It has achieved a century of independence by carefully manoeuvring around its massive neighbour.
How pragmatic Finland deals with its Russian neighbour – BBC News
hmmmm
Whistleblowers Come Forward Over Problems At New Hampshire VA Hospital
The head of the VA is going to meet with doctors and other employees at the VA’s medical center in Manchester who turned whistleblower after concluding their patients could not get proper care.
Whistleblowers Come Forward Over Problems At New Hampshire VA Hospital | New Hampshire Public Radio
hmmm
Fewer Passengers Bumped by U.S. Airlines After Dragging Case
A raft of airline policy changes prompted by the high-profile case of a man who was injured while being dragged off a plane in Chicago earlier this year have had a dramatic result: airlines reported the lowest level of involuntary passenger bumpings in history.
Fewer Passengers Bumped by U.S. Airlines After Dragging Case – Bloomberg
Funny how the impossible becomes possible when the alternative is losing money.
DCCC chairman tries to defend abandoning women’s rights in favor of electing white men.
DCCC chairman responds to critics on abortion litmus test | TheHill
There is no defense for this. None. Not from anyone who values equality and civil rights for all.
A bigger tent only works is empowerment is distributed equally. Inviting those into the tent that would justify ripping empowerment away from women make it smaller.
Allowing room for those under the tent to dispute the fact that living, breathing women are more important and have more rights than the idea of a future child devalues all women, especially the ones under the tent being asked to support it.
No matter what your personal ideas on abortion are, allowing room for dispute about women’s ability to access us is anti-egalitarian. If a man owns his own body but a woman does not have sole autonomy over hers, then women are not being treated a full equal citizens.
Here’s hoping the DCC withers up and dies before this disease infects any more of the Democratic Party. The DCCC chairman need to be chucked out to pasture with all of the other dinosaurs and backwards old men. And if he isn’t? Well, see my comments about the entire DCCC dying.
Anyone who supports this man or what he is saying is anti-women, period. And that include that crusty old asshole with his bro-posse from Vermont.
Rumors abound about other imminent White House firings and resignations
If you thought the Trump White House was tumultuous, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Rumors abound about other imminent White House firings and resignations – The Washington Post
hmmmm
FBI raided home of Paul Manafort for documents
Federal agents arrived without warning at Manafort’s Virginia house July 26.
FBI raided home of Paul Manafort for documents – NY Daily News
hmmmm
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro taunts United States, Donald Trump as opposition leaders detained
Allies of two Venezuelan opposition leaders say Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma have been taken by authorities from the homes where they were under house arrest.
…Lopez was detained three years after protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s government and sentenced to more than a decade in prison on charges that include inciting protesters to violence. He was released last month to serve the rest of his term under house arrest. Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor, was also detained in 2015 and has been under house arrest.
…Maduro said Monday evening that he had no intention of deviating from his plans to rewrite the constitution and go after a string of enemies, from independent Venezuelan news channels to gunmen he claimed were sent by neighboring Colombia to disrupt the vote as part of an international conspiracy led by the man he calls “Emperor Donald Trump.”
what a clusterfuck of chaos the Cheeto is making even worse….
Stephen Miller slammed for $1M condo after ‘cosmopolitan’ jab
The back-and-forth featured the [Miller] suggesting the journalist was somehow blinded by his privilege, though Miller himself came under fire Monday after the Washington Post reported that he lives at one of the capital’s “poshest addresses.”
…Miller, through a company based at the same place as his father’s real estate firm, was 28 and working as a Senate staffer in 2014 when he bought the condo for $973,000, the newspaper reported.
Stephen Miller slammed for $1M condo after ‘cosmopolitan’ jab – NY Daily News
He didn’t buy that on a Senate staffer’s salary… So basically beyond Miller being a hypocritical douche-bag, he’s also a Daddy’s boy. What a loser!
Scarborough on Jared & Ivanka: Go Back to NY and leave the White House to he Professionals
Scarborough tore into the first daughter in The Washington Post op-ed, saying her recent tweet about serving “alongside” new White House chief of staff John Kelly was an example of her “entitlement.”
…”Kelly and White House insiders know that Ivanka Trump is as ill-prepared to face the brutish realities of Washington as her father,” Scarborough continued. “And tragically, neither seems to know what they do not know.”
…Kushner, Scarborough writes, believes “he could reinvent government like Al Gore, micro manage the White House like James Baker and restructure the Middle East like Moses.”
“…I also love Joey, Andrew, Katherine and Jack Scarborough. But I wouldn’t let them run my morning show any more than Trump should let his children run roughshod over White House operations,” he wrote.
“The best thing they can do for their country is to move back to New York and let professionals run the White House.”
: Scarborough to Jared and Ivanka: Move back to New York | TheHill
From the mouths of partisan talking-heads…..
So, about all that plastic in the ocean…
Every 11 years, our production of plastic doubles, and over the coming 11 years we’ll produce more plastic than we’ve made since we started.
…In 2015, a paper published in the journal Science estimated that somewhere between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. The researchers arrived at this figure after estimating how much plastic waste every coastal country in the world produces, and then calculated how much could wash into the sea from open dumps and improperly secured landfills. The scientists guess that this amounts to between 15 to 40 percent of all disposed plastic.
…Henderson Island, a deserted atoll in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean. ….where the highest density of plastic waste anywhere on the planet [is.] …37.7 million pieces had washed up and spread out over the uninhabited island, and that as many as 13,300 new pieces arrive every day.
…five “garbage patches,” the accumulation zones of plastic that form at the ocean’s five subtropical gyres.
…the North Pacific Gyre jettisons about 50 percent of its contents every orbit, which takes about three years. That means the plastic leaves the gyre and will either end up on shore, or in another gyre.
So, about all that plastic in the ocean…
Arguing that clean-up efforts aren’t worth pursuing because we need to stop the plastic at the source is cranky old bullshit. Of course stopping it at the source would be ideal but until that happens clean up is also a good idea and something we should be trying to do. Dismissing clean up ideas out of hand because in an ideal world we would stop the source of the problem is ridiculous and defeatist. The cranky old asshole spouting such unhelpful negativity crap need to sit down and shut the fuck up. Or maybe choke on a big swirling mass of mass of floating plastic. Either way, just fucking shut the hell up.
Donald Trump Knows Nothing About Health Care, Taxes, or Trade
It’s like watching a middle-schooler trying to bluff his way through a book report on a book he hasn’t read.
Donald Trump Knows Nothing About Health Care, Taxes, or Trade – Mother Jones
Well put.
‘A declaration of war on freedom of speech’
Left-wing Israeli NGO defends Arabic network – but Arab states back up Israeli government’s claims network promotes anti-Semitism.
‘A declaration of war on freedom of speech’ – Israel National News
Fucking a… As an American I hardly have the right to talk but Israel’s policies can be so freaking racist it is stunning.
How one man built a $51m theme park for his daughter
Gordon Hartman [realized] there were no parks where his daughter Morgan, who is disabled, could play. So he decided to build one.
…The park, called Morgan’s Wonderland, cost $34m (£26m) and opened in 2010. Attractions include a fully-accessible Ferris wheel, adventure playground and miniature train. Visitors regularly tell Hartman it is the first time they’ve been able to experience such attractions.
There is also a carousel with specially designed chariots for wheelchairs that go up and down alongside the animals.
…Since it opened Morgan’s Wonderland has received over a million visitors from 67 countries and from all 50 American states. A third of staff have disabilities and entrance is free to any guest with a condition.
…”We open every year knowing we’re going to lose over $1m (£750,000) and we need to recover that through fundraising and partners.”
This year, the theme park was expanded with the opening of Morgan’s Inspiration Island, a fully-accessible water park.
“Fewer people were visiting in July because the wheelchairs got too hot. So we decided to create a water park next door,” Hartman says.
Parts of the island use warm water, which helps visitors with muscular problems. Waterproof [motorized] wheelchairs are provided, which run on compressed air rather than batteries. There is also an accessible river boat ride.
How one man built a $51m theme park for his daughter – BBC News
This is amazingly, amazingly cool.
Heroes, Martyrs, And Myths: The Battle For The Rights Of Transgender Athletes
The history of transgender athletes tells us that the U.S. and the world still have a long way to go to achieving true equality.
Heroes, Martyrs, And Myths: The Battle For The Rights Of Transgender Athletes – VICE Sports
Got a problem with transgender athletes? Having trouble comprehending the bone and muscle mass changes that take place during transistion? Or maybe you’re just a reactionary, backwards hater who is too closed minded to recognize the truth when the facts are laid bare in front of you. Either way…. you can’t argue with the fact that the IOC is among the least permissive organizations in teh world for anything it deems to be an advantage for athletes and the IOC allows trans athletes. So choke on that while you’re maintaining that it is a science or biology issue and not a bigotry issue.
US Blackwater guard’s murder conviction overturned
An appeals court orders a retrial for Nicholas Slatten, jailed for the murder of 14 Iraqi civilians.
: US Blackwater guard’s murder conviction overturned – BBC News
hmmm
‘Roger Ailes would be appalled’: Kayleigh McEnany’s ‘Trump TV’ debut gets ruthlessly fact-checked
…echoing other commentators who called the broadcast “propaganda” and compared it to North Korean state-run TV.
…reading propaganda for Trump TV, the president’s own channel…
“And by ‘channel,’ we mean videos posted on Facebook containing the production quality of a project from a junior high AV club taught by an out-of-work snuff-film director in the mid-1990s.”
…Trump TV has been attractive blonde women “underscored by generic and vaguely patriotic music, giving Trump credit for doing the bare minimum of his duties as president.”
He concluded, “Trump’s old friend Roger Ailes would be appalled at this level of amateurishness.”
‘Roger Ailes would be appalled’: Kayleigh McEnany’s ‘Trump TV’ debut gets ruthlessly fact-checked
State run TV? Surrounding himself with generals? Either he does not give a flying fuck about this country or he is too stupid to know and to evil to care that he is becoming a farcical version of a soviet dictator.
On one tiny Greek island, a warm welcome for Syrian refugees
On Tilos, where fewer than 500 people live (and they’re outnumbered by goats 45 to 1), locals have given shelter, jobs, and education to twelve families – and want them to stay.
On one tiny Greek island, a warm welcome for Syrian refugees – CSMonitor.com
Very cool.
Venezuela crisis: The weekend’s three key events
We take a look back at key events in Venezuela since the the constituent assembly was sworn in.
Venezuela crisis: The weekend’s three key events – BBC News
Sigh….
The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos
A mosque in the German capital allows men and women to mix at prayer and welcomes gay people.
…”Our mosque is open for everybody,” says mosque founder Seyran Ates, a German Turkish-born lawyer and women’s rights activist.
“And we mean that really seriously: everybody, every lifestyle. We are not God. We don’t decide who’s a good or a bad Muslim. Anybody can come through this door – whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, we don’t care, it’s not our right to ask.”
…”To those who are Muslim and believe you can’t be gay or an emancipated woman at the same time as being Muslim, I would say: you can’t be homophobic, misogynistic, Judeophobic and pretend to be Muslim,” he replies.
“Because Islam means being at peace with yourself and others. So that would be an oxymoron, it would be a contradiction.”
…Miriam, who is leading a study group on how to recite the Koran. She patiently explains the correct pronunciation of the verses to Laqa, a man from Pakistan who has lived in Berlin for 28 years.
She tells me that the main point of the mosque is tolerance of each other’s view of Islam. I ask her whether she has different views to those of Ms Ates.
“That’s an easy one,” she laughs, pointing to her head.
“I wear the headscarf and she interprets that in a different way….”
This is the origin of our religion, adds Laqa. “We are all equal, whatever you look like, or whatever colour skin you have, whether you’re gay or lesbian,” he says. “I can’t know whether they have a better connection to God than me. Why should I judge that? I can’t. I shouldn’t.”
The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos – BBC News
Very cool.
Rosenstein: Special counsel Mueller can investigate any crimes he uncovers in Russia probe
The deputy attorney general said the Russia investigation is continuing apace, even as Trump dismissed the probe as “a total fabrication.”
No shit, sherlock? After umpteen months and gods knows how much money down the drain it’s the only valuable thing we all learned that from Ken Starr.
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