Army veteran charged with plotting terror attacks in LA area
A 26-year-old former US Army soldier who served in Afghanistan has been charged with plotting terror attacks in the Los Angeles area, the Justice Department said Monday.
Mark Steven Domingo allegedly sought to detonate improvised explosive devices containing nails this past weekend at a rally in Long Beach that was organized by a white nationalist group.
He was arrested Friday night after he took receipt of what he thought were pressure cooker bombs, US Attorney Nick Hanna announced at a press conference.
. . . .
Domingo allegedly wanted to "seek retribution for attacks against Muslims" and also considered attacks on Jewish people, churches and law enforcement.
He is accused of targeting "Jews as they walked to synagogue, police officers, a military facility, and crowds at the Santa Monica Pier."
On March 2, DOJ says Domingo posted a video online professing his Muslim faith and wrote, "America needs another Vegas event," referring to the mass shooting in Las Vegas in October 2017 in which more than 50 people died.
Monday, April 29, 2019
Which side are you on? Oh, which side are you on?
Trump slams ‘Dues Sucking’ firefighters union leaders as he attacks Biden
President Donald Trump on Monday unleashed a series of tweets criticizing leaders of major labor unions and former Vice President Joe Biden, who launched his 2020 presidential campaign last week.
Biden was scheduled to speak to the Teamsters union Monday in Pennsylvania, a state Trump won in 2016, but where Biden was born and raised.
“I’ll never get the support of Dues Crazy union leadership, those people who rip-off their membership with ridiculously high dues, medical and other expenses while being paid a fortune,” Trump tweeted at around 10:30 AM.
“But the members love Trump. They look at our record economy, tax & reg cuts, military etc. WIN!”
“Sleepy Joe Biden is having his first rally in the Great State of Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote 10 minutes later.
“He obviously doesn’t know that Pennsylvania is having one of the best economic years in its history, with lowest unemployment EVER, a now thriving Steel Industry (that was dead) & great future!........”
Four minutes after his tweet about Pennsylvania, Trump wrote, “The Dues Sucking firefighters leadership will always support Democrats, even though the membership wants me. Some things never change!”
In response to Trump’s attack, Biden tweeted, “I’m sick of this President badmouthing unions. Labor built the middle class in this country. Minimum wage, overtime pay, the 40-hour week: they exist for all of us because unions fought for those rights. We need a President who honors them and their work.”
Biden hits back at Trump's attack on unions: 'They fought for our rights' –
President Donald Trump on Monday unleashed a series of tweets criticizing leaders of major labor unions and former Vice President Joe Biden, who launched his 2020 presidential campaign last week.
Biden was scheduled to speak to the Teamsters union Monday in Pennsylvania, a state Trump won in 2016, but where Biden was born and raised.
“I’ll never get the support of Dues Crazy union leadership, those people who rip-off their membership with ridiculously high dues, medical and other expenses while being paid a fortune,” Trump tweeted at around 10:30 AM.
“But the members love Trump. They look at our record economy, tax & reg cuts, military etc. WIN!”
“Sleepy Joe Biden is having his first rally in the Great State of Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote 10 minutes later.
“He obviously doesn’t know that Pennsylvania is having one of the best economic years in its history, with lowest unemployment EVER, a now thriving Steel Industry (that was dead) & great future!........”
Four minutes after his tweet about Pennsylvania, Trump wrote, “The Dues Sucking firefighters leadership will always support Democrats, even though the membership wants me. Some things never change!”
In response to Trump’s attack, Biden tweeted, “I’m sick of this President badmouthing unions. Labor built the middle class in this country. Minimum wage, overtime pay, the 40-hour week: they exist for all of us because unions fought for those rights. We need a President who honors them and their work.”
Joe Biden kicked off his first campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after landing the endorsement of the fire fighters’ union - which also set off Trump, who sent several tweets blasting union leaders.
Biden calls for reversing Trump tax cuts, enacting Buffett rule and raising minimum wage to $15.
Says he will unveil more detailed economic proposals in the coming weeks.
Watching Joe Biden
On TV at a union hall in Pittsburgh.
What's up with the shape of his mouth?
Has he had a face lift?
Does he have dental implants?
Something around the mouth just doesn't look right.
What's up with the shape of his mouth?
Has he had a face lift?
Does he have dental implants?
Something around the mouth just doesn't look right.
Now that you mention it . . .
The other day I watched a video on YouTube about GMO food crops and it put me in mind of insulin.
My wife is a type II diabetic and uses a fast acting insulin at mealtimes and a long lasting insulin at night before she goes to sleep.
I googled them each and both are produced through recombinant DNA techniques producing appropriately modified strains of E. Coli.
Frankencoli, if you will.
(Joke)
On current evidence, the worries of the anti-GMO folks seem about as evidence-based as the worries of the anti-vaxxers.
The YouTube video claimed the global population is expected to top out and stabilize at about 12 billion, but feeding a human crowd that size will absolutely require the use of GMO food organisms.
My wife is a type II diabetic and uses a fast acting insulin at mealtimes and a long lasting insulin at night before she goes to sleep.
I googled them each and both are produced through recombinant DNA techniques producing appropriately modified strains of E. Coli.
Frankencoli, if you will.
(Joke)
On current evidence, the worries of the anti-GMO folks seem about as evidence-based as the worries of the anti-vaxxers.
The YouTube video claimed the global population is expected to top out and stabilize at about 12 billion, but feeding a human crowd that size will absolutely require the use of GMO food organisms.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
In California they start very young
San Diego synagogue shooting
Authorities increased security Sunday at houses of worship one day after a teen gunman killed one woman and injured a rabbi, a child and another man during Passover celebrations at a San Diego-area synagogue.
. . . .
Accused gunman John T. Earnest, 19, of San Diego, is a nursing student at Cal State University San Marcos who lived about seven miles from the synagogue.
[San Diego County Sheriff William] Gore said Earnest posted an online “manifesto” in which he criticized Jews and also celebrated the slaying of 50 Muslims at shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.
The attack came exactly six months after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
The manifesto echos common white supremacist themes.
. . . .
The suspect is accused of opening fire with an AR-style rifle at the synagogue shortly after services began Saturday morning.
[Reportedly, the AR jammed.]
Passover celebrations are among the most important in the Jewish faith.
. . . .
An off-duty Border Patrol agent who was attending services at the synagogue fired at the suspect during the attack, hitting his car.
The suspect then fled and was arrested without incident about two miles away.
. . . .
Earnest is also being investigated in connection with the arson at a mosque in nearby Escondido last month, officials said.
In that incident, a fire broke out at 3:15 a.m. on March 24 at Dar-ul-Arqam mosque, also known as the Islamic Center of Escondido.
Update:
Earnest claimed in a manifesto also to have attempted to set fire to the Islamic Center of Escondido (Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque) last month.
Someone did pour gasoline and start a fire, but congregants were on site and put it out.
He also left graffiti referring to the New Zealand massacre of Muslims in Christchurch.
Authorities increased security Sunday at houses of worship one day after a teen gunman killed one woman and injured a rabbi, a child and another man during Passover celebrations at a San Diego-area synagogue.
. . . .
Accused gunman John T. Earnest, 19, of San Diego, is a nursing student at Cal State University San Marcos who lived about seven miles from the synagogue.
[San Diego County Sheriff William] Gore said Earnest posted an online “manifesto” in which he criticized Jews and also celebrated the slaying of 50 Muslims at shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.
The attack came exactly six months after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
The manifesto echos common white supremacist themes.
. . . .
The suspect is accused of opening fire with an AR-style rifle at the synagogue shortly after services began Saturday morning.
[Reportedly, the AR jammed.]
Passover celebrations are among the most important in the Jewish faith.
. . . .
An off-duty Border Patrol agent who was attending services at the synagogue fired at the suspect during the attack, hitting his car.
The suspect then fled and was arrested without incident about two miles away.
. . . .
Earnest is also being investigated in connection with the arson at a mosque in nearby Escondido last month, officials said.
In that incident, a fire broke out at 3:15 a.m. on March 24 at Dar-ul-Arqam mosque, also known as the Islamic Center of Escondido.
Update:
Earnest claimed in a manifesto also to have attempted to set fire to the Islamic Center of Escondido (Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque) last month.
Someone did pour gasoline and start a fire, but congregants were on site and put it out.
He also left graffiti referring to the New Zealand massacre of Muslims in Christchurch.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
You think he minds much they were Hindu?
Veteran Rams Hindu Family, thinking they were Muslims
Perhaps he's more disappointed nobody died.
It appears he was willing to hit several people other than his targets in order to hit his targets.
Collateral damage.
An Iraq War veteran, who had spent 5 years in that country, was arraigned Friday.
On Tuesday, he had plowed into 8 people in an intersection in Sunnyvale, California, particularly aiming at a South Asian family who he assumed to be Muslims.
They weren’t.
The names indicate that they are Americans of Indian Hindu heritage (a minority in the US of about 1 million people).
The veteran has been charged with a hate crime and with 8 counts of attempted murder.
Witnesses say that after his crime he acted strangely, saying “Thank God for giving me this opportunity!” and “I love you, Jesus, I love you, Jesus.”
The victims included a 13-year-old girl, Dhriti and her father; her young brother Prakhar, 9, was hurt, but not by the car.
Dhriti experienced swelling of the brain and bleeding, so that physicians had to take off the side of her skull, and she is fighting for her life in critical condition.
Others hurt by the car ramming were Marina Reimler, 32; Soeren Reimler, 33; Ping Lu, 51; Rajesh Narayan, 45; Eric Nava, 24; and Miguel, 15.
. . . .
The enraged vet managed to wound Americans of German, Indian, Chinese and Latino heritage in his fruitless search for other Americans to kill, of Muslim heritage.
Perhaps he's more disappointed nobody died.
It appears he was willing to hit several people other than his targets in order to hit his targets.
Collateral damage.
An Iraq War veteran, who had spent 5 years in that country, was arraigned Friday.
On Tuesday, he had plowed into 8 people in an intersection in Sunnyvale, California, particularly aiming at a South Asian family who he assumed to be Muslims.
They weren’t.
The names indicate that they are Americans of Indian Hindu heritage (a minority in the US of about 1 million people).
The veteran has been charged with a hate crime and with 8 counts of attempted murder.
Witnesses say that after his crime he acted strangely, saying “Thank God for giving me this opportunity!” and “I love you, Jesus, I love you, Jesus.”
The victims included a 13-year-old girl, Dhriti and her father; her young brother Prakhar, 9, was hurt, but not by the car.
Dhriti experienced swelling of the brain and bleeding, so that physicians had to take off the side of her skull, and she is fighting for her life in critical condition.
Others hurt by the car ramming were Marina Reimler, 32; Soeren Reimler, 33; Ping Lu, 51; Rajesh Narayan, 45; Eric Nava, 24; and Miguel, 15.
. . . .
The enraged vet managed to wound Americans of German, Indian, Chinese and Latino heritage in his fruitless search for other Americans to kill, of Muslim heritage.
Trump goes there right off the bat
It's always ad hominem with him.
He hasn't got anything else.
“I am a young, vibrant man. I look at Joe, I don’t know about him,” Trump said.
“I don’t know, I would never say anyone is too old.”
Will this draw blood?
Joe looks frail, so I'd say yes.
He and his echo chamber will harp on it.
He hasn't got anything else.
“I am a young, vibrant man. I look at Joe, I don’t know about him,” Trump said.
“I don’t know, I would never say anyone is too old.”
Will this draw blood?
Joe looks frail, so I'd say yes.
He and his echo chamber will harp on it.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Can you do that? I guess you can.
Complain in the same article that Republicans are increasingly refusing to honor "the basic tenets of democracy" and damn them for being annoyed at a Democratic state AG for saying if Roe is overturned she will not enforce her state's anti-abortion law.
Think of Trump not only refusing to let his AG defend the ACA but insisting he join on the side of the state AGs in court arguing it is totally unconstitutional.
Michigan Republicans threaten to impeach Democratic attorney general because they lost the election
And, no, that isn't why.
Think of Trump not only refusing to let his AG defend the ACA but insisting he join on the side of the state AGs in court arguing it is totally unconstitutional.
Michigan Republicans threaten to impeach Democratic attorney general because they lost the election
And, no, that isn't why.
Not justice, then. Vengeance.
4 people died in the Colorado pileup and a truck driver faces vehicular homicide charges
Countryman said the driver of the semi is Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23.
He has a commercial driver's license out of Texas, Countryman said.
Aguilera-Mederos is cooperating with investigators, he added.
Aguilera-Mederos was behind the wheel of a flatbed truck loaded with lumber and was injured in the crash, but not seriously hurt, Countryman said.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's inmate roster, his next scheduled court appearance is listed as Saturday at 3 p.m. ET in Jefferson County court.
The suspect's brother, Daniel Aguilera, said Rogel is Cuban and is a permanent resident of the United States.
Also a truck driver, Aguilera said he spoke to his brother after the crash and Rogel told him his brakes failed.
Countryman said there's no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the crash.
When asked whether there were any mechanical issues with the truck, Countryman said it is something his department is looking into, but he believes even if there were a mechanical issue, vehicular manslaughter charges would still stick.
Do you suppose Bozo will give him a pardon?
Just kidding.
Countryman said the driver of the semi is Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23.
He has a commercial driver's license out of Texas, Countryman said.
Aguilera-Mederos is cooperating with investigators, he added.
Aguilera-Mederos was behind the wheel of a flatbed truck loaded with lumber and was injured in the crash, but not seriously hurt, Countryman said.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's inmate roster, his next scheduled court appearance is listed as Saturday at 3 p.m. ET in Jefferson County court.
The suspect's brother, Daniel Aguilera, said Rogel is Cuban and is a permanent resident of the United States.
Also a truck driver, Aguilera said he spoke to his brother after the crash and Rogel told him his brakes failed.
Countryman said there's no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the crash.
When asked whether there were any mechanical issues with the truck, Countryman said it is something his department is looking into, but he believes even if there were a mechanical issue, vehicular manslaughter charges would still stick.
Do you suppose Bozo will give him a pardon?
Just kidding.
What if he's not lying?
Trump refers to Mueller probe as attempted 'coup,' says 'I didn't need a gun' to fend it off
Mueller softballed him, his family, and his campaign leadership.
Rosenstein, in tears, promised "I can land the plane, I'm on your team, I give the investigation credibility".
Barr whitewashed Bozo and everyone, and started the counterattack, throwing shade on Obama for not going public (reportedly, McConnell threatened he and the GOP would call it what Trump has always called it, fake news, a lie to take Trump down with or at least delegitimize him), which Trump and Rosenstein and others are echoing loudly.
So what if Mueller and Rosenstein just caved in to the bullying, as Trump is now apparently bragging, the brag of course embedded in outrageous lies?
President Donald Trump on Friday accused Democrats and the U.S. intelligence community of attempting a "coup" in the form of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and said he didn't "need a gun" to fend it off.
"They tried for a coup, it didn't work out so well. And I didn't need a gun for that one, did I?" Trump told the crowd of gun-rights advocates at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis on Friday.
"All was taking place at the highest levels in Washington, D.C. You've been watching, you've been seeing.”
"Spying, surveillance. Trying for an overthrow," Trump continued.
"And we caught them, we caught them. Who would have thought in our country?"
How did decent Italians feel when they heard that evil clown, Mussolini, giving some evil, evil speech?
Decent Germans about Hitler, screaming about Jews?
Our own malevolent clown, the evil dog shit in the White House, makes my stomach hurt.
This is interesting.
Fox News analyst says Mueller report proves Trump did obstruct justice
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano has argued that Donald Trump did obstruct justice, with “unlawful, defenseless and condemnable” behavior related to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In the opinion column Did President Trump obstruct justice?, the host of the Liberty File on Fox Nation argued that the Mueller report illustrates clear and intentional obstruction of justice, constituting legal grounds for impeachment.
Napolitano, a former superior court judge in New Jersey, thereby contradicted the attorney general, William Barr, who decided there was insufficient evidence to establish that the president had committed obstruction of justice.
. . . .
Napolitano disagreed with the special counsel’s decision not to make a determination on obstruction of justice.
“Mueller laid out at least a half-dozen crimes of obstruction committed by Trump,” he wrote, “from asking former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland to write an untruthful letter about the reason for Flynn’s chat with Kislyak, to asking [former campaign aide] Corey Lewandowski and then White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and McGahn to lie about it, to firing Comey to impede the FBI’s investigations, to dangling a pardon in front of Michael Cohen to stay silent, to ordering his aides to hide and delete records.”
“The essence of obstruction,” he wrote, “is deception or diversion – to prevent the government from finding the truth.”
Napolitano also claimed Mueller knew Barr would block any indictment of Trump along obstruction grounds because the attorney general “has a personal view of obstruction at odds with the statute itself”.
Barr’s view, according to Napolitano, is that obstruction can only occur if someone is impeding an investigation into a crime they committed.
“Thus, in this narrow view, because Trump did not commit the crime of conspiracy with the Russians, it was legally impossible for Trump to have obstructed the FBI investigation of that crime,” Napolitano wrote.
He concluded that though such a position is at odds with broad law enforcement opinion and “wrong”, it provides Congress the opportunity to use Mueller’s report as grounds for impeachment, which would be a question of political viability, not evidence.
Mueller softballed him, his family, and his campaign leadership.
Rosenstein, in tears, promised "I can land the plane, I'm on your team, I give the investigation credibility".
Barr whitewashed Bozo and everyone, and started the counterattack, throwing shade on Obama for not going public (reportedly, McConnell threatened he and the GOP would call it what Trump has always called it, fake news, a lie to take Trump down with or at least delegitimize him), which Trump and Rosenstein and others are echoing loudly.
So what if Mueller and Rosenstein just caved in to the bullying, as Trump is now apparently bragging, the brag of course embedded in outrageous lies?
President Donald Trump on Friday accused Democrats and the U.S. intelligence community of attempting a "coup" in the form of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and said he didn't "need a gun" to fend it off.
"They tried for a coup, it didn't work out so well. And I didn't need a gun for that one, did I?" Trump told the crowd of gun-rights advocates at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis on Friday.
"All was taking place at the highest levels in Washington, D.C. You've been watching, you've been seeing.”
"Spying, surveillance. Trying for an overthrow," Trump continued.
"And we caught them, we caught them. Who would have thought in our country?"
How did decent Italians feel when they heard that evil clown, Mussolini, giving some evil, evil speech?
Decent Germans about Hitler, screaming about Jews?
Our own malevolent clown, the evil dog shit in the White House, makes my stomach hurt.
This is interesting.
Fox News analyst says Mueller report proves Trump did obstruct justice
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano has argued that Donald Trump did obstruct justice, with “unlawful, defenseless and condemnable” behavior related to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In the opinion column Did President Trump obstruct justice?, the host of the Liberty File on Fox Nation argued that the Mueller report illustrates clear and intentional obstruction of justice, constituting legal grounds for impeachment.
Napolitano, a former superior court judge in New Jersey, thereby contradicted the attorney general, William Barr, who decided there was insufficient evidence to establish that the president had committed obstruction of justice.
. . . .
Napolitano disagreed with the special counsel’s decision not to make a determination on obstruction of justice.
“Mueller laid out at least a half-dozen crimes of obstruction committed by Trump,” he wrote, “from asking former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland to write an untruthful letter about the reason for Flynn’s chat with Kislyak, to asking [former campaign aide] Corey Lewandowski and then White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller and McGahn to lie about it, to firing Comey to impede the FBI’s investigations, to dangling a pardon in front of Michael Cohen to stay silent, to ordering his aides to hide and delete records.”
“The essence of obstruction,” he wrote, “is deception or diversion – to prevent the government from finding the truth.”
Napolitano also claimed Mueller knew Barr would block any indictment of Trump along obstruction grounds because the attorney general “has a personal view of obstruction at odds with the statute itself”.
Barr’s view, according to Napolitano, is that obstruction can only occur if someone is impeding an investigation into a crime they committed.
“Thus, in this narrow view, because Trump did not commit the crime of conspiracy with the Russians, it was legally impossible for Trump to have obstructed the FBI investigation of that crime,” Napolitano wrote.
He concluded that though such a position is at odds with broad law enforcement opinion and “wrong”, it provides Congress the opportunity to use Mueller’s report as grounds for impeachment, which would be a question of political viability, not evidence.
And the winner is
Joe Biden Raises $6.3 Million, Topping Rivals’ First-Day Hauls
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential campaign announced Friday that it had raised $6.3 million in its opening 24 hours, the biggest first-day haul of any 2020 candidate, easing concerns among some supporters over whether he would be able to raise the money needed to compete financially in the Democratic primary.
Mr. Biden’s team had viewed his early fund-raising showing as important, not just for the infusion of money but also as a metric by which his nascent candidacy would be measured.
His campaign sent multiple emails asking for donations on Thursday and he attended a high-dollar fund-raiser in the evening.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential campaign announced Friday that it had raised $6.3 million in its opening 24 hours, the biggest first-day haul of any 2020 candidate, easing concerns among some supporters over whether he would be able to raise the money needed to compete financially in the Democratic primary.
Mr. Biden’s team had viewed his early fund-raising showing as important, not just for the infusion of money but also as a metric by which his nascent candidacy would be measured.
His campaign sent multiple emails asking for donations on Thursday and he attended a high-dollar fund-raiser in the evening.
Rip van Winkle
Woman Wakes After 27 Years Unconscious
When Munira Abdulla had last been fully awake, the first George Bush was America’s president and the Soviet Union was nearing its demise. It was the year the Persian Gulf war ended.
In 1991, at the age of 32, Ms. Abdulla, from the oasis city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, suffered injuries in a road accident that left her in a state of reduced consciousness for most of the next three decades.
After 27 years, she awoke last June at a clinic near Munich, where doctors had been treating her for the complications of her long illness.
“I never gave up on her, because I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up,” said Omar Webair, her 32-year-old son, who was just 4 when the accident happened.
When Munira Abdulla had last been fully awake, the first George Bush was America’s president and the Soviet Union was nearing its demise. It was the year the Persian Gulf war ended.
In 1991, at the age of 32, Ms. Abdulla, from the oasis city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, suffered injuries in a road accident that left her in a state of reduced consciousness for most of the next three decades.
After 27 years, she awoke last June at a clinic near Munich, where doctors had been treating her for the complications of her long illness.
“I never gave up on her, because I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up,” said Omar Webair, her 32-year-old son, who was just 4 when the accident happened.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. - Asimov quoting Schiller.
Polio Vaccinator Is Shot and Killed in Pakistan
Two gunmen on motorcycle shot and killed a polio vaccinator in the southwestern Pakistani city of Chaman on Thursday, bringing the death toll among vaccinators working in the country’s anti-polio drive to at least three this week, officials said.
. . . .
Polio vaccination teams have suffered several attacks since a countrywide vaccination drive began on April 23.
Aga
Polio workers, volunteers and their guards are frequently targeted in the South Asian country.
Islamist militants and hard-line clerics say the vaccination drive is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children and a cover for western spies.
. . . .
Hayat Khan, a resident of a tribal area bordering Afghanistan who runs a shop, said he is skeptical of the polio vaccine.
Neither he nor his parents have taken the vaccine, which can be delivered orally as drops, and they are living a healthy life, he said.
“We have doubts in our minds about this western vaccine,” he said.
“Tribal people are not sure what they are giving to our children and what information they are collecting for spying. It’s a Western agenda, indeed.”
Two gunmen on motorcycle shot and killed a polio vaccinator in the southwestern Pakistani city of Chaman on Thursday, bringing the death toll among vaccinators working in the country’s anti-polio drive to at least three this week, officials said.
. . . .
Polio vaccination teams have suffered several attacks since a countrywide vaccination drive began on April 23.
Aga
Polio workers, volunteers and their guards are frequently targeted in the South Asian country.
Islamist militants and hard-line clerics say the vaccination drive is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children and a cover for western spies.
. . . .
Hayat Khan, a resident of a tribal area bordering Afghanistan who runs a shop, said he is skeptical of the polio vaccine.
Neither he nor his parents have taken the vaccine, which can be delivered orally as drops, and they are living a healthy life, he said.
“We have doubts in our minds about this western vaccine,” he said.
“Tribal people are not sure what they are giving to our children and what information they are collecting for spying. It’s a Western agenda, indeed.”
So civil liberties utterly vanish . . .
. . . in the most spectacular and breathtaking way so this politician who so unforgivably dropped the ball can appear effective.
Sri Lanka’s President Vows a Search of Every Home, as Violence Erupts Again
Sri Lanka will conduct a house-to-house search of the entire country to root out terrorists in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings, the president said on Friday, even as fresh violence and a massive hunt for people linked to the attack continued to shake the country.
Seeking to deflect blame for the government’s failure to act on warnings that suicide bombings were imminent, President Maithripala Sirisena said that officials had not told him of the threat, and vowed a “total reorganization” of Sri Lanka’s security apparatus.
“Every household in the country will be checked,” Mr. Sirisena said in a meeting at his official residence with the heads of Sri Lankan media organizations, according to a statement released by his office.
“The lists of permanent residents of every house will be established to ensure no unknown persons could live anywhere.”
Time for someone to tell him if he does all that "the terrorists will have won"?
The Times' writer goes on,
In a nation of 21 million people — about the same population as Florida — that would require an enormous effort.
Sri Lanka’s President Vows a Search of Every Home, as Violence Erupts Again
Sri Lanka will conduct a house-to-house search of the entire country to root out terrorists in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings, the president said on Friday, even as fresh violence and a massive hunt for people linked to the attack continued to shake the country.
Seeking to deflect blame for the government’s failure to act on warnings that suicide bombings were imminent, President Maithripala Sirisena said that officials had not told him of the threat, and vowed a “total reorganization” of Sri Lanka’s security apparatus.
“Every household in the country will be checked,” Mr. Sirisena said in a meeting at his official residence with the heads of Sri Lankan media organizations, according to a statement released by his office.
“The lists of permanent residents of every house will be established to ensure no unknown persons could live anywhere.”
Time for someone to tell him if he does all that "the terrorists will have won"?
The Times' writer goes on,
In a nation of 21 million people — about the same population as Florida — that would require an enormous effort.
It's not a dog whistle if everybody can hear it
Trump defends his infamous Charlottesville remarks by insisting ‘many people’ say Robert E. Lee is their favorite general
Confederate reenactors, maybe?
I don't know anybody who even has "a favorite general".
Who tf has a "favorite general"?
Maybe some military historian?
So, anyway, Biden called him on it so he doubled down.
Confederate reenactors, maybe?
I don't know anybody who even has "a favorite general".
Who tf has a "favorite general"?
Maybe some military historian?
So, anyway, Biden called him on it so he doubled down.
Saving the Republic
Nazis, communists, and others can use means that shred the republic, since that's their aim.
But republicans cannot.
Which is why the Democrats, at some point, cannot employ the vicious means of the Republicans.
At what point?
I don't know.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
That is what the Bible says.
If you don't like it your problem is with the Bible and the people who adhere to it.
Face that.
Your problem is with Christianity and the Christian God.
Franklin Graham to Buttigieg: Homosexuality 'sin' to be 'repentant of' not 'flaunted'
While Franklin Graham once spoke on behalf of a unified and mighty evangelical voting bloc, today the situation is complicated by shifting attitudes toward homosexuality that are segmented by political party and age.
A poll conducted this year by the Public Religion Research Institute found that majorities of every religious denomination support extending nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ people.
A majority — 54 percent — of white evangelical protestants support extending such protections.
This religious group’s attitudes “are highly structured by party affiliation,” the poll found.
The poll found that 47 percent of white evangelical Republicans support LGBTQ protections, compared to 58 percent of white evangelical independents and 71 percent of white evangelical Democrats.
If Graham speaks for any group, it is perhaps for the slender majority of Republican-identified white evangelical Christians who oppose LGBTQ rights.
. . . .
Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, was a vocal critic of former President Bill Clinton’s sexual improprieties and wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Clinton’s Sins Aren’t Private” in 1998.
But after President Donald Trump was accused of having an illicit affair with adult film actor Stormy Daniels, Graham told the Associated Press it’s “nobody’s business.”
Face that.
Your problem is with Christianity and the Christian God.
Franklin Graham to Buttigieg: Homosexuality 'sin' to be 'repentant of' not 'flaunted'
While Franklin Graham once spoke on behalf of a unified and mighty evangelical voting bloc, today the situation is complicated by shifting attitudes toward homosexuality that are segmented by political party and age.
A poll conducted this year by the Public Religion Research Institute found that majorities of every religious denomination support extending nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ people.
A majority — 54 percent — of white evangelical protestants support extending such protections.
This religious group’s attitudes “are highly structured by party affiliation,” the poll found.
The poll found that 47 percent of white evangelical Republicans support LGBTQ protections, compared to 58 percent of white evangelical independents and 71 percent of white evangelical Democrats.
If Graham speaks for any group, it is perhaps for the slender majority of Republican-identified white evangelical Christians who oppose LGBTQ rights.
. . . .
Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, was a vocal critic of former President Bill Clinton’s sexual improprieties and wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Clinton’s Sins Aren’t Private” in 1998.
But after President Donald Trump was accused of having an illicit affair with adult film actor Stormy Daniels, Graham told the Associated Press it’s “nobody’s business.”
Nature whacks the stupid
Measles Outbreak Infects 695, Highest Number Since 2000
Most cases are linked to two large and apparently unrelated outbreaks.
One is centered in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and its suburbs; that outbreak began in October and recently spread to Orthodox communities in Michigan.
The other outbreak began in Washington State.
“The longer these outbreaks continue, the greater the chance measles will again get a sustained foothold in the United States,” the C.D.C. said in a statement.
The virus mostly has stricken families that do not vaccinate their children, and the C.D.C. blamed “organizations that are deliberately targeting these communities with inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines.”
The stable moron in the White House is, of course, an anti-vaxxer.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio declared a state of emergency and threatened residents of four Brooklyn ZIP codes with $1,000 fines if they refused to vaccinate.
Twelve summonses have been issued so far, the city health department said; people who do not answer them can be fined $2,000. City officials closed a yeshiva preschool for violating vaccination orders.
. . . .
Measles is among the most contagious of diseases.
Virus-laced droplets can hover in still indoor air for up to two hours after someone infected has coughed or sneezed.
Up to 90 percent of people who are exposed will catch the virus if they are not immunized.
The vaccine is considered very safe, and two doses are about 97 percent effective at conferring immunity.
The vaccine is normally given at ages 1 and 5, but during outbreaks pediatricians may give it to healthy children as young as six months old.
Most cases are linked to two large and apparently unrelated outbreaks.
One is centered in Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and its suburbs; that outbreak began in October and recently spread to Orthodox communities in Michigan.
The other outbreak began in Washington State.
“The longer these outbreaks continue, the greater the chance measles will again get a sustained foothold in the United States,” the C.D.C. said in a statement.
The virus mostly has stricken families that do not vaccinate their children, and the C.D.C. blamed “organizations that are deliberately targeting these communities with inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines.”
The stable moron in the White House is, of course, an anti-vaxxer.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio declared a state of emergency and threatened residents of four Brooklyn ZIP codes with $1,000 fines if they refused to vaccinate.
Twelve summonses have been issued so far, the city health department said; people who do not answer them can be fined $2,000. City officials closed a yeshiva preschool for violating vaccination orders.
. . . .
Measles is among the most contagious of diseases.
Virus-laced droplets can hover in still indoor air for up to two hours after someone infected has coughed or sneezed.
Up to 90 percent of people who are exposed will catch the virus if they are not immunized.
The vaccine is considered very safe, and two doses are about 97 percent effective at conferring immunity.
The vaccine is normally given at ages 1 and 5, but during outbreaks pediatricians may give it to healthy children as young as six months old.
The continuing threat of terrorism in Sri Lanka
Sunni terrorists turn their attention to Sufis.
Sri Lanka Is Rattled by New Threats
Police officials in Sri Lanka warned on Thursday of possible new attacks on religious services, as Muslim leaders urged the cancellation of Friday Prayer and the country’s highest Roman Catholic prelate suspended worship services through the weekend.
Officials said privately that the authorities were trying to find at least one person believed to be armed with explosives.
The police said the number of people arrested in the investigation had passed 70.
A letter distributed to security officials said there was “credible information” that National Thowheeth Jama’ath, the radical Islamist group thought to have carried out the bombings on Sunday, was planning another attack “specifically targeting Sufi shrines.”
Several officials confirmed the authenticity of the letter, and the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said in more general terms that the security services were hunting for people believed to be planning more terrorist attacks.
Sri Lanka Is Rattled by New Threats
Police officials in Sri Lanka warned on Thursday of possible new attacks on religious services, as Muslim leaders urged the cancellation of Friday Prayer and the country’s highest Roman Catholic prelate suspended worship services through the weekend.
Officials said privately that the authorities were trying to find at least one person believed to be armed with explosives.
The police said the number of people arrested in the investigation had passed 70.
A letter distributed to security officials said there was “credible information” that National Thowheeth Jama’ath, the radical Islamist group thought to have carried out the bombings on Sunday, was planning another attack “specifically targeting Sufi shrines.”
Several officials confirmed the authenticity of the letter, and the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said in more general terms that the security services were hunting for people believed to be planning more terrorist attacks.
More obstruction, more illegality in the open
Trump Vows Stonewall of ‘All’ House Subpoenas
The Trump administration escalated its defiance of Congress on Wednesday, as the Justice Department refused to let an official testify on Capitol Hill and President Trump vowed to fight what he called a “ridiculous” subpoena ordering a former top aide to appear before lawmakers.
“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House. “These aren’t, like, impartial people. The Democrats are trying to win 2020.”
The Trump administration escalated its defiance of Congress on Wednesday, as the Justice Department refused to let an official testify on Capitol Hill and President Trump vowed to fight what he called a “ridiculous” subpoena ordering a former top aide to appear before lawmakers.
“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House. “These aren’t, like, impartial people. The Democrats are trying to win 2020.”
Joe on the issues. Well, some of them.
Do not forget he led O into supporting gay marriage.
Biden on the Issues: Where He Stands and How He’s Changed
Mr. Biden has outlined a populist economic agenda focused on income inequality and workers’ rights.
He endorsed a $15 minimum wage and free four-year public college in 2015; in a speech at the Brookings Institution in May 2018, he mentioned free college as one of five policies he said would help the middle class.
(The other four were progressive tax reform, more worker protections, major infrastructure investments, and incentives for venture capitalists and other investors to spend outside of major cities.)
He has called for a ban on noncompete agreements that prevent workers from taking jobs at competitors, and has advocated policies that would let workers discuss how much they are paid without retaliation.
. . . .
As one might expect from the man who famously told President Barack Obama just how big a deal the passage of the Affordable Care Act was, Mr. Biden supports that law and has been outspoken against Republicans’ efforts to repeal it, as well as against proposals to cut funding for programs like Social Security and Medicaid.
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post in 2017, he argued that health care should be “a right for all and not a privilege for the few.”
That echoes language used by progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and new Democratic stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but Mr. Biden has not endorsed “Medicare for all,” which has become an important dividing line among the 2020 candidates.
The exact contours of his health care platform, and whether he would seek simply to preserve the Affordable Care Act or to go further, are not clear yet.
. . . .
Mr. Biden’s advocacy for government action on climate change goes back more than 30 years: He introduced the Senate’s first climate change bill in 1986.
He has been outspoken about the urgency of action, including at a rally last year in Florida where he described climate change as “the greatest threat to our security,” citing briefings by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
. . . .
Mr. Biden supports abortion rights and the Roe v. Wade decision, though he has gone back and forth on abortion in the past and has publicly struggled to reconcile his political positions with his Catholic faith.
As recently as 2008, he said he believed life began at conception, though he emphasized that this was a personal view and that he did not think it was appropriate to impose it on others through abortion restrictions.
Biden on the Issues: Where He Stands and How He’s Changed
Mr. Biden has outlined a populist economic agenda focused on income inequality and workers’ rights.
He endorsed a $15 minimum wage and free four-year public college in 2015; in a speech at the Brookings Institution in May 2018, he mentioned free college as one of five policies he said would help the middle class.
(The other four were progressive tax reform, more worker protections, major infrastructure investments, and incentives for venture capitalists and other investors to spend outside of major cities.)
He has called for a ban on noncompete agreements that prevent workers from taking jobs at competitors, and has advocated policies that would let workers discuss how much they are paid without retaliation.
. . . .
As one might expect from the man who famously told President Barack Obama just how big a deal the passage of the Affordable Care Act was, Mr. Biden supports that law and has been outspoken against Republicans’ efforts to repeal it, as well as against proposals to cut funding for programs like Social Security and Medicaid.
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post in 2017, he argued that health care should be “a right for all and not a privilege for the few.”
That echoes language used by progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and new Democratic stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but Mr. Biden has not endorsed “Medicare for all,” which has become an important dividing line among the 2020 candidates.
The exact contours of his health care platform, and whether he would seek simply to preserve the Affordable Care Act or to go further, are not clear yet.
. . . .
Mr. Biden’s advocacy for government action on climate change goes back more than 30 years: He introduced the Senate’s first climate change bill in 1986.
He has been outspoken about the urgency of action, including at a rally last year in Florida where he described climate change as “the greatest threat to our security,” citing briefings by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
. . . .
Mr. Biden supports abortion rights and the Roe v. Wade decision, though he has gone back and forth on abortion in the past and has publicly struggled to reconcile his political positions with his Catholic faith.
As recently as 2008, he said he believed life began at conception, though he emphasized that this was a personal view and that he did not think it was appropriate to impose it on others through abortion restrictions.
Joe is in
Joe Biden Announces 2020 Run for President
The adult has entered the race.
Because he is already the front runner and because he is now officially in the others will begin their attacks.
He is too old, he is too white, he is too male, and more than forty years ago he was against "forced bussing" (so was I, and I still am, though he is not).
He is too centrist, he is too cozy with rich Democrats (the ones O and Hillary were cozy with), and did I mention he is old, white, and a guy?
MSNBC says his announcement was pretty much entirely an attack on Trump.
Also, a spokesman for the Obama's had fulsome praise for him, right off the bat.
On MSNBC a spokesperson for Joe said he actually asked O not to endorse him outright, right away.
[Update. At a train station, Joe confirmed that. At the same train station, Joe strode out of his way, with no security escort, to shake hands with some guys in hard hats, and then strode to his car, shaking hands with some cops. Big smiles all around. So of course the cameras followed him and those pictures are all over TV.]
He's going to spend a long, wrap-around weekend in Pennsylvania stealing Trump voters.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020, marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation.
Mr. Biden, 76, is set to offer himself as a levelheaded leader for a country wracked by political conflict, a rationale he believes could attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from Mr. Trump.
In a three-and-a-half minute video laying out his reasons for running, Mr. Biden chose not to talk about policy issues or his biography but instead began by recalling the white supremacist march through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and a counterprotest, and Mr. Trump’s comment that there were “very fine people on both sides.”
In that moment, Mr. Biden said, “I knew the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.”
“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Mr. Biden said.
“I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time.
"But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
Trump responded with a tweet, right away.
Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe.
I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign.
It will be nasty - you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas.
But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!
Joe Biden Is the Front-Runner — Over Democrats, and Donald Trump
A new Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted April 19-21 among 1,992 registered voters found Biden leading the president by 8 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup, 42 percent to 34 percent.
The adult has entered the race.
Because he is already the front runner and because he is now officially in the others will begin their attacks.
He is too old, he is too white, he is too male, and more than forty years ago he was against "forced bussing" (so was I, and I still am, though he is not).
He is too centrist, he is too cozy with rich Democrats (the ones O and Hillary were cozy with), and did I mention he is old, white, and a guy?
MSNBC says his announcement was pretty much entirely an attack on Trump.
Also, a spokesman for the Obama's had fulsome praise for him, right off the bat.
On MSNBC a spokesperson for Joe said he actually asked O not to endorse him outright, right away.
[Update. At a train station, Joe confirmed that. At the same train station, Joe strode out of his way, with no security escort, to shake hands with some guys in hard hats, and then strode to his car, shaking hands with some cops. Big smiles all around. So of course the cameras followed him and those pictures are all over TV.]
He's going to spend a long, wrap-around weekend in Pennsylvania stealing Trump voters.
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020, marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation.
Mr. Biden, 76, is set to offer himself as a levelheaded leader for a country wracked by political conflict, a rationale he believes could attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from Mr. Trump.
In a three-and-a-half minute video laying out his reasons for running, Mr. Biden chose not to talk about policy issues or his biography but instead began by recalling the white supremacist march through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and a counterprotest, and Mr. Trump’s comment that there were “very fine people on both sides.”
In that moment, Mr. Biden said, “I knew the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.”
“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Mr. Biden said.
“I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time.
"But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
Trump responded with a tweet, right away.
Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe.
I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign.
It will be nasty - you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas.
But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!
Joe Biden Is the Front-Runner — Over Democrats, and Donald Trump
A new Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted April 19-21 among 1,992 registered voters found Biden leading the president by 8 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup, 42 percent to 34 percent.
Biden has a significant edge over Trump among women (17 points), millennials (22 points) and independents (10 points).
The national, online survey has a 2-point margin of error.
The national, online survey has a 2-point margin of error.
. . . .
Along with his advantage over Trump, Biden has held a consistent lead in Morning Consult’s weekly tracking among likely Democratic primary voters.
Three in 10 of those voters said the Delawarean was their top pick in the latest poll, followed by 24 percent who chose Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
(Biden’s 6-point advantage is similar to his average 7-point lead over the Democratic socialist in the 12 tracking polls.)
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Will Scotland bail? Over May's dead body.
Sturgeon outlines new Scottish independence referendum plans
Back in the day, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain.
Nicola Sturgeon is to introduce new legislation to stage a second Scottish independence referendum, claiming one must be held by May 2021 if Brexit goes ahead.
The first minister said Brexit would have such a catastrophic impact on Scotland’s economy and Westminster’s approach to it had been so chaotic that Scottish voters must have the option to choose independence.
In a long-awaited statement to the Scottish parliament on her plans, Sturgeon said the proposed legislation would set out how a new referendum would be held if Holyrood were granted the powers to stage one.
Theresa May’s official spokesman flatly rejected the idea the moment may be approaching for Scottish voters to be given a fresh vote on independence.
“As we have been repeatedly clear, Scotland already had an independence referendum in 2014, and voted decisively to remain in the UK. This should be respected,” he said.
Sturgeon first announced she wanted new legislation for a second referendum in June 2016, immediately after the UK voted to leave the EU.
She said Westminster’s decision to press on with Brexit, despite an overwhelming remain vote in Scotland, was proof the current system of devolution was broken.
. . . .
Repeated opinion polls show a narrow majority of Scottish people are against independence, with only a minority backing a referendum in the next two years.
Others show a majority of Scottish voters would support a referendum over the next decade.
Sturgeon appeared to acknowledge there was not yet a majority in favour of leaving the UK and said she wanted to build a consensus with opposition parties on Scotland’s constitutional and political future, in contrast to May’s insularity and intransigence on Brexit.
Back in the day, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain.
Nicola Sturgeon is to introduce new legislation to stage a second Scottish independence referendum, claiming one must be held by May 2021 if Brexit goes ahead.
The first minister said Brexit would have such a catastrophic impact on Scotland’s economy and Westminster’s approach to it had been so chaotic that Scottish voters must have the option to choose independence.
In a long-awaited statement to the Scottish parliament on her plans, Sturgeon said the proposed legislation would set out how a new referendum would be held if Holyrood were granted the powers to stage one.
Theresa May’s official spokesman flatly rejected the idea the moment may be approaching for Scottish voters to be given a fresh vote on independence.
“As we have been repeatedly clear, Scotland already had an independence referendum in 2014, and voted decisively to remain in the UK. This should be respected,” he said.
Sturgeon first announced she wanted new legislation for a second referendum in June 2016, immediately after the UK voted to leave the EU.
She said Westminster’s decision to press on with Brexit, despite an overwhelming remain vote in Scotland, was proof the current system of devolution was broken.
. . . .
Repeated opinion polls show a narrow majority of Scottish people are against independence, with only a minority backing a referendum in the next two years.
Others show a majority of Scottish voters would support a referendum over the next decade.
Sturgeon appeared to acknowledge there was not yet a majority in favour of leaving the UK and said she wanted to build a consensus with opposition parties on Scotland’s constitutional and political future, in contrast to May’s insularity and intransigence on Brexit.
Trump's gift to the plutes just keeps on giving
Split 5 to 4, Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Class Arbitrations
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that workers at a California business could not band together to seek compensation for what they said was their employer’s failure to protect their data.
The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservative members in the majority.
The decision was the latest in a line of rulings allowing companies to use arbitration provisions to bar both class actions in court and class-wide arbitration proceedings.
In earlier 5-to-4 decisions concerning fine-print contracts with consumers and employment agreements, the court ruled that arbitration provisions can require disputes to be resolved one by one.
Those rulings can make it difficult for consumers and workers to pursue minor claims even where their collective harm was substantial.
. . . .
All four of the court’s liberal members wrote dissents.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority had created a body of law whose purpose was to frustrate class actions and class-wide arbitrations.
She said the court should have endorsed a common principle of contract interpretation that resolves ambiguities against the party — here, Lamps Plus — that drafted the provision.
Using ellipses to indicate a skeptical pause, she wrote that Wednesday’s decision would never have appeared among decisions by the court “save that this case involves … class proceedings.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quoting an earlier dissent, said the decision was the court’s latest effort “to deny employees and consumers ‘effective relief against powerful economic entities.’”
“Propelled by the court’s decisions,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, “mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and consumer contracts have proliferated.”
The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that workers at a California business could not band together to seek compensation for what they said was their employer’s failure to protect their data.
The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservative members in the majority.
The decision was the latest in a line of rulings allowing companies to use arbitration provisions to bar both class actions in court and class-wide arbitration proceedings.
In earlier 5-to-4 decisions concerning fine-print contracts with consumers and employment agreements, the court ruled that arbitration provisions can require disputes to be resolved one by one.
Those rulings can make it difficult for consumers and workers to pursue minor claims even where their collective harm was substantial.
. . . .
All four of the court’s liberal members wrote dissents.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority had created a body of law whose purpose was to frustrate class actions and class-wide arbitrations.
She said the court should have endorsed a common principle of contract interpretation that resolves ambiguities against the party — here, Lamps Plus — that drafted the provision.
Using ellipses to indicate a skeptical pause, she wrote that Wednesday’s decision would never have appeared among decisions by the court “save that this case involves … class proceedings.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quoting an earlier dissent, said the decision was the court’s latest effort “to deny employees and consumers ‘effective relief against powerful economic entities.’”
“Propelled by the court’s decisions,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, “mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and consumer contracts have proliferated.”
60 arrested in the Sri Lanka bombings
Sri Lanka Calls Bombers ‘Well Educated’ and Warns of Ongoing Threat
Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.
The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said.
But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.
The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large.
As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” and Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense said the danger had not passed.
“There could be still a few people out there,” the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said at a news conference. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”
. . . .
The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks.
He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.
. . . .
An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media.
That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning that the Indians sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.
The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.
The Indians repeated the warning just hours before the bombings, telling the Sri Lankans that an attack was imminent, according to an Indian official.
Nine suicide bombers from mostly educated, middle-class backgrounds carried out the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on Easter Sunday, the authorities said on Wednesday as they warned of an ongoing terrorist threat and continued making arrests.
The bombers, one of whom was a woman, were all Sri Lankan, officials said.
But the authorities were continuing to investigate whether the Islamic State, which on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the coordinated blasts, had provided more than symbolic support, such as by training the attackers or building the bombs.
The authorities said the number of people arrested had risen to 60, and that other individuals involved in the attacks remained at large.
As the F.B.I. arrived to assist in the investigation, the American ambassador, Alaina Teplitz, said there were believed to be “ongoing terrorist plots,” and Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense said the danger had not passed.
“There could be still a few people out there,” the minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said at a news conference. “Right now, we are asking people to be vigilant. Within the next few days, we will have the situation totally under control.”
. . . .
The Islamic State has not provided any further proof for its claim of responsibility, and Mr. Wijewardene said investigators were trying to determine whether the group had provided training or financing for the attacks.
He said they had found no evidence to suggest that the bombers had traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.
. . . .
An Indian security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said India had interrogated a man last year who was linked with ISIS, and who said he was inspired by Mr. Zaharan’s videos on social media.
That intelligence prompted an investigation into Mr. Zaharan, and it was part of the context for an April 11 warning that the Indians sent to the Sri Lankan authorities about the possibility of church bombings.
The warning was never relayed to church officials, and the Sri Lankan authorities apparently took no action against members of Mr. Zaharan’s group, despite specific information provided by the Indians.
The Indians repeated the warning just hours before the bombings, telling the Sri Lankans that an attack was imminent, according to an Indian official.
Another of Trump's "best people" is a hilarious nutbag
An ex-goldbug, for gosh sakes.
Survival of the Wrongest
There has been a lot of commentary about Stephen Moore, the man Donald Trump wants to put on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
It turns out that he has a lot of personal baggage: He was held in contempt of court for failing to pay alimony and child support, and his past writings show an extraordinary degree of misogyny.
He misstates facts so much that one newspaper editor vowed never to publish him again, and he has been caught outright lying about his past support for a gold standard.
Oh, and he has described the cities of the U.S. heartland as “armpits of America.”
. . . .
Moore was wrong about everything during the financial crisis; he remained a fixture on the right-wing conference circuit, and in 2014 the Heritage Foundation appointed him as its chief economist.
Kudlow, who dismissed those warning about the housing bubble as “bubbleheads,” and warned about looming inflation in the depths of recession, also remained a right-wing favorite – and is now the Trump administration’s chief economist.
So the attempt to install Moore at the Fed is right in character.
And let’s be clear: The issue is not simply one of having made some bad forecasts.
Everyone does that now and then. It’s about being consistently wrong about everything, and refusing to learn from error.
Recently Moore declared that the Fed is “filled with hundreds of economists who are worthless, who have the wrong model in their mind. They should all be, they should all be fired and they should be replaced by good economists.”
Given the respective track records of the Moore and the Fed over the past decade and more, what he apparently means by the “wrong model” is a view of inflation that has repeatedly been proved right, as opposed to his own analysis, which has always been wrong.
But so far not a single Republican senator has questioned Moore’s qualifications.
When it comes to right-wing economists, what we see is a clear pattern of survival of the wrongest.
Survival of the Wrongest
There has been a lot of commentary about Stephen Moore, the man Donald Trump wants to put on the Fed’s Board of Governors.
It turns out that he has a lot of personal baggage: He was held in contempt of court for failing to pay alimony and child support, and his past writings show an extraordinary degree of misogyny.
He misstates facts so much that one newspaper editor vowed never to publish him again, and he has been caught outright lying about his past support for a gold standard.
Oh, and he has described the cities of the U.S. heartland as “armpits of America.”
. . . .
Moore was wrong about everything during the financial crisis; he remained a fixture on the right-wing conference circuit, and in 2014 the Heritage Foundation appointed him as its chief economist.
Kudlow, who dismissed those warning about the housing bubble as “bubbleheads,” and warned about looming inflation in the depths of recession, also remained a right-wing favorite – and is now the Trump administration’s chief economist.
So the attempt to install Moore at the Fed is right in character.
And let’s be clear: The issue is not simply one of having made some bad forecasts.
Everyone does that now and then. It’s about being consistently wrong about everything, and refusing to learn from error.
Recently Moore declared that the Fed is “filled with hundreds of economists who are worthless, who have the wrong model in their mind. They should all be, they should all be fired and they should be replaced by good economists.”
Given the respective track records of the Moore and the Fed over the past decade and more, what he apparently means by the “wrong model” is a view of inflation that has repeatedly been proved right, as opposed to his own analysis, which has always been wrong.
But so far not a single Republican senator has questioned Moore’s qualifications.
When it comes to right-wing economists, what we see is a clear pattern of survival of the wrongest.
So now it's time to stop Bernie?
Bernie Sanders Scares a Lot of People, and Quite a Few of Them Are Democrats
I really don't see how the party of Trump can seek to scandalize voters with tales of the moderately hippy-dippy sex life of Bernie's youth, as the author of this piece would have us worry.
And his Jugendschriften are hilarious.
Those were, after all, the heydays of counter-cultural bullshit.
[And yet I knew it was bullshit and Bernie didn't. Why not? Same reason he still hasn't figure out socialism is bullshit, I guess.]
On the whole, a lot of pearl-clutching and hand-wringing from Thomas Edsall.
And I never thought I would actually use those hack phrases.
I really don't see how the party of Trump can seek to scandalize voters with tales of the moderately hippy-dippy sex life of Bernie's youth, as the author of this piece would have us worry.
And his Jugendschriften are hilarious.
Those were, after all, the heydays of counter-cultural bullshit.
[And yet I knew it was bullshit and Bernie didn't. Why not? Same reason he still hasn't figure out socialism is bullshit, I guess.]
On the whole, a lot of pearl-clutching and hand-wringing from Thomas Edsall.
And I never thought I would actually use those hack phrases.
Most real people don't have an opinion, or a preference, for every political issue
As opposed to dogmatists, fanatics, died in the wool ideologues, and the like.
Harris Has Absolutely No Idea What She Believes About Allowing Incarcerated People to Vote
Candor annoys some people.
Harris Has Absolutely No Idea What She Believes About Allowing Incarcerated People to Vote
Candor annoys some people.
The value of a fine education
Philosophers do a much better job concocting quality bullshit in support of preconceived conclusions than lawyers do concerning constitutional interpretations.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Base redistricting on the count of citizens? Base apportionment on it?
Gorsuch Comments Preview Endgame If Citizenship Question Is Added To Census
Redistricting is a matter of states carving themselves up into X districts once the census data determine they are to have X seats in the federal House of Representatives, as well as into districts for representation in their state legislatures.
Apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives to the various states, according to the constitution, is to be based on the census, a count of all persons in the states, not a count of all citizens.
And the regnant view of what the principle "one person, one vote" requires is that state legislative districts as well as federal house districts must contain as nearly as possible equal populations, not equal populations of citizens.
There is some concern a conservative court would allow redistricting of state legislative districts and federal House districts to be based on equal populations of citizens.
And there is concern that a conservative court might decide apportionment should be based on the states' totals of citizens rather than persons, perhaps appealing to the supposed aims or expectations of the original framers (ratifiers?) of the relevant portion of the 14th Amendment, though contrary to the clear meaning of its words and every court's interpretation ever since.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
Elsewhere it is being reported that a leading concern of Democrats - and one may suppose a hope of Republicans - is that illegals will be afraid to complete the census and so the census will under-report population in states with lots of them, resulting in fewer seats in the house being assigned Democratic states.
But if the Supremes decide on such a reading of the 14th Amendment rule of apportionment the results would be, one supposes, even worse for the Democrats.
Update.
The constitution's theory of representation cannot plausibly be said to be that only voters are represented, or only citizens.
It is clear that the theory, at any rate since the Civil War, has been that elected officials represent everyone in their constituencies, adults and children, voters and nonvoters, men and women, . . . just everybody, excepting Indians not taxed.
And that exception has been left behind, too.
Equality of representation of all persons is what is guaranteed by apportionment and redistricting based on population.
Not equality of votes across districts, or equality of influence of voters across districts.
Redistricting is a matter of states carving themselves up into X districts once the census data determine they are to have X seats in the federal House of Representatives, as well as into districts for representation in their state legislatures.
Apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives to the various states, according to the constitution, is to be based on the census, a count of all persons in the states, not a count of all citizens.
And the regnant view of what the principle "one person, one vote" requires is that state legislative districts as well as federal house districts must contain as nearly as possible equal populations, not equal populations of citizens.
There is some concern a conservative court would allow redistricting of state legislative districts and federal House districts to be based on equal populations of citizens.
And there is concern that a conservative court might decide apportionment should be based on the states' totals of citizens rather than persons, perhaps appealing to the supposed aims or expectations of the original framers (ratifiers?) of the relevant portion of the 14th Amendment, though contrary to the clear meaning of its words and every court's interpretation ever since.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
Elsewhere it is being reported that a leading concern of Democrats - and one may suppose a hope of Republicans - is that illegals will be afraid to complete the census and so the census will under-report population in states with lots of them, resulting in fewer seats in the house being assigned Democratic states.
But if the Supremes decide on such a reading of the 14th Amendment rule of apportionment the results would be, one supposes, even worse for the Democrats.
Update.
The constitution's theory of representation cannot plausibly be said to be that only voters are represented, or only citizens.
It is clear that the theory, at any rate since the Civil War, has been that elected officials represent everyone in their constituencies, adults and children, voters and nonvoters, men and women, . . . just everybody, excepting Indians not taxed.
And that exception has been left behind, too.
Equality of representation of all persons is what is guaranteed by apportionment and redistricting based on population.
Not equality of votes across districts, or equality of influence of voters across districts.
Joe still ahead, and he's not even in it yet
It may be that Biden has the best chance of winning, but he does not seem likely to be able to do anything with the victory.
He is too wedded to all that obsolete "across the aisle" and "bipartisan" bullshit.
He will not pack the court.
He may not even try to roll back the GOP tax cuts.
Still, any Democrat is better than any Republican, and at least his victory would get the Duce out of the White House.
Biden Still the Leader with 27%
In a field of 24 announced and potential contenders, Joe Biden currently has the support of 27% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, which is similar to his 28% support in March and 29% in January, according to this morning’s Monmouth University Poll.
Support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is currently at 20%, which is down slightly from 25% in March, but still higher than his 16% support in January.
. . . .
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg currently has 8% support. He registered less than 1% in prior Monmouth polls.
California Sen. Kamala Harris has 8% support, off just slightly from 10% in March and 11% in January.
Rounding out the field of top contenders are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 6% (from 8% in both March and January) and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke at 4% (6% in March and 7% in January).
Others who score at least 1% include New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (2%, from 5% in March and 4% in January), former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (2%, from 1% in priorpolls), Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (1%, from 3% in March and 2% in January), and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (1%, from 1% in March).
The remaining 14 names asked about in the survey receive support from less than 1% of Democratic voters at this time, which is basically unchanged from their support levels in prior national Monmouth polls.
. . . .
Race and gender do not seem to be important factors for Democratic voters when considering who the party should choose to run against Trump.
Fully 87% say the race of the nominee does not matter.
Just 5% say it would be better for Democrats to nominate a person of color, which is offset by 6% who say it would actually be better for the party to nominate a white candidate.
Similarly, 77% say the gender of the nominee does not matter.
Just 7% say it would be better for Democrats to nominate a woman, while slightly more (12%) say it would actually be better for the party to nominate a man.
He is too wedded to all that obsolete "across the aisle" and "bipartisan" bullshit.
He will not pack the court.
He may not even try to roll back the GOP tax cuts.
Still, any Democrat is better than any Republican, and at least his victory would get the Duce out of the White House.
Biden Still the Leader with 27%
In a field of 24 announced and potential contenders, Joe Biden currently has the support of 27% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, which is similar to his 28% support in March and 29% in January, according to this morning’s Monmouth University Poll.
Support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is currently at 20%, which is down slightly from 25% in March, but still higher than his 16% support in January.
. . . .
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg currently has 8% support. He registered less than 1% in prior Monmouth polls.
California Sen. Kamala Harris has 8% support, off just slightly from 10% in March and 11% in January.
Rounding out the field of top contenders are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 6% (from 8% in both March and January) and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke at 4% (6% in March and 7% in January).
Others who score at least 1% include New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (2%, from 5% in March and 4% in January), former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (2%, from 1% in priorpolls), Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (1%, from 3% in March and 2% in January), and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (1%, from 1% in March).
The remaining 14 names asked about in the survey receive support from less than 1% of Democratic voters at this time, which is basically unchanged from their support levels in prior national Monmouth polls.
. . . .
Race and gender do not seem to be important factors for Democratic voters when considering who the party should choose to run against Trump.
Fully 87% say the race of the nominee does not matter.
Just 5% say it would be better for Democrats to nominate a person of color, which is offset by 6% who say it would actually be better for the party to nominate a white candidate.
Similarly, 77% say the gender of the nominee does not matter.
Just 7% say it would be better for Democrats to nominate a woman, while slightly more (12%) say it would actually be better for the party to nominate a man.
Hilarity ensued
Netanyahu Seeks to Name a Golan Settlement for President Trump
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Tuesday that he would ask his government to approve naming a new Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights for President Trump, in appreciation of the American leader’s proclamation recognizing Israel’s authority over the long-disputed territory.
Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement, made during a Passover tour of the Golan Heights with his family, came a month after Mr. Trump’s proclamation, which delivered a valuable pre-election gift to Mr. Netanyahu even as it upended decades of American policy in the Middle East.
Despite facing corruption charges, Mr. Netanyahu has since won a fourth consecutive term in office — a fifth over all — setting him on course to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the record of the founding premier, David Ben Gurion.
“All Israelis were deeply moved when President Trump made his historic decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a video on Tuesday, against the backdrop of the sunny, windswept strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967.
“Therefore, after the Passover holiday,” he said, “I intend to bring to the government a resolution calling for a new community on the Golan Heights named after President Donald J. Trump.”
Situated above the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights covers less than 500 square miles, with commanding views over much of northern Israel and into Syria.
Syrian forces tried to reclaim the territory in 1973 but were beaten back.
The armistice that ended the war left most of the Golan Heights in Israeli hands, and in 1981 Israel passed a law that effectively annexed it.
About 50,000 people live in the area, with Israeli Jewish settlers making up nearly half. The rest are mostly Druze Arabs with Syrian roots.
The area contains a handful of Druze villages and more than 30 Jewish settlements that have been built since 1967.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Tuesday that he would ask his government to approve naming a new Jewish settlement in the Golan Heights for President Trump, in appreciation of the American leader’s proclamation recognizing Israel’s authority over the long-disputed territory.
Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement, made during a Passover tour of the Golan Heights with his family, came a month after Mr. Trump’s proclamation, which delivered a valuable pre-election gift to Mr. Netanyahu even as it upended decades of American policy in the Middle East.
Despite facing corruption charges, Mr. Netanyahu has since won a fourth consecutive term in office — a fifth over all — setting him on course to become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, surpassing the record of the founding premier, David Ben Gurion.
“All Israelis were deeply moved when President Trump made his historic decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a video on Tuesday, against the backdrop of the sunny, windswept strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967.
“Therefore, after the Passover holiday,” he said, “I intend to bring to the government a resolution calling for a new community on the Golan Heights named after President Donald J. Trump.”
Situated above the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights covers less than 500 square miles, with commanding views over much of northern Israel and into Syria.
Syrian forces tried to reclaim the territory in 1973 but were beaten back.
The armistice that ended the war left most of the Golan Heights in Israeli hands, and in 1981 Israel passed a law that effectively annexed it.
About 50,000 people live in the area, with Israeli Jewish settlers making up nearly half. The rest are mostly Druze Arabs with Syrian roots.
The area contains a handful of Druze villages and more than 30 Jewish settlements that have been built since 1967.
Frame-up or not, just the thing to tickle the Duce
Myanmar’s Highest Court Upholds Conviction of Reuters Journalists
He so admires authoritarian regimes and the wonderful powers of their executives.
Myanmar’s highest court ruled against two Reuters reporters on Tuesday, upholding their conviction for violating a state secrets law after they uncovered a military massacre.
The two reporters, U Wa Lone, 33, and U Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, were sentenced in September to seven years in prison under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for receiving documents from a police officer.
They have been imprisoned for 16 months, drawing international condemnation by human rights groups and media organizations.
Their defense lawyers argued that the evidence in the case was planted by the police and that the rolled-up papers they were handed contained information that was already public.
The reporters testified at trial that they were arrested so quickly that they never had a chance to look at the documents.
“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo did not commit any crime, nor was there any proof that they did,” Gail Gove, Reuters’ chief counsel, said after the Supreme Court ruling was announced.
“Instead, they were victims of a police setup to silence their truthful reporting. We will continue to do all we can to free them as soon as possible.”
Mr. Wa Lone and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo have been widely praised for their work in uncovering the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers who were fatally shot by soldiers and villagers in September 2017 in Inn Din village in Rakhine State.
. . . .
In Myanmar, the military and civilian leaders share power under a constitution imposed by the military.
Many people in Myanmar and around the world had hoped that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who became the country’s de facto civilian leader, would promote democracy and free speech.
But instead, she has often allied herself with the military, which carried out what the United Nations has called a genocide of the Rohingya people, killing thousands, burning villages, raping women and girls and forcing more than 750,000 to flee across the border into Bangladesh, where they now live in refugee camps.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has had numerous opportunities to free the two journalists but has refused all entreaties.
Her attorney general, Htun Htun Oo, oversaw the prosecution of the case, which human rights advocates argued should have been dropped.
He so admires authoritarian regimes and the wonderful powers of their executives.
Myanmar’s highest court ruled against two Reuters reporters on Tuesday, upholding their conviction for violating a state secrets law after they uncovered a military massacre.
The two reporters, U Wa Lone, 33, and U Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, were sentenced in September to seven years in prison under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act for receiving documents from a police officer.
They have been imprisoned for 16 months, drawing international condemnation by human rights groups and media organizations.
Their defense lawyers argued that the evidence in the case was planted by the police and that the rolled-up papers they were handed contained information that was already public.
The reporters testified at trial that they were arrested so quickly that they never had a chance to look at the documents.
“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo did not commit any crime, nor was there any proof that they did,” Gail Gove, Reuters’ chief counsel, said after the Supreme Court ruling was announced.
“Instead, they were victims of a police setup to silence their truthful reporting. We will continue to do all we can to free them as soon as possible.”
Mr. Wa Lone and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo have been widely praised for their work in uncovering the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers who were fatally shot by soldiers and villagers in September 2017 in Inn Din village in Rakhine State.
. . . .
In Myanmar, the military and civilian leaders share power under a constitution imposed by the military.
Many people in Myanmar and around the world had hoped that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who became the country’s de facto civilian leader, would promote democracy and free speech.
But instead, she has often allied herself with the military, which carried out what the United Nations has called a genocide of the Rohingya people, killing thousands, burning villages, raping women and girls and forcing more than 750,000 to flee across the border into Bangladesh, where they now live in refugee camps.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has had numerous opportunities to free the two journalists but has refused all entreaties.
Her attorney general, Htun Htun Oo, oversaw the prosecution of the case, which human rights advocates argued should have been dropped.
Trump v Nixon
Nixon was more successful getting his cabinet, his VP, and other officials to act as his flunkies and even help out with White House lawlessness.
But less successful in keeping the unwavering support of Republicans in the congress.
But less successful in keeping the unwavering support of Republicans in the congress.
It's a trick of authoritarians to use one time, simple majority plebiscites to change constitutions
giving themselves more power, of course.
The appeal to the masses.
Maduro.
Sisi.
If Trump hears of this on Fox or Infowars he will be consumed with envy.
Egypt Approves New Muscle for Its Strongman Leader
The lone protester stood in an affluent corner of Egypt’s capital on Sunday, nearly an hour’s drive from the downtown square where tens of thousands had massed in 2011 to denounce the country’s strongman leader in the heady days of the Arab Spring.
Though he had broadcast a plea on Twitter for others to join him, Ahmed Badawy had only a sign to accompany him this time, black marker on red poster.
“No to amending the constitution,” he had written.
He was quickly arrested.
Egypt has another strongman now, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who tightened his dictatorial grip this week when Egyptians approved a set of constitutional amendments that granted him expansive new powers over the judiciary and Parliament while allowing him to remain in office until 2030.
Not surprisingly for a vote that Mr. el-Sisi and his allies stage-managed from the beginning, the authorities said Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the polls closed, that the final count showed the amendments passed 89 percent to 11 percent, with a turnout of 44 percent.
. . . .
“It’s worse now than Mubarak,” said Elham Eidarous, an activist who belongs to the opposition Bread & Freedom party.
“Anyone who talks about optimism is either lying or naïve, because there’s nothing optimistic about this situation.”
Ms. Eidarous said Mr. el-Sisi, like Mr. Mubarak, had justified repression and the silencing of critics by emphasizing the need to keep Egypt stable and safe from terrorists.
Mr. el-Sisi has also pursued economic austerity measures, squeezing the poor and the middle class, that are reminiscent of ones Mr. Mubarak gradually introduced over his last 10 years in power.
But while Mr. Mubarak allowed some dissenting voices and independent media outlets, Mr. el-Sisi has moved to block any hint of criticism.
He has jailed tens of thousands of opponents, shuttered news media outlets and all but shoved the opposition out of politics.
Last year, he won re-election with 97 percent of the vote after eliminating all other serious candidates months in advance.
The constitutional amendments will further concentrate power in Mr. el-Sisi’s hands, extending his current presidential term to six years from four and allowing him to run for another six-year term in 2024.
If he wins the next election, he could rule for a total of 17 years, and analysts speculate that he is setting himself up to rule for much longer.
The amendments also give him greater influence over the country’s Parliament and judiciary by conferring the power to appoint top judicial officials and a significant chunk of a new house of Parliament, changes that analysts said threatened Egypt’s separation of powers.
The appeal to the masses.
Maduro.
Sisi.
If Trump hears of this on Fox or Infowars he will be consumed with envy.
Egypt Approves New Muscle for Its Strongman Leader
The lone protester stood in an affluent corner of Egypt’s capital on Sunday, nearly an hour’s drive from the downtown square where tens of thousands had massed in 2011 to denounce the country’s strongman leader in the heady days of the Arab Spring.
Though he had broadcast a plea on Twitter for others to join him, Ahmed Badawy had only a sign to accompany him this time, black marker on red poster.
“No to amending the constitution,” he had written.
He was quickly arrested.
Egypt has another strongman now, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who tightened his dictatorial grip this week when Egyptians approved a set of constitutional amendments that granted him expansive new powers over the judiciary and Parliament while allowing him to remain in office until 2030.
Not surprisingly for a vote that Mr. el-Sisi and his allies stage-managed from the beginning, the authorities said Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the polls closed, that the final count showed the amendments passed 89 percent to 11 percent, with a turnout of 44 percent.
. . . .
“It’s worse now than Mubarak,” said Elham Eidarous, an activist who belongs to the opposition Bread & Freedom party.
“Anyone who talks about optimism is either lying or naïve, because there’s nothing optimistic about this situation.”
Ms. Eidarous said Mr. el-Sisi, like Mr. Mubarak, had justified repression and the silencing of critics by emphasizing the need to keep Egypt stable and safe from terrorists.
Mr. el-Sisi has also pursued economic austerity measures, squeezing the poor and the middle class, that are reminiscent of ones Mr. Mubarak gradually introduced over his last 10 years in power.
But while Mr. Mubarak allowed some dissenting voices and independent media outlets, Mr. el-Sisi has moved to block any hint of criticism.
He has jailed tens of thousands of opponents, shuttered news media outlets and all but shoved the opposition out of politics.
Last year, he won re-election with 97 percent of the vote after eliminating all other serious candidates months in advance.
The constitutional amendments will further concentrate power in Mr. el-Sisi’s hands, extending his current presidential term to six years from four and allowing him to run for another six-year term in 2024.
If he wins the next election, he could rule for a total of 17 years, and analysts speculate that he is setting himself up to rule for much longer.
The amendments also give him greater influence over the country’s Parliament and judiciary by conferring the power to appoint top judicial officials and a significant chunk of a new house of Parliament, changes that analysts said threatened Egypt’s separation of powers.
No honor among liars
Jussie Smollett case: brothers who helped stage attack sue actor's attorney
Two brothers who say they helped Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Empire actor’s attorneys, alleging that they repeatedly asserted publicly that the brothers carried out a real, bigoted attack on Smollett despite knowing that was not true.
A lawyer for Olabinjo Osundairo and Abimbola Osundairo filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the brothers.
It names the well-known defense attorney Mark Geragos and his law firm as defendants.
The suit contends that even after police and prosecutors alleged that the 29 January attack in Chicago was staged and after all charges were dropped, controversially, against Smollett, Geragos and his firm continued to say publicly in widely reported statements that the brothers “led a criminally homophobic, racist and violent attack against Mr Smollett”, even though they knew that was not the case.
The lawsuit says that the lawyers’ repeated statements that Smollett told the truth all along and that the brothers were lying caused them “significant emotional distress”, made them feel unsafe and alienated them from the local community.
Two brothers who say they helped Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack against himself filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Empire actor’s attorneys, alleging that they repeatedly asserted publicly that the brothers carried out a real, bigoted attack on Smollett despite knowing that was not true.
A lawyer for Olabinjo Osundairo and Abimbola Osundairo filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of the brothers.
It names the well-known defense attorney Mark Geragos and his law firm as defendants.
The suit contends that even after police and prosecutors alleged that the 29 January attack in Chicago was staged and after all charges were dropped, controversially, against Smollett, Geragos and his firm continued to say publicly in widely reported statements that the brothers “led a criminally homophobic, racist and violent attack against Mr Smollett”, even though they knew that was not the case.
The lawsuit says that the lawyers’ repeated statements that Smollett told the truth all along and that the brothers were lying caused them “significant emotional distress”, made them feel unsafe and alienated them from the local community.
ISIS claims Sri Lanka Easter bombings
Suspicious that they waited two days to make the claim.
The death toll is now over 300.
Isis claims Easter attacks
Subtitle: Bombings that killed more than 320 people have hallmarks of Isis, say security experts
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people, the group’s Amaq news agency has said, with experts saying the attacks bear the hallmarks of the group.
It is the deadliest overseas operation claimed by Isis since it proclaimed its “caliphate” almost five years ago, and would suggest it retains the ability to launch devastating strikes around the world despite multiple defeats in the Middle East.
The group published a statement saying its “fighters” were responsible for the attack and listing the names of the suicide bombers, who were also shown in a video swearing allegiance.
Experts said that although Isis had made false claims of responsibility in the past, it appeared likely that its involvement in the suicide bombings of three churches and three luxury hotels on Sunday would be confirmed by ongoing investigations.
. . . .
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said the attacks had been a response to the recent mass shooting of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in New Zealand.
“The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” Wijewardene told a special sitting of parliament, referring to the terrorist attack by a white supremacist in March in which 50 people were killed.
The minister did not present any evidence for his claim.
The death toll is now over 300.
Isis claims Easter attacks
Subtitle: Bombings that killed more than 320 people have hallmarks of Isis, say security experts
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people, the group’s Amaq news agency has said, with experts saying the attacks bear the hallmarks of the group.
It is the deadliest overseas operation claimed by Isis since it proclaimed its “caliphate” almost five years ago, and would suggest it retains the ability to launch devastating strikes around the world despite multiple defeats in the Middle East.
The group published a statement saying its “fighters” were responsible for the attack and listing the names of the suicide bombers, who were also shown in a video swearing allegiance.
Experts said that although Isis had made false claims of responsibility in the past, it appeared likely that its involvement in the suicide bombings of three churches and three luxury hotels on Sunday would be confirmed by ongoing investigations.
. . . .
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said the attacks had been a response to the recent mass shooting of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in New Zealand.
“The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch,” Wijewardene told a special sitting of parliament, referring to the terrorist attack by a white supremacist in March in which 50 people were killed.
The minister did not present any evidence for his claim.
MSNBC reports Bernie defends right to vote of all felons, both in prison and out
Bernie made it very clear nobody should lose the right to vote, even for the duration of imprisonment, regardless of his crime.
Murderers, rapists, sexual predators, terrorists, no one should lose the right to vote, even temporarily.
Mayor Pete, asked about this, would not allow felons to vote while in prison.
Kamala Harris, asked, said she would not allow felons to vote while in prison and would not restore the right to vote to some felons, depending on their crime(s).
Asked about his position, people already committed to supporting Bernie fell right into line.
Murderers, rapists, sexual predators, terrorists, no one should lose the right to vote, even temporarily.
Mayor Pete, asked about this, would not allow felons to vote while in prison.
Kamala Harris, asked, said she would not allow felons to vote while in prison and would not restore the right to vote to some felons, depending on their crime(s).
Asked about his position, people already committed to supporting Bernie fell right into line.
The disappearance of education
And its replacement by voc-ed training.
I wouldn't have missed it for the world, though it did not earn me a penny.
My BA in Philosophy (with unofficial minors in Theology and English), my two (two!) MAs and my ABD in the same.
Never did finish a dissertation.
Didn't especially want to teach.
My working life has been in the Socratic and Cyrenaic-Stoic tradition.
Find some not too distressful job a decent, self-respecting man who means no harm can do, that pays enough.
For me, more than a tub, less than a McMansion.
I wouldn't have missed it for the world, though it did not earn me a penny.
My BA in Philosophy (with unofficial minors in Theology and English), my two (two!) MAs and my ABD in the same.
Never did finish a dissertation.
Didn't especially want to teach.
My working life has been in the Socratic and Cyrenaic-Stoic tradition.
Find some not too distressful job a decent, self-respecting man who means no harm can do, that pays enough.
For me, more than a tub, less than a McMansion.
A Gedankenexperiment: The coming dystopia/utopia
Stiglitz in the Times the other day wrote that in maybe a decade nearly all the country's people who drive for a living will be out of work.
He thinks they need to be somehow retrained.
It's a mug's game.
In, oh, maybe fifty years or so there will be no job at all that cannot be done better and cheaper by an AI-driven machine than by a human.
Even a superlatively talented, educated, and skilled human.
Even a human starved and naked and desperate enough to work 16 hours every day and live in a camp the Nazis would have been ashamed of.
Even those humans will cost more than they are worth.
Let's suppose this is not just another version of the endless Terminator series, and the machines do not decide to kill us all, do not rebel at all, but stick to their lasts.
Those who own the machines will live lives of leisure, and the machine economy will produce ever more astonishing luxuries, using ever more fabulous technology produced by itself, based on ever advancing math and science produced by itself, for the humans who own the machines.
Any other humans, humans who do not own, humans who are not personally capitalists, will survive how, if at all?
Because at any price they will cost more than they are worth to the machine economy, they will not be a part of it and so will have nothing that counts as currency.
So they cannot buy anything from the machine economy.
The machine economy will be as irrelevant to them as they to it.
So they will produce for and buy from each other in isolated communities, like the communities of runaway slaves in Latin America while there still was slavery in the Americas.
An entirely separate and independent, human economy will exist.
Or several, perhaps as many as there are separate communities.
There is a limit to how far their technology can advance, how wealthy they can become in their own, independent history, however.
Actually, two.
One limit is AI.
If they reinvented it their history would repeat in their communities the history that pushed them out of the AI run machine economies in the first place.
But the other limit will prevent that, anyway.
And that is resources.
Between now and this future the world will extravagantly overpopulate, it will overheat, it will use up much that is non-renewable, and the seas will be dead and the air will be noxious.
Think Soylent Green, only worse.
And then think of a version of the movie Elysium in which the rich with their AI run machines have no use whatever for the descendants of their erstwhile proles, so those descendants live in a wretched, polluted, miserable world as well as they can, with their own separate, independent, and wretched, and poor economy.
Think of the wretched urban masses of India, and then imagine worse.
That is a dystopia of the future.
Or could they gradually go extinct, the descendants of the proles made superfluous to the capitalist economy that developed and turned itself over to AI?
Then nobody would be left but the leisured capitalists and their fantastic, ever better and richer and more wonderful AI machine economy.
That is a utopia of the future.
And that is how we get there, on the other side of dystopia.
Just a thought.
He thinks they need to be somehow retrained.
It's a mug's game.
In, oh, maybe fifty years or so there will be no job at all that cannot be done better and cheaper by an AI-driven machine than by a human.
Even a superlatively talented, educated, and skilled human.
Even a human starved and naked and desperate enough to work 16 hours every day and live in a camp the Nazis would have been ashamed of.
Even those humans will cost more than they are worth.
Let's suppose this is not just another version of the endless Terminator series, and the machines do not decide to kill us all, do not rebel at all, but stick to their lasts.
Those who own the machines will live lives of leisure, and the machine economy will produce ever more astonishing luxuries, using ever more fabulous technology produced by itself, based on ever advancing math and science produced by itself, for the humans who own the machines.
Any other humans, humans who do not own, humans who are not personally capitalists, will survive how, if at all?
Because at any price they will cost more than they are worth to the machine economy, they will not be a part of it and so will have nothing that counts as currency.
So they cannot buy anything from the machine economy.
The machine economy will be as irrelevant to them as they to it.
So they will produce for and buy from each other in isolated communities, like the communities of runaway slaves in Latin America while there still was slavery in the Americas.
An entirely separate and independent, human economy will exist.
Or several, perhaps as many as there are separate communities.
There is a limit to how far their technology can advance, how wealthy they can become in their own, independent history, however.
Actually, two.
One limit is AI.
If they reinvented it their history would repeat in their communities the history that pushed them out of the AI run machine economies in the first place.
But the other limit will prevent that, anyway.
And that is resources.
Between now and this future the world will extravagantly overpopulate, it will overheat, it will use up much that is non-renewable, and the seas will be dead and the air will be noxious.
Think Soylent Green, only worse.
And then think of a version of the movie Elysium in which the rich with their AI run machines have no use whatever for the descendants of their erstwhile proles, so those descendants live in a wretched, polluted, miserable world as well as they can, with their own separate, independent, and wretched, and poor economy.
Think of the wretched urban masses of India, and then imagine worse.
That is a dystopia of the future.
Or could they gradually go extinct, the descendants of the proles made superfluous to the capitalist economy that developed and turned itself over to AI?
Then nobody would be left but the leisured capitalists and their fantastic, ever better and richer and more wonderful AI machine economy.
That is a utopia of the future.
And that is how we get there, on the other side of dystopia.
Just a thought.
April is the cruelest month
Saw my first bumblebee today.
I have seen no more than two or three honey bees so far.
The front yard is covered with dandelions and the lilacs are in full bloom beside the house.
They should be covered with busy honey bees.
Not a one.
I have seen no more than two or three honey bees so far.
The front yard is covered with dandelions and the lilacs are in full bloom beside the house.
They should be covered with busy honey bees.
Not a one.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Trump demands what Nixon had in spades
His AG, his White House Counsel, his VP, everybody was a willing Mafia stooge to Nixon's Mafia don.
But when all the dirt came out they mostly went to prison and he didn't, and that lesson may not have been lost on people who need to not lose it.
But when all the dirt came out they mostly went to prison and he didn't, and that lesson may not have been lost on people who need to not lose it.
Trump, Bolton, Pence do NOT propose sanctions on Brunei
Brunei’s Royal Barbarity and Hypocrisy
The Times calls for action by "governments and multinationals that do business with the wealthy sultanate".
Besides the barbarity of the penalties, there is the danger that the law could nudge neighboring Islamic giants Malaysia and Indonesia toward tightening their own national or regional versions of Shariah laws targeting homosexuals.
Conservative Muslim politicians in both countries were quick to voice their support for Brunei’s law.
Beyond that, there is the fact that Sultan Hassanal enjoys his absolute dominion and his obscene treasure, including a gold-plated Rolls-Royce and a 1,788-room palace, because the world outside buys his oil.
That gives his clients — including Britain, Brunei’s former colonial master — a measure of responsibility and leverage.
That celebrities are taking action is good, but governments and multinationals that do business with the wealthy sultanate have an obligation to look for ways to persuade Sultan Hassanal and other beneficiaries of Brunei’s oil riches that they best quickly bring their laws into compliance with their human rights obligations and abandon vicious punishments for blameless behavior.
The Guardian calls for state action by the UK
The Times calls for action by "governments and multinationals that do business with the wealthy sultanate".
Besides the barbarity of the penalties, there is the danger that the law could nudge neighboring Islamic giants Malaysia and Indonesia toward tightening their own national or regional versions of Shariah laws targeting homosexuals.
Conservative Muslim politicians in both countries were quick to voice their support for Brunei’s law.
Beyond that, there is the fact that Sultan Hassanal enjoys his absolute dominion and his obscene treasure, including a gold-plated Rolls-Royce and a 1,788-room palace, because the world outside buys his oil.
That gives his clients — including Britain, Brunei’s former colonial master — a measure of responsibility and leverage.
That celebrities are taking action is good, but governments and multinationals that do business with the wealthy sultanate have an obligation to look for ways to persuade Sultan Hassanal and other beneficiaries of Brunei’s oil riches that they best quickly bring their laws into compliance with their human rights obligations and abandon vicious punishments for blameless behavior.
The Guardian calls for state action by the UK
Brunei defends killing gays by stoning them to death
Brunei defends death by stoning for gay sex in letter to EU
Brunei has written to the European parliament defending its decision to start imposing death by stoning as a punishment for gay sex, claiming convictions will be rare as it requires two men of “high moral standing and piety” to be witnesses.
In a four-page letter to MEPs, the kingdom’s mission to the EU called for “tolerance, respect and understanding” with regard to the country’s desire to preserve its traditional values and “family lineage”.
The cheek of the bastards, asking the EU to show tolerance, respect, and understanding to them regarding their decision to deny both to gay men in the most violent manner possible.
The new penal code, which also provides for the amputation of thieves and whipping of people wearing clothes associated with the opposite sex, was brought in on 3 April, despite international condemnation.
But in the letter, the kingdom claimed the outcry is due to a misconception that it wanted to clarify.
“The criminalisation of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage to individual Muslims, particularly women,” it said.
“The penal sentences of hadd – stoning to death and amputation – imposed for offences of theft, robbery, adultery and sodomy, have extremely high evidentiary threshold, requiring no less than two or four men of high moral standing and piety as witnesses, to the exclusion of every form of circumstantial evidence.”
. . . .
The letter was sent before a vote last week in which MEPs backed a resolution by a show of hands strongly condemning “the entry into force of the retrograde sharia penal code”.
The parliament also called on the EU to consider asset freezes, visa bans and the blacklisting of nine hotels owned by Brunei Investment Agency, including the Dorchester in London, Beverly Hills hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
Celebrities including Elton John and George Clooney have called for the hotels to be boycotted.
. . . .
Homosexuality has been illegal since the country broke from British rule, but before the recent move to a more conservative interpretation of Islam, it was punishable by jail.
Britain, France, Germany and the UN are among those who have condemned the hardening of the kingdom’s laws.
Brunei has written to the European parliament defending its decision to start imposing death by stoning as a punishment for gay sex, claiming convictions will be rare as it requires two men of “high moral standing and piety” to be witnesses.
In a four-page letter to MEPs, the kingdom’s mission to the EU called for “tolerance, respect and understanding” with regard to the country’s desire to preserve its traditional values and “family lineage”.
The cheek of the bastards, asking the EU to show tolerance, respect, and understanding to them regarding their decision to deny both to gay men in the most violent manner possible.
The new penal code, which also provides for the amputation of thieves and whipping of people wearing clothes associated with the opposite sex, was brought in on 3 April, despite international condemnation.
But in the letter, the kingdom claimed the outcry is due to a misconception that it wanted to clarify.
“The criminalisation of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage to individual Muslims, particularly women,” it said.
“The penal sentences of hadd – stoning to death and amputation – imposed for offences of theft, robbery, adultery and sodomy, have extremely high evidentiary threshold, requiring no less than two or four men of high moral standing and piety as witnesses, to the exclusion of every form of circumstantial evidence.”
. . . .
The letter was sent before a vote last week in which MEPs backed a resolution by a show of hands strongly condemning “the entry into force of the retrograde sharia penal code”.
The parliament also called on the EU to consider asset freezes, visa bans and the blacklisting of nine hotels owned by Brunei Investment Agency, including the Dorchester in London, Beverly Hills hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
Celebrities including Elton John and George Clooney have called for the hotels to be boycotted.
. . . .
Homosexuality has been illegal since the country broke from British rule, but before the recent move to a more conservative interpretation of Islam, it was punishable by jail.
Britain, France, Germany and the UN are among those who have condemned the hardening of the kingdom’s laws.
It looks like the EU and the UN are leading on this.
The only reference I find to US reaction is some no name State Department fellow wagging a finger.
Trump, Pence, and the other heavies are conspicuously quiet.
The only reference I find to US reaction is some no name State Department fellow wagging a finger.
Trump, Pence, and the other heavies are conspicuously quiet.
Angry, scared, or both?
Trump, sons sue to block House Democrats from obtaining his financial records
President Donald Trump is going to court to try to block a Democratically-controlled congressional committee from obtaining his financial records through a subpoena.
The lawsuit is the first case where Trump has sued to try to stymie House Democrats' investigations into the President.
But the court filing is only the first skirmish in what's likely to be a multi-front war between House Democrats and Trump, the White House and the President's businesses.
Trump and the Trump Organization filed suit Monday to stop the House Oversight Committee -- chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland -- from obtaining financial records from Mazars, an accounting firm that Trump used to prepare financial statements.
The committee subpoenaed for 10 years' worth of Trump's financial records after the firm requested a so-called "friendly subpoena."
President Donald Trump is going to court to try to block a Democratically-controlled congressional committee from obtaining his financial records through a subpoena.
The lawsuit is the first case where Trump has sued to try to stymie House Democrats' investigations into the President.
But the court filing is only the first skirmish in what's likely to be a multi-front war between House Democrats and Trump, the White House and the President's businesses.
Trump and the Trump Organization filed suit Monday to stop the House Oversight Committee -- chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland -- from obtaining financial records from Mazars, an accounting firm that Trump used to prepare financial statements.
The committee subpoenaed for 10 years' worth of Trump's financial records after the firm requested a so-called "friendly subpoena."
Encouraged by Bolton, Trump continues his punishment of Iran
U.S. Moves to Stop All Nations From Buying Iranian Oil
This will force up gasoline prices and hurt relations with China, India, and three other nations that were given waivers, now cancelled, to buy Iranian oil.
By increasing sanctions, senior American officials are aiming to weaken the power of the ruling clerics in Iran and force major political change on the country.
Since last year, Mr. Pompeo has cited a list of 12 actions he wants to see Iran take before easing sanctions, including ending its support for militias in the Middle East.
. . . .
The New York Times reported last month that the American sanctions have forced Iranian-backed militias to tighten their payrolls.
“We have watched Iran have diminished power as a result of our campaign,” Mr. Pompeo said on Monday.
The further cutoff of oil revenue is expected to make life harder for people in Iran, which already is beset by a critical medicine shortage.
European nations have opposed the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Tehran and have set up a transaction entity known as a special purpose vehicle to try to do some business with Iran, though that is not expected to include oil purchases.
Mr. Pompeo said the United States has been in “constant discussions with allies and partners” to find an alternative source of oil.
American officials have also spoken to counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about increasing oil production, and officials in those nations “have assured us they will ensure an appropriate supply for the markets,” he said.
. . . ,
Nevertheless, the global oil market will almost certainly tighten, especially with American sanctions on Venezuela and fighting escalating in Libya.
Both nations are major oil producers and suppliers to the countries that traditionally have also relied on Iran.
China is by far Iran’s biggest market, importing 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude, and Beijing has repeatedly objected to American sanctions.
. . . .
“Iran sanctions are going to be a big challenge for the U.S.-Chinese relationship,” he said.
“Chinese imports from Iran have been going up this year, not down. Within the next couple of months, if they are not at zero, the law requires that the U.S. sanction financial institutions in China that facilitate those transactions, and right now that includes the People’s Bank of China.”
Turkish leaders are certain to be upset by the announcement.
Last week, Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to the president of Turkey, pressed officials in Washington to extend a waiver to Turkey.
. . . .
The question of whether to continue the waivers had generated intense debate in Washington in recent weeks.
John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, strongly advocated discontinuing the waivers, while Mr. Pompeo had been advised by some State Department officials to continue them.
Republican senators — led by the delegation from Texas, the center of the American oil industry — have urged Mr. Trump to end the waivers.
This will force up gasoline prices and hurt relations with China, India, and three other nations that were given waivers, now cancelled, to buy Iranian oil.
By increasing sanctions, senior American officials are aiming to weaken the power of the ruling clerics in Iran and force major political change on the country.
Since last year, Mr. Pompeo has cited a list of 12 actions he wants to see Iran take before easing sanctions, including ending its support for militias in the Middle East.
. . . .
The New York Times reported last month that the American sanctions have forced Iranian-backed militias to tighten their payrolls.
“We have watched Iran have diminished power as a result of our campaign,” Mr. Pompeo said on Monday.
The further cutoff of oil revenue is expected to make life harder for people in Iran, which already is beset by a critical medicine shortage.
European nations have opposed the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Tehran and have set up a transaction entity known as a special purpose vehicle to try to do some business with Iran, though that is not expected to include oil purchases.
Mr. Pompeo said the United States has been in “constant discussions with allies and partners” to find an alternative source of oil.
American officials have also spoken to counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about increasing oil production, and officials in those nations “have assured us they will ensure an appropriate supply for the markets,” he said.
. . . ,
Nevertheless, the global oil market will almost certainly tighten, especially with American sanctions on Venezuela and fighting escalating in Libya.
Both nations are major oil producers and suppliers to the countries that traditionally have also relied on Iran.
China is by far Iran’s biggest market, importing 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian crude, and Beijing has repeatedly objected to American sanctions.
. . . .
“Iran sanctions are going to be a big challenge for the U.S.-Chinese relationship,” he said.
“Chinese imports from Iran have been going up this year, not down. Within the next couple of months, if they are not at zero, the law requires that the U.S. sanction financial institutions in China that facilitate those transactions, and right now that includes the People’s Bank of China.”
Turkish leaders are certain to be upset by the announcement.
Last week, Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to the president of Turkey, pressed officials in Washington to extend a waiver to Turkey.
. . . .
The question of whether to continue the waivers had generated intense debate in Washington in recent weeks.
John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, strongly advocated discontinuing the waivers, while Mr. Pompeo had been advised by some State Department officials to continue them.
Republican senators — led by the delegation from Texas, the center of the American oil industry — have urged Mr. Trump to end the waivers.
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