Author: patd

New York Times  The Best of Late Night:

President Trump is under fire for a series of tweets about four young congresswomen of color — Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts — in which he said the progressive Democrats (often referred to as “the squad”) were “loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States” how to run the government, and that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

“This is beside the point, but three of the congresswomen you’re attacking were born here and they’re all American citizens. So if you’re asking them to fix the totally broken, crime-infested governments of their home countries, they’re trying.” — SETH MEYERS
“And what does he mean, they’re telling us how our government is to be run? They’re in Congress — they are our government.” — STEPHEN COLBERT
“Meanwhile, Melania was like, ‘Hey, how come they get to leave?’” — JIMMY FALLON
“And is there anybody Trump does think was born in America? [Imitating Trump] Bring me Megan Rapinoe’s long-form birth certificate, O.K.? There’s no way an American could be that good at soccer, O.K.?” — STEPHEN COLBERT

The late-night hosts said the president’s tweets were proof of Trump’s racism.
“You know, it’s almost like, in Trump’s head you can’t be a person of color and an American, which is strange because he of all people should know that you can be two things at the same time. Yeah, I mean, he’s bald and has a full head of hair. It doesn’t make sense, but we accept it.” — TREVOR NOAH
“I don’t know what’s more shocking, that the president sent a racist tweet or that we won’t be talking about this in two days.” — JIMMY FALLON
“Of course, Trump does not like the squad. He is the leader of the rival gang, the Klan.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

New York Times: Last Volkswagen Beetle Drives Into the Sunset

PUEBLA, Mexico — Volkswagen rolled the last Beetle off the assembly line on Wednesday, the end of the road for a car that ran from Nazi Germany through hippie counterculture but failed to navigate a swerve in consumer tastes toward SUVs.

Serenaded by a mariachi band and surrounded by proud factory workers, the final units of the retro, rounded compact were celebrated at a VW plant in Mexico’s central Puebla state more than 80 years after the model was introduced in Germany.

The Puebla factory, which already produces VW’s Tiguan SUV, will make the Tarek SUV in place of the Beetle starting in late 2020, Volkswagen de Mexico Chief Executive Steffen Reiche said. The bigger vehicles are more popular in the United States, the main export market for the Mexico factory.

The last Beetles will be sold on Amazon.com in a move symbolizing the company’s embrace of the future, Reiche said.

[…]

In the 1960s, the Beetle was a small-is-beautiful icon of the postwar Baby Boom generation. The 1968 movie “The Love Bug,” which featured a zany anthropomorphic vehicle, stoked Beetle fever.

[continues]

David Horsey at Seattle Times:
Girls, master your free kicks and free speech

New York Times: Who Protected Jeffrey Epstein?

Mr. Epstein is not the only one due a reckoning with justice.
By The Editorial Board

[…]

At first glance, the Epstein saga looks like another example of how justice is not, in fact, blind — of how it tilts toward the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. Mr. Epstein, who has claimed to have made his fortune managing other rich people’s money, was not just wealthy; he was politically and socially wired, hobnobbing with such boldfaced names as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
He donated tens of millions of dollars to institutions like Harvard University, which he never attended but where he financed construction of a campus building and formed strong connections to faculty members and administrators. He is also known for having amassed a quirky “collection” of scientists, in whom he liberally invested over the years.

Upon closer examination, this case offers an even more warped picture of justice. Mr. Epstein retained a cadre of high-price, high-profile lawyers who went after prosecutors with everything they had — at least according to Mr. Acosta. In 2011, facing criticism over the plea agreement, Mr. Acosta complained about having endured “a yearlong assault” by Mr. Epstein’s legal sharks. During his 2017 confirmation hearings to become labor secretary, Mr. Acosta claimed to have forged the best deal possible under the circumstances.
That is hardly comforting. It betrays a system in which the rich and well-connected can bully public officials into quiescence — or into pursuing a deal so favorable to the accused that it runs afoul of the law.
Neither should Mr. Acosta and his former team members be allowed to wave off the tough or awkward questions that are likely to arise going forward. Under pressure from Congress, the Justice Department has opened a review into the handling of the case, and last Wednesday a federal appeals court in New York ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of related documents. Already, distressing new details are surfacing in the case. Most notably, when Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan residence was searched over the weekend, according to a court filing from prosecutors, law enforcement officials recovered “hundreds — and perhaps thousands — of sexually suggestive photographs of fully- or partially-nude females,” some of which “appear to be of underage girls.”
In his request that Mr. Epstein be held without bail, the United States attorney for New York’s Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, noted, “The defendant, a registered sex offender, is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant.”
Whatever new details emerge, whatever new participants may be implicated, whatever public officials are found to have failed in protecting Mr. Epstein’s victims, the time for secrecy and excuses and sweetheart deals is over. Mr. Epstein’s victims have waited long enough for answers, and they deserve justice.