Tornado Swarm Kills 19, Alternative Facts
Monday, January 23, 2017
Vol. 6, No. 23
Nation: A swarm of tornadoes accompanied by violent thunderstorms ripped through Mississippi and Georgia over the weekend, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 40. Mobile homes were blown away, roofs torn off, and entire houses demolished. Seven people died in one Georgia trailer park.
The storms came in waves, with the last hitting early Sunday morning. At least six inches of rain fell east of Albany, Ga.
In Southern California, torrential rains caused mudslides and flooded freeways. Nearly four inches of rain fell at the Long Beach airport.
World: At least 36 people died in the derailment of a passenger train in India on Saturday night. Rescue workers were pulling bodies and survivors from twisted wreckage. India’s over-used and under-maintained rail system carries 23 million passengers a day over more than 70,000 miles of track. — Police in Europe have arrested 75 people in an international ring that traffics in stolen art and antiquities. They say they recovered 3,500 artifacts and artworks.
In Spain, the police recovered 500 archaeological pieces, and
in Greece, authorities recovered part of an Ottoman tombstone as well as Byzantine objects.
Bowlbound: New England quarterback Tom Brady is headed to his 7th Super Bowl after steering the Patriots to a 36-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots were an unstoppable machine. In Atlanta, the Falcons held the Green Bay Packers scoreless in the first half and ultimately demolished them, 44-21. The Falcons meet the Patriots Feb. 5th in the Super Bowl.
The Obit Page: Brenda Barnes, the powerhouse executive who twice rose to the top of the corporate world, and twice gave it up, has died of the effects of a stroke at age 63.
In 1997, Barnes was 43-years old and chief executive of Pepsi-Cola North America when she left to be with her children, then ages 7, 8, and 10. Her departure set off a debate about whether women really can “have it all” with a demanding career and a family.
When her children were grown, Barnes was invited back into the corporate world and rose to be chief executive of the Sara Lee food company. She had a debilitating stroke at age 56 and left for good.
“There were two things in my life, kids and job,” Barnes once told The Christian Science Monitor. “Exercise? Golf? Sleep? None of that.”
Alternative Facts: The talk of the weekend has been Donald Trump’s inflated claim that his inauguration was attended by a crowd of about one to one and a half million people. He was backed up by his Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who spent five minutes Saturday afternoon berating the White House press corps and declared, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.” That, despite aerial photos showing wide empty spaces on the National Mall minutes before the inauguration began.
Yesterday in an appearance with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said Spicer was merely offering “alternative facts,” as if there is some parallel universe of truth. Todd countered, “Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”
The term “alternative facts” immediately entered the American political lexicon and even got its own social media hashtag.
Elsewhere in her alternative universe, Conway said on ABC News that Trump is not going to release his tax returns, even though he said he would when the IRS is done with its audit. “We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care,” Conway said.
A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll says 74 percent of Americans think Trump should release his taxes. Of course, that poll might be rigged.
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