Howard Dean Needs to Change His Mind

Keith Ellison is a great guy, but we do not need another Party Chair who simultaneously holds a seat in Congress. ala DWS. Howard also has a proven track record of success. If anyone here has his personal number, call him!

Frantic rescue after quake kills 54 in Indonesia's Aceh

Source: Associated Press

By ZIAN MUSTAKIN and NINIEK KARMINI
Dec. 7, 2016 1:31 AM EST

MEUREUDU, Indonesia (AP) — A strong undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's Aceh province early on Wednesday, killing at least 54 people and sparking a frantic rescue effort in the rubble of dozens of collapsed and damaged buildings.

Maj. Gen. Tatang Sulaiman, chief of the army in Aceh province, said 52 people have died in Pidie Jaya, the district closest to the epicenter. Another two people died in neighboring Bireuen district. The national disaster mitigation agency said 78 people have suffered serious injuries.

The rescue effort involving villagers, soldiers and police is concentrated on Meureudu, a severely affected town in Pidie Jaya district. Excavators were trying to remove debris from shop houses and other buildings where people were believed buried.

More than 40 buildings including several mosques were flattened in the district located 18 kilometers (11 miles) southwest of the epicenter, according to Aiyub Abbas, the district chief. Roads also cracked and power poles toppled over.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/56b2fcdfa09b4f1a9cecd5b4b2166276/earthquake-rocks-indonesias-aceh-province-least-27-dead

It Begins: Vulnerable Senate Democrats rush to slam anti-Donald Trump plans

From Salon:

Israeli settlement bill headed to first reading

Source: Jerusalem Post

By LAHAV HARKOV
12/07/2016 05:50

The controversial proposal to retroactively legalize nearly 4,000 settlement homes built on private Palestinian land is scheduled for a first reading in the Knesset on Wednesday, following heated debate in committee.

The meeting of the special committee, led by MK Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi), took place on Tuesday evening, a day after the settlement bill passed a preliminary reading for the second time.

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“This whole bill was born in sin,” MK Yael German (Yesh Atid) said. “You’re betraying the values of justice, of human dignity – everything Israel was built on. The residents of Amona touched my heart. Why didn’t Netanyahu find a solution for them in the last two years?” MK Revital Swid (Zionist Union) called the bill a “fraud” and accused the Right of tricking its voters.

“You know it, but you don’t care. You’re turning the rule of law, the High Court, the attorney-general into enemies and ruining our international image,” she said.

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-settlement-bill-headed-to-first-reading-474663

Georgia executes ninth inmate this year, most in US

Source: Associated Press

By KATE BRUMBACK
Dec. 6, 2016 10:29 PM EST

JACKSON, Ga. (AP) Georgia executed its ninth inmate this year on Tuesday night, putting to death a man convicted of killing his father-in-law more than a quarter century ago.

William Sallie, 50, was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. after a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson.

Lawyers who sought to block William Sallie's execution said he should be granted a new trial because of alleged juror bias, but courts haven't properly considered that evidence because he missed a filing deadline by eight days at a time when he didn't have a lawyer, his lawyers said in court filings.

Georgia has put to death more people this year than any other state, including Texas with seven.

Sallie was convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of John Lee Moore in March 1990. His first conviction and death sentence were overturned because his attorney had a conflict of interest.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/83158dca6397483898fe2bea7ece9290/georgia-prepares-carry-out-its-9th-execution-year

It Begins: Vulnerable Senate Democrats rush to slam anti-Donald Trump plans

From Salon:

King Bibi for a day: golden Netanyahu statue is toppled

Source: The Guardian


The statue, installed overnight as a political statement against the PM, is taken away from Rabin Square on Tuesday

Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Tuesday 6 December 2016 06.25 EST

The nickname King Bibi for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long been in circulation. It refers to his reputed imperial tendencies, his political gifts and his taste for fine living.

Now the conceit has been given a new currency via the sudden – if brief - appearance of a large golden statue of Netanyahu in Tel Aviv’s most famous square, satirising the prime minister’s years in office and the allegations of scandal that have surrounded the management of his household. Appearing unexpectedly overnight in Rabin Square, the statue, on a white plinth, attracted the attention of scores of residents who waited to take selfies. But Netanyahu’s ministers, rushing to denounce the guerrilla art installation, made clear they were not amused.

Leading the charge against the sculptor, Itay Zalait, was the culture minister, Miri Regev, a leading figure in the right’s culture war against Israeli artists deemed left-wing or too elite. She denounced the statue as an “expression of hatred towards Netanyahu”. For their part, Tel Aviv municipal officials ordered Zalait to remove the statue and said they would haul it away and fine him if he refused.

Zalait, who had said the installation depicted “the situation we find ourselves in”, complied, inviting Israelis to help “topple Netanyahu” from his plinth. It was a task which they dutifully carried out, with pictures later showing the statue on its side.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/king-bibi-netanyahu-statue-attacked-by-israeli-culture-minister

Trump is Steering Us Toward International Disaster - The Resistance with Keith Olbermann - GQ

Warming U.S. Could See Extreme Rains Increase Fivefold

Source: Climate Central

December 5th, 2016
By Andrea Thompson

When the skies open up and deluge an area, the results can be catastrophic, with roads washed out and homes destroyed by the resulting flash floods. Such extreme downpours are already occurring more often across the U.S., but a new study finds that as global temperatures rise, storms could dump considerably more rain and skyrocket in frequency.


A car lies submerged in the Tall Timbers subdivision after flooding near Shreveport, La., on March 9, 2016, caused by torrential rains

The study, detailed Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests that storms that now occur about once a season now could happen five times a season by century’s end, a 400 percent increase.

And when such storms do occur, they could produce up to 70 percent more rain. That means that an intense thunderstorm that would today drop about 2 inches of rain would drop 3.5 inches in the future.

Such massive amounts of rain occurring more often could put significant strain on infrastructure that already struggles to deal with heavy rainfall, as seen across the country this year in places from Louisiana to West Virginia.

Read more: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-could-see-increase-in-extreme-rains-20935

Democrats to give Trump Cabinet picks the Garland treatment

Source: Politico

By Burgess Everett and Elana Schor
12/05/16 05:06 AM EST

Senate Democrats are preparing to put Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks through a grinding confirmation process, weighing delay tactics that could eat up weeks of the Senate calendar and hamper his first 100 days in office.

Multiple Democratic senators told POLITICO in interviews last week that after watching Republicans sit on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court for nearly a year, they’re in no mood to fast-track Trump’s selections.

But it’s not just about exacting revenge. Democrats argue that some of the president-elect’s more controversial Cabinet picks — such as Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary — demand a thorough public airing.

“They’ve been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified?” fumed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-cabinet-democrats-senate-232136