Calista241
Calista241's JournalKemp takes a swing at MLB as Braves advance to World Series
Source: AJC
Moments after the Atlanta Braves advanced to the World Series for the first time in decades, Gov. Brian Kemp took a swing at Major League Baseball and his Democratic archrival for a snub earlier this year.
The first-term Republican fired off a tweet as Braves players were celebrating their victory over the hated Los Angeles Dodgers that invoked MLB’s decision to yank the All-Star game from Truist Park earlier this season – and again tried to blame Stacey Abrams for the controversial move.
“While Stacey Abrams and the MLB stole the All-Star Game from hardworking Georgians, the Braves earned their trip to the World Series this season and are bringing it home to Georgia,” he said.
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The league yanked the game in April in protest of a new Georgia election law that imposes restrictions on voting. Though many state Democrats assailed the shift, it became a rallying cry for Republicans who claimed fearmongering from critics of the law deprived metro Atlanta of a premier event.
Read more: https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/kemp-takes-a-swing-at-mlb-as-braves-advance-to-world-series/7WWHCKB7PREXZK2RHN7QHH7EKU/
The World Series coming to Atlanta does kind of invalidate MLB and player protests of Georgia's new voting rights laws when they moved the All Star game to Colorado. Kemp is still a dick.
Scoop: "How about zero?" Manchin, Sanders get heated behind closed doors
Source: Axios
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) squabbled behind closed doors Wednesday, with Manchin using a raised-fist goose egg to tell his colleague he can live without any of President Biden's social spending plan, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The disagreement, recounted to Axios by two senators in the room, underscores how far apart two key members remain as the Democratic Party tries to meet its deadline for reaching an agreement on a budget reconciliation framework by Friday.
It also shows that despite the "kumbaya meeting" between Manchin and Sanders on Monday — after which they posed together for photos — the two remain sharply divided.
Manchin's comfort level with zero as a final number — and his willingness to threaten Sanders with it publicly at Wednesday's lunch for Senate committee chairs — reveals a stark reality for Democratic negotiators: Manchin can control the final dollar amount.
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Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, described the incident as a "a difference in opinion."
Read more: https://www.axios.com/manchin-sanders-reconciliation-fight-789c8441-fa49-404f-9d36-4adaa8e1d908.html
There's more at the link, including comments from other Senators in attendance.
Qualified immunity: Supreme Court sides with police, overturns denial of immunity in two cases
Source: USA Today
The Supreme Court sided Monday with police in two cases in which plaintiffs claimed officers used excessive force, overturning separate lower court rulings that had allowed the officers to be sued for civil rights violations.
In two unsigned opinions, the court stressed police are entitled to be shielded from liability unless it is "clear to a reasonable officer" that their actions are unlawful. In both cases the court ruled that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that protects police from liability for civil rights violations in many circumstances.
In one case, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that found an officer in California who placed his knee on a prone suspect could be sued. In another, it overturned a lower court ruling that two police officers in Oklahoma could be sued because their actions before a fatal shooting escalated the potential for violence.
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There were no dissents from any justice in either case.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/10/18/supreme-court-sides-police-qualified-immunitysupreme-court-sides-police-qualified-immunity-two-cases/6040359001/
Netflix just fired the organizer of the trans employee walkout
Source: The Verge
Netflix has fired a leader of the trans employee resource group who was organizing the upcoming October 20th walkout. The employee, who is Black and currently pregnant, asked not to be named for fear of online harassment. They have been encouraging trans employees and allies to walk out of work in protest of Netflix’s handling of the Dave Chappelle special The Closer. The employee declined to speak to The Verge for this story.
“All these white people are going around talking to the press and speaking publicly on Twitter and the only person who gets fired is the Black person who was quiet the entire time,” says a former employee in an interview with The Verge. “That’s absurd, and just further shows that Black trans people are the ones being targeted in this conversation.”
The employee was terminated on suspicion of leaking metrics to the press related to the Dave Chappelle special. Those metrics — about how much Netflix paid for The Closer and how many people it reached — subsequently ended up in a report on Bloomberg. While the employee had shared the metrics internally, they spoke out against the leaks to colleagues, worried they might hurt the walkout movement.
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A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the employees’ dismissal. “We have let go of an employee for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company,” they said. “We understand this employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company.”
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/15/22728337/netflix-fires-organizer-trans-employee-walkout-dave-chappelle
Ex-Air Force Tech Boss Eviscerates Pentagon For Already Losing The AI Race Against China
Source: The Drive
Nicolas Chaillan, who served as the first Air Force Chief Software Officer, has slammed the Pentagon for its failure to keep pace with its rival China, after stepping down from his post last month, in what was, at least in part, a protest against the conditions that led to this perceived outcome. Of the various complaints leveled at the U.S. military’s approach to modernization, Chaillan highlights what he sees as a lost battle between the United States and China in the field of cyber capabilities, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, or AI.
In an interview given to the Financial Times, Chaillan details some of the reasons behind his departure and the failings that he thinks have left China in pole position in terms of these kinds of high-end military technologies. Chaillan had previously announced his resignation from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force via an open letter posted on his LinkedIn profile on September 2, which warned that the Pentagon was systemically “setting up critical infrastructure to fail” on a grand level while also criticizing the lack of support he’d received from leadership even on basic IT matters.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years,” Chaillan told the FT. “Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion.” This echoes Chaillan’s sentiments in his LinkedIn letter, in which he identified China’s “drastic advantage of population over the U.S.” and its “booming, hardworking population” that left the United States with no chance of competing unless it became “smarter, more efficient, and forward-leaning through agility, rapid prototyping and innovation.”
A former technology entrepreneur, software developer, cyber expert, and inventor, Chaillan was appointed to his Air Force position under Dr. William Roper, the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Roper himself left the service earlier this year, leaving a legacy of cutting-edge programs and disruptive concepts in his wake. While in his Air Force job, Chaillan was the service’s senior software czar, tasked with “analyzing current software and cloud migration plans to avoid vendor lock-ins while allowing for rapid prototyping and a streamlined process for deployment,” as well as looking for “new commercially available off-the-shelf software and cloud-related technologies to help with their adoption across various Air Force programs.”
Read more: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42733/ex-air-force-software-chief-eviscerates-pentagon-for-already-having-lost-the-ai-race-against-china
Katie Couric Exposes RBG After 'Protecting' Her from Scolding National Anthem Kneelers Like Colin Ka
Source: Mediaite
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is often recognized and remembered as a symbol for progressive change, but the late Supreme Court justice’s opinion of kneeling during the national anthem was socially conservative.
According to Katie Couric, she eliminated some of Ginsburg’s quotes regarding the national anthem during a 2016 interview, to “protect” the Supreme Court justice. While she protected Ginsburg in 2016, Couric decided to publish the controversial comments in her memoir more than five years after the interview. The Daily Mail was first to obtain an excerpt from the upcoming book.
In 2016, Couric omitted Ginsburg’s claim that not standing for the anthem depicts a “contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life … Which they probably could not have lived in the places they came from … as they became older, they realize that this was youthful folly. And that’s why education is important,” Ginsburg told Couric. “I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”
Couric’s memoir Going There is set to be released on Oct. 26. In the book, Couric states Ginsburg, who was 83 at the time, was “elderly and probably didn’t fully understand the question,” pertaining to the NFL and players choosing to kneel.
Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/sports/katie-couric-exposes-rbg-after-protecting-her-from-scolding-national-anthem-kneelers-like-colin-kaepernick/
'Several' people killed in Norway bow and arrow attacks, police say
Source: NBC News
A man using a bow and arrow killed several people and wounded others in attacks in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg on Wednesday, local police said.
At least four people had been killed in the attacks, public broadcaster NRK and newspaper VG reported, citing unnamed sources.
"The man has been apprehended ... from the information we now have, this person carried out these actions alone," police chief Oeyvind Aas told reporters.
"Several people have been injured and several are dead," Aas said. He declined to comment on the number of casualties.
The attacks took place over "a large area" of Kongsberg, a municipality of about 28,000 people in southeastern Norway, 42 miles from the capital, Oslo.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/several-people-killed-norway-bow-arrow-attacks-police-say-n1281466
Macron pushes nuclear, hydrogen power in 30 billion plan to reverse industrial decline
Source: France 24
President Emmanuel Macron said France would aim to become a leader in green hydrogen by 2030 and build new, smaller nuclear reactors as he unveiled a five-year investment plan on Tuesday aimed at fostering industrial champions and innovation.
"We must wage the battle of innovation and industrialisation at the same time," the French president told a gathering of business leaders and young entrepreneurs, unveiling plans to invest €30 billion ($35 billion) to "re-industrialise" the country.
Macron was speaking six months ahead of France's presidential election, in which he is expected to seek a second five-year term at the Elysée Palace.
Setting out some of the plan's targets, Macron said France would build a low-carbon plane, a small modular reactor as well as two megafactories for the production of green hydrogen – all by the end of the decade. It would also produce large numbers of electric vehicles.
Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211012-macron-unveils-%E2%82%AC30-billion-investment-plan-to-re-industralise-france
Biden personally called Pennsylvania hospital to see why friend could not be admitted
Source: The Hill
President Biden on Thursday said that he had personally called a hospital in Pennsylvania to ask them why his friend could not be admitted to the emergency room when she was having difficulty breathing.
While speaking at the Clayco Construction Site in Elk Grove Village, Ill., Biden described his friend's condition, saying, "She was having trouble breathing, had a high fever and could not really catch her breath. And they got her into the hospital, but the waiting room was so crowded, things were so backed up, they couldn’t even get her to be seen initially."
Biden used the anecdote to speak on how hospitals are being overrun throughout the country, but he did not fault health care workers for being unable to immediately treat his friend.
"So, because I knew this person, I called. I called the desk, the receiving nurse, and asked what the situation was and has anyone even — and, by the way, I wasn’t complaining, because they’re getting the living hell kicked out of them, by the way. Doctors and nurses, some of them are just — they’re running dry. And to make a long story short, it took a while because all of the — not all — the vast majority of the emergency rooms and the docs were occupied taking care of COVID patients."
Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/575931-biden-personally-called-pennsylvania-hospital-to-see-why-friend-could
Arlington school shooting suspect released on bond
Source: CBS Austin
The family of the 18-year-old student suspected in an Arlington high school shooting Wednesday claims he was bullied and tried to protect himself.
Four people were wounded at Timberview High School in the Mansfield Independent School District near Dallas-Fort Worth.
Three people are expected to survive while one 15-year-old is in critical condition.
Timothy Simpkins turned himself in to police after the incident. He was released on bond the next day.
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Simpkins faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was booked into the Tarrant County Lon Evans Correction Center on a $75,000 bond. He has posted bail and was released as of Thursday afternoon.
Read more: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/family-of-alleged-arlington-school-shooter-says-he-was-bullied
Bond? For a school shooter?
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Atlanta
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Member since: Sat Jun 1, 2013, 01:19 AM
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