turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalTrump's approval of offshore seismic blasting for oil and gas threatens marine life
Offshore drilling, universally opposed on the Atlantic Coast, could be the next step after seismic surveys.
MARK HAND
NOV 30, 2018, 2:46 PM
The Trump administration authorized five companies on Friday to use seismic testing in the search for oil and gas deposits in waters off the U.S. East Coast, a decision that could harm tens of thousands of dolphins, whales, and other marine animals.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will allow the companies to use seismic airguns to explore for oil and gas in federal waters from Delaware to central Florida.
Along with the great harm caused to marine life, the approvals — known as incidental harassment authorizations — represent the next step to allowing offshore oil and gas drilling, environmental groups warned.
“Seismic testing is nothing but a precursor to offshore drilling that no one in the Southeast wants,” Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said Friday in a conference call with reporters.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-approval-of-offshore-seismic-blasting-for-oil-and-gas-threatens-marine-life-972ea9c7046c/
North Carolina won't certify a congressional election after allegations of vote tampering surface
Republicans are suddenly furious that a potential case of election fraud is being investigated.
ADAM PECK
DEC 1, 2018, 10:22 AM
Next week will mark the midway point between Election Day on November 6 and the first day of the new Congress on January 3. Yet one congressional race in North Carolina remains undecided, and an ongoing investigation could leave the seat vacant for the foreseeable future.
As of Saturday, the margin in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District stands at 905 votes in favor of Republican Mark Harris over Democrat Dan McCready. It’s a narrow margin, though hardly the narrowest of the 2018 midterm election season. Democrat Ben McAdams was certified the winner over outgoing GOP Rep. Mia Love shortly before Thanksgiving despite winning by fewer than 700 votes.
And yet, North Carolina’s State Board of Elections refused to certify the results during a meeting Friday afternoon, after voting anomalies and allegations of ballot tampering triggered an investigation into possible election fraud.
The problems began even before Election Day, when voters around the district began reporting they had received absentee ballots they neither requested nor needed. Others submitted statements under oath that some individuals — including at least one person with ties to the Harris campaign — came to their doors to collect absentee ballots, even ones that hadn’t been fully filled out.
https://thinkprogress.org/north-carolina-election-fraud-b7607848efcc/
Russia-Ukraine sea clash puts spotlight on 1994 agreement
Source: NBC News
Washington paid half a billion dollars for Ukraine to pass 5,000 nuclear weapons to Russia to be dismantled after brokering the deal.
Nov. 29, 2018 / 10:52 AM EST
By Alexander Smith and Yuliya Talmazan
Twenty five years ago, Ukraine was the world's third-largest nuclear power, with more warheads than the United Kingdom, France and China combined.
The government in Kiev inherited this arsenal after the breakup of the Soviet Union, finding itself in possession of an estimated 5,000 nuclear weapons, more than 170 intercontinental ballistic missiles and several dozen nuclear bombers.
In 1994, Ukraine agreed to dismantle this stockpile in return for a promise from Russia that the country wouldn't be attacked.
But after Russian forces fired at and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Sunday, Kiev has pointed to this deal and suggested that the U.S. and Europe should do more to protect it against the vastly superior Russian military.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-ukraine-sea-clash-puts-spotlight-1994-agreement-n941601
I wonder if the orange buffoon and the foreign team of enablers fully understand what this Agreement means.................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.....................
Arizona's new state House Speaker doesn't believe LGBTQ people are equal under the law
Rep. Russell "Rusty" Bowers (R) led the charge for discrimination in the Copper State as early as 1994 and doesn't appear to have evolved.
JOSH ISRAEL
NOV 29, 2018, 8:00 AM
Though the midterm blue wave in Arizona helped Democrats pick up a U.S. Senate seat, one U.S. House seat, three other statewide offices, and three seats in the House of Representatives, Republicans still held the slimmest possible majority in that body, holding 31 seats to the Democrats’ 29. Despite his decades-long record of opposing LGBTQ rights, Republicans selected Mesa state Rep. Russell “Rusty” Bowers (R) to be their new Speaker of the House.
Bowers is in his second stint in state government: he originally served in the state House from 1993 to 1997, then served in the state Senate from 1997 to 2001 (where he served as Majority Leader). After an unsuccessful 2010 Congressional campaign, he was elected to return to the state House in 2014. Over that time, one thing has been constant: he does not believe LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment under the law.
His bigotry was on display as early as his first term in the legislature. In 1994, angry that Phoenix passed a 1992 ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation for city employees and large city contractors, Bowers authored a proposed amendment to Arizona’s state constitution to prohibit localities from adopting gay rights laws. His reasoning: he believed homosexual behavior to be bad for society. “When a public entity endorses a behavior (through ordinances), it is very dangerous,” he said at the time. “It legitimizes it.” Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar Colorado ban as a clear violation of the constitution’s equal protection clause.
In 2000, Bowers was on the losing side of a 24-to-4 vote in the state Senate on a bill to ban insurance companies from discriminating against victims of domestic violence. His objection was based on an amendment that made clear that the state’s domestic violence laws equally applied to victims in same-gender relationships, which he feared would require the state to pay for domestic violence reconciliation and counseling for same-sex couples.
https://thinkprogress.org/arizona-republicans-rusty-bowers-speaking-leading-homophobe-8e797977f1e0/
I just wonder what he would do if one of his kids said they were gay.....................what an asshole.................a mean spirited little asshole .................
Trump didn't know the GOP tax bill incentivizes business to offshore jobs
Source: Talking Points Memo
"The president is not one to take responsibility for his own issues."
REBEKAH ENTRALGO
NOV 29, 2018, 10:47 AM
President Donald Trump was apparently unaware that a provision in his biggest legislative accomplishment encourages corporations to offshore jobs.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke with Trump Wednesday night about the closure of at least five General Motors plants, including one assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and filled him in on how the GOP tax bill is partly to blame.
“I reached him last night, he said he wanted to help, I said the first thing you could do is you could take away that tax provision in his tax bill that gives a company a 50 percent off coupon on their taxes,” Brown told CNN’s New Day Thursday. “If you’re producing in Lordstown you pay a 21 percent tax rate, if you move to Mexico you pay a 10.5 percent tax rate, and I told the president to get rid of that tax break that encourages jobs to move overseas.”
The president apparently did not know that was in the tax bill.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-didnt-know-gop-tax-bill-incentivizes-business-to-offshore-jobs-367fe5bea9dd/
That is all....................he was only concerned with what he got out of the deal with his real estate criminal enterprise...............pass through.......................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough................
One of the Republican Party's worst vote suppressors is about to become a federal judge
Republicans appear to have the votes to confirm one of the architects of America's worst voter suppression law.
IAN MILLHISER
NOV 27, 2018, 3:40 PM
The Senate is expect to vote this week on whether to confirm Thomas Farr, a lawyer who helped draft what may be the most aggressive voter suppression law since Jim Crow, to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. And it is very likely that Republicans have just barely enough votes to prevail.
Although all 49 members of the Senate Democratic caucus oppose Farr, and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) says he will vote against all judicial nominees unless the Senate holds a vote on a bill intended to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Republicans appear likely to hold onto the 50 senators they need to put Farr on the bench.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who occasionally breaks with her caucus, says she will support the nomination. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AR), another occasional defector, says she “doesn’t plan on blocking” Farr’s nomination.
Farr helped draft a 2013 North Carolina law which combined many voter suppression tactics favored by Republican state lawmakers. A federal appeals court later struck down this law, explaining that it targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
https://thinkprogress.org/thomas-farr-voter-suppression-become-a-federal-judge-434d80bc6918/
And then there are the two twins, Collins and Murkowski.......................
Hey Murkowski, did you by chance see what your Neil Gorush did in North Dakota,, and you don't think this Farr asshole like Natives in Alaska, even though he will not be in the court system up there...................his fucking decisions will affect the Natives, as for Collins she's worthless and her husband is a Russian hack, after all he got money from them.....................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................
Uninsured Californians seeking post-wildfire federal aid will face Social Security questions
Source: Think Progress
The undocumented are California's largest group without health insurance and mostly ineligible for a Social Security number.
AMANDA MICHELLE GOMEZ
NOV 28, 2018, 8:00 AM
The federal government launched a program for uninsured Californians who lost critical medication during the weeks of devastating wildfires. But to access no-cost replacements, residents will be asked to provide a Social Security number. While a SSN is not required, the question alone could dissuade California’s largest uninsured group from seeking care: the undocumented.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) initiated the Emergency Prescription Assistance Program (EPAP) last week for uninsured Californians living in Butte, Los Angeles and Ventura counties whose medications or medical equipment, like canes or walkers, were lost or damaged during the wildfires. HHS activated extra aid after declaring a public health emergency in California. Citizens, the press release stresses, are encouraged to go to any pharmacy participating in the program before December 31 to access a 30-day supply; most prescription drugs should be covered at no cost to uninsured patients.
“EPAP provides vital assistance to people without insurance who rely upon certain prescription medicines and equipment to protect their health after disasters,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, M.D. in the press release. “I encourage citizens in impacted areas of California who qualify for this assistance to take advantage of it.”
HHS Secretary Alex Azar encouraged people to call 855-793-7470 for more information, so this ThinkProgress reporter did. The operator said residents will need a Social Security number to access care.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/uninsured-california-wildfires-asked-about-social-security-number-0cf87fedbed8/
Absolutely fucking amazing......................this is what is called a death panel administration...........
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough
Supreme Court poised to drastically reverse LGBTQ equality
It could be a disastrous year for LGBTQ rights.
ZACK FORD
NOV 27, 2018, 9:54 AM
There are now six different cases implicating LGBTQ rights sitting before the Supreme Court. While the conservative-majority Court has not yet agreed to hear any of them, a circuit split between two of the cases and the fact that President Trump’s transgender military ban is at the heart of another strongly suggest at least one of them will advance to oral arguments.
The cases span a variety of different issues, including employment, education, military service, and public discrimination. At the heart at most of them is a question about whether discrimination against LGBTQ people counts as discrimination on the basis of “sex.” If the Court rules against queer people in just one of them, it could set a precedent that hinders LGBTQ equality across all of the different issues.
Such a decision would be the largest blow to queer rights since the Court upheld sodomy laws 32 years ago.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-six-lgbtq-cases-awaiting-consideration-from-the-supreme-court-fe5ea66d679d/
GOP MD Governor Creates Emergency Commission To Redraw House Map
Source: Talking Points Memo
By David McFadden
November 26, 2018 5:25 pm
BALTIMORE (AP) — An emergency commission has been created in Maryland to redraw boundaries for a sprawling congressional district in compliance with a federal court order, the state’s Republican governor announced Monday.
Gov. Larry Hogan said a “nonpartisan” nine-member commission will craft a redistricting plan for the state’s 6th congressional district that isn’t tarnished by gerrymandering. In Maryland, Democrats were in charge of the last controversial redistricting and the state’s congressional map is often held up as a highly partisan patchwork.
“The outcome of decades of redistricting cycles has made Maryland’s congressional and legislative districts an embarrassment,” Hogan told reporters at a news conference.
He said the commission he is creating by executive order will be made up of three Democrats, three Republicans, and three unaffiliated voters.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/maryland-governor-larry-hogan-creates-panel-house-map-redraw
That's the ticket Hogan place a Koch funded Cato Institute lackey on the panel....................you do know Hogan that the Federalist Society is linked to the Cato Institute.........................go fucking figure.....................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.......................
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