Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Strongman-in-training:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos:
- Four years ago today Trump launched his campaign—media still haven’t figured out how to cover him, by Eric Boehlert
- Actually, we do know what Trumpcare is. And it's not good, by Ian Reifowitz
- Social justice, political correctness, human decency, bigotry, and total jerks, by Frank Vyan Walton
- The more things change, the more they stay the same, by Mark E Andersen
- A community read: the Mueller report, by Susan Grigsby
- Media's complicity with Trump continues: Acts of resistance are ignored, by Egberto Willies
- The movement against single-use plastic is growing. Try it for yourself in July, by Sher Watts Spooner
- The risk of not impeaching Trump, by David Akadjian
- Tuskegee Airman, actor, and activist: A Father's Day tribute to my dad, by Denise Oliver-Velez
• Worldwide, 11 million people are now employed in renewable energy: The news appeared Thursday in the sixth annual report on Renewable Energy and Jobs published by the International Renewable Energy Agency. In 2015, there were just 8.1 million people working in such jobs. A study by the International Labour Review last year concluded that the transition to clean energy could generate 24 million jobs by 2030. Currently, in the United States, about 855,000 people have jobs in renewables, while 1.1 million work in fossil fuels and biomass.
• Man accused of murdering 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, NZ, pleads not guilty: He is charged with 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and one charge of engaging in a terrorist act. Observers expect there will be a long, drawn-out trial and the possibility the shooter will use the courtroom as a platform to express his bigotry the way that the Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik did:
New Zealand’s five major media organizations signed an agreement in late June where they promised not to unnecessarily promote the accused gunman’s ideology during the trial. No white supremacist “imagery, symbols or signals” will be broadcast or published, and statements actively championing white supremacist ideals will also receive very limited coverage.
MIDDAY TWEET
• WHO says Congo needs help to deal with a nearly year-long Ebola outbreak. But… For the third time in nine months, an WHO panel decided that while this is an emergency for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it’s not a worldwide matter. Preben Aavitsland, acting chair of the WHO’s committee, said, “While the outbreak is an extraordinary event, and there’s risk of international spread, we believe that the ongoing response would not be enhanced” by a formal, global emergency declaration. The agency’s director-general noted, however, that there is a $54 million gap in funding to handle the response in the Congo.
• $400 billion F-35 plagued by serious “Category 1” flaws: Included in these problems is the possibility of some versions of the fighter jet tumbling out of control during a steep climb, melting the plane’s own tail when accelerating to supersonic speed, or stripping off the protective coating that makes the F-35 nearly invisible to enemy radar. Those and other problems with the ultra-expensive plane, one meant to replace America’s arsenal of aging fighters, were revealed in reporting by Defense News, a trade publication. As part of an investigation into other matters, the Pentagon’s inspector general questioned Vice Adm. Mat Winter, who oversees the F-35 Joint Program Office. He told the IG that Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan had called the F-35 “fucked up” when he was deputy defense secretary. Winter said Shanahan had said, “Okay. [The F-35 aircraft] works. But it costs too much. So now the program is screwed up because it costs too much. It’s screwed up because you are accepting the poor performance of your industry partners to include Lockheed Martin. Shanahan used to work for Boeing, Lockheed’s rival, which lost out on getting the F-35 contract.”
• Will artificial intelligence enhance or hack humanity? In a conversation moderated by Wired Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Thompson, historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari speaks with Fei-Fei Li, computer scientist and Co-Director of Stanford University's Human-Centered AI Institute.
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show:
It's another lol/yolo/nm Friday! Trump’s trying for another war, but without Secretaries of Any of the Necessary Departments. Kellyanne Conway gives the Hatch Act the finger. Again. The rule of law is so dumb. We should just get rid of it, everywhere.