Reading archive 2023-05-24

More super rich names are coming up in the Jeffrey Epstein cases: Elon Musk and Larry Page are among those subpoenaed as the U.S. Virgin Islands pursues its case against JPMorgan Chase. Here’s what you need to know.

Man who crashed U-Haul truck near White House had Nazi flag in vehicle

Anti-Putin militias mount cross-border incursion in western Russia

Texas pushes church into state with bills on school chaplains, Ten Commandments: The bills, and others around the country, come in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling for a high school football coach who prayed with players

Driver in D.C. crash that killed 3 had blood alcohol above limit, police say: Nakita Marie Walker, a 43-year-old from Washington, was arrested and charged Monday with second-degree murder in the March 15 crash on Rock Creek Parkway

‘Big Earth energy’: A new era of nature spirituality is here: But growing interest in nature spirituality doesn’t necessarily lead to more climate activism, experts say

A man went to CIA Headquarters and said, ‘I’m here and I have a gun,’ source says. He was later arrested at a preschool with an AK-47 in his car

Four Forces Bind Trump’s Supporters More Tightly Than Ever - "A fourth justification that supporters of Donald Trump have constructed is that his presidency was an unqualified success, that Trump did practically everything right. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary: failing to build the wall or to get Mexico to pay for it, to reduce illegal immigration, to handle the coronavirus pandemic, to close the trade gap, to narrow the deficit or, pre-pandemic, substantially grow the economy and real wages. The Trump presidency, however, did witness health-care costs and drug prices increasing; income inequality growing; abortions rising after a three-decade decline; homicides spiking, including the largest single-year increase in murders in more than a century; the erosion of U.S. credibility worldwide; a posture of petty feuding with allies and abject capitulation to dictators; and a U.S.-Taliban agreement and subsequent announcement that the American military would withdraw, which had a devastating effect on the Afghan military’s morale and was a “catalyst” for its collapse, according to a May 2022 interim report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Yet all of these things, and more, are either ignored or explained away." [ed. note: links embedded in article]

Opinion  These 8 proposals from Bowser would help D.C. fight violent crime

How Far-Right Hindu Supremacy Went Global: An extremist ideology from India is fuelling rising division and hate speech in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. -"The ideology says Hindus are more than just a religious group, they are a distinct and pure ethnic race, while Muslims are an inferior people who put Hindus under threat. Hindu nationalism, which is led by India’s upper castes, aims to maintain the country’s strict caste system, an ancient Hindu social hierarchy that strictly divides people in the subcontinent into four occupational communities, while ostracising those who fall outside of the system as 'untouchables.' ...

"But Hindutva is not just an idea. It’s a movement armed with its own all-male, volunteer, paramilitary wing, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS was once modelled on the Nazis and banned in India three times in 1948, after one of its members assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, in 1975, and in 1992, after they destroyed a 400 year old mosque. Its mission statement criticises secularism in India and the 'endless appeasement of Muslims'. It is a group that many believe has the primary aim of turning India into a country where Muslims are either treated as second class citizens, banned or removed. ...

"Religious hate crime data does not back up the notion, put forward by extremists, of rampant Hinduphobia in the UK. Between 2020 and 2021 there were 5,627 religious hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales. Just under half of these crimes, 2,703, were committed against Muslims, 1,288 against Jews, 521 against Christians and 166 were against Hindus. In Leicestershire, between 2019 and 2021, there were 246 religious hate crimes recorded against Muslims compared to 34 against Hindus."