Gov. Malloy: Amtrak Should Add More Cars To New Routes | New England Public Radio
hmmmm
‘So many questions raised’: Lawmakers respond to two bombshell Trump, Russia reports
On Friday, The Times reported that Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director triggered a counterintelligence investigation into whether the president was working to advance Russia’s interests.
…Then on Saturday, The Post reported that Trump personally intervened to hide readouts of meetings with the Russian president, such as the one-on-one meeting the two leaders held in Helsinki, Finland, over the summer. The Post reported that Trump went to “extraordinary lengths” to keep conversations with Putin under wraps, with current and former U.S. officials telling the publication that Trump went as far as confiscating notes from his interpreter and barring them from discussing details of the meetings with other administration officials.
‘So many questions raised’: Lawmakers respond to two bombshell Trump, Russia reports
hmmmm
Sudan worshippers turn on imam over protests against President Bashir
Demonstrations began on 19 December after the government announced price rises for fuel and bread.
The protests have escalated into broader calls for an end to the rule of President Bashir, who came to power after a coup in 1989. Activists accuse him of mismanaging the economy.
Over the past year, the cost of some goods has more than doubled, while the Sudanese pound has plunged in value.
…Its economy has also been strained by over 20 years of US sanctions, which were lifted in October 2017.
…Mr Bashir’s regime has been accused of widespread human rights abuses.
In 2009 and 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged him with several counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Sudan worshippers turn on imam over protests against President Bashir – BBC News
hmmm
Hometown paper to McConnell: ‘Now would be a good time to choose to lead’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has the power to end the Trump shutdown. He’s just refuses to use it. Now even his hometown paper is calling him out for his lack of leadership on the issue.
In response to McConnell’s refusal to allow a vote to reopen the government, the Lexington Herald-Leader Editorial Board wrote, “we have one word: Override.”
…“Now would be a good time to choose to lead,” the newspaper advised McConnell.
Hometown paper to McConnell: ‘Now would be a good time to choose to lead’
hmmm
$20 million raised in GoFundMe for Trump border wall to be refunded
While Kolfage said money donated to the original campaign would go to the government to fund a border wall, he wrote Friday that he has since formed a nonprofit corporation in Florida named “We Build the Wall, Inc.” to receive the GoFundMe contributions.
…Since the original intent of the campaign’s promise has changed, GoFundMe said in a statement that the more than 337,000 people who donated will receive a refund.
“When the campaign was created, the campaign organizer specifically stated on the campaign page, ‘If we don’t reach our goal or come significantly close we will refund every single penny,’ ” GoFundMe spokesperson Bobby Whithorne told The Hill on Friday. “He also stated on the campaign page, ‘100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall. If for ANY reason we don’t reach our goal we will refund your donation.’ ”
“However, that did not happen. This means all donors will receive a refund,” Whithorne continued. “If a donor does not want a refund, and they want their donation to go to the new organization, they must proactively elect to redirect their donation to that organization.”
$20 million raised in GoFundMe for Trump border wall to be refunded | TheHill
hmmmm
Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through
As a candidate, Trump promised to build an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall on the border that would be paid for by Mexico.
….The Trump administration directed the construction of eight steel and concrete prototype walls that were built in Otay Mesa, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. …Trump settled on a steel slat, or steel bollard, design for the proposed border barrier additions. Steel bollard fencing has been used under previous administrations.
A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.
While it is true that previous administrations used this design, the prototype was built during his administration.
Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through
hmmmm
Philly police still arrest way more Black people for pot than anyone else
Hundreds of cannabis buyers are still cuffed each year for purchasing weed, and despite decades of data that show black and white populations consume the herb at equal rates, racial disparities in the arrests remain stark.
…Black people in Philly, who make up roughly 44 percent of the population, comprised 76 percent of all arrests for marijuana possession in Philadelphia between 2015 and 2018, the first four calendar years since decrim, according to data from the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reporting System. That rate is the same among juveniles arrested on the same charges.
And for those caught in the act of purchasing the crop — which remains a criminal offense, albeit rarely charged in Philadelphia — the discrepancy is even higher.
In those same years, 81 percent of all buyers arrested at the handoff were black. That was 1,454 out of 1,796 people, according to data provided to Billy Penn by the Philadelphia Police Department.
sigh…
Rare blue pigment found in medieval woman’s teeth rewrites history
The researchers were studying a skeleton of a woman who was estimated to be between 45 and 60 years old when she died sometime between 997 and 1162. The skeleton itself was unremarkable, with no visible signs of trauma or infection.
But blue flecks were embedded in her teeth. Multiple spectrographic analyses revealed the blue pigment to be ultramarine, a rare pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli stones. It was as expensive as gold at the time, mined from a single region in Afghanistan and the ultimate luxury trade good then.
…”Only scribes and painters of exceptional skill would have been entrusted with its use,” said Alison Beach, study co-author and historian at Ohio State University, in a statement.
…”Based on the distribution of the pigment in her mouth, we concluded that the most likely scenario was that she was herself painting with the pigment and licking the end of the brush while painting,” said Monica Tromp, study co-author and microbioarchaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in a statement.
Rare blue pigment found in medieval woman’s teeth rewrites history – CNN
hmmmm
Trump has tantrum denying that he had ‘tantrum’ in shutdown talks
“I don’t have temper tantrums,” Trump later told reporters on the South Lawn before departing for Texas, where he will tour the U.S. southern border.
Trump also said he finds China — a U.S. adversary — “far more honorable than Cryin’ Chuck and Nancy.”
…After their White House meeting, Schumer said that the president threw a “temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way.”
“He sort of slammed the table, and when Leader Pelosi said she didn’t agree with the wall, he just walked out and said, ‘We have nothing to discuss,’” Schumer said. “He said it was a waste of his time.”
Schumer added: “This was really unfortunate and in my judgment somewhat unbecoming of a presidency.”
“Not only was the president unpresidential yesterday — surprise, surprise — in his behavior, I think the meeting was a setup so that he could walk out,” Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing Thursday.
Trump denies ‘tantrum’ in shutdown talks
A tantrum and another favorable description of a country that isn’t an ally. What a loser!
Potential 2020 hopefuls move closer to announcements
“That is an unfavorable opinion, especially among most Vermonters and progressives who support the platform that has come to define him. But at this point, there are more things about another Sanders run at the White House that concern us than excite us.”
Among them: the accusations about his campaign’s treatment of women, and the risk of Sanders “dividing the well-fractured Democratic Party,” hurting the party’s chances against President Trump.
Potential 2020 hopefuls move closer to announcements
hmmmm
Conservative Men Are Obsessed With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here’s Why.
Conservatives tend to respond to fear more strongly than liberals do, according to Bobby Azarian, a neuroscientist whose expertise in anxiety has led him to examine political behaviors. His research has found that the brains of conservative people are likely to display the same attention biases as the brains of people with anxiety.
“The one main cognitive difference is that conservatives are more sensitive to threat,” he said. “Their fears are sometimes exaggerated.”
…The most time-tested way to undermine a woman’s power is to sexualize her, to make her an object instead of an agent. A 2013 study by the Women’s Media Center found that merely discussing a female candidate’s appearance has a negative effect on her support from voters.
“The moment at which you turn someone into a sex object, you put yourself in a position of authority over them, which is why sexual harassment is classified as being a form of gender discrimination in the workplace,” Heldman said. “They are the object who exists for you, and you are validating their worth.”
Or, as former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Jess McIntosh put it: “Defining a woman’s value by whether or not men want to have sex with her is the oldest trick in the patriarchy. Either way, she’s diminished.”
…The typical strategies men use to devalue women ― “sexualizing, dismissing, controlling, teasing, criticizing, interrupting, psychopathologizing, humiliating, abusing,” according to one psychologist ― seem to bounce right off her.
“Alexandria presents a challenge, because conservative men or men in general who are encouraged to objectify women are attracted to her, but she’s also ‘unmanageable’ in that she doesn’t exist for them,” Heldman said. “She is a woman who not only has now formal power, but a lot of informal power, in that she doesn’t give a damn what they think of her. I think it’s a disconcerting place for men who may be used to attractive women seeking their validation.”
Conservative Men Are Obsessed With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Science Tells Us Why.
hmmm
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 