Daily Archive: March 18, 2017

Will Truman

/// March 18, 2017

Meanwhile in another universe: The allure of dystopian alternative histories | The Economist

For all their nuance, both “SS-GB” and “The Man in the Castle” are, at root, hero narratives whose protagonists attempt to overthrow a foreign invading force. (The heroine of “The Man in the High Castle”, Juliana Crain, first appears on-screen practicing aikido; by the end of episode two, she’s putting her moves to use on a Nazi bounty hunter.) And yet, for those wishing to draw parallels with today, wouldn’t the Nazis’ rise be a more ripe area for exploration? As Jochem Bittner wrote in the New York Times last May, “Some people today imagine that Hitler sneaked up on Germany, that too few people understood the threat. In fact, many mainstream politicians recognised the danger but they failed to stop him. Some didn’t want to: The conservative parties and the nobility believed the little hothead could serve as their useful idiot…” The parallels many viewers see in today’s Washington are almost too obvious. Meanwhile on British shores, the unravelling mess that is the Labour Party is testimony to the dangers of having a divided and useless opposition.
Certainly, there is precedent for the “homegrown fascism” narrative in the history of alternate-history: CJ Sansom’s 2012 novel “Dominion” takes as its historical point of divergence the appointment of Lord Halifax, rather than Winston Churchill, as prime minister in 1940. Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” takes a similar tack in replacing Roosevelt in the White House with an isolationist president, as does “It Can’t Happen Here”, Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel intended as a wake-up call to American complacency in the face of fascism. (Sales of Lewis’s novel soared after Trump’s election in November.)

From: Meanwhile in another universe: The allure of dystopian alternative histories | The EconomistImage by Smabs Sputzer

Jaybird

/// March 18, 2017

Editor Picks

Confronting the Radicalism of Young Men Online

April 29, 2019

Ten Second News

Impeachment Day One: Pack a Lunch, Gonna Be Here a While

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Impeachment Day One: Pack a Lunch, Gonna Be Here a While

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The Impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is underway in the Senate:

The first day of President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate is officially underway, just the third time a president has faced removal from office in U.S. history.
The proceedings began with debate over the rules of the trial. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican and an ally of the president, unveiled a resolution laying out the procedures on Monday.
The resolution delays votes on whether to call witnesses or admit new evidence until after opening arguments by House impeachment managers, who act as prosecutors in the case, and the president's defense team. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, blasted McConnell for delaying votes on witnesses and said he planned to offer several amendments to allow witnesses before opening arguments.
A simple majority of senators — 51 votes— is needed to approve the resolution and other motions. There are 53 Republicans in the Senate, and 47 Democrats, including two independents.

Live updates and feed can be found here.

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MLK Day

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MLK Day

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For this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The New Yorker compiled various pieces on the man and his legacy in their Sunday Reading:

This week, Americans will be celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. In 1965, Renata Adler published a report in The New Yorker on King’s march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, writing about the participants’ experiences along the way and describing King’s calm and steady presence. At one point, King approached an old man with a cane and asked if he would join them. “I’ll walk one step anyway,” the old man said. “Because I know for every one step I’ll take you’ll take two.” This weekend, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces about King’s legacy and the significance of the upcoming holiday. In “The Hours Before ‘I Have a Dream,’ ” from 1963, Calvin Trillin joins the March on Washington and writes about the events leading up to King’s famous speech. In “When I Met Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who became one of the first black students to integrate the University of Georgia, in 1961, recounts how her meeting with the civil-rights leader that year inspired her. In “The Mission,” David Levering Lewis examines the complicated political alliance between King and President Lyndon Johnson. Finally, in “Martin Luther King Day with Trump,” Jelani Cobb explores how the holiday has taken on a new meaning in our current political climate. We hope that you find these pieces as fascinating—and inspiring—as we do.

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The New York Times has made its endorsement

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The New York Times has made its endorsement

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From the New York Times:

There are legitimate questions about whether our democratic system is fundamentally broken. Our elections are getting less free and fair, Congress and the courts are increasingly partisan, foreign nations are flooding society with misinformation, a deluge of money flows through our politics. And the economic mobility that made the American dream possible is vanishing.
Both the radical and the realist models warrant serious consideration. If there were ever a time to be open to new ideas, it is now. If there were ever a time to seek stability, now is it.
That’s why we’re endorsing the most effective advocates for each approach. They are Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.

(Featured image is "November 6" by gtmcknight. Used under creative commons license.)

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Dorie Miller: A Damn Fine Name for a Ship

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Dorie Miller: A Damn Fine Name for a Ship

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[caption id="attachment_325017" align="aligncenter" width="737"] Admiral Chester W. Nimitz personally presents the Navy Cross to Miller on board aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) for his extraordinary courage in battle. [US Navy Photo, Public Domain][/caption]

The fourth Ford-class Aircraft Carrier will be named for Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris "Dorie" Miller, the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for his actions during the Pearl Harbor attack.

In 1941 an African American was not allowed to man a gun in the Navy, and as far as rank was concerned, “he could not really get above a messman level,” Ravenscroft said. Miller’s actions started to turn the tide, she added.
“Without him really knowing, he actually was a part of the civil rights movement because he changed the thinking in the Navy,” Ravenscroft said Friday.
“In the end, the fact that he didn’t think about what could be repercussions — that wasn’t a thought when, at the time and in war, he did what was needed in his way to defend the United States of America,” she said.
He will be the first African American to have an aircraft carrier named after him, according to Navy records. The big ship is not expected to be home-ported in Hawaii.
Two of Miller’s nieces are expected to be at Pearl Harbor for the announcement, including 66-year-old Flosetta Miller.
Ravenscroft said “Dorie” was a nickname that the Navy gave Miller, while “his family is extremely particular that he be called Doris Miller.” USS Miller, a destroyer escort, previously had been named in honor of the Pearl Harbor veteran.
Miller’s Navy Cross citation reads, “For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.”
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, personally presented the Navy Cross to Miller on board the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in Pearl Harbor on May 27, 1942.
According to the Navy, Miller, then 22, had arisen at 6 a.m., and was collecting laundry when the alarm sounded.
“He headed for his battle station, the antiaircraft battery magazine amidship, only to discover that torpedo damage had wrecked it, so he went on deck,” the Navy account states. “Because of his physical prowess, he was assigned to carry wounded fellow sailors to places of greater safety. Then an officer ordered him to the bridge to aid the mortally wounded captain of the ship. He subsequently manned a .50- caliber Browning anti-aircraft machine gun until he ran out of ammunition and was ordered to abandon ship.”
In high school Miller was a fullback, and on the West Virginia he was the ship’s heavyweight boxing champion. Miller had not been trained to operate the machine gun.
“It wasn’t hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes,” he said later, believing he “got” one of the Japanese planes.
Miller was born in Waco on Oct. 12, 1919. He enlisted in the Navy in September 1939 as a mess attendant.
Miller served aboard the USS Indianapolis from December 1941 to May 1943, the Navy said. He was then assigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay. Miller died on the ship when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on Nov. 24, 1943, during the invasion of the Gilbert Islands, according to the Navy.

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Former Congressman Chris Collins Sentenced to Prison

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Former Congressman Chris Collins Sentenced to Prison

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Former Representative Chris Collins was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for charges related to insider trading and lying to cover it up.

The judge seemed troubled by the Collins legal team's argument that the crime was an isolated act – just a stupid, panicked phone call made by an emotionally distraught father.
To the contrary, Broderick noted that after that phone call from the White House lawn, Collins spoke with his son several times over the next few days as Cameron Collins dumped his Innate shares.
Collins and his son could have stopped the illegal scheme at any time, the judge noted.
"There was time for folks to think about this and say: 'What are we doing?' " he said.
The inside stock tip that prompted those illegal trades resulted in one of the two charges to which Collins pleaded guilty: conspiracy to commit securities fraud. But then Collins committed another crime: lying to the FBI about Cameron's stock sales.
What's more, Broderick indicated that he agreed with prosecutors that Collins, his son and Lauren Zarsky together concocted a cover story that all three shared with the FBI.
Adding it all up, the judge said: "I don't view this as just a spur-of-the-moment loss of judgment."
Instead, Broderick characterized the illegal stock trades and the effort to cover them up as an inexplicable attempt to save money by a wealthy businessman-turned-politician who had no reason to break the law.
"Some might say it was a venal choice," the judge said.
And it was a choice with consequences far beyond Collins and his family. Collins' resignation left New York's 27th Congressional District without representation for months, the judge noted.
That seemed to be the only political observation the judge was willing to make. He said he read the dozens of letters he got from Collins' supporters and critics – but stripped out the emotions and politics, instead relying only on the facts as he crafted Collins' sentence.
And when one of Collins' lawyers spoke of living in partisan times, the judge said: "Not here."
After Broderick issued his sentence, Collins' lawyers said he would like to serve it at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Fla., which is the nearest such facility to Collins' home in Marco Island, Fla. Broderick said he would recommend that Collins be sent to Pensacola, but the final decision will be up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Despite his tears moments earlier, Collins appeared expressionless upon hearing the sentence, which drew raves from the prosecutors.
"Lawmakers bear the profound privilege and responsibility of writing and passing laws, but equally as important, the absolute obligation of following them," said Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York – and a Donald Trump appointee. "Collins’ hubris is a stark reminder that the people of New York can and should demand more from their elected officials, and that no matter how powerful, no lawmaker is above the law.”

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