Light News Dump

In 2010 Nancy Pelosi passed a public option through the house. It was killed in the senate. If you’d spent the last 10 years fighting to elect democrats and embracing the ACA instead of yelling at the ‘neolibs’ we’d probably have universal coverage by now. 1/
https://twitter.com/ag_due/status/1190323224585887746

Instead, Bernie Sanders called to primary Obama and the revolution voted for Jill Stein and now it’s “all or nothing”? What do you think happens during the 10 years it takes to implement M4A? Do republicans and healthcare lobbyist and 2 million healthcare workers disappear?
https://twitter.com/ag_due/status/1190323818172157952

Republican Congressman Headbutts Camera When Asked About Foreign Election Interference
https://www.newsweek.com/watch-republican-congressman-headbutts-camera-when-asked-about-foreign-election-interference-1469216

Rep. Duncan Hunter now has five attorneys on his legal defense team. He continues to serve in Congress despite a 60 count indictment of fraud, conspiracy, and campaign finance crimes.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-10-29/rep-duncan-hunter-adds-experienced-trial-attorney-to-his-legal-defense-team

But although progressives often return to this FDR quote for inspiration and guidance, they neglect to understand the speech’s place in the FDR story. The speech was delivered after the major New Deal reforms were enacted, not before. It’s not an example of how a successful president chose the right enemies and made those reforms happen. Rather, Roosevelt’s turn toward vilification at the close of the 1936 campaign marked the beginning of the end of the New Deal period, when excessive hubris and a diminished appetite for compromise led him to politically disastrous decisions that drove the conservative wing of the Democratic Party into the arms of obstructionist Republicans. Sanders and Warren should look to “I welcome their hatred” not as words to live by, but as a cautionary tale of progressive overreach.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/11/01/elizabeth-warren-bernie-sanders-fdr-229893

Two studies of unvaccinated children in an Orthodox Protestant community in the Netherlands found that measles wipes out the immune system’s memory of previous illnesses, returning it to a more baby-like state, and also leaves the body less equipped to fight off new infections.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/31/measles-wipes-out-immune-systems-memory-study-finds

Reminder: Nearly 400,000 gallons of oil spill from Keystone pipeline in North Dakota
https://nypost.com/2019/10/31/nearly-400000-gallons-of-oil-spill-from-keystone-pipeline-in-north-dakota/

More Than 50 Federal Oversight Inspectors Sign Letter Condemning OLC Decision That Allows White House Counsel To Unilaterally Block Whistleblower Reports
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191025/12110343262/more-than-50-federal-watchdogs-sign-letter-condemning-olc-decision-that-allows-white-house-counsel-to-unilaterally-block.shtml

Former coal exec Don Blankenship files for third-party presidential bid. "Both Sides Are Evil! My Platform Is Identical To Trump's So Vote For Me!" | Blankenship also spent a year in federal prison for willfully conspiring to violate mine safety standards while he was at the helm of Massey Energy, which owned a West Virginia mine where 29 workers were killed in a 2010 explosion.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/468431-former-coal-exec-don-blankenship-files-for-third-party-presidential-bid

Last-minute money is rolling into Virginia’s state legislative races with just days to go before next week’s elections, as national groups escalate some totals to the level of congressional contests. Democrat Nancy Guy hauled in more than $400,000 just since last Friday, the bulk of it coming on Wednesday from an environmental group founded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Guy is challenging Republican Del. Christopher P. Stolle in a Virginia Beach district plagued by sea level rise, and the money went for a television ad. Bloomberg’s Beyond Carbon action fund also delivered almost $265,000 in TV advertising for Democrat Shelly Simonds of Newport News, challenging incumbent Del. David E. Yancey in another waterfront district in Hampton Roads. Those amounts might have been a full year’s haul in past elections. “This is unprecedented,” said one Democratic consultant, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the topic of contributions is sensitive within campaigns. “This is kind of the new normal in the age of Donald Trump, where a lot of outside money can flow into a state . . . like Virginia where donations are unlimited.” Virginia’s campaign finance laws, some of the loosest in the country, place no restrictions on how much donors can give. The most expensive race in the state is shaping up to be the contest between incumbent Republican Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant and Democratic challenger Del. Debra Rodman in Henrico County just outside Richmond. They have reported raising more than $2.5 million apiece, and counting. Of the 24 candidates who ran in Virginia’s 11 congressional elections last year, only five raised more than Rodman’s $2.7 million, according to records kept by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.
Outside money is pouring into both parties, but particularly Democrats, who are hoping to take majorities in both the House of Delegates and state Senate. All 140 seats are on the ballot, with Republicans protecting slight majorities of 51-48 in the House and 20-19 in the Senate; each chamber has one vacancy. With Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a Democratic General Assembly would enable the party to consolidate power over state government for the first time in a generation. Party leaders have promised tofocus on priorities such as gun control, abortion rights protections and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and national groups that support those causes have plunged into the campaigns.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/this-is-unprecedented-last-minute-money-boosts-virginia-campaign-totals-with-some-reaching-congressional-levels/2019/10/31/2f4ece76-fbfb-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html

2°C: Beyond the limit | The ice used to protect them. Now their island is crumbling into the sea. |The more than 12,000 residents of this windswept Canadian archipelago are facing a growing number of gut-wrenching choices, as extreme climate change transforms the land and water around them. Season after season, storm after storm, it is becoming clearer that the sea, which has always sustained these islands, is now their greatest threat. | A Washington Post examination of the fastest-warming places around the world has found that the Magdalen Islands, as they are known in English, have warmed 2.3 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, twice the global average. As in New England, Siberia and other global hot spots at higher latitudes, winters here are heating up even more quickly, eclipsing 3 degrees Celsius. That change has fueled freezing and thawing cycles here that wreak havoc on the famous — and famously fragile — sandstone cliffs. | The sea ice that used to encase the islands most winters, shielding them from the brunt of fierce storms and pounding waves, is shrinking at a rate of about 555 square miles annually, data shows. That’s a swath of ice larger than Los Angeles. Even as that natural defense collapses, sea levels have been rising at a rate roughly twice the global norm in recent years, researchers say. The result is an escalating battle against erosion and flooding — one that a growing number of coastal populations face, from islands in the South Pacific to communities along the U.S. East Coast. In the Magdalen Islands, the consequences are unmistakable: Some parts of the shoreline have lost as much as 14 feet per year to the sea over the past decade. Key roads face perpetual risk of washing out. The hospital and the city hall sit alarmingly close to deteriorating cliffs. Rising waters threaten to contaminate aquifers used for drinking water. And each year, the sea inches closer to more homes and businesses. | As residents witness the changes, they worry their children and grandchildren will inherit a far different place than the one they have always known. And as the growing problems threaten fragile infrastructure, local officials spend their days figuring out how to try to hold back the encroaching sea — and where to simply surrender to it. | But the islands’ fragility has brought them a sort of grim notoriety. Time magazine put the Magdalen Islands on its list of “10 amazing places to visit before they vanish.” Architectural Digest included them on its “30 places to visit before they’re gone forever.” Madelinots, as locals call themselves, have no intention of vanishing anytime soon. But researchers estimate that without serious action, hundreds of structures and miles of roads could fall victim to erosion and flooding in coming decades. | “Not everything can be fixed; not everything can be saved,” Bourgeois said, noting that parking lots, hiking trails and scenic overlooks already have been relocated to sturdier ground. “In some cases, you have to accept retreat.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/climate-environment/canada-quebec-islands-climate-change/

An anonymously run Telegram account has indicated that it wants to sell a tranche of emails relating to Russia’s 2018 World Cup bid, after reports that they contain a dossier compiled by Russian officials on how to bribe Fifa executive council members.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/01/emails-about-russia-2018-world-cup-bid-being-offered-online

Fishery collapse ‘confirms Silent Spring pesticide prophecy', suggests researchers in new Japanese study in Science, which showed an immediate plunge in insect and plankton numbers after introduction of neonicotinoid pesticides to rice paddies, rapidly followed by the collapse of fish populations.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/31/fishery-collapse-confirms-silent-spring-pesticide-prophecy

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has branded environmental protesters “anarchists” and threatened a radical crackdown on the right to protest in a speech claiming progressives are seeking to “deny the liberties of Australians”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/01/scott-morrison-threatens-crackdown-on-secondary-boycotts-of-mining-companies

Everyday Americans don’t own resorts they can list as alternative addresses to tinker with their tax liability. Middle class families today face more tax burdens while the President dodges the consequences of the Republican tax bill.
https://twitter.com/NitaLowey/status/1190070847010201600

Trump touts '303,000' US job additions — more than double what the government reported in October
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-jobs-report-october-comments-misleadingly-number-double-government-report-2019-11-1028652180

North Carolina Republicans' corruption is out in the open. This isn't just political hardball. These Republicans reject the legitimacy of Democratic lawmakers. They think they have a divine right to rule the state, no matter what the voters say.
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1190300983370362880

Seriously, watch this video. And listen to the Republicans laugh at the end. They think this is a joke. They refuse to call a vote *because Democrats are present.* And they think it's funny that Democrats want a chance to represent their constituents.
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1190302773826510848

BTW, the budget stand-off revolves in part around North Carolina Republicans' refusal to expand Medicaid. They simply will not pass any budget that extends health insurance to lower-income Americans. Their cruelty is killing people.
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1190303318159118342

ICYMI: An indispensable researcher frequently cited by journalists, @TRACReports, says it discovered the U.S. agency that oversees the immigration court system has been "silently deleting swaths of records in their entirety from the data releases." https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/580/ https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1190319154244603906

Incomplete and Garbled Immigration Court Data Suggest Lack of Commitment to Accuracy | TRAC recently discovered gross irregularities in recent data releases from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency that oversees the US immigration court system. After attempting - unsuccessfully - to work with the EOIR to fix these problems, TRAC decided to make public our observations of the quality of the agency's public data releases as well as express our concerns about the lack of commitment within the agency to responsible data management. Policymakers and the public routinely put their faith in federal agencies to provide complete and accurate information about their work. The value of government transparency is even higher in the area of immigration law and the Immigration Courts, which have become topics of considerable concern for Americans from all walks of life and for all three branches of government. In the present context, TRAC views concerns about EOIR's data inconsistencies - outlined below - as substantive, ongoing, and in need of prompt attention. Of greatest concern is the lack of commitment from EOIR to ensuring the public is provided with accurate and reliable data about the Court's operations.
https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/580/

The Trump administration is creating a center that will give immigration agents access to information from U.S. intelligence agencies. Migrants and others denied entry will be unable to see the evidence against them because it is classified.
https://www.propublica.org/article/border-agents-can-now-get-classified-intelligence-information-experts-call-that-dangerous

A federal judge has thrown out a $300 million defamation lawsuit filed by Joe Arpaio, Arizona’s former Maricopa County sheriff, against CNN and two other national media outlets.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/468562-federal-judge-tosses-joe-arpaios-300m-defamation-lawsuit-against-cnn

Earlier this year, Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, received a sudden windfall of money from a prominent Ukrainian oligarch who is fighting extradition to the United States and is suspected of having ties to the Russian mob.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/politics/parnas-firtash-giuliani-ties/index.html

There are a bunch of people standing outside the Oval. We don’t know who they are. Trump is 35 minutes late and tweeting
https://twitter.com/kathrynw5/status/1190374501621620737

The Trump and Republicans (not Congress) illegally approved $400 million in financing for Argentina’s road network, not for US road network, and Shitstain Ivanka was acting as Secretary of State
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-05/ivanka-trump-visits-troubled-argentina-bringing-cash-for-roads

A Florida firm called Fraud Guarantee has attracted no identifiable customers, generated zero returns for investors and—according to Florida court records—defaulted on its office lease.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/giuliani-associate-left-trail-of-troubled-businesses-before-ukraine-probe-push-11572527608

In the wake of tragedy in his hometown, @BetoORourke responded with compassion and leadership, looking into the eyes of people who just lost loved ones and pledging his total resolve. His passion for solving our gun crisis has been inspiring to anyone who has seen him.
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1190409181406355457

Indonesian man who helped set strict adultery laws flogged for adultery
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50258727

Another reminder: Keystone pipeline spills more than 350,000 gallons of oil in North Dakota
https://twitter.com/endangered/status/1190041760669609984

The Trump Administration has trapped tens of thousands of vulnerable asylum-seekers in dangerous conditions in Mexico. We can’t let this continue. There’s a lot we can do to fight back — public outcry is powerful.
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1190289036818157568

Do not normalize that the leader of our country has nothing on his schedule and will spend the day watching cable-TV and tweeting. He is putting our country in short and long-thttps://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1189910658726412289erm danger in so many ways.

When was the last time you shook the hand, hugged, helped, or smiled at someone who looks different from you, speaks a different language, loves in a different way, or prays in a different way? If it wasn’t today, try to tomorrow. The world will be better for it.
https://twitter.com/ERICBALFOUR/status/1189754441676681216

Thank you @realDonaldTrump for making crystal clear how little you know about the global car market. Your horse and buggy strategy will not work. The fossil fuel car is going the way of the dodo bird. Please inform the other members of the Flat Earth Society.
https://twitter.com/JerryBrownGov/status/1189634476520816641

The Trump administration is failing our kids. Vote accordingly.
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1189530842013618176