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Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Friday, December 8, 2017

The Daily Drift

Editorial Note: We will not be posting on Saturday, December 9th at our usual time due to a Holiday function. We will try to post later in the day or we may opt to have a Mega-Post Sunday instead.
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Carolina Naturally
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Today in History

1660
The first Shakespearian actress to appear on an English stage (she is believed to be a Ms. Norris) makes her debut as Desdemona.
1861
The CSS Sumter captures the whaler Eben Dodge in the Atlantic. The American Civil War is now affecting the northern whaling industry.
1863
Union General William Averell‘s cavalry destroys railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia.
1914
The German cruisers Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nurnberg, and Leipzig are sunk by a British force in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
1920
President Woodrow Wilson declines to send a representative to the League of Nations in Geneva.
1932
Japan tells the League of Nations that it has no control over her designs on China.
1941
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita begins his attack against the British army at Singapore.
1941 The first Civil Air Patrol is organized in the United States.
1943
U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.
1944
The United States conducts the longest, most effective air raid on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
1948
The United Nations approves the recognition of South Korea.
1967
In the biggest battle yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Viet Cong are killed.
1968
South Vietnam’s Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky arrives in Paris for peace talks.
1980
John Lennon is shot to death outside his Manhattan apartment building.
1982
In Washington, D.C., police shoot and kill a man threatening to blow up the Washington Monument.
1987
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
1987
An Israeli army tank transporter kills 4 Palestinian refugees and injures 7 others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, leading to the First Intifada.
1991
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine sign an agreement that dissolves the Soviet Union and establishes the Commonwealth of Independent States.
2004
The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2010
SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
2010
The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus.

Who Won Twitter For 2017?

Barack Hussein Obama
Who Won Twitter For 2017?  Barack Hussein Obama

Russia banned from Pyeongchang Games

Olympics: Russia banned from Pyeongchang Games – IOC
Russia has been banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after evidence emerged of widespread doping but some of its athletes will be allowed to compete under the tag of "Olympic Athlete of Russia", the IOC said on Tuesday.…

Surprising Reason Why Transportation Is Now the Top Source of U.S. Pollution

Why Is It So Difficult for Veterans With PTSD to Get Service Dogs?

Reporting a Rape Can Bring Doubt, Abuse—and Even Prosecution

Why Doesn't the Corporate Media Say Roy Moore Is Accused of Teen Sexual Abuse in Their Headlines?

Will Cannabis Replace Opioids as Painkillers?

Medical Marijuana Patients Are Being Told to Give Up Their Guns

Weed tech CEO accused of being a secret neo-Nazi steps down after admitting to ‘white pride’

OG Analytical CEO Bethany Sherman announced her resignation and plans to sell the marijuana testing facility she founded in 2013.

Irish town gets horny off of Viagra factory fumes

There’s a lot of things you have to worry about in the air, like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, but one town in Ireland is embracing a certain air-borne pollutant: Viagra.
As The Times of  London, reported, Ringaskiddy residents believe that Viagra wafts through the air thanks to the Pfizer factory in their town. According to the paper, the drug was produced in the area beginning in 1998. The drug was also approved by the Food and Drug Administration that year as the first pill providing relief to impotent men.
Local bartender Debbie O’Grady, who works at the Ferry Boat Inn, joked to the paper about the purported effects on residents, “One whiff and you’re stiff.” Grady’s mother, Sadie, explained that people who visit the town feel compelled to stay, thanks to the little blue pill.

Three Largest Meat Producers Rival Exxon in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Baltimore police officer stole $100,000 from citizens in years-long robbery spree

A fifth former Baltimore police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday in the U.S. Department of Justice racketeering case against the since-disbanded the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force.

Three-year-old toddler finds loaded gun and kills himself

An Ohio man has been indicted after his three-year-old son found the father’s loaded gun and fatally shot himself.

Miami man who hit 5-year-old wants abuse charge tossed under 'stand your ground' law

A Miami man accused of child abuse is using Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law to try to prevail against charges that he hit a 5-year-old boy he says was "armed" with a tennis racquet.

Fargo elementary teacher booted from school after cruelly bullying 10-year-old students

School teacher Andrea Deschamp at Lewis and Clark Elementary in Fargo, North Dakota will not be returning to the classroom after Fargo Public Schools investigated a formal complaint of bullying.

Time ‘Person of the Year’

Time on Wednesday revealed its choice for its annual “Person of the Year” award: The women whom it deemed the “Silence Breakers” who founded the #MeToo movement to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.

‘Women are going to pay for this’

Time on Wednesday announced that its “Person of the Year” title for 2017 went to the “silence breakers” who risked their careers to speak up about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Racists go bonkers after Beyoncé surprises Kaepernick with Ali Legacy Award

Beyoncé surprised free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick with Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award — and online racists lost their minds.

NATO Set the Stage for Open-Air Slave Markets in Libya

Dumbass Trump junta's proposed tipping rule raises fear of legal wage theft

by Melody Hahm
It’s illegal for employers to take tips from employees. But, the Department of Labor (DOL) is proposing a new rule that would allow employers to take their workers’ tips as long as they earn at least minimum wage.
Published on the Federal Register on Tuesday, the new rule would rescind a regulation enacted during the Obama administration that mandates employers distribute tips to their tipped employees. Under the new rule, restaurants would be able to pool tips from servers and share them with untipped employees like dishwashers.
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy institute (EPI), points to research that shows illegal wage theft exceeds $15 billion every year. “It seems obvious that when employers can legally pocket the tips earned by their employees, many will do so,” she said.
The DOL argues that tip pooling helps reward those who don’t normally get tips. Groups like the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association assert that this rule “would help decrease wage disparities between front-of-house and back-of-house employees.”
But labor advocates say the likely outcome would be employers pocketing those tips.
“If companies have trouble retaining non-tipped workers because their pay is so low, the solution is for the companies to raise the wages of those workers—not for the labor department to rig the rules so employers can essentially steal earnings from tipped workers to subsidize the businesses’ low wage model,” said Christine Owens, the executive director at the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
The public can submit comments within 30 days. While comment periods typically range from 30 to 60 days, agencies may also provide longer time periods (180+ days).
Shierholz notes that this is an “outrageously short window for commentary,” particularly because it was published during the holiday season.
While there’s the possibility of an extension, it’s a clear move to reduce public input, according to Shierholz.
“DOL is trying hard to hide how much this change in existing protections will cost workers as it tries to sneak this rule through an extraordinarily short public comment period over the holidays,” added Owens.
Lack of analysis
Another glaring issue with the proposal is the complete absence of economic analysis, according to Owens. She says that analysis would inevitably show the transfer of money from workers to employers, particularly big restaurant chains.
This analysis is “essential information the public needs to make informed comments about the proposal,” she said.
In fact, Shierholz and her team at EPI are currently working on a way to quantify the economic disadvantages the said rule would have on employees. By using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ current population survey and IRS data, the EPI is deriving a way to examine how much money would be transferred from employees to their bosses. With the caveat that both sources tend to underreport tips, Shierholz asserts that the DOL has a legal obligation to do a thorough analysis.
“Make no mistake: as a result of this rule, workers will take home less, and their loss will be employers’ gain,” she said. “And Trump’s DOL is willing to break the requirements of the rulemaking process to attempt to hide that fact.”

Why Did Facebook Give the Wingnut 'Weekly Standard' Fact-Checking Duties?

Facebook allowed political ads that were actually scams and malware

Facebook allowed political ads that were actually scams and malware

'Gay Wedding Cake' Case Poses a Major Threat to Civil Rights

Dumbass Trump junta twists anti-discrimination law to claim the KKK is a protected class

In the circus surrounding the Masterpiece Bakeshop case, in which a Colorado baker refused to serve gay customers, lost a discrimination case and then appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court, a strange tidbit emerged yesterday.

'This Is Not a Tax Bill, This Is a Declaration of War'

Massive Protests At House Of Representative Offices Over Tax Bill

Colossal distant black hole holds surprises about early universe

The oldest and most distant black hole ever observed — a celestial brute 800 million times more massive than the sun — is providing scientists some surprises about the nature of the universe when, on a cosmic scale, it was a mere toddler.

Animal Pictures