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Category: Omnium Gatherum

Weekend Reading: May 12, 2017

On May 12, 2017May 11, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

After this week’s Tuesday Afternoon Massacre, here’s a quick refresher on Watergate, just in case that becomes relevant.
Inside the White House, the president “would sometimes scream at television clips about the [Russia] probe.“
Turns out, the ex-FBI director wasn’t exactly right about Huma Abedin forwarding thousands of classified emails to husband Anthony Weiner; they only found two.
Facial scans coming soon to a U.S. airport near you.
They shall not be questioned: Woman is convicted of disorderly conduct for laughing during Jeff Sessions testimony; meanwhile a reporter in West Virginia is arrested for asking Tom Price a question.
Of Korean K-Pop, mega-popular fanfiction, and the lesbian billionaire power couple that wasn’t.
The school that decided, screw it, we don’t need no stinking textbooks.
Police officer fired by department for not shooting mentally ill man.
In the Bay Area, some families making over $100,000 a year can still be considered “low-income.”
Oh, and the head of the Census Bureau just quit because Congress didn’t allot enough money for them to do their job.
Last call for Spicey?
Going to Europe? Leave your laptops and tablets at home.
Print and read: The mortgage interest deduction, aka welfare for the wealthy.
Bonus print and read: There are many ways Trump could be pushed out of office, but history shows that impeachment won’t happen as long as he remains popular with his party.

Weekend Reading: May 5, 2017

On May 5, 2017May 4, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Ella Fitzgerald at 100.
According to Anthony Bourdain, Singapore has the world’s best airport food.
Checking out people instead of books at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library in Little Rock.
Shouting at a Congressperson who’s not your own.
So what’s in that algorithm which helps determine jail sentences, anyway?
Halal snack packs and what they mean for democracy … or something.
Print and read: The reactionaries calling for an end to multiculturalism, modernity, and democracy itself are out of their minds, but could they have a point?

Weekend Reading: April 28, 2017

On April 28, 2017April 27, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

What’s the best way to track enemy warships and airplanes? Twitter.
Fox News and the legal maelstrom that’s just getting started.
The napkin that turned economic theory into magic.
Organic salad, now with decomposed bat.
Maybe it’s actually unintelligent voters who are the problem.
When gambling and the NFL is a problem, and when it’s not.
What happened to the great British novel, anyway?
And here come the alt-right bully boys.
No, despite what you read on Facebook, women don’t have to register for the draft.
Print and read: “You have to pick a side and go to war” – Inside the anti-white supremacist underground.

Weekend Reading: April 21, 2017

On April 21, 2017April 20, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

How the Federal Bureau of Narcotics were obsessed with taking down … Billie Holiday.
The best group to donate money to this month? This Girl Scout troop whose members are all homeless.
How television manipulates the president.
How men’s income affects their political beliefs.
How Trump doomed O’Reilly.
The useless $400 juicer that Silicon Valley loved.
Asking where “are the white people” in Hidden Figures, getting rid of the drum solo in Whiplash, and other adventures in studio note hell.
The eerie, foggy beauty of San Francisco.
Time to make beer great again; even if it’s Canadian.
Print and read: David Sedaris: The Chicago Years.

Weekend Reading: April 14, 2017

On April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Is this the end of police reform?
So who was in Mittens’ “binders full of women,” anyway?
From Indiana to Greece, “deaths of despair.”
The Black Legion: Like the Ku Klux Klan, but far worse.
Which airlines kick off the most passengers?
Making America great again by … returning to predatory student loans.
Print and read: Historian Rick Perlstein on how he and other historians have been writing about American conservatism all wrong.

Weekend Reading: April 7, 2017

On April 7, 2017April 6, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Nevertheless, the tote bags persisted.
Connecticut police want to make their drones lethal.
We are officially through the looking glass, people.
Seven-figure salary for the basketball coach? Sure! Keep the university press open? Nah…
HBO filming the Elena Ferrante novels, at least one eight-episode season.
The Reichstag fire was the “archetype of terror management.“
Gen. Stanley McChrystal: PBS is awesome, by the way.
Print and read: The great voter fraud investigation that … wasn’t.
Bonus print and read: Vulture capitalism and the Russian Connection, in full ugly detail.

Weekend Reading: March 31, 2017

On March 31, 2017March 30, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

The largest humanitarian crisis that the world has faced since 1945 is starting to happen right now.
Public funding for the new NFL stadium in Las Vegas works out to $354 per Nevada resident.
Tolkien to Wharton: breaking down the words most favored by male and female authors.
So now your Internet Service Provider can sell your entire browsing history (and pretty much any other data they have about you); thanks, GOP!
Oh, Camille Paglia, whatever happened?
Hey, Hemingway was a packrat.
Something that improves Dark Side of the Moon, immensely.
Print and read: Why are medical costs so high? In part, it’s the bills themselves.

Weekend Reading: March 24, 2017

On March 24, 2017March 23, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium Gatherum1 Comment

Rebecca Solnit on not giving up: protesting and the long game.
Making maps less imperialistic – shrink Europe to its real size.
Presidenting is very hard, no fun at all.
Rick Perry reveals his true inner Aggie.
Forget work, more men are spending their lives inside the gaming world.
Print and read: No sympathy for Trump hillbillies; or, why there’s no reason for liberals to escape their bubbles if Trump voters never will.
Bonus print and read: Why do doctors keep putting stents in otherwise healthy people when chances are they don’t work?

Weekend Reading: March 17, 2017

On March 17, 2017March 16, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

New low or just more of the same?
Hidden Figures, a film about black women scientists and the space race without a single explosion, has now made more money at the domestic office than Jason Bourne, Star Trek Beyond, and X-Men: Apocalypse.
The politician from Iowa who believes he will determine what constitutes a real American.
The author of Hillbilly Elegy is moving back to Ohio and starting a foundation to fight the opioid epidemic.
The no-good, very bad, truly lousy repeal, broken down.
Here’s what everyone is doing at the White House these days (hint: work isn’t the priority).
Ivanka downscaling her brand to a more affordable style.
How a family dispute over the Trump inheritance resulted in the president taking away health coverage from his nephew’s sick child.
In case you didn’t know, America is going (softly, ever so softly) to war in Syria.
Print and read: North Korea is assuming they will need to strike first with nuclear weapons.

Weekend Reading: March 10, 2017

On March 10, 2017March 9, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

childrenreading1

Rolling back rights: Why courts would never allow the Selma march to happen today.
The new Interior Secretary rode to work on a horse; because he’s a cowboy.
Regulatory rollback: Get ready for more crazy people with guns and car pollution!
Now the EU might want its own joint nuclear deterrent … just in case.
Nobody from the six countries on the new and totally improved travel ban has killed an American in the US in the past 40 years.
Want some numbers that will make you quite angry? Here you go.
Bill Gates wonders, Why not tax the robots?
Trumpcare! Like trying to repair a flat tire by stabbing it with a knife.
Your next comics hero: Bullwhip.
What is “right to repair” and why exactly would anybody be opposed to this?
Sorry racists, no more Confederate monuments in New Orleans for you.
Print and read: The Swamp Overfloweth—a look at just a few of the Great Cheeto’s many, many horrible hires.
Bonus print and read: The many odd loves of Jack White.

Weekend Reading: March 3, 2017

On March 3, 2017March 2, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

largest_book_in_the_world-_a-y-p_1909

Protesting in Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, or 15 other states? Soon it might be illegal to do so, “economic terrorism” and all.
The border patrol, customs, and how America’s new immigration policies could be the nation’s next Abu Ghraib-like moral debacle.
So when customs asks you for your ID on a domestic flight, do you have to comply?
And the award for bird-killingest building in America goes to…
“They really want to blow this place up”: The deconstruction of the State Department has already begun.
Oprah 2020? Why not?
Remember the EPA? That was nice.
Print and read: How much power does Stephen Miller, the White House’s “Little Napoleon,” have?

Weekend Reading: February 24, 2017

On February 24, 2017February 24, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

books1

If the Great Cheeto were more competent, we’d really be in trouble; also, how his courtiers push a diet of flattering media to keep the boss from Tweeting all the damn time.
For these folks, everything is going just fine and all the complainers need to shut up already.
The “Trump Slump”: Fewer tourists coming to America.
When H.R. McMaster argued with Rumsfeld that the Iraqi insurgency was alive and well, Rummy would fax him pages from Che Guevara’s memoirs to argue, No it isn’t.
Taking a media break from the President is harder than you’d think.
What do ex-Cub Dexter Fowler and his family “owe” Cardinals fans? Nothing.
Misuse of Misfits tshirts, and why punk is now officially dead.
So how about Great Cheeto and the Russian mob?
The revolutionary aspect of Viola Davis’ hair.
The Houses of Parliament are in wretched shape and Britain is bitterly divided between Londoners and everybody else; maybe the capital should move to Manchester?
Don’t worry, Depeche Mode hates Nazis, too.
Print and read: Low unemployment and crime rates or not, things have been getting fairly miserable in the U.S. since 2000; here’s why and why it matters.

Weekend Reading: February 17, 2017

On February 17, 2017February 16, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Which cops are most likely to fire their weapons? White male veterans.
So exactly how few of Trump’s foreign policy promises has he kept? Well, Rome wasn’t destroyed in 3 weeks.
Wall Street Journal: Anybody who says we’re pro-Trump is pushing “fake news.”
Ikea goes Africa.
Well, that took awhile: the first black Bachelorette. (And yes, that show is still on.)
The black bloc and antifas protesters who are starting to fight back.
When neo-Nazis argue that they are SO TOTALLY NOT neo-Nazis.
Same as it ever was: Ambassadorships for sale.
So how did a loony Missouri conspiracy-monger wrangle a White House press room pass?
Winston Churchill wrote an essay about alien life–he thought it could well exist.
Print and read: Andrew Sullivan on our new Mad King—”With someone like [Trump] barging into your consciousness every hour of every day, you begin to get a glimpse of what it must be like to live in an autocracy of some kind.“

Weekend Reading: February 10, 2017

On February 10, 2017February 10, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

bookshelves

Where Breitbart meets “church militant” conservative Catholics.
Also, what Bannon and ISIL have in common.
A Congressman actually just said that terrorism isn’t a problem, as long as the terrorists are white.
The (hate-monger) Milo Yiannopoulos book deal tarnishes the whole publishing industry.
So exactly how far is the GOP willing to go?
Turns out, presidenting is hard!
Wait, which one was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty?
“The women,” said the Congressman, “are in my grill.”
100 (more) jokes that shaped modern comedy.
Taibi: The president “talks a big game when slamming the door on penniless refugees, but curls up like a beach weakling around guys who have more money than he does.“
Print and read: “With the civil rights movement, we thought we had won the war. Not quite.” Welcome to the white-nationalist presidency.

Weekend Reading: February 3, 2017

On February 3, 2017February 3, 2017 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

library1

So Trump’s first authorized special ops raid went about as well as you would expect.
See what you can match on this “Early Warning Signs of Fascism” sign at the Holocaust Museum to the current administration.
Garrison Keillor: “‘We’re not going to let people die in the streets.’ No, they’re going to die at home in their bedrooms.“
Things don’t change: Dr. Seuss vs. fascism.
One day from Melania’s diary.
With new tech for inventing real-looking video and audio, the 2020 election will be a bonanza for fake news.
New scholarship taking applications … but only for white men.
No problem here: Navy SEAL convoy flying Trump flag.
Print and read: Did you know that white supremacists have been infiltrating law enforcement for years? The FBI does.
Bonus print and read: New York’s attorney general could be the White House’s greatest threat.

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