brooklynite
brooklynite's JournalNebraska Republican State Legislator says GOP aiding White Supremacy, GOP asks him to become a Dem
GOP State Party Chair demands he become a Democrat.
https://twitter.com/senmccollister/status/1158178237899522048
https://twitter.com/senhorraposa/status/1158519312942075904
NBC News: Dayton killer"s gun bought legally
Trump stumbles into Kashmir showdown
PoliticoWhen the U.S. president suggested last month that he had been asked by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act as middleman between India and Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan region, it looked like a gauche diplomatic gaffe, and New Delhi promptly shot him down.
Over the past weekend, however, South Asia's most dangerous faultline has flared up to such an extent that it is no longer unthinkable that the world's global policeman could have to step in to cool tensions between two military heavyweights, both armed with nuclear weapons.
On Monday, the Indian government announced it would revoke its part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir's special status as an autonomous region, going back on the agreement that allowed the Muslim-majority state to become part of India in the first place.
...snip...
Trump landed himself squarely in the middle of this intractable quagmire on July 22. Seated next to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in the White House, he unwittingly dropped a bombshell by claiming Modi had asked him to mediate in Kashmir.
What could go wrong...
Top Ohio Republican calls on lawmaker to resign after 'shocking' comments about Dayton shooting
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBUS - Ohio Republican Party leader Jane Timken has called on Rep. Candice Keller to resign from her Butler County seat after the lawmaker's comments about Sunday's mass shooting in Dayton.
Keller blamed LGBTQ individuals, former President Barack Obama and professional athletes who wouldn't kneel for the American flag for the shootings in Dayton and El Paso this weekend.
“While our nation was in utter shock over the acts of violence in El Paso and Dayton, Republican State Representative Candice Keller took to social media to state why she thought these acts were happening," Timken said in a statement. "Candice Keller’s Facebook post was shocking and utterly unjustifiable. Our nation is reeling from these senseless acts of violence and public servants should be working to bring our communities together, not promoting divisiveness.”
In the Facebook post, Keller complained about liberals playing the "blame game" after every shooting and asked why not place the blame where it belongs. The Republican lives in Middletown, about 30 miles south of Dayton, where a gunman killed nine people early Sunday.
Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/05/ohio-gop-leader-tells-lawmaker-resign-over-dayton-shooting-post/1925234001/
The scramble to secure America's voting machines
Politico(Interactive article)
The scramble to secure America’s voting machines
Paperless voting devices are a gaping weakness in the patchwork U.S. election system, security experts say. But among these 14 states and their counties, efforts to replace these machines are slow and uneven, a POLITICO survey reveals.
...snip...
During the 2018 election, all voters in 36 states and D.C. cast ballots on machines that produced some form of paper record.
Even there, though, some machines were more secure than others. Some of these states used only fully paper-based machines, including the hand-marked and machine-scanned paper ballots that security experts consider the gold standard. Other states used a combination of those machines and originally paperless machines that had been upgraded with printers.
These 14 states used paperless machines in 2018.
These states represent the heart of the concern over insecure voting technology — places where at least some people cast ballots in 2018 on devices that produced no paper vote trail. They include Pennsylvania, a swing state that played a crucial role in Donald Trump’s victory.
Real estate mogul Trump sold condos to regime-connected Venezuelans
Source: Politico
Years before President Donald Trump embarked on a campaign to oust Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro, the real estate mogul's business was selling condominiums to the strongman's supporters.
At least half a dozen Venezuelans linked to either Maduro or his predecessor, dictator Hugo Chavez, purchased Trump condos in New York City and South Florida prior to Trump becoming president, according to property records. Several of the individuals faced serious allegations of -- and even pleaded guilty to -- the type of financial fraud in Venezuela that Trump now regularly decries.
While the sales themselves weren't illegal, the buyers' backgrounds and purchase methods made the transactions suspicious, according to financial fraud experts. They noted that many of the purchases were made above the apparent market value, fully in cash or using shell companies to obscure identities -- all potential signs of money laundering, the experts said.
The sales have raised questions about whether some of these Venezuelan purchasers were buying Trump properties in order to store ill-gotten gains offshore -- an issue Trump as president has vowed to address.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/04/trump-real-estate-regime-venezuela-1445264
Viva La Revolucion!
Germans kept up at night by noisy igelsex (that's hedgehog coupling)
German emergency services called out to attend to nighttime disturbances are increasingly finding themselves confronted with copulating hedgehogs.
People are calling 110 (the German equivalent of 999) to complain about noises they typically put down to neighbours having unacceptably loud sex or to injured animals crying out for help. The spread of the hashtag #igelsex (hedgehog sex) on social media reveals the disturbances sometimes have a less predictable source.
Recently police in Augsburg were called to a primary school one night after suspicious noises were heard in the playground and a security light was activated. Only after the caretaker had been dragged out of bed and several police officers had inspected the site were the culprits found to be a pair of hedgehogs busily mating.
“The suspicious noises were soon pinned on a hedgehog couple in the midst of a mating ritual,” a superintendent wrote in his report, entitled “Prickly intruders”, adding that the hedgehogs were not disturbed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/05/germans-kept-up-at-night-by-noisy-igelsex-thats-hedgehog-coupling
Hong Kong Protests: Spreading Clashes Paralyze City
Source: New York Times
Riot police officers fired many volleys of tear gas at protesters near government offices, apartment complexes, shopping malls and parks across Hong Kong on Monday, as clashes with demonstrators plunged a broad stretch of the territory into chaos.
Antigovernment demonstrators fanned out across at least a half-dozen districts, occupying roads and hurling objects at police stations as they tested the limits of the police force. They set a fire outside a police station in Sha Tin, in the New Territories region of northern Hong Kong, that quickly swelled until flames licked the sides of the building. Firefighters extinguished the blaze.
Activists called for a general strike and rallies on Monday, leading to service disruptions on several subway and rail lines and the cancellation of more than 200 flights from the city’s airport.
The officers arrested dozens of people, pinning some to the ground, and fired multiple rounds of tear gas, filling the air with white, acrid fumes. Local news outlets said that the riot officers also shot off rubber bullets.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/world/asia/hong-kong-protest.html
High production value campaign announcements are all the rage; This one doesn't quite work
Very "Field of Dreams" but says nothing about Scholten, King or the issues at hand.
By comparison, look at this one for Candace Valenzuela
Profile Information
Name: Chris BastianGender: Male
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Home country: USA
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 94,561
