All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tendrin]

Probably not even just that.

Let's say the guy could wrap his mind around the issue there.

His vanity would most likely never allow him to do anything past that.

Thank you for explaining what a 'lack of self awareness' is.

[Theleviathan]

Look at what you are saying, though.

"Potential Future Presidential Contender..." was how they saw him in terms of "We Can't Get 'X' Votes, So This Guy Might Work In The Future..."

Which was clearly total garbage.

Never mind that they guy that wasn't the "Safe" option put together a coalition that the "Safe" option couldn't hold together in a later Presidential Election.

Obama ran as a centrist. Just putting that out there too.

Then again, I shouldn't have to say that. He won office, therefore we know exactly how he ran.

[numberthirty]

While this one is from the "Illinois" corner and not "Essential" reading, it was interesting.

- https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news...b-f9014f56dfe6

Here’s Why Chicago Police Solve So Few Of The City’s Murders

Chicago Police Department detectives do not have direct phone lines or individual voicemail. Until recently, they weren’t provided with cell phones. They don’t have their own computers or even their own desks.

Their offices are so far from assigned neighborhoods it might take more than an hour to reach a murder scene.

Those are some findings of a Washington-based group that studied CPD’s Bureau of Detectives to recommend ways the department might boost its dismal rate of solving murders and shootings.

[Gray Lensman]

The head of UKIP resigned today.

His name was Dick Braine.

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top...ukip-1-6349277

Not saying anything else because WHO THE HELL AM I KIDDING AHAHAHA DICK BRAINE

Did he lose a measuring contest or something?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

You bet. He's just not counting any that were lost during that same timeframe. Those are the gross numbers, not the net.

September unemployment rate falls to 3.5%, a 50-year low, as payrolls rise by 136,000

U.S. job growth weaker in 2019

U.S. created 501,000 fewer jobs since 2018 than previously reported, new figures show

Thanks for the clarification. Those claims by Dolt45's campaign were fishier than the Baltimore Aquarium.

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House Impeachment Investigators Call On John Bolton To Testify

The former national security adviser was openly troubled by Trump’s approach to Ukraine. When Johnny Warhawk was troubled by something Trump had done, then you KNOW the **** got deep!

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Everyone You Need To Know In The Trump-Ukraine Investigation

A running list of who's who in the attempted quid pro quo between Donald Trump and Ukrainian leaders that fueled an impeachment inquiry. Can't tell the bad guys without a scorecard.

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Twitter Will Ban All Political Advertising

The platform’s leadership is concerned about the impact of misinformation on democracy. That's sure to hurt Trump who uses the medium to reach his legion of lemmings. Meanwhile, regarding Facebook....

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Lauds Twitter’s Political Ad Ban As Facebook Digs In Heels

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Georgia Releases List Of Nearly 315,000 Voters Set To Be Removed From Rolls

The state has faced scrutiny in the past for aggressively vacating people’s voter registrations. Right on time for next year's election. Things that make you go hmmmmmm!

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Trump Posts Faked Photo Of Him Giving Medal To Hero Dog

The photo tweeted by president shows the dog Photoshopped over the image of Medal of Honor winner James McCloughan. How stupid can you get? Oh, wait! This is Trump, he can get stupider! But, not a peep from him about California firefighters putting it all on the line to save the state from rampaging wildfires. Now THOSE are the REAL heroes, not a goddamn dog.

[Tendrin]

The photo tweeted by president shows the dog Photoshopped over the image of Medal of Honor winner James McCloughan. How stupid can you get? Oh, wait! This is Trump, he can get stupider! But, not a peep from him about California firefighters putting it all on the line to save the state from rampaging wildfires. Now THOSE are the REAL heroes, not a goddamn dog.

Just a reminder that many on the front lines of CA's wildfires are convicts being paid $1 a hour to endanger their own lives for jobs they won't be allowed to do once released.

[Tami]

CIA-linked unit accused of atrocities in Afghanistan

The Afghan soldiers who swept through Kulalgo village one late August night shot three of Dr Ulfatullah’s relatives carefully, a single bullet through their left eye, faces otherwise untouched as blood pooled below their bodies on the floor of the family home.

The last killing was less precise, and left the face of university student Ansarullah badly disfigured. His family thought perhaps he had heard the muffled gunshot that ended a cousin’s life, and briefly tried to struggle against his captors.

The men who killed them were from a pro-government force backed by the CIA and largely unaccountable to Afghan authorities, the family say, one of several which operate across east and south Afghanistan in traditional Taliban strongholds.

[Tami]

Anxious and Cooped Up, 1.5 Million Kashmiri Children Are Still Out of School

KAPRAN, Kashmir — Every day, Aliya Khan, a fifth-grader in Kashmir, steps out of her house and walks down a dirt lane lined by tall maple trees to check on what’s happening at her school.

And every day, a few minutes later, she walks back to her house with her head hanging down, totally dejected. It has been nearly three months, and no one knows when her school, like so many others in Kashmir, will reopen.

“I’ve told you, the school is shut,’’ her mother, Rubeena Khan, scolded her the other day as Aliya walked inside. “Why do you keep going to look?”

Thirteen weeks after India unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s autonomy, education stands as one of the crisis’s most glaring casualties.

At least 1.5 million Kashmiri students remain out of school. Virtually all private schools are closed, and most government schools are shut — one of the clearest signs of the fear that has gripped Kashmir since the Indian government locked down the disputed territory and separatist militants began carrying out attacks to disrupt its control.

The Indian government wants students to return, and teachers at the few open schools are reporting for duty. But their students are not: Officials estimate attendance at those schools to be around three percent.

Parents in the Kashmir Valley say they are terrified of sending their children out with troops everywhere and separatist militants on the prowl for trouble. The militants are demanding that civilians boycott work and school, and they have killed several people to assert their resistance to tightening Indian rule.

This week, militants dragged construction workers onto the street and shot them, witnesses said, leaving five dead and one wounded. It was the deadliest single attack on civilians since Kashmir’s autonomy was stripped.

[Tami]

At 14, He Stayed Away From Trouble. But a Bullet Flew 100 Yards.

He was a 14-year-old boy playing basketball at dusk before curfew. Just another night, on his usual court, focused on the game he envisioned as his future.

Then came the gunshots, splintering the fall air. From 100 yards down the block, a bullet sailed across a parking lot, slipped through a fence and struck the teenager — a neighborhood jewel whom everyone knew — Aamir Griffin.

A boy and a dream crumpled to the concrete. Not the target, but the victim.

Some would chalk it up to wrong place, wrong time. But Aamir had been where he was meant to be: outside his apartment building in Jamaica, Queens, shooting hoops, staying far from the trouble that had lured away so many of his peers.

[Tami]

Scientists triple their estimates of the number of people threatened by rising seas

Rising seas will be much worse and more expensive to deal with than previously thought, new research finds, not because of faster changes in sea levels but because of an increase in estimates of the number of people living on low ground.

The upshot of the study is that 110 million people worldwide live below the high-tide level — including many partly protected by sea walls or other infrastructure, as in New Orleans. Even under a scenario of very modest climate change, that number will rise to 150 million in 2050 and 190 million by 2100.

If climate change and sea level rise follow a worse path, as many as 340 million people living below the high-tide level could be in peril, to say nothing of how many could be affected by floods and extreme events.

Such figures are three times — or more — higher than earlier estimates.

[Tami]

Egypt expands its crackdown to target foreigners, journalists and even children

CAIRO — The plainclothes security agent demanded to see Aaron Boehm’s cellphone. When the *22-year-old American student hesitated, he said, the Egyptian agent revealed a handgun beneath his shirt. Boehm unlocked his iPhone 6 and handed it over.

The agent found news articles about recent Egyptian protests that Boehm had sent to his family and friends. Boehm was taken away in a police van, blindfolded for the next 15 hours and jailed for three nights, he recalled. “They accused me of being a spy,” he said.

Boehm was swept up in what human rights activists say is the biggest and most widespread crackdown since Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi came to power six years ago. The government is using familiar tools, such as mass arrests and torture, as well as new tactics centered on high-tech surveillance and restricting social media to silence dissent and free speech, according to victims, activists and security experts.

[Tami]

Barred from West Bank and Gaza, Omar and Tlaib can now see them via VR

JERUSALEM — What two Democratic congresswomen couldn’t see of the West Bank and Gaza when they were denied entry to Israel last summer, they can now see on their phones. And if they have a pair of specialty goggles handy, they can see it in swooping, pivoting virtual reality.

So can anyone else who downloads a copy of Palestine VR, an iPhone- and Samsung-ready app released Wednesday that delivers a 360-degree digital walkabout of the Palestinian territories based on the aborted itinerary of Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

The pair, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and sharp critics of Israeli policy, had been scheduled to be part of an August delegation visiting parts of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

But before they arrived, Israel revoked permission for them to come, citing their support for a boycott against Israeli goods and services. The move, a reversal, came hours after President Trump tweeted that allowing the visit would “show great weakness” on the part of Israel.

[Tami]

Missouri’s spreadsheet on women’s menstrual cycles is totally normal. In dystopia

Hey Missouri, Margaret Atwood can’t keep up with you.

In the totalitarian Gilead of her novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the Commanders would appreciate the ingenuity of creating a whole spreadsheet of women’s menstrual cycles. So as to better protect them, of course.

As you’ve probably heard, the Missouri state health director, Dr. Randall Williams, testified this week at a hearing on revoking the license of the state’s last Planned Parenthood clinic that his department kept a spreadsheet on the menstrual periods of women who were patients there. This was to help the health department identify those who’d had complicated abortions. Put another way, it was to help them find something, anything, to justify closing the St. Louis facility.

So in the only state in the country that does not have a statewide opioid prescription database — no way, because that might invade the privacy of patients we’d literally rather allow to die — the health department is tracking who is bleeding again and who is not.

[Tami]

Trump Team Hopes to Expand Base to New States Democrats Hold Now

Trump Has No Room for Error in 2020

Trump making major push to turn Minnesota red in 2020. State Dems say they ‘can’t keep up.’

[Theleviathan]

Trump making major push to turn Minnesota red in 2020. State Dems say they ‘can’t keep up.’

Ugh. This makes me a sad panda. I could see him taking my home state.