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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court is considering a proposal to allow attorneys, journalists, judges and law enforcement officers online access to court records 24 hours per day, seven days per week.</p>
<p>The proposal would expand online access to court records — such as complaints, motions and rulings — to people who regularly rely on the documents for their work. The public would still be able to view and obtain documents in person at courthouses.</p>
<p>Under the proposal, access to documents from computers outside the court system would be restricted and managed by the Judicial Information Division.</p>
<p>The judiciary will take comment on the proposal during a public hearing on the morning of Dec. 8 in Santa Fe. The public can also offer comment that day by video conference from courthouses in Taos, Roswell, Farmington and Albuquerque.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Judiciary considers proposal to expand access to court docs | false | https://abqjournal.com/894119/judiciary-considers-proposal-to-expand-access-to-court-docs.html | 2 |
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<p>They are dates that “will live in infamy.” September 11, 2001. April 16, 2007. December 7, 1941. President Roosevelt summarized that last date: “America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.” About 3,000 Americans lost their lives on that fateful morning at Pearl Harbor and the United States entered the war.</p>
<p>The surprise attack came early on Sunday morning in the Pacific but it was in the afternoon for the East Coast. Margaret Emery captured the day in her history of Tabernacle Baptist Church of Richmond. She wrote: “As usual, the auditorium at Tabernacle was packed to capacity for the morning worship service. It was the first Sunday, the time for the observance of the Lord's Supper, and the service was somewhat late in disbanding. Many remained for conversation and fellowship before leaving to return to their homes and the Sunday family meal.</p>
<p>“Radios would be turned on for the news of that distant European war. At exactly 2:26 p.m. the ‘flash' that interrupted the National Broadcasting Company program and struck a paralyzing fear into the heart of every listener came! Near-hysterical announcers had brought the awful news of Japan's sneak attack. Within hours, news boys with ‘extras' were on the streets, with meager details of the Japanese attack. All Service personnel were ordered to return immediately to their bases. Train and bus stations were soon crowded to overflowing with Service persons making a desperate effort to report. The world was suddenly turned upside down. In Richmond, and everywhere, lives had been changed in a single moment.”</p>
<p>A religion page writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch observed that “talk of future benefit parties and church socials is fading.” Christmas programs lost their luster. Instead churches were centered on prayer. Women's missionary meetings altered their programs and spent time discussing the world scene and offering “solemn prayer.”</p>
<p>At the Woman's Missionary Society meeting at Second Baptist Church, Richmond, Mrs. C.H. Westbrook and Mrs. J. Hundley Wiley, missionaries to China, gave personal viewpoints on the Far Eastern scene. The meeting closed with special prayers for peace.</p>
<p>At the Foreign Mission Board, there were concerns about their leader, Charles Maddry, who had arrived in Honolulu on Dec. 5 to check on Baptist mission work. George Sadler, secretary for Africa, Europe and the Near East, recommended that the missionaries “return to America if possible or advisable.”</p>
<p>Within a few days of the attack, Henry Alford Porter, the beloved pastor of First Baptist Church, Charlottesville, penned thoughts for the Religious Herald. In part, he wrote: “What on earth is God doing? Why doesn't he do something? It is the question asked most often in time of war, for war seems such a diabolical thing that it shatters men's faith in God.</p>
<p>“No wonder the question is being asked today with an emphasis probably never heard before. All the rights that the common man has fought for during 1,000 years are menaced.</p>
<p>“Why doesn't God intervene and stop all this? Is he going to sit in heaven and do nothing? Has he no loving purpose for the world? I wonder if any reader of the Herald has never felt, like cold steel running into his soul, the sudden stab of that wild doubt. Such inner questioning takes the joy and song out of life.”</p>
<p>Porter answered his rhetorical questions by emphasizing the free choice of mankind. “God is doing something, all that a God can do without utterly taking away human freedom. For one thing he is doing what it is his way to do with the tragedies of humanity—bringing good out of evil.”</p>
<p>Writing 10 days following that day of infamy, Porter actually found some good. He saw the Chinese unifying, the European nations defending themselves against the Nazis, the German resistance movement bravely attempting to exert change. “We have a vindication of the human spirit and an assertion of man against the machine.”</p>
<p>Burton J. Ray of Franklin was president of the General Association and he issued a message. “As Christian men and women who loathe war, we've got to make the sacrifice necessary to stop peoples who are led by madmen who would take away from free peoples the liberties it has taken them a thousand years to acquire. To preserve our liberties, there must be unity. Then, there must be sacrifice.</p>
<p>“What we shall be called upon to sacrifice we cannot tell but whatever the cost, we must pay. Enormously high taxes we expect. Doing without things we are used to having will surely be our lot. Loss of loved ones – ah, who knows? But on top of all of these things, we must sacrifice further, for the needs and opportunities of the church will be increased. We must, somehow, keep up and even increase our home and State mission work.</p>
<p>“In another thing we must not fail and that is love! We must not let this war steal from our hearts a normal love for our fellow man. An old preacher friend once said, ‘You can love your enemy but you do not have to love his wicked ways.' Love is the very foundation stone of that permanent peace that Christ expects his followers to establish in the world and we must not let war rob us of that asset.</p>
<p>“We must not let our faith in God waver. It is very hard sometimes to understand why God does not rush in and put a stop to certain things. But whatever we do not know, we do know God and we know that he is love and we know the right will finally triumph.” Even on abysmally dark days of infamy, God is love and the right will triumph.</p> | Dates of Infamy | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/datesofinfamy/ | 3 |
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Illinois Is Poised To Dangle Business Incentives To Big Companies — But Is It Worth It? State Budget Whodunit Raises Doubt About Quick Savings From Pension Overhaul How CHA Rehabs Of Senior Apartments Blow Through Budgets, Cause Real Pain Big Emanuel Donor, Husband Of Alderman Cited For Illegally Lobbying The Mayor Through His Personal Email Another Case Of Improper Lobbying Suspected In Wake Of BGA Lawsuit Settlement Can Ailing Illinois Afford In-Home Care Program For Seniors? Tally Of Ethics Probes Tied To Emanuel Email Release Hits 14 Chicago Light Overhaul To Cost Double That Of New York’s | false | https://bettergov.org/team/alejandra-cancino | 2017-10-06 | 2 |
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<p>Washington PostAnne Applebaum, who once worked for Conrad Black's Spectator magazine, recalls attending a Hollinger dinner at which Black seated himself between the Princess of Wales and Margaret Thatcher, across from Henry Kissinger and the crown princess of Jordan. "One can only admire his nerve." Black, she says, "often acted as if he were too grand for the rules of law and etiquette that applied to ordinary people." &gt; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/business/21conrad.html" type="external">Hollinger board stops short of taking action against Black (NYT/r.r.)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0401210269jan21,1,5904816.story" type="external">Barclay brothers' bid calls for millions to be put in escrow (ChiTrib/r.r.)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0401210271jan21,1,3217833.story?coll=chi-business-hed" type="external">Sun-Times could be in for a wild ride if deal goes through (ChiTrib/r.r.)</a></p> | Applebaum: Black's rise and fall is a gloriously British tragedy | false | https://poynter.org/news/applebaum-blacks-rise-and-fall-gloriously-british-tragedy | 2004-01-21 | 2 |
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<p>The administration has had to revise and refine some initial enrollment numbers after they turned out to be too optimistic. At other times, less-favorable metrics leaked out after officials claimed not to have such data.</p>
<p>Call it health-law numerology. It’s a new pursuit for administration officials from the president on down, lawmakers of both parties, and a gaggle of outside analysts.</p>
<p>The latest data tweak — an administration announcement that 7.3 million paying customers signed up for subsidized private insurance as of mid-August — set off more speculation. Some said it may prove overly rosy.</p>
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<p>“They have been playing fast and loose with these numbers,” said insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski, a critic of Obama’s law who has also skewered proposals from the president’s Republican foes. “Until we get an outside audit we are not going to know what the heck is going on.”</p>
<p>Others say an administration trying to get a complex program running smoothly deserves the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>“They have two challenges,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of the market analysis firm Avalere Health. “One is technical implementation, and the second one is the political environment. Being fully open on the implementation side is impossible in the context of a hostile political environment.” Earlier this year, Avalere showed that the administration’s initial numbers significantly overstated Medicaid enrollment under the law.</p>
<p>Candidates for Congress are noisily debating another set of numbers. They have to do with costs, an even murkier element. Republicans claim the law has saddled taxpayers and privately insured people with huge cost increases, while Democrats say it has helped to rein medical inflation, saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Economists shrug off such claims, saying the impacts have generally been modest — and mixed.</p>
<p>The Affordable Care Act created new insurance markets — or exchanges– where middle-class people who don’t have health coverage on the job can buy a subsidized private plan. It also expanded Medicaid to serve more low-income adults.</p>
<p>After Medicare Administrator Marilyn Tavenner announced the updated 7.3 million private sign-ups at a congressional hearing last week, other administration officials fanned out to insist that reporters must not compare those numbers to the more than 8 million enrollments trumpeted in May.</p>
<p>At the hearing, Tavenner seemed to have no such qualms. She explained to Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., how to make such a comparison.</p>
<p>The 8-million figure, she said, probably included some people who may since have found another kind of health insurance, either through a job that includes coverage or by qualifying for Medicaid. Others likely did not finalize their enrollment by paying their first month’s premium</p>
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<p>Laszewski said even Tavenner’s new, lower number could be high. He’s skeptical because the administration hasn’t shown how it’s doing the math.</p>
<p>And there are other variables. Enrollment could decline later in the year because about 115,000 people who couldn’t prove they were citizens or legal residents will lose coverage at the end of this month.</p>
<p>Another winnowing seems likely after Nov. 1, when people whose incomes differ with what the government has on file will see their premiums change. Some may drop out if their subsidies are slashed.</p>
<p>Here are more illustrations from the health law numbers game:</p>
<p>–Medicaid Muddle. Under the law, states can expand Medicaid to cover more low-income uninsured people. Earlier in the year, administration reports on the Medicaid expansion included many people who were renewing their existing coverage under the program — not joining anew because of the expansion. Officials say they are now providing a more accurate count.</p>
<p>–Targets? What targets? Even before last fall’s chaotic debut of HealthCare.gov, administration officials steadfastly insisted they had no enrollment targets for the exchanges. But The Associated Press obtained an internal memo to former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that listed monthly numerical targets for each state. Even so, some officials insisted those were not targets. The memo said “Enrollment Targets” in the subject line and repeated the word a dozen times in the text.</p>
<p>–Disclosing Discrepancies. Around the middle of May, administration officials maintained that they could not confirm or provide any estimates about the number of people with citizenship, immigration or income discrepancies that could affect their new coverage. However, an internal slide presentation dated May 8 indicated 2.1 million enrollees had such data discrepancies as of the end of April. The slides were provided to AP.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.</p>
<p>EDITOR’S NOTE — An occasional look behind the rhetoric of politicians and public officials.</p> | SPIN METER: Those changing health law numbers | false | https://abqjournal.com/466467/spin-meter-those-changing-health-law-numbers.html | 2 |
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<p>Last fall, Global Fashion Technologies announced plans to purchase the vacant Solo Cup plant in the Rio Grande Industrial Park south of Rio Communities and to bring a fabric-manufacturing factory to the county.</p>
<p>However, Global Fashion has not been able to fulfill the terms of its purchase agreement for the building, and the contract has been terminated, said Steve Tomita, the city of Belen’s economic development planner.</p>
<p>“There are other partners of Global who are trying to re-establish that purchase agreement,” Tomita said. “It’s the same type of business, and I understand they are trying to negotiate for the building with Herman Tabet (the owner of the Solo cup building.)”</p>
<p>While Tomita couldn’t verify who the other partners are, a news release last October issued by GlobalNewswire and NASDAQ OMX said Global was partnering with Pure Systems International to create and operate what was being called a textile fiber-rejuvenation plant.</p>
<p>Pure Systems CEO Joy Nunn announced last fall the company expected to begin shipping finished goods this spring and expected to hire more than 300 people when the plant reached full production.</p>
<p>The firm takes pre-consumer production waste fabric from around the world and turns it into new products, such as yoga pants and baby wipes.</p>
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<p>When asked for comment on the status of the project via email, Global Fashion CEO Tom Witthuhn replied the project was “off schedule.”</p>
<p>“What may be less obvious is that we still have keen interest in pursuing entry into the New Mexico market and to bring our technologies and business strategies to your great state,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez and local officials announced the company’s plans, and company representatives said it would bring jobs with an average salaries of $40,000.</p>
<p>Witthuhn said Tuesday the project has been a complicated effort involving two distinct business entities.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, several unanticipated structural and legal issues derailed our project for a period of time,” Witthuhn wrote. “I cannot go into confidential aspects of those situations, but I can tell you that we have been working diligently to rectify them. I can also tell you that both entities are fully committed to this project and we expect to be back on track very soon.”</p> | Valencia fabric plant plan falters | false | https://abqjournal.com/559889/valencia-fabric-plant-plan-falters.html | 2 |
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<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand--With its plan to bar nearly all foreigners from buying existing homes, New Zealand's new government is taking aim at a group of buyers that it blames for a growing housing-affordability crisis.</p>
<p>Graham Wall, an Auckland-based real-estate agent, fears many of his clients are in the crosshairs of the proposed ban.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Mr. Wall recently sold a mansion offering sweeping views of Auckland harbor to a Chinese family, settling the deal just before the Labour-led government was sworn in on Oct. 26. The hammer fell at a price equivalent to US$8 million, or 22 times the median price for a New Zealand home.</p>
<p>"Most of the foreigners we have done business with lately are American and English," said Mr. Wall, whose website lists for sale properties including the only privately owned island in the Cavalli Islands in New Zealand's far north.</p>
<p>New Zealand has attracted Asian billionaires, Hollywood filmmakers, and wealthy tech entrepreneurs in recent years with an open-doors immigration policy and light regulation of foreign property deals. Among them was PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who in 2015 bought a sprawling luxury estate on Lake Wanaka, an idyllic alpine region near Queenstown in the country's South Island, after taking up New Zealand citizenship four years earlier.</p>
<p>Such deals have helped to drive up nationwide home prices in New Zealand by 43% in the five years through September, with an even bigger increase in Auckland, according to QV, a unit of property-research firm CoreLogic. Concerns around affordability became a flashpoint in New Zealand's election in late September and contributed to the center-right National government's loss of power after almost a decade.</p>
<p>In recent years, regulators in countries from Canada to Australia have raised taxes on residential real-estate purchases, required banks to demand bigger down payments and taxed empty homes--to little long-term avail.</p>
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<p>New Zealand wants to go further than most. Under an amendment to the country's Overseas Investment Act, foreigners aside from Australians would be banned from buying existing homes unless they became citizens or permanent residents. Labour, which was elevated to power through a coalition deal with the populist New Zealand First party, had campaigned on a pledge to overhaul the law.</p>
<p>"It's a kind of foreign investment that is not just unproductive but actually damaging," Housing Minister Phil Twyford said. "There's no benefit to New Zealand or New Zealanders at all, having people who are not citizens or permanent residents of this country, who don't have the right to settle here buying and selling houses for capital gains."</p>
<p>Still, critics say the policy risks damaging New Zealand's reputation if it is seen as demonizing foreigners, and the policy won't do much to take the froth off house prices. Even if it does work, New Zealanders who bought at the top of the market face losing money on their homes, posing a political risk to Labour.</p>
<p>"There is little data or evidence that clearly links the role foreign buyers have in allegedly increasing house prices," said Bindi Norwell, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. Referring to the sea separating New Zealand from Australia, she added, "Looking across the Tasman shows that the impact of a similar policy on banning foreign buyers is minimal, with Australia being the third most unaffordable country in the world."</p>
<p>Regardless of whether it has any immediate effect on prices, the decision is a relatively easy sell for the country's new prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, whose policies on housing also include building 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade.</p>
<p>Ultralow interest rates at central banks have spurred investors to hunt globally for returns in tangible assets. Yet some places that have been favorites for foreign investors in recent years--including London, and, most recently, New York--are also rolling out policies that discourage deals.</p>
<p>Canada has tightened housing-financing rules numerous times since mid-2008 to curb excesses. In Canada's hottest market--Vancouver, British Columbia--the government introduced last year a residential-property tax on outsiders and a separate vacancy tax on properties left unoccupied.</p>
<p>In April, Australian regulators ordered banks to limit the flow of interest-only loans, a villain in the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, to 30% of new loans from about 40% and to restrict loans to people making small down payments.</p>
<p>Data compiled for New Zealand's previous center-right government show that about 3% of property sold in the country was sold to foreign buyers in the year through March. But the data were calculated using the tax residencies of buyers rather than their citizenship status. Mr. Twyford thinks the proportion of foreign-property purchases could be higher than 10%.</p>
<p>The government is concerned that foreign, speculative investors are making properties unaffordable for locals. Mr. Twyford said he knew of families with children living in cars and pensioners living in campgrounds paying the equivalent of US$240 a night for a one-room cabin.</p>
<p>"It has really shaken people's confidence in the ability of our country to ensure that people have at least a decent standard of living with a roof over their heads," he said.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 01, 2017 07:02 ET (11:02 GMT)</p> | New Zealand's New Leader Wants to Go Further Than Most to Curb Housing Prices | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/01/new-zealands-new-leader-wants-to-go-further-than-most-to-curb-housing-prices.html | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
<p>State and federal authorities are teaming up to press hate crime charges against Frazier Glenn Cross, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who allegedly killed three people at Jewish centers in Kansas.</p>
<p>Officials made that announcement Monday afternoon, a day after the shootings in Overland Park, in which a Boy Scout, his grandfather and a children’s center worker were killed.</p>
<p>Although Cross is a known white supremacist who has expressed hatred for Jews, none of the victims appears to be Jewish.</p>
<p>Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William Corporon, 69, were reportedly members of a Methodist church and were attending auditions for a singing competition at the Jewish Community Center when they were shot.</p>
<p>The third victim, Terri LaManno, 53, was Catholic, and was shot at the nearby Village Shalom, authorities said.</p>
<p>Cross, 73, has yet to be formally charged. He remains in custody.</p>
<p>Authorities said they have obtained statements that led them to conclude that they have enough evidence to prosecute the attack as a hate crime, which carries stiffer sentences. They would not say what those statements were, or who provided them.</p>
<p>The religion or ethnicity of the victims does not matter, legally, in the prosecution of a hate crime, authorities said. What matters is the shooter's beliefs.</p>
<p>Cross is believed to have acted alone in his attack, authorities said. He appears to have had no prior connection to the Jewish centers he targeted.</p>
<p>Although Cross, a vocal and longtime proponent of white supremacist ideas, has served prison time and crossed federal authorities in the past, he was not being monitored by the FBI recently, authorities said.</p> | Jewish Center Shootings Were Hate Crimes, Authorities Say | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/jewish-center-shootings/jewish-center-shootings-were-hate-crimes-authorities-say-n80081 | 2014-04-14 | 3 |
<p>Things are getting worse. Since September, $16 trillion has been erased from global stock market value. Losses in the US–where the financial turmoil originated–have been much smaller than other, more vulnerable markets. The Dow is down less than 40 percent from its peak of 14,000, whereas Hong Kong, Poland and China have all tumbled more than 60 percent. Its a bloodbath.</p>
<p>The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, “the Fear Index”,&#160; surged to 79.13 on Friday, the highest in its 18-year history, The massive blow-off in stocks is mainly the result of ongoing deleveraging among the hedge funds which are dumping shares in at a record pace to cover the dwindling value of their asset base. According to the New York Times: “Hedge funds lost an estimated $180 billion during the last three months and some are near collapse. Investors are demanding their money back, and Wall Street is bracing for a shake-out in the $1.7 trillion industry.” If a large fund, like Citadel, goes down, it will create a black hole in the financial system, similar to the loss of Lehman Bros. and, once again, the US Treasury will have to come to the rescue by providing a multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailout.</p>
<p>The dislocations caused by the unwinding of the hedge funds creates the possibility that US markets will have to be closed while assets are dumped on the market. New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini summed it up like this:</p>
<p>“Policy makers may soon be forced to close financial markets as the panic selling accelerates.</p>
<p>Indeed, we have now reached a point where fundamentals and long term valuation considerations do not matter any more for financial markets. There is a free fall as most investors are rapidly deleveraging and we are on the verge of a&#160; capitulation collapse. What matters now is only flows – rather than stocks and fundamentals – and flows are unidirectional as everyone is selling and no one is buying as trying to buy equities is like catching a falling knife. There are no buyers in these dysfunctional markets, only sellers and panic is the ugly state of this destabilizing game.</p>
<p>“We have reached the scary point where the dysfunctional behavior of financial markets has destructive effects on the financial system and – much worse – on the real economies. So it is time to think about more radical policy actions and government interventions.”</p>
<p>(Nouriel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor)</p>
<p>The stock market rout has triggered gigantic swings in the currency markets, too.&#160;The dollar has surged 16 percent against the euro in a matter of weeks while every other currency in the world has steadily lost ground, excluding the yen. The sudden fall in commodities and the unwinding of dollar-based bets in foreign capitals has bolstered the dollar and made US Treasurys the preferred “flight to safety” investment.</p>
<p>The volatility is causing problems everywhere, particularly where foreign companies must pay back loans in dollars which have risen steeply in relation to their own currencies. Emerging “commodities based” markets are getting clobbered. The stronger dollar also threatens to make it harder&#160;on US exports which have been the one economic bright spot in recent months. If present trends continue, then foreign governments will have to allocate more of their reserves to prop up their own currencies which will make it even more difficult for the US to fund its current account deficit as well as the Treasury’s expanding balance sheet. In other words, these violent and unprecedented currency swings foreshadow a funding crisis looming just ahead as credit is drained from the financial system and capital becomes even scarcer. For now the dollar is flying high, but the future is looking grimmer by the day.</p>
<p>The financial crisis is wringing credit from the system and pushing prices downward across the board. No asset class has been spared, including gold which posted its biggest one week loss in 28 years and has plummeted from $1,040 in March to $734 at Friday’s market close.</p>
<p>Oil has also been hammered by speculative bets made by the hedge funds which are now forced to sell their positions to cover downgrades on their mortgage-backed assets. The erratic movement in oil prices makes it possible to see the real destructive power of the unregulated market, particularly the opaque buying and selling&#160;by the hedge funds. In just 14 months oil went from $70 to $145 and back to $67 again on Friday. Wall Street speculators&#160;drove up prices with money they borrowed from the investment banks and delivered a knockout blow to the US consumer.&#160;The Fed played a critical role in this “gaming the system” by providing the&#160;low interest credit that&#160;created&#160;burgeoning profits for the investment class and falling living standards for everyone else.</p>
<p>Now that the currency bubble has popped, its effects are being felt worldwide. Countries that benefited from the high commodities prices are now getting slammed everywhere from Russia to the Persian Gulf. Ethanol producers are facing bankruptcy if things do not turnaround in the next 12 months. As the Wall Street Journal notes:</p>
<p>&#160;“The tragedy of the second bubble is that it has left the economy in a weaker position to ride out the housing slump and credit panic. The American consumer has been whipsawed with $4 dollar gas and food inflation, while entire industries have been put on the edge of bankruptcy. Detroit’s auto makers have spent the last year taking down their truck and SUV assembly lines while gearing up to make hybrids and electric cars, even as their cash flow has been ravaged. Their new investments are based on the expectation that oil will stay high permanently, but will the market for hybrids exist if oil is $50 a barrel?</p>
<p>“As Congress plumbs the causes of our current mess, the main one is hiding in plain sight: Reckless monetary policy that did so much to create the credit mania and then compounded the felony with a commodity bubble and run on the dollar whose damage is now becoming apparent.”</p>
<p>The effects of low interest rates and credit contagion are not limited to “bottom line” considerations. As Marketwatch’s Thomas Kostigen points out, monetary policy can be a death sentence for poor people across the planet who are invariably its biggest victims:</p>
<p>“The harsh reality of the economic fallout isn’t that Joe the plumber can’t buy his business or that people’s retirement funds are being lost or that unemployment is rising; the harsh reality is that people will die.</p>
<p>“Already, since food prices began to rise 100 million more people have been pushed into poverty, according to the World Bank, with as many as two billion on the verge of disaster. Almost half the world’s population, let’s remember, live on less than $2.50 per day. Millions die annually of hunger and starvation, and more than a billion do not have access to fresh water.</p>
<p>“These numbers are poised to rise dramatically with population growth, dwindling natural resources and higher consumer prices across all goods and services. So as the stock market tumbles and the world economy falters, it’s important to remember that it’s more than financial losses we are talking about, it’s the loss of life.</p>
<p>And increasingly it isn’t just people in far-off places around the world who are succumbing to such extreme hardships. Note this: Job losses in the state of Indiana have caused the child poverty rate there to spike 29 per cent since 2000. The wealth gap in the United States and around the world is at record levels — and it has serious consequences.</p>
<p>The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported this week that the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger around the world, and that the U.S. is experiencing the biggest dichotomy.</p>
<p>We are experiencing the largest wealth gap in history. Further erosion of the economic floor will only send more people plunging into destitution.</p>
<p>This is why it’s so important to fix the economic crisis — now.</p>
<p>We’re all linked.” (MarketWatch)</p>
<p>The Bush administration has called for an economic summit to be held by the 20 largest economies sometime after the presidential elections. US and EU officials are hoping to stitch together another Bretton Woods wherein control of the global economic system was delivered to those same nations. It’s likely, however, that the outcome will turn out considerably different than anticipated. Already, under China’s leadership, 12 Asian nations have agreed to set up an 80-billion-dollar fund to protect their economies from currency-runs, capital flight or other financial disruptions. China has the world’s largest reserves at $1.9 trillion followed by Japan at more than $1 trillion. Clearly the two richest nations will set the agenda and play a central role in deciding how best to deal with the global recession.</p>
<p>The November summit in Washington could produce some unwelcome surprises which were hinted at by Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Olarn Chaipravat, who told Bloomberg News:</p>
<p>“The message of this initiative is for China to consider whether or not China would open up its banking system and allow the strongest currency in the world, which is the Chinese yuan, to be the rightful and anointed convertible currency of the world.”</p>
<p>Surely, the present financial malaise which has its roots in Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve, has demonstrated that the dollar must be replaced as the world’s “reserve currency” and that America must be deposed as the de facto steward of the global economic system. Leadership implies responsibility and the US must be held to account for its failings. It’s time for a change.</p>
<p>MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Meet the World’s New Currency: the Chinese Yuan | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/10/28/meet-the-world-s-new-currency-the-chinese-yuan/ | 2008-10-28 | 4 |
<p>Trustees of&#160;the&#160;El Monte Union High&#160;School District have been drawing monthly stipends even when they haven't attended board meetings, possibly violating state and internal policies.</p>
<p>CalWatchdog found&#160;at least nine instances&#160;since 2015 where stipends were paid despite absences, although a loose interpretation of what constitutes a meeting provided a loophole.</p>
<p>While not a large sum of money,&#160;the lack of accountability&#160;over trustee stipends builds on a lawsuit and scathing <a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/government-and-politics/20160625/el-monte-union-lacks-records-oversight-for-148-million-bond-measure" type="external">news report</a>&#160;earlier this year that the district was either not tracking millions in bond expenditures or hiding the records.</p>
<p>Trustees earn a $252 monthly stipend for attending a board meeting on the first Wednesday of the month, as per the board's bylaws. According to district and state regulations, stipends are to be divided evenly by the number of meetings per month and then trustees are to be paid only for the meetings attended.</p>
<p>The board can still choose to pay a trustee for a missed meeting as long as the absence meets certain criteria and&#160;payment is authorized&#160;by a resolution.</p>
<p>A review of meeting minutes shows that no such resolutions have been approved by the board, even though stipends to board members were usually allocated.&#160;</p>
<p>According to interim Superintendent Edward Zuniga, one trustee, Maria-Elena Talamantes, opted to forgo her July&#160;stipend for a missed meeting, so no resolution was brought forward. She again missed a meeting in August, and it is unclear if she'll still be paid as&#160;stipends are allocated a month behind.</p>
<p>However, Talamantes and Trustee Maria Morgan received monthly stipends despite missing June's meeting. However, despite this being the first Wednesday of the month, it was made a special meeting, flipping with a meeting later in the month. Neither Talamantes nor Morgan responded to requests for comment and it's unknown if they would refund the money.</p>
<p>The Education Code allows for absent trustees to get paid if the board finds that he or she "was performing&#160;designated services for the district at the time of the meeting or that he/she was absent because of illness, jury duty or a hardship deemed acceptable by the board."</p>
<p>But the Education Code also states:&#160;"Any member who does not attend all Board meetings during the month, is eligible to receive only a percentage of the monthly compensation equal to the percentage of meetings he/she attended, unless otherwise authorized by the Board in accordance with law."</p>
<p>While the board has one regular meeting a month, it almost always has at least one "special" meeting each month as well.&#160;Since 2015, Talamantes has missed two&#160;and Board Vice President Carlos Salcedo missed three,&#160;while former trustees Salvador Ramirez&#160;and Juanita Gonzales each missed one in 2015.</p>
<p>The year prior, Gonzales <a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/government-and-politics/20140409/el-monte-school-district-censures-board-member-for-buying-booze-meals-for-others-with-district-credit-card" type="external">was&#160;censured</a> by the board for using her district-issued credit card to buy $150 worth of alcohol, meals for friends and to get reimbursed for meals she received for free. She agreed to refund the district.</p>
<p>Board meetings are also split into open and closed sessions. While tardiness would likely be permitted in most instances, Talamantes once missed an entire open session and then an entire closed session at another time, but she&#160;was in attendance for&#160;the other sessions on those nights.</p>
<p>Zuniga said attendance at&#160;special meetings has not been considered a factor in&#160;the stipend allocation, despite the bylaws and state law clearly stating "all Board meetings during the month." Zuniga said&#160;partial meetings have not been discussed either, but&#160;said he would bring both examples to the board's attention.</p>
<p>Zuniga has been in his role since March, when Superintendent&#160;Irella Perez was placed on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons. In August, <a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/social-affairs/20160818/el-monte-union-high-school-district-fires-superintendent-irella-perez" type="external">the board voted 3-2 to fire Perez</a>, and Perez has since <a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20160922/el-monte-union-high-school-district-faces-lawsuit-from-fired-former-superintendent" type="external">filed suit</a>.</p>
<p>Increase?</p>
<p>In August, Salcedo tried to increase the stipends by 5 percent. However, no other trustee seconded the motion and it died.</p> | Southern California school district paid absentee trustees against state, district policy through loophole | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2016/09/28/southern-california-school-district-paid-absentee-trustees-state-district-policy/ | 2018-09-20 | 3 |
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<p>Day one of the Democratic National Convention is officially underway, and a big focus of the 2016 presidential race has been geared around social media. FOXBusiness.com took an exclusive tour of the Young Voters Event in the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Lounge, a place where people attending the convention are encouraged to share their ideas, and create social media&#160;content based on their experiences in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Despite the recent email scandal involving the Democratic National Committee, which forced DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to step down from her post, young delegates seem to have no trust issues when it comes to supporting the presumptive Democratic nominee.</p>
<p>“I think Hillary Clinton acted swiftly and promptly to correct the wrongs that have been done,” Kevin McClintock, a &#160;20-year-old Delegate for Puerto Rico told FBN.com in the Facebook Lounge on Monday. “I think at the end of the day, Hillary Clinton is a trustworthy candidate.”</p>
<p>When asked about Clinton’s reputation of being dishonest, Gabriela Medina, another young delegate from Puerto Rico, said she doesn’t believe her to be dishonest.</p>
<p>“I think the dishonesty that some people see is actually so many years of propaganda against her,” Medina said.</p>
<p>However, according to a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/18/fox-news-poll-trump-tops-clinton-both-seen-as-deeply-flawed-candidates.html" type="external">Fox News</a> poll from May, only 31 percent of people believe Hillary Clinton to be honest, compared to Trump’s 40 percent.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Millennial DNC Delegates: We Trust Hillary | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/07/25/millennial-dnc-delegates-trust-hillary.html | 2016-07-25 | 0 |
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<p>CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving wants the stage for himself.</p>
<p>Cleveland’s All-Star point guard has asked the Cavaliers to trade him, two people familiar with the situation told the Associated Press on Friday. Irving made the request last week to owner Dan Gilbert, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not commenting on the star’s demands.</p>
<p>Irving’s appeal was first reported by ESPN.</p>
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<p>A four-time All-Star, Irving has spent six seasons with the Cavs, who selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2011. The 25-year-old has overcome injury issues and blossomed into one of the league’s elite point guards and biggest stars.</p>
<p>And now that he’s finally established himself playing alongside LeBron James, Irving wants out.</p>
<p>He’s under contract for two more seasons with Cleveland (he has a player option in 2020), but the Cavs could be inclined to move Irving now and begin another rebuild around James, who can opt out of his contract next summer and leave Ohio for the second time.</p>
<p>The bombshell about Irving adds to what has been a tumultuous offseason for the Cavs following their loss in five games to Golden State in the NBA Finals. General manager David Griffin parted ways with the club after failing to work out a new contract with Gilbert and while other teams have been active in signing free agents the Cavs have been limited in their ability to revamp their roster because of salary-cap issues.</p>
<p>Also, the Cavs courted former NBA star Chauncey Billups but couldn’t get him to join their front office.</p>
<p>Irving’s request to be dealt perhaps sheds some light on the Cavs’ recent pursuit of former league MVP Derrick Rose. The team has talked to Rose about a one-year contract in recent days, a source familiar with the negotiations told the AP on Thursday.</p>
<p>Rose was thought to be a potential backup, but now it appears he could be needed to start if the Cavs and Irving are indeed breaking up.</p>
<p>There is certain to be major interest in Irving, who averaged a career-high 25.2 points and 5.8 assists in 72 games last season. Irving averaged 25.9 points in his third straight Finals, but he and James couldn’t do enough to match the Warriors, who took back their crown after adding Kevin Durant last summer.</p>
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<p>A potential trade partner for the Cavs could be the New York Knicks, who have been trying to unload Carmelo Anthony, a close friend of James. Irving is from New Jersey and would welcome a chance to go back to his home area. However, the Knicks may not have enough assets to intrigue the Cavs and there is a sizeable imbalance in contracts, so the Cavs would have to include other players in any potential deal.</p>
<p>All of it will fall on Koby Altman, who has been serving as the team’s interim GM and is being promoted to the position full-time. A person familiar with the decision said Altman’s deal is being finalized and he will be announced as the team’s new GM in the next few days.</p>
<p>Altman, who has been with the club since 2012, will be the fifth GM to work for Gilbert since 2005.</p>
<p>It’s strange that Irving would choose now to ask for a trade.</p>
<p>After all, he has finally developed into a bona fide superstar following three tough seasons following James’ departure to Miami in 2010. Irving had no help during those years and the Cavs were in a state of disarray before James came back in 2014.</p>
<p>In his second year alongside James, Irving made the biggest shot in franchise history, draining a 3-pointer in the closing moments of Game 7 to give the Cavs their first title — and the first for any Cleveland pro team since 1964.</p>
<p>By all accounts, Irving and James got along but there were times when they didn’t quite see eye to eye.</p>
<p>James was demanding of his younger teammates but he was always adamant that Irving would grow into a superior player. Following Cleveland’s Game 5 loss in the Finals, Irving credited James for leading the way.</p>
<p>“He’s freaking awesome,” Irving said. “As a student of the game, it would be a disservice to myself if I didn’t try to learn as much as possible while I’m playing with this guy. Every single day demanding more out of himself, demanding more out of us, the true testament of a consummate professional. And understanding how things work, not only just in the game but off the court, things that matter, just taking care of your body, understanding the magnitude of what the goal is at hand and what steps it takes in order to achieve that goal.”</p>
<p>Moments earlier, James had walked off the court at Oracle Arena where Irving was waiting</p>
<p>They made their signature handshake and James told Irving, “We’ll be back.”</p>
<p>Now, they may be headed in opposite directions.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP basketball: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball</p> | AP sources: Kyrie Irving asks Cavaliers to trade him | false | https://abqjournal.com/1036536/ap-sources-kyrie-irving-asks-cavaliers-to-trade-him.html | 2017-07-21 | 2 |
<p>This fabulous and iconic picture, by the great photojournalist known as Chim, was taken in 1947 on Omaha Beach, in Normandy, where massive slaughter had been seen just a few years before. It’s now in a show called <a href="http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/we-went-back" type="external">“We Went Back: Photographs from Europe 1933-1956 by Chim”</a>, at the International Center of Photography in New York. This is just about the most lyrical image that Chim ever shot, and there’s something especially great about his rare use of color film for it. We mostly think of this era, and its horrors, as having happened in black and white, so it’s lovely that an image of recovery should glow, Oz-like, in soft polychrome.</p>
<p>For a full visual survey of past Daily Pics visit <a href="http://blakegopnik.com/archive" type="external">blakegopnik.com/archive</a>.</p> | Omaha Beach by Chim at the ICP is the Daily Pic by Blake Gopnik | true | https://thedailybeast.com/omaha-beach-by-chim-at-the-icp-is-the-daily-pic-by-blake-gopnik | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>The massive San Francisco-based engineering company lost 52 of its employees since starting work on reconstructing Iraq in 2003. <a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/01/MNGMIM3RAG1.DTL" type="external">A Bechtel official apparently accepted some share of blame</a> for the sorry state of Iraq's infrastructure, calling it "heartbreaking."</p>
<p>San Francisco Chronicle:</p>
<p>Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq three years ago to help rebuild a nation torn by war. Since then, 52 of its people have been killed and much of its work sabotaged as Iraq dissolved into insurgency and sectarian violence.</p>
<p>Now Bechtel is leaving.</p>
<p />
<p>The San Francisco engineering company's last government contract to rebuild power, water and sewage plants across Iraq expired on Tuesday. Some employees remain to finish the paperwork, but essentially, the company's job is done.</p>
<p><a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/01/MNGMIM3RAG1.DTL" type="external">Link</a></p> | Bechtel Pulling Out of Iraq | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bechtel-pulling-out-of-iraq/ | 2006-11-01 | 4 |
<p>Long-term investing has a proven track record of success, but many people still prefer to day-trade with short-term investing techniques. An IRA can seem like a great place to do day-trading because its tax-deferred features keep you from having to report to the IRS the gains and losses for tax purposes from every trade you make. However, there are some reasons why an IRA might not work well as a day-trading vehicle.</p>
<p>Regulatory requirementsOne issue that comes up with all accounts is that if you do enough day-trades in a given period, regulators will consider you to be what's known as a pattern day-trader. In that case, you'll be required to keep a minimum of $25,000 in your account.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>When you trade in a regular taxable account, that isn't such a burden, because you can always put more money into the account. However, with an IRA, you might not be allowed to add money if your balance falls below the key $25,000 level and you're not eligible to make extra IRA contributions. If that happens, your broker won't let you day-trade any longer.</p>
<p>Settlement and limited marginThe other problem that comes up with IRAs is that you typically can't use a standard margin account for an IRA. That's because IRA rules don't let you pledge assets of the retirement account as collateral for loans, which is the essence of the standard margin relationship. As a result, you always have to trade using settled funds, and that means having an account balance that's far greater than the value of any single day-traded position.</p>
<p>However, some brokers recognize what is sometimes known as limited margin. An IRA that allows for limited margin won't let you borrow against your stocks, but it will let you make trades even when funds haven't yet settled. Using unsettled funds lets you avoid good-faith violations and make day-trades without triggering the pattern day-trader rule. However, some brokers require you to have at least a $25,000 balance to get access to limited margin, so it won't necessarily save you from having a relatively high IRA balance.</p>
<p>Day-trading is a risky business, and using retirement funds to finance day-trading operations isn't something that most investors should do. If you're going to do it in an IRA, it's important to take steps to ensure you don't run afoul of regulatory requirements and other potential pitfalls.</p>
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<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Can I Day-Trade Using My IRA? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/20/can-day-trade-using-my-ira.html | 2016-03-20 | 0 |
<p>On Thursday, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times wrote a column about how President Trump was treating the media as his enemy. The column was long on accusation and short on introspection. The column began, in fact, by suggesting that Trump hated reporters more than neo-Nazis. And it got worse from there.</p>
<p>Kristof stated:</p>
<p>Look, we in journalism deserve to have our feet held to the fire. We make mistakes all the time, and too often we are superficial, sensationalist, unfair, defensive or diverted by shiny objects. Critics are right that we in the national media are often out of touch with working-class America, and distressingly often, we are lap dogs instead of watchdogs. Yet for all our failings, journalism remains an indispensable constraint on power.</p>
<p>All of that is true. But the reason that Trump’s routine critique of the media works is that they proclaim that their only standard is the truth, and conservatives keep asking, “whose truth?” Sometimes, the media present facts. More often, they present facts mixed with opinion. Take, for example, Kristof’s next accusation:</p>
<p>Trump has systematically tried to delegitimize the institutions that hold him accountable — courts, prosecutors, investigators, the media — and that’s the context for his vilification of all them, for we collectively provide monitoring that outrages him.</p>
<p>Has he truly attempted to delegitimize courts? How so? Has he said things? Or has he actually ignored court orders? How about investigators? Has he ripped their prospective bias, or has he actually fired them? Kristof isn’t wrong that Trump has attacked all of these institutions, but has he attempted to destroy them wholesale to prevent them from monitoring him?</p>
<p>I dislike Trump’s overstatement of his case against the media. The vast majority of journalists don’t hate the country. But many journalists masquerade as objective fact-bringers, when they’re bringing facts and perspective intertwined. Trump accuses the media of lying about their supposedly “objective” status, and he accuses them of simply making up facts. The first accusation is correct. The second mostly isn’t; media members generally don’t make up the news. But because the media refuse to acknowledge the truth of Trump’s former accusation, they allow Trump to conflate the two, and thereby undercut their own credibility overall. Trump insists that the media have an agenda, and therefore lie; the media insist that they don’t lie, and that they therefore don’t have an agenda. Neither is correct. The media have an agenda, and they generally don’t just make things up (although they sometimes do, and they often spin facts in anti-conservative ways).</p>
<p>But while Kristof is castigating Trump for casting the media as an enemy, he’s accusing Trump of getting “people hurt … buoying the repressive instincts of dictators around the world … [it is possible that] our president is mentally unstable.” Does this sound like Kristof is Trump’s enemy, or merely a critic?</p>
<p>Kristof concludes, “So may I humbly suggest that when a megalomaniacal leader howls and shrieks at critics, that is when institutional checks on that leader become a bulwark of democracy.” Then he wonders why Trump considers the media his enemies.</p>
<p>It’s not that tough to understand. Trump should stop treating the media as his enemies, but the media have to stop treating Trump as their enemy, too.</p> | New York Times Columnist: ‘Mr. Trump, We’re Not The Enemy.' Same Columnist: Trump Is A ‘Megalomaniacal Leader,’ May Be ‘Mentally Unstable.’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20188/new-york-times-columnist-mr-trump-were-not-enemy-ben-shapiro | 2017-08-24 | 0 |
<p>The British actor says what the obituaries are leaving out about Margaret Thatcher — her administration was nasty, especially when it came to homosexuality; gruesome images, like those taken during the Boston Marathon attacks, can teach us true sympathy and should not be censored or ignored; and maybe our Founding Fathers are to blame for the seeming impossibility of gun control. These discoveries and more below.</p>
<p>On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mckellen.com/writings/tribute/130415-thatcher.htm" type="external">Margaret Thatcher</a> The official obituaries have been, as often happens, partial in both senses: sympathetic and incomplete, writes Sir Ian McKellen.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-pickard/fcc-chairman_b_3100154.html?utm_hp_ref=technology&amp;ir=Technology" type="external">A Fighter for the Public Interest at the FCC</a> Does it matter who chairs the Federal Communications Commission?</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/15516-can-capitalism-tolerate-a-democratic-internet-an-interview-with-media-expert-robert-mcchesney" type="external">Can Capitalism Tolerate a Democratic Internet?</a> The thing you forget about the man with 23 books to his name, books that have been translated into 30 languages, the man who cofounded the Free Press – one of the most important media reform organizations in the country – is that he has kind of crazy hair.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130418/the-spreadsheet-scandal-kills-the-last-argument-for-obamas-social-security-cut" type="external">Why the ‘Spreadsheet Scandal’ Should Kill Obama’s Social Security Cut</a> A recent “Spreadsheet Scandal” has rocked the economics world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-get-filthy-rich-obamaworld" type="external">How To Get Filthy Rich in Obamaworld</a> When Yves Smith was in DC about a month ago, speaking at the Atlantic Economy conference, the keynote speaker was Paul Volcker.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112925/small-states-sway-gun-control-debate-senate?utm_source=The+New+Republic&amp;utm_campaign=5508f8c8bb-TNR_Daily_041613&amp;utm_medium=email#" type="external">Did Our Founders’ Lack of Foresight Doom Gun Control?</a> When the Senate took up the bill to expand background checks for gun purchases this week, we heard plenty rationalizations for opposing it similar to the one offered recently by Heidi Heitkamp, the newly elected Democrat from North Dakota: “In our part of the country, [gun control] isn’t an issue. This is a way of life. This is how people feel, and it is extraordinarily difficult to explain that, especially to grieving parents.” Heitkamp’s bottom line: “I’m going to represent my state.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112933/boston-marathon-bombing-violent-photos-should-you-look?utm_source=The+New+Republic&amp;utm_campaign=2616045695-TNR_Daily_041713&amp;utm_medium=email#" type="external">What We Can Learn from Extremely Violent Photography</a> It did not take long, after the attacks at the finish line of the Boston marathon, for images of the carnage to start rocketing around the web.</p> | Sir Ian McKellen Speaks Ill of the Dead | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sir-ian-mckellen-speaks-ill-of-the-dead/ | 2013-04-19 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, the combative, controversial and perennially rumpled chief strategist for President Donald Trump, has resigned in the latest staff shakeup at the White House.</p>
<p>New White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Bannon had agreed that Friday would be Bannon’s last day in the White House, according to a statement by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.</p>
<p>“We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”</p>
<p>The 63-year-old Bannon had been on shaky ground for weeks and Trump declined to express confidence in him during an impromptu press conference Tuesday. In a rambling answer to a reporter’s question, Trump said Bannon was a friend, who came late to his 2016 campaign.</p>
<p>Bannon is not a racist, Trump added, as the media unfairly have painted him. “But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon” — words that savvy observers believed signalled Bannon’s end was near.</p>
<p>By Friday afternoon, he was out.</p>
<p>Thus ended a rocky week that had Trump arguing with himself over the nature of the Charlottesville protests that left a 32-year-old counter-protester and two state police officers dead.</p>
<p>Saturday, Trump faulted “many sides” for the violence. Monday he called out “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.” Then Tuesday, Trump was back blaming “both sides” – which set corporate leaders scurrying away from Trump’s presidential advisory boards and led many Democrats and Republicans to lambaste the president.</p>
<p>For Democrats, the removal of Bannon isn’t enough. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it was “welcome news, but it doesn’t disguise where President Trump himself stands on white supremacists and the bigoted beliefs they advance.”</p>
<p>The Council for American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad also welcomed Bannon’s removal from a position he “never should have been given,” and called for the removal of like-minded staffers Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser, and Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president.</p>
<p>Few Republican officials or members of Congress had anything to say about Bannon’s departure. However, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who is close to Bannon, said Trump’s base could revolt. “With Steve Bannon gone, what’s left of the conservative core in the West Wing? Who’s going to carry out the Trump agenda?” he asked in an interview.</p>
<p>“This looks like a purging of conservatives,” King added. “The odds of him completing his campaign promises, even to the limit of his executive authority, have been diminished by this.”</p>
<p>Precarious footing</p>
<p>Early in the administration, Bannon’s high profile put him in precarious footing with a president who doesn’t like having to share magazine covers. As the voice in the White House that prodded Trump in the direction of the “alt-right,” Bannon was seen as the dispensable man.</p>
<p>The New York Times reported Monday that even before Charlottesville, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch had urged Trump to fire the former executive chairman of conservative Breitbart News.</p>
<p>Calls for his scalp did not send Bannon into silence. To the contrary, he began giving interviews at unlikely venues. He contacted a reporter with the left-leaning The American Progress, and without stipulating that the conversation was off-the-record, berated his colleagues. Among other things, he said some were “wetting themselves” over a proposed complaint against Chinese trade practices.</p>
<p>Then Bannon called the Times and Washington Post.</p>
<p>Bannon’s freelancing brought to mind similar behavior by Trump’s former director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci. During his 10 days on the job, Scaramucci phoned Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker and let loose a barrage of f-bombs and unflattering descriptions of his palace-intrigue rivals.</p>
<p>“Under normal circumstances a senior White House adviser who gets quoted extensively when he’ s not supposed to be ends up being removed,” observed a Republican strategist who has worked with the White House.</p>
<p>Falling staff dominoes</p>
<p>The last month has boomed with the fall of staff dominoes at the White House. Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned when Trump named Scaramucci director of communications, a position Spicer also had filled.</p>
<p>Later, and also on a Friday afternoon, Trump fired his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and replaced him with Kelly. Within hours of being sworn into his new post, Kelly fired Scaramucci.</p>
<p>Less recognizable names also came and went. Mike Dubke resigned after serving three months as communications director. (This week the White House announced the new interim director will be 28-year-old Hope Hicks, who is credited with understanding what Trump wants when dealing with the press.)</p>
<p>Hours after Bannon’s departure was confirmed Friday by the White House, the former Hollywood producer and news executive returned to duty as executive chairman of Breitbart News, the pugilistic conservative website he helped guide before joining Trump’s campaign last August.</p>
<p>“The populist-nationalist movement got a lot stronger today,” Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow said in a release.</p>
<p>For his part, Bannon said in an interview with the Weekly Standard that he feels “jacked up.”</p>
<p>“Now I’m free,” he said. “I’ve got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition.”</p>
<p>Contact Debra J. Saunders at [email protected] or at 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. The Washington Post contributed to this report.</p> | Steve Bannon is out as Trump’s chief strategist | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/steve-bannon-is-out-as-trumps-chief-strategist/ | 2017-08-18 | 1 |
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<p>As the Foley scandal casts its long, dark shadow over the GOP, embroiling the likes of Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, and Tom Reynolds, among others, no amount of damage control seems capable of containing the fallout. But you have to hand it to the Republicans for trying. Over the last couple days they’ve dusted off a well worn line, which they never fail to trot out when things are looking particularly bleak for the GOP: George Soros is behind this.</p>
<p>Why Soros? After all, he wasn’t the one sending creepy <a href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/filelibrary/FoleyEmailExchangeUpdated1.pdf" type="external">emails</a> or dirty <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/exclusive_the_s.html" type="external">IMs</a> to congressional pages. That was Mark Foley. Nor is he at fault for failing to act after being <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/foleys_former_c.html" type="external">warned</a> of Foley’s lascivious behavior toward the pages. That was Hastert. In the minds of some Republicans, Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist who has donated generous sums of his fortune to democratic candidates and causes, is the kingpin behind a vast conspiracy to dismantle the Republican Party. So, in their thinking, it would follow that Soros and the watchdog groups that are funded by his Open Society Institute, such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), are pulling the strings on a well-timed effort to taint the Republican Party just before the mid-term elections by leaking Foley’s emails to the press.</p>
<p>“The people who want to see this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic operatives, people funded by George Soros,” Hastert (who has previously intimated that Soros’ philanthropic efforts may be funded by “ <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2106176/" type="external">drug money</a>“) told the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0610050132oct05,1,1265597.story?coll=chi-news-hed&amp;ctrack=1&amp;cset=true" type="external">Chicago Tribune</a> yesterday. On Fox last night, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly were also preoccupied by this prospect. Interviewing Brian Ross, the ABC reporter who broke the scandal, O’Reilly said, “Now the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is a far left group. George Soros gives a lot of money to it through his Open Society Institute. They apparently are the ones that drove this thing behind the scenes. Is that what you’re hearing?”</p>
<p>“I’m not familiar with them,” Ross responded. “They didn’t drive us.”</p>
<p>Of course, there isn’t a shred of truth to the Soros/CREW conspiracy angle (though CREW was in possession of some of Foley’s emails earlier this summer and forwarded them to the FBI). As The Hill <a href="http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100506/news2.html" type="external">reported</a> today, the source who provided the Foley emails to several news outlets back in July, via an intermediary, was a House GOP aide. According to The Hill:</p>
<p>That Foley’s scandalous communications came to public light during Congress’s final week in Washington was largely determined by the media outlets which obtained the suspicious e-mails in the middle of the summer, said the person who provided them to reporters several months ago.</p>
<p>This, unfortunately, is not likely to stop right wingers from dissembling. Unable to scapegoat Soros or CREW, they will simply move onto their next favorite target – the liberal media, led by Brian Ross, who no doubt timed his report to deal a death blow to the GOP.</p>
<p /> | When In Doubt, Blame Soros | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/10/when-doubt-blame-soros/ | 2006-10-05 | 4 |
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<p>General Motors (NYSE:GM) plans to sell its remaining 9.9% stake in Ally Financial, the automaker’s former lending arm, in a private placement deal worth around $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.</p>
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<p>The news comes as Hayman Capital, founded by J. Kyle Bass, released a presentation that suggests GM’s stock holds plenty of upside once the government completes its exit. Bloomberg News said Hayman acquired a stake in GM, citing a person familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>GM declined to comment on the reports. Hayman didn’t respond to an inquiry.</p>
<p>Shares were trading 2.4% higher at $39.08 early Wednesday afternoon. The stock is up more than 32% so far this year.</p>
<p>GM has been reshaping its relationship with Ally. About a year ago, the car manufacturer paid $4.2 billion to acquire Ally’s operations in Europe, Latin America and China. GM then combined those operations with GM Financial, its new lending arm.</p>
<p>Ally said in October that it was nearing the completion of a sale process to divest a wider range of international businesses. Including the deal with GM, Ally had generated $8.3 billion in proceeds.</p>
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<p>The auto lender, one of the nation’s largest, recently repurchased $5.9 billion worth of shares from the U.S. Treasury Department. Ally has repaid more than two-thirds of its $17.2 billion bailout, although the government remains its majority owner.</p>
<p>Ally is also in the midst of legal woes tied to Residential Capital, the company’s subprime mortgage subsidiary. ResCap filed for bankruptcy last year.</p>
<p>The Treasury said last month it is close to selling its remaining shares in GM. The sale should be completed by the end of this year.</p>
<p>The government took a 61% stake in the top U.S. automaker in 2009 but has steadily reduced its ownership over the years.</p>
<p>In its presentation on Wednesday, Hayman projected a 40% increase in the share price of GM over the next 12 to 18 months. The firm based its estimate on the government’s official exit from GM this year and a dividend or stock buyback in 2014, a move Hayman believes is likely.</p>
<p>The presentation was posted on Harvest, a social networking website for investors.</p> | Report: GM Selling Ally Stake for $900M | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/12/04/report-gm-selling-ally-stake-for-00m.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>The controversy over anti-gay lyrics in reggae music continues: performances by Sizzla and Elephant Man in Toronto <a href="http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/12674" type="external">have been cancelled</a> following an outcry from Canadian organizations who came together under the “Stop Murder Music” flag. Police had already intended to monitor the concerts for “hate speech,” but then promoters pulled the plug on the events, scheduled for September 28 and October 6th.</p>
<p>Stop Murder Music Canada founder Akim Larcher <a href="http://www.thestar.com/article/261921" type="external">told the Toronto Star</a> that the reggae stars “shouldn’t have been allowed to get visas to perform in the country… it’s not about censorship or artistic freedom. That stops when hate propaganda is involved.”</p>
<p>We’ve covered <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2007/07/4959_buju_banton_sig.html" type="external">the controversy</a> over anti-gay lyrics in reggae music here before, as well as the <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2007/09/5576_congressional_h.html" type="external">current kerfuffle</a> over sexist and generally nasty language in American hip-hop. While I’m inclined to side with artists, since offense and shock has always been a part of art’s power, is there a qualitative difference between calling for the murder of “batty boys” and calling women “hos”? Why do white artists seem to get a free pass, with the whole “I’m singing in character” defense? And when does exercising your right to free speech by protesting another’s speech interfere with their right to, um, speak? Answers to all these questions coming up tonight at 11.</p>
<p /> | More Reggae Concerts Cancelled After Gay Rights Groups Protest | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/more-reggae-concerts-cancelled-after-gay-rights-groups-protest/ | 2007-10-03 | 4 |
<p>John Weeks is a professor emeritus of the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies and author of Economics of the 1%: How Mainstream Economics Serves the Rich, Obscures Reality and Distorts Policy. His recent policy work includes a supplemental unemployment program for the European Union and advising the central banks of Argentina and Zambia.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
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<p />Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has passed away. And, of course, now her legacy is a matter of great debate. She is seen by many as the savior of capitalism, savior of the Western world, alongside Ronald Reagan.
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<p />Now joining us to talk about the history and legacy of Margaret Thatcher is John Weeks. He's a professor emeritus at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. He's also the author of many books, including Capital, Exploitation and Economic Crisis, and more recently The Economics of the 1&#160;Percent. And he writes at JWeeks.org.
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<p />Thanks very much for joining us, John.
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<p />JOHN WEEKS, PROF. EMERITUS, SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES: Well, thank you for inviting me.
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<p />JAY: So why is the prime ministership of Margaret Thatcher seen as being of such importance? And what do you make of it?
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<p />WEEKS: First I should say I think think there are a lot of Americans who think that Margaret Thatcher may have been extremely conservative or reactionary. But she was actually sort of a major figure. These are probably people who went along and saw the film about her with Meryl Streep and so on.
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<p />First thing you have to realize is that Margaret Thatcher had no positive side. It was my son who said [incompr.] the Wicked Witch is dead. She was an unrelenting opponent of the working class. She took as her major task as prime minister of Britain the crushing of the trade union movement, which she was, I regret to say, extremely successful. The war with Argentina [incompr.] sideshow is terrible for the Argentines, but the main function of it in Britain was to get her reelected in 1983 when her ratings were very low. And she was, from beginning to end, as we say over here, a very nasty piece of work indeed.
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<p />JAY: So she comes to power at a particular time in the United States. It's her--more or less the time of Reagan, and Canada it's Mulroney. It's a time when corporate and financial power seems to even assert itself more than it had previously. I mean, talk about sort of the general context we're in at that time, and then more about what Thatcher did.
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<p />WEEKS: Well, I think that for my generation, when people talk about who saved capitalism, it was Roosevelt. And I think it's useful to make that comparison. The way Roosevelt was supposed to have saved capitalism was that there was an uprising of the working class and of the progressive people throughout the United States and there were marches in the streets, and Roosevelt came up with a semi social democratic government, which then neutralized those popular protests--or at least that was the story--and then sort of institutionalized [incompr.] establishment [incompr.] then, you know, sort of saved capitalism, in the sense that there wasn't something more radical.
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<p />Margaret Thatcher did something quite different. By the end of 1970s, the bourgeoisie, the capitalists in the United States, Britain, and perhaps elsewhere (but I don't know the details in every country), they had a new strategy. Their strategy was: we don't have to have this accommodation, we don't have to have this deal with the trade unions--labor bosses, as they were called. We can actually get rid of them and we can rule alone. And I think that Reagan and Thatcher represented that faction of the bourgeoisie, which [incompr.] at first wasn't necessarily the majority of it, but quickly became a majority when the other parts of the capitalist class saw that actually this was quite a success. You know, they said, oh, no, no, no, you can't do that, you can't just crush the trade union. Then they discovered that Thatcher and Reagan were successful.
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<p />And there is a parallel there that we discussed before, Paul, that Reagan broke the unions in the United States [incompr.] in Britain. The air traffic controllers, that was a very strategic defeat for the U.S. working class [incompr.] the coal miners strike in 1984, '85 was in Britain.
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<p />JAY: Now, this wasn't just a triumph of the ideas of Margaret Thatcher and Reagan. Was it not more a reflection of a change in the balance of forces in the world? I mean, one, the idea that the Soviet Union was some socialist paradise as an alternative for the workers had more or less been discredited, that, you know, the Soviet Union was weakening economically, and most people didn't see it as a paradise by this time. So the idea that there was a real alternative to capitalism didn't seem possible. And maybe even more importantly, the development of globalization that it's really around this time that industry can start to manufacture in different parts of the world with much cheaper laber and can say to workers in Europe and England and North America, you know, either you make concessions or we're just going to move your jobs offshore. So is it that change in balance of forces that gets reflected in Thatcher and Reaganism?
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<p />WEEKS: I think it is. But I think that that in itself [incompr.] the popular struggle [incompr.] that, I regret to say, and I think that the trade union leadership in Britain and the United States became further and further alienated from their base. It had been that base which the threat of a restive, you know, great unwashed, which had brought about the progressive [incompr.] in both Britain and United States, much deeper in Britain than in the United States. And by the late 1960s and into the 1970s, that role of the trade union movement was beginning to weaken. And there had been [incompr.] cliche [incompr.] but they no longer had a strong link to the base. So it became easy to defeat them.
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<p />Once you weaken the trade union movement, then things like moving offshore, which couldn't have really been--it wasn't a technical question. It wasn't something that happened in the world economy that made it technically easier to produce offshore. What made it easier was that the working class was not in a position in the United States and Britain to oppose it and was strong enough to oppose it, and that the laws began to change to facilitate it. I mean, it's quite clear.
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<p />So I think you're right. There were fundamental changes. But I would relate it more to what was going on in the popular struggle or lack thereof than changes in the nature of our capitalism.
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<p />JAY: But in Britain the unions were stronger, more workers were in unions, and the unions were, I think, more progressive on the whole. There were some progressive unions in the United States as well. But Thatcher took on a union movement and a working class that was more, you could say, conscious and more powerful, and she was rather successful, too.
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<p />WEEKS: Right. It's true. I think it's hard for somebody who is in the United States in the 1980s to imagine what was going on here. I happened to be here in--when the coal miners strike of 1984, 1985 was going on. It was class war. I mean, it was not a question of the working class leaders capitulating. There were [incompr.] there were people who didn't support the miners. But it was straight class war. Thatcher sent out the army. When Roger Scargill, the head of the miners union, who I think had a fatally flawed strategy, but at any rate, when he decided that the key was to shut down all the mines, Thatcher used the army, not just the police. People were beaten up, people were arrested, and it was a war. And the bourgeoisie won the war.
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<p />And that was--up until '85, for the most part, the British working class, British labor leadership could confront Thatcher and prevent the worst changes. After that, [incompr.] weaker, and they just became weaker and weaker and weaker. And then you [incompr.] a Labour government with Tony Blair which was about as venal as you could get--not as bad as Thatcher, but certainly in the same league. And now there is some small hope for recovery, but it's been pretty--I mean, to give a statistic, as I recall, I think in 1985 that something like--of the private sector in Britain, something like 60,&#160;65&#160;percent were in trade unions. We're now down to 20&#160;percent.
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<p />JAY: And if you look at today's economic crisis in Great Britain, financial mess, unemployment is high, and such, how much of this, the roots of all of this, are with Thatcher?
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<p />WEEKS: I think that after probably--if she were alive today like she was yesterday, though I think she's been pretty senile for quite a while, she laid the basis for it. She never dreamed, probably, of going this far. But she went [incompr.] she pushed it as far as she could. She said some extraordinary things which had never--. Neil Kinnock, earlier today--Neil Kinnock was leader of the Labour Party during the 1980s, during most of the Thatcher years. He was interviewed [incompr.] what is Thatcher's legacy. He said Thatcher's legacy was: for the first time in the 20th century, under Margaret Thatcher, the poor became poorer.
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<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us, John.
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<p />WEEKS: Well, thank you.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Under Thatcher, the Poor Became Poorer | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10041 | 2013-04-08 | 4 |
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<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Tuesday as bank shares tumbled.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Other postelection trades also reversed, with government bonds strengthening and the dollar sliding to a one-month low. After Election Day, investors betting on higher growth and inflation under President-elect Donald Trump sent the dollar and shares of financial and industrial companies higher while selling long-dated government debt and gold. Yet in recent weeks, many of the most popular trades have stalled.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 financials sector slid 2.3%, its worst day in months. Morgan Stanley, which posted its best fourth-quarter results since the financial crisis, fell 3.8%. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. lost more than 3% apiece, weighing on the Dow industrials.</p>
<p>The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against a basket of 16 others, tumbled more than 1% to a one-month low after Mr. Trump described the currency as "too strong" in an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>Government bonds climbed, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note falling to 2.327%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.380% on Friday. Earlier, the yield had fallen to 2.307% -- its lowest intraday level since Nov. 29. Yields fall as bond prices rise.</p>
<p>Some investors and analysts attributed the day's action to nervousness just days ahead of the presidential inauguration, following steep moves after the November election.</p>
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<p>"We had this period of time where we rallied on potential policies, but now the market is looking for what actually comes in," said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 59 points, or 0.3%, to 19827. The S&amp;P 500 declined 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.6%.</p>
<p>Haven assets gained. Gold for January delivery gained 1.4% to $1,212.00 an ounce, its highest settlement since Nov. 17. Shares of dividend-paying stocks, which also tend to benefit when investors are seeking safety, rose in the S&amp;P 500, with the utilities sector up 1.2%.</p>
<p>In Europe, stocks pared earlier declines and the British pound charged back from a 31-year low after Prime Minister Theresa May gave more details about her plans to take the U.K. out of the European Union.</p>
<p>The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2%, and the British pound rose 2.9% against the dollar to $1.2395.</p>
<p>While Mrs. May said in her speech that the U.K. intends to leave the European Union's single market, "the most negative aspects of her speech were already out there, and everything else was pretty levelheaded in tone," said Stephen Gallo, strategist at BMO Capital Markets.</p>
<p>Earlier, a stronger yen weighed on stocks in Japan, sending the Nikkei Stock Average down 1.5% in its biggest drop this year. The Shanghai Composite recovered from early losses to rise 0.2%, ending a five-day losing streak, while the Hang Seng Index added 0.5%.</p> | Financial Sector Leads Declines on Wall Street | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/17/financial-sector-leads-declines-on-wall-street.html | 2017-01-17 | 0 |
<p>BENI SNOUS, Algeria (AP) — New Year’s celebrations come in all shapes and sizes.</p>
<p>With animal hide costumes and banging drums, the western Algerian town of Beni Snous has noisily celebrated the new year — and an ancient military victory over the pharaoh — with a traditional Berber Ayred festival.</p>
<p>Young men wear lion masks, drape themselves in hides and parade from door to door to the beat of drums during the Ayred, which means “lion” in the Berber language. They gather food and other items to distribute later to the poor, and residents sing along their journey.</p>
<p>The three-day festival that started Thursday also commemorates the victory of a Berber king over the Egyptian pharaoh in 950 BC.</p>
<p>BENI SNOUS, Algeria (AP) — New Year’s celebrations come in all shapes and sizes.</p>
<p>With animal hide costumes and banging drums, the western Algerian town of Beni Snous has noisily celebrated the new year — and an ancient military victory over the pharaoh — with a traditional Berber Ayred festival.</p>
<p>Young men wear lion masks, drape themselves in hides and parade from door to door to the beat of drums during the Ayred, which means “lion” in the Berber language. They gather food and other items to distribute later to the poor, and residents sing along their journey.</p>
<p>The three-day festival that started Thursday also commemorates the victory of a Berber king over the Egyptian pharaoh in 950 BC.</p> | AP PHOTOS: Wild costumes, drums mark Algerian New Year fest | false | https://apnews.com/4346e87ea2ee481fb9faeed104043d42 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>Telling the story of Syrians inside many of the country's key cities is close to impossible these days. Few journalists dare to venture into beseiged towns like the northern city of Aleppo.&#160;</p>
<p>But Syrian-British journalist and activist Rami Jarrah, who works with the citizen media project ANA Press, recently spent several weeks in Aleppo. He describes two Aleppo residents he met. The first is a part-time fighter and parent who gave her name as 'Um Abdo' or 'mother of Abdo' — the name of her oldest son.&#160;</p>
<p>"Um Abdo is basically a widow&#160;to a man who would fight in the Free Syrian Army,"&#160;Jarrah says. "She explained to me that she used to always beg him not to go out and fight. &#160;And then at one time he grabbed her and shook her when she was telling him he couldn't leave and said, 'I have to do this. We have to do this for the family.'</p>
<p>"One day her husband didn't come back. And she was left to take care of the children. And she then understood once he was gone why he was doing this ... So she joined a group and began fighting against the regime ... She was able in the morning to take her children to one of the local schools that was in a banged up flat, and then she would go on a bus and head to the northern areas of Aleppo to fight on the fronts against ISIS."</p>
<p>Jarrah also met an elderly Aleppo resident who gave his name as 'Duraid.' He'd spent 20 years in jail as a political prisoner. Duraid was freed after the Syrian uprising began four years ago. But he was unable to find any members of his family still living in Aleppo.</p>
<p>"I began taking pictures of him and he said to me, 'Why are you taking these pictures?' I said to him, 'I want to show this to everyone else in the world, I want people to see this,'" Jarrah says.</p>
<p>"And he said, 'Be careful that you show it to the right people. Because there are many people that hate us, and whatever you give them they'll use against us.' When I posted this picture there was this young lady from Spain who actually contacted me, and she said she was very moved by his story, and she asked me if I could get a letter to him.</p>
<p>"So she wrote this letter to me and what this letter said was, 'You're not on your own in this world, there is someone on the other side of the world who cares for you, and is praying that God keeps you safe.' Her name was Fabiola. So I took this letter and I wrote it on a piece of paper myself in Arabic and in English, and I went back to this man's house, and I told him, 'I know this isn't much, but this is a letter that someone asked me to give you.'</p>
<p>Jarrah says when Duraid read the letter, the man began to weep.</p>
<p>Then Duraid said to Jarrah, 'Tell Fabiola I know that there are good people out there.'</p>
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<p>An Aleppo resident known as 'Duraid.'</p>
<p>Rami Jarrah</p>
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<p>An Aleppo resident known as 'Duraid,' reading a letter of support from a European who heard his story.</p>
<p>Rami Jarrah</p> | Here are some of the faces behind the siege of Aleppo | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-02-04/here-are-some-faces-behind-siege-aleppo | 2016-02-04 | 3 |
<p>Illustration By: Tim Bower</p>
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<p>In 1992, Stanford University censured a law student named Keith Rabois for shouting at a university lecturer, in front of the man’s house, “Faggot! Faggot! Hope you die of aids.” The incident became a cause célèbre for the group of students who, a few years earlier, had founded the proudly right-wing Stanford Review. Having bonded as a conservative shock troop in the culture wars, many of them would go on to cofound the company that became PayPal, where employees often kept Bibles in their cubicles and held workplace prayer sessions. “That was a little unique for Silicon Valley,” notes Rod Martin, a Southern Baptist who was a top lawyer at PayPal. “But that was exactly the way they would want it to be.”</p>
<p>PayPal staffers dreamed big: They hoped to establish an alternative electronic currency to bypass national fiscal policies, in much the same way a previous generation of conservatives had advocated reviving the gold standard. But that vision was stymied after PayPal was sold to eBay, and its group of believers dispersed across the think-tank and media landscapes. Cofounder Peter Thiel joined the board of the Hoover Institution, another exec became a research fellow at the conservative Independent Institute and was a producer of last year’s Hollywood hit Thank You for Smoking, while a third launched a conservative publishing company.</p>
<p>All that, though, felt a little old media, and as Martin and his cohorts watched the success of <a href="http://moveon.org/" type="external">MoveOn.org</a>, founded in 1998 by fellow techies just up the freeway in Berkeley, they grew jealous. “Nobody on the conservative side was doing anything like it,” says Martin, who left PayPal in 2002 and became a full-time activist in 2004. “There were several of us who just looked at each other one day and said, ‘You know, somebody needs to do this, and I guess we’re it.'” Their answer to MoveOn is slated to debut this summer under the name <a href="http://thevanguard.org/" type="external">TheVanguard.org</a>, a wry riff on Vladimir Lenin’s description of the Communist Party.</p>
<p>Martin acknowledges that TheVanguard faces a tough road ahead. The only existing conservative organization vaguely resembling MoveOn, <a href="http://rightmarch.com/" type="external">RightMarch.com</a>, counts 1 million members compared with its rival’s 3.3 million, and its activities are largely limited to emailing elected officials. Conservatives are just too busy to participate in MoveOn-style virtual town halls, social networks, and marches on Washington, says RightMarch founder Bill Greene: “Most of them are just hardworking, everyday patriotic Americans that have families and kids and dogs and cats and jobs.”</p>
<p>Ever since <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" type="external">YouTube</a> sold out to “those evil guys at Google,” says Charlie Gerow, conservatives such as himself have been convinced the site’s managers have a clear liberal bent, plugging anti-Bush spoofs on the home page and occasionally pulling conservative videos, such as pundit Michelle Malkin’s anti-Muslim “First They Came.” (Even the New York Times faulted the site for a “slippery slope of censorship”; YouTube denies any bias.) But YouTube’s outcasts are now Gerow’s insurgents: In March he launched <a href="http://www.qubetv.tv/" type="external">QubeTV</a>, a video-sharing site for the “conservative army with cameras.”</p>
<p>More than 100,000 people visit QubeTV daily for user-generated videos such as “Redneck Judge” (a Bud-swilling peta foe), clips of Ronald Reagan, grainy posts from Newt Gingrich, and slick fare from the Heritage Foundation. Short of nudity and death threats, almost anything goes. “If you have a better mousetrap,” Gerow says, “they will beat a path to your door.” (That’s the hope, at least. In May, <a href="http://www.ourcountry.com/" type="external">OURcountry</a>, a conservative video site put together by the creator of George Bush Sr.’s infamous Willie Horton ad, Floyd Brown, suddenly went offline.)</p>
<p>Not everyone is thrilled with the idea of a conservative haven on the Net. “I don’t think we need to be building gardens and digging moats,” says <a href="/interview/2007/07/david_all.html" type="external">David All</a>, a Republican online political consultant who’d rather see conservatives influence YouTube from within. “I think we need to plop right down among the group of people singing ‘Kumbaya’ and tell them why they’re wrong.”</p>
<p>—Josh Harkinson</p>
<p>Martin believes he can leapfrog MoveOn by outfitting TheVanguard with the latest online video and social-networking tools. Mobilizing such virtual communities for real-world activism “is really the Holy Grail for everybody,” he says. So far, TheVanguard’s achievements have been more modest: an email list of 100,000, online fundraising (via PayPal, of course), and a beta site that includes blogs and a connection to a Vanguard interest group on LinkedIn, a career-networking site founded by yet another former PayPal exec. The operation’s board members include ex-Apple ceo Gil Amelio, antitax lobbyist Grover Norquist, and Marvin Olasky, the Bush adviser credited with mainstreaming the term “compassionate conservative”; its 10 staffers are led by Jerome Corsi, coauthor of the anti-John Kerry book Unfit for Command, and, until recently, Richard Poe, a former editor of the conservative magazine Front Page.</p>
<p>Martin believes TheVanguard’s platform (flat tax, missile defense, and Social Security privatization) will galvanize a conservative consensus he believes remains strong beneath a fracturing gop coalition. Beyond the presidential campaign, he aims to target members of Congress considered rinos (Republicans In Name Only), seeking to pull the gop rightward just as MoveOn, in his view, has pushed the Democrats to the left.</p>
<p>To skeptics, though, the PayPal crew is the right-wing equivalent of Lower East Side communists. “None of those guys are relevant,” says a prominent Republican consultant who asks not to be named. And MoveOn Executive Director <a href="/interview/2007/07/eli_pariser.html" type="external">Eli Pariser</a>, who lurks on TheVanguard’s email list, says the operation looks too top-down to work on the Net: “TheVanguard folks are spending a lot of time thinking about what they want,” he notes, “and then figuring out how to spin it to their members.” Martin insists, though, that command and control will yield to collaboration once conservatives finally catch on. “It’s going to be a wonderful thing,” he insists, “and it’s going to be good for everybody.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="/interview/2007/07/glenn_reynolds.html" type="external">glenn reynolds</a> Republicans had a better machine using the last generation of new media such as direct mail and email, but I think they have been behind the curve on using the Internet for fundraising and campaigning. Until the Republicans get someone like <a href="/interview/2007/07/joe_trippi.html" type="external">Joe Trippi</a>, someone who really understands the Internet, I don’t think they will change.</p>
<p><a href="/interview/2007/07/david_all.html" type="external">David All</a> We have nothing on the right that compares to MoveOn. The rnc has never called me. They don’t call any of the tech and politics crowd. They’re just going it alone, which is fine if you want to continue to be a failure. We’ve never needed the Internet before. When talk radio emerged in ’94, it was a very taboo thing, and it wasn’t until Newt Gingrich brought talk radio hosts into the Capitol that people started to engage talk radio. Now there’s an entire strategy focused on it. The White House has a talk radio person, the rnc does, and it’s seen as an effective medium. But the Internet—we haven’t needed to run around the mainstream media like we do now.</p>
<p><a href="/interview/2007/07/joe_trippi.html" type="external">Joe Trippi</a> Real innovation is going to come from the dark-horse campaigns and the progressive campaigns. The establishment front-runner is not likely to do that.</p>
<p>grover norquist <a href="http://www.atr.org/" type="external">americans for tax reform president</a> Getting people all exercised in writing naughty emails, naughty words, and sending them to congressmen may make you feel better, but does it change the world?</p>
<p><a href="/interview/2007/07/peter_leyden.html" type="external">Peter Leyden</a> All the things that have been seen as liabilities to the Democrats—you can never get them to all agree, there’s diverse voices, everybody has something to say—in the new politics, this is completely the way it all works. There’s no question the progressive movement and the Democratic Party are much more strategically positioned to exploit the new environment. I think we’re in the beginning of another era of progressive politics.</p>
<p>A brief glossary of open-source politics lingo:</p>
<p>broadcast politics: using elite white male journalists and pundits to get your message out; see participatory politics</p>
<p>constituent relationship management: treating potential voters the way companies treat their customers</p>
<p>crowdsourcing: relying on total strangers to do your most important work for free</p>
<p>going viral: spreading the word at the speed of bird flu</p>
<p>long tail of politics: read the book, but still not really sure</p>
<p>meatspace: real life, where politics used to get done (vegan Dennis Kucinich would prefer “beetspace”)</p>
<p>micropandering: throwing tiny bones to every segment of the population</p>
<p>mociology: the sociology of mobile-phone use</p>
<p>netroots: Internet + grassroots</p>
<p>participatory politics: using elite white male bloggers and techies to get your message out</p>
<p>purple strategy: creating consensus between red and blue; every political blogger’s worst nightmare</p>
<p>socnets: social networks</p>
<p>spokesblogger: a campaign’s official online message person, until her personal beliefs are uncovered</p>
<p>virtual war room: the sound of 10,000 mouses clicking</p>
<p><a href="/interview/2007/07/michael_cornfield.html" type="external">Michael Cornfield</a> There’s no doubt that right now the vigor in online political communication and especially online political mobilization is on the left. But does that mean that it’s gonna stay that way? No, it doesn’t.</p>
<p>floyd brown <a href="http://www.citizensunited.org/" type="external">citizens united</a> For years, the elites in Washington have used the Federal Election Commission as a tool to minimize citizen participation. The Internet is allowing people to bypass that control. It also lets you have almost instant advertising. The first political ad that I did cost over $100,000. Today, somebody with a little bit of technical skill could make a similar ad for almost free.</p>
<p>michael turk When talk radio started, for Republicans it really was the interactive medium. But what it didn’t allow was the ability to coordinate or mobilize off the air. The Internet allows people to talk about problems and then collaborate on how to solve them. Talk radio gives you the ability to talk about problems, but not to solve them.</p>
<p>Outfoxed director Robert Greenwald has demonstrated the power of the netroots to fund and promote political documentaries on the left. Now David Bossie—the Whitewater in-vestigator fired for doctoring evidence to make the Clintons look bad—and ex-Clintonite Dick Morris are hoping to do the same for the right. The pair is using the conservative website Citizens United to raise funds for an anti-Hillary film to be released in theaters just before the primaries, with excerpts pushed out online. “We look at Hillary as the odds-on nominee,” Bossie says. “She’s the most dangerous and the most effective” of the Democratic contenders.</p>
<p>“To be perfectly honest, the way the numbers are looking, and the war, it’s going to be very difficult for a Republican to win, whoever the Democratic nominee is,” he adds. “That being said, I’ll do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”</p>
<p>—Leslie Savan</p>
<p />
<p><a href="/news/feature/2007/07/meet_the_new_bosses.html" type="external">Meet the New Bosses</a> &lt;&lt; <a href="/news/feature/2007/07/fight_different.html" type="external">Politics 2.0 Index</a> &gt;&gt; <a href="/news/feature/2007/07/attack_ads_second_life.html" type="external">The Attack Ad’s Second Life</a></p>
<p /> | Masters of Their Domain | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/06/masters-their-domain-2/ | 2007-06-20 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ROSWELL, Ga. - Authorities say two suspects in a drug store burglary chose one of the worst possible places to make their getaway: the police station.</p>
<p>Police say the men ran from the business, ending up at the back gate of the Roswell police station.</p>
<p>Roswell police say an officer on patrol heard an alarm coming from the Wender and Roberts Pharmacy around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.</p>
<p>Police say the officer spotted three men wearing masks and gloves run from the business. One was taken into custody, but two others fled.</p>
<p>Authorities say a police dog tracked the two fleeing suspects to the rear gate of the Roswell Police Department, where both were apprehended.</p>
<p>The suspects' names weren't released.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Burglary suspects make poor getaway: police station | false | https://abqjournal.com/645145/burglary-suspects-make-poor-getaway-police-station.html | 2 |
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<p>Appearing Monday on CNN’s Starting Point, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was quizzed by host Soledad O’Brien about his previous comment regarding the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi. Giuliani said that the White House’s reaction and explanation to the attack constituted a “cover up.”</p>
<p>O’Brien referenced a comment by former chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, Matthew Dowd, that it could take a while to determine what actually happened in Libya, as it had in determining if there were weapons of mass destruction in the region.</p>
<p>“So we’re going to blame this on Bush, too?” Giuliani asked.</p>
<p>See the heated discussion between Giuliani and O’Brien here:</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Giuliani battles Soledad O’Brien over ‘cover up’ comment | true | http://bizpacreview.com/giuliani-battles-soledad-obrien-over-cover-up-comment/ | 2012-10-22 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will not seek to harmonise its regulations with the European Union after leaving the bloc, but will aim instead for “outcome equivalence”, Brexit minister David Davis said on Wednesday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis arrives in Downing Street in London, January 16, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>“There’s undoubtedly an impetus among some continental countries and on the part of the Commission to try to trade off regulatory freedom against market access,” Davis told a parliamentary committee.</p>
<p>“Our strategy for dealing with that is to say we will seek outcome equivalence in some areas, but not harmonisation - otherwise if you have harmonisation you might just as well have stayed in.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James. Editing by Andrew MacAskill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed on Monday to a transition period to avoid a “cliff edge” Brexit next year — though only after London accepted a potential solution for Northern Ireland’s land border that may face stiff opposition at home.</p>
<p>The pound surged on confirmation that Britain would remain effectively a non-voting EU member for 21 months until the end of 2020. Some business leaders, however, echoed a warning from EU negotiator Michel Barnier that the deal is legally binding only if London agrees the whole withdrawal treaty by next March.</p>
<p>That means solving outstanding issues, notably how to avoid a “hard border” that could disrupt peace in Northern Ireland. Britain says an EU-UK free trade deal to be sealed by 2021 can do that. But Dublin insists the Brexit treaty must lock in a “backstop” arrangement in case that future pact does not work.</p>
<p>Both sides are committed to keeping a free flow of people and goods over the intra-Irish border without returning to checkpoints, as during the three decades of violence in Northern Ireland. However, finding a practical solution for any customs checks needed post-Brexit has proved elusive so far.</p>
<p>The dispute with Ireland had threatened to derail May’s hopes of a formal political endorsement of the transition deal by EU leaders when they meet in Brussels on Friday. A weekend of intensive talks, however, has broken the deadlock — for now.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Theresa May, who relies on pro-British Northern Ireland members of parliament to pass her Brexit legislation, had rejected a fallback proposed by Brussels three weeks ago. She said an EU offer to keep Northern Ireland under EU trade rules would isolate the province from the mainland.</p>
<p>However, her Brexit Secretary David Davis, in Brussels, has now signed up to following similar principles as negotiators resume work to find an “operational” compromise. Dublin said it was happy to accept as it bound London in to not “backsliding” on pledges May had made on the issue in December..</p>
<p>“We agree on the need to include legal text detailing the ‘backstop’ solution for the border,” Davis told a news conference with Barnier. “But it remains our intention to achieve a partnership that is so close as to not require specific measures in relation to Northern Ireland.”</p>
<p>The question will remain as to whether negotiations on the future trade partnership between Britain and the EU, which are expected to start only next month after EU leaders endorse Barnier’s negotiating guidelines on Friday, can produce results — and quickly enough to avoid having language in the withdrawal treaty that Britain, and May’s Belfast allies, cannot accept.</p>
<p>Her Democratic Unionist Party allies said the “announcement” did not concern them as it left the border issue unresolved.</p>
<p>Longer term, the transition deal may buy people time but business still faces a “cliff edge” of uncertainty come 2021.</p> Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis and European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier address a joint news conference in Brussels, Belgium March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir “DECISIVE DAY”
<p>Davis agreed with Barnier that Monday’s agreement was “decisive” and increased the odds on finding an orderly deal to avoid Europe’s second biggest economy simply crashing out of the bloc in just over a year. He hailed the certainty that the deals on the transition and other issues, including rights for expatriate citizens, would offer businesses and individuals.</p>
<p>However, Barnier warned: “A decisive step remains a step; we are not at the end of the road and there still remains a lot of work to be done, including on Ireland and Northern Ireland.”</p>
<p>The two sides issued a new, 129-page draft withdrawal treaty that was awash with green highlighter denoting final agreement on large areas of the legal text, including transition. Diplomats put the level of “green” agreement at over 80 percent.</p>
<p>The pound rose as much as one percent against the dollar to $1.4088 <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=GBP&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">GBP=D3</a>, its strongest since Feb. 16.</p> Slideshow (8 Images) TRADE BENEFITS
<p>Davis, who unlike May campaigned for Brexit, said he was pleased with EU agreement to let Britain negotiate and sign trade deals with other countries while remaining covered by EU common trade policy during the transition. Those deals would then take effect once Britain was free to do so in 2021.</p>
<p>He also welcomed wording that gives Britain some say in EU policy during the transition, notably on fishing quotas, and an ability to refuse to implement things it did not agree with — some of his Conservative party allies have complained that the transition deal would leave Britain a “vassal state” of the EU.</p>
<p>The Leave Means Leave campaign accused him of “caving in” on the Irish border. Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage said “Theresa the Appeaser” had “let people down again” by agreeing to EU demands to keep free immigration during the transition.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/uk-britain-eu-barnier/eus-barnier-sees-most-difficult-brexit-issues-to-come-at-the-end-of-talks-idUSKBN1GW2F1" type="external">EU's Barnier sees most difficult Brexit issues to come at the end of talks</a>
<a href="/article/uk-germany-ireland/merkel-pleased-about-brexit-transition-deal-but-says-many-problems-remain-idUSKBN1GW1M2" type="external">Merkel pleased about Brexit transition deal but says many problems remain</a>
<a href="/article/uk-britain-eu-businesses/eu-firms-scale-back-presence-in-uk-as-brexit-nears-survey-idUSKBN1GW00K" type="external">EU firms scale back presence in UK as Brexit nears - survey</a>
<p>More troublingly for May’s prospects of steering the treaty through parliament, her own party’s leader in Scotland, fierce Brexit critic Ruth Davidson, said the transition was a bad deal — for letting the EU retain power over British fishing grounds.</p>
<p>The EU secured agreement that Britain would offer residence rights to EU citizens who arrive after Brexit but before 2021. However, Britain also notched some gains it had pushed for.</p>
<p>The 27 other EU member states have remained closely aligned, though they have differing interests which diplomats say are starting to emerge in discussions about future trade. All have backed Irish demands on the border, although some of Britain’s nearest neighbours, with most trade to lose from Brexit, also pushed for a quick transition deal to help their own businesses.</p>
<p>But many EU diplomats said they felt London had largely agreed to their terms on most issues because of May’s political imperative to get a transition deal that may calm the fears of businesses contemplating moving investments out of Britain.</p>
<p>One EU diplomat said: “The Brits have just given in on everything, so big was their drive to get the transition.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper in London, Phillip Blenkinsop, Samantha Koester and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels, Conor Humphries in Dublin and Jan StrupczewskiWriting by Alastair Macdonald; editing by David Stamp, William Maclean</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A legal attempt by anti-Brexit campaigners to establish that Britain could unilaterally reverse Brexit was given a boost on Tuesday by Scotland’s top court, which said it wants to examine the case in greater depth.</p> Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave EU and Union flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville - RC1A41866470
<p>The group behind the legal challenge, who include pro-EU Scottish lawmakers, want to show that Britain could stay in the European Union after all — if, for example, the final terms of Brexit negotiated by the government were rejected by parliament.</p>
<p>The campaigners are ultimately seeking a formal opinion by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) asserting that Britain could reverse its decision to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, the formal step that kickstarted the Brexit process.</p>
<p>They argue that once the terms of Brexit have been negotiated, Britain’s sovereign parliament may well decide not to go ahead with it, so lawmakers need to know in advance if that is legally possible.</p>
<p>As things stand, there is no suggestion of a change of course over Brexit, which British voters backed by 52 to 48 percent in a June 2016 referendum. The ruling Conservative Party and main opposition Labour Party are both committed to Britain leaving the European Union.</p>
<p>The legal case, headed by anti-Brexit campaigning lawyer Jolyon Maugham, had been rejected by a lower Scottish court.</p>
<p>The British government argued that the question of whether Britain could unilaterally stop Brexit was irrelevant because the will of the voters was clear and the government was not going to back out of Brexit.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest court, overturned an earlier ruling, saying the case raised important issues and there should be a full hearing so all the arguments could be debated.</p>
<p>“The issue of whether it is legally possible to revoke the notice of withdrawal is, as already stated, one of great importance,” the Court of Session said, referring to the Article 50 process which started in March 2017.</p>
<p>“On one view, authoritative guidance on whether it is legally possible to do so may have the capacity to influence (lawmakers) in deciding what steps to take in advance of, and at the time of, a debate and vote on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.”</p>
<p>Once a full hearing has taken place in Edinburgh, a decision will be made on whether to refer it to the ECJ, the court said, although it may ultimately decide that it should not.</p>
<p>If the Scottish court decided not to refer to the ECJ, the petitioners can take their appeal to Britain’s Supreme Court.</p>
<p>They argue that while there is no doubt that Britain could stop Brexit with the permission of the other 27 members, it should seek to establish a legal right to do so unilaterally whether the rest of the bloc likes it or not.</p>
<p>Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary; Editing by Estelle Shirbon</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military formally acknowledged on Wednesday its destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, saying the air strike removed a major threat to Israel and the region and was a “message” to others.</p> FILE PHOTO- This undated image released by the U.S. Government shows a building after it was bombed in Syria. U.S. Government/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
<p>Wednesday’s announcement about “Operation Out of the Box” was made after Israeli military censors lifted a more than 10-year order that had barred Israeli officials from discussing it.</p>
<p>The Israeli military’s announcement was followed up by a release of newly declassified materials including photographs and cockpit video said to show the moment that an air strike destroyed the Al-Kubar facility in the desert near Deir-al-Zor, more than 480 km (300 miles) inside Syria.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-israel-syria-nuclear-warning/israel-tells-middle-east-to-heed-its-2007-strike-on-suspected-syria-reactor-idUSKBN1GX0DY" type="external">Israel tells Middle East to heed its 2007 strike on suspected Syria reactor</a>
<p>“The message from the attack on the nuclear reactor in 2007 is that the State of Israel will not allow the establishment of capabilities that threaten Israel’s existence,” the military chief, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizencot, said in the statement issued on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“This was our message in 2007, this remains our message today and will continue to be our message in the near and distant future.”</p>
<p>The timing of Israel’s decision to go public and justify the strike more than a decade ago comes after repeated calls in recent months by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States and international community to take tougher action on Syria’s ally, Iran.</p> An undated image released on March 21, 2018 by the Israeli military relates to an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Deir al-Zor on Sept 6, 2007. IDF/Handout via Reuters
<p>Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Israel will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon – “not now, not in 10 years, not ever” - or to build missile factories in Syria that could threaten Israel, or provide advanced weapons for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shi’ite group in Lebanon.</p>
<p>The Trump administration has also been locked in nuclear</p> Slideshow (12 Images)
<p>brinkmanship with North Korea - which the United States has previously said it believed supplied the Al-Kubar reactor.</p>
<p>The International Atomic Energy Agency has deemed it “very likely” that the site “was a nuclear reactor that should have been declared”.</p>
<p>Syria, a signatory of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has always denied that the site was a reactor or that Damascus engaged in nuclear cooperation with North Korea.</p>
<p>Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.</p>
<p>Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the materials released by the Israeli military on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned on Tuesday by police investigating whether late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign.</p>
<p>An official in the French judiciary said Sarkozy, 63, was held in custody in Nanterre, west of Paris.</p>
<p>It is the second major judicial investigation to fall on Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007-2012. He already faces trial on separate charges of illicit spending overruns during his failed re-election campaign in 2012.</p>
<p>A lawyer for Sarkozy could not immediately be reached for comment. The former president has dismissed the Libya allegations as “grotesque” and a “crude manipulation”.</p>
<p>France’s center-right party, The Republicans, backed its former leader. “Members and supporters of The Republicans are once again left feeling that not all lawmakers or former lawmakers are treated equally, depending on their political affiliation,” the party said in a statement.</p>
<p>France opened an inquiry into the Libya case in 2013, after reports by French website Mediapart based on claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who said he had transferred 5 million euros ($6 million) from Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi to Sarkozy’s campaign chief.</p>
<p>Months after he took office in 2007, Sarkozy became the first Western leader in decades to host a visit by Gaddafi, who pitched his trademark Bedouin-style tent next to the Elysee Palace. Several business deals were signed.</p>
<p>However, Sarkozy was later one of the chief advocates of a NATO-led military campaign that resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow and killing at the hands of rebel forces in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: Nicolas Sarkozy, former head of the Les Republicains political party, attends a Les Republicains (LR) public meeting in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, October 1, 2016. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo CAMPAIGN FINANCES
<p>Investigators in France can hold people for questioning for up to 48 hours before either releasing them or sending them before magistrates who decide whether they have grounds for turning a preliminary inquiry into a full investigation.</p>
<p>The latter can, but does not always, lead to a trial.</p>
<p>The Libya-funding inquiry appeared to have gone quiet until January, when French businessman Alexandre Djouhri, suspected by investigators of funneling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s campaign, was arrested in Britain on a warrant issued by France.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>A lawyer for Djouhri last month accused French authorities of politicizing the case and manipulating it against his client. French authorities had no comment.</p>
<p>Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was convicted in 2011, after his retirement, of misusing public funds to keep political allies in phantom jobs. That made the now ailing Chirac the first French head of state convicted since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain in 1945.</p>
<p>Sarkozy has been dogged for years by political scandals, but none has led to a conviction.</p>
<p>The Libya inquiry has largely focused on the evidence provided by Takieddine, who is himself under investigation in a separate affair of arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s.</p>
<p>Takieddine said in 2016 that he personally handed over three suitcases filled with cash from Gaddafi to Sarkozy and a senior aide to help finance Sarkozy’s campaign.</p>
<p>Sarkozy’s lawyer at the time, Thierry Herzog, dismissed Takieddine’s claims and produced a copy of a witness statement to police by Takieddine in 2012 in which the businessman said he had last seen Sarkozy in November 2003.</p>
<p>Reporting by Paris bureau; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Luke Baker, Richard Lough and Peter Graff</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Britain seeking equivalence with EU regulation, not harmonisation: minister UK wins Brexit transition deal in return for Irish vow Court rules in favour of case on Britain's ability to reverse Brexit Israel formally acknowledges destroying suspected Syrian reactor in 2007 Former French president Sarkozy held over Gaddafi cash inquiry | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-davis/britain-seeking-equivalence-with-eu-regulation-not-harmonisation-minister-idUSKBN1FD11B | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is looking for a reset in the contentious relationship the Trump administration has had with CNN.</p>
<p>Scaramucci was caught on a hot mic between appearances on the Sunday talk shows explaining that he called on&#160;CNN’s&#160;Sara Murray&#160;at his first press briefing on Friday to “send a message” to network president Jeff Zucker.</p>
<p>That message being that “we are back in business,” according to transcripts of the comments caught on the open mic <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/stevenperlberg/anthony-scaramucci-on-hot-mic-i-called-on-cnn-to-send-a?utm_term=.uiAvWZ1Ek#.ncywXV0n3" type="external">obtained by BuzzFeed News</a>.</p>
<p>“In the back of my mind I have to call on CNN and send a message to Zucker that we are back in business,” Scaramucci reportedly said.</p>
<p>It would certainly behoove both parties to cease-fire in what has amounted to a blood feud.</p>
<p>Scarmucci said Zucker “helped me get the job by hitting those guys” — a reference to the three CNN employees who resigned after the network retracted an article saying Congress was investigating a Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.</p>
<p>The report&#160; <a href="" type="internal">mentioned Scaramucci</a>, who received an apology afterwards.</p>
<p>…of which, he accepted:</p>
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<p>Scaramucci joked Sunday that Zucker is “not getting a placement fee for getting me the job.”</p>
<p>Scaramucci spoke with BuzzFeed Sunday night, saying he is looking to tone down the animosity with CNN and hopefully change the network’s mostly negative coverage of the administration.</p>
<p>“I’m trying to deescalate the tension across the entire media spectrum,” Scaramucci offered. “Breitbart would be on the right and CNN would be on the left. I intentionally sought out both to send a symbolic message that we are trying to deescalate.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Scaramucci caught on hot mic saying he wanted to send Zucker a message that ‘we’re back in business’ | true | http://bizpacreview.com/2017/07/24/scaramucci-caught-hot-mic-saying-wanted-send-zucker-message-back-business-517708 | 2017-07-24 | 0 |
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<p>New Mexico Symphonic Chorus baritone Stephen Lewis.</p>
<p>Haydn’s choral masterpiece is an oratorio celebrating the creation of the world based on the Bible, the Psalms and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” The New Mexico Philharmonic will join the chorus, with Roger Melone conducting.</p>
<p>The piece began gestating in 1795. An impresario handed Haydn a poem about the birth of the world; the composer gave the work to his librettist. Haydn composed the music from 1796 to 1798.</p>
<p>Structured in three parts, the oratorio first deals with the creation of light, of heaven and earth, of the sun and moon and of the land, water and plants. From there it moves to the creation of animals and of man and woman. The final part describes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden portrayed as an idealized love.</p>
<p>“When it talks about when God said, ‘Let there be light,’ the chorus almost whispers, and then on ‘light’ we sing it as loud as possible,” baritone Stephen Lewis said. “This was uncharacteristic of the time period.”</p>
<p>The dynamics presage the later Romantic style, Lewis added.</p>
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<p>“There’s almost a love duet between Adam and Eve,” he continued, “punctuated by little choral bits here and there.”</p>
<p>Soprano Hannah Stephens, tenor Gabriel Liboiron-Cohen and baritone Edmund Connolly are the soloists.</p>
<p>The composer penned the oratorio in German; the chorus will sing the English translation by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker.</p>
<p>Haydn wrote “the Creation” about 10 years before his death. In 1808, friends carried him into his last performance on an armchair. According to reports, the audience broke into spontaneous applause at the coming of “light” and Haydn weakly pointed upward and said, “Not from me —— everything comes from up there.”</p>
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<p /> | Symphonic Chorus, NM Philharmonic team up for Haydn’s ‘Creation’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/995298/symphonic-chorus-to-perform-creation.html | 2 |
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<p>A same-sex couple denied a marriage license filed a legal challenge in Santa Fe on Thursday – hours after Attorney General Gary King said state law doesn’t allow same-sex marriage but he thinks the law might be unconstitutional.</p>
<p>King, a Democrat seeking his party’s nomination for governor, weighed in on the question after being asked in March to review the Santa Fe city attorney’s opinion that New Mexico marriage laws do, in fact, allow same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The attorney general disagreed.</p>
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<p>“We conclude that gay marriage is not currently authorized under New Mexico’s statutory law,” says a summary of legal research provided by King’s office after his news conference in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>However, King also said, “We feel like there is a significant issue relating to our equal-protection clause and whether or not the statute would withstand constitutional scrutiny. …”</p>
<p>“I think the answer to that will come through the courts,” King told the news conference.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, King emphasized his support for gay marriage despite his legal interpretation that state law doesn’t allow it.</p>
<p>“Personally, I believe that it’s inappropriate for the state to prevent same-sex couples from sharing in the rights that opposite-sex couples have,” King said.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican who is expected to seek re-election next year, has voiced opposition to gay marriage, saying gay couples can access the same rights as married couples through court orders. Her office declined to comment on King’s actions Thursday.</p>
<p>Soon after King’s news conference, two gay men – Yon Hudson, 51, and Alex Hanna, 42 – went to the Santa Fe County Clerk’s Office, where they were denied a marriage license.</p>
<p>The couple’s lawyers, John Day and state Rep. Brian Egolf, immediately filed a legal challenge in state District Court.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Day said marriage equality is the “civil rights issue for this time.”</p>
<p>“Same-sex couples who love each other are trying to do the same things African-Americans tried to do 50 years ago and were stopped by outdated and (unjust) laws and so we’re trying to change that in a positive way,” Day said.</p>
<p>Asked about the effort to seek a same-sex marriage license despite legal hurdles, Hanna said, “New Mexico is ready, I think.”</p>
<p>The couple’s attorneys said the effort to get a marriage license hours after King’s statement on same-sex marriage was a coincidence.</p>
<p>The lawsuit filed on behalf of Hudson and Hanna on Thursday is not the first challenge to New Mexico’s marriage laws. Two other couples, Miriam Rand and Ona Porter, and Rose Griego and Kim Kiel, filed a joint lawsuit in state District Court in March against Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, arguing the denial of marriage rights under state law is unwarranted.</p>
<p>Toulouse Oliver has cited a 2004 letter by then-Attorney General Patricia Madrid in her office’s denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That caused many gay marriage supporters to look to an opinion requested from King’s office as a direction that could prompt county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.</p>
<p>King said he did not issue a formal legal opinion on same-sex marriage to prevent conflict with the pending lawsuits. Instead, he advised county clerks around the state to continue to restrict marriage licenses only to opposite-sex couples until a court overturns New Mexico law or the Legislature weighs in.</p>
<p>Santa Fe City Attorney Geno Zamora, who co-authored the city’s legal opinion maintaining gay marriage is permissible under state law, was critical of King.</p>
<p>“The attorney general had an opportunity to single-handedly protect the rights of all our citizens and didn’t,” Zamora said.</p>
<p>“I am always weary of statements that one opposes discrimination but is powerless to change it,” Zamora added. “Our duty as public officials is to stand up to discrimination regardless of the consequences.”</p>
<p>Following Zamora’s opinion that same-sex marriage was legal under current New Mexico law, the Santa Fe City Council adopted a resolution urging county clerks to begin to issue same-sex marriage licenses.</p>
<p>Santa Fe Mayor David Coss said, “My heart goes out to those who have seen their civil rights denied for another day.”</p>
<p>Rep. Bill McCamley, a Las Cruces Democrat who requested an attorney general’s opinion from King on same-sex marriage, said he hopes the courts act quickly after the Legislature failed earlier this year to get a bill to legalize gay marriage out of committee.</p>
<p>“The Legislature will probably not be dealing with this definitively in the near future, so the Supreme Court will probably be the place where this is decided,” McCamley said.</p>
<p>“My hope is whatever happens, they choose to act on this sooner than later,” he said. “And I hope they make the correct decision, which is to allow same-sex marriage. People in society want this.”</p>
<p>Legalization of same-sex marriage has repeatedly run into opposition from Republicans and Democrats in the New Mexico Legislature.</p>
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<p /> | AG: Gay marriage not allowed | false | https://abqjournal.com/207839/ag-gay-marriage-not-allowed-2.html | 2013-06-07 | 2 |
<p>Adolph Reed, Jr. is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in race and American politics.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />As the United States celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 this year, it also continues to mourn the death of young African Americans perpetrated by whites, like that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. Time and time again, such cases erupt, there are protests, funerals, inquiries, court cases. Then life goes back to normal until something else tragic happens and history repeats itself. Some historians have referred to this moment as the Emmett Till moment. Emmett Till was the 14-year-old black boy brutally beaten and murdered nearly 60 years ago today on August 28, 1955, in Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman. And only five days after Michael Brown was shot, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reviewed a report on the United States and found racial disparity and discrimination spanning across U.S. society, including the criminal justice system, housing, health care, and education.
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<p />So, today, to put Michael Brown's murder in its appropriate historical context, we are joined by Prof. Adolph Reed Jr. Prof. Reed teaches political science at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in race and Americans politics.
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<p />Prof Reed, thank you so much for joining us today.
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<p />ADOLPH REED JR., PROF. POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA: Oh, it's my pleasure as always. Thanks for having me.
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<p />PERIES: So can you put the murder of Michael Brown by white authorities in its historical context for us today?
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<p />REED: Well, yeah. I mean, as you mentioned the case of Emmett Till, from one perspective there's an unbroken pattern, right, like, a history of black Americans' lives not being valued by public authority or the police. That is, it's not so much killing as the killing with impunity which feeds more and more killing, right? I mean, you could argue that individual acts of killing unarmed civilians are the work of rogue policeman, but there's obviously more of a pattern here. So there's that.
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<p />The fact that police, really, since the--through most of the postwar era, if not earlier, have operated more like an occupying army in minority impoverished communities in urban areas in America than they have operated in terms of the mandate to serve and protect. And that's I think, the real context of this, right, this kind of stress policing and the sense that policemen, of whatever race, actually, can beat up and kill poor people of color with impunity, as I've said.
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<p />PERIES: Prof. Reed, Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, called this kind of violence against African Americans, mass incarceration of African Americans, another Jim Crow. Would you agree with that assessment?
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<p />REED: Well, no, I wouldn't. And it's kind of funny, because having read the book, she teases us with that analogy all the way through the book, and then toward the end says, well, actually, it isn't. Because it isn't, right? I mean, the Jim Crow order was the outgrowth of particular political and economic circumstances in the South was most immediately a product of the defeat of a populist insurgency that was also in some ways linked to a black political assertiveness that had grown ever since Emancipation. And in that sense the Jim Crow order was part of a counter-revolution against egalitarian and democratic strides that had been taken in the South since the end of the treasonous insurrection in 1865. The emergence of a mass incarceration, as Alexander herself acknowledges, arises from different circumstances and a different context that's quite specific to the post-segregation era.
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<p />PERIES: When you look at The Real News's coverage of Ferguson, time and time again you have young people speaking to the media, because they have an opportunity for the first time in a long time, talking about that voting, which most of the black leadership is calling for, that voting is the answer. Have a look at this clip.
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<p />~~~
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 1: I lost two nephews in one day.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 2: But look what we keep allowing to happen. We've allowed this to happen for hundreds--.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 1: I know we allowed it. We need to vote.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 2: Voting, voting is after the fact. Who are you voting for? We have to place ourselves in a position to be voted for,--
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 1: That's right.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 2: --voting for an individual that you think is in your best interests. I'd rather vote for you. I'd rather vote for you.
<p />
<p />~~~
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 3: They're going to give us justice, believe me. They're going to give it to us. But I learned something, that justice is something you can't ask for. Justice, you've got to take it.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 4: That's right.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 3: Justice is something you can't earn. I think we earned that.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 4: That's right.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 3: All the [incompr.] gave up on 400 years of justice. We should earn that.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED: Teach.
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 3: That's our justice.
<p />
<p />~~~
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<p />UNIDENTIFIED 5: You [incompr.] the past all the money. You could be putting the jobs in the community so we can work, we can be taxpaying citizens. I've got a job, but that ain't good enough. We all need jobs. We need ownership. We don't need leadership. We need ownership.
<p />
<p />~~~
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<p />REED: I understand very well the way young people perceive that at this point. And I think the way that they perceive it has a lot to do with the ways that older people perceive the stakes of politics and what politics is all about and the sort of cliches, like turning out to vote and other obligation to vote, people died for you to have the right to vote. I mean, on one level, I mean, they're absolutely correct, of course, that it's not really a matter of voting; it's what you have to vote for.
<p />
<p />At the same time, I think the debate about voting kind of misses the point, right? I mean, it's much more a matter of the stakes of public policy and how parties, political activists, those who put themselves forward as political spokespersons construe the stakes of politics, right? I mean, I mentioned in my initial comment that part of the context of this crazy pattern of killings that we've just seen--and I've seen two or three more since we talked last--is most profoundly a function of the militarization of police departments and governing strategies in cities that increasingly have focused over the last three decades on suppressing the impoverished indigenous populations to present something like Club Med tourist experiences--it's not true in Ferguson so much as St. Louis, but Club Med kind of tourist experiences for a relatively leisure class. And in this case, I mean, to the extent that public officials, whatever their color, or aspirants to public office, Democrat or Republican, share in this understanding that the purpose of politics, of public policy, is to protect the wealthy, basically, then styles of policing like this, right, that draw so much from the occupation of Iraq and elsewhere, are going to be the problem in American cities. And I think I mentioned [maybe once (?)] before that when I was a youngster, the first time I saw The Battle of Algiers, I was kind of struck at the movie, because I realized that--or it seemed to me that I lived much of that same experience as having largely grown up in big cities in black areas in the 1960s. I mean, we understood that the police were like an occupying army. I mean, the Black Panthers slogan to that effect at the time was highly resonant, and that's still the case.
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<p />PERIES: Prof. Reed, in another clip we have a young man talking about it's not about leadership--I think here he's referring to President Obama and Eric Holder--it's not about leadership, but it is about ownership. You know, there is this--almost a myth among African-American youngsters that if you would only own your business, if you'd be an entrepreneur, somehow your problems, these societal problems, are going to be resolved. While that is true to some extent, because African-Americans don't own the commanding heights of the economy and they don't make these kinds of decisions about the economy, they do see ownership as a liberating, emancipating moment. What do you think of that?
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<p />REED: Well, I think it's a tragic expression of the triumph of neoliberalism and the lack of real options that people have. I would also indict, frankly, that prosperity is my birthright kind of [Protestantism (?)], too, as being very insidious in this regard. I mean, it's really tragic and sad. I mean, and I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but how frequently one encounters that posture, right, the tendency to identify oneself as owning one's own business or wanting to own one's own business, which easily leads into fantasies about owning one's own business. And I think it speaks to the extent to which the ability to--or that it's no longer realistic for many people, of whatever age, frankly, but certainly people under 40, to aspire to a reasonable, stable job, like in the public sector, that does good for the society, or in the private sector, for that matter, to make something with a promise of economic security at a reasonable level and decent benefits, so that everything else is like fantasy life, frankly. And yeah, I mean, look, owning one's own business might do something for one person, if it even were possible, like, whatever owning the business is. But as an aspiration, I think that that really--and especially as an aspiration, that comes as a punchline behind a militant posture. I think that really is a testament to how badly progressive political vision has been defeated in America, and in minority inner cities in particular.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Professor, as someone who's studied the issue of racial discrimination and African-American history, if you had the year of this African-American president today, given the moment we are in, with the murder of a young African-American man in Ferguson, what would you be saying to him?
<p />
<p />REED: I think I would say to him that the most important thing is not to make these empty gestures like the Brother's Keeper program or comparatively genteel or oblique comments that are really, I mean, directed to shoring up the black bourgeois base, that the more important thing would be for him to stake out social democratic positions, to retract from his expansion of our regime of, our global regime of military interventionism and to draw a line in the dirt and to fight against the right, right, and to stop the attack on public schools and other public institutions. Right? I mean, that's what's causing or intensifying problems in minority communities. And, yes, of course, I mean, in the very short term, terminate the 1033 program and stop the militarization [incompr.] go farther than he's gone, frankly, on ending the drug war and the sentencing disparities. And, you know, I mean, that'd be a start, right? Oh, pardon me--and to terminate his final attack, right, on public housing, which I think Baltimore is a case where they've drawn the line in the dirt, where his administration has drawn the line in the dirt to wipe out the last bits of affordable, of low-income housing that's provided by the federal government.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Hopefully someone in his administration is listening to you. Thank you so much for joining us.
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<p />REED: My pleasure as always.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Will the Ferguson Resistance Fade into History? | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12295 | 2014-08-27 | 4 |
<p>More than a third of the U.S. population has health coverage through an insurer that either wants to make a huge acquisition or is about to be swallowed up in one.</p>
<p>Aetna laid out a plan on Friday to spend around $35 billion to buy the Medicare Advantage provider Humana Inc. That came a day after Centene Corp. and Health Net Inc. announced a smaller deal and a couple of weeks after Anthem Inc. went public with its offer of more than $47 billion for Cigna Corp.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The nation's biggest insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., also has kicked the tires on making an offer to Aetna Inc., according to The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>Health insurers routinely detail the earnings and savings they expect from these mega deals, but the impact on the average consumer can't be boiled down to crisp dollars and cents. Nevertheless, here are some answers to questions that may arise if your insurer becomes part of an acquisition.</p>
<p>Q: Will my premium go up?</p>
<p>A: Not necessarily. The cynic might argue that a bigger insurer will charge whatever it wants and not sweat losing a few customers because it has millions to spare and less competition.</p>
<p>However, insurance prices depend largely on the cost of health care locally, not how big an insurer gets nationally. Health care costs and the amount of competition an insurer faces can vary widely depending the market. Premiums could jump if the cost of care spikes where you live and big deals wipe out a few competitors.</p>
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<p>But an insurer also might reap some savings from combining with another company. Some of that might eventually trickle down to premiums.</p>
<p>So many variables affect pricing that it's hard to establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship with a mega deal.</p>
<p>Q: Will bigger insurers be able to clamp down on health care costs?</p>
<p>A: That also depends largely on each market.</p>
<p>In theory, a bigger insurer gains more negotiating muscle over care providers because it can exclude that doctor or hospital from its network and send patients elsewhere. But many of these health care providers also have been growing and gaining their own leverage.</p>
<p>Health care costs are still growing faster than the broader inflation rate, and the rising price of some prescription drugs is drawing concern.</p>
<p>Q: What will the consumer see from these big deals?</p>
<p>A: Better technology comes to mind.</p>
<p>Insurers are racing to develop better apps and other tools to help their customers buy coverage and health care because patients are being exposed more of the cost of care through rising deductibles and other health insurance expenses.</p>
<p>Companies also are using technology more to monitor and improve patient care. That means using tools that tell them if a patient is sticking with a prescription or keeping up with follow-up care.</p>
<p>A big deal would allow companies to combine the best technology from each company.</p>
<p>Q: When will consumers start seeing any impact from these deals?</p>
<p>A: At least a year from now. Insurers have already settled on their rates and other details of the coverage they want to offer staring in January.</p>
<p>These acquisitions still must be approved by shareholders, and regulators have to review them to make sure no company gains an unfair advantage in any market. In some cases — see Anthem and Cigna — the companies haven't even struck a deal yet.</p>
<p>After an acquisition closes, the companies then have to combine their businesses.</p> | Health insurance acquisition spree leaves heaps of uncertainty for consumers | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/03/health-insurance-acquisition-spree-leaves-heaps-uncertainty-for-consumers.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>GREENSBORO, N.C. — The nation’s most religious cities aren’t just in the Deep South or Utah — they’re found in the Mid-Atlantic, according to a recent <a href="http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/holy-hometowns?cm_mmc=MagURL-_-Dec2010-_-metrogrades-_-holytowns" type="external">ranking</a> by Men’s Health magazine.</p>
<p>Five of the 15 most religious cities in America are in North Carolina and Virginia, reports the lifestyle magazine in its December issue — including Greensboro, N.C., which ranked No. 2. The other cities are Charlotte, N.C. (9th), Raleigh, N.C. (13th), Durham, N.C. (14th) and Virginia Beach, Va. (15th).</p>
<p />
<p>Colorado Springs, Colo., the headquarters for a wide array of evangelical Christian organizations, ranked No. 1 in the list of 100 cities. Burlington, Vt., ranked least religious.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, Richmond, Va., home to the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board and the Christian charity ChildFund International, ranked 65th, below other cities often regarded as more secular — Washington (44th), Philadelphia (56th) and San Francisco (60th).</p>
<p>Men’s Health wrote that it ranked the cities based on the number of places of worship per capita, the total number of adherents and volunteers who support those groups, and the amount of money donated to religious organizations and spent on religious books. It drew its information from the U.S. Census, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yellowpages.com and Mediamark Research.</p>
<p>The pastor of Greensboro’s First Baptist Church said he wasn’t surprised his city placed 2nd in the rankings.</p>
<p>“I knew that giving to religious organizations was high here, based on an earlier study done a few years ago,” said Ken Massey, who has been pastor of the 1,900-member church for 14 years. “We have very strong benevolent ministries here, as well as two fine religiously-rooted colleges.&#160; We have long had a strong Jewish population, generating two families who made millions on textiles and real estate respectively.&#160; They built hospitals, libraries and many other benevolent enterprises, and even gave a major gift to build a YMCA downtown. And we have churches on every corner.”</p>
<p>Greensboro was the site of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in 2006 and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s annual general assembly in 1994.</p> | Mid-Atlantic cities ranked as among the most religious in United States | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/mid-atlanticcitiesrankedasamongthemostreligiousinunitedstates/ | 3 |
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<p>NEW YORK - Former President George W. Bush admitted today that his name doesn't exactly confer popularity.</p>
<p>Speaking at a Bush Presidential Center conference held at the New York Historical Society, Bush said the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 that are broadly referred to as the Bush tax cuts might fare better in public debate if they had someone else's name, according <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/10/news/economy/bush-speech/" type="external">video posted online</a> by CNNMoney.</p>
<p>"If they're called some other body's tax cuts, they're probably less likely to be raised," Bush said. Here is a video of his remarks:</p>
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<p>As President Obama prepares to defend the so-called Buffett rule, or progressive tax measures that would require high earners to pay taxes at effective rates similar to those paid by wage earners, Bush defended a signature legislation of his presidency.</p>
<p>"If you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you're really raising taxes on the job creators and if the goal is private sector growth, you've gotta recognize that the best way to create that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators,? Bush said.</p>
<p>"But if you raises taxes, you're taking money out of the pockets of consumers and it's important for policy makers to recognize that all the doubt about taxes causes capital to stay on the sidelines.</p>
<p>"Uncertainty means that capital, the fuel for private sector growth, simply won't move."</p>
<p>The Obama administration proposes allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for households earning more than $250,000.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaefer/2012/04/10/george-w-bush-i-wish-they-werent-called-the-bush-tax-cuts/2/" type="external">According to Forbes</a>, which was the media sponsor of today's conference, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year and have been the cause of investor worries.</p>
<p>Fears that the US will not have the revenue to make pay back bond holders could cause the yield on US Treasure notes to rise, according to Forbes, which noted that the current rate of 2 percent suggests that this has yet to take hold. &#160;</p> | Bush: I wish they weren't called the 'Bush Tax Cuts' (Video) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-10/bush-i-wish-they-werent-called-bush-tax-cuts-video | 2012-04-10 | 3 |
<p>Photo by Ron Cogswell | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>King’s revolutionary call to “get on the right side of world revolution” insists that we cannot separate the fight at home against white supremacy (and its legacy of slavery and Confederate generals) from resistance to US militarism wherever it is at work in the world today.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Challenging statues of Confederate generals</a>&#160;could become a way to begin the “revolution” that Martin Luther King, Jr. called for in his&#160; <a href="" type="internal">speech</a>&#160;at New York’s Riverside Church. The militarism of the Confederate generals, however, is best resisted today by criticizing it within King’s vision of a world resistance to US militarism.</p>
<p>2017 marks 50 years since King gave that address in 1967 on April 4. Maybe finally – after five decades and ten presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Donald Trump – U.S. peoples will begin a comprehensive challenge to their own militarized government, one that King named that day as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” King’s joining of resistance to U.S. white supremacy with resistance to U.S. wars abroad was a theme of his last year, between that Riverside Church speech and his assassination a year later to the very day, on April 4, 1968.</p>
<p>In his Riverside Church speech, “A Time to Break Silence,” King famously joined his Civil Rights movement to the movements against the Vietnam war. He called for U.S. unilateral ceasefire and withdrawal of its troops from Vietnam.</p>
<p>More comprehensively, though, King also challenged his hearers “to get on the right side of world revolution” – on the side of the world’s poor who were suffering and resisting European colonization and U.S. militarism worldwide.</p>
<p>This was a call to world solidarity with the “hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence,” as King put it. Although his view looked outward from the nation to the world, in that way King also discerned how US militarism routinely strengthens repressive white racism and deadly economic impoverishment at home.</p>
<p>As a high school student in Manhattan, Kansas, at Kansas State University, I heard and saw King during the last year of his life, when he was relentlessly emphasizing this need for US peoples to “get on the right side of world revolution.” I heard there the last speech he would give on a college campus before his assassination four months later. On that day,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">January 19, 1968</a>, King argued,</p>
<p>I submit to you today that we spend $500,000 for killing a Vietcong in Vietnam, and yet we spend only $53 a year for every person characterized as poverty-stricken in the so-called war on poverty.”</p>
<p>Here, succinctly, King exposed the impact of U.S. war abroad upon the struggles of working poor in the U.S.</p>
<p>Today King might pose the question this way: How does US spending on wars and weapons to kill one alleged terrorist in Syria (or one in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea or Yemen) compare to what we spend to empower one impoverished person in the U.S? Such a query becomes all the more important as military spending is even higher now. Obama laid the basis for a&#160; <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/USNuclearModernization" type="external">$1.25 trillion</a>&#160;nuclear weapons modernization plan for the next 30 years. Now, Trump has proposed a&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-budget-idUSKBN1661R2" type="external">$54 billion increase</a>&#160;in the military budget, and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">$1.4 billion</a>&#160;more for corporate and military contractors. The problem today is not simply one of more federal funding for the military than for anti-poverty programs. More problematic is that US corporations,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">so dependent upon defense industry spending</a>, now also take over aid programs for the poor, turning them into enterprises for the already rich instead of empowerment projects for the least well off. Thus in a militarist society, even increased funding for health care, housing and education – in the U.S. and abroad – often becomes&#160; <a href="" type="internal">a great swindle</a>&#160;by the US corporate warrior elite.</p>
<p>The pervasiveness of US militarism means that those heeding King’s revolutionary call cannot rest with only standing against Trump’s&#160; <a href="https://qz.com/933398/in-donald-trumps-america-first-budget-the-american-military-comes-first/" type="external">“America First” militarism</a>, as expressed toward Syria, North Korea, and Afghanistan. We must also oppose the liberal Democrats from whose imperial militarism Trumpian bombast has come.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">60 percent of Democrats</a>&#160;approved a military budget larger than Trump had requested. Almost all Democrats voted in the U.S. House and Senate for&#160; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-passes-sanctions-on-russia-iran-and-north-korea/" type="external">sanctions bills</a>&#160;against Russia, Iran and North Korea, thereby keeping military tensions alive. Anti-Trump “liberal” media also affirm U.S generals and their militarism. In fact the media frenzy about Trump allows greater respectability to settle upon Iraq and Afghanistan veterans like Generals John Kelly and H.R. McMaster now in Trump’s White House, or upon General James Mattis, the current Secretary of defense. They become the “intelligent and reasonable men,” writes&#160;Newsweek,&#160;who&#160;“ <a href="" type="internal">save the world from war – and stop the crazy</a>.”</p>
<p>Colonel Lawrence&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV9xhY1fngc" type="external">Wilkerson</a>&#160;is not so sure. Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2002 to 2005, Wilkerson reminds us that the military needs endless war. It professionalizes war, sometimes with patriotic bombast but usually with routine rationalizations. The generals’ wars and US militarism today, as in King’s day, guard a system of US global corporate interest, but now with an imperial structure of five to six global&#160; <a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Military-Departments/Unified-Combatant-Commands/" type="external">command structures</a>, with U.S. generals as overseers, like imperial “proconsuls” for every continent and with more than&#160; <a href="http://americanempireproject.com/base-nation/" type="external">800 U.S. bases</a>.</p>
<p>Let us grant that King would today join challenges to the Confederate statues commemorating Jim Crow and slavery of his own South’s history. But also, King clearly would have taken aim at the whole US militarist enterprise guarded and needed by US corporations and leaders today.</p>
<p>Just understanding slavery rightly should remind us that challenging the Confederate legacy is to challenge much more than the remembered racist brutality of the US South. The Confederates’ slavery was a system of&#160;world­-wide commerce. Slavery birthed an “ <a href="" type="internal">empire of cotton</a>.” Financiers from New Orleans to New York to London and and on every continent knew how to calculate and to maximize investment in black labor. The U.S. South marketed cotton to the world, carefully administering torture to slave labor in its cotton fields – fields violently expropriated from indigenous peoples ( <a href="" type="internal">Dunbar-Ortiz</a>). Historian Edward Baptist meticulously documents in his 2016 book,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism</a>,&#160;how&#160;the U.S. military violently cleared out indigenous lands and peoples to make way for slavery’s plantation infrastructure (68-9), and how then “the whipping machine that the enslavers built in the Southwestern slave labor camps enabled them to reshape the world (142).”</p>
<p>Less noted by Baptist is that even after slavery was formally abolished, blacks were re-subjugated in forms of labor such as convict-leasing, debt peonage, share-cropping and penitentiary work that to this day makes into “ <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/slaves-of-the-state" type="external">slaves of the state</a>” our disproportionately black and brown prison population. After the North won the Civil War it kept U.S. troops in the South during “Reconstruction” only long enough to ensure that the South’s elites could no longer rival it economically. Recall the South had become “the richest class of white people in the U.S., and perhaps the world” (Baptist 143). After the South’s defeat was assured, an expanding British and US imperial system across the 1890s to the 1920s made the US in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois in his&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Black Reconstruction in America (BRA)</a>&#160;“the cornerstone of that new imperialism which is subjecting the labor of yellow, brown and black peoples to the dictation of capitalism organized on a world basis” (631).</p>
<p>It was in this era of the 1890s to 1920s, as Reconstruction had ended and the USA’s imperialism expanded into Asia, the Middle East (West Asia), Africa and Latin America, that the Confederate statues rose-up in U.S. cities. By then many southern whites were falling in line with Northerners to join U.S. imperial wars for the nation’s economic interests. Du Bois observed in 1935, “Young southerners eagerly crowd West Point and Annapolis. The South is not interested in freedom for dark India. It has no sympathy with the oppressed of Africa or of Asia” ( <a href="" type="internal">BRA</a>,&#160;704). As Du Bois also intoned in&#160; <a href="http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/797" type="external">1959</a>, Blacks remained “color-caste serfs” because when the African slave trade ceased there arose a global “Colonial Imperialism.”</p>
<p>So now in Trump’s USA, challenging American Confederate statues means also to challenge and end U.S slavery’s vicious offspring, i.e. globally the U.S. military’s defense of the exploitation of&#160;world&#160;labor and poorer nations, and in the U.S. a militarization of police and prisons for black and brown peoples, as in today’s vicious and entrenched&#160; <a href="" type="internal">mass incarceration</a>.</p>
<p>To take down the Confederate statues – and more comprehensively to pull white supremacy out by its now globally tangled roots – will require ending what King at Riverside Church termed U.S. efforts “to maintain social stability for our investments” by “counter-revolutionary actions of American forces.” Today, among the major scenes of such counter-revolutionary U.S. actions are Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Korean peninsula, Honduras and Colombia.</p>
<p>Really to begin King’s revolution would mean resisting also the U.S. generals and our entire nation’s social and political addiction to militarism, which permeates our&#160; <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police-practices/police-militarization" type="external">policing</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-and-slave-labor-in-u-s-prisons/25376" type="external">prison</a>&#160;practices too. Our failure to mount this challenge will bring upon US peoples what former CIA analyst and historian Chalmers Johnson termed the “ <a href="" type="internal">nemesis</a>” of the world’s vengeance. Within the U.S. this will include also, Johnson writes, the already-ending U.S. republic, and the deeper entrenchment of more virulent white supremacy, authoritarian repression and economic impoverishment.</p>
<p>If there is a positive word here it emanates – as King knew well – from the truth that abroad and at home there are vigorous peoples’ movements to counter the imperial devastation of U.S. militarism. These movements persevere in spite of the U.S. military’s pervasive national and global reach. If there is any effective “resistance” on the US mainland it will not be motivated by just “ <a href="" type="internal">Trump-hate</a>” but by a comprehensive revulsion toward U.S. world military presence – to what the US Pentagon termed, during President Bill Clinton’s tenure, “full spectrum dominance.”</p>
<p>Surprising to some, it is precisely by building our&#160;world&#160;resistance to US militarism, that we also build justice, peace and democracy&#160;within&#160;the United States. King’s revolutionary call to “get on the right side of world revolution” insists that we cannot separate the fight at home against white supremacy (and its legacy of slavery and Confederate generals) from resistance to US militarism wherever it is at work in the world today.</p>
<p>The task here may seem daunting. Maybe it helps if we recall words emanating from a U.S. death row&#160; <a href="http://www.geocities.ws/liberonsmumia/interview.html" type="external">interview</a>&#160;in 1994, words from revolutionary journalist and activist&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>:</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires, the victor in the Cold War, the empire that devastated Iraq and all that. But what history really shows is that today’s empire is tomorrow’s ashes, that nothing lasts forever, that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.</p> | Finally, MLK Jr’s Revolution? Challenging Confederate Generals and US Generals Today | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/29/finally-mlk-jrs-revolution-challenging-confederate-generals-and-us-generals-today/ | 2017-08-29 | 4 |
<p>Russia and Ukraine struck a deal Thursday to end unrest in eastern Ukraine stoked by pro-Russian militants, Secretary of State John Kerry said.</p>
<p>The militants must refrain from violence, lay down their illegal weapons and return seized buildings to their rightful owners, Kerry said. In return, Ukraine agreed to offer amnesty to protesters who had not committed capital crimes.</p>
<p>Kerry called the agreement “a good day’s work,” but warned that the United States would impose further sanctions on Russia if it didn’t see progress soon.</p>
<p>“None of us leave here with the sense that the job is done because the words are on the paper,” he said.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed the outlines of the deal.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama told reporters at the White House that Ukraine had “gone out of its way” to promise protections for Russian speakers in southern and eastern Ukraine, including that they would be fully represented in government.</p>
<p>Obama, too, sounded a note of caution.</p>
<p>“I don’t think we can be sure of anything at this point,” he said. Considering Russia’s behavior, he said, “we have to be prepared to respond to what continue to be efforts of interference by the Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine.”</p>
<p>He said that U.S. military options are not on the table.</p>
<p>The agreement came after Kerry met in Geneva with Lavrov and their counterparts from Ukraine and the European Union. It was the first time the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers had met since the crisis erupted.</p>
<p>Pro-Russian militants have taken control of government buildings in cities throughout eastern Ukraine, and an estimated 40,000 Russian troops are staged along the Russian-Ukrainian border.</p>
<p>The tension in the east has escalated since late February, when Russian troops emerged from their barracks in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and gradually took control. The peninsula voted to secede, and Russia annexed it March 21.</p>
<p>Kerry also confirmed that Jews in one eastern Ukrainian city had been ordered to identify themselves as Jews. He said that extremism, racism and religious intolerance were unacceptable.</p>
<p>“In the year 2014, after all the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable and grotesque. It is beyond unacceptable,” he said.</p>
<p>Earlier Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said on a televised call-in program that Russian special forces are not stoking unrest in eastern Ukraine, directly contradicting claims by the United States and NATO.</p>
<p>He <a href="" type="internal">reserved the right to send Russian troops into the region</a>. He said that he hoped the Ukraine crisis would be resolved through political and diplomatic means.</p> | Russia and Ukraine Agree on Steps to End Crisis | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/russia-ukraine-agree-steps-end-crisis-n82916 | 2014-04-17 | 3 |
<p>Today's Global Hit takes us to school...in Kingston, Jamaica. This is a Global Hit, so you know there's going to be some music. But the students at the Alpha Boys School learn more than Dancehall Theory and Advanced Reggae. The World's Marco Werman explains.</p>
<p>In a country often called "the loudest island in the world," some people are louder than others. This is the sound of Jamaica today. The music is called dancehall. Usually it's a rapper backed by massive beats, supplied by a DJ on a turntable.</p> | A Jamaican orphanage turns out musicians | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-06-24/jamaican-orphanage-turns-out-musicians | 2008-06-24 | 3 |
<p>March 26, 2010</p>
<p>By K. LLOYD BILLINGSLEY</p>
<p>The current issue of The Atlantic features a letter from Delaine Eastin, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction. Her letter does not include any episodes from her tenure in that post, every bit as interesting as her current tangle.</p>
<p>Eastin, also a former member of the California Assembly, praises the Center for Nutrition in Schools at the University of California at Davis. She also champions the California School Garden Network with its garden-based curriculum.” In a recent issue of the The Atlantic, California author Caitlin Flanagan found no evidence that a garden-based curriculum improves students chances of doing well on state tests. Such a curriculum, Flanagan wrote, was part of “a vacuous if well-meaning ideology that is responsible for robbing an increasing number of American school children of hours they might otherwise have spent reading important books or learning higher math. . .”&#160;</p>
<p>“I was offended by her ridicule of me and the gardens’ many supporters,” Eastin says in her letter. It was not the first time the she has drawn criticism.</p>
<p>On her watch as state superintendent during the 1990s, the California Department of Education (CDE) was giving out millions in funds for English instruction to politically connected groups not entitled to receive it. CDE auditor James Lindberg brought this massive fraud, involving about $20 million, to the attention of Eastin. Instead of dealing with the fraud, Superintendent Eastin retaliated against Mr. Lindberg and kept the money flowing. The same thing happened to CDE whistleblower Robert Cervantes, who received threats from left-wing militant Bert Corona of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, the group that got most of the money.</p>
<p>A state auditor’s report backed up the whistleblowers and the CDE repaid the federal government more than $3 million, an acknowledgment that the department improperly disbursed funds. In 2002, a jury awarded Mr. Lindberg $4.5 million and held Delaine Eastin personally liable for nearly $1.4 million in non-economic damages and $150,000 in punitive damages because she had “acted with malice” toward him. The award was reduced to $4 million and Eastin’s punitive damages dropped. The CDE, under current superintendent Jack O’Connell, could have ended it there but chose to appeal. That was a decision the department would come to regret.</p>
<p>A Sacramento jury not only agreed with Mr. Lindberg but boosted his award to $7.6 million, an increase of more than $3 million. Eastin told reporters that Lindberg no more deserved this award than “the man in the moon.” The courts thought otherwise and the CDE appealed yet again, spending $1.2 million in legal fees to defend the department and Eastin, who no longer worked there.</p>
<p>While the case played out, the Associated Press discovered that the CDE had set aside some $3.7 million to defend itself. The department had also transferred more than $750,000 from adult education and special education programs for deaf and blind children to cover their legal costs. The CDE blamed this on a “clerical error.”</p>
<p>Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee tackled the story in a column headlined, “Sorry Tale of Millions Squandered.”</p>
<p>“So there we have it,” Walters wrote. “Taxpayers’ money was ripped off, and politicians were at least compliant, if not complicit. Those who tried to set things right were punished and the taxpayers were tapped again to compensate them. Finally, taxpayers’ money meant to educate children is, instead, being spent to fight a whistle-blower. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything.”</p>
<p>Delaine Eastin is not the only superintendent to encounter legal difficulties in office. In 1993, Eastin’s predecessor Bill Honig was convicted on felony conflict-of-interest charges.</p> | Eastin defends nutrition boondoggle | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/03/26/new-eastin-defends-nutrition-boondoggle/ | 2018-03-20 | 3 |
<p>In a shocking jury verdict today, a tireless watchdog for liberty was convicted of violating special administrative prison rules and of providing material support to terrorists.</p>
<p>Only a few weeks ago, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Barkow told the jury in his closing statement that Lynne Stewart “thought she could blow off the rules that apply to everyone else because she’s a lawyer, and she’s above the law. She said, ‘I think my client is more important than the law. My cause is more important that the risk to lives of innocent people.’ ”</p>
<p>This is a complete distortion of the woman I have come to know. The woman who, when her husband became angry at a heckler during her speech at a small rally, told him the man was only exercising his rights to free speech–he had a right to disagree with her.</p>
<p>The woman who is as courteous to the man next to her at the podium, who is declaring that the ACLU–which, remember, stands for the American CIVIL LIBERTIES Union — is a communist organization, as to those who thank her for coming.</p>
<p>A woman who put herself endlessly and courageously on the front lines to defend the rights of those who were under-represented, unrepresented, disenfranchised, or disregarded: those whose voices are suppressed or silenced.</p>
<p>Lynne Stewart never ever thought she could blow off the rules that apply to everyone else. She never thought she was above the law. She never supported or endorsed terrorism. Nor did she ever intend to provide material support to terrorists.</p>
<p>The words she spoke to her client were meant for her client alone and the one who has violated rights here is the Department of Justice. They violated something so sacred that it can hardly be spoken without somehow losing the value of it: they violated the attorney/client privilege. The DOJ violated this privilege by listening in on her conversations with her client, which they then took out of context and tried to make into a monstrous thing.</p>
<p>But is anyone prosecuting them for this violation? No.</p>
<p>The DOJ has violated something more, as well. They have violated the right of an accused to have zealous counsel represent them. This right is so fundamental that our Framers put it in the Bill of Rights: the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.</p>
<p>The DOJ has violated the last vestige of democracy: the judiciary, by using this system to destroy one of the watchdogs of liberty, our criminal defense lawyers. Without criminal defense lawyers, who will protect us from government incursions of our rights?</p>
<p>Now, the idea of a convicted terrorist having any sort of privilege is perhaps unfathomable to a jury. But that privilege is considered sacrosanct and we all have it, we all may call upon the attorney/client privilege because without it, we have no defense attorneys, we have no defense, and we have no witnesses to government abuse of our rights.</p>
<p>Lynne continued to believe in her client’s innocence, and to declare that evidence against him was fabricated by our government in order to secure his conviction.</p>
<p>Has this fact come out anywhere? Has any newspaper revealed that the client Stewart represented was convicted on fabricated evidence? Have any of them investigated the charge? Has the Department of Justice investigated it? No? Why not?</p>
<p>Well, as far as I know, Lynne never brought this charge out to the press during her trial. But it was certainly known to the DOJ. And if it is true that her client was convicted on fabricated evidence, what does it mean that she is now convicted because of her representation of him?</p>
<p>The New York Times writes today about Stewart’s conviction: “The government never showed that any violence ever resulted from Mr. Sattar’s calls or from any action by Ms. Stewart or Mr. Yousry; there were no victims in the case. The Islamic Group never cancelled the cease-fire, which remains in effect to this day. The defendants were never accused of plotting any terrorism in the United States. The evidence showed that Ms. Stewart had had nothing to do with writing or issuing the fatwa.”</p>
<p>AND: “Ultimately the jury appeared to have been persuaded by the fact that Ms. Stewart, a lawyer, had clearly violated the legal letter of the prison rules.”</p>
<p>Violated the legal letter of prison rules? A violation of an administrative measure is not a crime. Do you sentence an attorney to twenty years in jail for not following a regulation?</p>
<p>Surely we all know how magic tricks work. It is sleight-of-hand.</p>
<p>This day, while I do not want to believe that the prosecutors themselves maliciously prosecuted Stewart, the best I can believe is that they have blinded themselves with their own zeal. But I have seen prosecutors and government officials declare what they should have known were untruths about the law, what I knew were untruths and if they didn’t know they were untruths, they could only have been ignorant of the law.</p>
<p>This day the Justice Department has done a great injustice, not just to Lynne Stewart, but to our entire system of justice, to our country, and to our democracy. I fear the upshot of this event and can only hope the members of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals are able to maintain their clear-headedness in the face of the deep-seated fears of terrorism we all share and the huge barrage of innocuous and irrelevant evidence they will have to review.</p>
<p>Lynne Stewart’s conviction does not only hurt the bar; it hurts us all.</p>
<p>JENNIFER VAN BERGEN, J.D., is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512925/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America</a> (Common Courage Press, 2004). She has written and spoken extensively on civil liberties, human rights, and international law. She is currently organizing a major Forum on Dissent Since 9/11 in Miami from March 11-13. See <a href="http://www.partnersinprotest.org/" type="external">www.partnersinprotest.org</a>. She may be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | Lynne Stewart’s Conviction Hurts Us All | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/02/10/lynne-stewart-s-conviction-hurts-us-all/ | 2005-02-10 | 4 |
<p>Fifteen years ago this week, “Bowling for Columbine” opened in theaters. At the time, there’d never really been an event like Columbine before. Those of us who worked on the film thought we should do it because of the availability of guns, and the phenomenon of guns ending up in the hands of the wrong people, guns in the hands of people who are afraid and take their fear to an exaggerated place. We were afraid it would become the new normal, and wanted to warn people that perhaps our country had taken a turn.</p>
<p>If you look back at the discussion and the controversy and the outrage that the film engendered among people who didn’t want that voice to be heard… Well, what good does it do now, to talk about a film from 15 years ago that obviously failed to convince enough people that we have a huge problem here on our hands? Nothing was done about it. And the shootings got more and more common.</p>
<p>This sad and tragic event in Las Vegas takes place in the context of a country that has allowed 300 million guns to be in people’s homes, that has allowed a very small but angry minority to own multitudes of guns, and whose president is slow to criticize supporters of his who are violent in Charlottesville, Va., and who defends police who shoot unarmed black citizens. This is a country that is so full of violence, and violence doesn’t always come out of the barrel of a gun.</p>
<p>I bring this up to provide context for us, as citizens, having to suffer through another horror as we are now with Las Vegas. This sadly won’t be the last tragedy. Only when people decide that they’ve had enough will this stop. I wonder what will it take for people to rise up. I thought 20 first graders in Newtown, Conn., would do it.</p>
<p>We’re stuck, and one of the main reasons is that the NRA is one of the top three most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. You have to ask the question: Why do we allow money and the influence of money in our political system? This sort of behavior is banned in other democracies. You have to ask yourself: What version of democracy is this? And is it one?</p>
<p>But the reason we’ve had so much trouble effecting change on gun control isn’t just the NRA. It’s also liberals and Democrats not wanting to fight that hard for this, because the NRA will fund and run candidates who will defeat them. The Democrats need to stop being afraid of that and start thinking: “Seventy-seven percent of this country doesn’t even own a gun, and 90% of Americans want more gun control laws, not less,” and get those people out to vote. But the Democrats have a hard time inspiring people to vote.</p>
<p>After the tragedy in Newtown, the headline did not read, “Son of General Electric Executive Kills 25 at Sandy Hook Elementary.” If he was the son of an ayatollah or a Muslim cleric, that probably would have been somewhere near the lead of the story. I know we will not frame the story today as “Retired Accountant Kills Dozens of People.” No one will be going to bed tonight afraid of accountants, not as we would if the story were about Muslims or so-called terrorists, in stories that just propagate people’s fears.</p>
<p>The way that these stories get framed doesn’t help us to fix the problem. Nobody will refer to this as white-on-white crime, for instance. The way we choose our words and the way we choose to ignore the context in which these stories occur is keeping us from solving and preventing these national tragedies.</p>
<p>As told to Gordon Cox. <a href="http://variety.com/tag/michael-moore/" type="external">Michael Moore</a> is performing on Broadway in “The Terms of My Surrender.”</p> | Michael Moore: Why the U.S. Has Trouble Effecting Change in Gun Laws (Guest Column) | false | https://newsline.com/michael-moore-why-the-u-s-has-trouble-effecting-change-in-gun-laws-guest-column/ | 2017-10-03 | 1 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The collapse of the Republican health care overhaul was a sharp setback for anti-abortion leaders, whose hopes of halting federal funding to Planned Parenthood were derailed. But they continue to pursue that goal and also are pushing for a federal ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.</p>
<p>David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, acknowledged the mood of disappointment in the anti-abortion movement after last week’s drama in the House of Representatives, when GOP leaders withdrew their health care bill before a vote. The measure would have cut off more than $400 million in Medicaid reimbursements and other federal funding to Planned Parenthood for its non-abortion services.</p>
<p>However, O’Steen and other anti-abortion leaders said they remained hopeful of future victories in Congress.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | After setback, abortion foes keep pressing Congress to act | false | https://abqjournal.com/978579/after-setback-abortion-foes-keep-pressing-congress-to-act.html | 2 |
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<p>Hillary Clinton has blamed just about everyone and everything for her embarrassing loss last November: The Russians, the FBI director, the DNC, former President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Wait, there's more. She blames "Anti-American forces," low-information voters, high-information voters, stupid Republicans, stupid Democrats, Bernie Sanders, incompetent pollsters, misogynists, suburban women, rural women, The New York Times, Fox News, fake news.</p>
<p>We all thought she had run out of excuses, but the Clintons are a bottomless pit of excuses. So now, Hillary blames social media for losing the White House to a TV reality show star.</p>
<p>Yes, Facebook and Twitter cost Hillary the election. Oh, and "content farms."</p>
<p>"The other side was using content that was just flat-out false, and delivering it in a very personalized way, both sort of above the radar screen and below," Hillary said on Wednesday at a tech conference in Silicon Valley to an audience that applauded her every claim.</p>
<p>"And you know, look, I’m not a tech expert by any stretch of the imagination," said the woman who oversaw a secret server in her home and the destruction of 30,000 emails, along with the hard drives that contained them. "That really influenced the information that people were relying on. And there have been some studies done since the election that if you look — let’s pick Facebook. If you look at Facebook, the vast majority of the news items posted were fake. They were connected to, as we now know, the 1,000 Russian agents who were involved in delivering those messages."</p>
<p>She continued: "They were connected to the bots that are just out of control. We see now this new information about Trump’s Twitter account being populated by millions of bots. And it was such a new experience. I understand why people on their Facebook pages would think, 'Oh, Hillary Clinton did that, I did not know that. Well that’s going to affect my opinion about her.' And we did not engage in false content. We may have tried to put every piece of information in the best possible light, and explanations, but we weren’t in the same category as the other side."</p>
<p>Hillary said 17 intelligence agencies "concluded with high confidence that the Russians ran an extensive information war campaign against my campaign, to influence voters in the election. They did it through paid advertising we think, they did it through false news sites, they did it through these thousand agents, they did it through machine learning, which you know, kept spewing out this stuff over and over again. The algorithms that they developed. So that was the conclusion. And I think it’s fair to ask, how did that actually influence the campaign? And how did they know what messages to deliver?"</p>
<p>Then she got more specific, wading in to how she lost the key states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. She says the Russians -- "let's say Wikileaks, something" -- dumped false information about her. Deluged with that on social media, voters -- dumb ones, especially, Hillary said -- on the fence in the waning days were searching for the truth, she said. "And we know that the Google searches for this stuff were particularly high in places in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania," Hillary concluded.</p>
<p>Then Hillary dabbled in her own fake news. She pondered Trump's rise of "fake" followers on Twitter, saying “Who is behind driving up Trump’s Twitter followers by the millions? We know they’re bots. Why? I assume there’s a reason for everything. Is it to make him look more popular than he is? Is it to try to influence others on Twitter about what the messaging is?”</p>
<p>She added that the bot creators could be “sitting in Moscow, or Macedonia, or the White House."</p>
<p>This claim, ignited by a tweet this week that said Trump had suddenly gained 3 million new followers in just days, was picked up by The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Newsweek -- even Teen Vogue. But that allegation was quickly shot down by Twitter, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-twitter-followers-connspiracy-2017-5" type="external">Business Insider</a> reported.</p>
<p>In the end, Hillary blamed "low-information voters" who were persuaded by the deluge of fake news on Facebook, saying, "Some people were sucked in. Some people stayed home. Some people voted Trump."</p>
<p>So, the two-time loser is saying that if only stupid people had voted for her, she'd have her feet up on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>But that's the thing: Americans aren't that stupid.</p> | Hillary Blames Social Media -- And Stupid People -- For 2016 Loss | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17052/hillary-blames-social-media-and-trump-followers-joseph-curl | 2017-06-01 | 0 |
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<p>Don Fluitt, 54, was a firefighter with the Gallup Fire Department and the Bernalillo County Fire Department. He was killed in his own home in late December. (Courtesy of Dennis Fluitt)</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>When Don Fluitt returned home from visiting his mother in California with his 11-year-old daughter shortly after Christmas, something appeared to be amiss.</p>
<p>His golden Labrador retriever Buddy was scared and skittish. There was a pot on the stove – caked with congealed oil – that he hadn’t left there.</p>
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<p>Still, he needed to get his daughter back to her mother, so Fluitt dropped her off and then returned by himself to his two-story home near Coors and Sequoia NW.</p>
<p>The next day, on Dec. 29, the 54-year-old former firefighter and devout Christian, was found brutally slain in his garage, his brother Dennis Fluitt told the Journal in an interview Thursday.</p>
<p>Police have released few details about what happened, including how he died or any possible motive.</p>
<p>Dennis said detectives asked him not to say how his brother had been killed, but he could say it was horrific. He said he doesn’t think just one person could be responsible.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t imagine anybody having to endure something like that,” he said. “It must have been a horrible last few minutes for him.”</p>
<p>Police don’t have any suspects, said officer Fred Duran, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. He said they don’t have any reason to believe the public is in danger, but they still have very little information to go on.</p>
<p>A generous spirit</p>
<p>Dennis said it was the routine for Don to phone his daughter every night before she went to sleep at her mother’s house. So when his daughter didn’t hear from her dad the night of their return, or again the next day, she called his work.</p>
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<p>Two co-workers went to check on him and walked into a bloody scene.</p>
<p>Dennis said nothing appeared to have been stolen from the house and his brother’s truck was still in the garage.</p>
<p>“It didn’t seem like they had looked through the drawers,” he said. “His keys were on the counter, his wallet had money in it.”</p>
<p>Dennis said he has no idea why someone would kill his brother. He said detectives told his family that even a search through Don’s phone didn’t provide any hints.</p>
<p>“I think that makes it hard (to figure out what happened) too because he lived a clean life,” Dennis said. “It wasn’t like he was into drugs or messing around with different women.”</p>
<p>Don Fluitt</p>
<p>Dennis said Don had been a firefighter with the Gallup Fire Department several years ago and more recently with the Bernalillo County Fire Department in Los Ranchos before working for an organization that helped disabled adults get jobs.</p>
<p>Don regularly attended Sagebrush Church in Northwest Albuquerque and a couple of years ago originated “Spaghetti Sundays” to provide food to people in need.</p>
<p>“One night, (Don and his daughter) made dinner – spaghetti – and they made way too much, so they decided to take it and give it to a homeless person,” Dennis said. “And then it turned into this amazing huge, thing.”</p>
<p>Spaghetti Sundays became a weekly event, with people dropping off food, canned goods and clothes for Don, his daughter and other volunteers to take Downtown and give to homeless people.</p>
<p>Tributes to Don online and on social media frequently mention the dinners.</p>
<p>Investigation stalled</p>
<p>Dennis said he and Don, who is his older brother by just two weeks short of a year, moved from their home town in California to Albuquerque in the 1980s. They remained close, but had drifted apart in recent years when Dennis moved to Arizona.</p>
<p>A month before Don’s death, Dennis had decided to return to Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Dennis said he had spent January at his brother’s apartment – cleaning, boxing up belongings and trying to figure out what to do with everything that was left behind.</p>
<p>“I’ve come to know Don through all the people at his church, and all the people at his work,” Dennis said. “When you’re moving your late brother’s belongings and his stuff, you learn a lot about him.”</p>
<p>He found a certificate Don recently received after training to be an EMT. And he found trinkets and letters to give to Don’s daughter as he packed up her purple bedroom so she wouldn’t have to come into the house herself.</p>
<p>Dennis scrubbed blood from the wall and the garage floor, until the only sign of what had happened was an unnaturally white area.</p>
<p>As he waits for the closure that might come when his brother’s killers are found, Dennis has been searching the neighborhood for a murder weapon that might have been tossed aside.</p>
<p>He has met with a homicide detective about every week but said the meetings are growing increasingly frustrating as the investigation seems to have stalled.</p>
<p>“It’s almost like living life in slow motion,” Dennis said. “You keep waiting for answers but I don’t know if we’ll ever know why somebody would do such a horrible thing. Don didn’t deserve it.”</p>
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<p /> | Home of murdered firefighter showed signs of occupation | false | https://abqjournal.com/947766/clues-scant-in-case-of-slain-firefighter.html | 2017-02-10 | 2 |
<p>On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that closely held corporations can <a href="" type="internal">refuse to offer contraceptive coverage</a> to their workers on religious grounds, siding with two businesses who say they’re morally opposed to certain types of birth control. The highly anticipated case has been dominating the national headlines for months. But now that the decision is here, how does it affect you?</p>
<p>If you’re one of the estimated 14,000 individuals who work at Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood — the companies who represented the two plaintiffs in the case — then you’re most immediately affected by Monday’s decision. Your employers no longer have to cover several types of birth control that they’re opposed to.</p>
<p>Both companies object to covering emergency contraception, which they falsely claim is a type of abortion despite all <a href="http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/27/plan-b-and-ella-are-not-abortifacients-but-false-claims-may-hold-up-in-court/" type="external">scientific evidence</a> to the contrary. Hobby Lobby’s owners also take issue with two forms of intrauterine devices (IUDs), long lasting forms of birth control inserted in the uterus, for the same unscientific reason. So the workers employed by those businesses won’t be able to use their insurance coverage for those types of birth control anymore. They’ll presumably be able to continue using their health plans for other methods, like hormonal birth control pills, that their bosses don’t have a problem with.</p>
<p>But even if you don’t work at Hobby Lobby or Conestoga Wood, there’s a chance that your birth control coverage may be put into question. <a href="" type="internal">More than 70 other companies</a> also sued for the right to stop following Obamacare’s contraceptive provision. According to the National Women’s Law Center, 48 of those cases are <a href="http://www.nwlc.org/status-lawsuits-challenging-affordable-care-acts-birth-control-coverage-benefit" type="external">still pending</a>. Now that the Court has sided with Hobby Lobby, it will be much easier for some of those companies to win their suits and opt out of covering certain types of contraception.</p>
<p>Monday’s ruling also leaves the door open for other companies to stop covering some types of birth control in the future, even if they aren’t one of the businesses that already filed a suit against the government. Although the Court’s <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf" type="external">decision</a> doesn’t apply to publicly traded companies — and the justices didn’t wade into the question of whether those types of companies can claim religious beliefs — that doesn’t mean it’s targeted at a narrow slice of employers in this country. Closely held corporations, which are defined as companies with limited numbers of shareholders, comprise <a href="http://legal.answers.com/procedures/the-nature-of-a-closely-held-corporation" type="external">more than 90 percent</a> of the organizations in the United States and are responsible for about 52 percent of all private employment. For instance, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/25/1287313/-Justice-Breyer-what-is-a-closely-held-company" type="external">Koch Industries and Walmart Inc.</a> are both closely held because they’re controlled by families.</p>
<p>Fortunately, women who want affordable contraception aren’t entirely out of luck. The <a href="https://twitter.com/Guttmacher/status/483636179397783553" type="external">vast majority of women</a> with private insurance are already working at companies that <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/will-supreme-courts-obamacare-ruling-affect-you-n61931" type="external">comply</a> with Obamacare’s birth control mandate. And even the people working at closely held corporations owned by people who oppose birth control may have options. The Obama administration will likely ensure they have another avenue to get the coverage they need.</p>
<p>As Justice Anthony Kennedy <a href="http://t.co/ezGeIjEQAr" type="external">noted in his concurrence</a>, the federal government has already established “an existing, recognized, workable, and already-implemented framework to provide coverage” for contraceptive services. Kennedy is referring to the administration’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/us/politics/final-rule-issued-for-contraceptive-coverage.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">existing exemption</a> for religiously-affiliated nonprofits (like Catholic colleges or charities) that refuse to provide birth control to their employees. In those cases, the administration permits the employer to refuse coverage, but requires “insurance companies to cover, without cost sharing, contraception coverage for female employees who wish it.”</p>
<p>“Adding new regulations that add closely held corporations along with the nonprofits would be the easiest fix,” Alina Salganicoff, the Vice President and Director of Women’s Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told ThinkProgress. “There are still employers, however, who are suing that this accommodation for nonprofits is not adequate.”</p>
<p>Washington &amp; Lee University law professor Timothy Jost added that the court’s ruling “invites” the government “to extend the alternative they have already extended to religious organizations to closely held for-profits and they could do this through an interim final regulation on very short notice, possibly even through guidance.”</p>
<p>There is at least one bright spot for Hobby Lobby opponents, who were concerned about a <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/civil-liberties/report/2013/10/01/76033/hobby-lobby-v-sebelius-crafting-a-dangerous-precedent/" type="external">slippery slope</a> in which employers could deny access to any other type of coverage they oppose. Monday’s decision sets a <a href="" type="internal">problematic precedent</a> for future religious liberty claims, but the justices did specify that the ruling can’t be immediately extrapolated to apply to other types of health services. For instance, closely held companies cannot refuse coverage for blood transfusions or vaccinations based on their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>“This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to hold that all insurance-coverage mandates, e.g., for vaccinations or blood transfusions, must necessarily fall if they conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs. Nor does it provide a shield for employers who might cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice,” the opinion <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf" type="external">states</a>.</p>
<p>Although the reproductive rights community is <a href="http://www.nationalpartnership.org/news-room/press-releases/deeply-troubling-supreme-court-rulings-take-country-backward.html" type="external">reeling</a> from the implications of the Hobby Lobby decision, the legal fights may not be over. There’s been some <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118303/hobby-lobby-case-what-if-court-strikes-down-contraception-mandate" type="external">speculation</a> that Hobby Lobby employees may be able file a Civil Rights Act Title VII complaint, on the grounds that the company is treating female employees differently than male employees by refusing to cover gender-specific health services.</p>
<p>The White House said on Monday that it is still assessing the implications of the Hobby Lobby decision, but promised to “work with Congress to make sure any women affected by this decision will still have the same coverage of vital health services.” Press Secretary Josh Earnest promised that the administration will “consider the range of options available to the president” to ensure that all women have access to contraception.</p> | What The Hobby Lobby Decision Means For Your Health Care | true | http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/30/3453902/hobby-lobby-means-for-your-health-care/ | 2014-06-30 | 4 |
<p>DoubleLine Capital Chief Executive Jeffrey Gundlach, one of the few money managers to predict the election of Donald Trump, says the president probably wouldn’t resign unless his popularity falls much further.</p>
<p>“I think Trump will not resign unless his favorability drops below 20, and that is not a very high odds outcome,” Gundlach, whose Los Angeles-based firm oversees about $111 billion, said Friday in an emailed response to questions.</p>
<p>Trump’s job approval rating is at 39 percent, according to a compilation of recent polls by Real Clear Politics. That’s down from 44 percent when he was inaugurated in January.</p>
<p>Gundlach said early last year that he expected Trump to win the election because the country was ready for a change.</p> | Jeff Gundlach: Trump Won't Quit Unless Support Falls Below 20 Percent | false | https://newsline.com/jeff-gundlach-trump-wont-quit-unless-support-falls-below-20-percent-2/ | 2017-08-22 | 1 |
<p>There are still plenty of marquee reports to be delivered, but with the fourth-quarter earnings season progressing, some trends are becoming clear. Investors can use sector exchange-traded funds to play those trends.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For example, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF), the largest financial services ETF and an ETF that has spent ample time in the spotlight over the past two years, is one fund investors can use to gain access to a sector <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/01/8926449/2-layers-to-this-trump-trade" type="external">that is posting rising earnings Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Its still early in reporting season, but early results indicate that Financials were likely the largest single contributor to S&amp;P 500 earnings growth during the fourth quarter of 2016, said <a href="http://altavista-research.com/" type="external">AltaVista Research Opens a New Window.</a> in a recent note. With only about 10 percent of S&amp;P 500 firms having reports results and using consensus expectations for the remaining 90 percent we calculate that overall index earnings likely grew by about $19 billion, or 7.6 percent year-on-year, driven by a nearly 18 percent improvement in results for firms in XLF.</p>
<p>XLF has traded slightly lower to start 2017, but the benchmark financial services ETF is up more than 39 percent over the past year. Notably, the energy sector, the seventh-largest sector weight in the S&amp;P 500, is no longer a drag on S&amp;P 500 earnings, according to AltaVista data. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLE) is up 43.1 percent over the past 12 months.</p>
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<p>XLE constituents posted revenue growth, on average, of 4.5 percent during the final quarter of 2016. All sectors notched revenue increases with the aggregate number for the S&amp;P 500 checking in at 5.2 percent revenue growth, according to AltaVista data.</p>
<p>Sales growth also appears to be picking up. Revenue probably grew about 5.2 percent year-on-year in Q4 (5.3 percent excluding the impact of Energy), which is an improvement on growth figures in recent quarters in the three percent range. The biggest contributor to overall index revenue growth came from the Consumer Discretionary sector ( <a href="http://www.etfresearchcenter.com/tools/fund_detail.php?ETF_ticker=XLY" type="external">XLY Opens a New Window.</a>), which saw a healthy 7.6 percent gain year-on-year, worth $33 billion, said the research firm.</p>
<p>Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), by far the largest holding in the Consumer Discretionary SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLY), reports earnings after the close of U.S. markets on February 2.</p>
<p>To this point, surprises in the Consumer Discretionary sector have been more widespread, and overall amount to a 7.1 percent 'beat' of consensus forecasts, noted AltaVista.</p>
<p>Disclosure: Todd Shriber owns shares of XLF.</p>
<p>2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p> | Earnings Pleasantries With These ETFs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/23/earnings-pleasantries-with-these-etfs.html | 2017-01-23 | 0 |
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<p>GOP presidential candidate <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/?s=donald+trump" type="external">Donald Trump</a> has demanded the Democrat presidential candidate and former Secretary of State <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/?s=hillary+clinton" type="external">Hillary Clinton</a> apologize for the “death and destruction” she brought about while acting as Secretary of State.</p>
<p>Mr. Trump <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/292049-trump-calls-on-clinton-to-apologize-for-death-and" type="external">spoke</a> at a campaign rally at Dimondale, Michigan on Friday</p>
<p>“Her tenure as secretary of State may be regarded as the most disastrous in U.S. history, but yet she is totally without remorse,” Trump said. “Her failed decisions as secretary of State unleashed ISIS onto the world. But has she ever apologized for the death and destruction she has caused?”</p>
<p>Trump went on to say that Mrs. Clinton has been “indifferent to the suffering she has caused.”</p>
<p>“She offers no apologies for selling government favors,” he added. “No apologies for unleashing ISIS. No apologies for open borders. No apologies for lying about her emails, or about Benghazi.”</p>
<p>At the RNC convention in Cleveland, Trump told the audience that Clinton’s legacy will be death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.</p>
<p />
<p>Though Clinton has <a href="http://ijr.com/2014/01/111274-gearing-2016-hillary-says-biggest-regret-happened-benghazi/" type="external">claimed</a> that her biggest regret was the 2012 Islamic jihad attacks on the US compound in <a href="" type="internal">Benghazi</a> that left four Americans dead, including an ambassador, she has also shirked actually taking any responsibility for it. In fact, she has claimed that <a href="" type="internal">family members of those who lost their lives in Benghazi</a> are liars when they said that <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/benghazi-heros-father-hillary-clinton-stood-in-front-of-my-sons-flag-draped-casket-and-lied/" type="external">she lied</a> to them about the nature of the <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/?s=benghazi+video" type="external">infamous video</a> that was used as a scapegoat for the reason the attacks occurred.</p>
<p>Clinton has also apologized for using her private email server in violation of federal law without actually admitting to wrongdoing and <a href="" type="internal">facing any consequences</a>. However, we now know that <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/u-s-spy-exposed-by-unsecured-emails-now-executed-by-iran-hillarys-server-now-has-its-first-dead-body/" type="external">email server has produced at least one death as a result</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">body count</a> surrounding both Bill and Hillary Clinton amounts to far more than just the four men who died in Benghazi. Even within the past two months, there are <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/the-clinton-body-count-just-went-up-by-5-in-the-past-6-weeks/" type="external">five untimely deaths this election season with ties to Mrs. Clinton and the Democrat Party</a>. The corruption of the Clintons is also much larger than a private email server that she used during her tenure at the State Department.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is correct that she should apologize, but it needs to go further than an apology. <a href="" type="internal">Mrs. Clinton should be indicted</a> and justice served upon her. Failing to do so only emboldens the corrupt and criminal elements in American government.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/trump-demands-clinton-apologize-for-death-and-destruction-she-caused/" type="external">Freedom Outpost</a></p>
<p>Tim Brown is an author and Editor at <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/" type="external">FreedomOutpost.com</a>, <a href="http://sonsoflibertymedia.com/" type="external">SonsOfLibertyMedia.com</a>,&#160; <a href="http://gunsinthenews.com/" type="external">GunsInTheNews.com</a> and <a href="http://thewashingtonstandard.com/" type="external">TheWashingtonStandard.com</a>. He is husband to his “more precious than rubies” wife, father of 10 “mighty arrows”, jack of all trades, Christian and lover of liberty. He resides in the U.S. occupied Great State of South Carolina. Tim is also an affiliate for the&#160; <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/trump-demands-clinton-apologize-for-death-and-destruction-she-caused/joshuamark5.com" type="external">Joshua Mark 5 AR/AK hybrid semi-automatic rifle</a>. Follow Tim on <a href="https://twitter.com/FPPTim" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Trump Demands Clinton Apologize for “Death and Destruction” She Caused | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2016/08/21/trump-demands-clinton-apologize-for-death-and-destruction-she-caused/ | 2016-08-21 | 0 |
<p>Russian mayor and opposition figure,&#160;Yevgeny Urlashov, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/europe/russian-mayor-an-opposition-figure-is-arrested.html" type="external">was detained</a>&#160;Tuesday night on corruption charges.</p>
<p>Urlashov's election last year as mayor of&#160;Yaroslavl was a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his party United Russia.</p>
<p>The mayor left Putin's United Russia in 2011, joining the&#160;Civil Platform party led by liberal billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. He is one of few anti-Putin officials to hold public office in Russia.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/02/russian-corruption-campaigner-mayoral-election" type="external">won the mayorship</a>&#160;of the town, 150 miles from Moscow, on an anti-corruption ticket in April with 70 percent of the vote.</p>
<p>Urlashov <a href="http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2013/07/04/Police-detain-Russian-mayor-who-left-Putins-party.aspx" type="external">was set</a> to lead a list of candidates for Civil Platform in September's regional elections.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-russia-mayor-idUSBRE9620SF20130703" type="external">was stopped</a> at a roadblock by police late last night and was detained. He was later accused of&#160;extorting a 14 million Russian roubles ($420,000) from a firm that repaired and cleaned the streets in&#160;Yaroslavl.</p>
<p>The mayor faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/130618/moscow-mayor-election-sobyanin-navalny-prokhorov" type="external">The battle for Moscow heats up… and winds down</a></p>
<p>Civil platform and critics of Putin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/europe/russian-mayor-an-opposition-figure-is-arrested.html" type="external">believe that</a> the arrests of opposition figures are meant to silence dissent.</p>
<p>"It is obvious that this night-time show ... had a single aim: to scare Yevgeny and all other independent politicians and active citizens of Russia," Mikhail Prokhorov, leader of the independent Civil Platform party, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-russia-mayor-idUSBRE9620SF20130703" type="external">said</a> in a statement.</p>
<p>Opposition members believe that Putin is using the judiciary for political ends - a charge he denies.</p>
<p>Civil Platform <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-russia-mayor-idUSBRE9620SF20130703" type="external">helped organize</a> some of the largest anti-Putin protests after his third presidential election win in March 2012.</p> | Yevgeny Urlashov, Russian mayor and opposition figure, arrested | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-07-03/yevgeny-urlashov-russian-mayor-and-opposition-figure-arrested | 2013-07-03 | 3 |
<p>Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine that was the target of a deadly terror attack by Islamic extremists, is being accused of "Islamophobia" for publishing an editorial describing the terrorist-aiding trend of silencing people for supposed "Islamophobia."</p>
<p>The editorial appears in the magazine's latest issued titled " <a href="https://charliehebdo.fr/en/edito/how-did-we-end-up-here/" type="external">How Did We End Up Here?</a>" The piece comes in response to the devastating Islamic terror attacks in Brussels, in Paris, and on the magazine itself last year — an attack that left 12 dead.</p>
<p>One of the major contributors to such violence, the article argues, is the threat of being labeled an "Islamophobe," which the Muslim community as a whole is helping to perpetuate. The terror attacks are the "last phase of a process of cowing and silencing long in motion and on the widest possible scale."</p>
<p>And yet, none of what is about to happen in the airport or metro of Brussels can really happen without everyone's contribution. Because the incidence of all of it is informed by some version of the same dread or fear. The fear of contradiction or objection. The aversion to causing controversy. The dread of being treated as an Islamophobe or being called racist. Really, a kind of terror. And that thing which is just about to happen when the taxi-ride ends is but a last step in a journey of rising anxiety. It's not easy to get some proper terrorism going without a preceding atmosphere of mute and general apprehension.</p>
<p>These young terrorists have no need to amass the talents of others, to be erudite, dignified or hard-working. Their role is simply to provide the end of a philosophical line already begun. A line which tells us "Hold your tongues, living or dead. Give up discussing, debating, contradicting or contesting".</p>
<p>The editors underscore that they are not "victimiz[ing] Islam particularly," but defending secularism. "It is secularism which is being forced into retreat."</p>
<p>The editorial concludes by arguing that the "Islamophobia" accusation is "an almost perfect inversion of culpability":</p>
<p>The first task of the guilty is to blame the innocent. It's an almost perfect inversion of culpability. From the bakery that forbids you to eat what you like, to the woman who forbids you to admit that you are troubled by her veil, we are submerged in guilt for permitting ourselves such thoughts. And that is where and when fear has started its sapping, undermining work. And the way is marked for all that will follow.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3524803/Charlie-Hebdo-condemned-bigoted-racist-latest-editorial-suggesting-fear-labelled-Islamophobic-stopping-criticism-Muslims-aiding-terrorists.html#ixzz4537AgdAT" type="external">Daily Mail</a> points out that, right on cue, the French magazine is now being branded "bigoted and racist" for daring to publish the opinion piece.</p>
<p>But the piece has provoked controversy with some with writer Shadi Hamid tweeting it was 'remarkably bigoted' as well as 'lazy, vacuous and unselfconsciously absurd.'</p>
<p>While Teju Cole, a Nigerian-American writer who compared the article to the demonisation of Jews in Europe in the 1930s.</p>
<p>Image (AP): People walk around to banner reading "Je suis Charlie", "I am Charlie" on the Place de la Republique during a gathering that marks one year after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper, in Paris, France, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.</p> | Charlie Hebdo Warns About Dangers of Fake Charges of 'Islamophobia.' Guess What It's Being Accused of Now. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4701/charlie-hebdo-accused-islamophobia-posting-article-james-barrett | 2016-04-06 | 0 |
<p>Anonymous, the secretive online advocacy group, publicly released hundreds of names of current Ku Klux Klan members as well as many people who are known to belong to other white supremacist organizations. The huge release of data on Friday marked the group’s long held promise to do battle with the Ku Klux Klan.</p>
<p>Anonymous had originally promised one thousand names were to be released and, perhaps, there are more to come. The names were dumped at Pastebin and were redistributed through Twitter. The names all included links to social media profiles almost all of which were Facebook accounts, reports <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/05/anonymouss-operation-kkk-leak-targets-the-elusive-online-world-of-white-nationalism/" type="external">The Washington Post</a>. News got out earlier in the week and many Facebook pages were taken down in advance&#160;of the group’s announcement.</p>
<p>Some of the names are already known to be members of the Klan or other white supremacy groups. Many of the names, though unverified, contain certain public and high profile figures in the country. Not all seemed to go according to the declared strategy as sometimes happens with a splintered group such as Anonymous who operates without a central command structure or leader.</p>
<p>What Anonymous has basically done is to expose a real and ongoing secretive network of white supremacist groups and organization that were highly active on Facebook. Anonymous sources said that all of the intelligence was gathered through publicly available records as well as experts. The group also said it gathered much of its intelligence by chatting online with actual members. Anonymous released a statement that said: “You never know who you’re talking to on the&#160;Internet.”</p>
<p>The information, however, seems to be not as accurate or complete as it could be. Many names seemed fake and some clear aliases have been used and released. Because of the lack of central organization, separate individuals or cells can act independently of one another. One Anonymous release actually contained pictures of phone numbers and addresses associated with the membership names.</p>
<p>However, some experts contend that this could be a major disaster for Anonymous and could greatly damage their brand to the point where they are no longer taken seriously by anyone. On such expert, Gabriella Coleman, is considered the number one expert with regard to Anonymous. She said the fact that the data dump can’t really be verified makes her somewhat suspicious of it all. She does feel, however, that Anonymous does possess members who are thinkers and educated people. People who talk knowledgeably about race and who wish to bring the whole matter more out into the open for public discussion.</p>
<p /> | Anonymous Begins the Public Release of Ku Klux Klan Membership | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/11/06/anonymous-begins-the-public-release-of-ku-klux-klan-membership/ | 2015-11-06 | 3 |
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<p>In the suit, the National Education Association New Mexico argues state law gives school districts authority over teacher evaluations and the system Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera put in place last year takes away that local control. Skandera launched the system last school year under an administrative rule after legislators twice rejected the plan.</p>
<p>The state Public Education Department called it a “frivolous” challenge timed to the fall elections.</p>
<p>The court action, filed in the 1st Judicial District, asks a judge to declare the evaluation system illegal and to prevent its further use.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“With the support of Governor (Susana) Martinez, (Skandera) has unilaterally implemented a statewide teacher evaluation system. Her implementation of that system was done in violation of the New Mexico Constitution and in violation of state statute,” said Charles Bowyer, executive director of NEA New Mexico.</p>
<p>Also named as plaintiffs in the suit are state Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, and two teachers – Deborah Romero, a third-grade teacher from Las Cruces, and Manessa Young Padilla, a high school math and science teacher from Los Lunas.</p>
<p>Teachers aren’t opposed to being evaluated, but many do oppose this particular evaluation system, Romero said.</p>
<p>“The truth is we want to be evaluated. We want to be able to identify strengths and weaknesses,” she said, adding she doesn’t believe the current system is fair or accurate.</p>
<p>The union said it opposes the use of value-added models – calculations that use test scores to rate teachers’ impact on classroom learning – because it does not believe they are accurate.</p>
<p>PED officials consistently have supported the use of value-added models, arguing they are an objective way to rate teachers.</p>
<p>“Not too long ago, the NEA agreed that New Mexico needed an evaluation system that put students first. Now, perhaps because of an upcoming election, they feel the need to frivolously challenge a system that has already won in the courts,” said PED spokesperson Larry Behrens in a statement.</p>
<p>“As we have said before, we will work to defend yet another attempt to uphold the old, broken system because our students deserve better.”</p>
<p>This is not the first legal challenge to the evaluation system.</p>
<p>In 2012, before the current evaluation system was put in place, the state and Albuquerque chapters of the American Federation of Teachers filed a petition with the state Supreme Court, asking the court to strike down the system on separation-of-powers grounds. The court rejected the petition.</p>
<p>And in September 2013, a cadre of state legislators, teachers unions and an individual teacher filed a petition in state court against the PED, seeking to halt the state’s new teacher evaluation system. District Court Judge Shannon Bacon denied that petition, and an appeal has been filed.</p>
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<p /> | Teachers union sues over evaluations | false | https://abqjournal.com/470650/teachers-union-sues-over-evaluations.html | 2 |
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<p>MINOT, N.D. (AP) - A man accused of shooting two people outside a Minot bar and firing into a crowd with a semi-automatic rifle wants to change his plea.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2018/01/change-of-plea-scheduled-in-attempted-murder-case/" type="external">Daily News</a> reports that 26-year-old Steven Stewart has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and reckless endangerment for the October 2016 shooting. He had been scheduled for trial later this month.</p>
<p>Authorities say Stewart shot one man in the parking lot of the Sports on Tap bar after they had argued earlier in the evening. A bystander was also shot by Stewart. Both of the victims survived.</p>
<p>Stewart fled following the shooting and was captured in Las Vegas last March.</p>
<p>Stewart faces several unrelated charges, including delivery of cocaine and methamphetamine, fleeing from a police officer, lying to an officer and driving under suspension.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Minot Daily News, <a href="http://www.minotdailynews.com" type="external">http://www.minotdailynews.com</a></p>
<p>MINOT, N.D. (AP) - A man accused of shooting two people outside a Minot bar and firing into a crowd with a semi-automatic rifle wants to change his plea.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2018/01/change-of-plea-scheduled-in-attempted-murder-case/" type="external">Daily News</a> reports that 26-year-old Steven Stewart has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and reckless endangerment for the October 2016 shooting. He had been scheduled for trial later this month.</p>
<p>Authorities say Stewart shot one man in the parking lot of the Sports on Tap bar after they had argued earlier in the evening. A bystander was also shot by Stewart. Both of the victims survived.</p>
<p>Stewart fled following the shooting and was captured in Las Vegas last March.</p>
<p>Stewart faces several unrelated charges, including delivery of cocaine and methamphetamine, fleeing from a police officer, lying to an officer and driving under suspension.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Minot Daily News, <a href="http://www.minotdailynews.com" type="external">http://www.minotdailynews.com</a></p> | Man charged in shooting outside Minot bar to change plea | false | https://apnews.com/amp/afe2d03b3c40423b96dfaea10b4eaabf | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>Disgraced&#160;would-be Trump administration official&#160;Monica Crowley <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/323964-crowley-registers-as-foreign-agent-for-ukranian-billionaire" type="external">just became the latest person connected to President Trump to register as a foreign agent with ties to a foreign government.</a></p>
<p>Crowley was slated to become the spokesperson for the National Security Council, but had to back out in January after several cases of plagiarism were found in her new book, her newspaper columns, and her Ph.D. dissertation. New forms filed with the Justice Dept. reveal that Crowley&#160;“will be providing outreach services on behalf of Mr. Victor Pinchuk,” an oligarch who is the fourth richest person in Ukraine. Pinchuk was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament between from 1998 to 2006.</p>
<p>The forms say that “Outreach services will include inviting government officials and other policy makers to attend conferences and meetings, such as the annual Munich Security Conference, to engage in learning and dialogue regarding issues of concern to Mr. Pinchuk.”</p>
<p>Pinkuk’s charity, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation,&#160;gave $150,00 as a speaking fee to the Trump Foundation in 2015 for Trump to give a speech over a video feed at one of the&#160;charity’s conferences. He has also donated millions to the Clinton Global Initiative and featured Bill and Hillary Clinton at the same conference in other years.</p>
<p>This news is&#160;similar to recent headlines made by Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign last January from his post as&#160;former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to Vice President Pence about conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Flynn <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/10/trump-team-knew-michael-flynn-might-register-foreign-agent-turkey-work/99018396/" type="external">recently registered as a foreign agent</a> for lobbying work he does for an individual with ties to the Turkish government.</p>
<p>The Trump administration reportedly knew Flynn was lobbying&#160;for Turkish officials before they hired him.</p>
<p>“We trust people to fill out the appropriate forms,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, when asked whether other Trump officials may be lobbying for foreign governments.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. His less-political Youtube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTX2M68DdRvR5Jd2YHEH7A" type="external">can be found here</a>.&#160;Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Former Trump nominee lands new job as lobbyist for Ukrainian oligarch | true | http://resistancereport.com/news/former-trump-nominee-lands-new-job-lobbyist-ukrainian-oligarch/ | 2017-03-14 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.defense.gov/transformation/images/photos/photo_archive/index_2005-12.html"&gt;Staff Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey&lt;/a&gt;/Department of Defense</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175705/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Did Washington just give Israel the green light for a future attack on Iran via an arms deal? Did Russia just signal its further support for Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime via an arms deal? Are the Russians, the Chinese, and the Americans all heightening regional tensions in Asia via arms deals? Is it possible that we’re witnessing the beginnings of a new Cold War in two key regions of the planet—and that the harbingers of this unnerving development are arms deals?</p>
<p>International weapons sales have proved to be a thriving global business in economically tough times. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), such sales <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html" type="external">reached</a> an impressive $85 billion in 2011, nearly double the figure for 2010. This surge in military spending reflected efforts by major Middle Eastern powers to bolster their armories with modern jets, tanks, and missiles—a process constantly encouraged by the leading arms manufacturing countries (especially the US and Russia) as it helps keep domestic production lines humming. However, this familiar if always troubling pattern may soon be overshadowed by a more ominous development in the global arms trade: the revival of far more targeted Cold War-style weapons sales aimed at undermining rivals and destabilizing regional power balances. The result, inevitably, will be a more precarious world.</p>
<p>Arms sales have always served multiple functions. Valuable trade commodities, weapons can prove immensely lucrative for companies that specialize in making such products. Between 2008 and 2011, for example, US firms <a href="http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2012_10/US-Dominated-Global-Arms-Trade-in-2011" type="external">sold</a> $146 billion worth of military hardware to foreign countries, according to the latest CRS figures. Crucially, such sales <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323291704578199902312480268.html" type="external">help ensure</a> that domestic production lines remain profitable even when government acquisitions slow down at home. But arms sales have also served as <a href="http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2010_07-08/holtom-bromley" type="external">valuable tools</a> of foreign policy—as enticements for the formation of alliances, expressions of ongoing support, and a way to lure new allies over to one’s side. Powerful nations, seeking additional allies, use such sales to win the allegiance of weaker states; weaker states, seeking to bolster their defenses, look to arms deals as a way to build ties with stronger countries, or even to play one suitor off another in pursuit of the most sophisticated arms available.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>Throughout the Cold War, both superpowers employed weapons transfers as a form of competition, offering advanced arms to entice regional powers to defect from each other’s alliance systems or to counter offers made by the other side. Egypt, for example, was convinced to join the Soviet sphere in 1955 when provided with arms the West had refused to deliver. In the late 1970s, it moved back into the American camp after Washington anted up far better weapons systems.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250023971/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />In those years, the Americans and the Soviets also used arms transfers to bolster key allies in areas of strategic confrontation like the Middle East. Washington armed Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran when it was still ruled by the Shah; Russia armed Iraq and Syria. These transfers played a critical role in Cold War diplomacy and sometimes helped tilt the scales in favor of decisions to go to war. In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War" type="external">Yom Kippur War</a> of 1973, for example, Egypt, emboldened by an expanded arsenal of Soviet antitank missiles, attacked Israeli forces in the Negev desert.</p>
<p>In the wake of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the <a href="http://books.sipri.org/product_info?c_product_id=455" type="external">commercial aspect</a> of arms sales came to the fore. Both Washington and Moscow were, by then, far more interested in keeping their military production lines running than in jousting for advantage abroad, so emphasis was placed on scoring contracts from those with the means to pay—mainly the major oil producers of the Middle East and Latin America and the economically expansive “tigers” of Asia. Between 2008 and 2011, the CRS ranked the leading purchasers of conventional arms in the developing world this way: Saudi Arabia, India, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Egypt, and Venezuela. Together, these six countries ordered $117 billion in new weaponry.</p>
<p>Arms Sales Take a New Path</p>
<p>Only recently has some version of great power dueling and competition started up again, and in the early months of 2013 it seems to be gaining momentum. Several recent developments highlight this trend:</p>
<p>* In early May, Western intelligence sources <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/world/middleeast/russia-provides-syria-with-advanced-missiles.html" type="external">revealed</a> that Russia had supplied several batteries of advanced anti-ship cruise missiles to the embattled Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow had previously provided the Syrians with a version of the missile known as the <a href="https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/ss-n-26.htm" type="external">Yakhont</a>, but those delivered recently are said to be equipped with a more advanced radar that increases their effectiveness. With those missiles, the Syrians should be in a better position to deter or counter any effort by international forces, including the United States, to aid anti-Assad rebels by sea or mount a naval blockade of Syria. They are also said to be <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-09/world/39133434_1_s-300-missiles-kerry-no-fly-zone" type="external">negotiating</a> with the Russians for the purchase of advanced S-300 ground-to-air missiles, a weapons system that would greatly complicate air attacks on the country or the imposition of a no-fly zone.</p>
<p>Aside from its military significance, the Yakhont transfer suggests a new inclination on Moscow’s part to engage in provocative arms sales to advance its <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/opinion/russias-syrian-power-play.html" type="external">strategic</a> goals—in this case, the survival of the Assad regime, Russia’s sole remaining ally in the region—even in the face of concerted Western opposition. Employing tough language, Secretary of State John F. Kerry <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-09/world/39133434_1_s-300-missiles-kerry-no-fly-zone" type="external">warned the Russians</a> against such action. “We’ve made it crystal clear that we prefer that Russia would not supply them assistance,” he declared. “That is on record.” Despite such admonitions, Russian officials insist that they have no intention of halting arms deliveries to Assad. “Russia enjoys good and strong military technical cooperation with Syria, and we see no reason today to reconsider it,” Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10141192" type="external">told</a> reporters.</p>
<p>* In April, during a visit to Jerusalem, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22244832" type="external">announced</a> a multibillion-dollar arms package for Israel. Although its final details are still being worked out, it is expected to include <a href="http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/v-22.htm" type="external">V-22 “Osprey”</a> tilt-rotor transport planes, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_KC-135_Stratotanker" type="external">KC-135</a> aerial refueling aircraft, and advanced radars and anti-radiation missiles for Israel’s strike aircraft. “We are committed to providing Israel with whatever support is necessary for Israel to maintain military superiority over any state or coalition of states and non-state actors [in the region],” Hagel <a href="http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5222" type="external">told</a> reporters when announcing the package.</p>
<p>The US has, of course, long been committed to Israel’s military superiority, so there was something ritualistic about much of Hagel’s performance in Jerusalem. No less predictable were the <a href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130429/DEFREG02/304290018/Israelis-Slam-US-Hyped-Arms-Package" type="external">complaints</a> from Israeli military and intelligence sources that the package didn’t include enough new arms to satisfy Israel’s needs, or were of the wrong kind. The V-22 Osprey, for example, was proclaimed by some to be of marginal military value. Far more surprising was that no red flags went up in the media over what was included. At least two of the items—the KC-135 refueling planes and the anti-radiation missiles (crucial weaponry for disabling an enemy’s air-defense radar system)—could only be intended for one purpose: <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/22/Israel-talks-Iran-war-as-US-sells-arms/UPI-34921366654559/" type="external">bolstering</a> Israel’s capacity to conduct a sustained air campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities, should it decide to do so.</p>
<p>At present, the biggest <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17115643" type="external">military obstacles</a> to such an attack are that country’s inability to completely cripple Iranian anti-aircraft defense systems and mount sustained long-range air strikes. The missiles and the mid-air refueling capability will go a long way toward eliminating such impediments. Although it may take up to a year for all this new hardware to be delivered and come online, the package can only be read as a green light from Washington for Israel to undertake preparations for an attack on Iran, which has long been shielded from tougher U.N. sanctions by China and Russia.</p>
<p>* In March, Russia <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/03/25/after-a-decade-long-wait-china-and-russia-ink-super-jet-military-deal/" type="external">agreed</a> to sell 24 Sukhoi Su-35 multi-role combat jets and four Lada-class diesel submarines to China on the eve of newly installed President Xi Jinping’s first official visit to Moscow. Although details of the sale have yet to be worked out, observers say that it will represent the <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1199448/china-buy-russian-fighters-submarines" type="external">most significant transfer</a> of Russian weaponry to China in a decade. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-35" type="external">Su-35</a>, a fourth-generation stealth fighter, is superior to any plane now in China’s arsenal, while the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada-class_submarine" type="external">Lada</a> is a more advanced, quieter version of the Kilo-class sub it already possesses. Together, the two systems will provide the Chinese with a substantial boost in combat quality.</p>
<p>For anyone who has followed Asian security affairs over the past few years, it is hard to view this deal as anything but a reaction to the Obama administration’s new Asian strategy, its “pivot” to the Pacific. As announced by President Obama in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/world/asia/obama-and-gillard-expand-us-australia-military-ties.html" type="external">speech</a> before the Australian Parliament in November 2011, it involves beefing-up the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175476" type="external">already strong</a> US air and naval presence in the western Pacific—in, that is, waters off of China—along with <a href="http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/230986/news/specialreports/spratlys-feuds-fuel-asian-arms-race-and-us-industry" type="external">increased US arms aid</a> to American allies like Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, China has responded by bolstering its own naval capabilities, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-china-navy-carrier-idUSBRE93N00Q20130424" type="external">announcing plans</a> for the acquisition of a second aircraft carrier (its first began operational testing in late 2012) and the procurement of advanced arms from Russia to fill gaps in its defense structure. This, in turn, is bound to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/01/us-usa-asia-arms-sales-idUSBRE90005D20130101" type="external">increase the pressure</a> on Washington from Japan, Taiwan, and other allies to provide yet more weaponry, triggering a classic Cold-War-style arms race in the region.</p>
<p>* On the eve of Secretary of State John Kerry’s June 24th visit to India, that country’s press was full of reports and rumors about upcoming US military sales. Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, was <a href="http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/us-eyes-billions-of-dollars-of-arms-sales-to-india-11378.html" type="external">widely quoted</a> as saying that, in addition to sales already in the pipeline, “we think there’s going to be billions of dollars more in the next couple of years.” In his comments, Shapiro referred to Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, who, he said, was heading up an arms sales initiative, “which we think is making some good progress and will, hopefully, lead to an even greater pace of additional defense trade with India.”</p>
<p>To some degree, of course, this can be viewed as a continuation of weapons sales as a domestic economic motor, since US weapons companies have long <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323291704578199902312480268.html" type="external">sought access</a> to India’s vast arms market. But such sales now clearly play another role as well: to lubricate the US drive to incorporate India into the arc of powers encircling China as part of the Obama administration’s new Asia-Pacific strategy.</p>
<p>Toward this end, as Deputy Secretary of State William Burns <a href="http://www.state.gov/s/d/2011/176667.htm" type="external">explained</a> back in 2011, “Our two countries launched a strategic dialogue on the Asia-Pacific to ensure that the world’s two largest democracies pursue strategies that reinforce one another.” Arms transfers are seen by the leaders of both countries as a vital tool in the “containment” of China (though all parties are careful to avoid that old Cold War term). So watch for Kerry to pursue new arms agreements while in New Delhi.</p>
<p>Repeating History</p>
<p>These are just some examples of recent arms deals (or ones under discussion) that suggest a fresh willingness on the part of the major powers to use weapons transfers as instruments of geopolitical intrusion and competition. The reappearance of such behavior suggests a troubling resurgence of Cold War-like rivalries. Even if senior leaders in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing are not talking about resurrecting some twenty-first-century version of the Cold War, anyone with a sense of history can see that they are headed down a grim, well-trodden path toward crisis and confrontation.</p>
<p>What gives this an added touch of irony is that leading arms suppliers and recipients, including the United States, recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/world/arms-trade-treaty-approved-at-un.html" type="external">voted</a> in the U.N. General Assembly to approve the <a href="http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/" type="external">Arms Trade Treaty</a> that was meant to impose significant constraints on the global trade in conventional weapons. Although the treaty has many loopholes, lacks an enforcement mechanism, and will require years to achieve full implementation, it represents the first genuine attempt by the international community to place real restraints on weapons sales. “This treaty won’t solve the problems of Syria overnight, no treaty could do that, but it will help to prevent future Syrias,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/world/arms-trade-treaty-approved-at-un.html" type="external">said</a> Anna MacDonald, the head of arms control for <a href="http://www.oxfam.org/" type="external">Oxfam International</a> and an ardent treaty supporter. “It will help to reduce armed violence. It will help to reduce conflict.”</p>
<p>This may be the hope, but such expectations will quickly be crushed if the major weapons suppliers, led by the US and Russia, once again come to see arms sales as the tool of choice to gain geopolitical advantage in areas of strategic importance. Far from bringing peace and stability—as the proponents of such transactions invariably claim—each new arms deal now holds the possibility of taking us another step closer to a new Cold War with all the heightened risks of regional friction and conflict that entails. Are we, in fact, seeing a mindless new example of the old saw: that those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it?</p>
<p>Michael Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175690/michale_klare_the_coming_global_explosion" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>, and the author, most recently, of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250023971/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The Race for What’s Left</a>, now published in paperback by Picador. A documentary movie based on his book Blood and Oil can be previewed and ordered at www.bloodandoilmovie.com. You can follow Klare on Facebook by clicking <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Klare/316344375093469" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Changing-Face-Empire-Cyberwarfare/dp/1608463109/" type="external">The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare.</a> To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | The Booming Global Arms Trade Is Creating a New Cold War | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/global-arms-trade-new-cold-war/ | 2013-05-30 | 4 |
<p>Warning lights are flashing on the declining performance of private equities compared to public stock markets, and sophisticated investors such as CalPERS are well aware that the high returns of the early 2000s are gone.</p>
<p>Median returns for private equity funds launched since the financial crisis&#160; <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article49399915.html" type="external">have failed to beat the stock market by enough to compensate for increased risk</a>. Pension plans know that high prices paid to acquire companies today mean lower future returns.</p>
<p>So, does the pension giant plan to reduce its $26.2 billion allocation to private equity? Is it going to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">outsource management of these investments</a>, pay fees and risk even lower returns?</p>
<p>Instead, staff is&#160; <a href="" type="internal">asking the California Public Employees’ Retirement System board this week&#160;</a>to lower the bar. This may make private equity investments look better, but will do nothing to assure that these investments earn adequate returns.</p>
<p>The current benchmark is two-thirds U.S. stocks, one-third foreign plus 3 percent for the added risk. The proposed benchmark gives less weight to better performing U.S. stocks and cuts the risk premium to just 1.5 percent.</p>
<p>Does the staff believe that investing in private equity has become less risky? Or is this an admission that returns will be lower? Perhaps the staff is just looking for an easy “A.” The new benchmark will be much easier to beat and practically guarantees them a good grade.</p>
<p>The CalPERS board is charged with overseeing the prudent investment of taxpayer dollars and protecting the retirement earnings of workers. It should reject the new benchmark and require an honest assessment of future prospects for private equity performance. And it should ask the staff for serious recommendations for how to address lower returns.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.sacbee.com" type="external">Sacramento Bee</a>.</p> | Why Private Equity Isn’t a Good Investment for CalPERS | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/15/why-private-equity-isnt-a-good-investment-for-calpers/ | 2017-11-15 | 4 |
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An American health care worker who was exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has not developed the disease and was released Thursday from a hospital in Nebraska.</p>
<p>The health worker was monitored for 21 days, which is the virus' incubation period, the Nebraska Medical Center said in a news release. The patient arrived at the Omaha hospital's biocontainment unit on Jan. 4.</p>
<p>"The patient was regularly tested for the disease since arriving here in early January, and every test came back negative for Ebola," said Dr. Phil Smith, the biocontainment unit's medical director.</p>
<p>The hospital has not identified the patient at the patient's request.</p>
<p>The health worker said in the statement that the hardest part of the experience was "leaving my patients in Sierra Leone, who were some of the sickest I have ever seen." The health worker plans to return to West Africa at some point to continue helping treat those with Ebola.</p>
<p>Nebraska Medical Center treated three people with Ebola last fall.</p>
<p>Dr. Rick Sacra and freelance video journalist Ashoka Mukpo both contracted Ebola in Liberia and recovered after being treated at the Omaha hospital. Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, was much more ill when he arrived in Nebraska and did not survive.</p>
<p>Sacra has said he's returning to Liberia.</p>
<p>The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 8,600 lives, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.</p>
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An American health care worker who was exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has not developed the disease and was released Thursday from a hospital in Nebraska.</p>
<p>The health worker was monitored for 21 days, which is the virus' incubation period, the Nebraska Medical Center said in a news release. The patient arrived at the Omaha hospital's biocontainment unit on Jan. 4.</p>
<p>"The patient was regularly tested for the disease since arriving here in early January, and every test came back negative for Ebola," said Dr. Phil Smith, the biocontainment unit's medical director.</p>
<p>The hospital has not identified the patient at the patient's request.</p>
<p>The health worker said in the statement that the hardest part of the experience was "leaving my patients in Sierra Leone, who were some of the sickest I have ever seen." The health worker plans to return to West Africa at some point to continue helping treat those with Ebola.</p>
<p>Nebraska Medical Center treated three people with Ebola last fall.</p>
<p>Dr. Rick Sacra and freelance video journalist Ashoka Mukpo both contracted Ebola in Liberia and recovered after being treated at the Omaha hospital. Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, was much more ill when he arrived in Nebraska and did not survive.</p>
<p>Sacra has said he's returning to Liberia.</p>
<p>The Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 8,600 lives, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.</p> | Health worker exposed to Ebola released from Omaha hospital | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e176717254434c979ba81f139318bbe8 | 2015-01-22 | 2 |
<p>President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, is “under criminal investigation,” the Justice Department said in a court filing on Friday.</p>
<p>It’s the first peek at the investigation of Cohen after a <a href="" type="internal">raid on his offices and home</a> Monday by FBI agents. Trump called the raid an “ <a href="" type="internal">attack on our country in a true sense</a>” and has reportedly got the president stewing again about firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who signed off on the raid, and special counsel Robert Mueller, who made a referral to prosecutors in Manhattan.</p>
<p>Cohen has been the subject of a “months-long investigation” into “acts of concealment” and “fraud” as part of an “ongoing grand jury investigation,” the filing said. Prosecutors obtained search warrants on multiple email accounts maintained by Cohen before Monday’s raid, they said.</p>
<p>The filing was submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in response to a motion by Cohen earlier Friday that asked a federal judge to block the Justice Department’s access to documents seized in the raid until he reviews them to determine what might be protected by attorney-client privilege ( <a href="https://molechart.com/d/34/nysd/1:18-mj-03161/1.00/0/?key=6bAJHdvJ6DQr1AY8IMSsTZ" type="external">PDF</a>).</p>
<p>Prosecutors responded that Cohen’s request “belies the true intent of his motion: To delay the case and deprive the [U.S. attorney’s office] of evidence to which it is entitled.”</p>
<p>That evidence includes items those found in Cohen’s residence, office, a hotel room, his safety deposit box, and electronic devices. The items (reportedly emails, tax documents, and business records) were ordered after a magistrate “found probable cause to believe that the premises and devices searched contained evidence, fruits, and instrumentalities of conduct for which Cohen is under criminal investigation,” according to the filing.</p>
<p>Although the nature of that alleged conduct remains a mystery, the filing says that the investigation “largely centers on [Cohen’s] personal business dealings.”</p>
<p>The filing took a direct shot at Cohen’s claim that much of the evidence seized falls under the umbrella of attorney-client privilege.</p>
<p>“The searches… seek evidence of crimes, many of which have nothing to do with his work as an attorney, but rather relate to Cohen’s own business dealings,” the filing stated, noting that covert search warrants on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen “indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work.”</p>
<p>Prosecutors also used Cohen and Trump’s words against them in the filing, particularly Trump’s <a href="" type="internal">denial</a> that he knew about a $130,000 payment made by Cohen to adult-film star Stormy Daniels&#160;in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels, currently embroiled in <a href="" type="internal">her own legal battle</a>with Cohen and the president, says that the payment was made in exchange for her silence about a <a href="" type="internal">physical relationship</a> between herself and the president in 2006, shortly after the birth of Trump’s fifth child.</p>
<p>Trump has expressed a close interest in the case, calling the raid “ <a href="" type="internal">a disgraceful situation</a>” and even going to far as to call Cohen ahead of today’s filing to “check in,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/us/politics/lawyers-for-trumps-personal-attorney-set-for-friday-court-appearance.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur" type="external">according to The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>“There is reason to doubt that even communications with his only publicly identified client [Trump] regarding payments to... Stormy Daniels, would be protected by attorney-client privilege,” a footnote states. “Among other things, President Trump has publicly denied knowing that Cohen paid Clifford, and suggested to reporters that they had to ‘ask Michael’ about the payment.”</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>This comes at a time of increased scrutiny on Cohen’s activities by special counsel Robert Mueller, as the former FBI director investigates Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. On Friday, <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html" type="external">McClatchy reported</a> that Mueller had evidence that Cohen had made a trip to Prague in late summer 2016. The trip, which Cohen has repeatedly denied, would confirm at least part of the Steele dossier.</p> | Michael Cohen Has Been Under Criminal Investigation for Months, Feds Reveal | true | https://thedailybeast.com/michael-cohen-has-been-under-criminal-investigation-for-months-feds-reveal | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>France's Schneider Electric SE is in advanced talks to take control of British engineering software provider Aveva Group PLC, according to people familiar with the matter, after previous talks to merge their software operations collapsed over terms.</p>
<p>The current deal calls for Schneider, a global industrial giant, to fold its software assets into Aveva's operations and pay the U.K. company more than GBP500 million ($646.4 million) in exchange for a controlling stake in the combined entity, in a so-called reverse takeover, according to the people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Aveva, with a current market value of about GBP1.2 billion, would maintain its stock listing on the London Stock Exchange and remain headquartered in Cambridge, the people said. A deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday.</p>
<p>Sky News first reported the planned tie-up.</p>
<p>The combination would create a larger industrial software provider, offering opportunity to cut costs, and access new customers by providing a broader range of products. Schneider has already targeted U.K. software companies in the past to bolster its industrial software business. In 2013, it agreed to acquire Invensys PLC for GBP3.31 billion to better compete against rivals such as Siemens AG, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Rockwell Automation Inc.</p>
<p>Spun out of Cambridge University in 1967, Aveva provides engineering software to owners, operators and engineering contractors that operate in the power, oil and gas, marine and paper and pulp sectors among others. It employs more than 1,700 people across 30 countries.</p>
<p>The deal comes at a time when the company is trying to reduce it reliance on the slowing oil and gas and marine markets. For the year ended March 31, Aveva grew revenue by 7% to GBP215.8 million from the prior year, benefiting in part from currency moves. Discounting that, revenue was down 3.8%.</p>
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<p>Schneider's software is used to help manage manufacturing processes, design tools and train plant crews. It services an array of industries ranging from transportation to food and beverages.</p>
<p>The planned transaction is similar to the structure of the companies' previous attempt to merge their industrial software businesses back in July 2015. Then Schneider had agreed to combine its software assets with those of Aveva and pay GBP550 million in exchange for a 53.5% stake in the enlarged group. However, the deal collapsed after the two sides couldn't agree on final terms.</p>
<p>Write to Ben Dummett at [email protected] and Nick Kostov at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 04, 2017 18:03 ET (22:03 GMT)</p> | Schneider Electric in Talks to Take Control of Aveva Group | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/04/schneider-electric-in-talks-to-take-control-aveva-group.html | 2017-09-04 | 0 |
<p>North Korea carried out its second nuclear test on Monday and said it was “on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The test sparked international condemnation and protests in South Korea, while the U.N. Security Council called an emergency session to discuss the incident.</p>
<p>BBC News:</p>
<p>So, North Korea has carried out what it had been threatening to do for weeks, another atomic test.</p>
<p>The announcement broadcast on its state media said the detonation, which rattled the Korean peninsula with the magnitude of an earthquake measuring 4.5, was “in defence of the nation, the country and socialism.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8067368.stm" type="external">Read More</a></p> | North Korea Tests Its Nuclear Might | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/north-korea-tests-its-nuclear-might/ | 2009-05-25 | 4 |
<p>Since the late 1940s the common justifications for President Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have consisted of five basic assertions: 1) that the bombs saved more lives than they took by eliminating the need for a US ground invasion of Japan, 2) that the bombs were dropped on military targets essential to the Japanese war machine, 3) that the bombs were dropped only after a process of careful deliberation by US leaders, 4) that those leaders were forced into dropping the bombs because of the Japanese leadership’s refusal to surrender, and 5) that the bombings effectively ended the Pacific war by convincing Japan’s leaders to surrender. These five assertions had their origins in the public statements of Truman, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and others in the years 1945-47, and constitute the core of what might be labeled the “official narrative” concerning the use of the atomic bombs [1].</p>
<p>Historical scholarship in recent decades has completely refuted the first three assertions. Most scholars who have studied the use of the atomic bombs agree that Truman and his advisers knew a mainland invasion of Japan to have been “an unlikely possibility” given Japan’s dire military situation in late-July 1945 [2]. Even in the event of a US mainland invasion, the highest projected casualty estimates for US forces were not “over a million” like Stimson and Truman later claimed, but between 30,000 and 50,000 [3]. More importantly, prior to August 1945 Truman and his advisers had considered it possible that the war would end without either the atomic bombs or a mainland invasion by US forces [4].</p>
<p>The claims that Truman and advisers used the bombs on military bases, and after careful consideration of alternatives, have both been proven false; Hiroshima and Nagasaki were major population centers, not military targets, and high-level officials later admitted that the bombs had been used hastily [5]. US officials clearly knew beforehand that the bombings would result in massive civilian deaths in both cities, but as J. Samuel Walker notes, that realization made little impact on US leaders given the long-established strategy of targeting civilian populations [6]. In fact, very little deliberation occurred as to whether or not the bombs should be dropped; according to historian Barton Bernstein, “it was not a carefully weighed decision but the implementation of an assumption” [7]. Once the bombs were developed, it was assumed they would be used.</p>
<p>Recent scholars have also pointed to some of the motives for the bombings not mentioned by Truman and others: the desire to assert US power vis-à-vis the Soviet Union [8]; the political imperative of not appearing soft on Japan [9]; the need to justify the $2 billion spent on the Manhattan Project to develop the bombs [10]; and the pervasive anti-Japanese racism that increased US officials’ (and the public’s) enthusiasm for the bombs’ use [11].</p>
<p>Yet until recently even revisionist historians have continued to accept the last two major points of the official narrative listed above. First, most scholars have accepted the claim that Japan rejected the Potsdam Proclamation (issued by the Allies on 26 July 1945, calling for the Japanese to surrender unconditionally), and that the rejection of the ultimatum led immediately to the bombs’ use. Second, there has been general agreement that the atomic bombs played a central role in forcing Japan to surrender.</p>
<p>Historian <a href="" type="internal">Tsuyoshi Hasegawa</a>, however, has recently challenged both points. Hasegawa argues that Truman and others demanded “unconditional” surrender on July 26 assuming that Japan would not accept the offer, allowing the US to then justify use of the atomic bombs (“unconditional surrender” was understood to include the removal of the emperor from Japanese society, a severe affront to Japanese traditions). Challenging the argument that the bombs forced Japan’s surrender, Hasegawa cites a number of Japanese sources suggesting that the Soviet declaration of war against Japan on August 7-8, not Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compelled Japan to surrender.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Insistence on Unconditional Surrender</p>
<p>The official narrative holds that Truman and his advisers insisted on unconditional surrender from the Japanese in order to, in Stimson’s words, “render them powerless to mount and support another war” [12]. The official version also holds that the Japanese “promptly rejected” the July 26 ultimatum [13]. Stimson claimed afterwards that prior to August 6 there had been “no indication of any weakening in the Japanese determination to fight” [14]. In turn, most recent historians have accepted the claim that Japan rejected the surrender ultimatum. J. Samuel Walker (cited above) notes some ambiguity in the Japanese response, but he nonetheless characterizes that response as a “contemptuous rejection” of the ultimatum and sympathizes with US officials who interpreted it as such [15].</p>
<p>But Hasegawa observes that no one in the Japanese government ever formally rejected the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation. During the days following the ultimatum at least some of the Japanese leaders were known to be contemplating its meaning, though Japan made no formal reply [16]. Instead, Truman and his staff “seized upon” an offhand (and very ambiguous) comment from Prime Minister Suzuki implying his reluctance, accepting that sole comment as representative of the official Japanese reaction [17]. Truman and his advisers intentionally fabricated Japan’s “prompt rejection” of the offer and subsequently incorporated it into their narrative justifying the use of the bombs.</p>
<p>While the ultimatum was never rejected, Truman and his Secretary of State James Byrnes knew that the demand for unconditional surrender would not be readily accepted either. According to Hasegawa, they insisted on unconditional surrender knowing it was unlikely to yield any result, so that afterwards they could justify the bombs’ use by citing Japan’s intransigence [18]. Hasegawa’s strongest supporting evidence for this claim is a detail of supreme importance, though one which is usually neglected in the standard histories: Stimson, Chief of Staff George Marshall, and General Thomas Handy had, prior to July 26, already approved a directive (circulated on July 24-25) that ordered the use of multiple atomic bombs against Japan “as soon as weather will permit” [19]. In addition, Hasegawa notes that US officials had not sent the ultimatum through normal diplomatic channels and cites passages from the diaries of Truman and Department of State adviser Walter Brown that suggest the ultimatum was merely a “prelude” to the use of the bombs [20].</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Soviet Entry, Not the Bombs</p>
<p>Hasegawa’s second major challenge to what has become the official scholarly version of the bombs’ use is that the Soviet declaration of war rather than the atomic bombs was the major factor compelling Japan to surrender. The direct role of the bombs in bringing about Japan’s surrender has always been part of the official narrative, for obvious reasons [21]. Yet that argument has also gone virtually unchallenged among revisionist historians and those who criticize the bombs’ use [22].</p>
<p>Hasegawa continually emphasizes Japanese leaders’ need to maintain the Soviet position of neutrality. Both the hawks and the doves agreed on this imperative, though for slightly different reasons [23]. For several months prior to the Soviet invasion, Japanese leaders had been actively seeking to maintain Soviet neutrality. By mid-June members of the peace faction had begun pursuing Soviet mediation (in an unprecedented intervention, the emperor himself even started working directly with the “Big Six” leaders toward this end) [24]. War advocate Colonel Tanemura’s April 29 memo emphasized the “life and death importance” that Japanese leaders from both factions attached to the issue of Soviet neutrality [25].</p>
<p>Given the Japanese imperative of keeping the Soviet Union neutral, Stalin’s declaration of war on August 7-8 was disastrous. According to Hasegawa, Japanese leaders’ diaries and testimonies suggest that the imminent Soviet invasion was more influential in compelling them to accept the Potsdam conditions. Although Emperor Hirohito’s desire to end the war became more urgent after Hiroshima, only on August 9 after the Soviet declaration of war did he clearly say that “it is necessary to study and decide on the termination of the war” [26]. The other peace advocates in the Foreign Ministry on the same day began to urge acceptance of the Potsdam ultimatum [27]. The reactions of the more hawkish military officials seem to have been similar. Both Admiral Toyoda and Army Deputy Chief of Staff Kawabe were surprised at the news of Hiroshima but were not ready to temper their views on continuing the war [28]. Many military officials hoped to mount a final defense, but had counted on Soviet neutrality in order to do so [29]. The Soviet declaration of war destroyed those hopes, and severely weakened the war faction’s leverage within the government.</p>
<p>The major strength of Hasegawa’s work, and one reason for its new arguments, is its in-depth analysis of Japanese primary sources. Few previous historians in the US had consulted the personal writings of figures like Toyoda, Kawabe, and Tanemura. But Hasegawa also makes more extensive use of Allied primary sources, including the memoirs and diaries of Truman, Byrnes, Brown, and others, which play a key role in his argument about the intent of the Potsdam Proclamation. Hasegawa’s careful scholarship has significantly enriched our understanding of the intentions behind the demand for “unconditional surrender,” as well as the dynamics behind the Japanese decision to surrender.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Sixty-Three Years Later</p>
<p>More ominously, though, the fact that Hasegawa’s book comes six decades after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaski suggests the ease with which the official version of historical events often pervades both mainstream commentary and scholarly research. Even many conscientious historians have unthinkingly repeated the basic claims that Hasegawa challenges. Outside of the historical profession, though, all aspects of the official narrative are usually accepted without question, and very few of the preceding facts are known or acknowledged. Many of the long-refuted claims used to justify the use of the atomic bombs are even today frequently accepted as truth. For example, news anchors, journalists, and presidents in recent decades have continued to repeat outlandish casualty estimates for a US invasion which have no basis in the documents preceding August 1945 [30].</p>
<p>Based largely on the assertions and omissions of the official narrative, and that narrative’s broad acceptance by mainstream commentators, much of the US public continues to deem the use of the atomic bombs justified. As two recent scholars note, the belief “that the bomb, and the bomb alone, ended the war and saved countless American lives remains an article of faith” [31]. The propaganda has been remarkably successful; many US citizens continue to support not only the use of atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but have also advocated the use of nuclear weaponry in recent conflicts as well (in 1991 almost half of the US public supported the use of atomic weapons against Iraq) [32].</p>
<p>The acquiescence of the US public to war and violence overseas depends in large part on US leaders’ ability to selectively exclude certain factual details from the historical record, but it also depends on the leaders’ ability to shield the public from the human evidence—in this case, the images of charred corpses, deformed Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, and eyewitness accounts describing the immediate aftermath of the bombings. Such images are essential to any honest history of warfare, be it atomic or “conventional.” The modern-day observer can never completely understand the horrifying experiences of the victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the photographs, video footage, and post-war fiction inspired by the bombings can at least offer a window into those experiences [33]. For precisely this reason war-making politicians have always sought to restrict access to this sort of information (a pattern which has reached new extremes in the US since 2001).</p>
<p>Sixty-three years after the US bombing of Japan (including not only the two atomic bombs but also the merciless area bombing of Japanese cities in spring and summer 1945) killed perhaps half a million people, few of the possible “lessons” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem to have been learned. The United States is currently engaged in two major wars that have claimed 1-2 million lives, with thousands more to follow should the US invade Iran or—as Obama and McCain both propose—further escalate military actions in Afghanistan. Public consent for these enterprises has depended on official lies and propaganda, alongside the narrative of US history common in high schools and news media across the country that portrays the US as exceptionally benevolent in the world sphere. The memory of World War II has been central to this portrayal, even though the history of US bombing strategy in the war, including the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, suggests a slightly different story. If known and acknowledged, this history might prompt important questions: was World War II really a battle between two moral absolutes, or, as Gandhi suggested, was the difference between the Axis and Allied commanders “only one of degree” [34]? Of even more direct relevance for today, are the domestic ingredients which gave rise to World War II—militarism, national chauvinism, and concentrated control over decision-making and the means of violence—things of the past? Contemporary solutions depend to a large degree on an honest accounting of the past, which offers plenty of lessons for those willing to listen.</p>
<p>KEVIN YOUNG is a graduate student in history at Stony Brook University. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Notes:</p>
<p>[1] See Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harper’s Magazine 194, no. 1161 (1947): 99, 102, 105, 107; see also Truman’s August 6, 1945, speech quoted in Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (New York: Grosset/Putnam, 1995), 4-5.</p>
<p>[2] J. Samuel Walker, “History, Collective Memory, and the Decision to Use the Bomb,” in Hiroshima in History and Memory, ed. Michael J. Hogan (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996), 190.</p>
<p>[3] Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (New York: Grosset/Putnam, 1995), 282; J. Samuel Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 106, 39; Barton J. Bernstein, “Truman and the A-Bomb: Targeting Noncombatants, Using the Bomb, and His Defending the ‘Decision,'” The Journal of Military History 62, no. 3 (1998), 552. For Stimson’s claim, see Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 102.</p>
<p>[4] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 91-92.</p>
<p>[5] Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America, 241, 274; Walker, “Prompt and Utter Destruction,” 62; Barton J. Bernstein, “Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945: A Reinterpretation,” Political Science Quarterly 90, no. 1 (1975), 59, 62. For the original claims by Truman, Stimson, and others that the bombs had been directed at military bases, and that the bombings came only after long and careful deliberation, see Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 99, 102, 105, and Truman’s August 6 speech, quoted in Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America, 4-5.</p>
<p>[6] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 62. The Allies proved increasingly willing to resort to “area bombing” of civilian populations as the war dragged on. The British, says Walker, had by early 1942 adopted area bombing of cities as a legitimate military tactic (25-26). Three years later, the “bombing of civilians was such an established practice…that American leaders accepted it as a legitimate means of conducting war” (95).</p>
<p>[7] The quote appears in Barton J. Bernstein, “Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945,” 62. See also Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 14-15, 51.</p>
<p>[8] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 15-16, 18, 62-69 (in which Walker discusses Truman’s change of attitude toward the Soviet entry into the war as a result of the Trinity test), 92; Bernstein, “Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945,” 24, 44-46; Bernstein, “Truman and the A-Bomb,” 555-556.</p>
<p>[9] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 45.</p>
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<p>[10] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 92, 94.</p>
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<p>[11] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 92, 93, 96. Walker points out the differing values that US officials assigned to US versus Japanese lives, saying that Truman “would have elected to use the bomb even if the numbers of US casualties prevented had been relatively small” (double-quoted on page 93); See also Bernstein, “Truman and the A-Bomb,” 558, in which Truman describes the Japanese as “savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic.”</p>
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<p>[12] Stimson’s July 2 memo quoted in Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 104.</p>
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<p>[13] Truman quoted in Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 170. For a similar assertion, see Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 104-105.</p>
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<p>[14] Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 101.</p>
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<p>[15] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 72-73. For another example of revisionist historians who have taken for granted the claim that Japan rejected the ultimatum, see Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America, xvi-xvii, 107.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[16] Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 172-173. Here Hasegawa cites the writings of James Byrnes to prove that he had knowledge of the MAGIC intercepts obtained after the issuance of the July 26 ultimatum, which suggested that certain Japanese leaders were at least discussing the ultimatum.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[17] Quote is taken from State Department aid Eugene Dooman, cited in Ibid., 170. See also pp. 169-173 for more information on Suzuki’s comment and how Dooman notes that its meaning was constructed and used by Truman.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[18] Ibid., 133-135. See specifically pp. 135 and 159—citing Byrnes’ post-war memoirs and Truman’s Potsdam diary, respectively. Truman expressed certainty that Japan would not accept the Potsdam terms, but he says that at least “we will have given them the chance.”</p>
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<p>[19] Ibid., 158-159.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[20] Potsdam diary entries quoted in Ibid., 158-160. Quote is from Brown’s July 26 entry (p. 158).</p>
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<p>[21] See Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 107.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[22] Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction, 88, is a good example: Although he thinks the bombs may have been unnecessary (89), he argues that the atomic bombs were decisive in forcing Japan’s surrender. But to do so Walker relies heavily on secondary sources (one Japanese historian in particular, Sadao Asada) rather than primary ones. Walker—unlike Hasegawa—does not consult the Byrnes memoirs, Dooman’s testimony, or the Potsdam diaries of Truman or Brown to determine the reasoning of Truman and his advisers immediately before and after the Potsdam ultimatum on July 26.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[23] Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, 72-73. The hawks needed Soviet neutrality to prosecute the war; the doves hoped for Soviet mediation. See also Soviet Ambassador Malik’s observation of this Japanese need, cited in Ibid., 72.</p>
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<p>[24] Ibid., 101-102, 106.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[25] Quoted in Ibid., 58-59.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[26] Quoted in Ibid., 198.</p>
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<p>[27] Ibid., 197.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[28] Ibid., 185-86 and 199-200, respectively.</p>
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<p>[29] Ibid., 199.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[30] For instances of the deliberate propagation of erroneous casualty estimates in the 1980s and nineties, see Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America, 268-270, 282, 286; President George Bush quoted in Walker, “History, Collective Memory, and the Decision to Use the Bomb,” 188. The highest of the estimates was six million, given by USA Today.</p>
<p>[31] Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America, 266.</p>
<p>[32] Ibid., 305n.</p>
<p>[33] For video footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, see the 1970 Eric Barnouw film Hiroshima/Nagasaki, August 1945; the film Dark Circle (1983) by Judy Irving, Chris Beaver, and Ruth Landy; and the Nicholas Meyer ABC special The Day After (1983). For well-known examples of atomic bomb fiction, see Hayashi Kyoko, “Ritual of Death,” trans. Mark Selden, The Japan Interpreter 12.1, 1978; the anthology The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath, ed. Kenzaburô Ôe (New York: Grove Press, 1985); Another must-read is Michihiko Hachiya, M.D., Hiroshima Diary: Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945, trans. and ed. Warner Wells, M.D. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1955).</p>
<p>[34] Mahatma Gandhi, “Atom Bomb and Ahimsa,” http://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/gandhi’sstruggle2.htm (accessed January 27, 2006).</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Atomic Bombing of Japan | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/08/06/the-atomic-bombing-of-japan/ | 2008-08-06 | 4 |
<p>Rule Breaker Investingwrapped up its Entrepreneur series last month with an interview with Guy Kawasaki, the Silicon Valley-based author, speaker, and chief evangelist at Canva.</p>
<p>For decades, Guy has led a distinguished career in the technology world, and in this episode, he shares his personal Ten Commandments for entrepreneurs. Find out why "jumping curves" and "rolling the DICEE" can be the key to a successful, innovative company.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A full transcript follows the video.</p>
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<p>*StockAdvisor returns as of December 12, 2016The author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned.</p>
<p>This podcast was recorded on Dec. 3, 2016.</p>
<p>David Gardner: Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. Well, it is a special treat. This is, after all, the time of abundance. The time of Thanksgiving. The holiday time.</p>
<p>So we've got something extra for you, once again, this month in Motley Fool Rule Breakers, and that is an interview with one of my favorite entrepreneur coaches (an entrepreneur, himself) [and] business minds, today, and that's Guy Kawasaki, a longtime friend of The Motley Fool and somebody I'm so delighted to share with you, today.</p>
<p>You may or may not know Guy's stuff. If you do, you're going to hear more great Guy Kawasaki advice. He's going to be reunderlining a few things that you'd heard once and perhaps forgotten. If you've never heard from Guy Kawasaki before, you're in for a treat. And so this will officially and formally close out Entrepreneur Month, which is what November was for Rule Breaker Investing. Well, let me get right to Guy.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Gardner: Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool with tens of millions of users, at this point. He's on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz USA, an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). We both have had at least one son be there or graduate from there. He was also, of course, the chief evangelist of Apple.</p>
<p>He's also the author of The Art of Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment -- I hate brushing through these [as] these are some very fine books -- Rules for Revolutionaries [and] eight other books. There's just so much to say about Guy. Guy, you got a BA from Stanford University. I didn't remember you got an MBA from UCLA. Looking backward, was that the right thing to do? An MBA? Did you even need an MBA?</p>
<p>Guy Kawasaki: Looking backward? Well, it's easy to look backward. At the time (this is the late '70s), the MBA degree was a fence that you jumped over to get career advancement. I don't think that's true in technology, today. So is it necessary to get an MBA to start a company? Not at all. Is it necessary to get an MBA to work for Goldman Sachs, or for Accenture, or for McKinsey? Probably. So it depends on your career path.</p>
<p>You know, when people say, "Well, I'm thinking of starting a company. I want to go get an MBA," I tell them, "You know, I don't think so." And in Silicon Valley, believe it or not, for a tech company an MBA is not necessarily a positive.</p>
<p>Gardner: Yeah, I can see that, so it's somewhat ironic to note that Guy Kawasaki has an MBA, but really place and time it makes sense to me. It makes sense to me. And Guy, you know, I first came across you... This is really random. I was sitting in Alexandria, Virginia in my house (this is in the mid-1990s), and on local cable access there was just some interview with you. You were sitting there, and you were taking down conventional wisdoms right in front of your host, talking about starting a business. You probably were shooting down an MBA at that point. This is two decades after you got one.</p>
<p>But you spoke to me -- you didn't know you were speaking to me -- but I don't think The Motley Fool started there. I was just sitting there, watching, and I was thinking I really like this guy (pun not intended) because he looks at things differently. And the Fool in me, which would later kind of break out and become a real thing, appreciated you going after conventional wisdom.</p>
<p>That's what I wanted to do featuring you this week on Rule Breaker Investing, Guy. I wanted to spot you up with some of your great what I think of as "Kawasaki-isms." Just to give the background, here, this is from a speech you gave in 2009, in fact, at Wharton. I'm just going to spot you up with your "Ten Commandments" and ask you just to give us a minute or two on each one. I'm not expecting you memorized these. Were these chiseled in stone? Do you remember these ten commandments, Guy?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Uh, barely.</p>
<p>Gardner: Did you come down from a mountain, somewhere?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, I've misplaced my tablet, so you're going to have to refresh my mind.</p>
<p>Gardner: No problem. These are all great, and I'm really looking forward to it. Let's get started with number one. Number one -- make meaning, not money.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: By this I mean, and it's really an observation, that if you look at the truly great companies, they make meaning. They make people's lives better. So Apple has made computing available to many people. Google has democratized information. Canva, the company that I work for now, is trying to democratize design. And my theory is that if you make meaning, you'll probably also make money. But if you start off trying to slowly make money, you'll just attract a bunch of people who are trying to get a quick clip.</p>
<p>Gardner: And Guy, when you become chief evangelist at Apple or Canva, is this something that you're bringing about a viewpoint to those companies or do those companies already get it?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: That depends on how retroactive you want your thinking to be. If you go to work and the company succeeds and it changes people's lives, then after the fact you say, "Of course I knew that, and I really joined that company in order to make the world a better place." But truly at the time you join a company, I would make the case that you're so frickin' happy to get job, anywhere, that you'd probably still go to work anywhere, maybe short of a cigarette company or something. So that's where the theory and the practice diverge, shall I say.</p>
<p>Gardner: Out of curiosity, Guy, what was your first job after your MBA?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: My first job coming out of my MBA was, believe it or not, working for a small family held jewelry company. It was a jewelry manufacturer. No test at all. And it was one of the best experiences, ever, because it enabled me to learn how to truly sell.</p>
<p>Gardner: All right, number two. Number two -- make a mantra, not a mission statement.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. So I'm anti-mission statement. I think mission statements are 25 to 50 words long. They're meaningless. They try to address too many constituencies. The typical mission statement is, "We endeavor to create world-class products that exceed the desires of our customers while enabling our employees to self-actualize their life goals while providing shareholders with a meaningful capital return while killing as few dolphins and whales as possible." And that's a little difficult to stomach.</p>
<p>And so I think you should create a mantra which is two or three words long and very easy to remember. For example, the mantra of Canva is "to democratize design." And I don't know if it's a mantra -- if they use it in this sense -- but from the outside looking in, I would say that Google democratizes information. So that's two words that explain what you do, and I think that's a much more powerful way to explain to the world, including your employees, why you exist.</p>
<p>Gardner: Beautiful. Number three. This is your own phrase, I think. Jump curves.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. So by jumping curves, I mean that true innovation occurs not on the same curve. Not that you made a better typewriter, or a better computer, or a better laser printer. True innovation occurs when you get to the next curve. So you go from harvesting ice, to ice factories, to refrigerator. You go from daisy-wheel printer, to laser printer, to 3D printer. You go from telegraph, to telephone, to mobile phone. That's where the big jumps occur, not because you made a slightly better copper-based telephone system.</p>
<p>Gardner: And playing it forward, you did such a glib and wonderful job just taking us through three quick generations of a few different technologies. Can you select a technology that we all think of as a new, cool thing today and can you jump a curve, or two, and look 25 to 50 years ahead?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Oh, wow.</p>
<p>Gardner: You said it's easy to look back, earlier, which is true. This is an unfair question. But since we have entrepreneurs listening, somebody's probably wondering what curve he or she should jump.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, let me give you an algorithm instead of an answer, because I don't have an answer. I think the algorithm is that it's probably a guy and a gal, two gals, or a two guys in a garage or a spare dorm room that are unencumbered by the current state of the art. So that's why it's so difficult for existing companies to jump curves. Now if you define yourself as "we harvest ice," then do you embrace the ice factory? If you own a bunch of ice factories, do you jump the curve to the refrigerator? So if you're Western Union and you own telegraphs, do you jump to the telephone, and do you jump from telephone to internet, and from internet to mobile? And that's the difficulty.</p>
<p>I'm 62 years old. I think it's very difficult for a 62-year-old to tell you how to jump a curb, because we're so stuck on our current curb. So, I think that's why, by definition, it's usually a young person who jumps the curb because they don't know any better.</p>
<p>Gardner: Well put. Number four, Guy. You're throwing an acronym at us with this one. In product design, you said, "roll the DICEE," but dice has an extra "e" on the end and they're all capitals. That's an acronym. What is it?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: OK. A "DICEE" is the five essential qualities of innovation. So the "D" stands for depth. Great products are deep. You don't run out of power as you come up the curve, the learning curve.</p>
<p>The "I" stands for intelligent. When you look at it, you say, "Huh! This company understood my pain. This company understood my problem."</p>
<p>The "C" stands for complete, so it's not just deep. It's also wide. A great example of that is Amazon. It's not just buying books, anymore. It's basically buying anything you want.</p>
<p>The first "E" stands for elegance in the user interface and the industrial design.</p>
<p>And the last "E" stands for empowering. That it makes you more creative or productive.</p>
<p>So the way I apply this is when you try to jump curves, ask yourself, "Are we creating something that's deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant?"</p>
<p>Gardner: Boy. Each one of these I want to go further down, but if I did we would have way too long an interview. But that's wonderful guiding words from a guy who clearly knows. Number five -- this is a classic Guy Kawasaki phrase. Number five -- don't worry, be "crappy."</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yeah. So don't worry, be crappy means that when you have jumped curbs, don't worry if your curb isn't perfect. For example, if you had the first refrigerator, it was already better to the best ice factory, so ship. When you had the first laser printer, it was already better than the best dot matrix printer, so ship. If I had been smarter, I would have called this the "minimum viable product,"...</p>
<p>Gardner: Aha!</p>
<p>Kawasaki: ...and I would be Eric Ries instead of Guy Kawasaki. But, you know, I actually think that don't worry, be "crappy" is clever.</p>
<p>Gardner: It's definitely a mantra, and mantras matter. I like it. And you were certainly saying it before the MBP crowd showed up, so I think that they've learned something from you.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: I know! I know! Really!</p>
<p>Gardner: Now, let me ask. Since we just covered a point where you used the word "elegance," some people might think there's a little bit of a conflict between the concept of design something that has elegance; but just being crappy and shipping. How do you reconcile those?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, as long as you understand that I am not suggesting that you ship crap. I'm suggesting that you ship a curve jump and it can have elements of crappiness to it. There's a difference.</p>
<p>Gardner: Mm-hmm. Yeah.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: So the first Macintosh was elegant, but it had elements of crappiness to it.</p>
<p>Gardner: And let me ask, because I can't not think of Clayton Christensen and his studies and work on disruptive innovation, where often it is the new player who comes in and democratizes something. It's never going to be an elite quality product. It's just going to be something for the common man and something that people start to use. It's not as good as the Mercedes-Benz, but over time, these disruptive companies can end up growing into those markets. Guy, have you read some Clayton Christensen? Do you see some consonance?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm a big Clayton Christensen fan. I think there's two key lessons, [here]. The first is that it's very difficult to remain innovative. That's his whole point, that it is a dilemma for innovative companies to remain innovative. So that's number one.</p>
<p>Number two -- I think a very important message from Clayton is that the market leaders are typically attacked from below, not above. To take a case that I'm very familiar with because I'm in the design business -- let's say you're trying to attack Adobe Photoshop. One method would be to create a better Photoshop (more features, more power, higher end). I don't think you succeed that way.</p>
<p>I think you attack Photoshop from the bottom, which means less features, easier to use, cheaper, online, and all that other stuff and then you go upmarket. But you don't start by saying "we're more powerful than Photoshop." You start off by saying, "we're less powerful than Photoshop. More elegant. Cheaper. More approachable. Easier to learn."</p>
<p>That's the way you attack a leader.</p>
<p>So when Sun attacked, let's say, DEC or Digital, they didn't attack it from above. They didn't say "we have a more powerful computer." They attacked it from the bottom -- not the bottom, maybe, but lower -- saying that "we have a cheaper, easier, faster, you know whatever computer."</p>
<p>Gardner: So counterintuitive. So true. Such an important point.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Can I draw a parallel?</p>
<p>Gardner: Please.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: When you started your company, you didn't try to outdo the Wall Street Journal, right? You attack the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and any other financial institution or institutions that cover finance...</p>
<p>Gardner: Thank you.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: You didn't attack it from above. You attacked it from below.</p>
<p>Gardner: We were Fools. It turns out 20 years later we still are Fools. But thank you, Guy, I appreciate that.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: You have outlasted Lehman Brothers.</p>
<p>Gardner: [Laughs] I don't know that I should laugh at that, but it's true. It's true. Thank you very much. So we are at the halfway point. This is halftime. Those are five of Guy's 10 commandments. I'm taking a deep breath, here, because I'm already processing a lot that you just shared with us. Do you want to do a quick halftime show? Do you have something to sing, maybe? Is Janet Jackson around? Or should we just go right into the second half?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: I think we should just plunge ahead.</p>
<p>Gardner: All right, good. So I'll kick off to you, here, to start the second half. Number six -- polarize people.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. Polarize people means that great innovation will make some people very happy; it will make some people very pissed off; and that's OK. The goal is not to make everybody happy, because if you try to do that, you'll end up with mediocrity. So the key -- the key -- is that you create something that excites people and the consequence of that is that yes, you may piss off a few people, but so be it. That's better than not being on the radar.</p>
<p>Gardner: You know, I think of somebody else that I really have enjoyed his work over the course of time, Seth Godin, and he talks about the word "remarkable," which means simply that you're causing people to remark about what you're doing. It might be good [and] it might be bad, but you're causing them to remark. It sounds like this kind of polarization.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: It's the "purple" Kawasaki.</p>
<p>Gardner: There we go. Purple Kawasaki. I like it. Of course, punning on Seth's Purple Cow for those keeping score at home. Outstanding. Number seven, Guy. Let 100 flowers blossom. What do you mean by that?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. Let 100 flowers blossom means that at the start of great innovation, you may think you have figured out exactly who should use your product, how, and why; and you may encounter a very interesting situation where unintended customers use your product in unintended ways. And lots of companies freak out when this happens. My God. The wrong people are buying our products in large quantities. And when that happens, you should just declare victory and take the money.</p>
<p>Gardner: And that's because at the end of the day, we're all trying to improve the world. Change people's lives. Sometimes we do it in ways we, ourselves, didn't even foresee or intend.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: And don't be proud. Take the money.</p>
<p>Gardner: Number eight -- churn, baby, churn.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. Churn, baby, churn is a play on "burn, baby, burn" and the Black Panthers. By churn, baby, churn I mean that one of the hardest things for a revolutionary to do is to shift a curve jump and to continue to enhance the curve jump. To churn it. To go from 10, to 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. And that's a huge challenge, but so necessary. A Macintosh 128, to Macintosh 512, to Macintosh Plus, to Macintosh II, etc., etc.</p>
<p>Gardner: And guy, do you still see Apple doing that today? Is that your view of Apple in 2016? Churn, baby, churn?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, I have to say that they continue to churn their phone. I don't think they churn it fast (or fast enough). I have an iPhone 7, and to my amazement you still can't do wireless charging. It's little things like that. On the one hand, they're telling the world that we all have to go to USB-C, but this has a lightning connector, so explain to me why you're telling us to go to USB-C on computers, but you're still lightning? I don't get that. I can't tell you that I'm blown away by the pace of their churn.</p>
<p>Oh, another case in point is I have a Macbook Pro, and this Macbook Pro is from 2013. It's now 2017. I have a new Macbook Pro on order, but I used to change Macbooks every year. When the hard disk started getting filled up, right there it was God telling me to buy a new Macbook Pro. But I've had this thing for three years. How is it possible that I've had a Macbook Pro for three years?</p>
<p>Gardner: But isn't that kind of a good thing? I think a lot of people don't want to have to constantly buy a new computer every year.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yeah. I mean, certainly I understand that, but I want to buy a new computer every year. Not because I want to spend the money, but because I want to be blown away. Oh, it got twice as fast, or twice as cool. I'm OK with that. In a sense, people have to understand for me (and maybe not a lot of people) but for me, my computer is the core of my productivity.</p>
<p>It's not like a car. For a car for me, I can spend years in a car because it's not core to my existence. But a computer is core to my existence, and I want it to be improved all the time.</p>
<p>Gardner: Number nine. Niche yourself.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. So niche yourself is a recommendation that you need to be very important so you're valuable, and you need to be unique; that is, only you make this product or service. Because when you're valuable and unique, that's when you can make history and make money.</p>
<p>So you can be valuable but not unique (and I would say that Dell is in that corner). You can make a lot of money, there, but it's always about price, because you're not unique.</p>
<p>You can be unique but not valuable, and in that corner you're just stupid, because you own a market that doesn't exist.</p>
<p>You could be unique and not valuable. That's many Silicon Valley companies, where it's a dumb idea, but people like me are funding multiple versions of the dumb idea.</p>
<p>So the corner you need to be in is where you're the only game in town and it's very valuable.</p>
<p>I would say, for example, when the iPhone first came out, it was valuable, because it had a good user interface. And it was unique because it was the only way you could easily, and cheaply, and legally buy music. So that was unique and valuable, and hence the success. You could make the case that all of innovation is about being unique and valuable.</p>
<p>Gardner: You know, Guy, I think a lot of people who are entrepreneurs... One of the most popular start-ups that's not a Silicon Valley start-up (I'm thinking small business across America and the world) is a restaurant. A lot of people start restaurants. Have you ever opened up restaurant?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: No. I'm not that much of a masochist.</p>
<p>Gardner: It's a tough business, no question. But I think about what makes unique in a restaurant. I feel like that's a creative problem that you or I could solve. I think that there are ways. We had Danny Meyer on of Union Square fame and Shake Shack fame a couple of weeks ago on this podcast, and I think his decision to take tipping out of the equation, altogether, at his restaurants is an example.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. That is definitely an interesting thing. I think his point is that it makes a better relationship between customer and... Do they call it front? The front office? What do they call it? It's back versus front, right?</p>
<p>Now, if you're a diner, you're not thinking about, "Well, how much do I tip this guy or gal," and if you're a waiter, you're not thinking, "Well, how much is this *!@#* going to tip me?" But I think almost more important, [which] is part of his concept, is he increases the base-level pay of everybody. I think he makes a good point. So a waiter or a waitress has a low base, but can make a lot of money because of tips. But the cook, who's making the essential product...</p>
<p>Gardner: That's right.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: ...is on a flat rate. There's no profit sharing. There's no tipping of the cook.</p>
<p>Gardner: That's right.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: So it's kind of ass-backwards, right? So what's more important? The food or the serving of the food? At least they're equally important. In his NPR thing, they interviewed some cooks and they were making $25,000 to $35,000 a year after spending four years in culinary school. That boggles my mind.</p>
<p>Gardner: Thinking of another business that's taken tipping out and has gotten pretty popular these days is Uber. What do you make of Uber?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, Uber hasn't taken tipping out. It's just tipping is automated, right?</p>
<p>Gardner: Yeah, but taking the decision [away from] the consumer. It just feels easier to me, anyway.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes. Oh, yes, it's much easier. I admit the concept of taking tipping out -- there are times where you might not want the Uber driver to get any tip and it's kind of automatic. And there are also times where you want to give an exemplary case to an Uber driver and you want to pay them even more. And I know you can do that, but who the hell ever remembers to do that? But I don't think the essence of Uber is taking tipping out. I think the essence of Uber is that you go to your app, you say you're here, you see how many cars are around.</p>
<p>It's not like calling a cab company. You call a cab company and you have no idea if they're coming all the way across town to pick you up...</p>
<p>Gardner: Yeah ...</p>
<p>Kawasaki: ... and it's going to be half an hour or five minutes. And then the whole experience of getting out. So you get out of the cab. You hope they take a credit card. You hope they're not capturing your number. I mean, there's a lot of like iffy stuff. Whereas Uber, you just get the hell out of there...</p>
<p>Gardner: Yeah...</p>
<p>Kawasaki: ...and boom. And then I think the probability of getting reimbursed by your company for an Uber fare is much higher than a taxi fare because to get out of a taxi and you paid, you have to remember to get a receipt. You have to remember to put in the number, the date, and the amount, and then you have to remember to keep that piece of paper, and you have to remember to turn that piece of paper in, which means you never get reimbursed for a cab.</p>
<p>But Uber is always there, so you could make the case that Uber has cost companies money because it's much more likely for an employee to get an Uber reimbursement than a cash cab reimbursement, so maybe it's a negative for companies.</p>
<p>Gardner: Well, it sounds like a better world to me, although in the end we have the choice of either one, and that's the world I like. Guy, you've been so gracious with nine points. I've got your 10th one for you. Whether or not you remember it, this all, again, comes from a speech you gave at Wharton seven years ago, and it closed out with number 10, follow the 10-20-30 rule. What's that?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yes, the 10-20-30 rule is a rule for pitching. So my recommendation is that you use 10 slides, you be able to give those 10 slides in 20 minutes, and that your font is no smaller than 30 points. And if you were to follow this rule, your pitch would be better than 95% of the pitches in the world. Just those three rules.</p>
<p>Gardner: And you said 30 point or bigger, right? You didn't say 30 point or smaller. You're talking about big words, a few slides. A short presentation.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Minimum. Minimum 30 points, yes. Not maximum.</p>
<p>Gardner: Now, I'm picturing you as the chief evangelist at Canva. I know you're very busy. Do you watch pitches these days? Is that part of the Guy Kawasaki life in 2016?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Nope. Never. Never.</p>
<p>Gardner: Do you miss it?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Not at all. You know, the nature of pitches is that you look at a thousand and you accept one...</p>
<p>Gardner: That's inefficient.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Yeah.</p>
<p>Gardner: That's a lot of work.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: And also, by definition you're almost always going to say no. That's number one. Number two [is] it's hard, because on the one hand, you want to help the entrepreneur improve his or her pitch. On the other hand, helping the entrepreneur improve his or her pitch takes enormous intellectual involvement. And so, I think that's why venture capitalists never really give you feedback. They kind of say, "Yes, very interesting. Looks promising. We'll get back to you," because that's easy to say.</p>
<p>Whereas if you really wanted to improve the pitch, you'd say, "OK, so you suck here, you suck here, you suck here, and this is how to change it." But then when you start telling people where they suck, then they argue back that, "no, we don't suck." And then it becomes a time suck.</p>
<p>So in a sense, it's like when you're hiring an employee. You interview a thousand people and you hire one. You don't give 999 employees feedback. Oh, this is why we didn't hire you. It's because you're a brute, and you're wearing a polyester pantsuit, and you have bad breath, and you have a really poor rsum. And you have lousy references. We'll tell you who the lousy references came from.</p>
<p>Now, some of these actually step over the line of legality, but when you get rejected by a company, you always get a letter that says "despite your high qualifications, we are unable to offer you a position." They don't tell you why you sucked. So "don't cry for me Argentina," but that's why it's really hard to listen to a lot of pitches if you want to help the entrepreneur, because it takes enormous energy and enormous intellectual involvement to truly help someone you're rejecting.</p>
<p>Gardner: Well through your books and through your own work. Through speeches that you give. Through your very presence in the world at large, Guy, you have helped innumerable entrepreneurs, this one included, and I'm really grateful to have this chance to connect with you this week.</p>
<p>Let me close out by asking you two quick questions. One is I would love to know a hero of yours, living or dead. I think heroes matter so much to all of us, and I'm always curious. You're one of my heroes, but who's one of your heroes? And the second question -- you can take them in either order -- is can you give the classic Kawasaki line about don't let the bozos get you down and explain it.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: As for heroes, right now I'm into surfing, so I guess my hero would be Kelly Slater. That's number one. I suppose you wanted a more intellectual kind of answer...</p>
<p>Gardner: No, no. That works.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: So that's one. Another is to reiterate a name that you mentioned. I think that Clayton Christensen is doing great work about innovation. A third would be, of course, Steve Jobs. There are aspects of how he did things that I don't exactly admire, but there are aspects that he was just beyond anybody else's capabilities, so he would be a hero. So those are some heroes for you.</p>
<p>Gardner: Let me pin down, really quick, on Steve Jobs. Can you give a quick anecdote? Some time that you brushed Jobs wrongly? Throw us a bone, here, Kawasaki Jobs.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: OK. So first of all, when the Macintosh division decided to hire me, the person who hired me was my college classmate, so it was purely nepotism. When he went to Steve to say, "OK, can I hire Guy?" Steve's ringing endorsement of me was, "He's OK, but I'm not sure, and if you hire him and he doesn't work, I'm going to fire you, too." So that's how I got my job at Apple. But it all worked out.</p>
<p>Gardner: It sure did.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: That's my Steve Jobs story for you.</p>
<p>Gardner: Great. All right, and "don't let the bozos get you down." What do you mean?</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Well, don't let the bozos get you down means that there are going to be people in the world who tell you it can't be done, and it shouldn't be done, it isn't necessary, and you have to learn to ignore those people.</p>
<p>Now, there are fundamentally two kinds of bozos. One bozo is obviously a loser. Body odor. Pocket protector. Japanese watch. Rusty car. So this bozo is not dangerous because an obvious loser should not endanger your existence because only losers listen to losers. So if you're a loser, you might listen to a loser. Your listeners are not losers, so this bozo isn't dangerous.</p>
<p>The dangerous bozo is the rich, famous, powerful bozo, because many people parse rich and famous to smart. But I would make the case that rich and famous usually (or not usually) but at least 50% of the time parses to lucky. So it's very difficult to separate luck from competence. And this is why it's dangerous, because if a dangerous bozo tells you you it can't be done and shouldn't be done and it isn't necessary, and you actually listen, you might not try, and that's the worst outcome of all.</p>
<p>So I want to caution people from listening to people just because they're rich and famous. By that tip you shouldn't listen to, I don't know, Kim Kardashian about how to raise a family. I would suggest that that might not be optimal. But that's the danger.</p>
<p>Now, that is kind of an extreme example, but let's suppose you're in the personal computer business, and you go to someone who's been very successful in the mini computer business for advice. And the person in the mini computer business might tell you, "Well, no one wants a personal computer, and so you should learn cobalt and come work for my mini computer company." And if you listened to that person, you would never start Apple.</p>
<p>That's why if you went to the person who owned 50 successful ice factories and said to that person, "Well, we have this new thing called a refrigerator. You don't have to have an ice factory to deliver ice to you anymore. Now you can have your own personal ice factory," I highly doubt that the ice factory owner would say, "You're right. You should do this company."</p>
<p>Gardner: Outstanding. Guy Kawasaki, what a pleasure it is to reconnect after some years and I continue to wish you the very best. Good luck with Canva and all of your other endeavors.</p>
<p>Kawasaki: Thank you very much, David. It's a pleasure.</p>
<p>Gardner: Fool on!</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Gardner: Well, I hope those 30 minutes, or so roughly, spoke for themselves. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, and that you were educated, amused, and enriched by what you just heard. And if that's the case, then that's what The Motley Fool set out to do when we first met Guy Kawasaki when we were just an AOL site some 20+ years ago.</p>
<p>And so bring on December. You can check out past episodes of Rule Breaker Investing and all The Motley Fool podcasts at our podcast center. Just go to Podcasts.Fool.com. And while you're there, you can check out our subscription services. A new issue of Rule Breakers service comes out with two new stock recommendations from me the last Wednesday of every month. It sounds like right about Mailbag time every month. You can check it out by going to the podcast center, scrolling to the bottom of the page. That's Podcasts.Fool.com.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<p>As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at RBI.Fool.com.</p>
<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fools board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSpiffyPop/info.aspx" type="external">David Gardner Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool is short Shake Shack and has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Accenture, Adobe Systems, and The New York Times. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | David Gardner Welcomes Guy Kawasaki to Rule Breaker Investing | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/07/david-gardner-welcomes-guy-kawasaki-to-rule-breaker-investing.html | 2017-01-08 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Former Mother Jones intern and current Salon.com writer Justin Elliott brings up some <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/27/joe_miller_implies_murkowski_a_prostitute/index.html" type="external">good examples</a> of sexism in the race for seats this November. In one, Joe Miller briefly compares opponent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to a prostitute. In another, Ken Buck said Colorado voters should pick him over Jane Norton for the senate because he “doesn’t wear high heels.” Sexist attacks are nothing new on the campaign trail, though they somehow lack the destructive powers of racist remarks. But what some candidates are forgetting is that sexism is a two-way street.</p>
<p>Ken Buck said he made the remark about Norton’s footwear because she had assailed his “manhood” in an attack ad where she said he should be “man enough”&#160;to pay for his own campaign spots, and that Colorado should elect a senator who had “backbone enough to stand her ground.” Politicians use all kinds of gimmicks pursuing votes, but playing the gender card is a cheap shot, and one that often backfires. The “man enough”&#160;comment was indeed sexist, as was Buck’s response to it. Norton hit back in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9qbQCXH6Y" type="external">this video</a>, but eventually <a href="" type="internal">lost to Buck</a> by 3 points last month.</p>
<p>Sharron Angle is another female senate candidate who’s shown signs of playing the gender card, and not to her advantage. She said in two interviews that Harry Reid’s attack ads were an attempt to “hit the girl.” She <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39522.html#ixzz0xqIkASvK" type="external">told</a> the Heidi Harris Show that Reid was bullying her in the campaign, “And he has been doing that to me and what we need to do is say, ‘you know Harry, it’s not going to do you any good to hit the girl.'” I have a lot of issues with Angle, but I can’t imagine portraying herself as a defenseless girl on the playground will do Angle much good: If you don’t want to be bullied, Congress is the last place you should go. I&#160;don’t think playing the gender card helps female candidates, but I&#160;for one would prefer to see candidates of both sexes attack one another based on what’s between their ears rather than what’s between their legs.</p>
<p /> | Vote for Me! The One Who’s Not a Broad! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/vote-me-one-whos-not-broad/ | 2010-08-27 | 4 |
<p>The&#160;FBI’s investigation into President Trump’s Russian connections is now looping in notable right-wing news sites, according to a new report.</p>
<p>McClatchy reported on Monday evening that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into the possibility of whether or not the Russian Federation <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article139695453.html" type="external">used prominent far-right news sources</a> like Breitbart News (formerly run by current White House chief strategist Steve Bannon), conspiracy theory site Infowars, and Russian-funded sources like RT and Sputnik News to plant stories that cast Donald Trump in a positive light while simultaneously casting doubt on Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.</p>
<p>A key facet of the FBI’s investigation — conducted by the agency’s Counterintelligence Division — is how Russian government operatives may have used “bots” to spam social media hubs like Facebook and Twitter with links to pro-Trump stories from those sites in order to help make those stories go viral and improve public perception of the billionaire real estate scion. The bots may have also spread links to WikiLeaks’ stash of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee’s server and the personal Gmail account of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.</p>
<p>Some of the news that bots spread that was helpful to Trump and damaging to Clinton turned out to be entirely false. McClatchy cited the work of Oxford University Internet Institute professor Philip Howard, who has extensively studied how bots operate. Howard said that bots helped spread the fake story about Comet Ping-Pong, a pizza shop in Washington, DC that operated a secret child sex slave operation out of its basement, in a faux-scandal later referred to as “Pizzagate.”</p>
<p>Even though the Pizzagate story was debunked (the pizza restaurant <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-38156985" type="external">didn’t even have a basement</a>), that didn’t stop news sites catering to the extreme right, <a href="https://www.infowars.com/hillary-clinton-mike-flynn-targeted-over-exposing-pizzagate/" type="external">like Infowars</a>, from breathlessly covering it. The propagation of Pizzagate conspiracy theories eventually drove a 28-year-old North Carolina man to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/13/politics/pizzagate-suspect-federal-charges/" type="external">drive to Comet Ping-Pong with several weapons</a> and rescue the victims of the nonexistent pedophilia ring.</p>
<p>According to former Pentagon official Mike Carpenter, who focused on Russia while working for the Department of Defense, the viral spread of pro-Trump and anti-Clinton news was done conspicuously to distract media attention away from Trump’s scandals (like the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?utm_term=.820c1c72440e" type="external">leaked Access Hollywood tape</a> in which Trump grabbed about sexually assaulting women).</p>
<p>“They very carefully timed release of information to shift the news cycle away from stories that clearly hurt Mr. Trump, such as his inappropriate conduct over the years,” Carpenter told McClatchy. “Those stories got amplified by fringe elements of our media like Breitbart.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Kevin Wallace is a journalist with five years’ experience in print and digital media, and covers politics, media, and culture for the Resistance Report. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida.</p> | FBI probing role of right-wing news sites in Trump-Russia investigation | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/fbi-right-wing-news/ | 2017-03-20 | 4 |
<p>In the waning months of 2016, as the Standing Rock Sioux’s protest raged against the Dakota Access Pipeline (NODAPL), an historic Back To The Future journey was begun anew for the entire human race to ponder. This journey wasn’t just about Climate Change and how to more quickly convert the world from fossil fuels to renewable energies. It was about an ancient conflict within the human mind and heart that has existed since time immemorial and resurfaces with a vengeance each time the human culture of the Old World collides again with those of the New World.</p>
<p>This very old story speaks to the heart of what happens every time the sacred world view of indigenous peoples in the New World, like the Sioux, clashes with the profane world view of those from the Old World, like the Americans and their European forebears, who have long since lost any sense of their own ancient indigenous nature. It provides a template for how America and every other country in the Old World first came to be, then continued to expand in the New World, and use the same violent, destructive ways to further devolve in the future if the world’s minions and their politicians don’t start to fundamentally respect the sacredness of the Earth and all its waters, lands and natural resources. Otherwise, the future well-being of the human race and Planet Earth is not only severely threatened but ultimately doomed on the path they’re on.</p>
<p>This time-worn tale serves as an ultimate challenge to ponder the historical record and re-examine the successful survival strategies that the sacred world view of indigenous peoples have used for thousands of years when compared to the profane ideology of those from the Old World whose only sacred, inviolate principle, since before and after their invasion of the New World, has been the same feverish acquisition of money, capital, power and use of questionable survival strategies that in only a few hundred years in the New World has led to so much violence and destruction against the human race and Planet Earth.</p>
<p>During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the Sioux’s uprising against the Dakota Access Pipeline was roundly ignored by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. When President Obama finally showed the courage to call a temporary halt to its construction, it was only to be a brief Pyrrhic victory for native peoples, environmentalists and Climate Change proponents that amounted to a mere interlude now that President Donald Trump, who has a conflict of interest investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline, and his administration, packed as it is with billionaire climate change deniers who favour more oil pipeline construction, fossil fuel-nuclear energy development, now have taken hold of the reins of America and begun to plot a vastly different course of action for the XL, DAPL, America’s unsustainable energy philosophy, the fate of Climate Change and very survival of the earth as the world &#160;now knows it.</p>
<p>In North America, neither Democrats, Republicans, Liberals nor Conservatives were able to really grasp the deeper world view underlying the Sioux’s protests about the sacredness of the waters of the Missouri River and the hallowed nature of their ancestral homelands; and so, for months, nothing was done to intercede on behalf of the Sioux and their allies while they were violently set upon by the political, law enforcement and military forces of the United States Government and North Dakota authorities. As the Sioux and others steadfastly sought to peacefully block construction of DAPL through their homelands, the politicians disgracefully allowed the chaos to escalate to the point where innocent men, women, children and elders were put in harm’s way and subjected to some of the most inhumane, brutal physical assaults committed against hapless, innocent civilians since the atrocities perpetrated by American political and law enforcement authorities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s &amp; 70’s.</p>
<p>Before the political decision finally was made to withdraw DAPL’s construction permit to continue, America’s mainstream press did little to truthfully bring to the American public’s attention the real facts and world-shaking significance of what was going on. This wasn’t by accident it was yet another typical intentional news black-out by what could be characterized as the ignorance of the profane world view’s civilization and inherent bias of its over-arching, money-obsessed belief system.</p>
<p>For months, the many horrific things that transpired remained all but invisible to the outside world until independent, alternative journalists took it upon themselves to become the sources of breaking news stories. They were the kind of horrific stories one normally expects to see or hear happen in fascist, banana-republic police states rather than in the heart of America itself. Vicious attacks perpetrated by the Wall Street conglomerate behind the Dakota Access Pipeline’s, military-like defended, construction project, and a host of ruthless bankers and petroleum moguls in their New York, Washington D.C. and Texas boardrooms, directed the DAPL operations to proceed irrespective of the potential cost to human life and limb that was intentionally perpetrated against the protestors. Pro-Trump Law &amp; Order politicians in North Dakota, hordes of state police brought in from four surrounding states, and U.S. National Guard troops committed violent attacks against the human and civil rights of the peaceful protestors; often indiscriminately spraying or shooting them, at point-blank range, with every conceivable weapon short of heavy combat assault weaponry; using everything from MACE, Pepper Spray, Taser darts, rubber bullets, bean bag projectiles, concussion grenades and high-powered water cannons to ear-busting acoustic sound cannons.</p>
<p>Such atrocities were repeatedly covered up by a sea of lies made to the public by American politicians, police and military authorities who spun the violence as reciprocal between the Sioux who, so the spin went, were irresponsibly vandalizing private property and obstructing legally-approved construction while the authorities were simply doing their job to prevent the wilful destruction. This official spin sought to mask what, in reality, is America’s heavily-militarized police state’s ever-present, ever-growing, iron-fisted control over the people that makes its presence known whenever the people ever dare to take it upon themselves to prevent illegal or wrong things from continuing to happen. Throughout all the lies and violence, America’s mainstream press and media did little to ever counter fiction with fact and point out that even as the North Dakota prairie weather continued to plummet to dangerous, life-threatening lows, the Sioux’s resolve never wavered and they demonstrated remarkable, Mahatma Gandhi-like, forbearance and restraint in their refusal to match the brutality being committed against them by the American Government.</p>
<p>But before this barbaric historic event in American history finally came to an end, reactionary elements within the U.S. Government and military were on the verge of officially declaring “illegal”, and forcibly shut down, the Sioux’s Oceti Sakowin DAPL Protest village, evict everyone and transport thousands of its resident protestors to so-called isolated free speech zones. The utter chaos would have been immense. Coverage of the ensuing spectacle would have become a nightly televised feature on the world’s news networks and a colossal embarrassment for America if President Obama hadn’t wisely cut it short when he did; especially given that a column of seasoned U.S. military war veterans already was assembling to rush to the aid and defence of the Sioux and still threaten to do so now that President Trump, as America’s new Commander-in-Chief, has declared his government’s arrogant intent to proceed with the renewed construction of the XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. Once this new turn of events occurs, it will undoubtedly lead to an even uglier moment in American history than what already has happened under President Obama’s watch.</p>
<p>Horrific images come to mind of the Sioux and protesters of other mass movements in the future being kept out of sight and out of mind in the Trump government’s new Orwellian free speech zones to isolate them to endure whatever brutal harshness of the elements or lack of basic amenities until they finally give up in despair in the face of the hostile military forces on land, air and cyberspace massed against them. Whoever the protestors may be, isolated in these bizarre zones, they won’t actually ever be able to see who or what is the source of their protest. Equally as critical, they won’t be able to be seen by the world while attempting to block or protest against whatever is the issue of their concern. Hence, a non-news event with no photo ops and no story!</p>
<p>Such cunning ways to muzzle critically-important social, environmental, political movements and protests in the future could be described as the world’s new makeshift 21st Century ‘concentration camps’, akin to those of World War II. But this isn’t anything new and actually represents a throwback to the U.S. Army’s 19th century concentration camp concept of Indian Reservations that the Sioux’s ancestors were likewise forced onto to remove them from obstructing the imperialism of the ‘White Man’s’ European civilization; Canada’s concept of Reserves no different in their original purpose and intent.</p>
<p>Now that President Trump, and his administration’s &#160;‘Rogues Gallery’ of the ruthless extreme right have been given the keys to the kingdom, this final solution for those like the Sioux and the XL-Dakota Access Pipeline protests no doubt will become but one of a multitude of major issues facing America and the world that, collectively, will be an everyday, business-as-usual reality in the 21st century to ensure Wall Street, the Fossil-Fuel industry, Big Banks, their stockholders and the New Abnormal of Donald Trump’s ultra-right supporters can continue to make record profits while seizing control of every last vestige of human life and achieving utter dominion over all other species and resources on Earth. The 1%ers to remain forever after happily sedated by their fat tax cuts, dodgy money havens and generous corporate deregulations; while their bulging investment portfolios continue to sky-rocket as they sip on their martinis aboard some palatial cruise ship and flick through soft-porn fashion images in Elle, Vogue or CR, while headed for yet the next exotic ‘Club Med’ playground to experience the so-called ultimate “good life”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the future, America’s brand name will continue to evolve into the New Abnormal ways of ever more ruthless, corrupt commerce and business that already are being planned and promoted in every country by ‘The Donald’ billionaire clones of the world. All the American and foreign wars fought in the past, or yet to be in the future, will continue to remain part of the same unbroken chain of violence, duplicity, betrayal and hypocrisy originally perpetrated in the New World that began with a vengeance once Western European brand names emerged in the New World and started to generate all manner of the hype that, in America’s case, sought to market itself as: ‘America The Beautiful’; ‘The American Dream’; ‘Land of the Free &amp; Home of the Brave’, or; the ‘Shining City Upon That Hill’, as prophesized in a biblical parable by none other than Jesus Christ himself during his Sermon on the Mount.</p>
<p>With President Trump and his cronies now ensconced within their lofty seats of power, the bottom line of all this will only be kicked into ever higher and higher gear. Whatever sly marketing ploys are yet to be crafted to further promote the American brand name won’t change the course and direction of its civilization’s profane way of life; as now embodied within Trump’s most-favoured empire-building document: A Project For a New American Century (PNAC). The new Hitler’s, Mussolini’s and Tojo’s of the modern era are now again on the rise. President Trump, and the scary cast of shady characters that already are coalescing around him worldwide, aren’t the main culprits but merely symptoms of yet the latest manifestation of moral and ethical fascism that was long ago set into motion with every other rebranded European name in the New World, much to the regret of its indigenous, aboriginal peoples and the inviolate sacredness of their homelands. &#160;Trump and his kind aren’t about to radically remake the American brand so much as serve as its latest, best and brightest, cheerleaders who will greatly speed up the evolution of its decadent brand in ways that only those like ‘The Donald’ can. They’re simply a continuation of the American brand that, at its core, never has fundamentally believed in the philosophy of a true democracy that advocates such lofty principles as: caring for one’s fellow man or woman; unionism to protect ordinary worker’s rights; the dignity of a liveable hourly wage; universal health care, or; the sacred protection and preservation of the natural world. What Donald Trump presages for America is what Karl Marx predicted one-day would simply happen to Western capitalistic countries like America.</p>
<p>Given this reality, one could argue that this is why newcomer cultures, like those of the Americans and other Western Europeans in the New World, and their political-military-corporate-class systems and feudalistic, plutocratic infrastructures, have, from the outset, been so fundamentally opposed to indigenous, aboriginal cultures and their socialistic, communalistic ways of life that practice values, principles and beliefs that seek to keep life sacred and in balance. The reality is that after over some five centuries of so-called ‘discovery’ in the New World, the newcomers still haven’t been able to grasp the sacred world view of life that believes in being one with all that is and constantly give back to it in gratitude, rather than persist with the profane view of things that perpetually seeks to take and acquire all that is for itself while giving back nothing of equal value in return.</p>
<p>Too many newcomers fail to see that in each unique place in the New World, such as on the ancient continent of Terra Australis, there are those special chosen ones, like its Kookaburra Clan, who are the first to awaken each morn to faithfully fulfil the sacred charge given to them by Creation to herald each new day, with great gusto and joy, as if it was the very first dawning of life itself; to remind newcomers and old-timers alike with its song, “Hooray! It’s another new day to continue to carry out the sacred duty every living being has been given to fulfil to ensure the continuation of life as it was originally intended to be!” To then, at the end of each day, put everyone to bed with another song that declares, “My and Your Sacred Duty Now Is Done! Sleep Well!” In Asia, the Chinese have the Rooster to remind them of these same things, as do the peoples of every continent in the New &amp; Old Worlds also have their own unique awakeners. While most old-timers or ‘old souls’, as some call them, already know this to be true, fewer newcomers, or so-called ‘new souls’, are yet able to heed such simple wisdoms.</p>
<p>But perhaps this line of thought is a fruitless one to ever try to make, and simply too much to ever ask or hope that those like Trump – or any foreign race, culture or civilization that hasn’t ever had the same formative, maturing benefit of the thousands of years of relationship with or connection to all the lands and life forms that indigenous peoples have had – would ever evolve the same sacred view of life and ability or capacity to see things in the same way; the still unresolved problem that has existed for some five hundred years ago still exists today between the indigenous mentality and that of the invader, albeit in a multitude of new and different forms.</p>
<p>To breach this impasse is the ultimate solution, but of course the perennial problem is that the belief system of the invader mentality of the Trump’s of the world — fuelled by their insatiable drive for self-serving avaricious private enterprise, constantly fed by human greed and the other seven deadly human sins – has been predicated, since day one, upon perpetual growth and ever-larger consumptions of energy and resources, where the constant unsustainable explosion of human populations now has become the single most, driving cause behind every deteriorating crisis on earth. Among but a few of these many unfolding calamitous crises are: the rapid depletion of fish stocks and other food sources in the world’s oceans due to the unrelenting pressures of ever-greater human demands; the disappearance of vast tracts of prime farmlands for ever-larger, sprawling urban and rural housing developments; the loss of vast tracts of pristine forests destroyed for the raw materials demanded by ever-burgeoning home, industry and mega-agricultural projects; the ever more rapid loss of potable water sources destroyed by the continued mining-fracking-extraction of a host of diminishing natural resources; the wholesale loss of modern civilization’s unique architectural heritage, time-honoured traditions and cultural practices impacted by the tidal wave of immigrants created by all the chaos, akin to the invasions of the Vikings and Huns of old, that continues to destroy whatever host country’s former way of life which, in turn, is creating ever more civil unrest and political blowback to the detriment of the entire human race; not to mention the all but impossible task of trying to continually create ever more meaningful, well-paying jobs for the ever-burgeoning numbers of the displaced, unemployed and unemployable. Little serious discussion is ever raised by world leaders to address the ultimate source of these crises – of which their world view is actually the cause – and, hence, no one has yet come up with any answers or solutions how to ever stop or even slow them down, other than allow for the constant proliferation of world war, pandemic disease and endless economic expansion.</p>
<p>The indigenous sensibility of those who contend we humans have instead been created to maintain a small eco-footprint on the earth, and humbly serve as caretakers of legacies we’re obligated to bequeath intact to future coming generations of humans and non-humans alike, is a sensibility still totally alien and repugnant to the invader’s belief system today as it was five centuries ago. Such beliefs remain light years away from the grandiose dreams and ambitions of the invader mentality that first came to the New World, and today’s even more grandiose, all-consuming world view of all ‘The Donald’s’ who instead continue to look upon themselves as the ordained dominant ones whose God has decreed to them total dominion over all forms of life; while imbuing them with the arrogant belief that whatever actions they may take aren’t ever the source of whatever unsustainable population explosion, unlimited economic growth or human-caused climate change.</p>
<p>Yet, for better or worse, as our tiny Earth-orb continues to hurl through the distant reaches of the universe, this new-old Star Wars mentality, like it or not, now is going where it’s going and taking the whole lot of us with it for one hell of a wild ride; until, or unless, the penny finally drops and the reality dawns that the tragic direction and savage ending towards where the invader mentality of the Trump’s continue to point humanity is heading towards a cataclysmic head-on collision against the fateful solid brick wall that awaits up ahead.</p>
<p>So here we all are, still in the blush of 2017, having only anointed a fortnight or so ago what some would call, “the most powerful man on Earth”, who will usher in, so the spin goes, yet another much-touted ‘new world order’ that, “Will Make America Great Again”; yet, as many now fear, already is showing the early signs of coming apart at the seams, and will only continue to sound the death knell to whatever America’s free, brave, beautiful, shining dream once promised it would become but lied because it never will.</p>
<p>When this writer now thinks of America and the world’s dark, troubled future that lies ahead, a children’s nursery rhyme immediately springs to mind that goes, “Humpty Dumpty climbed a great wall! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! All the King’s horses and all the Kings men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again!” Like all of history’s Humpty Dumpty megalomaniacs who’ve come and gone before Trump, the reality is that he, too, one day will also suffer the same fate and invariably fall off the great wall and never be put back together again. The hope always is that the people will wake up in time to cause the next Humpty Dumpty to fall off the wall before he or she can do irreparable harm to too many in the world.</p>
<p>To know all this to be true, one need only reconsider what the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies were up against as they resolutely stood together, in the face of brutish oppression and terrorizing, locked arm-in-arm in solidarity on the distant, frigidly-cold prairies of North Dakota, while crying out “NODAPL!”, in the hope that the rest of America and the world would hear their pleas and echo even louder the prayer and chant their cry represents for the future.</p>
<p>So, now it’s up to Canada’s First Nation peoples to resume the Sioux’s prayers and chants. How will Canada’s Liberal Government, its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the Canadian people respond to their fresh pleas? Will Canada come up with a ‘Final Solution’ to their own XL, Trans-Mountain, #3 Pipeline problems? Will PM Trudeau dutifully fall in-line with President Trump’s vision for the future, or will Trudeau and the Canadian people demonstrate the courage to go their own way? What of other countries in the New World like Australia who, by and large, already is on Trump’s climate change denial, greed-based wavelength?</p>
<p>Will they hear in time the morning cries of their Kookaburra Clan or will they passively accept the demise of their Great Barrier Reef and the critical part it plays in Mother Earth’s ability to replenish and sustain herself; solely for the mundane purpose of mining and shipping still more coal and fossil fuels to China? Will a ‘Trump-Style’ revolution, that already is beginning to show ugly signs of happening, now explode among the world’s other governments or will they instead listen to, and take to heart, before it’s too late, the sacred wisdoms of their own aboriginal peoples or those indigenous mentors and wise ones from among the 194 signatories to the Paris Accord? Or will the future’s new suicidal norm now be Trump’s Way or the Highway and that cataclismic brick wall that inevitably await’s? A lot of unanswered questions and unknowns beckon in 2017 and yet another arduous yesteryear’s journey Back to the Future. &#160;Let’s hope it truly proves to be not only the Chinese Year of the Rooster and the Australian Year of the Kookaburra but the Year of the Awakener within us all.&#160;</p> | Dakota Access Pipeline: a Universal “Trump-style” Revolution or End-of-the-World Scenario? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/02/09/dakota-access-pipeline-a-universal-trump-style-revolution-or-end-of-the-world-scenario/ | 2017-02-09 | 4 |
<p>The Los Angeles Police Department is testing a knife found on a property once owned by former professional football player and TV personality O.J. Simpson, according to a Friday report in the Los Angeles Times. The knife was turned in to authorities several years ago by a person working on the site, but detectives had only recently learned of its existence, the newspaper reported. Simpson was found not guilty of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995. In a separate civil case brought by the families of Brown and Goldman in 1997, Simpson was found liable in their deaths and ordered to pay $25 million in punitive damages.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | LAPD Testing Knife Found On O.J. Simpson's Property: LA Times | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/04/lapd-testing-knife-found-on-oj-simpson-property-la-times.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
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<p>“There are a lot of brilliant singers there,” he says, “and no one needs to hear me disrupt such beautiful vocals.”</p>
<p>Corden also says he isn’t trying to be the next LL Cool J, Grammy host for the past five years.</p>
<p>“I’m more like, not Ladies Love Cool James,” he says. “I’m like Ladies Put Up With That Guy James. It’s not as catchy.”</p>
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<p>Corden talked about his Grammy gig after rolling out the ceremonial red carpet Thursday with recording academy president Neil Portnow and show producer Ken Ehrlich at Staples Center in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Though Corden is on TV every night as host and writer of “The Late Late Show” on CBS, he said taking on the Grammys is something else entirely.</p>
<p>“My show is basically on in the middle of the night where people only really catch it if they wake up and happen to realize they’ve left the television on,” he said. “This is very different. This is the Grammy Awards, and there are quite a few more people watching it. So, you know, we’re really going to try our best to not ruin the whole thing. That’s really our jumping off point: Don’t ruin it.”</p>
<p>CBS will broadcast the show live at 8 p.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>All kidding aside, the 38-year-old Emmy and Tony winner said he’s so proud to have been asked to host the show and “so proud just to be in its orbit,” that he’s actually quite anxious about the gig.</p>
<p>“Oh, my god, it’s beyond daunting. I’m shaking just sort of thinking about the prospect of doing it,” he said. “I feel more nervous for this than I’ve ever felt for anything I’ve ever done before, truly.”</p>
<p>Ehrlich said Thursday that he has absolute faith in his new host, who also presided over the Tony Awards on CBS last June.</p>
<p>“He’s just got a great attitude, he loves music,” he said. “And the artists like him.”</p>
<p>And Ehrlich doesn’t mind if Corden does decide to sing.</p>
<p>“With him, I’m not worried about anything,” said the veteran producer, now on his 37th Grammy show.</p>
<p>Corden said he’ll calm his nerves on Sunday night with “a couple of deep breaths and know that it doesn’t really matter … We’re going to try our best.”</p>
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<p>Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/APSandy." type="external">www.twitter.com/APSandy.</a></p> | James Corden says he won’t sing as Grammy host | false | https://abqjournal.com/947143/james-corden-says-he-wont-sing-as-grammy-host.html | 2017-02-10 | 2 |
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<p>“Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife – birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and wolves – by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This, in turn, kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative – and fatal – health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out a card praying for ‘Peace on Earth.'”</p>
<p>• Wildlife “services” killed more than 3.2 million animals during fiscal year 2015. This rogue agency does it at taxpayers’ expense. The total does not include wildlife that ranchers kill on public land.</p>
<p>• In 2014, the U.S. raised and killed 9.5 billion land animals for food.</p>
<p>• The U.S. Surgeon General has stated that 68 percent of all human disease is diet-related.</p>
<p>• Each year, it is estimated that more than 100 million animals – including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish and birds – are killed in U.S. laboratories.</p>
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<p>• Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger. Approximately 21,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations.</p>
<p>• It is estimated that, if North Americans were to give up just 10 percent of their intake of animal protein, enough grain would be freed up to feed every human being on Earth who goes to bed hungry.</p>
<p>As painful as it is to reflect on inconsistencies that so many humans share, none of us is forever locked into this cycle of violence. Each of us has the power to choose compassion (for humans and animals), sustainability and improved health.</p>
<p>Please join the tens of millions of other caring people by visiting vegan websites to align your core values with life-affirming choices. As someone who made the switch many decades ago, I can tell you, the transformation is immensely rewarding on so many levels.</p>
<p /> | Becoming a vegan is rewarding in many ways | false | https://abqjournal.com/905476/becoming-a-vegan-is-rewarding-in-many-ways.html | 2 |
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<p>I can't believe it's been 10 years since 9/11.</p>
<p>Some days it feels like 100 years ago.</p>
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<p>But other times I remember it like it was yesterday.</p>
<p>I was a young production assistant at a different cable news network; and when we heard about the first plane hitting the tower, we assumed it was a small plane and a horrible accident. But we immediately sent a reporter, and I tagged along. By the time we were ready to leave, the second tower had been hit too. This was no accident.</p>
<p>We immediately ran to the subway (the fastest way to get around NYC during rush hour) and hopped on the first train headed downtown. Just before West 4th Street the train stopped. I then spent the most terrifying 15 minutes of my life trapped on a crowded subway car with hundreds of equally frightened people. The rumors were flying - "They hit the White House," "Staten Island is under attack" and the fear that maybe we would be stuck in this tunnel for hours.</p>
<p>After what seemed like forever the train pulled into the next station and the conductor announced it would go no further, so we got out and walked. As we neared what is now known as Ground Zero the first tower collapsed. A huge cloud of dust moved up the street with people running and screaming. I ducked into a store to avoid the dust cloud.</p>
<p>We decided to go even closer. We could see the second building, destroyed, on fire, with objects falling from the windows on the higher floors. I admit it, I was either naïve, or in denial. I didn't want to believe people were really jumping to their deaths. I still can't get that image out of my mind.</p>
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<p>The rest of the day we just walked around Vesey Street looking at the burning rubble, observing and admiring the firefighters and other rescue workers. Their courage, their organization.</p>
<p>We finally decided to go back to the bureau -- we had to walk, no cars allowed below Canal Street.</p>
<p>I had no way of getting home to Staten Island so I had to stay with some friends. By the time I got to their apartment I was covered in dirt, dust and debris. And I was still processing all that I saw that day.</p>
<p>10 years later and I am still having trouble understanding it.</p> | Remembering 9/11 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2011/09/09/remembering-11.html | 2016-03-07 | 0 |
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<p>White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she who has encountered no argument too weak to embrace, had this to say about allegations that Republican senate candidate Roy Moore molested a 14-year-old girl: “Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”</p>
<p>So many things to unpack in these 46 words. Let’s start with the elephant in the quote, the uncomfortable fact that President Trump was himself the target of such years-old “mere” allegations, more than a dozen, from women who claimed that he sexually assaulted them. These were, as then-candidate Trump assured us – and as Sanders, ever willing, reasserted just last month – all “horrible liars,” who would be duly sued after the election. Still waiting, Mr. President.</p>
<p>Trump’s conveniently flexible standard on accusations, and he is not alone, boils down to: If the accuser points a finger at a Democrat – Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein – her word is to be trusted, automatically. If she complains about a Republican, Trump’s otherwise dormant devotion to due process kicks in. How can claims from “many years ago” be allowed to “destroy a person’s life”?</p>
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<p>Some answers: Because they are entirely credible. Because the girl, now a woman, has no conceivable ax to grind – she is a longtime Republican, a Trump voter even – and nothing to gain from coming forward. Because three other women related similar, although less disturbing stories, underscoring Moore’s interest in younger girls.</p>
<p>Because the presumption of innocence, while essential in the legal realm, does not mean the elimination of common sense outside it – Thank you, Mitt Romney, for saying that. The willing suspension of disbelief has its limits, or should.</p>
<p>Unless, that is, you are a politician dealing with a story you wish would go away. Then you turn instinctively to if-then-ism. “If these allegations are true …,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, leading – or not – his prove-it caucus. Disappointingly, among them were women senators who ought to know better. “If it’s true …,” said Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. “If the allegations,” said West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito. “If there is any truth at all to these horrific allegations …,” said Maine’s Susan Collins. Seriously, have you read this story? How can you think about serving alongside this man?</p>
<p>The correct response came from Arizona Sen. John McCain, who – without hedging – termed the allegations “deeply disturbing and disqualifying” and called on Moore to withdraw.</p>
<p>If-then-ism is the rhetorical cousin of what-about-ism, a bid to deflect attention by questioning whether those complaining about “x” were equally inflamed by “y,” when “y” involved someone on their side. If-then-ism represents a similar effort to avoid casting a politically inconvenient judgment.</p>
<p>It is better, sure, than the jaw-dropping alternative: so-what-ism, remarkably flagrant among Alabamians in response to the Moore report. “Much ado about nothing,” state Auditor Jim Zeigler told the Washington Examiner. Joseph did it with Mary, he observed. Except, um, minor theological point here – did he?</p>
<p>Still, there is something clarifying in the brutal honesty of so-what-ism. A 32-year-old Moore could put a 14-year-old girl’s hand on his erect penis and touch her over her bra and underpants. Trump could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. It would not deter their supporters. OK, at least we know where you’re coming from. Your moral parameters are clear in their absence.</p>
<p>If-then-ism, by contrast, is pure cowardly dodge. There are some situations where the fact pattern may be too murky to pass judgment. Not here. What more information do the if-then-ers want? What would be the forum for this factual discovery to take place?</p>
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<p>One last strategy – blame-the-messenger – has come into play here, deployed by Moore and supporters like former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. “The Bezos Amazon Washington Post that dropped that dime on Donald Trump is the same Bezos Amazon Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on Judge Roy Moore,” Bannon said, referring to Post owner Jeff Bezos and the “Access Hollywood” tape. “Now is that a coincidence?”</p>
<p>No, it’s not. Good reporting breeds good reporting. My newsroom colleagues did an incredible job with those stories, as they did in helping break the Monica Lewinsky story two decades ago.</p>
<p>Blaming the messenger is always easier than hearing an unwelcome message. It does not make that message any less true.</p>
<p>E-mail: [email protected]. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
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<p /> | ‘If-then-ism’ on allegations just a cowardly dodge | false | https://abqjournal.com/1092230/ifthenism-on-allegations-just-a-cowardly-dodge.html | 2 |
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<p>Many employees feel&#160;unappreciated at work. They feel their successes go unrecognized or that they are routinely overlooked for promotions and raises. It can be overwhelming, disappointing, and demotivating, to say the least.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you find yourself in this situation, what can you do about it?</p>
<p>First, take an honest look at your performance. If you have a tendency to come in late or to miss deadlines, correct these issues. Make an effort to connect with&#160;your peers and managers&#160;more. Consider setting up weekly check-ins with your boss. Have lunch with your coworkers.</p>
<p>If, however, your reflection reveals that you're truly&#160;doing a great job already, then it could be time to try another tactic: looking for employment elsewhere.</p>
<p>Like it or not, much of your <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/career.html" type="external">career success Opens a New Window.</a> is tied not only&#160;to your individual performance, but also to the perception management has of you. It is also tied to how well your manager communicates&#160;your successes to their manager. If the person who hired you has moved on, you may find yourself stuck with a manager who&#160;is less than excited about&#160;your contributions.</p>
<p>Many employees take this as a sign to try harder. They may enroll in a new degree program or take leadership classes. They may&#160;even start volunteering for causes at work or join the company bowling league. They try to improve their skills and status.</p>
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<p>These tactics may work for some, but more often than not, they don't. Once a manager's view of you has been set, it can be nearly impossible to change that perception. This is especially true if the manager didn't hire you. Many managers prefer to handpick their own teams, and they may discredit any pre-existing employees when they take over new teams.</p>
<p>It's sad when an employee spends years trying to impress a manager, only to find themselves in a hamster wheel. This process hinders both the employee's overall growth and their salary potential.</p>
<p>If you have found yourself in a less-than-ideal relationship with your current boss, it may be time to look for a new boss at a new company. Before things become&#160;unbearable at your current job, begin looking around for openings.</p>
<p>A new hiring manager will select you because they like you and believe in you. It's an opportunity to start fresh.</p>
<p>Working for someone who puts their faith in you, listens to you, and allows you to do what you're best at is a completely different experience. Going to work will be less of a chore and much more enjoyable.</p>
<p>If you are seeking the recognition you deserve, looking elsewhere can open up new doors to a new manager and a healthier work environment.</p>
<p>A version of this article originally appeared in the&#160; <a href="https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2016/aug/3/getting-the-recognition-you-deserve/" type="external">Memphis Daily News Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Angela Copeland is a career coach and CEO at her firm,&#160; <a href="http://www.copelandcoaching.com/" type="external">Copeland Coaching Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Not Getting the Recognition You Deserve? Jump Ship | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/03/not-getting-recognition-deserve-jump-ship.html | 2016-08-08 | 0 |
<p>In case you haven't realized today's date yet, it's Friday the 13th. And it's also October, so we're in for a double dose of creepy today. That means you basically have to do something to celebrate. How about a horror movie marathon? Sounds pretty good to us! Lucky for you, we've rounded up the best horror movies of all time to provide inspiration!</p>
<p>Oh, and while we're on the topic of scary movies...</p>
<p>Before you start your movie marathon, put your knowledge to the test with this quiz! Some of these lines are undeniably iconic, so even if you aren't a huge fan of horror movies, you'll probably knew a few them. Go ahead and give it your best shot!</p>
<p>And how about one more movie quiz?</p>
<p>Quick, fill in the blank: "_____, I am your father."</p>
<p>If you said "Luke," you might not be a true "Star Wars" fan, or you're experiencing the Mandela Effect. Darth Vader's frequently misquoted line is actually, "No, I am your father."</p>
<p>But if you did get this one right, don't get too cocky. It's one of the most famous lines in the series, so we're not that impressed with you... yet. If you really want to cement your status as a serious "Star Wars" fan, you're going to have to ace this quiz.</p> | In honor of Friday the 13th, here are the best horror movies of all time | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/10/13/hollywood/friday-the-13th-the-best-horror-movies-of-all-time-to-help-you-celebrate | 2017-10-13 | 1 |
<p>We're going way back for today's Geo Quiz, about 3,000 years back.</p>
<p>Back around the 7th century BC, the first Olympic games were up and running in Greece. And the Polynesians were sailing all the way to the Hawaiian Islands.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in a remote corner of Central Asia it seems that some ancient shamans were experimenting with drugs. Researchers exploring a tomb there have turned up...an ancient stash of cannabis.</p>
<p>Neurologist Ethan Russo led a team of scientists to investigate the site:</p>
<p>"The site in question is an area extremely remote about it's about the furthest inland place one can get to on Earth, about 2500 km from either the Arctic Ocean or the Indian Ocean, and its near the second lowest spot on Earth after the Dead Sea."</p>
<p>This archaeological site is at the edge of one of the world's great deserts, the largest one in Asia.</p>
<p>Can you name the desert?</p>
<p>The answer to the Geo Quiz is the Gobi Desert -- the largest desert in Asia. It covers parts of north-western China, and southern Mongolia.</p>
<p>Map of Turpan, Xinjiang, China and its location in Central Asia. 2) Map of Yanghai Tombs site and surrounding area (adapted from Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)Map of Turpan, Xinjiang, China and its location in Central Asia. 2) Map of Yanghai Tombs site and surrounding area (adapted from Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)</p>
<p>We're going way back for the answer to today's Geo Quiz. The time was 2700 years ago. The place -- a remote corner of north-western China.</p>
<p>Scientist Ethan Russo led a team of researchers to the tomb of an ancient shaman that was recently discovered near the city of Turpan in Xinjiang -- the Uighur Autonomous Region of China. This region is part of the Gobi Desert, the vast desert in Central Asia that covers parts of northern and north-western China, and Mongolia.</p>
<p>Photomicrographs of ancient cannabis (courtesy Journal of Experimental Botany)Photomicrographs of ancient cannabis (courtesy Journal of Experimental Botany)</p>
<p>Listen to our interview to hear more about how scientists investigated the oldest ever stash of marijuana:</p>
<p>Links to research examining the phytochemistry and genetics of ancient cannabis from Xinjiang as published in Journal of Experimental Botany.</p> | Geo answer | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-12-05/geo-answer | 2008-12-05 | 3 |
<p>Former CIA Analyst</p>
<p>What do the president’s nomination of Rep. Porter Goss (R, FL) to head the CIA and the seemingly contradictory proposal of Senator Pat Roberts (R, KS) to dismember the CIA have in common with tales of swift boats once in Vietnam? Answer: The proven potential of all three to grab the headlines and draw attention away from President George W. Bush’s most serious vulnerabilities in this key pre-election period.</p>
<p>One can be forgiven for being confused at the administration’s recent moves on the intelligence front. Early last month, when the Senate Intelligence Committee published its multi-count indictment of CIA’s performance on Iraq and former CIA Director George Tenet left the scene of the crime, the pundits expressed confidence that the president would ask Tenet’s deputy to fill in over the ensuing months rather than risk calling further attention to the intelligence fiasco.</p>
<p>Leading Democrats were rubbing their hands in glee at the president’s dilemma. Failing to appoint a new take-charge CIA director would look inept amid all the warnings of a pre-election terrorist attack, but appointing one would bring still more embarrassment for the administration. And some voters, the Democrats were hoping, might even remember where the buck is supposed to stop.</p>
<p>Not a problem, decided Karl Rove, who continues to outsmart many Democrats of higher IQ. The situation is made to order. The president is particularly vulnerable on two counts: what he did in Iraq, and what he didn’t do before 9/11. The 9/11 commission performed yeoman’s service in diffusing responsibility such that no one-and especially not the one sitting where the buck used to stop-could be held accountable. And it is turning out to be almost as easy on Iraq­despite the continuing mayhem there and the inexorable culpability-creep up the chain of command regarding the torture of Iraqi and other prisoners.</p>
<p>Porter Goss Front and Center</p>
<p>It was in this context that the White House decided to stoke the fires of political controversy still higher by nominating Porter Goss to replace Tenet. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for the last eight years, Goss is as responsible as anyone for the intelligence failures that facilitated the attacks of 9/11.</p>
<p>He bears even more responsibility for turning a blind eye toward the corruption of intelligence-including the conjured-up-out-of-thin-air mushroom cloud that in October 2002 frightened Congress into surrendering to the president its constitutional prerogative to wage war. No one has accused Goss of being dumb. If we “out-of-the-loop” veteran intelligence professionals could readily see what was going on, surely Goss could.</p>
<p>And so, as Goss comes before the Senate for confirmation, controversy is assured-and welcomed by the White House. The Democrats will not pass up the opportunity to ask the nominee how all this could have escaped Goss’ attention during the eight years he chaired the powerful House Intelligence Committee. They will want to know, specifically, why he failed to stem the erosion of CIA’s human source reporting capability-a problem Goss himself highlighted after his first year as chairman. And they are bound to ask him why he sponsored legislation with deeper cuts in intelligence funding than those advocated by Sen. John Kerry-for which Republicans have roundly criticized Kerry.</p>
<p>But while the Democratic leadership continues to lick its chops at the prospect of raking Goss over the coals at his nomination hearings next month, Karl Rove is smirking from ear to ear. Another situation made to order. Attention will be riveted on this controversial “team player” nominated to assume the mantle of Tenet, who in a leap of faith-based intelligence aimed at keeping himself on the starting cheerleader team, famously described the evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a “slam dunk.”</p>
<p>Too bad the press, and even the Democrats, play along in accepting the failure of intelligence as the reason we invaded Iraq. In doing so they let the White House off the hook and deny the public the honest debate it deserves about the real reasons for war.</p>
<p>The focus on Goss and intelligence reforms allows the White House to push its message: The president was misled. It was a terrible performance, but now Tenet is gone. Subtext to Senate Democrats: Here’s Goss: take him, or leave him (and open yourselves to charges of foot-dragging at a time when our PR machine has ratcheted up the likelihood of a terrorist attack before the election).</p>
<p>The performance of intelligence was, indeed, terrible-as inept as it was politicized. But intelligence failings regarding weapons of mass destruction and putative ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda had very little to do with the president’s decision to make war on Iraq.</p>
<p>The Real Reasons</p>
<p>With the false WMD threat exposed and tales of significant ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda thoroughly discredited, the American people need an open discussion about the White House’s motivations for invading Iraq. Rove’s tactics aside, the Democrats are none too eager to engage this question, either, as is clear from John Kerry’s recent statements on justification for the war.</p>
<p>And the general consensus contrives to silence those of us who dare to speak on the Iraq debacle. As has become increasingly clear, the neo-conservatives’ vision that the US has a strategic imperative to gain more assured control over oil from the Middle East, together with their overweening zeal to eliminate any conceivable threat to the security of Israel, are what sunk us into the quicksand of Iraq. More important at this juncture, these twin aims render it virtually impossible for these policy makers to find a way out.</p>
<p>Quite aside from the political opprobrium that would attach to a decision to “cut and run,” the neo-cons probably reckon that, in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, Israel is only more secure as long as the US keeps a sizable military presence there. The Bush administration is, on the one hand, unwilling to send the “several hundred thousand” troops that former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki at the outset warned would be needed. On the other hand, it seems convinced that it cannot withdraw without leaving Israel in the lurch.</p>
<p>The neo-cons have considerable difficulty distinguishing between the strategic requirements of Israel and those of the US. There are not enough US troops in Iraq to quell the resistance, but there are enough to prevent any strategic threat to Israel. And so, the Bush administration shows no intention of drawing down US forces from Iraq anytime soon.</p>
<p>This, needless to say, has serious implications for us all-including my grandson Matthew who is fast approaching draft age. But such awkward realities are not supposed to be spoken in polite political discourse. Last Friday on PBS’ Charlie Rose Show, I broke that taboo and was immediately branded “goofy” and “anti-Semitic” by arch-neo-conservative James Woolsey, a former CIA director.</p>
<p>It is a volatile, but important, point. Most Americans would be loath to support sending our young men and women into Iraq to make the world safer for an Israel that is armed to the teeth and led by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.</p>
<p>In justifying the war, the administration deemed it far better to home in on things like “weapons of mass destruction” and to count on our somnolent press to miss a glaring inconsistency. On February 24, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell stated publicly, “Saddam Hussein has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.” And in July 2001 Condoleezza Rice said, “We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”</p>
<p>But, as we are repeatedly reminded, after September 11 “everything changed.” Are we being asked to believe, then, that weapons of mass destruction suddenly descended softly on Iraq-like manna from heaven?</p>
<p>Intelligence Complicity</p>
<p>Intelligence? No intelligence estimate on Iraq was wanted by the White House, or needed, until the fall of 2002 when Congress was asked to authorize war on Iraq-long after the decision to attack. At that point the ever-vigilant Senate intelligence oversight (overlook?) committee woke up to the fact that it had seen no intelligence to justify war. So the White House ordered the obedient Tenet to have his chefs cook up the “evidence” needed to muddle congressional minds with mushroom clouds. And the worst National Intelligence Estimate in US history was conjured up to help convince Congress to surrender to the president its power to make war.</p>
<p>Just as the swift boats of August have been spreading thick spray, the Goss hearings next month and debate on Roberts’ cockamamie proposal on restructuring-so outlandish as to have zero chance of passing-can be counted upon to spread enough fog to keep the mayhem in Iraq off the front pages and distract attention from the president’s most serious vulnerabilities. Karl Rove is counting on it, and he’s cleverer by half.</p>
<p>Iraq? The CIA made us do it.</p>
<p>RAY McGOVERN, a CIA analyst for 27 years, is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to CounterPunch’s unsparing new history of the Afghanistan/Iraq wars, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades</a>. McGovern can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>This article was first published on TomPaine.com</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Turning Liability into Asset | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/08/28/turning-liability-into-asset/ | 2004-08-28 | 4 |
<p>Jan 25 (Reuters) - Power Finance Corporation Ltd:</p>
<p>* SAYS LIFE INSURANCE CORP OF INDIA CUTS STAKE IN CO BY 2.035 PERCENT TO 6.057 PERCENT Source text - <a href="http://bit.ly/2DIygM7" type="external">bit.ly/2DIygM7</a> Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled blood-testing company Theranos Inc and its Chief Executive Elizabeth Holmes agreed to settle “massive fraud” charges in a deal that strips her of majority control among other penalties, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live (WSJDLive) conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California, October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>Theranos was once hailed as a Silicon Valley star, with a $9 billion valuation based on its promise to disrupt the staid laboratory testing business with new technology the company claimed could analyze a single drop of blood. Founded in 2003, its fortunes began to wane in 2015 after Wall Street Journal reports suggested its devices were flawed and inaccurate.</p>
<p>As part of the settlement, the Securities and Exchange Commission said company founder Holmes must also return millions of shares to the privately held company, pay a $500,000 fine and cannot serve as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.</p>
<p>The SEC’s complaint alleged that the company, Holmes and Theranos’ former president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, “made numerous false and misleading statements in investor presentations, product demonstrations, and media articles” about its key product.</p>
<p>Balwani did not agree to a settlement, the agency said.</p>
<p>Theranos raised more than $750 million from investors including well-known venture capital firm DFJ, Walgreens, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Many investors have already sold their stakes.</p>
<p>The SEC, describing the case as involving “massive fraud,” said Theranos, Holmes and Balwani were charged “with raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business and financial performance.”</p> FILE PHOTO - Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, attends a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>The SEC’s co-director of enforcement, Steven Peikin, said on a conference call with reporters that the move to remove control of the company from Holmes was very rare for the agency.</p>
<p>“It’s a pretty unique set of remedies,” he said. “And I think it’s a particularly meaningful one … particularly in Silicon Valley where the founders of startup companies like this obviously value the concept of control.”</p>
<p>Peikin said the SEC intends to pursue litigation against Balwani. The regulator pursued charges against Holmes and Balwani to deter executive wrongdoing elsewhere and out of concern that imposing stiff penalties on the company itself could make it even more difficult for defrauded investors to recoup any funds.</p>
<p>“Really this company was a company that was a two-person operation, where Holmes and Balwani exclusively controlled Theranos. They were responsible for all of the misconduct alleged in this complaint,” he said.</p>
<p>Peikin did not comment on whether the civil charges preclude future criminal charges or whether other agencies were engaged in ongoing criminal investigations against the company.</p>
<p>Jina Choi, the head of SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, said the company’s troubles offered “an important lesson for Silicon Valley.”</p>
<p>“Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday,” she said in a statement.</p>
<p>Reporting by Susan Heavey and Tim Ahmann; Additional reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Dan Grebler and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices gained 0.4 percent in choppy trade on Wednesday, after a report showing a bigger-than-expected U.S. crude stock build was offset by large distillate and gasoline inventory draws.</p> FILE PHOTO - A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
<p>U.S. crude stocks rose by 5 million barrels, the biggest jump since late January, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. Expectations had been for a 2 million barrel build. But there was a larger-than-expected draw on fuel stocks.</p>
<p>“We’re not pressuring the downside that much. Of course, the reason is because we had some unexpectedly large draws in distillates and gasoline that, when added together, are two times bigger than the crude build,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.</p>
<p>Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, to settle at $64.89 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 also gained 25 cents, to settle at $60.96 per barrel.</p>
<p>“I don’t think we have a clear set of directions, and I don’t think this (EIA) report gives that much of an insight as to whether the rebalance continues or not. We continue to just chop around here,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy.</p>
<p>Prices were pressured after The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in its monthly report that supply from non-members is likely to grow by 1.66 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2018, almost double the growth it predicted in November, largely due to rising U.S. supply.</p>
<p>OPEC also said oil inventories across the most industrialized countries rose in January for the first time in eight months, a sign the impact of its output cuts may be waning. OPEC trimmed its 2018 demand forecast for its own crude by 250,000 bpd to 32.61 million bpd, a fourth consecutive decline.</p>
<p>“According to the OPEC report, demand for OPEC’s oil must be 33 million barrels per day for the rest of the year to get rid of any remaining oversupply,” Commerzbank strategist Carsten Fritsch said.</p>
<p>Oil prices got a boost early in the session from a broader investor push into commodities after Chinese data showed industrial production in the world’s largest importer of raw materials grew more than expected over the first two months of the year.</p>
<p>Oil may also soon get some support from seasonal demand.</p>
<p>“We are now only two to four weeks away from when weekly oil inventory data will start to draw again which should be supportive for oil prices,” SEB commodities strategist Bjarne Schieldrop said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper and Henning Gloystein; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Prudential ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PRU.L" type="external">PRU.L</a>) is to spin off its British and European business from its international operations, breaking up the 170-year-old insurer to refocus on faster-growing markets in the sector’s latest major shake-up.</p> FILE PHOTO: The logo of British life insurer Prudential is seen on their building, in London October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Stephen Hird /File Photo
<p>British insurers have been changing tack to cut their exposure to capital-intensive products following the introduction of rigorous European solvency rules, while also seeking ways to deal with growing fee pressure.</p>
<p>Prudential said it is splitting off savings and investment-focused M&amp;G Prudential, which will be based in London, leaving Prudential plc focused on life insurance and asset management in the rapidly expanding markets of Asia and Africa as well as the United States, which is less tightly regulated than Europe.</p>
<p>The demerger could herald further changes for the group, analysts said. Bernstein analysts pointed to the example of AXA’s AXAF.PO plans for an IPO in the United States, while RBC said the Asian and U.S. businesses could eventually be split, and that asset manager M&amp;G could separate from UK insurance.</p>
<p>Prudential shares were up 6 percent to 19.37 pounds at 1244 GMT on Wednesday, taking it to the top of the FTSE 100 index.</p>
<p>The international business will also remain headquartered and listed in London, led by chief executive Mike Wells.</p>
<p>“We’re looking to grow the piece that’s capital-light,” Wells said of M&amp;G Prudential, adding that it would be “competing domestically” for people and capital.</p>
<p>Prudential will also move the legal entity for its Hong Kong insurance subsidiaries to Asia from Britain, further reducing exposure to European capital rules.</p>
<p>Prudential’s move follows Standard Life’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SLA.L" type="external">SLA.L</a>) merger with Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017 which led to the sale of the bulk of its insurance business to Phoenix Group ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PHNX.L" type="external">PHNX.L</a>).</p>
<p>And Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OML.L" type="external">OML.L</a>) is in the midst of a four-way split.</p> FILE PHOTO: The company logo of Prudential is seen at its headquarters in Hong Kong March 9, 2010. REUTERS/Bobby Yip /File Photo
<p>“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” Old Mutual chairman Patrick O’Sullivan said of the Prudential move.</p>
<p>(Graphic: Britain's largest insurer Prudential outperforms rivals - <a href="http://reut.rs/2Hyvl7j" type="external">reut.rs/2Hyvl7j</a>)</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PRU.L" type="external">Prudential PLC</a> 1918.0 PRU.L London Stock Exchange +92.50 (+5.07%) PRU.L SLA.L PHNX.L OML.L PRUDENTIAL MOVE
<p>RBC analysts value the new M&amp;G Prudential business at 9.8 billion pounds ($13.7 billion) and Prudential said it expects both companies to feature on Britain’s FTSE 100 index.</p>
<p>Wells told a media call that the spin-off was not connected with Brexit and Prudential is not planning to sell any of the British business. One banker told Reuters a bid for M&amp;G Prudential was unlikely before the deal completes.</p>
<p>Ben Ritchie, senior investment manager at top-15 shareholder Aberdeen Standard Investments, told Reuters that M&amp;G Prudential was likely to have good cashflow and would be capable of paying a reasonably high and recurring dividend.</p>
<p>M&amp;G Prudential’s head John Foley will steer it through the demerger and investors will hold shares in both, although the timing of the spin-off has not yet been set.</p>
<p>Prudential, which also disclosed the sale of a 12 billion-pound UK annuities book to Rothesay Life, is not planning to sell more of the around 20 billion pounds in annuities it still has, Foley said.</p>
<p>The insurer posted a 6 percent rise in 2017 operating profit to 4.7 billion pounds, beating market expectations of 4.6 billion pounds.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ben Martin, additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, editing by Sinead Cruise and Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s major indexes fell on Tuesday as the dismissal of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the possibility of additional U.S. import tariffs against China dragged down stocks across sectors.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump fired Tillerson after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia. Trump has appointed CIA Director Mike Pompeo, seen as loyal to the president, to replace Tillerson. To lead the CIA, the president has tapped Gina Haspel, the agency’s deputy director.</p>
<p>“Any time there’s change, investors get nervous,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management in Boston. “They have to go back to the drawing board to figure out what the implications might be.”</p>
<p>Still, Carey said, at least the nominees to lead the State Department and the CIA are familiar names.</p>
<p>“I don’t think either change will be troubling to the market as people reflect on the qualifications of the people stepping into the roles,” he said.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks added to losses after Politico reported that a package of tariffs targeting $30 billion a year in Chinese imports could be rolled out as soon as next week.</p>
<p>“This may be upsetting the apple cart,” said Bryan Novak, senior managing director at Astor Investment Management in Chicago. “When you look at tariffs, you don’t just look in a vacuum. You look at what follows on top of (them). It’s worth watching a bit more, to see the follow-through on our side and their side, but there could be some anxiety around it.”</p>
<p>The markets had opened higher after data showed U.S. consumer price growth slowed in February, an indication that an anticipated pickup in inflation probably will be only gradual.</p> Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 2, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 171.58 points, or 0.68 percent, to 25,007.03, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 17.71 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,765.31 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 77.31 points, or 1.02 percent, to 7,511.01.</p>
<p>Tech .SPLRCT and financial .SPSY stocks were the biggest laggards among the S&amp;P 500’s 11 major sectors.</p>
<p>Shares of Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) fell between 1.5 percent and 2.4 percent.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 24757.36 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes -249.67 (-1.00%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC MSFT.O FB.O
<p>“Technology rallied hard yesterday and last week, and there is profit-taking, but it’s just a short-term pressure,” said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York.</p>
<p>Financial stocks were weighed as U.S. Treasury yields fell in response to the CPI data and Tillerson’s exit.</p>
<p>Among individual stocks, General Electric Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) fell 4.4 percent after J.P. Morgan cut its price target on the stock to $11 from $14, saying the industrial conglomerate was not a “safety stock” in a volatile market.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 180 new highs and 24 new lows.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.89 billion shares, compared to the 7.13 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, James Dalgleish and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Life Insurance Corp Of India Cuts Stake In Power Finance Corp By 2.035 Pct Theranos and its founder settle U.S. fraud charges: SEC Oil edges up after choppy session on mixed U.S. crude stocks data Prudential to split in new world order for British insurers Wall Street slides on Tillerson exit, tariff worries | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-life-insurance-corp-of-india-cuts/brief-life-insurance-corp-of-india-cuts-stake-in-power-finance-corp-by-2035-pct-idUSFWN1PK0VZ | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>Helping older patients see better may be the key to preventing hip fractures, according to a new study.&#160;</p>
<p>The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that having surgery to correct cataracts may reduce the risk of hip fractures among elderly people by up to 23 percent.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/07/31/cataract-surgery-may-cut-risk-of-hip-fracture" type="external">According to US News and World Report,</a> a cataract is a clouding of the eye's lens. Symptoms of cataracts can include blurry vision, glare and poor night vision. As a result, people with cataracts may be more prone to falls.</p>
<p>Bone fractures due to falls are a major cause of disability and death among the elderly, <a href="http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/news/20120731/cataract-surgery-may-help-prevent-hip-fractures" type="external">according to WebMD.</a>Fall-related injuries cost the US more than $10 billion in health care costs in 2000, according to researchers.</p>
<p>In the paper, researcher Victoria Tseng, MD, of Brown University, wrote, "Cataract surgery has already been demonstrated to be a cost-effective intervention for visual improvement. The results in this study suggest the need for further investigation of the additional potential benefit of cataract surgery as a cost-effective intervention to decrease the incidence of fractures in the elderly."</p>
<p>Gerald McGwin, who has studied the effects of cataract surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/01/fewer-hip-fractures-after-cataract-surgery/" type="external">told Fox News</a> that,&#160;"Fracturing a hip is at the tip of the iceberg." He added that there are a lot of other consequences to poor eyesight in older adults.</p> | Cataract surgery may prevent hip fractures | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-01/cataract-surgery-may-prevent-hip-fractures | 2012-08-01 | 3 |
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<p>The recommendations of the recently released report from the Union of Concerned Scientists seem have taken into account the present-day funding difficulty very seriously. The report makes a compelling argument as to why the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned major constructions are not at all necessary. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have considered the real position of the NNSA’s plants and the national laboratories.</p>
<p>From time to time, the Department of Energy has declared a specific quantity of plutonium and uranium as excess. Oddly enough, those declarations were made by officials to deal with the political needs of the time without looking into the fact whether the material was available for such a declaration.</p>
<p>It is almost a decade since the last excess declaration was made, but the NNSA still has not yet identified that material. The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists conveniently suggests that this “declared” excess material must be blended and used in commercial nuclear reactor fuel without realizing it must first be identified. From the unclassified numbers, it is just impossible to come even close to making that many weapons from the material that we possess. A weapon requires not just any material but a specific quality material.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The new uranium processing facility needed to make an important weapons part is in an advanced design planning stage. The cost of the facility has gone from $600 million to about $11.6 billion. The cost has skyrocketed because of the poor management.</p>
<p>Lack of management does not mean that the facility is not needed. This new facility is required because the existing facilities are over 50 years old, and the buildings and instruments in the existing facilities are crumbling.</p>
<p>On average, a nuclear facility may take about 20 years or more to build after such a need has been identified. The people overseeing the project are totally incompetent and must be replaced.</p>
<p>Los Alamos suggested taking the module approach instead of building the now-deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility. But considering the poor cost management seen in the NNSA complex, the cost of this module setup may almost approach the cost of building a new facility itself.</p>
<p>No one in the administration or Congress seems to have really considered taking the NNSA management to task for these enormous and continued lapses. One reason may be that the senior NNSA management does not even read the reports that are submitted … .</p>
<p>The U.S. has not made or tested nuclear weapons for over 23 years now. On average, our active and aging stockpile may be about 40 years old. The very few personnel who worked with real weapons 23 years back have either left or are leaving very soon. Technical expertise related to one material has vanished from the complex. It requires significant resources and many years to train such a highly qualified person.</p>
<p>As per unclassified available information, with very limited personnel and limited funding, the United States makes just a few plutonium pits per year. Other countries such as China, Pakistan, India and maybe even North Korea probably manufacture more full up weapons every year.</p>
<p>The U.S. nuclear weapons complex must hire, train and retain highly qualified personnel. They must ensure that all the required material is available to make the number of weapons needed on a very long-term basis.</p>
<p>Irrespective of the present-day political complexities and necessities, the U.S. nuclear weapons complex must assure that this is taken care of.</p>
<p>Both Congress and the administration must make sure that the poor management presently existing in the NNSA is taken to task and corrective actions taken immediately. The alternate scenario will generate long-term problems.</p>
<p>Harish C. Sharma is an Albuquerque resident.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Management of the NNSA must be taken to task now | false | https://abqjournal.com/320436/management-of-the-nnsa-must-be-taken-to-task-now.html | 2 |
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<p>Did you watch the new trailer for <a href="" type="internal">Fifty Shades of Grey</a> and immediately think to yourself, “That looks okay, I guess, but instead of a parade of seductive stares, bondage, and <a href="" type="internal">Beyoncé</a>, I’d much rather go see a chaste, Christian-friendly love story on Valentine’s Day next year?”</p>
<p>If that was somehow you, your prayers have been answered.</p>
<p>Variety <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/fifty-shades-challenge-faith-based-1201270675/" type="external">reports</a> that Freestyle Releasing, which distributed the successful anti-atheism, Duck-Dynasty-stars-featuring film God’s Not Dead, is serving up a Christian-friendly alternative to the kink and glamour of the Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation. The indie flick—titled Old Fashioned—is also set for release on Valentine’s Day 2015, and follows the romance between a reformed frat bro and free-spirited lady. Freestyle co-president Mark Borde says the film specifically targets the “underserved” Christian-singles community. “Chivalry makes a comeback,” reads the film’s tagline.</p>
<p>“I wanted to tell a love story that takes the idea of godly romance seriously,” Rik Swartzwelder, writer, director, and star, told Variety. “Opening the same weekend as Fifty Shades, there’s definitely a David v. Goliath comparison. They will have more screens, more money, more hype…but we’re hopeful that we are not alone in our belief that there are others out there who desire more from love–and the movies–than objectification or domination.”</p>
<p>Swartzwelder previously helmed the short film The Least of These. He did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The Fifty Shades trailer was recently <a href="http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2014/07/24/anti-porn-group-warns-against-watching-fifty-shades-of-grey/" type="external">slammed</a> by Morality in Media, a faith-based nonprofit that, among other things, hounds politicians regularly about <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/gop-candidates-promise-revive-war-porn" type="external">outlawing porn</a>. (But to be real for a second, the highly anticipated, thoroughly hyped Fifty Shades trailer is some tame stuff—just ask <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2014/07/28/fifty-shades-of-grey-trailer-bdsm-clubs-los-angeles/" type="external">the BDSM crowd.</a>)</p>
<p>Obviously, there’s little reason to believe any of the religious or moral objectors to <a href="" type="internal">the rough sex</a> inFifty Shades will have any discernible impact on its box-office performance. But even if the David of Old Fashioned doesn’t crush the Goliath of Fifty Shades (spoiler: it won’t), Freestyle and Swartzwelder might have a large audience waiting for them, anyway. Faith-based theatrical counterprogramming to Hollywood has found <a href="" type="internal">new momentum recently</a>, with the cash hauls of Son of God, Heaven Is for Real, and Freestyle’s own God’s Not Dead, which took in over $60 million, making it the company’s best performer.</p>
<p>Freestyle is surely hoping for a repeat of that faith-driven success. Although the company's previous titles also include the anti-Palin doc Sarah Palin: You Betcha!, the Uwe Boll disasterpiece Postal, which ruthlessly parodied George W. Bush, and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, a raunchy comedy written by and featuring noted misogynist Tucker Max.</p> | ‘Old Fashioned’: Your Christian-Friendly, Kink-Free Alternative to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ | true | https://thedailybeast.com/old-fashioned-your-christian-friendly-kink-free-alternative-to-fifty-shades-of-grey | 2018-10-02 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p>President Donald Trump is keeping his campaign promises. American voters and also various polls show that Trump is fulfilling his pledge to the American people.</p>
<p>The White House has been so productive since taking office. President and his administration have begun securing the nation's borders, bringing jobs back to the U.S. and most importantly the demanding process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>American voters agree, about Trump's priorities. The Morning Consult poll shows that 56 percent of 2,000 registered voters polled Feb. 24 through Feb. 26 say that Trump is staying true to his 2016 campaign message, and 66 percent say Trump has accomplished what was expected of him or more. Overall, half of voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Despite Americans being divided on President Trump's policy agenda, most say he is making headway on it. An overwhelming majority of Trump's supporters, and even many of his critics, see a president who is delivering on his promises.</p>
<p />
<p>Many congressional leaders say they are happy with his policy preferences. They are less pleased with his tweets and frequent targeting of the intelligence community and other national institutions. Trump is doing the right thing. By using Twitter, he's able to point out the leftwing media's fake news.</p>
<p />
<p>President Trump has been very successful in unifying the country. The president has an upbeat vision for the country that crosses the traditional lines of party, race and status.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump has a desire to rewrite the tax code, replace the health care law, fix inner cities, reform the education system and start a great rebuilding of the American military.</p>
<p>Trump's budget added $54 billion in military spending, in addition to asking for an additional emergency lump of $30 billion this year. The White House says that the uptick in spending will not add to the national debt.</p>
<p>Trump will cut down on foreign aid which contributes a great deal to the national debt. Trump's travel from seven Middle Eastern countries, has proved that the nation is split on the role of illegals in America.</p>
<p />
<p>At the end of the day, the kind of results that President Trump has delivered are just breath-taking. It's hard to imagine what Trump's administration do in four years, America will be the greatest.</p> | Trump Delivers Fast With Integrity | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/1833-Trump-Delivers-Fast-With-Integrity | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
<p>​On Monday, reality television star Ariane Bellamar <a href="" type="internal">accused</a> actor Jeremy Piven of sexual harassing her in his trailer on the set of Entourage. On Tuesday, both HBO and Piven responded, the company underscoring that Bellamar never issued a complaint despite having "several avenues" to do so and the actor "unequivocally" denying the accusation and blasting Bellamar for "detract[ing] from stories that should be heard."</p>
<p>In a series of tweets on Monday that included the hashtag "#MeToo," Bellamar accused Piven of cornering her and grabbing her breasts and butt on two separate occasions.</p>
<p>"Hey @jeremypiven! ‘Member when you cornered me in your trailer on the #Entourage set? ‘Member grabbing my boobies on the without asking??" she wrote (tweets below). "'Member when I tried to leave; you grabbed me by the ass, looked at yourself in the mirror, &amp; said what a ‘beautiful couple’ we made? Jeremy Piven, on two occasions, cornered me &amp; forcefully fondled my breasts &amp; bum. Once at the mansion &amp; once on set."</p>
<p>While HBO did not directly accuse Bellamar of lying about Piven, in the network's statement Tuesday it strongly suggested that Bellamar's claim was groundless.</p>
<p>"Today, via the press reports, is the first we are hearing about Ariane Bellamar’s allegations concerning Jeremy Piven," said the network in a statement, reported by <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/hbo-releases-statement-regarding-jeremy-piven-allegations.html" type="external">Vulture</a>. "Everyone at HBO and our productions is aware that zero tolerance for sexual harassment is our policy. Anyone experiencing an unsafe working environment has several avenues for making complaints that we take very seriously."</p>
<p>Piven's response was anything but indirect. Not only did he "unequivocally deny" the allegation, he chided Bellamar for detracting from the claims of true victims by having "peddled" a falsehood about him.</p>
<p>"I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen," said Piven in a <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/hbo-releases-statement-regarding-jeremy-piven-allegations.html" type="external">statement</a> Tuesday. "It takes a great deal of courage for victims to come forward with their histories, and my hope is that the allegations about me that didn’t happen, do not detract from stories that should be heard."</p>
<p>The #MeToo movement began after a flood of sexual harassment and assault allegations against megaproducer Harvey Weinstein, which exposed the seamy underbelly of Hollywood. While many who have posted the hashtag have not named names, some have, resulting in a series of accusations, some of which have been against major players in the entertainment industry, including actor <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Spacey</a> and director <a href="" type="internal">Brett Ratner</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: A day after Piven issued his unequivocal denial, another actress, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2336905/" type="external">Cassidy Freeman</a> (best known for her role on Longmire), accused him of "predatory behavior" and having attempted to do something she did not specify with her when she was "far too young." Here is the full text of the statement Freeman posted on Instagram Wednesday:</p>
<p>You will deny this because, sadly, she’s deniable. The backlash this woman received was horrendous. And whether or not her accusations are true, the TRUTH is I know you. I know what you did and attempted to do to me when I was far too young. THAT I know. And you know it too. Unless there were so many of us, that you can’t remember. Predatory behavior is a chronic way for you to seek power. Do you feel powerful? With your lawyers and your networks and your die hard man-fans who call your victims bimbos? Or do you know, in your rotten gut, that you will have to lie for the rest of your life? I hope from now on, you keep it in your pants and you never get to do it again.</p>
<p>Bellamar's tweets below:</p>
<p>H/T <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/hbo-releases-statement-regarding-jeremy-piven-allegations.html" type="external">Vulture</a></p> | WHOA: Jeremy Piven Issues Blistering Response To Sexual Harassment Allegation | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23049/jeremy-piven-issues-blistering-response-appalling-james-barrett | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning upheld Michigan's ban on using race as a factor in college admissions.</p>
<p>In a 6-2 ruling, the justices said the state did not violate the U.S. Constitution when its voters banned affirmative action. The justices say that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change as discriminatory.</p>
<p>Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Justice Elena Kagan took no part in the case, having worked on the issue when she was at the Justice Department.</p>
<p>In 2006, 58 percent of Michigan voters approved Proposal Two, amending their state constitution to ban affirmative action. The state justified the vote as an effort to put an end to racial preferences.</p>
<p>But defenders of affirmative action said the ban amounted to an act of discrimination, because it blocked only minority students from seeking preferences in school admissions.</p>
<p>They argued that students seeking, for example, a preference for admitting children of alumni could take their case to a school directly, while those seeking a racial preference would have to first persuade voters to amend the state constitution.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.com/jansing-and-co/watch/scotus-upholds-mi-ban-on-affirmative-action-233967171544" type="external">WATCH: Pete Williams discusses Supreme Court ruling</a></p>
<p>Michigan was the setting for the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling that said colleges and universities could consider race as a plus factor in school admissions in order to achieve a more diverse student body. The vote to ban the practice followed the court's ruling.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the justices in the majority stressed that the ruling says nothing about the merits of affirmative action itself, only the process by which a state can ban it.</p>
<p>"There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this court's precedents for the judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy.</p>
<p>"Deliberative debate on sensitive issues such as racial preferences all too often may shade into rancor. But that does not justify removing certain court-determined issues from the voters' reach. Democracy does not presume that some subjects are either too divisive or too profound for public debate," he said.</p>
<p>Sotomayor took twelve minutes to summarize her dissent.</p>
<p>"We cannot wish away racial inequality," she said. The Bronx-born justice has written extensively about the role affirmative action played in her own education.</p>
<p>Seven other states have banned affirmative action — Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.</p> | Supreme Court Upholds Michigan Affirmative Action Ban | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-upholds-michigan-affirmative-action-ban-n86626 | 2014-04-22 | 3 |
<p>Published time: 1 Sep, 2017 10:48</p>
<p>A new watchdog charged with regulating state surveillance has started work, with the aim of keeping in check the state’s ability to spy on its own citizens.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/373188-liberty-state-spying-surveillance/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Lord Justice Fulford has taken office as the first investigatory powers commissioner (IPC), amalgamating the three watchdog roles which had previously overseen surveillance powers in the UK.</p>
<p>His role was created by the controversial Investigatory Powers Act, also known by the epithet Snoopers’ Charter, which became law at the end of last year.</p>
<p>His office, the IPCO, will employ about 70 staff, including 15 serving and retired judges.</p>
<p>Inspectors will check that the interception of phone calls and the handling of agents, surveillance and powers permitting bulk collection of communications data are carried out within the law.</p>
<p>Among the most sensitive work of the agency will be operation of the ‘double-lock’ system of authorization of inception warrants introduced by the act. Under the scheme both a minister and an independent judge, known as a judicial commissioner, will have to approve surveillance warrants.</p>
<p>IPCO inspections will be “rigorous and robust,” with inspectors able to access systems, confidential documents and interview staff. It will inspect hundreds of public authorities each year, it says.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Among organizations overseen by the IPCO are the government’s monitoring agency GCHQ, MI5, MI6, the National Crime Agency, all police forces, the Serious Fraud Office, HM Revenue and Customs, local authorities, prisons and Whitehall departments.</p>
<p>In a statement, Fulford said: “for the first time, investigatory powers will be overseen by a single body applying a consistent, rigorous and independent inspection regime across public authorities.” He added that it is an “important milestone” as the new oversight powers set out in the Investigatory Powers Act are implemented.</p>
<p>Operation of the new act remains highly controversial, with campaign groups claiming it allows “sweeping state spying powers.”</p>
<p /> | Spying on the spies: State surveillance of Britons now being monitored | false | https://newsline.com/spying-on-the-spies-state-surveillance-of-britons-now-being-monitored/ | 2017-09-01 | 1 |
<p />
<p>FedSmith.com Users Overwhelmingly Reject Inclusion in New Health Care Program</p>
<p>August 8, 2013&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>With a national debate still going on as the new national health care plan (Obamacare) is taking effect, what do federal employees think of the new system?</p>
<p>This week, we asked their views on being included in the new health care exchanges. There is apparently little debate among the federal workforce. Federal employees do not want to be part of the new system. Instead, they prefer to keep their current health plan based on a survey with about 2500 readers responding. Employees who are already retired have a much stronger negative reaction to being moved to a new system. Those with more than 15 years until retirement are not as unanimous in their opposition to moving into the new health care exchanges.</p>
<p>Congress and Congressional staff do not have a choice but won’t have to foot the bill of being in the new system. In a ruling issued this week, lawmakers and their staffs will continue to receive a federal contribution toward the&#160;health insurance&#160;that they must purchase through the health care exchanges created by President&#160;Barack Obama’s&#160;healthcare legislation.</p>
<p>In effect, they will be leaving the federal employee health care program and going into the new system but with the federal government still picking up most of the cost just as is done under the federal employee program.&#160;The new health care legislation included a requirement that Congressional members and their staffs would have to join the new exchanges. The author of this successful amendment, Republican Senator Charles Grassley, argued that if Obamacare plans were good enough for the American public, they were good enough for Congress. Democrats, who were eager to pass the health care legislation, which most had not read, passed the legislation with the amendment included.</p>
<p>As noted in an&#160; <a href="http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/08/05/should-federal-employees-continue-to-be-in-the-fehbp/" type="external">article</a>&#160;earlier this week, legislation has been introduced to also move federal employees into the health care exchanges and out of the current federal employee health insurance program.</p>
<p>We asked readers their views on leaving the current federal health insurance program and joining the new exchanges. The results were definitive with 92.3% of those responding to the survey preferring to continue in the current program.</p>
<p>With regard to federal retirees, the results were even more lopsided:</p>
<p>Different Perspective From Those Retired And Newer Federal Employees</p>
<p>27.4% of those responding to the survey are already retired federal employees. 41.1% indicated they would be eligible to retire in the next five years. 13.2% will not retire for more than 15 years.</p>
<p>Of those who are already retired, 97.6% said they should be allowed to keep their existing insurance rather than being forced into Medicare. But, among those with more than 15 years until retirement, 90.7% said they should be allowed to keep their existing insurance and 9.3% said being required to enroll in Medicare would be preferable.</p>
<p>Also, among those with more than 15 years until retirement, a smaller percentage preferred being able to keep their enrollment in the current federal employee health insurance program. Among this group, 87.6% preferred keeping the existing federal employee system. 7.5% said they should become part of the new health care exchanges and 5% were not sure.</p>
<p>Comments from Readers</p>
<p>Why are readers so opposed to the new health insurance program?</p>
<p>More than 800 submitted written comments expressing their views. Here are a few representative comments.</p>
<p>Our thanks to those who took the time to vote in this survey and a special thanks to those readers who submitted their written comments.</p> | Survey of federal employees confirms that Obamacare SUCKS and is unwanted. Over 90% of federal employees surveyed prefer to keep their existing plans. Be sure to read the comments by readers at the end of the article…. | true | https://powderedwigsociety.com/survey-of-federal-employees-confirms-that-obamacare-sucks-and-is-unwanted-over-90-of-federal-employees-surveyed-prefer-to-keep-their-existing-plans-be-sure-to-read-the-comments-by-those-surveyed-at/ | 2013-08-14 | 0 |
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<p>In an emotional presentation that lasted more than two hours, Michael Critchley cast client Bridget Kelly as a single mother faced with an administration more concerned with keeping Christie’s nascent presidential hopes alive than with exposing the truth when details of the scandal surfaced three years ago.</p>
<p>In a rebuttal summation, a prosecutor urged jurors to ignore the insinuations about Christie and others and focus on the evidence against the two defendants, which he called “devastating.”</p>
<p>Jurors were given the case late Monday afternoon and left for the day after brief deliberations. They are scheduled to resume Tuesday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a former executive at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were named in a nine-count indictment in 2015 on charges they schemed to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie. They face up to 20 years in prison on the most serious counts.</p>
<p>The scandal involving the nation’s busiest bridge, which connects Fort Lee and Manhattan, unfolded at a time when Christie was on the brink of a runaway re-election victory and was considered a top Republican presidential contender. He wasn’t charged, but the story dogged him through a failed presidential bid.</p>
<p>Kelly testified during the trial that she told Christie about the lane closures a month before they happened, something Christie has adamantly denied. Critchley reminded jurors Monday that the government didn’t call Christie to say that under oath.</p>
<p>Cupping his hands as if holding a megaphone, Critchley practically yelled, “Chris Christie, where are you?”</p>
<p>Kelly was “the odd person out,” Critchley said. “The inner circle, they know what the code is: ‘Chris Christie knows nothing.’ Bridget Kelly has a different version, and that makes her dangerous. They want that mother of four to take the fall for them. Cowards. Cowards.”</p>
<p>In his rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said the case wasn’t about who could have been charged or who could have been called to testify.</p>
<p>Critchley “wants you to make it about whether Chris Christie lied,” he told jurors. “He wants to distract you from the core of the case. Why? Because the evidence against his client is devastating.”</p>
<p>Kelly and Baroni testified that they believed former Port Authority official David Wildstein when he told them the realignment of access lanes to the bridge in September 2013 was part of a traffic study. Massive gridlock ensued, and Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich’s pleas went unanswered for four days — on orders from Wildstein, the defendants testified.</p>
<p>Critchley on Monday called Wildstein, a high school classmate of Christie’s who pleaded guilty last year, “the Bernie Madoff of New Jersey politics.” Wildstein testified that both Kelly and Baroni were fully aware of the scheme to punish Sokolich.</p>
<p>In his closing argument Friday, Baroni’s attorney also assailed Wildstein as Christie’s hatchet man and a liar whose testimony shouldn’t be trusted.</p>
<p>Khanna countered Monday that Baroni changed his story about the traffic jams at least three times, including in front of a legislative committee probing the closures in 2013. He said emails and texts among the three co-conspirators corroborated Wildstein, including a text Kelly sent him during the week of the gridlock that read, “Is it wrong that I am smiling?” Kelly testified she was pleased Wildstein told her the traffic study was proceeding well.</p>
<p>“Don’t let them whitewash it,” Khanna said. “It’s as outrageous as it sounds.”</p>
<p>Kelly wrote the infamous “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email the month before the lane closures. She testified she deleted that email and others because she was scared people in Christie’s administration who knew of the lane closures weren’t being forthcoming.</p> | Defense dubs Christie a coward in closings as jury gets case | false | https://abqjournal.com/879174/defense-dubs-christie-a-coward-in-closings-as-jury-gets-case.html | 2016-10-31 | 2 |
<p>Sept. 11 (UPI) — Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems has been awarded a $27 million modification to an existing contract for the procurement of retrofitting kits for the 60 Automatic Radar Periscope Detect and Discrimination program.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1303900/" type="external">The modification</a> provides for 11 standard and 5 SEED kits for the program with the work primarily taking place in Farmingdale, N.Y and Oswego, N.Y. The production run is expected to be completed by Oct. 2020.</p>
<p>The H-60 Automatic Radar Periscope Detect and Discrimination program is a series of radar upgrades for use on MH-60 Seahawk helicopters to help spot and discriminate enemy submarine periscopes.</p>
<p>Periscopes by design are difficult to detect due to their small size and short time on the surface, especially in high radar clutter environments and rough seas. Periscopes are used by submarines to visually identify and track targets and can mount radars and other sensors of their own.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.navair.navy.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.PrintNewsStory&amp;id=3960" type="external">ARPDD has been in use</a> since 2009 and has been upgraded several times. It is one of the few systems available that are capable of identifying and tracking submarine periscopes.</p> | Lockheed Martin receives $27M contract for periscope detection radars | false | https://newsline.com/lockheed-martin-receives-27m-contract-for-periscope-detection-radars/ | 2017-09-11 | 1 |
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<p>Interested in pursuing a coaching career once her University of New Mexico women’s basketball career ended, Erskine made a point to start following UNM videographer Amy Beggin around last season, learning the ins and outs of Beggin’s job.</p>
<p>It paid off.</p>
<p>On Thursday Erskine was hired as videographer for the UNM women’s program. She’ll replace Beggin, who will soon move into the director of operations position. Both positions become official Sept. 1.</p>
<p>Erskine concluded a four-year playing career with the Lobos last spring. She earned a reputation as a blue-collar player, which Lobo coach Yvonne Sanchez said was to Erskine’s benefit during the hiring process.</p>
<p>“Jourdan’s a great person and such a hard worker,” Sanchez said, “I know she’ll do well. Plus, she’s already learned the system we use, which put her a step ahead of the game.”</p>
<p>Erskine returned to her hometown of Saginaw, Mich., after graduating in the spring but will soon move back to Albuquerque, Sanchez said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Jourdan approached me last year and said she was interested in getting into coaching,” Sanchez said. “She and (current Lobo) Sara Halasz both started learning the video system from Amy because that’s where you start. Sara’s still got a season of basketball ahead of her, but I’m glad we’re able to bring Jourdan on board.”</p>
<p>Sanchez expects the staff changes to be smooth because Beggin learned the director of operations role from the recently retired Dave Shoemate.</p>
<p>“It’s nice for Amy because she already started training Jourdan,” Sanchez said.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Sanchez hires Erskine as videographer | false | https://abqjournal.com/251936/sanche-zhires-erskine-as-videographer.html | 2013-08-23 | 2 |
<p>After two nights of watching debates featuring candidates like Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell, I know why I haven’t been able to write about the midterm elections. It’s hard to believe this is not a dream. At any moment, I think, I’ll wake up, and realize that the past few weeks have been one Alaska-sized nightmare.</p>
<p>But, as Harry Reid would confirm, what’s happened tonight in Las Vegas is real alright as real as the mud on Michele Bachmann’s pumps.</p>
<p>One comes away with a couple things from listening to Reid debate Angle:</p>
<p>The word “Obamacare” has caught on like wildfire in a mostly dry campsite, and is now a shibboleth, mantra, and one of Palin’s nonsensical neologisms that are as weightless as a slipper in outer space.</p>
<p>After all, what is “Obamacare” but a new arrangement of the same health reform song sung by former Massachusetts governor Mitt, the CEO cheerleader, Romney. In almost every important respect, what Palin, and now Sharron Angle, like to dub “Obamacare” is virtually identical to its predecessor, the New England Commonwealth’s health reform bill which is now jokingly referred to as “Romneycare” everywhere but in, you guessed it, Vegas and Alaska.</p>
<p>Notably, as you remember, Mitt Romney’s health reform bill called for a government mandate for citizens to carry health insurance, like car insurance, or face a penalty just like “Obamacare” does. Its detractors have also blamed Romneycare for statewide job losses, and hurting small business. In fact, according to an article in Politico, Romney, everyone’s favorite Republican 2012 presidential contender is already being urged to distance himself from the Obama administration’s health care reform so as not to damage any possible bid.</p>
<p>From now on, when you hear a Republican talk about “Obamacare,” think “Romneycare,” as that is what it essentially is.</p>
<p>None of this seems to phase candidates like Christine O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, or Sharron Angle.</p>
<p>Secondly, and importantly, thanks to the mainstream media’s fascination with nouveau populist causes, as well as anything that boosts anemic readership, many voters now think of Palin, Bachmann, O’Donnell, Rand Paul, and Sharron Angle as tea partiers, not Republicans. To think of these politicians as anything other than the logical, if nightmarish, extension of the Republican revolutionaries of 1994 is to deny the obvious. What is called the tea party is merely recycled conservatism.</p>
<p>So, we interrupt this article to bring you the following breaking news:</p>
<p>Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann, and Rand Paul are as true to the Republican Party platform as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush before them. They are card carrying right wing nuts. Don’t let their two-bit populism fool you. They’re populists all the way to the bank. They care as much about the working man and woman in this country as the folks at AIG, Citibank, Enron, and Goldman Sachs do. When they speak about the free market and deregulation, they’re not practicing witchcraft, they’re bringing you Reaganomics in drag.</p>
<p>The same Reagonomics that broke the air traffic controllers union now wants to break social security, Medicare, under the pretext of reducing the budget. Palin et. al are fighting hard to keep the upper 1% of the population precisely where it is, and has been for the past thirty years. Preserving the tax cuts of George W. Bush means preserving the status quo. Angle, O’Donnell et. al mean change you can believe in because you’ve already been there, half a century ago.</p>
<p>The scare tactics they use about increasing the deficit, and the risk of another terrorist attack are real, but the target isn’t. They are every thinking man and woman’s cause for fear. The prospect of a Palin, Angle, Bachmann, or O’Donnell in Congress, or lord forbid, the White House should scare the wits out of any reasonable person.</p>
<p>From Sharron Angle’s proclamation, during her debate with Harry Reid tonight, that if we allow the Bush tax cuts to expire we do so at our peril to Christine O’Donnell telling her Democratic opponent Coon that she supports reversing Roe v. Wade and letting the states decide whether or not abortion should be legal to Michele Bachmann defending the rights of what used to be called fetuses, but which Bachmann now insists are the “pre-born,” what we hear is the battle cry of the underprepared and overcoached. Who are the coaches? The same guys who sold arms to the Contras in exchange for release of hostages. The lawbreakers. The saboteurs. The ones who like you to think they’re keeping you safe while robbing your safe.</p>
<p>Michele Bachmann takes the choice debate one step further by saying she would work to grant the “pre-born” equal protection under the 14th Amendment. One can only scratch one’s head when hearing that a candidate who aims to protect the “pre-born” simultaneously voted “no” on enforcing anti-gay hate crimes.</p>
<p>Bachmann’s stance on gun control is equally emphatic. She wants to ban gun registration and trigger lock law.</p>
<p>And, while Angle wants to repeal the Department of Education, Rand Paul wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Energy. In his latest debate, Rand Paul also wants to repeal health care legislation.</p>
<p>During her debate with Harry Reid tonight, Sharron Angle made it clear that she still wants to privatize social security, though she now calls it “personalizing,” using the proverbial party line that social security is verging on bankruptcy.</p>
<p>That Christine O’Donnell was unable to name one Supreme Court justice she admires during her live debate with her Democratic opponent is especially scary given that she can see the White House from her front lawn.</p>
<p>When Rand Paul said he wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Act, all he needed was a confederate flag in the background and a couple of guys in white hoods to make the moment more authentic.</p>
<p>As for Sharron Angle, it’s hard to take anyone seriously who dismisses their mistake of $25 billion, and $2.5 billion, but guess what… this is serious, this is mega serious, and no, Martha, this is not a bad dream.</p>
<p>This is the radical right wing fringe of the Republican party, the same virulent wing nuts who brought you Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, and Dan Quayle, on steroids.</p>
<p>Some might say we need to vet our candidates more, but the same vet who gave Sarah Palin her pedigree has worked on the campaigns of Bachmann et. al.</p>
<p>These four candidates, and their less conspicuous peers, like Scott Brown who recently won a Senate seat, and the Republican now running to be New York’s next governor, have one common denominator: they’re scary as hell.</p>
<p>Perhaps the maxim should instead be: “Those who are not old enough to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”</p>
<p>If you, too, have never been one to rush to the polls during a midterm election, then you’d better be prepared to live with the consequences for a long time to come.</p>
<p>JAYNE LYN STAHL is a widely published poet, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter, member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA.</p> | Leaving Las Vegas | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/10/15/leaving-las-vegas/ | 2010-10-15 | 4 |
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<p>New Visit Albuquerque logo, unveiled Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. (COURTESY VISIT ALBUQUERQUE)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Say goodbye to those elongated, nearly mustachioed, Qs.</p>
<p>Albuquerque, the word at least, is going to look a lot different in marketing efforts used to lure visitors to the Duke City.</p>
<p>Visit Albuquerque has overhauled its logo for the first time in a decade, unveiling on Tuesday a new version — or versions — meant to reflect the city’s cultures, food, landscape, architecture and more.</p>
<p>Visit Albuquerque\’s longtime logo when it was operating under the name Albuquerque Convention Visitors Bureau. (Courtesy of Visit Albuquerque)</p>
<p>But the mark that will get literally millions of impressions via the agency’s various advertising campaigns is actually a fluid creature that can incorporate different colors and images and even swap out ABQ for “Albuquerque,” depending on the medium.</p>
<p>“It’s a logo centuries in the making and one that also faces eagerly toward the future,” Visit Albuquerque’s President and CEO Tania Armenta told an audience of about 250 at the agency’s quarterly luncheon. “Like the city it represents, our new symbol is made from both old and new, traditional and innovative, the earth and the sky and without them, it wouldn’t be Albuquerque.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Visit Albuquerque worked with McKee Wallwork + Co. on the new design. Steve McKee said the process, led by creative director David Ortega, began in late spring and yielded a blueprint that can shift as necessary. Many brands have moved in that direction, toying with their logos to convey different messages. Asked how many iterations Visit Albuquerque’s will have, he said, “Who knows?”</p>
<p>“We want to let it live and breathe and see where it takes you,” he said.</p>
<p>It can change based on the audience, from the older travelers that Visit Albuquerque has long targeted to the younger adventure seekers the city is increasingly trying to woo, Armenta said.</p>
<p>Other priorities included legibility — “Albuquerque is a hard word to spell,” she said — linking the image to the city’s culture and evoking emotion.</p>
<p>“We think that this is a beautiful representation and encapsulates what we would want to communicate about Albuquerque,” Armenta said in an interview.</p> | Visit Albuquerque unveils new logo | false | https://abqjournal.com/874932/visit-albuquerque-unveils-new-logo.html | 2016-10-25 | 2 |
<p>Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the scene of a mass shooting Feb. 14, have been joined by hundreds of thousands as they march in a nationwide protest demanding sensible gun control laws. More than 800 protests are occurring, in every American state. About 20 speakers—all of them students—are speaking to the huge crowd in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>The march follows a nationwide student walkout earlier this month. Another walkout is planned for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.</p>
<p>Scroll down to see Truthdig’s live multimedia updates, including the following exclusive photo essay by Truthdig Correspondent Michael Nigro:</p>
<p><a href="#" type="external">PHOTO ESSAY | 24 photosA Cause With Many Rebels</a></p>
<p />
<p>—Posted by&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Emily Wells</a></p>
<p />
<p>3/21/2018 6:30 a.m. PDT: What follows is Twitter’s roundup of top tweets regarding Saturday’s March for Our Lives.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/marchforourlives" type="external">#marchforourlives Tweets</a></p>
<p>2:30 p.m. PDT: Clara Romeo captured this video of thousands chanting “Vote them out!” at the D.C. march:</p>
<p />
<p>2:00 p.m. PDT: Many celebrities have gathered at the L.A. sibling march to give motivational speeches and performances. Actress and activist Laura Dern and her daughter, seventh-grade student Jaya Harper, are among them.</p>
<p>“School shootings: Those two words should have nothing in common,” Harper said.</p>
<p>Goldenberg also spoke with a fellow&#160;Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alumnus at the Los Angeles march:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>1:00 p.m. PDT: Tens of thousands showed up for the sibling march in downtown Los Angeles.</p>
<p><a href="http://abc7.com/politics/march-for-our-lives-la-thousands-take-to-the-streets/3255190/" type="external">Student Jessica Flaum said</a>,&#160;“When I saw these Parkland students standing up, and people were really listening to them, it felt like this time was different, that something was going to change, and the fact that it was student-led really inspired me to get involved.”</p>
<p>Photo credit: Lauren Goldenberg</p>
<p>12:30 p.m. PDT: Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, where Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is situated, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/national/latest-6-minutes-silence-powerful-anti-gun-rally-article-1.3893504" type="external">issued a statement</a> urging the protesters to find common ground with their opponents.</p>
<p>“While protests are a legitimate way of making a point, in our system of government, making a change requires finding common ground with those who hold opposing views,” he said.</p>
<p>Noon PDT: Clara Romeo reports that the crowd remains strong at the D.C. march.</p>
<p>Clara Romeo / Truthdig</p>
<p>Clara Romeo / Truthdig</p>
<p>11:40 a.m. PDT: Emma Gonzalez, a&#160;Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student and a leading voice in the #NeverAgain movement, led a moment of silence at the D.C. march that lasted for the amount of time it took the Parkland shooter to fatally gun down 17 people.</p>
<p>She said, “Since the time that I came out here, it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle and blend in with the students so he can walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives before it is someone else’s job.”</p>
<p>11:30 a.m. PDT:&#160;Matthew Soto, 19-year-old brother of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim, addressed the crowd in D.C.: “We do not have to wait for others to make us safe, he said. “We must do it ourselves. … It is our time to stand up. Register to vote. Bring power to the polls. Our lives are not more important than a gun.”</p>
<p>“My brother survived for 14 days and died on his 15th birthday, July 10, 2012. At that time, I was only 5 years old,” he said. “Senseless gun violence took away my childhood and nothing in my life was ever the same because I no longer have my best friend. Losing my brother gave me the courage to be a voice for my generation. …&#160;I would like to not worry about dying, and focus on math and science and playing basketball with my friends. Don’t I deserve to grow up?”</p>
<p>10:40 a.m. PDT:&#160;Yolanda Renee King, the 9-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, took the podium at the D.C. march.</p>
<p>“My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by their character,” she said. “I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world, period.”</p>
<p>Then she led a chant: “Spread the word/ Have you heard?/ All across the nation./ We are going to be/ a great generation.”</p>
<p>10:00 a.m. PDT:&#160;Former President Barack Obama tweeted his support of the nationwide march.</p>
<p>“Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today’s marches happen. Keep at it. You’re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change,” he wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>9:30 a.m. PDT: While counterprotests are visible,&#160;most of those at the D.C. march are children, teens and families demanding gun safety.</p>
<p>Clara Romeo / Truthdig</p>
<p>Clara Romeo / Truthdig</p>
<p>9:00 a.m. PDT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Clara Romeo</a>&#160;reports that counterprotesters have gathered in the District of Columbia’s Chinatown, advocating for broader interpretations of the Second Amendment. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html" type="external">The New York Times</a> reports that counterprotests in support of gun rights are planned in cities including Salt Lake City, Greenville, S.C., and Helena, Mont.</p>
<p />
<p>4:00 a.m. PDT:&#160;Organizers’ estimates for the number of demonstrators in the nation’s capital have climbed gradually toward a million.</p>
<p>Michael Nigro / Truthdig</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Erin Schaff of The Associated Press offers a live stream of the march below:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Michael Nigro / Truthdig</p>
<p>Michael Nigro / Truthdig</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The night before the march, Lauren Goldenberg spoke on Twitter on the significance of marching as an alumna of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p> | 'March for Our Lives': 'Don't I Deserve To Grow Up?' (Live Blog) | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/march-for-our-lives-live-blog-one-million-expected-to-march-in-d-c/ | 2018-03-24 | 4 |
<p>* Norway fund’s stake in top 150 emitters down</p>
<p>* Companies under pressure to cut emissions under Paris deal</p>
<p>* “Strong signal” for investors - IIGC investor group says</p>
<p>By Alister Doyle</p>
<p>OSLO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has trimmed the proportion of its $1 trillion fortune that is invested in companies that emit the most greenhouse gas, a Reuters survey has shown.</p>
<p>Environmental campaigners hope the move by the world’s biggest state-owned investment fund signals the start of a trend for investors shifting their money away from activities blamed for climate change.</p>
<p>The review of the top 150 corporate greenhouse gas emitters showed that the proportion of their emissions that can be ascribed to Norway, based on the percentage of market cap it owns in the firms, fell to 0.74 percent in 2016 from 0.78 percent in 2014.</p>
<p>That corresponds to an 11 percent reduction in the fund’s share of the group’s emissions, under the broadest definition that includes consumers’ use of products such as oil and gas, steel or cars, to the equivalent of 249 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from 280 million.</p>
<p>The decline outpaced a 6 percent fall in emissions by those companies over the period, and was primarily driven by the Norwegian parliament in 2015 banning the fund - which is itself built from oil and gas revenues - from investing in firms that get more than 30 percent of their business from coal.</p>
<p>The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGC), which represents investors with more than 21 trillion euros ($26 trillion) in assets under management, welcomed the shift.</p>
<p>“The fund ... reducing its stake in major emitters is a strong signal that investors are increasingly focused on aligning their portfolios with the rapidly progressing energy transition,” Stephanie Pfeifer, IIGC chief executive, told Reuters.</p>
<p>At a climate summit in Paris last month major investors agreed to pressure companies to do more to curb their emissions.</p>
<p>Despite the decline in its percentage holdings, the value of the fund’s investments in the top 150 emitters rose to 484 billion Norwegian crowns ($61 billion) in 2016 against 448 billion in 2014, a fraction of the $1 trillion fund’s stakes in almost 9,000 companies.</p>
<p>The survey showed the fund had no investments in Coal India during the period and trimmed its percentage stake in Gazprom. It raised its percentage stake slightly in Exxon Mobil and kept it steady in Thyssenkrupp and China Petroleum &amp; Chemical Corp.</p>
<p>Last year, the fund proposed dropping oil and gas companies from its benchmark index, which would bring huge changes if approved by parliament as part of a shift from fossil fuels under the 2015 Paris climate accord.</p>
<p>The fund’s board is also considering excluding particularly inefficient emitters in sectors such as oil and gas, cement and steel.</p>
<p>The emissions data used in the survey was drawn from a report in November by Thomson Reuters with Constellation Research &amp; Technology, emissions tracking group CDP and BSD Consulting that showed few of the top emitters had strong climate goals.</p>
<p>Reuters compared the emissions against the fund’s own publicly accessible database of equity holdings.</p>
<p>Tim Nixon, director of sustainability at Thomson Reuters, said the data indicated a good start “but to be effective you really need to pick out the laggards from the leaders.”</p>
<p>The Norwegian fund wants companies to provide as much data as possible, something that would help investors make climate change goals part of their investment decisions.</p>
<p>“For us as an investor to be able to assess the companies we need numbers, including carbon emission numbers,” spokeswoman Marthe Skaar said.</p>
<p>Some companies are starting to track emissions from the use of their products. Unilever, for instance, says it helps consumers save energy and emissions with washing powder that works at lower water temperatures.</p>
<p>Data on consumption shows trends in environmental performance but means overlapping accounts. Jet fuel, for instance, can be listed under the airline that uses it, the oil company that produced it or even the firm that made the engines. ($1 = 7.8836 Norwegian crowns)($1 = 0.8188 euros) (Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> ZAGREB, April 13 (Reuters) - A planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the island of Krk in the northern Adriatic meets environmental requirements, the company leading the project said on Friday. "The energy and environmental protection ministry made a decision that the terminal is acceptable for the environment. The decision is based on an environmental impact study completed this year," Croatia's LNG Hrvatska said on its website. A final investment decision is expected before the end of June. Croatia plans, with help of the European Union funds, to build a floating LNG terminal to begin operations in 2020. Some municipalities and environmentalist groups oppose the plan, arguing it could damage the environment and hurt tourism. The government is devising a special law to speed up work on the terminal which over time could develop, depending on demand, into a land-based facility. The terminal is part of EU efforts to diversify away from Russian energy imports. Brussels has pledged to provide 101.4 million euros ($125 million) or 28 percent of the value of the project. Initial annual capacity is planned at 2.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) which is roughly Croatia's annual consumption. Croatia produces around a half of its gas consumption and the terminal would also supply central and eastern European countries. Between now and the end of June, Croatia plans to strike agreements with several, mostly foreign, firms on using the terminal's capacity and to complete a financing plan with potential investors. In early March, opponents to the terminal staged a protest in the city of Rijeka and said they would apply all legal means to block the project, but their further possible steps are still unclear. ($1 = 0.8118 euros) (Reporting by Igor Ilic; editing by Jason Neely) Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations shipping agency reached an agreement on Friday to cut carbon emissions, following years of slow progress.</p> FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers are being loaded onto Xin Da Yang Zhou ship from Shanghai, China at Pier J at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, U.S., April 4, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Riha Jr.
<p>The compromise plan, which will cut emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2008 levels, fell short of more ambitious targets.</p>
<p>Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said the adoption of the strategy “would allow future IMO work on climate change to be rooted in a solid basis”.</p>
<p>The IMO said it would also be pursuing efforts toward phasing out CO2 emissions entirely.</p>
<p>Delegates said opposition from some countries - including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Panama - had limited what could be achieved at the IMO session this week in London.</p>
<p>“The IMO should and could have gone a lot further,” said Bill Hemmings, shipping director with green campaigners Transport &amp; Environment.</p>
<p>“This decision puts shipping on a promising track.”</p>
<p>Greenpeace International political adviser Veronica Frank said the plan was “far from perfect but the direction is now clear - a phase-out of carbon emissions”.</p>
<p>“This decarbonisation must start now and targets improved along the way, because without concrete, urgent measures to cut emissions from shipping now, the Paris ambition to limit warming to 1.5 degrees will become swiftly out of reach,” Frank said.</p>
<p>Shipping association BIMCO in contrast described it as a “landmark achievement”.</p>
<p>Kathi Stanzel, managing director of tanker association INTERTANKO, added: “It is the culmination of international efforts to develop both ambitious and concrete plans to respond to the challenge of our century.”</p>
<p>The shipping sector, along with aviation, avoided specific emissions-cutting targets in a global climate pact agreed in Paris at the end of 2015, which aims to limit a global average rise in temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius from 2020.</p> HIGHER TARGETS
<p>European Union countries along with the Marshall Islands, the world’s second-biggest ship registry, had supported a goal of cutting emissions by 70 to 100 percent by 2050, compared with 2008 levels.</p>
<p>Europe’s transport commissioner Violeta Bulc and climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said in a joint statement while the EU had “sought a higher level of ambition, this is a good starting point that will allow for further review and improvements over time”.</p>
<p>British-based research group InfluenceMap said an emissions cut of 70 percent would have been “much closer to what is needed if shipping is to be in line with the goals of the Paris agreement”.</p>
<p>Shipping accounts for 2.2 percent of world CO2 emissions, according to the IMO, the U.N. agency responsible for regulating pollution from ships.</p>
<p>This is around the amount emitted by Germany, according to the latest EU data available, and is predicted to grow significantly if left unchecked.</p>
<p>The IMO has adopted mandatory rules for new vessels to boost fuel efficiency as a means of cutting CO2 from ship engines.</p>
<p>A final IMO plan is not expected until 2023.</p>
<p>According to the text produced by the IMO working group submitted to member states, the initial strategy would not be legally binding for member states.</p>
<p>The text separately pointed to possible medium-term measures to address emissions that could include low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels, improved energy efficiency for new and existing ships and possible market-based mechanisms to encourage the shift to lower-carbon fuels.</p>
<p>It also said its final strategy should be subject to a review in 2028.</p>
<p>Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the country’s delegation had “fought hard” for the outcome.</p>
<p>“While it may not be enough to give my country the certainty it wanted, it makes it clear that international shipping will now urgently reduce emissions and play its part in giving my country a pathway to survival,” Heine said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Julia Fioretti in Brussels, Editing by Dale Hudson and Jane Merriman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - British biofuel targets coming into force this weekend will double the use of renewable fuels in the UK transport sector in 15 years and reduce reliance on imported diesel, the government said on Friday.</p>
<p>The new targets, which take effect on April 15, will compel transport fuel suppliers who sell at least 450,000 liters a year or more to make sure the mix is at least 12.4 percent biofuel by 2032, the government said.</p>
<p>The industry supplies fuel to transport companies such as haulage businesses and airlines.</p>
<p>Changes to the so-called Renewables Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) will increase the biofuels volume target to 9.75 percent in 2020 and 12.4 percent in 3032 from the current 4.75 percent.</p>
<p>The changes will also reward and support the production of sustainable renewable aviation fuels in Britain.</p>
<p>“The changes we are introducing will double our carbon emissions savings from the RTFO scheme by doubling the use of renewable fuels and reducing reliance on imported fossil diesel,” said British transport minister Jesse Norman.</p>
<p>“This will deliver emissions savings equal to taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the road.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by David Goodman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LANGLEY, British Columbia (Reuters) - Layers of squirming black soldier fly larvae fill large aluminum bins stacked 10-high in a warehouse outside of Vancouver. They are feeding on stale bread, rotting mangoes, overripe cantaloupe and squishy zucchini.</p>
<p>But this is no garbage dump. It’s a farm.</p>
<p>Enterra Feed, one of an emerging crop of insect growers, will process the bugs into protein-rich food for fish, poultry - even pets. After being fattened up, the fly larvae will be roasted, dried and bagged or pressed to extract oils, then milled into a brown powder that smells like roasted peanuts.</p>
<p>The small but growing insect farming sector has captured attention and investments from some heavyweights in the $400 billion-a-year animal feed business, including U.S. agricultural powerhouse Cargill Inc [CARG.UL], feed supplier and farm products and services company Wilbur-Ellis Co and Swiss-based Buhler Group, which makes crop processing machinery.</p>
<p>Fast food giant McDonald’s is studying using insects for chicken feed to reduce reliance on soy protein.</p>
<p>“This pioneering work is currently at the proof-of-concept stage,” Nicola Robinson, McDonald’s Corp sustainable supply chain manager, told Reuters. “We are encouraged by initial results and are committed to continuing to support further research.”</p>
<p>The fact that such global food production giants are turning to insects illustrates the lengths they will go to find alternative sources of protein that are profitable and sustainable as animal feed or additives to human food. Bugs are just one many alternatives being studied or developed by major agricultural firms. Others include peas, canola, algae and bacterial proteins.</p>
<p>Global population growth and an expanding middle class have raised per capita meat consumption by 50 percent over the past four decades, fueling fears of a protein pinch. Traditional sources of the key macronutrient are growing increasingly unreliable amid a changing global climate and worries about the environmental impacts of row-crop farms and commercial fishing.</p>
<p>(For a graphic on rising meat consumption, see: <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2INBgFY" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2INBgFY</a> )</p>
<p>Benoit Anquetil - strategy and technology lead for Cargill’s animal nutrition business - called developing new sources of protein a “long-term opportunity.”</p>
<p>“Sustainable protein is a key challenge, which is why Cargill is evaluating the viability of insects as part of the solution to nourish the world,” Anquetil said.</p>
<p>People tend to pivot from grain- and plant-based diets to meat-based meals as they grow wealthier. The problem is that as meat demand grows, feed production needs to grow faster. It typically takes about two pounds of feed to produce a pound of chicken. For pork, it takes four pounds.</p>
<p>Expanded cultivation of soybeans - the foundation of livestock and poultry rations for decades - is not a long term solution because it contributes to deforestation and overuse of harsh farm chemicals.</p>
<p>In addition, supplies of fishmeal - an aquaculture feed made from wild-caught fish and fish by-products - have fluctuated wildly with climactic cycles, overfishing and regulation to prevent it.</p>
<p>Nutritionists and scientists have long touted insect consumption for humans as a sustainable and cheap source of protein, but snacking on bugs is a stomach-churning prospect for people in many countries and cultures. Introducing insect protein further down the food chain may be more palatable.</p>
<p>The bug business still has a few hurdles ahead - like the yuck factor, even when the insects are fed to animals. Regulators will also need to be convinced that ground-up bugs won’t introduce new toxins into the food supply.</p>
<p>“They are considered filth in the food system,” said Virginia Emery, CEO of Beta Hatch, which grows mealworms above an auto body shop near Seattle-Tacoma Airport.</p> FEEDING BUGS TO FISH
<p>Cargill conducted an insect-based feed trial on poultry in 2015, but the company’s efforts with insects have since focused on bolstering its growing aquaculture business, where demand for alternative proteins is most acute.</p>
<p>Beta Hatch is chasing the same market. The small company’s mealworms - larvae of the mealworm beetle - will likely end up as fish food as Emery expands her business with the help of an investment from Wilbur Ellis, whose fish-farming customers have pressed for sustainable alternatives to fishmeal.</p>
<p>“Fishmeal has a limited supply, and aquaculture is continuing to grow,” said Andrew Loder, president of Wilbur Ellis’ feed division. “We see insect meal as one piece of a solution.”</p>
<p>Fish farming is growing fast with growing consumer demand and increasing concerns about overfishing, resulting in catch restrictions in many depleted fisheries. Warming oceans in some areas have also disrupted supplies.</p>
<p>That means fish eaten by humans will increasingly come from farms - driving up demand and prices for fish feed.</p>
<p>(For a graphic on expansion of fish farms and rising fishmeal demand, see: <a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2qntKe2" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2qntKe2</a> )</p>
<p>Fishmeal is made from wild-caught anchoveta, herring and other oily fish that represents about 25 percent of a typical aquaculture feed ration, which typically also includes grains or soybean meal.</p>
<p>But fish farms cannot rely solely on crop-based feeds to nourish their naturally carnivorous stock.</p>
<p>“You can feed an animal all grain, and it will grow, but it may not grow as quickly and efficiently and may be prone to disease,” said Andrew Vickerson, chief technology officer at Enterra.</p> HIGH IN PROTEIN, FAT
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Insect farmers grow black soldier fly larvae and mealworms because they are docile, easy to grow and high in protein and digestible fat.</p>
<p>Mealworms can be grown with little water and studies have shown they can “rescue” nutrients by consuming grains not fit for livestock production without passing on harmful toxins. Black soldier fly larvae also contain high levels of calcium and iron and can feed on a broad array of food waste.</p>
<p>Crickets - a favorite for human consumption in some countries - are by contrast picky eaters. They’re also noisy, and can damage nearby crops if they escape.</p> Black soldier fly larvae at the Enterra Feed Corporation in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, March 14, 2018. Picture taken March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Ben Nelms
<p>Enterra is expanding to a second commercial-scale plant in Calgary within the next year and targeting opening similar facilities in other North American cities every year for the next five years, with financing from Calgary-based Avrio Capital and UK-based Wheat Sheaf.</p>
<p>Protix opened its first commercial black soldier fly larvae plant in the Netherlands in 2017 and will break ground on a second facility there later this year, aided by a $50 million investment from Buhler. The Dutch company, working with fish farmers, has also launched a brand of “friendly salmon,” fed with rations containing insect meal instead of fishmeal.</p>
<p>“If we are able to be successful in Europe, then this will be a global solution,” said Protix CEO Kees Aarts.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Neither company would disclose the production costs or capacity, citing proprietary technology. But both said their insect feed prices are on par with to slightly above competing feeds like fishmeal.</p>
<p>Ohio-based EnviroFlight, a black soldier fly larvae producer, will break ground on the first commercial-scale insect meal production facility in the United States near Cincinnati later this year.</p> &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;REGULATORY HURDLES
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Humans have been eating insects for centuries, but the practice is not common in many western cultures and still spooks food regulators.</p>
<p>Black soldier fly larvae production has gained a handful of approvals in Europe, Canada and the United States, mostly for use in fish farms. Poultry, swine and pet food regulations are not as far along.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; “Since fish eat insects in the wild naturally, it is easier for consumers to wrap their heads around insects as part of the feed,” Cargill’s Anquetil said.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; Thorough safety testing of insects as feed will be critical for consumer acceptance, said Thomas Gremillion, director for the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.</p> Slideshow (8 Images)
<p>“If there was a big change in how animals are being fed, I’d want to see some extra scrutiny of whether the animals were accumulating any kinds of toxins from the insects,” he said.</p>
<p>It will take years for the insect farming sector to scale up. But growing the business to even a small market share would make a big difference to the feed industry and the environment, said Robert Nathan Allen, an insect farmer and chairman of the North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture.</p>
<p>“If we’re replacing 5 or 10 percent of the proteins that are normally in those feeds with insect protein,” Allen said, “That’s a lot of resources saved.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Additional reporting by Ben Nelms in Langley, British Columbia; Editing by Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Norway's $1 trillion fund curbs holdings in biggest CO2 emitters Croatia's Krk LNG terminal meets environmental requirements U.N. shipping agency reaches deal to cut CO2 emissions Britain says new biofuel targets will reduce diesel reliance Insect farms gear up to feed soaring global protein demand | false | https://reuters.com/article/norway-swf/norways-1-trillion-fund-curbs-holdings-in-biggest-co2-emitters-idUSL8N1PC40N | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>Oppose the oppressor and support the oppressed.</p>
<p>Imam Ali, <a href="http://www.shia.org/sayings.html" type="external">Last Will and Testament</a> (39 AH; 661 CE)</p>
<p>I have been thinking for months that if those commanding U.S. forces in Iraq really wanted to perform the ultimate stupidity, and ratchet up exponentially the degree of hatred they face in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world—then they’d surely attack the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, or be drawn into a situation where they’d damage it. This is the most important Shiite site in the world, and is holy not only to Shiites (about 120 million people) but also to all the billion-plus Muslims on the planet. It sits atop the tomb of Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, fourth caliph (“successor” of Muhammed and political and religious leader of the expanding Muslim world), assassinated by opponents in 661. Ali’s partisans supported his son Hussein as next caliph, but Umayyad foes defeated Hussein and 72 followers in battle at Karbala in 680, their martyrdoms producing the enduring division between Sunni and Shia Islam.</p>
<p>Hussein is entombed, not with his father, but in Karbala. But according to Shiite tradition, an even more remarkable figure rests under the golden dome of the Ali Shrine: Adam, the first man. A son of Noah, who refused to enter the ark, died in Najaf, and here the patriarch Abraham and his son Isaac once bought a parcel of land now called the Valley of Peace. This is the sprawling Wadi al-Salaam cemetery (the world’s largest) that adjoins the shrine. Pilgrimage to Najaf will supposedly bring 70,000 Muslims immediate entry into Paradise. Najaf was home to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for twelve years. It was a target of Saddam Hussein during the Shiite rebellion after the 1991 Gulf War, in which the first President Bush encouraged the Shiites to rise up, only to abandon them ignominiously. (In that episode the shrine was looted and bombed, although soon repaired by the Baathist regime.) Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr’s father, was assassinated here in 1999. In short, Najaf is a hub of mythology, tradition, and historical memories of injustice, resistance and martyrdom that inevitably affect its significance as a military target. Especially when Shiite resistance fighters take refuge there, and use it as a base of operations against unwelcome infidel troops.</p>
<p>Shiites constitute about 10% of the world’s Muslims, and are the majority population in Iran (93%) and Azerbaijan (61%). They comprise large communities in India and Pakistan (over 50 million total), but are the majority in only two Arab nations, tiny Bahrain (65%) and Iraq (60%). In Iraqi Shiism, the Arab and Indo-Iranian worlds intersect, and by chance the holiest site of Shiism is located in a proud Arab country, next door to the Shiite powerhouse of Iran, and now surrounded by foreign invaders. The latter, under fire from the general population, come to hate, fear and disparage the Iraqis and, regardless of the orders they receive from their officers, cannot be expected to treat Muslim sites with sensitivity and deference.</p>
<p>“We Do Not Wish to Get Involved with the Mosque”</p>
<p>It is of course, official U.S. policy to avoid damaging the Ali Shrine. “We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque,” <a href="" type="internal">says Secretary of State Colin Powell.</a> “It’s a very holy place for all Shia.” But how can U.S. forces and their token allies, occupying Najaf and the rest of Iraq, not “get involved” with a prime symbol of the identity of the invaded population? Especially when 1000 members of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army are holed up in and around Najaf’s Old City, demanding U.S. withdrawal, and amnesty for the militiamen, as the price for their own retreat?</p>
<p>Blaming continued attacks on the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces <a href="" type="internal">broke a cease-fire</a> August 2 in Kufa, next to Najaf, and an earlier agreement not to attempt to arrest al-Sadr. The cleric’s forces responded by seizing 18 Iraqi police officers, while in Basra the Mahdi Army declared a jihad against British forces that had arrested four al-Sadr supporters two days earlier. Even so, al-Sadr called for a restoration of a truce signed in June; but this was rejected by the U.S.-appointed governor of Najaf. “Major operations to destroy [al-Sadr’s] militia have begun,” announced Marine Major David Holahan, of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment, while the U.S. and British press promoted the Najaf operation as the “final” assault on the Mahdi Army. “This is one battle we really do feel we can win,” a U.S. diplomat told the Telegraph. On August 5, ostensibly responding to attacks on themselves and an Iraqi police station launched from the Valley of Peace by the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces moved into the graveyard, later claiming 300 enemy dead.</p>
<p>The First Shiite Uprising</p>
<p>This was not their first encounter with the Mahdi forces; in April, the U.S. military conducted “Operation Iron Saber” against this militia requiring an extension of tours of duty of the 1st Armored Division. (“The operation will continue until the goal of eliminating and disarming al-Sadr’s militia is met,” announced a Polish forces spokesman, adding, “I think that will take place soon.” That was three months ago.) But why did they attack this group, which needless to say had no connection to 9-11, or to al-Qaeda, or Saddam Hussein, or any previously mentioned target of the “War on Terror”? Al-Sadr, the son of a renowned and beloved cleric killed (hence martyred) by Saddam, whose power base is a huge slum area with a population of two million in Baghdad—a district now named Sadr City—had been in the crosshairs of the occupation for many months. This is because he had denounced it from the outset, and demanded that the foreign troops withdraw or face a jihad. In April, before the sham “handover of power,” his newspaper was banned, a top aide arrested, and a warrant for his arrest issued months earlier suddenly made public. (The charges were connected with <a href="" type="internal">the killing of Grand Ayatollah Amd al-Majid al-Khoei</a>, a pro-U.S. cleric flown in from London during the invasion and pegged to administer Najaf. Al-Khoei, whom senior Shiite cleric al-Sistani refused to meet, and who was insulted by common people in the streets of the city, was blown to bits outside the Ali Shrine in April 2003.)</p>
<p>Not cowed by the measures against him, the 30ish al-Sadr turned from peaceful protest to active, armed resistance, as his popularity soared. In May, according to a poll conducted by the “Coalition Provisional Authority” itself, he was viewed favorably by 68% of the Iraqis, and the figure has doubtless risen since. After taking significant casualties in Operation Iron Saber, the U.S. agreed to a cease-fire in June. Al-Sadr urged his forces to leave Najaf and announced plans to enter the planned presidential race. In the course of this operation, machinegun fire from some source produced four twelve by eight inch holes in the golden dome of the shrine; U.S. forces accused the Mahdi Army of shooting up their own holy site, but many doubted this. Iron Saber, <a href="" type="internal">according to U.S. forces</a>, killed several thousand militiamen and was a great success. But it didn’t rid the U.S. and its allies of this troublesome priest. Negotiations Fail</p>
<p>On August 10 residents of the central section of Najaf were ordered to evacuate; soon Najaf became a ghost town. Meanwhile tens of thousands rallied in protest in five Iraqi cities, and in Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan and elsewhere. In their minds, Najaf’s holy places were already under attack. According to the Washington Post, about 10,000 Iraqis arrived in the city Saturday to defend the shrine. These included Sunnis and Sunni clerics from Fallujah expressing solidarity. The leadership of Shiite Iran has strongly condemned U.S. moves on the shrine, and the Sunni organization, the Muslim Scholars Board, has issued a fatwa ordering police from cooperating with occupying forces.</p>
<p>The assault paused Friday as al-Sadr’s representatives negotiated with the U.S.-installed President Iyad Allawi for an end to the confrontation. One reads conflicting reports about why the talks failed. Some suggest that Allawi’s national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie sought to meet al-Sadr, who refused; others state that al-Sadr wished to meet with Rubaie, but could not. Al-Sadr spokesman Qais al-Khazali said a deal had been reached and signed when “we were surprised that they [Allawi’s negotiators] got instructions from Dr. Allawi to leave.” http://www.sundayherald.com/44094 An anonymous western diplomat quoted in the Boston Globe says that talks failed because Allawi had made al-Sadr a “relatively generous” offer, including clemency for the outstanding murder charge, but al-Sadr, as mentioned above, demanded a U.S. withdrawal and amnesty for his militiamen. Perhaps an agreement was vetoed by a third party; U.S. officials have opposed granting amnesty to anyone who has killed or injured U.S. troops. In any case, when the talks broke down, U.S. officials indicated that, on instructions from Allawi, Iraqi rather than U.S. forces (six of whom have already died in this operation) would attend to the destruction of the militia. American military officers praised this as a politically wise decision.</p>
<p>U.S. Forces in a Bind</p>
<p>This tactical decision to deploy Iraqis against Iraqis seems not to have eroded support for the Mahdi Army’s resistance or opposition to U.S. behavior in Najaf. The residents of Sunni Fajullah, recalling the assistance that Shiites have given them in their resistance to the occupation, have demonstrated in support of al-Sadr and sent forces to his aid in the holy city. The occupation-appointed deputy governor of Najaf, and over half the provincial council, have resigned in protest. Even one of the two U.S.-appointed deputy presidents, Ibrahim Jaafari, has called on “multinational forces to leave Najaf.”</p>
<p>On Sunday, of the 1300 delegates to the national conference in Baghdad to select a provisional legislature, over 100 walked out in protest, one stating, “as long as there are air strikes and shelling [in Najaf], we can’t have a conference.” Many Iraqis fear the U.S. will, Powell’s words notwithstanding, “get involved with the mosque,” and by inflicting damage upon it, open the gates of hell upon themselves and all complicit in the occupation. 4000 Iraqi security forces in Najaf had <a href="" type="internal">defected to al-Sadr’s army</a> by Saturday.</p>
<p>Officials of the Iraqi “defense ministry” told Knight Ridder on Sunday that “more than 100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.” One high-ranking officer said, “ <a href="" type="internal">We received a report that a whole battalion (in Najaf) threw down their rifles. We expected this, and we expect it again and again.</a>” Perhaps the politically wise decision of using Iraqi rather than U.S. forces just won’t work. That would explain why all foreign reporters (except those embedded with the U.S. military) were ordered out of Najaf Sunday. (Al-Jazeera had already been booted for biased reporting. Fox remains.)</p>
<p>Al-Sadr’s only real rival for popular support, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani, is in London recovering from a heart operation, urging restraint on both sides and likely undercutting his own moral authority and nationalist credentials in the process. While Shiite opposition to the occupation has been growing for months, the confrontation at the shrine has drawn a clear line between the Shiites and the Coalition now operating through a puppet regime. Even if, as reported, many in Najaf are tiring of al-Sadr’s methods, which threaten the business stemming from religious pilgrimage; and even if ranking clerics in Iran are distancing themselves from the Mahdi Army; the second Shiite uprising in four months may well constitute a neocon’s “nightmare scenario.” Particularly if it widens into a broader patriotic uprising, and thence into an even wider international-Muslim confrontation with the American-dominated foreign forces. On the other hand, the presence of Syrians and Iranians (reported by the Telegraph) may embolden the more audacious warmongers to use setbacks in Iraq to justify further regime-change projects in the region. More Rumsfeldian “creative chaos.”</p>
<p>Possibilities</p>
<p>That creative chaos to date has involved the sacking of the Baghdad Museum, the sexual torture of innocents in Adu Ghraib and other prisons, lingering denial of basic utilities and services, the deaths of at least 11,000 civilians, breakdown in security, rampant crime including kidnapping and rape, ineptly improvised and constantly changing administrative institutions, ongoing attacks crippling the oil industry. All of this might be leading to some apocalyptic climax, glorious as the golden dome of Imam Ali’s shrine. But of what sort?</p>
<p>Even if among the occupied, some (confused, disoriented, naively optimistic) initially thought the foreigners might bring liberation, these must now conclude—through harsh experience—that liberation is not conferred but rather won. The Mahdi Army cannot, in my view, really liberate anyone with its fundamentalist religious agenda, and this, perhaps, many of its adherents will come to understand. But for the time being, it presents the imperialists with their thorniest challenge. The warriors of this jihad know that their countrymen will desert, or defect to themselves, rather than serve the infidels in Najaf. The original sin of the occupation is that it is, after all, an occupation. Worse, one based on lies. Justified after the fact, after the bogus rationales were all discredited, by the boast, “We overthrew a dictator,” the occupation now faces the jihadis’ charge that it is worse even than Saddam. (The occupier puzzles at the charge. Aren’t we rebuilding schools' he thinks, not realizing that Iraq once had the finest school system in the Arab world, and small need for its reconstruction—until somebody, for reasons some think worth it, damaged it and so much else.)</p>
<p>Worse than Saddam. From the minarets of the mosque joining heaven and earth, the muezzin calls out that charge, and in a land of martyred imams, it resonates powerfully among the oppressed.</p>
<p>GARY LEUPP is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan</a>; <a href="" type="internal">Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan</a>; and <a href="" type="internal">Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900</a>. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Attack on Najaf | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/08/16/the-attack-on-najaf/ | 2004-08-16 | 4 |
<p>WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s ruling National Party won 44.4 percent of the votes in the country’s inconclusive Sept. 23 election, according to the final tally released on Saturday, while the opposition Labour Party took 36.9 percent.</p>
<p>The nationalist New Zealand First Party won 7.2 percent of the votes, leaving it with the balance of power in the formation of the next government. The Green Party, which has a working agreement with Labour, took 6.3 percent of the ballot.</p>
<p>The results show that the National Party has 56 seats in the 120-seat parliament, Labour 46, New Zealand First nine and the Greens eight.</p>
<p>New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said he will make a decision which party to back to form a coalition government by Oct. 12. Peters has in past elections formed coalition governments with both the National Party and Labour.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | NZ election final tally leaves small nationalist party with balance of power | false | https://newsline.com/nz-election-final-tally-leaves-small-nationalist-party-with-balance-of-power/ | 2017-10-06 | 1 |
<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-6K7" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>It’s an old saying in the TV business: “the numbers don’t lie”. That is certainly the case with CNN’s highly unpopular sinking flagship program, ‘Pier Morgan Live’, pulling in modest viewer numbers comparable to another Nielsen-busting foreign hit,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">al Jazeera America.</a>&#160;</p>
<p>Piers Morgan is the latest British TV anchor to be shown the exit door, after <a href="" type="internal">the humiliating meltdown and implosion of MSNBC’s Martin Bashir</a> only a few months ago.</p>
<p>According to David Carr, a columnist for&#160;America’s paper of record the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/business/media/piers-morgan-and-cnn-plan-end-to-his-prime-time-show.html" type="external">New York Times</a>, what annoyed Americans the most about Morgan was his prig British accent. Carr explains:</p>
<p>“When something important or scary happens in America, many of us have an immediate reflex to turn on CNN. When I find Mr. Morgan telling me what it all means, I have a similar reflex to dismiss what he is saying. It is difficult for him to speak credibly on significant American events because, after all, he just got here.”</p>
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<p>“Old hands in the television news business suggest that there are two things a presenter cannot have: an accent or a beard. Mr. Morgan is clean shaven and handsome enough, but there are tells in his speech — the way he says the president’s name for one thing (Ob-AA-ma) — that suggest that he is not from around here.”</p>
<p>Yes, there’s nothing worse than getting a stiff lecture on American value from a millionaire British&#160;carpet bagger. Like an old pair of basketball shoes, the stench of it just lingers.&#160;It’s a shame that Americans just couldn’t seem to connect with this avatar, who was meant to be the latest ‘big thing’ but ended up being just the latest in a long line of overpaid, and over-valued talking heads (which shows you how out of touch CNN execs really are).</p>
<p>But as anyone intelligent observer will tell you, it’s not purely his accent that put people off, but rather Morgan’s tendency to grab at and obsess on issues and shiny side bars. Instead of learning about the ideological roots of America in relation to the US Constitution, Morgan overplayed his hand on both the&#160;Gun grab, as well as the media&#160;Trial of George Zimmerman – a measured, calculated lunge, but one that sent his celebrity stock into near free fall.</p>
<p>Like his countryman Bashir, Morgan was desperate to ingratiate himself and win the love of as many Americans as quickly as possible, so it was natural that a foreigner with a shallow understanding of his new environment might reach for the easy play towards America’s liberal left – not so risky seeing that a democratic regime is in power and CNN’s traditional role of always backing the ruling clique. Like with Martin Bashir, this move backfired badly, and like Bashir, Piers Morgan was handed the golden Rolex and then kicked to the curb.</p>
<p>TWEETING CRICKET: Morgan thought Americans would eventually embrace his beloved Cricket.</p>
<p>Journalist Carr confirms one of Morgan’s awkward obsessions:&#160;</p>
<p>“There are other tells as well. On Friday morning, criticizing the decision to dismiss a cricket player, he&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/436862315557060608" type="external">tweeted</a>, “I’m sure @StuartBroad8&#160;is right and KP’s sacking will ‘improve performance’ of the England team. Look forward to seeing this at&#160;T20&#160;WC.” Mr. Morgan might want to lay off the steady cricket references if he is worried about his credibility with American audiences. (His endless trolling of his critics on Twitter did not exactly help, either.)”</p>
<p>Morgan has been forced to eat humble pie, and conceded: “Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it”.</p>
<p>That was about the most genuine statement he’s made since arriving on American shores. Better late than never.</p>
<p>Maybe there’s still hope for him yet.</p>
<p>READ MORE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Hollywood Files</a></p>
<p>–</p> | CNN’s Piers Morgan Dumped – ‘British Accent’, Gun Obsession, and Endless Trolling on Twitter to Blame | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/25/cnns-piers-morgan-dumped-british-accent-gun-obsession-endless-trolling-on-twitter-to-blame/ | 2014-02-25 | 4 |
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<p>FILE - In this May 5, 2015 file photo, a statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The president of the University of Texas has ordered removing the statue of Davis from the center of campus, but statues of other Confederate figures will stay. The Davis statue has been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas - The president of the University of Texas has ordered that a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis be removed from the center of campus, but that statues of other Confederate figures will stay.</p>
<p>The Davis statue has been targeted by vandals and had come under increasing criticism. State governments and businesses around the country have removed Confederate symbols following the mass shooting in June of black church members in Charleston, South Carolina.</p>
<p>President Greg Fenves announced Thursday that Davis will be moved to the school's Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.</p>
<p>That was one option presented by a school task force this week. Statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan, will stay near the university's central clock tower.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | University of Texas moving statue of Jefferson Davis | false | https://abqjournal.com/627793/university-of-texas-moving-statue-of-jefferson-davis.html | 2 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>President Obama has been waiting for this exact moment to seize all happiness and joy from the playful minds and hearts of happy Easter-celebrating Christians this weekend. The Easter weekend has been in early celebration since Friday. Obama has been lying in wait under the murky waters of hatred&#160; to spring forth this brutal and ugly war time upon the happily drinking and unsuspecting Christians as they celebrate this happy and joyful time of nice weather, glorious deeds done by Christ, and friends and family gatherings.</p>
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<p>Not only has this been Obama’s plan all along, but his entire cabinet has helped him plan this ugly time of war from beginning to the inevitable end. It makes me sick how&#160; he could do this to us! He plans to release his deadly force of chemtrail jets on Easter Sunday&#160;upon families as they&#160;gather for the Easter celebration.</p>
<p>Be aware of his evil plans as you and your family celebrate this happy time. Beware the Obama!</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Obama is Officially Declaring War on Easter | true | http://bigamericannews.com/2015/04/04/obama-is-officially-declaring-war-on-easter/ | 2015-04-04 | 0 |
<p>Like few journalists before him, Gary Webb exposed the CIA’s evil schemes in the drug world and revealed to the US public how the country’s black neighborhoods were inundated with crack as part of drug trafficking designed to supply the Nicaraguan Contras with money and weapons.</p>
<p>He exposeded narco-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and his accomplices who were involved in that criminal transaction. And he ended up being shot in his home with two bullets in his face. A suicide, reported the judicial authorities.</p>
<p>US reporters are in mourning. Gary Webb, who was discovered dead on Friday, December 10, in his Carmichael home in California, was for many a model of professionalism and integrity. He was 49 years of age.</p>
<p>In August, 1996, when he worked at the San José Mercury News, Webb disclosed how the CIA sold tons of crack in Los Angeles neighborhoods and afterwards used the money from this trafficking to finance the operations of the Nicaraguan Contras who were then trying to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.</p>
<p>His revelations were published in all the Knight-Ridder papers. All of them except the Miami Herald, the paper that has ties with the Cuban-American drug-trafficking terrorist mafia.</p>
<p>His investigation, impressive for its seriousness and scope, caused a national stir.</p>
<p>In their book <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press</a>, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, journalists from the well known web site Counterpunch, detailed how Webb was the victim of a veritable campaign aimed at destroying his reputation. The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times distinguished themselves in this dirty work.</p>
<p>“The attack on Gary Webb and his series in the San Jose Mercury News remains one of the most venomous and factually inane assaults on a professional journalist’s competence in living memory. In the mainstream press he found virtually no defenders, and those who dared to stand up for him themselves became the object of virulent abuse and misrepresentation.”</p>
<p>Webb resigned from San José Mercury News in 1997. You could no longer read his work in any well known newspaper.</p>
<p>In 1990 Webb was among a group of reporters selected for the Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious in the world of US journalism, for a work on the Loma Prieta earthquake, but according to his relatives, he never recovered from the scandal caused by his series denouncing the CIA.</p>
<p>In 1999 he defended his famous investigation by publishing a book entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888363932/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, which</a> made a strong impact.</p>
<p>POSADA, DRUG TRAFFICKER</p>
<p>Among the most interesting revelations is the case of Luis Posada Carriles.</p>
<p>In Dark Alliance, relying on some of the CIA’s declassified documents, Webb revealed how in January 1974 the CIA rejected Posada’s request for “a Venezuelan passport” for one of his buddies because, the author wrote in all seriousness, “a control agent could not be allowed to get involved in drug trafficking.”</p>
<p>That same year, the CIA was advised by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that Posada was exchanging arms for cocaine with a person “involved in political assassinations, ” a reference to Félix Rodriguez Mendigutia, a CIA agent who ordered the assassination of Che.</p>
<p>As a secret element of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA organized Operation 40, in which Posada and dozens of Cuban Americans participated together with hired assassins from the Italian-American mafia.</p>
<p>Operation 40’s network was used for terrorist activities against Cuba until 1970 when one of its planes crashed in southern California with a huge quantity of heroin and cocaine on board. This same year, the FBI arrested 150 suspects in the “biggest anti-drug operation in the history of the federal police.”</p>
<p>At that time Attorney General John Mitchell indicated that the network controlled 30% of the country’s heroin trade and 70 to 80% of cocaine sales. But he did not mention the fact that several of those arrested belonged to the gang of Juan Restoy, a former Batista politician, distinguished “alumni” of Operation 40 with ties to the Havana capo Santos Traficante.</p>
<p>Two of the Restoy’s most entrusted hired assassins wereIgnacio and Guillermo Novo, “members” of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, a terrorist group with cells in Miami and Union City, New Jersey. These two assassins, who served four years in prison with Posada in Panama, recently returned to the United States with the blessings of the CIA and the FBI office in Miami.</p>
<p>In June 1976 Guillermo Novo and Posada participated in forming the terrorist organization CORU, whose ranks were comprised of the likes of Félix Rodriguez, Frank Castro and other criminals involved in drug trafficking operations authorized by the Reagan administration in support of the Nicaraguan Contras, which Gary Webb had covered.</p>
<p>In 1983, Frank Castro was accused of importing 500 tons of marijuana “then, as if by magic, the charge disappeared following his establishment of a Contras training camp in 1983.” Fortunately, Rodriguez left George Bush’s father’s office, which had appreciated his “talent.” And Posada, illegally pardoned by the former president of Panama, Mireya Moscoso, has preferred “to disappear” with the “protections” that were left to him.</p>
<p>After the assassination of the Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier, the Novo brothers ended “their relations” with the Cuban-American National Foundation, while the life-appointed “chairman” of that organization, Jorge Mas Canosa, paid $26,000 for the “release” of Posada when he was imprisoned in Venezuela following an explosion on board a Cubana passenger airline, which killed 73 people.</p>
<p>THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IS OUTRAGED</p>
<p>Webb’s series in the San José Mercury News explains in detail how the CIA network sold tons of cocaine to criminal gangs and demonstrates how the White House’s anti-communist fanaticism was so fervent that it was willing to engage in the propagation of the most hideous drug epidemic of modern times.</p>
<p>The African-American community in the United States was shocked by the news disseminated by Webb’s articles.</p>
<p>His role in disclosing the CIA’s sinister plot made Webb a very famous figure in the black community.</p>
<p>When the House of Representatives finally agreed to take up the issue, after a report was issued by the CIA inspector general concerning drug trafficking by the agency, Porter Goss, who had directed the Intelligence Committee since the previous year, decided at a preliminary hearing that the allegations were “false.”</p>
<p>Goss, a former CIA agent who in 1972 participated in operations at the JM/WAVE base in Miami, including terrorist operations against Cuba, ended up being named director of the CIA by George W. Bush.</p>
<p>JEAN-GUY ALLARD lives in Havana, where he writes for Granma. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Journalist Who Exposed the Crimes of Luis Posada Carriles | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/01/05/the-journalist-who-exposed-the-crimes-of-luis-posada-carriles/ | 2005-01-05 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>IRVING, Texas - A suburban Dallas high school teacher has been arrested for having an inappropriate relationship with a student 43 years younger than him.</p>
<p>Authorities say 60-year-old Farley Ashford Simon was arrested Feb. 19 and booked into Irving City Jail on two charges of improper relationship between an educator and a student.</p>
<p>According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the 17-year-old victim says she had sex with Simon at a park and in a motel room.</p>
<p>Simon was held on a $25,000 bond for each charge and has bonded out.</p>
<p>Police are continuing to investigate Simon but do not believe he was involved with other students.</p>
<p>It was not clear whether Simon had an attorney.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Teacher arrested on charges of having sex with student | false | https://abqjournal.com/728384/teacher-arrested-on-charges-of-having-sex-with-student.html | 2 |
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<p>A suicide bombing near Grozny today killed at least three soldiers and injured several people, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJA2zTBIqsZXQScV5V0MNLgV0Teg?docId=15d9c65883494cd19c4cbf97e6be17df" type="external">the Associated Press</a> cited the local investigative committee in Russia's Chechnya region as saying.</p>
<p>Chechnya fought two brutal wars with Russia in the last two decades and still sees flashes of violence under the command of hardline Russian-allied rebel leader Ramzan Kadyrov.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/series/depth-series-china-labor" type="external">Special report: China works&#160;</a></p>
<p>Russian officials, meanwhile, are trying to stave off the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-21/chechnya-islamic-revival/53693048/1" type="external">rising Islamic militancy</a> slowly gripping the region.</p>
<p>Today's blast reportedly took place&#160;outside a Chechen department store in the capital, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/uk-russia-chechnya-blast-idUKBRE8750S120120806" type="external">said Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Russia's Interior Ministry branch in Chechnya also issued a statement about the incident but claimed two attackers took part and four Russian officers had died. <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJA2zTBIqsZXQScV5V0MNLgV0Teg?docId=15d9c65883494cd19c4cbf97e6be17df" type="external">AP said</a> the reason for the two different official accounts, also <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5je4rOyirAzo5eU60X8q70KL9yH0w?docId=CNG.386652d9a0613864ad9f110c6b41963f.911" type="external">noted by Agence-France Press</a>, was not immediately clear.</p>
<p><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/uk-russia-chechnya-blast-idUKBRE8750S120120806" type="external">Reuters cited</a> Interfax as saying the explosion occurred when soldiers got out of an vehicle near their garrison quarters.&#160;</p>
<p>Officials said an investigation is under way.&#160;</p> | Suicide bombing in Chechnya kills at least 3: officials | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-06/suicide-bombing-chechnya-kills-least-3-officials | 2012-08-06 | 3 |
<p>Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Thursday that it has launched a new ad campaign that spotlights ingredient sourcing and quality. Because the company's food is prepared with a short list of ingredients, it can pay close attention to each, Mark Crumpacker, chief creative and development officer for Chipotle, said in a statement. The new campaign includes an animated film, online, outdoor and radio advertising. During the company's latest conference call, Chief Executive Steve Ells said Chipotle had "invested more heavily than ever in marketing and promotional activity" during the first half of the year, according to a FactSet transcript. That includes new menu items like chorizo, the Chiptopia customer rewards program, and its largest-ever mobile offer. Chipotle has struggled after illness outbreaks linked to its restaurants were reported in 2015. Chipotle shares are up 0.6% in Thursday trading, but down 40.6% for the past year. The S&amp;P 500 Index is up 15.3% for the last 12 months.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Chipotle's New Ad Campaign Highlights Sourcing, Quality Of Ingredients | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/29/chipotle-new-ad-campaign-highlights-sourcing-quality-ingredients.html | 2016-12-03 | 0 |
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