It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time for another Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments section!
Fortune 500 Companies Have Given Millions to Election Deniers Since Jan. 6 (from ProPublica): “ProPublica wanted to gauge corporate America’s continued support for these officials by tallying donations from a recognizable group: companies in the Fortune 500, whose political arms have sent these lawmakers nearly $13.2 million during the 2021-2022 election cycle. Drill down to see each company’s top beneficiaries and individual contributions and how long companies kept their promises.”
The ugly truth about sexual assault: More men admit to it if you don’t call it rape (from Salon–article is from 2015 but definitely worth the read): “What the researchers, led by Sarah Edwards, an assistant professor of counseling psychology, wanted to understand through this study was the relationship between men’s views about themselves and about women and their willingness to force sex.”
Welcome to hell, Elon (from The Verge): “What I mean is that you are now the King of Twitter, and people think that you, personally, are responsible for everything that happens on Twitter now. It also turns out that absolute monarchs usually get murdered when shit goes sideways.”
Here’s what changed in Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘2,000 Mules’ book after it was recalled (from NPR): “Most notably, a passage in the recalled version of the book that accused specific, named nonprofit organizations of involvement in illegal “ballot trafficking” has been rewritten, softening certain claims and outright removing the names of the groups. Separately, sections of the book that purported to link election fraud to antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement have also been deleted.”
Twitter alternatives for the Musk-averse (from The Verge): “So if you want to continue following social networking but no longer want to deal with Twitter, where do you go? We’ve looked around and found several possible alternatives. Most don’t have the size and scale of Twitter, and it’s hard to say if any of them will attract enough followers to give it a run for its money. Some of them ape the real-time feed of Twitter, but most provide a different take on what a social network can look like. Depending on what you get out of Twitter — perhaps you use it to broadcast your work or maybe you use it to keep up with news events, or maybe you use it to connect with other Twitter users — you might prefer some of these options over others. But take a look, and see if any of these seem worth checking out.”
Oath Keeper who stormed the Capitol says he thought Jan. 6 was a ‘Bastille-type’ attack (from NBC News): “Young, 57, described how he felt “desperation and hopelessness” after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. He said he “listened to what Trump’s attorneys were saying” about the election and got sucked into conspiracy theories online.”
They Once Blew Up a Classroom Over Textbooks, So, Yeah, There Will Be Violence (from The Rude Pundit): “This was fear, man, fear of how the world was changing, how nonwhites were being treated with increasing equality, how women were going to work, how kids were rebelling against the nonsensical religious garbage. When the old ways die and when there are people in power who support the old ways going into the shit heap of history, the desire to halt what we might quaintly call “progress” will inspire savagery.”
Suspect in assault at Pelosi home had posted about QAnon (from Florida Politics): “A pair of web blogs posted in recent months online under the name David DePape contained rants about technology, aliens, communists, religious minorities, transexuals and global elites.”
Can race play a role in college admissions? The Supreme Court hears the arguments (from NPR): “The justices are revisiting decades of precedent upheld over the years by narrow court majorities that included Republican-appointed justices. This time, however, there is every likelihood that the new conservative court will overrule some or all of those precedents.”
Catholic hospitals are wrecking reproductive health care (from OnlySky): “Read anything about Mother Teresa and you will learn how her opposition to birth control put a lot of women from Calcutta in danger. But Catholic hospitals will not dispense it. If a woman who was sexually assaulted says she needs birth control immediately, and a Catholic hospital happens to be the one nearby, it may not help her. Some might, but it’s not guaranteed, and if there’s any chance the victim is already pregnant when the hospital sees her, that help is even less likely. The only form of contraception they will offer, even for married couples who don’t want kids, is Natural Family Planning (NFP), which is based around tracking a woman’s cycle so that she doesn’t have sex when she’s super-fertile. (Because as we all know, everyone only enjoys sex within a window of a few days per month and everyone’s really good at math and keeping track of things.) It’s hardly a reasonable alternative to contraception that is more effective, more often.”
In defense of loving Mounds candy bars (from Salon): “In some respects, this is easy to get. Smaller candy makers who marry those flavors understand that the major issue Mounds foes have with it has to do with its mouthfeel, which makes or breaks any goodie. Hershey assumes Mounds consumers crave coconut meat at its coarsest and its exfoliating benefits for the digestive tract.”
That’s all for this week. But don’t worry! I’ll be back with more infotainment that you might find educational. Until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!
Iacon East 