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pbmus's Journal
IT'S SO HOT IN AUSTRALIA ROADS ARE MELTING UNDER 'BLAST FURNACE' HEAT
A heatwave sweeping parts of Australia sent temperature soaring to more than 104F, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay inside to protect themselves from the “killer” heat that is fueling fires and melting roads.
Saturday was expected to be the first extreme heat day of the year, the state of Victoria ambulance commander Paul Holman told local media on Friday.
"This heat is a killer," he said, adding: "It's going to be like a blast furnace tomorrow and you need to adjust what you do. You need to take care. So put off the sporting events, put off the outside events, stay inside.
http://www.newsweek.com/its-so-hot-australia-roads-are-melting-under-blast-furnace-heat-772934
IT'S SO COLD IN THE U.S. TEMPERATURES WILL SET NEW HISTORIC LOWS
The Bomb Cyclone came and went, but freezing-cold weather is expected to keep its grip over most of the U.S. this weekend, sending temperatures plummeting to new record lows.
Weather forecasters warned the extreme cold weather will spare no one from New England to the Midwest and down to North and South Carolina and northern Florida, breaking daily temperature records as temperatures across the northeastern U.S. were expected to be 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average.
“Based on the latest forecasts, overnight temperatures should go below zero degrees over most of New England with perhaps even some 5 to 10 degree numbers all the way into North Carolina. Suffice to say, it will be a brutally cold weekend but some relief is in sight heading into early next week,” the National Weather Service (NWS) wrote in its weekend forecast.
http://www.newsweek.com/its-so-cold-us-temperatures-are-set-drop-new-historic-lows-772963
TRUMP WILL NEVER BE BLOCKED FROM TWITTER, HERE'S WHY
Twitter isn’t going to stop President Donald Trump from using the platform, no matter how many people want it to.
The social media platform has been on a rampage lately, removing the coveted verification badge and occasionally even deleting accounts of white supremacists, racists and neo-Nazi’s after a backlash from other users on the social media community. And some users have been calling for President Donald Trump to be blocked on the site as well, based on the idea that his routine harassment and online bullying is a breach of Twitter’s code of conduct.
“Donald Trump is a terrorist. Delete his account, @Twitter,” Comedian Alex Goldschmidt tweeted.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-will-never-be-blocked-twitter-heres-why-772972
RUSSIAN JETS INTERCEPTED BY U.S. AIR FORCE, NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE SHOWS
A new video released by the United States Air Force on Friday shows two Russian jets being intercepted in past two months.
The video shows two intercepts on November 23 and December 13 of two Russian Navy SU-30 Flankers flying in tight formation in international space near the Baltics, Stars and Stripes reported. The United States Air force in Europe said the flankers that were intercepted did not broadcast the appropriate codes air traffic control required and did not have a flight plan on file.
The U.S is giving NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission to Denmark next week which will conclude a four-month stay in Lithuania. Officials said that U.S fighter jets would scramble about 30 times to identify Russian aircrafts flying near NATO airspace.
http://www.newsweek.com/united-states-air-force-russian-jets-intercepted-773101
North Korea 'likely' to attend Olympics in South, says official
A North Korean Olympic official has said that his country is "likely to participate" in next month's Winter Olympic Games, reports say.
Chang Ung, Pyongyang's representative to the International Olympic Committee, reportedly made the comment at Beijing International Airport on Saturday.
Mr Chang is believed to be travelling to Switzerland to discuss the subject, Japanese news agency Kyodo reports.
It comes a day after Pyongyang agreed to official talks with South Korea.
US President Donald Trump, who has exchanged insults with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the talks showed his "tough stance" had worked. He said he wanted the talks to go "beyond the Olympics.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42589231
Alex Jones is hawking pro-Trump childrens book that indoctrinates them to white nationalism
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is selling a “limited edition” of a children’s book that depicts President Donald Trump as a cartoon bunny named Thump. The book promotes white nationalist imagery and makes light of the video of Trump admitting to sexually assaulting women and the national outrage that followed.
The book, called "Thump: The First Bundred Days," was written by a group of co-authors including Brett R. Smith, the creative director of the Steve Bannon-backed "Clinton Cash: A Graphic Novel," and Timothy Lim, who has worked with Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Hasbro. The book is published by Post Hill Press, whose books are distributed by Simon and Schuster.
The online store of Jones’ conspiracy theory outlet Infowars is selling the book with an exclusive poster showing Jones and Thump and describes the product as “the perfect book for teaching your kids or reading through it for yourself!”
Jones hosted Smith for a promotional interview on January 3, and flipped through the book, revealing some of its disturbing content.
On one page that Jones showed, the text read, “Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes. Such as the frogs that croaked ‘KEK!’ They were full of surprises!”
https://www.salon.com/2018/01/06/alex-jones-is-hawking-pro-trump-childrens-book-that-indoctrinates-them-to-white-nationalism_partner/
Americas health care system is an international disgrace, and its only getting worse
A common talking point among American exceptionalists is that the United States is blessed with one of the best health care systems in the world, and that residents of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand would all trade places with us if they only could. Sadly, their claim couldn't be further from the truth. While the U.S. does have its share of first-rate physicians, nurses, clinics and hospitals, gaining access to them remains an obstacle for millions of Americans. The reality is that the U.S. still lags behind the rest of the developed world — as well as some developing countries — when it comes to providing quality, affordable health care. And thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, approved by Republicans in both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the United States' troubled health care system is likely to become that much worse.
When President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act of 2010 into law, he realized that the U.S. was facing a brutal health insurance crisis. The ACA, for all its flaws, was a definite improvement over what the country had before. In 2009, a pre-Obamacare Harvard University study found that lack of health insurance was leading to roughly 45,000 preventable deaths annually in the U.S. and that uninsured Americans had a 40 percent higher chance of dying unnecessarily than Americans who had health insurance. Medical bankruptcies were rampant, even among Americans who thought they had comprehensive insurance through their jobs. Meanwhile the self-employed were uninsurable if they had a major preexisting condition, which could be anything from diabetes to asthma to high blood pressure.
https://www.salon.com/2018/01/06/americas-health-care-system-is-an-international-disgrace-and-it-is-only-getting-worse_partner/
Flu season blamed for packed emergency rooms, ambulance backlogs in California
Flu season is hitting California so hard that people are packing emergency rooms, flu medications are running out, and the death toll is rising, the Los Angeles Times reported. In some areas, flu-related emergency calls are causing ambulance backlogs.
Late December marked the start of a sharp increase in flu activity in the state, and it shows no signs of letting up. According to California health officials, 27 people under age 65 have died from the flu since October, the Times reported. Last year, the state reported three flu-related deaths from October through early January.
What areas are impacted?
All areas of California are being hit hard by the flu, according to the report.
In Southern California, an emergency room at the UCLA Medical Center treated about 200 patients in one day. Most of them were seeking relief from flu symptoms. Normally, about 140 patients are seen in a day, according to the report.
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/01/06/flu-season-blamed-for-packed-emergency-rooms-ambulance-backlogs-in-california
Americans Havent Been This Poor and Indebted in Decades
One of the lesser oddities of the Trump era is that the president and his party have managed to achieve historic levels of unpopularity — even as the unemployment rate has fallen to a decade low, and the stock market has soared to all-time highs. Few presidents have enjoyed such favorable, first-year macroeconomic numbers — and none have suffered such unfavorable political ones.
This is largely a testament to the extraordinary toxicity of Donald Trump’s persona, and the heinous unpopularity of his party’s policy priorities. Americans actually give Trump’s handling of the economy a positive approval rating — but dislike his handling of the presidency, nonetheless.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/americans-havent-been-this-poor-and-indebted-in-decades.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s1
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