News for today's 2018

There is nothing random about LAX shooting

12:41 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="imgon2"><img alt="Paul Ciancia (inset) is suspected of killing a TSA officer and wounding two other people at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. (photo: NBC Los Angeles)" border="0" height="181" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/article_imgs10/011015-lax-shooter-110313.jpg" style="border: 0px none;" title="Paul Ciancia (inset) is suspected of killing a TSA officer and wounding two other people at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. (photo: NBC Los Angeles)" width="400" /> Paul Ciancia (inset) is suspected of killing a TSA officer and wounding two other people at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. (photo: NBC Los Angeles)</div> <div class="txtauthor"> </div><div class="txtauthor">By Charles Pierce, Esquire</div><div class="date">03 November 13</div><div class="date"><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/">readersupportednews.org</a> </div>  <img border="0" src="http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-I.jpg" />t appears the TSA agent shot this morning four terminals over has died. That was the word carried by dozens of people who had decided to walk out of LAX in search of rental cars and whiskey, whose number I will be joining shortly. (One report has the shooter, in custody, as "a white man in a white shirt." Investigation is ongoing.)  Terminal 7 is gradually coming to life again; flights here will be delayed, but we are not a crime scene, so things likely will get back to normal by nightfall. There are bomb squads with dogs wandering about. The ticketing area is abuzz with low cellphone conversations reassuring loved ones that everything's okay, and that folks are likely going to be a little late going home. Every now and again, a person in a TSA uniform will wander by. They have the 1000-yard stare going. The shock waves are weaker, but you can still feel them moving through the place. A cop just ran by. Everybody turned and stared. <div class="indent">There already is some talk about this event being a "random" one. But it is not. These things are becoming as regular as rain, as predictable as the summer heat.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">The only thing "random" about it is the shooter. He could be anyone, and that's the point. There are people who spend money making sure that he could be anyone, and there's nothing "random" about how they do that.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">There is nothing "random" about this country's ludicrous disinclination to regulate its firearms. There is nothing "random" about the millions of dollars that the NRA spends to convince people that they should have the right to carry their assault weapon anywhere they want to carry it, including into an airport terminal, if they so desire. There is nothing "random" about the politicians who truckle and bow to this lucrative monetization of bloody mayhem.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">These are all deliberate acts with predictable consequences. There is nothing "random" about how we have armed ourselves, and there is nothing "random" about the filigree of high-flown rhetoric with which we justify arming ourselves, and there is nothing "random" about how we learn nothing every time someone who could be anyone decides to exercise his Second Amendment rights by opening fire. There is nothing random about how we got where we are today, here in Terminal 7, where people have sought refuge from the bloodshed, four terminals over. There is nothing "random" at all.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">We have chosen insanity over reason. We have done it with our eyes open. It is time for me to walk out of the airport now.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">I am leaving behind a terrible event. But I am not leaving behind something accidental. I am leaving behind what America has determined must happen from time to time, if we are to be a free people. I am leaving behind what America has determined is part of the cost of being an American. I am leaving behind the blood that I am told I must accept as part of the price of being a member of a free society.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">I am leaving behind a place of death, and I am joining my fellow citizens, as we make an odd pilgrimage out of a place that is now another altar of the blood sacrifice that I am told we must make, regularly, in order to be truly free.</div><div class="indent"> </div><div class="indent">I am a free citizen, I am told, of the Republic of Murder, my rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Moloch. I am leaving.</div>

Paul Ciancia (inset) is suspected of killing a TSA officer and wounding two other people at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles Intern...

Tell AAMCO to stop backing Limbaugh

2:51 PM Tukiyooo 0

EDUCATION NATIONAL NEWS PERSPECTIVE TRUTH Tell AAMCO to stop backing Limbaugh

AAMCO is advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. If you haven't already, please sign this. If you already have, please tweet, facebook...

CA, OR, WA, Brit. Col. join to fight climate change

11:26 AM Tukiyooo 0

<h1 class="times-thin" id="art_headline" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 48px;"></h1><div class="author times"><div class="main_image"> <img alt="Article image" class="imagecache imagecache-article_main_image" height="192" src="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/ClimateChangePactSignedbyPacificNW102813.jpeg" title="article image" width="320" /> </div> </div><div class="author times">By Ryan Koronowski</div> <div class="source times"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/28/2850021/california-oregon-washington-british-columbia-agreement/" style="color: #4f4f50;">Climate Progress</a> / News Investigation</div><div class="source times"><a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/">nationofchange.org</a></div><div class="source times"> </div> <div class="published"> Published: Wednesday 30 October 2013</div><div class="published"> </div>53 million people living in what would be the world’s fifth-largest economy will now be participating in a “far-reaching strategic alignment to combat climate change and promote clean energy.” On Monday afternoon in San Francisco, the leaders of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia <a href="http://www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org/Documents/PCC%20NR%20-%20October%2028%202013.pdf">signaled</a> they would not wait for the United States Congress or the Canadian Parliament to act to seriously address climate change. California Governor Jerry Brown, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and (via teleconference) British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark signed the <a href="http://www.pacificcoastcollaborative.org/Documents/Pacific%20Coast%20Climate%20Action%20Plan.pdf">Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy</a>. The agreement is not legally binding and appropriates no money. The plan says it “is intended to spur finding new, smart ways for our governments, agencies and staff to work together,” by doing things like adding value and efficiency to climate initiatives through collaboration, while reducing “overlap and duplication of effort.” So what does it do? The Action Plan that California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia’s leaders all signed agreed to: 1. Account for the cost of carbon, by linking existing carbon pricing programs and working to develop them in Oregon and Washington. Oregon agreed to “build on existing programs to set a price on carbon emissions,” while Washington would “set binding limits on carbon emissions and deploy market mechanisms to meet those limits.” That sounds like a carbon price and a cap-and-trade system, respectively. California has a cap-and-trade system which has sold out of all its allowances in each of the four auctions it’s held. British Columbia has had a carbon tax for five years, currently at $30/ton (Canadian). If Oregon and Washington’s plans pass and the programs successfully link, a larger market for the region’s carbon allowances would be a boon for business and economic efficiency. All four leaders said they would try to “harmonize” their greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2050 by developing mid-term targets. Washington already has a 2035 target, and the rest of the states will examine if this works for them. All states will establish the more long-term 2050 targets. 2. Implement low-carbon fuel standards in each jurisdiction, meaning again that California and British Columbia will maintain their standard and Washington and Oregon will move to implement them. Each jurisdiction hopes to merge the standards into an integrated West Coast market “that keeps energy dollars in the region, creates economic development opportunities for regional fuel production, and ensures predictability and consistency in the market.” The Action Plan agrees to work toward having 10 percent of all new vehicle purchases in public and private fleets be zero-emissions models by 2016. It also signaled support for high-speed rail infrastructure and innovation, as well as accelerating investment in other alternative fuels across the transportation section. 3. Embrace clean energy in a number of different ways. The four jurisdictions said they would promote ease of access to energy-efficient buildings, ensure climate-smart infrastructure investment, streamline approval for renewable energy projects, and work to expand the regional electric grids. Each state will also support EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, emphasizing the value of allowing state flexibility. If they can do this, it will be an important part of getting the U.S., Canada, and the globe the <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/anotthoff/pacific_states_arent_waiting_f.html">right policy environment</a> to create jobs and cut carbon pollution. The three states and British Columbia make up a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion, which would make it the world’s 5th-largest economy. “The scientific community no longer disputes that climate change is happening and human-caused,” said Oregon Governor Kitzhaber. “But regardless of where you stand on this question, there’s another good reason to act: transitioning to a clean economy creates jobs.” At the event, leaders from businesses like construction company Skanska USA, Cisco Systems, and Taylor Shellfish Farms spoke about how business was doing well as their state governments moved to tackle climate change. The signatories agreed to “where appropriate and feasible, link programs to create consistency and predictability” to account for and reduce carbon pollution across the four jurisdictions. With an eye toward a global agreement in 2015, these heads of state saw commitments to reduce their own carbon emissions as a signal to national and sub-national governments that such an agreement was essential. The Pacific Coast Collaborative was established in 2008 among the four signatory governments plus Alaska (which did not sign the Action Plan) to help them collaborate on challenges facing the North American West Coast — among them, emergency management, clean energy, and economic growth. Ocean acidification, for example, affects everyone. But it particularly threatens the economies of coastal states. The Action Plan calls for the American and Canadian governments to work to research and monitor ocean acidification to “understand its causes and impacts.” The Western Climate Initiative was a regional cap-and-trade agreement in 2007 between California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and four Canadian provinces. It had been scheduled to go into effect in 2012, but with the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/10/18/174797/gov-deniers-western/">midterm elections</a> in the few years preceding the deadline that resulted in the losses of climate hawks, California’s AB 32 and British Columbia’s carbon tax were essentially the only two programs left standing when the dust cleared. This new agreement could mean that efforts like this to lower carbon emissions are alive and well, depending on how each government implements the plan.

ENVIRONMENT GOOD NEWS HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS TRUTH CA, OR, WA, Brit. Col. join to fight climate change

By Ryan Koronowski Climate Progress / News Investigation nationofchange.org Published:...

5 reasons why cutting Social Security is irrational...

2:13 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/CuttingSocialSecurityisIrrational102813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Article image" border="0" class="imagecache imagecache-article_main_image" height="240" src="http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_image/CuttingSocialSecurityisIrrational102813.jpg" title="article image" width="400" /></a></div>By Paul Buchheit <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/">nationofchange.org</a> Even for Congress. They, and others who apparently don't study the facts, believe that Social Security is a government handout. But 'entitlement' means that people who have paid into a program all their lives are entitled to a reasonable return on their investment. A better definition, as pointed out by <a href="http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18268-social-security-pumps-$2-into-us-economy-for-every-benefit-dollar-spent">Mark Karlin</a> at Truthout, is a "mandated retirement savings plan." Cutting this popular and well-run and life-sustaining program would be irrational. There are many reasons for this. 1. Americans Have Paid For It Throughout Their Working Lives As of 2010, according to the <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412660-Social-Security-and-Medicare-Taxes-and-Benefits-Over-a-Lifetime.pdf">Urban Institute</a>, the average two-earner couple making average wages throughout their lifetimes receives less in Social Security benefits than they paid in. It is the same for single males and same, by now, for single females. One-earner couples get back more than they paid in. 2. It's a Small Benefit, But Most Seniors Depend On It The average Social Security benefit is less than <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/video/2013/04/05">$15,000</a> a year, but most of our <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/16213-social-securitys-explosive-injustices">seniors rely</a> on this for the majority of their income. Even the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">second richest</a> quartile of Americans depends on Social Security for over half of its retirement income. 3. It's Been Well-Run for Over Half a Century The poverty rate has <a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11023-ignore-the-deficit-hawks-social-security-is-easy-to-fix">decreased</a> dramatically over the past 50 years, in large part because of the benefits of the Social Security program.  <div class="imgcontainer" style="margin-bottom: 16px; position: relative;"> </div>Social Security is running on a <a href="http://ssa.gov/oact/TRSUM/index.html">surplus</a> of $2.6 trillion, it's funded until <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">2037</a>, it <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2013/01/07/social-security-rerun/">cannot</a> run out of money, it <a href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/lesson-for-reporters-social-security-does-not-add-to-the-budget-deficit">cannot</a> contribute to the deficit, it has <a href="http://www.nextnewdeal.net/deficit-hawks-we-people-know-best-social-security">lower</a> administrative costs than private sector 401k retirement plans, and it's wildly <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/158834/economy-entitlements-iran-americans-top-priorities.aspx">popular</a>.   On top of all this, a report by the <a href="http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-09-2013/social-security-strengthens-us-economy.html">AARP Public Policy Institute</a> found that Social Security stimulates the economy, adding more than $1 trillion to the U.S. economy each year as recipients spend their benefits on goods and services. <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/why-big-bucks-donors-dont-want-president-obama-champion-social-security">Dean Baker</a> calls Social Security "perhaps the greatest success story of any program in US history." 4. The Free-Market Alternative Doesn't Work The free-market alternative is everybody for them. That's fine for people with good jobs and retirement plans. But stunningly, the number of private sector workers <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">covered by a pension</a> with a guaranteed payout has dropped from 60 percent to 10 percent in a little over thirty years. Americans are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/many-americans-accumulating-debt-faster-than-theyre-saving-for-retirement/2013/10/23/b7a9c85e-3b3e-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html">going into debt</a> faster than they're saving for retirement, and those able to put something aside often make <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/01/it_s_a_401_k_world_and_it_sucks.html">wrong choices</a> with their money.  Financial experts, who generally speak for the people with enough money to hire a financial expert, tell us to have $200,000 to $300,000 in personal retirement <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/dont-cut-social-security-double-it">savings</a>. Most Americans have about a tenth of that, less than <a href="http://www.ebri.org/publications/ib/index.cfm?fa=ibDisp&content_id=5175">$25,000</a>. 5. Redistribution Has Moved Retirement Money from the Middle Class to the Rich Tax Expenditures -- subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes that move <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/04/13/opinion/sunday/0415web-leonhardt2.html?ref=business">tax money to the richest</a> taxpayers -- are <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412404-Tax-Expenditure-Trends.pdf">estimated</a> to be worth up to <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust_2011/features/20000_leagues_under_the_state030498.php">8 percent</a> of the GDP, or about $1.2 trillion. That alone is more than enough to pay for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget">Social Security</a> ($883 billion). Because of this misdirected revenue, government has been forced to <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-social-security-adds-budget-deficit-161813776.html">borrow from Social Security</a> to fund its programs. Most notably, <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/26-1">George W. Bush</a> took our retirement money to pay for his two wars and his tax cuts for the rich. This last reason, more than any of the others, reveals the overwhelming unfairness of cutting Social Security. In effect, the middle class is being told to replenish its own savings account after those savings were passed along to the military and the super-rich.

CONSUMER NEWS HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS SENIORS TRUTH 5 reasons why cutting Social Security is irrational...

By Paul Buchheit nationofchange.org Even for Congress. They, and others who apparently don't study the facts, believe that Social Secur...

Yet another Fox News lie

11:44 AM Tukiyooo 0

If anything goes wrong,  blame it on 'Obamacare' By Dana Milbank Washington Post Writers Group Fox News' Sean Hannity, that paragon of journalistic integrity, hosted six "average Americans" on his show this month who were "feeling the pain" of "Obamacare." One was Paul Cox, who runs a North Carolina construction business and complained that the new law prevented him from hiring full-time employees because he would have to provide health insurance to anybody working more than 30 hours a week. "It happens all the time," Hannity contributed. If by "it" Hannity meant "misinforming the American public," then, yes, it is happening all the time. Salon's Eric Stern called Cox and found that Cox's business has only four employees.  It therefore is not affected by the new requirement, which applies to businesses with 50 or more workers.  The others on Hannity's program were similarly off-base. [To read the rest of Milbank's column, which appeared in the Oct. 24 edition of The Arizona Republic, click on <a href="http://azcentral.com/">azcentral.com</a>.  And for your subscription to the Republic, the best and most complete newspaper value in the Rim Country, call 1-800-332-6733.  Because in the real world news happens seven days a week.]

HEALTH NATIONAL NEWS SIGN OF THE TIMES TRUTH Yet another Fox News lie

If anything goes wrong, blame it on 'Obamacare' By Dana Milbank Washington Post Writers Group Fox News' Sean Hannity, that para...