March 31, 2018

activists rent room in nyc trump hotel and(temporarily) release rats and dismantle room

vhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5565155/Activists-release-live-rodents-Trump-hotel-room-unauthorized-art-installation.html

'He deserves to be imprisoned with his own breed': Masked protesters release live RATS inside a Trump hotel room and put a mock POTUS in a locked cage filled with McDonald's wrappers
Activist group INDECLINE rented a suite at Trump International Hotel in New York City on Thursday
Seven masked artists removed the room's paintings and furniture and made it look like a grungy prison, adding a cage where a Trump impersonator sat
He was surrounded by rats, McDonald's wrappers, and portraits of 'American Revolutionaries' such as Muhammad Ali painted on U.S. flags

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5565155/Activists-release-live-rodents-Trump-hotel-room-unauthorized-art-installation.html#v-210964987107520645

March 31, 2018

Oklahoma (49th in pay) educators donate plasma, use food pantries, work 2nd jobs to survive

TULSA — For the superintendent of this city’s public schools, the signs that her teachers are struggling can be found everywhere.

At a local restaurant, it was a teacher who served Deborah Gist recently. At the Reasor’s grocery, there’s sometimes a teacher behind the register. And then there was the Uber that the school district chief hailed to catch an early-morning flight — a teacher sat behind the wheel, trying to earn some money before heading to the classroom. There was a stack of student journals on the passenger seat.

“It’s just so wrong that it just hurts my heart,” said Gist, who has been superintendent since 2015.

Oklahoma’s teachers are among the nation’s lowest paid, and ­despite the governor and lawmakers approving a $6,100 raise this week, educators pledge to walk out Monday if their full demands — including reversal of budget cuts — are not met. For a decade, little has been done to address the plight of the state’s teachers. It is a situation that has forced many to take second jobs, rely on food pantries and donate their plasma to pay the bills.

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“We had been talking about it forever,” said Randi Cowan, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa who earned $33,746 last year and lives in a home built by Habitat for Humanity. “But then somebody else did it and .?.?. it just ignited our fire.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/it-just-hurts-my-heart-low-pay-big-classes-are-the-plight-of-oklahoma-teachers/2018/03/30/e5e10eb8-2c88-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html?utm_term=.638da42683a1

March 31, 2018

Trump's fire alarm presidency

We have seen and heard President Donald Trump take so many actions that unsettle the stability of our democracy that we are reaching a point where this is simply becoming the new normal. The danger is that when an alarm goes off that we really can't afford to ignore, we won't take it seriously. Too many people will say that it's just Trump being Trump. Everything will be ok -- until it is not.

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Trump has pummeled our sense of convention to the point where it might be impossible to return to where we were even in the days when President Barack Obama finished his term -- and politics was already pretty crazy by 2016.

President Trump has shattered almost all norms of behavior, randomly attacking institutions that are vital to our democracy: His Twitter-based communications strategy has the potential to create dangerous situations. Unedited and provocative statements from the President can have huge ramifications. So far, the nation has been lucky, even though Trump has taken an ad hoc approach to leadership that leaves the government handling almost every issue with no clear plan.

Sometimes improvisation can result in good things, but other times it is a recipe for disaster. It is the chaos theory of governance. Throw things out in the wind, react and respond, and hope for the best.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/opinions/immune-to-trump-presidency-zelizer-opinion/index.html

March 31, 2018

oman selling her Sacramento home refuses to let a Trump supporter move in

https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/homeowner-sell-trump-supporters-republican-12795014.php

A woman selling a Sacramento home that's been in her family for decades says she's not about to pass it on to just anyone; the buyer will have to possess a certain political disposition.

As CBS Sacramento reports, the woman, who was not identified, is refusing to sell the house to anyone who voted for Donald Trump.

"I told her [the realtor] that I didn't want her to sell it to a Trump supporter," she said to CBS 13 in the video above. "When you're talking about principles, morals, and ethics, it's very, very deep."

There is, however, a respite for such prospective conservative home buyers: The woman's efforts to sell only to those aligning with her politics may not be totally legal.

March 30, 2018

Cheetah jumps into SUV during Safari

https://www.wptv.com/news/world/cheetah-jumps-into-mans-jeep-in-africa

March 30, 2018

U.S. visa applicants to be asked for social media history

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-visa/u-s-visa-applicants-to-be-asked-for-social-media-history-state-department-idUSKBN1H611P?feedType=RSS&feedName=newsOne&google_editors_picks=true

In a broad expansion of the information gathered from applicants for U.S. visas, the federal government is proposing to collect social media identities from nearly everyone who seeks entry into the United States, according to a State Department filing on Friday.

The proposal, if approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would require most immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to list all social media identities they have used in the past five years.

The information will be used to vet and identify them, according to the proposals, which would affect about 14.7 million people annually.

The proposals support President Donald Trump’s promise to institute “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the United states to prevent terrorism.

March 29, 2018

pics of one of Volkswagon's 37 car boneyards - Victorville CA

I wonder how the keys are managed? Are they in the ignition?







Why 300,000 Volkswagens Are Being Stored In These Massive Auto Boneyards

As part of the settlement after it got caught cheating on its emissions tests, Volkswagen has bought back about 350,000 of its U.S. diesel vehicles. The automaker has to date spent more than $7.4 billion on the cars, according to court filings seen by Reuters.

Where does VW put all those cars? Wherever it can find the space.

The German automaker has 37 remote storage facilities around the country, and they're not just parking lots. The sites include a former football stadium in the Detroit suburbs, an old paper mill in Minnesota and a giant patch of land in the California desert.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/597991227/why-300-000-volkswagens-are-being-stored-in-these-massive-auto-boneyards

March 29, 2018

Chef carved raw deer leg in front of vegans

The vegans planned their protest for the middle of the restaurant’s busy dinnertime shift.

The group of animal rights activists were incensed that Antler Kitchen & Bar, a locavore restaurant in Toronto that says it highlights regional ingredients, served foie gras and farmed meat “meant to run in the wild.” So a group of them stood in front last week chanting “you’ve got blood on your hands,” and holding a banner that read MURDER in hot pink lettering.

Then came the counterprotest.

Michael Hunter, a chef and co-owner of the restaurant appeared in its window with a raw deer leg and a sharp knife, when he began to carve up the meat in full view of the protesters, some of whom later said they were disturbed for days, according to news reports.

“I figured, I’ll show them,” Hunter told the Globe and Mail. “I’m going to have my own protest.”

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Video shows him cutting up the leg, slicing the red meat away from the bone, as protesters decry the “recently murdered deer,” and ask police at the protest if what the chef is doing is legal. At one point, the officers enter the restaurant to talk to Hunter.








https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2018/03/28/the-vegans-came-to-protest-his-restaurant-so-this-chef-carved-a-deer-leg-in-the-window/?utm_term=.10cc505e2387

March 28, 2018

H&M unsold clothes total $4.3 billion, burning products powers power plant

n the world of fashion retailing, where shopping is fast moving online and stores try to keep inventories closely matched to sales, even a small stack of unsold clothes can be a bad sign.

What about a $4.3 billion pile of shirts, dresses and accessories? That is the problem facing H&M, the Swedish fashion retailer, which is struggling with a mounting stack of unsold inventory.

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The scale of the problem illustrates H&’s vast size — as one of the world’s largest clothing manufacturers, it produces hundreds of millions of items each year. There are so many that a power plant in Vasteras, the town where H&M founded its first store, relies partly on burning defective products the retailer cannot sell to create energy.

Analysts have been pressing Karl-Johan Persson, the company’s chief executive, over the issue. Inventory levels were up, Mr. Persson said, because H&M was opening 220 new stores and expanding its e-commerce operations, and so needed to fill the racks.

Critics, however, blamed poor inventory management and underwhelming product offerings, prompting once-loyal shoppers to take their wallets elsewhere.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hm-clothes-stock-sales.html

March 28, 2018

An unheard-of problem: The President can't find a lawyer

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/politics/donald-trump-lawyer/index.html



Five large law firms are passing on the opportunity to represent the President after a shakeup last week on his private defense team and as he anticipates giving possible testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Well-known Washington lawyers cited several reasons for declining the President in recent weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with their decisions. Among them, Trump appears to be a difficult client and has rebuked some of his lawyers' advice. He's perceived as so politically unpopular he may damage reputations rather than boost them. Lawyers at large firms fear backlash from their corporate clients if they were to represent the President. And many want to steer clear of conflicts of interest that could complicate their other obligations.

"With a figure who is as polarizing as the President, it makes the decision about whether to represent him a more difficult one," said Philip West, chairman of large Washington law firm Steptoe & Johnson. The firm was among several to decline to represent Trump last year. "Any large law firm has clients that have very strong feelings."

Boutrous added the President is a "notoriously difficult client who disregards the advice of his lawyers and asks them to engage in questionable activities."