It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time once again for another Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments!
Putin Compares Russia to J.K. Rowling in Absurd Rant Against American ‘Cancel Culture’ (from Rolling Stone): “Vladimir Putin is pretty upset that the United States and other Western nations have taken issue with him invading Ukraine and killing thousands of people. The murderous authoritarian took a page from the American right wing to air his grievances on Friday, comparing retaliation against the war to “cancel culture.” He even likened Russia to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who has been widely criticized for expressing anti-trans sentiment — but still, lest we must remind you, continues to publish books and make millions of dollars.”
Reuters unmasks Trump supporters who terrified U.S. election officials (from Reuters): “They were among nine people who told Reuters in interviews that they made threats or left other hostile messages to election workers. In all, they are responsible for nearly two dozen harassing communications to six election officials in four states. Seven made threats explicit enough to put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the U.S. federal standard for criminal prosecution, according to four legal experts who reviewed their messages at Reuters’ request.”
Infowars Editor Cries During Deposition About Man He Misidentified As Parkland Shooter (from the Huffington Post): “But it wasn’t the shooter. Instead, Marcel Fontaine ― who had never even been to Florida ― was suddenly on Infowars as the face of a man who killed students and teachers. Threats soon poured in, with people calling Fontaine a “crisis actor” involved in a “false flag operation” for the “deep state,” familiar buzzwords often repeated by Infowars’ hosts.”
Trump WH Jan. 6th Phone Records Show 7-Hour Gap (from the Washington Post): “The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021 – from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. – means the committee has no record of his phone conversations as his supporters descended on the Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building.”
New Focus on How a Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups Ahead of Jan. 6 (from the New York Times): “His message — which concluded with, “Be there, will be wild!” — has long been seen as instrumental in drawing the crowds that attended a pro-Trump rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and then marched to the Capitol.”
Exclusive: Documents reveal NASA’s internal struggles over renaming Webb telescope (from Nature): “But the new FOI documents shed light on how NASA has looked into the matter so far. The e-mail correspondences “paint a stark portrait of how astronomers outside the LGBTQ+ community dismiss the experiences of their queer colleagues, and make it plain to see that discrimination against queer people is alive and well in astronomy today”, say the four astronomers who led the community petition. They are Lucianne Walkowicz at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois; Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at the University of New Hampshire in Durham; Brian Nord at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois; and Sarah Tuttle at the University of Washington in Seattle.”
Ginni Thomas pressed for GOP lawmakers to protest 2020 election results (from NBC News): “Thomas wrote to the aide that Freedom Caucus members were tougher than RSC members, were in the fight and had then-President Donald Trump’s back, according to the source familiar with the email contents. Until she saw RSC members “out in the streets” and in the fight, she said, she would not help the RSC, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill.”
When abortion is a joke (from OnlySky): “Being nonreligious means engaging in a constant balancing act, with what we know of the world on one side of the scale and what we choose to believe on the other. There is no deity or holy text prescribing our faith; we weigh our worldview ourselves and (ideally) change it when we find it lacking. When we’re at our best, we assimilate new information by weighing its authority against what we already know and value. When we’re at our worst, we fall prey to the kinds of fear-mongering and control mechanisms that can also be found in religious culture.”
Why aren’t you a Trump supporter? (from OnlySky): “But flip that over for a minute. Being progressive helps me recognize privilege—but what role has privilege played in making me progressive in the first place? What unearned advantages made it possible for me to resist this grotesque con artist who has so thoroughly snowed millions, including people I know and love? If we rolled back the film of my life, stripped me of those benefits, then replayed the last few years, what would be different for me?”
Unglued Lara Logan Says the Rothschilds Paid Darwin to Develop the Theory of Evolution (from Mediaite): ““They can go back to the Big Bang Theory and Darwin,” she said. “When I found out – does anyone know who employed Darwin? Where Darwinism comes from?””
Facebook paid GOP firm to malign TikTok (from the Washington Post): “The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.”
“Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society.”
That’s all for this edition. But fret not, as I shall return yet again next week with more articles for you to read and digest. Until next time, have a great rest of your week, stay safe, and happy reading!
Iacon East 