
Hope everyone is having a good week and looking forward to a nice weekend.
Here we go again
What we know – and still don’t know – about what led to Tyre Nichols’ death
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/us/what-we-know-tyre-nichols-death/index.html
Officials call for calm as video footage of Tyre Nichols’ arrest will be released publicly Friday night, authorities say
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/27/us/tyre-nichols-memphis-friday/index.html
Great photos with this article
They depend on Machu Picchu to survive. They shut it down anyway.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/26/machu-picchu-closed-peru-protests/
US National Archives asks ex-presidents to check for classified papers
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/26/national-archives-classified-documents-obama-bush-clinton-cheney-gore
Stonks! [Oops!]
Southwest Airlines lost $800 million due to holiday travel meltdown
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/southwest-airlines-lost-800-million-due-to-holiday-travel-meltdown-130439005.html
Style note
Where do I apply?
Have a great weekend!
The mentally ill is different than people with mental illness?
Things are getting weird. If someone asks me not to use a term or refer to them in a certain way, I don’t, but generalities don’t work for everyone. I am literally poor, in all statistical measures (not homeless, but poor) and the poor doesn’t offend me. I get different things offend different people, but I also think some people are just making stuff up, in fact I know they are.
The more I read it the more I disagree. If someone with a degree is offended by the college educated, end them, they aren’t going to make it anyway.
When I got to the part about “the French” I thought it was a joke. Then I saw that it was from the AP and realized it was serious. Seriously stupid.
I suppose using “the” could be construed as implying they are a monolith
If the phrase “the French” was good enough for Orson Welles it’s good enough for me.
He must have drank that whole bottle before they even started shooting.
I went through the exact same thought process.
Yeah, the whites voted for Trump. Does that describe you?
The problem with your argument is that it doesn’t work. How often do we hear/read people saying “white people this” and “white people that”? They’re not using “the”, they are using “people”, but even if they used the APs style of “people who are white” still doesn’t make a difference. It’s still treating the group as a monolith as you rightly pointed out.
It’s subtle but I get it. I also thought it was unnecessary when it comes to non minority or non persecuted collectives like French or college educated people…but that depends on your perspective. Most Trumpers resent college educated people. Adding the does further set them apart or dehumanize them in a subtle way.
People with mental illness don’t want that to be their main identifier. Calling them “the mentally ill” puts the condition first, calling them a person with a mental illness puts their humanity first.
Calling them “mentally ill people” is marginally better, but mental illness is a condition, not a trait. People aren’t mentally ill the way they are tall, or blonde.
Right-wing media desperately tries to manufacture a recession:
The Economy Slows Down
Fourth-quarter GDP growth was solid, but falling investment bodes ill for 2023.
Non-right-wing media take:
The US economy grew by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, more than expected
Covering up crimes by Trump? Why, I never. Who would possibly think such a thing?
Behind the scenes of Durham investigation reveals special counsel engaged in serious abuse of power
The NY Times article that links to is absolutely wild.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/us/politics/durham-trump-russia-barr.html
The lead reporter, Charlie Savage, is practically the only good reporter on the Politics beat for the Times.
You can see the difference between what he does versus hacks like Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, Michael Schmidt, Glenn Thrush, Carl Hulse, ad nauseum. For starters, their articles are almost always simply regurgitating what top level people like Bill Barr tell them.
This article is heavily fact based and analytical.
The usual crew occasionally pull together trivia and tiny scooplets fed to them by their top level sources to create the impression of news, but they always end up with vague passive voice constructions about questions being raised while deflecting blame away from their favored sources.
This article aims, fires, and hits.
The regular NY Times crew used Barr as a source for years and endlessly reflected his point of view — the notorious massive headline completely misrepresenting the Mueller report as exonerating Trump is a classic example. They’re going to look at this article and pretend it never happened, and go right back to using Barr for spin when they think nobody is looking. They can’t change.
I’m shocked. Are you shocked?
(I’m totally not shocked.)
Not an anomaly: 2020’s red states have higher murder rates
One more reason Slavic languages rule: they don’t use articles at all. My wife complains that English seems so random in the way it sprinkles “a”, “an”, “the” in sentences. So, she tends to drop an inappropriate “the” when she’s carefully trying to use good English.
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
https://www.hmd.org.uk/what-is-holocaust-memorial-day/this-years-theme/
would probably be good to remind a whole bunch of people over here about that
https://nltimes.nl/2023/01/25/23-young-dutch-doubts-holocaust-happened-study
*winces*
We’ve got plenty of that here too. But you’d think being as close to it as your country was that they’d know better.
they should….ww2 is covered quite extensively in school before you are twelve…least it was when i was in school…far as i know that hasnt changed
i pre date social medias alternative history education options tho….suspect there may be a link
So now the National Archives is politely polling former administrations on their classified document stashes.
Dear Sir or Madam:
We are writing to ask you for a favor. Would you be so kind as to check your closets, garages, and attics for any classified documents that should actually be in our possession? It should only take a few minutes. Perhaps you could hire a local teenager or handyman to check through any documents you may have accumulated while running the United States for any that are marked “classified.” If you would, please let us know right away. We’ve got a bit of a situation here that may extend back to the Reagan Administration, and we’d really like to get on top of it. Thanks.
Best wishes,
The National Archives
The only upside to this whole mess is maybe–just maybe–something will actually be done about how fucked up the classification system has been over the past several decades.
The major downside is that it will all be used to normalize Trump’s flagrantly illegal actions regarding the classified documents he intentionally stole.
Yeah, the Dems need to do a lot better at spinning the “he took records!” into “he took AND KEPT the records and then lied about giving them back” which is, not for nothing, the big crime here.
That said, once they found them in Biden’s house, I think the media decided it was over.
The Tyre Nichols video is gonna be bleepin’ awful, and I know this because a) they already fired the officers responsible b) they’re pre-begging for calm and c) they’re dropping it on a Friday night hoping people won’t go crazy over it. It must be at least George Floyd-level terrible or else they wouldn’t have canned everyone involved already.
Your MAGAT of the day…
https://news.yahoo.com/maga-anesthesiologist-hit-jan-6-201727798.html
Thanks Google, you assholes!
https://crooksandliars.com/2023/01/daily-wire-paid-google-advertise-climate
Or maybe Xenu only picked him up?
https://www.rawstory.com/scientology-lawsuit/
and today in local WTF news…
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/double-life-skagit-county-pastor-accused-dealing-drugs-money-laundering/QM27DAORCJDWFHZNEAYPKUDWZY/
Oh, damn. Somebody totally needs to do a “Breaking Bad” style treatment for a series. It … actually makes more sense than “Breaking Bad.”
and one for @MatthewCrawley
https://electrek.co/2023/01/26/new-york-city-offshore-wind-power-us-first/
Here’s an interesting story from Deadspin alum Laura Wagner concerning NBC politics reporter Marc Caputo. I love how Caputo, who does not look like a young man, lacks the maturity to realize that posting all these communications on social media might not be the smartest idea. By the way, Defector is where a lot of the Deadspin now blog from. It is a writers’ collective, and subscriber based, but I accessed this with no paywall problems.
https://defector.com/nbc-politics-reporter-gloats-about-evicting-tenant-i-hope-he-enjoys-the-sex-in-prison
I wonder if Huntley and/or Brinkley ever expressed any positive views on prison rape. I’m guessing not.
Yikes.
As much as I wanted to be cruel and mean to the former housemate AND cokehead narcissist when I asked the former to move out and the latter I kicked out with help of the cops, I realized (with some sage advice) that being the mega asshole I really wanted to be wasn’t going to help me. A lot of things felt, but left unsaid and especially not put on subpoenaeble media for lawyers to use as fodder to sue the shit out of me.
YES. Always, always, always stop and think, no matter how angry you are. Always.
I used to rent houses a long time ago, and one misstep puts you in serious legal jeopardy.