Friday, March 16, 2018 10:04:17 AM
As Students Demand Gun Control, Arms Manufacturers Continue Targeting “Next Generation of Shooters”
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now! [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw / https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow , https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow/videos ]
In Parkland, Florida, students returned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday afternoon for the first time inside their school since February 14, when a 19-year-old former student named Nikolas Cruz walked into the school and opened fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, killing 17 people. This comes as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill today after a one-week vacation. Congress is facing massive pressure to pass gun control measures amid the rise of an unprecedented youth movement, led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who survived the mass shooting. President Trump has reiterated his calls to arm teachers with concealed weapons. For more, we speak with The Intercept’s investigative reporter Lee Fang, whose recent piece is entitled “Even as a Student Movement Rises, Gun Manufacturers Are Targeting Young People [ https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/young-people-guns-marketing-video-games/ ].”
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/as_students_demand_gun_control_arms [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRwsy2M1vec [with comments]
*
Lee Fang: Billionaire Koch Brothers Have Extracted “Laundry List” of Victories from Trump Admin
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now!
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in a key case that could deal a massive blow to unions nationwide. The case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, deals with whether workers who are covered by union-negotiated contracts are required to pay a portion of union dues even if they are not members of the union. This case is among a slew of conservative causes that right-wing donors have poured money into in recent years—among them, the Koch brothers, who recently boasted they’ve won a “laundry list” of victories from the Trump administration. For more, we speak with Lee Fang, investigative reporter for The Intercept. His recent piece is entitled “Koch Document Reveals a Laundry List of Policy Victories Extracted from the Trump Administration [ https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/koch-brothers-trump-administration/ ].”
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/lee_fang_billionaire_koch_brothers_have [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg90x2sXA0U [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120074878 and preceding and following]
*
Six Months After Harvey, Environmental Justice & Climate Change Absent from Houston’s Recovery Plans
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now!
This week marks six months since Hurricane Harvey caused historic flooding in Houston, Texas, the most diverse city in the nation and one of its largest. Houston is also home to the largest refining and petrochemical complex in the country. As federal money for rebuilding trickles in, Houston’s chief “recovery czar” is the president of Shell Oil, Marvin Odum, whose past experience includes rebuilding Shell’s oil and gas facilities after Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, immigrants and fenceline communities who suffer from pollution along Houston’s industrial corridor are still largely absent from much of the discussion about how the city plans to recover. For more, we host a roundtable discussion with Dr. Robert Bullard, the “father of environmental justice”; Bryan Parras of the Sierra Club; undocumented immigrant activist Cesar Espinosa; and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Hilton Kelley in Port Arthur, Texas.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/six_months_after_harvey_environmental_justice [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25VFD-Z_QUg [with comments]
--
Full Show - It’s NOT Bullying If CNN Does It - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Real News with David Knight [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1L9FOMSaPgMyoLSnps47g , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1L9FOMSaPgMyoLSnps47g/videos ]
26Feb18 Broadcast
As CNN was prodding YouTube to shut down InfoWars for “bullying” for questioning comments by David Hogg, CNN was engaged in a full blown attack against a student who didn’t support their gun control agenda and wouldn’t be controlled at their scripted “Town Hall”. Then, Jonathan Emord, who has defeated the FDA in court more times than anyone else, joins to talk about efforts to investigate FDA complicity in the SSRI epidemic. And Larry Pratt, Gunowners of America, explains how trained & armed teachers are a “well regulated militia” as Democrats move to kill the 2nd Amendment.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxwnMADfxzA [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evgEc8VrpVE (with comments)]
--
President Trump Hosts the 2018 White House Business Session with Our Nation’s Governors
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The White House [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYxRlFDqcWM4y7FfpiAN3KQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse , https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos ]
The White House
In a speech before the nation's governors on Monday, President Donald Trump said of the shooting at a Florida high school: "You don't know until you're tested but I think I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too." Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-turn-the-nations-grief-into-action-on-violence
Remarks by Vice President Pence at the 2018 White House Business Session with Governors
State Dining Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-2018-white-house-business-session-governors/ [official transcript]
Remarks by President Trump at 2018 White House Business Session with Governors
State Dining Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-2018-white-house-business-session-governors/ [official transcript, with this YopuTube embedded]]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4J3UZW3xPQ [with comments] [also, Trump's performance only, at "'I'd run in there,' says Trump about Florida school shooting", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnYW-to-5H0 (additional text taken from; comments disabled)]
*
First Lady Melania Trump Delivers Remarks at the Governors' Spouses' Luncheon
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The White House
The White House
Remarks by the First Lady at the Governors’ Spouses’ Luncheon
Blue Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-first-lady-governors-spouses-luncheon/ [official transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPP1LblNxg [with comments]
--
Feb 26: The growing movement against the NRA after Parkland shooting
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by ThinkProgress [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYdasX3ym3E5r1iozVllmzA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYdasX3ym3E5r1iozVllmzA/videos ]
Editor in chief Judd Legum sits down with ThinkProgress political reporter Kira Lerner to discuss the widespread backlash against companies that support the NRA. The growing movement against the NRA comes in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead. Teen survivors of the shooting created the "Never Again" movement, refusing to be ignored and maintaining public outrage against the NRA through interviews, essays, and tweets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5NyBudoiI [with comments]
*
NRA's 24/7 TV channel turns public anger toward streaming companies
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by ThinkProgress
The NRA's own round-the-clock television channel and political propaganda machine, NRATV, streams 24/7 on YouTube, Amazon and Roku, among other video platforms. Political pressure has forced over a dozen major companies -- including Enterprise, Hertz, and MetLife -- to cut ties with the NRA; but public anger has turned toward streaming channels that continue to host NRATV, nearly two weeks after the Parkland school shooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnSwSRABgys [with comments]
--
Full Show - Apple Officially Merges With The Communist Chinese Government - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]
Monday, Feb. 26th 2018: Democrats Move to Ban 2nd Amendment - Congress is back after recess, as the Supreme Court moves to keep the DACA program going. Meanwhile, gun control efforts backfire as Google searches for "buy a gun" hit an all time high and a Florida gun show sees record attendance. On today's show, rock legend and NRA board member Ted Nugent breaks down the assault on the Second Amendment. Alex is also joined by journalist Jack Posobiec to break down the lefts ongoing censorship attacks on anyone who opposes the globalist agenda. And former Trump campaign manager Roger Stone discusses Trump's next moves on immigration and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ0U-bgohPU [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fyPsc69UMs (additional text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
*
RWW News: James Robison Sees 'The Prayers Of God's People Being Answered' In Trump
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXqRHe8n1TX5iDvkLS62rw / https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog , https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog/videos ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/james-robison-sees-the-power-of-god-and-the-prayers-of-gods-people-being-answered-in-trump/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp4F84MTBzI [with comments]
*
Attacking the Attacks on Darwin - Darwin Day Event
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Paulogia [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIS4cWaXgWpznjwovFYQBJQ , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIS4cWaXgWpznjwovFYQBJQ/videos ]
On February 22, 2018, I gave a talk at the Atheist Society of Calgary's annual Darwin Day event. Given that I'm neither a biologist nor a historian, I chose to speak on some unfounded attacks on Charles Darwin himself in relation to his theory of evolution... like racism, not being a scientist, being mad at god, that he called eye evolution absurd, that he admitted to a lack of transitional fossils, and his supposed deathbed conversion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HuYPAXx3Ro [with comments]
*
RWW News: Paul Begley Stands By His Claim That Melania Trump Ordered The White House To Be Exorcised
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/paul-begley-stands-by-his-claim-that-melania-trump-ordered-the-white-house-to-be-exorcised/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v567WVQZJDg [with comments]
*
Jordan Peterson's Truth - Debunked
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Rationality Rules [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZMgLgGlYAWvSU8lZ9xiVg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZMgLgGlYAWvSU8lZ9xiVg/videos ]
This is Jordan Peterson’s Truth – Debunked (the first in my series debunking Jordan Peterson’s religious beliefs).
1). Transliminal’s interview with Peterson:
Dr Jordan B Peterson | *full-length* 2015 interview
**Religion, Myth, Science, Truth** | an evening of Darwinian thought with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
See below for Table of Contents.
***
0:00 INTRO: PETERSON'S JOURNEY
9:45 RELIGION: CROWD-CONTROL, NAIVE SCIENCE, OR NEITHER?
10:08 "They're straw man arguments"
11:45 Multiple motivational systems, different levels of thinking
13:32 Fundamental presuppositions
14:13 Dawkins vs. Christianity: like a "smart 13 year old boy"
14:36 INTERMISSION: PETERSON ADDRESSES HIS DOG
14:44 SCIENTISTS MISREADING RELIGION
15:52 Different systems of thought, different purposes
16:00 More than one basic assumption is possible
17:13 ENTER: DOMINANCE HIERARCHIES
17:19 What's real is what's persistent across time
17:33 Dominance hierarchies and lobsters
17:58 We're evolutionarily adapted to hierarchies
18:14 HIERARCHIES, RELIGIOUS THINKING, AND SUBJECTIVITY
18:42 "Being" as not reducible to material reality
19:12 The road to nihilism and authoritarianism
19:57 DETERMINING THE TRUTH OF A THEORY
20:07 Newton or Darwin? Choose one. You can't have both.
20:20 Nitzche's "Truth serves life" is a Darwinian idea
20:38 No idea if our knoweldge will help us survive over deep time
20:50 Answer to: "But look what we've built with it"
21:20 Crossing Ebola and Smallpox: some science is clearly insane
22:30 Check your assumptions about reality
23:45 Darwinism: truth is what enables survival within chaos, period.
25:03 Dawkins is a Newtonian not a Darwinian
26:09 Reductionism leaves things out. This has consequences.
27:27 The pragmatic problem: truth for what?
28:09 DEEP DARWINISM & RELIGION
28:15 Religion as evolved knowledge about action
29:40 American Pragmatist philosophers: the true Darwinians
30:17 Godel, the stock market and reality
31:02 TRUTH AS ACTION
31:44 Truth from the bottom up: lobsters, wolves, humans
34:27 Ethics: evolved patterns in dominance hierarchies
39:23 Dogs, chimps and humans: hierarchy navigators
44:45 From dominance hierarchies to archetypes: ancient Egypt
52:36 The soul
55:50 Jung on Christianity, truth and speech
59:07 Truth versus the lie
1:00:52 THE INTELLECT
1:00:52 The totalitarian intellect
1:02:43 Have you made thinking your God?
1:03:38 Attention trumps thinking
1:04:11 EVOLUTIONARY ROOTS OF WESTERN RELIGION
1:04:33 Christ as a metahero
1:04:43 The deep roots of myth
1:07:00 Chaos monsters
1:08:55 Myth as behavioural truth
1:09:37 "Darwin trumps Newton"
1:10:02 "Dawkins is a rationalist...not a darwinian"
1:10:07 Darwinian time, Darwinian truth
1:13:57 Mesopotamian myth as successful behaviour blueprint
1:17:36 FROM NATURE TO HERO MYTHOLOGY
1:19:33 Religious stories model being as a field for action
1:21:13 Our religious task
1:21:47 Religion as hero mythology
1:22:30 "You...don't know that you know the story."
1:23:58 PIAGET AND PRE-RATIONAL MORALITY
1:25:16 We learn to act before we learn the rules
1:26:18 Moses the Judge: observer of emergent moral patterns
1:27:54 "Opiate of the masses" as naive industrial era thinking
1:28:43 METAPHORICAL THOUGHT
1:29:11 Hyperactive agency detection module: it goes deeper
1:31:00 The brain as archetype detection organ
1:32:08 Women are nature
1:33:48 Metaphor, myth and science
1:36:00 SCIENCE AND MORAL TRUTH
1:37:52 Are all scientists devoted to the truth?
1:39:44 How do we judge if science is ethical?
1:42:57 Evil as archetypically real
1:44:06 The reality of good and evil
1:45:09 Science and mythology: which is embedded in which?
1:48:17 EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AND DEEP TIME
1:49:13 RELIGIOUS METAPHYSICS: OPTIONAL?
1:49:20 Is God an old man with a beard in the sky?
1:51:12 Hurricane Katrina, corruption and poverty
1:52:12 The significance of the bible
1:53:43 The genius of the sacrifice
1:55:50 INTERLUDE: TRIANGULATING MEANING
1:58:02 END OF RELIGION?
1:58:02 On new atheists' claims of a secular rational future
1:58:29 On new age spirituality
1:58:49 New atheist rationalist optimism so absurd it must be motivated
1:59:18 REDUCING RELIGION VS. EXPANDING EVOLUTION
1:59:40 "[The Jungian alternative]...is terrifying [for people]"
1:59:57 "[Jung's work]...puts enlightenment thinkers to shame"
2:00:17 "Which ideas have you? ... We're like playthings of the gods"
2:01:09 JUNG: STUDYING INFORMATION, NOT MATTER
2:02:23 "If you study religion properly, it'll demolish your personality"
2:08:16 METAPHOR VS REALITY: NOT OBVIOUS
2:10:11 Ancients: phenomenologists, not scientists
2:12:24 Religion as spatial
2:13:24 HUMANS: EFFICIENT COMPLEXITY MANAGERS
2:13:48 Reality in terms of resolution
2:15:52 There's lots worse than death
2:16:46 On Becker's "The Denial of Death": smart but mistaken
2:19:40 Death's not the problem, it's complexity
2:21:06 THE MULTICULTURAL DIMENSION
2:27:35 FROM THEORY TO ACTION
2:28:40 Fixing what bugs you
2:29:30 Overcoming the lie
2:31:54 Peterson's experience with truth
2:34:45 The most powerful thing we can do
CC-BY-NC-SA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Ys4tQPRis [with comments]
2). Sam Harris’ debate with Peterson (titled ‘What is True?’): https://samharris.org/podcasts/what-is-true/
3). Peterson and Weinstein debating the nature of truth:
Q&A with Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau | SFL Regional Conference, Vancouver
This is the panel discussion for the SFL Regional conference in Vancouver, Canada. Many questions are answered and the topic moves towards the video I made critiquing Weinstein's notion of factual truth as being the 'top-level' truth.
For the video I made regarding this: https://youtu.be/Crto8OBYabs
The original Joe Rogan clip: https://youtu.be/knvqdxoqYSI
For my presentation at this event: https://youtu.be/OdZB1nKmOxc
For Jordan Peterson's presentation at this event: https://youtu.be/FS5sR1WytNQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cLLFSdKZLI [with comments]
4). Timothy Lott asks Peterson ‘Are you a Christian?’:
Am I Christian? | Timothy Lott and Jordan B Peterson
Am I a Christian? A clip from an interview with Tim Lott from The Spectator (2017). The article was released mid-August in Spectator Life, the Spectator's monthly supplement.
Tim Lott's website is https://timlottwriter.wordpress.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIB05YeMiW8 [with comments]
As always, thank you kindly for the view, and I hope that this video helps you demonstrate to others the faults in Peterson’s reasoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwXAB6cICG0 [with (over 6,000) comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26706638 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=27485225 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138649614 and preceding and following (earlier this string), https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=135398181 and preceding and following (earlier this string)]
*
RWW News: Jerome Corsi Thinks There's Evidence That Antonin Scalia 'Was Involved In Pedophilia'
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jerome-corsi-speculates-that-antonin-scalia-was-involved-in-pedophilia-and-murdered-by-a-13-year-old-boy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCmUcFCGoM [with comments]
*
Cognitive Scientist Steven Pinker on Freethought Matters
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by FFRF [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28jWiP7HV6mBBW3C8AXuEg / https://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg , https://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg/videos ]
Steven Pinker, FFRF’s honorary president, is a cognitive scientist, experimental psychologist, linguist and popular science author. Pinker joins FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor to discuss his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
Named among Foreign Policy’s “100 Global Thinkers” and Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today,” Steven Pinker is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Pinker is one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. He has won numerous prizes for his books. He is also chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_EHo_Rb_A [with comments]
--
WATCH LIVE: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders holds news briefing
Streamed live on Feb 26, 2018 by PBS NewsHour [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZFN9Tx6xh-skXCuRHCDpQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour , https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos ]
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-briefing-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-022618/ [official transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWcH-UrSz4Y [comments disabled] [official White House upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFsU4RIkR0E (with comments)]
--
Full Show - Nazi’s & Communist Team Up To Take Down Infowars - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by War Room [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg/videos ]
As the lies and misinformation coming out of the Democrat party and the liberal fake news networks intensify, social media platforms are pushing the total ban on conservatives, Trump supporters, and or course, Infowars, as our information continues to be too powerful for them to complete their global takeover of news and information. We fight back against this attack on the 1st amendment by making a big announcement on Infowars fight for the future.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmxU2qMN_iA [with comments] [also, edited, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq5OFGlMJBo (with comments)]
--
Meet one of the 260,000 legal immigrants Trump wants deported
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Vox [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA / https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom , https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom/videos ]
For many immigrants “Temporary Protected Status” has been dragging on for nearly 20 years. Now, they risk deportation.
On January 8th, the Trump administration announced that it was terminating the Temporary Protected Status of approximately 260,000 Salvadorans who live in the US. As a result, Nelsy Umanzor, a Salvadoran TPS holder, is now at risk of losing the temporary legal status that has allowed him to work and raise a family in Maryland for the past 17 years. But he won’t be giving up his status without a fight. Umanzor is lobbying congress to turn TPS into a path to residency before his status expires.
Read more about the status of El Salvadoran migrants under Trump on Vox.com: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/8/16862898/trump-tps-salvador-ms13-immigrants and https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/11/16867822/salvadoran-immigrants-tps-legal-status
Vox Voices is an on-going series with a focus on human stories. Each episode is a personal narrative that helps define the issues of our time. Watch more episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8cMiYb3G5cQcifYXgIL6iMgg8GcrKzC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC0IMn8lsdc [with comments]
--
DIY Gunshot Treatment on Chicago’s South Side
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8zNIfYAQNdrFRrr8oibKw / https://www.youtube.com/user/vice , https://www.youtube.com/user/vice/videos ]
It's no secret that Chicago has become the center of America’s gun violence epidemic over the last few years. In 2017 alone, the city had 3,457 shooting victims - 246 of which were children. To make matters worse, Chicago’s South Side - where many of these shootings take place - doesn’t even have a trauma center with the ability to treat adult shooting victims.
To help combat these shortfalls, a grassroots community organization known as Ujimaa Medics has stepped in. Ujimaa Medics trains local kids as young as 12 on how to treat gunshot wounds and how to manage crowds at the scene of a shooting.
VICE's Rodney Lucas traveled to Chicago to meet one of the organization's co-founders and see their training firsthand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPAt8MJhPx8 [with comments]
--
Fmr. NRA member explains why she left the NRA after Florida shooting
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Former House GOP Committee Counsel Sophia Nelson explains why she recently left the NRA, saying she “can’t in good conscience” remain a member of the NRA after their response to the Florida shooting.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/fmr-nra-member-explains-why-she-left-the-nra-after-florida-shooting-1170129987852
*
Forget witch hunt, Mueller probe is “a felony hunt”
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Is the Mueller investigation over-hyped or a criminal conspiracy in plain sight? A self-described "Russiagate skeptic" and the journalist who broke the Trump dossier story debate on The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/forget-witch-hunt-mueller-probe-is-a-felony-hunt-1171095619745 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpvto5yzDN0 [with comments]
*
Democratic reckoning: Feinstein under fire in California
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
The California Senate fight shows a new debate for Democrats in the Trump era. California progressives refuse to endorse Sen. Feinstein demanding a tougher line against Trump. Feinstein’s Democratic challenger, State Sen. Kevin De Leon joins “The Beat”.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/democratic-reckoning-feinstein-under-fire-in-california-1171096644001
*
No, there’s no 2nd Amendment right to AR-15s
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Ari Melber’s special report reveals why the second amendment does not apply to AR-15s or any assault style weapons -- and it never has.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/no-there-s-no-2nd-amendment-right-to-ar-15s-1171097667761 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql1ltqMvqzU [with comments]
*
Ratigan Runs Against “the system”
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan talks about his run for congress. From taking on the professional campaign “industry” to “channeling anger into productive solutions.”
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/ratigan-runs-against-the-system-1171103299918
--
Infowars.com Under Massive Bot Attack
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel
It's not just our YouTube channel being targeted, but our web site Infowars.com is also under attack! Visit Newswars.com as a backup. Kit Daniels reporting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhyjZt_r0ac [with comments]
--
Male Construction Workers Say #MeToo Has Changed Their Job Sites
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE News [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZaT_X_mc0BI-djXOlfhqWQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews , https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews/videos ]
The #MeToo phenomenon has swept workplaces throughout the country, shaking the worlds of entertainment, media, and politics. But has it had an effect in construction, one of the most blue-collar fields?
Construction workers in Houston said they've witnessed changes on their job sites in recent months. But they also describe an industry that has a long way to go. Construction is still a male-dominated field, and stereotypes of the job and its workers are slow to change.
It’s been about five months since Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial abuser and harasser of women. Nearly every day since that story broke, more men in more professions have been accused of, admitted to, or denied shocking acts of aggression, exploitation, harassment, and prejudice toward women in the workplace.
No company is immune — including VICE. It has affected our workplace too.
Here and everywhere, people are doing what they always do to make sense of things: talking. To capture the kinds of conversations happening in America’s workplaces, we gathered lawyers, actors, technologists, construction workers, and hospitality workers, and asked them about the new reality of #MeToo: Women, Men, and Work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZap10vxi0 [with comments]
*
New Laws May Require Teachers To Get Training In Teaching Kids About Sexual Consent (HBO)
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE News
Lauren Atkins is a 17-year-old high school senior in Norman, Oklahoma. She thinks she might want to run for president someday. Last year, she was junior class homecoming princess.
And that year, she says she was raped at a high school party, after drinking so much she says she was unable to consent.
"I was passed out — like throwing up on a toilet. He shouldn't have even thought about having sex with me," she told VICE News in an interview. "If that's not a sign that I'm not able to make my own decisions then I don't know what is."
The incident inspired Atkins to work with Oklahoma activist Stacey Wright and freshman Democratic state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants to pass legislation she believes will help prevent similar incidents in the future.
The bill, nicknamed “Lauren’s Law,” would establish training for Oklahoma public school teachers to educate their students on sexual consent in the classroom.
In a series of Snapchat messages and texts Atkins exchanged with the boy in the days following the incident, which were shared with VICE News, they argued about whether they had intercourse, and he says she gave consent earlier in the night. Atkins denies this, and filed a police report, but the District Attorney declined to prosecute.
VICE News made multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach the boy. The DA's office said through a spokesperson that they didn't have enough evidence to move forward with a case.
Oklahoma law defines consent as “the affirmative, unambiguous and voluntary agreement to engage in a specific sexual activity during a sexual encounter which can be revoked at any time," and says consent can't be given by an individual who's "mentally or physically incapacitated either through the effect of drugs or alcohol or for any other reason."
Atkins believes that, if the boy had known this, he might not have done what he did.
This segment originally aired on February 26, 2018, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vvqq2uDtA [with comments]
--
Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Indiana Society of Washington, D.C.’s Tribute to a Hoosier Vice President and Second Lady
National Museum for Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C.
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-indiana-society-washington-d-c-s-tribute-hoosier-vice-president-second-lady/ [official transcript]
--
Gov. Inslee: Take Trump at his word and "lose the ranch"
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
Washington Governor Jay Inslee confronts Trump on arming teachers and questions whether it's possible to engage in good faith with the president.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gov-inslee-take-trump-at-his-word-trump-and-lose-the-ranch-1171209283785
*
GOP sabotage efforts can't stop Robert Mueller
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
Despite Republican efforts to muddy the waters - like the Nunes memo - the Russia probe has recently taken some major steps forward.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gop-sabotage-efforts-can-t-stop-robert-mueller-1171216963706
*
Fox News via Donald Trump’s Twitter
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
The strangest thing that happens when Fox News gets filtered through President Trump's Twitter feed.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/fox-news-via-donald-trump-s-twitter-1171221059539 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDv9vkOySo [with comments]
--
Banker's divorce could expose role in Manafort Trump scandal
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow explains how the estranged wife of Federal Savings Bank chief Steve Calk could end up revealing details of the bank's unusual loan of $16 million to Paul Manafort through a divorce court subpoena.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/banker-s-divorce-could-expose-role-in-manafort-trump-scandal-1171278915960
*
Trump admin a cautionary tale of nepotism for future generations
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow highlights Donald Trump's tendency to hire people he knows or is related to for White House jobs, and the conflict that creates, particularly in the case of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner who continue in senior White House roles despite being unable to to earn a full security clearance.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-admin-a-cautionary-tale-of-nepotism-for-future-generations-1171297859780 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo9CRxh4Xns [with comments]
*
Melania Trump cuts ties with friend's company amid questions: NYT
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Ken Vogel, political reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about breaking news that the first lady's office has cut tie's with Melania Trump's friend's newly created company after it was revealed that she was paid $26 million for unspecified inauguration planning services.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/melania-trump-cuts-ties-with-friend-s-company-amid-questions-nyt-1171317827549
*
Democratic memo reveals another Carter Page meeting with FBI
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow talks about some of the new things learned about the Trump Russia investigation from the Democratic memo, including a March 2016 meeting with the FBI about his contacts with Russian intelligence.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democratic-memo-reveals-another-carter-page-meeting-with-fbi-1171320387561
*
Democrats satisfied with debunking of Devin Nunes memo
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rep. Jim Himes, member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic memo rebutting the memo produced by Devin Nunes.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-satisfied-with-debunking-of-devin-nunes-memo-1171329091575
*
Democratic memo shows Carter Page investigation pre-dates dossier
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, talks with Rachel Maddow about why Paul Manafort shouldn't count on a presidential pardon, and why the Democratic rebuttal memo to Devin Nunes is a significant document.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democratic-memo-shows-carter-page-investigation-pre-dates-dossier-1171335235680
--
Lawrence: Trump's superhero fantasy world
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
2/26/18
President Trump said that he would've run into Stoneman Douglas High School without a weapon to save children from the shooter. Lawrence O'Donnell argues that this superhero version of Trump is a total contrast to what Trump has said — and done — in real life.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-trump-s-superhero-fantasy-world-1171297859671 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz-68jo_0jE [with comments]
*
Jennifer Rubin: Trump an 'empty, damaged soul' — not a hero
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
2/26/18
That was conservative opinion writer Jennifer Rubin's response to Trump's claim that he believes he would have run into an active shooter situation, even without a weapon. Trump biographer Tim O'Brien and Kurt Andersen also join Lawrence O'Donnell.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/rubin-trump-an-empty-damaged-soul-not-a-hero-1171298883942 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vReKlpXscmc [with comments]
--
Democrat tells Trump: Less tweeting, more listening
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
While discussing guns with state officials at the White House, Trump was criticized by Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) who said he's talked to teachers and they don't want to be armed. Our panel reacts.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/democrat-tells-trump-less-tweeting-more-listening-1171331651677 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uas3SNVEs4Y [with comments]
*
Trump aide Hope Hicks faces Russia questions on Cap Hill
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Longtime Trump aide and confidant Hope Hicks is facing questions in the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Here's why that also could matter in the Mueller investigation.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-aide-hope-hicks-faces-russia-questions-on-cap-hill-1171347011638
*
Why Manafort's money is key to Mueller's Russia probe
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Our panel discusses why finding answers to the questions surrounding the money fmr. Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort made could prove critical for Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/why-manafort-s-money-is-key-to-mueller-s-russia-probe-1171347011909 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljL1zimSDr8 [with comments]
*
Senate veteran Dianne Feinstein faces Democratic challenger
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's career in politics began back in 1969. But could a Democratic challenger from her native California hurt her chances for reelection?
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/senate-veteran-dianne-feinstein-faces-democratic-challenger-1171352643536
--
Conservatives Blame Everything but Guns for the Parkland Shooting: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
Dozens of companies drop their discount deals with the NRA, and conservatives rail against the Florida sheriff who allegedly ignored warnings about the Parkland shooter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enfELcLr4q0 [with (nearly 4,000) comments]
*
Taylor Kitsch - Reimagining the "Waco" Siege - Extended Interview: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Taylor Kitsch discusses the Paramount Network miniseries "Waco," which chronicles Branch Davidian leader David Koresh's standoff with the FBI and the ATF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KLlm0iZL7w [with comments]
*
Australian Students Stick it to Martin Shkreli: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Ronny Chieng finds out how students and scientists are responding to pharmaceutical heads like Martin Shkreli who hike the prices of life-saving prescription drugs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4up_3JhNIQ [with comments]
--
Should Teens Be Leading the Gun Violence Debate? - The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Comedy Central [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsN5ZwHx2kILm84-jPDeXw / https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral , https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral/videos , https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD7nPL1U-R5r5XD8saDuOBVj1z69Y_4iK ]
Citizen Journalist Laura Grey sits down with Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and the vocal survivors of the Parkland mass shooting to discuss the push for gun control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkYBW2ny7y4 [with comments]
--
A Snake Responds To Trump's 'Snake' Poem
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos ]
A serpent in attendance at CPAC 2018 had trouble swallowing Trump's favorite xenophobic (and ophidiophobic) anecdote whole.
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSevfwWBAdA [with comments]
*
Trump Claims He Would Have 'Run' Into The School
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
During Monday's meeting with governors, Donald Trump proposed one thing that might have prevented the school shooting in Florida: himself.
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Umj580ls0 [with (over 15,000) comments]
*
NRA Members Are Losing Perks
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
NRA members still have their AR-15's but saying goodbye to '15% off.'
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV39K_uHae8 [with comments]
--
Trump, Parkland and the #NeverAgain Movement: A Closer Look
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Late Night with Seth Meyers [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTyTA7-g9nopHeHbeuvpRA / https://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth , https://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth/videos ]
Seth takes a closer look at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and how the #NeverAgain movement continues to put pressure on Republicans and the NRA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6qubM54PtE [with (approaching 4,000) comments]
--
stashed February 26, 2018:
Supreme Court Denies Trump Request To Hear Dreamer Lawsuit
The decision means the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program will remain in effect — for now.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-daca_us_5a8dabdfe4b00a30a251c495
Ivanka Trump: ‘I Believe My Father’ On Sexual Misconduct Allegations
President Donald Trump’s daughter scolded NBC’s Peter Alexander for asking her about the numerous accusations against her father.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-accusers_us_5a9404b1e4b0ee6416a518cd
Donald Trump’s Personal Pilot Reportedly On Shortlist To Run FAA
“John Dunkin isn’t just a pilot,” a White House source told Axios.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-john-dunkin-faa_us_5a938efce4b01e9e56bd20f0
Roy Moore Endorses Missouri GOP Candidate Who Expects ‘Home Cooked Dinner At Six’
Birds of a feather ...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-courtland-sykes-missouri-senate_us_5a940822e4b0ee6416a51c59
This Supreme Court Case Is The Biggest Threat To Organized Labor In Years - Janus case
It could cost unions millions of members — but also force them to adapt and innovate.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/janus-unions-supreme-court-case_us_5a873b4de4b00bc49f43decd
Watergate Figure John Dean Says Rick Gates’ Testimony Could Be The End Of The Trump Presidency
“Increasingly it appears Manafort is the link to Russian collusion.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-dean-gates-trump_us_5a938492e4b03b55731d85ce
Songwriter’s Daughters Furious As Trump Hijacks Their Father’s Lyrics To Smear Immigrants
It’s the last thing radical activist Oscar Brown Jr. would have wanted, they say.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-the-snake-song-immigrants_us_5a93696fe4b03b55731d74cf
Omarosa Manigault Newman Says She Was Shunned At ‘Plantation’ White House Because She Was Black
Now she’s considering writing a tell-all book about it.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/omarosa-says-leaving-white-house-like-leaving-plantation_us_5a9389a1e4b03b55731d86a7
Neo-Nazi Chat Logs Reveal Chilling Praise For Slaying Of Gay Jewish Student
Members of the hate group Atomwaffen have been linked to five killings in recent months.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/atomwaffen-chat-logs-gay-jewish-student_us_5a93ac3fe4b01e9e56bd37d0
Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student
ProPublica obtained the chat logs of Atomwaffen, a notorious white supremacist group. When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein last month in California, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death, concerned only that the group’s cover might have been blown.
https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group
Australia’s New Deputy Prime Minister Once Wrote A Shocking Anti-LGBTQ Rant
Michael McCormack has since apologized for the hateful rhetoric.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/australias-deputy-prime-minister-once-wrote-a-shocking-anti-homosexual-rant_us_5a934912e4b03b55731d67e3
Tammy Baldwin Aims To Win Back Rural Trump Country Running As A Progressive
“If your solutions are progressive solutions, I think that’s OK.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tammy-baldwin-progressive_us_5a8f5c33e4b01e9e56b9ed11
Rick Santorum Blames Absent Dads And Broken Homes For Mass Shooters
“These kids come from broken homes without dads.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rick-santorum-mass-shootings-single-mothers_us_5a939762e4b01e9e56bd25bd
Trump’s Approval Rating Drops Back To His Worst With 2 New Polls
Gun policy looms as key threat to president’s support, polls find.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-approval-rating-at-lowest-again-in-two-polls_us_5a933b93e4b01e9e56bcfcad
John Oliver Beat A Coal Baron In Court, Then Mocked Him With A Giant Squirrel
Mr. Nutterbutter is back with a new message.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-coal-baron-squirrel_us_5a93c75be4b01e9e56bd4b95
John Oliver Is Now A Candidate In The World’s Craziest Election ( https://youtu.be/LdhQzXHYLZ4 [included in the post to which this is a reply]) - Italian election
“Incredibly, I am far from your worst option.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-italy-election_us_5a93c010e4b03b55731dae26
Lewinsky sees 'problematic' issue of consent in Clinton affair - hey Monca, you baited/went after him - remember?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics/monica-lewinsky-me-too/index.html
Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “the House of Gaslight” in the Age of #MeToo
On the 20th anniversary of the Starr investigation, which introduced her to the world, the author reflects on the changing nature of trauma, the de-evolution of the media, and the extraordinary hope now provided by the #MeToo movement.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo
In #MeToo essay, Monica Lewinsky details uncomfortable first meeting with ‘creepy’ Ken Starr
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/metoo-essay-monical-lewinsky-details-uncomfortable-first-meeting-creepy-ken-n851181
‘Creepy’ Ken Starr Made Monica Lewinsky Uncomfortable After Repeatedly Touching Her Arm
http://www.newsweek.com/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-ken-starr-819651
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dKgDpuETRkbIW2MmYJtWRqBL6DB-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Governor orders investigation of response to Florida shooting
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/us/florida-school-shooting/index.html
Parkland school shooting: Authorities investigate deputies who stayed outside
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parkland-school-shooting-authorities-investigate-deputies-who-stayed-outside-n851086
Sheriff Scott Israel battling calls to resign as blame shifts in wake of Florida high school shooting
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/26/sheriff-scott-israel-battling-calls-to-resign-as-blame-shifts-in-wake-florida-high-school-shooting.html
Commentary: Why Sheriff Scott Israel may be the GOP's new favorite Democrat
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-why-sheriff-scott-israel-may-be-the-gops-new-favorite-democrat/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d72IALN0Vdf5HpM504d1eM3u_yiUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Collusion or not, Russia probe is worst political scandal in decades
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/collusion-or-not-russia-probe-worst-political-scandal-decades-n851156
In Russia probes, Republicans draw red line at Trump’s finances
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.
Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so — even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between Trump, his family, his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.
Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records, seeking Trump’s tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any Trump financial links to Russian actors — calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition.
[...]
http://fox2now.com/2018/02/26/in-russia-probes-republicans-draw-red-line-at-trumps-finances/
The Russian Bots Are Coming. This Bipartisan Duo Is On It.
Jamie Fly and Laura Rosenberger crossed party lines to track the Kremlin propaganda campaign. Tweeters on the far right — and far left — aren’t happy about it.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/26/russia-social-media-bots-propaganda-global-politico-217084
White House Legal Team Considers Ways Trump Could Testify Before Mueller
Possible options include written answers to special counsel’s questions or limited verbal testimony by president
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-legal-team-considers-ways-trump-could-testify-before-mueller-1519560120
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLlBGgqWVc96-mMcOUXUvfrNJykwM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Widespread panic as Oakland mayor warns sanctuary city of an ICE sweep
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/25/oaklands-mayor-just-warned-the-sanctuary-city-about-a-potential-ice-raid/?utm_term=.8898faa035ab
ICE Detains 11 in Northern California After Schaaf’s Warning
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2018/02/24/oakland-mayor-warns-immigration-arrests-could-hit-bay-area-sunday/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpcwjuF87DELVDMo1twLGB-wSJyKM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Buffett: My Political Views Shouldn’t Sway Berkshire Investments
Berkshire doesn’t own gun manufacturers, but there’s no rule that it wouldn’t
https://www.wsj.com/articles/buffett-my-political-views-shouldnt-sway-berkshire-investments-1519652278
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMs1krOUkHeeuoM3xHtc1e8uUzckM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Sales of New Homes in U.S. Fall to Lowest Level Since August
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/sales-of-new-homes-in-u-s-decline-to-lowest-level-since-august
U.S. New-Home Sales Drop Sharply, Again
Continued deceleration in sales seen at the end of last year
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-new-home-sales-drop-sharply-again-1519657336
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dIQlhlA4yyACGrMqA7oPV-G337AyM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Qualcomm agrees to negotiate with Broadcom; price remains a sticking point
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-qualcomm-broadcom-20180226-story.html
Qualcomm Warms to Broadcom Bid, but Price Is Sticking Point
The two companies have made progress on many fronts, but are still split on a price
https://www.wsj.com/articles/qualcomm-asks-broadcom-to-negotiate-after-second-meeting-1519645694
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dU_UasVZ1EQoOOMBviYptFUHv5R9M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers, Appeals Court Rules
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/nyregion/gender-discrimination-civil-rights-lawsuit-zarda.html
A Federal Court Just Ruled For Gay Rights In A Major Discrimination Case - 2nd Circuit
The decision is a loss for the Justice Department, which argued that a 1964 civil rights law doesn’t protect gay workers.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/a-federal-court-just-ruled-for-gay-rights-in-a-major
Sexual-Orientation Bias Violates Law, Appeals Court Says
Trump administration opposed protection extension to LGBT
Case brought by relatives of dismissed skydiving instructor
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/sexual-orientation-bias-violates-u-s-law-appeals-court-says
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dmls2oftWr-X4SMds92R0-GN1d4WM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
This Ivanka Trump answer is exactly why nepotism laws exist
Washington (CNN) - In an interview with NBC that ran Monday morning, Ivanka Trump was asked a simple question: "Do you believe your father's accusers?"
This is how she answered: "I think it's a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he's affirmatively stated there's no truth to it."
[...]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics/ivanka-trump-accusations/index.html
“Do you believe your father’s [sexual misconduct] accusers?” -@PeterAlexander
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” -@IvankaTrump
https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/968103581944606720
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dbRxOiIoFgvsraMPts0NvQq4nUcsM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia Is a Great Power Once Again
Putin’s Syria intervention saved Assad. But is he ready for what comes next?
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/russia-syria-putin-assad-trump-isis-ghouta/554270/
Putin orders ‘humanitarian pause’ in besieged Damascus suburb
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/rebel-enclave-near-damascus-suffering-hell-on-earth-amid-attacks-un-chief-says/2018/02/26/3875a0ab-57ed-4b6b-826c-54b91eb0a2f8_story.html
So-called ceasefire in Syria has barely led to a lull
The UN has failed to prevent the suffering – or even slow it down. The wording of its resolution let Russia resume bombing within hours
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/so-called-ceasefire-in-syria-has-barely-led-to-a-lull
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d6VHUEQRXh2K-dMTnqaRFkSI_2u0M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump rips officers over Florida shooting: ‘I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/26/trump-says-he-would-have-confronted-florida-school-shooter-even-without-gun/372792002/
Trump campaign emails photo of Parkland survivor, asks for donations
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/politics/trump-campaign-email-parkland-photo/index.html
Trump claims he would have 'run' into Florida high school during shooting
President Trump again criticizes a Florida sheriff's deputy for his response to the shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Trump says he would have run into the school during the shooting, even if he had been unarmed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/26/trump-claims-he-would-run-into-high-school-during-florida-shooting.html
Washington society and Team Trump: A year in, the fear and loathing is mutual
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-society-and-team-trump-a-year-in-the-fear-and-loathing-is-mutual/2018/02/26/3767184a-1299-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dxguLNU3qzyvP_Mooo5piywFy-gsM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Supreme Court Hears Fiery Arguments In Case That Could Gut Public-Sector Unions - Janus case
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/01/582539884/supreme-court-could-bleed-unions-dry
Supreme Court divided, Gorsuch mum in case that could deal blow to unions
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/26/supreme-court-divided-gorsuch-mum-in-case-that-could-deal-blow-to-unions.html
The Supreme Court is poised to deal a sharp blow to the labor movement
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/26/the-supreme-court-is-poised-to-deal-a-sharp-blow-to-the-labor-movement/?utm_term=.7422396af38c
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/ds1xnTVpap1YpHM182NHGNa4PnZcM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
The White House’s ‘bloody nose’ strategy on North Korea sounds Trumpian. So why do his aides hate it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-white-houses-bloody-nose-strategy-on-north-korea-sounds-trumpian-so-why-do-his-aides-hate-it/2018/02/26/9ec20744-18b5-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html
North Korea Says It's Open To Talks With U.S.
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/25/588726038/north-korea-says-its-open-to-talks-with-u-s
South Korea’s president urges both Washington and Pyongyang to be pragmatic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/south-koreas-president-urges-both-washington-and-pyongyang-to-be-pragmatic/2018/02/26/a4327ace-1aef-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dK4n-jixPnxlmUMvgBHo8w9fgJLnM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak killed in Slovakia
Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner have been shot dead in an attack "likely" tied to his reporting, officials say. Kuciak went to the police last year after receiving threats, but the case was reportedly ignored.
http://www.dw.com/en/investigative-journalist-jan-kuciak-killed-in-slovakia/a-42745005
Police believe a journalist was killed for reporting on fraud in the heart of Europe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/26/police-believe-a-journalist-was-killed-for-reporting-on-fraud-in-the-heart-of-europe/
Slovakia's First-Ever Journalist Murder Seen Linked to Story
Investigative work ‘most likely’ motive of double killing
Jan Kuciak reported on tax fraud with links to politicians
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/slovak-police-say-journalist-s-murder-was-probably-over-story
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGjPIUM4_UxxPQMlKaaVWRkz_qlbM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
1 big thing: Trump privately talks up executing big drug dealers - reportedly invoking e.g. Singapore - so, like Sharia law, eh? - AND parallel to Duterte
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-sneak-peek-301a7e4c-56bc-482e-950b-ec3752d46049.html
Trump reportedly wants drug dealers to face the death penalty
President Donald Trump would "love to have a law" that executes drug dealers, sources told news website Axios.
Trump is a reportedly a fan of Singapore's capital punishment policy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/25/trump-wants-the-death-penalty-for-drug-dealers.html
Trump reportedly told friends he wanted to execute every drug dealer in America
President Donald Trump has privately expressed a desire for all drug dealers in the US to be executed, according to the news website Axios.
Trump also reportedly commented favorably on the drug policies of Singapore and the Philippines, two countries where drug dealers are executed.
Kellyanne Conway said Trump wanted to focus on high-volume dealers.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wants-to-execute-drug-dealers-2018-2
Trump’s latest bad idea — putting drug dealers to death — is more realistic than you think
Think it can't happen here? Think again.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-execute-drug-dealers-429b1ddbdeca/
Duterte Fanboy Donald Trump Wants America to Start Executing Drug Dealers
The president has never encountered a problem he can't imagine solving with violence.
https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/26/duterte-fanboy-donald-trump-wants-americ
Philippines: Duterte’s ‘Drug War’ Claims 12,000+ Lives
Government Harassment, Threats Against Rights Defenders
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/18/philippines-dutertes-drug-war-claims-12000-lives
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/drHAHNeA37QSmdM1Ml2pFqJQQS54M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Patty Mills Subject of Racist Taunt by Fan During Spurs vs. Cavaliers
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2761575-patty-mills-subject-of-racist-taunt-by-fan-during-spurs-vs-cavaliers
Spurs' Patty Mills responds to racial taunts from 'confused, hateful' Cavaliers fan
https://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/article/Spurs-Patty-Mills-responds-to-racial-taunts-from-12708972.php
Patty Mills subjected to racial taunts during Sunday's game against Cavs
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22586341/san-antonio-spurs-patty-mills-subjected-racial-taunts-sunday-road-game-cleveland-cavaliers
Spurs guard Patty Mills subject to racist taunt from Cavaliers fan
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/spurs-guard-patty-mills-subject-to-racist-taunt-from-cleveland-cavaliers-fan-nba/g5m7bcpn1l811z3q5i3gyklo
Spurs' Patty Mills Receives Racial Taunts in Cleveland
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/02/26/spurs-patty-mills-racial-taunts-sundays-game-cavs
This is what it sounds like when an NBAer gets racially taunted
https://nypost.com/2018/02/26/this-is-what-it-sounds-like-when-an-nbaer-gets-racially-taunted/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d3hsMTIHJgTbSqM3Ia32HPTBnAe_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
What did Trump know, and when did he know it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/26/what-did-trump-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d_xqQhK0QjfBPfMAWUiR6FV-Xh7DM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
With Xi’s Power Grab, China Joins New Era of Strongmen
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-authoritarianism.html
Xi's special envoy meets with South Korean president on ties, peninsula issue
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/26/c_137001413.htm
China censorship after Xi Jinping presidency extension proposal
China's governing Communist Party has proposed removing a clause in the constitution which limits presidencies to two five-year terms - which means President Xi Jinping could remain as leader after the end of his second term in 2023.
The controversial move has ignited discussion on Chinese social media and pushed online government censors into overdrive.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43198404
All Hail (and Fear) Emperor Xi
China will learn that totalitarian states have short-term advantages but they don't end well.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-26/xi-jinping-why-the-u-s-should-fear-china-s-new-emperor
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d85wdE_V8FRAO4Moi4GImvexPMLIM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump’s Real Scandal Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The emphasis placed on whether the Trump team colluded with Russia to interfere in the election threatens to overshadow the scandal in plain sight.
There was a time when the White House’s frequent denials of collusion with Russia appeared largely defensive. Over time, however, their primary purpose has morphed. These days, the denials serve instead to distract from the ever-clearer picture of a president surrounded by crooks and liars.
“Consistently we have said there was no collusion,” Ivanka Trump told NBC News Monday. “There was no collusion. And we believe that Mueller will do his work and reach that same conclusion.” That echoes her father and a White House statement from February 16, after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted a group of Russians for interfering in the election. “President Donald J. Trump ... is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected,” the press secretary wrote.
Collusion with Russia may or may not turn out to be a real scandal, depending on what Mueller finds, but it is not the only scandal. (Indeed, while the question of whether any crime was committed remains open, the contacts with Russia that are already known, from George Papadopoulos to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, make these denials ring hollow.) The scale of dishonesty and criminality that is now apparent is an enormous scandal in its own right.
On Friday, Rick Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements. He faced a much longer slate of charges, but agreed to cooperate with Mueller. Gates’s troubles with the truth were so severe that he went to the outlandish length of lying to Mueller during a meeting about a plea deal. (It didn’t work, and ended up producing one of the charges to which he pleaded guilty.) Gates came into the Trump orbit through his mentor and business partner Paul Manafort, who served for a time as Trump campaign chairman, but that shouldn’t cloak his deep involvement in Trump world: He was deputy chairman of the campaign, staying on after Manafort was ousted in August 2016; he served as deputy chair of the Trump inaugural committee; and he helped found America First Policies, an outside support group, remaining there until he was pushed out as his legal troubles increased.
Then there’s Manafort, who Trump decided to place atop his campaign in spring 2016, and who led it through the crucial period of the Republican National Convention. Manafort steadfastly denies any wrongdoing, but a pair of documents from Mueller unsealed last week reveal a brutal array of documentary evidence against him, including technological troubles in producing a doctored profit-and-loss statement and what appears to be a note to his son-in-law instructing him to mislead a bank appraiser.
The White House has distanced itself from Manafort and Gates by pointing out that the crimes with which they are charged occurred outside the auspices of the campaign. This might be convincing if Mueller’s indictments merely sketched out tax fraud—a not-altogether-uncommon private crime. But Mueller alleges that fraud was a core instrument of Davis Manafort, the men’s company. In a new indictment released Friday, Mueller alleges that Manafort worked to create a ring of European leaders who would boost Ukraine’s reputation around the world, while making sure their compensation was invisible.
What was Trump seeking when he brought Manafort on? Presumably, he sought the skills that Manafort and Gates had perfected working for leaders in places like Ukraine—the very business that centered on fraud. (It’s worth noting, once again, the bizarre reality that Manafort offered to work for Trump for free.) And even after he pushed Manafort out, in part because of renewed scrutiny of his past work, Trump kept Gates in his inner circle.
The dishonor roll doesn’t end there. Manafort and Gates seem to have at least been somewhat effective lobbyists, registered or not. Michael Flynn was not so successful. Flynn, having allegedly failed to disclose foreign travel when renewing his security clearance in 2016, entered into a lobbying scheme on behalf of Turkey—though he didn’t file documents acknowledging that until 2017. In the course of that work, Flynn suddenly espoused views of the Turkish government diametrically opposed to what he’d previously said, and, according to former CIA Director and Trump adviser James Woolsey, discussed a plan to kidnap the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from exile in the United States and take him to Turkey, where he is accused of fomenting a 2016 coup.
Flynn appears to have continued this work right up until the moment he was designated as the incoming national-security adviser in November 2016. He didn’t disclose the work, even though as the president’s right-hand man on security and defense issues he would have dealt closely with Turkey. Flynn was also involved in a bizarre civilian-nuclear-reactor scheme in the Middle East and reportedly continued to push the scheme even after becoming national-security adviser.
Somehow, none of this—nor Barack Obama’s explicit warning to Trump about Flynn—was enough of a red flag to prevent Flynn’s hiring. He didn’t last long. Flynn was pushed out on February 13, 2017, after The Washington Post revealed he had lied to Vice President Pence about conversations with the Russian ambassador about sanctions. Flynn has since admitted, in a guilty plea, that he also lied to FBI agents about those conversations. He is now cooperating with Mueller.
These top-level positions join other, lower-ranking officials who are also in legal trouble. George Papadopoulos has also admitted he lied to the FBI about conversations with Russians, and is cooperating with Mueller. Though a former Trump aide dismissed Papadopoulos as a “coffee boy,” Trump praised him by name, and photos show the two of them in a meeting. Carter Page, a volunteer foreign-policy adviser, offered confusing and contradictory information in testimony to Congress, and a memo from House Intelligence Committee Democrats released on Saturday alleges that intelligence gathered by the Justice Department also contradicts Page’s testimony.
Outside the scope of the Russia investigation itself, the Democratic memo once again shows the dangers of believing close Trump ally Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes, who has repeatedly been caught making misleading statements, and the Democratic memo rebuts the most controversial claims made in a memo from Republicans on the committee released earlier in February.
Elsewhere in the Trump orbit, the last month has revealed the foibles of other members of the administration. Rob Porter, former staff secretary, was forced out after accusations of domestic abuse by both of his ex-wives became public. Porter initially tried to sidestep the allegations by telling a clutch of powerful Washington reporters, during an off-the-record meeting, that one of the women had been injured in an accident.
In his attempt to downplay the story, Chief of Staff John Kelly offered a story that other West Wing aides believed was so false they expressed concern to reporters about it. Given his stellar military career, Kelly was granted a presumption of innocence when he joined the White House. That can no longer be justified. In October, he told a pejorative story about Representative Frederica Wilson that turned out not to be true; when video evidence contradicted Kelly, however, he and the White House refused to concede the point. Then on Porter, Kelly said he had acted as soon as he learned of the allegations against him, a claim contradicted by FBI Director Christopher Wray during sworn testimony.
The White House press shop also offered contradictory statements about Porter, though it’s hard to tell whether that’s simply because other West Wing officials were misleading them. The communications team has hardly distinguished itself, though, beginning in the first days of the presidency, when it went to war with a false claim about inauguration crowds, then introduced “alternative facts” into the lexicon.
Why do so many White House staffers lie? It might come from their boss. As Brian Stelter noted, the president shamelessly changed the meaning of a comment he’d heard on television about the House Intelligence Committee memo, refashioning it into a bludgeon against ranking Democrat Adam Schiff:
Holy moly. The @FoxNews anchor said "Congressman Schiff, he ARGUES the REPUBLICAN memo omitted and distorted key facts." Trump just deleted 5 words from the quote to allege the opposite meaning. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/967563946063523840
[ https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/967566191207370753 ]
Washington is also filled with Trump appointees who have found themselves facing charges that they are unqualified for the offices they hold, unethical in how they have used them, or both at once. Axios reveals that Trump is considering appointing his personal pilot, John Dunkin, to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. The nugget of news produced an immediate tizzy, as yet another case of Trump trying to select someone close to him without obvious qualification for an important job. The immediate reaction is perhaps unfair to Dunkin, who is little known and may very well be suited to the job.
It’s not unfair to Trump, though. One of his senior advisers is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been given a sweeping portfolio of complex tasks, despite no experience in government; he is working without a permanent security clearance, and reportedly may not receive one until Mueller’s probe is complete because of unknown issues the special counsel is investigating. Another senior adviser is Kushner’s wife, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who enjoys the trappings of White House work but on Monday said it was inappropriate to ask her about the many accusations of sexual misconduct against the president.
To head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Trump chose Ben Carson, who had endorsed Trump for president after ending his own campaign, but had publicly said he was not qualified for the gig. To head HUD’s largest regional office, Trump appointed Lynne Patton, who had no experience in housing but worked for years for the Trump family and spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Appointees with more obvious qualifications keep turning out to be flawed in other ways. Trump selected as commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, who retained investments in companies with links to the Kremlin until they were revealed in the document dump known as the Paradise Papers. He appointed another Wall Street billionaire, Carl Icahn, as a senior adviser on regulatory issues, until Icahn precipitously quit after questions from The New Yorker about whether he was using the job to further his own interests.
The secretary of health and human services resigned over spending more than $1 million on private and military jets. A government report said Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin had committed “serious derelictions” in spending on a European trip. EPA Administration Scott Pruitt is also under fire for travel spending; the EPA initially said Pruitt had been granted a “blanket waiver” to travel in first class, for safety reasons, only to change its story when pointed to rules that specifically bar such a blanket policy.
At the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, interim chief Mick Mulvaney dropped an investigation into a payday lender who had contributed to his campaign. Mulvaney’s spokesman initially said that career staff had recommended dropping the probe, then admitted when pressed by NPR that Mulvaney was involved in the decision.
That’s just a sampling. It doesn’t require any further evidence of Trump campaign ties to Russia to grasp the scope of the scandal already in plain sight. Every administration ends up producing examples of corruption and lying, but most presidents take years, and often more than one term, to produce a ledger even half so extensive as what Trump has managed in barely a year in office. It’s an old trope to imagine the how lonely the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who famously walked around with a lamp seeking an honest man, would feel visiting the American capital. In Trump’s Washington, even the hard-bitten cynic might despair.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/diogenes-on-the-potomac/554240/
Trump's legal team has a baffling new argument for why he shouldn't speak with Mueller
President Donald Trump's legal team says an in-person interview between the president and special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation would set a bad precedent for future presidents, and would be a waste of time.
Trump's team has been stonewalling Mueller for months, and it looks like the standoff will continue.
Experts say that while Trump should be worried about a Mueller interview, his legal team arguing that it would set a bad precedent is a dramatic overstatement.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-legal-team-has-baffling-argument-for-why-trump-shouldnt-speak-to-mueller-2018-2
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d4qLnio6B5wVsrMJfARRRVmQWVgtM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Manafort's LA bankruptcy fight may offer new avenue for Mueller probe
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/manaforts-la-bankruptcy-fight-may-offer-new-avenue-for-mueller-probe-idUSKCN1GA160
Trump aide's 'very favorable' plea deal ramps up pressure on Manafort, experts say
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-aides-favorable-plea-deal-ramps-pressure-manafort/story?id=53347451
The walls are closing in on Paul Manafort — here are his options
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/walls-closing-paul-manafort-options-article-1.3843068
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=manafort
This man streams his own murder on Facebook in North Carolina town
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article202180864.html
Man Shot Dead While Filming Facebook Live Video
http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/02/man-shot-dead-in-north-carolina-during-facebook-live-video.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/drhIozgn1DeaCzM03kykBtQVtesbM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Rick Perry going to London to hold nuclear cooperation talks with Saudi officials
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/02/26/rick-perry-going-to-london-to-hold-nuclear-cooperation-talks-with-saudi-officials/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dtGdcqB458ocEcMyHBMj-VHnN39ZM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
State Department point man on North Korea, Joe Yun, to retire Friday
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/state-department-point-man-on-north-korea-joe-yun-to-retire-friday/2018/02/26/9a201136-1b62-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html
Senior U.S. diplomat for North Korea to retire
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-diplomat/senior-u-s-diplomat-for-north-korea-to-retire-idUSKCN1GB0C1
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d_WGG_pU_UGq-yMNVDJ0cp9MykF1M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
California Scraps Safety Driver Rules for Self-Driving Cars
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/technology/driverless-cars-california-rules.html
Driverless cars are expected on California streets in April. What does it mean for you?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/article201802909.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d-94QDu5wmcqcaMocHSXmjECosR0M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Catholic School Forces Queer Coach To Resign After Diocese Learns Of Marriage Plans
Kristen Nelson was a softball coach at West Catholic High in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for five seasons.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/queer-catholic-school-coach-forced-to-resign_us_5a94273ce4b0ee6416a56fa5
Democrats Sue Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker To Force Him To Call Special Elections
They accuse Walker of delaying the vote out of fear the GOP may lose the seats.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-walker-special-elections-lawsuit_us_5a948e7ee4b0699553cb7383
We Are Still A Sitting Duck For Russian Hacking
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-kuttner-russia-hacking_us_5a940f23e4b01e9e56bdae20
School Shooting Survivor Emma Gonzalez: ‘Adults Are Behaving Like Children’
The teen activist wrote a powerful essay urging adults to grow up and push for stricter gun laws.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/school-shooting-survivor-emma-gonzalez-adults-are-behaving-like-children_us_5a947967e4b01f65f5994cd1
South Carolina State Rep Is Giving Away Guns To Teachers
The GOP lawmaker launched a fundraiser to buy two handguns for educators.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congressman-giving-guns-to-teachers_us_5a949448e4b02cb368c4e246
Armed Extremist Militia Group Urges Members To Stand Guard Outside Of Schools
The Oath Keepers are “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today,” the Southern Poverty Law Center says.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oath-keepers-militia-schools_us_5a943603e4b0699553cae52a
My Kid Doesn’t Need Permission To Walk Out
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-biggers-student-walkouts_us_5a942e1ae4b02cb368c4382e
These Are The Real-Life Effects Of Trump’s Obamacare Sabotage
A new study predicts premiums going up by 18 percent and millions of Americans losing their coverage.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-are-the-real-life-effects-of-trumps-obamacare-sabotage_us_5a9424dfe4b03b55731e5a30
BLM’s Alicia Garza Launches Census Project To Mobilize Black Political Power
The Black Census Project is the first initiative of Garza’s Black Futures Lab.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-lives-matter-census-project-alicia-garza_us_5a9429fce4b02cb368c42d52
Trump Says He Would Have Rushed in Unarmed to Stop School Shooting
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/trump-school-shooter-florida.html
Melania Trump Parts Ways With Adviser Amid Backlash Over Inaugural Contract
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/melania-trump-inauguration-adviser.html
Anti-Semitic Incidents Surged 57 Percent in 2017, Report [ https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/2017-audit-of-anti-semitic-incidents ] Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/anti-semitism-adl-report.html
The Force of Decency Awakens - fullpost with embedded links at https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138957340
By Paul Krugman
A funny thing is happening on the American scene: a powerful upwelling of decency. Suddenly, it seems as if the worst lack all conviction, while the best are filled with a passionate intensity. We don’t yet know whether this will translate into political change. But we may be in the midst of a transformative moment.
You can see the abrupt turn toward decency in the rise of the #MeToo movement; in a matter of months ground that had seemed immovable shifted, and powerful sexual predators started facing career-ending consequences.
You can see it in the reactions to the Parkland school massacre. For now, at least, the usual reaction to mass killings — a day or two of headlines, then a sort of collective shrug by the political class and a return to its normal obeisance to the gun lobby — isn’t playing out. Instead, the story is staying at the top of the news, and associating with the N.R.A. is starting to look like the political and business poison it should have been all along.
And I’d argue that you can see it at the ballot box, where hard-right politicians in usually reliable Republican districts keep being defeated thanks to surging activism by ordinary citizens.
This isn’t what anyone, certainly not the political commentariat, expected.
After the 2016 election many in the news media seemed all too ready to assume that Trumpism represented the real America, even though Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote and — Russian intervention and the Comey letter aside — would surely have won the electoral vote, too, but for the Big Sneer, the derisive tone adopted by countless reporters and pundits. There have been hundreds if not thousands of stories about grizzled Trump supporters sitting in diners, purportedly showing the out-of-touchness of our cultural elite.
Even the huge anti-Trump demonstrations just after Inauguration Day didn’t seem to move the conventional wisdom. But those pink pussy hats may have represented the beginning of real social and political change.
Political scientists have a term and a theory for what we’re seeing on #MeToo, guns and perhaps more: “regime change cascades.”
Here’s how it works: When people see the status quo as immovable, they tend to be passive even if they are themselves dissatisfied. Indeed, they may be unwilling to reveal their discontent, or to fully admit it to themselves. But once they see others visibly taking a stand, they both gain more confidence in their dissent and become more willing to act on it — and by their actions they may induce the same response in others, causing a kind of chain reaction.
Such cascades explain how huge political upheavals can quickly emerge, seemingly out of nowhere. Examples include the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848, the sudden collapse of communism in 1989 and the Arab Spring of 2011.
Now, nothing says that such cascades have to be positive either in their motivations or in their results. The period 2016-17 clearly represented a sort of Alt-Right Spring — springtime for fascists? — in which white supremacists and anti-Semites were emboldened not just by Donald Trump’s election but by the evidence that there were more like-minded people than anyone realized, both in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, historians have described 1848 as a turning point where history somehow failed to turn: At the end of the day the old, corrupt regimes were still standing.
I nevertheless find the surge of indignation now building in America hugely encouraging. And yes, I think it’s all one surge. The #MeToo movement, the refusal to shrug off the Parkland massacre, the new political activism of outraged citizens (many of them women) all stem from a common perception: namely, that it’s not just about ideology, but that far too much power rests in the hands of men who are simply bad people.
And Exhibit A for that proposition is, of course, the tweeter in chief himself.
At the same time, what strikes me about the reaction to this growing backlash is not just its vileness, but its lameness. Trump’s response to Parkland — let’s arm teachers! — wasn’t just stupid, it was cowardly, an attempt to duck the issue, and I think many people realized that. Or consider how the Missouri G.O.P. has responded to the indictment of Gov. Eric Greitens, accused of trying to blackmail his lover with nude photos: by blaming … George Soros. I am not making this up.
Or consider the growing wildness of speeches by right-wing luminaries like Wayne LaPierre of the N.R.A. They’ve pretty much given up on making any substantive case for their ideas in favor of rants about socialists trying to take away your freedom. It’s scary stuff, but it’s also kind of whiny; it’s what people sound like when they know they’re losing the argument.
Again, there’s no guarantee that the forces of decency will win. In particular, the U.S. electoral system is in effect rigged in favor of Republicans, so Democrats will need to win the popular vote by something like seven percentage points to take the House. But we’re seeing a real uprising here, and there’s every reason to hope that change is coming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/opinion/the-force-of-decency-awakens.html
Erdogan Tells a Weeping Girl, 6, She’d Receive Honors if Martyred
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-girl-martyr.html
Listening To Broward County’s Silenced Students
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-goff-broward-students-protests_us_5a92eb8ce4b01e9e56bcd768
The NRA Wasn’t Always A Front For Gun Makers
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-nra-history_us_5a907fbee4b03b55731c2169
Pediatricians Call For Universal Depression Screening For Teens
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/588334959/pediatrians-call-for-universal-depression-screening-for-teens
guidelines http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/120/5/e1299.full.pdf?ck=nck
All teens should be screened for depression, new guidelines urge
With a growing number of young people reporting severe depression, parents and pediatricians are being encouraged to recognize the symptoms.
https://www.today.com/health/all-teens-should-be-screened-depression-new-guidelines-urge-t123889
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d8pWw3f_5iTQ0hMhPtZd0wwt-4mUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
No Downturn In Obesity Among U.S. Kids, Report Finds
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587985555/no-downturn-in-obesity-among-u-s-kids-report-finds
study http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/02/22/peds.2017-3459
Newest data shows childhood obesity continues to increase
Across all ages, African-American, Hispanic children have highest rates
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/dumc-nds022318.php
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm
U.S. Child Obesity Levels Not Falling After All
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/misc-kid-s-health-news-435/u-s-child-obesity-levels-not-falling-after-all-731398.html
Childhood obesity is getting worse, study says
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/health/childhood-obesity-in-the-us-study/index.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/diTbvIsXqPyuc1MjiHGecfocP__TM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Beech booming as climate changes, and that's bad for forests - AP
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-beech-booming-climate-bad-forests.html
original https://www.apnews.com/8390a9d1225d4717aaea7e55c9e264f6/Beech-booming-as-climate-changes,-and-that's-bad-for-forests
Beech trees are booming in northeastern United States due to climate change, and this is a problem
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/climate/beech-tree-expansionc-climate-change-053242/
Booming of beech trees due to climate changes hampers forest ecosystem
https://sciexaminer.com/news/environment/booming-beech-trees-due-climate-changes-hampers-forest-ecosystem-4032.html
Beech Trees Are Booming In Forests Because Of Climate Change
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/221889/20180226/beech-trees-are-booming-in-forests-because-of-climate-change.htm
study http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12917/full
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dKOxEemaQEswYyMNLigdibKi805yM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
King penguins face warming challenge
King penguins are in deep trouble if nothing is done to constrain climate change, researchers say.
The scientists have assessed the birds' fragmented population in the Southern Ocean and concluded that some island strongholds will become unsustainable.
The problem is the continued movement away from key nesting sites of the penguins' favoured foraging grounds.
And as the climate warms further, food will simply become too distant for many birds to fetch for their chicks.
"Our work shows that almost 70% of king penguins - about 1.1 million breeding pairs - will have to relocate or disappear before the end of the century because of greenhouse gas emissions," said Dr Céline Le Bohec from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Strasbourg.
[...]
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43204108
study http://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0084-2
As climate change worsens, king penguins will need to move — or they’ll die
‘I’m worried about the future of the species.’
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/26/17044798/climate-change-king-penguins-survival-relocation-southern-ocean
Climate Change: 70% of King Penguins Could ‘Abruptly Relocate or Disappear’ by 2100
https://www.ecowatch.com/penguins-climate-change-2539963001.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dUWxumIK3oM0djMkyQ77BFDFDGtuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Ancient Elephants and Mastodons Were Totally Down With Inter-Species Boning
https://gizmodo.com/ancient-elephants-and-mastodons-were-totally-down-with-1823328857
study http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/02/16/1720554115
Trunk show: Elephant genome study offers surprises
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-elephants/trunk-show-elephant-genome-study-offers-surprises-idUSKCN1GA2Y5
Researchers sequence complete genomes of extinct and living elephants
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-sequence-genomes-extinct-elephants.html
Ancient mammoth DNA could help save threatened elephants
Could elephant-mammoth hybrids roam the tundra? Researchers analyze the genes of several elephant species, and find genes from their extinct ancestors could help save them.
https://www.cnet.com/news/woolly-mammoth-genes-study-traces-path-to-elephant-hybrid/
Sequencing of Extinct and Living Elephants Reveals Genetic Admixture
https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/sequencing-extinct-and-living-elephants-reveals-genetic-admixture
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLRFr5eQZBnakmM0DpX0U9_c2S78M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
New shark species confirmed
Genetic testing finds a different sixgill shark
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220122928.htm
study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12526-018-0849-x
Atlantic Sixgill Shark: Scientists Confirm New Shark Species After Years Of Debate
The species traces its roots back more than 250 million years ago, making it older than the first dinosaurs
https://www.inquisitr.com/4803513/atlantic-sixgill-shark-scientists-confirm-new-shark-species-after-years-of-debate/
New Sixgill Shark Discovery in Atlantic Ocean May Finally Explain How Species Outlived the Dinosaurs ( https://youtu.be/eQwThFPjdGM )
https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/17888-new-sixgill-shark-discovery-atlantic-ocean-species-outlived-dinosaurs
New Species of Sixgill Shark Identified in Atlantic Waters
http://divemagazine.co.uk/eco/7980-new-species-of-shark-discovered
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dzi3QdRRWMpE4nMJCheJSkF4NWz3M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Gigantic Stellar Flare Slams Earth's Closest Exoplanet
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billretherford/2018/02/26/gigantic-stellar-flare-slams-earths-closest-exoplanet/
The potentially habitable planet circling Proxima Centauri was hit by a huge flare
https://mashable.com/2018/02/26/extreme-flare-proxima-centauri-b/
Proxima Centauri's no good, very bad day
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-proxima-centauri-good-bad-day.html
original https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2310
study http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaad6b/meta
Could Proxima B Host Alien Life? A Giant Flare May Have Wiped It Out Last Year
http://www.newsweek.com/could-proxima-b-host-alien-life-giant-flare-819934
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dX0ikhTC4K03gOMrKsJ2HJO8HUnSM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
--
in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26706638 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=27485225 and preceding and following;
earlier this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138649614 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=135398181 and preceding and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120074878 and preceding and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139301912 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139309022 and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139314218 and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139321464 and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139325700 and preceding (and any future following)
elsewhere this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139321613 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139329340 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139327163 and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139329795 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330399 and preceding (and any future following),
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139333437 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330239 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330533 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139332627 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139335605 and preceding and following
elsewhere this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139333622 and preceding and (future) following
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now! [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw / https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow , https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow/videos ]
In Parkland, Florida, students returned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday afternoon for the first time inside their school since February 14, when a 19-year-old former student named Nikolas Cruz walked into the school and opened fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, killing 17 people. This comes as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill today after a one-week vacation. Congress is facing massive pressure to pass gun control measures amid the rise of an unprecedented youth movement, led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who survived the mass shooting. President Trump has reiterated his calls to arm teachers with concealed weapons. For more, we speak with The Intercept’s investigative reporter Lee Fang, whose recent piece is entitled “Even as a Student Movement Rises, Gun Manufacturers Are Targeting Young People [ https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/young-people-guns-marketing-video-games/ ].”
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/as_students_demand_gun_control_arms [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRwsy2M1vec [with comments]
*
Lee Fang: Billionaire Koch Brothers Have Extracted “Laundry List” of Victories from Trump Admin
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now!
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in a key case that could deal a massive blow to unions nationwide. The case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, deals with whether workers who are covered by union-negotiated contracts are required to pay a portion of union dues even if they are not members of the union. This case is among a slew of conservative causes that right-wing donors have poured money into in recent years—among them, the Koch brothers, who recently boasted they’ve won a “laundry list” of victories from the Trump administration. For more, we speak with Lee Fang, investigative reporter for The Intercept. His recent piece is entitled “Koch Document Reveals a Laundry List of Policy Victories Extracted from the Trump Administration [ https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/koch-brothers-trump-administration/ ].”
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/lee_fang_billionaire_koch_brothers_have [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg90x2sXA0U [with comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120074878 and preceding and following]
*
Six Months After Harvey, Environmental Justice & Climate Change Absent from Houston’s Recovery Plans
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Democracy Now!
This week marks six months since Hurricane Harvey caused historic flooding in Houston, Texas, the most diverse city in the nation and one of its largest. Houston is also home to the largest refining and petrochemical complex in the country. As federal money for rebuilding trickles in, Houston’s chief “recovery czar” is the president of Shell Oil, Marvin Odum, whose past experience includes rebuilding Shell’s oil and gas facilities after Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, immigrants and fenceline communities who suffer from pollution along Houston’s industrial corridor are still largely absent from much of the discussion about how the city plans to recover. For more, we host a roundtable discussion with Dr. Robert Bullard, the “father of environmental justice”; Bryan Parras of the Sierra Club; undocumented immigrant activist Cesar Espinosa; and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Hilton Kelley in Port Arthur, Texas.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/26/six_months_after_harvey_environmental_justice [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25VFD-Z_QUg [with comments]
--
Full Show - It’s NOT Bullying If CNN Does It - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Real News with David Knight [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1L9FOMSaPgMyoLSnps47g , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC1L9FOMSaPgMyoLSnps47g/videos ]
26Feb18 Broadcast
As CNN was prodding YouTube to shut down InfoWars for “bullying” for questioning comments by David Hogg, CNN was engaged in a full blown attack against a student who didn’t support their gun control agenda and wouldn’t be controlled at their scripted “Town Hall”. Then, Jonathan Emord, who has defeated the FDA in court more times than anyone else, joins to talk about efforts to investigate FDA complicity in the SSRI epidemic. And Larry Pratt, Gunowners of America, explains how trained & armed teachers are a “well regulated militia” as Democrats move to kill the 2nd Amendment.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxwnMADfxzA [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evgEc8VrpVE (with comments)]
--
President Trump Hosts the 2018 White House Business Session with Our Nation’s Governors
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The White House [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYxRlFDqcWM4y7FfpiAN3KQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse , https://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse/videos ]
The White House
In a speech before the nation's governors on Monday, President Donald Trump said of the shooting at a Florida high school: "You don't know until you're tested but I think I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too." Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-turn-the-nations-grief-into-action-on-violence
Remarks by Vice President Pence at the 2018 White House Business Session with Governors
State Dining Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-2018-white-house-business-session-governors/ [official transcript]
Remarks by President Trump at 2018 White House Business Session with Governors
State Dining Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-2018-white-house-business-session-governors/ [official transcript, with this YopuTube embedded]]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4J3UZW3xPQ [with comments] [also, Trump's performance only, at "'I'd run in there,' says Trump about Florida school shooting", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnYW-to-5H0 (additional text taken from; comments disabled)]
*
First Lady Melania Trump Delivers Remarks at the Governors' Spouses' Luncheon
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The White House
The White House
Remarks by the First Lady at the Governors’ Spouses’ Luncheon
Blue Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-first-lady-governors-spouses-luncheon/ [official transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPP1LblNxg [with comments]
--
Feb 26: The growing movement against the NRA after Parkland shooting
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by ThinkProgress [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYdasX3ym3E5r1iozVllmzA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYdasX3ym3E5r1iozVllmzA/videos ]
Editor in chief Judd Legum sits down with ThinkProgress political reporter Kira Lerner to discuss the widespread backlash against companies that support the NRA. The growing movement against the NRA comes in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead. Teen survivors of the shooting created the "Never Again" movement, refusing to be ignored and maintaining public outrage against the NRA through interviews, essays, and tweets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5NyBudoiI [with comments]
*
NRA's 24/7 TV channel turns public anger toward streaming companies
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by ThinkProgress
The NRA's own round-the-clock television channel and political propaganda machine, NRATV, streams 24/7 on YouTube, Amazon and Roku, among other video platforms. Political pressure has forced over a dozen major companies -- including Enterprise, Hertz, and MetLife -- to cut ties with the NRA; but public anger has turned toward streaming channels that continue to host NRATV, nearly two weeks after the Parkland school shooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnSwSRABgys [with comments]
--
Full Show - Apple Officially Merges With The Communist Chinese Government - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg / https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel , https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel/videos ]
Monday, Feb. 26th 2018: Democrats Move to Ban 2nd Amendment - Congress is back after recess, as the Supreme Court moves to keep the DACA program going. Meanwhile, gun control efforts backfire as Google searches for "buy a gun" hit an all time high and a Florida gun show sees record attendance. On today's show, rock legend and NRA board member Ted Nugent breaks down the assault on the Second Amendment. Alex is also joined by journalist Jack Posobiec to break down the lefts ongoing censorship attacks on anyone who opposes the globalist agenda. And former Trump campaign manager Roger Stone discusses Trump's next moves on immigration and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ0U-bgohPU [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fyPsc69UMs (additional text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
*
RWW News: James Robison Sees 'The Prayers Of God's People Being Answered' In Trump
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXqRHe8n1TX5iDvkLS62rw / https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog , https://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog/videos ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/james-robison-sees-the-power-of-god-and-the-prayers-of-gods-people-being-answered-in-trump/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp4F84MTBzI [with comments]
*
Attacking the Attacks on Darwin - Darwin Day Event
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Paulogia [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIS4cWaXgWpznjwovFYQBJQ , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIS4cWaXgWpznjwovFYQBJQ/videos ]
On February 22, 2018, I gave a talk at the Atheist Society of Calgary's annual Darwin Day event. Given that I'm neither a biologist nor a historian, I chose to speak on some unfounded attacks on Charles Darwin himself in relation to his theory of evolution... like racism, not being a scientist, being mad at god, that he called eye evolution absurd, that he admitted to a lack of transitional fossils, and his supposed deathbed conversion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HuYPAXx3Ro [with comments]
*
RWW News: Paul Begley Stands By His Claim That Melania Trump Ordered The White House To Be Exorcised
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/paul-begley-stands-by-his-claim-that-melania-trump-ordered-the-white-house-to-be-exorcised/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v567WVQZJDg [with comments]
*
Jordan Peterson's Truth - Debunked
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Rationality Rules [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZMgLgGlYAWvSU8lZ9xiVg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZMgLgGlYAWvSU8lZ9xiVg/videos ]
This is Jordan Peterson’s Truth – Debunked (the first in my series debunking Jordan Peterson’s religious beliefs).
1). Transliminal’s interview with Peterson:
Dr Jordan B Peterson | *full-length* 2015 interview
Published on Nov 9, 2015 by Transliminal [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjQsylicxr6qnUPoj9ADgvw / https://www.youtube.com/user/transliminaldotorg , https://www.youtube.com/user/transliminaldotorg/videos ]
**Religion, Myth, Science, Truth** | an evening of Darwinian thought with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
See below for Table of Contents.
***
0:00 INTRO: PETERSON'S JOURNEY
9:45 RELIGION: CROWD-CONTROL, NAIVE SCIENCE, OR NEITHER?
10:08 "They're straw man arguments"
11:45 Multiple motivational systems, different levels of thinking
13:32 Fundamental presuppositions
14:13 Dawkins vs. Christianity: like a "smart 13 year old boy"
14:36 INTERMISSION: PETERSON ADDRESSES HIS DOG
14:44 SCIENTISTS MISREADING RELIGION
15:52 Different systems of thought, different purposes
16:00 More than one basic assumption is possible
17:13 ENTER: DOMINANCE HIERARCHIES
17:19 What's real is what's persistent across time
17:33 Dominance hierarchies and lobsters
17:58 We're evolutionarily adapted to hierarchies
18:14 HIERARCHIES, RELIGIOUS THINKING, AND SUBJECTIVITY
18:42 "Being" as not reducible to material reality
19:12 The road to nihilism and authoritarianism
19:57 DETERMINING THE TRUTH OF A THEORY
20:07 Newton or Darwin? Choose one. You can't have both.
20:20 Nitzche's "Truth serves life" is a Darwinian idea
20:38 No idea if our knoweldge will help us survive over deep time
20:50 Answer to: "But look what we've built with it"
21:20 Crossing Ebola and Smallpox: some science is clearly insane
22:30 Check your assumptions about reality
23:45 Darwinism: truth is what enables survival within chaos, period.
25:03 Dawkins is a Newtonian not a Darwinian
26:09 Reductionism leaves things out. This has consequences.
27:27 The pragmatic problem: truth for what?
28:09 DEEP DARWINISM & RELIGION
28:15 Religion as evolved knowledge about action
29:40 American Pragmatist philosophers: the true Darwinians
30:17 Godel, the stock market and reality
31:02 TRUTH AS ACTION
31:44 Truth from the bottom up: lobsters, wolves, humans
34:27 Ethics: evolved patterns in dominance hierarchies
39:23 Dogs, chimps and humans: hierarchy navigators
44:45 From dominance hierarchies to archetypes: ancient Egypt
52:36 The soul
55:50 Jung on Christianity, truth and speech
59:07 Truth versus the lie
1:00:52 THE INTELLECT
1:00:52 The totalitarian intellect
1:02:43 Have you made thinking your God?
1:03:38 Attention trumps thinking
1:04:11 EVOLUTIONARY ROOTS OF WESTERN RELIGION
1:04:33 Christ as a metahero
1:04:43 The deep roots of myth
1:07:00 Chaos monsters
1:08:55 Myth as behavioural truth
1:09:37 "Darwin trumps Newton"
1:10:02 "Dawkins is a rationalist...not a darwinian"
1:10:07 Darwinian time, Darwinian truth
1:13:57 Mesopotamian myth as successful behaviour blueprint
1:17:36 FROM NATURE TO HERO MYTHOLOGY
1:19:33 Religious stories model being as a field for action
1:21:13 Our religious task
1:21:47 Religion as hero mythology
1:22:30 "You...don't know that you know the story."
1:23:58 PIAGET AND PRE-RATIONAL MORALITY
1:25:16 We learn to act before we learn the rules
1:26:18 Moses the Judge: observer of emergent moral patterns
1:27:54 "Opiate of the masses" as naive industrial era thinking
1:28:43 METAPHORICAL THOUGHT
1:29:11 Hyperactive agency detection module: it goes deeper
1:31:00 The brain as archetype detection organ
1:32:08 Women are nature
1:33:48 Metaphor, myth and science
1:36:00 SCIENCE AND MORAL TRUTH
1:37:52 Are all scientists devoted to the truth?
1:39:44 How do we judge if science is ethical?
1:42:57 Evil as archetypically real
1:44:06 The reality of good and evil
1:45:09 Science and mythology: which is embedded in which?
1:48:17 EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AND DEEP TIME
1:49:13 RELIGIOUS METAPHYSICS: OPTIONAL?
1:49:20 Is God an old man with a beard in the sky?
1:51:12 Hurricane Katrina, corruption and poverty
1:52:12 The significance of the bible
1:53:43 The genius of the sacrifice
1:55:50 INTERLUDE: TRIANGULATING MEANING
1:58:02 END OF RELIGION?
1:58:02 On new atheists' claims of a secular rational future
1:58:29 On new age spirituality
1:58:49 New atheist rationalist optimism so absurd it must be motivated
1:59:18 REDUCING RELIGION VS. EXPANDING EVOLUTION
1:59:40 "[The Jungian alternative]...is terrifying [for people]"
1:59:57 "[Jung's work]...puts enlightenment thinkers to shame"
2:00:17 "Which ideas have you? ... We're like playthings of the gods"
2:01:09 JUNG: STUDYING INFORMATION, NOT MATTER
2:02:23 "If you study religion properly, it'll demolish your personality"
2:08:16 METAPHOR VS REALITY: NOT OBVIOUS
2:10:11 Ancients: phenomenologists, not scientists
2:12:24 Religion as spatial
2:13:24 HUMANS: EFFICIENT COMPLEXITY MANAGERS
2:13:48 Reality in terms of resolution
2:15:52 There's lots worse than death
2:16:46 On Becker's "The Denial of Death": smart but mistaken
2:19:40 Death's not the problem, it's complexity
2:21:06 THE MULTICULTURAL DIMENSION
2:27:35 FROM THEORY TO ACTION
2:28:40 Fixing what bugs you
2:29:30 Overcoming the lie
2:31:54 Peterson's experience with truth
2:34:45 The most powerful thing we can do
CC-BY-NC-SA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Ys4tQPRis [with comments]
2). Sam Harris’ debate with Peterson (titled ‘What is True?’): https://samharris.org/podcasts/what-is-true/
3). Peterson and Weinstein debating the nature of truth:
Q&A with Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau | SFL Regional Conference, Vancouver
Published on Nov 9, 2017 by Jonathan Pageau [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtCTSf3UwRU14nYWr_xm-dQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/pageaujonathan , https://www.youtube.com/user/pageaujonathan/videos ]
This is the panel discussion for the SFL Regional conference in Vancouver, Canada. Many questions are answered and the topic moves towards the video I made critiquing Weinstein's notion of factual truth as being the 'top-level' truth.
For the video I made regarding this: https://youtu.be/Crto8OBYabs
The original Joe Rogan clip: https://youtu.be/knvqdxoqYSI
For my presentation at this event: https://youtu.be/OdZB1nKmOxc
For Jordan Peterson's presentation at this event: https://youtu.be/FS5sR1WytNQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cLLFSdKZLI [with comments]
4). Timothy Lott asks Peterson ‘Are you a Christian?’:
Am I Christian? | Timothy Lott and Jordan B Peterson
Published on Aug 1, 2017 by Jordan B Peterson Clips [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCodkb-qBktJI5NrUsPYpf7g , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCodkb-qBktJI5NrUsPYpf7g/videos ]
Am I a Christian? A clip from an interview with Tim Lott from The Spectator (2017). The article was released mid-August in Spectator Life, the Spectator's monthly supplement.
Tim Lott's website is https://timlottwriter.wordpress.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIB05YeMiW8 [with comments]
As always, thank you kindly for the view, and I hope that this video helps you demonstrate to others the faults in Peterson’s reasoning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwXAB6cICG0 [with (over 6,000) comments] [and see also in particular (linked in) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26706638 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=27485225 and preceding and following, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138649614 and preceding and following (earlier this string), https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=135398181 and preceding and following (earlier this string)]
*
RWW News: Jerome Corsi Thinks There's Evidence That Antonin Scalia 'Was Involved In Pedophilia'
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by RWW Blog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jerome-corsi-speculates-that-antonin-scalia-was-involved-in-pedophilia-and-murdered-by-a-13-year-old-boy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCmUcFCGoM [with comments]
*
Cognitive Scientist Steven Pinker on Freethought Matters
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by FFRF [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28jWiP7HV6mBBW3C8AXuEg / https://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg , https://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg/videos ]
Steven Pinker, FFRF’s honorary president, is a cognitive scientist, experimental psychologist, linguist and popular science author. Pinker joins FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor to discuss his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
Named among Foreign Policy’s “100 Global Thinkers” and Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today,” Steven Pinker is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Pinker is one of the world’s foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. He has won numerous prizes for his books. He is also chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32_EHo_Rb_A [with comments]
--
WATCH LIVE: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders holds news briefing
Streamed live on Feb 26, 2018 by PBS NewsHour [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZFN9Tx6xh-skXCuRHCDpQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour , https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos ]
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-briefing-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-022618/ [official transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWcH-UrSz4Y [comments disabled] [official White House upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFsU4RIkR0E (with comments)]
--
Full Show - Nazi’s & Communist Team Up To Take Down Infowars - 02/26/2018
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by War Room [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg/videos ]
As the lies and misinformation coming out of the Democrat party and the liberal fake news networks intensify, social media platforms are pushing the total ban on conservatives, Trump supporters, and or course, Infowars, as our information continues to be too powerful for them to complete their global takeover of news and information. We fight back against this attack on the 1st amendment by making a big announcement on Infowars fight for the future.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmxU2qMN_iA [with comments] [also, edited, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq5OFGlMJBo (with comments)]
--
Meet one of the 260,000 legal immigrants Trump wants deported
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Vox [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA / https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom , https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom/videos ]
For many immigrants “Temporary Protected Status” has been dragging on for nearly 20 years. Now, they risk deportation.
On January 8th, the Trump administration announced that it was terminating the Temporary Protected Status of approximately 260,000 Salvadorans who live in the US. As a result, Nelsy Umanzor, a Salvadoran TPS holder, is now at risk of losing the temporary legal status that has allowed him to work and raise a family in Maryland for the past 17 years. But he won’t be giving up his status without a fight. Umanzor is lobbying congress to turn TPS into a path to residency before his status expires.
Read more about the status of El Salvadoran migrants under Trump on Vox.com: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/8/16862898/trump-tps-salvador-ms13-immigrants and https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/11/16867822/salvadoran-immigrants-tps-legal-status
Vox Voices is an on-going series with a focus on human stories. Each episode is a personal narrative that helps define the issues of our time. Watch more episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8cMiYb3G5cQcifYXgIL6iMgg8GcrKzC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC0IMn8lsdc [with comments]
--
DIY Gunshot Treatment on Chicago’s South Side
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8zNIfYAQNdrFRrr8oibKw / https://www.youtube.com/user/vice , https://www.youtube.com/user/vice/videos ]
It's no secret that Chicago has become the center of America’s gun violence epidemic over the last few years. In 2017 alone, the city had 3,457 shooting victims - 246 of which were children. To make matters worse, Chicago’s South Side - where many of these shootings take place - doesn’t even have a trauma center with the ability to treat adult shooting victims.
To help combat these shortfalls, a grassroots community organization known as Ujimaa Medics has stepped in. Ujimaa Medics trains local kids as young as 12 on how to treat gunshot wounds and how to manage crowds at the scene of a shooting.
VICE's Rodney Lucas traveled to Chicago to meet one of the organization's co-founders and see their training firsthand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPAt8MJhPx8 [with comments]
--
Fmr. NRA member explains why she left the NRA after Florida shooting
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Former House GOP Committee Counsel Sophia Nelson explains why she recently left the NRA, saying she “can’t in good conscience” remain a member of the NRA after their response to the Florida shooting.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/fmr-nra-member-explains-why-she-left-the-nra-after-florida-shooting-1170129987852
*
Forget witch hunt, Mueller probe is “a felony hunt”
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Is the Mueller investigation over-hyped or a criminal conspiracy in plain sight? A self-described "Russiagate skeptic" and the journalist who broke the Trump dossier story debate on The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/forget-witch-hunt-mueller-probe-is-a-felony-hunt-1171095619745 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpvto5yzDN0 [with comments]
*
Democratic reckoning: Feinstein under fire in California
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
The California Senate fight shows a new debate for Democrats in the Trump era. California progressives refuse to endorse Sen. Feinstein demanding a tougher line against Trump. Feinstein’s Democratic challenger, State Sen. Kevin De Leon joins “The Beat”.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/democratic-reckoning-feinstein-under-fire-in-california-1171096644001
*
No, there’s no 2nd Amendment right to AR-15s
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Ari Melber’s special report reveals why the second amendment does not apply to AR-15s or any assault style weapons -- and it never has.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/no-there-s-no-2nd-amendment-right-to-ar-15s-1171097667761 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql1ltqMvqzU [with comments]
*
Ratigan Runs Against “the system”
The Beat with Ari Melber
2/26/18
Former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan talks about his run for congress. From taking on the professional campaign “industry” to “channeling anger into productive solutions.”
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/ratigan-runs-against-the-system-1171103299918
--
Infowars.com Under Massive Bot Attack
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Alex Jones Channel
It's not just our YouTube channel being targeted, but our web site Infowars.com is also under attack! Visit Newswars.com as a backup. Kit Daniels reporting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhyjZt_r0ac [with comments]
--
Male Construction Workers Say #MeToo Has Changed Their Job Sites
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE News [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZaT_X_mc0BI-djXOlfhqWQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews , https://www.youtube.com/user/vicenews/videos ]
The #MeToo phenomenon has swept workplaces throughout the country, shaking the worlds of entertainment, media, and politics. But has it had an effect in construction, one of the most blue-collar fields?
Construction workers in Houston said they've witnessed changes on their job sites in recent months. But they also describe an industry that has a long way to go. Construction is still a male-dominated field, and stereotypes of the job and its workers are slow to change.
It’s been about five months since Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial abuser and harasser of women. Nearly every day since that story broke, more men in more professions have been accused of, admitted to, or denied shocking acts of aggression, exploitation, harassment, and prejudice toward women in the workplace.
No company is immune — including VICE. It has affected our workplace too.
Here and everywhere, people are doing what they always do to make sense of things: talking. To capture the kinds of conversations happening in America’s workplaces, we gathered lawyers, actors, technologists, construction workers, and hospitality workers, and asked them about the new reality of #MeToo: Women, Men, and Work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZap10vxi0 [with comments]
*
New Laws May Require Teachers To Get Training In Teaching Kids About Sexual Consent (HBO)
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by VICE News
Lauren Atkins is a 17-year-old high school senior in Norman, Oklahoma. She thinks she might want to run for president someday. Last year, she was junior class homecoming princess.
And that year, she says she was raped at a high school party, after drinking so much she says she was unable to consent.
"I was passed out — like throwing up on a toilet. He shouldn't have even thought about having sex with me," she told VICE News in an interview. "If that's not a sign that I'm not able to make my own decisions then I don't know what is."
The incident inspired Atkins to work with Oklahoma activist Stacey Wright and freshman Democratic state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants to pass legislation she believes will help prevent similar incidents in the future.
The bill, nicknamed “Lauren’s Law,” would establish training for Oklahoma public school teachers to educate their students on sexual consent in the classroom.
In a series of Snapchat messages and texts Atkins exchanged with the boy in the days following the incident, which were shared with VICE News, they argued about whether they had intercourse, and he says she gave consent earlier in the night. Atkins denies this, and filed a police report, but the District Attorney declined to prosecute.
VICE News made multiple unsuccessful attempts to reach the boy. The DA's office said through a spokesperson that they didn't have enough evidence to move forward with a case.
Oklahoma law defines consent as “the affirmative, unambiguous and voluntary agreement to engage in a specific sexual activity during a sexual encounter which can be revoked at any time," and says consent can't be given by an individual who's "mentally or physically incapacitated either through the effect of drugs or alcohol or for any other reason."
Atkins believes that, if the boy had known this, he might not have done what he did.
This segment originally aired on February 26, 2018, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vvqq2uDtA [with comments]
--
Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Indiana Society of Washington, D.C.’s Tribute to a Hoosier Vice President and Second Lady
National Museum for Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C.
February 26, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-indiana-society-washington-d-c-s-tribute-hoosier-vice-president-second-lady/ [official transcript]
--
Gov. Inslee: Take Trump at his word and "lose the ranch"
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
Washington Governor Jay Inslee confronts Trump on arming teachers and questions whether it's possible to engage in good faith with the president.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gov-inslee-take-trump-at-his-word-trump-and-lose-the-ranch-1171209283785
*
GOP sabotage efforts can't stop Robert Mueller
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
Despite Republican efforts to muddy the waters - like the Nunes memo - the Russia probe has recently taken some major steps forward.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gop-sabotage-efforts-can-t-stop-robert-mueller-1171216963706
*
Fox News via Donald Trump’s Twitter
All In with Chris Hayes
2/26/18
The strangest thing that happens when Fox News gets filtered through President Trump's Twitter feed.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/fox-news-via-donald-trump-s-twitter-1171221059539 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDv9vkOySo [with comments]
--
Banker's divorce could expose role in Manafort Trump scandal
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow explains how the estranged wife of Federal Savings Bank chief Steve Calk could end up revealing details of the bank's unusual loan of $16 million to Paul Manafort through a divorce court subpoena.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/banker-s-divorce-could-expose-role-in-manafort-trump-scandal-1171278915960
*
Trump admin a cautionary tale of nepotism for future generations
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow highlights Donald Trump's tendency to hire people he knows or is related to for White House jobs, and the conflict that creates, particularly in the case of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner who continue in senior White House roles despite being unable to to earn a full security clearance.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-admin-a-cautionary-tale-of-nepotism-for-future-generations-1171297859780 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo9CRxh4Xns [with comments]
*
Melania Trump cuts ties with friend's company amid questions: NYT
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Ken Vogel, political reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about breaking news that the first lady's office has cut tie's with Melania Trump's friend's newly created company after it was revealed that she was paid $26 million for unspecified inauguration planning services.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/melania-trump-cuts-ties-with-friend-s-company-amid-questions-nyt-1171317827549
*
Democratic memo reveals another Carter Page meeting with FBI
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rachel Maddow talks about some of the new things learned about the Trump Russia investigation from the Democratic memo, including a March 2016 meeting with the FBI about his contacts with Russian intelligence.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democratic-memo-reveals-another-carter-page-meeting-with-fbi-1171320387561
*
Democrats satisfied with debunking of Devin Nunes memo
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Rep. Jim Himes, member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic memo rebutting the memo produced by Devin Nunes.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-satisfied-with-debunking-of-devin-nunes-memo-1171329091575
*
Democratic memo shows Carter Page investigation pre-dates dossier
The Rachel Maddow Show
2/26/18
Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, talks with Rachel Maddow about why Paul Manafort shouldn't count on a presidential pardon, and why the Democratic rebuttal memo to Devin Nunes is a significant document.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democratic-memo-shows-carter-page-investigation-pre-dates-dossier-1171335235680
--
Lawrence: Trump's superhero fantasy world
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
2/26/18
President Trump said that he would've run into Stoneman Douglas High School without a weapon to save children from the shooter. Lawrence O'Donnell argues that this superhero version of Trump is a total contrast to what Trump has said — and done — in real life.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-trump-s-superhero-fantasy-world-1171297859671 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz-68jo_0jE [with comments]
*
Jennifer Rubin: Trump an 'empty, damaged soul' — not a hero
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
2/26/18
That was conservative opinion writer Jennifer Rubin's response to Trump's claim that he believes he would have run into an active shooter situation, even without a weapon. Trump biographer Tim O'Brien and Kurt Andersen also join Lawrence O'Donnell.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/rubin-trump-an-empty-damaged-soul-not-a-hero-1171298883942 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vReKlpXscmc [with comments]
--
Democrat tells Trump: Less tweeting, more listening
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
While discussing guns with state officials at the White House, Trump was criticized by Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) who said he's talked to teachers and they don't want to be armed. Our panel reacts.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/democrat-tells-trump-less-tweeting-more-listening-1171331651677 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uas3SNVEs4Y [with comments]
*
Trump aide Hope Hicks faces Russia questions on Cap Hill
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Longtime Trump aide and confidant Hope Hicks is facing questions in the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Here's why that also could matter in the Mueller investigation.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-aide-hope-hicks-faces-russia-questions-on-cap-hill-1171347011638
*
Why Manafort's money is key to Mueller's Russia probe
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Our panel discusses why finding answers to the questions surrounding the money fmr. Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort made could prove critical for Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/why-manafort-s-money-is-key-to-mueller-s-russia-probe-1171347011909 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljL1zimSDr8 [with comments]
*
Senate veteran Dianne Feinstein faces Democratic challenger
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
2/27/18
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's career in politics began back in 1969. But could a Democratic challenger from her native California hurt her chances for reelection?
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/senate-veteran-dianne-feinstein-faces-democratic-challenger-1171352643536
--
Conservatives Blame Everything but Guns for the Parkland Shooting: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
Dozens of companies drop their discount deals with the NRA, and conservatives rail against the Florida sheriff who allegedly ignored warnings about the Parkland shooter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enfELcLr4q0 [with (nearly 4,000) comments]
*
Taylor Kitsch - Reimagining the "Waco" Siege - Extended Interview: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Taylor Kitsch discusses the Paramount Network miniseries "Waco," which chronicles Branch Davidian leader David Koresh's standoff with the FBI and the ATF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KLlm0iZL7w [with comments]
*
Australian Students Stick it to Martin Shkreli: The Daily Show
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Ronny Chieng finds out how students and scientists are responding to pharmaceutical heads like Martin Shkreli who hike the prices of life-saving prescription drugs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4up_3JhNIQ [with comments]
--
Should Teens Be Leading the Gun Violence Debate? - The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Comedy Central [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsN5ZwHx2kILm84-jPDeXw / https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral , https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral/videos , https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD7nPL1U-R5r5XD8saDuOBVj1z69Y_4iK ]
Citizen Journalist Laura Grey sits down with Florida Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and the vocal survivors of the Parkland mass shooting to discuss the push for gun control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkYBW2ny7y4 [with comments]
--
A Snake Responds To Trump's 'Snake' Poem
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos ]
A serpent in attendance at CPAC 2018 had trouble swallowing Trump's favorite xenophobic (and ophidiophobic) anecdote whole.
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSevfwWBAdA [with comments]
*
Trump Claims He Would Have 'Run' Into The School
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
During Monday's meeting with governors, Donald Trump proposed one thing that might have prevented the school shooting in Florida: himself.
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Umj580ls0 [with (over 15,000) comments]
*
NRA Members Are Losing Perks
Published on Feb 27, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
NRA members still have their AR-15's but saying goodbye to '15% off.'
[originally aired February 26, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV39K_uHae8 [with comments]
--
Trump, Parkland and the #NeverAgain Movement: A Closer Look
Published on Feb 26, 2018 by Late Night with Seth Meyers [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVTyTA7-g9nopHeHbeuvpRA / https://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth , https://www.youtube.com/user/LateNightSeth/videos ]
Seth takes a closer look at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and how the #NeverAgain movement continues to put pressure on Republicans and the NRA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6qubM54PtE [with (approaching 4,000) comments]
--
stashed February 26, 2018:
Supreme Court Denies Trump Request To Hear Dreamer Lawsuit
The decision means the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] program will remain in effect — for now.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-daca_us_5a8dabdfe4b00a30a251c495
Ivanka Trump: ‘I Believe My Father’ On Sexual Misconduct Allegations
President Donald Trump’s daughter scolded NBC’s Peter Alexander for asking her about the numerous accusations against her father.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-accusers_us_5a9404b1e4b0ee6416a518cd
Donald Trump’s Personal Pilot Reportedly On Shortlist To Run FAA
“John Dunkin isn’t just a pilot,” a White House source told Axios.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-john-dunkin-faa_us_5a938efce4b01e9e56bd20f0
Roy Moore Endorses Missouri GOP Candidate Who Expects ‘Home Cooked Dinner At Six’
Birds of a feather ...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-courtland-sykes-missouri-senate_us_5a940822e4b0ee6416a51c59
This Supreme Court Case Is The Biggest Threat To Organized Labor In Years - Janus case
It could cost unions millions of members — but also force them to adapt and innovate.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/janus-unions-supreme-court-case_us_5a873b4de4b00bc49f43decd
Watergate Figure John Dean Says Rick Gates’ Testimony Could Be The End Of The Trump Presidency
“Increasingly it appears Manafort is the link to Russian collusion.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-dean-gates-trump_us_5a938492e4b03b55731d85ce
Songwriter’s Daughters Furious As Trump Hijacks Their Father’s Lyrics To Smear Immigrants
( https://youtu.be/0biiy4Cnp_Y ) - “The Snake”
It’s the last thing radical activist Oscar Brown Jr. would have wanted, they say.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-the-snake-song-immigrants_us_5a93696fe4b03b55731d74cf
Omarosa Manigault Newman Says She Was Shunned At ‘Plantation’ White House Because She Was Black
( https://youtu.be/jrid-jzkrNU )
Now she’s considering writing a tell-all book about it.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/omarosa-says-leaving-white-house-like-leaving-plantation_us_5a9389a1e4b03b55731d86a7
Neo-Nazi Chat Logs Reveal Chilling Praise For Slaying Of Gay Jewish Student
Members of the hate group Atomwaffen have been linked to five killings in recent months.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/atomwaffen-chat-logs-gay-jewish-student_us_5a93ac3fe4b01e9e56bd37d0
Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student
ProPublica obtained the chat logs of Atomwaffen, a notorious white supremacist group. When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein last month in California, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death, concerned only that the group’s cover might have been blown.
https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group
Australia’s New Deputy Prime Minister Once Wrote A Shocking Anti-LGBTQ Rant
Michael McCormack has since apologized for the hateful rhetoric.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/australias-deputy-prime-minister-once-wrote-a-shocking-anti-homosexual-rant_us_5a934912e4b03b55731d67e3
Tammy Baldwin Aims To Win Back Rural Trump Country Running As A Progressive
“If your solutions are progressive solutions, I think that’s OK.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tammy-baldwin-progressive_us_5a8f5c33e4b01e9e56b9ed11
Rick Santorum Blames Absent Dads And Broken Homes For Mass Shooters
“These kids come from broken homes without dads.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rick-santorum-mass-shootings-single-mothers_us_5a939762e4b01e9e56bd25bd
Trump’s Approval Rating Drops Back To His Worst With 2 New Polls
Gun policy looms as key threat to president’s support, polls find.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-approval-rating-at-lowest-again-in-two-polls_us_5a933b93e4b01e9e56bcfcad
John Oliver Beat A Coal Baron In Court, Then Mocked Him With A Giant Squirrel
Mr. Nutterbutter is back with a new message.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-coal-baron-squirrel_us_5a93c75be4b01e9e56bd4b95
John Oliver Is Now A Candidate In The World’s Craziest Election ( https://youtu.be/LdhQzXHYLZ4 [included in the post to which this is a reply]) - Italian election
“Incredibly, I am far from your worst option.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-italy-election_us_5a93c010e4b03b55731dae26
Lewinsky sees 'problematic' issue of consent in Clinton affair - hey Monca, you baited/went after him - remember?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics/monica-lewinsky-me-too/index.html
Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “the House of Gaslight” in the Age of #MeToo
On the 20th anniversary of the Starr investigation, which introduced her to the world, the author reflects on the changing nature of trauma, the de-evolution of the media, and the extraordinary hope now provided by the #MeToo movement.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/monica-lewinsky-in-the-age-of-metoo
In #MeToo essay, Monica Lewinsky details uncomfortable first meeting with ‘creepy’ Ken Starr
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/metoo-essay-monical-lewinsky-details-uncomfortable-first-meeting-creepy-ken-n851181
‘Creepy’ Ken Starr Made Monica Lewinsky Uncomfortable After Repeatedly Touching Her Arm
http://www.newsweek.com/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-ken-starr-819651
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dKgDpuETRkbIW2MmYJtWRqBL6DB-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Governor orders investigation of response to Florida shooting
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/us/florida-school-shooting/index.html
Parkland school shooting: Authorities investigate deputies who stayed outside
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parkland-school-shooting-authorities-investigate-deputies-who-stayed-outside-n851086
Sheriff Scott Israel battling calls to resign as blame shifts in wake of Florida high school shooting
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/26/sheriff-scott-israel-battling-calls-to-resign-as-blame-shifts-in-wake-florida-high-school-shooting.html
Commentary: Why Sheriff Scott Israel may be the GOP's new favorite Democrat
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-why-sheriff-scott-israel-may-be-the-gops-new-favorite-democrat/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d72IALN0Vdf5HpM504d1eM3u_yiUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Collusion or not, Russia probe is worst political scandal in decades
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/collusion-or-not-russia-probe-worst-political-scandal-decades-n851156
In Russia probes, Republicans draw red line at Trump’s finances
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.
Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so — even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between Trump, his family, his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.
Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records, seeking Trump’s tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any Trump financial links to Russian actors — calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition.
[...]
http://fox2now.com/2018/02/26/in-russia-probes-republicans-draw-red-line-at-trumps-finances/
The Russian Bots Are Coming. This Bipartisan Duo Is On It.
Jamie Fly and Laura Rosenberger crossed party lines to track the Kremlin propaganda campaign. Tweeters on the far right — and far left — aren’t happy about it.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/26/russia-social-media-bots-propaganda-global-politico-217084
White House Legal Team Considers Ways Trump Could Testify Before Mueller
Possible options include written answers to special counsel’s questions or limited verbal testimony by president
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-legal-team-considers-ways-trump-could-testify-before-mueller-1519560120
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLlBGgqWVc96-mMcOUXUvfrNJykwM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Widespread panic as Oakland mayor warns sanctuary city of an ICE sweep
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/25/oaklands-mayor-just-warned-the-sanctuary-city-about-a-potential-ice-raid/?utm_term=.8898faa035ab
ICE Detains 11 in Northern California After Schaaf’s Warning
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2018/02/24/oakland-mayor-warns-immigration-arrests-could-hit-bay-area-sunday/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpcwjuF87DELVDMo1twLGB-wSJyKM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Buffett: My Political Views Shouldn’t Sway Berkshire Investments
Berkshire doesn’t own gun manufacturers, but there’s no rule that it wouldn’t
https://www.wsj.com/articles/buffett-my-political-views-shouldnt-sway-berkshire-investments-1519652278
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.:
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2017ltr.pdf
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMs1krOUkHeeuoM3xHtc1e8uUzckM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Sales of New Homes in U.S. Fall to Lowest Level Since August
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/sales-of-new-homes-in-u-s-decline-to-lowest-level-since-august
U.S. New-Home Sales Drop Sharply, Again
Continued deceleration in sales seen at the end of last year
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-new-home-sales-drop-sharply-again-1519657336
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dIQlhlA4yyACGrMqA7oPV-G337AyM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Qualcomm agrees to negotiate with Broadcom; price remains a sticking point
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-qualcomm-broadcom-20180226-story.html
Qualcomm Warms to Broadcom Bid, but Price Is Sticking Point
The two companies have made progress on many fronts, but are still split on a price
https://www.wsj.com/articles/qualcomm-asks-broadcom-to-negotiate-after-second-meeting-1519645694
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dU_UasVZ1EQoOOMBviYptFUHv5R9M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers, Appeals Court Rules
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/nyregion/gender-discrimination-civil-rights-lawsuit-zarda.html
A Federal Court Just Ruled For Gay Rights In A Major Discrimination Case - 2nd Circuit
The decision is a loss for the Justice Department, which argued that a 1964 civil rights law doesn’t protect gay workers.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/a-federal-court-just-ruled-for-gay-rights-in-a-major
Sexual-Orientation Bias Violates Law, Appeals Court Says
Trump administration opposed protection extension to LGBT
Case brought by relatives of dismissed skydiving instructor
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/sexual-orientation-bias-violates-u-s-law-appeals-court-says
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dmls2oftWr-X4SMds92R0-GN1d4WM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
This Ivanka Trump answer is exactly why nepotism laws exist
Washington (CNN) - In an interview with NBC that ran Monday morning, Ivanka Trump was asked a simple question: "Do you believe your father's accusers?"
This is how she answered: "I think it's a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he's affirmatively stated there's no truth to it."
[...]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics/ivanka-trump-accusations/index.html
“Do you believe your father’s [sexual misconduct] accusers?” -@PeterAlexander
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” -@IvankaTrump
https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/968103581944606720
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dbRxOiIoFgvsraMPts0NvQq4nUcsM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia Is a Great Power Once Again
Putin’s Syria intervention saved Assad. But is he ready for what comes next?
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/russia-syria-putin-assad-trump-isis-ghouta/554270/
Putin orders ‘humanitarian pause’ in besieged Damascus suburb
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/rebel-enclave-near-damascus-suffering-hell-on-earth-amid-attacks-un-chief-says/2018/02/26/3875a0ab-57ed-4b6b-826c-54b91eb0a2f8_story.html
So-called ceasefire in Syria has barely led to a lull
The UN has failed to prevent the suffering – or even slow it down. The wording of its resolution let Russia resume bombing within hours
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/so-called-ceasefire-in-syria-has-barely-led-to-a-lull
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d6VHUEQRXh2K-dMTnqaRFkSI_2u0M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump rips officers over Florida shooting: ‘I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/26/trump-says-he-would-have-confronted-florida-school-shooter-even-without-gun/372792002/
Trump campaign emails photo of Parkland survivor, asks for donations
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/politics/trump-campaign-email-parkland-photo/index.html
Trump claims he would have 'run' into Florida high school during shooting
President Trump again criticizes a Florida sheriff's deputy for his response to the shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Trump says he would have run into the school during the shooting, even if he had been unarmed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/26/trump-claims-he-would-run-into-high-school-during-florida-shooting.html
Washington society and Team Trump: A year in, the fear and loathing is mutual
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/washington-society-and-team-trump-a-year-in-the-fear-and-loathing-is-mutual/2018/02/26/3767184a-1299-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dxguLNU3qzyvP_Mooo5piywFy-gsM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Supreme Court Hears Fiery Arguments In Case That Could Gut Public-Sector Unions - Janus case
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/01/582539884/supreme-court-could-bleed-unions-dry
Supreme Court divided, Gorsuch mum in case that could deal blow to unions
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/26/supreme-court-divided-gorsuch-mum-in-case-that-could-deal-blow-to-unions.html
The Supreme Court is poised to deal a sharp blow to the labor movement
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/26/the-supreme-court-is-poised-to-deal-a-sharp-blow-to-the-labor-movement/?utm_term=.7422396af38c
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/ds1xnTVpap1YpHM182NHGNa4PnZcM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
The White House’s ‘bloody nose’ strategy on North Korea sounds Trumpian. So why do his aides hate it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-white-houses-bloody-nose-strategy-on-north-korea-sounds-trumpian-so-why-do-his-aides-hate-it/2018/02/26/9ec20744-18b5-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html
North Korea Says It's Open To Talks With U.S.
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/25/588726038/north-korea-says-its-open-to-talks-with-u-s
South Korea’s president urges both Washington and Pyongyang to be pragmatic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/south-koreas-president-urges-both-washington-and-pyongyang-to-be-pragmatic/2018/02/26/a4327ace-1aef-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dK4n-jixPnxlmUMvgBHo8w9fgJLnM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak killed in Slovakia
Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner have been shot dead in an attack "likely" tied to his reporting, officials say. Kuciak went to the police last year after receiving threats, but the case was reportedly ignored.
http://www.dw.com/en/investigative-journalist-jan-kuciak-killed-in-slovakia/a-42745005
Police believe a journalist was killed for reporting on fraud in the heart of Europe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/26/police-believe-a-journalist-was-killed-for-reporting-on-fraud-in-the-heart-of-europe/
Slovakia's First-Ever Journalist Murder Seen Linked to Story
Investigative work ‘most likely’ motive of double killing
Jan Kuciak reported on tax fraud with links to politicians
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-26/slovak-police-say-journalist-s-murder-was-probably-over-story
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dGjPIUM4_UxxPQMlKaaVWRkz_qlbM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
1 big thing: Trump privately talks up executing big drug dealers - reportedly invoking e.g. Singapore - so, like Sharia law, eh? - AND parallel to Duterte
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-sneak-peek-301a7e4c-56bc-482e-950b-ec3752d46049.html
Trump reportedly wants drug dealers to face the death penalty
President Donald Trump would "love to have a law" that executes drug dealers, sources told news website Axios.
Trump is a reportedly a fan of Singapore's capital punishment policy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/25/trump-wants-the-death-penalty-for-drug-dealers.html
Trump reportedly told friends he wanted to execute every drug dealer in America
President Donald Trump has privately expressed a desire for all drug dealers in the US to be executed, according to the news website Axios.
Trump also reportedly commented favorably on the drug policies of Singapore and the Philippines, two countries where drug dealers are executed.
Kellyanne Conway said Trump wanted to focus on high-volume dealers.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wants-to-execute-drug-dealers-2018-2
Trump’s latest bad idea — putting drug dealers to death — is more realistic than you think
Think it can't happen here? Think again.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-execute-drug-dealers-429b1ddbdeca/
Duterte Fanboy Donald Trump Wants America to Start Executing Drug Dealers
The president has never encountered a problem he can't imagine solving with violence.
https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/26/duterte-fanboy-donald-trump-wants-americ
Philippines: Duterte’s ‘Drug War’ Claims 12,000+ Lives
Government Harassment, Threats Against Rights Defenders
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/18/philippines-dutertes-drug-war-claims-12000-lives
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/drHAHNeA37QSmdM1Ml2pFqJQQS54M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Patty Mills Subject of Racist Taunt by Fan During Spurs vs. Cavaliers
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2761575-patty-mills-subject-of-racist-taunt-by-fan-during-spurs-vs-cavaliers
Spurs' Patty Mills responds to racial taunts from 'confused, hateful' Cavaliers fan
https://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/article/Spurs-Patty-Mills-responds-to-racial-taunts-from-12708972.php
Patty Mills subjected to racial taunts during Sunday's game against Cavs
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22586341/san-antonio-spurs-patty-mills-subjected-racial-taunts-sunday-road-game-cleveland-cavaliers
Spurs guard Patty Mills subject to racist taunt from Cavaliers fan
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/spurs-guard-patty-mills-subject-to-racist-taunt-from-cleveland-cavaliers-fan-nba/g5m7bcpn1l811z3q5i3gyklo
Spurs' Patty Mills Receives Racial Taunts in Cleveland
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/02/26/spurs-patty-mills-racial-taunts-sundays-game-cavs
This is what it sounds like when an NBAer gets racially taunted
https://nypost.com/2018/02/26/this-is-what-it-sounds-like-when-an-nbaer-gets-racially-taunted/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d3hsMTIHJgTbSqM3Ia32HPTBnAe_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
What did Trump know, and when did he know it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/26/what-did-trump-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d_xqQhK0QjfBPfMAWUiR6FV-Xh7DM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
With Xi’s Power Grab, China Joins New Era of Strongmen
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-authoritarianism.html
Xi's special envoy meets with South Korean president on ties, peninsula issue
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/26/c_137001413.htm
China censorship after Xi Jinping presidency extension proposal
China's governing Communist Party has proposed removing a clause in the constitution which limits presidencies to two five-year terms - which means President Xi Jinping could remain as leader after the end of his second term in 2023.
The controversial move has ignited discussion on Chinese social media and pushed online government censors into overdrive.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43198404
All Hail (and Fear) Emperor Xi
China will learn that totalitarian states have short-term advantages but they don't end well.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-26/xi-jinping-why-the-u-s-should-fear-china-s-new-emperor
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d85wdE_V8FRAO4Moi4GImvexPMLIM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump’s Real Scandal Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The emphasis placed on whether the Trump team colluded with Russia to interfere in the election threatens to overshadow the scandal in plain sight.
There was a time when the White House’s frequent denials of collusion with Russia appeared largely defensive. Over time, however, their primary purpose has morphed. These days, the denials serve instead to distract from the ever-clearer picture of a president surrounded by crooks and liars.
“Consistently we have said there was no collusion,” Ivanka Trump told NBC News Monday. “There was no collusion. And we believe that Mueller will do his work and reach that same conclusion.” That echoes her father and a White House statement from February 16, after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted a group of Russians for interfering in the election. “President Donald J. Trump ... is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected,” the press secretary wrote.
Collusion with Russia may or may not turn out to be a real scandal, depending on what Mueller finds, but it is not the only scandal. (Indeed, while the question of whether any crime was committed remains open, the contacts with Russia that are already known, from George Papadopoulos to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, make these denials ring hollow.) The scale of dishonesty and criminality that is now apparent is an enormous scandal in its own right.
On Friday, Rick Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements. He faced a much longer slate of charges, but agreed to cooperate with Mueller. Gates’s troubles with the truth were so severe that he went to the outlandish length of lying to Mueller during a meeting about a plea deal. (It didn’t work, and ended up producing one of the charges to which he pleaded guilty.) Gates came into the Trump orbit through his mentor and business partner Paul Manafort, who served for a time as Trump campaign chairman, but that shouldn’t cloak his deep involvement in Trump world: He was deputy chairman of the campaign, staying on after Manafort was ousted in August 2016; he served as deputy chair of the Trump inaugural committee; and he helped found America First Policies, an outside support group, remaining there until he was pushed out as his legal troubles increased.
Then there’s Manafort, who Trump decided to place atop his campaign in spring 2016, and who led it through the crucial period of the Republican National Convention. Manafort steadfastly denies any wrongdoing, but a pair of documents from Mueller unsealed last week reveal a brutal array of documentary evidence against him, including technological troubles in producing a doctored profit-and-loss statement and what appears to be a note to his son-in-law instructing him to mislead a bank appraiser.
The White House has distanced itself from Manafort and Gates by pointing out that the crimes with which they are charged occurred outside the auspices of the campaign. This might be convincing if Mueller’s indictments merely sketched out tax fraud—a not-altogether-uncommon private crime. But Mueller alleges that fraud was a core instrument of Davis Manafort, the men’s company. In a new indictment released Friday, Mueller alleges that Manafort worked to create a ring of European leaders who would boost Ukraine’s reputation around the world, while making sure their compensation was invisible.
What was Trump seeking when he brought Manafort on? Presumably, he sought the skills that Manafort and Gates had perfected working for leaders in places like Ukraine—the very business that centered on fraud. (It’s worth noting, once again, the bizarre reality that Manafort offered to work for Trump for free.) And even after he pushed Manafort out, in part because of renewed scrutiny of his past work, Trump kept Gates in his inner circle.
The dishonor roll doesn’t end there. Manafort and Gates seem to have at least been somewhat effective lobbyists, registered or not. Michael Flynn was not so successful. Flynn, having allegedly failed to disclose foreign travel when renewing his security clearance in 2016, entered into a lobbying scheme on behalf of Turkey—though he didn’t file documents acknowledging that until 2017. In the course of that work, Flynn suddenly espoused views of the Turkish government diametrically opposed to what he’d previously said, and, according to former CIA Director and Trump adviser James Woolsey, discussed a plan to kidnap the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from exile in the United States and take him to Turkey, where he is accused of fomenting a 2016 coup.
Flynn appears to have continued this work right up until the moment he was designated as the incoming national-security adviser in November 2016. He didn’t disclose the work, even though as the president’s right-hand man on security and defense issues he would have dealt closely with Turkey. Flynn was also involved in a bizarre civilian-nuclear-reactor scheme in the Middle East and reportedly continued to push the scheme even after becoming national-security adviser.
Somehow, none of this—nor Barack Obama’s explicit warning to Trump about Flynn—was enough of a red flag to prevent Flynn’s hiring. He didn’t last long. Flynn was pushed out on February 13, 2017, after The Washington Post revealed he had lied to Vice President Pence about conversations with the Russian ambassador about sanctions. Flynn has since admitted, in a guilty plea, that he also lied to FBI agents about those conversations. He is now cooperating with Mueller.
These top-level positions join other, lower-ranking officials who are also in legal trouble. George Papadopoulos has also admitted he lied to the FBI about conversations with Russians, and is cooperating with Mueller. Though a former Trump aide dismissed Papadopoulos as a “coffee boy,” Trump praised him by name, and photos show the two of them in a meeting. Carter Page, a volunteer foreign-policy adviser, offered confusing and contradictory information in testimony to Congress, and a memo from House Intelligence Committee Democrats released on Saturday alleges that intelligence gathered by the Justice Department also contradicts Page’s testimony.
Outside the scope of the Russia investigation itself, the Democratic memo once again shows the dangers of believing close Trump ally Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes, who has repeatedly been caught making misleading statements, and the Democratic memo rebuts the most controversial claims made in a memo from Republicans on the committee released earlier in February.
Elsewhere in the Trump orbit, the last month has revealed the foibles of other members of the administration. Rob Porter, former staff secretary, was forced out after accusations of domestic abuse by both of his ex-wives became public. Porter initially tried to sidestep the allegations by telling a clutch of powerful Washington reporters, during an off-the-record meeting, that one of the women had been injured in an accident.
In his attempt to downplay the story, Chief of Staff John Kelly offered a story that other West Wing aides believed was so false they expressed concern to reporters about it. Given his stellar military career, Kelly was granted a presumption of innocence when he joined the White House. That can no longer be justified. In October, he told a pejorative story about Representative Frederica Wilson that turned out not to be true; when video evidence contradicted Kelly, however, he and the White House refused to concede the point. Then on Porter, Kelly said he had acted as soon as he learned of the allegations against him, a claim contradicted by FBI Director Christopher Wray during sworn testimony.
The White House press shop also offered contradictory statements about Porter, though it’s hard to tell whether that’s simply because other West Wing officials were misleading them. The communications team has hardly distinguished itself, though, beginning in the first days of the presidency, when it went to war with a false claim about inauguration crowds, then introduced “alternative facts” into the lexicon.
Why do so many White House staffers lie? It might come from their boss. As Brian Stelter noted, the president shamelessly changed the meaning of a comment he’d heard on television about the House Intelligence Committee memo, refashioning it into a bludgeon against ranking Democrat Adam Schiff:
Holy moly. The @FoxNews anchor said "Congressman Schiff, he ARGUES the REPUBLICAN memo omitted and distorted key facts." Trump just deleted 5 words from the quote to allege the opposite meaning. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/967563946063523840
[ https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/967566191207370753 ]
Washington is also filled with Trump appointees who have found themselves facing charges that they are unqualified for the offices they hold, unethical in how they have used them, or both at once. Axios reveals that Trump is considering appointing his personal pilot, John Dunkin, to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. The nugget of news produced an immediate tizzy, as yet another case of Trump trying to select someone close to him without obvious qualification for an important job. The immediate reaction is perhaps unfair to Dunkin, who is little known and may very well be suited to the job.
It’s not unfair to Trump, though. One of his senior advisers is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been given a sweeping portfolio of complex tasks, despite no experience in government; he is working without a permanent security clearance, and reportedly may not receive one until Mueller’s probe is complete because of unknown issues the special counsel is investigating. Another senior adviser is Kushner’s wife, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who enjoys the trappings of White House work but on Monday said it was inappropriate to ask her about the many accusations of sexual misconduct against the president.
To head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Trump chose Ben Carson, who had endorsed Trump for president after ending his own campaign, but had publicly said he was not qualified for the gig. To head HUD’s largest regional office, Trump appointed Lynne Patton, who had no experience in housing but worked for years for the Trump family and spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Appointees with more obvious qualifications keep turning out to be flawed in other ways. Trump selected as commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, who retained investments in companies with links to the Kremlin until they were revealed in the document dump known as the Paradise Papers. He appointed another Wall Street billionaire, Carl Icahn, as a senior adviser on regulatory issues, until Icahn precipitously quit after questions from The New Yorker about whether he was using the job to further his own interests.
The secretary of health and human services resigned over spending more than $1 million on private and military jets. A government report said Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin had committed “serious derelictions” in spending on a European trip. EPA Administration Scott Pruitt is also under fire for travel spending; the EPA initially said Pruitt had been granted a “blanket waiver” to travel in first class, for safety reasons, only to change its story when pointed to rules that specifically bar such a blanket policy.
At the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, interim chief Mick Mulvaney dropped an investigation into a payday lender who had contributed to his campaign. Mulvaney’s spokesman initially said that career staff had recommended dropping the probe, then admitted when pressed by NPR that Mulvaney was involved in the decision.
That’s just a sampling. It doesn’t require any further evidence of Trump campaign ties to Russia to grasp the scope of the scandal already in plain sight. Every administration ends up producing examples of corruption and lying, but most presidents take years, and often more than one term, to produce a ledger even half so extensive as what Trump has managed in barely a year in office. It’s an old trope to imagine the how lonely the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who famously walked around with a lamp seeking an honest man, would feel visiting the American capital. In Trump’s Washington, even the hard-bitten cynic might despair.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/diogenes-on-the-potomac/554240/
Trump's legal team has a baffling new argument for why he shouldn't speak with Mueller
President Donald Trump's legal team says an in-person interview between the president and special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation would set a bad precedent for future presidents, and would be a waste of time.
Trump's team has been stonewalling Mueller for months, and it looks like the standoff will continue.
Experts say that while Trump should be worried about a Mueller interview, his legal team arguing that it would set a bad precedent is a dramatic overstatement.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-legal-team-has-baffling-argument-for-why-trump-shouldnt-speak-to-mueller-2018-2
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d4qLnio6B5wVsrMJfARRRVmQWVgtM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Manafort's LA bankruptcy fight may offer new avenue for Mueller probe
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/manaforts-la-bankruptcy-fight-may-offer-new-avenue-for-mueller-probe-idUSKCN1GA160
Trump aide's 'very favorable' plea deal ramps up pressure on Manafort, experts say
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-aides-favorable-plea-deal-ramps-pressure-manafort/story?id=53347451
The walls are closing in on Paul Manafort — here are his options
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/walls-closing-paul-manafort-options-article-1.3843068
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=manafort
This man streams his own murder on Facebook in North Carolina town
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article202180864.html
Man Shot Dead While Filming Facebook Live Video
http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/02/man-shot-dead-in-north-carolina-during-facebook-live-video.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/drhIozgn1DeaCzM03kykBtQVtesbM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Rick Perry going to London to hold nuclear cooperation talks with Saudi officials
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/02/26/rick-perry-going-to-london-to-hold-nuclear-cooperation-talks-with-saudi-officials/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dtGdcqB458ocEcMyHBMj-VHnN39ZM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
State Department point man on North Korea, Joe Yun, to retire Friday
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/state-department-point-man-on-north-korea-joe-yun-to-retire-friday/2018/02/26/9a201136-1b62-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html
Senior U.S. diplomat for North Korea to retire
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-diplomat/senior-u-s-diplomat-for-north-korea-to-retire-idUSKCN1GB0C1
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d_WGG_pU_UGq-yMNVDJ0cp9MykF1M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
California Scraps Safety Driver Rules for Self-Driving Cars
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/technology/driverless-cars-california-rules.html
Driverless cars are expected on California streets in April. What does it mean for you?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/article201802909.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d-94QDu5wmcqcaMocHSXmjECosR0M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Catholic School Forces Queer Coach To Resign After Diocese Learns Of Marriage Plans
Kristen Nelson was a softball coach at West Catholic High in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for five seasons.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/queer-catholic-school-coach-forced-to-resign_us_5a94273ce4b0ee6416a56fa5
Democrats Sue Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker To Force Him To Call Special Elections
They accuse Walker of delaying the vote out of fear the GOP may lose the seats.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-walker-special-elections-lawsuit_us_5a948e7ee4b0699553cb7383
We Are Still A Sitting Duck For Russian Hacking
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-kuttner-russia-hacking_us_5a940f23e4b01e9e56bdae20
School Shooting Survivor Emma Gonzalez: ‘Adults Are Behaving Like Children’
The teen activist wrote a powerful essay urging adults to grow up and push for stricter gun laws.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/school-shooting-survivor-emma-gonzalez-adults-are-behaving-like-children_us_5a947967e4b01f65f5994cd1
South Carolina State Rep Is Giving Away Guns To Teachers
The GOP lawmaker launched a fundraiser to buy two handguns for educators.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congressman-giving-guns-to-teachers_us_5a949448e4b02cb368c4e246
Armed Extremist Militia Group Urges Members To Stand Guard Outside Of Schools
The Oath Keepers are “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today,” the Southern Poverty Law Center says.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oath-keepers-militia-schools_us_5a943603e4b0699553cae52a
My Kid Doesn’t Need Permission To Walk Out
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-biggers-student-walkouts_us_5a942e1ae4b02cb368c4382e
These Are The Real-Life Effects Of Trump’s Obamacare Sabotage
A new study predicts premiums going up by 18 percent and millions of Americans losing their coverage.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-are-the-real-life-effects-of-trumps-obamacare-sabotage_us_5a9424dfe4b03b55731e5a30
BLM’s Alicia Garza Launches Census Project To Mobilize Black Political Power
The Black Census Project is the first initiative of Garza’s Black Futures Lab.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-lives-matter-census-project-alicia-garza_us_5a9429fce4b02cb368c42d52
Trump Says He Would Have Rushed in Unarmed to Stop School Shooting
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/trump-school-shooter-florida.html
Melania Trump Parts Ways With Adviser Amid Backlash Over Inaugural Contract
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/melania-trump-inauguration-adviser.html
Anti-Semitic Incidents Surged 57 Percent in 2017, Report [ https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/2017-audit-of-anti-semitic-incidents ] Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/anti-semitism-adl-report.html
The Force of Decency Awakens - fullpost with embedded links at https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138957340
By Paul Krugman
A funny thing is happening on the American scene: a powerful upwelling of decency. Suddenly, it seems as if the worst lack all conviction, while the best are filled with a passionate intensity. We don’t yet know whether this will translate into political change. But we may be in the midst of a transformative moment.
You can see the abrupt turn toward decency in the rise of the #MeToo movement; in a matter of months ground that had seemed immovable shifted, and powerful sexual predators started facing career-ending consequences.
You can see it in the reactions to the Parkland school massacre. For now, at least, the usual reaction to mass killings — a day or two of headlines, then a sort of collective shrug by the political class and a return to its normal obeisance to the gun lobby — isn’t playing out. Instead, the story is staying at the top of the news, and associating with the N.R.A. is starting to look like the political and business poison it should have been all along.
And I’d argue that you can see it at the ballot box, where hard-right politicians in usually reliable Republican districts keep being defeated thanks to surging activism by ordinary citizens.
This isn’t what anyone, certainly not the political commentariat, expected.
After the 2016 election many in the news media seemed all too ready to assume that Trumpism represented the real America, even though Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote and — Russian intervention and the Comey letter aside — would surely have won the electoral vote, too, but for the Big Sneer, the derisive tone adopted by countless reporters and pundits. There have been hundreds if not thousands of stories about grizzled Trump supporters sitting in diners, purportedly showing the out-of-touchness of our cultural elite.
Even the huge anti-Trump demonstrations just after Inauguration Day didn’t seem to move the conventional wisdom. But those pink pussy hats may have represented the beginning of real social and political change.
Political scientists have a term and a theory for what we’re seeing on #MeToo, guns and perhaps more: “regime change cascades.”
Here’s how it works: When people see the status quo as immovable, they tend to be passive even if they are themselves dissatisfied. Indeed, they may be unwilling to reveal their discontent, or to fully admit it to themselves. But once they see others visibly taking a stand, they both gain more confidence in their dissent and become more willing to act on it — and by their actions they may induce the same response in others, causing a kind of chain reaction.
Such cascades explain how huge political upheavals can quickly emerge, seemingly out of nowhere. Examples include the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848, the sudden collapse of communism in 1989 and the Arab Spring of 2011.
Now, nothing says that such cascades have to be positive either in their motivations or in their results. The period 2016-17 clearly represented a sort of Alt-Right Spring — springtime for fascists? — in which white supremacists and anti-Semites were emboldened not just by Donald Trump’s election but by the evidence that there were more like-minded people than anyone realized, both in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, historians have described 1848 as a turning point where history somehow failed to turn: At the end of the day the old, corrupt regimes were still standing.
I nevertheless find the surge of indignation now building in America hugely encouraging. And yes, I think it’s all one surge. The #MeToo movement, the refusal to shrug off the Parkland massacre, the new political activism of outraged citizens (many of them women) all stem from a common perception: namely, that it’s not just about ideology, but that far too much power rests in the hands of men who are simply bad people.
And Exhibit A for that proposition is, of course, the tweeter in chief himself.
At the same time, what strikes me about the reaction to this growing backlash is not just its vileness, but its lameness. Trump’s response to Parkland — let’s arm teachers! — wasn’t just stupid, it was cowardly, an attempt to duck the issue, and I think many people realized that. Or consider how the Missouri G.O.P. has responded to the indictment of Gov. Eric Greitens, accused of trying to blackmail his lover with nude photos: by blaming … George Soros. I am not making this up.
Or consider the growing wildness of speeches by right-wing luminaries like Wayne LaPierre of the N.R.A. They’ve pretty much given up on making any substantive case for their ideas in favor of rants about socialists trying to take away your freedom. It’s scary stuff, but it’s also kind of whiny; it’s what people sound like when they know they’re losing the argument.
Again, there’s no guarantee that the forces of decency will win. In particular, the U.S. electoral system is in effect rigged in favor of Republicans, so Democrats will need to win the popular vote by something like seven percentage points to take the House. But we’re seeing a real uprising here, and there’s every reason to hope that change is coming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/opinion/the-force-of-decency-awakens.html
Erdogan Tells a Weeping Girl, 6, She’d Receive Honors if Martyred
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-girl-martyr.html
Listening To Broward County’s Silenced Students
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-goff-broward-students-protests_us_5a92eb8ce4b01e9e56bcd768
The NRA Wasn’t Always A Front For Gun Makers
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-nra-history_us_5a907fbee4b03b55731c2169
Pediatricians Call For Universal Depression Screening For Teens
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/588334959/pediatrians-call-for-universal-depression-screening-for-teens
guidelines http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/120/5/e1299.full.pdf?ck=nck
All teens should be screened for depression, new guidelines urge
With a growing number of young people reporting severe depression, parents and pediatricians are being encouraged to recognize the symptoms.
https://www.today.com/health/all-teens-should-be-screened-depression-new-guidelines-urge-t123889
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d8pWw3f_5iTQ0hMhPtZd0wwt-4mUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
No Downturn In Obesity Among U.S. Kids, Report Finds
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587985555/no-downturn-in-obesity-among-u-s-kids-report-finds
study http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/02/22/peds.2017-3459
Newest data shows childhood obesity continues to increase
Across all ages, African-American, Hispanic children have highest rates
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/dumc-nds022318.php
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm
U.S. Child Obesity Levels Not Falling After All
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/misc-kid-s-health-news-435/u-s-child-obesity-levels-not-falling-after-all-731398.html
Childhood obesity is getting worse, study says
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/health/childhood-obesity-in-the-us-study/index.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/diTbvIsXqPyuc1MjiHGecfocP__TM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Beech booming as climate changes, and that's bad for forests - AP
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-beech-booming-climate-bad-forests.html
original https://www.apnews.com/8390a9d1225d4717aaea7e55c9e264f6/Beech-booming-as-climate-changes,-and-that's-bad-for-forests
Beech trees are booming in northeastern United States due to climate change, and this is a problem
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/climate/beech-tree-expansionc-climate-change-053242/
Booming of beech trees due to climate changes hampers forest ecosystem
https://sciexaminer.com/news/environment/booming-beech-trees-due-climate-changes-hampers-forest-ecosystem-4032.html
Beech Trees Are Booming In Forests Because Of Climate Change
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/221889/20180226/beech-trees-are-booming-in-forests-because-of-climate-change.htm
study http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12917/full
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dKOxEemaQEswYyMNLigdibKi805yM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
King penguins face warming challenge
King penguins are in deep trouble if nothing is done to constrain climate change, researchers say.
The scientists have assessed the birds' fragmented population in the Southern Ocean and concluded that some island strongholds will become unsustainable.
The problem is the continued movement away from key nesting sites of the penguins' favoured foraging grounds.
And as the climate warms further, food will simply become too distant for many birds to fetch for their chicks.
"Our work shows that almost 70% of king penguins - about 1.1 million breeding pairs - will have to relocate or disappear before the end of the century because of greenhouse gas emissions," said Dr Céline Le Bohec from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Strasbourg.
[...]
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43204108
study http://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0084-2
As climate change worsens, king penguins will need to move — or they’ll die
‘I’m worried about the future of the species.’
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/26/17044798/climate-change-king-penguins-survival-relocation-southern-ocean
Climate Change: 70% of King Penguins Could ‘Abruptly Relocate or Disappear’ by 2100
https://www.ecowatch.com/penguins-climate-change-2539963001.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dUWxumIK3oM0djMkyQ77BFDFDGtuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Ancient Elephants and Mastodons Were Totally Down With Inter-Species Boning
https://gizmodo.com/ancient-elephants-and-mastodons-were-totally-down-with-1823328857
study http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/02/16/1720554115
Trunk show: Elephant genome study offers surprises
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-elephants/trunk-show-elephant-genome-study-offers-surprises-idUSKCN1GA2Y5
Researchers sequence complete genomes of extinct and living elephants
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-sequence-genomes-extinct-elephants.html
Ancient mammoth DNA could help save threatened elephants
Could elephant-mammoth hybrids roam the tundra? Researchers analyze the genes of several elephant species, and find genes from their extinct ancestors could help save them.
https://www.cnet.com/news/woolly-mammoth-genes-study-traces-path-to-elephant-hybrid/
Sequencing of Extinct and Living Elephants Reveals Genetic Admixture
https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/sequencing-extinct-and-living-elephants-reveals-genetic-admixture
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLRFr5eQZBnakmM0DpX0U9_c2S78M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
New shark species confirmed
Genetic testing finds a different sixgill shark
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220122928.htm
study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12526-018-0849-x
Atlantic Sixgill Shark: Scientists Confirm New Shark Species After Years Of Debate
The species traces its roots back more than 250 million years ago, making it older than the first dinosaurs
https://www.inquisitr.com/4803513/atlantic-sixgill-shark-scientists-confirm-new-shark-species-after-years-of-debate/
New Sixgill Shark Discovery in Atlantic Ocean May Finally Explain How Species Outlived the Dinosaurs ( https://youtu.be/eQwThFPjdGM )
https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/17888-new-sixgill-shark-discovery-atlantic-ocean-species-outlived-dinosaurs
New Species of Sixgill Shark Identified in Atlantic Waters
http://divemagazine.co.uk/eco/7980-new-species-of-shark-discovered
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dzi3QdRRWMpE4nMJCheJSkF4NWz3M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Gigantic Stellar Flare Slams Earth's Closest Exoplanet
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billretherford/2018/02/26/gigantic-stellar-flare-slams-earths-closest-exoplanet/
The potentially habitable planet circling Proxima Centauri was hit by a huge flare
https://mashable.com/2018/02/26/extreme-flare-proxima-centauri-b/
Proxima Centauri's no good, very bad day
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-proxima-centauri-good-bad-day.html
original https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2310
study http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaad6b/meta
Could Proxima B Host Alien Life? A Giant Flare May Have Wiped It Out Last Year
http://www.newsweek.com/could-proxima-b-host-alien-life-giant-flare-819934
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dX0ikhTC4K03gOMrKsJ2HJO8HUnSM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
--
in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=26706638 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=27485225 and preceding and following;
earlier this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138649614 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=135398181 and preceding and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120074878 and preceding and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139301912 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139309022 and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139314218 and following
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139321464 and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139325700 and preceding (and any future following)
elsewhere this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139321613 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139329340 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139327163 and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139329795 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330399 and preceding (and any future following),
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139333437 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330239 and preceding (and any future following)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139330533 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139332627 and preceding and following,
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139335605 and preceding and following
elsewhere this string, https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=139333622 and preceding and (future) following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
