An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Frank Serpico joins NYPD officers for rally in support of Colin Kaepernick
By Matt Bonesteel
Colin Kaepernick, whose national anthem protests during the 2016 football season were spurred by what he views as police brutality against minorities, received support from an unlikely group on Saturday: dozens of New York City police officers, who rallied in Brooklyn to protest Kaepernick’s continued NFL unemployment. Among them was Frank Serpico, the former NYPD officer whose campaign against police corruption was the subject of the enduring 1973 film, “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino in the title role.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/08/19/frank-serpico-joins-nypd-officers-for-rally-in-support-of-colin-kaepernick/?utm_term=.62917278e77a
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Signs of the Times
From the Boston Globe -
Some of the best signs from today’s Boston Common rallies
By the Globe Staff
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/19/some-best-signs-from-today-boston-common-rallies/c2ER3jyLOUGdCX7rxbreuI/story.html
Some of the best signs from today’s Boston Common rallies
By the Globe Staff
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/19/some-best-signs-from-today-boston-common-rallies/c2ER3jyLOUGdCX7rxbreuI/story.html
Where They Stand
From the Washington Post -
Where Republican senators stand on President Trump
By Nicole Lewis, Amber Phillips, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/senate-trump-support/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpreact-graphic-1pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.21cfe4386587
Where Republican senators stand on President Trump
By Nicole Lewis, Amber Phillips, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/senate-trump-support/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpreact-graphic-1pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.21cfe4386587
Common in Sacramento Tomorrow - Free Concert
An excerpt from CAL Matters -
From lyrics to legislation: Common comes rapping on California’s Capitol
By Laurel Rosenhall
Inmates at the state prison in Lancaster got an unusual perk this spring: a private meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown’s top aide and a Grammy-award winning rapper.
It was one stop in a larger effort that has recently brought Common—a musician who blends hip-hop beats with an activist message—close to key California decision-makers. After an artistic career that propelled him from the south side of Chicago to poetry nights in the Obama White House, the 45-year-old rapper is now working to influence state policy. A resident of Los Angeles, Common is trying to change the criminal justice system in California.
In addition to the meeting with Brown aide Nancy McFadden at the Southern California prison in March, Common met with Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol in May to talk about bills that would change California’s bail system and juvenile justice procedures. He’ll be back in Sacramento on Monday, when legislators return from summer recess, holding a free concert outside the Capitol and lobbying politicians inside.
https://calmatters.org/articles/lyrics-legislation-common-comes-rapping-californias-capitol/#nws=mcnewsletter
From lyrics to legislation: Common comes rapping on California’s Capitol
By Laurel Rosenhall
Inmates at the state prison in Lancaster got an unusual perk this spring: a private meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown’s top aide and a Grammy-award winning rapper.
It was one stop in a larger effort that has recently brought Common—a musician who blends hip-hop beats with an activist message—close to key California decision-makers. After an artistic career that propelled him from the south side of Chicago to poetry nights in the Obama White House, the 45-year-old rapper is now working to influence state policy. A resident of Los Angeles, Common is trying to change the criminal justice system in California.
In addition to the meeting with Brown aide Nancy McFadden at the Southern California prison in March, Common met with Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol in May to talk about bills that would change California’s bail system and juvenile justice procedures. He’ll be back in Sacramento on Monday, when legislators return from summer recess, holding a free concert outside the Capitol and lobbying politicians inside.
https://calmatters.org/articles/lyrics-legislation-common-comes-rapping-californias-capitol/#nws=mcnewsletter
Quote
All these folks worried about erasing history when the Confederate statues come down will be thrilled to learn about the existence of books.— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 16, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Children of Catholic Priests - Part 2
Please see the post entitled "Secrets and Sorrow" from August 16th that features the article "Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow" By Michael Rezendes for Part 1 of this extraordinary story.
~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
By Michael Rezendes
ONE BRIGHT MORNING three years ago, Vincent Doyle joined the thousands of Catholic faithful jamming St. Peter’s Square for a chance to see Pope Francis make his weekly public appearance and bestow his blessing on the crowd.
Unlike most of those standing in the searing Roman sun, Doyle was headed to a front-row seat in a reserved section very close to where the pope would emerge, and he was already silently rehearsing an urgent message in the pontiff’s native language.
“I am the son of a Catholic priest in Ireland,” he repeated in Spanish, praying he would not become tongue-tied or overcome with emotion when he met the Holy Father.
Doyle learned at the age of 28 that the beloved godfather he grew up calling “J.J.” — a Catholic priest from a rural diocese in central Ireland — was, in fact, his biological father.
J.J. had died years before, leaving Doyle with many unanswered questions. But, after discovering his true father and meeting a woman whose father was also a Catholic priest, one question in particular would drive him: Just how many children of Catholic clergy are there?
Though there had been notorious scandals in the 1990s involving Irish clergy who fathered children, there was little reliable information on the larger subject of priests and their offspring, Doyle found. So he came up with his own solution: He built a website he called Coping International and invited anyone who was the daughter or son of a priest to contact him.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/17/father-father-priest-son-takes-his-case-directly-pope/g8ObYa0NATZy3itVSzdflM/story.html
~~~~~~~~~~
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
By Michael Rezendes
ONE BRIGHT MORNING three years ago, Vincent Doyle joined the thousands of Catholic faithful jamming St. Peter’s Square for a chance to see Pope Francis make his weekly public appearance and bestow his blessing on the crowd.
Unlike most of those standing in the searing Roman sun, Doyle was headed to a front-row seat in a reserved section very close to where the pope would emerge, and he was already silently rehearsing an urgent message in the pontiff’s native language.
“I am the son of a Catholic priest in Ireland,” he repeated in Spanish, praying he would not become tongue-tied or overcome with emotion when he met the Holy Father.
Doyle learned at the age of 28 that the beloved godfather he grew up calling “J.J.” — a Catholic priest from a rural diocese in central Ireland — was, in fact, his biological father.
J.J. had died years before, leaving Doyle with many unanswered questions. But, after discovering his true father and meeting a woman whose father was also a Catholic priest, one question in particular would drive him: Just how many children of Catholic clergy are there?
Though there had been notorious scandals in the 1990s involving Irish clergy who fathered children, there was little reliable information on the larger subject of priests and their offspring, Doyle found. So he came up with his own solution: He built a website he called Coping International and invited anyone who was the daughter or son of a priest to contact him.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/17/father-father-priest-son-takes-his-case-directly-pope/g8ObYa0NATZy3itVSzdflM/story.html
He Has Already Resigned
An excerpt from the NY Times -
The Week When President Trump Resigned
By Frank Bruni
As the worst week in a cursed presidency wound down, I spotted more and more forecasts that Donald Trump would resign, including from Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump and presumably understands his tortured psyche.
They struck me not as wishful or fantastical.
They struck me as late.
Trump resigned the presidency already — if we regard the job as one of moral stewardship, if we assume that an iota of civic concern must joust with self-regard, if we expect a president’s interest in legislation to rise above vacuous theatrics, if we consider a certain baseline of diplomatic etiquette to be part of the equation.
By those measures, it’s arguable that Trump’s presidency never really began. By those measures, it’s indisputable that his presidency ended in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, when he chose — yes, chose — to litigate rather than lead, to attend to his wounded pride instead of his wounded nation and to debate the supposed fine points of white supremacy.
He abdicated his responsibilities so thoroughly and recklessly that it amounted to a letter of resignation. Then he whored for his Virginia winery on the way out the door.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
The Week When President Trump Resigned
By Frank Bruni
As the worst week in a cursed presidency wound down, I spotted more and more forecasts that Donald Trump would resign, including from Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump and presumably understands his tortured psyche.
They struck me not as wishful or fantastical.
They struck me as late.
Trump resigned the presidency already — if we regard the job as one of moral stewardship, if we assume that an iota of civic concern must joust with self-regard, if we expect a president’s interest in legislation to rise above vacuous theatrics, if we consider a certain baseline of diplomatic etiquette to be part of the equation.
By those measures, it’s arguable that Trump’s presidency never really began. By those measures, it’s indisputable that his presidency ended in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, when he chose — yes, chose — to litigate rather than lead, to attend to his wounded pride instead of his wounded nation and to debate the supposed fine points of white supremacy.
He abdicated his responsibilities so thoroughly and recklessly that it amounted to a letter of resignation. Then he whored for his Virginia winery on the way out the door.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/president-trump-resignation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
And Then There Was One
From the Washington Post -
Pence is the last man standing in this photo (besides Trump himself)
By Callum Borchers
 |
| This Jan. 28 photo shows President Trump speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office, surrounded, from left, by then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Pence, then-chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, then-press secretary Sean Spicer and then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) |
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/18/mike-pence-is-the-last-man-standing-in-this-photo-besides-trump-himself/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.8ef577a76f45
Honoring the Typewriter
From the NY Times -
Review: ‘California Typewriter’: Preserving the Past, Key by Key
CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER Directed by Doug Nichol
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/movies/california-typewriter-review.html?emc=edit_ca_20170818&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1&_r=0
Review: ‘California Typewriter’: Preserving the Past, Key by Key
CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER Directed by Doug Nichol
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/movies/california-typewriter-review.html?emc=edit_ca_20170818&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1&_r=0
Bakers. This One's For You.
From the LA Times -
How to make the best brownies ever, plus a recipe
By Noelle Carter
http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-great-brownies-chocolate-recipe-20170803-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
How to make the best brownies ever, plus a recipe
By Noelle Carter
http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-great-brownies-chocolate-recipe-20170803-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
An Unlikely Convert
A riveting article about the rise of a white nationalist and his ultimate decision to denounce that way of thinking. It's long but well worth the read.
From the Washington Post -
The white flight of Derek Black
By Eli Saslow
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.2e86498d4c66
From the Washington Post -
The white flight of Derek Black
By Eli Saslow
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.2e86498d4c66
Making an Impact
An excerpt form he Washington Post -
Her #OscarsSoWhite campaign changed how Hollywood deals with race. Now she’s taking on HBO.
By Sonia Rao
When April Reign joined Twitter back in 2010, she was met with the familiar frustration of a taken username. But instead of tacking random numbers onto the end, she opted for a simple play on words: @ReignOfApril.
“I decided I was royalty,” she said.
Reign has lived up to her commanding name. Since she cheekily tweeted “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair” in response to an all-white slate of Academy Award acting nominees in 2015, Reign, 47, has been at the epicenter of the online conversation about representation in Hollywood. Her viral hashtag transformed the way we talk about entertainment, and she’s now using another to try to take down the “Game of Thrones” creators’ next TV show — all from her home office in Ellicott City, Md.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/her-oscarssowhite-campaign-changed-how-hollywood-deals-with-race-now-shes-taking-on-hbo/2017/08/16/50cf5606-8100-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.130c0a720166&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Her #OscarsSoWhite campaign changed how Hollywood deals with race. Now she’s taking on HBO.
By Sonia Rao
When April Reign joined Twitter back in 2010, she was met with the familiar frustration of a taken username. But instead of tacking random numbers onto the end, she opted for a simple play on words: @ReignOfApril.
“I decided I was royalty,” she said.
Reign has lived up to her commanding name. Since she cheekily tweeted “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair” in response to an all-white slate of Academy Award acting nominees in 2015, Reign, 47, has been at the epicenter of the online conversation about representation in Hollywood. Her viral hashtag transformed the way we talk about entertainment, and she’s now using another to try to take down the “Game of Thrones” creators’ next TV show — all from her home office in Ellicott City, Md.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/her-oscarssowhite-campaign-changed-how-hollywood-deals-with-race-now-shes-taking-on-hbo/2017/08/16/50cf5606-8100-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?utm_term=.130c0a720166&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Using Math to Fight Gerrymandering
An excerpt from the Associated Press -
Math experts join brainpower to help address gerrymandering
By COLLIN BINKLEY
MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Some of the brightest minds in math arrived at Tufts University last week to tackle an issue lawyers and political scientists have been struggling with for decades.
They came from colleges across the country for a weeklong conference on gerrymandering, the practice of crafting voting districts in a way that favors voters from a certain political party or demographic. It’s a topic of growing interest among many math and data experts who say their scholarly fields can provide new tools to help courts identify voting maps that are drawn unfairly.
Among those working to bridge the classroom and the courtroom is Moon Duchin, a math professor at Tufts who orchestrated the gathering at her Boston-area campus. The workshop was the first in a series being organized at campuses nationwide to unite academics and to harness cutting-edge mathematics to address gerrymandering.
https://apnews.com/5f1defde7bf74d0ea8c9688d8d3ab51b
Math experts join brainpower to help address gerrymandering
By COLLIN BINKLEY
MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Some of the brightest minds in math arrived at Tufts University last week to tackle an issue lawyers and political scientists have been struggling with for decades.
They came from colleges across the country for a weeklong conference on gerrymandering, the practice of crafting voting districts in a way that favors voters from a certain political party or demographic. It’s a topic of growing interest among many math and data experts who say their scholarly fields can provide new tools to help courts identify voting maps that are drawn unfairly.
Among those working to bridge the classroom and the courtroom is Moon Duchin, a math professor at Tufts who orchestrated the gathering at her Boston-area campus. The workshop was the first in a series being organized at campuses nationwide to unite academics and to harness cutting-edge mathematics to address gerrymandering.
https://apnews.com/5f1defde7bf74d0ea8c9688d8d3ab51b
Better Late Than Never?
Excerpts from the Huffington Post -
Why Your ‘Apology’ For Defending Trump’s Racism Isn’t Enough
Listen up.
By Zeba Blay
“American Idol” alumnus Clay Aiken tweeted an apology Tuesday that was, frankly, too little and too late.
“Remember all those times I defended [Donald Trump] and believed he was not actually racist?” Aiken wrote. “Well ... I am a f*****g dumbass.”
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s convenient to ignore racism when you are not affected by it. It’s presumptuous to declare that something or someone is not racist when you have not experienced racism yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~
For the people of color who are directly affected by Trump’s actions and Trump’s rhetoric, who recognized all along that Trump has stoked dangerous ideological fires among white supremacists in America, the fact that some white people like Aiken are now just acknowledging this is incredibly frustrating.
It is, obviously, a good thing that Aiken has recognized he was wrong about Trump, and is willing to admit this in a public space. Few people are. But hopefully Aiken, and other white people who either supported, defended or voted for Trump in spite of his racist track record, will do more than just say they’re sorry ― they’ll make up for it by actively working to dismantle white supremacy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-your-apology-for-defending-trumps-racism-isnt-enough_us_5995ac68e4b0d0d2cc84ebbd
Why Your ‘Apology’ For Defending Trump’s Racism Isn’t Enough
Listen up.
By Zeba Blay
“American Idol” alumnus Clay Aiken tweeted an apology Tuesday that was, frankly, too little and too late.
“Remember all those times I defended [Donald Trump] and believed he was not actually racist?” Aiken wrote. “Well ... I am a f*****g dumbass.”
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s convenient to ignore racism when you are not affected by it. It’s presumptuous to declare that something or someone is not racist when you have not experienced racism yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~
For the people of color who are directly affected by Trump’s actions and Trump’s rhetoric, who recognized all along that Trump has stoked dangerous ideological fires among white supremacists in America, the fact that some white people like Aiken are now just acknowledging this is incredibly frustrating.
It is, obviously, a good thing that Aiken has recognized he was wrong about Trump, and is willing to admit this in a public space. Few people are. But hopefully Aiken, and other white people who either supported, defended or voted for Trump in spite of his racist track record, will do more than just say they’re sorry ― they’ll make up for it by actively working to dismantle white supremacy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-your-apology-for-defending-trumps-racism-isnt-enough_us_5995ac68e4b0d0d2cc84ebbd
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