//players.brightcove.net/2111767321001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5978138210001
Mueller Investigation Cost $25 Million So Far, Report Says | Fortune
hmmmm
Category: Media and Culture,
Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never Heard of the Taíno People
In 1494, Columbus launched the transatlantic slave trade, sending at least two dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain, “men and women, boys and girls,” as he wrote. The next year, 1495, Columbus launched massive slave raids, rounding up 1,600 Taínos, from which the “best” 500, perhaps 550, were selected to be shipped to Spain. Of the hundreds of captives left over, “whoever wanted them could take as many as he pleased,” one eyewitness, a Spanish colonist, Michele de Cuneo, wrote, “and this was done.”
…It began as early as Columbus’s first trip back to Spain, when he left 39 Spaniards at his La Navidad settlement, confident that the powerful Spaniards could handle the supposedly timid Taínos. In response to the Spaniards’ rapacity, the Taínos killed all 39 Spaniards, and burned their fort.
If Columbus’s first trip, with three vessels and maybe 100 men, was an exploratory probe, the second trip, with 17 ships and between 1,200 and 1,500 men, was a full-scale invasion. When slavery turned out not to be profitable on la Española (the island that today is Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Columbus instituted a tribute system for the Taínos, demanding quotas of gold and cotton, with sadistic punishments for those who failed to comply.
…Contrary to some scholarship, the Taínos were not all killed off by Columbus and subsequent occupiers, and today members of the Taíno diaspora along with people in the Caribbean who claim Taíno ancestry are reviving and celebrating their culture.
Whose History Matters? Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never Heard of the Taíno People
sigh…
Immigrant rights attorneys and journalists denied entry into Mexico
Two U.S. immigrant rights attorneys and two journalists who have worked closely with members of a migrant caravan in Tijuana said they had been denied entry into Mexico in recent days after their passports were flagged with alerts by an unknown government.
Immigrant rights attorneys and journalists denied entry into Mexico – Los Angeles Times
hmmmm
Trump: ‘A lot of people in the NFL have been calling and thanking me’ for judicial reform
“A lot of [the protest] is having to do with reform, from what I understand,” he said. “Whether it’s criminal justice or whatever, it may be and they have different versions and everybody seemed to have a different version of it. But a lot of it had to do with that, and I took care of that.”
In boasting about the criminal justice bill, Trump also sidestepped questions from Brennan about his handling of race issues. He also echoed his past statements about low African-American unemployment, saying: “Best numbers they’ve had — literally the best numbers they’ve had in history. And I think they like me a lot and I like them a lot.”
Trump: ‘A lot of people in the NFL have been calling and thanking me’ for judicial reform | TheHill
oy…
Eating breakfast is not a good weight loss strategy, scientists confirm – Vox
“Many — if not most — studies demonstrating that breakfast eaters are healthier and manage weight better than non-breakfast eaters were sponsored by Kellogg or other breakfast cereal companies whose businesses depend on people believing that breakfast means ready-to-eat cereal.”
…These observational studies generally took people who were already eating breakfast and then compared them with people who weren’t. They weren’t experiments that randomly assigned people to eat breakfast or not and compared the difference.
That means breakfast itself may not account for differences in bodyweight or disease between the two groups. People who eat breakfast might differ in other ways from those who don’t. Maybe people who exercise are more likely to eat breakfast, and that explains the difference. Or maybe it’s a function of income. It’s hard to tell.
…The BMJ published a systematic review of 13 randomized controlled trials, including the big 2014 study. They concluded that there’s “no evidence to support the notion that breakfast consumption promotes weight loss or that skipping breakfast leads to weight gain.”
Instead, the people who ate breakfast consumed 260 more calories per day and weighed a pound more than the breakfast skippers, so “caution is needed when recommending breakfast for weight loss in adults, as it may have the opposite effect.
…The breakfast studies also don’t pay enough attention to the quality of food people are eating, obesity doctor Yoni Freedhoff has pointed out. “What a person eats for breakfast will matter a great deal, and just studying whether or not a person ate breakfast, will lump together bowls of Froot Loops with almond topped steel cut oats, and Pop Tarts with summer vegetable omelettes.”
…There was some compelling evidence to suggest undernourished kids perform better at cognitive tests when enrolled in a breakfast program. But it wasn’t clear that the breakfast itself was doing the trick — it might have been the fact that the program led to increased school attendance.
Eating breakfast is not a good weight loss strategy, scientists confirm – Vox
hmmm
Regulators should study the Facebook Research incident
Facebook’s move to intentionally skirt Apple’s rules in order to spy on consumers’ mobile phone activities was “a particularly egregious abuse of power on Facebook’s behalf.”
…Facebook’s brouhaha with Apple seems to have begun with an app owned by the social-networking company called Onavo. That app offers a virtual private network, a way of cordoning off data from the general internet to protect users’ activities from being monitored. And that’s the way Facebook marketed it.
But Onavo was designed to allow Facebook itself to monitor everything users of the app were doing on their phones. And the data it provided reportedly gave the company crucial intelligence about emerging competitors, including WhatsApp, which Facebook later purchased, and Snapchat, whose features it copied.
…Like Onavo, Facebook Research offered a VPN that kept tabs on users’ phone activities. The social-networking company paid consumers as young as 13 to install the app so it could monitor what they were doing on their smartphones.
But instead of offering Facebook Research through the public App Store, Facebook got it out to users surreptitiously, having third-party companies offer it through a process Apple created to allow enterprises to distribute internal apps to their employees. The move was a clear violation of both the letter and spirit of Apple’s rules.
Regulators should study the Facebook Research indicident – Business Insider
hmmmm
Deutsche Bank refused Trump a loan in 2016, worried he was too divisive
Deutsche Bank refused Donald Trump a loan during the 2016 campaign partly out of concern that he was too divisive a candidate.
…The request was examined by the bank’s top brass, including Christian Sewing, the former head of the wealth management unit who is now CEO. They concluded that Trump’s campaign rhetoric made him a risky borrower, and public knowledge of the loan arrangement could hurt the bank’s reputation. They also weighed the risks of the possibility that the bank would have to seize a president’s assets in the event of a loan default, the Times reported.
Deutsche Bank refused Trump a loan in 2016, worried he was too divisive – Business Insider
hmmmm
Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law from taking effect Monday
Louisiana’s Unsafe Abortion Protection Act has been blocked since its enactment in 2014, it requires a doctor to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the abortion is performed.
The state argues that the law is necessary to provide a higher level of physician competence, but critics say there is no medical justification for the law and it amounts to a veiled attempt to unlawfully restrict abortion.
In 2017, Judge John deGravelles, of the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, an Obama appointee, struck down the law, saying it would severely limit the number of providers available to perform abortions, result in the closure of clinics and “place added stress” on remaining facilities.
Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law from taking effect Monday – CNNPolitics
hmmmm
Detroit officer as woman walks home in the cold: ‘what black girl magic looks like’ – CNN
Chief James Craig said the officer, a corporal in the Detroit Police Department, stopped the woman for expired registration. Her vehicle was towed, and as she walked to her home in the cold the officer posted a video on Snapchat saying “Bye Felecia.”
…Craig said the officer also made a reference to Black History Month, which he called even more problematic.
…The officer is under an internal investigation, but the department has begun moving to penalize him.
“I’m not troubled, I’m not disappointed, I’m angry,” Craig said. “This officer will be held accountable for his actions,” he said. “We are moving to remove his corporal rank.”
Detroit officer as woman walks home in the cold: ‘what black girl magic looks like’ – CNN
As long as officers of the law are allow to act like such hateful bigots, there will never be law and order, let alone justice.
Howard Schultz deletes tweet about column that smears Warren and Harris
The column on PJMedia.com called Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts “Fauxcahontas” — a reference to her claim of Native American heritage — and Sen. Kamala Harris of California a “shrill … quasi-socialist.”
…He has also criticized Warren and Harris for their progressive policies like “Medicare-for-all” and hiking taxes on the wealthy.
Howard Schultz deletes tweet about column that smears Warren and Harris – CNNPolitics
hmmmm
New wave of ‘fake dates’ cause chaos in immigration courts
More than 1,000 immigrants showed up at courts across the United States on Thursday for hearings they’d been told were scheduled but didn’t exist, a lawyers’ group said, as the Justice Department struggles with an overloaded immigration court system and the effects of the recently ended partial government shutdown.
…Thursday’s problems are the latest example of US immigration authorities issuing a large number of inaccurate notices ordering immigrants to appear at hearings that, it later turns out, had never been scheduled.
Lawyers first told CNN last year that they’d observed a wave of what they call “fake dates” pop up. For instance, lawyers reported examples of notices to appear issued for nonexistent dates, such as September 31, and for times of day when courts aren’t open, such as midnight.
New wave of ‘fake dates’ cause chaos in immigration courts – CNNPolitics
This kind of treatment of people who are doing their part to follow our country’s law should be criminal.
Miriam Adelson was awarded Medal of Freedom after donating $500k to Trump aides’ legal expenses
Selling the Medal of Freedom… Trump’s such a classless whore.
This Nurse Created A Protocol To Identify Human Trafficking Victims In The ER
Her screening tool looks for patterns of inconsistencies in the patient’s story, abuse, torture, or neglect signs, and other behaviors consistent with trafficking victims, such as if they aren’t holding their own ID or money, or if the person they are with is answering questions for them and refuses to leave or let them be alone.
This Nurse Created A Protocol To Identify Human Trafficking Victims In The ER
hmmmm
Wow, does it feel good to be wrong about Nancy Pelosi
Wow, does it feel good to be wrong about Nancy Pelosi – Los Angeles Times
Wow, why does competence inspire such nastiness? There never should have been a doubt in the author’s mind.
Beau Friedlander: How the Covington Catholic boys were redeemed by the dark magic of crisis communications
Everyone was already projecting what they wanted to see on the situation, so all you need to do is convince some significant number of people watching that what you wanted them to see was right there all along.
…The spin worked, both because it feeds the narrative that Trump supporters are all misunderstood (and it’s the job of liberals to understand them), and because there are a bunch of videos with a muddle of people from very different walks of life, all of them living their best lives (heckling people, showing off for their friends, drumming for peace) at the same time, which underscores the current situation: One person’s best life in this America is another’s nightmare.
hmmmmm
How conservative media transformed the Covington Catholic students from pariahs to heroes | US news | The Guardian
In making this happen, conservative media have normalized the boys’ aggressive form of political expression, and tried to further discredit both fact-oriented media and high-profile liberals. Media outlets have been effectively gaslighted, and many climbed down from coverage which was based on the most clear and obvious interpretation of the boys chanting, making gestures and making tomahawk chops.
What it tells us is that in 2019, conservatives understand they can construct a parallel reality and have it accepted. They can act in bad faith and prevail, using tried and tested tactics that liberal media continue to fall for. Those are:
1. Reframe the debate as soon as possible
2. Pick your narratives
3. Focus on the extremes of the other side
hmmmm
Canada Is Sending A Generation Of Indigenous Children To Jail
Nearly 50 per cent of youth in Canadian jails are Indigenous.
…98 per cent (no, that is not a typo) of girls in Saskatchewan jails are Indigenous. In Manitoba, approximately 80 per cent of both girls and boys in custody are Indigenous.
…Forty-three per cent of all adult women in Canadian jails are Indigenous, yet Indigenous people make up only 5 per cent of Canada’s overall population.
Canada Is Sending A Generation Of Indigenous Children To Jail | HuffPost Canada
Whoa!
Mitch McConnell: Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill Just A ‘Political Power Grab’
The act contains a package of reforms geared toward making voting more accessible to all Americans.
…The bill would force [Trump,] as well as future presidential candidates, to release their tax returns and would require super PACs to make their private donors public as a way of incentivizing smaller donations.
The bill also aims to make Election Day a paid holiday for federal workers ― a proposal that might encourage private businesses to do likewise, thus allowing more voters to get to the polls.
…Nonwhite voters typically have lower turnout than white voters and also tend to vote more for Democrats. Minorities make up at least 35 percent of the federal workforce, according to FEDweek. Data released last year from the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic also found that black and Hispanic respondents were twice as likely as white respondents to face difficulty getting time off from work to vote.
Mitch McConnell: Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill Just A ‘Political Power Grab’ | HuffPost
Now Mitchy, you know the real power grab is not making it easier to vote for groups your party is less popular with.
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 