August 6, 2019

Trump, RNC sue to block California law requiring release of tax returns

President Trump and the Republican National Committee on Tuesday filed a pair of lawsuits in federal court in California, opposing a new state law that would require President Trump to release his tax returns.

The law, signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last week, requires that presidential and gubernatorial candidates provide five years of federal tax returns from the most recent taxable years to the California secretary of state in order to appear on the state’s primary ballot.

Trump refused to release his tax returns during his 2016 presidential bid, rejecting decades of precedent. He is already engaged in a pair of lawsuits concerning the potential release of his federal and New York state tax returns to Democrats in Congress.

The RNC lawsuit alleges that the law is “a naked political attack against the sitting President of the United States.”


https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/456384-trump-rnc-sue-to-block-california-law-requiring-release-of-trump-tax

August 6, 2019

I Spent 25 Years Fighting Jihadis. White Supremacists Aren't So Different

By Ali H. Soufan
Mr. Soufan is a former F.B.I. special agent and the author of “Anatomy of Terror.”


When a young Muslim man, self-radicalized online, kills in the name of Islamist ideology, we have no trouble calling him a terrorist and connecting him with groups like ISIS. When a young white man, similarly self-radicalized, kills in the name of racist ideology — even when he publishes a manifesto to that effect — we tend to call him disturbed. We speak about him as a troubled loner, rather than a member of a wider network.

The disparities are not limited to cultural perceptions. America’s law enforcement agencies, intelligence community and court system all treat these two scenarios differently. Those differences in treatment mask instructive similarities between these two forms of organized hate. Having spent almost 25 years fighting jihadi terrorism here and abroad, I see disturbing parallels between the rise of Al Qaeda in the 1990s and that of racist terrorism today.

White supremacists, like their Islamist counterparts, explicitly seek to use violence to create a climate of fear and chaos that can then be exploited to reshape society in their own image. Their recruitment videos share an emphasis on the lifestyle they purport to offer recruits — one of “purity,” militancy and physical fitness. While jihadis share beheading videos, right-wing extremists glory in the live streaming of the deadly attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. While Islamic State supporters communicate through an online platform called Telegram, white supremacists tend to do so through another platform, 8chan.

One group for neo-Nazis, founded by a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has taken the analogy to its logical conclusion, calling itself “The Base” — a direct translation of the meaning of the word Al Qaeda. The organization also uses similar black flag imagery. The Base maintains an online library of terrorist manuals; the Al Qaeda publication Inspire taught the Boston bombers how to build pressure-cooker explosives.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/opinion/white-supremacy-terrorism.html

August 6, 2019

Toledo mayor: Trump didn't mean to pray for my city. But I pray for Washington.

Wade Kapszukiewicz, a Democrat, is the mayor of Toledo.

President Trump misspoke, of course, when he offered prayers for Toledo instead of Dayton, Ohio, where a gunman opened fire and killed nine people on Sunday. We all make mistakes from time to time. Nevertheless, Toledo is happy to accept his prayers, even if they were meant for Dayton. As mayor, my prayer is that our leaders in Washington finally summon the courage to do something — frankly, anything — to stop the senseless mass slaughter that continues to occur with regularity in our communities.

We remain the only developed country where mass shootings are a common occurrence. Why do we allow this to happen? We are the greatest nation on Earth, and we can do anything when we put our minds to it. Americans are desperate for a solution. If only our leaders in Washington felt the same urgency.



It is certainly possible for the United States to strike an appropriate balance between Second Amendment rights and protecting Americans from assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. But our country has failed to achieve this balance. The approaches we have taken as a nation are half-measures — at best — that have left Americans at risk. Our government is failing its people.


The American people are resilient, but our patience is running thin. We cannot allow Dayton or the weekend’s other mass shooting in El Paso to be the new normal. We should not be building a world where our children think that fear is the normal way of life in our schools, churches and shopping malls.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/06/toledo-mayor-trump-didnt-mean-pray-my-city-i-pray-washington/

August 6, 2019

We are officially a shithole country

https://twitter.com/FrakerMonica/status/1158534216847679488


Uruguay today issued a travel warning to its citizens visiting the United States of America, citing “growing violence” fueled by “racism and discrimination” that American “authorities are unable to prevent” due to “indiscriminate” gun ownership. Let that sink in for a minute.

August 3, 2019

Let's review shall we : Trump and RW domestic terrorists

https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1157750935105527810


#elpasoshooting suspect’s alleged manifesto: “this attack is in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”


-NZ shooter called Trump “symbol of white identity and common purpose”
-Coastguard shooter: “Civil War if Trump impeached.”
-MAGAbomber van had Trump decals
-Waffle House shooter wanted to meet Trump
-Quebec shooter read Trump twitter feed 417x
-Parkland shooter sent Trump letter

July 30, 2019

Ethiopia Says It Planted Over 350 Million Trees in a Day, a Record

LONDON — Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has been getting his hands dirty this summer, and this week he got much of the nation to join him.

Students, farmers, urban professionals, foreign dignitaries, environmentalists and government officials planted millions of seedlings on Monday, in what the government said was the largest one-day tree-planting effort in history.It was part of Mr. Ahmed’s campaign to plant four billion trees in Ethiopia before the fall to combat deforestation and global warming.


Many schools and government offices were closed for the day, as students and civil servants were urged to take part in the program, which was supported by several international aid groups.


The aim was to put at least 200 million seedlings in the ground a day, and by day’s end, government officials said that more than 350 million had been planted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/world/africa/ethiopia-tree-planting-deforestation.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

July 28, 2019

Was anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny poisoned?

Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was hospitalized Wednesday for an "allergic reaction," following his arrest during mass protests against election authorities in Moscow, according to his spokeswoman. Navalny's personal doctor later wrote on Facebook that she does not believe he is suffering from an allergic reaction, but the effects of "undefined chemical substances."

Why it matters: Navalny is an anti-corruption lawyer whose fierce opposition to Vladimir Putin has caused him to be arrested and jailed by Russian authorities a number of times. Navalny's spokeswoman says he has never had an allergic reaction in his life, raising questions about whether his illness could in fact be the product of political retaliation. Putin has been accused of poisoning or having political opponents assassinated in the past.

Police reportedly did not want Navalny to be transported to the hospital, and relented only when the ambulance crew threatened to make a scene, according to Navalny's spokeswoman.

About 20 journalists who showed up at the hospital where Navalny is being treated have been detained by police, according to Russian media.


https://www.axios.com/alexei-navalny-vladimir-putin-allergic-reaction-bce8ccc8-753c-43d4-ac2b-4d677f4679c1.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic



https://twitter.com/XSovietNews/status/1155586694877536256

Navalny's doctor managed to take hair and a shirt from him when she briefly saw him at the hospital, and said she would try to send them to Europe for analysis.

July 23, 2019

Welcome to the international shitshow!

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Two of the longest running democracies have devolved into total dumpster fires. What a disaster.

July 23, 2019

Charlotte City Council is looking into breaking the RNC 2020 contract

Doesn't look like they'll be able to do it. The City Council is majority Democrat and our Mayor, Vi Lyles, is also a Democrat. Despite most of the city being against it, they wanted the money that the convention would bring in. Looks like it's too late now.


https://twitter.com/greglacour/status/1153450198586273793



City Attorney Patrick Baker: If city broke #RNC2020 contract, not only would city be sued, but one or more other parties could seek a court order enjoining city from continuing to breach contract—IOW, force the city to host the convention. Die’s cast, it appears. #cltcc

July 12, 2019

Bad news: Harder-Charging Patrick Pizzella Takes Labor Reins From Acosta

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s exit paves the way for longtime GOP government official and management ally Patrick Pizzella to become acting labor secretary.Pizzella, a former lobbying partner of disgraced business lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is seen by associates on Capitol Hill as a harder-charging advocate for industry interests and someone who is more inclined than the cautious Acosta to rapidly reverse Obama-era policies that favored certain workers and unions.

“I think we will see a quicker pace of change, and I am more confident that the Wage and Hour Division will complete its work on the overtime exemption, regular rate, and joint employment regulations,” said Tammy McCutchen, a former GOP Wage and Hour chief and current attorney for businesses. She’s referring to a trio of recently issued proposed rules that are a high priority for businesses. The rules would clarify who’s eligible for overtime pay, what types of compensation qualify for overtime time-and-a-half wages, and would narrow corporations’ shared liability with affiliated businesses for pay violations.

Acosta, a veteran government lawyer who faced criticism for stalling business-favored policies by diving into the weeds on the department’s legal matters, now passes the baton to Pizzella to lead a sprawling agency with a $12 billion budget. The Labor Department is responsible for overseeing job training programs, auditing labor union finances, enforcing worker pay and safety laws, and combating forced labor. Pizzella was a senior DOL official for nearly all eight years of the George W. Bush presidency.

Pizzella arrives at a critical juncture for the Labor Department, which is trying to finalize a number of regulatory initiatives before the end of President Trump’s first term. The Trump administration and business community lobbyists want those agenda items finished by early next year, so that they’re harder to undo if a Democrat unseats Trump in 2020.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/harder-charging-patrick-pizzella-takes-labor-reins-from-acosta