Mentionable News

dragonfly9 · February 17, 2020, 11:03pm

This among hundreds of other bothersome pieces of news is worrisome…all in the realm of possibilities, and so disruptive. OUCH.

Russian intelligence agents have been sent to Ireland to make the precise locations of undersea cables connecting Europe to North America, and it’s raising fears that they plan to tap or even cut them, The Sunday Times reported.

Irish security services believe that the agents were sent by Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the GRU, and are checking the fiber-optic cables for weak points, The Times also reported, citing police and military sources.

They were also seen monitoring Dublin Port, which prompted the country to ramp up security at a number of landing sites along the Irish coast, The Times reported. It’s unclear where else the agents have been seen.

The vast network of transatlantic cables that run under the world’s oceans power the internet, texts, calls, and global financial transactions. About 97% of all intercontinental data is transferred through these cables, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Ireland is an ideal location for these undersea maps, given its proximity to North America and Europe.

dragonfly9 · February 18, 2020, 4:05pm

Far-right agitator Pro-guns gets shouted off campus at Kent State - the campus where protesting students were killed by the Ohio National Guard in the 1970 over the Vietnam war.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/02/18/gun-girl-kaitlin-ohio-university/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

The conservative activist who shot to fame as “gun girl” after posing for graduation pictures with an AR-10 rifle says she went to Ohio University to ask people questions about Presidents’ Day — and met a furious crowd of protesters that tailed her off campus.

Students swarmed Kaitlin Bennett and her companions in a tense Monday encounter captured in several now-viral videos, yelling, flipping the visitors off and at one point throwing drinks through an open window of their truck as it inched forward. Conservatives quickly rallied around Bennett over what they’re blasting as the latest instance of liberal intolerance on college campuses, as the gun-rights celebrity appealed to the president to strip funding from universities that “harbor terrorists” and accused police of letting a riot unfold.

Campus police have said the clash was not violent, did not result in arrests and “did not rise to the level of a riot,” emphasizing that both Bennett and the crowd were exercising their First Amendment rights. They acknowledged “strong language and allegations that some unknown person(s) in the crowd splashed water."

…

Bennett arrived Monday at about 1:30 p.m. with a bodyguard and others involved in the libertarian media site Liberty Hangout, according to The Post Athens, Ohio University’s independent student newspaper. Sophomore and photographer Nate Swanson told The Washington Post that he rushed to the scene with his camera to find Bennett filming amid a small crowd, apparently for one of her customary videos interviewing college students.

As word of Bennett’s presence spread, he said, hundreds gathered. Students knew her as the Kent State University graduate who made headlines in 2018 with the gun-toting photo-shoot that Bennett said was meant to protest her campus’s ban on students carrying weapons. Bennett, then 22, argued she should be able to arm herself while attending the school where the Ohio National Guard opened deadly fire decades ago on unarmed war protesters.

Windthin · February 19, 2020, 5:31pm

Pet_Proletariat · February 20, 2020, 9:33pm

A post was merged into an existing topic: Immigration: issues and policy

dragonfly9 · February 21, 2020, 2:15am

Former national security advisor Susan Rice slammed John Bolton for not testifying to the impeachment inquiry , while sitting next to him onstage at Vanderbilt University. “It’s inconceivable to me that if I had first-hand knowledge of gross abuse of presidential power that I would withhold my testimony from a constitutional accountability process," Rice said. Idea: Familiarize yourself with the contents of his book without purchasing it.

Crooked Media…newsletter

BY SARAH LAZARUS & CROOKED MEDIA

dragonfly9 · February 23, 2020, 5:43am

And the hits just keep coming (against justice and for T 'n Co.) Thanks for writing that in your opinion Justice Sotomayor.

The Supreme Court’s stay decisions weaken safeguards built into the court system

There is a simple reason the justices ordinarily like to wait to decide novel legal questions. If a lower court gets a decision wrong, the same issue is likely to come before other judges who may reach the correct conclusion. As these decisions proliferate, they provide more and more guidance to other judges and, ultimately, to the justices themselves.

When the justices take their time, in other words, they are able to benefit from the wisdom of many judges — and they are more likely to decide a case correctly. When the justices rush, by contrast, they short-circuit this entire process. And because the Supreme Court is the highest legal authority in the country, an error by the justices is much harder to correct than an error by a lower court.

Sotomayor’s opinion is a warning that the Supreme Court’s Republican majority appears to care more about bailing out the Trump administration than it does careful deliberation that ensures the law is read properly. It’s also a warning that the Supreme Court appears to be bending the rules for Trump and Trump alone. As Sotomayor writes, “the Court’s recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others.”

Windthin · February 23, 2020, 2:48pm

I think maybe it’s past time for a thread about how the Trump regime has, and is, destroying the courts.

macro · February 24, 2020, 10:16pm

It is time to honour and remember a great American woman:

Windthin · February 25, 2020, 7:53pm

Misogyny isn’t just a byproduct of the conservative movement, it’s a feature.
https://twitter.com/MoveOn/status/1232325325763182593

McConnell, Looking to Energize Social Conservatives, Forces Votes on Abortion

After months of legislative inactivity, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has scheduled votes on two abortion-related bills. Democrats argue they are attacks on women’s reproductive rights.

Windthin · February 26, 2020, 5:47pm

THIS story from this morning is something to watch:

Trump says India will purchase $3 billion worth of military equipment from U.S. weapons manufacturers. India is buying 24 SeaHawk helicopters from Lockheed Martin worth $2.6 billion and plans to place another order for six Apache helicopters. Trump also said he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “have made tremendous progress on a comprehensive trade agreement,” which could include a free trade agreement. Trump added that he is “optimistic we can reach a deal that will be of great importance to both countries.” (Reuters)

India is building immense concentration camps to house literally MILLIONS of Muslims about to be disenfranchised by new laws designed to purge them from its borders.

And we are about to sell them weapons to help them do that.

This could be FAR worse than our entanglement with Saudi Arabia in Yemen.

In 2019 the Muslim population in India was recorded at nearly 172 MILLION people.

A significant portion could wind up in these camps, and though India claims it is to deport them, there is nowhere to send them.

Historically, once you round up large populations into isolated camps, their treatment goes downhill swiftly. Already separated and disenfranchised, unable to make a living or contribute to the workforce, nations see them as increasingly expendable, forgettable, and problematic.

Aid and resources slows to a trickle.

Guards feel the right to commit ever greater atrocities.

We have seen this play out time and time again.

And we are about to help make this a reality.

Like we’re doing here, a hundred thousand fold larger.

Windthin · February 27, 2020, 3:54pm

Keaton_James · February 29, 2020, 6:48am

Betsy DeVos orders probe after USA TODAY finds college evidently without faculty, students

This is DeVos’s response to a story that broke a few days ago. The accrediting agency, with a long history of shady accreditations to its name and that DaVos personally rescued, was caught accrediting a school that basically exists in name only.

Evidently she’s been getting coaching from Susan Collins who often describes herself as “concerned” when faced with a Republican scandal, but DaVos has upped the ante and (gasp!) is more than “concerned,” she’s “troubled.” However, she hasn’t provided any details about the investigation.

The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation after a USA TODAY report showed an accredited college apparently had no faculty or students.

Reagan National University, the college investigated by USA TODAY, was approved by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools. It has a history of approving several for-profit universities that suddenly closed, such as ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges in the mid-2010s. The accreditor still operates mainly because it was saved by the Education Department in 2018 under Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Thursday, DeVos told a congressional committee she was “troubled” by USA TODAY’s report and she launched an investigation as a result.

“I was not happy to read that,” DeVos said of the USA TODAY story. “We have an investigation launched, and we’re on it.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., questioned DeVos about accreditor ACICS Thursday during a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Department of Education’s 2021 budget request.

The Education Department kicked off its investigation on Monday with a letter sent to ACICS, which was obtained by USA TODAY.

“The article includes information that ACICS accredited RNU, which is alleged, based on research conducted by the journalists, to not be operational,” wrote Herman Bounds, director of the department’s accreditation group, referencing the USA TODAY investigation. “These allegations raise questions as to the effectiveness of the agency’s evaluation and monitoring of its applicant and membership institutions.”
… An investigation by USA TODAY and the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, found no evidence of students, faculty members or classrooms at Reagan National University early this year, even though it was accredited by ACICS.

Attempts to interview anyone associated with the university were unsuccessful. A reporter who visited the college’s listed addresses in Sioux Falls found only locked doors or empty rooms.
…
ACICS has a complicated history. Under President Barack Obama, the Education Department moved to strip the agency of its accrediting power in 2016.

After a federal court decision, DeVos and President Donald Trump’s administration reinstated the accrediting agency in 2018. As recently as November, the department questioned the agency’s financial health and its vetting process.

DeVos has made it one of her priorities to roll back some of the federal regulations around accreditation.

dragonfly9 · February 29, 2020, 7:12am

WOW…nor were we Betsy!!!

Glad someone could be your eyes and ears in these things.

Thanks @Keaton_James, good catch - stupefying isn’t it?

Windthin · February 29, 2020, 5:13pm

Melting ice in Antarctica reveals new uncharted island

dragonfly9 · March 2, 2020, 1:29am

Windthin · March 2, 2020, 5:01pm

This might be the shortest peace deal in history.

Cracks start to show in Taliban peace deal

Less than 24 hours after the agreement was signed, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected the Taliban’s demand.

Afghanistan: bomb attack kills three as Taliban ends partial truce

MissJava · March 4, 2020, 2:56pm

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: 2020 Primary Election

dragonfly9 · March 4, 2020, 6:05am

Video

https://twitter.com/RepMarkTakano/status/1234968136631410689?s=19

dragonfly9 · March 5, 2020, 6:17am

I like hearing about what Sen Angus King did today…some bipartisan and preservation potential of our lands.

MissJava · March 5, 2020, 5:30pm

A post was merged into an existing topic: 2020 Primary Election