Extra, Extra
Breaking the Silence: “It was systematic and well-organized, growing to more than 100 detention facilities where torture, brutality, sexual violence and mass executions were rampant, according to activists, rights group and former prisoners. Security agents spared no one, not even Assad’s own soldiers. Young men and women were detained for simply living in districts where protests were held. As tens of thousands disappeared over more than a decade, a blanket of fear kept the Syrian population silent. People rarely told anyone that a loved one had vanished for fear they too could be reported to security agencies.” AP: Inside Bashar Assad’s detention centers, where ‘death was the least bad thing.’
+ Snakeoil Rig: “Rather than conservatism as conventionally understood, this crowd and its international counterparts represent the fusion of several trends that have been coalescing for some time. The hawkers of vitamin supplements and unproven COVID cures now mingle—not by accident—with open admirers of Putin’s Russia.” Anne Applebaum The Atlantic (Gift Article): The New Rasputins. “In a world where conspiracy theories and nonsense cures are widely accepted, the evidence-based concepts of guilt and criminality vanish quickly too.”
+ A Bee in Your Bonnet: “An estimated trillion insects are farmed per year; quadrillions are killed by pesticides, and many species have gone extinct as humans have cleared habitats for farms, factories, and cities. Most of us do not think much about their inner lives, and our laws do not usually consider their welfare. Insects are small, they don’t scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause.” The New Yorker: Do Insects Feel Pain? Just what we need. Something else to bug out about.
+ Load Trip: Here’s a little warmup for the next four years. Trump suggests he could use military force to acquire Panama Canal and Greenland and ‘economic force’ to annex Canada. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Greenland with a message from his dad: ‘We’re going to treat you well’.
+ Bird Watching: First bird flu death reported in the U.S., according to the CDC. There’s still no evidence of person to person spread.
+ Monkey See, Monkey Do Anyway: “Krishna knows what that monkey really wants. He swiftly flings a box of mango juice. The monkey catches the box with one hand but goes back to toying with the glasses. Krishna flings up another juice. Satisfied, the monkey flings the stolen glasses back — straight into an open sewer.” How do you keep monkeys from making mischief?
