March 18, 2018

racist removed from plane

A 70-year-old man was removed from a plane after reportedly hurling racist insults at a black flight attendant.

According to multiple Spanish media outlets, a man of unknown nationality boarded a Binter Canarias flight to La Palma at North Tenerife Airport. While he was getting on the plane, witnesses saw the man "hurl racist abuse" at a black flight attendant.

Spanish media outlet El Pais reported that the man allegedly said "I don't want blacks around me" to the flight attendant.


After finding a seat, the passenger was confronted by the plane's captain, who ordered the man to leave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=iSNZxH-Lw6g

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/man-removed-plane-racial-abuse-flight-attendant-12761022.php

March 17, 2018

parcel addressed "a farm, situated up a long driveway with cows, opposite a pub or thereabouts"

A parcel sent to a couple in New Zealand addressed only with “a farm, situated up a long driveway with cows, opposite a pub or thereabouts” has reached its rightful owners.

The letter was initially received by a service centre in the rural village of Cust in the South Island of New Zealand, located between Oxford and Rangiora. The centre has a post centre attached to it that services Cust’s 450 residents.

Manager of the Cust service centre, Tammie McGrath, said it was custom to return mail that was not properly addressed to the sender. But she decided to attempt to find the cow-owning recipients of the parcel, posting an image of the package to Facebook. The only other clue on the parcel was that it was for ‘Kay and Philip’.


“I could tell it had been written by an older person and I just thought, well, I’ll hang onto it for a couple of days before I send it back and see if I can find who it belongs to,” McGrath told Guardian Australia.

“A couple of hours after I posted it on Facebook, a man came in and said, ‘I think we own this parcel’. He gave me his details and said his name was Philip, and that while he didn’t live across from a pub, he lived down the road from one. He also showed me a card with a picture of his property on it, which showed a field with cows on it. He isn’t actually on Facebook, but people who know him who are on Facebook showed the post to him.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/17/parcel-addressed-to-new-zealand-farm-up-a-long-driveway-near-pub-finds-its-way

March 17, 2018

Trump averaged 4.9 lies per day at start of presidency. now averaging 6 per day

We all know President Trump lies. A lot. The Post reports that he began his presidency by making an average of 4.9 false or misleading statements a day. Lately, like a Stakhanovite, he has ramped up production to an average of six falsehoods a day



washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/17/trump-is-perfecting-the-art-of-the-big-lie/?utm_term=.aca79258decd

March 17, 2018

who would buy this thing?

who Would Buy This Thing? is a series that spotlights particularly egregious commercial objects and tries to imagine who might indeed pay money to own them.

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nother year, another International Women’s Day passed with the expected amount of corporate feminist chicanery. A week out, we’re still sifting through the various products released in the effort to prove “woke capital” credentials—one of which is the weirdly named Femme Pouch. As noted by Racked, the pouch is a collaboration between the minimalist fashion brand Cuyana and organic tampon company Lola in honor of International Women’s Day. For the low price of $60 (or several boxes of tampons), owners of the Femme Pouch can carry up to two tampons around in what is essentially a pencil case made from pebbled Italian leather.

March 17, 2018

Were not sure why McCabe was fired. But Trumps tweet suggests the worst.

MORE THAN the details of the case, President Trump’s tweet early Saturday celebrating the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is what stands out: a marquee of bullying and unseemly behavior by a president. Mr. Trump acts like a nasty, small-minded despot, not the leader of a democracy more than two centuries old in which rule of law is a sturdy pillar. If there is doubt that the timing of Mr. McCabe’s dismissal was driven by political vengeance, Mr. Trump does everything he can to prove the worst with his own sordid words.

This is the language of a banana republic. In nations without a strong democratic foundation, tyrants cling to power by belittling perceived enemies and insulting and coopting other institutions, such as a free press, law enforcement and the military, coercing them into subservience. Just look around the world at practices today in Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Turkey, to name a few. The banana republic playbook has no place in the United States, not in a town hall, not in a statehouse, least of all in the Oval Office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/were-not-sure-why-mccabe-was-fired-but-trumps-tweet-suggests-the-worst/2018/03/17/0687c78a-2a07-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html?utm_term=.0795927a6160

March 16, 2018

HUD mission statement to remove "inclusive communities", add "self-sufficiency"

A memo leaked to HuffPost last week revealed that the housing secretary has plans to change the mission statement of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, by stripping out the phrase “free from discrimination” and cutting references to “quality homes” and “inclusive communities.” A new, shorter statement will emphasize “self-sufficiency” and “opportunity,” in line with Carson’s stated distaste for desegregation initiatives and intense fear that someone might accidentally feel comfortable in public housing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-editing-democracy-out/2018/03/15/4b1d98b8-287f-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html?utm_term=.c4021094ebed

March 15, 2018

'Like nothing we have ever seen': NorCal man accused of killing more than 100 hawks

A man in Lassen County was arrested Sunday after his 80-acre property was allegedly found littered with the carcasses of more than 100 dead hawks and other birds in what the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is calling the largest raptor-poaching bust in state history.

"It's like nothing we have ever seen," said Capt. Patrick Foy of CDFW's law enforcement division. "I've been doing this for 21 years and some of us have been around in excess of three decades. We all kind of looked at each other and said we've known of nothing close to this many raptors involved in a poaching case."

***



"When you think about what raptors eat, it's rodents, voles, mice, rats and squirrels. Those populations are very likely going to increase," said Foy. "More people want to see more raptors and less rats — but ultimately, that's going to be reversed."

"There's no question about it, it's going to be a concern for the immediate vicinity," he said. "Taking 130 raptors out of the population? It's going to take years to recover."


https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/hawk-poaching-raptors-animal-cruelty-norcal-lassen-12753393.php

March 15, 2018

Trump is surrounded by Marines. That didnt stop him from mistakenly tweeting Marine Core.

Trump is surrounded by Marines. That didn’t stop him from mistakenly tweeting ‘Marine Core.’
By Alex Horton March 14 at 1:17 PM Email the author

President Trump returns a salute as he steps off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in June. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
As President Trump’s chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly is the core of White House operations.

The spelling distinction was all Trump had to remember when he tweeted about his visit to a Marine installation outside San Diego on Tuesday.

“It was my great honor to deliver a message at the Marine Core Air Station Miramar to our GREAT U.S. Military,” Trump wrote in a tweet that misspelled “Corps.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/03/14/trump-is-surrounded-by-marines-that-didnt-stop-him-from-mistakenly-tweeting-marine-core/?utm_term=.d27d8f738cf3

March 14, 2018

"Basic economy fare". No use of overhead bins. No guarantee of seating together. No changes

When Michael Zwirn recently booked tickets for his family to travel from Washington, D.C., to Chicago to Boston, he snagged what he thought was a great deal - until he read the fine print. It turned out he'd inadvertently purchased "basic economy" tickets on United, which meant no changes, no access to the overhead bins and, most critically, no guarantee the three of them would be seated together.

Those "perks" were available only with higher-priced tickets.

For Zwirn, a think-tank program director who travels frequently for work and prides himself on keeping up with the latest in transportation trends, it was an important lesson.

"If your first cut is on the basis of price, you have to read very carefully," he said.

____

As for Zwirn, he ended up rebooking the tickets so he could guarantee his family would be seated together. The cost was nominal - only about $60 more - so it was worth it.

And that's what the airlines are counting on - that given the option, travelers will opt to pay more.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/its-buyer-beware-as-big-airlines-embrace-basic-economy-fares/2018/03/12/84c71282-2164-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html

March 14, 2018

Trump/conservatives link school shootings to policies to rein in discriminatory discipline of minori

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/politics/trump-school-shootings-obama-discipline-policies.html