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今天收到IUCN亚洲办事处老朋友Patti Moore发来的IUCN主席Ashok Khosla最近的一篇时评。放在这里,以飧读者。
Roots of the meltdown and lessons for our future
22 April 2009 | News - News story
By IUCN President Ashok Khosla
Americans have a wonderful saying, that "a rising tide raises all boats". Unfortunately, this is not true for the boats that are anchored to the bottom of the economic sea, such as the poor, the marginalized and the economically handicapped who are unable to acquire the skills or capital that would liberate them to float up with the rest.
"Lifeboat Earth" is perhaps a better metaphor, since all of us are in it together. Castaways in a lifeboat quickly have to learn that the individual can flourish on
Fairness and respect for the common good is a matter of self-interest. Within countries or between them, extremes of poverty and affluence and the destruction of nature that they entail are systemic threats to the well-being, let alone survival, of everyone, even those who are well-off.
The messages to our political leaders and to our conservation community have to be different but complementary. Our political leaders need to go beyond ideology and deal with the fundamental issues that affect our future in a pragmatic but principled manner.
Economic considerations can't always trump nature because on
This can't go on, regardless of political orientation. We can on
And the conservation communities, too, must go beyond their knee-jerk biases. The need to re-engage with multinational businesses does not have to be seen as weakness or betrayal. Or that protecting biodiversity has always to be at the expense of local people.
"Conserving nature is not "left" or "right", it is about leaving behind for our children a place that is fit for life."
Conserving nature is not "left" or "right", it is about leaving behind for our children a place that is fit for life. Serious discussions above the usual ideological or political barriers can take place on
The current financial meltdown – which has led to the loss of trillions of dollars worldwide – has resulted from the breakdown of the American mortgage and investment banking system. This breakdown, is in turn believed by many to stem from lack of regulation of financial institutions, compounded by "greed" and "overleveraging", which together have led to a massive failure of the market in other sectors as well, particularly in manufacturing, trade and various services.
At the same time, the prices of food have been through wild fluctuations, also often ascribed to distortions caused in the market by hoarding, profiteering and crop failures due to weather, pests and other immediate causes. And, indeed, these explanations are true. But they are on
The invisible hand that was supposed to optimize the market for the benefit of all has become a very visible fist threatening the future of everyone. This does not mean that the market should be discarded: it simply means that the prerequisites for it to work well, as identified already two hundred years ago by Adam Smith – such as free competition, full cost accounting, equal access to information – must be put in place.
The 1980's crisis of indebtedness among the poorest countries was caused by the need to offload ("invest") excess petrodollars on them even when they manifestly could not afford them. Three decades later, the economies of many of those "least developed" countries have still not recovered to the level they had before the got their "easy" money. Three lost decades – the story of many countries in Africa and Latin America.
The banks, on the other hand, then as now, were bailed out in on
Where did the surplus funds come from? They came partly from mechanization of the workplace that displaced workers (reducing their purchasing power and taking them out of the demand side of the market), partly from using underpaid overseas production facilities and partly from mining nature's resources, which were obtained on grossly underpriced terms or even virtually free.
Moreover, most of the social and environmental costs were never paid for. The resulting overutilization of natural resources is leading to severe depletion and pollution problems. These remained unnoticed for a period because of clever innovations and substitutions but are now showing up in uncontrolled price fluctuations for commodities, raw materials and fuel and increasingly taking them out of the supply side of the market.
If this continues any longer, with both demand and supply dwindling, the new market equilibrium can on
The post-Keynesian reaction to such a situation is to revive the economy by stimulating consumption, in the hope that it will generate a virtuous, upward cycle of more demand . . . creating more supply . . . creating more purchasing power . . .creating more demand . . . ad infinitum.
The problem, of course, is that it can no longer work like that. There is a missing link in this chain of reasoning: the fact that we are endowed with a finite, indeed very limited, resource base. Creating more supply means mining more resources, which in turn means generating more disruptions in our life support systems – the species, the ecosystems and the biogeochemical cycles that make life possible on our fragile planet.
|"Mother Nature is, up to a limit, hugely bounteous and resilient. But she can also become quite vulnerable and break down rather suddenly."
Mother Nature is, up to a limit, hugely bounteous and resilient. But being a vast, finely tuned system, with highly complex linkages and feedback systems, beyond a threshold that with our present knowledge is often difficult to foresee, she can also become quite vulnerable and break down rather suddenly. The science of climate change is just beginning to show how suddenly and how much.
So, if we try to become profligate again, going back to our defunct models of development, economic forces will automatically kick in to limit demand and ecological forces will automatically limit supply. And we will face another "meltdown", on
Let's also hope that the need to re-start the economy, which we must, will not be used to restore wasteful and damaging habits that are no longer viable. We need to invest in restoring the health of the natural resource base, including particularly all aspects of biodiversity, and in creating sustainable livelihoods and jobs through redesign of our technologies, market systems, and financial institutions. And we need to spend a great deal of time, effort and resource to create a different and common understanding of what constitutes a good life.
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The NFL teams opposing an expansion of the former Xanadu complex are basing traffic concerns on a "phantom project" that goes well beyond the scope of the developer's current plan, a company executive told state officials today.
At a hearing before the agency overseeing the project, Tony Armlin, a vice president of developer Triple Five, said the New York Giants and Jets have used "flawed" studies to reach "absurd conclusions" about the traffic impact that would result from modifying the project. The Canadian developer hopes to add indoor water and amusement parks to the long-stalled project near MetLife Stadium, reviving it as American Dream Meadowlands.
The assertion came during a New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority hearing focused on the traffic concerns that caused the teams to file a lawsuit this summer against the agency and the developer. At the hearing, Triple Five representatives argued the expansion would have a minimal impact, which representatives for teams later sought to dismiss during sometimes contentious testimony before a sports authority panel.
Triple Five's plans for the water and amusement parks call for adding some 600,000 square feet to the unfinished megamall, bringing the project to 2.8 million square feet. But Armlin said the teams wrongfully based traffic projections on a 7.5 million-square-foot "future vision," which has been discussed only as a concept, and has not been worked into the developer's current plans.
"The teams have done traffic studies for a phantom project that has not been proposed to the NJSEA," Armlin said.
Flanked by a traffic expert, Armlin said the water and amusement parks would result in only 63 additional cars on the Meadowlands Sports Complex roadways when game-day patrons were leaving MetLife Stadium, citing studies by the firm's consultants. He also said traffic and parking concerns would be eased by service expansions by NJ Transit, visitors who choose to "stay away" on game days and Bergen County blue laws that will require American Dream's retail shops to be closed on Sundays.
The presentation was met by sharp criticism from Giants President John Mara, who said it was "simple logic" that the expansion would have a significant impact on traffic. He said traffic has always been a top concern for the teams' fans during their decades in the Meadowlands, causing many season ticket holders to stay home on game days.
"Even if you don't buy into what the traffic experts have told you, don't buy into their fantasy numbers," Mara said, referring to Triple Five. "Use common sense."
Sam Schwartz, a traffic engineer retained by the teams, said 8,000 additional cars would be on the road in the hour after home games because of the parks, citing computer models. He noted that the figures were conservative after accounting for the blue laws, the "stay-away factor" and others.
The presentation by Mara and his experts prompted several questions by a top sports authority official, leading to exchanges that sometimes became heated in front of dozens of attendees. At one point, Mara accused the sports authority of effectively dismissing the teams' findings before even considering them, in favor of getting the project approved.
But the NJSEA official, Ralph J. Marra Jr., rejected the accusation.
"What I have is too widely divergent views of traffic here ... and that's what this committee is trying to get to the bottom of," said Marra, the agency's senior vice president for legal and government affairs.
The teams' protest and lawsuit this summer stem from a 2006 agreement with the sports authority, which gave the clubs veto power over changes to the Xanadu project that adversely affected them. Today's hearing was described as an "information-gathering session" for the agency, which has to approve changes to the master plan for the sports complex.

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Views: 1882
Linda, not many people approach the concepts about life's mysteries the way I do; some follow different paths. I like that! Reading and talking to a lot of different people about the meaning of life or from where does authority come is my journey and yours will undoubtedly be very different. The incredible thing is, We are alive, we have sense organs, we can think and reason and solve problems. We are equipped with all this fine equipment and the pleasure comes in using them. What good is the sense of taste if we don't pay attention to different flavors? What good is the sense of sight if we don't notice those things that can be seen. What good is a brain if we don't think and reason and explore and experiment with thought.
I hope you will share your journey with me as I enjoy sharing mine with you.
My friend just told me about this site and I'm so glad to have joined! I feel so outnumbered everywhere I go and lately it has been really bothering me. The question crosses my mind more and more as the years pass How do people believe that shit?
I've noticed that the only people who find god are children, people with illnesses, and recovering drug addicts.Coincidence? I don't believe so. I am proud to be the minority in the situation of religion but it does get old having people constantly trying to convert me or get me to say I'm agnostic (which I am offended by because I KNOW the truth, it is nothing I will ever say I'm unsure of). Brings me to my next point, an atheism tattoo. I want to get the ambigram atheist tattooed on the inside of my arm but I don't want to have to deal with people talking about how great god is and their "proof" of his existance every time they see it; however I am a very prideful atheist. To ink or not to ink, That is my question.
Until very recently, people thought and acted as if the only option in life was to be an adherent to some religion, and most wanted others to believe as they. I have many family members and friends who seemed to take it personally when I realized religion was a concept with which I could no longer agree. Some insisted I was wrong and would come back to the flock; others were aggressive in their denunciation of not recognizing "evidence" of god because they had "proof"; some were sad that I am doomed to burn in eternal damnation.
All these reactions seem silly to me now. I am; I exist; I am aware; I think and reason; I am part of a magnificent universe and made of the same stuff as stars. WOW! So are you.
yes me too - I love that concept
Linda, I feel that way as well.
Totally agree! It seems like everywhere I turn people around me are credulous and trying to sneak their god into every little thing. It's good to know there are other Skeptical people like us out there.
As for ink, that is your choice :)
Welcome, Megan, to Atheist Nexus and to "Origins".
Re atheist pride, the short of it is that, through simple common sense, atheists astutely accept the facts obtained by science, while the religious go on clutching at the fictions offered by their irrational 'faith' in non-existent gods.
Oh Yes! Linda, I did not see evidence of god in my life and looked around and realized it is because no evidence of god exists. Now that our lives are impacted by so many stressors: economic, political, and religious, others begin to question and ask questions and find very fine answers in realizing they have no evidence of god either.
'On ne devient pas athée par souhait'
Napoleon Bonaparte
I so enjoyed reading that! I am proud to be an Atheist!
I'm just glad I don't let some archaic rigid superstition control my life. I only wish we had a more creative symbol of atheism other than the cropped atom which religious zealots love to make fun of.
"Atheism is not a belief. It is the default situation into which every innocent is born."
You know how many times theists have told me that Atheism is a belief? It's absurd.
I tell them it is not belief it is non-belief.
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Obsessive New Manager Watch: Mike Maddux Has Removed His Name From Consideration for Red Sox Job (UPDATE)
In news sure to leave a few folks scratching their heads about the implications until they are made clear, Texas Rangers' pitching coach Mike Maddux, who is supposed to interview with the Chicago Cubs later this week for their managerial opening, and who was supposed to interview with the Boston Red Sox for the same today, has removed his name from consideration from the latter job.
Of the decision, Maddux said simply to Peter Gammons, "We're in a good situation. My family moved here, the kids will be in school for three more years here."
Maddux has not yet withdrawn his name from consideration for the Cubs' job, but says he wants to talk things over with his family.
Now, there is going to be plenty of speculation that this means Maddux is the favorite for the Cubs' job (and Jon Heyman has already so speculated), and that's possible. I wouldn't put it entirely past new Cubs' brass to, on the one hand, conduct open, public interviews with Pete Mackanin and Dale Sveum, while simultaneously laying the groundwork on Maddux as their first preference. Could have groundwork have been far enough along that Maddux knew, for him, it was either Chicago or staying in Texas? Maybe. And maybe, to be safe, the Cubs wanted to bring in other candidates in case Maddux's family concerns were not alleviated in a move to Chicago.
I tend, however, to take Maddux at his word. He's got a family to think about, and he felt like the Boston situation – the city, the organization, the expectations, the tough 2011 season – wasn't the right fit for him. It doesn't mean that the Cubs' job is more likely to be a good fit, nor does it mean the Cubs' job is just as likely to be a bad fit.
UPDATE: Maddux offered the following statement about his decision, which, again, doesn't exactly rule out the Cubs (some might say conspicuously so):
"This afternoon I spoke with Ben Cherington and thanked him for the consideration to interview for the Boston Red Sox managerial post. It is humbling to know an organization with so much baseball history is interested in my services.
"I could give more reasons why an opportunity like this should be taken rather than not, but the reason for withdrawing my name from consideration comes down to a family decision. My wife and two daughters are together in the same state for the first time in three years and words cannot describe my happiness. The game of baseball has many sacrifices but being apart from family is the toughest. I feel there is too much distance between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Boston to see my family as much as I'd enjoy.
"Again, I thank Ben Cherington and the Boston Red Sox for the flattery, honor, and compliment of considering me for their position."


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Now that all the league matches are over, it is time to check whether the Indian Team that has been selected for the T20 World Cup is performance based, or rather purely based on the past laurels.
Last time I chose my team based on the total number of runs scored, and wickets taken as my criteria. This time I am changing the criteria and using the Cricinfo's Fantasy Cricket Stats (sorting it based on total points). And this time I am choosing a team of 15 that comprises of 5 batsmen, 3 all-rounders, 1 wicket keeper, and 6 bowlers (like the Indian Team already chosen for the T20 World Cup).
Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Sachin Tendulkar
Yuvraj Singh
TS Suman
Yusuf Pathan
Irfan Pathan
RA Jadeja
Wicket keeper
Dinesh Karthik !!!
Anil Kumble
Ashish Nehra
RP Singh
Harbhajan Singh
Pragyan Ojha
P Sangwan
There are two names here that anyway would not have been in the team – SRT & Kumble. Replacing them would be:
SRT – Virat Kohli
Anil Kumble – Praveen Kumar
There are some major surprises here, none bigger than: No MS Dhoni! The captain of the team is out. Karthik has been keeping better, and scoring at par with Dhoni at least in this format. Also no Gautam Gambhir, no Virender Sehwag, no Zaheer, no Ishant Sharma. Well at least for Sehwag and Zaheer, I can at least say that they did not play many matches, but Gambhir?
Anyway I do not have any problem with the team chosen for T20 World Cup, although I seriously wish that Nehra was going rather than Munaf Patel – this guy never seems to be giving his 100% (to use an oft-used cliche).
Wishing that this T20 brouhaha finishes soon, so that we can get back to the serious business of the Ashes, and the French Open, and the Wimbledon! 🙂


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Commercial, Public Service, Training
By By Mike Redmon | December 1, 2011
Send Feedback
While getting your rotorcraft ratings, the main focus is on the technical side of aviation. LTE, dissymmetry of lift and autorotations are examples of subjects/skills we work hard at mastering. We study hard to pass written and oral exams. After gaining our commercial certificate we then worry about how to get to some pre-determined amount of flight time or how to gain an ATP. One part of aviation that's never discussed or focused on during training is our ability to interact with other people.
From a pure piloting standpoint, there usually isn't much difference between a 1,500-hour and an 8,000-hour pilot. Notice I said "usually." I have been surprised at both ends of the spectrum. I flew with a guy with an alleged 1,500 hours over a 20-year career as a National Guard-commissioned officer who scared the pants off me. He didn't last more than a couple of weeks at our company. I also went to FlightSafety with an older pilot who definitely had over 10,000 hours of flight time but couldn't fly better than your average 20-hour student pilot. I honestly think he had vision problems because that is the only excuse I could conjure up for the poor fellow. He also didn't last more than a month on the payroll. We were lucky he didn't kill anyone when he took off with the SAS disengaged and almost put the tailrotor into a hangar. Taking those extreme cases off the table, what usually separates pilots after 1,500 hours is their interpersonal skills.
The funniest jokes have a grain of truth in them so everyone chuckles when some always-cranky pilot says, "I love aviation but it's the people I can't stand." Assume you are in a position to hire a pilot. If someone told you the 8,000-hour pilot was cranky all the time and generally ticked everyone off, would you hire him or the 1,500-hour pilot? "Attitude determines your altitude" is a cheesy cliché that might be seen on a high school poster, but in the real world it is very important. The last thing managers want to deal with is someone who has no interpersonal skills. Jerks generally don't get the job.
In the HEMS world the medical folks run the show. If a pilot treats the nurse or medic like "self-loading baggage" and hides out in the pilot office for 12 straight hours, that pilot better hope he makes no noticeable mistakes. I'm sure the same is true for other forms of helicopter flying. We've all seen pilots "let go" for small flying infractions that shouldn't even be worth a mention from the lead pilot. The infraction is usually just an excuse because everyone is tired of dealing with them. Is it fair that Pilot A gets fired for being 20 minutes late while no one cares that Pilot B was 30 minutes late the week prior? No, but it is the reality in most organizations, aviation or non-aviation.
I was a manager in a factory for a couple of years after finishing with active duty. I was extremely busy, and if someone was repeatedly a pain to deal with, I'd eventually tire of it and cut no slack for a minor mistake and fire him. Bosses are the same in every industry. They just want employees who treat their job with some degree of seriousness and who also get along with other team members.
I have two small children—a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl. In school they are learning the basics of life: Be nice. Use the magic words—Please, Thank You, You're Welcome. Clean up after yourself. Say you're sorry if you hurt someone's feelings or make a mistake.
If the prior shift pilot didn't wash the helicopter like he was supposed to, then don't get upset about it and bad mouth him to the medical crew. Give the other pilot the benefit of the doubt and just wash it for him and forget it ever happened. Treat your fellow coworkers with compassion and understanding. If they need a mentor then do it without being a "know it all." Go the extra mile for people. The lessons my children are bringing home are nice reminders of how everyone should act. Some of the most important lessons in life are the lessons we learn in kindergarten.


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May 23, 2013
Steve Horn and Chris Geovanis / Truthout Report
"Danny" was a fixture at protest events beginning in early March 2012, when he participated in a 20-hour introductory training for new street medics. But it turns out the email address "Danny" used (which he did not sign by name) was pegged to the name of a Chicago police officer cited months later in court documents involved in undercover work around the NATO protests. Yes, "Danny" was a police spy.
(May 21, 2013) -- On March 27, Chicago teachers and their supporters -- including parents, students and community residents -- rallied against the largest mass public school closure in US history. News of the mobilization sparked huge public interest before the demonstration -- including from an undercover police officer calling himself "Danny Edwards."
The day before the big rally, "Danny" reached out in individual emails to fellow volunteer street medics he had met a year earlier after he took a 20-hour training with Chicago's local street medic collective, Chicago Action Medical (CAM). CAM's volunteer emergency medical technicians (EMTs), nurses, doctors and trained street medics provide emergency medical treatment at local protests.
His aim in reaching out: to learn more about the next day's plans.
"Danny" -- who admitted to us on May 6 that he is, in fact, a Chicago police officer -- could have saved himself the trouble and his department the expense. After all, organizers had already coordinated directly with top CPD brass about their plans for the next day and widely promoted their intent to stage nonviolent civil disobedience.
After the CTU rally, "Danny" also tried to recruit at least one CAM volunteer street medic via email on April 30, the day before a May 1, 2013, immigrants' rights march, to pair up with him as a partner. There were no takers, so he showed up alone at the rally sporting marked medic regalia.
His latest undercover sortie as a fake volunteer street medic bookends a hectic year for him.
The Paper Trail
"Danny" was a fixture at CAM events beginning in early March 2012, when he participated in a 20-hour introductory training for new street medics -- a training he described in an email to CAM volunteer street medic Scott Mechanic as "great."
The email address "Danny" used in that correspondence, which he did not sign by name, was pegged to the name of a Chicago police officer cited months later in court documents involved in undercover work around the NATO protests.
Less than half an hour after sending that initial email, "Danny" sent the first in a flurry of emails to Mechanic from a different email address, writing "let me know what going on so i can get involved (sic)."
"Danny's" March 2012 foray into spying on CAM aligns with the date prosecutors say the Chicago Police Department (CPD) posted two other undercover agents who went by the street names "Mo" and "Nadia" on a 90-day temporary duty undercover assignment to Field Intelligence Team 7150. That team was tasked with infiltrating Occupy and anarchist groups in the run-up to the NATO Summit, according to court documents filed by Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez in April 2013.
Those two officers, "Mo" and "Nadia," are also purported linchpins in the criminal cases against five activists known as the "NATO 5," three of whom are scheduled to go to trial on NATO-related domestic terrorism charges this September.
The NATO prosecutors' October 2012 Answer to Discovery lists this same police officer among the CPD officers, detectives and other police officials who may be called to testify in this fall's upcoming trial. He is also mentioned in the NATO defendants' February 25, 2013, Motion to Compel Discovery as "a CPD undercover officer related to this investigation."
Busy Year for "Danny" -- and Early Red Flags
Five days after he inadvertently emailed Scott Mechanic under his given name and scrambled to cover his tracks, "Danny" acted for the first time as a CAM street medic at a small permitted peace march on Chicago's north side. The March 18, 2012 event was organized to mark the anniversary of the launch of the Iraq War in March 2003.
"Danny" ran again as a marked CAM street medic on April 7, 2012 at Occupy Chicago's "Occupy Spring" event, also emailing Mechanic on April 26, 2012 about bringing a "friend" to an upcoming health workshop. On May 1, 2012, he volunteered as a marked CAM street medic at a May Day rally and march, where his refusal to follow CAM operational guidelines -- reportedly abandoning his street medic partner to make a beeline for a group of young protesters wearing black clothes -- began to raise real alarms with fellow street medics.
After "Danny's" behavior on May Day, a number of veteran CAM volunteers -- including Mechanic -- moved immediately to isolate him from new and less experienced street medics, to monitor his behavior closely and to broadly urge the practice of good security culture.
But without a smoking gun, they were unwilling to expose him publicly. The chill from veteran street medics didn't discourage "Danny" from continuing to reach out and show up to actions.
On May 11, a week and a half later and as local organizers were scrambling to find housing for out-of-town protesters traveling in for the demonstrations, he emailed Mechanic directly for information about housing that other groups or collectives might be offering. "I have a group of friends in need and I wanted some direction," he wrote.
On May 20, 2012, at a large protest against the NATO Summit, CAM street medics demanded that he remove his medic markings after he again ignored CAM street operations protocols by deserting his partner to sprint after a group of protesters clad in black clothes.
"Danny" sent emails to individual members of CAM's listserv - but almost never to the larger listserv -- strategically for the next year, seeking information about upcoming demonstrations and meetings. The off-list queries continued to raise red flags with CAM members he contacted, some of whom had never met him and did not know who he was.
When we asked "Danny" at the 2013 May Day rally to confirm his name and identity as a CPD officer, he insisted he was "Danny Edwards" and claimed to be a friend of a local activist.
That's not how the activist described "Danny" to CAM volunteers at a street medic training before the NATO protests last spring. At that training, he told CAM members that "Danny" had recently befriended him, and he raised concerns there about "Danny's" interest in topics ranging from Molotov cocktails to property damage.
"NATO 5" Connection
According to court documents released in the months after the NATO Summit protests, "Danny"is one of the undercover officers at the heart of the "NATO 5" criminal cases. He's mentioned in the pre-NATO Summit pre-emptive raid search warrant documents as "Undercover Officer C," and is also cited by his given name in court documents for one of the NATO defendants, Sebastian "Sabi" Senakiewicz, as a potential trial witness.
We tried to question "Danny" about his undercover activities on May 6 at a house that had a sheet of paper with his given name and phone number taped to the front door. While he admitted he was, in fact, the named police officer he'd denied being just five days earlier, he declined to answer our questions.
"Danny's" post-NATO activities raise a key question: Why keep an undercover officer in play as a volunteer street medic in a nonviolent health-care project almost a year after the NATO protests that ostensibly put him into motion as a police spy in the first place?
It's virtually impossible to say from the official record. That's because the CPD and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez have fought tooth and nail in court for almost a year to prevent defense attorneys in the remaining NATO cases from learning more about the scope and character of police spying on political activity leading up to last year's NATO Summit.
At a "NATO 3" status hearing on May 14, 2013, prosecutors again opposed disclosing information about the wider scope of police spying on Chicago's activist groups (as they have before in official court filings) in the months leading up to the NATO Summit. Defense attorneys rebutted in open court -- as they did in writing earlier in their April 30, 2013, "Reply to the State's Response to Defendants' Motion to Compel" -- that this information remains directly relevant to the NATO cases because it would broaden the context of the arrests of the NATO 3 and the CPD's pre-NATO spying efforts targeting the activist community.
Broader Context
Police spying in recent years has targeted peace groups, environmentalists and the Occupy movement, a focus on protest as a potential flashpoint of "terrorism" that sometimes has disastrous consequences. By way of example, in Boston, local police focused their attention on the political activism of local residents at the same time they missed the threat posed by the Boston Marathon bombers.
And law enforcement has also demonstrated a disturbing pattern of working undercover to create crime to prosecute crime. Notable cases like the "Cleveland 4" fit into a pattern that journalist Arun Gupta has described as law enforcement's "war of entrapment against the Occupy movement."
Law enforcement infiltration in Chicago in the run-up to the 2012 NATO Summit unfolded most publicly with the use of at least two undercover cops who went by the names "Mo" and "Nadia."
Both were regular fixtures at a spring 2012 encampment to try to prevent the closure of the Woodlawn Mental Health Clinic on Chicago's south side, one of six public mental health clinics slated for closure by city officials and hardly a flashpoint of "potential terrorist activity." They also showed up at one point at an independent media center organized to cover the NATO protests and at numerous other documented locales in the two and a half months before the NATO Summit.
"Red Squad" 2.0 Rolling Back into Town?
Ongoing police spying a year after the NATO meeting by "Danny" -- and potentially others -- raises a real alarm among activists, including CAM street medics, whose national community traces its origins to the Medical Presence Project of the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR).
MCHR was first formed in 1964 to provide medical assistance to the civil rights movement. Its Chicago-based volunteers, who also provided medical aid at protests organized by peace projects and student groups opposed to the Vietnam War, were among thousands of civilians spied on by the CPD's notorious Red Squad.
"The CPD's decision to plant an undercover police spy in Chicago Action Medical is outrageous, but sadly, comes as no surprise," said CAM street medic Dick Reilly in an interview. "The CPD has a long and sordid history of surveillance and infiltration of labor, peace and social justice groups dating back to the 1886 railroading of the Haymarket defendants -- efforts that led to the creation of Chicago's infamous Red Squad. Over a hundred years later, the cops are clearly still at it."
For Reilly, CAM's ongoing infiltration threatens core freedoms that range from the privacy rights of the people they treat to police officials' ongoing assault on dissent in the city.
"When the CPD targets a volunteer medical project like CAM - which seeks to provide basic first aid to people exercising their democratic rights and whose primary principle is to 'do no harm' - it underscores the lengths to which they'll go to criminalize dissent, suppress resistance and pander to the agenda of the political and economic elites they actually serve and protect," Reilly said.
The Chicago Red Squad's abuses of basic constitutional rights were so egregious - targets included the Parent-Teachers' Association and the League of Women Voters - that a federal court slapped the city with a consent decree in 1982 that expressly barred politically motivated police spying unless police could show at least some evidence of criminal intent on the part of the targets of their spying.
The city was finally able to win relief from the consent decree in January 2001, after arguing for years constitutional protections thwarted its ability to investigate gangs and "terrorism."
The consent decree's demise hasn't kept the CPD out of hot water for spying on political projects, either, beginning as early as 2002. Were the old consent decree still in place, CAM members believe "Danny's" undercover spying on their work over the past year would have been illegal.
McCarthy's Spy-Ops Background at NYPD, Newark PD
Just before he was sworn in as Chicago's new mayor in May of 2011, Rahm Emanuel - a former US Congressman and chief of staff for President Obama -- announced the appointment of new police superintendent Garry McCarthy. Three months later, McCarthy created an intelligence-gathering unit tasked to perform "counter-terrorism" work in preparation for the May 2012 NATO meetings.
A career New York cop, McCarthy is no stranger to the use of systematic police spying.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has a contentious track record in this arena, prompting the implementation of New York's own version of Chicago's Red Squad consent decree - the Handschu Decree - while McCarthy was climbing up the NYPD's ranks to a senior command position.
It wasn't long after he formally assumed the mantle of CPD superintendent in 2011 that McCarthy drew fire for allowing the latest iteration of New York's police spy ring to operate in Newark, NJ, where he had served as police chief before taking the position as CPD's top dog.
McCarthy also served as an NYPD commander when the police set up spy rings before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City and during "CIA on the Hudson," the joint NYPD/CIA project that was set up and run by former CIA Deputy Director for Operations David Cohen to "map the human terrain" of New York City's Islamic community.
Targeting Street Medics
Volunteer street medics have historically been an attractive target for undercovers.
CAM street medic Scott Mechanic met "Anna," before she was outed as a police infiltrator, an FBI informant who used her position as a street medic to befriend and entrap environmental activists. One of those activists, Eric McDavid, is serving a 20-year sentence in a case built around Anna's testimony and her reported entrapment activities.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mechanic was also a street medic volunteer at New Orleans' Common Ground Collective, where he and dozens of other volunteer health-care providers ran into Brandon Darby, an agent provocateur and FBI informant at the heart of another entrapment case, this one against David McKay and Bradley Crowder.
"These kinds of informants and undercover police represent a real threat to activists, in no small part because they're committed to manufacturing crime where none exists to terrorize the public and justify their abuses of our right to dissent," said Mechanic. "This Chicago cop's infiltration of our group raises real questions about police intrusion into protesters' medical histories -- and it's a truly despicable example of exploiting people's caregivers as part of the national campaign to criminalize dissent."
Convergence of the War on Drugs, War on Terrorism
As a Chicago cop, the CPD officer who infiltrated CAM has worked on narcotics and gang cases, including as an undercover officer.
Given the growing conflation of the "War on Drugs" with the "War on Terrorism," which is increasingly married to a War on Dissent, it's not surprising that the Chicago police officer who infiltrated CAM would segue into COINTELPRO-style undercover work. By the 1990's, the CPD was listing dissidents by alleged political affiliation in their gang database, in tandem with then-Mayor Richard M. Daley's claim that the Red Squad Consent Decree shackled cops' ability to investigate both gangs and "terrorism."
Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, points to the delayed notice search warrants enabled by Section 213 of the USA PATRIOT Act -- presented to the public as a counter-terrorism tool -- as a key example of the War on Drugs' convergence with the War on Terrorism.
"Both the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism have long represented cash cows for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, from the FBI all the way down to local police departments," Buttar said in an interview. "Beyond the serial corruption of agencies pimping public fears to inflate their budgets, many particular powers claimed as necessary for one 'war' are actually used more in the other."
The Chicago Police Department did not respond to our phone calls or emails about this story.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
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Reds drop Opening Day game in extra innings
CINCINNATI (AP) — Chris Iannetta hit a solo homer and a bases-loaded single in the 13th inning Monday, powering the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the majors' first interleague season opener.
Both teams emptied their benches and bullpens before Iannetta — who caught all 13 innings — finally provided the breakout hit.
Article continues below ...
The Angels loaded the bases with two outs in the 13th off J.J. Hoover, who walked two and hit Hank Conger, the Angels' final position player. Iannetta worked the count full, fouled off a pair of pitches, then singled to left.
Mark Lowe pitched two innings for the win. Ernesto Frieri, the Angels' seventh pitcher, finished off the Reds' longest opening game since 1975, when they beat the Dodgers 2-1 in 14 innings.
For the second straight season, an opener in Ohio went long. The Blue Jays beat the Indians 7-4 in 16 innings last year in Cleveland, the longest opener in major league history.
Reds starter Johnny Cueto gave up three hits in seven innings, including Iannetta's solo homer in the second. The Angels' Jered Weaver allowed two hits in six innings, giving up a run on a wild pitch.
Shin-Soo Choo had a solid debut at the Reds' leadoff hitter, reaching three times. He doubled in the third and came around on a ground out and Weaver's wild pitch.
The Reds suffered their first injury of the season. Left fielder Ryan Ludwick dislocated his right shoulder while sliding headfirst into third base on Weaver's wild pitch in the third inning. He'll have an MRI on Tuesday to determine the severity.
The bulllpens decided an opener between two teams that think they can contend for the playoffs right from the first pitch — which was a 92 mph fastball by Cueto for a called strike.
The Angels upgraded an already potent offense by signing outfielder Josh Hamilton for $125 million in the offseason. It was a nostalgic start to the season for Hamilton, who started his comeback in Cincinnati on opening day 2007 after years of drug abuse.
He got a standing ovation that day before his pinch-hit appearance, a fly out. Hamilton got another loud ovation on Monday from fans who wished he'd stayed for more than a year. Cincinnati traded him to Texas after one season.
Hamilton was 0 for 4 with a pair of walks. Albert Pujols also failed to get a hit, leaving the Rangers with nothing out of their power spots.
The Angels had one of the best interleague pitchers starting the first AL-NL season opener — Weaver is 12-3 in 21 career interleague games. The right-hander won 20 games and threw a no-hitter last year. He gave up only two hits through six innings, but let in a run with a wild pitch.
Nobody on the Reds looked forward to the opener more than Cueto, who strained muscles in his side on his eighth pitch in the playoff opener last year. He had to sit and watch as the Reds blew a two-game advantage and lost to the Giants in the first round, in part because his injury left the rotation in disarray.
Fully healed, the right-hander was back on his game. He gave up three hits and fanned nine, including Iannetta and pinch-hitter J.B. Shuck with the bases loaded in the seventh to keep it tied at 1.
NOTES: It was sunny and 47 degrees at the first pitch. The crowd of 43,168 was the largest at Great American Ball Park for a regular-season game. … Joe Torre, who managed the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic, threw a ceremonial pitch to Reds 2B Brandon Phillips, who played on the team. … Weaver became the first AL starter to bat on opening day since Pat Dobson (Orioles) and Mel Stottlemyre Sr. (Yankees) in 1972. Weaver struck out twice, leaving Angels pitchers 1 for 29 all-time on opening day. … The Angels are 30-23 in season openers, the Reds 66-70-1.


text: Latest News The Threat To Russia and China From India's New Pro-US Realignment Indian Prime Minister Modi's realignment of India with the US threatens to shatter BRICS unity reversing the course away from the US-led unipolar world. Published 2 years ago on May 7, 2016 By Andrew Korybko 11,603 Views Share Tweet In an earlier article I discussed India's recent moves and how these threaten to realign India with the US against China and Russia. In this article I will discuss the background to this and the strategic implications and how these developments threaten the development of the multipolar order that is challenging US global power. The Chinese-Indian Cold War South East Asia Prime Minister Modi's moves over the last month exacerbate an already existing low-intensity Chinese-Indian Cold War. The main focus of Chinese-Indian competition at the present time is in south east Asia. India plans to ramp up its commercial ties with the mainland members of ASEAN – often referred to as "the Mekong River states" – by cooperating with them to build the Trilateral Highway through Myanmar and Thailand. Part of this project links up to the Japanese East-West corridor at the Myanmar port city of Mawlamyine, connecting India to northern Thailand, southern Laos, and central Vietnam. This map shows the crisscrossing infrastructure corridors that are planned for the Greater Mekong Subregion. India's Trilateral Highway – labelled the Western Corridor – is coloured purple. Japan's East-Corridor is coloured turquoise. It is not a coincidence that these trade networks are expected to interlink with each other. India and Japan are the US's two most important Asian allies in "containing" China. From a US perspective, it makes sense for India and China to pool their resources in the ASEAN theatre. On the naval front, as I discussed in my previous article, India is slated to become one of the out-of-region forces active in the South China Sea alongside Japan, the US, and Australia in the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue". Himalayan Push The other main theatre of Chinese-Indian competition is the Himalayas, particularly Kashmir, Nepal and Arunachal Pradesh. Kashmir: Since 1948 Kashmir has been divided into Pakistani and Indian-administered zones. As I discussed in my previous article, India is objecting to China's plans to build the Chinese Pakistani Economic Corridor through the Pakistani-administered zone. In a conversation with Pakistani analyst and GPolit contributor Tayyab Baloch I was told of Pakistani fears that India might exploit the Logistic Support Agreement to obtain the deployment of US troops to Indian-controlled Kashmir. This would be seen as very threatening by Pakistan and might even facilitate the infiltration of Uighur and Tibetan terrorists into nearby China. Though deploying US troops to this bitterly contested region would be extremely destabilising and controversial, India might be tempted to "justify" it by citing China's refusal to stop construction of the Chinese Pakistani Economic Corridor through Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and by China's continued occupation of the Indian-claimed territory of Aksai Chin. Nepal: India and China have been engaged in a fierce asymmetrical competition for influence in Nepal ever since India lent its support to Hindu-identifying Madhesi protesters in the southern Terai region during their months-long protest campaign. The Madhesi were ostensibly protesting Nepal's plans for federalisation which they claim will dilute their influence in Nepal's affairs. In Nepal's capital Kathmandu the opinion is however that India is manipulating the Madhesi protests as proxies to ensure India's continued influence over Nepal. During the protests Indian traders claimed it was unsafe for them to travel to Nepal, causing a de-facto blockade of the country which cut it off from most of its fuel supplies. The Nepalese government claimed this was in effect an embargo imposed on Nepal by India. China for its part has pragmatically supported the democratically elected and legitimate Nepalese government, sending supplies to replace the products withheld by India. China has also sealed important energy deals with Nepal and is now even discussing an expansion of the New Silk Road through the Himalayans to Kathmandu. Not surprisingly India fears this could lead to the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar becoming flooded with Chinese goods. It is not difficult to see why India might therefore be tempted to use the Madhesi protests to thwart these projects. Arunachal Pradesh: A further region of potential Chinese-Indian rivalry in the Himalayas is the contested territory of Arunachal Pradesh, called "Southern Tibet" by China. The dispute here dates back to the imperial era when the British marked out the border between British controlled India and a weakened China. The essential point is that India for decades has administered this region without its right to do so being recognised by China. This dispute is for the time being lying dormant and has largely done so since the 1962 Sino-Indian War. It does however occasionally flare up as a rhetorical whenever Indian-Chinese disagreements rise to the surface. Since China does not recognise India's administration of Arunachal Pradesh, this territory retains the potential to become a serious flashpoint. The Logistical Support Agreement give the US the right – if India agrees – to "resupply, repair, and rest" its forces anywhere in India. This could in theory include contested areas such as Arunachal Pradesh. Deploying US troops so close to the border with China in a contested territory such as Arunachal Pradesh would be seen by China as intensely provocative and would be bound to provoke a Chinese reaction. That could transform a hereto dormant conflict into an active one, creating a third subregional front of "containment" against China. All it would take would be the symbolic presence of a few US troops – no matter how 'plausibly justified' under the terms of the Logistical Support Agreement – to trigger a confrontation between India and China that could be exploited by hardliners in New Delhi wanting to press for a concerted US-Indian joint effort to "defend Indian territory from China". "Containing" China In Central Asia There remains Central Asia as a further zone of potential Chinese-Indian conflict. India just recently began to accede to the Ashgabat Agreement, a multinational infrastructure development platform between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Oman. India plans to build a railroad from the Indian-financed port in Iran's southern Chabahar district to the existing Iran-Central Asian railway network, potentially making India an important regional actor. This North-South Corridor is expected to run in parallel to the actual one of that name which traverses Iran, the Caspian Sea region, Azerbaijan and Russia. If completed these projects would connect India by land to the European Union, re routing India's trade with the European Union through the Russian-Chinese zone of influence in Central Asia. India's increasing role in this region could benefit all parties. This however depends on how it is pursued. If India's intentions are hostile to China and are directed at "containing" China in this region (as they increasingly seem to be everywhere else) then India's growing presence in Central Asia could have destabilising consequences which would also inevitably affect Russia. It is too early to say what form India's role Central Asian will take. However whatever it is it is likely to be significant. Whether it will be positive or negative depends on India. If India continues to commit itself to multipolarity in combination with its BRICS partners Russia and China then its role in Central Asia will be positive. If instead it undermines BRICS unity (as it seems rapidly on track to do) then its actions could turn out to be severely destabilising, turning a hereto stable region into a theatre of a new global Cold War. Hybrid War Blackmail Prime Minister Modi seems for the moment to be going along with – even inviting – the US's anti-Chinese strategic assistance in South Asia and other neighbouring regions. However he may be under pressure to do so. As I wrote for Sputnik in October when discussing Bangladesh's simmering Islamic/Salafist terrorist problem, the US and possibly even Saudi Arabia may be planning to turn Bangladesh into another focus of violent Salafist jihadism as the ultimate form of pressure on India. Moreover, the September 2014 announcement that Al Qaeda had opened up a South Asian branch may also have led the Indian establishment to think there is a long-term jihadist threat to India. The extent to which these fears may have led India away from multipolarity towards realignment with the US is however debatable. In my opinion Prime Minister Modi was already predisposed to side with the US against China even if there were no external pressure upon him. Nonetheless the "ticking time bombs" of jihadi militancy remain a threat should Prime Minister Modi ever to decide to reverse course, though in that case India would be able to look for support to its BRICS partners – Russia and China – in a way that might actually deepen India's ties with them. Breaking Up The BRICS Prime Minister Modi increasing alignment with the US puts the BRICS organisation at serious risk of falling apart. India does sincerely wish for the success of certain multipolar projects. These include wider use of national non-dollar currencies in bilateral trade and the establishment of alternative global institutions such as the BRICS New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in which India would finally have representation proportionate to its size. However these forms of economic and institutional multipolarity are very different from the geopolitical multipolarity Russia and China practice. Whilst India would obviously benefit from that too, the short-sighted obsession of its "deep state" elites (ie. its permanent intelligence-military-diplomatic bureaucracies) in "containing" China, confronting Pakistan, and conquering the rest of Kashmir blind them to its advantages. This leads to the strange paradox of India geopolitically embracing the same hegemon – the US – it opposes in the economic and institutional spheres. Russia and China for their part had until recently assumed India shared their vision of economic, institutional, and – most importantly – geopolitical multipolarity. Now it seems the geopolitical aspect of this global vision is something India's elite no longer wants to move forward with. Ultimately an intensification of Chinese-Indian competition in a sort of bilateral Cold War can only serve the interests of the US. It not only risks undermining BRICS unity from within. Over time increasingly tense bilateral relations between India and China would inevitably spill over into other multipolar organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, undermining their unity and impairing their effectiveness. It is easy to see how in such a situation things might get so bad that India – contrary to its own long-term interests – might decide to accept whatever deal it was offered by the US and turn its back on the BRICS entirely. It is not inconceivable that in that case India could become a bridge between a US-sponsored TTIP in western Eurasia and a US sponsored TPP in eastern Eurasia, with India forming the link in some sort of southern "rimland alliance" against Russia and China. Russia's Choice In the event of India's destruction of BRICS unity, Russia would be forced to choose between its Chinese and Indian partners. For obvious reasons Moscow would prefer this never happened. However India's actions might leave it no alternative. If the point ever comes when Moscow is forced to side publicly with China against India, however politely and diplomatically this was done, the US and its proxies in India would undoubtedly use the fact to launch an information campaign claiming Moscow had "betrayed India" and had "sold India out to China". Russian diplomacy is no doubt striving to avoid this situation. Due to Russia's longstanding friendly ties to India Russia is the only country that might have a chance of persuading India that its present course of undermining BRICS unity does not serve India's interests. Even if Russia could not persuade India to reverse its new policies entirely, Russia might still play a useful role, moderating the policy and acting as a sort of bridge between New Delhi and Beijing. Realistically however there is little Moscow can do if India's elites are determined to adopt the anti-Chinese narrative the US has spun for them. If India irrevocably commits itself to a pro-US anti-China course then sooner or later India will inevitably come under pressure from Washington to loosen its ties with Moscow. This would most probably happen in the context of an artificially created crisis, making it appear that the decision was Moscow's rather than New Delhi's or Washington's. Concluding Thoughts Prime Minister Modi's actions over the past month in the immediate wake of US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter's visit have caused widespread alarm amongst its BRICS allies, provoking questions as why India is now so suddenly and so visibly siding with the US. In reality the Indian elite's obsessions with "containing" China, confronting Pakistan, and conquering all of Kashmir has always made India highly susceptible to US manipulation and provides the answer. The stakes however could not be higher. With India's news media and information space dominated by pro-Western narratives most Indians remain unaware of the change in strategic direction their country is taking. The result however might be to shatter the BRICS, putting other multipolar projects such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in jeopardy. Beyond that it is difficult to see how an intensification of the Chinese-Indian Cold War could not lead in the end to a permanent realignment of India with the US, placing the whole multipolar project upon which Russian and Chinese policy is based in question. It is not yet too late to turn back. Time is however running short. The further India moves along its present path the more difficult it will be to turn back. Beyond a certain point the momentum becomes unstoppable and the process irreversible. India is at a crossroads. Either it deepens its cooperation with its BRICS partners, consolidating the multipolar world that is emerging, or it sabotages it and aligns with Washington. India is today the pivot state, the country that has the decisive voice in whether or not there will be a New Cold War, and has for that reason become the object of every Great Powers' fancy. Liked it? Take a second to support The Duran on Patreon! Related Topics:RussiaIndiaUSChinaPakistanASEANBRICSSCO Up Next The Second World War, History And Remembrance Don't Miss Alarm Bells In Washington As Philippines Election Threatens Its Anti-China Strategy Advertisement You may like How other jurisdictions view Constantinople's actions in Ukraine Foreign Banks Are Embracing Russia's Alternative To SWIFT, Moscow Says US leaving INF will put nuclear non-proliferation at risk & may lead to 'complete chaos' Click to comment Leave a Reply This comment form is under antispam protection This comment form is under antispam protection Subscribe Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments GuestBevin ChuChina has been geographically adjacent to India for 5000 years. Did it invade and colonize India during that time? Did it ever establish an East India Company? Did it ever establish a Raj? Yet the moment the Anglo-American Empire came into existence in the 19th century, it overran India and subjugated it for two centuries. Your ugly and misdirected hatred for China, and your hysterical allegations will do nothing to lift India up. They will only keep India down, spinning its wheels as it remains impoverished and backwards. Vote Up0Vote Down ReplyAugust 31, 2017 06:25GuestBevin ChuUnless India throws off Modi's Sinophobia, almost any other nation with a name beginning with "I" would be better than India. Vote Up0Vote Down ReplyAugust 31, 2017 06:28 Latest WSJ Op-Ed Cracks The Code: Why Liberal Intellectuals Hate Trump WSJ: The Real Reason They Hate Trump Published 4 hours ago on October 23, 2018 By Tyler Durden Via Zerohedge… As pundits continue to scratch their heads over the disruptive phenomenon known as Donald Trump, Yale computer science professor and chief scientist at Dittach, David Gelernter, has penned a refreshingly straightforward and blunt Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal explaining why Trump has been so successful at winning hearts and minds, and why the left – especially those snarky ivory-tower intellectuals, hate him. Gelernter argues that Trump – despite being a filthy rich "parody of the average American," is is a regular guy who has successfully resonated with America's underpinnings. "Mr. Trump reminds us who the average American really is. Not the average male American, or the average white American," writes Gelernter. "We know for sure that, come 2020, intellectuals will be dumbfounded at the number of women and blacks who will vote for Mr. Trump. He might be realigning the political map: plain average Americans of every type vs. fancy ones." He never learned to keep his real opinions to himself because he never had to. He never learned to be embarrassed that he is male, with ordinary male proclivities. Sometimes he has treated women disgracefully, for which Americans, left and right, are ashamed of him—as they are of JFK and Bill Clinton. –WSJ Gelernter then suggests: "This all leads to an important question—one that will be dismissed indignantly today, but not by historians in the long run: Is it possible to hate Donald Trump but not the average American?". *** The Real Reason They Hate Trump via the Wall Street Journal. He's the average American in exaggerated form—blunt, simple, willing to fight, mistrustful of intellectuals. Every big U.S. election is interesting, but the coming midterms are fascinating for a reason most commentators forget to mention: The Democrats have no issues. The economy is booming and America's international position is strong. In foreign affairs, the U.S. has remembered in the nick of time what Machiavelli advised princes five centuries ago: Don't seek to be loved, seek to be feared. The contrast with the Obama years must be painful for any honest leftist. For future generations, the Kavanaugh fight will stand as a marker of the Democratic Party's intellectual bankruptcy, the flashing red light on the dashboard that says "Empty." The left is beaten. This has happened before, in the 1980s and '90s and early 2000s, but then the financial crisis arrived to save liberalism from certain destruction. Today leftists pray that Robert Mueller will put on his Superman outfit and save them again. For now, though, the left's only issue is "We hate Trump." This is an instructive hatred, because what the left hates about Donald Trump is precisely what it hates about America. The implications are important, and painful. Not that every leftist hates America. But the leftists I know do hate Mr. Trump's vulgarity, his unwillingness to walk away from a fight, his bluntness, his certainty that America is exceptional, his mistrust of intellectuals, his love of simple ideas that work, and his refusal to believe that men and women are interchangeable. Worst of all, he has no ideology except getting the job done. His goals are to do the task before him, not be pushed around, and otherwise to enjoy life. In short, he is a typical American—except exaggerated, because he has no constraints to cramp his style except the ones he himself invents. Mr. Trump lacks constraints because he is filthy rich and always has been and, unlike other rich men, he revels in wealth and feels no need to apologize—ever. He never learned to keep his real opinions to himself because he never had to. He never learned to be embarrassed that he is male, with ordinary male proclivities. Sometimes he has treated women disgracefully, for which Americans, left and right, are ashamed of him—as they are of JFK and Bill Clinton. But my job as a voter is to choose the candidate who will do best for America. I am sorry about the coarseness of the unconstrained average American that Mr. Trump conveys. That coarseness is unpresidential and makes us look bad to other nations. On the other hand, many of his opponents worry too much about what other people think. I would love the esteem of France, Germany and Japan. But I don't find myself losing sleep over it. The difference between citizens who hate Mr. Trump and those who can live with him—whether they love or merely tolerate him—comes down to their views of the typical American: the farmer, factory hand, auto mechanic, machinist, teamster, shop owner, clerk, software engineer, infantryman, truck driver, housewife. The leftist intellectuals I know say they dislike such people insofar as they tend to be conservative Republicans. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know their real sins. They know how appalling such people are, with their stupid guns and loathsome churches. They have no money or permanent grievances to make them interesting and no Twitter followers to speak of. They skip Davos every year and watch Fox News. Not even the very best has the dazzling brilliance of a Chuck Schumer, not to mention a Michelle Obama. In truth they are dumb as sheep. Mr. Trump reminds us who the average American really is. Not the average male American, or the average white American. We know for sure that, come 2020, intellectuals will be dumbfounded at the number of women and blacks who will vote for Mr. Trump. He might be realigning the political map: plain average Americans of every type vs. fancy ones. Many left-wing intellectuals are counting on technology to do away with the jobs that sustain all those old-fashioned truck-driver-type people, but they are laughably wide of the mark. It is impossible to transport food and clothing, or hug your wife or girl or child, or sit silently with your best friend, over the internet. Perhaps that's obvious, but to be an intellectual means nothing is obvious. Mr. Trump is no genius, but if you have mastered the obvious and add common sense, you are nine-tenths of the way home. (Scholarship is fine, but the typical modern intellectual cheapens his learning with politics, and is proud to vary his teaching with broken-down left-wing junk.) This all leads to an important question—one that will be dismissed indignantly today, but not by historians in the long run: Is it possible to hate Donald Trump but not the average American? True, Mr. Trump is the unconstrained average citizen. Obviously you can hate some of his major characteristics—the infantile lack of self-control in his Twitter babble, his hitting back like a spiteful child bully—without hating the average American, who has no such tendencies. (Mr. Trump is improving in these two categories.) You might dislike the whole package. I wouldn't choose him as a friend, nor would he choose me. But what I see on the left is often plain, unconditional hatred of which the hater—God forgive him—is proud. It's discouraging, even disgusting. And it does mean, I believe, that the Trump-hater truly does hate the average American—male or female, black or white. Often he hates America, too. Granted, Mr. Trump is a parody of the average American, not the thing itself. To turn away is fair. But to hate him from your heart is revealing. Many Americans were ashamed when Ronald Reagan was elected. A movie actor? But the new direction he chose for America was a big success on balance, and Reagan turned into a great president. Evidently this country was intended to be run by amateurs after all—by plain citizens, not only lawyers and bureaucrats. Those who voted for Mr. Trump, and will vote for his candidates this November, worry about the nation, not its image. The president deserves our respect because Americans deserve it—not such fancy-pants extras as network commentators, socialist high-school teachers and eminent professors, but the basic human stuff that has made America great, and is making us greater all the time. Mr. Gelernter is computer science professor at Yale and chief scientist at Dittach LLC. His most recent book is "Tides of Mind." Appeared in the October 22, 2018, print edition. Liked it? Take a second to support The Duran on Patreon! Continue Reading Latest The Trump Miracle and the Logical End of US Democracy: What Happened? Published 17 hours ago on October 22, 2018 By Nicholas Sampsidis I don't wish to dine with a Clinton Snowflake. And a Clinton Snowflake would rather see me off to San Quentin, the Deplorable that I am. Something happened under Obama-Clinton rule that has never happened before, not even in the heat of passions culminating in the Civil War. The country polarized, splitting into two groupings. Forever. Obama's, Grand Canyon divide was cemented, subsequently, by Clinton's "Deplorables" gaff interpreted as disdain and disrespect for the working, one-half of the country. Millions of Americans will never accept her and her Snowflakes and vice versa. "Never say never," it's said, often enough. But, this time, "never," is an unequivocal: "Never!" Quite simply, the Obama-Clinton regime politicized that which should never be politicized, namely, core beliefs and values, starting with God. Debate is one thing, but the regime followed up with direct and indirect actions, which some writers call rainbow fascism. "You won't bake a wedding cake for two gays out of some fossilized belief in scripture? We'll shut you down." The regime's aggression against the Church, the family, and the infant in the womb is dynamite inserted into the foundation on which the country stands. Along with compassion and sensitivity to opposing views, compromise used to help mend political wounds. It allowed the nation to move on after an election. However, when religious tenets are challenged by a political Party with executive order power, the door on possible compromise slams shut. Obama-Clinton politicized the sacred and the Holy, a big no-no considering that politics divide. It wasn't done out of ignorance, disrespect, or plain arrogance. It was a conscience, systematic attack by the Godless against God-fearing Christians. God either exists or He doesn't – no compromise, here. That is, "He might exist," placates neither the believer nor the atheist. The Bible is either the Word of God as delivered through His prophets or it isn't. No compromise possible. Abortion-on-demand is another issue without compromise considering the commandment: Thou shalt not kill (murder). There is also common sense compassion, which makes us human and says that abortion is wrong. You're either for murder of the defenseless or against it. A partial birth abortion, despite the insinuation of compromise in the term, is actually a viler variant of infanticide because it's performed in the last trimester, at 5-7 months. The well-developed, living infant is pulled out of the womb, legs first. The medical executioner then plunges a probe with a catheter into the living brain in order to suction out a bloody slurry and collapse the skull. Is it murder of the defenseless or a "woman's right" as Snowflakes call it? Clinton claims: "Fetuses feel no pain and have no rights." Curiously, Himmler leaned on a nearly identical contention to justify ghoulish, medical experiments on pregnant women in Konzentrationslager. Is there a difference? Indeed, there is. Clinton is a woman, making her serial murders more of a monstrosity. The Holy Bible is either the Word of God or it isn't. It's not a book to be adapted to one's whims or sexual lusts. Scripture strictly condemns male homosexuality in at least three passages and, implicitly, in some one-half dozen others. Nonetheless, Obama-Clinton attached the promotion of LBGTq-ism to the Democratic plank, overriding scripture. Clinton informed one audience that Christians would have to change their beliefs on some issues. Hold on! "I'm getting my musket," as more than one American has said. I used to enjoy dialogue. But a sour aftertaste remains from the last time that I waded, innocently enough, into an after-dinner, back-and-forth. The topic was the upcoming primaries. Dodging a flurry of leftism hooks from a New York Cityite at a Hamptons hideaway, I smiled through early-round attacks recalling how Mohammed Ali used to taunt opponents and cockroaches until they lost their cool. It worked. My opponent promptly tangled himself up in the ropes of his emotions. It became apparent, in the ensuing minutes, that the Achilles heel of the Left was the absence of a viable candidate. That is, one who could be liked – a leader with charisma with a realistic chance winning. Hillary was the only figure looming big on the horizon. After flying about on her crooked broom, peddling influence and laundering bloody cash from terrorism-sponsoring sheiks, wads of cash stuffed her Pampers. The Wicked Witch of the West, as victims of her foreign policy still address her, apparently, had it all. Except likeability. Or, something new to offer millions of working Americans beyond the scandals, a world in flames, and the same old corrupt things, starting with her foundation, which kept the cash but forgot Hattian children. Deep-down inside, my opponent knew that getting excited about Hillary would be a daunting task. It's precisely Hillary's inability to generate enthusiasm that eventually metamorphosed into, "What Happened?" It wasn't Russia; it wasn't the dog that ate her homework. As Secretary of State, Clinton's role in creating and sponsoring head-choppers, baby burners, and heart-eating fanatics in ISIS's jumpsuits was already well-established for anyone who was interested in looking beyond the hyaluronic acid smile and the praise of her attendant, media handlers. Propagandists led by CNN and MSNBC did their best to sequester her "Arab Spring" fiascos. Her ties and support of the Muslim Brotherhood, apparently, inspired by live-in aide and right-hand woman, Huma Abedin were off limits for the press. Lesbian lover or not, the real issue is the between-the sheets confidences of one woman, holding one of the highest positions in the US Government and another with connections to jihadist circles inspired by Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of al Qaeda. What would have been made of it by the press if Trump had a mistress whose grandfather was Osama bin Laden? Clinton's connivance, her intrigue, and her use of the sword to overthrow foreign governments constituted the essence of her foreign policy. Now, the rich, sweet thing is crying over supposed, Russian interference that she claims cost her the election! No proof of Russian involvement has been found, despite massive efforts and the wasteful expenditure of millions of dollars. Even so, in her warped sense of reality, it's inconceivable that American voters chose a vulgar, thrice-married, casino operator who trash talks instead of her. Curiously, it was Christians, in particular – Catholics, Protestants and the Orthodox – fearing a de facto Obama third term, who voted in droves for Trump. Jonathon Van Maren writes: "…Christians are having conversations around the dinner table about what do if the government forces curricula on them that they cannot accept, because their own government is increasingly indicating that Christian parents are too homophobic and too hateful to teach their own children." Fear is setting in at both ends of the political spectrum. Meltdown, weep-in snowflakes fear Trump yet he and Christians are not forcing the LGBTq groupings etc., to make lifestyle changes. In contrast, Obama-Clinton's Rainbow Fascism demands core value changes, or else! It's already ruining the lives of those who cannot compromise religious tenets. What's next? Obviously, children must be taken away from homophobic and irresponsible parents. It's already happening in Norway and Sweden. Curiously, WaPo's entire editorial board endorsed her. Isn't endorsement of Clinton's terrorism by proxy tantamount to being a terrorist? Can WaPo be trusted, again? Another liberally slanted paper, the NY Times largely swept Clinton's sordid past under the carpet, with about 90 percent of its articles casting her in a positive light. In contrast, it was open season on Republicans and, soon enough, on Trump. "Considering her international war crimes record, if you vote for her, as I'm sure you'll end up doing, you're going to be an accomplice. Of terrorism," I sighed. "So unfriend me now, please." Swinging, aimlessly – now, a bug in my web – my opponent's accusations turned Archie-Bunker-personal – "You're a SOB, M#*/!er. All you do is criticize but you haven't done squat! Do something in the community instead of blaming everything on Obama and Clinton. "Some time ago, I saw little, practical sense in it," I replied. "That is, in wasting time to change the system." If it was ever possible to improve matters on a local level, those days are gone. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle did not consider the rule of money to be compatible with democracy. After three, consecutive, two-term geniuses steering the US Titanic – Clinton, Bush, Obama – the scraping sounds of hitting the iceberg are all-too-audible. The mass media orchestra plays on yet the waterline has reached the nation's gunwales. "Sorry, trends are apparent enough. Liberty, freedom of expression – all on the wane. Government as well as media controls are tightening! Prisons are full. Stalin has been outdone. His maximum Gulag stay was 15 years regardless of the charge. What's ours? A life sentence for being in a romantic relationship with a drug smuggler? Common sense is being pushed aside by nonsense. Sorry, I find little sense building sandcastles at ebbtide." My opponent had had enough. Spilling whisky to get away from me, he spewed more venom and parted the room. Forever. CLICK HERE to Support The Duran >> Liked it? Take a second to support The Duran on Patreon! Continue Reading Latest How American propaganda bypasses the Constitution While the First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, this amendment only guarantees the government will not manage the news. Published 18 hours ago on October 22, 2018 By Seraphim Hanisch We are in a propaganda war unlike anything anyone ever expected in the United States. As recently as the 1970's and 1980's, the common knowledge even among young elementary school students was that the Government of the United States cannot restrict the operation of a free press. Freedom of speech was taught and vaunted as one of our most precious rights, and the Soviet Union's history of oppression was the catalyst by which love of the right of free speech was protected. Do not let go of this freedom, or we will become like them, we were told. But the most recent couple of years we are seeing media control in very clear obvious ways. On October 11, Facebook's internal news site noted that it was removing what it calls "inauthentic news sites": 11 October 2018 Removing Additional Inauthentic Activity from Facebook Today, we're removing 559 Pages and 251 accounts that have consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Given the activity we've seen — and its timing ahead of the US midterm elections — we wanted to give some details about the types of behavior that led to this action. Many were using fake accounts or multiple accounts with the same names and posted massive amounts of content across a network of Groups and Pages to drive traffic to their websites. Many used the same techniques to make their content appear more popular on Facebook than it really was. Others were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate. But on October 20th, with this information known, Google searches on "Facebook fake news midterm" elections first revealed absolutely nothing any earlier than August, and nothing related to the recent developments in October. CLICK HERE to Support The Duran >> In research for this piece, one known article on The Duran was found and brought up. By use of the specific search term "removing additional inauthentic activity from Facebook", we were then able to get the Facebook news page. Subsequent searches on "Facebook midterms fake news" revealed quite a different response: Oh! There it is! But several Google searches made before directly fingering the information yielded nothing, just as though the news of FB's efforts didn't exist. We already know that Facebook has a core corporate culture that leans left. We also know that many groups have been removed for suspicions of being dishonest or fake news. What we may not get is how well intertwined the majority of information services on the Internet are, and how they cooperate to manage information. Google was the search engine used in this research. And indeed, the big four major purveyors of information and social media are Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These sites are so widely used that they are easy to consider the first stop, the last stop and the only stop for anyone seeking information from the Internet about anything. The absence of a search result is often enough to lead one to believe the story doesn't really exist, or that it is a rumor. After all, if it is real news it must be on Google, right? Wrong. This would seem to fly in the face of the First Amendment, but it doesn't, because the Amendment applies only to a limit of powers on the Federal Government. It cannot touch private industry, and indeed, the First Amendment actually protects the rights of individuals and companies to make any statements they wish, or to not make them. Think of it this way: A newspaper that supports the conservative party writes and publishes news and opinion in such a manner as to bolster support for that party. The paper and its staff are entirely within their First Amendment rights to do so because the Constitution never said anything about reporting the truth. It only says that the press' freedom cannot be abridged by the government. So if a liberal paper wants to report the same news and give its editorial bias that supports its own causes, it may. There is not a soul in government that can stop them. But the owners of the company can. However, those owners and editors can certainly be influenced by hidden efforts. While there is no law restricting free speech in the US, there is certainly a lot of power and money that can accomplish the same thing. A sweetheart deal between a company CEO and his or her senator or congressman can subtly change the balance. There is no law to break involved here, though such efforts can rightly be called "collusion." Collusion happens all the time, though, and it is always a cooperative effort so there is very little that can be done to stop it. It is not illegal in most situations, either. Conservatives know this. They have seen the slant of mainstream media lean unerringly to the side of secular humanism, suppression or humiliation of traditional values and lifestyles, and the crazy, psychotic mixture of pacifism or warmongering as best suits the desires of the Left. We have observed this in stark fashion just this year, as critics hysterically railed at President Trump for his tough stance with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and as they hysterically railed at President Trump for going against his promise to get out of Syria, and then again for not attacking them, and sanctioning Russia even more. The reasoning behind the Left's attacks was simple: If Mr. Trump wanted it, they didn't. This is simple reasoning, indeed but it is also hysterical reasoning, which means it is insane. The most recent outburst of media control came during the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination and confirmation events. The eleventh-hour attacks alleging that Brett Kavanaugh was a drunken would-be rapist and the testimonies of Dr Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnik were reported with a heavy emphasis on "believe the women" and they were also tailored for a time to target Judge Kavanaugh for his anger in his response, with CNN heads saying that this anger shows that the Judge is unhinged. Conservative media efforts to give the truth to this story were certainly going full force on Fox News and with conservative media hosts like Rush Limbaugh, but they were heading for failure. The reason for this was that the conservative arguments were not fielded on mainstream media, so they were not heard or read. The Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation might not have gone through because of this. But one move saved this nomination. President Trump began talking about it in his rallies, which the media had to cover. When Mr. Trump noted in clear language that none of these allegations were corroborated by anyone, most significantly the named witnesses of Dr Ford's, the widespread dissemination of that news (because the press had no choice) helped turn that debacle into the nothing-burger it always was. When news gets around that someone is trying to suppress a story, that often can result in the story getting much bigger. Social media networks have to give the appearance of fairness, after all, and refusing to report a huge story because it runs counter to the political opinion of the network is a risk no network (except maybe CNN) is willing to take. The First Amendment means the government cannot control our news media. But this also means that the responsibility lies with the American people to control it, to uphold its freedom and to uphold the freedom of speech, be it risky or offensive or politically perilous. There is a good reason for that need. The most risky, offensive and politically perilous pieces of news are quite often the truth. Liked it? Take a second to support The Duran on Patreon! Continue Reading JOIN OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL Your donations make all the difference. Together we can expose fake news lies and deliver truth. Amount to donate in USD$: 5 100 Validating payment information... Waiting for PayPal...Validating payment information...Waiting for PayPal... Advertisement Advertisement Latest Popular Videos Latest4 hours ago WSJ Op-Ed Cracks The Code: Why Liberal Intellectuals Hate Trump Latest17 hours ago The Trump Miracle and the Logical End of US Democracy: What Happened? 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To view an abstract, select an author from the vertical list on the left side.
2008 Grants - Rosa-Neto
Glutamatergic Abnormalities in Patients with Early Alzheimer's Disease
Pedro Rosa-Neto, M.D., Ph.D.
McGill University
Montreal, Canada
Glutamate is a natural neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, that is essential for normal brain function. Yet too much glutamate can overexcite neurons and even cause them to die. Such "excitotoxicity" may play a role in Alzheimer's disease.
One of the main cellular receptors, or "docking sites," for glutamate is the metabotropic glutamate receptor type five (mGLUR5). In studies of autopsied brains from people with memory loss, researchers have found elevated levels of mGLUR5. This finding indicates that the brains suffered high levels of glutamate and related excitotoxicity.
Pedro Rosa-Neto, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues plan to search for elevated mGLUR5 levels in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. The researchers will use a novel imaging technique for their effort. First, they will administer a compound into the brains of their participants. This compound binds to mGLUR5 and "highlights" it on a brain scan. The investigators will then use a procedure called positron emission tomography (PET) to take the brain scans. Analysis of these scans could elucidate the links between brain levels of mGLUR5 and Alzheimer development.
Dr. Rosa-Neto and colleagues believe their study may lead to a new method for diagnosing early Alzheimer's disease.


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News & Events
For the Media
Melman Appointed Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science at Clarkson University
Artem Melman has been appointed associate professor of chemistry and biomolecular science at Clarkson University. He began teaching in January.
Melman received his B.S. and M.S. in radiation chemistry and technology from Mendeleev Chemical Technological Institute in Moscow, was a research student in medicinal chemistry at the All-Union Chemical Pharmaceutical Institute in Moscow, and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
Melman's main research interests involve medicinal chemistry, bioconjugation methods, macrolide antibiotics and anticancer drugs.
Most recently a research fellow at the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, Melman was previously director of research & development at Salio Nanotechnologies Ltd., a lecturer in the faculty of science at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a postdoctoral associate at the University of Oxford.
He has co-written more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in journals, including the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, American Journal of Physiology, Organic Letters and the Journal of Organic Chemistry. He has been a reviewer of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Organic Letters, European Journal of Organic Chemistry, Tetrahedron Letters, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters and Langmuir. He has also served as a research proposals reviewer for the Israel Science Foundation and the Horowitz Foundation as well as advising M.S. students, a Ph.D. student, and postdoctoral students.
Clarkson University crosses the boundaries of disciplines, nations and cultures in order for discovery, engineering innovation and enterprise to come together. As a result, faculty and graduates grasp the full impact of their calling, direct their research to the world's pressing issues and lead with confidence and distinction. One in seven alumni is already a CEO or other senior executive. Located in Potsdam, N.Y., just outside the six-million-acre Adirondack Park, Clarkson is home to 3,000 students preparing for rewarding careers through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, science, and health sciences, as well as unparalleled outdoor recreation and life experiences beyond the classroom.