Florida's attorney general got a fiery rebuke and some ecclesiastical schooling from the state's Catholic bishops after he boldly threatened to block funding to Catholic schools unless the church bends to the state's anti-vaccine policies -- policies allegedly intended to uphold religious freedom.
As Republicans and some moderate Democrats increasingly portray democratic socialists as out of step with mainstream America, polling suggests a more complicated reality ... read more
Monthly PCE rises 0.2% in July after 0.1% decline in June. Annual PCE inflation unexpectedly held steady. Fed funds futures imply about 40% chance of September rate hike after data. Second-quarter consumer spending growth is revised up to 3.4% from 3.2%. read more
A candidate with the same name as Alaska's incumbent U.S. senator advanced Tuesday to the general election in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the country this fall.
For President Donald Trump, this one was personal. Sen. Darline Graham of South Carolina won the Republican primary runoff Tuesday to replace her brother -- the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally -- on the November ballot for a full six-year term. With more than 95% of the vote in, Ms. Graham was leading by 52% to 48%.
@#4 ... Where was it grown? ...
From the summary, "Lundberg Family Farms jasmine white rice have been recalled."
The About page - Farming practices...
help.lundberg.com
... Does all of your rice come from California?
More than 90% of our rice comes from California, where our family has been farming for four generations. When the available rice supply in California is not sufficient to meet demand, we work with trusted farmers in the Southern United States, Minnesota, Italy, Argentina, and Thailand whose high standards for quality and sustainability are consistent with ours.
Where do you source your rice from?
Packaged Rice: All the rice in our 1 lb., 2 lb., 4 lb., 10 lb., and 12 lb. packages is grown in California, with the exception of Wild Blend, which contains rice grown in the US (outside of California) and the Sustainable Arborio, which contains rice grown in Italy. ...
@#23 ... I guess he secretly infected this school in Texas as a revenge ...
Also Louisiana (from #6)
COVID Shuts Down Louisiana School
www.wbrz.com
RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that
apnews.com
... Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that a 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had "nothing to do with vaccines."New documents obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian refute that testimony.
Kennedy, then a prominent anti-vaccine activist, preceded the visit with a letter to the Samoan prime minister requesting to study the Pacific island nation's measles, mumps and rubella vaccines after the deaths of two children who had received them. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
The letter raises questions about how truthful Kennedy was in testimony before Congress. During an arduous confirmation process where he needed the support of some skeptical Republican lawmakers to advance, Kennedy also pledged to maintain vaccine policies that, once in office, he moved to change.
"I am writing this letter to you in the hope that we might be helpful to the people of your great nation," Kennedy wrote, adding that he believed the deaths of the two children could have resulted from manufacturing issues.
"I would propose my team conduct detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines," he continued. ...
Flock contract cancellations grow among cities, other jurisdictions
thehill.com
... Two Phoenix, Ariz., suburbs became the latest municipalities Wednesday to terminate their contracts with Flock Safety, canceling their use of the company's automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that have drawn widespread privacy concerns.
The city of Tempe, which had an $80,000 contract with the company, said it would turn off all of its Flock cameras in response to mounting reports of data "misuse" in other regions. Three hours later, the nearby town of Cave Creek also announced it had ended its contract with Flock and completely removed the technology.
"While the cameras have been a useful tool for Tempe ... recent cases involving the misuse of automated license plate reader systems in Arizona and nationwide have raised concerns about the risks that come with the technology," Tempe wrote in a press release posted to the social platform X.
Cave Creek similarly wrote on X, "In light of several high-profile abuse cases reported locally and nationally, as well as a recent theft of a FLOCK camera ... staff determined it was in the best interest of the community to discontinue the system." ...
Flock shock rocks cop cam vendor as protests mount
www.theregister.com
... Government officials, commonly hesitant to second-guess law enforcement practices, have become concerned enough to question these mass surveillance practices. US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Wednesday wrote to Flock CEO Garrett Langley to announce an investigation of "Flock Safety's collection, retention, and dissemination of data gathered by its artificial intelligence cameras."
Despite "Darth Vader's" comments last week at a San Diego City Council meeting about the need to "continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum," a growing number of local governments in the US have been cancelling or choosing not to renew their contracts with Flock and other makers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
The Institute for Justice (IJ), a Virginia-based legal advocacy non-profit, on Wednesday published a new database that tracks the termination of local government ALPR contracts. As of Wednesday, the database documents 93 local governments that canceled ALPR contracts.
The IJ, which is challenging ALPR use on Fourth Amendment grounds in Norfolk, Virginia and San Jose, California, previously published a database that documents police abuse of ALPRs, a topic addressed in Hawley's letter. Incidents include romantic stalking, wrongful traffic stops and detentions, and other forms of misconduct.
"I think what's happened is that the American public has woken up to the mass surveillance that quietly arose around them," said Robert Frommer, senior attorney at IJ, in an interview with The Register. "And they don't like it. ...
Frommer said that he believes the IJ's efforts to document ALPRs and associated abuses have helped focus the public's concern and have illustrated the problems with warrantless mass surveillance. ...
"I think what we're seeing now is the reaction to that," said Frommer, who explained that the problem with Flock cameras is that they're accessible to anyone with login credentials, without any authorization from a supervising authority.
"You don't need to go to a judge and get a warrant," Frommer explained. "You don't need anything. And when you basically give that search power to the bored officer in his cop car in the middle of a shift, it inevitably happens that they start using it and start misusing it, whether to look people up personally or whether to investigate people at political protests."
These sorts of issues, Frommer said, have made people question whether we should live in a panopticon. ...
Meanwhile, this morning's data ...
US jobless claims dip in latest week; goods trade deficit widens in July
www.reuters.com
... Goods trade deficit widens to $118.8 billion in July from $101.4 billion in June
Continued claims fall 18,000 to 1.778 million in week ended August 15
Imports rise 3.7% to $318.2 billion as capital goods imports jump 11.3% ...
@#25
Cool.
You notice the tunes I post.
Here's another for ya ...
La Tour - People Are Still Having Sex (1991)
www.youtube.com
:)
Do try harder.
Switchfoot - Meant To Live (2003)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
...
Latin Quarter - Modern Times (1985)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...[emphasis mine]
Their star-light shone bright in the blackout
Like the beams of the usherette
But when the Big Bear bit deep after Yalta
There were those that came to forget.
They went out West for the screening
And they carried a sharp-tooth comb
In search of the double meaning
They were making the fur fly at home.
So get up! Go on! Grip that stand!
And press your hand to your heart
Big Mac is asking the questions
And this is only the start. ...
Song Description
By the end of the 1940s and at the beginning of the 1950s America had resumed its cold war with the Soviet Union ("Big Bear"). Gone was the friendship with Josef Stalin ("Uncle Joe") that had helped the Allied forces defeat Hitler. Sensing an opportunity to make a name for himself US Republican Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy ("Big Mac") hit on the idea of an anti-communism campaign. His portrayal of Communism as the supreme evil allowed his accusations of "disloyalty" to be incredibly effective.
During the early 1950s McCarthy, a master of the art of playing on people's fears, set about ridding America of the supposed red menace at home. Blacklists, deportations, imprisonment, ruined careers and marriages were the order of the day, especially for non-Americans. Actors, writers, musicians, radio and television entertainers were targeted because of their prominence in society. The authorities took Hollywood's ("Tinsel Town") actors, directors and film script authors under special scrutiny. Many artists were taken to the chairman of the "House of Un-American Activities Committee", there they looked for any ambiguities in their statements or liberal or left wing beliefs. To defend an accused was perceived as sharing the accused's views.
Charlie Chaplin was never a member of the Communist Party and was never anti-American. He did however stand up for many different peoples with a good cause, including America's allies the Russians during war. He did have an affinity for some Communist ideas on a humanitarian level. His 1936 film "Modern Times "was seen by some critics as an attack on capitalism. Life for Chaplin became unbearable in the States during the McCarthy witch hunts, in the atmosphere of paranoia McCarthy instigated Chaplin became a hate figure. He was eventually forced to leave America and spent the rest of his life living in Switzerland, returning to the US only once.
The song begins with an original speech clip from one of the sessions of the committee. The chairman calls for order and makes a swearing-in. An accused says: "You have spent one week vilifying me before the American public and you refuse to allow me to make a statement on my rights as an American citizen."
... .
@#2 ... Property qualifications and poll taxes to vote would sit well with today's GOP. ...
It's beginning to look that way ...