Labels

this is political/это политический




RUSSIA











 In Puerto Rico, DeVos joined Keleher and Gov. Ricardo Rossello for a tour of Loaiza Cordero Santurce, a San Juan school that serves students who are blind or have other disabilities. The school is among 462 on the island that remain closed due to damage from Hurricane Maria. During meetings with officials there, DeVos said the department would award Puerto Rico a $2 million grant under the Project School Emergency Response to Violence program, which supports school systems recovering from a "violent or traumatic event in which the learning environment has been disrupted." [POLITICO's Morning Education, November 9, 2017]

SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.
For their trouble, the six electrical workers from Kissimmee are earning $42 an hour, plus overtime. The senior power linemen from Lakeland are earning $63 an hour working in Puerto Rico, the Florida utility said. Their 40 co-workers from Jacksonville, also linemen, are making up to $100 earning double time, public records show.










"The voters who backed Donald Trump like the disruption but are looking for more function... members of the USA TODAY Network Trump Voter Panel say. ... 'All the bickering, fighting and firings take time away from solving all of our problems.'"

“In a Nov. 2 interview, Trump responded to a question about unfilled positions at the State Department by stating, ‘I’m the only one that matters.’”

State switches out delegation head: The State Department said Tuesday that Thomas Shannon, under secretary for political affairs, won't be able to make it to the Bonn talks, where he was supposed to lead the United States' delegation to the negotiations.  In a statement, State cited a "family emergency" in saying Shannon wouldn't attend. Instead, Judith Garber, acting assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs, will lead the contingent from Wednesday through Friday. [Overnight Energy, November 14, 2017]
















ZINKE HIRES FORMER NAVY SEALS TO KEY ROLES: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has hired former Navy Seal Mike Argo as deputy chief of staff and former SEAL Captain Rick May to head up the agency's focus on increasing recreation opportunities on public land. Speaking at a webcast honoring veterans event in Interior's Washington headquarters, Zinke, who is himself a former SEAL, said "we're bringing recreation back." [POLITICO's Morning Energy, November 8, 2017]

ZINKE DENIES IMPROPRIETY IN WHITEFISH DEALINGS: During an interview with Fox News late Thursday, Zinke denied playing any role in his son landing a job with controversial Whitefish Energy - "he got a job by himself" - and said he had no role in the Montana-based company getting a now-cancelled contract to repair Puerto Rico's electric grid. "I didn't have any influence, didn't have any knowledge of the contract. Puerto Rico is not under Interior. And those elitists that would think from being a small town somehow is a crime, shame on ya," he said. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, November 10, 2017]





































Donald Trump is a known bigot and bully who will use every power available to him to threaten and harm everyone who protests his oppressive agenda. He's built his political career from scapegoating, criminalizing and attacking our communities, and it’s horrifying to think about Trump having far-reaching powers to spy on Americans. But we can stop him.  The House of Representatives just introduced a bill to extend Trump’s power to spy on Americans’ phone calls and emails for 6 years – without needed reforms to prevent abuse. Your members of Congress need to hear from you that this is not okay. Right now, loopholes in a legal authority known as Section 702 give Trump and the NSA the power to spy on Americans without a warrant.1  This law expires at the end of 2017, but the House recently introduced a bill called the USA Liberty Act that would extend Section 702 for 6 more years – and lacks needed reforms to prevent abuse of this far-reaching surveillance power.
We’re joining with 17 progressive organizations and calling on Congress to fundamentally fix, or discontinue, the USA Liberty Act. It needs strong reforms to rein in Trump and the NSA.  Without congressional action, Section 702 will expire at the end of the year. The Trump administration is demanding a permanent reauthorization of its spying powers, but a growing bipartisan block of Congress is insisting on reforms.2 It’s up to us to make sure Congress passes real reforms that will actually prevent warrantless spying on Americans.
Here’s why the USA Liberty Act needs to be fundamentally fixed. It currently:
  • Doesn’t stop backdoor searches, which is when the government searches through the hundreds of millions of communications it collects yearly for information on Americans and people on U.S. soil – all without a warrant. Instead, the bill okays accessing and sharing this information for foreign intelligence purposes, a loophole big enough to drive a truck through.
  • Fails to permanently end "about" collection, an illegal practice the NSA says they've stopped that allows for warrantless spying on Americans’ communications that merely mention an intelligence target. Collections should be limited to communications that are "to" or "from" a target.
  • Doesn’t prevent the government from secretly using surveillance information in court against defendants. Despite tens of thousands of searches by the government of Section 702 data, only a handful of defendants have ever received notice of it – and only after the Department of Justice was caught misleading the Supreme Court about its practices.
https://act.presente.org/o.gif?akid=2914.683415.tTV5muThank you for all you do and ¡adelante!
– Matt, Favianna, Erick, Reetu, Oscar, Erica and the Presente.org team.


BIGOTRY





ACTIVISTS





HAVEN HELP US? Industrial-scale leaker and accused traitor Edward Snowden announced from his refuge in Russia last week that he has created a new phone app (appropriately called “Haven.”) The app is allegedly designed to protect laptop computers from physical tampering. Snowden claims the app will protect human rights activists and others by using Android phone sensors to alert them if someone tries to mess with their nearby laptop. Skeptics might think Snowden’s Russian protectors have put a backdoor in the app.   [The Cipher Daily Brief, December 29, 2017]

News items that have resurfaced in the Jungle

U.S. AGRICULTURE

KANSAS COMMUNITIES EXPAND PUSHBACK AGAINST TYSON: It used to be big agriculture companies promising new plants and jobs were welcomed with open arms wherever they went. But a well-organized community opposition movement in Kansas shows that Tyson's efforts to build a new processing plant may be tougher than thought.
After Tyson canceled plans to build its first new protein facility in the U.S. in 20 years in Tonganoxie, Kan., 16 other communities across the state bid for the chance to welcome Tyson and its jobs. According to the Kansas State Department of Agriculture, Tyson has narrowed its choices to three finalists. Those communities have identified themselves as Cloud and Montgomery counties as well as the Greater Wichita region.
But local groups are actively pushing back. Don Stull, a retired anthropology professor from the University of Kansas who has been studying the impact of packing houses on communities since 1986, is speaking this coming Saturday in Wichita on this topic. Stull added that representatives from Cloud County have contacted him, but he has not heard of any organized plans in Montgomery County.

Rationale behind the opposition: Stull - who owns a farm in Kentucky with his brother and cousin near a Tyson processing plant -- has warned Kansas residents about the perils of poultry farming. He notes that farmers often take on significant debt to get into the business and often live near the poverty line once they are in it.
"Tyson is moving into new territory. These people don't really know the issues surrounding commercial poultry production," Stull told Morning Ag. "This is the fourth year in a row where commodity prices are down. Grain farmers are hurting. So some of them will be attracted by promises of a guaranteed income."

The immigrant labor issue: In the communities Tyson has been scouting, Stull noted that unemployment was fairly low, which means that people may be coming from other places to accept low-wage jobs. Stull added that there were a variety of issues community members have raised -- from Tyson's environmental record to the harsh working conditions that come with these jobs. "The issue is about the history of Tyson as a corporation," said Stull. "That puts strains on services that the local community provides. I think there are some of those concerns. But I would not characterize them as racist."

What Tyson says: Tyson remains guarded about what its next steps may be. "The proposed poultry complex in Kansas is on hold while we evaluate our options and that state and other states," said Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman. "We're glad to see that several communities have reached out to Kansas Department of Ag with interest in our investment."  (POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, October 27, 2017)





NAFTA ROUND FOUR, DAY THREE: Welcome to the midpoint of the NAFTA renegotiations, assuming the original goal of finishing in seven rounds remains valid.  Doubts are increasing about whether the three sides can reach a deal: Negotiators are more or less halfway through their allotted schedule, with only two chapters closed and many make-or-break issues still undecided - including whether the pact will include a controversial "sunset review" provision pushed by the United States that would terminate it after five years unless the three countries agree to extend it.  Over the past two days, teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico dug through issues related to state-owned enterprises, textiles, goods, services, government procurement, food safety, plant and animal health, the environment, financial services, anti-corruption and regulatory practices, according to a schedule seen by POLITICO when talks started at the beginning of the week.  They are expected to take up rules of origin today, when the Trump administration could lay down its highly anticipated and controversial proposal to tighten auto trade rules in a bid to bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States. More talks on rules of origin are expected on Sunday and Monday.  Other negotiating groups expected to meet today include customs, trade remedies and dispute settlement, temporary entry of workers, intellectual property, energy, labor, financial services and telecoms.  Looking ahead to the weekend, agriculture is expected to be on the agenda, including the politically sensitive issue of Canada's highly protected dairy sector, which U.S. milk producers want to pry open. Other issues slated for Saturday and Sunday include digital trade, intellectual property, pharmaceuticals, investment, labor, financial services and technical barriers to trade. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, October 12, 2017]

AUTOMAKERS: NAFTA WITHDRAWAL WOULD BE A $10 BILLION TAX ON THE INDUSTRY: A withdrawal from NAFTA would ravage the U.S. auto industry, impose what would amount to a $10 billion tax on automakers and lead to consumers purchasing cars with fewer safety and electronic features, industry experts said Thursday.  Charles Uthus, vice president for international policy at the American Automotive Policy Council, said during a panel discussion that duty-free benefits that currently exist under NAFTA save U.S. automakers about $10 billion each year. A withdrawal that results from a failure to reach an agreement with Canada and Mexico would then amount to "basically a $10 billion tax on the auto industry in America," he said.  The impact would be just as bad if the administration were to move forward with attempts to tighten the auto rules of origin to the point where it would be easier for manufacturers simply to ignore the rules and instead pay the tariff, which is only about 2.5 percent. USTR is reportedly pushing a provision that would require 50 percent of the parts of a car come from the United States in order to be eligible for NAFTA benefits, and 85 percent come from a NAFTA country.  Significantly tightening the rules of origin in a bid to create more U.S. manufacturing jobs would actually backfire and threaten 24,000 jobs in the auto parts sector, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group commissioned for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association. Completely withdrawing from NAFTA would cost an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 jobs, the study said. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, October 13, 2017]

NAFTA 2.0: THE MIXTAPE: While we might not have many concrete updates out of the fourth round of NAFTA talks so far, we do have a new playlist we can turn to as negotiations progress. Borne out of Doug's Morning Trade greeting on Thursday asking for submissions for a NAFTA 2.0 mixtape he promised to make - one he said would start with Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" - we put together a Spotify playlist of all of the suggestions we received from readers and fellow reporters throughout the day.  The songs we've received so far cover the full spectrum, from the optimistic and upbeat "We Can Work It Out" by The Beatles to the decidedly more ominous "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC. In light of news Thursday that the United States had formally tabled its sunset provision - which Canada and Mexico have made clear is a non-starter - we've added Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."  One contributor even offered a song by Sheer Mag, Doug's son's band, called "Expect the Bayonet," calling it "a populist call for participation in the process." ("And if you don't give us the ballot, expect the bayonet," the lyrics read.)  For those worrying that talks are coming to a head, growing increasingly tense with little progress being made, perhaps one suggestion sums it up best: Pet Shop Boys' "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore." Check out the playlist here, and send any new suggestions our way. . [POLITICO's Morning Trade, October 13, 2017]


WTO MEMBERS FLOATING CLOSER TO FISHERIES AGREEMENT: World Trade Organization members hoping to reach an agreement on fisheries subsidies by year's end passed a significant milestone Thursday, when a group of nations presented a common text they put together to facilitate further negotiations. Dozens of proponents - including the African, Caribbean, Pacific group; Latin American Group; the least-developed countries groups and a handful of individual members - introduced the so-called non-paper at a two-day meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules, which continues today.  The proponents said they worked sometimes overnight to produce the document, an integrated text that is meant to serve as a starting point from which negotiators can work as they intensify talks ahead of December's ministerial conference, a Geneva source said. WTO members have been invited to suggest changes to the document.  The integrated text comes just after high-level officials meeting for a mini ministerial conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, earlier this week indicated they had "strong expectations" members would reach a deal to cut down on fisheries subsidies at December's ministerial conference in Argentina. Jamaican Ambassador to the WTO Wayne McCook, who chairs the negotiating group, told members that meant there was increased pressure to intensify talks in order to nail down a deal by then.  "So it should be clear to all of us that we will need to work very hard, and with a great deal of pragmatism and flexibility, to achieve an outcome in December, even in areas of most convergence," McCook said. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, October 13, 2017]

NOTE: The news sources here vary.  Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here.  This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased.  Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value.  Thank you

NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as  a "community service" announcement.  These again are shared for their varying perspectives.

Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post.  Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse.  They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment