September 28, 2018

Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100

Source: The Washington Post



By Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney
September 28 at 9:00 AM

Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-sees-a-7-degree-rise-in-global-temperatures-by-2100/2018/09/27/b9c6fada-bb45-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html

September 28, 2018

White Teacher Accused of Stepping on Black Students for Slavery Lesson Wants to Sue for Reverse...

White Teacher Accused of Stepping on Black Students for Slavery Lesson Now Wants to Sue for Reverse Racism

by Ronn Blitzer | 8:28 am, September 28th, 2018

A white New York City public school teacher who was accused of having black students lay on the floor while she stepped on their backs during a lesson on slavery now claims that she’s the real victim of discrimination.

Patricia Cummings, who is in the process of being fired from the Bronx middle school where she taught, submitted a notice a of claim and intends to file a lawsuit over her treatment, according to the New York Daily News. Cummings denies the allegations against her, saying all she did was have four students sit in “cramped conditions” to demonstrate what slave ships were like in her social studies class, but did not make contact with them or put anyone on the floor.

Her lawsuit seeks $120 million in damages, and says it could develop into a class action suit for at least $1 billion. The notice of claim says Cummings is looking to sue “the city, parents, students and the media,” and calls out the Daily News, which first reported on the January 9 lesson.

Cummings’ attorney Tom Liotti had strong words for the school system, which he says has a systemic problem with how it treats white teachers.

“There is blatant racism and reverse discrimination in the public schools of New York City,” Liotti said. “This is why white parents do not want to send their children there.”

more
https://lawandcrime.com/crazy/white-teacher-accused-of-stepping-on-black-students-for-slavery-lesson-now-wants-to-sue-for-reverse-racism/

September 28, 2018

Steve Schmidt: Graham has been 'corrupted by ambition'

BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 09/28/18 08:41 AM EDT

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Steve Schmidt, the former adviser and strategist on former Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, blasted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday night, saying he has become “corrupted by ambition.”

Schmidt, a frequent critic of President Trump, publicly denounced the Republican Party in June and said he will begin voting for Democrats.

His broadside against McCain came a day after Graham ripped into Democrats for their handling of the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation.

“He’s corrupted by ambition, corrupted by politics,” Schmidt told MSNBC's Brian Williams in an interview. "And it’s tragic because this country could use a statesman right now and Lindsey Graham, for a long time, was on a path that he would be that person. That he would be a figure of courage. That he would be a serious person in a frivolous era.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408904-former-top-mccain-aide-graham-has-been-corrupted-by-ambition

September 28, 2018

'I believe Professor Ford,' Baker says (MA Republican Governor)

By Joshua Miller GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Governor Charlie Baker said Thursday he believes Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers. Baker underscored his call for an independent investigation of claims against the nominee. And he said without an investigation, the federal judge would not be fit for a spot on the nation’s highest court.

“I said that there should be a formal investigation, an independent formal investigation. And I said that because I believe Professor Ford,” Baker said.

“That investigation needs to happen before anybody votes on anything,” he told reporters Thursday. If people “don’t do the investigation, I don’t believe that he would be fit for the job because this is a critical issue that’s been raised and it deserves to be investigated.”

Kavanaugh strongly denies Ford’s claim, as well as accusations of sexual misconduct from other women. Ford testified before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday. Kavanaugh did the same.

more
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/09/27/believe-professor-ford-baker-says/9wyZKK7FsmPenwzUJFHECP/story.html

September 28, 2018

Behind Kavanaugh fight, a national struggle over trust, identity and sex roles

By Marc Fisher
September 27 at 8:16 PM

The subject was supposed to be the selection of a new justice on the Supreme Court. Instead Thursday’s showdown on Capitol Hill was a raw, scorched-earth confrontation across the nation’s most emotionally wrenching divides. This was men against women, right against left, a cascade of recriminations, explosions of anger, hours of tears and sobs.

A hearing that was supposed to bring clarity instead erupted in thunderclaps from the nation’s built-up tensions over how the sexes are supposed to behave with each other. Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her came ­before the Senate Judiciary Committee in “the wrong town at the wrong time,” as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) put it.

The result was affirmation that Washington is as broken as it has ever been. Based on what the senators in the room said, the result was, once again, people hearing mostly what they were inclined to believe. The result, far from clarity, was a complex rush of emotions adding up to two families left in wreckage and a political system without even a pathway to cooperation.

The day ended with discord bordering on dark visions of a hopeless future. Graham heatedly declared that “this is not a job interview. This is hell. .?.?. To my Republican colleagues, if you vote ‘no,’ you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/behind-kavanaugh-fight-a-national-struggle-over-trust-identity-and-sex-roles/2018/09/27/8dbeb4d8-c25b-11e8-b338-a3289f6cb742_story.html

September 28, 2018

In Post Mortem With GOP, Mitchell Said As A Prosecutor She Wouldn't Charge Kavanaugh

Source: Talking Points Memo



By Nicole Lafond
September 28, 2018 8:25 am

After a full day of hearings on Thursday — and after being cast aside by Republicans during Brett Kavanaugh’s portion of the proceedings — lawyer Rachel Mitchell told Republican Senators in a GOP conference meeting that as a prosecutor, she wouldn’t charge Kavanaugh with a crime, Politico reported.

She wouldn’t even attempt to get a search warrant, she reportedly added.

Mitchell was retained by Republican Senators to question Christine Blasey Ford during the hearing on Thursday in order to avoid appearing insensitive. Mitchell, a prosecutor from Arizona, has a respected background in investigating years-old sex crimes.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) told Politico that Mitchell gave Republicans in the room a half-hour presentation on “facts that were established and not established.” According to a person briefed on the meeting, she shared her analysis of the hearing overall, but didn’t tell lawmakers how they should vote.

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Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mitchell-wouldnt-charge-kavanaugh

September 28, 2018

Conway Claims Kavanaugh Will Drop Bias 'Once He Gets' To SCOTUS

https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/1045633955695906816

September 28, 2018

Graham Pointedly Changes Twitter Pic, Says Blasey Ford Has 'A Problem'

By Kate Riga
September 28, 2018 8:15 am

In a full embrace of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) followed up his high-volume hearing performance Thursday by throwing his weight vocally and visually behind the nominee. He first went on Fox News to give Kavanaugh a full-throated defense.

“I am now more convinced than ever that he didn’t do it. He is the right guy to be on the court,” Graham told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday night. “Ms. Ford has a problem and destroying Judge Kavanaugh’s life won’t fix her problem.”

“I would just stress again, this man has led an incredible life and everything they are saying about him is made up and it comes out of the left field,” he continued. “It’s not corroborated. Please don’t take away everything he has done.”

To top it all off, he also changed his Twitter picture to an all-smiles shot of him and Kavanaugh.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1045481924041551872

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/graham-changes-twitter-pic-says-blasey-ford-has-a-problem

September 28, 2018

GOP strategist tells MSNBC's Morning Joe that Kavanaugh's Clinton conspiracies are disqualifying

September 28, 2018

Was there a plan to help Julian Assange escape to Russia?

By JAMES GORDON MEEK, SEAN LANGAN AICHA EL HAMMAR CASTANO Sep 28, 2018, 4:22 AM ET

The latest round in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's intensifying drama during the six years he's spent inside Ecuador's embassy in London involves allegations the government in Quito tried to give him diplomatic status last year in a plan to help him flee to Russia.

Documents reviewed and authenticated by ABC News in Quito show that the Ecuadorian government gave Assange diplomatic credentials and diplomatic immunity in order to allow him to leave their London embassy without fear of arrest by British police and take up a post in Russia.

“There was a ministerial agreement to make Assange a diplomat in Moscow,” Paola Vintimilla, an opposition politician in Ecuador who first revealed the Quito files, told ABC News Thursday. “It was days after he received the naturalization.” But like allegations by special counsel Robert Mueller that WikiLeaks helped the Kremlin's fake internet persona "Guccifer 2.0" distribute embarrassing emails hacked from the Democratic Party in an effort to tilt the 2016 U.S. election in Donald Trump's favor, the truth is difficult to pin down because of denials by Assange's supporters that he planned to flee to Russia.

A Dec. 19, 2017, directive from the Foreign Ministry in Quito, which officials in Quito confirmed, stated that Assange would be posted as a counselor at the Ecuadorian embassy in Moscow. Because the British government would not accept his diplomatic credentials, however, Assange was not able to take up the post.

more
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/plan-julian-assange-escape-russia/story?id=58134811