Elephant trophy import ban

A friend was under the impression that the ban of elephant trophy imports from some countries was an executive order by President Obama. Actually, it was a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service while Obama was president. I think the news references to "Obama-era ban" confuses people who hear a news article on the radio.

https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ID=2E6FF2A2-E10F-82BC-DAE08807810E3C6B

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Service Suspends Import of Elephant Trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe
April 4, 2014

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a suspension on imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies taken in Tanzania and Zimbabwe during calendar year 2014. Questionable management practices, a lack of effective law enforcement and weak governance have resulted in uncontrolled poaching and catastrophic population declines of African elephants in Tanzania. In Zimbabwe, available data, though limited, indicate a significant decline in the elephant population. Anecdotal evidence, such as the widely publicized poisoning last year of 300 elephants in Hwange National Park, suggests that Zimbabwe’s elephants are also under siege.

Given the current situation on the ground in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the Service is unable to make positive findings required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Endangered Species Act to allow import of elephant trophies from these countries. Additional killing of elephants in these countries, even if legal, is not sustainable and is not currently supporting conservation efforts that contribute towards the recovery of the species.

The decision to suspend the import of sport-hunted trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe applies to elephants taken on or after April 4, 2014. The Service will reevaluate this suspension for calendar year 2015 or upon receipt of new information that demonstrates an improved situation for elephants in these countries.

•••••

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/politics/trump-elephant-trophy-ban.html

For Now, Trump to Keep Ban on Importing Elephant Trophies
By EMILY COCHRANENOV. 17, 2017

President Trump on Friday reversed the government’s decision to start allowing hunters to import trophies of elephants that were killed in two African countries, pending a further review.

His evening Twitter message reversed a decision by his own administration over Zimbabwe that was announced this week and promoted as recently as Friday afternoon by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Under study for years. Will update soon with Secretary Zinke. Thank you!”

•••••

Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, said in a statement later Friday night that the decision applied to two African countries, though it did not name them.

•••••

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service had signaled its intention to end the 2014 ban, citing Zimbabwe’s conservation efforts. On Thursday, the service announced on its website that it would begin issuing permits to allow the import of elephants hunted from 2016 to 2018, with two trophies allowed per import.

Nearly two weeks ago, the department also waived the ban in a similar manner for Zambia.

Zambia and Zimbabwe have had mixed success in recent years maintaining or increasing their elephant population, according to the Great Elephant Census, a project financed by Paul G. Allen, a founder of Microsoft. The project also found that the African elephant population shrunk nearly 30 percent from 2007 to 2014.

It is unclear why Mr. Trump reversed the decision, but the announcement faced backlash from both conservatives and liberals. Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host, said Thursday on Twitter that she did not understand how the decision would not “INCREASE the gruesome poaching of elephants,” while the comedian Ellen DeGeneres started an online campaign, using the hashtag #BeKindToElephants, to raise funds for elephant conservation efforts.

On social media, photos were being shared of Mr. Trump’s two elder sons hunting on safari in Zimbabwe, including one photo that showed Donald Trump Jr. with a severed elephant tail in one hand and a knife in the other.

•••••

Ms. Sanders also confirmed Friday that a near-total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory enforced during the Obama administration would remain in place.

Trump's judicial picks

Jamiles Lartey
Nov. 22, 2017

•••••

the makeup of America’s judges is quietly becoming the site of one of Trump’s most unequivocal successes: nominating and installing judges who reflect his own worldview at a speed and volume unseen in recent memory. Trump could conceivably have handpicked more than 30% of the nation’s federal judges before the end of his first term, his advisers have suggested, and independent observers agree.

“The president himself has said that he expects this to be one of his major legacies. He is going to reshape the bench for generations to come,” said Douglas Keith, counsel with the fair courts arm of the Brennan Center for Justice.

•••••

Much has been made of Trump’s failure to get legislation through Congress and received wisdom suggests that he has little to show for his first 10 months in power. However, the lasting impact that court picks have on the lives of Americans means that Trump’s choices – and the sheer numbers involved – will help reshape America for the next half-century.

Until recently little attention has been paid to Trump’s judicial appointments. But Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware and a member of the Senate judiciary committee, identified the importance of these appointments early on. In June he said: “This will be the single most important legacy of the Trump administration. They will quickly be able to put judges on circuit courts all over the country, district courts all over the country, that will, given their youth and conservatism, have a significant impact on the shape and trajectory of American law for decades.

The lack of diversity in Trump’s picks was highlighted by the Associated Press. They ran the numbers on the 58 people nominated by the Trump administration to lifetime positions on appeal courts, district courts, and the supreme court. Of those, 53 are white, three are Asian American, one is Hispanic and one is African American.

Forty seven are men and 11 are women.

•••••

supreme court justices represent just a small percentage of the broader federal judiciary, with roughly 850 seats in regional federal courts nationwide. In many cases, it is these jurists that have the final say on the law of the land in the US, since the supreme court only hears a relatively small number of cases every year.

And for these posts, Trump’s candidates have been whiter, more male and, according to the American Bar Association, less qualified than any incoming cohort in decades.

•••••

Perhaps the most brazen of Trump’s early picks is Brett Talley, an Alabama attorney just three years out of law school who has yet to try a case. The American Bar Association gave Talley a unanimous rating of “unqualified” for the post but that did not stop him from breezing through a confirmation hearing in the Senate judiciary committee. Neither did the fact that Talley appears to have blogged favorably about the KKK and statutory rape on message boards and failed to disclose in his questionnaire that his wife is a staffer in the White House.

Trump is “appointing hacks and cronies which I think is either intentionally or just has the effect of signaling contempt for legal process”, Azmy said.

Some of the other stand-out Trump picks include Jeff Mateer, a Texas attorney who has openly admitted that he discriminates against LGBT people, and Thomas Farr, who has spearheaded multiple legal efforts to suppress the black vote in his home state of North Carolina.

“It is no exaggeration to say that had the White House deliberately sought to identify an attorney in North Carolina with a more hostile record on African-American voting rights and workers’ rights than Thomas Farr, it could hardly have done so,” wrote the Congressional Black Caucus in a letter to Trump urging him to withdraw the nomination.

•••••

And the impact that can have for generations is hard to overstate. “Federal courts shape laws, they shape the constitution, they affect people’s rights, and at core they impact how our democracy functions,” Keith said. “Conservatives have understood the importance of these courts, they’ve been organizing around them for decades, and have been able to move their supporters in ways that the left hasn’t.”

•••••

Trump also inherited a massive cache of over 100 judicial openings when he came into office, more than twice that of his predecessor Obama in 2009. That’s because, even as Trump has routinely lambasted Democrats as the party of obstruction, it was Republicans for most of Barack Obama’s term who slowed the confirmation of judicial nominees to a slow crawl. Since his inauguration the number of openings has grown to more than 160 – that’s about half the 323 regional federal judges Obama nominated and had confirmed during his full eight years in office, and Trump has only been in office for 10 months.

It is true that, even as Republicans have picked up the pace of confirmations, Trump cannot fill all those 160 openings overnight. But after sweeping Democratic election wins in races earlier this month, anxious conservatives are going to start pushing Trump to get as many nominees as possible through before the 2018 midterms.

“Obviously, who gets nominated and the pace of confirmations … changes dramatically if the Senate were to flip back to the Democrats,” said John Malcolm, a former justice department lawyer and now an analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Republicans “should be paying particular attention to pushing through as many nominees as they can”.

New Study: Larger, More Intense U.S. Storm Complexes on the Way

Bob Henson · November 19, 2017,

The mammoth clusters of thunderstorms known as mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) could dump up to 80% more water across North America by late this century, according to a study published Monday in Nature Climate Change. The study, “Increased rainfall volume from future convective storms in the U.S.,” found that increased atmospheric moisture in a warming climate will help lead to a 15 – 40% increase in peak MCS rainfall rates, along with a 20 – 70% jump in the rainfall area. Together, these lead to a 30 – 80% boost in the total hourly volume of rain deposited by a typical MCS.

"The combination of more intense rainfall and the spreading of heavy rainfall over larger areas means that we will face a higher flood risk than previously predicted," said the study team, led by Andreas Prein (National Center for Atmospheric Research). “Current investments in long-lived infrastructures, such as flood protection and water management systems, need to take these changes into account to improve climate adaptation practices.”

•••••

Numerous studies have shown that the most intense rain events in many parts of the world, including the United States, are getting heavier, as human-produced greenhouse gases warm our climate and send more moisture from oceans into the atmosphere.

•••••

Uber paid off their hackers — and they’re far from the only ones

By Peter Holley November 22, 2017

It may have been the most arresting detail in a story full of them: Not only did Uber allow hackers to make off with the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers, but the ride-hailing company also had paid those same criminals $100,000 to delete the data and keep their mouths shut about the entire episode.

If it sounds like an old school crime wrapped in a new school mold — blackmail for the digital era — that’s because it is, according to cyber security experts. The only new thing about hacks and subsequent hush money is the belief among cyber security professionals that similar payments are occurring with increasing frequency.

“In the security practice, paying a ransom is usually cheaper than paying the price of corrective actions after a successful breach,” Csaba Krasznay, a security evangelist at Balabit.com said, referring to the price of public and regulatory scrutiny that could come from announcing a breach.

•••••

“Based on the rumors, more and more companies have their own Bitcoin wallets for such cases,” he added.

•••••

The FBI has said that ransomware payments — often made after malware arrives via email — have increased dramatically in recent years, “approaching $1 billion annually.”

The companies who have paid aren’t limited to the tech world. Last year, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles paid hackers nearly $17,000 after their network was infiltrated and disabled. And this year there were reports that many companies paid ransom to the hackers behind the infamous WannaCry attack.

Uber officials were also willing to pay after it became clear last year that two attackers had accessed names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million people around the world, according to a statement released by the company’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi. The driver’s license numbers of about 600,000 U.S. drivers were also included. For their role in keeping the breach quiet, Uber removed Joe Sullivan, the company’s chief security officer, as well as a deputy who worked with him, according to Bloomberg.

•••••

But Jarae and other experts agreed that by agreeing to pay the ransom, Uber and other companies are putting all companies — and the public data that they rely on — at greater risk.

“Hackers talk to each other,” Mark Orlando, the chief technology officer for cyber services at Raytheon. “By staying silent, Uber has empowered them for a year, where they could have brought this into the light, raised public awareness of the threat and made some good come of this. Instead, the company gave its attackers exactly what they wanted — a lot of money, and a reason to try this again and again.”

There’s another reason to disclose a hack, experts said: Regulators can slap companies with millions in fines if they fail to notify the proper authorities.

•••••

Links

Eighth child death from fallen IKEA dresser prompts recall reminder
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/21/health/ikea-dresser-recall-eighth-child-death/index.html


Actuaries warn Congress mandate repeal would increase premiums
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/361427-actuaries-warn-congress-mandate-repeal-would-increase-premiums

GOP plan will ultimately raise taxes on 50% of Americans, nonpartisan assessment says

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/20/senate-gop-tax-plan-to-ultimately-raise-taxes-for-half-of-us-tax-policy-center.html

President Donald Trump on Monday promised a tax overhaul by Christmas, even as a nonpartisan tax analysis group said the Senate package would leave half of taxpayers facing higher levies by 2027.

•••••

Trump spoke as the Tax Policy Center said that while all income groups would see tax reductions, on average, under the Senate bill in 2019, 9 percent of taxpayers would pay higher taxes that year than under current law. By 2027, that proportion would grow to 50 percent, largely because the legislation's personal tax cuts expire in 2026, which Republicans did to curb budget deficits the bill would create.

The policy center, a joint operation of the liberal-leaning Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, found that low-earners would generally get smaller tax breaks than higher-income people.

In 2019, those making less than $25,000 would get an average $50 tax reduction, or 0.3 percent of their after-tax income. Middle-income earners would get average cuts of $850, while people making at least $746,000 would get average cuts of $34,000, or 2.2 percent of income.

The center also said the Senate proposal would generate enough economic growth to produce additional revenue of $169 billion [$169,000,000,000] over a decade. That's far short of closing the near $1.5 trillion [$1,000,000,000,000] in red ink that Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated the bill would produce over that period.

•••••

Religious hypocrisy

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jan/21/kurtvonnegut

In this extract from his memoirs "A Man without a Country", Kurt Vonnegut is horrified by the hypocrisy in contemporary US politics

Jan. 20, 2006

"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.

•••••

How about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly George W Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

"Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

It so happens that idealism enough for anyone is not made of perfumed pink clouds. It is the law! It is the US Constitution.

But I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened instead is that it was taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'état imaginable.

•••••

These ghosts will haunt us

Jay Bookman
Nov. 20, 2017

As head of Rhino Resources, David Zatezalo oversaw a coal-mining company with one of the worst safety records in the industry. Conditions in Rhino mines were so bad that the U.S. Mine Health and Safety Administration twice cited the company for broad “pattern of violations,” a rare designation “reserved for mines that pose the greatest risk to the health and safety of miners, particularly those with chronic violation records.”

Thanks to President Trump and his Republican colleagues in the Senate, Zatezalo now runs the Mine Health and Safety Administration, the agency that gave him so much trouble.

Brett Talley is a 36-year-old lawyer from Alabama who began his practice of law just three years ago, has never tried a case and has yet to even argue a motion in a courtroom.

•••••

Yet earlier this month, even after the American Bar Association unanimously rated Talley “unqualified,” the Senate Judiciary Committee — voting along strict party lines — recommended Talley’s confirmation to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.

•••••

All over the administration, this game is being played. People who would never make the first cut in any other administration, Republican or Democrat, are being installed in important policy-making jobs. Others, like Zatezalo at the mine safety agency, have been put in positions where they undermine their agency’s mission. The Environmental Protection Agency has been remade as the Industry Protection Agency, with scientists pushed aside in favor of corporate lobbyists. At the State Department, an entire generation of experienced diplomats is being pushed out the door, with no replacement.

Long after this is over, the quiet damage now being done will haunt us in ways we can’t even imagine.

Links

The 'doubled standard deduction' in the GOP tax plan is a lie
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-plan-doubled-standard-deduction-2017-9


Hidden camera tells true story of how veteran died after calling for help, gasping for air
http://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/hidden-camera-tells-true-story-of-how-veteran-died-after-calling-for-help-gasping-for-air/490859558


Russian troll describes work in the infamous misinformation factory
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/russian-troll-describes-work-infamous-misinformation-factory-n821486


Slain border agent may have been beaten to death by rocks in ‘grisly scene,’ union leader says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/11/19/after-border-agent-is-killed-and-partner-injured-in-texas-trump-renews-call-for-wall/?utm_term=.7066162ed6df


Puerto Rico's uncounted hurricane deaths.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/health/hurricane-maria-uncounted-deaths-invs/index.html


Risk of stillbirth is double in pregnant women who sleep on their backs, study finds
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/11/20/risk-of-stillbirth-is-double-in-pregnant-women-who-sleep-on-their-backs-study-finds/?utm_term=.da9a9aa6f7d2


Babies learn what words mean before they can use them
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-babies-language/babies-learn-what-words-mean-before-they-can-use-them-idUSKBN1DK2FA

Russian-linked Facebook accounts called for violence, sowed discord

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/31/media/russia-facebook-violence/index.html

'Kill them all' -- Russian-linked Facebook accounts called for violence
by Curt Devine @CNNMoney October 31, 2017: 12:31 PM ET

Facebook accounts run by Russian trolls repeatedly called for violence against different social and political groups in the U.S., including police officers, Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants.

Posts from three now-removed Facebook groups created by the Russian Internet Research Agency suggest Russia sought not only to meddle in U.S. politics but to encourage ideologically opposed groups to act out violently against one another. The posts are part of a database compiled by Jonathan Albright, the research director at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, who tracks and analyzes Russian propaganda.

•••••

Mark R. Jacobson, a Georgetown University professor and expert on Russian influence operations, said Russia strategically seeks to undermine U.S. political cohesion by promoting extremist views within opposing political or social groups, and hoping chaos—and violence -- ensues.

"The Russians don't want groups like Black Lives Matter [and] the Alt-Right to sit there and have discussions and debates about the future of America. They want violent clashes," Jacobson said.

Jacobson noted that, during the Cold War, Russia sought to enhance extremist ideas within the civil rights movement in hopes of sparking race-based warfare in the U.S.

"If we start to see violent rallies... we should start to look for the hidden hand of Russian influence behind it," he said.

Columbia University's Albright said even if only a fraction of the accounts' posts called for physical violence, the overall messaging sought to push audiences toward more radical viewpoints that they would act on.

•••••

"People can be heavily influenced by content online even when they don't know where it comes from," Benesch said. "In these cases, we can't know if anyone was actually influenced toward violence, but this type of speech could increase that risk."

•••••

https://www.buzzfeed.com/janelytvynenko/russian-trolls-targeted-american-teens

Here Are The Ads Russian Trolls Targeted At American Teenagers

Some of the ads released by the House Intelligence Committee targeted teens as young as 13.
Posted on November 1, 2017, at 6:26 p.m.
Jane Lytvynenko
Jane Lytvynenko

The House Intelligence Committee released ads connected to a pro-Russian troll farm today. Along with the ads, the committee released metadata showing that some advertisements were targeted at teenagers as young as 13.

During testimony at the Senate Intelligence Committee, Facebook said at least 146 million Americans saw the ads purchased by the Kremlin-linked troll farm, up from 126 million. The aim was to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election and increase division after it was over.

•••••

Dozens of Alabama pastors sign letter denouncing Roy Moore

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/361039-dozens-of-alabama-pastors-sign-letter-denouncing-roy-moore

By Max Greenwood - 11/18/17 02:28 PM EST

Dozens of progressive Alabama pastors have signed onto a letter calling GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore unfit for office, accusing him of preaching "extremist values" and lumping him in with politicians who have "cynically used Christianity for their own goals."

In the letter, posted online Friday, the pastors say that their opposition to Moore began long before recent allegations of sexual misconduct against him emerged, blasting his positions on LGBT rights, immigration and religious liberty.

"Christianity affirms God's love for the neighbor and care for the most vulnerable in society: the widow, the foreigner, and the orphan," the letter reads. "But he has denigrated people from other countries and other faiths."

Christianity thrives in religious freedom from government interference, and a government impartial toward people of all faith traditions," it adds. "But instead he has sought to entangle government with religion."

More than half of the 59 progressive Christian ministers who signed onto the letter come from mainline Protestant denominations, Alabama news outlet AL.com noted.

The letter also takes aim at Moore for the sexual misconduct allegations against him, saying his actions serve to "reopen the wounds of anyone who has been abused by leaders who should have been committed to compassion, to justice, and to healing God's world."

"We repudiate the actions of religious and political leaders like Roy Moore who have sought to silence, to cover up, and to be complicit in the sexual abuse," the letter states.

•••••

Flooding in Greece kills at least 19

Global warming is causing an increase in floods around the globe. The fossil fuel companies that pay for denialism are mass murderers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/greece-flash-floods-recovery-1.4408765

3 more found dead after Greek flash flood, raising total to 19
Bodies of 2 of the victims found at sea south of Mandra

The Associated Press Posted: Nov 18, 2017 8:56 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 18, 2017 10:25 AM ET

Greek authorities say three more people have been found dead from a flash flood that hit a district west of Athens, raising the overall death toll to 19.

•••••

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greece-missing-flash-floods-killed-16-51216112

Greece: Search continues for 6 still missing in flash floods

By The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Nov 17, 2017, 11:36 AM ET

Wednesday's flash floods, which came after an overnight storm, turned roads into raging torrents of mud that flung cars against buildings, inundated homes and businesses and submerged part of a major highway.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, and residents struggled with brooms and hoses to clear their properties of tons of mud, water and debris. Cranes were called in to remove smashed cars from atop walls and porches.

The flooding is one of the worst disasters to have hit the Athens area in decades. Several of those who died drowned trapped in flooded homes and stores, while others were motorists carried away by the floodwater. Two were men whose bodies were recovered by the coast guard after having been swept out to sea.

•••••

Links

Decrease in sunshine, increase in rickets
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uot-dis111717.php


Age and gut bacteria contribute to MS disease progression, according to Rutgers
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/ru-aag111717.php


Asthma attacks reduced in tree-lined urban neighborhoods
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uoe-aar111717.php


Dog ownership linked to lower mortality
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uu-dol111517.php


Asthma attacks reduced in tree-lined urban neighborhoods

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/pho-fvp111317.php


Study shows all daily activity can prolong life
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uoc--cot111617.php


Environmental factors may trigger lupus onset and progression
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uoca-efm111617.php


When vegetables are closer in price to chips, people eat healthier, Drexel study finds
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/du-wva111617.php


School exacerbates feelings of being 'different' in pupils with autism spectrum conditions
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uos-sef111617.php


Report suggests association between coffee and up to 70 percent reduced risk of liver disease
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/k-rsa111517.php


Discovery of a promising medication for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uomh-doa111317.php


Climate change impacts already locked in -- but the worst can still be avoided
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uoe-cci111617.php

Trump economic adviser surprised when CEOs indicate they won't invest tax savings

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-trump-tax-plan-corporate-investment-20171115-story.html

by Heather Long
Nov. 15, 2017

President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, looked out from the stage at a sea of CEOs and top executives in the audience Tuesday for The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council meeting. As Cohn sat comfortably on stage, a Journal editor asked the crowd to raise their hands if their company plans to invest more if the tax reform bill passes.

Very few hands went up.

•••••

The president and his senior team have kept arguing the tax plan would unleash business investment in the United States - new factories, more equipment and more jobs. But, perhaps as the informal poll suggested, there are reasons to be doubtful that a great business investment boom would materialize.

First, American businesses are already enjoying record profits. If they wanted to invest, they have plenty of money on hand already to do it, says Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at S & P Dow Jones Indices, where he tracks all the financial decisions of S & P 500 companies.

Second, executives themselves have indicated they probably won't use extra profits to invest. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey this summer asked over 300 executives at major U.S. corporations what they would do after a "tax holiday" that would allow them to bring back money held overseas at a low tax rate. The No. 1 response? Pay down debt. The second most popular response was stock buybacks, where companies purchase some of their own shares to drive up the price. The third was mergers. Actual investments in new factories and more research were low down the list of plans for how to spend extra money.

The results of the Bank of America poll show a very similar pattern of corporate behavior to what actually happened after the 2004 tax repatriation holiday when U.S. companies spent the majority of their money coming back home from overseas on stock buybacks. It was a payday for Wall Street investors that generated little benefit to the middle class and wider economy.

•••••

Links

Chicago man in prison for 29 years freed after Cook County prosecutors drop charges
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/chicago-man-in-prison-for-29-years-freed-after-cook-county-prosecutors-drop-charges/ar-BBEXR04?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=mailsignout


Sixth woman accuses Roy Moore of sexual misconduct
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/roy-moore-faces-another-woman-accusing-him-of-sexual-misconduct/ar-BBF0TRG?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout


Morgues shut doors as ultra-violent Mexican state is overwhelmed by bodies
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/15/mexico-morgues-closed-violent-overwhelmed-by-bodies


Trump’s Wall May Threaten Thousands of Plant and Animal Species on the U.S.–Mexico Border
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-wall-may-threaten-thousands-of-plant-and-animal-species-on-the-u-s-mexico-border/


Greece flash floods leave at least 15 dead
In devastation locals said was unprecedented in scale, an overnight deluge triggered flash floods in the industrial towns of Nea Peramos and Mandra in the foothills of a mountain just west of Athens.
[Such events in other countries are rarely reported in the U.S. press. Eg., this is from the Canadian news. ]
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/greece-flash-floods-1.4402857


'Dossier' author Christopher Steele: Trump's hotel and land deals with Russians need to be examined
[Ever since Trump cracked down on Cuba, I have been wondering if the refused to let him build there.]
http://www.businessinsider.com/christopher-steele-trump-hotel-land-deals-russia-dossier-2017-11


Trump to allow imports of African elephant trophies
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/360614-trump-to-allow-imports-of-african-elephant-trophies


More Voters Think Trump Is Dumb, Weak And Unfit For Office Than Ever Before
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-voters-think-trump-dumb-232318143.html


Drug-Shooting 'Bazooka' Seized In Mexico As Smugglers Aim Skyward
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/14/564050813/drug-shooting-bazooka-seized-in-mexico-as-smugglers-aim-skyward


She took on Colombia's soda industry, then she was silenced.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/health/colombia-soda-tax-obesity.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth


Family warns others after woman dies following liposuction procedure
http://fox2now.com/2017/11/15/family-warns-others-after-woman-dies-following-liposuction-procedure/

October 2017 was Earth's fourth warmest October since record keeping began in 1880

Dr. Jeff Masters · November 17, 2017

October 2017 was Earth's fourth warmest October since record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) on Friday. NOAA rated the five warmest Octobers since 1880 as being 2015, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2003 (tied with 2017.) NASA rated October 2017 as the planet’s second warmest October on record, with the only warmer October coming in 2015. Minor differences can occur between the NASA and NOAA rankings because of their different techniques for analyzing data-sparse regions such as the Arctic.

Global ocean temperatures last month were the fourth warmest on record for any October, according to NOAA, and global land temperatures were the eleventh warmest on record. Global satellite-measured temperatures for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the warmest for any October in the 39-year record, according to the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS).

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Third-warmest year on record thus far

Each of the first ten months of 2017 have ranked among the top four warmest such months on record, giving 2017 the third highest January–October temperature in the 138-year record: 1.33°C (2.39°F) above the 20th-century average. This is behind the record year of 2016 by 0.18°C (0.33°F). This near-record warmth in 2017 is especially remarkable given the lack of an El Niño event this year. Global temperatures tend to be warmer during El Niño years, when the ocean releases more heat to the atmosphere. Given the lack of an El Niño event in 2017, it is very unlikely that we will surpass 2016 as the warmest year on record. However, 2017 is almost certain to be the planet's warmest year on record that lacks any influence from El Niño, and will be the second or third warmest year in recorded history. Earth's four warmest years of the last century-plus are likely to be 2016, 2017, 2015, and 2014.

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Arctic sea ice extent during October 2017 was the fifth lowest in the 38-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Sea ice surrounding Antarctica reached its yearly maximum extent on October 12, and had the second lowest maximum extent on record, behind 1986.

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Links

Vegetarian Diets Can Reduce Heart Disease Risk by Almost 50 Percent Compared to Eating Meat
http://www.newsweek.com/foods-your-heart-vegetarian-diets-are-best-prevention-heart-failure-709894


Fossil fuel burning set to hit record high in 2017, scientists warn
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/13/fossil-fuel-burning-set-to-hit-record-high-in-2017-scientists-warn


Trump nominee for federal judge has never tried a case
Donald Trump's nominee for a lifetime appointment on the federal bench is a 36 year old who has practiced law for three years and has never tried a case.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-nominee-for-federal-judge-has-never-tried-a-case-1093618755771


Kenneth Starr heaps praise on Bill Clinton
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/281021-kenneth-starr-praises-clinton-for-redemptive-process


The top 1% now own 50.1% of the world's wealth, up from 45.5% in 2001.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/11/14/richest-1-now-owns-half-worlds-wealth/862916001/


Kratom has 'deadly risks,' FDA warns
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/health/kratom-fda-warning/index.html


Grad Students Would Be Hit By Massive Tax Hike Under House GOP Plan
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/14/563879136/house-gop-tax-plan-would-hit-grad-students-with-massive-tax-hike


Increased Hours Online Correlate With An Uptick In Teen Depression, Suicidal Thoughts
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/14/563767149/increased-hours-online-correlate-with-an-uptick-in-teen-depression-suicidal-thou


Volunteers Save Beached Whales On Indonesian Shore
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/14/564054958/volunteers-save-beached-whales-on-indonesian-shore


Ex-congregants reveal years of ungodly abuse
https://www.apnews.com/e9404784f9c6428a8d4382f5ada8f463

Investigators face big hurdles in church child abuse cases
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/investigators-face-big-hurdles-church-child-abuse-cases-51106918


Thirty countries use 'armies of opinion shapers' to manipulate democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/14/social-media-influence-election-countries-armies-of-opinion-shapers-manipulate-democracy-fake-news


Turkish marriage law a blow to women's rights, say activists
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/14/turkish-marriage-law-a-blow-to-womens-rights-say-activists


‘Catastrophic’ Iraq law could legalise marriage for children as young as nine
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/14/catastrophic-iraq-law-could-legalise-marriage-for-children-as-young-as-nine


Roy Moore challenged Alabama law that protects rape victims, documents reveal
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/14/roy-moore-alabama-law-rape-victims-judge


One Group That Thinks Grown Men “Courting” Teen Girls Is Natural? Fundamentalist Home-Schoolers.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/11/14/fundamentalist_homeschoolers_are_one_group_of_roy_moore_allies_who_think.html

Blood pressure guidelines lowered for some people

Harlan Krumholz
Nov. 14, 2017

You may not have had high blood pressure Sunday, but you may have it today. Even if your blood pressure hasn't changed a smidge. What's up?

The rules shifted Monday. It used to be that we encouraged people to adopt healthy behavior to keep their blood pressure down but didn't label someone as having hypertension until systolic blood pressure (the top number) exceeded 140 millimeters of mercury and/or the diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) exceeded 90 mm Hg. Lots of people watch those numbers closely.

Now the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have updated blood pressure guidelines that move the goal post for many people.

If you have heart disease, chronic kidney disease or diabetes, then your target now for systolic blood pressure has moved down to 130 and for diastolic blood pressure to 80. Same goes if your 10-year risk of having a heart attack or stroke is greater than 10 percent (determined by a calculator found here).

The focus on people who have a high likelihood of heart disease and stroke is an effort to maximize the health gains from risk reduction.

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Thousands of scientists issue bleak ‘second notice’ to humanity

By Sarah Kaplan November 1, 2017

In late 1992, 1,700 scientists from around the world issued a dire “warning to humanity.” They said humans had pushed Earth's ecosystems to their breaking point and were well on the way to ruining the planet. The letter listed environmental impacts like they were biblical plagues — stratospheric ozone depletion, air and water pollution, the collapse of fisheries and loss of soil productivity, deforestation, species loss and catastrophic global climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

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To mark the letter's 25th anniversary, researchers have issued a bracing follow-up. In a communique published Monday in the journal BioScience, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries assess the world's latest responses to various environmental threats. Once again, they find us sorely wanting.

“Humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse,” they write.

This letter, spearheaded by Oregon State University ecologist William Ripple, serves as a “second notice,” the authors say: “Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory.”

Global climate change sits atop the new letter's list of planetary threats. Global average temperatures have risen by more than half a degree Celsius since 1992, and annual carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 62 percent.

But it's far from the only problem people face. Access to fresh water has declined, as has the amount of forestland and the number of wild-caught fish (a marker of the health of global fisheries). The number of ocean dead zones has increased. The human population grew by a whopping 2 billion, while the populations of all other mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by nearly 30 percent.

The lone bright spot exists way up in the stratosphere, where the hole in the planet's protective ozone layer has shrunk to its smallest size since 1988. Scientists credit that progress to the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons — chemicals once used in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol cans that trigger reactions in the atmosphere to break down ozone.

“The rapid global decline in ozone depleting substances shows that we can make positive change when we act decisively,” the letter says.

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Locals Were Troubled by Roy Moore’s Interactions with Teen Girls at the Gadsden Mall

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/locals-were-troubled-by-roy-moores-interactions-with-teen-girls-at-the-gadsden-mall

By Charles Bethea
Nov. 13, 2017

Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was born in Gadsden, a small city flanked by Interstate 59 and the Coosa River, an hour northeast of Birmingham. Gadsden is hilly, woodsy, blue-collar, and religious. “LEGAL OR NOT, SIN IS SIN,” a sign in front of a church announced yesterday.

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Gadsden is the seat of Etowah County, which is a conservative place; Donald Trump received three times as many votes in the county as Hillary Clinton did. (Statewide, he received twice as many.) But I didn’t, in all my driving, see a single yard sign for Moore, the home-town son. Even the parking lot of the one mall in town had more bumper stickers for Luther Strange (four), Moore’s opponent in the Republican primary, than for Moore himself (one).

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On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that, when Moore was a thirty-two-year-old assistant district attorney in Etowah County, he brought Leigh Corfman, who was fourteen years old at the time, to his home and sexually molested her. Three additional women told the Post that Moore had pursued them when they were in their teens and he was in his early thirties. (On Monday, another woman, Beverly Young Nelson, said that Moore assaulted her when she was sixteen years old.

•••••

This past weekend, I spoke or messaged with more than a dozen people—including a major political figure in the state—who told me that they had heard, over the years, that Moore had been banned from the mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls. Some say that they heard this at the time, others in the years since. These people include five members of the local legal community, two cops who worked in the town, several people who hung out at the mall in the early eighties, and a number of former mall employees.

•••••

Teresa Jones, a deputy district attorney for Etowah County in the early eighties, told CNN last week that “it was common knowledge that Roy dated high-school girls.” Jones told me that she couldn’t confirm the alleged mall banning, but said, “It’s a rumor I’ve heard for years.”

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http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/gadsden_residents_say_moores_b.html

Gadsden locals say Moore's predatory behavior at mall, restaurants not a secret

By Anna Claire Vollers
Nov. 13, 2017

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Moore and other Republican leaders have questioned why it took so long for his accusers, now in their 50s, to come forward publicly.

And yet people who lived in Etowah County during that time have said Moore's flirting with and dating much younger women and girls was no secret.

"These stories have been going around this town for 30 years," said Blake Usry, who grew up in the area and lives in Gadsden. "Nobody could believe they hadn't come out yet."

Usry, a traveling nurse, said he knew several of the girls that Moore tried to flirt with.

"It's not a big secret in this town about Roy Moore," he said. "That's why it's sort of frustrating to watch" the public disbelieve the women who have come forward, he said.

•••••

Five other current and former Etowah County residents also spoke to AL.com with similar accounts.

"Him liking and dating young girls was never a secret in Gadsden when we were all in high school," said Sheryl Porter. "In our neighborhoods up by Noccalula Falls we heard it all the time. Even people at the courthouse know it was a well-known secret.

"It's just sad how these girls (who accused Moore) are getting hammered and called liars, especially Leigh (Corfman)."

On Monday, Beverly Young Nelson became the fifth accuser to come forward against Moore. During a press conference, she said she was a 16-year-old waitress at the Old Hickory House restaurant in Gadsden when Moore sexually assaulted her in his car. He was in his early 30s at the time, she said, and the district attorney of Etowah County.

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