The mystery of the purloined letters

One of the strange stories to come out of the new Bob Woodward book about the Donald Trump administration is the story of how advisors to Trump would swipe documents from his desk that they thought he should not see or sign. A specific case that was cited was former economic advisor Gary Cohn seeing a letter on Trump’s desk that was awaiting his signature calling for an end to a long standing trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn took the letter away and apparently that was the end of the story. Cohn apparently did something similar with a letter about NAFTA.
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People of color associating with white nationalists

The presidency of Donald Trump has given white nationalists and other xenophobic and racist groups in the US a sense of validation and suddenly we are hearing of organizations holding rallies openly. What has been less noticed is that these groups are even attracting members from an unlikely demographic: young men of color As Arun Gupta writes:
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Inexplicable lapse by Serena Williams [UPDATED TO INCLUDE VIDEO]

Serena Williams is a tennis phenomenon, dominating the sport for two decades even as she had a baby during that period. She will easily go down in history as one of the greatest tennis players ever. But earlier today, the 36-year old lost the final of the US Open 3-6,4-6 to 20-year Naomi Osaka for whom this was her first major final. But what was noteworthy was how ugly the match was.
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Online abuse against inclusive ads

Many businesses have realized that society is changing and that targeting their advertising campaigns to exclusively young, white, heterosexual, conventionally attractive people is not longer acceptable even as a purely marketing strategy, since the majority of consumers do not fit into that narrow demographic. But advertisements that include more diverse people seem to anger some people who then go on social media to rage in the ugliest ways against the people shown.
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Explain again why everyone is so horrified by outside meddling in US elections?

Jon Schwarz highlights a Washington Post excerpt from the latest book by Bob Woodward on the Trump administration.

After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called [Defense Secretary James] Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

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The ‘plaid shirt guy’ speaks!

The high school senior whose varied facial expressions while seated behind Donald Trump at a rally in Montana were visible on TV and went viral has given an interview. Tyler Linfesty describes how he and two friends Erik Hovland and Christian Dunlap ended up with choice seats before being asked to vacate them by Trump staffers who noticed their marked lack of constant smiles and enthusiastic applause, which apparently are requirements if you are to be behind Trump.
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Fun and games at Trump rallies

It is clear that there are only two things that Trump likes to do: send out Twitter messages and speak at rallies in front of his adoring fans. I thought that after awhile, people would get tired of him saying the same things over and over again at his rallies and stop coming but they seem to be still turning out. I put it down to the rabid enthusiasm of his die-hard supporters but the tweet below suggests that at least some in the audience may be people who are getting paid to attend the rallies and show enthusiasm.
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The hunting of the snitch

The hunt is on the for the author of the anonymous New York Times op-ed piece by someone proudly boasting about how s/he and associate have carried out what is essentially a palace coup against Donald Trump whenever he tries to do anything against extreme conservative/libertarian policies on trade and foreign policy. This despite the fact that Trump has given them pretty much everything they desired, going beyond even their wildest dreams when it comes to policies that hurt women, minorities, people of color, the LGBT community, immigrants, refugees, and the poor.
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Colin Kaepernick and The Heritage on the upswing

Yesterday was the opening day of this year’s football season. Football player Colin Kaepernick has become the initiator of a revival of ‘The Heritage’, the tradition dating back to Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson of successful black athletes using their visibility to make political statements against racial injustice. This proud tradition had been undermined by people like O. J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods who decided that money was the most important thing for them and eschewed any words or actions that might alienate anyone. This sent the Heritage into a long period of dormancy.
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Are there no punishments for cheating in baseball?

I hate cheating in sports and feel that players who do so should be punished severely. I have written before on this when it comes to cricket where a player who violates the rules is punished and if the act is particularly egregious, such as showing signs of premeditation or careful planning or collusion, then the punishments become even stiffer for ‘violating the spirit of the game’.
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