Blip

[bodysong]

Does no one remember why the USA instituted meat inspections?

Mother Jones ✓
Twitter › MotherJones

Update: The Trump administration just officially made good
on its goal to privatize the inspection of the kill line in pork
slaughterhouses. The pork industry is now responsible for
inspecting itself.

September 17, 2019

Under new federal rules, pork companies can hire workers
to do some tasks currently reserved for federal inspectors
in hog slaughterhouses.

The new rules take effect in two months.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...rk-is-produced

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

CAFO

Factory Farms, owned and operated by corporations-
China, Holland- too big to care

 

[bodysong]

Dan Rather ✓
DanRather

If this is how President Trump acts with the president of the Ukraine
when many people are on the phone what does he say to Putin when
no one is around?

10:17 AM - Sep 26, 2019

 

[bodysong]

It took a good, long while for Rachel Carson's book,
"Silent Spring," to have an effect.

September 27, 1962

US and Canada have lost three billion birds since 1970

20 Sep 2019

The US and Canada have lost more than one in four birds –
a total of three billion – since 1970, culminating in what
scientists who published a new study are calling a
“widespread ecological crisis”.

Researchers observed a 29% decline in bird populations
across diverse groups and habitats – from songbirds such
as meadowlarks to long-distance migratory birds such as
swallows and backyard birds like sparrows.

“Multiple, independent lines of evidence show a massive
reduction in the abundance of birds,” said Ken Rosenberg,
the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy.


Co-author Adam Smith from Environment and Climate
Change Canada called the findings a “wake-up call”.

The population losses are consistent with what scientists
have counted among insects and amphibians.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2019/sep/19/us-canada-bird-population-losses

 

[bodysong]

Dunning–Kruger effect

In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias
wherein people of low ability suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly
assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of
illusory superiority derives from the metacognitiveinability of low-ability
persons to recognize their own ineptitude; without the self-awareness of
metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their actual
competence or incompetence.

As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger,
the cognitive bias of illusory superiority results from an internal illusion
in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of
high ability; that is,

"the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self,
whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error
about others."

October 7, 2019

The Minneapolis police union has come out with a "Cops for Trump" T-shirt,
just days after the Police Department banned officers from wearing their
uniforms in support of candidates at political events or in ads.

Lt. Bob Kroll, head of the officers' union, posted the T-shirt image on his
personal Facebook page, saying the shirts will be for sale starting Monday
at the union's headquarters for $20 each and will soon be available online.

Last week, Kroll accused the Police Department of instituting its new policy
just before President Donald Trump's visit to Minneapolis. He said he was
told about the ban Sept. 27, one day after Trump announced Thursday's rally
at Target Center, and after Mayor Jacob Frey's statement that Trump was
unwelcome in the city.

The Police Department denied a political motive, saying the shift had been
under consideration since early this year.

http://www.startribune.com/minneapo...an-on-uniforms-at-political-events/562372802/

October 7, 2019

Trump’s campaign rally at Target Center this Thursday is forcing
Minneapolis city officials to reckon with something other cities
nationwide have experienced: Tens of thousands of dollars in
unreimbursed costs.

Robin McPherson, Minneapolis Police Department’s finance
director, said in a Sept. 26 e-mail to city officials that the
agency has not sought reimbursement for campaign rallies
because it was “to ensure public safety not security for the
candidate and any costs have been nominal.” But she said
Trump’s rally “will be significantly more expensive and
extensive.”

Trump’s visit to Duluth last year cost the city more than
$69,000. The city’s cost estimate includes regular staff
hours and overtime, materials and equipment usage.
City staff did not send the Trump campaign an invoice
because they did want to expend more staff time requesting
a reimbursement they knew they would not receive, Duluth
spokeswoman Kate Van Daele said.

“We just don’t hear back historically,” Van Daele said.
“So that’s why we, regardless of party, we just have chosen
not to invoice because traditionally that’s been our experience,
and the experience of a lot of other municipalities.”

http://www.startribune.com/minneapo...ace-for-extra-costs-of-trump-rally/562446812/

 

[bodysong]

Christopher Columbus Day weekend
Monday October 14, 2019

This Columbus Day, DC Will Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day Instead

DC Council votes to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day — for now

Indigenous Peoples’ Day to replace Columbus Day in the District, other jurisdictions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-m...ce-columbus-day-district-other-jurisdictions/

Julián Castro tried to help asylum seekers to reach their destination.
They reached the port of entry-
The Border Guards refused to honor their legal right to ask for asylum.
A number of legalistic barriers to enable refusing, and a new one is added
by "proclamtion." Associated with being granted a Green card, the USA
will not allow people to stay permanantly if they cannot pay for their own
medical insurance and costs.

It goes into effect November 3, 2019

https://www.texasobserver.org/attac...rump-policy-ignores-danger-to-asylum-seekers/

“La Lista” has now reached the number 2,769. Each number represents
10 people, and represents the number of migrants who have been able
to present acceptable identity documents for themselves and family
members to the list of volunteers and the Grupos Beta authorities.
There is no legal authority for this metering system, but it has remained
in place because it serves the purposes of CBP to assure that only a small,
seemingly arbitrarily chosen number of asylum-seekers, will be permitted
to pass into their custody each day. On July 31, only 31 people whose
names were on La Lista were permitted to cross. On Aug. 1, it was 41.

Because of Mexican migration policy, unaccompanied minors under 18
are unable to get their name on the list, and have to be brought to PedWest
by AOL volunteers to surrender to the U.S. border officials who examine
visitors at this pedestrian entrance. The volunteers have been harassed
and threatened by CBP.

(Journalists are not allowed to observe the "Courts" conducted in tents.)

http://eltecolote.org/content/en/co...sible-hurdle-in-the-migrant-search-of-asylum/

Now, that Trumpypants has strangled the Rio Grand valley, the
opportunists have bought their way into ecologically sensitive
areas.

Where the Texas Gulf Coast meets Mexico, a trio of fossil fuel companies
is planning an industrial complex the likes of which Texas’ Rio Grande
Valley has never seen

September 16, 2019

NextDecade, a publicly traded firm out of Houston; Annova,
a Houston-based subsidiary of the Fortune 100 energy giant Exelon;
and Texas LNG, a private firm also in Houston. Of the three projects,
NextDecade’s—dubbed “Rio Grande LNG”—is by far the largest,
accounting for around 70 percent of the projected production.
To feed its facility, NextDecade plans to build a 136-mile-long
double pipeline starting at the Agua Dulce trading hub near Kingsville.
(The other two will hook into an existing nearby pipeline.)

https://www.texasobserver.org/liquefied-natural-gas-rio-grande-valley-endangered-pollution/

 

[seeshelly]

After reading this thread...

After reading this thread my respect of Scott Walker went way up.

 

[bodysong]

Suffragists march to the White House in the spring of 1917 to demand voting rights

Nov. 14, 1917

The women were clubbed, beaten and tortured by the guards at the Occoquan
Workhouse. The 33 suffragists from the National Woman’s Party had been
arrested Nov. 10, 1917, while picketing outside the White House for the
right to vote.

The male guards at the Northern Virginia prison manacled the party’s
co-founder Lucy Burns by her hands to the bars above her cell and
forced her to stand all night. Dorothy Day, who would later establish
the Catholic Worker houses, had her arm twisted behind her back and
was slammed twice over the back of an iron bench.

The guards threw suffragist Dora Lewis into a dark cell and smashed
her head against an iron bed, knocking her out. Lewis’s cellmate,
Alice Cosu, believing Lewis dead, suffered a heart attack and was
denied medical care until the next morning.

The suffragists dubbed their treatment Nov. 14, 1917, as the
“Night of Terror,” and it helped galvanize public support of
the suffrage movement.

- Terence McArdle

November 10, 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ere-beaten-and-tortured-for-seeking-the-vote/

On November 10, 2019 Women of minority communities remain victims of
violence and mistreatment at the hands of prison guards. Some will die of
wounds and injuries. Women have the right to vote, yet the Trump Loyalist
states find ways of denying their legal votes to be counted.

 

[bodysong]

Julia Baird:

Queen Victoria would have been a 'nasty woman' in Trumpian terms

Author Julia Bair believes having strong female monarchs such as
Victoria and Elizabeth II helped British people become comfortable
with women in power. “Victoria was so tough and stubborn and s
ometimes rude, and refused to accept defeat. Refused to be told
what to do,” she says. “She was micro reported on every second
of the day and she behaved how she wanted to behave. That was
quite different – she would’ve been a ‘nasty woman’ in Trumpian
terms, without a doubt.”

“There’s a fundamental thread running through western cultural
thinking about the incompatibility of woman and power –
that it’s surprising, that it’s secondary, that it only ever comes
from someone else, under someone else’s tutelage or relation ...
that it’s somehow less authoritative, [that their bad behaviour is]
worse than others,” Baird says.

“What we often fail to portray is the incredible complexity of women
in powerful roles, and what we’re capable of. [This is] largely because
we are so blinkered by expectations of female behaviour –
of what a powerful woman or a feminist looks like.

Baird was denied access to the royal archives for years.

The royal archives also requested she censor the book, taking out one
of the most revelatory parts, about Victoria’s relationship with her
servant John Brown after the death of Prince Albert. The passage
came from information Baird had found outside the archive.
She rejected the request.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...uld-have-been-a-nasty-woman-in-trumpian-terms

 

[bodysong]

Right Wing Watch ✓
Twitter › RightWingWatch

“I need you to know that 2020 is a civil war that will change the
face of America forever,” Joshua Feurestein said on the main
stage at the American Priority Conference.

44 minutes ago

@RightWingWatch

At American Priority Conference, Speakers Sowed Distrust, Peddled
Conspiracy Theories, and Called for Civil War

 

[bodysong]

One of the more delightful animated characters, SpongeBob SquarePants
brought smiles, laughter, and entertainment to many.

The creator of SpongeBob SquarePants died in 27 Nov 2018
He was only 57 years old. He had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...quarepants-creator-stephen-hillenburg-dies-57



He is not here to defend his creation.

October 11, 2019

University of Washington professor Holly M. Barker recently penned an
article in The Contemporary Pacific declaring SpongeBob SquarePants
a racist violent colonizer.

In “Unsettling SpongeBob and the Legacies of Violence on Bikini Bottom’s”
abstract, Barker writes: “SpongeBob Squarepants and his friends play a role
in normalizing the settler colonial takings of Indigenous lands while erasing
the ancestral Bikinian people from their nonfictional homeland.”

Campus Reform’s Celine Ryan reports Barker writes in the article:

“SpongeBob’s presence on Bikini Bottom continues the violent and racist
expulsion of Indigenous peoples from their lands (and in this case their cosmos)
that enables U.S. hegemonic powers to extend their military and colonial interests
in the postwar era.”

Barker also takes issue with the show’s “cultural appropriation of iconic
Pacific Island representations.” According to Ryan, she specifically points
out “buildings shaped like pineapples, Easter Island statues, and tikis” as
well as “Hawaiian-shirt motifs.”

https://boundingintocomics.com/2019...gebob-squarepants-a-racist-violent-colonizer/

Most people know about the real Bikini Islands

Bikini islanders and their descendants have lived in exile since they were
moved for the first weapons tests in 1946. When US government scientists
declared Bikini safe for resettlement some residents were allowed to return
in the early 1970s. But they were removed again in 1978 after ingesting high
levels of radiation from eating foods grown on the former nuclear test site.

The Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded more than $2bn in
personal injury and land damage claims arising form the nuclear tests but
stopped paying after a compensation fund was exhausted.

Many exiles refused to go back to the zones that were contaminated despite
US safety assurances.

It is not just their homes that have been lost, said Lani Kramer, 42, a
councilwoman in Bikini’s local government, but an entire swathe of
the islands’ culture. “As a result of being displaced we’ve lost our
cultural heritage – our traditional customs and skills, which for
thousands of years were passed down from generation to generation,”
she said.

“After they were exposed like that I can never trust what the US tells us
[about Bikini],” said Kramer, adding that she wants justice for the
generations forced to leave.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/02/bikini-atoll-nuclear-test-60-years

 

[bodysong]

OOPS. New York Times Corrects Their Hillary Clinton Lie

The "paper of record" claimed the former Secretary of State said that
the Russians were grooming a Democratic candidate for a third party
run. Spoiler. That is not what she said.

Nick Merrill, her spokesperson, corrected the paper of record
that night.

On Friday, the NYT did a piece about a podcast Secretary Clinton did
with David Plouffe. They incorrectly quoted her saying that the
“Russians” were “grooming” a candidate running in the Democratic
primary.

They rightfully fixed it to reflect that she was taking about the GOP.

— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) October 22, 2019

The original piece quoted Clinton saying Russians have “got their eye
on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are
grooming her to be the third-party candidate.”

In fact, the actual thing Clinton said was that Republicans were
grooming Gabbard to be a third-party spoiler candidate in 2020.

Here is the paragraph in the updated NYT story that lamely, barely
acknowledges that perhaps they screwed up a teensy bit:

Mr. Merrill said late Friday evening that Mrs. Clinton’s initial
“grooming” claim had referred to Republicans, not Russia, as
initially reported. Mrs. Clinton then brought up Russia in the
podcast interview, saying Ms. Gabbard was the Kremlin’s
preferred candidate.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/10/oops-new-york-times-corrects-another

 

[bodysong]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg wins $1Million Berggruen Prize for ‘Thinker’
Whose Ideas Changed Society

October 24, 2019

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the 2019 winner of the Berggruen
Prize for Culture and Philosophy, a $1 million award given annually
to a “thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to
advance humankind.”

The 86-year-old justice will donate the money to charity, the
Berggruen Institute said.

Ginsburg was lauded by the jury that chose her “for her work
in pioneering gender equality and strengthening the rule of law.”

The prize recognized not only Ginsburg’s 26 years on the Supreme Court,
but her work as an advocate for women’s rights. As a lawyer at the
American Civil Liberties Union, Ginsburg quarterbacked a team of
lawyers that brought six cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s
and helped establish that the constitutional guarantee of equal protection
applied not only to racial minorities but to women as well.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...Prize-for-Thinker-Whose-Ideas-Changed-Society

October 23, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...00c594-f50d-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ruth-bader-ginsburg-to-receive-1-million-berggruen-prize

 

[bodysong]

"Fire Drill Friday"

Fighting back against Climate Change Deniers

Hannah Jewell ✓
Twitter › hcjewell

Jane Fonda (and Ted Danson) are arriving at the Capitol to get arrested
for the third time in her weekly climate change protests

2 days ago

Hannah Jewell (@hcjewell)

October 25, 2019. He did it, folks.
Ted Danson arrested by the capitol police.

Ted Danson joined Jane Fonda today in what have become weekly protests —
and arrests — over climate change. "I'm Jane Fonda's new trainee,"
he said to the gathering before things got shut down.

Ted Danson seems to be having a grand time

— Hannah Jewell (@hcjewell) October 25, 2019

Ted Danson has a few words to say-

“All of this is inconvenient. Al Gore got it right. This is inconvenient.
It’s inconvenient for politicians to stop taking money from the oil industry
because it’s huge money they get. It’s easy, all you have to do is deny science
and say there’s no such thing as climate change. Easy. It’s inconvenient for the
oil industry to not drill wherever and whenever they want ’cause it’s huge money.
It’s inconvenient for industries to stop burning fossil fuels. It’s inconvenient for all
of us to realize that we have to share the planet’s natural resources with everyone
including people we don’t like. It’s inconvenient to realize we’re all in this together.
That either we will all make it or none of us will make it.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...d-danson-jane-fonda-arrested-climate-protests

 

[bodysong]

Facebook lied.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...e-face-to-face-with-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg

 

[bodysong]

Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK,
said: "We've known for a long time that the UK's world-class services
have attracted a range of clients, including those who have money and
pasts to hide.

"Now, for the first time, we have shed light on who these companies are
and how they have become entangled in some of the biggest corruption
scandals of our time.

"This should act as a wake-up call for government and regulators and
deliver much-needed reforms to the UK's defences against dirty money."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50168247?intlink_from_url=&link_location=live-reporting-story

The National Economic Crime Centre estimates the total is more than
£100bn a year.

Transparency International places that estimate much higher, at £325bn.

 

[bodysong]

Slaughtering indigenous people, worldwide

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/1/cristina_bautista_colombia_indigenous_leaders_killed

 

[bodysong]

Indian Country Today
Twitter › IndianCountry


On Monday the US can officially withdraw from Paris climate pact
(but it won't become official until after the election)

via @IndianCountry

9 hours ago

Indian Country Today - News Maven
https://newsmaven.io › indiancountrytoday

 

[bodysong]

November 3, 3019

Nov. 4 is the first day Trump can leave the Paris climate pact
Even then, the withdrawal process takes about a year.

Monday is the first time the U.S. could actually start the withdrawal
process, which begins with a letter to the United Nations. And it
doesn’t become official for a year after that, which leads to the day
after the election.

“The U.S. agreement is not a tax on the American people. There is no
massive wealth transfer,” said Climate Advisers CEO Nigel Purvis, who
was a lead State Department climate negotiator in the Clinton and George
W. Bush administrations. “In fact, the agreement obligates no country to
make any financial payments.”

Formally getting out of the Paris agreement is bad, but at this point after
years of rhetoric is more symbolic than anything, said Georgia Tech climate
scientist Kim Cobb. She said she is more worried about other Trump carbon
pollution actions, such as fighting California’s tougher emissions and mileage
standards and rollbacks of coal fired power plant regulations.

https://www.boston.com/news/politic...st-day-trump-can-leave-the-paris-climate-pact

 

[bodysong]

Supreme Court justices met with leader of homophobic hate group
ahead of judgements on landmark LGBT rights cases

November 4, 2019

Kavanaugh and Alito met with Brian Brown, who is the co-founder
of the National Organisation for Marriage (NOM) and the president
of the World Congress of Families (WCF).

Both groups actively campaign against basic LGBT+ rights in the US
and beyond. Brown himself has long organised against LGBT+
communities, promoted harmful laws and emboldened other hate
groups and extremists.

Great day at US Supreme Court #SCOTUS with
#CardinalMueller, Princess Gloria #ThurnundTaxis
with Justices #SamuelAlito and #BrettKavanaugh

— Brian S. Brown (@briansbrown) October 29, 2019

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/...to-homophobia-national-organisation-marriage/

 

[bodysong]

November 11, 2019

Donald Trump has hired former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
to be a part of his impeachment response team, a move that has already
raised lots of eyebrows across the country. Trump donated $25,000 to
Bondi shortly before she decided to NOT pursue charges against
Trump University in Florida

https://trofire.com/2019/11/11/trump-hires-woman-he-likely-bribed-to-lead-impeachment-team/

Pam Bondi moves on from Florida attorney general to President Trump defender

November 12, 2019

The White House announced last week that Bondi, 53, had been hired
temporarily to coordinate and be the public face of the House’s impeachment
inquiry into Trump, someone Bondi has been close to for years.

While she championed anti-human trafficking work as attorney general,
her results were mixed. A 2015 investigation by the Florida Center for
Investigative Reporting found just 51 people were charged by her office
in her first five years.

Pasco County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper -
Tepper stood by her words when reached Monday.

“My opinion never changed,” Tepper said in a text message,
“as I was unaware of what she did individually to cause change.”

In Washington, Bondi’s strengths — and friendship with Trump —
could help her survive what has often been a ruthless revolving door
in the White House, friends and allies said.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article237293984.html

 

[bodysong]

Where is the donation money going ?


‘We Build the Wall’ Claims It’s Breaking Ground
on a Private Border Wall in South Texas

Nov 15, 2019

The group behind a private border wall in New Mexico claims that it’s
moving forward on another crowdfunded project, this time along the
Rio Grande in South Texas. On Thursday, heavy equipment could be
seen clearing brush and cane along the river on private property near
the town of Mission and adjacent to the National Butterfly Center.
In a now-deleted video on Facebook, a man calling himself
“Foreman Mike” with We Build the Wall, the Florida-based
group behind the project in New Mexico, said the clear-cutting
was the first step in building three-and-a-half miles of wall to
help President Trump in his efforts to secure the border.

“Private entities are not free to violate the treaty and endanger lives
and property in Mexico,” said Scott Nicol, with the Sierra Club’s
Borderlands Campaign. Nicol also noted that environmental regulations—
waived by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for federal wall
construction—would still apply to private entities like We Build the Wall.

Hidalgo County tax records show that the clear-cutting is on land—
more than one thousand acres—
owned by Neuhaus & Sons. Lance Neuhaus, the grandson of the founder
of Texas State Bank, confirmed to Border Report that he had allowed
"We Build the Wall"on his land, but wouldn’t elaborate.

The Neuhaus property does not appear to be part of publicly disclosed
maps depicting future border wall.

Federal contractors have begun clear-cutting land about five miles west
of the Neuhaus property, but construction has yet to begin.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/w...ound-on-a-private-border-wall-in-south-texas/

November 15, 2019

The organizers of We Build the Wall said this week in a Facebook video
that they were going to build a 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) project on private
land in the Rio Grande Valley, at Texas’ southernmost point.

The video, which seeks more donors for the group, shows an excavator
clearing brush from the riverbank.

The video’s claims could not immediately be verified. The video appeared
to have been taken off the group’s Facebook page Friday.

Unlike at other parts of the border, the U.S. government in the Rio Grande
Valley doesn’t build barriers at the edge of the land border. That’s because
the Rio Grande often swells and can knock down structures closest to the
river. A large fence or wall could also change flood patterns and endanger
existing homes and property.

The International Boundary and Water Commission was set up by the U.S.
and Mexico under treaties that define the border and how the river is used.
Anyone building a fence within the river flood plain is supposed to submit
plans and design calculations to the commission.

Spokeswoman Sally Spener said the commission received an email Wednesday
night with “some general information” from Fisher Industries, a construction
company that built the group’s half-mile section near El Paso.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article237412449.html

 

[bodysong]

Interesting artifact of the interwebs

As Trump Impeachment Hearings Go Public, Previous Transcripts
Shed Light on Roles Texas Lawmakers May Play

Posted By Abby Livingston, The Texas Tribune on Wed, Nov 13, 2019

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily...-shed-light-on-roles-texas-lawmakers-may-play

A list of the Texan Republicans (Representatives, plus Rick Perry)

Democrat US Representative Joaquin Castro


Castro said Wednesday he wasn’t trying to incite violence by sharing the list of publicly available information in the wake of a shooting that targeted Hispanic people in El Paso, Texas. The tweet, from his campaign account, said the “contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.’”

Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, criticized Castro for “harassing Americans because of their political beliefs,” adding that Julian Castro has failed to get momentum in the presidential race. Joaquin Castro shot back that McCarthy is “trying to distract from the racism that has overtaken the GOP.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday tweeted a picture of his dinner at a barbecue restaurant owned by one of the Trump donors singled out by Castro. Sawyer Hackett, spokesman for Julian Castro, criticized the governor for that tweet when 22 of his constituents “were killed by a domestic terrorist 3 days ago.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/po...san-antonio/gdFM5wvlwi1XTUIUYKbImM/story.html

Aug. 7, 2019

Joaquin Castro Doubles Down After Tweeting Names of Trump Donors

- Adam K. Raymond

The (Republican) outrage at Castro continued into the morning
when Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Fox & Friends and compared
Castro to the man who murdered nine Americans in Ohio over the
weekend.

“That list sort of screams like the Dayton, Ohio, shooter’s list, right?”
Trump Jr. said of Castro’s tweet.

Holy shit. On Fox & Friends, Donald Trump Jr compares the list
Joaquin Castro released of public info about who has donated to
Trump with a mass shooter's kill list.

"That list sort of screams like the Dayton, Ohio, shooter's list, right? ...
it's pretty scary."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) quoting Donald Trump Jr., on August 7, 2019

Donald Trump Jr. also described Castro as a “radical left-wing politician
who’s polling at about zero percent,” appearing to confuse him with his
twin brother. (Julián Castro)

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...backing-down-after-tweet-of-trump-donors.html

Jan 12, 2019

Julián Castro, the former U.S. housing secretary and San Antonio mayor,
made it official Saturday: He's running for president.

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/12/julian-castro-running-for-president-2020/

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...backing-down-after-tweet-of-trump-donors.html

 

[bodysong]

Today's news-
The research advanced, and the detection of PFAS did, too.

The Dupont corporation's cover-up is over.

Transcript: Dark Waters:
A Conversation with Mark Ruffalo, Rob Bilott & Emily Donovan

The film concerns the contamination of Parkersburg, West Virginia, by the PFAS chemical known as C8, which was the main ingredient used by DuPont to make Teflon, and it's one of tens of thousands of unregulated synthetic chemicals.

Through his legal work on behalf of affected residents, Bilott discovered DuPont exposed their workers and the general public to C8 through direct contact and contaminated water.


In 2011, an independent panel of scientists found that C8 was quote "more likely than not linked to ulcerative colitis, high cholesterol, pregnancy-induced hypertension, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer." DuPont eventually paid a historic fine from the EPA and spent $670 million to settle over 3,500 personal injury lawsuits.

"...everyone in the United States who has a detectable level of PFAS chemicals in their blood."

MR. RUFFALO: I'd like to add, just forever chemicals, why it's called "forever chemicals" is because of the formulation of these chemicals is so strong, it cannot break down in nature. There is no way to break this chemical down. And when it ends up in our bodies, it stays there forever. It is with us forever.

We, all of us, 99 percent of human beings have this in our blood. I have it. You have it. And we have it in our blood because we weren't given the choice to decide not to have it in our blood. But this is with us now forever, and that's why it's called foreverchemicals.com and why we have started Fight Forever Chemicals--that's why it's called Fight Forever Chemicals, and we have started fightforeverchemicals.com as an advocacy group and a national coalition of the people that have been harmed and are living with it, which is all of us. But people like Emily and her community, Colorado, Vermont, there are many places where there's hot spots in the United States that have these chemicals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wash...n-with-mark-ruffalo-rob-bilott-emily-donovan/

 

[bodysong]

Keating, a veteran of Republican Party politics since the 1960s, waged
an intense counterattack, seeking to reverse the board’s decisions and
enlisting the Justice Department to launch an investigation of media
leaks from the regulators that were critical of his project.

When those tactics didn’t work, Keating called on five U.S. senators
to intervene and pressure the Federal Home Loan Bank to back off.
The senators — Democrats Alan Cranston of California, John Glenn of Ohio,
Donald Riegle of Michigan and Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, and Republican
John McCain of Arizona — met with Federal Home Loan Bank staff in April
1987 and urged them to ease up on the Keating examination. Keating had
business developments in the senators’ states, and the four Democrats were
in the majority. The five collectively received $1.3 million in campaign
contributions from Keating; their interference in an ongoing regulatory
matter was without precedent.

The Keating case erupted as a major national story when regulators finally
seized Lincoln Savings in April 1989, just one of the major savings and loans
institutions to collapse in the 1980s. The failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan
cost taxpayers an estimated $3.4 billion. The losses were the result of lending
and junk bond financing for speculative real estate developments that suffered
a loss in value due to overdevelopment and lousy business strategy. After the
Lincoln collapse, the U.S. government reaped bids in the range of 10 cents
on the dollar for one development, while the sale of the Phoenician hotel
and resort resulted in a $66 million loss.

In an era in which journalism is buffeted on all sides — by a (Presiderp)
who rages about fake news, by corporate owners laying off reporters and
editors — trade publications are essential for understanding topics such as
business and technology. Without an active trade press, figures like Charles
Keating are more likely to run amok.

Perspective

Why one of the biggest scandals in American history should make us
rethink journalism

Rob Wells
Oct 30, 2019

30 years ago

Charles Keating appears before the House Banking Committee
at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Nov. 21, 1989

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...an-history-should-make-us-rethink-journalism/

 

[bodysong]

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated
in Dallas on November 22, 1963

56 years ago

November 7, 2019

Steve Bannon, former Trump favorite, and Erik Prince, brother of Betsy de Vos -
featured speakers

New York Young Republican Club’s 107th annual gala
at the Yale Club in midtown Manhattan, NYC

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...d&utm_medium=undefined&utm_campaign=feed-part

October 12, 2018

Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan hosts Proud Boys founder
Gavin McInnes

2 Proud Boys Sentenced to 4 Years in Brawl With Anti-Fascists

Oct 22, 2019

Proud Boys and far-right skinheads were caught on video
singling out and attacking protesters in New York City

November 14, 2019

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in a standoff with Democrats over why
she is refusing to forgive the debts of tens of thousands of borrowers
who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges.

Nov 8, 2019

The U.S. Education Department is forgiving student loans for more than
1500 borrowers who attended a pair of for-profit colleges that shut down
last year.

A federal judge held DeVos in contempt of court and imposed a $100,000 fine
for violating an order to stop collecting on the student loans owed by former
Corinthian students. The department admitted to the court earlier this year that
it had erroneously collected on the loans of some 16,000 borrowers who
attended Corinthian Colleges.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/...o-testify-before-house-education-panel-067603