Trump wanted his own Camp David Accords (inviting Taliban to US) | Trump reportedly wanted to show off his negotiation skills by inviting the Taliban to Camp David: The meeting between Trump, leaders of the Taliban, and Afghanistan President Ghani at the presidential retreat was called off due to disagreements over political showmanship, a new report claims.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-reportedly-wanted-to-show-negotiation-skills-by-inviting-taliban-2019-9
Police in Brazil are investigating the murder of an official who had worked to protect indigenous people from farmers and loggers attempting to seize land. Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was reportedly shot twice in the head in the city of Tabatinga, near Brazil's borders with Colombia and Peru. Union officials said Mr Santos was shot in front of members of his family. | INA officials said he was killed in retaliation for his work at the Vale do Javari reserve, where for years he helped prevent hunters, farmers and loggers illegally entering the area.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49633136
How climate change is driving emigration from Central America | As a cultural anthropologist who studies factors of displacement in El Salvador, I see how Ruben’s situation is reflective of a much broader global phenomenon of people leaving their homes, directly or indirectly due to climate change and the degradation of their local ecosystem. And as environmental conditions are projected to get worse under current trends, this raises unresolved legal questions on the status and security of people like Ruben and his family. | In the years since those events, both rapid-onset and long-term environmental crises continue to displace people from their homes worldwide. Studies show that displacement often happens indirectly through the impact of climate change on agricultural livelihoods, with some areas pressured more than others. But some are more dramatic: Both Honduras and Nicaragua are among the top 10 countries most impacted by extreme weather events between 1998 and 2017. Since 2014, a serious drought has decimated crops in Central America’s so-called dry corridor along the Pacific Coast. By impacting smallholder farmers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, this drought helps to drive higher levels of migration from the region. Coffee production, a critical support for these countries’ economies, is especially vulnerable and sensitive to weather variations. A recent outbreak of coffee leaf rust in the region was likely exacerbated by climate change. The fallout from that plague combines with the recent collapse in global coffee prices to spur desperate farmers to give up.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america
http://www.internal-displacement.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/20181213-slow-onset-intro.pdf
https://www.nri.org/publications/working-paper-series/4-coffee-and-climate-change/file
https://germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/Global%20Climate%20Risk%20Index%202019_2.pdf
http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/dry-corridor/en/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-elsalvador-drought/salvadoran-farmers-lament-brutal-drought-hope-for-recovery-idUSKBN1KG2RE
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/central-america-drying-farmers-face-choice-pray-rain-or-leave-n1027346
https://econpapers.repec.org/article/sprclimat/v_3a140_3ay_3a2017_3ai_3a3_3ad_3a10.1007_5fs10584-016-1863-2.htm
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coffee-rust-battle-intensifies/
https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/may-19-2014-usaid-texas-am-invest-5-million-combat-coffee-rust-crisis
https://time.com/5346110/guatemala-coffee-escape-migration/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-centralamerica-immigration-coffee/coffee-slump-reaps-bitter-harvest-for-central-american-migrants-idUSKCN1TS2QB
Thousands of children in Florida have been kept in conditions that a United Nations special report on torture calls "cruel, inhuman, or degrading." On any given day, hundreds of children entrusted to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) are held in solitary confinement, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed yesterday in Tallahassee by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Florida Legal Services, and the Florida Institute for Justice. The legal complaint in the Northern District of Florida calls for the immediate end to isolation as punishment in Florida's 21 juvenile detention facilities. Citing medical and scientific experts, the lawsuit argues that the use of solitary confinement on children violates the U.S. Constitution as cruel and unusual punishment. It also claims the lack of mental health services provided by the Florida DJJ is in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-department-of-juvenile-justice-sued-for-isolating-kids-in-solitary-confinement-11260512
http://solitaryconfinement.org/uploads/SpecRapTortureAug2011.pdf
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/doc._2_-_complaint.pdf
Russia's ruling party loses a third of seats in Moscow election after protests
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-election-moscow/russias-ruling-party-loses-a-third-of-seats-in-moscow-election-after-protests-idUSKCN1VU0DF
CBP Blames Ferry Company Instead of Trump+Republicans-Itself After More Than 100 People Fleeing Bahamas Are Told to Get Off Rescue Boat Because They Don't Have U.S. Visas
https://www.newsweek.com/hurricane-dorian-bahamas-florida-cbp-visas-trump-administration-1458248
Air Force leaders order probe of Trump resort stays
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/08/trump-resort-air-force-probe-1485447
Air Force says crews have stayed at or near Trump's Scottish resort 659 times since 2015, concedes that looks bad
https://theweek.com/speedreads/863542/air-force-says-crews-have-stayed-near-trumps-scottish-resort-659-times-since-2015-concedes-that-looks-bad
The Air Force now appears eager to assess whether the Turnberry stays should continue. “The Air Force takes this very seriously," Lt. Gen. Jon Thomas told @politico. But the Pentagon has yet to respond to a House documents request it’s had for 2.5 months.
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1171026576374403072
Texas Democrats plot path to flipping state in 2020
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/08/texas-democrats-blue-plan/
Trump tries to force Ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/is-trump-strong-arming-ukraines-new-president-for-political-gain/2019/09/05/4eb239b0-cffa-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html
Washington Post's Dave Weigel deletes tweets about the hostility of Sanders supporters...because of the hostility of Sanders supporters
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1170705764354318336
Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament today for more than a month despite Brexit crisis, Number 10 announces
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-news-parliament-prorogue-suspend-brexit-commons-latest-a9097401.html
No-deal Brexit officially blocked in law
https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/09/no-deal-brexit-officially-blocked-law-10711993/
US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017 | In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN. A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy. The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/09/politics/russia-us-spy-extracted/index.html
NOAA's top scientist will investigate why agency backed Trump's Alabama Dorian claims
https://www.axios.com/noaa-chief-scientist-investigation-trump-dorian-alabama-2037c6e8-29a4-44b5-9b3e-ca6325481af3.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/09/09/noaas-chief-scientist-will-investigate-why-agency-backed-trump-over-its-experts-dorian-email-shows/
Trump: I Have Nothing to Do With All These Government Officials Staying at My Resorts
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/trump-i-have-nothing-to-do-with-all-these-government-officials-staying-at-my-resorts/
The full text of the House Judiciary resolution outlining impeachment probe
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6389397-Resolution-for-Investigative-Procedures.html#text/p1
Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Asylum at the Southern Border | Once again, the administration’s immigration crackdown is on hold.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/judge-blocks-trumps-ban-on-asylum-at-the-southern-border/
House Democrats launch probe into Giuliani efforts to dig up dirt in Ukraine
https://www.axios.com/trump-giuliani-ukraine-2020-house-democrats-294e98ca-6b83-4a3c-b8e0-a2f60eea4e63.html
Wilbur Ross Threatened To Fire NOAA Employees After Birmingham Statement
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wilbur-ross-noaa-hurricane-dorian-alabama-trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/climate/hurrican-dorian-trump-tweet.html
Federal judge reinstates nationwide injunction against Trump’s asylum rule
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-09/nationwide-injunction-trump-asylum-rule
Three House Committees Launch Wide-Ranging Investigation into Trump-Giuliani Ukraine Scheme
https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=685
Britain has so far put forward no alternative proposals for the Irish border which would permit Dublin to give up the backstop, Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said, in comments pouring cold water on Boris Johnson’s claims that progress is being made towards a Brexit deal.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-johnson-varadkar-ireland-border-backstop-eu-deal-press-conference-a9097296.html
Conservative Network Files $10M Defamation Lawsuit Against Rachel Maddow, MSNBC | The owner of right-leaning cable news channel One America News Network (OANN) has filed a defamation lawsuit against Rachel Maddow and others claiming that the 46-year-old liberal commentator “maliciously and recklessly” smeared the network as a Russian state propaganda outlet, which they are, they simultaneously work for the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik
https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/conservative-network-files-10-million-defamation-lawsuit-against-rachel-maddow-and-msnbc/
Donald Trump has claimed – without evidence – the Bahamas is full of “very bad gang members”, as he defended a decision not to let survivors of Hurricane Dorian enter the US.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-bahamas-hurricane-dorian-refugees-press-conference-today-a9098391.html
In the conversation with Yahoo News, Sanders distanced himself just slightly from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other progressives, who have called Trump’s immigration detention facilities “concentration camps” and argued there are parallels between the current moment and the rise of Adolf Hitler. Sanders has rejected the use of the term “concentration camps.” However, he said he does feel there’s a valid “comparison” between Trump’s America and Nazi Germany.
https://news.yahoo.com/bernie-sanders-immigrant-brooklyn-roots-191215942.html
ICE plans on deporting Cecilia Figueroa-Figueroa, a Utah immigrant woman who has spent six years volunteering to help other immigrant families. She might be forced to return to her hometown, a place the State Dept. designated as a "do not travel" area. | Now she might be forced to return to her hometown of Guerrero, a place the State Department has designated as a “do not travel” area because of crime. There were 977 murders there within the first five months of this year, according to data collected by the National Public Security System in Mexico. Figueroa-Figueroa has been a longtime community activist, volunteering her time for those six years through a local nonprofit group where she would organize educational campaigns for immigrants, assist in the organization’s pro bono legal clinic and coordinate volunteer activities for the various campaigns the nonprofit group would produce, her attorney, Aaron Tarin, said. | Since last year, Figueroa-Figueroa had been on a path to legitimizing her immigration status and right to work. After years of volunteering her time and working odd jobs, she received her work permit Oct. 18 and moved from volunteer to employee at Comunidades Unidas, a large nonprofit group in Utah run by and serving Latinos. She even received a Social Security number, said Tarin, who sits on the Comunidades Unidas board of the directors. Tarin thinks a previous attorney’s advice cost Figueroa-Figueroa $7,000 and left her at risk of being removed from a community in which she has lived and served. His firm took over her case when she was picked up by ICE. Figueroa-Figueroa was trying to receive a benefit under a provision of the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act through her husband, whom she married in March 2018. Under the provision, her illegal-entry status would be waived and she would have paid a $1,000 penalty for the way she entered the country. In November 1995, Figueroa-Figueroa’s father-in-law, a legal permanent resident, applied for an I-130 form for his son. Approval would have meant that any future spouse would receive the waiver under the LIFE Act provision Figueroa-Figueroa was seeking, Tarin said. But there was another snag. The application had been in a pending status since 1995, meaning that Figueroa-Figueroa’s husband had been technically undocumented for 24 years, said Tarin, who suspects that Figueroa-Figueroa’s husband will receive his green card soon. | Figueroa-Figueroa thought she was having the final meeting for her green-card application on Aug. 27, but her immigration benefits were denied. That same day, she was briefly detained by ICE deportation officers and released on “humanitarian grounds,” according to a statement by Smock. | Tarin said ICE was aware Figueroa-Figueroa wasn’t going to leave the country by Labor Day because she was in the process of setting up a credible fear interview, which is an asylum-related form of relief that will temporarily hold off her deportation order as officials determine if her case has merit.
Figueroa-Figueroa told ICE deportation officers that she would return to Mexico on Labor Day. She did not.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1171166525941866498
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/09/she-volunteered-her-time-help-immigrant-families-now-ice-plans-deport-her/
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQJLtBVTLtJZxOquYCx4C_C1fLvEWDd_/view
https://www.uscis.gov/faq-page/credible-fear-faq#t12831n40132
NWS director Louis Uccellini received standing ovation at weather conference #NWAS19 for backing its forecasters (who said Alabama was not at risk from #Dorian) rather than @NOAA political appointees, who sided with the President.
https://twitter.com/capitalweather/status/1171103524631076867
Since Mr. Trump became president, there have been thousands of visits to his properties, not only by Mr. Trump himself, but by foreign leaders, lobbyists, Republican candidates, members of Congress, cabinet members and others with ties to the president. At least 90 members of Congress, 250 Trump administration officials and more than 110 foreign officials have been spotted at Trump properties since 2017, according to social media posts and counts by various watchdog groups. | Mr. Trump’s hotel in Washington — which attracts by far the bulk of the spending by political groups that support the president — is one of the better performing assets in Mr. Trump’s portfolio. Last year, it generated $40.8 million in revenue, a small increase compared with 2017, even while overall revenue at the company declined.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/us/politics/trump-hotel.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6265645-2019-Released-Report-for-2018-Trump-Donald-J.html
Article II of the United States Constitutions states:
"The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument [a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office] from the United States, or any of them."
Presidents live rent free in the White House but they are required to pay for most personal expenses such as food and clothing and many other things.
Every time Trump and his entourage check into one of his resorts or hotels such as Mar-A-Lago, he is receiving significant emoluments from the United States (Tax Payers) that has added up to tens of millions of dollars during his time on office. The money paid to the Trump Organization enriches the Trump family including the president himself.
It is no wonder that he has declared that he will donate his yearly salary of $400,000 to charity. (Do we have proof of that?) His salary is pittance compared to the money he and his family is mining from the US Tax Payer.
The violation of the the Constitution is blatant and deliberate. The Republican party, who for decades has boasted that they are a party of morality, remains silent. If it were a Democrat in the White House who was raking in riches, we would never hear the end of it. Look back to Jimmy Carter's peanut farm scandal or the Clintons.
It is way past time for Trump to go.
The US Department of Homeland Security is making it difficult for Bahamians to reach the US by ship. Newly released visa requirements include the following line: "Bahamians arriving to the United States by vessel must be in possession of a valid passport AND valid travel visa."
https://twitter.com/PhilipinDC/status/1171218803436511233
Only 15% of the products in the Trump store are made in the US
https://qz.com/1483890/how-many-donald-trump-products-are-made-in-the-usa/
After focusing on hard-hit Grand Bahama and Great Abaco, the Coast Guard and other responders are now combing the smaller cays that ring the large islands like planets around the sun. Some are luxury playgrounds where the well-off are already drinking beer. Others are blue-collar communities whose lifeblood depends on fishing, farming and the groceries and fuel delivered by a weekly mailboat that is nowhere to be seen. The Bahamas consists of more than 700 islands and many more cays. Responders are trying to cover them all — by helicopter, unmanned aircraft and by small boats navigating debris-filled waters. The Coast Guard sent three large cutters and six smaller fast-response cutters, including the 154-foot Paul Clark, with pallets of water, disinfectant wipes and body bags. The death toll from the storm was raised Sunday to 44, according to Health Minister Duane Sands, but officials have warned that the number is likely to climb. Many more are missing, and tens of thousands are homeless.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/days-after-hurricane-dorian-responders-reaching-smaller-isolated-bahamas-cays/2019/09/08/b11a1044-d254-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html
Pentagon Suspends Mental Health Counseling Referral Services for DoD Civilians
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/09/08/pentagon-suspends-mental-health-counseling-referral-services-dod-civilians.html
An analysis published by Bitwise this week shows that 95 percent of bitcoin spot trading is faked by unregulated exchanges. The survey, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, echoes concerns by regulators that cryptocurrency markets are still ripe for manipulation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/22/majority-of-bitcoin-trading-is-a-hoax-new-study-finds.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-bitcoin-trading-faked-by-unregulated-exchanges-study-finds-11553259600
Calls for Wilbur Ross' Resignation Rain Down Amid Report He Threatened NOAA Firings
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/calls-for-wilbur-ross-resignation-rain-down-amid-report-he-threatened-noaa-firings/
Trump, for more than the 90th time, on the Veterans Choice law written by Bernie Sanders and John McCain and signed into law by Barack Obama in 2014: "We passed something that they've wanted to do for half a century. We passed VA Choice."
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1171215433791414272
NYT confirms parts of CNN's report and adds big details: The informant was instrumental to the CIA's conclusion that Putin ordered & orchestrated Russia's interference campaign & the assessment that Putin favored Trump and personally ordered the DNC hack.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1171210560035328000
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/cia-informant-russia.html
The Moscow informant was instrumental to the C.I.A.’s most explosive conclusion about Russia’s interference campaign: that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered and orchestrated it himself. As the American government’s best insight into the thinking of and orders from Mr. Putin, the source was also key to the C.I.A.’s assessment that he affirmatively favored Donald J. Trump’s election and personally ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/cia-informant-russia.html
Nearly 500 undocumented immigrants have been released from jails across the state in the past ten months despite administrative detainers filed against them by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. | A detainer is an administrative request from the federal government to a local law enforcement agency to hold someone in jail even after they are eligible for release on their state charge. | The debate over whether local authorities should cooperate with ICE detainers has raged this year after Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden announced he would no longer honor ICE detainers. McFadden campaigned on a pledge to not participate in the 287(g) program, a federal program where local law enforcement agencies are given authority to enforce some immigration laws. McFadden ended his office’s participation in the 287(g) program soon after taking office in December 2018 and also announced he would no longer honor ICE detainers, which are separate from the 287(g) program.
https://www.wbtv.com/2019/09/09/ice-nearly-undocumented-immigrants-released-nc-jails-despite-detainer/
No comments:
Post a Comment