27 November 19
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27 November 19
Garrison Keillor | What We Did Friday Night, if You Want to Know
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "Friday was a dark day though we didn't talk about it because we had dinner with two young newlyweds and a friend who recently lost her husband, so we kept it light, nonetheless I could see the motorcade coming around the corner, the motorcycle cops, the woman in the pink suit, but there was no need to go there."
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Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "Friday was a dark day though we didn't talk about it because we had dinner with two young newlyweds and a friend who recently lost her husband, so we kept it light, nonetheless I could see the motorcade coming around the corner, the motorcycle cops, the woman in the pink suit, but there was no need to go there."
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Mark Sandy arrives at the Capitol to testify in the impeachment inquiry in Washington DC, on 16 November. (photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP)
Trump Impeachment: Two White House Budget Officials Quit Over Ukraine Aid Concerns, Says Witness
David Smith, Guardian UK
Smith writes: "A lawyer for the White House's budget office resigned partly because of concerns over Donald Trump's freeze on military aid to Ukraine, a longtime career official from the office has testified to Congress behind closed doors."
David Smith, Guardian UK
Smith writes: "A lawyer for the White House's budget office resigned partly because of concerns over Donald Trump's freeze on military aid to Ukraine, a longtime career official from the office has testified to Congress behind closed doors."
EXCERPTS:
“Are you aware of any individual in the legal division resigning or leaving OMB … at least in part because of Ukraine security assistance,” Sandy was asked.
“Oh. Yes, I am,” he replied. “This person expressed concerns to me about actions vis-a-vis the Impoundment Control Act” – a reference to 1974 legislation that forbids the withholding of congressionally-approved aid.
Meanwhile Philip Reeker, the diplomat in charge of US policy for Europe, told the inquiry that there was an an “understanding” that Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, was feeding the president a lot of “negative information” about Ukraine. Giuliani has been widely condemned for running an irregular diplomatic channel that undermined the work of state department veterans.
Reeker said Marie Yovanovitch, the ambassador to Ukraine, had been ousted following “outrageous smears” but the state department declined to issue a statement of support. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, has recently dodged questions on the topic.
Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, and the other committee chairs involved in the initial inquiry stage, Eliot Engel and Carolyn B Maloney, said in a joint statement: “The testimonies from Ambassador Reeker and Mr Sandy continue to paint a portrait of handpicked political appointees corrupting the official levers of US government power, including by withholding taxpayer funded military assistance to Ukraine, to further the president’s own personal political agenda.”
The planning materials envision a seamless system whereby a Ring owner would be automatically alerted when an individual deemed 'suspicious' was captured in their camera's frame, something described as a 'suspicious activity prompt.' (Michael Houtz/Getty Images)
Amazon's Ring Planned Neighborhood "Watch Lists" Built on Facial Recognition
Sam Biddle, The Intercept
Biddle writes: "Ring, Amazon's crimefighting surveillance camera division, has crafted plans to use facial recognition software and its ever-expanding network of home security cameras to create AI-enabled neighborhood 'watch lists,' according to internal documents reviewed by The Intercept."
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Sam Biddle, The Intercept
Biddle writes: "Ring, Amazon's crimefighting surveillance camera division, has crafted plans to use facial recognition software and its ever-expanding network of home security cameras to create AI-enabled neighborhood 'watch lists,' according to internal documents reviewed by The Intercept."
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S.C.O.T.U.S. (photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP)
As Trump Cases Arrive, Supreme Court's Desire to Be Seen as Neutral Arbiter Will Be Tested
Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "The legal cases concerning President Trump, his finances and his separation-of-powers disputes with Congress are moving like a brush fire to the Supreme Court, and together provide both potential and challenge for the Roberts court in its aspiration to be seen as nonpartisan."
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Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "The legal cases concerning President Trump, his finances and his separation-of-powers disputes with Congress are moving like a brush fire to the Supreme Court, and together provide both potential and challenge for the Roberts court in its aspiration to be seen as nonpartisan."
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Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) students conjugate Spanish verbs at Eastern New York Correctional Facility. (photo: Skiff Mountain Films)
Incarcerated People Can Do More Than Beat Harvard in a Debate
Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone
Smith writes: "When you watch College Behind Bars, which began last night on PBS and concludes tonight, or any other documentary like it, please don't say that it 'humanizes' the people who are photographed. Because they're people."
Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone
Smith writes: "When you watch College Behind Bars, which began last night on PBS and concludes tonight, or any other documentary like it, please don't say that it 'humanizes' the people who are photographed. Because they're people."
EXCERPT:
“Ninety-five percent of people who are incarcerated will eventually get out,” Ken Burns, the executive producer of the documentary, told Rolling Stone. “And the question is, do we want them as contributing members of society, or do we want them having used prison as a different kind of school to hone criminal skills? If you’re spending $100 billion a year to maintain our prison system and it has a 75 percent recidivism rate, something is broken.”
Angry protesters ransacked a UN base in Beni on Monday. (photo: AFP)
Democratic Republic of Congo: UN Troops Suspected in Protester's Death
BBC News
Excerpt: "The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is opening an investigation after gathering evidence that its troops may have killed a protester, a spokesman says."
BBC News
Excerpt: "The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is opening an investigation after gathering evidence that its troops may have killed a protester, a spokesman says."
EXCERPT:
The ADF is one of many militia groups operating in eastern DR Congo, a mineral-rich area which borders Uganda and Rwanda. Formed by Ugandan rebels, the militia has been accused of widespread atrocities in the region.
'We have more than enough money to fight the climate crisis, at home and abroad. It's just going to all the wrong places.' (photo: Noaa/AFP/Getty Images)
Most Americans See Local Effects of Climate Crisis and Say Government Needs to Respond, Research Shows
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "Most Americans say the climate crisis is bearing down on them, and the government needs to do more to stop it, according to a new survey from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, DC."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "Most Americans say the climate crisis is bearing down on them, and the government needs to do more to stop it, according to a new survey from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, DC."
EXCERPTS:
A majority of U.S. adults say they are taking at least some action in their daily lives to protect the environment, according to a statement from the Pew Research Center. The survey found that 80 percent of Americans said they were reducing food waste, 68 percent said they were reducing water use, and 41 percent said were eating less meat. About half of respondents said they were driving less or using carpools more, while 72 percent said they reduced how much single use plastic they used, as Science News reported.
The survey also found that two-thirds of adults say the government is doing too little to reduce the effects of the climate crisis, and it is doing too little to protect air and water quality.
The new survey, which polled more than 3,600 people in October, found that 65 percent of moderate Republicans said the federal government was not doing enough to reduce the effects of global warming. That's up from 53 percent in 2018, according to Pew, as Reuters reported.
There is a stark divide between Democrats and Republicans. Ninety percent of Democrats said the government is not doing enough to address the climate crisis, but only 39 percent of Republicans agreed. However, it turns out that Republican sentiment varied greatly by age and gender.
"Among younger Republicans – adults in the Millennial generation and Generation Z, ages 18 to 38 in 2019 – 52% think the government is doing too little on climate. By comparison, 41% among Generation X and 31% of Baby Boomer and older Americans say this. Republican women (46%) also are more inclined than GOP men (34%) to think the government's efforts on climate are insufficient," the Pew Center reported in its statement.
The people who are most likely to say that the climate crisis affected their local community live on the West Coast where residents recently faced droughts, wildfires and blackouts. On the West Coast, 72 percent of respondents said the climate crisis impacted their area. By contrast, the percentage of people in the Northeast, South and Midwest who said the same hovered around 60 percent, as Science News reported.
Another stark contrast between Republicans and Democrats is in their belief about the cause of the climate crisis. While 96 percent of Democrats said that human activity contributed greatly to the climate crisis, only 14 percent of conservative Republicans thought humans contribute a great deal to the crisis and another 39 percent said humans have "some" contribution, as Vox reported.
"The new measures speak directly to the current debate over the degree to which human actions are responsible for global climate change and how best to reduce the effects of climate change," said Funk in an email to Vox.
n the middle of the largest refugee camp on the U.S. border — close enough to Texas that migrants can see an American flag hovering across the Rio Grande — Marili’s children had fallen ill.
ince October 1, mass protests have broken out in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, Basra, and other southern cities. Demonstrators are demanding basic services (such as electricity and clean water), jobs, and an end to corruption. More than that, they’re calling for the overthrow of the entire post-US-invasion political system, which divides the country along sectarian lines and has produced little more than violence and poverty for most Iraqis.
