Yesterday's news

Stanley - Thursday

I should be working on the sixth round of edits on our upcoming thriller DEAD OF NIGHT. Instead I’m distracted.

I grew up in South Africa without television, because the apartheid government didn’t want us to see what was happening in the outside world. By the time TV was introduced, in 1976 I believe, I had been in the States for five years. Until two years ago, I watched very little television, just the occasional news program, a few Masterpiece Theatre episodes of some BBC series, and a bit of sport.

Then Trump came on the scene and I became a TV junkie. I couldn’t wait to jump out of bed to see what new astonishment had been perpetrated. And I was rarely disappointed. When I went to Cape Town last November for my annual Southern Hemisphere summer, I cut back a little on my addiction – not much, but some.

And now I am back in Minneapolis enjoying my Northern Hemisphere summer, I am determined to cut back further. I don’t want to give up completely because there is a perverse pleasure in feeling outrage.

So, now my morning routine is to wake up, make myself a cup of coffee, and read the newspapers, usually the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well as the headlines from the HuffingtonPost Morning Email. Sad to say, I am well on the way to becoming addicted again. TV has great focus – eight hours discussing whether Trump can pardon himself, for example; but newspapers deal with the same major topics plus a whole range of others.

So, let me share what I read in the HuffPost yesterday.

Thousands Voted For A Dead Gubernatorial Candidate In Alabama

Yesterday, voters in a number of states went to the polls to select their party’s candidates for the national elections in November (The House of Representatives has two-year terms, which means the country is in a perpetual cycle of re-elections.)

Michael McAllister, a candidate on the Alabama gubernatorial ballot who died in April, won more than 3,000 votes in Tuesday night’s election.

Tariffs Check 

A group of GOP senators are apparently working on a plan to curb Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs. I wonder where they found their spines. 

I’m not holding my breath.

8th Graders Given Ballistic Shields As ‘Welcome To High School’ Gift

Members of the outgoing 8th-grade class at St. Cornelius Catholic School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, each received a graduation gift that reflects the troubled times: bulletproof shields for their backpacks.

Minnesota Woman’s Children Announce Her Death With Truly Nasty Obituary

Ouch!

Betsy DeVos Says School Safety Commission Won’t Look At Role Of Guns In School Shootings

You have to watch the short video clip in the this article to understand why Trump's Secretary of Education is known locally as Betsy De-Farce.

Secretary of Educatioin, Betsy De-Farce

An Evangelical University Is Helping Create A Movie About How Trump Was Chosen By God

Enough said.

Aaron Persky, Judge In Brock Turner Case, Recalled

Persky will be removed from the bench four years before his term is set to end. Persky became headline news after he delivered his 2016 sentencing of Brock Turner, who was a freshman athlete at Stanford when he was accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus in 2015.

Turner was convicted on three felony assault charges: sexual assault of an unconscious person, sexual assault of an intoxicated person and sexual assault with intent to commit rape. Persky sentenced Brock Turner to six months in jail, citing alcohol as a mitigating factor. Brock’s father had called on the judge to grant his son probation, saying that he had already paid “a steep price ... for 20 minutes of action”.

Sweet Brock Turner

“He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easygoing personality and welcoming smile,” he wrote of his son. “His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite.”

Sheesh!

Donald Trump’s Fight With NFL Players Has Never Been About The National Anthem

The president isn’t mad about a song. He’s angry that black players refuse to show the fealty he thinks he deserves.

Players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice

God save the king.

Trump Attempts To Sing National Anthem But Can’t Be Bothered To Finish

You can’t make this stuff up.

Take a look here.

What is interesting too is that this took place at a ceremony to honour America’s flag and anthem, which replaced a ceremony honouring the Philadelphia Eagles, which won the SuperBowl earlier in the year. Most of the players decided not to attend, so Trump disinvited the whole team. 

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney blasted the decision, calling the president a "fragile egomaniac."

And that's the news for today. It is so easy to be distracted these days, so I had better get back to work and finish my editing tasks.

No caption necessary!

At least for an hour or so, when I’d better check MSNBC for the latest breath-taking, mind-numbing news story. And I do realize that by the time you read this, it will all be old hat and something even more outrageous will have taken its place.

Sigh.