What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Entrance fees during the busiest months at Shenandoah National Park, and 16 other parks around the country, would more than double.
Trump Administration Proposes Raising Shenandoah Entrance Fee to $70 | Washingtonian
Agggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh
Study: CNN’s paid Trump shills made more than 500 appearances over the last three months
Study: CNN’s paid Trump shills made more than 500 appearances over the last three months
hmmm
And nearly half of troops of color surveyed said White nationalism is thriving in the nation’s military.
Troops Say White Nationalism is Greater Threat to Nation Than ISIS Conflicts | Colorlines
Dereliction of duty on the part of leadership. Pure and simple.
When the assailant is identified, intelligence agencies conduct a thorough investigation into the subject’s known terror ties. These ties are provided to outlets that, in real time, condemn the violent extremism that animated the subject. When bad actors align themselves with extremist Islamic ideology, information about those who propagate this dangerous dogma is eagerly consumed because we deem it essential — not to just know what happened, but everything and every person that may have influenced what happened. Yet when it comes to domestic terrorism carried out by white men, such thorough accounting lacks.
…America has been reticent to label white male mass shooters as domestic terrorists, and there’s a hesitation from politicians, law enforcement agencies, and society as a whole, to investigate what animates the brutal actions of these attackers, who are mostly white and male, and whose actions are often rationalized.
…Since 9/11, American citizens are seven times more likely to be killed by a right-wing extremist than a Muslim attacker.
…In a nation where we strive to understand religious propaganda in order to prevent further indoctrination, it’s crucial we take a more serious approach in identifying white nationalist, white supremacist, misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic agitprop. …The most common and most lethal form of domestic terrorism isn’t carried out by brown-skinned Islamic jihadists. …one question that Americans of all backgrounds should be asking is: Who and what is radicalizing white male terrorists?
…In America, where predominantly white and predominantly male antigovernment militias rank as law enforcement’s most prevalent threat, according to a 2015 report, law enforcement agents face more significant danger from armed white men than Jihadists. Yet here we are, willfully aiming to dismantle any semblance of growing extremist thought, while ignoring the many different forms of radicalization that are resulting in a large swath of vicious behavior.
White Male Terrorists Are an Issue We Should Discuss | Teen Vogue
hmmmm
When the Trump administration elected to stop requiring many employers to offer birth-control coverage in their health plans, it devoted nine of its new rule’s 163 pages to questioning the links between contraception and preventing unplanned pregnancies.
…Multiple studies have found that access or use of contraception reduced unintended pregnancies.
…“We know that safe contraception -and contraception is incredibly safe- leads to a reduction in pregnancies,” said Michele Bratcher Goodwin, director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. “This has been data that we’ve had for decades.”
…The government also said imposing a coverage mandate could “affect risky sexual behavior in a negative way” though it didn’t point to any particular studies to support its point. A 2014 study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found providing no-cost contraception did not lead to riskier sexual behavior.
Trump Officials Dispute the Benefits of Birth Control to Justify Rules – Bloomberg
I don’t know whether to post a Handmaiden’s Tale meme or Liar, Liar Pants of Fire one….
Internet and cellphone service can’t be fully restored without a steady flow of electricity to individual cell towers. The pumps, filtration systems, and other equipment used to treat sewage and provide clean drinking water also can’t function without power. Right now, those plants aren’t receiving much of it.
…the lack of electricity is a literal life-and-death issue — and one that may wind up killing more Puerto Ricans than the storm itself. The island’s government says 48 people died because of the hurricane, but my colleagues Eliza Barclay and Alexia Fernández Campbell estimate that the real death toll from the storm is probably well into the hundreds.
That number could spike even higher if the blackouts continue because the island needs electricity to operate its water and sewage systems; if the grid remains offline, huge numbers of Puerto Ricans will be at real risk of dying from heatstroke, dehydration, or exposure to contaminated water.
…The reasons have to do with geography and money. Puerto Rico’s biggest power generators are on the south of the island, but most of its inhabitants live on the north side, primarily in San Juan. There are four high-capacity transmission lines that carry power from the south to the north, and they pass through the center part of the island, the region Marin calls home. The problem is that central Puerto Rico is mountainous, full of huge swaths of thick forest, and mainly reachable only by driving on terrifyingly narrow dirt roads.
…For now, the military and civilian officials working to pull Puerto Rico back from the brink are focused on bringing powerful generators to the island. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the three-star Army general leading US military relief efforts in Puerto Rico, says civilian personnel are surveying hospitals, water plants, and sewage treatment facilities to find out which facilities have generators that are already working, which have ones in of need repair, and which don’t have any at all.
“If they don’t have a generator, do they need one, and can we bring one in?” he tells me. “And when we talk generators, I’m not talking your little Honda one. I’m talking about massive generators, like the size of a semi-truck.”
FEMA has already installed 100 generators at individual hospitals, sewage treatment plants, and water pumping facilities. It plans to bring in up to 400 more, according to officials on the ground here.
Generators are a short-term fix, however; a permanent solution will take far longer.
…The [wind] turbines are in perfect working order and could be a vital source of energy for the power-starved island. Except that they can’t actually be turned on without a small amount of electricity from the grid — which, of course, isn’t currently capable of providing it.
When the grid eventually comes back online, the wind farm will be able to provide power to about 35,000 homes. Until then, the blades aren’t turning.
…The medical center, though, is rapidly changing its normal ways of doing business in order to adapt to the new reality on the ground. Rodríguez tells me that many local residents have lost their homes and are living in large communal shelters. They may not know the medical center is open; even if they do, they often have no way of getting here.
In response, Rodríguez is sending doctors and nurses to the shelters, which are already seeing periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases such as conjunctivitis and parasite-borne skin diseases like scabies. That’s a new approach for the medical center, but Rodríguez feels like she’d be letting down her community if she didn’t experiment with alternative methods of delivering care. “This is our new normal,” she says.
Darkness: life in Puerto Rico without electricity – Vox
sigh…
Several studies have shown that when social scientists get liberal-leaning experiment subjects to think about their own deaths or make them feel threatened, some left-wingers adopt more conservative values. This phenomenon played out after 9/11 — researchers found that there was a “very strong conservative shift” in the US after the attacks, with more liberals supporting Republican President George W. Bush and favoring increases in military spending.
The hypothesis social scientists developed about this effect is perhaps best summed up in a 2003 review of research on the subject: “People embrace political conservatism (at least in part) because it serves to reduce fear, anxiety, and uncertainty; to avoid change, disruption, and ambiguity; and to explain, order, and justify inequality among groups and individuals,” it said.
…But while inducing fear might shift a liberal mindset, conservatives have generally been more difficult for social scientists to sway in experiments — until now.
…The study authors say this is some of the first experimental evidence that making people feel completely safe can (temporarily) change their politics and make them more liberal.
How to make conservatives liberal, according to a Yale psychologist – Business Insider
hmmm
The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik has attracted fierce criticism for an op-ed she penned about the multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment made against Harvey Weinstein.
…She went on to claim the choices she makes today that she deems to be “self-protecting and wise.”
“I have decided that my sexual self is best reserved for private situations with those I am most intimate with,” she said. “I dress modestly. I don’t act flirtatiously with men as a policy.”
For the love of God, Blossom….
Don’t be a sanctimonious mean-girl about sexual harassment. Just don’t.
…And don’t be judgey about what other women wear either. It doesn’t make you modest, it makes you a bitch.
Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) said on Tuesday it would add labels to election-related advertisements and say who is behind each of them, after a threat of regulation from the United States over the lack of disclosure for political spending on social media.
…Twitter, acting a month after Facebook Inc (FB.O) launched a similar overhaul of political ads, said in a blog post it would start a website so people could see identities of buyers, targeting demographics and total ad spend by election advertisers.
…The attempts at self-regulation by Facebook and Twitter have not satisfied lawmakers.
…Twitter said it would limit targeting options for election ads, although it did not say how, and introduce stronger penalties for election advertisers who violate policies.
The company said it would also allow people to see all ads currently running on Twitter, election-related or otherwise.
Twitter’s latest move would not tackle its longstanding problem with fake or abusive accounts that some users and lawmakers also blame for influencing last year’s U.S. election. Unlike Facebook, Twitter allows anonymous accounts and automated accounts, or bots, making the service more difficult to police.
Twitter to label election ads after U.S. regulatory threat
hmmm
Tesla’s first project to restore electricity in Puerto Rico is a children’s hospital in San Juan.
…The automaker, which previously committed to helping the U.S. territory recover from Hurricane Maria, is combining its commercial batteries and solar panels at the children’s hospital. The company said it is the first of many projects on the island that will use batteries and solar panel to restore power there.
A week after the first Powerwalls were sent to Puerto Rico, [Tesla CEO Elon] Musk said on Twitter that the company could theoretically rebuild the U.S. territory’s electricity system with solar and battery systems. [PR Gov. Ricardo] Rossello quickly jumped in on the Twitter discussion and invited Musk to talk about making the island a flagship project for Tesla.
Tesla Restoring Power to Children’s Hospital Puerto Rico
hmmmm
The ransomware, dubbed Bad Rabbit and DiskCoder by different sources, has been reported to have hit the Kiev Metro, Odessa airport, Ukrainian ministries of infrastructure and finance, as well as targets in Russia and as far off as Turkey.
The Russian news wire service, Interfax, among the victims, suspended service. The only available story on its website as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday was a note reading “Interfax news service not available due to hacker attack.”
Widespread ransomware outbreak strikes Ukraine, Russia | TheHill
hmmm
The Senate voted Tuesday night to kill a controversial pending rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced into private arbitration or small claims court.
…The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. …Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry.
…Pence cast the deciding vote after the Senate tied 50-50. All but two Republicans — John Kennedy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — voted to repeal the rule. No Democrats or independents supported the move.
…For years, Wells Fargo used arbitration clauses to block lawsuits from customers who alleged that unauthorized accounts had been opened in their names. Ultimately, the bank estimated that as many as 3.5 million such accounts were opened.
The bank agreed to settle some class-actions suits, but not until the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Los Angeles city attorney’s office fined the bank over those practices last year. Even in cases that the bank settled, it had argued that the plaintiffs could not sue because of arbitration clauses.
Democrats cited the Wells Fargo case and the recent massive data breach at credit reporting company Equifax as proof that the new CFPB rule was needed to protect consumers from abuses.
Equifax has been criticized for initially making consumers give up their right to sue if they wanted to take advantage of the company’s offer of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection after the breach. Equifax later backtracked on that requirement after a public uproar.
…Last year, congressional Republicans tried to repeal a consumer bureau rule for retirement advisors. The measure passed the House and Senate, but Obama vetoed it.
On Monday, the Treasury Department issued a report slamming the arbitration rule as flawed and a giveaway to class-action attorneys.
Just in case you were deluded into thinking the Congressional GOP is looking out for voters.
A $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure, which was awarded to a small, two-year-old Montana company that had only two employees when Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory, has sparked calls for an investigation from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
In addition to its size and relative inexperience, the fact that Whitefish Energy Holdings is based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Mont., is fueling questions about how Whitefish Energy Holdings secured the lucrative contract. The former Montana congressman’s son also had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site.
Congress questions $300M Puerto Rico contract with tiny energy firm
For kerreyest sake….
According to a former Trump biographer, the US leader claims to own the original “Two Sisters (On the Terrace),” an oil-on-canvas painted by the French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1881. But the Art Institute of Chicago begs to differ.
A Chicago museum outs Trump’s ‘Renoir’ painting as fake | Public Radio International
Heh
During President Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a protester broke through the media pool and tossed a number of Russian flags at the President.
https://twitter.com/pnashjenkins/status/922869868772429828
Protester tosses Russian flags at President Trump – ABC15 Arizona
Well, good on you, Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action.
Costs are expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades
Government Accountability Office says climate change already costing U.S. billions – CBS News
Sigh….
In the decade he’s been asking it, he claims he’s never gotten a straight, or honest, answer.
Man Shuts Down Anti-Abortion Argument By Asking One Question
hmmm
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because Buddha or Mohammed didn’t create us.
Alabama justice says the First Amendment only protects Christians | MSNBC
“My entire career is tied up with the man. It’s been a weird fucking week,” Smith said on his podcast. “I just wanted to make some fucking movies, that’s it. That’s why I came, that’s why I made Clerks. And no fucking movie is worth all this. Like, my entire career, fuck it, take it. It’s wrapped up in something really fucking horrible.”
Kevin Smith Is Donating Every Cent He Makes Off The Weinstein Company To Women
hmmmm
“When we establish contact with a community, we maintain that contact,” Andrés said during a phone interview from San Juan. “When we go to a place, we take care of that place until we feel it has the right conditions to sustain itself. That’s what a relief organization should be.”
…Andrés hopes that World Central Kitchen is demonstrating what kind of results a nonprofit with a “private sector mentality” can achieve. He suspects that, in years to come, others will be examining “our successes and failures and how we did it.”
“How we were able to go from 100 meals to a million meals,” he added. The secret, Andrés noted, was the chef community, the many volunteers who picked up a knife and got to it. A chef’s disposition, Andrés said, is to know how to adapt to crisis.
hmmmm
Trailblazing women who have been instrumental in NASA’s space program are being honored in a very fun way: as LEGO toys.
LEGO launches Women of NASA set | Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building
hmmm
Among the more pernicious fake stories that circulated right around the Oct. 1 vote: a picture of the fingers of a woman, allegedly broken by police to stop her from voting; reports that a police officer sent to Catalonia to block the vote had died of a heart attack there, surrounded by activists; and a story of a 6-year-old boy paralyzed by police brutality.
Other fake news stories claimed that photos from a 2012 miners strike in Madrid actually depicted pro-independence Catalans injured during the vote. Some reports seemed intended simply to cause confusion. On social media, people circulated a photo of a man in a yellow shirt, claiming that he was an undercover police officer. As Maldito Bulo reported, he was in fact a pro-independence advocate.
…people sharing fake tweets from politicians and lots of videos of alleged tanks deployed in Catalonia.
El Pais reported that Russians were to blame, suggesting that news outlets such as Russia Today and Sputnik were circulating the fake stories to deepen divisions in Europe. According to Politico, Russian state-backed news organizations and bots aggressively pushed misinformation about the politically charged vote.
How fake news helped shape the Catalonia independence vote – The Washington Post
hmmm
Learning to let go of parts of our Southern “heritage.”
Learning to Let Go of Our Southern ‘Heritage’
Well said, Trae
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