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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 8:58:11 GMT -8
What do you call a short mother? A minimum. "It Breaks My Heart That Some of You Won't Go to Heaven, Because You Are Not Donating Enough Money to This Minister" - Gene Scott(William Eugene Scott (August 14, 1929 – February 21, 2005) was an American minister and teacher who served for almost 50 years as a pastor and broadcaster in Los Angeles, California. He pastored the Faith Center and Wescott Christian Center and held weekly Sunday services at the Los Angeles University Cathedral. Scott was known for his flamboyant persona when he presented late-night evangelistic television broadcasts.) The so-called "Prosperity Gospel," a strain of evangelical Christianity that argues material wealth is a direct sign of God's personal favor, has long been a controversial doctrine among more mainstream American conservatives. Now The New Republic's Elle Hardy reports that there's a new strain of Prosperity Gospel that takes things a step further by not only seeing wealthy people as God's chosen, but singling out poor people as deserving of "hostility." This "antisocial" new Prosperity Gospel, writes Hardy, gained more prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when believers were forced to go searching online for Sunday worship services and they were algorithmically steered toward churches that preached more extreme doctrines. POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office? "Those who ended up getting their Christianity from Facebook rather than the pulpit found it all too easy to fall down into some extreme theological rabbit holes," Hardy explains. "And without anyone to bounce new ideas off, they had no mooring — there was no congregation to moderate radical ideas." One particularly extreme version of this ideology was outlined in a tract called "A Biblical View of Work and Welfare,” which calls for evangelicals to have no sympathy for "indolent bums" who won't pull themselves up by their bootstraps on the grounds that many of them "have chosen the path of poverty." "This is a worldview that seeks to wage not a war against poverty but a war against the poor instead—those who have... shown insufficient faith," comments Hardy. The Evangelicals Calling for War on Poor People |
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 8:59:49 GMT -8
Who's Your DaddY?
Ivanka Trump's attempt to block a subpoena issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James is a losing battle that will end with her in court facing either testifying against her father or facing possible perjury charges, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said Monday.
On her Substack platform, Vance suggested that Donald Trump's eldest daughter attempt to duck the subpoena by claiming that James didn't depose her before the Manhattan fraud trial began, so she can't make her testify now, is a non-starter.
In his filing, Ivanka's attorney asserted, "Trial subpoenas are not a means for parties to get discovery, which they failed to obtain during pretrial proceedings,” before adding, "Ms. Trump is not a party in this action. Nor is Ms. Trump a New York resident. It is black-letter law that, given those two facts, Ms. Trump is beyond the jurisdiction of this Court.”
According to Vance, trial testimony about Trump's daughter's purchase of a penthouse located in her father’s Trump Park Avenue property, and how it is valued, is germane to the fraud case.
Writing, "She is nonetheless a fact witness in this regard, and it seems likely she’ll be ordered to testify," Vance noted, "The Attorney General says that although Ms. Trump has denied it, she benefitted from 'insider' pricing — she had an option to buy the penthouse for $8.5 million, but the Trump Organization’s financial statements valued the unit at $20,820,000."
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:03:35 GMT -8
Get Your Scorecard Here! You Can't Tell Your MAGA Candidate Without a Scorecard!Who are the Republican candidates to be US House Speaker?After House Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as the nominee for House speaker Friday, nine candidates threw their hat in the ring for the top spot. But only two of those lawmakers voted to certify the 2020 election, raising questions among some Republicans about where they'll lend their support in the speaker battle. After former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted earlier this month, House Republicans have refused to coalesce around one candidate and elect a new speaker. Though Jordan went through three rounds of voting on the House floor, he increasingly lost support among Republicans in each vote. The nine candidates running for speaker include House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas., Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., and Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala. Both Emmer and Scott voted to certify the 2020 election, releasing statements shortly afterwards condemning the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. During the riot, a group of former President Donald Trump's supporters tried to block Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election and President Joe Biden's victory.
TOP TIER
Out of that group, Emmer, Johnson, Hern, and Donalds are the most likely contenders; the first three because they’ve had the most experience in policy and working with their colleagues. Donalds, even though he’s been in Congress for less than three years, is the MAGA/Freedom Caucus/Trump choice—the Jordan successor. Of that group, Emmer is the only one who did not vote to overturn elections results on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s also supported aid to Ukraine and voted for last month’s continuing resolution (CR), which kept the government open. Emmer’s sanity is going to make him—and his backers—a target of the extremists. Some have told Axios reporter Andrew Solender that they don’t intend to go public with their support because they don’t want to be targeted again. Johnson voted against Ukraine aid and voted against last month’s CR. He’s a Trump ally and, in fact, served on Trump’s defense team in both of his impeachment trials in the Senate. He would likely be acceptable to the large bunch of extremists but will have a problem being from Louisiana. That’s where Majority Leader Steve Scalise is from, and traditionally, members don’t like to see leadership centered in one state. Hern has been in Congress since 2018 and became chair of the Republican Study Committee this year. He’s the “policy” guy, as much as such a thing exists in the GOP these days. He also voted against the CR and a functioning government and against aid to Ukraine. He flirted with running for speaker in the last round but deferred to Scalise and Jordan. Donalds is a dyed-in-the-wool MAGA Freedom Caucus Florida Man, opposed to both the CR and aid to Ukraine. He’s an election denier who has repeatedly insisted that President Joe Biden is not a legitimate president. When the Freedom Caucus and Rep. Matt Gaetz wanted to fight McCarthy in the first speaker election, back in January, Donalds was one of the guys they put forward. He’ll likely be the first choice of most of the extremists.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:05:39 GMT -8
Improving the Odds of Survival
Scientists say they may have made the biggest breakthrough in treating cervical cancer in 20 years, using a course of existing, cheap drugs ahead of usual radiotherapy treatment.
Trial findings, revealed at the ESMO medical conference, show the approach cut the risk of women dying from the disease or the cancer returning by 35%.
Cancer Research UK, which funded the work, called the results "remarkable".
It hopes clinics will soon start doing the same for patients.
Cervical cancer affects thousands of women each year in the UK, many in their early 30s. Despite improvements in radiotherapy care, cancer returns in up to a third of cases, meaning new approaches are very much needed.
"A growing body of evidence is showing the value of additional rounds of chemotherapy before other treatments like surgery and radiotherapy in several other cancers. Not only can it reduce the chances of cancer coming back, it can be delivered quickly using drugs already available worldwide.
"We're excited for the improvements this trial could bring to cervical cancer treatment and hope short courses of induction chemotherapy will be rapidly adopted in the clinic."
In the study, 250 women with cervical cancer received the new treatment - an intensive six-week course of carboplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy, followed by the "usual" treatment of radiotherapy plus weekly cisplatin and brachytherapy, known as chemoradiation.
Another 250 women - the control group - received only the usual chemoradiation.
Five years later, 80% of those who had received the new treatment were alive and 73% had not seen their cancer return or spread.
In comparison in the "usual" treatment group, 72% were alive and 64% had not seen their cancer return or spread.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:08:17 GMT -8
Most Billionairs: Millions for Lobbyists, But Not One Cent for Taxes.Billionaires should face a minimum tax rate, according to a report which found some of the world's mega-wealthy are paying little to no tax. The EU Tax Observatory said most people pay a higher rate than the super-rich, who, it said, are able to use complex business structures for avoidance. It suggested a minimum 2% tax rate on billionaires' global wealth would raise $250bn (£205bn) a year. There are around 2,500 billionaires with a combined wealth of $13 trillion. The report by EU Tax Observatory, part of the Paris School of Economics, examined how successful efforts to ensure individuals and companies pay their fair share have been over the past 10 years. It said that the automatic sharing of the wealthy's account information across more than 100 countries had significantly reduced offshore tax evasion. However, billionaires are able to get away with paying tax rates equal to 0% or 0.5% of their wealth "due to the frequent use of shell companies to avoid income taxation", it said. Quentin Parrinello, a senior policy adviser at the EU Tax Observatory, told the BBC that global billionaires "structure their wealth so it does not generate a lot of taxable income". He acknowledged that countries implementing a 2% tax on billionaires may sound "utopian", but "so was the idea of asking Swiss banks to exchange tax information with tax authorities 10 years ago and now this is a central provision of the fight against tax evasion". While the report commended an agreement in 2021 between 140 different countries to make sure companies pay at least 15% in corporation tax, it said that the plan had been "dramatically weakened" since then by a "growing list of loopholes". Billionaires should face a minimum tax rate, report says
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:15:48 GMT -8
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, Oy, Vey!
60 Minutes Australia airs tape of Australian billionaire who shared Trump's spilled sub secrets
On the tapes, Anthony Pratt admires Trump’s ruthlessness while savaging his ethics.
[Recording of Pratt] “He knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail, but gets so close to it that it looks to everyone like he’s breaking the law. Like he won't go up to someone and say ‘I want you to kill someone.’ He'll say, he'll send someone, to tell someone, to kill someone."
Trump has long been a show-off but, if Pratt is to be believed, he often took things too far when it came to his wife, Melania.
[Recording of Pratt] "Melania, who was sitting next to him at dinner, he said, ‘I asked Melania to walk around the pool in her bikini, so all the other guys could get a look at what they were missing’.”
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:20:16 GMT -8
We're Told Not to Speak Ill of the Dead. What a Dump Idea!Feinstein remained proud of personally sentencing abortion providers to jail It was only as an institutionalist that Feinstein could still be proud of sentencing abortion providers to prison in the early part of her career—and still be proud of that in 2022. And also how she give a post-confirmation embrace to Lindsey Graham within memory of he and his colleagues bragging of the theft of a Supreme Court seat. And also how she helped promote legislation to make the United States the leading carceral state in the world.
Feinstein was no progressive
She was a product of wealth and entirely loyal to the intersection of economic and political elites. This means that despite much praise for her as a breaker of glass ceilings for women, she wasn’t politically or personally interested in legislating systemic changes. A polite way to phrase this is that she was an “Institutionalist.” A less polite description, and more accurate in my view, was that she was one of the democratic leaders that for decades sometimes tut, tutted, but continually failed to demonstrate a meaningful desire to oppose (or even awareness of) the growing fascism and racism throughout our country. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Idi Amin are All Dead
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:21:44 GMT -8
Bringing It All Back Home
Citing a rising number of domestic hate crimes against Muslims, Arabs and Jews, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning that the intensification of Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets and a possible ground incursion into Gaza will keep the United States on a "heightened threat environment in the near-to-medium term."
In a new intelligence assessment, the DHS warned of more and more antisemitic and Islamophobic hate attacks occurring in the United States.
"Targeted violence attacks may increase as the conflict progresses," the assessment said.
In a separate memo to law enforcement agencies in Washington, D.C., the DHS sounded an alarm that the "escalations in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas almost certainly will increase the threat of terrorism and targeted violence" in the United States.
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:23:18 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 9:56:31 GMT -8
These former HBCU students owed their college nearly $10 million. The debt was just erasedOn or around Monday, nearly 3,000 former college students will be getting letters with the kind of news millions of Americans probably wish they could receive right now: that their outstanding debts have been cleared. The 2,777 former students attended Morehouse College, a historically Black liberal arts school for men in Atlanta. And collectively, they owed Morehouse $9,707,827.67 through the fall 2022 term, some of the accounts dating back decades. With the help of the Debt Collective, a union of debtors, and in collaboration with the college, a 501(c)(4) known as the Rolling Jubilee Fund bought that debt out. This is a tiny sliver of the national student debt pie. And the action, notably, did not apply to any federal student loans, which nationwide now amount to more than $1.6 trillion and for which payments resumed a few weeks ago after a years-long, pandemic-era hiatus. This was debt owed directly to the college – whether loans to attend, unpaid tuition or even parking fees. Across the country, many former students are held hostage by these kinds of institutional debts. Some colleges refuse to release records for students who owe them money, for example, with a 2021 Hechinger Report finding 6.6 million students were blocked from access to their transcripts. It's debt that, like federal student loans, disproportionately hampers families of color. "The financial burden prevents them from being able to move on with their lives," said Braxton Brewington, press secretary with the Debt Collective. Without transcripts, students can't advance their education. "It just sort of follows them."
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Post by mhbruin on Oct 23, 2023 10:04:01 GMT -8
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death ... On Second Thought, Don't Give Me Liberty
David French, writing at The NY Times is not a happy man. The spectacle unfolding at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA has him looking at it as emblematic of the way evangelical Christianity has come to invert the values it claims to hold. (Link through the paywall.) ...In fact, I’d argue that the moral collapse at Liberty University in Virginia may well be the most consequential education scandal in the United States, not simply because the details themselves are shocking and appalling, but because Liberty’s misconduct both symbolizes and contributes to the crisis engulfing Christian America. It embodies a cultural and political approach that turns Christian theology on its head. Last week, Fox News reported that Liberty is facing the possibility of an “unprecedented” $37.5 million fine from the U.S. Department of Education. The department has been investigating violations of the Clery Act, a federal statute that requires federally funded colleges and universities to publicly report data about campus crime. To put that number into perspective, consider that Michigan State University paid $4.5 million for its own “systemic failure” to respond to the infamous Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal, in which Nassar was convicted of sexually abusing dozens of women in his care. While Liberty’s fine is not yet set, the contents of a leaked Education Department report — first reported by Susan Svrluga in The Washington Post — leave little doubt as to why it may be this large. The Worst Scandal in Higher Ed belongs to Liberty University
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