September 23, 2016

GOP congressman: North Carolina protesters ‘hate white people’

GOP congressman: North Carolina protesters ‘hate white people’
By Amber Phillips September 22 at 9:09 PM

Some of those who have come onto the streets of Charlotte over the past two days say they want justice for what they say is the wrongful police killing of a black man in the city this week. Others say they want more respect — from the police, from politicians, from everyone. Some say they just want to be heard, whatever that may mean to them. The reasons are varied — but there is simply no sign that all of these protesters, who are overwhelmingly black, have come because they hate white people.

That's exactly what Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) said in an interview with BBC News on Thursday evening, when asked what the protesters' grievances are. "The grievance in their mind is the animus, the anger," he said. "They hate white people, because white people are successful and they're not."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/22/gop-congressman-north-carolina-protesters-hate-white-people/

September 22, 2016

Trumpism Is the Symptom of a Gravely Ill Constitution

Trumpism Is the Symptom of a Gravely Ill Constitution
No matter what happens in November, the sickness may be terminal.
GARRETT EPPS SEP 20, 2016

In less than two months, the American experiment in constitutional self-government may hit the wall of history. Even if the disaster of a Trump presidency is averted, this fall’s presidential campaign suggests that the United States Constitution is gravely, perhaps terminally, ill.

Trumpism is the symptom, not the cause, of the malaise. I think we have for some time been living in the post-Constitution era. America’s fundamental law remains and will remain important as a source of litigation. But the nation seems to have turned away from a search of values in the Constitution, regarding it instead as a set of annoying rules.


A Trump victory would render the Constitution as toothless as the Statuto Albertino of 1848 after Mussolini’s March on Rome. That’s not because Trump proposes violating this or that provision; it is because, to him and his followers, the Constitution is simply nonexistent.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trumpism-is-the-symptom-of-a-gravely-ill-constitution/500831/

September 22, 2016

GOP-Backed Poll-Watching Measure Sparks Voter Intimidation Fears In Pennsylvania

GOP-Backed Poll-Watching Measure Sparks Voter Intimidation Fears In Pennsylvania
Bill would allow poll watchers from outside the district.
09/22/2016 02:24 am ET Ed Mazza Overnight Editor

Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are trying to quickly push through a measure to would allow people from outside a voting district to watch over voters.

The bill would take effect in time for this year’s presidential election in a state where Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he will be the victim of voter fraud. He has provided no evidence to back that accusation.

Raging Chicken Press, a progressive website focused on Pennsylvania politics, reported that the bill was being swiftly pushed through the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives. The bill would “allow Trump supporters from around the state to ‘watch’ over the polls in minority communities throughout the state,” the website noted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pennsylvania-voter-intimidation_us_57e34b46e4b08d73b82f93af?ir=Politics&utm_hp_ref=politics

September 22, 2016

Conservative USA Today Columnist On Charlotte Protesters: ‘Run Them Down’

Conservative USA Today Columnist On Charlotte Protesters: ‘Run Them Down’
ByALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published SEPTEMBER 22, 2016, 6:37 AM EDT

Glenn Reynolds, a conservative USA Today columnist and University of Tennessee law professor, was suspended from Twitter on Wednesday for urging drivers to hit protesters blocking a highway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Twitter suspended his account shortly after the tweet went up and outraged commenters accused Reynolds, who also runs the Instapundit website, of inciting violence. Several users preserved screenshots of the tweet.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/glenn-reynolds-instapundit-suspended-urging-motorists-hit-protesters-charlotte?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+%28TPMNews%29

September 22, 2016

Trump: I’d Use ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ to End Violence in Black Communities

Trump: I’d Use ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ to End Violence in Black Communities

“Any politician who would go to a black community and say stop-and-frisk is the solution to your problems is showing no respect for the intellectual capacity of that community,” Jeff Robinson, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union and a policing expert for the organization, told The Daily Beast.

“[Mr. Trump’s] message here is that in order to save the black community, we must destroy it," he continued. "I don’t know if Mr. Trump has ever been stopped and frisked by the police, but this concept that, ‘Oh, it’s just a nice, little friendly conversation...and it’s nothing to get upset about,’ that’s a concept that people who have never been through a stop-and-frisk experience with a police officer would think. Any politician who would suggest this as a solution has a serious credibility problem.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/09/21/trump-i-d-use-stop-and-frisk-to-end-violence-in-black-communities.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl

September 21, 2016

Anti-vaxx mom abandons the movement after all three of her kids nearly die from rotavirus

Anti-vaxx mom abandons the movement after all three of her kids nearly die from rotavirus
Travis Gettys 20 SEP 2016 AT 10:14 ET

An anti-vaccine mother explained how she changed her mind on inoculation after her own children became seriously ill from an easily prevented virus.

Kristen O’Meara told the New York Post how she sought out anti-vax books and websites to support her belief that vaccines were linked to autism, allergies and ADHD, and she found a pediatrician who was willing to let her skip vaccinations for her three children.

“I got absorbed in the anti-vax culture and secretly thought of myself as being superior to others,” O’Meara said. “Parents who vaccinated didn’t have my special investigative skills. As far as I was concerned, they didn’t stop to question and were just sheep following the herd.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/anti-vaxx-mom-abandons-the-movement-after-all-three-of-her-kids-nearly-die-from-rotavirus/

September 19, 2016

Just three percent of adults own half of America’s guns

Just three percent of adults own half of America’s guns
Christopher Ingraham September 19 at 12:12 PM



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/19/just-three-percent-of-adults-own-half-of-americas-guns/

September 18, 2016

Marijuana May Alleviate America’s Opioid Crisis, New Study Suggests

Marijuana May Alleviate America’s Opioid Crisis, New Study Suggests
In 2014, more than 14,000 people ― nearly 40 per day ― died from overdoses of prescribed opiates.
09/17/2016 04:34 pm ET Chris D’Angelo Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii

The United States is currently facing an epidemic of opioid painkiller abuse. Since 1999, opioid prescriptions and sales have quadrupled in the United States, a boom that the CDC said has “helped create and fuel” the current opioid abuse crisis. In 2014 alone, more than 14,000 people ― nearly 40 per day ― died from overdoses of prescribed opiates.

The Columbia study adds to a growing body of evidence showing cannabis can be an effective, alternative treatment for pain relief.

A 2014 study, for example, found that states with medical marijuana had fewer prescription painkiller overdose deaths than those without. And in July, researchers documented that states with medical marijuana saw a drop in prescription drugs, saving an estimated $165.2 million in Medicare costs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/medical-marijuana-curb-opioid-use_us_57dc610ce4b0071a6e0799f8?section=&

September 17, 2016

Nanjing's Porcelain Tower: Ancient 'world wonder' brought back to life

Nanjing's Porcelain Tower: Ancient 'world wonder' brought back to life
By Elaine Yu, CNN Updated 1117 GMT (1917 HKT) September 16, 2016

Nanjing, China (CNN)More than 150 years after rebels destroyed it, Nanjing's famed "Porcelain Tower" -- one of the Seven Medieval Wonders of the World -- has been brought back to life.

Sort of.

A modern, steel reconstruction of the pagoda now sits by the Yangtze River in the same area as the original, which was built in the early 15th century.



http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/16/travel/nanjing-china-reconstructed-porcelain-tower/index.html

September 17, 2016

Missouri: The Shoot-Me State

Missouri: The Shoot-Me State
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD SEPT. 16, 2016

In an alarming victory for the gun lobby, Missouri’s Republican-controlled Legislature voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto and enact a wholesale retreat from gun safety in the state.

The law will let citizens carry concealed weapons in public without a state gun permit, criminal background check or firearms training.

It strips local law enforcement of its current authority to deny firearms to those guilty of domestic violence and to other high-risk individuals. And it establishes a dangerous “stand your ground” standard that will allow gun owners to shoot and claim self-defense based on their own sense of feeling threatened.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/opinion/missouri-the-shoot-me-state.html