Big Time News Blog: 02/27/20

Thursday, February 27, 2020

A Delhi neighborhood divided by a highway and now hatred

The Hindu area of Bhajanpura and Muslim quarter of Chand Bagh face each other across a wide thoroughfare running through the northeastern part of India's capital, New Delhi.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2PvL9xL

'I could fall to my death:' tightrope walker Wallenda readies to cross active volcano

Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda fears the worst-possible outcome as he prepares for his latest high wire act - trekking across a live volcano in Nicaragua on Wednesday. "I could fall to my death."

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2TlUjOB

Attack in Syria's Idlib killed 29 Turkish soldiers: Hatay governor

A total of 29 Turkish soldiers died as a result of an attack carried out by Syrian government forces in Syria's Idlib region, the local governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said early on Friday, raising an earlier death toll.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/382IZfz

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Watch live: Klobuchar, at Fox News town hall, seeks to jolt struggling candidacy ahead of key primaries

02/27/20 3:32 PM

Democrats thrive in the shadow of a Whole Foods. Here’s why that may be trouble.

By BY DAVID WASSERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32AjKQU

No, Not Sanders, Not Ever

By BY DAVID BROOKS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2I3EIy0

With a Rebel Yell, New York Revs Up Its War on Idling Vehicles

By BY JEFFERY C. MAYS from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3cby1HY

Bloomberg’s claim of persuading lawmakers to legalize gay marriage is ‘demonstrably false,’ Cuomo says.

By BY THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/398O8nA

Arlene Shechet Creates Beauty Out of Chaos

By BY MERRELL HAMBLETON from NYT T Magazine https://ift.tt/3acBkN8

Linda Wolfe, 87, Dies; Wrote of ‘Preppie Murder’ and Other Crimes

By BY KATHARINE Q. SEELYE from NYT Books https://ift.tt/3a9aCFe

Home 2, Visitor 1, Spectators 0

By BY ANDREW DAS, JAMAL JORDAN AND HEATHER CASEY from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2TqGDBQ

Buttigieg, recovering from his own illness, discusses unequal medical care.

By BY REID J. EPSTEIN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32vL8zo

Bloomberg Pledges Restraint on Executive Power but Reserves Legal Wiggle Room

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Pz9h2O

The US Navy orders ships in the Pacific to stay at sea at least 14 days between port calls over coronavirus concerns

Ships have been instructed to remain at sea at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the coronavirus.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/398xEvP

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says it was 'horrifying' the debate didn't have any climate change questions. Bernie Sanders agrees.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) watched Tuesday night's Democratic debate, and one thing stood out to her."Not a single climate change question," she tweeted. "Horrifying." One of the participants, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), agreed, responding, "A disgrace." The Democratic candidates don't shy away from talking about climate change on the campaign trail; billionaire investor and environmentalist Tom Steyer told voters in South Carolina on Tuesday that climate change is his "No. 1 priority," and if elected, he will declare a climate emergency on his first day in office.Poll after poll has shown that climate change is a key issue for voters; last week, the Pew Research Center released a survey showing that for the first time in two decades, a majority of Americans believe that tackling climate change should be a main priority for the president and Congress.Another poll released last week by the nonpartisan nonprofit Climate Nexus found that for Democrats, climate change is one of the two most important issues facing the country right now. "This is the first time in American political history where climate change is not just a top-tier issue, it is the top-tier issue," Anthony Leiserowitz, a senior research scientist at Yale who helped conduct the poll, told The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Naming Mike Pence coronavirus czar with 'zero experience in the medical area' is 'a total joke,' says 2014 Trump Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2w947DS

Man gets life for kidnapping stepdaughter, holding her captive for 19 years

Henri Michelle Piette kidnapped his victim in 1997 when she was 12 and subjected her to nearly 20 years of physical and sexual abuse before she escaped.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2T0KyX4

Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse

Medical professionals inside the Islamic Republic tell TIME they believe the country is now grappling with an “epidemic”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TijwcR

Biden says he's not worried about Trump refusing to leave if defeated in November

Joe Biden says he isn't worried about the prospect of President Trump refusing to leave his post if he’s defeated in November.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2VrzTX7

Critic Says Trump Is 'Ignorant' and 'Incoherent' On Coronavirus. Others Call It 'Trump' Virus.

Can President Trump keep the American people prepared but not panicked?

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3abEW21

Seattle Is Socialism’s Laboratory, and It’s Not Pretty

Democratic socialists are in the middle of a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party. Led by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and the “squad” of newly elected congresswomen, the hard-left coalition has laid out an ambitious agenda to transform the United States into a democratic socialist nation. While many commentators have dismissed the rhetoric around the Green New Deal, Housing for All, and End Cash Bail as pie-in-the-sky abstraction, in Seattle, the socialist coalition is quickly translating this agenda into a political reality.After the socialist Left’s stunning victory over business-backed moderates in last year’s municipal elections, Seattle has effectively become the nation’s laboratory for socialist policies. Since the beginning of the year, the socialist faction on the Seattle City Council has proposed a range of policies on taxes, housing, homelessness, and criminal justice that put into practice the national democratic-socialist agenda. In the most recent session, socialist councilwoman Kshama Sawant and her allies have proposed massive new taxes on corporations, unprecedented regulations on landlords (including rent control and a ban on “winter evictions”), the mandated construction of homeless encampments, and the gradual dismantling of the criminal justice system, beginning with the end of cash bail.Seattle’s socialists have established a narrative that provides the rhetorical basis for their policies. They argue that the corporate-technological elite, led by companies such as Amazon, has hoarded the rewards of the digital economy and created widespread misery for workers, renters, and people of color. As Seattle-based commentator and Marxist theoretician Charles Mudede has written: “We are in the 21st century. We are in one of the richest cities on earth. And yet, the old war between those who employ labor and those who sell their labor is still very much with us.”In the socialist vision, the “new class war” is now entering a more direct phase of conflict. They have launched a political campaign to dramatically curtail the power of corporations, landlords, and traditional neighborhood interests, and to build a coalition of socialists, progressives, unions, and the dispossessed that is capable of achieving power. In short, the solution to the class war is to win the class war.While conservatives and moderates have typically dismissed the socialist movement as a “big-city problem,” the new socialist agenda is no longer confined to the municipal boundaries of places such as Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. Increasingly, the hard-left coalition has turned these cities into “laboratories for socialism,” with the goal of eventually commercializing their policies through the national Democratic Party. Already, Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner in the Democratic primary, has proposed a nationalized version of the Seattle agenda: Tax Amazon, enact national rent control, construct public housing, and end cash bail.But Seattle’s socialists have gone one step further. In order to consolidate their newfound power, the progressive-socialists have begun to manipulate the democratic process in their own favor: first, by providing all Seattle voters with $100 in taxpayer-funded “democracy vouchers,” which are easily collected by unions, activists, and socialist groups; and second, by implementing a ban on corporate spending in local elections by companies like Amazon. At the same time, black-bloc activists and Antifa militants intimidate any potential opposition by disrupting events, vandalizing homes, and even orchestrating death threats against political adversaries.What can opponents of socialism do? First, recognize that it must be fought on all fronts. While the socialists form a small minority of the national electorate, they have demonstrated the capability of seizing power in America’s major cities, which are home to much of the digital “means of production” in tech, media, advertising, entertainment, and research. The business sector in cities such as Seattle must recognize that the progressive-socialists are no longer interested in gaining reasonable concessions; they intend to overthrow capitalism itself.Over the past decade, the dominant corporate strategy has been to quietly advocate for neoliberal economic policies, while pandering to the cultural mandates of “diversity and inclusion.” That era is now over. As the experience in Seattle reveals, the socialist Left cannot be appeased on cultural issues — they are fighting a war against capital and they intend to win it.If the business sector wants to protect its own interests, it must rapidly adapt to this new reality. It’s no longer enough for local Chambers of Commerce to drop leaflets before local elections; they must build a permanent counterbalance to the progressive-socialists. They must begin by commissioning original policy research, funding local neighborhood groups, and building a political alliance of conservatives, moderates, and old-line liberals. In other words, they must reestablish a balance of power in America’s cities.If nothing is done, the laboratories of socialism in America’s cities will become a national problem. It’s time to shut them down.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/383fpH0

Japan woman tests positive for virus after 'recovery'

A woman in Japan who contracted the new coronavirus and was released from hospital after recovering has tested positive again, officials said Thursday. The case is the first time a patient apparently cleared of the virus has subsequently tested positive for it, a local official in Osaka said. The woman in her 40s was first confirmed as infected with the coronavirus on January 29.