28 January 20
We are falling well off the pace needed to finish the January fundraising drive at all. We are actually getting a nice stream of very small donations, but small donations alone cannot do it.
We need a little boost here.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
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28 January 20
Neal Katyal | John Roberts Can Call Witnesses to Trump's Trial. Will He?
Neal K. Katyal, Joshua A. Geltzer and Mickey Edwards, The New York Times
Excerpt: "An overwhelming number of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, believe the Senate should hear from relevant witnesses and obtain documents during President Trump's impeachment trial."
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John Bolton and Donald Trump. (photo: Oliver Contreras/WP/Getty Images)
Neal K. Katyal, Joshua A. Geltzer and Mickey Edwards, The New York Times
Excerpt: "An overwhelming number of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, believe the Senate should hear from relevant witnesses and obtain documents during President Trump's impeachment trial."
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John Bolton and Donald Trump. (photo: Oliver Contreras/WP/Getty Images)
Trump Aides, Allies Brace for Possibility That Multiple Witnesses Will Appear at Trial
Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "President Trump and his allies are moving to undermine the credibility of former national security adviser John Bolton, while also preparing to fight his ability to testify during the Senate impeachment trial."
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Paula White. (photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "President Trump and his allies are moving to undermine the credibility of former national security adviser John Bolton, while also preparing to fight his ability to testify during the Senate impeachment trial."
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Paula White. (photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Trump Spiritual Adviser Paula White Orders End to 'Satanic Pregnancies'
Michael Stone, Patheos
Stone writes: "White is no stranger to making ludicrous statements. Last year White claimed she made the White House 'holy ground.'"
EXCERPT:
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Voters at a polling precinct. (photo: KTLA)
Michael Stone, Patheos
Stone writes: "White is no stranger to making ludicrous statements. Last year White claimed she made the White House 'holy ground.'"
EXCERPT:
In a bizarre rant captured by Right Wing Watch, White “takes authority over the marine kingdom, the animal kingdom, and all ‘satanic pregnancies’ that seek to harm Trump or the church.”
Presidential spiritual adviser Paula White takes authority over the marine kingdom, the animal kingdom, and all "satanic pregnancies" that seek to harm Trump or the church.
1,367 people are talking about this
We cancel every surprise, from the witchcraft… any spirit of control, any Jezebel… We come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom… we break the power in the name of Jesus… We command any satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now.
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Voters at a polling precinct. (photo: KTLA)
Arizona Republicans Discriminated Against Minority Voters, Federal Court Rules
Sam Levine, Guardian UK
Levine writes: "A federal court has ruled Arizona Republicans' ban on mail-in ballots is illegal and unconstitutional, calling it intentionally discriminatory toward people of color, who already face increased barriers to voting."
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A corn farmer. (photo: Austin Public Library)
Sam Levine, Guardian UK
Levine writes: "A federal court has ruled Arizona Republicans' ban on mail-in ballots is illegal and unconstitutional, calling it intentionally discriminatory toward people of color, who already face increased barriers to voting."
Four years ago, Arizona Republicans made it a felony, punishable by prison time, for third-party groups to collect mail-in ballots during elections – a process often called “ballot harvesting.”
Marginalized communities in the state may rely more on ballot harvesting, the court noted. Native Americans, for example, benefit significantly from third-party ballot collection efforts because just 18% of registered voters have mail service at home, and reservations can be far from polling stations. Some minority communities also have widespread distrust in the mailing system: in San Luis, a city that is 98% Hispanic, a major highway separates 13,000 residents from the nearest post office.
“The adverse impact on minority communities is substantial. Without ‘access to reliable and secure mail services,’ and without reliable transportation, many minority voters ‘prefer instead to give their ballots to a volunteer’,” the court said. And Hispanics and Native Americans make up nearly 37% of the state’s population – promising to be a key demographic in this year’s presidential election.
The ruling noted that the Republican effort to restrict third-party ballot collection appeared to be part of a longstanding effort to suppress black, Hispanic and Native American votes. Republicans passed a similar law in 2011, but abandoned the effort after a state election official admitted that the measure was designed to target voting activity in Hispanic areas.
The court also struck down a separate state policy that required election officials to throw out ballots if someone voted in the wrong precinct. But voters faced some egregious challenges. At times they were directed to the wrong precinct, without being told their vote wouldn’t count, the court noted. And Arizona changes its polling locations with unusual frequency and rejected 38,355 ballots from people who voted in the wrong place between 2008 to 2016. (Minority voters were more than twice as likely than their white counterparts to cast a ballot out of their precinct.)
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A corn farmer. (photo: Austin Public Library)
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Rural America
Marc Edelman, Jacobin
Edelman writes: "A toxic brew of economic suffering, racism, and community decline prepared the ground for authoritarian populism in America's devastated rural areas."
EXCERPT:
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Marc Edelman, Jacobin
Edelman writes: "A toxic brew of economic suffering, racism, and community decline prepared the ground for authoritarian populism in America's devastated rural areas."
EXCERPT:
After 1980, wages stagnated and became detached from productivity growth. Between 1940 and 1980, the wage gap between poorer and richer cities had narrowed by an annual rate of 1.4 percent, but after 1980, this convergence ended. On the international stage, the collapse of the Bretton Woods framework in the mid-1970s spurred an “opening up” of global finance and trade. On the home front, concerted attacks on organized labor, especially after Ronald Reagan entered the White House, undermined the bargaining power of workers.
By 2018, 40 million Americans lived in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million “in Third World conditions of absolute poverty.” By 2011, 1.5 million households — half of them white — were surviving on incomes of less than $2 per person per day. Those households included 3 million children. Nine million Americans have zero cash income. By 2016, 63 percent of Americans lacked $500 in savings to cover an emergency, and 34 percent had no savings at all. That same year, the official poverty rate was 12.7 percent.
A 2017 study of fifteen states, which accounted for 39 percent of all US households, found that so-called ALICE households (“asset-limited, income-constrained, employed”) — those who were above the poverty line but earned less than the “bare-minimum survival budget” — made up two-fifths of the total. Between 2007 and 2016, median household wealth fell by 31 percent.
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Prime Minister Shtayyeh described Trump's plan as a 'distraction' from domestic troubles. (photo: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)
Trump Plan Will 'Finish Off Palestinian Cause,' PM Warns
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Trump on Monday held separate meetings with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival, Benny Gantz, in Washington, DC over his long-delayed proposal that has been kept secret."
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Trump on Monday held separate meetings with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival, Benny Gantz, in Washington, DC over his long-delayed proposal that has been kept secret."
US president's proposal will dash hopes for an independent state, Palestinians officials say.
alestinian leaders have decried US President Donald Trump's plan for the Middle East as an effort to "finish off the Palestinian cause".
Trump on Monday held separate meetings with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his election rival, Benny Gantz, in Washington, DC over his long-delayed proposal that has been kept secret.
"We reject it and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said.
"It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause."
Palestinians fear the plan will dash their hopes for an independent state in the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Palestinian leaders say they were not invited to Washington and no plan can work without them.
Trump said the White House would release his plan at noon (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) called on ambassadors of Arab and Muslim countries to boycott the event where the plan is expected to be unveiled.
On Monday night, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by Wafa news agency as saying: "We call on Arab and Muslim ambassadors who have been invited to the unveiling of the deal of the century … not to attend these ceremonies that we consider a conspiracy aimed at undermining the rights of the Palestinian people."
Abu Rudeineh added that the plan aims to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Distracting tactics
Earlier, Shtayyeh said Trump and Netanyahu were using the proposal as a distraction from their domestic troubles.
Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives last month and is on trial in the Senate on abuse of power charges. Netanyahu faces corruption charges and a national election on March 2 - his third in less than a year. Both deny any wrongdoing.
"This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan," Shtayyeh said at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah.
Palestinian and Arab sources briefed on the draft fear it seeks to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation, in what could be a prelude to Israel annexing about half of the West Bank - including most of the Jordan Valley, the strategic and fertile eastern-most strip of the territory.
Locusts swarm from ground vegetation as people approach at Lerata village, near Archers Post in Samburu county, approximately 186 miles north of Nairobi, Kenya, on Jan. 22. (photo: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)
Worst Locust Swarm to Hit East Africa in Decades Linked to Climate Crisis
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization said that Ethiopia and Somalia had not seen a swarm this bad in 25 years, while Kenya was facing its largest infestation in 70 years."
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization said that Ethiopia and Somalia had not seen a swarm this bad in 25 years, while Kenya was facing its largest infestation in 70 years."
ast Africa is facing its worst locust infestation in decades, and the climate crisis is partly to blame.
The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said that Ethiopia and Somalia had not seen a swarm this bad in 25 years, while Kenya was facing its largest infestation in 70 years, BBC News reported.
"Vulnerable families that were already dealing with food shortages now face the prospect of watching as their crops are destroyed before their eyes," UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told Kenya's Capital News.
Over 11 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia & Somalia already suffer from acute food insecurity. #Locusts are threatening to make it a lot worse.
It is critical that we anticipate potential deterioration.
-- @FAO @dburgeon is on the ground in Lengusaka, Kenya@FAOemergencies
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The desert locust swarm came across the Red Sea from Yemen and was encouraged by heavy rains in late 2019, according to BBC News. The UN was already warning that the infestation could spread from Ethiopia in November. Some farmers in the country's Amhara region lost 100 percent of their crops, and a swarm forced an Ethiopian passenger plane off course in December.
Locusts can travel 93 miles a day, and each adult can eat its weight in food in the same time span. A small swarm can eat enough food to feed 35,000 people in 24 hours, The Associated Press reported, and the locusts have already infested around 172,973 acres of land in Kenya.
"The speed of the pests' spread and the size of the infestations are so far beyond the norm that they have stretched the capacities of local and national authorities to the limit," the FAO said, according to BBC News.
The unusual size of the swarms is connected to the climate crisis, The Associated Press explained further:
Heavy rains in East Africa made 2019 one of the region's wettest years on record, said Nairobi-based climate scientist Abubakr Salih Babiker. He blamed rapidly warming waters in the Indian Ocean off Africa's eastern coast, which also spawned an unusual number of strong tropical cyclones off Africa last year.
Heavy rainfall and warmer temperatures are favorable conditions for locust breeding and in this case the conditions have become "exceptional," he said.
Rainy conditions expected in March could cause the locust swarms to grow by a factor of 500 before drier weather is expected in June, the UN said.
Now, authorities are working to control the infestation by spraying pesticides from the air. The UN funneled $10 million towards the spraying Wednesday, but said that $70 million was needed to spray sufficiently.
"This one, ai! This is huge," Kipkoech Tale, a migratory pest control specialist with the Kenyan agriculture ministry, told The Associated Press. "I'm talking about over 20 swarms that we have sprayed. We still have more. And more are coming."
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