News Dump

2020 Democratic Candidates Positions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_the_2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primary_candidates

Triggered Texas Republican calls for abolishing city of Austin over abortion access; Austin is #canceled, says anti-choice Republican, after city finds clever loophole in abortion funding law
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/13/triggered-texas-republican-calls-for-abolishing-city-of-austin-over-abortion-access/

It just kind of flew by but at one point Bernie said the United States has the highest child poverty rate on earth which is ... not true.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1172363355627106304?s=21

‘Putin is very angry’: Opposition movement hit by wave of simultaneous raids on towns and cities across Russia | ‘This is a case where the actions of the police are no different from those of burglars'
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-moscow-alexei-navalny-raids-kremlin-election-a9102726.html

Beto: “This is a death threat, Representative. Clearly, you shouldn't own an AR-15—and neither should anyone else.”
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1172359875093061632

GOP rep. Briscoe Cain reported to FBI after telling Beto O'Rourke "my AR is ready for you"
https://www.newsweek.com/texas-beto-orourke-briscoe-cain-gun-reform-1459074

Twitter takes down Texas GOP lawmaker's AR tweet about O'Rourke
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461267-twitter-takes-down-texas-gop-lawmakers-ar-tweet-about-orourke

The Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to revoke California’s authority to set its own vehicle greenhouse gas standards and declare that states are pre-empted from setting their own vehicle rules, three people briefed on the matter said on Thursday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-california/white-house-moving-forward-to-strip-california-of-vehicle-authority-sources-idUSKCN1VY04H

DOJ files brief arguing against House impeachment probe
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/461387-doj-files-brief-arguing-against-house-impeachment-probe

World must invest $1.8 trillion in mangroves, early warning systems and infrastructure to hold back climate change - Nations rich and poor must invest now to protect against the effects of climate change or pay an even heavier price later, a global commission warned Tuesday.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/10/world-must-invest-18-trillion-mangroves-early-warning-systems/

A negotiating team from the Taliban arrived Friday in Russia, a representative said, just days after  Trump declared dead a deal with the insurgent group in Afghanistan. Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the delegation had held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan. The visit also was confirmed to The Associated Press by a Taliban official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. It was the Taliban’s first international visit following the collapse of talks with Washington. The team was being led by Mullah Sher Mohammad Stanikzai. In a weekend tweet, Trump had called off negotiations and canceled a meeting he said he wanted to have with Afghan government leaders and the Taliban at the Camp David presidential retreat. Moscow has been accused of aiding the Taliban as a safeguard against a burgeoning Islamic State affiliate that has close ties to the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, a militant group in Central Asia. Russia has stepped up its defenses in Central Asia and has claimed thousands of IS fighters were in northern Afghanistan. Moscow has twice this year hosted meetings between the Taliban and prominent Afghan personalities.
https://apnews.com/8c285a3bcaac4c978b5378db54ed9166

Gregory Cheadle, the man President Trump once called “my African American,” is leaving the Republican party & running for Congress as an independent. He says Trump has a “white superiority complex" and the party is pursing a "pro-white" agenda.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/man-trump-once-called-my-african-american-leaves-republican-party

Federal appeals court reinstates Trump emoluments case
https://amp.axios.com/trump-emoluments-clause-lawsuit-second-circuit-083b5ade-c983-4566-af9c-50e30aedf7a6.html

Trump struggles to say Mike Pence's name and blames energy efficient light bulbs for making him 'look orange' during bizarre speech
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-mike-pence-pounce-speech-energy-efficient-light-bulbs-balitmore-republican-retreat-a9104036.html

Remember the "polls" show most Americans want gun control and assault weapons banned: O'Rourke: 'Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/live-updates/election-2020/third-democratic-debate-analysis-and-fact-checking/orourke-hell-yes-were-going-to-take-your-ar-15-your-ak-47/?tid=ss_tw

Judge blocks Tennessee law restricting voter registration drives
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-blocks-tennessee-law-restricting-voter-registration-drives/2019/09/12/74d33bbe-d589-11e9-86ac-0f250cc91758_story.html

Airforce Report says Trump's plan to pay for border wall with Air Force funds risks national security | The report, obtained by NBC News, details the importance of each of the 51 military projects chosen by the Trump administration to lose their funding, including construction of a new gate to address a growing security concern at an overseas U.S. base, projects to build facilities to safely store more than $1 billion in munitions overseas, and even replacing a boiler whose failure is "imminent" and could cause the evacuation of an entire base in Alaska.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/trump-s-plan-pay-border-wall-air-force-funds-risks-n1054091

Trump is to 'Build a Wall and the Mexicans Will Pay For It' as Sanders/Warren is to 'Your Healthcare Will Be Free and the Ultra Wealthy Will Pay For it'.

Trudeau vows to impose national tax on foreign buyers to aid affordable housing - Justin Trudeau says a re-elected Liberal government would impose a national one per cent tax on properties owned by non-Canadians and non-residents in an effort to curb foreign speculation in real estate.
https://nationalpost.com/news/trudeau-vows-to-help-housing-affordability-with-national-tax-on-foreign-buyers

Early this summer, Congress appeared on its way to eradicating the large medical bills that have shocked many patients after emergency care. The legislation to end out-of-network charges was popular and had support from both sides of the aisle. President Trump promised his support. Then, in late July, a mysterious group called Doctor Patient Unity showed up. It poured vast sums of money — now more than $28 million — into ads opposing the legislation, without disclosing its staff or its funders. Trying to guess who was behind the ads became something of a parlor game in some Beltway circles. Now, the mystery is solved. The two largest financial backers of Doctor Patient Unity are TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, private-equity-backed companies that own physician practices and staff emergency rooms around the country, according to Greg Blair, a spokesman for the group. | TeamHealth was acquired in 2016 by the private-equity firm Blackstone Group in a deal valued at $6.1 billion. And last fall, in one of the largest takeovers of the year, the private-equity giant KKR spent $9.9 billion to acquire Envision Healthcare. The ads generally omit references to surprise bills. Instead, they warn of “government rate setting” that could harm patient care. In one ad, an ambulance crew arrives with a patient, only to find the hospital dark and empty. The proposed legislation, which may advance to floor votes this year, is potentially bad for business for TeamHealth and Envision. The two groups have waged many battles against insurers over what they see as low physician payments for emergency room visits. When there is no agreement with an insurer, the physicians work “out of network,” and bill patients for the amount that insurance does not pay. A recent academic analysis of filings from a large commercial insurance company found that the firms, though Envision more than TeamHealth, have routinely operated outside the insurance networks of hospitals where their doctors practice. This often leads to surprise bills for patients. Like all so-called dark money political action groups, Doctor Patient Unity is not legally required to reveal the names of its supporters and, in fact, appears to have worked hard to obscure its identity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/upshot/surprise-billing-laws-ad-spending-doctor-patient-unity.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/politics/trump-surprise-medical-bills.html
https://www.stopsurprisemedicalbills.com/
https://www.teamhealth.com/
https://www.evhc.net/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teamhealth-to-be-acquired-by-blackstone-300353863.html
https://media.kkr.com/news-releases/news-release-details/kkr-completes-acquisition-envision-healthcare-corporation
https://www.nber.org/papers/w23623
https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics

Amrullah Saleh, a former chief of the Afghan intelligence service National Directorate of Security, tells The Indian Express "the key is for the Taliban to realise they can't subdue a nation by guns and bombs provided by the Pakistani ISI and the army". | The Americans are still negotiating a deal with the Taliban. It isn’t finished yet. Their deal will have an impact here but it will be their deal and not the deal for or of the Afghans. We will pursue our national interest. The preservation of the republic, the people-centric legitimacy power, and the centrality of the constitution in all of this, are our core aims over which we won’t compromise. We won’t. |  They are worse than even Khmer Rouge. Having the ability to inflict pain and violence is not necessarily a sign of strength. Their violence is not backed by any political manifest. They have no charismatic leaders. All their politbureau are based in Pakistan and are not showing their faces. They can’t face the reality of new Afghanistan which is no longer buying the notion of armed struggle to solve political issues. Without Pakistan’s support, the Taliban would fade away in six months.
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/taliban-us-talks-pakistan-afghanistan-amrullah-saleh-5984785

Danish project aims to plant 1m trees across nation in TV fundraiser - People in Denmark will be able to “plant trees” from the comfort of their sofa in what is believed to be the world’s first TV fundraiser for forests.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/13/danish-project-aims-to-plant-1m-trees-across-nation-in-tv-fundraiser

Russian officials "punished" for allowing top CIA spy in Kremlin to escape Moscow, actions blasted as "irresponsible"
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-kremlin-smolenkov-putin-montenegro-1459110

The Missouri attorney general will refer a dozen men who previously served as Roman Catholic clergy for potential criminal prosecution, his office announced on Friday after a yearlong statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse. The investigation found that 163 priests or clergy members were accused of sexual abuse or misconduct against minors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/us/missouri-catholic-church-sex-abuse.html
http://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/2019/catholicchurchclergyabuseinvestigationreport.pdf

Representatives from VF Corporation, Columbia Sportswear, Nester Hosiery, and NEMO Equipment met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, letting them know just how hard the U.S.-China trade war is hitting their bottom-line. “We want our message to get across that this is effecting American businesses, American jobs, American innovation and it’s just delaying all of that,” said Katie Kumerow, sustainability manager for Nester Hosiery, which manufactures specialty socks. From September 2018 to July 2019, outdoor recreation businesses have paid $1.8 billion more in tariffs compared to the year ago period, according to new data released Thursday by the Outdoor Industry Association. This tariff increase is nearly triple what outdoor industry companies paid last year, according to the trade group’s latest data. “Our growth is being hampered right now because we are not able to expand our workforce,” says Brent Merriam, Nemo Equipment Chief Operating Officer, who joined fellow association members on Capitol Hill Thursday. NEMO Equipment, a 30-person New Hampshire-based manufacturer of sleeping bags and tents, has paid $175,000 in tariffs so far. While that might not seem like much, Merriam says it means a lot to his business, and has resulted in putting three jobs on hold. NEMO Equipment has also had to dedicate time and resources to finding new supply chain partners. Merriam traveled to the Philippines last fall as part of an effort to relocate a line of camp chairs from a supplier in China.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/13/the-400-billion-outdoor-industry-sounds-alarm-on-trumps-trade-war.html

 Lawyers for the former F.B.I. deputy director Andrew G. McCabe, a frequent target of President Trump, have asked federal prosecutors whether a secret grand jury refused to indict him, which would be a sign that the government is struggling to make a case against him. In a letter sent late on Thursday, defense lawyers asked whether a grand jury had considered charges against Mr. McCabe, who is being investigated over whether he lied to internal investigators about interactions with news media. The letter came shortly after the Justice Department told Mr. McCabe’s lawyers that it had rejected their pitch to the deputy attorney general to drop the case. “It is clear that no indictment has been returned,” the lawyers wrote, citing coverage of the case by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-grand-jury.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-fbi.html
https://beta.washingtonpost.com/national-security/justice-dept-authorized-prosecutors-to-charge-andrew-mccabe/2019/09/12/5b0d48ea-d418-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1702-read-the-letter-from-mccabe/9fe85cfc1717d027f184/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

Anti-Putin politician facing Kremlin raid uses drone to fly hard drives away before government officers can get them
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-novosibirsk-sergey-boyko-navalny-1459145

Kenyan schoolgirl, 14, kills herself after alleged period shaming by teacher
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/sep/13/kenyan-schoolgirl-14-kills-herself-after-alleged-period-shaming-by-teacher?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_reddit_is_fun

Tupac - Thugz Mansion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cz_nOpxgCU

Tupac Amaru Shakur (/ˈtuːpɑːk ʃəˈkʊər/ TOO-pahk shə-KOOR; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor.[2][3] He is considered by many to be one of the greatest rappers of all time.[4][5] Much of Shakur's work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of resistance and activism against inequality.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur

A Border Patrol gala retirement party will illegally be held at a Trump golf resort
https://qz.com/1708965/border-patrol-retirement-party-to-be-held-at-trump-golf-resort/

The emoluments clause, also called the foreign emoluments clause, is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8) that generally prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other thing of value from a foreign state or its rulers, officers, or representatives. The clause provides that:No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. The Constitution also contains a “domestic emoluments clause” (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 7), which prohibits the president from receiving any “Emolument” from the federal government or the states beyond “a Compensation” for his “Services” as chief executive.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-emoluments-clause

Ben Carson Is Officially Off the Hook for Ordering $31,000 Dining Room Set for His Office Suite
https://www.theroot.com/ben-carson-is-officially-off-the-hook-for-ordering-31-1838094371

Germany has world's largest trade surplus for fourth year while the USA has world's largest trade deficit
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-trade/germany-to-run-worlds-largest-current-account-surplus-in-2019-ifo-idUSKCN1VY25J

Labor leaders cheered in the balcony and lawmakers embraced on the floor of the California Senate on Tuesday as it passed a landmark measure that defines employees, a move that could increase wages and benefits for hundreds of thousands of struggling workers. But the bill is as much a starting point as an endgame: It will drive a national debate over how to reshape labor laws fashioned in the industrial era of the 1930s to fit a 21st-century service and knowledge economy. With the measure, which Gov. Gavin Newsom says he will sign, California will lead in a shift that will likely redefine the roles of governments, unions and worker organizations. Just as federal labor laws were promulgated to help the country recover from the Depression, the imperative to extend basic guarantees like a minimum wage stems from the staggering income inequality in California, the state with the highest poverty rate in the country. The new paradigms will need to fit not the relatively stable industrial work force of the last century but a gig economy in which workers are increasingly likely to hold multiple jobs or report to no workplace at all. California lawmakers took a major step in constructing the foundation of such a model with the new measure, which presumes workers are employees, entitled to all concomitant protections and benefits, unless they meet strict criteria as truly independent contractors. Although the ride-share businesses Uber and Lyft were center stage in the run-up to the legislature’s votes, they were in fact not the impetus for the new law. The bill was actually incited by a 14-year-old case in which Los Angeles delivery drivers sued their employer for lost wages after they were abruptly reclassified as independent contractors. Last year, the state’s highest court issued a broad ruling that sought to clarify what had long been a murky legal standard. The decision said workers are presumed to be employees unless a business can meet the “ABC test” — an independent contractor must be free from the control of the hiring entity, perform work outside the normal scope of the hiring entity and be an independent established practitioner of the trade performed. With exceptions for specific professions, the new measure adopts that definition. The focus on the gig economy has obscured the more widespread impact of the new law in traditional businesses where workers — like the delivery drivers who sued in 2005 — have been misclassified for years. Hundreds of thousands of construction workers, janitors, truckers, nail salon workers and others now paid as independent contractors will be entitled to earn minimum wage and overtime, receive unemployment insurance and family leave, and have bargaining rights. The state hopes the measure will garner it much of the estimated $7 billion a year businesses have evaded paying in payroll taxes; unions hope to recruit new members. Their success will be both an indication of their strength and a key to effective enforcement. Accurate data is scarce, but a recent estimate suggests about 8.5 percent of people in the California work force in 2016 relied on independent contract work as their primary income. Of those, maybe one in 12 works for app-based companies, while an unknown number supplement their income with part-time gig work. Though they employ about 220,000 drivers in California, the ubiquitous presence of Uber and Lyft and the dissonance between their founders’ extreme wealth and their drivers’ poverty have come to symbolize the crisis of income inequality. The “new economy, the gig economy, the innovation economy” is “feudalism all over again,” said the Assembly speaker, Anthony Rendon, a Los Angeles Democrat.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/opinion/california-gig-economy-bill-ab5.html
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Senate-passes-AB5-gig-work-bill-turning-14430204.php#
https://scocal.stanford.edu/sites/scocal.stanford.edu/files/opinion-pdf/S222732-1525112644.pdf
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/worker_misclassification.html
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/what-do-we-know-about-gig-work-in-california/
http://www.kmjnow.com/2019/07/10/assembly-bill-5-aaron-abeytia-report-7-10-19/

Trump made the courts a major voting issue for Republicans in 2016. Liberal legal advocacy groups and court watchdogs are divided on how to make that happen for Democrats in 2020. | The lack of attention to the courts in the Democratic primary is in stark contrast to the right’s embrace of the issue. President Donald Trump frequently touts his success dramatically reshaping the federal courts — he’s already filled two US Supreme Court seats, and the US Senate just this week confirmed the 150th judge nominated since he took office. His reelection campaign is even hawking T-shirts with the message “SUPREME COURT CHAMPS,” featuring silhouettes of Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. | In interviews, advocates on the legal left also acknowledged they are up against decades of consistent messaging from the right and are outmatched financially by conservative groups focused on the courts, such as the Judicial Crisis Network, which routinely touts six- and seven-figure ad campaigns. “We are David fighting Goliath,” Belkin said. Belkin’s group, Take Back the Court, has pushed heavily in favor of a plan to add seats to the Supreme Court, a tactic known as court-packing. Court-packing falls on the more radical end of the spectrum. Proponents like Belkin say it’s necessary to diminish the power of the court’s conservative majority. They argue that anything short of that won’t get the base engaged and won’t shield liberal policies from legal challenges even if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020. “No candidate can be taken seriously if they don’t have a plan to protect their agenda from the courts,” Belkin said. “I continue to think it is frankly irresponsible to talk about judicial reform alternatives that look good on paper but have no chance of making a difference.” Belkin’s group isn’t alone. Demand Justice, a liberal group focused on courts created in May 2018, is also on board. Last month, March for Our Lives, the gun control advocacy organization created by survivors of the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, released a “Peace Plan” that included reforming the Supreme Court and linked to articles about court-packing.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/democrats-2020-supreme-court-judges-trump
https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/b5f42aa7-bc54-4b3a-9de3-2c0732c6653d/note/ecfaf957-fe94-482f-82fe-e9a84da157ae.pdf#page=1

How Kansas’ GOP Leaders Kept Thousands From Getting Health Insurance
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-kansas-gop-leaders-kept-thousands-from-getting-health-insurance

Florida's Ron DeSantis wants Bahamians fleeing Dorian to stop coming to his state
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-governor-ron-desantis-deter-bahamians-fleeing-hurricane-dorian-destruction-1459106

Trump quipped, “Where’s my favorite dictator?” while awaiting a meeting with Egypt’s Sisi during last month’s G-7 summit.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-awaiting-egyptian-counterpart-at-summit-called-out-for-my-favorite-dictator-11568403645

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are negotiating for Jeff Sessions’s testimony in their impeachment investigation of Trump, an appearance they hope could bolster their inquiry given the former attorney general’s rocky relationship with Trump. Congressional aides on the panel reached out to Charles J. Cooper, an attorney for Sessions, during the summer, according to officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely describe private talks. Cooper told committee staff that Sessions — whom Trump never forgave for recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel probe — would need a subpoena to testify. “I have made clear that Attorney General Sessions will not appear except under compulsion of a congressional subpoena,” Cooper said in a phone interview this week. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-democrats-pursue-sessions-for-testimony-in-impeachment-probe-of-trump/2019/09/13/e2925316-d58d-11e9-ab26-e6dbebac45d3_story.html

M.I.T.’s president acknowledged Thursday that he had signed a letter thanking Jeffrey Epstein for a donation in 2012 and said senior members of his administration had approved gifts from the disgraced financier as long as they remained anonymous. Separately Thursday, the LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman confirmed that he had helped raise funds from Mr. Epstein on behalf of the M.I.T. Media Lab and its director, Joichi Ito, a longtime friend.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/business/mit-president-jeffrey-epstein.html

Boko Haram Is Back. And They Now Have Better Drones. | After a decade of devastating war with Boko Haram extremists, they are now better armed than ever and have more sophisticated drones than the demoralized Nigerian military. | A full decade into the war, however, Boko Haram militants are still roaming the countryside with impunity. Their fighters now have more sophisticated drones than the military and are well-armed after successful raids on military brigades, according to local politicians and security analysts. Militants control four of the 10 zones in northern Borno State, near Lake Chad, according to security analysts and a federal official. They are pulling off almost-daily attacks, including opening fire last week on the convoy of the governor of Borno State. To people in villages like Konduga, Boko Haram’s defeat seems distant. The attack on June 17 that wounded Abdul and his friends (his last name is being withheld to protect him from reprisals) also killed 30 people — eight of them children. By many accounts, the Nigerian military is demoralized and on the defensive. Some soldiers have complained they haven’t had a home leave in three years. Their weapons and vehicles have fallen into disrepair. In August, the new commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, which means “Peace by Force,” publicly reminded his field officers to give food and water to troops. He is the eighth commander in 10 years. The military announced in August that it is pulling back its troops from far-flung outposts in the countryside and gathering them into fortified settlements it calls “super camps.” The super camps are inside of garrison towns where the Nigerian military in recent years settled tens of thousands of civilians — either after Boko Haram chased them away, or soldiers burned their villages and rounded them up, saying it would secure the countryside. The garrison towns are ringed by trenches to slow militant invasions, but the pullback has allowed Boko Haram fighters free rein in the barren countryside. | The war with Boko Haram has devastated the population in rural northeast Nigeria, one of the poorest regions on earth. More than two million people have fled their homes, tens of thousands have been killed and many more injured, abducted and conscripted to join the fight. The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that nearly 22,000 Nigerians have been reported missing during the crisis. | But in recent years, as the war has dragged on, Nigeria’s attention has been diverted by security problems elsewhere: gang wars and extremists in Zamfara, a northwestern region; gruesome battles over land rights in the center of the country; extrajudicial murders by police; kidnappings for ransom across the nation. President Buhari announced plans to airlift Nigerian citizens out of South Africa, where Nigerians were attacked in a spate of xenophobic violence. Military commanders, faced with complaints that their strategy is old and ineffectual, say that the super camps are a new, more effective way of dealing with an insurgency that is now able to pull off more complicated attacks against the military. But some officials call the super camps an outright retreat. One federal official, who asked not to be identified out of fear that criticizing the military would jeopardize his safety, said that soldiers were merely barricading themselves inside super camps. The official said that Boko Haram fighters are raiding the gear the soldiers are leaving behind as they abandon their posts for the super camps. Corruption may also be prolonging the war, according to some government officials, security analysts and aid workers. In northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram has long been accused of profiting from illegal fishing along Lake Chad, where all fishing is outlawed, and from taxing passing vehicles. Now, the military is being accused of doing the same. The government allocates the equivalent of nearly $80 million dollars each quarter to the war effort, and yet Nigerian soldiers lack ample ammunition and medical care — leaving many residents to ask where all the money is going. Earlier this year in Rann, where there is no lighting after sundown, disgruntled soldiers without night vision gear abandoned their posts, according to several aid workers. | Since 2018, the Islamic State faction, which has received propaganda guidance from the Islamic State in Syria, has attacked a brigade headquarters and the hub for a multinational military effort to fight terrorism, swiping large amounts of machinery and weapons, according to officials and analysts. | Some aid groups are scaling back, deeming the conflict so protracted that it is no longer an acute emergency. This comes amid reports of near-daily militant activity: grenades tossed into a United Nations hub in Banki; an attack several weeks ago on an aid convoy in which militants killed a driver and abducted five workers near Damboa; a suicide bombing that injured four people in Dikwa. Maiduguri, a major trading hub for northern Nigeria, hasn’t been attacked in months, but aid workers and other officials say that the city is surrounded by militants. Boko Haram raided a community for food and clothing at Maiduguri’s edge in late August, according to members of a vigilante fighting force that assists the military. From an outpost with a view of the green, rolling landscape, the vigilante members pointed in the distance, toward two known Boko Haram camps less than five miles away.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/world/africa/boko-haram-nigeria-refugees.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/11/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-girls.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/25/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-suicide-bomb.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/world/africa/south-africa-riots-nigeria-airlift.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/world/africa/beyond-boko-harams-reach-love-and-feminism-flourish.html

“I am, if it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield,” O’Rourke replied, to applause. He continued, in graphic detail: “If the high-impact, high-velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body, because it was designed to do that, so that you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers.” | There’s majority support in both polls for legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons. In our poll, 56 percent of Americans back that idea, about the same as in the NPR poll. That includes at least a third of Republicans and 4 in 10 gun owners or people who live in a household with a gun. That’s not the same as the buyback issue, of course. It’s also a policy that was in effect for a decade until 2004. Both The Post-ABC poll and the one from NPR asked specifically about a proposal like O’Rourke’s. In both polls, views were split. Our poll had a slim majority supporting a mandatory buyback; NPR’s was evenly divided. Again, though, note that there’s more support from Republicans and gun owners than you might expect. In The Post’s poll, 31 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of people who live in households that have guns support a buyback program. In the NPR survey, 20 percent of Trump voters backed O’Rourke’s proposal. That’s about the same figure as the percentage of Democrats who oppose the idea. Granted, that was before it was associated with O’Rourke. In our political climate, assigning partisan support to something tends to affect how it’s viewed by the other party. But in the abstract, a mandatory buyback program is supported by about half the country.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/13/is-beto-orourkes-mandatory-buyback-program-actually-all-that-politically-problematic/
https://beta.washingtonpost.com/politics/americans-of-both-parties-overwhelmingly-support-red-flag-laws-expanded-gun-background-checks-washington-post-abc-news-poll-finds/2019/09/08/97208916-ca75-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html
http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/NPR_PBS-NewsHour_Marist-Poll-USA-NOS-and-Tables_1909091400.pdf#page=3

The family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma used Swiss bank accounts to conceal the transfer of millions of dollars from the company to themselves, New York state's attorney general contends in court papers filed Friday.
https://apnews.com/81039e579ad74a8db531124b362c9b86

I will never understand why Harris didn't run on, "you're damn right I'm a cop and I'm here to clean this shit up". Like Obama, she didn't have to pander to the left. Like him, her life was her credibility. Instead she played silly games and won a silly prize...5th place.


Parents of murdered Democratic staffer Seth Rich can sue Fox News-U.S. court
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fox-seth-rich/lawsuit-against-fox-news-over-retracted-seth-rich-story-is-revived-idUSKCN1VY1YD

SCHIFF has issued a cryptic subpoena, claiming an intel community whistleblower's complaint has been withheld from Congress -- and could, perhaps, involve the president.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1172655862277689346

I trust YOU to make the right health care choice for yourselves and your family.
https://twitter.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1172648828824145922

Chairman Schiff Issues Subpoena for Whistleblower Complaint Being Unlawfully Withheld by Acting DNI from Intelligence Committees
https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=688

FDA announces that low levels of a cancer-linked chemical have been found in samples of the heartburn medication Zantac.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/low-levels-contaminant-found-popular-heartburn-pills-n1054151

Eddie Money
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Money

Daniel Johnston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Johnston
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/arts/music/daniel-johnston-playlist.html

Hossam Ramzy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossam_Ramzy