04:15:57Â 12/30/2016
https://youtu.be/b8VmVPNL2XI
So close and yet, no champagne just yet
Hey, look! You’ve made it this far through 2016! Only today and tomorrow left. All you have to do is stay safe for a few more hours. There are still snow flurries across central Indiana this morning so roads have some slick spots. If you live in the Northeast, you probably need a shovel.
Two more murders in Indy overnight, and if you travel from Indiana to Kentucky, it’s going to cost about $4 per trip to pay for those bridges. Don’t worry, they’ll bill you. More people are opting to stay home tomorrow night and parents are excited that school starts back in less than five days. Is life supposed to be this hectic? We have 5 things you should know to help sort out the important stuff.
Dear Russia: You Suck
After teasing it for the past week, President Obama finally released sanctions against Russia for its part in disrupting the US election by hacking political organizations1. 35 Russian diplomats have been given 72 hours to make their way back to their motherland. At the same time, he imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies allegedly involved in the hacking.
This marks the first time since the end of the Cold War that such actions have been taken against Russia. Naturally, Russia vows to retaliate in kind with CNN reporting that the Anglo-American School of Moscow has been ordered closed2. However, it seems unlikely that will be the only action Russia might take in the matter.
Over the past week, Congressmen such as Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain have called for a tough stance against the Russian hacking scheme. This seems to be about as stern a move as President Obama can make without directly involving Congress, which he’s not inclined to do at this point in his administration. The problem with the President acting unilaterally is that the sanctions may not stick. President-elect Trump seemed rather dismissive of the sanctions yesterday, saying that it was “time to move on.”
On The Count Of Three, Stop Shooting
Despite some early reports of independent skirmishes, the Syrian cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey appears to be holding3. If everyone can keep their fingers off the triggers, the next step would be peace talks next month in Kazakhstan. Allegedly, the cease-fire was signed by the heads of seven major rebel groups, though none of the groups themselves actually admit to having done so.
The cease-fire has to be considered extremely tentative and one misstep by any of the parties involved could cause the whole thing to crumble. Were there only two parties involved, the situation might be more tenable, but with so many splintered rebel groups it is difficult to know when or if everyone has gotten the message, and even more uncertain whether anyone agrees to abide by the terms. For now, every thirty minutes the cease-fire holds is a victory.
What stings is that the US has been completely excluded from these talks. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, is seen as taking the lead in negotiating the cease-fire, a position President Obama would have certainly liked to have taken but could not. Â President Obama has admitted that his administration dropped the ball on Syria and as a result, we’ve been kicked out of the game. Exactly how this might play for future negotiations in the Middle East remains to be seen, but we’re no longer in the driver’s seat there.
A Tough Year For Law Enforcement
If you think you’re having a rough year, try being a cop. As of Wednesday, the Associated Press reports that 135 officers have lost their lives in the line of duty this year. That’s up 56% over 20154. Sure, some of the deaths were from traffic accidents, but the number of police shootings has increased dramatically for a number of different reasons.
One event factoring heavily in these statistics is the July 7 sniper attack in Dallas that killed five officers and wounded nine others. More individualized attacks across the country have brought police morale to an all-time low with several officers opting for retirement rather than continuing to take the risks associated with the job. This means more young, rookie cops on the street who don’t have the experience and patience of their older counterparts.
At the same time, police are finding their methods and actions more frequently criticized. Just a couple of days ago, a video tape was released that shows a Ft. Worth, Texas officer shooting a man in the back, contradicting earlier testimony5. Incidents such as this not only erodes public trust but increases the danger for police officers everywhere. The two new murders in Indianapolis last night are proof we need a strong police force, but we need to find a way to achieve that while keeping both the police and the public safe.
Moving Closer To A Living Wage
Making a living wage gets a lot closer to reality for workers in 19 states come Sunday morning6. Employees in Washington and Massachusetts get the biggest jump to $11 an hour. Raises also come to California, New York, Arizona, Maine, Colorado, Alaska, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan and Vermont.
The push behind this raise in the minimum wage is a reflection of how our society has changed. Minimum wage jobs, typically implying unskilled labor, were originally reserved for teenagers who lived at home and had few, if any, financial obligations. It was a way to save money for college or buy a car. When the minimum wage was established in 1938, it was never intended to be enough to support a family.
Yet, as society has evolved, it isn’t teens taking those $7.50-an-hour jobs, but unemployed adults, victims of layoffs as far back as 2002, unable to find jobs that fit their skill set, trying desperately to piece together enough part-time work to keep a roof over their heads. While some argue that increasing the minimum wage is unfair and a strain to small business, there has never been an increase in the minimum wage that didn’t end up boosting the economy7. We can only hope that this trend continues to other states as well. Lord knows Congress isn’t going to do anything to help the poor.
And finally …
Just when you thought 2016 was almost over, someone goes and throws a wrench in the works. As it turns out, this year is longer than a normal year—by a whole second. The culprit is something known as a leap second8. The official keepers of time, an organization known as the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, warned us of such this past summer, but no one was really listening at that point. Now, as the year ends, it comes time to add that extra second, throwing off everyone’s countdowns and making the year just a little bit longer.
Why do we need to add a leap second? Because the earth’s rotation isn’t quite as precise as the atomic clocks that govern how we measure time. The earth’s rotation fluctuates, the atomic clocks don’t. So, every couple of years or so, it is necessary to add a second in order to prevent a misalignment that, unchecked, would eventually have clocks reading 7:00 PM when the sun was directly overhead.
This little second thing can cause some problems. In previous years, it has thrown off airline reservation systems and GPS satellites. The midsummer announcement of this year’s addition was made early in hopes of avoiding such confusion. Yet, what might be most important is that we guard ourselves in that extra second so that no one else dies. We’ve already had enough of that with the time we are normally allotted. Let’s try and stay alive for just one second more.
Speaking of time, we’ve used up all of ours for today. Â Once again, thank you for reading and/or watching. Please, do stay safe as you travel to and fro. We will have news tomorrow in some form or fashion, but not Sunday. We both can use the break. Enjoy your day.
By the way, did you know that you can sponsor these articles? We’re not even expensive, I promise! Just ask us how!
5 Things You Should Know: 01.02.2017
04:23:13Â 01/02/2017
https://youtu.be/aYmeL9wosV0
This is how we choose to start the year? Really?
Hello there, welcome to another Monday, the first of this new year. For some, this is the first day back to work after the holiday, though many still have today off given the fact that New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday. This is why you went to school those extra four or five years. We’re looking at clouds with a chance of rain this evening and overnight in central Indiana, but another severe winter storm threatens the Northern Plains today, which is largely why no one really wants to live there.
For all the bitching we did about 2016, it really isn’t looking as though 2017 is getting off to a much better start. The president-elect thinks he knows secrets about hacking, North Korea says its ready to test ICBMs, and a number of cities set new records for homicides. We’re obviously not quite as smart as we think we are. That’s why we have 5 Things You Should know this morning.
A deadly end to the year
By now, if you were sober enough to pay any attention to the news yesterday, you already know that a shooting at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey left at least 39 dead and more than 70 injured1. A massive manhunt is underway for the shooter who somehow made it out of the club alive. This morning, the dirt wads calling themselves ISIS are claiming responsibility for that attack, which doesn’t really surprise anyone. At least we know the gunman wasn’t dressed as Santa Claus as some outlets reported earlier.
That wasn’t the only mass shooting to ring in the new year, though. Shortly after midnight local time, a heavily-armed man in Campinas, Brazil, walked into a home and killed his ex-wife, his son, and seven others before killing himself2. It took some time for neighbors to realize what was going on. Those who heard the shots thought it was merely people celebrating the New Year. Very little is known about the shooting at this time beyond the fact that it happened.
While the two shootings are totally unrelated, what they underscore is an increasing trend toward mass violence, not just from terrorists but from people we might otherwise consider to be “normal.” I sat in my living room a large part of Saturday night listening to various semi-automatic weapons being fired into the air by my neighbors, wondering why they felt they even needed that type of weapon in the first place. I worry that we may be entering a year where there is no “safe place.”
We call this a cease fire?
Funny how things don’t always mean what you think they’re supposed to mean. Take the words “cease fire,” for instance. One might be tempted to think that such a term means that there is no firing from either side, that everyone puts down their guns and their bombs for a minute and at least has a fucking spot of tea. But no, that would not be the case in Syria, where apparently no one has a fucking dictionary, probably because they’ve blown them all up.
The Syrian government apparently thought 24 hours was enough of a cease-fire and resumed bombardment of rebel-held locations near Damascus on Sunday3. This Russia-Turkey-brokered cease-fire was shaky to begin with. Rebel leaders had already said they would ignore the terms of the cease-fire if the Syrian government continued its bombing. After all, it’s hardly a cease-fire if both sides don’t actually cease.
What you should know about this situation is that the Syrian government isn’t the only one doing some bombing. The US claims it bombed a major Islamic State mortar position on Sunday4 and Turkish and Russian forces bombed Islamic State targets near al-Bab and Dayr Kak early this morning5. This has consistently been one of the problems with the war in Syria: there are too many different sides. Bombs fall from the sky and no one knows who’s bombing whom until someone takes credit after the fact. This has to be the most stupid way of running a war, ever.
One last swipe at 2016
2016 just couldn’t exit without making a final pass at some of our celebrities. Both William Christopher6, who played Father Francis Mulcahy on the long-running series M*A*S*H and Barbara Tarbuck7 who spent 16 years on the soap opera General Hospital died before the year left us, adding to the already long list of notable deaths for the year.
Christopher, who was diagnosed with cancer a mere 18 months ago, was one of only four actors to appear in all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, which, for the children among us, was a series that managed to find humor in a mobile medical unit in the middle of the Korean conflict. His part was not initially meant to be a big one, but the character and the actor both proved themselves endearing to viewers. Christopher’s kind, warm-hearted demeanor gave a sense of reality to the passivist priest caught in the middle of war.
Ms. Tarbuck was not as well know among general television viewers. Soap opera fans knew her, though, and after her time at General Hospital she continued acting, most recently appearing in five episodes of American Horror Story: Asylum as Mother Superior Claudia. She appeared in numerous films as well, perhaps most notably as Dwayne Johnson’s mother in 2004’s Walking Tall.
We’re hoping that 2017 isn’t as hard on our celebrities as 2016 was. I won’t mind not reading an obituary for a few months.
Your stylist is there to help
Of course, with the first of the year comes a lot of new laws at the state and local level, many of which go unnoticed until one runs afoul of them. A new law in Illinois, though, is taking a unique approach toward victims of domestic abuse with a program that is almost certain to be copied by other states should it prove successful. Starting this week, almost anyone involved in the beauty industry, stylists, barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, hair braiders and even nail techs receive an hour of state-mandated training on how to spot signs of domestic abuse8.
Now, for the paranoid among us, this is not another law requiring people who are not experts in a field to report anything they find suspicious or questionable to police. There’s no reporting mechanism to this law at all. Rather, the law is designed to give your stylist information to pass on to a possible victim should they see the signs of abuse. The thinking is that since stylists are aware of bumps and bruises that might be covered by hair or makeup, they can quietly offer a victim help without getting authorities involved.
Kat and I have talked about this issue and the law appears to be a good one. Most decent cosmetology schools at least address the issue of domestic abuse, but the Illinois law goes a step further by giving them the tools to actually help their customers. The law also protects stylists from liability should their assessment be incorrect. There is no requirement for a stylist to report anything to anyone. They are there to help. This is the kind of law we hope spreads quickly across all 50 states.
And finally …
2016 couldn’t just sneak out the back door when it was time for it to leave. No, it had to leave some hilarity and nonsense in its wake and it made sure to not limit those bits of last-minute humor to any one place. What is probably most well-known is singer Mariah Carey’s disastrous night on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest9. All she thought she had to do was lip sync the familiar song, Auld Lang Syne, but technical issues arose and that didn’t go so well. Then, the music started for a song she wasn’t prepared to sing. The disaster lasted far too long for anyone’s comfort.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, someone thought they’d have a little fun with the famous “Hollywood” sign, altering it so it would read “Hollyweed”10. Some mysterious person dressed in black took advantage of the fact that all the local police were protecting larger party venues, scaled the fence, and then used very large tarps to alter the sign. I mean, you have to give whoever did this a lot of credit. The terrain up there is steep and rocky. It took some serious strength to pull off the prank. Everyone laughed, the tarps were down by noon, and it is unlikely charges will ever be filed.
Then, because some issues from 2016 aren’t going away, a couple of protesters hung a banner at yesterday’s football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears11. The banner protested the involvement of U.S. Bank in the Dakota Access Pipeline. The stadium where the game was played also happens to be named for U.S. Bank. The banner got a lot of attention, which was the point. The two protestors unfurled the banner during the second quarter, then sat up on the girders waving to fans for the rest of the game. They were later arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges.
Okay, technically I guess we covered a bit more than 5 things you should know for today. It was just that kind of weekend. Let’s hope the entire year isn’t as hectic. We would love to spend more of our time talking about things that don’t involve people dying. We’ll call it a wrap for today, though. Please consider supporting us by helping to sponsor this endeavor. Let’s make this year better than anyone expects, shall we?
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