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September 28, 2017
 
 

 

We often try to inject humor into our news stories, thinking that a smile or small chortle is good for the soul. So with that mission in mind, one of the news items yesterday included a tongue-in-cheek blurb about Saudi Arabian women now being allowed to drive. We received significant feedback on the piece from yesterday that it seemed sexist.

The title was meant to suggest that multiple drivers in a household would now cause the family’s insurance rates to rise. After that, an obviously-meant-to be-funny line suggested that male drivers could now make jokes about the newly-minted female drivers. The blurb ended with a biologically ridiculous assertion that a Saudi cleric made about women’s brains shriveling when they go shopping. It was all in good fun, and not meant to ruffle any sensitive feathers.

 
 

 

Russian Facebook Ad About Black Lives Matter Targeted Ferguson and Baltimore: The Internet Research Agency is a benign name for a shadowy agency that U.S. military intelligence has described as “a state-funded organization that blogs and tweets on behalf of the Kremlin.” The Russian government-affiliated troll farm also purchased approximately 3,000 ads on Facebook, at least a quarter of which used geographically-targeted advertising to sow political chaos in the United States during last year’s presidential election cycle. At least one of those ads referenced Black Lives Matter and was specifically targeted to reach audiences in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland. Both cities that had large and violent protests over police shootings of black men. Posts on Facebook included those promoting Black Lives Matter, promoting gun rights and the Second Amendment, and warning about the threat undocumented immigrants posed to American democracy

Senator Mark Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that the “million-dollar question” about the Facebook ads centered on how the Russians knew whom to target. “Did they know this just by following political news in America? Did they geo-target both geography and by demographics in ways that at least at first blush appear pretty sophisticated?”  If it appears that the targeting was particularly sophisticated, questions may be raised about how the Russians knew where to direct their ads, implying they may have had help from inside the U.S. Additional read: How Fake News Turned a Small Town (Twin Falls, Idaho) Upside Down.

How Hot Do You Think It Is At 3:01 PM On June 14 In Qatar?: According to research by Human Rights Watch (HRW), migrant construction workers in Qatar–including those building stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup–are working in potentially life-threatening heat and humidity. Hundreds of workers die every year, and HRW has urged the Qatari government to “enforce adequate restrictions on outdoor work.” In general, government regulations prohibit workers in Qatar from outdoor labor between 11:30 am and 3 pm from June 15 to August 31. But, as HRW notes, weather conditions in Qatar outside those times frequently reach deadly levels: “Limiting work hours to safe temperatures–not set by a clock or calendar–is well within the capacity of the Qatari government and will help protect hundreds of thousands of workers.”

Migrant labor accounts for 95 percent of Qatar’s total labor workforce, with 40 percent or 800,000 of these workers employed in construction. HRW recommended that the government of Qatar release data on migrant worker deaths for the past five years, including cause of death, in order to “allow an assessment to the extent to which heat stress is a factor.” Qatar was announced as the host city for the 2022 World Cup in December 2010, and its organizers say they are planning to enact better labor protections than are generally applied to migrant workers in Qatar. Of a total of 10 worker deaths on World Cup projects between October 2015 and July 2017, the organizing committee classified eight deaths as “non-work related,” with seven of the deaths resulting from “cardiac arrest” and “acute respiratory failure.” HRW said such terms made it “impossible to determine” whether those deaths were related to working conditions, such as heat stress and exposure to sunlight. The average highs in Doha, Qatar in June is 106 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s clearly hot, but it can be significantly hotter than that, and basing safety and an understanding of the risk from just an average number indicates the Flaw of Averages.

 
 

 

Catalan Officials Accuse Spanish Government of Behaving Like Turkey, China, and North Korea: Over the past week, the Spanish government has ramped up its efforts to stop Catalonia’s independence referendum this Sunday by deploying thousands of extra police officers to the region and taking control of the region’s finances. Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula and includes the seaside city of Barcelona.

Spain maintains that the referendum is illegal and a clear violation of the Spanish constitution. The Catalan high court has assumed control of efforts to prevent the vote, ordering local and national police officers to stop public buildings from being used as polling stations. Police have confiscated almost 10 million ballots, and both police and the courts have been taking down websites connected to the referendum. On Monday evening, the website of the large pro-independence group the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) was taken down by Spain’s Guardia Civil. A spokesperson for the Catalan government described the latest moves as a threat to free expression and sent a letter of protest to the European Commission: “What they’re doing by blocking domain name servers is doing what Turkey does and what China does and what North Korea does. No western democracy does that. The internet is the kingdom of freedom.”

Trump Administration Officials Billing Taxpayers For Private Plane Travel: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is yet another Trump administration official who has used chartered private planes for government business, instead of flying commercial. CBS news reported Tuesday that in June, Pruitt, after travelling with President Trump to Cincinnati, took an Air Force jet to New York’s JFK Airport, instead of taking a $350 commercial flight, sticking taxpayers with a bill for at least $20,000. He then flew to Italy for an international summit that didn’t start until three days later, and he left that meeting a day early.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have also come under fire for using private and government planes for official government business. As a Congressman in 2009, Price called the use of private jets by members of Congress “fiscal irresponsibility run amok.” But HHS Secretary Price, who slashed HHS budgets in the name of fiscal responsibility, has taken 26 flights on chartered planes since early May, at an estimated cost of $400,000 to taxpayersMnuchin requested a military jet for his honeymoon, but wound up not using it. He did take a military jet last month from New York to Washington, at a cost at least $25,000.

The House Oversight Committee said Wednesday that it is assessing the use of government-owned planes by senior government officials for personal travel or private non-commercial plans for official travel. The Committee Chair and Ranking Member say that official travel by federal employees must be done through the “most expeditious means of transportation practicable” and should not include personal use. Please wake us up when President Trump will begin draining the swamp.

 
 

KEEPING OUR EYE ON

 

Kabul Airport Attacked During U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis’ Visit To Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis attended a news conference in Kabul Wednesday with Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani in an effort intended to demonstrate U.S. support for the Afghan government. But just hours after Mattis had touched down in Kabul, militants fired high explosive ammunition including mortar rounds near the main airport and detonated several suicide vests in an attack claimed by both the Taliban and Islamic State (a seeming competition played out by the two for which group can earn the most coveted spot in the darkest and most recessed corners of hell). The attack prompted a U.S. airstrike that accidentally killed civilians, providing a sharp reminder of the risks associated with a more aggressive U.S. policy that is expected to increase the number of airstrikes. Officials described the civilian deaths as a “missile malfunction.”

President Trump has promised a stepped-up military campaign against the Taliban, who have gained ground as they seek to re-establish their brand of Islamic law after their 2001 defeat and NATO’s ending its main combat operation in 2014. The Taliban is currently estimated to control or contest at least 40% of the country (despite the US operating in Afghanistan for over 16 years now, can we officially declare this a boondoggle?) and Afghan commanders have repeatedly pleaded for more air support. Mattis said the U.S. will send an additional 3,000 troops, adding to the 8,400 already there, to help train Afghan security forces. Candidate Trump’s views on Afghanistan indicated he also thought that the war was a boondoggle of epic proportions but we are still there. Please cue the middle school song “this is the song that never ends” and switch out the words war for song and you’ll understand how Americans think, or don’t really think, about the Afghanistan war.

Former Thai PM Gets Five-Year Sentence: Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra did not appear on August 25 for a scheduled verdict and subsequently fled the country to Dubai. She has now been found guilty for dereliction of duty over a controversial rice subsidy scheme and sentenced to five years in prison in absentia. Yingluck faced up to 10 years in prison for her role in the rice-buying scheme, introduced in 2011, which pledged to pay farmers well above market rate for their crops. Critics say the program wasted large amounts of public money trying to please rural voters, hurting exports, and leaving the government with huge stockpiles of rice it couldn’t sell. Yingluck said the subsidy scheme was “beneficial for the farmers and the country” and that claims it lost billions of dollars were wrong and motivated by her political enemies. She has maintained a core group of supporters since being ousted by a military coup in 2014.

 
 

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