Contributors

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Writers writing in the last week…

Christopher Bradley
Guest Author

Christopher is a lawyer from NEPA, aka, Pennsultucky, He is an avid baseball fan, audiophile, and dog owner. He spends the majority of his free time with his wife and daughters, reading, listening to music, watching baseball (except the Yankees) and writing. If you wish to send him a positive missive, any errata concerning albums, or requests regarding albums: saturdayspins32 at gmail dot com

Recent Posts:

Saturday Spins: The Weird Downvote: Spotify’s Assault on Artists Saturday Spins: Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways

[archive]

Kristin Devine
Team Contributor

Kristin is a geek, a libertarian, and a domestic goddess. She lives in a wildlife refuge in rural Washington state with too many children and way too many animals and works with women around the world as a fertility counselor. There's also a blog which most people would very much disapprove of https://atomicfeminist.com/

Recent Posts:

The Crimson Letter Joker’s Wild: Reconsidering My Criticism of Joker A Clash of Symbols

[archive]

Jaybird
Team Contributor

Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com

Recent Posts:

Saturday Morning Gaming: Tower Defense Minimalism Weekend Plans Post: The Other Side Of Quarantine Saturday Morning Gaming: The Turn-Based vs. Real Time Debate and Missionforce Cyberstorm

[archive]

Clare Briggs
Team Contributor

Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.

Recent Posts:

Day After the Circus The End of the Parade Circus Coming

[archive]

Rufus F.
Team Contributor

Rufus is an American curmudgeon in Canada. He has a PhD in History, sings in a garage rock band, and does a bunch of other stuff.

Recent Posts:

Book Review: “You Talkin’ To Me?” E.J. White Sunday Morning! “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin Sunday Morning! “A Death in the Family” & “Whiteout Conditions”

[archive]

Vikram Bath
Contributing Editor

Vikram Bath is the pseudonym of a former business school professor living in the United States with his wife, daughter, and dog. (Dog pictured.) His current interests include amateur philosophy of science, business, and economics. Tweet at him at @vikrambath1.

Recent Posts:

We Deserve Donald Trump What is Democracy’s Selling Proposition with Respect to China?Do All Lives Matter?

[archive]

Sam Wilkinson
Contributing Editor

According to a faithful reader, I'm Ordinary Times's "least thoughtful writer." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Recent Posts:

Student Suspended For Taking Popular Photograph Breonna Taylor’s Supporters Face Felony Charges; Her Murderers Face Nothing Bill Withers Has Passed Away

[archive]

Sam Wilson
Team Contributor

Recent Posts:

Country Roads, Take Me Home Interlude: Where Are All The Good Submarine Movies?Social Science and Fiction Part 8: War, Peace, and Betwixt

[archive]

Andrew Donaldson
Administrator

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his writing website Yonderandhome.com ...more →

Recent Posts:

New York Attorney General Letitia James Sues National Rifle Association On Not Wanting to Rest Content Georgia’s Largest School District Shows Challenges in Opening Schools.

[archive]

Michael Siegel
Team Contributor

Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He is on Twitter, blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.

Recent Posts:

Only Politics Stays U.S. Postal Service From Their Appointed Rounds Thursday Throughput: The Hope of a COVID-19 Vaccine Vacation Throughput: Comet NEOWISE

[archive]

Em Carpenter
Contributing Editor

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

Recent Posts:

Wednesday Writs: Brief For A Change Edition Wednesday Writs: SCOTUS, Nevada, and Casinos Over Churches Edition What the Hell is Happening at Fort Hood?

[archive]

Will Truman
Administrator

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

Recent Posts:

There Once Was a Girl Hollow Rights & Hollow Points Morning Ed: Economics

[archive]

Ciaran Marshall
Guest Author

Marshall is an economics undergraduate at the London School of Economics

Recent Posts:

For Want of a President: On the British Parliament and the Executive

[archive]

Russell Michaels
Guest Author

Russell is inside his own mind, a comfortable yet silly place. He is also on Twitter.

Recent Posts:

MovieBob Syndrome The Economics of Action Figures Part II: Contrived Scarcity The Economics of Action Figures Part I: Value

[archive]

Luis A. Mendez
Team Contributor

Published Author Of Both Fiction And Non-Fiction - Dealing In Fantastical Tales, Film Criticism, And US/UK Psephology ...more →

Recent Posts:

A Binge Of Cinematic History Chapter 2: The Birth Of Hollywood A Binge Of Cinematic History Chapter 1: The Dawn Of Cinema Prologue To A Binge Of Cinematic History

[archive]

Ever

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William Brafford (80)

William S Truman (1)

William S. Truman (3)

Coronablog

Georgia’s Largest School District Shows Challenges in Opening Schools.

(6)

It took all of one day for the challenge of opening schools to become very clear in Georgia's largest school district, and this was just staff, not the 180k students of Gwinnett County.

On Wednesday, teachers in Georgia’s largest school district returned to elementary, middle and high school campuses to start in-person planning for the fall semester.

By the next day, 260 district employees had been barred from entering their schools, either because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had been directly exposed to someone who had.

Sloan Roach, spokeswoman for Gwinnett County Public Schools, which serves more than 180,000 students, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that most of the cases were tied to community spread, rather than being spread at the schools. Some of the employees who reported exposure to the virus had not come to work yet, Roach added.

“Given the number of [covid-19] cases in Gwinnett, we would expect to see positives among our employees based on the community spread in our county,” Roach told the newspaper.

The outbreak has complicated the return to school in Gwinnett County, which this week had the highest number of new coronavirus cases in the state. Georgia has reported 195,435 cases and 3,842 deaths to date. But Gwinnett County’s teachers and school administrators are hardly alone in dealing with the fallout of an early outbreak as they try to launch a digital-only return.

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Spain Debates UBI-type Program Amid Covid-19

(12)

In a country facing "the worst economic crisis since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939," the ruling socialist government is turning to a basic income system to mitigate the economic crisis.

Der Spiegel:

The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the debate in Spain over the introduction of a basic income, since state-funded social aid does not yet exist. It wasn't until the death of the dictator Franco in 1975 that a welfare state developed here, though it was rather week. Families with children receive hardly any support.

The introduction of a basic income was therefore the main election promise of the leftist Podemos party and they made the program part of their coalition agreement with the Socialists last fall. Now the Sánchez government is rushing to get the project off the ground to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from plunging into the abyss.

"It is a historic moment for our democracy," said Podemos leader and Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, "the birth of a new social law."
Spain, after all, still hasn't fully recovered from the consequences of the financial and economic crisis of 2008. Even before the outbreak of the virus, the poverty rate hovered around 20 percent and the labor market is divided, with too few people enjoying permanent contracts with unemployment benefits, and too many having to make do with temporary contracts that often only last for a few days. According to statistics from the Spanish employment agency SEPE, 8.4 million people are now looking for a job.

Thus far, only regional governments have allocated aid money -- paltry sums that reached only 75,000 people, or barely a third of all the poor, according to social researcher Flores. Basic income would provide financial security for the most vulnerable 850,000 households.

But an "ingreso mínimo vital," literally a "minimum income to live," comes with strings attached. The program would only apply to people between the ages of 23 and 65 and they must have been registered as living in Spain for at least one year without interruption. They must also be actively looking for a steady job, be involved in a continuing education program or, in cases of drug dependency, be enrolled in a therapy program. The social welfare office would look into applicants' assets and existing income and that would be topped up to a level of 462 euros per month for singles and up to 1,015 euros per month for a family of five.

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Cornonavirus Outbreak Causes MLB to Suspend Games

(72)

It's been less than a week and already Major League Baseball has a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on their hands.

Major League Baseball's season is less than a week old, but one team has already experienced a coronavirus outbreak that will sideline a chunk of its roster and has caused a game to be canceled. The Miami Marlins, who had four players test positive during their opening series against the Philadelphia Phillies, had an additional eight players and two coaches test positive on Monday, less than 12 hours before they were supposed to play their home opener against the Baltimore Orioles, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

That means the Marlins have had at least 14 individuals become infected over the last several days. In response to the outbreak, the Marlins game against the Orioles on Monday night will not be played, Baltimore GM Mike Elias confirmed.

The Yankees-Phillies game for tonight (Monday, 27Jun20) has now been "postponed".
The Marlins' home opener in Miami against Baltimore is also postponed.

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RNC Cancelled. Again.

(4)

For the second time, and it would seem final one, the Republican National Convention has been cancelled. At least, the in-person part of it, and by none other than President Trump himself.

The Jacksonville, Fla., component of the Republican National Convention has been cancelled, President Trump announced on Thursday, as cases of coronavirus continue to spike across the state.

"I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right. It's just not right with what's been happening," Trump said at the daily coronavirus briefing.

"They said 'Sir, we can make this work very easily' ... I said there's nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe, whether it's from the China virus or the radical left mob."

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Andrew Scales The Lofty Heights of Mt Cuomo

(64)

Presented without further comment, because I'm sure you folks will do plenty of that:

“I love history, I love poster art,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday. He also loves deploying a mountain analogy to describe New York’s fight against COVID-19 and his and the state’s efforts to flatten the curve of new infections. He declared that New York was “on the other side of the mountain” during one of his then-daily coronavirus press conferences in early May. Then, at the end of June, after COVID-19 infections began spiking throughout much of the rest of the country, Cuomo shockingly unveiled a huge model of an actual mountain during another press conference to physically illustrate the analogy again, even using his hand to demonstrate New York’s journey up and over the metaphorical pandemic mountain:

While Cuomo has not yet held a coronavirus press event using the Catskills, on Monday he unveiled, for the second time this year, an old-timey campaign poster devoted to himself depicting not only his pandemic mountain but illustrating numerous other elements related to both New York’s fight against the coronavirus and the quirky asides the governor liked to make across his more than 100 daily pressers during the outbreak.

Both posters have been based on Cuomo’s own sketches and painted in a style inspired by a 1900s campaign illustration for a Nebraska politician named William Jennings Bryan. The first poster, released in January, depicted Cuomo’s accomplishments as governor utilizing a ship as a metaphor for the state.

The poster, available from the State of New York for the low, low prince of $14.50 plus shipping and handling:

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Coronablog →

Ten Second News

Massive Explosion in Beirut

(38)

There was a massive explosion in Beirut about an hour ago.

Footage from the massive explosion in Beirut Port, Lebanon pic.twitter.com/bdvzrS05Qf

— Beirut Today (@bey_today) August 4, 2020

Early reports is that it was a fuel ship.

Twitter User KenDeuel points out the phenomenon of the Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.

(Featured image is the Flag of Lebanon.)

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Video: Ventura vs Ryan, 13 Years Ago Today

(1)

Today In 1993: 46-year-old Nolan Ryan takes care of business when Robin Ventura decides to charge the mound after getting hit by a fastball! #MLB #Baseball #History pic.twitter.com/RpPy4URPeA

— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) August 4, 2020

Robin Ventura had a respectable career batting average of .267, acquired over an impressive fifteen year career. He hit nearly 300 home runs and drive in over 1000 hitters. He was also a manager for a while, albeit a largely unsuccessful one.

But really, all he'll ever be known for is getting punched in the face.

Update To Add: Some people say that Ventura is better known by some as the man who hit the "grand slam single"

Broadly, yes, though Met fans differ on this https://t.co/JtdvP926Jc

— Peel (@RHPeel) August 4, 2020

Well, I know which I would rather be known for.

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We’ll Do It Live: Trump on Axios Edition, With Charts

(21)

It is bizarre, rambling, and will be creating conversation and memes for at least the next few hours. Here is the Axios interview between Jonathan Swan and President Donald Trump.

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Boston Marathon Bomber’s Death Sentence Overturned on Appeal

(1)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving half of the brothers who were behind the Boston Marathon bombing, is off death row -- for now.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.

“But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution,” the judges said, more than six month after arguments were heard in the case.

An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Tsarnaev. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston said they were reviewing the opinion and had no immediate comment.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the marathon finish line. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police a few days after the April 15, 2013, bombing. Dzhokar Tsarnaev is now behind bars at a high-security supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Tsarnaev’s attorneys identified a slew of issues with his trial, but said in a brief filed with the court that the “first fundamental error” was the judge’s refusal to move the case out of Boston. They also pointed to social media posts from two jurors suggesting they harbored strong opinions even before the 2015 trial started.

One juror had said in Twitter posts that that she was “locked down” with her family during the manhunt and retweeted another post calling Tsarnaev a “piece of garbage,” but later told the court she had not commented on the case or been asked to shelter in place, the defense said. On the day of Tsarnaev’s sentencing, the juror changed her Facebook profile picture to an image that said “BOSTON STRONG,” a rallying cry used in the wake of the bombing, the attorneys said.

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Unsealed Documents in Past Case Focuses Attention Back on Jeffrey Epstein

(2)

The release of documents in the ongoing case against Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces multiple charges related to Jeffrey Epstein's alleged criminal activities, has flared up the accusations against some very big names once again.

A federal judge has unsealed hundreds of pages of transcripts and other documents related to a now-settled defamation suit brought against Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of helping the late Jeffrey Epstein run a sex trafficking operation that catered to rich and powerful men.

The documents include a deposition given by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the draft of a memoir she was writing about her experiences inside the sex-trafficking ring, and email exchanges between Maxwell and Epstein.

Maxwell, Epstein's ex-girlfriend, was charged earlier this month on several counts related to sex trafficking of minors and perjury. She has pleaded not guilty in that case. The 2015 defamation suit was brought by Giuffre after the British socialite accused her of lying when she alleged Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused and exploited her.

Among other things, the documents included an email exchange in which Epstein protested his innocence and appeared to provide Maxwell with a statement to the media or set of talking points that she might use in defending herself against the allegations.

Maxwell had been the "target of outright lies, innuendo, slander, defamation and salacious gossip and harassment," the email said in language that pushed back against "false allegations of impropriety and offensive behavior that I abhor and have never ever been party to."

A few days later, responding to an email from Maxwell, Epstein wrote: "You have done nothing wrong and I (would) urge you to start acting like it." He urged her to "go outside, head high, not as an (escaping) convict. go to parties. deal with it."

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents unsealed last week after Maxwell's lawyer Laura Menninger made a last-minute appeal to keep them from going public, arguing that they could damage her defense.

Important note on all this from Adam Klasfeld:

Virginia Giuffre's interview with her lawyers from 2011, however, has been unsealed for the first time.

The screenshots are flowing freely tonight, but the hard work of contextualizing and following up on leads will emerge with time from reporters closely eyeing the case.

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) July 31, 2020

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