Future Former Flame

Trump Keeps Lying About 9/11

Trump lied yet again about 9/11 yesterday, saying, “Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders,” he said. “And I was down there also. But I am not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”

Trump’s statement-- suggesting that he deserves some measure of credit for showing up at the site-- echoes previous remarks he’s made about Sept. 11, including at an April 2016 campaign stop in Buffalo, New York, where he told his supporters that he assisted with recovery efforts.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble ― and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit-- but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” he said. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us--  and they handled it.”

The vague implication that he was lending a hand, even placing himself in harm’s way, remains completely unsubstantiated.

According to an excerpt from local paper Newsday, Trump was interviewed from the 9/11 scene, having been quoted in a story that ran three days after 9/11:

The workers are so worn out that they barely glance at the sight of Donald Trump, every hair in place and impeccably dressed in a black suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, walking into the plaza with his cellular phone to his ear.

“No, no. The building’s gone,” he says into the phone.

Trump also spoke to a German TV reporter on September 13 and can be seen standing in Lower Manhattan. While he said in the interview that he had “a lot of men” helping out-- roughly 225 total-- PolitiFact was unable to corroborate that claim after researching it earlier this year.

At a Columbus, Ohio, rally on November 2015, Trump claimed that he watched from his apartment as people leapt from the crumbling towers and that he witnessed the second plane coming in. Since Trump Tower is located in midtown, more than four miles away from where the World Trade Center stood, it’s highly unlikely Trump could have seen the destruction from his window. 

Trump also made what many saw as a fraudulent claim for $150,000 in federal recovery grants intended for small businesses impacted by the September 11 attacks, a New York Daily News investigation discovered, even though his properties were not damaged.

But none of these come close to the worst lie Trump has made about 9/11.  During a February 2016 campaign debate, Trump claimed that "I lost hundreds of friends at 9/11", but his campaign did not provide a single name.   The next day, in an interview with Chuck Todd, Trump changed his story to "I lost many, many friends."  In the years since, Trump has never substantiated these claims.  The truth is that Trump lost ZERO friends at 9/11.

Keeping It Real

Responding to Racism

The Baltimore Sun’s editorial board has responded to Trump’s racist attack on the city in an option piece titled “Better to Have a Few Rats Than to Be One.”

“If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much his responsibility as anyone’s, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land,” the editorial said.   “‘It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream.”

David Simon, the creator and star of the seminal TV series The Wire has blasted Donald Trump, calling him a “simplistic, racist moron” and “a permanent stain on our land”.

Actor Dominic West, who played Detective Jimmy McNulty in all five seasons of The Wire, asked: “What would a lonely hysterical neurotic who uses hand cleanser all day understand about a vibrant community like Baltimore?

Filmmaker John Waters said in an interview “Give me the rats and roaches of Baltimore any day over the lies and racism of your Washington, Mr Trump. Come on over to that neighborhood and see if you have the nerve to say it in person!”

Simon later tweeted that  Baltimore was “a city of good Americans who deserve more than a grifting, hollow and self-absorbed failure of a man as their president”.  He added that Trump he would find the “humanity of those he encountered [in Baltimore] could not matter to him; only their lack of whiteness and his discomfort”.

Did You Know that Racism is Stil Ingrained in Geography?

“Patriot Act,” host Hasan Minhaj has revealed that there are still way too many places with racist, federally recognized names.

“There is a place called ‘Negro Point.’ It’s actually on Randall’s Island,” he said of a spot in New York City. “When you think about racist islands in New York, you generally think Rikers.”

The point on the East River didn’t even have a name until 1984, “when a survey team learned the name riverboat workers used to refer to the outcropping of rocks and sanitized it for official purposes.”

Minhaj said that while there was a hearing to rename the spot in 2011, groups including the Coast Guard and the Sandy Hook Pilot’s Association argued that “changing the maps would potentially confuse tugboat captains.”

“When have we let tugboat captains stand in the way of racial progress?” the host quipped.

Minhaj referred to a 2015 study from Voactiv that documented more than 1,400 federally recognized places across the U.S. included slurs in their official names.

Places with derogatory names exist in every state, though the largest clusters are in the West and the South. California has at least 159 place names that are offensive to Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese people and Italians.  Not surprisingly, the thickest and most diverse cluster of racist place names is in Arizona.

At least 558 place names across the nation include derogatory words referring to African Americans. The majority contain the word “negro” and many of those were originally known by an even more offensive name until former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall wiped the word “Ni**er” off the map in 1962.  The despicable list also includes the slurs “Uncle Tom,” “pickaninny” and “Jim Crow.”  

In 1974, a federal board replaced all uses of the word “Jap” on the federal map with “Japanese,” after the Japanese American Citizens League protested the name of Jap Creek, Oregon. The initiative led to the changing of nearly 200 names. Yet, other signs of anti-Asian sentiments remain on the map.

There are 30 “Chinaman” place names listed in the federal database. The list had been longer by seven names until individual Chinese Americans and the Asian Pacific American advocacy group Organization of Chinese Americans separately pushed to have them changed. One of the most recent examples was Chinamans Arch in Utah, which was renamed to Chinese Arch in 2004.

The most common slur used in place names across the nation is “squaw.” There are 828 such locations across nearly every state, from Squaw Rock, Massachusetts to Squaw Valley Ski Resort in California. These names remain though many consider the word to be the most offensive term that can be used for Native American women.

Some historians and etymologists insist “squaw” is an innocent Algonquian word meaning “woman.” But many activists and Native Americans argue it is a white bastardization of the Mohawk word for vagina, “ojiskwa.”

Post Malone - Goodbyes

Like Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Tone-dead Melania tweeted about what she was doing on the day everyone was glued to the Mueller hearings:

. . . and the Twitter-verse responded accordingly:

Thank you, Twitter!

CBP and ICE Abuses Continue--When Will It Stop?

An American teenager has been detained by border officials for nearly a month despite being a U.S. citizen.  Francisco Erwin Galicia, who was born in Dallas, was detained at a checkpoint while traveling to a football scouting event in north Texas, his family says.

Officials have refused to release the 18-year-old, who is Hispanic, even though he has documents proving his citizenship.

Galicia's mother, Sanjuana Galicia, told the Dallas Morning News that her son had been traveling with his brother and friends from their home in Edinburg, in the south of Texas, to a college west of Dallas in late June.  The group was stopped at a checkpoint soon into their journey.

Galicia's 17-year-old brother, Marlon, was born in Mexico and does not have U.S. citizenship.  Marlon was detained - but so was Francisco, who was carrying a Texas ID card, which can only be obtained with a social security number.

Marlon agreed to be deported to Mexico, and is now living with his grandmother in Mexico.  However, Francisco spent three weeks in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), where his mother says he was unable to make phone calls. In recent days, he has moved to ICE custody and has been able to call his mother.

Mrs Galan said she had presented ICE with Francisco's birth certificate and other documents to prove he is a U.S. citizen, but has been unable to get him released.

"He's going on a full month of being wrongfully detained," his mother said. "He's a U.S. citizen and he needs to be released now."  To date, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has refused to comment.

How Long Can Embattled Puerto Rico Governor Hand On?

Hundreds of thousands of people filled San Juan streets on Monday to demand that Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resign over offensive chat messages, the latest scandal to hit a bankrupt island struggling to recover from deadly 2017 hurricanes.

Rosselló apologized last week after the leak of a chat message in which he referred to Melissa Mark-Viverito, (the Puerto Rico-born former speaker of the New York City Council) using the Spanish word for "whore."

The governor wrote that he was upset Mark-Viverito had criticized Tom Perez (chair of the Democratic National Committee) for backing Puerto Rico statehood.  "Our people should come out and defend Tom and beat up that whore," Rosselló wrote.

In another chat, Christian Sobrino Vega (at the time, Puerto Rico's Chief Financial Officer)) expressed frustration with San Juan Major Carmen Yulín Cruz.  "I am salivating to shoot her," he wrote.

"You'd be doing me a grand favor," the governor responded, according to the leaked chats.

At one point, the governor wrote that Yulín Cruz must be "off her meds" by deciding to run against him.

"Either that, or she's a tremendous HP," he said, using the Spanish acronym for "son/daughter of a bitch."

In another chat, Sobrino Vega made vulgar references to Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin's sexuality.  "Nothing says patriarchal oppression like Ricky Martin," he wrote.

"Ricky Martin is such a male chauvinist that he fucks men because women don't measure up. Pure patriarchy."

Referring to the federal oversight board that has controlled the US territory's finances since 2016, Rossello wrote in English, "go fuck yourself," followed by a string of middle finger emojis.

In another chat, Sobrino Vega (the former CFO) was asked about the budget for forensic pathologists.  He responded with joke about the growing piles of dead bodies at the morgue in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

"Now that we are on the subject, don't we have some cadavers to feed our crows?" he wrote in an apparent reference to government critics.  "Clearly they need attention."

Rosselló’s announcement on Sunday that he would not seek re-election next year and would step down as head of the New Progressive Party seemed to have little effect on the crowds, who called for him to immediately surrender the governorship.

The protests were also sparked by U.S. authorities’ announcement of a federal indictment involving six people, including two former high-rankingPuerto Rico government officials, charged with conspiracy and other crimes in connection with millions of dollars in federal Medicaid and education funds.

Crowds of people, many dressed in black T-shirts and waving the U.S. island territory’s flag, have continued to fill streets (and now a major highway in San Juan) in a series of more than a week of sometimes violent protests in the capital and elsewhere.

“They can’t deny it: The power is in the street,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tweeted.

“These governments are corrupt governments,” said Martin Gonzalez, who joined Monday’s march. “The people must make themselves be respected. And we take to the streets to be respected.”

Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, called on Rosselló to resign in an editorial published on Monday.  “Puerto Rico has spoken up, not only as a strong, broad and united voice but as the right voice,” the editorial said. “With a gesture of nobility and humility, Governor, it is time to listen to the people. You have to resign.”

Christie's Auction House Looks to Be Facilitating Illegal Looting

A sculpture of King Tutankhamun, one of only a few portraits of the king in existence, has been sold at Christie’s for just shy of $6 million.

The sale of the life-sized head was surprising not only because the item sold for so much money, but also because the item is the focus of legal action, protests, and a potential diplomatic dispute. There’s no evidence that this statue of Egypt’s most famous monarch left Egypt legally and many believe that the item was looted. Nevertheless, despite protests from the Egyptian embassy in London, Christie’s went ahead with the sale and allowed both the seller and the buyer to remain anonymous.

Ironically, Christie’s said in a statement, “Our role today is to work to continue to provide a transparent, legitimate marketplace upholding the highest standards for the transfer of objects.” Their position is that the sculpture had previously belonged to Prince Wilhelm von Thurn und Taxis, who subsequently sold it in the early 1970s to Josef Messina, the owner of a gallery in Vienna.

An investigation by Live Science revealed that there are reasons to doubt this story., as Wilhelm’s son and niece have said that Wilhelm had absolutely no interest in ancient artifacts.   Egyptologist Sylvia Schoske, who wrote an article about the sculpture, said that when she studied it, it was owned by an antiquities dealer named Heinz Herzer. 

The Egyptian government believes that the item was looted from the Karnak Temple, just north of the ancient city of Luxor, sometime after 1970.   Since 1970, UNESCO has created a set of guidelines regarding the preservation of cultural heritage, specifically intended to prevent artifacts from leaving their countries of origin without government permission. Antiquities dealers around the world are aware that they must fully document the trail of ownership going back to at least 1970 if they want to sell across international borders. Egypt has restricted the unauthorized removal of antiquities from within its borders since 1835.

As academic Brent Nongbri, author of the book God’s Library, told The Daily Beast, “Even if Christies is being fully truthful, the removal of the artifact from Egypt in the 1960s without proper documentation was in violation of Egyptian law at the time. The current seller and buyer are thus in an awkward position, and so is Christie’s, which facilitates these shady transactions by their tolerance/encouragement of anonymous selling and purchasing. If everything about this sale was completely legitimate, why all the secrecy?”

It remains to be seen if it will be turned over to the new owner.  Zahi Hawass, former Egyptian minister of antiquities, suggested that Egypt will almost certainly lodge an official complaint with UNESCO and take legal action in order to repatriate the sculpture. In the meantime, one of the few portraits of King Tutankhamun will remain in the hands of an anonymous private collection.

For Trump, People Can Die as Long as Corporations Make Money

A court ruling requiring the EPA to make a decision on banning pesticides that cause brain damage in children ended this week in the worst possible way, as EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler overrode the recommendation of the EPA scientific advisory board and announced that the EPA will not ban chlorpyrifos. The decision represents a big win for the chemical industry, and a major demonstration of how, in the Trump administration, lobbyists beat scientists every time.

As The New York Times reports, this action follows the agency’s recent refusal to ban asbestos, despite the recommendation of the agency’s experts, and despite knowing that the fibrous mineral is the leading cause of mesothelioma. That action led to multiple, still-ongoing lawsuits in an attempt to force the EPA to act.

But the chlorpyrifos decision was actually the end result of a series of lawsuits that were kicked off in 2017. The Obama administration had announced a ban on chlorpyrifos in 2015 after initial reports showed that it causes brain damage in children. But the ban had not gone into effect when Trump took office. Scott Pruitt immediately reversed the announcement when he took control of the EPA in 2017 and decided the agency would simply … not decide. It would allow the pesticides to stay on the market by simply not making a decision.

That generated a series of lawsuits, which eventually resulted in a ruling that the EPA had to make a decision on the child-threatening pesticide. And then, after stretching it out to the last moment, Wheeler did decide—to allow the pesticide to remain on the market. Taken together, the pesticide and asbestos non-actions show that, under Donald Trump and coal lobbyist Wheeler, even the most blatantly obvious cases of public harm aren’t enough to generate any restrictions that might cause corporations to lose money.

This Week on the Internet

Tiesto, Jonas Blue & Rita Ora - Ritual

Pounding the Punani Pavement

A woman has been killed after falling from the ninth floor of a block of flats in Russia while having sex-- but incredibly, her partner survived after landing on top of her.

The 30-year-old woman was found dead on the ground beside an apartment building in St. Petersburg, during what neighbors described as a wild party.  Witnesses said they saw a television thrown from the window of the apartment, after which the woman and her 29-year-old lover plunged to the ground below.

The woman landed head-first on the asphalt and died instantly, according to reports-- but the man survived after his fall was broken by her body and some nearby bushes.  Witnesses described how the partially clothed man then got up and went back inside to rejoin the party.

Police were called and when they arrived, the revelers allegedly threw a mop out of the windows at them.  After interviewing witnesses, investigators concluded that the couple were having sex on a windowsill when they fell.  Investigators determined that two other men were in the flat when the fall happened, but are not thought to have been involved.

Fearing for His Own Reputation, Pence Nixes Judge from his Home State

The Trump White House was looking to nominate Tom Fisher, Indiana's solicitor general, for an expected opening on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Sound like a good deal-- replacing a 79-year-old close to retirement judge with a much younger conservative judge who could serve for life and also happened to have clerked for the elder judge he would be replacing.

A great deal for everyone but Vice President Mike Pence, it seems.  Politico reports that Pence and his aides actually killed Fisher's nomination-- because, as the state's solicitor general, Fisher's job was to defend the policies of the Pence administration when he was still governor. Apparently, Pence and his aides weren't super excited by the prospect of a nomination that would bring scrutiny and media attention to Pence's record as chief executive of Indiana. In particular, Pence didn't want to revisit an episode in which he tried to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees to Indiana—an effort that was resoundingly rejected in court.


But that wasn't the only issue from which Pence was running.  Pence's entire term as governor was pretty disastrous and he was most likely headed toward electoral defeat in 2016 when Trump gave him the escape hatch of being his VP pick.  If Pence is trying to keep his own Solicitor General under wraps in order to cover up his own policies, just imagine what kind of political landmines are lurking in Pence's record.

Trump Ignoring the Law on Legal Asylum

The Trump administration has announced new immigration rules ending asylum protections for almost all migrants who arrive at the US-Mexico border, in violation of both US and international law.

According to the new rules, any asylum seekers who pass through another country before arriving at the southern border – including children traveling on their own – will not be eligible for asylum if they failed to apply first in their country of transit. They would only be eligible for US asylum if their application was turned down elsewhere.

The change would affect the vast majority of migrants arriving through Mexico. Most of those currently come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but an increasing number are from Haiti, Cuba and countries further afield in Africa and Asia.

The new rules were placed on the federal register on Monday and due to take effect on Tuesday.   The American Civil Liberties Union said the rules were “patently unlawful” and said it would sue the administration to block them taking effect.

The U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 limits the right of asylum if the applicant can be sent back to a “safe third country”, but human rights advocates have pointed out that neither Mexico nor any Central American countries come close to meeting the act’s standards of a safe third country, “where the alien’s life or freedom would not be threatened”... “and where the alien would have access to a full an fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum”.

Furthermore, for a country to be considered “safe”, it would have to enter into a formal agreement with the US. In recent months, the US has sought to conclude safe third country agreements with Mexico and Guatemala, but Mexico rejected the initiative and the agreement in Guatemala was blocked on Sunday by that country’s constitutional court. The new rules published on Monday simply ignore the safe third country standard.

Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that the new rules would not apply to Mexicans or turn Mexico into a safe third country. “Mexico doesn’t agree with measures that limits people seeking asylum or refuge,” he said.

The move represents the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to cut off the flow of migrants through the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the “migrant protection protocols”, the U.S. has required migrants to wait in Mexico while their cases are decided in US immigration courts.

“This rule will be challenged because it is contrary to the asylum statute and to U.S. obligations to refugees under international law,” Keren Zwick, a litigator at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
An Amnesty International assessment of the Mexican asylum system found it was “underfunded, absolutely beyond its capacity and inadequate in identifying even valued asylum claims” according to the organisation’s advocacy director for the Americas, Charanya Krishnaswami. The study found that Mexico sent a quarter of applicants back to the countries they were fleeing without due process.

“Those dangers make clear that Mexico would not be a safe place for the many thousands who are seeking protection at the US border,” Krishnaswami said.

So Much For Draining the Swamp!

President Donald Trump has lost more of his Cabinet secretaries to corruption and other ethics concerns in his first term than any other president in U.S. history. The departure of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta over the past sweetheart deal he gave pedophile hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein is just the latest incident.

With Acosta’s announced exit, the total number of ethics-related Cabinet-level departures in the Trump administration has reached five. This is an ignominious record for a president who claimed he would “drain the swamp” in Washington and eliminate corruption. The president has instead run one of the most corrupt administrations in American history with lax oversight, nepotism, self-dealing and the appointment of dozens of lobbyists to oversee the industries they previously worked for.

The five Cabinet secretaries who have left or are leaving the Trump administration under clouds of alleged corruption are former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Acosta. 

On top of these five Cabinet secretaries to depart under ethics clouds, there have been numerous proposed Trump appointments scuttled due to ethics controversies. Before Acosta became the labor secretary, Trump chose fast-food chain operator Andy Puzder for the job. But Puzder pulled his nomination amid accusations of labor violations, employment of undocumented immigrants and spousal abuse. Trump’s attempt to name White House physician Ronny Jackson to fill Shulkin’s position at Veterans Affairs ended after allegations of misconduct and mismanagement by Jackson emerged.

The replacements for the five ousted Cabinet members have their own problems. Four of them were previously lobbyists or corporate executives for the industries they now oversee. Acosta’s temporary replacement as acting labor secretary is Patrick Pizzella, a former lobbyist for overseas sweatshops.

Hash Brown Breakdown

A man in North Carolina is accusing the Hardee’s fast food chain of violating his civil rights by shorting him on his fried potatoes.

58-year-old Tommy Martin of Mount Holly, NC is suing Hardee’s after he was given only two hash rounds with his breakfast platter at the Belmont, NC location.  A photo for the dish on the restaurant’s website shows about a dozen hash rounds on the plate.

Martin, who is black, told the Charlotte Observer he believes the tater shorting was racially motivated since he was the only non-white person dining or working at the Hardee’s.  “It’s not a money issue,” Martin said. “I just want to be treated fairly.”

According to the handwritten lawsuit obtained by the Jacksonville Daily News, Martin first complained to the cashier, who tried to correct the order.  However, Martin claims the manager stopped the employee from adding more hash rounds to the order, saying to him, “That what you get.”  The manager did also refund his money for the purchase.

In the lawsuit, Martin said he was teary-eyed by the time he got home and decided he had to do something.  Martin also reported the incident to police.

Martin said he now suffers from cibophobia, a fear of food.  A spokesperson at the Hardee’s corporate office released a statement to saying it takes the allegations seriously but is declining to comment since the lawsuit is against an independently owned and operated franchise.

If Our Founding Fathers Could Talk to Us

Beyonce - Spirit

Acosta la Vista, Baby

Another Jeff Epstein victim has now come forward with charges against the convicted child predator.  Jennifer Araoz told NBC News about how she was recruited at 14 by an Epstein associate, groomed, and ultimately raped by Epstein at 15.

Araoz's story has been confirmed by several friends and her mother to whom she eventually confessed. Her mother attests to the drastic change in her daughter following the rape. She told NBC that she "noticed a change in her daughter's behavior and appearance around 2002," the time of the attack, when she withdrew, lost weight, and became angry. "I was really scared," the mother said. "She was so anxious but I couldn't figure out why. The anxiety got so bad that she couldn't function and I urged her to go to a doctor."

2002 was the same year that Trump told New York Magazine "I've known Jeff [Epstein] for 15 years. Terrific guy.  He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." Epstein's proclivities were apparently a joke to Trump.

And now comes new of another damning interaction between Trump and Epstein in 1992, related by George Houraney, a Florida-based businessman who ran American Dream Enterprise. Trump recruited him to provide the "entertainment" for an exclusive party at Mar-a-Lago, a "calendar girl" competition. "I arranged to have some contestants fly in," Houraney told the New York Times in an interview. "At the very first party, I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.   I said, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You're telling me it's [just] you and Epstein?'"  

Houraney said he warned Trump about Epstein, and was blown off. "I said, 'Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can't have him going after younger girls.'" He said Trump dismissed his concerns, saying to Houraney "Look I'm putting my name on this. I wouldn't put my name on it and have a scandal." And the fact that Houraney "pretty much had to ban Jeff from my events—Trump didn't care about that." 

It should come as no surprise that our misogynist president doesn't seem to care at all about women-- now come reports that he had agreed to host a stripper golf tournament at one of his golf properties.  Once stories about "stripper-gate" hit the news cycle, Trump's organization pulled the plug on the entire affair just last night.  Just to be clear, the strippers weren't going to be golfing. The plan was to sell the strippers at an "auction" the night before the tournament and have them serve as caddies.  Ball cleaning and shaft polishing were optional.

In the face of all this brouhaha and negative coverage, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta held a press conference in an attempt to deflect the increasing heat for his role in allowing Epstein the pervert to walk away nearly scot-free over 10 years ago.  Acosta was the U.S. Attorney that handled Epstein's sweetheart deal back in 2007-- and he still (incredibly) doesn't believe that Epstein got off easy.  He continues in his efforts to shift the blame to Florida state prosecutors-- saying that they had insufficient evidence to take to court and that he (Acosta) stepped in to stop the billionaire sex predator from getting off with no punishment.  Acosta actually tried to convince people that it was only due to his efforts that Epstein served any jail time and registered as a sex offender.   The problem is that people are now saying that the evidence in the original 2007 indictment was overwhelming.   And after all was said and done, Acosta forgot about the victims-- ensuring that the sweetheart deal was kept secret, and that the victims were never notified (apparently, in violation of the law).  

What Acosta didn't explain is why his office didn’t more fully investigate the allegations against Epstein and get the evidence needed to bring federal charges.  There are reports that, at the time, the FBI was fully prepared to investigate further as it believed victims existed outside the Palm Beach area-- but Acosta's actions shut down the whole operation, going so far as to grant immunity against any unnamed co-conspirators (another highly unusual move).     In addition, Acosta failed to talk about how he and his team were lambasted this year by a federal judge for not notifying victims of the non-prosecution deal, in violation of a victims’ rights law.

During the entire press conference, Acosta was smug, and didn't make a single apology.  He said on several occasions that he "proceeded appropriately"given the circumstances-- but practically no one agrees that he did, including the federal judge overseeing the case reexamining the original non-prosecution agreement.  Observers have commented that telephones, computers, planes and boats were used by Epstein in the commission of his crimes-- which would have given Acosta plenty of opportunities to bring federal charges, even if he thought the Florida state charges were insufficient.

Within hours of Acosta's shameful attempt to defend  his actions, former Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer said in a statement that Alex Acosta was “completely wrong" and "should not be allowed to rewrite history.”

“Secretary Acosta has a disturbing record on sexual and human trafficking that stretches from the horribly permissive plea agreement he gave to Jeffrey Epstein, up to his time now as Labor Secretary," said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman, who has pointed out that Acosta was also responsible for implementing new Labor Department directives that would impede anti-trafficking efforts. 

This Epstein story promises to be a slow-burning one, with many more victims practically guaranteed to come out of the woodwork and get lots of media coverage during the slow news months in late summer.  So even though Acosta seems intent on hanging on to his job for now, Trump and the GOP are surely going to become more intolerant of the heat and eventually give him the heave-ho.

Lesson for the Orangeman

Algae Blooms Force Closure of all Mississippi Beaches, Threatening Economic Growth for Already Impoverished State

Mississippi voters keep voting for climate change deniers who spend most of their time trying to ban abortion (because that’s Mississippi’s biggest problem, right?). All I can say is that they are now getting what they voted for-- as environmental ignorance is rapidly destroying two important sectors of the state's economy.

Well, it now seems that Mississippi is feeling the effects of climate change bumping up against reliance on pollutants to control our environments. All 21 beaches along the Mississippi gulf coast have now been closed due to an enormous blue-green harmful algal bloom (HAB).

HABs are induced by an overabundance of nutrients in the water. The two most common nutrients are fixed nitrogen (nitrates, ammonia, urea) and phosphate.  These nutrients are emitted by agriculture, other industries, excessive fertilizer use in urban/suburban areas and associated urban runoff.  Higher water temperature and low circulation are contributing factors.  HABs can cause significant harm to animals, the environment and economies. They have been increasing in size and frequency worldwide, a fact that many experts attribute to global climate change.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has advised all people (and their pets) to avoid water contact such as swimming or wading because exposure to the blue-green HAB can be harmful.  The algae can cause rashes, stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. MDEQ advises that those exposed wash with soap and water and to not eat fish or any other seafood taken from affected areas.

According to experts, the algae bloom is due to the excessive amount of rain that hit the eastern United States this spring, in tandem with an overuse of fertilizer. The combination has led to a freshwater runoff into the Gulf that fed this bloom.  This is not a new phenomenon and it is not limited to just Mississippi.

In June 2015, the largest known toxic HAB forced the shutdown of the west coast shellfish industry, the first time that has ever happened. One Seattle NOAA expert commented, "This is unprecedented in terms of the extent and magnitude of this harmful algal bloom and the warm water conditions we're seeing offshore." The bloom covered a range from Santa Barbara, California northward to Alaska.

Algae blooms can harm the environment even without producing toxins-- then can also by deplete oxygen from the water when growing and while decaying after they die.  Blooms can also block sunlight to organisms living beneath it.  A record-breaking number and size of blooms have formed in the Pacific coast, in Lake Erie, in the Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico, where a number of dead zones were created as a result.  Unfortunately, dead zones rarely recover and usually grow in size.

West coast algal bloom of 2015

 In June 2015, the largest known toxic HAB forced the shutdown of the west coast shellfish industry, the first time that has ever happened. One Seattle NOAA expert commented, "This is unprecedented in terms of the extent and magnitude of this harmful algal bloom and the warm water conditions we're seeing offshore." The bloom covered a range from Santa Barbara, California northward to Alaska.

Algae blooms can harm the environment even without producing toxins-- then can also by deplete oxygen from the water when growing and while decaying after they die. Blooms can also block sunlight to organisms living beneath it. A record-breaking number and size of blooms have formed in the Pacific coast, in Lake Erie, in the Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico, where a number of dead zones were created as a result.  Unfortunately, dead zones rarely recover and usually grow in size.

Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico

In July 2016 Florida declared a state of emergency for four counties as a result of algae blooms. They were said to be "destroying" a number of businesses and affecting local economies, with many needing to shut down entirely.  Some beaches were closed, and hotels and restaurants suffered a drop in business. Tourist sporting activities such as fishing and boating were also affected.   Senator Marco Rubio called the situation in Florida "a health, ecological and economic emergency."

Attention all Mississippians:  keep voting for Republicans, and you'll end up killing off your tourism and fishing industries.  Let's hope gambling can pick up the slack!

Florida School Promoting Holocaust Denial

According to a new report, a Florida high school principal defended Holocaust deniers when he was asked by a parent how his school teaches about the World War II atrocity and wrote that “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.”

Holocaust denial is considered to be a form of anti-Semitism.  Holocaust deniers are generally believed to be motivated by hatred of Jews and typically claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests,

The surprising response was revealed in emails between the parent and principal at Boca Raton’s Spanish River Community High School sent in April of 2018,

The parent, who did not want her name published, told local reporters that she had reached out to Principal William Latson about how his school prioritizes that part of world history. The mother mentioned a 1994 Florida mandate that requires Holocaust education in public schools.

Latson replied by saying that the school offers a one-day lesson to 10th graders but he said it’s not mandatory as some parents “don’t want their children to participate.”

“The Holocaust is a factual, historical event,” the mother responded. “It is not a right or a belief.”

Latson, however, protested, saying “Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened and you have your thoughts but we are a public school and not all of our parents have the same beliefs so they will react differently.  I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.”

He added that the school presents information about the Holocaust to the students and allows them to make their own decisions about it. He said it does the same when it comes to slavery.

Latson, in a statement to the Post, apologized, saying the views he expressed in his emails “did not accurately reflect my professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust.”  Latson was reportedly not disciplined over his conduct.

Moneyed Progressives Increasingly Blocking Initiatives to Address Housing and Transportations Measures

Huffpost has an excellent article on how many (supposedly) progressive cities are encountering problems with locals who are losing their minds over issues related to housing, zoning and transportation. Ugly public meetings are becoming increasingly common in cities across the country as residents frustrated by worsening traffic, dwindling parking and rising homelessness take up fierce opposition. 

A year ago, a public meeting in a wealthy enclave in Seattle devolved into a two-hour temper tantrum as longtime residents incensed about a proposed tax to fund homeless services shouted down its proponents. Last September, a community hearing over a proposed homeless shelter in Los Angeles had to be cut short after boos and jeering repeatedly interrupted speakers. Throughout 2018, public meetings in Minneapolis to discuss changing the city’s residential zoning code erupted into shouts and insults from audience members. At a public meeting last August on homelessness in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, audience members chanted, “Lock her up!” at a female representative of the mayor’s office.

These scenes are usually sparked by projects or policy changes intended to address America’s worsening housing crisis. More than 200 American cities now have median home values above $1 million. The construction of new dwellings has lagged behind the number of new households eight years in a row. Both congestion and climate change are prompting many cities to explore expanding their public transportation networks.

And yet, despite the urgency of the need and the expert consensus on solutions, individual efforts to increase density, improve transit or alleviate homelessness can spend years bogged down by local opposition. In March, neighborhood activists in Los Angeles threatened to sue the city over the installation of a 0.8-mile bike lane. Residents of Seattle’s wealthiest neighborhood demanded reserved seats on city buses and exemptions from road tolls in exchange for permitting a light-rail station. A crowd of more than 1,000 people booed a homeless man who got up to speak in support of a new shelter in Salt Lake City.

Alex Baca, a housing program organizer for the pro-density nonprofit Greater Greater Washington, said neighborhood opposition groups nearly always claim to support public transit and affordable housing in general but use technical arguments and procedural roadblocks to make sure such projects aren’t built in their neighborhoods.

Examples of this can be found in nearly every city experiencing job and population growth. In San Francisco, residents of a wealthy neighborhood opposed the construction of low-income senior housing, citing concerns that it was seismically unstable. Seattle homeowners sued a homeless housing project over a technicality related to its permitting. In Boise, by some measures the fastest-growing city in the country, one of the arguments employed by residents fighting the construction of new townhomes is that they will reduce pedestrian safety.

“It’s like playing Whac-a-Mole,” Baca said. “No matter what you propose, they’ll tell you that if it was just a little bit different, they could support it. But then you come back with the changes they asked for and they find a new reason to fight it.”

Nearly three-quarters of the jobs created since the Great Recession were added in cities with populations over 1 million. As cities continue to swell with new workers, their inability to build dense housing and high-quality bus and train service will push low-income residents even farther away from jobs and schools.

And yet cities often give in to neighborhood groups opposing this much-needed infrastructure. The proposed homeless shelter booed by Salt Lake City residents in 2017 was canceled the next day. Schwartz’s lawsuit has succeeded in delaying the bus lane on 14th Street. The tantrum-throwing Seattleites eventually won the repeal of the tax they were shouting about.

“It’s frustrating,” Lewis said. “The people with the most privilege pack the meetings, shout over everybody else and get their way.”

Trump's Fourth Failure: Postscript

Donald Trump, who was unwilling to honor Word War I veterans at a French cemetery last year due to rain, delivered his "Salute to America" speech on the mall this week despite the threat of bad weather.  Without a moment of unease over the hypocrisy of his words, Trump (who received five deferments to avoid military service in Vietnam) encourage young people who were listening to join the military "and make a great statement in life.  And you should do it."

Many Trump supporters were disappointed after trekking all the way to the Mall in the rain, however.  That is when they discovered that the actual event was primarily for the wealthy and privileged-- as the tanks and military equipment put on display were actually behind the closed perimeter for VIP's and GOP donors.

VIP tickets were provided to the Republican National Committee, who then offered them to high-dollar GOP donors.  Trump's re-election campaign also got some tickets to hand out as they saw fit.  Neither the Democratic National Committee nor any Democratic Congressional leaders were provided with tickets.

The event was held on National Park Service (government) property, and $2.5 million was diverted in federal funds away from the National Park Service to help pay for staging the event.   And with all the money spent on trying to upstage the New York City fireworks, it was a puzzlement that Trump couldn't afford to hire someone to squeegee the water droplets off the protective glass before he delivered his speech.

The actual speech given by Trump (dubbed the "Forgettysburg Address") was remarkably free to the rhetoric typically heard at his rallies-- but it contained several historical errors nonetheless.  At one point, Trump referred to airports existing in 1775-- saying the Continental Army "manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do" during the Revolutionary War against Britain.   Many have attributed the slip up to Trump's known difficulty in reading from the teleprompter.

Trump also mixed up the War of 1812 and the War of Independence, mistaking the Battle of For McHenry as having taken place during the Revolutionary War.

Two companies, Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci, donated about $750,000 worth of pyrotechnics for the ceremony-- amid efforts by the two companies' CEO's to get the Trump administration to abandon tariffs on imports from China that would deal a below to the U.S. fireworks industry.  The tariffs were part of a $300 billion package of such measures that the president delayed last week, granting fireworks companies a temporary reprieve.

View of fireworks on the Mall

The ostentatious display of pyrotechnics backfired, however-- as the excessive rush of explosions at the beginning of the display created a thick blanket of smoke that prevented visitors at the National Mall from seeing most of the remaining fireworks.  After the show was over, the lingering smoke combined with the high humidity, creating a pollution hazard for city residents for the remainder of the evening.

The fireworks donations nonetheless boosted a ceremony that prominently featured Trump himself, just as his 2020 re-election campaign kicks into gear.  And the event didn't just stand to benefit Trump politically-- his DC hotel also capitalized on the tourism boom surround the Independence Day festivities.  As of Wednesday morning, the Trump International Hotel (just blocks from the White House) was still offering rooms for a minimum three-night stay starting at $1,151 or more per night.

Afterward, the Trump even was marred by an unseemly brawl that broke out between protesters and members of the alt-right militant group Proud Boys, after the former set fire to the stars-and-stripes in front of the White House.

View of the fireworks from the Virginia Suburbs

View from the East end of the National Mall

Smoky haze that lingered in Dupont Circle hours after the event