There's continuing political fallout this week from the Supreme Court's historic ruling on the Affordable Care Act, and a new jobs report from the Labor Department will be released on Friday -- but what else caught your eye this week?
Submit your ideas for local or national stories to "Up," and we may feature your suggestion during Saturday's Now We Know.
To submit your story ideas:
1) Email us at upwithchris@msnbc.com with a subject line "Now We Know", or post a comment below.
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3) Be sure to tell us how you'd like to be credited if we choose your Now We Know suggestion.
4) Please tell us how to pronounce your name.
Keep in mind, we do see a lot of stories ourselves, so please remember not to get upset if we discuss your story and don’t credit you. But if it’s something you bring to our attention first, we will of course give you credit.
We look forward to hearing from you and reading your submissions!
:: Blogged by Sal Gentile (@salgentile), segment and digital producer for Up w/ Chris Hayes ::
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The God Particle could have & should have been discovered in USA! Congress paid $2 Billion to fill in the hole we paid 1 billion to dig. Do you see the money issue there? 2 billion to fill in a 1 billion dollar hole? Congress did this in order to stop The Particle Collider being built in the USA. Saying, it would cost too much money. Yet how much money would it have pulled in to the state it was built in, by scientist and media? It would have been a boom for the economy! We used to be the best! We used to invent things, discover things. Now we have people refusing to pay more taxes to fund the research it takes for such things. Congress uses are already paid taxes on the military complex, but only to line their own pockets. This could have been a huge accomplishment for USA! Instead we just send reporters over to Switzerland. What ever happened to us fighting for these things? What happened to us fighting for what I guess I would call the common good? Please talk about this on your show. My name is A.J. Hiers (Hiers, Pronounced like the Rootbeer) Information reguarding congress paying for it then paying more in order to (NOT PAY FOR IT) can be easily found in NBC archives I'm sure! Thank you. Love your show :-)
Rise and fall of a monopoly.
Windows vs. Apple sales have fallen from a high of 58 to 1 in 2004 to just 6 to 1 today.
Counting all Windows sales (phone, tablet, computer) vs. all Apple sales (iPhone, iPad, Mac) it appears they will be approaching parity in the next few years.
An amazing set of graphs here:
credit ok, J.R. Ehrler (urlur)
We Americans like our toys produced by slave labor.
Dropped the link. Sigh.
asymco dot com has the blog item posted July 4 called "Building and dismantling the Windows advantage."
Congress passed a bipartisan surface transportation bill called MAP-21. Fans of sustainable transportation are outraged because it cuts bike and pedestrian funding by 60-70%. Tea Partiers aren't happy either, so I guess that is a compromise.
No need to credit.
I'm curious about the weight we should place on Romney's inelegant response to the Supreme Court "tax" designation. It seems to me that he has been so concerned about his image that he squandered the opportunity to appear statesman-like in his response to the ruling. He really looks uncomfortable when he says it's a penalty at the state level but it's a tax on the national level and then characteristically smiles. Seems that he's really digging a hole for himself and is looking more and more like a guy who doesn't care about policy or service, but just wants it because he wants it. Is it just me? Perhaps it's just the campaign fatigue that we are all feeling. But he really looks like an empty vessel to me now, more than ever.
Jan from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
I would like to know the personal and intellectual background of John Roberts that would enable him to, apparantly, change his ruling from his predicted position.
Don't think there is time before the weekend to find this out, but it seems very important for the country, ie, is he likely to follow independent thought in future decisions, is this a one-off, is this the outcome of life tenure on the court?
Thanks, Brooke Lightrider
Actually, as you probably already know, you can get a brief sketch of his biography on wikipedia. I doubt that there will be any in-depth books written about him until after his death (and since he's younger than me, I probably will be dead too). I too would like to know what his real thought process was:
Actually, I see three possible views of why he did what he did (and all three are probably wrong!):
1) You could be a cynic and say that since he actually wrote most of both opinions, it was his way of showing who was in control of the court.
2) Maybe he's not really that cynical but realized that actually was was being decided was what was originally meant by "provide for the general welfare" in the Taxation Section - Section 8, Clause 1, of the Constitution.
Some form of this clause was common in state constitutions of the time in the North, because it came from the Puritan belief, that the state and its citizens ARE responsible for those in need, and it is believed that it why it was included in the wording of the US Constitution and its Preamble. It is important to note that the Jeffersonian Southerners had no such qualms about providing for the less fortunate.
If you read the Federalist Papers, Madison expressly mentioned the "general welfare" clause - meaning it disturbed him greatly!
The Jeffersonians (basically Southerners)- as represented by Madison in the Federalist Papers, believed that "provide for the general welfare" meant that taxes could only be raised for those things already enumerated in the Constitution, but they have an awkward explanation of why that clause existed if it only referred to what was already enumerated below Clause 1 in Section 8.
Alexander Hamilton, arguing the other side, mostly outside the Federalist Papers, believed that there other things that the federal government would need to do to "provide for the general welfare" and that taxes could be raised if what was needed to be done provided for all citizens and didn't give tax money to an express few - things such as providing for education and other necessities that might arise, otherwise why would such a clause exist? I think Hamilton refrained from this argument in the Federalist Papers, because remember, the Federalist Papers were written to "sell" the Constitution and he wanted to minimize any SERIOUS argument between the Constitution framers.
In Washington's and Adam's presidency, the term "general welfare" was interpreted as being "broad", i.e., as Hamilton defined it. However, when Jefferson became President, the Jeffersonians came into power and the "general welfare" term was interpreted as being extremely narrow, applying ONLY to the list of things in Section 8, below Clause 1, and it's been in the courts ever since.
Although Roberts offered a more complex view, I think this is why he decided that ACA fell under the Taxation Clause.
3) But did you notice that he pretty much said he was tired of the Supreme Court being used as an umpire to settle political disputes? It may be THAT is why he voted the way he did!!
If you ever find the answers to your questions, let us all know!!!
Hello Chris: I watched your appearance on C-Span this morning. I don't think even Lucille Ball could have matched your priceless take when a caller said "I hate you...you suck". And I'm sure he didn't comprehend the humor in your reply "Jason ARTICULATES the concerns of many...".
Re: Joe Walsh saying Tammi Duckworth talks too much about being in military - I understand where he comes from with this, but it's not about the military. It's about disability and his inner anger at seeing someone who can't help but show the artificial legs she has from her service. He says she talks about her service "all the time" while others in Congress and VoteVets representative, etc, say she doesn't. I'm sure she doesn't, but in a mind like Joe Walsh's she's blaring about her military service every moment she appears in public with those legs and her mobility showing. That drives him crazy and he feels she's doing it with words. To him she's screaming it every minute and his cognitive dissonance makes him think she's saying it, not just being it. We don't need to get into who loves the troops more; the same aspect of presenting difference from contemptible expectations is what operates instead of rationality in the minds of those who are uncomfortable with a president being black in public, or with a woman having real assertible power in public.
Forgive me, Rachel, but I think "Up" is the most intelligent program on TV. I have spent most of the last week in a power black-out area, the result of a 30 minute thunderstorm here in Ohio. We have real trouble in our future if we don't upgrade our infrastructures. The local power company, AEP, seemed slow and unresponsive. They no longer answer to anyone. Our power was never off for more than a couple of hours 50 years ago. What gives?
Is it even possible that Eric Cantor, an elected official, is actually as mean-spirited and hard-hearted as he appears to be on television?
I think so.
Rendered, Tortured & Discarded: A Shocking Story of an Innocent Man’s Ordeal in U.S. Prisons Abroad
A new exposé by human rights investigator Clara Gutteridge for The Nation magazine looks at secret U.S. operations in Africa and how the United States rendered, tortured and discarded one innocent man from Tanzania. Suleiman Abdallah was captured in Mogadishu in 2003 by a Somali warlord and handed over to U.S. officials, who had him rendered to Afghanistan for five years of detention and torture. Imprisoned in three different U.S. facilities, Abdallah said he was subjected to severe beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, forced nakedness and humiliation. He said he was also sexually assaulted, locked naked in a coffin, and forced to lie on a wet mat, naked and handcuffed. Abdallah was finally released in July 2008 from Bagram Air Force Base — with a piece of paper confirming his innocence. However, he has received neither reparations nor apologies for his ordeal. "The worst of the torture we’re not authorized to talk about because it’s too painful for him," Gutteridge says. "What I can say is he was subjected to some of the worst torture I have ever encountered after interviewing over 100 U.S. victims."
[source: democracynow.org/2012/7/6/rendered_tortured_discarded_a_shocking_story]
Military ‘kill house’ training base used Muslim women targets
Until last week the "crown jewel of America's military bases" used cardboard cutouts of veiled Muslim women for target practice in a training facility known as the "kill house." The Virginian-Pilot reported the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story training facility in Virginia Beach installed the images in a Navy SEAL close combating training facility: "The 26,500-square-foot building contains 52 interconnected spaces, including mock-ups of markets, a hospital, schools, a bank, a bus depot and two mosques. It will allow small groups of SEALs to practice enemy engagement at close range. Many of the details were taken from actual raids over the past decade."
The massive $11.5 million mock combat zone was designed by a company that specializes in building movie sets. Up to four military units can practice shooting Muslim women in dynamic settings. [...] But the images of women were removed after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) pressured the Pentagon. "This is a welcome first step, but a serious and comprehensive review is needed to deal with the issue of Islamophobia in military training," said CAIR's National executive director Nihad Awad. The elimination of the offensive targets comes after another recent CAIR watchdog victory to curtail violent Islamophobia in the U.S. military's educational system.
[source: mondoweiss.net/2012/07/military-kill-house-training-base-used-muslim-women-targets.html]
Will U.S., the World’s Largest Arms Manufacturer, Back Landmark U.N. Arms Trade Treaty?
Delegates from 190 countries have gathered at the United Nations to begin talks on the first-ever global agreement regulating the arms trade. According to arms control campaigners, one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence around the world. The global weapons market is valued at more than $60 billion a year, and critics argue that a binding treaty is necessary to prevent guns from flooding into conflict zones and fueling wars and human rights violations. The United States is by far the world’s largest producer, importer and exporter of armaments. "Believe it or not, bananas and bottled water are regulated more stringently than conventional weapons. These are weapons that are killing 1,500 people every day, up to 750,000 a year," says Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "These are the real weapons of mass destruction, because they’re killing, year in, year out, person by person, family by family, village by village."
[source: democracynow.org/2012/7/3/will_us_the_worlds_largest_arms]
DNC member resigns after emails faulting Israeli ‘aggression’ and Palestinian burden for Holocaust
The Palm Beach Post reports on a Democratic Party official in Florida who doesn't like the occupation but sure learned to keep her mouth shut about it. Note that a Jewish party chair interpreted these criticisms as anti-Semitic, and the offending official then accepted that charge. Ask yourself what would have happened to her if emails came out in which she had criticized the American presence in Afghanistan-- would she have lost her post?
"Evelyn Garcia, a member of the DNC from Palm Beach County, resigned the post Monday after emails surfaced in which she sharply criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Garcia, a candidate for the State House of Representatives from District 88, said she would continue to campaign for that seat. She apologized for her remarks and called them 'ugly' and 'hurtful.' ... Some of the [emails] appear to have been written to a South Florida Congressional aide. 'The continued Israeli occupation of Palestine is ugly on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds,' Garcia said in an email dated July 26, 2011. 'Palestinians had nothing to do with the holocaust and it is time that this guilt trip was taken off their backs…. And I deeply resent U.S. taxpayer funds being used to continue Israeli aggression.' In that same email, Garcia accused Israel of confiscating land and building illegal settlements in occupied territories, as well as 'incursions that kill people, destroy civilian homes and infrastructure all over; mass concentration prison camps, etc.' ...County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Alan Siegel accepted Garcia’s resignation Monday afternoon. He called the emails 'grossly inappropriate.'..."
[source: mondoweiss.net/2012/07/dnc-member-resigns-after-emails-faulting-israeli-aggression-and-palestinian-burden-for-holocaust.html]
OK Dorthea, so we Americans are taking lessons from what you Germans did 75 years ago. So what is the big deal?
First of all, I didn't do anything 75 years ago. Second, starting offensive wars as well as killing and torturing innocent Muslims is a big deal.
On Wednesday the European Parliament overwhelmingly defeated the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a PIPA/SOPA clone (or, as someone observed in a discussion forum, one more of those zombie treaties), negotiated in near secrecy, that threatened to undermine privacy, due process and freedom of expression in the name of strengthening copyright protection. ACTA has so far been signed by the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea, as well as the EU and 22 of its member states, though it has not yet been ratified by any of the signatories. Wednesday's vote means that, at least (though probably not only) in Europe, this treaty is dead.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
How about taking a look at man made disasters: Fukashima (it's all in the news, no surprises here but very sad and catastrophic), Katrina (people, mostly poor, living below sea level in fabricated housing that some one approved and sold) and Colorado forest fires, where 1 out of 4 homes are in high risk fire areas, again where some one approved and sold. All of this on top of many recent floodings of epic proportions, hurricanes producing enormous rain fall, and anything else you can think of reporting about, such as the algae bloom in the arctic and motorcycle noise and air pollution insanity on the highway. Scratch the motorcycle stuff. I don't want to see a lot of fat people. Talk about bicycle paths in Crown Heights. That would be more fun.
Oh no, not that!
"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appears to be preparing to strengthen his foreign policy profile with a trip to Europe that could include stops in Germany and Poland. He is reportedly seeking a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- a tête-à-tête that could allow him to score points against President Obama."
spiegel.de/international/world/republican-presidential-candidate-mitt-romney-considers-trip-to-germany-a-842959.html
Now we know, for certain, the oil companies are in the business of price gouging. Gas prices dropped to encourage travel for the 4th and skyrocketed on the 5th when everyone needed to get home! In my area, prices rose 20 cents on the 5th, an additional 8 cents on the 6th and as for today, the 7th, I do not know what prices are because I am too scared to venture out and use the liquid gold in my car. Anyone who buys gas should have the right to sue the oil companies and reclaim some of their money.
Now I know that I was struck by lightning the moment I laid eyes on MS Majora Carter. I'm going to have to check out "The Promised Land"
Also I know there's no debt collectors for Bush/Cheny and those self-serving Republicans who spent our national wealth like a crack Ho with a credit card.
As far as jobs go... quite whining, get a skill and make your own damn job, like I doing writing for *****
I am somebody who demands accountability spoact.blogspot.com
Now I know that I was struck by lightning the moment I saw MS Majora Carter, wow! I'm going to have to check out "The Promised Land".
Also I know there's no debt collectors or jail for Bush/Cheney and those self-seving Republicans who spent our national wealth like a crack Ho with a credit card.
As far as jobs go... quite whining, get a marketable skill and make your own damn job. Like I'm trying to do as a writer for *****
I am somebody who demands accountability spoact.blogspot.com
Dear Mr. Christopher Hayes: Christopher; my grandfather's Name and my brother's name, God Bless. I once again apologize for calling attention to one of your panelists abysmal ignorance. Mr. Smith may be an assistant whatever at a North Carolina University, ( I would never send any of my children to be misled by him as a lecture) his defects are too apparent. He obviously has no moral code, which he apparently does not yet perceive. When you are employed by and Banking Institution, you are not employed to exercise your faulty judgment in any situation, let alone one that affects the whole banking world. His logic is so flawed and yet he does not perceive this, and this is frightening. He would make a perfect Nazi. I hate to advocate he be removed from the panel, as I do not like to see anyone lose a job, but his invincible ignorance compels me to recommend his removal. If you check back on your programs you will see that he always talks in a "double dutch" language, which is incomprehensible to everyone but him. jpq