Trump’s Impeachment Trial Offers a Chance to Seize the Initiative on the Future of Free Speech - Trump should be convicted, and the First Amendment should be protected in the process. - link
What’s at Stake in the Fight Over Reopening Schools - From housing to health care, low-income people and others ravaged by debt and inequality are beginning to demand a better life subsidized by public money. - link
How San Francisco Renamed Its Schools - The president of the San Francisco Board of Education discusses the controversies around reopening and renaming her district’s schools, including questions about how to view the legacies of complex historical figures. - link
Build Nothing New That Ultimately Leads to a Flame - If “Stop burning fossil fuels” is the first principle of fighting the climate crisis, let this be the second. - link
How Biden Can Ease Tensions That Trump Stoked in the Western Sahara - A proclamation by tweet that aided Morocco and Israel could reignite a conflict in North Africa. - link
From Vox
“That awful day could have been so much worse”: New videos show how narrowly rioters missed lawmakers -
CSPAN
Security footage shows just how close Capitol rioters got to lawmakers and staffers.
House impeachment managers — using previously unseen security footage from the US Capitol and a map of the building — revealed how close rioters came to confronting staffers and lawmakers on January 6, underscoring the threat that insurrectionists posed to everyone there.
These clips, shown during Democrats’ eight hours of argument in former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial Wednesday, revealed a series of near misses. Some of the most shocking included the moment when Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) nearly ran into attackers, and another when rioters almost found a group of eight staffers hiding in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
In one clip, Romney is seen trying to leave the Senate chamber only to inadvertently walk in the direction of the incoming rioters. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman happens to run into him and directs him to sprint the other way.
As Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) emphasized, the narrowness of such encounters matters because there were rioters present who seemed eager to do bodily harm to officials including Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence.
“We know from the rioters themselves that if they had found Speaker Pelosi, they would have killed her,” she said, referring to statements that people had made about their intentions in the Capitol. Lawmakers including Romney, as well as other Republicans who refused to contest the certification of the election results, have also been the subject of significant blowback from Trump supporters, and may have been targets of violence, too.
There’s been previous reporting about how much worse the attack on the Capitol could have been given the zip ties and weapons that rioters brought with them — and these new videos were a stark illustration of just how close a call it was.
Democrats have emphasized the staggering consequences of the January 6 attack, during which five people died. And in their first of two days of arguments, they highlighted how the rioters had the potential to hurt even more people.
“We all know that awful day could have been so much worse,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). “You know how close you came to the mob. Some of you I understand could hear them, but most of the public does not know how close these rioters came to you.”
Security footage and a map revealed how close rioters got to lawmakers
In a compelling series of arguments that included internal security tapes from the Capitol juxtaposed with videos posted by the protesters, Plaskett and Swalwell demonstrated how quickly rioters broke into the Capitol and moved toward lawmakers in the House and Senate chambers.
In one of the security clips Plaskett played, rioters approached the Senate chamber as Pence and his family were beginning to evacuate — and came close to their location. Around the same time, Trump was still disparaging Pence for refusing to challenge the election results, spurring his supporters to attack the vice president.
“The mob was looking for Vice President Pence — because of his patriotism,” Plaskett said.
Wow. Security footage I haven’t seen before lays out just how close the Trump mob came to having an opportunity to get their hands on Mike Pence pic.twitter.com/apUGBnwcte
Another video shows that rioters eager to find Pelosi almost stumbled upon a group of staffers hiding in her office. After they overtook the office, attackers were milling in one of the hallways and banging on doors, including the room where staffers had barricaded. Upon breaking into the room and encountering another door, the attacker in question leaves.
“You can hear the terror in their voices as they describe what’s happening to them as they are barricaded in the conference room,” Plaskett said, while sharing audio from the staffers.
Newly released security video shows several Speaker Pelosi staffers rushing into a room in which they’d barricade themselves.
7 minutes later, Capitol rioters attempt to enter the room.
“They’re pounding on doors trying to find” Speaker Pelosi, one staffer is heard whispering. pic.twitter.com/1Xj9UxMzdQ
Swalwell, too, highlighted close encounters that lawmakers had, playing video that showed senators evacuating just down the hall from the mob. “You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them,” he told the assembled witnesses-turned-jurors.
Absolutely stunning how close the rioters came to senators; new footage shows they were 58 steps away from senators as they were being evacuated. Schumer and his detail literally turned around and ran in the opposite direction as the mob was nearby pic.twitter.com/dUlcsNnaSB
Footage also underscored how now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer nearly encountered rioters while evacuating. It captures him running in one direction and abruptly turning around after seeing people ahead. “They came within just two yards of the rioters,” said Swalwell.
Newly released security video shows then-Senate Minority Leader Schumer being escorted down a hallway by his security details and then turning around and being rushed in the opposite direction.
Taken together, the videos indicated how narrowly lawmakers escaped from the Capitol attack — and underscored the violence that police endured while trying to protect them from it.
Who is responsible for what happened to Britney Spears? -
Britney Spears, surrounded by paparazzi, at Hyde Lounge Los Angeles on November 27, 2006. | Henry Flores, Ken Katz/Getty Images
We’re all complicit in what happened to Britney. But some of us more so than others.
In the wake of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, a new conversation is building around the pop star and her legacy.
It is slowly becoming conventional wisdom that the way mainstream media talked about Britney Spears in 2007, as she went through a public breakdown, was inappropriate and wrong. Major news outlets called Spears fat, slut-shamed her, reprinted paparazzi upskirt shots, and mocked her for her increasingly erratic public behavior. Most of us are comfortable now saying that this treatment was unjust, that it hurt a human being when she was at her most vulnerable, and that it contributed to the circumstances that left Spears locked in the conservatorship that controls both Spears’s finances and her personal life.
But now a new question develops: Just how much responsibility do we all bear for the way Spears was treated?
“Lots of virtuous folks on here pretending they didn’t read Perez Hilton or Us Weekly’s abusive coverage of Britney religiously in 2005,” tweeted the comedian Billy Eichner after the documentary debuted on Hulu on February 5. “We are all to blame.”
“I admit I wrote many of those Us Weekly cover stories back in the day,” replied current Us Weekly film critic Mara Reinstein. “Trust me, we wouldn’t have kept reporting out the saga if public interest weren’t rampant. Everyone is complicit to varying degrees.”
Some of the figures who are interviewed in Framing Britney Spears make similar arguments onscreen. Daniel Ramos, the paparazzo whose car Spears famously beat with an umbrella, notes that he was drawn to his work by the wealth made available to him by photographing Spears. “It sucks you in,” he says, “and it’s hard to get out of it once you start making the kind of money that these guys were making.”
Photographs of Spears at the height of her fame could sell for up to $1 million each. And the reason they commanded such a hefty price tag was that there was a demand for them — because all of us, the people living in the society, the people who read Us Weekly and Perez Hilton (I didn’t, maybe you didn’t either, but I mean the general “us” here) wanted them. When Reinstein and Eichner and Ramos argue that they weren’t personally victimizing Spears but merely giving the people what they wanted, there’s a certain amount of truth to what they’re saying. They were working within a system of incentives and consumption that they did not build.
But it also remains the case that it was well within the capabilities of people like Reinstein and Ramos to stop working with that system, even if they did not build it. And it is sheer revisionist history to suggest that no one knew that the way the mainstream media talked about Spears was wrong at the time.
“We’re not innocent here,” wrote Anna Holmes, founder of the pop feminist blog Jezebel, of Spears in 2007. “We’ve been complicit in the frenzy that has enveloped Britney Spears. Day after day, week after week, we taunt her, question her, suggest she could benefit from a lobotomy and gleefully compare paparazzo shots of her to the troubled protagonists of two classic Stanley Kubrick movies. Maybe we do this because we think it is funny, or because it is expected, or because … we have minutes, not hours or days, in which to prepare and present our thoughts about her. Or maybe we are just unoriginal assholes.”
It was entirely possible to recognize that the way powerful conversation-driving people talked about Spears circa 2007 was messed up. Many of the people doing the talking recognized it. They just kept talking anyway.
And all of us are complicit in that fact because all of us are part of the system of incentives that paid those powerful people a lot of money to keep talking about Spears. It’s the same way all of us are complicit in climate change just by being alive on this planet in this time.
Yet it is also true that while all of us bear some responsibility for climate change, most of climate change is the result of decisions made by about 100 CEOs whose names we know. And while all of us bear some responsibility for what happened to Britney, most of what happened to her is the result of the decisions made bypowerful media figures who kept mocking her and photographing her regardless of the clear consequences to her mental health. They did not build the system in which they were working, but they had agency within that system regardless.
All of us are complicit. But some of us are more complicit than others.
Framing Britney Spears makes that fact especially clear in its interview with Ramos, who explains that since he spent so many years photographing Spears, he got to know her pretty well, and they had a great working relationship. We see repeated clips of him shouting, “Britney, are you okay? Britney, I’m worried about you,” as he photographs Spears, while she curls in on herself and glares out at him through her car’s windshield, lit up in the flash of his camera.
But he would have stopped following around and photographing the woman who would eventually beat his car with an umbrella out of utter rage at his presence, Ramos insists, if he had any indication she wanted him to. “Working on her for so many years,” he says, “she never gave a clue or information to us that ‘I would appreciate you guys leave me the eff alone.’”
“What about when she said, ‘Leave me alone?’” asks the interviewer.
“There were times when she [was] like, ‘Can you leave me alone for the day?’” Ramos says. “But it wasn’t like, ‘Leave me alone forever.’ You know what I mean?”
Ramos does not exist in a vacuum, and his personal choices probably would not have been enough to change Spears’s life or protect her from abusive media coverage. But he had ample information to know that she didn’t appreciate being followed, and plenty of time and space to choose to stop following her, however good the payout for following her was. He’s an arm of the media — just an arm — and what happened to Spears makes it painfully clear that the media can cause harm when it chooses to.
The media is only as valuable an institution as those who work in it choose to make it. For members of the press who opted to profit from Spears’s spiral, claiming that she should have simply screamed her many cries for help in a louder voice is almost as bad a look now as that abusive coverage was 14 years ago.
The House impeachment managers’ case against Trump, summarized in 500 words -
Rep. Jamie Raskin (R-MD) speaks on the Senate floor on Wednesday. | Getty Images
“The case is much worse than someone who falsely shouts ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”
The Democratic case against Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial on Wednesday aimed at establishing one central thesis: that the January 6 Capitol insurrection wasn’t some random outburst of violence — it was an effort to overthrow democracy the then-president spent months cultivating.
Republican defenders of Trump have tried to distance him from the insurrection by arguing he had nothing to do with its planning, and delivered a speech just before it that was basically a normal political speech. House Democrats tried to convict Trump on an incitement charge by debunking both of those claims on Wednesday.
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) detailed how Trump laid the groundwork for trying to overthrow the election even before November 3 by creating a “no lose” situation in which he repeatedly insisted he could only lose if the election was stolen from him. At the same time, Trump glorified the harassment of his opponents — including, in an October 31 tweet that received attention on Wednesday from Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), by lauding fans of his in Texas who tried to run a Biden-Harris bus off the road.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) detailed how, as it became clear in the days following November 3 that Biden had won, Trump encouraged unruly “Stop the Steal” protests that presaged the January 6 insurrection.
A video clip during Castro’s presentation illustrates how some of the November “stop the steal” protests in Michigan, Arizona, and elsewhere presaged the January 6 insurrection pic.twitter.com/JVd03QwGGN
Instead of trying to tamp down tensions, the Trump campaign instead spent millions on “Stop the Steal” ads that ran until January 5, recounted Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
Swalwell points out that Trump spent $50 million on national “STOP THE STEAL!” ads that ran until January 5 – the day before the insurrection pic.twitter.com/ZKVMaG22d4
At the same time, Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to turn out in DC on January 6 for a “wild” protest. As Plaskett explained, his team even got directly involved in the permitting process for the January 6 event, helping organizers get permission to march to the Capitol.
“The truth is President Trump spent months calling his supporters to a march on a specific day, in a specific time, in a specific place, to stop the certification,” Plaskett said. “That is why he must be convicted and disqualified.”
Once his followers were gathered in DC, Trump delivered a speech to them in which he mentioned “fighting” more than 20 times, only once in passing urging them to remain peaceful. Videos that impeachment managers played to senators on Wednesday showed how Trump followers reacted to Trump’s speech by chanting things like “Take the Capitol!” and “Storm the Capitol!”
I hadn’t seen this video of Trump fans responding to his January 6 by yelling, “Take the Capitol!” and “Storm the Capitol!” pic.twitter.com/jcJTJJ3s7I
Summarizing the impeachment managers’ case, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) described Trump’s actions as “much worse than someone who falsely shouts ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. It’s more like a case where the town fire chief … sends a mob not to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, but to actually set the theater on fire.”
Raskin: “This case is much worse than someone who falsely shouts fire in a crowded theater. It’s more like like a case where the town fire chief, who’s paid to put out fires, sends a mob not to yell fire in a crowded theater, but to actually set the theater on fire.” pic.twitter.com/wj61BjDMaX
Alluding to Republican arguments trying to absolve Trump, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said, “The truth is, this attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump. And so they came, draped in Trump’s flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and bludgeon.”
From The Hindu: Sports
Divij Sharan, Ankita Raina bow out Australian Open doubles with respective partners - Divij and his Slovakian partner Igor Zelenay lost 1-6 4-6 against the German combination of Yannick Hanfmann-Kevin Krawietz in the first round match
Tokyo 2020 President Mori to resign over sexist comments: media - Mori’s comments drew sharp comments on social media and in parliament, with opposition lawmakers demanding his resignation.
Australian Open | Defending champion Sofia Kenin loses in 2nd round - She loses to 65th-ranked Kanepi, hardly an underdog
Copa del Rey: Sevilla beats Barcelona in Messi’s 900th game - Barcelona lost 2-0 in Seville in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals.
In-form Cosmos for South India St. Leger - The Bangalore challenger Cosmos, who is in rousing form, may extend his winning streak in the South India St. Leger (2,800m), the last Classic of the
From The Hindu: National News
Farmers plan ‘mahapanchayat’ on Feb. 18 - The Rashtriya Kisan Maha Sangh, the farmers’ coordination committee spearheading the agitation against farm laws in New Delhi, will orgainse a ‘mahap
Punjab Minister asks NCW to intervene for Nodeep Kaur - Medical examination of jailed 23-year-old protester revealed injuries to her body and private parts
Supreme Court refuses plea on fake COVID-19 vaccines - ‘ …We cannot pass general directions. Please bring a concrete case,’ says CJI
Imphal churches ordered to vacate - No church among regularised locations of 188 places of worship, says church leader
Odisha Lokayukta orders probe into substandard food served to children - Activists complain of poor quality, lesser quantity of ICDS supplements handed out in Malkangiri district
From BBC: Europe
Covid-19: Kent virus variant ‘on course to sweep world’ - The expert heading the UK’s genetic surveillance says research into strains will go into the 2030s.
Finland snow art: Locals create giant pattern on golf course - An amateur artist and volunteers create possibly the largest snow-drawing the country has ever seen.
Brexit: Preserving NI protocol is ‘the only way’ forward, warns EU - The European Commission’s vice-president says “swift solutions” must be found to “teething problems” in trade.
Brexit: London loses out as Europe’s top share trading hub - Amsterdam ousts London in the wake of Brexit changes, as the Bank of England warns over EU financial rules.
Shell: Europe’s biggest oil firm sets out carbon neutral plans - Royal Dutch Shell sets out plan to be net zero by 2050, with big investments in hydrogen and biofuels.
From Ars Technica
Adventures in vim: Lee and Jim figure out how to change comment colors - Stop me if you’ve heard this one: two senior sysadmins walk into a ~/.vimrc … - link
Disney fires Mandalorian’s Gina Carano over “abhorrent, unacceptable” posts - Report claims that pressure had mounted for months: “Today was the final straw.” - link
CDC study backs mask doubling with exposure to risky particles down 83% - Data has lots of caveats, but it’s not a bad idea to up your mask game. - link
A lithium-ion upgrade for your car, but not the one you’re expecting - We try out a 12V lithium-ion battery upgrade for your car. - link
Breached water plant employees used the same TeamViewer password and no firewall - Shortcomings illustrate the lack of security rigor in critical infrastructure environments. - link
From Jokes Subreddit
A mother hears a humming sound from her daughter’s bedroom and walks in. -
Finding her daugher sitting on the bed using her vibrator she asked, “What are you doing?!”
“I’m a 35 year old woman living with my parents. This is the closest I’ll ever get to a husband,” replies the daughter.
The mother silently leaves the room. The next day, the father hears a humming sound in the living and sees the daughter with her vibrator.
“What are you doing??“ he asks her. She gives him the same reply and the father leaves her to it.
Later in the evening, the mother hears the noise again and goes to see where its coming from. Her husband is sitting alongside the vibrator. She asks him what he’s doing.
He replies, “What does it look like? I’m watching the game with my son in law.”
A man and his girlfriend are getting undressed together for the first time. -
A man and his girlfriend are getting undressed together for the first time
The man took off his shoes and socks revealing feet with missing and deformed toes. “What happened to your feet?” his girlfriend asked. “I had a childhood disease called Tolio” the man said. “Don’t you mean Polio?” “No, Tolio, it only affects the toes.” Not wanting to ruin the mood the girlfriend pulled down his pants and revealed a severely discoloured pair of knees. “What happened to your knees?” she asked. “Well, I also had Kneesles” the man replied. “Don’t you mean measles?” “No, kneesles, it only affects the knees.” Again, not wanting to ruin the mood, she continued and pulled down his boxers before starting to laugh. Before the man could ask what was wrong the woman wiped a tear from here eye and said, “Wait, let me guess…..Smallcox?”
A girl promises to teach her boyfriend what 69ing is. He lies down on the floor and she squats down over his face to assume the position and farts. Embarrassed she stands up and apologizes. She squats down for another go but farts again, -
she gets up and apologizes again. Before she can have a third go, her boyfriend gets up and goes to walk out saying “yeah this isn’t really for me, I’m not having 67 more of those in my face”
A clearly inebriated, stark naked, woman jumps into the back of a NYC taxi cab… -
The old cab driver, opened his eyes wide & began to state at her but made no attempt to start the cab.
The woman glared back & said ’what’s wrong, honey? Haven’t you ever seen a naked woman before?"
The old cabbie says" let me tell you something lady, I wasn’t staring at you like you think. That wouldn’t be proper’
The woman giggled & responded “well, if you’re not staring at my boobs or my butt, what are you doing then?”
He paused for a moment & said “well, Miss, I’m looking & I’m looking & I’m just trying to figure out where the hell you’re keeping the money to pay for this ride”
