TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalOklahoma struggle continues as calls for teacher strikes spread across US
Large numbers of Oklahoma teachers are expected to show up at the state capitol today to continue their fight for improved wages and school funding despite the concerted effort by the unions, school district authorities and the media to pressure educators to end their two-week strike.
After failing to prevent the strike, which was initiated on April 2 by rank-and-file teachers using social media, the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) and smaller Oklahoma City-American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have done nothing but try to sabotage it. Last Thursday, OEA President Alicia Priest abruptly announced that the union was calling off the strike. The OEA falsely claimed that teachers had won 95 percent of their demands and that educators could do nothing more than vote for Democrats in November.
On Friday, thousands of teachers, defying the OEA, descended on the state capitol. Over the weekend, they networked with each other to organize sickouts and other forms of protest as schools reopen today.
“OEA ran out in front of our train which was gaining momentum and started acting like they were leading the train and then said they were stopping the train,” Jane, a teacher from a rural Oklahoma District, said during an online meeting Sunday afternoon sponsored by the World Socialist Web Site Teacher Newsletter. “There are a bunch of us that aren’t stopping.
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/16/okla-a16.html
Socotra Has Been Captured By The United Arab Emirates
I'd wager that not many Americans have heard of Socotra, an island 240 miles off the south coast of Yemen and 150 miles east on the horn of Africa (Somalia). One of the senators should have asked Pompeo yesterday. Last week I flew to Thailand via Doha on Qatar Air. It's a silly, arduous and very long way to get to Thailand from L.A. Don't do it. But on the way there I sat next to a young Kuwaiti who loves travel as much as I do. He told me about Socotra, a rarely visited place he had visited. The context was the war Saudi Arabia and its UAE allies were waging against Yemen, and to a lesser extent, against Qatar (courtesy of Jared Kushner). Qatari planes are not allowed to fly in Saudi or Emerati airspace which was extending an already very long trip as the plane was forced to fly a strange and unnatural route that took us over Iran. So what Abd al-Aziz told me was that the UAE had captured Socotra from Yemen and was exploiting it. If you want to visit the island and enjoy the famous dragon's blood trees and white sandy beaches, you get a visa from the UAE and fly on a UAE plane (Rotana Air).
It's now a UAE military outpost and the UAE is trying to develop economic zones in formerly protected unique environmental ecosystems. The top economic activity on the island is fishing and locals accuse the UAE of using their own fishing fleets which deplete the fish stocks and push native fishermen out of work. They claim the fish are exported on military ships and aircraft to the UAE.
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There have been reports that UAE plan to hold a referendum in Socotra, "offering" the island the option of joining the United Arab Emirates as its 8th member state. Such an annexation would however be a violation of international law, and the news has been met with outrage in Yemen.
Read more: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2018/04/socotra-has-been-captured-by-united.html
Thousands Attend Inaugural Pride in Pence's Hometown
The first Pride celebration in Columbus, Indiana, the hometown of notoriously anti-LGBT Vice President Mike Pence, was a hit.
“The first gay pride festival here, the hometown of socially conservative Vice President Mike Pence and a city that once drew protests against health benefits for same-sex couples, proved surprising Saturday,” the IndyStar reported.
“The turnout was larger than expected,” the outlet noted. “More than 2,000 people cared less about the gloomy weather and more about the message.”
The celebration was organized by high school senior Erin Bailey, stemming from a class project. “It’s crazy,” she told the newspaper. “It’s awesome.” The celebration covered two blocks and featured drag performances and three dozen vendor booths.
Read more: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2018/04/thousands-attend-inaugural-pride-in-pences-hometown/
Cross-posted in the Indiana Group.
Thousands Attend Inaugural Pride in Pence's Hometown
The first Pride celebration in Columbus, Indiana, the hometown of notoriously anti-LGBT Vice President Mike Pence, was a hit.
“The first gay pride festival here, the hometown of socially conservative Vice President Mike Pence and a city that once drew protests against health benefits for same-sex couples, proved surprising Saturday,” the IndyStar reported.
“The turnout was larger than expected,” the outlet noted. “More than 2,000 people cared less about the gloomy weather and more about the message.”
The celebration was organized by high school senior Erin Bailey, stemming from a class project. “It’s crazy,” she told the newspaper. “It’s awesome.” The celebration covered two blocks and featured drag performances and three dozen vendor booths.
Read more: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2018/04/thousands-attend-inaugural-pride-in-pences-hometown/
Cross-posted in the LGBT Group.
Man Arrested for Killing Gay Man, Writing 'Hitler Was Right' on Wall in Victim's Blood
Police in Colombia have arrested a man for allegedly killing a gay man and writing “Hitler was right” on a wall in the victim's blood.
Officials detained a man in Colombia last fall in connection with the March 2000 killing of 45-year-old man Vitervo A.V. in the municipality of Montgat, near Barcelona. Catalonian police released a statement on the case on Tuesday.
The killer is alleged to have met his victim after they connected through a lonely hearts newspaper advertisement in the capital of the Catalan region of Spain.
The pair went for drinks before heading to an apartment belonging to an elderly man whom Vitervo was caring for. The man was in an old age home at the time of the killing. The elderly man’s son discovered Vitervo’s lifeless, naked body in a pool of blood hours later. He had a flower wrapped around his ear.
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2018/04/killing-gay-man/
South Dakota e-commerce sale tax fight reaches U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A high-stakes showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday will determine whether states can force out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes in a fight between South Dakota and e-commerce businesses.
South Dakota is asking the nine justices to overturn a 1992 Supreme Court precedent that states cannot require retailers to collect state sales taxes on purchases unless the businesses have a “physical presence” in the state.
The state, appealing a lower court decision that favored Wayfair Inc (W.N), Overstock.com Inc (OSTK.O) and Newegg Inc, is being supported by President Donald Trump’s administration.
A ruling favoring South Dakota could help small brick-and-mortar retailers compete with online rivals while funneling up to $18 billion into the coffers of the affected states, according to a 2017 federal report.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-taxes-preview/south-dakota-e-commerce-sale-tax-fight-reaches-u-s-supreme-court-idUSKBN1HM0G1
J&J Baby Powder litigation takes new focus with asbestos claims after $117M verdict
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A $117 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and a supplier in favor of a man who said his asbestos-related cancer was caused by long-term use of J&’s Baby Powder could open a new front for thousands of cases claiming the widely-used product caused cancer, legal experts and plaintiffs lawyers said.
J&J has been battling some 6,000 cases claiming its baby powder and Shower to Shower products cause ovarian cancer. The $117 million verdict by a New Jersey jury last week, however, involved a different form of cancer that is clearly linked to asbestos.
Plaintiffs lawyers claim that internal J&J documents seen in that trial show that baby powder had been contaminated with asbestos. They now plan to use the documents in upcoming ovarian cancer trials to allege that the asbestos contamination also caused that form of cancer.
J&J and Imerys Talc America, a unit of Imerys SA (IMTP.PA), have vowed to appeal the New Jersey verdict and deny asbestos has ever been present in their products or that their talc can cause any form of cancer.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-cancer-lawsuit-analys/jj-baby-powder-litigation-takes-new-focus-with-asbestos-claims-idUSKBN1HN0FR
While we were sleeping, Russia, Iran and Turkey made an ominous deal
There can’t possibly be that many Russians of importance left to sanction. But President Donald Trump has laid more economic restrictions on Russia, Russians and Russian companies, described as the most punitive yet, for a variety of evil-doings in recent years.
Forget for a moment that every president loudly announces such sanctions, which then are largely forgotten by everybody. If there’s any Russian (or Iranian or North Korean) dense enough to still keep assets in these United States, maybe they don’t really care about them. And if President Vladimir Putin has buckled to pull troops out of Crimea after four years of escalating U.S. sanctions, no one’s noticed.
All this, mixed with Trump’s poorly-explained trade tariff tiff with China and his abnormal normal White House chaos, has managed successfully to distract from development of an unholy Middle Eastern alliance that should cause serious concerns, not just for the White House.
Last week Putin, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey’s strongman Tayyip Erdogan completed a successful summit in Ankara by announcing their new partnership to establish a ceasefire in Syria and to start rebuilding the war-ravaged land that is ravaged in large part by their own forces.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/opinion/article208383259.html
She has her eye on 2020 and Trump. But first this California senator is lending a hand in 2018.
She’s been in the Senate for just over a year, but California Democrat Kamala Harris has been quickly making friends.
Through the first quarter of 2018, which ended March 31, Harris has helped raise campaign cash for all 26 of the Senate Democrats up for reelection in November. She’s also raised money for two Democrats gunning to unseat Republican senators in Arizona and Nevada.
According to her staff, Harris’ efforts – via her political action committee, her email list and by lending her voice to other Democratic party committees and groups – have brought in more than $3 million for her colleagues up for election this fall.
They’ve also taken her to parts of the country that will be pivotal in the 2020 presidential race, a contest Harris herself is widely expected to join. On Saturday, California’s junior senator will headline a sold-out Michigan Democratic Party dinner in Detroit and attend a fundraiser for Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Later this month, Harris heads to Wisconsin to fundraise for another incumbent running in 2018, Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article208765184.html
Democrats scrambling to derail fake news attacks in 2018 races
When J.B. Pritzker decided to run for Illinois governor, he and Campaign Manager Anne Caprara talked about a problem that had bedeviled Hillary Clinton and, they feared, might imperil his own candidacy.
They were worried about deliberately misleading information spreading far and fast online. They were worried about fake news.
So the Pritzker campaign hired Democratic data science group Civis Analytics to conduct an in-depth online survey studying voters who had been exposed to fake news. What it found unsettled the campaign: Even attempts to correct the information didn’t fully undo the damage. Worse yet, the damage was even greater for female candidates.
Caprara wouldn’t share details from the survey, or even describe what it found when testing the effectiveness of various responses to fake news. But after reviewing the survey results, the Pritzker campaign launched an aggressive response operation that, in their view, at least minimized the damage.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article208972209.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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