In an interview to mark his 70th birthday this weekend, Stephen Hawking, the former Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, admitted he spent most of the day thinking about women. "They are," he said "a complete mystery."What, the guy who can figure out black holes can’t understand women? Has he tried? Does he listen to women when they try to explain their lives?
McEwan adds that it can be cruel to tell someone they can never be understood. It can be alienating to be treated as other.
Laura Clawson of Daily Kos takes a look at tipping the waitstaff in restaurants. First, the decision of how much to tip isn’t based much on service. A waitress will handle two tables in the same manner. One will be generous, the other stingy. This is more about the customer than the staff.
Second, tipping obliges the staff to put up with sexual harassment or lose the tip. And if the staff responds to the harassment by telling the customer to buzz off, she may be fired for annoying the customer. Time to stop forcing the waitstaff to live off tips.
In the latest personnel changes at the White House Gina Haspel will soon be before the Senate for confirmation to be the next CIA director. Big problem, she was in charge of a prison in Thailand that tortured prisoners and she tried to cover up torture crimes by destroying evidence.
That prompted Victor Laszlo to tweet this question to be asked at the hearings:
What did the guy you waterboarded 83 times not say the first 82 times that you were so certain he'd tell you if he was tortured yet again?
If I remember right, Britain’s Brexit vote was rather close. And, if I remember right, Russia interfered in that election similar to how they interfered in ours. And now Britain is dealing with the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian defense intelligence officer who spied for Britain. The deed was done on British soil. Skripal and his daughter are still in the hospital.
At the first mention of Russia, the nasty guy essentially abandoned Britain. Brexit means Britain is alienated from European allies. So Britain is trying to stare down Russia on its own. Melissa McEwan says:
Which is precisely what Russia has been angling to accomplish.
…
To be abundantly clear: Russia has actively sought *for decades* to undermine the alliances between the United States and the U.K., Germany, France, and others. It has been an explicit goal to create global instability and a subsequent power vacuum that Russia could exploit.
And here we are.
When President Bill Clinton was caught with his pants down Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr produced a 211 page report, which was given to the US House. It said the information may be grounds for impeachment. The whole thing was published and became a best seller.
So, we’re all eagerly waiting to read what Robert Mueller digs up on the nasty guy and his cronies.
Except, as Nelson Cunningham, writing for The Washington Post, tells us the laws around the two investigations are different. Mueller’s report goes to one person, the Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In this case it may go instead to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein because Sessions is recused from this case. Mueller is forbidden to publicly discussing his findings. And Rosenstein can do with it as he pleases – including tossing it in the trash. Even more, much of this work has been through a grand jury and law forbids the release of grand jury material.
This might be why Mueller has been laying out his case through the indictments of minor players, such as against the 13 Russians. That may be the only way the rest of us see anything.
For all you thinking if we could just get rid of the nasty guy… keep in mind the GOP has been working towards this moment for at least 30 years. Even impeachment won’t slow them down much.
The Twitter feed for yesterday’s National Walkout Day student protests has some cool pictures from around the country. It also has lots of encouragement. Alas, the feed also has lots of snide comments from those that like guns.
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