Thursday, January 2, 2020

News Dump

The Manhattan district attorney's office has declined to prosecute a recent anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish subway passenger as a hate crime, according to lawyers representing the victim.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/manhattan-da-declines-to-prosecute-anti-semitic-attack-as-hate-crime/

Democrat Julián Castro drops out of 2020 presidential race (self.politics)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/us/politics/julian-castro-dropping-out.html

Trump Winery Fired Undocumented Workers — But Only After Grape Harvest Had Ended
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-winery-undocumented-workers_n_5e0d9f6fe4b0b2520d1cf423

I do mostly agree: AOC Tells Democrats How to Get it Right in 2020 - “For anyone who accuses us for instituting purity tests,” she says, “it’s called having values. It’s called, giving a damn.” (
https://www.thenation.com/article/2020-aoc-democrats/

Every Pa. county will have new voting machines with paper trails in 2020
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pa-new-voting-machines-for-2020-with-paper-trails-20200101.html

Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon’s Legal Concerns | “Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.” | Since then, Just Security has viewed unredacted copies of these emails, which begin in June and end in early October. Together, they tell the behind-the-scenes story of the defense and budget officials who had to carry out the president’s unexplained hold on military aid to Ukraine. The documents reveal growing concern from Pentagon officials that the hold would violate the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend money as appropriated by Congress, and that the necessary steps to avoid this result weren’t being taken. Those steps would include notifying Congress that the funding was being held or shifted elsewhere, a step that was never taken. The emails also show that no rationale was ever given for why the hold was put in place or why it was eventually lifted. What is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted; no one else appears to have supported his position. Although the pretext for the hold was that some sort of policy review was taking place, the emails make no mention of that actually happening. Instead, officials were anxiously waiting for the president to be convinced that the hold was a bad idea. And while the situation continued throughout the summer, senior defense officials were searching for legal guidance, worried they would be blamed should the hold be lifted too late to actually spend all of the money, which would violate the law. The emails also reveal key decision points, moments when senior officials hoped the hold might be lifted. This includes Vice President Mike Pence’s September meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which a senior defense official expected would resolve the funding issue, raising the question: Why? What was supposed to come out of that meeting that would pave the way for Trump to lift the hold? What was Pence expected to communicate?
https://www.justsecurity.org/67863/exclusive-unredacted-ukraine-documents-reveal-extent-of-pentagons-legal-concerns/
https://www.justsecurity.org/67489/trumps-hold-on-ukrainian-military-aid-was-illegal/

Surprise, surprise -- the DOJ redacted all of the incriminating information when originally released. AG Barr really is more of a threat to democracy than Trump is, and that's saying something.

DOJ Repeatedly Redacted Emails Expressing Concern That Trump Hold on Ukraine Aid Broke the Law
https://lawandcrime.com/impeachment/doj-repeatedly-redacted-emails-expressing-concern-that-trump-hold-on-ukraine-aid-broke-the-law/

An Australian zookeeper took home monkeys, pandas, and a tiger in order to keep them safe from bushfires
https://www.insider.com/australian-zookeeper-takes-animals-home-to-protect-from-bushfires-2020-1

California Will Enforce The Energy-Efficient Lightbulb Rule Trump Wants To Reverse
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/01/792885422/california-will-enforce-the-energy-efficient-lightbulb-rule-trump-wants-to-rever

Trump's "greatest honors" include a bill by Bernie Sanders and John McCain signed into law by Barack Obama, the Veterans Choice Act
https://theweek.com/speedreads/887018/trumps-greatest-honors-include-bill-by-bernie-sanders-john-mccain-signed-into-law-by-obama

MASS MURDERER Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, pardoned and praised by Trump and Republicans and all their supporters, rebrands as right-wing influencer. Gallagher's new job as an influencer and promoter for Salty Frog Gear  was featured in a New York Times article on Tuesday that described how the SEAL is using "his controversial past as a springboard to social media followers and branding opportunities":
https://www.salon.com/2020/01/02/serial-killer-navy-seal-eddie-gallagher-pardoned-by-trump-rebrands-as-right-wing-influencer/

Alt-Right White Nationalist Augustus Sol Invictus who ran for Senate as an alt-right libertarian arrested in Florida
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/white-nationalist-ran-senate-arrested-florida-68023615

The Florida White Nationalist Augustus Sol Invictus Running for President Has Been Arrested for Kidnapping and Domestic Violence
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/884a5p/the-florida-white-nationalist-running-for-president-has-been-arrested-for-kidnapping-and-domestic-violence

A French Man Has Died While At A Hospital In ICE Custody: This is the fourth person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in the current fiscal year, which began in October.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/french-man-died-hospital-ice-custody-immigration-customs

Plastic bags are now banned in Mexico City
https://www.insider.com/mexico-city-plastic-bag-ban-to-take-residents-back-in-time-2020-1

This is one of Bernie’s biggest supporters attacking a man who lost his young child in a school shooting. I’m getting so good that I can guess Bernie’s people by now. This is a new low. And all Fred was doing was stating a fact.
https://twitter.com/maggie_klaus/status/1212613600650489856?s=21

Not a coincidence that deceptively edited video of Biden magically appeared right after a poll showing Bernie falling way behind Biden with Black voters.
https://twitter.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1212600768265670656?s=21

Deliberately edited video posted by Sanders supporters edited to make it looks like Joe opposes social security.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/02/dishonestly-edited-video-joe-biden-signals-whats-coming/
https://twitter.com/Avi_Bueno/status/1212577712038121472

Thousands of tourists have been given less than 48 hours to evacuate fire-ravaged coastal communities as Australia braces for a heatwave Saturday expected to fan deadly bushfires
https://www.france24.com/en/20200102-australia-new-south-wales-evacuation-batemans-bay-wildfires-bush-fires-heat-wave

Scott Morrison defends climate policies and asks Australians to "be 'patient" over fires
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/02/pm-scott-morrison-defends-climate-policies-and-asks-australians-to-be-patient-over-fires

Steyer walking into an awkward situation at an Iowa grocery store that’s closing, with a voter getting angry at the store’s owner (in red) for liquidating it. “I heard you’re going to work for HyVee.”
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1212796686499753984

Nevada Democrats will not be able to caucus for Michael Bloomberg next month. The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate failed to file with the Nevada State Democratic Party by a Jan. 1 deadline, the party announced Thursday morning.
https://twitter.com/misyrlena/status/1212791291786014720

Remarkable: 7 of the 10 warmest years on record in DC have occurred since 2011. All 10 have occurred since 1990. Records date back to 1871.
https://twitter.com/capitalweather/status/1212774676931530752
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/01/02/mild-wet-december-concludes-third-warmest-year-record-washington/

Scientists have found the human fingerprint of climate change on daily weather, potentially untangling the long-held idea that weather and climate are distinct | The study’s results also imply that research aimed at assessing the human role in contributing to extreme weather events such as heat waves and floods may be underestimating the contribution. | The study concludes that the spatial patterns of global temperature and humidity are, in fact, distinguishable from natural variability, and have a human component to them. Going further, the study concludes that the long-term climate trend in global average temperature can be predicted if you know a single day’s weather information worldwide. According to study co-author Reto Knutti of ETH Zurich, the research alters what we can say about how weather and climate change are connected. “We’ve always said when you look at weather that’s not the same as climate,” he said. “That’s still true locally, if you are in one particular place and you only know the weather right now, right here, there isn’t much you can say.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/01/02/signal-human-caused-climate-change-has-emerged-every-day-weather-study-finds/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0666-7

Pompeo Abruptly Cancels Trip To Ukraine For The Second Time
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pompeo-abruptly-cancels-trip-to-ukraine-for-the-second-time

Animal Agriculture Costs More In Health Damage Than It Contributes To The Economy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2020/12/30/animal-agriculture-costs-more-in-health-damage-than-it-contributes-to-the-economy/#6a55ab092e09

New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán will miss the first 63 games of the 2020 season as part of an 81-game suspension (half the mlb season) for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy, according to league sources. The ban is retroactive to Sept. 19 when he was placed on administrative leave for an incident that occurred earlier that week.
https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-suspends-yankees-pitcher-domingo-german-81-games-under-domestic-violence-policy-194111883.html

Germany cuts fares for long-distance rail travel in response to climate crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/02/germany-cuts-fares-for-long-distance-rail-travel-in-response-to-climate-crisis

Murderer gets pardoned by the president and becomes a media influencer, yet doctors trying to provide potentially life saving care to the children in the literal concentration camps get arrested.

'Trump Money' Is Buying Silence as Unprecedented Payments Go to Farmers. The amount sent to farmers tops the auto-industry bailout by billions, and was delivered without congressional approval.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-money-buying-silence-farmer-subsidies-933019/

Republican Kentucky attorney general asks FBI to investigate Matt Bevin's pardons
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/01/02/kentucky-attorney-general-asks-fbi-investigate-matt-bevins-pardons/2797611001/

Republican senators, congressmen ask Supreme Court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-senators-congressmen-ask-supreme-court-to-consider-overturning-roe-v-wade/

More than 200 (198+ Republicans) lawmakers urge Supreme Court to 'reconsider' Roe v. Wade
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/476550-more-than-200-lawmakers-urge-supreme-court-to-reconsider-roe-v-wade

Marianne Williamson lays off campaign staff nationally, including NH
https://www.wmur.com/article/democrat-marianne-williamson-lays-off-campaign-staff-nationally-including-nh/30382582#

Backlog of toxic Superfund clean-ups grows under Trump
http://www.startribune.com/backlog-of-toxic-superfund-clean-ups-grows-under-trump/566657931/

The most underappreciated aspect of the Senate trial is that significant developments in the Ukraine case itself — and the body of evidence supporting it — continue to come out.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1212861880995401728

This @HawleyMO tweet highlights the risks of the Dem impeachment strategy: They want to hold the articles to pressure McConnell on witnesses but doing so can also undermine their talking point abt impeachment being an "urgent matter" of national security that must move quickly
https://twitter.com/rachaelmbade/status/1212833525780623360
https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1212827693856763907

A panel of scientific advisers at the EPA, most of whom were appointed by Trump, has warned that several of the agency's top regulatory rollbacks ignore "established science." The EPA, nevertheless, plans to push ahead with the sweeping changes anyway
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/epas-scientific-advisers-warn-its-regulatory-rollbacks-clash-with-established-science/2019/12/31/a1994f5a-227b-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html

Schiff: “From their deeply incriminating character, we can now see why they were concealed: They directly corroborate witnesses who testified that military aid to Ukraine was withheld at the direction of the President and that the WH was informed doing so may violate the law.”
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1212859724074500096

AG William Barr's Justice Department is ABUSING the b5 #FOIA exemption in these #MuellerMemos we sued over to withhold vast swaths of information about what key Trump administration told the FBI
https://twitter.com/JasonLeopold/status/1212864122481627136

"[M]any of the redaction choices are puzzling and even suspicious. The redactions include repeated references to legal problems with withholding the aid ... and warnings that waiting ... might mean that some of the funds would never get to Ukraine." https://wapo.st/2SI7GKm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/02/new-coverup-questions-trumps-ukraine-scandal/


On Monday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice fired close to 30 correctional officer trainees who posed in a Nazi salute for a class photo, following a state report into the photograph, which recommended their termination. “I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said in a statement. “This act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals.”
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/west-virginia-c-o-class-fired-after-nazi-salute-photo.html
https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2019/Pages/Gov.-Justice-approves-recommended-terminations-after-reviewing-report-on-DCR-Academy-Class-18.aspx

Mueller Memos Part 3: The Documents The Justice Department Didn’t Want Congress To See
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/mueller-report-secret-memos-3

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