"We regret yesterday's announcement by the U.S. not to renew oil waivers," European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters in Brussels. ...Work on the INSTEX mechanism to facilitate financial transactions for European companies trading with Iran is "progressing positively with a view to a near completion," the French ministry said.

Iran should continue work on its mirror mechanism, the ministry said. Exchanges between the two sides are underway to ensure that both structures "operate in a manner consistent with international financial standards," it said.

The jobless rates for teenagers (13.0 percent) and Blacks (6.7 percent) showed little or no change. ... long-term unemployed was little changed at 1.2 million in April and accounted for 21.1 percent of the unemployed. ... The labor force participation rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 62.8 percent ... Professional and business services added 76,000 jobs

The Legislature
House: 71 (R), 46 (D), 3 (VACANT); Fun Fact: $18,000/year salary
Senate: 23 (R), 17 (D)

48 chamber slaves of the patriarchy: 29 (D), 19 (R)
wut: Of the 43 women who won seats in the state legislature in November, only 16 were Republican"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

General Assembly
House: 44 (D), 80 (R); Fun Fact: $10,400/year salary
Senate: 18 (D), 27 (R), 1 (VACANT)

27 chamber slaves of the patriarchy: 14 (D), 13 (R)
wut: "they represent a little over half of the population in South Carolina"

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

looking for help from their party's presidential candidates in overturning a [2018 NH state] law that will make it harder for some college students to vote.
[...]
It subjects college students who come from other states to residency requirements such as getting a New Hampshire driver's license if they study and vote in the state.
[...]
The 2020 candidates have offered a range of solutions that span from the difficult and unlikely path of amending the [US] Constitution to reviving voting rights measures filed and left for dead in Congress.

The General Court
House: 233 (D),  167 (R); Fun Fact: $200.00/term salary
Senate: 14 (D), 10 (R)

144 chamber slaves of the patriarchy
115 (D), 29 (R)

wut: "New Hampshire GOP Tries to Block Some College Kids From Voting in 2020"
wut: "Democrats in the New Hampshire Senate have voted through a bill to exempt college students and members of the military from having to register their cars in New Hampshire if they vote here. "

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

General Assembly
House: 55 (D), 65 (R); Fun Fact: $13,951/year salary
Senate: 21 (D), 30 (R)
wut: "Six freshmen Republicans and seven freshmen Democrats were sworn into the Senate, which now includes 10 African-Americans, 10 women, two Indian-Americans, and 11 veterans."

33 chamber slaves of the patriarchy
28 (D), 15 (R)
wut: "We tried to make it about women and not politics which is why we chose white."
wut: "lawmakers must pass the proposed consent bill in at least one chamber by May 9 or the bill will become ineligible to be voted on for the rest of the legislative session"
wut: "Raleigh Women's March is Independent of Women's March, Inc."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

The other most-noted story was Philadelphia District Attorney's race, in which the Unelectable Larry Krasner, a career defense attorney and critic of mass incarceration who supports Black Lives Matter and the ACLU, beat the Republican candidate by 40 percentage points.

[Common Pleas* Court Judge Leon] Tucker shattered Krasner's argument, explaining that former DA Castille gave the appearance of bias not only because of his prior role as district attorney but also because of his pro-death penalty statements, ties to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), and lobbying for speedy death penalties in capital cases involving the murder of police officers.

General Assembly
House: 93 (D), 1 (VACANT), 109 (R); Fun Fact: $86,478/year salary
Senate: 21 (D), 3 (VACANT), 26 (R)
MarchonHarrisburg: Ending corruption in Pennsylvania, one issue at a time.
63 chamber slaves of the patriarchy
36 (D), 28 (R)
wut: On 1st day, Pa. House's only Muslim woman deals with 'blatant Islamophobia'
--
* A Pennsyltucky specialty, not to be confused with, say, NY Court of Claims

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

On Tuesday, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund sued VMware in federal court in California, saying the software company violated the Civil Rights Act [Title VII] when it denied Sandy Vasquez a job.
[...]
VMware, according to the lawsuit, refuses to hire people authorized to work in the U.S. unless they are citizens, permanent residents or have a "transferrable visa" such as one given to highly skilled workers. Vasquez and others enrolled in DACA, as well as other immigrants such as those with temporary protected status, do not fall into these categories.
[...]
Palo Alto, California-based VMware said that while it does not comment on active lawsuits, it "hires and continues to employ DACA recipients."

Vasquez, according to court documents, was told by a recruiter for VMware last January that she would be a "great fit" for a technical support engineer position at the company. A few days later, the lawsuit says the recruiter "abruptly terminated" the interview after Vasquez disclosed that she is not a U.S. citizen, though she has work authorization in the U.S. through DACA. According to the lawsuit, she was told all applicants must be either U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
[...]
The [DACA] program was enacted under President Barack Obama in 2012, allowed qualifying immigrants who came illegally to the U.S. as children to apply for renewable, two-year permits that would protect them from deportation and allow them to work.

yeah? no.

archived "Women and minorities" editions
Women's March 2019

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

1/ If YouTube were to recommend your show, it'd be recommending the leading purveyor of now debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, falsehoods & innuendo of the last 2+ years. Here's a sample:

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 28, 2019

J. Comey

He's just revealed more of himself than any of his self-serving comparisons to Reinhold Neibuhr have.

— Regina Griffin (@Regina_Griffin) April 27, 2019

"Canada is back!" 🤦‍♀️ #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/NIAdeurcuv

— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) April 28, 2019

Austria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

< pick teeth, suck vigorously >

The dominoes will be falling all summer long ...


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

But this is Joe Biden, so maybe it's not such a surprise.

"The audacity of grope"

and

"Grope we can believe in"

Will be interesting to see if the his poll numbers start diving now that he has declared (probably after an initial bounce).

MSNBC | Oliver North steps down as president of NRA, won't serve second term

CNN | Oliver North: 'Informed' I will not be renominated NRA president

NRA | NRA President to Step Down as New York Attorney General Investigates

WAPOO | NRA ousts president Oliver North after alleged extortion scheme against chief executive

NBC News | NRA President Oliver North stepping down as infighting roils the gun-rights group

VANITY FAIR | N.R.A. President Oliver North steps down amid "clear crisis" of leadership

POLITICO | NRA announces North's resignation on-stage as 'crisis' hits gun lobby

REUTERS | Oliver North steps down as NRA president amid dispute over 'damaging' information

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - [Immunized felon] Oliver North will step down as president of the National Rifle Association, North said on Saturday, adding he was being forced out due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in financial improprieties.

Butina admitted as part of her plea that she began working with former Russian official Alexander Torshin in 2015 to create a back-channel of communication between U.S. political figures [?] and Russia, a mission that she carried out by infiltrating [!] the powerful National Rifle Association.

[U.S. District Judge Tanya] Chutkan found that Butina's efforts were undertaken for the benefit of Russia at a time when the country was actively interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

That [Maria Butina] failed to register as a foreign agent made her all the more likely to establish the connections that she did, the judge added.

The government has conceded that Butina was not a spy in the traditional [?] sense, but says her clandestine work to collect information valuable to the Russian government nevertheless posed a national-security threat.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia handled Butina's prosecution, not special counsel Robert Mueller. Her name appears nowhere in the 448-page report Mueller produced summarizing the results of his investigation.

"It's important to show her willingness to carry on conversations [?!]," said Richard Rodriguez, a national board member of Our Revolution, who met with Bustos Thursday. "I'm sure she is also feeling some political pressure."

He pointed out that the meeting coincided with news that more than 40 College Democrats chapters had joined a boycott  of the DCCC over the vendor [sic] policy.

reference
FEC FORM 3X DNC Services Corp./Dem. Nat'l Committee, financial statements
FEC FORM 3X Republican National Committee, Inc., financial statements
DOJ | PRICE FIXING, BID RIGGING AND MARKET ALLOCATION SCHEMES

archived free trade
House Democratic Leadership Warns It Will Cut Off Any Firms That Challenge Incumbents
"This is the first time that they are ever making [antitrust violations] open policy."
Welding et al. v. DNC Services Corp., d/b/a Democratic National Committee
final order Aug 2017
Welding et al. v. DNC Services Corp., d/b/a Democratic National Committee
complaint May 2017

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

It is unusual for committee [attorneys] to question a witness. But committees can generally make their own rules, and other panels have made similar exceptions. In a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year, for example, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee hired an outside prosecutor to question a witness who had accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

archived
House Judiciary Committee subpoena
Conspiracy by Democrats Falls Flat
Schumer claimed the hearings are "not a criminal trial"


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

[Complainants] say the law that is scheduled to take effect in Oct. 1 - about a year out from the 2020 presidential election - is vague, violates First and 14thAmendment rights and hands down draconian civil and criminal penalties for any group found violating its provisions.

archived
Gerrymandering is unlawful and illegal in the USA.
because this is America
What surprises me is that anyone on the planet looks to the USA to be a paragon of "democratic processes."
Shelby vs. Holder

On June 25, 2013, the United States Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional to use the coverage formula in Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act to determine which jurisdictions are subject to the preclearance requirement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Shelby County v. Holder, 133 S. Ct. 2612 (2013). The Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of Section 5 itself. The effect of the Shelby County decision is that the jurisdictions identified by the coverage formula in Section 4(b) no longer need to seek preclearance for the new voting changes, unless they are covered by a separate court order entered under Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act.

Sen. Harris Asks Justice Department to Investigate Barr
strongly worded letter attached [!]

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

LMAO at these companies, caught between Congressional subpoenas and a flurry of lawsuits from the actual President of the United States, whose person, family, and business they have knowingly laundered money for for decades. https://t.co/DUOzDbb9hA

— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) April 30, 2019