Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait. -- Balzac (1834)
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There's a hopeful story buried in today's news. Another rich guy has developed an interest in saving the local news business, in this case in Baltimore -- definitely a place that could use some good old-fashioned kick-ass reporting.
(Like pretty much all places, actually.)
I don't mean to sound glib. All week so far I have been focusing on developments in my profession that can be considered promising.
* Peter Richardson's closer look at how Hunter Thompson helped shape journalism in the U.S. from his time in the Bay Area.
* Multiple news organizations combined on the "Facebook Papers."
Now, a Maryland hotel magnate, Stewart Bainum, has committed $50 million to start the Baltimore Banner. Please read the article. It's blueprint for what needs to happen all across the country.
Let's just hope we have enough conscientious rich people.
***
With a nod to Balzac and the way his meaning has been interpreted over the past 187 years of wealth and crime, if you've ever wondered what motivates investigative reporters to do their work, this pretty much sums it up.
We see a few men amass great fortunes while the mass of people struggle to get by. One way or another, these rich men come to dominate the levers of power in society, both for better and for worse.
There could be no philanthropy without wealth, other than the charitable acts of the human heart, and those turn out to be how most of us survive life's rougher moments.
The poorest people I've ever encountered were in Central and South Asia and they also were the most generous too strangers in need of food or the place to rest their head.
But in our impossibly privileged world in the West, most basic comforts can be taken for granted most of the time for most of the people.
The system goes on. Unless we have investigative reporters tracking down the new crimes that soon enough will yield new rich people who can become the new philanthropists, nothing will ever change.
C'est comme ça que ça se passe.
***
In personal news, Ancestry.com reports that I am apparently one percent less Scottish than previously believed. It's unclear which one percent we're talking about here, but there's a small fingernail I've always suspected could be from Wales.
Also, Ancestry believes it may have discovered a man who was my fourth-great-grandfather, John Stanley Weir, who lived in North Carolina in 1780.
Actually, that seems highly unlikely, since my paternal grandfather's family only arrived in North America (from Ireland to Canada in 1830 -- 50 years later. I suppose against all odds my grandmother, Alice Jane Armstrong, could have had a Southern ancestor named Weir, but the DNA tree remains silent on that score.
On a much more immediate matter, Happy 23rd Birthday to my youngest!
THE HEADLINES:
* America ‘on fire’: Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate
* Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation (NYT)
* Here’s how Facebook’s algorithm shapes your news feed (WP)
* Facebook Faces FTC Probe Over Its Internal Research (WSJ)
* Floods, flames and heat: A year of extreme weather presents a devastating new reality -- As leaders descend on Glasgow, Scotland, for this year’s climate conference, most of the world is already feeling the repercussions of their inaction (WP)
* U.S. billionaires would pay tax on unrealized gains from their assets to help finance President Joe Biden's emerging social-policy and climate-change legislation, according to a proposal unveiled by the top Senate Democrat for tax policy. (Reuters)
* The deluge California received over the past few days was nowhere near enough to end the drought. (AP)
* Billions of barrels of wastewater laced with toxic chemicals that were disposed of in the state’s Central Valley may be leaking into the ground. (Grist)
* A new U.N. report finds the world’s biggest economies are failing to slow global warming (WP)
* F.D.A. Panel Recommends Covid Shots for Children 5 to 11 (NYT)
* New cases in the U.S. down nearly 60 percent since delta variant surge (WP)
* Yes, You’ll Want to Vaccinate Your Kids Against Covid. An Expert Explains Why. -- Just because Covid-19 is sickening and killing fewer children than adults does not mean that children are free from risk. (NYT)
* Yes, young children are at risk of covid-19. They need vaccines. (WP)
* President Joe Biden stumped for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe for governor of Virgnia, painting the race as an urgent referendum on Trumpism in the Republican Party. Polls show that McAuliffe is neck and neck with GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin before the election next week. “Extremism can come in many forms. It can come in the rage of a mob driven to assault the Capitol. It can come in a smile in a fleece vest,” Biden said, a direct attack against Youngkin’s campaign garb. [HuffPost]
* Half its original size, Biden’s big plan in race to finish (AP)
* The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Islamic State in Afghanistan could have the capability to attack the United States in as little as six months, and has the intention to do so, a senior Pentagon official told Congress. (Reuters)
* A cyberattack paralyzed every gas station in Iran (NPR)
* Hong Kong's legislature passed a new film censorship law to "safeguard national security", though critics say it will dampen creativity in its world famous movie industry and further reduce freedoms in the former British colony. (Reuters)
* The big dump of precipitation prompted several Tahoe resorts to open for ski season over Halloween weekend. (SFC)
* Greyhound To Send Chimps On Pioneering Bus Trip From Buffalo To Atlantic City (The Onion)
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