Category Archives: Around the World

“[Y]ou know what keeps me going? I know I’m right.”

60 Minutes: What the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive wants the world to know. “At 97, Ben Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive and he has a far-reaching message for today’s world.” (13:53min film and transcript)

“It is not often you get the chance to meet a man who holds a place in history like Ben Ferencz. He’s 97 years old, barely 5 feet tall, and he served as prosecutor of what’s been called the biggest murder trial ever. The courtroom was Nuremberg; the crime, genocide; the defendants, a group of German SS officers accused of committing the largest number of Nazi killings outside the concentration camps — more than a million men, women, and children shot down in their own towns and villages in cold blood.

Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive today. But he isn’t content just to be part of 20th century history — he believes he has something important to offer the world right now.”

Here’s Ben Ferencz‘s homepage and his Twitter account. This man is an inspiration.

“Well, if it’s naive to want peace instead of war, let ’em make sure they say I’m naive. Because I want peace instead of war. If they tell me they want war instead of peace, I don’t say they’re naive, I say they’re stupid. Stupid to an incredible degree to send young people out to kill other young people they don’t even know, who never did anybody any harm, never harmed them. That is the current system. I am naive? That’s insane.”

Link via MetaFilter.

“He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t do drugs. His drug is himself.” (Sam Nunberg about Trump)

The New Yorker: How Trump Could Get Fired. “The Constitution offers two main paths for removing a President from office. How feasible are they?”
By Evan Osnos.

“Hours after Donald Trump’s Inauguration, a post appeared on the official White House petitions page, demanding that he release his tax returns. In only a few days, it gathered more signatures than any previous White House petition. The success of the Women’s March had shown that themed protests could both mobilize huge numbers of people and hit a nerve with the President. On Easter weekend, roughly a hundred and twenty thousand people protested in two hundred cities, calling for him to release his tax returns and sell his businesses. On Capitol Hill, protesters chanted “Impeach Forty-five!“ In West Palm Beach, a motorcade ferrying him from the Trump International Golf Club to Mar-a-Lago had to take a circuitous route to avoid demonstrators. The White House does all it can to keep the President away from protests, but the next day Trump tweeted, “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!“ “

Sprachlos.

The Atlantic: Donald Trump’s Conflicts of Interest: A Crib Sheet. “A semi-comprehensive list of the business concerns that may influence the president during his time in office.” By Jeremy Venook. Published Apr 24, 2017.

“As early as 2000, he was speculating that he “could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it“ by patronizing his own businesses and running the campaign out of one of his properties. During his 2016 bid, he did exactly that, establishing his political headquarters in Trump Tower (and quintupling the rent as soon as he became the Republican nominee and began drawing funds from the party rather than his personal war chest). Shortly before his victory, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s campaign had paid out the unprecedented sum of more than $14 million to his family and companies for such services as flights on his personal airplanes, rent at Trump Tower, and meals and hotel rooms at other Trump buildings.”

(Emphasis mine.)

“Besides, there’s also the odd business of bog butter.”

Smithsonian.com: Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets. “High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses.”

“A wooden post was planted to mark the spot where two brothers, Viggo and Emil Hojgaard, along with Viggo’s wife, Grethe, all from the nearby village of Tollund, struck the body of an adult man while they cut peat with their spades on May 6, 1950. The dead man wore a belt and an odd cap made of skin, but nothing else. Oh yes, there was also a plaited leather thong wrapped tightly around his neck. This is the thing that killed him. His skin was tanned a deep chestnut, and his body appeared rubbery and deflated. Otherwise, Tollund Man, as he would be called, looked pretty much like you and me, which is astonishing considering he lived some 2,300 years ago.”

Link via MetaFilter.