Friday, June 10, 2016
It's Over
From the Huffington Post -
Brock Turner Banned For Life By USA Swimming
His “promising” swimming career is done.
Former Stanford University student Brock Turner is no longer eligible to compete in events sanctioned by USA Swimming, USA Today confirmed Monday afternoon.
The ban, which includes Olympic tryouts, was confirmed by USA Swimming spokesman Scott Leightman in an email to USA Today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brock-turner-banned-for-life-by-usa-swimming_us_575accb3e4b0ced23ca7c919
Brock Turner Banned For Life By USA Swimming
His “promising” swimming career is done.
Former Stanford University student Brock Turner is no longer eligible to compete in events sanctioned by USA Swimming, USA Today confirmed Monday afternoon.
The ban, which includes Olympic tryouts, was confirmed by USA Swimming spokesman Scott Leightman in an email to USA Today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brock-turner-banned-for-life-by-usa-swimming_us_575accb3e4b0ced23ca7c919
Prospective Jurors Boycott
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Prospective Jurors Boycott Judge Aaron Persky As 1 Million People Demand His Recall
“I can’t be here, I’m so upset,” one prospective juror reportedly told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe what you did,” said another.
These two individuals were among several prospective jurors who reportedly refused to serve under Persky in a misdemeanor stolen property case.
Persky is the judge who presided over Brock Turner’s sentencing for sexual assault.
The East Bay Times said at least 10 prospective jurors declined to serve in the unrelated case. KPIX-TV said the number was double that, and the jurors cited the judge as a hardship.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aaron-persky-juror-boycott_us_575a5fcce4b00f97fba7ee6f
Prospective Jurors Boycott Judge Aaron Persky As 1 Million People Demand His Recall
“I can’t be here, I’m so upset,” one prospective juror reportedly told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe what you did,” said another.
These two individuals were among several prospective jurors who reportedly refused to serve under Persky in a misdemeanor stolen property case.
Persky is the judge who presided over Brock Turner’s sentencing for sexual assault.
The East Bay Times said at least 10 prospective jurors declined to serve in the unrelated case. KPIX-TV said the number was double that, and the jurors cited the judge as a hardship.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aaron-persky-juror-boycott_us_575a5fcce4b00f97fba7ee6f
Voting
True confession . . .
I didn't cast my first vote until I was 40.
Yes, I was 40 freaking years old!
What an idiot!
Thousands of people shed their blood and gave their lives for me to have the opportunity to vote, and I blew it off like it was no big deal.
I'd like to blame it on youthful indiscretions, but 40 is far removed from any reasonable measure of youth.
I have few regrets, but not taking advantage of the right to vote is definitely one of them.
Here's hoping that others will learn from my foolish ways, and my newfound zeal will motivate them to do just the opposite.
That is . . .
To recognize the power that voting affords us.
To understand the responsibility that it holds.
To appreciate what so many around the world wish for.
It took me a while, OK a long while, to grasp the gravity of this vital civic responsibility, but now that I have, I want to shout it from the rooftops.
To all those Bernie supporters, and I am counted among them, we must focus on the task at hand, that is, keeping Trump out of the White House.
Hillary may not be all that we want or even need her to be, but even on her worse days, she'll be a thousand times better than that vile, disgusting, racist, sexist, narcissistic Trump.
So, take it from me.
If you've never voted before in your life, or if you've half-heartedly voted in the past, or if you're a regular voter, come November let us join together and vote in droves with a renewed energy so that our voices and our votes will drown out and defeat Trump, who would be an embarrassment and a danger to us all.
I didn't cast my first vote until I was 40.
Yes, I was 40 freaking years old!
What an idiot!
Thousands of people shed their blood and gave their lives for me to have the opportunity to vote, and I blew it off like it was no big deal.
I'd like to blame it on youthful indiscretions, but 40 is far removed from any reasonable measure of youth.
I have few regrets, but not taking advantage of the right to vote is definitely one of them.
Here's hoping that others will learn from my foolish ways, and my newfound zeal will motivate them to do just the opposite.
That is . . .
To recognize the power that voting affords us.
To understand the responsibility that it holds.
To appreciate what so many around the world wish for.
It took me a while, OK a long while, to grasp the gravity of this vital civic responsibility, but now that I have, I want to shout it from the rooftops.
To all those Bernie supporters, and I am counted among them, we must focus on the task at hand, that is, keeping Trump out of the White House.
Hillary may not be all that we want or even need her to be, but even on her worse days, she'll be a thousand times better than that vile, disgusting, racist, sexist, narcissistic Trump.
So, take it from me.
If you've never voted before in your life, or if you've half-heartedly voted in the past, or if you're a regular voter, come November let us join together and vote in droves with a renewed energy so that our voices and our votes will drown out and defeat Trump, who would be an embarrassment and a danger to us all.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Not Good Google
An excerpt from USA Today -
Google image searches for "three black teenagers" and "three white teenagers" get very different results, raising troubling questions about how racial bias in society and the media is reflected online.
Kabir Alli, an 18-year-old graduating senior from Clover Hill High School in Midlothian, Va., posted a video clip on Twitter this week of a Google image search for "three black teenagers" which turned up an array of police mugshots. He and friends then searched for "three white teenagers," and found groups of smiling young people.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/09/google-image-search-three-black-teenagers-three-white-teenagers/85648838/
Google image searches for "three black teenagers" and "three white teenagers" get very different results, raising troubling questions about how racial bias in society and the media is reflected online.
Kabir Alli, an 18-year-old graduating senior from Clover Hill High School in Midlothian, Va., posted a video clip on Twitter this week of a Google image search for "three black teenagers" which turned up an array of police mugshots. He and friends then searched for "three white teenagers," and found groups of smiling young people.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/06/09/google-image-search-three-black-teenagers-three-white-teenagers/85648838/
Heads Are Starting to Roll
From The Washington Post -
Navy admiral to plead guilty in ‘Fat Leonard’ corruption scandal
By Craig Whitlock
A one-star Navy admiral will plead guilty today to lying to federal investigators in the “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal, his attorney said, which would make him the highest-ranking officer so far to be convicted in the case.
Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau, a special assistant to the chief of the Navy Supply Corps, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Diego late Thursday afternoon, court records show. He will plead guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators, said David Benowitz, his defense attorney.
~~~~~~~~~~
Gilbeau, 55, came to know Francis — known in maritime circles as “Fat Leonard” for his girth — during several deployments to Asia and was also under investigation for his relationships with other contractors when he served in Afghanistan in 2012 and 2013, according to the individuals familiar with the investigation.
Gilbeau departed Afghanistan shortly after Francis, 51, was arrested in an international sting operation in San Diego in September 2013.
Francis has since admitted to bribing Navy officials with cash, sex and gifts worth millions of dollars so he could win more defense contracts. His company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, provided critical support for the Navy’s 7th Fleet for a quarter-century by resupplying and refueling submarines and ships in ports throughout Asia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/navy-admiral-to-plead-guilty-in-fat-leonard-corruption-scandal/2016/06/09/6955e5ec-2e4e-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html
Navy admiral to plead guilty in ‘Fat Leonard’ corruption scandal
By Craig Whitlock
A one-star Navy admiral will plead guilty today to lying to federal investigators in the “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal, his attorney said, which would make him the highest-ranking officer so far to be convicted in the case.
Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau, a special assistant to the chief of the Navy Supply Corps, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Diego late Thursday afternoon, court records show. He will plead guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators, said David Benowitz, his defense attorney.
~~~~~~~~~~
Gilbeau, 55, came to know Francis — known in maritime circles as “Fat Leonard” for his girth — during several deployments to Asia and was also under investigation for his relationships with other contractors when he served in Afghanistan in 2012 and 2013, according to the individuals familiar with the investigation.
Gilbeau departed Afghanistan shortly after Francis, 51, was arrested in an international sting operation in San Diego in September 2013.
Francis has since admitted to bribing Navy officials with cash, sex and gifts worth millions of dollars so he could win more defense contracts. His company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, provided critical support for the Navy’s 7th Fleet for a quarter-century by resupplying and refueling submarines and ships in ports throughout Asia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/navy-admiral-to-plead-guilty-in-fat-leonard-corruption-scandal/2016/06/09/6955e5ec-2e4e-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Home Girl
From Rolling Stone -
Janis Joplin's Childhood Home Up for Sale
Owners asking for nearly ten times market value for singer's Port Arthur, Texas house
Before Janis Joplin became one of the definitive voices of Sixties rock, she was a child growing up in Port Arthur, Texas. Now, the home where the singer spent the early part of her life is up on the market, according to SFGate.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/janis-joplins-childhood-home-up-for-sale-20160608#ixzz4B3S4saj7
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Janis Joplin's Childhood Home Up for Sale
Owners asking for nearly ten times market value for singer's Port Arthur, Texas house
Before Janis Joplin became one of the definitive voices of Sixties rock, she was a child growing up in Port Arthur, Texas. Now, the home where the singer spent the early part of her life is up on the market, according to SFGate.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/janis-joplins-childhood-home-up-for-sale-20160608#ixzz4B3S4saj7
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Continued Fascination
An excerpt from Slate - (Bold is mine)
O.J.: Made in America
Forget your O.J. Simpson fatigue—ESPN’s 7½-hour documentary is a revelation.
By Jack Hamilton
Twenty years after a California jury declared O.J. Simpson not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after a trial that changed the way people watch TV, the two best things on American television this year have been FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and now ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America, a 7½-hour documentary that is the best piece of original programming the cable sports network has ever produced. The film is part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, which for the past seven years has produced some of the best sports documentaries around but has never previously come close to producing a work of this magnitude and power.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2016/06/o_j_made_in_america_on_espn_reviewed.html?sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d&wpsrc=newsletter_tis
O.J.: Made in America
Forget your O.J. Simpson fatigue—ESPN’s 7½-hour documentary is a revelation.
By Jack Hamilton
Twenty years after a California jury declared O.J. Simpson not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after a trial that changed the way people watch TV, the two best things on American television this year have been FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and now ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America, a 7½-hour documentary that is the best piece of original programming the cable sports network has ever produced. The film is part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, which for the past seven years has produced some of the best sports documentaries around but has never previously come close to producing a work of this magnitude and power.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2016/06/o_j_made_in_america_on_espn_reviewed.html?sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d&wpsrc=newsletter_tis
Pay Gap
An excerpt from Vox -
The jarring pay gap between black and white doctors
by Julia Belluz
Harvard Medical School associate professor Anupam Jena wanted to find out whether the black-white pay gap would persist among this homogenous group.
In a new study, published today in the BMJ, he and other researchers from Harvard and the University of Southern California used race and employment data from two nationally representative surveys to find out.
The picture they paint is alarmingly consistent with overall labor trends: Despite the uniform education levels and credentials among doctors, black physicians still earn significantly less than white physicians. The disparity between female black and white doctors is smaller, but female physicians of both races earned significantly less compared to men, the study found.
More specifically, the adjusted average annual income between 2010 and 2013 for white male physicians was $253,042 — nearly $65,000 more than what black male physicians earned ($188,230). White female physicians got $163,234 and black female physicians about $10,000 less at $152,784.
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11876976/pay-gap-black-and-white-doctors
He Saw Himself
An excerpt from Mimesis Law as seen in Vox -
BROCK ALLEN TURNER: THE SORT OF DEFENDANT WHO IS SPARED “SEVERE IMPACT”
by Ken White
June 8, 2016 (Mimesis Law) — Ten years ago my firm represented a kid on a minor drug charge. This kid played an instrument – for the sake of this story, let’s call it a xylophone. He approached the xylophone like he approached geometry, by which I mean he often showed up for it and probably wouldn’t fail it. But by the time we were done writing about that kid in the sentencing briefs, he was the most xylophone-playing motherfucker ever to walk the Earth. He was the YoYo Ma of xylophones, someone whose skills would make angels weep and the doors of fame and success slam open.
We didn’t do that because people who play xylophones are less criminally culpable than people who don’t. We did it because a defense attorney’s challenge is to humanize their client at sentencing. Judges process dozens of defendants a month, or a week, or even a day. If judges confronted the defendants’ individual humanity as they caged them one after another, they’d go quite mad. It’s impossible and inadvisable.
The trick is to light a spark that catches the judge’s eye, that transforms your client even momentarily from an abstraction or a statistic or a stereotype into a human being with whom the judge feels a connection. Judges are people, and people connect with each other through commonalities – family, hobbies, sports, music, and so forth. At sentencing, a good advocate helps the judge to see the defendant as someone fundamentally like the judge, with whom the judge can relate. It’s harder to send a man into a merciless hole when you relate to him.
Empathy is a blessing. But empathy’s not even-handed. It’s idiosyncratic. Judges empathize with defendants who share their life experiences – and only a narrow and privileged slice of America shares the life experiences of a judge.
That’s one reason that justice in America looks the way it does.
Last week Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Allen Turner to six months in jail. Turner will probably do half of that – about the length of a single quarter at Stanford University, where he was a student. Most people think that was an appallingly and unjustly lenient sentence for what Turner did: brutally sexually assaulting a drunk, unconscious young woman behind a dumpster outside a party.
Judge Persky clearly empathized with Brock Allen Turner. Turner was a championship swimmer and a Stanford student; Judge Persky was a Stanford student and the captain of the lacrosse team. Judge Persky said that sending Turner to prison would have a “severe impact” on him, that he did not believe that he would be a danger to others, and that he was young. Turner’s victim was not spared a severe impact, despite her youth and lack of criminal record. Her statement was harrowing. Her sentence is lifelong.
http://mimesislaw.com/fault-lines/brock-turner-the-sort-of-defendant-who-is-spared-severe-impact/10288?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%206/8/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All
BROCK ALLEN TURNER: THE SORT OF DEFENDANT WHO IS SPARED “SEVERE IMPACT”
by Ken White
June 8, 2016 (Mimesis Law) — Ten years ago my firm represented a kid on a minor drug charge. This kid played an instrument – for the sake of this story, let’s call it a xylophone. He approached the xylophone like he approached geometry, by which I mean he often showed up for it and probably wouldn’t fail it. But by the time we were done writing about that kid in the sentencing briefs, he was the most xylophone-playing motherfucker ever to walk the Earth. He was the YoYo Ma of xylophones, someone whose skills would make angels weep and the doors of fame and success slam open.
We didn’t do that because people who play xylophones are less criminally culpable than people who don’t. We did it because a defense attorney’s challenge is to humanize their client at sentencing. Judges process dozens of defendants a month, or a week, or even a day. If judges confronted the defendants’ individual humanity as they caged them one after another, they’d go quite mad. It’s impossible and inadvisable.
The trick is to light a spark that catches the judge’s eye, that transforms your client even momentarily from an abstraction or a statistic or a stereotype into a human being with whom the judge feels a connection. Judges are people, and people connect with each other through commonalities – family, hobbies, sports, music, and so forth. At sentencing, a good advocate helps the judge to see the defendant as someone fundamentally like the judge, with whom the judge can relate. It’s harder to send a man into a merciless hole when you relate to him.
Empathy is a blessing. But empathy’s not even-handed. It’s idiosyncratic. Judges empathize with defendants who share their life experiences – and only a narrow and privileged slice of America shares the life experiences of a judge.
That’s one reason that justice in America looks the way it does.
Last week Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Allen Turner to six months in jail. Turner will probably do half of that – about the length of a single quarter at Stanford University, where he was a student. Most people think that was an appallingly and unjustly lenient sentence for what Turner did: brutally sexually assaulting a drunk, unconscious young woman behind a dumpster outside a party.
Judge Persky clearly empathized with Brock Allen Turner. Turner was a championship swimmer and a Stanford student; Judge Persky was a Stanford student and the captain of the lacrosse team. Judge Persky said that sending Turner to prison would have a “severe impact” on him, that he did not believe that he would be a danger to others, and that he was young. Turner’s victim was not spared a severe impact, despite her youth and lack of criminal record. Her statement was harrowing. Her sentence is lifelong.
http://mimesislaw.com/fault-lines/brock-turner-the-sort-of-defendant-who-is-spared-severe-impact/10288?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%206/8/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All
First Dates
From The Washington Post -
Your romantic first dates? Restaurants hate them.
By Lavanya Ramanathan
The guy had left the table for only a minute.
But as soon as he was out of sight, his date whipped out her phone, opened Tinder and started swiping.
“It was deceitful, a little bit,” says Chris McNeal, general manager of Bar Dupont, who’d watched the scene unfold, slightly aghast that this is how people find love in the modern age. It wasn’t even the first time he’d seen a Tinder meetup turn sour.
First dates — those angst-filled encounters when two strangers size each other up as romantic prospects — fill restaurants and bars so often that the staff is keenly aware when you’re on one.
“They’re moderating how much alcohol they drink,” McNeal says. “They have that twitchy-eye thing where, like, they don’t know each other.”
Your first-date banter? Banal. And the bartender is pretending that he hasn’t seen you twice already this week. With different women. Using the same, somewhat-creepy lines.
Greg Algie, co-owner of the Fainting Goat, a popular Washington first-date destination, has witnessed more than one Tinderella arrive, get a glimpse of the person they’re supposed to meet — and head right back out the door.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/your-romantic-first-dates-restaurants-hate-them/2016/06/07/bf45adfc-1df5-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_rainbow
Your romantic first dates? Restaurants hate them.
By Lavanya Ramanathan
The guy had left the table for only a minute.
But as soon as he was out of sight, his date whipped out her phone, opened Tinder and started swiping.
“It was deceitful, a little bit,” says Chris McNeal, general manager of Bar Dupont, who’d watched the scene unfold, slightly aghast that this is how people find love in the modern age. It wasn’t even the first time he’d seen a Tinder meetup turn sour.
First dates — those angst-filled encounters when two strangers size each other up as romantic prospects — fill restaurants and bars so often that the staff is keenly aware when you’re on one.
“They’re moderating how much alcohol they drink,” McNeal says. “They have that twitchy-eye thing where, like, they don’t know each other.”
Your first-date banter? Banal. And the bartender is pretending that he hasn’t seen you twice already this week. With different women. Using the same, somewhat-creepy lines.
Greg Algie, co-owner of the Fainting Goat, a popular Washington first-date destination, has witnessed more than one Tinderella arrive, get a glimpse of the person they’re supposed to meet — and head right back out the door.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/your-romantic-first-dates-restaurants-hate-them/2016/06/07/bf45adfc-1df5-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_rainbow
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Compounded F*ckup
An excerpt from VerySmartBrothas -
WHEN PEAK WHITE PRIVILEGE AND PEAK RAPE CULTURE CREATE THE PERFECT FUCKSHIT SOUFFLÉ
Damon Young
If you are a person who…
1. cares at all about concepts like social justice, racism, gender equality, feminism, patriarchy, and privilege
…and…
2. carries a frustration with people who have either been unable or unwilling to possess a nuanced understanding for what any of these concepts mean
…convicted rapist Brock Turner, his father Dan, and Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky just provided a Fisher Price-meets-Trump University-level lesson plan for recognizing White privilege and rape culture. You will never find a plainer, less sophisticated, and easier to grasp example of these particular strains of pervasive shitty. Anyone who reads the details of this story and still comes away unconvinced these things exist is either trolling, a member of the Turner family, or “Simple Jack’s” replacement for the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived.
Of course, you can’t make a fuckshit soufflé without the proper ingredients.
http://verysmartbrothas.com/when-peak-white-privilege-and-peak-rape-culture-create-a-fuckshit-souffle/
WHEN PEAK WHITE PRIVILEGE AND PEAK RAPE CULTURE CREATE THE PERFECT FUCKSHIT SOUFFLÉ
Damon Young
If you are a person who…
1. cares at all about concepts like social justice, racism, gender equality, feminism, patriarchy, and privilege
…and…
2. carries a frustration with people who have either been unable or unwilling to possess a nuanced understanding for what any of these concepts mean
…convicted rapist Brock Turner, his father Dan, and Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky just provided a Fisher Price-meets-Trump University-level lesson plan for recognizing White privilege and rape culture. You will never find a plainer, less sophisticated, and easier to grasp example of these particular strains of pervasive shitty. Anyone who reads the details of this story and still comes away unconvinced these things exist is either trolling, a member of the Turner family, or “Simple Jack’s” replacement for the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived.
Of course, you can’t make a fuckshit soufflé without the proper ingredients.
http://verysmartbrothas.com/when-peak-white-privilege-and-peak-rape-culture-create-a-fuckshit-souffle/
Basket Building
From Atlas Obscura -
Ohio's Famed 7-Story Basket Building Might Be Doomed
Tough times for the big basket business.
By Erik Shilling
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ohios-famed-7story-basket-building-might-be-doomed?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160608&bt_email=fayesharpe@gmail.com&bt_ts=1465332417306
Ohio's Famed 7-Story Basket Building Might Be Doomed
Tough times for the big basket business.
By Erik Shilling
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ohios-famed-7story-basket-building-might-be-doomed?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160608&bt_email=fayesharpe@gmail.com&bt_ts=1465332417306
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