Stonepounder
Stonepounder's JournalThree Asian-American lawmakers introduce a bill to prohibit internment like that of Japanese America
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/20/politics/japanese-internment-law-trnd/index.html?utm_content=2019-02-20T21%3A25%3A04&utm_source=fbCNNp&utm_medium=social&utm_term=linkThree Asian-American lawmakers introduce a bill to prohibit internment like that of Japanese Americans during World War II
(CNN)On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order that sent 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps for the remainder of World War II.
Now three Asian-American members of Congress are trying to ensure that something like that never happens again.
US Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, along with US Rep. Mark Takano of California -- all Democrats -- have introduced a bill that would bar Americans from being forcibly incarcerated based on their race or religion.
The Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act of 2019 is necessary to safeguard individual freedoms, especially at a time when President Donald Trump has made divisive comments about Muslims and other marginalized groups, Hirono said in a statement.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I believe this comes under the heading of "Never Again!"
More at link.
Trump EPA OKs 'Emergency' to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres
https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-pesticides--2629292283.htmlTrump EPA OKs 'Emergency' to Dump Bee-Killing Pesticide on 16 Million Acres
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last week that in 2018 it issued so-called "emergency" approvals to spray sulfoxaflor—an insecticide the agency considers "very highly toxic" to bees—on more than 16 million acres of crops known to attract bees.
Of the 18 states where the approvals were granted for sorghum and cotton crops, 12 have been given the approvals for at least four consecutive years for the same "emergency."
Last year the EPA's Office of the Inspector General released a report finding that the agency's practice of routinely granting "emergency" approval for pesticides across millions of acres does not effectively measure risks to human health or the environment.
"Spraying 16 million acres of bee-attractive crops with a bee-killing pesticide in a time of global insect decline is beyond the pale, even for the Trump administration," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The EPA is routinely misusing the 'emergency' process to get sulfoxaflor approved because it's too toxic to make it through normal pesticide reviews."
I am beyond speechless. More at link.
Jeff Bezos Chooses Soon-to-Be Bankrupt Mar-a-Lago as New Amazon Headquarters (Borowitz)
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/jeff-bezos-chooses-soon-to-be-bankrupt-mar-a-lago-as-new-amazon-headquarters?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_021419&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd672883f92a41245dd6fd1&user_id=27161810&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_BorowitzJeff Bezos Chooses Soon-to-Be Bankrupt Mar-a-Lago as New Amazon HeadquartersJeff Bezos
SEATTLE (The Borowitz Report)—Stating that he expected the property to be “bankrupt and vacant within the next two years,” Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Thursday that the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, would be the site of Amazon’s second headquarters.
Bezos said that Mar-a-Lago was chosen from a list of soon-to-be-bankrupt properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Trump Turnberry, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Amazon C.E.O. said that, after Amazon acquires Mar-a-Lago, the company will start working around the clock to remove the property’s hideous décor, which he fears could prove distracting to warehouse employees.
At Mar-a-Lago, a longtime employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, welcomed the Amazon move, stating, “This is one of the only places in the world where workplace conditions would improve if Amazon came in.” Another Mar-a-Lago employee, raising a question shared by many others, asked, “Does this mean we’ll start getting paid?” If the Mar-a-Lago deal goes through, it would mark the first appearance of books in that location, Amazon confirmed.
President Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at White House
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-trump-installed-a-room-sized-golf-simulator-at-white-house/2019/02/13/ed3f6d5c-2e45-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.htmlPresident Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at White House
President Trump has installed a room-sized “golf simulator” game at the White House, which allows him to play virtual rounds at courses all over the world by hitting a ball into a large video screen, according to two people told about the system.
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Trump’s system cost about $50,000, and was put in during the last few weeks in a room in his personal quarters, a White House official said.
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Trump has played golf — the traditional kind, on an outdoor course — about 139 times as president, largely at his own golf clubs, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. There is no way to have an exact count because he usually does not acknowledge having played.
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Trump complained to friends during the shutdown that he missed Mar-a-Lago and being at his Florida golf course.
You gotta wonder if he had it installed during the shutdown when he couldn't go to Mar-A-Lago, while 800,000 Federal workers were not getting paid and over 1,000,000 Gov't Contractors will never get paid for times missed? But tRump's gotta have his golf.
GOP leader apologizes for tweeting: 'Time for another Kent State' (Rant on!)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/05/gop-leader-apologizes-kent-state/97533372/?fbclid=IwAR2Sqnk532-k3MbYUrF1intLv1lqm78oAIhqgHePtLNsI0dzc6wFygpa4z4GOP leader apologizes for tweeting: 'Time for another Kent State'
DETROIT — A county Republican leader in Michigan is under fire for seeming to suggest in his social media posts there should be a Kent State type of crackdown on violent protests like the one that erupted at a university in California last week.
But in an interview Sunday with the Detroit Free Press, Dan Adamini, the secretary of the Marquette County Republican Party, said he apologizes, supports peace and was merely trying to prevent further violence and hatred.
Folks, our country is going to be totally screwed if we don't get a handle on this BS soon. There is a slow-moving coup being attempted in Virginia right now. Elizabeth Warren is being crucified for claiming Native American heritage, and at the same time we can put a boozing rapist on SCOTUS, let people like Steve King sit in Congress, have a Senate Majority leader who takes millions from Russian oligarchs.
I was a student at Ohio State University when Kent State occured, about 90 mi away. YOU DON'T GET TO JOKE ABOUT IT! The God Damned National Guard opened fire on protesting students. FOUR young people were KILLED just for being in the wrong place.
If we don't get the GOP out of power soon (and I mean NOW, not 'oh, somewhere down the road') there isn't going to be a United States of America any more, only a country run by Oligarchs, for Oligarchs, and to hell with everyone else. Either that or there are going be the equivalent of pitchforks, torches, and tumbrils. And what that sort of thing happens a LOT of folks, innocent or not get killed.
And I just don't know the answer. And don't tell me to be sure an vote. I haven't missed an election in 50 years, worked on the Hillary campaign, and we have the Orange Shitgibbon in the White House and the GOP seems to have an unbreakable lock on the Senate due to gerrymandering and they are working at a fever pitch to pack the Judiciary with unqualified folk who will side with the Oligarchs and screw what the Constitution says.
I know that Robert Mueller is working as fast as he can. I just don't know if it is going to do much good. 1/3 of the country says 'If Trump says we need to suspend elections, they he must have a good reason and its OK by me'. Then what?
Americans Relieved to Learn That Trump [Most] of Time Not Using Powers as President (Borowitz)
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/americans-relieved-to-learn-that-trump-spends-sixty-per-cent-of-time-not-using-powers-as-president?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_020419&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd672883f92a41245dd6fd1&user_id=27161810&utm_term=TNY_BorowitzAmericans Relieved to Learn That Trump Spends Sixty Per Cent of Time Not Using Powers as President
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A leak of Donald J. Trump’s official White House schedule has left millions of Americans deeply relieved that Trump spends approximately sixty per cent of each day not using his powers as President. In conversations across the country, Americans called the revelation that Trump devotes the majority of his day to “executive time,” a euphemism for watching TV and checking Twitter, the most reassuring news out of the White House in months.
“Like most of the people I know, the idea of Donald Trump sitting behind his desk doing things that affect the country has me in a state of mortal terror,” Carol Foyler, a resident of Minneapolis, said. “Just knowing that he’s spending sixty per cent of his time doing basically nothing makes me feel somewhat better.”
Harland Dorrinson, who lives in Detroit, agreed that it was “great news that Trump is only President forty per cent of the time” but called on the entertainment industry to create more diverting programming that might distract Trump for a larger portion of his day. “It would be fantastic if we could push the sixty per cent of his day that he does nothing up to seventy or even eighty per cent,” he said. “Maybe someone could come up with a podcast that he could get into.”
But Tracy Klugian, a Baltimore resident, said that the leak of Trump’s schedule did little to allay her darkest fears. “Until I find out that he’s spending a hundred per cent of his time not being President, I won’t sleep at night,” she said.
I'm 70 years old. (Updated 2/1/2019)
I posted earlier about trying to figure out why I have been getting short of breath. X-Rays and MRI showed scarring of the lungs, but none of the blood tests gave a definitive answer, so I had to go in for a lung biopsy. (Not a whole lot of fun. Four days in the hospital.)
Turns out that there is only one place in the US that actually looks at the lung tissue and figures out what's going on. Takes a couple of weeks to get the results back. So, finally, I went in to see my pulmonologist on Wednesday. Conclusion: IPF - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. So, what you ask is IPF. I means that you are developing scaring on your lungs and they don't have a freaking idea why. (Idiopathic is a big word that means "We don't know".) But the average life expectancy for me is 3-5 years. Maybe.
Up until the last couple of years there was nothing that could be done. The scarring is irreversible and there were no medications. However, things are looking a little (and I emphasize the word little). There is a new drug on the market (new as in only a couple of years old) that seems to have the ability to slow down the scaring process. Goody.
Minor problem. IPF is one of those 'orphan diseases' so, lots of research for meds, not many folks buying. Result: medicine is EXPENSIVE. Like, would you believe $95,000/yr? WTF! Who the hell can afford $95,000 a year??
But, I love my doctor! 1. When I saw him on Wednesday he had already talked to my insurance company and had gotten them to approve the med. So, my co-pay would only be $3,000 a month. 2. He had also called the vendor (this is not something you pick up at your local pharmacy) and they called today. They have a program that helps with the co-pay. So, first they check the easy discount. I qualified. Dropped the co-pay to only $2,000 a month. Still completely impossible for me to pay. So they checked the second tier plan. I qualified for that as well.
Now here's the part that totally blew me away. The second tier plan picks up where the first tier ends. Believe it or not, tier 2 pays for EVERYTHING! No co-pay at all. (Note: I'll believe it when I get the meds and no bill.) But, we will certainly give it a try! Note, there is no cure and I will never get any better, but the meds are supposed to significantly slow down the scaring, so hopefully I won't get worse, or at least the progression of scaring will slow down.
We will see what happens, but I am feeling a little more optimistic.
U.S. to withdraw from nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, says Russian violations render the Co
Source: Washington Post
The United States will pull out of a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, the Trump administration announced Friday, ending a cornerstone Cold War agreement on grounds that Russian violations render it moot.
The demise of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty raises fears of a new nuclear arms race, although U.S. officials discount the risk.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States is suspending participation in the agreement, starting a six-month countdown to a final U.S. withdrawal. That leaves a slim chance that Russia could end missile programs widely seen as a violation, salvaging the treaty. The United States accuses Moscow of violating the agreement since 2014.
“For years Russia has violated the terms of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty without remorse,” Pompeo said, adding that the United States has continued to meet its obligations while seeking to get Moscow to come into compliance.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to-withdraw-from-nuclear-arms-control-treaty-with-russia-says-russian-violations-render-the-cold-war-agreement-moot/2019/02/01/84dc0db6-261f-11e9-ad53-824486280311_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
If we don't get this maniac out of power soon, there won't be a USA anymore.
While Everyone Was Focused on the Shutdown, the White House Rolled Back Worker Safety Rules
http://fortune.com/2019/01/30/white-house-worker-safety-rules/?xid=soc_socialflow_facebook_FORTUNE&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=fortunemagazine&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3p7PU-Ku-brDvfUeEPTjFlWvXhTaa-qcBijkGDzP2BwMc1PkgjlilPRyUWhile Everyone Was Focused on the Shutdown, the White House Rolled Back Worker Safety Rules
President Donald Trump may have run his 2016 campaign as a champion of the working class, but his administration seems to be chipping away at worker protections.
During the president’s 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government, the White House quietly dissolved a 2016 regulation requiring certain employers to electronically submit reports of workplace injuries to the Department of Labor.
The Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses regulation, enacted under the Obama administration, required employers to submit injury and illness data to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The data would be used to help determine unsafe work conditions, and the public disclosure of workplace injuries was intended to urge employers to improve safety in the workplace. The rule also protected workers from retaliation from employers when reporting.
Trump officials first stalled the electronic reporting rule in 2017, and amended it last summer to drop the requirement for employers to submit detailed injury reports to OSHA, Vox reports. The final amendment was reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget over the course of just six weeks, and published on Jan. 25, during the shutdown.
Trump Comes Out Strongly Against Intelligence (Borowitz)
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-comes-out-strongly-against-intelligence?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_013019&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd672883f92a41245dd6fd1&user_id=27161810&utm_term=TNY_BorowitzTrump Comes Out Strongly Against Intelligence
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Using some of his harshest rhetoric in recent memory, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly against intelligence on Wednesday morning.
“I’ve listened to these people with so-called intelligence go on and on, and, quite frankly, it’s a waste of time,” he said. “I know a lot more than people with intelligence do.” Trump added that he has stopped receiving intelligence briefings at the White House, arguing, “I can do my job without any intelligence whatsoever.”
He said that he has chosen, instead, to seek advice from his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and from his elder children, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald, Jr. “You won’t find a trace of intelligence in anything they say,” he boasted.
At a briefing for the White House press corps, the President’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, denied that Trump’s war on intelligence was a new development. “Intelligence has never played a role in Donald Trump’s life,” she said.
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