Light News Dump

Climate change melts 12.5bn tons of ice in Greenland 50 years earlier than predicted
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/28/climate-change-melts-billions-tons-ice-greenland-fifty-years/amp/

Reminder: Trump Set to Eliminate Regulations on Methane Emissions – A Major Contributor to Climate Change | It Would Mean Oil and Gas Companies Won’t be Required to Install Technology to Inspect and Fix Methane Leaks from Pipelines, Wells and Storage Facilities.
https://www.channel4.com/news/trump-set-to-roll-back-regulations-on-methane-emissions-a-major-contributor-to-climate-change

Democrats cling to the myth that Trump is an affront to GOP values. In fact, he embodies them
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-29/democrats-republicans-trump-walsh-never-trumpers

Andrew Yang's speaking fees, including from JPMorgan, raise campaign finance questions |  Months after announcing his bid for the presidency as a Democrat, entrepreneur and author Andrew Yang was paid for a number of speaking engagements, bringing in $94,000 between April 2018 and February 2019, his financial disclosure report shows. Among the well-heeled clients paying for his appearances was JPMorgan Chase & Co., which paid $10,000 for five different events. Yang described the speaking engagements to ABC News as speeches about the subject matter of his book, "The War on Normal People," being presented to "leaders of various financial institutions." But a PowerPoint presentation given to ABC News by the Yang campaign titled, "The Impact of Technology on the U.S. Workforce," shows his 2020 campaign logo on the opening slide of the PowerPoint and an abbreviated campaign symbol on most of the other 30 slides. The Yang campaign provided ABC News a copy of the presentation when inquiring about the nature of the candidate’s talks, and said it was used during “several presentations on the findings of his book.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/andrew-yangs-speaking-fees-including-jpmorgan-raise-campaign/story?id=65216883

The city of Milwaukee has issued a stern warning to residents: Stop vaping immediately. The advisory came after 16 people were hospitalized with chemical pneumonia, a severe illness that causes lung inflammation, the Milwaukee health department said.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/health/milwaukee-stop-vaping-trnd/index.html

Dr. Paul Harmatz, who led the clinical trial for the treatment that keeps Guatemala-born Isabel Bueso alive, tells @maddow that Isabel will die if the Trump admin deports her. The treatment wouldn't exist without Isabel's help.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-deportation-order-like-a-death-sentence-for-sick-immigrants-67823685586

This woman gave birth in a Colorado jail cell. Now she's suing after she says she repeatedly requested help from staff.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/08/30/woman-birth-jail-cell-orig.cnn?sr=twCNN083019301133AMVODtop

How Veterans Affairs failed to stop a pathologist who misdiagnosed 3,000 cases | On the Fayetteville campus, rated one of VA’s best, Levy’s supervisors failed to heed early warnings that he was endangering patients and then were slow to act, according to internal VA documents, court filings and interviews with 20 congressional officials, veterans and current and former VA employees. Federal prosecutors charged Levy, 53, last week with three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three veterans. VA officials now acknowledge that he botched diagnoses of at least 15 patients who later died and 15 others whose health was seriously harmed. The number of those affected, however, is much greater, and the full repercussions of Levy’s actions may not be known for years. VA officials say Levy made 3,000 errors or misdiagnoses dating to 2005.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-veterans-affairs-failed-to-stop-a-pathologist-who-misdiagnosed-3000-cases/2019/08/30/d66fc098-c5b9-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-va-physician-charged-with-the-deaths-of-three-veterans/2019/08/20/0119ea16-c345-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html

A senior Justice Department official has resigned after the department's inspector general found that the employee used government computers to view porn.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/459393-doj-official-resigns-after-porn-discovered-on-government-computer

Scientists think they've observed a black hole swallowing a neutron star for the first time. It made ripples in space and time, as Einstein predicted.
https://www.businessinsider.com/waves-from-black-hole-swallowing-neutron-star-2019-8

ISIS fighter who beheaded 100 people while claiming benefits in UK captured
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ex-birmingham-resident-who-beheaded-19035478

Australia lowers Great Barrier Reef outlook to 'very poor'
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/australia-lowers-great-barrier-reef-outlook-poor-65286856

German Neo-Nazis Are Doxxing Journalists on 'Enemy' Lists: 'We Will Get You All' - Journalists who appear on the lists say police aren't taking the threats against them seriously enough
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7x5bga/german-neo-nazis-are-doxxing-journalists-on-enemy-lists-we-will-get-you-all

Iranian activist, 20, jailed for 15 years for 'spreading prostitution by taking off her hijab'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7402503/Iranian-activist-20-jailed-15-years-spreading-prostitution-taking-hijab.html

Trump attacks Ford Motor for not backing fuel economy rollback
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-trump/trump-attacks-ford-motor-for-not-backing-fuel-economy-rollback-idUSKCN1VB1QQ

Trump complains that ‘badly run’ companies blame tariffs for economic problems
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-08-30/trump-complains-badly-run-companies-blame-tariffs

Presumably this photo was at one time classified? Did the president consult with DNI and NSA and CIA before deciding to release it? Even if he was told most of our adversaries think we can take such photos and have the intelligence capabilities to label them, why confirm?
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1167505147989286913

The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167493371973255170

Trump may have revealed US military secrets by tweeting a photo to taunt Iran
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweet-may-have-revealed-us-military-secrets-taunting-iran-2019-8

Trump Tweets Sensitive Surveillance Image of Iran
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/30/755994591/president-trump-tweets-sensitive-surveillance-image-of-iran

Trump's personal assistant fired after comments about Ivanka, Tiffany | Madeleine Westerhout was fired after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka & Tiffany, and that Trump did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he perceived her as overweight.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/30/trumps-personal-assistant-fired-ivanka-tiffany-1479226

Another Republican is out -Rep John Shimkus of Illinois announcing today in a statement and Facebook post that he will not run for re-election in 2020. He won in ‘18 with 70% of the vote.
https://twitter.com/ChrisJansing/status/1167540065838477313

Former special assistant to Obama: I always thought the hit on Beto about being policy-free and thoughtless was egregiously wrong, but I would say at this point his policy framework is second only to Warren in how robust it is. And some, like this on Trade, is actually staking out new ground.
https://twitter.com/JesseCharlesLee/status/1167435367152271370

China refused to let Hong Kong scrap the controversial extradition bill which caused mass protests as a way to end the tension. Chinese government rejected Lam's proposal and outright forbade her from cancelling the bill.
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-stopped-hong-kong-axing-extradition-bill-solution-protests-reuters-2019-8

Hey anyone remember when they were upset about Hillary mid handling classified intelligence? Cause Trump is just tweeting it out now...He literally took a picture with his phone. You can see the camera flash in the middle of the photo.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-iran-satellite-launch-failure-twitter-safir-slv-a9086161.html

US official confirms that Trump tweeted out a picture from a classified intelligence briefing
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tweeted-classified-intelligence-briefing-photo-2019-8

Festival-goers should pay £25 fee for abandoning tents, say environmental activists - ‘It’s not good enough in this day and age just to abandon a tent which is in most cases is probably perfectly good to clean and reuse,’ says Clean Up Britain
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/festival-tent-tax-reading-leeds-festival-litter-environment-a9084441.html

Beto, the Statesman: Regulating Trade Multilaterally | So much of the swagger of Republican ideology comes from the patently false idea that the US is alone on this planet. Whether it was George W. Bush’s notion that we could ‘go it alone’ in the Middle East or Trump’s effort to destroy every international agreement (Iran nuclear deal, Paris Climate Accord) and alliance (NATO) we have, Republicans repeatedly mistake isolationism for exceptionalism. It’s the classic bully problem: to think that your strength comes from waving the biggest stick rather than making friends and winning partners.  Call this strategy the long view. Nowhere is this more true than in trade, so I was especially pleased to see that Beto O’Rourke just issued a trade policy that uses international institutions and new global guidelines to advance trade while at the same time protecting workers and the environment. As Jared Bernstein notes, this isn’t a free trade proposal. It’s a proposal for regulated trade to make sure that everyone shares in the benefits:     “This is managing trade so that its benefits flow to a much more broad set of people.”… O’Rourke’s implicit argument against Trump, and Trumpism, is that we actually can “manage the outcomes of international trade to benefit working people far more than we have in the past.”    “Trade flows are good, and the more of them, the better”… provided that those trade flows are no longer managed to channel their benefits to corporations, but rather to workers. | I want to focus on the second plank because it is radical but would also be fiercely effective. It also says a lot about what an O’Rourke administration would do in re-establishing US global leadership through international institutions. Beto’s thinking like the statesman we should expect from a President. The proposal calls for re-writing the mandate of the WTO so that it protects the interests of workers, not corporations. Gone are the many-year patent protections for, say, pharmaceutical companies that have led to price gouging and what comes instead are | Beto outlines a series of unilateral actions the US could take if China fails to end currency manipulation, and they are assertive. But the point is we do not have to “go it alone,” and going it alone makes us vulnerable in countless ways. As Beto noted in the second debate, the US has never waged a successful war alone and this includes trade wars. There’s tons more in the proposal about how to use trade to strengthen labor unions and how to ensure that corporations are subject not just to an international regulatory framework but also to national laws. No corporation can claim supranational status! What I particularly like is the emphasis on training the American worker to stand at the forefront of the 21st century economy: | Greg Sargent observes in The Washington Post that it’s the multilateral nature of this proposal that makes it bold and unique: This is the sweet spot for those who want to end the trade war with China, but also want to do something about the Chinese trade practices that are unfair, which O’Rourke denotes as “currency manipulation, subsidies, restrictions on market access, corporate espionage and other strategies."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/30/1882468/-Beto-the-Statesman-Regulating-Trade-Multilaterally
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/29/trump-is-disaster-trade-heres-beto-orourkes-answer/

Wow wow wow on trade by @BetoORourke.
-Update WTO to tackle currency, competition, overcapacity, indust. subsidies.
-Enforceable labor standards by including ILO core conv. in WTO, enforceable as unfair subsidy subject to countervailing duties.
- More
-Delist Chinese co's from U.S. stock exch. if don't cooperate w/ audit oversight
-Limit access to U.S. banking system for IP theft
-Screen Chinese investment until egregious practices end
-Work w/ allies on Made in China 2025
-Counter currency manipulation
Joint inspections and certifications, with denial of preferential access to US markets. Modeled off U.S.-Peru agreement’s timber annex.
-Mandatory workforce training investment for workers making less than $100k for publicly traded corporations that boost executive pay.
-Manufacturing institutes and Manufacturing Extension Partnerships investments
-Double R&D investment
 https://twitter.com/AndyGreenSF/status/1167177624696840200

Mysterious dark patches in Venus’ clouds are affecting the weather by absorbing UV light. Although nobody knows what these dark patches are yet, researchers recently explored the possibility they might be microorganisms, which is an idea that dates back to a 1963 paper co-authored by Carl Sagan.
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/08/mysterious-dark-patches-in-venus-clouds-are-affecting-the-weather-there

Valerie Kathryn Harper (August 22, 1939 – August 30, 2019)[1][2] was an American actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut in the musical Take Me Along in 1959. Harper is best remembered for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off Rhoda in the 1970s. For her work on Mary Tyler Moore, she thrice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later received the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Rhoda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Harper

Is the president's behavior right? Was Barr's coverup right? Was it right when you silently and complicity stood by while these men destroyed public trust in our institutions in the name of their self-preservation and enrichment? We have a criminal in the WH.
https://twitter.com/sto_k/status/1167514327680634880
https://twitter.com/RodRosenstein/status/1167507485235847168

It’s a shame that our citizens have to check multiple sources to determine whether the Attorney General of the United States can be believed. Our Attorney General should not deceive the public, and you should not have stood silently when he did so.
https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1167511809802346496
https://twitter.com/RodRosenstein/status/1167507485235847168

There are videos all over the internet of @BarackObama singing Christmas Carols. I do not however see president trump doing the same. Fake News
https://twitter.com/TRADEFORFOOD/status/1167168730952032258
https://twitter.com/Bill_Maxwell_/status/1167166345802240000

"Christmas in Washington" 2011 Obama speaks of the birth of Jesus, and even says... [gasp] ... Merry Christmas! 👀😏
https://twitter.com/Pianobirdy/status/1167173072761294848
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_DKohsDVpw

Under Pence, kids are separated from their families, held in mass detention, brought to court without representation, adopted out without permission or notification or record of where the hell they were sent. TRUE.
https://twitter.com/dannybaptista/status/1167173626153431040

Bolton sidelined from Afghanistan policy as his standing with Trump falters | “It’s messed up on so many levels that the national security adviser isn’t involved, but trust is a real issue,” said a senior U.S. official, one of a half-dozen who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. | Bolton’s isolation on Afghanistan became particularly apparent this month when the president’s top officials descended on Trump’s New Jersey golf resort to discuss the peace deal that would be presented to Afghan and Taliban officials in Kabul and Doha, Qatar, U.S. officials said. In addition to the president, the Aug. 16 meeting included Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper; Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Vice President Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; CIA Director Gina Haspel; and Khalilzad. Bolton was not originally invited out of concern that his team would oppose the agenda and leak the details later, several officials said. “His team has a reputation for losing and leaking,” said one senior administration official with direct knowledge of the discussions. Bolton rejected the allegation, saying in a statement, “I categorically deny leaks by me or anyone authorized to speak to the press. Those alleging such leaks should look in the mirror.” A senior White House official also disputed the leak claims.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bolton-sidelined-from-afghanistan-policy-as-his-standing-with-trump-falters/2019/08/30/79651256-8888-483b-9fd1-c47a2cfadab7_story.html?

[Trump] notifies Congress of his decision to freeze locality pay increases for civilian Federal employees at 2019 levels for 2020. "We must maintain efforts to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable course," he states. The across-the-board pay increase of 2.6% will go into effect. (but I thought economy was doing great)
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1167596954156711936