riversedge
riversedge's JournalPentagon seeks funds to reduce U.S. reliance on China's rare earth metals
Didn't he Pentagon transfer some money for the Border Wall?? I seem to recall this but may be mistaken. Now they want more tax money--because of trumps tariff's!!
Business News
May 29, 2019 / 12:43 PM / a day ago
Pentagon seeks funds to reduce U.S. reliance on China's rare earth metals
Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal
5 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department is seeking new federal funds to bolster domestic production of rare earth minerals and reduce dependence on China, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, amid mounting concern in Washington about Beijing’s role as a supplier.
The Pentagon’s request was outlined in a report that has been sent to the White House and briefed to Congress, said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, a Pentagon spokesman.
Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in both consumer products, from iPhones to electric car motors, and critical military applications including jet engines, satellites and lasers.
Rising tensions between the United States and China have sparked concerns that Beijing could use its dominant position as a supplier of rare earths for leverage in the trade war between the world’s top two economic powers.
Between 2004 and 2017, China accounted for 80% of U.S. rare earth imports. Few alternative suppliers have been able to compete with China, which is home to 37% of global rare earths reserves. ...............................
'American Soil' Is Increasingly Foreign Owned--starting to be a concern
'American Soil' Is Increasingly Foreign Owned
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/27/723501793/american-soil-is-increasingly-foreign-owned?utm_source=pocket-newtab
4:21
May 27, 20194:17 PM ET
American soil.
Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities.
When the stock market tanked during the past recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland. And because there are no federal restrictions on the amount of land that can be foreign owned, it's been left up to individual states to decide on any limitations.
It's likely that even more American land will end up in foreign hands, especially in states with no restrictions on ownership. With the median age of U.S. farmers at 55, many face retirement with no prospect of family members willing to take over. The National Young Farmers Coalition anticipates that two-thirds of the nation's farmland will change hands in the next few decades.
"Texas is kind of a free-for-all, so they don't have a limit on how much land can be owned," say's Ohio Farm Bureau's Ty Higgins. "You look at Iowa and they restrict it — no land in Iowa is owned by a foreign entity."
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Ohio, like Texas, also has no restrictions, and nearly half a million acres of prime farmland are held by foreign-owned entities. In the northwestern corner of the state, below Toledo, companies from the Netherlands alone have purchased 64,000 acres for wind farms.
There are two counties in this region with the highest concentration of foreign-owned farmland — more than 41,000 acres each. One of those is Paulding County, where three wind farms straddle the Ohio-Indiana line.
Once a foreign entity buys up however many acres they want, Americans might never be able to secure that land again. So, once we lose it, we may lose it for good.
Higgins says that this kind of consumption of farmland by foreign entities is starting to cause concern. "One of the main reasons that we're watching this ... is because once a foreign entity buys up however many acres they want, Americans might never be able to secure that land again. So, once we lose it, we may lose it for good."
His other concern is that every acre of productive farmland that is converted over to something other than agriculture is an acre of land that no longer produces food. That loss is felt from the state level all the way down to rural communities, where one in six Ohioans has ties to agriculture.................................
Schiff: 'There's been an epidemic of cowardice in the GOP'
Source: Politico
Rep. Adam Schiff said he's "exhausted by the private misgivings" among Republicans. | Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo
05/30/2019 07:35 PM EDT
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attacked Republicans’ moral character on Thursday while continuing to temper Democrats’ calls for impeaching President Donald Trump until such proceedings are clearly “the right thing for the country.”
The California Democrat told Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer in a question-and-answer session that GOP lawmakers had come up to him privately to “express their deep concerns and worries” about the Trump administration and offer bits of encouragement as Schiff’s committee forges ahead with its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“But I’m, frankly, exhausted by the private misgivings,” Schiff said. “People need to speak out.”
The lawmaker said he respected Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who became the first Republican lawmaker to accuse Trump of committing impeachable offenses with a series of tweets earlier this month.
Schiff also reminisced about the late Sen. John McCain’s frequent clashes with the president and lauded the Arizona Republican’s stands as acts of courage.
“I think what we knew, implicitly, was that courage is contagious,” he said. “But what we didn’t realize is that cowardice is also contagious. I think there’s been an epidemic of cowardice in the GOP. This president doesn’t stand for anything that the Republican Party said it stood for.”..............................
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/30/schiff-republicans-cowardice-1348501
https://twitter.com/politico/status/1134316079944044551
If only we had heard from Robert Mueller before William Barr's spin
If only....
Sigh!!
usatoday.com
If only we had heard from Robert Mueller before William Barr's spin
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/05/29/robert-muellers-statement-clarifies-report-president-donald-trumps-wrongdoing-column/1276016001/
Joyce White Vance, Opinion contributor
Published 4:35 p.m. ET May 29, 2019 | Updated 5:53 p.m. ET May 29, 2019
Impeaching a U.S. president might not be the be all end all for their career. Not only can a president remain in office after impeachment, but even see higher approval ratings. We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Robert Mueller's statement clarified the implications of his report, shifting the conversation back to President Donald Trump's criminal actions
Just two months ago, brand new Attorney General William Barr took to the podium at the Justice Department to share his “principal conclusions” about the Mueller report with the public. He told us there would be no further charges brought by the Special Counsel’s Office, that Robert Mueller had concluded he should not charge President Donald Trump with collusion or obstruction.
Subsequently a letter from Mueller to Barr — complaining that Barr’s comments did not “fully capture the context, nature and substance” of the Russia investigation — surfaced. Now we know that letter was more than just the snit from members of Mueller’s team that Barr tried to dismiss it as. Wednesday morning, Mueller made his own statement.
His remarks sounded like the comments Mueller wanted Barr to make when the report was first released.
Mueller's statement reframes the conversation
If Mueller’s statement Wednesday had been the public’s introduction to his report, the conversation about it would have been framed in a very different light, far more damaging to Trump than Barr’s were...........................................
Trump's lost it: "It came out that there was nothing to do with Russia. The whole thing is a scam. I
Trump has had about a day to stew about Mueller appearance and is hopping mad.
Trump’s lost it: “It came out that there was nothing to do with Russia. The whole thing is a scam. It’s a giant presidential harassment. And honestly—I hope it goes down as one of my greatest achievements. I’ve exposed corruption like nobody knew existed.”
Aaron Rupar
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1134095185913270272
https://twitter.com/shereeeeno/status/1134100541070553089
https://twitter.com/shereeeeno/status/1134100495805685760
https://twitter.com/shereeeeno/status/1134100458497355778
A black couple tried to have a picnic at a Mississippi campground. A manager pulled a gun.
Source: vox.com
The campground manager has since been fired from her job.
By P.R. Lockhart May 29, 2019, 4:40pm EDT
A white campground manager in Starkville, Mississippi was fired after viral video showed her pulling a gun on a black couple trying to picnic on May 26. Screenshot/Facebook
On May 26, Jessica and Franklin Richardson decided to take their dog to Starkville, Mississippi’s Oktibbeha County Lake to enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend and have a picnic.
But what was supposed to be a relaxing day quickly turned ugly when a white campground manager approached the young black couple while holding a gun and told them they were trespassing on private property and needed to leave immediately.
The incident was captured in a now-viral video recorded by Jessica Richardson and posted to Facebook on Sunday afternoon. In the video, the campground manager, an unnamed older white woman, can be seen holding a gun at her side as she tells the couple that they need to have a reservation to use the land near the lake. .......................
Read more: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/5/29/18644543/mississippi-kampground-of-america-gun-race-living-while-black
Fear does dangerous things to peoples minds.
https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1133835414144507904
If you care to see #DitchMitch smirk after saying he'd of course get a another SC
nomination in 2020 if something happened to a current SC.
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1133713144038268928
Duncan Hunter, Republican congressman says he's taken a photo with an enemy corpse
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1133654976423694336
Republican congressman says he's taken a photo with an enemy corpse
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/28/politics/rep-duncan-hunter-says-he-has-taken-photo-with-dead-enemy/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_content=2019-05-29T08%3A43%3A02&utm_source=twCNNp&utm_term=image
Updated 3:19 PM ET, Tue May 28, 2019
Senator on Rep. Hunter: No reason to pose with dead body
Washington (CNN)California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter acknowledged Saturday that he posed for a photo with a dead enemy combatant while serving in the US Marine Corps -- arguing that many service members have done the same in an attempt to defend a Navy SEAL chief who is facing charges that could constitute war crimes.
Hunter, who won reelection in November despite facing indictment on federal corruption charges for an alleged misuse of campaign funds, has been a vocal supporter of Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who faces a slew of accusations connected to violations of military law while he was deployed to the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017.
Among the accusations against Gallagher are that he stabbed and killed a wounded person, shot at noncombatants, posed for a photo and performed his re-enlistment ceremony next to a corpse, according to a charge sheet from November.
Gallagher has pleaded not guilty.
During a town hall in his district Saturday, Hunter told his constituents that he too posed with a dead combatant but did not post the photos to social media, according to the San Diego Tribune.
"A lot of us have done the exact same thing," Hunter said, referring to US service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the paper. Hunter, himself, served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hunter also called the military justice system "corrupt" and said it is run by lawyers who target "war fighters."...............................
Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks out with eye towards future of Roe v. Wade
Source: CNN
Updated 4:05 AM ET, Wed May 29, 2019
Abortion wasn't always taboo in America
Washington (CNN)The 86-year-old Supreme Court justice who this year became a three-time cancer survivor will be heard.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned on Tuesday about a threat to abortion rights and demonstrated that she is not going quietly on any abortion-related compromise. Ginsburg, in fact, has shown in recent weeks that she is not going quietly on much.
In addition to her partial dissent in the Indiana abortion dispute, Ginsburg on Tuesday wrote separately -- again, alone -- to protest a majority decision that she asserted uses a "thin case to state a rule that will leave press members and others exercising First Amendment rights with little protection against police suppression of their speech."
Just a few weeks earlier, Ginsburg signed on with fellow liberals to a dissenting opinion in an arbitration case but then separately took up her pen "to emphasize once again how treacherously the Court has strayed from the principle that 'arbitration is a matter of consent, not coercion.'"
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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court-abortion/index.html
I so admire Justice Ginsburg.
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1133684671718547456
Amash greeted with a standing ovation at Michigan town hall
Source: CNN
Updated 10:55 PM ET, Tue May 28, 2019
Justin Amash town hall standing ovation vpx_00000000
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Now Playing Justin Amash gets...
Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN)Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan may have been prepared to deal with critics at his first town hall since publicly stating earlier this month that President Donald Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct, but instead he got a standing ovation Tuesday.
Attendees even booed and heckled a woman in a Make America Great Again hat who defended Trump, prompting Amash to step in. "Let's be respectful," he urged the crowd.
During the town hall, which went on for two hours, an hour longer than planned, Amash defended his conservative credentials -- "I'm who I said I was. I'm a principled, constitutional conservative" -- and once again brushed off a new primary challenge from Michigan state Rep. Jim Lower.
"I am not concerned about it," Amash told the crowd, adding: "And in any case, you should always do what's right."
.......................
A potential third-party presidential bid also came up during the event; Amash again declined to rule out running for president in 2020, or any other higher office, though he did say his impeachment stance wasn't the way he would roll out such an effort..............
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/28/politics/justin-amash-town-hall-trump-impeachment/index.html
He got pushback also from his comments.
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