The news continues to grow worse over global warming. The Peru meeting revealed new research showing that time is running out for humanity to act on climate change. Now to new reports indicate that we may have underestimate the rate of loss on the huge ice sheet of West Antarctica — new calculations under global warming could mean a rise in global sea levels of as much as 23 feet. That would create massive changes in the coasts of the world.
Category: Politics
Lauri Parks appears to have more zeros in her complaint against the city of Grand Rapids than arguments. Lauri is suing the Michigan city for $1 billion after she was fired as city clerk. She alleges racial discrimination despite that fact that the city went to the unprecedented step of hiring a “personal coach” to help her improve her performance and then offered to move her to an $80,000 position. When she refused, she was fired and sued the city for racial discrimination. It is a more difficult claim to make given the fact that her replacement, Darlene O’Neal, is African American.
We recently saw rather bizarre case of a college president having to publicly apologize for saying the “all lives matter” rather than “all Black lives matter” in supporting protests over the Ferguson and New York grand jury decisions. (Ironically, I listened this weekend to protests where leaders chanted “all lives matter” in Washington). Now, Serhat Tanyolacar, a University of Iowa visiting professor and printmaking fellow, has been denounced for a piece of art designed to protest racism after the decision. Iowa officials have declared the art to be the equivalent to hate speech and ordered its removal within hours — with President Sally Mason denouncing the art and apologizing profusely. Now, however, students are calling for the artist to be fired and for a new speech-regulating committee to be established for such public forums.
Despite the public pledge of President Obama to pull out of Afghanistan, we continue to spend huge amounts of money in the war and the Obama Administration has fought to keep U.S. troops in the country. Now an estimate from the Financial Times and independent researchers put the cost of the war at roughly $1 trillion with a commitment of hundreds of billions more in the coming years. There continues to be no serious debate over our ongoing losses both in personnel and money in this war.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
This past week’s news reports of the Senate report on the CIA Torture program were both distressing and enlightening. I was dismayed to not only read what the full extent of the CIA’s Torture program was, but also when I read pundits and former CIA officials claim that rectal rehydration was merely a medical procedure! I was further discouraged when commenters on this blog made claims that waterboarding and other torture tactics were either necessary or what the devils deserved.
Very few pundits or commenters seem to care if the so-called Enhanced Interrogation techniques were legal or ethical when the CIA resorted to them shortly after 9/11. This “debate” over the actions taken in our name by the CIA has gone from a report based on the CIA’s own words to denials that the techniques were torture, to claims that great intelligence value was gained using the torture and claims that it was a biased report written by Democrats. Continue reading “The CIA Lost Its Soul and Took Ours With It”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We have written HERE and HERE of the continuing effort by the Erdogan Government of Turkey in attacking opposition by heavy handed actions against journalists and media critical of the government and President Erdogan. In another sign of the descent into suppression of opposing views the Turkish government ordered its police forces to raid the newspapers and publications deemed to have links to a rival of the President
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Washington marijuana businesses are becoming financially tenuous in large part due to the imposition of heavy taxation. The matter has been further compounded beyond simply an unsustainable state excise tax of twenty five percent levied at all stages of the supply chain (marijuana producers, processors, and retailers) but a federal tax code that prevents the excise tax and conventional business expenses from being deducted from federal income taxes. This is due to a prohibition specifically applicable to marijuana. The accounting effect of this means marijuana businesses must also pay federal tax on what the business pays in state taxes.
Marijuana retailers have stated in interviews this double taxation alone swallows much of their profits. It shows another formidable challenge to the survivability of the licensed cannabis industry in Washington..
A new poll shows broad support for carbon limits, including half of all Republicans. The poll comes out as scientists warn (as reported in the NY Times) that time is running out on climate change and, without decisive action, the world could eventually become uninhabitable for humans. Today, the Pope added his voice to the overwhelming weight of world scientists that time is running out. Likewise, island nations are now demanding action and calling on the world to witness the loss of their very existence to the rising seas.
There is a highly disturbing, and disgusting, story out of Tanzania involving the systemic killing of albinos to eat their hair and flesh as part of African medicines. What is most striking disclosure is that witch doctors are behind the murders and have been found to pay $600, in one case, for the severed arm of a young girl. Yet, despite over 70 such murders, only 10 have resulted in charges because (according to some in the country) powerful families believe in and use albino medicines prepared by witch doctors.
Continue reading “Report: Tanzanian Albinos Being Killed And Eaten In Folk Medicines”
Below is my column today in USA Today on the torture report. This is the slightly longer version that ran on the Internet.
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Continue reading “TRUTH WILL OUT: THE SENATE REPORT CONTAINS SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS”
We have been seeing leading Democrats going public recently with their views that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare” was a political blunder or a simply poorly drafted mistake. This included the third-highest ranked Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who said that it was a mistake to even try to pass the legislation in the first term when most Americans did not place health care as a priority for action. Now the highest ranked Democrat, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, is saying that the Obama Administration may have doomed Democrats in Congress with its poor management and blunders in the rollout of the program.
Continue reading “Reid: Administration’s Mismanagement Of Obamacare Rollout Cost The Election”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The Banksters are at it again. You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.
Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south. The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets”
We recently discussed the stinging criticism of Sen. Chuck Schumer who called Obamacare a colossal political mistake and something that was not a priority for the American people. It was a remarkable admission from the third ranking and one of the most liberal Senate Democrats. Now, perhaps the most liberal departing member has given his own departing shot at the White House and Democratic Leadership. Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa has gone public with criticism that the Affordable Care Act was badly written and should not have been passed. Like Schumer, he is not questioning the value of health care but said that the current law was not worth doing because of its inherent flaws.
Below is the new “Stand By Hillary” song that appears an attempt to bridge the rather wide gap between Hillary Clinton (and Democratic candidates generally) and males, particularly white males. At first, I honestly thought this was a joke. I am still a bit unsure, but people are reporting that this is a real effort at reaching country music fans. My issue is not the candidate, but the music. To the constant complaint of every member of my family, I listen to country music and this is just really, really bad country music.
The Washington Post has published a hard-hitting editorial that not only accuses the Obama Administration of fudging the figures on its unilateral immigration changes but calls the action “unprecedented” and “indefensible.” The stinging editorial from a generally favorable newspaper amplifies the criticism of others, including myself, that President Obama is doing considerable damage to the separation of powers and, more generally, our constitutional system in these actions.
Continue reading “Washington Post: Obama’s Unilateral Immigration Action Is “Unprecedented””