Thursday, May 31, 2018
RSN: Paul Krugman | Trump's Manchurian Trade Policy
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31 May 18 AM
RSN: Paul Krugman | Trump's Manchurian Trade Policy
South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy. (photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
Trey Gowdy: FBI's Use of Informant for Trump Campaign Was Appropriate
Andrew Desiderio, The Daily Beast
Desiderio writes: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Tuesday that the FBI's use of an informant for the Trump campaign in 2016 was appropriate, joining top Democrats in disputing President Donald Trump's characterization of the informant as a spy."
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Andrew Desiderio, The Daily Beast
Desiderio writes: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Tuesday that the FBI's use of an informant for the Trump campaign in 2016 was appropriate, joining top Democrats in disputing President Donald Trump's characterization of the informant as a spy."
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RSN: Andy Borowitz | White House in Panic Mode After TV Star With Racist Twitter Feed Loses Job
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 30 May 18 PM |
RSN: Andy Borowitz | White House in Panic Mode After TV Star With Racist Twitter Feed Loses Job
John R. Bolton in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Bolton Installs Anti-Muslim Wingnut as NSC Chief of Staff
Eric Levitz, New York Magazine
Levitz writes: "Bolton is remaking the National Security Council in his image."
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Eric Levitz, New York Magazine
Levitz writes: "Bolton is remaking the National Security Council in his image."
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BELOW ARE JUST A FEW ARTICLES ABOUT JOHN BOLTON - WORTH READING TO BE INFORMED ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF OUR NATION UNDER TRUMP:
RSN: John Feffer | The Bolton Administration Has Already Begun
Horrifying, personal John Bolton story et al
Project for the New American Century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Why does John Bolton have a Super PAC?
[Wasn't there a sex scandal that surrounded Bolton?]
[Wasn't there a sex scandal that surrounded Bolton?]
"....Trump ran as the candidate who would break the stranglehold of big
money on the nation’s politics, but the rise of Bolton suggests money may
still win out. Robert Mercer, a hedge fund billionaire who provided the lion’s
share of the financial backing for Trump’s candidacy, is a major supporter
of Bolton. The largest donor to John Bolton’s Super PAC over the years has
been the Mercer family; in 2014, Trump gave $5,000 to the Super PAC. ..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-bolton-secretary-of-state-donald-trump_us_582a314ee4b02d21bbca46b2?section=politics
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
The Daily 202: As alcoholism fells another congressman, a reminder that no one is immune to addiction
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The Daily 202: As alcoholism fells another congressman, a reminder that no one is immune to addiction
-- A Breitbart employee courted Bernie Sanders activist Bruce Carter to get Carter to convince black voters to support Trump or refrain from voting in 2016. Bloomberg News's Lauren Etter and Michael Riley report: “Carter’s recollections and correspondence, which he shared after a falling-out with his fellow Trump supporters, provide a rare look inside the no-holds-barred nature of the Republican’s campaign and how it explored new ways to achieve an age-old political aim: getting the right voters to the polls — and keeping the wrong ones away. … The work Carter says he did, and the funds he was given to do it, also raise questions as to whether campaign finance laws were broken. The group Carter founded, Trump for Urban Communities, never disclosed its spending to the Federal Election Commission — a possible violation of election law.”
RSN: Jessica Valenti | The US Is Ripping Immigrants' Families Apart. That's Torture
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29 May 18 AM
RSN: Jessica Valenti | The US Is Ripping Immigrants' Families Apart. That's Torture
My Lai Massacre. (photo: AP)
1968: A Look Back at the My Lai Massacre, MLK's Assassination, Columbia Protests and Catonsville Nine
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Today, in this Democracy Now! special, we go back 50 years, to 1968, a pivotal year in modern American history."
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Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Today, in this Democracy Now! special, we go back 50 years, to 1968, a pivotal year in modern American history."
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RSN: Dan Rather | We Shall Return...
28 May 18 PM
RSN: Dan Rather | We Shall Return...
Nunes Feels Russia Probe Blowback at Home
David Siders, Politico
Siders writes: "Devin Nunes, the California congressman whose allegiance to Donald Trump has made him public enemy number one to many Democrats, is beginning to feel the heat back home."
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MEMORIAL DAY
It's time to stop American Empire building.
The US has troops in too many nations, killing civilians, bombing nations to rubble and creating terrorists.
It's time to employ diplomacy rather than threats.
Monday, May 28, 2018
The Post Most: The U.S. lost track of 1,475 immigrant children last year. Here’s why people are outraged now.
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The Post Most: The U.S. lost track of 1,475 immigrant children last year. Here’s why people are outraged now.
WHEN DO TRUMP SUPPORTERS GET TIRED OF TRUMP'S LIES?
|  |
Opinion
| Trump may be the worst presidential dealmaker in modern history |
| He does not appear to be ready for serious negotiation. |
| By Jackson Diehl • Read more » |
|
RSN: Juan Cole | Trump's Massive Mission Creep in Syria
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28 May 18 AM
RSN: Juan Cole | Trump's Massive Mission Creep in Syria
A child in detention at the U.S./Mexico border. (photo: Getty Images)
US Lost Track of 1,500 Immigrant Children, but Says It's Not 'Legally Responsible'
Dakin Andone, CNN
Andone writes: "The federal government has placed thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children in the homes of sponsors, but last year it couldn't account for nearly 1,500 of them."
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Dakin Andone, CNN
Andone writes: "The federal government has placed thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children in the homes of sponsors, but last year it couldn't account for nearly 1,500 of them."
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Recycling policies tightening, costs surging in wake of China policy
Recycling policies tightening, costs surging in wake of
China policy
By Sean F. DriscollPosted May 27, 2018
If it seems a little tougher and more expensive to deal with household recyclables lately, it’s not imaginary — and it’s not going away any time soon.
In China, a policy called National Sword has raised the standard for the amount of contamination allowed in recycling and banned certain types of waste from entering the country. Contamination rates of 1 percent to 3 percent are the industry standard, but China is requiring contamination of less than 0.5 percent; that change has put the squeeze on companies throughout the recycling supply chain in the United States and has resulted, in some cases, in increasing costs to customers.
At the Yarmouth disposal area, the large metal bins where residents can drop their recyclables for free have been subject to new, more stringent regulations, said town Public Works Director Jeff Colby. The newspaper bin is now just for newspapers — no more brown paper bags or the occasional office envelope, which are now directed to the mixed paper bins. And no paper at all should end up in the comingled bins, where plastic, glass and metal objects end up.
“It’s about changing people’s habits,” Colby said. “It’s a challenge to get them to do it in a different way. We’re trying to encourage recycling as we always have.”
The town can sell its collected newspapers, mixed papers and metals to recycling vendors, Colby said, but the product now has to be “cleaner” than ever before, meaning no errant mixing up of materials, lest the town be charged instead of paid for its materials. The comingled recycling goes to the Covanta [SEMASS] facility just north of the disposal center before being hauled by train to its facility in Rochester, Colby said, at a cost to the town of $90 a ton.
Considering the newsprint sells for $120 a ton, “there’s a big swing there,” Colby said. “The more we can pull that out of the recycling stream, if we can encourage that, changing behaviors will help us out.”
Colby said the town is considering charging residents for using the recycling facility, which is now free. Either a nominal fee of $5 or a more expensive one in the $20-$30 range may be implemented after the Board of Selectmen takes up the issue later this year, he said. Most towns on the Cape now charge some fee for their recycling drop-off facilities if residents do not already have a trash sticker.
For those residents who pay to have curbside trash pickup, costs for the recycling services are starting to go up at places like Macomber Sanitary Refuse, which takes its recyclables to the Bourne Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility.
At Nauset Disposal, owner Shawn DeLude said cost increases may be on the horizon as facilities that accept the recycled materials are becoming more expensive, and more full, as time goes on.
“It’s challenging on the Cape because there aren’t many avenues for the endgame of getting rid of them,” he said. “As China has tightened its acceptance, the facilities we do utilize are becoming full and unable to accept our materials at times as they try to find avenues to process and get rid of their materials.”
Nauset will continue to offer single-stream recycling to its curbside customers, allowing them to put all their recyclables into a single container without sorting, but is about to launch an education campaign about what, precisely, can and cannot end up in those bins, DeLude said.
“The tolerance level just doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.
In New Bedford, the city is suing ABC Recycling over extra fees the company has charged since November. The town claims the fees are not in the contract, but the New Bedord-based hauler says circumstances beyond its control — namely, China’s new policy — have led to increased costs.
Company CEO Michael Camara said the recycling market has become “a disaster, a crisis” since China changed its policy.
Jason Hale, vice president of communications for the Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit group, said the quality of materials the United States is shipping to China is declining.
“It’s a real market issue,” he said. But at the same time, Hale said China’s move is not some kind of bellwether for a problem with recycling.
“Markets ebb and flow, and this is a short-term issue,” he said.