No joke: this is a white brown bear. [Greenpeace UK]
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The following is interesting to me not only because of its news value but because it highlights the fact that the US does not have a Free Trade Agreement with Indonesia, the 4th largest country by population and the most populous Muslim country in the world. The US has extensive ties to the country, and it is considered by our government to be a friend. [worldometer.info]
JAKARTA, April 10 (Reuters) - Indonesia will propose a free trade agreement for some minerals shipped to the United States so that companies in the electric vehicle battery supply chain operating in the country can benefit from U.S. tax credits, a senior minister said on Monday.
Washington has issued a new guidance for EV tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), requiring a certain value of battery components to be produced or assembled in North America or a free trade partner. The rules are aimed at weaning the United States off dependence on China for the development of its EV battery supply chain.
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Lu’Zana public officials … again:
Jack Montoucet resigns as secretary of wildlife and fisheries amid federal bribery probe
Jack Montoucet abruptly resigned Friday as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, a day after The Times-Picayune | The Advocate identified him as the high-ranking department official accused in a federal plea bargain of taking a payoff.
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Gotta say, I don’t understand all this sacking? Why would a triumphant raider destroy what it just won rather than plunder it?
THESE DAYS IN HISTORY
April 12, 1204: The army of the Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, temporarily doing away with the Byzantine Empire.
The Crusaders taking Constantinople, from a 15th century French manuscript (Wikimedia Commons)
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Here’s another non-joke that you might think I made up, but I didn’t. I lived in Missouri for 30 years and the Democratic-led Legislature was so apparently-corrupt and for-sure-incompetent that around 1995 I wondered if the Republicans could be any worse. The answer has been exposing them for years, and this deserves a Stupidity & Immorality Gold Star:
In Missouri, House Republicans just approved a state budget that eliminated the $4.5 million that Governor Mike Parson (R) allocated for public libraries. The move was retribution against the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association (MLA).
You can guess why they are doing this.
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But wait, there’s more:
A Missouri state senator apparently wants to block gender-affirming care for transgender youth but is OK with 12-year-olds getting married.
Republican lawmaker Mike Moon is going viral for comments he made Tuesday while arguing for a bill he introduced to ban gender-affirming care for the state’s transgender teens.
When pressed by state Rep. Peter Meredith (D) about a different bill Moon voted against in the past, which would make it illegal for adults to marry children, the GOP lawmaker doubled down on his support for underage marriage.
“Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I do. And guess what? They’re still married,” Moon responded, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646137563134951424
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And ending on a personal note -
I can’t say “I was almost killed this evening,” but I will say that when the shiny, huge pickup truck wheeled around the corner of the parking lot, and I heard the gravel flying and looked to my left and saw multiple headlights and heard the engine - roaring, because he was not decelerating, he was accelerating around the corner - I panicked - threw my hands up to signal my presence … and hoped he would see me and stop. He saw me, jammed on his brakes and stopped before he reached me … in the parking lot of the apartment complex where I live, which I was crossing while walking towards my neighbor to chat. As soon as I walked out of the truck’s line of fire he accelerated in order to get … all of 50 feet further, where he parked. He might have walked over and apologized, or saying he regretted driving like that in the parking lot, or saying there had been some emergency … but he didn’t do any of that, just got out of his enormous truck and walked into his apartment … as though I didn’t count, or as though he just didn’t care.