It's as symbolic as it is emblematic of this country as we by pass Thanksgiving and rapidly transition from Halloween to Chri$tmas, and they didn't even try to hide it!
Might as well open it:
Tensions build in House after resolution laying out rules for impeachment inquiry gets OK
By Alan Fram and Matthew Daly Associated Press
My front page carried the New York Times version:
"House to vote on rules governing next phase of Trump impeachment inquiry" by Nicholas Fandos New York Times, October 31, 2019
WASHINGTON — A bitterly divided House of Representatives voted Thursday to endorse the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump, in a historic action that set up a critical new public phase of the process and underscored the toxic political polarization that serves as its backdrop.
You change some of the names around and it's 21 years ago.
The vote was 232 to 196 to approve a resolution that sets out rules for an impeachment process for which there are few precedents and which promises to consume the country a little more than a year before the 2020 elections. It was the third time in modern history that the House had taken a vote on an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president.
Not me, even if the obsessive pre$$ and ma$$ media keeps it front and center.
Having resisted such a vote for months, Democrats muscled through their resolution over unanimous Republican opposition with only two of their members breaking ranks to vote no. The tally foreshadowed the battle to come as Democrats take their case against the president fully into public view, sending both parties into uncharted territory and reshaping the nation’s political landscape.
I'm going to leave the hyperbole of the final phrases alone and focus on what a terrible sign that is. No Republican defections as two Democrats peel off in what we are still be told is only an vote to inquire. They have made up their minds, but it's a vote to inquire.
Minutes after the vote, the White House press secretary denounced the process as “a sham impeachment” and “a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the president.”
Or at least hamstring his reelection effort.
Practically speaking, the resolution outlines the rights and procedures that will guide the process from here on out, including the public presentation of evidence and how Trump and his legal team will be able to eventually mount a defense, but its significance was more profound: After five weeks of private fact-finding, an almost completely unified Democratic caucus signaled that, despite Republican opposition, they now have enough confidence in the severity of the underlying facts about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine to start making their case for impeachment in public.
The vote removed almost any doubt that Democrats would bring a full-fledged impeachment case against Trump for his apparent efforts to pressure a foreign power into investigating his domestic political rivals. Less clear is how quickly Democrats can move to formalize their charges and, whether through public hearings and the presentation of new evidence, they can win over any Republicans.
To that end, the measure appeared to be designed to challenge Republican criticisms that Democrats had spent the last few weeks shredding important precedents in their zeal to remove a president from office under the cover of secretive depositions.
Democrats urged Republicans to view Thursday’s vote as a turning point in the process, the moment when every House member must begin engaging with the evidence itself.
Which is the evidence exactly? All I've seen are leaks turned into headlines from discredited, agenda-pushing propaganda outlets that later turn out to be tremendously overblown.
Party leaders are aiming for a possible House vote on impeachment before Christmas.
They going to wrap it in a bow?
Thursday’s dramatic vote, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi presiding from the wooden rostrum in an unusually packed House chamber, came after an impassioned debate that was fraught with the weight of the moment.
Pelosi read from the Constitution. Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader from California, quoted Alexander Hamilton. Lawmakers listened from their seats, stone-faced and somber, while members of the public watched from the crowded gallery above.
“This is not any cause for any glee or comfort,” Pelosi said, as she stood beside a large placard of an American flag. “What is at stake in all of this is nothing less than our democracy.”
You know, that is very interesting because isn't there an amendment against cruel and unusual punishment?
Well, back in the day, if you remember, Pelosi said impeachment of George W. Bush, the war-criminal and author of "enhanced interrogation" measures such as waterboarding as well as the promoting of wars of aggression based on lies, was off the table. She took it off the table because she was one of the eight committee heads to be notified of the torture and she kept her mouth shut, thus become an accomplice and collaborator in the practice.
Now she is in full over a phone call over political pressure, the kind of thing that happens hundreds of times a day in that rancid cauldron in which they exist.
Representative Jim McGovern, Rules Committee chairman, said lawmakers were “not here in some partisan exercise.
“There is serious evidence that President Trump may have violated the Constitution,” the Worcester Democrat said.
MAY HAVE?
You bring forth the most serious charges in our ruling document, and it's a maybe?
Republicans worked feverishly to hold their ranks together in opposition, with Trump rallying support at the White House before the roll call. Though many of the rules are nearly identical to those Republicans adopted in 1998 when they impeached President Clinton, party leaders insisted that supporting the resolution amounted to legitimizing what they view as an indefensible three-year campaign to undo the results of the 2016 election.
I didn't get the feeling that Republicans were feverishly working to hold their ranks together. What with the distortion?
It says many of the rules are identical, but not all.
“Democrats are trying to impeach the president because they are scared they cannot defeat him at the ballot box,” McCarthy said. “Why do you not trust the people?”
He's right. This is more about 2020.
The inquiry remains a high-stakes gamble for Democrats just over a year from the 2020 balloting, as their presidential contenders — some of whom would act as jurors in a Senate trial should the House vote to impeach — are already deep into their campaigns to try to defeat Trump. Polls in recent weeks have suggested a narrow majority of the nation backs the inquiry and believes Trump’s actions warrant scrutiny, but support for Trump being impeached and removed appears weaker, and there has been no sign that the president’s narrow but durable base of supporters has been troubled by the accusations.
OMG!
I'll bet a lot of them are no wondering why they did this! Was it a trap laid by Bolton and the NYT to reelect Trump and thus freeing him to fulfill all of Israel's wishes?
One may get the impression here that I am a Trump supporter. I am not. His comment the other day regarding the Syrian oil totally turned me off to him, and I'm tired of the stage show as the wars drag on and on. If he isn't going to unwind the empire and begin repairing relations with the world so we can, hopefully, start trading normally again, then what good is he? I'm tired of waiting and waiting (the government will, of course, have to apologize for its misdeeds and interference in those nations' affairs and beg for forgiveness, and I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you).
The reason I stand against impeachment over this is because it will be the removal of a duly-elected leader like in, well, Ukraine in 2014!
Though Trump and White House aides are increasingly resigned to the fact that the House will ultimately impeach him, for now, few lawmakers in either party believe there is a real threat that he would be convicted by the two-thirds majority needed in the Senate.
That's where they are wrong. The Republican senators are like Rome's during the time of Caesar. You are only afraid of the guy until you have the chance to stab him in the back and eliminate him. Have they so quickly forgotten Corker and Flake?
The House inquiry has moved with remarkable speed since Pelosi told the country last month that she would launch a formal impeachment inquiry into whether Trump had betrayed his oath of office by seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain.
They all have, and were the Democrats serious they would have Clinton and Obama people up on the hill and would be getting to the bottom of the Steele dossier, who paid for it, how it was compiled, who delivered it through government channels so the Obama administration could use it to obtain a warrant and infiltrate and entrap the opposing party's presidential candidate.
Their case was bolstered by the release of a whistle-blower complaint accusing Trump of a scheme to shake down Ukraine for assistance and a reconstructed transcript of a July phone call between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. During the call, Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his younger son, Hunter, as well as an unsubstantiated theory that Democrats colluded with Ukraine to undermine the 2016 election.
Yes, the sanctified whistle-blower, as opposed someone like Manning or the whistleblowers the transparent Obama administration prosecuted, more than all the other administrations in the history of this country. Somehow that gets lost amidst the pre$$ nostalgia for the good old days.
In over a dozen interviews, and 70-plus hours of private testimony since then, investigators for the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform committees have begun to fill out a narrative of a president using critical leverage points at his disposal to push Ukraine.
I'm tired of being given narratives as news, sorry.
Several witnesses, including the top American diplomat in Ukraine, have testified that they were led to believe Trump went further, withholding a coveted White House meeting with Zelensky and $391 million in security aid approved by Congress to help Ukraine fight off Russia until he got a public commitment to investigate his political adversaries.
So it is not firsthand knowledge?
Who "led them to believe" such things?
WTF is this?
On Thursday, as the House voted, four floors below in the Capitol investigators questioned Timothy Morrison, the top Russia expert on the National Security Council.
Yeah, all of this is coming from Bolton.
He testified that a top diplomat who was close to Trump told him that a package of military assistance for Ukraine would not be released until the country committed to investigating Trump’s political rivals, corroborating a key episode at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
That is called hearsay, and it is not admissible in regular courtrooms, never mind what constitutes alleged high crimes and misdemeanors.
The closed-door deposition by Morrison, who announced his resignation Wednesday on the eve of his appearance, suggests that an ambassador proposed a quid pro quo in which security assistance money allocated by Congress would be provided only in exchange for the political investigations the president was seeking.....
That's how the person who leaked the testimony to the New York Times framed it, but there was no quid pro quo -- not that there is anything wrong with that -- and speaking of election interference (that conspiracy just happened to be true; however, it was buried with him).
--more--"
For some reason, the Globe was in a somber mood:
"Yes, this was a serious vote, but after that, Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on anything else on impeachment" by Jazmine Ulloa and Ryan Wangman Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent , November 1, 2019
WASHINGTON — After months of political maneuvering, weeks of closed-door hearings, and one morning of intense 90-minute House debate, the Trump impeachment inquiry entered a new public phase.
The fight over the message to voters heading into the 2020 election is only heating up.
Oh, this IS ALL POLITICS!
“At this stage, I think the process is being fought on the battlefield of optics,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “This formalization gives the process a better appearance. It kind of neatens it up, it makes it look more like something that the Congress is openly proud to be doing or the Democrats are openly proud to be doing.”
I'm tired of the illusions of appearance, aren't you?
So much for the sacred duty of guarding the Constitution!
The measure sets rules for public hearings in the investigation into allegations Trump pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son and also gives Trump and his attorneys new rights in the proceedings. The resolution allows the House Intelligence Committee to release transcripts of the depositions they have taken in closed sessions.
More sensationalist leaks that will be distorted.
Trump’s campaign offered a preview of the new phase of the fight Wednesday night by airing an anti-impeachment ad during Fox’s TV broadcast of the World Series.
In a packed House chamber Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the vote was “not any cause for any glee.” Signalling the importance of the occasion, she stood at the House rostrum, gavel in hand, and presided over the vote herself – something reserved for only the most momentous occasions.
“What is at stake is nothing less than our democracy,” she said, met with a round of applause as she finished her remarks. “What we are fighting for is defending our democracy for the people.”
Uh-huh.
It was a day for high-minded oratory, constitutional references and dueling symbols.
Like some other Democrats, Pelosi delivered her remarks on the House floor standing next to a large placard with the image of an American flag.
I will not be sad to see her go.
Not to be outdone, Representative Steve Scalise, a top Republican from Louisiana, pointed to his own placard next to him as he as he spoke. It contained a blown-up photograph of the Kremlin with an image of a hammer and sickle and the words “37 days of Soviet-style impeachment proceedings.”
After the vote, Scalise waved a printed tally before reporters.
I'm going to wave this at you instead:
"At another time, under a different president, Republican Representative Francis Rooney’s words might have seemed innocuous, banal to the point of irrelevance, but this is 2019, the president is Trump, and in the country clubs and gated communities of Rooney’s ruby-red district along southwest Florida’s shimmering Gulf Coast, the comments provoked a collective howl. Republican Facebook pages lit up with indignation, protesting what they saw as an act of supreme disloyalty to a leader they say they have come to revere more than any in their lifetimes. ‘‘I told him, ‘You’ve betrayed your country, your president, and your constituents,’ ’’ said Doris Cortese, the 80-year-old vice chair of the Lee County Republicans, recounting a conversation with Rooney. ‘‘My exact words to him were: ‘Get out.’ ’’ Within hours, the longtime Republican insider had, announcing on Fox News his decision not to run again after two terms. The dramatic late October sequence traced a now familiar arc of Trump’s presidency. Republicans who dare to step out of line get pummeled for their trouble. Rooney’s toe-dip into the whirlpool of subversion had, for a brief while, appeared like it could be different, at least when viewed from Washington, but seen from here in southwest Florida — the heart of Trump country in a state he will need to win next year to hold the White House — the president’s base is not cracking. It’s growing stronger. By outing himself as a less-than-reliable ally, Republican activists say, Rooney did the party a service as it attempts to weed out all who might waver....."
Like the Dems have their litmus tests, and he just received one more vote in Florida!
I'm sure the Facebook pages were Russian, too. They are famous for their purges.
Back to the hearing:
Until September, Pelosi and House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler had been at odds over whether to move forward with the impeachment inquiry. She at first opted for a slower route through the courts and multiple committee investigations, fearing a formal impeachment inquiry could backfire politically because of tepid public support and near-solid Republican opposition, but a whistle-blower complaint about Trump’s July call with Ukraine’s president turbocharged the impeachment effort.
It already has.
“I get it, my friends on the other side of the aisle want to talk about process, process, process” Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, the author of the impeachment procedures resolution, said during Thursday’s debate. “But it’s interesting that not one of them wants to talk about the president’s conduct and that speaks volumes,” but from the Republican side of the chamber, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma fired back at “my friend Mr. McGovern.”
“We’re debating process here because that’s what this is,” Cole said. “This is a process resolution to impeach the president of the United States. You didn’t accept a single amendment. . . . You didn’t confer with us when you did it, so that’s why we’re talking process. It’s an unfair process.”
Held in secret in the bowels of the basement like a star chamber.
Leaving the House chamber Thursday, Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, one of the two Democrats who voted against the resolution, said his fellow Democrats tried to sway him in support of the inquiry with “gentle conversation” but without pressure.
He still voted “no,” he said, joining Democratic Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota because he believed the inquiry would only further divide the country.
Trump should take Minnesota in 2020.
“The bar for impeachment is very high,” said Van Drew, a first-term lawmaker who last year flipped a district that voted for Trump in 2016. “There’s a reason that nobody has been successfully convicted of an impeachment in the entire history of the United States of America,” but just the word impeachment, echoing over and over again Thursday in the House, left members of both parties feeling gloomy as they departed into a drizzle for a week-long recess.
That's how serious is this threat to our democracy and Constitution!
They vote on it and then take a week off!!
Imagine all the damage this president could do while they are neglectfully out of town!
They cite duty and are then derelict in it!
Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, who has supported an impeachment inquiry since April, said the vote “just means we’re staying the course.”
That's a good strategy.
Walking down a marble hallway of the Capitol, she said she felt somber but also “emboldened to continue to do this because our very democracy depends on it.”
The pious self-righteous that comes with the buzzword tag-lines is a turn-off.
--more--"
Related:
"Robby Mook and Matt Rhoades are from different sides of the political aisle. Mook, a Democrat, was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Rhoades, a Republican, ran Mitt Romney’s presidential run in 2012, but the two men share a common experience: Both of the campaigns that they ran were targeted by foreign adversaries. Now, Mook and Rhoades are doing something about it. They have created a nonprofit, which opened for business on Thursday, with the goal of providing free or low-cost cybersecurity services to congressional and presidential candidates....."
They are taking the easy way out, according to Bernoff.
Good thing we get an extra hour of sleep this weekend:
"Elusive Zzzzzzzs: Setting back clock won’t erase sleep deficit nagging older adults" by Robert Weisman Globe Staff, October 31, 2019
Will you enjoy an extra hour of sleep when daylight saving time ends Sunday?
I'm so tired of that myth being promoted.
You are still getting the same amount of sleep.
Simply moving the hands around on a clock means nothing.
Do you think pets notice the extra hour?
Many sleep-deprived seniors, after dutifully setting back their clocks Saturday night, will mark the occasion doing what they’re often doing in the wee hours: tossing and turning, nudging snoring spouses, and fretting about being awake.
It’s a cruel irony for older adults. At a time of life when they should be able to relax, after decades of raising children and trudging to work, falling and staying asleep are more challenging than ever. Chalk it up to rising anxiety, changing circadian rhythms, and unhealthy habits, ranging from late-day caffeine and alcohol intake to nonstop digital interruptions.
“Our lifestyle is disrupting our sleep,” said Dr. Sanford Auerbach, director of Boston Medical Center’s sleep disorders center. “For older people, sleep is more fragile.”
Doctors see a growing epidemic of sleep disorders in patients over 50, especially insomnia and sleep apnea, with the prevalence and health risks increasing as people age. Because many seniors are stoic about their lack of shut-eye and avoid treatment, researchers believe the bulk of cases — as many as eight in 10 when it comes to sleep apnea — go undiagnosed.
I'm sure they have a pill for that.
The advice from doctors: If you have trouble sleeping, get it checked.
“Sleep disorders are treatable,” said Dr. Charles Czeisler, director of the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “But a lot of people don’t see sleep deprivation as a serious medical condition. We’re in a society where we’re taught to be tough, and concern about sleep is seen by some people as a weakness.”
Those who do seek interventions step into a world of forbidding face masks pumping air into nasal passages, smart.....
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
--more--"
[flip to below fold]
After being run out of town on a rail, the Globe is helping Katie Hill, who is now playing the victim card.
The National lead:
EPA to rescind 2015 rule limiting power plants’ discharges of toxic metals
By Lisa Friedman New York Times
After that, I had to start hunting:
White House officials ramp up new tax cut talks, as Trump seeks sharp contrast with 2020 Democrats
By Erica Werner, Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein Washington Post
For some reason, the Globe cleaned up the Keystone oil leak, "one of the larger spills in the state."
"A high school principal who told a parent he couldn’t say whether the Holocaust was ‘‘a factual, historical event’’ triggered a cascade of outrage throughout Jewish communities in South Florida this summer. The controversy, which began in July after a newspaper published a 2018 e-mail exchange between a parent and Spanish River Community High School principal William Latson, may have come to a dramatic close Wednesday in Boca Raton, pending any appeal. Latson was fired for cause in a decision by the Palm Beach County School Board after it found he violated ethics codes and failed in his job responsibilities, according to its motion posted online. The board focused on Latson’s response to the publication of his e-mail exchange, characterizing it as lethargic in the face of intense media scrutiny. ‘‘While his e-mail was receiving global news coverage, Mr. Latson failed to respond to communications from his supervisors and failed to assist the District in addressing the serious disruption caused by the aforementioned email and news coverage,’’ the board wrote....."
Nice to know that Democrats are defending our"democracy" and the Constitution with impeachment proceedings as free speech is in peril (I don't call it the ejewkhazion system for nothing).
He should have went on strike.
Interestingly enough, the California fires didn't make print as the winds driving the fires die down.
Nothing happening in the world at all, according to the Globe:
My printed lead:
Pakistan Train Catches Fire, Killing More Than 70
By Salman Masood The New York Times
They were troops on their way to the front:
"India on Thursday formally implemented legislation approved by Parliament in early August that removes Indian-controlled Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and begins direct federal rule of the disputed area amid a harsh security lockdown and widespread public disenchantment. The legislation divides the former state of Jammu-Kashmir into two federally governed territories. Government forces were on high alert to prevent anti-India protests or rebel attacks, though no incidents were reported until noon. Tens of thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers fanned out across the region, patrolling streets and manning checkpoints. Shops, schools, and businesses have mostly remained closed since August, and streets were largely deserted. Authorities have eased some restrictions, lifting roadblocks and restoring landlines and some mobile phone services since Aug. 5. They have encouraged students to return to school and businesses to reopen, but Kashmiris have largely stayed home, in defiance or fear amid threats of violence. G.C. Murmu, a new civilian administrator appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government with the title of lieutenant governor, assumed office on Thursday. The region previously was headed by a governor. Indian authorities also changed the name of the state-run radio station Radio Kashmir Srinagar to All India Radio Srinagar."
As opposed to troops being withdrawn:
"Ukrainian troops will begin a weapons pullback in a second location in war-torn eastern Ukraine next week if a cease-fire there persists, the country’s leader said Thursday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke in Kyiv, the capital, at the end of talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who reaffirmed NATO’s support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia-backed separatists in the east. Stoltenberg’s visit comes just days after Ukraine and the separatists began pulling back weaponry from one front line in the east. The disengagement in two locations is seen as the final hurdle before much-anticipated peace talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany that aim to finally end the deadly conflict. The weaponry pullback finally began Tuesday after Zelenskiy, who won office in April on a pledge to end the war, visited the area around the eastern village of Zolote and confronted armed veterans who came there to try to hamper the weapons pullback....."
If only we could get a president like that!
Of course, this is all about Nordstream 2, and maybe Healey can ask Tillerson what went on in Ukraine.
"Iraq’s president promises new elections law and early polls amid protests" by Mustafa Salim and Erin Cunningham The Washington Post, October 31, 2019
BAGHDAD — Demonstrators have lashed out at political parties and armed groups allied with neighboring Iran, which has maintained outsize political and military influence in Iraq since Tehran supported militias in Iraq’s battle against the Islamic State militant group.
Iraqi protesters in recent days have burned Iranian flags and torn down posters of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the southern city of Karbala, a pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims, demonstrators stormed the Iranian Consulate and raised the Iraqi flag.
That is confirmation of a color-coded CIA coup effort and destabilization campaign.
The chief UN representative in Iraq also urged government transparency, saying Iraq is at a crossroads.
‘‘Window dressing will only feed anger and resentment,’’ said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the special representative of the UN secretary general for Iraq.
Better choose the correct path then.
‘‘If Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi does not resign, Iraq could turn into another Syria or Yemen,’’ firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Twitter.....
Yeah, ‘‘this time it’s a revolution.’’
--more--"
Related:
Islamic State names new leader
The New York Times Company cites an audio recording uploaded on the Telegram app.
Time to start marching:
"China’s new morality guidelines describe how to eat right, lower carbon footprints — and think just like President Xi" by Miriam Berger Washington Post, October 31, 2019
Officially known as the ‘‘Outline for Implementing the Moral Construction of Citizens in the New Era,’’ China’s recently released and revamped morality laws could just as easily have been dubbed ‘‘The World According to Xi.’’
On Sunday, China issued new morality guidelines that instruct people on how to be model citizens in all aspects of life — from directives to ‘‘defend China’s honor’’ to be ‘‘civilized’’ eaters, sort garbage, and lower one’s carbon footprint while traveling.
They make Greta proud, and the kids will love it, too.
The larger message, however, appears to be about the man behind it all: Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been busy centralizing power and cementing himself as China’s main man above all else. Xi’s political philosophies — enshrined in the constitution as ‘‘Xi Jinping Thought’’ in 2017 — are the driving force behind the guidelines, which noticeably omit references to other key Communist leaders, including icons Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
Kind of like he is the Asian Hitler, huh?
With Beijing battling some big obstacles — a slowing economy, a trade war with the United States, unrest in Hong Kong — the guidelines are a way for Xi to entrench his worldview and bolster his ability to dictate public and private norms.....
--more--"
Maybe she can sue them:
"Judges in Germany on Thursday threw out a lawsuit by three farming families who had taken Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to court and argued that it wasn’t doing enough to tackle climate change. The suit was the first attempt in Germany to hold authorities legally accountable for pledges they have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Similar cases elsewhere have met with mixed success. The families, who were backed by environmental group Greenpeace, claimed their farms are already suffering from the effects of man-made global warming, and that Germany — one of the world’s biggest historical emitters of greenhouse gases — was partly responsible, but the Berlin administrative court ruled after a one-day hearing that there was no legal basis to pursue the plaintiffs’ claims. Specifically, the five judges concluded that a 2014 decision by the Cabinet to cut Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990s levels only constituted a declaration of political intent, not a legally binding commitment. The court also noted that the government had made a subsequent decision this October that pushed back the 2020 emissions cuts goal by three years, and said this delay alone wasn’t enough for the plaintiffs to claim that their human rights had been breached. Still, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Roda Verheyen, said the judges had set an important precedent by acknowledging a link between fundamental rights, climate change, and government actions."
Maybe that is the way to shut down the war machines.
Who would have thought it would be fascists that would save the planet?
North Korea fires 2 projectiles in first test since talks stalled
Don't look to Japan for help.
Congress does the right thing and finally recognizes Armenian Genocide
They would know, right?
I'm just wondering how that vote on nearly ancient history now is helping to save our democracy and Constitution.
Meanwhile, right under the very noses:
"Citing ‘unprecedented’ surveillance, ACLU sues federal agencies over facial-recognition scans" by Drew Harwell Washington Post, October 31, 2019
WASHINGTON — The lawsuit marks a new chapter in growing resistance to the technology, which has quickly become a far-reaching presence in people’s lives, with little to no legislative approval or public debate.
Federal investigators and local police nationwide routinely use facial-recognition software to look for potential criminal suspects and witnesses, scanning hundreds of millions of Americans’ photos, including from state driver’s license databases.
Yes, the Bill of Rights is in ashes as the Democrats defend our democracy in the ever-increasing police state of total surveillance.
Facial recognition is also used to unlock cellphones, monitor public venues, and guard the entryways of schools, workplaces and housing complexes, scanning visitors’ faces to grant them access or alert security officials.
Government and law enforcement officials have argued the software offers a powerful investigative tool that can more quickly pinpoint dangerous suspects, but some lawmakers and privacy advocates argue the systems erode protections against government surveillance and unlawful searches by scanning people without their knowledge or consent, and that inaccuracies in the systems could undermine criminal prosecutions, unfairly target people of color, and lead to false arrests.
Land of the Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
ACLU attorneys wrote that the agencies have not responded to requests to provide legal, policy, and training records first sought in January under the Freedom of Information Act. Those documents could help outline how many times facial-recognition software has been used in arrests, how the searches are used by local and state law-enforcement agencies, and how accurate the systems are required to be for real-world use.
The attorneys also requested records related to government use of voice- and gait-recognition software, which could help identify people based on how they talk and walk.
In a blog post announcing the lawsuit, Kade Crockford, a director at the ACLU’s Massachusetts office, wrote, ‘‘The dystopian surveillance technology threatens to fundamentally alter our free society.’’
IMPEACH!
More than 640 million facial photos, including from state driver’s license databases, are also available for search by an internal FBI unit known as Facial Analysis, Comparison and Evaluation, or FACE, the Government Accountability Office reported in June. That team has logged more than 390,000 facial-recognition searches by local, state, and federal investigators since 2011.
Facial-recognition technology is designed by companies such as Amazon, Idemia [which has operations in Waltham and Billerica], and NEC and offered on a contract basis for government use. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The technology’s use has spread rapidly across the government, including Customs and Border Protection, whose officials have said they want to run facial-recognition scans on 97 percent of all air travelers flying out of the country within the next four years. An FBI counterterrorism official said last year that the bureau was testing Amazon’s facial-recognition software, Rekognition, arguing it would have significantly reduced the time taken to identify the suspected gunman in the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.
The largely unregulated technology has faced bipartisan anger in Congress. A group of eight congressional Democrats and Republicans, including the leaders of the homeland security committees in the House and the Senate, voiced concerns about how the agencies used the technology and requested answers about standards and safeguards. They have not received a response.
Too late!
Democratic Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Yvette Clarke of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan introduced a bill this summer that would ban the technology’s use in public and assisted housing, citing concerns about ‘‘over-surveillance.’’
IMPEACH!
--more--"
I'm just wondering why Obama never put a stop to that because going before a judge is a crapshoot:
"Trump judicial nominee cries over scathing letter from the American Bar Association" by Hannah Knowles Washington Post, October 31, 2019
WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association had no shortage of criticism in its assessment of the Trump administration’s new judicial nominee.
Colleagues found Lawrence VanDyke to be ‘‘arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice,’’ the chair of an ABA committee wrote in the scathing letter, the result of 60 interviews with lawyers, judges, and others who worked with the Justice Department attorney. Acquaintances also alleged a lack of humility, an ‘‘ ‘entitlement’ temperament,’’ a closed mind and an inconsistent ‘‘commitment to being candid,’’ the letter said.
It deemed VanDyke ‘‘not qualified’’ for a spot on the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
The way Hunter Biden wasn't qualified to serve on the board of a gas company?
The strongly worded review drew equally strong reactions at a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee — from Democrats who called the ABA findings unusual and troubling as well as from Republicans who called it a low attack from a group they’ve long accused of bias against conservatives, but one charge was particularly upsetting to VanDyke himself: The ABA’s report that he ‘‘would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community.’’
Asked if that was correct, the nominee struggled almost 15 seconds to find his words.
He started to cry.
‘‘I did not say that,’’ he said in a shaky voice. He apologized to his listeners as he halted again, apparently too overcome to speak.
‘‘It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God and they should all be treated with dignity and respect,’’ he added, eyes still glistening.
The emotional response came an hour and a half into a hearing for the latest judicial nominee to draw Democrats’ scrutiny as the Trump administration installs a record number of new, conservative judges. VanDyke quickly came under fire Wednesday for his past positions on issues such as gun control, environmental protections, and abortion — as well as LGBTQ rights.
I'm amazed how how we all have to bend over backwards for the lettered constellation of sexual deviancy these days.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, on Wednesday noted VanDyke’s support for a same-sex marriage ban in Nevada, where he served as solicitor general. Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, raised an op-ed VanDyke wrote in 2004 while attending law school, in which he argued that same-sex marriage would ‘‘hurt families, and consequentially children and society.’’
‘‘My personal views have definitely changed since 2004,’’ VanDyke told Leahy, but he maintained that, regardless, his opinion would not intrude on his decisions as a judge.
For Democrats, the ABA’s letter fueled existing doubts about the deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
‘‘Fairly damning,’’ Senator Chris Coons, Democart of Delaware, called it. ‘‘Some pretty darned serious concerns,’’ echoed Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, saying the litany of colleagues’ reservations could not be brushed aside. Leahy said he’d never encountered a letter like the VanDyke assessment in his 45 years in Congress.
VanDyke did not provide comment, but the Justice Department said in a statement that the attorney’s ‘‘long record of public service and his extensive litigation experience make him exceptionally well qualified.’’
‘‘And as today’s hearing confirmed, Mr. VanDyke is deeply committed to the rule of law and to treating all people fairly,’’ the statement added.
VanDyke said at Wednesday’s hearing that his ABA interviewer hurried through his responses to the criticisms they’d found. The Justice Department said it did not have comment on what may have caused the ABA to say VanDyke did not affirm his fairness to all litigants.
During the hearing, Republicans took aim at the ABA as VanDyke said he’d been ‘‘disappointed, shocked and hurt’’ to read the group’s conclusions. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said he was outraged that VanDyke’s lead ABA evaluator once donated $150 to the nominee’s political opponent, in a 2014 state Supreme Court race — a fact that ‘‘probably explains the total ad hominem nature of this disgraceful letter,’’ he said. He dismissed the ABA’s findings as ‘‘hearsay,’’ noting that the group did not detail examples to support its conclusions.
Republican lawmakers have long called the ABA unfair. When the group criticized another pending Trump judicial nominee, Sarah Pitlyk, as inexperienced, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, blasted the ABA for ‘‘behaving as a partisan mouthpiece.’’ He pointed to donations from some group members to Democrats, but such complaints aren’t universal among Republicans. Amid the fight over Pitlyk, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, pointed out that Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, had also received money from an ABA leader. Graham, in his response, called the organization a ‘‘fine group’’ whose staff he trusts despite what he described as a liberal bias.
While Hawley and other senators charged the ABA with playing politics, Whitehouse said he saw partisan maneuvering in all the criticism. ‘‘I can’t help but notice that colleagues on both sides of the aisle don’t hesitate to herald the ABA process when it is supportive of a nominee that they would like to see get on the court,’’ he said.
As a solution to Republicans’ concerns about the ABA’s conclusions, Whitehouse suggested calling on the group to give the Judiciary Committee more explanation of its findings in a private setting, as it has done in the past.
The ABA continues to deny bias.
‘‘The evaluations are narrowly focused, nonpartisan, and structured to assure a fair and impartial process,’’ William Hubbard, chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, wrote in a statement.
The ABA has deemed 97 percent of the 264 Trump administration nominees it has evaluated to be either ‘‘well qualified’’ or ‘‘qualified,’’ he said.
Hubbard added that the ‘‘committee’s work is insulated from, and independent of, all other activities of the ABA and its leadership.’’
Attorney Marcia Davenport, the lead evaluator who drew Republicans’ ire for her 2014 donation before joining the standing committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
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I'm so glad gays aren't subject to facial recognition surveillance like the rest of us.
Who gave Gordon College all that money?
Certain people want to know.
State Police commander clears trooper who was forced to falsify records in ‘Troopergate’ scandal
That is what kickstarted the whole thing.
Owner, company guilty in case of two workers who drowned in South End trench in 2016
Boston strategist helps launch super PAC to back Joe Biden
He is Larry Rasky, a campaign strategist who is chairman and chief executive of Boston-based Rasky Partners, one of the city’s most influential communications and lobbying shops, and a longtime confidant of former vice president Joe Biden who is advising that he name Buttigieg his vice presidential candidate because it has a good ring to it.
It was at this point that I flipped open the Metro section and spared the pen ink. I'm not even going to provide the links to the stories they carried since they are of no concern or interest to me.
Just business as usual, really.
Well, have a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, readers.
