Record-Size Hole Opens in Ozone Layer Above the Arctic
Trump Removes Independent Watchdog for Coronavirus Funds ; Amazon's Self-Publishing Arm Is a Haven for White Supremacists ; and More Picks
Trump Removes Independent Watchdog for Coronavirus Funds (Mili)
The authors write, “President Donald Trump has upended the panel of federal watchdogs overseeing implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus law, tapping a replacement for the Pentagon official who was supposed to lead the effort.”
Texas City Nursing Home Doctor Explains Use of Hydroxychloroquine (Reader Steve)
From the Houston Chronicle: “The doctor who prescribed an unproven medication to more than two dozen COVID-19 patients at the Resort at Texas City, the site of one of the largest outbreaks in the Houston area, said the decision was between him and his patients and he did not notify families before the drugs were administered. Dr. Robin Armstrong said he thought the potential benefits outweighed the risks.”
The Far Right Helped Create the World’s Most Powerful Facial Recognition Technology (Reader Pat)
The author writes, “Clearview’s CEO and co-founder, Cam-Hoan Ton-That, and his associates chose to mass-violate social media policies against scraping accounts to build an image warehouse of unprecedented size, as several outlets have noted recently. What hasn’t been reported, however, is even scarier: Exclusive documents obtained by HuffPost reveal that Ton-That, as well as several people who have done work for the company, have deep, longstanding ties to far-right extremists.”
Amazon’s Self-Publishing Arm Is a Haven for White Supremacists (Chris)
The authors write, “Since its founding more than a decade ago, KDP has democratized the publishing industry and earned praise for giving authors shut out of traditional channels the chance to reach an audience that would have been previously unimaginable. It has also afforded the same opportunity to white supremacists and neo-Nazis.”
Trump, Scorsese, and the Frankfurt School’s Theory of Racket Society (Chris)
From the Los Angeles Review of Books: “The United State remains, of course, a long way from being a failed state or a kleptocracy of oligarchs. And yet, there are sufficient warning signs to be concerned. In 2016, after all, we elected a president who is almost too perfectly cast as a protagonist in a racketeering narrative.”
