Getting a lot of work done. Nothing that I had on my schedule to get done. Feels like I'm stripping gears.
"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London Thursday, British police said, ending the long tenure of the anti-secrecy activist in Ecuador's embassy." So the question is; espionage trial in the US, or rape trial in Sweden?
"The Libro de los Epítomes manuscript, which is more than a foot thick, contains more than 2,000 pages and summaries from the library of Hernando Colón, the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus who made it his life’s work to create the biggest library the world had ever known in the early part of the 16th century. Running to around 15,000 volumes, the library was put together during Colón’s extensive travels. Today, only around a quarter of the books in the collection survive and have been housed in Seville Cathedral since 1552." This is actually how we know of many early books, not because they survived, but they're mentioned or summarized in other books which have survived. (Grokked from S.A. Chakraborty)
"Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy." And: "This Focus Issue shows ultra-high angular resolution images of radio emission from the supermassive black hole believed to lie at the heart of galaxy M87 (Figure 1). A defining feature of the images is an irregular but clear bright ring, whose size and shape agree closely with the expected lensed photon orbit of a 6.5 billion solar mass black hole." Man, Disney was way off base. (Grokked from John)
How goes Brexit? "Prime Minister Theresa May managed to convince EU leaders to grant the U.K. more time before it leaves the bloc, but experts say her days in office are now numbered." Well, she did get an extension. I didn't expect that (but I expect it was 6 months in an "and this is the last time" kind of offer). And let me say if the next few weeks are not filled with parliamentary votes to get a direction on what type of deal would actually pass, I'd bet on a hard Brexit come All Souls Day and the Guy Fawkes bonfires will be quite bright.
"As with its previous iterations, Sanders' latest bill would establish a national, single-payer Medicare system with vastly expanded benefits. Sanders' plan would also prohibit private plans from competing with Medicare and would eliminate cost-sharing. New in this version is a universal provision for long-term care in home and community settings (though Medicaid would continue to cover institutional care, and states would determine the standard of eligibility)."
"The Vermont independent, one of the top-tier contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been skeptical of getting rid of the legislative filibuster to pass a sweeping legislative agenda. Instead, Sanders is taking a page from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who wanted to shred Senate rules in order to pass ambitious GOP health care legislation in 2017." I applaud the move (including that if he's successful it takes away any other opportunity to use reconciliation for the year), but picture me with a serious eye roll. "He doesn’t yet even have 50 votes for Medicare for All."
"A military council has taken control of Sudan and arrested longtime President Omar al-Bashir, the country's military said Thursday. The move comes after opposition protesters recently gained new momentum in demanding al-Bashir leave office." What's old is new again.
They burn churches, don't they? "A man arrested in connection with fires at three historically black Louisiana churches is a law enforcement official's son, according to local reports."
"Aiming to streamline oil and gas pipeline projects, President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed two executive orders making it harder for states to block construction because of environmental concerns." Let the lawsuits begin.
"As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Republicans this week to head off problematic nominees before President Donald Trump officially picked them, the Kentucky Republican singled out Ken Cuccinelli." It's all fun and games… until it's your seat on the chopping block. And that's all this is really about, McConnell's re-election. It's not about the president having anti-democratic tendencies and appointing laughably incompetent people to positions of power.
"Attorney General William Barr has launched his own informal inquiry about the origins of the Russia investigation, he confirmed to senators on Wednesday." Funny how conservative who are all against looking into the role the Russians played in 2016 (and 2018) because it's already been investigated, are silent on how both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have looked into this matter already and found it to be nothing. "Barr later clarified to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that he has no 'specific evidence' about abuse of power or improper surveillance." The AG is speaking out of his ass here. Also, an investigation is not "spying." He would have to prove that information had been passed to the DNC or the Clinton Campaign for that to be true. In either case, AG Barr is showing he is not up to the office. And then there was this, "Why, for example, wasn't Trump briefed explicitly about the contacts his staffers were making with Russians at the time the FBI became concerned enough about it to open its counterintelligence investigation?" I don't know, maybe because the investigators weren't sure if candidate Trump was directing these contacts and wasn't acting as a foreign intelligence asset?
"DHS, FBI say election systems in all 50 states were targeted in 2016… Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued in March says Russian hacking efforts were wide-ranging." The cat is on the roof and won't come down. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
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