July 3, 2018

Second Philippine mayor shot dead in two days

A second town mayor in the Philippines has been shot and killed by an unknown assailant, a day after one was assassinated by a sniper in a brazen daylight attack.

Mayor Ferdinand Bote of the town of General Tinio in Nueva Ecija province was gunned down by a motorcycle-riding suspect in nearby Cabanatuan City on Tuesday afternoon, police told CNN Philippines.

Bote appears to have been the victim of a drive-by shooting, in which he was struck multiple times, while riding in his beige Toyota Fortuner, according to the police report.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/asia/second-philippine-mayor-shot-dead-intl/index.html

July 2, 2018

Trump & Walker Foxconn job creation scam. cost in tax subsidies $346,153 to 1,500,000 PER JOB!!

'It's a huge subsidy': the $4.8bn gamble to lure Foxconn to America
It is the largest giveaway to a foreign firm in US history. Trump claims a win – but will struggling Wisconsin benefit?

The Foxconn deal, the biggest tech-firm tax break of the Trump presidency so far, was announced at an all-star press conference at the White House last year where Donald Trump was joined by Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker; Foxconn’s chairman, Terry Gou; and House speaker Paul Ryan.

Trump, characteristically, took all the credit. “Everybody wanted Foxconn,” he said. “Frankly, they weren’t going to come to this country. I hate to say it, if I didn’t get elected, they wouldn’t be in this country. They would not have done this in this country. I think you know that very well.”

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Foxconn’s deal has proved especially controversial. A recent poll by Marquette University Law School showed 49% of Wisconsinites believe the state is paying more in incentives than it can get back, while 38% believe the state will at least break even.

In order to do so, Walker will have to make good on the promise that Foxconn will help create 13,000 new jobs in the region and transform an area still feeling the cold winds that followed the hollowing out of the US manufacturing industry.

Foxconn itself has been more circumspect on the number of jobs it will create, saying in a press release it will “create 3,000 jobs with the potential to grow to 13,000 new jobs”. Even if 13,000 new jobs are created, Wisconsin would be paying $346,153 per job at a subsidy of $4.5bn. An astronomical sum, but nothing compared to the $1.5m per job cost if the deal ends up creating just 3,000 new positions.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/02/its-a-huge-subsidy-the-48bn-gamble-to-lure-foxconn-to-america

July 2, 2018

Controversial Philippines mayor shot dead by sniper

m.cnn.com/2018/07/01/asia/philippines-mayor-halili-tanuan-shot-intl/index.html

The controversial mayor of Philippines' Tanauan City has been killed by a sniper, the city's police chief said.

Mayor Antonio Halili, who gained notoriety for parading people arrested on drug offenses, was killed with a single shot to the chest from an unknown assailant, Police Superintendent Renato Mercado told CNN.

Halili was shot during a flag-raising ceremony in front of Tanauan City Hall shortly after 8 a.m. Monday (8 p.m. Sunday ET), and declared dead at the Reyes Memorial Hospital in the city less that an hour later, attending physician Alexander Carandang said.

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Those paraded had confessed to drug offenses but had not been formally charged, he told CNN in an interview in 2016.

Halili started the contentious policy in 2014 with the help of his 70-strong "anti-crime group," government officials who dressed in all black and patrolled the streets, some armed with their own guns.

He came to prominence in a zero-tolerance climate for drug offenses in the country, led by President Rodrigo Duterte's infamous war on drugs, which has seen thousands of suspected drug users and dealers gunned down by police and vigilantes.

Halili identified strongly with the controversial leader -- "They call me the 'Duterte of Batangas,'" he told CNN in 2016, referring to the province in which Tanauan is located -- and said he was a proud supporter of Duterte and his controversial policies.

July 2, 2018

Is there a moment when a fanatical leader can be stopped before he takes a nation into the abyss?

Is there a moment when a fanatical leader can be stopped before he takes a nation into the abyss? A moment when those with the moral determination to stop him can act before it is too late?

These questions are not academic. Every day Trump stress tests this republic’s defenses against a demagogue.

History has such moments. They need to be heeded.



www.thedailybeast.com/it-is-happening-here-trump-is-already-early-stage-mussolini

July 1, 2018

John Legend debuts "Preach" at rally

July 1, 2018

warning..picture of Trump

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from this week

July 1, 2018

cop stun guns unarmed man sitting on sidewalk with back to cop. police investigating

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/07/01/unarmed-man-tased-police-sidewalk-pennsylvania-vpx.hln

Cop stun-guns man sitting on sidewalk
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, police are investigating a video showing an officer using a stun-gun on an unarmed man sitting on a sidewalk. Source: HLN

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cop-uses-stun-gun-man-171127300.html

In the video, Bernot repeatedly asks Williams to sit on the curb and stretch his legs "straight out." Williams stretches his legs, though his knees are still slightly bent, to which an officer tells him "legs straight out or you’re getting tased."

A second officer can be hear saying “put your legs straight out and cross them now.”

Williams moves his legs out and then brings them closer to the curb. Bernot can then be seen using a taser aimed at Williams's back, causing him to writhe on the ground in pain.

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Williams told the network that he doesn't know why he was tased.

Mayor Danene Sorace told Lancaster Online that she was upset by the incident and that an investigation into the officer's use of force is underway.

“Like you, when I saw the video I was upset by it and it is of great concern to me. We take the use of force very seriously,” Sorace said in a statement.

The incident comes as police departments around the nation face heightened scrutiny over their use of excessive force, particularly on black men.

July 1, 2018

Evangelical leaders are being careful not to cheer too loudly over potential overturn of Roe V Wade

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-news-evangelical-leaders-downplay-roe-reversal-20180701-story.html


NEW YORK — For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail.

Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties to the White House suspects that the Supreme Court vacancy President Donald Trump fills in the coming months will ultimately lead to the reversal of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade. But instead of celebrating publicly, some evangelical leaders are downplaying their fortune on an issue that has defined their movement for decades.

"What people don't understand is that if you overturn Roe v. Wade, all that does is give the states the right to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal," Falwell told The Associated Press in an interview. "My guess is that there'd probably be less than 20 states that would make abortion illegal if given that right."

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And while these are the very best of times for the religious right, social conservatives risk a powerful backlash from their opponents if they cheer too loudly. Women's groups have already raised the alarm for their constituents, particularly suburban women, who are poised to play an outsized role in the fight for the House majority this November.

Two-thirds of Americans do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, according to a poll released Friday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Among women of reproductive age, three out of four want the high court ruling left alone. The poll was conducted before Kennedy's retirement was announced.

July 1, 2018

Poll of Puerto Ricans in Florida - 1% to 5% rate Trump "Very good" but view repub Scott positively

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-reg-puerto-rico-florida-politics-poll-20180629-story.html


http://www.trbimg.com/img-5b369a81/turbine/fl-1530305150-bolwepl6bd-snap-image/679/679x382

Poll of Puerto Ricans in Florida has good news for Dems — and for Gov. Scott


public opinion poll released Saturday of Puerto Ricans living in Florida reveals reasons for Democrats and Republicans to be relieved — and worried.

Good news for the Democrats: 57 percent of surveyed Puerto Ricans in Florida said they were most likely to vote for Democratic candidates. Just 7 percent said they were most likely to vote for Republican. The rest were open to voting for either party.

Good news for the Republicans: The poll has some positive signs for Gov. Rick Scott, the GOP candidate challenging U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

An influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida began in 2010 and intensified since Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans have the right to register and vote, and they’ve become a highly sought after group of voters in 2018.








An estimated 1.2 million Puerto Ricans now live in Florida, a population that rivals the number of Cubans, who have historically been enormously influential in Florida politics, said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor at Florida International University.

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Scott is viewed much more positively than Trump. Though 43 percent of Puerto Ricans who came to the state before 2012 view him negatively, compared with 55 percent who see him positively, those who have arrived since view the governor much more positively.

Scott was rated positively by 82 percent of people who arrived in 2017 and 2018, 81 percent of those who arrived in 2015 and 2016, and by 79 percent of those who arrived from 2012 through 2014.

July 1, 2018

"stout," "dark" and "not pretty enough"

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BEIJING — For a moment, it looked as if China’s rigid beauty standards were on the brink of being upended — or at least expanded slightly.

“Produce 101,” a popular online talent show, puts women through their paces for one of 11 spots in a female pop band; at first, Wang Ju, a 25-year-old model manager who’d almost lost her place on the show earlier in the season, seemed an unlikely candidate for success. But over the course of a few weeks in June, Ms. Wang rode a mounting wave of public affection to find herself, as of midmonth, ranked second among the show’s 22 finalists. Suddenly, Chinese commentators were at pains to explain just how Ms. Wang — a woman Chinese media variously referred to as “stout,” “dark” and “not pretty enough” — got there.

Anyone outside China might be surprised to learn that Ms. Wang has been viewed as a mold breaker: She is, in fact, rather pretty, and her body hardly seems outside the range of average. But in a sea of bai shou meis, Ms. Wang’s differences — her slightly darker skin, her slightly larger body, and her unwillingness to apologize for them — made her stand out. Ms. Wang embraced her so-called flaws: In one video, she was shown jokingly grabbing her stomach in front of a more slender friend, who later offered her a slice of pizza. And she displayed a self-confidence that drew comparisons to American pop stars like Beyoncé: A rap she performed included the English lyrics “You don’t have to put a ring on me, I can buy my own (bling bling).”

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