Sanders Unveils Plan to Stop Corporate Donations to Dem Convention

08 October 19

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08 October 19

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Sanders Unveils Plan to Stop Corporate Donations to Dem Convention

Simon Lewis, Reuters
Lewis writes: "U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday proposed overturning rules on money in elections, as the Democratic presidential contender pledged to 'transform our political system by rejecting the influence of big corporate money.'"
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Impeachment played a role in Andrew Johnson leaving office by weakening him politically. (photo: Matthew Brady/Library of Congress)

ALSO SEE: Trump Tells Republicans Impeachment
Is a Bad Thing to Have on Your Resume

Impeachment Is the Right Call Even if the Senate Keeps President Trump in Office
Gregory P. Downs, The Washington Post
Downs writes: "If the presence of a trial disciplines Trump to stop encouraging foreign interference in U.S. elections and to start curtailing his destabilizing rhetoric, impeachment will have been worth it."
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In this Sept. 24, 2019 photo, Joshua Brown answers questions from Assistant District Attorney LaQuita Long while testifying during the murder trial of Amber Guyger, in the death of Botham Jean. Now, Brown has been killed, shot to death Oct. 4, 2019. (photo: Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/AP)

Joshua Brown, the Witness Killed After Testifying Against Amber Guyger, Had Been Set to Speak Up Again for Botham Jean
Dara Sharif, The Root
Sharif writes: "The Jean family's attorney says Brown had been set to testify for the family in their suit against the police department."
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Hands typing on a computer keyboard. (photo: hamburg_berlin/Shutterstock)

ALSO SEE: Inside the Deepfake 'Arms Race'

California Makes 'Deepfake' Videos Illegal, but Law May Be Hard to Enforce
Kari Paul, Guardian UK
Paul writes: "California's governor, Gavin Newsom, on Thursday signed legislation that makes it illegal to create or distribute videos, images, or audio of politicians doctored to resemble real footage within 60 days of an election."
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As the Trump administration clamps down on most traffic at the southern border, U.S. immigration agencies have done little to stop the stream of Mexicans using their B-1/B-2 visas to visit plasma centers. (photo: Evangeline Gallagher/ProPublica)

Pharmaceutical Companies Are Luring Mexicans Across the US Border to Donate Blood Plasma
Stefanie Dodt, Jan Lukas Strozyk, and Dara Lind, ProPublica and ARD German TV
Excerpt: "Every week, thousands of Mexicans cross the border into the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood plasma to profit-making pharmaceutical companies that lure them with Facebook ads."
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Rohingya children. (photo: VOA)

UN, NGOs Accused of Bungling Effort to Educate Rohingya Children
Clare Hammond and Victoria Milko, Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Two years we have been living in the camp with no access to education, why is this?"
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Extreme heat waves are frequently cited as one of the most direct effects of man-made climate change. (photo: WLFI)

How Extreme Weather Threatens People With Disabilities
Samantha Harrington, Yale Climate Connections
Harrington writes: "According to the CDC, one in four American adults, or 61 million people, live with a disability. For many, high temperatures can be a major challenge."
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Paul Krugman | Trump Hits the Panic Button

13 September 19 Your Wonderful and Indispensable Work I am in full support of RSN and have found it immensely helpful in keeping abreast of our body politic from a perspective which is not driven by money but by the appeal to truth and accountability among all the institutions of our government as well as among all of us who are citizens of this country and world. I have sent what is for me a significant contribution to you. RSN at the end of this calendar year. I hope that your cause will not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead, because I for one am fully convinced that we as citizens need what you provide. Thank you. Donovan L., Ph. D., RSN Reader-Supporter Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts, CA 95611

13 September 19

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TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DONATING NOW: THANK YOU! - Just want to take a moment to give a special shout out to the people who are responding to the donation appeals for this drive. When it’s tough sledding the people who step up are the backbone of the organization. This is one tough fundraising drive, make no mistake about it. But 148 people so far have said Reader Supported News is worth my time and my contribution. That is inspiring. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Paul Krugman | Trump Hits the Panic Button

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

Krugman writes: "It's now clear that Trump's in full-blown panic over the failure of his economic policies to deliver the promised results."

EXCERPT: 

Trump thinks that federal debt is like a business loan, which you can pay down early to take advantage of lower interest rates. He’s clearly unaware that federal debt actually consists of bonds, which can’t be prepaid (which is one reason interest rates on federal debt are always lower than, say, rates on home mortgages). That is, he imagines that the government’s finances can be managed as if the U.S. were a casino or a golf course, and it never occurred to him to ask anyone at Treasury whether that’s how it works.

But while Trump realizes that he’s in trouble, there’s no indication that he understands why. He’s not the kind of person who ever admits, even to himself, that he made mistakes; his instinct is always to blame someone else while doubling down on his failed policies.

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Greta Thunberg speaks at a climate protest outside the White House in Washington D.C., on September 13. (photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

'If You Did Your Job, We'd Be in School': Greta Thunberg Joins White House Climate Protest
Max Cohen, USA TODAY
Cohen writes: "After calling out politicians for climate inaction on 'The Daily Show' this week, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is protesting Friday outside the White House to demand the U.S. government address the affects of climate change."
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A healthcare rally. (photo: Health Care for All)

Medicare for All Would Cut Poverty by Over 20 Percent
Matt Bruenig, Jacobin
Excerpt: "Medicare for All doesn't just provide everyone with the care they need, free of charge. It's also a potent anti-poverty program, reducing poverty by over 20 percent and increasing poor people's incomes by 29 percent."
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Guatemalan immigrants. (photo: The Intercept)

With Trump in Office, Newspapers Increasingly Quoted Anti-Immigrant Groups Without Explaining Who They Were
Maryam Saleh, The Intercept
Saleh writes: "Ninety percent of news articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today that cited the Center for Immigration Studies from 2014 to 2017 did not mention 'the extremist nature of the group or its ties with the Trump administration.'"
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Beto O'Rourke. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

'My AR Is Ready for You': Texas Lawmaker Threatens Beto O'Rourke Over Gun Control Proposal
Antonia Noori Farzan and Kayla Epstein, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Beto O'Rourke has already backed mandatory buybacks for assault weapons, but at Thursday's Democratic debate, he left no ambiguity about what that would mean. 'Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,' he said."

Speaking to reporters after the debate, O’Rourke said that Cain’s comment “sure reads” like a death threat. “I think it’s a really irresponsible thing for him to do,” he added, “especially somebody who is a public servant and in a position of public trust to be sending that kind of message.”

Tim Perry

✔@tperry518

Responding to Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain saying "My AR is ready for you" @BetoORourke says "I think it;s a really irresponsible thing for him to do... we are a nation of laws and if that (mandatory buyback) ends up becoming the law.. we expect people to comply w/ it"

2,336

1:30 AM - Sep 13, 2019

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Cain, an attorney, frequently uses his official social media accounts to air inflammatory and hyperbolic views. On Wednesday, for instance, he suggested on Twitter that the Texas legislature should “abolish” the famously liberal city of Austin.

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A vigil held in memory of slain journalists. (photo: Orlando Sierra/Getty Images)

12 Journalists Have Been Killed in Mexico This Year, the World's Highest Toll
Carrie Kahn, NPR
Kahn writes: "This year, Mexico surpassed Syria to become the deadliest country for journalists."
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People wade through flood waters in a rural neighborhood affected by Cyclone Idai on March 24. (photo: Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images)

Record 7 Million People Displaced by Extreme Weather Events in First Half of 2019
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The number was nearly double the number displaced by conflict and violence during the same period this year."
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RSN: Former Trump University Workers Call the School a 'Lie' and a 'Scheme' in Testimony, Extreme Weather May Raise Toxin Levels in Food, Scientists Warn

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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Robert F. Kennedy Saw Conspiracy in JFK's Assassination

Bryan Bender and Neil Swidey, The Boston Globe
Excerpt: "There is no indication that Bobby ever found evidence to prove a conspiracy. But judging from his actions after hearing the news out of Dallas, it's clear that he quickly focused his attention on three areas of suspicion: Cuba, the Mafia, and the CIA."
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Former Trump University Workers Call the School a 'Lie' and a 'Scheme' in Testimony
Brendan O'Connor, Gawker
O'Connor writes: "Newly unsealed documents include both testimony from former employees and so-called 'Playbooks' that outline Trump University's business model of constantly and persistently up-selling prospective students."
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Donald Trump listens during a press conference to announce the establishment of 

Trump University in 2005. (photo: AP)

undreds of pages of documents in a class-action lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump University were unsealed Tuesday, revealing damning testimony from former employees. Trump, who was chairman of the for-profit school, had called the judge in the case a “hater” and a “Mexican, which is great.”

One Trump University sales manager, Ronald Schnackenberg, testified that he was reprimanded for not trying hard enough to sell Trump University’s $35,000 “Elite” program . “I did not feel it was an appropriate program for them because of their precarious financial condition—they had no money to pay for the program, but would have had to pay for the program using his disability income and taking out a loan based upon equity in his apartment.”

Another salesperson with Trump U talked the couple into it, Schnackenberg testified. “I was disgusted by his conduct and decided to resign.”

“Based upon my personal experience and employment, I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.”

The unsealed documents include both testimony from former employees like Schnackenberg and so-called “Playbooks” that outline Trump University’s business model of constantly and persistently up-selling prospective students. Some of the documents had already been made public in connection with other lawsuitsor obtained by media outlets.

“You don’t sell products, benefits or solutions—you sell feelings,” Trump U salespeople were told.Also: “Don’t ask people what they THINK about something you’ve said. Instead, always ask them how they FEEL about it. People buy emotionally and justify it logically.”

The unsealed documents included a sworn statement from Corinne Sommer, who worked as an events manager at Trump University:

I do not believe that Trump University taught Donald Trump’s investing “secrets.” Donald Trump came from a wealthy family and had resources at his disposal to purchase real estate—that is the secret—one that the average consumer could not replicate.

Marketing materials for the school advertised Trump’s direct involvement in classes. “This was not true,” Jason Nicholas, a former sales executive, testified. Trump U, Nicholas said, “was a façade, a total lie.”

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Jason Fagone ‎@jfagone

“You can appeal to a person’s sense of ethics or logic with UNDENIABLE TRUTHS.” #TrumpUniversity

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The shuttered school currently faces three lawsuits: two class-action suits in California, brought by former students, and one civil suit in New York, brought by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has charged Trump with fraud. Scheiderman has been critical of the real estate developer’s attempts to keep the documents under seal. “You are not allowed to protect the trade secrets of a three card Monte game,” he told Politico.

Trump owned 93 percent of the for-profit university, which he founded in 2005, just as the housing bubble was reaching its zenith. Recently, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released an ad with audio from a recording Trump made in 2006, to be played for Trump U students, commenting on a potential “bubble burst.”

“I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy” property, Trump said, and “make a lot of money.” The presumptive Republican nominee defended his comments last week, saying, “I’m a businessman, that’s what I’m supposed to do....I feel badly for everybody. What am I going to do? I’m in business.”

 http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/37193-former-trump-university-workers-call-the-school-a-lie-and-a-scheme-in-testimony

Jenna McLaughlin | Appeals Court Delivers Devastating Blow to Cellphone-Privacy Advocates
Jenna McLaughlin, The Intercept
McLaughlin writes: "When law enforcement asks a company for cellphone records to track location data in an investigation, is that a search under the Fourth Amendment? By a 12-3 vote, appellate court judges in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday ruled that it is not - and therefore does not require a warrant."
READ MORE

US-Mexico Border Sees Resurgence of Central Americans Seeking Asylum
John Burnett, NPR News
Burnett writes: "Immigrants fleeing gang violence in Central America are again surging across the U.S.-Mexico border, approaching the numbers that created an immigration crisis in the summer of 2014."
READ MORE

45 Days of Solidarity: How Verizon Workers Outmatched the Country's Largest Telecommunications Company
Danny Katch, Jacobin
Excerpt: "People went above and beyond during the course of this strike."
READ MORE

Could US Trade Threaten Sustainable Agriculture in Cuba?
Ming Chun Tang, NACLA
Tang writes: "The networks that currently exist to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise between small farmers could in turn be weakened, putting the entire Cuban agroecology movement at risk."
READ MORE

Extreme Weather May Raise Toxin Levels in Food, Scientists Warn
Kagondu Njagi, Reuters
Njagi writes: "A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme says that crops such as wheat and maize are generating more potential toxins as a reaction to protect themselves from extreme weather."
READ MORE