Vintage Evening Newspaper from Westminster, England.
U.S. News
With Mississippi River on Rise, Memphis Residents Told to Go – NYTimes.com
Gerald Herbert/Associated PressWorkers used cranes to remove some of the Bonnet Carre Spillway’s wooden barriers, which serve as a dam against the high water in Norco, La., approximately 30 miles upriver from New Orleans, on Monday.
MEMPHIS — The Mississippi River is expected to crest near Memphis on Monday evening, and emergency officials spent several hours in the morning going door-to-door to warn residents in low-lying areas to evacuate.The Mississippi, which has already caused some flooding in Memphis during the last several days, will top out at 48 feet on Monday at about 7 p.m., said Tracy Howieson, a National Weather Service hydrologist. It is expected to stay at that level for at least 48 hours before slowly receding. “It will be a prolonged crest at Memphis and in parts downstream,” Ms. Howieson said. The river had not been expected to crest until later this week, but it has taken on a surge of water in recent days from some of its tributaries, officials said.
Dak mentioned some of the concerns this flooding will cause in her backyard. Will keep you posted on this as the water heads down river. Paul Krugman has a new post up, and all I can say about it is …no shit. The Unwisdom of Elites – NYTimes.com
The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europe’s single currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong?Well, what I’ve been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite — self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing — is the claim that it’s mostly the public’s fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate’s foolishness.So this seems like a good time to point out that this blame-the-public view isn’t just self-serving, it’s dead wrong. The fact is that what we’re experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand. They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people — in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own catastrophic mistakes.
Read the rest of Krugman…he discusses what happened in the US and then in Europe. It is pretty much a review of what brought on this economic mess. Here is a recent court decision that was interesting to me..you may also find it interesting as well: North Carolina Appellate Decision Raises New Chain of Title Issue « naked capitalism
A potentially important North Carolina appeals court case, In re Gilbert, has not gotten the attention it warrants. In very short form, the borrowers, who were unable to obtain a loan modification, tried to halt a foreclosure by arguing that the lenders had failed to make required disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act (which they hoped would allow for recission of the loan, and that the party seeking to foreclose had not proved that it was the holder of the Note with the right to foreclose under the instrument. The judges nixed the TILA argument, affirming lower court decisions, but reversed the superior court on the question of the standing of the petitioner. What is interesting is the logic of the decision, which blows a hole in one of the pet arguments of the American Securitization Forum, that possession of a note will suffice. We have argued that the contracts that govern the securitization, the pooling and servicing agreement, sets the requirements for conveyance as is contemplated in the Uniform Commercial Code (its Article 1 allows for parties to make their own arrangements as long as certain conditions are met). But if the parties to a case do not argue that the PSA trumps the UCC (and many do not), most judges will reason from the UCC, and securitization attorneys have blithely assumed this will get them out of trouble.
World News
In World News, 600 people are feared dead: BBC News – Libya: Hundreds feared dead as migrant boat capsizes
Several hundred people are feared to have drowned off Libya, after a boat carrying some 600 refugees trying to reach Europe broke up at sea on Friday.
The UN’s refugee agency said 16 bodies, including two babies, had been found. UNCHR has said all ships using the Mediterranean should be ready to assist such vessels, as thousands continue to flee North Africa in inadequate boats. Nato has denied claims that its naval units left dozens of migrants to die aboard another boat in distress. It said it was unaware of the plight of the boat, which reportedly was adrift for more than two weeks. The Guardian newspaper said 61 of the 72 people on board the boat died of hunger or thirst, despite being spotted by a military helicopter and Nato ship. UNHCR’s said migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa had reported seeing the boat carrying some 600 people foundering shortly after leaving the port at Tripoli on Friday.
If confirmed, this would be one of the largest accidents so far involving the thousands of often unseaworthy boats trying to reach Europe following unrest in North Africa.
News From Pakistan rejects complicity in bin Laden case – Central & South Asia – Al Jazeera English
Pakistan has denied allegations of complicity or incompetence in the Osama bin Laden case. Yousuf Raza Gilani, the country’s prime minister, said that it was “disingenuous” for anyone to accuse either the Pakistani state or its various institutions, including its intelligence agencies, of “being in cahoots” with al-Qaeda. Addressing parliament on Monday, Gilani said it was Pakistan’s spy agency that had given “key leads” that ultimately led to the US raid on the compound in Pakistan’s Abbottabad where bin Laden lived. He said that his country attached high importance to its relations with the United States, but warned that “unilateral actions” such as the raid on bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad ran the risk of serious consequences.
This is a great follow up to the AJE article above: On Bin Laden: I ask myself ‘Why?’ | Informed Comment
I ask myself why. Some Pakistanis are complaining about the violation of their country’s sovereignty during the Navy SEALs’ raid at Abbottabad. But why aren’t they complaining about Usama Bin Laden’s violation of Pakistani sovereignty? He and his family entered their country illegally, and then re-formed a paramilitary organization that killed Pakistanis and raided from Pakistan over into Afghanistan. Foreigners behaving that way for years on Pakistani soil with no pretense of legality seems to me a bigger violation of Pakistani sovereignty than a 40-minute raid that captured one fugitive who had killed 3000 Americans. I ask myself why. Some observers are calling the SEALs’ operation against Bin Laden illegal. But the United Nations Charter firmly recognizes the right of a state to defend itself from attack. Bin Laden had demonstrated that he could and would attack the United States. He was also having US troops in Afghanistan, who are there with UNO sanction, attacked. He was doing this every day. Why wouldn’t the US have the same right to defend itself as everyone else? Pakistani troops in the late 1990s routinely went into Afghanistan for purposes less urgent than self-defense.
Please read the rest of Juan Cole’s article…he also has a few other recent quick posts up that you may want to check out as well. Looking forward for this report from Amnesty International Unveils Global Report On Human Rights; Issue Experts Available For Analysis – PR Newswire – sacbee.com
Amnesty International (AI) will launch its annual assessment of human rights worldwide on Friday, May 13, and the U.S. section of the world’s largest human rights organization is urging the U.S. Congress to support reform efforts across the Middle East and North Africa by investing in development and advancing cyber-activists and internet freedom.
In November or December Dakinikat wrote an article about Big Pharma…here is a piece from Reuters that discusses the same things Dak brought up: Special report: Big Pharma’s global guinea pigs | Reuters
The Polish port city of Gdansk is famous for its shipyards. Hungary’s fifth largest city, Pecs, is known for its ancient architecture and brewery. Neither is particularly renowned for medicine. Yet when AstraZeneca Plc tested its big new drug hope Brilinta on heart attack patients in a major clinical study, it was hospitals in these places that enrolled some of the highest number of patients anywhere in the world. In fact, Poland and Hungary together accounted for 21 percent of all subjects studied in the pivotal 18,000-patient trial — more than double the United States and Canada combined. A few years ago that would have been unthinkable. Major drug companies, with an eye on the commercial promise of the world’s largest and most profitable market, would have run half their tests on a major cardiovascular medicine like this in U.S. hospitals under the supervision of U.S. doctors.
And I will end with this laugh: ThinkProgress » Trump: ‘I Am The Least Racist Person There Is’ Because A Black Guy Won The Apprentice Six Years Ago
Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump has often found himself in hot water for making racially-tinged comments — saying in the span of a single press conference, for example, that President Obama should “get off his basketball court” and that a black reporter must be a “big Obama fan.” Yet, Trump insists he has a “great relationship with the blacks.” Responding to accusations of racism this morning on Fox & Friends, Trump said he is the “least racist person there is,” citing the fact that an African-American man won The Apprentice once as proof:
TRUMP: Well, you know, when it comes to racism and racists, I am the least racist person there is. And I think most people who know me would tell you that. I am the least racist, I’ve had great relationships. In fact, Randal Pinkett won, as you know, on The Apprentice a little while ago, a couple of years ago. And Randall’s been outstanding in every way. So I am the least racist person.
So that is your evening update…catch y’all later!
Filed under: SD Reads File Cabinet, Libya, Mississippi Floods, Pakistan, Refugees, Trump
