The Daily Moth 6-25-2019
SpaceX rocket launch sends 24 satellites into orbit; Political News: Trump warns Iran of “obliteration”; Trump accused of rape; New Press Secretary named; CBP commissioner resigns; Two stories of police officers dying in the line of duty; Illinois 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana ; “The Black Drum”; Deaf Bing: Color for objects
Hello, welcome to the Daily Moth! It is Tuesday, June 25. Ready for news?
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SpaceX rocket launch sends 24 satellites into orbit
This early morning, at 2:30 am, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to send 24 satellites into orbit.
Two of the rocket’s side boosters successfully landed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
(Video)
The third, center core booster missed its target on a drone ship in the ocean.
(Video)
The satellites were released in three different “levels” of orbit. This launch is said to be the most difficult one yet, and it was successful.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk retweeted a long-exposure image of the light from the rocket launch and the side boosters returning to Earth. Look at this.
[Tweet: @johnkrausphotos: Wow, wow, wow! SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched the STP-2 mission at 2:30am this morning. The two side cores, flying their second mission, returned to land successfully at Cape Canaveral. It was incredible. Simply incredible.”]
https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-stp2-launch-success.html
https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1143409786270232576
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Political News: Trump warns Iran of “obliteration”; Trump accused of rape; New Press Secretary named; CBP commissioner resigns
Here are three political news briefs.
The first — President Trump, on Twitter, warned Iran that if they attacked “anything American,” they would be “met with great and overwhelming force” and “obliteration.”
Prior to Trump’s tweets, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the White House was suffering from mental disabilities and that the U.S. sanctions were idiotic.
Trump’s warning reminds me of Trump’s threat to send “fire and fury” on North Korea when they were carrying out ICBM missile tests. The two sides eventually met for two summits. Will we see the same thing happen between Trump and Rouhani? It’s hard to predict.
The second news — an author, E. Jean Carroll, accused Donald Trump of raping her in a dressing room in New York City in the 1990’s. She will soon release a book that describes the incident and have done several interviews.
Trump told “The Hill” that “she is not my type… and that it never happened.”
More than 12 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct in recent years, and Trump has responded by saying all of them are lies.
The third news — there are two changes in the Trump administration.
First Lady Melania Trump said her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham will become the White House’s next press secretary and communications director. She will replace Sarah Sanders. She is one of the few people who have been with the Trump team since their campaign in 2015.
The second change — the acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner John Sanders announced he will resign from his position effective July 5. It is not clear the reason why, but it is possible it is related to recent news reports of filthy conditions at border stations where migrant children are being held in.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1143529907403788288
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/450116-trump-vehemently-denies-e-jean-carroll-allegation-shes-not-my-type
https://www.axios.com/melania-trump-spokeswoman-white-house-press-secretary-e5c58acc-5f1f-40f4-8588-bec45d9fe340.html
https://www.axios.com/john-sanders-customs-border-protection-commissioner-resignation-ec1bc5f7-8d93-4544-a411-b28a32cbdf3d.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/migrant-children-border.html
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Two stories of police officers dying in the line of duty
Here are two news stories of police officers dying in the line of duty.
The first — on Friday night, rookie Sacramento Police Officer Tara O’Sullivan was killed by a 45-year-old suspect at his home on a domestic violence call.
O’Sullivan was with several other officers trying to help a woman gather her things and leave the home.
A male suspect in the house used a high-powered rifle to fire at officers, striking O’Sullivan.
There was a body camera video released that showed officers being shot at when they went in a back door.
O’Sullivan was wounded and lay bleeding in the backyard as the suspect exchanged gunfire with other officers.
It took about 45 minutes for police to bring in an armored vehicle and reach O’Sullivan, but she died after she was transported to a hospital. The suspect was arrested after a 8-hours standoff and has been charged with murder.
O’Sullivan’s memorial service will take place tomorrow in Roseville. She was 26. There has been some criticism of the police department for not doing more to rescue O’Sullivan.
The second police incident was on Sunday in St. Louis, Missouri. A North County Cooperative police officer, Michael Langsdorf, went in a store on a call about a bad check, that someone was trying to cash it.
A 26-year-old suspect confronted the officer and both struggled inside the store, falling on the floor. The suspect grabbed the officer’s gun and fired one shot at the back of his head.
Several bystanders rushed in to help the officer. One of them filmed a Facebook Live video that showed the officer lying on the floor, bleeding. He was taken to the hospital, but died. He was 40.
CNN reported that two other officers died this week, one in Mission, Texas and another in Racine, Wisconsin.
https://krcrtv.com/news/local/sacramento-police-release-jarring-body-cam-footage-from-tara-osullivans-partner
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tara-osullivan-rookie-sacramento-officer-killed-as-she-helps-woman-during-domestic-violence-call/
https://abc7news.com/man-accused-of-killing-sacramento-police-officer-appears-in-court/5362083/
https://www.kmov.com/news/police-officer-shot-killed-inside-wellston-food-market-suspect-in/article_26b0b222-9600-11e9-acbd-bfa501446323.html
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Illinois 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana
Illinois is now the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana after Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed a bill into law.
State residents ages 21 and up can purchase and possess up to 30 grams of cannabis.
The bill will expunge almost 800,000 people’s criminal records for possession or selling 30 grams or less of marijuana.
The bill aims to support communities with low incomes and high numbers of convictions by giving would-be marijuana vendors preferential treatment if they plan to set up a shop in those areas. Portions of tax revenues from sales must be reinvested in those low-income neighborhoods.
Gov. Pritzker was elected last year and marijuana legalization was one of this top campaign promises.
https://www.axios.com/illinois-legalizes-marijuana-616c7be5-d6aa-43d3-9abd-ecbe2a094ab3.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/illinois-governor-signs-bill-legalizing-recreational-marijuana-11561484975
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“The Black Drum”
“The Black Drum” is a signed music musical play. Their sign for “signed music” is (shows sign). This play is in Toronto, Canada. “The Black Drum” had their opening night on June 20th. This is a Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf production that is supported by the Soulpepper Theatre Company. Here is their trailer:
[Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3SynP1OJj0]
The playwright is Adam Pottle. It was directed by Mira Zuckermann, known for directing her latest play “Crying Hands.”
The story talks about a young woman whose tattoos come alive and goes on a journey to find her inner music.
Dawn Jani Birley, the main character, along with Yan Liu, Bob Hiltermann, and Daniel Durant are in it.
Andres “Flash” Otalora attended “The Black Drum” last Saturday and captured moments to share with us.
(Video clips of Toronto cityspace, theatre, audience members walking about, and interviews with director/cast)
MIRA ZUCKERMANN: We came up with the name “Black Drum” because when they were writing down their ideas, I wanted to “dissect open their heads” and see what they were thinking.
We will all always have this black heart. We’ll always have it and it’ll never change. Some people have a big heart and others small. We’re all different. It's sad whenever we fight, whenever there’s jealousy and the kind. The Black Drum describes these things. This show places a really big emphasis on what goes on inside us.
DAWN JANI BIRLEY: The director and the ASL consultant urged me to focus on how I express myself in music. They both challenged me by asking me if there was a world with no hearing people then how would we, as deaf people, express our music?
That made me think and they’re right because, throughout my career, I’d been following hearing people’s definition of music up until this show. That was when I learned out that the definition of music really depends on your culture, the people, their languages and more. The Greek work ‘musica’, created way back then, wasn’t meant to be related to hearing. It’s actually meant for the eyes. The concept has evolved over time to focus on the hearing. Deaf people are bringing back its original definition.
CORINNA DEN DEKKER: When it came to music, it never felt that important to me and it’s reserved for the hearing world, but then the “Black Drum” was produced. It really does have that in signed music. The music is seen through Deaf people’s eyes, through their emotions, their rhythms and how we see it in sign language. That’s rhythm. Whenever there are people walking past, our eyes move accordingly when we gaze at them. That’s rhythm. It does have that Deaf element to it and we’re showing that. Growing up, I adopted the thinking that it was a hearing thing and couldn’t be a Deaf thing. But now I understand that Deaf people can enjoy it in signed music. It’s really impacted me.
NATASHA “COURAGE” BACCHUS: This is funny to me. Growing up in a hearing world, my mother who was a committed musician like her family, would do a lot of bass. That word didn’t have much meaning to me, but it’s like Reggae which is one of my most favorite! The Deaf music is really loud! It has rhythm, but the sounds are really loud, and they create these vibrations. It’s cool how there’s a beat every time they sign. I can feel it, it’s fun and I really like it!
DANIEL DURANT: What makes this different from all I’ve experienced as a professional in theater, this “Black Drum” production s different because of signed music. While we typically follow the script, we instead created our own music!
And this is a strong production team of deaf people working together. Back then, we’d have groups working above or below each other, but now it’s an all Deaf operated partnership.
YAN LIU: I’m in the cast and the crew. A mixture of both. The production team was the most diverse I’d ever seen and that I’ve worked with! It wasn’t just limited to Deaf and hearing people. It was a wide variety of representation including those between age 7 through those in their 60s. They had different backgrounds, came from different countries and they used different sign languages. Some of them had declining hearing, could sign somewhat all the way to those who were native ASL users.
AGATA WISNY: This is such a good team of people from different cultures that’s been working together! I’ve learned quite a lot myself!
Renca: Thank you, Otalora, for sending in the video.
“The Black Drum” will continue giving performances until June 29th in Toronto, then will move to Reims, France for the Clin d’ Oeil festival that will happen from July 4th to 7th.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3SynP1OJj0
Clin d’ Oeil link: https://www.clin-doeil.eu/en-gb/home
The Black Drum tickets and information
https://soulpepper.ca/performances/the-black-drum/6928
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Deaf Bing: Color for objects
We tend to use color to describe something instead of naming what the specific thing is.
What? I’ll give you an example. My wife asked me if I could get pink.
Pink, what?
Oh, she wanted the pink pillow. I gave it to her.
Another example: my friend asked me if I could get blue.
Blue, what?
Oh, he wanted the blue tape.
That, Deaf Bing. We use colors.
Is that lazy or smart? Hmm.
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!