Tuesday, March 7, 2017

In the news, Tuesday, February 7, 2017


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FEB 06      INDEX      FEB 08
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from Business Insider

Here are all the companies that have cut ties with the Trump family
Trump's critics have been urging customers to stop shopping at retailers that sell Trump family brands, including Ivanka Trump's line of women's clothing and accessories. Alternatively, Trump's supporters have threatened to stop giving their business to companies that bow to the pressure and drop Trump products.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)

Standing Rock Protesters Leave Gobs of Trash That Could Threaten the River
Environmental activists (and several pretentious celebrities) protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, North Dakota apparently left behind more than just good vibes when they vacated their campground.

Famous Private School Grads Slam Betsy DeVos Over School Choice
CLASSIC case of limousine liberals advocating for things they themselves have ZERO experience with! Hypocrites. The hypocrisy is strong with this one.

Report: Dems Think Muslims Are Worse Off In the U.S. Than Christians Are In the Islamic World
Most voters agree that Christians living in the Muslim world are fiercely persecuted for their religion.

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from Coeur d'Alene Press

UPDATE: TEENS IN TRAIN-CAR CRASH IDENTIFIED
The occupants in the car that collided with a train this morning in Post Falls have been identified as Post Falls High students Jacob Brockus, 17, and Mikelli Villasenor, 15.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

Pirates at the Parchment Gates
How are state attorneys general abusing their office for political purposes and siphoning wealth for their private attorney allies? In recent years, state attorneys general (AGs), have partnered with private lawyers working on a contingency fee basis to advance policy agendas without any statutory authority. These remarkable arrangements call for close scrutiny. Recent legal attacks against  the energy industry and some think tanks over their positions on climate change and energy policy highlight the abusive nature of this partnership between state AGs and wealthy, politically connected lawyer barons.

FCC Chairman Pai Ends Obama-era Investigation of 'Zero-rating' Data Plans
Last Friday, newly promoted Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai took the first step in pushing back against Obama-era net neutrality rules by closing an investigation into the “zero-rating” practices of wireless providers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Responding to More Distortions of Air Traffic Control Reform
Free-market transportation researchers strongly support the air traffic control reforms. We hope the dwindling number of conservative opponents will take the time to take these facts into account and reconsider their opposition.

Financial Regulation Executive Order a Step in the Right Direction
Last Friday, the President issued an executive order on what he called “core principles” for regulating the American financial system. President Trump's “core principles” for regulating the American financial system remind us that the system exists to benefit us by providing investment opportunities to grow our wealth.

State Attorneys General Impose Regulation by Litigation
A little understood revolution in American law is taking place— regulation by litigation, which places national lawmaking into the hands of powerful coalitions of state attorneys general (AGs) who have no lawmaking power. The recent partnerships of state AGs with private lawyers working on a contingency fee basis to advance unlegislated policy agendas warrants renewed scrutiny of these remarkable arrangements.

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from Daily Kos
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

After confirmation, GOP Congressman filed legislation showing the real reason they backed DeVos
She’s not there to manage the Department of Education, she’s there to dismantle it.

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from Daily Mail (UK)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

White House publishes list of 78 terror attacks that the media 'ignored' - including Orlando, San Bernardino, Bataclan and Nice truck attack

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from Dennis Michael Lynch

Massive Mexican Drug Cartel Ring Busted In U.S. City
Three arrests have been made in the bust of a heroin trafficking operation near Charlotte, North Carolina. The alleged offenders were caught with heroin, cash and firearms, and are believed to have ties to a Mexican drug cartel.

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from EUobserver

EU ready to help China fight protectionsim
The EU is ready to stand with China in the fight against protectionism, but Beijing needs to reform to be fair to investors, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said on Monday.

EU states on hook for humanitarian visas
EU states are required to issue humanitarian visas to people at risk of torture or inhumane treatment, according to an advocate general at the European Court of Justice. The non-binding opinion published on Tuesday (7 February) challenges a Belgian government decision to refuse visas to a family of Syrian refugees from the besieged city of Aleppo. The Syrians, who are Orthodox Christians, had applied for visas at the Belgian embassy in Beirut last October.

Gdansk: Poland's city of solidarity with refugees
The Baltic port would like to become a city of solidarity with refugees. But its efforts are being blocked by ruling Law and Justice.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

DeVos Confirmed: Everything They Said about Her Is False
tsy DeVos has been confirmed as Secretary of Education, but just barely. In the course of the hearings, outrageous claims were made about her views. Most originated from the public school industry itself, which is clinging to old forms for dear life. The result has been nothing but confusion.

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from First Things

ASK NOT: ON GIFTS AND DEBTS
Kennedy at his inauguration and medieval theologians agree: humans owe their existence to something beyond themselves, and they should live in light of that debt. All obligations to other humans, including political communities, stem from the recognition of the more fundamental debt one owes to God for capacities one possesses.

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from The Hill

GOP lawmaker proposes abolishing Department of Education
On the same day the Senate confirmed President Trump’s secretary of Education pick by a historically narrow margin, a House Republican introduced legislation to abolish the entire department Betsy DeVos will lead. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s bill is only a page long, after merely stating the Department of Education would terminate on Dec. 31, 2018.

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from HumanProgress.org
Education Website

Between 1960 and 2015, world population increased by 142 per cent, rising from 3.035 billion to 7.35 billion. During that time, average income per capita adjusted for inflation increased by 177 per cent, rising from $3,680 to $10,194. Moreover, after 56 years of human use and exploration, the vast majority of the commodities tracked by the World Bank are cheaper than they used to be – either absolutely or relative to income. That was not supposed to have happened.  According to conventional wisdom, population growth was to be a harbinger of poverty and famine. Yet, human beings, unlike other animals, innovate their way out of scarcity by increasing the supply of natural resources or developing substitutes for overused resources. Human ingenuity, in other words, is “the ultimate resource” that makes all other resources more plentiful. 

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from Indian Country Today Media Network

Teck Metals Loses Appeal, Must Pay Colville $8.2 Million
Court rules in favor of Colville Tribes in lawsuit with Teck Metals

Army Corps Approves DAPL Lake Oahe Easement
Standing Rock Sioux lawyer vows to hold Trump administration accountable

The U.S. Claim of Domination Over Standing Rock Violates the Treaty of 1851

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from Intellihub
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

UC Berkeley riots organizer has no regrets, plans more violent actions
An organizer of the mass riots at UC Berkeley over a planned speech by Milo Yiannopoulos has revealed that she has no regrets for the violence and that groups like hers are planning more riots in the near future.

Ex-Scientologist Leah Remini reveals that John Travolta can get away with actual murder
In an interview on the popular Joe Rogan podcast, celebrity and former Scientologist Leah Remini revealed a series of shocking claims about what many believe to be one of the worlds largest cults.

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from Miami Herald

Leonard Pitts Jr.: James Baldwin, long dead, issues a wake-up call to African Americans
‪"I Am Not Your Negro," the new James Baldwin documentary, is a movie of dangerous, urgent truths.

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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

How Governments Destroy Consumer Sovereignty
It is easy to fall into the trap of the “cost-plus” method. That is, to consider prices for consumer goods to be a function of the costs of production. The fact is that prices are not a result of costs; it is the other way around. Actually, prices and costs are not even “set” by the same types of economic actors. Prices are ultimately set by consumers through their valuations of goods and services offered to them. Costs are, for each production undertaking, a choice based on the judgment of the producer. In other words, prices aren’t set by entrepreneurs and their businesses — they are discovered by them. Costs, on the other hand, are assumed by producers — chosen because they are estimated to be less than the anticipated price that the final good warrants on the open market. The entrepreneur's job is to shape his whole enterprise around consumer wants. Unfortunately, governments often get in the way.

Why Not Replace Dodd-Frank With Glass-Steagall?
Last week President Trump started moving forward with his campaign promise to repeal the disastrous Dodd-Frank Act, taking steps to walk back some of the rules and regulations the bill spawned. While these are promising first steps, the larger provisions of the bill will have to be met with legislative action. Another issue with the Dodd-Frank Act is the Volcker Rule. The goal of the Volcker Rule was to prevent banks from making risky speculative trading. The policy tried to replicate the separation between investment and commercial banking that was established by Glass-Steagall before it was repealed by Bill Clinton. Financial regulators have a poor track record as is without requiring them to be mind readers. This is precisely why President Trump should follow through with his campaign platform, and offer Glass-Steagall as a replacement for Dodd-Frank.

Why Trump's Election Led to a Weaker Peso
The Mexican peso has not found itself in such a dire situation since 1995. Its depreciation is largely due to a trade deficit that has affected Mexico since mid-2014, when oil prices began to fall.  As the Fed has raised its benchmark rate, the Mexican peso faces relative devaluation. But Donald Trump is a factor, too.

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from New Statesman
"The leading voice of the British left, since 1913."

This 'will of the people' talk must stop – we need a better democracy than that
The Brexit vote has revealed serious fractures in our unwritten constitution.

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from The Seattle Times

Locking up KeyArena may hurt Seattle’s NBA chances
Why is Seattle offering to lock up KeyArena with no NBA team in sight? Doing so will hurt chances of seeing the Sonics back at Seattle Center.

Huge U District upzone moves ahead with Seattle panel vote
Seattle’s proposed University District upzone cleared a major hurdle Tuesday, as the City Council’s land-use committee voted unanimously to move ahead with the changes. The upzone has been in the works for years, with the goal of allowing taller buildings — up to 320 feet on some blocks — near a light-rail station scheduled to open in 2021. The University of Washington has pushed for the changes with the aim of turning the neighborhood into an incubator for tech startups, while some proponents say the upzone is needed to boost the U District’s housing supply.

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from Smithsonian Magazine

What Geology Has to Say About Building a 1,000-Mile Border Wall
Compared to erecting a marble palace or high-steepled church, a wall may seem relatively straightforward—it isn’t.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Vox
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

First Things senior editor Mark Bauerlein writes in Vox on the true job of an Education Secretary: “In the case of the Department of Education, the Cabinet secretary should not be primarily the representative of, or advocate for, public schools and all the people who work in them. His or her constituency is not teachers, superintendents, and the rest of the personnel. It is the students. He labors not, first, to ensure sufficient funding for facilities and research and curriculum and professional development. Those things count only as long as they improve the education of the young.”

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from The Wall Street Journal

For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver
Canadian city’s tax-policy changes appear to be driving overseas investors south

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from Washington Examiner

Trump is stronger than national polls suggest
President Trump is still popular in core Republican strongholds, even though he has suffered a dip in the national public opinion polls. Trump's approval rating is 45 percent, an underwater mark previously unseen for a president this early in his first term.

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from The Washington Post

An American filmed the German army in WWI — until they became the enemy
Wilbur Durborough’s forgotten film showcasing German soldiers has been restored by the Library of Congress.

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