So I read something...

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Reading archive 2021-05-08

Liz Cheney’s months-long effort to turn Republicans from Trump threatens her reelection and ambitions. She says it’s only beginning.

Ransomware attack leads to shutdown of major U.S. pipeline system: The attack on top U.S. operator Colonial Pipeline appears to have been carried out by an Eastern European-based criminal gang

Friday, May 7, 2021

Liz Cheney Has Only Herself to Blame: The representative from Wyoming is taking a stand against an authoritarian streak in the Republican Party that she helped cultivate. - "The Times reported that Republican leadership, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, hoped that “after surviving [a] February vote of no confidence, Ms. Cheney, as an elected leader, would make like the rest of the party and simply move on.” This is a ridiculous claim; the Republican Party has not moved on at all. The falsehood that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump has become the justification for voter-suppression laws in Republican-controlled states across the country. A majority of Republicans voted against certifying the election even after the Capitol riot; fully 60 percent of Republicans believe that the election was stolen.

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"Even a lifelong conservative Republican like Cheney becomes The Enemy if she is willing to uphold essential democratic rights—such as the opposition’s right to govern if it wins the most electoral votes—above the whims of King Trump. Cheney’s brave stand looks likely to cost her the leadership position she holds, and has left her isolated within the caucus, one of the few Republicans who have chosen their vow to the Constitution over their loyalty to the party. Yet the party’s rejection of the rule of law is also an extension of a political logic that Cheney herself has cultivated for years.

"During the Obama administration, Cheney was a Fox News regular who, as was the fashion at the time, insisted that the president was secretly sympathetic to jihadists. She enthusiastically defended the use of torture, dismissed the constitutional right to due process as an inconvenience, and amplified the Obama-era campaign to portray American Muslims as a national-security threat."

Accused Capitol rioter had ‘Foxitis,’ his attorney says: He ‘started believing what was being fed to him’

China says out-of-control space rocket booster probably won’t cause any harm

An Australian mom was convicted of killing her 4 babies. Scientists say she’s innocent.

‘She didn’t deserve to die the way she did,’ says family of cult leader found dead and mummified

Opinion: This is why MAGA nativists are in a panic

Inside the housing showdown in D.C.’s Ivy City, where kids have no place to play

Only a few hundred California condors live in the wild, but about 20 teamed up to trash one woman’s deck

Pennsylvania man admits he voted for Trump with his dead mom’s name: ‘I listened to too much propaganda’

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Reading archive 2021-05-06

Why Scotland’s Road to Independence Vote Is Rocky

Four months into Brexit, the UK and France have resorted to gunboat diplomacy over fish

They voted for Brexit. Now many U.K. fishermen feel betrayed.: Fishermen complain of broken government promises, while exporters say they are choking on red tape.

Caitlyn Jenner, speaking from her plane hangar, says friends are fleeing California because of homeless people - "As some critics pointed out on social media, however, Jenner herself appears to have competed in women’s golf events. In 2016, she competed in a major women’s golf tournament alongside likes of soccer star Abby Wambach.

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"During her interview with Hannity, Jenner also blasted plans to build a high-speed rail in California — she can travel faster by plane, she noted — and said she supported forest management measures because she had managed to keep fire away from her Malibu mansion all on her own."

Opinion: Liz Cheney: The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us. - "I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud."

A grandmother heard that a friend’s son was a Capitol rioter. Soon, the FBI heard as well.

National Guard soldier is fourth service member charged in Capitol riot

Despite GOP rhetoric, there have been fewer than two dozen charged cases of voter fraud since the election: One person has faced charges for every 10 million votes cast - "On Election Day last year, a man named Ralph Thurman allegedly walked into Sugartown Elementary School in Malvern, Pa., to cast his vote. He allegedly asked whether he needed to produce identification and was told he didn’t. He then allegedly asked if he could vote for his son and was told he couldn’t. He left.

"Forty-five minutes later, Thurman (again, allegedly) returned, wearing sunglasses. He claimed to be his son and asked for a ballot. Somehow, the people at the polling place saw through his scheme. Thurman faces felony fraud charges."

Chris Ruddy and Newsmax went all-in on Trump. Now they might pay a price for it. - "Long before the Trump era, Ruddy was best known as the young New York Post reporter probing the 1993 suicide of Clinton White House aide Vince Foster — and exploring the wilder, false claims that he had been murdered. His work made its mark: Brett M. Kavanaugh, then working for Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Lewinsky affair, circulated Ruddy's articles to lawyers who joined the team."

Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now larger than those of developed countries combined: China now accounts for 27 percent of global emissions, while the U.S. accounts for 11 percent

An Ohio freshman died after drinking a bottle of liquor in a frat hazing. Now 8 men face charges.

Opinion: Elise Stefanik is a perfect leader of today’s GOP. Her own statements show why. - "It’s often said that GOP voters believe the election was stolen from them. But there’s a reason for this: Their elites relentlessly told them so. They had a 'firehose of falsehoods blasted into their brains for months on end,' as Sean Illing memorably notes.

"Worse, those elites have cited those same public beliefs to justify taking action to invalidate legitimate results. And since then, they’ve kept telling their voters that they’re right to suspect something was amiss about the outcome, to justify voter suppression across the country."

Judge blasts Barr, Justice Dept. for ‘disingenuous’ handling of secret Trump obstruction memo

Why young people are using preventive Botox, and what they need to know

A narrow path for Biden’s ambitious land conservation plan: New “America the Beautiful” report offers few specifics on how to protect 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030

What’s with these invasive “crazy” worms and why can’t we get rid of them?: They reproduce without mating and are rapidly chewing through soil across the US. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about “jumping” worms.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Reading archive 2021-05-05

Four years after a man’s execution, lawyers say DNA from the murder weapon points to someone else

‘Disgusting and horrific’ stabbing at San Francisco bus stop seriously injures two Asian women

Police ID man accused of stabbing 2 older Asian women waiting at SF bus stop

Video shows stranger attacking Asian woman with hammer in NYC: The woman was hit in the head by someone who demanded that she remove her mask, police said. A woman with the victim was not injured.

Retinoids remain the gold standard for fighting acne and wrinkles. Here’s what you should know.

‘Uncertainty is not our friend’: Scientists are still struggling to understand the sea level risks posed by Antarctica: Two scientific studies find the Paris climate goals could significantly reduce sea level rise by 2100 -- but also show scientists still grappling with how climate change will alter the world’s largest ice sheet.

Facebook’s Oversight Board upholds ban on Trump. At least for now.: The panel faulted the social network for making a hasty decision without clear criteria and told the company to reevaluate the decision within six months.

Japan should cut its losses and tell the IOC to take its Olympic pillage somewhere else - "The answer is that the IOC derives its power strictly from the Olympic 'host contract.' It’s a highly illuminating document that reveals much about the highhanded organization and how it leaves host nations with crippling debts. Seven pages are devoted to 'medical services' the host must provide — free of charge — to anyone with an Olympic credential, including rooms at local hospitals expressly reserved for them and only them. Tokyo organizers have estimated they will need to divert about 10,000 medical workers to service the IOC’s demands.

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"The predicament in Tokyo is symptomatic of a deeper, longer-lasting illness in the Olympics. The Games have become a to-the-very-brink exercise in pain and exhaustion for everyone involved, and fewer countries are willing to accept these terms. Greed and blowout costs have rendered it an event that courts extreme disaster. In September, a report out of Oxford University’s business school found that the IOC has consistently “misled” countries about the risks and costs of hosting. Example: The IOC pretends that a contingency of about 9.1 percent is adequate to cover unforeseen expenses.

"The true average cost overrun on a Summer Games? It’s 213 percent.

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"This is why virtually the only government leaders that will have anything to do with the IOC anymore are thugocrats such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who can coerce labor and spend limitlessly for prestige. Over the past 20 years, other potential hosts have dried up. Among those who have wisely said no to the IOC: Barcelona, Boston, Budapest, Davos, Hamburg, Krakow, Munich, Oslo, Rome, Stockholm and Toronto."

Opinion: Five former IRS commissioners: Biden’s proposal would create a fairer tax system

Strongmen who got cozy with Trump get the cold shoulder from Biden

Observers report ballots and laptop computers have been left unattended in Arizona recount, according to secretary of state