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.
Riot police trampled an elderly woman in St. Louis as activists poured into the streets to protest a white former officer’s acquittal for the shooting death of a black man. Judge Timothy Wilson ruled that an audio recording of Stockley declaration that he was going to “kill this motherf*cker” was only an “ambiguous” statement that was not a definite desire to kill.
WATCH: St Louis cops trample elderly woman then handcuff her during police brutality protest
Sigh…
An unmarked police vehicle drove backwards down a street near protests after making an arrest on Sunday night, police said.
VIDEO: Police vehicle reverses through crowd of protesters – KMOV.com
what???
The 7.1-magnitude quake occurred on the 32nd anniversary of the notorious Mexico City earthquake.
Strong earthquake shakes Mexico, killing at least 139 people – The Washington Post
whoa!
Police in riot gear arrested more than 80 protesters, whom the interim police chief called “criminals.”
whoa…
STLPD have confirmed they are investigating this person, who is indeed an officer, but they will not comment further at this time.
Investigation underway after St. Louis officer accused of postin – KMOV.com
hmmm
The court decided there is currently no reliable, scientific test for marijuana impairment.
SJC decides field sobriety tests not scientific evidence for pot
hmmm
The finale of the state’s legislative session was a primal scream aimed at the president.
California tears into Trump – POLITICO
hmmmm
“I mean, think of it, do we want Vladimir Putin or drug cartels to be influencing American elections?” Ann Ravel asked in 2015.
Facebook & Russian election meddling: The FEC’s Ann Ravel sounded the alarm in 2015 — Quartz
hmmmmm
San Diego has started washing its downtown streets with bleach in an effort to combat an outbreak of hepatitis A that has killed at least 15 people and infected nearly 400.
The infectious disease has largely infected homeless people in the coastal California city, and part of the issue is an apparent shortage of public restrooms in areas where the population congregates.
San Diego Washing Streets With Bleach To Combat Hepatitis A Outbreak : The Two-Way : NPR
Jeezus…
That study said refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenue over the past decade than they cost agencies.
Trump administration officials reject report on refugees: report | TheHill
sigh…
CNN says Manafort was under observation for years — except while he worked for Trump.
hmmmm
The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway will no longer be protected by the Secret Service
Donald Trump Jr. and Kellyanne Conway Lose Secret Service Protection
hmmm
US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN.
…Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.
…The FBI interest in Manafort dates back at least to 2014, partly as an outgrowth of a US investigation of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president whose pro-Russian regime was ousted amid street protests. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was accused of corruption, and Ukrainian authorities claimed he squirreled millions of dollars out of the country.
…Investigators have spent years probing any possible role played by Manafort’s firm and other US consultants, including the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC, that worked with the former Ukraine regime.
…The Justice Department and the FBI have denied that Trump’s own “wires” were tapped.
While Manafort has a residence in Trump Tower, it’s unclear whether FBI surveillance of him took place there.
Manafort has a home as well in Alexandria, Virginia. FBI agents raided the Alexandria residence in July.
The FBI also eavesdropped on Carter Page, a campaign associate that then candidate Trump once identified as a national security adviser. Page’s ties to Russia, including an attempt by Russian spies to cultivate him, prompted the FBI to obtain a FISA court warrant in 2014.
US government wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman
hmmmm
In the email, which made its way to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, von Spakovsky says he had received a “very disturbing phone call” that the commission would be “bipartisan and include Democrats.”
“There isn’t a single Democratic official that will do anything other than obstruct any investigation of voter fraud and issue constant public announcements criticizing the commission and what it is doing,” von Spakovsky wrote. “If they are picking mainstream Republican officials and/or academics to man this commission it will be an abject failure because there aren’t any that know anything about this or who have paid any attention to the issue over the years.”
[Maine Secretary of State Matthew] Dunlap told CNN: “I think this email that he sent is really quite damaging to the relationships on the commission. It undermines the statement of the vice president that there are no foregone conclusions, and it undermines the chair and the vice chair and the rest of the commission.”
Voting commission member calls for hard-liner’s resignation after email
hmmm
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi condemns abuses in Rakhine but silent on army role
Hmmmm…
I wonder what the current relationship between Suu Kyi and the military is. They are the ones who controlled the government that imprisoned her, yes? And they control large parts of the government still, correct?
I’m curious as to what -if anything at all- they have said to her will happen if she throws them under the bus.
While lying and exaggerating in biopics is nothing unexpected, doing so is actually tonally perfect for the biography of Chris Kyle — since he, himself, made up more stories than a kid with a Canadian girlfriend.
…He has allegedly stated that after Hurricane Katrina, he traveled to New Orleans and killed a whole bunch of looters. …In his book, he says that he found chemical weapons from Germany and France in Iraq, which presumably came as a hell of a surprise to all three countries.
…The least sexy, but probably craziest fabrication was when he lied about the number of military medals he was awarded. …He claimed to have punched Jesse Ventura for saying that the Navy SEALS “deserved to lose a few.” This one was so egregious that Ventura took things to court, and won a $1.8 million lawsuit against Kyle (or rather, his estate, because Kyle had already been killed at the time of the decision). If there are levels to lying, doing it so hard that the court orders an American hero’s widowed wife to cough up close to two million dollars means you’ve hit the cap.
5 Movies That Were Based On Much Sadder True Stories | Cracked.com
hmmm
Bell doesn’t seem to understand Alabama’s public education system for special needs students, but she does seem pretty concerned that those students “bring down” the rest.
Alabama school board member considers institutionalization for special ed students | AL.com
Oy…. what a f*cktard this woman…
Iceland seems to be leading the world in the eradication of Down syndrome; on average, only one or two babies suffering from the condition are born in the nation of 330,000 each year.
…Cognitive impairments resulting from Down syndrome can range from mild to severe, and deadly physical anomalies are also often associated with the disease. Roughly half of all those who suffer from Down syndrome have serious health conditions, including potentially deadly congenital heart defects. The life expectancy of those afflicted with the syndrome is roughly 60 years, and many require specialized medical care for the entire duration of their lives.
…Down syndrome is often not discovered until late in the 2nd trimester, which can pose a legal and ethical dilemma for some expectant mothers. However, Iceland allows for the termination of pregnancies after 16 weeks in cases of fetal deformity, including Down syndrome.
Only a couple of babies with Down syndrome are born during an average year in Iceland, and in many of those few instances it is because parents get incorrect genetic screening results. In the United States, roughly 6,000 Down syndrome babies are born annually.
…When genetic abnormalities, including Down syndrome, are discovered, Helga Sol Olafsdottir (also of Landspitali University Hospital) helps to counsel the pregnant women in the midst of crisis. She tells those feeling guilty over their decision to terminate that “this is their life.”
…Women in Iceland who choose to terminate Down syndrome fetus are given a prayer card following the procedure. The tiny memento includes the termination date and the footprints of the terminated fetus, a practice that is confusing to [anti-womens’ empowerment] activists in America, many of whom [are intellectually and emotionally shallow enough to] consider terminating a pregnancy to be tantamount to murder.
Iceland Under Fire Over Controversial Method Of Nearly Eradicating Down Syndrome Births
It is satisfying to re-title clickbait…
Avocado is on such a winning streak one merchant feels invincible in the face of Donald Trump. Rene Torres says a case of avocados that sold for as little as $13 a few years ago now costs $97.
…Oscar Moherano says he’s worried about what the end of NAFTA would mean to his market.
“The product would drop,” he said. “We’d be producing here with no other place to sell it.”
But these successes don’t tell the full NAFTA story. In fact, for agriculture, it’s been mostly negative. While salaries have gone up in industrial sectors like auto production, traditional farmers have been steamrolled by American competitors.
Margarita Rodriguez Lopez runs an association of farmers at the market. She says specialty products like avocados and papayas have thrived under NAFTA, but there have been sad stories in other sectors.
…Men in cowboy hats overseeing a corn delivery express opinions, discreetly.
Mexico’s corn producers have been devastated under NAFTA. Imports have surged nearly tenfold from the more productive U.S. As much as manufacturing communities have gained, Mexico’s traditional corn-farming communities have suffered.
“Prices are low,” says a man calling himself Oscar.
A friend next to him says of NAFTA: “It hasn’t helped.”
NAFTA: The view from a mind-bogglingly massive Mexican market | The Chronicle Herald
hmmm
But academics don’t want tenure because they think they’re better or smarter than you. Academics, whether they have it or not, want some form of tenure to exist to protect the integrity of the knowledge that is produced, preserved, and disseminated.
Wisconsin professors simply do not want research limited by the whims of 18 people appointed by a governor with an openly stated anti-education agenda. And you shouldn’t, either. Think university research doesn’t affect you? You’re wrong. Hundreds of technological and social advances that you depend upon have been made thanks to the research of some brainiac at some university somewhere: what kind of cities to plan; how (and where) to alleviate poverty and hunger; what kind of diseases to treat; what kind of drugs to invent (or make obsolete); what kind of bridges and roads to build (and where). If professors are not protected from disagreeing with the agenda of their “bosses”—whether that be Dow Chemical, Gov. Walker, or President Trump—the consequences will go far beyond one person’s paycheck.
University of Wisconsin and the aftermath of destroying professor tenure.
hmmm
There’s an aldermen race going on next week in Manchester. And one of the candidates on the ballot would be the city’s youngest elected if he wins. He turned 20 Thursday, attends UNH Manchester, and is a refugee from Kuwait.
Manchester Local, Refugee Running for Alderman at Age 20 | New Hampshire Public Radio
…Because immigrants are motivated citizens. Period.
Legal experts say the revelation has enormous implications for the trajectory of the Robert Mueller-led FBI investigation into Russia’s election interference.
“The key here, though, is that Mueller clearly already has enough information on these accounts — and their link to a potential crime to justify forcing [Facebook] to give up the info,” she said. “That means that he has uncovered a great deal of evidence through other avenues of Russian election interference.”
It also means Mueller is no longer looking at Russia’s election interference from a strict counterintelligence standpoint — he now thinks he may be able to obtain enough evidence to charge specific foreign entities with a crime.
Mueller obtains warrant for Russia linked Facebook ads and accounts – Business Insider
hmmmm
The Gaza Strip’s militant Hamas rulers, internationally isolated and their economy in shreds, said they were ready to take key steps meant to end the decade-old rift between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hamas Says Ready for Steps to End Decade-Old Palestinian Rift – Bloomberg
hmmmm
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