June 20, 2019

'These People Aren't Coming From Norway': Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/minnesota-refugees-trump.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Politics

‘These People Aren’t Coming From Norway’: Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash
As more Somali refugees arrive in St. Cloud, white anti-immigration activists have pressed an increasingly explicit anti-Muslim agenda.


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During a meeting of about 10 C-Cubed members in April at the Faith Lutheran Church in St. Cloud, Mr. Palmer steered a free-flowing discussion that began by comparing abortion access to the Holocaust and moved on to the city’s so-called refugee problem, and what the group could do to address it. Almost all of those present voiced some support for Mr. Trump. Others said that markers of progress were more interpersonal, and they would only be comfortable in their community if the Somali-born refugees converted to Christianity.

One woman, who declined to give her name after the group discussion, bemoaned the city’s so-called no-go zones, or the areas where white residents said they felt so uncomfortable with the Somali-American presence that they would not return — a shopping mall, a community housing center and Beaver Island Trail, a hiking area that borders the Mississippi River.

“They were just —” she said, searching for the words to describe the offending behavior of the Somali-Americans. “They were just walking around.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/minnesota-refugees-trump.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Politics

June 20, 2019

Catherynne Valente schools her racist neighbors about the asylum seekers in their midst

[Author Catherynne Valente (previously) posted this outstanding rant to her Facebook page; I asked her permission to repost it here so it would have somewhere to live outside of the zuckerverse and she graciously gave her permission -Cory]

I live in Portland, Maine. We have recently had an influx of African asylum seekers and the city has been scrambling to find shelter and support for them.

Cue NextDoor, that wretched hive of scum and villainy. Every day someone would post some new hateful jingoistic nonsense about how horrible these people are and that they need to get out of 'Merica and leave it to the 'Mericans.

I try not to get involved on NextDoor because I live in a small community and I have to see these people at the ferry dock. But I got mad. And I got involved. And it got long.

So I decided to share it with you. Please feel free to share it with others who might need to hear it.

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And if you want to talk to me about how some of them are Muslim, and might bring their naughty repressive Muslim African culture into wonderful, flawless liberal America, let me tell you about Alabama. And Georgia. And Ohio. And North Carolina. And the Supreme Court. The people who are right now actively seeking to curtail my rights to my own body, to prevent me from voting for my own equal representation, to empower the companies that may employ me over myself, are as American as the flag, fireworks, and goddamned apple pie. These are individual people with no institutional power, and you have no idea what they think or believe about anything because you don't know them. The people with institutional power are hurting us all. Right now. And I don't see any angry threads on Next Door about it.

https://boingboing.net/2019/06/18/nextdoor-is-terrible.html

June 20, 2019

Florida city to pay $600K ransom to hacker who seized computer systems weeks ago

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/riviera-beach-to-pay-hacker/index.html


(CNN)A Florida city is paying $600,000 in Bitcoins to a hacker who took over local government computers after an employee clicked on a malicious email link three weeks ago.

Riviera Beach officials voted this week to pay 65 Bitcoins to the hacker who seized the city's computer systems, forcing the local police and fire departments to write down the hundreds of daily 911 calls on paper, CNN affiliate WPEC reported.
The 65 Bitcoins, which equals $600,000, will come from the city's insurance, officials said.
Once the payment is made, they hope to get access to data encrypted by the hacker. Even with the plans to pay the ransom, the city said, an investigation is under way.

June 20, 2019

breaking news..oil prices jump after Iran shoots down us drone

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/20/oil-market-us-stockpiles-upcoming-opec-meeting-in-focus.html

Oil prices jump 3% after official says US drone was shot down

June 20, 2019

Married to debt: Couples are taking out loans to pay for their weddings

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/06/19/married-debt-couples-are-taking-out-loans-pay-their-weddings/?hpid=hp_ed-picks_ep-lede%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Married to debt: Couples are taking out loans to pay for their weddings

Americans, who are already under record-levels of debt, are taking out wedding-specific loans.

Skyler Ramirez has a loan for his house, his car — and now his fiancee’s engagement ring.

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It took about 15 minutes to get approval for the five-figure loan. At an interest rate of about 8 percent, it will take more than three years — and $300 a month — to pay it off. And it might not be the last loan he takes out as he prepares to get married.

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Demand for wedding loans has quadrupled in the past year, he said, making it the company’s fastest-growing line of business. Couples borrow, on average, $16,000 and typically pay it off within three years. Interest rates range from about 7 percent to 18 percent, making it a cheaper option than many credit cards. (The company’s tagline: Inspired by Pinterest? Make it happen with low interest.)

The popularity of these loans, experts say, comes amid a shift in how families are paying for weddings. There is less expectation, they said, that the bride’s parents will pick up the tab. Instead, both sets of parents, as well as grandparents, are increasingly contributing. The bride and groom are chipping in, too.


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When Mary Naklicki got married in 1977, her parents paid $10 per person for her reception. Naklicki may have to pay 11 times that for her daughter’s November wedding.

“There’s so much more to pay for now,” said Naklicki, 62, who lives in Millsboro, Del. “These kids have photo booths and videographers. There was none of that when I got married. I paid for my gown, flowers and the photographer and that was it.”

Naklicki and her husband recently took out a five-year, $10,000 loan from the online lender Upstart to pay for their daughter’s wedding at a local country club. They had just paid for a family trip to Disney World over Thanksgiving when they got word that their younger daughter’s boyfriend planned to propose.

June 19, 2019

Airline Flying Saddle: You're neither sitting nor standing -- you're sort of leaning.

PARIS — Airlines are squeezing as many passengers as they can onto their jets, but one seat manufacturer believes its product can help carriers push capacity to the absolute limit. And it may help push down fares.

Say goodbye to whatever personal space you had left.

At this week's Paris Air Show, lots of curious convention-goers eagerly wanted to try out Avio Interior's "SkyRider" saddle-like airplane seat, but that's probably not the reception it would get if people found it installed on their next flight. See it in the slideshow at the top of this post.

SkyRider passengers would lean on a bicycle-seat type cushion that sits higher than your traditional airline seat. Legs sort of hang off the saddle, as they would if you were riding a horse. The seat back sits straight up, forcing good posture. A knee cut-out provides another precious few inches of legroom.


You're neither sitting nor standing — you're sort of leaning.

The SkyRider seat has been around for nearly a decade and has undergone several improvements. The next generation of the product will come with some built-in recline — but not much. The seat maker is also pondering an under seat "shelf" where kids and shorter passengers can rest their feet so they're not dangling for the duration of the flight.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/The-flying-saddle-would-you-give-it-a-try-14015191.php#photo-17706677

June 19, 2019

Trump Jr. Sells Beverly Hills Home to company registered in British Virgin Island at big premium

Trump Jr. Sells Beverly Hills Home at a Rich Premium

TrumpCo has sold a home in Beverly Hills:

A deed registered with L.A. County on May 31 shows that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., signed the property over to Hillcrest Asia Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The price tag: $13.5…. Trump bought the property, at 809 North Canon Drive, for $7 million in 2007, according to L.A. County land records. The county assessed the property last year at $8.3 million.

Hmmm. Luxury homes have been very hot in Los Angeles over the past few years, but the Beverly Hills market softened considerably last year and prices dropped. A home like this one should probably sell in the neighborhood of $10-11 million. So why did this Indonesian guy pay $13.5 million? We can guess, but I suspect we will never know.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/06/trump-jr-sells-beverly-hills-home-at-a-rich-premium/

June 19, 2019

People Are Taking Emotional Support Animals Everywhere. States Are Cracking Down.

Many Americans say living with an emotional support animal has done wonders for their mental health. Vayne Myers was threatened with eviction over Primadonna, the duck he keeps in his Florida home to help him with anxiety.CreditCreditEve Edelheit for The New York Times

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The vast majority of emotional support animals are dogs, but some Americans turn to a wide variety of other species. Wally the alligator was approved by his owner’s doctor in York, Pa., as an alternative to taking medication for depression.CreditTy Lohr/York Daily Record, via Associated Press
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The number of people claiming they have a right to live with animals for their mental health — as well as to take them onto planes and into restaurants and stores — has been growing rapidly.

In 2011, the National Service Animal Registry, a for-profit company that sells official-looking vests and certificates for owners, had 2,400 service and emotional support animals in its registry. Now the number is nearly 200,000.

But the spread of such animals — the vast majority of them dogs — has also been met by concerns from landlords, airlines and other businesses that many Americans may be abusing the system. Critics say that pet owners are obtaining phony certifications or letters from online therapists to avoid paying fees or to get permission to bring creatures where they wouldn’t normally be allowed.


“We’ve seen everything from reptiles to insects,” said Amanda Gill, government affairs director for the Florida Apartment Association, which represents landlords.

“Obviously, you want to accommodate people with legitimate requests, but that’s harder to do when you have so many bogus requests,” Ms. Gill said. “Everyone is recognizing that this is a growing problem right now.”

More than two dozen state legislatures have enacted new laws to crack down on fraud.

A law passed in Utah this year makes it a misdemeanor to lie about a pet being an emotional support animal, or E.S.A., expanding a law already on the books that made it a crime to misrepresent a pet as a Seeing Eye dog.

Oklahoma just passed a law clarifying that restaurants and stores have a right to keep support animals out. Virginia’s law cracks down on websites that promise to provide E.S.A. verification letters for a fee, without having any therapeutic relationship with the animal’s owner.

“A true service animal is a highly trained dog,” said Tammy Townley, a state representative in Oklahoma who supports her state’s new law. “When someone comes in with an emotional support animal, they are saying, ‘It’s my service animal.’ No — it’s something you bought a vest for.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/us/emotional-support-animal.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

June 19, 2019

kicked out of rally for his shirt

https://twitter.com/SonnySaneus/status/1141129365159366656

https://twitter.com/SonnySaneus/status/1141139012784218113

June 19, 2019

"Trump's brutishness is inexhaustible."

Trump’s Sinister Assault on Truth
The president appears committed to destroying the very idea of facts.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/donald-trumps-sinister-assault-truth/591925/

The least problematic part is the sheer banality of Donald Trump’s words. During his presidency, Trump has uttered no beautiful and memorable phrases. His inaugural address, which is a speech normally meant to inspire the citizenry, is remembered, if at all, for the phrase American carnage and Trump’s description of a dystopian nation, broken and shattered. More worrisome is that many of Trump’s utterances are an incoherent word salad. If you read the transcript of many of his interviews and extemporaneous speeches, you often find that Trump is not only unable to lay out a coherent argument; at times he’s unable to string together sentences that parse.

But that’s hardly the worst of Trump’s misuses of words. When it comes to dealing with those who oppose him, he consistently uses words to demean, belittle, bully, or dehumanize. He has mocked former prisoners of war, the disabled, and the appearance of women. He has perpetuated conspiracy theories. He has attacked Gold Star parents and widows. And he has engaged in racially tinged attacks. The number of his targets is inexhaustible because Trump’s brutishness is inexhaustible.

Many other presidents have been viewed as divisive figures, but none have taken as much delight as Trump in provoking acrimony, malice, and bitterness for their own sake; in turning Americans against one another in order to turn them against one another. He seems to find psychic satisfaction in doing so.

The banality and weaponization of Trump’s words are bad enough, but the greatest cause for concern is his nonstop, dawn-to-midnight assault on facts, truth, reality. That places Trump in a sinister category all his own.

Many politicians are guilty of not telling the full truth of events. A significant number shade the truth from time to time. A few fall into the category of consistent, outright liars. But only very few—and only the most dangerous—are committed to destroying the very idea of truth itself. That is what we have in Donald Trump, along with many of his aides and courtiers. We saw it at the dawn of the Trump presidency, when he insisted—and sent out his press secretary to insist—that the crowd size at his inauguration was larger than that of Barack Obama’s, despite photographic evidence to the contrary. And that behavior has continued virtually every day since.

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Trump is not simply a serial liar; he is attempting to murder the very idea of truth, which is even worse. “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda,” according to the Russian dissident and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. “It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

This is an urgent matter, and it makes this a dangerous moment because without truth and a common factual basis for our national life, a free society cannot operate. And right now, for a significant number of Americans—including many people on the right who long defended the concept of objective truth and repeatedly rang the alarm bell about the rise of relativism—truth is viewed as relative rather than objective, malleable rather than solid; as instrumental, as a means to an end, as a weapon in our intense political war. A depressingly large number of Trump supporters—again, many of whom have for years agreed with the conservative political philosopher Allan Bloom that relativism was impoverishing our souls—now seem to relish this “post-truth” political moment.