Epstein Is Like JFK All Over Again, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC

Q: Which representatives? Q2: Why Baden, who investigated JFK’s death, and Michael Brown’s? The guy’s 85! So yes, he has experience, but also ostensibly experience with presenting the facts as certain people want them presented.

So there’s no autopsy report, for whatever reason, but details have been leaked to the WaPO. Epstein hade multiple broken bones in his neck, and the focus is on the hyoid bone, which breaks much more easily in strangulation than it does in self-imposed hanging. “The hyoid bone is a U-shaped mobile bone situated in the anterior portion of the neck at the level of the C3 vertebra, in the angle between the mandible and the thyroid cartilage..”

And then today we read that an Epstein representative has claimed his remains. Again, what representative? We don’t even know it was Epstein’s body, though between his death and today that could have been established, through DNA for instance. But we’re going to be stuck with that one autopsy, -because the body will be gone- which may or may not be convincing and/or conclusive. Who knows?

via Epstein Is Like JFK All Over Again, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC

Farmers’ struggle to legally import workers threatens U.S. crops

Researchers estimate at least half of America’s farmworkers are in the country without authorization. And with increased security at the border and more deportations of undocumented immigrants in the country’s interior, those laborers are disappearing.

The situation is nearing a critical stage, farm industry leaders say. Fruit and vegetable farms need replacement workers, or they will cease to function.

via upi Farmers’ struggle to legally import workers threatens U.S. crops

Once all of the migrant farm workers are deported, all of the racist US city folk like Trump can go back and live plus work on these farms, at all of these high paying jobs that these migrants took away.. or not eat. (sarcasm)

In her weekly news conference, Speaker Pelosi appeared with a poster titled “McConnell’s Graveyard,” and listed off several pieces of legislation she says the Senate Majority Leader wants to “bury.”

via ‘McConnell’s Graveyard’: Pelosi lists bills passed by House that Senate won’t vote on

David Duke celebrates Trump election – Business Insider

Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke celebrated Donald Trump’s win on Twitter on election night.
The Republican presidential nominee became the 45th president-elect shortly before 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

“This is one of the most exciting nights of my life,” Duke tweeted. “Make no mistake about it, our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump!”

via David Duke celebrates Trump election – Business Insider

Jailed ‘killer cop’ questioned about Jeffrey Epstein’s injuries

Fellow inmate Nicholas Tartaglione, a former Briarcliff Manor cop who faces the death penalty in four drug-related killings upstate, was wearing earbuds when investigators went to question him about the incident, sources said.

Tartaglione, 51, claimed that he didn’t hear anything and wasn’t responsible for Epstein’s injuries, sources said.

Epstein, 66, was found nearly unconscious and sprawled on the floor of his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Tuesday, sources have said previously.

The multimillionaire financier was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he received treatment before being returned to the infamous jail and placed on suicide watch, sources said.

via nypost Jailed ‘killer cop’ questioned about Jeffrey Epstein’s injuries

Epstein Told Authorities Someone Tried to Kill Him Weeks Before “Suicide”

(TMU) — Carol Leonnig, a reporter for the Washington Post and occasional contributor to MSNBC, tweeted shortly after news broke of Jeffrey Epstein’s death on Saturday morning, that the billionaire reportedly told officials that he was attacked weeks prior to his death.

“People close to Epstein fear he was murdered…as Epstein told authorities someone tried to kill him in a previous incident weeks earlier. He was described as being in good spirits in recent days…”

via themindunleashed Epstein Told Authorities Someone Tried to Kill Him Weeks Before “Suicide”

Former MCC Inmate Says Epstein Suicide Was ‘Impossible’

(ZH) — A former inmate at lower Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center who spent several months in the prison’s notorious 9 South special housing unit for high-profile prisoners told the New York Post that it would have been ‘impossible’ for millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to have killed himself.

“There’s no way that man could have killed himself. I’ve done too much time in those units. It’s an impossibility,” said the former inmate, adding “Between the floor and the ceiling is like eight or nine feet. There’s no way for you to connect to anything.”

“You have sheets, but they’re paper level, not strong enough. He was 200 pounds — it would never happen.”

via themindunleashed Former MCC Inmate Says Epstein Suicide Was ‘Impossible’

The details of the story about Epstein’s suicide in a high security federal prison leaves a lot of questions, and no answers.

Why are no reporters allowed into the cell where he supposedly committed suicide?

via Why Epstein Could Not Have Hanged Himself – Epstein High Security Metropolitan Correctional Center MCC Prison Cell Details – Picture of Epstein Does Not Match Epstein Before Death, Obviously Photoshopped – What Really Happened? | A Green Road Journal

Mystery surrounds hyoid break in Epstein death

Epstein, 66, was found early Saturday in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He had a bedsheet around his neck. According to the New York Post, he had tied the bedsheet to the bunk and leaned toward the floor to kill himself.

via usatoday Mystery surrounds hyoid break in Epstein death

Some jail staffers not cooperating with DOJ investigation into Epstein suicide, source says

Correctional officers did not check in with Epstein for “several hours” before his death, despite being required to visit him every 30 minutes, a person familiar with the situation told Fox News earlier this week.

Jail guards on duty the night of Epstein’s death are also suspected of falsifying log entries to show they were checking on inmates every half-hour as required, The Associated Press reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.

via Some jail staffers not cooperating with DOJ investigation into Epstein suicide, source says | Fox News

Shell Workers Had To Attend Trump Speech To Be Paid, Were Ordered Not To Protest: Report | HuffPost

Workers at a massive new Shell plant in Pennsylvania had to attend a speech by President Donald Trump there earlier this week to be paid — and were ordered not to protest, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Attendance was not mandatory for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant north of Pittsburgh, but they had to forfeit pay for the day if they skipped, according to attendance and comportment information obtained by the newspaper.

via Shell Workers Had To Attend Trump Speech To Be Paid, Were Ordered Not To Protest: Report | HuffPost

Trump Administration Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

On January 3, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is considering rolling back disparate impact regulations that provide anti-discrimination protections to people of color, women, and others.

On January 4, The Guardian reported that the Trump administration has stopped cooperating with and responding to UN investigators over potential human rights violations in the United States.

On January 29, the Department of Justice reversed its position in a Texas voting rights case, saying the state shouldn’t need to have its voting changes pre-cleared with the federal government. Career voting rights lawyers at the department declined to sign the brief.

On February 6, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – under the direction of Trump-appointed Director Kathy Kraninger– released its plan to roll back the central protections of the agency’s 2017 payday and car-title lending rule.

On February 15, Trump announced that he would declare a national emergency on the southern border – an attempt to end-run the Congress in order to build a harmful and wasteful border wall.

On February 22, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule to significantly undermine the Title X family planning program’s ability to properly serve its patients and to provide its hallmark quality care. The rule’s provisions will have far-reaching implications for all Title X-funded programs, the services provided, and the ability of patients to seek and receive high-quality, confidential family planning and preventive health care services.

On March 7, the Department of Labor issued a proposed revision to the overtime rule, which proposes to raise the salary threshold to an amount ($35,308) far lower than the Obama Labor Department’s previously finalized rule ($47,476).

On March 11, the Trump administration released its FY 2020 budget proposal, which requested $8.6 billion for a southern border wall, requested an inexplicably and irresponsibly low figure for 2020 Census operations, and proposed deeply troubling cuts to the social safety net – including cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and SNAP.

On March 25, the Trump administration said in an appeals court filing that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down.

On April 11, the Trump administration ordered all federal agencies to put important policy decisions on hold until they have been reviewed by the White House, making it take even longer for independent regulators to respond to problems like risky lending practices.

On April 12, Politico reported that the Trump administration will not nominate (or renominate) anyone to the 18-member U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

On April 17, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule (eventually published on May 10) seeking to restrict housing assistance for families with mixed-citizenship status. The agency’s own analysis showed that the proposal could lead to 55,000 children becoming temporarily homeless.

On April 19, the Department of Health and Human Services published a proposal to reverse an Obama-era rule that required the data collection of the sexual orientation and gender identity of youth in foster care, along with their foster parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians.

On May 2, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a final rule to allow health workers to cite religious or moral objections to deny care to patients, which will substantially harm the health and well-being of many people in America – particularly women and transgender patients.

On May 6, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule targeting home care workers – who are mostly women of color – designed to stop them from paying union dues and benefits through payroll deduction.

via Trump Administration Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Steve King thinks society would die out without rape and incest – ThinkProgress

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) once again made bizarre comments in defense of his extremist opinions. This time, rather than defending white supremacy, he was arguing that laws against abortion should not have exceptions for rape and incest because rape and incest are essential to the survival of the species.

“What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?” he asked the Westside Conservative Club Wednesday.

Earlier this year, King came under fire for telling the New York Times that he didn’t understand why white supremacy, white nationalism, and “Western supremacy” were considered offensive. His Republican colleagues finally noticed just how racist he was, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stripped him of his committee assignments. McCarthy stopped short, however, of supporting censure.

via Steve King thinks society would die out without rape and incest – ThinkProgress

Branson store owner, who said rebel flag doesn’t represent racism, has ties to KKK

The Confederate flag represents Southern culture, Anna Robb said.

In an interview with the News-Leader on Monday, she said the flag represents faith, family and freedom — not slavery, racism or white supremacy.

On Thursday, the News-Leader was alerted by readers that Robb’s husband Nathan, co-owner of the store, once tried to adopt a highway in Arkansas on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan, and that Nathan Robb’s father is Thomas Robb, the national director of the KKK

via news-leader Branson store owner, who said rebel flag doesn’t represent racism, has ties to KKK

When your beverage of choice is tritium | The Most Revolutionary Act

The independent radiological testing lab CRIIRAD (Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity) denounced what it called the “trivialization of tritium contamination” and warned French citizens not to be lulled by the 100 Bq/L levels set by the authorities and especially not by the WHO’s 10,000 Bq/L standard. CRIIRAD said the level for tritium in drinking water should be set between 10 and 30 Bq/L.

For context, in our report, Leak First, Fix Later, we noted that the “naturally occurring” levels of tritium found in surface and groundwater is, at its highest, 1 Bq/l. Therefore, tritium is almost non-existent in water in nature.

To CRIIRAD, it is therefore all the more outrageous that that the levels for radiological contamination in France are set at “more than 100 times higher than the maximum allowed for chemical carcinogens.”

Tritium is radioactive hydrogen and is therefore assimilated by all living things as water. It has a half life of 12.3 years. It is produced in huge quantities in nuclear reactor cores, then released into the environment as a gas or in liquid discharges. Tritium cannot be filtered out of water and tritium released into the air can return in rainfall. All nuclear power plants release tritium, and nuclear reprocessing facilities — such as the one at La Hague on the French north coast — release even larger amounts.

via When your beverage of choice is tritium | The Most Revolutionary Act

Reflections on “Insanity”, “Societal Psychosis” and “Irrational Violence” in America – Counter Information

The U.S. is a country born of violence, racial hatred, mysogeny, slavery, bigotry, greed, and corruption.  It has a rather savage history covered over with many rationalizations, self serving platitudes, and a media system that inculcates the idea of an indispensable nation beholden to none, better than all, and necessary for global ‘peace’.  It is evident that peace in those terms is a concept which when examined logically reduces down to a large military force,  large subversive service forces, and a global financial/corporate setup – the “Washington consensus” – that allows no deviance from supporting the U.S. petrodollar.

In a reality check, the U.S. essentially suffers from a mass psychosis.

It worships its military,  its warriors – although not enough to keep the veterans healthy and alive.  The military personnel are honoured at football games, in schools, on American Idol and the Voice.  It venerates the idea of “rugged individualism” as exemplified in the writings of Ayn Rand, many Hollywood movies, and many political and business figures.  But the rugged individual rides on the backs of others without caring about others and their fortunes or misfortunes.  The veneration is a lie.

Mass murders are commonplace, creating a momentary weeping and wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth before it becomes business as usual in a week or two as the media moves on to more current newsworthy events.  But the psychosis, the paranoia, the fear runs deep and continues on.  When a motorcycle backfires in New York’s Times Square, people run in fearful panic.  A shelf falls over in a department store and the customers panic thinking they heard gunshots.  School backpacks with bullet protection are selling for school kids (but don’t look up “bulletproof” on Amazon, all you will get is product line of supposed health products as the other pages have been removed).

via Reflections on “Insanity”, “Societal Psychosis” and “Irrational Violence” in America – Counter Information

Actually, 10 Cities Are Reportedly Waiting For Trump Campaign To Pay $841,000 In Rally Bills | HuffPost

“Do we love law enforcement or what?” he asked at a rally in Lebanon, Ohio, in October. Apparently, his campaign didn’t love them enough to even bother to respond to a $16,191 bill for city police and other safety costs, according to the report by the nonprofit CPI in conjunction with NBC and CNBC.

The expenses can be significant, especially for smaller towns like Lebanon, population 21,000. The Trump campaign bill would cover two days of police force operations there, according to CPI.

The Trump campaign owes a total of $841,219 to cities from Burlington, Vermont, to Green Bay and Eau Claire in Wisconsin, Mesa, Arizona, and Spokane, Washington, according to invoices. The largest bill — $470,000 — was for El Paso for a February rally, including $381,000 for extra police and $61,000 for fire department services. Erie, Pennsylvania; Billings, Montana; and Tucson, Arizona, are also still waiting for payment.

via Actually, 10 Cities Are Reportedly Waiting For Trump Campaign To Pay $841,000 In Rally Bills | HuffPost

Trump loves stiffing people over bills he owes.. Historically, that is his pattern. He is stiffing 99 percent of US taxpayers right now..

Epstein Autopsy Finds Evidence He May Have Been Murdered

Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. These breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older, according to forensics experts and studies on the subject.

But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation.

Even Jonathan L. Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, admitted that a hyoid break is more commonly associated with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging

via activistpost Epstein Autopsy Finds Evidence He May Have Been Murdered

Dow drops 800 points as Wall Street suffers worst day of year on recession fears

Wall Street took a battering on Wednesday, suffering its worst day so far this year after movements in the bond market signaled the sharpest indication yet of an approaching recession.

via NBC Dow drops 800 points as Wall Street suffers worst day of year on recession fears

There are nine sections to this symbol. Let’s go into them one at a time.

Naturally, white supremacists who distanced themselves from the shooter’s actions have nonetheless claimed that he was right insofar as he believed in the “great replacement” conspiracy. In an August 4, 2019 video, white supremacists Richard Spencer and Jefferson Lee — alongside their guest, Jim Goad — openly sympathized with the young man’s beliefs.

via What Does The Great Replacement Symbol Mean And Say? | A Green Road Journal

The Boundaries of Whiteness Are Protected With Blood and Bullets | The Nation

The desire to uphold white rule has always been a potent force in American politics. And since the era of eugenics ushered in a fanatical obsession with breeding, that goal has been aided by rhetoric that inflames fears of the extinction of whiteness. From the anti-immigration statutes of the 1920s to anti-miscegenation laws to Trump’s Muslim ban, racists have sought to protect the boundaries of white racial purity. It’s a boundary often drawn in blood and bullets.

“The grim truth of the matter is this: The whole white race is exposed, immediately or ultimately, to the possibility of social sterilization and final replacement or absorption by the teeming colored races,” wrote the Ku Klux Klan officer and author Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, in his 1921 book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. The white man, he wrote, “cannot withstand colored competition.” Ninety-eight years later, a similar dread of white “replacement” has motivated four mass shootings in the past year—a sentiment little changed over most of a century. But today the Internet has allowed the message to be transmitted globally and reduced the time it takes for violent events to inspire one another.

via thenation The Boundaries of Whiteness Are Protected With Blood and Bullets | The Nation

Don’t Let the Far-Right Co-Opt the Environmental Struggle

Yet a number of motivations cited by the suspected attacker sit outside the typical remit of racist MAGA fearmongering. An entire paragraph of the manifesto is dedicated to environmental degradation and Malthusian claims about the need to “get rid of enough people” to protect ever dwindling resources. The author cites the Christchurch shooter’s lengthy manifesto, titled “The Great Replacement,” as an inspiration, reiterating the paranoid fears of demographic shift and white decline. The Christchurch shooter self-identified as an “eco-fascist,” writing, “there is no nationalism without environmentalism.”

Against the perilous climate change denialism typical of U.S. conservatives, environmental decimation is broadly seen as a liberal and left concern. But eco-fascism has seen a notable reemergence among far-right groups and festering corners online in the U.S. and Europe. While campaigning for the European elections, Marine Le Pen of France’s far-right National Rally party promised to make the “first ecological civilization” of a “Europe of nations,” claiming that “nomadic” people with “no homeland” do not care about the environment. Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer wrote in a 2017 manifesto, “We have the potential to become nature’s steward or its destroyer.”

It is beholden on those of us fighting for climate justice to ensure that not an inch is given to those who would use environmental degradation as grounds for racist nationalism.
It is beholden on those of us fighting for climate justice to ensure that not an inch is given to those who would use the fact of environmental degradation as grounds for racist nationalism and, as the El Paso and Christchurch shooters encouraged, genocide. This means maintaining a vigilance against not only the most explicit eco-fascists and their “blood and soil” sentiments, but also against arguments (which have emerged, too, in some parts of the so-called left) around population control and the threat of mass migration to resources both economic and environmental.

via theintercept Don’t Let the Far-Right Co-Opt the Environmental Struggle

After The El Paso Shooting, White Supremacists Promote The ‘Replacement’ Conspiracy That Motivated It – Angry White Men

Spencer insisted that the suspect murdered 22 people in cold blood because “we are losing” and that there is no political solution to his grievances. He added that he personally believes there is a political solution, but added fuel to the fire by saying “one can forgive someone for thinking that there isn’t.”

Spencer and the rest of his ilk have spent months if not years giving oxygen to the most violent voices in the modern white supremacist movement. Shortly after the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in which a counterprotester was murdered, Spencer’s website published an article that endorsed so-called “leaderless resistance.”

Spencer himself has appeared on the program Goy Talk, which promotes the violent strategy known as “accelerationism.” Jim Goad has made two appearances on The Gas Station, another violent, accelerationist podcast whose hosts praise mass shooters as “saints” and compare non-whites to cockroaches.

By promoting the “great replacement” myth and sympathizing with the shooter, Spencer is assuring that violence is inevitable.

via After The El Paso Shooting, White Supremacists Promote The ‘Replacement’ Conspiracy That Motivated It – Angry White Men

Russian Agency Confirms Radiation Spike Near Northern Naval Test Site | Mining Awareness +

In its statement published by the state news agency TASS, Rosgidromet cited data collected by a northern regional monitoring agency, saying that gamma radiation levels jumped by 4 to 16 times normal levels in Severodvinsk on August 8. TASS also quoted an official with the state-run nuclear agency Rosatom as saying the levels were harmless for humans.

An earlier report published on August 8 by Arkhangelsk regional emergency officials said radiation levels had risen to 20 times normal levels. That report was circulated by the environmental group Greenpeace. https://greenpeace.ru/news/2019/08/08/greenpeace-trebuet-proverki-skachka-radiacionnogo-fona-v-arhangelskoj-oblasti/

The Severodvinsk city administration had also published a statement on August 8 reporting an increase in radiation, though that statement was later taken down from its website.

via Russian Agency Confirms Radiation Spike Near Northern Naval Test Site | Mining Awareness +

China Just Went Nuclear in the Trade War, and There Is No Turning Back Now | Uprootedpalestinians’s Blog

If the Chinese would have slapped U.S. agricultural products with tariffs, that would have been a proportional response.  But to quit buying them entirely is an unprecedented escalation in a trade war that is really starting to spiral out of control.

And it is also clearly a political attack on President Trump.  The Chinese know that Trump is highly popular in rural areas, and this ban on U.S. agricultural products is going to severely hurt farmers in rural areas all across the United States.

U.S. voters tend to be more influenced by their bank accounts than by anything else, and so this is a smart strategic move by the Chinese if they would like to see a Democrat get elected in 2020.

In 2017, the Chinese bought 19.5 billion dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products, and that number dropped to just 9.1 billion dollars in 2018.

Now that number is going to zero, and according to Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvallthis latest move by China is going to be “a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by.”

via China Just Went Nuclear in the Trade War, and There Is No Turning Back Now | Uprootedpalestinians’s Blog

Democrats In Congress Introduce Gun Bill To Allow Victims To Sue Manufacturers : NPR

House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday they say will allow victims of gun violence to have their day in court.

The Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act aims to repeal federal protections blocking firearm and ammunition manufacturers, dealers and trade groups from most civil lawsuits when a firearm is used unlawfully or in a crime.

Those protections date to 2005, with the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

via Democrats In Congress Introduce Gun Bill To Allow Victims To Sue Manufacturers : NPR

A Nation of Survivors: The Toll of Gun Violence in America – EverytownResearch.org

• Gun injuries – Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans survive a gunshot wound and are faced with a life-long process of physical and emotional healing, as well as heavy economic costs for both survivors, communities, and society as a whole.
• Gun violence and children and teens – Firearms are the second leading cause of death for children and teens and the first leading cause of death for Black children and teens in the U.S. Every year, nearly 3,000 children and teens are shot and killed and approximately 15,600 are shot and injured.
• Domestic violence and guns – Approximately 4.5 million American women alive today have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partne

via A Nation of Survivors: The Toll of Gun Violence in America – EverytownResearch.org

Gun Deaths Cost U.S. Billions Each Year While Firearms Makers Thrive | HuffPost

The CDC attempts to put a price tag on gun violence in an earlier report. Combining the direct medical costs of treating fatal gun injuries with the economic damage of lost lives, firearms-related deaths cost the United States $37 billion in 2005, the most recent year for which a CDC estimate is available. Non-fatal gun injuries cost an additional $3.7 billion that year, according to the agency.

Guns and ammunition manufacturers will make a projected $993 million in profits on sales of $11.7 billion this year, according to a report issued by the market-research company IBISWorld. Revenues have grown 5.7 percent since 2007, the report says, and the murders in Newtown have sparked a surge in gun sales in recent days.

The Freedom Group, Colt Defense and other large gun makers are privately owned and don’t have to disclose financial information, but publicly traded firms do. According to their most recent annual reports as compiled by Yahoo! Finance, Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. earned $58.5 million in profits on $501 million in sales; Sturm, Ruger & Co. had $61.4 million in profit from $443.4 million in revenue; and Winchester manufacturer Olin Corp., which also is in the chemicals business, had profits of $133.7 million on $2.04 billion in sales.

via Gun Deaths Cost U.S. Billions Each Year While Firearms Makers Thrive | HuffPost

https://youtu.be/UK4572uROwg

via Three dogs die after swimming in pond with blue-green algae – YouTube

Toxic Blue Green Algae: Climate-Pumped Threat to Pets, and People | Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Sad story of pets succumbing to toxic blue green algae in a pond – but nowhere mentioned is the climate connection – that these species of algae are favored by warmer waters, and spreading north in response to climate change.

This month is the 5 year anniversary of the Toledo water crisis, when 450,000 people in an American city were told their water might be poisoned, and dependent on deliveries of drinking water for several days – something most westerners associate with refugees in developing nations.

If that’s new information to you, here’s an account from Michigan Radio:

Michigan Radio:

via Toxic Blue Green Algae: Climate-Pumped Threat to Pets, and People | Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Middle Class Death Spiral: Consumers Have Never Been In More Debt, And Bankruptcies Are Surging

According to the New York Post, the total amount of debt that U.S. households have accumulated is about to cross the 14 trillion dollar mark for the first time ever…

Meanwhile, record American household debt, near $14 trillion including mortgages and student loans, is some $1 trillion higher than during the Great Recession of 2008. Credit card debt of $1 trillion also exceeds the 2008 peak.

Americans are spending heavily, again — and often recklessly, say analysts.

This is the exact opposite of what U.S. consumers should be doing.  We can see signs of a fresh economic slowdown all around us, and consumers should be feverishly trying to get out of debt as fast as they can.

But instead, debt levels just keep setting record after record.  In fact, total student loan debt just hit a brand new record high of 1.605 trillion dollars, and auto loan debt just hit a brand new record high of 1.174 trillion dollars.

via Middle Class Death Spiral: Consumers Have Never Been In More Debt, And Bankruptcies Are Surging – © blogfactory

Epstein death puts renowned pathologist back in spotlight

Baden has been part of many of America’s most prominent death investigations since the 1970s, when he was top pathologist for a congressional committee probing the Kennedy and King killings.

He would go on to contribute to inquiries into the deaths of other historical figures, including Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II and American civil rights leader Medgar Evers. He also was part of a team that proved that the exhumed body of a man who drowned off Brazil in 1979 was that of Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous “Angel of Death” from the Nazi concentration camps.

He testified for record producer Phil Spector in his first murder trial in the 2003 death of actress Lana Clarkson. Baden’s wife, attorney Linda Kenney Baden, represented Spector at the time, which prosecutors suggested created a conflict of interest. The pathologist denied it and said he made his findings before his wife joined Spector’s defense team.

via apnews Epstein death puts renowned pathologist back in spotlight

“…The involvement of JPMorgan Chase is particularly interesting in a company where Bear Stearns is a 40 percent owner and Jeffrey Epstein is Chairman….JPMorgan’s involvement is further interesting because the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provided a $28.8 billion loan to take that amount of toxic assets off of Bear Stearns balance sheet and put them in a concoction called Maiden Lane LLC in order to sweeten the pot for JPMorgan Chase to take over Bear Stearns when it blew itself up with bad investments in 2008. Bear Stearns also ended up getting an $853 billion lifeline from the Federal Reserve in low-cost revolving loans that the Fed fought to keep secret along with the rest of its $29 trillion bailout of Wall Street and foreign banks during the financial crash”

The Jeffrey Epstein Rabbit Hole Just Got Deeper – By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

The backers and lenders of Epstein’s mysterious $6.7 billion company included JPMorgan, Bank of America, Sidley Austin and Natexis Banque Populaire, new findings reveal.

Jeffrey Epstein, the accused sex trafficker of underage school girls, presided over a $6.7 billion offshore company as its Chairman from November 9, 2001 to at least March 19, 2007, a period during which he is accused of committing his sex trafficking crimes against minors. The company is Liquid Funding Ltd. and it had two offshore connections: it was incorporated in Bermuda on October 19, 2000 by the Appleby law firm, known for setting up offshore companies in secrecy jurisdictions like the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Cayman Islands, and Jersey. Liquid Funding’s investment manager was Bear Stearns Bank Plc in Dublin, Ireland – a non-U.S. regulated institution, which was later merged into JPMorgan Bank Dublin.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Bear Stearns, prior to its epic collapse in 2008, indicated that Bear Stearns owned 40 percent of Liquid Funding Ltd.’s equity but the owners of the other 60 percent remain a mystery. The ratings firm, Fitch, reported in 2006 that the company had $6.7 billion in outstanding liabilities. What those liabilities consisted of and who paid them off when Bear Stearns collapsed remains largely unknown, although we did track down $364 million of Liquid Funding’s commercial paper stuffed into U.S. money market funds. Two of JPMorgan’s money market funds held a total of $100 million; two Dreyfus money markets held at least $139 million; and a Frank Russell money market fund held $125 million.

via HIGH CRIMES: The Jeffrey Epstein Rabbit Hole Just Got Deeper – By Pam Martens & Russ Martens | RIELPOLITIK

Oregon Pediatrician Responds to Critics – Explains How Much Money Pediatricians Make on Vaccines

There are profits from vaccine mark-ups and huge profits from vaccine administration fees. The average admin fee is about $35 per vaccine.

For the 715 patients born into my practice who have refused to give any vaccines (each child would have had 28 vaccines by age 2 and over 60 vaccines in their childhood) amounting to income of $700,000 for the 2 years and $1.5 million over their childhood.

Those are real dollars lost for Integrative Pediatrics. The money lost when considering that we serve over 15,000 patients, with most being selective about how they vaccinate would have driven most practices out of business.

There are also built in incentives in many contracts with health plans. Vaccines are a quality measure (if your practice does not reach a bench mark in numbers vaccinated) you loose a % on all services provided to patients under that insurance contract.

Is it any wonder most of my peers discharge patients from their practices who won’t follow the CDC schedule? Often these patients are told to call Dr. Thomas (Integrative Pediatrics).

via Vaccine Impact Oregon Pediatrician Responds to Critics – Explains How Much Money Pediatricians Make on Vaccines

Andrew Jackson was a slaver, ethnic cleanser, and tyrant. He deserves no place on our money. – Vox

After generations of pro-Jackson historians left out Jackson’s role in American Indian removal — the forced, bloody transfer of tens of thousands of Native Americans from the South — a recent reevaluation has rightfully put that crime at the core of his legacy.

But Jackson is even worse than his horrifyingly brutal record with regard to Native Americans indicates. Indian removal was not just a crime against humanity, it was a crime against humanity intended to abet another crime against humanity: By clearing the Cherokee from the American South, Jackson hoped to open up more land for cultivation by slave plantations. He owned hundreds of slaves, and in 1835 worked with his postmaster general to censor anti-slavery mailings from northern abolitionists. The historian Daniel Walker Howe writes that Jackson, “expressed his loathing for the abolitionists vehemently, both in public and in private.”

Jackson’s small-government fetishism and crank monetary policy views stunted the attempts of better leaders like John Quincy Adams to invest in American infrastructure, and led to the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that touched off a recession lasting seven years. If that weren’t enough, he was a war criminal who suspended habeas corpus and executed prisoners for minor infractions during his time as a general in the War of 1812.

via Andrew Jackson was a slaver, ethnic cleanser, and tyrant. He deserves no place on our money. – Vox

Military retirement program could lose funding for Trump’s border wall – Business Insider

The Supreme Court decided last week that Department of Defense funding could be used to construct sections of President Donald Trump’s wall at the US-Mexico border.
Programs set to lose funding include a retirement program for the military and a program to support Afghan security forces, among others

via Military retirement program could lose funding for Trump’s border wall – Business Insider

USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills

At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.

Trump’s companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. That includes 21 citations against the defunct Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and three against the also out-of-business Trump Mortgage LLC in New York. Both cases were resolved by the companies agreeing to pay back wages.

Litigator in chief

In addition to the lawsuits, the review found more than 200 mechanic’s liens — filed by contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties claiming they were owed money for their work — since the 1980s. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, N.Y., air conditioning and heating company to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking firm. On just one project, Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show that at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.

via USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills

American journalist discovers the meaning of ‘maga’ in Nigeria – Legit.ng

A famous American journalist identified as Kurt Eichenwald recently made this discovering. With surprise and amusement, he took to Twitter to share the hilarious finding: “Most amazing thing I have learned today. MAGA – you know, like Make America Great Again – is in Nigerian parlance a word that means easily fooled idiot. So, hey there all you MAGA folks – Nigeria knew what you were long before the rest of us did.”

via American journalist discovers the meaning of ‘maga’ in Nigeria ▷ Legit.ng

Florida police arrest white supremacist for allegedly threatening shooting at Walmart

“3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don’t go to Walmart next week,” police say Clayton wrote.

His arrest comes one week after 22 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The suspected shooter is alleged to have posted an online manifesto ahead of his attack warning of a “Hispanic invasion.” The suspect reportedly told police he was targeting “Mexicans.”

The FBI has said the majority of domestic terrorism cases investigated since October were tied to white supremacists.

via Florida police arrest white supremacist for allegedly threatening shooting at Walmart

Friend of alleged Dayton shooter to face federal charges | TheHill
A friend of the man who police say opened fire in a Dayton, Ohio, entertainment district, killing nine people, will face federal charges, multiple news outlets reported Monday.

Ethan Kollie “indicated he purchased body armor and a firearm accessory for Betts earlier this year,” referring to 24-year-old Connor Betts, a charging document obtained by The Associated Press states.

via Friend of alleged Dayton shooter to face federal charges | TheHill

Poll: McConnell’s approval in Kentucky at 18 percent | TheHill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has an 18 percent job approval rating in Kentucky, according to a new survey.

A Public Policy Polling survey found just 18 percent of respondents approve of the job McConnell is doing, compared with 74 percent who disapprove.

If McConnell were up for reelection today, 37 percent of respondents said they would vote for the Kentucky Republican. Another 44 percent would instead choose a Democratic opponent, according to the survey.

An additional 19 percent said they were unsure.

McConnell’s seat will be on the ballot next in 2020.

via Poll: McConnell’s approval in Kentucky at 18 percent | TheHill

FBI arrest Las Vegas man with white supremacy ties who scouted gay bar, synagogue

The FBI announced the arrest of a Las Vegas man on Thursday who has ties to two white supremacy groups and allegedly planned assaults inside and outside a downtown gay bar, a synagogue, and possibly other Las Vegas area sites.

During a search of 23-year old security guard Conor Climo’s premises, FBI agents discovered plans and materials for possible domestic terrorist attacks. Climo “used encrypted messaging to disparage Jewish people and members of the LGTBQ community, authorities allege,” the Las Vegas Sun reported.

The FBI said Climo had ties to the National Socialist Movement, a Neo-Nazi group that they say “encourages” attacks on federal government targets, minorities and the LGBTQ community. “Members believe in the superiority of the white race and have a common goal of challenging the established laws, social order, and government via terrorism and other violent acts,” The Sun reports.

“As this complaint illustrates, the FBI will always be proactive to combat threats that cross a line from free speech to potential violence,” said Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse of the FBI Las Vegas Division, in a news release.

“Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this Country,” said U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich for the District of Nevada.

via losangelesblade Breaking: FBI arrest Las Vegas man with white supremacy ties who scouted gay bar, synagogue

Black man convinces 200 Ku Klux Klansmen to leave white supremacist group by befriending them | The Independent

A black man says he has accidentally persuaded around 200 white racists to abandon the Klu Klux Klan simply by befriending them.

Blues musician Daryl Davis has travelled the US for around three decades, actively seeking out white supremacists as a hobby.

In a new documentary, out this month, the 58-year-old can be seen sitting down beside and joking with cloaked members.

via Black man convinces 200 Ku Klux Klansmen to leave white supremacist group by befriending them | The Independent

No Guns Allowed During NRA Convention Speech By Trump, Pence: The Two-Way: NPR

A notice posted on the NRA event page explained that “Due to the attendance of the Vice President of the United States, the U.S. Secret Service will be responsible for event security at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum. As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during his attendance.”

A second page lists prohibited items, including selfie sticks, backpacks, signs, drones, laser pointers, toy guns and weapons of any kind.

It is standard operating procedure for the Secret Service to coordinate security wherever the vice president travels, Secret Service officials told NPR. And the agency has “authority to preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those located in open-carry states,” it said in a statement.

via No Guns Allowed During NRA Convention Speech By Trump, Pence : The Two-Way : NPR

Jake Tapper lays into Trump for spreading ‘deranged’ conspiracy theories

“President Trump could use his megaphone for anything, but the president often uses it to amplify that which is the worst of us — personal attacks, bigotry, and insane conspiracy theories. Officials say Epstein died by apparent suicide while in the custody of the federal government. The attorney general, William Barr, released a statement opening an investigation into how this happened, saying he was, quote, ‘appalled’ and saying Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered. …

“This is of course not the first time that President Trump has chosen to use his amplified voice to spread conspiracies. He lied about President Obama’s birthplace. He suggested Ted Cruz’s father might have been involved in the JFK assassination. He lied that he saw American Muslims in New Jersey on TV celebrating 9/11 when there is no such tape. President Trump has also given voice to the lie that the migrant and refugee crisis at the southern border of the U.S. is a plot by Jewish billionaire George Soros to fund a, quote, ‘invasion.’ That’s a conspiracy theory that was the motive for mass slaughter in Pittsburgh and El Paso. This is no longer just irresponsible and indecent. It’s dangerous.”

via Daily Kos Jake Tapper lays into Trump for spreading ‘deranged’ conspiracy theories

How many times can you say that our gun laws are insane and the Republicans are awash in NRA blood money? Or that Trump’s racist rhetoric is inciting violence? What I tried to do here was put this rhetoric in the mouth of a mass shooter to show the self-evident absurdity of his worldview but also the overlap between the right’s now-mainstream white supremacist discourse and violent neo-Nazi ideology. It’s not even a stretch, as the El Paso shooter referred to a “Hispanic invasion” and wanting to “send them back.” And it’s not just Trump. Media Matters has a roundup of the fear-mongering language increasingly used by right-wing fundraising efforts and media personalities.

via Daily Kos Cartoon: Shooter manifesto