Tuesday, January 08, 2019
Background Checks
Guardian UK: Gun control: Democrats to unveil landmark background check bill - House measure to close longstanding loopholes is key step for advocates but is likely to be blocked by Senate
Five days after taking over the majority in the chamber, House Democrats are set to introduce a bill that would significantly expand the requirements for background checks on gun sales.
Trump - Out Of Touch With Reality
O.F.F.S.
Guardian UK: Carbon emissions up as Trump agenda rolls back climate change work - Last year’s 3.4% jump in emissions is the largest since 2010 recession and second largest gain in more than two decades
Guardian UK: Carbon emissions up as Trump agenda rolls back climate change work - Last year’s 3.4% jump in emissions is the largest since 2010 recession and second largest gain in more than two decades
A new analysis shows US greenhouse gas levels are increasing as the Trump administration unravels efforts to slow climate change.
Broken
NY Times: Borderline Insanity - President Trump rained cruelties on immigrants and asylum seekers and now wants hundreds of millions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis he caused. By The Editorial Board
Mr. Trump’s mass incarceration of migrant families is overwhelming an already burdened system that, without a giant injection of taxpayer dollars, will continue to collapse, leading to ever more human suffering.
The situation is an especially rich example of the Trump Doctrine: Break something, then demand credit — and in this case a lot of money — for promising to fix it.
Shut
NY Times: As Government Shutdown Persists, Americans Feel the Bite By Jim Tankersley, Matthew Goldstein and Glenn Thrush
The standoff is beginning to inflict pain on Americans, whose lives are affected, in one way or another, by the federal government.
The Market On Tuesday
Good morning. At 9:24 a.m. ET DOW futures are +252 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: Wall Street launches new stock exchange, taking direct aim at NYSE and Nasdaq By Matt Egan
CNN: Wall Street launches new stock exchange, taking direct aim at NYSE and Nasdaq By Matt Egan
Monday, January 07, 2019
Comment
My latest NYT comment -
The US - Canadian border is 3,300 miles, the U.S. Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coastlines together are roughly 4,200 miles, the U.S. - Mexican border is 1,400 miles. That being said would a terrorist from the Middle East, Asia, or any other country see a border wall and think, "well that's the end of that, no way into there." Meanwhile China is developing 5G technology way beyond the U.S., Europe is moving ahead with green energy, and the US infrastructure and school system crumbles. So yes, let's get the country all involved in a debate about a wall. Come on America, how stupid is this, really.
The US - Canadian border is 3,300 miles, the U.S. Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coastlines together are roughly 4,200 miles, the U.S. - Mexican border is 1,400 miles. That being said would a terrorist from the Middle East, Asia, or any other country see a border wall and think, "well that's the end of that, no way into there." Meanwhile China is developing 5G technology way beyond the U.S., Europe is moving ahead with green energy, and the US infrastructure and school system crumbles. So yes, let's get the country all involved in a debate about a wall. Come on America, how stupid is this, really.
Satan
I'll wait till it comes out on Netflix. It's creating a stir.
The Daily Beast: Liz Cheney Fires Back at Christian Bale for Calling Dad ‘Satan’ by Bringing Up Assault Allegation - The Wyoming congresswoman tweeted out a link to a decade-old ‘assault’ allegation against the actor that was dismissed by authorities. by Matt Wilstein
The Daily Beast: Liz Cheney Fires Back at Christian Bale for Calling Dad ‘Satan’ by Bringing Up Assault Allegation - The Wyoming congresswoman tweeted out a link to a decade-old ‘assault’ allegation against the actor that was dismissed by authorities. by Matt Wilstein
Powerless
Adam Schiff said
“If Harry Truman couldn’t nationalize the steel industry during wartime, President Trump certainly doesn’t have the power to declare a nonexistent emergency and build a multi-billion dollar wall on the border. That’s a complete nonstarter.”
“If Harry Truman couldn’t nationalize the steel industry during wartime, President Trump certainly doesn’t have the power to declare a nonexistent emergency and build a multi-billion dollar wall on the border. That’s a complete nonstarter.”
One Can Hope
Guardian UK: Will Adam Schiff pose a bigger threat to Trump than Robert Mueller? New chairman of the House intelligence committee leads pack of antagonists as he plans to investigate the details of Trump’s businesses, his lenders, and his partners in the US and abroad by Tom McCarthy
But the public face of the investigation of Trump’s finances won’t be Mueller. Leading the charge will be someone Trump cannot fire: California representative Adam Schiff, newly installed chairman of the House intelligence committee and a former federal prosecutor himself.
Steel, Concrete, Shower Curtain
NY Times: Trump Offers a ‘Steel Barrier,’ but Democrats Are Unmoved By Michael Tackett and Catie Edmondson
“I informed my folks to say that we’ll build a steel barrier,” Mr. Trump told reporters after returning to the White House from a senior staff meeting at Camp David. He added of the Democrats, “They don’t like concrete, so we’ll give them steel.”
Trump Doesn't Know What He Is Saying
NY Times: Bolton Puts Conditions on Syria Withdrawal, Suggesting a Delay of Months or Years By David E. Sanger, Noah Weiland and Eric Schmitt
President Trump’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, rolled back on Sunday Mr. Trump’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave American forces there for months or even years.
The Market On Monday
Good morning. At 9:20 a.m. ET DOW futures are +57 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.
CNN: Trade talks resume; Tesla in Shanghai; Apple's Samsung TV deal By Ivana Kottasová
CNN: Trade talks resume; Tesla in Shanghai; Apple's Samsung TV deal By Ivana Kottasová
Friday, January 04, 2019
Yes
NY Times: Congress Is Examining Decision to Lift Sanctions on Russian’s Firms By Kenneth P. Vogel
Congress is reviewing the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions on companies owned by Oleg V. Deripaska, an influential Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, Democrats said on Friday.
Generation To Generation
Scientific American: Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May Still Affect German Children of Today - The Nazi regime urged German mothers to ignore their toddlers’ emotional needs—the better to raise hardened soldiers and followers. Attachment researchers say that the harmful effects of that teaching may be affecting later generations By Anne Kratzer
In that book, Haarer recommended that children be raised with as few attachments as possible. If a child cried, that was not the mother's problem. Excessive tenderness was to be avoided at all cost.
Pelosi - ‘A Wall Is An Immorality’
Guardian UK: Pelosi remains defiant on wall funding as Trump seeks fresh talks
About 800,000 federal workers have been affected by the 22 December closure of about a quarter of the federal government as Trump withheld his support for new funding until he secures $5bn to build his long-promised but unachieved wall along the US-Mexico border.
Volatility
NY Times: This Expert Called the Market Plunge. Here’s What He Sees in 2019. by James B. Stewart
“If there are any certainties, one will be that this party will eventually come to an end,” James Stack, president of InvestTech Research, told me a year ago. “And when it ends, it will end badly, and with high volatility.”
Jobs Up
NY Times: U.S. Added 312,000 Jobs in December; Unemployment at 3.9% By Natalie Kitroeff
312,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street analysts had anticipated an increase of about 180,000. It was the biggest monthly gain since 324,000 jobs were added in February. Including revisions, the monthly average for October, November and December was 254,000.
The Market On Friday
Good morning. At 9:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are +301 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly higher.
CNN: US jobs report; Japan catches up; Jerome Powell speaks By Ivana Kottasová
CNN: US jobs report; Japan catches up; Jerome Powell speaks By Ivana Kottasová
Thursday, January 03, 2019
Nancy Time
NY Times: Nancy Pelosi Elected Speaker as Democrats Take Control of House By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
“Our nation is at a historic moment,” she declared. “This Congress will be bipartisan, transparent and unified.”
Moments later, with a “Come on, kids!” Ms. Pelosi invited the children and grandchildren on the floor of the House to surround her as she took the oath of office.
“I now call the House to order on behalf of all of America’s children,” Ms. Pelosi said after she was sworn in.
Have An Excellent Thursday
work by a 21 year old Norman Rockwell painted in 2015. The work is titled, 'Through The Storm He Silently Glided Along in Front of Her While the Woods Sheltered Them'.
God Help Us
Guardian UK: Parkland commission recommends teachers be allowed to carry guns - Commission unanimously approved 446-page report containing the proposed policy and other changes to ‘harden’ schools
The commission investigating the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida has included a recommendation in its preliminary report that classroom teachers who volunteer and undergo training should be allowed to carry guns in school.
China’s Chang’e 4
Guardian UK: Far side of the moon: China's Chang'e 4 probe makes historic touchdown - Lander sends back first close-up shot of previously unexplored side of the moon
A Chinese spacecraft has become the first ever to land on the far side of the moon, according to state-run media, in a giant leap for human space exploration
Empty Political Stunt
NY Times: Trump’s Shutdown Is Not About Border Security - About 800,000 federal employees, and the citizens who depend on them, are being hurt for an empty political stunt. By The Editorial Board
To avoid the complex, hard work that has traditionally gone with his job, Mr. Trump has instead manufactured a political impasse over a symbol, a wall, that even his new acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, back when he was a congressman, derided as “an easy thing to sell politically” that “doesn’t really solve the problem.” John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s departing chief of staff, told The Los Angeles Times that the administration long ago abandoned the idea of a concrete wall as irrelevant to the real needs of border security — drawing a heated contradiction from the president on Twitter.
Nowhere
NY Times: Trump and Democrats Dig In After Talks to Reopen Government Go Nowhere
President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders dug in Wednesday for a lengthy partial shutdown in a newly divided government after a White House meeting — the first in 22 days — could not break an impasse over Mr. Trump’s demands for billions of dollars for a border wall.
The Market On Thursday
Good morning. At 9:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are -239 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open significantly lower, the market is tanking again.
CNN: Apple meltdown; Markets shudder; DC power shift By Ivana Kottasová
CNN: Apple meltdown; Markets shudder; DC power shift By Ivana Kottasová
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
Gone
Washington Post: Trump doesn’t understand his leverage is gone by Jennifer Rubin
...Pelosi assumes he is unteachable. Rather, her strategy is designed to maintain Democratic unity, fracture the Republicans and demonstrate that her party is more reasonable and competent than his.
Copyright Expiry
Guardian UK: 'The drought is over': mass US copyright expiry brings flood of works into public domain - Legislation in 1998 extended copyright by 20 years, so this year marks the first time in two decades that the pool of freely available work has been added to
“The drought is over,” proclaims Duke Law School’s Center for the Public Domain, highlighting some of the works which are now available royalty-free, by authors from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Kahlil Gibran, PG Wodehouse to DH Lawrence, Edith Wharton to ee cummings. It’s not only books: copyright in the US is also expiring on a host of films, paintings and music.
'Bird Box'
I watched 'Bird Box' last week. Eh, it's entertaining, I'll give it that. Trump as president is far far scarier.
Salon: Why "Bird Box" is smashing Netflix records: We're so close to apocalypse ourselves - It's no "The Quiet Place," but dropping at the end of a year like 2018, it didn't have to be by Melanie McFarland
Salon: Why "Bird Box" is smashing Netflix records: We're so close to apocalypse ourselves - It's no "The Quiet Place," but dropping at the end of a year like 2018, it didn't have to be by Melanie McFarland
Go Harry
NY Times: Harry Reid Has a Few Words for Washington - The former Senate majority leader on President Trump and Senator Chuck Schumer, and on why he doesn’t regret ending the filibuster for judicial appointments.
“Trump is an interesting person. He is not immoral but is amoral. Amoral is when you shoot someone in the head, it doesn’t make a difference. No conscience.” There was a hint of grudging respect in Reid’s tone, which he seemed to catch and correct. “I think he is without question the worst president we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ve had some bad ones, and there’s not even a close second to him.” He added: “He’ll lie. He’ll cheat. You can’t reason with him.”
Nicholas Slatten
Guardian UK: Former Blackwater guard convicted for 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad - Nicholas Slatten, 35, found guilty of murder for his role in the killing of at least 14 unarmed civilians in a bustling square
While escorting a diplomatic convoy, Blackwater guards opened fire in the bustling square with sniper rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers – allegedly without provocation – leaving at least 14 civilians dead and at least 18 wounded. The Iraqi government says the toll was higher.
Mitt Romney - Trump's A Failure
Guardian UK: Mitt Romney: Trump's biggest failure is a lack of character in leading 'divided' nation - Incoming Utah senator says president has abandoned allies and failed to lead a ‘divided, resentful and angry’ nation
“The appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a ‘sucker’ in world affairs all defined his presidency down,” he wrote.
“On balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.”
Tear Gas
NY Times: U.S. Agents Fire Tear Gas Across Mexican Border By Alan Yuhas
American border officers sent tear gas into Mexico early Tuesday to drive away about 150 migrants trying to cross the border into the United States, the authorities said.
Divide
NY Times: In Newly Divided Government, Who Will Control the Political Agenda? By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Julie Hirschfeld Davis
After the midterm elections ushered in the most diverse freshman class in history, House Democrats intend to put a spotlight on the issues that worked well for them during the campaign: diminishing the influence of the wealthy and connected, expanding voting rights, lowering prescription drug costs and passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The Market On Wednesday
Good morning. At 9:25 a.m. ET DOW futures are -334 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to tank at the opening bell.
CNN: Stocks set to plunge to begin the new year CNN Digital Rebranding 2014 By Matt Egan
CNN: Stocks set to plunge to begin the new year CNN Digital Rebranding 2014 By Matt Egan
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
Let It Fail
I say let the press briefing go. What's the point? It's just a pile of lies anyhow, anyone can make up lies. Journalists just spread lies when they report on Trump's words.
Guardian UK: 'It's astonishing': The demise of the daily White House press briefing - The press briefing has become a monthly event in the era of Trump, and concerns are that it may soon disappear altogether
Guardian UK: 'It's astonishing': The demise of the daily White House press briefing - The press briefing has become a monthly event in the era of Trump, and concerns are that it may soon disappear altogether
Laptops and phones, winter coats and scarves, a hubbub of different languages. A row of cameras sits on a bench. John Roberts of Fox News has a steely expression as he clutches a mic. Jim Acosta of CNN, press pass reinstated after his run-in with the president last year, speaks simultaneously to his own viewers: “We’ll see how much time we have Sarah Sanders. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, these briefings can end very quickly.”
Trump Trashes America
Trump to America, Happy New Year, as his idiotic shutdown over his ridiculous wall is literally causing people to trash national parks. Seems appropriate for Trump.
Guardian UK: 'It's a free-for-all': shutdown brings turmoil to beloved US national parks - Human feces, overflowing garbage and damaging behavior reported as staff hampered over busy holiday period
Guardian UK: 'It's a free-for-all': shutdown brings turmoil to beloved US national parks - Human feces, overflowing garbage and damaging behavior reported as staff hampered over busy holiday period
“It’s so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said.
King
This is totally crazy shite. The person in the middle of it is Falwell and his whacked out ultra right xtian nonsense.
NY Times: Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus - The Christian right doesn’t like the president only for his judges. They like his style. By Katherine Stewart - Ms. Stewart writes regularly about the political activities of evangelicals and other religious groups.
NY Times: Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus - The Christian right doesn’t like the president only for his judges. They like his style. By Katherine Stewart - Ms. Stewart writes regularly about the political activities of evangelicals and other religious groups.
The identification of the 45th president with an ancient Middle Eastern potentate isn’t a fringe thing. “The Trump Prophecy” was produced with the help of professors and students at Liberty University, whose president, Jerry Falwell Jr., has been instrumental in rallying evangelical support for Mr. Trump. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News has picked up on the meme, as has Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, among many others.
Box
NY Times: Democrats Try to Box In Trump With Plan to End Government Shutdown Without Wall Funding By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Emily Cochrane
“He’s not going to get a wall,” Ms. Pelosi said in a recent interview. “But he has to recognize, we are the first branch, Article 1, the legislative branch, and we’re here not as a rubber stamp to the executive branch but are coequal to him.”
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