Notes and Essays -- John Brown

image from below article :  (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images) Charles Lane, "Why more police might be the key to real criminal justice reform,"  The Washington Post ,  November 30, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EST

image (not from article) from NYT , 11/30/2022 Here’s what we know: The president of European Commission proposed forming a United Nations-backed court to investigate atrocities in Ukraine. Kyiv has been trying to persuade world leaders to prosecute Russian soldiers and top Moscow officials. A top E.U. official proposes a special court to focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s Parliament recognizes the Holodomor as a genocide against Ukraine. Concern grows about Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia. Germany and Norway will propose a NATO-led hub to protect undersea pipelines. Blinken says the U.S. and its allies must help Ukraine with its air defenses. A letter bomb delivered to the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid explodes. President Zelensky of Ukraine rebukes Elon Musk’s peace proposal.

Couples with duplicate names run into confusing situations. ‘Anytime anybody would say, ‘Hey Ryan,’ we’d both perk up like we were meerkats .’ image from article, with caption:  Taylor Lautner and his wife Taylor Lautner .  image (not from article) from By Lane Florsheim,  The Wall Street Journa l, Nov. 30, 2022 10:34 am ET Excerpt: When “Twilight” heartthrob Taylor Lautner got married on Nov. 11, he and his wife took the concept of two becoming one a step further than most: In addition to their legal union, Mr. Lautner and the registered nurse formerly known as Taylor Dome also unified their names. “We’re literally going to be the same person,” the actor said in an interview on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” ahead of the wedding. “How narcissistic.” After the ceremony, he posted a photo gallery on Instagram with the caption “Mr. and Mrs. Taylor Lautner.” Though their same-name reveal gave way to jokes online, the Taylors Lautner, who didn’t return requests for comment, are ...

Oath Keepers Leader Convicted of Sedition in Landmark Jan. 6 Case   A jury in federal court in Washington convicted Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right militia, and one of his subordinates for a plot to keep Donald Trump in power.   Rhodes image from article  By Alan Feuer and Zach Montague, The New York Times , Nov. 29, 2022, Updated 5:59 p.m. ET Excerpt: Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, and one of his subordinates were convicted on Tuesday of seditious conspiracy as a jury found them guilty of seeking to keep former President Donald J. Trump in power through a plot that started after the 2020 election and culminated in the mob attack on the Capitol. ...  Prosecutors sought to demonstrate how Mr. Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper with a law degree from Yale , became increasingly panicked as the election moved toward its final certification at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. Under his direction, the Oath Keepers — whos...

By Oleksiy Yakubin, The Moscow Times , "10 hours ago"; text of below article contains links to related articles image from link to text: Oleksiy Yakubin in article is a political scientist at Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko University and runs the Nezalezhny Politolog youtube channel. Dmitry Peskov, the man charged with sharing President Vladimir Putin's views with the rest of the world, last week denied that the Kremlin was attempting to topple the Ukrainian government or bring about regime change. This surprising reversal suggests that Moscow may now finally be prepared to treat Volodymyr Zelensky as Ukraine's legitimately elected leader.   While Peskov's statement obviously raised a few eyebrows — not least as the Kremlin desires nothing more than the power to choose Ukraine's leader — the real question is why anyone would listen to anything Peskov has to say these days in the first place. While there used to be talk of the Kremlin spokesperson's influence,...

The shape of the war, and its effects on global markets, in the months and years to come could determine the president’s political fate.  image from article: At the Group of 20 summit in Bali this month, Mr. Biden and his economic team pushed other policies to soften the war’s economic damage. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times By Jim Tankersley, The New York Times , Nov. 29, 2022 Updated 12:19 p.m. ET Jim Tankersley covered President Biden’s economic policy team at international summits in Cambodia and Indonesia this month.   Excerpt:  [Biden] has faced little domestic political pressure over his Ukraine decisions thus far. While the war has filled newscasts and commanded much of Mr. Biden’s time, including frequent speeches, it has not yet become an electoral wedge issue. Ukraine did not make the list of the top 60 topics of campaign advertisements nationwide in the midterm election cycle, according to data from AdImpact.   But should Mr. Biden seek re-electio...

"[Trump recent dinner guest/agitator  Nick Fuentes ] [has]  cheered on President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying, ' Can we give a round of applause for Russia? '” Fuentes image (not from cited article)  from From: Peter Baker, "Trump’s Far-right Embrace: Why it’s important to know more about Nick Fuentes," The New York Times , Nov. 29, 2022, 6:40 a.m. ET

Thousands of Russians are crossing the U.S. southern border to claim asylum. Many are ending up in immigration prison. “I left Russia for a place just like Russia,” said one.   image from article: Mariia Shemiatina and Boris Shevchuk reunite after Boris’s release outside the ICE detention center in Pine Prairie, La. Credit: Emily Kask for The New York Times   By Miriam Jordan , The New York Times , Nov. 28, 2022 Updated 4:43 p.m. ET As Vladimir Putin cracks down on dissidents and arrests draft dodgers, growing numbers of Russians are making their way across the U.S. southern border. But contrary to their expectations of asylum and freedom, many of them are being put into immigration detention centers that resemble prisons.   Even before Russia’s assault on Ukraine, anti-government activists had been pouring out of the country and seeking refuge in the United States. The exodus intensified after the war began in late February, reaching the highest tallies in recent h...

Critics say the Museum of Mankind withholds information about its vast collection of human remains that could help former colonies and descendants of conquered peoples get them back. image from article, with caption:  A skull on display in the museum. Eighteen-thousand more skulls are kept in cardboard boxes in the basement.  Credit...  Godong/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images   By Constant Méheut,  The New York Times , Nov. 28, 2022, Updated 1:50 p.m. ET  Excerpt:  PARIS — With its monumental Art Deco facade overlooking the Eiffel Tower, the Musée de l’Homme, or Museum of Mankind, is a Paris landmark. Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to this anthropology museum to experience its prehistoric skeletons and ancient statuettes. But beneath the galleries, hidden in the basement, lies a more contentious collection: 18,000 skulls that include the remains of African tribal chiefs, Cambodian rebels and Indigenous people from Oceania. ...

Students protesting against Covid restrictions at Tsinghua University in Beijing.  Obtained by Reuters From: "Memes, Puns and Blank Sheets of Paper: China’s Creative Acts of Protest," by Chang Che and Amy Chang Chien, The New York Times , Nov. 28, 2022 Updated 1:41 p.m. ET  Excerpt:  The wave of protests in at least a dozen cities erupted after a fire in the far western region of Xinjiang on Thursday killed 10 people by official count, a toll that many suspected was linked to Covid restrictions that have confined people to their homes. Demonstrators used the white sheets to mourn those lost — white is a common funeral color in China — and to express an anger understood implicitly by millions who have suffered under pandemic restrictions. . .. Some protesters told The New York Times that the white papers took inspiration from a Soviet-era joke, in which a dissident accosted by the police for distributing leaflets in a public square reveals the fliers to be blank. When ...

image (not from below article) from: Vladislav Vorotnikov, "Russia sees rapid growth in turkey production,"  foodnavigator.com , 26-Oct-2012 Excerpt: VILNIUS, Lithuania — Sitting before a large video monitor in his suburban Moscow office last week, President Vladimir V. Putin addressed local officials opening a turkey breeding center in distant Siberia. Before several dignitaries pushed a platter-size orange button in unison, Mr. Putin lauded homegrown turkeys as a model for assuring Russia’s independence. “Without any exaggeration, this is a question of our technological, scientific and food sovereignty,” he said. ... “With everything happening, it is completely insane,” said Nino Rosebashvili, an anchor at a YouTube channel run by the movement founded by Mr. Navalny. Mr. Putin, the anchor suggested, has taken to presiding over the most humdrum of events to avoid linking himself with Russia’s stumbling war against Ukraine. ... " From: Neil MacFarquhar, " For Puti...

By Joy Neumeyer, The New York Times , Nov. 21, 2022, 1:00 a.m. ET  image (not from below article) from , with the caption:  Andrey Zvyagintsev’s bleak Russian tragedy LEVIATHAN  Ms. Neumeyer is a journalist and historian of Russia and Eastern Europe.   Excerpt:  Russia’s current condition — militarized, isolated, corrupt, dominated by the security services and hemorrhaging talent as hundreds of thousands flee abroad to escape service in a horrific war — is bleak .   In hopes of an end to this grim reality, some wait expectantly for Vladimir Putin to leave office. To change the country, however, it is not enough for Mr. Putin to die or step down. Russia’s future leaders must dismantle and transform the structures over which he has presided for more than two decades. The challenge, to say the least, is daunting. ... For now, with most of Russia’s population forced into quiescence while others lose their jobs or freedom for expressing dissent, the possibility...

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