Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalWorld's largest food program is in 'desperate situation' and running out of money
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP), the largest anti-hunger initiative around the globe, is grappling with the worst funding shortage in its 60-year history and "we are in a desperate situation," Executive Director Cindy McCain said on Sunday.
"It's a combination of things -- it's COVID, it's climate change, it's conflict and also the cost of being able to do business," McCain told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl about the reasons behind the lack of money. "Those things combined and, of course, a world that has kind of grown tired of all this. There's a great malaise right now within countries about foreign aid and giving."
"The bottom line is those that are going to suffer [are] those who can't afford to," McCain said.
In September, the WFP said it "has been struggling to meet the global need for food assistance .... And for the first time ever, WFP has seen contributions decreasing while needs steadily increase." The organization has already had to make "significant cuts in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia, and Syria."
McCain warned on "This Week" that in Afghanistan, for example, the food program doesn't "have enough money to even get through October."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/worlds-largest-food-program-desperate-situation-running-money/story?id=103253217
Meanwhile, people (including me) seem to be giving to Jose Andrés' World Central Kitchen.....
'Wouldn't it make life easier?': the growing campaign for pockets on women's clothes
Small things can mean a lot, and all revolutions start somewhere. So it is that the humble pocket, a repository for small things and once a minor consideration in clothes design, has become big news.
A growing movement decrying the lack of proper pockets in women’s clothing has begun to find disciples in the world of high fashion, as well as among mainstream chains.
A new study of the feminist question of pockets, published on 14 September has already made a sizeable impact, despite the modest aims of the author, American academic Hannah Carlson. “I was very careful to make each chapter fun, because I thought nobody was going to read a whole book about pockets. So I’ve been surprised by the attention,” she says.
When planning her book, Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close, Carlson says she kept in mind that similar “micro-histories” – studies purporting to explain the world through the analysis of, say, the development of the paperclip – have been the object of parody. But she was sure of her ground.
It is even possible, she suggests, that the true “age of the pocket” has now arrived, because everything necessary for daily life has become so small. Cash is of limited use, and address books, diaries and maps are all dead. Phones, and perhaps a lipstick, a key or a comb, are really all a woman needs, and this might mean we are not lumbered with bags any more.
Carlson, who lectures on apparel at the Rhode Island School of Design, will be heartened by some of the images emerging from London fashion week, where bulky jackets with big pockets are evident on male and female models. Vogue World, the sparkly red carpet event in the West End on 14 Septemberalso featured bits of bold pocketry, including on Kate Winslet, who wore a white trouser suit. And on the high street, the nostalgia for 00s looks has led to an outbreak of low-slung pockets on cargo pants.
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/sep/17/wouldnt-it-make-life-easier-the-growing-campaign-for-pockets-on-womens-clothes
When I used to sew mine and my daughter's clothes, I put pockets in just about everything, whether the pattern called for it or not. I was clever enough to do it. Now I don't, but it's a sense of annoyance when they aren't there. I wear pants most of the time though.
Evangelical Christians need Republicans. Does the party need them?
When Donald Trump recalled how his three US supreme court justices helped repeal the nationwide right to abortion, the audience rose to its feet and erupted in whistles, whoops and prolonged applause. But even as the former president basked in the religious right’s moment of triumph, he went on to deliver a warning.
“I will say politically, it’s a very tough, it’s a very tough decision for some people, but very, very hard on elections. Very, very hard,” Trump told a gathering of Christian conservatives in the ballroom of a Washington hotel. “We had midterms and this was an issue, you know.”
He added: “Now we can win elections on this issue but it’s very delicate and explaining it properly is extremely important. Many politicians who are pro-life do not know how to properly discuss this topic, which is so important to the people in this room, so important to millions and millions of people in our country.”
t was a rare moment of sober reflection during an hour-long speech that otherwise had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It also offered a glimpse of the dilemma facing evangelicals as they push the Republican field to embrace their extremist agenda in next year’s presidential election.
Other top Republican candidates for 2024 also trod carefully on abortion at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday. The tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy did not mention the word at all. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, cited his state’s six-week abortion ban in a single sentence. Only Mike Pence, the devout former vice-president, unambiguously committed to a 15-week “national standard”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/17/evangelical-christians-religious-right-republican-party-2024
"Jesus may love you, but I don't!" I forget who sings that, but tha't how I feel about Talibangelicals.
Past impeachments, products of their times, often produced unintended consequences
Impeachment of the president has reared its head five times in American history, and all five episodes should serve as cautionary tales for those House Republicans who now seem determined to make it six.
Each of these earlier forays had a profound impact on the direction of national politics, both in the short term and for years to come.
Four of the five reached the point of impeachment votes in the House and trials in the Senate that failed to muster the two-thirds vote required to convict.
The one process that did not go the distance ended just before the House took its vote. It stopped because the target president, Richard M. Nixon, had resigned and left town. That was the only impeachment process that actually drove a president from office, and arguably the only one that clearly succeeded in what it set out to do.
It is not yet clear that the "impeachment inquiry" announced last week by Speaker Kevin McCarthy will even lead to formal charges or a vote in the House. But McCarthy said several House committees would get to work on allegations involving President Biden's conduct. The allegations concern his time as vice president under President Barack Obama but extend to more recent actions and associations, mostly having to do with his son, Hunter.
The implication of the questions asked has been that President Biden himself received money from Ukrainian or possibly Chinese sources in exchange for wielding his influence over U.S. policy as it affected those countries. This has been alleged, without evidence, by purported whistleblowers with varying degrees of credibility problems of their own.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/17/1199886998/impeachment-history
This City Should Be Famous for More Than Just Meat
Andrew KirellIf you’ve ever ordered Kobe beef at a restaurant in the U.S., you’ve almost certainly been had.
The scam that is the American “Wagyu” and “Kobe beef” industry is well-documented. Suffice to say, odds are you’re eating a pretty standard piece of U.S. beef, a hybrid of domestically raised Wagyu cattle and the increasingly Frankenstein’s monster-like approximation of Angus. There are no rules about what restaurants can claim on their menus.
In actuality, the cut of beef prized for its superior levels of fat marbling is incredibly rare. Only Wagyu cattle from the very specific Tajima bloodline—bred and raised in the Hyōgo prefecture, with Kobe as its capital—can be certified as Kobe. That’s roughly 3,000 cattle per year.
The rarity, delicacy, and rich history of the Tajima cattle makes it a point of pride for Kobe, Japan’s seventh-largest city and neighbor to fellow Kansai region stars Kyoto and Osaka. I visited Kobe earlier this year on my way back from the oft-overlooked Shikoku region (which I wrote about for our It’s Still a Big World series) and found it to be as deliciously unique as its namesake beef.
And, yes, I had a steak. More on that later.
Kobe is thoroughly cosmopolitan, with a stylishness and worldliness that comes from being one of the first port cities to open to outsiders in the 1850s, after the shogunate ended its centuries-long policy of isolationism. That status continued until the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, a 6.9 magnitude monster that killed more than 6,000 people and decimated both downtown Kobe and its lucrative shipping operation. Since then, Kobe’s status as a major international port has waned but the city’s people take unusually great pride in their city—for its resilience, its liberal spirit, and its accolades as an internationally recognized “city of design.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kobe-japan-is-so-much-more-than-just-beef?ref=home
My Israeli friend Yitzhak grew up in Kobe after his family was displace from Shanghai when he was 6, and my father was there after WWII. Both spoke glowingly of the city. I wish......
Three friends document hotel takeover on TikTok after arriving at empty hotel
Three friends took it upon themselves to manage a Nashville hotel for a few hours.
After a late night of partying, the trio was unable to check into their room at La Quinta Inn & Suites because there were no employees in sight.
The saga was first documented on TikTok early Wednesday morning in a 40-second clip with a caption stating, “When you arrive to the hotel and there is no staff so you have a new job. We’ve been working for two hours.”
After checking to make sure no one had fallen asleep behind the desk or in one of the back offices, the friends began to answer phones, greet customers, even set up the breakfast buffet.
They did manage to find one employee, a maid, who didn’t know what was going on but said she had not seen anyone in a couple of hours. They also reached out to the general manager, who was on a business trip in California and wasn’t aware that there were no employees on the floor.
“So, instantly we’re like manager mode. We run businesses back home. Manager mode kicks in, alright, let’s see what we can do,” Kenzie, one of the friends shared.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/15/la-quinta-inn-takeover-documented-by-group-friends-tiktok/70869192007/
Read on. It gets crazier! But they did great!
American XL Bully dogs to be banned in the UK following string of attacks
American XL Bully dogs could be banned in the U.K. by the end of the year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Friday.
There have been a string of attacks involving the canine breed, including a fatal one in Staffordshire, England.
In a statement, West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said a male victim had "sustained multiple life-threatening injuries" and was in "critical condition" after an attack by a suspected XL Bully dog.
"The American XL Bully dog is a danger to our communities, particularly our children. I share the nation’s horror at recent videos we’ve all seen. Yesterday, we saw another suspected XL Bully dog attack, which has tragically led to a fatality," Sunak said in a video statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Although recognized as a breed by the American Kennel Club, the American Bulldog is not officially recognized as a breed by the U.K.'s Royal Kennel Club.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/american-xl-bully-dogs-banned-uk-string-attacks/story?id=103219335
First, let me say I'm anti-breed bans. Second, I wasn't even sure what an American XL Bully was, but I guess it's just a large American Bulldog. We get a lot of pitties and a fair amount of American Bulldogs at the shelter, minimal problems with 99% of them. It's the damn OWNERS!
Video shows school employee hit 3-year-old nonverbal autistic child in head
The parents of a 3-year-old nonverbal autistic child released video that appears to show a school employee hitting their son in the head and then carrying him upside down by both ankles.
The 17-second video, which Taneshia Lindsay shared on her Facebook page, shows security footage from the hallway of Rosa Parks Early Learning Center in Dayton, Ohio on Aug. 21. She and the child's father, Robert Tootle, accused administrators of downplaying the incident and failing to release the full video.
Lindsay said she was initially told by a school administrator that her son, Braylen, had been "swatted" by a school employee. But security video from inside the school painted a completely different picture, she said at a news conference Wednesday.
The employee has also since resigned after being placed on administrative leave, Interim Superintendent David Lawrence said.
In the short video, Braylen is seen running down a hallway. The school employee chases after the child and then appears to strike him in the head, causing him to fall, the video shows. The employee then appears to carry Braylen upside down by his ankles.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-school-employee-hit-3-year-old-nonverbal-autistic-child-he-rcna105265
All these behaviors constitute assault on this nonverbal child. Go look at his picture. He's adorable.
Washington man fatally shot while trying to help deer cross the road
A Washington man was fatally shot while trying to help deer cross the road, authorities said.
Daniel Spaeth, 37, was attempting to slow traffic near his home to help the animals when he was shot on Sept. 7, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
His wife, Allissa Beckman-Spaeth, told authorities that she and her husband were in their driveway slowing northbound and southbound traffic. She had her back turned to Spaeth when she heard a "pop," court documents state.
When she turned around, she saw her husband in the roadway with a gunshot wound. Spaeth had been shot in his chest.
Deputies responded to the home located about 40 minutes north of Seattle around 7:45 p.m. and found the man dead.
The sheriff's office inspected surveillance video from nearby businesses and determined that the driver of a light-colored Lexus sedan was involved in the shooting.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/washington-man-fatally-shot-trying-help-deer-cross-road-rcna105281
Q: What's the difference between a Lexus and a porcupine? A: On a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.
Police fatally shot her husband after they went to the wrong house -- then detained her for hours
The wife of an armed New Mexico homeowner whom police officers fatally shot when they went to the wrong house on a domestic violence call said she was treated like a suspect, detained for hours and given few details about why officers gunned down her husband.
Months later, the Farmington Police Department still hasn’t reached out to Kim Dotson or her family since police killed Robert Dotson, 52, on April 5, she said.
She said in an interview Wednesday that she learned the officers had knocked on the wrong door that night only because her son is a police officer in the area and was able to read the dispatch log.
“I feel helpless the way all of this has happened,” said Dotson, 49, a former trauma nurse, who said she quit the profession after she tended to her husband when he was shot multiple times in the doorway of their home.
“I don’t understand how these guys get to go home to their families and they broke apart our family,” she said.
“We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Unaware that it was police officers who had opened fire, Dotson said, she returned fire — and the officers shot 19 more times into her home, according to a civil rights suit her family filed in federal district court Friday.
She was uninjured and hasn’t faced charges.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/farmington-new-mexico-police-kill-wrong-address-rcna105152
Footage even shows the officers outside discussing whether they're at the right house....but shoot first, ask questions later.
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