Zorro
Zorro's JournalNicaragua's Ortega puts wife as VP on re-election ballot
Source: AFP
President Daniel Ortega put his wife, Rosario Murillo, down as his future vice president on a joint ticket for his re-election in a November 6 vote.
The unusual step cemented Murillo's political ascent. Currently, the First Lady is a government minister and the main spokesperson for Ortega's administration.
For many in Nicaragua, with her higher public profile, Murillo is seen as wielding the real power in the country over the past decade.
Ortega and Murillo officially submitted their candidacy to the country's electoral tribunal on Tuesday, accompanied by their Sandinista party's legal adviser.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nicaraguas-ortega-puts-wife-vp-election-ballot-032718335.html
Keeping it all in the family like a good revolutionary.
Judge rules against release of Trump U videos
A federal judge in San Diego has decided he will not allow the release of videotaped depositions of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, testimony that was taken for a class action lawsuit against the defunct Trump University real estate program.
U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel also rejected a bid by Trump’s lawyers to get the lawsuit dismissed — a ruling that clears the way for a trial that could be costly for the candidate.
Media organizations including The San Diego Union-Tribune had sought release of two videotaped depositions of Trump, taken in December and January. Transcripts of the sessions have been released, but Trump’s lawyers fought the effort to make the videos themselves public.
Curiel said there is legitimate public interest in having the videos released. But he sided with Trump’s lawyers, who had said releasing the videos would generate so much publicity it would bias potential jurors.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/02/curiel-ruling-trump-videos/
Children’s Drawings Show What Hunger Looks Like in Venezuela
Arepas are a staple food item among Venezuelan families. The flat cornmeal cakes, often stuffed with grilled meat, beans, or eggs, are found at nearly every meal. But for many children in Venezuela subsisting solely on arepas, what was once just part of their cultural identity is now a symbol of growing food shortages in the struggling country.
Primary school students in the capital city of Caracas are coming to school hungry, Reuters reports. After several students fainted from hunger, teachers at the Padre Jose Maria Velaz school in western Caracas asked them to draw what they’d eaten in recent meals and what they expected to eat soon. The simple drawings show days of eating arepas for every meal, dinners consisting of a mango, and breakfasts of bread and water. Several children left blank spaces, indicating that they had skipped meals.
Meat and vegetables are largely lacking from the kids’ meals. Diets made up entirely of fats and starches have left children malnourished. Health officials note that diets missing out on protein and dairy could negatively affect brain development. School director Maria Hidalgo told Reuters that a quarter of the 478 students are not getting enough to eat or are eating unbalanced meals.
Children aren’t the only ones struggling. Nearly 90 percent of Venezuelans said they do not have enough money to buy food because of the country’s economic conditions, a recent survey conducted by Simón Bolívar University found.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/children-drawings-show-hunger-looks-venezuela-144746198.html
Ortega tightens grip on Nicaragua
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega won even more control over the levers of his nation when 28 opposition lawmakers were ousted from parliament by electoral authorities.
The move meant "all formalities and pillars of representative democracy have been eliminated; we are face-to-face with a dictatorship," charged an ex-lawmaker, Jose Pallais.
Ortega, a former leftwing rebel seen as an authoritarian leader, is standing for re-election to a third term in November elections.
He is expected to win in the face of an increasingly fragmented opposition.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ortega-tightens-grip-nicaragua-032654178.html
Isn't Danny supposed to be one of the good, admirable leftists? I guess I need a turgid scolding from some LatAm internet scholar to clarify the situation for me.
On a walk with Michael Dukakis as he picks up litter
On his two-mile walk to work, the distinguished professor crosses a playground, whips a crumpled plastic grocery bag out of his canvas briefcase, and plucks a tissue – a used tissue – off the ground.
You stifle the “ew!” if you want to keep up with his brisk pace. It seems like a low-impact task for a man who served 12 years as the governor of Massachusetts and was the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, but that’s not how Michael Dukakis sees picking up litter.
This is going to be a two-bag day for the octogenarian. That is, by the end of his daily constitutional from his Brookline home to Northeastern University in Boston, he’ll have filled two bags with the detritus of the people.
Mr. Dukakis was nominated 28 years ago this summer to run against George H.W. Bush. It may have been his last election campaign, but Dukakis – who serves on the boards of seven organizations and teaches public policy – stumps on earnestly for an array of civic causes. One of them he takes very personally: litter, and its close cousins, graffiti and billboards.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2016/0728/On-a-walk-with-Michael-Dukakis-as-he-picks-up-litter
What a decent person.
Tesla's Autopilot makes for a smooth highway cruise
This week, Autopilot helped me drive a Tesla Model S luxury electric sedan from the Bay Area to Reno, about 240 miles on Interstate 80.
The next day, it helped me drive back.
Everybody I talk to wants to know: Did I like the car? Did I like Autopilot? Is it ready for prime time?
My answers: Yes, yes, and sort of.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-autopilot-review-20160728-snap-story.html
Reid: 'Absolute fraud' Grayson should drop Fla. Senate bid
Source: AP
Top Democrats are pressuring Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson to drop his bid for U.S. Senate in Florida following reports he physically abused his ex-wife.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that Grayson is an "absolute fraud," adding: "Now having whacked his ex-wife around a few times ... I don't know who supports him other than himself."
Reid has tangled in the past with Grayson, an unpredictable liberal firebrand who is defying Democratic leaders' wishes by challenging their favored candidate, moderate Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, in the Aug. 30 Florida primary.
Reid's comments to reporters in Philadelphia for the Democratic convention followed a similar statement a day earlier from the No. 3 Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, who is on track to be the party's leader in the chamber next year.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/reid-absolute-fraud-grayson-drop-fla-senate-bid-151220034--election.html
Venezuela to reassign private, public workers to agriculture
Venezuela said private and public companies will be obliged to let their workers be reassigned to grow crops, in a dramatic move in the middle of the country's crippling economic crisis.
The Labor Ministry announced the measure as part of the economic emergency already in effect; it will require all employers in Venezuela to let the state have their workers "to strengthen production" of food.
President Nicolas Maduro's government is fighting for its life amid staggering inflation and shortages of everything from food to toilet paper, diapers and shampoo.
Maduro, like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, has increasingly moved the country towards taking over parts of the economy.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-reassign-private-public-workers-agriculture-014558981.html
Sounds like Maduro's version of Mao's Cultural Revolution is in motion.
Venezuela government aims to sink Maduro recall, opposition protests
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government sought on Tuesday to scupper a push by the opposition to oust him this year via a referendum, while his opponents called for protests.
As the OPEC nation faces an unprecedented economic crisis, both sides are deadlocked over a provision in the constitution allowing a recall referendum halfway through the president's six-year term.
Government supporters lodged a complaint at the election board saying the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition falsified signatures in an initial collection to trigger the process.
"They are committing grave fraud and corruption," senior Socialist Party leader Jorge Rodriguez told reporters outside the election council, saying signatures of nearly 11,000 dead people and 3,000 minors were included.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-government-aims-sink-maduro-recall-opposition-protests-000303892--business.html
SEEMINGLY DECENT HUMAN BEING’S INVOLVEMENT IN 2016 ELECTION CONFUSES VOTERS
MIAMI (The Borowitz Report)—The involvement of a seemingly decent human being in the 2016 election campaign left American voters stunned and deeply bewildered on Saturday.
In interviews across the country, voters expressed reactions ranging from shock to total incomprehension at the campaign début of a man who, at first blush, exhibits none of the outward characteristics of a sociopath or clinical narcissist.
Furthermore, the man’s evident failure to be the target of fraud lawsuits, sexual-harassment claims, or federal criminal investigations was, in the parlance of many voters, “weird.”
“He seems like a nice guy, the kind of person you might enjoy spending time with and getting to know better,” said Harland Dorrinson, age thirty-two, who watched the man’s unveiling on TV. “I don’t know. The whole thing feels like some kind of prank.”
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/seemingly-decent-human-beings-involvement-in-2016-election-confuses-voters
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