Where was Obama during Hurricane Katrina? He definitely wasn't playing golf.

Lately, it seems like every time a news story comes up, so do unsubstantiated rumors — and thanks to both bots and retweets, those rumors can often make it further than the real news does. On Tuesday, one such rumor went viral, with bots responding to any criticism of President Trump's response to Hurricane Harvey with: "Well, where was Obama during Hurricane Katrina?"

The question usually came with a derogatory comment or two about President Obama being out golfing while the crisis devastated New Orleans.

In August 2005, Obama was still just a senator from Illinois. Katrina swept the country a good three years before Obama was sworn into office for the first time in 2009.

The man leading the country at that point was President George W. Bush, and his response to Katrina was so badly received that one Vanity Fair writer called the hurricane "the flood that sunk George W. Bush."

And guess what? Despite not being president, he still wasn't out golfing or on vacation. At that time, he went out to meet Katrina evacuees in Houston, Texas. Afterwards, he spoke frankly about the federal response to the hurricane.

So no, once more: Obama was not president during Hurricane Katrina. Nor was he golfing. Bush was president. It might seem like an easy fact that doesn't need to be repeated, but it does. Because the thing is, bots may be the ones mainly spreading this fake information online, but real people are reading it and accepting it as truth.

In fact, one 2013 poll found that a shocking 29% of Louisiana Republicans believed Obama was responsible for the federal response to Katrina, according to HuffPost.

That's a dangerous amount of people who have one really key fact entirely wrong, and as one Twitter user put it: "That's how propaganda starts."

At: https://www.romper.com/p/where-was-obama-during-hurricane-katrina-he-definitely-wasnt-playing-golf-guys-79818

Joel Osteen refuses to open his megachurch to hurricane victims

Joel Osteen, the “prosperity” preacher who has made a fortune grifting off the generosity of his devout flock, has endured a withering barrage of criticism from social media for his refusal to open the doors to his 16,000-capacity megachurch to help house the environmental refugees of Hurricane Harvey.

Actor Ron Perlman of Sons of Anarchy fame had a very snarky response to Osteen’s hypocrisy, rightfully calling him out for being more concerned with the cleanliness and propriety of his church than the Christian values of charity and support that he pretends to embody.

Perlman tweeted simply: “Concerned someone might track mud on the carpets?”

Joel Osteen is the very worst kind of human being and an absolute disgrace to all those who call themselves religious.

He is a financial predator of the worst kind, a pernicious agent of mammon who exploits the generosity and the faith of his flock to live a lifestyle of heretical luxury and sinful excess.

At: https://extremelifex.com/2017/08/29/joel-osteen-refuses-to-open-his-church-to-hurricane-victims-actor-ron-perelmans-response-is-great/

Osteen's Houston megachurch. No room for evacuees; plenty of room for suckers.

Rights commission urges Argentina to find missing activist

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is urging Argentina to find a missing activist last seen when police evicted a group of Mapuche Indians from lands owned by Italian clothing company Benetton.

The commission’s president said Thursday that Argentina should investigate the Aug. 1 disappearance of 28-year-old Santiago Maldonado and make its findings public.

Maldonado’s family and numerous witnesses say border police detained him when he and others were blocking a road in Chubut Province, in Patagonia. The protesters were demanding the release of a jailed Mapuche leader wanted by Chile. Authorities deny any wrongdoing.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich faced calls to resign this week after giving false testimony in Congress and later divulging the name of a man, Ariel Garzi, who had been at the site of Maldonado's disappearance and was under witness protection.

Maldonado’s case has sparked protests in Argentina, where an estimated 30,000 people died or disappeared during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

The IACHR has also condemned the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration for its arbitrary detention of indigenous activist Milagro Sala, whom the commission on July 28 demanded be granted house arrest after verifying she had been mistreated in prison.

At: https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/world/the_americas/human-rights-body-urges-argentina-to-find-missing-activist/2017/08/24/8d60803a-88f4-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html

Polish-Argentine writer and Holocaust survivor Jack Fuchs dies at 93

Polish-Argentine writer Jack Fuchs, who became the voice of Argentina's community of Holocaust survivors through books, columns, lectures, and interviews, died Friday in Buenos Aires. He was 93.

Born Yankele Fuks, the second of four brothers in a Jewish family in Łódź, Poland, in 1924, his otherwise happy childhood was turned upside down by the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. His family, like most of Łódź's Jews, were banished to a designated ghetto in 1940, and in August 1944 he and his family were deported to Auschwitz.

Selected by his Nazi captors to work in Dachau, he never saw his family again.

"On May 8, 1945, the horror came to an end," Fuchs recalled. "I remember the feeling as we got off the train the Nazis had put us in to make sure no witnesses remained alive. Allied planes had bombed the train, and I felt I had died."

"I walked through the Bavarian countryside and fell from exhaustion in a farm. For days a German family fed me, and then took me to the Allied hospital in Saint Ottilien Monastery. That's how I spent the end of the war. I had lost everyone at Auschwitz, and was alive - despite being sentenced to die like millions of other people."

Fuchs emigrated to the United States in 1946, and in 1963 to Argentina - home to Latin America's largest Jewish community. He settled in Buenos Aires, married a woman from France, and together ran a small garment mill. For Fuchs, the demanding nature of the business was also a way to bury wartime memories.

"I could only think of how to start over," he said. "You cannot live with pain. Nature itself helps you by creating a filter. One does not commit to remember or forget; you simply go on."

Long reluctant to speak of the Holocaust even with family members, Fuchs was interviewed on the subject by the Steven Spielberg Foundation in 1993. The experience encouraged him to share his memories with the broader public, and he quickly became a favorite in lecture and interview circuits in universities and other institutions across Argentina.

Fuchs authored numerous columns for the left-leaning Buenos Aires daily Página/12, authored two books - Time to Remember (1995) and Dilemmas of Memory (2006) - and was the subject of a 2012 documentary, The Tree on the Wall. He was named an Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires in 2010.

"The end of the war also meant trying to understand man's war against himself," he once noted. "That's the war behind all the others."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F58981-la-ultima-muerte-de-jack-fuchs&edit-text=

Jack Fuchs, 1924-2017.

Trump pardons controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Source: ABC News

Controversial former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Friday after being found guilty in July on criminal contempt charges stemming from his refusal to stop imprisoning suspected illegal immigrants.

"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is [a] worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon," the White House said in part in a press release.

Arpaio, an outspoken critic of undocumented migrants as well as an ardent supporter of Trump, appeared on the presidential campaign trail with the Republican candidate in 2016.

He was said to be under consideration for a pardon last week by Trump, and was all but promised clemency by the president during a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/controversial-arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-pardoned-president-trump/story?id=49426093

Bill Nye sues Disney for $9.35 million in missing Science Guy profits

Source: Fortune

TV personality and climate activist Bill Nye on Thursday filed a suit Thursday claiming that the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries improperly claimed more than $37 million in revenue generated by "Bill Nye the Science Guy," a children’s science show that aired on PBS from 1993 to 1998.

According to the suit, Nye and his producers signed a distribution deal with Buena Vista Television, a Disney subsidiary, in 1993, entitling the show’s creators to 50% of net profits from the show.

In 2008, Buena Vista issued Nye a check for $585,123 for his share of that year’s profits. But within months, Buena Vista, claiming it had made an accounting error, demanded most of that payment be returned.

In the course of the ensuing dispute, Nye’s team discovered that Buena Vista had made huge and "suspicious" expense deductions against the show’s $26 million in gross revenue, vastly reducing profits owed to Nye.

Read more: http://fortune.com/2017/08/25/bill-nye-sues-disney-missing-profits/

Pastor Rick Joyner says that God will destroy anyone who gets in the way of Donald Trump

Somehow, despite his vulgarity, disrespect towards women, bragging about sexual assault, and nearly everything else about him, most conservative Christians still support Donald Trump and believe God sent him to “save America,” and that God will protect the president.

That’s exactly what far-right pastor Rick Joyner said in a video he posted on Facebook last Thursday.

He dismissed recent news that Robert Mueller had issued grand jury subpoenas for Trump’s financial records. And he had a warning: God will take out anyone who tries to take down President Trump.

“God's going to transform our news media; Trump isn’t going anywhere,” he said. “Watch everybody fall who goes after him. Watch it.”

“It’s because he has a divine purpose,” Joyner added. “God put him there, and only God is going to be able to take him out. You watch what happens to everyone else who tries. Watch what happens to our Congress, watch what happens to Republicans who are obstructionist and devious in their methods too - who claim to be one thing and turn out to be the opposite. Watch what God does in these days.”

The Orange County, CA, based pastor - who purchased part of the disgraced Jim Bakker's former Heritage USA theme park in 2004 - added that “for the most part, everybody’s having the time of their life” in the Trump Administration.

At: https://www.usamagazine.net/pastor-rick-joyner-says-that-god-will-destroy-anyone-who-gets-in-the-way-of-donald-trump-video/

Thou tempteth fate, Brother Rick

Argentine unions lead march against labor flexibilization and higher retirement age proposals

Argentina's three main labor federations and numerous social advocacy groups marched in Buenos Aires today in opposition to labor law flexibilization and pension reform proposals being pushed by President Mauricio Macri.

Converging in downtown Buenos Aires, marchers and labor leaders called for the defense of jobs, free collective bargaining, rejection of pension and labor reform, and a dignified retirement.

They also demanded that Santiago Maldonado, a missing 28 year-old activist, be found alive. Maldonado was arrested on August 1 while supporting a protest by the indigenous Mapuche people against encroachment on sacred lands in Patagonia, and has not been seen since.

Today's demonstration was announced on Friday after an agreement between the nation's largest labor federation, the CGT, and the more left-leaning Worker's CTA and Autonomous CTA federations.

Playing for keeps

Historically beset by divisiveness, Argentina's labor movement has achieved a nearly-unprecedented unity since Macri took office 20 months ago.

Free trade policies and massive utility rate hikes have earned him political support from business groups and the IMF - as well as a record $116 billion in new foreign loans.

Critics, however, note sharply higher prices, a wave of small business failures, higher unemployment, a doubling in capital flight, and - confounding market analyst predictions - a 64% collapse in foreign direct investment.

"They do this every time," CGT leader Juan Carlos Schmidt reminded the audience. "They demand sacrifices from us while encouraging short-term speculation - and once they've make their killing, leave us all holding the bag."

While numerous union demonstrations have taken place against the right-wing Macri administration (including a general strike on April 6), Macri's recent bid for labor law deregulation and for raising the retirement age to 67 galvanized the nation's labor and social organizations alike.

"They're playing for keeps. The government would like to do away with the entire labor movement - not just this labor leader or that," former House Speaker Leopoldo Moreau explained. "People are trying to protect their living standards and labor rights, and don't want to return to pre-1916 conditions."

From the ATM to McDonald's

Known in Argentina as the "McDonald's bill" after it was revealed that the U.S. based fast-food giant helped craft it, Macri's labor reform proposals seek a return to the lax labor law environment of the 1990s, when similar bills were passed in 1992 and 2000.

The work week rose from 40 to 48 hours, short-term trial employment was encouraged, and layoffs were made simpler and less costly. But rather than create jobs, unemployment jumped from 7% in 1992 to 24% in 2002, and the incidence of unregistered workers doubled to 45%.

The 2000 labor bill became known as the "ATM bill" once it emerged that President Fernando de la Rúa, a vocal supporter of Macri's policies, had State Intelligence bribe a number of senators to obtain its passage.

Amid a record collapse and rioting, de la Rúa resigned the following year.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F58116-contra-la-flexibilizacion-y-a-favor-del-empleo



Bank workers' leader Sergio Palazzo addresses demonstrators: "There are more than enough reasons for today's mobilization."

Trump Spiritual Advisor Paula White: "if you oppose Trump, you're fighting against the Hand of God"

Right-wing pastor Jim Bakker interviewed televangelist Paula White, one of President Trump’s key spiritual advisers, on his television program today, where she declared that opposition to the president is opposition to God and explicitly praised Trump for not sounding or acting presidential.

“Thank goodness he’s not a polished politician. In other words: whether people like him or not, he’s been raised up by God because God says that He raises up and places all people in places of authority. It is God that raises up a king, it is God that sets one down and so when you fight against the plan of God, you’re fighting against the hand of God.”

Later in the show, when Paula White declared that Christians “were sent here to take over,” the host Jim Bakker excitedly agreed, asserting “that’s why we have the president we have!”

White then proceeded to sell “resurrection seeds” for $1144 - a price she claims was personally set by God.

At: http://www.nova-magazine.net/trump-spiritual-advisor-paula-white-when-you-oppose-president-trump-you-are-fighting-against-the-hand-of-god-video/

Paula White and benefactor. Blasphemy may not be the best idea at the moment.

Land worth $51 million adds to list of undisclosed assets belonging to Argentina's Macri

Documents obtained from the Buenos Aires Province Revenue Agency (ARBA) have uncovered real estate owned by Argentine President Mauricio Macri worth over ten times the value of assets he had declared in his legally required financial disclosure statements.

The land, 32.5 hectares (80 acres) in the Buenos Aires suburb of Bella Vista, has a tax valuation of 122 million pesos ($7 million); but its current market value is estimated at 900 million to one billion pesos ($51-56 million).

Macri had denied ownership of the property in a 2012 Perfil story, claiming at the time that he had "sold the land years ago to the Eidico company, which was responsible for the commercialization of said neighborhood." The neighborhood, the Buenos Aires Village gated community, comprises 250 residential lots averaging 915 m² (9,850 ft²); one of the few remaining unbuilt lots is currently on the market for $220,000.

The property adds to a lengthy list of undisclosed assets belonging to the Argentine president, the first of which emerged during last year's Panama Papers scandal. The ICIJ investigation revealed over 50 offshore shell companies worth at least $55 million in which he was either sole proprietor or controlled through a partnership or trust (typically with family members or relatives).

His family conglomerate, Socma, was recently found to be in partnership with the disgraced Brazilian public contractor Odebrecht in the Blackwood Group, an Antigua & Barbuda-registered consulting firm operating from the same bank branch that Odebrecht used to funnel over $1.6 billion in bribes to officials and influential individuals in 12 countries.

None had been declared in his annual financial disclosure statement, as required by Argentine law of all elected officials and candidates to public office.

Money laundering and tax evasion charges against Macri and his relatives languished in Argentina's criminal courts for over a year, and were remanded on August 3 to a civil court. "I'm glad it's over," Macri declared at the time.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F57798-negro-el-diez&edit-text=