Thursday, September 29, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-29

Nord Stream spill could be biggest methane leak ever but not catastrophic

Russians rebel as Putin drafts more people in battle for Ukraine

Opinion  Always be wary of Fox News - "Not only did Perino whiff on the empirical question at hand — that ABC News didn’t report on its own poll — but she bundled that false suggestion with a mention that the allegedly suppressed material was 'super bad news for the president.' With that commentary, Fox News’s cartoonish depiction of the mainstream media advanced another inch or two. 

"A couple of lessons here. One is that you should never, ever accept at face value any claim on Fox News — except when it comes from the network’s polling operation or election-night desk. 

"Two is that the crisis of trust in American media outlets won’t abate until Fox News’s sleazy commentary abates. At industry conferences each year, journalists and academics wring their hands about what media outlets can do to boost the industry’s sagging trust levels. Certainly there’s plenty of work they can and should do, though they face an implacable force in Fox News. Because somewhere out there, there are some network viewers who just heard that ABC News buried poll results unfavorable to Biden."

The aspiring ‘coral factory’ restoring reefs wrecked by climate change

Meet the women hunting giant pythons ‘eating everything’ in the Everglades

LOVE AND DEATH IN THE CAPE FEAR SERPENTARIUM

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-28

Truss learns the hard way that Britain isn’t America - "Like all armchair free-marketeers (she has never set up a business) she believes her nation is a blast of deregulation away from American levels of entrepreneurial vim. It isn’t. The creator of a successful product in Dallas can expand to LA and Boston with little friction. The UK doesn’t have a market of hundreds of millions of people. (It did, once, but the present chancellor of the exchequer voted to leave it.)"

E.U. warns of ‘robust’ response against sabotage after Nord Stream blasts

Pray for Kabeer, Chapter I: The School Play, the Minister of Defense and the Fall of a Hero - "Over two decades, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, a Black man who was raised Muslim in Los Angeles, found his place in the predominantly white and overwhelmingly Christian suburbs of Wisconsin. In the first installment of our Serial Longform series, we delve into the former Packers star’s theological evolution, his discovery of a new religious movement, his transformation from revered to feared and why he feels he—and his ministry—are misunderstood.

Pray for Kabeer, Chapter II: The Pastor, the ‘Cult’ and Its Troubled Past - Retired Packers star Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila made headlines last winter when two members of his religious ministry were arrested for trespassing, while armed, at a school Christmas program—and that ‘KGB’ sent them. In the second chapter of our Serial Longform series, we take an unprecedented look at the controversial ministry he is now a part of, its history and why so many who were once close to him desperately want him to get out.

Pray for Kabeer, Chapter III: The Followers, the Courtroom Drama and the Next Chapter - "Along with Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, at least two other ex-NFL players have joined Straitway, the controversial ministry that many consider to be a cult. In the finale of our Serial Longform series, we trace how they ended up there and the impact on those around them. We also look at KGB’s bizarre courthouse interactions, his fractured relationship with his family and what’s next for the former Packers star."

"But [Ken] Johnson isn’t completely surprised. During nearly 30 seasons as the Colts’ chaplain, he saw this pattern among retired players. When the structure, guidance and purpose that comes with life as an NFL player disappears, it’s often jarring and sometimes followed by a search for identity. 'It’s like they begin this quest for knowledge, and they forget relationship capacity [with their families],' Johnson says. The shift to Hebrew Israelism is new to him—in the past, the postretirement shift led some Black players to join the Nation of Islam, an Islamic and Black nationalist movement that has been criticized for anti-LGBTQ views and prejudice against Jewish people."

Russia's military and economic strategy is failing: But the risks of an escalating war remain real and terrifying - "But I wanted to step back and make a broader point that I think too often gets lost in the shuffle: everything Russia has been doing has been incredibly counterproductive from the standpoint of Russian interests.

"Pro-Russian western media often noted that even with sanctions in place Russia’s trade balance was positive, and the official exchange rate of the ruble recovered rapidly from an initial speculative crash. 

"This all misunderstood the intention of the policy, which was not to block Russian exports but to block Russian imports."

Monday, September 26, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-26

How a QAnon splinter group became a feature of Trump rallies: An offshoot of the extremist movement called Negative48 is thronging Trump political events, causing tensions with the former president’s team [ed. note these Q people are insane and he is insane to cultivate their support]

Cleveland’s Black voters want tough oversight of cops. Will police allow it? - "Cleveland’s history shows how difficult it is to change police behavior. As early as 1922, a Cleveland Foundation report called for dismantling the bureaucracy that protects bad officers and makes it difficult to fire them. A report issued in 1945 recommended that social service agencies, not armed police, respond to social welfare calls. Reports in the 1960s and 1970s, as the civil rights movement reshaped America, recommended that officers be trained in African American history. Over decades, report after report called for recruiting more Black officers. And while the number of Black officers is up, 67 percent are White in a city where nearly 50 percent of the residents are Black."

Monday, September 19, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-18

Opinion  What if the United States loses the AI race against China? - "The bleak report doesn’t just summarize the costs of losing. It argues the United States will, in fact, lose this race without changes in government policy to focus attention better on the technology challenge. 'The United States still has no process or person responsible for achieving technology advantage,' the report says. 'The U.S public-private ecosystem has vast competitive strengths, but they are un-gathered. America needs a plan for mastering the new geometry of innovation to compete.'"

Ukrainian strikes into Russia’s border towns compound Putin’s troubles

Biden says U.S. troops would defend Taiwan in event of attack by China

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-14

How sitting all day can cause health problems — even if you exercise: Working out for 30 minutes every day “might not be enough” to counter the health issues created by prolonged sitting, said the author of a sweeping new study

Hillary Clinton’s claim that ‘zero emails’ were marked classified - "In other words, both State Department probes under Trump knocked Clinton for maintaining a private server for State Department communications — but did not hold her responsible for mishandling classified information."

John Durham was successful, just not in the way Barr first intended

U.S. to redirect Afghanistan’s frozen assets after Taliban rejects deal: Biden administration under pressure as Afghanistan faces enormous hunger crisis

Insurers force change on police departments long resistant to it: The high cost of settlements over police misconduct has led insurers to demand police departments overhaul tactics or forgo coverage - "Where community activists, use-of-force victims and city officials have failed to persuade police departments to change dangerous and sometimes deadly policing practices, insurers are successfully dictating changes to tactics and policies, mostly at small to medium-size departments throughout the nation."

Opinion  ‘Residents are scared’: Violent crime is all too common in D.C.


Thursday, September 8, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-08

J.D. Vance largely avoids pivot to center in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race after culture-war heavy Republican primary - "In one particularly dark podcast interview in September 2021, Vance called for the firing of millions of federal government employees, likening it to the need for political purges in post-World War II Nazi Germany or Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

"The federal bureaucracy, Vance said, undermined ex-President Donald Trump’s term in office and needed to be replaced, regardless of civil-service protections. He said ex-President Donald Trump – or whoever – should flout whatever court decisions attempt to block the move, which he called 'de-wokeification.'

"'We are in a late republican period,' Vance said in the podcast interview with Jack Murphy, using another historical metaphor that refers to the transformation of the classical Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. 'If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.'"

U.S. to sell $1.1 billion in anti-ship, air-to-air weapons to Taiwan

Ron Johnson flips on gay marriage bill after saying he saw ‘no reason to oppose it’

Opinion  The D.C. child-care ruling is a disaster for young families - "The time and financial costs of obtaining the ​credentials create a new barrier to those considering working in the sector and encourages exit for those without the 10 years’ continuous experience needed to avoid the rule. Previous research from economists Diana Thomas and Devon Gorry has found that state requirements for lead carers to have even a high school diploma increase prices by 25 percent to 46 percent. The D.C. educational hurdle is much more stringent."

Friday, September 2, 2022

Reading archive 2022-09-02

Classified Material on Human Intelligence Sources Helped Trigger Alarm: Documents related to the work of clandestine sources are some of the most sensitive and protected in the government. F.B.I. agents found some in boxes retrieved from Donald J. Trump’s home. - "C.I.A. espionage operations inside numerous hostile countries have been compromised in recent years when the governments of those countries have arrested, jailed and even killed the agency’s sources. 

"Last year, a top-secret memo sent to every C.I.A. station around the world warned about troubling numbers of informants being captured or killed, a stark reminder of how important human source networks are to the basic functions of the spy agency."

To fight climate change, environmentalists may have to give up a core belief: To tackle climate, experts say, environmentalists have to embrace big energy projects. Fast.

Tangier Island, facing oblivion, waits to see: Will Congress help? - "To fully protect and restore the island, Schulte estimated it could cost between $250 million to $350 million. The $25 million proposed project would 'make a significant difference as far as extending the life of the island,' he said — but said more would need to be done."

Reading archive 2022-09-01

Trump's White House issues an ominous request for a list of top U.S. spies: The request is coming at a time when Donald Trump is looking to install a loyalist as his new intelligence chief. [ed. note: from 2019]

Trump Bragged He Had ‘Intelligence’ on Macron’s Sex Life: The FBI seized a document with “info” on the French president during the Mar-a-Lago raid, and that has officials in both countries hunting for answers

Inventing Anna: The tale of a fake heiress, Mar-a-Lago and an FBI investigation

Ohio police officer fatally shoots Black man in bed, body camera shows

China slams U.N. ‘farce’ on Xinjiang as Uyghur exiles praise report

Ginni Thomas pressed Wisconsin lawmakers to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory: The conservative activist and wife of the Supreme Court justice emailed lawmakers in two states in the weeks after the election