05 November 11
Super slow start to the November fundraiser. Need your (everyone’s) attention ASAP.
Please.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
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PO Box 2043
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Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611
05 November 11
Lee Fang | PG&E Spent Millions on Lobbying Following Bankruptcy, Wining and Dining Lawmakers Who Sponsored Bailout
Lee Fang, The Intercept
Fang writes: "The decision by Pacific Gas & Electric to declare bankruptcy in January did not prevent the utility giant from continuing to spend big on political influence in California's Statehouse."
Lee Fang, The Intercept
Fang writes: "The decision by Pacific Gas & Electric to declare bankruptcy in January did not prevent the utility giant from continuing to spend big on political influence in California's Statehouse."
EXCERPTS:
The latest ethics filings disclosed with the California Secretary of State show that PG&E has spent at least $2.1 million on lobbying policymakers this year, well after declaring bankruptcy, with hefty fees spent to retain half a dozen prominent consulting firms and branding experts, along with a team of in-house lobbyists.
The company also paid for beverages for California State Assemblyman Chad Mayes, R-Yucca Valley, and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda. Both lawmakers sponsored legislation, introduced in February, to provide PG&E with as much as $20 billion in tax-exempt bonds, a measure widely criticized as a ratepayer bailout.
Mayes, the disclosure notes, was treated to drinks by PG&E in September at Brasserie Capitale, a French restaurant just two blocks from the California state Capitol. Bonta was served drinks by the utility giant at Pebble Beach, the famed golf course, in July.
PG&E has long maintained a powerful grip on policymakers through its hefty investments in political spending. The company regularly pays for baseball tickets, meals, beverages, and other forms of entertainment for California lawmakers and legislative staff. In 2016, the company paid for San Francisco Giants tickets for a group of Democratic legislative staffers, including Dean Grafilo, who was then serving as Bonta’s chief of staff. Last year, PG&E donated $7,500 to the Bonta California Progress Foundation, a charitable fund launched by Bonta to provide scholarships to disadvantaged youth. The company has also given $8,800 to Mayes for his most recent reelection effort.
The company has maintained influence with a host of other prominent politicians. Last year, the company spent nearly $10 million on campaign donations and lobbying, more than any other single political entity in the state, largely to control the fallout from outrage over the company’s role in fueling wildfires across Northern California.
Following the San Bruno pipeline explosion in 2010, PG&E retained the same set of consultants who managed the campaigns of former Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. The firm also donated at least $200,000 to current Gov. Gavin Newsom last year and has long kept former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as a consultant to the company.
Republican operative Roger Stone's trial starts this week. He faces seven charges, including lying to Congress about his association with WIkiLeaks. (photo: Kevin Dietsch/UPI)
Donald Trump Confidant Roger Stone Goes to Trial in Russia Probe
Nicholas Sakelaris, UPI
Sakelaris writes: "The trial of Republican operative Roger Stone starts this week in federal court in Washington D.C."
Nicholas Sakelaris, UPI
Sakelaris writes: "The trial of Republican operative Roger Stone starts this week in federal court in Washington D.C."
EXCERPT:
The indictment against Stone describes him as the conduit between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which disseminated stolen Democratic National Committee emails in the summer of 2016.
Stone was in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London at the time. Assange was in contact with the Russian intelligence agency, the GRU, which hacked the DNC's email server.
Some emails were released to the public, damaging Democratic candidates, including Trump's Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
There are also accusations that Stone was photographed outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, meaning that he visited Assange personally. There are also discussions between Stone and associates about the prospect of more WikiLeak dumps that could turn the course of the election.
Assange has since been arrested for other crimes and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
Stone is accused of lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks. He was arrested in January.
Jackson has imposed several gag orders on Stone that prohibit him from speaking publicly or using social media. At one point, Stone threatened Jackson on social media.
In this Oct. 18, 2018 file photo, Summer Zervos leaves New York state appellate court in New York. (photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)
Phone Records Show Trump Called Woman Who Says He Sexually Assaulted Her
Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post
Partlow writes: "More than a decade ago, Donald Trump made phone calls from his cellphone to a former candidate on 'The Apprentice' around the same time that she says he sexually assaulted her, according to phone records made public Tuesday."
Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post
Partlow writes: "More than a decade ago, Donald Trump made phone calls from his cellphone to a former candidate on 'The Apprentice' around the same time that she says he sexually assaulted her, according to phone records made public Tuesday."
EXCERPT:
Trump called Zervos and other women who accused him of sexual misconduct “liars,” prompting Zervos to sue him for defamation.
Her lawyers say the case is about revealing the truth.
“A sexual perpetrator who attacks his victim yet again with malicious falsehoods does so to make clear to the world and those he abuses that his victims must never reveal their truth, and that they should instead remain silenced and ashamed,” Zervos’s lawyers wrote in a filing. “It is, in effect, an expansion and perpetuation of the abuse.”
Zervos has said that the day after the alleged incident in the hotel room, she met Trump again at his Los Angeles golf club. There is also a two-minute phone call between them that day, according to the records. There were more phone calls between the two later in December, as well as in January and February 2008.
Zervos has said she wanted to work for the Trump Organization after her appearance on “The Apprentice,” Trump’s television show, and sought out Trump for professional advice. She has said Trump also kissed her unprompted in their first meeting in his Trump Tower office in New York and that it made her “upset.”
Trump’s lawyers have tried to block Zervos’s lawsuit, arguing that the president is immune from such state court lawsuits. But in March, a New York appellate court ruled that Trump must face the defamation lawsuit.
Trump’s lawyers have signaled their intent to appeal.
Zervos’s team wants Trump to give a deposition. The judge has set Dec. 6 as a deadline for all depositions in the case.
The White House has also said it was planning to order federal agencies to end their subscriptions to The New York Times. (photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Florida County Refuses to Pay for New York Times in Libraries: 'It's Fake News'
Amanda Holpuch, Guardian UK
Holpuch writes: "A local government in Florida has blocked its library system from getting a digital subscription to the New York Times, dismissing the newspaper as 'fake news' and as a challenge to US president Donald Trump."
Amanda Holpuch, Guardian UK
Holpuch writes: "A local government in Florida has blocked its library system from getting a digital subscription to the New York Times, dismissing the newspaper as 'fake news' and as a challenge to US president Donald Trump."
EXCERPT:
The 24 October meeting occurred the same day the White House said it was planning to order federal agencies to end their subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post because the newspapers have published stories that reflect poorly on the president.
Among these stories were Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations including the New York Times story which revealed Trump is not a self-made millionaire because his father provided him with at least $413m dollars and the Washington Post’s discovery of the “grab them by the pussy” video and its revelations that Trump has for decades overstated his charitable giving.
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gestures during a news conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, December 26, 2018. (photo: Daniel Becerril/Reuters)
Trump Says He Can Send US Military Into Mexico to 'Wage WAR' on Drug Cartels
Jon Sharman, The Independent
Sharman writes: "Donald Trump has suggested sending the US Army over the border into Mexico to 'wage WAR' on drug cartels in a typically bombastic tweet."
Jon Sharman, The Independent
Sharman writes: "Donald Trump has suggested sending the US Army over the border into Mexico to 'wage WAR' on drug cartels in a typically bombastic tweet."
EXCERPT:
One analyst told The Independent that Mr Trump’s tweets betrayed a “complete lack of understanding and care” about the feelings of Mexicans towards their northern neighbour.
Though the countries are now allies, the Mexican-American War and the occupation of Veracruz under US president Woodrow Wilson remain “front and centre in the national consciousness”, said Christopher Sabatini.
Dr Sabatini, a senior research fellow in Chatham House’s US and the Americas programme, said: “The tweet shows a profound lack of knowledge, an ignorance, about US-Latin American history and particularly US-Mexican history.
“Even the idea of the US putting Drug Enforcement Administration agents [on the ground] has often had to be kept secret ... because of the sensitivity.
“I have watched this administration, very clumsily, at least in rhetoric, talk about Latin American issues and the resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine – and there’s the racist rhetoric about migrants.
“This really takes it to a whole new level. Just a complete lack of understanding and care. It demonstrates that somehow Mexican nationalism and scars of the past just don’t matter.”
A supporter of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) political party wears a button with its logo during the election evening after the Polish parliamentary elections on October 13, 2019, in Warsaw, Poland. (photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
How Poland's Failed Transition Fed the Nationalist Right
Grzegorz Konat, Jacobin
Konat writes: "Throughout Poland's transition to capitalism, no party challenged a neoliberal consensus that produced soaring unemployment and mass emigration. But as the promises of 1989 crumble, it's the nationalist right that's channeling discontent."
READ MORE
Grzegorz Konat, Jacobin
Konat writes: "Throughout Poland's transition to capitalism, no party challenged a neoliberal consensus that produced soaring unemployment and mass emigration. But as the promises of 1989 crumble, it's the nationalist right that's channeling discontent."
READ MORE
The Extinction Rebellion protests in London. (photo: Angela Christofilou/Independent)
'Untold Human Suffering': 11,000 Scientists From Across World Unite to Declare Global Climate Emergency
Phoebe Weston, The Independent
Weston writes: "Eleven thousand scientists in 153 countries have declared a climate emergency and warned that 'untold human suffering' is unavoidable without huge shifts in the way we live."
Phoebe Weston, The Independent
Weston writes: "Eleven thousand scientists in 153 countries have declared a climate emergency and warned that 'untold human suffering' is unavoidable without huge shifts in the way we live."
EXCERPT:
Backward steps include rising meat consumption, more air travel, chopping down forests faster than ever and increase in global carbon dioxide emissions. Scientists say they want the public to “understand the magnitude of this crisis, track progress, and realign priorities for alleviating climate change”.
To do so will require major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems, they say.
The letter focuses on six key objectives: replacing fossil fuels; cutting pollutants like methane and soot; restoring and protecting ecosystems; eating less meat; converting the economy to one that is carbon-free and stabilising population growth.
“Global surface temperature, ocean heat content, extreme weather and its costs, sea level, ocean acidity and land area are all rising,” Professor Ripple said.
“Ice is rapidly disappearing as shown by declining trends in minimum summer Arctic sea ice, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and glacier thickness. All of these rapid changes highlight the urgent need for action.”
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