Take That, AP Style! Court of Law Rules the Oxford Comma Necessary
Not a recent article but foghting for the Oxford comma never gets old.
Category: Media and Culture,
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village | CrimeReads
for all those fans of English murder mysteries out there
Neo-Nazi Rinaldo Nazzaro running US militant group The Base from Russia
Neo-Nazi Rinaldo Nazzaro running US militant group The Base from Russia – BBC News
Scum.
And on the somebody’s thinking is broken front: that’s a lotta vowels for the name of a man claiming to be a Nazi.
‘They Sprayed Her Blood All Over Her Fellow Students’: Cops Assault Teen In Viral Video
Attorney Paul Jubas has been retained by the girls family to take legal action.
“Sergeant Christopher Mordaunt and Officer Tommy Trieu committed a crime when they brutally assaulted this tiny girl,” he said in a December Instagram post. “They sprayed her blood all over her fellow students and incited riot-like conditions on a school bus. Everything was calm on this bus until these officers began their vicious assault. To make matters worse, other videos prove they lied in their affidavit of probable cause.”
‘They Sprayed Her Blood All Over Her Fellow Students’: Cops Assault Teen In Viral Video | News One
daaa faaa?!
Greta Thunberg fires back at Steven Mnunchin after he said the teen should get a college degree
Thunberg, who’s taking a gap year from school to campaign for action on climate change, called him out on Twitter, saying it “doesn’t take a college degree in economics” to see that “ongoing fossil fuel subsides and investments don’t add up.” She paired her tweet with an interactive graph showing the correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and the “carbon budget” — how much room is left before average temperatures rise to a perilous level, another 1.5 degrees Celsius.
hmmmmmm
Trump Removes Pollution Controls on Streams and Wetlands
The Trump administration on Thursday will finalize a rule to strip away environmental protections for streams, wetlands and other water bodies.
…The Obama rule protected about 60 percent of the nation’s waterways, including large bodies of water such as the Chesapeake Bay, Mississippi River and Puget Sound, and smaller headwaters, wetlands, seasonal streams and streams that run temporarily underground. It limited the discharge of pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and industrial chemicals into those waters.
…This is not just undoing the Obama rule. This is stripping away protections that were put in place in the ’70s and ’80s that Americans have relied on for their health.”
…The new water rule will remove federal protections from more than half the nation’s wetlands, and hundreds of thousands of small waterways. That would for the first time in decades allow landowners and property developers to dump pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizers directly into many of those waterways, and to destroy or fill in wetlands for construction projects.
…[The changes] on Thursday will complete the process, not only rolling back 2015 rules that guaranteed protections under the 1972 Clean Water Act to certain wetlands and streams that run intermittently or run temporarily underground, but also relieves landowners of the need to seek permits that the Environmental Protection Agency had considered on a case-by-case basis before the Obama rule.
…That could open millions of acres of pristine wetlands to pollution or destruction, and allow chemicals and other pollutants to be discharged into smaller headland waters that eventually drain into larger water bodies, experts in water management said. Wetlands play key roles in filtering surface water and protecting against floods, while also providing wildlife habitat.
… The E.P.A.’s Scientific Advisory Board, a panel of 41 scientists responsible for evaluating the scientific integrity of the agency’s regulations, concluded that the new Trump water rule ignores science by “failing to acknowledge watershed systems.” They found “no scientific justification” for excluding certain bodies of water from protection under the new regulations, concluding that pollutants from those smaller and seasonal bodies of water can still have a significant impact on the health of larger water systems.
Trump Removes Pollution Controls on Streams and Wetlands – The New York Times
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
US drinking water contamination with ‘forever chemicals’ far worse than scientists thought
The contamination of US drinking water with manmade “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
…The chemicals were used in products like Teflon and Scotchguard and in firefighting foam. Some are used in a variety of other products and industrial processes, and their replacements also pose risks.
…The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.
…Of tap water samples taken by EWG from 44 sites in 31 states and Washington DC, only one location, Meridian, Mississippi, which relies on 700ft (215m) deep wells, had no detectable PFAS. Only Seattle and Tuscaloosa, Alabama had levels below 1 part per trillion (PPT), the limit EWG recommends.
In addition, EWG found that on average six to seven PFAS compounds were found at the tested sites.
sigh…
Tulsi Gabbard sues Hillary Clinton for defamation over Russia remarks
“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said, speaking on a podcast with former Obama adviser David Plouffe. “She’s the favorite of the Russians.”
Clinton, in the same interview, suggested that person she was talking about was a “Russian asset,” while not naming Gabbard.
…The lawsuit stands little chance of success, but it offers Gabbard much-needed publicity for her campaign ahead of the Iowa caucuses next month.
…Gabbard has previously used her confrontation with Clinton as a way to draw attention to her presidential campaign, like when her lawyer wrote a letter demanding a retraction from Clinton in November 2019.
…The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in the Southern District of New York, says Gabbard has suffered damages that are “estimated to exceed $50 million.” She is seeking unspecified compensation and the prevention of a further spread of the comments. Clinton spokesman Merrill responded to the lawsuit by calling it “ridiculous.”
Tulsi Gabbard sues Hillary Clinton for defamation over Russia remarks – CNNPolitics
Trump inaugural committee improperly paid president’s hotel $1 million
Trump’s inaugural committee …violated its nonprofit status by spending more than $1 million to book a ballroom at Trump’s D.C. hotel that its staff knew was overpriced and that it barely used.
During the lead-up to Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, the committee booked the hotel ballroom for $175,000 a day, plus more than $300,000 in food and beverage costs, over the objections of its own event planner.
…Hotel management emailed the committee in November 2016 saying an eight-day package of meeting rooms, food and drinks would cost $3.6 million — an enormous number even by the standards of luxury hotels during the inauguration.
Rick Gates, a lobbyist and the committee’s deputy chairman, then emailed Ivanka Trump to say that cost “seems quite high compared to other properties.”
…Racine’s lawsuit specifically targets a $1 million deal made between the committee and the Trump Organization for the ballroom during four days around the inaugural, which he alleges was a knowing waste of the nonprofit’s resources to benefit the Trumps.
…After hotel management agreed to charge $175,000 per day for meeting space and to charge separately for food and beverage, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a friend of first lady Melania Trump who had previously produced the Met gala and New York’s Fashion Week, expressed alarm, writing that other properties had been offered to the committee at little or no cost.
…Wolkoff said the meeting space should cost a maximum of $85,000 per day. Even that was pricey compared to offers from other hotels.
…D.C. law requires that nonprofit organizations not operate for the purpose of generating profits for private individuals.
…Trump’s company is now trying to sell its lease to the hotel. Initial bids are due Thursday for the property.
hmmm
Coverage of Trump shows how broken the media is – and not for the reasons you’d think
But for media outlets that view themselves as above taking sides, attempts to provide a sober, “balanced” look at presidential speeches often end up normalizing things that are decidedly not normal.
…On Twitter, Georgetown University public affairs professor Don Moynihan noted that NPR’s report about the rally “mentioned specific topics like Iran and impeachment but carefully omit the insane stuff. This is one way the media strives to present Trump as a normal president.”
…Outlets including CBS, USA Today, the Associated Press, and the Hill failed to so much as mention in their reporting that Trump pushed dozens of lies and incendiary smears during his speech.
The irony is that the media is one of Trump’s foremost targets of abuse. He calls the press the “enemy of the people,” yet the very outlets he demeans regularly bend over backward to cover him in the most favorable possible light.
NPR coverage of Trump’s Milwaukee rally shows how he’s broken the media – Vox
hmmmm
Unity Requires Recognizing That Warren Is Telling the Truth
People say hurtful things all the time. Often, they don’t mean it. Language is an imperfect tool for communicating thoughts. But when you are an “other,” when you are a minority or part of a disadvantaged group that has historically been shut out from power, and when the person saying it is a member of an advantaged group, you notice the hurts.
…I believe Warren heard what she heard. But I also believe Sanders doesn’t remember saying it.
…Part of the privilege of not being a minority is the option to not be distracted by the hurts you unintentionally dish out to others.
…If you want to make a person go from zero to nuclear, tell them that a hurtful experience in their own life didn’t happen. Tell them something they thought about and wrestled with and made peace with and were ready to move on from didn’t actually exist in the first place—simply because you say it didn’t exist. Do it on national television with everybody they care about watching. See how that works out for you.
…What I said to my wife was, “Wow. Well… I’m sorry now—if that helps.” And, of course, it did help, because treating people like they are intelligent beings capable of accurately recalling the pains and disappointments in their own lives is a winning strategy in a successful relationship.
…Unity can’t mean that women are not allowed to remember what’s happened to them. Unity should celebrate forgivingness, not demand forgetfulness.
Unity Requires Recognizing That Warren Is Telling the Truth | The Nation
hmmm
The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons
In contrast to the NRA’s rigid opposition to gun control in today’s America, the organization fought alongside the government for stricter gun regulations in the 1960s. This was part of an effort to keep guns out of the hands of African-Americans as racial tensions in the nation grew. The NRA felt especially threatened by the Black Panthers, whose well-photographed carrying of weapons in public spaces was entirely legal in the state of California, where they were based.
…Members of the group began to follow police cars and dispense legal advice to African-Americans who were stopped by the police while legally carrying their weapons. The group referred to these activities as “police patrols.”
…The Black Panthers were “innovators” in the way they viewed the Second Amendment at the time, says Winkler. Rather than focus on the idea of self-defense in the home, the Black Panthers brazenly took their weapons to the streets, where they felt the public—particularly African-Americans—needed protection from a corrupt government.
“These ideas eventually infiltrated into the NRA to shape the modern gun debate,” explains Winker. As gun control laws swept the nation, the organization adopted a similar stance to that of the activist group they once fought to regulate, with support for open-carry laws and concealed weapon laws high on their agenda.
…In the 1920s and 1930s, the NRA supported restrictions on who could carry guns on the streets in order to decrease hostility towards European immigrants—who were known to openly carry weapons at the time—within the country. And after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, the NRA backed the Gun Control Act that passed the same year, which put substantial restrictions on the purchase of guns based on mental illness, drug addiction and age, among other factors.
The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons – HISTORY
hmmm
Are alternative voting systems a savior of democracy or a confusing gimmick?
“Plurality rule rewards party unity and punishes party division. RCV does the opposite. In short, plurality rule encourages compromise and the consolidation of political views. The ranked-choice voting system encourages the expression of contentious views and discourages compromise,” the pair wrote.
Campbell’s paper disagrees.
“The plurality system tilts to aggregation (helpful to governing) and the ranked choice system tilts to articulation (helpful to participation). Although its advocates embrace RCV as a reform reducing the hyper-conflict of polarization, it is likely to have exactly the opposite effect. Based on this rational choice analysis, RCV is a system that generally enables divisiveness.”
Science Cafe wonders: Are alternative voting systems a savior of democracy or a confusing gimmick?
hmmm
Scientists certain that drilling is causing earthquakes
On Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey released the first comprehensive maps pinpointing more than a dozen areas in the central and eastern U.S. that have been jolted by quakes that the researchers said were triggered by drilling. The report said man-made quakes tied to industry operations have been on the rise.
Scientists have mainly attributed the spike to the injection of wastewater deep underground, a practice they say can activate dormant faults. Only a few cases of shaking have been blamed on fracking, in which large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into rock formations to crack them open and free oil or gas.
…Yet another study, this one published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, connected a swarm of small quakes west of Fort Worth, Texas, to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater disposal.
…The ground has been trembling in regions that were once seismically stable, including parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
The largest jolt linked to wastewater injection — a magnitude-5.6 that hit Prague, Oklahoma, in 2011 — damaged 200 buildings and shook a college football stadium.
The uptick in Oklahoma quakes has prompted state regulators to require a seismic review of all proposed disposal wells.
…[Trump’s toothless sham, the] Environmental Protection Agency said there no plans for new regulations as a result of the USGS study.
Scientists certain that drilling is causing earthquakes
hmmm
Family Sues DEA and TSA After Elderly Man’s Life Savings Were Seized at Airport
When Rolin’s daughter, Rebecca Brown, tried to take her fathers’ savings—$82,373 in cash—on an airplane, a DEA agent seized it simply because large amounts of cash are considered suspicious by the agency.
…Brown and Rolin are now the lead plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit …challenging the DEA and TSA’s practice of seizing large amounts of cash from airline passengers without any evidence of any underlying crime.
…In cases like Brown’s, the DEA seizes cash using civil asset forfeiture, a practice that allows police to seize cash and property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is not charged with a crime.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement seize millions of dollars in cash every year in drug interdiction operations, much of being transported along highways and through airports. In 2016, a USA Today investigation found the DEA seized more than $209 million from at least 5,200 travelers in 15 major airports over the previous decade.
…A 2017 report by the Justice Department Inspector General found that the DEA seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of drug activity over the previous decade, but $3.2 billion of those seizures were never connected to any criminal charges.
Family Sues DEA and TSA After Elderly Man’s Life Savings Were Seized at Airport – Reason.com
hmmm
DNA tests stand on shaky ground to define Native American identity
Walajahi explained to the crowd that DTC ancestry kits fall short on accuracy because they only offer a probability toward a certain ancestry. So, a test that claims an individual has Native American ancestry, could be wrong.
…Ancestry kits can’t determine Native American identity. Community relationships, traditions, and shared experiences are more important aspects of identity.
…“Using a genetic test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation…is inappropriate and wrong,” said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. in a public statement. “It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens.”
Sovereign tribal nations determine their requirements for membership. A genetic ancestry test is rarely involved. A history of traditions, passing down crafts and skills, and a sense of cultural continuity set the baseline for tribal membership.
…With no regulatory body to oversee their methods, Hull hopes the companies come together to create a set of standards on their own ensuring that they use consistent language to help the public understand how to interpret genetic information.
DNA tests stand on shaky ground to define Native American identity | NHGRI
hmmm
Robert De Niro honored at SAG Awards
“Political leaders who support unions are more likely to support affordable care act, equitable taxes, humane immigration regulations, a safe environment, a diverse citizenry, reproductive rights, sensible gun control and fair wages and benefits,” he said. “We owe them our support and we owe them our vote.”
Robert De Niro honored at SAG Awards – CNN
hmm
DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers in Their Own Land
The DNA industry has, in fact, found a way to profit from reviving and modernizing antiquated ideas about the biological origins of race and repackaging them in a cheerful, Disneyfied wrapping …offering a 21st-century version of pseudoscience that once again reduces race to a matter of genetics and origins.
…If Native Americans are reduced to little more than another genetic variation, there is no need for laws that acknowledge their land rights, treaty rights, and sovereignty. Nor must any thought be given to how to compensate for past harms, not to speak of the present ones that still structure their realities.
…They conflate ethnicity with geography, and geography with genetic markers.
…In this way, race and ethnicity are separated from and elevated above experience, culture, and history.
…In North America,” the company blandly explains, “Native American ancestry tends to be five or more generations back, so that little DNA evidence of this heritage remains.” In other words, 23andMe claims DNA as conclusive proof of Native American identity, then uses it to write Native North Americans off the map altogether.
…“DNA is not a liquid that can be broken down into microscopic drops.… We inherit about a quarter of our DNA from each grandparent—but only on average.… If you pick one of your ancestors from 10 generations back, the odds are around 50 percent that you carry any DNA from him or her. The odds get even worse beyond that.”
In reality, such testing does not tell us much about our ancestors. That’s partly because of the way DNA is passed down through the generations and partly because there exists no database of ancestral DNA. Instead, the companies compare your DNA to that of other contemporary humans who have paid them to take the test. Then they compare your particular variations to patterns of geographical and ethnic distribution of such variations in today’s world—and use secret algorithms to assign purportedly precise ancestral percentages to them.
…Native American nations are political and cultural entities, the products of history, not genes, and white people’s assertions about Native American ancestry and the DNA industry’s claim to be able to reveal such ancestry tend to run roughshod over this history.
…The recognition of tribal sovereignty at least acknowledges that the existence of the United States is predicated on its imposition of an unwanted, foreign political entity on Native lands. The concept of tribal sovereignty has given Native Americans a legal and collective basis for fighting for a different way of thinking about history, rights, and nationhood. Attempts to reduce Native American identity to a race that can be identified by a gene (or a genetic variation) do violence to our history and justify ongoing violations of Native rights.
DNA Tests Make Native Americans Strangers in Their Own Land | The Nation
hmmm
This Amazon Customer Has Received Hundreds Of Free Products In Exchange For 5-Star Reviews
After she leaves a 5-star review, the sellers reimburse her via PayPal or an Amazon gift card, and let her keep the items she reviews.
…She meticulously records into an Excel spreadsheet each product, its target review date, the item’s delivery date, whether she’s taken a photo or submitted a review, what she paid, the reimbursement paid by the seller, and the amount she lost or made in the transaction, among other pieces of information.
…“I really don’t think I’m making money on it at all. I’m pretty sure I’m losing money,” Jessica said while looking over her spreadsheet. “I’m pretty sure I’m at a 10% loss. But I’m okay with it, because I’ve gotten a whole bunch of new stuff.”
…Jessica’s activity, as far as Amazon is concerned, looks legitimate. She makes purchases from her own Amazon account and credit card, so her reviews are labeled as a “verified purchase.” After the sellers confirm Jessica has left a 5-star review, the payment is made out of Amazon’s view. The credit card, an Amazon-branded rewards card, gives Jessica an extra bonus for the purchase. In other words, third-party sellers aren’t the only ones paying her to leave fake reviews and superficially boost sales — Amazon is too.
Many sellers tell her the exact keywords to search for on Amazon to more closely simulate an actual Amazon purchase. The method — searching for a keyword and adding the item to a shopping cart — also elevates the product’s profile in search results.
Sellers instruct Jessica not to review products for at least five to six days after receiving the item to make the review appear more authentic.
…Rebate websites offer Amazon products at deep discounts or for free and streamline the process for giveaway seekers like Jessica. The fake purchases increase the item’s sales rank, which can help attract more genuine sales. To receive a full refund, she agrees to buy the item on Amazon within a certain time period, submits her order number to the seller as proof of purchase, and, most importantly, promises to not return the item. The websites wait 35 days, after Amazon’s return window closes, to refund Jessica through PayPal, and don’t require a review.
…A study by the firm found that a 1-star increase in a product’s average rating led to a 26% jump in sales.
LeBaron said that a high ranking in a search can be worth tens of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue.
…These merchandisers get access to Amazon’s customers. In turn, the company gets a cut of their sales.
Amazon reported that in 2018, customers spent $160 billion on items from third-party sellers — 58% of all sales on the site.
This Amazon Customer Has Received Hundreds Of Free Products In Exchange For 5-Star Reviews
wild.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Pledges To Invest $1 Billion In India
Amazon’s aggressive expansion in India has kickstarted an e-commerce boom in a country where hundreds of millions of people have rapidly come online through cheap smartphones and data plans in the last few years, and where most people outside urban areas do not have access to large retail chains. But it has also angered millions of small brick-and-mortar businesses, who say that Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, which dominate online shopping in the country, are affecting their livelihoods by using their deep pockets to heavily discount products and undercut traditional retailers.
Small business owners in the country have also accused online retailers like Amazon of violating the country’s foreign investment laws. …They’ve also accused the companies of striking deals with smartphone makers that force them to sell their devices online exclusively and not in traditional retail stores.
…“The goal of Amazon and Flipkart is to bring in crony capitalism in India, dominate and monopolize the market, wipe out the competition, and leave consumers with no choice,” CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told BuzzFeed News at the protest site. Khandelwal claimed that over 100,000 small retailers had been driven out of business thanks to Amazon and Flipkart’s deep discounting in the last four months alone.
…When asked about Bezos’ latest billion-dollar investment to digitize India’s small and medium businesses, Khandelwal said that cash infusion was to help Amazon continue to sell products at a loss by offering large discounts. “They’re trying to build a wrong and a false narrative here,” he said. “That’s not acceptable.”
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Pledges To Invest $1 Billion In India
hmmm
House to investigate Trump ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
“As we have previously written to you, MPP is inconsistent with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) statutory authority, while exposing thousands of people to threats of murder, sexual violence, and kidnapping as they are forced to wait in extremely dangerous conditions before their asylum claims may be heard,” the letter reads.
“As of today, there are 31 active travel advisories for Mexico, including 5 warnings in which the State Department explicitly advises Americans against travel. It is difficult to understand why this administration is sending children and families to areas where they will face certain harm,” the members wrote.
…”It is imperative that the United States end this reckless course of action and reaffirm its commitment to the principles of due process on which this country was founded.”
House to investigate Trump ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy | TheHill
hmm
Rail or trail? Topsham-Augusta trail proposal could derail the potential future return of passenger train service to Augusta, rail advocates warn.
Advocates for restoring passenger train service to Augusta — and potentially beyond to Waterville and Bangor — fear the Merrymeeting Trail proposal could squash any hopes they have of rail service returning to that corridor.
…Richard Rudolph and Jack Sutton, directors of the Maine Rail Group, said once the rail corridor is converted to a trail, rail service will never return, due to the difficulty of both restoring the rails and reclaiming the space from those who would be using it as a trail.
…“There are plenty of places to walk or bike, there aren’t that many places to run a train,” he said. “Common sense will tell you if we lose that rail to a bike or walking trail, it’s not going to be returned.”
Dale McCormick, a former city councilor, said she loves the Rail Trail and loves the Merrymeeting Trail proposal, but not if it prevents the future development of rail service in Augusta.
McCormick said if gas prices increase again, rail travel would be more feasible because of its energy efficiency and more popular with passengers. There should be a way to do both the trail project and protect the future of rail, she said.
hmmm
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 