The White House Changeed Outgoing Message on Comment Line to Blame Democrats?

https://www.snopes.com/white-house-comment-line-trump/#.WmTkdNAMDOE.facebook

CLAIM

The White House updated the voice message on the automated telephone comments line to blame Democrats for a government shutdown.

RATING : TRUE

•••••

The Republican-controlled White House went so far as to change the outgoing message on the White House telephone comment line (202-456-1111) to an unprecedented message blaming Democrats:

Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today, because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down. In the meantime, you can leave a comment for the president at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. We look forward to taking your calls as soon as the government reopens.

The existence of the message was confirmed by various reporters:

We called and were able to confirm for ourselves that this was indeed the White House’s outgoing telephone message on 20 January 2018.

•••••

Some banks may step up for military customers if shutdown delays Feb. 1 pay

By: Karen Jowers
Jan. 19, 2018



Some financial institutions with large numbers of military customers plan to help ease troops’ financial stress in the event a government shutdown interferes with their Feb. 1 paychecks ... or beyond.

During a shutdown, by Defense Department guidelines, all active-duty military personnel would still report to work, but wouldn’t be paid until Congress makes funding available. During the last shutdown in 2013, Congress passed a law that required military members to be paid.

An unknown number of federal civilian employees could be furloughed, with no back pay. Those employees include military spouses, retirees and other veterans.

Here are some early shutdown announcements from financial institutions. As Feb. 1 approaches, check with your financial institution to see if similar plans are in place.

•••••

The legislative process re. the shutdown

From a Facebook post

Can I explain something about the government shutdown? The senate needs a majority of votes, not 3/5 to renew existing budget bills. They normally need the 3/5 cloture vote. The republicans could pass this budget, without any problem. So why isnt this happening, you ask?

The republicans have attached non-budget items on the bill. By doing this, they have to get the 3/5 vote. They put things on that they know the democrats will go against. So then, instead of renewing the budget, they can push their agenda and grandstand saying "the democrats caused a shut down." But really, if they take off the non-budget items, they only need a one vote majority and the budget is renewed. The republicans dont want the budget renewed. They want to force their agenda in the back door and hold government shut down over the heads of democrats.

Thats why I support the government shutdown.
During the election, everyone wanted to be political. Instead of raving about which candidate is the best, people should cut and paste this gem into their statuses and share this so their friends can learn something about how the government works. This isnt some debate. The GOP could pass a renewal bill today if they wanted to."

(YES PLEASE SHARE. I would like to credit the author of this clear and intelligent post, but I have no idea who that is.)

Cape Town Will Run Out Of Water In Fewer Than 100 Days

Normal human behariour, waiting to seriously address a problem until it's a crisis.

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/cape-town-might-soon-become-the-first-city-in-the-world-to-run-out-of-water/

By Tom Halw
Jan. 18, 2018

With fewer than 95 days left before they run dry, Cape Town might become the first major city in the world to run out of water.

The coastal South African city has been battling droughts for nearly three years, amounting to the worst one in their history. It’s now seriously reaching crunch time. With little rain on the horizon, the city has now ordered its 3.7 million residents to drastically cut their water consumption, take short stop-start showers, not wash their cars, and flush toilets as little as possible. If they don't, all of their taps could be shut off by April.

•••••

If the city fails to resolve the problem and secure alternative water sources, Capetonians will be forced to queue for their daily ration of water, no more than 25 liters (5.5 gallons), at numerous government-organized outposts around the city.

•••••

There are a few factors driving this water crisis. The earlier part of the drought in 2015 was largely blamed on the El Niño weather pattern, however, as the situation continues to worsen, experts are now pointing towards poor city management, a growing urban population, and – you guessed it – climate change.

This Mad Max-like vision of “Day Zero” is daunting, and one that could become a more common sight around the world in the face of climate change. Scientists have estimated that North Africa and the Middle East will become so hot and dry they will be uninhabitable in the near future, even if every country meets its targets for the Paris climate agreement. Similar claims have been made about the Mediterranean suffering recurrent droughts. Most startling of all, one study found that nearly three-quarters of the world’s population will experience life-threatening heatwaves by the end of this century.

=======================================================

Six weeks before the report above

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-08/will-cape-town-run-out-of-water

Will Cape Town Run Out of Water?
If “Day Zero” comes, the 4 million residents of South Africa’s second-biggest city will face a catastrophe.
By Michael Cohen
Dec. 7, 2017

•••••

The city’s poor, who are wholly dependent on the municipal supply and have limited space to store water, have been the hardest hit.

Patricia Gxothelwa, 34, an unemployed resident of Imizamo Yethu township, about 12 kilometers south of the city center, has to use a bucket to collect water from communal taps a short walk away when the supply is cut off from the hillside shack she shares with her husband and four children. It’s an increasingly regular occurrence.

•••••

Three straight years of poor rains typically occur less than once in a millennium, according to University of Cape Town climatologists Piotr Wolski, Bruce Hewitson and Chris Jack. It’s unclear what’s caused such extreme drought, though climate change is a possible factor and the city should brace itself for a recurrence, they said in a study published Oct. 6.

•••••

While average daily consumption has plummeted to about 600 million liters (158 million gallons) of water a day from 1.1 billion liters a year ago, about half of households still aren’t adhering to the city’s usage targets. About 19,000 homes that have regularly exceeded their recommended quotas have had mandatory devices fitted to their inlet pipes that restrict them to 350 liters a day.

•••••

Links

The story of a woman who spent much of her life homeless.
https://www.quora.com/I-feel-no-sympathy-for-the-homeless-because-I-feel-like-it-is-their-own-fault-Are-there-examples-of-seemingly-normal-and-respectable-people-becoming-homeless/answer/Jacqueline-Homan


Nearly two-thirds say Trump doesn’t share their values
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/368345-poll-nearly-two-thirds-say-trump-doesnt-share-their-values


Victoria police say Daily Mail provoked African ‘gang flare-up’ scuffle
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/victoria-police-say-daily-mail-provoked-african-gang-flare-up-scuffle?CMP=soc_567

Links

Twitter Admits There Were More Than 50,000 Russian Bots Trying to Confuse American Voters Before the Election
https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/twitter-admits-there-were-more-than-50-000-russian-bots-confusing-u-s-voters-in-2016.html

Links

OnePlus says up to 40,000 customers were affected by credit card security breach
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/19/16908990/oneplus-credit-card-security-breach-investigation-40000-affected


EPA drops rule requiring mining companies to have money to clean up pollution
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-epa-mining-pollution-20171201-story.html


Turpin case: Siblings allegedly starved, shackled and taunted with food
[The authorities are looking for homes for the children. First choice is given to relatives, and the elderly parents of this horrible father have been asked if they can take the children. They were the ones who raised this monster, and from reports of their child-rearing actions, I doubt they would give the children the nurturing they need, even if they had the energy at their age. They have expressed doubt that they can take the children on at their age.]
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/19/us/california-torture-case-turpin/index.html


Trump and your finances: Taxes, student and payday loans, tips targeted in 1st year
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/01/19/trump-and-your-finances-taxes-student-and-payday-loans-tips-targeted-1st-year/1040714001/


Supreme Court blocks redrawing of North Carolina congressional maps
[Not surprising. An example of why republicans worked so hard to block Obama's court nominations. If you didn't vote for Hillary, you enabled this.]
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-election/supreme-court-blocks-redrawing-of-north-carolina-congressional-maps-idUSKBN1F73C1


In world first, drone rescues 2 swimmers off Australian beach
Lifeguards launched drone, which dropped flotation device down to swimmers
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/drone-rescue-swimmers-australia-1.4492631


Poll: More than half of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/poll-more-half-americans-strongly-disapprove-trump-n838926

Links

Temperatures like these are now about fifteen times rarer. This is equivalent to cold waves being about 4ºF (2ºC) warmer than they used to be.
https://wwa.climatecentral.org/analyses/north-american-cold-winter-2017-2018/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/01/11/in-a-fast-warming-world-scientists-say-recent-cold-wave-was-exceptionally-weird/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_cwg-coldwave-855pm%3Ahomepage/story&utm_term=.53f4f01bc04d

Of 21 Winter Olympic Cities, Many May Soon Be Too Warm to Host the Games
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/11/climate/winter-olympics-global-warming.html

One year in to Trump’s presidency, the world’s citizens give U.S. leadership a record low rating
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2018/01/18/one-year-in-to-trumps-presidency-the-worlds-citizens-give-u-s-leadership-a-record-low-rating/?utm_term=.b0cdd2df04bd

Chris Christie stopped by TSA for evading security checkpoint
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-christie-stopped-at-tsa-for-evading-security-checkpoint/

Repeated Head Hits, Not Just Concussions, May Lead To A Type Of Chronic Brain Damage
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/01/18/578355877/repeated-head-hits-not-concussions-may-be-behind-a-type-of-chronic-brain-damage
A neurologist who studied violent criminals found that almost all of them showed signs of brain damage, usually from child abuse.

California torture house: 13 siblings allowed to eat once a day, shower twice a year
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-torture-house-13-siblings-allowed-eat-once-day-shower-n838671

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/opinions/california-horror-house-drexler/index.html

From my own experience, sadistic power freak parents use religion as an excuse, and as a weapon to keep their children subservient.

Aunts of 13 captive children reveal years of secrecy and concerns
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/us/turpin-relatives-interviews/index.html


Trump rode golf cart while G7 leaders walked through Sicily
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335424-trump-rode-golf-cart-while-g7-leaders-walked-through-siciliy

Like Oceans, Freshwater Is Also Acidifying
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/like-oceans-freshwater-is-also-acidifying/

Conservative Ohio Voters Support Green Energy, Oppose Coal Bailouts, Poll Finds
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2018/01/gop_voters_support_green_energ.html

How Much Has ‘Climate Change’ Been Scrubbed from Federal Websites? A Lot.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/climate/climate-change-trump.html

How a Coal Baron’s Wish List Became President Trump’s To-Do List
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/climate/coal-murray-trump-memo.html

FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump

By Peter Stone And Greg Gordon
January 18, 2018

The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.

FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.

It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.

•••••

The extent to which the FBI has evidence of money flowing from Torshin to the NRA, or of the NRA’s participation in the transfer of funds, could not be learned.

However, the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.

Two people with close connections to the powerful gun lobby said its total election spending actually approached or exceeded $70 million. The reporting gap could be explained by the fact that independent groups are not required to reveal how much they spend on Internet ads or field operations, including get-out-the-vote efforts.

•••••

A long-simmering factor in Iran protests: climate change

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iran-protests-climate-change-2018-story.html

Shashank Bengali and Ramin Mostaghim
Jan. 17, 2018

•••••

On Dec. 30 of last year, about 200 people gathered in front of the provincial governor’s office to protest the water transfer project. Their slogans soon morphed into chants of “Death to the dictator,” the main rallying cry of anti-government protesters who poured into streets nationwide in the biggest spasm of public anger Iran has seen in years.

The uprising — in which at least 21 people died and thousands were arrested before authorities reimposed order — had many sparks: rising prices, persistent unemployment, bank collapses, a wide wealth gap, corruption in the theocracy.

But an overlooked factor, analysts say, is the impact of climate change and the widespread perception that Iran’s leaders are mishandling a growing problem of water scarcity.

“People believe that this is yet another major crisis the country is facing, and the people at the top are too incompetent and too corrupt to care,” said Meir Javedanfar, a professor of Iranian politics at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, an Israeli university.

“It does not seem to be a priority of the regime to address the drought issue,” he said. “As long as it’s not a priority, nothing will happen until something breaks.”

Many environmental activists believe Iran is quickly approaching its breaking point as diminishing rainfall and warmer temperatures have caused lakes to disappear, kicked up blinding dust storms and emptied out once fertile regions as farmers seek economic refuge in cities.

Drought is a concern across the Middle East, but Iran’s 80 million people are especially at risk. This month, the director of Iran’s Drought and Crisis Management Center, Shahrokh Fateh, said that 96% of the country’s land area was experiencing prolonged drought conditions, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

In some of the hardest hit areas, including border provinces where ethnic and religious minorities complain of official neglect, concerns over natural resources were a key driver of the demonstrations that began in late December.

“People in my area do not want to politicize their environmental concerns, but water shortages and pollution of the air and rivers are seen as political crises,” said Yusef Farhadi Babadi, an environmental activist in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari. “People want to reclaim their rights to clean air and water and efficient water use.”

•••••

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on the government to “manage climate change and environmental threats,” but the response from successive governments has been mixed.

•••••

Amazon announces finalists for second headquarters

http://beta.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-headquarters-20180118-story.html

By James F. Peltz
Jan 18, 2018

Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that Los Angeles and 19 other places are the finalists for the $5-billion second headquarters the giant online retailer plans to build.

The largest concentration of contenders is in the Northeast; Los Angeles is the only finalist west of the Rocky Mountains.

•••••

The list includes Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Philadelphia; Toronto; Washington; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, N.C.; Nashville; Newark, N.J.; and Columbus, Ohio. It also listed northern Virginia and Maryland's Montgomery County — both near Washington, D.C. — as potential sites.

Amazon said that in the coming months, it would work with each finalist location "to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership" before making a final decision later this year.

Translation, they will try to extort the highest bribe of corporate welfare. Since state and local taxes are so regressive, lower income people will pay proportionally more.

•••••

When Amazon issued its request for a proposal from bidders, the company said it would give priority to areas with more than 1 million people that are within 45 minutes of an international airport.

Amazon also said it's looking for an area that has a "highly educated labor pool" and a "strong university system."

The e-commerce titan also made it clear that it's looking for incentives, such as tax breaks.

•••••

Links

I am posting less for a few days because my newer laptop is in the shop, and I'm using an old one with 1 G of Ram which is very, very slow on the internet.


EPA eases path for new chemicals, raising fears of health hazards
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epa-eases-path-new-chemicals-raising-fears-health-hazards-n838201

Links

Man who filmed video of Baltimore woman left outside in hospital gown: 'No one would have believed me.'
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-imamu-baraka-video-20180112-story.html


only 36.7 percent of respondents in the state approve of the job Trump is doing in office, compared with 58.7 percent who do not.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/368719-poll-trumps-approval-ratings-in-georgia-erode


Woman in Nepal dies after being exiled to outdoor hut during her period
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/12/woman-nepal-dies-exiled-outdoor-hut-period-menstruation


Uber developed secret system to lock down staff computers in a police raid
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/11/uber-developed-secret-system-to-lock-down-staff-computers-in-a-police-raid

Links

people with intellectual disabilities — women and men — are the victims of sexual assaults at rates more than seven times those for people without disabilities
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/08/570224090/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-no-one-talks-about


Smoking iPhone battery forces Apple store evacuation
http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/09/technology/apple-iphone-battery-burning-smoke/index.html


U.S. Marshals Task Force accused of excessive force, cover up after shooting man 76 times
http://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/lawrenceville/us-marshals-task-force-accused-of-excessive-force-cover-up-after-shooting-man-76-times/85-506792680


Birth tourism brings Russian baby boom to Miami
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/birth-tourism-brings-russian-baby-boom-miami-n836121

2017 finished as the third-hottest year in the U.S. since NOAA records began

See the link below for a graph of the ten hottest years on record in the U.S.

http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/10-hottest-us-years-on-record

Jan. 9, 2017

2017 finished as the third-hottest year in the U.S. since NOAA records began in 1895, with an average temperature 2.56°F above the 20th century mean.

Additional stats:

The four hottest years on record have come in the decade of the 2010s
Of the 10 hottest years on record, only two came before 1998 (1934, 1990)
The hottest locations, relative to normal, were in the Southeast and Southwest
Five states had their hottest year on record


•••••

Oceans play a dominant role in the earth’s long term temperature, with 93 percent of the energy from human-caused warming going into them. Even with the recent cold spell in the eastern half of the U.S., the ocean temperature in parts of the North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico remains 2-5°F above the late 20th century average.

The warm ocean temperatures meant more moisture in the air, leading to more snow from the recent storm.

•••••

Links

Natural disasters cost a record-shattering $306 billion in 2017
https://www.axios.com/2017-was-the-most-expensive-year-on-record-1515433237-0a6aa784-96db-4fe8-a3a7-609c0a7a8b6c.html

Influenza kills 7-year-old boy; overcrowded hospitals forced to use tent
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/influenza-kills-year-boy-overcrowded-hospitals-forced-tents-52222306


Thousands of flying foxes die from heat, freaking people out as they fall from the sky
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/01/09/thousands-bats-are-boiled-alive-freaking-people-out-as-fall-from-sky.html

Tillerson and Mattis are reportedly trying to hold Trump back from striking North Korea

One has to wonder if Trump would do something like this to detract attention from something like important revelations from the Mueller investigation.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tillerson-mattis-trump-north-korea-strike-2018-1

Alex Lockie
Jan. 8, 2018

The Trump administration is debating a "bloody nose" attack on North Korea, recent reports say, with the president's inner circle split and apparently teetering between endorsing a strike and holding out hope for diplomacy.

Both The Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal have portrayed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis as trying to caution President Donald Trump against a strike, and the national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, as advocating it

•••••

Multiple outlets have reported in the past few months that Trump's team has considered replacing the secretary of state with Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director, who is thought to be on the hawkish side and could shift the balance of opinions in the Oval Office.

•••••

Trump to attend Davos economic forum

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/368102-trump-to-attend-davos-economic-forum

By Jordan Fabian - 01/09/18

President Trump plans to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later this month, the White House announced Tuesday.

•••••

The forum, which brings together powerful politicians and business leaders, is scheduled to run from Jan. 23 to 26.

Trump, a billionaire businessman who won the presidency by running as an economic populist, would be one of only two U.S. presidents to ever attend the forum.

U.S. presidents typically do not attend the gathering in the ritzy Swiss Alps resort town, an effort to avoid being seen as too cozy with some of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

The only sitting president to appear in person at the Davos conference was Bill Clinton in 2000.

The U.S., however, typically sends a high-ranking delegation.

Vice President Joe Biden attended the forum on behalf of President Obama in 2017, just days before Trump’s inauguration.

•••••

Links

Imagine if Obama lost in 2008 and over the next year we learned that many of the top political journalists in the country were secretly Ku Klux Klansmen.

Some of the most powerful men in media, who shaped the overtly negative and sexist coverage of Hillary Clinton, have been exposed as sexual predators.
https://shareblue.com/7th-man-who-controlled-clinton-media-coverage-ousted-for-predatory-behavior/


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/08/great-barrier-reef-rising-temperatures-turning-green-sea-turtles-female
Great Barrier Reef: rising temperatures turning green sea turtles female

7th man who controlled Clinton media coverage ousted for predatory behavior

And these men gave Trump a pass for lies and bad behaviour.

https://shareblue.com/7th-man-who-controlled-clinton-media-coverage-ousted-for-predatory-behavior/

By Oliver Willis | January 4, 2018

Steve Chaggaris, the political director for CBS News, was fired by the network after “accounts of inappropriate behavior” surfaced. In a statement, CBS News announced it had “severed ties with Mr. Chaggaris for violating company policy, effective immediately.”

Since 2012, Chaggaris served as the outlet’s senior political editor, then was promoted to political director in March 2017.

Chaggaris — like many other male journalists who have recently been outed, disciplined, and fired for sexually predatory behavior — was in a position to shape the extremely negative and often blatantly sexist coverage of Hillary Clinton’s historical presidential campaign.

As Rebecca Traister wrote in The New York Times, “Many of the male journalists who stand accused of sexual harassment were on the forefront of covering the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.”

She added:

A pervasive theme of all of these men’s coverage of Mrs. Clinton was that she was dishonest and unlikable. These recent harassment allegations suggest that perhaps the problem wasn’t that Mrs. Clinton was untruthful or inherently hard to connect with, but that these particular men hold deep biases against women who seek power instead of sticking to acquiescent sex-object status.

Complaints about the sexist nature of Clinton coverage were often dismissed or minimized, despite the mainstream media’s well-documented pattern of such behavior.

Now with these firings and revelations, those concerns turned out to have been very real. Several of the men who were determining how to cover Clinton and which issues should receive the most focus — her emails, her trustworthiness, her likability — were at the very same time mistreating and abusing women.

In addition to Chaggaris, men at some of the nation’s most influential outlets — including NBC, CBS, The New York Times, and PBS — were setting up Clinton while misbehaving behind closed doors.

•••••