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yallerdawg

yallerdawg's Journal
yallerdawg's Journal
August 24, 2018

Safest level of alcohol consumption is none, worldwide study shows

Just in case you still had a nagging feeling you were missing something.

Source: WaPo, by Joel Achenbach


To minimize health risks, the optimal amount of alcohol someone should consume is none. That’s the simple, surprising conclusion of a massive study, co-authored by 512 researchers from 243 institutions, published Thursday in the prestigious journal the Lancet.

*****

“What has been underappreciated, what’s surprising, is that no amount of drinking is good for you,” said Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor of global health at the University of Washington and the senior author of the report.

“People should no longer think that a drink or two a day is good for you. What’s best for you is to not drink at all,” she said.

The report found that 2.8 million people across the globe died in 2016 of alcohol-related causes, which is about the same proportionally as the 2.0 million who died in 1990. For people ages 15 to 49, alcohol is the leading risk factor for experiencing a negative health outcome.

*****

Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/safest-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-none-worldwide-study-shows/2018/08/23/823a6bec-a62d-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html


August 23, 2018

Bill Maher Contributes $1 Million to Democrats' Senate Majority PAC (EXCLUSIVE)

Source: Variety, by Ted Johnson


Bill Maher has contributed $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC, the fundraising committee aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and dedicated to electing Democrats to the Senate.

*****

Maher’s contribution mirrors a $1 million donation he made in 2012 to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing President Barack Obama’s reelection. Back then, Maher also warned of the number of well-heeled billionaires pouring money into Mitt Romney’s campaign.

*****

Other entertainment figures who have given to the PAC include Seth MacFarlane, who made a $2 million donation in April; Haim Saban, who contributed $1 million in March; Netflix’s Reed Hastings, who gave $500,000 in May; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who donated $250,000 in June.

*****

“Here’s our side: Bill Gates, worth $91 billion. Jeff Bezos, worth $141 billion. [Mark] Zuckerberg, who should feel guilty for helping Russia slide Trump into the White House, he’s worth $73 billion. Their contributions in 2016 were under a million.”

He even called them “cheap f—s.”

“The game is being played on the million-dollar level. It won’t do when you are worth $141 billion to write a check for $250,000,” he said.


Read it all at: https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/bill-maher-donation-senate-majority-pac-chuck-schumer-1202915297/


August 18, 2018

They're Falsely Accused of Shoplifting, but Retailers Demand Penalties

Walmart and other companies are using aggressive legal tactics to get the money back, demanding payments even when people haven’t been convicted of wrongdoing.


Source: New York Times, by Michael Corkery


Could you be next?



“I didn’t feel like I had a prayer,” said Crystal Thompson of Eight Mile, Ala., whom Walmart accused — mistakenly, an employee later acknowledged — of shoplifting about $70 in groceries. A lawyer for Walmart threatened a lawsuit if she didn’t pay $200.



Ms. Thompson, 43, was baffled and scared. An agoraphobic, she had not shopped at a Walmart in more than a year. She was taken to a Mobile jail, searched, held in a small room and required to remove her false teeth, something she didn’t even do in front of her husband.

Four days after she returned home, the letters from Walmart’s lawyer started to arrive. The lawyer demanded that Ms. Thompson pay the company $200 or face a possible lawsuit. She received three letters over two months in early 2016.

Walmart and other companies have created well-oiled operations, hiring law firms to send tens of thousands of letters a year. Walmart set a collection goal of about $6 million in 2016 for one of its go-to firms, Palmer Reifler & Associates, according to a court paper filed as part of a lawsuit Ms. Thompson brought against the retailer. The firm also pointed out to Walmart that minors tended to pay off more frequently, the filing said.

“It is my word against this company,” said Ms. Thompson, whose criminal case was dismissed after no one from Walmart appeared at a hearing to testify against her. “I’m nobody special. I didn’t feel like I had a prayer.”

Read it all at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/business/falsely-accused-of-shoplifting-but-retailers-demand-they-pay.html
August 17, 2018

Omarosa Also Has Video, Emails and Texts to Support Book's Claims: AP

AP's Darlene Superville, Bloomberg


It's not just audiotapes.

Omarosa Manigault Newman has a stash of video, emails, text messages and other documentation supporting the claims in her tell-all book about her time in the Trump White House, a person with direct knowledge of the records told The Associated Press Friday.

*****

"I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated. I'm not going to be bullied by Donald Trump," the former Trump aide told The Associated Press this week as she seemed to dismiss a threat from Trump's campaign. She spoke to the AP hours after Trump's campaign announced it was filing an arbitration action against her alleging she'd violated a signed agreement with the campaign that prohibits her from disclosing confidential information.

*****

She has already released several secret audio recordings, including of the meeting in which she was fired by Kelly.

In another recording, Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is heard offering Manigault Newman $15,000 a month - after she was fired from the White House - for a campaign job requiring her to be "positive." Lara Trump is a senior adviser on Trump's re-election campaign.

****

Read it all at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-17/ap-source-manigault-newman-has-more-than-audio-recordings



August 16, 2018

Since returning to "work" in Washington Monday after the vacation at his golf resort:

Tuesday:




Wednesday:




Thursday:




Lots and lots of time for TV, Twitter and obstruction of justice!

"Idle hands are the devil's playground."
August 15, 2018

Omarosa's "Unhinged" selling like hot cakes!

August 15, afternoonish. Day 2!


Amazon Best Sellers




Barnes & Noble Top 100

August 14, 2018

Ever get the feeling you're just spinning your wheels?

Or a Big Wheel as the case may be?

After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today.




http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/
August 5, 2018

Lynching memorial draws 100k visitors in first 3 months

Source: AL.com, by-line AP

The nation's first memorial to victims of lynching has drawn more than 100,000 visitors in its first three months -- far exceeding some earlier estimates.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery shares stories about some of the 4,400 black people slain in lynchings and other racial killings between 1877 and 1950. The names of those killed, if they are known, are engraved on 800 steel columns, with copies to be adopted by each U.S. county where lynchings happened.

The Montgomery Advertiser reports that some visitors have been part of large groups. About 100 community leaders visited last month from Charlottesville, Virginia, where whites and blacks clashed in the streets and a woman was killed by a motorist during the "Unite the Right" rally last summer.

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2018/08/lynching_memorial_draws_100k_v.html



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