Monday, April 30, 2018 10:47:37 PM
As North Korea Talks with China, South Korea & Japan, Could Bolton Derail Denuclearization Progress?
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now! [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw / https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow , https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow/videos ]
The leaders of North and South Korea announced today that they will hold a historic meeting on April 27, coming together for talks for the first time in more than a decade. The news comes after Kim Jong-un’s surprise trip to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he reportedly said he was willing to give up North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Kim is due to meet sometime soon with President Trump, although a date has not been set for that summit. It would be the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. We speak with Tim Shorrock, correspondent for The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/as_north_korea_talks_with_china [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQbIJ6m5MSY [with comments]
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NYC Minister: I’m Willing to Be Arrested If ICE Comes for Immigrant Mother in Sanctuary in My Church
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
A few weeks ago, the Fourth Universalist Society of New York City opened its doors to Guatemalan mother Aura Hernández, who took sanctuary to avoid her deportation to Guatemala. Last year, the congregation voted to become a sanctuary church; shortly thereafter, the church was vandalized with swastikas carved into the church’s front doors. On Tuesday night, Democracy Now! sat down with the senior minister of the Unitarian church, Rev. Schuyler Vogel.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/nyc_minister_im_willing_to_be [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmyGmXxsUeo [with comments]
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“I Am Raising My Voice”: Guatemalan Mother in Sanctuary in NYC Accuses Border Patrol of Sexual Abuse
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
We turn now to a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive interview with a Guatemalan woman named Aura Hernández, who has taken sanctuary in the Fourth Universalist Society of New York, the Unitarian church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, to avoid her deportation to Guatemala. She has been living in the United States for 13 years. She’s the mother of two U.S.-born children: 10-year-old Victor Daniel and 14-month-old Camila Guadalupe. She entered sanctuary a few weeks ago to keep her family united as she continues to fight her immigration case. She says that in 2005, when she first entered the United States, she was sexually abused while detained by the Border Patrol in Texas. She says the officer who abused her then threatened to come find her if she ever went public about the abuse. She has fought for years, quietly, to obtain a U visa as a result of the alleged sexual abuse. U visas are for the victims of certain crimes who cooperate with law enforcement. She says that despite her cooperation with authorities, the Department of Homeland Security has refused to certify her U visa, meaning she has not yet been able to obtain protections to stay in the country. The Customs and Border Protection agency declined to comment. After being forced to take sanctuary to avoid her deportation, she is now breaking her silence. On Tuesday night, Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Laura Gottesdiener sat down with Aura Hernández for her first-ever television interview.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/i_am_raising_my_voice_guatemalan [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mBOrOWKRaM [with comments]
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Family to Bury Slain Sacramento Man Stephon Clark, as Protests Continue Demanding Justice
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
The family of Stephon Clark is holding his funeral today in Sacramento, California, as massive protests continue against the police shooting that killed the unarmed African-American man in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18. Police first claimed he was holding a gun, but later admitted they found only his cellphone near his body. We get an update from Berry Accius, with Voice of the Youth in Sacramento.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/family_buries_slain_sacramento_man_stephon [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxDruWcg6H8 [with comments]
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Full Show - The War On Our Border, Ignored By “Defense” Dept - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Ron Gibson [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv-5LsUyc_P8KMo7YGPFPA / https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF , https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF/videos ]
29Mar18 Broadcast
Roseanne shows entertainment gatekeepers are out of touch with America. FANGs are popping the stock market bubble. And, a massive war in Mexico is leaking across the border but the “Defense” Department won’t do anything about it though they LOST twice as much in Afghanistan as was allocated to repair a portion of the fence in California. Julian Assange has his communications cut off after he talks about the UK’s false flag to push sanctions and war. Then Steve Quayle joins to look at the accelerating threat of transhumanism and Steve Milloy on the EPA shutting down “secret science” (data used to push policy but hidden from the public).
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwOR5a6tlik [with comments] [the edited official Alex Jones/Real News with David Knight upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgD0JdRo-I8 (title and text adapted from; with comments)]
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Every child is a precious and unique gift who deserves the security of a loving and nurturing home. When supported by encouraging families and safe, strong communities, all children have the chance to reach their full potential and access the unlimited opportunities that our great Nation has to offer. To realize this truth, we must dedicate ourselves to the noble cause of protecting and caring for our children.
National Child Abuse Prevention Month is an annual reminder that not every home is a haven of acceptance and unconditional love. Too often, childhood is marred with pain, violence, neglect, and abuse, which can have lifelong psychological, emotional, and physical consequences. At no fault of their own, some children are subjected to the most depraved forms of child abuse and neglect, without reprieve and, sometimes, without any knowledge that they are being maltreated. The statistics are shocking: a quarter of all children experience some form of child abuse or neglect in their lifetime. The financial consequences of this depravity are dire. By some estimates, the lifetime cost of child abuse and neglect is $124 billion per year. The human cost — measured in lost development, potential, and flourishing — is incalculable.
To improve the statistics and the well-being of our Nation’s children, we must become more aware of the signs and symptoms of child abuse and take action as necessary. We should not allow pride or discomfort to prevent us from helping a child who is truly suffering. We must be a Nation committed to taking action in the face of adversity and uncertainty, particularly when done to enhance the safety or security of children.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG) notes that children who show sudden changes in behavior, who have not received treatment for physical or medical problems brought to their parents’ attention, or who are always watchful, as if preparing for something bad to happen, may be exhibiting signs of child abuse. Though the presence of one or some of these signs alone does not necessarily mean that a child has been the victim of child abuse or neglect, it is vital that we understand and remain vigilant for these indicators. As Americans we must do all that we can.
This month, we honor the professionals, volunteers, and organizations who work tirelessly to protect at-risk children and care for those who have experienced abuse or neglect. This difficult work is critical to ensuring the safety and protection of our children, to strengthening our communities, and to stopping cycles of violence harm. There are no substitutes for caring parents and guardians. But we recognize that friends, neighbors, educators, and places of worship have important roles to play in fostering the well-being of children. We are especially grateful to foster and adoptive parents, who open their lives to children in need of loving and caring homes. We can and should continue to work together to help provide healthy, happy, and safe environments for all children.
We must always remember that all children are blessings from our Creator. They are endowed from conception with value, purpose, and human dignity. They are a source of unmatched joy, and they represent our Nation’s future. It is thus our civic and moral responsibility to help every child experience a childhood free from abuse and mistreatment, guiding them toward a future full of hope and promise. I encourage all Americans to nurture the children in their lives and to extend a hand to those in need of love, protection, or even just attention. Only together can we put an end to the tragedy of child abuse and neglect. I am confident that our combined efforts in combatting these evils will help create a world that is more tender, compassionate, and inviting to our children for centuries to come.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to invest in the lives of our Nation’s children, to be aware of their safety and well-being, and to support efforts that promote their psychological, physical, and emotional development.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-national-child-abuse-prevention-month/
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as National Donate Life Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Americans celebrate the blessing of life in many ways, but perhaps none is more transformative than their choice to donate organs or tissue to family members, friends, or to people they may not ever meet. During National Donate Life Month, we honor our Nation’s organ and tissue donors for their decision to give the precious gift of life to someone in need. We also give thanks to the many remarkable medical professionals, scientists, and researchers who have dedicated themselves to improving the health of others.
My Administration supports efforts to raise awareness about the life-saving power of organ donation. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reports that, in 2017, there were nearly 35,000 transplants performed, a 3.4 percent increase from 2016, and the fifth consecutive record-setting year for transplants in the United States. Last year, more than 16,000 living and deceased individuals donated the gift of life to someone in need through an organ or tissue donation.
Every person, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, or economic status, has the power and the potential to transform a life through organ and tissue donation. Despite record setting years, we are still working to overcome a gap between the availability of organs and people in need of an organ donation. Today, nearly 115,000 Americans are awaiting a lifesaving transplant, and a new name appears on the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. Amazingly, 1 donor can save up to 8 lives through organ donation and enhance the lives of up to 50 people through tissue donation. This month, I encourage all Americans to consider participating in the gift of life by becoming organ and tissue donors.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as National Donate Life Month. I call upon health professionals, volunteers, educators, government agencies, faith-based and community groups, and private organizations to help raise awareness of the urgent need for organ and tissue donors throughout our Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-national-donate-life-month/
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as Cancer Control Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
During National Cancer Control Month, we remember the loved ones we have lost to cancer and recommit our support for the courageous individuals who are fighting this terrible disease. We also pause to thank the devoted healthcare professionals, scientists, and researchers who work tirelessly to discover a cure for cancer and whose combined efforts have contributed to an encouraging decline in the overall rate of deaths from cancer over the past two decades.
American innovators and entrepreneurs have made many incredible scientific breakthroughs during the past century. In the field of medicine, American scientists have been at the forefront of world-class research that has developed increasingly effective cancer prevention strategies and treatments. Through public- and private-sector partnerships, Americans have made critical advances to support and expand precision medicine and immunotherapy approaches to cancer. These innovations have given us greater ability to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and have helped more than 15 million Americans beat this disease.
Despite these tremendous strides, we recognize the staggering number of Americans who have lost their battles with cancer. Last year alone, cancer took the lives of approximately 600,000 adults and 2,000 children in the United States, making it the second leading cause of death in our Nation. According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 40 percent of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Together, we must take action to prevent and combat cancer, including maintaining healthy diets and weight and making physical activity a part of each day. Regular screenings and physicals, as well as knowledge of family medical history, are also crucial to catching cancers in earlier, more treatable stages.
As we observe National Cancer Control Month, let us raise awareness of the measures we can take to prevent cancer and strengthen our resolve to find a cure for this horrible disease, which continues to cause so many families such great pain. Let us also honor the determination, courage, and strength of our cancer survivors. Their stories are an inspiration to all Americans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as Cancer Control Month. I call upon the people of the United States to speak with their doctors and healthcare providers to learn more about preventative measures that can save lives. I encourage citizens, government agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other interested groups to join in activities that will increase awareness of what Americans can do to prevent and control cancer. I also invite the Governors of the States and Territories and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to join me in recognizing National Cancer Control Month.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-cancer-control-month/
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Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
In accordance with section 506A(c)(2) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2466a(c)(2)), I am providing advance notification of my intent to suspend the application of duty-free treatment to all African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)-eligible goods in the apparel sector for the Republic of Rwanda 60 days after the date of this notification.
The Government of Rwanda continues to impose barriers to United States trade, specifically, barriers affecting certain United States exports of apparel products. In spite of intense engagement by United States officials with the Government of Rwanda, the United States has been unable to resolve this matter. I have therefore determined that the Government of Rwanda is not making continual progress toward the elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment, as required by section 104 of the AGOA.
The suspension of duty-free treatment described above is a more appropriate response in these circumstances than the termination of the Government of Rwanda’s designation as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country under AGOA, as it promotes the continuation of efforts between the United States and Rwanda to resolve outstanding issues. Although the Government of Rwanda has failed to meet critical benchmarks required to address these issues to date, it continues to express an interest in resolving United States concerns.
I will continue to assess whether the Government of Rwanda is making continual progress toward the elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment in accordance with the AGOA eligibility requirements, as well as whether this suspension of benefits is effective in promoting compliance with those requirements.
Sincerely,
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/text-letter-president-speaker-house-representatives-president-senate-24/
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Full Show - Russia Tells Its Citizens To Prepare For War With The US / Students Protest David Hogg - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 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 ]
Thursday, Mar. 29th 2018[, with appearances by Jerome Corsi and Tommy Robinson, and Doug Hagmann hosting the fourth hour]: Pope Says "No Hell" - Pope Francis claims condemned souls "disappear" and that Hell does not exist. In other news, Alex Jones' son Rex has challenged David Hogg to a debate on the Second Amendment. Joining today's broadcast is rock legend Ted Nugent who will discuss the ongoing assault on gun rights. Also, Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com covers the Paris climate accords.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06x6z-EyRpM [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDmPa8W24s (additional text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
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RWW News: Jerome Corsi Wants To Fight Robert Mueller
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQSoBGVRy5x6SaKbzh5_xiw / https://www.youtube.com/user/RightWingWatchdotorg , https://www.youtube.com/user/RightWingWatchdotorg/videos ]
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Jerome Corsi details how he's like to take Special Counsel Robert Mueller behind the Justice Department and fight him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1g61o9gMg [with comments]
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Ted Nugent: Justices who dissented from Heller v. Washington case "don't even qualify" as justices
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by MMFA Alt. Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PhjTobwRndMIUs8uA3vkg / https://www.youtube.com/user/MMFAalt1 , https://www.youtube.com/user/MMFAalt1/videos ]
NRA's Ted Nugent on The Alex Jones Show: Supreme Court justices who dissented from Heller v. Washington case "don't even qualify" as justices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G8abVBkbxY [comments disabled]
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RWW News: Rick Joyner Insists That Trump Has A 'Sincere Fear Of The Lord'
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Rick Joyner predicts that President Trump will lead a Christian revival in America, thanks to his "sincere fear of the Lord."
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-joyner-trump-will-unleash-a-christian-revival-in-america-because-of-his-sincere-fear-of-the-lord/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6Pi5ywFHw [with comments]
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RWW News: God Has Given Frank Amedia Permission To Reveal That Trump Will Win Re-Election In 2020
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Frank Amedia of POTUS Shield says that God has given him permission to reveal that Donald Trump will win re-election in 2020.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/god-has-given-frank-amedia-permission-to-reveal-that-trump-will-win-re-election-in-2020/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JA8wrEVHro [with comments]
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Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Russia’s Expulsion of American Diplomats
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Russia’s action today to expel American diplomats marks a further deterioration in the United States-Russia relationship. The expulsion of undeclared Russian intelligence officers by the United States and more than two dozen partner nations and NATO allies earlier this week was an appropriate response to the Russian attack on the soil of the United Kingdom. Russia’s response was not unanticipated, and the United States will deal with it.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-russias-expulsion-american-diplomats/
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Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters and a Senior Administration Official
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Cleveland, Ohio
March 29, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-gaggle-deputy-press-secretary-lindsay-walters-senior-administration-official-032918/ [official transcript]
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WATCH: President Trump discusses infrastructure in Richfield, OH
Streamed live on Mar 29, 2018 by PBS NewsHour [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZFN9Tx6xh-skXCuRHCDpQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour , https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos ]
President Donald Trump discusses his plans for the nation's infrastructure in Richfield, OH.
Remarks by President Trump on the Infrastructure Initiative
Local 18 Richfield Training Site
Richfield, Ohio
[issued on] March 30, 2018 [from March 29, 2018]
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-infrastructure-initiative/ [official transcript]
Building Up American Infrastructure and American Workers
“We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land. And we will do it with American heart, and American hands, and American grit.”
- President Donald J. Trump
March 29, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/building-american-infrastructure-american-workers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNOni2tovA [comments disabled] [official White House upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlEg80gU7GI (with comments)]
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Full Show - Clinton Thug Mueller Seeks To Destroy Lives In Russia Probe - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by War Room [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg/videos ]
The left does not know when to stop. They continue to push hatred of President Trump, the 2nd-Amendment and America, thinking it will somehow resurrect them to victory in the midterms. Meanwhile, Facebook and Google are being exposed for all their Orwellian data collection, and Robert Mueller is fully unhinged in his attempt to destroy anyone's life to bring down Trump.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHYk7ta-l0 [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtK2hOT-6M (with comments)]
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US voting machines are failing. Here’s why.
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Vox [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA / https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom , https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom/videos ]
The greatest threat to American voting machines might not be hacking, but old age.
In our latest collaboration with ProPublica, we take a look at US election security and the status of American voting machines. Check out the full ProPublica report at: https://www.propublica.org/article/election-security-a-high-priority-until-it-comes-to-paying-for-new-voting-machines
In 2017, hackers Rick Rolled a voting machine in Las Vegas. Even though the machine was out-of-date and the demonstration didn’t replicate real-life conditions, the stunt brought national attention to an election crisis that has been building ever since the “hanging chad” fiasco that occurred during the 2000 Presidential election recount.
In her story on American election security, ProPublica’s Kate Rabinowitz revealed that many state and local election officials are suffering a funding crisis. Without the money needed to maintain and update electronic voting machines, officials are having to make do with equipment that was manufactured in 2008 or even earlier. At that time, most machines had recently been replaced thanks to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, but few have been updated since.
By isolating machines from the internet and keeping them in secure locations, officials are able to reduce the threat of widespread hacking, but the machines are plagued with more mundane technical problems that states have been slow to address and could have major consequences for future elections.
On the bright side, the omnibus spending bill that was passed in March 2018 allocated $380 million dollars for state election officials to update their voting infrastructure. Whether that money is actually provided and how it will be spent, however, remains to be seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCmkIxve0c [with comments]
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Watergate Lawyer: Trump lawyer’s pardon offers echo Nixon tactics
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Bob Mueller is probing the Trump campaign's actions relating to Russia at the 2016 Republican convention. Former Watergate lawyer Michael Conway tells Ari Melber Trump’s lawyer reportedly offering pardons to Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn is "a complete parallel with what President Nixon did”.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watergate-lawyer-trump-lawyer-s-pardon-offers-echo-nixon-tactics-1198302275842 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJ22u87E4c [with comments]
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Explosive: Two of Roger Stone’s closest associates say he’s lying
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Mueller is asking questions about Trump ally Roger Stone, who claimed he had connections to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign. Ari Melber lists the unanswered questions surrounding Roger Stone and his role in the Trump-Russia collusion case. Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg and Roger Stone’s alleged intermediary to Julian Assange join Ari Melber on The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/explosive-two-of-roger-stone-s-closest-associates-say-he-s-lying-1198308931841 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiX7gLCgvVA [with comments]
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Watch Roger Stone flip-flop on meeting with Julian Assange
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Within 10 days, Trump ally Roger Stone went from claiming he had “communicated” with Julian Assange to saying he had not spoken with Assange.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watch-roger-stone-flip-flop-on-meeting-with-julian-assange-1198318659625
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Sam Nunberg: Stone outreach to Assange was to "ingratiate" with Trump
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber he “didn’t think it was a joke” when Roger Stone claimed to meet with Julian Assange in 2016 and notes despite not being officially part of the Trump campaign, Roger Stone still tried to “ingratiate himself” with Trump.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/sam-nunberg-stone-outreach-to-assange-was-to-ingratiate-with-trump-1198315587668 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX_nFKAX3Ww [with comments]
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Rohingya Refugees Are Receiving Official Identities For The First Time (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 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 Rohingya have been called the world’s most persecuted people. The Myanmar government has long refused to recognize their citizenship, instead calling them illegal immigrants and leaving the primarily Muslim minority stateless. But most of those who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh are now having their identities and ethnicity recognized for the first time.
With the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now exceeding 1 million, the government is undertaking a massive effort to register every single one. The authorities say that 11,000 refugees are being registered every day, and that at this rate, the process will be done by Dec. 12.
At first, the identity cards only stated that the refugees were from Myanmar, but after receiving complaints, they began to include the word “Rohingya.”
Mohammad Ismail, a Rohingya refugee, told VICE News that he is eager to get official documentation: “We are happy. We are globally recognized as Rohingya. Burma rejects us, but we identify ourselves as Rohingya.”
More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when the Myanmar military began its latest campaign of violence, torture and rape to drive them out of the country. Those who have escaped now face squalid conditions in cramped refugee camps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ34i3oCjwM [with comments]
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Germany Accuses Muslim Migrants Of Converting To Christianity To Get Asylum (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Salman Barbari was born in Iran to a strict Muslim family from Afghanistan. Last month he got baptized and became a Christian at Trinity Lutheran Church in Berlin. The potential consequences for his future and safety are vast.
Under Islamic law, Barbari could be sent to jail in Iran for converting to Christianity. In Afghanistan, he could be put to death. But his conversion could also allow Barbari to stay in Germany. He is applying for asylum here, and under German law migrants like himself can’t be deported if they face persecution at home.
Barbari told VICE News his conversion is sincere. “I didn’t get baptized to get asylum or anything like that.”
The German government may not believe him. It has rejected more than 90 percent of recent asylum applications submitted by members of Trinity Lutheran’s congregation.
Pastor Gottfried Martens’ ministry has focused on migrants since 2015. Today, 1400 of his 1600 congregants are Iranian and Afghan. Martens is furious that the German government is getting ready to deport both long-time Christians and recent converts like Barbari, who have completed three-month-long baptism classes at Trinity Lutheran as well as baptism exams.
“The state is a kind of secular version of the Holy Inquisition,” Martens told VICE News, “because the state says we can look into the heart of those people and can say who is the true Christian and who is not.”
The rejections themselves come in the form letters filled with template text blocks that often question the authenticity of of a convert’s beliefs. The fact that the decisions are based on short interviews conducted by administrators who have no religious background is particularly frustrating to Martens.
“I think a secular state is not able or not allowed to make such judgments about the faith of people.”
The increase in rejections may seem surprising given who is running the German government. Chancellor Angela Merkel is both the head of the Christian Democratic party and the daughter of Lutheran pastor. But she also faced significant backlash against her migrant-friendly policies in the months leading up to Germany’s national elections last year. During that time, Germany processed more asylum applications than all other EU countries combined. Since then asylum approvals have dropped.
Andrea Lindholz, a member of the governing Christian Social Union, says rejections are not politically motivated.
“Different aspects play a role. How did the person live his life in his country? How did he practice his faith there? Why did he decide to convert and how is he living his faith day to day?” Lindholz told VICE News. “In that context the pastor can only be one consideration and not the only one.”
Lindholz emphasized that simply converting is not enough to receive asylum, even if converts could face repercussions in their home countries.
“I don’t want to rule out that wrong decisions were made, but there is the possibility” of appealing rejections in court, she said. “It is a tough topic, and you will never find a satisfying solution.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV3ci2BY2gA [with comments]
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Trackers Are Some Of The Most Hated (And Powerful) People In Politics (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Sometimes a politician says something so racist, sexist, or otherwise terrible that it could (or should) ruin their career.
But somebody’s got to be there to get it on tape – and that’s a pretty tough gig.
Zach Wurtz has been working as a political “tracker” in Washington State for almost a decade. Most of his work involves driving for hours to tape local politicians giving speeches. Sometimes these are massive ballroom events with rich Republican donors, other times they’re tiny gatherings in community centers.
If his “target” shows up to give a speech in public, Zach shows up too, camera in hand – ready to capture every word and send it back to his (usually Democratic) client.
He’s a bit like a spy, except he’s so famous in Washington political circles that everybody knows who he is — and tries to kick him out of their events.
VICE News rode along with Zach to find out what life as one of the most-hated people in politics is really like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAFGoX02E4 [with comments]
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How The World's Deadliest Pandemics Are Born: VICE on HBO, Full Episode
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Somewhere in the world, an unknown virus is growing in the bloodstream of an animal, just waiting to jump to the human population.
Since the 1980s, outbreaks of infectious diseases have more than tripled worldwide. For example, one million people die each year from mosquito-borne illness. And with rising temperatures and population growth, the death toll will likely grow. To stay ahead of a potentially devastating global pandemic, scientists have come up with new ways to research and learn about diseases.
Ron Fouchier, a physician who studies genetic mutations at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, genetically modified the H5N1 bird flu virus to become airborne. "So now we can find out exactly what it takes for an animal virus to become airborne," he told VICE News.
Fouchier's work originally sent shockwaves through the international community, but global health experts have found that diligent surveillance and research of these diseases is the key to keeping them at bay.
"Human beings are only as strong as our weakest surveillance system," Larry Brilliant, a physician who helped eradicate smallpox, told VICE News. As Chairman of the Skoll Global Threat Fund, his work now focuses on using mobile data to track outbreaks. "This is one instance where 'America First' means working with the poorest countries in the world to protect them out of selfishness, our own enlightened self-interest."
Uganda, where the Zika virus was first discovered in 1947, already uses a decentralized network of hospitals, laboratories, and motorcycle riders to keep scientists up to date on medical anomalies, which allows them to quickly contain emerging threats.
VICE founder Suroosh Alvi went to the Zika Forest and Kampala, Uganda, to see how vulnerable humans are to a new pandemic and the options for staving one off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uutlec-NVj4 [with comments]
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Educators Say Oklahoma Teacher Salary Increase Bill Is Too Little Too Late (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
This past Monday night, the Oklahoma House of Representative passed House Bill 1010 and raised taxes for the first time in 28 years.
Much of the revenue will go to fund Oklahoma’s schools and raise teacher salaries by an average of $6,000 a year. On Wednesday night, with the threat of a mass teacher walkout looming over their heads, Oklahoma’s senate ratified the bill and put it on the desk of Governor Mary Fallin who, in a joyous press conference, said there would be a “signing party” on Thursday.
The bill was supposed to avert the teacher walkout that has been in the works since this past September when teachers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma began seriously thinking about drastic action to increase funding to an education system that has seen drastic cuts in per-pupil funding and a ten year freeze on teacher salaries.
That movement kicked into full gear after the West Virginia teacher strike in late February and early March — tens of thousands of teachers in Oklahoma began planning for a work stoppage.
After Fallin declared victory in the Capitol, leaders from Oklahoma’s teachers unions began releasing statements saying the bill, which met teacher demands about halfway, had not gone far enough.
VICE News was with a group of educators in Bartlesville as they heard the news from the Capitol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjVjkPEk3eQ [with comments]
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Fired VA Secy. Shulkin: Trump called but didn't fire me
All In with Chris Hayes
3/29/18
David Shulkin says President Trump called to talk about veterans. Later that day, John Kelly called to fire him.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/fired-va-secy-shulkin-trump-called-but-didn-t-fire-me-1198350403720 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uksXjRt4ZnY [with comments]
*
Carter Page returns to All In
All In with Chris Hayes
3/29/18
The former Trump adviser confirms to Chris Hayes that he told investigators about campaign contacts with the Russian ambassador at the GOP convention.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/carter-page-returns-to-all-in-1198350403907 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m77IHhEV6aY [with comments]
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Mueller reportedly eyeing Sessions as Sessions cheats on recusal
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow shares new reporting that Robert Mueller's investigation includes looking at Jeff Sessions contacts with Russians, while at the same time, Sessions is sending investigators to look at the conduct of the Trump Russia investigation.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/mueller-reportedly-eyeing-sessions-as-sessions-cheats-on-recusal-1198423619743 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KishVt-KgaE [with comments]
*
Dossier author Steele among targets of Russian 'hit list': source
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow shares reporting by Richard Engel that one former KGB source says that Sergei Skripal, who the UK says was poisoned by Russia, was on a Kremlin hit list that also includes Trump Russia dossier author Christopher Steele.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/dossier-author-steele-among-targets-of-russian-hit-list-source-1198446659591
*
Trump makes White House aides tiptoe around Russia, Putin policy
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Carol Lee, NBC News national political reporter, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that while White House aides encourage Donald Trump to get tough on Russia, Trump tells his staff to keep quiet on Russia policy.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-makes-white-house-aides-tiptoe-around-russia-putin-policy-1198395459898
*
Fight over V.A. privatization overshadows Shulkin dismissal
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Leo Shane, deputy editor of Military Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about the circumstances of David Shulkin's dismissal as secretary of the V.A. and the forces at work trying to privatize the V.A.'s services.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/fight-over-v-a-privatization-overshadows-shulkin-dismissal-1198435907772
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Pruitt scandal dwarfs Shulkin's, giving lie to firing excuse
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow points out that the explanation that David Shulkin was fired over his travel scandal doesn't make sense in light of the administration's other travel scandals, particularly that of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who not only used more taxpayer money but is literally staying in a lobbyist's house.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/pruitt-scandal-dwarfs-shulkin-s-giving-lie-to-firing-excuse-1198461507756
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Was Trump afraid to fire VA Secretary David Shulkin himself?
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/29/18
Donald Trump called his Veterans Affairs secretary yesterday, but didn't mention his firing. Hours later, he tweeted it. Amy Siskind says the chaos is a sign Trump is "seizing power." Former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina joins Lawrence O'Donnell.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/was-trump-afraid-to-fire-va-secretary-david-shulkin-himself-1198432323637 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqq3EDwFJsU [with comments]
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Parkland students' sway hits those who mock them
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/29/18
A Fox News host mocked Parkland survivor David Hogg on Twitter after he said he'd been rejected from several colleges. She apologized after advertises began pulling out, but it hasn't stopped the ads from leaving. It's not a first for the conservative channel.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/parkland-students-sway-hits-those-who-mock-them-1198432323752 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqEN1UG0do [with comments]
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Trump loses a top administration official about every nine days
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Fired VA Secretary David Shulkin says he and Trump spoke just before he was fired on Twitter, and Trump didn't mention it. Our panel discusses the Trump White House chaos as The Washington Post's Philp Bump notes Trump loses a top official about every nine days.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-loses-a-top-administration-official-about-every-nine-days-1198456899849 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEXSmMosFCA [with comments]
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Hope Hicks is officially gone. So will Trump WH get more chaotic?
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks has worked her last day in the West Wing. That's reportedly leaving White House staffers worried her absence could mean more chaos to come.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/hope-hicks-is-officially-gone-so-will-trump-wh-get-more-chaotic-1198459459650
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Rpt: Mueller probing Russian ambassador's appearance at 2016 RNC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Reuters is reporting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether Jeff Sessions - then a Trump surrogate - met with Russia's ambassador at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Our panel reacts.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/rpt-mueller-probing-russian-ambassador-s-appearance-at-2016-rnc-1198467651507 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIDitSX-Nw [with comments]
*
Trump doesn't know what a community college is
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Seeming to confuse a vocational school with a community college while speaking in Ohio, Trump added: 'I don't know what that means, a community college.'
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-doesn-t-know-what-a-community-college-is-1198465091650 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JWgAYnY0uM [with comments]
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Montana Gun Owners Rally Against the March For Our Lives | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
Roy Wood Jr. travels to Montana to get a first-hand look at a counter-demonstration to the nationwide March For Our Lives protests against gun violence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2v9z2S5XzQ [with comments]
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Hasan Minhaj Breaks Down "Punish a Muslim Day" | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
A campaign promoting "Punish a Muslim Day" spreads through the U.K. and Hasan Minhaj explains why it's poorly thought out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygxKarwg42o [with comments]
*
The World of Butt Chugging | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
What is butt chugging? Ronny Chieng investigates the latest drinking craze with the help of the star of Blockers, John Cena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm4bVDWnDH0 [with comments]
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The Art of Butt Chugging with John Cena and Ronny Chieng
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Comedy Central [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsN5ZwHx2kILm84-jPDeXw / https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral , https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral/videos ]
John Cena and Ronny Chieng's conversation about the movie "Blockers" dives into an unexpected topic: butt chugging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97m1J543qPk [with comments]
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Second Amendment Yoga - The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper
Published on Mar 29, 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 ]
Inspired by Tomi Lahren's choice of concealed-carry workout attire, Jordan and his team of Citizen Journalists attend a relaxing, gun-friendly yoga class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFseY0PvCLs [with comments]
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John Bolton's Terrifying Ideas Sung By Michael Bolton
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos ]
The terrifying things Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton say are slightly more tolerable when sung by Grammy winner Michael Bolton.
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVVO9GN8c4 [with comments]
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Stephen Falls Victim To CNN's 'Fake News'
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Description: Trump's favorite target in the media, CNN, reported on Stephen and Dana Carvey's John Bolton 'The Late Show' bit. And they made a 'fake news.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06tb-P7Ijgo [with comments]
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Jeff Sessions Loves The Secret Wu-Tang Clan Album
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Pharma bro Martin Shkreli's one-of-a-kind copy of Wu-Tang's 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' is now in the hands of the man voted 'least likely to own a rap album.'
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nSQdtvFwNc [with comments]
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Late Show First Drafts: Easter Cards
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
There's no holiday better than Easter to witness the rebirth of a holiday card's first draft.
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_6Sly85Uwk [with comments]
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stashed March 29, 2018:
Jeb fires Trump barbs at Yale talk
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s psychiatrist wants him to move past the 2016 presidential election.
“I’m not going to talk about the 2016 election,” Bush joked on Tuesday in a talk sponsored by the The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale. “I’m still in therapy.”
But that didn’t stop him from taking shots at President Donald Trump, his opponent in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. At one point, Bush described the current president as “Republican in basically name only.” And earlier in his speech, Bush said that after the 2016 Republican primary in South Carolina, he returned home to children who “actually love me.” His comment was met with raucous laughter from the crowd, and several audience members interviewed after the event said they interpreted Bush’s comment as a jab at Trump.
Bush — the son of President George H.W. Bush ’48 and brother of President George W. Bush ’68 — gave a lecture under the title “A Conversation with Jeb Bush: Restoring Conservatism in America.” The lecture and questions that followed focused on the state of American politics and how the younger generation can create a reinvigorated conservative movement.
“If there was ever need for a Bill Buckley-like approach, to transforming conservatism in this country, it is right now,” Bush said. “Maybe not a 19th-century or a 20th-century version of conservatism but certainly a 21st-century version of that. And sadly the fracturing of the conservative movement could not come at a worse time.”
[...]
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/03/28/jeb-fires-trump-barbs-at-yale-talk/
Trump sons unload on Jeb Bush
It’s not entirely clear what Jeb Bush intended when he said that after he was crushed by Donald Trump in the 2016 South Carolina Republican primary, he returned home to children “who actually love me.” He made the comment during a speech at Yale University on Tuesday.
The Yale Daily News, which reported the comment, originally said it was meant as a jab at President Trump — and by implication Trump’s children. The Yale paper later corrected its story to say that while “Bush did not directly refer to Trump,” most of the audience took it that way.
By then it was too late.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/29/eric-trump-jeb-i-love-everything-about-my-father/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dapYuerPD8wUEKMkDkQ9EDKmpBalM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Will Trump And Guns Be Enough To Unseat An Endangered House Republican? - Mike Coffman (R-Co.)
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/597016897/will-trump-and-guns-be-enough-to-unseat-an-endangered-house-republican
How Do You Stand Out in a Crowded Primary? Whale Penises and Yeti Scalps Certainly Help. - Jess Phoenix, a Democratic candidate for Congress from California’s 25th District
Here’s what happens when a volcano scientist runs for Congress.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/jess-phoenix-steve-knight/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dIR7HQdA9V_lhmMM7tkLKku6WYX3M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Family’s S.U.V. Plunges Off Cliff, and Death Toll Is Feared to Be 8
They were the portrait of a modern family: a married female couple and their six adopted children. And in 2014, they were thrust in front of the world for all to see.
One of those children — Devonte, who is black — was photographed hugging a white police sergeant in Portland, Ore., during a 2014 demonstration to protest police violence. In the photograph, Devonte clung to the officer, a mix of fear and anguish in his eyes.
But the intense news media coverage that followed may have been the reason the Hart family decided to flee to Washington State, the authorities said on Wednesday.
Then, recently, the unthinkable occurred. The family’s sport utility vehicle plunged off a 100-foot cliff in California and was discovered on Monday — upside down, engulfed by the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Both parents were found dead inside the S.U.V.; three of their children were discovered dead outside it; and the three other children, including Devonte, were still missing on Wednesday evening and feared dead, law enforcement officials said.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/family-killed-california.html
Family of boy in viral police hug photo dies after SUV plunges off cliff. He’s still missing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/29/family-of-boy-in-viral-police-hug-photo-dies-after-suv-plunges-off-cliff-hes-still-missing/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dqtHC0Jtiw6swyMECSlfIqIPigB-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
‘You’re a mother’: Laura Ingraham savaged for taunting Parkland activist over college rejections
While Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg is becoming a household name at 17, he’s also a senior in high school anxiously waiting for responses from colleges, like his peers across the country.
But what other students don’t endure is public ridicule when they don’t get into all the schools they applied to.
In an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Hogg spoke about receiving rejection letters from California colleges, and in doing so sparked derision from conservatives, particularly Fox News’s Laura Ingraham.
Tweeting an article from a right-wing news site about Hogg’s college prospects, Ingraham appeared to make light of his rejections, saying it was “totally predictable given acceptance rates” that he was “Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA.” In the tweet, Ingraham also said Hogg whined about being rejected.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/29/laura-ingraham-savaged-for-taunting-parkland-activist-over-college-rejections/
Parkland Survivor Slams Fox News Host: ‘Coming From A 14-Year-Old, Please Grow Up’
Teens call for boycott of Laura Ingraham after she mocked a shooting survivor.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lauren-hogg-laura-ingraham_us_5abc7654e4b06409775d0d2c
Parkland student targets Ingraham's advertisers after tweet about college rejections
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/380748-parkland-student-targets-ingrahams-advertisers-after-critical-tweet-about-his
David Hogg: These Are the Laura Ingraham Advertisers Targeted by Parkland Shooting Survivor
http://www.newsweek.com/david-hogg-these-are-laura-ingraham-advertisers-targeted-parkland-shooting-865205
Parkland survivor calls on Melania Trump to intervene after Fox’s Laura Ingraham ‘cyberbullies’ her brother
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/parkland-survivor-calls-melania-trump-intervene-foxs-laura-ingraham-cyberbullies-brother/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dPUgHn_TqrllgZMAYz-mzOuz8MDeM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Britain Signals Harder Look at Wealthy Russians and Russian Wealth
LONDON — For years, anticorruption campaigners have railed against Britain’s openness to ill-gotten riches from overseas and the foreigners who invest them. After a nerve agent attack on British soil, and the resulting diplomatic showdown between Russia and the West, that may be starting to change.
The British government said this week that it would review the cases of 700 Russians who were granted visas to live in Britain largely because they could invest millions of dollars in the country. And it signaled an openness to cutting off access to British financial markets for President Vladimir V. Putin’s government in Russia.
The government’s expressed determination to crack down on dirty money came on a day of rare good news in the poisoning attack. Yulia S. Skripal, who with her father, Sergei V. Skripal, was assaulted with a nerve agent, “is improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition,” Salisbury District Hospital said on Thursday.
Her father, a former Russian spy, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Downing Street has promised before to punish Russia, particularly after the 2006 assassination of the Kremlin critic Aleksandr V. Litvinenko with a deadly radioactive isotope. But it dropped the matter once the headlines disappeared.
Some critics continued to voice doubts about whether this time would be any different. But the fact that Britain’s lax attitude toward corrupt fortunes and the need to change it has become a major topic of debate seems to signal a real change in the political atmosphere.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/world/europe/uk-britain-russia-russian-wealth-putin.html
Russian spy: Yulia Skripal conscious and talking
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, is improving rapidly and is conscious and talking, the BBC understands.
Ms Skripal and her father were admitted nearly four weeks ago after being exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury.
"She has responded well to treatment but continues to receive expert clinical care 24 hours a day," doctors said.
Mr Skripal remains in a critical but stable condition.
[...]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43588450
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dg1LBbD9CX5Ei7MU3ZGrY6l9sRtuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Rival Korean leaders to meet April 27 in historic summit - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/rival-koreas-begin-high-level-talks-meant-to-set-up-summit/2018/03/28/b0cfe2d2-32f3-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/5048c992a91641f1a83580da7b28040b/Rival-Korean-leaders-to-meet-April-27-in-historic-summit
Third inter-Korean summit set for Apr. 27
Agendas desired by Seoul, Pyongyang are ‘not too different’
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3046250
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dan6gXIdgQmAPIMf2GIubZaRaQEJM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump being told he doesn't need a communications director or chief of staff
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/trump-staffing/index.html
Photos capture the emotional moment Hope Hicks and Trump said goodbye on her last day at the White House
Hope Hicks appeared to say an emotional goodbye to President Donald Trump on Thursday, her last day at the White House.
Hicks was one of Trump's longest-serving and most trusted advisers.
She announced late in February she was resigning from her position as White House communications director.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hope-hicks-says-goodbye-to-trump-white-house-photos-2018-3
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dSs3QmEKp5gw-8MzjVhtVt5LQXZ_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
EXCLUSIVE: More Cabinet trouble for Trump? EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist 'power couple'
For much of his first year in Washington, President Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist, property records from 2017 show.
Neither the EPA nor the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, would say how much Pruitt paid to live at the prime Capitol Hill address, though Hart said he believed it to be the market rate. The price tag on Pruitt’s rental arrangement is one key question when determining if it constitutes an improper gift, ethics experts told ABC News.
[...]
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-cabinet-trouble-trump-epa-chief-lived-condo/story?id=54095310
Scott Pruitt’s Attack on Science Would Paralyze the E.P.A.
By Gina McCarthy and Janet G. McCabe
Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has announced that he alone will decide what is and isn’t acceptable science for the agency to use when developing policies that affect your health and the environment.
It is his latest effort to cripple the agency. Mr. Pruitt, who as Oklahoma’s attorney general described himself as “a leading advocate against the E.P.A.’s activist agenda,” said in an interview published in The Daily Caller last week that he would no longer allow the agency to use studies that include nonpublic scientific data to develop rules to safeguard public health and prevent pollution.
Opponents of the agency and of mainstream climate science call these studies “secret science.” But that’s simply not true. Peer review ensures that the analytic methodologies underlying studies funded by the agency are sound.
Some of those studies, particularly those that determine the effects of exposure to chemicals and pollution on health, rely on medical records that by law are confidential because of patient privacy policies. These studies summarize the analysis of raw data and draw conclusions based on that analysis. Other government agencies also use studies like these to develop policy and regulations, and to buttress and defend rules against legal challenges. They are, in fact, essential to making sound public policy.
The agency also relies on industry data to develop rules on chemical safety that is often kept confidential for business reasons.
For instance, foundational epidemiological research into the effects of air pollution on health by scientists at Harvard and the American Cancer Society established a clear connection between exposure to fine particles and increased mortality. This research led to further studies that supported the development of air quality standards and rules requiring industry to reduce pollution, improving health and reducing costs for millions of Americans.
Yet, because the personal health data associated with individuals participating in the studies were obtained with guarantees of confidentiality, Mr. Pruitt apparently would have argued for those studies to be tossed out had he been at the helm then.
The E.P.A. administrator simply can’t make determinations on what science is appropriate in rule-making without calling into question decisions by other federal agencies based on similar kinds of studies, including on the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, and research into cancer and other diseases. All rely to some extent on data from individual health records. If one agency rejects studies based on that sort of data, it could open up policies by other agencies based on similar studies to challenge.
Mr. Pruitt — who is a lawyer, not a scientist — told The Daily Caller: “We need to make sure their data and methodology are published as part of the record. Otherwise, it’s not transparent. It’s not objectively measured, and that’s important.”
We don’t have the details of the new policy. But don’t be fooled by this talk of transparency. He and some conservative members of Congress are setting up a nonexistent problem in order to prevent the E.P.A. from using the best available science. These studies adhere to all professional standards and meet every expectation of the scientific community in terms of peer review and scientific integrity. In the case of the air pollution studies, a rigorous follow-up examination was done by the Health Effects Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies air pollution. The institute corroborated the findings.
In taking this action, Mr. Pruitt appears to be adopting the policies of the Honest and Open New E.P.A. Science Treatment Act, a bill aimed at the agency. Conservative lawmakers have tried to pass versions of this bill before to shackle the agency’s rule making. That law would prohibit the E.P.A. from taking any action “unless all scientific and technical information relied on to support” it is “specifically identified, and publicly available in a manner sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.”
An analysis of a similar bill introduced in 2015 by the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost $250 million a year over the first few years to carry out because it would require new “data collection, correspondence and coordination with study authors, construction of a database to house necessary information, and public dissemination” of the information.
The analysis, which did not appear to take into account the cost of redacting details like trade secrets or personally identifiable medical information, also predicted the agency would reduce by half the number of studies it relies on in developing policies and regulations because of the cost of complying with the law.
“The quality of the agency’s work would be compromised if that work relies on a significantly smaller collection of scientific studies,” the analysis found.
This approach would undermine the nation’s scientific credibility. And should Mr. Pruitt reconsider regulations now in place, this new policy could be a catalyst for the unraveling of existing public health protections if the studies used to justify them could no longer be used by E.P.A.
So why would he want to prohibit his own agency from using these studies? It’s not a mystery. Time and again the Trump administration has put the profits of regulated industries over the health of the American people. Fundamental research on the effects of air pollution on public health has long been a target of those who oppose the E.P.A.’s air quality regulations, like the rule that requires power plants to reduce their mercury emissions.
Mr. Pruitt’s goal is simple: No studies, no data, no rules. No climate science, for instance, means no climate policy.
If a tree falls in the forest, we know it makes a sound, even if people aren’t there to hear it. When people are exposed to mercury, lead or other air- and waterborne pollutants, we know their health is affected, whether or not E.P.A. is allowed to use the scientific studies that confirm those health impacts.
This policy no doubt will become a matter of litigation. It will be interesting to hear the agency defend Mr. Pruitt’s view that peer-reviewed studies that meet every standard for proper scientific method and integrity should not be considered in drafting policies and regulations that regulate threats to the environment.
Representative Bill Foster, a physicist and Democrat from Illinois, has argued that “scientists should set the standards for research, not politicians.”
We couldn’t agree more. Scientific research provides factual support for policies that reduce exposure to pollution and protect the American people from costly and dangerous illnesses and premature deaths. Under Mr. Pruitt’s approach to science, the E.P.A. would be turning its back on its mandate to “protect human health and the environment.”
Gina McCarthy was the E.P.A. administrator from 2013 to 2017. Janet G. McCabe was acting assistant administrator of the E.P.A’s Office of Air and Radiation from 2013 to 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/opinion/pruitt-attack-science-epa.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dvjs-PMArFDpUFM9CGnIRiFPHh3_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Deadly Austin bombings were ‘domestic terrorism,’ police chief says
https://www.statesman.com/news/local/today-austin-police-chief-joins-kut-panel-discuss-bombings-racial-climate/6Gg2VytROVBI8e4ft5jwmJ/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dW6zN88BJ8_Gl5Md8sd5__OpyUyxM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Facebook starts fact checking photos/videos, blocks millions of fake accounts per day
A photo of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez ripping up a shooting range target was falsly doctored to show her ripping up the constitution. Photo fact checking could help Facebook prevent the false image from going viral. [Image via CNN]
Facebook has begun letting partners fact check photos and videos beyond news articles, and proactively review stories before Facebook asks them. Facebook is also now preemptively blocking the creation of millions of fake accounts per day. Facebook revealed this news on a conference call with journalists [Update: and later a blog post ( https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/hard-questions-election-security/ )] about its efforts around election integrity that included Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos who’s said to be leaving Facebook later this year.
Stamos outlined how Facebook is building ways to address fake identities, fake audiences grown illicitly or pumped up to make content appear more popular, acts of spreading false information, and false narratives that are intentionally deceptive and shape people’s views beyond the facts. “It’s important to match the right approach to each of these challenges” says Stamos, explaining that Facebook customize its solutions to these problems for different countries around the world.
Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s product manager for civic engagement also explained that Facebook is now proactively looking for foreign-based Pages producing civic-related content inauthentically. It removes them from the platform if a manual review by the security team finds they violate terms of service.
“This proactive approach has allowed us to move more quickly and has become a really important way for us to prevent divisive or misleading memes from going viral” said Chakrabarti. Facebook first piloted this tool in the Alabama special election, but has now deployed it to protect Italian elections and will use it for the U.S. mid-term elections.
Meanwhile, advances in machine learning have allowed Facebook “to find more suspicious behaviors without assessing the content itself” to block millions of fake account creations per day “before they can do any harm”, says Chakrabarti.
Facebook implemented its first slew of election protections back in December 2016, including working with third-party fact checkers to flag articles as false. But those red flags were shown to entrench some people’s belief in false stories, leading Facebook to shift to showing Related Articles with perspectives from other reputable news outlets. As of yesterday, Facebook’s fact checking partners began reviewing suspicious photos and videos which can also spread false information. This could reduce the spread of false news image memes that live on Facebook and require no extra clicks to view, like doctored photos showing the Parkland school shooting survivors ripping up the constitution.
Normally, Facebook sends fact checkers stories that are being flagged by users and going viral. But now in countries like Italy and Mexico in anticipation of elections, Facebook has enabled fact checkers to proactively flag things because in some cases they can identify false stories that are spreading before Facebook’s own systems. “To reduce latency in advance of elections, we wanted to ensure we gave fact checkers that ability” says Facebook’s News Feed product manager Tessa Lyons.
With the mid-terms coming up quick, Facebook has to both secure its systems against election interference, as well as convince users and regulators that it’s made real progress since the 2016 presidential election where Russian meddlers ran rampant. Otherwise, Facebook risks another endless news cycle about it being a detriment to democracy that could trigger reduced user engagement and government intervention.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/facebook-fact-check-photos/
Here’s Cambridge Analytica’s plan for voters’ Facebook data
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/heres-cambridge-analyticas-plan-for-voters-facebook-data/
Facebook will cut off access to third party data for ad targeting
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/facebook-will-cut-off-access-to-third-party-data-for-ad-targeting/
Facebook May Be Facing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in FTC Fines
http://fortune.com/2018/03/29/facebook-cambridge-analytica-ftc/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dJC-Fd8l7_VqVeMYF5VL2RDbHU9RM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
McDonald's to Boost Its Tuition Benefits After Tax Windfall
Fast-food chain to spend $150 million on education program - over 4 years - ooh, wow (. . .)
Restaurant companies are adding perks in tight labor market
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/mcdonald-s-to-boost-tuition-benefits-after-getting-tax-windfall
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dxFHlRKPyh5kFfMLoh4PTqoPk9SUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia to Expel U.S. Diplomats in Tit-for-Tat Move
Russia to dismiss same number of diplomats as the U.S. did over U.K. spy poisoning case
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-expel-u-s-diplomats-in-tit-for-tat-move-1522345053
Russian officials accuse opposition of exploiting shopping centre fire
Thousands of people held an unsanctioned vigil in Kemerovo where the fire killed 64 people
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/28/russian-officials-accuse-opposition-of-exploiting-shopping-centre-fire
Russia Says It Will Expel 60 U.S. Diplomats in Retaliation for Trump’s Move
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/russia-orders-60-u-s-diplomats-to-leave-in-retaliatory-move
The Latest: UN chief warns of new Cold War approaching - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-latest-condition-of-russian-ex-spys-daughter-improves/2018/03/29/6caef740-335d-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/e3e531357a9d42528eb6aac2d8539bb1/The-Latest:-UN-chief-warns-of-new-Cold-War-approaching
Russia Retaliates, Expels 60 American Diplomats After U.S. Action
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/597995498/russia-retaliates-expels-60-american-diplomats-after-u-s-action
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dRQYPy0U6T7VAQMYIYRrZodQs6p-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Judge denies Stormy Daniels request to depose President Trump, lawyer vows to refile motion
A judge denied a request by a lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels to depose President Donald Trump.
Daniels is seeking to void an agreement that required her to keep silent about an alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006.
Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for the actress, said he would refile the motion seeking the president's deposition soon.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/judge-denies-stormy-daniels-request-to-depose-president-trump.html
Trump’s lawyer has a lawyer and he just made the Stormy Daniels situation a lot worse
A disastrous interview on CNN.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-lawyer-has-a-lawyer-and-he-just-made-the-stormy-daniels-situation-a-lot-worse-e8e5ccf51d70/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dsue_7TkP4R7VGMRZH5JCFaJLG5XM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Italian Journalist [atheist] Claims Pope Francis Told Him “Hell Does Not Exist”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/03/29/italian-journalist-claims-pope-francis-told-him-hell-does-not-exist/
Vatican rebukes journalist who quoted pope as denying hell
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-hell/vatican-rebukes-journalist-who-quoted-pope-as-denying-hell-idUSKBN1H52H8
Pope, in Holy Thursday prison visit, says death penalty not Christian - a slight irony: without ancient death penalty/the death of Jesus on the cross to secure God's forgiveness of sinners if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Christianity wouldn't exist
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-easter-pope-holythursday/pope-in-holy-thursday-prison-visit-says-death-penalty-not-christian-idUSKBN1H52Q0
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dOZvB2XWNtjk79MR6pJgdHljW5SoM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia plan to spend $200 billion building the world’s biggest solar power plant
SoftBank Group Corp., known for splashy deals involving billions of dollars (see: its Vision Fund and investments in Uber and Didi), has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia to build a $200 billion solar power plant. Expected to reach its full capacity of 200 gigawatts by 2030, the development will be the largest of its kind in the world by far.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Saudi Arabian project is about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, the 2 gigawatt Solar Choice Bulli Creek PV in Australia, which is expected to be completed by 2023.
[...]
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/softbank-group-and-saudi-arabia-plan-to-spend-200-billion-building-the-worlds-biggest-solar-power-plant/
David J. Shulkin: Privatizing the V.A. Will Hurt Veterans
By David J. Shulkin
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/opinion/shulkin-veterans-affairs-privatization.html
David Shulkin, fired by Trump, warns that privatizing the Veterans Affairs Department will hurt veterans
President Donald Trump aims to replace Veteran Affairs Department Secretary David Shulkin with White House physician Ronny Jackson.
Shulkin offered a parting shot Thursday in an op-ed for The New York Times.
"Privatization leading to the dismantling of the department's extensive health care system is a terrible idea," Shulkin wrote.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/david-shulkin-fired-by-trump-warns-against-privatizing-the-va.html
Privatizing all VA care would be a big mistake - letters re "Democrats slam rumors of VA secretary’s possible firing: ‘We need to know who’s calling the shots’", https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/03/14/democrats-slam-news-of-va-secretarys-possible-firing-we-need-to-know-whos-calling-the-shots/?utm_term=.954fc21fc302
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/privatizing-all-va-care-would-be-a-big-mistake/2018/03/16/7148f034-2864-11e8-a227-fd2b009466bc_story.html
Opinion | VA needs work, not politics or privatizing
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/03/29/opinion-va-needs-work-not-politics-privatizing/468678002/
Privatizing the VA will hurt vets, the left [. . .] says - references items included above
https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/privatizing-the-will-hurt-vets-the-left-says/AHZJ4kicV1abhuWuktBvVJ/
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=privatizing+the+va+will+hurt+veterans
Inside the Cutthroat Battle to Be the Next Hope Hicks
Hope Hicks plans to depart Washington by Good Friday, over a month after she resigned as the White House communications director on February 28. She will leave behind a press operation that is inherently broken, rife with scandal and petty divisions that have only worsened amid the cyclical staff sheddings that have defined the first 14 months of Donald Trump’s administration.
The race to fill the Hicks void is a clandestine parade of all the worst human impulses. Among the potential hires mentioned by Trump in conversations with aides in recent weeks are former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who reportedly isn’t interested, and Kellyanne Conway, who reportedly is. But administration sources told New York that, whoever the job goes to, the real story is the bloodletting between two early front-runners: director of strategic communications Mercedes “Mercy” Schlapp and Treasury Department spokesperson Tony Sayegh, both former Fox News contributors.
[...]
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/inside-the-cutthroat-battle-to-be-the-next-hope-hicks.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=inside+the+cutthroat+battle
Kelly Loses White House Clout as Trump Blazes Own Path
Chief of staff out of loop for several key recent decisions
President and top aide at times now on different wavelengths
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has lost some of his clout following recent missteps and wasn’t at President Donald Trump’s side for crucial decisions on staffing and policy moves, according to several senior aides.
Kelly wasn’t with the president last week when Trump abruptly decided to oust H.R. McMaster as national security adviser and replace him with John Bolton. Just two people were in the room for that decision: Trump and Bolton.
And Kelly is rarely on the line any more when Trump calls foreign leaders. Last week, when Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin days before the U.S. decided to expel dozens of Russian diplomats, Kelly wasn’t on the call.
The chief of staff’s absence at those two key moments last week highlights his struggles in managing the White House for a president who has a penchant for unpredictability and often follows his own lead when making decisions. Kelly has seen his influence slip since a staffing controversy in February marred his credibility and damaged his image as an internal disciplinarian.
[...]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/kelly-is-said-to-lose-white-house-clout-as-trump-blazes-own-path
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=kelly+loses+white+house+clout
Sessions names prosecutor investigating claims of FBI misconduct but declines to appoint special counsel
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/sessions-prosecutor-fbi-misconduct-clinton-uranium-one-special-counsel/index.html
Jeff Sessions Is Winning for Donald Trump. If Only He Can Keep His Job
http://time.com/5220086/jeff-sessions-is-winning-for-donald-trump-if-only-he-can-keep-his-job/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod
Time Magazine features 'creepy' photo of Jeff Sessions
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/03/29/time-magazine-features-creepy-photo-jeff-sessions.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=jeff+sessions
Trump, Mattis discuss border wall funding - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-mattis-discuss-border-wall-funding/2018/03/29/5478b17a-3394-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/54ffeaf396ce4d2bac1c982679a9763a/Trump,-Mattis-discuss-border-wall-funding
Mattis jokes to Bolton: 'I heard you're actually the devil incarnate'
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/mattis-bolton-meeting-joke/index.html
Mattis jokes that he's heard Bolton is the 'devil incarnate'
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/29/mattis-joke-bolton-devil-incarnate-491771
Jim Mattis Called John Bolton "The Devil" When They Met Because, Sure, Why Not?
Mattis greeted Bolton with, "I’ve heard that you’re actually the devil incarnate."
https://www.buzzfeed.com/verabergengruen/jim-mattis-called-john-bolton-the-devil-when-they-met
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d1ikCK7mdTlUjyMmrhUJJ431ZiFMM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump tells aides not to talk publicly about Russia policy moves
Trump told Putin "I'll win" if Russia starts an arms race.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-tells-aides-not-talk-publicly-about-russia-policy-moves-n861256
The Shadowy Operative at the Center of the Russia Scandal - Konstantin Kilimnik
Court documents call him Person A, but descriptions match the officer to Russian intelligence and to Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-shadowy-operative-at-the-center-of-the-russia-scandal/556823/
The Lie Detector in the Age of Alternative Facts
Russell Simmons, Stormy Daniels, he said, she said: Americans are desperately seeking truth in machines that are unable to provide it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/the-lie-detector-in-the-age-of-alternative-facts/556685/
The Hopeful Face of Middle America
“I think that youth should be heard—and not only heard, but listened to,” says a teenager in the short documentary My America. As the reverberations from last weekend’s Marches for Our Lives [ https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/photos-from-the-march-for-our-lives/556454/ ] continue to make headlines, Barnaby Roper’s film offers a galvanizing portrait of youth in America’s heartland.
Roper traversed middle America in search of answers after the 2016 election. “People would always say to me, ‘It was middle America’s fault,’” Roper told The Atlantic. “But I never understood this. So I wanted to go and see for myself. I wanted to make a film about the next generation of Americans—the generation that would inherit our successes and failures, our strengths and weaknesses.”
The production team, led by Cadence Films [ http://cadence-films.com/ ], encountered young people as diverse as the country in which they live. From teenagers fighting gun violence to extreme sports champions to misfits escaping homophobic families, the subjects of My America seem to have one thing in common: a disinclination to repeat the mistakes of an America past. “The American Dream is a total figment of the imagination,” says one young woman. “It died with history.”
Despite the fact that it was born of election results, Roper insists that “this is not a political film. It’s about hope. It’s about strength of the youth of our country. The youth of world need to be listened to.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/556634/middle-america-youth/
Mueller probing Russia contacts at Republican convention: sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators probing whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiries.
Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.
Another issue Mueller’s team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity.
Mueller’s interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel’s investigation.
Trump, who was nominated as the Republican Party candidate for the November 2016 election during the convention, has denied any collusion with Russia during the campaign. Moscow has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it interfered in the campaign to try to tilt the election in Trump’s favor.
Investigators have asked detailed questions about conversations that Sessions, then a Trump campaign adviser, had at a convention event attended by then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, said the first source, who was questioned by Mueller about the event.
The same source said Mueller’s team also has been asking whether Sessions had private discussions with Kislyak on the sidelines of a campaign speech Trump gave at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in April 2016.
Sessions’ spokespersons have denied repeatedly that he had any private discussions with Kislyak at the Mayflower. Sessions told lawmakers last year he could not recall any conversations with Russian officials at the hotel but could not rule out that a “brief interaction” with Kislyak may have occurred there.
Spokespersons for Mueller and Sessions declined to comment on Mueller’s interest in Sessions’ activities at the convention and other convention-related events.
UKRAINE LANGUAGE
The special counsel’s investigators have also interviewed attendees of the committee meetings that drafted the Republican Party platform in Cleveland.
At one committee meeting, according to people in attendance, Diana Denman, a member of the platform committee’s national security subcommittee, proposed language calling for the United States to supply “lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine’s armed forces and greater coordination with NATO on defense planning.”
But the final platform language deleted the reference to “lethal defensive weapons,” a change that made the platform less hostile to Russia, whose troops had invaded the Crimean peninsula and eastern Ukraine.
After the convention, Denman told Reuters in 2016, J.D. Gordon, a Trump foreign policy adviser, told her he was going to speak to Trump about the language on Ukraine, and that Trump’s campaign team played a direct role in softening the platform language.
The Trump campaign has denied playing any role in the weakening of the party’s position regarding Ukraine. Gordon has called Denman’s version of events “inaccurate.”
Stephen Yates, co-chair of the platform committee’s national security subcommittee, said he has “heard nothing about other members of the subcommittee being called in for questioning, and I have had no interaction with anyone working on the investigation.”
Sessions recused himself last year from the federal probe into Russian election meddling after it emerged that he had failed to say during his Senate confirmation hearing to be attorney general that he had met with Russia’s ambassador in 2016.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-convention/mueller-probing-russia-contacts-at-republican-convention-sources-idUSKBN1H52VT
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=mueller+probing+russia+contacts
E.P.A. Prepares to Roll Back Rules Requiring Cars to Be Cleaner and More Efficient
The Trump administration is expected to launch an effort in coming days to weaken greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for automobiles, handing a victory to car manufacturers and giving them ammunition to potentially roll back industry standards worldwide.
The move — which undercuts one of President Barack Obama’s signature efforts to fight climate change — would also propel the Trump administration toward a courtroom clash with California, which has vowed to stick with the stricter rules even if Washington rolls back federal standards. That fight could end up creating one set of rules for cars sold in California and the 12 states that follow its lead, and weaker rules for the rest of the states, in effect splitting the nation into two markets.
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to frame the initiative as eliminating a regulatory burden on automakers that will result in more affordable trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles for buyers, according to people familiar with the plan.
An E.P.A. spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Pruitt had sent a draft of the 16-page plan to the White House for approval.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/climate/epa-cafe-auto-pollution-rollback.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dEaKjLjdwnMsZNMW_5gE9CFulpRMM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Laura Ingraham, Facing Boycott, Apologizes for Taunting Parkland Survivor David Hogg
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/laura-ingraham-david-hogg.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpJN6wegv9K_C0MkX9OeHcAJ2GPZM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
How Trump got to ‘yes’ on the biggest purge of Russian spies in U.S. history
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-trump-got-toyes-on-the-biggest-purge-of-russian-spies-in-us-history/2018/03/29/3e056a28-337b-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dNs5NFCIRKmZzrMoUTvsN5C_YxtOM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump wants ‘out’ of Syria ‘very soon,’ contradicting top officials
'We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,' the president said Thursday, in what would be an apparent change in U.S. policy.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/29/trump-syria-military-isis-491856
Trump says U.S. to pull out of Syria "very soon"
While delivering a speech on infrastructure in Ohio on Thursday, President Trump said that "we'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon." In December, the Pentagon said it had about 2,000 troops deployed in the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-Fr4as7-Y
On Syria, Trump is worse than Obama
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/opinions/trump-failure-syria-opinion-ghitis/index.html
Syria war: France offers to mediate between Turkey and Kurds
France has offered to mediate in the conflict in northern Syria, where Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish fighters in January.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43592323
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dNViYYuHcVdYZMMXrsFTgXbLCVyCM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Crazed girls flood Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz with fan mail
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-reg-nikolas-cruz-prison-love-letters-20180327-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLcEP2GpjifzBhM3h9U7ZODwtfbpM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Source: Mueller pushed for Gates' help on collusion
(CNN) - Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign's contact with the Russians. New information disclosed in court filings and to CNN this week begin to show how they're getting it.
In a court filing earlier this week, the public saw the first signs of how the Mueller team plans to use information from Gates to tie Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, directly to a Russian intelligence agency. Mueller's team alleges that Gates was in contact with a close colleague of Manafort's who worked for a Russian intelligence agency -- and that Gates knew of the spy service ties in September and October 2016, while he worked on the Trump campaign. Gates would have to talk about the communication with the man if prosecutors wanted, according to his plea deal.
That's in line with what prosecutors told Gates months ago during high-stakes negotiations, CNN has learned. They told him they didn't need his cooperation against Manafort, according to a person familiar with the investigation, and instead wanted to hear what he knew about contact between the Trump campaign and Russians.
The extent of Gates' knowledge about any such contact or what he told prosecutors hasn't been made public.
As part of Gates' agreement to cooperate with the special counsel a month ago, he earned a vastly reduced potential sentence and had several charges dropped in two criminal cases against him.
[...]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/mueller-gates-russia-investigation-contacts/index.html
Mueller signals he is going after bigger fish as he drills down on the central thread of the Russia investigation
The special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly didn't need former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates' cooperation against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Instead, Mueller wants to know what Gates knew about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia during the 2016 US election.
Gates was a key player during pivotal moments in the campaign, and his vastly reduced plea deal indicates he has information of significant value for Mueller.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-gates-trump-campaign-russia-collusion-contacts-2018-3
Sentencing Memorandum
Sentencing Memorandum , USA v. VAN DER ZWAAN, No. 1:18-cr-00031-1 (D.D.C. Mar 27, 2018)
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4424937-Sentencing-Memorandum.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpMFqATmzHjzpTM3v_rZK8JVyrNuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Here's Hillary Clinton's blunt response to those who say 'get off the stage and shut up'
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/03/hillary_clinton_at_rutgers_32918.html
Hillary Clinton: Get more women to run for office and vote in midterm elections
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2018/03/29/hillary-clinton-rutgers-talk-politics-and-womens-movement/469871002/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMVdXg6-xPh_3eMviOiKIJkKfa3mM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
2016 Facebook memo suggests company values growth over user safety
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-memo-the-ugly-andrew-boz-bosworth-mark-zuckerberg-response-today-2018-03-29/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dHSCgt48VxMD2QMGl41fnSHGmBBxM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Under Armour says 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts breached
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-under-armour-databreach/under-armour-says-150-million-myfitnesspal-accounts-breached-idUSKBN1H532W
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d-UoQj17RljAhJMm0oq4j3qVnvaOM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
FBI looked into Trump plans to build hotel in Latvia with Putin supporter
Exclusive: US authorities made inquiries even before 2016 election campaign into Trump property dealings in former Soviet Union
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/29/trump-fbi-hotel-latvia-investigation-russia-links
FBI Investigated Trump Before Election Over Latvia Hotel Linked to Putin Backer, Report Says
http://www.newsweek.com/fbi-trump-latvia-hotel-putin-865969
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=latvia+looked+into+trump+plans
Explosive Facebook Memo Defended Company’s Strategy, Even If It Got People Killed
“We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified,” an executive wrote in 2016.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-memo-andrew-boz-bosworth_us_5abdace2e4b055e50acc8486
WSJ Employees Say Senior Editor Tried To Pull Story For Political Reasons
“This is censorship and it is beneath the standards of the Wall Street Journal,” they wrote in a letter.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wall-street-journal-censorship-letter_us_5abd2570e4b03e2a5c7a735f
The Military Banned Waterboarding Trainees Because It Was Too Brutal — And Never Announced It
Torture apologists cite the military’s use of waterboarding trainees in defense of Gina Haspel, Trump’s nominee for CIA director. One problem: The military stopped that training in 2007.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/military-sere-waterboarding-banned-torture-cia-gina-haspel_us_5abd1240e4b06409775e4122
Trump Has No Idea Why He Gets To Fill So Many Empty Court Seats
He should be thanking Mitch McConnell. He thinks Obama just mysteriously left him 100+ court vacancies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-federal-judges-obama-republicans_us_5abd47c4e4b0a47437a98594
Donald Trump Jr. Gets In A Snit Over Accurate BBC Headline About Ronny Jackson - Trump picks his doctor to replace Shulkin as veterans secretary, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43578598
He can’t handle the truth.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jr-bbc-tweet-ronny-jackson_us_5abd2678e4b06409775e561b
Trapped Inside The Monster Energy Frat House
A woman who worked at the drink company said she was sexually harassed and abruptly fired. This is what can happen when a boys club runs amok.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monster-energy-sexual-discrimination-women_us_5aba7f31e4b04a59a31208c9
Republican Strategist Nails Why David Hogg Got To Laura Ingraham
If only elected officials in the Republican Party would stand up to Fox News like school shooting survivor David Hogg did.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-strategist-david-hogg-laura-ingraham_us_5abd7f37e4b0a47437a9be6b
The March For Our Lives Was Inclusive. Here’s How To Make Sure Its Agenda Is, Too.
The Parkland students have a lot of work ahead to deliver on the vision they laid out on Saturday. Other activists have advice for how they can get it done.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/march-for-our-lives-inclusive_us_5abbf6c9e4b04a59a3140efc
Bad Ideas Aren’t Worth Debating
“Would American intellectual life really lose out because we aren’t debating whether women who have abortions should be hanged?"
Mainstream magazines in the Donald Trump era have been scrambling to hire more right-leaning columnists to demonstrate their commitment to diversity of thought. These efforts have borne fruit, though not exactly in the manner intended. Instead of showing the value of vibrant debate, they’ve demonstrated that conservative ideas aren’t worth debating.
The Atlantic’s recent personnel choices are a case in point. The magazine has just hired two new columnists, one on the left, one on the right. The left columnist, Ibram X. Kendi, is the author of Stamped from the Beginning. The monograph is a groundbreaking, painstaking history of the development of racist and anti-racist ideas in America that challenges comfortable notions of progress against bigotry. It won the National Book Award. The right columnist, Kevin D. Williamson, is a writer formerly at National Review who has referred to a nine-year-old black child as a ”primate.”
Most of the online discussion following The Atlantic’s hires has focused on Williamson, especially on a series of tweets in which he stated that women who have abortions should be hanged. Kendi has been largely forgotten — but the contrast between his work and Williamson’s is instructive. Kendi is a pioneering anti-racist, while Williamson regurgitates tired racist bilge. But beyond that, Kendi shows that it would be trivially easy for high profile, mainstream venues to find serious, important, respected, left scholars to write for them.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Julia Serano, Safiya Umoja Noble, Laura Agustín — the left has an embarrassment of thinkers with unique perspectives and valuable knowledge who could enrich the public discourse. And the right has ... Kevin D. Williamson, a longtimer in the right-wing media bubble whose brilliant, provocative ideas include the suggestion that we should name rape accusers.
It’s not just Williamson, either. Bret Stephens, The New York Times’ high profile conservative hire, kicked off his tenure with an embarrassing column spouting climate change denial. Later he penned a defense of Woody Allen which ignored substantial evidence that the actor had abused his then 7-year-old adoptive daughter. Stephens also compared Allen favorably to former Olympic gymnast national team doctor Larry Nassar, because Nassar abused more than 250 children, while Allen was accused only of abusing one.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post hired libertarian conservative writer Megan McArdle. McArdle seriously recommended in 2012 that we could reduce gun violence by training children to rush active shooters. “If we drilled it into young people that the correct thing to do is for everyone to instantly run at the guy with the gun, these sorts of mass shootings would be less deadly,” she insisted.
McArdle, Stephens, and Williamson have all been mercilessly mocked on social media. In response, conservatives have wailed that liberals are intolerant, and don’t want any conservatives to write in the mainstream. “If left-leaning but not explicitly ideological publications cleanse their pages of conservative voices, the loss to American intellectual life will be immense,” National Review fulminates.
But would it? Would American intellectual life really lose out because we aren’t debating whether women who have abortions should be hanged? What does Williamson’s cruel, bigoted refusal to use Laverne Cox’s proper pronouns add to “American intellectual life”? Our public discourse ? or for that matter life on earth ? is not enriched but imperiled by ignorant, ideological efforts to cast doubt on the consensus around climate change.
The issue is not left intolerance. The issue is that conservative intellectuals make bad, often nonsensical arguments, and spout opinions that are hateful and harmful on their face.
Nor is this a surprise, given the last several decades of American history. Anyone looking objectively at the GOP’s record in politics over the last 30-odd years would reasonably conclude that conservatism is a bankrupt and harmful ideology, built on bigotry and a fetishization of tax cuts for the rich. The previous Republican president, George W. Bush, presided over an unnecessary and catastrophic war, a horrifyingly incompetent hurricane relief effort, and a historic, devastating financial collapse. The current Republican president is an incompetent would-be authoritarian whose main accomplishments so far have involved empowering a fascist police force to harass and deport innocent people. The Republican Congress put forth incoherent health care plan after incoherent health care plan, before ramming through a similarly incoherent tax cut for the wealthy.
Conservatism in office has brought Americans war, financial disaster, misery, and rising fascism. Conservative pundits, meanwhile, write column after column propounding ill-informed, bigoted, and cruel solutions to problems that don’t exist, while denying the existence of real injustices and misery.
This is not some sort of coincidence. Conservative governance is a disaster because conservative thinking is bankrupt. Giving more space to conservative thinkers is not going to make our polity more diverse and vibrant. It’s going to fill our public sphere with prejudice and ignorance. Ibram X. Kendi challenges and enlightens. Kevin D. Williamson does neither of those things.
The left is constantly told that we’re shutting down debate and thereby threatening free speech. But no one is owed a platform at a mainstream publication. The record of conservative governance, and the record of conservative pundits, makes a strong case that conservative ideas have little to offer in response to our greatest problems now, if they ever did.
Yes, lots of people believe in conservatism, but lots of people believe in astrology, too. That doesn’t mean that mainstream publications should start running serious op-eds about what the arrangement of the stars says about the major political issues of our day. (Though admittedly astrology is a lot less harmful than conservatism.)
The rise of Trump should have led gatekeepers to question the legitimacy and the value of conservatism. Predictably, though, it has done the opposite. Power is always its own justification, and Trump’s narrow, fluke victory has convinced editors at The New York Times and The Atlantic that what America really wants and needs is more serious conservatism to challenge readers. But “serious conservatism” is an oxymoron, and readers are ill-served by garbage provocations, bigotry, and ignorance couched as “challenges.”
If conservatives have thinkers and scholars on the level of Ibram X. Kendi, bring them forward. In the meantime, Kevin D. Williamson, and all the other fourth-rate proponents of his failed ideology, should be shown the door. Our public sphere would be more vibrant, more thoughtful, more productive, and yes, more free, without them.
Noah Berlatsky is the author most recently of Nazi Dreams: Films About Fascism [ https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Dreams-Films-About-Fascism-ebook/dp/B0774GL9WV ].
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-berlatsky-williamson-atlantic_us_5abd1764e4b06409775e47b0
A Census Question About Citizenship Should Worry You, No Matter Your Immigration Stance
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-escalante-census-citizenship_us_5abc2ea1e4b03e2a5c790abf
George W. Bush’s Ethics Chief Warns Trump Insiders: People Will Go ‘To The Slammer’ - Richard Painter
“The question is who and how high up this is going to reach.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/richard-painter-people-going-to-the-slammer_us_5abda079e4b055e50acc78e2
Trump Says His Border Wall Is Going Up Right Now. It’s Not.
“You can see a chicken as a penguin, but it’s still a chicken,” a panelist on CNN quips.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-wall-boasts-fake_us_5abd8932e4b0f112dc9b0b28
ICE Ends Policy Of Presuming Release For Pregnant Detainees
Instead, pregnant women will be released from immigrant detention only on a case-by-case basis.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/immigration-customs-enforcement-pregnant-women_us_5abd07d7e4b03e2a5c7a4262
Tomi Lahren’s Exercise Pants Gun Photo Becomes Butt Of Twitter Jokes - "To protect our schools, all classrooms will now be equipped with Tomi Lahren and her vagina gun."
The Fox News contributor is being mocked for stuffing a gun into her yoga pants.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tomi-lahren-yoga-pants-gun_us_5abcbcd5e4b03e2a5c799765
Trump Says Infrastructure Overhaul Will Likely Have To Wait Until After Midterms
It’s an admission rooted in political reality and the congressional calendar.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-infrastructure-midterms_us_5abd33f9e4b03c9964e2d5f5
The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica Scandal, According To My Mom
Zuckerberg doesn’t seem so nice after all, she says. “Not that I’d be upset if you married him.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cambridge-analytica-facebook-explained-mom_us_5aba9423e4b04a59a3121fd9
Trapped In An Internet Desert, Detroit Teens Struggle To Stay Online
Many without computers or reliable internet rely on free computer labs or public WiFi networks to do their homework.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/detroit-internet-teens_us_5abbfb34e4b06409775cc5ea
These Portraits Shine A Light On The Homeless Faces You Pass Every Day
The illustrated profiles of men and women who’ve experienced homelessness in New York City in this series are gorgeous.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-portrait-series-shines-a-light-on-the-homeless-faces-you-pass-every-day_us_5abbce67e4b04a59a313c1aa
A New Jersey Judge Asked A Woman If She Closed Her Legs To Prevent Rape
John F. Russo has been on paid administrative leave since May 2017.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-new-jersey-judge-asked-a-woman-if-she-closed-her-legs-to-prevent-rape_us_5abd10dbe4b06409775e3e7e
Teacher Suspended After Discussing Her Sexual Orientation In Class - Yahoo! Lifestyle
An elementary school teacher has been suspended for discussing a topic related to her sexual orientation in class.
Stacy Bailey, 31, an art teacher at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School in Arlington, Texas, who was previously named “Teacher of the Year 2016,” was suspended with pay after the district received a complaint from a parent that she was discussing an LGBT topic in class.
[...]
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teacher-suspended-after-discussing-her-sexual-orientation-in-class_us_5abcfeebe4b04a59a3155992
original https://sg.news.yahoo.com/teacher-suspended-discussing-sexual-orientation-class-021730933.html
Why Do Cracking Knuckles Make That Noise? You Might Need a Calculator ( https://youtu.be/BHEcQluSzmM )
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/science/cracking-knuckles-mathematical-model.html
study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22664-4
earlier study (2015) (via https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/science/how-a-cracking-knuckle-makes-a-noise.html ) http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119470
Simulation May Finally Explain Why Knuckle Cracking Makes That Awful Sound
https://gizmodo.com/now-we-know-why-knuckle-cracking-makes-that-awful-sound-1824154323
Scientists explain the sound of knuckle cracking
Scientists have turned their attention to investigating that most annoying of human habits - the sound made when you crack your knuckles.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43572709
Scientists have spent 60 years agonizing over how our knuckles crack
https://qz.com/1240783/scientists-may-have-solved-the-mystery-behind-the-sounds-of-knuckle-cracking/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMeI4qwCedWV8sMaeQXjK6VwBUQ6M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
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Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now! [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuqE7-t13O4NIDYJfakrhw / https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow , https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow/videos ]
The leaders of North and South Korea announced today that they will hold a historic meeting on April 27, coming together for talks for the first time in more than a decade. The news comes after Kim Jong-un’s surprise trip to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he reportedly said he was willing to give up North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Kim is due to meet sometime soon with President Trump, although a date has not been set for that summit. It would be the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. We speak with Tim Shorrock, correspondent for The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/as_north_korea_talks_with_china [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQbIJ6m5MSY [with comments]
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NYC Minister: I’m Willing to Be Arrested If ICE Comes for Immigrant Mother in Sanctuary in My Church
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
A few weeks ago, the Fourth Universalist Society of New York City opened its doors to Guatemalan mother Aura Hernández, who took sanctuary to avoid her deportation to Guatemala. Last year, the congregation voted to become a sanctuary church; shortly thereafter, the church was vandalized with swastikas carved into the church’s front doors. On Tuesday night, Democracy Now! sat down with the senior minister of the Unitarian church, Rev. Schuyler Vogel.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/nyc_minister_im_willing_to_be [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmyGmXxsUeo [with comments]
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“I Am Raising My Voice”: Guatemalan Mother in Sanctuary in NYC Accuses Border Patrol of Sexual Abuse
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
We turn now to a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive interview with a Guatemalan woman named Aura Hernández, who has taken sanctuary in the Fourth Universalist Society of New York, the Unitarian church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, to avoid her deportation to Guatemala. She has been living in the United States for 13 years. She’s the mother of two U.S.-born children: 10-year-old Victor Daniel and 14-month-old Camila Guadalupe. She entered sanctuary a few weeks ago to keep her family united as she continues to fight her immigration case. She says that in 2005, when she first entered the United States, she was sexually abused while detained by the Border Patrol in Texas. She says the officer who abused her then threatened to come find her if she ever went public about the abuse. She has fought for years, quietly, to obtain a U visa as a result of the alleged sexual abuse. U visas are for the victims of certain crimes who cooperate with law enforcement. She says that despite her cooperation with authorities, the Department of Homeland Security has refused to certify her U visa, meaning she has not yet been able to obtain protections to stay in the country. The Customs and Border Protection agency declined to comment. After being forced to take sanctuary to avoid her deportation, she is now breaking her silence. On Tuesday night, Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Laura Gottesdiener sat down with Aura Hernández for her first-ever television interview.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/i_am_raising_my_voice_guatemalan [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mBOrOWKRaM [with comments]
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Family to Bury Slain Sacramento Man Stephon Clark, as Protests Continue Demanding Justice
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Democracy Now!
The family of Stephon Clark is holding his funeral today in Sacramento, California, as massive protests continue against the police shooting that killed the unarmed African-American man in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18. Police first claimed he was holding a gun, but later admitted they found only his cellphone near his body. We get an update from Berry Accius, with Voice of the Youth in Sacramento.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/29/family_buries_slain_sacramento_man_stephon [with embedded video, and transcript]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxDruWcg6H8 [with comments]
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Full Show - The War On Our Border, Ignored By “Defense” Dept - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Ron Gibson [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYv-5LsUyc_P8KMo7YGPFPA / https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF , https://www.youtube.com/user/RonGibsonCF/videos ]
29Mar18 Broadcast
Roseanne shows entertainment gatekeepers are out of touch with America. FANGs are popping the stock market bubble. And, a massive war in Mexico is leaking across the border but the “Defense” Department won’t do anything about it though they LOST twice as much in Afghanistan as was allocated to repair a portion of the fence in California. Julian Assange has his communications cut off after he talks about the UK’s false flag to push sanctions and war. Then Steve Quayle joins to look at the accelerating threat of transhumanism and Steve Milloy on the EPA shutting down “secret science” (data used to push policy but hidden from the public).
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwOR5a6tlik [with comments] [the edited official Alex Jones/Real News with David Knight upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgD0JdRo-I8 (title and text adapted from; with comments)]
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Every child is a precious and unique gift who deserves the security of a loving and nurturing home. When supported by encouraging families and safe, strong communities, all children have the chance to reach their full potential and access the unlimited opportunities that our great Nation has to offer. To realize this truth, we must dedicate ourselves to the noble cause of protecting and caring for our children.
National Child Abuse Prevention Month is an annual reminder that not every home is a haven of acceptance and unconditional love. Too often, childhood is marred with pain, violence, neglect, and abuse, which can have lifelong psychological, emotional, and physical consequences. At no fault of their own, some children are subjected to the most depraved forms of child abuse and neglect, without reprieve and, sometimes, without any knowledge that they are being maltreated. The statistics are shocking: a quarter of all children experience some form of child abuse or neglect in their lifetime. The financial consequences of this depravity are dire. By some estimates, the lifetime cost of child abuse and neglect is $124 billion per year. The human cost — measured in lost development, potential, and flourishing — is incalculable.
To improve the statistics and the well-being of our Nation’s children, we must become more aware of the signs and symptoms of child abuse and take action as necessary. We should not allow pride or discomfort to prevent us from helping a child who is truly suffering. We must be a Nation committed to taking action in the face of adversity and uncertainty, particularly when done to enhance the safety or security of children.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG) notes that children who show sudden changes in behavior, who have not received treatment for physical or medical problems brought to their parents’ attention, or who are always watchful, as if preparing for something bad to happen, may be exhibiting signs of child abuse. Though the presence of one or some of these signs alone does not necessarily mean that a child has been the victim of child abuse or neglect, it is vital that we understand and remain vigilant for these indicators. As Americans we must do all that we can.
This month, we honor the professionals, volunteers, and organizations who work tirelessly to protect at-risk children and care for those who have experienced abuse or neglect. This difficult work is critical to ensuring the safety and protection of our children, to strengthening our communities, and to stopping cycles of violence harm. There are no substitutes for caring parents and guardians. But we recognize that friends, neighbors, educators, and places of worship have important roles to play in fostering the well-being of children. We are especially grateful to foster and adoptive parents, who open their lives to children in need of loving and caring homes. We can and should continue to work together to help provide healthy, happy, and safe environments for all children.
We must always remember that all children are blessings from our Creator. They are endowed from conception with value, purpose, and human dignity. They are a source of unmatched joy, and they represent our Nation’s future. It is thus our civic and moral responsibility to help every child experience a childhood free from abuse and mistreatment, guiding them toward a future full of hope and promise. I encourage all Americans to nurture the children in their lives and to extend a hand to those in need of love, protection, or even just attention. Only together can we put an end to the tragedy of child abuse and neglect. I am confident that our combined efforts in combatting these evils will help create a world that is more tender, compassionate, and inviting to our children for centuries to come.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to invest in the lives of our Nation’s children, to be aware of their safety and well-being, and to support efforts that promote their psychological, physical, and emotional development.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-national-child-abuse-prevention-month/
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as National Donate Life Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Americans celebrate the blessing of life in many ways, but perhaps none is more transformative than their choice to donate organs or tissue to family members, friends, or to people they may not ever meet. During National Donate Life Month, we honor our Nation’s organ and tissue donors for their decision to give the precious gift of life to someone in need. We also give thanks to the many remarkable medical professionals, scientists, and researchers who have dedicated themselves to improving the health of others.
My Administration supports efforts to raise awareness about the life-saving power of organ donation. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reports that, in 2017, there were nearly 35,000 transplants performed, a 3.4 percent increase from 2016, and the fifth consecutive record-setting year for transplants in the United States. Last year, more than 16,000 living and deceased individuals donated the gift of life to someone in need through an organ or tissue donation.
Every person, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, or economic status, has the power and the potential to transform a life through organ and tissue donation. Despite record setting years, we are still working to overcome a gap between the availability of organs and people in need of an organ donation. Today, nearly 115,000 Americans are awaiting a lifesaving transplant, and a new name appears on the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. Amazingly, 1 donor can save up to 8 lives through organ donation and enhance the lives of up to 50 people through tissue donation. This month, I encourage all Americans to consider participating in the gift of life by becoming organ and tissue donors.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as National Donate Life Month. I call upon health professionals, volunteers, educators, government agencies, faith-based and community groups, and private organizations to help raise awareness of the urgent need for organ and tissue donors throughout our Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-national-donate-life-month/
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President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2018 as Cancer Control Month
Issued on: March 29, 2018
During National Cancer Control Month, we remember the loved ones we have lost to cancer and recommit our support for the courageous individuals who are fighting this terrible disease. We also pause to thank the devoted healthcare professionals, scientists, and researchers who work tirelessly to discover a cure for cancer and whose combined efforts have contributed to an encouraging decline in the overall rate of deaths from cancer over the past two decades.
American innovators and entrepreneurs have made many incredible scientific breakthroughs during the past century. In the field of medicine, American scientists have been at the forefront of world-class research that has developed increasingly effective cancer prevention strategies and treatments. Through public- and private-sector partnerships, Americans have made critical advances to support and expand precision medicine and immunotherapy approaches to cancer. These innovations have given us greater ability to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and have helped more than 15 million Americans beat this disease.
Despite these tremendous strides, we recognize the staggering number of Americans who have lost their battles with cancer. Last year alone, cancer took the lives of approximately 600,000 adults and 2,000 children in the United States, making it the second leading cause of death in our Nation. According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 40 percent of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Together, we must take action to prevent and combat cancer, including maintaining healthy diets and weight and making physical activity a part of each day. Regular screenings and physicals, as well as knowledge of family medical history, are also crucial to catching cancers in earlier, more treatable stages.
As we observe National Cancer Control Month, let us raise awareness of the measures we can take to prevent cancer and strengthen our resolve to find a cure for this horrible disease, which continues to cause so many families such great pain. Let us also honor the determination, courage, and strength of our cancer survivors. Their stories are an inspiration to all Americans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2018 as Cancer Control Month. I call upon the people of the United States to speak with their doctors and healthcare providers to learn more about preventative measures that can save lives. I encourage citizens, government agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other interested groups to join in activities that will increase awareness of what Americans can do to prevent and control cancer. I also invite the Governors of the States and Territories and officials of other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to join me in recognizing National Cancer Control Month.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-april-2018-cancer-control-month/
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Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
In accordance with section 506A(c)(2) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2466a(c)(2)), I am providing advance notification of my intent to suspend the application of duty-free treatment to all African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)-eligible goods in the apparel sector for the Republic of Rwanda 60 days after the date of this notification.
The Government of Rwanda continues to impose barriers to United States trade, specifically, barriers affecting certain United States exports of apparel products. In spite of intense engagement by United States officials with the Government of Rwanda, the United States has been unable to resolve this matter. I have therefore determined that the Government of Rwanda is not making continual progress toward the elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment, as required by section 104 of the AGOA.
The suspension of duty-free treatment described above is a more appropriate response in these circumstances than the termination of the Government of Rwanda’s designation as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country under AGOA, as it promotes the continuation of efforts between the United States and Rwanda to resolve outstanding issues. Although the Government of Rwanda has failed to meet critical benchmarks required to address these issues to date, it continues to express an interest in resolving United States concerns.
I will continue to assess whether the Government of Rwanda is making continual progress toward the elimination of barriers to United States trade and investment in accordance with the AGOA eligibility requirements, as well as whether this suspension of benefits is effective in promoting compliance with those requirements.
Sincerely,
DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/text-letter-president-speaker-house-representatives-president-senate-24/
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Full Show - Russia Tells Its Citizens To Prepare For War With The US / Students Protest David Hogg - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 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 ]
Thursday, Mar. 29th 2018[, with appearances by Jerome Corsi and Tommy Robinson, and Doug Hagmann hosting the fourth hour]: Pope Says "No Hell" - Pope Francis claims condemned souls "disappear" and that Hell does not exist. In other news, Alex Jones' son Rex has challenged David Hogg to a debate on the Second Amendment. Joining today's broadcast is rock legend Ted Nugent who will discuss the ongoing assault on gun rights. Also, Marc Morano of ClimateDepot.com covers the Paris climate accords.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06x6z-EyRpM [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDmPa8W24s (additional text adapted from; with comments)] [a must-watch]
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RWW News: Jerome Corsi Wants To Fight Robert Mueller
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQSoBGVRy5x6SaKbzh5_xiw / https://www.youtube.com/user/RightWingWatchdotorg , https://www.youtube.com/user/RightWingWatchdotorg/videos ]
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Jerome Corsi details how he's like to take Special Counsel Robert Mueller behind the Justice Department and fight him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1g61o9gMg [with comments]
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Ted Nugent: Justices who dissented from Heller v. Washington case "don't even qualify" as justices
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by MMFA Alt. Channel [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PhjTobwRndMIUs8uA3vkg / https://www.youtube.com/user/MMFAalt1 , https://www.youtube.com/user/MMFAalt1/videos ]
NRA's Ted Nugent on The Alex Jones Show: Supreme Court justices who dissented from Heller v. Washington case "don't even qualify" as justices
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G8abVBkbxY [comments disabled]
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RWW News: Rick Joyner Insists That Trump Has A 'Sincere Fear Of The Lord'
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Rick Joyner predicts that President Trump will lead a Christian revival in America, thanks to his "sincere fear of the Lord."
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-joyner-trump-will-unleash-a-christian-revival-in-america-because-of-his-sincere-fear-of-the-lord/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6Pi5ywFHw [with comments]
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RWW News: God Has Given Frank Amedia Permission To Reveal That Trump Will Win Re-Election In 2020
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by RightWingWatchdotorg
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, Frank Amedia of POTUS Shield says that God has given him permission to reveal that Donald Trump will win re-election in 2020.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/god-has-given-frank-amedia-permission-to-reveal-that-trump-will-win-re-election-in-2020/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JA8wrEVHro [with comments]
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Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Russia’s Expulsion of American Diplomats
Issued on: March 29, 2018
Russia’s action today to expel American diplomats marks a further deterioration in the United States-Russia relationship. The expulsion of undeclared Russian intelligence officers by the United States and more than two dozen partner nations and NATO allies earlier this week was an appropriate response to the Russian attack on the soil of the United Kingdom. Russia’s response was not unanticipated, and the United States will deal with it.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-russias-expulsion-american-diplomats/
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Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters and a Senior Administration Official
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Cleveland, Ohio
March 29, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-gaggle-deputy-press-secretary-lindsay-walters-senior-administration-official-032918/ [official transcript]
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WATCH: President Trump discusses infrastructure in Richfield, OH
Streamed live on Mar 29, 2018 by PBS NewsHour [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZFN9Tx6xh-skXCuRHCDpQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour , https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour/videos ]
President Donald Trump discusses his plans for the nation's infrastructure in Richfield, OH.
Remarks by President Trump on the Infrastructure Initiative
Local 18 Richfield Training Site
Richfield, Ohio
[issued on] March 30, 2018 [from March 29, 2018]
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-infrastructure-initiative/ [official transcript]
Building Up American Infrastructure and American Workers
“We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land. And we will do it with American heart, and American hands, and American grit.”
- President Donald J. Trump
March 29, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/building-american-infrastructure-american-workers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNOni2tovA [comments disabled] [official White House upload at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlEg80gU7GI (with comments)]
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Full Show - Clinton Thug Mueller Seeks To Destroy Lives In Russia Probe - 03/29/2018
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by War Room [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClsn7QZVdszxLlUs-GOG0Sg/videos ]
The left does not know when to stop. They continue to push hatred of President Trump, the 2nd-Amendment and America, thinking it will somehow resurrect them to victory in the midterms. Meanwhile, Facebook and Google are being exposed for all their Orwellian data collection, and Robert Mueller is fully unhinged in his attempt to destroy anyone's life to bring down Trump.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHYk7ta-l0 [with comments] [also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vtK2hOT-6M (with comments)]
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US voting machines are failing. Here’s why.
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Vox [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA / https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom , https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom/videos ]
The greatest threat to American voting machines might not be hacking, but old age.
In our latest collaboration with ProPublica, we take a look at US election security and the status of American voting machines. Check out the full ProPublica report at: https://www.propublica.org/article/election-security-a-high-priority-until-it-comes-to-paying-for-new-voting-machines
In 2017, hackers Rick Rolled a voting machine in Las Vegas. Even though the machine was out-of-date and the demonstration didn’t replicate real-life conditions, the stunt brought national attention to an election crisis that has been building ever since the “hanging chad” fiasco that occurred during the 2000 Presidential election recount.
In her story on American election security, ProPublica’s Kate Rabinowitz revealed that many state and local election officials are suffering a funding crisis. Without the money needed to maintain and update electronic voting machines, officials are having to make do with equipment that was manufactured in 2008 or even earlier. At that time, most machines had recently been replaced thanks to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, but few have been updated since.
By isolating machines from the internet and keeping them in secure locations, officials are able to reduce the threat of widespread hacking, but the machines are plagued with more mundane technical problems that states have been slow to address and could have major consequences for future elections.
On the bright side, the omnibus spending bill that was passed in March 2018 allocated $380 million dollars for state election officials to update their voting infrastructure. Whether that money is actually provided and how it will be spent, however, remains to be seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCmkIxve0c [with comments]
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Watergate Lawyer: Trump lawyer’s pardon offers echo Nixon tactics
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Bob Mueller is probing the Trump campaign's actions relating to Russia at the 2016 Republican convention. Former Watergate lawyer Michael Conway tells Ari Melber Trump’s lawyer reportedly offering pardons to Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn is "a complete parallel with what President Nixon did”.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watergate-lawyer-trump-lawyer-s-pardon-offers-echo-nixon-tactics-1198302275842 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJ22u87E4c [with comments]
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Explosive: Two of Roger Stone’s closest associates say he’s lying
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Mueller is asking questions about Trump ally Roger Stone, who claimed he had connections to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign. Ari Melber lists the unanswered questions surrounding Roger Stone and his role in the Trump-Russia collusion case. Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg and Roger Stone’s alleged intermediary to Julian Assange join Ari Melber on The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/explosive-two-of-roger-stone-s-closest-associates-say-he-s-lying-1198308931841 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiX7gLCgvVA [with comments]
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Watch Roger Stone flip-flop on meeting with Julian Assange
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Within 10 days, Trump ally Roger Stone went from claiming he had “communicated” with Julian Assange to saying he had not spoken with Assange.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/watch-roger-stone-flip-flop-on-meeting-with-julian-assange-1198318659625
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Sam Nunberg: Stone outreach to Assange was to "ingratiate" with Trump
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/29/18
Former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber he “didn’t think it was a joke” when Roger Stone claimed to meet with Julian Assange in 2016 and notes despite not being officially part of the Trump campaign, Roger Stone still tried to “ingratiate himself” with Trump.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/sam-nunberg-stone-outreach-to-assange-was-to-ingratiate-with-trump-1198315587668 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX_nFKAX3Ww [with comments]
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Rohingya Refugees Are Receiving Official Identities For The First Time (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 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 Rohingya have been called the world’s most persecuted people. The Myanmar government has long refused to recognize their citizenship, instead calling them illegal immigrants and leaving the primarily Muslim minority stateless. But most of those who have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh are now having their identities and ethnicity recognized for the first time.
With the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now exceeding 1 million, the government is undertaking a massive effort to register every single one. The authorities say that 11,000 refugees are being registered every day, and that at this rate, the process will be done by Dec. 12.
At first, the identity cards only stated that the refugees were from Myanmar, but after receiving complaints, they began to include the word “Rohingya.”
Mohammad Ismail, a Rohingya refugee, told VICE News that he is eager to get official documentation: “We are happy. We are globally recognized as Rohingya. Burma rejects us, but we identify ourselves as Rohingya.”
More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when the Myanmar military began its latest campaign of violence, torture and rape to drive them out of the country. Those who have escaped now face squalid conditions in cramped refugee camps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ34i3oCjwM [with comments]
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Germany Accuses Muslim Migrants Of Converting To Christianity To Get Asylum (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Salman Barbari was born in Iran to a strict Muslim family from Afghanistan. Last month he got baptized and became a Christian at Trinity Lutheran Church in Berlin. The potential consequences for his future and safety are vast.
Under Islamic law, Barbari could be sent to jail in Iran for converting to Christianity. In Afghanistan, he could be put to death. But his conversion could also allow Barbari to stay in Germany. He is applying for asylum here, and under German law migrants like himself can’t be deported if they face persecution at home.
Barbari told VICE News his conversion is sincere. “I didn’t get baptized to get asylum or anything like that.”
The German government may not believe him. It has rejected more than 90 percent of recent asylum applications submitted by members of Trinity Lutheran’s congregation.
Pastor Gottfried Martens’ ministry has focused on migrants since 2015. Today, 1400 of his 1600 congregants are Iranian and Afghan. Martens is furious that the German government is getting ready to deport both long-time Christians and recent converts like Barbari, who have completed three-month-long baptism classes at Trinity Lutheran as well as baptism exams.
“The state is a kind of secular version of the Holy Inquisition,” Martens told VICE News, “because the state says we can look into the heart of those people and can say who is the true Christian and who is not.”
The rejections themselves come in the form letters filled with template text blocks that often question the authenticity of of a convert’s beliefs. The fact that the decisions are based on short interviews conducted by administrators who have no religious background is particularly frustrating to Martens.
“I think a secular state is not able or not allowed to make such judgments about the faith of people.”
The increase in rejections may seem surprising given who is running the German government. Chancellor Angela Merkel is both the head of the Christian Democratic party and the daughter of Lutheran pastor. But she also faced significant backlash against her migrant-friendly policies in the months leading up to Germany’s national elections last year. During that time, Germany processed more asylum applications than all other EU countries combined. Since then asylum approvals have dropped.
Andrea Lindholz, a member of the governing Christian Social Union, says rejections are not politically motivated.
“Different aspects play a role. How did the person live his life in his country? How did he practice his faith there? Why did he decide to convert and how is he living his faith day to day?” Lindholz told VICE News. “In that context the pastor can only be one consideration and not the only one.”
Lindholz emphasized that simply converting is not enough to receive asylum, even if converts could face repercussions in their home countries.
“I don’t want to rule out that wrong decisions were made, but there is the possibility” of appealing rejections in court, she said. “It is a tough topic, and you will never find a satisfying solution.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV3ci2BY2gA [with comments]
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Trackers Are Some Of The Most Hated (And Powerful) People In Politics (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Sometimes a politician says something so racist, sexist, or otherwise terrible that it could (or should) ruin their career.
But somebody’s got to be there to get it on tape – and that’s a pretty tough gig.
Zach Wurtz has been working as a political “tracker” in Washington State for almost a decade. Most of his work involves driving for hours to tape local politicians giving speeches. Sometimes these are massive ballroom events with rich Republican donors, other times they’re tiny gatherings in community centers.
If his “target” shows up to give a speech in public, Zach shows up too, camera in hand – ready to capture every word and send it back to his (usually Democratic) client.
He’s a bit like a spy, except he’s so famous in Washington political circles that everybody knows who he is — and tries to kick him out of their events.
VICE News rode along with Zach to find out what life as one of the most-hated people in politics is really like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAFGoX02E4 [with comments]
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How The World's Deadliest Pandemics Are Born: VICE on HBO, Full Episode
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
Somewhere in the world, an unknown virus is growing in the bloodstream of an animal, just waiting to jump to the human population.
Since the 1980s, outbreaks of infectious diseases have more than tripled worldwide. For example, one million people die each year from mosquito-borne illness. And with rising temperatures and population growth, the death toll will likely grow. To stay ahead of a potentially devastating global pandemic, scientists have come up with new ways to research and learn about diseases.
Ron Fouchier, a physician who studies genetic mutations at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, genetically modified the H5N1 bird flu virus to become airborne. "So now we can find out exactly what it takes for an animal virus to become airborne," he told VICE News.
Fouchier's work originally sent shockwaves through the international community, but global health experts have found that diligent surveillance and research of these diseases is the key to keeping them at bay.
"Human beings are only as strong as our weakest surveillance system," Larry Brilliant, a physician who helped eradicate smallpox, told VICE News. As Chairman of the Skoll Global Threat Fund, his work now focuses on using mobile data to track outbreaks. "This is one instance where 'America First' means working with the poorest countries in the world to protect them out of selfishness, our own enlightened self-interest."
Uganda, where the Zika virus was first discovered in 1947, already uses a decentralized network of hospitals, laboratories, and motorcycle riders to keep scientists up to date on medical anomalies, which allows them to quickly contain emerging threats.
VICE founder Suroosh Alvi went to the Zika Forest and Kampala, Uganda, to see how vulnerable humans are to a new pandemic and the options for staving one off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uutlec-NVj4 [with comments]
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Educators Say Oklahoma Teacher Salary Increase Bill Is Too Little Too Late (HBO)
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by VICE News
This past Monday night, the Oklahoma House of Representative passed House Bill 1010 and raised taxes for the first time in 28 years.
Much of the revenue will go to fund Oklahoma’s schools and raise teacher salaries by an average of $6,000 a year. On Wednesday night, with the threat of a mass teacher walkout looming over their heads, Oklahoma’s senate ratified the bill and put it on the desk of Governor Mary Fallin who, in a joyous press conference, said there would be a “signing party” on Thursday.
The bill was supposed to avert the teacher walkout that has been in the works since this past September when teachers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma began seriously thinking about drastic action to increase funding to an education system that has seen drastic cuts in per-pupil funding and a ten year freeze on teacher salaries.
That movement kicked into full gear after the West Virginia teacher strike in late February and early March — tens of thousands of teachers in Oklahoma began planning for a work stoppage.
After Fallin declared victory in the Capitol, leaders from Oklahoma’s teachers unions began releasing statements saying the bill, which met teacher demands about halfway, had not gone far enough.
VICE News was with a group of educators in Bartlesville as they heard the news from the Capitol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjVjkPEk3eQ [with comments]
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Fired VA Secy. Shulkin: Trump called but didn't fire me
All In with Chris Hayes
3/29/18
David Shulkin says President Trump called to talk about veterans. Later that day, John Kelly called to fire him.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/fired-va-secy-shulkin-trump-called-but-didn-t-fire-me-1198350403720 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uksXjRt4ZnY [with comments]
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Carter Page returns to All In
All In with Chris Hayes
3/29/18
The former Trump adviser confirms to Chris Hayes that he told investigators about campaign contacts with the Russian ambassador at the GOP convention.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/carter-page-returns-to-all-in-1198350403907 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m77IHhEV6aY [with comments]
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Mueller reportedly eyeing Sessions as Sessions cheats on recusal
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow shares new reporting that Robert Mueller's investigation includes looking at Jeff Sessions contacts with Russians, while at the same time, Sessions is sending investigators to look at the conduct of the Trump Russia investigation.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/mueller-reportedly-eyeing-sessions-as-sessions-cheats-on-recusal-1198423619743 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KishVt-KgaE [with comments]
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Dossier author Steele among targets of Russian 'hit list': source
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow shares reporting by Richard Engel that one former KGB source says that Sergei Skripal, who the UK says was poisoned by Russia, was on a Kremlin hit list that also includes Trump Russia dossier author Christopher Steele.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/dossier-author-steele-among-targets-of-russian-hit-list-source-1198446659591
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Trump makes White House aides tiptoe around Russia, Putin policy
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Carol Lee, NBC News national political reporter, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that while White House aides encourage Donald Trump to get tough on Russia, Trump tells his staff to keep quiet on Russia policy.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-makes-white-house-aides-tiptoe-around-russia-putin-policy-1198395459898
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Fight over V.A. privatization overshadows Shulkin dismissal
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Leo Shane, deputy editor of Military Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about the circumstances of David Shulkin's dismissal as secretary of the V.A. and the forces at work trying to privatize the V.A.'s services.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/fight-over-v-a-privatization-overshadows-shulkin-dismissal-1198435907772
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Pruitt scandal dwarfs Shulkin's, giving lie to firing excuse
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/29/18
Rachel Maddow points out that the explanation that David Shulkin was fired over his travel scandal doesn't make sense in light of the administration's other travel scandals, particularly that of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who not only used more taxpayer money but is literally staying in a lobbyist's house.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/pruitt-scandal-dwarfs-shulkin-s-giving-lie-to-firing-excuse-1198461507756
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Was Trump afraid to fire VA Secretary David Shulkin himself?
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/29/18
Donald Trump called his Veterans Affairs secretary yesterday, but didn't mention his firing. Hours later, he tweeted it. Amy Siskind says the chaos is a sign Trump is "seizing power." Former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina joins Lawrence O'Donnell.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/was-trump-afraid-to-fire-va-secretary-david-shulkin-himself-1198432323637 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqq3EDwFJsU [with comments]
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Parkland students' sway hits those who mock them
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/29/18
A Fox News host mocked Parkland survivor David Hogg on Twitter after he said he'd been rejected from several colleges. She apologized after advertises began pulling out, but it hasn't stopped the ads from leaving. It's not a first for the conservative channel.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/parkland-students-sway-hits-those-who-mock-them-1198432323752 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqEN1UG0do [with comments]
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Trump loses a top administration official about every nine days
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Fired VA Secretary David Shulkin says he and Trump spoke just before he was fired on Twitter, and Trump didn't mention it. Our panel discusses the Trump White House chaos as The Washington Post's Philp Bump notes Trump loses a top official about every nine days.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-loses-a-top-administration-official-about-every-nine-days-1198456899849 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEXSmMosFCA [with comments]
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Hope Hicks is officially gone. So will Trump WH get more chaotic?
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks has worked her last day in the West Wing. That's reportedly leaving White House staffers worried her absence could mean more chaos to come.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/hope-hicks-is-officially-gone-so-will-trump-wh-get-more-chaotic-1198459459650
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Rpt: Mueller probing Russian ambassador's appearance at 2016 RNC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Reuters is reporting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether Jeff Sessions - then a Trump surrogate - met with Russia's ambassador at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Our panel reacts.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/rpt-mueller-probing-russian-ambassador-s-appearance-at-2016-rnc-1198467651507 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIDitSX-Nw [with comments]
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Trump doesn't know what a community college is
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/30/18
Seeming to confuse a vocational school with a community college while speaking in Ohio, Trump added: 'I don't know what that means, a community college.'
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/trump-doesn-t-know-what-a-community-college-is-1198465091650 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JWgAYnY0uM [with comments]
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Montana Gun Owners Rally Against the March For Our Lives | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA/videos ]
Roy Wood Jr. travels to Montana to get a first-hand look at a counter-demonstration to the nationwide March For Our Lives protests against gun violence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2v9z2S5XzQ [with comments]
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Hasan Minhaj Breaks Down "Punish a Muslim Day" | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
A campaign promoting "Punish a Muslim Day" spreads through the U.K. and Hasan Minhaj explains why it's poorly thought out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygxKarwg42o [with comments]
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The World of Butt Chugging | The Daily Show
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
What is butt chugging? Ronny Chieng investigates the latest drinking craze with the help of the star of Blockers, John Cena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm4bVDWnDH0 [with comments]
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The Art of Butt Chugging with John Cena and Ronny Chieng
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by Comedy Central [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsN5ZwHx2kILm84-jPDeXw / https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral , https://www.youtube.com/user/comedycentral/videos ]
John Cena and Ronny Chieng's conversation about the movie "Blockers" dives into an unexpected topic: butt chugging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97m1J543qPk [with comments]
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Second Amendment Yoga - The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper
Published on Mar 29, 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 ]
Inspired by Tomi Lahren's choice of concealed-carry workout attire, Jordan and his team of Citizen Journalists attend a relaxing, gun-friendly yoga class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFseY0PvCLs [with comments]
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John Bolton's Terrifying Ideas Sung By Michael Bolton
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig/videos ]
The terrifying things Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton say are slightly more tolerable when sung by Grammy winner Michael Bolton.
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVVO9GN8c4 [with comments]
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Stephen Falls Victim To CNN's 'Fake News'
Published on Mar 29, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Description: Trump's favorite target in the media, CNN, reported on Stephen and Dana Carvey's John Bolton 'The Late Show' bit. And they made a 'fake news.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06tb-P7Ijgo [with comments]
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Jeff Sessions Loves The Secret Wu-Tang Clan Album
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Pharma bro Martin Shkreli's one-of-a-kind copy of Wu-Tang's 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' is now in the hands of the man voted 'least likely to own a rap album.'
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nSQdtvFwNc [with comments]
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Late Show First Drafts: Easter Cards
Published on Mar 30, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
There's no holiday better than Easter to witness the rebirth of a holiday card's first draft.
[originally aired March 29, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_6Sly85Uwk [with comments]
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stashed March 29, 2018:
Jeb fires Trump barbs at Yale talk
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s psychiatrist wants him to move past the 2016 presidential election.
“I’m not going to talk about the 2016 election,” Bush joked on Tuesday in a talk sponsored by the The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale. “I’m still in therapy.”
But that didn’t stop him from taking shots at President Donald Trump, his opponent in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. At one point, Bush described the current president as “Republican in basically name only.” And earlier in his speech, Bush said that after the 2016 Republican primary in South Carolina, he returned home to children who “actually love me.” His comment was met with raucous laughter from the crowd, and several audience members interviewed after the event said they interpreted Bush’s comment as a jab at Trump.
Bush — the son of President George H.W. Bush ’48 and brother of President George W. Bush ’68 — gave a lecture under the title “A Conversation with Jeb Bush: Restoring Conservatism in America.” The lecture and questions that followed focused on the state of American politics and how the younger generation can create a reinvigorated conservative movement.
“If there was ever need for a Bill Buckley-like approach, to transforming conservatism in this country, it is right now,” Bush said. “Maybe not a 19th-century or a 20th-century version of conservatism but certainly a 21st-century version of that. And sadly the fracturing of the conservative movement could not come at a worse time.”
[...]
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/03/28/jeb-fires-trump-barbs-at-yale-talk/
Trump sons unload on Jeb Bush
It’s not entirely clear what Jeb Bush intended when he said that after he was crushed by Donald Trump in the 2016 South Carolina Republican primary, he returned home to children “who actually love me.” He made the comment during a speech at Yale University on Tuesday.
The Yale Daily News, which reported the comment, originally said it was meant as a jab at President Trump — and by implication Trump’s children. The Yale paper later corrected its story to say that while “Bush did not directly refer to Trump,” most of the audience took it that way.
By then it was too late.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/29/eric-trump-jeb-i-love-everything-about-my-father/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dapYuerPD8wUEKMkDkQ9EDKmpBalM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Will Trump And Guns Be Enough To Unseat An Endangered House Republican? - Mike Coffman (R-Co.)
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/597016897/will-trump-and-guns-be-enough-to-unseat-an-endangered-house-republican
How Do You Stand Out in a Crowded Primary? Whale Penises and Yeti Scalps Certainly Help. - Jess Phoenix, a Democratic candidate for Congress from California’s 25th District
Here’s what happens when a volcano scientist runs for Congress.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/jess-phoenix-steve-knight/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dIR7HQdA9V_lhmMM7tkLKku6WYX3M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Family’s S.U.V. Plunges Off Cliff, and Death Toll Is Feared to Be 8
They were the portrait of a modern family: a married female couple and their six adopted children. And in 2014, they were thrust in front of the world for all to see.
One of those children — Devonte, who is black — was photographed hugging a white police sergeant in Portland, Ore., during a 2014 demonstration to protest police violence. In the photograph, Devonte clung to the officer, a mix of fear and anguish in his eyes.
But the intense news media coverage that followed may have been the reason the Hart family decided to flee to Washington State, the authorities said on Wednesday.
Then, recently, the unthinkable occurred. The family’s sport utility vehicle plunged off a 100-foot cliff in California and was discovered on Monday — upside down, engulfed by the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Both parents were found dead inside the S.U.V.; three of their children were discovered dead outside it; and the three other children, including Devonte, were still missing on Wednesday evening and feared dead, law enforcement officials said.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/family-killed-california.html
Family of boy in viral police hug photo dies after SUV plunges off cliff. He’s still missing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/29/family-of-boy-in-viral-police-hug-photo-dies-after-suv-plunges-off-cliff-hes-still-missing/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dqtHC0Jtiw6swyMECSlfIqIPigB-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
‘You’re a mother’: Laura Ingraham savaged for taunting Parkland activist over college rejections
While Parkland, Fla., shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg is becoming a household name at 17, he’s also a senior in high school anxiously waiting for responses from colleges, like his peers across the country.
But what other students don’t endure is public ridicule when they don’t get into all the schools they applied to.
In an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Hogg spoke about receiving rejection letters from California colleges, and in doing so sparked derision from conservatives, particularly Fox News’s Laura Ingraham.
Tweeting an article from a right-wing news site about Hogg’s college prospects, Ingraham appeared to make light of his rejections, saying it was “totally predictable given acceptance rates” that he was “Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA.” In the tweet, Ingraham also said Hogg whined about being rejected.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/29/laura-ingraham-savaged-for-taunting-parkland-activist-over-college-rejections/
Parkland Survivor Slams Fox News Host: ‘Coming From A 14-Year-Old, Please Grow Up’
Teens call for boycott of Laura Ingraham after she mocked a shooting survivor.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lauren-hogg-laura-ingraham_us_5abc7654e4b06409775d0d2c
Parkland student targets Ingraham's advertisers after tweet about college rejections
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/380748-parkland-student-targets-ingrahams-advertisers-after-critical-tweet-about-his
David Hogg: These Are the Laura Ingraham Advertisers Targeted by Parkland Shooting Survivor
http://www.newsweek.com/david-hogg-these-are-laura-ingraham-advertisers-targeted-parkland-shooting-865205
Parkland survivor calls on Melania Trump to intervene after Fox’s Laura Ingraham ‘cyberbullies’ her brother
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/parkland-survivor-calls-melania-trump-intervene-foxs-laura-ingraham-cyberbullies-brother/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dPUgHn_TqrllgZMAYz-mzOuz8MDeM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Britain Signals Harder Look at Wealthy Russians and Russian Wealth
LONDON — For years, anticorruption campaigners have railed against Britain’s openness to ill-gotten riches from overseas and the foreigners who invest them. After a nerve agent attack on British soil, and the resulting diplomatic showdown between Russia and the West, that may be starting to change.
The British government said this week that it would review the cases of 700 Russians who were granted visas to live in Britain largely because they could invest millions of dollars in the country. And it signaled an openness to cutting off access to British financial markets for President Vladimir V. Putin’s government in Russia.
The government’s expressed determination to crack down on dirty money came on a day of rare good news in the poisoning attack. Yulia S. Skripal, who with her father, Sergei V. Skripal, was assaulted with a nerve agent, “is improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition,” Salisbury District Hospital said on Thursday.
Her father, a former Russian spy, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Downing Street has promised before to punish Russia, particularly after the 2006 assassination of the Kremlin critic Aleksandr V. Litvinenko with a deadly radioactive isotope. But it dropped the matter once the headlines disappeared.
Some critics continued to voice doubts about whether this time would be any different. But the fact that Britain’s lax attitude toward corrupt fortunes and the need to change it has become a major topic of debate seems to signal a real change in the political atmosphere.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/world/europe/uk-britain-russia-russian-wealth-putin.html
Russian spy: Yulia Skripal conscious and talking
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of ex-spy Sergei Skripal, is improving rapidly and is conscious and talking, the BBC understands.
Ms Skripal and her father were admitted nearly four weeks ago after being exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury.
"She has responded well to treatment but continues to receive expert clinical care 24 hours a day," doctors said.
Mr Skripal remains in a critical but stable condition.
[...]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43588450
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dg1LBbD9CX5Ei7MU3ZGrY6l9sRtuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Rival Korean leaders to meet April 27 in historic summit - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/rival-koreas-begin-high-level-talks-meant-to-set-up-summit/2018/03/28/b0cfe2d2-32f3-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/5048c992a91641f1a83580da7b28040b/Rival-Korean-leaders-to-meet-April-27-in-historic-summit
Third inter-Korean summit set for Apr. 27
Agendas desired by Seoul, Pyongyang are ‘not too different’
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3046250
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dan6gXIdgQmAPIMf2GIubZaRaQEJM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump being told he doesn't need a communications director or chief of staff
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/trump-staffing/index.html
Photos capture the emotional moment Hope Hicks and Trump said goodbye on her last day at the White House
Hope Hicks appeared to say an emotional goodbye to President Donald Trump on Thursday, her last day at the White House.
Hicks was one of Trump's longest-serving and most trusted advisers.
She announced late in February she was resigning from her position as White House communications director.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hope-hicks-says-goodbye-to-trump-white-house-photos-2018-3
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dSs3QmEKp5gw-8MzjVhtVt5LQXZ_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
EXCLUSIVE: More Cabinet trouble for Trump? EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist 'power couple'
For much of his first year in Washington, President Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist, property records from 2017 show.
Neither the EPA nor the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, would say how much Pruitt paid to live at the prime Capitol Hill address, though Hart said he believed it to be the market rate. The price tag on Pruitt’s rental arrangement is one key question when determining if it constitutes an improper gift, ethics experts told ABC News.
[...]
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-cabinet-trouble-trump-epa-chief-lived-condo/story?id=54095310
Scott Pruitt’s Attack on Science Would Paralyze the E.P.A.
By Gina McCarthy and Janet G. McCabe
Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has announced that he alone will decide what is and isn’t acceptable science for the agency to use when developing policies that affect your health and the environment.
It is his latest effort to cripple the agency. Mr. Pruitt, who as Oklahoma’s attorney general described himself as “a leading advocate against the E.P.A.’s activist agenda,” said in an interview published in The Daily Caller last week that he would no longer allow the agency to use studies that include nonpublic scientific data to develop rules to safeguard public health and prevent pollution.
Opponents of the agency and of mainstream climate science call these studies “secret science.” But that’s simply not true. Peer review ensures that the analytic methodologies underlying studies funded by the agency are sound.
Some of those studies, particularly those that determine the effects of exposure to chemicals and pollution on health, rely on medical records that by law are confidential because of patient privacy policies. These studies summarize the analysis of raw data and draw conclusions based on that analysis. Other government agencies also use studies like these to develop policy and regulations, and to buttress and defend rules against legal challenges. They are, in fact, essential to making sound public policy.
The agency also relies on industry data to develop rules on chemical safety that is often kept confidential for business reasons.
For instance, foundational epidemiological research into the effects of air pollution on health by scientists at Harvard and the American Cancer Society established a clear connection between exposure to fine particles and increased mortality. This research led to further studies that supported the development of air quality standards and rules requiring industry to reduce pollution, improving health and reducing costs for millions of Americans.
Yet, because the personal health data associated with individuals participating in the studies were obtained with guarantees of confidentiality, Mr. Pruitt apparently would have argued for those studies to be tossed out had he been at the helm then.
The E.P.A. administrator simply can’t make determinations on what science is appropriate in rule-making without calling into question decisions by other federal agencies based on similar kinds of studies, including on the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, and research into cancer and other diseases. All rely to some extent on data from individual health records. If one agency rejects studies based on that sort of data, it could open up policies by other agencies based on similar studies to challenge.
Mr. Pruitt — who is a lawyer, not a scientist — told The Daily Caller: “We need to make sure their data and methodology are published as part of the record. Otherwise, it’s not transparent. It’s not objectively measured, and that’s important.”
We don’t have the details of the new policy. But don’t be fooled by this talk of transparency. He and some conservative members of Congress are setting up a nonexistent problem in order to prevent the E.P.A. from using the best available science. These studies adhere to all professional standards and meet every expectation of the scientific community in terms of peer review and scientific integrity. In the case of the air pollution studies, a rigorous follow-up examination was done by the Health Effects Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies air pollution. The institute corroborated the findings.
In taking this action, Mr. Pruitt appears to be adopting the policies of the Honest and Open New E.P.A. Science Treatment Act, a bill aimed at the agency. Conservative lawmakers have tried to pass versions of this bill before to shackle the agency’s rule making. That law would prohibit the E.P.A. from taking any action “unless all scientific and technical information relied on to support” it is “specifically identified, and publicly available in a manner sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.”
An analysis of a similar bill introduced in 2015 by the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost $250 million a year over the first few years to carry out because it would require new “data collection, correspondence and coordination with study authors, construction of a database to house necessary information, and public dissemination” of the information.
The analysis, which did not appear to take into account the cost of redacting details like trade secrets or personally identifiable medical information, also predicted the agency would reduce by half the number of studies it relies on in developing policies and regulations because of the cost of complying with the law.
“The quality of the agency’s work would be compromised if that work relies on a significantly smaller collection of scientific studies,” the analysis found.
This approach would undermine the nation’s scientific credibility. And should Mr. Pruitt reconsider regulations now in place, this new policy could be a catalyst for the unraveling of existing public health protections if the studies used to justify them could no longer be used by E.P.A.
So why would he want to prohibit his own agency from using these studies? It’s not a mystery. Time and again the Trump administration has put the profits of regulated industries over the health of the American people. Fundamental research on the effects of air pollution on public health has long been a target of those who oppose the E.P.A.’s air quality regulations, like the rule that requires power plants to reduce their mercury emissions.
Mr. Pruitt’s goal is simple: No studies, no data, no rules. No climate science, for instance, means no climate policy.
If a tree falls in the forest, we know it makes a sound, even if people aren’t there to hear it. When people are exposed to mercury, lead or other air- and waterborne pollutants, we know their health is affected, whether or not E.P.A. is allowed to use the scientific studies that confirm those health impacts.
This policy no doubt will become a matter of litigation. It will be interesting to hear the agency defend Mr. Pruitt’s view that peer-reviewed studies that meet every standard for proper scientific method and integrity should not be considered in drafting policies and regulations that regulate threats to the environment.
Representative Bill Foster, a physicist and Democrat from Illinois, has argued that “scientists should set the standards for research, not politicians.”
We couldn’t agree more. Scientific research provides factual support for policies that reduce exposure to pollution and protect the American people from costly and dangerous illnesses and premature deaths. Under Mr. Pruitt’s approach to science, the E.P.A. would be turning its back on its mandate to “protect human health and the environment.”
Gina McCarthy was the E.P.A. administrator from 2013 to 2017. Janet G. McCabe was acting assistant administrator of the E.P.A’s Office of Air and Radiation from 2013 to 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/opinion/pruitt-attack-science-epa.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dvjs-PMArFDpUFM9CGnIRiFPHh3_M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Deadly Austin bombings were ‘domestic terrorism,’ police chief says
https://www.statesman.com/news/local/today-austin-police-chief-joins-kut-panel-discuss-bombings-racial-climate/6Gg2VytROVBI8e4ft5jwmJ/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dW6zN88BJ8_Gl5Md8sd5__OpyUyxM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Facebook starts fact checking photos/videos, blocks millions of fake accounts per day
A photo of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez ripping up a shooting range target was falsly doctored to show her ripping up the constitution. Photo fact checking could help Facebook prevent the false image from going viral. [Image via CNN]
Facebook has begun letting partners fact check photos and videos beyond news articles, and proactively review stories before Facebook asks them. Facebook is also now preemptively blocking the creation of millions of fake accounts per day. Facebook revealed this news on a conference call with journalists [Update: and later a blog post ( https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/hard-questions-election-security/ )] about its efforts around election integrity that included Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos who’s said to be leaving Facebook later this year.
Stamos outlined how Facebook is building ways to address fake identities, fake audiences grown illicitly or pumped up to make content appear more popular, acts of spreading false information, and false narratives that are intentionally deceptive and shape people’s views beyond the facts. “It’s important to match the right approach to each of these challenges” says Stamos, explaining that Facebook customize its solutions to these problems for different countries around the world.
Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s product manager for civic engagement also explained that Facebook is now proactively looking for foreign-based Pages producing civic-related content inauthentically. It removes them from the platform if a manual review by the security team finds they violate terms of service.
“This proactive approach has allowed us to move more quickly and has become a really important way for us to prevent divisive or misleading memes from going viral” said Chakrabarti. Facebook first piloted this tool in the Alabama special election, but has now deployed it to protect Italian elections and will use it for the U.S. mid-term elections.
Meanwhile, advances in machine learning have allowed Facebook “to find more suspicious behaviors without assessing the content itself” to block millions of fake account creations per day “before they can do any harm”, says Chakrabarti.
Facebook implemented its first slew of election protections back in December 2016, including working with third-party fact checkers to flag articles as false. But those red flags were shown to entrench some people’s belief in false stories, leading Facebook to shift to showing Related Articles with perspectives from other reputable news outlets. As of yesterday, Facebook’s fact checking partners began reviewing suspicious photos and videos which can also spread false information. This could reduce the spread of false news image memes that live on Facebook and require no extra clicks to view, like doctored photos showing the Parkland school shooting survivors ripping up the constitution.
Normally, Facebook sends fact checkers stories that are being flagged by users and going viral. But now in countries like Italy and Mexico in anticipation of elections, Facebook has enabled fact checkers to proactively flag things because in some cases they can identify false stories that are spreading before Facebook’s own systems. “To reduce latency in advance of elections, we wanted to ensure we gave fact checkers that ability” says Facebook’s News Feed product manager Tessa Lyons.
With the mid-terms coming up quick, Facebook has to both secure its systems against election interference, as well as convince users and regulators that it’s made real progress since the 2016 presidential election where Russian meddlers ran rampant. Otherwise, Facebook risks another endless news cycle about it being a detriment to democracy that could trigger reduced user engagement and government intervention.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/facebook-fact-check-photos/
Here’s Cambridge Analytica’s plan for voters’ Facebook data
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/29/heres-cambridge-analyticas-plan-for-voters-facebook-data/
Facebook will cut off access to third party data for ad targeting
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/facebook-will-cut-off-access-to-third-party-data-for-ad-targeting/
Facebook May Be Facing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in FTC Fines
http://fortune.com/2018/03/29/facebook-cambridge-analytica-ftc/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dJC-Fd8l7_VqVeMYF5VL2RDbHU9RM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
McDonald's to Boost Its Tuition Benefits After Tax Windfall
Fast-food chain to spend $150 million on education program - over 4 years - ooh, wow (. . .)
Restaurant companies are adding perks in tight labor market
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/mcdonald-s-to-boost-tuition-benefits-after-getting-tax-windfall
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dxFHlRKPyh5kFfMLoh4PTqoPk9SUM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Russia to Expel U.S. Diplomats in Tit-for-Tat Move
Russia to dismiss same number of diplomats as the U.S. did over U.K. spy poisoning case
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-expel-u-s-diplomats-in-tit-for-tat-move-1522345053
Russian officials accuse opposition of exploiting shopping centre fire
Thousands of people held an unsanctioned vigil in Kemerovo where the fire killed 64 people
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/28/russian-officials-accuse-opposition-of-exploiting-shopping-centre-fire
Russia Says It Will Expel 60 U.S. Diplomats in Retaliation for Trump’s Move
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/russia-orders-60-u-s-diplomats-to-leave-in-retaliatory-move
The Latest: UN chief warns of new Cold War approaching - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-latest-condition-of-russian-ex-spys-daughter-improves/2018/03/29/6caef740-335d-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/e3e531357a9d42528eb6aac2d8539bb1/The-Latest:-UN-chief-warns-of-new-Cold-War-approaching
Russia Retaliates, Expels 60 American Diplomats After U.S. Action
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/597995498/russia-retaliates-expels-60-american-diplomats-after-u-s-action
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dRQYPy0U6T7VAQMYIYRrZodQs6p-M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Judge denies Stormy Daniels request to depose President Trump, lawyer vows to refile motion
A judge denied a request by a lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels to depose President Donald Trump.
Daniels is seeking to void an agreement that required her to keep silent about an alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006.
Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for the actress, said he would refile the motion seeking the president's deposition soon.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/judge-denies-stormy-daniels-request-to-depose-president-trump.html
Trump’s lawyer has a lawyer and he just made the Stormy Daniels situation a lot worse
( https://youtu.be/MnXAST6XsyE )
A disastrous interview on CNN.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-lawyer-has-a-lawyer-and-he-just-made-the-stormy-daniels-situation-a-lot-worse-e8e5ccf51d70/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dsue_7TkP4R7VGMRZH5JCFaJLG5XM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Italian Journalist [atheist] Claims Pope Francis Told Him “Hell Does Not Exist”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/03/29/italian-journalist-claims-pope-francis-told-him-hell-does-not-exist/
Vatican rebukes journalist who quoted pope as denying hell
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-hell/vatican-rebukes-journalist-who-quoted-pope-as-denying-hell-idUSKBN1H52H8
Pope, in Holy Thursday prison visit, says death penalty not Christian - a slight irony: without ancient death penalty/the death of Jesus on the cross to secure God's forgiveness of sinners if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Christianity wouldn't exist
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-easter-pope-holythursday/pope-in-holy-thursday-prison-visit-says-death-penalty-not-christian-idUSKBN1H52Q0
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dOZvB2XWNtjk79MR6pJgdHljW5SoM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia plan to spend $200 billion building the world’s biggest solar power plant
SoftBank Group Corp., known for splashy deals involving billions of dollars (see: its Vision Fund and investments in Uber and Didi), has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia to build a $200 billion solar power plant. Expected to reach its full capacity of 200 gigawatts by 2030, the development will be the largest of its kind in the world by far.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Saudi Arabian project is about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, the 2 gigawatt Solar Choice Bulli Creek PV in Australia, which is expected to be completed by 2023.
[...]
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/softbank-group-and-saudi-arabia-plan-to-spend-200-billion-building-the-worlds-biggest-solar-power-plant/
David J. Shulkin: Privatizing the V.A. Will Hurt Veterans
By David J. Shulkin
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/opinion/shulkin-veterans-affairs-privatization.html
David Shulkin, fired by Trump, warns that privatizing the Veterans Affairs Department will hurt veterans
President Donald Trump aims to replace Veteran Affairs Department Secretary David Shulkin with White House physician Ronny Jackson.
Shulkin offered a parting shot Thursday in an op-ed for The New York Times.
"Privatization leading to the dismantling of the department's extensive health care system is a terrible idea," Shulkin wrote.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/david-shulkin-fired-by-trump-warns-against-privatizing-the-va.html
Privatizing all VA care would be a big mistake - letters re "Democrats slam rumors of VA secretary’s possible firing: ‘We need to know who’s calling the shots’", https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/03/14/democrats-slam-news-of-va-secretarys-possible-firing-we-need-to-know-whos-calling-the-shots/?utm_term=.954fc21fc302
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/privatizing-all-va-care-would-be-a-big-mistake/2018/03/16/7148f034-2864-11e8-a227-fd2b009466bc_story.html
Opinion | VA needs work, not politics or privatizing
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/03/29/opinion-va-needs-work-not-politics-privatizing/468678002/
Privatizing the VA will hurt vets, the left [. . .] says - references items included above
https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/privatizing-the-will-hurt-vets-the-left-says/AHZJ4kicV1abhuWuktBvVJ/
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=privatizing+the+va+will+hurt+veterans
Inside the Cutthroat Battle to Be the Next Hope Hicks
Hope Hicks plans to depart Washington by Good Friday, over a month after she resigned as the White House communications director on February 28. She will leave behind a press operation that is inherently broken, rife with scandal and petty divisions that have only worsened amid the cyclical staff sheddings that have defined the first 14 months of Donald Trump’s administration.
The race to fill the Hicks void is a clandestine parade of all the worst human impulses. Among the potential hires mentioned by Trump in conversations with aides in recent weeks are former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who reportedly isn’t interested, and Kellyanne Conway, who reportedly is. But administration sources told New York that, whoever the job goes to, the real story is the bloodletting between two early front-runners: director of strategic communications Mercedes “Mercy” Schlapp and Treasury Department spokesperson Tony Sayegh, both former Fox News contributors.
[...]
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/inside-the-cutthroat-battle-to-be-the-next-hope-hicks.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=inside+the+cutthroat+battle
Kelly Loses White House Clout as Trump Blazes Own Path
Chief of staff out of loop for several key recent decisions
President and top aide at times now on different wavelengths
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has lost some of his clout following recent missteps and wasn’t at President Donald Trump’s side for crucial decisions on staffing and policy moves, according to several senior aides.
Kelly wasn’t with the president last week when Trump abruptly decided to oust H.R. McMaster as national security adviser and replace him with John Bolton. Just two people were in the room for that decision: Trump and Bolton.
And Kelly is rarely on the line any more when Trump calls foreign leaders. Last week, when Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin days before the U.S. decided to expel dozens of Russian diplomats, Kelly wasn’t on the call.
The chief of staff’s absence at those two key moments last week highlights his struggles in managing the White House for a president who has a penchant for unpredictability and often follows his own lead when making decisions. Kelly has seen his influence slip since a staffing controversy in February marred his credibility and damaged his image as an internal disciplinarian.
[...]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/kelly-is-said-to-lose-white-house-clout-as-trump-blazes-own-path
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=kelly+loses+white+house+clout
Sessions names prosecutor investigating claims of FBI misconduct but declines to appoint special counsel
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/sessions-prosecutor-fbi-misconduct-clinton-uranium-one-special-counsel/index.html
Jeff Sessions Is Winning for Donald Trump. If Only He Can Keep His Job
http://time.com/5220086/jeff-sessions-is-winning-for-donald-trump-if-only-he-can-keep-his-job/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod
Time Magazine features 'creepy' photo of Jeff Sessions
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/03/29/time-magazine-features-creepy-photo-jeff-sessions.html
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=jeff+sessions
Trump, Mattis discuss border wall funding - AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-mattis-discuss-border-wall-funding/2018/03/29/5478b17a-3394-11e8-b6bd-0084a1666987_story.html
original https://www.apnews.com/54ffeaf396ce4d2bac1c982679a9763a/Trump,-Mattis-discuss-border-wall-funding
Mattis jokes to Bolton: 'I heard you're actually the devil incarnate'
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/mattis-bolton-meeting-joke/index.html
Mattis jokes that he's heard Bolton is the 'devil incarnate'
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/29/mattis-joke-bolton-devil-incarnate-491771
Jim Mattis Called John Bolton "The Devil" When They Met Because, Sure, Why Not?
Mattis greeted Bolton with, "I’ve heard that you’re actually the devil incarnate."
https://www.buzzfeed.com/verabergengruen/jim-mattis-called-john-bolton-the-devil-when-they-met
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d1ikCK7mdTlUjyMmrhUJJ431ZiFMM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump tells aides not to talk publicly about Russia policy moves
Trump told Putin "I'll win" if Russia starts an arms race.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-tells-aides-not-talk-publicly-about-russia-policy-moves-n861256
The Shadowy Operative at the Center of the Russia Scandal - Konstantin Kilimnik
Court documents call him Person A, but descriptions match the officer to Russian intelligence and to Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-shadowy-operative-at-the-center-of-the-russia-scandal/556823/
The Lie Detector in the Age of Alternative Facts
Russell Simmons, Stormy Daniels, he said, she said: Americans are desperately seeking truth in machines that are unable to provide it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/the-lie-detector-in-the-age-of-alternative-facts/556685/
The Hopeful Face of Middle America
( https://youtu.be/-xaZacWhLz4 )
“I think that youth should be heard—and not only heard, but listened to,” says a teenager in the short documentary My America. As the reverberations from last weekend’s Marches for Our Lives [ https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/photos-from-the-march-for-our-lives/556454/ ] continue to make headlines, Barnaby Roper’s film offers a galvanizing portrait of youth in America’s heartland.
Roper traversed middle America in search of answers after the 2016 election. “People would always say to me, ‘It was middle America’s fault,’” Roper told The Atlantic. “But I never understood this. So I wanted to go and see for myself. I wanted to make a film about the next generation of Americans—the generation that would inherit our successes and failures, our strengths and weaknesses.”
The production team, led by Cadence Films [ http://cadence-films.com/ ], encountered young people as diverse as the country in which they live. From teenagers fighting gun violence to extreme sports champions to misfits escaping homophobic families, the subjects of My America seem to have one thing in common: a disinclination to repeat the mistakes of an America past. “The American Dream is a total figment of the imagination,” says one young woman. “It died with history.”
Despite the fact that it was born of election results, Roper insists that “this is not a political film. It’s about hope. It’s about strength of the youth of our country. The youth of world need to be listened to.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/556634/middle-america-youth/
Mueller probing Russia contacts at Republican convention: sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators probing whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiries.
Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.
Another issue Mueller’s team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity.
Mueller’s interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel’s investigation.
Trump, who was nominated as the Republican Party candidate for the November 2016 election during the convention, has denied any collusion with Russia during the campaign. Moscow has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it interfered in the campaign to try to tilt the election in Trump’s favor.
Investigators have asked detailed questions about conversations that Sessions, then a Trump campaign adviser, had at a convention event attended by then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, said the first source, who was questioned by Mueller about the event.
The same source said Mueller’s team also has been asking whether Sessions had private discussions with Kislyak on the sidelines of a campaign speech Trump gave at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in April 2016.
Sessions’ spokespersons have denied repeatedly that he had any private discussions with Kislyak at the Mayflower. Sessions told lawmakers last year he could not recall any conversations with Russian officials at the hotel but could not rule out that a “brief interaction” with Kislyak may have occurred there.
Spokespersons for Mueller and Sessions declined to comment on Mueller’s interest in Sessions’ activities at the convention and other convention-related events.
UKRAINE LANGUAGE
The special counsel’s investigators have also interviewed attendees of the committee meetings that drafted the Republican Party platform in Cleveland.
At one committee meeting, according to people in attendance, Diana Denman, a member of the platform committee’s national security subcommittee, proposed language calling for the United States to supply “lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine’s armed forces and greater coordination with NATO on defense planning.”
But the final platform language deleted the reference to “lethal defensive weapons,” a change that made the platform less hostile to Russia, whose troops had invaded the Crimean peninsula and eastern Ukraine.
After the convention, Denman told Reuters in 2016, J.D. Gordon, a Trump foreign policy adviser, told her he was going to speak to Trump about the language on Ukraine, and that Trump’s campaign team played a direct role in softening the platform language.
The Trump campaign has denied playing any role in the weakening of the party’s position regarding Ukraine. Gordon has called Denman’s version of events “inaccurate.”
Stephen Yates, co-chair of the platform committee’s national security subcommittee, said he has “heard nothing about other members of the subcommittee being called in for questioning, and I have had no interaction with anyone working on the investigation.”
Sessions recused himself last year from the federal probe into Russian election meddling after it emerged that he had failed to say during his Senate confirmation hearing to be attorney general that he had met with Russia’s ambassador in 2016.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-convention/mueller-probing-russia-contacts-at-republican-convention-sources-idUSKBN1H52VT
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=mueller+probing+russia+contacts
E.P.A. Prepares to Roll Back Rules Requiring Cars to Be Cleaner and More Efficient
The Trump administration is expected to launch an effort in coming days to weaken greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for automobiles, handing a victory to car manufacturers and giving them ammunition to potentially roll back industry standards worldwide.
The move — which undercuts one of President Barack Obama’s signature efforts to fight climate change — would also propel the Trump administration toward a courtroom clash with California, which has vowed to stick with the stricter rules even if Washington rolls back federal standards. That fight could end up creating one set of rules for cars sold in California and the 12 states that follow its lead, and weaker rules for the rest of the states, in effect splitting the nation into two markets.
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to frame the initiative as eliminating a regulatory burden on automakers that will result in more affordable trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles for buyers, according to people familiar with the plan.
An E.P.A. spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Pruitt had sent a draft of the 16-page plan to the White House for approval.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/climate/epa-cafe-auto-pollution-rollback.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dEaKjLjdwnMsZNMW_5gE9CFulpRMM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Laura Ingraham, Facing Boycott, Apologizes for Taunting Parkland Survivor David Hogg
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/laura-ingraham-david-hogg.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpJN6wegv9K_C0MkX9OeHcAJ2GPZM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
How Trump got to ‘yes’ on the biggest purge of Russian spies in U.S. history
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-trump-got-toyes-on-the-biggest-purge-of-russian-spies-in-us-history/2018/03/29/3e056a28-337b-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dNs5NFCIRKmZzrMoUTvsN5C_YxtOM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Trump wants ‘out’ of Syria ‘very soon,’ contradicting top officials
'We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon,' the president said Thursday, in what would be an apparent change in U.S. policy.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/29/trump-syria-military-isis-491856
Trump says U.S. to pull out of Syria "very soon"
CBS News
While delivering a speech on infrastructure in Ohio on Thursday, President Trump said that "we'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon." In December, the Pentagon said it had about 2,000 troops deployed in the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-Fr4as7-Y
On Syria, Trump is worse than Obama
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/opinions/trump-failure-syria-opinion-ghitis/index.html
Syria war: France offers to mediate between Turkey and Kurds
France has offered to mediate in the conflict in northern Syria, where Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish fighters in January.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43592323
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dNViYYuHcVdYZMMXrsFTgXbLCVyCM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Crazed girls flood Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz with fan mail
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-reg-nikolas-cruz-prison-love-letters-20180327-story.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dLcEP2GpjifzBhM3h9U7ZODwtfbpM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Source: Mueller pushed for Gates' help on collusion
(CNN) - Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign's contact with the Russians. New information disclosed in court filings and to CNN this week begin to show how they're getting it.
In a court filing earlier this week, the public saw the first signs of how the Mueller team plans to use information from Gates to tie Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, directly to a Russian intelligence agency. Mueller's team alleges that Gates was in contact with a close colleague of Manafort's who worked for a Russian intelligence agency -- and that Gates knew of the spy service ties in September and October 2016, while he worked on the Trump campaign. Gates would have to talk about the communication with the man if prosecutors wanted, according to his plea deal.
That's in line with what prosecutors told Gates months ago during high-stakes negotiations, CNN has learned. They told him they didn't need his cooperation against Manafort, according to a person familiar with the investigation, and instead wanted to hear what he knew about contact between the Trump campaign and Russians.
The extent of Gates' knowledge about any such contact or what he told prosecutors hasn't been made public.
As part of Gates' agreement to cooperate with the special counsel a month ago, he earned a vastly reduced potential sentence and had several charges dropped in two criminal cases against him.
[...]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/29/politics/mueller-gates-russia-investigation-contacts/index.html
Mueller signals he is going after bigger fish as he drills down on the central thread of the Russia investigation
The special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly didn't need former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates' cooperation against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Instead, Mueller wants to know what Gates knew about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia during the 2016 US election.
Gates was a key player during pivotal moments in the campaign, and his vastly reduced plea deal indicates he has information of significant value for Mueller.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mueller-gates-trump-campaign-russia-collusion-contacts-2018-3
Sentencing Memorandum
Sentencing Memorandum , USA v. VAN DER ZWAAN, No. 1:18-cr-00031-1 (D.D.C. Mar 27, 2018)
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4424937-Sentencing-Memorandum.html
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dpMFqATmzHjzpTM3v_rZK8JVyrNuM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Here's Hillary Clinton's blunt response to those who say 'get off the stage and shut up'
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/03/hillary_clinton_at_rutgers_32918.html
Hillary Clinton: Get more women to run for office and vote in midterm elections
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2018/03/29/hillary-clinton-rutgers-talk-politics-and-womens-movement/469871002/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMVdXg6-xPh_3eMviOiKIJkKfa3mM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
2016 Facebook memo suggests company values growth over user safety
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-memo-the-ugly-andrew-boz-bosworth-mark-zuckerberg-response-today-2018-03-29/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dHSCgt48VxMD2QMGl41fnSHGmBBxM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
Under Armour says 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts breached
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-under-armour-databreach/under-armour-says-150-million-myfitnesspal-accounts-breached-idUSKBN1H532W
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/d-UoQj17RljAhJMm0oq4j3qVnvaOM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
FBI looked into Trump plans to build hotel in Latvia with Putin supporter
Exclusive: US authorities made inquiries even before 2016 election campaign into Trump property dealings in former Soviet Union
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/29/trump-fbi-hotel-latvia-investigation-russia-links
FBI Investigated Trump Before Election Over Latvia Hotel Linked to Putin Backer, Report Says
http://www.newsweek.com/fbi-trump-latvia-hotel-putin-865969
more: https://www.google.com/search?q=latvia+looked+into+trump+plans
Explosive Facebook Memo Defended Company’s Strategy, Even If It Got People Killed
“We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified,” an executive wrote in 2016.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-memo-andrew-boz-bosworth_us_5abdace2e4b055e50acc8486
WSJ Employees Say Senior Editor Tried To Pull Story For Political Reasons
“This is censorship and it is beneath the standards of the Wall Street Journal,” they wrote in a letter.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wall-street-journal-censorship-letter_us_5abd2570e4b03e2a5c7a735f
The Military Banned Waterboarding Trainees Because It Was Too Brutal — And Never Announced It
Torture apologists cite the military’s use of waterboarding trainees in defense of Gina Haspel, Trump’s nominee for CIA director. One problem: The military stopped that training in 2007.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/military-sere-waterboarding-banned-torture-cia-gina-haspel_us_5abd1240e4b06409775e4122
Trump Has No Idea Why He Gets To Fill So Many Empty Court Seats
He should be thanking Mitch McConnell. He thinks Obama just mysteriously left him 100+ court vacancies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-federal-judges-obama-republicans_us_5abd47c4e4b0a47437a98594
Donald Trump Jr. Gets In A Snit Over Accurate BBC Headline About Ronny Jackson - Trump picks his doctor to replace Shulkin as veterans secretary, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43578598
He can’t handle the truth.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jr-bbc-tweet-ronny-jackson_us_5abd2678e4b06409775e561b
Trapped Inside The Monster Energy Frat House
A woman who worked at the drink company said she was sexually harassed and abruptly fired. This is what can happen when a boys club runs amok.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monster-energy-sexual-discrimination-women_us_5aba7f31e4b04a59a31208c9
Republican Strategist Nails Why David Hogg Got To Laura Ingraham
If only elected officials in the Republican Party would stand up to Fox News like school shooting survivor David Hogg did.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-strategist-david-hogg-laura-ingraham_us_5abd7f37e4b0a47437a9be6b
The March For Our Lives Was Inclusive. Here’s How To Make Sure Its Agenda Is, Too.
The Parkland students have a lot of work ahead to deliver on the vision they laid out on Saturday. Other activists have advice for how they can get it done.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/march-for-our-lives-inclusive_us_5abbf6c9e4b04a59a3140efc
Bad Ideas Aren’t Worth Debating
“Would American intellectual life really lose out because we aren’t debating whether women who have abortions should be hanged?"
Mainstream magazines in the Donald Trump era have been scrambling to hire more right-leaning columnists to demonstrate their commitment to diversity of thought. These efforts have borne fruit, though not exactly in the manner intended. Instead of showing the value of vibrant debate, they’ve demonstrated that conservative ideas aren’t worth debating.
The Atlantic’s recent personnel choices are a case in point. The magazine has just hired two new columnists, one on the left, one on the right. The left columnist, Ibram X. Kendi, is the author of Stamped from the Beginning. The monograph is a groundbreaking, painstaking history of the development of racist and anti-racist ideas in America that challenges comfortable notions of progress against bigotry. It won the National Book Award. The right columnist, Kevin D. Williamson, is a writer formerly at National Review who has referred to a nine-year-old black child as a ”primate.”
Most of the online discussion following The Atlantic’s hires has focused on Williamson, especially on a series of tweets in which he stated that women who have abortions should be hanged. Kendi has been largely forgotten — but the contrast between his work and Williamson’s is instructive. Kendi is a pioneering anti-racist, while Williamson regurgitates tired racist bilge. But beyond that, Kendi shows that it would be trivially easy for high profile, mainstream venues to find serious, important, respected, left scholars to write for them.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Julia Serano, Safiya Umoja Noble, Laura Agustín — the left has an embarrassment of thinkers with unique perspectives and valuable knowledge who could enrich the public discourse. And the right has ... Kevin D. Williamson, a longtimer in the right-wing media bubble whose brilliant, provocative ideas include the suggestion that we should name rape accusers.
It’s not just Williamson, either. Bret Stephens, The New York Times’ high profile conservative hire, kicked off his tenure with an embarrassing column spouting climate change denial. Later he penned a defense of Woody Allen which ignored substantial evidence that the actor had abused his then 7-year-old adoptive daughter. Stephens also compared Allen favorably to former Olympic gymnast national team doctor Larry Nassar, because Nassar abused more than 250 children, while Allen was accused only of abusing one.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post hired libertarian conservative writer Megan McArdle. McArdle seriously recommended in 2012 that we could reduce gun violence by training children to rush active shooters. “If we drilled it into young people that the correct thing to do is for everyone to instantly run at the guy with the gun, these sorts of mass shootings would be less deadly,” she insisted.
McArdle, Stephens, and Williamson have all been mercilessly mocked on social media. In response, conservatives have wailed that liberals are intolerant, and don’t want any conservatives to write in the mainstream. “If left-leaning but not explicitly ideological publications cleanse their pages of conservative voices, the loss to American intellectual life will be immense,” National Review fulminates.
But would it? Would American intellectual life really lose out because we aren’t debating whether women who have abortions should be hanged? What does Williamson’s cruel, bigoted refusal to use Laverne Cox’s proper pronouns add to “American intellectual life”? Our public discourse ? or for that matter life on earth ? is not enriched but imperiled by ignorant, ideological efforts to cast doubt on the consensus around climate change.
The issue is not left intolerance. The issue is that conservative intellectuals make bad, often nonsensical arguments, and spout opinions that are hateful and harmful on their face.
Nor is this a surprise, given the last several decades of American history. Anyone looking objectively at the GOP’s record in politics over the last 30-odd years would reasonably conclude that conservatism is a bankrupt and harmful ideology, built on bigotry and a fetishization of tax cuts for the rich. The previous Republican president, George W. Bush, presided over an unnecessary and catastrophic war, a horrifyingly incompetent hurricane relief effort, and a historic, devastating financial collapse. The current Republican president is an incompetent would-be authoritarian whose main accomplishments so far have involved empowering a fascist police force to harass and deport innocent people. The Republican Congress put forth incoherent health care plan after incoherent health care plan, before ramming through a similarly incoherent tax cut for the wealthy.
Conservatism in office has brought Americans war, financial disaster, misery, and rising fascism. Conservative pundits, meanwhile, write column after column propounding ill-informed, bigoted, and cruel solutions to problems that don’t exist, while denying the existence of real injustices and misery.
This is not some sort of coincidence. Conservative governance is a disaster because conservative thinking is bankrupt. Giving more space to conservative thinkers is not going to make our polity more diverse and vibrant. It’s going to fill our public sphere with prejudice and ignorance. Ibram X. Kendi challenges and enlightens. Kevin D. Williamson does neither of those things.
The left is constantly told that we’re shutting down debate and thereby threatening free speech. But no one is owed a platform at a mainstream publication. The record of conservative governance, and the record of conservative pundits, makes a strong case that conservative ideas have little to offer in response to our greatest problems now, if they ever did.
Yes, lots of people believe in conservatism, but lots of people believe in astrology, too. That doesn’t mean that mainstream publications should start running serious op-eds about what the arrangement of the stars says about the major political issues of our day. (Though admittedly astrology is a lot less harmful than conservatism.)
The rise of Trump should have led gatekeepers to question the legitimacy and the value of conservatism. Predictably, though, it has done the opposite. Power is always its own justification, and Trump’s narrow, fluke victory has convinced editors at The New York Times and The Atlantic that what America really wants and needs is more serious conservatism to challenge readers. But “serious conservatism” is an oxymoron, and readers are ill-served by garbage provocations, bigotry, and ignorance couched as “challenges.”
If conservatives have thinkers and scholars on the level of Ibram X. Kendi, bring them forward. In the meantime, Kevin D. Williamson, and all the other fourth-rate proponents of his failed ideology, should be shown the door. Our public sphere would be more vibrant, more thoughtful, more productive, and yes, more free, without them.
Noah Berlatsky is the author most recently of Nazi Dreams: Films About Fascism [ https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Dreams-Films-About-Fascism-ebook/dp/B0774GL9WV ].
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-berlatsky-williamson-atlantic_us_5abd1764e4b06409775e47b0
A Census Question About Citizenship Should Worry You, No Matter Your Immigration Stance
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-escalante-census-citizenship_us_5abc2ea1e4b03e2a5c790abf
George W. Bush’s Ethics Chief Warns Trump Insiders: People Will Go ‘To The Slammer’ - Richard Painter
“The question is who and how high up this is going to reach.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/richard-painter-people-going-to-the-slammer_us_5abda079e4b055e50acc78e2
Trump Says His Border Wall Is Going Up Right Now. It’s Not.
( https://youtu.be/WG1kAGCfvAY )
“You can see a chicken as a penguin, but it’s still a chicken,” a panelist on CNN quips.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-wall-boasts-fake_us_5abd8932e4b0f112dc9b0b28
ICE Ends Policy Of Presuming Release For Pregnant Detainees
Instead, pregnant women will be released from immigrant detention only on a case-by-case basis.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/immigration-customs-enforcement-pregnant-women_us_5abd07d7e4b03e2a5c7a4262
Tomi Lahren’s Exercise Pants Gun Photo Becomes Butt Of Twitter Jokes - "To protect our schools, all classrooms will now be equipped with Tomi Lahren and her vagina gun."
The Fox News contributor is being mocked for stuffing a gun into her yoga pants.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tomi-lahren-yoga-pants-gun_us_5abcbcd5e4b03e2a5c799765
Trump Says Infrastructure Overhaul Will Likely Have To Wait Until After Midterms
It’s an admission rooted in political reality and the congressional calendar.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-infrastructure-midterms_us_5abd33f9e4b03c9964e2d5f5
The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica Scandal, According To My Mom
Zuckerberg doesn’t seem so nice after all, she says. “Not that I’d be upset if you married him.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cambridge-analytica-facebook-explained-mom_us_5aba9423e4b04a59a3121fd9
Trapped In An Internet Desert, Detroit Teens Struggle To Stay Online
Many without computers or reliable internet rely on free computer labs or public WiFi networks to do their homework.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/detroit-internet-teens_us_5abbfb34e4b06409775cc5ea
These Portraits Shine A Light On The Homeless Faces You Pass Every Day
The illustrated profiles of men and women who’ve experienced homelessness in New York City in this series are gorgeous.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-portrait-series-shines-a-light-on-the-homeless-faces-you-pass-every-day_us_5abbce67e4b04a59a313c1aa
A New Jersey Judge Asked A Woman If She Closed Her Legs To Prevent Rape
John F. Russo has been on paid administrative leave since May 2017.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-new-jersey-judge-asked-a-woman-if-she-closed-her-legs-to-prevent-rape_us_5abd10dbe4b06409775e3e7e
Teacher Suspended After Discussing Her Sexual Orientation In Class - Yahoo! Lifestyle
An elementary school teacher has been suspended for discussing a topic related to her sexual orientation in class.
Stacy Bailey, 31, an art teacher at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School in Arlington, Texas, who was previously named “Teacher of the Year 2016,” was suspended with pay after the district received a complaint from a parent that she was discussing an LGBT topic in class.
[...]
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teacher-suspended-after-discussing-her-sexual-orientation-in-class_us_5abcfeebe4b04a59a3155992
original https://sg.news.yahoo.com/teacher-suspended-discussing-sexual-orientation-class-021730933.html
Why Do Cracking Knuckles Make That Noise? You Might Need a Calculator ( https://youtu.be/BHEcQluSzmM )
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/science/cracking-knuckles-mathematical-model.html
study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22664-4
earlier study (2015) (via https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/science/how-a-cracking-knuckle-makes-a-noise.html ) http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119470
Simulation May Finally Explain Why Knuckle Cracking Makes That Awful Sound
https://gizmodo.com/now-we-know-why-knuckle-cracking-makes-that-awful-sound-1824154323
Scientists explain the sound of knuckle cracking
Scientists have turned their attention to investigating that most annoying of human habits - the sound made when you crack your knuckles.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43572709
Scientists have spent 60 years agonizing over how our knuckles crack
https://qz.com/1240783/scientists-may-have-solved-the-mystery-behind-the-sounds-of-knuckle-cracking/
more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dMeI4qwCedWV8sMaeQXjK6VwBUQ6M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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