Mar 17
Analyzed Risk of Trump Presidency, Children Clean Up Oil Spill with Bare Hands, GOP Official Says Public Has No Say in Nominee, and More Picks
PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
GOP Official Says Party, Not Public, Chooses Its Nominee (Russ)
Watch this extraordinary and extremely odd conversation with a GOP official from North Dakota — who emphasizes the GOP can do whatever it wants, and no, it’s not up to voters.
Chicago and Cleveland Prosecutors Lose Fights with Black Lives Matter (Trevin)
The real news on Super Tuesday was the demonstrated effectiveness of the Black Lives Matter movement’s opposition to the re-election of two “tough-on-crime” prosecutors that had “made key prosecutorial decisions in the controversial killings of unarmed African Americans by police officers.”
Trump Presidency Rated Among Top 10 Risks in the World (Milicent)
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a British research and analysis firm, if Donald Trump becomes president he could disrupt the global economy and, worse yet, “His militaristic tendencies towards the Middle East and ban on all Muslim travel to the US would be a potent recruitment tool for jihadi groups, increasing their threat both within the region and beyond,”
Russia Demands Probe into Turkish Abuse of Kurds (Klaus)
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is continuing the war of words between his country and Turkey by calling for an investigation of Turkish human rights abuses against Kurdish citizens.
Children Clean Up Oil Spill — With Their Bare Hands (Russ)
Two large oil spills in South America. The oil company denies role of children in the clean up. The children, however, tell media otherwise.
Pentagon Claims Processing FOIA Request Would Cost $660 Million (Klaus)
The Pentagon estimates that responding to one Freedom of Information Act request would take 15 million hours at a cost of $660 million. So if you want to know how many so-called HotPlugs the Department of Defense has in stock, you may need to have to wait for an answer — until the year 3700 (if one Pentagon staffer works on the request every work day from now until then).
Dutch Parliament Votes to Ban Weapon Exports to Saudi Arabia (Trevin)
The bill halts exporting of weapons to Saudi Arabia, citing “violations of humanitarian law” in Yemen where over half of the 6,000 killed since the Saudis entered the conflict have been civilians.
Spiders Get Up to 12 Inches Long! (Milicent)
Horrified by the usual headlines? If you’d rather be scared the old fashioned way, by creepy crawling critters that make hissing noises, you should enjoy this report on the biggest, heaviest, hairiest spiders alive in the world today. You can even get one as a pet, but I wouldn’t try to put a bow around her neck.
