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Today’s comic by Matt Bors is Sunday Hot Takes: Asia Argento edition:
• U.S. Treasury reinforces sanctions on Russia: In an effort to undermine the Kremlin’s effort to get around U.S. economic sanctions, the Treasury blacklisted both individuals and companies that it said were violating bans on energy trade with North Korea and U.S. laws against cooperating with the Federal Security Service, the main Russian security entity and successor to the KGB. The escalation of economic pressure by U.S. agencies comes at a time when the Trump regime has been challenging Russia and China for their easing economic sanctions on North Korea. But many congressional lawmakers want still-tougher sanctions. Their view is that the White House is holding back instead of seriously cranking up the pressure on the Russians.
• Economic Policy Institute promotes First Day Fairness project:
First Day Fairness is the right of all workers to a fair system of work from their first day on the job. U.S. workers are essential contributors to economic growth in the U.S. and they deserve a fair share of that growth and a fair say in their working conditions. First Day Fairness requires a rebalancing of our current system to ensure that workers’ interests and concerns are served. [...]
The best guarantee for a fair first day for workers is union representation and a collective bargaining agreement; consequently, much of what we advocate for in this agenda is designed to reverse decades of legal hostility aimed at unions and to boost union coverage. As a complement to these policies, we also propose a series of employment law reforms that will restore at least some of the lost bargaining power of workers.
MIDDAY TWEET
(nonnie9999 has a better explanation than a sudden nap: first day of school.)
• Five-time NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics will be feted at Standing Rock Sioux reservation, home of his late grandparents: Irving’s grandparents were citizens of the tribe who lived on the South Dakota side of the reservation that straddles North and South Dakota. His late mother was adopted by a non-Indian family. Irving was key to the 2016 championship win of the Cleveland Cavaliers and recently appeared in the film Uncle Drew. The homecoming is being turned into a big ceremony at Standing Rock. Said tribal Chairman Mike Faith in a press release: “We could not be more excited. He has made us all very proud. To know that he has not forgotten his roots and is taking the time before he starts his basketball season to visit the People, his People, shows that Kyrie has great character and pride in his heritage.”
• Energy companies and their pals using new laws to undermine protesters: Since January 2017, 31 states have introduced laws or issued executive orders to bar or restrict high-profile protests by environmental advocates and other activists opposed to fossil-fuel projects.
In addition to Oklahoma's infrastructure bill and similar legislation enacted in two other states, these bills would expand definitions of rioting and terrorism, and even increase penalties for blocking traffic. Eleven have been enacted, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. The bills have all come since the election of President Donald Trump, who openly suggested violence as a way to handle protesters on the campaign trail, and once in office called the nation's leading news organizations "the enemy of the American people."
At the same time, law enforcement and private companies have conducted surveillance on campaigners, while some federal and state officials have suggested pipeline protesters who break laws be charged as terrorists. Corporations have hit landowners and environmental groups with restraining orders and hundred-million-dollar lawsuits.
• Verizon says it shouldn’t have throttled California firefighters dealing with surge in wildfires: Ya think, Verizon? In a sworn statement filed earlier this week as part of a legal effort to restore net neutrality rules, Anthony Bowden, the Santa Clara County fire chief said the wireless company’s throttled of connection an emergency response vehicle “severely interfered” with efforts to contain the Mendocino Complex Fire, which at last tally had burned more than 350,000 acres. The department alerted Verizon, but Bowden stated: “Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but, rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan.”
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Hey, what do you think we should talk about today? The Paul Manafort conviction? The Michael Cohen allocution? The Duncan Hunter indictment? The Vern Buchanan allegations? Greg Dworkin & Armando help make sure we hit it all.