Home · News · News Jan 2019 · Jan 17 2019
Thursday January 17, 2019

What the fight over Trump's border wall is really about
Axios | Stef W. Kight | 01/17/19

Here's what gets lost in the fight: this wouldn't be the first time we ever built border barriers or beefed up security. There's already fencing along as much as 690 miles of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and the number of border agents has almost tripled in the past two decades.

Why it matters: But that still leaves more than half of the almost 2,000-mile border uncovered, and there are gaps and dilapidated fencing in the barriers that are in place. The fight that has shut down the government is basically about 234 miles of new border wall that President Trump wants, according to the Trump administration's latest request. ... Read more
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A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story by Tom Gjelten

In the years since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the foreign-born population of the United States has tripled. Americans today are vastly more diverse than ever. They look different, speak different languages, practice different religions, eat different foods, and enjoy different cultures.

In 1950, Fairfax County, Virginia, was ninety percent white, ten percent African-American, with a little more than one hundred families who were "other." Currently the Anglo white population is less than fifty percent, and there are families of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American origin living all over the county. "In A Nation of Nations, National Public Radio correspondent Tom Gjelten brings these changes to life" (The Wall Street Journal), following a few immigrants to Fairfax County over recent decades as they gradually "Americanize." Hailing from Korea, Bolivia, and Libya, the families included illustrate common immigrant themes: friction between minorities, economic competition and entrepreneurship, and racial and cultural stereotyping.

It's been half a century since the Immigration and Nationality Act changed the landscape of America, and no book has assessed the impact or importance of this law as A Nation of Nations. With these "powerful human stories...Gjelten has produced a compelling and informative account of the impact of the 1965 reforms, one that is indispensable reading at a time when anti-immigrant demagoguery has again found its way onto the main stage of political discourse"

New Study Concludes Greenland Ice Sheet Is Melting Even In Winter
TRNN | Dimitri Lascaris | 01/17/19

Dr. Neil Fraser explains that warm water below the surface enters Greenland's fjords in winter-time

As the world hurdles toward potentially catastrophic global warming, the scientific community has become increasingly concerned about the world's largest ice sheets and the growing danger that their melting will cause devastating sea level rise. Of particular concern to scientists is the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Scientists estimate that it contains enough water to raise global sea levels by an average of about six meters, or twenty feet. This would obviously render numerous major coastal cities largely uninhabitable and precipitate massive flows of desperate climate refugees. Now, a new study has revealed what many would have thought unthinkable until now, that parts of the massive Greenland ice sheet are melting, even in the frigid Arctic winter. ... Read more
New Study Concludes Greenland Ice Sheet Is Melting Even In Winter | TRNN | 01/17/19 | 9:12

Trump's virtual reality presidency
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 01/17/19

One of the hardest things about reporting on President Trump is his tendency to propose wild ideas out loud and then repeat them before coming to his senses or getting talked off the ledge.

The big picture: The media, us very much included, break news on controversial ideas that never happen, leaving all of us to wonder: Was this a real idea killed by exposing it, or a POTUS brain blip? It's the virtual reality dimension of this presidency. ...

    An off-the-top-of-our head list:
  1. Leaving NATO.
  2. Bombing Iran.
  3. Death penalty for drug dealers.
  4. Birthright citizenship.
  5. Firing staff.
  6. Firing Mueller.
  7. Leaving the World Trade Organization.
  8. Blowing up Iranian fast boats in the Persian Gulf.
  9. Withdrawing troops and family dependents from South Korea.
  10. Nationalizing 5G.
Read more

Ex-Trump aide Gary Cohn calls shutdown 'completely wrong'
Politico | Matthew Choi | 01/17/19

The shutdown, which entered its 27th day Thursday and is the longest in history, shows no sign of ending soon as Democrats and the White House remain at an impasse over granting Trump more than $5 billion for a wall on the southern border. While Trump called the wall necessary for national security, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it "immoral," leading to a standoff that has furloughed thousands of federal workers and threatened basic public infrastructure.

"I don't understand what the outcome is here, and I don't understand where we're going with it," Cohn said in the interview. "I'm confused as to what the White House's strategy is on this a little bit." He added the furloughing of thousands of federal workers "makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, January 17 [12:47]
Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Thursday, January 17 (FULL) | 59:02
Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.
  1. Headlines
  2. Strike! Barbara Ehrenreich Calls on TSA Workers to Walk Off Job in Protest of Government Shutdown
  3. Native American Communities Bear Brunt of Shutdown with Medicine Shortages & Suspended Food Programs
  4. The Fox in Charge of the Henhouse: Activists Decry Trump's EPA Pick, Coal Lobbyist Andrew Wheeler
*Big Banks Better Be Scared, Here Comes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | TYT | 01/16/19 | 14:34
Nancy Pelosi Gets Under Trump's Skin And Furloughed Workers Are Desperate During Trump Shutdown (Full) | TYT | 01/17/19 | 28:14
NPR Fresh Air
How The 1965 Immigration Act Made America A Nation Of Immigrants | 01/16/19 | 36:01
"A Nation Of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story." by Tom Gjelten a NPR national desk correspondent.
The1a.org
Catching Up With The Russia Investigation | 1a.org | 01/17/19 | 1hr
Over the weekend, The Washington Post and The New York Times published explosive stories about President Donald Trump and Russia. The Times said the FBI had opened an investigation into President Trump, questioning whether he was working for Russia.

In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president's behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that President Trump has been secretive about his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
America To A Fault | 1a.org | 01/17/19 | 1hr
In the 1970s, amid Watergate, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, the U.S. was suffering an identity crisis. Historians Julian Zelizer and Kevin Kruse say the effects of these social divides remain today.

The New York Times says their book, Fault Lines: grafts a geologic metaphor onto three divisive threats to our democracy as suggested by Barack Obama in his January 2017 farewell address -- economic, racial and political -- while adding a fourth, gender and sexuality. The authors argue that these divisions have allowed the two parties, which are seen through the fractured lens of "the media," to create a situation in which Americans have become more polarized than ever. Their premise is that what they call "fault lines" have always existed but until recently were held in check by a "robust federal government, a thriving middle-class economy and a powerful union movement."
Watchdog Cries Foul On President Trump Lease Of Federal Building For Hotel | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 01/16/19 | 5:57
Was There Any Strategy Behind Rudy's Latest Remarks? | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 01/17/19 | 9:06
GOP Privately Skeptical Of Border Wall, Says Former Representative | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 01/17/19 | 13:15
Mike Pence's 'Bush League' Move On ISIS | Morning Joe | MSNBC | 01/17/19 | 4:53
'Where's Mitch McConnell?' Asks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Freshmen Dems | The Last Word | MSNBC | 01/16/19 | 16:33
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The State Of The Union Is... Cancelled? | Stephen Colbert | 01/16/19 | 7:18
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
The U.S. & The U.K.: Allies in Chaos | The Daily Show | 01/16/19 | 7:19
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump Is Losing the Shutdown Fight | The Daily Show | 01/16/19 | 10:50

01.17.2019. 12:51



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Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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