July 28, 2019

4 American brothers swim an hour to rescue 6 year old girl swept out to sea in Ireland

A 6-year-old was swept out to sea, and a group of brothers dove in after her
Marisa Iati
1 day ago

The girl on the pink flamingo-shaped raft was floating away quickly, screaming as her father yelled for a lifeguard who didn’t appear.
Four brothers, who were visiting Ireland from the D.C. area, had just unpacked their towels after arriving at Portmarnock Beach near Dublin, where they had expected to spend a relaxing afternoon Monday. Before they could think about it, they were sprinting into the sea and swimming toward the girl as fast as they could during the almost hour-long rescue.

“I knew we were getting deep, but I didn’t care,” Declan Butler, 18, said Wednesday in an interview. “I just didn’t want to give up on her.”

Snip

Two days after they saved the 6-year-old, the brothers were still thinking about an unlikely twist of fate: They had traveled to Ireland to celebrate the life of their recently deceased grandfather, whose brother drowned on the same date decades before the rescue.

“It’s kind of like this godly, guardian angel kind of feeling,” Walter said, “that the same day he drowned 64 years ago is the day we actually saved the life of a 6-year-old girl.”

See link for details of the rescue. So inspiring.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/a-6-year-old-was-swept-out-to-sea-and-a-group-of-brothers-dove-in-after-her/ar-AAEQGV3?OCID=ansmsnnews11#page=2

July 25, 2019

RAchel and Nicole puzzling over why McConnell & Co. won't get behind the election security bill ...

Today after the hearing, on her show Nicole was talking to Rachel on the phone, wondering if after what Mueller said about election vulnerability, now FINALLY Mitch and the Rs will get behind the election security bill and puzzling over why they haven't been willing to support it, as in can't they see the need for it?

I was surprised that even Rachel doesn't seem to be able to connect the dots on why they want to keep the election infrastructure insecure and subject to manipulation.

Is there anyone here who doesn't get that it's because it benefits them? It's how they win?

July 12, 2019

"...he was protected by a vision of the good life in which girls and women are objects of pleasure."

Insightful opinion piece on the broader culture that supports "how heterosexual pedophilia is both normalized and often cast as aspirational: the reward for male success."


Opinion
US news The Guardian
Too many men think teenage girls are fair game. That gave Jeffrey Epstein cover
Moira Donegan

Epstein is an extreme example of how heterosexual pedophilia is both normalized and often cast as aspirational: the reward for male success

Wed 10 Jul 2019 17.02 BST

Snip

It seems clear that Epstein was protected by his many powerful connections, as many abusers are, and because they were wealthy, powerful and famous, their protection was extremely effective at shielding him from consequence. And like other rich people, Epstein used his wealth to evade the criminal justice system, purchasing the services of skilled defense attorneys and leveraging his status in order to procure the favor of prosecutors.

But Epstein, with his opulent life of multiple homes, private jets and lavish parties for the elite that were populated heavily by girls and very young women, also benefited from a culture that interprets male heterosexual pedophilia of his type as benign or even aspirational, a facet of the good life and a privilege of the ruling class. There is a vision of the life of a very rich man that Epstein pursued for himself and that those around him approved of him having, and this vision is grounded heavily in a kind of indulgent sensualism, one in which the very rich man is privileged to enjoy lavish trips, rich wine, fine food and beautiful views.

The sexual abuse of teenage girls and young women is part of this vision; the pleasure that they afford the rich man is considered largely interchangeable with that that he gets from a rare steak or a nice cigar. But Epstein’s victims were not mere party props; they were not cocktails or expensive clothes. They were little girls. “I had braces on,” Epstein victim Courtney Wild told ABC news after his arrest. When she says that he abused her, she was 14.

Epstein was protected by his money, and by his well-positioned friends, and by the corruption of those tasked with stopping him. He was protected by the broad cultural antipathy toward treating sexual abuse as real harm, the often hostile reaction to the premise that teenage girls should matter as much as adult men. But he was also protected by an idea of teenage girls as fair game for adult men to pursue and abuse, by a chuckling acceptance of May-December “romances” that begin mid-March. But he was also protected by a vision of the good life in which girls and women are objects of pleasure more than they are subjects with their own free will and their own demands on justice, dignity and freedom. It is a life that many men still covet for themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/10/teenage-girls-jeffrey-epstein-fair-game?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTA3MTE%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email

July 12, 2019

Real-Life Heroes in Thai Cave Rescue Set to Play Themselves in Movie Version

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-judiciary-approves-subpoenas-for-12-mueller-witnesses-including-jared-kushner?via=newsletter&source=CSPMedition

This inspired a lot of us here when it happened. Good to have something inspiring!

Real-life divers and rescue volunteers who saved a soccer team of 12 Thai boys and their coach stuck in a cave will make their big-screen debut in a dramatization of the rescue operation. The Cave, which is directed by Thai-Irish director Tom Waller, will feature Belgian cave rescue diver Jim Warny and dive instructors Erik Brown from Canada, Mikko Paasi from Finland, and Tan Xiaolong from China, Variety reports. The real-life American journalist Todd Ruiz, who covered the rescue mission for a Thai-based English newspaper, will also play himself in the movie. Hundreds of extras in the film will be comprised of both actors and people who were present at the event. Waller told Variety: “Like the rescue itself, I wanted the cast to be made up of both local and international characters, speaking in their own tongue.” The movie is expected to be released in Thailand later this year.