July 25, 2017


News and Views


THE LEGISLATURE IS DRAWING A LINE ON ONE THING AT LEAST.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/house-passes-russia-sanctions-curb-211618689.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=dbb2094c-7d9a-37c0-96b9-7f844af62e78&.tsrc=notification-brknews
House Passes New Russia Sanctions That Would Curb Trump's Power
Bloomberg
Anna Edgerton
July 25, 2017

The U.S. House voted to strengthen sanctions against Russia and rebuked President Donald Trump, whose campaign is being investigated for possible ties to Moscow, by preventing him from unilaterally lifting penalties.

The measure, which also would impose new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, passed the House Tuesday on a vote of 419-3. The bill now goes to the Senate, where members of both parties have spoken in favor of revisions made to a version of the legislation they passed last month.

More from Bloomberg.com: Republican Senators Rally Around Sessions in Rebuke to Trump

The White House has sent mixed messages about whether Trump would sign the measure, expressing concern over limiting the president’s power to ease sanctions on his own. Trump supports sanctions against the three countries but wants to make sure the U.S. gets “good deals,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.

The Russia sanctions measure, H.R. 3364, is a rare signal of disapproval of Trump from congressional Republicans. They say they want to prevent the president from acting on his own to lift penalties imposed by the previous administration for meddling in last year’s U.S. election and for aggression in Ukraine. House and Senate committees and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are examining possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

More from Bloomberg.com: Trump Launches Into Political Tirade at Boy Scouts Jamboree

“This bill represents a very broad, bipartisan House-Senate agreement that the United States must enforce tougher sanctions,” Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, California Republican, said on the House floor. He said it “targets the things that matter” Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Eliot Engel of New York, the committee’s top Democrat, said, “This administration has shown over and over that they are willing to cozy up to Putin. But here’s the truth: Putin is not our ally.”

Health Fight

As a bitter fight over health care consumes much of Washington, the sanctions bill is one of the few major legislative efforts uniting members of the fractured Republican Party, along with their Democratic colleagues.

More from Bloomberg.com: China and India Locked in 'Eyeball-to-Eyeball' Border Standoff

Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters in Washington Tuesday that Russia, Iran and North Korea “pose serious threats to our national security.”

“It’s well past time to respond with meaningful action,” he said.

The original bill from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee included sanctions only on Iran, modeled on previous executive orders, designed to punish entities that support terrorism, sell weapons to Iran, or help that country’s ballistic missile program. The bill also authorizes, but doesn’t require, sanctions on human-rights abusers.

The Russia sanctions were added in an amendment on the Senate floor. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, also introduced a provision to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the NATO agreement, which requires members to defend other nations in the alliance.

Read More: A Detailed Look at Provisions of the Sanctions Measure

House leaders flagged procedural concerns with the Senate-passed bill, saying the Constitution requires legislation raising revenue to originate in the lower chamber. In resolving that issue, Republicans also limited the minority party’s power to introduce and fast-track a resolution to question an effort by Trump to ease Russia sanctions.

Under the House-passed version, Congress could prevent the president from completing the proposed action through a joint resolution disapproving it. In the House, the resolution would have to be introduced by the majority or minority leader; in the Senate, those leaders or a designee could introduce the measure.

Meanwhile, energy companies stepped up their lobbying in opposition to a prohibition against working on international projects with even a small Russian stake. That rule was changed to apply only to ventures in which sanctioned Russian entities have at least a 33 percent interest, which prevents Russian firms from buying into a fraction of a project to keep American competition away.



IRANIAN BOATS HAVE BEEN HARASSING OURS FOR YEARS NOW, AND I DOUBT THAT THEY WILL ATTACK ONE, BUT THE WARNING SHOTS ARE GOOD. I’VE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE BACK AND FORTH IS JUST ANOTHER FORM OF DIPLOMACY. THAT’S WHY WE HAVE MOVED MORE TROOPS INTO POLAND IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS. ASSERTIVENESS WILL USUALLY HALT AGGRESSION, ON THE PLAYGROUND AND OFF. PASSIVITY INVITES IT.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-navy-ship-fires-warning-shots-near-iranian-vessel-official-says/
CBS/AP July 25, 2017, 10:08 AM
U.S. Navy ship fires warning shots near Iranian vessel

Photograph -- This undated file photo taken from a U.S. Navy website is said to show the USS Thunderbolt. WWW.PUBLIC.NAVY.MIL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf. Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the incident.

The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, is the latest confrontation between Iranian vessels and American warships.

The Thunderbolt was taking part in an exercise with American and other coalition vessels in international waters when the Iranian patrol boat approached it, 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Ian McConnaughey said. The Iranian ship did not respond to radio calls, flares and horn blasts as it came within 150 yards of the Thunderbolt, forcing the U.S. sailors aboard to fire the warning shots, McConnaughey said.

"After the warning shots were fired, the Iranian vessel halted its unsafe approach," the lieutenant said in a statement, adding that the Iranian vessel created "a risk for collision." Large ships can't stop immediately on the water, meaning getting close to each other risks a collision.

Video released by the Navy included a sailor giving a position off the eastern coast of Kuwait as the Iranian vessel sat directly in front of an American warship's bow. Another video included images of the Iranian ship off the Thunderbolt as its horn blared. The sound of machine gun fire followed.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instead blamed the Thunderbolt for the incident in a statement, saying the American vessel moved toward one of its patrol boats. It said the Thunderbolt fired into the air "with the intention to provoke and create fear."

Iran and the U.S. frequently have tense naval encounters in the Persian Gulf, nearly all involving the Revolutionary Guard, a separate force from Iran's military that answers only to the country's supreme leader. The U.S. Navy recorded 35 instances of what it describes as "unsafe and/or unprofessional" interactions with Iranians forces in 2016, compared to 23 in 2015.

Of the incidents last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing 10 U.S. sailors and holding them overnight. It became a propaganda coup for Iran's hard-liners, as Iranian state television repeatedly aired footage of the Americans on their knees, their hands on their heads.

Iranian forces view the American presence in the Gulf as a provocation by itself. They in turn have accused the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil trade by sea passes.

President Trump recently accused Iran of "not living up to the spirit" of the Obama-era nuclear agreement.

On the campaign trail last year, Mr. Trump said that any Iranian vessels threatening U.S. ships should be "shot out of the water."

"When they circle our beautiful destroyers, with their little boats and they make gestures at our people, that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water. Okay? Believe me," he said.



I THINK HAVING AGENTS ASK EVERYBODY WHO COMES ALONG THIS QUESTION, AND ESPECIALLY OVER AND OVER, THEY’RE GOING TO ACHIEVE LITTLE AND WASTE A LOT OF TIME; THEY WILL ALSO CAUSE ANGER AND A PURPOSEFUL LACK OF COOPERATION SUCH AS THE LADIES IN THIS CASE ARE SHOWING.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-of-teachers-confrontation-with-border-patrol-agent-goes-viral/
CBS NEWS July 25, 2017, 7:55 AM
Video of teacher’s confrontation with Border Patrol agent goes viral

Still shot -- Border Patrol agents are seen in still from video shot by her family of San Diego teacher and mother Shane Parmely being questioned at checkpoint in New Mexico in July 2017 KFMB-TV

SAN DIEGO – Video of a San Diego teacher's tense confrontation with Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in New Mexico has gone viral after she was asked if she was an American citizen, reports CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV.

San Diego mother and middle school teacher Shane Parmely refused to answer.

"As the back-and-forth began, Parmely is heard on the video remarking, "I'm passing (on) a federally-funded highway, driving, minding my own business. And I get pulled over and asked if I'm a citizen."

Turning around to address someone in the back seat, Parmely says, "I'm not answering."

She tells an agent, "You can ask me. I don't have to answer."

As Parmely's family recorded the lengthy interaction, which she posted on her Facebook page, an agent showed her a card listing immigration law.

Parmely: "Am I free to go, or are you detaining me?"

CBS News 8 - San Diego, CA News Station - KFMB Channel 8 -- San Diego teacher records confrontation with Border Patrol agent 02:43

Agent: "You are being detained, mam."

Parmely's friend, Gretta Rodriguez, later told KFMB, "(Shane's) kids don't go through any of that. And so every time we go, my kids get aggressively interrogated. And so they've learned to deal with it."

Parmely said she refused to answer in a show of solidarity with some of her friends who say they or their children have been aggressively interrogated by Border Patrol agents.

shane-parmely-left-and-gretta-rodriguez.jpg
Shane Parmely, left, and friend Gretta Rodriguez KFMB-TV

"It's horrifying to hear what has happened to my friends' kids, who are just brown," she said.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Border Patrol said:

"Border Patrol checkpoints are critical tool for the enforcement of our nation's immigration laws. At a Border Patrol checkpoint, an agent may question a vehicle's occupants about their citizenship, place of birth, and request document proof of immigration status, how legal status was obtained and make quick observations of what is in plain view in the interior of the vehicle. During the course of the immigration inspection, if an occupant refuse to answer an agent's questions, the agent may detain the driver for a reasonable amount of time until he or she can make a determination regarding the occupant's immigration status. It is agency policy that all individuals with whom we interact are treated with dignity and respect."

Parmely said she and her family were detained for approximately an hour-and-a-half before being released.

She says she didn't answer the agent's question.



WOMEN – LOOK AT THIS VIDEO ABOUT THE “SHE SHOULD RUN” MOVEMENT ON CBS NEWS AND GIVE IT SOME CONSIDERATION FOR YOURSELF, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A PROGRESSIVE OR MODERATE DEMOCRAT. BIG POSTS, LITTLE POSTS, WE NEED TO PUT WOMEN, DEMOCRATS AND PROGRESSIVES INTO LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL POSITIONS.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/she-should-run-launches-campaign-to-get-250k-women-in-office-by-2030/
She Should Run launches campaign to get 250K women in office by 2030
JULY 24, 2017, 8:36 PM| Erin Loos Cutraro, founder and CEO of She Should Run, joins CBSN to discuss her organization's new push to get 250,000 women to run for public office in the United States by 2030 -- and she discusses why more women don't run for office in the first place.



FIFTEEN OR TWENTY YEARS AGO, THE HOSPITAL AND CLINIC SCENE BEGAN TO PROVIDE MALE NURSES. I THOUGHT, GOOD. THAT’S PROGRESS; THEN I LEARNED THAT MALE NURSES WERE OFTEN PAID MORE THAN FEMALE NURSES. THAT’S DISGUSTING TO ME, AND THAT ISN’T ABOUT “AUTHORITY” OR EVEN COMPETENCE. IT’S JUST THE GOOD OLD BOY NETWORK. A BUSINESS MAN WITH WHOM I WAS INTERVIEWING FOR AN OPENING SAID TO ME THAT HE ALWAYS PAYS A MAN MORE BECAUSE MEN HAVE MORE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. THAT REALLY ISN’T THE WAY IT WORKS, THESE DAYS ANYWAY. WOMEN ARE OFTEN SINGLE HEADS OF FAMILIES, AND THEY NEED JUST AS MUCH TO PAY FOR THE FOOD AND HOUSING AND SCHOOLING AND MEDICAL CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN AS ANY MAN DOES. IT’S TIME FOR A NEW WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, IF WE CAN GET YOUNG WOMEN TO STEP UP AND FIGHT THESE DAYS. I’M ENVISIONING A BEAUTIFUL STRIKE OF ALL WOMEN IN ALL JOBS ACROSS THE WHOLE USA. LOOK AT SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGETTES MARCHING BY THE TENS OF THOUSANDS BEFORE THEY EVER GOT THE VOTE. IT TAKES A REAL PUSH TO GET THIS KIND OF THING DONE, AND IF IT DOES WORK THERE WILL BE A LONG ADJUSTMENT PERIOD OVER THE WHOLE CULTURE. THERE IS NO GOAL DEARER TO THE HEARTS OF TOO MANY MEN THAN MASTERY.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-a-job-acquires-a-gender-and-less-authority-if-its-female/
By SARAH THEBAUD AND LAURA DOERING THE CONVERSATION July 25, 2017, 1:56 PM
How a job acquires a gender (and less authority if it's female)

Sarah Thebaud is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Laura Doering is an assistant professor of strategy and organization at McGill University.

"I'm not bossy, I'm the boss."

So proclaims Beyoncé in a video in support of the #banbossy campaign. The campaign highlights how when little boys take charge, they're often praised for being a "leader." But when little girls do, they're more likely to be scolded for being too "bossy."

And it matters for grownups, too. Research and media stories abound with examples of how gender stereotypes disadvantage women leaders. A woman manager is less likely to be taken seriously by the people who work for her.

When men direct others, they're often assumed to be assertive and competent. But when women direct others, they're often disliked and labeled abrasive or bossy.

Our new study puts a twist on this narrative. Gender bias doesn't merely disadvantage women, it also can disadvantage men. The reason? We don't just stereotype men and women. We stereotype jobs.

Firefighters and nurses

Many jobs in the economy are gender-stereotyped. Firefighting is thought of as a man's job, whereas nursing is thought of as women's work.

Previous studies have shown that these stereotypes – which shape our expectations about whether a man or a woman is a better "fit" for a given job – are powerful because they can bias a whole host of employment outcomes. For instance, they influence the chances that a man or a woman will apply for the job, that he or she will be hired, the pay each would receive and even performance evaluations that determine promotions.

But how quickly do these gender stereotypes get attached to jobs in the first place? And, to what extent might such stereotypes affect the level of authority and respect that people are willing to give the man or woman who works in that job?

How a job gets stereotyped

To answer these questions, we studied a job that is ambiguously related to gender: a microfinance loan manager in Central America.

In this region, the microfinance loan manager job is new and gender-balanced in its composition. Unlike firefighters or nurses – jobs that are already strongly gender-stereotyped – loan managers at the microfinance bank we studied are about 50/50 men and women.

The nature of commercial microfinance makes managers' positions more gender-ambiguous. Microfinance is associated with the financial industry, which is traditionally masculine. But microfinance also has a legacy of social service and poverty alleviation, which are female-stereotyped activities.

9 college majors with the biggest gender pay gap

Additionally, in the context we studied, the loan manager job had been around for less than 10 years, making it even less likely that clients would have strong preconceptions about whether it was a "man's job" or a "woman's job."

Loan managers at the bank we focused on are frequently reshuffled from one borrower to another. This quasi-random reshuffling allowed us to observe how borrowers' repayment patterns differed when they were paired with male and female loan managers. For example, a borrower might be paired with a male manager initially and then transferred to a female manager. This switching process allowed us to examine how clients' repayment rates varied when the only thing that changed was their managers' gender.

We examined borrowers' missed payment rates as a measure of the authority they afford their managers. Making a payment on time signals that the borrower views the manager as someone whose authority is legitimate and whose directives should be followed. In contrast, missing a payment signals that the borrower feels he or she can approach his or her responsibilities to the manager more laxly. When borrowers miss payments, it suggests the manager lacks the ability to secure compliance and therefore lacks authority.

We found that it took only one interaction before clients assigned a gender to the job and began to treat anyone in that role (man or woman) based on that stereotype, which meant less authority if the loan manager position was seen as a "woman's job." So if a client's first manager was a woman, they would tend to miss more payments on their loan – even if later transferred to a male manager – compared with one who was initially paired with a man. These effects persisted even when we accounted for other factors that might affect repayment, like income and loan size.

Male managers whose clients perceived the job as a "woman's job" experienced an especially large disadvantage compared to male managers whose clients perceived the job as a "man's job."

When men stepped in to work with a client who had initially worked with another male loan manager, the client was highly compliant with his directives. But when men stepped in to work with a client who had initially worked with a female loan manager, the client afforded them much less authority. They were much less compliant than they would have been if they had initially worked with a male loan manager.

Gendered jobs harm us all

When gender stereotypes get attached to a job, it biases the authority that people attribute to the man or woman who happens to work in that position. In this way, men experience negative bias when working in positions that others associate with women.

Our findings show that, when men work in a managerial job that people associate with a man and male stereotypes, they are able to wield a substantial amount of authority over clients. But when the very same managerial job happens to be associated with a woman, men who work in that position are viewed as significantly less legitimate sources of authority.

Female engineers claim gender bias at Facebook
Play VIDEO
Female engineers claim gender bias at Facebook

In other words, our study suggests that stereotyping a job as "women's work" and societal biases that grant women less authority than men harm us all.

Ideally, we want to live in a world where we perform the work that is best suited to our abilities and where an individual in a position of authority receives the same respect, regardless of gender. If we all can support both men and women who work in gender-atypical roles, perhaps we can become less likely to devalue some workers on the basis of arbitrary and old-fashioned gender stereotypes.

The Conversation
This article was originally published on The Conversation.



AS A HUMAN BEING JOHN BOEHNER APPEALS TO ME TO A CONSIDERABLE DEGREE, AND IN THIS ARTICLE, I THINK HE IS SAYING WHAT IS TRUE AND NOT WHAT REPUBLICANS WANT TO HEAR. OBAMACARE MAY HAVE PROBLEMS, BUT IF SO MANY STATES HADN’T TRIED TO KILL IT BY REFUSING TO COOPERATE ON MEDICAID, WHICH IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE VERY POOR, IT VERY LIKELY WOULD HAVE WORKED. WHAT THEY’RE DOING IS GRABBING THE COOKIE OUT OF THE BABY’S HAND, AND IT WON’T BE NEARLY AS EASY, EVEN WITHOUT DEMOCRATS, AS THEY HOPED. A MONTH OR SO AGO A REPORTER ASKED ONE OF THOSE “CONSERVATIVES” WHETHER AMERICANS HAVE “A RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE,” AND HE TRIED TWISTING EVERY WAY POSSIBLE TO AVOID SAYING “NO.” THEY WANT MEDICAL CARE TO BE FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE THE PRIVATE MEANS TO PAY FOR IT, AND IF WE CAN’T, WE SHOULD QUIETLY GO AWAY AND DIE (OUT OF SIGHT, PLEASE.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boehner-gop-will-never-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS July 25, 2017, 8:35 AM
Boehner: GOP will "never" repeal and replace Obamacare

Outgoing Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, sits in the Speaker's chair for the final time as Speaker in the House Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, October 29, 2015. SAUL LOEB / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Former House Speaker John Boehner has largely stayed out of the political spotlight since leaving Congress, but at a Las Vegas trade show on Friday, he got candid about the Republican party's efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as well as his close friend President Trump.

"Here we are, seven months into this year, and yet they've not passed this bill. Now, they're never — they're not going to repeal and replace Obamacare," Boehner told an audience of conference members , according to video footage obtained by The Washington Post.

He added, "It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it. Governors have gotten accustomed to this Medicaid expansion, and so trying to pull it back is really not going to work."

The Senate is expected to vote on a motion to proceed on the health care bill on Tuesday, requiring the support of 51 votes in order to proceed to the next step. If successful, Republican leaders then expect amendments to be offered to the bill, according to a Republican aide.

Boehner suggested that Senate Republicans should now move health care "away from government control" where the states have more control over what happens and individuals will have more control over coverage as well.

"When it's all said and done, here's what's going to happen -- you're not going to have an employer mandate anymore, you're not going to have the individual mandate," Boehner said. "The Medicaid expansion will be there. The governors will have more control over their Medicaid populations and how to get them care, and a lot of Obamacare taxes will probably go."

Boehner acknowledged the GOP's stalled efforts in gaining support for a health care plan, saying "they've had a tough time getting there," but said if Republicans were unable to act on health care, he questioned how they would be able to deliver on tax reform either.

In the video, Boehner also offered some helpful tips for Mr. Trump himself -- "quit tweeting."

He added that Mr. Trump "keeps getting in his own way" by criticizing members of his own administration as well as the press.

"You never get into a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. He does it every day," said Boehner, suggesting Mr. Trump should instead "focus on what he's doing and stop being so critical."

Boehner also called Mr. Trump "a friend of mine," saying the two have shared many rounds of golf together and said Mr. Trump frequently encouraged Boehner when he was having a "tough week" as speaker.

"But president? I never really saw him as president," Boehner laughed.

Boehner added that he informed then-candidate Trump that he wasn't his "first, second or third choice" but conceded, "if you're the nominee, I am going to vote for you."

Boehner announced his leave from Congress in 2015 after growing turmoil in the House. The Republican leader had come under fire repeatedly in recent years from conservatives in the House GOP conference.



YES, YOU WILL, OR FACE CONSEQUENCES.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/senate-committee-subpoenas-former-trump-140300784.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=bad81b5f-db87-38f1-ad4e-b7e8e737f190&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Senate committee subpoenas former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort
CNBC
Jacob Pramuk
CNBC 25 July 2017

The Senate Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to get former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to testify about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, the committee's top members said Tuesday.

The panel's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and its ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said they issued the subpoena on Monday night, seeking Manafort's appearance at a hearing Wednesday. In their statement, Grassley and Feinstein said that Manafort's attorney "said that he would be willing to provide only a single transcribed interview to Congress, which would not be available to the Judiciary Committee members or staff."

"While the Judiciary Committee was willing to cooperate on equal terms with any other committee to accommodate Mr. Manafort's request, ultimately that was not possible. Therefore, yesterday evening, a subpoena was issued to compel Mr. Manafort's participation in Wednesday's hearing," the senators said.

They added that they "may be willing to excuse" Manafort from a hearing if he agrees to provide documents and a transcribed interview.

Separately, Manafort met with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning, his spokesman Jason Maloni confirmed.

The Judiciary Committee has sought Manafort's testimony about a meeting he attended with Russian nationals last year at Trump Tower during the heat of the 2016 presidential election campaign. The meeting was set up after Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, was offered compromising information as part of Russia and its government's support for his father's campaign, according to emails that the younger Trump released.

The panel had requested that both Manafort and Trump Jr. appear publicly Wednesday.

The president and his campaign officials have insisted that nothing improper took place at the meeting and that it did not yield useful information. The president also has denied knowing about the meeting until recently.



“THE DEPARTMENT SAYS THE THREE-DAY SEASON WAS HURTING BUSINESSES THAT DEPEND ON SPORT FISHING.” I GUESS THERE’S A REASON WHY OUR NATURAL WORLD IS BEING CONTROLLED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF “COMMERCE.” THE THREE DAY SEASON WAS HELPING THE LIFEFORMS. AT LEAST SPORTSMEN GOT TO FISH THREE DAYS. FISH FOR SOMETHING ELSE, JUST NOT RED SNAPPER! THERE'S PROBABLY A NEED FOR STILL MORE RESTRICTED FISHING FOR THAT SPECIES AT ALL. JUST BECAUSE THE SUPPLY OF THEM HAS IMPROVED, THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT WON'T GO BACK DOWN AGAIN WITH OVER FISHING. THE REMARK BELOW THAT ONE COMMERCIAL BOAT CONTAINED "ALMOST 6,000 LBS." OF RED SNAPPER IS THE WHOLE PROBLEM. WE NEED TO CUT THE LIMIT BACK AGAIN ON A PERIODIC BASIS INSTEAD OF LIFTING THE LIMIT EVERY TIME THE SPECIES BEGINS TO IMPROVE A BIT. THE WAY WE TEND TO THINK ABOUT OR STEWARDSHIP OF THE WORLD IS THE PROBLEM.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/red-snapper-extended-fishing-season-environmental-group-gulf-of-mexico/
CBS NEWS July 25, 2017, 8:25 AM
Extended red snapper fishing season prompts legal battle

A popular American seafood is at the center of a fight among commercial fishermen and the federal government.

Last month, the Trump administration extended the recreational fishing season for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico from just three days to 42 days.

Now, environmental groups are suing the Department of Commerce, claiming the decision jeopardizes efforts to rebuild the red snapper population in the Gulf. The department says the three-day season was hurting businesses that depend on sport fishing. But commercial fishermen worry longer seasons could threaten the red snapper population.

CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca is on Louisiana's Gulf Coast with the battle over how many red snappers should be pulled from the water.

Villafrana spoke with Dale Beebe, a commercial fisherman who just returned to the Louisiana shore with almost 6,000 pounds of red snapper.

"It has been great," Beebe said. "We've had the best snapper fishing in the last two or three years than we've had in 25 years."

The snapper is prized in restaurants as flaky and full of flavor. And on fishing boats, it's renowned for its fight.

Overfishing caused the Gulf's red snapper population to plummet in the mid 1980s.

David Cresson, of the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana, says the red snapper population has largely recovered, and a three-day fishing season is too short for recreational anglers.

"Two of those days here in Louisiana were unfishable," Cresson said. "The weather was too rough."

This year, the government set a quota of just over 13 million pounds of red snapper to be pulled from the Gulf -- 51 percent for commercial fishermen and 49 percent for recreational fishermen. But in 2016, recreational anglers exceeded that limit by 65 tons.

"If you're not going to adhere to the law, why have regulations," said David Krebs, owner of Ariel Seafoods. "We can all just go back to the wild, wild West, and it is going to damage the resource."

J.P. Brooker is an attorney for the Ocean Conservancy, a group suing the federal government to limit the extended fishing season.

"It's fundamentally unfair," Brooker said. "It's unfair to commercial fishermen, it's unfair to the long-term viability of the recreational fishery as well."

But others argue the regulations have to be fair, including to those who fish for fun.

"We all want to protect the resource," Cresson said. "But there's got to be a balance between protecting the resource, watching it grow, and still allowing it to be available to the American public."

What's happening here along the Gulf Coast with these fish is just one of several changes by the Trump administration being challenged by environmental groups. In Yellowstone National Park, grizzly bears will soon be removed from the endangered species list. Several environmental groups have announced they will file suit as soon as the delisting takes effect.



WHILE, IN GENERAL, I JUST REALLY DON’T WANT A COMPUTER CHIP IN ME, IF IT STORES INFORMATION ON MEDICAL NEEDS FOR HOSPITAL EMERGENCIES, IT MIGHT BE HELPFUL. IF IT IS MISUSED AS PART OF THE USA BIG BROTHER PROGRAM, IT'S NOT GOOD.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-square-market-wisconsin-implant-microchips-employees/
CBS NEWS July 25, 2017, 7:51 AM
Wisconsin company wants to implant microchips in employees' hands

A Wisconsin company claims it will be the first in the country to implant microchips in most of its employees.

Three Square Market plans to implant chips in the hands of volunteers among its workforce. The technology replaces identification cards used to open doors and operate office equipment.

CBS News correspondent Jamie Yuccas reports the company, which is based in River Falls, has 80 employees. Privacy concerns have been raised by the plans.

Three Square Market will likely use the technology the most in the break room. To pay for a candy bar or a bag of pretzels, all an employee would have to do is flick their wrist.

By next week, over 50 employees will have bionic hands, with a credit card chip implanted near their wrist.

"Basically it's a serial number that is assigned to your credit card," owner Todd Westby said.

The company is offering the chips, which cost about $300 a piece, to its employees for free. Westby, his wife and two children will also be getting microchipped.

0725-ctm-employeemicrochips-yuccas2.jpg
Three Square Market plans to implant chips in the hands of its workforce to replace ID cards used to open doors and operate office equipment. CBS NEWS

"It's for entrance to the building, logging into computers, making purchases in our break room market, things of that nature," Westby said.

Employees will now have two ways to get into the building. They can either use the traditional keypad with their identification number, or if they're microchipped, they can just use their hands and swipe. That will allow them to open the door.

Three Square Market makes vending machines with credit card chip readers. Experts wonder if this is all a publicity stunt and worry about the loss of privacy.

"Do you want someone to know every time you enter or leave a room?" CNET senior editor Dan Ackerman asked. "There's a degree of autonomy that's lost with this, you know, person to person, one to one tracking. You can never leave it behind. You can't really turn it off."

"I think it's a step towards the future," Eric White, an assembly line manager, said.

White said he thinks the chips could eventually save lives.

"Somebody who's allergic to something or has a condition, they can scan your hand and all the information is there," he said.

The technology is already being used in Europe. But the company hoping to popularize the chips in the U.S. is far from tech hubs like Silicon Valley.

Three Square Market is working with a Swedish company to microchip its employees. The chips are the size of a grain of rice. A professional piercer has to implant it, but experts say to take it out, it's as easy as removing a splinter.

As for the pain factor, it's similar to piercing your ears.



OUR PRESIDENT SPEAKS TO THE NATION. UKRAINE HELPED HILLARY IN 2016, AND TRIED TO ATTACK TRUMP. ANDREW MCCABE HAS “ULTERIOR MOTIVE” FOR NOT INVESTIGATING HILLARY.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-slams-jeff-sessions-andrew-mccabe-over-twitter/
CBS NEWS July 25, 2017, 7:14 AM
Trump continues tweet rant against Sessions, cites Clinton

President Trump attacked his Justice Department over Twitter early Tuesday morning, beginning with his embattled attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

Sessions, he tweeted, "has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!"

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!
6:12 AM - 25 Jul 2017
15,093 15,093 Retweets 50,713 50,713 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy
Mr. Trump has recently been bringing up Clinton more often, although just after his election, he said he was inclined against prosecuting her over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Prosecution, he said in a New York Times interview in November, "would be very, very divisive for the country." He thought that Clinton had "suffered greatly" and he didn't want "to hurt" the Clintons. "My inclination for whatever power I have on the matter is to say let's go forward. This has been looked at for so long, ad nauseum."

Tuesday morning, he also brought up a charge that Ukraine helped to boost Clinton and hurt his candidacy during the campaign.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign - "quietly working to boost Clinton." So where is the investigation A.G. @seanhannity
6:03 AM - 25 Jul 2017
13,185 13,185 Retweets 42,784 42,784 likes

It wasn't the Clinton campaign, though -- a Democratic operative working with the Democratic National Committee did reach out to the Ukrainian government in an attempt to get damaging information about the Trump campaign.

And the president also seemed to suggest that acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe may have an ulterior motive for not investigating Clinton in another Tweet Tuesday morning.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!
6:21 AM - 25 Jul 2017
16,063 16,063 Retweets 50,414 50,414 likes

In fact, McCabe's wife, who ran unsuccessfully for the Virginia state legislature, did not get "$700,000 from [Hillary Clinton]." But Clinton ally Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee donated nearly $500,000 to the Virginia state senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe.



THE ETERNAL EXPLORATION OF NATURE BY SCIENCE MAY BE THE PUREST RELIGION THERE IS, IN MY VIEW – NO HATRED, NO DOGMA, NO MENTAL ILLNESS INDUCING “POSSESSIONS,” AND IT IS DEMONSTRABLY “TRUE.” THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT AN ANIMAL/PLANT WHICH HAS NOW BEEN EXAMINED BY CT SCAN AND ITS’ INTERNAL PARTS SEEN. FOR BEST RESULTS, GO TO THE WEBSITE TO VIEW IMAGES THERE WHICH HELP EXPLAIN THE TEXT. THE SECOND ARTICLE FROM WIKIPEDIA ISN’T TOO LONG AND INCLUDES EVEN MORE INFORMATION. CHECK IT OUT.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2141777-see-inside-the-580-million-year-old-creature-no-one-understands/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=ILC&utm_campaign=webpush&cmpid=ILC%257CNSNS%257C2016-GLOBAL-webpush-Ediacarans
DAILY NEWS
NEWS 26 July 2017
DAILY NEWS 25 July 2017
See inside the 580-million-year-old creature no one understands

A virtual reconstruction of Rangea from CT scans
Alana Sharp
By Andy Coghlan

Were the Ediacarans animals or plants? Or neither? CT scans of a unique 3D fossil offers the first look inside one of these strange creatures from before the dawn of true animals. But the jury on their identity is still out

The Ediacarans were pleated soft-bodied life forms – some up to 2 metres tall – that lived between 580 and 540 million years ago. They disappeared when true animals evolved – probably because they were eaten to extinction.

Our efforts to learn about them have been hampered because the creatures had soft bodies that didn’t tend to fossilise well. Most Ediacaran fossils are essentially masks that show only features of the outer surface – not what was going on inside.

Now, CT scans of a pair of unusual three-dimensional fossils found in Namibia are telling us more about the mysterious organisms. The two fossils are from a single 10-centimetre-tall Ediacaran species called Rangea. It is a member of an Ediacaran group called the rangeomorphs that looked a bit like large petals.

“This is the first look inside such a unique specimen of a rangeomorph,” says Alana Sharp of University College London, who led the team conducting the scans. “What has been made visible are internal structures like a central core.”

Changing fruit

From an initial examination of the same fossil in 2013, Sharp’s colleagues concluded that its six fern-like fronds looked like flat fins protruding out at equal distances from a central axis, like a starfruit with six segments.

The new analysis updates that description. The scans shows that one of the three fronds had a three-dimensional shape, more like an inflated balloon than a flat fin. The other two fronds are flatter, but probably only because they were squashed during fossilisation.

The fossil, external scan and internal CT scan of a rare Rangea fossil that hasn’t been flattened

Alana Sharp

Sharp and her colleagues think all six fronds may have been inflated like long balloons. They may even have touched one another – meaning that a horizontal section through Rangea would have looked more like a slice through an orange rather than one through a starfruit.

“Our work supports a lifestyle of absorption of nutrients through membranes inflated to the maximum, increasing the surface area across which these organisms seemed to feed,” says Sharp.

Heart of stone

The CT scans also confirm that Rangea had a cone-shaped channel running up its central trunk. The lower part of this channel seems to be filled with sediment of a different composition from the sediment filling the rest of the fossil. Sharp says it was probably present in Rangea even when the organism was alive, helping to support the creature like a primitive skeleton.

“These beautiful, three-dimensional Ediacaran fossils are comparatively rare,” says Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill at the University of Cambridge. “There’s still so much to discover about what these creatures were and how they lived, and detailed information on their anatomy is very valuable.”

However, even with these new insights, it is still unclear what the Ediacarans were. “They may or may not be animals – we can’t say from this study,” says Sharp. “But they are the first of the truly large, multicellular organisms that radiated broadly before the first true animals evolved.”

Sharp and her colleagues are seeking more fossils to analyse. “The next step is to return to Namibia where this specimen came from and continue our prospecting,” she says.

Journal reference: Precambrian Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.023


https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVza26HdZo.gA.NdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=ediacaran+biota&fr=yset_ie_syc_oracle-s

Numerous fossil photos and one or more artist’s reconstruction of their possible physical appearance in life.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_biota
Ediacaran biota
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ediacaran (/ˌiːdiˈækərən/; formerly Vendian) biota consisted of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile organisms that lived during the Ediacaran Period (ca. 635–542 Mya). Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms.[note 1] The Ediacaran biota radiated in an event called the Avalon explosion, 575 million years ago,[1][2] after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation. The biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota appears to have completely replaced the organisms that dominated the Ediacaran fossil record, although relationships are still a matter of debate.

The organisms of the Ediacaran Period first appeared around 600 million years ago and flourished until the cusp of the Cambrian 542 million years ago, when the characteristic communities of fossils vanished. The earliest reasonably diverse Ediacaran community was discovered in 1995 in Sonora, Mexico, and is approximately 600 million years in age, pre-dating the Gaskiers glaciation of about 580 million years ago.[3][4] While rare fossils that may represent survivors have been found as late as the Middle Cambrian (510 to 500 million years ago), the earlier fossil communities disappear from the record at the end of the Ediacaran leaving only curious fragments of once-thriving ecosystems.[5] Multiple hypotheses exist to explain the disappearance of this biota, including preservation bias, a changing environment, the advent of predators and competition from other life-forms.

Determining where Ediacaran organisms fit in the tree of life has proven challenging; it is not even established that they were animals, with suggestions that they were lichens (fungus-alga symbionts), algae, protists known as foraminifera, fungi or microbial colonies, or hypothetical intermediates between plants and animals.[6] The morphology and habit of some taxa (e.g. Funisia dorothea) suggest relationships to Porifera or Cnidaria.[7] Kimberella may show a similarity to molluscs, and other organisms have been thought to possess bilateral symmetry, although this is controversial. Most macroscopic fossils are morphologically distinct from later life-forms: they resemble discs, tubes, mud-filled bags or quilted mattresses. Due to the difficulty of deducing evolutionary relationships among these organisms, some palaeontologists have suggested that these represent completely extinct lineages that do not resemble any living organism. One palaeontologist proposed a separate kingdom level category Vendozoa (now renamed Vendobionta)[8] in the Linnaean hierarchy for the Ediacaran biota. If these enigmatic organisms left no descendants, their strange forms might be seen as a "failed experiment" in multicellular life, with later multicellular life evolving independently from unrelated single-celled organisms.[9]

The concept of "Ediacaran Biota" is, of course, somewhat artificial as it can not be defined geographically, stratigraphically, taphonomically, or biologically.[12]

[NOTE: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taphonomic
taphonomic (not comparable)
1.Of or pertaining to taphonomy (factors affecting an organism's remains after death).]



KEEPING A LITTLE JOY IN THE DAILY NEWS – A BELOVED FACE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/president-obama-thank-you-notes_us_575aadece4b0e39a28ad4897?ir=Politics§ion=us_politics&utm_hp_ref=politics&utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1065435&ncid=txtlnkusaolp00001376
POLITICS 06/10/2016 08:49 am ET
President Obama Shuts Down Haters With Ultimate Donald Trump Burn
Thank you, Jimmy Fallon, for making this happen.
By Bill Bradley

With so much political smack talk always flying back and forth, it’s easy for Donald Trump supporters to be like, “Orange hair. Don’t care.” But this has to sting a little.

In addition to taking shots at Trump while slow jammin’ the news on “The Tonight Show” Thursday, President Obama stuck around to burn his haters during “Thank You Notes.”

After the president raised his eyebrows over a couple notes from Fallon about his birth certificate and Hillary Clinton’s emails, Obama thanked Congress in one of his own.

“Thank you, Congress, for spending eight years wishing you could replace me with a Republican. Or, to put it another way,” said Obama as a Donald Trump picture appeared in the background. “How do you like me now?”

Haters definitely feel the Bern.

“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

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