January 24, 2019

Climate change will affect the ratio of male-to-female newborns, scientists say

Source: cnn





By Susan Scutti, CNN

Updated 7:40 PM ET, Wed January 23, 2019


(CNN)Global warming will have a variety of effects on our planet, yet it may also directly impact our human biology, research suggests.
Specifically, climate change could alter the proportion of male and female newborns, with more boys born in places where temperatures rise and fewer boys born in places with other environmental changes, such as drought or wildfire caused by global warming.

A recent study in Japan found a link between temperature fluctuations and a lower male-to-female sex ratio at birth, with conceptions of boys especially vulnerable to external stress factors, wrote Dr. Misao Fukuda, lead study author and founder of the M&K Health Institute in Hyogo.

Last summer, Fukuda and his colleagues published a separate study looking at births in areas hit by environmental events that caused extreme stress. They included Hyogo Prefecture after the Kobe earthquake of 1995; Tohoku after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 (and subsequent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daichii power plant); and Kumamoto Prefecture after the 2016 earthquakes.

Nine months after these disasters, the proportion of male babies born in these prefectures declined by between 6% and 14% from the previous year. This data supports the idea that major stress affects gestation, which in turn alters the newborn sex ratio, Fukuda and his co-authors wrote. ..............................

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/climate-change-infant-sex-ratio-intl/index.html

January 24, 2019

Kamala Harris is being interviewed by Maddow right now.

January 23, 2019

Ann Coulter heading to work 😂😂😂😂

https://twitter.com/Stop_Trump20/status/1088178356821151745

January 23, 2019

Anyone know if the police officers in the Hart building who arrested protesters are being paid??...

Interesting observation to say the least.




Kevin O'Neill
? @oldvetKev
Replying to @KristinMinkDC @SenMajLdr

If they are federal police, this rich. This means unpaid federal employees have to arrest other unpaid federal employees who are protesting so those very same police, among others, are paid for their work.
2:23 PM - 23 Jan 2019

https://twitter.com/oldvetKev/status/1088170318613495808

Kristin Mink
? @KristinMinkDC
2h2 hours ago

BREAKING: 11 national #union leaders ARRESTED outside @SenMajLdr Mitch McConnell’s office

They want to work. Their members want to work. They all need paychecks. Mitch had them arrested.

#WheresMitch #StopTheShutdown #OpenTheGovernment

https://twitter.com/KristinMinkDC/status/1088156717593047041







Jack Jenkins
?Verified account @jackmjenkins
3h3 hours ago

Meanwhile, down the street at the Hart Senate building there is a major protest against the shut down, with demonstrators yelling “No more food banks—they need pay checks!”

https://twitter.com/jackmjenkins/status/1088132373353512960



https://twitter.com/KristinMinkDC/status/1088174829067472899






Also: NASA in the house (and miffed about the shutdown)
https://twitter.com/jackmjenkins/status/1088135037600612352


Oh wow. FYI, federal workers: Right down the street (between C and D) from the senate building, Catholic Charities USA is offering bags of free groceries for government workers (and for others in need, although staff told me they’re really hoping to help federal workers).

https://twitter.com/jackmjenkins/status/1088138418662633472

January 23, 2019

Hillary Clinton: Join a National Call In Day to end it. @IndivisibleTeam has scripts and numbers fo

I am going to take her advice........


Hillary Clinton
?Verified account @HillaryClinton
2h2 hours ago

The government shutdown is by far the longest in U.S. history. It's put hundreds of thousands of people under financial stress and endangered our security. Join a National Call In Day to end it. @IndivisibleTeam has scripts and numbers for senators here:


https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1088123115425681409



https://twitter.com/IndivisibleTeam/status/1088150809332928515



https://indivisible.org/resource/trumps-latest-temper-tantrum-and-showdown-over-wall?akid=40944.125986.eMndUe&rd=1&t=6&utm_medium=link1_groupleaders&utm_source=email&fbclid=IwAR2Mevd0J9ELE2f4jhF64lD7kXG2g8DZPG4uwM33jylbsDuwDPNYE6W-dCE

January 23, 2019

Here is Joe Biden's reason for giving speech in MI and praising a GOP Rep.......

I do not question Joe for this.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/jan/23/government-shutdown-trump-disapproval-ratings-record-high-us-politics-live-news

..........A spokesperson for Biden said his speech was not intended as an endorsement of Upton, and stemmed instead from the congressman’s role in crafting a bipartisan bill aimed at accelerating cancer research. Biden’s son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.

“It was one of the few bipartisan bills passed in an otherwise deeply divided and gridlocked Congress,” Biden’s spokesman, Bill Russo, said in response to the NYT report.

“Vice President Biden believes to his core that you can disagree politically on a lot and still work together in good faith on issues of common cause — like funding cancer research.”

January 23, 2019

((Rep. Nadler))) When Acting AG Whitaker testifies before @HouseJudiciary on Feb 8th, we expect dire

https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1085586740038062082
((Rep. Nadler)))
?Verified account @RepJerryNadler
15h15 hours ago

When Acting AG Whitaker testifies before @HouseJudiciary on Feb 8th, we expect direct answers to our questions. In particular, we expect answers to our questions concerning communications between Mr. Whitaker and the White House. Read my letter here:



https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1087848664821829635

https://twitter.com/RealTomSongs/status/1087851438561058816


https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary/status/1084519099991052291

January 23, 2019

Sen. Warner asks if Trump is following law regarding exceptions from shutdown

https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/warner-asks-trump-administration-following-law-regarding-exceptions-shutdown

Warner asks if Trump is following law regarding exceptions from shutdown
Virginia senator sends letters to handful of Cabinet departments


Posted Jan 22, 2019 12:29 PM
Niels Lesniewski
@nielslesniewski



Senate sets up Thursday test votes on ending shutdown, but no deal in sight Trump expected to float DACA deal in order to reopen government Government shutdown pushing Metro off the rails to the tune of $400K every weekday

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is asking whether the Trump administration is following the law in implementing the shutdown. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

A senior senator is now asking whether the Trump administration has been complying with federal law in implementing the partial government shutdown, now entering its fifth week.

.........................

The federal law, which dates back to 1982, is supposed to limit the federal government’s ability to spend money in the absence of appropriations from Congress. As more federal workers are being called back to work (still without pay) at agencies affected by the partial shutdown, it’s not clear if a uniform standard has been applied.

Warner cites examples in letters to each of the departments he has written: Agriculture, Interior, State, Transportation and Treasury. He also sent a separate letter to the IRS, which has been recalling employees to help process 2018 tax returns.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Warner cited as an example a conference for ambassadors and chiefs of mission that went on as scheduled just last week.

“In another example, on January 17, 2019, your department announced it was recalling all furloughed State Department and USAID employees in order to carry out the Department’s mission without providing additional background on how this complied with the Anti-Deficiency Act and why that move was needed to avoid imminent threats to human life or property,” the senator wrote.

January 23, 2019

Lara Trump on Fed workers struggling w/o pay: It is a "bit of pain," but "this is so much bigger

A bit of pain she says. good lawd! what an absolute stupid thing to say!




Lara Trump on federal workers struggling w/o pay: It is a “bit of pain,” but “this is so much bigger than any one person." And: “I know they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due, but the president is trying."


https://twitter.com/TimOBrien/status/1087887527829270531




https://twitter.com/frankie5563/status/1087911537686261760




https://twitter.com/scottwalkerwtch/status/1087911845573349376



Federal Employees Going Through ‘a Little Bit of Pain’ but Border Wall Is ‘Bigger Than’ Them Says Lara Trump


https://www.newsweek.com/shutdown-lara-trump-federal-workers-furloughed-border-wall-1300775



By Nicole Goodkind On 1/22/19 at 2:41 PM

The 800,000 furloughed federal employees and 400,000 working without pay due to the government shutdown over $5 billion dollars in funding for a wall on the U.S. southern border are going through “a little bit of pain,” but “this is so much bigger than any one person” said Lara Trump, campaign adviser and daughter-in-law to President Donald Trump and wife to Eric Trump, to right-leaning web show Bold TV on Monday.

“We get that this is unfair to you, but this is so much bigger than any one person. It is a little bit of pain, but it’s going to be for the future of our country and their children and their grandchildren and generations after that will thank them for their sacrifice right now,” said Trump.

Lara Trump, who hosts Trump Production's Real News Update acknowledged that federal workers were unable to pay their bills and rent, but said that in the end, it would be worth it.

“I know it’s hard, I know they have bills to pay, they have mortgages, they have rents that are due, but the president is trying every single day to come up with a good solution here and the reality is it’s been something that has gone on for too long and gone unaddressed,” she said. “I would just tell them, please stay strong, we appreciate everything that you’re sacrificing, we’re behind you and we are going to do everything that we can, I know the president is doing everything he can to resolve this quickly.”


................................

President Trump meanwhile, insists that federal workers believe in the wall and are happy to forego their paychecks to fight for it. A recent survey by the Government Business Council and GovExec.com found that 7 in 10 federal employees were against a shutdown and only about 30 percent of federal workers support a wall.

Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, said last week that federal employees were better off because of the shutdown since they did not have to use their personal vacation days over the Christmas holidays................. ..........

January 23, 2019

Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) Says We're Close To Proving House GOP Guilty of "Obstruction of Justice"

Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) Says We’re Close To Proving House GOP Guilty of “Obstruction of Justice” (AUDIO)


https://hillreporter.com/senator-whitehouse-d-ri-says-were-close-to-proving-house-gop-guilty-of-obstruction-of-justice-audio-21979



BY Michael Hayne January 21, 2019


Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) directed his ire at Republicans over their efforts at “throwing sticks into the spokes” of the Russia Investigation, suggesting that we’re not far off from proving they obstructed justice.

“Whether it amounts to criminal conduct, clearly the efforts of the House Republicans were designed to impede and throw sticks into the spokes of the Mueller investigation,” Whitehouse said n a new podcast hosted by Yahoo News

This throws an even bigger wrench in a scandal that has plagued the very tumultuous Trump presidency. Senator Whitehouse, sitting on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, has been one of the more vocal and helpful Senate voices in the Russian Investigation.

“To discredit it, foul it up, to provide alternative narratives, potentially even to communicate to potential witnesses or jurors their alternative narratives and thereby influence the proceedings … all of that,” Whitehouse asserts.

“The only thing that stops that being a crime is the contact with Trump’s lawyers and the corrupt intent. The other elements are all there, he said.You can show in abundance that they tried to interfere with the Mueller investigation.”

.........



https://twitter.com/Isikoff/status/1087422437581639680