Tuesday, February 05, 2019
Happy Birthday, Judah Samet. May he live to see many more. A very nice moment.
October 29, 2018
By Ryan W. Miller
Pittsburgh – Judah Samet (click here) was four minutes late to services on the Sabbath.
He always arrives on time, at 9:45 a.m. A conversation with his housekeeper on Saturday, though, kept him away from the massacre of 11 of his friends at the Tree of Life synagogue.
For the Hungarian-born 80-year-old, the targeted rampage at his place of worship was the second time anti-Semitism almost took his life. Samet survived 10 months in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II and was just a stopped train ride away from Auschwitz.
Samet pulled into the parking lot of Tree of Life “around 9:49, maybe 9:50” on Saturday, he said. Then a man knocked on his car window....
October 29, 2018
By Ryan W. Miller
Pittsburgh – Judah Samet (click here) was four minutes late to services on the Sabbath.
He always arrives on time, at 9:45 a.m. A conversation with his housekeeper on Saturday, though, kept him away from the massacre of 11 of his friends at the Tree of Life synagogue.
For the Hungarian-born 80-year-old, the targeted rampage at his place of worship was the second time anti-Semitism almost took his life. Samet survived 10 months in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II and was just a stopped train ride away from Auschwitz.
Samet pulled into the parking lot of Tree of Life “around 9:49, maybe 9:50” on Saturday, he said. Then a man knocked on his car window....
Stop using the term "late term abortion," there is no such thing and it can be misinterpreted.
There are laws now that allow viable fetuses of abortion to be born and given neonatal care. The third trimester abortions can have a viable fetus IF it is normal and healthy. This entire idea of Late Term Abortion is a political football and nothing more.
...Though many media reports (click here) and other literature use the phrase ‘late-term abortion,’ it is not accurate and should not be used,” Hal Lawrence, M.D., executive vice president and CEO of ACOG, said in an email. “A full-term pregnancy is defined as a pregnancy with a gestational age between 39 weeks and 40 weeks, 6 days. ‘Late term’ refers to a pregnancy with a gestational age of 41 weeks to 41 weeks, 6 days. Abortions are not performed at ‘late term.’”
...Though many media reports (click here) and other literature use the phrase ‘late-term abortion,’ it is not accurate and should not be used,” Hal Lawrence, M.D., executive vice president and CEO of ACOG, said in an email. “A full-term pregnancy is defined as a pregnancy with a gestational age between 39 weeks and 40 weeks, 6 days. ‘Late term’ refers to a pregnancy with a gestational age of 41 weeks to 41 weeks, 6 days. Abortions are not performed at ‘late term.’”
He added, "Because different methods of inducing abortion are effective at different stages of pregnancy, abortions are sometimes categorized by whether they occur in the first or second trimester. Clinicians sometimes use the term ‘early abortion’ to refer to abortions that occur up to 70 days gestational age, when medication abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol are highly effective. The term ‘later abortion’ is sometimes used to describe abortions that occur after 12 weeks gestational age. Describing these abortions as ‘late-term’ is simply inaccurate."...
Wage increases for LABORERS in the USA cannot be talked about without discussing inflation.
7 September 2018
Annual wage growth (click here) hit a nine-year high in the US last month as the economy created more jobs than expected.
Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% in August, pushing the annual rate of increase to 2.9% - the fastest pace since June 2009.
Annual wage growth (click here) hit a nine-year high in the US last month as the economy created more jobs than expected.
Average hourly earnings rose by 0.4% in August, pushing the annual rate of increase to 2.9% - the fastest pace since June 2009.
Hiring in the construction sector and in professional services helped the economy to add 201,000 jobs last month....
Annual inflation rate (click here) in the United States fell to 1.9 percent in December of 2018 from 2.2 percent in November, matching market expectations. It is the lowest inflation rate since August of 2017, mainly due to a decline in gasoline cost. On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged down 0.1 percent after a flat reading in the previous month and also in line with forecasts. It is the first monthly decrease in consumer prices in nine months, due to a 7.5 percent slump in gasoline prices. Inflation Rate in the United States averaged 3.27 percent from 1914 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 23.70 percent in June of 1920 and a record low of -15.80 percent in June of 1921.
The FED has been doing backflips to try to stem the inflation rate.
October 11, 2018
By Jeff Kearns
A gauge of underlying U.S. inflation (click here) was below estimates in September as used-car costs fell and housing rents cooled, signaling that price gains may remain close to where Federal Reserve policy makers want them amid an outlook for continued gradual interest-rate hikes.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core consumer price index rose 2.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the same pace as in August and less than the 2.3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, a Labor Department report showed Thursday. The broader CPI slowed to a 2.3 percent annual gain, the least since February, compared with forecasts for 2.4 percent.
The inflation figures partly reflect a 3 percent monthly decline in prices for used cars and trucks, the biggest drop in 15 years. While the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields initially fell after the report, Fed officials will have two more months of price figures in hand before their December meeting at which they’re projected to raise interest rates for a fourth time this year amid solid economic growth and consumer spending, boosted by tax cuts....
By Jeff Kearns
A gauge of underlying U.S. inflation (click here) was below estimates in September as used-car costs fell and housing rents cooled, signaling that price gains may remain close to where Federal Reserve policy makers want them amid an outlook for continued gradual interest-rate hikes.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core consumer price index rose 2.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the same pace as in August and less than the 2.3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, a Labor Department report showed Thursday. The broader CPI slowed to a 2.3 percent annual gain, the least since February, compared with forecasts for 2.4 percent.
The inflation figures partly reflect a 3 percent monthly decline in prices for used cars and trucks, the biggest drop in 15 years. While the dollar and 10-year Treasury yields initially fell after the report, Fed officials will have two more months of price figures in hand before their December meeting at which they’re projected to raise interest rates for a fourth time this year amid solid economic growth and consumer spending, boosted by tax cuts....
The net exporter of oil and gas now has greater pollution to be responsible for that results in a climate crisis needing more food stamps, not less.
...The massive spike in September & October 2017 was due to the massive hurricanes that struck the USA during that month. The spike of 3.4 million people distorted the chart too much, so I fixed the y-axis at 1 million so that the overall trend can still be seen. The spike would be much, much higher if Puerto Rico were in the SNAP program, but it is not. Instead, Puerto Rico gets a block grant to fund its own Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), which fed about one-third of the island before Hurricane Maria. There are 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico, so if they were part of the SNAP system, the October 2017 bar on the chart above could conceivably go up another 3 million....
The USA is setting records in air pollution with it's net exports. Trump's economy is built on the backs of human lungs as well as heat-related storms that kill.
...WHO estimates that around 7 million people (click here) die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections, including pneumonia.
Ambient air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period.
More than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, followed by low- and middle-income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe and the Americas....
Reagan was the first Republican to cheat the way to an economy by deregulating, but, Trump has set a record.
List of the current deregulation (click here)
New Rule: Climate Emergency | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) (click here for website of "Oil and Gas Climate Initiative )
To begin, Bill Maher is correct in drawing attention to Earth's climate. The petroleum industry has their own initiative, but, to be very frank $100 million is nothing compared to what it will take to end the climate crisis. This organization needs to be scrutinized for it's spending and it needs to work with the IPCC in order to sincerely make a difference.
There needs to be transparency to the funds and their use. I will point out that Shell stated openly the drilling in the Arctic is a poor idea and carries too much risk including the dangers to the climate. THAT is leadership.
If I read the tea leaves right, methane will be the new oil and this initiative will provide little to no relief from CO2 emissions generated by burning methane and will never seal the methane leaks their industry produces every year.
Start containing the effects of the Climate Crisis by ending the destruction of rainforest and begin to replace the biotic content of Earth in it's forests and other carbon sinks.
20 September 2018
By Adam Vaughan
There needs to be transparency to the funds and their use. I will point out that Shell stated openly the drilling in the Arctic is a poor idea and carries too much risk including the dangers to the climate. THAT is leadership.
If I read the tea leaves right, methane will be the new oil and this initiative will provide little to no relief from CO2 emissions generated by burning methane and will never seal the methane leaks their industry produces every year.
Start containing the effects of the Climate Crisis by ending the destruction of rainforest and begin to replace the biotic content of Earth in it's forests and other carbon sinks.
20 September 2018
By Adam Vaughan
ExxonMobil (click here) has joined the oil and gas industry’s flagship climate change project, reversing its decision not to join the alliance four years ago.
The company was a notable holdout when the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OCGI) was launched, but will now join European peers BP, Shell and Total in contributing $100m (£75m) to curb the impact of global warming.
The move is the clearest sign yet the US company is taking a more progressive stance on global warming.
Exxon, which promoted climate denial for years despite knowing about the risks since 1981, had shifted its tone on climate change under the leadership of Rex Tillerson. But while acknowledging global warming was real and linked to fossil fuel use, Tillerson said fears over climate change were overblown.
Darren Woods, who became the chief executive in 2017 when Tillerson became US secretary of state, has taken that shift further. “It will take the collective efforts of many in the energy industry and society to develop scalable, affordable solutions that will be needed to address the risks of climate change,” he said of the firm’s decision to join the OCGI.
Two other US oil companies, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, have also joined the initiative, taking its total climate fund to $1.3bn....
The Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund (click here) - sometimes referred to as war funds - is a separate pot of funding operated by the Department of Defense and the State Department, in addition to their "base" budgets (i.e., their regular peacetime budgets). Originally used to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the OCO continues to be a source of funding for the Pentagon, with a fraction of the funds going to the State Department.
Since the OCO fund has very little oversight and is not subject to the sequestration cuts that slashed every other part of the budget in 2013, many experts consider it a “slush fund” for the Pentagon. For example, Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, found that the Pentagon was stashing an estimated extra $20 billion worth of non-war funding in the “operation and maintenance” accounts of its proposed 2014 war budget. Even Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has recently called the OCO "a road to nowhere."
...Congress appropriated approximately $103 billion for OCO in FY2017 (click here) (8.5% of all discretionary appropriations), $78 billion for OCO in FY2018 (5.5% of all discretionary appropriations), and $68.8 billion for OCO so far in FY2019. Discretionary appropriations for FY2019 are not yet final; a continuing resolution expired December 21, 2018....
Since the OCO fund has very little oversight and is not subject to the sequestration cuts that slashed every other part of the budget in 2013, many experts consider it a “slush fund” for the Pentagon. For example, Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, found that the Pentagon was stashing an estimated extra $20 billion worth of non-war funding in the “operation and maintenance” accounts of its proposed 2014 war budget. Even Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has recently called the OCO "a road to nowhere."
...Congress appropriated approximately $103 billion for OCO in FY2017 (click here) (8.5% of all discretionary appropriations), $78 billion for OCO in FY2018 (5.5% of all discretionary appropriations), and $68.8 billion for OCO so far in FY2019. Discretionary appropriations for FY2019 are not yet final; a continuing resolution expired December 21, 2018....
American lobster men and women have real reasons to emigrate to Canada.
By Penelope Overton
Lunar New Year (click here) is supposed to be the busiest time of the year for Tom Adams, whose company, Maine Coast, used to sell millions of pounds of lobster to China.
But the U.S.-China trade war has shut Maine Coast out of that market.
His old Chinese customers now buy their lobster from Canada, which can sell them a hard-shell version without the 25 percent import tariff. On a snowy Wednesday morning, on what should have been his busiest shipping day of the year, Adams waved at stacks of boxed lobsters waiting to be loaded on to cargo trucks at his newly expanded York facility and sighs.
“Last year, all of this and more would’ve been headed to China,” Adams said. “But now, we’re lucky if any of them are.”
Maine lobster dealers are struggling to manage the fallout from the U.S.-China trade war. Before the tariff, China was the second biggest importer of U.S. lobster, buying $128.5 million worth of it in 2017. The U.S. was on track to double its lobster sales to China before the tariff initiated by President Trump hit in July, according to trade data. Since then, U.S. lobster exports have all but dried up....
Beyond the obvious political agenda with American troops and tax dollars, what does Putin and Trump have in mind for the USA?
February 4, 2019
By Matthew S. Schwartz
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET
An additional 3,750 troops (click here) will be sent to the Southern border to help install wire barriers and monitor crossings, officials said. The new deployment will bring the number of active-duty troops there to around 6,000.
In a tweet on Sunday, President Trump said that "STRONG Border Security" is necessary in the face of "Caravans marching through Mexico and toward our Country."
The announcement of new troops on Sunday comes just days before Trump is expected to discuss border security measures during Tuesday's State of the Union address....
The mass marches to the USA border under Trump have been more than curious. That has never occurred before in the history of the USA. I find all the mess about the USA southern border, including the largest drug haul, very odd. Record numbers of everything. Very odd.
December 20, 2018
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Mujib Mashal
Washington — The Trump administration (click here) has ordered the military to start withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, an abrupt shift in the 17-year-old war there and a decision that stunned Afghan officials, who said they had not been briefed on the plans.
President Trump made the decision to pull the troops — about half the number the United States has in Afghanistan now — at the same time he decided to pull American forces out of Syria, one official said.
The announcement came hours after Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, said that he would resign from his position at the end of February after disagreeing with the president over his approach to policy in the Middle East....
By Matthew S. Schwartz
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET
An additional 3,750 troops (click here) will be sent to the Southern border to help install wire barriers and monitor crossings, officials said. The new deployment will bring the number of active-duty troops there to around 6,000.
In a tweet on Sunday, President Trump said that "STRONG Border Security" is necessary in the face of "Caravans marching through Mexico and toward our Country."
The announcement of new troops on Sunday comes just days before Trump is expected to discuss border security measures during Tuesday's State of the Union address....
The mass marches to the USA border under Trump have been more than curious. That has never occurred before in the history of the USA. I find all the mess about the USA southern border, including the largest drug haul, very odd. Record numbers of everything. Very odd.
December 20, 2018
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Mujib Mashal
Washington — The Trump administration (click here) has ordered the military to start withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, two defense officials said Thursday, an abrupt shift in the 17-year-old war there and a decision that stunned Afghan officials, who said they had not been briefed on the plans.
President Trump made the decision to pull the troops — about half the number the United States has in Afghanistan now — at the same time he decided to pull American forces out of Syria, one official said.
The announcement came hours after Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, said that he would resign from his position at the end of February after disagreeing with the president over his approach to policy in the Middle East....
GOP Rep. to Obama: 'You Lie!' (click here for current DACA status - thank you)
Due to federal court orders, (click here) USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. USCIS is not accepting requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017. For more information, visit Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Response to January 2018 Preliminary Injunction.
This film loop proves the disrespect Republicans exhibit for any Democratic leader. It is disgusting and proves to USA enemies the hideous nature of our political system.
This film loop proves the disrespect Republicans exhibit for any Democratic leader. It is disgusting and proves to USA enemies the hideous nature of our political system.
Following yesterday’s announcement of the creation of the external Community Advisory Board, President Richard V. Homan, MD, appointed Gilbert Bland, as Chair of the Community Advisory Group. Mr. Bland is the former national President of the Minority Franchise Association of Burger King Corporation and charter member of its Inclusion Advisory Council. Mr. Bland currently serves as President and CEO of the Urban League of Hampton Roads and as a board member for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Sentara Healthcare, and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Mr. Bland’s past leadership roles include service on the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia as Chair, the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors, and James Madison University Foundation....
VMI needs to conduct their own investigation to diversity at the university as well. The statements on it's diversity page are a bit pathetic.
Diversity Makes a Difference (click here)
What do we mean when we talk about diversity in college?
Broadly speaking, diversity is the word we use to describe a mixture of individuals and ideas, and the traditions, belief systems and cultures that come with them.
So, what are we striving for when we want to see more diversity in college?
When most students seek diversity on campus, what they are seeking are opportunities to express themselves and find community with others who believe the same way, as well as opportunities to learn from those from different cultures and backgrounds.
Diversity can be promoted by the university in several ways. First, institutions should be making an effort to hire a varied faculty to teach students. But the school should also be doing the best they can to foster substantial interaction between people from different backgrounds. This prevents students and faculty from self-segregating and encourages positive connections....
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