Beijing Winter Olympics, 'Don't Look Up,' Alexander Vindman goes to court: ICYMI

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— Paste BN Opinion editors

1. 'Don't Look Up' in pursuit of digital perfection. You might miss the end of the world.

By Carli Pierson

"Thanks to the speed with which information travels digitally, we react before we read. We no longer roll the words around in our mouths three times before sharing them with the world. Instead, we instantly, and without filter, spew our thoughts into the vortex of the internet, where equally lost souls, amygdala on overdrive, share headlines without reading." 

2. The Winter Olympics are under attack. Here's what athletes like me want you to know.

By Elana Meyers Taylor

"I am a bobsledder, and this will be my fourth Olympic competition. At the last three, I won a pair of silver medals and a bronze. This will likely be my final Olympics – and my last chance at a gold medal. ... I understand people want us and our backers to speak out about the host city decision. But sponsors and athletes didn’t choose Beijing. Neither of us play a role in who hosts the Games; neither of us are the right objects for anger on that subject."

3. Who have we become, with tip lines for school mask scofflaws and abortion bounty hunters?

By Connie Schultz

"Think about the hardest time in your life, when life picked you up in one place and threw you down somewhere else. We’re talking about the thing that changed you, when you became somebody different because of the hurt that you endured. ... This doesn’t come close to capturing how it feels to witness the erasure of what this country keeps trying to do to our Black citizens. But let’s not pretend we don’t understand why it matters."

4. Why I’m seeking accountability from Trump allies in court

By Alexander Vindman

"I never sought public attention. In fact, I spent my career as an officer in the U.S. Army out of the public eye. When I heard something I thought was wrong, I reported it through private, official channels. My knowledge of what I heard on that phone call became public only when President Donald Trump’s conduct became the subject of an impeachment inquiry and Congress sought my testimony."

5. I keep pictures of my son off the internet. Parents, be careful with your child's privacy.

By Masada Siegel

"What adults post today can haunt their kids tomorrow. Those potty training photos that parents find so charming are perfect pictures for bullying later on. ... Or worse, your child's photos can be digitally 'kidnapped,' posted to inappropriate or pedophilic websites and social media accounts; due dates, birth dates, birth cities, and other personal data can be stolen and used later."

6. A Black woman on the Supreme Court can't fix Democrats' problems, but America needs her

By Jill Lawrence

"I’d like to thank a few exceptionally tone-deaf conservatives for reminding me to be thrilled by the prospect of a Black woman justice to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. I was distracted by PTSD flashbacks to the high court politics of the past few years – the most craven, consequential power grabs of my professional lifetime – until they made it clear how badly America needs this new justice."

7. Bitcoin isn't a right-wing plot. It's inclusive by design despite what critics say.

By Andrew M. Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke

"Traditional payment systems grant nearly unlimited authority to state and corporate actors to block payments. Authoritarian governments spy on transactions, arresting people who’ve bought verboten goods or donated to dissident movements. Corporate authorities follow suit, blocking payments to lawful marijuana dispensaries, adult film actors, unorthodox intellectuals or Muslim charities."

8. My twin boys spent kindergarten on Zoom. I watched their love of learning wither away.

By Jessie Bagos

"Have you ever watched a kindergartner try to learn over Zoom? It breaks your heart. They want to play with their classmates, learn with their hands, move around and explore their surroundings, and just figure out what’s going on, the way kids do. My boys couldn’t do any of that. They couldn’t do what they need to do at that critical stage in their lives."

9. I got it wrong on masks at the start of the pandemic. This is how we can get it right.

By Dr. Jerome Adams

"These changes have all been against the backdrop of the mask becoming emblematic of one party where many candidates ran on the premise that everyone was going to die if we didn’t elect them to fix the pandemic, while the derision of masks was emblematic of another party where many ran on the idea that overzealous pandemic safety measures were existential threats to the economy, mental health and child welfare." 

10. Marco Rubio and Joe Biden should return money from sponsors of the genocide Olympics

By David Mastio

"Companies bowing to Beijing while the country is erasing a religious minority makes me think about them differently. If I have a choice, I  won't associate with them. No more Coke Zero in my fridge. Mastercard instead of Visa. When I have a choice, I'll pass over Bounce, Charmin and Gillette. ... When the full truth about what happened to the Uyghurs in China comes out, the companies that sponsored these Winter Games won't look back with pride. Neither will the politicians who chose to take their tainted money."