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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
April 15, 2019
At the White House
THE LONG CAMPAIGN: A video attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for the way she referenced 9/11, spliced with footage of the burning twin towers, still remains on President Trump's Twitter feed. And criticism from Democrats condemning Trump's Friday tweet, based on his interpretation of Omar's remarks made at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conference last month, swelled over the course of the weekend. Some were more forceful and explicit than others, however.
https://twitter.com/Ilhan/status/1117611712679694336
This isn't an easy issue for Democrats, fiercely divided over whether to officially rebuke Omar — one of the first Muslim congresswomen — for what some senior lawmakers in their party viewed as anti-Semitic rhetoric.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) first tweeted on Friday condemning Trump's politicization of 9/11: “The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.”
She followed up with a statement Sunday calling for Trump's “dangerous video” to be taken down and said that Capitol Police were conducting a security assessment to assure the safety of Omar, her family and staff.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) offered one of the first and most searing responses: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman — and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”
snip
WaPo Power Up: Trump's attacks on Omar are a test for Democrats
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/powerup/2019/04/15/powerup-trump-s-attacks-on-omar-are-a-test-for-democrats/5cb3b1aca7a0a475985bd436At the White House
THE LONG CAMPAIGN: A video attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for the way she referenced 9/11, spliced with footage of the burning twin towers, still remains on President Trump's Twitter feed. And criticism from Democrats condemning Trump's Friday tweet, based on his interpretation of Omar's remarks made at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conference last month, swelled over the course of the weekend. Some were more forceful and explicit than others, however.
“Since the President's tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in the direct threats on my life — many directly referencing or replying to the President's video,” Omar said in a statement released on Sunday evening. “We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.”
https://twitter.com/Ilhan/status/1117611712679694336
This isn't an easy issue for Democrats, fiercely divided over whether to officially rebuke Omar — one of the first Muslim congresswomen — for what some senior lawmakers in their party viewed as anti-Semitic rhetoric.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) first tweeted on Friday condemning Trump's politicization of 9/11: “The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.”
She followed up with a statement Sunday calling for Trump's “dangerous video” to be taken down and said that Capitol Police were conducting a security assessment to assure the safety of Omar, her family and staff.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) offered one of the first and most searing responses: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman — and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”
snip
April 14, 2019
Live Buttigieg campaign entrance
April 14, 2019
Jonathan Pie - Trump's Planet
April 11, 2019
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8840439/julian-assange-rape-accuser-demands-swedish-prosecutors-reopen-sex-crimes-case-against-wikileaks-chief/
ONE of Julian Assange's rape accusers has today demanded Swedish prosecutors re-open the sex assault case against him. Sweden dropped the charges in 2017 against the Wikileaks founder who was this morning arrested in London after being dragged out of exile from the Ecuadorian embassy.
The lawyer of one of the accusers said she hopes the Swedish preliminary investigation against Assange will resume.
Elisabeth Massi Fritz said: "My client and I have just received the news that Assange has been arrested.
“That what we have been waiting for and hoping for almost seven years now, of course, comes as a shock to my client.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that the prosecutors resume the Swedish preliminary investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape.”
In August 2010, an arrest warrant was issued for Assange for two separate allegations - one of rape and one of molestation - after he visited Sweden.
snip
Julian Assange rape accuser demands Swedish prosecutors reopen sex crimes case
Sweden dropped the charges in 2017 against the Wikileaks founder who was this morning arrested in London after being dragged out of exile from the Ecuadorian embassyhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8840439/julian-assange-rape-accuser-demands-swedish-prosecutors-reopen-sex-crimes-case-against-wikileaks-chief/
ONE of Julian Assange's rape accusers has today demanded Swedish prosecutors re-open the sex assault case against him. Sweden dropped the charges in 2017 against the Wikileaks founder who was this morning arrested in London after being dragged out of exile from the Ecuadorian embassy.
The lawyer of one of the accusers said she hopes the Swedish preliminary investigation against Assange will resume.
Elisabeth Massi Fritz said: "My client and I have just received the news that Assange has been arrested.
“That what we have been waiting for and hoping for almost seven years now, of course, comes as a shock to my client.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that the prosecutors resume the Swedish preliminary investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape.”
In August 2010, an arrest warrant was issued for Assange for two separate allegations - one of rape and one of molestation - after he visited Sweden.
snip
April 10, 2019
Scientists have finally captured the first direct image of a supermassive black hole.
The highly anticipated cosmic portrait belongs to the black hole at the center of Messier 87, the largest galaxy we know of, about 54 million light-years away.
The new image comes from the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of 10 radio telescopes spread across the planet and functioning as if it were a single receiver, one tuned to high-frequency radio waves. The image revealed Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington and in news conferences in six other cities across the globe shows the dark silhouette of the black hole against the hot, glowing material that surrounds it.
You’re basically looking at a supermassive black hole that’s almost the size of our solar system,” or 38 billion kilometers in diameter, said Sera Markoff, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam.
The image shows the boundary between light and dark around a black hole, called the event horizon — the point of no return, where the gravity of the black hole becomes so extreme that nothing that enters can ever escape. At the center of the black hole, time and space become so curved upon themselves that the laws of physics break down completely.
snip
See a black hole for the first time in a historic image from the Event Horizon Telescope
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/04/10/see-black-hole-first-time-images-event-horizon-telescopeScientists have finally captured the first direct image of a supermassive black hole.
The highly anticipated cosmic portrait belongs to the black hole at the center of Messier 87, the largest galaxy we know of, about 54 million light-years away.
The new image comes from the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of 10 radio telescopes spread across the planet and functioning as if it were a single receiver, one tuned to high-frequency radio waves. The image revealed Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington and in news conferences in six other cities across the globe shows the dark silhouette of the black hole against the hot, glowing material that surrounds it.
You’re basically looking at a supermassive black hole that’s almost the size of our solar system,” or 38 billion kilometers in diameter, said Sera Markoff, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam.
The image shows the boundary between light and dark around a black hole, called the event horizon — the point of no return, where the gravity of the black hole becomes so extreme that nothing that enters can ever escape. At the center of the black hole, time and space become so curved upon themselves that the laws of physics break down completely.
snip
April 10, 2019
https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/10/18302233/israel-election-results-benjamin-netanyahu-2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to hold on to power, winning what will be a record fifth term in office despite having faced a bruising reelection fight. The preliminary results from Israel’s Tuesday election have Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party getting 35 seats out of a total 120 seats in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). While Likud didn’t win an outright majority of seats, that’s typical in Israeli elections.
Party leaders generally become prime ministers by cobbling together a parliamentary majority with the help of smaller parties. In this case, a group of smaller right-wing parties expected to back Netanyahu seems to have captured 65 seats, enough to give him a 10 seat majority over the rival center-left bloc (the exact numbers could change as the remaining two percent of votes are tallied).
Netanyahu is now set to be the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history — even longer than David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister often described as “Israel’s George Washington.” And the ramifications of his fifth term could be enormous, both for the health of Israeli democracy and the fate of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The prime minister is facing a pending criminal indictment on bribery and fraud charges by Israel’s attorney general that’s likely to come down later this year. And now that Netanyahu has all but secured a victory, it’s possible his coalition could pass legislation protecting him from prosecution while in office, in essence letting him get away with his alleged crimes for the time being.
snip
Benjamin Netanyahu won Israel's election. Here's what comes next.
The Israeli prime minister appears to have won reelection. Now he has to beat legal charges.https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/10/18302233/israel-election-results-benjamin-netanyahu-2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to hold on to power, winning what will be a record fifth term in office despite having faced a bruising reelection fight. The preliminary results from Israel’s Tuesday election have Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party getting 35 seats out of a total 120 seats in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). While Likud didn’t win an outright majority of seats, that’s typical in Israeli elections.
Party leaders generally become prime ministers by cobbling together a parliamentary majority with the help of smaller parties. In this case, a group of smaller right-wing parties expected to back Netanyahu seems to have captured 65 seats, enough to give him a 10 seat majority over the rival center-left bloc (the exact numbers could change as the remaining two percent of votes are tallied).
Netanyahu is now set to be the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history — even longer than David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister often described as “Israel’s George Washington.” And the ramifications of his fifth term could be enormous, both for the health of Israeli democracy and the fate of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The prime minister is facing a pending criminal indictment on bribery and fraud charges by Israel’s attorney general that’s likely to come down later this year. And now that Netanyahu has all but secured a victory, it’s possible his coalition could pass legislation protecting him from prosecution while in office, in essence letting him get away with his alleged crimes for the time being.
snip
April 10, 2019
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has gained a fair share of attention—and blistering criticism—since floating the idea of an independent presidential candidacy earlier this year. Many Democrats saw the Brooklyn-born billionaire as another entitled executive, better off in Davos than playing a potential spoiler who could return the White House to President Donald Trump in 2020.
But Schultz, 65, who started his bus tour of middle America in Johnson County Tuesday afternoon, said he remains unfazed. “We expected what was going to come,” he said, sipping a Doubleshot Espresso as his private bus, tricked out with leather seats and plasma screens, headed west on I-70 toward Lawrence and the University of Kansas.
“I also think it’s a false narrative what they’re saying about I’m going to be a spoiler. Not true. Lifelong Republicans are going to be very interested in what I have to say on one issue alone -- and that is character. Lifelong republicans will not vote for a Democrat, especially one that represents socialist values.”
One other point:
“I’ve never been to Davos, just for the record.”
Although he hasn’t formally announced his candidacy (he plans to do so over the summer), that’s not stopping him from getting out on the trail. He plans to spend the rest of the week visiting Kansans before continuing on to Arizona and Utah.
snip
Starbucks founder, unfazed by brickbats, pitches Kansans on independent presidential bid
https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article229018284.htmlFormer Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has gained a fair share of attention—and blistering criticism—since floating the idea of an independent presidential candidacy earlier this year. Many Democrats saw the Brooklyn-born billionaire as another entitled executive, better off in Davos than playing a potential spoiler who could return the White House to President Donald Trump in 2020.
But Schultz, 65, who started his bus tour of middle America in Johnson County Tuesday afternoon, said he remains unfazed. “We expected what was going to come,” he said, sipping a Doubleshot Espresso as his private bus, tricked out with leather seats and plasma screens, headed west on I-70 toward Lawrence and the University of Kansas.
“I also think it’s a false narrative what they’re saying about I’m going to be a spoiler. Not true. Lifelong Republicans are going to be very interested in what I have to say on one issue alone -- and that is character. Lifelong republicans will not vote for a Democrat, especially one that represents socialist values.”
One other point:
“I’ve never been to Davos, just for the record.”
Although he hasn’t formally announced his candidacy (he plans to do so over the summer), that’s not stopping him from getting out on the trail. He plans to spend the rest of the week visiting Kansans before continuing on to Arizona and Utah.
snip
April 9, 2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/liberals-threaten-house-democrats-budget-plans-clouding-coming-fiscal-talks/2019/04/09/ed116e72-5ad0-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html?utm_term=.94111ee9397a
The development demonstrated the newfound clout of the most liberal members of the House, and their ability to frustrate their leaders’ plans if they stick together — much like the conservative Freedom Caucus routinely did when Republicans controlled the House. And it underscored divisions among House Democrats that have repeatedly forced them to focus on internal disputes instead of the governing agenda they hoped to celebrate as they approach 100 days in the majority. They will reach that milestone on Friday as they gather in Virginia for their annual retreat.
“We have to figure out whether we’re going to be able to govern,” Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday morning as plans to hold a vote on his legislation on Wednesday began to collapse.
At stake Tuesday was legislation setting overall federal spending levels for domestic and military programs that depend on annual congressional appropriations, including the Pentagon and agencies such as the Education and Health and Human Services departments that affect many Americans. (The bill would not set spending levels for programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are funded automatically.)
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus were pushing an amendment calling for higher levels of domestic spending. With Republicans expected to unanimously oppose the legislation, leaders could lose only 17 Democrats on the vote, giving the group of lawmakers the power to exact their demands.
snip
House Democrats cancel budget vote as liberals demand more spending on social programs
A liberal revolt forced House Democratic leaders to call off a planned vote on a two-year budget plan Tuesday, an embarrassing outcome for leadership that raised questions about Congress’ ability to solve huge spending fights that loom later this year.https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/liberals-threaten-house-democrats-budget-plans-clouding-coming-fiscal-talks/2019/04/09/ed116e72-5ad0-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html?utm_term=.94111ee9397a
The development demonstrated the newfound clout of the most liberal members of the House, and their ability to frustrate their leaders’ plans if they stick together — much like the conservative Freedom Caucus routinely did when Republicans controlled the House. And it underscored divisions among House Democrats that have repeatedly forced them to focus on internal disputes instead of the governing agenda they hoped to celebrate as they approach 100 days in the majority. They will reach that milestone on Friday as they gather in Virginia for their annual retreat.
“We have to figure out whether we’re going to be able to govern,” Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday morning as plans to hold a vote on his legislation on Wednesday began to collapse.
At stake Tuesday was legislation setting overall federal spending levels for domestic and military programs that depend on annual congressional appropriations, including the Pentagon and agencies such as the Education and Health and Human Services departments that affect many Americans. (The bill would not set spending levels for programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are funded automatically.)
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus were pushing an amendment calling for higher levels of domestic spending. With Republicans expected to unanimously oppose the legislation, leaders could lose only 17 Democrats on the vote, giving the group of lawmakers the power to exact their demands.
snip
April 8, 2019
2020 frontrunner Bernie Sanders is stalling over releasing his tax returns. Stephanie Ruhle discusses whether Sanders’ records contain anything that can drive his supporters away. Weighing in: MSNBC Contributor Victoria DeFrancisco Soto, Washington Post National Political Reporter Robert Costa, Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude and Commentary Magazine Associate Editor Noah Rothman.
MSNBC: Could Bernie Sanders' tax returns drive his supporters away?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/c/could-bernie-sanders-tax-returns-drive-his-supporters-away/vp-BBVJuOC2020 frontrunner Bernie Sanders is stalling over releasing his tax returns. Stephanie Ruhle discusses whether Sanders’ records contain anything that can drive his supporters away. Weighing in: MSNBC Contributor Victoria DeFrancisco Soto, Washington Post National Political Reporter Robert Costa, Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude and Commentary Magazine Associate Editor Noah Rothman.
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Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
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