April 9, 2019

President Obama separated the children," Trump said. "I'm the one that stopped it."

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, though, Trump sought to pin the blame on his predecessor for the uproar.

“Obama separated the children, just so you understand. President Obama separated the children,” Trump said. “The cages that were shown, very inappropriate, they were built by President Obama and the Obama administration –not by Trump.”

“The press knows it, you know it, we all know it,” he said. “I’m the one that stopped it.”




https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-no-plan-to-revive-family-separations-blames-obama-for-uproar

April 9, 2019

a group of teens approach a five year autistic boy at a skate park

..and teach him how to ride a skateboard!

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A group of teens taught a 5-year-old boy with autism how to ride a skateboard on his birthday

For Carter, a 5-year-old with high functioning autism and ADHD, it might have been the perfect birthday.

The boy's mother, Kristen Braconi, took him to a skate park in South Brunswick, New Jersey, for his fifth birthday last week. As Carter was riding his scooter, a group of older kids showed up and began to teach him how to use a mini skateboard.
They showed him how to balance on it, offered encouraging words and helped him up when he fell. Later they even sang him happy birthday.

"The kids went above and beyond and that's what it was all about," said Braconi, who filmed the scene and shared it on the local community's Facebook page.

"I wanted to recognize the kids and their parents because when you can show their parents how kind and respectful they are when you aren't around you know you have done a great job!" she told CNN. "They did so much more than they knew."




Braconi says the teens did not know that Carter has autism.

"They wanted to do that for him and their kindness and inclusion without knowing anything was going on with him, it was amazing," she said, adding that Carter gained a lot of confidence from the positive social interaction.
In one of the videos, the older boy who loaned Carter the skateboard can be heard saying, "This kid's already better than me."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/us/boy-autism-skateboard-birthday-trnd/

April 9, 2019

guy designs cat run for his pets

starts at 5:10

April 9, 2019

Texas Senate Approves Bill Allowing Licenses Professionals to Deny Services Based on Religion

https://www.kveo.com/news/local-news/texas-senate-approves-bill-allowing-licenses-professionals-to-deny-services-based-on-religion/1909101234


BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Civil rights advocates, the LGBTQ community, and even clergy members are condemning a religious freedom bill passed by the Texas Senate that they believe opens the door to discrimination against the LGBTQ community

And local advocates are even more upset because the only democrat who voted for Senate bill 17 is state senator Eddie Lucio Jr. and community members went to Austin to let him know how they feel.

“He might have already passed it but he can hear our voice and know that he made the wrong decision and that we’re going to hold him accountable,” said Ofelia Alonso, Regional Field Coordinator for Texas Freedom Network.

Senate bill 17 in part, allows state-licensed workers such as doctors, lawyers and social workers to refuse to provide their services based on “a sincerely held religious beliefs” at a time when the author of the bill believes there is an attack on religious freedom.

The only exception is when medical services are necessary to “prevent death or imminent serious bodily injury.”

The bill has been referred to the House State Affairs Committee, with civil rights advocates hoping it dies there and never reaches the governor’s desk.

April 9, 2019

A MAGA Hat Is Unraveled for a New Purpose in This Powerful Video of Immigrants' Stories

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/a-maga-hat-is-unraveled-for-a-new-purpose-in-this-powerful-video-of-immigrants-stories/

https://twitter.com/peacecollectiv3/status/1113095819790553091

April 9, 2019

Georgia repubs propose a "journalism ethics board"

A board to oversee Georgia journalists sounds like Orwellian fiction. The proposal is all too real.

The bill — a proposal to oversee journalists sponsored by six Republican lawmakers — is no wacky prank.

Pretty clearly, it’s an effort to lock watchdog reporters in a soundproof kennel where the public can’t hear their warning barks.

“Frankly, this is the kind of proposal one would expect to surface in a banana republic, not the Peach State,” Griffiths said.

Echoing the government’s Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984,” the proposal would establish a “Journalism Ethics Board” to create professional standards for news people.

And, among other provisions, it would require reporters to surrender their recordings, photographs and notes to an interviewee upon request. If a news outlet refuses, it would be subject to legal action and fines.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-board-to-oversee-georgia-journalists-sounds-like-orwellian-fiction-the-proposal-is-all-too-real/2019/04/08/dffcd33a-5a16-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html?utm_term=.bf16067fe193

April 9, 2019

Trump takes an honor of a lifetime and turns it into a black hole

The ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — the implementer of some of the most unjust immigration policies since the internment of citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II — is further proof of President Trump’s ratchet-wrench theory of loyalty. It goes only in his direction.

In the end, the burnt offering of a staffer’s character is not enough. After trying to enforce and anticipate Trump’s cruel or irrational whims, he or she is generally packed off without ceremony, with diminished professional respect and, presumably, with diminished self-respect. Trump has taken what should be the honor of a lifetime — serving the country at the highest levels of the executive branch — and turned it into a reputational black hole.

A few — think former defense secretary Jim Mattis and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley — have managed to serve without self-immolation. But this is only because they skillfully established some distance between their views and those of the president. Did anyone doubt that Mattis respected NATO, or that Haley was concerned about human rights?

Nielsen, however, took another route. After a career generally characterized by competence, Nielsen chose to reflect Trump’s priorities. Maybe she reasoned to herself that she was implementing the president’s agenda more humanely than others would have done. Aristotle once defined human beings as rational animals. They are, at least, rationalizing animals.

But the separation of crying migrant children from their parents as a deterrent, and the housing of children in prisonlike conditions, will be some of the most enduring political images of the Trump era. It says something about Nielsen that she took part in such practices. It says something about Trump that such actions were apparently too moderate and restrained for his taste.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-appeals-to-inner-demons-it-makes-his-damage-even-harder-to-repair/2019/04/08/aeb7145a-5a31-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html?utm_term=.da7a51ec19fb

April 9, 2019

In a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections - 90% use rate

In a Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections
Overuse of the medicines is not just a problem in rich countries. Throughout the developing world antibiotics are dispensed with no prescription required.

AIROBI, Kenya — Four days after her toddler’s health took a turn for the worse, his tiny body racked by fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Sharon Mbone decided it was time to try yet another medicine.

With no money to see a doctor, she carried him to the local pharmacy stall, a corrugated shack near her home in Kibera, a sprawling impoverished community here in Nairobi. The shop’s owner, John Otieno, listened as she described her 22-month-old son’s symptoms and rattled off the pharmacological buffet of medicines he had dispensed to her over the previous two weeks. None of them, including four types of antibiotics, were working, she said in despair.

Like most of the small shopkeepers who provide on-the-spot diagnosis and treatment here and across Africa and Asia, Mr. Otieno does not have a pharmacist’s degree or any medical training at all. Still, he confidently reached for two antibiotics that he had yet to sell to Ms. Mbone.

“See if these work,” he said as she handed him 1,500 shillings for both, about $15.
Antibiotics, the miracle drugs credited with saving tens of millions of lives, have never been more accessible to the world’s poor, thanks in large part to the mass production of generics in China and India. Across much of the developing world, it costs just a few dollars to buy drugs like amoxicillin, a first-line antibiotic that can be used against a broad range of infections, from bacterial pneumonia and chlamydia to salmonella, strep throat and Lyme disease.

Kibera residents are prodigious consumers of antibiotics. One study found that 90 percent of households in Kibera had used antibiotics in the previous year, compared with about 17 percent for the typical American family.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/health/antibiotic-resistance-kenya-drugs.html

April 9, 2019

struggling on $300,000 in SF.

How making $300,000 in San Francisco can still mean you're living paycheck-to-paycheck



With their feedback, Dogen broke down the budget of a couple with one to two children in San Francisco, Seattle or New York. He found $300,000 is the income necessary to put something away for retirement, save for your child's education, own a three-bedroom home, take three weeks of vacation a year and retire by a reasonable age.

"It's not an extravagant lifestyle," Dogen says. "It's a middle-class lifestyle if you consider a middle-class person should be able to afford a modest home, have at least one car, have a kid or two. There are no private jets in this budget."

Dogen has put together a detailed blog post where you'll find analysis and explanation on each expense, but here are a few points to note:

The $24,000-a-year childcare expense takes into consideration a babysitting rate of about $20 an hour, the standard charge in a city such as San Francisco. Preschool easily costs $18,000 to $20,000 a year in metro areas.
The mortgage is based on a $1.5 million, 1,750-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 2,500-square-foot lot.
The car expenses are based on a single larger car that accommodates a family.
Entertainment expenses include everything from Netflix to tickets to an occasional ball game to date night, which easily costs $200 in San Francisco when you consider expense for dinner and babysitting.
ALSO: Why a $400,000 income means you still think you're middle class

Dogen adds that at $300,000, a family is still living paycheck-to-paycheck and not saving outside their 401K and 529 plans.

"We're in this perpetual grind in San Francisco, and it's a city for people who are willing to hustle," he says. "At one point in the past, $300,000 was a lot of money. Now at this amount, you're probably always going to end up working a long time and having a constant struggle to keep up."

His recommendation is to make moving out of the region a goal.

"There's a moving truck shortage in places like San Francisco because so many people are moving out of this expensive city and other expensive coastal cities," he writes. "If you live in an expensive metropolitan area, consider relocating to lower your cost of living or at least try and take advantage of the valuation differential by investing in Middle America.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/middle-class-budget-San-Francisco-300-000-13741570.php

I would say that this 300K couple is getting more nutritious food, better child care and a better standard of living than a 50K "pay check to pay check" couple.

April 8, 2019

Bloody Monday - Homeland Security Department: Trump 'fires' Secret Service director & 3 more quit

Bloody Monday rocks Homeland Security Department: Trump 'fires' Secret Service director and THREE MORE top officials 'quit' as Stephen Miller grabs U.S. immigration reins after Kirstjen Nielsen's ouster

Trump reportedly ordered acting White House chief of staff to fire Secret Service Director Randolph Alles
Alles insists he wasn't fired but knew about a coming transition two weeks ago
On Sunday Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen got her walking papers after meeting with Trump and sharing her plans for immigration
The second departure came as the agency dodged blame for Chinese malware security breach at Trump's private Florida resort
Agents arrested Yujing Zhang entering Mar-a-Lago with two Chinese passports, a thumb drive with malware, four cellphones, a laptop and a hard drive
Reports of more people in the DHS departure lounge followed Monday

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6900151/Trump-fires-Secret-Service-director-amid-Homeland-Security-bloodbath-ousted-Nielsen.html





Replacing the USSS director signals that immigration hardliner Stephen Miller is gaining more leverage in the White House