (@Limeylizzie) <a href="https://twitter.com/Limeylizzie/status/529363302476824577">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Read this tweet. It's about sex. <a href="https://t.co/2vQT5uuchz">https://t.co/2vQT5uuchz</a></p>
- Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) <a href="https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/529359747221577729">November 3, 2014</a></blockquote>

Internet Freaks Out After Senator Tweets About Doing 'U Kno What' At Dairy Queen

<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="AMC / Breaking Bad screencap" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521cecdcecad04437f3a6bb6-960/skyler-breaking-bad-4.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/521cecdcecad04437f3a6bb6-841-420/skyler-breaking-bad-4.png?maxX=800" border="0" alt="skyler breaking bad" width="800" /></a><p class="source"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar7sf30PZu8&amp;feature=c4-overview-vl&amp;list=PLF579DA1151B2CD70">AMC / Breaking Bad screencap</a></p></div></div>If you watch <keyword id="6358378" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="AMC">AMC</keyword>'s hit series "<keyword id="603866" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Breaking-Bad">Breaking Bad</keyword>" you probably aren't a huge fan of Walter White's wife Skyler (<keyword id="694006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Anna-Gunn">Anna Gunn</keyword>). </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Since season one, fans have seen her as a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SkylerWhiteYuck">nagging, pestering, cheating wife</a> who gets in the way of Walt trying to run a successful meth business.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">In a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">New York Times op-ed</a>, Gunn explains how it's normal for the viewer to empathize with and root for Walt since he's the show's protagonist. Since her reactions go against Walt, she's easily seen as a foe even though she's acing in a rational manner.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Here's part of her response to the message board haters:<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p3" style="padding-left: 30px;">"As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I’m concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom. Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or “stand by her man”? That they despise her because she won’t back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter’s equal?"</p>
<p class="p3">In the end, Gunn decided it comes down to gender. </p>
<p class="p4" style="padding-left: 30px;">"But I finally realized that most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender."<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p class="p3">Read Gunn's complete op-ed on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">The New York Times</a>.</p>

'Breaking Bad' Actress Anna Gunn Explains Why Fans Hate Her Character, Skyler

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51dc26e9eab8eae711000003-676-507/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-9.png?maxX=480" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="480" style="float: right;" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p><p class="caption">The <keyword id="4500" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="music-video">music video</keyword> for "Black Skinhead" disappeared from <keyword id="39150" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kanye-West">Kanye West</keyword>'s website early this morning.</p></div></div>A <keyword id="6354530" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="music">music</keyword> video for "Black Skinhead," a track off the "<keyword id="1679799" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Yeezus">Yeezus</keyword>" album, quickly appeared and disappeared from Kanye West's </span><a href="http://www.kanyewest.com/">website</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> this morning after the Internet made fun of it.</span></p>
<p>The animation leaves something to be desired.</p>
<p>In the video, a CGI Kanye, wearing jeans, a gold chain, and occasionally a ski mask, dances and jumps around looking like an early Guitar Hero avatar.</p>
<p><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker</a> and <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/07/kanye-black-skinhead-video.html">Vulture</a>, among <a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=black%20skinhead&amp;src=typd">tweeters</a>, are speculating the video was pulled because it wasn't finished and possibly leaked.</p>
<p>The video opens like a Rorschach test, overlapping angry wolves, men wearing black KKK-style hoods, and jacked Kanye clones.</p>
<p>The designers were generous in muscularity.</p>
<p>Just under three minutes in, a naked Kanye stomps in the background. As he nears closer, his member grows to reach his knees — fitting for his notorious ego.</p>
<p>The finalized music video may not be too far off.</p>
<p>His performance of "Black Skinhead" on "Saturday Night Live" in May featured a very similar intro — showing the three, computerized wolves chomping with glow-in-the-dark teeth — leading us to believe this is not a drill.</p>
<p>Watch the clip:</p>
<p><iframe width="590" height="360" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xuhl6Ji5zHM"></iframe></p>
<p>Here are some screenshots of the pulled music video:</p>
<p>It zooms in on these men in black hoods before the music begins.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51dc203aeab8ead005000003-969-484/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-1.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>Later in the track, Kanye raps, "I'm aware I'm a wolf."</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/51dc20f4ecad048376000007-966-483/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-2.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>Here's what appears to be a TSA full-body scan rendering of Kanye.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51dc211469beddb250000000-966-483/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-3.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>Then he morphs into a glitchy, faceless robot.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51dc2959ecad046c07000004-968-484/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-10.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>A mask to hide his shame.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51dc214f6bb3f7830900000f-962-481/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-4.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>Naked Kanye incoming.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/51dc21c269beddc44b00000d-965-482/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-5.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>He sports some Frankenwest body armor.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:600px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51dc21db69beddb450000003-963-481/kanye-west-black-skinhead-music-video-yeezus-6.png" border="0" alt="kanye west black skinhead music video yeezus" width="600" /><p class="source"><a href="http://gawker.com/kanye-west-shows-his-giant-sims-dick-in-pulled-black-s-710940916">Gawker screenshot</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>And here's the full monty, via <a href="http://soundisstyle.com/2013/07/kanye-west-black-skinhead-video.html">Soundisstyle</a>:</p>
<p><iframe width="480" height="300" src="http://rapdose.com/wp-content/themes/rdtwo/embed/embed_video.php?src=http://cdn.vidmeup.com/flash_videos/51db3d40e7221.flv&amp;img=http://rapdose.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Screen-Shot-2013-07-08-at-5.45.29-PM.png&amp;lnk=http://cdn.vidmeup.com/flash_videos/51db3d40e7221.flv"></iframe></p>

Computer-Generated Kanye West Dances Naked In Yanked Music Video

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52cc18f56da8115a632e4222-1200-924/samsung-ces-curved-tv-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Samsung CES curved TV" /><p class="source"><span>Jim Edwards / BI</span></p><p class="caption">Bendable, poseable TV.</p></div><p></p></div></div>For the first time in a long time, Samsung is hitting a bit of a rough patch.</p>
<p>The company just <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-06/samsung-profit-misses-estimates-as-high-end-handset-growth-slows.html">posted its first year-over-year drop in profits since 2011</a>, Bloomberg reports. </p>
<p>Bloomberg says the problem for Samsung is that its smartphone sales are predicted to stagnate. Apple owns the high end, while Chinese handset makers, which sell phones for $100 off contract are taking over the low end. </p>
<p>Samsung is stuck in the middle trying to find growth. Sales of its Galaxy phones are cooling, along with the TV market, says Bloomberg. </p>
<p>In the middle of Bloomberg's story on Samsung, it has two sentences that pretty define the company:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>Samsung, which is facing stalling demand for TVs, said today it will release its first set with a bendable screen later this year. Viewers can change the display from flat to curved by touching a button, it said in a statement.</span></p>
<p>The curved display TVs do nothing for users. CNET's TV expert <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-85-inch-bendable/4505-6482_7-35833930.html">David Katzmaier said of bendable TV displays</a>: "<span>Like a lot of concept demos at CES, the bendable TV is more a novelty with little practical application."</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>This is a sort of a Rorschach test for anyone that follows Samsung. </span></span></p>
<p>If you're a Samsung supporter, you see this and shrug. Samsung's model is to try everything and see what sticks. The Galaxy Note, for instance, was ridiculed at first for being too large, but has since proven to be something people want. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If people don't buy bendable TVs, Samsung will just shelve it. If they do buy bendable TVs, then great. </span></p>
<p>If you're a Samsung skeptic, this is the just the latest example of a half-baked gimmick from Samsung thrown out there to see what sticks. If Samsung really wanted to make its TVs better it would focus on developing ground-breaking software interfaces and new user experiences instead of bending the screen for no apparent reason. Samsung does make a line of Smart TVs with a user interface that can help predict what you'd want to watch, but it hasn't yet nailed a formula to revolutionize TV. (To be fair, no one has.)</p>
<p>Why does this sort of debate matter? With Samsung's profits dipping for the first time, and its growth engine (smartphones) slowing, it's up to Samsung to figure out what's next. </p>
<p>If you believe in Samsung's model of trying everything and hoping for the best, then you're probably bullish it stumbles into the next thing. It you don't believe in Samsung's model, then you probably think it's doomed to fall hard.</p>

These Two Sentences Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Samsung

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53c96de06da8111e3ae03a3f-1072/george-soros-21.png" alt="George Soros" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo</span></p><p class="caption">George Soros.</p>The day after Donald Trump became president of the United States, thousands of people in pink hats <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/22/us/politics/womens-march-trump-crowd-estimates.html">marched the streets</a>. They were protesting Trump's stance on women's rights, among other issues.<p>But some looked at the sea of pink and saw something else: the invisible hand of a man they believe is not just funding liberal protest movements but controlling the world's wealth and pushing a global order.</p><p>It's not true, but the man these conspiracy theorists target is George Soros, the prominent billionaire hedge fund manager.</p><p>The 86-year-old has become a Rorschach test. To the left, he's a rich guy openly supporting causes many liberals believe in. But to some on the far right, he's more sinister and nefarious, despite a lack of evidence. For two decades, some have seen Soros as a kind of puppet master secretly controlling the global economy and politics.</p><p>At times Soros has wielded great power. In the early 1990s, he bet against the British pound, which <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-latest-george-soros-wins-big-prediction-black-friday-a7102481.html">broke</a> England's monetary system overnight and earned him more than a billion dollars. Later in the decade, he took similar steps during Asian Financial Crisis. Many saw it as capitalizing off of catastrophes and the Malaysian prime minister even <a href="http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/09/29/232108/index.htm">accused</a> Soros of purposefully bringing down the value of his country's currency by more than 15%.</p><p>From there, he's become a singular target of unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories, in part because he has so few peers on the left.</p><p>"What makes the Soros thing interesting is that most of the conspiracy theories about rich people tend to be made by people on the left about people on the right," said Joe Uscinski, a political-science professor at the University of Miami.</p><h2>Political involvement</h2><p>Soros, who is worth $25 billion, has been at the center of conspiracy theories since he first rose to the top echelons of hedge fund managers in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/13/wolraich.beck.soros/">the 1990s</a>. But he really attracted attention in 2004, when he <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600882_pf.html">gave money</a> to groups that sought to block President George W. Bush's reelection bid. His entry into politics, coupled with Soros' choice to repeatedly <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/10/18/the-money-man">speak out against the Iraq War</a>, set off a long-lasting string of conspiracy theories alleging that Soros tried to influence politics with nefarious intent.</p><p>"George Soros first found himself in the crosshairs of the conservative propaganda machine when he publicly expressed opposition to the march to war in Iraq," said Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros Fund Management. Since then, Soros has continued to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/george-soros-criminal-justice-reform-227519">donate large sums of money</a> to organizations that support democratic reform in the US and throughout the world. Some saw that as a sign of scheming secretive plots.</p><p>Right-leaning sites like Breitbart and The Washington Times have often claimed that Soros paid protesters at the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/12/anti-trump-womens-march-backed-soros-funded-groups/">Women's March</a> and the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/28/george-soros-gave-36m-groups-behind-peoples-climat/">March for Science</a>. In reality, Soros has been giving money to progressive groups since long before the Trump's election. In 2017, some of them decided to participate in protests.</p><p>Theories can be far-fetched, like accusations that Soros is in <a href="http://investmentwatchblog.com/george-soros-and-the-rothchilds-banking-elite-connections-exposed/">cahoots with the world's elite to bring down the global currency</a>. Then there are simpler accusations that are rooted in truth: that Soros uses his power and money to influence politics. His open support for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerenblankfeld/2016/09/20/billionaire-george-soros-earmarks-500-million-for-migrants-and-refugees/&amp;refURL=https://www.google.com/&amp;referrer=https://www.google.com/">migrants and refugees</a> and <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/george-soros-criminal-justice-reform-227519">criminal-justice reform</a> is well known.</p><p>Still, people such as Daniel Greenfield believe Soros goes further. Greenfield is a regular writer for far-right outlets. He believes Soros is trying to take over the world to make it more liberal.</p><p>"Government should be decided by the people rather than by powerful interests who subvert democracy," Greenfield told Business Insider. He wrote an article saying that Soros "destroyed the Democratic party."</p><p>"I don't like his governments and their agendas," Greenfield said.</p><h2>The left's Koch brother</h2><p>Soros' choice to put his wealth toward political causes that he believes in is not particularly different from the billions of dollars that right-wing billionaires like Charles and David Koch have been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics">donating</a> to Republican causes for years, said Miami University professor Timothy Melley. The difference is that far more ultra-rich Americans are politically conservative.</p><p>"It's a projection of right-wing billionaire behavior onto a prominent left-wing billionaire," said Melley, who wrote "Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America."</p><p>It's true Soros has not been quiet in his <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/soros-trump-is-a-con-man-and-will-fail-2017-1">criticism</a> of Republicans like Trump.</p><p>Many European countries with right-leaning governments have also seen a strong anti-Soros push in recent years. The president of Soros' native Hungary has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/world/europe/soros-orban-hungary-eu-central-european-university.html?_r=0">passed laws</a> that would try to close a progressive university the billionaire opened in Budapest and called Soros "an enemy of the euro" after the EU criticized the decision.</p><p>"George is the enemy of choice of despots," said Vachon.</p><h2>No 'secret plot'</h2><p>While many anti-Soros theories accuse him of schemes and secrecy, Soros' Open Society Foundation is fairly vocal in its commitment to social justice. The foundation's site <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/expenditures">states</a> that it has spent more than $1.6 billion on democratic development in Eastern Europe. As a child, Soros fled persecution from the Nazis and has been <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/27/aoc.soros.opensociety/index.html">instrumental</a> in bringing capitalism to countries within the former Soviet bloc.</p><p>The foundation has also spent more than $1.5 billion on democratic reform - including immigration, criminal justice, and democratic governance - within the US.</p><p>"Like any other liberal, George Soros is hoping that Trump will be out of power," said Melley, adding that Soros' spending and political power is what turns him into a threat. "It doesn't exactly constitute a secret plot."</p><p>What Soros actually did is in line with the political activities of prominent conservative donors. Conservative hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, for instance, has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mercer-trump-renaissance-technologies-billions-tax-bill-2017-4">given millions of dollars</a> to a pro-Trump Make America Number One super PAC and sponsored public-opinion research suggesting an outsider candidate was likely to win in November 2016.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5913749973f2f31b008b55ef-2400/rtx33r5i.jpg" alt="Students shout slogans during a demonstration against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's efforts to force a George Soros-founded university out of the country in Budapest, Hungary, April 2, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Students at a demonstration against Prime Minister Viktor Orban's efforts to force a George Soros-founded university out of the country in Budapest, Hungary, April 2, 2017.</p><h2>Anti-Semitic roots</h2><p>Mark Fenster, a law professor at the University of Florida and author of "Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture," said that many of the claims waged against Soros could have an anti-Semitic slant similar to false claims that the Rothschild family secretly controls all of the world's wealth. Fenster said wealth is often used to justify "fearing and hating the Jews" and, as a result, is also used to disguise anti-Semitism in some conspiracy theorists.</p><p>In the past, Breitbart <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/28/breitbart-uses-nazi-inspired-anti-semitic-rhetoric-george-soros-attack/214641">published tweets</a> calling Soros "an octopus." The Nazis <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nra-depicts-bloomberg-octopus-anti-semitic-symbol-article-1.211274">used</a> octopus imagery to refer to Jews controlling the world in the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, Glenn Beck, the former Fox News host and founder of The Blaze, once <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2010/11/09/puppet-master-becks-attacks-on-soros-are-steepe/173099">called</a> Soros "a "puppet master" who holds the strings of the world in his hands.</p><p>"Some of what's going on right now is not really a conspiracy theory in the sense of an organic, populist view that kind of rises up from the masses," said Melley. "It seems to be a relatively deliberate attempt to ... discredit."</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588671b5f10a9a273f8b700f-1212/screen shot 2016-01-20 at 84946 am.png" alt="George Soros" /><p class="source"><span>Reuters/Jorge Silva</span></p><p>The idea that Soros is secretly behind all the world's ills remains persistently in the mouths of right-wing commentators - in 2007, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly spent nearly 10 minutes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KegE285GQuc">describing</a> Soros as "off-the-charts dangerous" and "an extremist who wants open borders, a one-world foreign policy, legalized drugs, euthanasia, and on and on."</p><p>"If a conspiracy theory can explain big things and offer a villain that people already despise then it's going to be popular," said Uscinski, adding that someone who has money and significant political influence will often be seen as a threat for those with opposing views.</p><p>Another frequent source of anti-Soros coverage, the conspiracy-minded site Infowars ran <a href="https://www.infowars.com/george-soros-is-about-to-overthrow-the-u-s/">a video piece</a> titled "George Soros Is About To Overthrow The US" in 2016.</p><p>But as pointed out by Melley, "overthrowing the US" most often boils down to little other than openly criticizing right-wing government and supporting progressive, democratic causes. After all, the hedge fund billionaire is not afraid to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/19/george-soros-calls-donald-trump-a-would-be-dictator-who-is-going-to-fail.html">call Trump a "would-be dictator,"</a> so he's unlikely to make any new friends on the right.</p>                <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/look-inside-donald-trump-28-million-dollar-caribbean-estate-st-martin-sale-2017-5">Trump is reportedly selling his Caribbean estate for $28 million - take a look inside</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video                    

George Soros is a favorite target of the right - here's how that happened

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ef11dd6bb3f7bf4086bcc9-541-405/jihadi-john.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="JIhadi John" width="480"><p class="source"><span>Screenshot</span></p><p class="caption">"Jihadi John"</p></img></div><p></p></div></p><p><span>The British Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John"</span> was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jihadi-john-the-islamic-state-killer-behind-the-mask-is-a-young-londoner/2015/02/25/d6dbab16-bc43-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&amp;hpid=z10">identified Thursday</a> as Mohammed Emwazi by a report in The Washington Post.</p><p><span><span>The Post reports that Emwazi,</span> who is believed to be responsible for multiple executions of Western hostages, became radicalized after run-ins with British intelligence officials.</span></p><p><span>But questions remains about whether UK security services inadvertently radicalized <span>Emwazi</span> or simply <span>recognized his potential for radicalization</span>.</span></p><p><span>"Jihadi John"</span> has appeared masked, but speaking with his British accent, in ISIS hostage-beheading videos, leading some who knew him before he left for Syria in 2012 to identify him to the newspaper.</p><p>A senior British official <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/world/europe/jihadi-john-mohammed-emwazi-identified.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">confirmed</a> his identity to The New York Times.</p><p>Emwazi, 27, was reportedly born in Kuwait. He was from a "well-to-do" family, lived in London, and was described as polite and stylish. He is also educated, with a degree in computer programming, according to the Post.</p><p>Emwazi occasionally prayed at a mosque and was known to adhere to his faith while he lived in London, but it wasn't until he planned a post-college graduation safari trip to Tanzania that he started to radicalize, sources said.</p><p>He and two friends were detained in mid-2009 once they landing in Dar es Salaam. They were then held overnight and then deported, according to the Post.</p><p>Emwazi claimed that a British intelligence officer accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, where the militant group Al Shabab, an ally of Al Qaeda, is based.</p><p>Emwazi later returned to his native Kuwait and got a job at a computer company. He landed on the radar of British intelligence officials again in 2010, when they detained him and searched his belongings the day before he was due to fly back to Kuwait. He was prevented from returning there.</p><p>He wrote in an email to Qureshi that he felt "like a prisoner ... a person imprisoned &amp; controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace &amp; country, Kuwait."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5453c08369beddef28bd6af5-1200-800/455143258.jpg" border="0" alt="London Skyline"><p class="source"><span>Oli Scarff/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">London</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One of Emwazi's friends told the Post that he was "upset and wanted to start a life elsewhere" outside of London. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"He at some stage reached the point where he was really just trying to find another way to get out."</span></p><p>Emwazi was also reportedly unable to travel to Saudi Arabia, where he wanted to teach English.</p><p>Around this time, other signs of his radicalization started to show. When a court in the US sentenced an Al Qaeda operative who murdered Americans in Afghanistan, Emwazi reportedly said that he "heard the upsetting news regarding our sister," noting "this should only keep us firmer towards fighting for freedom and justice!"</p><p>The last contact Qureshi reportedly had with Emwazi was in January 2012.</p><p>Qureshi said: "This is a young man who was ready to exhaust every single kind of avenue within the machinery of the state to bring a change for his personal situation." He said he thought "actions were taken to criminalize [Emwazi] and he had no way to do something against these actions."</p><p>However, some journalists and experts are raising doubts about the notion that security services were the defining factor in <span>Emwazi gravitation toward ISIS (aka IS, ISIL, Daesh):</span></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>WaPo interpretation of Emwazi's trajectory reminds of Scahill on Awklaki. State pressure -&gt; radicalisation. Not sure. <a href="http://t.co/WDY2ifCoBi">http://t.co/WDY2ifCoBi</a></p>- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) <a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/570913878382653440">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>So Emwazi hangs around with an al-Shabab terrorist. Then is "incensed" when he's not allowed to go to Kuwait. Right. <a href="http://t.co/bjlHFDFFUS">http://t.co/bjlHFDFFUS</a></p>- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) <a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/570931387596980224">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mohammed Emwazi as Rorschach test: Did the state radicalize him? Or did the state correctly ID a radical? <a href="http://t.co/G0zu9PkjKK">http://t.co/G0zu9PkjKK</a></p>- Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) <a href="https://twitter.com/ExumAM/status/570912692132818944">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Just as I suspected, people are already rolling out their Jump To Conclusions Mats regarding the motives and radicalization of Emwazi.</p>- Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) <a href="https://twitter.com/ExumAM/status/570916472303845376">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Guardian almost makes UK man behind ISIS beheadings into a victim of persecution  <a href="http://t.co/RYakh72R0A">http://t.co/RYakh72R0A</a></p>- Mike Doran (@Doranimated) <a href="https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/570915222199934976">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><p>Yaroslav Trofimov <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-states-scariest-success-attracting-western-newcomers-1424932279">wrote in The Wall Street Journal</a> on Thursday that the "Islamic State's ability to lure thousands of Westerners is unprecedented in modern history."</p><p>Trofimov explained that many of these "newly baked jihadists" are frustrated with their own countries and have "embraced Islamic State's genocidal cult simply because it is the most obvious counterpoint to the West."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54e5135beab8ea4126f8ab64-840-620/isis map.jpg" border="0" alt="isis map"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/">via The Atlantic</a></span></p><p class="caption">This map, adapted from the work of the Institute for the Study of War, shows the territory under the ISIS caliphate's control as of January 15, along with areas it has attacked.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Thomas Hegghammer, director of terrorism research at the Norwegian <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> Research Establishment, told the Journal: "It is fundamentally the same malaise that is also inspiring the far-left activists. A lot of young people have the same idea that the capitalism-centric Western system is not for them, and that another society is being set up."</p><p>ISIS, which has claimed large swaths of Iraq and Syria, is trying to build an Islamic state ostensibly governed by a 7th-century interpretation of sharia law.</p><p>Thousands of Westerners are thought to have traveled to the Middle East to join Islamist groups.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Questions surround British ISIS executioner Jihadi John's path to radicalization

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56460a212491f9c82e8b4c1d-2200-1650/rtr4rc07.jpg" alt="Jihadi John Mohammed Emwazi" data-mce-source="REUTERS/SITE Intel Group/Handout via Reuters" data-mce-caption="A masked, black-clad militant, who has been identified by the Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group February 26, 2015." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/SITE Intel Group/Handout via Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A masked, black-clad militant, who has been identified by the Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group February 26, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The British Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" may have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-carries-out-syria-strike-targeting-jihadi-john-2015-11">killed in a US airstrike</a> in Raqqa, Syria, this week.</p><p>His death has not been confirmed yet, but a senior administration official <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/12/isis-beheader-jihadi-john-targeted-in-u-s-drone-strike.html?via=twitter_page">told The Daily Beast</a> that the US is "pretty damn sure he is dead."</p><p>"Jihadi John" has previously been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a 27-year-old who lived in London before joining ISIS.</p><p>Emwazi, who is believed to be responsible for multiple executions of Western hostages, reportedly became radicalized after run-ins with British intelligence officials, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jihadi-john-the-islamic-state-killer-behind-the-mask-is-a-young-londoner/2015/02/25/d6dbab16-bc43-11e4-bdfa-b8e8f594e6ee_story.html?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&amp;hpid=z10">according to</a> The Washington Post.</p><p>But it's unclear whether UK security services inadvertently radicalized Emwazi or simply recognized his potential for radicalization.</p><p>"Jihadi John" has appeared masked, but speaking with his British accent, in ISIS hostage-beheading videos, leading some who knew him before he left for Syria in 2012 to identify him to the newspaper.</p><p>Earlier this year, The Guardian <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/uk-man-behind-isis-beheadings-named-as-mohammed-emwazi-jihadi-john">confirmed</a> Emwazi's identity as "Jihadi John," and two US government sources <a href="http://www.trust.org/item/20150226141731-pl620">confirmed</a> the same to Reuters.</p><p>Emwazi was reportedly born in Kuwait. He was from a "well-to-do" family, lived in London, and was described as polite and stylish. He is also educated, with a degree in computer programming, according to the Post.</p><p>His family - including Emwazi's parents, Jasem and Ghaneya, and sister - reportedly moved to the UK when Emwazi was six years old, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/middleeast/isis-jihadi-john/">according to</a> CNN. His father reportedly worked as a taxi driver while his mother stayed home to care for the children.</p><p>People who grew up with Emwazi told British news organizations that he was a popular "boy next door" who liked football, pop music, and The Simpsons, according to CNN.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5646109f2491f945028b4e37-3500-2334/rtr4ra7g.jpg" alt="Jihadi John house" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth" data-mce-caption="A flat is seen through railings in west London February 26, 2015. Local media reported that the flat is the former home of Mohammed Emwazi." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth</span></p><p class="caption">A flat is seen through railings in west London February 26, 2015. Local media reported that the flat is the former home of Mohammed Emwazi.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Emwazi occasionally prayed at a mosque and was known to adhere to his faith while he lived in London, but it wasn't until he planned a post-college graduation safari trip to Tanzania that he started to radicalize, sources told the Post.</p><p>He and two friends were detained in mid-2009 once they landing in Dar es Salaam. They were then held overnight and then deported, according to the Post.</p><p>Emwazi claimed that a British intelligence officer accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, where the militant group Al Shabab, an ally of Al Qaeda, is based.</p><p>Emwazi later returned to his native Kuwait and got a job at a computer company. He landed on the radar of British intelligence officials again in 2010, when they detained him and searched his belongings the day before he was due to fly back to Kuwait. He was prevented from returning there.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/564612da2491f9b9008b4e8c-768-576/01_emwazi_w--(none)_lrg.jpg" alt="jihadi john" data-mce-source="media" data-mce-caption="Mo Emwazi" /><p class="source"><span>media</span></p><p class="caption">Mo Emwazi</p></div><p></p></div></div>He wrote in an email to Qureshi that he felt "like a prisoner ... a person imprisoned &amp; controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace &amp; country, Kuwait."</p><p>One of Emwazi's friends told the Post that he was "upset and wanted to start a life elsewhere" outside of London. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"He at some stage reached the point where he was really just trying to find another way to get out."</span></p><p>Emwazi was also reportedly unable to travel to Saudi Arabia, where he wanted to teach English.</p><p>Around this time, other signs of his radicalization started to show. When a court in the US sentenced an Al Qaeda operative who murdered Americans in Afghanistan, Emwazi reportedly said that he "heard the upsetting news regarding our sister," noting "this should only keep us firmer towards fighting for freedom and justice!"</p><p>The last contact Qureshi reportedly had with Emwazi was in January 2012.</p><p>Qureshi said: "This is a young man who was ready to exhaust every single kind of avenue within the machinery of the state to bring a change for his personal situation." He said he thought "actions were taken to criminalize [Emwazi] and he had no way to do something against these actions."</p><p>However, some journalists and experts are raising doubts about the notion that security services were the defining factor in <span>Emwazi gravitation toward ISIS (aka IS, ISIL, Daesh):</span></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>WaPo interpretation of Emwazi's trajectory reminds of Scahill on Awklaki. State pressure -&gt; radicalisation. Not sure. <a href="http://t.co/WDY2ifCoBi">http://t.co/WDY2ifCoBi</a></p>- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) <a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/570913878382653440">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>So Emwazi hangs around with an al-Shabab terrorist. Then is "incensed" when he's not allowed to go to Kuwait. Right. <a href="http://t.co/bjlHFDFFUS">http://t.co/bjlHFDFFUS</a></p>- Shashank Joshi (@shashj) <a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/570931387596980224">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Mohammed Emwazi as Rorschach test: Did the state radicalize him? Or did the state correctly ID a radical? <a href="http://t.co/G0zu9PkjKK">http://t.co/G0zu9PkjKK</a></p>- Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) <a href="https://twitter.com/ExumAM/status/570912692132818944">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Just as I suspected, people are already rolling out their Jump To Conclusions Mats regarding the motives and radicalization of Emwazi.</p>- Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) <a href="https://twitter.com/ExumAM/status/570916472303845376">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Guardian almost makes UK man behind ISIS beheadings into a victim of persecution  <a href="http://t.co/RYakh72R0A">http://t.co/RYakh72R0A</a></p>- Mike Doran (@Doranimated) <a href="https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/570915222199934976">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Going to safari in Tanzania. Like that chap who went to a wedding in Afghanistan and had such a good time he didn't come back.</p>- Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/570940463508787200">February 26, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script><p>Yaroslav Trofimov <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-states-scariest-success-attracting-western-newcomers-1424932279">wrote in The Wall Street Journal</a> earlier this year that the "Islamic State's ability to lure thousands of Westerners is unprecedented in modern history."</p><p>Trofimov explained that many of these "newly baked jihadists" are frustrated with their own countries and have "embraced Islamic State's genocidal cult simply because it is the most obvious counterpoint to the West."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55cb6d3d2acae78b0e8bf6f9-1069-835/screenshot 2015-08-12 11.57.56.png" alt="isis map control" data-mce-source="Reuters" /><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Thomas Hegghammer, director of terrorism research at the Norwegian <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> Research Establishment, told The Journal: "It is fundamentally the same malaise that is also inspiring the far-left activists. A lot of young people have the same idea that the capitalism-centric Western system is not for them, and that another society is being set up."</p><p>ISIS, which has claimed large swaths of Iraq and Syria, is trying to build an Islamic state ostensibly governed by a 7th-century interpretation of sharia law.</p><p>Thousands of Westerners are thought to have traveled to the Middle East to join Islamist groups.</p><p><em>Michael B. Kelley contributed to an earlier version of this report.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

How ISIS executioner Jihadi John went from living in London to joining terrorists in Syria

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58a724ca5490578d0d8b5346-1108/undefined" alt="billions" data-mce-source="&amp;quotBillions&quot;/Showtime" data-mce-caption="Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) consults with Bobby Axelrod (Damien Lewis) in &amp;quotBillions.&quot;" /><p class="source"><span>"Billions"/Showtime</span></p><p class="caption">Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) meets with Bobby Axelrod (Damien Lewis) in "Billions."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>For viewers of Showtime's series "Billions," the character Wendy Rhoades, an in-house hedge fund psychiatrist played by Maggie Siff, may seem to be a dramatic invention. After all, do Wall Street's power players really need their egos boosted?</p><p>It turns out that there is indeed a niche industry for Wall Street psychiatrists and performance coaches, intended to get traders and investors back on their game, to avoid the loss of potentially millions of dollars of other people's money.</p><p>Steve Cohen started the trend in the early 1990s <a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/ari-kiev-psychiatrist-to-traders-dies-at-75/?_r=0">when he hired the late psychiatrist Ari Kiev</a> for his hedge fund SAC Capital, and Tony Robbins, the world's most famous performance coach, entered the financial world around the same time when he was hired by renowned investor Paul Tudor Jones.</p><p>Denise Shull, founder of the Wall Street performance coaching firm the <a href="https://therethinkgroup.net/">ReThink Group</a>, was one of the consultants on "Billions," and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-psychologist-denise-shull-truths-human-behavior-2017-2">she told Business Insider</a> that in this line of work, there are two general approaches: the cognitive-behavioral angle, in which thoughts are used to change behavior, and the psychodynamic angle, in which non-conscious thoughts and feelings tangentially related to one's performance in the market are uncovered and addressed.</p><p>Most coaches or psychiatrists on Wall Street use different balances of both approaches, and both are on display in the character of Wendy Rhoades. We'll take a look at how they appear in the show.</p><h2>The Tony Robbins method</h2><p>In the show's pilot episode, the first time we see Rhoades with one of her clients, Mick Danzig. It's a scene out of a Tony Robbins session, which isn't a coincidence, since the show's creators also used him as an inspiration for Rhoades' character.</p><p>Rhoades is sitting across from Danzig in her office. He tells her he's down 4% year-to-date while everyone else is crushing it.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58aa156501fe58ac008b58e3-2157/undefined" alt="billions" data-mce-source="&amp;quotBillions&quot;/Showtime" /><p class="source"><span>"Billions"/Showtime</span></p><p class="caption">Rhoades has a Tony Robbins-esque session with Mick Danzig (Nathan Darrow).</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>Wendy Rhoades:</strong> You don't need meds. You're just listening to the wrong voice. You're tuned into the one yelling at you over the loud speaker that "You're f---ing stupid and your performance blows." And you're ignoring the quiet one inside telling you where the alpha is. Now that's the voice that got you here. And it's still there if you're willing to listen. What's that voice telling you?"</p><p><strong>Mick Danzig:</strong> That even though I've stiffed a few, that I'm pretty damn good.</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Uh-uh. Stand up. Stand up! [<em>They stand up.</em>] What'd you take down last year?</p><p><strong>Danzig:</strong> Seven-point-two million.</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Seven-point-two million. Seven-point-two million. Feel that. [<em>She puts her fist to her chest.</em>]</p><p><strong>Danzig:</strong> Seven-point-two million.</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Bring it close. So what's it saying?</p><p><strong>Danzig:</strong> That I'm awesome!</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> There you go. And what does it have to say back? To that loud, critical voice?</p><p><strong>Danzig:</strong> It's saying, "F--- you!"</p><p>Rhoades encouragingly punches him in the chest, as if they're teammates on the football field, and then has him sat back down with her. Now that Danzig is fired up and not feeling sorry for himself, she tells him to go back to his desk and cut the losing investments he's been holding onto.</p><p>She tells him to get rid of the bad investments and the bad voices, and that he needs to remember that he's not at the firm by mistake, that he's a winner. "Did the SEALs make a mistake signing you up? No!"</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-positive-thinking-doesnt-work-2016-7">In an interview with Robbins last year</a>, he told us that contrary to what some people believe, his approach is not merely positive thinking. "It's not about positive thinking, because I don't believe in that," he said. "I don't believe you should go to your garden and chant, 'There's no weeds, there's no weeds, there's no weeds,' and think that that's going to solve something. I'm a believer in 'find the weed and rip it out.'"</p><p>In the "Billions" scene described above, Rhoades and Danzig perform the Robbins approach in miniature: Identify the weed, yank it out, and run back to your responsibilities, energized.</p><h2>The digging method</h2><p>The psychodynamic approach is on full display in Season 1's penultimate episode, "Magical Thinking." Rhoades and her boss, hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod, spend a long night together getting to the bottom of why Axelrod just blew a major trade. The conversation unfolds throughout the episode, as the characters walk through the office and its grounds.</p><p>ReThink founder Denise Shull told us it's akin to a conversation she would have with one of her clients.</p><p>The conversation between Rhoades and Axelrod is plot-heavy, but the general context is that Axelrod is unsure of why he made a bad trade, even after everyone he trusts told him it would fail. At one point, Rhoades gets him talking about his childhood.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58aa168e01fe58c4018b5882-1711/undefined" alt="billions" data-mce-source="&amp;quotBillions&quot;/Showtime" /><p class="source"><span>"Billions"/Showtime</span></p><p class="caption">Rhoades draws upon her years-long friendship with Axelrod to uncover what feelings were responsible for a reckless, costly trade.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>Bobby Axelrod:</strong> F---, when I was young, I was just thinking about getting rich and getting even.</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Have you? Does it make everything all better?</p><p><strong> Axelrod:</strong> Why doesn't it?</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Because the world isn't simple. … Today. Bombing the trade. Were you somehow evening the score for Donny [<em>Axelrod's employee who died</em>]?</p><p><strong> Axelrod:</strong> What's the even mean? Donny was a friend. Everyone here matters to me. And I'd go out of my way for all of them...</p><p><strong>Rhoades: </strong>... So are you ready to tell me who you were trying to prove something to?</p><p><strong> Axelrod:</strong> Yeah. Should we say it in unison?</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> And were you trying to prove you were a difference maker for good or bad? Were you trying to reward or punish yourself?</p><p>[<em>As they make progress, Axelrod asks Rhoades why he hasn't noticed his blind spot.</em>]</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> Well, let's assume your blind spot usually works for you. It's fairly essential - if you don't feel indestructible like Superman, how are you going to risk billions every morning? But it's not working for you now. So you need to figure out what part of your self image is false. And then you need to either live up to it or lose it.</p><p>[<em>The plot progresses. Rhoades has Axelrod speak out loud the question he has been hiding from, "Am I a sociopath?"</em>]</p><p><strong>Rhoades:</strong> This is how you manifest guilt. If you didn't have it, you wouldn't have lost the money, you wouldn't be punishing yourself. But it is a crucial time. Your switchblade is removed, your wiring is exposed, your blue ones go where your red ones should, for sure. A normal person wouldn't engage in the behavior; a sociopath wouldn't give a shit. You're somewhere in between. You are practiced at turning off your feelings. Do it enough, it's a pattern, keep going, they die. So it's either fix it, or close yourself back up and see what happens.</p><p>Shull told us the market is a sort of Rorschach test, reflecting someone's personality, and that's what's being reflected in the scenes described above. The past plays a major role in this. "Someone's actual background matters more than anything," she said - just as it did for Axelrod.</p><p>And the same way Rhoades had Axelrod define his own problem and speak it, Shull has her clients identify the emotions they are connecting to their weaknesses, giving them a name and feeling them fully. "I'm going to help you feel all those sh---y things, frankly, that you don't want to feel. Why? Because you basically have to go through a grieving process."</p><p>Finally, she has clients redefine how they want to feel, as Rhoades does with her boss. "If you consciously exchange future feelings for each other, your chances of doing what you want to do, and having discipline, go wildly up," she said.</p><p>"Billions" is loaded with high drama to keep it interesting, but next time you watch an episode, you can know that the coaching sessions are actually more realistic than you may have previously thought.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shark-tank-barbara-corcoran-successful-entrepreneur-failures-mistakes-feel-sorry-2017-2">Barbara Corcoran reveals what separates successful entrepreneurs from those that fail</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lxYTNxOTE6XNpx8kaiwFLi71laR7rwCe" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'lxYTNxOTE6XNpx8kaiwFLi71laR7rwCe',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

How Wall Street psychologists and Tony Robbins inspired one of the main characters on Showtime's 'Billions'

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5939dbb9c4adee2c008b4857-2400/gettyimages-693814864.jpg" alt="James Comey" /><p class="source"><span>Pool/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">James Comey.</p><ul><li><strong>James Comey's testimony pulled few punches at President Donald Trump.</strong></li><li><strong>Trump's defenders, though took solace in a testimony that went better than they might have expected.</strong></li><li><strong>Legal experts say the testimony was still damaging to Trump and could point to obstruction of justice.</strong></li></ul><p>Former FBI Director James Comey's blockbuster Thursday hearing provided several bruising moments for President Donald Trump.</p><p>Comey, who Trump fired in early May, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-testimony-biggest-takeaway-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said he believed he was fired</a> "because of the Russia investigation," amplifying calls that Trump was obstructing justice. He said he took Trump's comments that he "hoped" <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-trump-michael-flynn-direction-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for the ousted FBI director</a> to "let go" of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn "as a direction."</p><p>Comey said he kept memos on his conversations with the president - a move he said he did not do with two prior presidents or other top Justice Department officials - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-worried-trump-might-lie-about-meetings-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">because he</a> "was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting."</p><p>And he said that, in firing him from the top FBI post, Trump and his administration tried to "defame" him by spreading "lies, plain and simple" after his departure, citing Trump's "shifting explanations," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-opening-statement-trump-testimony-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">which he said</a> included Trump going on TV and "saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation."</p><p>Yet among all that, Republicans and supporters of the president were still able to walk away from Thursday's hearing with surprising optimism. Trump's allies suggested the testimony didn't provide a proverbial smoking gun, and they emerged with options to try to shift the conversation.</p><p>Comey, for one, suggested that the Flynn investigation, if dropped, likely would not alter the course of the FBI's larger probe into Russia's election meddling and the Trump campaign's role in it. Trump's supporters also took grievance with Comey's stunning admission that he instructed a good friend - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/daniel-richman-comey-memos-source-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a Columbia University law professor</a> - to provide the press with information on his memos because he felt the investigation may have reached the point at which a special counsel needed to be appointed.</p><p>Perhaps looming largest, though, were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-says-attorney-general-asked-him-to-call-clinton-email-probe-a-matter-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">his comments regarding former</a> Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Comey said Lynch asked him to refer to the email probe as a "matter" instead of an "investigation," which he said "gave him a queasy feeling." It echoed language the Clinton campaign itself was using.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5939ea9dc4adee800e8b46b7-2000/2017-06-08t155858z1lynxmped571i6rtroptp4usa-trump-russia.jpg" alt="james comey" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein</span></p><p class="caption">Comey.</p><p>"That was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude I have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly," Comey said, adding that consideration of appointing a special counsel to oversee the matter was a valid suggestion, but one that would have been unfair. He reiterated that the facts of the case did not warrant charges pressed against the former secretary of state.</p><p>Fox News host Eric Bolling said on "The Specialists" - making a point that many in the Trump realm highlighted in similar ways - Comey's comments on Lynch proved the real "collusion."</p><p><span>"There's your collusion - not between [Trump] and the Russians, but between" President Barack Obama, Lynch, and Comey, <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/872923701074841600" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">he said</a>.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kasowitz-trump-comey-response-testimony-lied-under-oath-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Delivering a statement following Comey's</a> testimony, Trump's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz ripped the former FBI director for ordering the leaked memos. He even suggested that Comey lied under oath, disputing the claim that Trump hinted that Comey should drop the Flynn investigation. Of course, he also noted that Comey "finally confirmed publicly" what Trump has insisted: that "the president <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-told-trump-he-wasnt-under-investigation-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference</a>."</p><p>Trump personally did not appear to believe Thursday was worth an all-out fight. Asked about the testimony, Trump "declined to comment, only smiling through pursed lips," <a href="https://twitter.com/epngo/status/872905775093620736" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to a pool</a> reporter.</p><p>"There was no knockout punch," Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist and president of the Potomac Strategy Group, told Business Insider in an email. "Trump will benefit from admission that he was not under investigation and Comey's revelation that he leaked his own memo to require a special counsel be appointed. Trump will be harmed [by] inappropriate comments about Flynn made on the Oval Office, which I do not believe rose to the level of illegality."</p><p>"Both sides fight on," he continued.</p><p>Matthew Whitaker, a former US attorney, executive director of the conservative Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, and 2014 Republican primary candidate in Iowa's Senate race, told Business Insider in an email that Comey's testimony made it "clear" that "there is absolutely no criminal case to be made against President Trump for obstruction of justice."</p><p>"Comey's testimony simply does not come close to proving an intent to obstruct justice, let alone facts to support a criminal case," he said. "If there is one thing we learned from the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, it is that the proof needed for 'intent' at Comey's FBI was set very high."</p><p>Whitaker, like many on the right, found the biggest news to be Comey's revelation about Lynch.</p><p>"I found it very disturbing to learn that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch directed then FBI Director Comey to publicly mischaracterize the probe as just a simple 'matter,'" he said. "It just reaffirmed my belief that a special prosecutor should have been assigned from day one to handle that case."</p><p>Jed Shugerman, a Fordham law professor, told Business Insider in an email that Republicans' claims in the aftermath of the Comey hearing "are not good faith arguments" based on the testimony. He called many of them "talking points" that were "pre-circulated" beforehand "based on a strategy of isolating the most favorable facts and events, and ignoring other events and the big picture."</p><p>But, he said, the "pro-impeachment side does not have a slam dunk today, either."</p><p>"No event in Comey's written testimony - and not even all of those conversations together - constitutes a clear case of obstruction," he said. "The obstruction case is based on the act of firing Comey after all of these events and interventions. Comey's testimony is very helpful for establishing intent to obstruct and impede, but Trump himself already offered enough evidence of intent when he connected Comey's firing with his purpose to impede the Russia investigation."</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59398f54d508f8dc0f8b4fd9-1024/gettyimages-693521204.jpg" alt="U.S. President Donald Trump" /><p class="source"><span>Win McNamee / Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Donald Trump.</p><p>Shugerman added that Trump defenders' argument that Comey confirmed Trump was not under investigation - prior to Comey's dismissal - "is meaningless."</p><p>"It's a bit like a thief telling the prosecutor he was not under investigation for murder, and it turns out he was not under investigation for murder," he said. "It's the confirmation of an irrelevant fact, and it's noise to sound like they are confirming Trump's story."</p><p>For Shugerman, the biggest takeaway from the hearing was how "serious" Republicans on the committee were in "asking tough, but fair questions" and "respectfully giving Comey a full chance to answer."</p><p>"By asking good questions, they gave Comey a chance to clarify the context in very damaging ways," he said, noting exchanges that involved how Comey felt about Trump's asking if the FBI director could "let go" of the Flynn investigation, and about the exchange Comey and Trump had involving FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.</p><p>"The big picture here is that the Republicans are investigating seriously, not obstructing," he said. "None of them were willing to take on the role of attack dog, unlike the famous example of Arlen Specter in the Clarence Thomas hearings, or Trey Gowdy in the Benghazi hearings, or in the 9/11 Commission. A pro-Trump PAC sent a signal of a strategy to tear at [Comey's] credibility with ads, but none of the Republican senators followed. That's very significant."</p><p>Shugerman acknowledged that the Lynch revelation is now "a real subject to investigate further," calling the pressuring of Comey to use "matter" instead of "investigation" a "huge mistake" and "a partisan intrusion" on Lynch's part.</p><p>It "probably changed history by making Comey more skeptical about her and the Clintons' role," he said. "I inferred that it had an effect on Comey that may have changed how he handled the investigation later. She will face very tough questions. And it validates the follow-up questions on the Clinton campaign on their handling the email."</p><p>"We will hear a lot about this," he continued. "It does not rise to obstruction, because it was wording/semantic, not the substance of investigation, but Comey was right to be troubled. Lynch and [President] Bill Clinton should be called to testify and explain their behavior. What's obstruction for the goose is obstruction for the gander."</p><p>Andrew Wright, a law professor at Savannah Law School, told Business Insider in an email that Comey's direction to leak the memos, while not criminal or "privileged," as Trump's lawyer argued, does appear "retaliatory" and "gives fodder to Comey's critics."</p><p>But his main takeaways from the hearing did not involve some of the popular talking points on the right. He focused on how Comey called Trump and his staff "liars," saying that Comey "thought so little of President-Elect Trump's first briefing reaction he started documenting everything" and pointing out that Comey "gave a first person account of an obstruction narrative."</p><p>He mentioned Comey's referencing of Trump "dangling" his job before him, asking for his loyalty, suggesting he drop the Flynn investigation, and firing him for reasons related to the Russia investigation. And he said "we can infer" special counsel Robert Mueller "is investigating Donald Trump for obstruction of justice" based on Comey's testimony.</p><p>"It was not a tie or pure Rorschach test, it was a very damaging day for President Trump," he said. "There were some kernels for White House defenders that will help GOP talking points. Also, there were no 'the president ordered the Code Red' moment. But the obstruction narrative was enhanced."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/6-memes-from-trumps-first-trip-abroad-saudi-arabia-israel-belgium-nato-melania-swat-hands-handshake-macron-orb-2017-5">Here are the 6 best memes from Trump's first trip abroad</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video                    

'A very damaging day for President Trump': James Comey's blockbuster hearing had something in it for everyone

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/52435689ecad04ab257d58cd-1133-637/screen shot 2013-09-25 at 5.32.07 pm.png" border="0" alt="Homeless Coder, Leo" /><p class="source"><span>Robert Libetti/ Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Last December, Leo Grand<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, created a ride sharing app that ended up earning him a modest sum of money.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This, in and of itself, is nothing unique. However, Grand was homeless, and had only learned to code four months prior to the launch of his app. After the launch of the app, he suddenly had access to $10,000. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But today, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Leo The Homeless Coder is still homeless. He has yet to touch a penny of the money. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">When his app launched, he was center of national attention. No one has followed up on Grand. Grand, and his teacher Patrick, haven't really wanted media attention.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But the second half of their story is as important as the first. It provides deeper insights into the mindset of a homeless person, and the challenges with trying to find, quick, easy solutions for people. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It's a much more complicated story than anyone would have expected.</span></p>
<h2>When Patrick Met Leo</h2>
<p>Last summer, as Patrick McConlogue walked to work every morning, he would notice a homeless man on his commute to work, lifting chains diligently in hopes of getting some exercise.</p>
<p>That man was Leo Grand, and for nearly 3 years he had made a home for himself on the streets of Manhattan's West side. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">McConlogue, a programmer for an educational startup, saw in Leo a certain drive that he thought - with help - could be applied elsewhere. </span></p>
<h2>An opportunity to learn and teach</h2>
<p>It was then that McConlogue took to Medium with <a href="https://medium.com/architecting-a-life/fee8f3ee97a0">a blog post called "Finding the unjustly homeless and teaching them how to code."</a></p>
<p>McConlogue's plan was simple. Offer Grand $100, no strings attached, or the opportunity to learn a skill: coding.</p>
<p>If Leo wanted to learn how to code, McConlogue would provide a few books on the subject, a cheap but durable laptop computer and charging accessories, and most importantly, daily lessons every morning before McConlogue was due at his office.</p>
<p>It would be a real test of the old adage "give a man to fish."</p>
<p>The Medium post was widely criticized.</p>
<p>Sam Biddle of Valleywag said <a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/nyc-programmer-turns-homeless-man-into-startup-experime-1178563424">"surely Patrick will realize this is degrading and horrible."</a> <span>Time's Jessica Roy (formally of The New York Observer's Betabeat blog) wrote that the "</span><a href="http://betabeat.com/2013/08/entrepreneur-will-save-the-world-by-deigning-to-teach-one-unjustly-homeless-man-to-code/" target="_hplink">homeless are not bit players</a><span> in your imaginary entrepreneurial novella."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Regardless, Leo took the opportunity to learn, Patrick followed through on his promise, and a friendship was born.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/537f91656bb3f71824a0f9d5-720-960/1395151_180509238806023_159344812_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Patrick and Leo" width="758" height="1011" /><p class="source"><span>Facebook/Patrick McConlogue</span></p></div><p></p></div><br /></span></p>
<h2>Leo learns to code</h2>
<p>Business Insider followed the two men as they began their journey. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-coder-2013-9">We attended a coding lesson in an NYC public park on chilly September morning.</a> We wrote about their setbacks; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leo-the-homeless-coder-arrested-2013-10">Leo had been arrested for trespassing, sleeping on a bench after that particular area had closed to the public for the night.</a> McConlogue set up a Facebook group for Leo - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/journeymanchallenge">there are nearly 70,000 fans.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-coders-trees-for-cars-app-2013-12">And we, along with The Today Show, covered Leo's app launch.</a></p>
<p>Yes, after a few months of rigorously learning how to code, defying the critics that tore apart McConlogue's first Medium piece, the two men in December 2013 released <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-coders-trees-for-cars-app-2013-12">Trees For Cars, a ride share app that Leo coded all by himself.</a></p>
<p>The premise for the app was this: For $.99, download Trees For Cars (available for iPhone and Android). <span>As a driver, simply pick a meeting address and the app will suggest nearby riders. Then, each rider and driver are only connected if they choose to mutually accept the invitations. The app tracks how much CO</span><span>2</span><span> was saved by the passengers who got rides with others.</span></p>
<h2>Money and the success of Leo's app, Trees For Cars</h2>
<p><span>Trees For Cars saw about 15,000 downloads across both Apple and Android stores, bringing in about $14,000 dollars. Various cuts to the stores/platforms themselves add up to about 30%, leaving Leo with a little under $10,000.  </span></p>
<p><span>The money is in McConlogue's name.</span></p>
<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/52a6994769bedd42071c4c6c-782-587/screen shot 2013-12-09 at 11.20.10 pm.png" border="0" alt="Trees For Cars" /><p class="source"><span>Trees For Cars</span></p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p>"We set it up in my name because I have a bank account. The deal was, at the end of the day all the money was Leo's. Not mine," McConlogue told Business Insider.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">But the homeless coder doesn't have a bank account, and for the time being, and for whatever reason or reasons, doesn't want one. Which means the money is sitting in limbo, unclaimed and unused. And it means that Leo, every night, even in the brutal cold of this past winter, curls up on a park bench or underneath scaffolding, and sleeps on the streets of Manhattan. </span></p>
<p>A few times, McConlogue encouraged Leo to go to the bank and see what they could do to help him set up an account. They never made it more than a few blocks before Leo insisted on turning around.</p>
<p>McConlogue could, of course, withdraw Leo's money and hand the cash over. But both Leo and Patrick agree, that's not a good idea.</p>
<p>McConlogue gave Leo a deadline.</p>
<p>"He has a year to find a way, be it with a bank account or proxy, to claim his money, every penny, from my account. If he doesn't want to do that, I told him to pick a homeless shelter and we'll donate it."</p>
<h2>Baby steps</h2>
<p>Grand isn't ready to open a bank account, claim the money, and start the process of rejoining society. After all, a life on the streets is the life he's lived now for several years. Claiming money, ownership of an apartment, of valuables, thinking about insurance and jobs is far too stressful. Humans are creatures of habit and routine, and though homeless, Leo Grand is most certainly human.</p>
<p>Mitchell Netburn, the President and CEO of <a href="http://www.projectrenewal.org/">Project Renewal</a>, an organization that helps the homeless access resources to help them rejoin society, spoke to Business Insider about why Leo may be resistant to claiming his rightfully earned money.</p>
<p>Netburn doesn't know Leo or his situation, but says it's not uncommon for homeless people to be paranoid about joining "the system."</p>
<p>"They don't always understand how banks work. Who has access to them. Who can track them. It's overwhelming," Netburn told us.</p>
<p>"It's also about pride. Banks often need proof of address, or copies of social security cards and birth certificates. Homeless people don't necessarily want to walk into a bank and declare out loud that they live on the street," he adds.</p>
<p>McConlogue once asked Leo what the worst part of being homeless was. The answer? Two words.</p>
<p>"It's lonely."</p>
<h2>Back to school</h2>
<p>There are things Leo does want to do, like continue to learn how to code and develop, because, as Grand says, he "actually really likes coding."</p>
<p>And so, a few days a week, he walks to 5th avenue to attend coding class at TurnToTech. </p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5383783decad040a6b47e83a-802-601/turntotech-leo.jpg" border="0" alt="TurntoTech Leo" /><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>TurnToTech offers <a href="http://turntotech.io/faq/">12-week-long programs in various coding languages</a>, and they gave Leo a scholarship to attend. </p>
<p>He started his second program earlier this month. He's also taking writing courses, and tells Business Insider he enjoys writing about politics.</p>
<h2>"We're still a team."</h2>
<p>Many people assumed McConlogue, young and maybe a little naive, wouldn't go through with his plans to help Leo. Many criticized him for thinking he could save the homeless en masse by teaching them how to code. </p>
<p>But McConlogue says he and Leo are working with various organizations that provide help and counseling. He even tried to get Leo set up with room and board, though it was a deal that unfortunately fell through.</p>
<p>If it sounds like a saccharine fairy tale or a Lifetime Movie producer's dream, that's because it practically is. Check out the Facebook page where <a href="https://www.facebook.com/journeymanchallenge">strangers from all over the world</a> send their encouragement, advice, prayers and wishes. </p>
<p>One man even created Trees For Cars-themed tee shirts and hoodies, all proceeds going to Leo. They sold out.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/537f99716bb3f7ed3fa0f9da-524-570/1514517_197668543756759_203655940_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Trees For Cars" /><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>The whole point of the experience, or at least the goal when the two started out, was to teach Leo a skill that would help him make money to sustain a life off of the streets.</p>
<p><span>But if you want to get technical, the original goal has yet to be reached: Patrick taught Leo how to code, and though successful, the man is still sleeping on park benches and on flimsy cardboard boxes. </span></p>
<p><span>Patrick, for all intents and purposes, did not "solve homelessness."</span></p>
<p>The result seems to echo the statements made by the project's biggest critics - not everyone wants to be saved. Fixing homelessness is <em>a lot</em> more complicated than everyone thinks. </p>
<p>For everyone who has declined a homeless person a dollar or two because they should just "get a job" - it's not that simple. Does it mean you should empty your pockets on every corner? Of course not. But empathy comes free. And in the case of Leo and Patrick, teaching a man to fish won't feed him for life, unless the man is willing to pick up the fork.</p>
<p>It's a political Rorschach test - you can see in it any conclusion to the story of Patrick and Leo that you want to see: The homeless want to be homeless; the homeless want to be productive members of society; coding skills really do help homeless people; coding will not cure homelessness. </p>
<p>"Is it difficult? Yes. Do I want it to be different? Yes. Am I walking away? No. We're still a team. He's a friend now," McConlogue tells us. </p>
<p>And Leo, who holds McConlogue in the same regard, says he's happy.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/525d51ca69bedd7d48df33d4-992-769/screen shot 2013-10-15 at 10.25.07 am.png" border="0" alt="Leo Homeless Coder Arrested " /><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>

8 Months After Learning To Code And Launching An App, Leo The Homeless Coder Is Still Homeless

A 3-year-old shape-shifting startup founded by a Vice alum is betting on viral Asian hip-hop stars to be the future of the entertainment industry

<p align="center"><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51f29c2eeab8eac903000003-1200-800/ap6108040186.jpg?maxX=800" border="0" alt="AP6108040186" width="800" /><p class="source"><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-MA-USA-APHS263715-John-F-Kennedy/9d7df7fc575a40899b3cc999711a912f/17/0">Associated Press</a></p></div><p></p></div></strong></p>
<p><em>This is an excerpt from "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Half-Century-Presidency-Assassination/dp/1620402807">The <span class="il">Kennedy</span> Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. </a><span class="il"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Half-Century-Presidency-Assassination/dp/1620402807">Kennedy</a></span><span class="il">"</span> by Larry J. Sabato. It will be released on October 15. </em><span class="il"></span></p>
<p align="center"><strong>Introduction: The Birth of a Legacy</strong></p>
<p>When John F. <span class="il">Kennedy</span> entered the presidential limousine at Love Field, he began his ride into history. The journey continues, and we call it the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> legacy.</p>
<p>At its core, a legacy is a bequest. Every president wants to hand down a dazzling record to posterity, and each occupant of the Oval Office dreams he will be elevated to the pantheon of "the greats." But what presidents imagine their legacy to be usually differs from what cruel fate dictates.</p>
<p>Every president's legacy is a strange, evolving thing. It transforms itself from year to year and generation to generation. Some memories fade while others come into sharper focus because of new circumstances, perhaps more revelations from the past or a transformation in the present that makes once-insignificant events loom large. A president's legacy is a struggle in public relations, too.</p>
<p>The former chief executive and his family and staff seek to enhance it, to airbrush away the blemishes while emphasizing the achievements, as they conceive of them. Opponents of the president rarely go into hibernation with his retirement or death; old grudges and fresh agendas can make a former president a continuing target. Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for forty years.</p>
<p>Republicans have targeted Jimmy Carter for over thirty. This sad destiny is usually spared public figures who exit through the brutality of assassination. Martyrdom's blood and tears can wash away grievous sins -- the martyr's and our own.</p>
<p>Long after a president has left Washington, journalists ferret out hidden secrets that affect his image for good or ill. Tidbits about their terms still dominate headlines with regularity. Far peskier and unrelenting than reporters are the historians and political scientists. For us, time stands still and there is never a final deadline.</p>
<p>George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln are still being reevaluated virtually on an annual basis. There is value in such constant churning, in part because our society's unceasing search for the right path can be guided by roads already taken, and our developing values can find new expression in past precedent. The scholar Merrill Peterson's view of Jefferson, one of <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s favorite predecessors, applies just as well to JFK:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #000000; font-size: 15px;">The guiding concept, </span><em style="color: #000000; font-size: 15px;">the Jefferson image</em><span style="color: #000000; font-size: 15px;">, may be defined as the composite representation of the historic personage and of the ideas and ideals, policies and sentiments, habitually identified with him. The image is highly complex and never stationary. It is a mixed product of memory and hope, fact and myth, love and hate, of the politician's strategy, the patriot's veneration, and the scholar's quest . . . It is posterity's configuration of Jefferson. Even more, however, it is a sensitive reflector, through several generations, of America's troubled search for the image of itself.</span></p>
<p>Not only is there a need for this presidential revisionism, there is -- to judge by book sales -- a popular appetite for statesmen's modified biographies centuries after they departed the scene. Such a prospect is both comforting and frightening to modern presidents.</p>
<p>They know they will not be completely forgotten, and the less successful among them hope for redemption. Yet they also recognize history's unpredictability. Unforeseen circumstances may cause their administration's high points to appear irrelevant and their decisions unwise.</p>
<p>While breath remains in their body, they work directly or through associates to spin pundits and commentators for generous evaluations. Beyond the grave, former presidents will be unknowing, but their survivors often continue the effort.</p>
<p>Eventually, however, the public relations fog lifts. There are few or no people left with a personal stake in promoting or condemning ex-presidents; this may be the first point of historical clarity. In the case of John <span class="il">Kennedy</span>, we are almost at that moment.</p>
<p>While JFK's family continues to be prominent and ever-vigilant about the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> image, the clan's political power has waned enormously. With the death of Senator Edward <span class="il">Kennedy</span> in 2009, the family's last political powerhouse left the scene. Few JFK aides remain alive. In another quarter century only a relative handful of Americans will personally recall the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> years.</p>
<p>A half century from John <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s death, we can finally see more plainly. We can separate fact from fiction and reality from myth. We can assess the true impact of a short presidency that has had a sharp silhouette. Has it really been fifty years? For those who lived during the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> administration, the images of that brief epoch are still so vivid that time often seems to stand still.</p>
<p>The vibrancy of those memories underscores this book's focus: the legacy left by John Fitzgerald <span class="il">Kennedy</span>, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, in this, the fiftieth year since his life ended in a hail of gunfire.</p>
<p><span class="il">Kennedy</span> served less than three years as chief executive before he was brutally slain in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Many presidents who stayed four or even eight years in the White House have been largely forgotten.</p>
<p>Yet JFK regularly ranks as one of the best in surveys of the public, and his words are employed more often than those of all but a handful of other statesmen by officeholders and candidates today.</p>
<p>What has set <span class="il">Kennedy</span> apart? Was it singular style, exceptional substance, or a special mix of the two that has made his short presidency such a touchstone for other politicians, academics, everyday Americans, and people around the world?</p>
<p>In an age of punishing political polarization, when the right and the left are constantly at each other's throats, President <span class="il">Kennedy</span> -- a forceful partisan in his time -- has become a standard exemplar of bipartisanship. For Democrats, he is in the permanent pantheon of party saints, the man who restored unto them the White House after an eight-year period of GOP control and whose popularity continued them in power even after his death.</p>
<p>Of course, many modern Democrats have forgotten just how conservative many of JFK's policies were; they have blurred the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> picture, confusing John with his brothers Robert and Edward, whose politics became much more liberal after JFK's assassination.</p>
<p>For Republicans, John <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s muscular foreign policy (after a shaky start), his strong anticommunism, and his enthusiastic backing of free-market capitalism and broad-based income tax cuts have made him a favored, or at least an acceptable, Democratic president -- one frequently cited in speeches and television advertisements by GOP politicians. The goal of this partisan cross-dressing is obvious: to portray Republicans as closer to the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> tradition than some current Democrats.</p>
<p>A political party borrows only the brightest stars from the other party's firmament, so this establishes the standard: The legacy of John F. <span class="il">Kennedy</span> has proven durable and popular, even in the face of many distasteful personal revelations about JFK. This book will explain how and why.</p>
<p>The initial focus here is <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s prepresidential career, followed by an examination of his precedent-setting 1960 effort to win the White House -- in many ways, the first truly modern campaign for the presidency. A look at the highlights of his abbreviated term in office follows. And then the moment no one will ever forget; the tragedy in Dallas, which has become an ongoing murder mystery and a fascinating Rorschach test about one's view of life, politics, and the nation's path since 1963.</p>
<p>I will offer some new perspectives on a fifty-year-old puzzle and take a balanced look at the charges and countercharges in the crime of the century. I have also been able to make significant progress in analyzing a key piece of evidence that sheds light on the events of <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_272842879"><span class="aQJ">November 22</span></span>.</p>
<p>John <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s life and death were just the beginning of the legacy making. The notion of Camelot, invented shortly after the assassination by JFK's widow, Jacqueline, took hold immediately. Practically the entire JFK agenda, which had been stalled in Congress, was passed as a tribute to the late president.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The new president, Lyndon Johnson, effectively used public remorse over </span><span class="il" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Kennedy</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">'s killing to do far more than JFK had planned or even probably hoped for in a second term. This book traces not just LBJ's use of JFK but the ways all nine of </span><span class="il" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Kennedy</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">'s White House successors have drawn from his record and image to support their own initiatives and to deflect criticism from their own performance.</span></p>
<p>The source of this long-lasting <span class="il">Kennedy</span> influence is not hard to determine: It is public opinion. Americans had a positive view of JFK throughout his White House years, and the assassination solidified, elevated, and made inviolable the power of his name. For the first time ever, extensive polling and focus groups have been employed in the course of the research for this volume to study how adult Americans of all ages remember a U.S. president.</p>
<p>I believe the methods used for this book will become the standard for judging presidents' long-term influence. Conducted by the renowned polling firm of Hart Research Associates, and supervised by the firm's chairman, Peter D. Hart, and president, Geoff Garin, the study is the most extensive ever done to assess a long-ago White House. A large sample (2,009) of American adults was surveyed about every major facet of President <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s record. The online poll included film clips of some critical moments in the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> presidency.</p>
<p>The sample was representative of the overall u.s. population and also big enough to allow for conclusions about change across generations. Hart and Garin separated out the people who had lived through (and presumably had some conscious memory of) the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> years -- those who were aged fifty-five and older at the time of the poll. The respondents younger than fifty-five perceive JFK in secondhand ways, from school textbooks, the media, older friends, and family members.</p>
<p>The quantitative survey was supplemented with six more qualitative, videotaped "focus groups" of fifteen to twenty people in each of three cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, and Richmond, Virginia. Focus group discussions can add depth to the bare-bones data yielded by a poll<sup>.</sup> The entire survey and the focus group findings can be viewed at this book's website, <a href="http://thekennedyhalfcentury.com/" target="_blank">TheKennedyHalfCentury.com</a>.</p>
<p>Only highlights are presented in the book, and I invite you to explore the rich trove of online information we have compiled about <span class="il">Kennedy</span>. Supplementing the surveys are personal interviews with many individuals directly connected to the <span class="il">Kennedy</span> administration, the assassination, and subsequent White House administrations.</p>
<p>This study of John F. <span class="il">Kennedy</span>'s life and legacy is far from dusty history; it is less about <span class="il">Kennedy</span> in his time than about <span class="il">Kennedy</span> in our time. I believe it reveals a great deal about our country, and about what matters to us as a nation as we cope with the enormous problems confronting us.</p>
<p>Leaders want to create a positive legacy, and citizens should encourage them to travel that path. At the end of the book, I identify some useful lessons that can be learned by presidents, and the rest of us, from the <span class="il">Kennedy </span>example.</p>
<p>Political power is created in many ways, such as winning an election, facing down an enemy, or skillfully riding the waves of popular opinion. But lasting power is accorded to only a handful of presidents, especially after their death. There is no doubt that John <span class="il">Kennedy</span> is one of the few. How did it happen? Why does his influence persist, and will it continue? What are the effects? These questions and more are answered in the pages of this book.</p>
<p><small>A complete list of sources can be found in the book. The above is an excerpt from the book<em> </em></small><small><em><em>The <span class="il">Kennedy</span> Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. <span class="il">Kennedy</span></em></em> by Larry J. Sabato. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.</small></p>
<p><small>Copyright © 2013 Larry J. Sabato, author of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Half-Century-Presidency-Assassination/dp/1620402807">The <span class="il">Kennedy</span> Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. </a><span class="il"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Half-Century-Presidency-Assassination/dp/1620402807">Kennedy</a>"</span></small></p>
<p><strong>Author Bio<br />Larry J. Sabato, </strong>author of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Half-Century-Presidency-Assassination/dp/1620402807">The <span class="il">Kennedy</span> Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. <span class="il">Kennedy</span></a>," is the founder and director of the renowned Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He has appeared on dozens of national television and radio programs, including <em>60 Minutes, Today, Hardball</em>, and <em>Nightline</em>. He has co-anchored the BBC's coverage of U.S. presidential returns and inaugurations, and has authored or edited more than a dozen books on American politics, including the highly praised <em>A More Perfect Constitution: Why the Constitution Must Be Revised -- Ideas to Inspire a New Generation</em>. His other books include <em>Feeding Frenzy</em>, about press coverage of politicians; <em>The Rise of Political Consultants</em>; and <em>Barack Obama and the New America</em>. Sabato runs the acclaimed Crystal Ball website, which has the most comprehensive and accurate record of election analysis in the country. In 2001, the University of Virginia gave him its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.</p>

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