The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth. Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.
1626
Huguenot rebels and the French sign the Peace of La Rochelle. 1778
France recognizes the United States and signs a treaty of aid in Paris.
1788
Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.
1862
The Battle of Fort Henry, Tenn., begins the Mississippi Valley campaign.
1891
The Dalton Gang commits its first crime, a train robbery in Alila, Calif.
1899
The Spanish-American War ends.
1900
President McKinley appoints W.H. Taft commissioner to report on the Philippines.
1904
Japan's foreign minister severs all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.
1916
Germany admits full liability for Lusitania incident and recognizes the United State's right to claim indemnity.
1922
The Washington Disarmament Conference comes to an end with signature of
final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14
years.
1926
Mussolini warns Germany to stop agitation in Tyrol. 1929
Germany accepts Kellogg-Briand pact.
1933
Adolf Hitler's Third Reich begins press censorship. 1936
Adolf Hitler opens the Fourth Winter Olympics.
1941
The RAF clears the way as British take Benghazi, trapping thousands of Italians.
1944
Kwajalein Island in the Central Pacific falls to U.S. Army troops.
1945
MacArthur reports the fall of Manila, and the liberation of 5,000 prisoners. 1963
The United States reports that all Soviet offensive arms are out of Cuba.
1964
Cuba blocks the water supply to Guantanamo Naval Base in rebuke of the United State's seizure of four Cuban fishing boats.
1964
Paris and London agree to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.
1965
Seven U.S. GIs are killed in a Viet Cong raid on a base in Pleiku.
1968
Charles de Gaulle opens the 19th Winter Olympics in France.
1975
President Gerald Ford asks Congress for $497 million in aid to Cambodia.
1977
Queen Elizabeth marks her Silver Jubilee. 1982
Civil rights workers begin a march from Carrolton to Montgomery,
Alabama.
In an
extraordinary act of devotion to his art, sculptural artist Spencer
Byles spent a year creating beautiful sculptures out of natural and
found materials throughout the unmanaged forests of La Colle Sur Loup
(where he lived with his family), Villeneuve Loubet and Mougins. He
worked together with elements of his natural surroundings to create
artwork that blends seamlessly with the environment.
Byles’ project is intentionally
secretive – the only way you’ll see these work short of his photos is by
going into the woods and finding them yourself. I imagine that coming
upon such a fantastic structure unexpectedly in the woods is sure to be
quite a magical surprise.
One of the most beautiful things about
his work is its temporary nature. The pieces were not intended to last,
and each sculpture will eventually be reclaimed by the natural
environment that helped Byles shape it. This full circle gives the
organic pieces a powerful poetic and philosophical touch.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler made it official. He is
going to propose the strongest rules ever to protect net neutrality.
This is a big political victory for President Obama and his party but is
even more gigantic for every American, who uses the Internet.
Originally, I believed
that the FCC could assure internet openness through a determination of
“commercial reasonableness” under Section 706 of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996. While a recent court decision seemed to draw a roadmap for
using this approach, I became concerned that this relatively new concept
might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for
commercial interests, not consumers.
That is why I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections.
Using this authority, I am submitting to my
colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the
FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization,
and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I
propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules
to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to
go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to
introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.
In plain English, this means that internet is going to remain open and equal for all.
HBO’s John Oliver brought the issue to mainstream attention with a segment from his show that went viral:
The issue turned when President Obama issued a video and a statement in support of net neutrality that
called for the FCC to regulate ISPs like a utility. The president said,
“So the time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service
is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many
of the other vital services do. To do that, I believe the FCC should
reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the
Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from rate
regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services.
This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American
homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to
ensure the network works for everyone — not just one or two companies.
Politico reported that President Obama’s support for net neutrality was a major force behind Wheeler’s change of heart.
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) called Wheeler’s announcement
a big victory, “This is a big victory. It’s is a win for consumers, for
small businesses trying to compete with the big guys, and for
innovation. It’s welcome news for all of us who have fought to keep the
Internet free and open, and I’m so glad that the millions of Americans
who spoke out in support of strong net neutrality rules have been
heard.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said, “This is a victory
for consumers and entrepreneurs. The proposal would ensure that the
Internet remains a space for the open exchange of ideas and information,
free of discrimination and corporate control.”
The FCC is an independent agency, but it is clear
that the 4 million comments in support of net neutrality that flooded
the agency, and strong words of the president made the difference. The repugican argument that allowing a handful corporations to control the
Internet defied common sense. The repugican distortions of the
definition of net neutrality were so extreme that Senator Al Franken said that he didn’t think that repugicans like Ted Cruz understood what net neutrality was. Cruz responded by releasing a video on net neutrality that proved the Minnesota Democrat right.
Chairman Wheeler’s proposal is a defeat for the
telecom giants who tried to engage in a hostile takeover of the
Internet. Their loss is a testament to what can happen when millions of
Americans get engaged and involved, and political leaders listen to the
will of the people.
For the second day in a row, Senate Democrats have
blocked the advancement of a bill that would overturn President Obama’s
executive actions on immigration.
The repugicans failed again to advance a House-passed
bill that funds Homeland Security for the rest of the year while
overturning President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. All
Senate Democrats and repugican Dean Heller (r-NV) voted against
advancing the bill to a final vote.
Before the vote, a frustrated Mitch McConnell whined about obstruction and
tried tell sell Democrats as opposing Homeland Security funding,
“Perhaps today’s Democrat Party is so devoted to the right of
politicians to engage in action that would, as President Obama once
seemed to imply, ‘violate the law,’ that it cannot tolerate dissent. But
this is no reason to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.
This is no reason to prevent the Senate from even debating whether, not
to fund this department. So the Democrats’ Homeland Security filibuster
needs to end now. And Democrat Senators who say they’re serious about
keeping our nation safe — and addressing what President Obama
acknowledged as ‘unwise and unfair’ overreach — need to prove it.”
Senate Democrats are going to continue to filibuster
the bill because it overturns President Obama’s executive action on
immigration. McConnell’s nervousness about being blamed if Homeland
Security shuts down is starting to show. There is a simple way for
McConnell to avoid a shutdown of Homeland Security. All that the
Majority Leader has to do is pass a clean funding bill. The house repugicans picked a fight that they can’t win with Democrats on the
president’s immigration executive actions.
Senate Democrats aren’t going to vote for anything, but a clean Homeland Security funding bill.
As Sen. Patty Murray put it, “This funding bill for Homeland Security should not be held hostage for immigration. We’re being straight up.”
Hypocrite Mitch McConnell obstructed the Senate for
six years, but now that he is in power, he expects Democrats to play by a
different set of rules. That’s not going to happen. It is poetic
justice that McConnell is getting a taste of his own medicine, and the repugican majority’s dreamed of juggernaut has completely derailed.
The scheme cooked up by Speaker of the House John
Boehner and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to humiliate President
Obama and pressure him on Iran is backfiring, as dozens of congressional
Democrats are threatening to not attend Netanyahu’s address to
Congress.
Dozens of House
Democrats are privately threatening to skip the March 3 address,
according to lawmakers and aides, in what’s become the lowest point of a
relationship between the Israeli prime minister and President Barack
Obama that’s never been good.
The president and his aides won’t tell Democrats to
skip the speech. But they aren’t telling Democrats to go, either. “We
defer to Democratic members if they’d like to attend or not,” a White
House aide said Tuesday.
Though some may abandon the threat, as of Tuesday,
many Democrats on the Hill — including several Jewish members — said
they’re likely to leave the prime minister looking at some empty seats.
The repugicans and the Israeli Prime Minister assumed
that the president would be weakened after the midterm election. They
thought that they could divide Democrats and humiliate Obama into
abandoning talks with Iran over their nuclear program. Boehner and
Netanyahu thought that they could bully this president and congressional
Democrats, but they were wrong.
Instead of bullying the president and dividing
Democrats, Netanyahu may end up addressing a lot of empty seats. The
speech may look less like a bipartisan address to Congress, and more
like what it really will be a pep rally for hardline conservative
foreign policy. Boehner and Netanyahu both grossly misread the political
landscape. The repugican Israeli ambassador to the US bought the great
delusion that repugicans were going to have their way with the
president after they took control of Congress.
The reality has been characterized by President
Obama setting the political agenda with congressional repugicans
consistently on the defensive.
Boehner tried to force Democrats to choose
between Obama and Netanyahu. For Democratic members of Congress, it was
an easy decision. Democrats are standing with their president, as
Netanyahu’s may be addressing a lot of empty seats when he speaks to
Congress next month.
Boehner twisted history to claim that "the American people can't afford a repeat of the same old top-down policies of the past"…
Let’s take a look at the latest repugican attempt to mislead the
American people through obfuscation and sleight of hand. We can call
this the anatomy of a failure.
There is an old adage that there are two sides to a
story, and it is understood that, usually, there is some truth to both
of them. Where our 114th Congress is concerned, the truth is all on one
side.
Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi tweeted about John Boehner’s goals for the day:
Of course, this isn’t what Boehner was pushing publicly. He is still pretending he is all about
creating jobs for the middle class! And combating the president’s
“overreach on immigration.” Overreach. As in issuing a perfect legal
executive order. In other words, doing his job.
You know, because Congress – particularly the House – can’t or won’t do theirs.
Boehner said, “This week, the House will take up
three more jobs bills to help our economy. At the same time, the
president provided the American people a good laugh yesterday – he sent
up his budget. More taxes, more spending, bigger government here in
Washington – the same old policies that have failed for the last six
years. It’s not what the American people want.”
How about that vote to repeal Obamacare? You mean you are not going to tell the American people that you are on futile attempt?
And what, precisely, are those “same old (failed) policies”? The economy has recovered, the deficit has been cut by two-thirds, and unemployment is dropping. Obama’s popularity is surging. Where are the failures of which Boehner speaks?
The Republicans did manage to pass a bill
(H.R. 596) that would take healthcare away from 19 million Americans
when they voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act 239-186. It is hard to
see that as an accomplishment, however, unless you are a fascist.
The repugican cabal did not create any jobs yesterday. Nary a
one. Nor did they accomplish any other positive action that would
benefit either the middle class specifically or America in general.
Their action and inaction is instead a relentless march backward to some
actual failed policies, those of Obama’s predecessor in the White
House, the guy who tanked the economy in 2008. A repugican.
What would put Americans back to work –
infrastructure funding for example – is, to Boehner, something to laugh
at. He’d prefer the 35 jobs created by the Keystone XL pipeline because
that sort of legislation puts money in his pocket to pay for his fancy
retirement home in Florida. Maybe he plans a big dyke around it to keep
out the rising sea levels.
Though no longer viewable online, these were Boehner’s February 2 remarks on Obama’s budget:
Today President Obama laid out a plan for more
taxes, more spending, and more of the Washington gridlock that has
failed middle-class families. It may be Groundhog Day, but the American
people can’t afford a repeat of the same old top-down policies of the
past.
Like the president’s previous budgets, this plan
never balances – ever. It contains no solutions to address the drivers
of our debt, and no plan to fix our entire tax code to help foster
growth and create jobs. Worse yet, President Obama would impose new
taxes and more spending without a responsible plan to honestly address
the big challenges facing our country.
While the president budget’s is about the
past, our budget will be about the future. We will address our
government’s spending problem and protect our national security. Our
budget will balance, and it will help promote job creation and higher
wages, not more government bureaucracy.
A lot of hot air here, but little of substance. It
is amusing that Obama’s bottom-up strategy for economic recovery is
called “top-down” when the repugican cabal’s “trickle down” policies somehow are
not. We can laugh about that while we are scrounging in garbage cans for
food.
Boehner concluded yesterday before going into battle:
“Tonight, the Senate’s going to vote on our plan to fund the Department
of Homeland Security and block the president’s unilateral actions on
immigration. There’s a whole host of Democrats who issued press
releases criticizing the president’s executive overreach – McCaskill,
Donnelly, others. Was it all talk?
Of course, Boehner failed to undo Obama’s alleged overreach, with the Democrats blocking the measure on a 51-48 vote.
Yet another in a long line of failures for Boehner. Immigrants are
people too, and thanks to the Democrats, they will remain people.
“We won this fight in
the House, now the fight must be won in the United States Senate. It’s
time for Cruz, Sessions, senate repugicans and Senate
Democrats to stand with the American people and to block the president’s
actions.”
Say what? It’s not clear what, precisely, Boehner
thinks he has won in the House, because nothing jumps to mind. The
story, rather, is one of unremitting failure thanks to teabagger
extremism. Don’t judge the health of teabagger ideology by Sarah Palin’s
popularity, folks.
And don’t you love it when a guy who can’t control
his own caucus tells his Senate colleagues to do their jobs? Of course,
Bernie Sanders has already destroyed the repugican job creator myth, and repugican governors are busily waging war on the middle class by robbing pensions and slashing wages.
You want failed policies? Detroit is an economic wasteland thanks to repugican economic policies and Kansas is following suit. And they want to do this to the rest of us.
Speaking of jobs…where are those jobs Boehner is
always promising to create? I mean, besides the 35 jobs the Keystone XL
pipeline would give us?
The repugian cabal, misled by John Boehner, is attempting to fool
the American people into thinking they care. But they don’t. Talking
about creating jobs does not create jobs. And Americans are tired of
empty words from our Congress.
The fact that Obama’s approval rating is at a 20-month high
ought to tell repugicans that maybe, just maybe, Obama is leading
America in the direction it wants to go. It ought to be be a warning to
Boehner and his fellow house repugicans that not only are they butting
their heads against a wall, but they’re probably fooling far fewer
people than they think.
In the early running for single stupidest news segment of 2015, Faux & Friends
brought on a wingnut agitator to make the case that Hollywood is
emasculating the men in this country by placing too many female
characters as the heroes in movies. Penny Young Nance, the CEO of a
group known as the Concerned Women for America, appeared on the show
Wednesday morning and spoke with host Steve Doocy about male roles in
recent movies and how she feels they are too often cast as
antagonists or idiots in an effort to make women feel superior. She
specifically took aim at the Disney hit Frozen and its upcoming sequel.
Doocy started the segment off by introducing a couple of clips from Frozen,
moaning that the film portrays men in a negative light and wondering if
Hollywood is “empowering women by turning our men into fools and
villains.” He then welcomed Nance to the show, making sure to note that
she is a mother and offering thanks to her children for letting her
appear on Faux when she should be getting them ready for school. Nance
then proceeded to complain that Hollywood is sending a message that “men
are stupid” and only good for “a paycheck.” Regarding Frozen, Nance had
the following to say:
“The question for us as
moms is when we bring our daughters to see Frozen, or whatever the
movie is, we often have our little boys sitting there, and is this
message helpful? We want them to know that they’re essential. We want to
raise heroes. We want to raise real men that will stick in their
families and be great dads and be great providers and great husbands.”
Doocy responded that filmmakers must think it is
just easier to make fun of men than women and that they are just having a
little fun with the movies they are making. At that point, Nance went
off on a super-crazy tangent where she brought up the Aurora shooting
and pointed out that a man saved his girlfriend’s life by throwing his
body on her. According to her logic, Hollywood is “tearing down men” and
trying to “villainize masculinity” in an effort to make women feel
better about themselves.
Obviously, the Faux host agreed with everything she
said, and added that “it would be nice for Hollywood to have more male
figures in those kinds of movies.” To be honest, this is absolutely
jaw-dropping. The reason this is so unbelievably stupid, and just plain
offensive, is the basic fact that men dominate the major roles in films
and have since the beginning of movies.
Last May, the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film determined
that in the year 2013, only 15% of protagonists in that year’s 100
highest-grossing films were female. This represented a 4% increase from
2011 but a 1% decrease from 2002. On top of that, women only accounted
for 30% of all speaking parts in those films, and the study revealed
that there has not been any significant change in that level over the
years.
Of course, for Faux News, wingnuts there are just too many movies out there with women in
featured roles and men are just getting the short end of the stick.
Only in the wingnut bubble will you see people complaining that there
are too many female heroes in movies these days. Because, as we all
know, 15% is just way too much.
Faux News has drawn criticism from a terrorism expert for giving ISIL
what it wants by publishing the full video of the terrorists burning
Jordanian hostage Muadh al-Kasasbeh alive.
Faux News executive editor John Moody
defended giving ISIl a platform to spread terror and fear, “After
careful consideration, we decided that giving readers of FauxNews.com the
option to see for themselves the barbarity of ISIL outweighed
legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video. Online users
can choose to view or not view this disturbing content.”
ISIL is sharing links to the Faux News video on Twitter.
Terrorism expert Rick Nelson explained why
Faux News erred by giving ISIL an American platform, “They’re a terror organization. They seek to strike terror in the hearts and minds of
people globally, and by perpetuating these videos and putting them out
there into the internet, it certainly expands the audience and potential
effects. These groups need a platform, and this gives them a platform.”
This may come as a surprise to Faux News, but it
possible to report the news without helping the terrorists spread their
propaganda. The decision to publish the video was a sensationalistic
attempt to get attention on the part of Faux News. What Faux News did was
aid and assist ISIL by publishing their video.
The goal of terrorism is not to kill. Terrorists
want to spread fear. By giving ISIL a platform in the United States, Faux
News has given ISIL a platform.
Faux News has committed a deplorable act by
publishing the Muadh al-Kasasbeh video. The terrorists get exactly what
they desire most when the media publishes their videos. Facebook and
YouTube both refuse to allow the video to be published on their sites.
Faux News has demonstrated that they are willing to assist terrorists and
promote their agenda if it means more publicity for the wingnut
pseudo-news network.
Do you think restaurants should be able to opt out?
North Carolina's idiot Thom Tillis is not so sure we need laws requiring food service employees to wash their hands:
Tillis made the declaration at to the Bipartisan Policy
Center, at the end of a question and answer with the audience. He was
relaying a 2010 anecdote about his “bias when it comes to regulatory
reform.”
“I was having a discussion with someone, and we were at a Starbucks
in my district, and we were talking about certain regulations where I
felt like ‘maybe you should allow businesses to opt out,’” he said, “as
long as they indicate through proper disclosure, through advertising,
through employment literature, or whatever else.”
Restaurants can just opt-out and let the free market take care of
business after word spreads of unsanitary conditions. Never mind that a
lack of hand washing by food service employees accounts for the vast majority of food contamination:
The spread of germs from the hands of food workers to food
is an important cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants. It
accounts for 89% of outbreaks in which food was contaminated by food
workers. Proper handwashing can reduce germs on workers’ hands and the
spread of germs from hands to food and from food to other people.
Making sure business are free to operate under any conditions they'd like is apparently more important than public health and safety:
“That’s the sort of mentality that we need to have to reduce
the regulatory burden on this country,” he added. “We’re one of the
most regulated nations in the history of the planet.”
Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet joked that he was
“not sure” he would shake Sen. Tillis’ hand when the discussion was
over, causing the lawmaker and members of the audience to laugh.
Indeed. So, so gross. And to be clear, he offered up this suggestion at the very beginning of his talk. Watch his comments here:
Prior to the 18th Century, it was customary in
England to ring a bell to announce a death that was called ‘tolling the
bell’ or a ‘death knell.’ Since the Koch brothers stole repugicans
control of Congress, President Obama has symbolically been the death
knell of most of the repugicans’ stated agenda by announcing their
proposed legislation was dead by way of Presidential veto. Included in
the dead-on-arrival legislation is the unconstitutional legislation
approving the Koch brothers’ cherished KeystoneXL pipeline.
The President has intimated several legitimate
reasons for vetoing the repugicans’ gift to the Kochs, but now there is
a damning indictment on the project courtesy of the Environmental
Protection Agency. The repugicans and the Koch brothers make no secret that
next to taxes, there is no part of the federal government they despise
more than the EPA, so it is a major slap in their faces that it was the
agency they hate above all others that delivered the death knell of
their 8 billion-dollar dream project. Americans should expect a renewed
Koch Congress assault on the EPA for doing the job a repugican
president created the agency for; to protect the environment and
Americans’ health and well-being.
Over the past few months, the President has been a
little more vocal about the pipeline not creating jobs, not providing
one gallon of gas for Americans, increasing fuel costs for Americans,
and encroaching on Americans’ private property; all legitimate reasons
to thwart the foreign pipeline’s construction. However, the President
also stated categorically for four years his primary concern was how
much constructing the pipeline will increase carbon emissions (greenhouse gases) that are the major drivers of climate change.
In fact, the President often tells repugicans to
wait until all the data is in on the environmental impact of the
pipeline, particularly how it might exacerbate climate change. Now that
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has officially said developing
Canadian oil sands will, beyond a shadow of a doubt, significantly
increase greenhouse gases, the President has the reason he was looking
for to reject construction of the KeystoneXL pipeline; particularly in
light of his herculean effort and agreement with China to curb carbon emissions.
It is noteworthy that real climate scientists have
warned for over three years that developing Canada’s substantial oil
sands is “game over for the Earth’s climate,” but as is their wont; repugicans dismiss climate scientists’ warnings as fear mongering, an
attack on Americans’ way of life, environmental terrorism, and a liberal
hoax to destroy the fossil fuel industry.
On Tuesday, the EPA delivered a letter to the State Department which is reviewing the impact of the Keystone project that said that “Until
efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the
production of oil sands are successful and widespread, developing the
tar sands crude represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas
emissions.” The President has said often he will reject the foreign
corporation’s (TransCanada) project if it would in any way lead to a
significant increase in carbon pollution.
The President already told Republicans he would veto
their effort to circumvent the State Department’s authority over the
project and demanded they allow the Executive Branch to continue
conducting a comprehensive review of the pipeline’s environmental
impact. Now that part of the review officially confirms the
‘significant increase in greenhouse gases,’ the project is exposed for
what it really means; game over for the environment.
Environmentalists were already aware that developing
Canada’s tar sands is an environmental hazard, but they were ecstatic
that the EPA confirmed what climate scientists have known for a decade.
One of the climate scientists leading the opposition to Keystone, Bill
McKibben, said of the report that “The EPA, in polite, knife-sharp
Washingtonese, has taken apart the State Department on Keystone and
shown it to be a climate disaster.” A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council said the ” legitimate
scientific assessment means the Keystone pipeline fails the standard
President Obama said he’ll use to judge the $8 billion project.” The Canadian project director for the NRDC said in a statement that, “There should be no more doubt that President Obama must reject the proposed pipeline once and for all.”
Last year the State Department released an
environmental impact statement prepared by a Koch brothers’ oil industry
firm that said even though oil sands are incredibly more carbon
intensive, constructing the Keystone pipeline “probably wouldn’t
increase carbon emissions” because the toxic crude would be produced
whether or not the project was approved. It is worth noting that since
2010, Republicans cut the State Department’s budget so drastically that
they were “forced to outsource the environmental impact report” because
they were severely understaffed.
According to the EPA’s 11-volume analysis, the tar
sands oil carried by the Keystone pipeline will lead to the release of
more than 27 million metric tons of carbon annually “compared to less
carbon-heavy crude oil” and is the equivalent of 8 carbon intensive coal
plants. The report also included a scenario “under which Keystone
will play a larger role in spurring more tar sand development if oil
prices fell below $75 a barrel making other shipping alternatives no
longer viable.” The EPA said, “the low price scenario should be given additional weight in deciding the fate of the projectin light of the substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions.” The price for benchmark U.S. crude fell last week to $44.45 per barrel; the lowest since March 2009.
An oil industry lobbying group, the American
Petroleum Institute (API) slammed the EPA’s analysis as just worthless
excuses to put off approving TransCanada’s construction permit to build
Keystone. The group’s executive vice president was particularly critical
of EPA reasoning and said its evaluation of the project’s environmental
impact “is just another attempt to prolong the KeystoneXL review
process.”
If building Keystone is so important to the American
Petroleum Institute, and not an environmental threat, why are the
lobbyists not exerting pressure on the Canadian government to allow the
Canadian corporation to build the environmental disaster on Canadian
soil? Because it is Canada’s oil and the Canadian government knows the
pipeline is a major environmental hazard well-suited for America, but
not Canada. Plus, the Canadian government has already contracted and
sold Koch Industries purview and ownership of over 1.1 million acres of
tar sands in Alberta; the largest
single owners. It is likely why Canadian Prime Minister Brian Harper
criticized President Obama’s veto threat and said, “we believe the
project should be approved and built in America; not Canada.
The EPA’s comprehensive analysis gives President
Obama exactly what he wanted to drive the final nail in the KeystoneXL
coffin. The pipeline has no redeeming qualities, or benefits for the
American people, regardless the persistent lies emanating from the likes
of John Boehner and Koch-aligned repugicans in Congress. Besides the
certain ruptures the already-completed portions of the pipeline are
notorious for, the simple fact that it will drastically increase carbon
emissions and exacerbate climate change scientists warn means ‘game over for Earth’s environment” is all the reason President Obama needs to kill the project once and for all as a leading voice in combatting climate change.
"North Dakota's oil industry is regulated by a three-member commission
called the North Dakota Industrial Commission. The three members, all repugicans, are the Governor, the Agriculture Commissioner and the
Attorney General. The oil industry owns the first two, but the Attorney
General, not so much. He is, though, a member of the team and generally
acquiesces. The oil industry owns the Governor and the Agriculture
Commissioner by virtue of having paid for their election campaigns.""Ironically,
the campaigns were against the same man, a cowboy-rancher named Ryan
Taylor, who was defeated for Governor by Jack Dalrymple in 2012 and for
Agriculture Commissioner by Douglas Goehring in 2014. In both cases, the
oil industry paid most of the Republicans' campaign bills-more than
half a million worth in 2012, something less than that in 2014-even
though Taylor was probably going to lose anyway. But the industry knew
he was going to be a thorn in their side, and they wanted an insurance
policy that guaranteed the two men who had kept the doors open to their
greedy march across the prairie, unchecked by onerous regulations, were
going to remain In office. So they opened their fat wallets and paid for
a couple of campaigns. Now they own two of the three most important
politicians in North Dakota." […]
"That's the record of the repugicans in North Dakota. When the industry owns the regulators, nobody gets regulated."
That, North Dakota Democrats, is THE ANSWER.
It doesn't matter what the question is. It's called using your talking points, staying on message.
On Monday February 2, 2015, Darlene Hiber and her four children
boarded a Delta Airlines flight, headed from Florida back to her home
state of Michigan. After a passenger began shouting racist insults at
her, a Delta airlines flight attendant added fuel to the fire.
According to Hiber’s statements, a female passenger began harassing her during flight, shouting
‘This is America!’ She says the woman then hurled threats and insults
at her, because of her Muslim headscarf. Other passengers were visibly
disturbed by the woman’s treatment of the family. According to the legal
and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
(ADC), most of the passengers supported and offered comfort to the
family, and one witness to the incident broke down in tears.
Instead of addressing the bigot who was openly harassing Hiber, a
Delta Airlines flight attendant told the Arab-American woman to “get
your kids and change seats.”
Hiber said following the incident:
“I felt that I couldn’t defend myself or kids because I
was afraid of what more they’ll do … I was afraid to be called a
terrorist.”
The flight attendant was caught on video threatening to have the family removed from the airline. She reportedly told Hiber’s husband:
“You are at my wit’s end. You better be quiet before I kick you off of this plane!”
All while taking no action whatsoever against the racist bigot who was subjecting the woman to the abuse.
Sit down, shut up and take it? That’s how Delta Airlines attendants
treat passengers being subjected to this kind of treatment by another
person?
The attendant can be heard shouting at the victim in the video:
“You want to get off the plane? … I’m fixing the problem … If you want, we will take you out.”
According to ADC National, who uploaded the video to YouTube on February 3:
The video footage shows the Delta agent yelling at a
Muslim American, and her husband. Moments before this footage, another
passenger verbally harassed the Muslim American woman. In response to
the harassment the Delta agent scolded the victim and threatened to
throw her and her family off the plane. The mother of four was forced to
change seats, all in an effort to accommodate one individual who made
bigoted remarks.
ADC has been in touch with Delta Airlines over the incident. The
organization is asking that the airline better train and equip its staff
to address issues of religious and racial discrimination. ADC
President, Samer Khala said:
“We encourage Delta to take immediate steps to rectify
this matter and ensure that their agents are better equipped to address
instances of harassment.”
Brain Kruse, a spokesman for Delta, told the Detroit Free Press Tuesday
that the company has been in touch with Hiber and is ‘reviewing the
situation.’ Kruse went on to say that “Delta does not condone
discrimination of any kind.”
Newsflash Delta – not condoning discrimination means not catering to
it. It means not requiring victims of discrimination to accommodate
racist behavior by giving up their seats. It also means not telling victims of racism to ‘sit down, shut up and take it or else.’
State tourism tax
incentives cannot be used to fund religious indoctrination or otherwise
be used to advance religion. The use of state incentives in this way
violates the separation of church and state provisions of the
Constitution and is therefore impermissible.
State officials contend that the group has
morphed from a tourist attraction into a proselytizing arm for the
Answers in Genesis ministry. Consequently, supplying state funds for the
project are not appropriate. Answers in Genesis promotes a literal
interpretation of the old testament. The fundamentalist cabal
also contends that the earth is just 6000 years old.
Ironically, the Answers in Genesis cabal, is trying
to argue that the state of Kentucky is violating the First Amendment and
practicing anti-christian bigotry by not allowing the group to
discriminate against non-christians. Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham stated:
Ourcabal spent
many months attempting to reason with state officials so that this
lawsuit would not be necessary. However, the state was so insistent on
treating our religious cabal as a second-class citizen that we were
simply left with no alternative but to proceed to court. This is the
latest example of increasing government hostility towards religion in
America, and it’s certainly among the most blatant.
Ham’s position apparently is that if the state of
Kentucky doesn’t provide 18 million dollars to help build the ark, they
are engaging in persecution of christians. The 73 million dollar project
appears to be floundering without the benefit of the anticipated 18
million dollars in state welfare, which is being withheld due to the cabal’s discriminatory practices. Answers in Genesis is suing the state
of Kentucky, but suing for the legal right to discriminate gives them a
very weak case.
In
some disasters, a lot of people die for reasons that are later
determined to be beyond their control. Yet in many disasters (sinking
ships, burning buildings, weather events, etc) rescuers are surprised at
how many people died because they failed to do anything to save
themselves. An example is the 1994 sinking of the ferry MS Estonia, in
which 852 of the 989 people aboard died, most of them because they did
not leave the ship.
What happened? One person who
knows the answer is John Leach, a military survival instructor who
researches behaviour in extreme environments at the University of
Portsmouth. He has studied the actions of survivors and victims from
dozens of disasters around the world over several decades (and as it
happens he was present at one of them, the fire at King’s Cross
underground station on 18 November 1987 which killed 31 people). He has
found that in life-threatening situations, around 75% of people are so
bewildered by the situation that they are unable to think clearly or
plot their escape. They become mentally paralysed. Just 15% of people on
average manage to remain calm and rational enough to make decisions
that could save their lives. (The remaining 10% are plain dangerous:
they freak out and hinder the survival chances of everyone else.)
Of course, there is more involved, like the human tendency to downplay the actual danger in a novel situation. An article at the BBC shows us the latest research in disaster survival, based on both real
events and models, and some tips on how you can survive if the occasion
ever arises.
A TransAsia Airways ATR-72 turboprop plane has
crashed into a river in Taiwan, tragically killing at least 19 people.
This dashcam video shows the plane clipping a bridge after rapidly
descending soon after it took off from Taipei airport.
The
plane, which was less than a year old, had 58 passengers aboard, most of
whom were Chinese tourists. The accident marks TransAsia's second crash
with fatalities in under a year. The crash of TransAsia flight 222 last
July killed 48 people.
Read more on this story at The Wall Street Journal.
: It’s
not a novelty vehicle. Two-front fire trucks are actually useful. The
German truck maker MAN originally built them for firefighting crews that
provide service in long tunnels, such as the 7.2-mile tunnel beneath
Mont Blanc. In the tight confines of a tunnel, a truck might not be able
to turn around. So the crew drives toward the fire, manning the end
facing that direction.
That feature is also useful in some congested Chinese cities. Rocket News 24 reports that Nanjing City now owns one, which is pictured.
Traditional communities living in isolated, rural areas with
little money or infrastructure tend to have one thing in common:
Resilience rooted in intricate knowledge of their natural environment,
especially plants. […]
The discovery of a Bronze Age burial cist at a construction
site in the Scottish Highland has led to a second grave that contained
pottery and an archer’s wrist guard. “The shards have a distinctive
decoration which may have been made on the clay before firing in a
stabbing movement with something like a feather quill,” Mary Peteranna
of AOC Archaeology Group told The Inverness Courier.
The pieces make up about two-thirds of a beaker pot. Organic material
at its base may yield information about its contents. “The wrist guard
is also particularly exciting. It has holes so that it could be tied to
the wrist with a leather strap, and may have been ornamental or
functional,” she added. The artifacts may eventually be displayed in the
health center that will be built on the site. For more, see "England's Remarkable Bronze Age Cremation Burial."
This
is Chand Baori, a 13-story deep step well located in India in a village
called Abaneri, approximately 60 miles from Jaipur. The well was named
for King Chanda, who controlled the area in the late eighth and early
ninth centuries.
Also part fort — designed with openings in the
walls for muskets and with four corner watchtowers — the well has 3,500
steps descending to the cool water below. Chand Baori is one of the
deepest and largest structures of its kind.
See a video on Chand Baori below, and learn about six other lesser-known architectural wonders of the world at BBC Travel.
Although the alignments likely had symbolic meanings, the
solstice sun could also have served a practical purpose, helping
architects build the Taj Mahal and its gardens precisely.
New study examines role as ocean transport, early warning of
tsunamis. Acoustic-gravity waves — a special type of sound wave that can
cut through the deep ocean at the speed […]
North America traveled in fast company back in its youth. A new
study led by Michigan Technological University geophysicist Aleksey
Smirnov reveals that 1.1 billion years ago, the North American […]
A six-inch-long hipbone of a 12.5 to 8.5 million-year-old ape called Sivapithecus
is challenging the belief that the upright body posture exhibited by
today’s great apes evolved only once. The upright body posture, also
known as the orthograde body plan, features broad torsos and mobile
forelimbs. Michèle Morgan, museum curator of osteology and
paleoanthropology at Harvard University’s
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and her colleagues say
that this hip bone suggests that the upright body plan may have evolved
multiple times. “We always thought if we found this body part, that it
would show some of the features we find in the living great apes. To
find something like this was surprising,” she said. Sivapithecus is thought to have had a relatively narrow, monkey-like chest, and facial features resembling those of modern orangutans. The Sivapithecus hipbone, however, differs from that of all living apes. “We initially believed that Sivapithecus,
with a narrow torso, was on the orangutan line, but if that is the
case, then the great ape body shape would have had to evolve at least
twice. There are a lot of questions that this fossil raises, and we
don’t have good answers for them yet. What we do know is that the
evolution of the orthograde body plan in apes is not a simple story.”
More fossils are needed to get a better picture of Sivapithecus. To read about a similar discovery, see "Ardipithecus: Ape or Ancestor?"
‘Living fossil’ species dates back 125 million years and is
typically found in depths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet; this juvenile was
taken at 2,000 feet
A rare goblin shark, this one a juvenile, was caught in a trawl net off Australia.
A scary and creepy-looking goblin shark,
a rare deep-water shark sometimes referred to as a living fossil,
reared its ugly head in a fishing trawl net in deep waters off Australia
last week.
Lochlainn Kelly, 22, fishing with his father Mike, was “more excited
than frightened” when the goblin shark was discovered in their net along
with a load of crayfish, The Sydney Morning Herald and Merimbula News reported. Just as a rare goblin shark caught in a net in the Gulf of Mexico created a buzz in the scientific community, this one produced quite a bit of interest at The Wharf Aquarium in Merimbula where it was being examined.
A local fisherman named “old Errol” said he’d never seen one in all his decades fishing in local waters.
The goblin shark typically inhabits waters 3,000 to 4,000 feet deep.
The goblin shark is the world’s rarest shark, and a contender for the
world’s ugliest sea creature. It is the lone surviving member of the Mitsukurinidae family, which dates back 125 million years.
Alan Scrymgeour of the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre
described the deep-water shark to the Morning Herald as belonging to an
“evolutionary dead end,” as it stopped evolving about 70 million years
ago during the dinosaur era. The goblin shark has a unique elongated, paddle-like snout that
features hundreds of small sensors that can detect small electrical
fields produced by the crustaceans and cephalopods they feed on.
The goblin shark grows to more than 12 feet long.
Adult goblin sharks grow to over 12 feet long and live in waters
3,000 to 4,000 feet deep. This one was caught in 2,000 feet of water. It
was a juvenile between 2 to 3 years old, measuring just under 4 feet
long.
“They are a very deep-water shark that has been rarely recorded from
Australian waters,” Michael McMaster, curator at the Wharf Aquarium in
Merimbula, told GrindTV in an email. “[It] does not mean that they are
rare in the waters in which they live, it is just that very little
fishing is done at the depth in which they live. Because so few have
been studied very little is known about them.”
The
elongated, paddle-like nose of a goblin shark features hundreds of
small sensors used to hunt for food.
The Kellys were trawling southeast of Gabo Island south of Eden in New South Wales when they made the unusual catch.
“We just winched up the wire and brought the net on and the shark was
in the net,” Kelly said. “I wasn’t [freaked out], if anything I was
pretty excited. I’ve seen photos of them before, but I’ve never seen one
before.”
Soon, others will be able to see one, too. The fish is to be sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney for its collection.
It's too early to say if the Sierra Nevada red fox is rebounding, experts say.
One of the rarest animals in North America, the Sierra Nevada red fox, has been caught on camera in California's Yosemite National Park for the first time in nearly a century.
Motion-sensitive cameras stationed in the northern part of
the park captured two images—possibly of the same animal—one in December
and one in January.
The little-seen fox was sighted north of the park in 2010,
but no one's seen it inside the park's boundaries since 1916. To say
researchers are excited would be an understatement.
"Knowing that the animal is in the park is huge for us,"
said park wildlife biologist Sarah Stock. "Up until this point we had
observations, but none of them were substantiated."
Why It Matters
The Sierra Nevada red fox (Vulpes vulpes necator)
is incredibly rare, with as few as 50 individuals thought to exist in
North America. Prized for their vibrant coats, red fox populations were
devastated by hunting and trapping during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The fox, which historically ranged throughout the Sierra
Nevada mountains, is now limited to two small populations in California:
one around Lassen Volcanic National Park and another around Sonora Pass.
"Now we know [that population] extends down to northern Yosemite," said Stock.
She added that other human threats, such as livestock grazing, snowmobiling, and logging, could affect the fox's survival.
"Trapping was banned in 1974, so we actually have a pretty long history of impacting this animal," she said.
The Big Picture
It's too soon to say whether the Sierra's population is
rebounding or expanding its range, as researchers are just now getting
to know the elusive Sierra Nevada red.
"At this point we're still gathering the most basic information, still just establishing baselines," Stock said.
The find is meaningful because a Sierra Nevada red fox
population within Yosemite's borders would enjoy the special protections
of a national park, where harmful activities such as logging and
livestock raising are off-limits.
The fox, which is protected by the state of California, is being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
What's Next
Stock says the next step is to continue detecting foxes
using cameras and so-called "hair snares"—bristle brushes that collect
hair samples when a fox walks by.
Scientists test the DNA in these samples, which helps them
learn more about the foxes and their origins—as well as craft a strategy
to help the animal bounce back.
"The more information we can get about this animal, the more that we can learn, and the more we can try to protect it."
