Al Jazeera
I never knew enough about Qatar to have a strong opinion on the confrontation with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations now. However, I find it very curious that these countries accuse Qatar of supporting ISIS and then, as one of their demands, want it to close Al Jazeera, which has covered those other countries with independence and fostered traditions of a free press in a region which lacks one.
Wealth and stupidity
I coined these words: Jaredness or Jaredity, to designate a quality of strange shallowness and naivete, seen only in the extremely wealthy who have never even had to figure out where to buy a toothbrush on a Sunday night. As a child, I assumed all rich people were like Renaissance barons, smart, wily, cultured and patrons of the arts; I have had to watch the American spectacle for decades really to appreciate how great wealth makes people very stupid.
Trump No Boy Scout
Reprinted without comment, from the Boy Scout apology for Trump's behavior at the Jamboree: "Trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness and bravery are just a few of the admirable traits Scouts aspire to develop..."
Speaking as we were of loyalty...
Trump has none. Jeff Sessions basically abandoned (like Kellianne Conway, Sean Spicer and some others) any vestige of independence or integrity and displayed an early, slavish adherence to Trump, who now says that wasn't important: “He was a senator. He looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, ‘What do I have to lose?’ And he endorsed me. So it’s not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement.”
Why would anyone in their right mind work for a guy who crushes his people on a mere whim?
Grenfell Tower body count
Leonard Cohen sang, "I have seen the future. It is murder". London's Grenfell Tower is an icon of the future: built with deliberately crappy materials so it could be torn down in a few years and replaced with luxury housing, nobody even knows how many immigrants and poor people died in the flames. That is where Billionairism leads; since Thatcher, England has been a few steps ahead of us running down that hill.
The worst headline I ever saw
AOL announced that North Korea would bomb us today. It hasn't happened yet, but the day is not over.