Demovictory9
Demovictory9's JournalTrump rushes into damage control, blames media, recasts comment
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/13/trump-tweet-interference-1363403Trump rushes into damage control after saying he’d accept foreign help in 2020
The president, who said he talks to foreign leaders every day, turned to his familiar tactic of blaming the media.
President Donald Trump and his senior advisers moved quickly on Thursday to downplay and muddle his explosive assertion that he might not report to the FBI offers of election help from a foreign entity.
As Trump's Democratic opponents eviscerated him and one of his leading Republican supporters called his comments a "mistake," the president tried to recast his remarks, drawing a misleading comparison between accepting dirt from a foreign agent and his recent conversations with Queen Elizabeth and other world leaders.
“I meet and talk to ‘foreign governments’ every day. I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Wales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland. We talked about ‘Everything!’” Trump wrote on Twitter across a pair of tweets, correcting an initial misspelling of Wales. “Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again.”
Every president regularly communicates with other heads of state. Accepting negative information from a foreign agent about a campaign opponent is a different matter, however. It is a crime for a campaign to solicit or accept something of value from a foreign entity, which some lawyers say could apply to information.
hypocrite of the year: politician who had his big medical bill paid by medicaid, opposes for others
:large
https://twitter.com/Gr3Te4rights/status/1139431707550072833
https://arktimes.com/columns/max-brantley/2014/02/27/rep-josh-miller-recipient-of-significant-government-assistance-opposes-medicaid-expansion-in-arkansas
Miller is of interest because he’s a well-known beneficiary of federal government support himself.
Miller, 33, was on an alcohol-fueled drive with a friend about 11 years ago (he can’t remember who was driving) when their pickup plunged off a ravine near Choctaw. He was rescued, but suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed. Miller was uninsured. What young, fit man needs health insurance, he thought then. (He had some reason to know better. Not long before, he’d broken his hand in a fight and had to refuse the recommended surgery to fix the injuries properly because he was uninsured.)
Months of hospitalization and rehabilitation followed, including a long stretch in intensive care at St. Vincent Infirmary. There was a $1 million bill. Medicaid paid most of it. Miller was placed on disability and checks began. In time, between Medicaid and Medicare, all his health costs were covered by the federal government. For that reason, he need not be among the 82 Arkansas legislators (61 percent of the body) who enjoy heavily subsidized and comprehensive state employee health insurance.
Health insurance isn’t Miller’s only government benefit. Another federal Medicaid program for which he qualifies provides daily personal care assistance.
Between the government-paid trauma care, ongoing Medicare and Medicaid coverage, government-provided personal assistant and his own grit, Miller has made a full life. He manages a rental property business (some government-subsidized renters are among his tenants) and serves as a legislator.
"Unprecedented" deficits announced this week
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-budget-deficit-tariffs-china-trump-20190612-story.html?outputType=amp-------'
Discussed on npr this morning. Huge jump in deficits while economy is growing, never happens except during vietnam war
Trump's latest stupid remark
“Behind me I had homebuilders and farmers mostly and ranchers,” Trump said. “And many of them never cried in their life, including when they were born, and they were crying.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-colbert-trump-babies_n_5d01ad2ee4b0985c4197998f
Women seeking abortions turn to volunteer network for help
The work of a nationwide network of volunteers and nonprofit groups that assist women trying to end unwanted pregnancies has reemerged as new state restrictions on abortion threaten to force women to travel farther, pay more and wait longer for the procedure.
The groups, which help with the cost and logistics of travel, lodging, food, child care and the abortion procedure itself, say they’re working harder and spending more. They’ve also seen an increase in donations for aid to the low-income women who have three-quarters of U.S. abortions and who are most of their clients.
Leah Greenblum, founder of one of the groups, the Midwest Access Coalition, said her group will aid 240 to 360 women this year, up from 185 in 2018 and compared with just 35 for all of 2015.
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For some, the need for stepped-up help is an unwelcome reminder of the efforts of groups such as the Jane Collective, which covertly assisted women seeking abortions before the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized them.
“It’s the present,” said Yamani Hernandez, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. “And it’s going to continue to be the present until we see some radical change.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/women-seeking-abortions-turn-to-volunteer-network-for-help/2019/06/11/1b64c8a4-8890-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html?utm_term=.ea81e019ffd2
rescued elephant on her way to the sanctuary Elephant Nature Park.
https://twitter.com/Texas_Dexter/status/1138784648128008192Her name is Mee Boon. She spent most of her 50 years in a Thailand tourist park. She has been rescued and is on her way to the sanctuary Elephant Nature Park.
prison guards wheel inmate to a tucked away cell for a beat down. Didnt know cameras were rolling
https://nypost.com/video/prison-guards-brutally-beat-inmate-strapped-to-a-chair-video/Central Park 5 prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer resigns as Columbia law prof after black student protest
Central Park 5 prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer resigns as Columbia law prof after black student protest
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-central-park-5-lederer-columbia-black-law-students-20190612-a6rqou3hdvhyljpzkzafqtncca-story.html
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lederer, a prosecutor in the overturned Central Park 5 conviction, resigned Wednesday from Columbia Law School where she served as a part-time professor after a group of black students called on her to quit.
Controversy over the conviction of the men has been reignited after the release of an fictionalized version of the events, called “When They See Us," airing on Netflix.
“The mini-series has reignited a painful—and vital—national conversation about race, identity, and criminal justice. I am deeply committed to fostering a learning environment that furthers this important and ongoing dialogue, one that draws upon the lived experiences of all members of our community and actively confronts the most difficult issues of our time,” Dean Gillian Lester told Bloomberg News.
The Black Law Students Association, calling Lederer’s actions "racist,' demanded on Tuesday that the administration dump her from the faculty where she serves as a lecturer in law.
Venezuelans turn to reusing, repairing old items to survive economic crisis
https://nypost.com/2019/06/11/venezuelans-turn-to-reusing-repairing-old-items-to-survive-economic-crisis/A vendor sells used parts on the sidewalk in Caracas, Venezuela.
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CARACAS, Venezuela — In Venezuela, the financial hopes of Eliset González are riding on a niche trade.
Each day, González sits at a market kiosk in Caracas and repairs broken light bulbs for people who can’t afford new ones in the crisis-torn nation.
“I feel that with this I help the community, because these light bulbs are super expensive nowadays. I help myself as well,” said González, who learned how to disassemble and rewire a bulb while spending several years in prison for theft.
According to her calculations, a new compact fluorescent bulb can cost the equivalent of several dollars in Venezuela’s nearly worthless currency — or about a month’s wages. Even so, the quality is so poor they could last as little as a week.
A repair job, she said, can keep a bulb going for more than six months and costs a fraction of the price.
“I learned this in a penitentiary center where I was deprived of freedom, where I dedicated my time to study,” González said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Her odd job is an inventive response to the economic chaos gripping the once-wealthy oil nation, where severe shortages of food and medicine have driven more than 4 million Venezuelans to seek refuge around the world in recent years. Last year, soaring hyperinflation topped a staggering 1 million percent.
But as the country’s economy shrinks, González’s life is hardly unique.
In another part of the city, Vladimir Fajardo scrapes together money by recycling random objects.
Many days, he sits on a Caracas sidewalk and uses a sharpened spoon to build toy cars out of plastic bottles, installing an internal pulley system with strips of rubber to make sections of the car rotate. Each toy takes about a half hour to build.
“There are people who tell me, ‘What if I give you a dollar? Does a dollar help you?’” Fajardo said. ”‘Yes, give me a dollar’… With that I buy food.”
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