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turbinetree's JournalPhiladelphia New Years Day parade ridicules 'pee tape'-clutching Donald Trump in hilarious dance rou
US authorities fire teargas across border to repel Central Americans
Source: The Guardian
Women, children and members of the press were affected by gas as authorities said it was aimed at rock throwers on Mexican side
US authorities fired teargas into Mexico during the first hours of the new year to repel about 150 Central Americans who they claimed were trying to breach the border fence in Tijuana.
An Associated Press photographer witnessed at least three volleys of gas launched onto the Mexican side of the border near Tijuana’s beach early Tuesday. The people affected by the gas included women and children, as well as members of the press.
Members of the group who spoke with AP said they arrived last month with a caravan which set out from Honduras.
US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement the gas was aimed at rock throwers on the Mexican side who it said prevented agents from helping children who were being passed over the concertina wire. The agency says 25 migrants were detained.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/01/us-mexico-border-migrant-caravan-tijuana-tear-gas
I can't wait for the fascists Homeland Department person to be called in front of Congress, and bring in that asshole Miller and Sessions..................
Dakota Access pipeline developer misses year-end deadline to plant trees
Source: The Guardian
Energy Transfer Partners only planted about 8,800 of the 20,000 trees required along the pipeline’s route in 2018
The developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline missed a year-end deadline to plant thousands of trees along the pipeline corridor in North Dakota. The company said it was still complying with a settlement of allegations it violated state rules during construction.
Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), which built the $3.8bn pipeline that is now moving North Dakota oil to Illinois, is falling back on a provision of the September 2017 agreement that provides more time should the company run into problems. The company must provide 20,000 trees to county soil conservation districts along the pipeline’s 359-mile route in North Dakota.
The deal with North Dakota’s public service commission settled allegations that ETP removed too many trees in some areas and that it improperly handled a pipeline route change after discovering Native American artifacts.
The agreement required the company to replant trees and shrubs at a higher ratio in the disputed areas, along with an additional 20,000 trees along the entire route. ETP filed documents in October detailing efforts by a contractor to plant 141,000 trees and shrubs, but the PSC asked the company a month later to provide more documentation that it had complied with all settlement terms.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/01/dakota-access-pipeline-energy-transfer-partners-plant-trees-deadline
But this fucking firm can hire thugs to water cannon and pepper spray people, fighting for their sacred burial grounds..................
Marine's shooting death inside DC barracks being investigated as an accident
Source: WTOP NEWS
By Zeke Hartner
and Teta Alim
January 1, 2019 5:55 pm
WASHINGTON — D.C. police are investigating the death of a U.S. Marine who was shot and killed Tuesday morning at the Marine Barracks Washington as an apparent accident.
The Marine was shot around 5 a.m. while he was on duty inside the barracks on Capitol Hill. It was not a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Marine Corps spokesman Chief Gunnery Sgt. John Jackson confirmed to WTOP. Police said it appeared that a gun accidentally discharged.
Police said they are treating the fatal shooting as a death investigation, and added that there are no criminal charges being investigated at this point.
The investigation is still ongoing, and the Marine’s name has not yet been made public. There was no threat to local residents, the Marine Corps said in a news release.
“The command’s priorities are to take care of the Marine’s family and friends,” said Col. Don Tomich, the barracks’ commanding officer, in the release. “We want to ensure these personnel are being provided for during this challenging time.”
Read more: https://wtop.com/dc/2019/01/marines-shooting-death-inside-dc-barracks-being-investigated-as-an-accident/
Conservative Supreme Court could reverse decades of First Amendment law
The American Legion and its supporters recently filed initial briefs in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association, a Supreme Court case to be argued in February concerning the constitutionality of a four-foot, 90-year-old memorial cross displayed and maintained by a state agency in Bladensburg, Maryland. Depending on how the court rules, however, much more is at stake.
Now that the court has turned decidedly to the right with the confirmation of President Trump’s nominees, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, the American Legion’s lawyers and supporters are arguing that the court should upend numerous court decisions and rule that government can legally take action to promote or endorse a specific religion. This would effectively turn those who do not believe in that religion into second-class citizens.
Specifically, even though the formal questions presented in the case relate narrowly to whether the Bladensburg cross violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, the first legal argument in the American Legion’s brief proclaims broadly that “coercion, not endorsement, is the proper standard” to judge Establishment Clause claims. Former Reagan Justice Department lawyer Michael Carvin and the conservative First Liberty Institute urge in the brief that the court should “clarify” that “coercive state activity” is required to violate the First Amendment.
This should be “compulsion by law” to “coerce belief in, observance of, or financial support for religion” by government, they claim. It is perfectly legal for government to promote or endorse a religion, they assert, regardless of whether it results in “feelings of offense and exclusion,” since government is free to promote other non-religious messages even if some disagree. Friend-of-the-court briefs by groups such as Liberty Counsel, the Becket Fund, and the American Association of Christian Schools make similar arguments.
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/423129-conservative-supreme-court-could-reverse-decades-of-first-amendment-law
-snip-
Of course, none of this needs to, or should, happen as a result of this Bladensburg case. Even the American Legion’s brief acknowledges that the court can uphold the presence of the memorial cross without changing Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and hopefully at least one of the court’s five conservative members, such as Chief Justice Roberts, will see no need to go as far as far-right advocates are pushing.
But if the five Trump- and Bush-appointed justices adopt the coercion test being pushed by the American Legion and its allies, all Americans will suffer the consequences. Such a decision would be only among the first in which the current 5-4 majority overrules precedent and harms our rights and liberties.
Elliot Mincberg is a senior fellow at People For the American Way and a former chief oversight counsel for the House Judiciary Committee.
U.S. Navy pursuing block buy of two aircraft carriers: senator
POLITICS DECEMBER 31, 2018 / 7:23 PM / UPDATED 16 HOURS AGO
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has informed lawmakers of its intent to pursue a block purchase of two Ford-class aircraft carriers, Senator Tim Kaine’s office said on Monday, a step officials have said could save billions of dollars as the Trump administration tries to expand the size of the fleet.
The decision comes nine months after the Navy expressed interest in a block buy and asked shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries for detailed pricing on the cost of two aircraft carriers as it considered doubling its order for the most expensive ship in the U.S. fleet in a bid to save money.
The Navy commissioned the first Ford-class aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, in July 2017, three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. The Ford cost about $13 billion.
The Navy has said it would spend about $43 billion in total to build the first three ships in the Ford class. Huntington Ingalls Chief Executive Mike Petters has said multi-ship purchases are the best way to reduce costs.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-defense-carriers/u-s-navy-pursuing-block-buy-of-two-aircraft-carriers-senator-idUSKCN1OV189
Retired U.S. Marine suspected of spying on Russia is innocent: family
Source: Reuters
brielle Tétrault-Farber, Barbara Goldberg
MOSCOW/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A retired U.S. Marine detained by Russia on spying charges was visiting Moscow for a wedding and is innocent, his family said on Tuesday
Paul Whelan was staying with the wedding party for a fellow former Marine at the Metropol hotel in Moscow when his brother David Whelan learned on Monday that he had been detained.
“His innocence is undoubted and we trust that his rights will be respected,” his family said in a statement released on Twitter on Tuesday.
Russia’s FSB state security service said the American had been detained on Friday, but it gave no details of the nature of his alleged espionage activities. Under Russian law, espionage can carry between 10 and 20 years in prison.
A U.S. State Department representative said Russia had notified it that a U.S. citizen had been detained and it expected Moscow to provide consular access to see him.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-espionage/retired-u-s-marine-suspected-of-spying-on-russia-is-innocent-family-idUSKCN1OV1NZ?il=0
Queen's ..............Brian May - New Horizons (Ultima Thule Mix) [Official Music Video]
NASA spacecraft opens new year at tiny, icy world past Pluto
By MARCIA DUNN today
LAUREL, Md. (AP) — The NASA spacecraft that yielded the first close-up views of Pluto opened the new year at an even more distant world, a billion miles beyond.
Flight controllers said everything looked good for New Horizons’ flyby of the tiny, icy object at 12:33 a.m. Tuesday. Confirmation was not expected for hours, though, given the vast distance.
The mysterious, ancient target nicknamed Ultima Thule is 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) from Earth.
Scientists wanted New Horizons observing Ultima Thule during the encounter, not phoning home. So they had to wait until late morning before learning whether the spacecraft survived.
With New Horizons on autopilot, Mission Control was empty at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Instead, hundreds of team members and their guests gathered nearby on campus for back-to-back countdowns.
The crowd ushered in 2019 at midnight, then cheered, blew party horns and jubilantly waved small U.S. flags again 33 minutes later, the appointed time for New Horizons’ closest approach to Ultima Thule.
https://www.apnews.com/a3f0cf63780541a69923d59ce9d84b09
-snip-
“I can’t promise you success. We are straining the capabilities of this spacecraft,” Stern said at a news conference Monday. “By tomorrow, we’ll know how we did. So stay tuned. There are no second chances for New Horizons.”
The risk added to the excitement.
Queen guitarist Brian May, who also happens to be an astrophysicist, joined the team at Johns Hopkins for a midnight premiere of the rock ‘n’ roll song he wrote for the big event.
“We will never forget this moment,” said May who led the New Year’s countdown. “This is completely unknown territory.”
Despite the government shutdown, several NASA scientists and other employees showed up at Johns Hopkins as private citizens, unwilling to miss history in the making.
Dedicated scientists and a Rock Legend....................who is a astrophysicist............
NASA spacecraft opens new year at tiny, icy world past Pluto
Queen guitarist Brian May, who also happens to be an astrophysicist, joined the team at Johns Hopkins for a midnight premiere of the rock ‘n’ roll song he wrote for the big event.
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