suffragette
suffragette's JournalMore on the intersection of Brexit, Trump and the Russian Government
Brexiter questioned about where his £9m of backing for leave campaign came from
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jun/12/arron-banks-tells-mps-i-have-no-business-interests-in-russia
After the hearing, the committee chairman, Damian Collins, said: Banks and Wigmore themselves put on the record that they frequently lie, exaggerate, misspeak and misunderstand. So it is difficult for the committee to know if we should take all of their answers seriously when it comes to data sharing and misuse, campaign spending, and their meetings with high-ranking Russian officials.
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The businessman was attending the hearing in the aftermath of the leak of a cache of emails belonging to him, Wigmore and others, which suggested his dealings with Russia were far more extensive than previously thought.
He had previously said in the book The Bad Boys of Brexit that he attended one six-hour boozy lunch with the Russian ambassador in November 2015, several months before the Brexit vote, at which they drank vodka supposedly distilled for Joseph Stalin.
Banks and Wigmore also told MPs they had passed a phone number for the Trump transition team to Yakovenko at another lunch they had with him in November 2016, a few days after their visit to Trump Tower when they met the then president-elect after waiting in the building for six hours. Whats wrong with that? We gave them a telephone number, Banks said.
"Solidarity of heirs on the Trump and Kim surreality show"
This article seems to sum up that surreal meeting as well as any.
It had the lack of depth and meaning of a tv reality show. I would add that the accord probably has the same chance of lasting as the showmances from these types of shows - which means about as long as the cameras are focused on them.
The US president seemed to identify with Kim Jong-uns backstory, taking over the family business at a young age.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/12/solidarity-of-heirs-on-the-trump-and-kim-surreality-show
The personal warmth only got deeper as they (sic) day went on. By the end of five hours, after Kim had signed the joint statement and flow back to Pyongyang, Trump was talking about a special bond between them, and appeared ready to defend Kim to the bitter end.
Asked about the North Korean leaders penchant for killing his own relatives and starving his own people, Trump replied: Well he is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough.
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At his side Kim said little, apparently content to allow Trump to act as a master of ceremonies and cheerleader. With his perpetual flow of honeyed adjectives and careful stage-management, the US president, a former reality show host, conducted the summit as if it were a TV dating show one in which Trump was both compère and suitor.
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No amount of scepticism or snarkiness from the press was going to dent Trumps mood. He seemed genuinely unaware that the promises he had received about North Korean denuclearisation had been made, in somewhat firmer language, by Kims father and grandfather in earlier decades.
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How long before we see a similarly captioned photo from Trump's Eagles 'fans' rally?
Remember the Brooks Brothers riot?
Shifting mission of Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under Trump
Something I noticed while searching for more information about ORR is that The Trump administration has been shifting their mission in order to achieve their hardline stance on immigration and likely to try to support their narrative of undocumented immigrants being dangerous.
This is but one thread in the spiderweb that is the ever growing and changing role of ICE, Border Patrol and ORR, but I think it is an important one and one of which we should be aware.
This article notes how ICE has now begun targeting sponsors of unaccompanied children (UAC). The sponsors are sought and identified by ORR, whise mission has been to find sponsors regardless of their own immigration status and place the children with them. ICE now is using this information to go after sponsors, even adding Trumped up charges of aiding human traffickers.
So, people who are trying to help are now targeted for deportation and charged with onerous crimes for their humane act. Best to be skeptical now when seeing this charge being made in this situation.
ICE arrests young immigrants sponsor months after feds assured him hed be safe.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/ice-arrests-young-immigrant-s-sponsor-months-after-feds-assured/article_428366f5-6d03-552c-a277-93b83d3005e2.html
Gari, 34, was arrested at his home Aug. 14 by federal immigration agents who had used his little brother as bait.
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The Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the Office of Refugee Resettlement, is tasked with reuniting unaccompanied children and youth with relatives in the U.S.
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But earlier this summer, the Trump administration announced that ICE would be targeting the relatives of unaccompanied children and teens and charging them with the crime of helping human traffickers.
This article notes how Trump policy is redefining protections for unaccompanied children as loopholes for youth who they view as posing a threat and how they are not only attempting to remove these protections but are proceeding as if these have already been removed. A key part of this is assuming/accusing the youth of gang ties whether or not they have them. Something not brought out in the article, but what seems evident to me is how they are conflating youth trying to escape gang violence in their home countries with the youth somehow then being involved in gangs. Note that this was the circumstance for the young brother in the preceding article. It was also the case for the DREAMER who was recently accused, then exonerated of gang involvement, though in his case he was fleeing one state for another to get away from gangs. So gang-related has been stretched to define youth who are trying to flee proximity to gangs to tag that very youth wrongfully with a gang label in the attempt to deport them.
As part of changing or over-riding these policies, they are changing the mission of departments, in this case shifting ORR from social services to something more like a branch of ICE.
Young Migrants: Victims of Gangs or Members of Them?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/us/immigration-minors-children.html
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The campaign is aimed at Capitol Hill, but the Trump administration is not waiting for legislation: In a series of at least a dozen moves across multiple federal agencies, it has begun to curtail legal protections for unaccompanied children who cross the border. Many of these safeguards were created by a 2008 law that provided protections for children who might otherwise be forced into labor or prostitution.
The young people affected by the administrations measures have been fleeing deadly gang violence in Central America since 2014, when civil strife erupted in the region. They are a less politically shielded group of young people than the so-called Dreamers, most of whom came to this country as toddlers with their parents.
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And the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which provides social services to vulnerable immigrant youth, is now placing all children with any gang-related history in secure detention instead of foster care, whether or not they have ever been arrested or charged with a crime, according to an August memo to the Presidents Domestic Policy Council.
Its law enforcement mission creep, and our office is ill-prepared for it, said Robert Carey, who was director of the refugee agency under President Barack Obama.
Ironic that this combined Supreme Court case restricts rights of workers to join in class action
suits to fight for their rights.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is absolutely correct in noting this decision is egregiously wrong.
Supreme Court Deals Blow to Workers Rights in 5-4 Decision Against Collective Action
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/23/supreme_court_deals_blow_to_workers
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TERRI GERSTEIN: Well, the real significance of this case, I think, is that many, many workersmost workersespecially low-wage workers, will simply not be able to get justice when they experience wage theft or race discrimination, sexual harassment. The decision, as you said, decides that employers are allowed to force workers, through arbitration agreements, to give up their rights to bring a class action. And that is such a problem, first of all, because workers always get strength in bringing cases together. This is both because theyre afraid to bring cases often, because of retaliation, but if its a group, it gives more protection from retaliation.
Its also true because of the economics of bringing a case. If you think about how much a minimum-wage case might be worththe federal minimum wage is $7.25, even the places where the minimum wage is $15 an hourif a worker is not paid a hundred hours, that doesnt add up to very much money. And it still takes a lot of work for a lawyer to do these cases. So the only way the economics of these cases work for private lawyers to bring cases is to aggregate them into a class action. And it will benow that workersemployers are free to require workers to give up their right to bring a class action, I think it will be extremely hard for workers to find lawyers who can afford to take these cases.
~~~
TERRI GERSTEIN: Right. Its really interesting, when you look at the actual underlying cases, because these were actually three cases that were combined. In one of them, the arbitration agreement was actually part of the job application itself, so you couldnt even apply for the job without agreeing to arbitration. In another couple of the cases, workers who were already working at that company suddenly got an email saying, Heres your new arbitration agreement. By continuing to work here, you are agreeing to this agreement. So, and as you said, for a lot of people, its just in the very beginning, when you get a mountain of paperwork or, in some places, touchscreens, and you just sign everything. People dont have the opportunity to really review it, to understand what theyre giving up. And theyre not really getting anything in exchange for signing this arbitration agreement and giving up their right to bring a class action. All they get is the right to have the job.
"Amazon Among Top Washington Companies for Employee Dependence on Medicaid"
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/05/07/26148929/amazon-among-top-washington-companies-for-employee-dependence-on-medicaidOn the day Amazon announced its construction pause, Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda brought a copy of that list to a council committee meeting. As we have a conversation about what companiesthe largest companiescan afford to help pay for the housing crisis that we have, Mosqueda said, we should have a better sense of whether or not these corporations are also getting corporate welfare kickbacks.
Mosqueda, who previously worked for the Children's Alliance on implementation of Apple Health for kids, said she expects to see companies like Walmart and McDonalds near the top of the list, but called out Kroger, Amazon, Target, and Starbucks.
These are corporations that are doing very well within our region and yet have individuals that are on Medicaid, Mosqueda said. As we think about who is potentially going to benefit from the ability to have housing, it's not exactly asking a lot to think about how we can rightside up this upside down system that we have.
UK regulator orders Cambridge Analytica to release data on US voter
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/05/cambridge-analytica-uk-regulator-release-data-us-voter-david-carroll
Cambridge Analytica has been ordered to hand over all the data and personal information it has on an American voter, including details of where it got the data and what it did with it, or face a criminal prosecution.
The UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) served the enforcement notice to the company on Friday in a landmark legal decision that opens the way for up to 240 million other American voters to request their data back from the firm under British data protection laws.
The test case was taken to the ICO by David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York. As a US citizen, he had no means of obtaining this information under US law, but in January 2016 he discovered Cambridge Analytica had processed US voter data in the UK and that this gave him rights under British laws. Cambridge Analytica had refused to accept this and told the ICO that Carroll was no more entitled to make a so-called subject access request under the UK Data Protection Act than a member of the Taliban sitting in a cave in the remotest corner of Afghanistan.
The ICO did not accept this as a valid legal argument and has now told SCL Elections, which acted as the data controller for Cambridge Analytica, that it has 30 days to comply or appeal. Cambridge Analytica and its affiliates announced this week that they had gone into liquidation, but the ICO has made it clear that it cannot avoid its responsibilities under UK law and states that failure to comply with this enforcement notice is a criminal offence.
no means of obtaining this information under US law
Its striking that we have fewer rights to obtain info that has been gathered about us under US law.
Facebook moves 1.5bn users out of reach of new European privacy law
Source: The Guardian
Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of reach of European privacy law, despite a promise from Mark Zuckerberg to apply the spirit of the legislation globally.
In a tweak to its terms and conditions, Facebook is shifting the responsibility for all users outside the US, Canada and the EU from its international HQ in Ireland to its main offices in California. It means that those users will now be on a site governed by US law rather than Irish law.
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Facebook also said the change did not carry tax implications. That means users will exist in a state of legal superposition: for tax purposes, Facebook will continue to book their revenue through Facebooks Irish office, but for privacy protections, they will deal with the companys headquarters in California.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/19/facebook-moves-15bn-users-out-of-reach-of-new-european-privacy-law
So, Facebook is avoiding higher privacy compliance and still benefiting from lower taxation in one fell swoop. In other words, operating the same as they ever have.
The planet may be lost, but diamonds are forever
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/17/diamonds-in-sudan-meteorite-are-remnants-of-lost-planetMicroscopic analyses of the meteorites tiny diamonds revealed they contain compounds that are produced under intense pressure, suggesting the diamonds formed far beneath the surface of a planet.
In this case, the mysterious world was calculated to be somewhere between Mercury and Mars in size.
Astronomers have long hypothesised that dozens of fledgling planets, ranging in size from the moon to Mars, formed in the first 10m years of the solar system and were broken apart and repackaged in violent collisions that ultimately created the terrestrial planets that orbit the sun today.
Seattle transit alert re: March for Our Lives
I get transit alerts from Metro King County. Just received this one. Bodes well for attendance at the March today in Seattle.
If a bus can no longer safely board intending passengers, the coach may have to pass bus stops. Please wait for the next available bus.
We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate your patience.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Seattle, WA
Member since: Mon Dec 13, 2004, 02:55 AM
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