Extra, Extra
Sharing is Caring: “Most Americans can identify at least one value from a list of 12 that they believe is widely shared in the country. Only a quarter say none of the values are still shared. Yet, there is little consensus on which values are widely shared, or which the country needs more of. Even so, 79% of Americans say respecting different values matters more than sharing the same ones.” In U.S., Three-Quarters Identify Shared Values. (Hate is not our natural state. It has to be stirred by those who benefit from it.)
+ Cuba Diving: “Here is another measure of Cubans’ anger at their government: During nine days of travel around the island, I did not meet a single person who blamed Donald Trump or the United States for their situation. I sometimes reminded them about the blockade Trump had started earlier this year, cutting Cubans off from the cheap oil that Venezuela had been supplying before the U.S. military captured Nicolás Maduro in January. Hadn’t things gotten worse since then? ‘I don’t see any change since January,’ a retired engineer named Guillermo Almeida told me. ‘That oil from Venezuela wasn’t reaching the people anyway.'” Robert F. Worth in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Collapse of Cuba. “I drove to the east with the photographer Moises Saman, an 18-hour journey that sometimes made us feel as if we were traveling back in time.”
+ Bye Bye Bibi? Unsurprisingly, Israel is seeing record turnout in what is expected to be a close election. Here’s the latest from the NYT and Times of Israel. In Israel, people vote for parties, not individual candidates, and, if none of the parties get a majority, they need to form coalitions to pick a leader. So this all could take a while.
+ Ebola: “It is the fastest-growing outbreak on record and has spread to Kenya and Nigeria. Responders face armed conflict, poor roads and public mistrust as they battle the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.” Photos show Congo’s fight against Ebola as cases surpass 10,000.
+ Trickle Up Economy: In Trump’s pardon economy, crime victims lost out on at least $119 million in restitution.
+ Recurring Nightmare: “It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice – one that we cannot become numb to. Nothing’s changed with me; I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid of these people — and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary.” Trump is going after James Comey … again.
+ Choose Yourself: “The man who has helped produce the Super Bowl halftime show is stepping into the spotlight: Jay-Z will headline the show himself.” (This is like when Dick Cheney chose himself to be W’s running mate, but with a much higher likelihood of Beyonce being involved.)
+ Locked and Carbo-loaded: “From the Department of ‘We sent a man to the moon but we can’t [do some simple thing]’ comes word that Cheerios is boldly going where no cereal has before: a resealable Ziploc bag.”
