https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/americas/evo-morales-bolivia.html

Seems to me this is how democracies run off the rails: packed supreme court, one party in the tank for the dictator, substantial support among the electorate, which is getting some benefit over non-suupporters.

«In 2016, he had asked voters to do away with the two-term limit established in the 2009 Constitution, which was drafted and approved during his first term. Voters narrowly rejected the proposal in a referendum — which, under Bolivian law, was supposed to have been binding.

But Mr. Morales found a workaround. The Constitutional Court, which is packed with his loyalists, held that term limits constricted human rights, giving Mr. Morales the right to run for office indefinitely.»

https://westernjurisdictionumc.org/safe-harbor-declaration/

Statement by the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church:

«We do not intend to withhold or challenge ordination based solely on a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. We are unwilling to punish clergy who celebrate the marriage of two adults of any gender or sexual orientation seeking the blessing of God and the Church for their covenanted life together. At the same time, we recognize and will uphold the requirement that LGBTQ+ clergy, with all clergy, “maintain the highest standards of holy living”xiv in their personal and professional relationships.»

The ship is sailing.

https://givingpledge.org/

I would be interested to know what U.S.-based signatories to the Giving Pledge think about Warren’s M4A plan and her candidacy in general.

(Also, whether they are ACTUALLY following through on their pledge.)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1192113630348795904.html

https://twitter.com/JoeDunman/status/1192036205426286592?s=17

Joe Dunman (@JoeDunman) Tweeted:
Every down-ballot race in Kentucky was a GOP landslide. Bevin, the most disliked governor in the country, barely lost. Kentucky doesn’t fit easily into any national narrative (as usual).

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-state-of-the-polls-2019/

«As a simple rule of thumb, we’ve found polls “call” the right winner 80 percent of the time, meaning they fail to do so the other 20 percent of the time….

Polls in our database that showed a lead of 3 percentage points or less identified the winner only 58 percent of the time — a bit better than random chance, but not much better.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/upshot/one-year-from-election-trump-trails-biden-but-leads-warren-in-battlegrounds.html

Just want to point out that 538 gives both NYT (/CBS) & Siena an “A” rating in terms of quality of pollster.

«The Times/Siena results and other data suggest that the president’s advantage in the Electoral College relative to the nation as a whole remains intact or has even grown since 2016, raising the possibility that the Republicans could — for the third time in the past six elections — win the presidency while losing the popular vote.»

https://www.innocenceproject.org/10-facts-you-need-to-know-about-rodney-reed-who-is-scheduled-for-execution-on-november-20/

Seems like reasonable doubt to me.

https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-31-00-the-trouble-with-indiscriminate-tree-planting-in-africa

«“It is true that you could store lots of carbon if you planted more trees. But when I engaged with European scientists about why you can’t plant trees in Europe, they say, ‘Well, we are using that land.’ There is a sense that land in Africa is available and can be used to fix global issues.”»

Ok, well, when you put it THAT way, it does sound like colonialism/environmental racism, but surely it can’t be, right?

«Digging up the soil to plant the trees may inadvertently release carbon into the atmosphere, because grasslands themselves are hypothesised to be formidable carbon sinks; and trees, with their deep roots, use up lots of water — leaving less for other species, including humans.

This science is not new, nor is it controversial: in fact, South Africa heavily regulates the planting of new forests because of their negative impact on water supply.»