June 24, 2015

TPP: 13 Democratic Senators Invite Republicans to Make Them Laughing Stocks and More Serious Matters

By Joe Firestone, Ph.D., Managing Director, CEO of the Knowledge Management Consortium International (KMCI), and Director of KMCI’s CKIM Certificate program. He taught political science as the graduate and undergraduate level and blogs regularly at Corrente, Firedoglake and New Economic Perspectives. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives


The cloture vote in the Senate is now done, making the TPA vote itself a mere formality. The vote was 60 – 37 in favor of cloture with 13 of the 14 original Democratic defectors (Ben Cardin was the exception) sticking with the multinational corporations, the President, and all but five of the Republicans in supporting cloture. Supporters of cloture celebrated the bipartisan nature of the vote, as if Americans who lose their jobs and their sovereignty as a consequence of it, and the things it enables, will look more favorably on what they did because both major parties did it.

Meanwhile, three of the five steps in the process for passing the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill devised by the Republicans are virtually complete. The remaining steps now defined by McConnell are:

After the Senate votes Wednesday on final passage for fast-track, it will take a procedural vote on a package that includes TAA and trade preferences for African countries known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

McConnell has promised both bills, as well as a customs and enforcement bill favored by Democrats, will reach Obama’s desk by the end of the week.

“If we all keep working together and trusting each other, then by the end of the week the President will have TPA, TAA and AGOA and Preferences on his desk — with Customs in the process of heading his way too,”

he said on the floor.

This remaining process includes the final step of the House passing TAA with the overwhelming support of Democrats, added to about 30 – 40 Republicans, because, it is assumed, probably correctly, that once TPA is passed, then Democrats will have every incentive to vote for TAA, while Boehner will be able to supply the remainder of the votes needed to pass it and keep the McConnell/Boehner commitments to the House and Senate Democratic defectors.

This last step, however, isn’t guaranteed to happen in the House. A TAA package received 86 Republican votes in the House in the failed roll call vote that was tied to the first TPA package. But that total for TAA was delivered under pressure from the leadership to pass the TPA package. .......................(more)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/tpp-13-democratic-senators-invite-republicans-to-make-them-laughing-stocks-and-more-serious-matters.html

June 24, 2015

Facts don't stop Annthrax from going on an anti-immigrant rant

Ann Coulter made a series of factually inaccurate remarks during a Fox Business discussion about the Confederate flag.

The virulently anti-immigrant author and television personality dismissed South Carolina’s Republican governor – who has called for the flag’s removal from the statehouse grounds – as an immigrant who “does not understand America’s history,” reported Media Matters.

“I’d really like to like Nikki Haley since she is a Republican, but on the other hand, she is an immigrant and does not understand America’s history,” Coulter said.

The brown-skinned Haley was, in fact, born in South Carolina to Sikh immigrants from India.

Kennedy, the former MTV personality and current Fox host, asked Coulter whether immigrants were capable of understanding U.S. history. ................(more)

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/ann-coulter-thinks-nikki-haley-is-an-immigrant-who-does-not-understand-americas-history/

June 24, 2015

On the News With Thom Hartmann: The "Monsanto Protection Act" Is Back, and More

June 24, 2015

Whistleblowers Need Protection From Own Governments - Dutch Lawmaker

Pieter Omtzigt emphasized the need for whistleblowers to be protected in their own countries so as not to stifle critical information.

STRASBOURG, June 23 (Sputnik) – Whistleblowers should get proper protection from their governments as they are doing a great favor for transparency and shedding light on violations which would not have been seen otherwise, a Dutch senator said Tuesday.

"Whistleblowers warn against abuses, first internally, and if that doesn't work, they go public. They deserve protection against retaliation by their employers. And even more so, against criminal prosecution," Pieter Omtzigt said presenting his report on protection of whistleblowers to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Omtzigt chastised apparent corruption in the latest FIFA scandal and that whistleblowers might have been able to nip the problem in the bud before the scandal reached its present level, when several high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested on corruption charges, with 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids being investigated.

"If only FIFA had done what the whistleblowers disclosed, mainly corrupt practices, they might have assigned 2022 World Cup to another country than Qatar, and they would have done FIFA and all football playing and football lovers a great favor," he said. .................(more)

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/world/20150623/1023735175.html#ixzz3dwewfJco

June 24, 2015

Pakistan heatwave: Emergency measures as death toll nears 700

(BBC) Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif has called for emergency measures as the death toll from a heatwave in southern Sindh province reached nearly 700.

The army is now being deployed to help set up heat stroke centres, with temperatures reaching 45C (113F).

Officials have been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the crisis.

There is anger among local residents at the authorities because power cuts have restricted the use of air-conditioning units and fans, correspondents say.

Matters have been made worse by the widespread abstention from water during daylight hours during the fasting month of Ramadan. ...............(more)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33236067

June 24, 2015

Black Americans unfairly targeted by banks before housing crisis, says ACLU

(Guardian UK) Black Americans were unequally issued loans on unfavorable terms during the sub-prime loan bonanza that prefigured the housing crisis and are still suffering in its aftermath, a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union has found.

The resulting economic downturn has adversely affected them to a much greater degree than white homeowners, said the ACLU’s Rachel Goodman, who said the findings suggest banks knowingly preyed on black mortgage-seekers when it came to issuing sub-prime mortgages.

“Race must have been a factor somewhere in the decision-making, because it otherwise doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Goodman said. Goodman pointed out that the report differs significantly from other studies of wealth by race, in that it compares people who are all homeowners and thus presumably fit some definition of “middle class”.

Goodman said the black families in the study, which surveyed 3,000 households (741 of them black), had been subjected to “redlining” – denying or charging more for necessary services – loans to people in historically black neighborhoods, which made the residents of those neighborhoods particularly susceptible to predation by fly-by-night mortgage outfits pushing sub-prime loans so they could turn them around on the then-booming secondary market. ....................(more)

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/23/black-americans-housing-crisis-sub-prime-loan

June 23, 2015

MS police: Open carry laws kept us from arresting shotgun-toting man who terrorized Walmart shoppers

The police chief of Gulfport, Mississippi, expressed his frustration with his state’s open carry laws after a man strolling through a Walmart Sunday night menaced shoppers by loading and racking shells into his shotgun, causing police to dispatch a SWAT team and evacuate the store.

According to Police Chief Leonard Papania, he would have arrested the unidentified man and his companion if he could for stretching the city’s police forces thin while panicked Walmart employees huddled in a safe room, WMC reported.

“If I were in a situation where I’m in the store shopping with my family and I see an individual loading a 12 gauge, and racking it, I’m not coming to the conclusion this is good,” said Papania. “While the actions of these two men are sanctioned by state laws, what they did negatively impacted our community.”

According to police they received multiple calls about the men who had possibly done the same thing at a local Winn-Dixie, forcing police to divert officers to the Walmart to form a perimeter as the SWAT entered and searched the store. By the time police had arrived, the two men had left. .................(more)

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/miss-police-open-carry-laws-kept-us-from-arresting-shotgun-toting-man-who-terrorized-walmart-shoppers/

June 23, 2015

How about some E.coli-flavored bottled water?

Niagara Bottling LLC has recalled all spring water products produced at its two Pennsylvania facilities between June 10-18, 2015, after being informed that the water source was potentially compromised by E. coli bacteria.

Niagara stated that the bacteria were found on June 10, noting, “As the spring source did not notify us in a timely manner, we have discontinued the use of this source.”

The company added that no reports of illness or injury had been received to date, and that finished product testing had not detected any contaminants or other issues.

The bottled water has Niagara Bottling LLC on the label and is sold under the following brand names: Acadia, Acme, Big Y, Best Yet, 7-Eleven, Niagara, Nature’s Place, Pricerite, Superchill, Morning Fresh, Shaws, ShopRite, Western Beef Blue, and Wegmans. ......................(more)

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/06/niagara-recalls-14-bottled-water-brands-from-same-source-for-e-coli-risk/#.VYl4mflViko

June 23, 2015

Fear of Longer Commutes Puts Pressure on US Cities to Act

At 4:35 a.m. each weekday, Stan Paul drives out of his Southern California suburb with 10 passengers in a van, headed to his job as an undergraduate counselor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Some 80 miles and 90 minutes later, the vanpoolers finally arrive to start their workday.

On the return trip, Los Angeles' infamously snarled traffic often stretches their afternoon commute to three hours. Since Paul joined in 2001, he has spent roughly 1½ years aboard the vanpool and traveled far enough to complete a round trip to the moon.

"These super commuters, they don't just give you a day's work," he said. "They give you their lives."

Transportation experts say Paul's long journey offers a warning for the future, when traffic rivaling a major holiday might someday be the norm for many more Americans.

"If we don't change, in 2045, the transportation system that powered our rise as a nation will instead slow us down," the Department of Transportation said in report earlier this year titled "Beyond Traffic." ....................(more)

http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/14011707/fear-of-longer-commutes-puts-pressure-on-us-cities-to-act

June 23, 2015

Urban Transit Systems Struggle to Keep Pace as Demand Grows

BOSTON (AP) — Urban planners have long considered public transportation the best remedy for traffic congestion, but many of the nation's largest mass-transit systems simply aren't up to the task.

They lack the money to keep up with basic maintenance, let alone modernize and expand to attract more riders and take pressure off the highways connecting growing cities and suburbs.

Consider Boston, where the oldest American subway system began operating in 1897. During a winter of record-setting snow, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was often paralyzed, its antiquated equipment overwhelmed by the elements.

By late February, "the T," as locals call it, had less than half of its fleet available. Service was not fully restored until the end of March. ..................(more)

http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/14011706/urban-transit-systems-struggle-to-keep-pace-as-demand-grows