Links 11/4/2018

I wonder if the woman who claimed she wrote an anonymous letter is being paid by republicans to do so. That is the kind of thing they have done repeatedly.


https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/414545-former-gop-senator-endorses-dem-spanberger-over-dave-brat?fbclid=IwAR1KHib2_wm4ts0L7Y5LIKxar79OJ3aqcszxqmkA7h83oT208GCCv753JtA
Nov. 2, 2018
Ex-GOP Sen. Warner endorses Virginia Democrat over Dave Brat
"It goes beyond politics now. I’m a Republican, I’ll finish a Republican as I cruise through my 91st year. But you’ve got to put the nation’s interests and the state’s interests ahead of politics," Warner told NBC News.
Warner also endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), in the 2016 presidential election against Trump, who lost Virginia by 5 points in the election.
"He has no inner compass at all," Warner said of Trump. "He’s put a tremendous divide in this country."


https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/arsonist-sets-fires-7-brooklyn-synagogues-jewish-schools-nyc-councilman/?fbclid=IwAR2VEO65H2GHAUpWUjd1YyKyri56zJ1QLdOSwOMwFvzwEf8whBdSpMMPZB0#.W9zQfwWioRo.facebook
Nov. 2, 2018
Arsonist sets fires at 7 Brooklyn synagogues and Jewish schools


[global warming is causing an increase in the number and severity of flooding]
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/04/europe/italy-flooding-deaths/index.html
Nov. 4, 2018
With the deaths of 12 people in Sicily, the death toll in Italy's historic flooding has grown to 29, the country's interior minister said.
High winds and heavy rain have devastated parts of the country over the past week, causing the worst flooding in at least a decade in Venice, damages of more than 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) in Veneto and landslides that have cut off villages, authorities said.
Flooding at high tide has become much more common in Venice because of climate change -- a problem that will continue to worsen as seas rise because of increasing temperatures and melting ice sheets, according to CNN meteorologists.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/03/matt-shea-washington-republican-biblical-basis-for-war
Nov. 3, 2018
The Washington state Republican Matt Shea was this week abandoned by donors, over a document he distributed which condemned abortion and same-sex marriage while outlining a “Biblical Basis for War”.
Regarding opponents, the minority caucus chair in the Washington state house wrote: “If they do not yield – kill all males.”
Shea is seeking a fifth term as representative for district four, centred on the Spokane Valley. Amid rising concern over far-right invective, particularly over immigration, and its relevance to violent attacks such as the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last week, the case brought him to national attention. Now, new information has emerged about his beliefs and associations on the far right.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/america-minority-rule-voter-suppression-gerrymandering-supreme-court
Nov. 4, 2018
Rigging the vote: how the American right is on the way to permanent minority rule


[Of course, not the only factor. I remember several years being in a restaurant where a mother was urging her already overweight son to eat more.]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/04/childhood-obesity-linked-to-air-pollution-from-vehicles
Early exposure to air pollution from vehicles increases the risk of children becoming obese, new research has found.
High levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by diesel engines, in the first year of life led to significantly faster weight gain later, the scientists found. Other pollutants produced by road traffic have also been linked to obesity in children by recent studies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed last Monday that 90% of the world’s children are breathing unsafe air, a situation described as “inexcusable” by the WHO’s head. Concern over the impact of toxic air on children’s health is rising as research reveals serious long-term damage to both their physical and mental health.
A large recent study found toxic air significantly increases the risk of low birth weight, leading to lifelong damage to health. Others linked air pollution with birth defects, cot deaths and the first direct evidence of pollution particles in mothers’ placentas has also been revealed.


[Applies to both sides.]
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/02/culture-war-liberals-conservatives-trump-2018-222095
November/December 2018
How Everything Became the Culture War
America’s petty tribal arguments are now driving the bus on serious policy. Here’s why we should worry.
the ferocious politicization of everything is not healthy for the American body politic, which is why a Russian troll farm used fake social media accounts to gin up protests and counterprotests about hot-button issues like police shootings and Trump’s border wall. Our foreign adversaries like it when we yell at one another.
Once the dogs of war have been unleashed, it’s hard to call them back. And we should at least consider the possibility that we’re fighting this forever war because we like it.
It wasn’t a real war, like the one that Trump skipped while John McCain paid an unimaginable price, but it made the spectators feel like they were not just spectating, like they had joined an exhilarating fight. They got the adrenaline rush, the sense of being part of something larger, the foxhole camaraderie of war against a common enemy, without the physical danger.


[Amusing, but also scary that our technology can have such weaknesses we don't anticipate.]
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gye4aw/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility
Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility, but not Android phones