Wednesday, November 30, 2016

PoliticusUSA: The 3 States Trump Accused Of Voter Fraud All Denounce His Fact Free Conspiracy

President-elect Donald Trump accused New Hampshire, Virginia, and California of voter fraud. Officials in all three states have released statements denouncing the President-elect's baseless conspiracy theory.
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/28/3-states-trump-accused-voter-fraud-denounce-fact-free-conspiracy.html


‘I will give you everything.’ Here are 282 of Donald Trump’s campaign promises.

In Donald Trump’s final days on the campaign trail, he promised his supporters that “every dream you ever dreamed for your country” will come true if he becomes president — one of dozens of sweeping promises he made and is now expected to fulfill.

In January, I compiled a list of 76 campaign promises Trump had made. Since then, the list has grown to 282, collected from Trump’s speeches, public comments, tweets and campaign and transition websites....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-will-give-you-everything-here-are-282-of-donald-trumps-campaign-promises/2016/11/24/01160678-b0f9-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html


Fake news, real sleaze: Donald Trump isn’t president yet, but his dirty tricks outdo Nixon’s

On Sunday afternoon Donald Trump tweeted that he had actually won the popular vote, whose current total shows a lead of 2.2 million votes and counting for Hillary Clinton:

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

Needless to say this is a lie and the fact that a president-elect would say such a thing is shocking. ...
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/28/fake-news-real-sleaze-donald-trump-isnt-president-yet-but-his-dirty-tricks-outdo-nixons/


Trump’s lies have a purpose. They are an assault on democracy.

Donald Trump is winning the war on reality. Welcome to the age of nightmares....
https://thinkprogress.org/when-everything-is-a-lie-power-is-the-only-truth-1e641751d150#.az2ovvq80


8 Most Scathing Takedowns of Trump's False and Whiny Voter Fraud Tweets | Alternet

Who needs state-run media when you have Twitter? Our manipulator-in-chief, who lost the popular vote by two million, took to his favorite medium Sunday to denounce the election recount efforts led by the Green Party. Fortunately, until he becomes America's Kim Jong-Un, Americans are fighting back. While you're reeling from the panic attacks from the implications of a president-elect who won't attend security briefings yet always makes time for Twitter, check out some eviscerating reactions from Twitter....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/8-most-scathing-takedowns-trumps-false-and-whiny-voter-fraud-tweets


Donald Trump is making a strong case for a recount of his own 2016 election win

On Sunday morning, President-elect Donald Trump assured us all that a recount of the 2016 election wouldn’t change the outcome and was a waste of resources....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/28/donald-trump-is-making-a-strong-case-for-a-recount-of-his-own-2016-election-win/


America Never Forgets? How about George W. Bush's Illegal Iraq War and Destruction of the U.S. Economy?

Let's face it, to be the President of the United States–the richest, most powerful and potentially most dangerous country in the world–one must possess a rare set of skills and a level of knowledge that is beyond what any 'average' person could ever display. I thought we learned this lesson when we elected George W. Bush president–twice. After all, he was likely one of the worst presidents we have ever had....
http://kwotable.com/2016/11/27/america-never-forgets-george-w-bushs-illegal-iraq-war-destruction-u-s-economy/


USA TODAY: Trump and Obama spoke by phone Saturday

Trump is ignoring daily intelligence briefings, relying on ‘a number of sources’ instead

Last week, the Washington Post reported that President-elect Donald Trump had only received two classified intelligence briefings since election day — a number they said was "notably lower" than the amount received by his predecessors at this point in the transition period....
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-is-ignoring-daily-intelligence-briefings-relying-on-a-number-of-sources-instead-d964205dfdf3#.cnbiuvqnp


Six file complaint after Mpls. officer shot into car during downtown brawl

Six people have filed formal complaints with the city after a Minneapolis police officer fired on their vehicle during a downtown scuffle last weekend.

The officer, who is now facing a standard internal affairs investigation, was responding to the scene of a large brawl near Target Field around bar close early Sunday that left two men with noncritical gunshot wounds, according to police. Amid the chaos, a car trying to back away struck the officer’s squad. He then fired one round, hitting the side of the vehicle with six people inside....
http://www.startribune.com/six-people-file-complaint-after-officer-shoots-into-car-during-downtown-brawl/403156286/



Bloomberg: Paleoconservatism Is Back

Trump may be a new kind of politician, but we've seen those ideas before.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-27/paleoconservatism-is-back


Shoppers Band Together to Defend a Woman Wearing a Hijab Against a Verbal Assaulter

Shoppers at a Smith’s grocery store in Albuquerque, NM Thursday ran to the defense of a woman wearing a hijab as another female customer verbally accosted her, KRQE News 13 reports.

“I went down the aisle to go get sodas and then all of a sudden I hear somebody starting to yell at her,” Barney Lopez, who was grocery shopping for his evening dinner, told the news station. “They’re saying things like ‘Get out of our country, you don’t belong here, you’re a terrorist!’”...
http://www.alternet.org/human-rights/shoppers-band-together-defend-woman-wearing-hijab-against-verbal-assaulter


Donald Trump Is Going to Make Money off the Secret Service Detail Assigned to Protect Him

Donald Trump, the landlord, is going to be making money from taxpayers assigned to protect Donald Trump, the president-elect. According to a report from The New York Post on Thursday, the Secret Service is in talks with the Trump Organization about renting two vacant floors of the 68-story Trump Tower. In order to protect the president-elect and his family, they will need to work with the NYPD to operate a command post containing more than 250 agents and police officers. Those two floors could cost more than $3 million each year....
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/donald-trump-going-make-money-secret-service-detail-assigned-protect-him


6 major countries have recently announced imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants

As of late, the idea of getting rid of coal in their own national electricity grid has become a popular one among several major nations across the world. At 6 least major countries, including Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and now Finland, have all recently announced the imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants.

Several of the announcement have been made just in the past few weeks since the Paris Agreement became effective earlier this month....
https://electrek.co/2016/11/25/6-major-countries-phase-out-coal/


17 Science Fiction Books That Forever Changed The Genre

Speculative fiction is the literature of change and discovery. But every now and then, a book comes along that changes the rules of science fiction for everybody. Certain great books inspire scores of authors to create something new. Here are 21 of the most influential science fiction and fantasy books.

These are books which clearly inspired a generation of authors, and made a huge splash either in publishing success or critical acclaim. Or both. And these are in no particular order....
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/09/17-science-fiction-books-that-forever-changed-the-genre/


Man uses re-harmonization technique to completely change Silent Night (for the better)

Man uses re-harmonization technique to completely change Silent Night (for the better). - [5:20]
https://vimeo.com/2028341
Using Re-Harmonization Techniques To Create A New Sound On "Silent Night" from chordman on Vimeo.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Kant & Categorical Imperatives: Crash Course Philosophy #35

Our next stop on our tour of ethics is Kant’s ethics. Today Hank explains hypothetical and categorical imperatives, the universalizability principle, autonomy, and what it means to treat people as ends-in-themselves, rather than as mere means.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/8bIys6JoEDw

Last Week’s DDoS Attack Might Only Be The First Volley (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Last Friday was a mess on the Internet. Big swathes of Spotify and Twitter grinding to a halt. Of Reddit and AirBnB and Etsy and the New York Times, paralyzed. Six thousand web sites overwhelmed in a cyber-attack launched from an army of little gizmos. A sea of web cams and DVRs quietly taken over and weaponized for attack. This was new. And it points to a disturbingly vulnerable future as the internet runs everything. This hour On Point, denial of service, and the future of the web. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview: 

Trump's Cabinet of Horrors - The Facepalm Five: November 28, 2016

So far Donald Trump seems to be splitting his cabinet picks between the despicable and the dangerously unqualified. If only we'd had some warning that he would be an awful president . . .
https://youtu.be/0ctFdlgNliE

Rick Joyner: 'If You Look At The Disciples That Jesus Chose, They Were All Donald Trump'

https://youtu.be/raC1whJqg0w

Matt Dillahunty: "Do They Really Believe That?"

Matt Dillahunty is a public speaker and Internet personality who has been hosting The Atheist Experience, a live, call-in television show, for more than 11 years. Having engaged in thousands of conversations over the years, challenging assumptions and opening minds, Matt looks back and reflects on some of the difficulties he’s encountered and the lessons he’s learned.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/o0UScVc4Rpw

Top U.S. & World Headlines — November 28, 2016

Interview:
https://youtu.be/reNU4DkGdj4

Trump is turning Twitter into a state disinformation machine

Quote of the Day: Guy Who Passed Classified Information to His Mistress Would Be "Spectacular" Choice for Secretary of State

Charles Krauthammer is excited that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giulani might not be the only men in the running for Secretary of State:

"But I do think we should keep our eye on a third possibility....and that would be David Petraeus, who to the world represents America at its strongest and most decisive. He is the guy who saved the Iraq War, and is a man who has written and thought deeply about the new kind of warfare that we are involved in. And that, I think, would be a spectacular choice."

Krauthammer, of course, was part of the chorus claiming that Hillary Clinton had betrayed the republic as Secretary of State because she occasionally discussed the administration's drone program over unclassified email. The emails were all carefully worded; there weren't very many of them; everything in them had almost certainly been widely reported already; there's no evidence that anyone ever hacked them; and James Comey said clearly that it wasn't even a close call to determine that Clinton had done nothing illegal. Nonetheless, she had endangered the country and was obviously unfit to hold office....http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/11/quote-day-guy-who-passed-classified-information-his-mistress-would-be-spectacular


The New York Times: Trump’s Next Battle: Keeping These Republican Senators Happy

Lindsey Graham. John McCain. Jeff Flake. They are just a few of the lawmakers the president-elect may sometimes find himself having to win over....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/politics/donald-trumps-republicans-senate.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=FAC594203F8D577BDD30CD230DBAB953&gwt=pay

Let's all watch Fox News discover that deficit spending is good again, one fired neuron at a time

By golly, it's almost as if nobody propped in front of the Fox News cameras gives a flying damn about the deficit and it's all just a cheap show, every single damn time.

BOLLING: And senior adviser Steve Bannon who's spent many many years on Wall Street, went to Harvard, very, very smart guy. He said, he makes a very good point. If you're going to borrow, if you're going to deficit spend, it's borrowing. Do it when the interest rates are low like they are right now, and there's a lot of indication interest rates may be rising soon. [...]

GUTFELD: But if Obama had done that we would have crucified him.

WILLIAMS: But that's the point, right, Greg, is that Obama -- the policy here remains somewhat the same, but the messenger does make a difference, and that's the sad truth. [...]

GUTFELD: But his spending, remember, we were going to shut down the government over spending. ...
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1603511


5 Deeply Obnoxious Things We Learned About Donald Trump This Week

Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving week leaking the names of his potential cabinet picks, making Mitt Romney grovel, and turning down security briefings. He also made time to sit down with the New York Times to flatter and lie to them, which seems to have inexplicably fooled the paper of record into saying, Look, he's not that bad. The next day, the Times ran a piece about how Trump was “diversifying” his cabinet appointments because he gave Nikki Haley a job for which he has no respect and she has no qualifications, U.N. representative. His appointments ping-ponged between know-nothings, right-wing ideologues the likes of which would make Dick Cheney blush, and gazillionaires who have gutted the very working class Trump once claimed to champion.

Here are some of the most deeply disturbing things we learned this week about the pussy-grabbing birther-in-chief....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/5-deeply-obnoxious-things-we-learned-about-donald-trump-week


Business Insider: 10 ways to tell if your president is a dictator

There are good reasons to worry about how Donald Trump will handle foreign policy, but there are also reasons to think he won't be any worse than some other administrations. The neoconservatives who dominated foreign-policy making in George W. Bush's administration had lots of prior experience, God knows, and look at all the harm they did. My fears about Trump's foreign policy have always been two-fold: that he might pursue a more sensible grand strategy but do it incompetently, thereby weakening America’s international position, or that he will eventually get co-opted by the foreign-policy establishment and repeat the Blob’s most familiar mistakes. Based on some of his early appointments — like Islamaphobe Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security advisor — we might even get the worst of both worlds: unrealistic goals pursued ineptly....
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/23/ten-ways-to-tell-if-your-president-is-a-dictator/


Business Insider: Sanders pressures Trump on Carrier factory: 'It is not good enough to save some of these jobs'

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders turned up the pressure on President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday about his pledge to try to stop an Indiana air conditioner manufacturer from moving 1,400 jobs to Mexico.

Both Sanders, who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and Trump seized on an announcement earlier this year by United Technologies Corp's Carrier division that it would shift production to Mexico as an example of how trade deals hurt U.S. workers.

Sanders on Saturday warned "it is not good enough to save some of these jobs" and said Trump should use as leverage United Technologies' defense contracts, Export-Import Bank financing, and tax breaks....
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-sanders-to-trump-use-defense-contracts-as-leverage-for-carrier-jobs-2016-11


KRUGMAN: No matter what Trump does, manufacturing jobs are not coming back to the US

Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, took to Twitter on Friday to address the state of the US labor market and promises by President-elect Donald Trump to being back manufacturing jobs.

To Krugman, the decline in manufacturing employment in the US isn't because of outsourcing, but rather a decades-old feature of the industry.

"The story of U.S. manufacturing is basically one of high productivity growth allowing demand to be met with ever fewer workers," ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/krugman-tweets-on-manufacturing-labor-market-jobs-donald-trump-2016-11


The New York Times: Inside a Fake News Sausage Factory: ‘This Is All About Income’

A computer science student in a former Soviet republic found there was money to made mixing real and made-up stories, as long as they were pro-Trump. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/europe/fake-news-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-georgia.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=A4D7C8A826BED53E2FD3CBE02A1B9DD6&gwt=pay

'Painful hypocrisy': Federal judge orders US to reconsider denying a passport to intersex Navy veteran

A federal judge in Denver ordered the U.S. Department of State to reconsider its denial of a passport to a Navy veteran from Colorado who identifies as neither male or female, court documents showed on Tuesday.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Dana Zzyym, who was born with ambiguous sex characteristics, and had been attempting to travel to Mexico City for a meeting of intersex people - those born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definitions of male or female....
http://www.businessinsider.com/painful-hypocrisy-federal-judge-orders-us-to-reconsider-denying-a-passport-to-intersex-navy-veteran-2016-11


Lewis Black on Evolution

A clip on Lewis Black talking about evolution and president Bush......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcJvkAdydnQ&feature=youtu.be

Monday, November 28, 2016

Letters To California Mosques Praise Donald Trump, Promise Genocide

Religious leaders in California are calling for a police investigation after identical letters were sent to local mosques hailing President-elect Donald Trump and calling for death to Muslims. The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement asking for increased protection after the hate-filled letters were discovered at the Islamic centers of Long Beach and Claremont as well as a mosque in San Jose.

The handwritten and photocopied letters, received over the course of the week, were signed by “Americans for a Better Way.” They call Muslims “a vile and filthy people” who “worship the devil” and evoke Trump....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-mosque-letters-genocide_us_5839ffcbe4b000af95ee61bd

Boing Boing: Trump's presidential hires and advisors own a hell of a lot of fake news sites

Floyd Brown invented the Reagan-era Willie Horton lie, helped create the Citizens United group, and now owns Liftable Media, including sites like Conservative Tribune (50th most-trafficked site in the USA) and Western Journalism (81st), whence came fake news stories like the lie that Obama had altered the White House logo to include a white flag of surrender (the logo change came from GWB's White House); the lie that Muslims had been "ordered" to vote for Hillary; the lie that Obama had encouraged millennial non-citizen Latinas to vote without fear of reprisals; the lie that Clinton had a Vegas "drug holiday" before the debate; the lie that Obama's birth certificate was not accepted by experts as genuine -- Brown's sites are all included in Facebook's verified news sources. ...
http://boingboing.net/2016/11/26/trumps-presidential-hires-an.html


NPR: Paul Ryan's Plan to Change Medicare Looks A Lot Like Obamacare

An overhaul of Medicare must be part of efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan. His plan would ask insurers to sell Medicare policies on exchanges. ...
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/26/503158039/paul-ryans-plan-to-change-medicare-looks-a-lot-like-obamacare


Business Insider: With Trump's commerce and treasury picks, it's looking like business as usual in Washington


During his campaign, Donald Trump told voters that he would apply the lessons of business to running a government. As president-elect he has begun tapping wealthy tycoons to join his economic team, reflecting his faith in private-sector experience - and the approach of past Republican and Democratic administrations in filling these posts.

Reporting on Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks concur on the likely nomination as commerce secretary of Wilbur Ross, who chairs a private equity firm and is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.9 billion. Mr. Ross was an adviser and fundraiser for Trump’s campaign and has echoed his hostility to “bad trade agreements.”

The New York Times reports that Trump may appoint as deputy commerce secretary another billionaire Republican donor, Todd Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs. The current commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, is a billionaire and a prominent funder of Obama’s presidential campaigns....
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/1125/With-Trump-s-Commerce-Treasury-picks-will-it-be-business-as-usual


Trump's presidency is shaping up to be a kakistocracy: government by the worst possible people

Many of the words our language uses to describe forms of government come from Greek: democracy, autocracy, oligarchy, monarchy, and so on. There’s also another Greek term that you might not have encountered before called kakistocracy, or rule by the worst possible people. Trump has only been the president-elect a mere two weeks, but he has already sparked outcry over promising key appointments to white nationalists, unqualified sycophants, and those with troubling ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. With congressional Republican leaders acquiescing to Trump’s nominees, America is poised to have a government run by the worst sorts imaginable....
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1602547


Russian propaganda is using Facebook, other social media sites to manipulate American voters

While concerns that the Russians hacked our election are probably unfounded, this doesn’t mean they didn’t manipulate the outcome in their own way.

Independent researchers have discovered that Russian propagandists successfully created and spread misinformation using social media sites to savage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and assist her perceived pro-Russian counterpart, Republican nominee Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Their methods ranged from writing fake news stories and then spreading them on popular social media sites like Facebook to paying human “trolls” to go online and spread information that depicted Clinton as fatally ill, in the thrall of secret global financial interests, and desirous of engaging in armed conflict with Russia....
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/25/russian-propaganda-is-using-facebook-other-social-media-sites-to-manipulate-american-voters/


Why Some Countries Refrigerate Their Eggs And Others Don't

In this video, we look at why some countries, such as America, refrigerate their eggs, while others, such as many countries in the EU, don't. We also look at whether those who refrigerate their eggs have the option to not and vice-versa....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbqv1SuQJ0s&feature=youtu.be

Converting Atheists With One Touch - Derren Brown

Derren assumes the role of an evangelist, and converts a room of non-believers with just a touch....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-i_9DOCsEY&feature=youtu.be

Israel restarts settlement work as Trump win seen signaling ‘era of Palestinian state is over’

Donald Trump's presidential victory has dimmed hopes for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and analysts say Israel may be given carte blanche from his administration. American presidents have long struck a delicate balance in the conflict, stressing the close U.S. friendship and lavishing the Jewish state with aid. But recent presidents also have tried to negotiate, and they have called out Israel for actions seen as undermining peace efforts, such as expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Trump’s role can’t be easily predicted...
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/11/24/world/politics-diplomacy-world/israel-restarts-settlement-work-trump-win-seen-signaling-era-palestinian-state/#.WDe0t_krKUk


Trump fools the New York Times on climate change

Donald Trump spouted incoherent anti-scientific nonsense on climate change at length with New York Times reporters and editors Tuesday — and they totally fell for it. Ignoring most of what he actually said, the Times ran a story, “Trump, in Interview, Moderates Views but Defies Conventions,” which opens, “President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tempered some of his most extreme campaign promises … pledging to have an open mind about climate change.” (Emphasis added.)...
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-fools-the-new-york-times-on-climate-change-180323fa5980#.nqe123me8


The secrets of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” - Joshua Borths

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) is widely regarded as one of the most influential operas in history. And while it may seem like a childish fairytale at first glance, it’s actually full of subversive symbolism. Joshua Borths explains how many elements of "The Magic Flute" were inspired by Mozart’s somewhat controversial involvement with Freemasonry....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iKd-P4Bcac&spfreload=10

Pennsylvania City May Face Lawsuit Over Veterans Memorial Bench That Denigrates Atheists

Justus Park in Oil City, Pennsylvania is home to a bench honoring our veterans… that also includes a religious message: “Men Who Aren’t Governed By God, Will Be Governed By Tyrants.” Which means this veterans’ memorial is really a slap in the face to all the atheists who have served this country. It’s also government promotion of religion, breaking the very laws our veterans fought to uphold....
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/11/21/pennsylvania-city-may-face-lawsuit-over-veterans-memorial-bench-that-denigrates-atheists/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Blame Big Pharma For Out-Of-Control Health Care Costs (John Donvan, Intelligence Squared U.S.)

Health care costs in the U.S. are some 18 percent of GNP, nearly double what other rich countries spend. We read of drug therapies that cost $100,000 a year or more, and of drug price increases that are 6 times the rate of inflation, on average, and often much more when mergers reduce competition in the industry. Is this a major driver of excessive health care costs? Or is it a by-product of the huge costs of getting new drugs approved? Has big pharma delivered drugs that reduce the need for costly surgeries, which extend life and improve its quality? Or do they deserve the blame that has been leveled against them?
Interview:
http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/blame-big-pharma-out-control-health-care-costs

Sunday, November 27, 2016

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe #589

  • Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Stanislav Petrov 
  • News Items: Musk, Obama and Mars 
  • Encyclopedia of Life Science and Colonialism 
  • Who's that Noisy 
  • What's the Word: Taphonomy 
  • Science or Fiction
Interview: 

How And Why Obamacare Premiums Will Rise (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Health care went big on the campaign trail yesterday. New numbers out from the Obama administration show premiums for coverage under the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – headed up. Twenty-two percent up, on average. Much less in some places. Much more in others. A small minority of the country uses Obamacare. And most of those who do are protected by subsidies from the hikes. But this is a big, volatile issue – and challenge. This hour On Point, the realities of Obamacare. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2016/10/26/obamacare-premium-rise

Humanize Me 125: Are we going too easy on Christianity? (Bart Campolo)

If it were up to Bart’s wife Marty, the rest of the world probably still wouldn’t know about their deconversion and this podcast wouldn’t exist, so her joining him for this episode is a pretty big deal. Rather than focusing on their marriage per se, however, Bart and Marty open up to each other about an immediate and excruciating question that every former believer must face sooner or later: How long do we hold our tongues once we realize that what we used to believe – and that many of our loved ones still do – is not just untrue, but also genuinely harmful?
Interview:
http://bartcampolo.org/2016/10/humanize-125-going-easy-christianity

How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

..."I think you spend 50 percent of your mental energy trying to defeat ad systems," Wu says. "It's amazing that we've got this great scientific invention, the Web and the Internet, and then it has come to the point where using it reminds me of swatting mosquitoes."...
Interview:
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/10/17/498237314/how-free-web-content-traps-people-in-an-abyss-of-ads-and-clickbait

Sourcing The Batteries That Power Your Smartphone (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

When it comes to smartphone batteries, most of us just want them smaller and stronger. Then Samsung’s phone batteries start bursting into flame and get our attention. Lithium batteries – like those in hover boards and electric cars. My guests today say we should pay more attention to what’s in those batteries. The dangers and human costs. In mines in Congo and villages in China. This hour On Point, we’ll look at what really went wrong at Samsung, and the hidden costs of lithium batteries. — Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2016/10/17/smartphone-batteries-galaxy-note-explode

How to Secretly Speak Up About Atheism

Interview:
https://youtu.be/2yOzOo1rw-g

David Crosby (Marc Maron, WTF)

David Crosby readily admits that he probably shouldn't be alive. Drug addiction, alcoholism and health issues have taken their toll but have not knocked David out. He's still making music and going out on tour, but he had a little time to talk with Marc about The Byrds, CSN, Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Woodstock, Altamont, Melissa Etheridge, and much more.
Interview:
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-751-david-crosby

The alt-right isn’t only about white supremacy. It’s about white male supremacy

At the Republican National Convention in July, Stephen Bannon praised his former website to a reporter, declaring: “We’re the platform for the alt-right.” But on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump told the New York Times that Bannon, his pick for chief White House strategist, isn’t part of that white supremacy movement.

“If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use," Trump said, "I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.”

 The conversation came days after Richard Spencer, the man who coined the term “alt-right,” and his supporters, some employing the Nazi salute, gathered in the nation’s capital, just blocks from Trump’s future residence. The loosely organized group, launched with a blog about six years ago, aims to create a white ethno state that would outlaw minorities — and force women into domestic roles....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/25/the-alt-right-isnt-just-about-white-supremacy-its-about-white-male-supremacy/


Is Barron Trump Autistic?

Donald Trump's youngest son Barron Trump might be autistic, and it's time for people to stop bullying him for his "strange" behavior. Let's follow Melania Trump and #StopTheBullying....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZAd5Pu9iw4&feature=youtu.be

Republicans Get Ready to Welcome Back Earmarks - The Atlantic

When Republicans swept Democrats out of the House majority in 2010, one of their first acts in power was to ban earmarks—the pet projects prized by lawmakers that had become synonymous with pork-barrel spending and corruption.

“Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington,” John Boehner, then two months away from becoming House speaker, declared triumphantly when his party approved the proposal two weeks after the 2010 midterm elections.

Now, with the GOP poised to rule over both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the first changes House Republicans are considering is to bring them back....
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/republicans-earmarks-congress/508328/?utm_source=feed


Voucherizing Medicare Is a Death Ride for Republicans

Are Republicans really going to start off the 115th Congress by mucking around with Medicare?

For nearly six years, Speaker Paul D. Ryan has championed the new approach, denounced by Democrats as “voucherizing” Medicare. Representative Tom Price of Georgia, the House Budget Committee chairman and a leading candidate to be Mr. Trump’s secretary of health and human services, has also embraced the idea, known as premium support. ....

Democrats say that premium support would privatize Medicare, replacing the current government guarantee with skimpy vouchers — “coupon care for seniors.” The fear is that the healthiest seniors would choose private insurance, lured by offers of free health club memberships and other wellness programs, leaving traditional Medicare with sicker, more expensive patients and higher premiums....
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/11/voucherizing-medicare-death-ride-republicans


ThinkProgress.org: A t-shirt that fights back: 100% of proceeds go to the Trump investigative fund

Support investigative journalism in style. We're just two weeks into President-elect Donald Trump's preparation to assume the White House, and already we've seen an unprecedented disregard for ethical norms. His family appears to already be using the presidency to further their own business interests. His transition team, potential nominees, and proposed cabinet are rife with white nationalists, climate deniers, and partisan players unqualified for the offices for which they're being considered. He’s aggressively and unabashedly bullied the press.

In response, we’ve started a Trump investigative fund, and our goal is to raise $100,000. We designed a t-shirt that we’ll send to anyone who makes a contribution of $40. Wear it in solidarity with the journalists and activists who refuse to be cowed by Trump’s saber-rattling....
https://thinkprogress.org/a-t-shirt-that-fights-back-100-of-proceeds-go-to-the-trump-investigative-fund-22aa620722fa#.isglpypi6


The Huffington Post - US: Here's A Case For Marijuana Legalization In The United States

A few of our country’s most notable Founding Fathers ― think George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams ― grew the cannabis plant, hemp, as a multipurpose crop, while colonists from that time could pay their taxes with the plant. Betsy Ross sewed her American flag from hemp. “How could it be any more all-American than that?” Jesse Ventura asked with a laugh while talking on the phone with The Huffington Post in promotion of his book, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jesse-ventura-marijuana-book_us_58349165e4b01ba68ac32d14?


US: Environmental Orgs See Surge In Donations, Volunteers Following Trump's Win

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's win and his threats to undo years of progress against climate change, environmental groups say they're seeing a major surge in donations and volunteers. ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-climate-change-donations_us_5835be55e4b000af95ed6f02?


Reuters: WTO chief says no indication that Trump wants to take U.S. out of group

World Trade Organization chief Roberto Azevedo said on Thursday he had no indication that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wanted to withdraw the United States from the global trading body. ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wto-idUSKBN13J15U?utm_source=applenews


New browser extension prevents white nationalism from being normalized in the news

As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration, one theme is becoming clear: he’s surrounding himself with white nationalists.

The media, as a result, has been fumbling with how to cover Trump and his transition team, often downplaying appointed individuals’ white nationalist ideological views as “controversial” or “outsider.” This tactic has drawn criticism from journalists and the public, who have condemned the use of “alt-right” as a sanitized term that obscures racism.

But one man is using technology to hold the media accountable. He created a Google Chrome browser extension “Stop Normalizing Alt Right” that replaces any mention of the term “alt-right” with “white supremacy.”...
https://thinkprogress.org/stop-normalizing-alt-right-chrome-extension-8612024e48f2#.5horfdirc


RT: What happens to oil if Trump tears up Iran nuclear deal

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to rip up the Iranian nuclear agreement on Day 1, and reimpose sanctions on Iran. The move could potentially have far-reaching consequences for the oil markets.
https://www.rt.com/business/368038-trump-iran-deal-oilprice/









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