Panich52
Panich52's JournalTrans-Pacific Partnership was written by corporations
From Campaign for America's Future
There was a reason corporations spent so much money on the last election and it wasn’t ideology. It wasn’t a gift. It was an investment.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a massive trade deal. It is being negotiated in secret, with citizens locked out. Big corporations and banks literally sit at the negotiating table. They spent millions on election contributions and lobbyists and they are getting their money's worth.
The pharmaceutical industry inserted patent rules into the TPP that will allow them to keep cheaper generics off the market for years by making minor changes to their drugs. This will hike industry profits, even as it prices the vulnerable out of drugs they need.
That's no exaggeration. Gleevec, a breakthrough drug against leukemia, cost $2,500 a month in the U.S. The patent holder was able to extend its patent by claiming a new use and raised the price to almost $8,000. That's $96,000 a year!
We have to stop this.
Right now, the president has lined up with Republican leaders in Congress and the corporate lobby to push for “fast track” authority that will grease the skids for the TPP. But they don’t have the votes...yet.
Four rockets launch from UAF research range
From the Alaska Dispatch:
A fifth research rocket, meant to be shot into the heart of an active aurora above Kaktovik, has yet to launch.
Two of the rockets launched Sunday night gathered data that researchers hope will eventually answer questions about turbulence in the upper atmosphere. The other two emitted a white vapor designed to make turbulence visible in the margin of atmosphere and space about 60 miles from the ground.
More:
http://www.adn.com/article/20150126/four-rockets-launch-uaf-research-range
Bowhead whale songs are complex and copied, new study shows
Scientists have new information about the level of detail in the songs that bowhead whales sing to one another when they are migrating into the Beaufort Sea in the spring.
http://www.adn.com/article/20150126/bowhead-whale-songs-are-complex-and-copied-new-study-shows
Ultrasounds are back - nationally
Now Republicans have gone too far. Last Thursday, House Republicans
introduced legislation to require forced vaginal ultrasounds before
receiving an abortion--or what many consider to be state-sponsored rape.
Tell Congress: Don't vote on the forced ultrasound bill, or women and men will remember it next November.
What's more, House Republicans are already scrambling to repair the damage from last week, when they had to cancel a vote on an extreme 20-week abortion ban over concerns the rape exception would offend women voters. So they are nervously watching to see how pro-women voters react to this kind of proposal. We need to remind them that we will not stand for this kind of disgusting, intrusive attack on women's health.
Sign the petition to tell Congress: Don't vote on the forced ultrasound bill.
http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/congress_ultrasound/?t=2&akid=1617.305802.LRVjEs
Background:
1. House Republicans Propose Bill Mandating Ultrasounds Before Abortions, The Huffington Post, January 23, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/kxmnh5f
2. H.R. 492, 114th Congress, Congress.gov, accessed January 27, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/o2ff4hp
3. Ken Cuccinelli loses in Virginia: Women say no thanks, we're cool, Slate, November 5, 2013
http://tinyurl.com/kj4fmrr
4. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett under fire for defending bill that requires ultrasound before an abortion, PennLive, March 15, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/oxr2med
5. Team Rape lost big last night, Jezebel.com, November 7, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/oz7rscz
Boehner: 'We have a right' to invite Netanyahu to address House
More from DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/27/1360511/-Boehner-We-have-a-right-to-invite-Netanyahu-to-address-House?detail=email
Are shoulders pornographic?
DailyKos
Her happiness soon turned to shame and embarrassment. Shortly after arriving at the school dance, she was approached by school officials who said her dress was too risqué. Why? Her shoulders were showing
More:
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/27/1360460/-Are-shoulders-pornographic?detail=email
Interview w/ 'offender' & Mom:
http://tinyurl.com/p5d38yf
Paleontologists find big-toothed new human found in Taiwan
The plot thickens with the discovery of a new human from Taiwan that might have coexisted and interbred with our own species.
READ MORE:
http://tinyurl.com/lp7zfgw
Ben Carson Says Congress Should Remove Pro-Equality Judges f/ Unconstitutional rulngs
From interview:
CARSON: I think you’re right about that. The Constitution actually [inaudible] this message. It says that those kinds of matters are in the jurisdiction of the state. That is not a federal issue. And, what the president and what the Supreme Court needs to reiterate is the states have a mechanism whereby they can determine the will of the people. It’s called ballot referendum. It has been done multiple times already. 32 states have indicated that marriage is between a man and a woman, and a few judges have come and overturn that. That, as far as I’m concerned, is unconstitutional. And Congress actually has oversight of what they call the inferior courts, everything below the Supreme Court. That’s where those overturns have come. When judges do not carry out their duties in an appropriate way, our Congress actually has the right to reprimand or remove them. Most people don’t know that because they don’t know the Constitution.
Setting aside Carson’s premise that the Constitution’s promise of equality should be put up to a vote, he is misguided about what the Constitution provides with respect to judges. Despite his assertion, Congress cannot simply remove a judge for ruling in a way the majority disagrees with. Judges may only be removed for impeachable offenses, which the Constitution defines as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Under other circumstances, the Constitution declares that “judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour.
More from ThinkProgress:
http://thkpr.gs/3615989
Pipeline Explodes In West Virginia, Sends Fireball Shooting Hundreds Of Feet In The Air
From Climate Progressive:
No one was hurt in the explosion, but residents told the local WTRF 7 news station that they could see a massive fireball shooting hundreds of feet into the air. An emergency dispatcher reportedly told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the flames had melted the siding off one home and damaged at least one power line. The gas pipeline is owned by Houston, Texas-based The Enterprise Products, L.P., which said Monday evening that it is investigating the cause of the explosion.
The West Virginia explosion is the fourth in a string of news-making pipeline incidents this month. Earlier this month, a gas pipeline in Mississippi operated by GulfSouth Pipeline exploded, rattling residents’ windows and causing a smoke plume large enough to register on National Weather Service radar screens. On Jan. 17, a pipeline owned by Bridger Pipeline LLC in Montana spilled up to 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, a spill that left thousands of Montanans without drinkable tap water. Just a few days later, on Jan. 22, it was discovered that 3 million gallons of saltwater drilling waste had spilled from a North Dakota pipeline earlier in the month. That spill was widely deemed the state’s largest contaminant release into the environment since the North Dakota oil boom began.
Here’s some footage of Monday’s explosion’s resulting fire, via WTRF 7: http://www.wtrf.com/story/27940731/authorities-responding-to-gas-line-explosion
More:
http://thkpr.gs/3615805
America's Workplaces Are Hostile to Families
The Nation, January 7, 2015
Working-class women are less likely to have the kinds of jobs that accommodate to pregnancies and to child care responsibilities. Yet given the declining wages of working-class men, the need for working-class women to work is greater than ever…. But the lack of workplace flexibility that working-class women often face makes it very difficult to combine wage-earning with pregnancy or childcare.
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Member since: Thu Jan 15, 2015, 01:37 AM
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