text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery’s “Pick 3 Evening” game were:</p>
<p>7-1-2, Wild: 4</p>
<p>(seven, one, two; Wild: four)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening’s drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery’s “Pick 3 Evening” game were:</p>
<p>7-1-2, Wild: 4</p>
<p>(seven, one, two; Wild: four)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Pick 3 Evening’ game | false | https://apnews.com/e90da8a3aa5f4e0b8cd749a6877a7983 | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) has been a confusing story in the changing <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/03/19/the-retail-apocalypse-may-not-be-what-you-think-it.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">retail marketplace Opens a New Window.</a>. The company has not yet fully turned the corner like Best Buy, nor does it appear doomed like Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD).</p>
<p>Instead, J.C. Penney has shown signs of success and finding a model that will work for the long term. In part, the retailer has been capitalizing on Sears' failures, adding appliances and home services in markets its rival has abandoned. It has also revamped its merchandise, specifically women's apparel, added more store-within-a-store concepts to make its locations shopping destinations, and added toy departments to all of its stores.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>These changes have been working to a point, but J.C. Penney's success is certainly not guaranteed. This could become a major success story, or the retailer could become another victim of the retail crisis.</p>
<p>In 2016, J.C. Penney had momentum heading into the holiday season, then saw its year fall apart when it posted poor <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/24/is-black-friday-still-the-day-retailers-move-from.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">holiday numbers Opens a New Window.</a>. Things were different in 2017, and the holiday season capped a strong year.</p>
<p>J.C. Penney delivered a 2.6% comparable-store sales increase in the fourth quarter and a 0.1% gain for the full year. The company also saw net sales increase by 1.8% in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Those are modest gains, but they present solid evidence that the chain's turnaround efforts are working. CEO Marvin R. Ellison certainly expressed that he believed that to be the case in his remarks in the fourth-quarter earnings release.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>For 2017, we improved adjusted earnings per share by 175%, reduced our outstanding debt levels by over $600 million and generated over $200 million of free cash flow," he said. "During the fourth quarter, we delivered our strongest positive sales comps and achieved our largest gross margin improvement for the year."</p>
<p>Under Ellison's leadership, J.C. Penney has made real changes, and that has worked. While Sears' CEO Eddie Lampert has talked about change, he hasn't succeeded with most of the moves he's made. That's not the case at J.C Penney, where revised categories jewelry, home, Sephora, footwear and handbags, and salon were the top-performing divisions in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>"In 2018, we will intensify our market share efforts in appliances, mattresses, and furniture, while continuing to take steps to modernize our apparel assortment and omnichannel," Ellison said. "Our strategy and plan is clear and consistent, and we remain focused on two critical factors -- to operate the business for growth and deliver profitable earnings."</p>
<p>So far, that has been a blueprint for success, and it's a reason to buy shares in the company. Ellison has shown that he can take a concept like adding appliances, test it, evaluate it, then roll it out to more stores, or kill it depending upon the results.</p>
<p>J.C. Penney is by no means a sure thing, and falling mall traffic could be a drag on the company that it can't overcome. However, that does not seem to be what's happening, and the retailer should build on 2017 as it captures customers freed up by Sears's slow death and the closing of Toys R Us.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Sears HoldingsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=a6fad2b7-ec93-426b-9766-52ff44930d4e&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Sears Holdings wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=a6fad2b7-ec93-426b-9766-52ff44930d4e&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 2, 2018</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDankline/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Daniel B. Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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;referring_guid=7d205ac9-941f-4321-9575-3f3ade0eb855&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is J.C. Penney Company, Inc. a Buy? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/18/is-j-c-penney-company-inc-buy.html | 2018-04-07 | 0 |
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) - The risk of political and economic confrontations between major powers, including outright military conflicts, has risen sharply, according to a survey released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) days before its annual gathering in Davos.</p>
<p>The Global Risks Report highlighted several top risks for 2018, including environmental threats from extreme weather and temperatures, economic inequalities and cyber attacks.</p>
<p>But most remarkable was the surge in geopolitical concerns after a year of escalating rhetoric between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that has arguably brought the world closer to a nuclear conflict than it has been in decades.</p>
<p>Trump is due to give a speech on the closing day of the WEF, an annual event in the Swiss Alps which runs from Jan. 23-26 and will attract 70 heads of state and government, as well as celebrities, CEOs and top bankers.</p>
<p>The survey of nearly 1,000 experts from government, business, academia and non-governmental organizations showed 93 percent expect a worsening of political or economic confrontations between major powers in 2018, including 40 percent who believe those risks have increased significantly.</p>
<p>Some 79 percent see a heightened risk of state-on-state military conflict. In addition to the threat of a conflict on the Korean peninsula, the report pointed to the risk of new military confrontations in the Middle East.</p>
<p>It cited a rise in “charismatic strongman politics” across the world and said political, economic and environmental risks were being exacerbated by a decline in support for rules-based multilateralism.</p> FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he boards Air Force One upon departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., January 12, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque WRONG DIRECTION
<p>The report pointed to Trump’s decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and the TPP trade agreement and his threat to pull out of a deal between Western powers and Iran designed to curb its nuclear program.</p>
<p>“The risks we are trying to grapple with here require multilateral solutions but we are moving in the other direction,” said John Drzik, president of global risk and digital at the consultancy Marsh, which helped compile the report.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>While geopolitical worries rose sharply, the environment topped the list of concerns, with extreme weather events seen as the single most prominent risk in 2018 after a year of unusually frequent Atlantic storms, including Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>With global growth recovering, concerns about the economy were down sharply. Still, the report described income inequality as a “corrosive problem” in many countries and warned against complacency over the economic environment given high debt levels, low savings rates and inadequate pension provisions.</p>
<p>“A widening economic recovery presents us with an opportunity that we cannot afford to squander, to tackle the fractures that we have allowed to weaken the world’s institutions, societies and environment,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.</p>
<p>“We must take seriously the risk of a global systems breakdown.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Noah Barkin; Editing by Kevin Liffey</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MUENSTER, Germany (Reuters) - A man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city center of Muenster in western Germany on Saturday, killing at least two of them before shooting himself dead, police said.</p>
<p>The vehicle plowed into people sitting at tables outside the Grosser Kiepenkerl restaurant, which is popular with tourists.</p>
<p>“At 15:27 (1327 GMT), a vehicle drove into the outside area of the restaurant ... three people were killed, 20 injured, and six of those seriously injured,” police spokesman Andreas Bode said, adding: “The perpetrator killed himself in the vehicle.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-germany-crash-timeline-factbox/factbox-deadly-attacks-in-western-europe-idUSKBN1HE0ND" type="external">Factbox: Deadly attacks in Western Europe</a>
<p>It was not immediately clear whether the perpetrator was among the three killed, or whether his death took the number of dead to four. A police spokeswoman said separately that there were at least three people dead.</p>
<p>A security source said the perpetrator was probably German.</p>
<p>The Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the man was a German with psychological problems who had no terrorist background. The Interior Ministry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Muenster, would neither confirm nor deny the report.</p>
<p>Bode said the identity of the perpetrator was not yet clear. Investigators were looking at the possibility that other suspects fled the scene, though they had no evidence that this was the case, he added.</p>
<p>“It is far too early to speak of an attack,” Bode said. “We have cordoned off the area widely. The crime scene investigators are checking out the crime scene, trying to identify, investigate and secure traces. That is our current task.”</p>
<p>The police spokeswoman said: “The danger is over.”</p>
<p>The incident came one year to the day after a truck attack in Stockholm that killed five people.</p> Police stands guard in a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler
<p>It also evoked memories of a December 2016 truck attack in Berlin that killed 12 people. In that attack, Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck, killed the driver and then plowed into a crowded marketplace, killing 11 more people and injuring dozens of others.</p>
<p>“I am shocked by the news from Muenster,” said Andrea Nahles, parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.</p>
<p>“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives,” she added. “I hope that our authorities can quickly clarify the background to this incident and wish the local forces much strength for their work.”</p> Slideshow (17 Images)
<p>Government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer tweeted: “Awful news from Muenster. Our thoughts are with the victims and their relatives.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Dale Hudson and Hugh Lawson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TISDALE, Saskatchewan (Reuters) - Fourteen people were killed when a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team collided with a truck in Saskatchewan province, police said on Saturday, sending shock waves across the hockey-loving nation.</p>
<p>The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said there were 29 people on the bus including the driver. Fifteen survivors were taken to various hospitals, with three in critical condition. Police had previously said there were 28 on the bus.</p>
<p>The Humboldt Broncos ice hockey team were traveling to a playoff game when the accident occurred at about 5:00 p.m. on Friday near the Tisdale area, around 185 miles (300 km) north of Regina, the Canadian Press reported.</p>
<p>“Our thoughts and prayers are extended to the families of our staff and athletes as well as to all who have been impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Kevin Garinger, the team’s president, said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Our Broncos family is in shock as we try to come to grips with our incredible loss.”</p>
<p>The team was headed to play in Game 5 of a playoff series against the Nipawin Hawks.</p>
<p>Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks, was quoted by the Globe and Mail newspaper as saying the truck, a semi-trailer, had T-boned the players’ bus.</p>
<p>“It’s a horrible accident, my God,” he said. “It’s very, very bad.”</p>
<p>The cause of the accident could not be immediately confirmed, however, and police said nothing about the identity of the dead or condition of the truck driver.</p>
<p>Citing relatives, the Canadian Press reported that the Broncos’ head coach Darcy Haugan and the team’s 20-year-old captain, Logan Schatz, were among those killed.</p>
<p>Many social media users posted Haugan’s photograph alongside messages of shock and sympathy, and the hashtags #prayersforhumboldt and #humboldtstrong.</p>
<p>“God bless Darcy Haugan for being an incredible mentor and coach to young hockey players and prayers for his family to help cope with their immense loss,” the Western Provinces Hockey Association wrote on Twitter.</p> ‘TERRIBLE TRAGEDY’
<p>Police had blocked off nearly 2 miles (3 km) of the highway between Tisdale and Nipawin on Saturday. A few emergency vehicles were seen entering and leaving the scene of the accident.</p>
<p>Condolences poured in from current and former hockey players, sports organizations and political leaders across the country.</p>
<p>“I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, in the Humboldt community and beyond,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a tweet.</p> The 2017-2018 Humboldt Broncos Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team is pictured in this undated handout photo. Amanda Brochu/Handout via REUTERS
<p>In a post on Twitter, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Trudeau “to pay my highest respect and condolences to the families of the terrible Humboldt Team tragedy. May God be with them all!”</p>
<p>Pastor Jordan Gadsby of Nipawin’s Apostolic Church said hundreds of people, including parents and relatives of players on the bus, had gathered at the church late on Friday to seek information and solace.</p>
<p>“The worst part of the night was watching parents waiting for news of their kids,” he said. “There’s not a lot we can do. It’s a terrible thing that happened.”</p>
<p>An online fundraising campaign for the affected players and their families, with an initial target of $10,000, was set up late on Friday by the mother of a former Broncos teammate. By lunchtime on Saturday it had raised more than $750,000.</p>
<p>“Stay Hockey family strong,” wrote one donor on the GoFundMe site who said he was a coach from rural Saskatchewan.</p>
<p>Established in 1970, The Humboldt Broncos play in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.</p> Slideshow (8 Images)
<p>In grief-stricken Humboldt, home to fewer than 6,000 people, mourners gathered in the city’s arena late on Friday, local newspaper the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.</p>
<p>“This is the hub of our community,” Mayor Rob Muench told the newspaper. “We’ve got the curling rink here, we’ve got the arena, we’ve got the convention center. Everything from weddings to funerals to gatherings to hockey games — this is where it all happens in the community. This is where we get together.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Denny Thomas in Toronto; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday said he would surrender to police, a day after defying a judge’s order to start serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption that derails his effort to return to power this year.</p>
<p>In a fiery speech to a crowd of red-shirted supporters outside a steel workers union headquarters, Brazil’s first working-class president insisted on his innocence and called his bribery conviction a political crime, but relented after a nearly 24-hour standoff with authorities.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-brazil-politics-lula-ruling/brazil-supreme-court-justice-rejects-latest-plea-from-lula-to-remain-free-idUSKBN1HE0IC" type="external">Brazil Supreme Court justice rejects latest plea from Lula to remain free</a>
<p>“I will comply with the order and all of you will become Lula,” he told the cheering crowd. “I’m not above the law. If I didn’t believe in the law, I wouldn’t have started a political party. I would have started a revolution.”</p>
<p>Lula’s imprisonment removes the most influential figure from Brazil’s political scene, and the frontrunner from this year’s presidential campaign, scrambling a wide-open race and strengthening the odds of a more centrist candidate prevailing, according to analysts and political foes.</p>
<p>It also marks the unmistakable end of an era for Brazil’s left, which was out in force in the streets outside of the union headquarters in metropolitan Sao Paulo where Lula huddled with aides and allies while police awaited his surrender.</p>
<p>The throngs of supporters, which began gathering when he arrived late on Thursday night, dissuaded police from trying to take him into custody and heightened concerns about a violent showdown.</p> Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves as he attends a mass for his late wife at the metallurgic trade union in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto
<p>Lula was convicted of taking bribes, including renovation of a three-floor seaside apartment that he denies ever owning, from an engineering firm in return for help landing public contracts.</p>
<p>“I’m the only person being prosecuted over an apartment that isn’t mine,” insisted Lula, standing on a truck-pulled platform alongside his impeached successor Dilma Rousseff and leaders of other left-wing parties.</p> Slideshow (17 Images)
<p>A Brazilian Supreme court justice on Saturday rejected the latest plea by Lula’s legal team, which argued they had not exhausted procedural appeals when a judge issued the order to turn himself in.</p>
<p>Under Brazilian electoral law, a candidate is forbidden from running for office for eight years after being found guilty of a crime. Rare exceptions have been made in the past, and the final decision would be made by the top electoral court if and when Lula officially files to be a candidate.</p>
<p>The union where Lula, 72, sought refuge served as the launch pad for his career nearly four decades ago, when he led nationwide strikes that helped to end Brazil’s 1964-85 military dictatorship.</p>
<p>Lula’s everyman style and unvarnished speeches electrified masses and eventually won him two terms as president, from 2003 to 2011, when he oversaw robust economic growth and falling inequality amid a commodities boom.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassú and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Writing by Anthony Boadle and Jake Spring; Editing by Franklin Paul and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - The Texas National Guard has begun deploying troops to help secure the state’s southern border with Mexico as President Donald Trump has been unable to get the U.S. Congress or Mexico to fully fund his proposed wall along the border.</p>
<p>The deployment, announced on Friday by Texas officials, comes after Trump directed Defense Secretary James Mattis to request the use of National Guard personnel to help the Department of Homeland Security secure the border in four southwestern U.S. states, including Texas.</p>
<p>Mattis on Friday authorized the funding for up to 4,000 National Guard troops for the operation through Sept. 30, a Department of Defense memo showed.</p>
<p>The troops will be under the “command and control” of their respective governors, it said.</p>
<p>Trump has failed so far to persuade either the Mexican government or the U.S. Congress to fully fund a wall he wants to build along the border. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday sharply rebuked Trump over the plan.</p>
<p>The Texas Army National Guard said 250 guardsmen along with aircraft, vehicles and surveillance equipment were to be deployed along the state’s border with Mexico within the next 72 hours.</p>
<p>Exact details of the mission, including the total number of troops to be deployed and the cost, were yet to be determined, Brigadier General Tracy Norris, commander of the Texas Army National Guard, told a news conference.</p>
<p>The National Guard has operated along the border for decades. About 100 members of the Texas Military Department are currently assigned along the border in an “observe and report” role, Norris noted.</p>
<p>In Arizona, some 150 National Guard members will be sent to the border next week, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said in a Tweet on Friday.</p>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security has identified security vulnerabilities that could be addressed by the National Guard, Mattis and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said in a joint statement on Friday.</p>
<p>Nielsen said this week that the troops would not be involved in law enforcement.</p>
<p>In a supporting role, possibly for aerial reconnaissance, the Guard will help U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel with stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country, Nielsen said.</p>
<p>In keeping with a theme he often invoked as a candidate in 2016 and has continually returned to since taking office, Republican Trump has sharpened his anti-immigrant rhetoric, warning that illegal immigrants threaten U.S. safety and jobs.</p> A border patrol agent guards a gap in the Mexico-U.S. border fence in the Rio Grande Valley sector, near McAllen, Texas, U.S., April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
<p>“It sounds to me more like political rhetoric than something that is actually needed on our border,” Representative Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat whose district includes the border city of McAllen, told the New York Times.</p>
<p>Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Jason Neely</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | As Trump heads to Davos, survey points to rising risk of war Man drives van into restaurant in Germany, killing at least two plus himself Fourteen killed in Canadian youth hockey team bus crash Lula agrees to surrender to Brazil police after defying order Texas sends 250 National Guard troops to Mexico border | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-risks/as-trump-heads-to-davos-survey-points-to-rising-risk-of-war-idUSKBN1F60XD | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>The Buenos Aires Herald <a href="http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/225424/trump-vetoes-carter-tribute-" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>The Mauricio Macri administration reverted a decision to award former US president Jimmy Carter the Order of the Liberator General San Martín — the maximum distinction that the country can give to a foreign personality — under the pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration, CNN Español reported this week.</p>
<p>The official tribute, which had already been approved by the foreign ministry and was published in the Official Gazette, was cancelled after receiving a specific request by the US government, which suggested it would be better to delay it. Carter was to be given the award for his work in promoting human rights during Argentina’s last military dictatorship.</p>
<p>After being informed about the decision, the foreign ministry had again requested that President Macri give the award in spite of the rejection by Trump’s government since it had been made official, according to an anonymous foreign ministry official consulted by CNN’s David Cox.</p>
<p>Like Trump, the Argentine president was born into wealth and the New York Times reports that they’ve long had a “personal relationship” via business dealings.</p>
<p>Macri <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/27/us/politics/ap-us-united-states-argentina.html" type="external">met with Trump</a> in the White House on Thursday and it seems likely that Carter’s award was spiked so that the spotlight remained on Trump during his visit.</p>
<p>And you know that the relentlessly petty Trump would want to take revenge on Carter, who last year denounced Trump’s “lack of moral and ethical principles.”</p>
<p>NOTE: The Buenos Aires Herald article largely appears to be an at-times clumsy translation from the original report by CNN Español. Perhaps a Spanish-speaking JMG reader can provide any missing nuance.</p> | REPORT: Argentina Drops Humanitarian Award For Jimmy Carter Upon Demand Of Trump Administration | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/04/30/report-argentina-drops-humanitarian-award-jimmy-carter-upon-demand-trump-administration/ | 2017-04-30 | 4 |
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — Suspended North Carolina State guard Markell Johnson is facing a felony assault charge in his home state of Ohio.</p>
<p>According to a court document, Johnson was among four people indicted Dec. 5 in Cuyahoga County. The document states they "did knowingly cause serious physical harm" to a male victim on or about Oct. 8.</p>
<p>Court records show Johnson has pleaded not guilty and posted $5,000 bond on Dec. 20. The case was continued Thursday until the next pretrial hearing scheduled for Jan. 8, according to online court records.</p>
<p>Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts declined to comment on Johnson's case Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Athletic spokesman Fred Demarest said the school learned of the indictment Dec. 14 and indefinitely suspended Johnson that day. N.C. State announced the suspension two days later.</p>
<p>At the time, team spokesman Craig Hammel cited a violation of the school's student-athlete code of conduct but provided no further details.</p>
<p>According to the school's code of conduct, a student-athlete charged with a felony is indefinitely suspended from athletics participation, pending the resolution of charges. Johnson played in the Dec. 9 win against UMKC after the indictment, though Keatts said the program "acted appropriately as soon as we found out about it."</p>
<p>"At this time, there's nothing more that I can say than we've already said about it," Keatts said.</p>
<p>Johnson had started all 10 games he played, averaging 8.7 points and 6.6 assists while shooting 46 percent.</p>
<p>John Paris, Johnson's attorney, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Thursday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — Suspended North Carolina State guard Markell Johnson is facing a felony assault charge in his home state of Ohio.</p>
<p>According to a court document, Johnson was among four people indicted Dec. 5 in Cuyahoga County. The document states they "did knowingly cause serious physical harm" to a male victim on or about Oct. 8.</p>
<p>Court records show Johnson has pleaded not guilty and posted $5,000 bond on Dec. 20. The case was continued Thursday until the next pretrial hearing scheduled for Jan. 8, according to online court records.</p>
<p>Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts declined to comment on Johnson's case Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Athletic spokesman Fred Demarest said the school learned of the indictment Dec. 14 and indefinitely suspended Johnson that day. N.C. State announced the suspension two days later.</p>
<p>At the time, team spokesman Craig Hammel cited a violation of the school's student-athlete code of conduct but provided no further details.</p>
<p>According to the school's code of conduct, a student-athlete charged with a felony is indefinitely suspended from athletics participation, pending the resolution of charges. Johnson played in the Dec. 9 win against UMKC after the indictment, though Keatts said the program "acted appropriately as soon as we found out about it."</p>
<p>"At this time, there's nothing more that I can say than we've already said about it," Keatts said.</p>
<p>Johnson had started all 10 games he played, averaging 8.7 points and 6.6 assists while shooting 46 percent.</p>
<p>John Paris, Johnson's attorney, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Thursday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Suspended NC State guard Johnson faces felony assault charge | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ae1946dbf3d041008baa88a64f3024b0 | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FOLD) shares were up 25% at 12:05 p.m. EDT after the biopharmaceutical company disclosed&#160; that the Food and Drug Administration is willing to look at the data it currently has to consider approving its Fabry disease treatment, migalastat.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Things looked a little grim for the company last November, after the FDA told Amicus that it would <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/11/29/why-amicus-therapeutics-shares-are-crashing-218-to.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=9ebb8d48-6653-11e7-b53c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">need more data Opens a New Window.</a> on how migalastat affects gastrointestinal symptoms before it would consider approving the drug. Considering that Amicus hadn't even started the new trial that would be required to gather that data, it looked like the FDA's decision had pushed back a potential approval by a few years.</p>
<p>But after a few more discussions with regulators, Amicus was able to convince the agency that its current data was good enough to warrant immediate consideration. It appears the company connected the dots for the agency, making the case that since the drug lowers GL-3, and GL-3 is believed to be what causes the pain, kidney failure, heart disease, and strokes, seen in Fabry disease patients, migalastat should help patients.</p>
<p>That logic had been enough to convince regulators to approve the drug in the European Union, where it goes by the brand name of Galafold. The drug is also approved in Israel and Switzerland.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Normally, the FDA accepting a marketing application doesn't say much about a drug's approvability, but considering the amount of time the agency has spent deciding whether Amicus has enough data just to apply, an approval of migalastat now that it has cleared that hurdle seems highly likely.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there's no discount to be had here; shares are trading higher than they were in November before the initial announcement about the FDA wanting additional data.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Amicus TherapeuticsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=e5b4d1ff-31cc-44cb-8722-364c80820974&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=9ebb8d48-6653-11e7-b53c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Amicus Therapeutics wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=e5b4d1ff-31cc-44cb-8722-364c80820974&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=9ebb8d48-6653-11e7-b53c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBiologyFool/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=9ebb8d48-6653-11e7-b53c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Orelli Opens a New Window.</a> and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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;uuid=9ebb8d48-6653-11e7-b53c-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Amicus Therapeutics Inc. Rocketed Higher Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/11/why-amicus-therapeutics-inc-rocketed-higher-today.html | 2017-07-11 | 0 |
<p>Published time: 27 Aug, 2017 03:52Edited time: 27 Aug, 2017 03:54</p>
<p>Collapsed houses, smashed cars and blown-off roofs have been left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in southern Texas, footage from the scene shows. Now classified as a tropical storm, it threatens catastrophic flooding as rescuers continue to sift through debris.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/400915-hurricane-harvey-texas-coast/" type="external">Hurricane Harvey hammers Texas coast: LIVE UPDATES</a></p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Rubble lay strewn on the streets of Rockport as Hurricane Harvey slammed into southern Texas on Saturday morning. At least three people have been reported killed in the storm, the assistant fire chief with the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, Roy Laird, told the Los Angeles Times. The number of casualties could rise as rescuers are still searching through the debris of collapsed buildings.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/401001-hurricane-harvey-texas-damage-video/" type="external" /></p>
<p>As the weather cleared, the full extent of the damage to Rockport became visible. Footage from RT’s Ruptly video agency show surreal scenes as dogs wandered through the devastated buildings, and a laundromat with its roof blown clean off, exposing the rows of washing machines, some of them tilted over and some of them still standing.</p>
<p>Despite getting dozens of emergency calls, Rockport’s firefighters were not able to respond to them all in time due to the horrific weather conditions, which even left the fire station itself battered with winds of over 125 mph.</p>
<p>“It rattled, it shook, but made it through it,” Rockport Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Sims told ABC News.</p>
<p>Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, hit the Gulf coast of Texas at around 10:00 local time on Saturday with powerful winds and heavy rainfall. President Donald Trump intends to visit the area next week.</p>
<p /> | Devastating aftermath of Hurricane Harvey as death toll rises (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/devastating-aftermath-of-hurricane-harvey-as-death-toll-rises-video/ | 2017-08-27 | 1 |
<p />
<p>With both Iowa caucuses (the Republican and the Democratic) now <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/10/5966_iowas_democrati.html" type="external">firmly entrenched on January 3rd</a>, let’s take a look at some poll numbers.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1677221,00.html" type="external">University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll</a>, Mike Huckabee is a legitimate top-tier candidate in Iowa. He is now in third place (actually a statistical tie for second) with 12.8 percent. Rudy Giuliani has 13.1 percent, and the frontrunner, Mitt Romney aka <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2007/10/5909_mitt_romney_is.html" type="external">Mr. Fantastic</a>, has 36.2 percent. Romney has similarly huge leads in all the early states. Worth noting: (1) In August, Huckabee polled at two percent in the same poll. (2) Huckabee has spent $1.7 million on his campaign while Mr. Fantastic has spent $53.6 million, an object lesson in the limited power of money in politics. Who knew?</p>
<p>On the Democratic side, John Edwards has slipped a bit. His 20 percent support in Iowa represents a six point drop since August. Hillary Clinton tops the field with 28.9 percent and Obama places second with 26.6 percent. It’s too bad John Edwards doesn’t have <a href="http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2007/10/colbert_v_edwards_the_battle_of_the_favorite_sons.html" type="external">this hilarious/awesome South Carolina mojo</a> going for him in Iowa. I think that would win over a lot of caucus-goers.</p>
<p>Update: Here’s an even more remarkable fact, considering the money disparity between Huckabee and Romney: Huckabee is actually beating Romney, though just barely, in a national <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2008__1/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll" type="external">Rasmussen poll</a>. Maybe the <a href="/washington_dispatch/2007/10/romney-versus-log-cabin-republicans.html" type="external">Log Cabin Republicans</a> are more effective that we know.</p>
<p /> | Check In on the Iowa Polling: Huckabee Up, Edwards Down | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/check-iowa-polling-huckabee-edwards-down/ | 2007-10-29 | 4 |
<p />
<p>General Motors (NYSE:GM) said Thursday it completed the sale of its remaining 8.5% stake in Ally Financial, the automaker’s former lending arm, for roughly $900 million.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company expects to record a gain of approximately $500 million, which will be treated as a special item in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>A GM spokesperson said the company cannot disclose who purchased the shares.</p>
<p>“This transaction releases capital from a non-core asset and further enhances our financial flexibility,” said chief financial officer Dan Ammann, who added that Ally “continues to play an important role in financing our dealers and customers in the United States.”</p>
<p>GM had already begun reshaping its relationship with Ally, which is in the midst of legal woes tied to subprime mortgage subsidiary Residential Capital. Also, Ally has repaid more than two-thirds of its $17.2 billion bailout, but the government still owns about 64% of the company.</p>
<p>About a year ago, GM acquired Ally’s operations in Europe, Latin America and China for $4.2 billion. The car manufacturer then combined those operations with GM Financial, its new lending arm.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Ally, one of the nation’s largest auto lenders, said in October that it was nearing the completion of a sale process to divest a wider range of international businesses, including those sent to GM. At the time, Ally said it generated $8.3 billion in proceeds so far.</p>
<p>The company also announced the sale of its entire 7% stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen through a private placement to institutional investors.</p>
<p>GM acquired the ownership stake in the French car manufacturer when the two companies entered into a strategic alliance in March 2012. GM vice chairman Steve Girsky said the company’s alliance with PSA Peugeot Citroen will continue.</p>
<p>The exits from Ally and Peugeot continued a busy week for the nation’s largest automaker. On Monday, GM announced <a href="" type="internal">the official exit of the U.S. Treasury Department</a> from its position in the company. The government, which has steadily reduced its ownership over the years, took a 61% stake in GM about four years ago.</p>
<p>A day later, <a href="" type="internal">GM named Mary Barra as the first female CEO</a> in the history of Detroit’s Big Three. Barra will replace Dan Akerson, who plans to step down ahead of schedule in January.</p>
<p>GM also said this week that it plans to <a href="" type="internal">cease manufacturing in Australia by 2017</a>. Its Holden brand will continue as a sales company, parts distribution center and design studio. Rival Ford (NYSE:F) plans to exit the country by 2016.</p>
<p>Shares were up nine cents at $40.25 in early afternoon trading on Thursday.</p> | GM Sells Ally Stake for $900M, Exits Peugeot | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/12/12/gm-sells-ally-stake-for-00m.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Sticky fingers and 15 points from Makuach Maluach off the bench helped New Mexico cruise to an easy 80-47 victory Saturday over San Jos? State.</p>
<p>The Lobos (7-20, 2-2 Mountain West) pilfered 12 steals - part of the 20 forced turnovers -- turning those into 28 points off of the miscues.</p>
<p>In addition to the 28-1 advantage off on turnovers, New Mexico had a 20-0 bulge on fast break points.</p>
<p>"We didn't feel like we necessarily like we had to do anything extra to create turnovers," Lobos coach Paul Weir said. "We felt that we could just kind of get them."</p>
<p>The Spartans knew New Mexico would be pressuring the ball and simply did not react well to that pressure, San Jos? State coach Jean Prioleau said.</p>
<p>"We knew that they were going to put us in a situation where you have to make plays off the dribble because they switch everything and deny," he said. "So you have to be ready to make plays off the dribble."</p>
<p>But the Spartans never quite seemed able to do that as New Mexico never trailed and quickly built its lead to double figures at 18-6 following a 3-pointer Maluach midway through the first half.</p>
<p>A late first-half run pushed the lead to 39-23 at the break and the game was never close from there.</p>
<p>Ryan Welage had 17 points for San Jos? State (3-12, 0-4), but the Lobos countered with 12 each from Chris McNeal and Anthony Mathis, while Antino Jackson dished out seven assists.</p>
<p>"We weren't able to guard them man to man," Prioleau. "We wanted to be able to switch it up a little bit. Go zone, go man, go zone, go man, try and change the game up. It worked in the first half. It didn't work in the second half."</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>New Mexico's win, after dropping two road games to frontrunners Boise State and Nevada, leaves it in the middle of the pack of the conference standings, but the Lobos remain undefeated at home in conference play. The key for New Mexico, however, is trying to win outside of the state as it has not won away from Albuquerque this season.</p>
<p>The Spartans continue to look for their first conference win and is the first MWC team to reach four conference losses.</p>
<p>ROSTER ISSUES</p>
<p>New Mexico starting guard Troy Simons was out of the game on a Mountain West-issued suspension after he was ejected for the second time this season for accruing double technicals in a game.</p>
<p>After injuring himself in practice earlier in the week, Lobos top scorer and rebounder Sam Logwood was on the bench with his left arm in a sling. Logwood's status going forward remains unclear, Weir said, but Simons' penalty was a one-game suspension, meaning he should be back for Wednesday's game against Wyoming.</p>
<p>With just eight scholarship players available, all the Lobos players had to be ready to attack the game, Weir said.</p>
<p>"The work ethic and toughness they displayed," he said, responding to questions about what he considered to be the key to the game. "All we talked about was toughness and just getting tougher and more physical and stop being soft. I think we've been soft here lately."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>New Mexico is at home Wednesday against Wyoming.</p>
<p>San Jos? State is at San Diego on Tuesday.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Sticky fingers and 15 points from Makuach Maluach off the bench helped New Mexico cruise to an easy 80-47 victory Saturday over San Jos? State.</p>
<p>The Lobos (7-20, 2-2 Mountain West) pilfered 12 steals - part of the 20 forced turnovers -- turning those into 28 points off of the miscues.</p>
<p>In addition to the 28-1 advantage off on turnovers, New Mexico had a 20-0 bulge on fast break points.</p>
<p>"We didn't feel like we necessarily like we had to do anything extra to create turnovers," Lobos coach Paul Weir said. "We felt that we could just kind of get them."</p>
<p>The Spartans knew New Mexico would be pressuring the ball and simply did not react well to that pressure, San Jos? State coach Jean Prioleau said.</p>
<p>"We knew that they were going to put us in a situation where you have to make plays off the dribble because they switch everything and deny," he said. "So you have to be ready to make plays off the dribble."</p>
<p>But the Spartans never quite seemed able to do that as New Mexico never trailed and quickly built its lead to double figures at 18-6 following a 3-pointer Maluach midway through the first half.</p>
<p>A late first-half run pushed the lead to 39-23 at the break and the game was never close from there.</p>
<p>Ryan Welage had 17 points for San Jos? State (3-12, 0-4), but the Lobos countered with 12 each from Chris McNeal and Anthony Mathis, while Antino Jackson dished out seven assists.</p>
<p>"We weren't able to guard them man to man," Prioleau. "We wanted to be able to switch it up a little bit. Go zone, go man, go zone, go man, try and change the game up. It worked in the first half. It didn't work in the second half."</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>New Mexico's win, after dropping two road games to frontrunners Boise State and Nevada, leaves it in the middle of the pack of the conference standings, but the Lobos remain undefeated at home in conference play. The key for New Mexico, however, is trying to win outside of the state as it has not won away from Albuquerque this season.</p>
<p>The Spartans continue to look for their first conference win and is the first MWC team to reach four conference losses.</p>
<p>ROSTER ISSUES</p>
<p>New Mexico starting guard Troy Simons was out of the game on a Mountain West-issued suspension after he was ejected for the second time this season for accruing double technicals in a game.</p>
<p>After injuring himself in practice earlier in the week, Lobos top scorer and rebounder Sam Logwood was on the bench with his left arm in a sling. Logwood's status going forward remains unclear, Weir said, but Simons' penalty was a one-game suspension, meaning he should be back for Wednesday's game against Wyoming.</p>
<p>With just eight scholarship players available, all the Lobos players had to be ready to attack the game, Weir said.</p>
<p>"The work ethic and toughness they displayed," he said, responding to questions about what he considered to be the key to the game. "All we talked about was toughness and just getting tougher and more physical and stop being soft. I think we've been soft here lately."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>New Mexico is at home Wednesday against Wyoming.</p>
<p>San Jos? State is at San Diego on Tuesday.</p> | New Mexico cruises to 80-47 win over San Jose State | false | https://apnews.com/45134cc43c3b45d8b1e72314e980e024 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“It’s written for a rather unusual combo,” said Ewazen, who teaches at The Juilliard School in New York. “It’s not often that the bassoon, marimba and flute play together. They create a very special color.”</p>
<p>Ewazen will travel to Taos to introduce “Mosaics” to Taos Chamber Music Group’s audience during the ensemble’s opening season concert this weekend at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos.</p>
<p>“The title of the piece comes from the idea of color in tile mosaics,” he explained. “I also thought about the color found in the music of the impressionist composers. The structure of the piece is French Baroque. The trio plays a barcarole followed by a fantasy/fugue, pavanne and a gigue. The sounds, however, are neo-romantic and impressionistic. I always have a singing line in my pieces.”</p>
<p>“In ‘Mosaics,’ every instrument has to pull its own weight. Balance is an important consideration,” Ewazen added. “Each instrument is in the forefront, regardless of the register in which it is playing.”</p>
<p>Lipton, marimbist Angela Gabriel, pianist Robert Tweeten, mezzo-soprano Kirsten Lear and Taos Chamber Music Group’s artistic director and flutist Nancy Laupheimer present the concert, which features Spanish, Latin, popular, jazz and folk musical influences.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In addition to “Mosaics,” the program includes “Trio” for flute, bassoon and piano by Chick Corea, “Dos Aires Candomberos” by Maximo Diego Pujol, “Seven Popular Spanish Songs” by Manuel de Falla, “Suite de Ballet” for flute and piano by Vaughan Williams and songs by Ricky Ian Gordon.</p>
<p>Playing Vaughan Williams’ “Suite de Ballet” is particularly significant for Laupheimer because she performed this work on the first concert of Taos Chamber Music Group’s first season in 1993.</p>
<p>Taos Chamber Music Group will celebrate its 20th season this year by performing nine concerts from September through early June. Many of the programs contain pieces that the musicians have enjoyed performing during the past 19 years.</p>
<p>Among the season’s guest artists are Native American musician Robert Mirabal and the American String Quartet. Taos Chamber Music Group also will present two commissioned works, including “La Prose du Transsiberien” by Matthew Suttor, the director of the Center for Theatrical Sound Design and Music at the Yale School of Drama.</p>
<p>Ticketholders can receive a special discount at Downtown Bistro, Dragonfly Cafe, Doc Martin’s or Lambert’s restaurants before the 7:30 p.m. concerts or after the 5 p.m. concerts. For more information about this offer and detailed information about the upcoming season, visit the ensemble’s website at <a href="http://www.taoschambermusicgroup.org" type="external">www.taoschambermusicgroup.org</a>.</p> | Unusual Combo Unites for Show | false | https://abqjournal.com/132469/unusual-combo-unites-for-show.html | 2012-09-21 | 2 |
<p>The Supreme Court has mostly completed its decimation of any anti-corruption laws that might present more than the slightest inconvenience for the plutocracy’s political investments. Therefore the Court has now picked up its judicial supremacy ax to perform the same demolition on the other side of the corruption equation. In a decision announced on June 27, timed to be one of the three final opinions of its 2015-16 term, the Court turned its attention to protecting the influence peddlers who benefit from the now freely flowing plutocratic investments from prosecution for their delivery of the peddled policies.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court had previously ruled in line of cases culminating in McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) that plutocrats have a First Amendment right to buy, under the guise of campaign financing, undue influence which creates conflicts of interest for the peddlers of that influence. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in McCutcheon that “[i]ngratiation and access” bought in this manner “are not corruption…. They embody a central feature of democracy.”&#160;&#160; Under the Supreme Court’s bizarre interpretation that “freedom of speech” is the equivalent of freedom to make political pay-offs, the Supreme Court thus denies government the power to restrict the flow of special interest money into politician’s pockets through the various channels for campaign financing.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court justifies its project of eliminating legal restraints on the sources of campaign finance corruption that flows to politicians on the grounds that the corrupting effects can be prevented by prosecuting the targeted recipients of the money for committing bribery, which the Court calls quid pro quo corruption. The Latin term lends legalistic gravitas to the Court’s otherwise unsupported distinction between the individual and transactional character of legal bribery and the systemic character of most contemporary corruption that the Supreme Court has created and perpetuated by legalizing an increasing flow of money into politics through expanding channels since 1976. The Court holds that only the relatively narrow category of quid pro quo transactions, bribery, can be addressed by government.</p>
<p>The Court’s fatuous argument that there is a constitutional reason to enforce laws against bribery but not against systemic corruption ignores the vast difference between the remedies appropriate to address individual acts of corruption and those remedies required to treat systemic corruption. Bribery involves a direct two-way knowing transaction, easily concealed and therefore very difficult to prosecute. The more amorphous kind of systemic influence peddling that involves unspoken networks of exchange requires an entirely different set of remedies which the Court has mostly outlawed. The classic form of systemic corruption routes the flow of money through various intermediary organizations such as SuperPACs while the demand for policy is routed separately through lobbyists, leaving the essential indicia of a quid pro quo relationship only implicit, and therefore incapable of supporting a bribery charge.</p>
<p>Because only amateurs tend to get caught up in bribery prosecutions, the Court is grossly wrong in claiming that enforcement of bribery laws, which only work occasionally on individuals, can be a solution for systemic forms of corruption. Professionals employ systemic processes that do not rely on the express agreement element of the crime of bribery, or alternatively use organizational intermediaries capable of skillfully suppressing evidence of express agreement where systemic processes do not suffice.</p>
<p>Bribery laws, like conflict of interest prohibitions that operate on the demand side of the influence peddling equation, generally require politicians to recuse themselves from taking official action on behalf of special interests which have conferred benefits on the politician. These kinds of laws which regulate what the recipients of special interest benefits may do in return have been held not to implicate the First Amendment. For example, in Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan (2011) the Court held unanimously that legislative voting is nonsymbolic conduct, and therefore is not First Amendment speech subject to Supreme Court oversight. Since the Supreme Court first entered the field in Buckley v Valeo (1976), it has relied solely on the First Amendment to support its line of pro-corruption decisions. Conflict of interest rules can thus be freely applied to require <a href="" type="internal">recusal</a> by officials from engaging in conflicted legislative acts, or other official acts, on behalf of special interests, without pro-corruption judicial interference. Bribery laws that punish officials who fail to refrain from taking official acts in return for such favors would similarly not involve First Amendment speech, under the same reasoning.</p>
<p>Until now, it has been the <a href="" type="internal">corrupt Congress</a>, not the Court, that has been responsible all these years for the failure to enforce traditional conflict of interest prohibitions against the increasing levels of legalized campaign finance corruption of politicians who divert their delegated public powers to the service of their benefactors’ private interests against the public interests of the electorate. While the Supreme Court has given the benefactors nearly absolute First Amendment protection from any laws effectively prohibiting the supply of political investments, it is the politicians who have given themselves a free pass to deliver the influence they have peddled in return for those investments. By preventing the latter deliveries of policy by conflict of interest recusal and the threat of bribery prosecutions there would be no more plutocratic payments for undelivered purchases.</p>
<p>Since such <a href="" type="internal">recusal laws</a>, if robustly enforced, would thus provide a systemic <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19623584/All_by_itself_Vermont_can_overcome_Citizens_United" type="external">remedy</a> for the systemic corruption created by the Court’s project of deregulating of the supply of money in politics, the Court has now issued a deceptive decision that maps a retreat from its permissive doctrine with respect to regulating conflicts of interest, without even mentioning the subject. It has done so by unanimously ruling that an elected official who takes money for and commits acts to advance the special interests of a benefactor, such as to make useful introductions, set up a meeting, talk to an­other official, make a product endorsement or organize a promotional event, but which activities do not actually succeed in accomplishing the supposed concrete goal sought by the benefactor, does not commit an act that fits within the Court’s re-definition of an “official act.” It makes no difference that such activities were unquestionably performed within the scope of the politician’s official duties. This somewhat oversimplified description of the Court’s ruling suggests a more clear distinction than the Court’s more convoluted reasoning actually draws from its effort to subvert the meaning of the statutory text. But captures the gist of the Court’s ruling in McDonnell v. United States ( <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/15-474_ljgm.pdf" type="external">2016</a>).</p>
<p>This latest case adds to the long line of cases since Buckley where the Supreme Court has continuously breached the separation of powers to arrogate from the people their inherent constitutional power to defend democracy from being overthrown by corruption. In Burroughs v. United States, <a href="" type="internal">290 U.S. 534,</a>546-48 (1934), a prosecution for handling campaign contributions in violation of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act of 1925, the Court found the “proposition so startling as to arrest attention” that “a government whose essential character is republican,” and is therefore dependent on the integrity of its elections, might lack the power “to secure this election from the influence of … corruption.” That Court held a republican “government … must have the power to protect the elections on which its existence depends from … corruption.” Otherwise “the very sources of power may be poisoned by corruption,” placing “the country in danger, and … at the mercy of … unprincipled corruptionists.” &#160;Of all those cases since Buckley that have violated this original understanding about the threat of corruption to democracy, McDonnell is arguably the most significant by its failure to attract a single dissent from the new Gilded Age Court, and also by blatantly violating the fundamental separation of powers doctrine that prohibits advisory opinions on hypothetical cases. The unanimous 8 to 0 vote contributed to the general neglect of the decision by the media on a news day designed by the Court to distract attention to its two <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/whole-womans-health-v-cole/" type="external">identity</a> <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/voisine-v-united-states/" type="external">politics</a> decisions issued that day.</p>
<p>Exculpation by interpretation</p>
<p>In McDonnell v. United States ( <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/15-474_ljgm.pdf" type="external">2016</a>), lacking any single good existing legal reason to interfere with the prosecution of the governor of Virginia for bribery, the Court confusingly combined several inadequate excuses to limit the kinds of official activities that can be prosecuted under federal bribery laws. The Court apparently intended that one or another reason might stick or at least create enough confusion to forestall understanding of what the Court was really doing. The strategy seemed to work with the Court’s liberal justices who for the first time all joined a pro-corruption decision having dangerous implications as precedent.</p>
<p>The Court’s tactic for extending its four decade plutocracy project into new territory by protecting corrupt politicians from prosecution is to restrict the legal meaning given by Congress to the otherwise all-inclusive term “official acts.” To do this the Court defines, as a constitutional matter, what politicians are still prohibited from selling to special interests and what they can now sell with impunity. The new meaning of the term “official acts” that the Court dictates is different from the ordinary common-sense meaning of the term. It is also contrary to the well-settled understanding of the term established by the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/233/223/case.html" type="external">Supreme Court</a> a century ago, and followed by the federal courts ever since, that “official acts” include “[e]very action that is within the range of official duty,” This is consistent with the ordinary common sense meaning that would include whatever an official does within the scope of his or her legally defined or traditionally practiced official capacity.</p>
<p>To be successfully prosecuted for bribery, the “official act” in question would have necessarily demonstrated some value in the marketplace for influence peddling. If a jury decides that the act was in fact performed in exchange for pecuniary inducements, that should be sufficient guarantee that it involved a valuable use of political influence for a special interest’s private purpose. But the Court parsed the term “official acts” in order to make a new distinction between what it considered good and bad bribery, independent of the actual importance of the act for subverting government to private ends.</p>
<p>The Court’s legal reasoning for its idiosyncratic interpretation of the term “official acts” is not designed to enforce the intent of Congress which had appeared for at least a century to include all acts taken within the broad category described by a politician’s official capacity. Congress did not express any intention that a politician who slow-walks the actual delivery of the ultimate policy goals for which money was apparently taken should draw a pass from prosecution just because they had not yet delivered all the concrete results presumably desired by the buyer of influence, but had only acted to facilitate that delivery by others. The Court’s decision is like redefining the game of football to only refer to touchdowns and field goals while excluding gains of small yardage as some private activity occurring in the same space.</p>
<p>The Court’s reasoning in trying to reach this approximate result is less than clear, and involves some sleight of hand. The Court starts with the assertion that the common-sense meaning of acts that fall within a politician’s “official capacity” is vague. To remedy that supposed vagueness, the Court creates its own distinction to divide up the reasonably clear category of all official acts into some acts that can be prosecuted and those that cannot. The Court’s new distinction, which has no real basis in the statute, is far more vague than the category of “official acts” as a whole. It raises more questions than it answers, such as, How much yardage is “small yardage? Should short yardage touchdowns count? This new definition, partly due to creating confusion where there was none, does succeed in legalizing more corruption.&#160;&#160; As one experienced court-watcher <a href="" type="internal">observes</a>, McDonnell “poses a major challenge to prosecutors seeking to police official misconduct.”</p>
<p>The Court arrives at its new uncertain boundary separating the newly legalized from the still illegal acts by logic-chopping its way through pages of analysis of the statute and the trial court’s implementing jury instructions. Through its complex analysis the Court’ arrives at some vague subset of official activities that the Court deems to be exempt from prosecution under the bribery statute. These activities happen to include the kind that McDonnell was proven to have committed: “merely setting up a meeting, hosting an event, or calling another official.”</p>
<p>There is no particular reason why any subset of official actions, if that is what the jury found the buyer in fact purchased, should not be prohibited from being sold to special interests. It is not up to the Supreme Court to determine in advance what kind of official act might be valuable to a plutocrat and undermine representative democracy by means of honest services fraud. That would be a legislator’s job.</p>
<p>The Court’s opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, who has written most of the Court’s pro-corruption decisions, concludes, without much rational support, that under “the text of the statute, the precedent of this Court, and the constitutional concerns raised by Governor McDonnell, we … adopt a more bounded interpretation of ‘official act.’ Under that interpretation, setting up a meeting, calling another public official, or hosting an event does not, standing alone, qualify as an ‘official act.’”</p>
<p>As for the Court’s “precedent” excuse, it mainly consists of dicta in one case persuasively shown to have been erroneous by the Government’s Brief, <a href="" type="internal">30</a>. Meanwhile copious precedent to the contrary, <a href="" type="internal">24</a>, is either ignored by the Court, or inadequately explained away.</p>
<p>As for the “text of the statute” justification for his ruling, Justice Roberts ultimately landed on one of his trademark, completely absurd propositions that goes to the heart of the matter. Roberts uses this tactic in his most deceptive opinions. The heart of the matter in McDonnell is, as mentioned, to establish that there is some subset of politically marketable actions which fall within the politician’s official capacity in any ordinary understanding of the term but which can nevertheless, for some reason, be defined as not an “official action” for purposes of invalidating the prosecution of the illegal marketing of them. Roberts culminates his otherwise unpersuasive interpretation of the statute on that essential issue with the following non-sequitur, masquerading as irrefutable logic: “if every action somehow related to the research study were an ‘official act,’ the requirement that the public official make a decision or take an action on that study, or agree to do so, would be meaningless.”</p>
<p>Well, no. In fact if “every action” within the scope of official duties, such as were related to the proposed state-financed official research study that the buyer of McDonnell’s influence specifically sought, “were an ‘official act,’” as common sense dictates it is, then it would mean that the “requirement that the public official … take an action” in order to be prosecuted would be satisfied by any of the official’s actions related to the study made pursuant to the bribe agreement that the jury found to exist. It is Roberts’ logic, not the text of the statute, that is “meaningless.”</p>
<p>If Roberts stopped there, Congress could still amend the statute to expressly overrule Roberts’ error of interpretation, and failure to carry out the intent of Congress, by making even more abundantly clear that the statute is in fact intended to cover any official activity within the scope of a politician’s official duties that a jury might find was purchased by a political investor. Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co.,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">550</a>&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Reports" type="external">U.S.</a>&#160;618 (2007) (5-4) exemplifies a case where the Court’s misinterpretation of a civil rights provision was later overruled in this fashion. But as with the case of Shelby County, which gutted the Voting Rights Act, a deadlocked status-quo Congress can also easily block action to reinstate what was clearly the previous intent of Congress after it has been erased by judicial misinterpretation.</p>
<p>It is the nature of systemic corruption for legislators to be more engaged in the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-hager/rackets-science-cromnibus_b_8914836.html" type="external">business</a> of expanding the scope of corruption, alongside the Court, rather than taking any action to prevent corruption, by overturning the Court. But just in case a future Congress might be inclined to more of a Ledbetter than a Shelby County approach, the Court goes to the next step to provide the corrupt Congress an excuse for inaction. This helps relieve the mounting pressure at the ballot box for Congress to do something about political corruption. Blaming the Constitution for tying its hands from doing the right thing always makes a handy excuse.</p>
<p>Vaguely unconstitutional</p>
<p>With his interpretation of “text” argument descending from unconvincing turgid exegesis ultimately into rank nonsense, Roberts throws into this logical stew the argument that an “expansive interpretation of ‘official act’ would raise significant constitutional concerns.” What specific part of the Constitution would be significant is not made entirely clear by Roberts. But this is the only possible justification for the Court’s refusal to enforce the intent of Congress as the Court’s touchstone for statutory interpretation, and instead substitute its own belabored definition of “official acts” for the straightforward definition of Congress.</p>
<p>The Court first implies that including all acts within a politician’s official capacity as services prohibited from sale could violate the Constitution’s due process clause. There is a valid doctrine that text in the form of law can nevertheless be so vague as to lose the capacity to be enforced as actual law. E.g. Johnson v. United States, 576 U. S. ___ ( <a href="" type="internal">2015</a>). The Court routinely fails to apply this sound principle to its own supremacist decisions, instead treating its far-fetched interpretations of the First Amendment nowhere found in its three word text “freedom of speech,” for example, as if that text were clear enough to make law of such bizarre and historically unsupported propositions as that “money is speech.”&#160;&#160; But there is nothing in Roberts’ opinion to support the idea that the traditional concept of acts taken within one’s “official capacity” is any more vague than the new test the Court has created in its stead which it does find to pass the “void for vagueness” test. Roberts’ newly discovered and idiosyncratic boundary between good and bad bribery is entirely without coherent definition in comparison with the well-established and often-applied line between official and private conduct. Accordingly, the Court does not rest entirely on that strand of its argument.</p>
<p>Next the Court suggests the possibility of some “significant federalism concerns” involved with prosecution of state officials for bribery, citing in support the barest allusion to this concept in a <a href="" type="internal">case</a> involving the definition of the term “defraud.” In the cited case the Court had briefly suggested in a parenthetical makeweight phrase, without further discussion or citation, rejection of an interpretation that “involves the Federal Government in setting standards of disclosure and good government for local and state officials” by definition of the term defraud. The comprehensive and persuasive dissent of Justice Stevens in that case did not even take notice of this comment, though he did conclude with an observation equally applicable to McDonnell by questioning why “a Court that has not been particularly receptive to the rights of criminal defendants in recent years has acted so dramatically to protect the elite class of powerful individuals who will benefit from this decision” that strains to exempt from prosecution one obvious form of corruption otherwise covered by the law.</p>
<p>Roberts reference to this other <a href="" type="internal">case</a> also omitted the fact that its narrowing pro-corruption interpretation was quickly overturned by Congress’ enactment of the honest services <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1346" type="external">statute</a>. Whether Congress can take similar action to overturn McDonnell’s narrowing pro-corruption interpretation of “official acts” will be a measure of how more corrupt Congress is in 2016 than it was nearly three decades ago when it took a little more than a year to reverse a baseless Supreme Court pro-corruption interpretation comparable to McDonnell‘s.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Article IV, Sec. 4 confers on Congress the authority, free of any judicial second-guessing, to guarantee a republican form of government to the states. Luther v Borden (1849). It is hardly an answer to Congress’ exercise of that clear and unrestrained federal authority, by preventing corruption of a state’s republican government, that vague and unarticulated “federalism concerns” would prevent it from doing so. It is an essential element of federalism that the central government is responsible for preventing the entrenchment of corruption in state government that could undermine its democratic character.</p>
<p>Both of these “constitutional” suggestions are little more than ill-considered and negligibly reasoned asides.</p>
<p>Apparitional Free Speech</p>
<p>Under this same heading, Roberts makes what is, in effect, an argument under the plutocrat’s best friend, especially when wielded by John Roberts. This is the New First Amendment, where plutocratic money is speech. Justice Roberts was able to imagine bribery law being used by some prosecutors to criminalize what he considered “[t]he basic compact underlying representative government [which] assumes that public officials will hear from their constituents and act appropriately on their concerns.” Unless Roberts proceeds to redefine the meaning of “official act” to legalize some kinds of corruption, his argument goes, he fears that “commonplace requests for assistance, and citizens with legitimate concerns might shrink from participating in democratic discourse. This concern is substantial.” (Emphasis added).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Roberts makes no rational connection between this “concern,” which evokes the First Amendment, and the particular official acts he chose to immunize from bribery prosecutions. Roberts’ favored “citizens with legitimate concerns” and “commonplace requests” might as easily involve a specific administrative ruling or delivery of a subsidy that falls on the bribery side of Roberts’ new boundary as it might involve a strategic introduction or meeting which falls on the exempt side of that line. Roberts’ favored solution, immunizing some kinds of bribery, does not match the problem he has manufactured that bribery laws might abridge “democratic discourse.”</p>
<p>Without further interpretation that Roberts completely fails to provide, this argument upon a moment’s reflection reveals itself to be sheer nonsense. Roberts strangely never mentions the premise that rescues his argument from absurdity by citing Buckley v. Valeo (1976) or any of its “money is speech” progeny. These cases are all premised upon the shell-game logic that money invested in influence peddling, since it is presumed to be ultimately spent on promoting political propaganda, is therefore alchemically converted into First Amendment protected speech, i.e. Roberts’ “democratic discourse.”</p>
<p>There is no other area of law except political corruption where a criminal statute is constitutionally overturned and the criminal conduct legalized on the basis of how the proceeds of the crime are ultimately spent. For this reason Roberts has tended to retreat from revisiting the original Buckley shell-game analysis for his re-application of the doctrine to each of the Court’s nearly annual pro-corruption decisions that do depend upon it as precedent. In McDonnell Roberts goes even further. He leaves the First Amendment entirely unmentioned, only vaguely invoked, lurking in the shadows of his opinion. Buckley’s perversion of the First Amendment hangs without attribution over Roberts’ opinion by his mention of the interest of constituents’ “in democratic discourse” or of politicians’ in “hear[ing] from their constituents” as unacknowledged euphemisms for buying and selling influence.</p>
<p>A casual reader might easily suppose that Roberts intended these noble phrases to refer to actual speech between constituents and politicians. But that would be absurd since no actual speech could in any way trigger a bribery prosecution. Speech does not bribe. These innocuous-sounding references to “democratic discourse” therefore do not refer to speech that conveys meaning, but rather money, or other things of value, which the Supreme Court has converted into “speech” by judicial alchemy in Buckley and its progeny. This alchemy process is strangely never mentioned in McDonnell, but must be tacitly understood by the reader to make any sense of Roberts’ otherwise absurd concern about those “participating in democratic discourse” who might somehow get unwittingly caught up in a bribery prosecution. Roberts actually means – without citing to the source of the Court’s alchemic powers used to alter the meaning of these words — those “participating in buying influence.” More precisely Roberts is concerned with protecting not what “public officials will hear from their constituents” but what “public officials will [receive of pecuniary value] from their” sponsoring plutocrats, like specifically McDonnell did from his special interest benefactor.</p>
<p>As Roberts starts out on a whole new line of pro-corruption jurisprudence intended to undermine the deterrent effect of bribery and conflict of interest prosecutions upon the behavior of politicians, why does he neglect mentioning Buckley or even the First Amendment? The briefs <a href="" type="internal">argued</a> the issue at length, and the Government described the issue as “fundamental.” Tr. <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/15-474_1bn2.pdf" type="external">41-42</a>.&#160;&#160; Does Roberts find the Court’s “money is speech” cases too discredited and flimsy a prop to even mention and therefore seeks to introduce them only surreptitiously, even to support the very bedrock justification for the Court’s decision?</p>
<p>Another indication that the First Amendment tacitly underlies the McDonnell case is Roberts’ implicit application of the First Amendment “ <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1339842?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" type="external">overbreadth doctrine</a>.” An essential part of the Court’s ruling is that the jury instructions did not include reference to the Court’s exemption for some official acts and was therefore “significantly overinclusive.” Given the tacit First Amendment basis for Roberts’ protection of these excluded official acts, the echo of the overbreadth doctrine can be detected in his term “overinclusive.”</p>
<p>The “chilling-effect” justification – or “dynamo” (83 Harvard L. Rev. 844, 846) – for the overbreadth doctrine holds that the Court may act to protect some other speaker, not in court, who might otherwise be deterred from speaking if the Court does not rewrite the law involved in the case before it. This doctrine only applies to First Amendment cases. Roberts fears that some other political investors “might shrink from participating” with some other influence peddler if it does not reduce the scope of federal bribery law in this case. In making this argument Roberts is alluding to the “chilling effect” of laws that are overinclusive (i.e. overbroad) in their affect on speech (i.e. on political investments). But again Roberts avoids expressly invoking the First Amendment doctrine by name, or even by citing to cases like Citizens United (2010) which applied the doctrine to <a href="" type="internal">overturn</a> what it called the “substantial, nation-wide chilling effect caused by … prohibitions on corporate expenditures.” Since that specific application of the doctrine had recently been definitively rejected in a devastating critique of the Court’s legal incompetence by Yale Dean and First Amendment scholar Robert Post, <a href="" type="internal">C</a> <a href="" type="internal">itizens Divided: Campaign Finance</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reform and the Constitution</a> ( <a href="" type="internal">2014</a>) 73-76 &amp; n.146, Roberts may have hesitated to flaunt continued ignorance by recycling the doctrine directly, by name, in McDonnell. Being Roberts, he did so surreptitiously.</p>
<p>Roberts has established a pattern of planting novel concepts in his decisions from which he might start to reinvent, for example, First Amendment doctrine for this new specialized purpose of legalizing bribery and conflicts of interest. Since he acquired a unanimous decision as fertile soil for this project, Roberts can cultivate the seeds he cleverly planted in McDonnell for creating new law in future cases.</p>
<p>It is therefore only the apparition of the First Amendment that Roberts invokes as his principal justification for excepting from corruption prosecutions his vaguely defined exempt category of “official acts.” Especially disturbing about Roberts’ conjuring of First Amendment principles is that none of the payments made to Governor McDonnell were made in the form of campaign contributions, but rather as personal pay-offs. This suggests that the Court is prepared to apply its First Amendment analysis beyond the context of campaign contributions, to which First Amendment protection has been restricted since Buckley, in order to encompass any form of corrupt payment whatsoever.</p>
<p>Judicial Supremacist Usurpation</p>
<p>McDonnell was not formally a First Amendment decision. If used outside of the First Amendment context, the overbreadth (or Roberts’ “overinclusive”) doctrine violates the Constitution’s fundamental “case or controversy” requirement. The First Amendment earns exemption from the normal constitutional constraints on the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction because of its supposed paramount importance to democratic government. One of the many perversities of the “money is speech” formula is that it reverses this purpose of the overbreadth exception by turning into a tool for facilitating the plutocratic overthrow of democracy.</p>
<p>In all other cases not involving the First Amendment the Constitution’s limited grant of jurisdiction prevents the Supreme Court from issuing advisory opinions for the purpose of redrafting laws. The Court can only exercise judicial review in a case to which the offensive part of the law might otherwise apply, if the Court did not exercise its powers to prevent that application. This is the original excuse for judicial review described in the seminal Marbury case.</p>
<p>The Court’s failure to restrict its decisions only to the cases actually before it, by instead reaching out to decide hypothetical cases of its own invention as a means to usurp the legislature’s job of drafting laws, is an illegal act of judicial supremacy. <a href="http://constitution.org/rf/vr_1799.htm" type="external">Warning</a> that “the judicial department … may exercise or sanction dangerous powers beyond the grant of the Constitution,” James Madison insisted that such violations of the separation of powers, “may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” ( <a href="http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa47.htm" type="external">The</a> <a href="http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa47.htm" type="external">Federalist</a>, <a href="http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa47.htm" type="external">No.</a> <a href="http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa47.htm" type="external">47</a>),</p>
<p>The Court did not contend that Robert McDonnell’s own behavior should be immunized by its decision. On the contrary Roberts recited the facts that Governor McDonnell accepted from a highly interested donor, with a clearly communicated special interest agenda, “over $175,000 in gifts and loans,” including such luxury goods as a Rolex watch and “$20,000 worth of designer clothing,” use of a Ferrari, and “transportation on his private airplane to assist with McDonnell’s election campaign.” Justice Roberts therefore expressly hesitates to “suggest that the facts of this case typify normal political interaction between public officials and their constituents. Far from it. But the Government’s legal interpretation is not confined to cases involving extravagant gifts or large sums of money.”</p>
<p>The Constitution does not require the Government’s “legal interpretation” to be so confined. Nor does it give the Supreme Court powers to police such Executive Branch interpretations in the abstract. In another case the Government may prosecute bribery according to its less confined “legal interpretation.” Such a case can be subjected to judicial review at that time. But by fundamental principles of constitutional separation of powers the Court must confine itself to the abnormal facts of McDonnell, the case before it, which did involve “extravagant gifts [and] large sums of money.” But, of course, confining himself to the Court’s legitimate constitutional powers would prevent Roberts from giving McDonnell a second chance to beat his corruption rap, and also prevent Roberts from executing a legislative rewrite of anti-corruption law in order to allow many other politicians to indulge in corrupt conduct on behalf of plutocrats with impunity.</p>
<p>Roberts further emphasizes his illegitimate intentions: “There is no doubt that this case is distasteful; it may be worse than that. But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns. It is instead with the broader legal implications of the Government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute.” In other words, Roberts does not claim that the federal bribery statutes should not apply to the influence peddling actually presented in the McDonnell case before it. Roberts is unconcerned with the case before him over which he properly has jurisdiction. Rather, as an unconstitutional roving law-revision commission, he is concerned that there might be some other hypothetical cases over which he does not have jurisdiction but which he can imagine the statute should not cover, as an excuse for rewriting it.</p>
<p>Judicial invention</p>
<p>As one of the bases for claiming the Government’s interpretation is “boundless,” Roberts invoked a trick the current Court has frequently employed, in Citizens United for example. At oral argument the Court will trick Government’s counsel into making a broader claim than necessary, which is made so as not to unnecessarily concede a point that may be of use by the Government in future cases but is not raised by the case at hand. Blindsided by this tactic, counsel fails to anticipate that the Court will utilize the claim as grounds for illegitimately adjudicating a hypothetical case encompassed by the claim.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/mcdonnell-v-united-states/" type="external">McDonnell</a> this trick was invoked by Roberts to manufacture a claim from the Government that an “official act” could be a premise for a bribery conviction if it “concern[ed] any subject, including a broad policy issue such as Virginia economic development.” In support of that proposition Roberts provides two references, one to the Government’s Brief and the other to its oral argument. On closer inspection Roberts’ assertion is revealed as not the Government’s, but his own invention. <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/15-474_1bn2.pdf" type="external">The transcript</a> of the oral argument does not indicate that such an assertion was ever made by Government’s counsel. The truth is that the Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben made a fairly masterful presentation of the case that did not include any such claim that Roberts deceptive, if not outright dishonest, reference to the Transcript of the argument suggests that he did make. Indeed at another point in the transcript from that cited by Roberts, Dreeben expressly refused to take Roberts’ bait on the subject of “jobs for Virginia,” the only discussion even relevant to the subject of economic development. Tr. <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/15-474_1bn2.pdf" type="external">44-45</a>. Dreeben skillfully kept his argument at all times focussed on the facts of the case that involving a very narrowly identified special interest, not remotely related to Roberts’ hypothetical assertion about “broad policy.”</p>
<p>By coincidence, after the argument, Deputy Dreeben’s exceptional experience in oral argument and exemplary advocacy in the Supreme Court was formally recognized by the Court on the occasion of his having completed his 100th argument. This happened to underline the skill of his argument on that day that did not include the kind of mistake that Roberts nevertheless attributed to him.</p>
<p>Roberts also cites the Government’s <a href="" type="internal">Brief</a> for support of this assertion that the Government contended that an official act “concerning …. a broad policy issue” could constitute the object of bribery prosecution. But this is a misreading of the Brief, where the Government mentions Governor’s McDonnell’s interest in the broad policy of economic development as evidence defining “the scope of petitioner’s official duties,” <a href="" type="internal">48</a>, not as the hypothetical subject of prosecutable “official acts” given as a quo in return for a pecuniary quid. The Government quite specifically described the subject of the official acts as a narrow special interest that fell within the broader scope of official duties because it was a particular instance of the broad subject of economic development that defined the one scope of the governor’s duties. Roberts’ mischaracterization of this argument as if the Government contended that a broad policy area itself could be the subject of prosecution was dishonest.</p>
<p>Roberts dishonest characterization of the Government’s position elides the difference between advocates of the public interest who do not personally profit from their advocacy beyond participation in the general benefit to the public, and special interests who do profit by buying specific policies, and kick-back a share of those profits into the pockets of politicians. Generally “a broad policy issue” would not generate profits to special interests and therefore advocacy of such policies cannot be considered within the general sphere of what can be considered as corruption. Roberts’ gratuitous insertion of this issue in the case therefore intentionally created a false impression that the government’s position on potential objects of its prosecutorial power might exceed the proper bounds of what could fairly be described as corruption.</p>
<p>Unchecked Usurpation of Separate Powers</p>
<p>Roberts imagines other hypothetical cases that might arise under “the Government’s boundless interpretation” as involving “commonplace requests” or “most prosaic interactions” by citizens who have presumably endowed more modest benefits on an official than McDonnell’s benefactor did in pursuit of “general policy” reforms. Such a case has not been charged, tried, reached a conviction by a jury, and proceeded on appeal to the Supreme Court as is required by the Constitution for the Court to act on it.</p>
<p>Roberts thus strikes down part of the bribery statute because of an imagined application to some other case, not to the McDonnell case. No other criminal but a corrupt politician could get off the hook by showing that someone else than himself could not be constitutionally prosecuted under the statute he has been found guilty of violating – without invoking the First Amendment overbreadth doctrine, that is.</p>
<p>The Court is only empowered by the Constitution to decide whether the bribery law constitutionally applies to the tawdry facts of Mr. and Mrs. McDonnell, not whether it can be applied to a vague and hypothetical “commonplace” or “prosaic” case, as well. Roberts used this same tactic in <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/shelby-county-v-holder/" type="external">Shelby County</a> to gut the Voting Rights Act, making future enforcement of the law more challenging, on account of some other imagined applications to which the Act might apply, rather than confining himself to the actual case before him concerning Shelby County, Alabama.</p>
<p>One scholar <a href="http://www.trolp.org/main_pgs/issues/v14n1/Scribner.pdf" type="external">writes</a>: “Where Congress is convinced that the Court has attempted to alter the Constitution under the guise of interpreting it, Congress has an oath-sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and resist the abuse.” Both cases are blatant violations of the separation of powers that are tolerated by a Congress that is at once, respectively, too corrupt and too Jim Crow racist to defend its own powers in these cases. As was said by Adam Ferguson, ( <a href="" type="internal">1767</a>) p. 482, about separated powers, “if any member is remiss, the others must encroach.” Congress is remiss, and the Court therefore encroaches its powers.</p>
<p>Roberts the juror</p>
<p>Those lesser “prosaic interactions” hypotheticals that trouble Roberts would mostly be taken care of by the quid pro quo requirement for bribery prosecutions. A reasonable jury in a bribery case must find on sufficient evidence that the quid given was in fact the incentive for the quo provided in return. Roberts writes: “A jury could, for example, conclude that an agreement was reached if the evidence shows that the public official received a thing of value knowing that it was given with the expectation that the official would perform an “official act” in return.” The fact that there are other cases that might be charged under the statute which factually involve both quids and quos, but which fall below this standard of proof that there was an underlying transaction connecting the two provides no excuse for the Court’s McDonnell decision where the jury necessarily found there was such an underlying agreement.</p>
<p>The potential factual weakness of some other hypothetical case cannot immunize whole categories of valuable official action that may in some, but not all or necessarily most, cases be associated with favors and requests so insignificant that a jury would reasonably conclude that they were not the product of quid pro quo agreement. But immunize is what Roberts did anyway as if acting as a meta-juror for future possible prosecutions that occur primarily in his own imagination.</p>
<p>Unanimous corruption</p>
<p>The most worrisome development of McDonnell is that Roberts’ deceptive opinion has outsmarted all four of the justices who, as recently as in Arizona Free Enterprise Club ( <a href="" type="internal">2011</a>), American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock ( <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/american-tradition-partnership-inc-v-bullock/" type="external">2012</a>), and McCutcheon (2014), all 5-4 decisions, had opposed the extension of Buckley’s “money is speech” First Amendment protection for influence buying. In McDonnell, Roberts has for the first time successfully recruited all four liberals to his judicial supremacist pro-corruption project to protect the influence peddlers.</p>
<p>Last year it was in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar (2015) (5-4) that Roberts had partly succeeded in this same project by dividing the usual four dissenters in a ruling so insignificant that he could join these liberals in order to accomplish his goal. Writing the majority decision for the liberals and himself in a “money is speech” case, Roberts held that judges “cannot say, ‘Please give me money.’ They can, however, direct their campaign committees to do so.” By making this distinction without any substantive difference, Roberts’ opinion, as a commenter in the <a href="" type="internal">Atlantic</a> observed, “upheld a very narrow reform measure, but at the same time made further reforms marginally harder to enact.”</p>
<p>Roberts was thus able to recruit Obama’s two appointees, Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, to join his opinion reconfirming Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765 (2002), the case that legalized campaign finance corruption of elected state judges. These two renegades therefore declined to join Justice Ginsburg’s separate decision based on the premise that “Judges … are not political actors,” which restated her persuasive <a href="" type="internal">dissent</a> from White which had then been joined by four justices.</p>
<p>By joining Roberts’ opinion, instead of Ginsburg’s, the two erstwhile votes for anti-corruption decisions endorsed both the “money is speech” doctrine of Buckley and also that the doctrine should be applied for the corruption of elected judges as well as to elected politicians. This left only two justices in the liberal opposition to perhaps the most extreme of the entire pro-corruption jurisprudence of the Court. White, as reconfirmed by The Florida Bar, undermines the due process of law, which is the last institutional defense against the effects of systemic corruption in the other two branches. After legalized judicial corruption is fully rolled out, which is already well underway in states where the Kochs are active like Wisconsin, the country will be a kleptocracy in fact as well as in principle.</p>
<p>McDonnell completes Roberts’ cooptation of the liberal justices to the dark side. For the first time a unanimous Court has subscribed to Buckley’s money is speech doctrine, albeit only by implication. At its inception, Justice White wrote a powerful dissent from Buckley showing the doctrine to be intellectually fraudulent, explaining ““money is not always equivalent to or used for speech.” White continued to write such dissents in later cases. Justice Stevens also powerfully rejected the doctrine in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-963.ZC.html" type="external">opinions</a> insisting that: “Money is property; it is not speech.” His dissents were joined by other justices until he retired just after issuing his powerful dissent from Citizens United for four justices.</p>
<p>McDonnell signals that there are no such solid defenders of democracy left on the Supreme Court. Roberts has outsmarted the soft-headed liberals to join in the usurpation of legislative jurisdiction so as to weaken anti-corruption laws under the “money is speech” fraud. This “treason to the Constitution,” Cohens v Virginia, 19 U.S. at 387 (1821), indicates that it is even more important than it was previously for Pres. Obama to make a <a href="" type="internal">recess appointment</a> of an intellectually strong <a href="" type="internal">progressive</a> justice to the Court who can provide leadership to the current weak liberal contingent who have capitulated to the Roberts-led deceptive reasoning and systemic corruption.</p> | Supreme Court Legalizes Influence Peddling: McDonnell v. United States | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/06/30/supreme-court-legalizes-influence-peddling-mcdonnell-v-united-states/ | 2016-06-30 | 4 |
<p>South Africa’s most vocal neoliberal politician, Trevor Manuel, is apparently being seriously considered as co-chair of the Green Climate Fund. On April 28-29 in Mexico City, Manuel and other elites meet to design the world’s biggest-ever replenishing pool of aid money: a promised $100 billion of annual grants by 2020, more than the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and allied regional banks put together.</p>
<p>The Climate Justice lobby is furious, because as a network of 90 progressive organizations wrote to the United Nations, “The integrity and potential of a truly just and effective climate fund has already been compromised by the 2010 Cancún decisions to involve the World Bank as interim trustee.” A Friends of the Earth International study earlier this month attacked the Bank for increased coal financing, especially $3.75 billion loaned to South Africa’s Eskom a year ago.</p>
<p>Manuel chaired the Bank/IMF Board of Governors in 2000, as well as the Bank’s Development Committee from 2001-05. He was one of two United Nations Special Envoys to the 2002 Monterrey Financing for Development summit, a member of Tony Blair’s 2004-05 Commission for Africa, and chair of the 2007 G-20 summit.</p>
<p>Manuel was appointed UN Special Envoy for Development Finance in 2008, headed a 2009 IMF committee that successfully advocated a $750 billion capital increase, and served on the UN’s High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Finance in 2010. (Within the latter, he suggested that up to half the $100 billion climate fund be sourced from controversial private-sector emissions trading, not aid budgets.)</p>
<p>No one from the Third World has such experience, nor has anyone in these circuits such a formidable anti-colonial political pedigree, including several 1980s police detentions as one of Cape Town’s most important anti-apartheid activists. Yet despite occasional rhetorical attacks on “Washington Consensus” economic policies (part of SA’s “talk left walk right” tradition), since the mid-1990s Manuel has been loyal to the pro-corporate cause.</p>
<p>Even before taking power in 1994, he was considered a World Economic Forum “Global Leader for Tomorrow”, and in 1997 and 2007 Euromoney magazine named him African Finance Minister of the Year. No wonder, as in late 1993 he had agreed to repay apartheid-era commercial bank debt against all logic, and negotiated an $850 million IMF loan that straightjacketed Nelson Mandela.</p>
<p>With Manuel as trade minister from 1994-96, liberalisation demolished the clothing, textile, footwear, appliance, electronics and other vulnerable manufacturing sectors, as he drove tariffs below what even the World Trade Organisation demanded. After moving to the finance ministry in 1996, Manuel imposed the “non-negotiable” Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy (co-authored by World Bank staff), which by the time of its 2001 demise had not achieved a single target aside from inflation.</p>
<p>Manuel also cut the primary corporate tax rate from 48 percent in 1994 to 30 percent five years later, and then allowed the country’s biggest corporations to move their financial headquarters to London, which ballooned the current account deficit. That in turn required Manuel to arrange such vast financing inflows that the foreign debt soared from the $25 billion inherited at apartheid’s close to $80 billion by early 2009.</p>
<p>At that stage, with the world economy teetering, The Economist magazine named South Africa the most risky of the 17 main emerging markets, and the SA government released data conceding that the country was much more economically divided than in 1994, overtaking Brazil as the world’s most unequal major country.</p>
<p>“We are not in recession,” Manuel quickly declared in February 2009. “Although it sometimes feels in people’s minds that the economy is in recession, as of now we are looking at positive growth.” At that very moment, it turned out, the SA economy was shrinking by a stunning 6.4 percent (annualized), and indeed had been in recession for several months prior.</p>
<p>More than 1.2 million jobs were lost in the subsequent year, as unemployment soared to around 40 percent (including those who gave up looking). But in October 2008, just as IMF managing director Dominque Strauss-Kahn told the rest of the world to try quick-fix state deficit spending, Manuel sent the opposite message to his impoverished constituents: “We need to disabuse people of the notion that we will have a mighty powerful developmental state capable of planning and creating all manner of employment.”</p>
<p>This echoed his 2001 statement to a local Sunday newspaper: “I want someone to tell me how the government is going to create jobs. It’s a terrible admission, but governments around the world are impotent when it comes to creating jobs.”</p>
<p>Governments under the neoliberal thumb are also impotent when it comes to service delivery, and thanks partly to his fiscal conservatism, municipal state failure characterizes all of South Africa, resulting in more protests per capita against local government in Manuel’s latter years as finance minister than nearly anywhere in the world (the police count at peak was more than 10,000/year).</p>
<p>Ironically, said Manuel in his miserly 2004 budget speech, “The privilege we have in a democratic South Africa is that the poor are unbelievably tolerant.” In 2008, when an opposition politician begged that food vouchers be made available, Manuel replied that there was no way to ensure “vouchers will be distributed and used for food only, and not to buy alcohol or other things.”</p>
<p>Disgust for poor people extended to AIDS medicines, which in December 2001 aligned Manuel with his AIDS-denialist president Thabo Mbeki in refusing access: “The little I know about anti'retrovirals is that unless you maintain a very strict regime … they can pump you full of anti'retrovirals, sadly, all that you’re going to do, because you are erratic, is to develop a series of drug'resistant diseases inside your body.”</p>
<p>Instead of delivering sufficient medicines, money and post-neoliberal policy to the health system, schools and municipalities, Manuel promoted privatization, even at the Monterrey global finance summit: “Public-private partnerships are important win-win tools for governments and the private sector, as they provide an innovative way of delivering public services in a cost-effective manner.”</p>
<p>He not only supported privatisation in principle, as finance minister Manuel put enormous pressure (equivalent to IMF conditionality) on municipalities – especially Johannesburg in 1999 – to impose commodification on the citizenry. In one of the world’s most important early 21st century water wars, residents of Soweto rebelled and the French firm Suez was eventually evicted from managing Johannesburg’s water in 2006.</p>
<p>Water privatisation was Washington Consensus advice, and as Manuel once put it, “Our relationship with the World Bank is generally structured around the reservoir of knowledge in the Bank” – with South Africa a guinea pig for the late-1990s “Knowledge Bank” strategy. Virtually without exception, Bank missions and neoliberal policy support in fields such as water, land reform, housing, public works, healthcare, and macroeconomics failed to deliver.</p>
<p>In spite of neoliberal ideology’s disgrace, president Jacob Zuma retained Manuel and his policies in 2009. In September that year, Congress of SA Trade Unions president Sdumo Dlamini called Manuel the “shop steward of business” because of his “outrageous” plea to the World Economic Forum’s Cape Town summit that business fight harder against workers. The mineworkers union termed Manuel’s challenge “bile, totally irresponsible… To say that business crumbles too easily is to reinforce business arrogance.”</p>
<p>Manuel also disappointed feminists for his persistent failure to keep budgeting promises, even transparency. “How do you measure government’s commitment to gender equality if you don’t know where the money’s going?”, asked the Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s Penny Parenzee. Former ruling-party politician Pregs Govender helped developed gender-budgeting in 1994 but within a decade complained that Manuel reduced it to a “public relations exercise”.</p>
<p>As for a commitment to internationalism, in early 2009 when Pretoria revoked a visitor’s visa for the Dalai Lama on Beijing’s orders, Manuel defended the ban on the exiled Tibetan leader: “To say anything against the Dalai Lama is, in some quarters, equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi.”</p>
<p>At the same moment Manuel was sabotaging Zimbabwe’s recovery strategy, chosen by the new government of national unity, by insisting that Harare first repay $1 billion in arrears to the World Bank and IMF, otherwise “there was no way the plan could work.” Zimbabwean economist Eddie Cross complained, “In fact the IMF specifically told us to put the issue of debt management on the back burner… The South Africans on the other hand have reversed that proposal – I do not know on whose authority, but they are not being helpful at all.”</p>
<p>Given his biases and his miserable record, many within SA’s community, labour, environment, women’s, solidarity and AIDS-treatment movements would be happy to see the back of Manuel. His own career predilections may be decisive. Often suggested as a candidate for the top job at the Bank or IMF, Manuel recently confirmed anger at the way local politics evolved after Zuma booted Mbeki from the SA presidency.</p>
<p>In an open public letter last month, for example, Manuel told Zuma’s main spokesperson, Jimmy Manyi, “your behaviour is of the worst-order racist” after a (year-old) incident in which Manyi, then lead labour department official, claimed there were too many coloured workers in the Western Cape in relation to other parts of SA. Manyi had earlier offered a half-baked apology, but suffered no punishment. Once a political titan, Manuel now appears as has-been gadfly.</p>
<p>His disillusionment apparently began in December 2007, just prior to Mbeki’s defeat in the African National Congress (ANC) leadership election. After his finance ministry job was threatened by Zuma assistant Mo Shaik’s offhanded comments, Manuel penned another enraged open letter: “Your conduct is certainly not something in the tradition of the ANC… You have no right to turn this organisation into something that serves your ego.” In May 2009 Shaik, whose brother Schabir was convicted of corrupting Zuma during the infamous $6 billion arms deal, was made director of the SA intelligence service. Manuel was downgraded to a resource-scarce, do-little planning ministry.</p>
<p>It is easy to sympathize with Manuel’s frustrating struggle against ethnicism and cronyism, especially after his opponents’ apparent victories. However, former ANC member of parliament Andrew Feinstein records that the finance minister knew of arms-deal bribes solicited by the late defense minister Joe Modise. In court, Feinstein testified (without challenge) that in late 2000, Manuel surreptitiously advised him over lunch, “It’s possible there was some shit in the deal. But if there was, no one will ever uncover it. They’re not that stupid. Just let it lie.” Remarked Terry Crawford-Browne of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, “By actively blocking thorough investigation of bribery payments, Manuel facilitated such crimes.”</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the myth of Manuel’s financial wizardry and integrity continues, in part thanks to a 600-page puff-piece biography, Choice not Fate (Penguin, 2008) by his former spokesperson Pippa Green (subsidized by BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Total oil and Rand Merchant Bank). And after all, recent politico-moral and economic scandals by World Bank presidents Robert Zoellick and Paul Wolfowitz (whom in 2005 Manuel welcomed to the job as “a wonderful individual . . . perfectly capable”) confirm that global elites are already scraping the bottom of the financial leadership barrel.</p>
<p>Yet it is still tragic that as host to 2011’s world climate summit, South Africa leads (non-petroleum countries) in carbon emissions/GDP/capita, twenty times higher than even the US. Even more tragic: Manuel’s final budget countenanced more than $100 billion for additional coal-fired and nuclear power plants in coming years.</p>
<p>In sum, Manuel’s leadership of the Green Climate Fund adds a new quantum of global-scale risk. His long history of collaboration with Washington-London raises prospects for “default” by the industrialized North on payment of climate debt to the impoverished South. Indeed, if Pretoria’s main man link to the Bretton Woods Institutions, Manuel, co-chairs the fund and gives the Bank more influence, then expect new forms of subprime financing and blunt neoliberal economic weapons potentially fatal to climate change mitigation and adaptation.</p>
<p>PATRICK BOND is with the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society in Durban: <a href="http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/" type="external">http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | The Banksters and the Climate Fund | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/04/25/the-banksters-and-the-climate-fund/ | 2011-04-25 | 4 |
<p>TOKYO (AP) — Global shares turned lower in thin European trading on Wednesday as investors grew cautious about another drop in oil prices.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Trading volumes were low on the last full day of the year ahead of the New Year's holiday — many markets will be open only for a half day on Dec. 31. France's CAC 40 lost 0.4 percent to 4,683.69, and Germany's DAX fell 1.1 percent to 10,743.01. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.6 percent to 6,274.97. U.S. shares were set to drift lower, with Dow futures down 0.3 percent and S&amp;P 500 futures losing 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>ENERGY: The volatility in energy markets continued, with the benchmark U.S. crude contract losing some of its overnight price recovery. It was down 94 cents to $36.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slipped 75 cents to $37.47 a barrel in London.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: Earlier, investors were more upbeat, pushing Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 up 0.3 percent to finish at 19,033.71 on its last trading day of the year. People clapped in rhythm at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan's customary ceremony to close out the year. South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.3 percent to 1,961.31. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5 percent to 21,882.15, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent to 3,572.88. Other regional shares were also mixed, rising in Indonesia but dropping in Taiwan and Singapore.</p>
<p>U.S. ECONOMY: Asian markets were supported by an upbeat batch of U.S. economic data from the day before. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index increased from the previous month, reflecting positive views on the economy and job market. Separately, a key gauge of home values indicated that U.S. home prices climbed 5.5 percent in October from a year earlier.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 120.57 yen, up from 120.37 yen late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.0930 from $1.0977.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama</p>
<p>Her work can be found at: <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama</a></p>
<p>TOKYO (AP) — Global shares turned lower in thin European trading on Wednesday as investors grew cautious about another drop in oil prices.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Trading volumes were low on the last full day of the year ahead of the New Year's holiday — many markets will be open only for a half day on Dec. 31. France's CAC 40 lost 0.4 percent to 4,683.69, and Germany's DAX fell 1.1 percent to 10,743.01. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.6 percent to 6,274.97. U.S. shares were set to drift lower, with Dow futures down 0.3 percent and S&amp;P 500 futures losing 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>ENERGY: The volatility in energy markets continued, with the benchmark U.S. crude contract losing some of its overnight price recovery. It was down 94 cents to $36.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slipped 75 cents to $37.47 a barrel in London.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: Earlier, investors were more upbeat, pushing Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 up 0.3 percent to finish at 19,033.71 on its last trading day of the year. People clapped in rhythm at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan's customary ceremony to close out the year. South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.3 percent to 1,961.31. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.5 percent to 21,882.15, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent to 3,572.88. Other regional shares were also mixed, rising in Indonesia but dropping in Taiwan and Singapore.</p>
<p>U.S. ECONOMY: Asian markets were supported by an upbeat batch of U.S. economic data from the day before. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index increased from the previous month, reflecting positive views on the economy and job market. Separately, a key gauge of home values indicated that U.S. home prices climbed 5.5 percent in October from a year earlier.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 120.57 yen, up from 120.37 yen late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.0930 from $1.0977.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama</p>
<p>Her work can be found at: <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama</a></p> | Global stocks slide as oil price turns lower once again | false | https://apnews.com/amp/2d8a81ddb8d846c39f7ec2acf1962ef6 | 2015-12-30 | 2 |
<p>It’s an honor to return to the National Defense University. Here, at Fort McNair, Americans have served in uniform since 1791– standing guard in the early days of the Republic, and contemplating the future of warfare here in the 21st century.</p>
<p>For over two centuries, the United States has been bound together by founding documents that defined who we are as Americans, and served as our compass through every type of change. Matters of war and peace are no different. Americans are deeply ambivalent about war, but having fought for our independence, we know that a price must be paid for freedom. From the Civil War, to our struggle against fascism, and through the long, twilight struggle of the Cold War, battlefields have changed, and technology has evolved. But our commitment to Constitutional principles has weathered every war, and every war has come to an end.</p>
<p>With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new dawn of democracy took hold abroad, and a decade of peace and prosperity arrived at home. For a moment, it seemed the 21st century would be a tranquil time. Then, on September 11th 2001, we were shaken out of complacency. Thousands were taken from us, as clouds of fire, metal and ash descended upon a sun-filled morning. This was a different kind of war. No armies came to our shores, and our military was not the principal target. Instead, a group of terrorists came to kill as many civilians as they could.</p>
<p />
<p>And so our nation went to war. We have now been at war for well over a decade. I won’t review the full history. What’s clear is that we quickly drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan, but then shifted our focus and began a new war in Iraq. This carried grave consequences for our fight against al Qaeda, our standing in the world, and – to this day – our interests in a vital region.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we strengthened our defenses – hardening targets, tightening transportation security, and giving law enforcement new tools to prevent terror. Most of these changes were sound. Some caused inconvenience. But some, like expanded surveillance, raised difficult questions about the balance we strike between our interests in security and our values of privacy. And in some cases, I believe we compromised our basic values – by using torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that ran counter to the rule of law.</p>
<p>After I took office, we stepped up the war against al Qaeda, but also sought to change its course. We relentlessly targeted al Qaeda’s leadership. We ended the war in Iraq, and brought nearly 150,000 troops home. We pursued a new strategy in Afghanistan, and increased our training of Afghan forces. We unequivocally banned torture, affirmed our commitment to civilian courts, worked to align our policies with the rule of law, and expanded our consultations with Congress.</p>
<p>Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants. There have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure. Fewer of our troops are in harm’s way, and over the next 19 months they will continue to come home. Our alliances are strong, and so is our standing in the world. In sum, we are safer because of our efforts.</p>
<p>Now make no mistake: our nation is still threatened by terrorists. From Benghazi to Boston, we have been tragically reminded of that truth. We must recognize, however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11. With a decade of experience to draw from, now is the time to ask ourselves hard questions – about the nature of today’s threats, and how we should confront them.</p>
<p>These questions matter to every American. For over the last decade, our nation has spent well over a trillion dollars on war, exploding our deficits and constraining our ability to nation build here at home. Our service-members and their families have sacrificed far more on our behalf. Nearly 7,000 Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice. Many more have left a part of themselves on the battlefield, or brought the shadows of battle back home. From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions we are making will define the type of nation – and world – that we leave to our children.</p>
<p>So America is at a crossroads. We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us, mindful of James Madison’s warning that “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” Neither I, nor any President, can promise the total defeat of terror. We will never erase the evil that lies in the hearts of some human beings, nor stamp out every danger to our open society. What we can do – what we must do – is dismantle networks that pose a direct danger, and make it less likely for new groups to gain a foothold, all while maintaining the freedoms and ideals that we defend. To define that strategy, we must make decisions based not on fear, but hard-earned wisdom. And that begins with understanding the threat we face.</p>
<p>Today, the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on a path to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us. They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi or Boston. They have not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11. Instead, what we’ve seen is the emergence of various al Qaeda affiliates. From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with Al Qaeda’s affiliate in the Arabian Peninsula – AQAP –the most active in plotting against our homeland. While none of AQAP’s efforts approach the scale of 9/11 they have continued to plot acts of terror, like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.</p>
<p>Unrest in the Arab World has also allowed extremists to gain a foothold in countries like Libya and Syria. Here, too, there are differences from 9/11. In some cases, we confront state-sponsored networks like Hizbollah that engage in acts of terror to achieve political goals. Others are simply collections of local militias or extremists interested in seizing territory. While we are vigilant for signs that these groups may pose a transnational threat, most are focused on operating in the countries and regions where they are based. That means we will face more localized threats like those we saw in Benghazi, or at the BP oil facility in Algeria, in which local operatives – in loose affiliation with regional networks – launch periodic attacks against Western diplomats, companies, and other soft targets, or resort to kidnapping and other criminal enterprises to fund their operations.</p>
<p>Finally, we face a real threat from radicalized individuals here in the United States. Whether it’s a shooter at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin; a plane flying into a building in Texas; or the extremists who killed 168 people at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City – America has confronted many forms of violent extremism in our time. Deranged or alienated individuals – often U.S. citizens or legal residents – can do enormous damage, particularly when inspired by larger notions of violent jihad. That pull towards extremism appears to have led to the shooting at Fort Hood, and the bombing of the Boston Marathon.</p>
<p>Lethal yet less capable al Qaeda affiliates. Threats to diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad. Homegrown extremists. This is the future of terrorism. We must take these threats seriously, and do all that we can to confront them. But as we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11. In the 1980s, we lost Americans to terrorism at our Embassy in Beirut; at our Marine Barracks in Lebanon; on a cruise ship at sea; at a disco in Berlin; and on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. In the 1990s, we lost Americans to terrorism at the World Trade Center; at our military facilities in Saudi Arabia; and at our Embassy in Kenya. These attacks were all deadly, and we learned that left unchecked, these threats can grow. But if dealt with smartly and proportionally, these threats need not rise to the level that we saw on the eve of 9/11.</p>
<p>Moreover, we must recognize that these threats don’t arise in a vacuum. Most, though not all, of the terrorism we face is fueled by a common ideology – a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United States and the West, and that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger cause. Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam; and this ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims, who are the most frequent victims of terrorist acts.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this ideology persists, and in an age in which ideas and images can travel the globe in an instant, our response to terrorism cannot depend on military or law enforcement alone. We need all elements of national power to win a battle of wills and ideas. So let me discuss the components of such a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy.</p>
<p>First, we must finish the work of defeating al Qaeda and its associated forces.</p>
<p>In Afghanistan, we will complete our transition to Afghan responsibility for security. Our troops will come home. Our combat mission will come to an end. And we will work with the Afghan government to train security forces, and sustain a counter-terrorism force which ensures that al Qaeda can never again establish a safe-haven to launch attacks against us or our allies.</p>
<p>Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless ‘global war on terror’ – but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America. In many cases, this will involve partnerships with other countries. Thousands of Pakistani soldiers have lost their lives fighting extremists. In Yemen, we are supporting security forces that have reclaimed territory from AQAP. In Somalia, we helped a coalition of African nations push al Shabaab out of its strongholds. In Mali, we are providing military aid to a French-led intervention to push back al Qaeda in the Maghreb, and help the people of Mali reclaim their future.</p>
<p>Much of our best counter-terrorism cooperation results in the gathering and sharing of intelligence; the arrest and prosecution of terrorists. That’s how a Somali terrorist apprehended off the coast of Yemen is now in prison in New York. That’s how we worked with European allies to disrupt plots from Denmark to Germany to the United Kingdom. That’s how intelligence collected with Saudi Arabia helped us stop a cargo plane from being blown up over the Atlantic.</p>
<p>But despite our strong preference for the detention and prosecution of terrorists, sometimes this approach is foreclosed. Al Qaeda and its affiliates try to gain a foothold in some of the most distant and unforgiving places on Earth. They take refuge in remote tribal regions. They hide in caves and walled compounds. They train in empty deserts and rugged mountains.</p>
<p>In some of these places – such as parts of Somalia and Yemen – the state has only the most tenuous reach into the territory. In other cases, the state lacks the capacity or will to take action. It is also not possible for America to simply deploy a team of Special Forces to capture every terrorist. And even when such an approach may be possible, there are places where it would pose profound risks to our troops and local civilians– where a terrorist compound cannot be breached without triggering a firefight with surrounding tribal communities that pose no threat to us, or when putting U.S. boots on the ground may trigger a major international crisis.</p>
<p>To put it another way, our operation in Pakistan against Osama bin Laden cannot be the norm. The risks in that case were immense; the likelihood of capture, although our preference, was remote given the certainty of resistance; the fact that we did not find ourselves confronted with civilian casualties, or embroiled in an extended firefight, was a testament to the meticulous planning and professionalism of our Special Forces – but also depended on some luck. And even then, the cost to our relationship with Pakistan – and the backlash among the Pakistani public over encroachment on their territory – was so severe that we are just now beginning to rebuild this important partnership.</p>
<p>It is in this context that the United States has taken lethal, targeted action against al Qaeda and its associated forces, including with remotely piloted aircraft commonly referred to as drones. As was true in previous armed conflicts, this new technology raises profound questions – about who is targeted, and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies; about the legality of such strikes under U.S. and international law; about accountability and morality.</p>
<p>Let me address these questions. To begin with, our actions are effective. Don’t take my word for it. In the intelligence gathered at bin Laden’s compound, we found that he wrote, “we could lose the reserves to the enemy’s air strikes. We cannot fight air strikes with explosives.” Other communications from al Qaeda operatives confirm this as well. Dozens of highly skilled al Qaeda commanders, trainers, bomb makers, and operatives have been taken off the battlefield. Plots have been disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, U.S. transit systems, European cities and our troops in Afghanistan. Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.</p>
<p>Moreover, America’s actions are legal. We were attacked on 9/11. Within a week, Congress overwhelmingly authorized the use of force. Under domestic law, and international law, the United States is at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces. We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many Americans as they could if we did not stop them first. So this is a just war – a war waged proportionally, in last resort, and in self-defense.</p>
<p>And yet as our fight enters a new phase, America’s legitimate claim of self-defense cannot be the end of the discussion. To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance. For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power – or risk abusing it. That’s why, over the last four years, my Administration has worked vigorously to establish a framework that governs our use of force against terrorists – insisting upon clear guidelines, oversight and accountability that is now codified in Presidential Policy Guidance that I signed yesterday.</p>
<p>In the Afghan war theater, we must support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014. That means we will continue to take strikes against high value al Qaeda targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces. However, by the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection, and the progress we have made against core al Qaeda will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.</p>
<p>Beyond the Afghan theater, we only target al Qaeda and its associated forces. Even then, the use of drones is heavily constrained. America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists – our preference is always to detain, interrogate, and prosecute them. America cannot take strikes wherever we choose – our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty. America does not take strikes to punish individuals – we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat. And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.</p>
<p>This last point is critical, because much of the criticism about drone strikes – at home and abroad – understandably centers on reports of civilian casualties. There is a wide gap between U.S. assessments of such casualties, and non-governmental reports. Nevertheless, it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in all wars. For the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred through conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.</p>
<p>But as Commander-in-Chief, I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternatives. To do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties – not just in our cities at home and facilities abroad, but also in the very places –like Sana’a and Kabul and Mogadishu – where terrorists seek a foothold. Let us remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes.</p>
<p>Where foreign governments cannot or will not effectively stop terrorism in their territory, the primary alternative to targeted, lethal action is the use of conventional military options. As I’ve said, even small Special Operations carry enormous risks. Conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and likely to cause more civilian casualties and local outrage. And invasions of these territories lead us to be viewed as occupying armies; unleash a torrent of unintended consequences; are difficult to contain; and ultimately empower those who thrive on violent conflict. So it is false to assert that putting boots on the ground is less likely to result in civilian deaths, or to create enemies in the Muslim world. The result would be more U.S. deaths, more Blackhawks down, more confrontations with local populations, and an inevitable mission creep in support of such raids that could easily escalate into new wars.</p>
<p>So yes, the conflict with al Qaeda, like all armed conflict, invites tragedy. But by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us, and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life. Indeed, our efforts must also be measured against the history of putting American troops in distant lands among hostile populations. In Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of civilians died in a war where the boundaries of battle were blurred. In Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the courage and discipline of our troops, thousands of civilians have been killed. So neither conventional military action, nor waiting for attacks to occur, offers moral safe-harbor. Neither does a sole reliance on law enforcement in territories that have no functioning police or security services – and indeed, have no functioning law.</p>
<p>This is not to say that the risks are not real. Any U.S. military action in foreign lands risks creating more enemies, and impacts public opinion overseas. Our laws constrain the power of the President, even during wartime, and I have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. The very precision of drones strikes, and the necessary secrecy involved in such actions can end up shielding our government from the public scrutiny that a troop deployment invites. It can also lead a President and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism.</p>
<p>For this reason, I’ve insisted on strong oversight of all lethal action. After I took office, my Administration began briefing all strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan to the appropriate committees of Congress. Let me repeat that – not only did Congress authorize the use of force, it is briefed on every strike that America takes. That includes the one instance when we targeted an American citizen: Anwar Awlaki, the chief of external operations for AQAP.</p>
<p>This week, I authorized the declassification of this action, and the deaths of three other Americans in drone strikes, to facilitate transparency and debate on this issue, and to dismiss some of the more outlandish claims. For the record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S. citizen – with a drone, or a shotgun – without due process. Nor should any President deploy armed drones over U.S. soil.</p>
<p>But when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against America – and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens; and when neither the United States, nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot – his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a swat team</p>
<p>That’s who Anwar Awlaki was – he was continuously trying to kill people. He helped oversee the 2010 plot to detonate explosive devices on two U.S. bound cargo planes. He was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in 2009. When Farouk Abdulmutallab – the Christmas Day bomber – went to Yemen in 2009, Awlaki hosted him, approved his suicide operation, and helped him tape a martyrdom video to be shown after the attack. His last instructions were to blow up the airplane when it was over American soil. I would have detained and prosecuted Awlaki if we captured him before he carried out a plot. But we couldn’t. And as President, I would have been derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took out Awlaki.</p>
<p>Of course, the targeting of any Americans raises constitutional issues that are not present in other strikes – which is why my Administration submitted information about Awlaki to the Department of Justice months before Awlaki was killed, and briefed the Congress before this strike as well. But the high threshold that we have set for taking lethal action applies to all potential terrorist targets, regardless of whether or not they are American citizens. This threshold respects the inherent dignity of every human life. Alongside the decision to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way, the decision to use force against individuals or groups – even against a sworn enemy of the United States – is the hardest thing I do as President. But these decisions must be made, given my responsibility to protect the American people.</p>
<p>Going forward, I have asked my Administration to review proposals to extend oversight of lethal actions outside of warzones that go beyond our reporting to Congress. Each option has virtues in theory, but poses difficulties in practice. For example, the establishment of a special court to evaluate and authorize lethal action has the benefit of bringing a third branch of government into the process, but raises serious constitutional issues about presidential and judicial authority. Another idea that’s been suggested – the establishment of an independent oversight board in the executive branch – avoids those problems, but may introduce a layer of bureaucracy into national-security decision-making, without inspiring additional public confidence in the process. Despite these challenges, I look forward to actively engaging Congress to explore these – and other – options for increased oversight.</p>
<p>I believe, however, that the use of force must be seen as part of a larger discussion about a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy. Because for all the focus on the use of force, force alone cannot make us safe. We cannot use force everywhere that a radical ideology takes root; and in the absence of a strategy that reduces the well-spring of extremism, a perpetual war – through drones or Special Forces or troop deployments – will prove self-defeating, and alter our country in troubling ways.</p>
<p>So the next element of our strategy involves addressing the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism, from North Africa to South Asia. As we’ve learned this past decade, this is a vast and complex undertaking. We must be humble in our expectation that we can quickly resolve deep rooted problems like poverty and sectarian hatred. Moreover, no two countries are alike, and some will undergo chaotic change before things get better. But our security and values demand that we make the effort.</p>
<p>This means patiently supporting transitions to democracy in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya – because the peaceful realization of individual aspirations will serve as a rebuke to violent extremists. We must strengthen the opposition in Syria, while isolating extremist elements – because the end of a tyrant must not give way to the tyranny of terrorism. We are working to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians – because it is right, and because such a peace could help reshape attitudes in the region. And we must help countries modernize economies, upgrade education, and encourage entrepreneurship – because American leadership has always been elevated by our ability to connect with peoples’ hopes, and not simply their fears.</p>
<p>Success on these fronts requires sustained engagement, but it will also require resources. I know that foreign aid is one of the least popular expenditures – even though it amounts to less than one percent of the federal budget. But foreign assistance cannot be viewed as charity. It is fundamental to our national security, and any sensible long-term strategy to battle extremism. Moreover, foreign assistance is a tiny fraction of what we spend fighting wars that our assistance might ultimately prevent. For what we spent in a month in Iraq at the height of the war, we could be training security forces in Libya, maintaining peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors, feeding the hungry in Yemen, building schools in Pakistan, and creating reservoirs of goodwill that marginalize extremists.</p>
<p>America cannot carry out this work if we do not have diplomats serving in dangerous places. Over the past decade, we have strengthened security at our Embassies, and I am implementing every recommendation of the Accountability Review Board which found unacceptable failures in Benghazi. I have called on Congress to fully fund these efforts to bolster security, harden facilities, improve intelligence, and facilitate a quicker response time from our military if a crisis emerges.</p>
<p>But even after we take these steps, some irreducible risks to our diplomats will remain. This is the price of being the world’s most powerful nation, particularly as a wave of change washes over the Arab World. And in balancing the trade-offs between security and active diplomacy, I firmly believe that any retreat from challenging regions will only increase the dangers we face in the long run.</p>
<p>Targeted action against terrorists. Effective partnerships. Diplomatic engagement and assistance. Through such a comprehensive strategy we can significantly reduce the chances of large scale attacks on the homeland and mitigate threats to Americans overseas. As we guard against dangers from abroad, however, we cannot neglect the daunting challenge of terrorism from within our borders.</p>
<p>As I said earlier, this threat is not new. But technology and the Internet increase its frequency and lethality. Today, a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda, and learn how to kill without leaving their home. To address this threat, two years ago my Administration did a comprehensive review, and engaged with law enforcement. The best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim American community – which has consistently rejected terrorism – to identify signs of radicalization, and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence. And these partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family. Indeed, the success of American Muslims, and our determination to guard against any encroachments on their civil liberties, is the ultimate rebuke to those who say we are at war with Islam.</p>
<p>Indeed, thwarting homegrown plots presents particular challenges in part because of our proud commitment to civil liberties for all who call America home. That’s why, in the years to come, we will have to keep working hard to strike the appropriate balance between our need for security and preserving those freedoms that make us who we are. That means reviewing the authorities of law enforcement, so we can intercept new types of communication, and build in privacy protections to prevent abuse. That means that – even after Boston – we do not deport someone or throw someone in prison in the absence of evidence. That means putting careful constraints on the tools the government uses to protect sensitive information, such as the State Secrets doctrine. And that means finally having a strong Privacy and Civil Liberties Board to review those issues where our counter-terrorism efforts and our values may come into tension.</p>
<p>The Justice Department’s investigation of national security leaks offers a recent example of the challenges involved in striking the right balance between our security and our open society. As Commander-in Chief, I believe we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the field. To do so, we must enforce consequences for those who break the law and breach their commitment to protect classified information. But a free press is also essential for our democracy. I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.</p>
<p>Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law. That is why I have called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government over-reach. I have raised these issues with the Attorney General, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the Attorney General to report back to me by July 12th.</p>
<p>All these issues remind us that the choices we make about war can impact – in sometimes unintended ways – the openness and freedom on which our way of life depends. And that is why I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing.</p>
<p>The AUMF is now nearly twelve years old. The Afghan War is coming to an end. Core al Qaeda is a shell of its former self. Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States. Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant Presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.</p>
<p>And that brings me to my final topic: the detention of terrorist suspects.</p>
<p>To repeat, as a matter of policy, the preference of the United States is to capture terrorist suspects. When we do detain a suspect, we interrogate them. And if the suspect can be prosecuted, we decide whether to try him in a civilian court or a Military Commission. During the past decade, the vast majority of those detained by our military were captured on the battlefield. In Iraq, we turned over thousands of prisoners as we ended the war. In Afghanistan, we have transitioned detention facilities to the Afghans, as part of the process of restoring Afghan sovereignty. So we bring law of war detention to an end, and we are committed to prosecuting terrorists whenever we can.</p>
<p>The glaring exception to this time-tested approach is the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The original premise for opening GTMO – that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention – was found unconstitutional five years ago. In the meantime, GTMO has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law. Our allies won’t cooperate with us if they think a terrorist will end up at GTMO. During a time of budget cuts, we spend $150 million each year to imprison 166 people –almost $1 million per prisoner. And the Department of Defense estimates that we must spend another $200 million to keep GTMO open at a time when we are cutting investments in education and research here at home.</p>
<p>As President, I have tried to close GTMO. I transferred 67 detainees to other countries before Congress imposed restrictions to effectively prevent us from either transferring detainees to other countries, or imprisoning them in the United States. These restrictions make no sense. After all, under President Bush, some 530 detainees were transferred from GTMO with Congress’s support. When I ran for President the first time, John McCain supported closing GTMO. No person has ever escaped from one of our super-max or military prisons in the United States. Our courts have convicted hundreds of people for terrorism-related offenses, including some who are more dangerous than most GTMO detainees. Given my Administration’s relentless pursuit of al Qaeda’s leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened.</p>
<p>Today, I once again call on Congress to lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from GTMO. I have asked the Department of Defense to designate a site in the United States where we can hold military commissions. I am appointing a new, senior envoy at the State Department and Defense Department whose sole responsibility will be to achieve the transfer of detainees to third countries. I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, so we can review them on a case by case basis. To the greatest extent possible, we will transfer detainees who have been cleared to go to other countries. Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system. And we will insist that judicial review be available for every detainee.</p>
<p>Even after we take these steps, one issue will remain: how to deal with those GTMO detainees who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks, but who cannot be prosecuted – for example because the evidence against them has been compromised or is inadmissible in a court of law. But once we commit to a process of closing GTMO, I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved, consistent with our commitment to the rule of law.</p>
<p>I know the politics are hard. But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism, and those of us who fail to end it. Imagine a future – ten years from now, or twenty years from now – when the United States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not a part of our country. Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are holding a hunger strike. Is that who we are? Is that something that our Founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave to our children?</p>
<p>Our sense of justice is stronger than that. We have prosecuted scores of terrorists in our courts. That includes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up an airplane over Detroit; and Faisal Shahzad, who put a car bomb in Times Square. It is in a court of law that we will try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of bombing the Boston Marathon. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is as we speak serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison here, in the United States. In sentencing Reid, Judge William Young told him, “the way we treat you…is the measure of our own liberties.” He went on to point to the American flag that flew in the courtroom – “That flag,” he said, “will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom.”</p>
<p>America, we have faced down dangers far greater than al Qaeda. By staying true to the values of our founding, and by using our constitutional compass, we have overcome slavery and Civil War; fascism and communism. In just these last few years as President, I have watched the American people bounce back from painful recession, mass shootings, and natural disasters like the recent tornados that devastated Oklahoma. These events were heartbreaking; they shook our communities to the core. But because of the resilience of the American people, these events could not come close to breaking us.</p>
<p>I think of Lauren Manning, the 9/11 survivor who had severe burns over 80 percent of her body, who said, “That’s my reality. I put a Band-Aid on it, literally, and I move on.”</p>
<p>I think of the New Yorkers who filled Times Square the day after an attempted car bomb as if nothing had happened.</p>
<p>I think of the proud Pakistani parents who, after their daughter was invited to the White House, wrote to us, “we have raised an American Muslim daughter to dream big and never give up because it does pay off.”</p>
<p>I think of the wounded warriors rebuilding their lives, and helping other vets to find jobs.</p>
<p>I think of the runner planning to do the 2014 Boston Marathon, who said, “Next year, you are going to have more people than ever. Determination is not something to be messed with.”</p>
<p>That’s who the American people are. Determined, and not to be messed with.</p>
<p>Now, we need a strategy – and a politics –that reflects this resilient spirit. Our victory against terrorism won’t be measured in a surrender ceremony on a battleship, or a statue being pulled to the ground. Victory will be measured in parents taking their kids to school; immigrants coming to our shores; fans taking in a ballgame; a veteran starting a business; a bustling city street. The quiet determination; that strength of character and bond of fellowship; that refutation of fear – that is both our sword and our shield. And long after the current messengers of hate have faded from the world’s memory, alongside the brutal despots, deranged madmen, and ruthless demagogues who litter history – the flag of the United States will still wave from small-town cemeteries, to national monuments, to distant outposts abroad. And that flag will still stand for freedom.</p>
<p>Thank you. God Bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.</p>
<p /> | Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery: The Future of our Fight against Terrorism | true | http://humanevents.com/2013/05/23/remarks-of-president-barack-obama-as-prepared-for-delivery-the-future-of-our-fight-against-terrorism/ | 2013-05-23 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />In this country, we have a <a href="" type="internal">strict separation of church and state</a>. Well, at least that’s what we’re&#160;supposed&#160;to have; clearly, many Republicans don’t see it that way. Despite the fact that&#160;there’s not a single reference to Christianity anywhere in our Constitution, most conservatives still continue to proclaim proudly that this is, in fact, a “Christian nation.” That’s why they continually try to force their religious views into legislation where they don’t&#160;belong. It’s also why the <a href="" type="internal">subject of President Obama’s religion</a> has been such a “hot-button” issue among conservatives for years.</p>
<p>For the record, President Obama is a Christian. Not that it should even matter, but he is.</p>
<p>I’ve found it hilarious and pathetic how this president has simultaneously been bashed for once-upon-a-time attending a Christian church of a radical, fairly controversial preacher – while also being accused of being a Muslim. It’s like I’ve said plenty of times before, you just can’t make this stuff up.</p>
<p>Well, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee went on a bit of a whiny tangent against the president (though he didn’t mention him by name) because he dared to invite homosexuals to the White House during Pope Francis’s visit.</p>
<p>“I’m also concerned about a guy who believes he’s a Christian and then pretends to be and says he is but then does things that make it very difficult for people to practice their Christian faith,” Huckabee said during an interview with Newsmax. “If a person says, ‘I’m a Christian’ but you invite the pope into your home and then you invite a whole bunch of people who are at odds with the Catholic church policy, I think there’s something very unseemly about that.”</p>
<p>I like how Huckabee apparently feels Pope Francis is <a href="" type="internal">as petty, small-minded and pathetic as he is</a>. This is a pope who’s actively been attempting <a href="" type="internal">to make the Catholic church more progressive and inclusive</a>, so I really doubt he was offended that the president invited gay people to the White House.</p>
<p>Not only that, but the president has in&#160;no way&#160;made it difficult for people to practice their faith. The only thing he’s even come close to doing, and not even by much honestly, is he’s made it&#160;more difficult for Christians like Huckabee to try to force their views on others. Which, by the way,&#160;is unconstitutional for them to do.</p>
<p>Then for Huckabee to suggest that the president is “pretending” to be a Christian is flat-out offensive. Sometimes I really do feel as if <a href="" type="internal">Huckabee thinks he’s God</a>.</p>
<p>This is a great example of the warped mind of many conservative “Christians.” They believe that any attempt to deny their right to unconstitutionally force their views on others is an “attack on Christianity.” What’s most ironic about these folks is that they’re usually the first ones bitching and whining whenever they feel someone else’s views are being forced on them.</p>
<p>The question I have is: What would Jesus do if he were coming to the White House?</p>
<p>Would he say, “No gays allowed” – or would he be inviting, inclusive and non-judgemental? Would he love them for the human beings that they are or judge them for who they love?</p>
<p>The truth of the matter is, if Republicans dislike this pope because they feel he’s too progressive, then it’s likely they wouldn’t have respected&#160;Jesus Christ during his time either. – <a href="" type="internal">perhaps one of the world’s first, and most famous, liberals</a>.</p>
<p>Watch the interview below <a href="https://www.newsmax.com" type="external">via Newsmax</a>:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fox News Host: Mike Huckabee Will Never Be President</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Mike Huckabee: Obama Is Stomping On Christians</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Mike Huckabee Says Conservatives Shouldn't Have to Accept 'Ungodly' Constitutional Laws</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Mike Huckabee: President Obama ‘Pretends To Be’ a Christian (Video) | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/mike-huckabee-president-obama-pretends-christian-video/ | 2015-09-24 | 4 |
<p>In a <a href="" type="internal">train wreck of an interview with CNN</a> Tuesday, Hillary Clinton made some colorful claims.</p>
<p>CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Hillary what lead her to delete 33,000 emails. Avoiding the question, Mrs. Clinton rambled on about how technology is hard and was finally redirected by the softball coach Keilar.</p>
<p>“But you said that they [former Secretaries of State] did the same thing. That they used a personal server, and while facing a subpoena, deleted emails from them,” interjected Keiler, engaging Hillary Death Stare Sequence Phase II.</p>
<p>“You know you’re starting with so many assumptions that are, I’ve never had a subpoena, there is no, again, let’s take a deep breath here,” said Mrs. Clinton, obviously rattled and speaking to herself.</p>
<p />
<p>No subpoena?</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Here’s the thing though… she was subpoenaed.</p>
<p />
<p>Oh, and here’s a <a href="http://benghazi.house.gov/sites/republicans.benghazi.house.gov/files/Kendall.Clinton%20Subpoena%20-%202015.03.04.pdf" type="external">link to the subpoena</a>.</p>
<p>How embarrassing.</p>
<p>The Select Committee on Benghazi issued a <a href="http://benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-committee-on-benghazi-releases-clinton-subpoena" type="external">fact check</a> of their own:</p>
<p>The House Select Committee on Benghazi today released its March 4, 2015, subpoena to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in response to her inaccurate claim she had not been subpoenaed. The committee subpoenaed Clinton directly after it became aware of her exclusive use of personal email and a server and that the State Department was not the custodian of Clinton’s official record. The State Department failed to reveal this essential information to the Benghazi Committee or any other investigation into the Benghazi terrorist attacks until days before a media outlet was going to publish the information, meaning no investigation prior to the Benghazi Committee’s had access to the Secretary of State’s communications as part of its review.</p>
<p>“The committee has issued several subpoenas, but I have not sought to make them public,” said committee Chairman Trey Gowdy. “I would not make this one public now, but after Secretary Clinton falsely claimed the committee did not subpoena her, I have no choice in order to correct the inaccuracy. The committee immediately subpoenaed Clinton personally after learning the full extent of her unusual email arrangement with herself, and would have done so earlier if the State Department or Clinton had been forthcoming that State did not maintain custody of her records and only Secretary Clinton herself had her records when Congress first requested them.”</p>
<p>“The fact remains, despite when this subpoena was issued, Secretary Clinton had a statutory duty to preserve records from her entire time in office, and she had a legal duty to cooperate with and tell the truth to congressional investigators requesting her records going back to September of 2012. Yet despite direct congressional inquiry, she refused to inform the public of her unusual email arrangement. This information only came to light because of a Select Committee request, not a voluntary decision to turn over records almost two years after leaving office, records which always should have been in State’s custody.”</p>
<p>“Moreover, the timing of the Secretary’s decision to delete and attempt to permanently destroy emails is curious at best. The Secretary left office in February of 2013. By her own admission she did not delete or destroy emails until the fall of 2014, well after this Committee had been actively engaged in securing her emails from the Department of State. For 20 months, it was not too burdensome or cumbersome for the Secretary to house records on her personal server but mysteriously in the fall of 2014 she decided to delete and attempt to permanently destroy those same records.”</p>
<p>Ouch.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine lying about lying will help Hillary’s trustworthiness problem, but maybe that’s just me. It’s almost like we’ve seen this before…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>But let the record show, Hillary was in fact subpoenaed.</p>
<p>Clinton Camp <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/benghazi-panel-chair-clinton-issued-subpoena-181233418--politics.html" type="external">responds</a>:</p>
<p>Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, said Wednesday that Clinton “was asked about her decision not to retain her personal emails after providing all those that were work-related, and the suggestion was made that a subpoena was pending at that time. That was not accurate.”</p>
<p>The Benghazi committee did not issue a subpoena until March, “months after she’d done that review,” Merrill said.</p>
<p>Follow Kemberlee Kaye on <a href="twitter.com/KemberleeKaye" type="external">Twitter</a></p> | Hillary’s CNN interview gets the Trey Gowdy fact check treatment | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/07/hillarys-cnn-interview-gets-the-trey-gowdy-fact-check-treatment/ | 2015-07-08 | 0 |
<p>NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — The federal government is trying to keep the disgraced fishing magnate known as the Codfather out of the seafood business.</p>
<p>Carlos Rafael was sentenced last year to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to evading fishing quotas and smuggling money to Portugal.</p>
<p>Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they filed a charging document against Rafael, two of his scallop boat captains and 28 businesses related to Rafael on Wednesday.</p>
<p>A NOAA spokeswoman says the case seeks to deny any future applications by Rafael for any permit issued by the agency.</p>
<p>It also seeks nearly $1 million in civil penalties. The agency also hopes to revoke a seafood dealer permit issued to Carlos Seafood in New Bedford and 38 commercial fishing permits.</p>
<p>NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — The federal government is trying to keep the disgraced fishing magnate known as the Codfather out of the seafood business.</p>
<p>Carlos Rafael was sentenced last year to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to evading fishing quotas and smuggling money to Portugal.</p>
<p>Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say they filed a charging document against Rafael, two of his scallop boat captains and 28 businesses related to Rafael on Wednesday.</p>
<p>A NOAA spokeswoman says the case seeks to deny any future applications by Rafael for any permit issued by the agency.</p>
<p>It also seeks nearly $1 million in civil penalties. The agency also hopes to revoke a seafood dealer permit issued to Carlos Seafood in New Bedford and 38 commercial fishing permits.</p> | Feds look to keep Codfather out of business, issue fines | false | https://apnews.com/1ca3f474f9f54330b8bfe93ccd11d603 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>Hey! Guess what? George Zimmerman said a bunch of terrible things! I know, I know. It’s shocking. Who would have expected that from a man who killed a teenage boy and also is quite well known for <a href="" type="internal">having abused</a> the women in his life?</p>
<p>Although Zimmerman has declined interviews all over the place, he did agree to <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/george-zimmerman-killing-trayvon-was-gods-plan-and-wishing-he-lived-is-almost-blasphemous/" type="external">an exclusive one</a> with esteemed journalist, George Zimmerman’s Divorce Lawyer. Why? Because now he feels he can finally speak his feelings without the President putting a hit out on him, or something.</p>
<p>In the original video I thought I thought we were very constrained in what I could and couldn’t say because of the Department of Justice investigation that was held above my head. I feel that now is the perfect time to speak my mind without fear of retaliation by the president, the attorney general, the federal government etc.</p>
<p>If you happen to be a masochist, <a href="http://www.18884mydivorce.com/georgezimmerman2015/" type="external">you can watch that here</a>. In the meantime, let us discuss some of the highlights, shall we?</p>
<p>First of all, he is really mad at Obama for inventing racism and racial tensions for the purpose of making George Zimmerman look bad!</p>
<p>Q.</p>
<p>George you mentioned unfairness and if you had to point to a government agency or official, who do you think the highest level of fairness to your personal situation?</p>
<p>A.</p>
<p>By far, the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. He had the most authority and in that sense I would hold him in the highest regard believing that he would hold that position and do his absolute hardest to not inflame racial tensions in America.</p>
<p>Unfortunately after even after Jay Carney, his press secretary stated in the White House briefing that the White House will not interject in a local law enforcement matter and at most a state criminal matter, President Obama held his Rose Garden speech stating if I had a son he would look like Trayvon. To me that was clearly a dereliction of duty pitting Americans against each other solely based on race. He took what should have been a clear-cut self-defense matter and still to this day on the anniversary of incident he held a ceremony at the White House inviting the Martin-Fulton family and stating that they should take the day to reflect upon the fact that all children’s lives matter. Unfortunately for the president I’m also my parent’s child and my life matters as well. And for him to make incendiary comments as he did and direct the Department of Justice to pursue a baseless prosecution he by far overstretched, overreached, even broke the law in certain aspects to where you have an innocent American being prosecuted by the federal government which should never happen.</p>
<p>AW. It is so weird that anyone would want to comfort the grieving family of a child who died rather than the woman-beating sociopath who shot him. Totally weird. Also totally weird how Barack Obama is singlehandedly responsible for people thinking it was a poor idea for George Zimmerman to shoot a kid for committing the crime of walking in his neighborhood. You know, because before he said anything, everyone thought George Zimmerman was a great guy who was not at all entirely full of shit!</p>
<p>But that’s not even the most jarring part of this! The worst part, by far, is where he has the fucking gall to say that it would be “almost blasphemous” to wish that Trayvon Martin was not dead, because his death was part of “god’s plan.”</p>
<p>Q.</p>
<p>George how about the actual event itself. Do you wish you had turned different?</p>
<p>A.</p>
<p>I answered that question in my initial interview with Sean Hannity. On different perspectives with me as a Christian I believe that God does everything for a purpose, and he had his plans and for me to second guess them would be hypocritical and almost blasphemous. However as an individual I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and the conclusion that many professionals and, have conveyed to me and I have come to adopt is that it only in a true life or death scenario can you have mental clearness to know that you cannot feel guilty for surviving. Had I had a fraction of the thought that I could have done something differently, acted differently so that both of us who survived then I would have heavier weight on my shoulders. That sense in the back of my mind but in all fairness you cannot as a human feel guilty for living, for surviving.</p>
<p>Wow! That is an actual horrible thing to say! So like, by this George Zimmerman logic here, we can all just go out and start murdering people, and that would pretty much be OK because if it happened then it’s god’s plan for us? That does not seem right. I am not religious, but that definitely does not seem right at all.</p>
<p>Despite the outcome of the trial, we all know he wasn’t in any kind “life or death” situation, which only makes his comments even more nauseating. But still–even if he really, really, truly thought he was in one–how do you not have an ounce of empathy? Like, how is it even possible to not feel anything? To not feel badly for taking another human’s life? To not feel badly for the hurt and pain their family is going through?</p>
<p>To me, the lack of feeling any guilt on his part doesn’t make him seem more innocent to me, it makes him seem like a sociopath. I can tell you–if I were to kill someone, even if it were a 100% life or death situation–I think I would lose my mind. I cannot imagine having to mentally reconcile the idea that I would then be, for the rest of my life, a person who killed someone.</p>
<p>I am not a religious person and I don’t believe in god–but it seems blasphemous as hell, to me, for George Zimmerman to be claiming that God was in charge of him killing Trayvon Martin. I mean, who does he think he is now? Moses? Abraham? He thinks god sent him to go take some kid’s life? That is completely absurd. What kind of god has a “plan” for George Zimmerman to kill a teenager?</p>
<p>I guess now that he’s gotten it all out, the only thing we can do is hope he retreats back to Florida and goes the hell away for good and doesn’t beat or murder anybody for at least a few months so we don’t have to look at his rotten face.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/george-zimmerman-killing-trayvon-was-gods-plan-and-wishing-he-lived-is-almost-blasphemous/" type="external">RawStory</a>]</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.18884mydivorce.com/georgezimmerman2015/" type="external">18884MyDivorce.com</a>]</p> | George Zimmerman Says It Was “God’s Plan” For Trayvon Martin To Die | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-03-23/george-zimmerman-says-it-was-gods-plan-for-trayvon-martin-to-die/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dgeorge-zimmerman | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>An annual Match.com dating survey found that people who regularly use emojis get it on more often. The survey polled 5,675 singles who don't use Match. Emoji users not only have more sex, they go on more dates and are more likely to want to get married. Women who use kiss-related emojis were also found to have an easier time reaching orgasm with familiar partners. In 2014, 54 percent of emoji users in the survey got laid - and as a participant's emoji use increased, so did the amount of action they got. The data applies to men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Study leader Dr. Helen Fisher told&#160; <a href="http://time.com/3694763/match-com-dating-survey-emoji-sex/" type="external">Time</a>, "[Emoji users] want to give their texts more personality. Here we have a new technology that absolutely jeopardizes your ability to express your emotion - there is no more subtle inflection of the voice - and so we have created another way to express emotions and that is the emoji." Next time you're into someone, whip out the <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0185/5092/products/persons-0090_large.png?v=1369543830" type="external">smiling pile of poo</a> and see if it gets you any closer to sexytime! [ <a href="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/236226/people-who-use-emoji-have-more-sex/" type="external">Death + Taxes</a>; <a href="http://time.com/3694763/match-com-dating-survey-emoji-sex/" type="external">Time</a>] [Image via <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-194893391/stock-photo-emoticons-printed-on-note-paper-attached-to-rope-with-clothes-pins-happy-sad-and-neutral.html?src=uITTdfafGYwcUTFN8Opqxg-1-9&amp;ws=1" type="external">Shutterstock</a>]</p> | Study: Emoji Users Have More Sex | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-02-06/study-emoji-users-have-more-sex/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Demojis | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That may not be true in the case of former President Bill Clinton’s enablers and apologists for his sexual misdeeds before and after winning the White House.</p>
<p>At a time when people in the media, Congress and the entertainment industry are being exposed for allegedly – and, in some cases, admittedly – sexually harassing and assaulting women, the failure of president Clinton’s cabinet and staff to confront him on his misbehavior is only now being dealt with in light of other incidents.</p>
<p>President Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, spoke to Obama adviser David Axelrod for his podcast program.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>About Clinton’s extramarital exploits, Sebelius said, “Not only did people look the other way, but they went after the women who came forward and accused him. And so it doubled down on not only bad behavior, but abusive behavior. And then people attacked the victims.”</p>
<p>Sebelius also criticized Hillary Clinton and White House staff members for smearing her husband’s accusers. She said the same pattern is being repeated today as various men are accused of sexual harassment and their accusers are being twice victimized.</p>
<p>Among others aiding Clinton, either by their silence or by issuing misleading statements, was his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. Albright appeared in the White House driveway before news cameras and vouched for Clinton’s veracity when he said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”</p>
<p>If Albright and other higher-ups knew or suspected that Bill Clinton was engaging in extramarital sex and Hillary was aiding in the cover-up, they should have resigned in protest, or confronted the president, or both.</p>
<p>While it’s true, as Sebelius noted, that less powerful women fear speaking up because they might lose their jobs, the higher and mightier ones would presumably not have such concerns. In fact, they might be regarded as heroes, or heroines, and rescuers of casualties from the sexual revolution.</p>
<p>There should be no double standard about any of this; whether the abuser is the president or a boss, if allegations of sexual misconduct can be proved, that person should be forced to face the consequences. Tolerating or denying this behavior only guarantees we get more of it.</p>
<p>Every female is someone’s daughter, wife, mother, girlfriend or sister. Would these abusers tolerate the harassment or rape of a close female relative or friend? Not unless they are sicker than the behavior they are alleged to have carried out.</p>
<p>In her interview with Axelrod, Sebelius drew a distinction between Clinton’s acts and those of accused groper Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and accused pedophile Roy Moore. In the case of Franken, she said, he admitted the bad behavior and immediately called for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Moore, Harvey Weinstein, President Trump and others have denied the accusations made against them.</p>
<p>Sebelius admitted the Senate Ethics Committee has a checkered history when it comes to investigating claims against members, but she thinks with so much public outcry, disgust and pressure, members won’t be able to sweep things under the rug. The question is whether Franken’s call for an investigation is an attempt to delay accountability for his actions.</p>
<p>One benefit from the Sebelius interview is that it should be the final word on the political lives of both Clintons. They should leave the stage to a new generation. Given their past and lust for money, however, I’m betting they won’t. It could be said their departure into retirement would be considered a case of better late than never.</p>
<p>Email: [email protected]. Copyright, Tribune Content Agency LLC.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Harassment scandals should push Clintons aside | false | https://abqjournal.com/1099099/harassment-scandals-should-push-clintons-aside-ex-their-retirement-could-be-considered-a-case-of-better-late-then-never.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Last Thursday, the 9th US&#160;Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down a seven-decade-old ban on political ads on noncommercial TV and radio stations. Not surprisingly, the prospect that Elmo and the Dowager Countess now might have to share the airwaves with attack ads prompted a mild freakout. &#160;</p>
<p>Former PBS&#160;board member and American Enterprise Institute resident scholar <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/12/us-fcc-advertising-ban-idUSBRE83B1D420120412" type="external">Norman Ornstein told Reuters</a> that the decision might “fundamentally change the character of public television and radio.” The court’s one dissenting judge similarly warned that the ruling could “jeopardize the future of public broadcasting.” Craig Aaron, president and chief executive of Free Press, <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/04/political-ads-nonprofit.html" type="external">told the Los Angeles Times</a>, “Viewers don’t want to see Sesame Street being brought to them by shadowy Super PACs.” But such concerns may be premature.</p>
<p>The court’s decision ( <a href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/04/12/09-17311.pdf" type="external">PDF</a>) was in response to a $10,000 Federal Communications Commission fine levied on the Minority Television Project, a San Francisco public TV&#160;operator that had aired nonpolitical ads from Chevrolet and State Farm. That move <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/ruling-clears-way-for-political-ads-on-public-stations/" type="external">violated an advertising ban</a> dating back to the beginnings of noncommercial broadcasting in the 1940s. While the court upheld the ban on ads for “goods and services by for-profit entities,” its two-judge majority found that banning ads that are political or “regarding issues of public importance or interest” violated the First Amendment. (The fine against Minority Television Project still stands.)</p>
<p>The decision, which only affects the 9th Circuit’s nine-state jurisdiction, prevents the government from prohibiting PBS&#160;or other noncommercial stations from broadcasting political ads, but it does not force the stations to do it. Noncommercial stations remain exempt from the “reasonable access” rules spelled out by the <a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/policy/political/candrule.htm" type="external">Communications Act of 1934</a>, which threaten to revoke commercial stations’ licenses if they reject ads from candidates for federal office. (Antiaborton foe and presidential candidate Randall Terry has been testing these access rules <a href="" type="internal">with his gory campaign ads</a>.) Yet in the case of public TV stations, the decision whether to air a candidate’s ad appears to be up to them. Any PBS&#160;station that did air a campaign ad could be opening up the floodgates for more ads, since competing candidates could then request equal ad time at the same price as their opponent.&#160;</p>
<p>What about the specter of third-party attack ads running during Sesame Street? According to an FCC spokeswoman, the court’s ruling does not open the door for ads from super-PACs, which the commission views as commercial advertisers. That interpretation, however, appears to run counter to Judge Carlos Bea’s majority opinion, which did not distinguish between ads from candidates or advocacy groups. So that may remain a matter for the courts.</p>
<p>If an appeal is rejected, the FCC&#160;could turn to the Supreme Court. If it doesn’t, or if no appeal is filed, the 9th Circuit will soon issue a mandate enforcing the decision—at which point public TV stations in Western states and Alaska could begin airing dueling campaign ads—assuming there are candidates who think that spots during Antiques Roadshow are the best bang for their advertising bucks. Asked if his station would consider running political ads, a spokesman for KQED, a major northern California NPR&#160;and PBS&#160;affiliate, said he couldn’t comment on the ruling “because we’re expecting that to go through the legal process.”</p>
<p>Either way, PBS viewers are already used to seeing ads on their ostensibly commercial-free stations. As Judge John Noonan noted in his concurring opinion, “As a viewer of Jim Lehrer NewsHour and its successor, I have seen announcements that to my mind are ads. For example, I have viewed Charles Schwab’s message, ‘Talk to Chuck’—it is not about Chuck’s golf game.”</p>
<p /> | Are Campaign Ads Coming to PBS? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/political-ads-pbs-sesame-street/ | 2012-04-17 | 4 |
<p>Former CFO sides with activist investor Peltz against his old colleagues</p>
<p>This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 5, 2017).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>CINCINNATI -- Clayton Daley gave 35 years of his professional life to Procter &amp; Gamble Co., rising to finance chief and then grooming his successor, Jon Moeller.</p>
<p>Now, the mentor and his former protégé are on opposing sides of a boardroom fight over how best to reinvigorate P&amp;G, a consumer-products giant that at one time boasted brands in nearly every aisle of the supermarket.</p>
<p>In a challenge of P&amp;G leadership, Mr. Daley was hired this summer to help win a board seat for activist investor Nelson Peltz, who believes the maker of Tide and Pampers isn't moving fast enough to revive sales and profits. The company said Mr. Peltz would disrupt its progress and has cast Mr. Daley, who retired at the end of 2008, as too long out of touch to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>P&amp;G, which has a market value of about $235 billion, is the largest company to ever face such a proxy fight.</p>
<p>The battle has upended longstanding relations between Mr. Moeller, chief financial officer, and Mr. Daley, who last spoke with his former colleague over lunch this summer at the private Queen City Club.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Mr. Moeller said Mr. Daley told him he was considering "becoming an enemy of the company." Mr. Daley denied that in an interview: "I told him, 'I don't want to become an enemy of the company,'" he said.</p>
<p>Whatever was communicated, Mr. Daley was hired as an adviser by Mr. Peltz's Trian Fund Management LP to aid in the activist's quest. Both sides are courting investors who are set to decide at the company's Oct. 10 shareholder meeting. Trian's blueprint to revamp P&amp;G is due out this week and, among its points, will be criticism of the company's connection with millennials, said people familiar with the plan.</p>
<p>"The only word I can use that is appropriate is, 'disappointing.' There are many other things I could say, but that's the word I'll use," P&amp;G Chief Executive David Taylor said of Mr. Daley's new allegiance. "To be working against the company, the board, the folks who supported him while he was here."</p>
<p>There was a time when the idea of a longtime company insider siding with an activist investor was shocking. But activists have come to tap industry experts to help create and legitimize plans they use to win over shareholders.</p>
<p>This year, Jana Partners LLC hired experts to push Whole Foods Market Inc. to sell itself and to shake up the board at Tiffany &amp; Co. Elliott Management Corp. tapped a former Arconic Inc. executive for its board fight at the automotive and aerospace-parts maker.</p>
<p>Mr. Daley said his intentions were noble: "I dedicated 35 years of my life to this company and still feel a lot of attachment." P&amp;G has become too insular, bureaucratic and accepting of mediocrity, he said, and Mr. Peltz can help spur change. "As a retired executive, it's been very frustrating for the last eight years to see what's going on there," he said. "I want to help."</p>
<p>Mr. Moeller, 53 years old, said P&amp;G and the consumer-products world have changed too rapidly for even well-informed outsiders to fully understand. He said he agreed with Trian's assessment of P&amp;G's past problems, but he believes neither Mr. Daley nor Trian can chart a better course.</p>
<p>"The world has changed completely, the way business is done has changed completely and the company has changed completely," said Mr. Moeller, who has worked with three P&amp;G CEOs as finance chief. "You don't stay on top of those things by reading reports or even sitting on boards."</p>
<p>After Mr. Daley's retirement at the end of 2008, he and Mr. Moeller used to meet socially a few times a year. That ended in 2012, when Mr. Daley told his protégé that he had spoken with investor William Ackman, who was challenging P&amp;G's leadership at the time.</p>
<p>Mr. Daley said he declined to join Mr. Ackman's campaign. "I tried very hard to exit and stay out of the way and give Jon Moeller his space," said the 65-year-old resident of Longboat Key, Fla.</p>
<p>The two men continue to speak highly of one another. "Of all of P&amp;G's many problems, Jon Moeller is not one of them," Mr. Daley said. And Mr. Moeller compliments Mr. Daley's prowess during his tenure as CFO. Yet as the former colleagues campaign in public and during one-one-one meetings with investors and institutional shareholders, one thing is clear: This is war.</p>
<p>Head to head</p>
<p>The proxy fight has divided P&amp;G's employees and its sprawling alumni network, according to current and former executives. Many are loyal to Mr. Taylor, who like Mr. Moeller is a low-key executive who spent decades climbing the corporate ladder. Others say they are frustrated with the poor performance of P&amp;G's share price and feel the company has lost its competitive edge.</p>
<p>"There are a lot of employees in this area whose retirement and well being depends on how P&amp;G does. You can't live here and not get drawn into it," said Jim Russell, a portfolio manager at Bahl &amp; Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati. The firm advises many hundreds of P&amp;G retirees, he said, both former executives and those from the rank-and-file.</p>
<p>P&amp;G's shares have underperformed the S&amp;P 500 and its competitors for the past 10 years. They have returned about 8.1% to investors over the past 12 months, including dividends, compared with a 16% return for the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>"I've been contacted by more former executives who have offered to help in this investment, by a multiple, than ever before," said Mr. Peltz, whose past targets included DuPont Co. and H.J. Heinz Co. "I chose Clayt to work with because he has the stature, credibility and knowledge to really shape P&amp;G."</p>
<p>Mr. Daley's hard-charging, often blunt, style contrasts with Mr. Moeller's more democratic approach, say people who know both men. They each rose through the finance ranks at P&amp;G, starting out in the accounting departments of P&amp;G factories and advancing to headquarters.</p>
<p>Mr. Moeller, whose wife also works at P&amp;G, started at the company in 1988. He worked in different finance positions under Mr. Daley until he reported directly to him.</p>
<p>Mr. Daley joined P&amp;G in 1974 and served as finance chief from 1998 until the end of 2008, a time of rising profits and double-digit sales growth. Mr. Daley was lauded by P&amp;G -- and rewarded with a $1.5 million bonus -- for leading the integration of the Gillette razor business following P&amp;G's $57 billion acquisition of the company in 2005. P&amp;G had called the deal one of its most successful.</p>
<p>Mr. Daley, in his last conference call with analysts before turning his job over to Mr. Moeller, described his successor as "an excellent business strategist."</p>
<p>Crisis management</p>
<p>Soon after Mr. Daley retired, the financial crisis and a slowdown in developing markets sapped P&amp;G's business. One of Mr. Moeller's first tasks as CFO was to lower the company's financial targets and explain why P&amp;G would miss projections.</p>
<p>As growth slowed, P&amp;G was forced to shrink. In 2012, it launched a $10 billion cost-cutting program that eliminated 24,000 jobs and 14 factories. It sold off dozens of brands, including Pringles snacks, Iams pet food and Duracell batteries. In 2015, P&amp;G agreed to sell 43 beauty brands, including some like Clairol and Wella that it had bought a decade earlier. Since Mr. Taylor took over as chief executive in November 2015, he has promised to cut another $10 billion in annual expenses by 2021.</p>
<p>Trian has questioned what the cost cuts have yielded for investors.</p>
<p>The Gillette business, which accounts for 10% of sales but 16% of P&amp;G's profits, has become a drag. Sales in the business have declined in recent years, and such online upstarts as Dollar Shave Club and Harry's have chipped away at its U.S. market dominance. P&amp;G responded this year with broad price cuts in the U.S., breaking from Gillette's strategy of new features coupled with higher prices.</p>
<p>"There was an underestimation of the consumer interest in that type of a proposition," Charles Pierce, who took over P&amp;G's grooming business in 2015, said in an interview. "Once we saw what was going on there we made some big, big interventions."</p>
<p>Mr. Daley said he doesn't need to be an insider to understand how P&amp;G has stalled. He has studied the company's financial reports, he said, listened in on analyst calls and stayed in touch with current executives.</p>
<p>The company's own goals are evidence of trouble, Mr. Daley said. In a recent filing, P&amp;G outlined three-year targets -- 2.8% organic sales growth, 4.7% operating profit growth and a 6% increase in per-share earnings -- that he said were well below what the company should be delivering.</p>
<p>"Those goals mean the management and the board of directors have accepted mediocrity," Mr. Daley said. He also argued that P&amp;G shouldn't have sold the beauty brands -- evidence, he said, that the company wasn't capable of managing smaller, trendy brands.</p>
<p>P&amp;G said its goals reflected a realistic, long-term approach to growth, and that Trian was pushing short-term share gains at the expense of long-term progress. It noted the company total shareholder return has outpaced the S&amp;P 500 and its peers since Mr. Taylor became chief executive. A yearslong effort to pare P&amp;G's bureaucracy has taken hold, executives said.</p>
<p>"We're at the point where the nose is lifting and we're going up," Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard said. "A big derailment is the last thing we need."</p>
<p>The two sides have particularly clashed over the structure of P&amp;G's management, which Trian said remained slow and bureaucratic.</p>
<p>The campaigns for shareholder votes have been costly. P&amp;G, which has hired investment banks, is spending at least $35 million. Trian, which owns roughly $3.3 billion of P&amp;G stock, is spending about $25 million.</p>
<p>Mr. Taylor held a town hall meeting to rally P&amp;G staff on Aug. 3. "You delivered what we committed without an asterisk," he said to the applause of hundreds of employees.</p>
<p>Last week, Trian released a video of Mr. Daley saying it was "simply time to do something different."</p>
<p>The public fight follows months of private negotiations between Mr. Peltz and P&amp;G's board, which is stocked with business leaders including the chief executives of American Express Co. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.</p>
<p>Mr. Peltz, age 75, said he needed to perform work that could be done only from inside the P&amp;G boardroom. Mr. Taylor and other directors have refused to give their support, saying Mr. Peltz wasn't proposing new ideas and that his style of activism would disrupt the progress already being made. Mr. Peltz said he planned to support Mr. Taylor if he wins a seat.</p>
<p>"You look at what he says and it sounds all wonderful: 'I love the company, I want to see it do better,' " said Mr. Taylor, P&amp;G's chief executive. "But if you just want to help, wouldn't you come in with your plan and lay it out?"</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 05, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)</p> | P&G Proxy Fight Pits Mentor vs. Protégé -- WSJ -2- | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/05/p-g-proxy-fight-pits-mentor-vs-prot-g-wsj-2.html | 2017-09-05 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A: We appreciate family remedies that have been passed down for generations. Many cultures value garlic and onions for their healing properties.</p>
<p>Readers tell us that onion syrup has been used against coughs for decades. The onion was sliced thinly and cooked slowly with some sweetening and a little liquid. Here is one reader’s story: “My mother prepared onion syrup when I was a child in the 1940s and ’50s, but she used honey instead of sugar.</p>
<p>“On my first trip to India in 1986, I accompanied a local doctor to villages where she was teaching assistants to distinguish between minor ailments that could be treated with local remedies and major problems that needed professional care in the nearest large village. One of the remedies used for minor coughs was an onion syrup sweetened with natural sugar processed from the local sugarcane fields.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>We like the idea that an onion relative, garlic, also would be helpful against colds. This aromatic bulb has been used against colds, flu, fever and a host of other complaints.</p>
<p>Q: I was one heck of a skeptic when I heard about putting soap in the bed to calm restless leg syndrome. In fact, I laughed at the person who told me about it. However, I have suffered with RLS for several years, so I decided to give it a try.</p>
<p>Well, I had to eat a little humble pie. Not only does soap work, it works in a matter of 30 seconds to a minute. I’m sure it will not work for everyone, every time. But it sure has helped me and a dozen people I’ve told about it. We may not know exactly how it works, and there may be folks who think it is bogus. Well, they are just plain wrong.</p>
<p>I put my bar of soap in a pillowcase and rest my leg or legs on the pillow under the cover. This works to ease the restlessness every time.</p>
<p>A: Thank you for your story. We have heard from many other people who find soap helpful for restless leg syndrome, but, as you recognize, not all benefit. There are prescription drugs used to treat those with serious RLS, but the medications have some daunting side effects, such as falling asleep during the day while driving or eating. Dizziness, fainting, sleepiness, fatigue, gambling and other compulsive behaviors, indigestion, nausea, pain, swollen legs, dry mouth and hallucinations are other potential reactions.</p>
<p>We offer some approaches to managing restless legs with supplements or measures other than drugs. Again, not every treatment will be effective in each case.</p>
<p>Q: I am 44 years old and took simvastatin for five years. I was very active and full of energy before taking simvastatin. Gradually, I lost strength in my body, especially in my left leg. I could hardly raise it to get out of a car or chair. I also began to have memory problems, muscle cramps, muscle twitching and fatigue.</p>
<p>I went to the emergency room when I got so weak I could hardly walk. There was fear I might have multiple sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease, but the tests came back normal.</p>
<p>I was told to stay off simvastatin for four to six weeks. I have noticed huge changes in only two weeks. The fatigue has gone, I can walk again, my memory and concentration are improved, my strength has returned, and my left leg is feeling better!</p>
<p>The neurologist does not think simvastatin could have caused these side effects, but I am convinced it did. Are there alternative ways to lower cholesterol?</p>
<p>A: The muscle pain and weakness you experienced have been reported by hundreds of visitors to our website (www.PeoplesPharmacy.com). We also have heard from many people that statins can cause muscle twitching, fatigue, memory problems and symptoms similar to Lou Gehrig’s disease.</p>
<p>There are other ways to control cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Ask your doctor about drugs such as cholestyramine, niacin and aspirin. One reader shared this experience: “I have taken a number of different statins through the years and always had muscle pain. My doctor recently had me try cholestyramine. It seems to be working fine with no muscle pain. I am surprised it isn’t better-known.”</p>
<p>Write to Joe and Teresa Graedon via their website: <a href="http://www.PeoplesPharmacy.com" type="external">PeoplesPharmacy.com</a>. Their newest book is “Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.”</p>
<p /> | Simvastatin side effects reported | false | https://abqjournal.com/325131/simvastatin-side-effects-reported.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The Wisconsin Republican has become the salesman in chief for the plan to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, putting a heavy focus on conservative-leaning outlets to try to quell the brewing rebellion on the right flank. On Wednesday morning, he made the pitch on Fox Business News, his fourth appearance on the constellation of networks owned by Rupert Murdoch in the past week. Then he called in to Laura Ingraham’s radio show and told one of his biggest critics that the plan would be a major conservative victory over the existing law.</p>
<p>“We’re replacing it with Republican tax policy that’s been long-standing stuff that the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, have been talking for years. It’s the Tom Price bill that most conservatives co-sponsored here just last year,” Ryan told Ingraham, who has built her career opposing most of what Republican leaders in Congress support.</p>
<p>Price, a former House Budget Committee chairman, also has been selling the legislation in his new capacity as secretary of health and human services, along with Vice President Mike Pence and, occasionally on Twitter, President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But Ryan has been the public face of the sales pitch.</p>
<p>This appears to be a risky bet for the speaker’s political standing because of the mounting concerns on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum of House and Senate Republicans. Far-right conservatives have returned to their Obama-era roots of opposing whatever comes out of the speaker’s office, while moderates from states that expanded Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) complain that the initial legislation would take away insurance coverage from millions of people.</p>
<p>That problem is more pronounced in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has less margin for error. That has led some rank-and-file Republicans to complain that Ryan is poised to make the same mistake that Democrats made in 1993 and 2009 on energy policy.</p>
<p>Both of those years, at the start of new administrations, House Democrats pushed through liberal legislation that would not receive even a perfunctory vote in the Senate, stranding dozens of House Democrats without any political cover for having voted for a controversial bill that never became law.</p>
<p>Some Senate Republicans are telling their House counterparts that’s where they are headed – and they are warning them to do nothing instead.</p>
<p>“If you don’t believe it’s better than Obamacare over the long haul, if you think you’re going to own it for the rest of your life, President Trump, it will be called Trumpcare, don’t buy it,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Graham argued for just letting the existing ACA markets collapse, hoping that would provide the political momentum for more far-reaching legislation that even some Democrats would support given the urgency. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has called for the House to slow its pace to try to pass the legislation late next week, saying it’s doomed in the Senate and instead suggesting that the proper course is a much more deliberative approach over many more months.</p>
<p>However, there’s a large silent majority of House Republicans who have made the opposite political calculation. Because so many Republicans represent deeply conservative districts, their biggest fear is an opponent in the primary and not a Democrat in the general election.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This big contingent of House Republicans take their leadership at its word that this is the best chance to truly repeal what they call Obamacare, House GOP advisers said. They want to vote for anything that does just that and want to support legislation that the Trump administration is backing, even if it dies in the Senate, because that’s easier to explain to angry conservative voters back home who want to know why they didn’t support Trump’s push to repeal the ACA.</p>
<p>Senior advisers in both chambers remain optimistic that the House can still get its version of the legislation over to the Senate – and from there, the Senate might have to amend the Medicaid provisions and set up a House-Senate conference to fight over the differences in the two bills for several more weeks.</p>
<p>In the House, Ryan’s leadership team sees the two pockets of resistance. First, there’s the block of moderates and mainstream conservatives from states that accepted Medicaid expansion to cover some of the uninsured. While they do not seek as much media attention, these wavering moderates far outnumber the conservatives who are currently opposed.</p>
<p>In New York alone, nine Republicans are concerned that the legislation would not do enough to help their constituents who would lose Medicaid coverage and would prefer more generous tax credits to help them buy new insurance plans.</p>
<p>But conservatives are wary of the tax credits and any expansion of them risks widening the pool of opponents on the right.</p>
<p>That’s why some Ryan insiders are saying that, despite all the talk about modifying the legislation, this bill has been carefully crafted with those two pockets of opposition in mind. Some minor tweaks can be made when the House Rules Committee considers the legislation later this month, but in general Ryan’s team thinks that any big shift to the right on tax credits or Medicaid would lose too many votes from the center.</p>
<p>Despite the bigger concern about members from those states with Medicaid concerns, Ryan’s public posture has been about demonstrating his conservative bona fides in supporting the bill.</p>
<p>A Wednesday afternoon appearance CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” will mark Ryan’s 10th one-on-one interview with a national TV or radio personality in a week. Of those interviews, eight have been with conservative-friendly outlets.</p>
<p>“As a governing party, we have an obligation to keep our promises, to pass the reforms that we told people we would pass if we got this opportunity,” Ryan said Monday evening on Fox News Channel’s “First 100 Days With Martha MacCallum.”</p> | Can Paul Ryan pull this off, or is he headed for a brutal defeat? | false | https://abqjournal.com/969799/can-paul-ryan-pull-this-off-or-is-he-headed-for-a-brutal-defeat.html | 2 |
|
<p><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APersonal_Health_Apps_for_Smartphones.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia</a></p>
<p>Tech giants Samsung and Google have censored popular gay social networking apps in South Korea, where, as BuzzFeed explains, “LGBT activists are facing increasing attempts by government and conservative activists to silence them.” And that’s not the only country where this has happened.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed News reports:</p>
<p>Samsung, one of South Korea’s largest business conglomerates and the largest maker of smartphones worldwide, rejected an application from the gay hookup app Hornet to be listed in its app store in 2013.</p>
<p />
<p>In a memo sent from Samsung to Hornet’s CEO and shared with BuzzFeed News, Samsung said the app could not be listed because, “due to the local moral values or laws, content containing LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi sexual, Transgender) is not allowed” in places like the Middle East, parts of east and south Asia, and LGBT-friendly places like the U.S. and the Nordic countries.</p>
<p>Samsung spokesperson Kelly Yeo confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the company does limit LGBT content on a country-by-country basis, but said it now does so based on “local laws and customs” instead of “local moral values or laws” and that Samsung is “continuing to update our policies.”</p>
<p>Hornet CEO Sean Howell was able to get the program listed in Samsung’s app store in the U.S. and many other countries after a four-year process, though it is still blocked in a seemingly random set of countries, including Argentina — where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2010 — Iceland, Syria, and South Korea.</p>
<p>Google Play removed the most popular gay dating app in South Korea, Jack’d, a few years ago, according to LGBT activists in Seoul. Google deleted the app apparently without notifying its developer. Jack’d’s lead account manager for Asia, Noah Staum, seemed surprised when asked about the delisting by BuzzFeed News, saying that Jack’d has more than 500,000 users in the country. They presumably are getting it by using a VPN that makes it appear as if their phone is in another country; instructions for doing this in Korean are easily found online.</p>
<p>Read the full article <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/korea#.ytAjGqABV" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>–Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Roisin Davis</a></p> | Samsung and Google Are Banning LGBT Content in International App Stores | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/samsung-and-google-are-banning-lgbt-content-in-international-app-stores/ | 2015-07-10 | 4 |
<p>Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium, 1983&lt;a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/29572161@N00"&gt;Yves Lorson&lt;/a&gt;/&lt;A href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cale_1983.jpg"&gt;Wikipedia Commons&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p>John Cale is a jack-of-all-trades, a polymorphic beast who has always played to his own proverbial drum. I am a Cale fan but up until last Sunday, I hadn’t heard his 2012 album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, nor (full disclosure) anything he’d put out in the past eight or so years. So when I walked into the big half-empty Regency Ballroom in San Francisco&#160;five minutes before his set, I had no idea what to expect. While quite sparse, the audience was what you might expect at a Cale show: every subculture represented, from the pink-haired hippie swaying in the front row to the crusty punk slouched in the back. As Cale took the stage and I moved closer to Mrs. Pink Hair, I felt my brain being pulled in a million sonic directions at once.</p>
<p>On tour behind his first full-length since 2005’s blackAcetate, Cale launched with classic rock instrumentation (bass, drums, guitar, and keys) before proceeding through a set that touched on every influence imaginable. Shifty…, as Wire magazine noted recently, is a reminder that Cale is a “volatile rock demon at heart.” After witnessing his show I would describe that heart as a dark cave wherein the volatile demon is stuck in ventricles built of mashed together bits of myriad musical genres. Cale guided the audience through ’80s-style electronic stuff reminiscent of the Talking Heads, pop-punk head nodders, classical experiments, atonal cluster chords, dissonance, and droning (that was “Scotland Yard,” a track off the new album).</p>
<p>As the album title suggests, it, too, embodies a mischievous attitude—Cale’s songs churn and contort unexpectedly and his lyrics are often goofy. The Auto-Tuned vocals on “December Rains,” wherein Cale sings about “Google getting on your nerves,” distort his voice to evoke dark paranoia, while songs like “Nookie Wood” are more playful and lighthearted. Shifty… merges his pop and art-rock phases and throws in some ’80s dance-funk and psychedelic moments to boot.</p>
<p>During his nearly two-hour set, the prolific 70-year-old didn’t speak a word to the audience, Bbt his voice still carries a profound weight, he still knows how to write a song, and (pop sensibilities aside) he still manages to catch you off guard and make you think “Hey, this is weird and new.” On his catchier tunes Cale might do a wacky little gesture or dance, but two minutes later the mood would be dark and “draconian”—a word Cale once used to describe his upbringing in industrial Wales.</p>
<p>The most notable revelation about Cale’s recent direction is simply that the man who studied with Aaron Copland and John Cage, collaborated with La Monte Young and Terry Riley, cofounded the Velvet Underground, and <a href="" type="internal">produced artists</a> ranging from Patti Smith to the Modern Lovers is still experimenting with his bizarre transitions—the type that leave you in a haze after one of his concerts, as though you’ve just found yourself standing on the center divider in a road in the middle of nowhere, without shoes, wondering what the hell just happened.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Click <a href="" type="internal">here</a> for more music coverage from Mother Jones.</p> | A Live Demonstration of John Cale’s Demonic Heart | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/live-john-cale-shifty-adventures/ | 2012-12-17 | 4 |
<p>Feminist nationwide have…</p>
<p />
<p>…not gathered in the masses to protest against Harvey Weinstein and his attacks against female celebrities.</p>
<p>One would think this is the perfect opportunity for ‘the sisterhood’ to band together and condemn male misogyny, sexism, agism and whatever other -ism Weinstein has violated. But alas, this is what the women’s march looks like; a ghost town.</p> | Watch: Here is What the Women’s March Against Harvey Weinstein Looks Like | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/watch-womens-march-harvey-weinstein-looks-like/ | 0 |
|
<p>George W. Bush, the president who lied America into a war that will end up costing trillions of dollars, scolded the Democratic-controlled Congress in his final State of the Union address on Monday for undermining "the people's trust in their government" with too many pet projects. Now that's chutzpah, coming from a man who never met a spending bill he didn't like unless it had to do with stem cells and sick children.</p>
<p>Bush devoted most of his speech to trying to quell fears about the economy, but made time to sing the praises of his Iraq troop "surge," which conservatives, aided by a pliable media, are still trying to sell as a success.</p>
<p>And in a possible reference to his father's most famous slogan, the president threatened to veto any new taxes.</p>
<p>Speaking of taxes, if you thought Bush would let a State of the Union address go by without a plug for his tax cuts, well, he didn't.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>While the president went to bat for his military "surge" in Iraq, he devoted most of his speech to the economy, confronting Congress on two fronts, taxes and spending.</p>
<p>With his 2001 tax cuts set to expire, Bush reiterated his call that Congress make them permanent. And he declared that he would not allow any new taxes to become law.</p>
<p>"Members of Congress should know: If any bill raising taxes reaches my desk, I will veto it," he promised.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22878539/" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Bush Goes Out With a Thud | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/bush-goes-out-with-a-thud/ | 2008-01-29 | 4 |
<p>Appearing on CNN Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) had the following exchange with Fredricka Whitfield regarding the Democrats' drive to find material with which they can impeach President Trump:</p>
<p>WHITFIELD: "Are Democrats seizing on a position of payback, so to speak, against this president, who tried to delegitimize President Obama with the whole 'Birther' movement, [and] denying a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland – and if so, what's the risk in doing that?"</p>
<p>WATERS: "Well, the fact of the matter is, without all of that – and, I mean, those were outrageous kinds of actions that he took. You know, talking about Obama was not born in this country, etc, etc. What he has done since he has been president is outrageous.</p>
<p>He has not provided legitimate leadership. And this last action – that he was involved with [Rep.] Nunes, and I do believe that he was involved – they concocted a scheme by which it would appear that somehow, his accusation about being wiretapped was real, and he tried to convert that into talk of possible surveillance where his people were picked up, you know, during surveillance, you know.</p>
<p>He has done so many things to show he doesn't understand government; he's not willing to learn. He doesn't learn from his mistakes. Instead of learning, he gets up the next morning, and tweets something else all over again. Most people believe that he is about diversion, that he's about keeping people from really dealing with the issue.</p>
<p>We wanna know whether or not there was collusion. We wanna know about the hacking into the DNC, and the interference with our elections. And I really wanna know because I know if we can prove collusion, that he is impeachable. Lotta people don't want to talk about that, but I do. I want to talk about him; I want to talk about this Kremlin clan that's around him... and I think that those people – Republicans, people in some of the small towns and rural communities that are standing with him now – they are not going to be able to stand with him when they understand the danger he is to our country..."</p>
<p />
<p>Parsing that verbal soup, one can see that Rep. Waters doesn't care about finding the broad truth, rather, she cares about finding dirt on President Trump.</p>
<p>Whitfield was barking up the right tree with her question. Can a party stuck on vengeance be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation? The answer is in the question. No, they cannot. With all the talk of Republican collusion and scheming, it's the Democrats who need to be closely observed.</p>
<p>Their drive is not truth, but incriminating evidence. As such, the Democrats are susceptible to the temptations of obstruction, evidence manipulation, and the propagation of false conclusions.</p>
<p>When it comes to the Democrats versus Trump, one must maintain a critical eye. Progressives will kick up as much dust as they need to in order to get what they want – impeachment. They are not seeking truth; they are seeking revenge.</p> | Rep. Maxine Waters Shows That Dems Aren't Seeking Truth, But Incriminating Evidence | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15065/rep-maxine-waters-shows-dems-arent-seeking-truth-frank-camp | 2017-04-03 | 0 |
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
<p />
<p>message</p>
<p>captcha</p>
<p />
<p>Until Occupy Wall Street can regroup in the spring, the movement has fragmented into smaller action cells such as the one that <a href="http://occupyourhomes.org/" type="external">reclaims foreclosed houses for families and defends others from eviction</a>, while some other protest cells have been occupying the elections in Iowa and New Hampshire.</p>
<p>In comparison to the roar of last fall's protests, Occupying The Elections has been comprised of quieter, but seemingly ubiquitous drips.</p>
<p>Occupy Des Moines made a week of protesting every presidential candidate, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57350023/occupy-protesters-arrested-at-paul-dems-hq/" type="external">including Ron Paul</a>, during which handfuls of activists were arrested at any given event. <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/12-arrested-at-occupy-the-caucus-protest/" type="external">Twelve</a> over there. Another <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/bachmann-rallies-staff-as-at-least-5-occupy-movement-protesters-arrested-her-headquarters/2011/12/31/gIQAhexlSP_story.html" type="external">18 over there</a>. Until, at the end of the Iowa caucuses, <a href="http://johnston-ia.patch.com/articles/iowa-protesters-offer-model-to-occupy-2012" type="external">upwards of 50</a> had been arrested.</p>
<p>“We’ve done our job,” said David Goodner, an Occupy Des Moines member and organizer. “We’ll keep at it and everything but it’s time to take this thing out to New Hampshire, and Nevada and South Carolina and the Super Tuesday states.”</p>
<p>The Occupiers chose to focus on all candidates because their grievances cannot be directed at a single individual or issue, but rather more broadly at a broken system, corrupted by corporate cash, which has marginalized the majority of Americans.</p>
<p>During the Mitt Romney protest in Iowa, protesters demanded Romney <a href="http://globegazette.com/news/iowa/occupy-protesters-arrested-in-des-moines/article_90c6cb28-31b4-11e1-9ebb-001871e3ce6c.html" type="external">return the $61,500 he received in campaign contributions from Wells Fargo</a> and that he release his tax returns.</p>
<p>While protesting Michele Bachmann, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/12/31/144528950/occupy-protesters-arrested-at-iowa-campaign-offices" type="external">a young occupier</a> said she wished the candidate would come out and hear her concerns about the cost of higher education, the war in Afghanistan, and the national debt.</p>
<p>When the elections moved to New Hampshire, so did the eye of Occupy, prompting a typically condescending <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/romney-christie-clash-with-occupy-protestors/" type="external">response</a> from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during an interrupted rally.</p>
<p>At a rally meant to be all about boosting support for Mitt Romney, protesters instead took center stage, evoking colorful responses from both Romney and his outspoken surrogate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who at one time referred to one of the protestors as “sweetheart.”</p>
<p>“Really?” said Christie, as soon as protestors interrupted him, the second outburst of the night from the group, who had already gone after Romney. “You know, something may go down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.”</p>
<p>Romney lost whatever patience he had for the occupiers when they interrupted him a second time.</p>
<p>[W]hen Romney was approached again by protestors in the overflow room after the event, his patience seemed to have been worn thin.</p>
<p>As protestors yelled about who was to blame for the failing economy, Romney spun around on his heels, going back to address the crowd.</p>
<p>“You know what?” Romney said. “This president has caused a deepening recession and is responsible for 25 million Americans being out of work or stopped working or not being able to get jobs, and let me tell you, this president’s been a failure and that’s one of the reasons I’m running is to help you get a job.”</p>
<p>Think Progress does a nice job of <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/08/400146/romney-returns-to-false-attack-obama-made-the-economy-worse/" type="external">fact-checking Romney's soundbites</a>.</p>
<p>More than <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/08/263588/the-conservative-recovery-continues-2/" type="external">half a million</a> of the jobs lost since Obama took office belonged to public sector workers and are the types of jobs Romney himself has <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/16/296220/with-government-job-losses-holding-back-recovery-romney-promises-to-slash-even-more/" type="external">promised to eliminate</a> should he become president. And as <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/private_sector_jobs_looking_mu034559.php" type="external">this chart</a> shows, the private sector job losses under Obama happened immediately after he took office, when the economy was still on the downswing following President Bush. Since then, the trend has been positive.</p>
<p>On Jan. 4, Romney came under intense questioning at a campaign event in New Hampshire from members of Occupy over his past remarks that "corporations are people."</p>
<p />
<p>Occupiers also disrupted a <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-gingrich-20120109,0,6920423.story" type="external">town hall</a> starring Newt Gringrich and were promptly kicked out of the event. The group gathered outside to bang drums and rattle the windows, shouting through a bullhorn, "Newt! Newt! Come outside with your hands up and your pants down! We have you surrounded!"&#160;</p>
<p>This is Gringrich's second run-in with Occupy. The first occurred on Dec. 21 at an Iowa Statehouse press conference.</p>
<p /> | Occupying The Elections | true | http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12500/occupying_the_elections/ | 2012-01-09 | 4 |
<p>Athletes praising Jesus on television are as ubiquitous as Geico commercials, so why was best actor Matthew McConaughey’s God-loving acceptance speech Sunday night so uncomfortable?</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s because we’re so frequently told that Hollywood is the domain of secular hedonists. To the extent that the entertainment industry is religious, it’s in the Scientology vein. To have McConaughey proclaim “first off I want to thank God, ’cause that’s who I look up to,” is somehow a bit jarring.</p>
<p>But what made the speech truly strange, as opposed to merely unexpected, was the actor’s praise not of the almighty, but of himself. Now, you have to be a bit self-involved to succeed in show business, but you don’t need to be so public about it. McConaughey told the billion or so viewers Sunday night that “my hero,” the person he most aspires to be, is his future self. It’s a mystical sort of narcissism that you kind of need to see to understand and/or believe.</p>
<p>But hey, at least we got a signature, “awright, awright, awright” out of the deal. And man does he look good for a 44-year-old.</p>
<p />
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer</a></p> | Why Is It Awkward When Movie Stars Talk About God? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-is-it-awkward-when-movie-stars-talk-about-god/ | 2014-03-04 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The Group of 20 will agree to phase out fossil fuel subsidies in the “medium term,” according to the most recent <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2548446420090925?pageNumber=2&amp;virtualBrandChannel=0" type="external">leaked draft</a> of their communique. Leaders will also agree to “intensify our efforts” to reach a deal in Copenhagen at the end of the year, but, <a href="" type="internal">as expected</a>, won’t offer any more specific commitments on climate.</p>
<p>The draft cites recent data from the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that finds that cutting these subsidies alone would likely reduce greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2050. It directs the energy and finance ministers of the G20 nations to develop timelines and strategies for phasing out those subsidies:</p>
<p>“Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, distort markets, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with climate change,” says the draft statement.</p>
<p>Leaders are also expected to direct their finance ministers to provide them with a survey of their options for <a href="" type="internal">financing climate change adaptation</a> and mitigation in the poorest countries, and to reaffirm their desire to reach a deal on climate this year. “We underscore anew our resolve to take strong action to address the threat of dangerous climate change,” said the draft.</p>
<p>Perhaps the biggest development was Obama’s announcement on Friday that G20 would henceforward replace the G8 as the main economic council of the world’s wealthiest nations. While G8 has been composed of northern-hemisphere, historical powers, the G20 includes nations like China, Brazil, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa—rising economies that will play an increasingly important role in global decision-making. It reflects the movement to a more multi-polar world, and the new grouping&#160; accounts for roughly 85 percent of global gross domestic product and, in turn, 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<p /> | G20 Expected to Move Forward on Cutting Fossil Fuel Subsidies | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/g20-expected-agree-move-forward-cutting-fossil-fuel-subsidies/ | 2009-09-25 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>BOULDER, Colo. - A man is accused of intentionally crashing his car into a traffic light pole in Boulder to try to kill his girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat.</p>
<p>Fifty-one-year-old George Pappas was seriously injured in the Oct. 12 crash. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted first degree murder Thursday after he was released from the hospital. He was being held in jail Friday and doesn't have an attorney listed in court records yet.</p>
<p>The girlfriend, who wasn't identified, was hurt but was able to walk away from the crash, which crumpled the blue Volvo sedan.</p>
<p>Police say witnesses heard both Pappas and the girlfriend say that Pappas was trying to kill her.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Man accused of trying to kill girlfriend in Boulder crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/668193/man-accused-of-trying-to-kill-girlfriend-in-boulder-crash.html | 2 |
|
<p>CBS’ Scott Pelley placed blame on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) for inciting James Hodgkinson’s attempted mass murder of Republican representatives.</p>
<p>Pelley made the comments <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-scott-pelley-attack-foreseeable-predictable-self-inflicted/" type="external">last Thursday</a>, during his final broadcast as anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News.</p>
<p>Last Wednesday, Scalise and several others was shot by Hodgkinson - a “progressive” left-wing supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) - at a practice for a charity baseball game in Alexandria, VA.</p>
<p>Scalise and other Republicans at the aforementioned baseball practice, said Pelley, had suffered “self-inflicted” harm via Hodgkinson’s attempt to murder them:</p>
<p>"It's time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress, yesterday, was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted.</p>
<p>Too many leaders, and political commentators, who set an example for us to follow, have led us into an abyss of violent rhetoric which, it should be no surprise, has led to violence.</p>
<p>Yesterday was not the first time.</p>
<p>In December last year, a man with an assault rifle stormed into a Washington-area pizzeria to free child sex slaves whom Hillary Clinton was holding there -- or at least that's what political blog sites had said. He fired into a locked door to discover no children in chains.</p>
<p>Sen. Bernie Sanders has called the president the "most dangerous in history." The shooter yesterday was a Sanders volunteer.</p>
<p>You might think that no sane person would act on political hate speech, and you'd be right. Trouble is, there are a lot of Americans who struggle with mental illness.</p>
<p>In February, the president tweeted that the news media were the "enemy of the American people":</p>
<p>The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017</p>
<p>Later, at a lunch for reporters, President Trump was asked whether he worried that language would incite violence. His pause indicated it had never crossed his mind. Then he said, "No, that doesn't worry me."</p>
<p>As children we're taught, "Words will never hurt me." But when you think about it, violence almost always begins with words. In "Twitter world," we've come to believe that our first thought is our best thought.</p>
<p>It's past time for all of us -- presidents, politicians, reporters, citizens, all of us -- to pause to think again."</p>
<p>During his tenure at CBS, Pelley presented himself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media figure. CBS presents itself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media outlet.</p>
<p>H/T Tom Blumer at <a href="http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tom-blumer/2017/06/18/scott-pelley-dc-attack-congressmen-was-some-degree-self-inflicted" type="external">Media Research Center</a>.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | WATCH: CBS Anchor Pelley Calls GOP Congressional Shooting ‘To Some Degree Self-Inflicted’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17685/watch-cbs-anchor-pelley-calls-gop-congressional-robert-kraychik | 2017-06-19 | 0 |
<p>(Reuters) – Punta del Este in Uruguay will replace Brazil’s postponed Sao Paulo race on this season’s Formula E calendar, the sport’s governing body said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Sao Paulo had been due to make its debut in the all-electric series on March 17 next year but was postponed to 2019 because the city’s authorities are in the process of selling off the planned venue.</p>
<p>Punta del Este hosted rounds of the series in the first two seasons.</p>
<p>The fourth season started in Hong Kong last weekend.</p>
<p />
<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> | Punta del Este replaces Sao Paulo Formula E race | false | https://newsline.com/punta-del-este-replaces-sao-paulo-formula-e-race/ | 2017-12-06 | 1 |
<p>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ These Texas lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>All or Nothing Day</p>
<p>01-03-04-05-06-09-10-11-13-19-22-24</p>
<p>(one, three, four, five, six, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-four)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Evening</p>
<p>02-03-04-08-09-10-11-12-14-15-19-23</p>
<p>(two, three, four, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Morning</p>
<p>01-02-03-06-08-10-13-14-16-19-21-24</p>
<p>(one, two, three, six, eight, ten, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-four)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Night</p>
<p>01-02-04-05-06-07-09-10-15-18-19-23</p>
<p>(one, two, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, fifteen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>02-05-20-21-35</p>
<p>(two, five, twenty, twenty-one, thirty-five)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Day</p>
<p>6-4-4-8, Sum It Up: 22</p>
<p>(six, four, four, eight; Sum It Up: twenty-two)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Evening</p>
<p>6-3-8-4, Sum It Up: 21</p>
<p>(six, three, eight, four; Sum It Up: twenty-one)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Morning</p>
<p>7-3-4-7, Sum It Up: 21</p>
<p>(seven, three, four, seven; Sum It Up: twenty-one)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Night</p>
<p>4-5-7-4, Sum It Up: 20</p>
<p>(four, five, seven, four; Sum It Up: twenty)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>4-5-0, Sum It Up: 9</p>
<p>(four, five, zero; Sum It Up: nine)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>9-6-2, Sum It Up: 17</p>
<p>(nine, six, two; Sum It Up: seventeen)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Morning</p>
<p>6-2-6, Sum It Up: 14</p>
<p>(six, two, six; Sum It Up: fourteen)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Night</p>
<p>3-0-2, Sum It Up: 5</p>
<p>(three, zero, two; Sum It Up: five)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $384 million</p>
<p>Triple Chance</p>
<p>03-05-07-14-33-36-39-46-47-54</p>
<p>(three, five, seven, fourteen, thirty-three, thirty-six, thirty-nine, forty-six, forty-seven, fifty-four)</p>
<p>Two Step</p>
<p>06-07-19-33, Bonus: 30</p>
<p>(six, seven, nineteen, thirty-three; Bonus: thirty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ These Texas lotteries were drawn Thursday:</p>
<p>All or Nothing Day</p>
<p>01-03-04-05-06-09-10-11-13-19-22-24</p>
<p>(one, three, four, five, six, nine, ten, eleven, thirteen, nineteen, twenty-two, twenty-four)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Evening</p>
<p>02-03-04-08-09-10-11-12-14-15-19-23</p>
<p>(two, three, four, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Morning</p>
<p>01-02-03-06-08-10-13-14-16-19-21-24</p>
<p>(one, two, three, six, eight, ten, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-four)</p>
<p>All or Nothing Night</p>
<p>01-02-04-05-06-07-09-10-15-18-19-23</p>
<p>(one, two, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, fifteen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>02-05-20-21-35</p>
<p>(two, five, twenty, twenty-one, thirty-five)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Day</p>
<p>6-4-4-8, Sum It Up: 22</p>
<p>(six, four, four, eight; Sum It Up: twenty-two)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Evening</p>
<p>6-3-8-4, Sum It Up: 21</p>
<p>(six, three, eight, four; Sum It Up: twenty-one)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Morning</p>
<p>7-3-4-7, Sum It Up: 21</p>
<p>(seven, three, four, seven; Sum It Up: twenty-one)</p>
<p>Daily 4 Night</p>
<p>4-5-7-4, Sum It Up: 20</p>
<p>(four, five, seven, four; Sum It Up: twenty)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $306 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>4-5-0, Sum It Up: 9</p>
<p>(four, five, zero; Sum It Up: nine)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>9-6-2, Sum It Up: 17</p>
<p>(nine, six, two; Sum It Up: seventeen)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Morning</p>
<p>6-2-6, Sum It Up: 14</p>
<p>(six, two, six; Sum It Up: fourteen)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Night</p>
<p>3-0-2, Sum It Up: 5</p>
<p>(three, zero, two; Sum It Up: five)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $384 million</p>
<p>Triple Chance</p>
<p>03-05-07-14-33-36-39-46-47-54</p>
<p>(three, five, seven, fourteen, thirty-three, thirty-six, thirty-nine, forty-six, forty-seven, fifty-four)</p>
<p>Two Step</p>
<p>06-07-19-33, Bonus: 30</p>
<p>(six, seven, nineteen, thirty-three; Bonus: thirty)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p> | TX Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/44d04a1de5004e08a428c4498e2cd494 | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An off-duty Albuquerque police officer helped arrest a suspect who had fled from police and caused a crash on Juan Tabo and Constitution NE early Monday.</p>
<p>Albuquerque police said David Yniguez, 26, of Farmington was pulled over in a black Ford truck near Lomas and Betts at about 1:25 a.m. He fled from officers and crashed into another vehicle at Constitution and Juan Tabo NE. He continued driving and crashed into a store, then ran from the scene, police said. The other driver did not suffer life-threatening injuries.</p>
<p>An off-duty sergeant spotted Yniguez at Coronado mall later Monday and recognized him from the early morning crash, police said Tuesday.</p>
<p>The sergeant directed on-duty officers to Yniguez’s location, and he was taken into custody after a brief struggle, according to an APD news release. Yniguez had at least 15 felony warrants from various counties and had heroin on him when he was arrested, police said.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Off-duty officer helps with arrest | false | https://abqjournal.com/417024/off-duty-officer-helps-with-arrest.html | 2 |
|
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>0-4-3</p>
<p>(zero, four, three)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>2-8-5</p>
<p>(two, eight, five)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-6-9-8</p>
<p>(one, six, nine, eight)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>8-9-9-3</p>
<p>(eight, nine, nine, three)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $418 million</p>
<p>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>05-11-22-25-34</p>
<p>(five, eleven, twenty-two, twenty-five, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $140,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>02-18-37-39-42, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(two, eighteen, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty-two; Powerball: twelve; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $460 million</p>
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>0-4-3</p>
<p>(zero, four, three)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>2-8-5</p>
<p>(two, eight, five)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>1-6-9-8</p>
<p>(one, six, nine, eight)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>8-9-9-3</p>
<p>(eight, nine, nine, three)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $418 million</p>
<p>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>05-11-22-25-34</p>
<p>(five, eleven, twenty-two, twenty-five, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $140,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>02-18-37-39-42, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(two, eighteen, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, forty-two; Powerball: twelve; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $460 million</p> | AR Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/ec3d696de68a43b5bd37c86dbf3a3ed0 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish inventor Peter Madsen tied up and abused Swedish journalist Kim Wall before murdering her on board his home-built submarine, according to the indictment published on Tuesday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Peter Madsen, Danish inventor, engineer, rocket- and u-boat builder, talks about entrepreneurship during Danish Business Day event held in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 9, 2017. Scanpix Denmark/Ida Marie Odgaard/via REUTERS
<p>Madsen planned the murder by bringing items, including a saw and screwdrivers, which were used to hit, cut and stab Wall while she was alive, the prosecutors said.</p>
<p>Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist who was researching a story on the entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, went missing after Madsen took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August last year.</p>
<p>Later that month, police identified a headless female torso washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall’s.</p>
<p>The cause of her death is yet to be determined, but the prosecutors said she died by strangulation or cutting of her throat.</p>
<p>Madsen has admitted dismembering Wall on board his submarine and dumping her body parts in the sea, but he denies murdering or sexually assaulting her.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, Madsen has also been charged with endangering others’ lives, mobility and health around the time of the murder by sailing in the routes of a cruise ship and a cargo ship, along with deliberately sinking his submarine.</p>
<p>On Oct. 5, a police prosecutor said officers found images “which we presume to be real” of women being strangled and decapitated on the hard drive on Madsen’s computer in a laboratory he ran.</p>
<p>Later that month, police also said investigators had found 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to the journalist’s genitals.</p>
<p>Madsen was last week charged with the murder and dismembering of Wall along with a charge of sexual assault without intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature.</p>
<p>Prosecutors would seek a life sentence for Madsen, which in Denmark is typically around 15 years without parole, and asked for him to be held in custody until his trial begins on March 8. They also called for him to be held in “safe custody”, which can imply indefinite imprisonment.</p>
<p>Reporting by Julie Astrid Thomsen; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Janet Lawrence</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>YEKATERINBURG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - As Russia hurries to spruce up its venues for this year’s soccer World Cup, the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Saturday blew up its most famous landmark — a rusty, half-finished Soviet-era television tower.</p> The unfinished and abandoned TV tower collapses during a controlled demolition in Yekaterinburg, Russia March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alexei Kolchin
<p>Local authorities in 11 host cities including Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and Yekaterinburg are working hard on preparations for the June 14-July 15 tournament, but not all residents are happy with their beautifying efforts.</p>
<p>In Yekaterinburg, hundreds of people opposed to the television tower’s demolition by controlled explosion took part in a “Hug the Tower” rally earlier this week.</p>
<p>Ivan Volkov, a 39-year-old lawyer and head of a committee opposing the tower’s destruction, said the 220-metre (720 feet) high concrete structure had been a symbol of the city’s identity.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>“Now it’s the symbol of the people’s humiliation at the hands of the authorities because the decision was made behind-the-scenes. It shouldn’t be done this way”, Volkov, told Reuters.</p>
<p>The tower’s construction started in 1983 but it was never completed due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>Local governor Eugene Kuivashev defended the decision to demolish it.</p>
<p>“No one seriously believes that the city needs such a symbol,” he said in a radio interview.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Natalia Shurmina; Editing by Helen Popper</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow is uncomfortable about European states’ stance over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England, RIA news agency cited the Kremlin as saying on Saturday.</p> Police officers prepare equipment as inspectors from the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) begin work at the scene of the nerve agent attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury, Britain March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
<p>“It’s a big discomfort for us to have unpredictable and aggressive counterparts. But this is the reality we have to live with,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the agency.</p>
<p>He said Russia would not “lose momentum” in conveying its points about the case to European countries.</p>
<p>Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Dale Hudson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed in a confrontation with police in Rio de Janeiro’s Rocinha favela on Saturday and several others were injured, as an army takeover of Rio’s security services drags well into its second month.</p>
<p>The police said the incident began when a patrol was attacked, though family members of those killed disputed various aspects of that account, according to interviews given to local media. The police said that they had entered Rocinha to search for suspects in the killing of a police officer in the slum earlier in the week and that they recovered various weapons following the incident, including a pair of grenades.</p>
<p>In mid-February, Brazil’s federal government ordered the army to take command of security forces in Rio de Janeiro in a bid to curb violence driven by drug gangs.</p>
<p>The already violent city has seen an uptick in crime in recent years. Murders climbed 8 percent in 2017 from the year before and 26 percent over 2015. Shootouts are a daily occurrence in Rio’s poorer areas, and the violence has increasingly spilled into Rio’s more affluent neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Drug trafficking in Rocinha is controlled by the Red Command, Rio’s most powerful drug gang.</p>
<p>The army takeover has not been without controversy. Last week, Marielle Franco, a prominent Rio city councilwoman was murdered in what many suspect was a political assassination, after she heavily criticized police violence in Rio, which many say has been worsened by the army takeover.</p>
<p>Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Gram Slattery, Editing by Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HELSINKI/BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont faces arrest in Finland after authorities there received an international warrant for his detention issued by Spain, the latest legal action against separatist politicians from the wealthy northeastern region.</p>
<p>If he returns to Spain, Puigdemont faces up to 25 years in prison on charges of rebellion and sedition for his part in organizing an illegal referendum on secession last year.</p>
<p>When police reach Puigdemont, a normal extradition process will begin, though they currently have no knowledge of his whereabouts, Finnish authorities said in a statement on Saturday.</p>
<p>In an interview with Spanish radio station Catalunya Radio earlier, Puigdemont’s lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, had said his client was prepared to present himself to Finnish police.</p>
<p>Puigdemont went into self-imposed exile in Belgium last year, shortly after the Catalan parliament made a symbolic declaration of independence from Spain. He arrived in Finland on Thursday to meet lawmakers and attend a conference.</p> FILE PHOTO: Pro-independence Catalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont lectures at the University of Helsinki, Finland March 23, 2018. Lehtikuva/Markku Ulander/via REUTERS
<p>On Friday, Spanish supreme court judge Pablo Llarena ruled a total of 25 separatist politicians, including Puigdemont, would face trial for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.</p>
<p>Of those, five were sent on Friday to pre-trial jail, among them Jordi Turull, a close ally of Puigdemont who was due to be put forward for a second vote on Saturday to become the next regional president.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>With Turull in jail and unable to attend the session for which his presence is a requirement, Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent canceled the vote on Saturday, holding in its place a debate that at several points became heated and saw members of one opposition party abandon the chamber in protest.</p>
<p>Speaking after the debate, accompanied by various other heads of parties and in front of a crowd of supporters, Torrent described Madrid’s legal action as an “attack on the heart of democracy.”</p>
<p>“Locking up people for their political ideas and pursuing those that refuse to renounce them is to put an end to the freedom of political thought,” Torrent said, calling on Catalan politicians to form a broad coalition in opposition to Madrid’s actions.</p>
<p>Reprting by Sam Edwards and Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Mark Potter</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Danish submarine-owner charged with abusing journalist before killing her Russian soccer World Cup city razes 'love it or hate it' Soviet-era landmark Moscow says Europe 'unpredictable and aggressive' over Skripal: RIA At least seven die in Rio police shootout as army takeover drags on Former Catalan leader faces arrest in Finland | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-denmark-submarine/danish-submarine-owner-charged-with-abusing-journalist-before-killing-her-idUSKBN1FC1RW | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>A petition urging the US government to recognize Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization has now gathered more than 100,000 signatures.</p>
<p>The calls to have Black Lives Matter (BLM) <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/formally-recognize-black-lives-matter-terrorist-organization" type="external">registered as a terrorist organization</a> gained momentum as five police officers were shot dead by snipers during a BLM protest in Dallas on July 7—and one of the alleged gunmen, Micah Johnson, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/officer-shot-by-dallas-sniper-while-helping-victims-recounts-deadly-horror-1569949" type="external">was killed</a> during a standoff after police used a robot to detonate an improvised explosive device.</p>
<p>The creator of the petition, identified only as ‘Y.S,’ wrote that “terrorism is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims’. This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups as terrorist organizations. Black Lives Matter has earned this title due to its actions in Ferguson, Baltimore, and even at a Bernie Sanders rally.”</p>
<p>What Y.S. fails to note is that state-led organized violence in pursuit of a variety of aims is also worthy of classification as ‘terrorist’ behavior. The United States is a nation plagued by institutional criminality and racism, demonstrated best by the comprehensive fraud of its debt-based monetary system and the prison-industrial complex.</p>
<p>People of color in the United States have an entire sub-culture of wiles dedicated to the successful navigation of a racist society; and ideas such as ‘do exactly what the officer tells you’ and ‘do so immediately without the faintest suggestion of resistance’ have become standard rites of passage for young black American males.</p>
<p>Governments do indeed have a legal monopoly when it comes to killing people; though in truth, this Mafioso style of pseudo-democratic dictatorship mixed with corporate oligarchy is as illegitimate as it is possible for institutions to be: with one simple example of such essential corruption being demonstrable <a href="https://thefrontliner.net/2016/03/28/in-syria-militias-armed-by-the-pentagon-fight-those-armed-by-the-cia/" type="external">United States government ties</a> to hyper-violent terror organizations such as Fursan al-Haq and the infamous Al-Nusra Front—an organization which for the life of the State Department can’t be determined as either moderate or not-moderate—leaving the careful observer in a no-man’s-land of perpetual uncertainty: is Al-Nusra a terrorist organization? Or is it a moderate band of merry-rebels? <a href="https://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/syrias-moderate-rebels-are-not-moderate.html" type="external">The reader shall have to decide</a>.</p>
<p>Probably a petition should be launched to hold State Department officials, along with the CIA and the broader American establishment, to fully account for their various campaigns of violent intrigue in Middle-Eastern nations and further afield.</p>
<p>Innocent and unarmed men, women, and children the world over have fallen victim to the lethal and remorseless brutality of the American planners, in whose psychopathic narratives such deaths are seen as either a necessary evil or even perhaps even a stimulating turn of events. After all, these people who rule over us are not what one might refer to as sane and balanced individuals, and if we were to travel down the sinister road of sadistic-abuse and its use as a weapon of political blackmail, we might be forgiven for suggesting that many of our presumptive rulers are in fact themselves ruined children: intellectual and emotional adolescents at best, who are stifled in a toxic state of perpetual arrested development and sadly exercise their wretchedness on the poor of the world according to an endless assortment of dastardly pretexts determined by their hyper-sociopathic and schizo-paranoiac divinations of ‘realist’ foreign-policy imperatives, apparently drawn from some mythical well of human degradation long lost to the chasms of time.</p>
<p>Overseas operations conducted by the United Snakes have tarnished and torn countries in the Middle East, throughout Africa, and elsewhere, with a trail of inconceivable destruction and sorrow: all the while paving the way for American transnationals to pillage and plunder under the guise of nation-building; whilst networks of immortal crime and corruption syndicates flourish uninhibited just as in the direst straits of that most pitiful of raped nations, the baleful <a href="https://thefrontliner.net/2016/03/02/kosovo-a-nest-of-crime-fugitives-in-europe/" type="external">Kosovo</a>.</p>
<p>Urging the Pentagon to classify Black Lives Matter as a terrorist group alike to ISIS or Al-Qaeda [of which Al-Nusra is the Syrian franchise] is an exercise in absurdity, and it demonstrates a patent disregard for the American historical and social context of systemic and profoundly deep-rooted racism. Lest we forget the sordid history of evil American race-science that provided the very inspiration for the Nazi European project [which in turn became the European Union] via the provision of a vast base of scholarly works and discourse characterized by social Darwinism and pseudo-scientific notions of inferior human beings—this is where the term subhuman takes its primary relevance, from the nightmarish worldviews of eugenicist psychopaths hell bent on social-engineering themselves a super-race of some sort. Preferences have varied, though of course Hitler and his cohorts were after the Aryan ideal.</p>
<p>Another act of terrorism which targets universal values, human rights, freedom, and even democracy itself is the last thing anyone needs within a picture of global escalation. Since January this year, racial brutality by American police forces has killed a total of over nine hundred darker-skinned residents of the United States. At least 1,134 young black men were killed by US police in 2015 alone, and since January of this year race-based police aggressions have continued apace, killing nearly one thousand already with only just over half of the year behind us.</p>
<p>Well, this is what happens when the full force of the domestic state-terrorism apparatus sets itself against the innocent and frequently impoverished citizens of color that mistakenly chose to be born in the world’s self-acclaimedly freest and most prosperous nation: aka the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.</p>
<p>The Greatest Nation on Earth…?</p>
<p>Unarmed and unprotected men, women and children have been killed. And more are set to die; yet as I draw comparisons, from years of experience as a war reporter, across the very breadth of Middle Eastern deserts, I cannot help but see the glaring similarities between this kind of oppression at home, and that practiced abroad. For whilst we see States commit violence against their own citizens, that same violence from these very same states is frequently visited upon the innocent subjects of other states across the face of the entire miraculous Earth.</p>
<p>I’ve seen with my very own eyes the sheer bestiality of dictatorial regimes supported by overt and covert US funding—dictators who were massively involved in the systematic ending of innocent lives, for no better cause than their being in the wrong place at the right time—whilst racism within the US is steeped in much the same type of crimes against humanity; and therefore it is the Washington administration and the elite caste in control of the American alphabet agencies that ought to be considered for the latest bout of regime change that is currently sweeping the dawning decades of the twenty-first century; and it is these controllers and financiers that must be held to full account for their seemingly endless violence.</p>
<p>As a white skinned male, I stand in full support of Black Lives Matter.</p>
<p>I do so because of its essentially humanitarian raison d’être. And as its scope and power increase with each passing month and well over a thousand demonstrations within the past two years alone, I am optimistic that some real reformation of the US race-machine might finally be envisioned, and that the whole apparatus of violation shall at long last be dismantled once and for all—if only through the compassionate force of persistent intention and determined civic-actions designed to specifically earn attention in a Media-savvy way that effectively demonstrates all of the vital ethical points surrounding the realities of living in a race-perception-world.</p>
<p>BLM protests are spreading across Europe also—protesting in solidarity against the latest American racial atrocities—whilst the end of June and beginning of July last saw hundreds of people in Amsterdam, London and Berlin take to the streets with the refrain: ‘No Justice – No Peace!’</p>
<p>Awakenings in nations such as the UK give us something to go by: where marches for peace have been held in solidarity with the endless victims of US state-violence; and whilst this just force of international recognition is promising; it must expand itself into an all-encompassing philosophy of peaceful resistance versus the soulless transnational architecture of systemic violence and exploitation, or else be lost entire.</p>
<p>For the ninety-nine percent are real people, with lives and children and loves and woes; they think, feel and love as we do, within the broadest parameters of the infinite human landscape. And if we harbor any illusions that our lives in Britain or Japan for instance are worth any more than those of the impoverished nations that are so brutally laid waste before our eyes over coffee each morning, then it is sure to come as a nasty shock when the secret police inevitably arrive at our very own door for no reason better than that we allowed a malignant tumor of totalitarian evil to take root and even then to thrive whilst we got busily about that business which somehow seemed more pressing and yet which sowed the very seeds of our irrepressible destruction with a persistent criminal negligence defined by its astounding indifference to suffering in the lives of others; ceaseless miseries whose stage is the so distant tides of forgotten elsewheres forsaken to the crimes of Man.</p>
<p>Call it karma, call it what you will; but the effects of our actions are inescapable, and this system of world tyranny will leave no life untouched before all is said and done.</p>
<p>To return to the specifics of this particular issue though, on the very same day of the Dallas shootings this grim terror-petition <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dallas-sniper-shootings-thousands-call-black-lives-matter-be-recognised-terror-group-1569636" type="external">reached 4,000 signatures</a> out of what might be referred to as well intentioned sympathy for police officers who lost their lives.</p>
<p>It is sad enough that any police officer loses his or her life to an event of unjust actions or circumstance—yet having now already lost their lives, still they are used as&#160; fodder in a broader front of social conflict, manipulated and seized in generation of a distasteful reactionary-act responding to an event of pure provocation; the latter of which is itself likely tied as with the rest of the contemporary transnational terror-theatrics we have come to so blindly expect from the ‘News,’ to all of the usual covert forces of supranational subterfuge and standard international intrigue; and all this with a petition that began before the shooting took place, a fact which shall be treated here as an unequivocal coincidence naturally emergent without any prior knowledge or intention and entirely off limits to all questions within ‘polite circles’.</p>
<p>The ignorance of Americans is a trope of long humor to citizens all over the world, though as we know their portrayal in this way has been part of a systematic attack of what was once a strong intellectual culture founded on old moral traditions out of Europe and combined with the adventurous rigor of settling a new world, without putting the atrocities of that age aside or failing to acknowledge the sheer injustices of the past, the point stands that Americans are much like the other peoples of this world, and once again it is the ruling classes we must look to for answers when it comes to the sources of all these inconceivable and so relentless human sufferings.</p>
<p>The invasion of Iraq was a terrible error for United States’ prestige, and what was once a bounty of world-sympathy following the attacks at the turn of the new-millennium has plummeted to new depths as foreign adventures and crimes have been conducted elsewhere throughout the Middle East and the rest of the known world.</p>
<p>Massive civilian casualties are a common recurrence within the parameters of the American empire; with the killing of unarmed men, women and children a regular feature in the Western press; whilst our favorite brand of Washington hypocrisy is served time and again with the worthless mantras of ‘lessons learned’ and ‘condolences to families.’ Such brazen lies are a manifest sickness on this earth.</p>
<p>An administration of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746" type="external">oligarchs</a> rules the day in America, it is no democracy. And though the nation may subscribe in hollow speech to human rights, it has failed to sign the relevant international conventions that enshrine those very principles.</p>
<p>President Obama ‘embraced the ‘Black Lives Matter’ [Mythos of] a racist war [conducted] by white [police] officers against black civilians,’ or at least so says Rush Limbaugh, in whose deranged psyche BLM is ‘a terrorist group [in wild perpetration of] hate-crimes,’ within the broader context of a ‘war on cops,’ no less.</p>
<p>The corporate beast is avid that dissension is quelled and a controlled unrest is stirred across the western-style-nations allowed a relative measure of prosperity; and the reason for this managed theatre of carefully dealt terror and privilege is one of astute political nous and remarkable illiteracy; with our purpose on this planet being prosperity and peace, these idiots have sown wars and tactless distractions, with their ambitions limited and defined by a poverty of vision that plagues their every waking hour; it is no longer enough to watch voyeuristically from the sidelines or through a newspaper-article-window into the broader horrors of the wider world: this is the time for every self-respecting human being to walk out into their community every morning with the spirit of ‘I am sick to death of this—and it ends now.’</p> | Are Black Lives Terrorist Lives? | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/07/29/are-black-lives-terrorist-lives/ | 2016-07-29 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to reporters while traveling to Asia, said he told senior military officers at the Pentagon this week to come up with ideas to improve training and equipping, particularly of the Sunni tribes who complain that the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad is dragging its heels on helping them.</p>
<p>"I can't describe to you what the possibilities are, because folks are looking at them right now," Carter said.</p>
<p>As the Pentagon grapples with its strategy to help Iraq fight off the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the key is getting weapons to Sunni militias. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>The scramble for answers comes after Islamic State forces, though outnumbered, captured Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, as Iraqi forces fled on May 16. Although the White House says those Iraqi forces were not U.S.-trained, the defeat prompted Carter to make the startlingly frank public assessment last weekend that the Iraqis lacked "the will to fight."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>President Barack Obama said Tuesday that it is time for the U.S. to consider whether it is delivering military aid to Iraq efficiently.</p>
<p>A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, said later that the focus is on fine-tuning the strategy, not rewriting it.</p>
<p>The U.S. military strategy in Iraq is built on airstrikes to degrade the Islamic State forces while rebuilding Iraqi security forces to eventually regain the vast swaths of territory in the north and west that were lost over the past 18 months. The current focus is on retaking Ramadi and other parts of predominantly Sunni Anbar province.</p>
<p>The Obama administration insists it will assist the Sunnis only through the Shiite-dominated central government in Baghdad because it wants to foster a multisectarian government, rather than directly arm and organize the ethnic tribes for combat. It was unclear whether Carter might recommend scrapping the indirect approach or adjust it, but the tenor of his remarks and comments by other officials suggested that dramatic changes were unlikely.</p>
<p>Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. Army chief of staff who was a top commander in Iraq during the 2003-11 war, said there may be merit in enlarging the U.S. military role by embedding U.S. advisers with Iraqi forces in the field. But he made clear that this also has drawbacks.</p>
<p>Odierno, who served in command three times in Iraq, said the failure of Iraqi security forces to hold their ground was "incredibly disappointing to me personally." But he also said he sees no wisdom in sending substantial U.S. ground combat forces to do the fighting.</p>
<p>"I'm adamant about that," he said. Expending American lives to defeat the extremists without fixing Iraq's internal political divisions would be a waste and an unsustainable solution.</p>
<p>"It always comes back to the government of Iraq," Odierno said, referring to its inability to unify its Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish populations in a way that would give the country's security forces confidence and motivation to fight.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Washington has pledged to accelerate the shipment of certain arms to Baghdad, including weapons that could be used to stop armored vehicles that Islamic State fighters have used effectively as suicide bombs.</p>
<p>The U.S. also has said it will try to speed up the delivery of airstrikes requested by the Iraqi government.</p>
<p>Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Carter focused on arming and equipping Sunni tribes. "One particular way that's extremely important is to involve the Sunni tribes in the fight - that means training and equipping them," Carter said. "Those are the kinds of things the team back home is looking at."</p>
<p>But a senior defense official said Carter still wants to work through the Iraqi government, an approach that has been ineffective so far. The official was not authorized to describe the defense secretary's thinking publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Carter said the events in Ramadi "highlighted the central importance of having a capable ground partner" in Iraq.</p>
<p>Part of Iraq's plan to bolster its effectiveness against IS fighters includes training, equipping and paying Sunni tribesmen to join in the fight. It is reminiscent of the Sunni Sahwa, or Awakening movement, which confronted al-Qaida in Iraq starting in 2006, although that program was begun by U.S. forces working directly with the tribes. Al-Qaida in Iraq is the Islamic State's predecessor.</p>
<p>In January, the Iraqi government held an inauguration ceremony for a few hundred Sunni fighters in Anbar province with the hope that it would plant the seed for an expanded national guard in which Sunnis would take on responsibility for security in Iraq's Sunni areas. Those are predominantly under Islamic State control today.</p>
<p>But the force has failed to progress at the rate the Iraqi government had hoped.</p>
<p />
<p /> | U.S. to 'fine-tune' Iraq strategy in light of Ramadi debacle | false | https://abqjournal.com/591202/carter-seeks-ways-to-improve-iraq-training-equipping.html | 2015-05-28 | 2 |
<p>People living in homes with water damage, damp floors or visible mold are more likely to have chronic sinus problems and bronchitis, as well as allergies, asthma and other breathing disorders, according to a large study from Sweden.</p>
<p>Researchers found that about 11 percent of homes had visible signs of dampness – and the more signs were present, the higher the likelihood of residents having nose, throat and lung-related health problems, according to the report in Clinical and Experimental Allergy.</p>
<p>“A lot of papers show an association between asthma-related symptoms and building dampness. What’s new is the association between chronic inflammation and building dampness,” said senior study author Christer Janson of Uppsala University.</p>
<p>“This is an important finding as chronic inflammation is quite a common condition with a very negative side effect on quality of life,” he told Reuters Health by email. “We were surprised that the association with building dampness was so strong.”</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed data from more than 26,000 adults in four Swedish cities who responded to a questionnaire about respiratory symptoms, smoking, education and environmental exposures. In particular, the study team was interested in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), which includes symptoms of runny nose, itchy nose, facial pain, reduced sense of smell, nasal congestion and sneezing.</p>
<p>They identified dampness by asking about visible water damage, floor dampness or visible mold seen in the home during the last 12 months and gave participants a dampness exposure score based on how many of these signs were present.</p>
<p>A total of 2,992 people, or 11.3 percent, reported any signs of dampness. For 8.3 percent of the study participants, one sign was present, for 2.3 percent there were two signs and for 0.7 percent all three signs were seen in the home.</p>
<p>Reported dampness was more common in humid or mild climates, as compared to areas of the country with longer, colder winters. People reporting damp homes were more likely to be women, unemployed or full-time students, smokers and less likely to be retired.</p>
<p>Compared to nonsmokers with no signs of dampness at home, nonsmokers with any dampness signs were 90 percent more likely to have nighttime shortness of breath, 77 percent more likely to have chronic rhinosinusitis and 67 percent more likely to have chronic bronchitis. They also had higher rates of wheeze, nighttime coughing, asthma and allergies.</p>
<p>For chronic rhinosinusitis, the authors note, the degree of increased risk from dampness for nonsmokers was about the same as the effect of smoking for people without dampness in the home.</p>
<p>“I found it both interesting and alarming that the adverse effects were stronger among people with low socioeconomic status due to limited possibilities for moving to a better home or making needed renovations,” said Jouni Jaakkola of the University of Oulu in Finland, who wasn’t involved in the study.</p>
<p>Future studies should look at long-term results to better understand cause and effect with dampness at home, Jaakkola told Reuters Health by email.</p>
<p>“Cross-sectional studies (like this one) may underestimate the effects if people who get symptoms in damp homes change to better homes,” he said. “This probably explains the interaction between socioeconomic status and damp problems.”</p>
<p>Janson and Jaakkola recommended several online resources to help people prevent dampness and mold problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, has a mold-control primer on EPA.gov (http://bit.ly/29fxO4Y) and so does the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the CDC.gov website (http://bit.ly/2lxArWu). The World Health Organization offers brochures in PDF format on its European website here: (http://bit.ly/10VfGJq) and here: (http://bit.ly/2nGrpH4).</p>
<p>These resources recommend locating moisture problems, removing molds and controlling excessive water and condensation at home. Leaky pipes and roofs are often the biggest issues, the WHO notes. Professional help may be needed for leaks in building structure, sewage and air ducts, otherwise mold-removal can be done at home with a protective mask, goggles and rubber gloves, according to the EPA.</p>
<p>A mild detergent can remove the mold, followed by a full-room wet wiping or vacuuming after the spores are sealed in a plastic trash bag.</p>
<p>“If there are signs of building dampness in your home or you have water damage, get professional help and try to fix it as soon as possible,” Janson said.</p> | Damp, Moldy Homes Tied to Adult Respiratory Problems | false | https://newsline.com/damp-moldy-homes-tied-to-adult-respiratory-problems/ | 2017-07-25 | 1 |
<p />
<p>The CEO of the Rio Olympics says his privately-funded operating budget needs about $30 million in public funding to meet its obligations.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Chief executive officer Sidney Levy had pledged that only private money would be used to run the games, though that was broken just over a month ago when the committee requested a bailout from the city of Rio de Janeiro and the federal government.</p>
<p>Levy says "we committed ourselves to hosting the games without any public funds, but during the journey there were a lot of ups and downs" that led to the overrun.</p>
<p>Speaking Sunday, Levy said the final figure for the operating budget was $2.8 billion. The dollar-denominated number has fluctuated because of wide swings in that currency's value against the Brazilian real.</p> | Rio Olympic CEO says privately-run budget needs public money | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/18/rio-olympic-ceo-says-privately-run-budget-needs-public-money.html | 2016-09-19 | 0 |
<p>Petraeus says there’s plenty more Afghan war where that came from, Saudi Arabia gets to buy an election or two and Social Security goes on the chopping block. These stories and more on today’s list.</p>
<p>On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that 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>The links below open in a new window and newer ones are on top.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>A massive salami recall has been initiated in the United States over fear of salmonella poisoning.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/24/disney-logoed-ddt-im.html" type="external">Great Ideas That Never Caught On …</a> Disney-logoed DDT-impregnated wallpaper for the kids’ room (1947).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYrvm-vGhbc" type="external">Is There Also a Teleprompter in the Presidential Bathroom?</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.thesunnews.com/575/story/1276292.html" type="external">GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Compares Helping Poor With ‘Feeding Stray Animals’</a> South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared giving people government assistance to “feeding stray animals.”</p>
<p><a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2010/01/24/gen-petraeus-afghan-war-will-take-longer-than-iraq/" type="external">Petraeus: Afghan War Will Be Longer Than Iraq One</a> In an in-depth interview with the Times of London gearing up for the London Conference on Afghanistan later this week, CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus again cautioned that the war was going to “get harder before it gets easier.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/381/forget-campaign-finance-laws-this-is-the-solution.html" type="external">A Solution to the Corporate Takeover of Politics: Free TV Ads</a> Forget campaign finance laws—this is the solution!</p>
<p><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/2009542250178146.html" type="external">Bibles in the Bunkers Cause Afghan Row</a> The US’s highest ranking military officer has said it is not the US military’s position to promote any specific religion, after Al Jazeera revealed footage of troops apparently preparing to convert Afghans to their Christian faith.</p>
<p><a href="http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/obama-puts-social-security-chopping-block" type="external">Obama Puts Social Security on the Chopping Block</a> Hope for lasting liberal change was washed away on Tuesday—not just with the loss of the Democrats’ super-majority in the Senate, but with a closed-door deal that would lead to cuts in bedrock liberal programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/media/the-age-of-affirmation-1698" type="external">The Age of Affirmation</a> A new study finds that TV viewers watch the news more for affirmation than for information.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012004537.html" type="external">National Arts Index Paints a Troubling Picture</a> While the number of arts organizations increased rapidly over a recent 10-year span, the percentage of people attending arts events declined, a new national survey by the nonprofit group Americans for the Arts reported Wednesday.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Manchurian-Candidates-Sup-by-Greg-Palast-100123-552.html" type="external">Manchurian Candidates: Supreme Court Allows China and Others Unlimited Spending in U.S. Elections</a> I’m losing sleep over the millions — or billions — of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation’s U.S. unit; or from the maker of “New Order” fashions, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Or from Bin Laden Construction Corporation. Or Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.</p> | Pre-State of the Union Edition | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/pre-state-of-the-union-edition/ | 2010-01-26 | 4 |
<p>Washington's position is that only Washington decides and that Washington intends to unleash yet more chaos on the world in the hope that it reaches Russia.</p>
<p>Washington's impulsive use of power is a danger to America and to the world. Arrogant Washington politicians and crazed neoconservatives are screaming that the US must shoot down Russian aircraft that are operating against the US-supplied forces that have brought death and destruction to Syria, unleashing millions of refugees on Europe, in Washington's effort to overthrow the Syrian government.</p>
<p>Even my former Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) colleague, Zbigniew Brzezinski, normally a sensible if sometimes misguided person, has written in the Financial Times that Washington should <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43059.htm" type="external">deliver an ultimatum to Russia</a> to "cease and desist from military actions that directly affect American assets." By "American assets," Brzezinski means the jihadist forces that Washington has sicced on Syria.</p>
<p>Brzezinski's claim that "Russia must work with, not against, the US in Syria" is false. The fact of the matter is that "the US must work with, not against Russia in Syria," as Russia controls the situation, is in accordance with international law, and is doing the right thing.</p>
<p>Ash Carter, the US Secretary for War, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/oct/07/ash-carter-russia-us-syria-airstrikes-video" type="external">repeats Brzezinski's demand</a>. He declared that Washington is not prepared to cooperate with Russia's "tragically flawed" and "mistaken strategy" that frustrates Washington's illegal attempt to overthrow the Syrian government with military violence.</p>
<p>Washington's position is that only Washington decides and that Washington intends to unleash yet more chaos on the world in the hope that it reaches Russia.</p>
<p>I guess no one in hubristic and arrogant Washington was listening when Putin said in his UN speech on September 28: "We can no longer tolerate the state of affairs in the world."</p>
<p>The intolerable state of affairs is the chaos that Washington has brought to the Middle East, chaos that threatens to expand into all countries with Muslim populations, and chaos from which millions of refugees are flooding into Europe.</p>
<p>Not satisfied with threatening Russia with war, Washington is preparing to send US Navy ships inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit of islands created by China's land reclamation project. The Navy Times reports that three Pentagon officials have said on background that "approval of the mission is imminent."</p>
<p>So here we have the US government gratuitously and provocatively threatening two nuclear powers. The Washington warmongers try to pretend that land reclamation is "an act of regional aggression" and that Washington is just upholding international law by protecting "freedom of navigation."</p>
<p>By "freedom of navigation," Washington means Washington's ability to control all sea lanes.</p>
<p>After all of Washington's violations of international law and war crimes during the last 14 years, Washington's claim to be protecting international law is hilarious.</p>
<p>Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a former director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence organization, said that <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/317710-russia-red-lines-flynn/" type="external">Washington needs to understand</a> that "Russia also has foreign policy; Russia also has a national security strategy" and stop crossing Russia's "red lines." Gen. Flynn thus <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43055.htm" type="external">joins with Patrick J. Buchanan</a> as two voices of sense and sensibility in Washington. Together they stand against the arrogance and hubris that will destroy us.</p> | The Impulsiveness of US Power | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/10/09/the-impulsiveness-of-us-power/ | 2015-10-09 | 1 |
<p>When Pa. Sen. Rick Santorum went on Fox to make what turned out to be a bogus claim about WMDs in Iraq, did he violate federal law by holding classified documents up to the camera? <a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/23.html#a8828" type="external">Greg Sargent has more?.</a></p>
<p>Crooks and Liars:</p>
<p>Greg Sargent picked up my original assertion the other night that Rick might have violated federal laws by holding up a classified document to the camera on H&amp;C: I wrote</p>
<p>"If that is the document that's classified, isn't little Ricky breaking about a gazillion different federal laws by exposing them? I've taken the precaution of blackening it a bit. Of course, I'm no attorney, but I believe this is the law."</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/23.html#a8828" type="external">Link</a></p> | Did Santorum Display Classified Documents on Fox News? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/did-santorum-display-classified-documents-on-fox-news/ | 2006-06-24 | 4 |
<p>Messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention increased their budget by $600,000 for 2007 and elected a strong Cooperative Program supporter as president Nov. 15.</p>
<p>For nine of the past 10 years, South Carolina Baptists have met or exceeded budget requirements and are on track to exceed its 2006 budget goal. The 2007 convention budget of $32.75 represents a $600,000 increase over this year's budget of $32,150,000.</p>
<p>Mike Moody, pastor of First Baptist Church in Honea Path, S.C., won the presidential election with 550 votes, or 67 percent of the votes cast, over Tom Tucker, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Hill, S.C.</p> | S.C. messengers increase budget, elect CP supporter as president | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/scmessengersincreasebudgetelectcpsupporteraspresident/ | 3 |
|
<p />
<p>Well, the Canadians seemed pretty happy about it, actually. The White Stripes had been performing at <a href="http://www.aversion.com/news/news_article.cfm?news_id=8973" type="external">odd venues all over Canada</a> in a quest to play in every province and territory in our great northern neighbor; yesterday, realizing that they were one province (Newfoundland) away from achieving this goal, and that “playing a show” would really only require them to play a single note, they did <a href="http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/news/18072007/white_stripes_one_second_gig" type="external">exactly that</a>. Here’s video from the one-note show, yesterday in St. John’s, Newfoundland:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Yes, the audience is chanting “One more note!” But don’t worry about the poor Newfoundlandians: the Stripes did a full two-hour gig for ’em later that night. Check Stereogum for <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/archives/video/video-from-the-white-stripes-onenote-show-in-canad.html#more" type="external">some awesome pictures</a> of the roadies tuning up the gear before the one-note performance, go <a href="http://pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=All&amp;Content=white+stripes&amp;go_green.x=0&amp;go_green.y=0" type="external">here</a> for upcoming US dates.</p>
<p /> | White Stripes Mock Canadians With One-Note Show | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/07/white-stripes-mock-canadians-one-note-show/ | 2007-07-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Last summer, while in the early stages of researching several stories related to the U.S.-Mexico border and the drug trade, I called up Mother Jones‘ contributing writer Charles Bowden to get his take on things. Having spent much of his life living in the American southwest and writing about these subjects (see his most recent Mother Jones piece <a href="/news/feature/2006/09/exodus.html" type="external">here</a>), Bowden knows better than most the risks associated with reporting the drug war. As he explained, the border is a place where people simply disappear, usually by the hundreds each year. Very few are ever found, even if authorities bother to look, which they often don’t. As an American, he said, I could expect to have *some* protection: cartel assassins often hesitate to go after reporters from north of the border, but not always. (See <a href="http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2007/summer/power-one-more-martyr/" type="external">this piece</a> from the Virginia Quarterly Review about the murder of freelancer Brad Will, the only U.S. journalist to have been assassinated since the recent surge in Mexico’s drug violence.) Bowden suggested that I avoid hotels on the Mexican side, that I vary my schedule each day, and that I drive an alternate route whenever possible. The underlying message was clear: take precautions and, to the extent possible, make yourself hard to kill.</p>
<p>Well, since last summer, things seem to have grown even worse. Sunday’s Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301774.html" type="external">reported</a> on the San Antonio Express-News‘ decision to withdraw its drug trade reporter from Mexico after learning of an assassination threat. According to the Post:</p>
<p>Sources have told several Texas newspapers that hit men from Los Zetas, a group of former Mexican military officers who operate as the Gulf cartel’s assassins, may have been hired to cross into the United States and execute American reporters. Word of the threat shattered the widely held perception here that foreign journalists are somehow shielded from violent retribution in a nation that is now second only to Iraq in deaths of journalists…</p>
<p>More than 30 journalists have been killed in Mexico in the past six years, but only one — freelancer and activist Brad Will, who was shot to death during teacher protests last year in Oaxaca — was American. Most of the killings are believed to be related to coverage of an ongoing war between drug cartels. Last year, drug gangs were suspected of firing automatic weapons and throwing a grenade into the newsroom of Nuevo Laredo’s El Mañana newspaper, seriously injuring one reporter.</p>
<p>Express-News Editor Robert Rivard, a former Central America bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, said in an interview Friday that steps have been taken to conceal the location of his former border correspondent, Mariano Castillo.</p>
<p>Castillo wrote nearly 100 stories about cartels, crisscrossing the border from the newspaper’s bureau in Laredo, Tex., for the past 4 1/2 years as drug violence escalated. His first piece about cartels, in late 2003, was headlined “Mexico town erupts into a battle zone; Grenades, machine guns roar south of the border.” In his last front-page article, which ran in May, Castillo exposed the existence of a “shadowy and violent group that calls itself the ‘Gente Nueva,’ or New People — and authorities don’t want to talk about it.”</p>
<p>For now the paper’s border bureau, which is a 2 1/2-hour drive from San Antonio, sits vacant. Rivard is grappling with a challenge faced every day by his counterparts south of border — how to cover a region where his reporters are targets.</p>
<p>“It’s a dilemma,” Rivard said. “On the one side, no story is worth a reporter’s life; on the other side, you don’t want to back down from telling readers about an important story.”</p>
<p /> | Drug War: U.S. Reporters Targeted by Mexican Cartels | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/07/drug-war-us-reporters-targeted-mexican-cartels/ | 2007-07-16 | 4 |
<p>This month spawned the release of Maryland rapper Logic’s third studio album, Everybody. These days, it’s challenging to come across a new hip-hop album that doesn’t have SOME allusion to social injustice and the struggle against political oppression (this idea is further explored in the <a href="" type="internal">analysis of Joey Bada$$’s</a> <a href="" type="internal">All American Bada$$</a>). Needless to say, Everybody was full of it. This is not to say that it was on par with the work of even Joey Bada$$, let alone J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar. Starting with a less-than-thrilling “verse” of the Killer Mike ranting about socio-political issues (an underwhelming misuse of his many talents), the album was far from flawless. It does, however, do a few things differently from the aforementioned records. Here are some of the biggest take homes from Logic’s Everybody.</p>
<p>Andrew Weir</p>
<p>The collective concept of Everybody is based on the short story The Egg, by The Martian author Andrew Weir. The short compiles the aspects of many religions into one coherent theory: everybody who has ever lived is a single soul, and once that soul is reincarnated and has lived every life in every time period, they essentially become a god to further lead another soul through a similar concept. While Weir intended this to be an entertaining science fiction tale, Logic turns it into a deliberate social commentary about how we should act under the assumption that all of humanity is a single entity. Thus replacing hatred, bias, and violence with ideologies of equality. <a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23163-everybody/" type="external">Some call it derivative</a>, some call it a creative adaption. Whether or not this adaption is successful, it is definitely interesting.</p>
<p>Neil DeGrasse Tyson</p>
<p>The Egg plotline is laid out through a series of skits, while each underlying theme of the skit is developed in the songs. In these skits we have our car-crash victim Atom going to The Egg’s version of “heaven” to meet God… played by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Absent is any sliver of astrophysics commentary, but the scientist instead merely acts. Is this another misuse of talent, or is it a colorful and entertaining audience appeal? Perhaps both.</p>
<p>Mental Health</p>
<p>In Everybody, Logic balances many things with the umbrella-concept of political oppression. As mentioned before, there are plenty of the science-fiction and fantastical cosmic allusions. But some of the other issues are what makes the album original. One of these is mental health. “1-800-273-8255” is an inspirational song serving as a loose letter for those dealing with depression. “Anziety” shares a personal story of how an anxiety attack can be a physical detriment to someone’s being. <a href="http://hiphopdx.com/reviews/id.2944/title.review-logics-everybody-delivers-in-ambition-but-not-execution#" type="external">These are lofty attributes</a> to Everybody, but meaningful contributions nonetheless.</p>
<p>Social Media</p>
<p>A final theme Logic balances with political impression is his social commentary on interactions with media. In “Killing Spree” he states: “Everybody scrollin’ scrollin’ through they life” and “Everybody looking for the meaning of life through a cellphone screen.” This theme keeps in line with his ideas of treating each other with respect and eliminating ego.</p>
<p>J. Cole</p>
<p>Speaking of J. Cole, the final track (spoiler alert) features a hidden, uncredited verse by the rap legend. The verse is especially meaningful because of Cole’s recent concept album 4 Your Eyez Only tackling similar concepts, as well as both Cole and Logic’s biracial identity being a major theme in both of their collective discographies. Cole puts ties a bow around Everybody’s overall concept, in many ways better than Logic could have. The verse was a meaningful additive many fans were pleased with.</p>
<p>Hidden Allusions</p>
<p>J. Cole was not the only thing hidden on the final track of Everybody. “AfricAryaN” readdresses the concept of Logic’s previous album, The Incredible True Story. In it, the two characters reveal that the rapper has one final album. Mic drops.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Here</a> is a more in-depth discussion of the final reveal of Everybody and other Easter eggs throughout.</p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50-V-IejRs&amp;list=PL5haChbvV7a8Kji_y9eFomqivVZ4e_9eu" type="external">YouTube</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Logic’s New Album Makes A Powerful Statement | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/05/17/logics-new-album-makes-a-powerful-statement/ | 2017-05-17 | 4 |
<p>A top oil industry official says the oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to retrofit existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil.</p>
<p>The cars have ruptured and spilled oil during collisions, leading to intense fires.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said Tuesday that the institute and the Association of American Railroads are jointly asking for six to 12 months for rail tank car manufacturers to gear up to retrofit tens of thousands of cars and another three years to retrofit older cars.</p>
<p>He said two industries also want three years after that to retrofit newer tank cars manufactured since 2011.</p>
<p>The Transportation Department has proposed two years to retrofit older cars.</p> | Oil, rail industries want 7 years to retrofit cars that transport highly volatile crude oil | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/09/30/oil-rail-industries-want-7-years-to-retrofit-cars-that-transport-highly.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Toronto's got Drake, The Weeknd, and now may have another rising musical star on its hands. His name is Jahkoy.</p>
<p>The young MC has a single called " <a href="https://soundcloud.com/jahkoy/oddfuture" type="external">Odd Future</a>" that is drawing a lot of attention these days. But it's his past that really interests me.</p>
<p>Let's start with his name. It comes from his mom — a first generation Canadian with roots in Jamaica. In Jamaica, Jah is the word for God.</p>
<p>To that, his mom added — you're the real McCoy. So, Jahkoy — "It's a blend," he says.</p>
<p>But so is Jahkoy himself. His father is from Ethiopia.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jahkoy.com/" type="external">Jahkoy</a> grew up in Toronto and found his way to poetry. But not intentionally, he says.</p>
<p>He just heard beats, and started reciting his poems over top.</p>
<p>"People always ask me how did I got into the music," he told me. "I was just reading poems then out of nowhere I was transferring those poems into songs — beats. I was using beats and just reciting my poems over them. I can’t remember a time when I decided, ‘I’m going to do music now.’ It was more like experimenting and trying different things as I grow. That’s what it was more for me."</p>
<p>Eventually, Jahkoy turned his room into what he calls his musical "lab."</p>
<p>"I look at it more as experiments," he says. "So when I go and do music I look at it like I’m going into a lab right now and I’m going to add chemicals together to get the best product. We don’t know what we’re doing we’re just trying. We know what we can do in certain ways. We’re stretching those boundaries to kind of get more of an extra pull and stretching to full potential. It’s just like, the sky’s the limit when it comes to opportunities. When you can try something you never know what the outcome is going to be unless you get it done."</p>
<p>I caught up with Jahkoy recently at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. He had just performed his set at the packed Spotify House down the street from the Convention Center.</p>
<p>If the more than 700,000 listens to "Odd Future" is any indication, the young MC is getting serious attention — Def Jam recently signed him.</p>
<p />
<p>It's safe to say a lot of people will be talking about Jahkoy soon. But he says "Odd Future" — which he produced with Nova and Wondagurl, is something that came from a more personal place back in 2014.</p>
<p>"At the time I was just kinda being more vulnerable and just letting it all out — not being afraid of anyone having to have an opinion about how I felt."</p>
<p>Getting to that creative personal space is something that might be easier when you write music at home. But that raw emotion is tangible, and it seems to be something people really connect to.</p>
<p>"When I get to write music at home it kind of sits with me personally because it’s just me being myself, letting loose and being free," he says. "'Odd Future' is one of those records where I was just kind of telling my story. I was delivering some relatable lyrics and something that people can enjoy and observe from my life experience."</p>
<p>Keep an eye on Jahkoy. He's just finished his new record, which might be released as early as this summer.</p> | Jahkoy's music is his personal experiment and his home studio — a laboratory | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-03-31/jahkoys-music-his-personal-experiment-and-his-home-studio-laboratory | 2016-03-31 | 3 |
<p>Shares in Braskem SA soared 10 percent in their biggest intraday gain in more than two months on Friday after Latin America's largest petrochemical firm said it is in advanced talks with authorities in Brazil and the United States for a leniency agreement related to a massive corruption scandal.</p>
<p>Class-B preferred shares , Braskem's most widely traded class of stock, rose 9.77 percent to 29.77 reais ($8.62) after the announcement, the highest intraday rise since Sept. 28.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Braskem did not provide additional details of the leniency talks in the statement. On Thursday, Braskem's parent Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] signed a $2 billion leniency deal with prosecutors to settle its own liabilities in Brazil's biggest-ever graft case.</p>
<p>The imminent agreement could help disentangle a series of aspects preventing controllers Odebrecht SA and Petroleo Brasileiro SA to sell their stakes in Braskem, as it could eliminate liabilities related to the corruption probe, making it easier to attract a bidder.</p>
<p>The so-called Car Wash probe, started by prosecutors in Brazil in 2014, unveiled a sweeping graft scheme involving several construction companies and state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras . Petrobras owns a 47 percent voting stake in Braskem.</p>
<p>Reuters reported in March that Odebrecht, which owns 50.1 percent of the voting shares in Braskem, was considering selling a stake in the petrochemical producer in a joint transaction with Petrobras.</p>
<p>Under terms Odebrecht's agreement, the firm will pay the hefty fine over 20 years. The money will be divided between authorities in the United States, Switzerland and Brazil, which would be the main beneficiary.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Jane Merriman and Marguerita Choy)</p> | Brazil's Braskem shares jump as deal in graft probe seen imminent | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/12/02/brazil-braskem-shares-jump-as-deal-in-graft-probe-seen-imminent.html | 2016-12-02 | 0 |
<p>Photo by Waqas Mustafeez | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>The website nuclear-news&#160;this month has declared: “ <a href="https://nuclear-news.net/" type="external">Nuclear Power and Space Exploration—theme for November 17</a>.” And, indeed, a desire of nuclear power zealots for decades is, now in 2017 with the Trump administration, poised for possible major implementation.</p>
<p>As nuclear-news says: “Coinciding with the severe downturn in the nuclear industry is the rush for enthusiasm for space exploration—and the goal of ‘putting a man on Mars.’ The nuclear industry must be pleased” now with the focus on nuclear-powered rockets to Mars. The &#160;apparent motive? &#160;“Space travel might save their industry?” Continues nuclear-news: “The effects of a space craft crash on an Earth city are almost unimaginable, and certainly never properly condemned by the space technocrats and nuclear enthusiasts. To them, this is an ‘accceptable risk.’”</p>
<p>As Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the <a href="http://www.space4peace.org" type="external">Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space</a> &#160;notes: “For many years the nuclear power industry held an annual conference in New Mexico to promote the use of their deadly product in space. Nuclear-powered mining colonies and nuclear-powered rockets to Mars were key themes at these events.”</p>
<p>Now with Trump as president and green lights to industry after industry to do or continue to do deadly things, Trump and his band are pushing for the nuclear industry to bring its deadly product into the heavens.</p>
<p>“Trump’s spaceman,” was the headline in February of a Vice News piece about Trump campaign space advisor Robert Smith Walker, an arch-conservative ex-congressman who had been chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, the panel with <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/NASA" type="external">NASA</a> oversight. The sub-head: “ <a href="https://news.vice.com/story/president-trump-has-a-plan-for-space-domination" type="external">President Trump has a plan for space domination</a>.”</p>
<p>“Trump has appointed former Rep. Thomas Walker as a space science policy advisor, and he has an aggressive, business-type vision for NASA,” it says. “Under Trump, missions are expected to be more deep-space-oriented, beginning with robots mining for resources such as Helium 3 on the Moon. Walker foresees human lunar colonies as well as spaceships fueled by nuclear power to cut travel time to Mars from months to weeks.”</p>
<p>In a Vice News interview, which can be heard online, Walker speaks of mining on the Moon for Helium 3 to be used as a fuel for nuclear fusion and of the U.S. “developing a generation of spaceships powered by nuclear power.”</p>
<p>Originally a high school teacher, Walker left the House in 1997 after 20 years representing a portion of Pennsylvania. He later was named by President George W. Bush’s as chairman of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry and also was a member of the President’s Commission on Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy. He is executive chairman of the Washington lobbying firm, Wexler &amp; Walker Public Policy Associates.</p>
<p>In July, Scientific American published an article headlined: “NASA Seeks Nuclear Power for Mars.” Its sub-head: “After a half-century hiatus, the agency is reviving its reactor development with a test later this summer.”</p>
<p>It starts: “As NASA makes plans to one day send humans to Mars, one of the key technical gaps the agency is working to fill is how to provide enough power on the Red Planet’s surface for fuel production, habitats and other equipment. One option, small nuclear fission reactors, which work by splitting uranium atoms to generate heat, which is then converted into electric power.”</p>
<p>“NASA’s technology development branch has been funding a project called Kilopower for three years, with the aim of demonstrating the system at the Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas. Testing is due to start in September and end in January 2018.” (The Nevada National Security Site was previously called the Nevada Test Site and before that Nevada Proving Ground where nuclear weapons tests were conducted.)</p>
<p>The Scientific American piece offers a history of the U.S. developing nuclear power for space use. “The last time NASA tested a fission reactor was during the 1960s’ System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, or SNAP, program, which developed two types of nuclear power systems. The first system—radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs—tap heat released from the natural decay of a radioactive element, such as plutonium. RTGs have powered dozens of space probes over the years, including the Curiosity rover currently exploring Mars. The second technology developed under SNAP was an atom-splitting fission reactor. SNAP-10A was the first—and so far, only—U.S. nuclear power plant to operate in spaee. Launched on April 3, 1965, SNAP-10A operated for 43 days, producing 500 watts of electrical power, before an unrelated equipment failure ended the demonstration. The spacecraft remains in Earth orbit.”</p>
<p>The Scientific American article does not mention a far more serious accident involving a SNAP nuclear device that occurred a year before: the SNAP-9A accident happening in 1964, on April 24. A U.S. satellite using a plutonium-powered SNAP-9A system failed to achieve orbit and fell to Earth, disintegrating upon hitting the atmosphere causing its Plutonium-238 fuel to be dispersed as dust. The late Dr. John Gofman, professor of medical physics at the University of California, Berkeley, long linked the SNAP-9A accident to a global rise in lung cancer.</p>
<p>The SNAP-9A accident was a key reason for NASA to push for solar power for satellites. Now all satellites launched are energized by solar photovoltaic panels, as is the International Space Station.</p>
<p>As for space probes launched by NASA on which RTGs provided the electricity to power instruments, a break came with the Juno space probe, its electricity also provided by solar panels instead, which on July 4, 2016 arrived at Jupiter—a distance in space that NASA had for decades&#160; insisted only nuclear power could generate the onboard electricity.</p>
<p>Likewise, the Scientific American article did not mention the work through the years by the since disbanded U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, its successor agency the U.S. Department of Energy and the Pentagon on nuclear-powered rockets—none of which ever flew but which underwent years of ground-testing.</p>
<p>But not only has the safe alternative of solar power been developed and used to substitute for nuclear power to produce electricity on space devices, there have been breakthroughs in non-nuclear space propulsion, too. A highly promising technology involves, after launch, the utilization of the ionized particles in the vacuum of space with what are being called solar sails. Several solar sail test flights have been conducted.</p>
<p>Moreover, power on Mars could be generated by solar energy instead of nuclear power, too. As the website <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/21293/despite-dust-storms-solar-power-is-best-for-mars-colonies/" type="external">Universe Today</a>reported in 2008, “With the help of energy specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NASA commissioned a study of how future manned Mars settlements can be powered. Will nuclear generators need to be constructed? Or can solar panels fulfil our proto-colony’s energy needs (regardless of the dust situation)? Interestingly, if positioned in the correct location, solar arrays might function just as well, if not better, than the nuclear options. Solar panels could provide all the energy a fledgling colony needs.”</p>
<p>The nuclear power industry “obviously views space as a new market and one with little opposition because the planetary bodies are ‘far away,’” says Gagnon of the Global Network, &#160;“But the plutonium production process at the Department of Energy’s labs around the country have illustrated their ineptitude over the years. When they were fabricating RTGs for the 1997 Cassini mission to Saturn—involving 72 pounds of Plutonium-238 fuel—they contaminated 244 workers during that production process.”</p>
<p>“Local water sources and air are frequently contaminated by radioactive releases,” he continued. “So it is not just a possible launch accident that we are concerned about—the nuclear industry is killing us right here on Mother Earth as they prepare to go to space.”</p>
<p>Moreover, there has long been an intimate link between the use of nuclear power for civilian and military purposes. President Reagan’s “Star Wars” scheme was based on orbiting “battle platforms” with uranium-fueled nuclear reactors or plutonium-fueled “super” RTGs” to provide the power for hypervelocity guns, particle beams and laser weapons.</p>
<p>And the Trump administration is gearing for greater U.S. military activities in space—with a strong likelihood of, anew, a drive to weaponize space. As Washington-based Roll Call has reported: “ <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/trump-gop-give-space-weapons-close-look" type="external">Under Trump, GOP to Give Space Weapons Close Look</a>.”&#160; Its article said “Trump’s thinking on missile defense and military space programs have gotten next to no attention, as compared to the president-elect’s other defense proposals….But experts expect such programs to account for a significant share of what is likely to be a defense budget boost, potentially amounting to $500 billion or more in the coming decade.”</p>
<p>“The weapons industry views space as a market as well,” says Gagnon.&#160; He speaks of the proposal that’s been before Congress to create a “U.S. Space Force” as a separate military branch and described it as “driven by the aerospace industry’s huge appetite for endless war—and space offers bountiful opportunities.”</p>
<p>“Over the years we’ve heard the aerospace industry saying that ‘Star Wars’ would be ‘the largest industrial project in the history of our planet.’ And how would they pay for such an expensive endeavor?” he asks. He speaks of reports about aerosopace lobbyists in Washington seeking “the defunding of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what is left of the welfare program in order to transfer those funds into creating pyramids to the heavens. The weapons industry are the new pharaohs and we, the taxpayers, are to be their slaves.”</p>
<p>An op-ed piece last year in <a href="http://spacenews.com/op-ed-donald-trumps-peace-through-strength-space-doctrine/" type="external">Space News</a>written by Walker and co-authored by Peter Navarro, professor of business at the University of California-Irvine, said the Trump administration will “lead the way on emerging technologies that have the potential to revolutionize warfare…Trump’s priorities for our military space program are clear: We must reduce our current vulnerabilities and assure that our military commands have the space tools they need for their missions.”</p> | The Nuclearization of Space | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/11/14/the-nuclearization-of-space/ | 2017-11-14 | 4 |
<p>Oil futures settled narrowly higher Friday to tally a weekly gain of more than 9% with traders holding on to hopes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will take action to stabilize the market at a meeting late next month. September WTI crude rose 30 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $48.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, the contract, which expires at Monday's settlement, gained 9.1%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Oil Futures Gain More Than 9% For The Week | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/19/oil-futures-gain-more-than-for-week.html | 2016-08-19 | 0 |
<p>BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is taking six countries to court for failing to bring their laws into line with EU rules aimed at stopping banks from going bust and creating another financial crisis.</p>
<p>The EU's executive Commission said Thursday that it was referring the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden to the European Court of Justice.</p>
<p>The so-called bank recovery and resolution legislation gives national authorities powers to manage the collapse of a bank or large investment firm.</p>
<p>The EU rules were supposed to be made national law by the end of last year. All other countries have fully or partially complied.</p>
<p>Commission spokeswoman Vanessa Mock said "it's high time that we got this moving."</p>
<p>The six could face daily fines until the legislation is adopted.</p>
<p>BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is taking six countries to court for failing to bring their laws into line with EU rules aimed at stopping banks from going bust and creating another financial crisis.</p>
<p>The EU's executive Commission said Thursday that it was referring the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden to the European Court of Justice.</p>
<p>The so-called bank recovery and resolution legislation gives national authorities powers to manage the collapse of a bank or large investment firm.</p>
<p>The EU rules were supposed to be made national law by the end of last year. All other countries have fully or partially complied.</p>
<p>Commission spokeswoman Vanessa Mock said "it's high time that we got this moving."</p>
<p>The six could face daily fines until the legislation is adopted.</p> | EU takes 6 nations to court over laws on failing banks | false | https://apnews.com/amp/51f9f80b9d88473885cafa8059b9329e | 2015-10-22 | 2 |
<p>Jan. 5 (UPI) — Former Peruvian President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alberto_Fujimori/" type="external">Alberto Fujimori</a> was resting at home for the first time Friday since he was pardoned and released from prison on health grounds.</p>
<p>Fujimori, 79, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42583052" type="external">left a hospital</a> in Lima on Thursday night to return to his home in a suburb of the capital. He had been in the hospital for nearly two weeks.</p>
<p>President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/12/26/Thousands-protest-in-Peru-after-grateful-ex-president-pardoned/4281514290060/?ilink=1" type="external">pardoned Fujimori</a> on Christmas Day, prompting protesters to fill the streets and chant “traitor” and “the pardon has got to go.”</p>
<p>Fujimori, who was Peru’s leader from 1990 to 2000, was serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses.</p>
<p>Fujimori’s term began in 2007 with a six-year sentence for bribery and abuse of power. Two years into that sentence, Fujimori was given another 25 years for human rights abuses that included authorizing death squad killings.</p>
<p>Kuczynski said the reason for clemency was because Fujimori has low blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. A statement by Kuczynski said he is “convinced that those of us who consider ourselves democrats cannot allow Alberto Fujimori to die in prison.”</p>
<p>The former president’s son, Congressman Kenji Fujimori, tweeted a photo with his father and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/world/americas/peru-fujimori-released-hospital.html" type="external">accompanied him home</a> from the hospital. There, Fujimori reunited with his four children.</p> | Peru’s jailed ex-President Fujumori released from hospital | false | https://newsline.com/perus-jailed-ex-president-fujumori-released-from-hospital/ | 2018-01-06 | 1 |
<p>On Friday, First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to a group home in Lake Worth, Florida that houses kids who are victims of abuse and domestic violence. But the uplifting, unannounced visit was met with what appears to be some reflexive snark from a shoe fashion site, which went out of its way to highlight Melania's life of wealth and privilege and her husband's preoccupation with golf.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://postonpolitics.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2017/04/14/melania-trump-visits-girls-at-homesafe-in-lake-worth/" type="external">The Palm Beach Post</a>, which first reported the surprise visit, the first lady met with seven teenage girls, all of whom, HomeSafe told the Post, had been removed from their families by court orders after experiencing abuse or domestic violence.</p>
<p>Melania spent a total of about 45 minutes there, from around 10 to 10:45 a.m. EST, bringing gifts for the girls as well as Easter baskets and stuffed bunnies for some of the younger children in HomeSafe's various residences. The agency houses a total of 40 boys and 7 girls.</p>
<p>"This is a day that the girls will never forget," said Matthew Ladika, the chief executive officer of HomeSafe told the Post. "It was extra special and touching…She asked them what their interests are," he said.</p>
<p>"I had a wonderful time visiting @HomeSafeFla today! The young ladies I spoke with hold so much promise for the future," Melania tweeted afterward.</p>
<p>But as <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/16/melania-trump-visits-home-for-abused-children-then-gets-bashed-by-shoe-news-website/" type="external">The Blaze</a> highlighted, Melania's uplifting visit to the girls of HomeSafe was perhaps not so appreciated by <a href="http://footwearnews.com/2017/fashion/celebrity-style/melania-trump-twitter-mar-a-lago-338405/" type="external">Footwear News</a>, a website that reports on all things shoe-related. After giving all the details about Melania's stylish $1,150 shoes (image below), the site dropped this line:</p>
<p>No doubt the children will weigh heavily on her mind on Easter as she enjoys a holiday meal and restful time amid the terra-cotta-roofed Mar-a-Lago, which boasts sweeping oceanfront views nearly 11 miles away.</p>
<p>Is that a sincere "no doubt." Doubtful. The very next couple of lines appear to be an attempt to provide evidence that the Trumps don't really care about the girls, citing Melania's tweet about being excited to participate in the Easter Egg Roll on Monday and noting that her husband was out playing golf the whole time she was visiting the girls:</p>
<p>Melania shared on Twitter that she’s “looking forward to hosting the annual Easter Egg Roll at the @WhiteHouse on Monday!” when she returns with President Donald Trump the day after the holiday.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the commander-in-chief was enjoying a game of golf after arriving at Mar-a-Lago earlier in the day.</p>
<p>Melania has not been given much slack thus far as first lady. In fact, she's frequently been the target of vitriol. As for her visit with the girls of HomeSafe, she deserves unequivocal praise.</p>
<p>For those interested, here are those shoes she was wearing:</p>
<p /> | Melania Trump Visits Home For Victims Of Domestic Abuse. Here's How A Fashion Site Responded. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15463/melania-trump-visits-home-victims-domestic-abuse-james-barrett | 2017-04-17 | 0 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>I sensed it was all over for John Kerry in Florida upon learning that Roseanne Barr and Michael Moore would be at the Tallahasee/Leon County Civic Center election eve to rally the faithful to depose Prince W come on E-Day. After all, Leon County is a safe haven for Democratic presidential candidates such as Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton and Gore.</p>
<p>As the final returns from Florida starkly prove, the Michael and Roseanne road show would have done better to work the I-4 corridor circuit where the election was actually decided.</p>
<p>It was Moore’s second appearance in Tallahassee in a month. In October he spoke to a full house at Ruby Diamond auditorium on the FSU campus. Moore started his entertaining October anti-Bush harangue by bellowing out, “It’s great to back! The scene of the crime.” Moore, of course, was referring to the infamous 2000 election.</p>
<p>As dumb irony would have it, and though he didn’t mention it, in 2000 Moore spoke on behalf of Ralph Nader from the same podium in Ruby Diamond, warning students of the evil of the two party system and the necessity to vote for Ralph Nader. It was the same year in which Moore prepostorusly said in an interview published in “Working For Change:” “George Bush is not going to appoint justices who would overturn Roe vs Wade.” Adding further: “He’s not a right-wing ideologue.”</p>
<p>Although I voted without qualm the “lesser-evilist” ticket once again as I did in 2000, I can fully sympathize with Nader and his supporters who must have blanched when they read that Moore, unless he was misquoted, was now saying Nader was “crazy.” Surely Nader is no more crazier than John Kerry who managed to self-triangualate himself over the Iraq war by being first for it and then against it.</p>
<p>I truly find these silly, Zell Millerish attacks on Nader by fellow-lesser evilist (as though Nader were Richard Nixon incarnate and solely responsible for the 2000 election fiasco) creepy, weird and incredibly tiresome. And in the case of Michael Moore, who like Nader is a first rate, invaluable rabble rouser, hypocritical in the extreme.</p>
<p>Just as Zell Miller opportunistically demonized Kerry a mere couple of years after singing his praises as a war hero in order to prove his bona fides, Moore comes dangerously close to playing the same foolish role. In Kerry-esque fashion, it seems that Moore was for Nader–before he was against him.</p>
<p>In the end Bush beat Kerry by 4 points in Florida, and Nader got less than one pecent. Message: we won’t have Ralph Nader to kick around for the next four years.</p>
<p>JACK McCARTHY lives in Tallahassee Florida. He can be reached at: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | It Was All Over When Michael Moore Showed Up | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/11/04/it-was-all-over-when-michael-moore-showed-up/ | 2004-11-04 | 4 |
<p>It was only a matter of time before the Maduro regime would revert to threatening a member of the US Government for his or her opposition to their dictatorial leadership and human rights violations.</p>
<p>If the regime has no qualms threatening and killing their own people, whats to stop them from doing the same to others outside of Venezuela?</p>
<p>According to a Homeland Security memo, a non-specific threat has been made against the life of Senator Marco Rubio.</p>
<p>Fox News is reporting the threat allegedly came from Maduro’s party leader Diosdado Cabello.</p>
<p>The memo reads that Capello did “order to have Senator Rubio assassinated.”</p>
<p>The two men have exchanged words, Cabello calling Rubio “Narco Rubio,” which we can only assume he has done so because one of Rubio’s family members once served prison time for dealing cocaine.</p>
<p>In turn, Rubio has referred to Cabello as the “Pablo Escobar of Venezuela,” for possibly (most-likely) having ties to narco-trafficking.</p>
<p>Rubio’s August schedule has been kept from publication, leaving us now to believe that the senator is taking security precautions. Rubio’s once non-existent security detail now exists.</p> | Rubio Targeted For Assassination By Venezuelan Lawmaker | true | http://shark-tank.com/2017/08/14/rubio-targeted-assassination-venezuelan-lawmaker/ | 0 |
|
<p>In the pilot film for the 1987 television series Max Headroom, an investigative reporter discovers that an advertiser is compressing television commercials into almost instantaneous "blipverts," units so high-powered they can cause some viewers to explode. American television has long been compressing politics into chunks, ten-second "bites," and images that freeze into icons as they repeat across millions of screens and newspapers. The 1980s were saturated with these memorialized moments. Think of Ronald Reagan at the Korean DMZ, wearing a flak jacket, field glasses, keeping an eye on the North Korean Communists; or in the bunker at Omaha Beach, simulating the wartime performance he had spared himself during the actual World War II. Think of the American medical student kissing American soil after the troops had evacuated him from Grenada. Think of Star Wars animation and Oliver North saluting. The sense of history as a collage reaches some sort of twilight of the idols when we think of the 1988 election. There it is hard to think of anything but blips and bites: the Pledge of Allegiance; George Bush touring the garbage of Boston Harbor (leaving aside that some of the spot was shot elsewhere); the face of Willie Horton; the mismatch of tank and Michael Dukakis. The question I want to raise is whether chunk news has caused democratic politics to explode.</p>
<p /> | Blips, Bites & Savvy Talk: Television's Impact on American Politics | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/blips-bites-savvy-talk-televisions-impact-on-american-politics | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>Protesters called for a ban on Carrefour in four Chinese cities this weekend. A false rumor had gone around on the Chinese internet that Carrefour supports Tibetan independence. But in reality, Carrefour probably doesn't have much to worry about. This Carrefour in Beijing was bustling today. This man who's sympathetic to the protest still shops at Carrefour because of the services they provide. The state media in China has reported that Carrefour doesn't support the Dalai Lama but the shopper is still upset about the pro-Tibet protests that have broken out along the torch relay route. Of course the average Chinese person's view of Tibet is also one sided. State media in China has warned of Tibetan separatists and even terrorists. This plays well to a generation that was taught that China endured years of foreign intimidation and must never do so again, and it conveniently changes the subject away from the crackdown on Tibet. None of this is what China's leaders want people to be focusing on now. insults against Tibetan supporters are ripe on the internet as in Chinese life too. Back at the Beijing Carrefour, this Chinese man doesn't see any reason all this should sour international views towards China.</p> | China's internet protests | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-04-21/chinas-internet-protests | 2008-04-21 | 3 |
<p>Workers at maquiladora factories in Mexico told recent visitors from Texas that they are sometimes asked to undo their work entirely or spend long hours in isolated spaces.</p>
<p>“These tactics are a new level in the psychological game, to get people used to the idea that they are kind of owned and really don’t have any worth apart from the company,” says Howard Hawhee, who helped to coordinate a listening tour in late May.</p>
<p>“These kinds of stories are very bizarre,” says Judith Rosenberg, who has been organizing tours across the border since 1999. “These are management techniques that someone compared to Hitler.”</p>
<p>For example, Hawhee and Rosenberg say women in maquiladoras report that they are sometimes asked to prove they are not pregnant by showing proof of menstruation.</p>
<p>“They are very distasteful management techniques,” says Rosenberg. “And you have to call them that because they are used very methodically. This business with the sanitary napkins is outrageous, and people feel the attack on their dignity, the women do. And the men do too.”</p>
<p>In an interview conducted in Austin after they returned (published at stateofnature.org) Hawhee and Rosenberg said they also heard new stories about workers who were directed to undo work or pass their shifts in isolation.</p>
<p>“One is they would have a whole section of people in a factory that for instance manufactures seat covers or seat belts,” reported Hawhee. “And they would do a whole day’s worth of work, you know, sew everything. And the next day when they came back their job was to un-sew it all. Just to make the point that ‘okay, we don’t need you. We just got you around because we like having you around, and that’s all’.”</p>
<p>“Another worker, and I think I heard more than one example of this while I was down there, he said he’d been insisting on some rights that he had under the Mexican Federal Labor Law,” Hawhee continued.</p>
<p>“And the management had been telling him no, so he kind of dug in his heels and wasn’t backing down, so he’d show up to work for his shift and he’d be there for a full day and get paid, but his job was that they would take him to a small room, maybe a six by ten foot room and lock him in. And that’s what he did. And they’d only let him out on breaks and at the end of his shift.”</p>
<p>In response to this escalation in the psychological intensity of management control, Hawhee said workers were asking for help with corporate research.</p>
<p>“So right now there is a period where they are looking to figure out how to do some economic analysis,” says Hawhee, reporting that this is also a new feature of the conversation he is encountering.</p>
<p>Says Hawhee, Mexican workers want to know from workers in the USA, “What kinds of tricks get played? And economically speaking, realistically, where are they? What should we be doing on this end?”</p>
<p>“They’ve got some very specific pieces of information they want so that they can do an analysis and figure out what buttons to push and what buttons not to push,” says Hawhee.</p>
<p>“Realistic” is a word Hawhee used to describe the workers’ attitudes. They want a better life, so they don’t want to act in ways that will run the companies out of town.</p>
<p>“We’re looking for some human dignity,” says Hawhee reflecting the voices he has heard. “We’re looking to be treated like human beings. And we expect to have a modicum of well being in our lives, and especially for our children. And we really don’t mind doing this kind of work, working really hard, and that sort of thing, but we want to be treated right and we want to think that this is going somewhere.”</p>
<p>Rosenberg organizes four trips per year to the maquiladoras, resuming in October. She has avoided public relations tours of factories, preferring to listen to workers.</p>
<p>“We never go in,” says Rosenberg. “It’s harder and harder to get in. But either way, you get a public relations tour and we’ve never wanted to do that. We have this position that if you want to know what’s going on inside the factories, ask the workers. And don’t ask them while they’re in the factories, because they won’t be able to tell you then. There’s somebody breathing down their neck.”</p>
<p>Instead, Rosenberg organizes small tours that pass through worker neighborhoods where visitors from the USA can listen to stories of life and work. She co-founded Austin Tan Cerca (Austin So Close) as a way to support workers’ rights and fight sweatshop conditions in the maquiladoras. In addition to the tours, the group sends money to support an organizer and office in the border town of Piedras Negras.</p>
<p>Rosenberg was drawn into the activism after meeting Mexican labor organizer Julia Quinones of the Comite Fronterizo de Obreras (Border Committee of Workers).</p>
<p>“It’s been a very important thing for me,” says Rosenberg. “I think it’s historically extremely important to all of us, and we don’t know about it.”</p>
<p>GREG MOSES is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author of Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Psycho-Management Hit Mexican Maquiladoras | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/07/01/psycho-management-hit-mexican-maquiladoras/ | 2006-07-01 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an unusual direct appeal to American readers, lashed out today against “alarming” military intervention and said it was “extremely dangerous” for the United States to see itself as an exceptional nation, <a href="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/11/20444693-putin-pens-nyt-op-ed-urging-caution-in-syria?lite" type="external">NBC News</a> reported.</p>
<p>Putin wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?ref=opinion&amp;_r=0" type="external">“A Plea for Caution from Russia,”</a> warning that a military attack on Syria by the United States could unleash terrorism, increase violence and further destabilize the Middle East, NBC News said.</p>
<p>“It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States,” Putin wrote. “Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it.”</p>
<p>Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on NBC’s TODAY that Putin should be the last person to lecture the United States about human rights.</p>
<p>“I think it’s pretty clear that the whole purpose of that was to try to weaken our resolve,” Panetta said. “He was trying to, in his own way, weaken the United States and the effort to negotiate these issues.”</p>
<p>The White House so far has had no official response to the piece, NBC News reported.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/09/12/obama-putin-russia-syria-new-york-times-op-ed/2802903/" type="external">USA TODAY</a>, former State Department official Nicholas Burns tweeted this morning that Putin’s op-ed is “sly, artful, hypocritical. Whose arms are fueling Assad’s war?”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Putin urges U.S. ‘caution’ in Syria in NY Times op-ed | false | https://abqjournal.com/261767/putin-urges-u-s-caution-in-syria-in-ny-times-op-ed.html | 2013-09-12 | 2 |
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — Gregg Marshall could have searched for excuses. The pod system that gives certain NCAA teams more rest than others. A two decades in the making win over rival Kansas that felt in some ways as satisfying as his Wichita State program's run to the Final Four two years ago.</p>
<p>There was no point, really. The Shockers' decisive 81-70 loss to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night had nothing to do with lack of rest or emotional hangovers and everything to do with the Irish's brilliant offense.</p>
<p>There will be no rematch with Kentucky. There will be no trip to Indianapolis. Another sublimely successful season for the Shockers ended under a torrent of Notre Dame 3-pointers and layups.</p>
<p>Wichita State led just once, going up 38-37 on a basket by Darius Carter with 16:37 to go. Momentum seized, the Shockers appeared poised to set up a potential rematch with the Wildcats, who spoiled Wichita State's perfect season last spring. It proved fleeting. A 38-18 deluge by the Irish and the Shockers were shocked.</p>
<p>"I've never seen a 1-point lead get out of hand so quickly," Marshall said. "It did tonight because of their fire power."</p>
<p>The Irish (32-5) shot 75 percent (18 of 24) in the second half, easily pulling away from the seventh-seeded Shockers (30-5). Notre Dame will play top-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky on Saturday night with a trip to Indianapolis on the line. The Wildcats beat West Virginia 78-39.</p>
<p>Fred VanVleet led Wichita State with 25 points and Carter finished with 22 in the arena where distant cousin LeBron James plays but Wichita State simply couldn't keep up.</p>
<p>"I think we gave them too many easy looks inside and we can live with the 3s but they just shot layup after layup, it seemed like, and we just for whatever reason couldn't stop them," VanVleet said.</p>
<p>The Shockers appeared ready to take control after climbing out of a 13-point deficit but Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Irish back in front and Wichita State couldn't respond.</p>
<p>Notre Dame didn't give the Shockers a chance.</p>
<p>Once Irish point guard Jerian Grant decided to become a distributor after missing all five of his first-half shots, Notre Dame soared. Wichita State said it had the firepower to keep pace with Notre Dame. The Shockers did for 25 minutes, after that the ACC Tournament champions took flight.</p>
<p>"It's like blood in the water, you feel it and you want to keep getting stops so you can keep running," Irish guard Pat Connaughton said. "It's something you can't get enough of."</p>
<p>It's a feeling the Shockers have thrived on during their rapid rise under Marshall. There was the sprint to the Final Four two years ago and the 32-0 start last year. The Shockers had similar designs this time around, racing past Indiana then dominating in-state rival Kansas in the round of 32. It was equal parts milestone and statement that Wichita State — which was left off Kansas' nonconference schedule for years — could no longer be ignored.</p>
<p>Baker admitted toppling the Jayhawks was like reaching Cloud Nine before adding it doesn't sound quite to appealing when Cloud 10 is two steps away.</p>
<p>The Shockers didn't even get halfway there. Notre Dame picked Wichita State apart in the early going. The Irish hit eight of their first 10 shots and led by as many as 13 points before the Shockers settled in behind Carter, Ron Baker and VanVleet, who long ago grew accustomed to performing in the unique crucible the tournament provides.</p>
<p>VanVleet scored Wichita State's final seven points of the first half to pull within 33-30 but it merely set the stage for another Notre Dame blitz.</p>
<p>SHORT TURNAROUND</p>
<p>Marshall isn't exactly a fan of the tournament setup that gave the Irish an extra day of rest but stressed it was not an excuse.</p>
<p>"I just don't like the pod system or whatever they call it," Marshall said before adding, "I don't like that, it's not good, but that has nothing to do with the game. The better team won tonight."</p>
<p>TIP-INS:</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers are 4-2 all-time in the Sweet 16. ... The Shockers shot 40 percent (26 of 65) and made just 3 of 18 3-point attempts. ... Baker had nine points, all in the first half. He missed all five of his shots in the second half.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: Connaughton played in his 138th game for the Irish, a school record. ... Notre Dame made 9 of 19 3-point attempts, with Jackson making 4 of 5.</p>
<p>UP NEXT:</p>
<p>Wichita State: Shockers lose starters Carter and Cotton while Baker and VanVleet weigh whether to return or go pro.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: Irish try to move on to first Final Four since 1978, when they lost to Duke in the national semifinals.</p>
<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — Gregg Marshall could have searched for excuses. The pod system that gives certain NCAA teams more rest than others. A two decades in the making win over rival Kansas that felt in some ways as satisfying as his Wichita State program's run to the Final Four two years ago.</p>
<p>There was no point, really. The Shockers' decisive 81-70 loss to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night had nothing to do with lack of rest or emotional hangovers and everything to do with the Irish's brilliant offense.</p>
<p>There will be no rematch with Kentucky. There will be no trip to Indianapolis. Another sublimely successful season for the Shockers ended under a torrent of Notre Dame 3-pointers and layups.</p>
<p>Wichita State led just once, going up 38-37 on a basket by Darius Carter with 16:37 to go. Momentum seized, the Shockers appeared poised to set up a potential rematch with the Wildcats, who spoiled Wichita State's perfect season last spring. It proved fleeting. A 38-18 deluge by the Irish and the Shockers were shocked.</p>
<p>"I've never seen a 1-point lead get out of hand so quickly," Marshall said. "It did tonight because of their fire power."</p>
<p>The Irish (32-5) shot 75 percent (18 of 24) in the second half, easily pulling away from the seventh-seeded Shockers (30-5). Notre Dame will play top-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky on Saturday night with a trip to Indianapolis on the line. The Wildcats beat West Virginia 78-39.</p>
<p>Fred VanVleet led Wichita State with 25 points and Carter finished with 22 in the arena where distant cousin LeBron James plays but Wichita State simply couldn't keep up.</p>
<p>"I think we gave them too many easy looks inside and we can live with the 3s but they just shot layup after layup, it seemed like, and we just for whatever reason couldn't stop them," VanVleet said.</p>
<p>The Shockers appeared ready to take control after climbing out of a 13-point deficit but Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Irish back in front and Wichita State couldn't respond.</p>
<p>Notre Dame didn't give the Shockers a chance.</p>
<p>Once Irish point guard Jerian Grant decided to become a distributor after missing all five of his first-half shots, Notre Dame soared. Wichita State said it had the firepower to keep pace with Notre Dame. The Shockers did for 25 minutes, after that the ACC Tournament champions took flight.</p>
<p>"It's like blood in the water, you feel it and you want to keep getting stops so you can keep running," Irish guard Pat Connaughton said. "It's something you can't get enough of."</p>
<p>It's a feeling the Shockers have thrived on during their rapid rise under Marshall. There was the sprint to the Final Four two years ago and the 32-0 start last year. The Shockers had similar designs this time around, racing past Indiana then dominating in-state rival Kansas in the round of 32. It was equal parts milestone and statement that Wichita State — which was left off Kansas' nonconference schedule for years — could no longer be ignored.</p>
<p>Baker admitted toppling the Jayhawks was like reaching Cloud Nine before adding it doesn't sound quite to appealing when Cloud 10 is two steps away.</p>
<p>The Shockers didn't even get halfway there. Notre Dame picked Wichita State apart in the early going. The Irish hit eight of their first 10 shots and led by as many as 13 points before the Shockers settled in behind Carter, Ron Baker and VanVleet, who long ago grew accustomed to performing in the unique crucible the tournament provides.</p>
<p>VanVleet scored Wichita State's final seven points of the first half to pull within 33-30 but it merely set the stage for another Notre Dame blitz.</p>
<p>SHORT TURNAROUND</p>
<p>Marshall isn't exactly a fan of the tournament setup that gave the Irish an extra day of rest but stressed it was not an excuse.</p>
<p>"I just don't like the pod system or whatever they call it," Marshall said before adding, "I don't like that, it's not good, but that has nothing to do with the game. The better team won tonight."</p>
<p>TIP-INS:</p>
<p>Wichita State: The Shockers are 4-2 all-time in the Sweet 16. ... The Shockers shot 40 percent (26 of 65) and made just 3 of 18 3-point attempts. ... Baker had nine points, all in the first half. He missed all five of his shots in the second half.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: Connaughton played in his 138th game for the Irish, a school record. ... Notre Dame made 9 of 19 3-point attempts, with Jackson making 4 of 5.</p>
<p>UP NEXT:</p>
<p>Wichita State: Shockers lose starters Carter and Cotton while Baker and VanVleet weigh whether to return or go pro.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: Irish try to move on to first Final Four since 1978, when they lost to Duke in the national semifinals.</p> | Shockers overwhelmed in 81-70 loss to Notre Dame | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1a38b3476dbe48ae8b299b77c0bcf9f7 | 2015-03-27 | 2 |
<p>According to a report in <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture_society/linking-strength-and-anger-1420" type="external">Miller-McCune</a>, scientists have determined that muscles make men irritable and politically aggressive. That makes Vladimir Putin’s pecs troublesome, say the researchers: “If governmental decision-makers are like other humans, then their musculature may be playing a role, unconnected from rational evaluation, in their decisions to go to war.”</p>
<p>Why target Putin? The Russian leader famously likes to show off his guns on vacation. Behold:</p>
<p />
<p>— PS</p>
<p />
<p>Miller-McCune:</p>
<p>The results confirmed Sell’s thesis. For men — but not for women — bodily strength was positively correlated with how easily or frequently they angered. Stronger men also “felt entitled to better treatment,” he reports.</p>
<p>What’s more, they were more likely to score higher than weaker men on a “utility of political aggression” test, in which they reported their reaction to statements such as “Wars in general promote terrorism” and “To deter violence, a country needs a strong military.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture_society/linking-strength-and-anger-1420" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Putin's Pecs and Political Roid Rage | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/putins-pecs-and-political-roid-rage/ | 2009-08-20 | 4 |
<p>On March 13, less than two hours before a midnight deadline, an arbitrator from the American Arbitration Association sent out, by e-mail, a decision on Elizabeth Elizondo’s appeal of the decision by the Finkl Local School Council not to renew her contract as principal.</p>
<p>The arbitrator found in favor of the LSC, paving the way for Susan Jensen to take over the Pilsen school when Elizondo’s contract ends March 31. The LSC, which voted not to retain Elizondo last October, picked Jensen in February; a former assistant principal at Finkl, Jensen currently is an administrator at Grey elementary, according to Finkl LSC Chair Ismael Vargas. She also is graduate of a training program known as LAUNCH (Leadership Academy: An Urban Network for Chicago), based at Northwestern University.</p>
<p>Elizondo’s appeal was the first case brought under a 1999 amendment to the School Reform Act that allows principals to appeal LSC decisions not to renew their contracts. The measure grew out of an attempt by schools CEO Paul Vallas to get the Legislature to give the School Board the authority to overturn such decisions.</p>
<p>Ruling set high bar</p>
<p>The hearing officer, Jay Grenig, confined his ruling to the question of whether the council’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious,” which set a high bar for overturning the decision.</p>
<p>In his written decision, Grenig cites the legislative debate over the law, in which a legislator described the review process as “a safety valve, in the event that a school council is indeed out of control, is making decisions based on whether the principal is willing to sign a contract to hire the brother-in-law of a council member or inflate the grades of the child of a local school council member.”</p>
<p>Grenig concludes that, by itself, the council’s dissatisfaction with reading scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills is enough to support their decision not to renew Elizondo’s contract. The percentage of students scoring at or above national norms at Finkl rose from 9.5 to 19.7 during Elizondo’s contract, but Grenig found that “it is not irrational for the [council] to desire even better test performances. While reasonable persons may disagree as to whether this was a wise or expedient decision, the decision was the [council’s] to make.”</p>
<p>‘Arbitrary and capricious’</p>
<p>“I wish I had known that the law was not written in such a way that it would be even remotely possible for a principal to win this,” says Elizondo. “A council could say to a principal [with test scores] in the 60s and 70s, ‘You didn’t get to 90.'”</p>
<p>In his report, Grenig evaluated 14 other reasons given by the council and found that it had not presented persuasive evidence to support most of them. He declared one “arbitrary and capricious,” but found that evidence supported the council on two others.</p>
<p>All parties concerned say that the process, which ran from Jan. 28 through Mar. 12, was enormously time-consuming, producing over 3,000 pages of transcripts.</p>
<p>“Arbitration prevented bureaucrats or politicians from engaging in histrionics,” says Dion Miller Perez, a parent rep.” It wouldn’t have helped their case to have gone to the press. All the action that was important took place in front of the arbitrator.”</p>
<p>Elizondo and her attorney say they are looking into the possibility of an appeal, although they won’t comment on possible grounds. According to the LSC’s attorney, Elaine Siegel, Elizondo would have to allege fraud or bias by the arbitrator or that the arbitrator had exceeded his authority.</p>
<p>Before the hearings started, Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas sent a letter to the American Arbitration Association, weighing in on Elizondo’s behalf, according to the arbitrator’s report, but he then withdrew to a neutral role.</p>
<p>Elizondo may be working for Vallas soon. “I think I’m going to be working at Central Office,” she says, when asked about her next move. “I have a few possibilities.”</p>
<p>While LSC members say no parents have complained to them about their decision, two members were defeated in Finkl’s late-February elections. (The elections were held then instead of April 6 because Finkl is on a year-round schedule.)</p>
<p>Council members say that they are looking forward to some rest. “I still have to make it up to my wife,” says LSC Chair Vargas. “Sunday [March 12] was my wedding anniversary, and I had to be at the hearing. Not too long, but long enough … to sleep on the couch.”</p> | Principal loses appeal of LSC’s decision not to renew contract | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/principal-loses-appeal-lscs-decision-not-renew-contract/ | 2005-12-29 | 3 |
<p>Around seven months ago Floyd Lee Corkins II entered the Family Research Council headquarters and opened fire. <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/southern-poverty-law-center-website-triggered-frc-shooting/article/2520748" type="external">Corkins told the FBI that he was inspired by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate lists</a> published online. The SPLC designates groups with which it disagrees as “hate groups.” Despite having served as the inspiration for one tragedy, the <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/home/splc-report-antigovernment-patriot-movement-continues-explosive-growth-poses-rising-threat-of-v" type="external">SPLC is once again pushing its ironic “hate lists” in the spring issue</a> of their publication.</p>
<p>The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is becoming increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control measures, according to a&#160; <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2013/spring" type="external">report&#160;</a>issued today by the SPLC.</p>
<p>When the Tucson massacre occurred Sarah Palin and the tea party were blamed. Palin’s cross hairs map (the DSCC published an identical map months prior, showcasing vulnerable districts, but facts are pesky things) was hounded until she removed her map from her Facebook page. Tea partiers in Tucson were hounded by the media and even <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/15/tucson-shooting-survivor-arrested-issuing-death-threat-tea-partier-ab" type="external">threatened with their lives on national television</a>. Months after the shooting I visited with Tucson tea partiers and attended an event organized to support them after they were <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/12/the-worst-sheriff-in-america/" type="external">ruthlessly persecuted by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik</a>. Dupnik blamed the tragedy on their dissent with the administration, despite no relation with Jared Lee Loughner to any conservative movement, or Palin.</p>
<p>The same individuals who perpetuated this association were silent when it was discovered that the Southern Poverty Law Center’s smear lists did&#160;inspire the criminal behind the FRC shooting. There have been no calls for the SPLC to cease publishing it’s hateful lists or even pull the past lists which inspired Corkins. Are we to expect more tragedies based on the SPLC “hate lists?” Will SPLC even apologize for pushing hyper-inaccurate which have already endangered the lives of one group’s members?</p>
<p>(h/t Doug)</p> | Southern Poverty Law Center Targets Patriot Movements ... Again | true | http://danaloeschradio.com/southern-poverty-law-center-targets-patriot-movements-again/ | 2013-03-10 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Money often tops the list of topics that married couples argue about, but insurance issues can be just as financially and emotionally costly.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Relationships can be complicated and insurance almost always is, so when the two intertwine, there's always the chance there will be misunderstandings that can lead to both insufficient coverage as well as marital distress.</p>
<p>"Insurance issues are serious and shouldn't be taken lightly," says Paul Blanco, managing director of Barnum Financial Group, a MetLife office in Shelton, Conn. "You should be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to insurance."</p>
<p>Here are five mistakes to avoid:</p>
<p>1. Neglecting to name your spouse as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. One worst case scenario is when an ex-spouse is still the named beneficiary on a life insurance policy because the policy was never updated. But even just forgetting to name a beneficiary can be a problem, says Joseph Montanaro, a certified financial planner with USAA in San Antonio, Texas.</p>
<p>"States have different rules about this, but in some scenarios a spouse could get half or less of the insurance proceeds if there's no beneficiary and no will," says Montanaro. "Whenever you have a life event such as a job change or getting married, you should look at your insurance coverage and your beneficiaries."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Sometimes life insurance policies are part of a divorce agreement, says Blanco, but he recommends that you tell your new spouse about the policy. He says you should check your group life insurance policy at work and your private life insurance to make sure the beneficiaries are updated.</p>
<p>2. Not listing your bad driver spouse on your car insurance policy. "Failure to disclose your spouse, who has a bad driving record, on your insurance application in order to save money on your premiums can result in a denied claim, policy cancellation, and even criminal prosecution for insurance fraud," says John Foster, vice president for personal lines at Penn National Insurance in Harrisburg, Pa.</p>
<p>Most states require licensed drivers living in the same household to be covered under the same insurance policy, but some states and some insurance companies allow you to exclude a driver. You may need to supply proof that the driver is covered by another policy.</p>
<p>The risk of excluding your spouse is that if your spouse ever drives the car, there won't be any insurance coverage for that driver, says Montanaro.</p>
<p>"Most insurance companies have multicar discounts and other discounts, so your premiums may be cheaper if you keep your insurance coverage together even with one driver's bad record," says Blanco.</p>
<p>3. Not admitting your bad credit before you get married. "Full disclosure is always the best idea before marriage," says Montanaro. "Credit issues have a long reach in a variety of ways including car insurance premiums, finding a place to live and even a job."</p>
<p>Foster says that state laws regulate how an insurance company can use your credit report.</p>
<p>"Car insurance companies have been using credit reports to set rates for several years," says Blanco. "It's important to ask questions about how your credit score will be used. Will both spouses' credit be reviewed or just one?"</p>
<p>You may be able to get separate car insurance policies, but Blanco says you won't necessarily save money because you'll lose multi-car and multi-driver discounts.</p>
<p>Fixing your credit takes a while, but you can start by paying your bills on time and reducing your use of credit cards.</p>
<p>4. Failing to properly insure your valuables and your home. A house fire or severe storm that causes significant damage to your home or collectibles is something no couple wants to experience, but neither of you should be finding out after the fact that your property wasn't sufficiently insured.</p>
<p>Homeowners need to be certain their insurance coverage is for their home's replacement value, not the actual home value, Blanco says. Replacement value means you're covered for an entirely rebuilt home, which could cost more than the purchase price because of construction costs.</p>
<p>Additionally, you and your spouse's collection of fine art, antiques or treasured musical instruments, even your wedding rings, may be worth thousands, but if you don't buy special insurance coverage and need to make a claim, your reimbursement might be minimal. Many policies limit coverage for valuables to $1,000 to $2,000.</p>
<p>"If you have valuable property you need to add specific coverage," says Montanaro. "Blanket coverage on your jewelry can cost as little as $5 or $10 a month and there's no deductible."</p>
<p>Blanco says people often "get it and forget it," failing to update their homeowners insurance when they acquire new valuables. So if you and your spouse are collectors, be sure to keep an inventory, have it appraised and buy an endorsement on your home insurance policy.</p>
<p>5.Letting your insurance policy lapse for non-payment. If you're the spouse that pays the bills, make sure you do your job. If your auto insurance policy lapses, you won't be covered if you get in a car accident, and likewise with home insurance and damages to your house. Even if you don't experience such worst-case-scenarios, you will have to re-apply, may have to pay higher rates and could face new limitations on your coverage if you let your policy lapse.</p>
<p>Given the consequences, it's prudent to be aware of grace periods for insurance payments, which vary by state, says Montanaro. Most car insurance policies don't have much wiggle-room -- if your payment isn't received before 12:01 a.m. of the expiration date, your policy ends immediately. However, most states require car insurers to issue a 10-day notice of cancellation. Some states require this to be a separate notice while others allow insurers to include it on the bill, which may be easy to overlook. Making things even fuzzier, some insurers say though your policy may be canceled, it doesn't automatically go into effect in all cases.</p>
<p>For example, according to Nationwide's website, "Depending on your state, your policy can be canceled even if it's a day late, but the cancellation probably would not take effect immediately. Laws vary from state to state governing when an auto insurance company can cancel your policy and how quickly it can take effect."</p>
<p>"A lapse of car insurance coverage may also result in the person being eligible only for non-standard insurance, which may be significantly more expensive," says Foster.</p>
<p>A similar problem can happen if your homeowners insurance lapses. Foster says your mortgage lender can automatically purchase coverage and then hold you responsible for the premiums. Typically, home insurers will issue a cancellation notice 10 days prior to the cancellation date.</p>
<p>Life insurance companies usually have longer grace periods compared to home and auto carriers. "Life insurance policies typically have a 30-day grace period, but if you get it reinstated you may have to disclose new health issues and your premium could go up or the insurance company could decide not to reinstate the policy," says Blanco.</p>
<p>The original article can be found at Insurance.com: <a href="http://www.insurance.com/auto-insurance/life-events/5-insurance-mistakes-that-can-ruin-a-marriage.html?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-174181010" type="external">5 insurance mistakes that can ruin a marriage Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 5 Insurance Mistakes that can Ruin a Marriage | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/07/5-insurance-mistakes-that-can-ruin-marriage.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Top-rated conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh had a blast "tweaking" the media on Tuesday over bombshell reports that the Obama administration did indeed "wire tap" Team Trump.</p>
<p>"These people are eating and choking on crow," said Limbaugh, who was clearly enjoying every minute of another media face-plant. "It’s yet another example where Trump was right," he added, yet "they mocked, they laughed at, they made fun of" him.</p>
<p>On Monday, CNN blew up its own narrative that President Trump's claim in March that "Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower" was an unhinged, unfounded slander of President Obama's impeccable administration. The network's <a href="" type="internal">report</a> on Monday confirmed information revealed months ago by multiple outlets (and spelled out by <a href="" type="internal">Mark Levin</a>) that the Obama administration had used FISA warrants to monitor Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort both before and after the election.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Limbaugh provided some hilarious/painful highlights of members of the "drive-bys" trying to figure out how to re-spin the narrative. He began with The New York Times' David "Rodham" Gergen's appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night. Here's the excerpt of the exchange Rush played:</p>
<p>RUSH: So last night, Anderson Cooper 360 spoke with David “Rodham” Gergen about the New York Times report that federal agents wiretapped Manafort. And during the discussion, Cooper and Gergen have this little exchange.</p>
<p>COOPER: I assume he could now say, “Well, look, you know, there was some wiretapping going on.”</p>
<p>GERGEN: There … (laughing). Well, there was wiretapping under a federal court order, I mean, federal court approval. And with top Justice Department officials and his own Justice Department it appears may be since the Obama team, that — that okay, we’ll have to — to wait and see.</p>
<p>"David 'Rodham' Gergen rendered speechless temporarily over the idea that Trump was right," exclaimed Limbaugh before breaking into a brutal imitation of the clearly exasperated Gergen:</p>
<p>LIMBAUGH: “There was — well, there was wiretapping, a federal court order. I mean, the federal court of approval —” There is no federal court of approval, unless I missed something. These people have a federal court of approval? He says (imitating Gergen), “A federal court of approval, top Justice Department officials in his own Justice Department, I mean, it appeared maybe just the Obama team, maybe that that that that that that that that okayed it, we’ll have to wait.”</p>
<p>The radio host finally broke character and remarked, "These people are eating and choking on crow. It’s yet another example where Trump was right, they mocked, they laughed at, they made fun of."</p>
<p>Up next from the playlist was CNN's New Day from Tuesday morning, where another New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman (yes, <a href="" type="internal">this Maggie Haberman</a>), tried to do damage control with host Alisyn Camerota:</p>
<p>CAMEROTA: It sounds like the president was right. If Paul Manafort has residence in Trump Tower and Paul Manafort was being surveilled and wiretapped, Trump Tower was wiretapped.</p>
<p>HABERMAN: No, it was not. I’m sorry —</p>
<p>CAMEROTA: How do you know?</p>
<p>HABERMAN: Well, I don’t know, but I know that what we know so far does not indicate that Trump Tower, my lines, as he put it, unless you are saying that he owns every single thing in Trump Tower.</p>
<p>CAMEROTA: Yeah, that is what he’s saying.</p>
<p>Limbaugh had some fun at Haberman's word-parsing expense.</p>
<p>"Would you look at how these people are having to pretzel themselves into various positions to still try to deny that what Trump said was right," he said. "Trump’s campaign manager was wiretapped. Trump’s campaign manager has an apartment in Trump Tower. In that apartment are phone lines. That’s what was tapped. And who knows, there might have been microphones placed around the apartment itself. You don’t know."</p>
<p>Then came Limbaugh's flashback of James Comey's statement, under oath, that Obama had not wiretapped Trump.</p>
<p>COMEY: With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets. And we have looked carefully inside the FBI. The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice in all of its components. Department has no information that supports those tweets.</p>
<p>Sure sounds like perjury — unless Comey's very precise phrasing "directed at" Trump will save him. Limbaugh did not come out and accuse Comey of outright perjury, but he did raise the question through the next highlight from Fox Business Network:</p>
<p>JUDGE NAPOLITANO: How could Jim Comey not know of it if his own FBI had obtained it and it went back to 2014, was dropped for a few months and then picked up again in 2015 when Donald Trump announced he was running for president?</p>
<p>MARIA BARTIROMO: So did he lie under oath?</p>
<p>NAPOLITANO: The facts as they came out this morning are inconsistent with what he told the Senate. It makes you wonder if this was an intelligence style wiretap to which Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice had access. Were they doing this so that they could tell Mrs. Clinton what Donald was going to do next in the campaign? That of course would be a very, very serious felony.</p>
<p>Clearly, Napolitano feels that at very least a more thorough investigation is called for in light of the new revelations.</p>
<p>Limbaugh ended the segment by summing up the sequence of events and asking: How are the DOJ and FBI going to explain how they did not know about the wiretapping of Manafort?</p>
<p>"They testified under oath, Comey did, they didn’t know," he said. "Is it some renegade in a back office at a super cubicle that nobody knew was doing the wiretaps? Some renegade rogue agent in the FBI who had it in for Trump? Is that what they’re gonna tell us down the road somewhere? I can’t wait for this explanation."</p>
<p>Partial transcript via <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/09/19/david-rodham-gergen-and-the-drive-bys-choke-over-idea-trump-was-wiretapped/" type="external">RushLimbaugh.com</a>.</p> | Rush Limbaugh Gives Hilarious Highlights Of Media 'Choking On Crow' Over Trump Wiretapping Story | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21313/rush-limbaugh-gives-hilarious-highlights-media-james-barrett | 2017-09-19 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The report released in 1996 by engineers with the Harris County Flood Control District said the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were adequate when built in the 1940s. But it noted that as entire neighborhoods sprouted over the years around the reservoirs in western Harris County, as many as 25,000 homes and businesses at the time were exposed to the kind of flooding Harvey has now brought.</p>
<p>In the report obtained by The Dallas Morning News , engineers proposed a $400 million solution that involved building a massive underground conduit that would more quickly carry water out of the reservoirs and into the Houston Ship Channel. The conceptual plan envisioned a conduit consisting of eight channels to carry water out of the reservoirs and safely past developed areas downstream.</p>
<p>“The primary flood threat facing the citizens of west Harris County and west Houston comes from the inability to drain the Addicks and Barker reservoirs in an efficient manner,” the report said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When asked about the report, Harris County flood control officials said they could not immediately locate a copy and were unfamiliar with the details.</p>
<p>“What I recall is, and I haven’t read the report since back then, was that it was going to be very difficult to do physically,” said Steve Fitzgerald, the flood control district’s longtime chief engineer.</p>
<p>But the timing in 1996 was right, the engineers noted. The Texas Department of Transportation was launching a reconstruction of the Katy Freeway, a portion of Interstate 10 west of downtown Houston that leads directly from the two reservoirs to the downtown section, and it would have been a suitable route for the drainage channel, they said</p>
<p>Other solutions were offered, such as digging the reservoirs deeper, buying out properties at risk of flooding and imposing new regulations on development.</p>
<p>“Do nothing and accept risk of flooding,” the report warned.</p>
<p>The report was filed away without action, then last week Harvey struck. The usually dry Addicks and Barker reservoirs quickly filled until, on Aug. 28, they were nearly full and water had spread to their surrounding neighborhoods. The Army Corps of Engineers opened the floodgates to let a controlled amount escape. But instead of the normal 4,000 cubic feet per second, Corps officials opened the gates wide enough to release more than 13,000 cubic feet per second to keep the rising reservoir levels from overtopping the dams. They did so knowing it would flood neighborhoods downstream.</p>
<p>And just as the 1996 report predicted, water in many of the flooded homes would not drain for days or even weeks.</p>
<p>Who gets the blame? The Corps said with no federal money appropriated, there was no federal project, although Harris County is “welcome to do that if they can work with whatever partners they need to do that, and we would encourage it to happen,” said Richard Long, supervisory natural resources manager for the Houston Project Office of the Corps’ Galveston District.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack, whose precinct includes the reservoirs, blames Congress, which never allocated the money and credited the Corps with “an outstanding job of managing this reservoir, outstanding.”</p>
<p>The issue is moot for Aaron Voges, whose family home is in a neighborhood located inside a flooded reservoir.</p>
<p>“For some stupid reason I thought that levee that I see on my way home, I thought that protected me,” he said. “I had no idea that there were plans in place to flood me to protect other people, which blows my mind.”</p>
<p>On Tuesday, a Houston lawyer whose home was among those flooded filed a federal lawsuit against the Corps. Bryant Banes said the class-action suit seeks compensation from the federal government for what was effectively condemnation of their west Houston properties when water released from the reservoirs flooded Buffalo Bayou.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Dallas Morning News, <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com" type="external">http://www.dallasnews.com</a></p> | Engineers 20 years ago warned of flooding risk | false | https://abqjournal.com/1058998/engineers-20-years-ago-warned-of-flooding-risk.html | 2017-09-05 | 2 |
<p />
<p>This cartoon requires Macromedia’s Flash Player. If you don’t see the cartoon above, <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="external">download the player here</a>.</p>
<p>Mark Fiore is an editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a <a href="http://www.markfiore.com" type="external">web site</a> featuring his work.</p>
<p /> | Font Politics 2004 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/font-politics-2004/ | 2004-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Jan. 23 (UPI) -- On this date in history:</p>
<p>In 1789, Georgetown College was founded in Georgetown, Md., which later would be part of the District of Columbia.</p>
<p />
<p>In 1845, the U.S. Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.</p>
<p>In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a medical degree.</p>
<p>In 1912, the <a href="" type="internal">Standard Oil</a> Company of New York was <a href="" type="internal">fined $55,000</a> for violating the Elkins Act in accepting rebates from the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads during 1904 and 1905.</p>
<p>In 1922, at Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes.</p>
<p>In 1948, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said he couldn't accept a presidential nomination from either party. Four years later, he ran as a Republican and <a href="" type="internal">was elected</a> as the 34th president.</p>
<p>In 1968, the <a href="" type="internal">USS Pueblo</a> was seized in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, which alleged the ship was on a spy mission. The crew was held for 11 months before being released.</p>
<p>In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that U.S. troops would <a href="" type="internal">cease fighting</a> in Vietnam at midnight Jan. 27.</p>
<p>In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.</p>
<p>In 1986, the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.</p>
<p>In 1997, Madeleine Albright was sworn into office as the <a href="" type="internal">first female U.S. secretary of state</a>.</p>
<p>In 2004, Bob Keeshan, the easy going, bushy mustached actor who created the classic children's television show Captain Kangaroo, <a href="" type="internal">died at age 76</a>.</p>
<p>In 2005, Johnny Carson, host of TV's Tonight Show for 30 years and a powerful presence in American entertainment, <a href="" type="internal">died of emphysema at age 79</a>.</p>
<p>In 2006, Ford Motor Co., reflecting the downsizing of the U.S. auto industry, said it would close 14 factories and <a href="" type="internal">eliminate 30,000 jobs</a> over six years.</p>
<p>In 2014, pop star Justin Bieber, 19, was <a href="" type="internal">charged with drunken driving</a>, resisting arrest and driving without a valid license in Miami Beach, Fla.</p>
<p>In 2015, Saudi Arabia's King Salman <a href="" type="internal">is crowned</a> one day after the death of his half-brother, King Abdullah.</p> | On This Day: North Korea seizes USS Pueblo | false | https://upi.com/Top_News/2018/01/23/On-This-Day-North-Korea-seizes-USS-Pueblo/8411516583460/ | 2 |
|
<p>Over the weekend, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said if the US defaults on its debt, the rest of the world could tip back into recession. That made headlines in the US. And you'd think that sort of prediction would be echoing across the world.&#160;</p>
<p>But from Jerusalem to Singapore to London, the default crisis isn't grabbing headlines. And in Brazil, it's hardly front-page news.</p>
<p>"There's been relatively little reaction," said Kai Lehmann, a professor of International Relations at the University of São Paulo. He said commentators and people on the street just don't know how to react to the possiblity of a US government default. So they're not reacting. "We don't know what will happen. It hasn't happened before."</p>
<p>Many countries seem to be dismissing the possibility of a US default.</p>
<p>"Up to this point, I think financial markets and the rest of the world have dismissed this as a kind of political theater," said&#160; <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/people/faculty/lee-branstetter.html" type="external">Lee Branstetter</a>, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>But as the default cliff looms ever closer, that may be changing.</p>
<p>"I think tensions and worries are starting to rise now, and this is showing up in some financial market indicators, but I think everyone still believes there will be a last minute solution," Branstetter said.</p> | Why is the world facing a possible US default with a yawn? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-14/why-world-facing-possible-us-default-yawn | 2013-10-14 | 3 |
<p>BERLIN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - German state-backed lender NordLB and its owners have decided not to sell property lender Deutsche Hypothekenbank after all, a spokesman for NordLB said on Thursday, confirming a Reuters report.</p>
<p>“Analysis has shown that the future earnings potential of Deutsche Hypo is still high and stable, so the long-term benefits of keeping it outweigh the short-term advantages of a sale for the capital ratio,” the spokesman said.</p>
<p>For months, NordLB had been weighing a possible sale as it sought to repair its balance sheet following heavy writedowns related to its exposure to bad shipping loans.</p>
<p>A person familiar with the matter had told Reuters on Friday that NordLB decided in the end to hold on to the unit as it promises regular profits. (Reporting by Klaus Lauer; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Ludwig Burger)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>) believes the U.S. government, rather than banks, should set rules to promote gun safety, its finance chief said on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo branch is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, U.S., February 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo
<p>The No. 3 U.S. lender has been talking to customers who legally manufacture firearms, but is “not currently setting policy in our extension of credit,” Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said during a call with reporters.</p>
<p>Major financial firms have been under pressure from gun-control activists to limit their support for firearms makers and retailers since 17 people died in a school shooting in Florida in February.</p>
<p>Citigroup Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=C.N" type="external">C.N</a>), for instance, last month slapped restrictions on new clients in the retail sector who sell guns, such as having the retailers require customers to pass background checks.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">Wells Fargo &amp; Co</a> 50.89 WFC.N New York Stock Exchange -1.81 (-3.43%) WFC.N C.N BAC.N
<p>In addition, Bank of America ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>) plans to stop lending to companies that make military-style firearms for civilians, a Bank of America executive said this week.</p>
<p>However, Wells Fargo believes solutions should come from the government, Shrewsberry said.</p>
<p>“The best way to make progress on these issues is through the political and legislative process,” he said. “In the meantime, Wells Fargo is engaging our customers that legally manufacture firearms and other stakeholders on what we can do together to promote better gun safety in our communities.”</p>
<p>Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, has been reaching out to clients in the consumer firearms industry to make sure they hear input the bank has received from other customers, investors, employees and citizens, according to materials provided by a spokesman.</p>
<p>The bank also routinely analyzes customers from a risk-management perspective, suggesting that its relationship with gunmaker clients could change in the future.</p>
<p>Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Richard Chang</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. trade negotiators have significantly softened their demands to increase regional automotive content under a reworked NAFTA trade pact in an effort to move more quickly towards a deal in the next few weeks, auto industry executives said on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Eduardo Solis, President of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA), speaks during an interview with Reuters in Mexico City, Mexico May 22, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo
<p>A deal on automotive content rules would remove one of the biggest sticking points in talks to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>The Trump administration had initially demanded that North American-built vehicles contain 85 percent content made in NAFTA countries by value, up from the current 62.5 percent, along with half the value coming from the United States - levels that Canada, Mexico and automotive groups had said was unworkable.</p>
<p>But this has been cut by 10 percentage points, and the U.S. specific percentage demand dropped, industry officials said.</p>
<p>“The U.S. put on the table 75 percent instead of 85 percent for the regional content value of the vehicle and its core components,” said Eduardo Solis, head of Mexico’s AMIA automotive industry association.</p>
<p>“All of this is being carefully analyzed and specific questions are being asked during this round of the U.S. negotiators (in charge of) rules of origin,” Solis said in a statement.</p>
<p>The 75 percent regional content is for major components such as engines, drivetrains, axles, suspensions and body panels. Aluminum and steel would go into a bucket of other parts and materials requiring 70 percent regional content, while a third bucket of lesser parts would require 65 percent regional content.</p>
<p>“From the parts manufacturer perspective this is a significant step in the right direction, compared to where we were,” said Ann Wilson, head of government affairs at the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association.</p>
<p>“But it does appear that this will creates significantly more paperwork for smaller suppliers to have to certify their parts,” Wilson added. “I think there’s a lot of room yet to improve this.”</p>
<p>Negotiators from the three nations were due to discuss the new U.S. proposals at talks this week in Washington. Talks on rules of origin were due to take place on both Friday and Saturday, according to a schedule seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>A senior union leader who spoke to the Canadian negotiating team on Friday said the talks were progressing slowly.</p>
<p>“We really still are far, far, far away on the issues that are keeping us apart and frankly there has been very little discussion on them this week,” Unifor President Jerry Dias told Canada’s CTV network, citing the U.S. stance on dispute resolution and labor standards.</p>
<p>U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been pushing for a deal-in-principle on NAFTA in the next few weeks as the Mexico’s presidential election campaign officially gets underway. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he thought negotiators were “pretty close” to a deal, but that he was in no hurry for a conclusion.</p>
<p>“Unless the United States makes some meaningful major changes in the short term, for anybody to think this is getting done by the end of April is pushing their luck,” said Dias.</p>
<p>U.S. negotiators had also recently floated the idea that 40 percent of automotive production must occur in areas paying wages of between $16 to $19 per hour. Some auto industry officials briefed on the U.S. plan said the latest version would require an average wage rate of $16 an hour for a finished vehicle.</p>
<p>Setting wage minimum wage thresholds for the auto industry could benefit the United States and Canada, whose trade unions say that lower Mexican pay has prompted manufacturing capacity to move south of the Rio Grande.</p>
<p>Talks to rework NAFTA, which underpins $1.2 trillion in annual trade, began last year after President Donald Trump took office promising to abandon the 1994 agreement if it could not be reworked to better serve American interests.</p>
<p>Reporting by Anthony Esposito and David Lawder; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Rolls-Royce ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RR.L" type="external">RR.L</a>) requires more money and more inspections to fix problems with Trent 1000 engines on Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>) 787 Dreamliner planes, leading to further disruption for airlines and testing relations between Rolls and its customers.</p> FILE PHOTO: A view of one of two Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner during a media tour of the aircraft ahead of the Singapore Airshow in Singapore February 12, 2012. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
<p>Problems with engine turbine blades wearing out sooner than expected have hampered a restructuring program prompted by the engineering company’s declining older engine program and plunging demand for oil equipment.</p>
<p>It said on Friday that more regular inspections are required and would lead “to higher than previously guided cash costs being incurred during 2018”.</p>
<p>“We sincerely regret the disruption this will cause to our customers,” CEO Warren East said in a statement.</p>
<p>Airlines have already been forced to alter schedules or lease other aircraft, but the latest issues could be more far-reaching.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-rolls-royce-hldg-engines-regulators/regulators-eye-new-measures-after-rolls-royce-trent-1000-glitches-source-idUSKBN1HK1PZ" type="external">Regulators eye new measures after Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 glitches: source</a>
<p>The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to reduce the amount of time the affected planes can fly on a single engine after a failure of the other. The time limit would drop as low as 140 minutes, compared with the current window of 330 minutes, a source familiar with the plans said.</p>
<p>This effectively curtails operations across oceans or remote areas.</p>
<p>The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will also order increased inspections of affected engines in line with actions outlined by Rolls-Royce. Currently inspections must be carried out after every 200 flight cycles.</p>
<p>The two advisories are due to be issued on Friday, the source said.</p>
<p>Rolls said it would reprioritize spending to mitigate the costs and kept its 2018 free cash flow guidance unchanged at about 450 million pounds ($643 million), give or take 100 million pounds.</p>
<p>Shares in Rolls, one of the biggest names in British manufacturing, were down 1.3 percent by 1251 GMT.</p>
<p>It announced the need for stepped up inspections after liaising with authorities over a separate issue with the compressor on Trent 1000 Package C series engines. Rolls said there were 380 such engines in service.</p>
<p>Boeing said that about 25 percent of the Dreamliners flying were powered by the engine and it was deploying support teams to help to manage service disruptions.</p>
<p>General Electric ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) engines used on some Boeing 787 Dreamliners are not affected.</p> ENGINE SHORTAGES
<p>The need to inspect and repair Trent 1000 engines has led to an industry-wide shortage.</p>
<p>CEO East said Rolls was working with Boeing and airlines to minimize the disruption.</p>
<p>“Our team of technical experts and service engineers is working around the clock to ensure we return them to full service as soon as possible,” he said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RR.L" type="external">Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC</a> 866.8 RR.L London Stock Exchange -14.40 (-1.63%) RR.L BA.N GE.N ICAG.L 9202.T
<p>Norwegian Air, which has the engines in 15 of its 27 Boeing 787s, said it hopes to have inspected all of its engines before May 26 and that it had already found one problem that required an engine to be replaced.</p>
<p>“It’s disappointing and frustrating that our new aircraft don’t work the way they are supposed to,” spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nilsen said, adding that it had canceled a flight from Paris to New York next week as a result.</p>
<p>“We have an ongoing dialogue with both Boeing and Rolls-Royce and we have been told this problem has their full attention.”</p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic [VA.UL] has up to four 787s grounded at any one time while it sources replacement engines with Rolls and has also leased three Airbus A330-200s to help to cover its flying program.</p>
<p>A Virgin spokeswoman said it had been aware of the increased inspections announced on Friday and that the cover it had in place would be sufficient.</p>
<p>British Airways ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ICAG.L" type="external">ICAG.L</a>), Japan’s ANA ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=9202.T" type="external">9202.T</a>), Air New Zealand ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AIR.NZ" type="external">AIR.NZ</a>) and Thai Airways, which also use Trent 1000 engines, were not available for immediate comment.</p>
<p>Scoot, a budget carrier owned by Singapore Airlines ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SIAL.SI" type="external">SIAL.SI</a>), said it expected some impact on operations.</p>
<p>In December the EASA ordered airlines to replace some Trent 1000 engines.</p>
<p>In March, Rolls said the cash hit from the problem should peak at 340 million pounds in 2018 before falling in 2019.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Tim Hepher, Joachim Dagenborg, Victoria Bryan, and Jamie Freed; Editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TAMO.NS" type="external">TAMO.NS</a>) will cut around 1,000 jobs and production at two of its English factories due to a fall in sales caused by uncertainty around Brexit and confusion over diesel policy, a source told Reuters.</p> FILE PHOTO: New Land Rover cars are seen in a parking lot at the Jaguar Land Rover plant at Halewood in Liverpool, northern England, September 12 , 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
<p>Output will be cut at its central English Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants, affecting some 1,000 agency workers, the source said.</p>
<p>A spokesman at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) declined to comment on the number of jobs which would be lost but the firm said it would be making changes to its output plans.</p>
<p>“In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some adjustments to our production schedules and the level of agency staff,” the company said in a statement.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TAMO.NS" type="external">Tata Motors Ltd</a> 357.05 TAMO.NS National Stock Exchange of India -1.35 (-0.38%) TAMO.NS
<p>It is not renewing the contracts of a number of agency staff at the Solihull site and would be informing staff on Monday of its plans for the 2018-19 financial year.</p>
<p>In January, the firm said it would temporarily reduce production at its other British plant of Halewood later this year in response to weakening demand due to Brexit and tax hikes on diesel cars but did not detail any job losses.</p>
<p>Jaguar sales are down 26 percent so far this year whilst Land Rover demand dropped 20 percent in its home market as buyers shun diesel, concerned over planned tax rises and possible bans and restrictions in several countries.</p>
<p>“It’s been obvious to everyone that sales have been dropping,” the source said.</p>
<p>British new car registrations have been falling for a year which the car industry body has partly blamed on weakening consumer confidence in the wake of the Brexit vote, after record demand in 2015 and 2016.</p>
<p>Editing by Stephen Addison</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | NordLB confirms to keep Deutsche Hypo Wells Fargo CFO says government, not banks, should set gun policy U.S. lowers NAFTA key auto content demand: auto executives Rolls-Royce and airlines grapple with further Dreamliner engine issues Jaguar Land Rover to cut output and jobs due to Brexit, diesel slump: source | false | https://reuters.com/article/nordlb-deutsche-hypo/nordlb-confirms-to-keep-deutsche-hypo-idUSF9N1OE00V | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />The more I read about Ted Cruz and some of the comments he makes, the more I honestly believe he’s completely delusional. &#160;Sure, when you’re a politician you use a lot of hyperbole and rhetoric, but Cruz just takes it to a whole other level.</p>
<p>Even before the shutdown began, many within his own party (and basically anyone with any level of common sense) said that trying to defund or delay “Obamacare” by way of a government shutdown was completely pointless and had no chance at being successful.</p>
<p>Yet despite every piece of evidence saying that there was absolutely no chance at defunding or delaying “Obamacare,” it still didn’t sway Ted Cruz’s obsession with his futile attempt to try to defeat the health care law.</p>
<p>Then once the shutdown began, carrying on for over two weeks, Cruz never once backed off his stance that the government should remain closed until “Obamacare” is defunded. &#160;Even as nearly every national poll showed Americans strongly disapproving of the government shutdown to try to “defund Obamacare,” and blaming Republicans for the shutdown—Cruz still seemed to believe that Republicans were “winning.”</p>
<p>And while&#160;he&#160;seems to believe that, most of the American people would strongly disagree—as would many members of his own party.</p>
<p>But that didn’t stop him <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/ted-cruz-iowa-shutdown_n_4165509.html" type="external">from speaking in Iowa recently</a> to some influential Republicans in that state, implying that the government shutdown was worth it and a success because it got people talking.</p>
<p>Yeah, it sure did—it got people talking about what an imbecile he is and how the GOP is headed toward a “civil war” within the party.</p>
<p>Nothing “good” came out of this shutdown. &#160;It was embarrassing not just for our government, not just for the Republican party or Congress—but for our entire nation.</p>
<p>And the only thing people are talking about negatively as it relates to the healthcare law are the issues going on with the website. &#160;Issues which have nothing to do with the idiocy Ted Cruz has been babbling about for months.</p>
<p>Issues which don’t “prove Obamacare is a failure.” &#160;They just prove the handling of the website was done very poorly. &#160;While the website is linked to the law, the website is&#160;not&#160;the law.</p>
<p>But the more time that goes on, and the more Republicans embrace the fact that “Obamacare” isn’t going anywhere, the more Ted Cruz shows himself to be utterly clueless about the world around him. &#160;He seems to literally blame everything that’s going on in this country on the healthcare law. &#160;I wouldn’t be shocked when then inevitable blizzard hits the northeast this winter if you don’t see Ted Cruz saying it was caused by “Obamacare.”</p>
<p>He’s become that ridiculous. &#160;Luckily for our nation, most Americans aren’t buying what he’s selling. &#160;Sure, hardcore conservatives are, but you’re not going to become President of the United States by pandering to the far-right reaches of your party. &#160;Ask Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney how that worked out for them.</p>
<p>In fact, you’re already seeing more “moderate” Republicans starting to distance themselves from Ted Cruz. &#160;As evidenced by the Governor of Iowa barely acknowledging Cruz during his speech at the same event.</p>
<p>So, while I believe Ted Cruz will unfortunately be a fixture in our national headlines for quite a few years to come, I honestly believe his star is going to quickly fade as the GOP is realizing that his “brand of conservative” will ultimately push their entire party to the brink of extinction.</p>
<p>But I know that won’t stop Ted Cruz from blabbering on about “Obamacare” like some raving buffoon, because he’s living in a world all his own. &#160;A world that seems to only exist in his delusional mind.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz's Delusion Continues, Accuses Bob Schieffer of Repeating Liberal Talking Points for Simply Stating Facts</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">GOP Rep: Agreement to Reopen Government is a Victory for America and a Defeat for Ted Cruz</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz Will Try To Shut Down The Government Over Planned Parenthood, Just To Send A Message</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Speaking in Iowa, Ted Cruz Ridiculously Implies Government Shutdown Was a Success | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/speaking-in-iowa-ted-cruz-ridiculously-implies-government-shutdown-was-a-success/ | 2013-10-26 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/article-2684064-1F77D1D400000578-980_634x380.jpg" type="external" />Published: 21:06 EST, 7 July 2014 | Four people were injured tonight and around 21 others were left hanging 30ft in the air when a roller coaster at Six Flags in Los Angeles derailed. Los Angeles County Fire Department first responders were called to Six Flags Magic Mountain in [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2684064/Four-people-injured-30-left-hanging-20ft-air-Six-Flags-roller-coaster-hit8s-tree-DERAILS.html" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.dailymail.co.uk</a></p>
<p /> | Los Angeles: Six Flags rollercoaster derails in terrifying crash | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/six-flags-rollercoaster-derails-in-terrifying-crash-four-hurt-as-ride-that-hits-55mph-smashes-into-tree-leaving-riders-trapped-20ft-up/ | 0 |
|
<p>Texas state rep. Molly White (R-Belton).Image via liveactionnews.org</p>
<p>Over the last couple of weeks, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal was the torchbearer for the anti-Muslim fringe of the Republican Party as he repeated claims that even <a href="" type="internal">Fox News retracted</a> regarding “no-go zones” in Europe that were allegedly controlled by Muslims. He’s apparently relinquished the torch, at least temporarily, to a Texas state representative named Molly White who not only skipped town rather than meet with members of the Muslim community, but also made some bigoted demands for Muslims who want to meet with her staff.</p>
<p>Now, the last time I checked, one was not required to say the Pledge of Allegiance or do anything else like that in order to meet with their state or federal representatives or staff. However, Texas state rep. Molly White (R-Belton) is asking members of the Muslim community to do just that if they want to meet with her staff during Muslim Capitol Day.</p>
<p>According to the Texas Tribune:</p>
<p>Texas Muslim Capitol Day is organized by the Texas chapter of the&#160;Council on American-Islamic Relations. On its website, the day-long event is described as “an opportunity for community members to learn about the democratic political process and how to be an advocate for important issues.” The agenda calls for sessions about political activism and visits to the offices of state representatives. ( <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/29/rep-staff-ask-muslim-visitors-pledge-allegiance/" type="external">Source</a>)</p>
<p>Now, here’s Molly White’s message that she left on her Facebook page announcing she would not be present during Muslim Capitol Day:</p>
<p>“I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws,” she posted on Facebook. “We will see how long they stay in my office.” ( <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/29/rep-staff-ask-muslim-visitors-pledge-allegiance/" type="external">Source</a>)</p>
<p>Can you imagine the outcry we’d hear from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the hundreds of conservative clickbait blogs if a black, Muslim or liberal lawmaker left town during a Jewish or Christian event at the state capitol? Imagine if he or she left a note asking white or Christian constituents to renounce the KKK or Neo-Nazis before meeting with his or her staff? Every single guest for the next week on Fox and Friends would be trying to&#160;outdo each other with cries for resignation, an investigation and angry talking points about how Christians in America are being persecuted. They would have a media field day with the story, yet Molly White will become a new rising star within the GOP for this outrageous insult to Muslims in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belton,_Texas" type="external">Belton, Texas</a> as well as the of the state.</p>
<p>Molly White is no stranger to making bizarre statements intended to pander to the religious fringe of the Republican Party in Texas. Back in November, she told the religious news blog Live Action News that the media is engaging in a cover up on abortion (sounds like Benghazi, huh?) and that the procedure <a href="http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/28600/rep-molly-whites-abortion-story-highlights-texans-need-stigma-free-abortion-access" type="external">causes mental illness</a> and addiction in women who have had an abortion. This is what she told the anti-abortion blog:</p>
<p>First, it [reporting on post-abortion aftermath] flies in the face of the propaganda that abortion is supposed to be safe, without consequence, and empower women, Secondly, women who speak out about the long term risks and consequences of abortion is a direct threat to those who are living in denial that their own abortions hurt them. Finally, those who support, condone and participate in the abortion movement and industry live under a tremendous weight of blood guilt. Facing their responsibility and guilt is too much to bear. I know, I have been there. That is why we must show the grace and forgiveness of Christ in our pro-life approach. ( <a href="http://liveactionnews.org/texas-molly-white-weighs-in-on-media-bias-against-post-abortive-women/" type="external">Source</a>)</p>
<p>So it’s safe to say that with the combination of blaming the media for covering up the “truth” about abortion along with stoking the flames of Islamophobia, it looks like Rep. Molly White is bound to be a new rising star on the national GOP stage. I doubt she believes in half of what she’s saying, but she knows it goes over well with the people who do believe this stuff. Sadly, that’s the base the Republican Party has found itself stuck with and it doesn’t look like they’re going to break away from them any time soon.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert Wants To Drop A Nuclear Bomb On ISIS</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Here's How Bobby Jindal Could Go To Prison Instead Of The White House</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bobby Jindal Embarrasses Himself In Europe With Retracted Fox News Story</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | TX State Rep. Molly White Wants Muslim Visitors To Pledge Allegiance Before Meeting With Her Staff | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/tx-state-rep-molly-white-wants-muslim-visitors-to-pledge-allegiance-before-meeting-with-her-staff/ | 2015-01-30 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Influential proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services recommended investors vote to replace the majority of directors at Wells Fargo &amp; Co in the wake of the bank's phony-account scandal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>ISS, in a report released on Friday by a spokesman, said votes against 12 of the bank's 15 directors are warranted after board committees failed for years "to provide a timely and sufficient risk oversight process" that could have mitigated the problems.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo reached a $185 million settlement with regulators in September after it emerged that branch employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers' permission, to meet sales goals.</p>
<p>Directors ISS recommended votes against included the San Francisco bank's chairman, Stephen Sanger, although it suggested investors vote in support of Timothy Sloan, who took over as chief executive in October.</p>
<p>The report sets the stage for a contentious April 25 annual meeting for the bank. On Tuesday, proxy adviser Glass Lewis recommended investors vote against six Wells Fargo directors.</p>
<p>In a statement, Wells Fargo called ISS' voting recommendations "extreme and unprecedented" and urged shareholders to make their own judgments about reforms the bank has taken.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"The Board has already taken numerous actions and supported management's steps to promote accountability, strengthen oversight, and hold to account those responsible for improper sales practices," Wells Fargo said in its statement.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Dan Grebler)</p> | Proxy adviser ISS urges votes against most of Wells Fargo board | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/07/proxy-adviser-iss-urges-votes-against-most-wells-fargo-board.html | 2017-04-07 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Events such as the global “WannaCry” attack in May have “taken the threat from cybercrime to another level,” Europol Executive Director Rob Wainwright told delegates at an international conference.</p>
<p>Wainwright spoke as Europol released its 2017 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment highlighting trends in cybercrime and recommending ways of tackling them.</p>
<p>“The growing threat of cybercrime requires dedicated legislation that enables law enforcement presence and action in an online environment,” Europol said. “The lack of adapted legislation is leading to a loss of both investigative leads and the ability to effectively prosecute online criminal activity.”</p>
<p>Wainwright said that while law enforcement authorities have succeeded in disrupting major online crime syndicates, “the collective response is still not good enough” and “people and companies everywhere must do more to better protect themselves.”</p>
<p>WannaCry malware scrambled data at hospitals, factories, government agencies, banks and other businesses around the world.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Wainwright also highlighted victories in the fight against cybercrime such as the takedown of the world’s leading “darknet” market place and the seizure by Dutch authorities of a similar bazaar.</p>
<p>AlphaBay was taken down in July with the arrest in Thailand of its alleged creator and administrator.</p>
<p>European law enforcement revealed later that month that Dutch cyberpolice took over and covertly ran Hansa Market to gather intelligence on users. Like AlphaBay, Hansa operated in the darknet, an anonymity-friendly internet netherworld inaccessible to standard browsers.</p>
<p>“We say it every year: The threat seems to be increasing,” Wainwright told delegates at the two-day conference on cybercrime at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague.</p> | EU police agency calls for better action against cybercrime | false | https://abqjournal.com/1069659/eu-police-agency-calls-for-better-action-against-cybercrime.html | 2017-09-27 | 2 |
<p>The Supreme Court <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/washington/10cnd-scotus.html?em&amp;ex=1197435600&amp;en=72bf94723f660719&amp;ei=5087%0A" type="external">decided</a> on Monday that federal sentencing guidelines, a kind of back seat judging considered by many to be racist, should be treated as “advisory” and not at all mandatory. Justices Alito and Thomas, to no one’s great surprise, were the only dissenters.</p>
<p>One of a number of issues with mandatory guidelines is that they tend to punish African Americans more harshly than other Americans. While crack and powder cocaine have, as Justice Ginsburg wrote for the majority, “the same physiological and psychotropic effects,” the guidelines require 100 times the possession of powder cocaine for the same minimum prison term required for the possession of crack cocaine.</p>
<p>And because crack cocaine tends to disproportionately affect African American communities, the guidelines can be seen as a way of targeting African Americans without having to admit it.</p>
<p>New York Times:</p>
<p />
<p>The disparities between prison terms for dealing in crack and for peddling powdered cocaine have for years angered some lawyers and civil rights advocates, who have argued that the crack-cocaine penalties unfairly punish black defendants more severely than they do whites. Crack is much more common in poor urban areas than the powder favored by white users, and black people make up 80 percent of those sentenced for crack-dealing.</p>
<p>Two decades ago, when the effects of the two forms of cocaine were less well understood, there was a collective assumption that crack cocaine was far deadlier, although subsequent studies have shown that they “have the same physiological and psychotropic effects,” as Justice Ginsburg put it.</p>
<p>But the United States Sentencing Commission, created in the mid-1980’s to recommend appropriate federal prison terms and lessen wildly disparate sentences in cases of similar circumstances, provided punishments for crack cocaine that were far more severe than those associated with the powder — the same five-year minimum for possessing 5 grams of crack as for 100 times as much powdered cocaine, for instance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/washington/10cnd-scotus.html?em&amp;ex=1197435600&amp;en=72bf94723f660719&amp;ei=5087%0A" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Supreme Court Rules Against Mandatory Minimums | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/supreme-court-rules-against-mandatory-minimums/ | 2007-12-11 | 4 |
<p>A new report suggests that none of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's deleted emails will be seen until after the election.</p>
<p>The Hill <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/290906-deleted-clinton-emails-might-remain-secret-until-after-election" type="external">reports</a> that the FBI discovered "several-thousand" deleted emails that involved Clinton's business at the State Department. The exact number of discovered emails has not been specified.</p>
<p>The fact that a specified release date has also not been given has increased the likelihood that they won't be released until after the election, as they have been transferred to the State Department. The department will review the emails and determine which information needs to be redacted.</p>
<p>"Just as we appropriately processed the material turned over to the Department by former Secretary Clinton, we will appropriately and with due diligence process any additional material we receive from the FBI to identify work-related agency records and make them available to the public consistent with our legal obligations," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told The Hill in a statement.</p>
<p>The release date will likely be determined by federal judges, who are overseeing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits from organizations like Judicial Watch to make the email publicly available, with a federal judge first hearing about it on August 22. This is significant because, as The Hill points out, there would only be "two and a half months to release the thousands of emails by Nov. 8."</p>
<p>Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told The Hill that he thought the emails would be released before election day.</p>
<p>"But if the State Department once again plays campaign defense counsel for Mrs. Clinton, who knows?" Fitton said. "I just can’t imagine that untoward delays will be tolerated."</p>
<p>Judicial Watch recently released <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/08/09/emails-reveal-hillarys-shocking-pay-for-play-scheme/" type="external">a slew of newly discovered Clinton emails</a> that showed a "pay-for-play scheme" occurring in the State Department under Clinton. If the emails the FBI has on-hand further confirm this, then between the FOIA lawsuits being bogged down in court and the State Department attempting to stonewall their release, it's easy to see why they might not be released until after the election.</p> | None Of Hillary's Emails Will Come Out Until After The Election | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8262/none-hillarys-emails-will-come-out-until-after-aaron-bandler | 2016-08-10 | 0 |
<p>Al Drago/CQ Roll Call/Newscom via ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>Update, 8/16/16, 12:04 p.m.: North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article95817457.html" type="external">formally asked</a> the Supreme Court late Monday night to reinstate the state’s voter ID law. “Allowing the Fourth Circuit’s ruling to stand creates confusion among voters and poll workers and it disregards our successful rollout of Voter ID in the 2016 primary elections,” McCrory <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GovernorPat/posts/10153639138456949" type="external">said in a statement</a>. “The Fourth Circuit’s ruling is just plain wrong and we cannot allow it to stand. We are confident that the Supreme Court will uphold our state’s law and reverse the Fourth Circuit.”&#160;</p>
<p>Over the last month and a half, voting rights advocates <a href="" type="internal">have scored</a> a string of legal victories against state-level voting restrictions in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, and North Dakota. Still, for many voters, the rules for Election Day remain in flux.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of uncertainty on what the rules are going to be, and we’re getting closer to the early voting period,” says election law expert Rick Hasen. “That kind of uncertainty creates problems.”</p>
<p>Where do the problems begin? First, it will be up to state and local election officials to inform voters of their rights months before the general election. On Wednesday, nearly three weeks after a federal appeals court <a href="" type="internal">determined</a> that Texas’ voter identification law had a discriminatory effect on black and Latino voters, state officials <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/texas-voters-now-have-equal-access-ballot-major-voting-victory" type="external">reached</a> an agreement that gave people the option to sign a form stating they had a “reasonable impediment” in acquiring a photo ID to vote in November. (Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-court-voters-idUSKCN10L263" type="external">has said</a> he planned to appeal the decision in the future.)</p>
<p>As part of the arrangement, Texas officials agreed to allocate $2.5 million toward an education campaign to let voters know about the changes. Poll workers would have to know that voters can cast ballots without an ID, leaving open the potential for confusion on Election Day, Hasen says. “There are a lot of polling places in Texas,” he adds. “It’s going to take a lot of effort to get the word out.”</p>
<p>Restrictive voting laws in Wisconsin and North Carolina also went in front of federal judges earlier this summer. In late July, a federal appeals court <a href="" type="internal">found</a> that North Carolina’s voter identification law was passed with “discriminatory intent” that burdened African American voters “with almost surgical precision.” The ruling brought down numerous provisions that included instituting new identification requirements, eliminating same-day voter registration, and reducing the time for early voting, among others. The decision <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article94651907.html" type="external">has left</a> it up to county election officials to decide how long voters will have during the early voting period to cast their ballots as state officials prepare for a high voter turnout. Meanwhile, Gov. Pat McCrory <a href="http://wncn.com/2016/08/09/mccrory-to-take-voter-id-fight-to-supreme-court/" type="external">said</a> he plans on appealing the decision to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Last Wednesday, a panel of federal judges took a different tack in Wisconsin, <a href="" type="internal">putting on hold</a> a lower-court ruling that let voters without the necessary ID sign a form showing that they had reasonable issues with obtaining an ID. They <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-wisconsin-idUSKCN10L1U5" type="external">concluded</a> that the case would “likely to be reversed on appeal and disruption of the state’s electoral system in the interim will cause irreparable injury.” A federal judge in a separate case <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-wisconsin-idUSKCN10L1U5" type="external">found</a> that several of Wisconsin’s voting restrictions were unconstitutional and that its voter ID rules should be changed. The appellate panel decision effectively ensures Wisconsin voters operate under the state’s voter ID law, pending an appeal to the 7th Circuit or the Supreme Court.&#160;</p>
<p>Now, with the general election quickly approaching, those hoping to further shape the voting rights landscape via the courts have only a few weeks left to appeal their cases. The ACLU <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/frank-v-walker-fighting-voter-suppression-wisconsin" type="external">filed a petition</a> on Thursday to get the entire 7th Circuit to rule on the case in Wisconsin. In the North Carolina case, Hasen <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85273" type="external">notes</a>, the court gave its decision in late July under the state’s assurances it could comply with any possible changes ordered before the November election. It’s been 17 days and counting since the decision came down, and the state has yet to file an appeal.&#160;</p>
<p>In the past, the Supreme Court has issued emergency stays on orders shortly before elections. A month before the 2014 midterm elections were set to begin, for example, the justices took action in three familiar cases involving North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. The justices <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/us/politics/supreme-court-blocks-wisconsin-voter-id-law.html" type="external">blocked</a> Wisconsin’s attempt to implement its strict voter ID law, yet <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/us/supreme-court-upholds-texas-voter-id-law.html?_r=0" type="external">permitted</a> Texas’ and North Carolina’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/us/supreme-court-upholds-texas-voter-id-law.html?_r=0" type="external">voting restrictions</a> to continue for the midterms without an opinion. A stay in the more recent North Carolina’s case “threatens to confuse voters further, and to make election administrators’ life hell,” Hasen <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=85273" type="external">wrote</a> in a recent blog post.</p>
<p>And this time around, timing isn’t the only question for the justices. With the Supreme Court currently divided after the death of Antonin Scalia, last-minute challenges before the justices could result in split decisions that could ultimately empower the lower courts’ decisions. “Everyday it’s a different set of rules,” Hasen says, “so you can’t really have a concerted education effort until you have some finality.”</p>
<p /> | Voting-Rights Advocates Keep Scoring Major Victories, But the Fight Isn’t Over Yet | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/uncertainty-awaits-ongoing-voting-rights-battles/ | 2016-08-16 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The United Nations’ decision — under pressure from the U.S. government — to remove Israel from its list of children’s rights violators should not blind us from the truth: Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinian children last summer, and its continued occupation of Palestine undermines children’s basic human rights.</p>
<p>Also read: <a href="" type="internal">Over 150 Palestinian Children Are Being Held in Israeli Jails</a></p>
<p>From Salon:</p>
<p />
<p>The [United Nations’] decision not only undermines a strong global tool necessary to protect children in armed conflict, but provides Israeli forces with tacit approval to continue committing egregious violations against children with impunity.</p>
<p>Each year, the Secretary-General submits a report on children and armed conflict to the UN Security Council that includes an annex, or “list of shame,” specifically identifying armed forces and groups found to commit grave violations against children. Israel’s armed forces were recommended by Leila Zerrougui, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, for inclusion in the list for killing and maiming children and carrying out attacks against schools. This was rejected by Ban, as was the recommendation to list Palestinian armed groups.</p>
<p>The latest report, released on June 8, is itself a real contradiction. While Ban expressed deep alarm “at the extent of grave violations suffered by children as a result of Israeli military operations in 2014” and recognized the “unprecedented and unacceptable scale” of Israel’s military violence, he omitted Israel’s armed forces from the annex.</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/israeli_military_kills_palestinian_kids_united_nations_whitewashes_it/" type="external">more</a>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p> | Why Israel Deserves to Stay on the United Nations' Child Rights 'Blacklist' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-israel-deserves-to-stay-on-the-united-nations-child-rights-blacklist/ | 2015-06-16 | 4 |
<p>Jonathan Franzen considered adopting an Iraqi war orphan to better understand young people <a href="http://t.co/kIMMa448k7" type="external">http://t.co/kIMMa448k7</a> <a href="http://t.co/fjX7OxJbZE" type="external">pic.twitter.com/fjX7OxJbZE</a></p>
<p>— Salon.com (@Salon) <a href="https://twitter.com/Salon/status/634728827219017728" type="external">August 21, 2015</a></p>
<p>Scott Walker's favorability drops in poll of Wisconsin voters <a href="http://t.co/hD0RMr6SYk" type="external">http://t.co/hD0RMr6SYk</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Walker16?src=hash" type="external">#Walker16</a> has jumped the shark, finished</p>
<p>— Dr. Glen Barry (@DrGlenBarry) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrGlenBarry/status/634731454354722816" type="external">August 21, 2015</a></p> | Friday Around The Twitterverse | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/08/friday-around-twitterverse | 2015-08-21 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is to invest $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that brings together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The investment is not part of Gates' philanthropic Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation and will be followed with another $50 million in a number of start-up ventures working in Alzheimer's research, Gates said.</p>
<p>With rapidly rising numbers of people suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, the disease is taking a growing emotional and financial toll as people live longer, Gates told Reuters in an interview.</p>
<p>"It's a huge problem, a growing problem, and the scale of the tragedy - even for the people who stay alive - is very high," he said.</p>
<p>Despite decades of scientific research, there is no treatment that can slow the progression of Alzheimer's. Current drugs can do no more than ease some of the symptoms.</p>
<p>Gates said, however, that with focused and well-funded innovation, he's "optimistic" treatments can be found, even if they might be more than a decade away.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"It'll take probably 10 years before new theories are tried enough times to give them a high chance of success. So it's very hard to hazard a guess (when an effective drug might be developed).</p>
<p>"I hope that in the next 10 years that we have some powerful drugs, but it's possible that won't be achieved."</p>
<p>Dementia, of which Alzheimer's is the most common form, affects close to 50 million people worldwide and is expected to affect more than 131 million by 2050, according to the non-profit campaign group Alzheimer’s Disease International.</p>
<p>The DDF, which was launched in 2015 and involves drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Biogen Idec as well as the UK government, has already invested in at least nine start-up companies investigating potential ways to stop or reverse the biological processes that lead to dementia.</p>
<p>Gates told Reuters the additional $50 million would be put into start-ups working on some "less mainstream" approaches to the disease, but said he had not yet identified these companies.</p>
<p>The philanthropist, whose usual focus is on infectious diseases in poorer countries, said Alzheimer's disease caught his interest partly for personal reasons, and partly because it has so far proved such a tough nut to crack.</p>
<p>"I know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity... It feels a lot like you're experiencing a gradual death of the person that you knew," he said in a blog post about the dementia investments.</p>
<p>He added: "Some of the men in my family have suffered from Alzheimer's, but I wouldn't say that's the sole reason" (for this investment).</p>
<p>Through talking to experts in the field over the past year, Gates said he had identified five areas of need: Understanding better how Alzheimer's unfolds, detecting and diagnosing it earlier, pursuing multiple approaches to trying to halt the disease, making it easier for people to take part in clinical trials of potential new medicines, and using data better.</p>
<p>"My background at Microsoft and my (Gates) Foundation background say to me that a data-driven contribution might be an area where I can help add some value," he said.</p>
<p>Alongside the $50 million investment in DDF and the additional $50 million planned for start-ups, Gates said he would like to award a grant to build a global dementia data platform. This would make it easier for researchers to look for patterns and identify new pathways for treatment, he said.</p>
<p>(Editing by Dan Grebler)</p> | Microsoft founder Gates commits $100 million for fund, start-ups, to fight Alzheimer's | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/13/microsoft-founder-gates-commits-100-million-for-fund-start-ups-to-fight-alzheimers.html | 2017-11-13 | 0 |
<p>Imgorthand/iStock</p>
<p />
<p>About halfway through Glenn Beck’s 2010 <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061405423.html" type="external">“paranoid thriller”</a> The Overton Window, his protagonist discovers a slide deck detailing a secret leftist plot to gradually subvert the American Way and take over the United States. The conspirators (who include the protagonist’s dad) are employing an insidious, if somewhat wonky, tactic. As Beck’s hero <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Overton-Window-Glenn-Beck/dp/1451625286/ref=nav_ya_signin?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1480358503&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=overton+window&amp;#reader_1451625286" type="external">explains</a>, “It’s called the Overton Window. My father stole the concept from a think tank in the Midwest; it’s a way of describing what the public is currently ready to accept on any issue, so you can decide how best to move them toward what you want.”</p>
<p>That’s a pretty good distillation of the Overton Window, a concept that’s suddenly gotten a lot of attention as Donald Trump and his allies have pushed the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. “On key issues, [Trump] didn’t just move the Overton Window, he smashed it, scattered the shards, and rolled over them with a steamroller,” National Review’s David French <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428200/donald-trump-overton-window-american-political-debate" type="external">noted</a> with a mix of dismay and admiration in late 2015. Trump’s disregard for mainstream conservatism has also emboldened his boosters on the extreme right. The day before he announced his run for Louisiana’s Senate seat, ex-Ku Klux Klan leader and Trump fan <a href="" type="internal">David Duke</a> tweeted about squeezing through the Overton Window into a federal office. “If you want to radically shift the Overton Window, you need that far-right flank,” <a href="" type="internal">Richard Spencer</a>, the white nationalist credited with coining the term “alt-right,” told Mother Jones.</p>
<p>As Trump continues to push policies and embrace figures that would have been anathema not so long ago, we’re about to see the Overton Window shift to accommodate the defenestration of progressivism. One area to pay close attention to is education, where Trump has a direct link to the origins of the Overton Window concept—and where the Trump administration will likely promote policies that would blow up public education as we know it.</p>
<p>Trump’s connection to the Overton Window starts with Betsy DeVos, his pick for secretary of education. She’s married to <a href="" type="internal">Dick DeVos</a>, heir to the multilevel marketing giant Amway and a leading bankroller of Republican and conservative causes and candidates in their home state of Michigan. The DeVoses have also been major funders of the <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/" type="external">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a>, a conservative think thank that has long pushed for deregulation, privatization, and weakening labor unions. (Dick DeVos has also served on the center’s board of directors.) The Mackinac Center is also the birthplace of the <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/12887#overton_window_container" type="external">Overton Window</a>.</p>
<p>The concept is named after its creator, <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=12" type="external">Joseph Overton</a>, the late senior vice president of the center. In the mid-’90s, Overton developed the idea to describe how a think tank might shift public opinion to consider ideas beyond the realm of conventional wisdom. Since politicians would not entertain these risky ideas for fear of rocking the boat, it was up to political outsiders and the public to nudge politicians toward “bolder” choices. In other words, any policy that might currently be considered too extreme for discussion may eventually be normalized through a series of gradual shifts in public opinion. According to the model, politicians rarely move the window. Arguably, Trump may not have personally shifted the window so much as climbed through an opening created by his base.</p>
<p>Unlike the big-government baddies in Beck’s novel, the Mackinac Center doesn’t conceal its efforts to shift the Overton Window toward “free market” solutions. (It even has an Overton Window <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Overton-Window/126808510677671" type="external">Facebook page</a>.) In its description of the concept, Mackinac places policies along a liberal-conservative continuum, with the left represented by “Most government intervention/Least freedom” and the right by “Least government intervention/Most freedom.” For example, on gun policy, the scale encompasses everything from no private ownership of weapons (least freedom) to no restrictions of any kind on weapon ownership (most freedom). When it’s applied to education policy, the scale ranges from “Compulsory indoctrination in government schools” to “No government schools”:</p>
<p />
<p>While any discussion of eliminating public schooling may currently seem outrageous, that could change as more states embrace the “reforms” outlined by the Mackinac Center. “Why is it that we educate children by having the government assign them to schools?” asked the center’s president, Joe Lehman, in <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/13020" type="external">an appearance</a> on Beck’s show before describing how Mackinac has successfully challenged education policy in Michigan. “We’ve shifted that window up.” A Mackinac article on Overton’s legacy <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/7504" type="external">notes</a> just how far he and his colleagues were able to move the state’s education policies: “Home schooling is here to stay, charter schools are well established, and school choice continues to gain ground. In fact, in some parts of Michigan it is now even possible to run for office on a platform that includes the Universal Tuition Tax Credit—another Overton innovation—a situation that was unthinkable just 10 years ago.” On the Overton scale, tax credits for education are just three steps away from the final goal: “No government schools.”</p>
<p>Which brings us back to Betsy DeVos. As my colleague Kristina Rizga <a href="" type="internal">explains</a>, DeVos has spent decades trying to gut Michigan’s education system in the name of school choice. While she has not publicly called for an end to public education, DeVos has written about the need to <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2016/02/22/devos-families-need-dps-retread/80788340/" type="external">“retire” and “replace”</a> Detroit’s public school system. And she has pushed for aggressively expanding charter schools (with minimal oversight) and expanding the use of school vouchers to fund private and parochial schools—key steps on the Mackinac Center’s continuum.</p>
<p>Another sign the Overton Window is lurching rightward is the adoption of the language promoted by the DeVoses and Joseph Overton himself. In a <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/11/26/here_s_a_new_star_wars_trailer_plus_dick_devos_at_heritage.html" type="external">2002 speech</a> at the Heritage Foundation, Dick DeVos advocated a shift in how conservatives talk about America’s schools. “‘Public schools’ is such a misnomer today that I really hate to use it,” he said. “I’ve begun to use the word ‘government schools’ or ‘government-run schools’ to describe what we used to call public schools because it’s a better descriptor of what they are.” At the time, you might have been hard pressed to find a prominent Republican politician willing to use such a loaded term. Fourteen years later, the president-elect is talking about our <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/betsy-devos-trumps-education-pick-has-steered-money-from-public-schools.html" type="external">“failing government schools.”</a></p>
<p /> | What Trump Really Means When He Talks About “Government Schools” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trump-betsy-devos-overton-window/ | 2016-11-29 | 4 |
<p>Will the young and hopeful abandon the political playing field to older voters who are angry? That is the quiet crisis confronting President Obama and the Democrats. Left unattended, it could become a formidable obstacle for them in next year’s midterm elections.</p>
<p>Moreover, the sour mood that has gripped the nation’s politics could only further turn off the young. This means that the decision of Republican congressional leaders to put up a solid front of opposition to Obama could be highly functional for a party that would rather see younger, more progressive voters ignore Election Day.</p>
<p>Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, offered a straightforward formula: “When Republican voters and older voters get angry, they vote,” she said. “When younger voters get angry, they stay home.”</p>
<p>Thomas Bates, vice president for civic engagement at Rock the Vote, a group that mobilizes young Americans to go to the polls, shares Lake’s worries. “For people who were energized in 2008, it was a time of hope and optimism,” he said. “And when you get to the brass tacks of governing, the atmosphere in the process of legislating has become poisonous. That makes political engagement as unappealing as possible.”</p>
<p />
<p>More than is often appreciated, the electoral revolution that brought Democrats to power was fueled by a younger generation with a distinctive philosophical outlook. Put starkly: if only Americans 45 and over had cast ballots in 2008, Barack Obama would not be president.</p>
<p>Obama took 66 percent of the vote among voters under 30, according to the exit polls, and beat John McCain 52 percent to 46 percent among voters aged 30 to 44. But voters 45 to 64 split narrowly (50-49 for Obama), and voters over 65 went to McCain, by 53 percent to 45 percent, giving McCain a net advantage in the over-45 set. Voters under 30 were the only age group in which self-identified liberals outnumbered conservatives.</p>
<p>And lost in the usual grumbling about how young people don’t vote, voters under 30 accounted for a slightly larger share of the 2008 electorate than did voters over 65. In 2008, the torch really was passed to a new generation.</p>
<p>But will the young hand the torch back in 2010? That prospect petrifies Democrats already worried about lower participation by the young in this year’s governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey.</p>
<p>Lake has been scouring municipal election results this year and does not like what she sees: “… a dramatically lower level of turnout from Obama surge voters,” a reference to the new participants inspired by Obama last year.</p>
<p>She called back some of the young electoral dropouts in her own studies to see why they were pulling away from politics. She cites the answers from three of them as revealing: “One of them said, ‘I’m tired of politics, I need a rest.’ A second said, ‘When is Obama up again?’ The third said, ‘I don’t like what any of them are doing in Washington, opposing Obama’s agenda.’&#160;“</p>
<p>Lake is worried that Obama and his team have shied away from giving their supporters an “interpretation” of the fight in Washington, and sees their outreach to the under-30s as, at best, only “intermittent.” The battles in Washington could mobilize rather than turn off Obama backers, she said, if they understood that the president was resisting forces trying to block the changes he promised in the campaign. “If you are getting things done, then the discord doesn’t matter,” she said.</p>
<p>Linda DiVall, a Republican pollster, also sees the malaise among the young as “a factor that’s inhibiting Democrats right now,” and said that soaring unemployment, which has had a particularly damaging impact on the young, could weaken their loyalty to Obama “if they believe he hasn’t done anything to change the job situation.”</p>
<p>But for Rock the Vote’s Bates, the biggest problem could come if Democrats give up on trying to turn out the young until the next presidential election. “It’s like a party for which you send an invitation to people, those people show up — and then you get mad at the people who don’t show up, even though you didn’t send them an invitation,” he said.</p>
<p>Fred Yang, another Democratic pollster, said his party has to realize that it will not win “just by getting our usual suspects out to vote. We have to expand the pool.” The old politics of ignoring the young is simply not an option.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Obama Can't Lose the Young | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/obama-cant-lose-the-young/ | 2009-10-19 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmorrell/1110406084/"&gt;Andrew Morrell&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>For all the drastic spending cuts in GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed 2012 budget, there’s one major government program that it barely touches: Social Security. Now Republicans in both houses of Congress are preparing to dig into that sacrosanct entitlement as well.</p>
<p>On Wednesday morning, shortly before Obama’s big deficit speech, three Republican senators <a href="" type="internal">unveiled</a>a plan to cut $6.2 trillion by paring back Social Security over the next two decades. Under a proposal unveiled by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the qualifying age for Social Security would rise from 67 to 70 by 2032, while benefits for everyone earning more than an average of $43,000 over their lifetime would be reduced. Graham took pains to explain that he wasn’t pushing for privatization but also slammed any tax increases to shore up Social Security, saying such a move would “destroy America.” “It’s much better to give up benefits on the end side than pay taxes now,” he explained.</p>
<p>Graham, who’s long led GOP efforts on Social Security, said that he could only find two other senators to join him at the podium on Wednesday, given the political risks involved in tackling the issue. “It shows the real reluctance of the GOP,” he said. And while House Republicans have made privatizing Medicare and cutting Medicaid their top budget priorities, Graham said that Social Security reform needed to be moved to the front of the queue. “It’s the place to start entitlement reform. Once you fix the Social Security problem, move to Medicare,” he told Mother Jones.</p>
<p>Paul, for his part, argued that Ryan’s draconian <a href="" type="internal">budget</a> didn’t go far enough in slashing spending. “It doesn’t balance for 26 years—that’s too long,” he said. Could House Republicans who’ve embraced Ryan’s vision line up behind their Senate colleagues’ Social Security cuts? Some of them—especially freshman and tea party members—seem open to the possibility.</p>
<p>“Social Security right now should be talked about every bit as Medicare and Medicaid…gosh, I wish we would,” said Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), a freshman member and tea party activist. Walsh explained that he, too, wants to consider hiking the retirement age and introducing optional privatized accounts. When asked about the GOP senators’ plan, Walsh was enthused: “I’ll talk to Senator Paul, because I’d love to sponsor it here.”</p>
<p>Other newly elected House Republicans also seemed open to putting Social Security on the table in the upcoming fights over the 2012 budget and the debt limit. When asked whether the House GOP should be tackling Social Security, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga)—the elected president of the freshmen class—replied: “Absolutely. We have to put every issue on the table, and address all of them…. I don’t think we can afford to exclude anything right now, with the debt limit and the fiscal crisis we’re in.” Even freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who represents a district with a significant elderly population, argued that raising the Social Security age would help address the deficit. “If you take it from 65 to 69, it does have a positive effect on bending down the deficit curve…back then, we were living to 59. Now we’re living to 78,” West told Mother Jones.</p>
<p>And a major Social Security debate in the House may already be on the horizon. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), also a tea party favorite, added that he planned to introduce his own Social Security reform bill in the upcoming weeks. He wouldn’t disclose any details of his plan, only to note that “lots of folks” in the House were involved—and that his plan would take major steps in overhauling the program. “Until we fully tackle entitlements, we can’t get on the trajectory that we need to,” Chaffetz said.</p>
<p>Not every House Republican seemed so excited about Graham’s plan. Even on the party’s right flank, some members seemed wary of tackling Social Security, long described as the untouchable “third rail” of politics. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a well-known flamethrower within the party, demurred when asked about the issue. “It’s a delicate thing,” King said. “I represent perhaps the most senior congressional district in America. I’m not in a position where I can speak about [Social Security reform] publicly.” Similarly, Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio), said the GOP needed to act prudently if and when it takes on Social Security reform. “It’s very important that we do it in a responsible manner and very important that those 55 and older are held harmless,” Austria said.</p>
<p>Republicans are taking a big political risk by going after Medicare. Adding Social Security to the mix could put them on even more difficult footing, as George W. Bush’s failed effort at <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/05/bush-social-security-accomplishment/" type="external">privatizing</a> the program demonstrated. But having already pushed the parameters of the debate so far to the right, they’ve opened the door to going even further.</p>
<p /> | Republicans: Let’s Cut Social Security, Too | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/republican-social-security-cuts/ | 2011-04-14 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEWCASTLE, England — Police say a former youth soccer coach for Newcastle has been charged with 29 sexual abuse offenses.</p>
<p>Northumbria police say 61-year-old George Ormond has been charged for “historic sexual offenses between 1973 and 1998.”</p>
<p>Assistant Chief Constable Darren Best says “we have had a dedicated team investigating allegations of non-recent child abuse within the sporting community since December last year.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former Newcastle youth coach faces sexual abuse charges | false | https://abqjournal.com/1005774/former-newcastle-youth-coach-faces-sexual-abuse-charges.html | 2 |
|
<p>President Obama went on the stump again last week and told Republicans to “stop hating.”</p>
<p>Former Republican Congressman Allen West’s response to Obama: Stop whining.</p>
<p>“It’s all about the rule of law and following the Constitution,” West said with regard to the border crisis. “Congress has authority over naturalization, he [President Obama] does not.”</p>
<p>Watch the latest video at &lt;a href="http://video.foxnews.com"&gt;video.foxnews.com&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p>“We don’t need a President out there still holding rallies to try to build up his popularity,” West said. “Talk is cheap.”</p> | Allen West Slams “Victim In Chief” | true | http://shark-tank.com/2014/08/04/allen-west-slams-victim-chief/ | 0 |
|
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - About 40 percent of Pennsylvania's municipalities are banning a new mini-casino allowed under a two-month-old state law expanding casino-style gambling.</p>
<p>The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Thursday that the list of 1,017 municipalities is final now that Sunday's deadline passed for municipalities inform the agency.</p>
<p>The state's 11 largest licensed casinos can bid at next Wednesday's auction on the first of the 10 mini-casino licenses. The minimum bid is $7.5 million and the winning bidder's chosen location will be unveiled, but it cannot be within 25 miles of a competing casino.</p>
<p>Some of the municipalities that banned a mini-casino are inside of those 25-mile circles, including Philadelphia. The law also bans six counties from hosting a casino, including Armstrong, Montgomery, Fayette, Carbon, Wayne and Pike.</p>
<p>Nine subsequent auctions will be held through May 16.</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - About 40 percent of Pennsylvania's municipalities are banning a new mini-casino allowed under a two-month-old state law expanding casino-style gambling.</p>
<p>The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Thursday that the list of 1,017 municipalities is final now that Sunday's deadline passed for municipalities inform the agency.</p>
<p>The state's 11 largest licensed casinos can bid at next Wednesday's auction on the first of the 10 mini-casino licenses. The minimum bid is $7.5 million and the winning bidder's chosen location will be unveiled, but it cannot be within 25 miles of a competing casino.</p>
<p>Some of the municipalities that banned a mini-casino are inside of those 25-mile circles, including Philadelphia. The law also bans six counties from hosting a casino, including Armstrong, Montgomery, Fayette, Carbon, Wayne and Pike.</p>
<p>Nine subsequent auctions will be held through May 16.</p> | 2 in 5 municipalities ban mini-casino before license auction | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9b716df0b0dd47beb8a75baf59b6cba6 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>California is weighing in on a landmark Supreme Court case with far-reaching implications for agriculture the world over. The Attorney Generals of California, Oregon and Massachusetts have filed amicus briefs along with a coalition of scientists, organic and conventional farmers, food exporters, former government officials and legal scholars <a href="http://truefoodnow.org/" type="external">in support</a> of the Center for Food Safety, an anti-GMO advocacy group opposing Monsanto.</p>
<p>In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, the American biotech giant – currently <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/08/business/main5372772.shtml" type="external">under investigation</a> for anti-trust law violations – is seeking to end an injunction on its patented “Roundup Ready” alfalfa imposed by a federal district court in 2007. Three years and two failed appeals later, Monsanto is taking their case to the the Supreme Court in what will be the first ever High Court ruling on a genetically engineered (GE) crop.</p>
<p>At issue in this case is a lower court’s ban on the planting of the GE alfalfa crop. The USDA approved its use in 2007 without submitting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to asses the ramifications transgenetic plants would have on farmers and surrounding environments. The court determined that by failing to comply with the environmental impact research requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the USDA was derelict in its administrative duties.</p>
<p>California Attorney General, Edmund Brown Jr., argues in the states’ brief that allowing the planting of GE alfalfa without proper research precludes the informed consent of California citizens for a federal action that could cause “irreparable harm” to California’s environment. The effect on state interests by allowing Monsanto to plant GE open-pollinated crops would be “immense,” according to the joint brief prepared by the three states.</p>
<p>Supporting these claims are farmers’ organizations who insist GMO contamination of their crops would be unavoidable. Food exporters fear devastating consequences for their businesses if the injunction is overturned. Most foreign governments simply won’t, by law, deal in genetically engineered commodities.</p>
<p>Monsanto has made an ominous name for itself in the agricultural world, known for its strong-armed legal tactics against farmers who were unfortunate enough to have wind-borne pollen from patented GE corn (most growers plant GE in the corn belt) cross-pollinate their conventional fields. According to Monsanto, this act of God amounts to copyright infringement.</p>
<p>As a brief aside, Clarence Thomas was a Monsanto attorney from 1976-79 and actually authored the majority decision which upheld the legality of patenting lifeforms. There is much <a href="https://current.com/news/92330224_conflict-of-interest-ex-monsanto-lawyer-clarence-thomas-to-hear-major-monsanto-case.htm" type="external">controversy</a> over his decision to not recuse himself for this current case.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Federal organic standards already mandate that all products labeled as organic cannot contain any GE ingredients. This is foreboding news for the organic milk industry which relies heavily on alfalfa as an integral source of forage for their cows. What worries organic farmers is the ease with which transgenetic materials from GE contaminated alfalfa – the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered – can find themselves inserted into Organic or even conventional varieties because of its open-pollinated nature.</p>
<p>Bees can cross-pollinate alfalfa stands several miles distant. It is further argued that wild alfalfa stands could pick up the foreign DNA and provide a prolific and continuous source of transgene contamination for all organic farmers.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj-G6VhUynY&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">documented evidence</a> that such a scenario of widespread GMO contamination is not only possible, it’s extant, pervasive, and poses a global ecological threat. Ever since Monsanto’s introduction of Bt corn to the American market thirteen years ago, herbicide resistant genetic material from these GE plants has been found in heirloom varieties of maize in southern Mexico. And this is in spite of the Mexican government’s ban on growing GMO corn.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>The USDA’s forthcoming final draft EIS would be the first review of facts on GE organisms ever proffered by a government agency. It’s no secret that Monsanto is willing to accommodate high level FDA officials with well-paying positions at their firm. The “leadership exchange program” between the corporate giant and the government agency has <a href="https://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-08-monsanto-FDA-taylor/" type="external">worked both ways</a>. Perhaps such cronyism has prevented regulatory agencies from studying the potential negatives of GMOs.</p>
<p>However, independent studies do give credence to the anti-GMO case of potential “irreparable harm” to human health and the environment. These reports <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/failure-to-yield.html" type="external">show</a> GM crops have not increased yields (their much hyped purpose), have actually dramatically <a href="https://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/13years2009-fullreport-11-16-09.pdf" type="external">increased</a> pesticide use in the country, and have <a href="http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopressrelease.html" type="external">adverse</a> physiological effects on lab animals such as organ tissue damage.</p>
<p>“This is truly a ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle, between public interest non-profits and a corporation bent on nothing less than domination of our food system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. He went on to say:</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; That Monsanto has pushed this case all the way to the Supreme Court, even though USDA’s court-ordered analysis is now&#160; <a href="http://ga3.org/campaign/alfalfaEIS" type="external">complete</a>, and the U.S. government actively opposed further litigation in this matter, underscores the great lengths that Monsanto will go to further its mission of patent control of our food system and selling more pesticides.</p>
<p>To read my article on the failure of the FDA to address the substantial health and environmental concerns posed by members of the scientific community regarding GMOs, click <a href="http://caivn.org/article/2010/03/03/how-fda-failing-protect-us-genetically-modified-foods" type="external">here</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>To see a full list of amicus briefs filed, click <a href="http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Monsanto_Company_v._Geertson_Seed_Farms" type="external">here</a>.</p> | California files legal brief opposing Monsanto in US Supreme Court | false | https://ivn.us/2010/05/01/california-files-legal-brief-opposing-monsanto-us-supreme-court/ | 2010-05-01 | 2 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - With the American Film Institute's annual luncheon Friday recognizing the best in film and television, Hollywood's awards season is officially underway.</p>
<p>The schmooze-y celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel brought together the casts and creators of 2017's most celebrated movies and TV shows, many of which are also in contention for the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.</p>
<p>"Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins led the honorees in a toast, during which she quoted former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham (who is played by Meryl Streep in Steven Spielberg's "The Post," an AFI honoree and best picture nominee at the Globes).</p>
<p>"To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun?" Jenkins said. "We love what we do. It doesn't always matter - and often it doesn't - but sometimes it does, so it's always worth it to try."</p>
<p>With winners announced in advance and no trophies to accept onstage, the AFI Awards are an opportunity for collegial confabulation.</p>
<p>"This is a place to be together as a community," said AFI president Bob Gazzale, "to consider the compendium and feel proud."</p>
<p>Actors, writers, directors and executives embraced the chance to chat, with superstar mashups spontaneously erupting throughout the room.</p>
<p>"Insecure" creator and star Issa Rae greeted Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley. Jenkins was part of a woman-power trio, chatting with Reese Witherspoon and "Lady Bird" writer-director Greta Gerwig. Witherspoon and "Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot shared a mutual admiration moment, with Gadot telling Witherspoon, "I'm such a big fan."</p>
<p>Guillermo del Toro made Spielberg laugh. Actress Saoirse Ronan met "Master of None" writer and actress Lena Waithe. Tom Hanks posed for a photo with "The Big Sick" screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, who playfully gave him posing tips.</p>
<p>Sterling K. Brown rearranged place cards at the "This Is Us" table so he could sit next to costar Chrissy Metz. Sam Rockwell did the same thing at the table for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," moving himself closer to actress Sandy Martin, who plays his mother in the film.</p>
<p>"Call Me By Your Name" stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet, both awards-season newcomers, stood together as they took in the celebrity-filled room.</p>
<p>Besides "Wonder Woman," ''The Post," ''Lady Bird," ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," ''The Big Sick" and "Call Me By Your Name," AFI named "The Florida Project," ''Get Out," ''Dunkirk" and "The Shape of Water" as its top films of 2017. Most are also up for best picture at the Globes.</p>
<p>AFI's TV picks also overlap with Globes nominees. Besides "Insecure," "'This Is Us" and "Master of None," AFI chose "Big Little Lies," ''The Crown," ''Feud: Bette and Joan," ''Game of Thrones," ''The Handmaid's Tale," ''The Good Place," and "Stranger Things 2." A special award was given to "The Vietnam War" TV documentary series.</p>
<p>Many luncheon guests will see each other throughout the weekend at the various events leading up to the Globes. Some went straight from the AFI lunch to the HBO Luxury Lounge, also at the Four Seasons, where celebs could load up on freebies.</p>
<p>Among the takers were Ever Carradine of "The Handmaid's Tale," who snagged an $880 UPPAbaby luxury stroller, "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen, who investigated her family tree with an onsite Ancestry.com historian, and "Veep" star Matt Walsh, who picked up a timepiece from WatchGang to wear to Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>Saturday's pre-Globes events include a tea party held by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a fundraising gala to support Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - With the American Film Institute's annual luncheon Friday recognizing the best in film and television, Hollywood's awards season is officially underway.</p>
<p>The schmooze-y celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel brought together the casts and creators of 2017's most celebrated movies and TV shows, many of which are also in contention for the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.</p>
<p>"Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins led the honorees in a toast, during which she quoted former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham (who is played by Meryl Streep in Steven Spielberg's "The Post," an AFI honoree and best picture nominee at the Globes).</p>
<p>"To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun?" Jenkins said. "We love what we do. It doesn't always matter - and often it doesn't - but sometimes it does, so it's always worth it to try."</p>
<p>With winners announced in advance and no trophies to accept onstage, the AFI Awards are an opportunity for collegial confabulation.</p>
<p>"This is a place to be together as a community," said AFI president Bob Gazzale, "to consider the compendium and feel proud."</p>
<p>Actors, writers, directors and executives embraced the chance to chat, with superstar mashups spontaneously erupting throughout the room.</p>
<p>"Insecure" creator and star Issa Rae greeted Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley. Jenkins was part of a woman-power trio, chatting with Reese Witherspoon and "Lady Bird" writer-director Greta Gerwig. Witherspoon and "Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot shared a mutual admiration moment, with Gadot telling Witherspoon, "I'm such a big fan."</p>
<p>Guillermo del Toro made Spielberg laugh. Actress Saoirse Ronan met "Master of None" writer and actress Lena Waithe. Tom Hanks posed for a photo with "The Big Sick" screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, who playfully gave him posing tips.</p>
<p>Sterling K. Brown rearranged place cards at the "This Is Us" table so he could sit next to costar Chrissy Metz. Sam Rockwell did the same thing at the table for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," moving himself closer to actress Sandy Martin, who plays his mother in the film.</p>
<p>"Call Me By Your Name" stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet, both awards-season newcomers, stood together as they took in the celebrity-filled room.</p>
<p>Besides "Wonder Woman," ''The Post," ''Lady Bird," ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," ''The Big Sick" and "Call Me By Your Name," AFI named "The Florida Project," ''Get Out," ''Dunkirk" and "The Shape of Water" as its top films of 2017. Most are also up for best picture at the Globes.</p>
<p>AFI's TV picks also overlap with Globes nominees. Besides "Insecure," "'This Is Us" and "Master of None," AFI chose "Big Little Lies," ''The Crown," ''Feud: Bette and Joan," ''Game of Thrones," ''The Handmaid's Tale," ''The Good Place," and "Stranger Things 2." A special award was given to "The Vietnam War" TV documentary series.</p>
<p>Many luncheon guests will see each other throughout the weekend at the various events leading up to the Globes. Some went straight from the AFI lunch to the HBO Luxury Lounge, also at the Four Seasons, where celebs could load up on freebies.</p>
<p>Among the takers were Ever Carradine of "The Handmaid's Tale," who snagged an $880 UPPAbaby luxury stroller, "Modern Family" star Julie Bowen, who investigated her family tree with an onsite Ancestry.com historian, and "Veep" star Matt Walsh, who picked up a timepiece from WatchGang to wear to Sunday's ceremony.</p>
<p>Saturday's pre-Globes events include a tea party held by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a fundraising gala to support Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .</p> | 'Wonder Woman' director Patty Jenkins leads AFI Awards toast | false | https://apnews.com/amp/176b82fc364848b68fabb8dc223d89b1 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>UNM has won the last five dual-meets against the Aggies, with their last meeting that didn’t end in a Lobo victory ending in a tie in the 2011-12 season. The Lobos are hoping to improve on their last outing as they dropped three matchups in a Mountain West quad-meet versus San Diego State, Fresno State and Colorado State in early January. However, the meet included strong performances by senior&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5945&amp;c=E,1,0YU8KghOO_3sPE9ujjPRGKCO4IqCr0ZohU4aNslag-HsxePOEsHw5_L14j6XCPTwYZAIfryzp_DLb0RnsGk445tj-stTG8XxBdw96PBlpO55TGHqo7jCZ16Z&amp;typo=1" type="external">Madison Burns</a>, junior&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5954&amp;c=E,1,_-uUatZ2g-ScqonSkyJ1ttp47YRWrZ8p2DDk-Ez7ZG6GBDgBwEpKtCXyBRXI66q7VJr39Nc70bouedOYP1UaLNhDouNznSAsSSZK8Oz2pvGFkyAAuiU,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Adriana Palomino</a>&#160;and freshman&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5973&amp;c=E,1,fibOz66FmuQLM9rc_IohUR5N5TMbU050zpZuN_gqY8IXHME4-IQDpXACzch0oVqB-5DnBPALppH2Esfgm74KMG-ki9Is-IT6LKimMp8ChwKEkOoKUhs,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Matea Sumajstorcic</a>.</p>
<p>Burns and Palomino each earned two victories in the meet, with Burns taking the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle along with helping both of her relay teams to top-three finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. Meanwhile, Palomino grabbed her two wins in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. Sumajstorcic&#160;had the only other Lobo win at the meet in the 1000-yard freestyle, her first time swimming in the event.</p>
<p>Divers&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5947&amp;c=E,1,cEIlT96ZJEdDbHgAcb4R5aFIezn_odJuljU6YVFamYOxYaP-P4vdPqHM4oMfCc8sRwRnIoGHcw36KQMJ8tcY4da335qevh33vUy6TtamELGCcRxSoA,,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Natasha Dark</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5946&amp;c=E,1,hVSRormWDQABtkZte-gznGQvHYK4sajO_wpz-P1LJuOrw8qGpc5Ke4sr5nHanpTVfqwqstDdeExmS2LIn9A8GHvSOxCQWeHZxp47UldMuuRR&amp;typo=1" type="external">Allyson Concepcion</a>&#160;also continued their consistent seasons, with the two regularly being the Lobos’ top scorers this year. Concepcion led the Lobos in the one-meter dive with a fourth-place finish while Dark finished fifth and paced UNM in the three-meter with a sixth-place finish followed by Concepcion in seventh.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>SENIORS —&#160;Saturday will mark the final time that seniors&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5945&amp;c=E,1,etVX5wBuYtRCKiDzNkhJppq5ZD-xtd_mdPkDgh3Pea_7WAuSWD8gJKJ3CmxIJx801yJIFYOtRaiKLZVah_UGgujPxMCHdNArmcRXR947vWI,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Madison Burns</a>,&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5944&amp;c=E,1,9ovH2aezpiT3jMtgQNwoU-EDTYsqGE8Jd_q6I1gkDV0O8X2Zs3Z7i-oL2phCsvxuyyeB7-mdi2EWoCohhr2KwwuT1gEeeox2bW9IclbJxA,,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Celine Bertrand</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5949&amp;c=E,1,SGiyP_Y1JzWSkVGSPaowLksyLIFLiRdVrHbXdMRbQ3Sgyc10wO8b2zZaH_uwY9MRG9BwbkE2nO2wUuW4PT4bVzfrjy5LPSH47UF8yjzX62-RphWiKIA,&amp;typo=1" type="external">Deidra Dorough</a>&#160;will compete for the Lobos in Albuquerque.</p>
<p><a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5945&amp;c=E,1,Ezsgcro2sgSPObmLljD5rMPj0TM_CydnAVjG9qBsGi9eKKBtLYmwksEKNYKmNYDQX77c-m6tU4h5DnVtTcq6pOai1WJfYRXYSGKJ-uB6HTA85ppD67LJTYrb&amp;typo=1" type="external">Madison Burns</a>:&#160;Burns served as an integral part of UNM’s team this year and for the years before, winning nine events in six meets up to this point this season. Burns holds the school-record for the 200-yard freestyle relay along with Morgan Ginnis, Shayla King and Kaela McKee with a time of 1:30.63. She also placed seventh at last year’s Mountain West Championships in the 200-yard freestyle relay while placing fifth in the 200-yard medley relay. Burns will graduate in May of this year with her BBA in both HR and Finance, and she plans to pursue a career in impressions.</p>
<p><a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://golobos.com/roster.aspx%3frp_id%3d5944&amp;c=E,1,WZ4nT9CN2VVliBvBn-y2NKgEFHj3hTDeY_YgTcpU0M9W_7Fgt-K764BdMSFZWIopbhmy2GJspPlJInPtCwn4C08VyKHh7B8xoYWzwjHwPv_z&amp;typo=1" type="external">Celine Bertrand</a>:&#160;Bertrand’s Lobo career was highlighted by a dominant performance at last year’s Mountain West Championships. The senior became the first UNM swimmer to capture an individual Mountain West title since the conference’s inception, winning the 200-yard butterfly with a school-record time of 1:59.25. At the same meet, Bertrand also broke the school’s 400-yard individual medley record with a time of 4:19.84. Outside of school athletics, Bertrand’s work with Lobo Aquatics has helped her realize her passion for coaching. She will graduate in May with a Liberal Arts degree with a focus in Exercise Science and Health Management. Afterwards, she plans to pursue a career in coaching with aspirations to reach the collegiate level.</p>
<p>Deidra&#160;Dorough:&#160;During her four years as a Lobo, Dorough&#160;posted impressive performances against in-state rival New Mexico State, winning the 200-yard backstroke in a dual-meet against the Aggies as a sophomore, while also performing at the 2017 Mountain West Championships, taking sixth in the C-Final of the 200-yard backstroke last season while also scoring in the 400-yard individual medley. Outside of the pool, Dorough&#160;has proven to be an exceptional student and leader. The senior has been selected to the Mountain West’s All-Academic team for the past three seasons and has achieved a 4.0 GPA every semester at UNM. Dorough&#160;is also a member of the Lobo Leadership Academy and is the president of her NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee chapter. She will graduate in May with her BBA in International Business.</p> | Lobo swimming/diving is set for Senior Day vs. rival Aggies | false | https://abqjournal.com/1124379/lobo-swimming-diving-is-set-for-senior-day-vs-rival-aggies.html | 2 |
|
<p>The authorities in Nigeria have imposed a 24-hour curfew on the north-eastern city of Damaturu after clashes between Islamist militants and the army intensified overnight.</p>
<p>"In view of the prevailing security situation in the State Capital, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has approved the immediate imposition of a 24-hour curfew within Damaturu metropolis," a government statement issued on Tuesday read, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/19/uk-nigeria-violence-idUKBRE85I0NE20120619" type="external">according to Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>"Residents are hereby directed to remain in their homes while officers and men of the Joint Task force and other security agencies continue with their effort to ensure peace and security and the protection of life and property."</p>
<p>An official at Damaturu hospital <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jE_lb8SX_sfsvAwtCE-YeptU_Jaw?docId=CNG.e19b1369e9e845a65f74d0e5f47dfbad.521" type="external">told the Agence France Presse</a> that while gunfire which broke out Monday and continued into Tuesday had left a number of people dead, the ongoing violence meant it was too dangerous for rescue workers to attempt to reach them:</p>
<p>"We have been holed up in the hospital since yesterday. We can't leave because it is not safe to go out. The morgue is empty now although there are dead bodies on the street. Fighting is still going on in some parts of the city and the streets are totally deserted," he told the news agency.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120618/nigeria-church-bombings-christians-kaduna" type="external">Curfew declared in Kaduna after church bombings, reprisal attacks</a></p>
<p>The imposition of a curfew in Damaturu comes a day after similar measures were adopted in the northern state of Kaduna, following a series of multiple suicide attacks on churches on Sunday which killed 16 and subsequent reprisal attacks against Muslims which left dozens dead, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120618/nigeria-church-bombings-christians-kaduna" type="external">GlobalPost reported</a>.</p>
<p>The radical Islamist sect Boko Haram - which seeks the imposition of Sharia across Nigeria and has instigated a wave of attacks across the country - claimed responsibility for the church bombings, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18508092" type="external">according to the BBC</a>.</p>
<p>In late December clashes between Nigerian troops and Boko Haram militants in Damaturu <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/111224/nigeria-terrorism-attacks-islamist-militants-boko-haram-clashes-damaturu" type="external">killed at least 50 people</a>.</p> | Nigeria imposes 24-hr curfew on Damaturu over Islamist clashes | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-06-19/nigeria-imposes-24-hr-curfew-damaturu-over-islamist-clashes | 2012-06-19 | 3 |
<p>Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX)&#160;announced reasonably strong second-quarter 2017 results on Friday morning, detailing broad-based growth across all of its various business segments and an intriguing partnership with Uber. But with shares down 4% on the day in response, that growth wasn't enough to appease the market.</p>
<p>Shares of the Russian internet search leader are still up more than 46% so far in 2017 as of this writing. Let's take a closer look at what Yandex accomplished over the past few months, as well as what investors can expect going forward.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Our team delivered another strong quarter," stated Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh. "Our agreement with Uber to combine ridesharing operations in Russia and five neighboring countries demonstrates the potential of our business units to accelerate innovation and create substantial shareholder value."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"We delivered solid results across all business segments in Q2," added Yandex CFO Alexander Shulgin, "and I was pleased to see strong growth and profitability in our core business. We expect continued investments in Taxi, e-Commerce, Classifieds, and other new initiatives to drive further growth."</p>
<p>Finally, Yandex also increased its full-year revenue guidance, calling for 2017 ruble-based sales to grow in the range of 18% to 21% (up from 17% to 20% previously).</p>
<p>All things considered, apart from Yandex's continued market-share slide in search -- which the company is working hard to stem per the terms of a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/28/yandex-nv-is-rightly-excited-for-the-futur.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=c0fbac60-73ca-11e7-af5d-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">settlement with Google Opens a New Window.</a> earlier this year -- there was little not to like about this report. But with shares already up so much in 2017, it's also not surprising to see some investors taking profits today.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than YandexWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=faec677d-4eb1-489f-8c7f-1ca740d535fc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=c0fbac60-73ca-11e7-af5d-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Yandex wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=faec677d-4eb1-489f-8c7f-1ca740d535fc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=c0fbac60-73ca-11e7-af5d-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=c0fbac60-73ca-11e7-af5d-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Yandex. 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;uuid=c0fbac60-73ca-11e7-af5d-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Yandex Loses Market Share in Spite of Strong Growth | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/28/yandex-loses-market-share-in-spite-strong-growth.html | 2017-07-28 | 0 |
<p>Stock markets were subdued on Tuesday after South Korean warships carried out military exercises amid tensions over North Korea's weekend nuclear test explosion.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Tokyo and Seoul indexes closed lower earlier, but Germany's DAX was up 0.6 percent to 12,172 and France's CAC 40 0.1 percent higher at 5,106 after a survey showed the eurozone economy is growing at a robust pace. London's FTSE 100 was flat at 7,411 after a similar survey of business activity showed a slowdown. On Wall Street, which had been closed on Monday for Labor Day, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index were off 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>NORTH KOREA: South Korean warships conducted live-fire exercises at sea following U.S. warnings of a "massive military response" after North Korea's biggest nuclear test to date. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting and American Ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "begging for war."</p>
<p>ANALYST'S TAKE: "The rhetoric on North Korea has stepped up a gear, or maybe two," Rob Carnell of ING said in a report. "Markets are not as panicky as you might expect against this background, though the direction is as one would expect." Carnell noted news reports that Japan plans to evacuate its citizens from South Korea if U.S. military action appeared likely. "So packed planes from Seoul heading to Tokyo might be our first clue that a U.S. strike is coming," he said.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 percent to close at 19,385.81 and Seoul's Kospi lost 0.1 percent to 2,326.62. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,384.32 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.1 percent to 27,741.35. India's Sensex advanced 0.3 percent to 31,807.05 and benchmarks in Taiwan and Southeast Asia also gained. Sydney's S&amp;P-ASX 200 was unchanged at 5,706.20 while New Zealand declined.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 62 cents to $47.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 6 cents on Monday to close at $47.29. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 24 cents to $52.58 in London. It fell 41 cents the previous session to $52.34.</p>
<p>CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 109.35 yen from Monday's 109.72 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1893 from $1.1897.</p> | Global stock markets subdued amid Korea jitters | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/05/global-stocks-mixed-amid-korea-jitters.html | 2017-09-05 | 0 |
<p>An experimental Canadian-made Ebola vaccine that has shown promise in tests on primates is beginning clinical trials on humans in the U.S.</p>
<p>The vaccine will be tested on healthy individuals Monday to see how well it works, whether there are side effects and what the proper dosage is, Health Minister Rona Ambrose said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"The Canadian vaccine provides great hope and promise because it has shown to be 100 percent effective in preventing the spread of the Ebola virus when tested on animals," she said.</p>
<p>Studies in primates have shown this vaccine works both to prevent infection when given before exposure, and to increase survival chances when given quickly after exposure.</p>
<p>A small U.S. company called NewLink Genetics holds the license for the vaccine and the trials are set to begin in a lab in Maryland. Ambrose said the results are expected in December.</p>
<p>NewLink said earlier this month that at least five clinical trials involving the vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, would soon be underway in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and in an unnamed African country that is not battling Ebola.</p> | Canada begins clinical trials of experimental Ebola vaccine | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/10/13/canada-begins-clinical-trials-experimental-ebola-vaccine.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.