EarthFirst
EarthFirst's JournalShutdown expected to stretch into 2019 as sides are still "very far apart"
Source: CBS
Washington — Members of the House of Representatives were notified that no votes are expected to take place this week, a congressional aide told CBS News, which virtually guarantees that the partial government shutdown will drag on into the new year. Both the Senate and House reconvened Thursday after the Christmas break, but few lawmakers showed up on Capitol Hill.
Justin Goodman, a spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Democrats and the White House are still "very far apart" in discussions to broker a deal and reopen the government. "As our office stated immediately following the Saturday meeting, the two sides were 'still very far apart' — and still are today because of the President's insistence on keeping the government closed over his expensive and impractical wall," Goodman wrote in a statement Thursday afternoon.
Rep. James McGovern, D-Massachusetts, said Republican leadership blocked efforts to reopen the government by refusing to allow debate on a spending bill.
"It is outrageous that Republicans once again blocked our attempt to debate a bill to end the Trump Shutdown and reopen the government," McGovern wrote in a statement Thursday. "Federal workers should not be held hostage by the president's demand for a useless and offensive border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shutdown-expected-to-stretch-into-2019-as-congress-adjourns-until-next-week/
Both Congress chambers adjourned within minutes without debate to end the shutdown.
New airplane seat that claims to make flights cheaper would basically require passengers to stand
Italian airline seat manufacturer Aviointeriors has come up with a design for an airplane seat that it says would make flights a lot cheaper.
But the seat comes with a catch: Passengers would essentially have to stand up throughout the flight.
According to Aviointeriors, the Skyrider 2.0's upright passenger position would allow airlines to install the seats at a reduced pitch — a word that refers to the distance between a row of seats and the one in front of it. While a reduced pitch would mean less legroom for passengers, the manufacturer's representative told us that the seat design would still "maintain an adequate comfort" for passengers.
According to the manufacturer, the compact design of the seat would enable airlines to accommodate 20% more passengers on planes. The Skyrider 2.0 is also lightweight, weighing 50% less than standard economy class seats.
https://www.thisisinsider.com/skyrider-standing-airplane-seats-claims-makes-flights-cheaper-2018-4?utm_content=buffer85081&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-insider-main&fbclid=IwAR1tnnLUxtQbUhmJL7dRgVtFSKaFFd4qYtPVf_DPbuvXIlBGZYhHK7SKFYA
Trump launches unprecedented reelection machine
Source: Politico
President Donald Trump is planning to roll out an unprecedented structure for his 2020 reelection, a streamlined organization that incorporates the Republican National Committee and the president’s campaign into a single entity.
Under the plan, which has been in the works for several weeks, the Trump reelection campaign and the RNC will merge their field and fundraising programs into a joint outfit dubbed Trump Victory. The two teams will also share office space rather than operate out of separate buildings, as has been custom.
“We are going to streamline this presidential campaign like no presidential campaign has been streamlined before,” said Chris Carr, a veteran party strategist who has been tapped to serve as political director on the Trump reelection effort.
Speaking to the departure from presidential campaign tradition, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called it “the biggest, most efficient and unified campaign operation in American history.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/18/trump-machine-swallows-rnc-1067875
Primary? What primary?
Cuomo Moves to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in New York Within Months
Source: NYT
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he would push to legalize recreational marijuana next year, a move that could generate more than $1.7 billion in sales annually and put New York in line with several neighboring states.
The highly anticipated proposal came in a speech in Manhattan on Monday, in which the governor outlined his agenda for the first 100 days of his third term. Mr. Cuomo framed the speech as a reflection on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the former president who was once a New York governor himself — would do today, mixing sweeping rhetoric about American ideals with ominous warnings about the failings of the Trump administration.
The speech, which seemed delivered with a national audience in mind, could prolong slow-burning speculation about Mr. Cuomo’s presidential ambitions. It also showed, in striking detail, the governor’s leftward evolution in his eight years in office, from a business-friendly centrist who considered marijuana a “gateway drug,” to a self-described progressive calling for recreational marijuana, taxes on the rich and a ban on corporate political donations.
“The fact is we have had two criminal justice systems: one for the wealthy and the well off, and one for everyone else,” Mr. Cuomo said before introducing the cannabis proposal, describing the injustice that he said had “for too long targeted the African-American and minority communities.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/nyregion/marijuana-legalization-cuomo.html
'Simple Private Transaction'
I always set up LLC’s when making “simple private transactions” among acquaintances!
Doesn’t everyone?!
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1072095127894667265
It's a Disgrace to Celebrate George H.W. Bush on World AIDS Day
Just after midnight on December 1, World AIDS Day, I learned that President George Herbert Walker Bush had died. And I was dismayed not just that the hagiography afforded dead presidents would overshadow Bush’s own appalling legacy on AIDS, but that his death would eclipse the tens of millions of lives we should be remembering today.
When I teach AIDS history, I always show a clip of ACT UP’s October 11, 1992, “ashes action” at the White House, in which brave activists took the cremated bodies of loved ones who had died of AIDS and hurled them onto Bush’s lawn. (If you’ve never seen it, I dare you to watch without crying).
The ashes action is brilliant not just for how raw it was but also for how it held a powerful man to account without civility. (ACT UP had also gone to Bush’s vacation home in Maine, and they hounded him up until the night he lost reelection, when they marched the dead body of Mark Fisher to his campaign headquarters.) For in life—and, sadly, in the first obits, in death—Bush dangerously hid the vast nature of American violence beneath the seductive cloak of civility, that opiate of mass media that gets journalists and readers to let violence go unremarked.
https://www.thenation.com/article/george-hw-bush-world-aids-day-obit/
But at a presidential debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot the day after the ashes action, journalist John Mashek asked Bush:
Mr. President, yesterday tens of thousands of people paraded past the White House to demonstrate about their concern about the disease, AIDS. A celebrated member of your commission, Magic Johnson, quit, saying there was too much inaction. Where is this widespread feeling coming from that your administration is not doing enough about AIDS?
Looking annoyed, Bush listed what his administration was doing before saying, seemingly irritated, “I can’t tell you where it’s coming from. I am very much concerned about AIDS. And I believe we have the best researchers in the world at NIH working on the problem.” But then he added:
It’s one of the few diseases where behavior matters. And I once called on somebody, “Well, change your behavior! If the behavior you’re using is prone to cause AIDs, change the behavior!” Next thing I know, one of these ACT UP groups is saying, “Bush ought to change his behavior!” You can’t talk about it rationally!
US Election Commission Says Crypto Mining For Political Campaigns Is 'Permissible'
The U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) has released a new draft opinion that clears the way for people to mine cryptocurrencies as a way to support their preferred candidates.
In a memorandum dated Nov. 13, attorneys with the FEC responded to a proposal submitted in September by OsiaNetwork LLC, which at the time asked if individuals would be able to provide their computers’ processing power to mine cryptocurrencies.
Funds raised through this method would be used to support political committees, though OsiaNetwork sought to designate such activities as a form of volunteering – something the FEC isn’t signing off on at this time.
According to the letter, the FEC has concluded that while the proposal “is permissible” under both the campaign act and its own regulations, “it does not fall within the volunteer internet activities exception, and would result in contributions from both the individuals and the OsiaNetwork to the participating political committees.”
https://www.coindesk.com/us-election-commission-says-crypto-mining-for-political-campaigns-is-permissible
http://saos.fec.gov/aodocs/201813.pdf
Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl cooks BBQ for LA firefighters battling Californiawildfires
The Foo Fighters frontman brought his Backbeat BBQ to a group of fire personnel who are currently combatting the Woolsey Fire in LA
https://www.nme.com/news/music/dave-grohl-firefighters-california-wildfire-camp-fire-woolsey-fire-2401895
When Rochester, N.Y. votes:
It’s a tradition dating back to the mid 2000’s where women visit to leave their debt of gratitude.
Curators of Mt. Hope Cemetery have since set up a board where visitors may leave their ‘thank you’ as to not damage the monument.
Photo credit: ABC News
Draconid Meteor Shower 2018 Peaks Monday. Here's What to Expect.
If you're a meteor shower fan, mark Monday evening (Oct. 8) on your calendar, particularly if you live in the mid-Atlantic or northeast United States, as well as the Maritime provinces of eastern Canada. On that night, the Earth will pass through the irregular and surprised-filled Draconid meteor stream.
The annual Draconid meteor shower occurs every year around Oct. 8 when the Earth passes through a stream of dust from the periodic comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, which from here on we’ll refer to as Comet G-Z. so named because the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation of Draco, the Dragon.
https://www.space.com/42052-draconid-meteor-shower-2018-peaks-oct8.html
In the event that you need to check out for a moment; there’s this!
Enjoy the view!
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Rochester, New York
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