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Here’s your news, folks. See you back here Sunday evening.
International Developments
❖ Meet the supreme ruler of two blocks of ruins in Aleppo. Riveting account of living in an on-going nightmare.
❖ “UN to seek $1.5 billion for Syrian needy“. 2+ million Syrians are displaced inside the country, with almost 550,000 in neighboring countries–the latter expected to double by June, 2013.
❖ US drone strikes are down in Pakistan, up in Yemen. Pakistan: 122 drones strikes in 2010, 72 in 2011 and 46 in 2012. Yemen: 18 in 2011 and 52 in 2012. Between 189 – 308 militants were killed by drone strikes in Pakistan; between 397 – 539 were killed in Yemen. Drones in Yemen “are operated both by the CIA and by the Joint Special Operations Command.”
❖ “China has tightened its rules on internet usage to enforce a previous requirement that users fully identify themselves to service providers.”
❖ President Vladimir Putin of Russia has signed a bill banning US adoptions of Russian children.
International Finance
❖ Greece’s suicide rate increased 37% between 2009-11, and the number of child and adolescents seeking mental health services rose 51% between 2006-11. So far, five years of recession–with no end in sight. “This represents a chronic stress . . . It doesn’t finish. It’s always there.”
Money Matters USA
❖ Bill Black takes on “Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity”, specifically: The Guardian (UK)’s Finance Editor; Gov. Howard Dean; former Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern; and the “Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party”.
❖ “HP discloses US probe into Autonomy“, the UK software HP purchased and has since claimed it paid way too much for because of deception. HP disclosed other goodies, too. HP’s shares are down 47% for the year.
Politics USA
❖ President Obama met with congressional leaders this afternoon and said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will be working over the weekend with their members over the so-called “fiscal cliff” crisis. Obama wants his proposal–”extending Bush-era tax rates on incomes below $250,000″ and unemployment insurance–to go before the Senate for an up-or-down vote.
❖ Newly-elected San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D) served in the US House for 10 terms. Heaping criticisms on the Republicans, he dishes on the Democrats too.
❖ A noun and a verb whose time has come: “Profitutes” and “Profitution”
❖ Despite attempts by CA Gov Jerry Brown (D)’s office, to get the error corrected, FoxNews.com continued to report–wrongly–that CA’s 2012 budget deficit will be $28 billion.
❖ Gol-durn it! TX Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s campaign manager, Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield, “longtime GOP consultant”, is under criminal investigation for stealing “at least $600,000″ from Dewhurst’s political accounts.
❖ MI had an emergency manager law which was repealed by 52% of MI voters last month. Now MI has an emergency manager law, recently passed by the MI Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
❖ Maricopa County, AZ’s very own Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced plans to send his “armed volunteer posse to protect Valley schools”. Problem is, he jumped the gun by not consulting with the schools beforehand. His counterpart in nearby Pinal County simply wants to arm all the teachers and principals.
Women & Children
❖ MI Republican Gov Rick Snyder has signed a bill mandating doctors to screen patients seeking abortion “to make sure they haven’t been coerced into having an abortion” and requiring fetal remains be disposed in a manner that is currently being practiced. From now on, clinics giving more than 120 abortions/year must be licensed.
❖ The 23-year Delhi student who was severely beaten while being gang-raped in a public bus, has died.
❖ “A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers”. She poisoned herself. In India, “228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year”, or 89.2%, were cases of violence against women.
❖ In Italy, a Catholic priest has said “women bring violence on themselves by serving cold food and dressing provocatively.” Once he’d whipped the public into an uproar by that and other comments, the good pastor said he’s going to “take a period of rest.” Video.
Heads Up!
❖ Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), opening debate on renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments, referenced the British Writs of Assistance which allowed ”constables and customs officers” to search houses of the American colonists at will. Such abuses led to the creation of our Fourth Amendment now under attack by our own government. Video.
❖ Glenn Greenwald: ”GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama’s demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping; The California Democrat’s disgusting rhetoric recalls the worst of Dick Cheney while advancing Obama’s agenda”. Misplaced phrase, but you get the point.
❖ “The Senate Can At Least Agree On One Thing”.
❖ Facebook is censoring political critics.
❖ Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence continues her 17-day hunger strike, waiting to meet with Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss legislation that will destroy many treaty rights and threatens the environment.
Planet Earth News
❖ Let’s hear it for the International Maritime Organization which plans to shift shipping lanes in the Santa Barbara Channel and Los Angeles-Long Beach port area to protect the endangered blue whales from further collisions. Calls of the blue whale.
❖ Teflon kills chickens. Where is the EPA on this?
Latin America
❖ Argentina’s on-going international legal wrangling with Elliott Associates (which Argentina calls “vultures”) may hinge on definition of “pari passu”.
❖ “Eight former army lieutenants have been charged in the death” of poet, singer and songwriter Victor Jara who was seized, tortured and murdered by machine gun six days after the 1972 coup that brought down Chile’s President Salvador Allende. His last poem, from the stadium.
Mixed Bag
❖ RIP Fontella Bass, R&B and Soul singer, including “Rescue Me”
❖ RIP Norman Schwarzkopf, Iraq war general
❖ That’ll show ‘em! “Opposed to same-sex marriage, company ends wedding business”.
❖ Hope DDay sees this: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will pay $48m/year to ex-wife Veronica Lario whom he married after seeing her “perform” in 1980; she left him in 2009–3 children later–because of his involvement with an 18-year-old actress; he is currently on trial for sex in 2010 with 17-year-old, “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” and is fighting charges of abuse of power for springing Ruby from jail after she was caught shoplifting; he is also appealing his 4-year jail sentence for tax evasion. He intends to run for political office again in 2013.
Break Time
❖ Arlo’s tribute to Victor Jara
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About FDL News Desk
Greetings, Fatster, this is good work today. These stories have me riled up and I have a few things that are bothering me.
Attention: men of United States/India/Italy/The World, until you grow breasts and a vagina, then experience the same treatment you are putting them through, sit down and shut the fuck up about women!
In response to the above, I think the real headline should be: Obviously Insane Public Official Makes Criminially Insane, Possibly Illegal, Decision.
Yesterday’s links for you:
200 Year-Old Automaton Catepillar Still Works.
Worms Turn Metals Into Semi-Conductors.
Curiosity Spent The Holidays In ‘Grandma’s House’.
Netflix Was The Creator Of Their Own Crash
Florida Man Pleads Guilty In Dino Smuggling Case.
British Scientists Call Off Drilling Of Ancient Lake.
Bitchiness Proven To Extend Life.
Ebook Reading Shoots Up As Print Medium Dies.
Woman Posed As Newtown Victim’s Aunt In Fraud Scheme.
Colbert’s Warnings Go Unheeded Again: Donated Godless Killing Machine Comes With Godless Killing Machine.
Today’s links for you:
Starvation Didn’t Wipe Out Sabertooth Cats. A big no duh! This kinda extinction level event is not something so slow and lingering. A little more info.
Man Pushed To Death IDed As Police Release Images Of Woman Seen Fleeing. I included this because a question brought up in the story. Mental health issues are effecting more than just the afflicted people and it’s important.
Woman Connected To Guns Used To Murder Two Firefighters Arrested.
Snapchat Security Flaw Allows For Cached Video, So Does…BWA HAHAHAHA!
Hipster Rover Snaps Another ‘Selfie’. Actually, these are crazy beautiful.
Inability To Metabolize Tamoxifen Negatively Effects Breast Cancer Outcomes.
New California Law Eases Sperm Donor Testing Rules.
Homestead, Florida UPS Employee Arrested For Stealing From Customers.
Photographer’s Self-Portraits Used To Help Wife’s Emotional Battle With Breast Cancer.
College Student’s Turtle Project Reveals Sadistic Side Of Drivers.
Why’s my previous comment in the moderated que?
I didn’t know there’s a moderated que, Gothrykke. Where is it?
There you go, your comment @1 is now up. Good!
Is there going to be a pop quiz, Gothrykke?
Aloha, fatster, another excellent roundup…! Sorry I’ve been absent of late, I’m on vacation here in Punalu’u…! I head home tomorrow afternoon…! ;-)
Typically, any comments that contain 3 or more links head straight into moderation, part of the anti-spam apparatchik, or some such, as I’ve always been told…!
I missed a day. An ordinary amount of links doubles.
Aloha, CTuttle. Glad you’re back. Thought you might be out celebrating Schatz.
Thnx for the explanation about the moderation hold. I hadn’t a clue.
I loved that caterpillar, Gothrykke. Terrible story about the boxturtle (though fake) led me to the internet and I was amazed that you can just order the things right on line. I thought they were protected or something. ‘Course they’re far too pricey, but still . . .
Typical e-book readers are in $75,000/year households and in the 30-49 year age range. That means I’m out in the cold (and can’t afford a boxturtle, either, LOL).
Hopefully they can figure out what did go wrong with drilling in that lake and let the rest of us know in an intelligible (“layperson”) manner.
And while the others were interesting, I really got hung up on items in the saber-toothed cat story. A 4-ton sloth? Eeeeeeeeek! Nightmare image. I read a while ago that the short-faced bear disappeared because it and humans were major enemies and the humans finally won. Fierce damned thing, in addition to being so huge. Fascinating to know they don’t have much of a clue as to what ended the younger or later (or whatever) Dryas–some object flying in or even a monstrous solar flare.
Thanks so much, Gothrykke.
More Fontella Bass, from her 1990s collaboration with the World Saxophone Quartet, Breath of Life:
The title song is great, too.
Yes, very nice, prostratedragon, and thanks so much.
Thanks, fatster, for another great round up.
A lot of this has to do with Muslim sectarianism. If things go as usual with UN appeals, the American taxpayer will end up being the only contributor or almost the only contributor.
Others, including rich Arab/Muslim nations will pledge, then fail to provide, funds. But, we need their oil and their purchases of weapons manufactured in the U.S., so we’ll shut up and put up.
glen greenwald article is interesting.The government spying in the USA is out of control. The citizens don’t seem to care.
the picture of the three senators at the article is very similar to pictures from the Soviet Union, or an episode of Dr. Who.
“he (Obama)can continue to eavesdrop on Americans without any warrants, transparency or real oversight. That’s the standard coalition that has spent the last four years extending Bush/Cheney theories, eroding core liberties and entrenching endless militarism: Obama + the GOP caucus + Feinstein-type Democrats. As Michelle Richardson, the ACLU’s legislative counsel, put it to the Huffington Post: “I bet [Bush] is laughing his ass off.”
The explanation that makes the most sense to me, is the spys have dossiers on the legislators.
Thanks Fatster.
Thank you, nixonclinbushbama.
It’s very curious, mafr. People seem quite cowed. Once you lose rights, and they’ve been nibbling on the Fourth Amendment ever since when, the price to pay to regain them is awfully steep. And look at Europe, too. A day or so ago we learned about the chronically ill elderly being shipped from Germany (which, relatively speaking, has been doing ok compared to the rest of the ‘zone) to Eastern Europe and Asia for end-of-life care. And, yet, things are quiet.
I dunno. Meanwhile, we’re facing a whole new year–of what?
Oh, and . . . Good Morning!
Church committee “major finding” (not news to you I’m sure Fatster)
“The intelligence community has employed surreptitious collection techniques — mail opening, surreptitious entries, informants, and “traditional” and highly sophisticated forms of electronic surveillance — to achieve its overly broad intelligence targeting and collection objectives.
Although there are circumstances where these techniques, if properly controlled, are legal and appropriate, the Committee finds that their very nature makes them a threat to the personal privacy and Constitutionally protected activities of both the targets and of persons who communicate with or associate with the targets.
The dangers inherent in the use of these techniques have been compounded by the lack of adequate standards limiting their use and by the absence of review by neutral authorities outside the intelligence agencies. As a consequence, these techniques have collected enormous amounts of personal and political information serving no legitimate governmental interest”
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIcc.htm
My gosh, the Church Committee! mafr, I hadn’t thought about them in years and it is so very appropriate and timely! Thank you ever so much for bringing that treasure into this conversation. Wow!
I think what it is is that there’s just less difference between Dems and Repubs than we’d like to believe. Next presidential election cycle, they’ll hope everyone will forget, or simply not think about, all this stuff, and that the few real but limited differences will be enough. It was this time around. With these parties the charade will just go on and on forever. Personally I think more people should start voting Libertarian in order to send Democrats and Republicans a message, but it’s probably just a pipedream since the current dominant parties can always strangle that baby in its crib.
‘That’ll show ‘em! “Opposed to same-sex marriage, company ends wedding business”.’
You know on this subject, I just don’t understand why anyone would want someone to be involved in their wedding who had a moral objection to it. I know I wouldn’t. The way I see it, this is just the sort of thing that causes conservative people to recoil from the Democratic party and keep at least one foot in the Republican party. It’s a shame, and it seems so unnecessary.