You walk through your days with your head low, hands balled into fists. Though you try to feign this sense of confidence, you so often fall short. You’ve got it in your mind that you must pretend everything’s alright, put up this façade. So you close your eyes and take deep breaths. You do yoga, go on long walks, eat healthy food. You try to fill your mind with positivity, try to let go. You swallow the world, try to stomach all that doesn’t feel right. You fill and fill with everything temporary until you’re stuffed, but never satisfied. You are desperate, so damn desperate to keep going that sometimes you run without even knowing the direction you’re headed. You long just to feel, to understand, to not have the pain weigh down on you anymore. But you’re so lost. I see the way you struggle to keep your head above water, to swim through the current of this life with grace and force. I see how you try to talk to people, to open, to speak without judgment, to laugh instead of cry. But it’s so damn hard. You’re so damn broken. I see how you keep getting back up, keep believing, keep telling yourself that you will be okay, even in the depths of your mind you barely believe it. And I want you to know that God sees you, too. Even in the depths, the mistakes, the chaos—God notices your pain. God hears your cries. God loves, opens, and longs to pull you closer to Him. I know sometimes it feels like you’re in this alone, like you’re crying out to nothingness, like you’re pushing with no hope to carry you through. I know sometimes it seems like your prayers will never be answered, like you’re deserving of all that’s gone wrong, or maybe that you’re not deserving at all and He’s just abandoned you without care. He’s here. Sometimes you just won’t feel Him because you’re focused on what’s instead of . Sometimes you just won’t hear Him because you’re listening to the voice in your own head instead of the truth He’s already set in motion. Sometimes He will be so far, when in reality, He knows every single wish, memory, thought, emotion, wrinkle, curve, and crease of your skin. You are empty right now—emptied by the broken relationships you’ve been in, by the people who have left, by the way your heart is just so tired of feeling less-than-full. You have been running towards closed doors, trying to fill your body with cheap beer and meaningless kisses, with vices and longings that are merely temporary. You are running from yourself. But let God fill your emptiness. Let His love overflow you, overwhelm you.Let His truth seep into your bones and His promises set your heart on fire. Let your beliefs be strengthened, your hope be renewed. Let your days become bearable, your muscles become stronger, your dreams be restored once again because you worthy of them. Of love. Of beginning again. Let God show you how He sees you—a beautiful, imperfect collection of cells that is capable of overcoming every obstacle, with Him by your side. Let God show you how incredible life can be when you let go and trust Him. Source: http://allofbeer.com/let-god-fill-your-emptiness/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/let-god-fill-your-emptiness/
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The French film 120 Beats Per Minute depicts the urgency of the HIV/Aids crisis through the eyes of the Paris branch of the radical campaigners. Members of the international group recall what it was really like If activism is all about getting attention, then Act Up, you could say, screamed the loudest. As the Aids crisis deepened, this global network of campaigners used whatever tools they deemed necessary to wake the world up to their plight: “die-ins”, sprawling across the floors of corporations and churches; litres of fake blood chucked over the steps of town halls; a great many public snogs. And they had a thing for big condoms: a pièce de résistance was a huge pink sheath covering the obelisk on Paris’s Place de la Concorde. This is the story of 120 Beats Per Minute. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes last year, the French film gives a fictionalised account of the country’s branch of Act Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) in the early 90s, as young campaigners protested against government apathy at their plight. The film’s director, 55-year-old Robin Campillo, was once part of the organisation and faithfully portrays the urgency of the group: they debate and argue, they protest and party, they cry, they have sex, they smoke and, inevitably, sometimes they die. For viewers whose knowledge of Aids movies are limited to Tom Hanks tastefully fading away in Philadelphia, it will come as quite a shock. 120 Beats Per Minute is all the more remarkable for the fact that many say the film portrays exactly what it was like. Will Nutland, who attended Act Up Paris meetings, says: “This feels like someone has just grabbed me and pulled me back.” But the film is also, it has to be said, gloriously French, with everyone huffing and puffing away. Which leads to a question: while 120 BPM tells the story of the French movement – and the 2012 documentary How to Survive a Plague charts the actions of the original New York branch (founded by Larry Kramer in 1987) – what did Britons do as the Aids crisis deepened? from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/giant-condoms-and-buckets-of-fake-blood-the-true-story-of-aids-activists-act-up/ In the short time since his daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland shooting, one dad has devoted himself to change Fred Guttenberg was at the midpoint of a 15-hour day of advocacy in Washington, and he was refusing to sit down. “No one should feel comfortable talking about the death of my kid,” he told a long line of Senate Democrats. He was standing behind the chair that had been provided for him. Three weeks before, his daughter Jaime had been shot to death in her high school hallway. The 14-year-old had been running away from the shooter, her father said, when a bullet severed her spinal cord. Afterwards, Guttenberg had looked his Republican senator in the eye and told him that his response to the Parkland shooting, and the response of the president of the United States, had been “pathetically weak”. His daughter and her classmates had been hunted in their own school, and politicians needed to admit that guns were the problem and ban military-style assault weapons. Now, the 52-year-old father was standing in a basement room in the Capitol, where Democrats were hosting an informal hearing for survivors of gun violence. Congressional Republicans had refused to hold a formal hearing. To Guttenberg’s left were a mother whose daughter had been shot and survived the Virginia Tech massacre more than a decade before, and a mother whose six-year-old son was murdered at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012. At the time, Barack Obama had embraced Francine Wheeler, promising that this time, after the deaths of 20 small children, the reaction would be different. “It wasn’t different,” Wheeler said.
Guttenberg’s older son, Jesse, is more quiet. Jaime had been the loud one, the feisty one, the silly one, the one who never stopped talking because she had so much to say. She was constantly on the phone with her mother. “If my daughter’s shoelace got untied, she would call my wife to tell her about it,” Guttenberg said. When the shooting happened, Jaime’s older brother called his father even as he was running away, worried that he could not find his sister. “Keep running,” his father told him. The two parents started texting and calling Jaime. No response. At first they guessed she might have dropped her phone. But then, as all the other kids found ways to reach their parents, they heard nothing. They drove to the hospital. She wasn’t there. Driving home Guttenberg got a call from one of his best friends, a Coral Springs Swat officer, who had been one of the first responders inside the school. His friend told him that they should meet at the Marriott Hotel, where students had been bussed to meet their friends and family. Guttenberg told his friend said he did not want to wait for news. “I can hear it in your voice,” Guttenberg told him. “And he broke down crying. He found my daughter. He was the one.” His wife was driving in a separate car behind him, and she could tell, just from what she could see of his demeanor in his rearview mirror, that something had changed. She called him on the phone: “You know something.” He wanted to wait to tell her. She would not wait. They pulled over to the side of the road. “That’s how my wife found out,” Guttenberg said. “At the side of the road.” “Imagine every worst possibility in your life,” he said, “and that’s what it felt like.” People grieve very differently. Guttenberg’s wife, who is intensely private, now has to deal not just with losing her child, but to losing her in a particularly horrific and public way. Some parents are like this. Others are like Guttenberg, turning outward, finding their best solace in relentless and articulate rage. In the wake of so many American mass killings, there have been a series of parents like him: the ones who come out swinging, the ones who seem impossibly strong in the early days of grief. “How can they do it?” people wonder. A week after his daughter’s murder, Guttenberg confronted his senator on live television without a pause or hesitation. In Washington, he is polite to senators, to staffers, to the people who tell him how brave he is, to the people who tell him they are praying for his family. He seems genuinely grateful for the support. It is important to remember that all of this is a coping mechanism. “The only time I don’t think about my daughter and just want to cry, to be honest, is when I’m busy doing this,” Guttenberg said. “At least I feel like I’m doing something to honor her memory.” He was in a back hallway in the Capitol basement, hastily eating a sandwich that a congressional staffer had given him before it was time to testify. Guttenberg would go on to tell the story of his daughter’s murder three different times in less than six hours, choking up most often as he explained that, in the ordinary chaos of sending her off to school on the last day of her life, he could not remember if he had actually told Jaime that he loved her. He would do most of this on his feet: standing at the hearing, standing for hours that night in front of a packed high school auditorium in Alexandria, Virginia, as a long line of adults and children, some as young as 10 and 11, shared their anger and their fear and their plans for staging walkouts on 14 March to protest about inaction on school shootings. Two Democratic congressman flanked Guttenberg. They had sat, briefly, on the stools provided them, and then stood, because he was standing. “Three weeks ago, I was just Jesse and Jaime’s dad,” he told the audience of hundreds. “I don’t sit when I discuss this.” “Every time one of these incidents happens, the conversation afterwards is always way too polite, way too comfortable and way too temporary.”
Pressure on politicians will reach a crescendo later this month when the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas lead the March For Our Lives in Washington on 24 March. Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend and more than 500 events will be staged across the US and around the world demanding measures to end gun violence and mass shootings. The activism from his daughter’s Stoneman Douglas classmates, and from kids all over the country, gives Guttenberg hope. Some of the students at TC Williams high school in Virginia were wearing and hanging out orange ribbons, like the one Guttenberg himself wore, a symbol of gun violence prevention, and Jaime’s favorite color. Earlier in the day, he had spent an hour with Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican whose support of assault weapons he had excoriated on television. He did not think Rubio’s views were changing, but he respected that Rubio had taken the time to meet with him face-to-face. Guttenberg carries around a screenshot of the latest ad from National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch, where she warned the NRA’s opponents, some of them by name, “Your time is running out.”
“If this was put out by a terrorist organization, we would be raising the terror threat level in this country. Why are we letting this lobby having anything to do with DC? I don’t understand it,” Guttenberg told Democratic senators at Wednesday’s hearing, his voice breaking with frustration. Before the hearing, in the hallway outside the conference room, Guttenberg had been even blunter. “All our legislators who stand with the NRA, they’re standing with a terrorist group,” he said.
Loesch has defended the ad as simply a promo for her new NRA TV show. She wrote on Twitter that it was “unproductive” to call millions of NRA members “terrorists” because “their choice of protecting their families is different from yours”. While he wants to ban assault weapons like the rifle used to kill his daughter, a ban is not actually Guttenberg’s top priority at the moment. “I don’t think it will ever happen in this environment,” he said. “As much as I would like to see that, I’m interested in taking steps to start dealing with the safety issue in a pragmatic way.” His current priorities are these: raising the age to buy guns – the shooter, who was 19, had been to buy a military-style rifle before he was legally allowed to have a beer; adding a waiting period before gun sales; ensuring a “truly effective” background check system for gun sales, with no loopholes; banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and bump stocks. He says guns should be treated more like cars, with mandatory licensing, registration and insurance – a policy that even Democrats like Obama had treated as too extreme to pursue. Guttenberg said that was ridiculous. “Anyone who says there’s no support for gun legislation that’s as minimal as that should be fired. That’s what I think.” He is not putting much faith in national politicians’ ability to stand up to the NRA. But corporate America has been “heroic”, with some major corporations ending special discounts for NRA members, and others voluntarily announcing they would raise the age for buying certain guns or resolving to stop selling assault-style rifles. As Guttenberg spoke to Senate Democrats, Florida’s legislature was in the process of passing its first serious gun control legislation in decades. It was “the bare minimum legislation”, he said, raising age limits for buying guns, creating a waiting period, and banning bump stocks, but the fact that any legislation passed in Florida, a pro-gun state, was a blow to the NRA’s “aura of strength” . The financial industry is next, Guttenberg hopes. He wanted to see all investment funds “divest themselves of these gun manufacturers and of companies that have relationships with the NRA”. This is his strategy: “Keep the pressure on the money.” Source: http://allofbeer.com/fred-guttenberg-will-not-sit-down-florida-father-demands-gun-reform/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/fred-guttenberg-will-not-sit-down-florida-father-demands-gun-reform/ In the last 15 years, agents with Customs and Border Protection have used deadly force in states up to 160 miles from the border, from Maine to California For six long years the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez have been caught in a legal saga seeking justice for the 16-year-old who was killed by a US border patrol agent who fired 16 times from Arizona into Mexico. Ending criminal proceedings that have dragged on since 2012, a jury last week cleared agent Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder and could not agree on a verdict for two lesser charges of manslaughter. The shooting has compelled judges up to the US supreme court to deliberate whether the American government can be sued in civil court for wrongful deaths on Mexican soil – placing the incident, and eight other cross-border fatal shootings, at the center of scrutiny surrounding the use of force by agents in response to allegedly thrown rocks. However, lesser known are similar shootings which have occurred inside the US. Such as that of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, who was shot and killed “execution-style”, in the language of a wrongful death complaint the government paid $850,000 to settle. An Arizona agent responding to an alert from the National Guard in 2007 alleged Rivera threatened him with a rock. Ten years later, the Department of Justice settled another wrongful death claim involving a rock-throwing allegation in California for $500,000. The shootings are only part of a larger litany of Customs and Border Protection agency-related violence inside the US. Encounters have proven deadly for at least 97 people – citizens and non-citizens – since 2003, a count drawn from settlement payment data, court records, use of force logs, incident reports and news articles. From Maine to Washington state and California to Florida, the deaths stem from all manner of CBP activity. Border agents manning land crossings and a checkpoint have used deadly force, as have agents conducting roving patrols – up to 160 miles inland from the border. Quick guideThe US border patrol forceShow Hide
How big is the force?
Already the largest and most funded federal law enforcement agency in its own right, the border patrol is part of the umbrella agency US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP’s approximately 60,000 employees are split in four major divisions: officers who inspect imports; an air and marine division; agents who staff ports of entry – international airports, seaports and land crossings; and the approximately 20,000 agents of the border patrol, who are concentrated in the south-west, but stationed nationwide.
What are its powers?
The border patrol enjoys extraordinary police powers. Agents operate checkpoints where they stop motorists everyday without suspicion, and in the interior of the country up to 100 miles, they can board planes, trains and buses. There is no geographic limit to which agents can otherwise conduct stops amid roving patrols, though they are technically required to have reasonable suspicion to do so. Extending from not only land borders but also the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf and Great Lakes coasts, the 100-mile zone encompasses two out of every three Americans, 12 states in their whole or near entirety and nine of the 10 biggest cities in the nation. Pedestrians were run over by agents. Car chases culminated in crashes. Some have drowned, others died after they were pepper-sprayed, stunned with tasers or beaten. But the majority of victims died from bullet wounds, including shots in the back. The bullets were fired not only by agents conducting border enforcement operations, but also those acting in a local law enforcement capacity and by agents off-duty, who’ve shot burglary suspects, intimate partners and friends. Among the incidents, one agent also died following an exchange of gunfire with a family member who was found dead. Another agent was killed by friendly fire. Border agents sustained non-deadly shots in two incidents. The picture compiled from official documents and news reports is incomplete, but indicates that at least 28 people who died were US citizens. Six children, between the ages of 12 and 16, were among the victims whose ages were disclosed. The federal government has paid more than $9m to settle a fraction of the incidents thus far. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not comment on those cases but pointed to the agency’s National Use of Force Review Board, which has investigated 30 significant incidents since June 2015. Each of its 17 reports made public have found the use of force to be compliant with agency policy in effect at the time. Local boards also review incidents, but only those that do not result in serious injury or death. Here, the Guardian looks at eight fatal encounters with CBP agents that happened inside the United States and the larger patterns of incidents to which they relate. Agents getting in harm’s wayA US citizen and mother of five, 32-year-old Valeria Munique Tachiquin Alvarado was shot and killed by Justin Tackett, a border patrol agent and former police officer, in a suburb of San Diego, California in the fall of 2012. At the time of press, a wrongful death suit filed by Alvarado’s family was nearing judgement after four years of litigation. According to court records Alvarado attempted to drive away from an apartment where Tackett and six other plainclothes agents had begun questioning her and others without a warrant. After Tackett climbed on and then off the hood of Alvarado’s car, her family’s suit alleges, she attempted to reverse away from the agent, who fired at Alvarado 10 times, hitting her nine. “A part of me was taken away and there hasn’t been justice,” Alvarado’s mother Annabell Gomez told Guardian. “Everyday I wish it was a dream, but I wake up and she’s not here. Life is not the same without her smile,” said Gomez. “She loved her kids and life.” As a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Imperial county in the years prior, Tackett was suspended four times following a string of incidents that took place in the span of 19 months, involving unlawful searches, illegal detentions and reckless behavior, before he resigned upon receiving a termination notice, court documents detail. A review of 15 CBP shootings, each targeting the drivers of moving vehicles over the course of two years, was conducted the year after Alvarado’s death by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). A nonprofit overseen by a board of police chiefs, that was commissioned by CBP to study its use of force policy, PERF found that in many cases, border agents “intentionally put themselves in the exit path of the vehicle”, thereby “creating justification for the use of deadly force”, with some shots “taken out of frustration”. Unreasonable forceSettled by the Department of Justice under attorney general Jeff Sessions for $500,000 in 2017, the shooting of 41-year-old unarmed father of two Julian Ramirez Galindo took place near the California border in February 2014. Agent Daniel Bassinger alleged that Galindo, who was a street musician in Tijuana, hurled a basketball-sized rock at him from above. But according to the family’s lawyer Scott Hughes, the medical examiner’s report is at odds with the agent’s version of events, detailing a man of slight stature who died from two downward trajectory bullet wounds. PERF’s review of CBP’s use of force policy the year prior recommended a revision prohibiting deadly force against “subjects throwing objects not capable of causing serious physical injury or death”, citing that in some cases, “agents put themselves in harm’s way” instead of moving out of range. “Too many cases do not appear to meet the test of objective reasonableness,” the report notes, recommending corrective action be taken if agents use deadly force when alternative responses are possible. Bassinger was back at work within six days, NBC San Diego reported. One month later, then CBP chief Michael Fisher enacted PERF’s recommendations. But the lawyer Hughes, a former military police officer, thinks the problem runs far deeper. “We can no longer tolerate shooting unarmed people in the United States,” he told The Guardian. “These officers are woefully under-trained,” he said. “They find themselves in situations they don’t know how to react in and they resort to shooting their way out. When in fact, they really don’t need to.” Shootings found to be justifiedIn May 2014, unarmed 31-year-old Jose Luis Arambula died in a pecan grove in his native Arizona, shot behind his left ear. After bailing from a car later found to be filled with marijuana, Arambula ran from agents before one fired at him multiple times from a distance of 60-70ft, according to the local Pima county sheriff’s office, which investigated the shooting. That office, citing the agents’ account that Arambula made a “punching out” motion towards them, found deadly force to be justified. But in the view of lawyer Jesus Romo Vejar, who filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Arambula’s mother, the scenario was quite different. “It was a bad shooting,” he said. The case is among a set of shootings that have been dismissed on technicalities or in favor of the defendant agents, including suits filed by the family of unarmed 18-year-old citizen Juan Mendez, who was shot in the back from a distance while running from an agent in Texas in 2010; unarmed 20-year-old Gerardo Lozano Rico, who was also shot in Texas in a fleeing car in 2011; unarmed 19-year-old citizen Carlos Lamadrid, who was shot in the back while climbing a ladder at the border fence in Arizona in 2011. In many cases, “the facts are favorable”, said the lawyer Vejar. “But the judges are not favorably deposed.” Northern statesIn one of at least eight fatal encounters in northern border states, 30-year-old Alex Martinez, a US citizen from Washington state who had a mental illness, was shot 13 times after his Spanish-speaking father called 911 in 2011, according to a complaint sent to the attorney general and secretary of homeland security in 2013. Describing the border patrol’s arrival alongside local law enforcement officers, Martinez’s father told local community organizers: “The first thing they asked was, ‘Is he from here or is he from Mexico?’” Local law enforcement alleged that Martinez hit a sheriff’s deputy with a hammer, reported a Washington newspaper. But his family disputed that account, saying that Martinez held a flashlight and tripped. “We saw it with our own eyes and without there being any need for it,” said his father. “They did something unjust. Something that should not be taken lightly,” he said. “And border patrol did it all.” The local sheriff’s office found the shooting to be justified. An agent stationed in Michigan shot and killed a person at a card game while off duty. In Minnesota, a pedestrian died after a fatal accident involving a car driven by a border agent. On-duty border agents serving as back-up to local law enforcement have shot and killed two people in separate incidents in Maine, both involving armed men of whom one fired at agents, according to the state’s attorney general which found the shootings to be justified. In Montana, agents on patrol shot Jeff Suddeth, a US citizen who they said had a stun gun. At the inquest which cleared agents of wrongdoing, Suddeth’s mother, who described her son as bipolar, told local media: “He lived 36 years, and in 15 minutes they took his life. I guess that’s the law.” Unrelated to border enforcementIn an incident unrelated to immigration enforcement, 21-year-old US citizen Steven Martin was shot and killed in Yuma, Arizona in 2008. An agent was driving by the gas station, where Martin was parked, when a friend, who was black, allegedly ran out of the store holding two cases of beer. The agent fired on Martin’s car, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his mother. The suit also alleged that the agent did not subsequently request medical help for Martin, who was bleeding on the scene and died four hours later, on Christmas Eve. The case settled for $350,000 in 2013. With the exception of “regulations prescribed by the attorney general”, border agents with reasonable grounds have the authority to make non-immigration arrests, “for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States”, under the Immigration and Nationality Act. No such regulations can be readily identified however, and the Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Every year over Memorial Day weekend, Martin’s family gathers to celebrate his memory. “My son was an amazing person who had a heart of gold,” his mother said. “He would give his last dollar to help someone out. He was a hard worker, spent his money on his cousins and sister and brother. He loved being around his nephew and would have loved to meet his nieces. There are still times I don’t know how I can go on without him.” ‘Non-lethal’ forcePicked up by agents more than 70 miles from the border, in Orange county, California, Tomas Orzuna was denied medical care after agents beat, pepper-sprayed and then handcuffed him in a suffocating, face-down position, according to a lawsuit brought by Orzuna’s parents, which does not specify his age. Force considered non-lethal has proven otherwise in a variety of circumstances. A man was pepper-sprayed at the Rio Grande river and then drowned. A man was hit with a stun gun inside a rental car and it immediately exploded. Four men were Tasered or beaten in separate incidents and then died. Agents fired explosives at a boat filled with migrants and one woman drowned. Deaths have also occurred through alleged neglect or malice. A mother and her 16-year-old daughter drowned after agents ordered them to swim back across the Rio Grande river. Another 16-year-old was compelled to drink liquid meth by agents, after telling them it was juice, and died. An on-site paramedic at a border patrol station assessed that a man in custody was faking a seizure, a report by the San Diego medical examiner’s office detailed, but he had ingested a packet of drugs and died after being left alone in his cell.
Among cases which have settled, payments vary widely. Orzuna’s parents received $15,000 in 2012. The family of Anastacio Hernandez-Rojas received a $1m settlement in 2017. Beaten and Tasered five times, at a land crossing in California, Hernandez-Rojas’ cries for help were captured on video.
High-speed crashesIn August 2017, 18-year-old Israel Caballero, a US citizen, was among three people killed in a crash following a high-speed border patrol pursuit outside of San Diego, California. Initially stating that a license plate check linked the car to a homicide, the border patrol has since said no one in the vehicle was wanted of any crimes. The father of a one-year-old, Caballero worked as a landscaper, following a stint of competitive boxing throughout his youth. “What happened to him was totally devastating,” coach Juan Medina said of the former champion. “Israel was a very respectful young man.” The incident is the latest among a string of fatal crashes that raise questions about CBP’s stated vehicle pursuit policy, which dictates that agents can commence and continue emergency driving only as long as the benefits outweigh the immediate danger posed. In an Arizona crash resulting in a $350,000 wrongful death settlement, a car flipped when agents in pursuit threw a tire deflation device in the road, killing a 40-year-old mother of three. In a Texas crash, an eyewitness testified in court that a CBP vehicle bumped into the van they were pursuing. The crash left bodies and personal belongings strewn across a highway, resulting in nine fatalities. “When it comes to human smuggling it becomes tough,” a Texas police chief told the AP regarding pursuits. “You do look at it in a way that these people were just trying to come here to have a better life,” he said.
Off-duty shootingsShot by an off-duty CBP agent using his service weapon, 15-year-old Darius Smith died near a train station in a suburb of Los Angeles in May 2015. The Los Angeles county sheriff’s office said it would not release video of the incident, but that the video backed up the agent’s account that Smith and two other teens attempted to rob him. Conflicting details swirl around a bb gun investigators say they found “close by” Smith’s body – but was not spotted by a man who held the teen’s hand until paramedics arrived, the Los Angeles Times reported. A football player at his high school, Smith dreamed of making it to the NFL his mother told local media. “He always had a smile on his face,” said a friend who now plays college football, dedicating his games in Smith’s honor.
The incident is among ten off-duty shootings by CBP agents since 2005 identified by the Guardian. Since early 2018, a Texas border patrol supervisor was charged with murdering his romantic partner and her one-year-old son. A CBP officer in Miami shot and killed a man who entered her home, suspected of burglary, and a Texas agent shot a man described as a childhood friend. Previous years have seen the federal government pay a $750,000 settlement to the family of Bassim Chmait, a 20-year-old Arab American; and an agent was incarcerated after shooting 27-year-old Adam Thomas, a father of two. Both men were the neighbors of agents, while a number of other off-duty fatal shootings have involved intimate partner violence and domestic disputes.
from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/fatal-encounters-97-deaths-point-to-pattern-of-border-agent-violence-across-america/ “I don’t want my final book to be a piece of crap. At the end of his life, Mark Twain was writing mostly crap.” So wrote Kurt Vonnegut in a 1995 letter, as he grappled with “a premise I’m too fogbound to exploit properly.” That premise: the whole world is forced to relive its past ten years of life…and then the really hard stuff starts. By 1997, Vonnegut had found the way to do that premise. He did it by blowing it up, putting himself into it, and reimagining what a novel could be. Timequake became Vonnegut’s final novel. It also might be his most fascinating. Join the Kurt Vonneguys Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim as they deconstruct Vonnegut’s most-deconstructed novel. It’s a whirl of science fiction brilliance, artistic futility, and a “natural” disaster that gets even stranger after it’s over. And guess what: there’s beer! Plot Time (00:01:00) Kurt Blurt (00:26:30) Recurring Characters Update (01:15:20) Kurt Cameo (01:16:50) VonneART(01:18:30) Vonne-Amendments (01:23:00) VonneWHAT (01:28:10) The Meat (01:59:40) VonneGRADES (02:11:20) Related Reading (02:15:15) Related Reading: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders) Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (Netflix) Born Standing Up (Steve Martin) Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams) A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams) Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Eugene O’Neill) Source: http://allofbeer.com/vonnegut-book-club-timequake/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/vonnegut-book-club-timequake/ The most important news of last week was, of course, that The Good Place writer, and Twitter master, Megan Amram got one step closer to her dream of winning an Emmy. It was that or the massive protests against President Donald Trump when he arrived in the UK, complete with the massive Trump Baby balloon which will surely go so viral that everyone will be sick of it within a week. What else would we talk about? England losing its World Cup semi-final? Twitter's bot purge? That would be ludicrous. Instead, come with me now, dear reader. It's time to explore what the blinkin' heck everyone's been yapping their digital gums about over the past seven days. The New Supreme (Court Nominee): RevealedWhat Happened: As promised, the next nominee for the US Supreme Court was named live on television, and the internet got into its feelings about the choice. What Really Happened: Longtime readers may or may not recall that, as last week started, the US was anxiously awaiting the announcement of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Because it’s this particular president, it was announced that he'd reveal the name live on television on Monday evening in prime time. But, as with all great TV reveals, this one was spoiled online ahead of time. If that rattled President Trump, he didn’t let it show when it came to the actual announcement, which seemed to go as planned. So, yes! The selection was Brett Kavanaugh, launching a plethora of explainers about who he is. Given that conservatives were pushing against his selection, some were wondering why the president selected Kavanaugh in the end. Well, OK, sure, but maybe it wasn’t really about th-- Well, that makes sense. Of course, there’s also the impact he could have on Roe v. Wade (Spoilers: It doesn’t look good), which is what many are concerned about. But, really, what do we know about Kavanaugh? Apparently, he's a great carpool dad and his former teacher likes him, but where's the interesting stuff? Go on… If this is the kind of thing that comes out in the first week after Kavanaugh was named, we can only imagine what kinds of things are lying in wait. The Takeaway: It’s going to be a very long confirmation process, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Over at the NATO Summit…What Happened: To the surprise of a dwindling few, President Trump’s latest appearance at an international summit was a rocky ride. And that's not even getting into the apparently lousy NATO breakfasts! What Really Happened: After nominating his Supreme Court pick, Trump hightailed it out of the country. It wasn't because he was running away from the whole thing, but because there was a NATO meeting to harass. Wait. Sorry, attend. As he headed out, Trump did his best to downplay the impression that he wasn’t into the Western alliance, and preferred Russia. This comment seems all the worse considering that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the DNC and also a state's election records on Friday, but it's not as if the president knew that in advance, aside from the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point of telling everyone that he told him. But let's put that aside for now. For those wondering if things got better when Trump arrived at the NATO meeting, well… So, yes, the president went after Germany for being "controlled" by Russia, but some were distracted, having noticed that the current White House Chief of Staff didn’t look too happy with what was going on. But the White House had the, uh… "true" story of what was behind that reaction, apparently. Yeah… that seems utterly convincing and no one thought it seemed laughable at all. After all that, the only way was up, and the rest of the summit went perfectly. Or, at least, that’s what the president said as he was leaving. To the surprise of many, the President didn’t actually have his facts straight… Even beyond the failure of basic math, the reality might be something different, especially if you consider the emergency session he provoked. Oh, and the fact that the extra defense spending Trump was boasting about might be fictional. Still, at least the president and the White House are happy. Let’s not talk about reports that the Pentagon is in "damage control" mode and that Trump’s private behavior was at odds with his public anger, cool? The Takeaway: Back in the US, some Republican politicians were watching what was happening and getting so close to an epiphany about the whole thing… Come Out of the Darkness, BabyWhat Happened: In a rare moment of good news, the 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand saw the light of day last week, literally. And all without a submarine! What Really Happened: Let's stay outside of the US for a little bit and consider some good news for a change. In Thailand, 12 kids and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave were discovered last week after being missing for nine days. Rescue attempts had been delayed because of the health of the kids, but finally got underway at the start of the week. Indeed, the initial success of the rescue surprised some: As an amazing Twitter thread explained, the rescue was not going to be easy, no matter what. Here are some highlights from the thread, but you should check out the whole thing. Within a couple of days, amazingly, it was all over—and in a good way, with everyone rescued safely. The next day, footage of the rescued kids was released as they waved to their parents. It wasn’t, sadly, a story with no casualties; Saman Kunan, one of the divers working on the rescue efforts, died in the process, tragically. While all this was going on, Elon Musk was getting in on the action with an idea for a mini-submarine. Although the sub was deemed "not practical" for the job at hand, apparently it may yet be used. But what might be the most interesting, and unlikely, takeaway from this is that Elon Musk apparently can't resist a dare. Wait. Could this somehow end up being a story with two happy endings? Stay tuned. The Takeaway: Meanwhile, in the US, authorities failed to meet the court-mandated deadline to reunite migrant children under 5 separated from their families at the border with their parents. So, not every kid gets a happy ending. The Rematch You Didn’t Know You WantedWhat Happened: It was a second round of FBI agent Peter Strzok vs. the House of Representatives last week, and unlike the first, this one was public. It got ugly, humiliating and… well, good viewing, it can’t be denied. What Really Happened: FBI agent Peter Strzok was back in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Thursday, in theory to talk about his actions in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and potential Russian intervention in the 2016 election. In reality, it was … well, a lot more personal. Before the hearing started, America's journalists were all over the most important issue at hand: But never mind pronunciation concerns, because the hearing was filled with fireworks to distract from any concerns about how to say someone's name. Of course, the media was all over what was unfolding in front of everyone, and even though the general consensus—aside from those who paid attention to Fox News, although even there some weren’t into it—was that it was an embarrassing moment for the Republicans, and a long and exhausting time was had by all. Still, at least everyone was glad that it was happening, right? The Takeaway: Let’s look to Mother Jones journalist David Corn, named in the hearings as a potential source for the infamous Russia dossier, for the Galaxy Brain view of what happened on Thursday, shall we? Doing That Thing You DoWhat Happened: Not everyone fully understands how journalism works, but most of them aren’t politicians at the center of a scandal who go on Twitter to boast about that fact. What Really Happened: Jim Jordan, Republican congressman for Ohio's 4th district, has not been having a good week. He’s been named by multiple parties as someone who knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State University when he was assistant wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and has repeatedly denied it even as additional allegations surface. Jordan went on to claim that CNN's reporting on the story was an attempt to drum up fake news, which, um, doesn't quite compute? It was a tweet that quickly went viral, for obvious reasons. And the response wasn’t limited to Twitter, either. The Takeaway: To make matters worse, someone popped up to remind Jordan that he has appeared on CNN multiple times in the past. More Great WIRED Stories
Source: http://allofbeer.com/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee-5/ The most important news of last week was, of course, that The Good Place writer, and Twitter master, Megan Amram got one step closer to her dream of winning an Emmy. It was that or the massive protests against President Donald Trump when he arrived in the UK, complete with the massive Trump Baby balloon which will surely go so viral that everyone will be sick of it within a week. What else would we talk about? England losing its World Cup semi-final? Twitter's bot purge? That would be ludicrous. Instead, come with me now, dear reader. It's time to explore what the blinkin' heck everyone's been yapping their digital gums about over the past seven days. The New Supreme (Court Nominee): RevealedWhat Happened: As promised, the next nominee for the US Supreme Court was named live on television, and the internet got into its feelings about the choice. What Really Happened: Longtime readers may or may not recall that, as last week started, the US was anxiously awaiting the announcement of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Because it’s this particular president, it was announced that he'd reveal the name live on television on Monday evening in prime time. But, as with all great TV reveals, this one was spoiled online ahead of time. If that rattled President Trump, he didn’t let it show when it came to the actual announcement, which seemed to go as planned. So, yes! The selection was Brett Kavanaugh, launching a plethora of explainers about who he is. Given that conservatives were pushing against his selection, some were wondering why the president selected Kavanaugh in the end. Well, OK, sure, but maybe it wasn’t really about th-- Well, that makes sense. Of course, there’s also the impact he could have on Roe v. Wade (Spoilers: It doesn’t look good), which is what many are concerned about. But, really, what do we know about Kavanaugh? Apparently, he's a great carpool dad and his former teacher likes him, but where's the interesting stuff? Go on… If this is the kind of thing that comes out in the first week after Kavanaugh was named, we can only imagine what kinds of things are lying in wait. The Takeaway: It’s going to be a very long confirmation process, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Over at the NATO Summit…What Happened: To the surprise of a dwindling few, President Trump’s latest appearance at an international summit was a rocky ride. And that's not even getting into the apparently lousy NATO breakfasts! What Really Happened: After nominating his Supreme Court pick, Trump hightailed it out of the country. It wasn't because he was running away from the whole thing, but because there was a NATO meeting to harass. Wait. Sorry, attend. As he headed out, Trump did his best to downplay the impression that he wasn’t into the Western alliance, and preferred Russia. This comment seems all the worse considering that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the DNC and also a state's election records on Friday, but it's not as if the president knew that in advance, aside from the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point of telling everyone that he told him. But let's put that aside for now. For those wondering if things got better when Trump arrived at the NATO meeting, well… So, yes, the president went after Germany for being "controlled" by Russia, but some were distracted, having noticed that the current White House Chief of Staff didn’t look too happy with what was going on. But the White House had the, uh… "true" story of what was behind that reaction, apparently. Yeah… that seems utterly convincing and no one thought it seemed laughable at all. After all that, the only way was up, and the rest of the summit went perfectly. Or, at least, that’s what the president said as he was leaving. To the surprise of many, the President didn’t actually have his facts straight… Even beyond the failure of basic math, the reality might be something different, especially if you consider the emergency session he provoked. Oh, and the fact that the extra defense spending Trump was boasting about might be fictional. Still, at least the president and the White House are happy. Let’s not talk about reports that the Pentagon is in "damage control" mode and that Trump’s private behavior was at odds with his public anger, cool? The Takeaway: Back in the US, some Republican politicians were watching what was happening and getting so close to an epiphany about the whole thing… Come Out of the Darkness, BabyWhat Happened: In a rare moment of good news, the 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand saw the light of day last week, literally. And all without a submarine! What Really Happened: Let's stay outside of the US for a little bit and consider some good news for a change. In Thailand, 12 kids and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave were discovered last week after being missing for nine days. Rescue attempts had been delayed because of the health of the kids, but finally got underway at the start of the week. Indeed, the initial success of the rescue surprised some: As an amazing Twitter thread explained, the rescue was not going to be easy, no matter what. Here are some highlights from the thread, but you should check out the whole thing. Within a couple of days, amazingly, it was all over—and in a good way, with everyone rescued safely. The next day, footage of the rescued kids was released as they waved to their parents. It wasn’t, sadly, a story with no casualties; Saman Kunan, one of the divers working on the rescue efforts, died in the process, tragically. While all this was going on, Elon Musk was getting in on the action with an idea for a mini-submarine. Although the sub was deemed "not practical" for the job at hand, apparently it may yet be used. But what might be the most interesting, and unlikely, takeaway from this is that Elon Musk apparently can't resist a dare. Wait. Could this somehow end up being a story with two happy endings? Stay tuned. The Takeaway: Meanwhile, in the US, authorities failed to meet the court-mandated deadline to reunite migrant children under 5 separated from their families at the border with their parents. So, not every kid gets a happy ending. The Rematch You Didn’t Know You WantedWhat Happened: It was a second round of FBI agent Peter Strzok vs. the House of Representatives last week, and unlike the first, this one was public. It got ugly, humiliating and… well, good viewing, it can’t be denied. What Really Happened: FBI agent Peter Strzok was back in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Thursday, in theory to talk about his actions in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and potential Russian intervention in the 2016 election. In reality, it was … well, a lot more personal. Before the hearing started, America's journalists were all over the most important issue at hand: But never mind pronunciation concerns, because the hearing was filled with fireworks to distract from any concerns about how to say someone's name. Of course, the media was all over what was unfolding in front of everyone, and even though the general consensus—aside from those who paid attention to Fox News, although even there some weren’t into it—was that it was an embarrassing moment for the Republicans, and a long and exhausting time was had by all. Still, at least everyone was glad that it was happening, right? The Takeaway: Let’s look to Mother Jones journalist David Corn, named in the hearings as a potential source for the infamous Russia dossier, for the Galaxy Brain view of what happened on Thursday, shall we? Doing That Thing You DoWhat Happened: Not everyone fully understands how journalism works, but most of them aren’t politicians at the center of a scandal who go on Twitter to boast about that fact. What Really Happened: Jim Jordan, Republican congressman for Ohio's 4th district, has not been having a good week. He’s been named by multiple parties as someone who knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State University when he was assistant wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and has repeatedly denied it even as additional allegations surface. Jordan went on to claim that CNN's reporting on the story was an attempt to drum up fake news, which, um, doesn't quite compute? It was a tweet that quickly went viral, for obvious reasons. And the response wasn’t limited to Twitter, either. The Takeaway: To make matters worse, someone popped up to remind Jordan that he has appeared on CNN multiple times in the past. More Great WIRED Stories
Source: http://allofbeer.com/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee-4/ The most important news of last week was, of course, that The Good Place writer, and Twitter master, Megan Amram got one step closer to her dream of winning an Emmy. It was that or the massive protests against President Donald Trump when he arrived in the UK, complete with the massive Trump Baby balloon which will surely go so viral that everyone will be sick of it within a week. What else would we talk about? England losing its World Cup semi-final? Twitter's bot purge? That would be ludicrous. Instead, come with me now, dear reader. It's time to explore what the blinkin' heck everyone's been yapping their digital gums about over the past seven days. The New Supreme (Court Nominee): RevealedWhat Happened: As promised, the next nominee for the US Supreme Court was named live on television, and the internet got into its feelings about the choice. What Really Happened: Longtime readers may or may not recall that, as last week started, the US was anxiously awaiting the announcement of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Because it’s this particular president, it was announced that he'd reveal the name live on television on Monday evening in prime time. But, as with all great TV reveals, this one was spoiled online ahead of time. If that rattled President Trump, he didn’t let it show when it came to the actual announcement, which seemed to go as planned. So, yes! The selection was Brett Kavanaugh, launching a plethora of explainers about who he is. Given that conservatives were pushing against his selection, some were wondering why the president selected Kavanaugh in the end. Well, OK, sure, but maybe it wasn’t really about th-- Well, that makes sense. Of course, there’s also the impact he could have on Roe v. Wade (Spoilers: It doesn’t look good), which is what many are concerned about. But, really, what do we know about Kavanaugh? Apparently, he's a great carpool dad and his former teacher likes him, but where's the interesting stuff? Go on… If this is the kind of thing that comes out in the first week after Kavanaugh was named, we can only imagine what kinds of things are lying in wait. The Takeaway: It’s going to be a very long confirmation process, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Over at the NATO Summit…What Happened: To the surprise of a dwindling few, President Trump’s latest appearance at an international summit was a rocky ride. And that's not even getting into the apparently lousy NATO breakfasts! What Really Happened: After nominating his Supreme Court pick, Trump hightailed it out of the country. It wasn't because he was running away from the whole thing, but because there was a NATO meeting to harass. Wait. Sorry, attend. As he headed out, Trump did his best to downplay the impression that he wasn’t into the Western alliance, and preferred Russia. This comment seems all the worse considering that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the DNC and also a state's election records on Friday, but it's not as if the president knew that in advance, aside from the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point of telling everyone that he told him. But let's put that aside for now. For those wondering if things got better when Trump arrived at the NATO meeting, well… So, yes, the president went after Germany for being "controlled" by Russia, but some were distracted, having noticed that the current White House Chief of Staff didn’t look too happy with what was going on. But the White House had the, uh… "true" story of what was behind that reaction, apparently. Yeah… that seems utterly convincing and no one thought it seemed laughable at all. After all that, the only way was up, and the rest of the summit went perfectly. Or, at least, that’s what the president said as he was leaving. To the surprise of many, the President didn’t actually have his facts straight… Even beyond the failure of basic math, the reality might be something different, especially if you consider the emergency session he provoked. Oh, and the fact that the extra defense spending Trump was boasting about might be fictional. Still, at least the president and the White House are happy. Let’s not talk about reports that the Pentagon is in "damage control" mode and that Trump’s private behavior was at odds with his public anger, cool? The Takeaway: Back in the US, some Republican politicians were watching what was happening and getting so close to an epiphany about the whole thing… Come Out of the Darkness, BabyWhat Happened: In a rare moment of good news, the 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand saw the light of day last week, literally. And all without a submarine! What Really Happened: Let's stay outside of the US for a little bit and consider some good news for a change. In Thailand, 12 kids and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave were discovered last week after being missing for nine days. Rescue attempts had been delayed because of the health of the kids, but finally got underway at the start of the week. Indeed, the initial success of the rescue surprised some: As an amazing Twitter thread explained, the rescue was not going to be easy, no matter what. Here are some highlights from the thread, but you should check out the whole thing. Within a couple of days, amazingly, it was all over—and in a good way, with everyone rescued safely. The next day, footage of the rescued kids was released as they waved to their parents. It wasn’t, sadly, a story with no casualties; Saman Kunan, one of the divers working on the rescue efforts, died in the process, tragically. While all this was going on, Elon Musk was getting in on the action with an idea for a mini-submarine. Although the sub was deemed "not practical" for the job at hand, apparently it may yet be used. But what might be the most interesting, and unlikely, takeaway from this is that Elon Musk apparently can't resist a dare. Wait. Could this somehow end up being a story with two happy endings? Stay tuned. The Takeaway: Meanwhile, in the US, authorities failed to meet the court-mandated deadline to reunite migrant children under 5 separated from their families at the border with their parents. So, not every kid gets a happy ending. The Rematch You Didn’t Know You WantedWhat Happened: It was a second round of FBI agent Peter Strzok vs. the House of Representatives last week, and unlike the first, this one was public. It got ugly, humiliating and… well, good viewing, it can’t be denied. What Really Happened: FBI agent Peter Strzok was back in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Thursday, in theory to talk about his actions in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and potential Russian intervention in the 2016 election. In reality, it was … well, a lot more personal. Before the hearing started, America's journalists were all over the most important issue at hand: But never mind pronunciation concerns, because the hearing was filled with fireworks to distract from any concerns about how to say someone's name. Of course, the media was all over what was unfolding in front of everyone, and even though the general consensus—aside from those who paid attention to Fox News, although even there some weren’t into it—was that it was an embarrassing moment for the Republicans, and a long and exhausting time was had by all. Still, at least everyone was glad that it was happening, right? The Takeaway: Let’s look to Mother Jones journalist David Corn, named in the hearings as a potential source for the infamous Russia dossier, for the Galaxy Brain view of what happened on Thursday, shall we? Doing That Thing You DoWhat Happened: Not everyone fully understands how journalism works, but most of them aren’t politicians at the center of a scandal who go on Twitter to boast about that fact. What Really Happened: Jim Jordan, Republican congressman for Ohio's 4th district, has not been having a good week. He’s been named by multiple parties as someone who knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State University when he was assistant wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and has repeatedly denied it even as additional allegations surface. Jordan went on to claim that CNN's reporting on the story was an attempt to drum up fake news, which, um, doesn't quite compute? It was a tweet that quickly went viral, for obvious reasons. And the response wasn’t limited to Twitter, either. The Takeaway: To make matters worse, someone popped up to remind Jordan that he has appeared on CNN multiple times in the past. More Great WIRED Stories
Source: http://allofbeer.com/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee-3/ The most important news of last week was, of course, that The Good Place writer, and Twitter master, Megan Amram got one step closer to her dream of winning an Emmy. It was that or the massive protests against President Donald Trump when he arrived in the UK, complete with the massive Trump Baby balloon which will surely go so viral that everyone will be sick of it within a week. What else would we talk about? England losing its World Cup semi-final? Twitter's bot purge? That would be ludicrous. Instead, come with me now, dear reader. It's time to explore what the blinkin' heck everyone's been yapping their digital gums about over the past seven days. The New Supreme (Court Nominee): RevealedWhat Happened: As promised, the next nominee for the US Supreme Court was named live on television, and the internet got into its feelings about the choice. What Really Happened: Longtime readers may or may not recall that, as last week started, the US was anxiously awaiting the announcement of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Because it’s this particular president, it was announced that he'd reveal the name live on television on Monday evening in prime time. But, as with all great TV reveals, this one was spoiled online ahead of time. If that rattled President Trump, he didn’t let it show when it came to the actual announcement, which seemed to go as planned. So, yes! The selection was Brett Kavanaugh, launching a plethora of explainers about who he is. Given that conservatives were pushing against his selection, some were wondering why the president selected Kavanaugh in the end. Well, OK, sure, but maybe it wasn’t really about th-- Well, that makes sense. Of course, there’s also the impact he could have on Roe v. Wade (Spoilers: It doesn’t look good), which is what many are concerned about. But, really, what do we know about Kavanaugh? Apparently, he's a great carpool dad and his former teacher likes him, but where's the interesting stuff? Go on… If this is the kind of thing that comes out in the first week after Kavanaugh was named, we can only imagine what kinds of things are lying in wait. The Takeaway: It’s going to be a very long confirmation process, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Over at the NATO Summit…What Happened: To the surprise of a dwindling few, President Trump’s latest appearance at an international summit was a rocky ride. And that's not even getting into the apparently lousy NATO breakfasts! What Really Happened: After nominating his Supreme Court pick, Trump hightailed it out of the country. It wasn't because he was running away from the whole thing, but because there was a NATO meeting to harass. Wait. Sorry, attend. As he headed out, Trump did his best to downplay the impression that he wasn’t into the Western alliance, and preferred Russia. This comment seems all the worse considering that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the DNC and also a state's election records on Friday, but it's not as if the president knew that in advance, aside from the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point of telling everyone that he told him. But let's put that aside for now. For those wondering if things got better when Trump arrived at the NATO meeting, well… So, yes, the president went after Germany for being "controlled" by Russia, but some were distracted, having noticed that the current White House Chief of Staff didn’t look too happy with what was going on. But the White House had the, uh… "true" story of what was behind that reaction, apparently. Yeah… that seems utterly convincing and no one thought it seemed laughable at all. After all that, the only way was up, and the rest of the summit went perfectly. Or, at least, that’s what the president said as he was leaving. To the surprise of many, the President didn’t actually have his facts straight… Even beyond the failure of basic math, the reality might be something different, especially if you consider the emergency session he provoked. Oh, and the fact that the extra defense spending Trump was boasting about might be fictional. Still, at least the president and the White House are happy. Let’s not talk about reports that the Pentagon is in "damage control" mode and that Trump’s private behavior was at odds with his public anger, cool? The Takeaway: Back in the US, some Republican politicians were watching what was happening and getting so close to an epiphany about the whole thing… Come Out of the Darkness, BabyWhat Happened: In a rare moment of good news, the 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand saw the light of day last week, literally. And all without a submarine! What Really Happened: Let's stay outside of the US for a little bit and consider some good news for a change. In Thailand, 12 kids and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave were discovered last week after being missing for nine days. Rescue attempts had been delayed because of the health of the kids, but finally got underway at the start of the week. Indeed, the initial success of the rescue surprised some: As an amazing Twitter thread explained, the rescue was not going to be easy, no matter what. Here are some highlights from the thread, but you should check out the whole thing. Within a couple of days, amazingly, it was all over—and in a good way, with everyone rescued safely. The next day, footage of the rescued kids was released as they waved to their parents. It wasn’t, sadly, a story with no casualties; Saman Kunan, one of the divers working on the rescue efforts, died in the process, tragically. While all this was going on, Elon Musk was getting in on the action with an idea for a mini-submarine. Although the sub was deemed "not practical" for the job at hand, apparently it may yet be used. But what might be the most interesting, and unlikely, takeaway from this is that Elon Musk apparently can't resist a dare. Wait. Could this somehow end up being a story with two happy endings? Stay tuned. The Takeaway: Meanwhile, in the US, authorities failed to meet the court-mandated deadline to reunite migrant children under 5 separated from their families at the border with their parents. So, not every kid gets a happy ending. The Rematch You Didn’t Know You WantedWhat Happened: It was a second round of FBI agent Peter Strzok vs. the House of Representatives last week, and unlike the first, this one was public. It got ugly, humiliating and… well, good viewing, it can’t be denied. What Really Happened: FBI agent Peter Strzok was back in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Thursday, in theory to talk about his actions in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and potential Russian intervention in the 2016 election. In reality, it was … well, a lot more personal. Before the hearing started, America's journalists were all over the most important issue at hand: But never mind pronunciation concerns, because the hearing was filled with fireworks to distract from any concerns about how to say someone's name. Of course, the media was all over what was unfolding in front of everyone, and even though the general consensus—aside from those who paid attention to Fox News, although even there some weren’t into it—was that it was an embarrassing moment for the Republicans, and a long and exhausting time was had by all. Still, at least everyone was glad that it was happening, right? The Takeaway: Let’s look to Mother Jones journalist David Corn, named in the hearings as a potential source for the infamous Russia dossier, for the Galaxy Brain view of what happened on Thursday, shall we? Doing That Thing You DoWhat Happened: Not everyone fully understands how journalism works, but most of them aren’t politicians at the center of a scandal who go on Twitter to boast about that fact. What Really Happened: Jim Jordan, Republican congressman for Ohio's 4th district, has not been having a good week. He’s been named by multiple parties as someone who knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State University when he was assistant wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and has repeatedly denied it even as additional allegations surface. Jordan went on to claim that CNN's reporting on the story was an attempt to drum up fake news, which, um, doesn't quite compute? It was a tweet that quickly went viral, for obvious reasons. And the response wasn’t limited to Twitter, either. The Takeaway: To make matters worse, someone popped up to remind Jordan that he has appeared on CNN multiple times in the past. More Great WIRED Stories
Source: http://allofbeer.com/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee-2/ The most important news of last week was, of course, that The Good Place writer, and Twitter master, Megan Amram got one step closer to her dream of winning an Emmy. It was that or the massive protests against President Donald Trump when he arrived in the UK, complete with the massive Trump Baby balloon which will surely go so viral that everyone will be sick of it within a week. What else would we talk about? England losing its World Cup semi-final? Twitter's bot purge? That would be ludicrous. Instead, come with me now, dear reader. It's time to explore what the blinkin' heck everyone's been yapping their digital gums about over the past seven days. The New Supreme (Court Nominee): RevealedWhat Happened: As promised, the next nominee for the US Supreme Court was named live on television, and the internet got into its feelings about the choice. What Really Happened: Longtime readers may or may not recall that, as last week started, the US was anxiously awaiting the announcement of President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. Because it’s this particular president, it was announced that he'd reveal the name live on television on Monday evening in prime time. But, as with all great TV reveals, this one was spoiled online ahead of time. If that rattled President Trump, he didn’t let it show when it came to the actual announcement, which seemed to go as planned. So, yes! The selection was Brett Kavanaugh, launching a plethora of explainers about who he is. Given that conservatives were pushing against his selection, some were wondering why the president selected Kavanaugh in the end. Well, OK, sure, but maybe it wasn’t really about th-- Well, that makes sense. Of course, there’s also the impact he could have on Roe v. Wade (Spoilers: It doesn’t look good), which is what many are concerned about. But, really, what do we know about Kavanaugh? Apparently, he's a great carpool dad and his former teacher likes him, but where's the interesting stuff? Go on… If this is the kind of thing that comes out in the first week after Kavanaugh was named, we can only imagine what kinds of things are lying in wait. The Takeaway: It’s going to be a very long confirmation process, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Over at the NATO Summit…What Happened: To the surprise of a dwindling few, President Trump’s latest appearance at an international summit was a rocky ride. And that's not even getting into the apparently lousy NATO breakfasts! What Really Happened: After nominating his Supreme Court pick, Trump hightailed it out of the country. It wasn't because he was running away from the whole thing, but because there was a NATO meeting to harass. Wait. Sorry, attend. As he headed out, Trump did his best to downplay the impression that he wasn’t into the Western alliance, and preferred Russia. This comment seems all the worse considering that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for hacking the DNC and also a state's election records on Friday, but it's not as if the president knew that in advance, aside from the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made a point of telling everyone that he told him. But let's put that aside for now. For those wondering if things got better when Trump arrived at the NATO meeting, well… So, yes, the president went after Germany for being "controlled" by Russia, but some were distracted, having noticed that the current White House Chief of Staff didn’t look too happy with what was going on. But the White House had the, uh… "true" story of what was behind that reaction, apparently. Yeah… that seems utterly convincing and no one thought it seemed laughable at all. After all that, the only way was up, and the rest of the summit went perfectly. Or, at least, that’s what the president said as he was leaving. To the surprise of many, the President didn’t actually have his facts straight… Even beyond the failure of basic math, the reality might be something different, especially if you consider the emergency session he provoked. Oh, and the fact that the extra defense spending Trump was boasting about might be fictional. Still, at least the president and the White House are happy. Let’s not talk about reports that the Pentagon is in "damage control" mode and that Trump’s private behavior was at odds with his public anger, cool? The Takeaway: Back in the US, some Republican politicians were watching what was happening and getting so close to an epiphany about the whole thing… Come Out of the Darkness, BabyWhat Happened: In a rare moment of good news, the 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand saw the light of day last week, literally. And all without a submarine! What Really Happened: Let's stay outside of the US for a little bit and consider some good news for a change. In Thailand, 12 kids and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave were discovered last week after being missing for nine days. Rescue attempts had been delayed because of the health of the kids, but finally got underway at the start of the week. Indeed, the initial success of the rescue surprised some: As an amazing Twitter thread explained, the rescue was not going to be easy, no matter what. Here are some highlights from the thread, but you should check out the whole thing. Within a couple of days, amazingly, it was all over—and in a good way, with everyone rescued safely. The next day, footage of the rescued kids was released as they waved to their parents. It wasn’t, sadly, a story with no casualties; Saman Kunan, one of the divers working on the rescue efforts, died in the process, tragically. While all this was going on, Elon Musk was getting in on the action with an idea for a mini-submarine. Although the sub was deemed "not practical" for the job at hand, apparently it may yet be used. But what might be the most interesting, and unlikely, takeaway from this is that Elon Musk apparently can't resist a dare. Wait. Could this somehow end up being a story with two happy endings? Stay tuned. The Takeaway: Meanwhile, in the US, authorities failed to meet the court-mandated deadline to reunite migrant children under 5 separated from their families at the border with their parents. So, not every kid gets a happy ending. The Rematch You Didn’t Know You WantedWhat Happened: It was a second round of FBI agent Peter Strzok vs. the House of Representatives last week, and unlike the first, this one was public. It got ugly, humiliating and… well, good viewing, it can’t be denied. What Really Happened: FBI agent Peter Strzok was back in front of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee on Thursday, in theory to talk about his actions in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and potential Russian intervention in the 2016 election. In reality, it was … well, a lot more personal. Before the hearing started, America's journalists were all over the most important issue at hand: But never mind pronunciation concerns, because the hearing was filled with fireworks to distract from any concerns about how to say someone's name. Of course, the media was all over what was unfolding in front of everyone, and even though the general consensus—aside from those who paid attention to Fox News, although even there some weren’t into it—was that it was an embarrassing moment for the Republicans, and a long and exhausting time was had by all. Still, at least everyone was glad that it was happening, right? The Takeaway: Let’s look to Mother Jones journalist David Corn, named in the hearings as a potential source for the infamous Russia dossier, for the Galaxy Brain view of what happened on Thursday, shall we? Doing That Thing You DoWhat Happened: Not everyone fully understands how journalism works, but most of them aren’t politicians at the center of a scandal who go on Twitter to boast about that fact. What Really Happened: Jim Jordan, Republican congressman for Ohio's 4th district, has not been having a good week. He’s been named by multiple parties as someone who knew about sexual abuse at Ohio State University when he was assistant wrestling coach there in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and has repeatedly denied it even as additional allegations surface. Jordan went on to claim that CNN's reporting on the story was an attempt to drum up fake news, which, um, doesn't quite compute? It was a tweet that quickly went viral, for obvious reasons. And the response wasn’t limited to Twitter, either. The Takeaway: To make matters worse, someone popped up to remind Jordan that he has appeared on CNN multiple times in the past. More Great WIRED Stories
Source: http://allofbeer.com/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/while-you-were-offline-behold-the-new-supreme-court-nominee/ |
AuthorHi my name is Samantha Roberts I am 23 years old and I just graduated with my BSN degree I love to enjoy going out with friends on my spare time and enjoying the Bachelor life. Archives
April 2019
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