Source: ABC News

Tests conducted on the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez showed severe signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and his attorney said Thursday that the player's daughter is suing the NFL and the New England Patriots for leading Hernandez to believe the sport was safe.

In a news conference at his offices, Hernandez's attorney Jose Baez said the testing showed one of the most severe cases ever diagnosed.
...
Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the CTE Center at Boston University, concluded that the New England Patriots tight end had stage 3 of 4 of the disease, and also had early brain atrophy and large perforations in a central membrane.
...
CTE can be caused by repeated head trauma and leads to symptoms like violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive difficulties. Hernandez killed himself in April in the jail cell where he was serving a life-without-parole sentence for a 2013 murder. His death came just hours before the Patriots visited the White House to celebrate their latest Super Bowl victory.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/aaron-hernandez-lawyer-brain-showed-severe-case-cte-50011241

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Aaron Hernandez was only 27 when he committed suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hernandez

A neuropathologist who examined the brains of 111 N.F.L. players found 110 to have CTE. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html

It is now more plain than ever that playing football causes CTE and helmets don't protect you from the impacts, since the damage is caused by your brain sloshing in your skull from the sudden stop caused by the impact. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/football-helmets-concussion-protection/ https://www.ted.com/talks/david_camarillo_why_helmets_don_t_prevent_concussions_and_what_might/transcript?language=en

This is why I don't let my son play tackle football.

Source: CBS News

An internal Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs document obtained by CBS News shows the State Department was fully aware of the extent of the attacks on its diplomatsin Havana, Cuba, long before it was forced to acknowledge them.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert only admitted the attacks were occurring after CBS News Radio first reported them August 9.

"It's baffling," said Phil Peters, head of the Alexandria, Va.-based, Cuba Research Center.

It's clear that the attacks are threatening to upend the delicate détente between the U.S. and Cuba.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-number-of-injured-diplomats-soared-state-dept-kept-cuba-attacks-secret/

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So who has motive to botch US-Cuba relations? Putin

Who is evil enough to do this kind of thing? Putin

Who does the Trump administration absolutely refuse to blame for anything, ever? Putin

Seems pretty obvious to me why Trump's State Department wanted to stay silent.

Montana's capital city on Friday removed a memorial to Confederate soldiers that has been in a public park since 1916 after officials deemed it a threat to public safety in light of last weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
...
Earlier this week, Native American lawmakers in Montana sent a letter to the city requesting that it remove the fountain, which they said stood for segregation, secession and slavery. The memorial is thought to be the only Confederate monument in the upper Rockies.
...
The Helena City Commission agreed on Wednesday and acted swiftly to uproot the fountain from the park just two blocks from City Hall. Crews arrived shortly after 9 a.m. Friday. By early afternoon, it was lifted by crane onto a flatbed truck.

City Parks and Recreation Director Amy Teegarden said the fountain initially will be stored in a city warehouse.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/helena-montana-removes-confederate-memorial/

By Dana Milbank (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-bernie-bros-and-sisters-are-coming-to-the-republicans-rescue/2017/08/11/caacbad0-7e9f-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.ea73dd40681c
...
President Trump is woefully unpopular, feuding with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republicans. The GOP can’t manage to repeal Obamacare or do much of anything. Voters say they’d like Democrats to run Congress.

But here come the Bernie Bros and sisters to the Republicans’ rescue: They’re sowing division in the Democratic Party and attempting to enact a purge of the ideologically impure — just the sort of thing that made the Republican Party the ungovernable mess it is today.

Bernie Sanders’s advisers are promoting a “litmus test” under which Democrats who don’t swear to implement single-payer health care would be booted from the party in primaries. Sanders pollster Ben Tulchin penned an op-ed with a colleague under the headline “Universal health care is the new litmus test for Democrats.” Nina Turner, head of the Sanders group Our Revolution, told Politico this week that “there’s something wrong with” Democrats who won’t “unequivocally” embrace “Medicare-for-all.”
...
But to force Democrats to take some kind of single-payer purity oath would set back the cause. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take control of the House, yet there are only 23 Republicans in districts won by Clinton — and only eight of those were won by President Barack Obama in 2012. There are a dozen Democrats in districts Trump won. In such swing districts, it would be suicidal to pledge support for something Republicans will brand as socialism.
...

----------------------------------------------

Dear potential alerter:

This WaPo opinion piece is not an attack on Democratic public figures or groups, it is a criticism of STRATEGY regarding how best to win back Congress and get to universal health coverage. Much more facts and reasoning are presented at the link, but I am limited to 4 paragraphs in the OP. If you think Dana Milbank is wrong, please present your case in a reply so that we can have a substantive discussion on this important issue.

SunSeeker

Source: LATimes.com

Fire investigators say gunfire caused a wildfire near Yosemite National Park that destroyed 131 structures, including 63 homes, last month.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Friday that a gun fired on public lands caused the wildfire that burned 127 square miles (331 square kilometers) on July 16.

The fire prompted evacuations in several areas, including the town of Mariposa.

Cal Fire is offering a $2,000 reward for information about the person responsible for starting the fire.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-yosemite-fire-20170805-story.html

Source: CBS News

President Trump is standing up for his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, calling him a "good man" amid calls for his ouster by conservatives.
...
"He has determined that, at this time, a different set of experiences is best-suited to carrying that work forward," a statement released by the White House said of Cohen-Watnick's release. "General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration."

Last week, McMaster also removed Middle East director Derek Harvey from his position at the NSC due to a "difference in vision," according to a White House source. Harvey was also hired by Flynn, whose short-lived tenure as national security advisercame to an end in February. 
...
The attacks directed at McMaster came from conservative news sites and grew on social media. The hashtag #FireMcMaster has been tweeted more than 50,000 times since Wednesday, the Times reported, including by accounts linked to Russian cyber operations.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-defends-national-security-adviser-h-r-mcmaster-amid-calls-for-his-firing/

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Posted this for that nugget in the last paragraph. Is this the first time Putin has unleashed the Russian bots to try to undermine a Trump decision?

A harbinger of things to come?

I guess it's "live by the bot, die by the bot"!

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/deepdive/video-border-officers-actions-lead-tragedy-48912222?cid=clicksource_4380645_5_heads_posts_card_hed

With exception of General Norman Schwarzkopf (1991 Gulf War), US generals haven't won a war since 1945. That is what Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson wanted to remind everyone about on Joy Reid's show this morning.

Joy was asking him about Trump's appointment of General Kelly to be White House Chief of Staff. He though Trump surrounding himself with "the current crop of generals" was "dangerous." He thinks it signals an abandonment of diplomacy. Wilkerson thought diplomacy was the only solution to the Korean crisis.

Our current crop of generals only know how to start wars. Winning them or avoiding them? Not so much.

I'm visiting from L.A. and didn't even bring shorts. But I did bring an unmbrella that went unused all week. The temperature gauge on my rental car read 86 today. Yes, it was really cool getting shots of the Space Needle without a cloud in the sky, but this heat is scary. Global warming seems like it's accelerating.

It was not Comey's testimony (although that was indeed bad for Trump--and Sessions). It was what Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller did::

Robert Mueller hired Michael Dreeben. Dreeben is, according to Lawfare, one of the top criminal appellate attorneys in the country. He has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court. He will also be extremely powerful in advocating for the right to information from Trump and his associates, should Trump and/or his associates go to court to try to block subpoenas, depositions, or other actions by Mueller. The man writes extremely effective briefs--which is how cases are won. Mueller is assembling an All-Star team of legal experts. That also includes Andrew Weissmann:

"Weissmann was director of Justice's Enron Task Force, where he oversaw the prosecutions of Jeffrey Skilling, Ken Lay, and Andrew Fastow. While at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, Weissmann helped prosecute high-ranking members of the Genovese, Colombo and Gambino crime families, and fought the infiltration of organized crime on Wall Street. Mueller is amassing the talent arsenal you'd build to bring criminal charges."
https://lawfareblog.com/worst-thing-happened-donald-trump-week?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories

These are not the actions of a man who is looking at the investigation and seeing nothing. To argue the case for treason of high level officials, you only want the best. The best don't sign on to lose. When this unfolds it will be historic.