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reality is the state of things as they actually exist
Aug 23, 2019
Real News Today
Aug 23, 2019
*After Trump broke his promise to eliminate the national debt, GOP senators say ‘next term’
(GOP Politics)
*Trump’s megachurch pastor goes off on Jewish Democrats: ‘I will curse those who curse you’
(Christianity)
*How the Koch brothers co-opted minority groups in a push for a profit-based approach to education
(Education)
*CEOs are starting to realize that greed isn’t so good after all
(Capitalism)
*'Keep Marysville white': racist remark by would-be mayor shocks Michigan city
(Amerikkkans)
*'It's devastating'. End of GM in Ohio town as Trump fails to bring back midwest jobs
(Payback)
*Amazon rainforest fires: global leaders urged to divert Brazil from 'suicide' path
(World)
(for previous day's articles see "what's inside" below)
comment/tweet of the day
So This Is Where We Are Now? We Have To Choose The MOST Outrageous Thing Trump Does In One Day To talk about?
TrollBuster9090 - Demo Underground
In ONE DAY, this crackpot....
1. Proves he's a Russian asset, by insisting that Putin's invasion of Crimea never happened, and Russia should be let back into the G8. But we're not talking about that because, ON THE SAME DAY he also...
2. Proved he's a NUTCASE by cancelling a state visit to Denmark because they wouldn't sell him Greenland. Something they never offered to do in the first place.He just pulled it out of his ass. But we're not talking about that either, because on the same day he also...
3. Proved he's a Nazi by accusing Jewish people of being 'incredibly disloyal' if they vote for the other party.
Remember 'good' old days, when months and months would go by during the Obama Administration without even a HINT of a 'scandal,' forcing Republicans to gin up faux outrage over Obama shaking Hugo Chavez's hand, or accidentally bowing to the Japanese Emperor. And now we've got to CHOOSE between talking about the 'President' being a Russian asset, a nutcase, or a Nazi, because we know damned well that we've only got about eight hours before he does something even MORE outrageous?
This is where we are now? We are so fucked.
---
stupidity on display!!!
Trump surrogate in Iowa compares him to Mother Teresa for what, she says, he's done for women
BY ADAM BREWSTER
AUGUST 23, 2019 / 2:16 AM / CBS NEWS
A top surrogate for President Trump, who holds a senior campaign position in Iowa, said Wednesday night that the president has done more for women than anyone else she could think of besides Mother Teresa.
"There's not a person alive that literally has done so much for a female, for the female population," said Tana Goertz, Trump Team Coordinator in Iowa. "I can't think of one person that I could go, except for Mother Teresa. I mean, literally, who has done more for women in office than Donald Trump?"
Goertz's comments to reporters came when she was asked by CBS News what her message would be to women who may have voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and for Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne in 2018. Axne, a freshman congresswoman from Iowa's 3rd District, won partly due to support from suburban women. Goertz said it wasn't completely fair to compare the two races.
"There's not a person alive that literally has done so much for a female, for the female population," said Tana Goertz, Trump Team Coordinator in Iowa. "I can't think of one person that I could go, except for Mother Teresa. I mean, literally, who has done more for women in office than Donald Trump?"
Goertz's comments to reporters came when she was asked by CBS News what her message would be to women who may have voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and for Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne in 2018. Axne, a freshman congresswoman from Iowa's 3rd District, won partly due to support from suburban women. Goertz said it wasn't completely fair to compare the two races.
from under a rock!!!
Republican who compares gay people to rapists and warns they may ‘harm’ kids running to unseat Democratic senator
August 23, 2019
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement - Raw Story
Trump-Loving Extremist Gets Backing From Trump Team
A former Republican U.S. Congressman who has a long record of anti-LGBTQ comments and positions is running to unseat a Democratic U.S. Senator. Jason Lewis, who has claimed same-sex parents may harm children announced he is running against Minnesota Democratic Senator Tina Smith.
Smith, a conservative talk radio host for 25 years has lost two of his three congressional campaigns, but served for one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2016 he won his House seat, only to be defeated in 2018 by Angie Craig, a lesbian and the Democrat who was his opponent in the 2016 race.
Politico calls Lewis Trump’s “Minnesota mini-me,” based on his love of President Donald Trump, and reports “two of Trump’s top political lieutenants” are guiding him.
But Lewis’ viability will be a test of just how much Minnesota voters will support a bigoted and extremist candidate who literally supports the right of people to own slaves.
“In fact, if you really want to be quite frank about it, how does somebody else owning a slave affect me? It doesn’t,” Lewis said in an update to his book on states’ rights, “If I don’t think it is right, I won’t own one, and people always say ‘well if you don’t want to marry somebody of the same sex, you don’t have to, but why tell somebody else they can’t.’ Uh, you know if you don’t want to own a slave, don’t. But don’t tell other people they can’t.”
That’s far from his only incendiary and offensive position.
On his radio show he has attacked women as, basically, stupid:
“You’ve got a vast majority of young single women who couldn’t explain to you what GDP means. You know what they care about? They care about abortion. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about ‘The View.’ They are non-thinking,” he said.
And he has lamented that “you can’t call” a woman “a slut”anymore.
Lewis’ bigoted and extremist positions do not end there.
Buzzfeed reported in 2018 that Lewis has “promoted extreme opinions about gays and lesbians on his radio show, comparing them to rapists, criminals, and polygamists. He contended that gay rights activists were ‘shredding the Constitution,’ and that same-sex parents ‘could harm the kid.’”
He says laws against rape are unfair because “you’re not treating a rapist equal.” H has also used a false interpretation of the 14th Amendment to make a very invalid case against same-sex marriage:
“So if the law says that we’re not going to allow three people to marry, then you’ve got to treat everybody the same way,” Lewis added. “No three people can marry. Same is true for gay marriage. It’s not discrimination. It’s not unconstitutional. The law discriminates all the time. It discriminates against behavior.”
A former Republican U.S. Congressman who has a long record of anti-LGBTQ comments and positions is running to unseat a Democratic U.S. Senator. Jason Lewis, who has claimed same-sex parents may harm children announced he is running against Minnesota Democratic Senator Tina Smith.
Smith, a conservative talk radio host for 25 years has lost two of his three congressional campaigns, but served for one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2016 he won his House seat, only to be defeated in 2018 by Angie Craig, a lesbian and the Democrat who was his opponent in the 2016 race.
Politico calls Lewis Trump’s “Minnesota mini-me,” based on his love of President Donald Trump, and reports “two of Trump’s top political lieutenants” are guiding him.
But Lewis’ viability will be a test of just how much Minnesota voters will support a bigoted and extremist candidate who literally supports the right of people to own slaves.
“In fact, if you really want to be quite frank about it, how does somebody else owning a slave affect me? It doesn’t,” Lewis said in an update to his book on states’ rights, “If I don’t think it is right, I won’t own one, and people always say ‘well if you don’t want to marry somebody of the same sex, you don’t have to, but why tell somebody else they can’t.’ Uh, you know if you don’t want to own a slave, don’t. But don’t tell other people they can’t.”
That’s far from his only incendiary and offensive position.
On his radio show he has attacked women as, basically, stupid:
“You’ve got a vast majority of young single women who couldn’t explain to you what GDP means. You know what they care about? They care about abortion. They care about abortion and gay marriage. They care about ‘The View.’ They are non-thinking,” he said.
And he has lamented that “you can’t call” a woman “a slut”anymore.
Lewis’ bigoted and extremist positions do not end there.
Buzzfeed reported in 2018 that Lewis has “promoted extreme opinions about gays and lesbians on his radio show, comparing them to rapists, criminals, and polygamists. He contended that gay rights activists were ‘shredding the Constitution,’ and that same-sex parents ‘could harm the kid.’”
He says laws against rape are unfair because “you’re not treating a rapist equal.” H has also used a false interpretation of the 14th Amendment to make a very invalid case against same-sex marriage:
“So if the law says that we’re not going to allow three people to marry, then you’ve got to treat everybody the same way,” Lewis added. “No three people can marry. Same is true for gay marriage. It’s not discrimination. It’s not unconstitutional. The law discriminates all the time. It discriminates against behavior.”
Governor criticized for 'disgusting' anti-immigrant email sent day before El Paso attack
Letter from Greg Abbott warns over ‘illegal immigrants’ and says ‘we’ll need to take matters into our own hands’
Sam Levin in Los Angeles
The Guardian
Thu 22 Aug 2019 19.45 EDT
The day before a gunman in El Paso carried out the deadliest attack against Latinos in modern US history, the Texas governor sent out an anti-immigrant fundraising letter calling on Republicans to “DEFEND TEXAS NOW” and “take matters into our own hands”, according to news reports.
The 2 August letter from the governor, Greg Abbott, lamented that in “just three weeks in June, 45,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended crossing the Mexican border into Texas!” It continued: “That amounts to the entire population of Galveston – every three weeks. In just six months, we’d add the population of Arlington!”
“If we’re going to DEFEND Texas, we’ll need to take matters into our own hands,” Abbott wrote in the mailer, which was reported by the Texas Signal website. The Guardian has seen a redacted copy but not the original document.
The fundraising appeal echoed the xenophobic rhetoric of Donald Trump, who has spoken of an “invasion” of migrants into the US. It also echoed the language in the racist “manifesto” allegedly written by the 21-year-old suspect before he killed 22 people at a Walmart near the US-Mexico border. The suspect, who traveled from a Dallas suburb 600 miles away, said the mass shooting was a “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” in his hate-filled document.
In the weeks since the massacre, law enforcement officials across the country say they have thwarted similar white supremacist attacks and mass shootings from potential gunmen who espoused far-right and racist viewpoints. In El Paso, which is 80% Latino, residents have said that Trump’s escalating attacks on immigrants and racist campaign speeches have created a climate that encourages this kind of violence.
Abbott and other GOP leaders in Texas have also faced increasing scrutiny over their anti-immigrant language in the wake of the 3 August attack.
“Doing nothing will only lead to disaster for Texas,” the governor’s fundraiser letter said, adding of immigrants at the border: “How many are we NOT catching because of Washington DC’s inaction – and members of BOTH parties’ refusal to work with President Trump to secure our border?”
“It’s disgusting,” Manny Garcia, the executive director of the Texas Democratic party, said in an interview on Thursday. “They know exactly what they are doing when they are using this kind of language and using this racist rhetoric to energize their base. It’s really disturbing. It’s alarmist, it’s threatening, it’s hostile.”
David Stout, an El Paso county commissioner who represents the district where the tragedy occurred, said it was impossible to ignore the connection between the language of the governor and the suspect in the shooting, which is being investigated as domestic terrorism: “If the leader of the government in Texas is utilizing these types of words, and talking about defending our country and having to take matters into their own hands, that sounds to me like a call to folks to do exactly that.
“This is what this guy who came to El Paso from Dallas was trying to do. He was trying to defend what he thought he needed to defend, and to take things into his own hands,” Stout continued. “It’s really, really upsetting.”
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Abbott and other state leaders focused on mental health and other factors, downplaying concerns about access to guns and xenophobic hate speech. Abbott has previously tweetedthat Texans should “pick up the pace” in buying guns and was supportive of the widely criticized effort by the Trump administration to deploy thenational guard to the border last year.
Abbott’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Thursday.
When Abbott was asked about the president’s rhetoric at a recent town hall, he responded by repeating a Trump talking point about low unemployment rates among black and Hispanic workers, according to the Texas Tribune. The governor also created a taskforce to study extremism and domestic terrorist threats in the wake of the shooting.
Studies have repeatedly disproven key anti-immigrant claims by Trump, Abbott and others. Research has shown that immigrants do not take away jobs from US-born people, and El Paso has long been considered one of America’s safest cities. More than 23,000 people cross the border from its Mexican twin city, Ciudad Juárez, for work each day.
“Mexico is a part of the fabric of Texas. We should be proud of that,” said Garcia. “We’re a state of immigrants.”
The 2 August letter from the governor, Greg Abbott, lamented that in “just three weeks in June, 45,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended crossing the Mexican border into Texas!” It continued: “That amounts to the entire population of Galveston – every three weeks. In just six months, we’d add the population of Arlington!”
“If we’re going to DEFEND Texas, we’ll need to take matters into our own hands,” Abbott wrote in the mailer, which was reported by the Texas Signal website. The Guardian has seen a redacted copy but not the original document.
The fundraising appeal echoed the xenophobic rhetoric of Donald Trump, who has spoken of an “invasion” of migrants into the US. It also echoed the language in the racist “manifesto” allegedly written by the 21-year-old suspect before he killed 22 people at a Walmart near the US-Mexico border. The suspect, who traveled from a Dallas suburb 600 miles away, said the mass shooting was a “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” in his hate-filled document.
In the weeks since the massacre, law enforcement officials across the country say they have thwarted similar white supremacist attacks and mass shootings from potential gunmen who espoused far-right and racist viewpoints. In El Paso, which is 80% Latino, residents have said that Trump’s escalating attacks on immigrants and racist campaign speeches have created a climate that encourages this kind of violence.
Abbott and other GOP leaders in Texas have also faced increasing scrutiny over their anti-immigrant language in the wake of the 3 August attack.
“Doing nothing will only lead to disaster for Texas,” the governor’s fundraiser letter said, adding of immigrants at the border: “How many are we NOT catching because of Washington DC’s inaction – and members of BOTH parties’ refusal to work with President Trump to secure our border?”
“It’s disgusting,” Manny Garcia, the executive director of the Texas Democratic party, said in an interview on Thursday. “They know exactly what they are doing when they are using this kind of language and using this racist rhetoric to energize their base. It’s really disturbing. It’s alarmist, it’s threatening, it’s hostile.”
David Stout, an El Paso county commissioner who represents the district where the tragedy occurred, said it was impossible to ignore the connection between the language of the governor and the suspect in the shooting, which is being investigated as domestic terrorism: “If the leader of the government in Texas is utilizing these types of words, and talking about defending our country and having to take matters into their own hands, that sounds to me like a call to folks to do exactly that.
“This is what this guy who came to El Paso from Dallas was trying to do. He was trying to defend what he thought he needed to defend, and to take things into his own hands,” Stout continued. “It’s really, really upsetting.”
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Abbott and other state leaders focused on mental health and other factors, downplaying concerns about access to guns and xenophobic hate speech. Abbott has previously tweetedthat Texans should “pick up the pace” in buying guns and was supportive of the widely criticized effort by the Trump administration to deploy thenational guard to the border last year.
Abbott’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Thursday.
When Abbott was asked about the president’s rhetoric at a recent town hall, he responded by repeating a Trump talking point about low unemployment rates among black and Hispanic workers, according to the Texas Tribune. The governor also created a taskforce to study extremism and domestic terrorist threats in the wake of the shooting.
Studies have repeatedly disproven key anti-immigrant claims by Trump, Abbott and others. Research has shown that immigrants do not take away jobs from US-born people, and El Paso has long been considered one of America’s safest cities. More than 23,000 people cross the border from its Mexican twin city, Ciudad Juárez, for work each day.
“Mexico is a part of the fabric of Texas. We should be proud of that,” said Garcia. “We’re a state of immigrants.”
#BoycottJimmyJohns trends after photo resurfaces showing restaurant’s owner with thumbs-up next to dead elephant
August 23, 2019
By Sky Palma - RawStory
The hashtag #BoycottJimmyJohns started to gain traction this Friday after an old photo of the fast-food chain’s owner resurfaced, showing him sitting on a dead elephant he killed with both thumbs up.
The hashtag was sparked by Twitter personality and animal advocate Brother Nature, who retweeted the photo and declared, “We boycotting Jimmy Johns.”
The man in the photo is Jimmy John Liautaud, who founded the sandwich chain in 1983, Newsweek reports.
Amongst the wave of tweets that followed Brother Nature’s initial post, one person shared additional images of Liautaud posing with dead animals.
“The owner of Jimmy Johns is a repeat offender,” activist Simran Jeet Singh tweeted. “Feel free to stop buying his sandwiches and funding his inhumane exploits.”
John Liautaud’s penchant for killing exotic animals has been known for years. As Snopes.com pointed out back in 2015, the magazine The Hunting Report documented several of Liautaud’s hunts “for animals such as wolf, Rhinoceros, deer, and Lynx,” as well as “elephant, buffalo, and zebra.”
The hashtag was sparked by Twitter personality and animal advocate Brother Nature, who retweeted the photo and declared, “We boycotting Jimmy Johns.”
The man in the photo is Jimmy John Liautaud, who founded the sandwich chain in 1983, Newsweek reports.
Amongst the wave of tweets that followed Brother Nature’s initial post, one person shared additional images of Liautaud posing with dead animals.
“The owner of Jimmy Johns is a repeat offender,” activist Simran Jeet Singh tweeted. “Feel free to stop buying his sandwiches and funding his inhumane exploits.”
John Liautaud’s penchant for killing exotic animals has been known for years. As Snopes.com pointed out back in 2015, the magazine The Hunting Report documented several of Liautaud’s hunts “for animals such as wolf, Rhinoceros, deer, and Lynx,” as well as “elephant, buffalo, and zebra.”
hypocrisy is what you get when you vote for a republican???
‘Hypocritical’ Republicans busted for disappearing now that Trump has exploded the deficit
August 22, 2019
By Tom Boggioni - Raw Story
In a “Reality Check” segment on CNN on Thursday morning, contributor John Avlon called out GOP fiscal hawks who have suddenly disappeared from the public square now that a Republican president has exploded the national debt.
Introduced by host John Berman, who asked, “This morning new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirm it: The national debt and deficit are much worse than thought. So where is the party of fiscal responsibility in times like these?” Avlon broke it down.
“While President Trump was busy proclaiming himself ‘the chosen one,’ you might have missed more bad news in the form of data,” Avlon smirked. “Brand new CBO numbers shows the budget deficit is skyrocketing, projected to rise 25 percent over last year and heading to over $1 trillion next year. Tax revenues are $430 billion below where they were expected to be before the Trump tax cuts while spending in is in drunken sailor territory adding $1.7 trillion in the next decade.”
“Put it another way, deficits have risen from a decade low of 2.4 percent over Obama to a projected average 4.7 percent of GDP over the next decade,” he continued before adding, “Remember, all this is happening during the nation’s longest economic expansion when deficits should be shrinking.”
Pointing to comments made by Trump attacking President Obama on deficits when he was running for president, Avlon focused in on Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) who was also a critic.
“Hypocrisy is palpable, but for some senators it’s absurd,” he explained. “From example, Georgia’s David Perdue who resorted to magical thinking when he voted to increase spending after voting for the tax cuts. He penned an op-ed that a vote against the budget was a vote to increase spending while he told an editorial board that it was more than paid for by the tax cut — that’s just not true.”
“Of course the bill to increase spending did, in fact, increase spending,” he charged. “Senator Perdue is a symptom of a larger problem; the abandonment of fiscal responsibility by Republicans while railing against the fiscal of Democrats. It bears repeating the last two presidents to shrink the deficits were Democrats: Clinton and Obama.
“All of us talk about concern for the deficit and budget has been bogus for as long as it’s been around,” he continued. “While President Trump was tweeting out a claim he was like the king of Israel, clearly the only crown he can claim is the one he can lay on himself some time ago, the King of Debt.”
RELATED: Republican senator claims that buying Greenland was his idea
After running as a deficit hawk, Tom Cotton admits he was behind the push to buy Greenland.
Introduced by host John Berman, who asked, “This morning new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirm it: The national debt and deficit are much worse than thought. So where is the party of fiscal responsibility in times like these?” Avlon broke it down.
“While President Trump was busy proclaiming himself ‘the chosen one,’ you might have missed more bad news in the form of data,” Avlon smirked. “Brand new CBO numbers shows the budget deficit is skyrocketing, projected to rise 25 percent over last year and heading to over $1 trillion next year. Tax revenues are $430 billion below where they were expected to be before the Trump tax cuts while spending in is in drunken sailor territory adding $1.7 trillion in the next decade.”
“Put it another way, deficits have risen from a decade low of 2.4 percent over Obama to a projected average 4.7 percent of GDP over the next decade,” he continued before adding, “Remember, all this is happening during the nation’s longest economic expansion when deficits should be shrinking.”
Pointing to comments made by Trump attacking President Obama on deficits when he was running for president, Avlon focused in on Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) who was also a critic.
“Hypocrisy is palpable, but for some senators it’s absurd,” he explained. “From example, Georgia’s David Perdue who resorted to magical thinking when he voted to increase spending after voting for the tax cuts. He penned an op-ed that a vote against the budget was a vote to increase spending while he told an editorial board that it was more than paid for by the tax cut — that’s just not true.”
“Of course the bill to increase spending did, in fact, increase spending,” he charged. “Senator Perdue is a symptom of a larger problem; the abandonment of fiscal responsibility by Republicans while railing against the fiscal of Democrats. It bears repeating the last two presidents to shrink the deficits were Democrats: Clinton and Obama.
“All of us talk about concern for the deficit and budget has been bogus for as long as it’s been around,” he continued. “While President Trump was tweeting out a claim he was like the king of Israel, clearly the only crown he can claim is the one he can lay on himself some time ago, the King of Debt.”
RELATED: Republican senator claims that buying Greenland was his idea
After running as a deficit hawk, Tom Cotton admits he was behind the push to buy Greenland.
Bites from Real News
*8/23/2019*
*Trump to Log Cabin Repubs - Fuck you:The Trump Administration Asked The Supreme Court To Legalize Firing Workers Simply For Being Gay
The Trump Administration Asked The Supreme Court To Legalize Firing Workers Simply For Being Gay Friday's brief comes after the administration argued that federal law allows firing workers simply for being transgender. Dominic Holden BuzzFeed News ... (BuzzFeed News)
*Trump Says He Will Raise Existing Tariffs on Chinese Goods to 30%
WASHINGTON -- President Trump, angered by Beijing's decision on Friday to retaliate against his next round of tariffs and furious at his Federal Reserve chair for not doing more to juice the economy, said he would increase taxes on all Chinese goods ... (New York Times)
*fiction exempt!: Bibles but Not Textbooks: Trump’s Tariff Exemptions Pick Winners and Losers
Products won exemptions from the U.S. Trade Representative for “health, safety, national security and other factors,” but the criteria remain unclear.
*EMAILS SHOW MONSANTO ORCHESTRATED GOP EFFORT TO INTIMIDATE CANCER RESEARCHERS
Documents suggest the firm has antagonized regulators and applied pressure to shape research of the world’s leading herbicide.
*Trump-Esptein Bombshell drops, Epstein trafficked girl using Trump's plane
'She was made up to look older, she was uncomfortable.' Jeffrey Epstein took 'young girl' on Donald Trump's plane, possibly sex-trafficking teen across state lines right under the now president's nose, claims journalist
*payback: China hits U.S. with tariffs on $75 billion worth of goods, reinstates auto levies
U.S. stock futures dived Friday after China announced retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods and reinstated levies on American auto products. The levies will range from 5 to 10 percent and will be put in place in two rounds, on Sept. 1 an ... (Washington Post)
*Trump’s State Department busted helping Rudy Giuliani dig up campaign dirt against Joe Biden The State Department assisted President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in setting up a meeting with a Ukrainian official to “strongly urge” the new administration in Ukraine to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
*The Justice Department Sent Immigration Judges A White Nationalist Blog Post
An email sent from the Justice Department to all immigration court employees this week included a link to an article posted on a white nationalist website that “directly attacks sitting immigration judges with racial and ethnically tinged slurs,” acc ... (BuzzFeed)
*Henry A. Giroux: Neoliberal Capitalism Sets the Stage for Fascism
But what neoliberalism has done since the 1970s is it has created such economic misery, it has so accentuated levels of inequality, it has created such suffering, it has dismantled entire towns, it has concentrated wealth in the hands of the financial elite, and it has legitimated an enormous culture of cruelty. And it operates off the assumption that the market can solve all problems — not simply in the economy, but in all of social life — so it becomes a template and a model for all social relations.
*400 years of black giving: From the days of slavery to the 2019 Morehouse graduation
In 1847, for example, enslaved Africans in Richmond, Virginia, donated money through their church to Ireland’s potato famine relief efforts. I believe that their ways of looking after others and pooling resources to survive forms the basis of giving by African Americans today.
*Laurence Tribe on Trump's "treachery" CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
Harvard constitutional law professor says Trump's "treachery and betrayal" are now clear. There's one solution
*How Amazon and Silicon Valley Seduced the Pentagon
Tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt have gotten unprecedented access to the Pentagon. And one whistleblower who raised flags has paid the price.
*Python wars The snake epidemic eating away at Florida
Tens of thousands of non-native pythons are at large in Florida, attacking animals and damaging ecosystems – and the quest to stop them has become a collective crusade
*A Bunch of CEOs Want to Fix Capitalism. You Can’t Fix Anything Built on Slavery.
by William Rivers Pitt,Truthout
*The 1619 Project - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/.../1619-america-slavery.html
American slavery began 400 years ago this month. This is referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country's true ...
*The Brutal History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America
School segregation, lynchings and mass deportations of Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are just some of the injustices Latinos have faced.
*The U.S. Deported a Million of Its Own Citizens to Mexico During the Great Depression
Up to 1.8 million people of Mexican descent—most of them American-born—were rounded up in informal raids and deported in an effort to reserve jobs for white people.
Critics Take Aim at Sen. Cory Booker After He Demands Federal Government Pay Attention to Newark Water Crisis
By Kiersten Willis - Atlanta Black Star
August 22, 2019
A water crisis is currently ravaging Newark, New Jersey, and the town’s former mayor, current Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker, has called for federal authorities to give it their focus. However, his call to action has also made critics focus on the role he played in water management during his tenure in office.
“Newark’s water emergency demands our federal government’s immediate attention. Everyone deserves clean, safe water — it’s shameful that our national crisis of lead-contaminated water disproportionately hits poor black and brown communities like my own,” he tweeted August 14.
Booker served as mayor of Brick City from 2006 to 2013. According to NJ.com, he left before the initial discovery of elevated lead levels in the city water were made in 2017.
Now, a year after officials determined the city’s water was “absolutely safe to drink,” residents are relying on bottled water being handed out by officials after tests conducted Friday determined water filters for Pequannock County may not be effectively removing lead “to the low levels expected by city.” This according to a statement released by state and city officials last week.
With that news, critics have wondered what occurred with the water supply under Booker’s seven-year watch.
“As mayor of Newark, Cory Booker was either aware of the water quality issues and failed to act, or was completely incompetent,” a spokesman for a Republican research group America Rising, Chris Martin told NJ.com.
It was during that time Booker also served as chairman of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation.
In 2014, a comptroller report found there was an absence of oversight at the agency, which treats and delivers water to the northern portion of the state. Criminal charges ensued for at at least nine people, including consultants, contractors and Linda Watkins-Brashear, whom Booker appointed to lead the agency. Presently, she’s serving an eight-year sentence for accepting nearly $1 million in bribes for no-work or over-inflated contracts.
Meanwhile, Booker served as an ex-officio chairman of the watershed corporation’s Board of Trustees but the comptroller report noted he was never present at meetings. In that role, he also failed to designate a proxy, as was common for those who previously held Booker’s position.
“When we asked the then-mayor about the lack of board members, he said that he had difficulty moving board nominees through the [City] Council,” according to the report from the state comptroller’s office.
“We note, however, that the mayor held the seat ex officio and thus did not need the advice and consent of the council to designate an alternate for himself.”
Booker was never charged or investigated concerning the scandal. His name was also removed from litigation claiming he failed to monitor the agency.
In 2011, an independent report was written by Dan O’Flaherty, a Columbia University economics professor and former Newark city employee, stated Booker left the watershed management in a worsened state than it was in prior to his becoming mayor.
“The professional engineering quality was less than optimal,” said O’Flaherty, who was briefly Booker’s financial director, according to NJ.com. “The probability that someone would make an error was higher when he left than when he came in.”
Speaking to ABC News, O’Flaherty said he feels the watershed scandal had added to the agency’s mismanagement and caused the current water issues in Newark.
“The human capital of the water department was not renewed and deteriorated — they weren’t hiring engineers,” he said of the current presidential hopeful’s time leading the watershed. “So you have a seriously depleted department in 2013, and that was a department which made a mistake in the subsequent years.”
The “mistake” happened after Booker left the mayor’s office. In 2015, city officials chose to change the water treatment chemistry so as to adhere to new regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency. The city’s water treatment facility’s pH levels were lowered so as to lessen the possibility of the formation of cancer-causing chemicals as the water was disinfected, an action that apparently had the knock-on effect of making the water supply more likely to leach lead from old pipes.
Meanwhile, one of Booker’s spokespeople working on his campaign said there was “no connection” between the scandal and the current water crisis.
“There is just no connection between the people who defrauded Newark residents at the Newark Watershed a decade ago and the very real water crisis impacting Newark residents today — other than they both share one word in common — ‘water,'” said spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
“Newark’s water emergency demands our federal government’s immediate attention. Everyone deserves clean, safe water — it’s shameful that our national crisis of lead-contaminated water disproportionately hits poor black and brown communities like my own,” he tweeted August 14.
Booker served as mayor of Brick City from 2006 to 2013. According to NJ.com, he left before the initial discovery of elevated lead levels in the city water were made in 2017.
Now, a year after officials determined the city’s water was “absolutely safe to drink,” residents are relying on bottled water being handed out by officials after tests conducted Friday determined water filters for Pequannock County may not be effectively removing lead “to the low levels expected by city.” This according to a statement released by state and city officials last week.
With that news, critics have wondered what occurred with the water supply under Booker’s seven-year watch.
“As mayor of Newark, Cory Booker was either aware of the water quality issues and failed to act, or was completely incompetent,” a spokesman for a Republican research group America Rising, Chris Martin told NJ.com.
It was during that time Booker also served as chairman of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation.
In 2014, a comptroller report found there was an absence of oversight at the agency, which treats and delivers water to the northern portion of the state. Criminal charges ensued for at at least nine people, including consultants, contractors and Linda Watkins-Brashear, whom Booker appointed to lead the agency. Presently, she’s serving an eight-year sentence for accepting nearly $1 million in bribes for no-work or over-inflated contracts.
Meanwhile, Booker served as an ex-officio chairman of the watershed corporation’s Board of Trustees but the comptroller report noted he was never present at meetings. In that role, he also failed to designate a proxy, as was common for those who previously held Booker’s position.
“When we asked the then-mayor about the lack of board members, he said that he had difficulty moving board nominees through the [City] Council,” according to the report from the state comptroller’s office.
“We note, however, that the mayor held the seat ex officio and thus did not need the advice and consent of the council to designate an alternate for himself.”
Booker was never charged or investigated concerning the scandal. His name was also removed from litigation claiming he failed to monitor the agency.
In 2011, an independent report was written by Dan O’Flaherty, a Columbia University economics professor and former Newark city employee, stated Booker left the watershed management in a worsened state than it was in prior to his becoming mayor.
“The professional engineering quality was less than optimal,” said O’Flaherty, who was briefly Booker’s financial director, according to NJ.com. “The probability that someone would make an error was higher when he left than when he came in.”
Speaking to ABC News, O’Flaherty said he feels the watershed scandal had added to the agency’s mismanagement and caused the current water issues in Newark.
“The human capital of the water department was not renewed and deteriorated — they weren’t hiring engineers,” he said of the current presidential hopeful’s time leading the watershed. “So you have a seriously depleted department in 2013, and that was a department which made a mistake in the subsequent years.”
The “mistake” happened after Booker left the mayor’s office. In 2015, city officials chose to change the water treatment chemistry so as to adhere to new regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency. The city’s water treatment facility’s pH levels were lowered so as to lessen the possibility of the formation of cancer-causing chemicals as the water was disinfected, an action that apparently had the knock-on effect of making the water supply more likely to leach lead from old pipes.
Meanwhile, one of Booker’s spokespeople working on his campaign said there was “no connection” between the scandal and the current water crisis.
“There is just no connection between the people who defrauded Newark residents at the Newark Watershed a decade ago and the very real water crisis impacting Newark residents today — other than they both share one word in common — ‘water,'” said spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
After Dayton and El Paso, the list of averted mass shootings keeps growing
The authors of several of the disrupted plots had far-right leanings.
LUKE BARNES - Thinkprogress
AUG 23, 2019, 1:54 PM
In the few weeks since the twin massacres in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, at least three people have been separately arrested for plotting mass shootings.
Authorities in Connecticut took 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol into custody last Thursday. Wagshol had posted racist and homophobic rhetoric on Facebook, where he’d also reportedly expressed an interest in committing a mass shooting. He was arrested for attempting to import high-capacity rifle magazines.
A day later police in Florida arrested 25-year-old Tristan Scott Wix, who told his girlfriend he wanted to open fire on a “large crowd” and that he wanted “100 kills.” The next day in New Middletown, Ohio, police arrested a self-described white nationalist who had also participated in the Unite the Right rally. James Reardon had amassed an arsenal of weapons and had threatened a local Jewish community center.
But the threats haven’t stopped there. On Monday it was revealed that the same day that Wix was arrested, authorities in Memphis, Tennessee, took 38-year-old truck driver Thomas McVicker into custody for making “credible threats to conduct a mass shooting.” McVicker had allegedly planned to shoot up a church in Tennessee, then turn the gun on himself.
The next day, authorities in Pennington County, South Dakota, arrested a man who was planning to attack local and federal government entities. It was revealed the same day that police in New Jersey arrested 57-year-old Jospeh Rubino for possessing a stockpile of assault weapons, including a grenade launcher.
When they searched his home, authorities also discovered neo-Nazi paraphernalia and a document “containing racist material and purporting to be an instruction manual for owning a slave.”
News of Rubino’s July 24 arrest only became public this week. Police only discovered Rubino’s arsenal after he wrecked his van while driving it, and officers assisting him noticed weapons and ammunition in the rear of the vehicle.
Around the same time that Rubino’s arrest became public, federal authorities announced the arrest of Eric Lin, who allegedly sent a barrage of messages to an unidentified woman in Miami outlining how he wanted the “extermination of all Hispanics.” Lin also posted in July that “I thank God everyday President Donald John Trump is President and that he will launch a Racial War and Crusade.” He has been charged with making threatening communications.
The barrage of threats demonstrates how each mass shooting provides a source of inspiration for additional would-be attackers. This is particularly true of far-right shooters, who sometimes post extremist manifestos that give other radicalized people tactical knowledge and motivation, which accelerate fresh attacks.
Law enforcement, however, is picking up the pace of their response. After the El Paso attack, FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered field offices across the country to conduct further threat assessments in order to help local law enforcement prevent further attacks. The agency said it was worried that the attacks could inspire other would-be shooters to engage in “similar acts of violence.”
Authorities in Connecticut took 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol into custody last Thursday. Wagshol had posted racist and homophobic rhetoric on Facebook, where he’d also reportedly expressed an interest in committing a mass shooting. He was arrested for attempting to import high-capacity rifle magazines.
A day later police in Florida arrested 25-year-old Tristan Scott Wix, who told his girlfriend he wanted to open fire on a “large crowd” and that he wanted “100 kills.” The next day in New Middletown, Ohio, police arrested a self-described white nationalist who had also participated in the Unite the Right rally. James Reardon had amassed an arsenal of weapons and had threatened a local Jewish community center.
But the threats haven’t stopped there. On Monday it was revealed that the same day that Wix was arrested, authorities in Memphis, Tennessee, took 38-year-old truck driver Thomas McVicker into custody for making “credible threats to conduct a mass shooting.” McVicker had allegedly planned to shoot up a church in Tennessee, then turn the gun on himself.
The next day, authorities in Pennington County, South Dakota, arrested a man who was planning to attack local and federal government entities. It was revealed the same day that police in New Jersey arrested 57-year-old Jospeh Rubino for possessing a stockpile of assault weapons, including a grenade launcher.
When they searched his home, authorities also discovered neo-Nazi paraphernalia and a document “containing racist material and purporting to be an instruction manual for owning a slave.”
News of Rubino’s July 24 arrest only became public this week. Police only discovered Rubino’s arsenal after he wrecked his van while driving it, and officers assisting him noticed weapons and ammunition in the rear of the vehicle.
Around the same time that Rubino’s arrest became public, federal authorities announced the arrest of Eric Lin, who allegedly sent a barrage of messages to an unidentified woman in Miami outlining how he wanted the “extermination of all Hispanics.” Lin also posted in July that “I thank God everyday President Donald John Trump is President and that he will launch a Racial War and Crusade.” He has been charged with making threatening communications.
The barrage of threats demonstrates how each mass shooting provides a source of inspiration for additional would-be attackers. This is particularly true of far-right shooters, who sometimes post extremist manifestos that give other radicalized people tactical knowledge and motivation, which accelerate fresh attacks.
Law enforcement, however, is picking up the pace of their response. After the El Paso attack, FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered field offices across the country to conduct further threat assessments in order to help local law enforcement prevent further attacks. The agency said it was worried that the attacks could inspire other would-be shooters to engage in “similar acts of violence.”
Paris Prosecutor Opens Investigation Into Jeffrey Epstein
Summer Eldemire - Cheat Sheet Intern
Updated 08.23.19 11:19AM ET
Daily Beast Cheat Sheet
In a statement issued the morning, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced it is opening a rape investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. According to The Guardian, prosecutor Rémy Heitz said the decision was based on “elements transmitted” to his office and “exchanges with American authorities.” Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, killed himself on Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. “The investigations … will focus on potential crimes committed against French victims on national territory as well as abroad, and on suspects who are French citizens,” the statement from Heitz’s office said. The potential offenses could include the sexual assault of minors under and over the age of 15, according to prosecutors.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro Tells World to Butt Out as Amazon Continues to Burn
Barbie Latza Nadeau - Correspondent-At-Large
Published 08.23.19 4:50AM ET
Daily Beast Cheat Sheet
Leaders meeting in France for the G7 summit this weekend plan to focus on fires consuming the Amazon Rainforest at a rate of three football fields a minute as an “international crisis.” President Emanuel Macron, who is hosting the summit, tweeted, “Our house is burning. Literally,” adding the fact that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. But Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, doesn't want foreign interference, retaliating with his own tweet accusing Macron of capitalizing on the devastating fires for political gain. “I regret that president Macron seeks to take advantage of what is a domestic Brazilian issue and of other Amazonian countries for personal political gain,” Bolsonaro tweeted. Bolsonoro’s son Eduardo backed up his dad with a YouTube video called “Macron is an Idiot” that has gone viral.
38 Ex-Students Sue Yeshiva University Over Child Sex-Abuse Claims
Olivia Messer - Reporter
Published 08.23.19 10:34AM ET
Daily Beast Cheat Sheet
Dozens of former students of Yeshiva University High School for Boys in New York City sued the institution on Thursday over allegations that they were molested by two prominent rabbis in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The 38 plaintiffs say the university failed to protect the high-school students and promoted one of the accused rabbis to principal—even after becoming aware of complaints against him. Like many others filed this month, the lawsuit on Thursday was made possible by the Child Victims Act in New York state that allowed for a one-year window of legal action in cases that otherwise would be barred by a statute of limitations.
“I didn’t even understand at the time that this was sexual abuse; I just knew that this guy was putting his hands all over me,” said plaintiff Barry Singer, now 61. Singer said one of the rabbis reached into boys’ pants in school hallways. Plaintiff David Bressler, now 51, said the alleged abuse made him abandon his religion and that—even as an adult—he fears a crowded subway because he “can’t stand being touched by people.” He added: “You don’t even realize what the long-term impact is.” One of the accused rabbis died recently, and the other has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
“I didn’t even understand at the time that this was sexual abuse; I just knew that this guy was putting his hands all over me,” said plaintiff Barry Singer, now 61. Singer said one of the rabbis reached into boys’ pants in school hallways. Plaintiff David Bressler, now 51, said the alleged abuse made him abandon his religion and that—even as an adult—he fears a crowded subway because he “can’t stand being touched by people.” He added: “You don’t even realize what the long-term impact is.” One of the accused rabbis died recently, and the other has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
GOP LOBBYISTS HELP BRAZIL RECRUIT U.S. COMPANIES TO EXPLOIT THE AMAZON
Lee Fang - The Intercept
August 23 2019, 10:43 a.m.
THIS SUMMER, fires are being used to clear wide swaths of the Amazon at an unprecedented rate. One fifth of the Amazon has already been destroyed in the past 50 years; further industrialization of the rainforest risks destroying another fifth, a loss that would be catastrophic for the global ecosystem.
The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world’s largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests are being pushed in the U.S. by Republican lobbyists friendly with President Donald Trump’s administration who entered into talks with the Brazilian government to promote corporate investment in the Amazon.
The crisis in the Amazon comes as Brazil is now governed by an administration openly hostile to environmental concerns and Indigenous communities. President Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army captain once viewed as a fringe figure in Brazilian politics, has been referred to himself as “Captain Chainsaw” for his drive to promote logging and agribusiness in the Amazon.
Shortly after taking office in January, Bolsonaro slashed funding for Brazil’s main environmental agency by 24 percent. And this week, after a report by Brazil’s space research center revealed that fires in the Amazon are up 83% this year, Bolsonaro blamed on international NGOs rather than his own anti-environmental policies.
MEANWHILE, A MEMBER of the Brazilian government has contracted with Washington lobbyists to continue selling land and destroying the forest.
In June, Wilson Lima, the Governor of the State of Amazonas, a northwestern province in Brazil that governs approximately a third of the Amazon, including the epicenter of the current forest fire crisis, began work with the InterAmerica Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm founded by Jerry Pierce, Jr. Kellen Felix, a Brazilian national and vice president at InterAmerica Group, is also listed in a disclosure filing for work with the State of Amazonas. Lima, elected last year, is a member of PSC, a conservative party affiliated with the Assembly of God, a rapidly growing Pentecostal church in Brazil.
The initial filings, disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act through the Department of Justice, which regulates foreign lobbying, show that Pierce was tapped to represent Lima’s government in meetings with federal agencies and Congress.
The InterAmerica Group has also already filed an informational packet assembled for U.S. companies on behalf of the Brazilian governor, promoting the Amazon region for its development potential.
The packet lists mining, agribusiness, and the “Gas Chemical Industry” as “Opportunities” for American businesses — among the “Challenges” for these potential businesses is to “Ensure Forest Conservation.”
In response to an inquiry from The Intercept, Pierce said that a final contract has not been signed. “Unfortunately the state of Amazon decided to hold off on contracting our firm for an indefinite period. Perhaps it will revisited in 2020,” Pierce wrote. He did not respond to a question about why his firm was already producing communications on behalf of the Lima government.
Pierce has written extensively on how both Trump and Bolsonaro are a boon for increased American business in Brazil. “Under a President Trump,” Pierce wrote in 2017 blog post on his company’s website, Brazil stands to become “a world leader in industries such as agribusiness, mining, banking, and aviation.” In more recent posts, Pierce celebrates the rise of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, declaring, “Donald Trump paved the way for a Bolsonaro victory.”
Pierce also previously served as an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of George H.W. Bush, and as a prominent fundraiser for President George W. Bush. Under George W. Bush, he achieved “Pioneer” status, an accolade given to supporters who raised at least $100,000 for Bush’s campaigns. In 2009, Pierce pled guilty to making illegal “conduit contributions,” a term that refers to campaign contributions made under another person’s name. He served three years probation.
Images on social media show Pierce, Felix, and other InterAmerica Group officials appearing, in Pierce’s description, with members of President Donald Trump’s administration and at conservative movement events, including the CPAC convention and with Turning Point USA.
Lima is not the only regional official to forge ties with Trump-friendly politicians.
The Intercept previously reported that Lima’s predecessor, Gov. Amazonino Mendes, signed a controversial $1.6 million contract with Giuliani Safety & Security, a consulting firm affiliated with Rudy Giuliani, now a lawyer for Trump. The State of Amazonas has struggled with persistent poverty, drug smuggling, and crime — problems Mendes promised to solve through the contract with Giuliani’s firm.
The discussions with the InterAmerica Group are among many American ties to business expansion into the Amazon. In April, the Brazil-American Chamber of Commerce, a trade group representing major banking and commodity interests, held an event on how U.S. investors can take advantage of Brazilian agribusiness in the current political climate.
The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world’s largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests are being pushed in the U.S. by Republican lobbyists friendly with President Donald Trump’s administration who entered into talks with the Brazilian government to promote corporate investment in the Amazon.
The crisis in the Amazon comes as Brazil is now governed by an administration openly hostile to environmental concerns and Indigenous communities. President Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army captain once viewed as a fringe figure in Brazilian politics, has been referred to himself as “Captain Chainsaw” for his drive to promote logging and agribusiness in the Amazon.
Shortly after taking office in January, Bolsonaro slashed funding for Brazil’s main environmental agency by 24 percent. And this week, after a report by Brazil’s space research center revealed that fires in the Amazon are up 83% this year, Bolsonaro blamed on international NGOs rather than his own anti-environmental policies.
MEANWHILE, A MEMBER of the Brazilian government has contracted with Washington lobbyists to continue selling land and destroying the forest.
In June, Wilson Lima, the Governor of the State of Amazonas, a northwestern province in Brazil that governs approximately a third of the Amazon, including the epicenter of the current forest fire crisis, began work with the InterAmerica Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm founded by Jerry Pierce, Jr. Kellen Felix, a Brazilian national and vice president at InterAmerica Group, is also listed in a disclosure filing for work with the State of Amazonas. Lima, elected last year, is a member of PSC, a conservative party affiliated with the Assembly of God, a rapidly growing Pentecostal church in Brazil.
The initial filings, disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act through the Department of Justice, which regulates foreign lobbying, show that Pierce was tapped to represent Lima’s government in meetings with federal agencies and Congress.
The InterAmerica Group has also already filed an informational packet assembled for U.S. companies on behalf of the Brazilian governor, promoting the Amazon region for its development potential.
The packet lists mining, agribusiness, and the “Gas Chemical Industry” as “Opportunities” for American businesses — among the “Challenges” for these potential businesses is to “Ensure Forest Conservation.”
In response to an inquiry from The Intercept, Pierce said that a final contract has not been signed. “Unfortunately the state of Amazon decided to hold off on contracting our firm for an indefinite period. Perhaps it will revisited in 2020,” Pierce wrote. He did not respond to a question about why his firm was already producing communications on behalf of the Lima government.
Pierce has written extensively on how both Trump and Bolsonaro are a boon for increased American business in Brazil. “Under a President Trump,” Pierce wrote in 2017 blog post on his company’s website, Brazil stands to become “a world leader in industries such as agribusiness, mining, banking, and aviation.” In more recent posts, Pierce celebrates the rise of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, declaring, “Donald Trump paved the way for a Bolsonaro victory.”
Pierce also previously served as an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of George H.W. Bush, and as a prominent fundraiser for President George W. Bush. Under George W. Bush, he achieved “Pioneer” status, an accolade given to supporters who raised at least $100,000 for Bush’s campaigns. In 2009, Pierce pled guilty to making illegal “conduit contributions,” a term that refers to campaign contributions made under another person’s name. He served three years probation.
Images on social media show Pierce, Felix, and other InterAmerica Group officials appearing, in Pierce’s description, with members of President Donald Trump’s administration and at conservative movement events, including the CPAC convention and with Turning Point USA.
Lima is not the only regional official to forge ties with Trump-friendly politicians.
The Intercept previously reported that Lima’s predecessor, Gov. Amazonino Mendes, signed a controversial $1.6 million contract with Giuliani Safety & Security, a consulting firm affiliated with Rudy Giuliani, now a lawyer for Trump. The State of Amazonas has struggled with persistent poverty, drug smuggling, and crime — problems Mendes promised to solve through the contract with Giuliani’s firm.
The discussions with the InterAmerica Group are among many American ties to business expansion into the Amazon. In April, the Brazil-American Chamber of Commerce, a trade group representing major banking and commodity interests, held an event on how U.S. investors can take advantage of Brazilian agribusiness in the current political climate.
*What's Inside*
Aug 20 - Aug 22
✔How Democrats missed a key 15-day ‘window’ to get Trump’s taxes — and they may now be blocked until after 2020(Demo Politics)
*The Amazon Is Dying and Bolsonaro Is Fanning the Flames
(World)
*A Clear And Present Danger To The Republic
(Trump)
*A new poll shows what really interests 'pro-lifers': controlling women
(Talkers)
*Global heating: ancient plants set to reproduce in UK after 60m years
(Earth)
✔If You're Not Anti-Fascist, You're Pro-Fascist by The Rude Pundit
(Commentary)
*The Trump administration wants to make it easier to fire women who act too ‘masculine’
(Rights)
*Kawhi Leonard is Handing Out Backpacks to Students in Southern California in Area’s Biggest Back-to-School Giveaway Ever(Real People)
*FEC Republicans block efforts to investigate NRA’s financial ties to Russia
(Corruption)
*Kamala Harris to Snub Climate Forum in Favor of Big Donors
(Candidates)
*Why Is a Freshman Democrat Attacking Progressives in a Washington Post Series?
(Sellouts)
*Black teen 'humiliated' after school colored his hair with marker, parents say
(America)
*Suppressed federal report shows how Trump water plan would endanger California salmon
(Environment)
✔Plutonium found in Colorado soil at five times higher level than acceptable radioactive level
(Environment)
*Trump Accuses Most American Jews of “Disloyalty” to Israel, Deploying Anti-Semitic Trope
(Trump)
*Weapons cache, grenade launcher, Neo-Nazi literature and instructions for owning slaves found in man’s home(Amerikkkans)
*China Did Not Trick the US — Trade Negotiators Served Corporate Interests
(Reality)
*Sen. Elizabeth Warren Asks Why The Justice Department Went Easy on Big Banks
(Candidates)
*Was a man wrongly identified after police digitally altered his mugshot?
(Gestapo USA)
*Nevada casino workers fight an uphill battle to get – and keep – their unions
(Slavery 21st Century)
*God Says He’s Getting A Lot Of Prayers About Mitch McConnell Having A Stroke
(Funnies)
*New York Offers to Rename Public Toilet After Trump
(Funnies)
*How Many White Supremacist Terrorists Does it Take to Screw in a Light Bulb (Ferret/Shower Cap)
(Talkers)
*Mexican man facing voter fraud trial in Sacramento. He’s a Trump supporter
(Elections)
*late news of interest*
Washington Tex-Mex Restaurant Demands Black Mom Provide ID Upfront Before Dining; Other Black Diners Share Similar Experiences
By Lauren Floyd - Atlanta Black Star
August 22, 2019
Black customers at a popular Washington, D.C., restaurant are accusing the business of racial profiling after they said they were unfairly held to a policy requiring customers provide identification until their bills are paid.
Tiff Aziz created a Facebook post Saturday about an experience she called “unreal” when she took her daughter Parahdyce Aziz to the Alero restaurant on U Street.
Her post has since gone viral and was shared more than 2,000 times before being restricted on her page.
Aziz said in a repost of the original that she initially didn’t have a problem with the request to provide her ID because she was told it was the restaurant’s policy for everyone.
“I complied, until I watched when a caucasian man walked in, sat next to us and ordered, his information was not collected at all,” she said.
The staff didn’t even mention the policy to the white man, the mother added.
“I felt some kind of way,” she said.
Aziz asked to speak to a manager she identified as Roberto, and he confirmed the policy was for all people and said he would check on the discrepancy, the woman said.
“However, he disappeared and never checked on it at all,” Aziz said. “We waited about 20 min, the man received his drinks and food with no issues. Well I will not be back, I know for a fact that we were racially profiled. SMH!!!!”
Aiesha P. described a similar experience in a Yelp review giving the restaurant one out of five stars Saturday.
“This establishment is extremely racist,” she wrote in the review. “They only ask to hold African Americans ID before they even order food. I highly recommend NOT to dine here!”
Although at least three other reviewers detailed similar experiences, many of the Tex-Mex restaurant’s feedback focused on the quality of food. It earned two and a half stars on Yelp.
Victor Martinez, the owner of Alero locations on U Street and Connecticut Avenue, told the Washington City Paper the policy was only supposed to apply to patio and lounge areas because of a high number of “walk-outs” but he admitted it was confusing.
He told the newspaper that in Aziz’s situation, the white diner’s server did not follow instructions and was suspended for two days without pay.
Martinez also said of Aziz’s now-viral post that the restaurant has been inundated with phone calls, some including death threats. He instituted a new policy Sunday that only asks customers seated in the patio and lounge areas for a credit card at all times and makes the same rule for those in the restaurant’s dining room after 10 p.m., the Washington City Paper reported.
Still, he defended the old policy to the newspaper.
“The [old] policy is not based on race at all,” Martinez said.
He told the paper that when he immigrated to the United States from Colombia in 1994, he lived with and worked for an African-American family.
“Our employees are trained to treat every customer equally and respectfully,” he added.
Aziz told the City Paper a representative from the company gave her a “generic” apology and she still doesn’t plan on returning to the restaurant.
Tiff Aziz created a Facebook post Saturday about an experience she called “unreal” when she took her daughter Parahdyce Aziz to the Alero restaurant on U Street.
Her post has since gone viral and was shared more than 2,000 times before being restricted on her page.
Aziz said in a repost of the original that she initially didn’t have a problem with the request to provide her ID because she was told it was the restaurant’s policy for everyone.
“I complied, until I watched when a caucasian man walked in, sat next to us and ordered, his information was not collected at all,” she said.
The staff didn’t even mention the policy to the white man, the mother added.
“I felt some kind of way,” she said.
Aziz asked to speak to a manager she identified as Roberto, and he confirmed the policy was for all people and said he would check on the discrepancy, the woman said.
“However, he disappeared and never checked on it at all,” Aziz said. “We waited about 20 min, the man received his drinks and food with no issues. Well I will not be back, I know for a fact that we were racially profiled. SMH!!!!”
Aiesha P. described a similar experience in a Yelp review giving the restaurant one out of five stars Saturday.
“This establishment is extremely racist,” she wrote in the review. “They only ask to hold African Americans ID before they even order food. I highly recommend NOT to dine here!”
Although at least three other reviewers detailed similar experiences, many of the Tex-Mex restaurant’s feedback focused on the quality of food. It earned two and a half stars on Yelp.
Victor Martinez, the owner of Alero locations on U Street and Connecticut Avenue, told the Washington City Paper the policy was only supposed to apply to patio and lounge areas because of a high number of “walk-outs” but he admitted it was confusing.
He told the newspaper that in Aziz’s situation, the white diner’s server did not follow instructions and was suspended for two days without pay.
Martinez also said of Aziz’s now-viral post that the restaurant has been inundated with phone calls, some including death threats. He instituted a new policy Sunday that only asks customers seated in the patio and lounge areas for a credit card at all times and makes the same rule for those in the restaurant’s dining room after 10 p.m., the Washington City Paper reported.
Still, he defended the old policy to the newspaper.
“The [old] policy is not based on race at all,” Martinez said.
He told the paper that when he immigrated to the United States from Colombia in 1994, he lived with and worked for an African-American family.
“Our employees are trained to treat every customer equally and respectfully,” he added.
Aziz told the City Paper a representative from the company gave her a “generic” apology and she still doesn’t plan on returning to the restaurant.
