Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
For at least a year, the biggest page on Facebook purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam with ties to a middle-aged white man in Australia, a review of the page and associated accounts and websites conducted by CNN shows. The page, titled simply “Black Lives Matter,” had almost…
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is greater than we ever thought. And by greater, I mean worse. According to research published last month, it’s “increasing exponentially and at a faster rate than in surrounding waters.” The slurry of trash and seawater loosely held together by Pacific currents spans 617,762 square miles, roughly twice the size…
In his decision Friday to pardon a former Bush administration official convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, President Trump telegraphed his open hostility to the criminal justice system and his desire to use the power of the presidency as a personal political tool. As with his controversial pardon last year of a former Arizona…
When was the last time you were lost on your smartphone? Because for me, it was just this morning. Whether on Facebook, Twitter, or email itself, I end up tapping something that takes me to a web page stuck inside an app, and I’m left scratching my head, wait, aren’t I just on the web?…
Jamahri Sydnor, 17, was hit in the head by a stray bullet as she passed through a Northeast Washington intersection. (Courtesy of A’Mee Barnes) Chris French headed into the intensive-care unit at Washington Hospital Center last August to visit his mother, who had just had surgery. He was wearing a visor that said FAMU. A…
Graphic: Michael Harriot (The Root; photo via iStock) Every so often a new phrase emerges that encapsulates the cunning Caucasian ability to keep power and dominance within their clutches by painting themselves as the oppressed class. Whether it is “reverse racism,” “Make America great again” or “separate but equal,” coining catchphrases as a means of…
With the Roseanne revival dominating headlines and ratings, we’d all be crazy not to expect more new seasons of old shows in the future. Considering Roseanne’s specific record-breaking success, ABC has to be eyeing their other blue collar, mega-blockbuster ’90s sitcom starring an outspoken Hollywood conservative: Home Improvement. The show’s leading man Tim Allen has expressed interest in strapping…
My first job in journalism was at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a venerable, century-old newswire which provides coverage to Jewish papers around the world. As a jack-of-all trades intern, one of my jobs was to monitor our web traffic. To my surprise, I found that one of our top referrers was frequently Stormfront.org, a neo-Nazi…
Monster Hunter and the Mainstream By Rob Rich • April 9th, 2018 This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #101. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price. ——— Here’s the Thing is where Rob dumps his random thoughts and…
Graphic: Elena Scotti (GMG), photos: AP, Getty Images When political commentator Sally Kohn sent Aminatou Sow, host of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, a passage from her forthcoming book The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity in which she is quoted, Sow was confused. The quote harkened back to a night…