riversedge
riversedge's Journal'Democracy Dies in Darkness' Feb. 3, 2019 SuperBowl Ad.............
‘Democracy Dies
in Darkness’
Feb. 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/PostBaron/status/1092257019606822912
When we go off to war.
When we exercise our rights.
When we soar to our greatest heights.
When we mourn and pray.
When our neighbors are at risk.
When our nation is threatened.
There’s someone to gather the facts.
To bring you the story.
No matter the cost.
Because knowing empowers us.
Knowing helps us decide.
Knowing keeps us free.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/democracy-dies-in-darkness/?utm_term=.cc86c7ce0600
Congratulations to the Rams on steering clear of a White House visit!
Turnip
? @Turnip2020
Congratulations to the Rams on steering clear of a White House visit!
rachell ragan @RachellRagan
16m16 minutes ago
https://twitter.com/jairahme/status/1092283363090546688
Replying to @Turnip2020
I’m from St Louis. Those rats deserve Hamberders🤷?♀️
0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
Robin Kennedy
🌊
? @rawbanana88
23m23 minutes ago
Replying to @Turnip2020
No hamberders for them!!
0 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
Mary Albertson ? @MaryAlbertson20
25m25 minutes ago
Replying to @Turnip2020 @Dammit_Ange
Silver lining.
0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
Authentic Don Holley ? @donholley0
26m26 minutes ago
Breaking: Trump ready to host Patriots for White House awards dinner.
https://twitter.com/donholley0/status/1092271936397144066
https://twitter.com/LCNM99/status/1092217223777869824
Parks rush to clean up toppled trees, trash after shutdown
Parks rush to clean up toppled trees, trash after shutdown
https://www.standard.net/news/state/parks-rush-to-clean-up-toppled-trees-trash-after-shutdown/article_37280af3-fbae-5ca7-b6d3-e64eb2c43673.html
By BRADY McCOMBS and FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press Feb 1, 2019
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — National park visitors cut new trails in sensitive soil. They pried open gates while no one was watching. They found bathrooms locked, so they went outside. One off-roader even mowed down an iconic twisted-limbed Joshua tree in California.
During the 35-day government shutdown, some visitors to parks and other protected areas nationwide left behind messes and repairs that National Park Service officials are scrambling to clean up and repair as they brace for the possibility of another closure ahead of the busy Presidents Day weekend this month.
Conservationists warn that damage to sensitive lands could take decades to recover. Even before the shutdown, national parks faced an estimated $12 billion maintenance backlog that now has grown.
Many of the parks went unstaffed during the shutdown, while others had skeleton crews with local governments and nonprofits contributing money and volunteers.
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President Donald Trump has said another shutdown could start Feb. 15 if he and Democratic leaders can’t agree on funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, compounding pressure on the park service to catch up on repairs.
Hiring seasonal workers who typically start in the spring as rangers, fee collectors and hiking guides also has been delayed.
“We’re kind of ready to just have a bit more stability,” said Angie Richman, a spokeswoman at Arches National Park in Utah.
Arches visitors left human waste outside a restroom, stomped out five trails in a permit-only area that was shut down and damaged an entrance gate to allow vehicles to drive on snow-covered roads when the park was closed after a storm, Richman said.
In some places, less oversight meant animals moved in.
A colony of elephant seals took over a Northern California beach in Point Reyes National Seashore without workers to discourage the animals from congregating in the popular tourist area. Rangers and volunteers will lead small groups of visitors to the edge of a parking lot starting this weekend to safely see the seals and their pups.
At Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, an off-road vehicle ran over one of the namesake trees and someone cut down a juniper tree, Superintendent David Smith said.
Several other Joshua trees were damaged, including one that was spray-painted, but the park has yet to determine the exact number, he said. Off-road vehicles also created extensive unauthorized trails, with wheel marks dug into the delicate desert soil nearly a foot deep in some spots, Smith said.
Employees at Death Valley National Park found human waste and toilet paper scattered in the desert and evidence people tried to kick in locked restroom doors, said David Blacker, executive director of the Death Valley Natural History Association.
A time-lapse video on Death Valley’s Facebook page showed how it took staffers two hours to clean a restroom overflowing with trash and splashed with waste. Crews also have to rake and replant vegetation to repair ruts from off-road vehicles, which delays work elsewhere in the 3.4 million-acre park.
“It became pretty depressing the kinds of things people will do when they are unsupervised,” Blacker said.
People in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park drove around locked gates and through meadows, spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.
At Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddling the North Carolina-Tennessee line, visitors cut locks on some gates to closed roads and stole about $5,000 in maintenance tools, spokeswoman Dana Soehn said................................
During the 35-day government shutdown, some visitors to parks and other protected areas nationwide left behind messes and repairs that National Park officials are scrambling to clean up and repair as they brace for the possibility of another closure.
https://twitter.com/standardex/status/1091841221251817472
Trump..Argues It Could Be 'Traumatic' to Reunite Thousands of Migrant Children With Their Parents
good gawd! someone has to stop this cruel lunatic.
Trump Administration Argues It Could Be 'Traumatic' to Reunite Thousands of Migrant Children With Their Parents[/b
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-argues-it-could-be-traumatic-reunite-thousands-migrant-1316093
By Jason Lemon On 2/3/19 at 9:48 AM
Court filings by the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Department have argued that it could be “traumatic” to remove migrant children from sponsors homes and reunite them with their parents, suggesting that such action “would present grave child welfare concerns.”
“It would destabilize the permanency of their existing home environment, and could be traumatic to the children,” Jonathan White, who is in charge of the the department’s efforts to reunite the separated children with their parents, said in the filings, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The agency also suggested that the reunification would take extraordinary effort, arguing that the administration should simply focus on reuniting children being held in custody, not those released to sponsors.
President Donald Trump’s controversial policy to separate migrant children from their parents drew national and international outrage last year, with a federal court in June inevitably ordering the government to suspend the policy and reunite the impacted families. However, a report released by the Inspector General of the HHS in mid-January revealed that the administration did not even know how many thousands of children were separated and was struggling to account for those who had been released to sponsors prior to the court decision.
“Thousands of children may have been separated during an influx that began in 2017, before the accounting required by the court, and HHS has faced challenges in identifying separated children,” the report from the agency admitted.
The American Civil Liberties Union has slammed the Trump administration’s position. A hearing is scheduled for February 21 to determine whether the government will be required to reunite the children who were released before the June court order.
“The Trump administration’s response is a shocking concession that it can’t easily find thousands of children it ripped from parents, and doesn’t even think it’s worth the time to locate each of them,” Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU attorney, said, according to the AP..........................
GettyImages-975078458
A boy and father from Honduras are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents near the U.S.-Mexico Border on June 12, 2018 near Mission, Texas John Moore/Getty Images
These chickens have a human gene that enables them to lay eggs containing useful drugs
whow. just whow.
The GM chickens that lay eggs with anti-cancer drugs
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46993649
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News
28 January 2019
Image copyright Norrie Russell, The Roslin Institute
Image caption These chickens have a human gene that enables them to lay eggs containing useful drugs
Researchers have genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs that contain drugs for arthritis and some cancers.
The drugs are 100 times cheaper to produce when laid than when manufactured in factories.
The researchers believe that in time production can be scaled up to produce medicines in commercial quantities.
The chickens do not suffer and are "pampered" compared to farm animals, according to Dr Lissa Herron, of Roslin Technologies in Edinburgh.
"They live in very large pens. They are fed and watered and looked after on a daily basis by highly trained technicians, and live quite a comfortable life.
"As far as the chicken knows, it's just laying a normal egg. It doesn't affect its health in any way, it's just chugging away, laying eggs as normal."
Scientists have previously shown that genetically modified goats, rabbits and chickens can be used to produce protein therapies in their milk or eggs. The researchers say their new approach is more efficient, produces better yields and is more cost-effective than these previous attempts.
"Production from chickens can cost anywhere from 10 to 100 times less than the factories. So hopefully we'll be looking at at least 10 times lower overall manufacturing cost" said Dr Herron.
Image copyright Norrie Russell, The Roslin Institute
Image caption Battery "pharming": these eggs contain drugs produced at a tenth of the cost of normal production in laboratories
The biggest saving comes from the fact that chicken sheds are far cheaper to build and run than highly sterile clean rooms for factory production.
Many diseases are caused because the body does not naturally produce enough of a certain chemical or protein. Such diseases can be controlled with drugs that contain the deficient protein. These drugs are synthetically produced by pharmaceutical companies and can be very expensive to manufacture............................
Trump on a resurgance of ISIS in Syria "We have very fast airplanes, we have very good cargo planes
Even idiots sound better than Trump
Face The Nation
?Verified account @FaceTheNation
.@realDonaldTrump says “we’ll come back if we have to” when @margbrennan asks about a potential resurgence of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, “We have very fast airplanes, we have very good cargo planes. We can come back very quickly.”
https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1092085893324775425
https://twitter.com/riotwomennn/status/1092108284063072262
https://twitter.com/michael_j_bravo/status/1092093229162475521
NYT: White House says Trump's tan is the result of 'good genes'
Source: the hill
By Aris Folley - 02/02/19 08:10 PM EST
An official line from the White House on President Trump’s complexion is that his skin color is the result of “good genes,” a senior administration official told The New York Times.
The official, who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity, added that the president applies a dab of powder to his skin before making appearances on television.
But the official said the powder is translucent and added that it is not a bronzer.
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Two top Trump administration officials also insisted to The Times that no such bed exist in the residence.
Read more: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/428215-nyt-white-house-says-trumps-tan-is-the-result-of-good-genes
gawd. how stupid does the WH think we are!!
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1091867123239055360
Replying to @thehill
Amazing the ridiculous level of this White House
0 replies 0 retweets 21 likes
John Wisniewski
? @WhiskeyMD247365
28m28 minutes ago
Replying to @thehill
Golden Showers.
0 replies 0 retweets 30 likes
Frank Stuart
? @fstuart2
27m27 minutes ago
Replying to @thehill
Only if the people who apply the spray tan are named “Gene” and if by “good” you don’t mean at their jobs.
0 replies 1 retweet 26 likes
Matt M. Peralta
? @PaxBellica
29m29 minutes ago
Replying to @thehill
Not @TheOnion, by the way.
Have a nice day.
0 replies 1 retweet 20 likes
https://twitter.com/cherryredpop_/status/1091867732277047296
The Trump Administration Said It Would Impose Tough New Sanctions on Russia. It Still Hasn't.
Trump gets away with what he can. over and over.
The Trump Administration Said It Would Impose Tough New Sanctions on Russia. It Still Hasn’t.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/the-trump-administration-said-it-would-impose-tough-new-sanctions-on-russia-it-still-hasnt/
It has yet to fulfill its pledge to punish the Kremlin for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
Russ Choma
February 1, 2019 9:59 AM
In August, when the Trump administration formally declared Russia responsible for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, it invoked a decades-old law designed to punish countries that use chemical or biological weapons. As required by the law, the administration imposed an initial round of light sanctions—a warning shot, in essence—with a requirement that if within 90 days Russia did not admit responsibility for the attack and provide assurances that it was mending its ways, a far harsher round of sanctions would take effect. That deadline came and went in November with Russia continuing to deny the accusations, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the second round of sanctions would be imposed imminently.
But two months later, nothing has happened.
Last March, Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer who had worked as a double agent for the British government, and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious and foaming at the mouth in a public park in Salisbury, England. They had been exposed to a deadly chemical nerve agent called Novichok, which had been developed by the Soviet military. From the outset, the attack seemed eerily similar to the fatal poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was exposed to a deadly dose of Polonium-210 in 2006—an attack for which Russia has also been blamed. The Skripals, along with a police officer who came to their aid and was exposed as a result, were hospitalized for weeks. The British government, along with the United States and several dozen Western nations, blamed Russia for the attacks and expelled Russian diplomats. The Trump administration took an additional step to punish Russia, invoking the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW).
“They’ve got to keep up the credibility, or else the Russians think you don’t mean it and then you have a higher risk the Russians will commit an even more serious act of aggression,” says Daniel Fried, who ran the Russia sanctions program under Obama.
The law triggers a series of increasingly draconian sanctions, applied in two steps, if the culprit doesn’t own up to its attack and repent. The law has been invoked only twice before—against Syria in 2013 and North Korea in 2018—and in both cases the punishments it calls for were never implemented. A waiver against imposing the sanctions on Syria was granted for national security reasons, and it was determined that the sanctions against North Korea that the law mandated were largely the same as those already in place. But in Russia’s case, the Trump administration did impose an initial round of sanctions, while making it clear that it would ratchet up the penalties, as called for by the CBW, if Russia didn’t respond.
“Simply by virtue of what the statute sets out, you will be able to see in the US code that if the executive branch cannot certify that Russia has met a series of conditions within three months of the initial round of sanctions, the second round must be imposed,” a senior State Department official told reporters in a background briefing in August. “Those conditions are pretty demanding, but you can see them for yourself in the statute.” The administration had started the clock on the law, the State Department official said, but the decision on whether to impose the second, harsher set of sanctions was entirely determined by Russia’s response. “So really, it’s up to Russia how dramatic the impact is,” the official said.
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As the first round of sanctions was being implemented, Pompeo said he was attempting to hold talks with Russians over the Skripal matter, but it’s not clear if any substantial discussions ever happened. President Donald Trump himself told reporters he’d consider lifting some sanctions on Russia “if they do something that would be good for us. But I wouldn’t consider it without that.” In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained to national security adviser John Bolton about the Skripal sanctions, calling them “unprovoked.” For the second round of sanctions to take effect, the administration had to certify there had been no progress, and at the time of Putin’s complaint, Bolton said the administration was undecided on what would happen. But, two weeks later, on November 6, Pompeo certified that Russia had not met any of the standards to avoid sanctions, triggering the new round of penalties.
The law calls for the Trump administration to impose three of six different sanctions options............................................
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Last week, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent Pompeo a letter demanding to know why the new round of sanctions had not taken effect. “These sanctions are more than two months overdue,” he wrote. “I urge you to impose these sanctions immediately to ensure that the statutorily mandated sanctions regime is not undermined.”...........................................
Ann Coulter blasts Trump as a 'lazy and incompetent lunatic' in latest angry tirade
Trump is down in Florida surrounded by his elite buddies. I am sure they are clapping him on his back saying go for it
Ann Coulter blasts Trump as a ‘lazy and incompetent lunatic’ in latest angry tirade
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/ann-coulter-blasts-trump-lazy-incompetent-lunatic-latest-angry-tirade/
01 Feb 2019 at 12:27 ET
Ann Coulter, an infamously estranged backer of President Donald Trump, is continuing to hammer the president over his inability to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
During an interview with Yahoo News’ Mike Isikoff, Coulter admitted that Trump was very bad at being president while also suggesting that he might not be all there mentally.
“We put this lunatic in the White House for one reason,” said Coulter of Trump and the border wall.
The right-wing pundit also described Trump as “lazy and incompetent,” but she predicted that he would eventually decide to build his border wall via executive action even if Congress refused to fund it.
What’s more, Coulter believes that Trump doesn’t even have to declare a national emergency — rather, he can use his powers as commander-in-chief to simply order the military to construct it.
“I think Trump is gonna do that,” Coulter predicted. “I think he’s finally going to pull that pocket Constitution out of his lapel pocket and [say], ‘Oh my gosh, I’m the president. This is great.'”...............................................
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1091322595759321088
https://twitter.com/ladygebl/status/1091418960090796032
Report: Undocumented Employees Fired from Philly Trump Golf Club
Source: thedailybeast
. CRACKDOWN 5 hours ago
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The Trump Organization has reportedly fired more undocumented workers, this time at its golf club in Pine Hill, New Jersey. The New York Times reports that about five workers at the club, known as Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, were fired or told not to return to work. Two of the five were reportedly seasonal employees who were scheduled to return in the spring, and one source told the Times many others are expected to get fired in the coming weeks. “Just like that, I got fired,” kitchen worker Victor Reyes told the newspaper. “The manager called me and asked, ‘Victor, are you legal?’ I said, ‘No, I am not legal.’ It surprised me because I knew he knew that I was illegal. I have worked for him 16 years and then he asks me.” A Trump Organization spokesperson declined to comment to the Times about the Pine Hill firings, but claimed after earlier firings in New York and New Jersey clubs that they had been duped by the false documents of their employees. “Our employees are like family, but when presented with fake documents, an employer has little choice,” Eric Trump, an executive vice president with the Trump Organization, said earlier this week. ................
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-undocumented-employees-fired-from-philly-trump-golf-club
only after 16 years, the trumps ask. damn, I wish we never had to get to know these creepy trumps!!
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