On July 27, 2017, near the end of the one of the most compelling hearings yet on the Trump-Russia affair, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) offered an extraordinary insight. It shot through the proceedings like a comet.

"Corrupt kleptocrats and international criminals make themselves rich in criminality and corruption," he said. "Then at some point they need the legitimate world in order to protect and account for their stolen proceeds."

What? Whitehouse sketched a new bipolar world order, in which the so-called legitimate world, which includes the United States, is not at war with, but rather deeply enmeshed in, the corrupt one, where governments are built on bribery, kleptocracy, electoral fraud, slush funds, legal plunder and nepotism.

Whitehouse then addressed William F. Browder, the hedge funder turned global finance reformer, who was giving testimony on foreign-agent registry violations. "How good a job is the legitimate world doing about fencing off the corrupt world rather than facilitating it? "

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-ivanka-legitimizing-20180303-story.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

Amazon is under fire after refusing to cut the NRA's TV show from its streaming service.

The e-commerce giant's behavior is under the microscope, as cities offer up millions of dollars in tax incentives as they compete over HQ2.

Walmart was once portrayed as the biggest villain in American capitalism. Now, Amazon is becoming the new symbol of everything that's wrong with big business.

As Americans demand that companies take a stand on gun control, Walmart is stepping up — and Amazon is falling short.

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-vs-walmart-gun-control-hq2-2018-3?r=UK&IR=T

A major home security company is the latest company to end its relationship with the National Rifle Association.

SimpliSafe, which gives NRA members two months of free monitoring with a purchase of any new home security system, informed ThinkProgress of its decision in an email Friday morning.

“We have discontinued our existing relationship with the NRA,” wrote Cassie Kling, a SimpliSafe spokesperson. Kling did not immediate respond to followup questions asking what prompted the decision.

https://thinkprogress.org/simplisafe-cuts-ties-with-the-nra-524c33be3544/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

A Japanese company is planning to build the world's tallest wooden skyscraper with 90 percent of the building made of wood.

Sumitomo Forestry says its wooden high-rise — dubbed the W350 — will be 350 meters tall and the planned structure will be a hybrid of mostly wood and steel.

The 70-storey building, expected to be built in Tokyo, will comprise of stores, offices, hotels and private homes, the company noted in plans released earlier in February.

Sumitomo Forestry, which notes on its website that "happiness grows from trees," said it aimed to create environmentally-friendly, timber-utilizing cities which "become forests through increased use of wooden architecture for high-rise buildings."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/20/worlds-tallest-wooden-skyscraper-japan.html

The Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida could have simply been destined to be added to a tragic list.

It was the 18th gun-related episode on American school grounds this year, prompting commentators to decry the violence but expect little change in gun laws as a result.
Martin Luther King gives his I Have a Dream speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
Photo: Student protests inspired the mass gatherings that led to Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech in 1963. (Wikimedia)

But Stoneman Douglas students are declaring they don't want to become just a number, organising protests, criticising President Donald Trump and confronting politicians over the contributions they have accepted from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The students are not only doing so in words; they plan to do so in person, organising The March For Our Lives, scheduled to take place on March 24 in Washington, DC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-19/generation-z-nra-gun-control-florida-high-school-massacre/9460720

The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists based in St. Petersburg, Fla., has acquired direct ownership of PolitiFact from the Tampa Bay Times, the organizations announced Monday.

The fact-checking website was created in 2007 by the Times newspaper. The Times is owned by Poynter.

The move will allow PolitiFact to function fully as a not-for-profit national news organization, putting it more squarely on footing with other nonprofit newsrooms like ProPublica and the Center for Public Integrity. Poynter already is home to the International Fact Checking Network, an organization that supports fact-checkers around the world.

The transition by PolitiFact also means that contributions to PolitiFact’s membership program, called the Truth Squad, will be tax deductible in 2018, as allowed by law. PolitiFact launched the Truth Squad in 2017, and the website reported raising more than $200,000 in donations in its first year.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/12/politifact-gains-nonprofit-status-move-poynter-ins/

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/962319038583136258

TAMPA — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has drawn jeers for suggesting that people in pain should consider over-the-counter Bufferin instead of opioids.

On Wednesday, Sessions was in Tampa, touting the Trump administration’s efforts to combat drug abuse and trafficking.

This time, he broadened his suggestion to aspirin.

"I am operating on the assumption that this country prescribes too many opioids," Sessions said. "People need to take some aspirin sometimes."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/In-Tampa-visit-Attorney-General-Jeff-Sessions-recommends-aspirin-over-opioids-for-pain-relief_165258353

Trump Administration Departures

Health and Human Services Secretary
Chief of Staff
Deputy Chief of Staff
ANOTHER Deputy Chief of Staff
Director of Public Liaison
Office of Public Liaison Communications Director
Press Secretary
Assistant Press Secretary
Communications Director
ANOTHER Communications Director
Rapid Response Director
National Security Advisor
Deputy National Security Advisor
ANOTHER Deputy National Security Advisor
Advisor to the National Security Council
Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council
Deputy Chief of Staff at the National Security Council
Director of Strategic Planning at the National Security Council
Senior Director for the Middle East Advisor at the National Security Council
Chief White House Strategist
Deputy Assistant to the President and Strategist
Acting US Attorney General
FBI Director
Dozens of US Attorneys
National Economic Council Deputy Director
Domestic Policy Council Deputy Director
Chief of Staff to the Vice President
Press Secretary to the Vice President
Director of the Office of Government Ethics
Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform
Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury
Vice President’s Director of Domestic Policy
Chief Counsel to the Vice President
Senior Advisor to the White House Chief of Staff
NSA Director
White House Staff Secretary

https://twitter.com/frankryanjr/status/961017230057197568


In 500 years.. "We found the car alright but still no sign of the feckin' centre core''