marble falls
marble falls's JournalA Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis
A Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/politics/president-trump-coronavirus-pandemic-response.html
By smearing his opponents, championing conspiracy theories and pursuing vendettas, President Trump has reverted to his darkest political tactics in spite of a pandemic hurting millions of Americans.
By Alexander Burns, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin and Nick Corasaniti
May 15, 2020
Even by President Trump’s standards, it was a rampage: He attacked a government whistle-blower who was telling Congress that the coronavirus pandemic had been mismanaged. He criticized the governor of Pennsylvania, who has resisted reopening businesses. He railed against former President Barack Obama, linking him to a conspiracy theory and demanding he answer questions before the Senate about the federal investigation of Michael T. Flynn.
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Still, Mr. Trump’s behavior has rattled even some supportive Republicans, who believe it is likely to backfire and possibly cost them the Senate as well as the White House. It has also further alarmed Democrats, who have long warned that Mr. Trump would be willing to use every lever of presidential power and deploy even the most unscrupulous campaign tactics to capture a second term.
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In addition to his attacks against Mr. Obama, he separated himself from the highly popular Dr. Anthony Fauci, downplayed the importance of testing and has refused to wear a mask. And Mr. Trump’s appetite for conspiracy theories is often embarrassing to his party: Several times in recent weeks, he has falsely accused a prominent television host of murder and called for a “cold case” investigation.
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When Mr. Trump was visiting Pennsylvania this week, for instance, his team scheduled a friendly interview in the hope that he would make the case that Mr. Biden would undermine fracking, an important industry in Pennsylvania. But Mr. Trump made no mention of fracking and instead attacked Mr. Biden’s mental condition and called wind power a “disaster” that “kills all the birds.”
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Several Surfers Are Found Dead in the Netherlands
Several Surfers Are Found Dead in the Netherlands
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/world/europe/surfers-netherlands-dead.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=969099208&imp_id=756200664
At least five bodies were found or seen in the foamy waters off the beach resort of Scheveningen, a district of The Hague.
By Elian Peltier
May 12, 2020
Five surfers drowned off the coast of the Dutch beach resort of Scheveningen after they were caught in strong winds and foamy waters, the local authorities said on Tuesday.
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The Dutch Coast Guard started a search operation on Monday after six surfers went missing. The rescue efforts were complicated by strong winds and a rough sea, the service said on Twitter.Credit...Sem Van Der Wal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Rescuers from the Dutch Coast Guard began a search operation shortly after six surfers went missing Monday evening. Three people were rescued, two of whom were later pronounced dead. Two further bodies were found Tuesday morning, and one more was seen floating out to sea. The Coast Guard ended its search in the early afternoon and said it had not found that last person, taking the toll to five.
The deaths shocked the surfing community in the Netherlands and locals in Scheveningen, a district of The Hague about 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam. “When a group of people went surfing early in the evening, no one expected that some would not come home,” Johan Remkes, mayor of The Hague, said in a statement.
The rescue operation was complicated by strong winds and a rough sea, the Dutch Coast Guard said on Twitter. “There are still water sports enthusiasts active in the vicinity of our search area,” the service wrote Monday evening. “We call on them to leave this area as soon as possible.”
Other European countries have severely restricted outdoor activities during the coronavirus pandemic, but the Netherlands has taken a more relaxed approach, only asking people to stay at home as much as possible and to respect social distancing practices when outside. Many beaches are closed, but surfing has been allowed as long as surfers respect 1.5-meter distances according to the Holland Surfing Association.
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A sign at the beach by a pile of surf boards washed in:
Please check if 1 of these boards is yours! https://t.co/FQM7hluRJi
— City of The Hague (@CityOfTheHague) May 12, 2020
'Be Careful What You Wish For': Lindsey Graham Rips Trump Demand That Obama Testify
‘Be Careful What You Wish For’: Lindsey Graham Rips Trump Demand That Obama Testify
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-obama-investigation-trump_n_5ebdbbc7c5b6c9c1874155c2
But “both presidents” are welcome to “share their concerns about each other” before his Senate committee, he said, adding it would “make for great television.”
By Mary Papenfuss
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Graham indicated that such an investigation would be a gross overreach of executive power and that it could backfire by putting Trump in jeopardy after his time in the White House is over.
Trump has been saying that “Obamagate” is the “biggest political crime” in American history — but has yet to explain what crime he’s talking about. Asked early this week at a press briefing what specific crime he was referring to, Trump insisted that the “crime is very obvious to everybody”— but still did not say what it might be.
Graham said in a statement released Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, “I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set by calling a former president for oversight.”
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The Judiciary Committee plans to hold hearings in June on the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The hearings will include the FBI probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Trump fired Flynn in 2017 for lying about secret talks he was having with a former Russian ambassador and reputed Kremlin spymaster Sergey Kislyak.
Like lindsey says ... “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.”
McConnell Says He Was 'Wrong' To Claim Obama Didn't Leave A Pandemic Playbook "I clearly made a mist
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mcconnell-wrong-obama-playbook-pandemic_n_5ebded27c5b6ee0b69e82f3eMcConnell Says He Was ‘Wrong’ To Claim Obama Didn’t Leave A Pandemic Playbook
“I clearly made a mistake in that regard,” the Senate Republican leader said on Fox News.
By Nick Visser
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“I was wrong,” McConnell told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “They did leave behind a plan, so I clearly made a mistake in that regard. As to whether or not the plan was followed, or who’s the critic and all the rest, I don’t have any observation about that because I don’t know enough about the details.”
The senator sparked controversy earlier this week during an online interview with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and campaign adviser, when he went after the Obama administration’s handover to Trump’s team. He also lambasted the former president for criticizing in a private meeting Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 1.4 million people in the U.S., saying Obama had been “a little bit classless” and “should’ve kept his mouth shut.”
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In fact, Politico reported in March that the Obama White House did leave a detailed, 69-page document on fighting pandemics that included a bevy of measures the administration should have taken amid early reports a new viral pathogen was spreading overseas. At the time, a National Security Council official told Politico the document was “quite dated” and said the administration’s own efforts were “a better fit” and “more detailed.”
Trump has been criticized by some for being slow to respond to the virus as it first began to spread in the United States, but he has lashed out at those claims, instead seeking to blame Obama, the World Health Organization and even his own medical advisers.
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For those of us who don't want to pick through tweets regarding RGB/Whitewater references at SCOTUS
RBG Immediately Went There, Asked Trump Lawyer How Whitewater and Watergate Were Different from Tax Return Case
Colin Kalmbacher
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rbg-immediately-went-there-asked-trump-lawyer-how-whitewater-and-watergate-were-different-from-tax-return-case/ar-BB13YjQj
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“Counsel, in so many of these prior cases, there was a cooperation,” Ginsburg began. “For example: tax returns. Every president voluntarily turned over his tax returns. So, it gets to be a pitched battle because President Trump is the first one to refuse to do that.”
The famed liberal justice continued:
Initially, [Trump] said because of an audit was ongoing. Now it seems to be broader than that. But the aura of this case is really: “Sauce for the goose that serves the gander as well.” So, how do you distinguish, say, Whitewater when President Clinton’s personal records were subpoenaed from his accountant or even Hillary Clinton‘s law firm billing records were subpoenaed. It seems that in prior cases–you say this one is one-of-a-kind–but it seems that in prior cases there was a much greater collision of interests. [Indistinguishable] the Nixon tapes. How do you distinguish all of those cases, Watergate, Whitewater, the Nixon tapes case, the Paula Jones case?
“Well, your honor, we distinct them in a number of ways,” Trump’s attorney Patrick Strawbridge responded. “With respect to Watergate and Whitewater, obviously, those are cases of relatively recent vintage. And in separation of powers disputes, this court has generally–such as in Noel Canning–looked back for a much longer precedent for the type of issue that needs to be decided with examples of the encroachment on the separation of powers. And the recent examples–there are just a handful of them that the House identifies–are too recent under that stricture, as the court recognized in Southwest General.”
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Principal Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, representing Trump as a government official, made a separate attempt to protect Trump’s tax returns by asserting that sitting presidents are held to a different legal standard.
“How’d that work out in the Paula Jones case?” Ginsburg quipped.
One Way To get Help in a Domestic Violence Situation
Rutger Bregman: 'Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate'
Rutger Bregman: 'Our secret superpower is our ability to cooperate'
The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. It couldn’t have come at a better time
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/rutger-bregman-our-secret-superpower-is-our-ability-to-cooperate
Jonathan Freedland
Jonathan Freedland
@Freedland
Sat 9 May 2020 04.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 9 May 2020 10.58 EDT
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Stone by stone, Bregman breaks up the foundations that underpin much of our understanding of ourselves as callous, uncaring creatures hiding beneath a veneer of civilisation. That understanding has acted as a self-fulfilling prophecy, he says: if people expect the worst of each other, they’ll get it. He can cite the experiments that show even lab rats behave worse when their handlers assume they’ll behave badly. Our true nature is to be kind, caring and cooperative, he argues. We used to be like that – and we can be again.
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The argument he makes is compelling, not least his suggestion that gloomy assessments of humankind such as William Golding’s or Milgram’s flourished in the postwar era, as the world tried to make sense of the Holocaust. One section of the book is titled “After Auschwitz”. Which brings us to the biggest roadblock in the way of his argument. How to square the notion that humans are fundamentally good with a long and continuing history of humanmade horror, exemplified by the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews, including more than a million children? Bregman does an admirable job debunking those post-Holocaust experiments and theories, but the Holocaust itself still stands there, implacable and unmoving.
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Bregman cites evidence that the motivation of perpetrators was often rooted in qualities we’d ordinarily admire: loyalty to their fellow soldiers, for example. He notes how the friendliness that sets humans apart – he calls our species “Homo Puppy” – has a dark side, because empathy with “us” can turn to murderous hostility to “not us”. “Our secret superpower” is our friendliness and ability to cooperate, he says, and yet “we’re also the cruellest of species”. But surely, that latter statement fatally undermines his thesis?
“I would emphasise that I’m not actually saying that people are good. The title of the book in Dutch is De Meeste Mensen Deugen, which is ‘Most People Are Deugen’, with deugen a word that you cannot translate. It’s sort of like ‘pretty decent deep down’ or ‘good after all’.” Later he refers to human destructiveness in these terms: “We’re not born to do this, but we’re capable of it.”
• Humankind by Rutger Bregman is published by Bloomsbury (RRP £20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
Society books
When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Rutger Bregman
@rcbregman
Sat 9 May 2020 04.00 EDT
Last modified on Sun 10 May 2020 01.53 EDT
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I was bursting with questions. Were the boys still alive? And could I find the television footage? Most importantly, though, I had a lead: the captain’s name was Peter Warner. When I searched for him, I had another stroke of luck. In a recent issue of a tiny local paper from Mackay, Australia, I came across the headline: “Mates share 50-year bond”. Printed alongside was a small photograph of two men, smiling, one with his arm slung around the other. The article began: “Deep in a banana plantation at Tullera, near Lismore, sit an unlikely pair of mates ... The elder is 83 years old, the son of a wealthy industrialist. The younger, 67, was, literally, a child of nature.” Their names? Peter Warner and Mano Totau. And where had they met? On a deserted island.
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But Peter noticed something odd. Peering through his binoculars, he saw burned patches on the green cliffs. “In the tropics it’s unusual for fires to start spontaneously,” he told us, a half century later. Then he saw a boy. Naked. Hair down to his shoulders. This wild creature leaped from the cliffside and plunged into the water. Suddenly more boys followed, screaming at the top of their lungs. It didn’t take long for the first boy to reach the boat. “My name is Stephen,” he cried in perfect English. “There are six of us and we reckon we’ve been here 15 months.”
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The kids agreed to work in teams of two, drawing up a strict roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Sometimes they quarrelled, but whenever that happened they solved it by imposing a time-out. Their days began and ended with song and prayer. Kolo fashioned a makeshift guitar from a piece of driftwood, half a coconut shell and six steel wires salvaged from their wrecked boat – an instrument Peter has kept all these years – and played it to help lift their spirits. And their spirits needed lifting. All summer long it hardly rained, driving the boys frantic with thirst. They tried constructing a raft in order to leave the island, but it fell apart in the crashing surf.
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They survived initially on fish, coconuts, tame birds (they drank the blood as well as eating the meat); seabird eggs were sucked dry. Later, when they got to the top of the island, they found an ancient volcanic crater, where people had lived a century before. There the boys discovered wild taro, bananas and chickens (which had been reproducing for the 100 years since the last Tongans had left).
• This is an adapted excerpt from Rutger Bregman’s Humankind, translated by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore. A live streamed Q&A with Bregman and Owen Jones takes place at 7pm on 19 May 2020.
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