The Daily Populous

Monday January 7th, 2019 night edition

image for The Shutdown Is Mitch McConnell's Fault

As the federal government's partial shutdown enters its third week, the effects are beginning to pile up, the human toll coming into sharper focus.

Everyone from FBI agents to airline pilots has been asking Donald Trump and Congress to reach an agreement and reopen the government.

But the president is refusing to relent on his demand for $5 billion to fund a border wall, instead threatening vaguely that the shutdown could last years.

It's Trump's insistence on a wall that has manufactured this crisis, and it's the White House that has been leading negotiations with Democrats in Congress.

The US has weathered government shutdowns before, but the circumstances of this one are particularly embarrassing.

But the House didn't take up that bill and instead moved on a bill that purported to fund a wall.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily. »

Ginsburg misses Supreme Court arguments for the 1st time

Authored by apnews.com
image for

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2018 file photo, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nominated by President Bill Clinton, sits with fellow Supreme Court justices for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington.

The Supreme Court says Ginsburg is missing arguments for the first time in more than 25 years as she recuperates from cancer surgery last month.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is missing arguments for the first time in more than 25 years as she recuperates from cancer surgery last month, the Supreme Court said. »

Apple is going to sell its Apple TV service on Samsung TVs, because Apple wants to be a service company

Authored by recode.net
image for

You really can’t read this as anything but a recognition that the Apple TV doesn’t sell and Apple needs more service scale — nilay patel (@reckless) January 6, 2019.

And again, that service can make Apple more money if it’s available on more devices instead of just on Apple devices.

It wants to make money from people who don’t own Apple devices — or at least don’t exclusively use Apple devices. »

Why Is It Still Controversial to Call Trump a Racist?

Authored by rollingstone.com
image for

When Cooper asked her why, she explained that she treats Trump as more of a “symptom of a problem.”

And yet, Ocasio-Cortez’s matter-of-fact contention that Trump is a racist has been treated as if it was a bold pronouncement.

It shouldn’t take a recording of Trump saying the n-word for America to accept that he’s racist. »

Americans are happier in states that spend more on libraries, parks and highways

Authored by eurekalert.org

Americans are happier in states where governments spend more on public goods, among them libraries, parks, highways, natural resources and police protection, a Baylor University study has found.

Large parks are social spaces -- and one clear finding of happiness studies is that people who are more socially connected tend to be happier.".

"It could be that happier citizens self-select by moving to states that spend comparatively more on public goods," he said. »