…so
…where were we?
How Many Women Have to Die to End ‘Temptation’? [NYT]
Why Did My Mother and I React So Differently to the Atlanta Shootings? [NYT]
Of all the figures who have emerged from the recent surge in anti-Asian violence, my parents would have most admired Xiao Zhen Xie of San Francisco. This 75-year-old, having been punched for no reason, picked up a wooden plank and hit her 39-year-old assailant so hard that he ended up on a stretcher.
The Generational Split in How Asian-Americans See the Atlanta Shootings [NYT]
There Are Two Asian-Americas, and One Is Invisible [NYT]
…ah, yes
“Whatever the killer’s motive, these facts are clear: Six out of the eight people killed on Tuesday night were of Asian descent. Seven were women. The shootings took place in businesses owned by Asian Americans,” Harris said. “The shootings took place as violent hate crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans has risen dramatically over the last year and more.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/22/kamala-harris-asian-americans-georgia/
[…]
“Racism is real in America, and it has always been,” Harris said. “Xenophobia is real in America and always has been. Sexism, too.”
…tuesday
Atlanta shooting victim’s husband says police held him in handcuffs for hours [Guardian]
…another day
Ten people were killed at a King Soopers grocery store on Monday, including a Boulder police officer, after a shooter opened fire on customers and responding officers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/22/boulder-shooting/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/22/boulder-colorado-active-shooter-supermarket
…another week
More than 1,000 arrests as Miami Beach pushes spring-break curfew into April [Guardian]
…& we’re definitely not identifying with sisyphus
In 2014, the year before Trump announced his candidacy, the three leading cable news networks collectively attracted an average of 2.8 million viewers a night during prime-time hours. By 2019, Trump’s third year in office, that number had nearly doubled to 5.3 million each night.
Trump’s rise was so closely linked to the news companies’ success that some accused the networks of enabling him — endlessly broadcasting his racism and sexism-tinged stump speeches in what amounted to free political advertising. CNN President Jeff Zucker expressed regrets late in the 2016 campaign about his network’s coverage but acknowledged later that it drew viewers. “We’ve seen that, anytime you break away from the Trump story and cover other events in this era, the audience goes away,” he said in 2018.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/media-trump-bump-slump/2021/03/22/story.html
…or asking ourselves “how is this not done already?”
‘Why would you not?’ Alarm as Republican men say they won’t get Covid vaccine [Guardian]
…actually
The withholding system remains the cornerstone of income taxation, effectively preventing Americans from lying about wage income. Employers submit an annual W-2 report on the wages paid to each worker, making it hard to fudge the numbers.
But the burden of taxation is increasingly warped because the government has no comparable system for verifying income from businesses. The result is that most wage earners pay their fair share while many business owners engage in blatant fraud at public expense.
How to Collect $1.4 Trillion in Unpaid Taxes [NYT]
…that may be the eternal question
One of the biggest emerging arguments against D.C. statehood is a thoroughly partisan one. The idea isn’t so much that D.C. doesn’t necessarily deserve voting rights in the House and Senate, as much as that it would be a boon to Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pushed this idea extensively in recent years, casting both the ideas of D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood as thinly veiled efforts to gain Democratic votes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/22/dumbing-down-dc-statehood-debate/
…I mean sure
At least 20 police officers were left with broken bones and other serious injuries after a protest in Bristol, England, turned violent Sunday night, with thousands gathering to denounce a bill designed to give authorities broader powers to clamp down on peaceful protests.
Protest over bill that expands British police powers sees 20 officers injured, vehicles torched [WaPo]
…sometimes it’s just one of those days
…but sometimes
Sedition charges for Capitol rioters? What it would mean, historically speaking. [WaPo]
…I think it’s hard to deny some people deserve those
In short, Republicans want neither to repudiate the most extreme elements in their base nor to educate the American people about the terrorists’ right-wing philosophy. For many of them, it seems to hit too close to home, revealing the degree to which Republicans have fanned white grievance and appealed to the fears that motivate white supremacists (i.e., that they are being “overrun” by non-Whites and that Christianity is under assault.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/22/republicans-cant-handle-truth-about-capitol-insurrectionists/
…& some people really, really, really don’t deserve these
Two months into one of the biggest criminal investigations in U.S. history, prosecutors are preparing to start plea discussions as early as this week with many of the more than 300 suspects charged in the U.S. Capitol riot — even as investigators race to piece together larger conspiracy cases against those suspected of the most serious crimes, according to people familiar with the discussions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-riot-investigation-plea-deals/2021/03/19/story.html
…I mean
Since the election, Republicans have evinced sheer panic at the prospect that non-White voters will continue to turn out in large numbers. The anti-voting crusade has produced, by the Brennan Center for Justice’s count, 253 bills to restrict voting. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says there will be “scorched earth” if Democrats touch the filibuster. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), sounding more hysterical than usual, claims Democrats want “child molesters” and “illegal aliens” to vote.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/22/republicans-misplaced-priorities/
…lots of them, really…but some in particular
Bannon battling prosecutors who won’t dismiss his case after Trump’s pardon [WaPo]
Michael Sherwin, the departing acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, confirmed that the former president is still under investigation over the 6 January putsch in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/22/donald-trump-capitol-riot-michael-sherwin
[…]
“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to DC on 6 January,” Sherwin said. “Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?
[…]
Trump addressed a rally outside the White House on 6 January, telling supporters to “fight like hell” to stop Congress certifying his election defeat by Joe Biden, which he falsely claims was the result of voter fraud. A mob broke into the Capitol, leading to five deaths, including a Trump supporter shot by law enforcement.
[…]
Asked if a determination that Sicknick’s death was a direct result of being attacked with the spray would lead to murder charges, Sherwin said: “If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death, yeah. We have causation, we have a link. Yes. In that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case.”
Roger Stone keeps appearing in Capitol breach investigation court filings [WaPo]
As the federal investigation of the 6 January Capitol insurrection expands, scrutiny of Donald Trump’s decades-long ally Roger Stone is expected to intensify, given his links to at least four far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who had been charged, plus Stone’s incendiary comments at rallies the night before the riot and in prior weeks, say ex-prosecutors and Stone associates
Roger Stone faces fresh scrutiny as Capitol attack investigation expands [Guardian]
…we need some of the other sort
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-s-multi-trillion-dollar-infrastructure
White House officials are preparing to present President Biden with a roughly $3 trillion infrastructure and jobs package that includes high-profile domestic policy priorities such as free community college and universal prekindergarten, according to three people familiar with internal discussions.
White House prepares massive infrastructure bill with universal pre-K, free community college, climate measures [WaPo]
[…]
That effort is expected to be broken into two parts — one focused on infrastructure, and the other focused on other domestic priorities such as growing the newly expanded child tax credit for several years. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, stressed that planning was preliminary and subject to change. Some aides said that the package’s final price tag remains unclear.
The sudden, unexpected creation of an approximately $120 billion social program has thrown a twist into the political landscape. Some Democrats now fear being labeled big-government spenders in the upcoming midterms. Some conservatives, on the other hand, are embracing the idea as a family-friendly measure.
How Biden quietly created a huge social program [WaPo]
With the initiative expiring in a year, all but ensuring it will be a major issue in the midterms, the child poverty measure raises a central question: Are the politics of big government back?
[…]
Biden’s challenge now is to make the concept permanent; Democrats declined to do so this year to avoid making the relief bill even costlier.
…even so
Wearing a fitness band to monitor your steps is one thing. Wearing a mandatory bracelet so an employer or institution can access continuous data about your movement and health is something very different. Well, brace yourself: This is something for which we are not prepared. Whether it’s bands, lanyards, stickers or monitors that look like wedding rings, wearables are becoming a go-to weapon in the continuing battle against covid and its emerging variants.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/thanks-to-covid-19-the-age-of-biometric-surveillance-is-here/2021/03/22/story.html
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Facebook’s bid to pare back a $15 billion class action lawsuit accusing the company of illegally tracking the activities of internet users even when they are logged out of the social media platform.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/us-supreme-court-rebuffs-facebook-appeal-in-user-tracking-lawsuit
…sometimes it’s just plain hard to feel optimistic
The past few months have seen a giddying flurry of countries and companies committing to achieving “net zero” carbon emissions by mid-century. But upon examining the fine print of some of the announcements, all is not what it seems. These pledges are too often based on a confused understanding of what net zero means.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/22/net-zero-pledges-carbon-emissions/
Summers could last half the year by the end of this century
…all in all I don’t think anyone could blame you if you wound up feeling some kind of a way about that sort of thing…or this sort of thing
The plot, while frightening, is not necessarily surprising for analysts of far-right terrorism. Many of the ideological themes, justifications and targets were familiar. But the case is still shocking: The plotter was just 13 when he began radicalizing and 16 when he was convicted, in November 2019, of planning six terrorist attacks. According to reports, at the time of his arrest he was the youngest person convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in the U.K.
This is not a one-off. Recent years have revealed a scary, dangerous new era in which children have been taught to hate, are recruiting others and are plotting terrorist attacks. While several schemes conceived by young far-right extremists were thwarted, the future may be bleaker. We have missed emerging trends in the past; counterterrorism professionals must urgently renew their vigilance — and implement new countermeasures — over the radicalization of young people in the West and beyond.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/teen-terrorism-inspired-by-social-media-is-on-the-rise
Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer told a dispatch operator in a Jan. 27 call, first reported by the Seattle Times, that a man going house-to-house in his neighborhood in the early morning threatened to “kill” Troyer, prompting dozens of police cars from multiple agencies to respond. Tacoma Police officers discovered that the man, 24-year-old Sedrick Altheimer, was a Black newspaper delivery driver — and Troyer told them he was “never threatened,” according to an incident report obtained by the newspaper.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/22/sheriff-911-call/
…but you know what
The missing students of the pandemic [WaPo]
…whether or not you manage to show up to work at least you can take comfort in knowing that even the best of us sometimes need a bit of a nudge…he was talking about writing
…but as with so much of his writing you can apply it to a different context & it’s surprising how well it resonates
“Writing isn’t so bad really when you get through the worry. Forget about the worry, just press on. Don’t be embarrassed about the bad bits. Don’t strain at them,” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author wrote to himself. “Writing can be good. You attack it, don’t let it attack you. You can get pleasure out of it. You can certainly do very well for yourself with it!”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/22/douglas-adams-note-to-self-reveals-author-found-writing-torture
…although to be fair sometimes it seems like it’d be easier to believe in aliens
“So in short, things that we are observing that are difficult to explain – and so there’s actually quite a few of those, and I think that that info has been gathered and will be put out in a way the American people can see.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/22/us-government-ufo-report-sightings
…then again…he said that on fox news apparently…so…probably no hitchhiking for us yet…still…at least the planet isn’t being demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass…nobody has to listen to vogon poetry…& there’s a fair to middling chance you know where your towel is…hell…maybe we can even deal with tuesday…well…unless it’s one of those tuesday’s lemmy decides are wednesday…in which case I guess all bets are off?
from here: https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/03/22/at-least-six-killed-in-mass-shooting-at-boulder-king-soopers-suspect-in-custody/
“Monday’s shooting came just days after a district court judge ruled that an assault-weapons ban enacted by Boulder City Council in 2018 was invalid under a state preemption law that prohibits local governments from regulating firearms.
“The Court has determined that only Colorado state (or federal) law can prohibit the possession, sale and transfer of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines,” Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman wrote in his ruling.”
“An injured suspect is being held. A handcuffed man, wearing only underwear and with a bloody leg, was led from the market. Police wouldn’t say if he’s the suspect.”
So, white guy.
“Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes, And hooptiously drangle me…”
49% of Republican men told pollsters that they wouldn’t get the jab. Because they have little (if any) respect/care for the safety of others, while maintaining a heavy dose of superiority and magical thinking: kept safe by their super-special old white dude virus defense, don’tcha know…
Your link on the missing students is a must-read. Heartbreaking. Sentence after sentence of every-day, life-altering tragedies. Here’s a worthwhile graphic from another article, down the page a bit.
I hope that they throw the book at the Capitol mob. And make it stick.
So what do you think, DeadSplinterati? UFOs, yes or no? Are they here already, and the knowledge is hidden in a vast government conspiracy? Or, are they as real as in a Marvin the Martian cartoon? Anybody here ever have a close-encounter?
“Are they here already, and the knowledge is hidden in a vast government conspiracy? Or, are they as real as in a Marvin the Martian cartoon?”
Why not Both?😉
With all the planets & galaxies out in the universe, it’d be entirely unsurprising if there WAS life out there–even intelligent life far more advanced than our own…
It’d honestly be more surprising, if there weren’t other life forms.
Sagan talked about the inability to rule out other intelligent life, yeeeears ago, in Rolling Stone;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory
And ironically & sadly, the observatory he mentioned, Arecibo, is the one where they just had the massive/catastrophic collapse a few months back😕
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory
Forgot the other part–
It *also* wouldn’t be surprising,if some of the “UFO” stuff is new tech that simply isn’t released yet.
Any of us who grew up in the “Stealth Bomber” years knows of the *years* of “UFO sightings!” in the southwestern deserts/rural areas….
Sightings which eventually became so numerous–AND caught on film often enough, that the military eventually had to come forward & tell the public “it was US, *not* aliens!” And admitting to the F-117 Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit… and suddenly there was a new class of plane.
Knowing that folks in various parts of the engineering fields have worked on various levels of secret military projects for decades now (Including my uncle, who could only tell people that he’d “done work for the military” but never what it was), it wouldn’t be at all surprising–in fact it’d be pretty surprising if we *didn’t* have some updated flying tech around but out of the public view.
Sadly, no aliens here. The physics don’t work. I’m sure, however, that they’re out there, but we’ll never see them because they’ve got no way to get here, any more than we do to get to them.
Sentient alien life absolutely exists. The galaxy, let alone the universe, is much too vast for us to be the only (semi) intelligent species out there.
Now, do I think UFOs are the real deal? No chance. Our government isn’t capable enough to cover up far smaller-grade bullshit, so I don’t buy that angle. And even assuming our understanding of physics and space travel is but a single icicle upon the tip of the iceberg, we haven’t been making what we understand to be galactic-sightable noise for even a century now.
It’s just our own ego that presumes that other intelligent life just can’t WAIT to meet us … which, y’know, I guess we’ll find out some day.
I had a friend who was studying Sumerian writings, who claimed, and forgive me if I don’t get this exactly right, because it’s been almost thirty years, that the reason Neanderthal Man disappeared is because aliens bred with them and formed a new race? You heard me correctly, Homo Sapiens is a hybrid of Neanderthal and space aliens.
SPOILERS
Did that friend go on to write Battle Star Galactica or The Themis Files? Both of which I have just spoiled but highly recommend.
No, but he was a mad genius who knew how to make meth in his sink. During his doctoral research he also came up with a way to use sonar or something to measure soil density at different depths. Police have used the technique to find bodies and old graves.
Speaking of UFOs, yesterday was William “Captain Kirk” Shatner’s 90th birthday.
It still boggles my mind that he’s that old.
And in a new movie!
The article’s mostly about Christopher Lloyd, though, which is much more pleasant😉
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/mar/22/wife-no-5-is-the-last-back-to-the-futures-christopher-lloyd-on-love-and-life
Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) is still around too, at 88. As is George Takei (Mr. Sulu) who turns 84 next month.
I’ll concede that it’s likely that life may exist somewhere else outside of our planet, but I’m really skeptical of advanced civilizations visiting earth. Interstellar travel is almost incomprehensibly difficult
Pretty much the only way to move in space, is by chucking some mass in the opposite direction you want to go in. And that is mass that you have to carry with you. Plus time, radiation, weird stuff that can happen as you approach relativistic speeds, never mind turning and/or slowing down.
Just look at how much planning and trouble it is to do a one-way drop of a robot on Mars, which is pretty much our next-door neighbor.
Like I said, I’m assuming that we’re DEEPLY uninformed about interstellar travel possibilities. The physics we know would suggest it’s not easily possible, but also, my grandparents were alive when the Wright Brothers succeeded, so it’s not like I think we know what the hell we’re talking about either haha
We are very earth-centric in our thinking. Why do we assume, for example, that water is necessary for life? If you were on another planet and something walked up to you and shook your hand and said “Hi!” and didn’t have a drop of water in it, would you say it was alive?
Absolutely! We’ve been to exactly 1 planet with life on it and we’re like “Yup, that’s just how it is.” Very human of us! 🙂
UFO, no. People are scary enough without adding space aliens into the mix. Same with deities, vampires, werewolves, santa, etc. If I could I would dearly love to believe in the 9th doctor though.
https://images.app.goo.gl/BKFMUqyqSPtDXvRA6
This better work
This kind of binds some of the above stories together…
https://buzzflash.com/articles/thom-hartmann-it-takes-a-month-in-georgia-to-register-to-vote-but-you-can-buy-a-gun-for-a-mass-murder-in-ten-minutes
It seems like history always repeats…
https://theconversation.com/people-gave-up-on-flu-pandemic-measures-a-century-ago-when-they-tired-of-them-and-paid-a-price-156551
Top producer at Fox dies of Covid:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/media/fox-business-network-producer-eric-spinato-death/index.html
Eric Spinato was the top booker and editor at Fox Business News and worked closely with Maria Bartiromo.
It’s not discussed nearly enough how much TV news is shaped by guys like him behind the scenes. Most of the ire is focused on the on-camera personalities, but the reality is that people like Bartiromo and Wolf Blitzer are rarely more than Ted Baxter.
If you want to know why Fox and CNN and NBC news get hopelessly slobbery over Ebola and a “crisis” on the border, or why climate change and institutional sexism are relative blips, it’s people like Spinato who recklessly give endless airtime to Lindsey Graham and Larry Summers while ignoring serious (and telegenic) alternative voices. Batiromo and Blitzer are just the wait staff handing out what the kitchen gives them.
It’s not even about the ratings — there are much better choices than Rick Santorum for winning advertisers. It’s about doing the bare minimum necessary to keep the boat afloat.
Shit if aliens visited Earth in the last few years they’re gonna be like FUCK NOPE NOT THESE MORONS and zippity to better solar systems with less stupid inhabitants