October 15, 2018 at 10:51:00
Could the $70 Billion Americans Invest Annually in Their Pets Be Better Spent?

American spending on pets is more than the combined GDP of the 39 poorest countries in the world. What if even a small percentage of this spending was allocated to reducing suffering, asks a philosopher. Sylar, the border collie, has his own mansion along with a trampoline and indoor pool. The dog's adorable features, along with his notable intelligence, earned his owner's devotion along with many social media fans. Sylar's mansion, where other pets can visit and indulge in expensive spa-like treatments such as massages, drew the media's attention to the increased spending in China on pet-related services. The Chinese are forecast to spend about US$2.6 billion on their pets by 2019 -- a 50 percent increase from 2016.

October 15, 2018 at 10:38:00
It's Time for Video Game Makers to Unionize

Developers are treated like trash. Now, sudden layoffs at Telltale Games have sparked industry-wide organizing. Once considered a trifle (at best) or an escapist vice (at worst), video games are in fact big business. Huge, really: the video game industry was worth $108 billion in 2017, according to Superdata Research -- around one-quarter of the value of the overall software industry. The creators of the video game hits today have little in common with their forebears: Myst, the best-selling video game of the 1990s, was created by the brothers Rand and Robyn Miller with help from five friends. Grand Theft Auto V, one of the most popular games of the 2010s, cost $265 million and took a team of over 1,000 workers to create it. Yet despite the vast armies of coders and designers involved in production of games, there is little to no labor organizing of the oft-exploited and overworked employees.

October 15, 2018 at 10:21:00
What Most Americans Just Don't Get: America Is On Saudi Arabia's Side in the Middle East

After 10 years covering the Middle East, PBS correspondent Jane Ferguson talks about what Americans don't get. In an era of journalistic austerity, as foreign newsrooms are being shuttered and correspondent journalism is waning in favor of news and analysis that can be done from a New York office, being an on-the-ground reporter is increasingly rare. Rarer still are the reporters who get to fly all over the world and bring a team -- cameraman, driver, translator -- with them.

October 14, 2018 at 19:02:00
Iowa's Largest Newspaper Issues Scathing Rebuke of GOP and Endorses Every Democrat Running for Congress

This editorial endorsement is a scathing rebuke of the Republican Party. Iowa's largest newspaper destroys the Republican Party in their endorsement of every Democrat running for the Congress in Iowa. The Des Moines Register slams congressional Republicans on healthcare, tax cuts, deficits, tariffs, racism, misogyny, white nationalism and their fealty to Trump.

October 14, 2018 at 18:27:00
Here's Why the Fight Over 'Political Correctness' Is Totally Bogus

"Political correctness" is another misguided attempt at balance that falls flat. Writer Yascha Mounk has a new story at the Atlantic with a title guaranteed to grab attention: "Americans Strongly Dislike PC Culture." Drawing from a new report, "Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape," Mounk reports that "80 percent believe that 'political correctness' is a problem," even though, as he later admits, "we cannot be sure what, exactly, the 80 percent of Americans who regard it as a problem have in mind." But don't let a mere detail like that interrupt a perfectly good line of BS -- and what a good line it is! It's a troubling indicator of a well-intentioned project with some promising ideas gone badly awry.

October 14, 2018 at 18:14:00
Trump's National Park Service Eyes 'Special Regulations' on Free Speech and Assembly Near Key DC Locations

It could also open the door to charging fees and other costs to groups who wish to demonstrate in the area. The National Park Service, under the control of the Trump administration, has proposed a set of "special regulations" concerning areas around the United States capital. These new rules would make it difficult, if not impossible, to protest near the White House and several other key area The change would halt protest on much of the sidewalk area north of the White House, as well as limiting the ability of groups to have spontaneous protests without permits near the White House and on the National Mall.

October 14, 2018 at 17:59:00
Here's What Hurricane Michael Could Do to Your Mental Health

Studies show mental and behavioral health issues cropping up weeks, months and even years after a disaster. The mental health impact of disasters like Michael, Irma or Maria J. Brian Houston, University of Missouri-Columbia and Jennifer M. First, University of Missouri-Columbia

October 14, 2018 at 17:45:00
Lifelong Fresno Republican Rips Devin Nunes for Betraying Christian Voters to Serve His 'New Master' Trump

"His ardent support for this amoral man betrayed the values that we hold as Republicans and as Christians." In an extended diatribe published by the Fresno Bee, a lifelong Republican who claims he loves the party because it reflects his Christian values absolutely destroyed his congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). According to Andrew Shinn, a business professor at Fresno Pacific University, "I am one of the left-behind Republicans. I am a Christian and grew up thinking that voting Republican was the only option for people like me. Opposing abortion was all-important, followed closely by the value of integrity."

October 14, 2018 at 16:14:00
'Outrageous' Voter Suppression by 'Cowardly Republicans' in Georgia Is Part of A Nationwide GOP Attack on Democracy

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate, has said she is "deeply worried" that tens of thousands of Georgians are being stripped of their constitutional rights. Civil rights groups have filed a new lawsuit in order to stop a statewide voter suppression effort in Georgia after the GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp--who just happens to be the state's Secretary of State as well--led an effort to purge more than 50,000 voter registrations, predominately of black voters, from the rolls just weeks before the November 6 election.

October 14, 2018 at 15:51:00
Naomi Klein Explains How the GOP's 'Increasingly Savage Racial and Gender Politics' Will Lead to an Insidious New Era of

"There are simply two classes of people--us and them, winners and losers." When Nikki Haley resigned this week as the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, seemingly the political press' first question was whether Donald Trump would name his daughter Ivanka as her replacement. Trump did little to discourage this speculation. "[It's] nothing to do with nepotism," he told reporters at the White House, barely concealing a smile. "But I want to tell you that the people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite."

October 14, 2018 at 15:06:00
USA Today's Flat-Out False Trump Op-Ed Raises Real Questions About Their Journalistic Integrity

What role does the newspaper's parent company play, if any, in holding the paper accountable? This article was originally published on rantt.com. On Wednesday, USA TODAY published an op-ed by Donald Trump, slandering Democrats with lies about Medicare and immigration policies. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote, "almost every sentence contained a misleading statement or a falsehood.

October 14, 2018 at 14:24:00
CNN's Jake Tapper Confronts Climate Change Skeptic Marco Rubio: What Will You Tell 'Your Children And My Children?'

Jake Tapper pressed Sen. Marco Rubio on whether he believes climate change is man-made. Appearing on CNN's State of the Union to talk about Hurricane Michael damage to his home state, Florid Republican Sen. Marco Rubio grew animated when host Jake Tapper asked how he will explain his climate-change waffling to his kids years from now. After detailing the billions of dollars of devastation left behind by the devastating hurricane, Rubio was confronted by his previous claims that climate change is not provable.