Friday, April 30, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-30

Bombshell Letter: Gaetz Paid for Sex With Minor, Wingman Says

Opinion: Chloé Zhao represents the American Dream — and the Chinese Communist Party’s nightmare - "A bigger problem for Disney, though, is that Zhao represents a very real manifestation of the American Dream: She’s a foreign national who has come to America, broken into a difficult industry and found enormous success. This is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party fears the most: Zhao is a talented citizen who has left her homeland, has found greater freedoms in the United States and, perhaps most importantly, has not returned to China after achieving greatness. This, more than her comments about China being a land of lies, is what terrifies the CCP, according to Hollywood exec Chris Fenton."

In India’s devastating coronavirus surge, anger at Modi grows

FBI warned Giuliani, key Trump ally in Senate of Russian disinformation campaign targeting Biden

Opinion: Australia’s ‘mice plague’ is horrific. Consider yourself warned.

Mouse plague, environmental improvement leads snakes to thrive in Central West

Chinese workers allege forced labor, abuses in Xi’s ‘Belt and Road’ program

How China is choking the Mekong: A river journey reveals displaced villages and a ruined ecosystem

From memes to race war: How extremists use popular culture to lure recruits - "'How many of these people are really reading books about neo-Nazism? Hardly any,' she said. 'The far right has its own culture. They have their own world, their own language, their own music. Many of them are completely ideologically incompatible, but they use conspiracy theories and culture to try to create cohesion where it doesn’t exist.'

...

"'The only thing I’m grateful for these days is that Trump allowed us to reach a much broader population and to use a gentler way of bringing people into the fold,' Black said. [ed. note: founder of Stormfront] 'For years, I was pretty demoralized by the number of people turning out to our Columbus Day demonstrations. Then Trump comes along and gets tens of thousands of people and a certain percentage of them look further into our ideas.'"

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-27

How Barack Obama's eight years shaped Joe Biden's first 100 days: The story of Biden's early days in office mirrors the story of a Democratic Party changing course based on the lessons of the Obama era. - "'The biggest lesson learned is that Mitch McConnell doesn't act in good faith,' said David Litt, a former speechwriter for Obama. 'You see Mitch McConnell's Republicans running the same playbook. But Joe Biden and his administration and the Democrats — this time they know what's coming.' 

"He said GOP votes not to count Biden electors after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 drove that home. 

"'The Biden administration came in saying: Maybe not all of these GOP lawmakers are totally committed to the whole democracy thing. And we should act accordingly,' Litt said. 

"McConnell has accused Biden of pursuing a left-wing agenda in contradiction to his campaign promises to seek unity. He offered similar criticisms of Obama early on. At the time, Democrats moderated their policies in search of GOP support — sometimes fruitlessly, as in the case of the Affordable Care Act."

Few Facts, Millions Of Clicks: Fearmongering Vaccine Stories Go Viral Online - "'The [social media] platforms look at an individual tweet from RT saying 23 people died in a nursing home after taking the Pfizer vaccine, and they can't do anything about it because it is technically true, while being wildly misleading,' Schafer said. 'That seems to be the new strategy.'"

Caitlyn Jenner, Ted Lieu Trade 'Condescending' Barbs Over California Crime

Brazil rejects Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, citing safety concerns

Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, new report says

Fresh off election falsehoods, Republicans serve up a whopper about Biden

Swift action to cut methane emissions could slow the Earth’s warming by 30 percent, study finds: “People talk about net zero in 2050 but what the temperature will be in 2050 will be determined by what we do now,” says one author.

When communities try to hold police accountable, law enforcement fights back: Civilian oversight is undermined by politicians and police, who contend citizens are ill-equipped to judge officers - "Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police, described civilian monitors as well-meaning but ill-equipped to judge police officers. He said citizens lack the expertise and experience of trained law enforcement professionals. 

"'It would be akin to putting a plumber in charge of the investigation of airplane crashes,' he said. 'It doesn’t matter how good a plumber that he or she is. It gives no level of expertise in terms of evaluating the cause of a plane crash.'"

Escaping the anti-vax conspiracy rabbit hole - "Escaping the anti-vax conspiracy rabbit hole Close Catherine grew up in a family that lived an alternative lifestyle. When social media became a big part of her life, she became a huge believer in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. 

"She told the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring what made her question her beliefs, and her ideas on how others can be helped out of the online rabbit hole."

Get ready! We predict cicadas will begin emerging next week.: Our first-ever cicada forecast calls for the bugs to really explode in about two weeks.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-22

Foxconn's giant factory in Wisconsin sounded too good to be true. Turns out it was

Ma’Khia Bryant: Columbus police release body camera footage in shooting of 16-year-old

Police kill Ma'Khia Bryant, 16, who attacked 2 with knife

Fatal police shooting of Black teenager in Columbus sparks new outcry - "Hazel Bryant, who said she is Bryant’s aunt, told The Washington Post in a brief interview Wednesday that 'the body cam doesn’t show the truth of what occurred.' She said she didn’t personally witness the incident but arrived at the scene soon after. She described her niece as 'so loving and kind.'

...

"Another teenager, 13-year-old Adam Toledo, was shot and killed by police in Chicago last month, sparking protests and calls for an overhaul of policing. Authorities say Toledo had a firearm, and body camera footage released last week shows him tossing an object over a fence and raising his hands in the split-second before he was fatally wounded."

In Columbus, police killed a Black teenage girl. That fits a rarely discussed pattern.: Most White Americans think Black girls are older and more dangerous than their peers, new research finds. Police behave accordingly. - "On the same day that a Minneapolis jury declared police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd, a police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio. Ma’Khia had called the police for help." [ed. note: cannot confirm that last in WaPo reporting]

A Hong Kong journalist exposed police failures. A court found her guilty of a crime.

Beijing won total control over Hong Kong. Now, the ‘brainwashing’ begins.

Conservatives have long embraced ‘cancel culture’: The right supports free enterprise, but only when businesses toe the line on its other political priorities

Opinion: The Big Lie has gotten so bad that even some Republicans are running from it

Opinion: We should soon stop catering to the vaccine holdouts

A new way of putting private money where the forests are: Western investors join governments to come up with a way to pay countries to protect forests

As Biden convenes world leaders, U.S. pledges to cut emissions up to 52 percent by 2030: ‘The stakes could not be higher,’ said one top administration official, as the White House presses other countries to make their own bold promises

Humanity’s greatest ally against climate change is the Earth itself: Ecosystems can draw down carbon and buffer us from the worst effects of climate change — but only if we protect them

Officers grabbed a Black librarian by her hair and tore her shoulder during traffic stop, lawsuit alleges: ‘That’s good police work, baby’

Ma’Khia Bryant’s family remember her as loving, affectionate: ‘She didn’t even have a chance to live her life’: Bryant’s family and others are mourning the loss of the 16-year-old, killed by police this week

Mormon sex therapist has been expelled from the LDS Church - "She said she will stop using “colorful” language when church leaders stop. 

"'When will they stop calling homosexual people degenerate and perverse and unholy?' Helfer said. 'They’re upset that I called them patriarchal pricks. If they want me to stop saying bad words, they need to stop calling other people bad words.'

"Helfer said she and other Mormon therapists are often left to 'pick up the pieces' when Mormons are impacted by church teaching that contradicts evidence-based mental health recommendations."

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-21

Washington area is seeing a long, intense tree pollen season. Get used to it.

Biden administration says it ‘strongly supports’ making D.C. the 51st state

D.C. Council advances block-by-block plan for future city development

Downtown D.C. was emptying before the pandemic. How it recovers will shape the nation’s capital.: The public health crisis has accelerated the vacancy rate in the central business district, forcing city leaders to consider drastic alternatives to fill unused office space

Senate Republicans take step to revive debt ceiling brawls with White House: The non-binding vote is a sharp pivot from their hands-off approach during the Trump administration - "Republicans raised hardly any complaints about the debt ceiling during the Trump administration, voting frequently to increase it without requiring any spending cuts in return. Over that period, the federal debt increased by roughly $7 trillion as Trump pushed for large levels of military spending and slashed taxes for U.S. corporations."

I’m a cop. The Chauvin verdict is a message for me, and for my colleagues.: Police officers can’t be defensive. We owe it to those we serve to change policing — and slow down.

Opinion: The anti-constitutional D.C. statehood pretense

Chinese hackers compromise dozens of government agencies, defense contractors

Ohio police fatally shoot Black teenage girl just before Chauvin verdict

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-20

Opinion: Howard University’s removal of classics is a spiritual catastrophe

Opinion: Now we know what Pompeo’s ‘swagger’ at the State Department was really about

How to make your grocery shopping more eco-friendly

Opinion: Biden’s next big plan could blow up one of the GOP’s worst lies

GOP's shifting focus opens a path for Biden - "The Republican Party's inability to ignite a grassroots backlash against the $1.9 trillion Democratic Covid relief bill moving toward final passage underscores the GOP's transformation into a coalition energized primarily by cultural and racial grievance -- and the opportunity that opens for President Joe Biden to advance his economic priorities."

Elephants trample suspected rhino poacher to death in South African national park

India’s devastating outbreak is driving the global coronavirus surge: Those on the country’s front lines say the wave is worse than anything they have seen before.

DHS watchdog declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration, documents show

As covid relief money floods in, pandemic-battered cities see a chance to transform

Reading archive 2021-04-19

Opinion: Why the hope for peace is waning in Northern Ireland

Colorado judge used the n-word and proclaimed that ‘all lives matter.' Now she’s resigning.

Opinion: After eight years, the question remains: What’s the point of bitcoin?

Ex-officer who police say killed 3 in Austin has been arrested after 20-hour manhunt

Huge plastics plant faces calls for environmental justice, stiff economic headwinds: In Louisiana, Formosa Plastics Group plans a $9.4 billion manufacturing complex in a largely Black community - "The plant is being fought for its potential harm to health and the environment. It would be located a mile from the local elementary school and two miles downriver from the Sunshine Bridge, part of an 85-mile expanse from Baton Rouge to New Orleans that’s dubbed “Cancer Alley.” Under state environmental regulations, it would be allowed to emit more than 800 tons a year of toxic chemicals, nearly 6,500 tons of pollutants known to cause respiratory ailments, and more than 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.

Did a Black undercover NYPD detective unwittingly aid Malcolm X’s assassination?: Raymond Wood allegedly wrote a letter that proves he did. Historians don’t believe it.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-14

Colton Underwood, former star of ‘The Bachelor,’ comes out as gay

Opinion: Congress must fix a fatal flaw in the D.C. statehood bill

Opinion: History will cast a shadow over Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan - "The downside is easy to imagine: a spiral of violence in which provincial capitals fall, one by one, leading to a deadly battle for Kabul — a fight in which the people who believed most in the United States’ intervention will be at greatest risk, and pleading for help. Closing our eyes and ears to that catastrophic situation — turning away from the desperate appeals, especially from the women of Afghanistan, who fear new oppression — will require cold hearts and strong stomachs."

Opinion: Biden takes the easy way out of Afghanistan. The likely result is disaster. - "The bargain struck by the Trump administration with the Taliban required it to break all ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. According to U.N. and U.S. military officials, it has not done so. Nor has it been willing to negotiate seriously with the Afghan government about a peaceful settlement. It rejected a Biden administration proposal for a conference in Turkey to jump-start those talks, and it ridiculed U.S. proposals for a power-sharing arrangement with the government, as well as for new elections. The group’s leaders project the conviction that they will easily rout the government militarily once the United States leaves, and restore a harsh “Islamic emirate” such as the one they fashioned in the 1990s."

QAnon docuseries Q: Into the Storm has an answer on who is Q: One of the subjects of the HBO series may have slipped and revealed his role as Q. But will that matter to believers of the hoax?

Why changes to DC’s Future Land Use Map do not eliminate community input

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Reading archive 2021-04-08

Confronted with leaked phone call, Alabama Republican John Merrill admits to affair, drops Senate bid

Intelligence forecast sees a post-coronavirus world upended by climate change and splintering societies

China builds advanced weapons systems using American chip technology

Biden administration slaps export controls on Chinese firms for aiding PLA weapons development

Vaccine conversations can be messy. Here’s how to talk about the shots.

An Indian man died after being beaten by police on video. One year later, no one has been held accountable.

Quantum technology emerges from the lab to spark a mini start-up boom: University of Chicago and partners launch the nation’s first accelerator to support quantum startups as interest in the technology grows

Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic white population were the most likely to be homes to people who stormed the Capitol.

Opinion: What an analysis of 377 Americans arrested or charged in the Capitol insurrection tells us

Korean esports players, staff speak out on ‘unspeakable’ racism, harassment in America

Tourists and looters descend on Bears Ears as Biden mulls protections: Interior Secretary Haaland visits Utah monument amid controversy over whether to restore boundaries shrunk by Trump

‘This is a political prosecution’: After its members were charged in the Capitol riot, one group says it is more popular than ever