In the news, Friday, September 8, 2017

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SEP 07      INDEX      SEP 09

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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Asia Times Online

North Korea: from buffer state to China’s nightmare neighbor
The BRICS summit in Xiamen, a port city on China’s southeast coast, was supposed to be another important moment for China to present itself as a global power and its president, Xi Jinping, as a great world leader. But on Sunday, just hours before Xi delivered a keynote speech at the annual gathering of the five emerging powers – Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa – North Korea detonated its sixth nuclear test, the biggest yet. The hydrogen-bomb test embarrassingly overshadowed the carefully choreographed summit. Worryingly for China, this was not the first time – and very likely not the last – its junior communist neighbor had deliberately chosen a key moment to humiliate its leadership.

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from Breitbart

RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, American conservative news and opinion website

GOP Rep: Paul Ryan Will Not Let Congress Touch Concealed Carry Reciprocity

During the September 7 of Armed American Radio with Mark Walters, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said his concealed carry legislation is stalled because Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) does not want Congress to touch it. National reciprocity legislation—H.R. 38—would treat concealed carry permits like driver’s licenses, making a permit from one state valid in the other 49. Massie is the sponsor of H.R. 2909, which covers a blind spot in the national reciprocity legislation by mandating that Washington DC recognize concealed carry permits from all 50 states.

Jeff Sessions’ DoJ Will Not Investigate IRS Suppression of Tea Party Groups
Republicans slammed the Friday announcement by President Donald Trump’s justice department that it will not investigate the official who allegedly oversaw the IRS’ secret sabotage of Americans’ civic groups before the 2012 election.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Trump’s Embargo on North Korea Is the Precursor to a War
Not even President Trump’s harshest critics blame him for creating the North Korean problem. The Kim Jong-Un regime’s nuclear weapons capabilities and willingness to brandish them goes back over a decade, to when Kim’s father was still the ruler. And while each successive U.S. administration has approached North Korea slightly differently, one thing has remained constant: tens of thousands of U.S. troops on North Korea’s border, maintaining a standoff that just passed its sixty-fourth year. The other constant, since North Korea’s first nuclear weapons test in 2006, has been economic sanctions imposed on the regime under the auspices of the U.N. Security Council. President Trump is sincere about what would “make America great again.” Unfortunately, he sincerely believes many things that simply aren’t true. At the core of these beliefs is his mercantilist outlook on trade. Trump truly believes trade is a zero-sum game, with winners and losers. Thus, his constant campaign refrain, “We don’t win anymore,” regarding trade deals. Protectionism was the traditional conservative position for hundreds of years before 20th-century American conservatives built an alliance with disaffected classical liberals and libertarians against progressive liberalism.

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from Indian Country Today Media Network

[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

The True Story of Pocahontas: Historical Myths Versus Sad Reality
Pocahontas had a Native husband and Native child; never married John Smith

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from LifeZette

Media/News Company in Washington, D. C.

Fmr. USCIS Investigator: There’s a ‘Huge’ Amount of Fraud in DACA
There’s a “huge” rate of fraud in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a former insider warns, and many of the people who are in the DACA program have provided false information in order to escape deportation and remain in the U.S. As many as half of the approximately 800,000 people who now have work permits under DACA may have lied on their applications to get approved, said Matt O’Brien, an attorney and until last year a manager in the investigative unit of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).

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from New Statesman

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

Between 2008 and 2012, a vast lake in Phnom Penh was made to vanish. The resulting protests changed Cambodia

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from Orthodox Christianity

THE HOLY FATHERS ON ILLNESS
Bishop Alexander (Mileant): Everyone, whether or not he is a Christian, must expect a certain amount of sickness and discomfort to enter his life. Physical pain is universal; no one escapes it. Therefore, how much we suffer from illness, or how intensely, does not matter so much as how we understand these infirmities. The understanding is all. If a man supposes that life should be one long, luxurious "vacation," then any amount of suffering that comes to him is unbearable. But if a man views life as a time of sorrows, correction, and purification, then suffering and pain become not only bearable, but even useful.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County commissioners in stalemate over selection of third member
A rift in the Spokane County Republican Party has resulted in a stalemate between two county commissioners who are running out of time to choose a new colleague. Republican Commissioners Al French and Josh Kerns are seeking to fill a vacancy left by former Commissioner Shelly O’Quinn, who resigned partway through her term eight weeks ago. French and Kerns must choose one of three people nominated by the county GOP. If they can’t agree on someone by Sept. 15, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, will get to pick a new commissioner from the same list of nominees.

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from YES! Magazine

My White Friend Asked Me on Facebook to Explain White Privilege. I Decided to Be Honest
He wanted to know how institutional racism has made an impact on my life. I’m glad he asked, because I was ready to answer.

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In the news, Thursday, September 7, 2017

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SEP 06      INDEX      SEP 08

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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

________

from Catholic News Agency

Concerns of 'anti-Catholic bigotry' as judicial nominee questioned about faith
A Catholic nominee to a federal circuit court faced hostile questions about her faith from U.S. senators on Wednesday, prompting outrage from Catholic leaders. “This smacks of the worst sort of anti-Catholic bigotry,” Dr. Chad Pecknold, a theology professor at The Catholic University of America, told CNA of questions asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) of Amy Coney Barrett, a Catholic lawyer nominated to be a federal circuit court judge. “Senator Feinstein's shockingly illegitimate line of questioning sends the message that Catholics need not apply as federal judges,” added Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Houston's Lack of Zoning Laws Will Help It Rebuild
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, commentators have been quick to blame Houston’s lack of traditional zoning for the storm’s damage. Last week, I provided some evidence that lack of zoning is not the cause of Houston’s problems. But commentators have been equally quick to minimize the various benefits that accompany Houston’s limited zoning. Thanks to limited zoning, Houston could accommodate housing needs more quickly and cheaply than other cities. These benefits will become increasingly apparent as Houstonians rebuild. The truth is that limited zoning means more opportunity, more low-cost housing, and less politically-motivated and exclusionary policies. That’s good every day, but especially good in case of an emergency.

The Power of Making Friends with Ideological Enemies
"How can people hate me, when they don't even know me?" This is the question that drives the subject of a fantastic new documentary on Netflix called "Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race, and America," directed by Matt Ornstein. For the past 30 years, soul musician Daryl Davis has been traveling the country in search of an answer in the most dangerous way possible for a black man in America: by directly engaging with members the Ku Klux Klan.

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from First Things

IT IS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK
Religions are not timeless—but neither are they unable to transcend the time from which they sprang. All good Catholics know that nominalism is a Bad Thing. Nominalism is the substitution of “names” for universal “natures” as a tool for explaining the world. We need to name or label natural objects, put them into mental filing systems, in order to organize our world into tidy universal categories and patterns—but we have no way of knowing, the nominalist says, what “real” natures underlie those patterns and categories. Maybe there is no universal nature, and the pattern is invented by us for the sake of convenience; or maybe there is a pattern, but it is obscure to human eyes. Catholics shouldn’t necessarily employ their anti-nominalism when analyzing Hinduism or Islam.

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from The Hill

LEFT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, newspaper in Washington, D.C.

Trump Jr. took meeting with Russian lawyer to judge Clinton's 'fitness': statement
Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday morning told Senate investigators that he accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton to determine the Democratic presidential nominee's "fitness" for office, according to an opening statement reported by The New York Times. “To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out,” he said. “Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.”

Report: Fox News will not hire Spicer
Fox News is joining CNN in refusing to hire Sean Spicer — a major break in tradition following the hiring of every former White House press secretary under President Obama by cable news networks.

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from The Huckleberry Press

THE FIGHT CONTINUES TO BRING BROADBAND TO RURAL WASHINGTON

Much of today’s world runs at the speed of light. Essential services, such as our 911 emergency system, banking, and transferring prescriptions from the doctor’s office to the pharmacy, require high-speed broadband internet connections. Yet today, 200,000 Washingtonians lack access to the fiber optic lines that allow communities to participate in the global economy and maintain community services. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 39 percent of Americans living in rural areas lack broadband access, compared to the 4 percent living in urban areas.

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from Liberty Writers

[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

IMPOSSIBLE: Senate Just REJECTED Trump’s Hurricane Relief And Passed Something EVEN BIGGER

It looks like President Donald Trump has inspired the people in Congress to go the extra mile for the people they represent. Remember how Trump just negotiated that Hurricane relief package of $8.9 Billion with the Dems? Yeah, not anymore… Don’t get me wrong, the Hurricane relief package with no political games attached that Trump got us was passed. However, the Senate change the amount to $15 Billion.

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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

ACNA in Ecumenical Ambit
Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Anglican Communion’s secretary general, has stressed that the Anglican Church of North America is not a province of the Anglican Communion. “It is simply not true to say that ACNA is part of the Anglican Communion,” he told Anglican Communion News Service during a meeting of the Communion’s standing committee. “To be part of the Communion, a province needs to be in communion with the See of Canterbury and to be a member of the Instruments of the Communion. ACNA is not in communion with the See of Canterbury, and has not sought membership” in the instruments. There is a long-standing process by which a province is adopted as a province of the Communion. It was a great joy for me to see Sudan go through this process and it was a privilege to be in Khartoum in July to see it become the 39th member of the Communion. ACNA has not gone through this process. ACNA is a church in ecumenical relationship with many of our provinces. But that is also true of many churches, including the Methodist, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches.”

The baptismal covenant, the norm of adult baptism, and mission
Liturgical scholar Louis Weil recently recalled predicting that the Episcopal Church would need at least 50 years to implement the revisions of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.[1] One key area that still requires implementation is the revised baptismal liturgy, and particularly its baptismal covenant.

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from Medium

Tell Me Your Limiting Beliefs
What’s Keeping You Back From Becoming the Best You? A limiting belief is a belief (usually an “is” statement like, “people are,” “life is,” “I am,” “Work is,”) that prevents you from taking action on something you would like to achieve, whether that’s getting a promotion, changing a job, asking somebody out, getting fit, etc. They permeate our psychology.

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from New York Times

Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit and Approves $15 Billion in Hurricane Relief
The Republican-led Senate on Thursday approved legislation to raise the debt limit and keep the government funded until December while providing $15 billion in disaster aid, giving a reluctant stamp of approval to the surprising deal that President Trump struck with Democratic congressional leaders. The Senate approved the measure 80 to 17. All of the senators voting no were Republicans.

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from Open Culture

Education Website

The Top 100 American Films of All Time, According to 62 International Film Critics

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from Sierra Magazine

Wildfires Burning Through the West Are Terrifying—and Necessary, Too
Fire is not destruction; it’s renewal. It turns out we were doing fire control all wrong. Scientists now understand that western forests evolved with fire and require it to be healthy. Fire isn’t destruction; it’s renewal. The mosaic of forest types left behind in fire’s capricious path create stronger, more diverse ecosystems rich with life. Western forests need fire like rainforests need rain.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from The Washington Post

In major Supreme Court case, Justice Dept. sides with baker who refused to make wedding cake for gay couple
In a major upcoming Supreme Court case that weighs equal rights with religious liberty, the Trump administration on Thursday sided with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

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In the news, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

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SEP 05      INDEX      SEP 07

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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from CNN

LEFT BIAS

Blood clot risk -- and other problems -- might be tied to how tall you are
How tall you are might hold clues to your risk of various health problems, such as blood clots, according to a new study. Height can be an independent predictor of your risk for venous thromboembolism, or VTE, also known as blood clots, according to the study, published Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. That blood clot risk was lowest among the shortest women and men and appeared to increase with height, the research showed.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Compulsory Schooling Is Incompatible with Freedom
America's Founding Father knew that forcible education was incompatible with freedom. If we care about freedom, we should reject compulsory schooling. A relic of 19th-century industrial America, compulsory schooling statutes reduced the broad and noble goal of an educated citizenry into a one-size-fits-all system of state-controlled mass schooling that persists today.

Yes, the Alt-Left Exists and It's Terrifying
The Alt-Left masquerades as a form of liberalism, but it has more in common with authoritarianism than its true believers can (or want to?) admit. It claims to speak for the marginalized, but it either ignores or attempts to hatefully shame members of marginalized groups who do not subscribe to the ideology.

Race Relations Are Improved by Free Markets, Not Collectivist Politics
Markets make friends where politics creates enemies.

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from Financial Times

[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Jeremy Paxman on the Church of England’s fight to survive
As congregations dwindle, is the Church on the brink of extinction? All is not yet lost. The 16th-century theologian Richard Hooker is still the authority cited by many of those trying to steer a path for an institution whose hold on the national imagination seems increasingly to be to do with things that happened a long time ago. “Hooker’s stool” suggests that Anglicanism rests on the three legs of scripture, tradition and the application of reason. The furniture analogy fits the Church’s down-to-earth nature. It is the third of these that distinguishes the Church of England, and good sense counts. Anything can be sorted out over a cup of tea.

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from Huffington Post

[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

4 Things Worse Than Not Learning To Read In Kindergarten
Limited time for creative play, Limited physical activity, Teaching that focuses on standards and testing, Frustration and a sense of failure.

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from KOMO News (ABC Seattle)

Eagle Creek Fire witness: 'I saw this boy lob a smoke bomb down into the ravine'
The investigation into who started the Eagle Creek Fire may not have resulted in authorities identifying a suspect so quickly if it hadn’t been for one woman who says she saw what happened the day the fire started. Liz FitzGerald says she saw how the fire started after seeing a group of teenagers on the Eagle Creek Trail Saturday. “I saw this boy lob a smoke bomb down into the ravine,” she said via phone Tuesday night. “I saw his friend or a guy that was there with him videotaping it with his phone. I looked over, and I said, ‘Do you realize how dangerous that is?’”

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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

Wales Elects 13th Archbishop
A Church in Wales electoral college chose the Rt. Rev. John Davies as the church’s 13th archbishop on Sept. 6 Davies has served as the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon for the past nine years.

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from Mises Institute

[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Stanley Fischer Is Out at the Fed
Fed Vice Chair and Yellen ally Stanely Fischer announced his unexpected resignation today, citing “personal reasons.” His term as a Fed governor wasn’t to be over until 2020 and his vice chairmanship was to end June of next year.

3 Good Things about "Price Gouging"
As so often happens in the wake of a natural disaster, government officials in Texas are currently investigating claims of “price gouging,” which the office of the Attorney General reminds residents is illegal after the governor declares a disaster. This is a classic example of the ostensible contrast between greed and altruism, capitalism and charity. Economists who favor the free market know the standard arguments for letting the price skyrocket to “clear the market” when there are supply shortages and demand spikes. When sellers can price goods freely, we are all better able to plan and conserve for future use of essential goods.

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from New Statesman

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

What is economic justice – and why does it matter?
Economic justice is the idea that the economy will be more successful if it is fairer: that prosperity and justice go hand-in-hand rather than in opposition to one another.

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from Open Culture

Education Website

Trigonometry Discovered on a 3700-Year-Old Ancient Babylonian Tablet

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from Orthodox Christianity

CURRENT US-RUSSIA RELATIONS ARE A “PHANTASMAGORIA”—MET. HILARION
What is happening today in Russian-American bilateral relations is a “phantasmagoria,” and Russia should not take an example from those politicians in America who threaten them, stated the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, who recently returned from a trip to the United States. American authorities earlier demanded the closing of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and two buildings of trade representatives in Washington and New York, justifying it as a response to the Russian demand to reduce the number of employees of the diplomatic mission of the U.S. in Russia. Russian diplomats complied with this demand by September 2. Moscow called this action an unfriendly move. “The policy is built on certain rules which have existed for many centuries, and which have their own principles. What is happening now between Russia and America, in my view, is a phantasmagoria, because those sanctions that were declared, those measures that were announced, are unlikely to bring benefit to anyone on this or that side. They cannot lead to improved relations between two countries,” Met. Hilarion stated.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Sputnik

(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

Kurdistan Independence Referendum to Potentially Blow Mideast Apart
The creation of a sovereign Kurdish state in Iraq could result in the remapping of the Middle East and the collapse of the established status quo, Israeli political analyst Avigdor Eskin writes for RIA Novosti. Eskin notes that regardless of the potential repercussions the Iraqi Kurds are determined to hold an independence vote on September 25. The emergence of a sovereign Kurdish state in the Middle East would turn the region upside down resulting in the de facto abolition of the international doctrine of the inviolability of Mideast borders, Israeli political analyst Avigdor Eskin writes in his op-ed for RIA Novosti, commenting on the upcoming independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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from WIRED

HACKERS GAIN DIRECT ACCESS TO US POWER GRID CONTROLS
Security firm Symantec is warning that a series of recent hacker attacks not only compromised energy companies in the US and Europe but also resulted in the intruders gaining hands-on access to power grid operations—enough control that they could have induced blackouts on American soil at will. And yes, most signs point to Russia.

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from WQXR

Radio Station in New York

10 Years After: Looking at Luciano Pavarotti's Evolution as an Artist

Luciano Pavarotti died on Sept. 6, 2007, and is much missed even though, 10 years on, he still seems to be with us in so many ways. His recordings and videos of live performances sit on the shelves of millions of people around the world, from those of us who love opera dearly to mass audiences whose one classical vocal CD might be of Pavarotti, perhaps in the company of tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras, his colleagues in a huge money-making enterprise known as The Three Tenors.

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In the news, Tuesday, September 5, 2017

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SEP 04      INDEX      SEP 06

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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from The Conversation US

Media/News Company in Boston

In defense of HBO’s counterfactual ‘Confederate’
In late July, HBO announced its forthcoming alternate history series “Confederate,” a show that will take place in a world in which the South successfully seceded from the Union and the institution of slavery persisted. The backlash was immediate. Some decried it for being the brainchild of two white men, “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. In The New York Times, Roxane Gay compared it to “slavery fan fiction.” Ta-Nehisi Coates argued in The Atlantic that it would perpetuate the South’s enduring belief in the “Lost Cause,” which celebrates the Civil War as a heroic struggle and minimizes the role of slavery in the conflict. But as a historian who studies counterfactual histories, I think the critics of “Confederate” are mistaken to suggest that today’s racial tensions make the HBO series redundant, or that imagining a world in which the South won is inherently apologetic to the Confederate cause. Those calling it slavery fan fiction are ignoring the long, nuanced tradition of articles and films that wonder what would have happened if the South had won. 

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from Duluth News Tribune

Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Duluth, Minnesota

Keillor: When a red state gets the blues

The Republic of Texas believes in self-reliance and is suspicious of Washington sticking its big nose in your business. "Government is not the answer. You are not doing anyone a favor by creating dependency, destroying individual responsibility." So said Sen. Ted Cruz, though not last week. Sunday on Fox News, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas would need upward of $150 billion in federal aid for damages inflicted by Harvey. I'm all in favor of pouring money into Texas but I am a bleeding-heart liberal who favors single-payer health care. How is being struck by a hurricane so different from being hit by cancer? I'm only asking.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

A Trade War Won't Solve the North Korea Crisis
Starting a trade war over North Korea is both bad foreign policy and bad economic policy.

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from Miami Herald

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Wish black lives mattered as much to this cop as football does

This Sunday, NFL games will be played in 13 towns. In each, someone will present the American flag, someone will sing the national anthem, and most people will stand to pay their respects. But a few will sit or kneel to show themselves estranged. And maybe someone will gaze on them and ask, with righteous indignation: “How dare they?” To ask it is to forget that America is a land of liberty and justice for some. But thankfully, it is also a land where the right to call out wrong is sacred. What we are seeing from these athletes embodies not a trend, but a principle. Because of their station as sports heroes, they have the ability to focus attention on the nation’s sins — and they feel called by conscience to do so. 

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from Mises Institute

[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

How the Feds Blocked Effective Flood Insurance
As the floodwaters brought by Hurricane Harvey last week recede and new hurricane Irma moves slowly toward the Eastern U.S., it might be edifying to review how millions of Americans, despite federal anti-flood efforts, came to live and work in hazardous to dangerous flood-prone areas.

Markets, Not Government, Improve Race Relations
Politically we seem to be living in some trying times. The political polarization, as captured in the mainstream news media, appears to be intensifying with even acts of destructive violence on the streets and campuses of American cities. At the same time, pictures out of Houston during and following Hurricane Harvey show empathetic assistance and cooperation between people and groups that supposedly are in heated contention with each other. How do we reconcile this? To begin with, I am persuaded that the supposedly racial and social “class” tensions that some assert is on the rise in America is not true. In fact, I would argue that in everyday interaction and association race relations are far, far better than they were, say, twenty-five years ago, and most certainly compared to fifty or seventy-five years ago, and the marketplace has been a key factor in improving matters.

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from Orthodox Christianity

“ECUMENISM IS AN INSIDIOUS SATANIC MOVEMENT”—MET. JEREMIAH OF GORTYN
Metropolitan Jeremiah of Gortyn, of the Greek Orthodox Church, has addressed his congregation with a special message. The hierarch paid special attention to the issues of ecumenism and the preservation of an Orthodox identity. “My brethren,” he writes, “you are Orthodox Christians, received in the font of holy Baptism from an Orthodox priest.” Expressing his zeal for the purity of the Orthodox faith, he exhorts his flock, “Hold fast to the Orthodox faith just as we received it from our fathers; that which our grandfathers and grandmothers followed.” “There is an insidious satanic movement that wants to mix our true faith with false beliefs, change it, and lead us into deception,” the metropolitan warns his people. “This movement is called ‘ecumenism.’ It’s not just a heresy, it’s a malicious thinking that embraces all heresies and errors. It’s a ‘pan-heresy,’” Met. Jeremiah affirmed, echoing the words of the great 20th century Serbian theologian St. Justin Popović.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Sputnik

(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

The 'Only Scenario' to End War in Afghanistan 'Unacceptable' to US, Here's Why
The solution to the US's 16-year-long fruitless war in Afghanistan would require the participation of China, Russia and Iran, which have direct security concerns in the conflict, geopolitical analyst Shahid Raza told Radio Sputnik, explaining why this peace scenario would be unacceptable to Washington.

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from Trains Magazine (& Classic Trains Magazine)

Harvey echoes the Great Flood of 1927
The flood damage to railroads caused by Tropical Storm Harvey echoes the the trials the Illinois Central faced during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.

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from Zero Hedge

CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE,  MIXED,  financial blog with aggregated news and opinion

Chinese Scientists Warn North Korea's Nuke Test Site At Risk Of Imploding, "Releasing Many Bad Things"
Earlier we showed the shocking satellite images showing numerous landslides around the mountain that is North Korea's nuclear test site, and it appears Chinese officials are also keeping a very close eye on the region, instigating "emergency monitoring" for radiation leaks as the former chairman of the China Nuclear Society warns of the potential for a massive environmental disaster. If this report continues to gain traction - and the satellite images we showed earlier appear to confirm it -  then North Korea’s weapons testing is no longer just a geo-political military problem, but rather, has the potential for a massive humanitarian crisis, something that both East and West could use to further pressure the North’s leader Kim Jong Un in an effort to avoid widespread nuclear conflict.

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In the news, Monday, September 4, 2017

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SEP 03      INDEX      SEP 05

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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from CityLab

News & Media Website: All things urban, from The Atlantic.

5 Places America Should Have Saved
Architecture professors chime in on the best buildings and parks lost to the wrecking ball.
The Mecca Flats (Chicago), The Original Waldorf Astoria (New York), The Rachel Raymond House (Belmont, MA), Olmsted’s Park and Parkway System (New York), The Chicago Stock Exchange.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Even by Its Own Standards, Communism Has Failed Miserably
For all its dreams of abolishing class, communism ended in highly stratified societies.

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from KHQ Local News (NBC Spokane)

Where is the smoke coming from? Map shows 74+ wildfires burning in western states
If you're wondering where all of the smoke in the air is coming from... the answer is probably not one specific fire. Currently there are more than 74 major wildfires burning in 8 western states including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and California. Dozens of those fires are burning in our immediate region.

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from KIRO 7 Eyewitness News (CBS Seattle)

It's Northwest spider season; what you can do around your home
As we begin to see hopes of an end to this hot and smoky summer, KIRO 7 News advises us that spider season is beginning. The hotter summer will likely mean more of the eight-legged creatures. Right now, they’re looking for mating partners and are more on the roam than usual. The heavy spider invasion should only last a couple of weeks.

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from KPTV (Fox 12) (Portland)

Eagle Creek Fire grows in Gorge; evacuations ordered, I-84 shut down
The Eagle Creek fire was first reported at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Gorge. It grew to 3,000 acres overnight and was at 3,200 acres Monday morning. By Monday night, the fire had exploded to 4,800 acres, according to firefighters. Firefighters said windy conditions and poor visibility posed problems for the firefighting efforts Monday. Crews worked to protect structures near the fire. FOX 12 meteorologists said Monday night the fire was moving into a strong east wind zone that begins around Dodson, with Multnomah Falls only six to eight miles downwind. Investigators believe someone setting off fireworks caused the fire.

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from Mises Institute

[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

The Broken-Window Fallacy Is Still Alive and Well
As Hurricane Harvey, now tropical storm Harvey, makes its way across the southern US, estimates have already come in as to the cost of the storm. According to AccuWeather, Harvey is expected to cost upwards of $190 billion in damages, one percent of the national GDP. This makes Harvey the costliest storm ever to hit the United States, more than Katrina ($100 billion) and Sandy ($60 billion) combined.

Why Government Cannot Be Run Like a Business
Even with a former CEO in charge, no government agency can be run like a business. Trump's business experience gives him little advantage Washington.

Does Government Spending Create More Economic Growth?
After the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, fears of ballooning public debt and worries about the drag on economic growth pushed authorities in some countries to lower government spending, a tactic that economists now think may have slowed recovery. A cut in government outlays is great news for wealth generators and to the economy.

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from New Statesman

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

In the US, transit deserts are making it hard for people to find jobs and stay healthy
As any commuter who has experienced unreliable service or lives miles away from a bus stop will tell you, sometimes public transit isn’t really a viable option, even in major cities. In our car-loving society, where 85 per cent of Americans use a car to get to work, people who cannot access transportation are excluded from their own communities and trapped inside “transit deserts.” This term, which one of us (Junfeng Jiao) coined, describes areas in a city where demand for transit is high but supply is low. Lack of transit has harmful effects on those who rely on public transit – generally, people who are too young, too old, too poor or have disabilities that don’t allow them to drive. Mapping these deserts will help agencies adjust transit services and better serve their communities.

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from Press TV (Iran)

(Iranian propaganda channel)

‘Terrorist’ Soros petition reaches 100K signatures, compels White House reply
A petition calling on US President Donald Trump to declare Jewish billionaire George Soros a terrorist has garnered more than 100,000 signatures, enough to require a response from the White House.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Air in Spokane hazardous as wildfire smoke fills city
Spokane’s air quality deteriorated to hazardous levels Monday afternoon as smoke from wildfires across the Northwest continued to drift in. The air quality index was at 303 as of noon Monday, according to the Washington Air Monitoring Network. It’s the worst hourly measure Spokane has seen since the index hit 330 in August 2015, during another intense wildfire season. Spokane’s Regional Clean Air Agency, which uses a 24-hour weighted average to measure air quality every hour, reported an index of 245 as of 4:15 p.m., putting air in the “very unhealthy” category. Both categories mean everyone can start to experience negative health effects from being outside. North Idaho is faring worse, with an air quality index of 418 in Sandpoint, putting it well into the hazardous range.

Labor day retrospective: Spokane’s labor roots run deep
Spokane, for much of its history, has been a labor town. In the city’s first half-century, Spokane earned a well-deserved reputation as a center for radical unionism and socialism. The words Spokane and “Wobblies” (the nickname of the radical Industrial Workers of the World), were linked together for decades. Less sensationally, Spokane was also a town mostly friendly and tolerant toward moderate, mainstream unions – in line with the rest of the labor-friendly Northwest. In fact, Spokane was a union town almost from its founding. The first labor unions established a foothold in Spokane in the winter of 1886-87, when the city’s carpenters, plasterers and bricklayers organized.

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from Sputnik

(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

Spain May Lose $2.9 Bln in Taxes if Catalonia Gains Independence
As the referendum on Catalonia's independence approaches, Spain has already started counting the potential cost of the region's independence. Catalonian tax agencies may take control of 2.5 billion euros (about $2.9 billion) annually, which are currently sent to Madrid, if the region gains independence following a referendum set for October, Spanish media reported on Monday. Catalonia's tax agency may start collecting value added tax, income tax from individuals, as well as from 700 state entities under the Catalan government's jurisdiction and 120 entities, which voluntarily chose to pay their taxes in Catalonia, El Mundo newspaper reported, citing Catalonia's Vice President Oriol Junqueras.

'Flagrant Human Rights Violations': Plight of Refugees in Libya
More than five years after the start of the civil war Libya remains split in two run by rival governments and facing a flurry of problems, including illegal migration. Sputnik looked at the plight of refugees living in temporary shelters scattered across the country. According to official information, there are 34 camps for refugees and illegal migrants, most of them in the southern regions of Tripoli and Misratah, all run by a state committee on illegal migration. There are more such camps in Libya’s central desert regions run by tribal councils and controlled by rival armed factions which international relief organizations are unable to reach out to and properly assess the situation.

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