The search for the next prime minister of the UK ended abruptly when one of the two remaining contestants Andrea Leadsom withdrew from the race leaving Theresa May. May will take over from David Cameron on Wednesday, showing how quickly these transitions take place in the UK when compared to the US.
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You can be sure that the Republican convention that will take place July 18-22 is going to find the city crawling with police, Secret Service, and other security personnel armed to the teeth and supported by an array of military-style vehicles and equipment. This was due to fears of unrest and violence because of the strong emotions generated even within the Republican party by those factions supporting and opposing Trump, in addition to those who are opposed to Republican policies in general.
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For those who thought the revelations in the lawsuit by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson about the way that Fox News head Roger Ailes’s sexually propositioned her were disgusting enough, you ain’t heard nothing yet. Gabriel Sherman interviewed six women who experienced similar things, one of whom was just 16 years old at the time, and their descriptions are revolting.
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In order to save time for everyone, here is a graphic that all media outlets can use pretty much every day. (Via Crooks & Liars)
Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz, died earlier this week at the age of 87 and is being widely eulogized. But Max Blumenthal writes that while there were many good things about Wiesel, what is being overlooked is the fact that his humanitarian impulses did not extend to everyone and his blind allegiance to Israel led him to excuse any action they took, however deplorable, and treat Palestinians as if they did not matter, that led the late Israeli politician Yossi Sarid to call Wiesel an “ethnic cleanser in a prayer shawl”.
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Michael Heaton is a columnist and occasional film critic for the Plain Dealer, my local newspaper. In yesterday’s paper he does what film critics are never supposed to do and that is reveal the ending of the film he had just seen. The film is called Wiener-Dog by writer-director Todd Solondz and the review, that begins with the ending, is as brutal as anything that I have read. Here is a small sample.
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Growing up I recall people frequently saying that Sri Lankans would take anything if it were given to them free, including a cold. It turns out that Sri Lankans may not be the only ones who are drawn irresistibly to free things. Dan Greenstone, a lover of books and the possessor of many, has a hilarious article about what happened with his wife’s gift to him of a Little Free Library, a concept to increase literacy that is popular in many neighborhoods, where people set up a box in a public place stocked with books where any passerby can take a book and replace it with another.
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This week has seen one awful event after another, so quick in succession that one barely has time to recoil, register, and digest one before the next one hit. The death of Alton Sterling on Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was followed on Wednesday by the death of Philando Castile in a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Both were black men killed by the police. Their deaths were caught on camera and caused widespread outrage. I have not watched the videos since I do not have the stomach to watch people die.
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Michael Segalov writes that both finalists to replace David Cameron for the leadership of the Conservative Party, Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, have a record of opposing equal rights for gays.
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People have mixed feelings about their high school lives. For some, it was a pleasant experience, for others a time of torment. Most of us, even those with positive memories, would not seek to relive those experiences, though we may wish we had done some things differently and fantasize about an alternative history where we did not waste opportunities.
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