Home · News · News Jul 2018 · Jul 06 2018
Friday July 06, 2018

Trade-war's eve
Axios | Mike Allen | 07/05/18

Just after midnight tonight the Trump administration is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, escalating a global trade war that has pitted the U.S. against trading partners around the world.

  1. "Businesses are bracing for disruptions in sales and supply chains," the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription), as a Chinese response could hit U.S. producers of "automotive products, farm crops and other goods."
  2. China warned that the U.S. is "opening fire on the entire world, including itself" while at the same time promising that it wouldn't use the 12-hour time difference to impose retaliatory tariffs first (per the Guardian).

What's next: Already, several U.S. sectors are freaking out -- soybean farmers losing business in China, aluminum metal companies hit inadvertently by tariffs, and GM, worried about soaring supply costs. Manufacturers fear the tariff war will prematurely cut short a renaissance triggered by low natural gas prices and tax cuts, reports Ed Crooks at the FT. Read more

Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt has resigned following months of bizarre scandals.

Why is Trump's staff turnover higher than the 5 most recent presidents?
Brookings Institute | Elizabeth Sablich | date

ny president's first year is rife with optimism, but often fraught with missteps. Incoming staff members often find that their new jobs bear little resemblance to their campaign roles. Running the government requires aides to be well-versed in policy details, skilled in negotiation and compromise, and sensitive to the mores and demands of the Washington community (including interest groups, members and staff of Congress, the bureaucracy, and the media). Over the course of the first year, it is not unusual for presidents to fire poor performing or ethically compromised staff members. Some staff members receive promotions because of these departures, and a small number voluntarily leave. As explained below, while some turnover is expected and possibly beneficial, excessive turnover portends problems.

In this paper, I examine staff turnover in the first year of the Trump White House, compared to his five immediate predecessors. I find Trump's turnover is record-setting, more than triple that of Obama and double that of Reagan. In looking at why Trump has experienced such high turnover, I argue he has valued loyalty over qualifications and suffered from a White House that has functioned in a chaotic manner. Both features have made it difficult to retain staff and have contributed to the governance difficulties he has encountered. If history is any guide, staff recruitment and retention during his second year could prove challenging as well. ... Read more

These Are The Scandals That Brought Down EPA Chief Scott Pruitt
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 07/05/18

It's true that Pruitt has stoked the ire of scientists, taxpayers and several of those who worked under him. Here's a look at the controversies that brought him down.

BIG List!!! Read more

Trump Admin. Officials 'Destroyed' Records of Immigrant Kids Separated from Their Parents: Report
AlterNet | Cody Fenwick | 07/05/18

The administration seems to have no idea how to reunite the families it tore apart.

As the Trump administration struggles to clean up the mess it created when it started separating immigrant children and parents apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, a new report found that records that could help reunite the families have vanished, and some have even been destroyed.

The New York Times' Caitlin Dickerson reports that much of the confusion has been driven by the fact that multiple agencies -- the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services in particular -- are responsible for detaining the children. With the children moving between departments, documentation has proved a challenge. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July 06 [13:37]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Friday, July 06 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Coming soon
Scandal Ridden Pruitt Finally Resigns from EPA, Leaving Another Climate Denier in Charge | TRNN | 07/05/18 | 8:06
Michael Cohen DELETES Trump From Twitter | TYT | 07/05/18 | 5:39
Could the Morbidly Rich and Donald Trump Push us Toward a Second Civil War | Thom Hartmann | 07/05/18 | 10:10
The1a.org
Friday News Roundup -- Domestic | 1a.org | 07/06/18 | 1hr
  1. After a wave of controversies, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt left the agency.
  2. That's not the only job President Trump now has to fill. The President said he will announce his choice to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court on July 9, and the White House is rushing to meet that deadline. One of the leading contenders could be Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. For 12 years, Kavanaugh has sat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
  3. Even though the president issued an executive order to ostensibly stop children from being separated at the border, the issue continues to be controversial. On July 5, the president tweeted his hopes for immigration policy, but it wasn't immediately clear what he wanted to see happen.
Friday News Roundup -- International | 1a.org | 07/05/18 | 1hr
  1. On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reached a deal with opponents over the nation's migration policy.
  2. Denmark is introducing a new set of laws that requires children who live in low-income, Muslim-dominated immigrant communities -- "ghettos," the Danish government calls them -- will soon be required to attend training sessions in "Danish values."
  3. And the EU at large has agreed to set up migrant centers around the Mediterranean.
  4. Andrés Manuel López Obrador won Mexico's presidential election in a landslide victory last Sunday. The leftist, anti-establishment candidate has promised to transform the nation, which has faced widespread corruption and alarming murder rates in recent years.
  5. In trade news, the Trump administration will begin imposing tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports this Friday. Shortly after the plan was unveiled, China announced it will issue retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, also effective Friday.
  6. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is traveling to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean officials and advance a nuclear deal. The meeting, his fourth in three months, follows recent reports suggesting North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons program.
  7. But one story has dominated the global news this week: The World Cup. England and Russia defeated Colombia and Spain, respectively; Japan left behind a spotlessly clean locker room and 'thank you' note after their loss against Belgium; and Brazil triumphed over Mexico, 2-0.
President Donald Trump At War With Business Leaders Over Tariffs | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 3:56
President Trump Mocks Sen. Warren & #MeToo Movement At Off-The-Rails Rally | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 11:42
Rpt: Cohen Doesn't Think President Trump Will Pardon Him, Hires Clinton Ally | The Last Word | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 8:52
John O. Brennan: GOPers' July 4th Trip To Russia 'Does Not Make Sense' | Deadline | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 6:42
'Am I A Baby?' Giant Baby Blimp Trolls Trump's Deepest Wound | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 3:29
*Fired From Fox News Over Sex Harassment Cover-Up, Hired By President Trump | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 07/05/18 | 11:06

07.06.2018. 08:36



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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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