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Friday, September 20, 2019


 

Headlines for Sept. 20, 2019




Click here to listen to this week's segment on Loud & Clear Radio.  
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.


Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for Sept. 20, 2019


*Not All Gifted Children Are From Affluent Families
https://www.wsj.com/articles/not-all-gifted-children-are-from-affluent-families-11568760089
To help the poor rise, the education system needs to ‘raise the ceiling’ as well as ‘lift the floor.’ No mention at all of the disparity in resources between schools in wealthy areas and schools in poor ones.
Recalls the quote from the great evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould: 
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” Compare this to Cuba (not that the article does that!), where a quality education available to all students has resulted in scientific achievements way out of proportion to either the size of the population or the size of the GDP. 

*The Super-Rich are Being Scammed on Their Private Jets
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-07/scammed-at-40-000-feet-opaque-market-costs-the-jet-setting-rich
Five grand for mystery sushi. Seven for plastic cups. [That's seven grand] And more fuel than the plane could possibly hold. Such are the deceptions stinging the billionaires and mere millionaires of today’s private jet-set class. It says as much about this era of hyper-wealth as about modern-day fraudsters. So much money is sloshing around the world that, inevitably, crafty operators are seeking a slice, trying to help themselves to what they figure is a mere rounding error to a billionaire.

*Fearing ‘Spy Trains,’ Congress May Ban a Chinese Maker of Subway Cars
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/14/business/chinese-train-national-security.html
The factory where these “Chinese” subway cars are to be made is in…Chicago! The whole “spy” thing, just as with the accusations against Huawei which we first covered on this show back in February 2018, is a pure smokescreen. This is an attempt to weaken the Chinese economy & has nothing to do with “spying”.

Lawmakers Seek Ban on Chinese Drone Purchases by Federal Agencies
https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawmakers-seek-ban-on-chinese-drone-purchases-by-federal-agencies-11568818826
Consumer drones, and again they’re talking about how they might send information back to China!

*Complaints against NYPD hit 5-year high amid anti-cop fever
https://nypost.com/2019/09/18/complaints-against-nypd-hit-5-year-high-amid-anti-cop-fever/
First of all, the phrase “anti-cop fever” appears nowhere in the article. The phrase “anti-cop sentiment” does appear, attributed to “one source”. The Civilian Complaint Review Board did see an increase of 20% in complaints over the previous year; that’s the sole evidence provided of this “fever”.

*Trump says homelessness hurting real estate prestige, will destroy cities
Subhead: The homeless are living in "our best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to building," Trump said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1055611
Infuriating.

*Trump, Awaiting Egyptian Counterpart at Summit, Called Out for ‘My Favorite Dictator’
Subhead: Quip drew attention to uncomfortable facet of U.S.-Egypt relationship
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-awaiting-egyptian-counterpart-at-summit-called-out-for-my-favorite-dictator-11568403645
“The witnesses said they believed the president made the comment jokingly, but said his question was met by a stunned silence.”

£4.8m golden lavatory stolen from Blenheim Palace ... police have nothing to go on
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/14/blenheim-palace-closed-amid-speculation-golden-toilet-has-stolen/
“Political” because Blenheim Palace is the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

Netanyahu advises supporters that voting is more important than sex
https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/netanyahu-advises-supporters-that-voting-more-important-than-sex/2019/09/16/f54e63d2-d885-11e9-a1a5-162b8a9c9ca2_story.html
While you’re enjoying yourself, the ad ends, “the left is getting ready to take over the government.” The left? You mean the ultra-right, as opposed to the über-right?

Will ‘locked and loaded’ Trump go off half-cocked?
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/will-locked-and-loaded-trump-go-off-half-cocked/
It would even rhyme if the expression were “loaded and locked”!

Not everybody wants thoughts and prayers after a disaster, according to a study of hurricane survivors
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/health/thoughts-prayers-study-wellness-trnd/index.html
NotTheOnion, and actually a serious article. “The Christians in the experiment valued a prayer from a Christian stranger, on average, at $4.36. A prayer from a priest was even higher with an average of $7.17. It should be noted that some Christians negatively valued thoughts from nonreligious strangers.
Atheists and agnostics, however, took things in a completely different direction.
Nonreligious people were willing to pay about $1.66 to avoid a prayer from a priest and more than double that price at $3.54 to avoid one from a Christian stranger.”

This week’s #FakeNewsByOmission story:
Havana syndrome: Exposure to neurotoxin may have been cause, study suggests
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/havana-syndrome-neurotoxin-enquête-1.5288609
Reuters covered yesterday's CBC story showing that pesticide spraying, not non-existent "acoustic weapons", caused the problems of US diplomats in Havana. So far neither the NYT, WaPo, nor CNN (nor anyone else) have done so.

Twitter suspends account of former top Saudi aide implicated in Khashoggi killing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/twitter-suspends-account-of-former-top-saudi-aide-implicated-in-khashoggi-killing/2019/09/20/9d35d96c-db8e-11e9-a1a5-162b8a9c9ca2_story.html
Never mentioned by the WaPo — the suspension of dozens of Twitter accounts of prominent Cubans and Cuban media organizations, many of which are still suspended.

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