The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    In the News

    Mobile scan: China goes full surveillance state
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Boris Johnson: ruling party running over facts pre-election
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All’

    Stand with Page or fall with Putin. https://t.co/jfYfusDphk

    — Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) December 2, 2019

    The former FBI lawyer and ongoing Trump target breaks two years of silence in this exclusive interview. And she has quite a lot to say, by Molly Jong-Fast

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years

    What started as a protest over a surprise increase in gasoline prices turned into widespread demonstrations met with a systematic repression that left at least 180 people dead.

    By Farnaz Fassihi and Rick Gladstone @ NYTimes.com, Dec. 1, updated 8:09 p.m. ET, with good assortment of photos from Iran from a mixture of wire services

    [....] It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50 percent in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic’s government and the downfall of its leaders.

    In many places, security forces responded by opening fire on unarmed protesters, largely unemployed or low-income young men between the ages of 19 and 26, according to witness accounts and videos. In the southwest city of ​Mahshahr alone, witnesses and medical personnel said, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps members surrounded, shot and killed 40 to 100 demonstrators — mostly unarmed young men — in a marsh where they had sought refuge [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    The narwhal tusk has a wondrous and mystical history. A new chapter was added on London Bridge.

    By Miriam Berger @ WashingtonPost.com, Nov. 30

    For centuries Europeans sought out the “unicorn horn” — the long and straight tusk of the arctic-dwelling narwhal whale — for its perceived magical and curative capabilities.

    On Friday, the tusk did indeed wield a historic force, just not in the way the queens and kings who once collected the twisted and tapered ivory likely imagined.

    Instead, as the deadly knife attack unfolded on the London Bridge, a man, described in news reports as a Polish chef, grabbed the nearest arms he could find for self-defense — a narwhal tusk — and headed to help stop the melee.

    The simple, heroic act in a way embodied the ancient lore of the larger-than-life tusk [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    Democratic Vote Registration stalls
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Georgia governor to tap Loeffler for Senate over Collins

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    This Is Why Your Holiday Travel Is Awful

    By Marc J. Dunkelman @ Politico Magazine, Nov. 29

    The long, sordid history of New York’s Penn Station shows how progressives have made it too hard for the government to do big things—and why, believe it or not, Robert Caro is to blame.

    [....] After years of research, a picture began to emerge—one that, beyond the scope of any given anecdote, told a dispiriting story about the futility of present-day American government, and reshaped my view of progressive politics [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    How Kamala Harris’s Campaign Unraveled

    This article has astounding sourcing! surprise

    Ms. Harris is the only 2020 Democrat who has fallen hard out of the top tier of candidates. She has proved to be an uneven campaigner who changes her message and tactics to little effect and has a staff torn into factions.

    By Jonathan Martin, Astead W. Herndon and Alexander Burns, @ NYTimes.com, Nov. 29, 2019, 5:00 a.m. ET

    [....] In one instance after another, Ms. Harris and her closest advisers made flawed decisions about which states to focus on, issues to emphasize and opponents to target, all the while refusing to make difficult personnel choices to impose order on an unwieldy campaign, according to more than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations and assessments involving the candidate [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    Fusion GPS & Steele Report: batting .700 in baseball
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Richard Spencer: I was fired as Navy secretary. Here’s what I’ve learned because of it.

     Guest op-ed by the former Navy Secretary @ WashingtonPost.com,Nov. 27

    [....] The trail of events that led to me being fired as secretary of the Navy is marked with lessons for me and for the nation.

    It is highly irregular for a secretary to become deeply involved in most personnel matters. Normally, military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away. A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others. Our system of military justice has helped build the world’s most powerful navy; good leaders get promoted, bad ones get moved out, and criminals are punished [.....]

    President Trump involved himself in the case almost from the start. Before the trial began, in March [....]

    This was a shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review. It was also a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.

    Given my desire to resolve a festering issue, I tried to find a way that would prevent the president from further involvement while trying all avenues to get Gallagher’s file in front of a peer-review board. Why? [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    The Gore Effect: How Cory silenced himself
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Heretic Republicans target Trump on Fox
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Justice, Israel style
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    ‘There’s something terribly wrong’: Americans are dying young at alarming rates

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    The Town Hall That Impeachment Blew Up

    Moderate Democrat Mikie Sherrill returned to her district — and a wave of anger. By Michael Kruse @ Politico Magazine, Nov. 27 WHIPPANY, N.J.—One of Representative Mikie Sherrill’s district directors began the town hall in a filled community center Monday night with her customary call for civility. Hanover Township Boy Scout Troop 155 led the crowd in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. An elementary school teacher sang a rousing national anthem. Everybody clapped and then sat down together in rows and rows of plastic folding chairs. Then came the first question. “We sent you to Washington,” a woman began, “to get work done, for us and for our country, and it appears that for the last couple years all that has been going on is investigations.” Sitting in the front, I could almost feel people’s shoulders tense up. Everybody knew what was coming. The towheaded scouts had filed to the back. The adults had the floor now. And impeachment was in the air. “We honestly,” the woman continued, “can’t trust Adam Schiff …” She was drowned out by a wall of noise. The space rippled with a mixture of boos and cheers and uncorked angst [....]
    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    Corruption by Numbers: Rudy Solicits a Bribe


     

    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Moron-Contra: Sondland's EU hat goes to Venezuela?
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Pete Buttigieg Called Me. Here's What Happened (by Michael Harriot @ The Root)

    Following Harriot's column yesterday entitled Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF;  today:

    THIS is extraordinary. @michaelharriot and @PeteButtigieg had a real, honest, open conversation. And Michael wrote about it in his perfect style. This is something I was hungering for. Much respect to both of them. https://t.co/fVmYdHmrCL

    — R. Eric Thomas (@oureric) November 27, 2019
    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    Minority Voters Chafe as Democratic Candidates Abandon Charter Schools

    The front-runners for the presidential nomination are moving away from the charter school movement, and black and Latino families ask why their concerns are lost.

    By Erica L. Green & Eliza Shapiro @ NYTimes.com, Nov. 26

    ATLANTA — The night before Democratic presidential candidates took to a debate stage here last week, black and Latino charter school parents and supporters gathered in a bland hotel conference room nearby to make signs they hoped would get the politicians’ attention.

    “Charter schools = self-determination,” one sign read. “Black Democrats want charters!” another blared.

    At issue is the delicate politics of race and education. For more than two decades, Democrats have largely backed public charter schools as part of a compromise to deliver black and Latino families a way out of failing district schools. Charters were embraced as an alternative to the taxpayer-funded vouchers for private-school tuition supported by Republicans, who were using the issue to woo minority voters.

    But this year, in a major shift, the leading Democratic candidates are backing away from charter schools, and siding with the teachers’ unions that oppose their expansion. And that has left some black and Latino families feeling betrayed [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    What Makes a ‘Narrative Violation’?

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    Mangnam Style? Mauschwitz Approach for Uyghur Concentration Camps

    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Bill Cosby vows no remorse, expects to serve 10-year maximum

    AP via ABCNews.go, Nov. 25

    Bill Cosby says he’s prepared to serve the 10-year maximum sentence for sexual assault rather than show remorse for a crime the comedian says he didn’t commit

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

    NHS Case Study: where female discrimination hurts the public
    PeraclesPlease 5 years 2 months ago

    Why Do Progressives Hate Gentrification?

    By Coleman Hughes @ Quillette.com, Nov. 25

    [....] Though such critiques may seem reasonable at first glance, neither of them survive scrutiny. Not only is gentrification harmless, it’s actually beneficial. Indeed, for reasons I will lay out, it’s exactly the kind of thing that progressives should support [....]

    artappraiser 5 years 2 months ago

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