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peppertree's JournalObama says he's 'proud of' former staffers who slammed Trump for 'poisoning of our democracy' in fie
Former President Obama tweeted Saturday that he is "proud of" how former staffers of his administration are "continuing to fight for an America that's better" after they penned an op-ed blasting President Trump for his "poisoning of our democracy."
"I've always been proud of what this team accomplished during my administration," he tweeted with a link to the op-ed, which was published by The Washington Post on Friday.
"But more than what we did, I'm proud of how they're continuing to fight for an America that's better," he continued.
The op-ed, titled "We are African Americans, we are patriots, and we refuse to sit idly by," was penned by 149 African American alumni of the Obama administration in support of congresswomen of color who were recently attacked by the president and told to "go back" to their home countries.
At: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-says-hes-proud-of-former-staffers-who-slammed-trump-for-poisoning-of-our-democracy-in-fiery-op-ed/ar-AAEX4y2
Former President Barack Obama: Standing up for those who stood up.
GDP slows to 2.1% in second quarter - but beats expectations thanks to strong consumer spending
Growth decelerated in the second quarter, but not by as much as Wall Street thought, as tariffs and a global slowdown weighed on the U.S. economy, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
GDP increased 2.1%, down from the first quarter’s 3.1% and the weakest increase since Q1 of 2017 when President Donald Trump took office. GDP grew 2.3% from the same time last year, and 2.5% so far this year.
Dow Jones Q2 estimates were for 2% growth.
However, the underlying numbers in the report seemed to take steam out of the recession fears that have been much of the talk among economists and policymakers at the Federal Reserve.
Personal and business spending grew at a 4.3% annual rate - led by durable goods, which surged at a 12.9% rate after two weak quarters.
Fixed private investment (construction, machinery and software) slid 0.8%, led by a 10.6% fall in non-residential construction. Residential construction slid 1.5% - the sixth-straight quarterly decline in homebuilder activity.
A 38.2% slowdown in inventory accumulation resulted in a 5.5% drop in total private investment.
Real exports fell 5.2%, largely the result of sharply lower shipments to China amid the most serious trade dispute with the Asian giant since the post-war upheaval years.
Government grew at a 5% clip, led by a 15.9% jump in non-defense federal purchases.
At: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/26/us-gdp-second-quarter-2019.html
A modernist dealership awaits customers in North Carolina.
A 15.9% annualized jump in motor vehicle and parts sales (after a 10.2% drop in the first quarter) helped propel private consumption by 4.3%.
But declines of 5.5% in private investment and 5.2% in exports resulted in an anemic 2.1% GDP reading for the quarter, the slowest in two years.
TN pastor refuses to host funeral since dying man's son is gay
A 71-year-old man in Tennessee will probably die in the coming days.
He made two final requests of his son, Jessie Goodman. He wanted his funeral at Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church in Sweetwater, TN, which was the first church he ever attended, and he wanted Jessie to sing the hymn “The Anchor Holds” at the service.
Simple enough… until Pastor Jay Scruggs found out Jessie was in a same-sex relationship. Now Scruggs is refusing to hold the funeral — for the straight father.
“As long as I was going to take part in any way, he (Jessie’s father) could not have his service there,” said [Jessie] Goodman.
Goodman says the church’s pastor, and some of its members, don’t want him or his fiance [Brandon Smitty] to be involved in the service because they’re gay.
At: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/07/25/baptist-church-to-dying-man-you-cant-have-a-funeral-here-since-your-son-is-gay/
Jessie Goodman (right) and his fiancé Brandon Smitty.
Goodman's ailing father is being refused his dying wish by the local pastor, who objects to his son's same-sex relationship.
Argentina tops Bloomberg list of most vulnerable emerging markets
The quarterly Emerging Market Economy Scorecard published today by Bloomberg showed Argentina overtaking Turkey as the most vulnerable to external shocks among the 20 leading emerging economies surveyed.
Five major parameters were measured: current account balance; short-term external debt; hard-currency reserves; inflation; and "government effectiveness."
Argentina scored lowest on inflation, which reached 55.8% in June (compared to government projections of 20%); and on its short-term external debt, which reached 40.5% of GDP.
The country's balance of payments deficit (3.5% of GDP in the first quarter) is now made up entirely of foreign debt interest outlays, which have ballooned from $5.1 billion in 2015 (0.8% of GDP) to at least $20 billion this year (4.5% of GDP).
Argentina's current account deficit reached 5% of GDP in both 2017 and 2018, cutting off Argentina's access to foreign credit markets on growing fears of a future default.
The crisis forced the central bank to raise base interest rates from 27% in April 2018 to 59% currently to discourage capital flight, and to turn to the IMF for a record, $57 billion bailout.
The ensuing recession - the second since Mauricio Macri took office in 2015 - has led to a 5.8% fall in GDP, a 24.6% collapse in fixed investment, and 291,000 registered job losses as of May.
Including massive bond debts taken on by Macri in 2016-18, the next administration (2019-23) faces around $150 billion in foreign debt payments.
The 20 countries surveyed in the Bloomberg scorecard include 35% of the world's economy, and 55% of the world's population.
At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/emerging-markets-less-at-risk-from-turkey-this-time-round-chart
Argentine President Mauricio Macri entertains U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter's visit to Buenos Aires earlier this week.
Macri enjoys staunch support from President Donald Trump, who reportedly ordered both Pompeo and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to facilitate Macri's unlikely re-election (he's behind in most polls) and the IMF to rubber-stamp all loans to Argentina until the October elections.
Critics warn that Trump's bailout is setting the stage for a likely default by Argentina by 2022, should the IMF refuse to renegotiate the debt with Macri's successor.
Barr directs federal government to resume capital punishment
Source: CNN
Attorney General William Barr directed the the federal government Thursday to resume capital punishment after nearly two decades and has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of five inmates after adopting an updated execution protocol.
Barr has directed the head of the Bureau of Prisons to execute "five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly," according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
At Barr's direction, the Bureau of Prisons has adopted the Federal Execution Protocol Addendum which "replaces the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug—pentobarbital," the Justice Department announced.
The Federal Government has not used the death penalty since 2003.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/politics/justice-department-capital-punishment-barr/index.html
Attorney General Bill Barr: Wondering if the new policy will apply to him someday?
Beaches across America showed unsafe levels of pollution last year, a study finds
Before you head to the beach this summer, you might want to double-check the water conditions.
Last year, nearly 60% of 4,523 beaches tested across the United States demonstrated unsafe water pollution levels on at least one day, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonprofits Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group.
These 2,627 beaches had bacteria levels that exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency's "Beach Action Value" threshold, which it recommends states use to provide an early alert to beachgoers who may be particularly sensitive to contaminants.
On the higher end of the scale in the new report, Inner Cabrillo Beach in Los Angeles County had 85 potentially unsafe days out of 175 days sampled. By contrast, Bethany Beach in Delaware's Sussex County tested potentially unsafe on one of 33 sampled days.
At: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/health/us-beaches-pollution-study-trnd/index.html
Crowds enjoy the Laguna Beach boardwalk and main beach, where post-rainfall beach closures have become increasingly common due to polluted runoff.
Elizabeth Warren's 'Economic Crash' call spotlights Democrats' line of attack on Trump
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren highlighted burgeoning debt levels and recent declines in manufacturing as factors making the U.S. economy vulnerable to a downturn.
The point previews a line of attack Donald Trump’s opponents will use to pierce the aura of a record-long expansion and half-century low in unemployment.
In a blog post Monday titled “The Coming Economic Crash - And How to Stop It,” the Massachusetts senator said she sees “serious warning signs” similar to the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
In addition to the economic weaknesses, Warren cited the inverted Treasury-yield curve and a poll of analysts as backing the idea that a recession is likely on the way.
Warren flagged as dangerous increases in household debt from student loans, credit cards and auto loans, along with rises in riskier corporate debt.
The senator also highlighted last week’s data from the Federal Reserve showing manufacturing has contracted in the U.S. for the past two quarters, “despite Trump’s promises of a manufacturing ‘renaissance.’"
At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-22/warren-economic-crash-call-spotlights-line-of-attack-on-trump
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has reaped criticism from the business press for her recent warning that current policy could soon lead to another financial crash.
Because, after all, when have GOP policies ever crashed in the past.
Renowned Argentine-American architect Cesar Pelli dies at 92
César Pelli, the Argentine designer behind the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, has died aged 92, marking the passing of one of the contemporary architectural greats.
Pelli established himself as a visionary and educator, making a name for himself in the United States where his main studio was based in the Yale University campus.
Born in San Miguel de Tucumán, in northwestern Argentina, in 1926, Pelli studied architecture at the University of Tucumán. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 to attend the University of Illinois School of Architecture, where he received his master's degree in 1954.
He became partner for design at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles in 1968, and many of Pelli's earliest works in the U.S. were in Southern California - including the the Lawrence Welk Plaza building in Santa Monica, CA (1969-71); the San Bernardino City Hall (1972); and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood (1975).
In 1977, Pelli became dean of Yale University’s School of Architecture and founded Cesar Pelli & Associates - since renamed Pelli Clarke Pelli, and which lists offices in New York, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, Tokyo and Shanghai.
His most famous works include:
·World Financial Center, in Manhattan (1982-88)
·Norwest Center, in Minneapolis (1986-88)
·Carnegie Hall Tower, in Manhattan (1987-91)
·Key Tower, in Cleveland (1988-91)
·777 Tower, in Los Angeles (1988-91)
·One Canada Square, in Canary Wharf, London (1988-91)
·Bank of America Center in Charlotte, NC (1989-92)
·Terminals B and C at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC (1993-97)
·Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1993-96) - at the time the tallest buildings in the world
·International Finance Centre, in Hong Kong (2000-03)
·Gran Torre Santiago, Chile (2006-12)
·and Abenu Harukas, in Osaka (2010-14)
He also designed four office buildings in his native Argentina, in downtown Buenos Aires: República (1994-96); BankBoston (1998-2001); YPF (2005-08); and Banco Macro (2013-16).
Pelli was named one of the ten most influential living American Architects by the American Institute of Architects in 1991.
At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-cesar-pelli/csar-pelli-argentine-architect-behind-the-petronas-towers-dies-aged-92-idUSKCN1UE2RM
Argentine-American architect César Pelli (1926-2019) in his Yale studio.
He once remarked that "one of America's strengths has always been its openness to the new: both new ideas and new people."
Brighton City Council fires city manager who blew whistle on $70M in water overcharges
Philip Rodríguez was fired from his post as Brighton City Manager in a 5-4 vote late Tuesday night by a city council who had “lost faith” in him and who had questioned his ability to lead, despite the former city manager blowing the whistle on the city accumulating $70 million in water overcharges and calling for a forensic audit into those irregularities.
In a news conference following his ouster, Rodríguez said his discovery of utility fund corruption in the city “has officially turned into a council cover-up tonight.”
The former city manager told news media that ever since discovering unnecessarily high rates based “on falsehood and illegal budgeting practices,” the council had worked on thwarting his efforts in order to get to the bottom of what he called “mysteries in utilities.”
Further, Rodríguez claimed the $70 million in water overcharges wasn’t the only issue he uncovered as city manager.
At: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/17/brighton-city-council-fires-philip-rodriguez/
Recently-ousted Brighton City Manager Philip Rodríguez: Utility fund corruption in the city “has officially turned into a council cover-up tonight.”
Meth-gators: Tennessee Police ask residents to stop flushing drugs down the toilet
Over the weekend, police in Tennessee asked locals not to flush their drugs down the toilet for fear of turning alligators into "meth-gators."
After officers witnessed a suspect try and dispose of methamphetamine in a lavatory, the Loretto Police Department warned residents on social media that such actions could create "methed up animals," CNN reported.
Police shared the advice on Facebook, writing: "Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek; but they are not really prepared for meth."
"Ducks, Geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They've had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help."
Police said they can destroy any drugs safely—without putting critters at risk.
Scientists think that drugs flushed down the toilet could be making their way into the environment and affecting animal populations, The Guardian previously noted.
At: https://www.newsweek.com/meth-toilets-drugs-alligators-ducks-geese-science-police-1449409
Tennessee alligators: A real meth?
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